No one was keen on dying.

"We have one bone, of the four," said Elijah dejectedly, after the exchange with Tyler and Alaric had gone terribly wrong. "The mandible. The Hollow acquired Papa Tunde's blade, the phalange, and the femur. We are at a severe disadvantage."

"Not to mention," said Maddy gravely, "that The Hollow is now in Sofya's body. She's a five-hundred-year-old vampire and somehow The Hollow can still do magic while inside of her. That doesn't bode well."

"If it comes down to it," said Kol simply, "we kill her."

Rebekah shook her head. "Did you learn nothing from our mother? I imagine The Hollow has a back-up ready. And even if she does not..." she glanced at Maddy, who was showing very clearly on her face that she didn't want Sofya to get hurt, "she helped us, even slightly. Perhaps, if we remove The Hollow from her, she can give us information. She may have seen into The Hollow's mind, considering The Hollow fully possessed her, rather than giving hallucinations as she did to Nik and Elijah. Sofya could be our only hope."

"I will see what can be done," said Elijah. "I will contact some of The Strix members, to see what we can find out about her. Even if she does not have any family," he shot Klaus a look, "there might be a friend out there that could come and ensure she is alright when we remove that spirit from her. That person could also encourage her to fight it off."

"You're leaving the house again?" said Elena with a huff as he made to walk out.

"I will be back in the evening," he promised, coming to kiss her cheek. "I must speak with my sirelings, and it is unwise to do so near the house, in case they wish to meet suddenly. Many still linger near Louisiana, given the Davilla Estate was their home for a while. They will not harm me, as it would mean they'd perish."

Elena just managed a weak smile, kissing him back before he left.

The day was quiet. Everyone was either cleaning or resting, or taking turns supervising the two little girls that were running around all over the place. At lunchtime, Klaus surprised the two of them by compelling a nearby bakery to bring trays upon trays of beignets and other types of tarts for them to try.

Maddy smiled to herself as she watched them interact. Klaus, with Hope sitting on one of his legs, while Anita sat on the other.

"You cannot call yourselves connoisseurs if you have not sampled each and every one of these," he said, encouraging them to try a little of each one. "Did I ever tell you the story of my first beignet?" The girls shook their heads. "No? You are in for a treat. Long ago, three French nuns came to New Orleans looking for a fresh start. And they came here. They marched right into our courtyard, and they presented Elijah and me with these rather lumpy-looking, sugar-coated pastries. Well, needless to say, we were entranced. We set them up quite well."

"Why did they come to you?" asked Hope curiously.

"Because there was a time when we were regarded as royalty. You might even go so far as to say I was king, which would make you both princesses."

"Why wasn't my dad the king?" said Anita, scrunching up her nose. "Isn't he the big brother?"

"We were both kings," said Klaus, smiling at her. "Many even regarded your Aunt Rebekah as a queen."

"She is a queen," said Anita, giggling as Hope began to eat another beignet. She pointed at Hope's face, making note of all the powder around her mouth.

"You got it in your hair," replied Hope, gesturing to where a small bit of a beignet was stuck in her braid.

Anita made a face, but Klaus easily flicked it off for her. "Uncle Nik," said Anita, "do you know how to make beignets?"

"I do," he replied. "Not well, I'm afraid. Your father is better at it."

The two girls had nearly evil little smirks, and Maddy figured they were planning on learning to make them. Which would likely result in endless sugar highs and cavities if they weren't being supervised. If Hope were to figure a way to use her magic to make the beignets without needing oil and a stove, they'd eat them every day until their bellies ached.

"He likely won't teach you until you're older," continued Klaus. "As it can be complex and slightly dangerous."

"Can Theo have beignets?" asked Hope, who definitely wasn't afraid of the dangers of cooking.

"No, sweetheart, I don't think horses can or should eat beignets. Pity for him, because he is missing out on quite a lot."

"I want my own horse," said Anita, pouting. "How come I don't get one?"

"We could get you one," said Hope, giving her father puppy eyes. "Right? Because the pasture is big enough for two horses?"

"Perhaps," said Klaus. "If we can find one that Theo will like to spend time with. Otherwise they may fight."

Maddy turned away from the scene as she sensed a presence behind her. "Hey," she told Elena. "How are you?"

"I finished doing laundry, and some MCAT studying," said Elena, beaming as she saw Anita was still eating beignets. "Don't tell your brothers, but she said Klaus is her favorite uncle."

