Roars of laughter and cheers came through the phone's speaker. Maeve giggled to herself, a hand pressed to her temple.

"This is fantastic! Awesome! Beautiful! Lovely!" yelled out Ezekiel over the call. The roars of laughter was then backed my Marcel and Diego simultaneously shouting with their glasses of scotch raised in the air. The small dining room inside the Abattoir was a place of celebration from the second Maeve announced what she had done.

A phone call to Georgia invited uphevealed, but only for a moment celebrations. Slowly, second by second, as it past, the wrecking feeling of what she had done came to Maeve. She glanced down at her blood stained hands and the flashes of everything she had done came back to her. She could not stop the tears from brimming in her eyes. 

Maeve picked up the phone and brought it closer to her mouth. "Zeke..." shouts slowly died down over the call. She heard a click on the other end of the line. 

"Moony?"

"I made them proud, right? Mom and Dad?" her voice was soft as she tried to control her breathing. Maeve looked up at the ceiling, tears in her eyes. "I made them proud. Right? Did I make them proud?" she repeated herself.

"Of course you did. How dare you think you didn't? You killed the woman who killed them. Separated all of us from one another for nineteen years. They are so proud of you." Maeve nodded her head and pressed her lips into a thin line. "I know right now, you feel bad and that's because you are not a bad person. The adrenaline rush has worn off and you are back to being Moony."

"I just---I feel like ever since I gave up my magic, I feel like I gave up on Mom, you know. She was there with me, with each spell. A reminder of why I am the way I am. Both of my set of parents are here with me but this isn't me, Zeke. This can't be."

Marcel walked around the table, and approached Maeve. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and pulled her close to him. "Its okay to be overwhelmed Maeve." he told her calmly.

"Mars is right, Maeve. You listen to me...okay? I know you feel lost, you are bound to, months you have worked your ass off, deals, travelling, meetings, events...everything in between and still somehow you managed to find time to go to that Taylor Swift concert with me, and attend little Nina's birthday party and go to your college reunion and if that is not all, get an interview published in the Forbes magazine for the women special edition. Maeve you haven't stayed in one place for longer than a day. This feeling is of the hardwork paying off."

Maeve smiled at the sudden shift in her emotions. Her eyes glistened in the light. She felt a light relief in her heart, a change from the heavy weight that had been on it. She had done it. But there still was a small hole in all of the happiness and pride she should be feeling.

"Give me the phone, son." she heard her auntie say on the other end of the line. "Hey Moonpie. Are you feeling okay?" Maeve glanced at Marcel and stepped away from him. She skipped out of the room and into her bedroom. She sat down on her bed and decided to answer,

"I don't know. I should be happy. All the chess pieces are in place. There is no reason to be sad. Yet I feel..."

"A gaping hole?" 

"Yeah." Maeve could not understand what it was that was making her cry. 

"Maeve...did you let yourself grief Elijah?"

"Why is everything about him?" she snapped defensively. "I don't want to date Onyx, Marcel says I am not over Elijah. I feel scattered, you say I am not over Elijah. Why is everything about him?"

"Because Maeve, as much as it hurts, you had very strong, very intense feelings for him. We all could see it. I know it hurt you when he left, but that is the way it is."

"What should I do now? He is here in New Orleans and as much as I can't help myself, I am involved in the Mikaelson drama."

"Good, that's good, maybe it will get you the closure you need."

"Yeah...besides, I think he has moved on."

"HE WHAT? Already?"

"Yeah. Its Hayley, the mother of Nik's child." Amara stayed silent, so she continued, "Earlier, he even tried to defend his actions of going to Katherine when he could have helped me. I don't know, it feels like I liked the way it was when we were in that cabin, you know? I guess that fantasy lived its life and I am not sure if the Elijah here who's trying to fix me, is really the Elijah I met in Mystic Falls."

"YO MEAVE! FIGHT IS ABOUT TO BEGIN." screamed Diego as he flew past the room. 

"Yeah...coming!" she yelled back. "Hey auntie? We'll talk later okay? Honestly, I am fine. Nothing to worry about. I'll call you later."

"Alright honey. Listen, just because you hate what happened with Elijah---does not mean you are not the same as you were. Things can never be the way as they were. Much changes and we do change, not at the core."  said Amara and she ended the call.

