"There is a white oaks dagger somewhere in Mystic Falls," Elena stated, attempting to keep all nerves out of her voice. She knew this was a tipping point. The idea of family first and self-preservation was about to hit for the Mikaelsons and the test of where Elena stood was about to be answered.
"Excuse me?" Klaus said in a deadly voice. Everyone was quiet and staring at her. Their eyes demanding answers.
"While we were gone, Damon and Stefan figured out that the sign for Wickery Bridge was made out of the white oak tree. They were worried about me and figured you guys had something to do with it. So, they stole the sign and turned it into daggers."
"How many?" Elijah asked calmly.
"Three," Elena answered. Swallowing hard, she hoped to keep Alaric out of this as best as possible for his safety. "They didn't know any better. When we returned home and explained everything to them, Stefan tried to get rid of the weapons. He told me he burned them immediately, but… he couldn't find one of them."
By the looks of Klaus, he was itching to get out and go after the Salvatores. If it weren't for wanting more information out of her first, the two brothers would already be dead.
"They lost it?" Rebekah asked incredulously. She knew Damon and Stefan weren't always the brightest, but to lose something like that was pure idiotic.
Elena hesitated and tried to think of her next move. Does she tell them about Alaric? Or does she try to keep the only guardian she has left safe? But what about Elijah and the rest of the originals?
Before Elena could make a decision, a hand clamped tightly around her throat so that she could barely breathe and her body slammed against the wall next to the glowing fireplace. "You're going to want to think very carefully about lying to us, Ms. Gilbert," Klaus said in a threatening tone.
Elena quickly regained her composure and glared at him. Using the moves which Austin, the hunter, had taught her, she broke Klaus's hold on her neck and knocked him to the ground. She sped a distance away from him for good measure.
"And you should keep in mind I am here telling you all this. Damon and my friends keep talking about sides, and if we are picking sides," Elena said pointedly now angry, "then I am choosing you guys. So how about you appreciate that for a second. I'm giving up everything for you all. My life, my friends. Treat me with respect Klaus, or else you won't get anything out of me. I'd have no problem with you killing me. You'd be doing us all a favor."
Everyone was quiet. Elijah was standing from his spot on the couch, jaw clenched, while Rebekah looked saddened. Kol seemed amused and Klaus was now relaxed, hands unclenching from fists and shoulders lowering.
"I get it. Family first. Your lives first," Elena told them frustrated. "I'm telling you what I know."
"Just late, right?" Rebekah said, now facing Elena with flames of betrayal in her eyes. "We walked right into that house – in to their death trap! And you didn't dare tell us until now! They could have already tried to kill us and it would have been none the bother to you, right Elena?!"
Elena wanted to stomp her foot or throw something against the wall. Sometimes the Original family was insufferable, as if they were trying to find reasons to call one the ones that loved them traitors.
"Stefan didn't tell me about the daggers until I had gone over there the other day. And no, I didn't tell you until now because it doesn't matter. They don't have the last one!"
"What do you mean, Elena?" Elijah asked, looking between her and his family, trying to ignore the escalating tensions.
Elena wondered if she was now the enemy, if everyone she loved was now in danger. Could she trust Elijah? Sighing, she went with what she knew and let the love she had for them guide her. "Ric. He has this homicidal vampire hunter alter ego. Stefan and Damon have been trying to get the guy to appear to get it out of him but haven't had any luck yet."
Elena stared at Rebekah with her arms crossed, pointedly glaring at her. "He's been on watch 24/7, with no way to get the dagger that could endanger you all. Stefan and Damon are on it. And while I trust them, I don't completely. They-…they're having a hard time to adjusting to our reality as well. I don't doubt they wouldn't try to make a move on you if they found out where Ric's alter ego stashed the dagger."
Klaus went to run out of the house, but Elena caught up to him with her vampire speed and stood bravely in front of him. "You will not hurt Alaric Saltzman. I don't care how you feel. No harm is going to come to him."
Klaus once again met her eyes with a piercing glare. "I think you forget who you are talking to."
Elena let out a laugh, and then pushed him back when he tried to move past her. "No. I haven't forgotten. How could I when everyone here reminds me every living moment?"
