Battered Souls
….
~Chapter 10
Surrender
….
Summary: When a mysterious illness strikes Elijah, causing him to confuse Elena with former love Tatia, the whole Original family band together with Elena to try and save his life. Elena/Elijah, with a good dose of the Original family as a side dish ;) A fic that plays havoc with canon – in this story, Alaric didn't complete the transition, so is dead for all intents and purposes (sorry readers) – and is set just after the dance in 3x20.
….
Elena kept a cold, damp towel pressed against her wound, every part of her still on edge from what had just happened. Her eyes flickered from one Original to the next, noticing how each of them wore the same wary expression, Rebekah just managing to look that much angrier than her other siblings. Kol and Klaus seemed to share a look, but what that look said exactly, she couldn't say.
The silence dragged on for longer than was necessary. Nobody had asked if she was okay, or offered to help heal her in any way, but she hadn't expected them to. This was an entirely different ball game she was in the middle of, with a different set of dynamics to play with here, and she knew she wasn't going to get any preferential treatment here. In fact, ironically enough, it was Klaus, and his stupid dream of having a hybrid army at his command, that kept her alive right now, because she suspected the moment she ceased to be of any use, Rebekah and Kol wouldn't hesitate to end her life if necessary.
"I want to go home," she said, trying to summon enough strength to give that statement conviction.
"Oh, here we go." Rebekah rolled her eyes. "I guess because it's you we should automatically bend to your will. Isn't that how it works back home?"
Elena glared at her, unable to summon the strength to deal with Rebekah, who seemed to be hot one moment, and cold the next, like a malfunctioning tap. She was beginning to think the Originals weren't evil after all; merely bitter, twisted individuals, with severe family issues, and the same desire to shut out their humanity to avoid appearing weak, when really, their humanity showed much more often than they believed.
"I'm not safe here," she said, appealing to Klaus here. "Not with the way Elijah's acting. You saw him. He's not himself. He attacked me, and probably would've killed me if you hadn't come in when you had. If you let me go home, I'll be safer."
"What? So your boyfriends can attack me the moment we show up for taking you away in the first place? Not likely," Klaus scoffed, but despite his obvious concern, she saw some of what she was saying had registered with him.
"We'll keep you from dying, if that's your main concern," Rebekah snorted. "I mean, I'm sure the Save Elena Club has more than enough members already, but, well, a few more can't hurt, right?"
"You know, this bitch act is really not impressing me," Elena shot at her. "Hate me all you want, but that won't stop me from being who I am. And I did regret daggering you in the back, but maybe I should get a little less grief from the same person who, over the years, has probably done a number of incredibly cruel things to stay alive, and to protect the people she loves, because that was all I was doing. Trying to protect my town. My friends."
Klaus had to chuckle at that.
"And a fine job you all did," he remarked sarcastically. "Releasing my mother? I have to give you credit. In that one act, your friends managed to unleash more chaos and trouble than I did."
She gave a low growl under her breath, still feeling so weak and shaky from the attack. She just didn't have the strength to argue back with people who were hypocrites, above everything else. They'd stabbed each other multiple times in the heat of the moment, and murdered countless people to achieve their own goals, but god forbid anybody else try and do the same in the name of self-preservation.
Just when she'd started to see something human in them, down fell that particular house of cards, leaving her with that same sense of loathing she'd always had for them.
"Maybe your pet doppelgänger is right, Nick," Kol put in, looking uncharacteristically perturbed. "What are we going to do, just sit around and wait for Elijah to next jump her? Personally, me and Rebekah have no trouble letting her die, but it's you that claims to need her alive in case playing happy families goes sour for you..."
"Your tongue seems to be cursed, Kol; it seems to insist on letting idiotic remarks slip off it," Klaus snapped, rubbing his forehead, his eyes growing darker as he steadily grew more irritable. "If I knew what to do, don't you think I'd already be doing it?"
"What did you learn from your witch, Nick?" Rebekah put in, suddenly losing her sour look in place of a worried one. "Is there anything we can do?"
