A/N: Once again, sorry for the wait! I still haven't quite caught up on The Originals yet... I've only seen the first episode of season 3 so far. But I have about four more chapters written after this one so expect another chapter soon!
Beautiful Disaster ~ Chapter XXVIII
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"There is no refuge from memory and remorse in this world. The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt us, with or without repentance."
~ Gilbert Parker
Elijah found himself stalking a girl down a long hallway. He glanced down at himself briefly, noticing he was shirtless and bloody. Looking back up at the girl, he watched as her long hair and white dress whipped around her as she ran towards a red door at the end of the hallway. She glanced back at him and he saw Tatia's face. He continued towards her as she whimpered in fear and desperately tried to open the door. When the girl turned around, it barely registered in his mind that it was Andy. She looked back at him in sheer terror and continued pounding on the door to no avail.
Elijah finally grabs her by the arm and turned her toward him, her face contorted in fear. He grabbed her by the hair and turns her neck toward him before vamping-out and feeding on her as she cried in protest.
Elijah jerked awake from his dream to find that he was still chained by his wrists in the crypt. He had never not trusted himself when it came to Andy's safety, so what was that dream about? Then again, he had watched as Genevieve tore her heart from her chest right in front of him.
Mustering all of his strength, Elijah yanked on his chains as hard as he can to free himself, but no matter how hard he pulled they wouldn't break. After a few moments, his mother entered drinking a cup of tea. He glared at her as she walked in.
"Have you forgotten where you are, son? Save your strength. My chains don't break so easily," She pointed above his head. He looked up to find a large poppet hanging from the rafters, magically fortified so that they cannot be broken. He looked back at her, unamused. "Having sweet dreams?"
Elijah lunged for her, unable to control his rage. However, the restraints wouldn't allow him to get any closer. She was taunting him with the one person he had been unable to protect. It was one of the few deaths in the Petrova line he could have prevented.
"Get out of my head." Elijah snarled at her.
Esther smirked in return. "I'm not in your head, dear. You were screaming." Elijah glared at her, but Esther remained unbothered by his aggression. "Go ahead, get your bearings. We have much to discuss." Esther left him and Elijah once again tried to break through the chains with no avail.
Elijah couldn't help as the flashes of the dream cycled back through his head. Andy's expression was similar to that of when Genevieve killed her. When Esther decided to make her family suffer by killing the two people who meant the most to them. He still hadn't been able to question Esther why Andy had been killed… He supposed when he was captured by her was now as good time as any.
"Who were you dreaming about ripping apart when you woke earlier?" Esther questioned as she walked back in a few minutes later. "Was it your new little plaything, Hayley? Or, was it someone else?" Elijah aggressively lunged for her, but still couldn't get any closer.
"You know damn well who it was." Elijah growled at her.
"Oh, stop fighting, Elijah! I brought you here to listen, and you're not going anywhere until I've said my piece." Esther explained, her tone final.
Elijah furiously replied, "So speak."
"I want you to rejoin our family, but as a witch. I want you to leave behind the grotesque savage vampirism has made of you. Take the body of a mortal, and we can all be happy again. Start over."
"You do know you're entirely demented, don't you?" Elijah questioned her.
Esther chuckled. "Am I? I'm not the one who pulls the wings off of every beautiful butterfly that he finds." Elijah decided he no longer wanted to listen to this. He continued to try to break through his chains. "Like the woman who flits across the edge of your nightmare."
Elijah looked back at her, his anger distorting his face. "Let me go. Now." His vampire face came out, but Esther was unfazed.
"Hmm. How quickly you slip back into your more savage self." Elijah was stunned into silence by this response, and he looked almost ashamed as his vampire face slipped away. "The moral son I raised is now but a mask worn to hide ancient demons."
"You know nothing." Elijah spat at her.
"See, that's where you're wrong. I know more about the secrets you carry than you do. Shall I list them? I can begin with the first little butterfly you destroyed." Elijah's face went pale as he realized. "The sweet young girl from our village who caught your eye when you were still human." Elijah shifted uncomfortably, which made Esther smirk in satisfaction. Had it been Anastasia in his dreams, not Andy? "Ah, you remember her. Of course. How could you forget the first girl to ever steal your heart? She of mystical blood, the sister of the doppelganger Tatia, none other than Anastasia."
Elijah felt as if a numbness had taken him over. "I did nothing but love that woman until the day she took her life because of Niklaus' actions."
Esther smiled sadly at him. "I know that's what you believe... which is precisely why you are here." She picked up a candle from the table and held it in front of Elijah's face. "I need to show you the monster you really are. When I do, you will beg for salvation, and happily I shall provide it." Esther cast a spell on the candle, and Elijah was transported into a flashback.
A celebration was underway in the Mikaelsons' village, where the meat was being cooked over bonfires and villagers are dancing around together, wearing festive masks. Nearby, Elijah and Esther, in her original body, watched as Tatia, wearing a forest green dress and matching mask, dance around the fire. Elijah noticed Anastasia off to the side, watching her sister with an unreadable expression.
Esther spoke to him from the present. "It was Samhain, when we danced and killed the best of our livestock to appease the gods for a new season."
Tatia lifted up her mask so she can smile at her sister before Klaus grabbed her by the arm and spun her around toward him.
"All women envied Tatia. All men wanted her. Anastasia was in her shadow, despite never being married and no children. She had only eyes for one, but he was one of the many who chased after Tatia. However, there was one who felt quite the opposite."
Elijah watched as Klaus kissed Tatia passionately. Elijah looked back over at Anastasia to see her face crinkle in pain. Looking back over, he saw that Klaus and Tatia began to dance. When he turned back, Anastasia had walked away. Quickly, he ran off to find her. When he saw her, she was petting and feeding one of the pigs. Elijah watched her a moment, admiring her gentleness.
"Do not tell me you came to save Loki the pig from his fate?" Elijah questioned as he joined her, kneeling by her. She stayed where she was, staring at the pigs. After a moment, she looked at him with a sad smile.
"No. I'm afraid Loki the pig's fate is to be food." She reached out and grabbed Elijah's hand, squeezing it tightly.
"Just as you are fated to love another." Elijah murmured in response. Anastasia closed her eyes and sighed.
"I suppose I am a matyr of love in that sense… I do love Niklaus and I'm afraid I will never stop loving him," Anastasia admitted, her eyes still closed. Elijah began to withdraw his hand but Anastasia quickly grabbed it back, her eyes opening. "Fate does not dictate my heart, Elijah. Even so, while I have been hurting over Niklaus and his affection for my sister, I have found someone else that makes me feel alive and safe and everything I could ever ask for. He is someone strong, protective, fierce, and yet noble, and gentle." Anastasia reached up and caressed Elijah's face. Elijah put his hand over it. "I choose you, Elijah."
Elijah smiled and leaned forward to kiss her, but she just giggled and pulled away shyly.
Anastasia's smile was shy and small. "And you choose to have our first kiss where your mother slaughters the pigs?" Elijah grinned in return. "Not very romantic—"
Elijah gently grabbed her head and pulled her close to him for a kiss, and they made out passionately for a few moments before he pulled away. He brushed her hair gently with his fingertips, smiling at her. "Perhaps we should set Loki the pig free? It seems one's fate can change, after all." Anastasia grinned and leaned in again for another kiss.
Esther blew out her candle, bringing Elijah out of his flashback. He stumbled as he tries to regain his bearings.
"But, that was just the beginning. A brief moment of happiness. That is how it always begins. A butterfly lands upon your finger, unaware that it will lead to her tragic end." Esther looked at him, her expression hard.
"Her tragic end came when Niklaus killed her parents and then you drained her sister's body of blood." Esther closed her eyes and sighed in frustration. "All for a spell to smother the wolf within Niklaus, if my memory serves."
Esther's eyes opened and she moved closer to him. "Actually, Elijah, your memory doesn't serve you at all. You just don't realize it yet." She caressed Elijah's face. "But, by the time we are done here, you will."
Elijah jerked his face away from her hand and glared at her angrily.
"We found everything you asked for: can-opener, shower drain, grinding wheel, jam, pocket knife, volume 'O' of the encyclopedia, a nail and a black marker." Bonnie said as Andy and she walked into the living room of the Salvatore Boarding House. Taped down to a chair in front of the fireplace was Kai, the mysterious person who had been screwing with Bonnie and Damon the past few months. When Kai saw her, he made a snarky comment about the crazy girl who spoke to herself. It took everything in Andy not to hit him.
Kai had sent them all over town to get various items to show them how to get back. Personally, Andy thought that they were being jerked around. The items were too random to mean anything. Bonnie walked over to the table in front of the couch where Damon sat and dumped the bag full of materials onto it. Damon rose to his feet.
"Now what?" Bonnie questioned as she turned to face Kai.
"Can't show you with my hands taped." Kai said, looking at them with a knowing smile. Andy didn't want this kid to be untied and warily watched as Bonnie reached over, grabbed the pocket knife and walked over to Kai.
Damon was seemingly on the same page as Andy. "Bonnie…" He said, his tone cautious and threatening. However, Bonnie had cut Kai free without a word.
