To meet Tristan.
That was what she had come there for anyway.
"Alright. I don't know how I'll find him, maybe I should look for Aya first." The vampire had been the one to tell her more about the party anyway.
"Oh, she's here." Klaus said in a tone that indicated that he was taunting Elijah.
"Must you brother?"
"Well, why shouldn't I? What was it you admired about her? Her mind?" She looked between the two brothers, and the smirk on Klaus' face was enough to tell Elena that he wasn't taunting Elijah but teasing him.
"Let us not discuss this at the moment. Elena?"
"Yeah, I'll go talk to her." She thought she saw a look of worry cross Klaus' face before he schooled his expression, and it was moments like these that made her think she mattered to him. Especially after what he had said about them being intwined.
But those moments were so fleeting, she was left wondering if it was all just in her head.
She walked back into the main ballroom, making her way towards Aya after she spotted the vampire.
She stood by her, the other woman not sparing a second glance at her, and was glad the charm was working on someone.
"Aya." She got her attention quickly, and Aya turned to her, eyes widening slightly as Elena pulled off her mask.
"Well, that's a neat trick, Miss Gilbert."
"Thanks you, I didn't think I should come to an unknown place without adequate protection."
"Hmm…aren't two originals enough protection?"
"I didn't invite them." Aya gave her a pointed look and she had to say something to convince her. "Klaus compelled my mother to set herself on fire in front of me, neither of them care about me beyond what I can do for them." She knew it would be better to mix her lies in with some truth in order to sound convincing.
Elena slipped her mask back into place, looking at Aya as she did so.
"Yes, the Mikaelsons rarely care about others. Fine, I believe you for now." Elena sighed in relief.
"Katherine said you could help me."
"Not me, him." Aya was looking behind her, and Elena turned to see a dark haired man. Everyone around him was looking at him with reverence almost, almost everyone was staring at him, but few seemed to be able to actually talk to him.
He took notice of them and stalked towards her. There was something about him that had her legs gearing to run, but she stood rooted to her spot.
"Elena Gilbert, I presume." He reached her, pulling her hand as though he was used to people bending to his will, his arrogance a different breed than Klaus or Luciens. It was almost like being respected was something he expected from everyone. His lips pressed into the back of her hand, an old fashioned greeting he seemed to be fond of. "Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Tristan de Martel."
"Nice to meet you." She pulled her hand back, and one look at him was enough to her why Elijah had been worried about him.
"Yes, it is a pleasure. There are almost no differences between you and your predecessor. I must say that it is good for me to meet you as you are." He said motioning to the mask, and she allowed a small smile before putting it back on, his eyes following her movements.
"It isn't as good for me." She said quietly with a sigh.
"It is quite dangerous to walk into a gathering of vampires without protection. You could've been hurt."
"I think you should be more afraid of that fact than me. Klaus needs me alive."
"I'm not afraid of the Mikaelsons."
"Then why am I here?" She expected to see some anger, but he was calm and composed.
"You come right to the point, don't you?"
"I've been doing this long enough to know better than to waste my time running in circles."
"Fair enough, I suppose. Shall we?" She frowned but took his proffered hand, allowing him to lead her through the room, and onto an adjoining balcony. Most people did a poor attempt at pretending to not pay attention to them.
She could tell he had wanted to get them out of everyones earshot.
"So who are you? What do you want?"
"All in good time, Ms. Gilbert. For now it should be enough to know that we share an enemy."
"Klaus."
"Well yes, but not just him, all of the originals." She could see a serving trolley there and bringing her out here must have been planned. She could smell the freshly mowed grass, the air outside was cold and made her bare shoulders cover in goosebumps. He poured two glasses of champagne and handed her one.
"You want to kill them all?"
"If I can, then yes."
"Can I ask why?" She could see his disapproving gaze as slouched, leaning against the railing, but pretended to ignore it.
"It's a long story."
"I'm not going anywhere." He looked at her before nodding.
"It seems as though you won't let this go. Very well, ten centuries ago, my family and I had everything."
"Ten?"
"Oh yes."
"But that would mean you're just as old as them."
"Give or take a year. My sister and I were the children of a Count. We had everything we could have ever wanted, money, power, influence. There was nothing we could want for. Until one day, the Mikaelsons came into our house, pretending to be our guests."
Elena was looking at him, captured in the story.
"What happened then?"
"Nothing, at first. Then Klaus turned Lucien."
"Wait a minute, how do you know Lucien?" She asked in confusion, although Elijah had hinted that Tristan and Lucien were enemies.
"Lucien was a servant at our house. Klaus turned him into a vampire, the first vampire ever sired."