Klaus's patience was wearing and he let out a snarl. If Elena was going to cause them any more trouble than she had already tonight, he was going to bleed her dry.
Seeing the darkness consuming Klaus, Elena sighed and put her hands down. She looked at him with calmer eyes and a softer voice. "Please. Don't take the only guardian I have left. Let's just explore our other options first. We can find it without killing him."
"Klaus," Elijah called stepping forth. Beckoning him over, Klaus grouchfully went back to the family room with everyone else.
"Thank you," Elena sighed to Elijah as they slowly followed. "We'll talk later," he said in a business-like tone.
Great, Elena thought to herself.
"So, what is our plan then?" Rebekah asked her brothers, now ignoring Elena.
Elena caught the frigid attitude Rebekah had towards her and got frustrated.
"Can we just clear the air here?" Elena claimed before Elijah could speak to answer his sister. "I know you all think I am all against you now because of my family and my friends. And…maybe I was being swayed," Elena acknowledged. She thought about Bonnie and Caroline at the Grill, and Jeremy's attitude when he found out about her and Elijah. Damon and Stefan's disapproval then came to mind.
"Everyone was on me. They lost me, and they got me back but I was different. And I can't blame them. Because I was. I am. I'm different and I'm with all of you and last they knew you were all our enemy."
Elena looked at each and every one of them. "In one way or another, you've all made our lives a living hell. You've betrayed us, tried to kill us, tortured us, or took someone we loved away," she said looking to Klaus as Jenna haunted her mind. "But I started this because I didn't want any of you to die. You think I would let a white oak stake come into play now and risk endangering your lives?"
Rebekah's eyes softened, Kol looked thoughtful, Elijah guilty, and Klaus was void of expression.
"I am being honest. I am telling you what I know, but I am asking you not to kill anyone. Not unless it needs to be done. I-…" Elena's vision started to have black dots and her heads was starting to spin.
"Elena…" Elijah's voice rang in her ears cautiously.
"Elena" a voice whispered. Furrowing her eyebrows, Elena felt something wet on her lip. Bringing her fingers up to her face, Elena pulled back and found blood on her fingertips. Glancing up at the Mikaelson family, she mirrored their worried stares.
The last thing she heard was Rebekah shouting her name before everything went black.
"Ah, finally," a voice said.
Elena's body felt funny and she sat up and found herself on the grounds of the graveyard near the outskirts of town.
"The only place with enough magical power to summon you here," Esther said, stepping in front of her. "Long ago in this spot, my son tore my heart from my chest. The violence of my death marked this ground for all time."
Elena shifted backward as Esther took a step forward to help her up. "I appreciate your willingness to come back to Mystic Falls," the Original witch said, trailing a finger over a gravestone, waiting for Elena to get up.
"You gave me your word that you wouldn't hurt your children," Elena stated pointedly as she brushed the dust from her clothes. She watched Esther's every move with a cautious eye. She wasn't sure if she'd have her enhanced abilities, but regardless, Elena was promising herself to put up a fight.
The Original witch went quiet. A frown clear on her face. "Yes, they will not die by my hands."
The way Esther put her words made Elena pause. Was that Esther's game? To get someone else to try and kill her children?
"Finn told me about finding you the other night. He said he sensed something was different about you."
Elena swallowed nervously.
"I see now that the Bennett witch, Bonnie, helped you. Yes?" Esther stared at her, waiting for Elena to tell her the truth she already knew. "No matter," she said when Elena replied with a silencing stare. "While I give points for her creativity and perfecting something I once tried to achieve, this will not work."
Elena felt an invisible force around her neck, choking the air from her lungs. As she gasped and spluttered, Esther began chanting, using two fingers to rise Elena's feet from the ground. Her body now in the air, Esther broke almost every bone in Elena's body so that she was now limp, hanging backward nearly lifeless. A splitting headache starting to form in her temples and the burning ache of her entire body pounded. The chanting got louder and tears spilled from the corners of Elena's eyes. Attempting for one last breath, the muscles of her lungs burned and she was tossed aside.
