An icy atmosphere shrouded and destructively sat in the air of the compound. Alongside Klaus and Caroline, the Compound was hosting many Lycans. Ezekiel, Amara, Onyx, Bartholomew, Maverick, Midas and Gideon with their betas had all arrived as soon as the message was sent that Maeve had been found.

Klaus nervously kept staring at the front door, as did Caroline. Both had been rather vague when it came to informing Maeve's brother, aunt and fellow comrades from the Lycan community about her state.

"They should be here by now." impatience evidently circled around the compound, a halo over every single head.

"They'll be here, Ezekiel. Just hold on for a little longer." Caroline pleaded. She kept picking at her nails nervously.

Her eyes went back to the front door just in time to see two figures emerge through the door, one after another. She could see one carried someone in their arms, the other following after them. She squinted her eyes to take a clearer look of them under the lamplight by the front door.

For a brief moment, all three faces were illuminated by the lamppost. Caroline's face turned pale at the harrowed scene ahead. She couldn't help but let it out──a painful scream of Maeve's name. Everyone around her leapt to their feet immediately, some filled with dread and worst thoughts, others ready to pounce on anyone.

Elijah stepped into the light of compound. Seeing the state of Maeve in his arms, wrapped in the jacket of his suit a deadly silence screamed in the compound. Amara leaned on her son for support. Ezekiel had one hand on his mother and the other was clutching onto Maverick as if his life depended on it.

All of the twenty Lycans who were present for Maeve took a step back from wherever they stood, allowing a moment for the Kalon pack. Elijah avoided looking at anyone──he simply couldn't do it. Elijah held himself in disappointment; that he couldn't find her sooner. All this while Maeve had been subjected to atrocities he couldn't even begin to imagine and he hadn't done anything.

He turned to his brother, Klaus after much deliberation. Klaus had a cold look marred on his face. It was a tell tale sign that Klaus was angrier than ever.

"I──I will take her to my room." Elijah announced to everyone. He walked up the flight of stairs and into the hallway that led to his room.

"Kol..." began Amara, "what happened?" Kol cleared his throat. He looked at his brother and Caroline. Although he had mentioned the state of Maeve, he hadn't told them about the scars, nor had he told them about the shackles or collar.

He stuttered a few sounds before he explained everything. Amara and Ezekiel had to sit back down on the chairs as they listened to Kol narrate everything. Caroline wept uncontrollably. Unconsciously she reached a hand out to hold onto Klaus's jacket. He placed a hand on top of hers, both seeking that support of touch to hold back on the rush of emotions.

"Who did this to her? Did you find them?" asked Klaus.

"There was no one there when we got there." Kol looked like a wreck as he answered their questions. "There's one more thing... it's kind of or maybe completely worse than this." he spewed out words unsure of if it would lessen the blow.

"What?" asked Caroline in a wobbly voice. "What could possibly be more to say? What could be worse?"

"She came to, for a few moments." he told them. "Her last words before she collapsed again were 'must die'."

The world, for centuries had seen the wrath of Klaus, heard stories of Lycans rage but it wasn't ready for seeing a collaboration of them.

"Let's go up." said Ezekiel.

Gideon and Midas stepped ahead, alongside Onyx. "Caroline..." Onyx addressed her suspiciously, "didn't you say Maeve mentioned the name Agnes?"

"She did." Caroline said in between sniffles.

"Well then, our work is cut out for us. Isn't it fellas?" asked Midas in a raised voice. "You make sure Maeve is okay, and we'll find out about this Agnes...whoever she is, has direct connection."

"But she's dead." Gideon looked at his partner with a single raised brow.

"Revenge, Gideon..." began Onyx, "always revenge."

"Bring her alive." Klaus instructed them. "We have special accommodations for the likes of creatures with a desire for slow deaths." All the Lycans in the compound marched out following their Alphas, determined to find out the one who did the worst to their favourite Lycan.

The Mikaelson brothers, Kalons, Caroline and Maverick climbed the stairs and headed to Elijah's room.

"What now?"

"We use the potions you made to heal her and some more." said Maverick. "Unfortunately for now all we can do is wait for her to pull through."

"She's my sister. She'll pull through. She has to." said Ezekiel clearly in denial.

No one wanted to imagine a time where Maeve wasn't going to be there.

Inside Elijah's bedroom, he had tucked her in comfortably on his bed. He sat on a chair next to her. Elijah held her hand, eyes set on her──he didn't want to leave her side at all.

"How are we going to find out who did this to her."

"Whoever did it──better just wait for the worst. They're not getting anything less." Klaus had always called Elijah a madman in love but he had not ever seen his brother choose violence in a manner similar to his own. Today, he witnessed Elijah become someone, Klaus had not ever seen.

"Death is a mercy they cannot have." Elijah decreed, her fingers tightening around Maeve's hand.

"Elijah..." klaus called his brother's name softly. He walked to the other side of the bed.

