Chapter 7: Look Who's Awake

I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING EXCEPT MY OWN IDEAS

With the revelation of her name, Ryson was speechless. He stood there looking at her with his mouth hanging open. Hope started to fidget under his stare until he finally snapped out if. Without warning, he launched himself at Hope and gave her a really big hug. The second that he touched her, their bond settled into place. Hope didn't know what was happening but she could somehow feel the overwhelming joy, protectiveness, and love that this boy had for her. They were so strong that she started to cry with joy just by feeling them.

It took a long time for Ryson to calm down. When he did he stepped back and looked down sheepishly.

"I'm sorry for hugging you like that without your permission. I am just really excited." Ryson said.

"It's okay" Hope replied "But I have questions. Like why can I now feel your emotions?"

"You can feel me too?"Ryson asked and Hope nodded.

"That's great" Ryson yelled and jumped around like a rabbit on steroids "That means all the connections need is physical touch," Ryson said and finally calming down again. He looked her in the eye and said "You might not believe some of my answers but I swear that everything I say here tonight will be the truth, So Mote It Be."

With his last word, a glow encased him for a second before disappearing.

"What was that?" Hope asked.

"That was a magical oath. Now if I lie to you tonight then my magic will be taken away." Ryson said.

"Why would you do something like that Ryson," Hope exclaimed looking worried for her new friend.

"Because Hope, I need you to believe me. I don't think I can handle it if you hated me, and if you think I'm lying or trying to trick you, then you would hate me." Ryson said.

Hope looked at Ryson for a few minutes before she smiled and grabbed his hand.

"I think this conversation needs to happen with some candy," Hope said before leading Ryson into her house to her mom's secret candy stash. Ryson waited until she had climbed back down off the kitchen cabinets with her prize before he spoke.

"You know that since this is your dream, you could have just wished any candy you wanted into existence."

The look on Hopes face was priceless and Ryson just couldn't hold in his laughter. Hope joined in a few seconds later. After that revelation, they went to Hope's room and climbed up on the bed to devour their dream-sweets.

"So why don't I tell you my story first and then you can ask your questions. I will warn you though, some of my story is under magical protection and I won't be able to tell the truth on that so when I get to that part I will have to skip it." Ryson said.

"Sounds good" Hope replied chewing on a chocolate bar.

"Okay so first off my full name is Harrison Henrik Saltzman-Mikaelson. I am a Tribrid Siphoning Heretic and I'm your younger brother."

Hope looked like she had been hit with a stunning stasis charm with how she froze. Her hand was halfway to her mouth and her mouth was hanging open. Her eyes were round as saucers and she just stared at Ryson. When she came out of it, all the candy disappeared and she looked really serious.

"Tell me everything you can," She said.

So for the next couple of hours 'dream time,' Ryson told Hope of his life. Every single detail that he was allowed to tell her.

"Your 'mother' is a real b***h and James is just as bad. I'm sorry you had to go through that." Hope said as they hugged again. "Don't worry, after my mom wakes up our family and saves our dad, I know that they will protect you. Always and Forever. Not to mention I think everyone will be impressed that you already have a coven and a pack."

"Thank you, Hope." Ryson said with a smile "I can't wait till we can talk in real life, and I know the twins can't wait to meet you either. I know that my entire coven-pack will welcome you if you want."

"I think being in a coven-pack would be awesome, but we should wait until the whole family is here and we are not dreaming." Hope said smiling before frowning "What if this is just a dream, and I wake up to find out that you are not real."

"Well, I know that your mom knows Alaric and Caroline. Maybe she could call them and then they could confirm that it is all real." Ryson said.

"I think I will do that."

Hope didn't know how she felt about Josie and Lizzie now being Ryson's sisters, he was her brother. Then she looked at it from another angle, if they were his sisters then that means that they are mine too. Just like that Hope's jealousy evaporated. Not only does she have a brother now, but two younger sisters.

For the rest of the dream, Hope showed Ryson her entire home and the surrounding woods. They ran through the forest laughing and just being kids. Before long though their surrounding started to disappear meaning Hop was waking up. They gave one final hug as they both shot up in their beds. They both still felt the bond so they knew it was real.

