Chapter 10: Chapter 10: The Hollow is Coming
I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING EXCEPT MY OWN IDEAS
New Orleans
During the time that Klaus was sorting out Ryson's custody with the goblins, things were getting worse in New Orleans. The children that had been rescued were missing again and this time it was deemed that they were going to be sacrificed instead of bound to a spell. Luckily Vincent was able to trace Adam to the ritual site. They were able to save the kids but found out too late that the kids were never in danger and they were just baited to lure Marcel to the site. Marcel was then used in a ritual to allow The Hollow a foothold back into the real world.
Unfortunately, she was still bound to New Orleans until she got her original body back, but she had plenty of minions that would do anything she asked without question. The first mission was to get her body back. Once she had her body and access to all of her power she would not only find the littlest Mikaelson-Lebonair that had escaped her grasp, but also the power that had helped her.
The plan was for Marcel to hunt down Klaus and kill him. The death of the Original Hybrid or Marcel would have enough magical backlash for her to create herself a new body. Now Klaus wasn't in New Orleans but luckily Marcel was bound to her and she could draw the magic through him when he killed Klaus or if Klaus killed Marcel. Now this would burn out his body and he would turn to ash as soon as she drained all the power but that didn't matter. He was just an unknowing expendable pawn but it would be an extremely painful death if he managed to kill Klaus.
For days after the ritual, Marcel had severe anger problems and lashed out at everyone. He was also having hallucinations, his paranoia increased, and his hatred toward Klaus grew tenfold. He didn't understand why. Three days after The Hollow had used him, he couldn't control it anymore. He had to find Klaus, and he had to kill him. When he left the city he didn't know where he was going but somehow he just knew that he was on his way to Klaus.
The Hollow gave a small chuckle to herself. The sire link that once bound Klaus's line to him might be gone but it still echoed energy. All she had to do was tap into that energy and link it to Marcel. This way Marcel was given a guaranteed way to find Klaus, he just had to follow his instincts.
Mystic Falls
Back in Mystic Falls, the adults were finalizing everything they would need to start lives back up: non-magical custody of Ryson, school entry forms for Hope, making themselves known in Mystic Falls, slowly integrating back into the living world, etc... It had been decided that Hope would start school next year, and would be bunking with Ryson as Caroline and Alaric had always planned. Kol and Rebeka had decided to go off on their own for a bit and find out what life had in store for them without having to look over their shoulder to see if Mikael was there.
Elijah and Haley had picked up where they had left off and both of them now resided in the Mystic Falls mansion along with Freya, Klaus, and the kids. Since it was summer Ryson, Hope, the twins, and the coven-pack, were over at the mansion just as much as they were at the school. The once heatless household was now filled with joy, laughter, and the sound of running feet.
Before Kol and Rebeka left, Ryson and the twins had activated all of their family bonds. Hope only had bonds with Ryson, Lizzie, Josie, and the rest of the coven-pack, but Freya assured her that the other bonds grow naturally, especially with her being connected to the others that already had the bonds in place.
Hope had slid into Ryson's and twins' relationship easily as if she had always been there. It helped that Ryson had always been planning for Hope to be there with him and had thus planned accordingly. Well as much as a five-year can plan. Like him buying the extra bean bag, him telling his sisters and the coven-pack all about Hope, him having a picture frame ready for their picture, and a few other things he had done. The coven-pack adjusted quickly to Hope's presence and everything was going smoothly.
Hope's wolf and magic didn't react as bad as everyone thought they would when she joined the coven pack. As Klaus's firstborn it was her birthright to be Alpha and Coven leader. It was theorized that both her magic and wolf had felt the danger Hope was in and chose life over death. It also helped that the coven-pack she joined was not the one she was born into thus she had no actual claim to be its alpha or coven leader. There was no doubt that the two would clash as they grew older over some things as all siblings did but right now there was no danger of Hope's magic and wolf rejecting its place in the coven-pack.
Klaus and Haley were both sad that their children were technically not in their packs anymore but there was nothing either of them could do about it. They had both been lone wolves for so long that they could handle it. Plus it also helped that their wolves considered their family their pack even if there were three different packs in their family. In the end, they all would protect each other. So in reality it was like their family was one big pack that was made up of smaller packs.
