AN: Hey guys! I hope you enjoy. And for anyone wondering, I totally plan for some good, ol' fashioned violence to happen very soon (hopefully the next chapter). This is a ridiculously somber kind of season, isn't it? Nowhere near as much killing as usual, lol. Anyway, here's this chapter and I hope you like it. Let me know, and -as usual- Enjoy!
Chapter Nine
K landed hard, hard enough her body shook on the inside, and with a deep groan, she pushed herself up.
Her eyes found focus easily on her surroundings and it didn't take a genius to realize she was back at the manor. While she'd planned to head home, she clearly hadn't chosen the ability. Someone chose for her.
But, she wasn't alone. There were voices in the background, and they were familiar. Dusting herself off, she made her way towards them to find out who else had been brought to the building.
"What is this?" Elijah said as K rounded the corner. She appeared behind them, all five siblings, standing in front of a great white door with gilded locks that shouldn't exist.
"It's representational magic." Kol replied as he touched one of the objects. "I'd imagine there's keys hidden somewhere for all of us."
"All of you," K said, causing them all to jump and face her. "You mean." Confusion drifted through their faces when they saw the young woman approach. "Odd family reunion considering I'm only a Mikaelson by marriage."
"But," Freya began. Something was clearly donning on her. "You're the other part of the Hollow."
"But you're not." Kol said. "And neither is Nik."
"No," Rebekah sighed. "But the two of them would do something to stop whatever's happening in the real world."
K agreed internally. That was a fair thing to say.
"Well," she chimed. "At least there are only five locks instead of six. It seems as though someone wants to make the five of you do a bit of soul searching in the meantime."
"Wonderful," Klaus growled under his breath. "So there are nearly a half dozen keys hidden somewhere in this bloody house."
"Looks that way." Kol agreed. "Chances are, the keys are hidden somewhere important, somewhere meaningful to who we are."
"And for those of us who don't remember who we are?" Elijah asked.
"I'll send Antoinette your regards." Klaus grinned.
Elijah stepped towards his brother, clearly angry for the remark, but he was held at bay by Freya's hand. K simply rolled her eyes at Klaus.
"There are five locks." Freya said. "None of us are getting out of here without the others' help."
"Elijah," Kol said, drawing his brother's eye. "To avoid bloodshed, I suggest you go to the corner of the house furthest from Nik."
"And Nik, darling," K added. "I suggest you stop being such an asshole."
He widened his eyes and shrugged in mock innocence. He looked adorable doing it, honestly, but K was far from fooled. No one was, in fact.
Kol motioned for Elijah to follow him away, and he did leaving Klaus surrounded by his sisters and wife.
"Split up. We need to get the hell out of here." He told them before leaving as well.
With him gone, Rebekah turned to K. They both smiled at one another and embraced tightly.
"It's good to see you again, Kali." She said, holding K warmly.
"You too, Rebekah."
When they parted, Freya suggested they all take a room. The pair agreed and along with the witch, left the courtyard downstairs.
Marcel joined the party not long after everyone was together. Evidently, Hope had taken it upon herself to put the entire thing into play. Worse yet, Freya was helping her.
K couldn't put into words how angry she was that all of them were together again and that Hope planned to take the Hollow's power into herself, but what could she do? What could any of them do? Nothing. So long as they were stuck where they were, no one could do anything. They had to find the keys as quickly as possible.
K was in Klaus' room going through everything trying to find his key. Since she didn't have a lock, she knew his key was a good place to start.
Thankfully, she wasn't worried about hurting any of his possessions. Since the world wasn't real, she could tear through his paintings, punch holes in the walls, and overturn furniture. She could take out the anger that was forming inside her. She could hurt things.
Within seconds, her search seemed to be over and K was simply taking her rage out on her surroundings. She found a bit of re-bricked wall and slammed her fists into it as hard as she could, screaming with each punch.
The brick crumbled around her hands. Her knuckles broke, her skin split, but it healed quickly afterward which let her continue her assault. For minutes, she spent her time reducing the wall to rubble as best she could, even breaching the exterior when she had.
After a few minutes, however, K let her arms fall to her sides. Breathing heavily, she felt she'd gotten as much of her anger out as she could, though knew it was just beyond the horizon. K knew it would be back the moment she didn't have to worry about something else.
With a semi-relieved sigh, K moved towards the bed, snatching a piece of the sheet off to wipe her hands with.
"Well," Rebekah said with a hint of sarcasm as she surveyed the damage, "Glad to see that temper of yours in under control."
"It's fine." K mumbled. When she finished wiping the blood from her knuckles, she tossed the blanket back down. "So, did you find your-" The moment she turned around, she saw Rebekah holding up her key. "Good."
"Nik's found his, so has Kol." Rebekah said as she palmed the object. "They're searching for Elijah's now."
"That'll be interesting." K sighed. She walked closer to Rebekah.
"I've come to help see if you can find anything in here." She said skeptically as she took in the damage surrounding them.