"Thank you." Kai said, looking over at Andy and Damon with a smirk.
"Okay. Fine. How is this pile of crap going to get us out of here?" Damon questioned
Kai rubbed his sore wrists. "I'll explain... as soon as you tell me what you did on May 10th, 1994."
Andy saw Damon tense up slightly and the frustration in his expression. "What difference does it make!?"
Kai sat forward, glancing in between all of them. "Let me put it this way—Bonnie's magic is one part of the equation. My as-yet undisclosed knowledge is the other. Which means you would be hitching a ride home for free. I just want to know if you deserve to come along." He looked over at Andy. "I mean, I'd like both of you to explain, considering I'm pretty sure this one is insane."
Andy stomped over to Kai, snatched the pocket knife from Bonnie and lifted Kai up to put the knife against his neck. "Or I could just torture you until you say something useful. Or Damon could. He's got a couple centuries of torture on me." She said as she looked at him with a scowl. There was no way she was telling this weird kid her life story.
Kai, seemingly confused at her outburst, spoke slowly. "If you torture me, I'll get mad, and then I won't want to help you." He looked toward Bonnie. "...What kind of person needs to have that explained to them?"
Bonnie reached over and took the knife out of her hand. Andy reluctantly let Kai go. Kai laughed in return and Andy looked back at him with a glare.
"Play nice," Bonnie ordered.
"Stop trying to impress the new guy," Damon argued. "I'm with Andy on this."
"This kid has been yanking us around on fool's errands all morning," Andy said as she turned to face Bonnie. "This a prison world, Bonnie. Emmeline confirmed it was. Seeing as he is the only other person here, don't you think that he is the little bit suspicious? Moreover, how he only talks about old shit from years ago and we just happen to be stuck in 1994?"
"Andy, we don't have a choice," Bonnie said with a sigh. "We have no other way of getting out of here. You even said Emmeline didn't have another way out, that my magic was the only way." She turned towards Damon now. "Why don't you just tell him your story?"
Damon looked back at Bonnie with a glare. "Maybe because I don't want to talk about the worst thing I ever did, Bonnie."
Andy heard the jam can pop open. She looked over to see Kai smiling. "Ooooh, now I'm listening." He scooped out some jam from the jar with his hand and ate it as Andy wrinkled her nose in disgust.
Damon sighed and sat down. "Fine, you want to know? Here it is."
Damon explained how he arrived in Mystic Falls in 1994 with a newspaper that was sitting nearby them. Stefan had returned back and was staying at the Salvatore Boarding House. He had been trying to track his brother down for years and had finally been successful. He had had his phone number and left messages but he had been unresponsive since the fiasco with Lexi seventeen years ago.
However, before Damon had barely got started with his story, Kai was messing with the table full of the stuff they had been instructed to get. Kai picked up the can-opener. Bonnie and Damon are standing in front of the fireplace, where Damon is pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration, his eyes shut.
"I need to be entertained while I work." Kai is lied down on his back on the couch, screwing open another jam jar with the can-opener. Andy watched in disgust as he once again ate some of it and sang, "Hell story, please."
Damon turned his head to Bonnie. "Remind me not to kill him."
"Maybe telling him your story will take your mind off of it." Bonnie suggested.
"Whose side are you on?"
"The side where we get to go home to the people we love?"
Damon, after a prolonged moment, relented. "Fine," He turned to Kai. "On May 9th, 1994, I was living here. I'd come home to walk the straight and narrow."
Cami and Kol were checking on Davina, who was still unconscious falling and hitting her head when Klaus attacked. Klaus watched from the doorway with the white oak stake in his hand. Cami worriedly looked down at the young witch. "We should get her to a hospital."
Kol noticed Klaus standing in the doorway and addressed him as though they were strangers, though he didn't completely conceal his true identity. "Oh. Hello, darling. Back to huff and puff and blow the house down?"
Klaus looked back at him, unamused. He couldn't help but pick on Klaus, he was so easy to. "You know, it's funny how often a person's sharp tongue can end up cutting their own throat." Klaus commented back as Kol stood and took a few steps toward Klaus.
Cami sighed in frustration. "Klaus, he's just a kid. Give him a break."
"Yeah, she's right. You know, you may want to try a bit of lavender under your pillow. Does wonders for stuck-up pillocks with anger issues." Kol quickly replied.
Cami groaned in annoyance. "Hey! Shut it."
Klaus' friendliness had completely gone away. "I promised not to kill Davina. I said nothing of this insolent sod." Klaus said as Kol smirked at him, while Cami got up and led Klaus outside. Kol saw the briefest of recognition fly through Klaus' eyes.
"Klaus, come on." Cami said. Klaus continued to stare suspiciously at Kol as Cami pulled him onto the porch. Kol went back over to Davina, but he could still hear Klaus and Cami speak. "A minute ago, you had the opportunity to kill your father with this thing, and you didn't. You're not going to kill this kid with it, either!"
Klaus sighed after a moment. "Fine."
"Thank you." Cami replied in relief.
"Go get the car. Let's take her to hospital." After a few moments Kol heard footsteps come back to the doorstep. "You've got a way with words." Klaus commented.
"Well, I've traveled." Kol stood up and walked over to Klaus so they could speak face-to-face.
"You seem to have crossed continents to order to weasel your way into Davina's good graces, thereby meddling in my family business," Klaus smiled back at him. "Strange, isn't it?" Kol smirked, but said nothing, which seemed to confirm Klaus' suspicions. "Unless it's your family business. You know, ever since my mother and Finn, I was wondering when you might make an appearance… Kol."
Kol, clearly amused by this exchange, can't help but laugh as he bowed dramatically to Klaus. "Then the jig is up!" Klaus smiled as though he was genuinely pleased to see him... Kol highly doubted that. "Hello, brother!"
Klaus' smile, however, did not last long. "You know, back when mother attacked us, we could have used you. You could have been there and you could have been the one to save Andy." Kol looked away from Klaus. No matter the reason for why he was doing this, he was ashamed of it. "Instead, you are making all the wrong friends, brother. And, I have half a mind to show you how wrong you are."
Kol was tempted to come clean, to explain to Klaus his plan in what he was doing. However, as much as he wanted to, he didn't trust Klaus not to squeal on him sooner than he needed. So instead of confiding, Kol plastered a smirk across his face as he leaned in slightly to whisper to Klaus.
"But you're not going to do that, are you? Because your little blonde friend told you to leave me alone," Kol taunted and Klaus chuckled in return. "I'm curious, does she take one of those little baggies out when she takes you for a walk?"
Kol felt the pleasant tone of conversation evaporate as Klaus' annoyance was plain on his face. He raised his voice so the human could hear him. "Cami? I changed my mind, I am going to kill him after all." He called out. Kol continued smirking at him, but when Cami didn't respond, Klaus looked over at the car, worry on his face.
"Cami?" Klaus questioned as he walked to the driveway. Kol watched him for a moment before going to sit in a rocking chair. Before long, Kol could see his brother pacing out in the yard with his cell phone to his ear. As Klaus hung up furiously, he ran back to the doorway of the cabin with a glare on his face. "Wake her up. Tell her to get Mikael back here, now."
Kol knew that if Klaus was informed of Mikael's leash no longer existing, that would mean trouble for both him and Davina, so he decided to keep quiet about it. "Well, let me—let me think about that." He tapped chin thoughtfully, mocking Klaus. "No!" He wanted to help Klaus find Cami and get the stake from their father, but he still had things he needed to do with Esther's trust. Klaus gave him a furious look, but Kol forced himself to play it cool. "In fact, you should probably get going, Nik. Mikael, he's probably jonesing for a restorative snack about now. It'd be a shame to find—uh, Cami, is it?—nothing more than a bloodless husk."
"We're not done here, you and I." Klaus replied angrily before he sped away. Kol waited a few moments until he was sure he was gone before he went back over to Davina. Gently he placed a pillow under Davina's head and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear as he whispered to her.
"It'd be really useful if you woke up about now. I kicked a few familial hornets' nests, and we really need to scarper." Just then, his phone rang. He checked it, saw that it was Finn, and silenced it before pocketing it again. Suddenly, his nose began to bleed. He wiped it away as his phone rang, and seeing the caller ID, he reluctantly walked out onto the porch and answered it.
"Did you have to do that?" Kol questioned into the phone.
"I despise voicemail. Do you have the white oak stake?" Finn's voice rang through the other side. Kol looked around anxiously to make sure he wasn't being overheard before he answered.
"Hit a bit of a snag, truthfully."
Finn chuckled at that, his tone mocking. "Is that what you would you like for me to pass along?"
"Tell her that I've got everything under control," Kol snapped, rubbing his temple. "I'm keeping an eye on Davina. She's working on a spell to unlink her mates from Klaus' sire line so that she can kill him without them dying, too. I'm sure the stake will come back into play when she's ready."
Finn paused for a moment. "How close is she to completing the spell?"
"Well, she's joined Mother's linking and sire-bond spells in reverse. It's quite clever, really."
Finn, clearly intrigued, questioned, "What's she using as a binder?"
"I'm not sure. I'm still trying to work that one out."
