Tumulted with a mixture of pure happiness and perplexity, Elijah and Niklaus had been watching their siblings adjust to their new environment. Elijah had been wary to tell them everything that had happened. Nik didn't understand what the fuss was about. Was his brother worried that Rebekah and Finn would not be able to cope with the last thousand years? That they'd have a heart attack when they heard? How would he even be able to hide the past? It was pretty hard to keep the knowledge of a thousand years from them. They only needed to look around, at the house, their clothes, all the inventions and devices. The world had changed in absurd speed ever since they had been human.

But Rebekah and Finn made a balanced, calm impression. They weren't freaking out. Perhaps that was a good sign. It meant that their memories were still there, somewhere deep inside, and all they had to do was finding a way to remember. Nik decided to be patient with them.

Talking to them without the baggage of a millennium was almost liberating. Especially, with Finn. Nik had completely forgotten how simple their relationship as humans had been. Now it felt like their relationship had begun from anew, and it was nice not to be judged by him for once.

Flora, on the other hand, was struggling with the situation. Nik couldn't blame her. Finn had no memories of her at all. He must have realized that Flora knew him very well, so he was kind and polite to her. But it was in such a reserved, unattached way that it drove Flora crazy. Frustrated, Flora had given up on trying to strike up a meaningful conversation, and in return didn't talk anyone. Always from a safe distance, she watched them jealously. Davina was dealing better with the whole ordeal of 'not being remembered'. In the evening, Nik saw her talking casually to Marcel a few times, explaining what he had missed. Marcel must have accepted that they had been friends and listened earnestly. Briony was still upset and sad. But now that Rebekah, Finn and Marcel were awake, she was too interested in them to hide in her room. But Nik doubted that she would still help them trying to prolong their lives. Her heart wasn't in it anymore.

Davina had been giving Marcel, Finn and Rebekah a tour through the kitchen, and explained them the appliances and foods they had. It was amazing how enthusiastic Davina still was for any issue that came up. Through the archway from the living room, Nik watched them, as they learnt about the toaster. There was not much else to do than observing those newborn humans, oddly stumbling around the house.

"Do you think they will ever get their memories back?" Flora asked Briony with some desperation in her voice.

Both were in the living room as well, observing the odd behaviour of the resurrected three. Elijah kept glancing over to the kitchen as well, uncomfortable that they were staring at their siblings like zoo animals.

"I don't know," Briony replied. "This is my first time dealing with thousand-year-old humans with amnesia."

Flora mumbled through gritted teeth. "I'm not in the mood for snappy retorts right now! This is a disaster!"

With a loud grumble, she jumped up from the sofa, and marched out of the room.

Bemused, Briony watched her leave.

Mostly to herself, she said: "It's not like the rest of us have issues with this, Flora."

Nik had never seen Flora so annoyed. He couldn't but be amused about it, and smiled.

"Don't start mocking her now," Elijah said, watching him.

But Nik hadn't meant to mock her at all. This selfish Flora he could actually imagine to like. Now that she had let go off her reservedness and constant calmness, she was much more interesting.

Suddenly he felt a warm hand on his arm. Out of reflex, he jerked and had almost pulled his arm away, but then realized it was Finn who had come out of the kitchen.

"Your arm is very cold, Niklaus," Finn said with some concern.

"Uhm, yeah," Niklaus replied awkwardly, not sure what to do with the most affectionate gesture he had received from his brother in the last thousand years.

"We're going to figure something out for this situation, I'm sure of it," Finn said and gave him a pat on the back.

Then he left for the veranda. Incredulous, Nik gazed after him.

"I'll make sure he doesn't get lost outside. Watch Rebekah and Marcel, please?" Elijah said to Niklaus, as he followed their brother out the door.

"Human Finn liked you," Briony said with a grin.

"Don't be so surprised," Nik said.

In the mean time, Rebekah had shown up and been walking around them, looking at things, trying to remember the names she was told.