"Aside from putting him out of his misery? No." Klaus gave her a weary look. "All my witch could tell me was that whatever is happening to Elijah, it'll get steadily more worse. Something is poisoning his mind, and that's the most dangerous thing to be corrupted when essentially all we depend on for control is our mind. If he loses independent thought entirely, than what mother will have created is something akin to what father was. A dark, evil, narcissistic vampire who is impossible to kill."
The room absorbed this in silence. Elena felt herself drift in and out of the moment, the amount of blood she'd lost, and the head wound she'd acquired after being attacked, both contributing to the fact she now felt really unwell, but there was no point in addressing that at all. She was unlikely to get any sympathy here, not with what was going on with Elijah, and she tried to focus her attention on that, even though a part of her had been actually horrified to see Elijah's vampire face, which was so different from his normal, composed expression.
Rebekah and Kol exchanged looks, digesting Klaus' gloomy news with resigned – and heartbroken, particularly on Rebekah's part – expressions on their faces. Elena almost felt sorry for them, because losing someone you loved, particularly when their loss hadn't even happened yet, but was an inevitable event, was always so painful, and she knew her heart hadn't quite been equipped to lose as many people as it had, but it had the ability to rebuild itself, and that was what kept her surviving for so long.
"So that's it then. We just...put him out of his misery?" Rebekah looked disgusted by that option. "You'll fight heaven and hell to protect your precious doppelgänger, but when it comes to your own brother, you'll blindly take the word of a witch – and they all want us dead, that's why I don't trust any of them – and believe the only way to save him is by putting him out of his misery." She shook her head. "That's why you've destroyed this family, Nick. You were always so good at ripping us apart, but never as good at fixing your mistakes."
She strode to the door, but Klaus blocked her, his eyes flashing with anger.
"You think I want him dead?" he hissed. "You think I liked daggering you all, and putting you into coffins? If I wanted you gone, I would've dropped your damn coffins in the ocean, but I kept you all safe. I kept you around wherever I went. I told you, Rebekah – I wanted a family, they just didn't want me."
"Oh, what a load of crap," she sneered. "You can't really spin us that same sob story anymore, Klaus. We get you hated the way you were treated by our parents. All I wanted in my entire damn life was to have a normal life, with my family, but even when we were all together again, united to protect each other, everything just went to hell!"
"Because of mother!" Klaus roared. "She was the one who turned us into who we were!"
"And why?" Rebekah roared back, jabbing him in the chest. "Because you took Henrik to see the wolves turn, and got him killed! You ignited the war between the wolves and the vampires and made mother realise she had to protect us somehow!"
Klaus reeled back like he'd been slapped.
"So it's my fault," he remarked coldly. "You think it's my fault."
Rebekah immediately faltered, and it was clear she had spewed off all these venomous words in the heat of the moment.
"I didn't mean - " she began, but the damage was done.
"Maybe I should take Elena home," Klaus interrupted, his eyes devoid of any emotion. "Give us both breathing space."
"Nick, I - "
But before she could get another word out, Klaus had grabbed Elena's arm, ignored her wince of pain, and dragged her out of the door. She could tell what Rebekah had said had hit a nerve judging by the fact he seemed none too concerned with treating her as gently as perhaps he had in the past, and even then that hadn't been out of any sort of affection for her but out of his own selfish desire to create hybrids, which her blood happened to be the key needed to make them.
She hated the fact everybody needed something from her, and it was getting to the point where every little thing just made her angry, so yes, in some ways she could relate to the mood Klaus was in right now, which was perhaps why she wasn't kicking up as big a fuss as she would've liked to. But right now, with the hurt lines clearly visible along his forehead, she figured maybe the real reason behind her letting him drag her along like a doll was the fact she'd been on the receiving end of some harsh words from Jeremy before, and the incident she was thinking of in question pre-dated the whole 'You can go to hell' line he'd spewed at her after finding out she'd lied to him about Vicki.