"Work harder. Mother needs Klaus alive and connected. So, may I suggest that if you can't find that stake, you either kill that girl's spell or you kill the girl." Kol, frustrated, scowled and hung up on his brother. He glanced back into the cabin at Davina's slumbering figure, his mind racing.
Damon and Stefan were shining Damon's blue Camaro with rags outside of the boarding house. Damon was wearing a white tank top, looking bored, while Stefan was drinking from a flask.
Damon approached him, his eyes on the flask as he felt the hunger spike up at the smell. "Can I have a sip of that? I'm starving."
"Sure." Stefan handed him the flask, and Damon quickly took it.
"Whew." He unscrewed the cap and took a swig.
"Mmmm," Stefan hummed just as Damon pulled the flask away from his mouth quickly, his face pale. He looked down at it in disgust, his mouth still closed. That was animal blood, not human. "It's good, right?"
Damon made a face and shook his head. "Hmm-mm." He held the blood in his mouth even though it was disgusting, his lips contorted.
"Oh, yeah. I can't remember if that squirrel was roadkill, or one I caught in the rat trap." Damon shook his head, scrunching the side of his eyes, revolted. He just wanted his brother to stop talking. "Better hope it was roadkill, though, because the rat trap was full of rat droppings." Damon was still disgusted and white as a sheet. Stefan rubbed his fingers and thumb together. "Swish your tongue around. Does it feel like hair, or is it more of a grainy pellet?"
Damon finally managed to swallow it. "Ugh—" He was infinitely relieved to be done of it and shot a look at Stefan as his brother laughed and drank some of it. Just then, Zach arrived home with a paper brown bag full of food. He waved as he passed them to enter the house. "How's it going, Zach? What's up with all the grocery trips?" He questioned Zach.
"Oh, uh, one of the boarders is craving blueberry pancakes." Zach responded as continued his way to the house and walked up onto the front step. Damon regarded his uncle while he plays with a greasy rag from cleaning his car.
"You know, maybe I should run the Salvatore boarding house," Damon commented as he watched Zach walk up to the woman standing in the doorway, her belly bloated. She said "hi" to Zach. "Take over for Zach, get in good with Gail..."
"She's on vervain. So is Zach, which means hands off." Stefan warned. Damon pursed his lips at Stefan petulantly.
Damon was pulled out from his story as Kai's snoring filled the room. He continued fixing himself a glass of bourbon. "Perfect. Our savior's insane and narcoleptic," Damon commented.
"No, no, no, I'm awake." Kai said, his eyes opening. Damon, with two glasses of bourbon in hand, walked over to Andy and gave her the other glass. She took it and didn't hesitate as she took a long swig. "Let me guess... You killed the pregnant woman."
"Shut up, Kai. You weren't listening." Damon said with a roll of his eyes as he stood next to Andy.
"I was listening, in my sleep. You were hanging out with your distant-nephew Zach, who you called Uncle Zach, because that's not confusing. Plus, pregnant lady Gail, who had a big bull's-eye on her chest. Got it." Kai said with satisfaction.
Bonnie turned to Damon, a frown on her face. "Tell me you didn't kill a pregnant woman."
"Oh, that's totally what happened. Why else would today be his personal hell?" Damon's expression shifted to angry as he knelt in front of the table to face Kai, sitting his glass down. "Oh, here we go."
"The only reason that you're alive right now is because I thought you could get us out of here and you could help us. But you don't have any answers! You're just a man-child—" Damon picked up an empty jam can and tossed it angrily. "—with jam on your fingers!"
"Okay. To get home, we'll harness the power of the eclipse using a mystical relic. It's called an Ascendant, and it looks like this, Damon—" Kai picked up a model of the Ascendant, which is round, black and red. "The last time we had it was in the Pacific Northwest—Oregon." He opened the encyclopedia to a map and sat it on the table.
"We?" Andy questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.
"It belonged to my family. So—" Kai picked up the pocket knife and slit the tip of his finger. "—here's a little blood to get you started. Now all we need is a locator spell to pinpoint its whereabouts." He and Damon both rose to their feet.
Damon looked over at Bonnie. "Think you can find our ticket out of here, Bon-Bon?" He said her nickname comfortably, as if it was her true name.
Bonnie, unfazed, looked back at him with determination. "Hell. Yeah."
Elijah felt how weak he was. Even he were to break free, he knew the likeliness of dragging his way out of here was slim to none. He was beginning to doze off upright when footsteps stirred him back up, although he didn't look up at her.
"You're hungry, aren't you? It's been hours since you fed. What an awful thing, to feed upon the blood of others. For this, I blame myself. And your father. We tried to make you children strong. But, instead, we cursed you all." Esther sighed. "I recall the day that you and Anastasia came to Mikael and I. We were so proud and happy that you had found someone. You father might not have always shown it, but he liked Anastasia's spirit. The only thing was her relationship to Niklaus."
"What are you trying to accomplish?" Elijah asked, looking up at her in hatred. He and Klaus had put these days behind them.
"I'm trying to help your memory, Elijah," Esther argued as she walked back over to her candle. "Anastasia loved you all. When Henrik died, it broke her heart and her child was lost—her child with Niklaus."
"Stop." Elijah growled, yanking at his chains again.
"The only reason he wanted her then was because you had won her over, son. She was no longer concerned for him the way she had been, she was your wife and Niklaus realized too late the feelings he had for her," Esther sighed and shook her head. "I cannot say what got into her head when she laid with Niklaus. You doted on her and never mistreated her." Elijah nearly began to yell at her again because he just wanted her to stop talking about painful memories. However, instead she picked up her candle and lit it on fire.
Elijah was pulled back into yet another one of Esther's visions. It was right after he and his siblings had been turned into vampires… and the morning after Klaus triggered his werewolf gene.
"I had offered Anastasia the chance to become an Original, to never die and never grow old… But she rejected it. I could not tell you why she did."
Elijah found Klaus sitting in the forest, naked, covered in blood, and surrounded by the dismembered corpses of several men that he killed while he was transformed into a wolf. Elijah looked on with sympathy as Klaus struggled to hold back his tears.
"Brother?" Elijah murmured to grab his brother's attention as he handed him fresh clothes. After a second Klaus took them from him, but he otherwise didn't move to get dressed. Instead, he just becomes even more overwhelmed by everything that has just happened to him.
"What am I...? How many...?"
Elijah hesitated before answering. "... Six." Klaus covered his face with his hands in horror and disgust at himself. "You slaughtered six villagers, brother. You tore them apart as though they were nothing at all." Elijah helped Klaus to his feet.
Klaus looked at his brother in fear. He whispered, "Brother, what have I become?"
"You seem like the wolves in the village, cursed to turn when the moon is full." Elijah pulled Klaus into a comforting hug and paused a moment before continuing, keeping Klaus in his embrace as he spoke quietly. "Listen to me. Father is beside himself with rage. It seems this... affliction... can only be passed by a certain kind of conception—"
Klaus pulled back as he sniffled. "And do our siblings share this affliction? Do you share this affliction?"
Elijah once again hesitated for a moment before ultimately shaking his head. "No. I don't."
Klaus looked back at him, clearly devastated. "He is not my father, is he?"
Elijah looked brokenheartedly at him before placing his hand on the back of Klaus' head to force him to look him in the eye. "You listen to me. This changes nothing. For any of us. We are here for you, as we shall be always."
Klaus looked as though he was about to cry. Suddenly, they hear the sound of someone approaching them. Elijah turned around to see it was Tatia, who – before they could do anything – saw Klaus covered in blood and surrounded by bodies. Terror overtook her expression and she quickly turned and ran away. Elijah, flustered, chased after her to explain.
"Tatia! Tatia? Tatia!"
Elijah glared at Esther as he returned from his flashback. "I fail to see your point, here. I compelled Tatia to forget what she saw, and she did."
Esther looked back at him in pity. "You'd only been a vampire for a few days. You hadn't yet learned compulsion."
Elijah shook his head ferociously in disbelief. "No. I remember that. Clearly."
"Do you? You thought there were still lines you wouldn't cross." Esther said. Elijah could only stare at her, visibly distraught by the thought of what she's suggesting. "People you wouldn't hurt. Things you wouldn't do. But, you're wrong. That is what I'm here to show you." Once again he watched as she lit the candle.
Elijah continued to chase after Tatia through the woods after she found Klaus and Elijah surrounded by bodies and fled the scene. She eventually tripped on an exposed tree root and fell on the ground, allowing Elijah to finally catch up to her.
"Tatia! Tatia! Tatia! Wait! Wait." He continued to call out to her as he stopped a few feet away. Tatia scrambled to her feet and starts to back away from him fearfully, and Elijah put up his hands in a non-threatening gesture.
"Stay away from me." Tatia growled at him.
"I won't hurt you!" Elijah insisted, attempting to quell her fear.
Tatia still looked back at him in horror. "What have you become?"
"I'm what I've always been! I'm the one who loves your sister," Elijah said but Tatia quickly shook her head, visibly scared by him and his new supernatural identity.
"You knew how special she was! She was a doppelganger and Anastasia's sister! Your sister, by marriage! I thought you would protect your family, even extended members. Instead—"
Elijah interrupted her. "I didn't hurt her!" He yelled.