"Oh."
"Then Rebekah turned my sister Aurora. When we become vampires, everything amplifies, and Rory, well, she was never quite alright. Your modern psychiatrists call it bipolar. She was never quite right after becoming a vampire."
"Oh." She felt bad for him despite herself, "and you?"
"Elijah turned me."
"Is that why you want them dead? Because they made you and your sister vampires?"It didn't seem right, especially with the party that was going on outside. Tristan didn't strike her as the type who would bemoan over being a vampire.
"No. It is because of what they did after they turned us."
"What did they do?" She asked almost dreading the answer.
"They were running Mikael, and I was quite irritated at having them inside my house, so I sent word with some travellers of beasts living in our house, in our town and Mikael came to kill them all. In the ensuing chaos, Elijah devised a clever to deceive Mikael. Decoys."
"Decoys?"
"Yes, that is what the three of us were. He compelled me to think I was him, Aurora to think she was Rebekah and Lucien to assume the identity of Klaus." She drank her champagne, her mouth suddenly dry. "For a century we believed we were the original siblings, chased around by their father while they enjoyed life."
"A century?"
"Yes, I assume Elijah was daggered afterwards, and the compulsion wore off. Could you imagine the confusion? One moment I believed myself to Elijah Mikaelson, the next I recalled I was Tristan. We wasted a century running, with the risk of being killed unnecessarily. Aurora was never the same after that, neither was Lucien, if I'm quite honest. That day, I swore, both Aurora and I did, that we will have our revenge. And here you are."
They stood in silence for a moment, letting his words sink in.
"What's your plan?" She asked him, still slightly shocked. She had never been a fan of compulsion, had learnt her lesson after she had Damon compel Jeremy, and the idea of living someone else's life, believing to be someone else for a century was maddening to her.
"I hear you require the assistance of a witch, perhaps we could be of use to each other."
"There's no witch that can help, I've tried."
"I do not have a witch Ms. Gilbert, I have a sisterhood of some of the strongest witches alive. They are part of the Strix who know of your predicament and they can help."
"Well if you know what it is, then you probably also know that nothing can help. The only thing I've found out till now has been to slow the changes, nothing to revert them."
"The witches have a talisman, shall we say, that will arrest any curse in its path. Trap it so that they have more time to find a cure, which they will." It was almost too good to be true, and she part of her wanted to know if it was true. "Here," he reached inside his breast pocket, pulling out a small black box, handing it to her. "This has been charmed to arrest the curse in its present state, even revert some of the changes. Consider this a token, something to assure you that I intend to follow through on my end of the bargain."
Elena took the bracelet after a moment, looking down at it and wondering if it worked.
"What do you want in exchange?"
"You are quite adept at this for someone so young." She was slightly shocked at the casual use of the word, she hadn't felt young in a long time.
"I've had practice."
"What I want is what I believe everyone wants from you, your blood."
"You have a way to kill the originals with it?" She wondered if Esther was around somewhere as well.
"No actually, this isn't about killing them."
"Then what is it about?"
"I'm sure you've heard that Mikael died."
"Yes."
"It was your plan to bring him to kill Klaus, was it not?"
"No, actually, it was Damon's."
"Well, at first I hadn't heard of him dying, I heard something else."
"What?" The quite nature outside was a contrast to her racing mind.
"Vampires dropping dead for no discernible reason."
"What do you mean dropping dead?"
"Just that. Vampires across the world died for no reason. And they all belonged to Mikael's sire line. All vampire hunters."
"But how did they die?"
"That was the question. Until one of our witches found out the answer. They dies because Mikael did."
"How is that possible?"
"It's the sire link, apparently. When an original dies, so does their entire sire line. Or so is the theory." Elena stared in shock, just last week Esther had been planning to kill all her children, which meant, all vampires.
"That means if you kill Elijah, you will die as well?"
"Yes."
"So why kill him?"
"The plan at the moment is not to kill him, but to free ourselves from the sire link. And for that spell, my witches require would require your blood."
"There's a way to break the link?"
"Well, we aren't too sure about that. But if there is a way, a powerful binding agent will be required for the spell. Your blood will do quite nicely, I'm told."
"But how are you so sure it even exists?"
"There are three originals I can test it on before getting to Rebekah or Elijah."
"You want to kill someone to see if hundreds of thousands, maybe even a million people die along with them, as an experiment?" She took a step back, wanting to get off the balcony as soon as possible.
"Yes, it is essential in afraid. And you will help willingly, or else I will pluck those beautiful eyes out of their sockets." Elena walked back, and he didn't waste time, speeding towards her instead and grabbing her. She reached into her pocket throwing the vervain grenade at him. He clutched his face, more in surprise than pain and she ran into the ball room.