K motioned to the room and still a little doubtful they'd find anything, Rebekah helped her search.
For a few minutes, the two worked in silence, but something was bothering Rebekah. She'd had a question to ask for a while, and hadn't quite built up the courage to do so. But, she knew she wouldn't have a great chance to do it any other time. She had to talk to K while she had the chance.
"Kali," she finally said as she thumbed through one of Klaus' books. "May I ask you something?"
"Sure," she nodded, still absently rifling through Klaus' things.
Rebekah slowly stopped flipping pages as she thoughts about how to phrase her probing question.
"Are you happy, Kali?" She decided to be blunt.
The question caused K to stop what she was doing. She stood upright and turned to Rebekah with a questioning stare.
"What do you mean?"
"Are you happy with your life?" she asked again. "With Nik?"
K's brows rose. She was shocked by the questions, even more so that Rebekah felt the need to ask any in the first place.
"Uh," she hesitated, "Yeah, actually."
Rebekah's brows came together slightly. "Really?"
"Yeah," K said with a slight laugh. "For the most part, at least. I mean, I… I honestly couldn't see my life as anything else. Why do you ask?"
"Marcel," was all she had to say.
K nodded slowly as understanding washed over her. "What's happened?"
While the two looked for Klaus' key, Rebekah went about spilling her heart out about what had been happening between her and Marcel over the past few years. For the beginning of the story, K was glad to hear that the two of them had a wonderful life together, that they drank and laughed, traveled and simply enjoyed life. She was so happy to hear that her friend was able to be with the man she loved, and then the rest of the situation came to light. K's heart sank when Rebekah revealed that she'd left him in the lurch.
"Why?" K asked, despite likely knowing the answer.
"Because I hate what I am." Rebekah replied heavily. "I hate that I'm stuck forever as," she motioned to herself and scowled. She didn't need to finish the statement for K to know what she meant. "And," she continued, "Since you didn't choose this either, and your life's been nearly as complicated as ours, I wanted to know if you were happy."
K set down a book she'd been in the process of flipping through and turned her attention to Rebekah. She took slow, measured steps forward as she thought about what her answer would be.
"For centuries," K started, "I had no idea what my life was like before I met the Bennetts. It was this void of nothingness. I remembered being a little girl, the farm I lived on… even the village I grew up in, but there were years missing.
"Sometimes, I didn't notice the gap. Life as it was kept moving forward and I had things to keep me busy, but I always felt it, here," she pointed to the back of her head. "I always knew something wasn't right, like whatever was taken from me was important. And it wasn't that I couldn't remember how I'd turned, or where I went, it was more than that. I felt like there was something deep and profound, something vital to who I was that was just taken from me.
"It wasn't until everything came back that I realized what it was."
"You're going to say Nik, aren't you?" Rebekah asked with a mild tone of sarcasm.
K fought the smile, but nodded. Rebekah immediately rolled her eyes. "Knock it off," she laughed lightly. "It's true."
"It's nauseating."
"Look, I'd dated through the centuries, and cared for a fair few of them, deeply, but they were never "right". Do you know what I mean?" she noticed Rebekah's stance shift slightly and knew she did. "Even when my memories came back, it wasn't the events, the places, or the people that I remembered that mattered. That wasn't the blank spot in the back of my head, that thing that was missing. It was Nik. He was that thing that felt wrong, that thing I couldn't quite place and why everything else felt off."
"What does any of this have to do with Marcel?"
K's brows came together slightly. She thought it was obvious.
"Because Marcel is that for you." She said plainly. "He's that thing that's missing, that thing that you can't quit put your finger on, but you can tell when it's gone. Rebekah," K stepped closer and didn't stop until she could hold the blonde's hands in hers. "I hated what I am. I always did. The only thing that made it tolerable what Nik, and the rest of you. Even if I never had the twins, I know I could still make it through eternity so long as I had him." She said sincerely before adding with a hint of sarcasm, "The rest of you, I could probably do without." Rebekah laughed and shook her head. "Look, being a monster is bad enough, but there's no rule that says we have to do it alone. If you find something, or someone that makes it even remotely tolerable, hold onto it as tightly as you can."
After a moment or two, Rebekah gave her a nod. K returned the action, and offered a small smile. She couldn't tell if her words helped the blonde figure out what she needed to do with herself, but K hoped it did.
Eventually, they returned to searching for Klaus' key.
Secrets came to light, as they always did when the Mikaelson siblings were together. It never seemed long before they were revealing bits of themselves to each other, casting blame and arguing. K could do little more than stand back and listen.
"How could Antoinette possibly hold a candle to Hayley?!" Rebekah demanded.
"Did I love her, though? I mean, really?" Elijah shot back with, surprising all those listening. "Because to me, it seems like it was nothing more than this ridiculous vow again."
"Are you kidding me?" K couldn't keep herself quiet after that particular declaration. Elijah looked at her. "Did you love her? I… I can't believe you have the audacity to ask that."
