November 22, 2010
Steven's Quarry
Neither of them had moved from where they'd been standing when Elijah, with Katherine in tow, had swiftly departed back to the family estate, leaving the pair of them standing alone and now left only to their thoughts. Neither of them seemed willing to make the first move, so Elena found herself looked around grimacing as she realized she was actually standing in the center of what had once been her own ring of fire.
It annoyed Elena that a part of her now didn't want to interrupt the seemingly tranquil silence of their surroundings.
To be fair, the site of where her brother in law had broken his curse while murdering his brother's future wife still was a beautiful place.
The moon has just started to climb into the sky. The sun had set sometime during their meeting of the minds. Klaus, she noted, still hadn't turned to face her yet. He was busy examining the stone slab he first killed Jenna then Elena herself on.
Thankfully, the weather had long ago cleansed the bare rock of Jenna's errant blood.
"Do you think it was wise for Katerina to take your place at school?" Klaus's question caught her completely off guard.
"Wh… What?" Elena's head snapped up to find he still hadn't turned around to face her. Feeling her blood start to boil, she wanted to rush over and snap his neck, but taking a deep breath, she used her magic to calm herself. It was only partially successful.
"I mean she does have that charm of hers to help make herself appear human- not sure how that will help her in the long run- but this is Katherine, remember?"
Elena didn't know if it was her vaulted Petrova fire but she felt the ember that had been smoldered for centuries fully ignite. The rational side of her brain considered almost in real time maybe if he hadn't been trying to gaslight her just now she might have reacted somewhat differently.
"Klaus!" Elena growled while simultaneously slamming her brother in law's body onto the top of the granite slab. She wasn't sure, but she could have sworn she had heard an audible crack deep in the rock itself.
Klaus seemed more stunned that she had the strength to do that to him, although they were both Originals. He had wrongly assumed that she had tapped into her magic to increase her speed and strength. She was going to prove him wrong. He didn't stay stunned though, and he quickly flipped her around so their positions were suddenly reversed. The stone groaned under the jolt of Klaus slamming her onto the slab but nothing more.
"Ella-" Klaus started, but Elena wasn't having none of it.
This time around she combined her enhanced strength and speed but then further amplified them with her magic. Her anger helped to fuel her temper, something she always had but she had long ago found a tentative balance of her tremulous emotions. This time, however, was different, and her anger won out.
They switched positions once more, but this time her magic and heightened emotions split the granite slab into two halves.
"Damn it, Nik, WHY HER!?" Elena screamed as the very Earth shook under her unbridled rage.
"Because I'm an abomination!" Klaus roared back. His eyes matched hers with tears right on the verge of being shed. By unspoken consent, Elena released her hold and they very deliberately backed away from each other.
"Nik, you are nothing of the sort!" He seemed visibly shaken by her words, that despite how angry she was with him, she vehemently denied him his self degradation.
"Nik, why my aunt? Jenna did nothing to you! And I didn't run I could have, but I'm not Katerina! So why punish me like you did?"
For however a brief moment she wondered if she would need to slam him to the ground again when he looked up at her his face wet with tears.
"Do you really want to know Ella?"
"Nik, for better or worse I'm your sister; and although I want to strangle you sometimes, I still love you. If it isn't obvious I've been struggling with this for so long, it feels like I've been cursed. Please just tell me," Elena pleaded.
He paced away, turning his back before thinking better of it, not wanting to keep a predator out of view. He sighed and only after he rubbed his hands over the length of his face did he peer up at the rising moon. Elena knew what he was feeling, she could feel it too, but she wasn't ready to reveal that secret just yet.
"I was so close to finally breaking my curse, Ella. I had everything I needed and I knew that you wouldn't run, I could see it in your eyes when I first picked you up outside Stefan's place."
"I'll repeat it for you; I wouldn't have run Nik. Yes, I was scared but-" Elena's voice caught. She would never forget how Jenna had looked right before Klaus murdered her. To this day she didn't exactly know if she had told her aunt to turn off her humanity more for her aunt or for herself. The image of her aunt's body sprawled across the stone slab, bereft of any dignity for the person who once tried to do right by her sister's children by taking up the adult responsibility of raising them. Jenna had died far too young.
"Elena-" Klaus started, but stopped, giving Elena a pained look. Part of her wanted to reach out and comfort her brother in law but she was too angry for it. In truth, it was a miracle she had made it this far without blowing up at him. She had somehow managed to control her emotions, by trampling them down deep within herself. But being back at the site of the ritual brought back all the pain. In retrospect, it might have been too much for her to handle. Taking a calming breath, she continued.
