Hope

There wasn't a sound in the darkness.

No footsteps. No breathing - aside from her own. The entire place was devoid of any other life. It was just Hope and the chilled walls of her prison. Time was a foreign construct here. Hope knew she slept, but for how long she didn't know. She was beginning to forget what the outside sky looked like. It made sense, she supposed. Regardless of how long she'd been chained to this wall, she entered the facility itself it seems ages ago.

The dry swallow of Hope's throat made her cringe, when was the last time she'd had water? Her stomach growled at the prospect of something, anything, filling it. Even that sludge in the upper compound they tried to pass off as food.

"Rise and shine" his voice came down the hall.

Dorian appeared in the doorway with a wickedly crooked grin. His eyes glittered with dark intention.

Approaching her, he unlocked her wrists and they fell into her lap painfully. Needles pierced up and down her arms as new life suddenly flowed through them. Letting out a soft sound of pain, she held her arms to her chest.

"Stand up," Dorian ordered. When she didn't move he grabbed her under her arms and hoisted her to her feet and grabbed her by the back of the neck, dragging her toward the door.

"Let go!" Hope scrambled along, clawing her nails at his arms in a feeble attempt to get free. Her legs wobbled like jello and her brain pounded against her skull, making her jaw throb.

Dorian tossed her to the ground like a sack of nothing and sneered "Then get up and walk. You have a fight to get to."

"A fight?" she looked up, her eyes wide as a cold sweat dripped down her neck. She...she couldn't fight right now. She could barely walk. "I...can't fight right now. You never gave me blood. No food, no water. I can't even-..." she stopped mid-sentence as it instantly became clear. Hope cringed as Dorian lowered himself to sit on his heels, watching her with those dark, angry eyes.

"That's the point, darling." He murmured his whisper a caress that left pinpricks of pain along her spine. "Try fighting back now, Hope Mikaelson original tribrid. You won't last two seconds in this state and the audience wants a blood bath. I intend to deliver. Now..." He looked down at her bare, dirty feet. "On your feet."

For the first time in a long time, true fear seized Hope's chest. All of this time she'd been waiting to be tortured when all along this was the torture he'd intended. She would fall the moment she stepped in the ring. She had no energy physically to fight with her hands and no energy mentally to fight with her magic.

Dorian wasn't telling her to fight. No, he was telling her she was the sacrifice for tonight's main event.

"I know you made me kill him. Flynn died because you forced my hand. You are nothing but a coward. Forcing people to kill for what?!" Her voice grew, echoing further down the cavern path. "For entertainment? For a buck?"

"I didn't." Dorian's voice was soft and slow, dripping sickly sweet honey - and unfortunately, it stuck to her.

The worst part? She believed him.

Nausea crept from her stomach to the back of her throat.

Is this what they had reduced her to? An animal that really couldn't resist its impulse? Had...had she truly torn Flynn's heart out instead of sparing him as she'd planned?

Confusion muddled her brain as Dorian forced her to her feet again and pushed her along the long, dark hallway.

This is it. Fight or die...kill or be killed.

Stiles

Running his hands up and down his face and through his hair in quick succession, Stiles stared at the screen in front of him. He held a bottle of Mountain Dew in his hands, his eyes were red and his right knee bounced up and down.

He had been sitting in the stakeout van for only five minutes and already he was imagining the many gruesome ways this could all go south. Shaking his head quickly to expel the thoughts he took another long gulp of Mountain Dew and watched the compound of the fighting arena fill with spectators. Marcel had given instructions to one of his undercover men to place a hidden camera along the edges of the arena so that Stiles could be the eyes and ears for the others in a hawk view.

He watched Derek, Peter, Hayley, and Rebekah sneak through casually with the rest of the spectators. They paid their way in, hands in their pockets with confidence as they walked through as if they belonged. Stiles was suddenly very thankful he wasn't in there - he'd be shaking like a leaf and taken to the back for questioning.

Ten minutes passed and Rebekah was the first to sneak away, bobbing through the crowd and managing to slip into one of the open corridor entryways. Peter soon followed, continued by Hayley, and lastly Derek. They were all in the cavern hallways now and Stiles just knew - this would end in flames.

