I do not own TVD or TO.
2011
Two slaps – she hugged her knees – she was going to give Elijah two slaps: one on his right cheek and one on his left; one slap for leaving her in 1914 and one for now.
One for dropping her in a giant hole in the ground.
Then again, they would both be dead in a matter of hours along with almost everyone else they knew. She hadn't partaken in the champagne, but apparently she didn't have to.
Unless she could stop it.
Unless she could save the Originals that she loathed.
The ground beneath her shifted, rumbling softly to announce the approach of feet. The clicking echo told her the feet were encased in high heels.
"My jailor arrives at last," she tapped her foot.
"I was giving you time to stage a jail break."
"I thought about it," she hummed, tipping her head back, "but it's quiet down here. My thoughts have enjoyed the solitude."
"I see," Rebekah cleared away some sharp rocks with her boots, "and what have you been thinking about."
"Everything I want to say," She murmured, "and all the things I'll never get to."
"It's true then," Rebekah slid to the ground; tears shimmered in her eyes. "Mother really wants to kill us all?" She swiped at her cheeks.
"She wants to remove the dark blight she unleashed upon the world," she managed a small smile after a derisive snort. "She won't succeed though, thank goodness. She won't pull it off because you heard me. You heard me, and Kol heard me; that or you both have a strong aversion to pink champagne."
"I heard you," she whispered. "Your voice was like this tiny flutter in my mind and I wasn't sure until I looked at Kol. Why would she do this? We're her children! She's supposed to love us!"
"She loves you, Rebekah," Elena extended her leg to nudge the blonde's foot, "I don't know why she's doing this."
Rebekah stared at the spot where their legs touched. There were days, weeks, centuries where she despised her brothers and wished them dead, but the prospect – the looming reality – was heartrending. She didn't want to lose them. She couldn't lose them.
"What are you going to do to stop it?" She spoke in a thick voice.
"There is no stopping it," a hysterical laugh bubbled up in her throat.
"You're an Original vampire-witch hybrid," Rebekah snapped. "You're one of the most powerful beings on this entire bloody planet…"
"And your mother is channeling an entire line of witches."
"Then we break the living link," Rebekah slapped the ground with her palms.
"Even if I thought I was capable of killing one of my best friends or her mom it wouldn't make a difference," she shook her head from left to right slowly.
"You are not giving up?" There was a listless light in her eyes, bled dry of all her hope and optimism. She appeared to have aged behind her physical years, a far cry from the radiant girl who had emerged from Kol's bedroom the previous night. "You're the witch who found a way to stop Papa Tunde! If you can do that then you can do this."
"Papa Tunde had less power than your mother currently does and the link with his living sons was an easy enough thing to break once I knew that they were what he was drawing his power from, but your mother is different." Her tone lacked emotion. "The only way to weaken her would be to forcefully remove magic from the line she channels and the only way to do that is to taint the bloodline with an impurity."
"An impurity," Rebekah's eyes narrowed. "An impurity like the one my mother unleashed?"
"Hey, Ric?" Caroline slipped into an empty seat across from him. She picked up a paper from the stack and pushed it across the table. "You can just go ahead and give this one an 'A'."
He read the name on the title page before returning to the one on the table. "That would be unfair to the students who aren't here."
"I'm not unreasonable," she reached into her purse, "I will accept a ninety-nine percent."
"What do you want Caroline?" He rolled his eyes.
She unfolded a sheet of paper as large as the Grill's placemat and slid it under his nose. She had used a stick of charcoal from Jeremy's room to shade the page and left behind six words in a language she had never seen.
"I need your help to translate a dead language," she crossed her arms.
Alaric squinted at the paper, scrutinizing the smudged symbols. "That's not a dead language," he lifted his glass, taking a healthy drink. Swallowing he shook his head. "My Elder Futhark is a little rusty though. You might do better to ask one of the Vikings at the bar."
Her eyes cut to the right where the brothers leaned in tense silence. Their hands were curled around glasses and betraying the tight coil of their muscles, poised to strike at any moment and cause a great deal of bloodshed.
She would hate to be caught in that particular crossfire.
"I was really hoping to avoid that," she sighed and snapped up her paper. Squaring her shoulders she strode through the dinner crowd.