"Really?" said Maddy, chuckling lightly. "Did she say why? Damon is going to be heartbroken."

Elena shrugged. "He was the closest thing she had to a father when Elijah was asleep in a coffin for five years. She knew Jackson, of course, and Marcel, and she saw Ric a lot, but whenever she was with Hope... Klaus would treat her like she was his daughter, too. He never made her feel excluded. He used to tell her stories about Elijah all the time."

"She's his other little wolf," said Maddy softly. She glanced down at her phone, seeing a text from Vincent. "Ah, shit." She showed Elena the screen. "The church was desecrated."

"What?" said Elena, before clicking to see the pictures, which showed trash everywhere, and the symbol of The Hollow drawn at the altar. "Now that's just messed up. How many other disciples does this thing have?"

"I don't know. But the city is clearly crawling with them, which brings me absolutely no comfort whatsoever."

"I'll call Elijah," said Elena. "Maybe this will make him come home."

Oddly enough, however, Elijah was not answering his phone. There was no 'busy signal' sound emitting from it to indicate he might be on another call. It didn't go straight to voicemail. It rang and rang but he never answered.

"Freya," said Elena, as she and Maddy found the eldest Mikaelson in the ballroom. "We haven't been able to find Elijah. Can you help?"

She was more than happy to do so. She brought out a map of New Orleans, and let her hands hover over it once she'd dripped some of her own blood over where the Compound was. "I'll find him," she promised, before chanting, "Jälgida minu blóo mitt. Jälgida minu blóo mitt." She frowned, and stopped suddenly. He's cloaked by magic. I can feel it."

A strange noise made them turn to the nearby table, where the mandible still rested inside a salt circle. It was spinning around again, just as it had been the day Hope and Anita were running about in the room.

"That's her," came Vincent's voice as he walked in, looking worried. "That's The Hollow. She has Elijah, and now she wants the bone."

"In exchange for Elijah?" said Elena.

Vincent shook his head. "No, you don't understand. There won't be an exchange. She needs Elijah to die in order to channel the energy from his sacrifice. She's already poisoned him with the rose thorns. She wants this bone by sundown. If she doesn't get it, then she's gonna come here and she's gonna take it. And when she does, she's gonna burn this entire city to the ground."

Maddy held onto Elena's arm as she staggered, panicked as she realized that if they didn't get to Elijah and cure him with the antidote to Lucien's venom, he would die. That is, if the cure even worked against the cursed rosebush.

Meredith was happy to take the girls to the pasture for the day, alongside Cami, Keelin, and Jo. Neither child was informed of what was actually going on, but it was clear that both knew it had something to do with Elijah. It made complete sense why The Hollow had picked him over Klaus. Though Klaus was more powerful, he (and Rebekah, for that matter) was no longer linked to his sirelings. If The Hollow killed Elijah, thousands of vampires would die alongside him.

"You want a plan of attack," said Vincent as the entire group, plus Hayley and Jackson, met in the courtyard, "it comes down to this. Use the element of surprise. Now, Marcel and Elena can go together to hand over the bone. We then stab The Hollow with Hayley's blood, and then I'm gonna cast the spell that buries her."

"Hold on," said Maddy. "What about Elijah?"

"The Ancestors' spell requires a sacrifice," said Vincent. "Right now, The Hollow is gonna use Elijah's death to come back, but there's a window where I can use the sacrifice to shove her back into her grave."

Klaus scoffed. "You'll forgive me for stating the obvious, but your plan does nothing to save my brother. In fact, it relies entirely upon his death."

"Nik," said Maddy, patting his arm, then lacing their fingers together. She knew it wasn't Vincent's fault that The Hollow had taken Elijah. From what it sounded like, they just had to work around it now.

"Elijah's already dead," said Vincent. "Now, the only thing that we can do right now is figure out whether or not that death is gonna count for something."

"But that isn't fair to him," said Elena between tears. "We can't just give up on saving him. If he has to die, shouldn't we at least find a way to bring him back to life afterward?"

"I don't know if that's even possible," said Vincent. "And—" he acknowledged Freya, about to ask about the cure for the venom, "even if we do cure Elijah, we still have a big problem, that's called The Hollow. And it's just gonna keep coming at us until it resurrects. And when that happens, we're talking about an ancient, primal power that's made flesh and blood. It will wipe out this entire city in an afternoon, and ain't a damn thing that you or anybody else here can do about it. Now, my way? We take her out while she's still a spirit. Elijah dies, but at least his death counts for something."

