Chapter Text
When the Saints Went for a Walk;
To live, to breathe, to love, to fall in love, to hate, to forgive, to struggle, to fight, to lose, to win, and to die…
Death was a part of life.
Death wasn't the opposite of life, it was life itself. Because his mother and stepfather couldn't accept this, he had become a monster he should never have been. He had become a man he shouldn't have been, and lived a long life. He had loved. He had hated. He had trusted, been betrayed, and betrayed.
Niklaus Mikaelson was himself. But at the same time, he wasn't. He was the shadow of the man he once was. And the man he once was the shadow of his current self.
He was both good and evil.
After living like a monster, he would die like a saint. Only his family would see him as a saint. The rest of the world would rejoice at being rid of a monster.
The place he arrived at was the bench in the square. The bench where he and Elijah always had emotional conversations. That bank was where Hope first accepted her existence.
It was the same place where he won and lost his daughter…
He glanced briefly at the white oak stake in his hand. It would soon be plunged into his heart, turning him to ashes. He was exactly 1046 years old. And he was dying. It was too late to die. But he felt it was too early. He wanted to die. But… he had lost everything. He was about to lose his most precious possession.
Finn was dead. Henrik. He'd had a terrible relationship with Aurora. He'd lost Vivianne twice. Caroline, he'd fallen in love with her too late. And Hayley…
Little Wolf was gone.
He had no guide. He felt helpless, alone. And if he didn't die, Hope would die too.
He wouldn't allow that.
He could feel Elijah's approaching footsteps. It wasn't hard to guess his brother's plans, the brother he'd spent a thousand years with. He couldn't do such a wicked thing to Elijah. He was Hope's father. He was the one who had to make sacrifices for her. And… no matter how much he didn't want to admit it, he couldn't entrust Hope to Kol, Freya, or Rebekah.
After Klaus's death, Elijah was the best person to take care of his daughter.
He looked at the full moon in the sky. He and Hayley had never once shared a full moon together. Hope too. The three of them had never shared a full moon together.
Big Bad Wolf,
Little Wolf,
Littlest Wolf…
The three of them could never be a complete family. They couldn't. They could have been the most beautiful family in the world, but their enemies wouldn't allow it.
Hayley had become attached to Elijah because of Klaus's initial mistakes. At first, when Klaus accepted Hope's existence and managed to keep Hayley safe, he wanted a relationship with her. But he didn't want to be one of those parents who were only together for the sake of a baby.
He didn't feel the need to try when Hayley clearly didn't love him. He chose to be with Camille, who understood him and made him feel good.
Camille Eloise O'Connell…
She wasn't the love of his life. But she was the truest love he had ever experienced. He wanted to be a good person for Caroline. He wanted to be worthy of her. He didn't want to change, but he wanted Caroline. For Camille… he had changed. Without even realizing it.
Camille had made him feel good just by talking to him, by loving him. Amidst all the chaos, war, pain, and struggle, he had fallen in love. He had become attached. He had loved her so much that losing her would hurt him, yet even hearing her voice years later would soothe him.
Camille was, for him, a woman he would never forget for centuries.
I'll tell you I love you tomorrow…
Her words echoed in his mind. That tomorrow never came.
She would have been a wonderful stepmother to Hope. A very good friend to Hayley. And a wonderful wife to him…
They probably wouldn't be married now if he were alive. It would take them at least a hundred years to get married.
A slight smile flickered across his lips as he dreamt of his never-to-be-married wedding. The sadness didn't leave his eyes. Even his smile was bittersweet.
“Hello, brother,” he whispered to Elijah, who sat down beside him.
“Niklaus,” Elijah greeted him. His eyes briefly flicked to the white oak stake in his hand. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Klaus said without hesitation. “I must make this sacrifice for my daughter.”
He turned his head. He looked into Elijah's hazel eyes. “When I die…”
Elijah's breath caught slightly in his throat. “My daughter is in your care. No one else can protect her. And…” it was hard to accept. But it was the truth.
“You are her second father. She will be an orphan when her mother and father die. But thanks to you, she won’t be alone.”
