Henrik Niklaus Mikaelson: Reborn as Hope mikaelsons twin

21)"For Family"

Hope was looking at Henrik like she wanted to push him out the window and forget this ever happened. Which was fair, he supposed. If anyone woke him up at 1:30 a.m., he wouldn't hesitate to push them out the window, either.

"I swear I have a good reason to wake you up." Henrik held up his hands in a placating gesture, grinning up at her.

Hope narrowed her eyes. "There better be a good reason, or I won't hesitate to snap your neck." She smiled sweetly, as if she hadn't just threatened to kill her twin.

Henrik chuckled nervously, scared of how much Hope looked like their father when threatening someone.

"Aunt Freya and Vincent found a way to get rid of Inadu." Henrik began, and before Hope could ask any questions, he continued, "But we need to become hybrids for that. To be specific, we need to kill a human, like, right now."

"What" Hope deadpanned, "Henrik, what the hell? You can't just-start from the beginning!"

"Well, like I said, Aunt Freya and Vincent found a foolproof way to get rid of the Hollow permanently, but..."

"Of course there's a but," Hope sighed. "Nothing ever goes our way, does it?" Henrik grinned at her 'I'm so done' attitude. Guess he wasn't the only one told about the various ways things have gone wrong for this family.

"But the spell will take time. Like, 10 years, and obviously the Hollow isn't going to wait for us to complete the spell. So, until the spell is done, Aunt Freya and Vincent will split the Hollow and seal them within us."

"And they can seal her within us because we're tribrids, and our souls can safely harbour an ancient bloodthirsty witch." Hope picked up on what he was trying to say: "That's why we need to become hybrids, right? To activate 2/3 of our potential. Otherwise, we can't harbour the Hollow safely."

There's... another catch." Henrik didn't want to say this, but Hope needed to know everything before deciding to kill a random human.

Hope sighed again but didn't say anything, so Henrik continued, "We won't be able to see each other until the spell is complete. We'll have to make sure we're not in the same country at the same time or else... well, nothing good will happen, that's for sure."

Hope just looked at him. No noise, no movement. For a moment, Henrik was sure she would say no. She would scream, cry, or throw a tantrum. You know, do anything a normal 7-year-old would do when told to kill a random man and stay away from her twin for 10 years. What he didn't expect was for her to say...

"Okay," Hope said," I'll do it. Give me a minute to get dressed."

"Wait-What?" Henrik blurted it out, "Just like that? No tantrum?"

Hope shot him a dirty look at the word tantrum and said, "Look, if doing this means all of us come out of this shitshow alive, then I'm in. I just don't want anyone I care about to die. It's as simple as that."

Henrik was still dazed when Hope slammed the bathroom door. He would have still been staring at the door if Aunt Freya hadn't physically shaken him out of it.

"You okay?" Aunt Freya asked quietly, as if trying not to spook him.

"Yeah, just surprised" Henrik replied. "I thought she would react more...violently, I guess? I mean, I don't want her to be mad, but...

Aunt Freya chuckled, "You're viewing her as a normal 7-year-old, Henrik. I'm sorry to inform you, but neither of you are normal." Aunt Freya paused, as if realising what she said might be offensive. "I meant that in a positive way. The both of you are different, yes, but whether you're good different, or bad different depends on you."

" 'Different' " Henrik scoffed out the word, "That's one way of putting it."

Aunt Freya sighed, "You need to understand, Henrik. After today, you'll have to deal with both a wolf's temper and a witch's arrogance, which is going to be hard. And that is without mentioning a vampire's hunger, which is...a future problem."

Seeing Aunt Freya so exhausted, Henrik tried to lighten the mood: "A witch being arrogant?" Henrik fake gasped, "Perish the thought."

Aunt Freya smacked his head, but she was laughing, so he counted it as a win. "If you had the power to set things on fire with your mind, wouldn't you be arrogant?" Then she sighed as if remembering the original topic of their conversation. "Anyway, Hope is acting exactly as I thought she would. She has always been very family-oriented. I mean, she still believes Elijah is her father, even though you told her straight to her face that he wasn't."

Henrik winced at the reminder of that particular conversation. Henrik had lasted 6 months before exploding at Hope, demanding she explain why she calls Elijah father when they both know he isn't. Henrik had truly thought that argument would make her see reality, but he'd underestimated how desperate Hope was for a father. She still held steadfast to the belief that Elijah was their father.

Aunt Freya continued, "After activating her werewolf side, her temper will be worse, but she will also be more loyal. So either she will explode at her family or she will remain loyal to them, to the idea of family."

Before Henrik could say anything, the bathroom door opened, and Hope walked out, dressed in all black.

"Well?" Hope questioned when neither of them moved, "When are we leaving?"

Aunt Freya cleared her throat and responded, "Right now, actually. Vincent already has two humans tied up at an abandoned farmhouse." Aunt Freya paused. "If it helps, both the humans have committed heinous crimes and deserve to die."

Hope didn't give any indication that she'd heard the last part, and after getting the location and directions, she jumped straight out the window. After sharing a quick glance, they jumped out the window too. Aunt Freya using magic, and Henrik using his dormant werewolf abilities.

By the time they got there, Hope was standing next to Vincent, and he was gesturing to the humans, saying something to her.

"....he killed his own brother because he was jealous of him. I assure you, Hope, they deserve to die."

Vincent looked up when he heard them approach but didn't stop talking. "Now, the full moon is next week, so we need to seal Inadu in you before that. The full moon is the only day when you will be vulnerable due to pain and therefore will be unable to resist Inadu if she tries to possess you. All you two need to do is kill a human and wait for the ritual; leave the rest to us."

With that, Vincent stepped away and gestured to the humans. Henrik went first; since he used to be a hitman and was used to killing, he knew how much force to apply to snap a human neck. He got it done quick and easy and closed his eyes, feeling the effects. He could feel his senses being heightened-not by much, but enough that he could tell. His emotions were heightened too. Every little thing seemed to annoy him. The noise, the lights, the smells. It took him a while to regain control of his emotions, but he did.

Henrik opened his eyes, just in time to see Hope snap the neck of the second human.