Elena awoke gasping for breath. Coughing and clenching her neck, Elena moved from the warm body underneath her and held herself, panting for oxygen. The pain and scorching tingle that had previously ran through her now faded, and the headache slowly began to subside as well.
"Elena," Elijah called, touching her shoulder to get her attention. Moving some hair from her face, Elijah waited for Elena to catch her breath.
"What happened?" Elena croaked.
"We were hoping you could tell us, love," Klaus said, momentarily displaying concern in his eyes.
"You were bleeding and just…passed out," Rebekah said worriedly.
Elena furrowed her eyebrows, attempting to understand what had occurred. It seemed she was now back in reality. But then where was she when she was with Esther?
"It was mother, wasn't it?" Kol asked from behind the sofa.
Glancing back at him, Kol ignored his siblings' stares and looked intensely at Elena. "She did something with magic. What did she do to you?"
A tear slipped from Elena's eye.
Kol turned, using his vampire speed to push his siblings away from Elena and kneel in front of her taking her hands gently in his. Startled by the action, she jumped back and tucked her arms around herself.
"So that's what she did," Kol said, staring sadly at Elena. Elena stared back at him, silently answering Kol.
"Excuse me, but will someone tell me what the bloody hell is going on?" Klaus snarled impatiently interrupting the two.
"Yes, please do enlighten us," Elijah added, staring at his brother and gathering Elena in his arms.
Kol stared at Elena, silently asking her if he should be the one to say it. While he didn't have all the answers, he knew by Elena's surprise at his speed that she had lost her powers. She would have been able to notice him otherwise. While his siblings would believe it was a reaction of not wanting to be touched by him, Kol knew better. They had rough-housed together too many times to be afraid of touching one another.
"Esther took away the powers Bonnie gave me," Elena said with a scratchy throat, not daring to tear her eyes from him.
"How?" Elijah demanded, looking from Elena to Kol. Kol was the only one in the family that studied witchcraft closely with their mother. He was the only one who wanted to be a witch more than a vampire if he had been given the opportunity.
"Well don't look at me," Kol snuffed to Elijah's glares. While Kol knew witchcraft, he was nowhere near as knowledgeable as his mother or the Bennett witch.
"I woke up to the place Klaus had killed your mother," she answered for Elijah as she stared at her lap. "And Esther was just there. She was talking to me and saying that Finn told her how he sensed something was different about me when he found me in the woods. She somehow figured out Bonnie had given me vampire abilities and told me that that wouldn't work for what she had planned."
"Wait, when did Finn find you in the woods?" Rebekah asked, looking to her brothers for answers. While she was not all in-tune with everything Elena like some of her brothers (she had school things to do you know, such as being in head of the school dance committee), she cared to know that Finn had grabbed her from the woods and taken her.
"Is that how Finn got to you?" Elijah asked, looking down at Elena. He had yet to get answers on what had happened the night he was away from Mystic Falls.
Klaus growled and Elena tried not to show her growing fear.
"The other day, I went over to the Salvatores,"' Elena told them all. "I needed to talk to them, maybe explain things better. I needed to apologize, and things…got out of hand," she claimed, trying not to elaborate too much about Damon. "I was upset and so I ran out. I ran to the woods and I must have passed out," she sighed. "I woke up to Finn. He took me to a motel right outside of Mystic Falls. He offered to drive me home and I asked him to drive me here instead. He's afraid of you all, so he dropped me a few blocks away. The rest you know," she told them.
Elijah's jaw clenched. He was going to ask her later about the Salvatores. They were getting to be a real problem.
"What do I do now?" Elena asked them in a small voice. "I mean, clearly she can get to me anywhere. And I don't have the powers to protect myself anymore. Bonnie isn't strong enough to do that ritual again. It almost killed her the last time. I-…I don't know what to do. Tell me what to do."
Elijah held Elena tight against his side to calm her down. "We'll figure this out," he told her, kissing the side of her head.
"We'll kill her," Klaus said angrily. "We are going to get her, Elena. I promise you; we will kill my mother."
"I second that," Kol said pushing against his knees to stand up. Even he was frustrated. "I'm getting very tired of her games."
"Come on," Rebekah said gently taking Elena's hands from her lap. "Let's get you cleaned up."