Ezekiel and Amara stood by the foot of the bed, neither having the guts to be near her. Their tears streamed down the faces and bodies trembled with fear and pain.

Elijah used his other hand and lifted up Maeve's shirt to show something to everyone present. Gasps echoed in the room at the state of her now exposed skin. Every inch of her skin, not just arms and face but even her stomach was a ugly canvas of scars and bruises.

"Get inside her head." said Klaus. "Find out who it was." Elijah didn't need to be told twice. He closed his eyes and forced himself to venture through Maeve's memories.

Elijah's body trembled as he wandered through the harrowed scenes from her memories. Gasps and whimpers left his mouth. He snapped open his eyes and forced himself away from the bed. He had an unblinking stare on her but a look of sheer horror didn't fade away from his eyes.

"What? What did you see?"

"She tortured her." said Elijah, sounding ominous. "Mentally, physically. The witch──Lily she...uh, she first tied her to a chair and used spells to break through her mentally. She was forced to see her parents die over and over again. She was bound by Silver chains and...a collar with spikes inwardly attached, silver and wolfsbane." He blinked away the tears that brimed in his eyes. Elijah huffed out strong breaths before he added further, "then she chained her to the wall...like a dog."

Everyone fisted their hands. All vibrated with anger. No one knew how to healthily process the rage they felt. All anyone knew was that Lily, who did this to Maeve should begin counting down the days of her freedom.

Slowly as night bore, Ezekiel and Maverick went into another room to prepare healing potions and contact doctors to get to New Orleans as fast as they could. Amara excused herself to get more clothes and essentials for Maeve. Especially chocolates. She knew her niece would love to have chocolate as soon as she would wake up.

Truth be told, they wanted to be out of that room, not having the strength and guts to look at Maeve any longer.

Caroline and Elijah situated themselves on either side of Maeve, watching her struggle to breathe. Klaus sat on the bed, next to Caroline.

"I'll call Marcel." said Klaus. "He should know that Maeve is now safe."

"Is she safe?" Elijah reiterated without taking his eyes away from Maeve. "Look at her, Niklaus──is she really safe?"

"She is, brother. She has all of us. She is Maeve." said Klaus. "There is no one who can walk out of something like this like her. We know that."

Klaus stepped out of the room. Caroline looked at Elijah. His face had sunken, a look of despair, grief and emotional pain coated his eyes. Caroline studied him; he had not looked away from Maeve since he stepped into his bedroom and laid Maeve on the bed.

"You should know something." said Caroline. Elijah tore his eyes away from Maeve with great difficulty, "she was coming to you because..." Caroline trailed off and stuttered. She cleared her throat and let it out. "Because she wanted to tell you face to face that she wants to give you two a chance. And that she loves you."

Elijah sniffled. He glanced at Caroline before he once again looked at Maeve, "I love you more, Maeve." he said. He finally had a chance again to make things right and he was going to do everything it would take to make it right.

The following day, the room was filled by doctors and medical equipment, all tending to Maeve. Ventilator and needles were attached to her body giving her artificial support for now as everyone worked dedicatedly to heal her completely. She was extremely pale, her skin was sallow. Her eyes were sunken and hollow, the dark circles around them swollen and bruised, her face was unrecognizable.

It had been twenty-four hours since Elijah and Kol brought Maeve back to the compound. She still hadn't responded to the medicines she was being pumped with, neither to the potions she was fed before the doctors arrived. With every passing second, everyone sunk deeper into a grave hole of despair losing on their hope that Maeve might pull through. The doctors addressed the whole compound on Maeve's state, but it did little to ease the tension, rather worsening it. They told them that her vital signs were down and that she had suffered multiple internal injuries. 

"I won't sugarcoat anything." said Doctor Abishola with a sunken face. Abishola, the official doctor of the Bloodcrest pack stood inside the dining room of the compound facing Ezekiel, Amara, The Mikaelsons, Onyx, Maverick and Marcel. Everyone had gathered around him with a concerned expression, wanting as much details as possible about what had happened to Maeve. "Had it not been for when you found her...we would have lost her."

A resounding thud was felt in the air as soon as the doctor delivered the heartbreaking news. "The cuts and bruises on her skin just showed us where her true injuries were. As of now, there's enough silver in her system to stop any medicine or spell or potion to have any effect on her."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" asked Amara. "There has to be some solution, doctor. We can't just let her..." she trailed off.

Doctor Abishola hummed before she laid out her plan, "we'll need to extract her blood. The only way for the silver to pass through her system is to draw out a significant amount of blood. Call it a cleansing ritual."

"Is it safe?" Ezekiel asked. Everyone glanced at him and again at Abishola. He had in fact voiced their primary concern.

"If we want to save her, this is our only option. We'll need several pints of blood to transfuse immediately as the extraction begins."

"I'll get the blood." declared Marcel.

"One more thing...was there by any chance a dagger or a long knife where you found Alpha Maeve?" Abishola's odd question drew further curiosity.

