44 | FOREVERMORE

Khalia sits by Hayley’s body, still doing nothing but holding her hand.

Suddenly, Hayley awakens with a gasp and grabs her throat. That cold and wilted feeling suddenly soars with warmth and life, the presence in the back of Khalia’s mind like a living thing. Then, it vanishes again, that warmth that made her off kilter world realign itself. Just like before Hayley passed, there was no trace or evidence of whatever it was. But Khalia knows now, it is there, and it is real. Even if she didn’t know what exactly it is.

As Hayley sits up, she's overwhelmed with flashbacks of being in labor, the baby being born, Klaus being pinned to the wall, and Monique slitting her throat. She realizes that the baby is still alive, but has been taken by the witches. She looks around and spots Khalia – who was staring at her with teary eyes, mixed with disbelief.

“Sweetheart?” Khalia calls to her, voice sounding choked and full of hope and disbelief. “Please tell me this is real, that I’m not dreaming.”

“Khalia,” Hayley calls back, heart aching when she noticed the tears falling down Khalia’s cheeks. Then she felt that pull of hunger towards her baby. “We have to find her, the baby. I can feel her.”

“Yeah.” Khalia agrees, letting of Hayley’s hand that she’s been holding all this time. Hayley gets off the sacristy but is a little unsteady on her feet, swaying dangerously before Khalia caught her. Both girls inhaled sharply, because wherever they came into contact with each other, the skin was so sensitive to the others touch that it caused a shiver to run up their spines and goosebumps to rise on skin. A fire ignited between them, just like the fire that was always between them, but somehow this was much more intense.

They sprung apart as if they’d been burned, and in a way, they had been. They had been burned by one another, claimed and branded as each other’s and would never again be able to be any one else’s.

Adverting their eyes from each other, the emotions too much for right now, Hayley sped away and Khalia followed as they went to find her. That’s when Khalia noticed it – Hayley’s speed. Werewolves aren’t this fast, only vampires are. Then it all fell together for her. Rising from the dead, neck healed, her sudden speed – Hayley is a Hybrid in transition.

Khalia was torn between joy that Hayley would be with her forever, and dread that Hayley would now go through the worst possible thing imaginable. Turning into a vampire is not an easy thing, there was so much you needed to learn. Control of your bloodlust, control of your vampire powers, control of your emotions so that you don’t vamp out in the middle of a restaurant or a mall – not that many vampires frequent either of those establishments.

They arrive at the cemetery and Khalia sees that Klaus and Elijah are breaking their way through tombs. Confusion filled her. What the hell were they doing? When they reach a room full of candles, they stop and catch their breath. Hayley was by her side, silent while looking dazed and exhausted.

Elijah sighs as neither of the brother’s notice their sister or the newly turned Hybrid. “We've passed through here twice already. We're running out of time.”

Her oldest brother punches through a wall in anger and frustration, and Khalia would have made a comment about his temper, but this was not the right time whatsoever. “Then we move faster.”

The Original Hybrid marks the wall with a third tally using a large rock just as Hayley finally speaks up from besides Khalia. “Or smarter.”

Elijah and Klaus freeze when they hear her voice, and turn to see the source of the sound.

“Sister?” Elijah asked, he and Klaus shocked to see her. But all the two brother’s needed as confirmation that this was the real-Hayley, however she may physically look right now, was to look at their sister’s face. The heartbreak and complete anguish has disappeared from her eyes. Instead, there was relief and gratitude, but still concern.

“It’s really her.” Khalia nodded, the smile she gave them spoke of happiness and incredible thankfulness.

“How are you here?” Elijah questioned, mind to shocked to connect all of the dots.

Hayley looked dazed and numb, the only time emotion flashed across her face, was when she glanced over at Khalia. “I woke up in the church and Khalia was by my side. I felt this hunger... I knew what I needed. I can feel her. She's here. I can feel my baby.”

Elijah looks confused, but Klaus figures out what has happened, while Khalia just waits for the coming reactions. “You died with the baby's blood still in your system.” He turns to Elijah. “She’s in transition.”