Derek

It took a moment for Derek's eyes to adjust to the darkness that seemed to stretch endlessly in front of him. He could hear the distant footsteps up ahead, but even though their figures were cloaked in the darkness he knew it was the others. He could sense it was safe up ahead. The footsteps stopped while he continued, finding them stopped at the fork they'd discussed while looking over the map back at the hotel.

"Hayley and I will take the left. You and Derek take the right." Rebekah said to Peter in a hushed voice. "No flashlights. Stay silent and move quickly, there's a lot of ground to cover. If you run into trouble, signal to Stiles with the earpiece and we'll find you..."

Peter nodded and started to go right, but Rebekah grabbed his arm "Stay...safe. Okay?"

Smirking, Peter glanced down at his arm. "Aw. You do care."

Rebekah's grip tightened so hard, Derek would have expected to see blood.

"If I have to choose between saving you and saving my niece, I will leave you behind."

"I know." He smirked once before starting down the right corridor.

Derek followed, fighting a smirk as they trekked down the endless hall in the opposite direction as the girls. It sloped downward for what seemed forever, gradually growing colder until he could see his own breath. They were silent as they walked, trying to keep their footsteps as silent as possible.

When Peter stopped dead in his tracks, Derek followed suit and listened intently. The only sound now was the soft breath that plumed in front of them, barely visible. It was distant, but slowly getting louder. Peter and Derek exchanged a glance and moved to the side of the hallway and wedged between the cracks and divots available in the natural structure. The steps were beginning to sound different the closer it got. One step followed by a scrape. Over and over. Whatever or whoever it was had to be injured.

If it were anywhere else, Derek would be standing to fight, but this was an operation where nothing could go wrong because of his reluctance to submit. Hope's life hung in the balance.

"You can stop hiding." An unfamiliar voice whispered. "I'm running from them too."

Derek stayed silent and in his spot. He wouldn't be falling for this trap...

"I'm looking for Hope too."

Okay, maybe he would. Derek stepped out of his hiding spot, brows drawn into a scowl. Eyes golden.

"Who are you?" His voice was hushed to not draw any more attention than they already had.

"Benjamin." Said the man as he continued to limp forward. "They had Hope in a room further down the opposite way you're going."

Peter cursed softly, they knew it had been a fifty-fifty chance of going the wrong way, but it was still disappointing.

"How do you know Hope?" Derek narrowed his eyes, fingernails slowly growing in preparation.

Benjamin smirked, his ice-blue eyes looking him over. "Probably the same way you know her..."

A low growl began in Derek's chest, but Peter quickly put a clawed hand on his bicep.

"Not now. Deal with both of your shit later or you'll get us all killed and I for one am not dying here."

The heated anger still simmered in Derek's chest, and his lip curled as he glared at Benjamin. Benjamin...the competition he didn't know he had.

Turning, he stalked the opposite way and glanced over his shoulder at the man. The enemy. "If you're lying, I'll rip you apart."

Rebekah

Rebekah rubbed her hands together in slow movements to keep her fingers from going numb. They'd been walking down this hallway with only twists, but no turns for ages. It felt like a very intentional carving of land. Perhaps it was. It wasn't until maybe ten minutes into the trek that the maze finally revealed itself.

"Oh no..." Hayley murmured in the softest whisper.

"Hm..." Rebekah frowned. There weren't two, not even three directions that the tunnels split into. It split into five different avenues. It could take ages to get down one tunnel only to find it to be a dead end. This would take a lot of time and Hope didn't have a lot of time.

Footsteps not far behind seemed to be gaining speed quickly. Rebekah tensed just in time for Stiles to speak through her earpiece. It crackled from the distance and amount of rock between them, but she could make it out.

"Derek and Peter are coming your way. Long story short they know Hope is down the way you went."

Rebekah wasn't sure she trusted their sudden all-knowing knowledge, but at least they would have more bodies to explore the separate tunnels.

