Disclaimer: As you know by now, I don't TVD. If I did, a great many things would be different. Any recognizable characters, plots and dialogue belong to L.J. Smith and the CW.

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Elijah

Elijah left the Salvatore boarding house running his finger over his palm where the mysterious cut had appeared. There was no indication now that it had ever been there, but the image was burned into his mind. Even though he couldn't explain it, he knew it was Elena who had been hurt. Which meant she was linked to them, and that realization left him shaken to his core. He hoped the Salvatores would succeed where he had failed in finding her.

Now, he needed to find Niklaus. He was going to need his brother's rage to overcome their mother's plans. In his car, he called Niklaus. Just as Elijah was thinking his call would go unanswered, Niklaus picked up.

"What do you want, Elijah?" Niklaus asked over the drone of many conversations in the background.

"We need to talk. I'll come to you."

Niklaus hummed. "But I haven't done anything you would disapprove of recently," he said. "At least, I don't believe I have."

"This is not the time for your irreverence," Elijah bit out as he began to drive back to town. "It's about Mother. Where are you?"

Niklaus' tone sobered when he asked, "She's lied, hasn't she? I'm not to be forgiven."

"I don't wish to have this conversation over the phone," Elijah said. "I'll come to you."

"Mystic Grill," Niklaus said before disconnecting the call.

Elijah stepped on the gas and was soon parking in front of the local watering hole. As he entered, he quickly surveyed the other occupants.

Alaric had somehow beat him back to the Grill from the boarding house. He was holding a quiet, medical-centric conversation with the brunette doctor Elijah had seen hanging around the Gilbert house more and more frequently. Matt Donovan was waiting tables, weaving through the dinner rush, but even so, his eyes kept straying back to the bar.

Elijah followed Matt's gaze and found Niklaus at the end of the bar. In front of him sat a nearly-empty tumbler, which he was staring into the depths of. Making his way over to join Niklaus, Elijah gestured to the bartender for two more glasses of whatever Niklaus was drinking.

They were set down just as he took his seat. Facing the bar, he swirled his glass as he asked Niklaus, "Drowning your sorrows?"

"Don't test my patience with your clichés," he said as he threw back the rest of his drink. "What has Mother done?"

Elijah tasted his drink before answering. Twenty-year old scotch that was better than he'd been expecting from this place.

"There is much, so bear with me. Try not to run off in a rage before I can finish," Elijah said.

Niklaus didn't move, but his rigidity in the way he picked up the glass Elijah ordered for him showed that Elijah had his full attention.

"Mother's been busy since her return," Elijah began. "Some of it isn't clear to me, but Kol believes that's to do with one of the spells she's cast. The important thing for you to know is that you're not the only one Mother hasn't forgiven."

"What sin could her favorite son have committed that she can't forgive?" Niklaus asked with a roll of his eyes.

"I think perhaps Finn is her favorite now," Elijah said idly. "But that's not the point. It's a sin we've all committed - continuing to live on as the monsters we are."

Niklaus turned to Elijah at last, his eyes burning with rage. "But she is the one who created those 'monsters!'"

At his outburst, Elijah noticed a few heads turning in their direction. Most notably was Alaric and his companion. But the Donovan boy could be seen edging toward the bar. What he would do in the face of a further outburst was lost on Elijah though. Elijah tried to diffuse the situation before it could get out of hand.

"She seems to think she must rectify that." He paused for a long moment as he took another swallow from his glass. "Out of curiosity, has your palm bled recently, of its own accord?"

Niklaus narrowed his eyes. "She's linked us. Who was hurt, do you know? I'll kill the person responsible as soon as I find them." His eyes flashed a warning amber, and Elijah knew the situation was quickly getting out of hand. There was still more to tell his brother. He couldn't have him rushing off and creating more problems for them. He needed to channel Niklaus' rage in the appropriate direction.

"Here, we begin to venture into the complications I warned you about," Elijah said. "I believe the injured party was Elena, who is currently in the care of our sister."

"There's a lot there I have questions about," Niklaus said. "Most importantly: the doppelgänger's linked as well?"

Elijah ignored the question and plowed on. "I believe that there's at least one more spell at play." He went on to describe his quest to find Elena that day, and the sensation of buzzing in his ears when he'd asked a question about her and the other person was responding. Niklaus' face took on a thoughtful expression as he listened.

When Elijah finished, Niklaus asked, "Did you mention that Kol is with the Bennett witch?" Elijah nodded, and Niklaus pulled out his phone, quickly dialed a number, and waited for Kol to pick up.

