Original Vampires, Welcome to New Orleans (The Originals Seasons 1 and 2 Fanfic)

Chapter 13: The Wolf Girl and the Witch

'It's so lovely to finally meet you,' Esther said, now possessing Lenore's body. 'Tell me, do my sons ever acknowledge the good you bring into their lives? After all, it was you that gave them hope. The promise of a child shows us all the possibilities of a future that could be. Children are meant to save us from the worst parts of who we are, a truth that makes my own circumstances all the more tragic, wouldn't you say?'

'I don't pity you, Esther.'

'It's a terrible thing for a mother to fail her child, as you well know... but now I offer you freedom, the gift of a new body, freedom from being a hybrid. I have the ability to return to you all that you have lost, Hayley, to make it so that you can have a family of your own, more children of your own. Wouldn't that be nice?'

'I assume I have the misfortune of speaking to my mother,' Klaus exclaimed, walking in. Esther threw powder in his face, making him stop. 'You hide behind your spells like a coward,' he spat.

'I did not come here to wage war.' Elijah walked into the room next, as did I, but the overhead light exploded in a shower of sparks, stopping the two of us in our tracks.

'Everything you do is an act of war,' Elijah replied. 'If you touch her, so help me -'

'Hayley is free to go. I've spoken my piece, she knows why I'm here,' Esther replied. 'I have come to heal our family, Elijah.'

'Well, that's a grim sentiment coming from you,' I spoke. 'Go. Now.' Hayley left.

'My intent was never to harm, only to heal,' Esther exclaimed as another overhead light shattered in a shower of sparks, 'as I have already healed your brothers Finn and Kol. For you, I will undo everything that has been done, thereby giving you a new life, one without the vampire curse that I inflicted upon you.' Another light shattered, and the building began to rock and shake. 'Ask Hayley to share with you my loving proposition.'

'You're a fool if you think we'll accept anything you offer,' Klaus snarled.

'Oh, you are wrong, Niklaus,' Esther replied. 'There will come a time, my darling, when you will beg for it!'

Much later in the evening...

'Now, you must have known they would never give in without a fight,' Finn said to Esther.

'Of course. Tonight was not an ultimatum. It was an invitation. Just want to get them thinking. After all, only those who know they are lost will ask to be found.'

'They're defiant by nature, and they've grown very strong. How do you expect to show them the error of their ways?' Esther turned to Finn.

'I will systematically destroy everything they hold dear. I've already taken the wolves from Niklaus and made them my own. It's time now to focus on the prodigal son Marcel and and his small nest of vampires across the river. Now that we have cleansed the Quarter of his kind, perhaps it's time to turn our attention to the outskirts of our beautiful home. We will take their pride, their joy, their love. We will lay it all to ruin, and when they're at their lowest point, in their deepest despair, they will have no choice but to beg me to release them from their pain. And because I love them, I will.'