Derek, Peter, and...Benjamin appeared not far behind them.

Benjamin?

"Why..." she started in a whisper, brows furrowed in confusion.

"Undercover for Marcel," Benjamin said quickly, "no time to waste. This way." He continued down the tunnel second to the left.

Under all of the confusion, Rebekah finally felt some relief. A familiar face working with a trusted ally. That she could at least give twenty-five percent of her trust to.

Together, they all made their way down the corridor where Benjamin disappeared down, following his lead. "If you're lying, I will rip you to pieces." She whispered ahead at him.

"Get in line." Rebekah could practically hear his smirk.

Klaus

"Isn't this a treat?" Klaus' voice boomed in the stadium as he sauntered directly into the center of the arena. His courage was fueled by his anger and fear for his daughter. This is where she'd been taken to, where she'd been suffering. Everyone in here would meet their painful demise if it was the last thing he did.

Silence fell over the crowd. All eyes are on him.

"By all means." He continued, arms outstretched in a show. "Place your bets." He looked around and glanced at so many faces. Some were confused, some horrified. Some are angry. He grinned broadly. "Perhaps I should introduce myself. I am Klaus. The original hybrid. I've come to collect." He gestured his finger to swing around the whole crowd. "All of you will die and even if you escape I will make it my mission to hunt you until your ultimate demise. Isn't that right, Elijah?"

Elijah appeared beside him as if out of thin air, gaining a gasp from the crowd. Most seemed more familiar with Elijah than with Klaus, though the fear leaking from the stadium proved they all had come to the same realization at the exact same time. They've bitten off more than they could chew.

"Who's first?" Klaus's eyes shifted to gold, dark veins appearing under his eyes. Ready to shed blood.

"How about this one?" An accented voice pierced the silence followed by a thud.

Klaus and Elijah looked over to see a man standing on the other side of the arena, a body slumped at his feet.

Hope looked up, her face pale and gray, but a soft shimmer of fire in her eyes that flamed when she seemed to recognize them.

In unison, they took a step toward her. Klaus' wide gaze on Hope - Elijah's narrowed stare on Dorian.

"I wouldn't..." Dorian said, and just as he spoke a ring of fire surrounded the brothers. Raising higher and higher until it created a dome at the top. Making it impossible to jump over.

Dorian smirked in return for their murderous glares.

They jumped through the fire without another moment of hesitation and Dorian's smirk fell away. They patted the flames away, ignoring the horrible smell of burned hair and flesh as well as the pain that accompanied it.

"You underestimate our desire to eviscerate you," Elijah spoke in his smooth, controlled voice, though Klaus knew he was raging inside. He could feel it coming off him like a cloud of thick smoke. It made him smirk.

Stiles' voice sounded in Klaus' ear.

"Incoming, look up."

Klaus looked up and watched as what could only be described as things fell from the ceiling. Landing on two feet. Men, he assumed, but wrapped in some sort of black leather armor that covered their entire bodies. Twenty, give or take, surrounded them.

Klaus looked down where Hope sat, her arms barely able to hold herself up off the ground. She met his gaze and a new strength swelled in his chest. Fatherly pride. She'd lasted this long in this hell-hole and he wasn't about to let her die in the place that tortured her.

His gaze shifted up to meet the smirk Dorian held once again. He has no idea what he's done, Klaus thought as he matched his smirk with his own rising fury.

"Let the games begin."

Derek

Derek had picked up Hope's scent not too long after rushing down the hall after Benjamin. He could smell her nearby, she was here, she-

He entered the empty holding chamber and his heart sank.

Hope was here. Recently. But not anymore. He growled and slammed his fist against the cold wall where the chains that had held her wrists hung. "Where is she!"

"Be quiet!" Rebekah whispered in a hushed voice. "We'll find her, but not if you lose your head."

Derek ran his fingers chaotically through his disheveled mess of hair and looked around the place. Breathing hard. They must have just missed her.

"Oh no..." Benjamin muttered and all eyes landed on him. "I heard them talking about the fight of the century. I was barely conscious when they said it, I thought it was a dream and forgot about it. The fight of the century would likely be..."

