Esmeray got ready to perform the Unlinking Spell the next day.

Klaus had left early in the morning to get Finn, having asked Rebekah to accompany him. Esmeray indulged in a quick breakfast before going to the materials table, where she had almost everything she needed to unlink the siblings from each other.

She thought she was going to be completely alone in the meantime, but a knock on the door alerted her to unexpected company. When she peered through the peephole, she saw Sage.

"So you're the werewitch that everyone's raving about," said Sage, looking her up and down as she walked in, not needing an invitation to step past the threshold. "Well, the rumors are really inaccurate. I heard someone say you were a six-foot-tall redhead with a nose ring."

Esmeray blinked several times before laughing awkwardly. "I admit, I'm still surprised how information passes between people now." She felt slightly unsettled knowing that word of her presence in Mystic Falls was spreading.

"Hey, it's better than everyone knowing you're a tiny little thing that's cute as a button," said Sage, stopping at the foot of the stairs, looking upwards toward the second floor. "You've got some weird witchcraft going on, you know?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when Klaus contacted me an hour ago, I thought I was in for another round of being told how trashy I was, nine hundred years ago. Instead, I was asked to come here so that I could see Finn again, and I received... a very strange cluster of spoken words that sounded like an apology from the bastard hybrid himself. I imagine you're the one who told him to play nicely with me if he wanted me to do him a favor."

Esmeray shrugged, though her cheeks went slightly pink. "I just pitched the idea. He's the one who chose to be nicer."

"Do you have him under a trance or something?"

"No. His mind is too strong for me to do that. I wouldn't even be able to attempt it until I have full control over my powers."

"Jeez. And people are out there saying you can stir up hurricanes and thunderstorms..."

"Oh, I can do that, but it's unintentional. It's just me releasing a whole lot of power. Mind Spells are my specialty, but they're hard on Originals. Especially someone as stubborn as Klaus."

The two didn't talk much more after that. While Esmeray worked on nitpicking every part of the spell she'd prepared, Sage sort of just walked around exploring, and every now and then asked whether she could get some food or wine. Esmeray gave her permission to do so, since she knew Klaus preferred bourbon and scotch a million times to wine. She had no idea that at that same moment in time, Damon and the others were meeting and distributing white oak stakes amongst each other, to try and kill the Originals before Esmeray managed to unlink them.

Sage was upstairs when Klaus and Rebekeh threw Finn through the main entrance and into the foyet. "You can't force me to help you," snarled Finn as Klaus walked in, looking quite smug.

"Oh, I most likely could," he said, already hearing Sage's footsteps as she came back down. "But why force when I could persuade?" He gestured up at the stairs, and Finn turned to see Sage smiling at him. "Hello, Finn."

"Sage!" he cried in surprise, getting up and rushing over to her, pulling her into a tight hug.

"What do you know, true love prevails," Rebekah told her brother as Esmeray walked over to them.

Klaus smirked. "It does occasionally have its uses." He looked down at his phone briefly before saying, "Easier than torturing him."

"I have something to do," said Rebekah, handing Esmeray a vial of her blood. "What else do you need from me for this spell?"

Klaus winked at Esmeray before reciting, "Just your blood and your blessing. Where are you going?"

"Out," said Rebekah, as if she didn't want Esmeray to know what she was up to. She left, and Esmeray shrugged, looking over to where Finn and Sage were still locked in an embrace.

Klaus's strategy had worked. Within minutes, Finn decided to relent, and gave Esmeray his blood before he led Sage out of the house. The Original hybrid came to stand over Esmeray's shoulder as she set all the vials of blood off to the side, smoothing out a parchment where she'd written the names of the five siblings in Nordic runes. She set candles down to hold the paper in place, lighting them with a wave of her hands. She stood and went to burn some sage and cedar by the fireplace, rubbing her hands together a few times and humming before taking a bowl, and slowly pouring the vials in, one by one, starting with Finn, and continuing down to Rebekah, in the order the siblings were born in.

"A disclaimer," said Esmeray, "this isn't in the same language your mother used. I tried to strengthen the spell by grounding it in the languages that I performed spells in, amplifying my own power."

"Not to worry, love, I trust you'll carry it out just fine," he told her. She ignored the blush rising to her face and cleared her throat, holding up the bowl and murmuring one spell softly to mix the blood before she poured it onto the parchment, making a pool of it in the center.

"Koble fra syskon blod," chanted Esmeray, "gratis losrive absolvisti. Fjerne bort lank ta tilknytning, sosken sanguis lossa afbinde. Koble fra syskon blod, gratis losrive absolvisti. Fjerne bort lank ta tilknytning, sosken sanguis lossa afbinde..."