"You've taught yourself to hide from who and what you are for a thousand years!" Esther shouted back.
Elijah angrily yanked on his chains in an effort to lunge at Esther. "I did not hurt Tatia! I could not do that to her."
"But you did!"
Tatia continues to stare at Elijah in fear and horror, and Elijah continued to try to ease her fears while still feeling hurt by her reaction.
"Your mother asked for my blood. She said nothing of the dark magic that would turn you into a monster!" Tatia yelled at him.
"Look at me, I'm not a monst—" Elijah cut himself off, unable to finish the words because he smelled the blood that was pouring from a wound on Tatia's palm that she sustained when she fell. Elijah tried as hard as he can to resist it, but his vampire face came out involuntarily, briefly scaring Tatia. He breathed deeply to try to control himself, and it eventually faded away. "Tatia..."
Elijah was snapped briefly out of the memory as Esther took his face in her hands and forced him to look at her. "Oh, my beautiful boy. No more hiding. It is time, now, for you to remember it all."
Tatia became frightened once more and slapped Elijah across the face in hopes of protecting herself. Elijah was so taken aback by this display of violence that he doubled over and massaged his jaw, hurt that she didn't trust him.
"I said I will not hurt you. I don't want to—" Despite Elijah's best efforts, the scent of her blood caused his vampire face to come out again. In response, Tatia backed away in terror at the sight of his blood-red eyes, darkened eye-veins, and vampire fangs.
"Elijah...?"
Elijah mustered up all of his willpower to try to hold himself back from feeding on her. Elijah, becoming overwhelmed, yelled, "Run!" to the doppelganger. Tatia backed away and turned to run as fast as she could, but Elijah's efforts were for naught, and he's ultimately unable to stop himself from chasing after her.
"You didn't want to hurt her." Esther's voice rang through his mind. "You loved Anastasia and knew she loved no one more than her sister, no matter how jealous she was. You knew how broken Anastasia would be if her sister were to die."
Elijah grabbed hold of Tatia and pulled her head back by the hair in order to expose her neck as Tatia yelped and struggled against his grip.
"But, you couldn't fight what you had become. What I had turned you into!"
Elijah bit Tatia's neck and viciously fed on her as she screamed in pain.
"A predator. And she became your prey!" Elijah yanked himself out of Esther's grasp and glared at her as he managed to break himself from her hallucinations.
"This was you. You murdered her for her blood. You broke Anastasia's heart then Klaus did by taking her parent's lives. And then, you used Tatia's blood to cripple Klaus for centuries." Esther just stared at him, blank-faced, as Elijah stepped backward and continued to pull on his chains. "I won't listen to another word."
"You don't have to listen, son. All you have to do is remember."
Bonnie was doing the locator spell for the Ascendant inside the boarding house, while Damon made paper airplanes out of the newspaper and threw them in the front yard. Andy watched him from inside the house with a pensive expression. She wondered who Elena missed more, her or Damon. Then again, who said that Elena even knew that she was dead? She hadn't had the guts to ask Damon and Bonnie about it. Moreover, a part of her didn't think it was fair to think like that but her and Elena's relationship had always had blurred lines when it came to the Salvatores.
"Phesmatos tribum, nas ex viras, sequitas sanguinum," Andy looked back over at Bonnie as she chanted. When she stopped chanting, the witch looked down at the drop of blood on the map, which didn't moved. "It doesn't feel right. Maybe I need a bigger map?"
Damon came back inside and dropped the newspaper on the table. "Maybe you're just out of practice and you suck at magic now." He commented.
"Ignore him, Bonnie. Pretend he's a white-noise machine. That's how I used to tune out my siblings. I grew up with a ton of little sisters and brothers. You know, all of them constantly yammering," Kai came closer to Bonnie as he spoke. Andy watched him warily. "But it taught me how to focus." He had leaned in close to her and Andy believed for a moment that he was actually going to try to kiss her. However, Damon broke it up.
"Easy there, big brother! She doesn't know you. At least buy her a drink." Damon said before he turned away and began fixing himself another drink. Andy looked over at Kai to see he was watching her.
"So, Andy, what is your story?" Kai questioned before his eyes went down to her necklace. "I mean, I know how you ended up here with that old magic around your neck. However, there's magic in your blood also. It's practically radiating off of you."
"It's because I'm a doppelganger," Andy finally answered him, throwing him a brief glare as she looked back over at Damon.
"No, that's not it," Kai glanced at Bonnie. "Can't you feel it? It's something else entirely. The moment she came into this world I felt the pull of whatever she is. You can't tell me you didn't either, Bonnie."
Andy's gaze bored into Bonnie's, and the young witch hesitated before speaking. "I… I did sense something, but Andy's always had power in her blood. Then there's the necklace… I just thought maybe it was a combination of the two and the fact Emmeline was on this side also."
Kai's ears perked up. "Who's Emmeline?"
"Psychotic bitch that Andy is the doppelganger of," Damon answered as she sat down on the couch and sipped on his drink. He seemed to have been caught up in his own thoughts before and just returned. "Well, she wasn't as bad as Katherine at least."
Kai looked over at Andy, his eyes narrowing slightly. "That was who were talking with these past few months?"
Andy shifted nervously. During her meltdown, she hadn't divulged to Bonnie that Emmeline wasn't real and she really didn't want to now. She would rather her friends still thought her sane to an extent. "Yes," She responded through clenched teeth.
"Huh," Kai's gaze never wavered from hers and Andy forced herself to stare back at him. She was sure if she backed down she would lose whatever power she had established. "Maybe that's it. Who knows? Anyways, there's that map of the entire U.S. in the study isn't there? Andy, why don't you run and grab it?"
"I'm not your little errand girl," Andy snapped as she scowled at him. "If you want it you can go get it for yourself."
Kai held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I didn't mean any offense, I'm sorry," Kai began to walk for the door. "I'll be right back, okay?" The moment he was out of the door Andy turned to Bonnie.
"I don't trust him at all, Bonnie," Andy quickly said as she walked over to the witch. "I say we go while we still can, figure some other way out."
"Andy…" Bonnie sighed and crossed her arms. "There is no other way."
"How do you know?!" Andy's voice began to rise. "I call bullshit. This a prison world, Bonnie, how many times do I have to explain this?! Why would you lock in the key in the cell with your prisoner? In what world does that make sense, even in a 1994 version?!" Andy sighed and shook her head, her gaze going to the door where Kai had disappeared before she glanced in between Bonnie and Damon. "I won't leave you guys here with him. If you are determined to go this route… I'll go with you. But please, please listen to me when I say that, even if we all make it back to our world, he is going to be a pain in your ass in Mystic Falls. He is not the kind of psycho that moves on."
Bonnie and Damon stared at her in silence for a few moments, both uncertain how to respond. Within the next, Kai had returned with the map and looked at them with feigned innocence Andy saw right through.
"What'd I miss?" Kai asked. Andy huffed and walked over to the window, knowing for sure her friends would follow Kai because they believed it was the only way out.
As Bonnie continued working on the spell, Andy stood staring out the window. Her mind ventured to New Orleans. The food, the music, the people… She was aching for that life again. To be a part of Marcel's community, to be oblivious to the Originals… She closed her eyes and sighed internally, wondering what her life would have been like if she had never met the Originals. She would've gone on to a liberal arts college, probably becoming a starving artist before having to return to Mystic Falls to become a teacher. Jenna would still be alive… so would John and Alaric and everyone else they had lost since the night of the masquerade ball at the Lockwoods. All those lives lost because of Klaus, because he was hateful and spiteful and had to be the alpha. Elena would be human… Hell, she would be human. As much as she had enjoyed becoming stronger, Andy couldn't help but miss the life she would – could never have. She had never even been given the option.
"The spell's moving towards Virginia. That can't be right." Andy turned her head to the side as Kai's voice broke her out of her thoughts. She turned to see Kai's blood moving around the map, sure enough towards Virginia.
"Mm-mm, the spell's working. It's showing me Mystic Falls. It feels so... close," Bonnie said as she turned toward Kai and held up her hand. The candles' flames intensified around them. "It's right here." As soon as she touched Kai's chest, the candles 'flames go out completely. Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out the real Ascendant, which is made of silver and gold-colored metal.
"Very good." Kai said with a proud smirk on his face.
"That's the Ascendant?" Andy questioned as she looked up at him with suspicion.
"The one and only." Kai continued looking down at Bonnie.
"Thanks for the mind games, jackass." Damon commented as he stood up and walked over to them.
"It was just another little test. To make sure Bonnie's magic was precise enough for the spell," Kai said to Damon before his gaze moved back to Bonnie. "I do believe you're ready. Pack your bags – we're going home."
Davina sat cross-legged across from Kaleb on the floor. Once Davina had woken, Kaleb had informed her that Mikael had kidnapped Cami to lure Klaus with the intent to kill him. Immediately after Davina had discovered her bracelet no longer worked on Mikael for some reason so they were doing a spell to disconnect Klaus from his sire line so Marcel, Josh, and all the others wouldn't die. However, they were not having any luck.
