Chapter Five: We're Not Broken, Just Bent
Author's note: I'm really excited by the response to this and happy that people are enjoying this! This fic is becoming so much more than I originally came up with but I love it and I can't wait for you guys to see where it goes. And I know we really want Klaus and Hayley to reunite but it might take a bit – both of them are a little occupied at the moment. Once again thanks to red lightning – a wonderful muse I had not expected! Also there are a few new characters in this chapter that may look familiar from the show but appear in here a little differently. The chapter title and lyrics from the beginning come from the song "Just Give Me A Reason" by Pink/Nate Reuss
"Just give me a reason
Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again
It's in the stars
It's been written in the scars on our hearts
We're not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again. . ."
Rebekah rocked Hope up and down in her arms, attempting to quiet the child who was now crying. "Ssshh. It's alright, Bug." She looked around, keeping her eyes peeled for Hayley what or who was chasing them. As Hayley took off, she'd transformed into her wolf form. Rebekah saw neither Hayley's wolf nor their attacker – the only option was to get out of there and trust that Hayley could hold her own.
"Momma!" Hope whimpered, her little eyes frantically scanning the unfamiliar forest around her.
"She'll be right back, okay? In the meantime we must be very, very quiet." Rebekah held the girl close, reaching down to grab hold of the bags. "Now close your eyes and hold on tight. Aunty Bex must get us out of here." The Original let out a breath and used her vampire speed to race around the forest, hoping to lose the trail of whoever was after them.
"Too fast . . ." Hope held on tighter to her aunt.
"Hold on tight, Bug." Rebekah told the girl who was beginning to whimper. "Don't worry, love – we'll reunite with your mom soon. I just need you to be brave, okay? We just need to get far away from here and find your mom."
"Okay." Hope nodded, wrapping her arms around her aunt's neck.
Rebekah continued speeding through the forest, keeping her senses on high alert. She darted in and out of the forest, back and forth, in no certain pattern – hoping to lose the attacker and keep her niece out of harm's way.
And then the scenery changed and she had no idea where she was or how she'd gotten there. She stopped suddenly, panting as the bags dropped to the ground again.
What the bloody hell?
She'd stopped by a pond that fed into a larger lake. She'd never been to this part of the bayou – nor did she know how she'd gotten there. She adjusted Hope on her hip – the girl was looking around and all fear Rebekah had felt from her while they'd been chased was gone.
The Original turned around – there was a small cabin a few feet away from the water's edge. Smoke billowed from a narrow chimney, fresh footprints covered the ground, and light shone through the one window of the cabin.
Rebekah looked to Hope again, raising an eyebrow. The young girl said nothing, now watching the door of the cabin.
Rebekah watched as the door began to open. She tensed, ready to run or defend herself and her niece from whoever exited –
Two figures stepped out, two women. One younger-looking woman with long blonde hair holding what looked like a steaming bowl and rock in her hands and an older-looking woman with greyish-white hair holding a large shotgun.
Rebekah froze, unsure if the women were friend or foe. She swallowed and her hold on Hope tightened.
"Quick, you must come inside!" The younger woman spoke as the two came toward the Original and the child. The older woman relaxed her hold on the gun and nodded.
"Who the bloody hell are you?!" Rebekah shouted.
"Hush, child." The older woman. "Less talking, more moving. There isn't much time."
"Go in, Aunty Bex." Hope whined.
"As the child says, let's hurry." The younger blonde said.
"Not until you tell me who the bloody hell you are!" Rebekah shook her head, getting ready to run.
"It would be easier to show you." The younger blonde was next to her in a moment and had her hands on either side of Rebekah's head before she could run off. Rebekah's hold on Hope tightened – she wouldn't let them take the girl.
"No!" Rebekah cried out, white light filling her eyes. She saw images of her mother when she was younger and her older brother Finn as a child. There was also a dark haired woman and a young blonde girl she didn't recognize.
Her mother, Finn, and the young girl were crying. The dark haired woman had anger in her eyes as she pulled the young girl from Ester's grasp. Ester was yelling out to not take the girl away, to not take her Freya from her, pleading with the dark haired woman – calling her Dahlia and sister . . .
Rebekah gasped, Freya – she knew that name . . .
