As Klaus received Lucien's information and gathered his army to make his way to the Davilla Estate. Elijah escorted his date, Katherine, who was wearing an elegant dress, inside.
After interacting with some of the guests, Katherine pulled him to the dance floor with a grin, "Enough talking, it's time you showed me your moves."
"My moves? This isn't a nightclub," said Elijah bemusedly.
"True, remind me to take you to one later, so I can show you how to really live," said Katherine joyfully as she twirled.
When the music finally changed to a slow dance, they found themselves staring at one another as they moved together.
"You know, I've never forgotten that night back in New York," said Katherine, reminiscently.
"Then why did you leave?" asked Elijah.
"You know why," said Katherine disdainfully.
"I would have protected you," said Elijah, giving her hand a reaffirming squeeze.
"You would have tried," said Katherine somberly, not taking his assurance to heart as she placed her head on his chest to hide her sneer.
And before he could say more, he clocked Tristan and his group mingling in the back.
He shouldn't be surprised to see them here; this is their kind of event.
"Who did you say was the host?" asked Elijah, feeling something off upon spotting the cloaked witches and Aya walking over to Tristan.
"Some new rich guy in town, why?" asked Katherine innocently.
.
"We just got word the Slayer team is down," Aya reported.
"Then we shouldn't waste any more time; let the festivities commence," said Tristan, excusing himself from his guests.
Many of whom were of the rich and powerful in the nearby areas, who were invited to bear witness to their claims, with hopes of fostering a stronger base from which to start his new conquest.
And right on schedule, Elijah came to confront them with Katherine trailing behind.
"Elijah, don't," Katherine pleaded.
"Don't worry, stay behind me, nothing will happen," said Elijah confidently, strolling up to Tristan's and Aya's group.
"Elijah, it has been a long time," Tristan greeted.
"I don't know what you're expecting coming here, but I warn you now, if I catch you stepping even one foot out of line, I will end you all myself," Elijah threatened.
"Now, now, Elijah, that's no way to greet old friends, where are your manners?" Tristan tutted, presenting a near sneer on his otherwise usual stoic face.
"He's long since abandoned such things," rebutted Aya, bringing up uncomfortable memories between them.
"Aya, still playing with death, I see," Elijah greeted sharply.
"Better than running from it," Aya quipped back.
"Would you like me to provide it?" asked Elijah, equally annoyed.
"There's no need for this to become vulgar; we have what we want already," said Tristan.
Elijah gave him a questioning look, "And what is that?"
"You," answered Tristan as Elijah was stabbed from behind.
His eyes went wide with shock as Katherine leaned over to whisper in his ear with a smirk, "You never learn, do you, Elijah?" Allowing his body to fall.
"Excellent work, my dear, take him to the back and let the Sisters have him," ordered Tristan.
When suddenly, Klaus threw open the front doors with his hybrid army behind him, smirking, "A party in my city, and you didn't even invite me?"
Losing his smirk the instant his eyes landed on a petrified Katherine standing over Elijah's fallen form with a stake in his back.
"Kill them," ordered Klaus, and his army attacked as he sped over, catching Katherine by the throat mid retreat with four hybrids by his side.
"Use the stakes," said Tristan as Aya intercepted an attack, ripping a hybrid's heart out while the witches and others fought.
His group then took out similar stakes to the one in Elijah's back and struck, putting a couple more hybrids down.
"I see you tricked my foolish brother once again," said Klaus, enjoying her fear as the normal people around him screamed for their lives while the vampires and hybrids fought.
"Please, Klaus, it wasn't me, it was the Strix, they did this," Katherine tearfully wheezed.
"Enough!" yelled Klaus, "I grow tired of this, and I grow tired of you," he said, his hybrid face showing before viciously biting into her neck and tearing it out, dropping her soon-to-be corpse unceremoniously.
"Should I attack?" asked Aya, taking out a stake while eyeing Klaus as their front line members were slowly being dismantled.
But the decision was made for them when Klaus removed the stake from Elijah. One of their vampires moved from behind to intercept and stop him, but the four hybrids next to him instantly reacted, tearing the poor fool apart to shreds.
"We can't fight this," said one of their group members.
"Agreed, retreat," said Tristan, swiftly turning around and going for the back exit.
"Welcome back brother," said Klaus.
Elijah slowly got to his feet, shaking his head. "Where is she?"
"Dead," said Klaus, drawing his eyes down to her.
Elijah stared for a moment, noting the blood dripping from his brother's mouth and the gaping wound in her neck, then took a look around at everything happening, "Where's Tristan and Aya?"
"Fleeing towards the back…" said Klaus, and Elijah was gone. "...like the rats they are."
Halfway there, Elijah rubbed his arm painfully, lifting his sleeve to see a mark of some kind in the shape of a fanged monkey skull, the same one that could be found carved on any of the stakes.
Shaking his head, vamp face coming out unintentionally, he lost it as an enemy attacked. Taking the hit, Elijah caught the arm with the next strike and began to beat him mercilessly into the ground before stepping on him and tearing off his head.
His mind swelling with dopamine, Elijah gave up the chase for the next kill, charging the nearest person he could get his hands on, which turned out to be a normal person as he ran up on them and fiercely bit, draining them dry, before seeking out another.
An unfortunate hybrid, unaware of the danger, made the mistake of crossing his path and fell like all the others.
.
Off to the side, a group of vampires gathered while the few witches posted there came to their aid, bringing multiple hybrids to heel for the slaughter as they clutched their heads in agony, incapable of fighting back.
Reaching the exit, Tristan's group went for the doors leading out when they were ambushed by a group of hybrids jumping down from above. The witches struck first, flinging most of them away, then Aya attacked, pushing one back before staking him, while the others did their best to hold them off.
One of their men finally got lucky, stabbing another hybrid in the chest while two went after Tristan.
The witches, otherwise occupied with struggles of their own, could do nothing for him as he fought them both off, kicking one of them back long enough to stake the other when Aya arrived, ripping the heart out of the back of the last one.
"Many have already fallen," said Aya somberly at the death of their long-time companions.
Nothing to say, Tristan adjusted his suit as they opened the doors and entered the hall. Aya spun around as another group of hybrids attacked, just as the witches blew them away with their magic, then chanted a spell to seal the doors with an invisible barrier.
"That won't last long," informed one of the witches.
"Then let's not waste it," said Tristan as they quickly walked down the hall, making sure the slower witches kept pace.
They came to a halt when a group of vampires came running towards them.
"The building's been surrounded! We couldn't hold them back," said one of the vampires running at them, followed by more hybrids from behind.
"Sisters! Together!" shouted one of the witches, and they pooled their magics and synced their chants, sending out a wave of destruction towards the hybrids, the entire hall bursting apart as it rolled towards them, tearing them and everything else apart that it passed, leaving nothing but pieces behind.
"Well, that's one way to do it," commented a vamp upon witnessing their power.
"This can't go on," said one of the witches, feeling the strain.
"Not much farther now," said Tristan, carefully moving through the mess.
.
"Elijah! What's going on here!? What is this!?" yelled Klaus, seeing his brother fighting his hybrids.
"He's gone mad, sir, we can't stop him, and he isn't the only one," said a hybrid, pointing out another area where hybrids fought hybrids.
"What do you know?" Klaus asked with a frown.
Narrowly avoiding a hit, Tyler snapped the neck of one of the rabid hybrids before answering from afar, "It's those stakes, they did something!"
"The stakes?" questioned Klaus, recalling how different the one that took down Elijah was, but didn't think much of it at the time. "Bring me one."