They went after the nightwalkers first thing in the morning.

As soon as Elena walked through the door, Klaus and Maddy dashed off. They knew that Greta stayed with the nightwalkers, usually, despite the fact she had a daylight ring.

"Rise and shine, Nightwalker Nation," said Klaus the instant Maddy kicked open the door of the penthouse the nightwalkers usually stayed in. They all leapt up, startled at the noise. "If your aim was to get my attention, then I must say you've been wildly successful."

"Get up," said Maddy loudly, yanking the curtains open and causing them all to scatter into the back corner of the room, the only place where there was shade. "Aw, how convenient, they're already packed together like sardines for us to pluck up." She knelt down and sneered into the face of the one nearest her. "Some of you were involved in the kidnapping of Hayley Marshall-Kenner and Tyler Lockwood, as well as the murder of Henry Benoit. Admit to us who it was, and those who are innocent can go free."

No one spoke up. Maddy didn't see Greta's face in the crowd, though she figured, based on the bedroom door nearby, that maybe there were more vampires hiding in there.

Klaus held up the coin that had been sent with the mutilated bits of Hayley and Tyler. "Whomever sent this... it's time to show your face. Otherwise, we will begin to tear through the lot of you until the guilty party steps up."

"Nothing?" said Maddy, tapping her foot impatient. "Okay." She yanked one vampire up, ripping his heart out and tossing the organ to Klaus, who took a bite out of it and spit it in the face of a vampire who was glaring at him. "What about you, sweetheart, hmm?"

The vampire shook his head. "I don't know anything."

"Now that's a fib, isn't it?" Klaus tossed him into the sunlight, and he was unable to get up before he was lit on fire. "This would mark your very last opportunity to confess." He tossed the coin aside when no one spoke up, and he and Maddy converged on the remaining vampires, ripping off heads and hearts until a clattering noise let them know someone had picked up the coin.

Greta.

"It's me you're looking for," she said, smirking maliciously at them. "Perhaps we should talk."

"Yes, perhaps we should," said Maddy, walking over to her and snapping her neck. "Where should we take her?"

Klaus thought for a moment, before smirking. "Anita is at the house. The Compound's dungeon will be free."

"Perfect."

When Greta woke up, she'd been hung upside down, her arms cut up so that she'd bleed out onto the floor, ridding her of vervain. Klaus and Maddy could both smell it as it exited her body, indicating she'd taken quite a bit to prepare for this.

"You know," said Klaus, when Greta had not begun speaking, "for someone who organized this little summit, you're woefully short on details."

Greta merely stared. Maddy kicked her in the face, and though the woman let out a grunt of pain, she only spit out the blood in her mouth and remained silent.

"You might as well talk," said Maddy. "You may not break, but we'll gladly torture you until the very last drop of vervain is out of your system, then you'll have to tell us anyway. You might as well admit it. Save yourself the pain. I'll give you a quick death." She leaned down. "Where are Hayley and Tyler?"

The woman pretended she hadn't even heard her. Out of frustration, Klaus yanked her off of the wall, turning her so she was sitting, and using the thick nails at the end of the chains to pin her hands to the stone beneath her, eliciting a yelp. "You knew we'd have this little chat," he said. "No doubt you binged on vervain til your throat was red and raw. And now, sadly, drip, drip, drip... all over the floor it goes. I suggest you answer my wife's question."

Greta stared into his eyes as she said, "Sein Mangel an vision... word sein untergang sein."

Maddy frowned as she translated, "'His lack of vision will be his downfall.' What's that supposed to mean?"

Greta scoffed. "That's what he always said about your husband."

"Who's 'he'?"

She shrugged. "You wouldn't know. Surely he never told you." She turned to Klaus. "But you and I do have a friend in common."

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Oh, I sincerely doubt that."

"It's true," replied Greta. "August Müller." This name definitely rang a bell in Klaus's head, but Maddy could tell he still couldn't fully remember this person. "I don't blame you for forgetting. It was a long time ago. Rostock, Germany. Spring. 1933."