Maeve sat on the edge of the bed, pondering over her aunt's words. If Elijah had truly moved on, there was nothing wrong for her to take a chance. If he was truly over her, he wouldn't care. She felt a pang of regret when she realized that she had actually at some subconscious level, constantly spend time thinking about him. The anger she felt towards him had submerged under the mountain of strife for being stronger without the magic and it surfaced with him coming back. It clouded her so intensely that she could not see the person she had become in that time. She had become someone who could not see the beauty in the world anymore. Someone who could not find the good in people anymore. 

Not anymore. Maeve knew that she had let the anger for Elijah, the betrayal she felt due to his actions of going to Katherine instead of coming to her, had rendered her cold. Her actions, however determined and calculated, had some root in that coldness. She had reverted back to survival without even knowing it. 

Only this time, her survival was in a world that treated her as a second class citizen. She had to be strategic, calculated, manipulative and the one who betrayed humorously enough everyone she met, just so she could be the best.

"Suck it up. You are Maeve! And you are going to be fine!" Maeve discarded her phone on the bed and got up. She immediately went to the bathroom to wash the blood off of her hands. Once she was done, she checked her reflection in the mirror. Not long after that she headed into the hallway outside that overlooked the compound where the fight began. 

"Alright everyone, stakes are high." began Marcel who was the judge of the match. "Do you have what it takes to earn a daylight ring?"

"Yes, listen to your judge, jury and executioner, vampires, he is all controlling." Maeve added with a tinge of mockery to her tone. Her dialogue earned snickers and one particularly boisterous laugh from Diego.

"Do you have to?" asked Marcel. Before she could get a word out, someone else spoke instead of her,

"The lady speaks truthfully, King. The lady knows what is talking about." both turned to their right to see who spoke. Onyx made his way over to them with a lopsided grin plastered on his face. His eyes, however were admiring Maeve. 

Marcel leaned closer to Maeve to whisper in her ear, "look your puppy lover is here." Maeve forced a smile on her face and pinched Marcel's hand earning a sharp yelp from him.

"Let the fight begin!" she announced. One burly man was up against a well-built woman. Both fought strategically with one another but it was the woman who triumphed the match.

Every vampire present cheered for her, yelling and clapping. "Well congratulations." said Marcel. Maeve and Onyx joined the cheering by clapping their hands.

Maeve glanced at Diego who silently gestured between her and Marcel. Taking the cue of the signal, she turned to the vampire king, "yo, Mars-boy, you and me? For old times sake?"

"Oh no, not after what happened on Halloween last year."

"Shut up you enjoyed it."

Marcel made a thoughtful expression, "let's recall if I did. You kicked me, bruised me, scratched me, punched me, also drew blood, and when I broke your nose you screamed bloody Mary and your brother---my best friend and your grandfather---threatened to kill me."

"It wasn't that bad. Auntie took your side."

"Because she's the only one who saw the blood on me! Everyone else was too busy looking at your healed nose bone."

"Dude!" interjected Onyx, "you broke her nose? Not cool."

"See? Thankyou Onyx."

"You're welcome. Never disrespect a lady, Marcel. Never."

"Then you fight her." Marcel suggested. "Because I am never fighting her again."

"Stop being such a wuss. It was our first fight."

"It was not. You were hitting me like it was personal. Honestly I'm grateful there were no sticks involved or you would have killed me."

"It's possible that I was made because you ate the last of the cheesecake." Maeve revealed while scratching the back of her neck and avoiding looking at Marcel.

"No wonder they call you crazy."

"If it's alright, I'll fight you." Onyx offered. Maeve looked at him slightly surprised that he would even consider the idea.

"Really?" she asked hoping he would reconsider.

"Yeah. As long as you don't mind it getting dirty."

"Bring it on." She challenged him. Onyx puts his hand forth for Maeve to take and guides her into the compound.

The two stand facing each other waiting for Marcel to signal the start. "Give these two some space, one is crazy and the other brutal. Alright let the fight begin."

Maeve's movements were fluid, a blend of predatory instinct and honed skill. Onyx, no stranger to the art of combat, countered with a calculated precision. Each strike, parry, and dodge was a declaration, a silent conversation in the language of combat.

