Like Smoke
"You're too late," she laughs lightly like she can't help herself. "They're gone. Forever." They dance around the room, she's so careful to watch the distance between them. "I did what you couldn't. I gave them a home. A place to live side by side without threat. How many lives did it take for you to get to this point? How many of your people did you sacrifice for this moment? Was it worth it? Knowing that, in the end, you would fail?"
His normally calm face slips away, revealing to her the depths of his anger. "Liar!"
"I'm not. The Gemini coven created their own paradise with Bonnie's help. A world to themselves, away from you. You're alone now, Markos. How does it feel? Knowing that I succeeded where you failed, time and time again. Everything you've ever done has meant nothing." The words feel wonderful coming out of her mouth, like little daggers. Every blow is for Jenna.
His knees bend, ready to chase and she bolts out of the room, down the hall to the second set of stairs. She knows the house well by now, having spent so much of her time inside being protected by the danger that has now invaded her sanctuary.
She runs into one of the guest bathrooms, listening at the door as he shuffles down the hallway. "Come on out, Elena! I promise it will be quick." A wave of nausea hits her and she glances at the toilet. Unfortunate timing for her, or not.
He smiles, seeing the light glow from underneath the doorframe and knocks twice against the door. "You will have to be smarter than that, Elena," he almost sings. He opens the door and she comes out swinging with the heavy toilet lid, connecting with his shoulder. Her effort must have paid off after she hears the satisfying crunch of his bones and groan it forces from his mouth.
He crumples and she takes her change to jump over as he's distracted. She runs up the stairs, contemplating her next move. She hides next in Elijah's study, knowing it connects to both the hallway and his bedroom. Two exits are more useful than one. She's frantically looking for a better weapon than the hunting knife she had grabbed from Galen. Something with a more ranged attack, though she isn't hopeful. Elijah is himself a weapon and she doubts he would have a great need for anything as prosaic as a gun.
She's still rifling through his things when she hears the door open. She stands, paralyzed, in front of Markos. His arm hangs loose as he walks in, still managing to look menacing. "Are you quite finished? The more you prolong this, the more you will suffer." He holds out a box cutter in his hand, she guesses what he had managed to cut her with earlier.
"Would you really expect me to just lie down and take it?"
"That's exactly what I expect you to do, Elena. It's what you're bred for, just like your predecessors before you. Just like Amara."
"I told you. I'm my own person." He lunges forward and while she moves back quickly it isn't enough. He manages to grab her behind her knees, taking them both to the ground. He buries the blade into her calf and yanks down, forcing a scream out of her chest. Her uninjured leg slips out from his grasp and she kicks him as hard as she can, her blow glancing off his cheek. It isn't enough to knock him out, but it is enough to make him fall back. Enough to give her a chance.
She scrambles up on one leg, hobbling towards the door that leads into Elijah's bedroom. She turns the knob and can feel his hands on her, pushing them both through. She stumbles into his room and she grabs onto his bar cart. It's an awkward hold and she goes down despite her best efforts. The cart follows her and crashed on the ground, glass shattering all around her. Her face and arms sting terribly. She tries to push herself up, but the glass cuts into her palms and Markos is standing over her.
He's back on her again, finishing her like he started with his hands around her neck choking out the air. Her hands are spread out to her side as he does his best to constrict the life out of her.
Images flash as her eyes flutter to a close. Bonnie and Caroline waiting for her under her bedroom window as the three of them sneak out to another of Tyler's parties. Jenna catching them but winking her approval anyway. Jeremy following her from city to city, each time she's moved, to make sure she is safe. John pretending to read, glancing up occasionally to watch her train with Ric. Elijah and his quiet birthday celebrations with her.
And Klaus. The thousands of moments between them since they first met. The way his head follows her through the room and the way he subconsciously has to touch her. The way he smiles when it's just the two of them, alone. Moments that haven't had a chance yet to happen. Him holding the baby that's still a question mark in her head. All the joys and headaches that she's already seen with Grace race through her head, Ric replaced with Klaus.
Her vision goes dark right as she manages to grab a large enough shard of glass. She holds tight, unbothered that it cuts into her hand. Her last drop of strength is spent using her arm as a catapult and hoping she hits her target. A burst of warm, thick liquid runs through her fingers and down her forearm, letting her know she has at least accomplished this. Killing Markos. Her eyes are still closed, but she can feel him twitching on top of her right before his weight collides with hers.
He is too heavy and she struggles to push him off, but she's so weak. Frustrated, she flails. She doesn't want to go like this, crushed to death by the weight of a dead man.
"What do you mean he's gone?" Klaus is loud enough that his voice reverberates through the hollow chambers. "Where did he go?" But no one can give him an answer. He runs back the way he came, doing his best to remember the path the leads back to the Lockwood manor. Elijah is at his back, like a good brother. Klaus can hear him, but is so focused on Elena that he can't make out what he's saying.
It takes them time, without the help of Tyler's map. Finally, they make it out and into Elijah's car. Klaus is shutting the door and about to yell at Elijah when he hears his phone beep, seeing a voicemail from Elena. Her voice is shaky and he can tell she's on the precipice of tears. He is too when he hears her declaration and vow, wrapped up into one. Elijah turns to him and whatever he is about to say, Klaus isn't ready to hear.
