Chapter 3: Making decisions
Bella followed Esther to the hut she used to do her magic.
Ayana wasn't there yet and for that Bella was grateful, she needed to speak with the original witch privately first. Esther would probably be the one who will know the most about what to do about the future. Plus, they all had suspicions that Ayana was responsible for turning Esther against her children. Bonnie herself exposed the theory that her ancestor had been corrupted by the dark forces that existed in this world.
"You look so nervous dear Isabella… Why is that?" Esther asked as she burned the sage around the place.
"What I'm about to tell you is hard… It's really important to change the future and I don't really know how to say it without sounding rude or judgmental…" Bella confessed, looking down.
"Don't worry dear, I know that whatever I think or whatever the spirits tell me now, I have to follow your advice first. That's what the spirits from the future told me." The witch confessed before adding "We could agree that what is said in this hut today stays in here… If we decide to do so later, we don't have to mention anything ever again if it hurts one of us or of it makes one of us uncomfortable…"
Bella smiled.
"That would be a good idea. Okay, first, you have to know that I'm aware that Niklaus is not Mickeal's son…"
"How do you know?" Esther asked.
"In the future, when you change them… Let's just say that it triggered the werewolf curse that runs into Niklaus' real father's bloodline. He will become a hybrid, half werewolf, half vampire…"
Esther looked shocked.
"What…How do I prevent it from happening?"
"In the future you put a curse on him afterward to restrain his werewolf side, it changed him into a monster. He saw it as a betrayal on your part, as a punishment for something he wasn't responsible for. He did horrible things in order to lift this curse… Killed incalculable number of people in order to lift this curse… He just stopped caring. I think, at some point, he must have turned his emotions off."
"Niklaus is the monster you have been talking about earlier?" Esther asked, sitting down from the weight of the news.
She looked at Bella in horror. How could she be here to help if her son had caused her so much pain?
"Yes, he is, but it doesn't have to be this way. Actually he wanted to be called Klaus… I differentiate them this way: Klaus is the monster that killed people and Niklaus is the human young man who has a chance of being saved…" Bella replied.
"Okay… What is your idea?" The mother asked.
"Well, you could lift the werewolf curse from him now, without him, or anyone, knowing the truth, but if he ever find out it could have terrible consequences… or you could give him a choice and tell him the truth… Ask him to choose between being a vampire forever with his siblings and being a werewolf and living a normal life, you know, get married and have children… You could also try and make him a shape-shifter instead of a werewolf… this way, as long as he shifts, he doesn't age… He wouldn't be lonely, which is what he was afraid of the last time around according to what I've been told."
"So much to think about…" Esther whispered.
"Yes… Truthfully, I think Mickeal is going to be the biggest problem here… Niklaus will be fine as long as he gets to be loved and treated the same way as his siblings. Making him a shape-shifter seems to be one of the best solutions, the other being telling him the truth and giving him the choice between being a werewolf and living a human life or being a vampire with his siblings. You'd have to kill the werewolf curse before it is triggered though…"
"What did Mickeal do last time?" Esther asked curiously, cutting the young woman in her train of thought.
"He killed Niklaus' birth father and his whole family and started a war between species that would last forever, after that he guiltied you into putting a cruse on your son to prevent his werewolf side to come out. He then spent over a thousand years chasing his children all around the world in hope of terminating their lives… You made him stronger than your children, the vampire to end all vampires, a true hunter… for his own flesh and blood…" Bella explained gravely, making sure Esther understood she was against that idea.
"What do I do now?" Esther asked, lost.
"Well, you have until the next full moon to make a decision… Although I'm sure you could drag it out a few more months, it wouldn't hurt anyone I think… You should talk with Niklaus and Mickeal about it. Might I suggest doing so separately? You should make sure that Niklaus understand that whatever he decides he will never be alone and will always have his siblings and YOU by his side… Mickeal just need a good behaviour adjustment I think!" Bella explained with a small smile.
"He has been very hard on Niklaus…" Esther admitted.
"You need to make sure Mickeal understands that it's wrong and that the whole family is supporting Niklaus. Mickeal is Niklaus' father in his eyes! He needs to understand that. Also… the fact that he is the fruit of your infidelity doesn't mean that you need to be ashamed of him. It's just wrong and would just end up hurting everyone… Also, now that you are warned of Ayanna's bad influence, maybe you can put some protection spell on you family and save everyone from being corrupted by her… It could change a lot, I'm pretty sure she's the one who pushed Mickeal's anger towards Niklaus…" Bella declared.
"You gave me a lot of information to think over… If you told me this before saying anything to the family I'm guessing it is linked to why you're sent here?"
"It's the very reason why I'm here… The war and the horrors I'm here to stop started because of this…"
"Because of me…" Esther finished.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay young Bella… You're honest and I like you, although I'm not the only member of my family who does… What you have with Elijah… I interrogated the spirits last night and they said it was true love, the kind that lasts forever… Like two long lost loved ones reuniting in this life, two halves of a whole… I'm happy about it!" Esther explained with a smile, happy for this lighter subject that came up.