"Well, what the hell else can I do?!" he bellowed. "All any of you can do is tell me what you think, but you don't actually know."
"No," she stepped towards him, "No, you're right. We obviously weren't in your heads or your hearts, but you want to know how we're so sure?"
"How?" he asked when she reached him, still remaining defiant and cold.
"Because we saw it."
Before Elijah could react, K grabbed his head and dove deeply into her own memories. If he couldn't make it past the Red Door, she'd just have to show him what she knew.
Elijah's mind was bombarded with images of him and the woman who'd burned to death. They were sweet and kind, smiling at one another and holding hands. He saw –through K's eyes- the way his mirror image stared at the dark-haired young woman. He saw how Hayley stared back. He even saw them standing together, so close there wasn't a single inch between them. Hayley was naked and covered in blood except for a suit jacket wrapped around her shoulders. And they were… there was something there. It was undeniable.
"Get off me!" he yelled, shoving K violently back.
She stumbled, but Klaus caught her. The two were breathing heavily and Elijah looked unsteady on his feet as he tried to make sense of the images in his mind.
"You might not remember her, but we do." K said angrily. "We saw everything, the way you two spoke to each other, the way you looked at each other. We know how the real Elijah felt about her, so you don't get to stand there and dismiss Hayley as though she doesn't matter. You are just a shell."
"Well spoke, darling." Klaus told her, tenderly touching her back as her turned his eye to his brother. "You see, Elijah was my other half. He was always there when I needed him, always there to reign me in when my rage got the better of me. He was the man who told me I could be worthy of Hope and he was my best friend. And you," he pointed at Elijah, "You killed him. And I hate you for it."
The atmosphere was thick and tense, filled with the rage that could only come from blood relations, but before another word could be uttered, four of the five felt their insides twist.
Kol, Rebekah, K and Elijah lurched and gasped for air, clutching at their chests while Klaus looked on, helpless.
"What's happening?" he demanded.
"Hope," Kol breathed. "She's taking the power back. There's nothing we can do to stop it."
Klaus watched on as his family began to crumble to their knees and their chests glowed blue. They all struggled with the invisible force that had hold of them, but it was all for naught. Just as suddenly as it began, the spell ended. Blue magic, the life force of the Hollow, fled their bodies and disappeared into the sky.
Together they collapsed, panting as though they'd been in a fight.
As they recovered, Marcel appeared from the bowels of the manor with Elijah's key. He truly was smarter than K gave him credit for. He was the one who deduced that each key was put somewhere special, a place that signified Hope's opinion of that family member. Oddly poetic, but then again, she is her father's daughter.
One by one, they unlocked the remaining padlocks and the door slid open. All of them had expected to see the real world, to awaken in their bodies, but no. Instead, they stepped into a long, white corridor –just like the one Elijah described, complete with a red door.
"We're meant to walk through our door." Kol said, glancing at a K on a white slab, "But this…"
"Kol," K chimed from two doors down. "I think this is yours. It doesn't feel right to me."
He joined her side and sure enough, her door simply held a "K" as well. This time, however, it felt "right" to him.
With a smile to his siblings, he stepped through and vanished. Next, Marcel disappeared. K stood in front of her door, but her eye was on Klaus.
"I'll see you soon, sweetheart." He told her as he stood before his N.
She offered a small smile, a soft kiss and disappeared through her door.
K awoke in the center of a spell. Kol was standing just outside the circle next to Klaus' unconscious body, while Rebekah and Elijah remained within the design. K tenderly stepped out and almost immediately afterward, Rebekah woke. She soon joined the others.
"Where's Hope?" K asked when she noticed they were sitting in the remnants of a spell, but the witches who cast it were gone.
"She and Freya were gone before I woke." Kol told her.
K nodded her understanding as she went to Klaus' side. "And what's taking them so long?" she asked as she knelt beside her husband, praying that he actually woke.
"Nik is going to help Elijah through his door." Rebekah explained.
Somehow, the words were utterly terrifying. None of them knew what would happen when the two woke. They didn't know if Elijah would be with them, or just the same shell he'd always been.
Just as suddenly as they'd all awakened, Klaus and Elijah jolted back to life. K immediately helped the hybrid stand, cradling his face as though something might be wrong.
"It's alright," he whispered, taking her hands into his and lowering them.
K barely managed a smile which he returned.
Attention slowly drifted to the man still in the circle. Elijah stared up at the ceiling, unmoving, but they could all tell something had changed. His eyes were pink and welling with tears, and when he stood to face them, they could see it. He remembered.
Slowly but surely the memories returned to his mind and the sounds he let out… heartbreaking was too small a word to describe the pain in them. They were the sounds of ultimate suffering, or something so deep that there was nothing that could save it. It saturated the air and affected even those watching. None could keep tears from their eyes as they watched Elijah –the real Elijah- mourn the death of the only woman he'd loved.