Though Maddy didn't know who August Müller was, she did remember the sole time that Klaus had mentioned the year 1933. It had been in Chicago, when they first reunited. Nearly two decades ago.

"After 1933," he'd told her, "Elijah and I parted ways on a bad note. He learned I'd daggered Rebekah in the twenties and he... was not pleased to know that the letters he'd been receiving from her were actually from me. I disappeared after that. Had my body locked away with a dozen spells so that I could conduct my business covertly."

She recalled that that reunion of theirs had been the first time they'd seen each other following what had happened in New Orleans in 1919. And, after that meeting, the two brothers would come to see each other again in Mystic Falls, when Elijah tried to kill Klaus. How different things would have been if he'd succeeded. For one, Maddy would be dead.

"Do you remember him now?" asked Greta, seeing that Klaus was seemingly running through his memories.

"As an elephant considers a gnat," he replied. "Merely a trifle."

This clearly offended Greta. "That trifle is my Bodhidharma, my Guru Nanak, my Jesus! August is the touchstone to everything that I believe, and the reason that I and my friends have taken your hybrid associates."

"Associates?" snapped Maddy. "They're our family. And we will get them back, and we will make sure to eviscerate you and your friends."

Greta snorted. "You have such faith you will succeed. You are a weakling. You, of a pure and good vampire bloodline, tainted it by procreating with this abomination and creating that monster you call a daughter."

Maddy whirled around and roundhouse kicked Greta so hard in the face, a tooth flew out. She grabbed the woman by the throat, shaking her roughly. "Don't you ever refer to them that way!" Maddy seethed.

Greta seemed to find this funny. "Your daughter is dangerous. A menace... a threat... it's not hard to determine who she gets it from. Who in their right mind encouraged the two of you to spawn a brat just like you?"

"Hope is a child!" said Klaus angrily. "She is no danger to anyone!"

"A child born of werewolf blood, who can create hybrids at will. Her defect must be corrected."

"Her defect is my defect!" Klaus shouted. "Say that again, and I'll pluck out your eyeballs and eat them like olives off my fingertips."

"I'll call it what it is," the woman retorted. "A dirtying of my species. Which diminishes the pure and superior nature of vampires."

Maddy let out a wry laugh. "Do you realize who you're even talking to? Without Klaus and his siblings, there would be no vampires. Without them, you wouldn't exist. If there are any truly superior vampires, it would be the Originals. You're what, less than one hundred years old? You're a runt. You are nothing. So make your point, because otherwise, I'll just get started on beating you until you're vervain-free." She cast her a wicked grin. "You have a minute to speak."

Greta surprisingly told them, specifically Klaus. "Your daughter will purify herself, submitting to the same spell that your mother, Esther, once used to bind you. Once her werewolf side is sublimated, Hope will no longer be capable of creating her abominations."

"And what if I don't agree?" inquired Klaus.

She shrugged. "It's a simple choice. Your daughter's werewolf nature, or the lives of Hayley and Tyler. Clock is ticking."

They had Josh and Jackson guard her, to continue bleeding her of vervain.

"Who was this August guy?" asked Maddy as they met with Marcel to discuss what they'd learned so far.

Klaus huffed. "The man was a forgettable artist, a virulent fascist and a murderous slob who slaughtered werewolves by the pack."

Marcel raised a brow. "And what did you do to him?"

Klaus appeared offended. "What makes you think I had any piece in this?"

Maddy managed a weak smile as Marcel made a face. "Oh, I don't know, a couple hundred years of history."

The hybrid didn't confirm or deny it. "That hideous Greta woman with her reverence for a dilettante who made no mark upon the world. I will not entertain her hateful ask and bind our child."

Marcel held up a hand. "Alright, look, shouldn't Hope get a say in this?"

Maddy's eyes widened. "No! She can't know about this. Because knowing her, she will say yes, and she already thinks it's her fault that Hayley and Tyler were kidnapped. We can't let anyone take away that part of her. If we tell her, and she accepts, you best believe they'll demand Klaus do it next."

