Thanks so much for all of the Alerts and Favorites! Can we get some reviews now!? ;P Just teasing! If any of you are curious, in my head, Anika looks like Alona Tal (of Supernatural fame). Just a note.
They searched the nearby forested area quickly before coming back together, "You guys find anything?" Damon asked.
The lovebirds shook their heads, but Elena scrunched up her nose, "So you think this girl is related to the Originals, right? It's been a thousand years since they were last here. Trees grow."
Both older vampires stared at her, both wondering why they hadn't thought of that. "So how much taller are we talking?" Damon asked.
Elena shrugged, "I have no clue." Her eyes lit up, "Let's climb the trees!"
Damon scoffed while Stefan gave the new vampire a boost up into the lowest set of tree limbs. Their higher elevation revealed more promising results. Stefan found what they were searching for. The symbol was carved into a tree, fifty feet off the ground.
He knocked on the wood as Elena and Damon made their way to him, "It's hollow here."
Damon grinned, "I think we should see what's inside then."
"No!" The three looked down to see Rebekah standing at the bottom of the tree, "Leave them alone!" They dropped from the tree to land in front of the Original. She was a mess, tears running down her face, her face blotchy. "Why are you here?" She demanded. Her tone was usually frightening, but in such a state, it was laughable.
"Why are you out here?" Damon countered.
"To talk to..." She trailed off.
"Who, Rebekah? Klaus?" Elena asked, putting a hand on Rebekah's shoulder.
"I'm not supposed to say." Rebekah sniffed.
"Why not?" Elena encouraged. Seeing Rebekah crying like that made her anger dissolve away.
"I can't!" Rebekah cried, "We were told never to speak of what happened."
"Screw this." Damon hissed, grabbing the base of the tree and pushing it over.
Rebekah screamed, but Damon ripped the wood behind the symbol off. Rebekah rushed forward, pushing Damon out of the way and taking up a protective stance in front of the felled tree. "Why did you come looking for this?"
"A little birdie was asking around about the symbol. Call it curiosity." Damon quipped.
Rebekah was shaking, but suddenly her eyes were locked on something behind them. Damon watched as the girl from the grill walked forward. She was dressed in her pajamas still, with her leather jacket on her shoulders. "Ani?" Rebekah asked, stunned.
Anika nodded, embracing her sister, "Yes, Beka. I'm here." She laughed, "Not sure how you are. You look good, better than any thousand year old corpse has a right to."
"I could say the same." Rebekah choked out. She'd never imagined she would get to hug her sister again. She hadn't been able to speak her name in a thousand years.
Anika wiped away Rebekah's tears in a move that was so un-Original like, the three observing vampires could hardly believe what they were seeing. "Don't cry, Beka, please. You know I always hated seeing you cry." She pushed Rebekah's hair from her face, "I always feel like such a failure when you cry. I don't think that can ever change." She kissed Rebekah's forehead, "Tell me what happened. What did our mother do?"
"You're her sister?" Damon exclaimed.
Anika nodded, holding out a hand, "I didn't properly introduce myself Anika Thorrson. Rebekah here is my baby sister."
Elena peered at her, "Then the boy Damon saw at the grill, he was..."
"Henrik." Anika said, cupping Rebekah's face in her hands, "He's sleeping, Beka, but he's with me. I brought us back. Mother chose the other path, didn't she?" Rebekah didn't say anything, "Beka, answer me. What did she do to you and the others?" Anika said, her voice laced with a tone not dissimilar to the one Niklaus used when unhappy.
Rebekah took in a ragged breath, "She killed us. Well, father killed us. She did some sort of spell, and gave us wine. We thought it was for good health, but it was laced with Tatia's blood. Once we had all sipped from the cup, father ran us through with his sword." She finally looked up into her older sister's eyes, "When we woke up, we were different. We weren't human anymore."
Anika pulled Rebekah back to her chest, "I know, Beka, and I'm so sorry. I could tell the moment I laid eyes on Damon here that the wolves no longer had complete claim to things not human. I could tell that Damon fleetingly desired my blood. I believe the modern term for what you are is vampire." She grimaced, "I feel like I'm blind to all that's happened, Beka. I can't read your thoughts. I can tell how confused and upset you are right now, but I can't see what happened before right now."