"Stop! Stop. This isn't working," Davina interrupted their chanting, frustrated at her failure. She had planned everything out so meticulously and had thought there was no way this could fail. Quickly she began messing with the ingredients of the spell.
"Well, maybe you're just... doing it wrong?" Kaleb suggested. If Davina hadn't been so focused on figuring out what was going wrong, she would've thought more into his nervous tone.
"No, we have to do this right! Josh and Marcel, their lives depend on it… And another friend of mine would have no chance to come back," Davina said, turning back to look at him. If Klaus died, Drea's body wouldn't hold up and any chance she had of figuring out a way to bring her friend back would go right out the window. Kaleb's eyebrows raised slightly, but Davina sighed in frustration and spoke before he could. "Look, just stop chanting." She grabbed his wrists in her hands. "I'll chant and channel your power."
When Davina touched Kaleb's arms, she got a vision of when he cast a spell to kill the Kandahar root earlier. She looked at him suspiciously before closing her eyes again, this time flashing back to him de-spelling Davina's bracelet. Then, she saw a flashback of Klaus identifying him as Kol, his brother. When she returned to the present, she quickly lets go of him and stared at him in horror. He stared back almost guiltily.
"Kol?" Davina questioned, her tone full of confusion and hurt. After another second of the information settling in, Davina felt her anger surge. She used her powers to slam him against the wal. "You liar!" She shrieked at him before she threw him against another wall. Kol fought back, pulling her toward him with magic before throwing her against another wall.
"That hurt." Kol commented back. Davina casted a pain-infliction spell on Kol, who grabbed his temples in agony. "Okay, okay, okay, okay!"
"You ruined the spell, and now my friends are gonna die because of you!" Davina shouted at him as she stopped. "You helped kill one of my friends before and then you jump into someone else's body and befriend me?!"
"My mother said, 'Kill the spell, or kill her,'" Kol said as he stood back up, wincing in pain. "And I happen to like you, Davina. I always have."
Davina glared at him, both furious at him and skeptical of him. "Oh, please—"
"Listen, you don't disobey Mother Dearest without some consequences. Yes, I did join her side, but she's mad as a hatter. And, that man you've made your pet, my father? Well, he's more of a lunatic than she is," Kol explained. "We were friends once before and we have been the past few weeks. Just listen to me, Davina."
Davina scrutinized him for a moment, trying to figure out what his intentions might be this time. After a moment, she asked, "What, so you just unleash him?"
"You're the one who brought him back to life first, love!" Kol pointed out.
"I had him under control!"
"Yeah, right up until the point you didn't, which is when he threatened me! He wanted freedom, so I freed him. You wanna know my secrets?" He held out his arms to Davina, which surprised her. "Then here you go. Go on! Have at it! Yes, I'm a Mikaelson, but I've got just as much reason to loathe the lot of them as you do."
Davina looked at his wrists and rolled her eyes before trying to brainstorm a new plan. "You were buddies with Klaus months ago. What happened?"
"Well, after my part in your boyfriend's death was revealed," Kol paused for a moment before continuing. "I decided it would be best to stay away from my family. I knew if I did I would lash out and attack my brother, and since Andy was the deciding factor on whether or not I was put back in a casket… I knew it was best not to attack Nik because of their attachment to one another."
"So why are you in another body?"
Kol hesitated a moment. "Swear you will not tell a soul." Davina rolled her eyes and began to answer sarcastically when he grabbed her wrist. "Davina, I'm serious."
Swallowing, she gave a short nod. "Fine, I swear."
"I'm doing this for Andy," He explained after another moment. "I wasn't here to help when my mother took out a bounty on Andy's life, I was up in Mystic Falls trying to prevent the death of the other doppelganger, Emmeline. My mother seemingly wanted both of them taken out… but Emmeline had died weeks before I even arrived. By the time I got back it was too late… Except my mother approached me just when I was fleeing New Orleans again because my brothers aren't exactly the forgiving sort. She offered me a new life in a witch's body… and I realized that this was a perfect opportunity to figure out why my mother wanted them dead, find a way to bring Andy back, and get revenge all in one."
Davina stared at him in surprise for a few moments. She hadn't expected that from him. "Why are you fighting so much for her? I thought you Mikaelsons didn't actually care about anything other than each other."
"Andy is one of us," Kol said as he finally dropped Davina's arm. "Always and forever, even if I wasn't a part of that promise. Besides, when I was killed by her family, Andy fought to bring me back even over her own blood. The least I can do is repay the favor."
Davina nodded and, reflexively, she grabbed her bracelet. They needed to get back to the issue at hand and could work out their personal issues later. "You deactivated my bracelet. How?"
"It's a dark object. I know a little something about creating and destroying them." Kol responded, regarding her with reluctance.
"Show me." Davina said. After a moment, Kol relaxed a bit when he realized that he wasn't in immediate danger and nodded.
"Alright." He agreed. Satisfied, Davina turned and headed into the next room.
Andy stood out in the yard of the Salvatore Boarding House with Damon, Bonnie, and Kai. Kai was using the Ascendant by looking at the sky with it through a small hole in the device.
"You're wandering around like a crazy man, why?" Damon questioned, glancing over at Andy to see if she was thinking the same thing about the eccentric kid.
"Looking for the exact right spot. We need to found where the power of the eclipse is focused." Kai answered as he continued.
"You know you could have just shown us the Ascendant to begin with," Andy said as she looked around. She was getting an uneasy feeling from all of this and wanted to dart away.
"Yeah, but I wanted to feel Bonnie's hand on my chest," Kai said pausing to give the witch a cheeky smile before returning to his task.
"Andy, I think you were right." Bonnie murmured to her as they watched Kai from a bit off.
"You're just not used to guys hitting on you." Damon answered back.
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "You know, I can't wait to get out of here and talk to somebody else."
"Can we just have a few lasting seconds of peace while this idiot uses that thing to get the stars to align?" Damon questioned. Andy sighed and saw Bonnie looking at one of the paper airplanes Damon had made. She picked it up and unfolded it so she could read the article on the page. "Hey, what's up with the nature walk?" Damon asked Kai.
"I used the Ascendant to figure out where we need to be standing during the eclipse." Kai responded.
"Great. Let's do some magic and get the hell out of here." Damon said, clasping his hands together.
Bonnie whispered, "Oregon" before looking back up at Andy with a worried expression.
"What?" Damon asked, confused at the looks between the two girls.
"I read this paper like a thousand times, and there's something in it about Oregon." Bonnie explained, looking down at the paper in question.
"What about it?" Andy demanded, her brows furrowing. If Bonnie had more evidence to Kai's legitimacy, she was all ears.
"You know, Kai said he had all these brothers and sisters…"
"So?" Damon shrugged.
Bonnie read the paper aloud. "'Family massacred in Portland. The only one missing was the oldest boy, a 22-year-old named Malachi.'"
"Who names a kid Malachai? It's like they expected me to be evil." They turned to see Kai was standing closer now, the Ascendant no longer pointed towards the sky.
"All these kids were murdered!" Bonnie exclaimed.
"Hello! Not everyone died. I had a soft spot for one of my sisters. 'Cause otherwise, I would've cut her lungs out, and not just her spleen." Kai said casually. Despite all the time she had spent with the Mikaelsons, hearing someone talk so easily about murdering others, kids at that, made Andy feel sick to her stomach.
"What?" Bonnie questioned, her expression full of surprise and horror.
"You can survive without a spleen." Kai pointed out.
"Something tells me you're not speaking hypothetically." Damon said, his gaze meeting Andy's.
Kai pointed at the photo on the front page of the family. "Look, well, these two, I, uh, hung off a stairwell railing. Then I put a hunting knife in her abdomen, and him, I drowned in the pool. But, he kept fighting me. I was like, 'I saved you for last, you ungrateful little...' Anyway, that was that."
They all stared at him in shock for a few moments. Andy knew he was untrustworthy, but she didn't expect this. "You just killed your whole family?" Andy asked him, her brows furrowing again.
"Coven, to be precise. Oh, you know, family of witches."
"You're making us jump through hoops, and you're a witch?" Damon asked, annoyed.
"Sort of, yeah. No powers, obviously. Oh, and of course, Gemini Coven did not take it too well when they heard what I did in Portland. It's why they banished me here." Kai said, looking over at Andy then. "You were quite right about this being a prison. However, Damon, you were wrong about this place being your hell. It's mine."
"You're distorting my memories! It was you who killed Tatia!" Elijah yelled at Esther. He was still chained up and his mother was still attempting to convince him he had killed Anastasia's sister.
"Oh, I used her blood to bind the spell that suppressed Niklaus' werewolf aspect. But, by the time you brought her to me, she was already dead." Esther explained.
Elijah looked at his mother in horror and disbelief. "You can't rewrite history!"