Her husband agreed. "This fate which she demands, the curse which I bore for a millennia, I can't put our daughter through that. It's a pain worse than death. No, I will see that woman roast on a pyre before I give in to the demands of these cultists."

"Look, alright, I got your back," said Marcel. "I do, okay? But you said it yourself, Maddy. Hope is already blaming herself for the kidnapping. If they kill Hayley and Tyler, and Hope isn't given a chance to save them, she will not forgive either of you. You two know your kid, you know she's selfless, you know that she takes it really hard when she's not able to do anything, because she knows she has the power to save the people she loves."

"And what if they kill Hayley and Tyler anyway?" asked Maddy. "And she's stuck that way? I don't even know how an unbinding would work in her case. For Klaus, it required killing a wolf, a vampire, and killing the doppelgänger. What if Hope would have to kill a witch, wolf, and vampire to unbind herself? She's fifteen, Marcel, this would ruin her. Klaus was older when it happened to him and it was still incredibly traumatic."

"I just think she needs to be aware," said Marcel, before glancing at Klaus. "Come on. Fess up. What happened with August? I can't help you if you're not honest with me. What does Greta really have against you?"

Klaus pursed his lips. "My temper gets the better of me, you know that. It did a century ago, with August. I am far from blameless. Although he got nothing less than what he deserved. In fact, I think I took it easy on him. But the rest never saw it coming. When I learned what he was doing to the wolves, I vowed I would kill him and hunt down all the people he knew and loved. Some of them were guilty of hate. But most were innocent. And they all became victims of that... part of me I'd been forced to suppress." He looked down. "Greta was August's wife. She picked up the coin and begged me to spare her, her daughter, and her son. I did. So, you see, in the end, I was the match that lit the fuse. My mistake was that I humiliated them, and in doing so, I empowered them with the most potent form of hate... that which has fueled my rage for millennia. Shame. I gifted them shame."

Maddy just sighed. "Still... that doesn't give her a right to hurt children. Henry first, and now she wants to hurt Hope." She checked the time. "We should give her another go. Hopefully more of the vervain has been drained from her."

They had Josh and Jackson (who was furious with Greta's bitchy attitude) step outside as they went for another go.

"You shouldn't underestimate the movement," she told them confidently. "We will not fail."

"You know," said Klaus, "history is littered with eugenicists who overstate their sway. The Khmer Rouge, the Hutu, the Turks in Armenia. All of whom left death and suffering in their wake and all of whom buckled under the weight of their own hatred. Still... if you're feeling confident, tell me the names of your co-conspirators."

He tried to compel her, but she just made a face. "Sorry. Tank's not quite empty yet."

Klaus figured he'd transition to psychological torture. "You know, August was very weak and very small."

"And yet," said Greta, "he spawned a crusade that lasted a hundred years."

"I don't see a crusade. I see a lone woman grasping to justify her last gasps of hate."

Greta shot back, "And I see a man who knows that's a lie. But what you can't figure out is how many of us there are. And just how deeply we have infected your world."

"But we will find out," said Maddy with mocking sweetness. "Don't worry. All of your little sick-in-the-head followers will be ripped to shreds. I might even keep a few pieces on display to show to anyone who, like you, has the audacity to threaten my daughter. Mark my words, Greta, I will be the one who delivers you to death."

"I'd like to see you try," snarled Greta.

They left her with Josh and Jackson again. The couple walked out, finding Marcel had gone to check on his other vampires.

"We're home," said Maddy, opening the door and finding that the house was seemingly empty. She frowned, and looked around, before finding that Elena was on the ground by the sink, with some white powder on her nose. She immediately gritted her teeth. "Well, either my best friend was snorting Smarties or someone knocked her out with some of that sleep powder witches tend to carry around."

They both knew that Hope was the culprit when they found her and Anita's phones left neatly on the nightstand. "Marcel," said Klaus angrily, before calling him. "What did you say to her?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Hope! What did you tell her?"

"I didn't talk to her today."

"Then why did she knock Elena out and run off with Anita?"

A pause. "Shit. Shit... Shit. I told Freya. I called her the instant she told me she arrived in the city."