“Took you long enough to figure it out.” Khalia huffed lightly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Klaus narrowed his eyes at her, “How did you figure it out?”

“When she ran here with the speed of a vampire.” Khalia shrugged.

Elijah was horrified by the implications, “Which means she has to drink the blood of the child if she is to survive.”

Klaus, clearly overwhelmed, took a deep breath. “To be reborn a hybrid.”

“Okay, priorities, everyone.” Khalia took a step closer, clapping her hands to gain their attention. “First, we save baby Mikaelson then you lot can play ‘How Hayley Marshall Survived Certain Death’. Preferably when I am on another continent and out of hearing distance.”

“I don't care about me. I'm gonna go find our daughter.” Hayley said, causing a deep frown to crease Khalia’s brows. Hayley leaves, and the three Mikaelson’s follow after her instinctively.

Hayley leads Khalia, Elijah and Klaus through the maze of tombs in the cemetery's illusion toward her and Klaus' daughter. The four immortals continue searching and searching, everything still looking the same to them, but Hayley could feel the pull becoming stronger and stronger. They turn a corner and see Genevieve holding a knife above the baby's head.

“NOOO!” Hayley screams in outrage mixed with fear for her baby’s life.

Elijah picks up an urn and lobs it at the witches, which slams against Genevieve's hand and knocks the athame onto the ground. The four run toward them, so Monique and Abigail hold each other's hands and channel the ancestors' power to throw them backwards while Genevieve goes to find the athame.

Abigail chants furiously, “La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur... La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur...”

Monique them a dark look. “You fools! To come against us in our place of power in our strongest hour? You don't face three, you face us all!”

“You fuckers, you just signed all of you’re death warrants.” Khalia snarled as all four of them fought against the magic of the ancestors.

“Like they weren’t already signed when we killed Hayley.” Genevieve retorts uneasily, eyes nervously glancing at the four immortals. Khalia snarled dangerously, the look in her eyes murderous as she continued thrashing against the magic.

As they continue to use magic against them, the immortals can see that hundreds and hundreds of the dead witches have come together to protect them as they complete their sacrifice. The four are still fighting against the witches' magic. Klaus and Khalia runs together in one direction, while Hayley run in another, while Elijah continues to rush straight towards them, in hopes of overpowering them.

Hayley finds Genevieve picking up the athame, and starts to fist-fight her to keep her from using it against the baby. She once again knocks the knife out of her hand and into the ground.

Klaus gets cornered by the spirits of Papa Tunde's twin sons, who telekinetically throw Klaus into a tomb, shattering it.

Khalia gets blocked by the eleven witches she killed the other night after Hayley was attacked. They levitate her in the air, making her unable to run forwards or backwards.

Hayley knocks Genevieve down and runs toward the baby, but Genevieve casts a pain infliction spell on Hayley, which makes her fall onto her knees. Khalia looks around and finds Hayley’s pained form and a growl ripped from her chest and her body struggled instinctively, wanting to get to Hayley and help her. Meanwhile, Monique and Abigail are still using their powers combined powers to channel the full strength of the ancestors.

Khalia closed her eyes, body still levitating up in the air, and hoped with all of her might that her plan will work. She whispered under her breath, “Kol, if you’re still out there and you can hear me, please, twin, I need your help.”

From the Other Side that was quickly disintegrating by the minute, Kol Mikaelson heard his twin sister’s request. He was holding on until the last of the supernatural purgatory disappeared. He frowned to himself, knowing that New Orleans’ ancestral limbo is completely separate from the Other Side. Then he noticed something and smirked. By revealing themselves to Hayley and the Mikaelson’s, they opened a rift that would allow them to be seen between the ancestral limbo and the living world, and that rift also applied to the Other Side, which meant that Kol could pass through and do exactly as his sister asked of him – he could help her. He passed through the rift quickly, buying himself some time from the darkness coming for him, and sped around, snapping the necks from all of the witches that was holding his sister with magic.

Elijah fights to get close enough to them to get the baby. Klaus pulls himself out of the tomb and angrily rushes toward the action. Monique and Abigail continue to chant. “La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur... La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur...”