No. It was after their parents had died, and she'd been in hospital, being checked up on for any other injuries besides the ones she'd sustained in the crash itself, and he'd stalked in, tears storming down his cheeks, looking at her like he'd never seen her before. At first, she'd put it down to the shock, because he'd opened and closed his mouth like a fish, his breathing coming out in short, sharp bursts, and then after a pregnant pause, he'd unleashed the cruellest line he'd ever come out with.
"God, Elena! Why'd you have to bail on family night huh?" he'd snarled, looking both resentful and devastated. "You always screw everything up. It's because of you they're dead! They wouldn't have been where they were if you hadn't been - "
He'd been escorted out of the hospital promptly before he could finish this hateful speech, and sometime after she'd been released back home he'd mumbled an apology in her direction, but things had never quite been the same after that. He'd said things she had been thinking about herself, and so to have it confirmed by her own brother just made her break down. Those first few weeks after their parents' deaths, she'd been a ghost, barely living, barely reacting to anything going on around her.
So, yes, she could very well relate to Klaus right now, although that didn't make her feel any sympathy towards him, given his bloody history.
With a very rough manner, Klaus shoved her into the passenger seat of his car, and shoved himself into the driver's seat, not even starting the car straight away, simply staring ahead, his eyes acting like headlights, so intense were they in colour and brightness.
"I'm sorry there's nothing you can do to save Elijah," Elena said eventually, feeling like she had to break the angry silence somehow.
"Oh, I didn't say there wasn't anything to be done about Elijah," Klaus snarled, starting the engine furiously, driving the car with an almost reckless speed out of the driveway of the house he'd taken her to. "I just didn't think my siblings would care particularly for the method in bringing Elijah back from the brink of madness."
She stared.
"If there's a way of helping him, they would do anything to save him," she argued fiercely, knowing that much to be true of Rebekah and Kol. "Did you deliberately pick a fight to avoid telling them?"
Klaus gave her a sidelong glance, but didn't respond. Not at first anyway, so intensely did he stare at the road as they drove along it.
"We're not heading back to Mystic Falls at all are we?" Elena guessed, leaning back in her chair, looking resigned.
"No."
"Are you even going to tell me where you're dragging me off to next?" she asked, glaring at him. "Do I even have a choice in the matter?"
"You're the doppelgänger," he remarked idly, with almost a hint of amusement woven into his cold tone. "You weren't exactly born into a life where choices are at your disposal."
"You're pathetic," she remarked, not even bothering to hide the hostility in her tone.
"How so?"
"Because you lied to your siblings, and you took away their hope," she said, shaking her head, looking disgusted. "And you deliberately wound them up so that it would make it easier to leave. Why?"
He didn't answer, but the ice cold façade thawed just a little.
"Rebekah was always my favourite of my siblings," he said, in a tone that suggested he'd drifted into the realms of time and space. "And I was hers. She believed in me, stuck by me even when no one else did, and the only thing which came between us happened to be on Stefan Salvatore, who I would've killed had he not been such an intriguing character to know. But Elijah came a close second. He's far nobler than any of us can ever hope to be, and I admire that about him. Kol might have you believe we're all as cold hearted and bloodthirsty as each other, but Elijah is of a different calibre together." He glanced at her. "To answer your question about where we're going, we're heading to a witch who says she knows a way to stop what my mother started."
"How?"
Klaus gave her a wry smile.
"You asked me why I would rile my siblings up to make it easier to leave. The answer to that question is that I will not be coming back."
She stared.
"What do you mean by that?" she demanded, confused by the simultaneous thrills and chills which ran through her body at the sound of his ominous words.
"It means if we cannot get Esther's poisonous magic out of Elijah, then we need to at least have a vessel to contain it, before exterminating it altogether, thus rendering my mother's last hold on my family useless."
Elena couldn't stop the gasp that followed.
"So this is a suicide mission then," she realised. "To save your own brother."