"Hope's last fight..." Hayley finished. Her eyes slowly shifted into a deep amber. "They've taken her to the arena." She met their gazes as a growl slowly grew in her chest. Derek had watched her keep a level head for the sake of Hope's safety, but now...they'd just woken the bear and she was ready to take her claws out. "We run and we run fast." She told the room.

"What do we do when we get there?" Peter asked.

Hayley met him with an angry smirk, malicious darkness in her eyes that Derek had never seen before. So, that's where Hope got her nerve from.

"Tear it up." Hayley took off as soon as the words left her mouth and they all sprinted after her.

Derek let his inner animal take over, his wolf-shifting face. Clothes ripping as his muscles grew and bulged - gaining speed. He would, he'd do it without hesitation. He'd tear into everyone and anything to get to Hope.

His Hope.

Hope

The chaos spread from the arena to the entire stadium. The fighters in black could seemingly appear and disappear with a horrid stench left behind but managed to consistently take her father and uncle off guard. They fought, oh they fought. The fighters never could keep their grip on them for long before having something of theirs broken and dashed to the side.

Spectators were pouring out of the stands, creating a stampede of people. Humans and supernaturals alike. Their attempts to flee had people being trampled - the stench of death permeating the air.

To top it off, the fire that had been set to contain her father and uncle was now out of control. Whoever the witch was that had cast the spell must have run off in the chaos or had died attempting to keep their focus and been trampled.

A sudden sharp and painful blow to the top of Hope's head sent her down to her stomach. Her chin was crushed against the floor. She tasted blood as her tongue swept over her dry mouth. The combination of dirt and heat was not a good one.

"This is what happens!" Dorian bellowed above her and another blow sent stars across her vision. The sound of screams around her seemed to muffle. "This is what happens when an abomination exists!" Dorian grabbed Hope by the throat and forced her to turn and look at him. He grinned with a wild hunger down at her. "Look at you...the little princess about to die. You fought well, I'll admit, but now there's nothing left to salvage. You've ruined it all!"

The flames began licking the ceiling above. The place was a cavern, it might not burn down completely, but it would turn this place into a literal oven and cook all the pieces inside. And if that didn't kill everyone, smoke inhalation would.

Dorian's grip tightened, cutting off her air.

She sputtered, unable to get so much as a cough out, grabbing his hand and tearing at it with her nails. She hadn't fed in days...she needed strength, needed to fight back. Darkness crept around her fuzzy vision. She was moments away from letting go and letting the darkness in when the grip on her throat released. Hope sucked in a harsh breath and fell to the floor.

Fight Hope, fight! You need blood! Any blood will do, just do it!

Hope vaulted up and latched onto Dorian's neck with her long fangs and sank in deeply. Her grip became a crushing vice the more she fed messily from him. She didn't stop, couldn't stop until he was drained. Hope pulled back with a wicked grin of victory.

Then, unexpectedly, her heart seemed to stop beating. The world seemed to slow as she looked down at the face of the man she'd just killed.

It wasn't Dorian.

"Dominik!" Hope screeched as she reached out and grabbed his head which hung limply off his neck. "NO! No, no, I'm sorry! No!" She cried out, but she didn't have a moment more to grieve as she was grabbed by the back of the hair and dragged backward. Hope gasped out a cry of pain as her head was slammed down against the ground. She felt her skull crack.

"Hope!" A distant voice cut through. No, it wasn't distant, it just felt like it was. Hope opened her eyes to see a face she'd only ever seen once. A face contorted with a thick ridged brow, long sideburns, and elongated fangs. She'd seen this face when he trained the rest of his pack in an abandoned building.

"Derek." Her voice was a hoarse whisper.

Derek's face slowly returned to what she was so familiar with, she reached up and touched his scruffy cheek with her bloodied fingers. Making sure he was real.

Tears gathered in her eyes. She'd felt such relief when she saw her father and uncle enter the arena, but this...seeing Derek. Knowing he was real and safe with her, filled her entire body and soul with such light it felt like she'd go blind with emotion.