Giving her brothers some time to talk, and silently hoping Nik would calm down Elijah, Rebekah helped Elena up, making sure to be careful with the now physically fragile girl. Elena still had the smears of blood on her nose and hands. As the pair walked away, Rebekah glanced back over her shoulder to give Niklaus a pointed look at Elijah, telling him to help their brother get it together.
Klaus and Kol talked sense into Elijah, calming him down enough to sit and drink a glass of scotch. Their brother was seething with anger and desired only to hunt Finn down so he could kill him. His rage bounced from Esther to Finn to Damon Salvatore. He knew it was Damon that caused Elena distress. Damon was always the problem. If it were only one of the Salvatores to make Elena hurt, it would be the elder.
Both Klaus and Kol gave him reassurance. They ensured him they would take care of all of it – all of their brother's concerns, and they helped him gather his mind to go take care of Elena. She now needed their protection more than ever. Whether it was from Finn or their mother – hell, even the Salvatores. They would not get close to her again. Kol was determined to look at grimoires he had collected over the years and reach out to old contacts to see if there were ways to protect Elena from Esther. And Klaus vowed to get some sort of lead on the motel Finn had stayed at.
Any clue now would be helpful.
"I think someone else is trying to kill you guys," Elena's voice rang to the family as they sat together pondering their own thoughts. Klaus was now filling in Rebekah on what she missed while Kol searched through some grimoires of his brother's, and Elijah sat in his own thoughts.
"Elena, what are you doing up?" Elijah asked, setting his scotch down on the table and getting up to be with her. Checking her over, he gave a quick kiss to her wet hair and began guiding her back towards bed. Rebekah had helped Elena settle in the shower and gave her pajamas to stay the night. Considering how eventful the night was and its late hour, Elijah had figured she would be asleep by now considering.
"No, wait brother," Klaus said stopping Elena from leaving the room. His brother's concern was overpowering Elena's small frightened voice from telling them something that may be vital. "Go on Elena."
"When Esther was talking to me, she phrased her words weird. She thanked me for coming back to Mystic Falls and I reminded her of her promise to not harm all of you. She told me that you wouldn't die by her hands. The way she said it…it was as if she had someone else in mind."
"Finn?" Rebekah wondered aloud.
"Seems too easy," Klaus stated thoughtfully while everyone else was left to consider their enemies as well.
"I'm sure there was something there. It must still be part of her plan to kill you all. And it'd make sense why she'd still want something from me. I'm the key to your line and your vampirism. The doppelgänger's role must still be needed for something."
"Alright, that's enough," Elijah said, grabbing a blanket and bringing it around her shoulders as if it would help shield her from his family. Klaus would go all night with her, spinning theories of what their mother was up to if he let the two of them. He and his family had taken enough. Guiding Elena towards the stairs, Elijah felt her try to push away from him.
"No, Elijah. I can help. I-I know I'm not as strong as I used to be," she spoke regretfully before turning to all of them as well. "But I still want to be a part of this. I still want to help in any way that I can."
"Your part is to stay safe, darling," Kol reminded her gently.
"Blood only for my hybrids," Klaus added only half-jokingly. Everyone rolled their eyes at him, while Elena gave a small laugh.
"I still want to be included. On everything," she announced, turning to Elijah. "You promised."
Elijah sighed, finding that he did indeed promise to keep her in the loop and let her make her own choices. "Fine. We can all catch up tomorrow. But right now, you need to sleep. Keeping you healthy is a way to help us."
Guiding Elena to bed (this time without protest), he brought her back to his room and changed into pajamas himself. She had already tucked herself under the covers by the time he had joined her.
"I love you, Elena," he said bringing her into his arms. Holding her tightly, he kissed her head and breathed in her scent deeply. He thought he had almost lost her today when she collapsed. He had caught her just in time before her body hit the floor, and when he couldn't wake her, he swore the floor vanished from beneath his feet. His sister had to calm him down and his brothers took Elena from his arms to set her on the couch and check her.
"I love you too Elijah," she yawned, hugging him close.
Listening as her breathing evened out, Elijah laid awake the rest of the night, holding her close and promising to never let go