She stopped in front of Briony and studied her face.

"Briony," she said, thinking.

"Correct," Briony said.

"Marcel is the one who knew me but I didn't know him. Flora was the one who got upset because Finn didn't recognize her. I take it, she's his girlfriend. That's an awkward situation to be in right now," she snorted.

"And you've been with us for a long time, because you're with one of my brothers?" Rebekah asked Briony.

"Yes," Briony said.

"And the two of us, we got along well?" Rebekah asked.

"Yes, we did. Very well."

"Well, you must say that now. Who would admit to the opposite?" she replied with a smirk in her face.

Then she pointed to the television. "What is this?"

"I don't know what it's called," Briony replied.

"How do you not know?" Rebekah asked, concerned.

"I just recently figured out what planes are. I'm still catching up myself."

Rebekah stared at the black screen, as if it didn't belong there. Suspiciously, she took a few steps away.

"It's a TV, Rebekah. Don't worry about it. It's supposed to be there," Nik said.

His words gave her some assurance, but she still didn't let the TV out of her sight.

"I think I'm getting sleepy," she eventually said with a yawn.

"You are?" he asked surprised.

He forgot about that. Rebekah and the concept of sleep had never been in the same train of thought before.

He ushered her out of the room and up the stairs. Until now, he hadn't understood why Elijah insisted that they'd look after those resurrected humans. But when Rebekah almost walked into the window front and fell over the fluffy carpet, he knew what his brother meant. There was too much she wasn't familiar with in the new world.

As they ascended the stairs, they heard Flora from the kitchen, arguing with Davina and Marcel. The long day of not being remembered had put her in a bad mood.

"The Flora girl seems a bit dramatic," Rebekah said.

Nik tried not to laugh. He had never seen Flora behave like this before, and now, this was the first impression she had made on all her old friends with amnesia. Niklaus contemplated on telling Rebekah that Flora wasn't always like this, but decided it would be funnier if he didn't.

"I like your girlfriend much better," Rebekah added. "Seems more balanced."

It took Nik a moment to grasp what she was getting at.

"What? Are you thinking that I'm with - No! Rebekah!" Niklaus answered in terror.

Rebekah turned around to look at him. "How would I know? She said she was with one of you guys, and ever since I came back she has literally been next to you all the time. And Elijah said that you were in her bedroom before so it can't be that far-fetched."

"Just stop talking," Nik said, pushing her up the stairs now.

"Also, the way you look at each other implied some things. And now you're blushing."

"Present day Rebekah would never suggest these things."

"Present day Rebekah sounds like a bore."

"She was with Kol! Why do you think she was upset before?!"

Less than a day back, and he really wanted his sister to shut up.

Rebekah crossed her arms defiantly. "For your information, it's not easy to figure out everything that happened in the last thousand years right from the spot."

"You don't seem to have much trouble to adapt though," he replied.

He had expected more anxiety from his siblings when they had heard about the terrible things they had done. But so far, Rebekah had shown nothing but mild surprise and curiosity.

"Right," Rebekah paused.

She observed him with a reflective gaze. "Somehow, nothing you tell me sounds surprising. Like I'm already supposed to know these things."

Before he could reply, she quickly added: "Nice try on changing the subject, by the way."

"Are some things coming back to you then?" he asked, hopeful.

Rebekah shrugged. "Very vague thoughts. Was I married once?"

"Yeah," Nik said.

He was almost annoyed that this unnecessary piece of information was the first thing she remembered.

Rebekah's face lit up. "Really? How was my husband? Was he nice? Handsome?"

"No idea. I barely met him."

"How so?" she asked.

Niklaus sighed. "You meant to introduce us at one point. But then something got in the way… and we never properly got to know him."

"Something got in the way?" Rebekah repeated annoyed. "This is exactly the problem! How am I supposed to remember things when you and Elijah keep censoring the past? You said yourself that I'm adapting fine. Tell me the whole truth, so I can get back my memories!"