Maeve lunged forward, her speed unmatched, aiming for Onyx's midsection. Onyx sidestepped with a dancer's grace, his dark eyes never leaving Maeve's. He countered with a swift kick, but Maeve twisted in mid-air, avoiding the blow.

Their proximity fueled the tension. Maeve could feel the heat radiating from Onyx's body, his presence intoxicating. Onyx, in turn, could sense Maeve's every move before it happened, an intricate dance of anticipation.

As Maeve went for a low sweep, Onyx caught her leg, their eyes locking in a silent challenge. Maeve smirked, a daring glint in her golden eyes. With a swift motion, she flipped backward, using her free leg to deliver a powerful kick to Onyx's chest.

Onyx, undeterred, closed the distance with a speed that belied his size. Maeve met his advance with a series of rapid strikes, her fists a blur. Onyx blocked and countered with a predatory grin, his movements as smooth as silk.

Their bodies collided when in a sudden move Onyx had her pinned between him and the pillar, a jolt of electricity passing between them. Maeve could feel the heat of Onyx's breath on her neck as they grappled.

Maeve's breath hitched in her throat. Slowly her pounding heartbeat slowed down by a single beat per minute. She gazes into Onyx's eyes that burnt into hers.

His right hand held both her hands in front of her, to her chest, his left rested flat on the pillar's edge right next to her head. The world blurred out of focus as both kept gazing into each other's eyes. It didn't matter who had won or who cheated. It was that feeling that erupted between them, being in that position that mattered.

A throat cleared nearby forcing them out of the dream state. Onyx pulled away from her, but his eyes never left Maeve. She looked down at the floor before she looked up, but turned away from Onyx to see who had interrupted their moment.

Her eyes widened and she tried hard not to show her disbelief and shock in seeing the two brothers, both with their eyes glued to her for different reasons.

"Are we interrupting something?" asked Klaus.

"What can we do for you two?" asked Marcel relieving Maeve of having to answer.

"The girl. Where is she?" asked Elijah tearing away his eyes, with great difficulty, away from Maeve.

"Who are you asking about?" Marcel inquired acting oblivious.

"We are here for the girl. Give her to us...or we kill everyone here." Elijah repeated. It was clear in his tone that he was losing his patience or perhaps was on the edge with irritation of how the night had been passing for him. No one could ever tell.

"You two got a lot of nerve coming to my home and making demands." Marcel spoke arrogantly.

"Your home is it?" Klaus mused glancing up at Marcel.

"The girl..." Elijah said in a raised tone, "I will not ask again." Maeve felt jealousy and a weird pit form in her stomach hearing Elijah be threateningly protective about someone.

"I assume you're talking about Hayley." Marcel said. Maeve turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. She didn't think Marcel would figure things out. "Yay high, dark hair, bitchy attitude? Who is she anyway?" 

"She's an old friend." Klaus responded quickly. "You know how sentimental I am about old friends."

"Well, I ain't got her and before you start whining, I did pay her a visit. I was feeling nostalgic. So I paid a visit to the plantation house, where I used to be a slave, and imagine my surprise when I realised that the original family of Vampires had taken up residence. Did you know about this Maeve?" 

Oh boy! Maeve thought to herself. "I did, so?" she asked.

"That girl Hayley answered the door. We said our hellos and that was it. You don't believe me look around. Hell I'll help you find her. But the question I'd ask is, if Hayley isn't here, where is she?"

The crowd dispered after the short interaction with just the original brothers, Maeve, Onyx left in the compound. The tension was thick, Onyx had nothing to say he decided to take leave as well.

"Maeve, I should go."

"No. Stay." she said earning a shocked look from Onyx. "We have to go over the meeting in Italy tomorrow remember? You're coming right?" her tone became soft and frail as she asked if he really intended to come along.

"I'll go wherever you want me to be." he replied making Maeve smile.

"Then stay. Just a while and we can rehearse our bit."

"I'll be upstairs in the study. Scotch?"

"Yep." They smiled at each other one last time before Onyx made his way up the stairs and vanished into the hallway above.

She turned around once again to look at the two originals who sat on the bench calmly watching her.

"Cut it out. Stop staring at me with those weird eyes."

"It's just amusing to see that a kingdom that banished werewolves decades ago is so welcoming and accepting of Lycans." said Elijah. "It is clear that they are far worse enemies than Werewolves."

