a sculpture of water and unsettled dust
Synopsis: In the end, with the memory of his brother's anguish on this mind and his sister's tearful blue eyes staring at him defiantly, the choice is not as hard as he might have wanted it to be. Or: Klaus is dead. There is no deal. 3x22 AU
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v
In the end, with the memory of his brother's anguish on his mind and his sister's tearful blue eyes staring at him defiantly, the choice is not as hard as he might have wanted it to be.
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ii
Kol doesn't take the news well when Elijah finally gets Rebekah to stop crying and calls him. It doesn't come as a surprise, the loss of Finn is still fresh and to learn of the death of another brother would break even the best of them (and Kol has never been the best of them, not really).
Kol answers the phone with a cheery greeting, rambling about how much New York has changed over the years and just for a second Elijah wants to hang up without saying anything. He wants to never say anything again. He wants to throw his phone at a nearby tree, grab Rebekah and get out of here. He opens his mouth to speak and hesitates.
"Elijah?" Kol asks again when his brother doesn't answer. Elijah never calls without a reason, it's a habit left over from times when messages were harder to send and every word had to be judged for its necessity. Elijah closes his eyes, takes a breath and with four simple words breaks through a thousand years of emotional shields and psychosis.
"Kol, Niklaus is gone."
The background noise from Kol's side of the conversation seemingly grows in volume as Kol falls silent, stunned. Then his voice comes, softer than before and with a certain vulnerability that reminds Elijah of a curious bright-eyed boy that died over a thousand years ago. "What?"
"Niklaus is gone, he's dead, Kol."
"Are you sure?" Elijah realizes he hates that voice. No one should be able make his brother sound so small, not now, not ever.
"Rebekah saw it happen. She couldn't stop it."
Elijah has just enough time to hear a sharply drawn breath coming from Kol's side, something his memory translates into a picture of his brother's twisted face as he holds back tears, before he hears a rush of air and a hard sound as Kol's phone hits the ground.
Then the screams begin.
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vi
Rebekah is all coiled anger and desperation as she paces on the bridge. "I don't want to run anymore, Stefan. I spent my whole life running."
The Salvatore on the other side of the line reminds her of the deal they had made earlier that evening, before everything. Before the hunter found the warehouse, before Niklaus was staked in front of Rebekah, before Rebekah had stared up at him with determined eyes and tears still shining on her cheeks.
His sister's voice is perfectly steady when she speaks, her eyes on the headlights approaching further up the road. "Klaus is dead. There is no deal."
In the distance, the mechanical roar of a single aged truck announces the impending arrival of Elena Gilbert. Rebekah stops her pacing at the sound of it.
"If my brothers and I are going to survive, we need to get rid of Alaric, and the only way to get rid of Alaric..." she trails off.
Elijah can just hear Stefan's panicked protests before Rebekah hangs up.
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i
Niklaus' death changes things.
It's an uncharitable thought perhaps, but the truth is this: even when sharing only half his blood, Niklaus was more his brother than Kol has ever been. They were all a family once, a thousand years ago, but where he, Rebekah and Niklaus had promised to stick together, swearing oaths of loyalty over their mother's grave, Kol had drifted away. Their brother had returned to them eventually, but by then the three of them had formed a family of their own and he knows Kol must have been aware of that too.
No, Kol hasn't been part of Elijah's family for a thousand years now, but Niklaus is dead and so is Finn (not that Elijah had mourned that loss all that much). Their family is being hunted by their mother's new creation and the gang of Mystic Falls high school students, and Elijah refuses to lose any other siblings. Kol may never have been family in the same way as Niklaus or Rebekah, but despite everything he is still their brother.
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iii
It's not Kol that is screaming.
Elijah knows his brother's voice as well as his own (his siblings have never stopped haunting his dreams) and these panicked shouts don't have the same smooth sound. Even ignoring that, his enhanced hearing picks up on the never-ending string of muttered curses that spill from Kol's mouth. He recognizes most of them, but a few are in languages even Elijah had never bothered to learn. He wonders vaguely when Kol had the time time to learn all of these words, but against his wishes his attention is drawn to the other noises coming through the phone that are now echoing through the deathly quiet forest.
There is the sound of flesh ripping apart as Kol sinks his fangs into someone, their screams brutally cut short, and the harsh thud as his brother throws around bodies as if they have personally offended him. Which they have in a way, Elijah thinks. What right do these people have to be happy and live their life as if nothing happened when Niklaus – their brother – is dead?
A selfish, savage part of Elijah hopes that Kol will kill all the people in the room. He doesn't think he has the will to convince Kol to compel the survivors of the massacre.
He opens his eyes, unable to stand the sound of his brother's grief made manifest any longer. He is greeted by the sight of his sister, wiping away fresh tears. He looks at her with sympathy, ignoring the stinging of his own eyes and how hazy his vision seems to have become. His voice is still hoarse when he finally speaks up.
"Kol?"