Niklaus hesitated. "Fine. You invited all of us to your castle and meant to introduce us to your husband. We got into a fight, and you pushed Flora down the stairs. That killed her and turned her into a vampire. Maybe don't bring that up the next time you see her."

Rebekah gaped at him. "I did that?"

"Yup."

She stared at him in disbelief. "I own a castle?"

"Not a priority right now, Rebekah," Niklaus sighed.

He ushered her to the first room on the next floor. Soon after, she kicked him out again, telling him that she did not need him to watch her creepily while she was asleep. He still had no idea what he should do with his human siblings. But with her new-found insolence and carelessness, he felt like Rebekah was going to be fine. They were all going to be fine. They must be.


Early in the morning the next day, they were already on the road, back to New Orleans. Elijah and Niklaus deemed it was time to go back to their old house. Maybe the house would help their siblings and Marcel to remember a few things, remind them of their old ways. It was worth a try.

After the many earthquakes and other natural occurrences, Elijah was not surprised to find there were more than a few destroyed houses and streets on their way. Halfway through town, a small group of werewolves had blocked their way. Any other day, Elijah would have been happy to destroy them, but today he wanted to get away as quickly as possible. His weak and fragile siblings were no use in a fight against werewolves or any other magical beings. And it was better if nobody knew that they had become such easy targets.

The encounter made Elijah wonder how those werewolves found out about their return so quickly. They must have been waiting for them.

Worried, he looked back into the rearview mirror to see Rebekah and Finn on the backseat. They were oblivious of his worries, and watched the modern world outside with great interest. Flora, next to him in the passenger's seat, continued her approach to stay silent until Finn would remember her. Every now and then, she turned around to glare at him and Rebekah, as if to make sure that they still had no memories of her. This made the atmosphere in the car rather icy.

"Are we sure that Freya is our sister?" Rebekah suddenly asked.

"Yes," Elijah said with a sigh. "Trust me, we have gone through this many times. We are sure."

"Are we though?" Rebekah asked again, suspiciously.

Elijah spared himself the reply. They had already spent so much time on this. He didn't want to discuss Freya's status in the family again. Especially now, that some memories had already come back, he was sure that Rebekah would remember Freya on her own.

"I'm just saying, it's weird that she has shown up at a time like this. I mean, first we're dead and now we don't remember anything?" Rebekah added.

"I don't trust her, either," Flora weighed in. "I remember she was in the coven in 1925. And she hadn't introduced herself then."

Elijah turned to Flora in surprise. "You remember her from back then?"

Nik had told him in the meantime what he had learnt about Freya and how she had been involved with everything in 1925.

"Of course," Flora said with some shade. "I do pay attention to the people around me. I don't forget people."

"You have to admit, Elijah. That's very fishy," Rebekah pressed again.

Elijah waved her off. "You haven't been here in the last months - well you have, but you don't remember. She's our sister if we like it or not. And since she's helped us resurrecting you, I think you should be a bit more generous towards her."

Rebekah shrugged.

"Maybe try and talk to her. I'm sure you'll remember some things about her eventually," Elijah added.

The car fell quiet again. He wondered what the others in the second car were talking about. It couldn't be as uncomfortably quiet as in here. Davina and Briony had no trouble talking to Rebekah and Finn even though his siblings treated them like strangers. But they most likely didn't feel the same pressure to appeal as Flora did.

But Elijah had a feeling if it might be something else with Finn and Flora. It might not be the amnesia at all. Flora had always liked Finn because he was like her, a vampire struggling with his state of being. From what Elijah knew about their relationship, it was built on this groundwork of understanding. But Finn wasn't a vampire anymore. Maybe that's why Flora didn't know what to say to him.

Soon after, they arrived at the mansion, or what was left of it. It clearly had gotten the short stick during the earthquakes. The front part of the house appeared alright, but towards the back and where the kitchen used to be, a big part of the walls had fallen in or broken off. The second floor was still there for the most part but looked very unstable. None of it looked safe.