"Why did you pick my aunt, Nik?" Elena asked before pointing a finger in the general direction towards the town. "You had all of Mystic Falls within easy reach, you could have picked anybody, not that I would've liked it but since when has that stopped you? So help me understand, just what I did to you? Or Jenna?"
Klaus stepped back taking in the site of the ritual. Did he feel the ghostly apparitions of the women he murdered here, Elena wondered. She didn't know why but she did think her aunt was with them, Jules and Greta perhaps, Elena didn't really know.
"I was jealous," Klaus stated flatly; his irises flashed gold before returning to their normal blue coloring.
"Jealous? Of Me? How could you have been jealous? You were finally getting what you've wanted-"
She couldn't decide if she wanted to wait for him to elaborate or just pound him into the ground, when he finally answered the one question she'd wanted to know for centuries.
"Yes, but look what I had to do just get that far? My own brother held me in place while my mother, at the behest of our father, placed her damnable curse on me. While you had your own family and friends who were risking their own lives just to save you from me. I couldn't forget how even my brother helped my father while my mother cursed me, despite me begging them not to. Then Damon Salvatore had just killed my witch, then freed my vampire and werewolf so I-"
"And what?"
"And I overreacted! I'm sorry Ella but I just wanted to lash out, so I compelled Katherine to find a suitable replacement and as spur of the moment I suggested using your Aunt. Elena I-"
"Is that your excuse?" Elena demanded then allowing her anger to fuel her magic she allowed it to find a more appropriate target than being her recalcitrant brother in law. It was only after the effects of her aneurysm spell had fully faded that Elena realized she didn't feel as gratified as she'd hoped it would have been for herself.
"Bloody hell! No! Look Ella, I am truly sorry for what I did to your aunt. If I could change things I would, but I can't. All I can do now is promise you right here and now that I will keep finding ways of showing how sorry I truly am. And I… I hope someday that you can forgive me."
A part of her didn't want to look up at him but when she eventually did Elena found her brother in law watching her with an expression she hadn't seen on him for centuries. It reminded her of the times she found him alone in the forest after an encounter with Mikael. That man had caused more damage to his only family than any plausible stranger.
To her own surprise as well as Klaus's she pulled him closer till their foreheads were touching. For his own part Klaus winced when his sister in law unexpectedly pulled him towards herself.
"Nik, I won't lie and say even with my time skewed perception of events that I'm not still angry with you. But I've had time to think about it and while I won't forget your actions yet I believe in time I will forgive you. I just need some time. Do you understand?"
"Yes Love I…"
"Nik, not trying to change the subject. There however are some rather important things I need to share with you," Elena said, backing away. Klaus frowned when he heard the slight uptick of her heartbeat.
"Right before Esther cursed you in order to cut you off from your wolf side, she and Ayana each told me something that at the time confused me to no end I might add, but in retrospect it makes a perverse sort of sense. She unfortunately based her action on an incorrect assumption."
"What was this assumption, and why do you say it was supposedly incorrect?"
Elena fixed her brother with a sad smile.
"Your mother had no intention for your curse to last as long as it did." The stunned dubious expression he returned would have made her laugh if not for the seriousness of the circumstances.
"There are some rather disturbing reasons which I will need to share with the family as a whole. You see right before she daggered me while I was waiting for explanation why you needed to be cursed she told me she knew I was from the future and when the younger version of myself made my appearance as the next Doppelgänger I was to help send myself back into the past after you'd broken your curse."
"Wait! Did you say next Doppelgänger? But that was Katerina not-"
"Not me?' she finished for him with what Caroline had more than once warned her about her patronizing smirk.
"Those were my exact same thoughts as I succumbed to the Dagger's effects, but it wasn't until I regained consciousness nearly five hundred years in the future. Right around the birth of my dubious ancestor Katerina Petrova, I would like to point out that about the same time I started to understand your mother's actions a little better."
At the mention of his mother, she didn't have to be a mind reader to see he'd slammed shut his feelings and would have disappeared into the growing darkness. It wasn't like she couldn't track him, but Elena was in no mood to go traipsing after her brother in law now.
Taking his hand, she moved it so his warm fingers touched her brow.
"Nik, I can prove it to you if you wish. There are a select few memories I would wish to share. If you're willing, that is," Elena explained. He could have held his hand to prevent him pulling away but thankfully the playful smirk so typical of her Hybrid brother in law graced his lips.
"Only a select few memories, love?"
"Get your mind out of the gutter. Now do you want to see them or not?" Elena huffed in mock annoyance.