Back in the images in her head, she saw the young girl – Freya - with the woman her mother called Dahlia in a forest, hands clasped and chanting as light enveloped them. Next she saw the blonde woman from the bayou crying, dressed in old-world clothes as the woman named Dahlia stood nearby.
Rebekah gasped again, blinded by the harsh light of the bayou danced in her eyes. Hope wasn't in her arms anymore. In fact, they weren't even outside anymore. She was laying on a bed, staring at a wooden ceiling as the moonlight poured in through the window.
Panic overtook her – where was her niece?
"Hope!" She sat up, her head still spinning.
"Quiet, child."
Rebekah turned her head – it was the older woman from before. "Where the bloody hell is my niece?!"
"Aunty Bex." Hope entered through a door beside the bed. The toddler appeared unharmed, calm, and happy to see her aunt awake.
Rebekah scrambled to her feet and knelt down beside Hope. "Bug!" She wrapped her arms around the little girl. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"
"No." Hope shook her head.
Rebekah stood up, picking Hope up and holding her on her hip. "Come, love, we're getting out of here."
"I'm afraid that isn't possible, sweetie." The older woman told her calmly.
"Like hell!" Rebekah shouted. "Do you really think you can take an Original?"
"Probably not." The older woman admitted, shrugging. "But she can – and she already has."
The younger blonde woman entered the room from outside, carrying a pile of wood in her arms. She set the wood on a pile beside the fireplace. "Dear sister, you're not planning on leaving already are you?"
Rebekah bristled. "Sister? Who the bloody hell do you think you are?"
"You saw the vision I gave you," The blonde woman simply said. "You saw our mother Ester and our dear brother Finn." Rebekah didn't say anything – she didn't know what to say. "That's right – I am your elder sister. My name is Freya."
"No, but Freya . . ." Rebekah swallowed. "Mother said she died of the plague."
"Ester had a horrible habit of lying – as you well know. She let her sister Dahlia take me from her." Freya sat down in a chair near a table by the door. "Do sit, we'll be here for quite a while."
Rebekah shook her head. "Even if you are my sister, it doesn't change the fact that I have to go. I need to fin—"
"Hope's mother is fine, I assure you. She'll be on her way here soon. We were surprised to learn she's alive – we were told she died the day the child was born." The older woman told her. Rebekah just stared at her. "Let me introduce myself – my name is Mary. I believe you've met my grandson, Jackson."
"Yes - Hope's mother was not something we were expecting." Freya said. "When we learned that our brothers were forced to lure you back with the child, we knew we had to find you first. This is all the better – Hayley will be an asset to our cause, an advantage. She is a hybrid now, is she not?" Rebekah was silent – which gave Freya her answer anyway.
"And I'm supposed to believe that a witch and a werewolf just live together in the middle of the bayou?" Rebekah retorted.
"It's true that our species haven't always gotten along." Freya nodded. "In times of war, however, allies have to be made."
"Times of war." Rebekah echoed, staring back and forth between the two women.
"There'll be time enough for stories later. Right now, you need just the facts."
"Mary is right." Freya nodded. "New Orleans is a very dangerous place right now – for all species. I'm afraid our brothers are caught in the middle of that."
"I just talked to them – everything seemed fine." Rebekah shook her head. She still couldn't believe that anyone would be able to get the best of her brothers.
"The very fact that they called you at all shows that something is very wrong." Freya let out a breath.
"And what would you know of my brothers?" Rebekah huffed, letting Hope down to the bed. She herself stayed standing, her arms crossed defensively.
"More than you could know." Freya simply replied. "When I met our brothers they were in the middle of defending themselves against our parents. Ester wished to eradicate you all from your vampire bodies and put you in human replacements – her way of righting her wrongs against the balance of nature."
"I already knew this." Rebekah said.
"She also brought our brothers back with her – Finn and Kol." Freya told her. "Our father, however, was brought back by a young witch – Davina."
"Why the bloody hell did she do that?" Rebekah raised an eyebrow.
"To get rid of Klaus." Freya answered. "He in turn broke Davina's control of him and teamed up with Ester and Finn. Kol has since remained loyal to Davina – the two have been quite close."
"He always was a fool for a pretty girl." Rebekah rolled her eyes. "So you're saying that our parents are still alive – Elijah said they weren't a threat anymore."