Maeve glared at him with a challenge. "You see Elijah, I liked you better when you were in the box." Marcel answered instead of Maeve. "Lycan community, only the Kalons and Bloodcrest are welcome in my kingdom, my city. Rest are shown the way out immediately."

"Old friends, we all are." Maeve added with a grin. She glanced at Elijah one last time before she averted her eyes to speak to Marcel.

"Whom did you get for the spell?" she inquired with him.

"Why couldn't she have done the spell?" a sharp tone of voice inquired from behind both of them. Maeve bent on the back to a side to glance at who spoke.

She smiled when she recognised the person, "oh my dearest Sabine...how lovely." Maeve mocked and spread open her arms in a welcoming gesture.

"Why couldn't she have done the spell? All powerful and all, isn't she?"

Maeve chuckled at her words. She prowled to her slowly approaching, "you see, there is something so sinisterly satisfying in bossing you lot that I just can't help myself."

"Do the spell Sabine." Marcel instructed interrupting the intense staring between the witch and Maeve.

Sabine reluctantly moved as the vampires guided her. On a table, aside in the compound, the required materials set appropriately. She sat at the table. At first she ran her hands over the map and then gestured at Klaus to drop a few drops of his blood on the map.

Only a minute passed when Sabine declared, "She's in the Bayou, deep in it." the two brothers glanced at each other confused. "If she's there, she's probably out looking for her family. That's where the banished werewolves are."

"Oh boy." Maeve mumbled under her breath.

"Do you know something?" asked Klaus cautiously glancing at her.

"I'm willing to bet so much that the conversation I had just yesterday morning with a certain someone about an undeserving other someone and this Bayou trip has that undeserving someone in common." she cryptically thought out loud.

"Do we know who this undeserving someone is?" Elijah asked her.

Maeve looked at him for a second before she turned to Klaus, "this one knows that someone...avengefully." that word itself was enough for Klaus to decode whom Maeve hinted at.

"We should go." he immediately announced already on his feet to leave.

"I'll come...maybe I could get a few punches in before you deliver the final blow." she looked over at Elijah, "maybe this time Nik does get to hit the home run."

The bayou was a quiet part of the city bordering it.

"We should head south by the river." Elijah's tone was more instructive than suggestive making Maeve roll her eyes.

"You seem quite determined to find the little wolf." Klaus bemused. Maeve felt a pang of hurt in her heart hearing Klaus say those words.

"If I'm moving too fast for you, Niklaus, you're welcome to wait in the car. Do be certain to leave the windows down." Elijah said pacing ahead further into the woods. 

"Ah, so I've touched a nerve. You've begun to admire the girl. Perhaps, that's why you've been barking orders since your return hoping to impress Hayley by assuming the role of family patriach." Klaus assumed. Elijah stopped in his tracks and turned to look at his brother. Maeve stood next to him silently. She didn't know what to make of the situation and Klaus' words. Instead, she focused on finding a scent. She moved around away from the two bickering siblings to stop in front of a car.

"If you insist on treating her like a walking incubator, then that's your mistake." 

"Found the truck!" she announced trying to deter away from the conversation the brothers were having.

"And whose truck is this? You both seem to already hold the answer, so do I get to know it or is it for your eyes and ears only?" Elijah asked sarcasm evident in his words.

"Tyler Lockwood." Klaus said.

"And what would your little hybrid sidekick from Mystic Falls have any interest in Hayley?" Elijah asked.

"Former lovers, partners in crime. Whatever you see fit." Maeve coldly responded making Klaus scowl at her. "What? You know I'm right. He's the Eve to you Adam. Born from a rib, born from your blood." she humoured the original hybrid.

"He also said wants revenge because I went after his girl."

"Why do I suspect this is the least of your offences?" Elijah quizzed.

"Back when I had the means to sire hybrids, he was my first, although I didn't give him much choice in that matter." He climbed up the car and sniffed a blanket.

"He was loyal in the beginning, but he grew insubordinate, turned my hybrids against me. I couldn't have that. So I massacred the lot of them. Tyler ran like a coward before I could finish him off."

"Anything else you need to share?"

"He killed his mother." Maeve added a smirk. 