Unknown Location (Hope and Haley)

As soon as Hope woke up and felt the bond still in place, she ran to her mother's room and jumped on her bed. Haley sprung up just in time to be tackled to the bed by her daughter.

"Mom mom mom mom, you will never guess what happened in my dream."

At this Hayley smiled and settled the two of them under the covers listening to Hope tell her about Ryson. As Hope kept talking and explaining what happened, Haley started to think that it wasn't a dream. When Hope said she could still feel their 'bond' she knew for sure that whatever happened wasn't normal and could be true. If this was real and Klaus had another kid out there, they needed to find him and protect him. She decided she had to call Alaric.

"Ring. Ring. Ring."

"Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted, Dr. Saltzman speaking, how may I help you?" Alaric said.

"Hey Alaric, it's Hayley Marshall," Hayley said.

"Hayley Marshall. Ryson said you would probably be calling." Alaric said.

"So it's true. Ryson is Klaus's son." Hayley asked.

"Yes, it is true," Alaric answered.

"Well, then I guess you and I have a lot to talk about," Hayley said.

Salvatore School (before the phone call)

When Ryson woke up, he could still feel Hope's bond and knew that it had all been real. He ran to Alaric's room and jumped on his bed until he woke up.

"Ryson" Alaric asked groggily "What are you doing?"

"I spoke to Hope," Ryson said quickly with a smile on his face.

"You WHAT?" Alaric asked.

"Last night I dreamed of Hope and this morning I can still feel her bond so it has to be true." Ryson said getting off the bed and heading for the door "Oh and by the way, expect a call from Hayley Marshall."

With that Ryson ran towards the twin's rooms to tell them the good news.

Alaric sat in bed dumfounded. Before he could contemplate anything else the school phone rang.

Since it was Saturday, Ryson called an emergency coven-pack meeting at the old mill, they had found it while exploring, to share the good news. He told them of his dream-walking and all about his sister.

The twins weren't jealous of Hope at all since they saw her as their big sister. That made her family.

When the coven-pack heard about Ryson meeting Hope they were all excited. Since they all had grown up without a family, they knew what this meant, not only for Ryson but for all of them. In the short few weeks that they had been a part of his coven-pack they had become a family. A weird and dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless, and that included the missing Mikaelson's. To them, the name Mikaelson didn't inspire fear, but love, protection, and respect. When the Mikaelson's went to sleep five years ago they had a family of 7, now they had a family of 17.

Alaric and Haley had talked for over an hour with Haley getting more frustrated as the call went on. She wanted Ryson to come live with her and Hope but Alaric wouldn't budge on the matter. She was close to waking the Mikaelson's up and knew that somebody finding out about Ryson could derail that. She finally hung up on Alaric disappointed, angry, and worried. She would call him back when she calmed down and thought things over.

Things around the school got back on schedule with the new semester starting up. Ryson's pack now spent an hour a day running the perimeter of the school. This promoted more pack bonding and kept their wolves from becoming restless. It was also cute seeing a pack of pups pretending to be adults and take care of their territory.

Ryson, Lizzie, Josie, Daniel, and Cal started up their own personal grimoires with all the spells they knew. Ryson had planned on having the goblins enchant them later on. They also studied Wand Magical Theory and started researching the different schools, and other schooling options. They had years to decide but they were curious about the magical world.

The coven-pack kept up their Saturday bonding as a whole and had plans to build a treehouse in the summer. So far the plans included a staircase going around a tree that would lead to a bridge. The bridge would lead to a regular-looking treehouse but Ryson had plans for it. Having the goblins lay some expansion and protection runes, the regular-looking treehouse would turn into an epic treehouse with multiple rooms.

First a huge living room with a TV, game system, couches, chairs, coffee table, and everything else a living room would have. There was even going to be a fireplace that they would get hooked up to the floo network. This would be a little tricky but doable. They would have to have the floo hooked up to the international flooport and take one of those floos to their destination. The flooport was on neutral magical ground between Wiccan and Wand magic.