"Oh they're not." Mary chimed in, chuckling.
"Yes . . . Klaus staked our father with the white oak," Rebekah detected a bit of bitterness in Freya's voice. "Ester was turned into a vampire – and then I killed her."
"And what of our bore of a brother, Finn?" Rebekah thought perhaps he was the one after Hope now – to punish his siblings for killing his beloved parents. Not that she trusted Freya yet or Mary but she was willing to give her sister a chance – for now anyway.
"Oh he's safely tucked away – he was quite bitter about mother's death." Freya fiddled with the charm of her necklace.
"Of course." Rebekah sniggered.
"When he's ready he'll return, ready to be on the right side." Freya finished, her hand dropping from the necklace.
"All this doesn't explain why my brothers lied or what threatens my niece." Rebekah paced in front of the bed where Hope was now asleep.
"As I showed you, Ester's sister took me when I was just a child." Freya said. Rebekah nodded. "Dahlia was a vile woman, more powerful than Ester could have dreamed of being. She wanted my magic to fuel hers. Power was her drug – and she could never get enough."
Rebekah sat down, pulling a blanket over the toddler's sleeping form. "Hope's part witch . . ." She let out a breath. ". . . and a first born, just like you."
"It was Dahlia's condition to helping Ester and Mikael conceive – the first born of every generation." Freya nodded. "And when Ester turned her children into barren vampires, the burden fell on me – until Hope was born three years ago. She's been searching for her for two of those years."
"Dahlia's controlling our brothers." Rebekah guessed. "They called to get me to bring Hope back – for Dahlia."
"And most everyone else in New Orleans too." Mary spoke. "She took over the witches, then the humans, then the vampires, and finally the wolves."
"She's using them as her soldiers, on the lookout for Hope." Freya said.
Rebekah tensed, reaching her arms toward Hope. "And how do I know you two aren't her soldiers as well?"
"Oh we're not." Mary simply said. "There's a few of us that barely manage to keep out of her eye."
"I've spelled this cabin, cloaking it from her many eyes and ears." Freya said. "It's worked for now – but it won't last much longer."
"So fight." Rebekah still wasn't altogether convinced about all of this. "Gather whatever numbers you have and fight her."
"Easier said than done, sugar." Mary chuckled.
"Yes . . . those under her control aren't just her eyes and ears – she's feeding off of them as well." Freya said.
"Well how many do you have?" Rebekah said.
"Well under a dozen. They'll be back in a bit." Mary replied. "Besides us - my grandson Jackson, a vampire named Josh, a werewolf named Aiden, a human named Camille, a witch named Vincent and—"
"Marcel!" Rebekah's eyes widened as the vampire in question entered the cabin, followed by Jackson carrying an unconscious Hayley covered in a coat.
OGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOG
The mood around the Mikaelson compound was, well . . . tense didn't really cover it. When Rebekah had not showed up with Hope, Dahlia had flown into a rage. The thousand-year-old witch was finally going to get what she had been promised . . . but the female Original had failed to return to the city with the child.
All that power . . . just out of reach.
Elijah could only stand back and watch as Dahlia expressed her rage through Klaus. His hybrid brother was currently downstairs – throwing chairs, smashing tables, breaking glass . . . the sound of which rivaled the funeral parade passing through outside. At present Elijah was just outside the door of his room, leaning over the balcony that overlooked the courtyard below where Klaus was having his fit.
"Lover, come back to bed . . ." A silken voice shaded with sleep called behind him.
He'd roused some hours before, dressing in just his suit trousers and leaving his bedmate to her slumber after a rather rugged few rounds of worshipping each other. For while Dahlia was controlling them all, they still had lives to live.
"In a moment." He answered, still watching Klaus.
His lover groaned in annoyance and he could hear her roll around in the bed. "Babe . . . I can hear you worrying from here – in our bed, where my naked body is just waiting for yours . . ."
His body twitched at her words, focused on worrying about his brother but not immune to the effect her words had on him. She'd always been his weakness – even when they were apart. Five hundred years and her very voice was his undoing . . .
He watched his brother tip over a table and scream and then his heart got the best of him and he turned around to reenter their room. She'd thrown the blankets she'd been tangled up in off, exposing herself completely to him. His eyes scanned every inch of open skin, appreciating her olive skin on their dark eggplant sheets.