"No, I cannot. And I did not. Not until I had your consent," Esther sighed. "I was out by the pig pen cleaning my knife. When you became yourself again, you brought her to me… But, too late. I told you you were a good son, to let me take care of it. That I could help make it all go away. And then, I said to you, 'You will not suffer from this memory, or be tormented from the guilt of your misdeed. What goes behind that door shall stay there and be forgotten.' I told you to clean yourself up. That if you were clean, no one would know what you are or what you'd done. To return to your wife and be there for her for what was it come," Elijah vigorously shook his head in disbelief. "And you did exactly that... and more. You, ever the good man, went to confess your deeds to Anastasia's parents… Where they met their end by your hands." Elijah looked up at her, his eyes widening. "It was not Niklaus who took their lives… No, he took credit for it, reasons only he would know. After that, you created a place in your mind to put your victims. You began to believe that as long as your suit was immaculate and your hands clean, you could look in the mirror and tell yourself it's all okay. No one need know what's behind that red door."
Elijah couldn't help as his mind flashed back to his nightmare from earlier, when he chased Andy and Tatia down the hall… Where they pounded on the red door while he stalked them, shirtless and covered in blood, before finally feeding on them. Then, his mind went to a faraway memory.
"I have something to confess…" Elijah said as he stood in the doorway of Anastasia's parents' home. He was going to confess what he did to Tatia and what kind of monster he was but all he could think about was the scent of their blood.
"Elijah?" Anastasia's mother questioned… and it was the last time she spoke other than the bloodcurdling scream that came from her lips as he fed on her. Anastasia's father had tried fighting back… but Elijah had been too strong. Before long he sat next to their bodies, sobbing.
"Elijah?" He didn't look up at his brother's voice. Within a second, Klaus was by his side. "Brother, what… happened? What did you do?" Elijah looked up at him, unable to fight the pain that was rising in him. He had killed Anastasia's family… and he knew she would never forgive him.
"I have condemned myself to a lifetime of misery... I have condemned Anastasia to an eternity of it." Elijah responded as his gaze moved back to the corpses.
Klaus was silent for a few moments. "No, you have not. I killed them. You walked in on me killing them. I slaughtered them in my frenzy… and that is what you will tell Anastasia."
"But, a thousand years is a long time, Elijah," Esther's voice broke him out of the memory. "And a place meant to hold one unforgivable sin is now full to bursting with your most monstrous deeds."
"Stop!" Elijah shouted, his mind becoming overwhelmed by all of the pain and guilt he was feeling from deeds done over a thousand years ago.
"Tell me, does Andy's corpse now reside behind that red door?"
Elijah, with his head hung low, whispered desperately, "Stop."
"You must have been afraid that—that loving you would have destroyed her, even more so than if she loved Niklaus. Just as it destroyed Celeste. Anastasia. Take my offer. In new bodies, you will be alive again!"
Elijah, for a brief moment, as if he may give in and take his mother's offer. With the pain he was feeling, he wondered if it would heal it… But, the same time, this was the woman who ordered Andrea away from them all… and here she was acting as if it was not her fault.
"You will not break me." Elijah said with determination as he lifted his head back up, although he looked straight ahead and away from Esther.
"Oh, you are already broken, my dear boy, but not beyond repair. I am here to fix you. I am here to fix you all." Esther said to him. Elijah looked up at her.
"You are the one who ordered Andrea's life to be taken, were you not?" Elijah questioned and continued speaking before Esther had the chance to speak. "Was her death a piece in this little ploy of yours to 'break us'? Did you hope that Niklaus and I would come crawling to the very woman who took from us the person who united our family?"
"Andrea's death was unavoidable," Esther said after a moment, her gaze dropping. "I knew it would cause problems when convincing you two."
"Each one of us loved her!" Elijah yelled back at her. "Andrea was one of us. She is the one who brought Kol back to life, she is the one who united us when you couldn't, and she was the core of our family. By taking her and Niklaus' child away you destroyed any possibility of us being a family again." Elijah was straining the chains to get closer to his mother to attack her. "If your goal was to break us by taking her away… That makes you all the worse."
Esther turned away from him and exhaled. "One day, you will understand." With that, Esther walked out of the room, although Elijah still attempted to break free of his chains.
"We're not letting Kai out of here, okay? He just said he's a serial killer," Bonnie argued with Damon as they stood with Andy in the Boarding House. After Kai's little reveal, they decided they needed to have a private chat with one another, with Bonnie starting out apologizing for not listening to Andy sooner about Kai.
"I don't care! I wanna get out of here." Damon said, his arms folded across his chest.
"How can you not care? Maybe because of the horrible things you have done? Maybe 'cause killing a bunch of kids is not a big deal to someone who's murdered a pregnant woman?" Bonnie questioned. Hurt flashed across Damon's expression, but Andy couldn't find pity. Bonnie was completely right about that they couldn't risk setting Kai loose back in the world. "Am I wrong?"
"I killed her," Damon admitted after a moment. "Stefan had locked me away because I started acting out and… well, I got out during the eclipse. Gail was the only person there at the time and I hadn't drank human blood in a while. I killed her in front of Zach and Stefan, and held up my promise of giving Stefan an eternity of hell."
"Ouch. Poor nephew-uncle Zach." Kai said as he stood in the doorway. Andy looked over at him with a glare.
Damon didn't look away from the ground. "Stefan compelled Uncle Zach to forget about the girlfriend and the baby. But, he couldn't cover up all those murders. Founder's Council was restarted, and Stefan took off. Left Mystic Falls for about fifteen years. We both did. And when I saw Uncle Zach again, I couldn't look at him without remembering that I ruined everything. So it was a nice relief when I got to kill him. Okay, can we go back now?"
"Oh, come on, Bonnie," Kai said as he took a few steps closer to them. Andy jumped in-between them and clenched her fists. He didn't even glance at her. "You wanna go home to your friends, I wanna go back and give the rest of the Gemini Coven an excruciating death. Win-win."
"Look, Bonnie, I know this guy's not a model citizen, okay, but I gotta get back. Not just for Elena, but for my brother." Damon said.
"Bonnie, don't listen to them," Andy said, keeping her glare on Kai. "I have people that I have to get back to also… but if that meant unleashing this psycho on the world again I'm okay with staying here."
"I'm not the only psycho," Kai looked over at Andy. "I mean, we haven't even seen this Emmeline once, have we? How do we know you're not her pretending to be Andy just so you can hitch a ride back to the real world?"
Andy lunged at him and pinned him against the wall, growling in his face. "I'm going to tear you apart."
Kai looked back at her with a smirk as if she had proven something. "Psycho Andy. Tell me, all those months spent alone traveling… Was Emmeline just a coping mechanism? I saw you by yourself in Portland. Days, you wandered around aimlessly until one day you laid down in a record shop and went to sleep. When you woke up you spoke to someone that wasn't there. It's Emmeline, wasn't it? She's not really here… just in there." He tapped the side of her head and Andy backed away from him, pushing him into the wall.
"Shut up!" Andy barked at him, grabbing the necklace reflexively. "You don't know anything about me."
"I know that you're loco, probably more so than I," Kai looked over at Bonnie. "Well?"
Bonnie and Damon were both watching Andy with pity-filled expression. After a moment of thought, Bonnie looked over at Damon guiltily. "I'm sorry, Damon." She murmured.
"Sorry doesn't work for me." Kai said and reached out to grab Bonnie, but instead Damon grabbed him.
"We may be having a bit of a disagreement, but don't ever lay a hand on her." Damon threatened him.
"Kind of a non-issue now," Kai glanced out the window. "We missed the day's eclipse. Rain check for tomorrow?" He looked towards Bonnie.
"No." Bonnie walked towards the kitchen. Andy glanced over at Damon before she followed after her.
"Bleeding power from a dark object is tricky, so it does help to know what kind of object it is," Kol explained as he and Davina walked through the woods together.
"The white oak stake." Davina stated. Kol looked over at her in disbelief, and when he realized she was serious, he laughed at her patronizingly.
"You want to drain the white oak stake, do you?" Kol raised his eyebrows at her.
Davina shrugged as it were nothing. "It's a dark object. If I can't stop Mikael, I have to stop that stake from working."
"See, usually I like a girl with ambition, but this is just beyond mad." Kol started to walk away, but Davina grabbed him by the arm and stopped him.
"Just show me the spell, Kol! You owe me that much after the stunt's you've pulled," Davina pointed out as she folded her arms across her chest.
Kol sighed. "The problem's not the spell, love. It's the white oak stake. It's too powerful, you can't just drain it. Best you can hope for is to disable it, but just for a bit." He turned and walked toward his car.
"So, do you have a better solution? Because I don't have time to argue! So, show me the spell, and hand me the keys." She said as she followed right behind him, blocking him from entering the building.
Kol looked back at her with an amused expression. "And what are you going to do? Just drive around until you bump into them?"
"You may have messed with my bracelet, but I made sure months ago that I would always be able to find Mikael." Davina said with a certain determination in her voice that made him admire her even more. He couldn't help but admire that she wasn't afraid of his family.
However, knowing his brother, Kol wasn't going to let her walk into her potential death alone. "Alright, fine. Your funeral. I'm still not going to allow you to drive me bloody car, though." Kol said as he got into his car. He looked back to see her watching him with a frown and a suspicious look on her face. "You coming?"
The young witch sighed and walked around the car. Once she was in, he watched her with a smile.
