She stood in front of her bathroom mirror staring at her pale reflection. The one that showed rough cheeks with dried up tears on them: eyes, puffy and red. Even her usual honey brown shade had turned a darker. Her hands gripped the edge of the sink tightly. Her hair were tied up in a bun.

Maeve reflected vibrantly on everything that happened to her in a matter of forty eight hours. She screamed internally. Every moment in her life from gaining her powers the midnight hour of her nineteenth birthday, to finding her family; learning about her birth family to every single aspect of her life since then flashed before her eyes overwhelming her to the point where tears streamed down her face and her stomach churned anxiously. Her mind was clogged, heart beating fast against her ribcage.

She had a significant darkness inside of her. Maeve felt it now as memories came back to her. The trance she felt herself seep into everytime she attacked the Salvatore brothers or the attraction she had toward violence and blood gore. Maybe her darkness would scream out finally. Between the cracks of her sabotaging thoughts, Elijah entered her mind. She recalled how he was the only one able to break through to her every time. She couldn't tell him about the prophecy. It wasn't right. He already had so much to deal with.

Maeve couldn't accept it or word it out to anyone. She didn't have that much courage. But she had chosen to give up. After two long years of making every day a struggle for survival, finding only small moments of smile and happiness as well as running from death every step of the way, she had decided to stop. Maeve Kalon was ready to embrace her death whole heartedly and wait for it without stopping it or resisting it.

The knock that sounded at the door, for a split second made her believe it was her imagination. When it grew stronger, she hurried to open it. Maeve regretted opening the front door as soon as her eyes fell on the two men standing outside.

"Maverick. Brother." she starkly greeted them with a roll of her eyes. Maeve stepped aside letting both of them enter her apartment.

"Dingy." commented Maverick as his eyes roved around almost every corner of her apartment. Maeve watched as Ezekiel took a seat on the couch, his eyes settling interrogatively on Maeve while Maverick just glanced around the place.

"I'm guessing blabbermouth told you everything."

"Yes because my sister doesn't believe in sharing stuff with her family." Ezekiel said bitterly.

Maverick looked at Maeve with an offended look, "why am I blabbermouth?"

"That's what Gwenlyn called you." Maeve said softly looking away at Ezekiel. "I wanted to tell you once I came to terms with it."

"You seemed pretty collected in Woodlands." Maverick commented.

Maeve rolled her eyes, before savagely responding, "that's because the last thing I wanted was for Elijah to start worrying and panicking. Will you subtract from this conversation? Family and co-Alphas would like to talk privately."

Maverick raised his hands defensively, "seems things are in place. That's all I was supposed to do. So, I'll be taking work calls from the bar across the street." He said and quickly scattered out of the apartment.

Maeve sat down next to Ezekiel on the couch. Both sat in silence for a few moments.

"Were you ever planning on telling me...let alone any of us?" asked Ezekiel breaking the silence.

"Yes. Tomorrow....Sunday I was going to drive down and do it face to face."

"Oh really?" scoffed Ezekiel rather bitterly and with a cold jabbing tone.

"You rather I do it over the phone?" slammed back Maeve turning her head to catch Ezekiel's eyes. "Tell you about my death. Potential death over a stupid phone call?"

"I didn't me──" he breathed in sharply, "I learnt it from a man I've never seen before other than on the news occasionally that my sister is facing a death sentence that was prophecied. Something unavoidable. I am right to be worried!"

"Yeah and I'm not? It's not like I am the one who is possibly going to die. The reaper was there for me the day I was born but others died for me. I think this time he will finish his job." Maeve sharply worded out screaming out the words that clouded her for forty eight hours now.

"Moony?" Ezekiel's voice had softened now. He placed a hand on Maeve's shoulder.

"I'm tired, Prongs. I'm done."

"Please don't say that. Please don't..." begged Ezekiel, gritting his teeth. "Please Moony."