"There's always a loophole," said Freya, seeing the distraught look on Elena's face. "There must be some way, as Elena mentioned, for him to die, but be able to come back to life. I already lost Finn, and..." she trailed off, a look of realization awning upon her. "Of course. That's it. I can save him." She brought out her blue pendant. "Finn's spirit is still in here... we only just managed to transfer it in before his body died. We can do the same to Elijah."

"Are we sure that's wise?" asked Valerie. "Isn't it only meant to hold one Mikaelson spirit at a time? And besides, Finn was bitten by Lucien, but Elijah's been scratched or stabbed with the cursed rosebush. They may have the same origins, in theory, but the rosebush was created by The Hollow. It may make him far more unstable."

"So is there no guarantee it would work?" murmured Elena.

"Well, it won't be easy," admitted Freya. "We have to find him, and I'll need all of my magic. And Elijah's been poisoned for some time, there's... a chance he won't survive the process."

"But I would survive."

Maddy snapped her head to face Klaus as he continued, "If I'm the sacrifice, you can channel my death to imprison the Hollow before she kills Elijah. Yes, I'll be in the pendant, but the rest of you can find him, cure him, and bring him home."

"Wait, wait, wait, no," said Maddy immediately. "That's not a smart idea, because we're not even sure that Elijah will survive even if we give him the antidote. If you get sacrificed, sure you'd be in the pendant, but what if he doesn't get cured? Then he'll be dead, too, and it will all have been for nothing. I say we all go to confront The Hollow, who might not be alone. Me and a few others can make some sort of distraction, keep them busy. If most of the witches help Freya, and if Davina— the only other French Quarter witch— helps Vincent, then Elijah should make it safely into the pendant, and The Hollow will be trapped." She looked around the room, as if hoping someone would either support her plan or offer a better alternative.

"That's gonna have to be the plan," said Vincent, who clearly didn't want to waste more time going over logistics. "This needs to be done now."

"I can take the wolves with me," said Jackson. "Hayley, you need to stay away from The Hollow. Give your blood, then go to the pasture with the girls. The pack and I will accompany Maddy and anyone else who's there to fight potential acolytes. We'll stop them from getting to the witches while they do the spell. Vincent, where will you need to be?"

"I need to be in the Lafayette Cemetery, to channel the Ancestors' power to the fullest."

"Okay," said Davina, "then I'll have my phone ready to know exactly when Elijah succumbs, and we'll be able to cast the spell then."

They were mobilized within an hour. The sun was beginning to set, and the group made their way toward where Freya could sense The Hollow's magic concentrated— an abandoned house in the woods. The wolves were waiting further away, as they would only go ahead with their distraction if they were truly needed. Given they are all mortal, it was riskier to ask them to be fighting directly on the front lines.

"Marcel and Elena are approaching The Hollow now," murmured Maddy to the group as they waited, with the witches already cloaked to sneak into the house past The Hollow. "Jackson says they moved past the cabin very quietly, and there are only three acolytes in there guarding Elijah."

"That's strange," said Rebekah. "Unless..." her eyes widened. "They're going after Vincent and Davina. The Hollow must know what we're planning."

"Change of plans," said Klaus as they watched Elena and Marcel handing the bone to The Hollow, before suddenly stabbing her with the knife that had Hayley's blood on it. "Two of us need to go and aid them."

"I'll go," offered Stefan. "Rebekah—?"

She nodded, and the two sped off.

The rest of them surged forward, speeding into the cabin and snapping the necks of The Hollow's acolytes before they could do much damage. Elijah was stuck inside of a magical circle, shivering on the floor and looking incredibly ill. The witches ran in seconds later, and Elijah only just seemed to understand that they were there.

"What are you doing?" he panted weakly as Klaus slammed his hand against the invisible barrier.

"You didn't think we were just gonna let you die," said Freya, raising a brow as she handed Kol her pendant.

"No," Elijah wheezed, "you have to leave now." His eyes widened when he saw Elena enter the cabin. "No..."

"We're not leaving you," said Elena, crouching down beside him. "Can we break the barrier?"

"I can try to siphon it," said Valerie, placing her hand against it. She started trying to take in the magic, before suddenly yelping and withdrawing her hand. "On second thought, we'll have better luck breaking through it by force. But we'll need time."