Before Kol could say anything on the other end, Niklaus began to speak. "I don't care if you're busy," he growled. "I want to know your theory about what's happening with Elijah."

Klaus was quiet, and Elijah could hear occasional phrases from his youngest brother, but otherwise, the irritating buzzing sound had returned. Niklaus frowned as he nodded before hanging up the phone.

"That's what I suspected," he said. "If Kol's right, we can't kill Mother just yet. The other spell she cast is impossible to remove if the caster is dead. I would assume she figured that was a life insurance policy. And though I don't particularly care if you find who you're looking for, the consequences of the spell being permanent are...unpleasant. Though, I suppose Kol could be completely wrong about what the curse is."

"When has Kol ever been wrong about a curse?" Elijah asked. "I've never known you to be quite so circumspect with your words, Niklaus. What is it you're hiding?"

"It's all part of the curse," Niklaus said with a shrug. "If I choose to be more specific, you won't hear me anyway, so what would that solve?"

Elijah sighed. He felt tired - no, exhausted. For the first time he could remember, he could feel every single one of the days he'd been alive. How had it come to this?

"You look drawn, brother," Niklaus said before taking a sip of his drink and looking away. "Do you feel alright?"

"I am rather stressed, Niklaus," he said. "I had rather hoped that, with Mother's return, we could truly be a family again."

Niklaus clapped a hand to his shoulder before they both settled their focus on their drinks.

"Yes," Niklaus admitted in a quiet voice. "I had hoped so as well."

Alaric

As Stefan and Damon started to argue about the best course of action for finding Elena, Alaric was relieved to hear his phone chirp with an incoming text from Meredith.

Scans are back. Discuss over drinks? -M

Mystic Grill in 15? -R

I'll be the one with whisky and x-rays.

I'll be the one needing both.

He excused himself, but for all the notice the brothers took, he might as well have said nothing. He wasn't sure, if that was the state of her rescue crew, that Elena was going to be found and saved anytime soon. Alaric hoped that nothing would happen to her. Elena had come out of a lot of tough scrapes with hardly a scratch, so he clung to the hope that this would be another of those times.

He entered the restaurant and immediately spotted Meredith at one end of the bar. He took the open stool beside her, and as he did, he saw a familiar, vaguely threatening face at the other end of the bar. But Klaus was immersed in staring at his own drink, so Alaric turned to Meredith.

He took the drink that the bartender slid down to him with a nod and tapped his glass against hers.

"Come here often?" she asked, watching the silent interaction between Alaric and the bartender.

"Perhaps too often," Alaric said. "But it pays to be a frequent customer."

"They given you a punch card yet?" she asked. "Buy twenty drinks, qualify for a liver transplant."

"No, that program starts next month, I thought," Alaric said with a grin. He took a large swallow of his drink before letting his somber attitude shine through. "What's the verdict? Or should we keep up the banter to disguise the truth?"

"It's not so bad," Meredith said. She set aside her drink and pulled a manila folder toward her, flipping it open and rifling through pages of reports and printouts of scan results. "A little strange though."

"I would expect no less given where we live," Alaric said. "Lay it on me, doc."

Meredith launched into her explanation of what they had found out, breaking down the jargon as she went. However, Alaric let his eyes stray back to Klaus, only to find that he had been joined by Elijah. When Klaus shouted, "She's the one who made us monsters!" at least half of the bar fell silent and turned toward him. Elijah grimaced and his eyes caught Alaric's for a brief moment before he started to talk his brother down.

Klaus didn't immediately jump up and begin murdering people at random, so Alaric allowed himself to hope that maybe - just maybe - they would survive this latest crisis all in one piece. He put the Originals out of his mind and turned back to Meredith, who was holding up a brain scan.

"Your CT scans were completely clear. The only possibility I can come up with is that you were compelled to forget."

"Are you telling me you think the killer's a vampire?" Alaric asked. He knew that the question should sound crazier than it did.

Meredith must of agreed because she raised an eyebrow at him. "Think about it. In this town, and knowing what we know, it's the obvious conclusion."

"Now, now," Damon said as he stepped up to the bar on Meredith's other side. "Let's not go blaming the neighbors just because some of them have a tendency toward violence." His eyes flickered over to Klaus and Elijah. "Not all of us are homicidal maniacs with no remorse."

"I hope you're not including yourself in that," Alaric said. Damon shrugged in response. "What do you want?"