"Drive, Elijah. Just drive."
Palermo, Sicily July 2019
They've fallen into a pattern together that Klaus enjoys immensely. Seeing her so vulnerable with him had shifted something that had been threatening to rupture since the day he met her. The day she led him through the museum and the city.
He takes a seat with his drink and hers, sitting across from him. Klaus watches her walk up to the café, her laptop bag bumping softly against her hip. She always looks beautiful to him, but especially when she wears those flowing, summer dresses. She's a gorgeous torture in them, he can't help imagining sliding one of those tiny straps down her arm so he can kiss up her neck uninterrupted.
Her smile unravels something bound inside him. She's so unguarded now and he wishes desperately he could explain why he left her that morning. Why he wasn't there for her. Explain it away with a promise that he'll never leave her again.
London, England November 2019
After he finds her in London, he's surprised by how quickly they fall into that familiar rhythm together, especially staying in his brother's flat. It's just not a fact he can focus on though with the way she excitedly drags him to all the places she's found in the months she had been here without him. Klaus insists on trading days. He's been here so many times before and knows the city more intimately than she does, but he does enjoy seeing it through her fresh eyes.
She's a sight with her dark hair cascading down her back, collecting bits of snow. They've walked into a secret warzone together, snowballs whizzing past her face connect with their intended target, a small girl in loose pigtails. A gang of boys duck back down behind their make-shift blockade.
With a glance back to him and a grin, she leaves his side to start making well-crafted snowballs with the girl. Klaus is resigned to either watch or help and since he'd rather be at her side, he finds himself working on his own set of snowballs with Elena's guidance.
Elena and the girl's laughter quickly turn to fits as they not only match, but drive their adversaries away. Even Klaus is entertained, though he prefers the moments between them where he is the center of her attention.
Mystic Falls, Virginia March 2020
Klaus finds Elena in the foyer on their first morning back in her hometown. She has three of the coffins open and she's intently looking down at each of his siblings. He's not sure what to feel in this moment as she's studying Rebekah's face. She's reaching down to straighten Finn's collar when he announces himself. Klaus had expected her to jump or look guilty, but she just smiles up at him as if daggered siblings were the most normal thing in the world.
"He's been asleep the longest?" she inquires, pointing to Finn. He nods and she moves to Kol. "And then him?" Again, he nods. Finally she moves to Rebekah. "You daggered her in the 20's? She looks like an extra from The Great Gatsby movie. Why did you do it?"
"It's a bit complicated, love." He follows in the wake of her movement as she walks in circles to each coffin.
"You must have your reasons," she insists.
"They were an inconvenience at different times. Rebekah the least of them. Kol had a flagrant, careless way of drawing attention."
"And him?"
"Finn? Finn is aggravating."
"You daggered your brother over a difference in personality?" she asks, a little incredulous. "What would you do if I became an inconvenience?"
"You won't," he insists.
"I could though," she counters. "People fall out of love with each other all the time. Things we once find charming and endearing become….aggravating."
"I won't." When she looks back up at him, he feels like she can see right through him. "I could never stop loving you, Elena."
"Promise? You could never put me away like this?" she asks, gesturing to the open coffins.
"I would never," he whispers and that seems to satisfy her as she turns toward the kitchen leaving him in the room with his siblings, alone. Klaus carefully closes each lid, Rebekah's last. With no one watching, he lingers on their faces before sealing them shut again.
Mystic Falls, Virginia May 2020
Back in the cave system, everyone looks around the effects the Travelers have left behind, hoping to find anything to help.
"Do you think we should help him?" Caroline asks.
"Help Klaus? I'm sure he's already found Markos and is slapping him with his own arm," Damon scoffs as he sorts through a chest of clothes.
Bonnie is walking through the logistics of creating a prison world with Liv. Despite their unspoken competition, Bonnie is always ready to expand her knowledge base just in case she might need something similar in the future.
"Hey, Bonnie!" Stefan calls from one end of the cavern. "I think I found something important. It's spelled shut," he grunts, trying to pry it open.
Bonnie sets up to the wooden box and it is so painfully plain looking and yet so powerfully spelled. Between the prison world and this, her nose starts to bleed. She pushes forward until she feels a hand in hers and looks over to Liv.
"No reason for us not to do this together," she smiles at Bonnie and the two witches commence their spell, fueled by the dozen or so Gemini still in the room, until the door opens.
Stefan steps forward and cracks the lid open, the group standing still with their jaws open.
"Is that? Is that, Elena?" Caroline asks. "It looks just like her. Why would they need a statue of Elena? Is that part of their creepy get-rid-of-all-magic-but-ours plan?"
"No," Stefan begins. "This isn't a statue. I think. I think this is Amara. I can…hear her."
A/N: Wow! So, I think this is the first time I started writing this that I have...absolutely nothing written next. No rough drafts, nothing. A little nerve-wracking, a little exciting. We'll see. Thanks for reading :)