Klaus didn't respond, but his eyes narrowed somewhat as he slowly increased the speed he was driving at.
He hadn't done much to prove he needed his family as much as they – allegedly – needed him, but he knew he had to began repairing some of the damage he'd caused, starting with saving his brother's life. This had all begun when he'd tore their mother's heart through her chest, and it had to end in a similarly gruesome fashion, only without a physical manifestation of his mother to cope with, he had to make do with duelling her inside the mind.
It's me you want, you cold-hearted she-devil, he thought, his anger driving him into speeding up the car. I'm the black sheep of the family, am I not?
He could cope with whatever she might throw at him, a hell of a lot better than Elijah ever could which was his main – practical – reason for wanting to do this for his brother. A thousand odd years walking on this earth, making enemies everywhere he turned, and never once coming even close to death had to count for something, right?
But deep down inside, he knew his reasons for wanting to aid his brother went much deeper than anyone could ever know. It was easier being a vampire to pretend the human memories didn't still matter, that they didn't have as much of a hold on him as they would've done had he still been human.
But they still mattered, even after everything.
They still mattered so much.
….
There was a particularly violent thunderstorm that felt like it shook the very heavens themselves. Even those claimed to be indifferent to religion crossed themselves as they glanced at the sky, which seemed to resemble the shades of a violent bruise.
The rain lashed down like a whip, and in the midst of it, ran two teenagers, who hurtled through the woods surrounding their home in order to get to shelter. Niklaus, who'd always been speedier, weaved in and out of the trees with an impressive skill, but Elijah, who'd always been swifter with a sword, kept stopping and starting, yelling angrily ahead when Niklaus failed to slow down.
"Brother!" he called, cursing as he tripped, just managing to regain his feet in time. "Slow yourself."
"Why? So you can catch up?" Niklaus' tone was mocking. "Brother, even if I slowed to match the pace a tree grows at, you still would not find the speed to match mine."
Elijah scowled, pushing his ever growing hair – which was now soaking wet, thanks to the weather – and tried to speed up, slowing down again at the sound of a particularly disconcerting patch of thunder.
"We must take shelter somewhere else," he roared at his brother's back. "The rate this storm is growing, we shan't make it back before the worst hits."
"Nonsense," Niklaus called back, turning around, his arms outspread. "This right here, Elijah, is freedom. Why should I hurry back? Might as well prolong the inevitable blows father will deal us when we return. You know how he hates us dallying for too long."
"Storms kill, brother," Elijah spoke through gritted teeth. "Why do you relish your impulsive nature? It will surely get you killed, and I shall have to be the one to explain it to our family."
Niklaus merely grinned, clapping his brother on the back as he finally caught up to him, the two of them now matching pace as they continued walking.
"You worry too much, brother," Niklaus commented.
"And you worry too little," Elijah threw back at him, though the comment was made in a light hearted manner. "We are a good pair. One to balance out the other. Just like Finn's docile ways balance out Kol's fiery spirit."
"Now we just need to find someone with no temper to balance out our Rebekah," Niklaus joked, and the pair of them laughed.
A loud rumble, and a sharp flash of lightning, suddenly caught their attention, the sound of something burning and snapping remarkably close to where they were standing. As one, wearing wary expressions, the two of them quickened their pace, this time Niklaus keeping himself close to his brother.
When Elijah suddenly stopped, his head darting around, convinced he heard a loud creaking noise, like the sound of wood splitting in half, Niklaus barrelled ahead, and it was only due to fast reflexes that Elijah found himself both spotting the danger, and running forward to push his brother out of the way, as a tree, which had bore the brunt of the storm, started to plunge towards the earth.
"Run!" Elijah bellowed, managing to get Niklaus, who'd been parallel to the tree, and would've been crushed had he'd continued being in the position he was, further ahead, and the dive he made to do so meant although he missed the bulk of the tree falling down on him, one of the heavy branches struck his shoulder as it came down, knocking him to the ground, the side of his face scraping against the ground, coating it with mud and twigs, and god only knew what else.