"What?" She questioned, a glare on her face as she looked over at him. "Are we going or not? We don't have all day." Kol's smile grew as he turned his car on and drove off.
His brother was missing. Mikael had kidnapped Cami. This day was just not looking good for Klaus Mikaelson. He wasn't sure why he was so concerned for Cami. Maybe because she had been a genuine friend to him since the beginning and he appreciated it more than he could ever say. As much as he had a goal to kill Mikael again, he knew Cami's safety had to come first at the moment… not that he'd ever admit that. Elijah could handle himself, he was capable.
After Mikael had a group of drunk college students attack him, Klaus had managed to pick up on Cami's scent again. He wandered the outskirts of the Bayou, his mind difficult to focus on the task at hand. He had a feeling in his chest, one that was full of anxiety and fear. He had been feeling it for the past day, but he knew it wasn't his. While a part of him feared Mikael still, it wasn't to this extent. Honestly, it was the same feeling he would get if Andy would get hurt back when she was human, right before she was turned into a vampire when their bond was at its peak. He wasn't sure what to think about it, but he didn't really have any time to with all that was going on.
As he moved closer to an abandoned building, Klaus spotted a rock soaked with blood outside. He frowned anxiously as he touched it, recognizing by smell as Cami's blood. He saw a shovel nearby and broke it in half before entering the building. As he entered the main part, Mikael stood there, holding Cami at knife-point. Cami's neck was punctured with blood running down it and was swaying on her feet, only still standing because Mikael is holding her up. Klaus became furious and pointed his handmade stake at Mikael threateningly.
"You're gonna pay for hurting her." Klaus growled.
Mikael carelessly let go of Cami and dropped her to the floor. Klaus watched, concerned for her. He wanted to jump to catch her, but he knew it would put her back into Mikael's focus and he knew she was safer if she stayed out of it.
"Aw, how sweet. The cur whines for its bitch," Mikael taunted, his mouth bloodied. He held up Papa Tunde's blade in one hand, and the white oak stake in the other. "I'll be sure to drain the rest of her right in front of your eyes, just before you burn. I suppose that little doppelganger would have been the better choice, but I heard that her heart was already torn from her chest."
Furious, Klaus leapt a dozen feet into the air and lunged at him with his makeshift stake. He tackled Mikael, but they both quickly rose to their feet in defensive positions. Klaus glared back at his father, ready to kill him if given the chance.
Davina and Kol finally made it to Mikael's location. He had finally put the car in park before Davina had rushed out of the car and towards the building. She was about to walk into the main room when Kol was able to stop her.
"Wait! We need to do this together." Kol insisted, knowing only Davina's power could never fully drain the dark energy from the stake, not even for a second.
Davina quickly shook her head. "I'm strong enough on my own."
"No, you're not," Kol said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Listen, I know you don't trust me, and that's fair enough. But, these are your mates we're trying to save, here. And even if you want him dead, that's my brother in there. The only way that we can do this is if we work together." He grabbed one of Davina's hands in his own, and held out the other for her to take. "You need to trust me. Alright? After this you can spurn me but for this moment, just recall the trust you had in me before. Take my hands. Take my power. Channel me."
Davina looked at him for a moment with an unreadable expression. He thought she wouldn't trust him enough for a moment after all he had done to trick her. However, he was pleasantly surprised when she grabbed Kol's hands and began channeling his power for the spell.
"Mwen la bois. Bonne mu la bois, la bois." When Davina began chanting, Kol didn't waste a moment and continued with her. For about half a minute, Kol thought they were okay. He felt the spell working and had enough trust in Davina's abilities to at least hold it for a full minute when channeling him. However, she began to struggle to continue to spell.
"Mwen la bois. Bonne mu la bois, la bois—" Davina was so overwhelmed by the force of the spell that she was forced to stop chanting. Frantic, Davina looked up at him with fear. "I can't hold it!"
"Just trust me!" Kol said with reassurance.
"Is this your doing, little witch?" They looked over to see Mikael had appeared and was approaching them with an angry expression. "Then you will undo it! Return the power to the stake!"
Davina and Kol looked at each other for a moment before quickly continuing the spell. When Mikael came near them, Davina let go of one of Kol's hands and thrusted it toward Mikael, keeping him back with a pain infliction spell while continuing the spell to drain the power of the white oak stake.
Kol, wanting to defend Davina, let go of her and lunged for Mikael, but he easily threw Kol across the room and against a chain link fence. Just as he felt himself slip into unconsciousness, Kol cursed himself for not using his magic.
Cami rushed over to Klaus' body the moment Mikael left the room. For several moments she struggled to remove it from his chest, afraid that it was already too late for him. However, when she finally dislodged it from his chest and the color started to return to his skin, she breathed a sigh of relief, although she didn't have long to soak up her victory.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Immediately Cami sat up and turned, gripping the white oak stake tightly in her hand and pointing it at Mikael. "Stay the hell away from us! Or, I swear to God, I'll kill you myself." She threatened him.
Mikael seemed as if he mildly impressed as he slowly approached her. "You have a warrior's heart. Perhaps I'll keep it as a souvenir."
Mikael began to lunge for her when Marcel suddenly appeared and yanked Mikael back. He then started hitting Mikael over and over so quickly that the Original was too disoriented to fight back right away. Mikael eventually knocked Marcel flat on his back and grabbed Klaus' makeshift stake to point it at Marcel's heart.
"Now, enough! This night has been a long parade of fools. I'll enjoy killing every last one of you." Mikael exclaimed, looking down at him with a scowl. Klaus awakened with a gasp, and Cami bravely stood on her feet. Suddenly, Hayley arrived and threw a chain around Mikael's neck and yanked on it so hard it knocked him off of his feet.
"Yeah, I wouldn't bet on it." The hybrid hit him in the face with the chain, and Klaus, determined, jumped to his feet. Hayley and Marcel rush over to him, and they're eventually joined by Davina. They all stand in tableau and smirk at Mikael, knowing that they finally have the upper-hand.
Klaus stood in the front. "It's over, Mikael. You're outnumbered. Are you going to beg for your miserable life?"
Mikael laughed. "You think having people makes you strong? It proves how weak you are. Come find me when you don't have fools, women and children fighting your battles." He threw the scrap of wood at them and vamp-sped away to heal. Klaus, looking relieved, just sighed.
Davina began to walk for the door but Marcel reached out to stop her. "Where are you going?" He demanded.
"To check on my friend," Davina answered, yanking her arm from him. "Not that you care." She walked out of the building.
Just then, Klaus noticed Cami was swaying and he quickly found something for her to sit on. "Come on now, love." He said as he brought it over to her.
"No, we have to make sure Mikael doesn't come back," Cami said stubbornly. Klaus began to argue back but Marcel cut in.
"How about Hayley and I go check the perimeter?" Marcel suggested.
"In case Mikael is still lurking, I'd like that." Hayley commented before she walked towards the exit.
"Just relax, Cami. You lost a lot of blood." Marcel said to her before he followed after Hayley.
Klaus bent down and ripped a piece of his shirt off that didn't have blood on it. He used that to clean her wounds. "I know it's not exactly sanitary but I don't carry around a first aid kit with me."
"Well, with everything that's been happening lately, I'm thinking that it's necessary," Cami responded, a small, weary smile on her face. They sat in silence for a few moments before she spoke again. "I'm thinking Andy's approach to Mikael might have been the best."
Klaus didn't look her in the eyes and just continued to stop the bleeding. "Well, Andy always knew best. I learned that early in our relationship." He answered, a bittersweet smile forming on his lips. He leaned back slightly and looked back at her. Cami looked pale and weak as she noticed the stab wound in Klaus' chest that hasn't yet healed. Klaus winced, and took her hand. "You pulled the stake out in the nick of time. A moment longer, and I would have been done for." He said gratefully.
"It's the least I could do for telling you not to kill that bastard the first chance you had." Cami answered back.
"Well, he hurt you. For that alone, I will kill him." Klaus responded quietly as he gently touched the bite marks on Cami's neck. "You know, in a thousand years, I think it's the first time I've seen him run."
"He was still weak." Before Klaus could say anything more, Hayley and Marcel entered the warehouse and joined them.
"And, he knew he was outmatched." Hayley added as she walked over to them.
"We checked the perimeter, and he's definitely gone." Marcel affirmed.
Klaus nodded with a sigh. "I appreciate your assistance."
Marcel smiled back at him. "Well, hey! You die, I die. Just call me selfish." Klaus couldn't help but smile back at him.
"Yeah, you die, a lot of people die," Hayley turned towards Klaus, worry in her eyes. "But Klaus? We have another problem..."
Bonnie and Andy were sitting at the table as Bonnie ate spaghetti they had made together in silence. Andy wasn't sure where Damon and Kai had gone after they ditched, but she knew the questions Bonnie had and didn't want either of the men to hear her responses.
"Was what Kai said true, Andy?" Bonnie asked after a few moments of eating in silence.
Andy looked down at her untouched plate. "It was. Not the part of me being Emmeline but… being alone… Yeah. I'm not sure how much longer I was here than you guys before Emmeline appeared. But she explained that she connected her soul to this necklace," Andy grabbed the necklace around her neck and held it up. "But… it could just be a figment of my imagination, me trying to rationalize all of this and to convince myself I'm not crazy."