Outside, the party had halted, the music had stopped and everyone was looking in her direction. It was less than a second before she felt someone grab her arm and looked behind her to see Tristan. She felt fear go through her until she heard his voice.
"Tristan!" It was like a chill went through the crowd as she recognised Klaus' voice, echoing through the room as he walked towards them, Elijah following behind, the crowd parting to allow them through. "Oh there you are. Couldn't see you at first."
"Klaus. Elijah. It's been a long time. However I am surprised to see you here, given that you weren't invited."
"Well, we decided to stop by, have some champagne," he raised a glass, "see what business you had with my doppelgänger."
"That is none of your concern." Elena saw the smirk fall from his face and Klaus looked at Tristan angrily.
"Whatever you have in mind, I suggest you end it now. This is the only warning you get." Elijah said as he walked to stand beside his brother.
"You are in no position to give me a warning. Look around us, you are surrounded by vampires just as old and powerful as you. And while there are two of you, there are hundreds of us."
"Actually," Elena heard the voice from behind her as Lucien walked into view, "there are three of us."
"Even if you were a match for us look above is, there are far too many witches for you to fight." She looked up, and the entire upper level was lined by witches, about thirty of them. They were all wearing flowing black dresses along with matching hoods. This place was starting to look more and more like a cult instead of a club.
"Is that the plan here? Scare us with these pathetic attempts at a fight. Why shall I bother fighting any of them when I can just kill you?" There was open space between where she was being held by Tristan and where the rest of the crowd was, but Klaus was walking in the middle of that space, looking as if he was prepared for a fight.
She felt herself being pulled into a strong grip and found that she couldn't move a muscle.
"I'll kill her." She met his blue eyes, and even as her life was being threatened, again, she felt some comfort at his presence. She knew he wouldn't let her get hurt, and wondered if it was because of who she was or what she was.
"And then I will lay waste to your entire club. But I will leave you alive long enough to make your sister watch you die. Or make you watch her die, I don't particularly care."
"Yes, but she'll still be dead. Besides, do you really think yourself capable of killing Aurora?" She could see Klaus falter, could see it in his eyes as they travelled to her almost fearfully.
"Enough. Let's end this charade, shall we?" Elijah looked calm even though the entire room seemed to be tense and on edge. Most people seemed to be silent spectators, while some seemed to be preparing for a fight. "We know you aren't going to kill her, and you know that it would be difficult for us to fight you all. Let the girl go and we'll leave peacefully."
"That is not an even agreement. We do not get anything while you get everything in exchange, you have nothing you can do here." Klaus broke the glass in his hands, and the next moment, he had aimed two chards at the balcony, killing two witches.
There was a ripple amongst the vampires, a tense moment, while the witches remained impassive.
Elena yelled out as she felt something stab her side.
"The more people you kill, the more she'll suffer." She tried to reach one hand down to her pocket, knowing that it would give her a fighting chance, give them all a chance.
There were too many people to fight.
If they did, it would be a bloodbath.
Tristan removed the knife from her side, and she felt the sticky liquid run down her side, staining the white of her dress, and she doubled over in pain.
Then-
Elijah moved swiftly and there were two people lying dead at his feet, hearts ripped out, Lucien managed to kill a witch from where he was standing, and Klaus had moved, thrown himself at Tristan.
But before he could get to them, Elena heard the witches chanting, making Klaus fall onto his knees in pain, yelling as his eyes turned amber, the beast in him fighting through the pain. There was a group of vampires fighting Lucien, and another including Aya, fighting Elijah.
In the chaos, she realised no one was paying attention to her, and desperately shoved a shaking hand into her pocket, tears running down her face. Her shaking hand wrapped around the rectangular device, fingers looking for the knob.
Klaus was now fighting off six others while Elijah seemed to be winning against the five fighting him. Lucien had somehow reached the upper level, killing off the witches one after the other even as they were chanting something.
She almost yelled in triumph when her fingers wrapped the knob, turning it over twice.
Then she heard a wail.
Klaus had bitten Tristan, but for some reason they both seemed to be in pain.
There was silence for a moment after that, when everyone was frozen.
And then-
The room was filled with screams and all the vampires were on their knees, clutching their ears in pain.
A/N - Yes, that's where I'm leaving it. A change that I made was inform about the sire line situation using Mikael because I thought it was a plot hole on the show. Mikael has been shown to turn people and then compel them to down his children so it always struck me as odd that they never spoke about his sire line dying.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