Rebekah gasped, jerking back, "You can't?"
Anika shook her head and shrugged, "Not a huge loss, now I can't pester you about your crushes. That used to make you so mad. Mostly, I did it just to piss you off."
Rebekah almost choked on a laugh, "How can you be so normal?"
Anika shrugged again, "I've been alive for nineteen years in this time, Beka. Until this morning, I was an ignorant teenager. I remember my past now, but I'm up to date on popular culture." She paused, pursing her lips before looking at Damon, Stephan, and Elena, "You don't sparkle in the sun, do you?"
Elena laughed, shaking her head, "No, but without special rings, we burn in sunlight."
"But it's the bloodlust that's your true weakness, isn't it?" Anika inferred, looking at the lines emerging on her sister's face, "You're hungry."
Rebekah jerked away, "I'm sorry!" She covered her face, not wanting her sister to see that side of her, "I was just healing."
"What happened to you that you would need healing?" Anika demanded, glaring at the trio. She took a step towards them, "If one of you harmed her..."
"It wasn't them." Rebekah interjected, "It was Nik. I made him mad, and he snapped my neck. I healed just fine, I'm just a little thirsty right now."
Anika gave a small, sad smile, "Nik's become a terror, I suppose. I suspected he would. What with our father's blood and all." She flung a hand over her mouth, "Forget I said that. Please, Rebekah, I didn't mean to say that."
Rebekah's chin began to tremble, tears filling her eyes once more, "He's our half brother, Ani. Mother had an af..."
"I know, Beka." Anika said, cutting her sister off. "I've known since Mother and Ayana welcomed me into the coven. Witches, we know our own. I'm fully aware that Klaus and I share a father. I know that you and the others are our half siblings, but that never made me love you any less. You're my sister. Who my father is doesn't matter."
"But you weren't a werewolf!" Rebekah protested.
Anika remembered the time her sister was recalling. They had been walking together in the forest when Anika had left the path to relieve herself. Seemingly alone, a man from another village had approached and attempted to rape Rebekah. Anika had come from behind, and in her rage, nearly sliced the man's head clean from his body. The sisters had returned home covered in blood, and after relaying the story, the men had been furious, urging battle on the town the dead man had been from.
Their mother on the other hand had kept a very close eye on Anika the next full moon, a strange herb clutched in her hands. "I know." Anika said with a sigh, "Mother told me once the moon had passed that the father I already knew Klaus and I shared was one of the werewolves. But then again, so does Henrik."
"Henrik?" Rebekah gasped.
The boy joined them, jumping into Rebekah's frozen arms. As a vampire, she didn't stagger under his weight like she had. "Beka!" He chirped, giving a kiss to her cheek.
Rebekah wrapped her arms around him, "Hen."
He grumbled, pushing away from her, "Not you too! I'm like one thousand twenty years old. You can't call me 'Hen' anymore!"
"You said he was alive, but...seeing him..." Rebekah said, staring at her sister.
Henrik glared at Anika, "Is she broken?"
"Overwhelmed, Henrik. Give her a moment." Anika assured.
"You left. I don't want to be alone." He said pouting up at her.
Anika scoffed, "Weren't you just proclaiming to be a thousand twenty years old?"
He huffed, crossing his arms, "Well at the very least, I'm fourteen, not five." Henrik walked up to Stefan, Damon, and Elena and held out his hand, "Hello, I'm Henrik Mikaelson. I'd like to think I'm the only normal one in my family now."
"Didn't you get eaten by werewolves?" Damon asked.
Henrik passed by Damon with a glare, "That's true, but I've got an awesome witch sister who brought me back to life. Can you boast that?"
Stefan laughed, shaking Henrik's hand, "No, he can't. I'm Stefan. And no, Damon doesn't have a witch sister to bring him back from the dead, he's just got me."
Henrik giggled and hugged Elena. "You look like Tatia. Are you like Ani and I are?"
Elena shook her head, hugging the boy back, "No, I'm not Tatia. I'm Elena, her doppleganger."
He shrugged as he pulled away, smiling at her as he went back to his sister's, "That's alright. I like you anyway."
Anika laughed, kissing the top of his head. "Henrik's never met anyone he didn't like."
"That's probably why he got eaten." Damon quipped.
