The Mikaelson siblings found themselves in a larger turmoil than they anticipated. All stood around the compound area gazing at one another clueless about what to do next.

"So mother and father along with Finn are back?" repeated Kol still processing the gravity of the situation. He turned to Elijah before adding, "And Maeve knew that mother and Finn are back and she warned you about it last night."

"How many times must I repeat myself? That is the truth."

"What do we do now?"

"The question is simple isn't it? Which of our parents do we kill first?"

"Shouldn't we be more concerned about the fact that your mother who killed your daughter is back and probably plotting some major plan that could sabotage your lives...again?" Caroline queried realistically right as she stepped into the room.

"The intruder's got a point." said Kol, "no offence darling, you just were never invited. Anyways, how do we figure out a plan?"

As the brothers and Caroline wrecked their brains for a solution, Hayley and Rebekah joined in as well.

"So your parents are alive." repeated Hayley. "Times like these I'm glad I never knew my birth parents."

"Now what's our plan?" asked Rebekah.

Before their conversation could proceed, Hayley's phone rang. A twinge of suspicion creased her brow as she reached for it. Her fingers were shaky, her heart thumping an anxious rhythm.

Her eyes widened as she saw the caller ID. An icy dread tightened its grip on her mind immediately. She looked up, making eye contact with Klaus before he answered the call.

"Hello."

"She found us," came the chilling voice, before the line went dead.

"Shit," Hayley cursed under her breath, her voice barely a whisper but thick with tension.

Klaus's brow furrowed in irritation and concern. "What's wrong? Who found whom?" asked Elijah, his voice steady but tinged with urgency. Hayley opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by the insistent ringing of her phone once again.

The spiral of dread pulled her deeper as she answered the call. "Finn," she said quickly. "He found us. We are leaving." The call ended just like that, instilling more fear into her bones.

Klaus's eyes darkened with impatience. "What is going on?" he asked, clearly irritated by the mystery and urgency of the calls.

"We need Maeve," Hayley's voice was firm though panic lingered at its edges.

"We do, but in case you haven't noticed Hayley, she isn't here!" Kol reminded her, his tone snippy and sarcastic. "So we need to figure out a way ourselves."

Without responding, Hayley reached into her pocket and pulled out a fistful of bright herbs mixed with mysterious powders, turning away from the Mikaelsons as she began muttering incantations under her breath. There was fervor in her movements as if time itself were slipping through her fingers.

Caroline's voice broke through the tense atmosphere, impatient and urgent. "Hayley, we have matters to attend to—important and critical ones! What are you doing?" Her words grew sharper as a tangible rush of energy began swirling around the dimly lit room like an ethereal tempest.

In a sudden burst that defied logic, a figure stumbled into existence from thin air, looking stunned and disoriented amidst the grandeur of the Mikaelson compound in New Orleans.

"What the hell?" came an incredulous exclamation from Maeve herself.

Shock rippled through everyone present; jaws dropped in unison as they all exclaimed together, "Maeve?"

Maeve straightened up quickly, brushing imaginary dust off her sleek black jacket—a paradoxical symbol of mystery and confidence. Her eyes flicked around keenly before landing on each face with detached amusement. "Hello people! Long time no see."

Her demeanor was cool and nonchalant as if being summoned out of nowhere happened every other day for her—the consummate professional stuck somewhere between boredom and perpetual readiness for crisis scenarios yet playful enough not to be defined by them entirely.

Elijah turned to Hayley in a shocked appearance, "how did you know what to do to call her?"

Maeve glanced at Hayley's way. "You gone and did done it, Hayley. One thing!" she shouted infuriated.

"It's important Maeve. Finn and Esther found all of them."

Maeve's entire demeanor shifted. From cool and calm, she suddenly turned cautious. "When?"

"Last night or this morning. Not sure."

"For once are either of you two going to tell us what is happening?" this time it was Rebekah who yelled angrily.

Maeve's eyes softened immediately knowing the blonde Mikaelson for extremely angry with her ever since their last meeting.

"Hi bekky."