"When has anything gone right? Tell me!" she said demanding for him to give her some optimism. "I was born, Mum, Dad, Uncle Luther and so many more died trying to save me. I got my true self back and I had to lie to my parents and then compel them to forget me. Then Mystic Falls and Pops and Silver in Chicago and then at Homecoming and now this." she ranted on not realising what she had blabbered.

"Wait...Homecoming?" asked Ezekiel reconfirming if he had heard her right.

Maeve sighed seeing no point in denying she had said it or lying. She proceeded to inform in great detail the story of Homecoming and the days ahead of the night.

"I'll circle back to that after this Prophecy. What is your plan?"

"Not using magic anymore?" she said idly. "But I'm tired Zeke. I can't do this anymore."

"Don't you dare say that!" Ezekiel scolded her. "No. You are not going to die. You hear me?"

"Maybe the grim reaper will finish his job now." she said darkly. "I mean, it's been a long chase so far maybe he'll catch up to me now."

"Why didn't you say anything to Elijah or any of the other Mikaelsons? I mean you've gotten really close to them. Which is good, as shady as they are, they've been far better than anyone else in Mystic Falls."

"They've been through enough trouble and worry after me. Chicago and here now. They just lost their eldest brother and still have to worry about their mother's final attack on them who intends on killing them off."

"So you decided to not tell them anything?"

Maeve sniffled. Her nostrils flared as he buried a whimper. Maeve wiped away her tears pressing her hands to her cheek. "I don't want to burden them."

Ezekiel kept protesting continuously against Maeve accepting her death or giving up on a fight before it even began. But in the end, after hours long back and forth, Ezekiel resorted to a different method of getting through to his sister.

"Let's go and shift into our wolves in the woods."

Ezekiel opened his eyes staring up at the darkened sky above. He sat up looking around frantically. "Maeve!" he screamed out into the darkness but no response came back.

The woods. That's where the siblings'duo ended up. Each of them hoped they would get an answer to their problem. Maeve's possible death. 

The harmonious melody of bustling leaves and the water fall at the distance synchronising itself with the low whispers of birds managed to calm even the chaotic mind of Maeve.

The woods whistled in appreciation for its friend, a Serene witch who was trying to make contact. The leaves brushed against each other making a ruffling sound as the winds blew clearing the area around her in a circle. She felt the magic within her become one with nature as she truly felt the power that the earth kept within itself. 

Last thing Ezekiel remembered was as soon as they had shifted back to their human selves, nature had turned aggressive. Winds blew in from all directions as if it was the onset of a terrible storm. Ezekiel last recalled seeing his sister standing by a tall tree before his memory blurred to the point where he couldn't understand the truth from a hallucination.

Ezekiel thought of dialling Maeve's number but it was in vain since she had kept her phone alongside his inside the broken open bark of a tree. Ezekiel panicked running around the woods to find Maeve but there was no sign of her. He knew there was only one other place where he could find her or a way to get to her.

Ezekiel ran as fast as he could to the largest mansion in town. He recalled Maeve mentioning that it was Mikaelson's new home. Ezekiel reached the mansion in a record time of five minutes from the woods. He pounded at the door frantically.

The door was pulled open revealing Elijah. He recognised Ezekiel, "you're Maeve's brother." he said curious to find him at his doorstep.

"Yes. Listen, I need your help." said Ezekiel. Elijah moved aside letting Ezekiel walk in. "Maeve's missing."

Elijah's composure broke down immediately. "What do you mean missing? What happened?"

"We were in the woods. Shifted into our wolves and when we shifted back nature became so violent. Like strong winds and then nothing."

"What?"

"I mean I don't remember after that. Everything is a blur. All I know is that Maeve's missing and I need your help."

Elijah's phone rang just then. He pressed it to his ear conversing with whoever was at the other end. "Brother...Maeve's missing as well."

"Her brother's here. She went missing from the woods." He paused for a moment before continuing. "I'll relay the message."

"Who was it?"