"I'm sure Rebekah will arrive soon enough with the child, 'Lijah. She always did like to make a grand entrance."
Elijah let out a sigh, sitting down on the bed beside her and resting his hand on her inner thigh. He wanted to say that he'd rather Rebekah stayed away, if only to protect their niece from the oncoming danger. What flew out of his mouth, however, was a different story. "Yes . . . the spoiled younger sibling . . . I grow tired of her inability to follow simple instructions."
The slightest spark in her eye showed that she knew that wasn't what he wanted to say. She knew him too well for that. What he really grew tired of was all this puppet mastery . . . none of them were in control of their bodies or actions. And once Rebekah and Hope arrived, they'd suffer the same fate. Other than the current tantrums downstairs, the "peace" of the last year under Dahlia's control was a cruel farce.
They'd lost . . . in focusing on defeating their parents and eldest sibling they'd opened themselves to the vulnerabilities that allowed Dahlia to plant her venomous roots in their minds. Many of their number were missing – Marcel, Josh and his werewolf lover Aiden, Jackson and his grandmother Mary, Camille, a Tremé witch named Vincent, and their long lost elder sister Freya. Were they still alive? Did Dahlia kill them or put them somewhere? Did they escape? They had no idea.
"Elijah . . ." He snapped from his thoughts, shaking his head. "Hey, come back to me."
"I apologize, Katerina." He lay back on the bed, wrapping his arm around her as she leaned into his chest. He remembered the day she returned to him . . . she'd been the last person he thought he'd ever see again.
Katherine – his Katerina – showed up on their doorstep a mere year after the fiasco surrounding Hope's birth. The five-hundred-year-old doppelganger was human, spinning tales of being thrown out of hell. She told them that her doppelganger Elena shoved the cure for vampirism down her throat and after the ancient immortal traveler Silas drained that cure out of her blood, she aged rapidly and it killed her. During that time she'd been reunited with the daughter who'd been taken away from her, a vampire who'd been searching for her for five hundred years. After a brief stint stealing Elena's body, Katherine was finally killed by Stefan. She found herself in what she called hell . . . and then suddenly she was back to this plane of existence. She told them she awoke on the outskirts of New Orleans and found her way to them.
Why Klaus hadn't killed her on the spot, he still didn't understand to this day. Though it didn't hurt that the hybrid found everlasting amusement in the fact that not even hell wanted the infuriating, wretched woman. Even Elijah himself pushed her away at first. The pain of losing Hayley was too fresh, too sore a wound. He didn't want to trust or believe Katherine – for letting her in once before had caused enough hurt and he'd had his fill of that.
Despite his reluctance to trust her, he couldn't very well allow anything to happen to her. In her human state she was fragile – though still manipulative, cunning, and resourceful – especially in a town filled with a plethora of supernatural beings who wouldn't mind getting their hands on a doppelganger (to kill, sacrifice, eat, or otherwise.).
Over time, however, she managed to worm her way back into his heart. They found, too, that they were both different people than the ones they used to be. She helped him mourn and move on from Hayley and he helped her mourn the loss of the daughter she'd only briefly been reunited with before both their deaths. Even with all the danger and drama of the past two years, they were stronger than ever. Not that they didn't still have their issues – she wanted to find a way to be a vampire again and he wanted to preserve her humanity if only to make up for the life his family took away from her all those centuries ago.
The tirade continued downstairs as they simply enjoyed each other's company. Moments of the kind were few and far between. While Dahlia was a constant presence in their minds, she often kept to herself.
Elijah and Klaus had been secretly trying to find a way to break from Dahlia's control but in so far they'd been unsuccessful. The witch was just too powerful. Davina, Kol, and Vincent were no match for her and Freya – the only one who could possibly match her – was missing. With Rebekah and Hope's arrival imminent, they had to find a way to protect Hope from Dahlia's control and free themselves besides.
"We'll all survive this." Katherine assured him, turning to wrap her arms around him and burrow her face in his chest. "I know we will. I am the Queen of surviving, after all."
Elijah smiled, though fear was enveloping his very being. "That you are, my Katerina."
The battle ahead was going to be brutal on all of them, but they would endure.
To Be Continued . . .