"But you consider all of those angles, Andy. That means you can't be, right?" Bonnie asked with a frown.
"No it most certainly does not, Bonnie," Andy looked back up at her. "I was alone for a period of time with nothing but my guilt. It had some effect on me and I'm not yet sure of what it was." Bonnie began to respond, but Damon walked in and she quickly silenced herself. Andy was glad that Bonnie had stopped even if Damon had probably overheard some of it.
"Shame-eating?" Damon said as he walked over to them.
Bonnie paused for a moment and stared down at her food. "Thinking about that pregnant lady. She had a thing for pancakes."
"That's what you remember?" Damon questioned, his browns furrowing.
Bonnie looked up at him. "You remember it, don't you? You make pancakes every day."
"'Cause I'm bored," He responded as he took a seat beside of Andy.
"No. 'Cause you're punishing yourself. You call this place your hell, and it means you feel remorse. That makes you different from Kai," Bonnie gasped playfully. "Maybe there is hope for you."
Andy smiled small and looked in between them. As much as it must have sucked for them to be stuck over here, it was good for their relationship. It was obvious to see how much one cared for the other… Andy felt envious of that considering she had only herself.
"Look, we can still get outta here, guys," Damon glanced in between the two of them. "We can steal that 'Descendant' contraption, find out what Kai knows and we'll ditch him, because he doesn't have any powers anyway."
Kai suddenly appeared at the door. "Actually, it's not that simple."
"You gotta stop doing that. It's creepy." Damon commented, looking at Kai with an annoyed expression.
Kai walked over to them. "Here's the thing: I have a killer effect on magic. I can't generate it myself. But, I can consume it from others temporarily. My family called me an abomination. That hurt my feelings." He grabbed Bonnie's wrist. The three of them moaned in pain and the stove caught fire. Andy felt like her head was being crushed by the Hulk.
"Okay, we get it!" Damon yelled.
Kai stopped his spells. "You can see why my coven and I didn't get along."
"I smell an ultimatum." Andy said warily, glancing over at Damon.
"If I consume all of Bonnie's magic I'm just gonna end up killing her. But, if we work together, we can all go home as friends. Or I can devour her magic, kill you both, and go home alone. What's it gonna be?" He sits down at the table and started eating some of the spaghetti. He glanced over at Andy. "So what were you feeling guilty over?"
Andy stood and looked over at Bonnie. "If you need me, you know where to find me. I'm not staying here if he is." She began to walk towards the door. Just as she was walking across the lawn, she was stopped by Damon.
"Hey, Andy, wait up," He called.
She stopped and looked at him with a glare. "Was it really the smartest thing to leave Bonnie in there with the witch black hole?"
"I just wanted to talk to you really quick," Damon said, looking at her with a small frown. "I know after some of the stuff happened in Mystic Falls you didn't exactly like any of us anymore… and especially me gunning to kill your boyfriend. So if we do get out of this, you're not allowed to tell anyone I apologized for trying to kill Klaus, okay?"
Andy pulled Damon into a hug and couldn't help but sigh at the feeling. It had been so long since she had felt the comforting touch of another. "Don't worry, Damon. Your secret's safe with me." She murmured to him before speeding off towards her old house.
Kol sat on the hood of his car while Davina checked his wounds, including a bruising laceration on his left temple. "Are you okay?" She asked him.
"Uh, a bit light-headed. Might have something to do with being knocked ass over teacup by dear old Dad." Kol responded. "Listen, about—"
"You are lucky to be alive, young lady," Marcel interrupted Kol as he walked over. He ignored Kol completely and focused solely on Davina. "You wanna tell me what the hell you were thinking?"
Davina rolled her eyes. "Can we not do this right now?"
Marcel, annoyed, questioned, "Am I gonna embarrass you in front of your friend?" He finally took notice of Kol and stared at him suspiciously. "Who the hell is this guy, anyway?"
"Oh, we've gotta stop meeting like this, pal," Kol responded with a half-smile. Marcel gave him a confused look and was obviously still suspicious of him but Davina spoke again.
"He's my friend, and he's helping me." Kol looked over at her with slight surprise that she had called him her friend. He may not have all of it but he had more of her trust than he expected.
"Helping you do what? Wage war on Klaus, and help me get killed in the process?"
"I just saved Klaus' life trying to protect you!" Davina angrily exclaimed.
"Yeah, from a psycho-vampire-hunter that you brought back to life—"
Kol, tired of the fighting and his headache growing with every shout, interrupted them. "Alright, enough!" Marcel glared at him, which scared Kol enough that he started to backpedal. He was in no shape to fight even a human at this point. "Well, I—I think it's enough." Marcel continued to glare at him. "It should be enough. I mean, we're all friends here, aren't we?"
Marcel gave Davina a look that said, "Seriously?" but Davina just glared back at him. "Just stay here 'til I get back," Marcel said to Davina, who scowled and looked away. "I'll handle Klaus." Marcel walked back toward the building, leaving Davina and Kol by themselves.
"We should get out of here," Kol suggested, looking back at her. "Trust me, my brother's not the forgiving kind. Even if you did help out back there, his hatred and betrayal outweighs his sense of gratitude."
"I'm not afraid of him," Davina said as she pulled the white oak stake out of the inside of her jacket and showed it to him, causing Kol's eyes to widen in shock and horror.
"You out to get yourself killed?" He asked incredulously.
"I'm out to get even with Klaus. And, you're going to help me." She handed him his car keys and smirked at him. "But first, you're right—let's get out of here." Davina climbed into his car, and Kol hesitantly followed her knowing he couldn't help her with his brother's death, no matter what he had done.
Elijah was still weakly hanging by his wrists in the crypt, kneeling on the floor, getting ever weaker as Esther continued to taunt him. "No more." Elijah pleaded.
"I'm afraid we've just begun. You will hang here, remembering. Every atrocity you've hid behind that door will emerge to haunt you. And, as you grow weaker, you will be ripped of your strength, your will, your hope. And, as you rot here, alone, you will reconsider my offer. A new life. A way to be freed of your demons. A chance at peace."
Suddenly, Elijah smelled blood and looked up to see a head full of curls feeding on Esther. The body fell down and there stood Andrea Gilbert with blood smeared around her mouth. She used her sleeve to wipe the blood away.
"Wow, she's still the ruthless bitch I remember," Andy said as she walked over to Elijah. "Did you miss me?"
"Andrea… How?" Elijah questioned in awe as he looked back at her.
"Oh, come on, Eli. Did you think I would be taken down so easily?" Andy brushed her hand against his shoulder before she went to break him from his chains. However, they would not break. "Not that I mind the chains, but the crypt is a little too kinky for me. So how the hell do we get these off?"
Elijah looked up above them, which caused Andy to do the same, and she spotted the poppet hanging from the ceiling that is reinforcing the chains. "The doll, up there. Break it. She's using it to bind me." Elijah said. He watched as Andy reached up and ripped down the doll before tearing it in half. She then broke the chains binding Elijah's wrists and knelt before him to check on him.
Andy put her hands on his arms. "When was the last time you fed?" When he didn't answer her, she sighed. "Elijah Mikaelson, you have to feed."
Elijah grew worried about his lack of control over his blood lust. He knew he wouldn't be able to control himself. Even if she was a vampire, there was no way he would be able to stop himself from hurting her in the state he was in. He turned away from her. "I can't—"
"You're weak." Andy insisted as she bit into her wrist and offered it out to him. Elijah became even more anxious as he stared at her pleadingly.
"I can't, Andrea! I crave you. My hunger, it could overwhelm me," Elijah murmured. "I… I cannot live with myself if I hurt you when I just got you back." He began to gasp as he tried to control himself, and looked at her bloody wrist with longing.
Andy caressed his face with her other hand. "Do you remember when I fed from you? Of course it was slightly different but… Elijah, look at me." He forced himself to meet her gaze. "I'm not afraid."
They stared at each other for a moment before Andy leaned forward and began to kiss him. They started making out, both still kneeling on the floor. After a moment, Elijah began to have trouble resisting her blood. Andy noticed his discomfort and leaned back, moving her hair to the side so she can expose her neck to him. His vampire face comes out involuntarily when he saw her pulsing carotid artery, and immediately bit on her to feed.
Finn, who was kneeling in front of a sleeping Elijah, waved a hand in front of his brother's face. Elijah's eyes were still open, as though he is catatonic. Finn was unnerved by his brother's expression. "What'd you do to him?"
"I let him dream." Esther responded.
Finn continued to stare at Elijah, both horrified on his behalf and still happy to see him weak and vulnerable. "That's... considerate of you." He patted Elijah on the shoulder and stood up to join his mother at the table, still looking conflicted.
"I cannot lead him out of darkness by simply exposing him to the horrors of his past. I have to let him bask in his version of a better world to come," Esther said as she watched Elijah dream. "And by the time he wakes, he will know the only way to find peace is my way." Finn looked over at his mother, concerned at her tone of voice.
~ * • ° • ° • * ~
The End of Chapter XXVIII