Two bathrooms, of course, one for boys and one for girls, with multiple showers and toilets. Three bedrooms, two with multiple sets of bunk beds, again one for boys one for girls, and then one for Ryson at everyone's instance. A pantry for snacks and drinks, Alaric had said no to them having a kitchen in their treehouse. Last but not least a meeting room, because every coven-pack house should have one. The door would have runes on it and only people who had a coven-pack necklace could enter the treehouse.

Ryson kept dream-walking into Hope's dreams every night and the two of them bonded. They even had their own private party on her birthday on January 4th. Ryson saw Hope as the one who needed protecting while Hope thought the same about Ryson. They even figured out how to change her dreamscape to Ryson's dreamscape. He showed her the school, his room, the school's grounds, the Dursley's house, Potter Manor, Diagon Alley, and Mystic Falls.

One time when they were sitting by the School's lake just enjoying the dream-sun Hope asked Ryson a question.

"What do you think dad is like?" Hope asked.

"I don't know. Alaric, Caroline, Elena, and Damon all told me that dad did bad things but that he loves and protects his family no matter what." Ryson answered "I think that dad isn't really bad, just sad, lonely, and scared. They told me that he changed when you were born."

"Do you think he is still bad?" Hope asked

"No." Ryson said, "I think dad has DONE bad things, not that he is bad. Everyone does bad things sis, but that doesn't mean everyone is bad. I mean you do a bad thing by taking your mom's candy, but that doesn't mean that you are bad."

"Ya, I guess your right." Hope said, "I just want him to come home."

"Ya me too," Ryson said

"When he comes home, are you going to come live with us?" Hope asked.

"I don't know." Ryson answered "I like school a lot and my coven-pack, but I was thinking that in the summer I could live with yall. Like all the other kids, but I don't think I could leave my coven-pack."

"Well, maybe they could come too," Hope said.

The months rolled by and soon it was March. Finally, it was time to wake up the Mikaelson's. That night the two of them spent time blowing off their nervous energy by hopping from dream-scape to dream-scape.

(This is a summary of what happened in the first two episodes of season 4 of the originals. After these two episodes, it will go AU.)

Marcel is still King of New Orleans, and every year Klaus enemies come to celebrate the fall of the Mikaelson's. This year Alistair wants Klaus's blood so he can locate his family. Marcel and Josh make it so that Klaus can kill him before being imprisoned again.

Hayley is in the process of waking up said Mikaelson's. Mary comes to stay with Hope while Hayley gets the final ingredient, the venom of the Last of the Marrow wolf pack. She then wakes up Freya who makes the antidote. While in the process some of Alistair's men come to kill them and Hayley goes all Wolf on them.

When they are awake they head to New Orleans to free Klaus. Rebeka distracts Marcel before being shot in the back with arrows. Then Marcel fights Elijah in the over-grown Mikaelson compound where Klaus is being hidden below. Freya frees Klaus and all of them flee New Orleans back to the cloaked house that Hayley has been hiding out in. Hayley decided to tell them about Ryson the next day.

All the Mikaelson's are on the porch outside the farmhouse, while Hope is still asleep upstairs. Haley bites the bullet and goes to tell them about Ryson. They all look towards her as she steps out onto the porch. Elijah and Freya are sitting in rocking chairs, while Rebeka, Kol, and Klaus are leaning against the railing.

"Everybody I have some news that might come as a shock to you, but I am 99.99% positive that it is true." Haley says "I am just not sure how to tell you."

"Nothing you can say can surprise us Haley, so just spit it out, " Rebeka says.

"Okay, fine. Klaus has another kid. His name is Ryson, he is five years old and he is a Tribrid Siphoning Heretic. He is currently in the custody of Alaric Saltzman and Caroline Forbes-Salvatore and attends the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. He and Hope also dream-walk into each other's dreams every night. He is also the alpha of a small pack of orphans as well as their coven leader." Haleys says.

All the Mikaelson's are staring at Hayley like she has grown another head. Then the chaos starts. Everybody seems to be arguing with everybody until Freya gives a sharp whistle.

"How certain of this are you Haley?" Freya asks Haley.

"99.99%. Alaric said that they went to the goblins in the wizarding world and they did a magical inheritance test." Haleys says.