Klaus watched as little by little, the initial pool of blood started to have smaller pieces breaking off. The first circle to detach itself had gone to hover over Finn's name. The second, to Elijah's. And so on, until only a small circle in the center remained. It scooted off to settle over where Rebekah's name was written, making the candles flare up. Esmeray whistled lowly, a clear note that made the candles go out, and made the sage and cedar cease to burn.

"It's done," she said happily, waving her hands to have the materials clean themselves up for once. "And right on time, too..." she peered down at her phone, seeing a text from Caroline asking her to meet her at the Salvatore House.

She didn't know that Caroline had been instructed to keep Esmeray occupied so that the others could try and kill one of the Originals. And the others didn't know that Esmeray had just finished unlinking them.

"I'm going to see Caroline," Esmeray told Klaus, gathering her things and taking them to her room. "I'll be back later. For now, let your brothers know they're safe."

"Thank you, love," he told her, stopping at her door as she grabbed a jacket for herself. "Have fun."

She smiled appreciatively at him before walking out, deciding she wanted to walk all the way to the Salvatore House so she could at least do some exercise.

Caroline wasn't alone. Apparently, she was babysitting Alaric, because they weren't sure if Bonnie's spell had worked completely, and they didn't want him to murder everyone on accident.

"Oh, hello," said Esmeray awkwardly. "What's this about?"

"Just to hang out," said Caroline, patting the seat beside her. On the little table between the couches of the living room, she'd prepared several different types of drinks. Esmeray was fine getting herself a CapriSun. "How have you been? It feels like it's been forever since we've seen you."

"I've been fine," said Esmeray, slipping the straw of her drink into the pouch. "How do you feel, Alaric?"

"Somewhat better, but again, we don't know if the spell really... worked," he said, shrugging. "We just have to see if I start killing people again."

There was a tense moment, and Esmeray knew why. Alaric had been the one that killed Bill Forbes, Caroline's father. It seemed they had already had a conversation about it, because the tension seemed to be rooted somewhere else.

"What's the matter?" asked Esmeray a bit suspiciously, since they were both looking at her.

"You and Klaus have gotten cozy," Caroline observed, biting her lip. "We've all been worried."

Esmeray leaned back in the couch, looking almost annoyed. There was a small cracking noise, but she couldn't see what she had broken. "Let me guess, this is a sort of intervention?"

"No!" said Caroline quickly. "We're all just scared he's going to hurt you, Esmeray. I mean, I was already worried when you had a thing with Damon. I mean, Damon is Damon, but at least he's not Klaus."

"We don't want to be judgmental," said Alaric quickly, not wanting Esmeray to snap Caroline's neck. "But you're our friend, and while we all want to be supportive, we also want you to know that we're concerned for your continued safety with him. Maybe I'm not the best person to talk to you about this because I'm biased, granted the fact he possessed me, but—"

"No, that's exactly why you're the right person to talk to her about it," Caroline cut in. "Klaus possessed you, Alaric. He kidnapped you, Esmeray, twice. He turned Tyler into a hybrid, he killed Jenna—"

"I killed Jenna first," said Esmeray bluntly. "And none of you hate me."

"But you did it because you were manipulated into it," said Alaric, though he looked a bit uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken.

Esmeray had several things she wanted to say, in that moment. She wanted to say that they shouldn't fully blame Klaus. She wanted to explain to them that he would never have been so brutal if his parents hadn't tormented him so much. If he hadn't been abused for being different (something that wasn't even his fault) and if he hadn't been bound in the first place (again, for something that wasn't even his fault), he wouldn't have had to resort to cruelty to find a part of himself again. She wanted to snap at them and say that if they hadn't rescued Caroline and Tyler without first offering an alternative vampire of their choice, then Jenna wouldn't have needed to be turned. After all, Esmeray hadn't even known that Jenna was a backup. She hadn't even known Caroline was the vampire they were going to use. She wanted to say that Klaus wasn't all that bad once a person got to know him.

But would they have even listened? Or would they have been insistent on her being wrong and just brainwashed? She knew she wasn't brainwashed. She didn't excuse the cruel things Klaus did. She knew it was wrong and she chastised him accordingly. But she wasn't about to mistreat him when deep down, he was also someone who intrigued her, someone who had helped her when she needed it. That was more than what could be said about the others.

"He's going to get you killed," said Caroline, who had apparently been rambling on for several minutes already while Esmeray had tuned out, imagining all the things she could say back. "When you stop being useful to him, he'll snap your neck—"

"I can take care of myself," snapped Esmeray. "I'm not going to just let him walk all over me. I didn't start treating him with kindness until he showed me that same respect. You think I've been brainwashed into serving him, but you know why I help him? Because he reminds me of myself. No one believed in him and what did he try to do? Prove them wrong. I would have done the same thing if I hadn't been put to sleep. He gets blamed for things that weren't his fault and he acted out because of it. I don't pretend that he's a saint, Caroline, I wouldn't be that stupid. Being his friend doesn't mean I magically forget what he's done in the past. It just means I support him and show him that his good side isn't so bad, so that he doesn't feel so alone that he has to resort to cruelty all the bloody time!"