The coven-packs dynamics did not change that much with Hope's inclusion into it. Since she had not activated her werewolf side yet she was not included in the actual pack hierarchy but she was considered Ryson's Heir. Meaning if she ever did activate her wolf side, she would automatically become the beta of the pack and next in line for alpha. Jasmine and Jasper were still the betas or right hands of the pack, they did everything together and Ryson couldn't name one beta without naming the other. Jed was basically the left hand of the pack because he was not afraid of bending the rules to protect his pack. Karen and Jackson were the last members in the pack and while they would protect their pack, they were too kindhearted to have to deal with the responsibilities that a right or left hand would have to deal with when they grew up. Now this could change as they grew but only time would tell, they were just children after all. Coal of course was also considered part of the pack but his place was right beside Ryson.
The coven side of things was still okay as well. Josie and Lizzie were still considered elders along with Hope. Cal and Daniel had thought that was a little unfair but with Hope being blood-related to Ryson, Lizzie and Josie, they couldn't really say anything. They knew that it was Hope's rightful place in the coven.
Of course, right now with their age, all these titles didn't matter. They were just children going to school, learning, making friends, and growing up.
Over the summer Freya was going to start teaching Ryson, Hope, Lizzie, Josie, Cal, and Daniel actual magical spells instead of just the magical theory Ryson had learned in school that year. They would all have to learn Latin as well since the majority of spells were done in the language. Klaus and Haley were going to teach Ryson, Jasmine, Jasper, Karen, Jackson, and Jed more about pack dynamics and how to survive in the wild. Not to mention that since the Mikaelson's land bordered the school's land and on full moons Klaus and Haley would lead the pack around both their borders. Elijah was of course going to start giving all the kids etiquette lessons to make sure they grew up to be proper ladies and gentlemen.
Now their summer wasn't all going to learning and boring adult stuff as Jackson put it. They had finally finalized their plans on a treehouse and decided to put it on the boundary line of the school and the mansion (Don't know if the boundary lines meet in the shows but in this story they do.) The goblins would have it done and warded within a week.
The adults had vetoed a lot of their plans so now it was just going to be a normal magical expanded treehouse and not a mini packhouse. On the outside, it would look like a normal run-of-the-mill treehouse. On the inside, it would be one big room tricked out with everything a kid could want, courtesy of Klaus.
It was going to have; a huge flatscreen tv, game consoles, an air hockey table, pool table, ping pong table, a pinball machine, pantry for snacks, a library corner to do homework and shelves to put grimoires and other books, and of course the ceiling was going to spelled just like the Hogwarts great hall ceiling. Also, Coal would have another inside dog house, Salt and Pepper would have play equipment just like in the twin's room, and all four Phoenixes had their own perch. Oh, and of course it would have a bathroom.
The adults had come to a silent and unofficial agreement. The school was considered Alaric and Caroline's territory while the mansion was The Mikaelson's territory. While the kids were at the school, that was considered Alaric and Caroline's time with them and vice versa. This kept everyone happy, and safe from stepping on anyone's toes. It also allowed the children to spend equal time with everyone in their lives. They had decided to spend one day at the mansion and then the next at the school and just repeat the cycle. This would change once school started where they would then alternate weekends and all the holidays would be celebrated together at the Mikaelson's mansion.
This also meant that all the children would also have a room over at the mansion. Ryson and Hope decided to have separate rooms there, while Lizzie and Josie decided to continue to share. The rest of the coven-pack had decided to ask to have two rooms magically expanded and the boys would share one and the girls the other. Of course, this meant they had a huge shopping trip to make the rooms comfortable for all the kids. Let's just say all the adults agreed that they would do online shopping from now on. They also had a planned visit to Diagon Alley later in the summer.
Ryson's room was done in a blue and green color scheme and of course was done with dinosaurs and dragons. Hope's room was done in pink and teal and had a butterfly theme. The twin's room was done in pink and purple and had a unicorn theme. The boy's room was done up in blue, black, red, and green. It was done up like a dorm room and each of them had their own space to decorate as they liked. The girl's room were the same way just in pink, purple, teal, and white.
Klaus had offered to expand the mansion so each of them could have their own room or have the goblins come in and magically expand it. They however turned him down and said they preferred to be together than be apart. In the end, it didn't really matter as they were usually in a big dog pile on the living room floor watching a movie.
Ryson was the happiest he had ever been. He now had two dads, a mom, two uncles, three aunts, three sisters, and his whole coven-pack who loved him. He still couldn't believe that a year ago he was the unwanted dark Potter child and now he was an Alpha, Coven-leader, brother, nephew, and a beloved son.