The others had already arrived before them and were inspecting the damage. Warily, Elijah walked along the house walls to see what else was destroyed.

"Elijah," Briony caught up with him, "we can worry about the house later. Now we have things to do!"

"What do you mean?" he asked, taken aback by her sudden energy.

"Well, we wanna prepare for tomorrow," Briony said.

"What's tomorrow?" Elijah asked.

"We talked about it this morning, and I thought I'm going to try to prolong your lives tomorrow. Tomorrow's a good day, stars aligned and such. And since the resurrection worked so well, I thought I'm just going to wing it. No need to wait any longer."

Elijah gaped at her. "Tomorrow?"

"You haven't changed your mind on surviving, have you?" she asked.

Her blasé, audacious tone was worrisome.

"Of course not, but is it wise to just wing it? After everything, shouldn't we plan ahead to make sure it will work?" he asked.

He was sure that his brother had planted this stupid idea in her head. And Elijah knew why he had done it. Briony's help had already become a big question mark. So Nik would rather let her do it as quick as possible before she changed her mind for good. But Elijah certainly wasn't going to risk his life for Briony to make up a spell on the go.

"I am pretty optimistic. I would be the first to complain about the outcome of the bridge, but have you seen how well it had worked? How much influence we had on nature? And you thought I overestimated myself! If anything, we all underestimated my powers!"

Elijah stared at her in disbelief. It seemed reckless and dangerous.

The others had gathered to listen as well.

"That's a terrible idea. It's not going to work," Davina said determined, as she stepped up to them.

Briony raised an eyebrow, but was too surprised to reply.

Elijah hadn't expected Davina to have such a strong opinion about this, either. Usually, Davina had been on board with everything Briony was doing.

"Why would you say that?" Briony asked, interested, like a teacher who was happy that her pupil started to think for herself.

Davina hesitated, then fixed her gaze on Elijah and Nik, pressing. Skeptical and with growing wariness, Elijah turned to Niklaus. Was this about Clement? Elijah had already concluded that the spell had gone well because Briony was related to the previous wizard who had cast it. Had Nik told Davina about this? His brother was observing Davina, uncomfortable, but didn't reply to her reproachful stare.

"Oh, really? I have to be the one to tell her?" Davina said, when neither of them said anything.

"Tell me what?" Briony said, her initial delight fading.

Elijah opened his mouth, but Davina already spoke.

"It wasn't a coincidence that the spell worked so strongly," Davina began. "They didn't want to tell you because they knew you wouldn't have gone through with it. The man they got the spell from, Clement - you're his daughter. That's why it had gone so well. You channelled your family's powers without knowing it."

Briony stared at her, processing. Taken aback, she then turned to Elijah and Nik, unsure.

"Is that true? How do you know it was him?"

Elijah nodded hesitantly. "You were there as a baby."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked with a vulnerable, thin voice.

Elijah hesitated, and glanced at Nik who meekly contemplated the ground. There was no way to hide the truth now.

"Why wouldn't I have gone through with it?" she asked, already anticipating an answer she wouldn't like.

After a long pause, Elijah said: "Because we got him killed."

Briony stared at him, frozen. After what felt like an eternity, she turned away with angry sigh. He could tell she was boiling up.

A few angry steps away from them, she was struggling on what to do next. He couldn't see her face, but knew that she was about to explode.

He had to say something, anything.

Before he could think of anything, she spoke in a pressing and low voice: "I am so so stupid. Why am I even helping you? You have always been there to mess up my life. Of course, you'd find a way to mess up my life retroactively and kill one of my parents…"

"Listen," he quickly said, "we're really sorry-"

"You're sorry," she interrupted them without looking at them. "That's bold. I am sure you're sorry that you couldn't keep this from me until you were safe and sound for another thousand years."