"If they went to the wizarding world then that means he has connections to wand users." Kol states.

"Yes, he does since his biological mother is a wand user." Haley states.

Kol looks at Klaus with a WTF look.

"You seriously had another kid with a wand user?" Kol asks Klaus. "Every vampire worth their salt knows that they can conceive with us why would you do that? They then treat the child as a monster and most of the time end of killing them before they turn 11."

"Well, obviously I didn't know she was a wand user Kol," Klaus says.

"How can you not know, their blood literally smells like magic?" Kol asks.

"The only woman I remember sleeping with around that time was on the night I sent Hope with Rebeka right after she was born. Sorry if I was preoccupied with worry and overwhelming sadness." Klaus says.

"Really?" Kol says with a smirk "You haven't slept with anyone else in seven years."

Elijah can see where this is going so decides to break it up before it starts.

"Enough." Elijah says "It seems that we have another member of our family to gather before we can leave this continent."

"Ya that might not be harder than you think Elijah." Haley says "He might only be a kid but as I said he is an alpha already and a coven leader. He won't leave them behind. Not to mention that the entire school knows he is a Mikaelson and accepts him. Alaric has told me point blank that if push comes to shove there isn't a single student that wouldn't stand with Ryson and his coven-pack."

"Why do you keep saying coven-pack, everyone knows that it is either a coven or a pack," Rebeka asks.

"Because that is exactly what it is. Alaric couldn't give me the details due to some magical protection but on Halloween Ryson and the Saltzman twins created a new coven and pack. Magic gave it the name of 'The Infinity Coven-Pack'" Haley told them.

"They must be powerful, to do that kind of magic at their age," Freya says with a thoughtful look on her face.

"So I don't have just one powerful child but two," Klaus says with a smile on his face.

"Yes, Nikalus it would seem that you do," Elijah says.

"Well, our plans need to change then. There is no way I am leaving my son behind and from what Haley says there is no good way to separate him from his school. Not to mention I would never dream of separating him from his coven-pack." Klaus says.

"Alaric didn't say much on the phone but he did say that there are factors in play that the school protects Ryson from. He wouldn't go in detail but said he would be more than willing to go over them face to face."

"Well, then the answer is simple then." Kol states "It looks like we are going back to Mystic Falls."

With the conversation over Hayley goes to wake up Hope. Hope is super excited about meeting the rest of her family but most of all she wants to meet her dad. As she steps out onto the porch she suddenly gets nervous with everyone staring at her. Before she had met Ryson she would have run off into the garden and hid, but now she draws on Ryson's bond for strength and courage. She is the eldest and has to become used to facing challenges head-on.

"Hi everyone," Hope says looking at her family.

Then she looks at her dad and runs to him. Klaus bends down to catch his little girl in a hug before standing up with her still in his arms. Hope has wrapped herself around him like a baby monkey and doesn't have plans on letting go anytime soon. Finally, her dad was home, he could protect her from the bad blue light. She hadn't even told Ryson of the bad blue light cause she didn't want to worry him. But here in her dad's arms, she felt safe.

The rest of the day is spent packing up the house and getting ready to leave. Hope was super excited that they were going to Mystic Falls and she would get to meet her brother in real life. She had even asked her family about joining his coven-pack. Everyone was sitting around the living room discussing the travel plans when Hope walked in.

"Mom. Dad." Hope said.

"Yes, littlest wolf," Klaus answered.

"I was wondering when we get to Mystic Falls, could I join Ryson's coven-pack?" Hope asked.

The adult all looked at each other but it was Freya who spoke.

"Hope, with you being the firstborn, your wolf and your magic might not take well to your little brother being your leader and your alpha," Freya said.

"But," Hayley said before Hope could talk back "We will see what the situation is like when we get there. Right now we need to focus on making sure you both are safe. Also to my knowledge everyone who has joined the coven-pack are children with no covens or packs. It might be different for a cub with a pack. So we will have to wait and see sweetie."