"Oh fuck," said Maddy, who'd completely forgotten Freya and Kol were on their way. "Freya was coming here. Hope must have overheard the call. If she asked Freya to help her..."

Klaus cursed. "Freya would surely help her." He tried to call his sister using Maddy's phone, but as expected, the call went straight to voicemail.

"Where would someone go for a spell like this?" asked Maddy. "Does it need to be done somewhere important?"

"Somewhere charged with magical energy. My mother performed my binding at the site where she turned us into vampires."

"Well, that's in Mystic Falls and I doubt they went all the way there. Sites of major spells... or major events here... um, the building across from the St. James Infirmary, that's where Dahlia died and where Hope was born. Or maybe the Davilla Estate, where the sirelines were unlinked. That stadium where Lucien was killed."

"I'll have my guys check those sites," said Marcel. "The loyal ones only. You guys might like to start with the Lafayette Cemetery."

"Will do."

Maddy first made sure to feed Elena her blood, allowing her to wake. Elena confirmed that Hope had been the one to knock her out, having blown the powder in her face. "I heard Freya outside," she murmured. "Next thing... I was sleeping."

"Was Kol with them?" asked Klaus.

"No, I don't think so. I know for a fact he told Elijah he was heading for the Compound first, he wanted to drop the bags off."

"Good. Then he can help us locate them. If anyone can trace their magical signature, it's him."

Kol's spells were able to confirm what Marcel's vampires found: Freya had taken Hope (and Anita, who couldn't resist tagging along) to the Davilla Estate, given it had also been used for other Strix spells and by The Hollow's followers.

They stormed in just as Freya was using some tongs to lift a moonstone bathed in Hope's blood.

"STOP!" yelled Klaus, so loudly that all three girls flinched.

"Klaus," said Freya, surprised they were found.

"Mom," said Hope, looking afraid. "You're... here."

"Of course we are!" said Maddy. "We got home and found Elena looking like she snorted a like of coke! Hope, how could you think this was the answer?"

"They said they'll release my Aunt Hayley and Uncle Tyler if I do this!" she said. "I can't let them be hurt!"

"I will not let my past become your future," said Klaus firmly. "Do you understand?" He turned to his sister. "A thousand years of family has taught me to expect betrayal from those I hold most dear. Bind her? Really? How many times have you heard me rail against the shame our parents gave me?"

"How many times have you heard me cry, devastated, over having lived so many years without my family?" retorted Freya. "She asked for my help. I figured it best to help her do it in a safer way, because we all know she might have just tried to do it on herself and it would have hurt her."

"We are going to find another way to save them," said Maddy, taking Hope by the shoulders. "Please, don't deny this part of yourself. You have no idea how much it will hurt you. I don't want you to ever feel like you have to suppress aspects that you should be proud of."

Hope was silent the entire car ride home. Her eyes burned with tears of fear, thinking she'd never see Hayley or Tyler again if she didn't do this.

"Bad news," murmured Klaus shortly after they got home. "Greta got away."

"She what?" asked Maddy in disbelief. "How?"

"Somehow, she managed to subdue Josh and Jackson. They are alright, but very weary."

"Has Kol been successful in his Locator Spells? Or Freya?"

"Not yet. But they are getting close, now that they are able to channel each other. Tomorrow, they wish to try a spell channeling Hope as well. They think three Mikaelson witches combined should break through. Given they are still sensing a Cloaking Spell, they believe Hayley and Tyler are still alive. Hurt, but alive. Once they are free, Tyler will regrow his eye, Hayley's wound will heal— though there is no telling whether she will still have her birthmark when that happens."

Elena took Anita home shortly after, with Hope in the backseat, claiming she wanted to spend the night at the Compound again. Surely, she thought she was in for another lecture and preferred to give it a day before it happened.

Maddy and Klaus couldn't sleep. They tried all sorts of different cuddling positions, but all they could do was toss and turn, both worried out of their minds about what Greta might do now. If, despite the torture, she'd been able to subdue a werewolf and a vampire, there was no telling how strong her companions would be. Was it possible there were ancient vampires in her ranks?