"Elijah!" Niklaus roared, spinning around, running towards his brother, his face stricken.
"Tis but a scratch," Elijah assured him, although the pain shooting through his body certainly told a different story.
"You're wounded." Niklaus, unbelievably, looked stricken, which wasn't an emotion which crossed his face much these days, given the fact their father liked to beat any signs of weakness out of him. "This is my fault."
"Well, that is a given," Elijah grumbled, trying to insert some humour into the situation. "But let us not forget how prone I am to committing acts of stupid heroism."
Niklaus didn't raise a smile.
"We must get you home at once," he said, but he seemed in no hurry to do so, and Elijah knew why.
Their father had always placed a lot of responsibility on Niklaus' shoulders. A lot more than was necessary considering he wasn't the eldest. Nobody could understand why Mikael seemed to loathe Niklaus, but it was evident in the way he treated him, the way he looked at him, so any little infliction that was cast on the family in some way, automatically Niklaus was given the blame.
Elijah had stuck up for his brother on more than one occasion – they all had, even Finn, who was less than close with Niklaus, for reasons unknown to all of them – but it hadn't made a bit of difference. You couldn't change someone's opinion, not when that person was someone so set in his ways, there was no thawing out his cold exterior.
Elijah tried standing, but he felt dizzy. The pain in his shoulder was intense, and it felt like his arm attached to that particular shoulder was too loose, but he kept a brave face on, and allowed Niklaus to wrap an arm around him, the two of them staggering through the woods, even as the storm raged on.
"He'll blame me for this," Niklaus remarked, his tone flat, his eyes sparkling with traces of guilt. "And on this occasion, he will be right."
Elijah shook his head.
"I will accept the blame. I will say we were being foolish, dallying on the way home instead of rushing back – which is true - and that you saved me when I became too reckless."
Niklaus snorted.
"He will not believe that at all. But I appreciate the effort, brother. But you really try and accept too much of my own misgivings. I am impulsive, reckless... And one day that will cost someone I love too much." He gave the sky a sour look. "I am sorry. I wish I could do something heroic to save you, but I fear that occasion will never arise."
"You do something heroic every day, brother, just by being who you are," Elijah tried to comfort his brother. "The fact you have not bent your will to become what father wants you to be is admirable. You are the strongest person I know. Do not undermine yourself."
Niklaus still looked miserable, but as he gazed at his brother, his lips twitched upwards for half a second, as they tried to resume their pace to battle through the slowly dying storm.
….
Elijah had managed to sneak out from under his siblings' noses, and the first port of call was to get a new suit. He'd found the nearest town, paid for a new suit, and managed to get himself looking respectable again.
The thirst for blood – specifically hers – raged in his body, but now he had a mission to fulfil, he was a lot more under control. The illness, he'd learned during those moments when he'd been daggered, had been a way of weakening him, to allow his mother access to his mind, and now she'd firmly planted herself there, he could no longer remember why he'd resisted her control.
All her reasons made perfect sense; of course obliterating the entire vampire race was the most logical choice left to them. They were all monsters, and hadn't these past few months taught him that monsters needed to be slaughtered before they could corrupt and prey upon the entire world?
Elena was the first death he needed to handle. She was Klaus' way of making hybrids, and her doppelgänger blood meant she was a perfect tool for any species, if used in the right way. But since she and Klaus were on their way to Mystic Falls – he'd heard his siblings pathetically squabble about her fate, and their own – he knew he had to be crafty.
Smoothing down the creases of his suit, he looked at himself in the mirror. He felt a shift in his personality; what had troubled him before no longer seemed to bother him. He knew he was a monster, and battling to avoid facing that truth seemed futile now. But all the same, he could feel something scratching at the corners of his mind. Something was putting up a hell of a fight there, and though it was easy to block it out, he felt like it was just a temporary measure, that sooner or later the dam would burst, and whatever he was blocking out would just rise up and consume him.
But, really, he was stronger than all of this.