Khalia felt the magic hold on her lifting and she knew Kol heard her. She fell to her feet, and looked up just in time to see her brother’s spirit, giving her a cheeky grin. She gave him a watery smile in return, making a quick heart with her hands. Kol nodded in acknowledgement, a soft look on his face, and returned the gesture before he sped around to ‘kill’ other witches in the limbo that was hurting his family. Khalia then speeds to help her family defeat the witches as well.

The Original Hybrid sees a wrought iron fence, and breaks off one of the spikes. He throws it forcefully toward Abigail, which impales her through the stomach and kills her, breaking the connection that she and Monique had to the ancestors and they disappeared, and Kol’s spirit vanished as it was pulled back to the Other Side when the rifts closed.

Monique quickly runs to grab the athame to finish the sacrifice herself. Klaus, Khalia and Elijah vamp-speed toward her, but she uses her magic to block them using a wall of fire.

“Noooo!” Hayley scream of pain made all the hair on the back of Khalia’s neck stand. She turned to them and saw that Genevieve was continuing the pain infliction spell to prevent her interference. Khalia speeds to them before Genevieve’s mind can process the fact that the Demon Mikaelson moved, and she almost kills the witch via a snapped neck when she reaches her, but luckily remembers that there is still unanswered questions that needs explaining, so she holds of and just knocks her head on the nearest surface to render her unconscious, then dropping her limp form to the ground.

Just as Monique is about to sacrifice the baby, she's hit with the Devil's Star, which embeds itself in her stomach. Her body becomes covered in cuts, and she coughs up blood before falling to the ground. Klaus, Khalia and Elijah turn around to see that Marcel was the one who saved the baby. Before they can say anything, Marcel vamp-speeds to the baby, and then vamp-speeds away with it. Klaus follows after him instantly.

Khalia holds out her hands to Hayley, who was still on her knees, and pulled the transitioning Hybrid to her feet when their hands linked. That intense awareness of each other was there once again at skin-to-skin contact, almost overwhelming them with the sheer force of it.  They drop each other’s hand, but as brown clashed with green, they both knew that they would have to now address whatever changed between them.

“Right so,” Khalia started as she cleared her throat and regained her bearings, pointing to Genevieve’s unconscious form. “Who wants to torture a witch?”

Elijah and Khalia are shackling Genevieve in one of the tombs to get information from her, Hayley looking at the red head with a glare. Khalia smacked Genevieve’s cheek rather harshly to get her attention and get her back into consciousness.

Khalia gave her a feral smirk when she blinked open her eyes, “Well, hello there, sleeping ugly.”

Genevieve spat in Khalia’s face and a thunder cloud appeared on her face. Remembering that they still need information from her and that she couldn’t kill her yet, Khalia back handed the witch through her face with such force that she knocked three teeth loose.

Hayley stepped forward furiously, “Why?”

Genevieve knew exactly what she was asking, she lifted her chin defiantly. “The Ancestors left me no choice-”

Hayley was rightfully appalled, “You were willing to sacrifice an innocent baby for more power?”

Khalia pulled a face, then fixed a glare on her face. “That is something not even I would do. And I’m the Demon Mikaelson.”

“No, not just power! It was the Ancestors' decree. It was her decree.” Genevieve informs them, seeming a little desperate for them to believe her.

Elijah grabs Genevieve roughly by the face and forces her to look at him in the eyes, “It was whose decree?”

Genevieve smiles weakly as she meets his gaze, “I'm surprised you have to ask.” She laughs darkly. “After all, you were the one who convinced your siblings to consecrate her on New Orleans soil.” Elijah lets go of her, visibly disgusted, when he realizes who she's talking about. Hayley and Khalia, too, seems to have figured it out as well.

“No, no, no, no, no.” Khalia shook her head in denial, not willing to accept the truth. Her parents are both dead dead – Klaus killed their father and their mother in Mystic Falls. “That bitch is dead. Twice over and her body was burned. How the hell can she still have the power to fuck with our lives?”

A stunned Hayley said, “Esther.”

