No One's POV
"Eliza! What the hell are you thinking!?" Olivia hisses, glaring at her best friend from the passenger seat as their modest Camry follows Elijah's sleeker BMW.
"Obviously, she's not. She's insane, mentally incompetent, and clearly dazzled by four walking, sex on legs, Originals." Lucas pipes in from the backseat.
"Please never say that again." Olivia closes her eyes for a long moment, cringing slightly as if it physically pained her what her brother just said.
"Sorry I'm not blind?" Lucas snarks back. "And need I remind who was the one encouraging her a moment ago back at the Mystic Fall Grill?"
"You know… I'm sitting right here." Eliza reminds, lips pulling up in a slight smirk at her friends' banter. "And I'm driving…"
"Right. Well, I'll repeat the question then… What the hell were you thinking!?" Olivia waves her hand around a bit irrationally.
"Well… I was thinking, Liv… That even if they are the Originals. That no one, even the big bad Originals, deserves to have their own mother try to kill them. And, that the Original Witch is, as I said… Everyone's concern." Eliza rolls her eyes.
"Ugh. I hate when you're right." Olivia groans.
"I'm always right, Liv." Eliza grins. "Come on, this will be an adventure."
"Famous last words… Alaric is going to murder us." Lucas slumps his head against the headrest of the backseat, the car pulling off to the side of the road, parking neatly next to Elijah's BMW.
"My lady." Kol is suddenly at Eliza's car door, opening it with a flourish, a cheeky little smirk on his face.
"Thank you Kol." Eliza laughs a little, managing not to startle too badly at the youngest Mikaelson's appearance.
"This isn't suspiciously out in the middle of nowhere at all…" Lucas mutters under his breathe, hoping out the car a moment later. "Take the humans out to murder them… No one will notice… It's just a stray animal attack…" Lucas continues to mutter under his breathe like a bad Bond villain.
Niklaus barely refrains from smirking at Lucas' mutterings, managing to turn his back from the blond male.
"So… Where are we?" Eliza inquires, looking around.
"Not far from where our mother has made her… Place of craft. Or so we were informed by the Salvatore brothers." Elijah answers.
"Hmmm." Eliza nods. "And, do you trust their information? What makes them so sure? Do we have a game plan, so to speak?"
The rapid fire of questioning and line of inquiry has Kol immediately reminiscing of times long since passed, of a previous life time he had lost, of a woman he had loved.
1700s, Spain
"Bellissimo. Eliza." Kol breathes, setting his sights on his mate for the first time in a few weeks, having been traveling for some time.
"Kol." Eliza turns to face him, eyes immediately lighting up happily.
"Hello, my lady." Kol bows a half proper, half mock pretense.
"Kol!" Eliza almost launches herself at him, arms wrapping around him tightly.
"I have missed you, bellissimo." Kol whispers.
"I have missed you too." Eliza pulls back to place a kiss to his cheek.
"How was your journey? What did you see? Did you have any adventures?" His little mate begins firing off eagerly.
"How about you let us settle first? And then I shall tell you. And, I brought you a gift, bellissimo. Surely you would like to see it?" Kol entices, taking Eliza's hand in his and looping it through his arm.
"A gift?" Eliza questions, gaze lighting up even more, thoughts immediately side tracked. "What is it? Where did it come from?"
Kol chuckles at his mate's eagerness, leaning in to kiss her nose softly.
"Didn't anyone tell you that patience is a virtue?" Kol whispers, pulling the small package out of his coat pocket to hand to his mate. "But, I won't have you wait long, my lady. Beautiful women shouldn't have to wait after all."
Eliza took no time in opening the carefully wrapped package.
"Oh!" Eliza gasps, nearly dropping the small clam shell she held in her hand which, once open held something infinitely more valuable inside, the stone shimmering in the sunlight. "It's beautiful, Kol! I love it! I love it so much! Thank you!"
"Then it fits you perfectly, my lady. A rare jewel, for my rare jewel." Kol presses a tender kiss to the back of his mate's neck as he finishes clasping the gem around her neck.
"You are so romantic, Kol." Eliza giggles, tilting her head up to look at Kol, expression gleaming in the summer light.
"Only for you, my sweet Eliza." Kol offers back, smiling.
"I do. We have some… Insurance, so to speak. To ensure their compliance." Elijah says, wincing a little at how that sounds.
"You've kidnapped someone or threatened them, haven't you?" Eliza nearly deadpans.