He hadn't told his parents or any of the other adults about seeing the same blue light that had come after Hope but he did tell his coven-pack. They knew they should tell the adults but something was keeping them silent. The same way Hope had stayed silent when she first started seeing the blue light. Jasmine and Jasper had been the ones to figure out that the spirit behind the blue light most likely had cast a spell of some sort to keep the children it went after quiet.
Josie, Lizzie, Ryson, and Hope, all tried to siphon the spell away but it was impossible because they didn't know how the spell was applied. Without something to physically touch that was bound to the spirit, they were stuck. Ryson tried to reach through the bond to aunt Freya to let her know something was wrong but his emotions just bounced back towards him. Lizzie tried to write it down on paper and give it to her mom but the paper burst into flames. The coven-pack had taken to staying near the siblings until they could figure out what was happening and could help protect them. Coal, Salt, and Pepper were always on edge these days as they could feel the foreign magic on their humans and they didn't like it. Shadow, Avalanche, Ember, and Ocean had taken to staying near the kids all day and all night. They would constantly try and send calming emotions to them but the spell had muted the new bonds between them and their humans.
Luckily for the children, the adults had been through enough dangerous situations to know when something was wrong. Their actions and clinginess towards each other were a big indicator that something was wrong. Then when their animals started guarding them 24/7 they decided to take action. Without the kids knowing, Freya had cast a sleeping spell on all of them when they were staying over one night. She spent the rest of the night running scans and diagnostic spells over them. The results were nothing good.
The next day all The Mikaelson's went to the school to drop the kids off and talk with Alaric, Caroline, and Emma. Once everyone was in Alaric's office Freya explained everything.
"So it's the same spirit?" Emma asked.
"Yes," Freya said "I believe so. All my scans were inconclusive but the same blue light that was in Hope's dream that night kept showing up, along with a serpent eating its tail. Now whatever it is doing to the kids isn't harmful right now. If I had to guess it looks like an ancient secrecy spell."
"That would explain why they haven't said anything," Haley said. "This could be why Hope never told me when it first started happening."
"This thing needs to die already," Klaus growled out "First it went after Hope, and now it is going after all of them."
"Agreed," Elijah says.
Before anyone could say anything else, an alarm sounded through the school. Something or someone was trying to break through the wards of the school. The only children left at the school over the summer were the coven-pack and a few vampires. Just like they had always practiced, as soon as the alarm sounded the vampires rushed through the school scoping up all the kids.
They would then take the kids to the dining room. When all the students were in the room Emma would activate the cloaking and boundary spell on the room. Nobody could see what was in the room and nothing could exit or enter. The spells were tied to Emma's heartbeat which is why she would be in the room with the students. Once the danger had passed she would deactivate the spells until the next time they were needed.
In under two minutes, all the students and Emma were safely in the room while Alaric, Klaus, Elijah, Haley, and Freya went to investigate the disturbance. Coal had taken a guard post near the door so if anything managed to get in she could tackle it.
It had taken Marcel two days to reach Mystic Falls (five days after Gringotts). He was so close to Klaus he could basically feel the man himself. As soon as he reached the town's borderline he left his car on the side of the road and just started running. He didn't know how he knew where Klaus was but he somehow did. Right, when he knew he was so close he ran full force into an invisible shield. He hit the shield so hard that he was thrown back about half a mile. This just enraged him more and allowed his internal beast to be let out.
Marcel then started trying to bust through the protections by force. When he was found his actions had activated the harsher protections of the school, they were borderline dark wards but when in use for protection they were considered grey. Marcel was still going at the barrier with everything he had, but anyone could tell he was not at the top of his game. He had blood pouring from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Every time his fist made contact with the barrier it would be burned to a crisp all the way down to the bone but his healing kicked in and it would be healed before the next hit.
Everyone who saw this was perplexed. Not even a week ago, Marcel had allowed them to leave New Orleans with the promise of never returning and now here he was, half-crazy trying to get to them or something within the school grounds. Freya put Marcel to sleep and bound him with her strongest magic before banishing his toxic blood. It was decided to move him to into the forest where Freya would cast a boundary spell around him and bind him to a tree, while everyone stayed in the school's wards.
After he was contained, Freya ran a diagnostic spell over him and found the same spirit magic that was on the children was on him as well. The only difference was it was bound to Marcel instead of just passively placed on him like it was with the kids. The magic affecting the children wasn't placed on them but more on the knowledge that acquired when they saw the blue light. The magic on Marcel was just a normal spell, and ancient spell, but a normal spell.