"Actually, I take responsibility for that. It's my fault." Anika said.
Rebekah snapped back, "No, it was Niklaus. He's the one that took Henrik out there."
Anika shook her head, "They'd done it before. I never told father, but they did it all the time. I looked after them. I made sure they never got caught, but that night... I wasn't watching the forest, and Henrik was killed." She looked down at the boy who was looking upset by the heavy conversation. "That's why I brought Henrik back. Grief and guilt are very powerful emotions."
Damon chuckled. "You can say that again."
Anika caught herself looking at Elena, "You really do look just like Tatia." She smiled, "I hope we can be as good of friends as she and I were." She laughed, looking between Damon and Stefan, "At least it won't be my brothers fighting over you." She touched Rebekah's shoulder, "Speaking of brothers, Beka, where are they?"
"I'm not sure where Elijah and Kol are. Nik probably left town after our fight." Rebekah said, pouting slightly.
Anika laughed, "You and Nik still don't get along all the time. Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. Is Elijah still an unbearable stick in the mud?"
Rebekah nodded, "Moral as ever."
"And Kol, still going through women like tissues and leaving scars with that sharp tongue of his?" Anika asked.
"Is there any doubt?" Rebekah replied.
The smile slid from Anika's face, "Where's Finn, Rebekah?"
"Dead." Rebekah admitted painfully.
Anika sighed, "I suppose a whole set of siblings was too much to ask for." And it was, considering she had only anticipated Henrik being alive. Seeing her little sister again was a miracle in itself, especially since Rebekah hadn't gotten the life they'd always imagined for her. Henrik clung to his sisters, trying to take in that his brother was dead.
"So, you knew Tatia?" Elena asked, trying to sooth the situation.
Anika nodded, the smile coming back to her face, "She was my very best friend. Not a witch, but her compassion made up for that. She was the only person who ever met my husband. Well, Father did, but, it was just once to get permission to marry me."
"Who would marry into your crazy family?" Damon asked.
Anika rolled her eyes, "My husband did. Of course at that time, he was the crazy family type. Being a bastard back then was a big deal, but being a werewolf was weirder."
"You were married to a werewolf?" Elena said, trying to imagine how that could work.
She nodded, "Yes, he saved my life once, and we fell in love. It was a fairy tale. With my werewolf parentage, I could walk amongst the pack, and with my magic, I kept them calm. Only in the end, I wasn't calm, and people died. That's my new life resolution." She winced, and went to the hole in the tree, glancing at Rebekah, "Mother did this?"
Rebekah shook her head, "Mother couldn't, Father wouldn't let her. After you...died, we weren't even allowed to speak your name. Ayana made it for you. She said she understood why you did what you did and that you'd been punished enough. You know she cared for you like a daughter. She took it worse than our brothers did. They just seemed to forget, but I never did. I've always come here to talk to you."
"So what is it?" Elena asked.
"A memorial for a lost witch." Anika answered, "It's sort of like a time-capsule. My most valued possessions are in there, as well as magic ingredients to supply me in the afterlife. I was curious if one had even been made for me." She smiled at Damon, "That's why I asked about it in the bar."
"That could have ended better." Damon said, but she ignored him.
Anika sighed, picking something out of the tree. She walked towards Elena, "Tatia drew this for Mathias and I on our first anniversary. I...I had friends, but Tatia, was his only non-werewolf friend. I miss her. I miss him." She put a wooden frame tenderly into Elena's hands, turning away, finding it hard to have his face in her head. Again her hand rested on her stomach as she looked up at the moon.
Elena looked down at the picture in the frame, her newly enhanced eyes taking in the drawing easily despite the dim light. It was obviously Anika, sitting against a tree, wrapped in the arms of the man that must have been her husband. He was looking at Anika like he'd never seen the sun until he'd seen her. It was really beautiful. Tatia had been talented, and a spell must have been used to preserve it because the details were too clear for a thousand year old drawing.
What was most startling about the drawing itself, though, was the man's face. Anika's...Mathias. Elena looked up at Stefan and pushed the frame in his direction, her skin feeling like bugs were crawling all over it. "Look."
Stefan took it from her and stared at the picture. "Is that..."
Elena nodded, her eyes wide, "Matt? Yeah, I think so."
How's that? Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
Review!
-Jenn