What would the demise of one more Petrova really mean anyway? Katerina's survival was merely a technicality, a result of a ridiculous stunt which had set forth a chain of events no one could possibly have predicted. Tatia's demise had shaken him, understandably, and had taught him a few things about trust, and who not to hand that particular item out to.
Elena's demise was an inevitability, an unfortunate curse that came with wearing the face she had. Getting attached to her had, regrettably, dulled his senses, and had poisoned him in ways only deep affection could. He had to cut that out before it consumed him, which, luckily, was an easy task, due to his new state of being.
He smiled detachedly.
Not caring seemed to have its benefits. He could focus on the task at hand, and not have these idiotic emotions clouding everything up. There was no pang in his heart at the chaos his siblings were causing, no deep flush of affection for a certain doe-eyed brunette with a smile as big as her heart, and certainly no rage for his mother and what she was planning.
He retrieved his phone from his pocket, aware he wasn't keen on this side of the plan at all, but it was necessary, he dialled a number, waiting for the person on the other end to answer before informing them on the new set of circumstances.
"Ah, Damon, I'm glad I caught hold of you. My brother and Elena are allegedly on their way to Mystic Falls... I say allegedly, because I suspect he may have been lying, but you never know. I need you to be on the lookout for their return." There was a pause. "Yes, I am aware you don't owe me anything, but this is for Elena's safety, I assure you. I never wanted her taken out of there." Another pause followed. "Yes, I'm on the mend, thank you for the enquiry... Yes, I'm aware you didn't ask, but I could sense your tone – you were curious. For all your flaws, Damon, do not let me down here. Watch out for them."
He hung up on the sarcastic vampire, and then tried to work out where else Klaus might've gone. The more he thought about it, the less likely it seemed that Klaus would've taken his most valuable asset back home. He would've taken her somewhere else, a safe house somewhere, perhaps.
Then the answer hit him.
There was a witch a couple of towns over who Klaus had had a number of dealings with. It was a witch from a fairly old bloodline, whose loyalty to Klaus had initially stemmed from fear, because his brother loved the whole concept of emotional blackmail, finding it produced better results than any other method, but then that loyalty eventually became steadfast and voluntary, due to the fact Klaus made sure to pay his witch for her help on occasion.
He couldn't remember the address, but he did remember her house was located along a boulevard, always in direct line of the moon. Elijah smiled grimly, rolled his sleeves up a little, and proceeded to construct a plan within his mind as to how best to proceed with his new mission.
….
Within no time at all, Elena and Klaus arrived at the house of a witch, and it was obvious to spot the witch's house, due to the fact the house itself – located in a seemingly ordinary street – was remarkably dissimilar to its neighbours.
It was pale green in colour, terrace in nature, situated along a boulevard, but that wasn't what immediately stood out. There were a number of unique wind chimes and statues littered around the front porch of the house, which could be accessed via a set of stone steps. Some of these statues were large porcelain cats, ranging from panthers to tigers to the ordinary house cat, and others were just abstract designs she couldn't quite work out.
"I should warn you," Klaus remarked, noticing what she seemed to be staring at. "The witch we're going to see has an affinity for cats. Rather cliché if you ask me, but some enjoy perpetuating the stereotype."
"I noticed," she replied, holding back a little, her eyes taking in everything.
Klaus actually grinned at her like they were friends about to embark on an adventure together, though he couldn't quite diminish the solemn look in his eyes.
"Just wait until we're inside, love. You'll get quite the surprise."
To her surprise, he beckoned her forwards rather than dragging her, and it was that which gave her the confidence to move.
Up the stairs they walked, Elena lingering half a step behind, and as Klaus reached the front door, it opened before he had chance to knock. Just in front of him stood a quite bizarre looking woman, wrapped in a brown shawl, whose hair was braided, and fell past her shoulders, veering dangerously close to the ground.
She was olive skinned, about in her late thirties, early forties – although appearances could be deceiving – and her neck was covered with necklaces and chains. Her arms were littered with bracelets, and there was a distinct tattoo of an unusual symbol just on the side of her neck.