It's eery how quiet the forest becomes. His ears pick up on a soft, pained moan before it's abruptly cut of by a noise that Elijah knows so well after years of practice at extracting hearts. In the silence, the only thing they hear is the steady thump-thump of a single person walking towards the phone. Neither of them think about what the occasional splashing noises mean as the person reaches the device.
Elijah hears a clink as the mobile is lifted from the stone floor -marble? No the noise would be higher-pitched then- and then Kol's voice, hoarse and scarily calm, is at his ear.
"Brother." Kol swallows, and Elijah pictures his younger – his only – brother looking around him, thinking of what to say. "What do we do now?"
Elijah doesn't have to think before answering that.
"We run. You stay in New York and arrange transport for Europe. Rebekah and I will be there by noon tomorrow. We stay together and we run as far and long as we have to."
(It's ironic really, Elijah thinks, that for all Niklaus' efforts to bring their family back together, it is his demise that finally unites them. Of course it is also the threat of a nigh immortal Hunter that wants to kill them, but Elijah has always had a soft spot for poetic justice in his heart.)
"Tickets to Europe, London, I presume?" Kol says, sounding relieved he wouldn't have to sit back and wait until his siblings got there. "Aeroplane tickets?"
"Yes," Elijah confirms, and because they don't have much time to waste he adds, "if you run into any trouble, compel someone to buy them for you. Use the bank account I showed you if necessary. Remember, the flight has to leave tomorrow afternoon, preferably before night falls."
"Understood. Call me when you arrive."
Elijah isn't foolish enough to mistake his brother's sudden calm as a sign that he is going alright, but it's reassuring that at least Kol didn't completely break down. They are about to hang up when Elijah remembers something else.
"And Kol? Please compel someone to clean up, we can't afford to leave a trail so early on."
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vii
The only sounds piercing the night come from the truck that's making its way down to the Wickery bridge. Elena Gilbert would be heading back to town now, hoping to still see her loved ones before the chain reaction Niklaus' death set in motion kills them. Elijah likes Elena, he really does. Despite her resemblance to both Tatia and Katerina, she understands the importance of family. She's a mere eighteen years old, yet in this they are one and the same. He thinks she of all people might understand his decision.
It is because of this that he dislikes having lied to her. His family still has one last piece of business in Mystic Falls before they leave.
The headlights up ahead follow the curve of the road, searching the hills, casting shadows behind the trees, illuminating the bridge, before finally landing on Rebekah.
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iv
"Elijah," Rebekah says and he opens his eyes, having closed them without realizing as he planned their escape (through Europe to China, then Africa, a few identity changes and then they would go to Australia to plan their next move).
"We need to take him down, brother," Rebekah states firmly, almost daring him to contradict her. "You said it yourself, he will keep coming after us until he's gone."
"Rebekah..."
"Elijah," his sister repeats, her voice breaking despite her best efforts to keep it steady. "I will not run again, not when he has already taken down Niklaus."
He closes his eyes.
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viii
Elijah feels his sister come to stand by his side, but doesn't avert his eyes from the water. They watch in silence as Stefan's red car stops on top of the bridge and the young vampire dives into the still water after the barest of hesitations.
The black surface breaks to swallow him too and soon the quiet returns. When the ripples caused by Stefan's dive have ebbed away, Elijah speaks.
"You didn't have to call him," he reminds his sister, his voice neutral. She doesn't reply, just keeps her eyes on the dark water that will be the death of Elena Gilbert one way or another. They have already gone too far not to carry it through. They will not lose any other siblings tonight.
"He will not succeed in saving her," he observes, turning his head to glance at his sister, "one might call it cruel to let him believe otherwise."
"He killed Finn," Rebekah finally says, lifting her eyes from the river to look at him. "He killed Finn and then he and the rest of them desiccated Niklaus. He was just lying there, Elijah. Unable to do anything as the Hunter came at him. His eyes were open-"
She takes a breath and glances back at the water before continuing.
"Stefan did that. I want him to pay." Rebekah's eyes flash with anger and Elijah feels his blood run cold as he remembers the thousand years he spent running from those eyes. She has her father's temper, he hears his mother say in his memory. But his mother was wrong, this is all Rebekah. He's never quite forgotten Rebekah's face that night, blade in her hand and standing over their father's sleeping body. Ready to kill to protect her brother.
Meanwhile, Rebekah has turned back to the water, her eyes never moving as she speaks.
"I want him to know what it feels like to have the person you love most die in front of your eyes and not be able to stop it."
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A/N: This fic has been nearly complete for the past three years but I thought I'd try to finish it. It was inspired by a conversation between my friend and I where we wondered why Rebekah called Stefan to announce she was going to kill Elena. Also Julie Plec mentioned something after the s3 finale about them not having decided yet whether Elijah knew what Rebekah was doing. Since we never heard what was up with Elijah after Klaus 'died' anyway (*is bitter*), I figure it doesn't even go directly against canon all that much.
Anyway, I've never done a structure like this in my stories, so if anyone has feedback on whether it worked for you or not, I'd be more than grateful.
A/N: Edited for grammar 19/10/2015.