"You killed his mother. Wonderful."

"He needed to be taught a lesson." Klaus justified his actions.

"And what lesson will you have taught, Niklaus, if he retaliates by harming Hayley?" Elijah asked.

"Enough both of you." Maeve shouted angrily. "If you two are done fiddling with words, we need to find Tyler. Elijah, for the love of all things, get that stick off your ass and climb off the high horse. You are just like him. The only difference is, you talk first and then kill, he does the opposite of that. Get off."

"Maeve, his actions---"

"Have shit to do with Tyler's. Everyone makes a choice. I did, he did, you did. Everyone makes choices and they are to be held responsible. He made a choice, he deemed it fit. Tyler's choice was what many call stupidity."

Elijah shifted his position, facing her completely. He didn't believe his ears as he heard Maeve defend Klaus's actions, the way she was. Had she really been like this always? was a question he was left with.

"You've changed. Maeve would never have defended---"

Maeve scoffed darkly at his words. "You don't get to judge me Elijah especially because I know that you know that I know what I know."

She didn't wait for any more comments from the brothers and wandered off into the bayou. Elijah turned to Klaus, an angered expression marred on his face.

"Don't look at me." said Klaus raising a single brow and widening his eyes, almost condescendingly.

"Why did you have to say those words?"

"Well, you do care about Hayley."

"As the mother of my niece."

Klaus hummed in response. "I do not know what happened between you and Maeve. Not entirely anyway---clear it with her." he sped off on the same path as Maeve, this time determined to get the complete story as the search for Hayley progressed.

Within a few seconds time he found Maeve aimlessly wandering with her head constantly turning in every way possible to catch onto the slightest movement.

"Maeve." he called out her name. Maeve turned around to look over at him.

"Found anything?" she asked him.

"Nothing yet. So, while we try to locate Hayley, what happened back there with Elijah?"

"He broke up with me. You knew he was going to do that, why are you asking me what happened?"

"Because your anger is frankly too much for a simple break up." he enunciated in a mocking tone.

Maeve stopped in her track and took in a long breath. "Let it go, Nik. It's not important."

"It is if you are being a menace to yourself and the rest of us. Maeve, talk to me." Klaus acted almost uncharacteristically trying to pry information out of Maeve. "Maeve...talk!"

"He left me!" screamed out loud Maeve. "I needed him the most and he left me. I was there when Finn died, I was there helping him kill you, I was there when your mother was trying to kill you but he left when I needed him the most." she sucked in harsh breaths.

"Zeke, Maverick, Caroline, all stayed. You stayed, so did Rebekah and Kol, why couldn't he? He believed the words of my other side and chose to see only the negative side of that relationship──should I even call it that?" She scoffed darkly. "It was more like a fling. Over within months. He ended it. I was there whenever he needed me, but he left the first time things got tough. He promised to never let me fall but he did just that saying that he was taking away the chances of it happening by ending things."

Maeve sniffled looking away, missing out on the fact that Klaus had turned his head the other way and noticed Elijah standing a few feet away listening to her. "It was Kol who sat outside the door of my room inside that dingy apartment where I trapped myself because I didn't want to hurt anyone. He told me these elaborate stories of the years you've been on earth. Rebekah would crack the door open only slightly...just enough to slip a plate of food for me until she went after the cure. You checked up on me almost every day, screaming scolding to let you in so you could help me. WHERE WAS HE?" She laughed dryly, her grief pouring out of every sound. "Did he tell you where he was?"

Klaus looked into her eyes even more stiffly. He did not know where Elijah had been but only had an inkling. "He was with Katherine."

Maeve's heart burnt and clenched in her chest when she said it out loud. "I had to learn about it from an emotionless Elena. You might say he wouldn't do it but look around... he's moved on quite easily. I don't care if he kissed her or he slept with her──I don't care if he intends on pursuing Hayley. Right now the only reason I even have a single ounce of worry for Hayley is because she is carrying your child. You! Niklaus Mikaelson, are one of the handful of people that I care about other than those I share blood with and a pack bond." declared Maeve sharply. She wiped away the unshed tears that collected in the corner of her eyes and dusted them off.

"My tears are too precious to waste on your cowardly brother." saying so Maeve stormed off looking around the bayou to trace either Tyler or Hayley.