Damon shook his head, pointing to his ear. Then, he thrust his thumb over his shoulder toward the bathrooms. Alaric sighed, but he had learned that it was easier to just give Damon what he wanted the first time around. Damon had absolutely no understanding of the word no, unless he was the one saying it.

Meredith, however, had other ideas. "We're sort of in the middle of something," she said.

"Is it life or death?" Damon asked.

"It could be."

"Let me clarify: is it life or death in regards to me?"

"Ass," Meredith growled.

Alaric agreed, but when Damon started to head for the bathroom, Alaric still followed. Once inside, Damon bolted the door and stepped unnecessarily close to Alaric.

He spoke, keeping his voice low, "I have a plan."

"Does it involve finding Elena?" Alaric asked. "'Cause that should definitely be a thing that happens."

"I don't take orders from Original stick-in-the-mud assholes," Damon snarled. "Stefan can find her. I'm going to save her. Even though my caring is apparently a problem."

"You know she didn't mean that," Alaric said.

"I know she did," Damon answered. "But it's fine. I'll save her anyway because someone has to make the tough choices, and we all know it won't be my pushover brother or the martyr and overly compassionate girl he's in love with. Now, do you want to help me save her, or not?"

Alaric was resigned to being drawn into whatever harebrained scheme Damon had come up with now. Elena wasn't his daughter, nor by any legal standing, his responsibility. But he thought she was the closest he would ever get to a child, and he would do whatever he could to protect her.

"What did you have in mind?" he asked.

Damon took a step back and slid a familiar silver dagger out of a black cloth. The intention was clear, and Alaric sighed.

"Elijah again?" he asked. "Because it's worked out so well for us in the past."

"It won't work on Klaus," Damon said. He held up a finger as he said it, and for each of the siblings he listed, he raised another finger. "Rebekah's apparently wherever Elena is. Kol's spelled in with Bonnie, Caroline, and Jeremy, and I don't know if I'd be able to get out if I entered. Finn's probably at the side of a psych superpowered witch. That leaves Elijah."

"He'll see us coming a mile away," Alaric argued. "It's not the first time we've done this to him. Besides, you can't use that. Not to mention, we have no idea how it'll affect Klaus, who has a history of going a bit crazy when his family is taken away from him."

"Interestingly, Klaus isn't our biggest problem right now. And, I wondered if your possibly-murderous doctor girlfriend wanted to take a stab at ridding us of some Originals."

"This is quite possibly your worst idea ever," Alaric said as he reluctantly followed Damon back out of the bathroom.

Using his phone, Alaric relayed the plan to Meredith, who, once she'd read it all, looked them both dead on and said, "I'm in."

Alaric watched as Klaus suddenly left Elijah's side after receiving a brief phone call. Then, Elijah turned his focus on Damon, and casually strolled over to where they were sitting.

"You wouldn't happen to know why my brother had to so abruptly leave, would you?" he asked Damon. His eyes never wavered, but Damon slid his best innocent look on his face while Alaric resigned himself to the fact that his best friend really was an idiot.

"Klaus was here?" Damon asked. "Sorry I missed him. Had I known, I would've bought him a drink. Such a shame he had to leave."

"Whatever game you're playing," Elijah said in his deadly calm voice, "I would advise you to think carefully."

"Game?" Damon asked, eyes wide. "No game here, though pool does sound rather good. Anyone want to join me?"

Meredith begged off and asked Elijah if he had a moment to talk about her "medical research." He agreed and Damon and Alaric retreated to the pool table. Alaric continued to watch the interaction at the bar as Damon set up the game.

They played, both much worse than usual given their split attention, but as soon as Meredith led Elijah out the door, they tossed their cues on the table and followed.

"I know it's risky," Meredith was saying, "but I try to keep their doses low and I keep them in the hospital until it's passed from their systems as often as I can."

"Responsible," Elijah said. "I can see the appeal of trying to save as many lives as possible."

"The hospital's only five minutes away this way," Meredith said as she pointed down a dark alley. "Normally, I wouldn't go that way after dark, but you're-"

"Scarier than anything you might find in the dark?" Elijah asked with a sardonic grin.

"Exactly."

Alaric started to hurry as the pair disappeared in the narrow corridor between buildings. Damon was faster, but even so, when Alaric arrived, Damon was just pulling a grey-skinned Elijah off of Meredith, trying not the jostle the dagger too much.

He couldn't believe that Damon's plan had actually worked. He glanced again at Meredith and wondered what other things she might be hiding.