"Who the hell is calling?" said Maddy tiredly as her phone began to ring at two in the morning. "Anita? Why is she calling us?"

They sat up as Maddy answered. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"

"Aunt Maddy," said Anita meekly. "I think Hope is going to do something bad."

"What happened?" said Klaus, taking the phone from Maddy as she stumbled out of the bed and immediately started to get dressed.

"I-I told her not to, I told her it wasn't a good idea, and she made me promise not to tell but I think she's going to get herself in trouble and I can't let her do that."

"Anita," said Maddy, swapping the phone so Klaus could get dressed now. "Just tell me, what happened? What did she do?"

"She snuck off with this boy from our school. He's a vampire."

"Wait... what? Since when is there a vampire at your school?" She suddenly recalled the conversation from the day before and cursed. "She likes this boy, doesn't she?"

"She said that she wanted to bind herself, and since no witch here would do it, she needed the help of another witch. And he's the only person we know that has a car and a driver's license."

"Did you wake your parents up?"

"Yeah, my dad is already calling Marcel to look for her. Uncle Kol is doing spells, and Aunt Freya, too. I'm sending a picture of the boy. His name is Roman."

When the picture arrived, Klaus snarled, "That's Greta's son."

"Oh, you're fucking kidding me," said Maddy, completely forgetting Anita was on the line. "Shit. Ah, fuck, I just cursed again. Screw this. Hope's basically been kidnapped. Anita, Hope shares her location with you, right?" She was checking on her own phone, but she wasn't able to find her.

"Yeah, she shares it," said Anita. "Umm... I can track them with this. As long as she doesn't find out I told you. She's gonna be so mad at me, I wasn't supposed to say anything..."

"You did the right thing, sweetheart," said Klaus as he and Maddy headed to the car. "I believe it matters more that you protect her from making the wrong choice and getting hurt in a severe way, rather than keeping her secrets all the time."

"She's not gonna see it that way..."

Anita went with them to track Hope, though her parents made her promise to stay in the car and not join any fights. Elijah and Klaus were in the two front seats, while Elena and Maddy sat in the back, checking the map with Anita and guiding Klaus on what turns to take.

At last, they reached a shabby little home just outside of New Orleans, where a blue car was parked. They pulled up, and Anita stayed in the car as instructed while the four adults stormed to the entrance.

Inside, they found Greta and another woman, presumably a witch given she was holding some herbs. Sitting bound to chairs in front of them were Hayley and Tyler. Hope was on the side, with cursed manacles on her wrists, unconscious. Roman was in the corner, just watching.

Greta surely hadn't expected to be found so soon. And from what it seemed, she didn't have backup.

It wasn't difficult for them to subdue the witch. Roman ran. Greta was not so fortunate.

Maddy lost her tempter entirely. The instant Greta was cornered, she snapped, and beat into her as savagely as she could, punching her over and over again. With every ounce of anger, for how she'd spoken of Hope and threatened her, how she'd hurt Hayley and Tyler, how she'd sent Roman to practically stalk her daughter.

"Love, stop it," said Klaus suddenly, starting to pull her off. "Love, she's dead, stop—"

But Maddy couldn't stop. Because beside the anger, there was fear. Fear of what might have happened if Anita hadn't told them that Hope snuck out. Fear of what would happen now that Greta was dead. Time and time again Maddy had been impulsive with her kills, gotten rid of people before getting to extract information from them. She'd lost her temper whenever someone threatened to harm or actually harmed her family, and there were always consequences. It had happened with Aurora, when she killed her and caused Lucien to accelerate his plan for revenge against her family. It had happened with Meredith, who was never the same after what Maddy did to her.

Klaus had to yank her off, holding her arms back. Maddy was covered in blood, and Greta was unrecognizable. As soon as her breathing slowed, and she was able to process what was happening, she realized why Klaus had been trying to stop her, in a situation where he otherwise would have been glad to watch her eviscerate someone.

Hope had seen the whole thing.