“So, not even death can stop my mother from seeking the annihilation of her own flesh and blood.” Elijah noted and Khalia whirled to him with a dirty look.

She all but snarled at her oldest brother, “I knew it! I fucking knew it. I told you this would come back to bite us in the ass, but do you and Nik ever listen to my advice? No, because Khalia is bat shit bonkers after Kol’s death and doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

Elijah rolled his eyes at his sister’s dramatics, and Genevieve suddenly looked anxious. “This isn't the end. As long as that child lives, the witches of New Orleans will never stop coming for it.” She starts to cry. “Esther will never stop coming for it. It has been decreed, your baby will be consecrated among her ancestors. She will not live.”

The trio just glares at her. A determined look settled over Khalia’s face as she internally promised herself that she would forevermore protect Hayley and the baby from anything that might come for the two. “Yes, well, newsflash, they’re long dead. So, let them come. We will protect her by any means necessary.”

Genevieve begins to bleed from her eyes, “You can’t. Not from them, not from her. They're coming for me, I can feel it. I failed them. Understand, I just wanted to live. Tell Klaus... I'm sorry.”

“That’s a mercy you don’t deserve.” Khalia told her coldly, glaring harshly at the witch. Khalia knew she would tell her brother, no matter what, if for nothing else but a little bit of peace of mind for her Hybrid brother, but that doesn’t mean this bitch has to know that. She can die thinking that he’ll never know about her regret. Genevieve starts to choke up blood.

Hayley watches her for a moment before sighing and stabbing her in the stomach with the athame and cutting her abdomen open. Khalia’s eyebrows rose a little at the vicious action, but ultimately didn’t care – she’s done so much worse. The transitioning Hybrid glared furiously at her as she spoke, “I'm not.”

Hayley walks out of the tomb, as Khalia and Elijah follows behind her. Genevieve dies, still restrained by her wrists against the wall, alone and miserable.

***

The Mikaelson siblings and Hayley were back in the Compound, trying to digest all of the information they just received from Genevieve. Elijah was informing Klaus, who was sitting in Hayley’s room, while Khalia and Hayley was in the nursery, located right off her bedroom. Hayley is sitting with the baby in the rocking chair the female Mikaelson made for her, while Khalia stood by the window, her back to the outside as her gaze rested on Hayley and the pink bundle in her arms – silently watching over them.

Both Khalia and Hayley was listening to them talk about their mother, the coming war and the baby. Hayley looks down at the baby sadly, eyes tearing up. Khalia walked to the back of the chair, resting her hands on Hayley’s shoulders to provide comfort. The Hybrid in transition lays her head against Khalia’s arm, a shaky sigh slipping from the mother’s lips.

Hayley seems to come to a decision as she gets up from the rocking chair, the baby still in her arms as she walks to her room where the Mikaelson brother’s were seated. Khalia followed behind her silently.

“There's a third option. I grew up in a warzone.” Hayley spoke, Klaus and Elijah looks surprised as they turn to face Hayley, who looks wrecked, their sister behind her protectively. “My parents thought they could protect me. But, in the end, they were slaughtered, and I spent my childhood alone and unloved.” She looks down at her daughter and smiles at her, while trying to hold back tears. “I made a promise, to my baby, and to myself, that she would not grow up like I did. That she would grow up safe, and loved. And yet, here she is, on her first day in this world, with a grandmother who is bent on sacrificing her-”

She starts to stutter as she cries and not knowing what else to do or how to offer her comfort, Khalia simply places a hand on the small of her back, rubbing gently and what she hoped was in a soothing manner. “And a-a mother who has to drink the blood of her own baby to survive transitioning into a hybrid. And I'm the one who loves her the most.” Klaus and Elijah just look at her, all of them saddened and devastated by their current situation. “I think the only thing to do is... send her away... while we stay behind and clean up the mess that we've made.”

“No!” Elijah objected. “This is insane. You heard Genevieve-- so long as she lives, that baby will be hunted.”

Klaus suddenly stands and joins Hayley, his sister and the baby in the doorway, “Not if no one knows she lives.”

Khalia wasn’t following his plan. “Come again?”

