Thank you for the reviews! Oddly, i've been getting a ton for my other story Silence Changes. Which is really random. But whatever. So this chapter is a little shorter and i edited it pretty quickly. I'm not gonna have time to write in the next few days, so i wanted to get this to you as fast as possible. ENJOY! :)
Rebekah and Elijah were hastily moving through the woods to get to where they would meet the Salvatores. Rebekah kept watching Elijah from the corner of her eye. His jaw was clenched and his eyes were narrowed as he stared straight ahead.
"It bothered you, seeing her like that." She said softly. Hayley's neck had been snapped and her body lay in a contorted manner when they found her back at the mansion. It didn't take much to understand what had happened. Hayley tried stopping them from taking Klaus, even after the slow decaying of their friendship. Elijah said nothing after his sister's statement about what she believed. "Kol will make sure she's okay. As much of a pain he is, he'll look after her." She tried to reassure him. But Elijah still said nothing as they coursed forward.
Rebekah shook her head at how he refused to speak with her. It took a lot for her to open up and speak sympathetically to her brothers. And he just threw it back in her face by refusing to acknowledge her. "She's tougher than you give her credit for." Rebekah added with a matter-of-factly attitude. Elijah finally just merely glanced at her. It was a small reaction, but the first he'd given her in the one-way conversation.
"Why didn't you ever tell me you found Hayley when she was only a child?" Rebekah's tone lightened and became very genuine. It was new information that she had just been told from Hayley earlier in the evening. Rebekah nurtured a new respect for brother. There was no way meeting his true love when she so young would be easy for either of them. And Rebekah immediately thought of how protective he must have been, trying to keep her a secret so Niklaus couldn't use her against him. But Nik would have never been able to do that. Their whole family knew that now.
Unexpectedly, Elijah stopped and fully faced his sister. "You refused to even speak to me, until recently. Such a personal subject would have been even more unlikely to arise." He stated roughly. "Forgive me for believing you could not care less about my relationship with Hayley." He added darkly as he started walking again.
Rebekah sighed in annoyance as she followed after him. "You know, she won't let us keep him desiccated." She didn't have to say Niklaus' name for Elijah to understand the quick change of subject.
"I am well aware that she will be against it completely. But it is not her choice to make. Niklaus will remain in the coffin. Perhaps it will teach him some manners." Elijah replied as he tilted his head away from a low and thick tree branch.
"I doubt she will see it that way." Rebekah muttered forebodingly. But her brother ignored her comment. They were close to the spot that the Salvatores had reluctantly agreed to meet them. After Elijah promised Elena over the phone that they would not wake him, she agreed to meet them for the exchange. But none of them had been expecting one of Elijah's witch friends to awaken Niklaus if he gave such a cue. It was the plan b if anything should go wrong.
Elijah suddenly held out his arm, stopping his sister from continuing forward. "What is it?" She whispered as her eyes darted around the forest.
"Do you feel that?" He asked her without making eye contact. Her expression became confused when she couldn't sense what her brother apparently could. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "Something's not right." He almost hissed.
"You're starting to sound like Hayley." Rebekah muttered in annoyance.
Elijah's eyes flickered to his sisters. "She's always had good intuition. Her ability to read situations better than those around her could have been increased when she was turned. Maybe you should take it more seriously." Without giving Rebekah any time to answer, he faced forward once again. "Stay cautious, sister." He warned.
They stepped into a clearing and saw the group of teenagers: Caroline, Elena, Bonnie, Stefan, and Damon. Alaric stood a few feet to the side of them, appearing out of place with his age and sense of maturity. Elijah glanced at the coffin that was closed. It would only take a matter of seconds for the witch's spell to work and his hybrid brother to awaken from his desiccation if that's what Elijah so chose.
"I'll just go ahead and announce that I am not for this plan at all." Damon was the first to speak with a dark and aggravated tone.
Rebekah gave a condescending smirk. "Yes. Well, you underestimate how easy you are to read, Damon." Her mocking earned a glare from the older Salvatore.
"How do we know that you will keep in like this? That you won't wake him as soon as you have him?" Elena spoke with a nervous tone. "We all know he wants my blood. What makes you think you can stop him from coming after me again?" She challenged.
"I give you my word, Elena. I will not revive Klaus within yours, nor even within your children's lifetimes." Elijah said honestly.
"Why should we trust you?" Damon intervened. "You've screwed us over once before. You didn't think we forgot about the sacrifice. Oh, and that little kidnapping stunt you pulled on Elena."
"An eye for an eye, Damon. You endanger something of mine; I take something of yours. And we are all aware that if I had gone through with killing Niklaus, you'd all be dead." Elijah countered quickly. His intelligence was above all of theirs and he wouldn't allow himself to be chastised.
Damon's eyes narrowed at the original. "Right." He growled. "But let's make something clear. If you break your promise, know that I won't think twice about hunting down your girlfriend and ripping her heart out. I don't care if you kill me as a result. Knowing you've been finally put in your place will be sweeter than immortality."
The threat was too far and unacceptable. In the blink of an eye, Elijah rushed forward but was pushed back by an invisible wall. His eyes zipped across the barrier even though he couldn't see it. "What is this?" He growled.
"Damon…" Elena said quietly. Clearly she was just as confused about the wall as the originals. Elijah glared at Damon, but he looked just as confused.
Rebekah slowly walked toward her brother but was stopped a couple yards away from him by another barrier. "What the bloody hell is going on?" She yelled.
"Bonnie, what are you doing?" Elena asked, slightly panicked.
"I'm not doing anything!" Bonnie defended as she watched with her eyes wide.
Elijah growled and moved toward Rebekah. But he was stopped right where she had been. He realized quickly that he was stuck in an invisible box. "Enough!" He roared. But after reading all of their faces, it was obvious none of this was their doing. Elijah stopped testing his invisible cage and took out his cellphone from his pocket. He texted the witch and demanded that she awake Niklaus. She was powerful enough to do it from a distance. If Elijah or his family were in some danger, he wouldn't leave his brother helpless inside of a coffin.
"Tell me what the bloody hell is happening before I rip your pretty hair out!" Rebekah snarled as her gaze tore into Elena's.
"Why would we lure you here just to kill you?" Stefan finally spoke up, along with taking a step forward, shielding Elena's body with his own. "It'd be suicide."
"Suicide would be refusing to tell me what's happening." Rebekah countered.
"ENOUGH!" A voice boomed in the distance. The entire group followed the sound across the opening to the other edge of the forest. Out of the shadows came a line of people. Almost two-dozen figures emerged into the moonlight. "No one will harm the doppelgänger child." The people seemed to be moving out in a V formation and the woman at the head was speaking to them. Elijah's eyes raced across the group and stopped on the one person he recognized. Genevieve. She seemed to immediately sense his gaze for she stared back in return. They were witches, all of them.
"Alaric, take Elena and Bonnie home." Stefan said quietly but his tone was still obviously nervous. Elijah watched Alaric try to slowly back away as he had both girls' arms in his grasp.
"Stop." The woman at the head stated loudly. Alaric winced but didn't move. "We do not harm our own and the child has suffered enough." The woman spoke of Bonnie and Elena.
"You're witches?" Damon asked with disgust. The witch tilted her head and glared at him. Damon cried out in pain and fell to his knees.
"You will address us with respect!" The witch snapped at him. Then her gaze turned to Elijah who was still stuck in his barrier. Damon's body relaxed as the agony stopped. The witch stepped toward Elijah and flicked her wrist. A fire erupted in the middle of the forest's clearing. "Now that I have your attention, allow me to introduce my family and myself. I am Louelle and we are the oldest, most powerful witches in the world. A family kept in secret for centuries. It was necessary with the amount of deaths our kind suffers."
Elijah stared down Genevieve who was now watching the leader of their group. He remembered her sharing similar information the night he met her. She was the most powerful witch he had ever met besides his own mother. If her family was as strong as her, there was no telling what they were capable of. Elijah turned to Rebekah and moved as close to her as his barrier would allow.
"Rebekah, go! Get out of here now!" He whispered in a hush tone so none of the witches would be able to hear. His sister's eyes widened from seeing the beginning signs of worry in her brother, an emotion he almost never showed. Rebekah shook her head, defying his request. "Rebekah, please, do as I say. Go back to the mansion, get Hayley and Kol, and run as fast as you can." Elijah hissed.
Rebekah's expression changed when he mentioned Hayley. She finally nodded before trying to step back. But something stopped her movement. It felt like her feet were glued to the forest floor. "Elijah," She whispered in panic. "I can't move."
"It was foolish to try and escape." The witch interrupted the sibling's quiet conversation. "You can't leave." Elijah whipped around to glare at the witch.
"Why are you here?" Stefan finally asked the question that everyone was too confused to ask.
The witch turned away from the originals to face him. "For centuries, we have watched the damaged you monsters cause. But the worst part is the witches you hurt with problems that should never have been their own." Her eyes darkened as she glanced back at Elijah and Rebekah. "Word travels fast and it didn't take long for our family to hear about the link made amongst the original family. And of the damage it causes when an original is killed."
"How could you have possibly heard about that?" Damon challenged. Obviously the pain inflicted on him earlier hadn't taught him anything. But the witch ignored him.
"Our family made a decision: we are sick of innocent lives being taken." Louelle stated so firmly that everyone's attention was on her. "You will no longer destroy the innocent lives of witches or humans."
Elena looked at Stefan and Damon with a worried look. They couldn't kill the originals. Thousands, maybe even millions, would die with them. The entire vampire race would be killed, including all of the people she loved.
Elijah allowed himself half a glance towards the coffin that waited in the shadows behind the Salvatores. It didn't seem that the witches had noticed it yet. And he hoped they never did. He wished, by some miracle, Niklaus could escape this nightmare. If he were safe, Hayley would be too.
"We'll start with you." Louelle stated while her eyes locked with Elijah's.
"No." Rebekah surprised herself by muttering.
"Don't worry. We don't force suffering onto others as you have done for your millennium on this earth." Louelle said to Rebekah. Elena and her friends stood frozen in place, completely unaware if they should help or run and take Klaus' coffin with them. Stefan couldn't stop shifting his weight as his eyes raced across the scene, wanting to help, but not knowing how. Caroline made eye contact with him, trying to silently communicate and see if he had some sort of plan.
The rest of the witches watched patiently from a distance. They seemed to see no need for backing up their leader; she was perfectly capable of handling the massacre of an entire species on her own.
Louelle stepped closer to Elijah, only feet away. But she stopped and her head whipped to face Damon. "You." She said powerfully. "You have something we need." Damon squinted at her, unaware of what she spoke of. Then he dropped to his knees in anguish once again. As he kneeled on the ground, a piece of wood stuck out of the back pocket of his jeans. Louelle's eyes seemed to light up as she spotted it. She held out her hand and the weapon flew into her grasp like she had used telekinesis.
Elijah was defenseless while in a barrier. But he stood his ground as the witch walked closer and closer to him. Louelle narrowed her eyes when she was unable to read any sign of fears in the vampire's gaze. She stopped just a foot away from him. Elijah knew that she was just outside the barrier, using it to taunt him.
"Do you not fear death?" She asked him.
Elijah said nothing as his jaw clenched.
"You deny the accusations we have heaved onto you and your kind?"
"I do not." Elijah said evenly. His response seemed to surprise her.
Then the witch looked him up and down as if she found something about him that she hadn't noticed earlier. "That is something I never expected." She whispered more to herself than to him. He didn't bother asking what she was talking about. "Love, devotion, sacrifice: You wreak of it." She muttered quickly. "It's a waste for any vampire to even attempt such things." Her stunned state disappeared just as swiftly as it had arrived. Suddenly, she raised her arm that held the stake and it flew down. Elijah caught it, perplexed as to why the witch was stupid enough to think she could kill him so easily. Louelle growled at his setback. Then Elijah lost all control of his body as he heard an excruciating ringing in his head. He could tell all too well that it wasn't just one witch evoking such agony onto him. Somehow he was able to still sense that the invisible barrier had been dropped as he kneeled on the ground with his head in his hands.
"Stop it! Stop hurting him!" Rebekah shrieked as she helplessly watched her brother being tortured and waiting for his death.
Elijah managed to see Louelle's feet stepping slowly toward him. Her hand reached down to lift his chin to stare at her. The pain had stopped. But his body was now numb. He couldn't move. Knowing he could do nothing was worse than the pain.
"It will be over soon." The witch thought she was speaking words of comfort. But Elijah didn't fear pain or torture. Ever since he had met a certain child, he only feared for her safety and his family's. He'd failed both. "Perhaps your mother will be waiting on the other side to welcome you." Louelle mocked just before raising her hand to plunge the stake into his heart. Elijah closed his eyes, not seeing the point in watching his own demise. But instead of feeling the strike into his chest, he heard a sound of attack.
Elijah's eyes snapped open to see that the witch had been taken down. But his strange relief was instantly replaced with horror as he recognized his savior: Hayley. She had Louelle by the throat. With her free hand, she grabbed the witch's hand that held the stake and twisted it in one fluid motion, only stopping when there was a loud snap. Louelle cried out in pain. The witches, who had remained calm in the distance, now saw a reason for intervening. A man stepped forward quickly with his hand outstretched. Hayley sensed his approach and glared at him. But just a moment later, her grip on Louelle slacked and let the witch cower to the ground. Hayley let out a yelp of pain, but tried to push it to the back of her mind as she took a step toward the man. The warlock seemed surprised at her endurance and his hand shook a little as he sent another wave of magic toward her. Hayley could take no more. It felt like a million daggers flying into her stomach. She collapsed to her knees, her hands clutching her torso.
The warlock barely looked at the stake resting on the ground next Louelle as he too brought it to his grasp magically. A new surge of energy went through Elijah as he realized that they were no longer focusing their killing on originals. He rushed forward but was instantly thrown back. He began to panic when he saw that they had put up the barrier once again. All Elijah could do was watch in horror as Hayley writhed in pain, unaware that the warlock was closer to staking her with every step.
"No! NO!" Elijah shouted in horror. Then he looked down at the ground. He couldn't watch her die while he could do nothing. It was the worst cruelty of all. But his mind, as if he wanted more heartbreak, slowly crept up to see that the warlock stood right above Hayley now. The white-oak stake looked oddly silver in his hand. Hayley regarded him, with fear in her eyes. She knew, Elijah thought. She knew she was about to die. Somehow Elijah was able to see the Salvatores from the corner of his eye. They had tried to help her as soon as the attack started. But it seemed now they too were in their own enclosure as well.
Then there was a bang and movement flashed before Elijah's vision. He watched as someone shoved the warlock away from Hayley and then broke his neck, almost in the same second. The figure flew to Louelle and ripped out her heart with their hand. Elijah slowly stood from the ground as the person stopped moving. Niklaus' back was to his brother and sister as he faced the group of witches with his hands out to the side. As soon as the havoc had started, witches panicked and screamed; now realizing their plan wasn't as perfect as they believed. Elijah could even hear some of them muttering 'the hybrid' as they ran into the trees. Either they were the smart ones or the cowards. Yet, a handful stood their ground, ignoring the others.
Elijah disregarded the chaos. His eyes remained glued on Hayley, begging her silently to get up. She rolled to her knees, but a curtain of hair fell so he was unable to see her face. She got up in a limp of sort and turned to face Klaus. Her posture said it all: she was weak and hurting.
"A plan to abolish my family and I wasn't even invited?" Klaus announced to the small group of witches and warlocks that still remained.
I left you on a cliff hanger. Sorry I'm not sorry lol.
IMPORTANT-
So, after this story is done. I was thinking about a possible AU (which i've never done) with Hayley&Elijah in the 18th Century. That's all I'm going to tell you as of now. But let me know if you'd be interested in that. If not, then why would I bother? LOL