"You're even starting to sound like him!" shrieked Caroline, looking mortified. She glanced at Alaric for support, and Esmeray found herself getting more suspicious.

"Why did this even come up?" she asked in a low voice. "Seriously, what is this even about? It's not just worry. You're... You're stalling me." She seized Caroline's arm before the vampire could react, and as soon as she saw into her mind, she stood up. "What the hell are you doing?" she cried. "Why would you try to kill them?!"

"We didn't want you to know!" begged Caroline, trying to keep her from leaving. "Esmeray, we just want to be free of Klaus and all the Original mess in one strike— it's the best thing for everyone—"

"No, you don't get it, Caroline, they're already unlinked!"

Caroline and Alaric went rigid. "What?"

"I unlinked them before I came here!" she cried. "They need to abort this stupid mission before they get themselves all killed! Even if they just kill one, all the other siblings will come and retaliate!"

But they were too late. No amount of phone calls would have been enough to stop the plan from being carried out. Half an hour later, Stefan and Elena walked through the front door looking grim.

"Matt killed Finn," Stefan announced, grimacing at the others. He looked at Elena. "Stay here. I need to go get Damon."

"What do you mean?" said Esmeray fearfully. "Where's Damon?"

"Rebekah took him," said Elena. "But Stefan— no— stop. Klaus and Rebekah are stronger than you. We need another plan."

"What we need is for Klaus to be dead!" snapped Stefan.

"Stefan, stop it!" cried Elena. "You're acting on anger!"

"Or it'll get you killed!" the doppelgänger said. "It'll get Damon killed along with you."

"Klaus does not get to survive this," said Stefan, and Esmeray swore he looked right at her. "Not after everything he took from me."

He walked right back out the door. "I miss well-adjusted Stefan," murmured Caroline, shaking her head.

Suddenly, the door flew open again, and Stefan's body was hurled through it. "Ding dong," said Sage, walking in. Caroline sped forward to attack her, but Sage easily threw her aside. "I'm not here for you. I'm here for him." She looked at Esmeray. "And I'd suggest you don't try anything, because Klaus won't be happy to know his little girlfriend got his brother killed."

Behind her, another vampire walked in with them. Sage went to stand over Stefan, who knew he was no match for the nine-hundred-year-old vampire and her buddy. "I had to kill him, Sage," Stefan said desperately.

"Oh, you remember me." Sage kicked him hard in the stomach, sending him flying back. "Good. Then you know I like to go all ten rounds."

Esmeray was just about to intervene when Sage started to cough, blood running down her nose. "Sage?" asked the young man behind her. Stefan took advantage of this, getting to his feet. Sage threw a punch at him, but it was weak, and Stefan easily grabbed her fist, throwing her to the grounds as she started to cough blood. "Troy, help me!"

Troy moved forward to help her, but soon, he was coughing up blood as well, and the two vampires fell to the floor in agony. "What is happening to me?" Sage wheezed as she started to desiccate, Troy following suit soon after.

"She just died!" gasped Elena, her eyes wide.

Caroline was shaking, but she was also trying to figure things out, so she said aloud, "So... Sage and this Troy guy die within an hour of Finn."

"But why?" asked Alaric. "They weren't bitten by a wolf or a hybrid, were they?"

"Maybe Sage was so in love with Finn, she just died of sadness," said Caroline, which made Esmeray snort, but Elena shook her head. "No, that doesn't explain Troy."

"It's the blood," said Stefan, suddenly very tense. "The bloodline. It has to be. Think about it: Finn turned Sage, Sage turned Troy. They're all part of the same vampire bloodline that originated with Finn."

Esmeray clapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh my god," she said. "That— that makes perfect sense. But the correct term probably isn't 'bloodline,' it's 'sireline.' There's a mystical bond between all the vampires in the same sireline... and their sire. Which means that when Finn died... any vampire from that sireline would die. The bond shatters and it wipes out one entire undead lineage."

"Wait," said Caroline. "So when an Original dies, every vampire turned from their sireline dies along with them? Because that would mean..."

"If the Originals die," said Elena, looking at Caroline and Stefan, "so do all of you. The entire vampire species would... it'd just be dead."

"Which means that Esther wasn't trying to just kill her children," murmured Esmeray. "That's why she had to channel me and the entire Bennett witch line. She wanted to wipe out every vampire in the world."