Soon the Mikaelson's had everything packed up. They were only taking the necessities until they figured out the situation in Mystic Falls. Rebeka, Kol, Freya, and their werewolf hostage Kellin rode in one SUV while Elijah, Klaus, Hayley, and Hope rode in another. Kellin was of course tied up and knocked out in the back under a cloaking spell. It would take them around 16 hours to get to Mystic Falls without stopping. With Hope in the car it would take around 20 because of the breaks she would need from the car.

New Orleans

Right at that moment, a few witches who were in service to the Hollow were putting the final touches on a ritual. The ritual would use Hope Mikaelson to lure the Mikaelson's back to town so the Hollow could use Klaus to get a foothold in this world. The only thing they didn't know was that Ryson would not take kindly to some ancient spirit using one of his sisters.

On The Road With The Mikaelson's

About 6 hours into their drive Hope started to get cold and started shivering. Klaus noticed this first and had both cars pull over to see what was wrong. All Freya could determine was that she was being affected by some ancient magic.

Ryson was getting ready for bed when he started to feel something happening to Hope. It was a deep cold feeling and knew that it was nothing good. He ran to tell Alaric and Caroline what was going on. They decided to send an urgent note to Axetooth and Switchtooth. While they were waiting Ryson felt that Hope had fallen unconscious. The only thought going through his mind was wanting to be with his sister, and just like that Ryson disappeared from Alaric's office and reappeared on a deserted road surrounded by forest in front of two black SUVs and 8 people he recognized.

When they heard a loud crack all the Mikaelson's turned and got in positions to protect Hope. What they saw was a smaller version of Klaus with a weird hairstyle. There was no doubt in all of their minds that this was Ryson. They all looked at the child with different looks but they all held love and protectiveness in their eyes. Klaus looked like he had been kicked in the gut. Hearing you had a son was one thing but seeing the boy was another.

Ryson looked at the Mikaelson's with awe before seeing Hope lying in the back of one of the SUVs. He didn't think about any consequences and just shouted Hope and ran towards his sister. Freya stopped him just in time and didn't let him touch her. She staggered a bit when their bond flared to life before settling down.

"You need to stay back Ryson. I don't know what is affecting her but I don't want it to get a hold of you too." Freya said and giving Klaus a signal to help.

Klaus took charge and picked Ryson up before he could get closer to Hope and potentially put himself at risk. Klaus held his son tightly and started whispering to him while he stepped back away from Hope.

"Easy little pup, let Freya help Hope. I know you want to help but Freya is right, we don't want the same thing to happen to you." Klaus said while holding Ryson in a tight hug.

He couldn't believe it, he had a son. He was holding his son in his arms. A son who was clinging to him, scared out of his mind. Ryson always tried to be brave for he was an alpha and coven leader but right now he was just a scared little boy. He didn't know what was going on with his sister but every second her bond was getting colder and colder. The bond with his father and aunt Freya was now in place and the worry he could feel from both of them was not helping things either. However, the love and protection that Klaus was projecting were doing wonders.

While he was calming down Freya said too low for Ryson to hear "Klaus you can't feel it because you don't have magic but he has formed family bonds with us when we touched him. He is feeling what we are feeling so try to project as much love as you can towards him." With that said, Klaus gave a small nod and continued to comfort his son.

What nobody could see was that Ryson had unconsciously called Coal through their bond and she now stood behind Klaus completely invisible. She was going to attack the old one that had her human but could feel the connection the old one shared with her human. She could also feel how safe her human felt right now. It was then that she recognized them from the pictures that sat on her human's dresser. This was his family. She completely calmed down after that knowing her human was safe. She would stay invisible for now.

Elijah was embracing Hayley while watching his brother comfort his nephew. Finally, for the first time in 1,000 years, he could see his brother's mask fall away completely. Kol and Rebeka stood off to the side still in defense mode ready to protect their family if they had to. To Rebeka, she could now see Klaus as he had been when he had carved her that wooden knight all those years ago and she couldn't be happier. To Kol, it was like he was seeing his brother for the first time. He was seeing what Klaus would have been like if Mikael hadn't been such a bast**d.

Right then multiple snaps were heard and the Mikaelson's were facing 10 goblin warriors and a very pissed-off Vampire Headmistress.