"Don't you dare call me that." Rebekah retorted through gritted teeth.

"Well...Hayley knows that because she knew about my plan." revealed Maeve, a slight tension in her words peeked before it rested at the base of her throat in the form of a knot.

"Well that makes sense. Hayley doesn't know Maeve enough to see the stupid in her plans." Caroline commented coldly.

"Bitch you better not." warned Maeve. 

"What?" Caroline looked shocked. "Everyone knows I'm right."

"Esther found whom and what is happening?" shouted Kol ending a brewing argument.

"You better talk Maeve, none of us have the patience for you games anymore."

"Hayley knew about my plan to take Hope." Maeve revealed. 

"What?" all eyes were now on Hayley. 

"Don't. I wanted to do this and I knew you Mikaelsons wouldn't let me."

"Let me guess, you went down the rabbit hole of self loath as always. Maeve I would have never allowed you to do what you have done. You gave up being an alpha for my daughter. You gave up your family for mine."

"There...that right there is why I went to Hayley instead of you all." reasoned Maeve, "You would have slammed me down and Elijah would have trapped me in the dungeon. But Hayley is the one person I knew would trust me."

Elijah rolled his eyes at Maeve's words, "Trust you? We all trust you, we just don't support you in your crazy ideas."

"You support his." responded Maeve pointed a finger at Klaus.

"I take that to offence."

"Shove it."

"Can we focus on the problem at hand?? Caroline interrupted. 

"Yes...so anyway we planted some decoys around the area to deflect Esther, because I knew she was coming for Hope."

"And you thought not telling us was a good idea?"

"Yes, because Mr. impulse here would have gone in guns blazing, no clue and gotten in more trouble than already."

"Your lack of faith in me is quite disturbing." retorted Klaus, although even he knew there laid some truth to her words.

"So I placed the decoys to keep Hope safe."

"But Finn found them, which means that they both know that we are hiding something." concluded Hayley. "Maeve, what do we do?"

"Don't worry she nor you can even begin to imagine where we are." Maeve told them confidently. "And about your comment about giving up on being an Alpha...I was denied that. Councilman Zoltan refused my proposal. I will be crowned with Zeke in 6 months."

"Some good news today." said Klaus. He fell silent suddenly, eyes settling on the floor before they went up to meet Maeve's. With great hesitation and teary eyes he began, "Maeve...is──"

Maeve smiled, "she gets more beautiful each day. She is exactly like you. She may have gotten Hayley's looks but she's exactly like you." Everyone smiled at her words. "Every time I began to miss you even a little bit, your daughter throws a tantrum just like you."

Klaus groaned. Although he was glad to hear that his daughter was thriving, Maeve's comments didn't sit well with him. "would you stop attacking me?"

"Oh come on now Nik, there's four months worth of commentary." smiled Maeve before she winked at him.

Suddenly Maeve's body language changed. Her eyes darkened. "Who's there?"

"This again? Don't you have anything else to do but run into trouble?" Kol satirized with a roll of his eyes.

"Whoever is there let me tell you, show yourself or you might just end up into tiny bits and pieces." Maeve stood still for a few seconds before she relaxed.

"What the fuck do you want? So? What's it to you? You even──" she stopped talking. Maeve turned to the Mikaelsons again and smiled awkwardly,

"How about I keep you posted about my next plans?" before anyone had any chance to respond, Maeve was gone.

Caroline glanced at everyone before speaking up, "What was the point of all that?"

"Nothing." Elijah stated with a cold voice. "It's Maeve, did we really expect a solution? The only thing right now is that she planted those decoys which only strengthened Esther's belief that we are hiding something. We need to find a way to hide Hope."

"Elijah Maeve is doing that." argued Hayley, disliking how dismissive Elijah had grown to the subject of Maeve.

"And in turn caused more problems for us." saying this Elijah turned and walked away.

Maeve sighed before she turned to the intruder again. "So, talking to the woods, are we? Is that something you do now or has it already been like your thing?" asked the man who interrupted her conversation with the Mikaelsons.