When he nodded for her to start she focused on a few of the most prevalent memories she had in mind, the first was what she had shown Jeremy and Anna after returning to Ayana's Spellchamber. The other was when she first witnessed a naïve Katerina being introduced to first Elijah then his younger brother on his birthday; then instigated Katerina's abrupt departure with the addition of Trevor and a compulsion laced nightmare courtesy of Elena Mikaelson herself.
"It was you that- that helped her escape?!" Klaus asked indignantly, but licked his lips when he also realized he was yelling at his older brother's paramour.
"I did, and don't push me on this! You might be upset now but keep in mind she was an innocent bystander caught up in something she was ill prepared to face on her own! But let's not focus on that. What did you make of the things your mother said?"
"Why? If she loved Ansel over father, why did she stay with him? She was a powerful witch!"
"Niklaus," she admonished him, then brought her head to rest on his shoulder. "Power witch she was, however you're forgetting one aspect that men don't truly understand. She was a woman and although I'm only guessing here, I believe she was suffering from a form of Stockholm syndrome. She mentioned to me once that she and another of her family relatives had been captured during a viking raid on her village. I don't know what Mikael did, but eventually she fell under his charms and they were married."
His body stiffened but relaxed as she continued to talk, but before she could think of what to say next he pulled back with a look of curiosity.
"Wait what did my mother mean by we were all cursed? I get the undeniable impression that it wasn't the same curse she placed on me at father's behest."
"Nice catch. If I'm being honest with myself it took me longer to pick up on that, but let me ask you a question about life. Don't give me that look! Alright, what is the basic definition of life?"
"This is ridiculous, Ella. Why?"
"Niklaus! I swear I have a reason!"
"Alright sister! If you're so insistent on this apparent nonsense, if memory serves according to Webster's dictionary defines life as an organismic state characterized by capacity for metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli, and reproduction. Would you care to explain?"
"Nik, it's literally the last word in the definition. Reproduction. What is the one thing we can't technically do as vampires? Didn't that aspect of our immortal existence ever cause you to question why?"
Klaus's blue eyes searched for something within Elena's brown eyes, but whatever he was looking for he either rejected outright or refused to even acknowledge it.
"What does not being able to sire a child have to do with all of us being cursed by mother?"
"That particular reason needs to be addressed with the family as a whole, since it affects them. But I can tell you that when you first activated your werewolf curse, you inadvertently also found a loophole. Meaning, for all intents and purposes, you had become fertile again."
Reflexively Klaus backed away from her, shaking his head in denial.
"Impossible you… you're lying!"
Elena grabbed his arm hard enough to stop him from pulling away from her, but no more than necessary.
"It's true Klaus, Esther figured it out when Mikael ordered her to bind your werewolf nature! She needed Petrova Doppelgänger blood as part of the ritual, as we are both well aware. When she was drawing some blood from Tatia, she-"
"What are you saying? That after I… I activated my curse that… that Tatia and I-" Klaus interrupted but as he continued to try refuting his sister in law, slow realization started to percolate through his thoughts.
"Klaus, Tatia probably isn't even aware of it from her perspective. She only had a few weeks at the most before Esther encased her and my children in stone and then with all the recent excitement in the present. But regardless, if you listen very carefully I do believe that you should now be able to detect the faint fluttering heartbeat of your unborn child."
Klaus broke free and pulled away from her, his intense blue eyes piercing the growing darkness of the approaching evening. Had they been talking for so long that it was already this late?
At first Elena thought he was still in denial, which as far as she considered was normal for her brother in law, but then she saw something in his expression that she thought she'd never see again. Mentally she cursed her father in law for his actions towards Klaus both when they were still human and then the centuries afterwards.
"Klaus! You are nothing like him!" Elena admonished.
"AM I? LOOK WHAT I HAVE DONE SO FAR!" Klaus shouted back, spreading his arms wide as if he alone was taking credit for all the world's woes.
"Nik!"
"No Ella. You must be mistaken… there is no possible way that I and she… I… I don't want to become like… like-"
Elena didn't want to, but she knew she needed to say it.
"Nik you will not become anything like Mikael. If you tried, your siblings and I would most likely kick your ass!"
"I'd like to see you try sister, but what makes you so sure that I won't become like father?" Klaus joked back before his tone became more morose. Elena reached out and cupped the side of his stubbled jawline.
"Niklaus, I just know, alright? And while we are talking about him, you shouldn't bother calling him father ever again. That man doesn't deserve to be addressed as such. Mikael was a monster."
"People would say the same for us, Ella. Well maybe not you, but-" he stopped mid sentence when his sister shook her head in disagreement.