Elena regarded her the way a child might regard an adult they've only just met – with a sense of wariness, but at the same time holding the hope that the physical appearance gave way to something much more relatable. She suddenly gave an alarming yelp, as a cat came skidding from nowhere, yowling loudly, and moved to one side, her wariness levels taking a steady rise.
"This is the doppelgänger," the woman drawled, her accent thick and pronounced; she'd definitely been born and raised in America, despite what her skin colour suggested. "The spirits talk a lot about her."
"I imagine," Klaus interrupted, looking at her with solemn, distrustful eyes. "Can we get on with this now, Tia?"
"Yes, yes." The woman impatiently beckoned them both inside. "I wish you would've given me a little more time to set up." She eyed him sharply. "But I guess hybrids aren't notorious for being patient, so that wish was rather a redundant one to make."
"Where do you want me?" Klaus asked, clapping his hands together, clearly eager to get started.
"First I need her blood. The rest I can perform right here. I have everything set up in the back for afterwards." The witch – apparently named Tia - grabbed Elena before she could protest, producing a sharp knife, overturning her hands and running the blade along her skin to produce a thin stream of blood, which she immediately turned and poured over a bubbling mixture resting on a counter nearby, which emitted a thin, odourless vapour.
"Why do you need my blood?" Elena spluttered indignantly.
Klaus didn't speak at first, but the glare she sent him soon made him roll his eyes, as if it was unreasonable for her to expect to have been kept out of this.
"I said I would help my brother by being the vessel for what's killing him," he said slowly, "but if things go wrong, I'm going to need some insurance to make sure nothing happens to me in the process. So my life force is now attached to yours. What happens to you will happen to me."
She gaped at him.
"What?"
"It's almost funny," Klaus said, almost to himself, "how my fate seems to continue to rest in the hands of a Petrova – and I suppose I could've used any other human for this task – but I don't know. My new life was begun by the same blood which runs through your veins; I suppose it's only fitting it'll be your blood that protects me here too."
Elena gave him a dark look, every curse word under the sun spinning on her tongue, which, thankfully, she kept from being unleashed.
"I'm done being your puppet. I'm outta here," she growled instead, spinning on her heels, preparing to leave when all of a sudden, Klaus gave the tiniest of nods to Tia, who closed her eyes, grabbed his hand, and began chanting something.
Elena felt something grip her tightly – a strong, inexplicably powerful feeling – and she tried to fight it, but it was like fighting a strong current in that she could only fight for so long before falling under. She tried moving, but she couldn't. It was like walking against an invisible barrier of some kind and, in only a matter of moments, simultaneously, both Klaus and Elena dropped to the ground, Tia presiding over them with an almost cold indifference.
Meanwhile, lingering just by the front window, Elijah glanced in, a cool smile fixed in place, as he considered the fortunate set of circumstances which had landed before him. It seemed he had a way of eliminating two birds with one stone, and given the fact it was his duty to rid the world of vampires, who was he to argue with good fortune now it had landed on his doorstep?
But there was still that nagging voice inside of him fighting on, begging him not to do this, getting angrier by every second.
It was irritating, but not entirely unendurable. He could fight it off later, but right now he had a task to complete, and his hands were about to get very bloody indeed.
If Klaus and Elena's fates were, indeed, linked, then he wouldn't need to make the arduous trip to Mystic Falls to locate the last remaining White Oak stake, and with the demises of both the doppelgänger and his brother, the demises of the entire vampire race would follow afterwards, each falling after the other like a line of dominoes leading to the cleansing of the earth.
A/n: Apologies for the delay in posting this up. I found this really hard to write. When I get too deep into a story, I tend to struggle around this sort of time into the story. There will be more explained next chapter, and more flashbacks of the Originals will be included, some with Tatia, some without. I'm trying to get back into writing this story again because this chapter was a bitch to write. Hope you enjoy it :)