"Niklaus." Elijah said staring at the floor. He looked up at Ezekiel before continuing, "I think I know who might be responsible for Maeve being missing. I need you to stay here while I handle it."

"What? Absolutely not!" Ezekiel protested. "She's my sister!"

"I know. But right now the threat she possesses is from my mother. It would be better if you didn't come in the way and hurt yourself."

"So what? You're expecting me to just stay here? Wait for you to come back like a fucking princess?"

"No. I come to understand you have a connection with your pack members? Something that allows you to have a connection with just the Lycans in your pack. Perhaps that would be a way for you to find Maeve."

Ezekiel's features softened immediately. He hadn't thought of it. "Yeah...yeah, I can do that. In a single minute! Elijah please."

"I understand you Ezekiel." he said sympathetically. "But you also have to understand my mother will do everything in her power to get to Maeve. She holds a strong grudge against her. I would hate for her to have a way to get through to Maeve by putting you in harm's way. Maeve wouldn't want that."

"Elijah, she's my sister."

"I know." Elijah shifted his weight on one foot and looked assuredly, "I won't let anything happen to Maeve. I promise."

Ezekiel tried getting words out but would he be going against his sister's wishes in doing so? Would he call this disrespectful of her wishes? He didn't care. "There's something else you should know."

Elijah hated himself for not pushing Maeve enough to tell him the truth. Ezekiel hated that he couldn't help his sister. He had helplessly been thrown aside by whoever it was that took Maeve and he couldn't so much as put up a fight.

"She's given up, Elijah. If it happens──I hope it doesn't──but if it does, she won't fight. She won't put up a fight. I don't think there's any fight left in her."

Elijah hid his worry and fear well. "I'll find her, Ezekiel. Don't worry." Elijah told him and he stepped outside the house before he sped away.

"Maeve has to die," echoed ominously through the air, the words lingering like a noxious gas. Maeve's heart pounded in her chest as her eyes fluttered open, the world slowly ebbing into focus. She loathed the voice that belonged to that cold, callous proclamation, one she had never imagined she would hear from Esther, a woman she always considered an ally.

As Maeve regained consciousness, the flickering shadows cast by torchlight revealed a chilling sight: they were in a crypt. Damp, decaying walls encased them while an eerie mist curled around their feet, deep within a forgotten forest. She glanced to her left and saw Elena, dressed in clothes torn and stained by their recent struggle, tears streaming down her face.

"You said you wanted to undo the evil that you created," Elena whispered, trying not to stir Alaric awake. "But this...this is just as evil."

Esther stood before them, an unsettling calm radiating from her despite the echoes of hatred that reverberated through her words. She felt as cold as the stones they stood upon; even her eyes seemed void of sympathy or compassion. Esther explained that Alaric would never become what her children had turned into - creatures of darkness and bloodlust. "And when his purpose is served," she added coldly, "he will die."

Maeve gritted her teeth - there was no other option. As fear and anger began coursing through her veins like molten fire, she felt her magic awaken within her; a roaring storm threatening to break free.

"Shut it," Esther spat with disdain. "You are simply a witch blessed by a Goddess who is no better than the devil." Tension vibrated through the air like static electricity as Elena tried to reason with Esther. But Esther would hear none of it; she was determined to rid the world of vampires, even at the expense of so-called "innocents."

A twig snapped, shattering the silence. Turning their heads, Maeve and Esther saw Matt and Jeremy approach with crossbows in their hands - their eyes full of determination.

"You fools," sneered Esther as she magically forced them to aim their crossbows at each other. "Choosing to defend creatures that will kill you without hesitation."

Bound by the spell, unable to move or speak, Matt and Jeremy could only exchange fearful glances. As Esther prepared her final act to end Maeve's life, a chilling realization set in: this was a life-or-death struggle for both the living and undead. If they couldn't stop Esther now, nobody could.