Maeve rolled her eyes. She matched her steel cold look with his challenging the man. "I'll ask again, what the fuck do you want, Damon?"

"When I see the woman who left the town with the originals back, don't you think I'd wanna say hi?"

"No." Maeve's voices echoed through the silent woods. "You are not one for small talk. Say your piece and get lost."

Damon acted as if her words stung him. His facial features changed slightly, brows that were furrowed relaxed and eyes softened. "How is Caroline?"

Maeve scoffed. "You really care?"

"Yes, I do. Contrary to what you believe I do care Maeve."

"You don't care. You only act like it until the purpose is served."

Damon fell silent. Of course he knew what Maeve referenced. How could he forget? In all his lifetimes he had used many people, the only tiniest bit of regret he ever had was for doing it to Maeve.

"I have done a lot of bad things."

"No Damon. Not bad, you have done cruel things."

"Maeve I──"

"Just say what you want to and get lost." Maeve dismissed him quickly.

"How is Caroline?"

"She's fine. Great as a matter of fact. Better than she ever was in this town."

"This town is her home."

Maeve rolled her eyes. "This town is a joke. This town has done nothing for her but give her shitty friends and fuckers for boyfriends."

"She is my friend, Maeve. Now tell me, where is she?"

"A friend you abused, Damon, lied about it to her mom and then gave a eulogy at her funeral." Maeve shouted angrily at him. "Now why don't you talk about the real thing that brought you here to me, huh big bad vampire? Why don't you say what you really want to say? Perhaps about how to get rid of a siphon named Kai Parker?"

Damon stared at her directly as he took deep breaths. "Admit it Damon. You saw me in the woods, saw an opportunity and jumped."

"Maeve──"

She sighed, "keep me out of this nonsense. I had a few beers with a friend, my filter on the mouth is gone so...whatever you do, don't try to contact me again. The way to a siphon is to overload them with magic that it starts to eat them from the inside." saying this Maeve started to sprint away.

Not so long after she reached her home. "So...how was your run?" asked Patrick seeing her run in through the door.

"Excellent. Went to the falls, relived the night I gave up my powers, spoke to the Mikaelsons and ran into Damon." Patrick dropped the tray he held in his hands making it clatter with an obnoxiously loud sound on the marble flooring.

"What the hell? You'll wake up Hope."

"Hope doesn't go to sleep without her little lullaby which apparently I sing off-key, which by the way I take to utmost offence. And Damon saw you? What're we gonna do now? We gotta move."

"We don't. Relax."

"Maeve the idiots..."

"Will not know where I am. Remember the spells?" Maeve said in a peculiar tone trying to make Patrick jog his memory.

Patrick shyly smiled. "I'll check on Hope." Maeve went up the large stairs and directly into Hope's nursery. Hope sat in her crib playing with a stuffed wolf.

"Hi littlest star. How are you?" cooed Maeve as she lifted up Hope in her arms. "Your evil godmother is a little sweaty but that's okay right?"

Hope babbled sounds staring at Maeve's face. "Did you know your grandmother has been trying to find you...yes she is. But granny Esther has to wait. She can't visit you. She tried to find me too. But I pushed her away. That's right, your evil godmother is one tough cookie. You like cookie?"

Hope once again babbled in response. "Saw your father──my best friend today and mama and uncle Kol and aunt Bekah and uncle Elijah and even auntie Caroline. So, tell me goddaughter, should I tell them that they care about me only because they remember somebody they used to know?" Maeve paused in front of the mirror staring at her own reflection.

"Should I tell them my face belongs to someone they don't remember fully? Someone they once cared for beyond compare? Someone whom their outcast brother Finn loved."

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Hi guys! I am extremely sorry for the 2 months long disappearance. I'm trying to juggle work and writing but after work I don't have a lot of energy left for writing.

But now I have set up a routine that gives me time almost everyday, so hopefully quicker updates will now follow.

I thank everyone who stayed despite lack of updates with my whole heart. You guys are amazing!

Thank you for staying and I hope I delivered something with this update.

Thank you and take care everyone

Raven :)