"Caroline," Klaus greeted, eyes lighting up when he saw her. "Join us for a drink, love?"
"I'd rather die of thirst," she scoffed, rolling her eyes. She corrected her motion when she caught it and turned toward Kol instead.
"I didn't even want to join you for a drink," he snorted.
"Then why did you?" She crossed her arms, digging her heels in and ignoring the warm tingle of Klaus' eyes on her face.
"Mother insisted we put the bad blood to rest," Klaus spun the glass on the bar between his fingers, "and I insisted it be done away from my recently renovated house."
"Because heaven forbid the crown molding should suffer," she huffed, glancing over her shoulder and catching his eyes.
"So aside from crushing my brother's hopes, what are you doing here, love?"
"I need a translator," she huffed, taking a deep breath, "and I thought 'hey, they're both really old'."
"That's hurtful," Klaus frowned.
"And the truth," Kol rolled his eyes. "What do you need?"
Caroline handed him the page, watching as his eyes narrowed and widened.
"Why do you have a sheet with our names on it?" He caught her gaze.
"Call it a spell transcript," she reached for the bloodstained spell in her purse and handed it to him. "Do you have any idea what this means? Because the witch who did it literally couldn't say, and I think it had something to do with this," she unfolded Bonnie's quick sketch.
Kol spread out the pages on the bar. His heart skipped, turning to ice in his chest as he made the link between the four blood soaked names, and the two that remained untouched.
"Where is Elena?" He met her gaze.
"Elijah came by her house. He wanted to show her something, and I haven't seen her since," she tapped the papers. "What does all of this mean? She was freaking out about it."
Kol folded the pages with a calm he didn't feel. "It means that someone used her blood to link my family together."
"I knew that bit," she tilted her head.
"Did you know she was included in it?" He took a deep breath.
Caroline's mouth popped open, expelling a rush of air. "Elena's linked to all of you?" Her wide eyes darted between the brothers.
Kol nodded at the same time Elijah appeared on Klaus' other side.
"We need to talk…"
"What the hell did you do to Elena?" Caroline cut him off.
"I fail to see how that's your concern, Miss Forbes," he responded in a cool voice, devoid of patience. "This is family business."
"Your family business involves my best friend," she snapped.
"Who will be released when the Salvatore brother's deliver what I've asked," he met her eyes, "and give me the location of my mother's ritual."
"Where is she Elijah?" Kol's voice rose, but remained quiet enough not to alert the humans. "Tell me before I get one of the daggers and shove it through your heart."
"Since when are you so obsessed with doppelgangers?" Elijah's eyes narrowed.
"Since this one is the same one," Caroline shoved the papers in her purse. "Deal with your 'family business'; I'm gonna go find my friend because apparently her life is now tied to yours, and I won't let her die without saying goodbye."
Kol watched her storm off for a second before staring at his older brothers. "What the bloody hell is she talking about?"
"Shouldn't we be asking that question?" Klaus straightened up; clenching his glass so tightly Kol feared it would break.
"Elijah?" His voice dropped to a growl.
"This is not the place Kol," he motioned to the door.
Kol stood his ground until Elijah relented with a sigh.
"Mother is planning on killing us all tonight," he breathed, "with the aid of the moon. Now tell us what Miss Forbes meant."
"Maybe I will," he smirked, "if we live." He turned and was gone, ignoring the sharp voices of his brothers.
Outside he raced to the blonde and bent to pick up her dropped keys.
"Where do we start looking?"
"You're not gonna accuse her of plotting with your mom?" Caroline unlocked the car.
"No."
"Why not?" She opened the door.
"Because," he circled the car. "I know what the bracelet does."
"This plan isn't going to include matricide by any chance?" Rebekah wrung her hands together, tugging on each finger as she waited. Elena was taking her good sweet time in the house and the longer she was gone the harder Rebekah's stomach shook.
"If we play this right then nobody has to die tonight," Elena slipped onto the front porch. She unfolded one of the sheets of paper in her hand and reached inside, extracting a glass orb that sparkled in her hand.
"What about…"
"Nobody has to die permanently," she closed her eyes and sighed. Holding out her hand she carefully deposited the sphere in Rebekah's palm. "Be really careful, okay? This thing is super delicate, and it only works once, so don't let it break early."