Elijah was apparently just as confused, “What is it you intend to do, brother?”

“Whatever it takes to save our family.” The Hybrid told them firmly and determinedly.

“Care to share that plan with the rest of the class?” Khalia asked, voice soft and curious instead of harsh or laced with sarcasm.

“We-” Klaus cut himself off, taking a moment to compose himself. “We fake her death.”

Elijah frowned, “How?”

“We say that she died in the attack on the city.” The blonde haired man explained to them, looking at the mother of his child.

Hayley nods agreement, teary eyed, then flees from the scene. Khalia followed her silently once more. Hayley just ends up going back to the nursery.

“Why aren’t you saying anything to me?” Hayley asked, breaking the silence between them, gaze locked on her baby.

“I don’t have anything to say.” Khalia answered her honestly.

“You always have something to say.” Hayley points out.

Khalia breathed in deeply. “Yes, but normally our situation doesn’t look as dire as this one does.”

Hayley swallows, visibly fighting back tears, gently rocking her baby. She looks around. “Okay, I need to pack for her. Can you hold her for me?”

Khalia backs up so fast she nearly trips, shaking her head. “No, that’s okay, swe-, I mean, Hayley. I’ll just pack for you.”

Hayley frowns a bit, hurt by the fact that Khalia changed her nickname into her name at the last second, but ultimately a small smile lifted on her corners of her lips as she took in the vampire’s startled and somewhat horrified expression. “Come on, Khalia, she’s just a baby. She won’t bite.”

“I know that.” Khalia gave her a look. “I just . . . I don’t mix with kids. They look at you with their big and innocent eyes, and ask you something and then you just give it to them. It’s annoying. Not that your baby is annoying, but I’d rather just not.”

“Please? For me?” Hayley looked at her, green eyes only lit with half the sparkle they normally have.

“What if I drop her?” Khalia asked, trying to avoid the situation one last time.

“You won’t, I trust you.” Hayley said, so easily and so confidently. As if trusting Khalia is something easy for her, something she believes in, something that she values.

“Uggh,” Khalia groaned, side-eying the baby. She closed her eyes and nodded. “Fine.”

Hayley brightened considerably at that. “Really?”

“Yes. Really. Now hand her over before I change my mind.” Khalia thrust her hands out, opening her eyes. A half smile lifted the corner of Hayley’s lips as she walked closer to the vampire, gently handing the baby over. Khalia was almost startled at how tiny and light and adorable the baby is.

Hayley watches them for a moment, heart breaking but so incredibly full of love at the same time. She then turns away and packs up the baby's bag with the letter she wrote to her.

“You are as beautiful as your mother.” Khalia whispered to the baby, rocking her gently. Hayley heard her, a blush rising to her cheeks despite the situation at being called beautiful from the Mikaelson girl. “You’re gonna be a real heart breaker someday. Just like a proper Mikaelson.” Khalia paused, thinking for a moment and then shook her head. “But you won’t be just like us, you’ll be so much better than we ever could be. I’ll make sure of it, little one.”

Hayley walks up to them, finished with packing her bag, and wraps her arms around Khalia’s waist. She laid her head on the vampire’s shoulder, looking down at her baby resting in Khalia’s arms, one of the safest places in the whole world that she would ever be.

“If you want to fight for her to come home, then you need to complete the transition, Hayley.” Khalia reminded her as gently as possible. Hayley nods, letting go of her vampire, and Khalia hands her over. Hayley looks away as Khalia gently sticks the baby's finger with a pin to release a large drop of blood. Reluctantly, Hayley kisses the blood off of her finger to complete her transition. Hayley blinks, tears falling from her eyes as she did so.

***

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This chapter was a whooping 3990 words on the dot. This was hard to write, you know. Getting the emotions just right, the wording for Khalia, etc.

Anyway, how did you guys like my little cameo of Kol in the fight? I know that it’s not realistically – or canonically – possible, but that’s what fanfiction is here for, right?

also, there will be an epilogue but other than that, this is it, the last chapter, for season 1.

hope you guys like the chapter!

–Mixie