"You're going to be okay." He said lifting her in his arms, only for her to drop a moment after. She watched one of the fighters in leather snatch Derek, dragging him away from her.

The new energy she had from taking blood...Dom's blood... she couldn't think about whose blood it was. Not now. It had given her the strength she desperately needed. Getting to her feet she looked around.

Klaus and Elijah were still fighting the things from the ceiling. Her mother and Rebekah were taking on the vengeful vampires who wanted to see a fight, not be in one. Peter was rushing after Derek, sending a booted foot to one of the fighters who disappeared in the smoke and appeared right behind him, grabbing him by the shoulders. Hope watched as Benjamin helped Peter shake off the thing.

Something buzzed in the air. Hope looked toward the door, watching Stiles sending volts of electricity from some sort of weapon he had. His face was contorted into something she never thought she'd see on him.

Hope looked down at herself, her clothing was torn and covered in absolute filth, but something stopped her. She looked down at her hands and watched the blood-stained digits fidget as if sensing something her mind hadn't recognized yet.

Clarity swept her like an ocean wave. Refreshing and leaving her breathless.

The magical barrier was down.

Without another moment of hesitation, Hope slammed her hands down on the dirt and screamed. No, she roared. All the power, all the anger, all the fear that had built over the last days had been saving her for this moment.

A wave of power surged from her, it was hazy and seemingly tangible. She could taste the force of it on her tongue - it was tangy like blood.

Everyone left in the arena fell to the ground and the fighters that came from the ceiling disappeared in black smoke that left behind a horrendous odor. Matched with the fire it was like they were on a hidden volcano that was ready to erupt.

The only downside was it seemed to add fuel to the fire. It grew, unmatched and hungry. It licked the walls black, filling the place with smoke.

Hope dodged to the left, avoiding the fist that came for her. Dorian's fist.

She spun on the balls of her feet and gazed down at Dorian. His right eye and ear were missing, leaving bloodied gashes in their place that dripped down his throat. She had a feeling Derek had something to do with that.

Hope stared at him and he stared back. The only sound now was the crackling of fire around them. It was over, the fight was done. Those who hadn't fled were dead and none of those she cared for were among them.

This was the moment she'd been waiting for since the moment that green truck had followed her to that motel. This was the moment of destined revenge she knew the universe had gifted her.

Dorian's breath wheezed as he slowly dropped to his knees. She could see it in his remaining eye, he knew his defeat had arrived and soon his demise would be as well.

Hope walked toward him. She didn't have long, though she wanted to make him suffer the way he'd made her suffer. She couldn't be selfish, Stiles especially couldn't stay here with all the smoke.

"You were right." Hope finally said, moving until she was right in front of Dorian. She snatched his chin and forced him to look up at her. "I didn't understand what you meant before, but I do now. I was a princess without a crown. Living in my family's shadow in their bubble of protection..."

His dark gaze glowered at her from his knees, but he said nothing.

"I was all those things before this moment, but now...I'm taking my crown because I'm a fucking queen."

Hope's hand plunged into his chest and gripped the beating muscle inside, pulling it out swiftly while not letting her eyes stray from his. She watched the light leave his eyes. He crumpled to the ground at her feet.

"That's my girl," Klaus murmured from somewhere behind her.

Hope looked around to see almost everyone grinning. Pride in their eyes as her own pride welled in her chest.

Well, everyone except Stiles, who was shell-shocked.

"Time to go." Peter coughed, his arm covered in his mouth.

The fire had overtaken the whole room now, leaving it in ruins. Good.

"What about the people in the bunkers?" Hope frowned as Derek held her arm, quickly ushering them to the door.

Benjamin came up to her other side "I freed them when I escaped. I had a feeling there wouldn't be much time later."

An actual smile graced her lips as she let them lead her outside where Stiles was coughing profusely.

"I need oxygen." He said hoarsely. "Just give me a tank of it."

Hope laughed, something she hadn't done in so long, but now...only freedom awaited her, and oh she couldn't wait to taste it.