"No. Why?"

"There is a deep wound in her gut that has infected severely. It doesn't look like Silver but someth──"

"Amethyst." Elijah cut doctor Abishola off. He glanced at everyone who looked at him suspiciously. "A while ago, in Mystic falls. Maeve and I skimmed through several of the journals her mother had collected...one of these explained in great detail the very weapon that can be used to kill an entire lineage of witches. Especially a royal coven. The dagger has to be made up of Amethyst and should pierce the skin of the newest generation. It breaks the connection between past and present."

"I swear to Seline whoever did this to Maeve better start counting down their days because only she will show her mercy." said Ezekiel, growling throatily.

Elijah turned to Amara and Ezekiel, "When I looked through Maeve's memories, the woman──Lily she said that it was the dagger that killed her mother."

Doctor Abishola interrupted their quest for answers, "sorry to interrupt but could you maybe, discuss this after you get the blood."

"I'll get the Blood." said Marcel and sped out of the compound.

"Did anyone find anything?" asked Klaus glancing from Ezekiel to Onyx.

"All we've found so far is that Agnes had herself a minion army...many dead after the hospital attack twenty-one years ago. Others recently by Maeve. A few are scattered around but dormant. Only concern now is Lily." Onyx informed them.

"Doctor Abishola!" someone yelled from the compound. "Come quick! She's awake."

Doctor Abishola ran forward first followed by everyone else. Inside the room, Maeve had her eyes open, staring at the ceiling, her body moved but lethargically and painfully. Small whimpers escaped her mouth as she attempted to move.

"Maeve? Can you hear me?" asked Abishola. She flashed a torch over Maeve's eyes inspecting her reflexes.

"Where am I?"

"You're at the Mikaelson home."

"Why?" asked Maeve. Her voice was hoarse and dry with barely any liveliness to it.

Abishola looked up at the rest of them, with confusion almost similar to theirs. "Elijah and Kol brought you here. They saved you from the tomb." said Abishola.

"They shouldn't have." Maeve said in-between her whimpers. "I was supposed to die. I should have died." she said.

"Maeve... it's alright. I know the pain is unbearable but wait for a few more hours and you'll be fine."

"No...no, no no." She pleaded shaking her head but only slightly, "I cannot be fine. I don't deserve to be fine."

Abishola looked over at Ezekiel. He wiped away his tears and approached the bedside. "Hey moony. How's it hanging?" he asked acting casual.

"Don't...Ezekiel, don't act like that." said Maeve. It was a stab to Ezekiel's heart to hear Maeve call out his full name. She had only ever once called him that──their first meeting.

"Maeve, whatever you think is wrong."

"No, it's not. I deserve nothing but death." Maeve struggled to talk but she continued anyway. "I cause nothing but pain. You should go. Leave me be. Please Ezekiel. All I am is a constant reminder of everyone everyone's lost. It is not fair to you or anyone."

"Maeve don't say that. You know it's not right."

"No...no it is the truth. You just don't want to admit it. To this pack, to the Mikaelsons, all I am is a burden they lug because they only pity me. All I do is give pain and grief to everyone around. It's about time you live differently." Maeve's body trembled as tears streamed down her sunken pale face. Her breathing became harsh and erratic.

"I should have died. No one should suffer because of me anymore. You should hate me. Please let me go. Let me die. Please. No, don't, I beg you. Please no. No." Maeve began to panic and thrashed her limbs as much as she could, biting through the pain that coursed through her entire body.

"No...don't I can't take it. Enough. Please I beg you." Maeve mindlessly kept mumbling fighting through the hold of the doctors.

Abishola directed the other doctor who nodded and prepared a particular injection. Within the next few minutes Maeve slowly calmed down and closed her eyes.

Ezekiel stepped back from the bed with a stunned look. Amara wrapped a hand around her son and hid her face in his shoulder. Neither of them all could physically and emotionally digest the scene that just unfolded before them.

Doctor Abishola administered a few more medicines and checked on Maeve before she addressed them all. "The severity of her condition is worse than we thought."

"What just happened?" asked Elijah, his eyes flickering from Maeve to the doctor.

"Conditional response. This woman, Lily reinforced through violence── mental and physical to make Maeve believe that she is...responsible for the deaths and suffering."

"Wh──what can we do now?"

"I suggest taking the opinion of a psychologist. I'm afraid this conditional response is just the beginning. From what I can see, night terrors and behavioural changes are a possibility too."

"What next?"

"We'll put her in a medically infused coma and begin the blood transfusion. Let's see how she reacts to it and then decide the next step."

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Hello everyone! How's it going?

How are the Christmas celebrations?

Do you like the chapter?

What do you think is the ideal way to deal with Lily? Would love to hear your opinion/theories for it.

Do let me know in the comments

Take care everyone and wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all and your families! Hope you have a wonderful time this Holidays

Raven :)