Elijah smiled hesitantly. “I will protect her more than my own life. I will love her in your place, in Hayley’s place too. I promise, brother, Hope will grow up to be the safest, most loved, most valued girl in this world.”
Elijah always kept his promises. Especially when it came to family.
“A thousand years…” Elijah whispered after a short silence. “A thousand years spent with you.” It was a long time. Longer than anyone could ever reach. But… it felt short now. He wanted more. He needed more. After a thousand years of suffering, just when it was finally time for happiness, he was losing everything.
“I was honored to walk this path with you, brother. You were the best companion I could ever have.”
“So were you, Elijah,” Klaus said without hesitation. “I couldn’t imagine anyone else as my companion…”
He hesitated briefly. But… after that, it was death. “If there is no life after death, only emptiness… I want to say this. You weren’t just a brother to me. You were like a father, a mountain I could rely on. Until that incident in Mystic Falls, I always trusted you. And after that… I experienced the pain of not being able to trust you for the first time. It hurt me so much. Hope… brought not only hope but also trust with her. She made me trust you again.”
Elijah's eyes closed in regret. "I didn't intend to kill you," he said, his voice not concealing his remorse. "My intention was for you to confess where you put our siblings, just as you did then. Because even though you were unstable at the time, I knew you loved our family in your own way. You couldn't throw them into the ocean. The Bennett witch thought we would kill you. But the spell was only a drying spell. It wasn't part of my plans for you to be in such a dangerous situation that a single drop of blood couldn't solve it."
Klaus knew the spell was a drying spell. He understood when Elijah's hand gripped his chest. Even the original witch couldn't destroy them without the white oak. No matter how powerful, a Bennett witch couldn't do that. He just... thought Elijah's intention that night was to dry him up and hide him in a wine cellar for centuries. It was relieving to learn that all those events were a theatrical performance, that they weren't real.
It was like being freed from a burden he didn't know he carried. He slowly rose to his feet. Elijah rose with him. His older brother, always a few centimeters taller than him, wore a suit. This time, his impeccable appearance was blemished. His shirt was wrinkled, his jacket dusty. The knees of his fabric trousers were creased. His perfectly styled hair was disheveled. But worst of all were his weary eyes. The noble original, unwearied by a thousand years, was tired from a single week.
“Brother…” he said after a long time. How long had it been since he’d called him brother so sincerely? The time he said goodbye to Elijah? The time Marcel bit them, when they almost died? The conversation they had on the balcony? Or the conversation they had when their paths were about to diverge because of Hollow? The memories were hazy. All he remembered was hugging his brother in a heartfelt confrontation. It had felt good. He had felt braver. And right now, he desperately needed courage.
When he wrapped his arms around his brother, his strong, powerful arms clung tightly to his body. As Elijah held him tightly, as if unwilling to let go, a few tears streamed down Klaus's face. He had last cried for Hayley. He had shed tears for her. Before that, for Camille…
He didn't want to die. He wanted to live, to see Hope grow up, to be a strong, brave woman, just like her mother. He wanted to run together under a full moon, drink whiskey in New Orleans, dance at a ball. He wanted to dance, to have fun, to travel the world with her. He wanted to see her graduate from that stupid school. He wanted to see Freya become a mother, to see Rebekah have a happy family when she became human. He wanted to watch Marcel become a great king, to see Kol happy with Davina.
But he couldn't!
He had to die. Because Hollow existed. He had to get rid of it, he had to keep Hope safe. “It’s an honor to be your brother, Elijah Mikaelson,” he whispered as he pulled back.
Elijah didn’t want to let go. But no matter how much he avoided it, he knew what was going to happen. He was going to lose. His thousand-year-old companion, his brother, his best friend…
And that truth was too painful.
Klaus took a deep breath, gathered all his courage, and aligned the white oak with his heart. “I hope you find peace, brother,” Elijah said. His eyes were filled with tears. He was on the verge of crying. But he didn’t want the last thing Klaus saw to be his tears. A pained smile played on his lips. He looked at his brother with a gaze filled with love, longing, understanding, and countless other emotions.