"Thank you." Bella blushed.
"You're welcome. Now I think I need some time alone to think over what you've told me…" Esther told her, still smiling, dismissing the young woman.
"Very well, I'll leave you to it then… Do you wish me to say anything to them?" Bella asked.
"I think I want you to wait until tonight, I will try to make my mind by then…" Esther replied as Bella smiled at her before she walked towards the door.
As she was about to leave, she turned around and added:
"I don't know if you should say anything to Ayana… Her descendant, Bonnie, had suspicions that Ayana might be corrupted by the dark spirits. She thinks maybe she is the one who influenced you to do such horrible things in the future"
Esther looked shocked.
"But she is my mentor… Why would she do that?" She didn't understand.
Bella had made small comment before and she kind of ignored them, but she seemed pretty sure Ayana was serving the wrong side.
"You know, witches, werewolves and vampires are not the only supernatural creatures in this world… There are shape-shifters, of course, and Cold ones, who are a different kind of vampires, but also demons… they are very few of each kind but numerous different kinds… Like every creatures they are divided between the ones who do what's right, who are nice and serve the light, and the dark side, who choose to do what's easy, who does the bad. Witches are supposed to be neutral, but knowing that you were supposed to create such a powerful line of vampires, maybe Ayana has been influenced by the dark side to stop you… There are jealous people everywhere, people who wished to start this particular kind of vampire themselves maybe… I don't really know…" Bella explained while she was still standing by the door.
"Another load of information…" Esther said, smiling tiredly.
"I'm sorry, but it's essential that you know this!" Bella answered, sincerely sorry for what she was putting the witch through.
"It's okay, I understand…" Esther nodded.
"You know, I don't think we should tell Niklaus he was going to be the monster I came here to stop… It would only cause him unnecessary pains." Bella suggested wisely.
"I think you're right…" Esther agreed.
"I'm going to join Rebekah now… Maybe she will tell me enough so that I won't behave the wrong way once I'm introduced to the town's people." Bella smiled.
"I'm sure everything will be perfectly fine with you, I doubt Elijah will let anything trouble you…" Esther replied smiling knowingly, making Bella blush as she exited the hut, leaving the original witch to her thinking and decision making.
Bella found her way quite easily back to the house and went directly out back to help Rebekah in the garden. When she arrived, the young woman was looking at the vegetables and collecting the ones that were good to eat.
Bella decided to help her and together they got lunch ready with some meat Kol had brought back. As they did so, they talked.
"I've been wandering… How come you can speak to us, you can understand us… Do they still speak our language in the future?" Rebekah asked as they spoke of diverse things while doing what had to be done.
"No, we speak English in this land, but Bonnie a witch who's a descendent of Ayana, put a spell on me so I can understand your language. Future Elijah would have taught me but in one week there was no time…" Bella explained.
"Was it hard to see Elijah die?" The original sister asked.
"A little… but not as hard as if he was to die today. I think Future Elijah had turned his emotions off, that's probably why I couldn't completely fall in love with him back then… I felt a pull, but nothing more, I think he did it on purpose, so I didn't get confused once I'm here, he died in front of me so I could come here…" Bella replied with sadness in her eyes.
"It must have been really hard… I'm sorry you had to go through all of this…"
"Oh, it's okay… It's for the best, I try to concentrate on the fact that they are not born yet and that everything can change…" Bella said as Rebekah showed her how to clean the skin of the animal.
The boys were back and were doing work around the property for a while. Elijah was behind them fixing a door.
Suddenly, as they were skinning the deer, Bella got dizzy and wavered.
"Bella! What's wrong? Are you okay?" Rebekah asked as Elijah caught her in his arms and helped her to seat down.
"It's nothing… It's just that the smell of blood makes me sick. It always does, I kind of forgot about it these last few days…" Bella explained as she took big breaths in.
"You can smell blood?" Elijah asked, surprised.
"Yes, I always could. It always makes me dizzy, sometimes I even faint…" She replied with a small smile as Elijah stroke a comforting hand on her back.
"Are you feeling better?" Elijah asked her as she drank the cold water Rebekah had given her.
"Yes, thank you. This is so embarrassing…" Bella replied as she tried to stand up but was held in the seat by Elijah.
The rest of the family just came in and Rebekah was filling them in on what just happened.
"Not at all… Stay seated a while longer, you'll feel better! What I wonder is how you can smell blood, usually humans can't do that…" Her love declared with a soft, concerned, smile.
"I don't know… Edward and his family found it funny too…" She replied without thinking.
"Who's Edward?" Kol asked.
"Oh… He's a long story…" Bella shook her head, regretting having mentionned him.
"A suitor maybe?" Klaus asked with a small smile, watching from the corner of her eyes his brother getting jealous.
"He used to be… He was a vampire too, but not an original like you will be… He was a Cold one…" She explained.
"You dated a Cold one? Are you crazy?" Mickeal exclaimed before adding "They are full of bloodlust and very dangerous!"