Stefan started to tremble. "I need to get Damon," he said worriedly. "I need to—" he shook his head. "I've got an idea. Stay here, all of you." He sped off, and Esmeray decided that maybe it was a good idea to stay for a bit. She knelt down to examine the two vampire bodies, letting her hand slide over their foreheads. She could feel lingering magic, and she murmured a few words softly to absorb it, in the hopes of being able to understand the spell that bound the Originals to any vampire from their sireline.

"We should go bury them," said Caroline, licking her lips.

Alaric held up his hand. "I can do it. I've been stuck inside for way too long." To help him out, Esmeray wove her hand, making the bodies levitate. "Just push them down when you want them to stop floating behind you," she told him, which he nodded to.

Elena looked down at her phone just as it chimed. "Stefan says he's going to trade the rest of the stakes for Damon."

"All of them?" asked Caroline, casting a quick look at Esmeray.

"No, not all of them," said Elena, still reading the message. "We still have uh— enough to kill three out of the four of them. If we can figure out who to save."

"How are we supposed to do that?" asked Caroline.

Elena pondered on it for a moment. "You were turned by Damon's blood, and Damon and Stefan were turned by Katherine, and we know that Katherine was turned by a vampire named Rose."

"Well, who turned Rose?" asked Caroline as the two sat down on the couches, with Esmeray standing beside them.

"It doesn't matter," the hybrid said slowly, furrowing her eyebrows. "All of you are from Klaus's sireline."

Caroline let out a loud scoff, apparently now overwhelmed with all this new information. "Are you only saying that because you want us to spare Klaus?"

Esmeray looked like she'd been slapped. "Excuse me?"

"How could you possibly know that we're from Klaus's sireline when you never even met Rose? Maybe I can accept that you like him, but you can't lie just to save him—"

The entire collection of juice cartons and bottles of liquor that had been on the table exploded, splashing the liquid all over Elena and Caroline, and leaving the carpet drenched, with glass shards all over the floor. Esmeray glared at Caroline, who had shrieked and stared down at her now ruined clothes in shock.

"I am not lying!" Esmeray snapped angrily. "I saw into Klaus's mind! If you really want to fucking know, the woman who turned Rose was a vampire named Mary Porter, and she was turned by Klaus. I saw into Klaus's mind, I know for a fact that all of you are from his sireline! I have the memory of him turning Mary, I have the memory of him talking to some bloke named Trevor who was Rose's friend— Rose turned him, and he specifically told Klaus that he was from his sireline! That's why Elijah still killed Trevor after sparing Rose... Trevor tried to act like he was incredibly loyal and in the end, he still let Katherine escape." She then pointed right at Caroline. "And don't think for a second that I'm only being selfish and thinking of myself. Did you forget that your boyfriend, Tyler, was sired by Klaus? He's guaranteed to die, even if by some miracle, Klaus didn't turn Mary Porter."

She turned around and walked right out the door as Alaric was coming abc in, ignoring him and making her way to the Mikaelson Mansion, so angry that she damaged several things along the way home, including (but not limited to), the sidewalk, several sprinklers, car tires, car bumpers, car tail lights, and more brick walls.

She found only Klaus in the mansion. Stefan, Damon, and even Rebekah seemed to be long gone by then. The Original hybrid was in front of the fireplace with a bottle of bourbon, leaning over it and staring at the fire.

"Did you help them?" said Klaus darkly, not turning to face her.

"Of course I didn't," she told him honestly. "I wouldn't have spent all that time preparing to unlink you if I wanted to kill one of your siblings. They were stalling me when they invited me to talk. I didn't know what they were planning until it was already too late."

She heard a sniffle, and she walked closer, seeing Klaus was shaking. His hand trembled as he threw the bottle of bourbon into the fire, making it flare up as the glass shattered over the logs. Esmeray didn't flinch, and ended up behind him, wrapping her arms around his middle and letting her head rest on his shoulder blades.

"You don't have to pretend you're okay when you're not," she whispered, rubbing one hand soothingly over his chest. "It's okay to want to grieve and to feel sad. Even after all the discord between the two of you... Finn was still your brother."

Klaus swallowed hard, squeezing his eyes shut tightly. "You ought to get some rest, little werewitch," he whispered. "Don't worry about me."

"I am going to worry about you, you can't stop me from doing that," she said as he brought his hand down to hold hers. He caressed the back of her hand, feeling tears now slipping down his cheeks. "We don't have to talk," she told him, letting her other hand move over his, reciprocating the gesture. "I can just hold you. And we don't have to bring it up ever again, if you don't want us to. Just know I'm not judging you, Klaus. Let it out."

He started to sob, shaking his head repeatedly as he felt her pull him in tighter.