"Got it," she nodded. Ripping her scarf away she wrapped up the sphere until the glow extinguished and placed the package in her pocket. "Ready?"
"Yeah," she pulled her phone from her pocket, "just give me a minute. I have to make a call."
She watched Rebekah walk to her car from the corner of her eyes as she dialed and pressed the phone to her ear. Vehicles rolled by on the street, muting the rings. She licked her lips and blinked away the flood of moisture. She didn't know if she was relieved or disappointed when she got the voicemail.
"Hey, it's me…" she laughed a strangled sound that was closer to a sob, "I guess you already knew that. I'm sure you've got caller ID, and if you don't then you should get it." She wiped her hand over her sweaty brow; if she didn't pull this off it wouldn't matter anyway. "I… uh…" she pressed her lips together, breathing slowly through her nose, "… I um… I just wanted to say… I just wanted to tell you that I love you, and I'll talk to you soon."
She blinked at the siding that was in need of a touch up and gripped the railing to stay upright. A large palm covered her cold fingers.
"You're a terrible liar, darling."
"It could be true," she swallowed, turning around, "and if it's not, you're the only one who will ever get the chance to call me out on it."
Standing on the ground, he was a few inches shorter so he had reach up to cup her cheek and brush away a falling with his thumb. "Should I be jealous?" He teased, bringing a small smile to her lips.
"That was Thierry," she closed her eyes, "he transitioned in the forties."
"Oh good," his lips brushed her cheek, "I thought I was going to have to fight someone for your hand."
"Don't get too attached to my hand," she sighed, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"It's far too late for that, love," he breathed, "because I am very attached and I plan on calling you on your horrible lies for a very long time, so you had best let me in on whatever plan you've concocted with my sister because I will not lose you again."
"How did you…?"
"Caroline showed me a linking spell… well…" he tilted his head, "… a confirmation of a linking spell. Who did that anyway? Actually," he pressed a finger to her lips, "tell me later because I swear to you there will be a later, and just tell me what you want me to do."
She slid one hand down his arm and into her pocket for a second piece of paper. Unfolding it she reached into the fibers and pulled back her hand.
Kol's gaze dropped to the sudden clink of metal and locked on a familiar set of iron shackles. "How did you…?"
"Let's just say my physiology is closer to Klaus' than yours," she dropped the restraints in his hand. "Do you remember how to use them?"
"Of course, but do you think I can get close enough to my mother to use them?"
"If you do exactly as I say," she smirked, "then you just might have a chance."
Bonnie watched in silence as Finn moved around the salt pentagram with a lighter; torches flared to life, filling the dark with flickering flames and plumes of white smoke.
"The pentagram represents out connection to magic," Esther appeared at her side, "and the salt is the symbol of the earth."
"What about the torches?" She glanced at Finn.
"One to represent each of my children," Esther clasped her hands before her body.
"I thought you only had five children," Bonnie spun in a circle, taking in six torches.
"Perhaps you are miscounting," Esther suggested, raising her chin. "If you slow down I am certain you will find five. It's easy to miscount when identical items are in a circle."
Bonnie blinked, discovering the Original Witch was right; which was odd because she had been certain there had been six. She had even counted as Finn lit them.
"What's the spell you're doing?" She shook her head.
"As the witch who cast the spell that made them vampires I can reverse it, and when they are human again they can be killed. As they are linked as one," she caressed the cheek of her son when he approached, "my brave Finn will be the sacrifice. With his death will come theirs."
"And you're just willing to die?" Abby tilted her head.
"My mother has freed me from an eternity of shame. It's not a sacrifice…" Finn hesitated his smile was tight around the edges, strained as though he had forgotten what a truly happy expression were to look like, "… it's a gift."
He couldn't stop his eyes from popping when Kol stepped from a dark green car with a silent brunette.
"Elena?" He breathed.
"Elijah," she nodded curtly.
"How did you get you?" His eyes narrowed.
"I jumped," she pulled off her charm bracelet, stuffing it in her pocket, "and that's twice you've left me in life threatening situations, so if we survive the next hour, remind me to slap you."
I had this idea for Finn as well where in he still hates his siblings, but he's not as bad as he was in canon and I left hints for what it was in the last chapter and this one.