"You know it's not like that. We never wanted this!" he replied with urgency.

Then she snapped around to face him. Her eyes was furious.

"You truly put yourself over everybody else. Guess what, you're not the only ones who care about their family! Who gives you the right to decide that your lives are worth more than those that stand in your way? Not even mine? I helped you! But you don't care about me, do you? You don't care about my life or the people I love! You were just happy that you found some idiot girl that protected you from an imminent death!"

"You know that's not true," Elijah said. "You have always been one of us."

"You mean whenever I was useful? As soon as my presence got inconvenient, I was quickly taken out of the way. Everything bad that happened in my life was because of you! First you destroy my livelihood and incite everybody I knew against me to make sure I come with you-"

"We didn't do that!" Elijah interrupted her. "We never forced you to come with us. You came with us on your own terms!"

"Oh please," Briony snapped back. "We never talked about it, but we all know it was Nik who made sure my whole village knew I was a witch and wanted me gone. And despite my constant century-long loyalty you immediately killed me because you heard a rumour from a random witch that I might want to kill you. You never fully trusted me. And now I find out that you are even responsible for the fact that my mother and I had to live in hiding because you also killed my dad?"

After a pause, she added with hatred and contemplation: "I truly wish I had never met any of you."

Briony's rage had never been directed towards him. Elijah didn't know how to deal with it. It wasn't helping that the dispute had frozen and muted his brother, who only watched Briony in terror.

"Let's take a break for now. I know you're very angry at the moment, but maybe later we can…"

She interrupted him. "If you still believe that I'm going to help you now…"

She didn't finish her sentence. Instead she marched back to the car, and opened the trunk. She took her bag out.

"You can't leave now!" he said urgently.

"Yes, I can. I don't wanna see any of you ever again!"

"Briony, please. You can be as angry at me or Nik as you like. But this is bigger than us. You're not only helping us but all of those people as well!"

He waved at the rest of the group who still watched them uncomfortably from a distance.

Briony glared at him.

Then she said: "No. The way I see it, Finn, Rebekah and Marcel will be fine. They don't need my help. They have long healthy human lives ahead of them. The only ones in trouble are you two selfish little twats. And you definitely don't deserve my help."

She pulled her bag over her shoulder, and without another look, she walked down to the sidewalk. This was bad. All Elijah knew was that he couldn't let her leave. If she left now and they had to search for her, who knew how much time they would lose. With fast steps, he caught up with her. He was glad to notice that Niklaus was following him.

"Stop following me!" she shouted without stopping in her tracks.

"Let's talk about it! Don't run away!" Elijah pressed.

She didn't reply and quickened her steps into a run.

"Stop, please!" he said.

Suddenly she stopped, which made Elijah almost stumble over his own feet. Confused, he slowed down next to her. She had lowered her eyes to the ground. Her furious attitude was slowly calming down. Without paying any attention to him, she knelt down and picked up some small rocks from the pavement with her right hand. He had no idea what she was doing. But not to make her angry again, he watched her without interrupting her.

While holding on to the gravel in her palm, she whispered something to herself. He couldn't understand what she was saying. Why was this so familiar? She had done that once before. When was it? The realization hit him. She was returning to her old ways. The second he put together what she was doing, it was already to late.

"Don't you dare!" Niklaus said, who had caught on.

"Oh, this is happening!" Briony said, now looking at them with a sneer.

"Stop it!" he shouted again.

"Say goodbye to New Orleans, you bastards," Briony said, as she let go off the rocks in her hand.

A second later the much too familiar feeling of being uninvited rushed through Elijah's body, swept him off his feet and pulled him into the air high across the streets and the houses.


I hope you like the new chapter - let me know what you think! I know, I know, characters with amnesia is a bit of an old hat, but they totally have a purpose here. Also, I kinda like how they can have an unbiased look on the present time, so I'm trying to explore that as well.

Thanks for reading, until next time!