Klaus felt the same way. A smile played on his lips. The most bitter, most sorrowful smile he had ever had in his life. He wanted Elijah to see a smile, not pain, as he died. He didn’t want him to be sad when he remembered him. He offered his gratitude, love, longing, and all the unnamed emotions to his brother with his eyes.
He plunged the white oak into his heart instantly. His breath was instantly cut off, and his skin rapidly turned gray. Instead of his body bursting into flames and quickly disappearing, it slowly faded from the world through the Hollow Face. Each piece of her body rose to the air like ashes, slowly destroying her. The last thing she saw as the wind scattered her ashes across New Orleans was Elijah's bitter smile.
As the ashes drifted away, as her sister's body vanished from before her, Elijah gave up trying to stay strong.
Tears streamed down his face, and a cry of anguish escaped his lips. His legs were too weak to support him, his body too frail to stand. His screams echoed through the streets of New Orleans as he collapsed to his knees. It wasn't like the scream he'd let out when Hayley died. These were heart-wrenching, agonizing screams that shattered the heart of anyone who heard them.
The entire city of New Orleans listened to her cries. The Mikaelson family rushed to the square at the sound of her cries. What they saw was Elijah crying in anguish on the ground, and Klaus's ashes scattering in the sky.
“No!” Rebekah whispered. She shook her head, unwilling to accept it. “No NO NO NO!”
Freya, losing her strength, leaned on Keelin beside her for support. Tears streamed down her face as she stood there, too shocked to react.
Kol shook his head rapidly, turning away as if unwilling to accept the truth. “Did you cast one of those stupid dream spells, Davina? This one isn’t nice. It’s a complete nightmare. Don’t ever cast that spell on me again!” he said to his wife. Davina looked at her husband with teary eyes. She didn’t dare say anything.
Marcel glanced briefly at Rebekah, who stood beside him, denying the truth. Then to the devastated Elijah. Elijah Mikaelson had always been so stoic. Almost nothing could ever break him like this. Not even Hayley's death had shattered him. But now he lay on the ground like a weak man, devastated by grief.
Marcel hadn't prepared to see the man he'd considered his uncle since childhood fall apart like this. Nor had he prepared for his father's departure. They had resolved most of their issues. Yes. But it wasn't completely resolved. They hadn't reconciled as father and son. Klaus had forgiven him as Rebekah's lover. Not as his son. Not for bringing Mikael to the city, not for being a prisoner for five years, not for biting his brothers.
He had imagined it would take centuries for them to reconcile as immortal father and son. This thing between them would continue until one of them got tired of it, and then they would confront each other. First they would fight, then they would reconcile. That's how he'd always imagined it.
Now that chance for reconciliation would never come. His father was dead. Without forgiving him. Without ever telling him how much he loved him. How much he missed him…
Hope…
She froze. She didn't look at her family, who were going crazy with grief, nor at her uncle lying in a miserable state on the ground. Her eyes were on the ashes scattered by the wind. She reached out her hands. A black porcelain bowl appeared in her hand, and the ashes flying in the sky quickly filled the bowl. Hope wrapped her arms around the bowl full of ashes. She tightly clutched the last remaining pieces of her father.
“I love you, Dad,” she whispered. “Even though you’re gone.”
There were no words to describe her feelings. A childhood spent incomplete, without a family, losing her mother, and then her father… Being orphaned twice in a short time…
She tightly clutched the ashes of her father, whom she had never known but loved very much. She had learned at age 14 that being loved too much was a curse. Being loved too much meant that those who loved you would sacrifice themselves for you. Hope was a half-child who had grown up watching everyone she loved sacrifice themselves for her.
From then on, she would never love again, nor would she believe anyone who loved her. Because she had tasted the greatest love. Unless it was that great, love would be a lie to her, and great love would mean innocent people sacrificing themselves for her.
Hope Andrea Mikaelson now knew that love was something that destroyed, not healed…
And yet, she loved her family very much.
“Always and Forever… Dad,” she whispered towards the full moon in the sky.