"Marcel snapped Sofya's neck," said Elena. "She won't wake for a while. With any luck, it'll be enough time."

Freya was about to kneel down to start breaking the barrier, but Bonnie stopped her. "No, let Liv, Valerie, and I do this. You and Kol need to preserve your strength— you two share blood with Elijah, and a spiritual connection to the pendant. His best chance of making it in there in one piece is if you conserve your energy until then."

The three witches knelt down instead, and linked their hands. Maddy, Damon, Enzo, and Klaus sat with them, holding their shoulders to allow themselves to be channeled. With any luck, it would be enough.

"Anita," said Elijah weakly. "Where is she?"

"She's safe," whispered Elena, placing her hand on the barrier, near his. "Just hold on."

He was shaking his head. "Don't do this... you must... leave..."

"We're not leaving you," said Elena firmly. "We don't abandon each other." She glanced at the witches, who were still chanting softly under their breaths. "Almost?"

Bonnie shook her head, her eyes shut tightly in concentration, as if indicating that this was taking a lot more power than they were expecting.

There was a sudden explosion of blue light, and the next second, there was a real explosion, as the wall of the cabin burst open, throwing them all back. "No!" screamed Freya, as the jar containing the cure for the venom smashed into the wall, rendering it useless. "She knew we were coming!"

The spirit of The Hollow came forward, beginning to chant beside Elijah's body. "Yoli conepiya miquiliztli... yoli conepiya miquiliztli..."

"NO!" screamed Elena, finding herself physically unable to stand as she tried to get to Elijah's side. "SHE'S KILLING HIM!"

Freya and Kol had no choice but to do their spell from the ground, where The Hollow was forcing them to remain. They linked hands with each other and with Klaus, and Kol held up the pendant as Freya chanted. "Spasiti animam suam. Spasiti animam suam—"

"Her magic's blocking us!" yelled Kol as the vampires tried with all their might to get up, in the hopes they'd at least be able to distract The Hollow.

There was a horrible scream. It tore out from Elijah's throat, and his whole body seized up as desiccated grey veins began rising into his face. This was followed by another scream, one from Elena's mouth as the blue light faded, leaving them in the dark and once again able to move, only to behold Elijah's dead body.

"NO!" Elena sobbed, rushing toward him and cradling his head in her lap. "No, no, no.... Oh my god... please tell me it worked, please!"

They all turned to look at Kol, whose face was as white as a sheet as he held up the pendant, which was now broken into four pieces.

"Bloody hell," murmured Enzo.

"No," said Freya softly. "Finn was still in there. I-I don't know if Elijah made it in. If he didn't..." she started to cry, "then both of our brothers have been lost."

"That cannot be," said Klaus harshly. "They cannot be lost. We will fix the pendant."

"Right," said Freya weakly. "Then we must get to the Compound, quickly."

Klaus took her and Kol, to get a head start. The others followed with Sofya and Elijah's bodies. Marcel was alright, but he'd briefly been knocked out by The Hollow, and was still a bit shaky.

"There were too many acolytes," said Rebekah dejectedly as she and Stefan arrived with Vincent and Davina. They could hear movement downstairs, indicating the other women had returned from the pasture, to put the two little girls to bed. "We snapped necks and tore out hearts but they were far too strong. We missed the window by a fraction of a second."

Freya just nodded sadly at this news, letting her palms hover over the broken bits of the pendant again. "I can't sense him in there," she whispered. "I can't sense either of them. I've been reaching out, but..."

"Maybe we all need to rest," suggested Liv. "We can try again in the morning."

"We've wasted enough time," said Klaus. "My brothers' souls are in that pendant, we need to find them and bring them back! We failed them both once already."

"There's nothing in there, Klaus," insisted Freya, shutting her eyes. "There's nothing at all. I think they're gone."

Klaus wasn't going to accept this as an answer. "Try again."

"Klaus, I did try..."

"I am asking you to try again," he said more sharply. "I know they're in there. Finn, despite his constant desire to be dead, has never remained so— this would not kill him. And Elijah..." he faltered. "This is not happening. For a thousand years, my brother and I have walked this Earth. Countless times, death has come for us and countless times, we've denied her. He's not gone, he can't be."

"Please try again, Freya," pleaded Elena, holding up a tissue to wipe her eyes. "Please, just... just one more time, I'm begging you."

All the adults went rigid as Hope and Anita entered the room.

A/N: Not meant to be suspenseful, I just want the next part to be the start of the next chapter.