"Yes." Elijah answers honestly, expecting Eliza to shy away from him and his brothers now, or at the very least hop back in her car and leave.
"Well, I can't say that doesn't work as a good motivator…" Eliza snorts. "So. Game plan?" At that she claps her hands once as if to refocus the situation.
"Go in and snap our mother's neck? Be badass? What else is there to it?" Kol asks, throwing his arm around Eliza, all to his older brothers' displeasure, Kol simply smirking at them like the cat that got both the canary and the cream.
"That's literally the worst idea I've ever heard…" Eliza answers.
Kol squawks a little offended while Finn tilts his lips up in the barest hint of a smirk, and both Niklaus and Elijah chuckling a little at Eliza's fearless sass; after all, not many would have the confidence to challenge an Original in any form or aspect.
"I mean, your mother is a witch. The Original Witch. You don't think she might expect you guys to try and stop her? You probably won't even be able to reach her to snap her neck. At least not until her magic is dealt with." Eliza points out logically.
"And how do you suggest we go about that?" Niklaus asks, looking a bit irked; perhaps because of the fact he hadn't thought about that himself, or for the fact his mother would get the best of them even as indestructible as they were, particularly himself as the Original Hybrid.
"Oh, I think I can think of a few ways…" Eliza answers, a secretive smile and look passed between her, Lucas, and Olivia.
The Mikaelson brothers, along with Eliza, Lucas, and Olivia, trekked through the backwoods of Mystic Falls, heading towards the old witches' house where the Salvatore brothers had assured Elijah the Original Witch was.
"Someone's coming, I think." Bonnie whispers, believing that she has heard a snap or rustle in the far off distant woods, and overall feeling abnormally uneasy and anxious as the night falls.
"No, it's too soon, the moon is not high enough. Go! Quickly!" Esther shoos both Bennett witches, still finishing up the pentagram.
"My sons, come forward." Esther beckons now, voice almost pleasant as she turns to face her sons.
The Mikaelson men were fanned out slightly in an arc, close enough to present a united front, but far enough apart to appear intimidating; Eliza was stationed firmly in the center, between Elijah and Niklaus, Finn to Elijah's right, and Kol to Niklaus' left. Lucas and Olivia had stayed back, hidden in the shadows of the rapidly rising moon and growing dusk.
"Whatever you think of us, killing your own children will be an atrocity." Elijah speaks after a moment of silence.
"My only regret is that I did not let you die a thousand years ago." Esther answers.
To that, Kol growls, baring his teeth, stepping forward towards the pentagram, only to have flames flare up high, driving him back quickly.
"Enough. All this talk is boring me. End this now, mother, or I'll send you back to Hell." Niklaus hisses, eyes tinting gold in annoyance.
"For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you. Felt the pain of every victim, suffered while you shed blood. Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility, you're no better. All of you. You're a curse on this Earth. Stretched out over generations. If you've come to plead for your life, I'm sorry, you've wasted your time." Esther shakes her head, as if she had a right to be disappointed in them.
"And I've heard enough of your bullshit too. Because that's clearly all it is…" Eliza finally speaks, stepping forward slightly in front of the line the Mikaelson brothers have created. "First of all… What mother wants to kill their children? And second… All you want is absolution for yourself… Well, find a church, bitch."
Esther looks downright affronted and offended at Eliza's bold words, looking down at her as if she herself was some self-important, superior being; no doubt believing Eliza was a simple human which would be inferior to her Original Witch status.
"No!" Esther suddenly looks frantic, as if feeling a change in the atmosphere.
"Hmm… Something wrong Original Bitch- I mean Original Witch?" Eliza raises an innocent eyebrow, shifting her weight to one side to tap her foot on the ground, lips pulling into an even more innocent smile that tells of anything but innocence.
"What- no. Sisters! Do not abandon me!" Esther looks even more frantic, turning around in the pentagram she had made, the flames falling.
"What have you done!?" Esther demands, feeling the spirits recede.
"What have I done?" Eliza grins, the waning flames flickering and reflecting in her eyes giving her a mischievous look. "Oh no… It's what they have done…"
At that, wind kicks up, ruffling Eliza's hair, twirling the fallen leaves and twigs on the forest floor, Olivia and Lucas stepping out from the shadows of the clearing, both taking defensive spots on either side of Eliza, arms raised.
"Hello Esther Mikaelson. We're the Gemini twins."