Moonlight seeped through the dense forest, casting eerie shadows on the group gathered in the clearing. Esther stared at Maeve with an icy resolve. Her once soft eyes now burned with rage as she hissed, "Maeve, this is where I shall mark your end." Drawing out an ornate dagger etched with ancient runes, she prepared to strike.

Maeve stood her ground without flinching. With a subtle flick of her wrist, the dagger sailed away harmlessly into the darkness. Her laughter echoed through the woods, ringing with arrogance and disdain. "You really believe I can be killed that easily? How foolish of you," Maeve taunted, her posture, appearance changing noticeably.

Her wicked grin sent a chill down Elena's spine. Jeremy and Matt exchanged uneasy glances while the air grew colder around them.

Maeve's entire demeanor shifted in an instance – her head held high, she stared down her adversary with newfound confidence. Her once-brown eyes flashed crimson, now tinged with an unsettling golden glow. She bared her fangs like a predator preparing to strike its prey.

"Esther," Maeve sneered, power radiating from every fiber of her being, "despite the warnings, you sought to kill me? I am Serene Witch. Queen of all witches! My bloodline traces back to when yours wasn't even born. Show me respect!"

As she raised her hand imperiously, Esther found herself forced to kneel by some unseen force – pain lancing through her like a white-hot blade as her control over her own magic began to falter.

The very trees seemed to bow in submission as fierce gales swept across the battlefield. Whispers of spirits caught up in the struggle echoed through the woods – each desperately trying to bolster Esther as she battled the Serene Witch.

Maeve's fury took corporeal form through torrents of magic, her face a stoic mask amidst the thrashing winds. The force of her power lifted Esther off the ground, but the frenetic energy flowing through her could no longer be contained. Maeve's hands glowed an ominous red, igniting the pentagram drawn to extinguish her unnatural life.

Panicked, onlookers scrambled to retreat from the surging inferno that threatened to consume them all. The roaring fire bathed their faces with demonic light as they watched powerless. With one final convulsion of energy and a sound like thunderclap, Maeve's ironically serene form fell lifelessly to scorched earth below.

As flames twisted skyward and ash swirled in their wake, Elena whispered hoarsely to Jeremy who stood beside her, "What have we done?" He shook his head grimly while Matt gazed despairingly upon the havoc wrought by their own hands.

In the aftermath of Maeve's defeat, questions weighed heavily on them. Esther had fallen dead as well from a stab wound caused by Alaric who had awoken now.

"What happened?" he asked them all but neither could explain anything properly.

A loud yell of Maeve's name drew their attention away from the lifeless body of the hybrid to the source. Elijah Mikaelson sped through the thick lining of the woods to the pentagram. He ignored the wide eyed gazes on him and Maeve and knelt down to lift her up by her shoulder. He listened for even a single heartbeat but he was met with a deadly silence.

"No." cried out Elijah in a soft tone. Gently his hand trembling as he reached out to touch Maeve's cold cheek.

"Elijah?" he heard Klaus call him but he didn't dare pry his eyes away from Maeve.

He could distantly make out the conversation Klaus held with Elena and the two other boys standing around.

"Your mother tried to kill her and then...Maeve fought back but──something was different. Her eyes, they...they were red and golden." Jeremy stuttered out. "She's okay right? She's not dead." He whimpered. Jeremy ignored Elena's hand on his and went to the other side of Elijah. He held Maeve's hand in his. Her skin felt cold against his palm.

"I'll take her back to the mansion. She's alright. She just needs rest." said Elijah denying the other possibility. He picked up Maeve in his arms and sped into the night.

"Maeve!" Caroline sped in joining them all. She nervously looked around the place to find her.

"She's dead, Caroline." Klaus told her attempting to sound cold and indifferent but failed miserably when his voice broke before a string of incoherent sounds followed after. He lifted up his mother's body and sped after his brother leaving the Mystic Falls gang to their own devices.

"Why her?" whimpered Caroline. "She didn't deserve it."