"He and his coven… I guess you could call them a family because that's what they became over the years… They were different from others… They had gold eyes…"
"How is that even possible?" Esther asked.
She knew all about Cold ones and had told all about them to her family when she was thinking of actions to save their lives.
"They didn't drink human blood, they fed on animals. They called themselves vegetarians as a joke…" Bella was feeling nostalgic all of a sudden.
"You miss him. You must love him a lot." Rebekah said without thinking, making Elijah tensed.
"Not really… I think he hurt me too much for me to love him again, but I'll never forget about him. He was the first boy I ever fell in love with. I think a girl never forgets that…" She replied honestly.
"Why do you sound so sad when you speak of him then?" Finn asked.
"Because when he broke up, he left town, forcing his whole family to leave with him… That day I didn't just lost my boyfriend but also my best-friend, his sister Alice, my surrogate parents, Carlisle and Esme, my big brother, Emmett… That's what hurt the most…" She replied.
Elijah relaxed.
"Why did he break up? Didn't he love you?" Henrik asked.
Bella then proceeded to tell them all about her love story with Edward from the first time she saw him to when he left her in the woods. She even described the funk she was in after they left. How she felt better the closer she got to Mystic Falls, how she believed now that Elijah's presence there made it better for her. All throughout her story, she felt Elijah tense every time she got in danger or hurt.
"What a monster! How could he leave you all alone like that? Even if he stopped loving you… and that Alice, you were her best friend! How could she leave you without a last good bye? I would never leave without saying good bye to my best friend, no matter what my brother told me!" Klaus raged as his brothers agreed.
"Maybe they didn't care as much as they said…" Bella told them.
"What surprises me the most is this Carlisle. He was a Cold one and a doctor, it's surprising…" Mickeal said in a wondering tone.
"Yes, Carlisle was one of a kind… His father was a clergyman. He was raised to hunt supernatural creatures but he loved life… When he changed he tried to kill himself several times but it's hard to kill their kind. After one too many failed tries, he isolated himself, away from humans, hopping to stay hidden forever away from people he could hurt, he didn't care about the pain he was going through, all he wanted was to protect humans from what he had become… One day a herd of dears passed by and that's when he realised he could survive without hurting humans…" Bella told them.
"Well, at least I know that my children won't have to kill humans." Mickeal commented.
"Actually, their kind of vampire can feed on humans without killing them. They will have much more control than Cold ones." Bella told the man, watching him looking relieved.
"Do you miss then though?" Henrik asked, curious.
"A little… I miss Carlisle's kindness and Emmett's childish jokes and booming laugh… I don't miss Rosalie though, she hated being a vampire. It might be better this time around if she died instead of being changed…" Bella commented, thinking out loud the second part.
"Died?" Esther asked.
"Carlisle doesn't take lives, he only changes people that cannot be saved by medicine. Esme was declared dead when he changed her because he still heard a heart beat, Edward was dying of the Spanish influenza, Emmett had been mauled by a bear, Rosalie had been raped by her fiancé and his friends… They left her for dead in the streets in the middle of a winter night…" Bella explained.
"Well, we could always go find this Carlisle when the times come and warn him not to change her…" Elijah suggested, seeing that it was important for his Bella;
"Great idea! Thank you!" She exclaimed as she let her impulse take over and kissed him on the cheek.
Elijah loved the sensation that was going through him and he blushed a deep red, making his family chuckle, which, in turn, made Bella blush too. Then she added:
"But you'd have to guide them in time to save Emmett… You can't change too much things. If you hunt down James, Laurent and Victoria, it could change too much history, it could change me. You can't hunt him down until after I meet them, do you understand me?" She sounded serious and he nodded.
"Do I have your word?" she asked him, looking into his eyes.
"Yes, I give you my word." He answered reluctantly.
Then they had a quick lunch all together. They talked about their morning and Klaus informed them he went to the Petrova's to break their new horse in but didn't flirt with Tatia like he used to. Rebekah informed Bella that nobody knew who the father of her child was but they knew he was from another village.
As they talked, Bella realised that Niklaus could be a good friend to her and that the fact that Henrik survived could, in itself, be a big step up. It would help a lot in the changes.
Finn told her he was spending his afternoon with Sage, planning their wedding, and that he would love for her to join them later on to meet her. Bella smiled and told him she would love that. He explained to her where to join them and Elijah assured him he would guide Bella there.
As they finished the meal, Bella helped Rebekah with the cleaning while the others went on with their activities. Elijah had some work to do before spending time with Bella and kissed her on the cheek before he left.
As her blond haired son was about to exit the house, Esther said:
"Mickeal I need to speak to you in the hut, Niklaus, don't go far, I'll need to talk with you later too…" She sounded nervous but spoke in a tone they all knew not to discuss.
Both Mickeal and Niklaus nodded. Mickeal left the house with his wife while Niklaus decided to stay behind and spend time with his sister and her new friend.
REWRITTEN May 2020
Lorelei Candice Black