"True, but at least you forget I've been watching all of you since the moment I learned how to project my astral form. So with that in mind, the majority of times you found any adult mistreating a child, you took it personally. Am I right?"
"You're exaggerating things, I didn't do that for everyone I came across."
"I can't honestly say yes or no towards that, but I was there when you rescued Marcellus. You even gave him his very name when he didn't have one."
Her brother in law's body went rigid at the mention of the once young boy he rescued from an abusive slave overseer. She hadn't been in Astral form for the first meeting, but she had watched afterwards and she had come to admire the child and his effect on Klaus. His torture, then subsequent death at Mikael's hands had only fueled her brother in law conviction that he wasn't entitled to any happiness.
"You knew about my adoptive son?"
"I did. He eventually became a fine young man, too. Nik, I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thank you."
Elena could sense by his body language he wanted to change the subject. Not wanting to dredge up anymore upsetting memories for either of them she decided to address another matter.
"Nik, what are your current plans for making more hybrids?" She asked carefully. She hoped he wouldn't overreact; she was somewhat surprised that he didn't outwardly react to her question at first.
"Are you asking if I would use Tatia's blood now that you're like us? I honestly don't know I…"
"Nik you're going to have to take that up with Tatia. Although, her making a blood donation might pose some difficulty with her current condition, but I'm not a trained doctor. Regardless, have you considered that you're not utilizing your hybrids to their full potential?"
Klaus at first bristled at her mild rebuke, but ever the strategist he shifted quickly and told her to explain. Drawing a deep breath, Elena started to explain an idea she had developed for quite some time. At first she didn't know where exactly to start, then it hit her and she couldn't help an inward smile.
"Nik, you or I could individually make hundreds if not thousands of vampires ourselves if we so desired, and if anything they are our foot soldiers for whatever task we assigned to them. But have you considered that your hybrids are stronger, faster than any of them barring extreme age of some vampires? And yet you treat them like they are another version of a foot soldier. You're forgetting one aspect of what makes werewolves so unique."
"And what is that?" Klaus asked calmly. If she hadn't known him for so long, she would have been foolish to think he was anything but calm.
"Werewolves by their nature are pack creatures and they work together as a team. This is just my suggestion, but instead of sending them out individually, have them operate like an American or British special forces unit. Perhaps going so far as to provide them with some degree of paramilitary training. If it helps, try thinking of them as a precision instrument of death, when the blunt force of an army of mere vampires would send the wrong message to our enemies. Other than witches, I really don't think your hybrids so trained and motivated have any equal."
Once again Elena had rendered her brother in law speechless. His mouth worked as he tried to argue with her but she hoped she phrased everything so he would be the one that ultimately came to the same conclusion she had centuries before.
"I will have to give what you said some thought, Ella, but you did bring up an interesting point, sister," Klaus smirked, and Elena instantly wondered what she might have overlooked. When it finally came to her, she felt both guilt and anger flood into her very core.
"NO Klaus! I don't want to do that to them! What I did to Abby was an accident. I… I-"
"Why Ella? A vampire witch hybrid might prove useful. If my hybrids have potential in strength and the like why not a witch vampire hybrid?"
Elena started to feel her blood boil. He didn't understand that unlike him she didn't have control over a witch neither by compulsion nor a sire bond. His hybrids were one thing; her own creations could be devastating by an order of magnitude.
"NO KLAUS!"
It wasn't how she wanted to reveal her secret, but she hadn't had time to get her turbulent emotions in check she felt the skin around her eyes twitch as the black veins etched themselves across her features. That alone wasn't what revealed her secret, nor was the descending of her fangs. It was her eyes that Klaus was entirely fixated on.
"Your eyes! They… they? How?"
Elena sighed before giving him a weak smile. Her golden irises were indeed beautiful; that she knew from catching her reflection in the mirror earlier.
"So um…. it turns out that my mother had a brief teenage fling with a stranger when she was still dating John Gilbert. And that stranger had something very special about him he hadn't obviously shared with her during their, um… encounter." Elena said, and found herself being staring at by her dumbstruck brother.
"Nik, say something?" Elena asked when the sudden awkward silence started to grate on her nerves.
"You're a witch vampire hybrid and a werewolf vampire hybrid too? A double hybrid?"
"I'd prefer the term Original Tribrid, mister Original Hybrid. But if my hunch is right, in eight or so months I won't be the only one of my kind."
"I… I… What?"
This wasn't how she wanted it to occur, but on a whim she glanced up at the moon as if in search of support when Elena had an idea. She mentally kicked herself for not considering it before now.
"Say brother, I know it's getting late, but how about we both stretch our four legs and find out where a pair of wolves can end up before heading back home?"
