Original Legacies
Summary: The past is a curse that cannot be escaped. With Mikael on the loose, Klaus raising his army, and allies now turned enemies, the residents of Mystic Falls find themselves quite literally between a rock and a hard place as they discover whether or not family truly is the strongest bond in the world.
Author's Note:I found the history of the Originals in episode 3x08 so contrived and frustrating (they were randomly in America? Where was the rest of the family? The original Petrova? Why did Elijah say less than two sentences?) that I decided to try my take at telling the tale and expanding on what happens as the gang comes up against Mikael and reunites the Originals. This is going to be a lengthy ensemble piece that is very 'ship friendly. I plan on filling in the gaps the writers have left us with and taking the story somewhere I want to see. I will try to stick to canon as much as possible, but I plan on taking some liberties with the story as I flesh out my own. Don't hesitate to contact me with any questions, suggestions, or rants.
This prologue picks up directly after 3x8 and will deviate from there.
Original Legacies : Prologue
"As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes"
– Margaret Atwood
Rebekah touched the empty space on her chest where the necklace should have been. After centuries of reaching for it whenever her mind would wander, the gesture suddenly felt hollow. The fire danced before her in the hearth, silent (frustrating) tears still threatening to fall. In the flicking light of the den she almost felt like a little girl again, sitting beside her Mother as she wrote in the books her children were never allowed to see, her sister's hands playing in her hair.
"Can't we see?" they would ask; hush, children, it doesn't concern you .Mother, please.
A lifetime of lies.
If Elena hadn't fled, Rebekah mused that she probably would have had to kill her out of pride. She was her Father's daughter, after all. Emotions were quick and dangerous for a vampire; even as she had stayed her fangs in her anger at her brother and her own misfortune, she didn't know if she could ever allow the doppelganger bitch to live if she witnessed how utterly she had broken apart for a moment.
She picked up the decanter on the table nearest her and poured a glass of amber liquid, wishing it was blood instead. The memories seemed to pass in front of her, clouding her vision in their relentlessness. Rebekah swallowed hard, feeling the burn coat the back of her throat and letting out a bitter laugh. Who did Elena think she was, prying like that? As if she could comprehend the intricacies of the past just because her little witch and high school history teacher had managed to track down museum photographs from some silly little cave in a corner of the Old World. Rebekah had nearly millennium of existence behind her – what did that look like through the eyes of an eighteen year old?
It surprised her that Nik had not wiped his name from human record, let alone allow it to be found by the wandering eyes of 21st century scholars. Then again, perhaps he didn't realize that the cave drawings still existed, that someone had added onto their story … He had been quite busy the last few decades.
Elena was obviously desperate to recruit an Original ally, she decided. She had so greedily listened to Rebekah's story, completely failing to harass her for details about the curse, her own ancestor. Did she really assume that Rebekah would need the help of a group of teenagers, a useless hybrid, and child vampires to exact revenge? She didn't need anyone.
Because you don't have anyone. Rebekah closed her eyes, grip tightening on the glass between her palms.
She felt the wind in her hair, the afternoon sun on her face. Her brothers splashed in the bottomless lake on a summer day while Sarah wrapped her long fingers around Rebekah's small ones. Both sets of feet wiggled in the cool mud between their toes at the edge of water, and the toddler on her sister's hip tugged in an attempt to touch the sky. Elijah waded closer, a smile reserved only for them on his lips as he bid them to join.
"No," Sarah laughed, bending down to flick water towards him. "It's nearly time to eat. Father's finally come home and he's already upset. He will not want us showing up to the table looking like drowned rats with the rest of you."
"Nevermind him," Henrik called from his perch atop Niklaus' shoulders. Elijah laughed and looked between them before climbing up to sit beside Rebekah, a wet arm wrapping around her small shoulders. Henrik screamed in delight as he was swung downwards, sinking under the dark water and disappearing …
All of that was gone, she reminded herself. It had been so long since she allowed herself to think of all of them like that: together, happy, alive. The moral, the stubborn, the strong, the innocent, the dreamer. And Niklaus, with his passion; there had never been enough for him. Rebekah knew there never would be.
Henrik was dead. Her family was trapped in a deathly sleep. Her Mother was murdered. Her Father hunted his own kind, his own blood. Only Nik remained.
The murderer. The liar. Her brother.
Could she bring herself to call him that anymore? Could she bare the weight of a thousand years of deceit? Well, she'd have to. At least for now.
At least until her family was reunited.