Now with Marcel Freya didn't know what spell was used which meant she could only temporally purify him of the magic but it would eventually take hold of him once again. Until the caster either stopped the spell or died the magic would always renew and Freya didn't have enough power to forcefully eject the magic from his body.
When Marcel woke up, he was in a forest he did not know with the Mikaelson's and two other people standing a few feet in front of him. When he tried to stand up he realized he was magically bound to a tree with a salt boundary spell around him. The last thing he remembered was saving the kids and then the blue light. Oh sh**. What had he done?
"Please tell me that I didn't hurt anyone?" Marcel asked.
Elijah stepped forward and asked, "What is the last thing you remember Marcellous?"
"Blue light," Marcel answered, but then he remembered that Hope was dead. "The same blue light that killed Hope."
This statement confused everyone before Freya answered their unasked question.
"When Hope's magical signature changed the old signature wasn't hers anymore. Thus if anyone used her old signature to check if she was still alive it would have shown that she was dead."
"Wait," Marcel yelled "Hope is still alive?"
"Do you think I would be here talking to you this calmy in one of my children were dead?" Klaus asked.
"Children?" Marcel asked, "As in more than one child?"
Caroline fed up with this line of questioning finally snapped. "Not that it is any of your business but yes children and in more than one. Now we can spend all day on the subject of Klaus not being cable of keeping it in his pants but the spell Freya cast on you won't last that long. We need to know what has been going on so we can protect the kids from the spirit that is trying to reach them."
The look on Klaus's face when she said he couldn't control himself was one that Marcel would never forget but he did oblige her.
"It's called The Hollow," Marcel said. "Back when I ran New Orleans after the harvest ritual, a witch had gone searching for the power to take me down with. He came across ancient magic that promised to help him and give him anything he wanted. Eventually, he learned of the evil it had intended and stopped helping it. He believed that his actions had put a stop to it but they hadn't. About a week ago kids had started disappearing around the quarter. We finally found them and they were bound to a spell to allow the ancient spirit back into this world. We killed the ones responsible and saved the kids. That was when we found Hope's hairbrush and we had discovered that Hope was also linked to the spell. Before we could send you a note the spell broke and as Freya said the magical signature on the brush didn't match anyone living. We believed that Hope had died. Not even a day later the same kids went missing again and it led us to believe they were now going to be sacrificed instead of linked. We got to the ritual site and found out too late that it was a trap for me. We also believe that Klaus was supposed to be there to help power it. The ritual used me as a pathway for The Hollow to get a foothold into this world. That is the last thing I remember clearly, besides the instinct to find Klaus and kill him."
"Why would the spirit want Klaus dead?" Freya asked, "We already know by the power level of the spirit that it was banished long before we were even born. Unless…."
Freya trailed off lost in thought before literally face palming herself.
"Magical Backlash." She said. "Before Marcel was created Klaus was the strongest supernatural on the planet as well as one of the oldest. His death would release a ton of magical backlash which the spirit could then use for whatever it is she is planning. Since the spirit is most likely still bound to the place of her banishment which is apparently New Orleans she can't be here to absorb the magic. However, she could channel the magical backlash through Marcel with the magic she has placed on him. In the end, she would get all the magic she needed, Klaus would be dead leaving Hope with less protection, and Marcel would burn from the inside out."
"So how do we stop it?" Haley asked.
"Ya, I'm with Haley on this one," Marcel said "I don't feel like becoming barbecue so whatever you need me to do I will do it."
It was decided that Marcel would be spelled asleep and brought into the werewolf transition cells. Ryson, Lizzie, and Josie would siphon the spell off of Marcel and then Freya and Emma would then use the magical signature of the spell to power a protection ward around the school. Now if the spirit gets her body back and is at full power it could easily take down the protection but with the distance and her in spirit form, it would protect the kids for now.
New Orleans
As soon as her connection to Marcel snapped The Hollow raged. The only other option was to collect all of her bones now and then get enough magical energy to make herself a new body the hard way. When this was over she was going to make those who opposed her pay dearly. Marcel would die for his inability to complete the one job he had. Niklaus Mikaelson would die for his interfance in her plans. Hope and Haley would die for the power their blood held over her. The rest of the Mikaelson's would try to avenge them and she would kill them as well. Finally, the power that is unknown to her will be hers to do with as she wants.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone