9. Remedy

Katherine was staring at Elena with a frown on her face, they couldn't just let her go… not with what they'd planned, which of course was now ruined. She let out a frustrated sigh and turned away from her now, crossing her arms and shaking her head. There was no answer, not anymore, the plan they'd had was reliant on her friends believing she was alive and now all of them knew she was dead, and there was no bringing her back without arousing suspicion. Katherine turned now to Elijah and she gave him a look, she knew the last few months had been hard on him, and while she usually didn't care in the slightest what she did to her lover at the time it was different with Elijah. As she looked at him she saw all of her past memories with him, of when he'd chased her as a human, and even hunted her as a vampire.

It had always been him, she'd taught him to love once before, and it wasn't until he'd returned that she herself remember how. As if he could tell what she was thinking he stepped towards her and cupped her cheek with his hand, looking into her eyes intently, with such passion and love that Katherine had not felt in such a long time. She'd felt plenty of lust from her lovers over the years, even the Salvatore's who had given her what they thought at the time was love did not compare to what Elijah could give to her. Katherine almost felt herself crumble into him, her eyes closing and her head shaking as she leant in to rest it on his head. There they stayed for hours as they came up with another plan, a plan to get back at Klaus for the years of torment he'd put each other them through.

Stefan was driving fast with his brother Damon in the passenger seat beside him, Elizabeth had offered to come simply as muscle even though they knew that's not exactly how she liked to play things, ever. So she was sitting in the back with Caroline, who was on the phone to Bonnie getting directions of where to go. Stefan's heart pounded with every mile they inched forward, he felt like this was taking forever but every single part of him just ached for Elena, he'd felt so incredibly bad that he'd let her get in the position she was in now, and he was concerned… if Elena had really had her neck snapped then she was possibly a vampire now, for all they knew. And honestly, Stefan wasn't sure if he'd prefer that idea to the other one that Damon had suggested.

His charming brother had come up with the notion that perhaps… Katherine had been pretending to be Elena this whole time, ever since the sacrifice. Stefan wasn't sure what he thought of this, he'd seen Katherine die that night, the night of the sacrifice. He'd saved Elena with a spell Bonnie performed with the sacrifice of John Gilbert and it made no sense that Katherine survive that stake to the heart. So he wasn't believing his brother's theory for a second. Stefan knew however that Elizabeth believed him, she'd never said so outright, but she was the only one silent when he'd suggested it in the first place. He knew he didn't know her too well, but he did believe her knew that she was smarter than she'd ever let on. Honestly Stefan really liked Elizabeth, she was kind and loving and she'd done wonders for their friendship group. While he knew she had a complicated history with Klaus, he genuinely believed that she was a decent person, he'd never seen her do anything even remotely awful, he hadn't thought that someone so perfect could exist.

Almost as if she'd felt him thinking about her, Elizabeth looked up at him, meeting his eyes in the rear view mirror. Stefan looked away almost instantly and let his thoughts drift back to Elena, and how he hoped desperately that she was truly still alive and human.

The town was quiet as Mikael arrived, almost too quiet and that thought almost worried him, he'd hoped that his wife's son hadn't been tipped off that he was coming or that he hadn't left town the second he'd found out that Elena was killed. Mikael knew that his planned relied on Klaus rushing back here to deal with the people who had killed her. He made his way to the house that Klaus was residing in prior to him leaving town and he made himself at home, he knew that Klaus would come back eventually, especially with Charlotte missing… he'd want to find her. Mikael smirked at his plan, thrilled with himself that he had managed to keep Charlotte's compulsion a secret from Klaus all these years, he'd never imagined even for a second that Klaus could be that thick, but he seemed to have a blind spot for that girl, well her and another… one that Mikael had only met on one occasion.

1400's – In England somewhere.

Mikael was searching for his bastard son, he'd been hot on his trail for weeks now but something was misleading him. He was traveling with a girl this time, a beautiful girl, one who Mikael hadn't seen before but she certainly seemed to be a vampire, one that he had had with him for a while by the looks of how comfortable she appeared with his other son, Elijah. Mikael was watching from afar as Elijah and the young beauty were speaking, he was far enough away that he couldn't hear their hushed words.

He considered that his son, Elijah, may have finally found another girl to love after Tatia and for a moment, Mikael's cold heart almost warmed. The thought of his children finding happiness of course brought him joy, he had not always been this awful monster that his children now thought he was, he had loved them once… Mikael's mind once again drifted to his first child, Freya. He'd loved her so much before she'd been so cruelly taken from him by plague. He knew that he'd wanted more than anything to bring her back, and a part of him now was so relieved that he'd never have to lose his children to such foulness ever again.

He watched the pair as Elijah got up and vanished almost far too quickly and he considered going over to meet the beauty. Mikael hesitated for only a few more seconds before he walked over to her slowly.

Elizabeth looked up as she heard footsteps and she stood rather quickly, she didn't recognise the man walking towards her, but lately they'd heard whispers that a vampire hunter was in town, and Niklaus had mentioned to her that it could be his father so her tensions were rather high. Her distress must have shown on her face because the man approaching her gave her a soft smile and held his hands out in a gentle manner.

"Worry not" he said in a moderately harsh voice, as Elizabeth felt his eyes wander over her slowly. Unsurprisingly that did not calm her down at all and she took a small step away from him as she muttered. "Who are you?" she grabbed the hem of her dress, lifting is slightly so she wouldn't fall over as she stepped backwards. The man in front of her smiled again and shook his head, looking at her for a moment before he speed with vampire speed to have her by her shoulders in an iron grasp, she'd tried to fight it but she couldn't. This man must be exactly who she'd thought it was. "Mikael" she muttered, the dislike clear in her voice, she'd heard stories for years about the monster he was. Elizabeth didn't get to speak anymore however, as Mikael tightened his grasp and he begun to compel her, Elizabeth hadn't had any vervain on her at the time, so she was susceptible to his mind trick. "How long have you been traveling with my son?" he asked her, Elizabeth made a face, trying to fight it but failing as she felt the words fall out of her mouth like vomit. "For almost 500 years" she muttered, her face contorting, absolutely hating that she was betraying Klaus for his father, his cruel father that would use her against his so easily. Elizabeth saw Mikael nod, his hands on her still iron tight as he spoke again "Are you in love with him?" he asked her and Elizabeth closed her eyes for a moment as she felt the words leave her mouth again in the affirmative. That was the first time she'd ever said it out loud, and it was the first time she'd realised that it was the case, and that she did in fact love him… she was in love with Niklaus Mikaelson.

Present Day

Mikael thought back to that moment, clearly and he almost let out a laugh, he of course had thought she'd meant she loved Elijah, and so he had let her go. There was not many moment in his life that he regretted, but that was certainly one of them. The wheel in his head was just beginning to go around when he heard a car pull up, a devilish grin spread on his face as he heard rather angry footsteps walking towards the front door, and Mikael stood to greet his bastard son.

Caroline had a frown on her face, she held her phone in her hand anxiously as they neared closer to where her friend was, still alive. She trusted Bonnie with everything she had in her, but she also was certain that she'd seen her friend die, and she didn't know if Elena could quite live as a vampire, which was what Caroline was beginning to fear she had become. Caroline glanced to her left to see Elizabeth staring out the window, a concerned look on her face also and Caroline's stomach continued to tie knots. Elizabeth was old, and clever and Caroline had developed a certain amount of respect for her, even though when she'd first met her Caroline honestly believed she was a special kind of crazy for whatever she'd felt for Klaus. But then Caroline got to know her, and surprisingly discovered that she wasn't anywhere close to being the monster that Klaus was, or at least that he appeared. Elizabeth and her had had many conversations pertaining to Klaus, and Caroline was intrigued to get a second opinion of him. Or an eighth opinion of him as almost everyone she knew had met him. Caroline let out a sigh, causing most of the eyes in the vehicle to flicker over to her, Damon's blue eyes impatient, Stefan's dark eyes concerned and Elizabeth's green eyes sympathetic. Caroline avoided eye contact with them and just continued to look out the window, growing more and more impatient every mile they got closer to Elena.

Katherine jumped up when she heard the tires turn down their drive way and she sprinted towards Elijah, who was talking quietly with Elena in the kitchen. He'd been kind enough to explain to her what had happened, and try to make her understand. Annoyingly, she seemed to have forgiven Elijah, but every time she saw Katherine she gave the same old disgusted look that Katherine had grown so used to. This look occurred the second Katherine stepped into the room and she did her best to ignore it, just looking at Elijah instead as she spoke.

"Someone is here, it's probably the Salvatore's" Elijah's eyes grew slightly wide as she relayed this information and he stood at once, taking Katherine by the shoulders and pushing her into the chair opposite Elena and vanishing without another word. Katherine sighed and looked over at Elena, who was glaring at her with her arms crossed, Katherine rolled her eyes and leaned back in the chair herself. "What did you expect me to do, Elena? He would have killed me if he'd found out I was alive" she muttered slowly, not bothering to really feel bad for the girl. So what, Katherine had impersonated her for like, the eighth time in a row… she'd get over it. Elena leaned forward in her chair "You've let my friends think I was dead for five days, Katherine" Elena replied with anger in her voice. The doppelgänger rolled her eyes to her younger carbon copy and shrugged her shoulders "well then they'll be overjoyed when they see you, won't they?" Katherine told her simply, looking away and frowning to herself.

It was beginning to annoy her more and more that one of her plans had failed all due to Elijah's annoying little sister and Klaus' pet. She was so close to convincing Klaus that he had no chance of making hybrids, that Elena's blood wasn't the way to do it. Katherine hated that Elena couldn't even see that this actually wouldn't have been a bad thing for her, with Klaus believing that Elena's blood wouldn't turn the hybrids then he'd leave her alone… or kill her, Katherine supposed. Katherine sat there patiently as she waited to see her Salvatore brothers come in and rescue their beloved, something that still to this day made Katherine a little bitter, even if she did have Elijah now.

The brothers kicked the door down together and stepped inside to see an annoyed Elijah greeting them, Stefan had the kinder approach and he stepped forward to begin to speak. Just as he'd had this idea Stefan saw Damon lunge at Elijah angrily. It all seemed to happen in a second, but in reality it was probably much less. Elijah had reached out effortlessly and snapped Damon's neck and thrown him against the closest wall. In the same moment Stefan heard Elizabeth let out a sigh of annoyance at Damon, she obviously knew Elijah well enough to know exactly how it would end for him. Honestly, Stefan thought, its lucky Elijah didn't just kill him. Stefan held Elijah's gaze for a few seconds, the look on Elijah's face clearly daring him to challenge him. Eventually, Elijah gestured to the chairs to his left and the remaining members of the rescue party all went and sat down, as if they were going to have a rather friendly chat with the kidnapper. "We just want to know if she's alive, Elijah" said Elizabeth, clearly trying to cut to the chase. Stefan had to notice the way in which Elijah and Elizabeth looked at each other, they clearly both had a certain amount of respect for one another, perhaps even a little bit of love almost. He wondered what their history was, if perhaps Elijah was one of the reasons a kind soul such as Elizabeth's would ever remain around Klaus as long as she had.

Elijah nodded his head once and Stefan's stomach did a backflip, he felt Caroline beside him shift nervously. She obviously was getting rather annoyed with how slow this conversation was going and Stefan had to agree that this was almost rather anti-climatic in a sense, all four of them were expecting a fight, but in no way shape or form where they expecting Elijah here with them, Bonnie had only detected Katherine's blood because she's so close to Elena. Stefan looked at Elijah closely as he spoke, wanting to detect any sort of hope he could from the words he used. "We needed for Elena to be kept safe while we convinced you all that Katherine was her." He began slowly as Stefan and the two ladies hung on his every word.

Elena stared at Katherine as she waited to be told whether or not she was going to get to leave with her friends that she could hear talking in the other room. She sighed loudly, enough so that Katherine shot her a look. Elena was beginning to wonder whether Katherine really knew what Elijah was planning right now, because Elena sure didn't .She didn't realise why she needed to be separated from her friends while they were explaining this to them, she thought it would be far better for them just to see her. Elena knew that Damon would be edgy to see her, he wouldn't believe a word out of Elijah's mouth until he saw her himself, and Elena genuinely wanted to see Damon too. And Stefan, of course… her heart ached for Stefan. Admittedly Elena hadn't missed him, but only because Elijah was keeping her freshly compelled and under the illusion that she was in something similar to her own personal Heaven. Elena leaned back and crossed her legs, playing with the ends of her hair as she waited. She was just about to comment on how boring it was when Stefan, Caroline and Elizabeth all came into the room, thrilled to see her.

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