Elijah straightened, holding his emotions in check as he came to his knees and then up to his feet. Trying to keep his lip from trembling, he looked down to Kol, Rebekah and Caroline.
Caroline lay crying as she rested her cheek on Klaus' forehead, with Kol and Rebekah still sitting at their brother's side, while Misha, Chogun, Elena and Bonnie gathered around Elijah as he walked toward them.
As he approached, Elena walked straight into Elijah's arms and held him tightly around the chest, laying her head on her shoulder. He embraced her back for a few moments, only a single tear streaming down his face, before he lifted his gaze toward Misha, resting his chin on the crown of her head.
"Niklaus gave his life for us…He saved us…But, it was before we could open the portal. Will it still effect the spell?"
Misha looked at Chogun and the old man gave a reassuring smile and nodded, causing Misha to turn back toward Elijah, "We'll make sure his sacrifice counts."
# # # # # # #
"There you are…" Damon started, turning on his heel toward the tree line as he saw Rebekah and Elena, holding a sobbing Caroline, walking toward the encampment with Misha, Chogun, and Bonnie following close behind, "I awoke in the back of Elijah's car and followed your trail here, but all I found was a tied up hunter and Jeremy—"
Suddenly, Damon stopped when he saw Elijah and Kol, carrying Klaus' body on their shoulders through the darkness.
"Is he?—" Damon started, stepping forward, but Elena caught his arm gently as she broke away from Rebekah and Caroline.
"Yes. But, there's not time for…" Elena trailed off, following Damon's sympathetic eyes to Elijah then turned back to him, "We have to start the ritual."
Then they watched as Misha, Chogun and Bonnie made a half moon behind Kol and Elijah as they lay Klaus' body gently in the center of the circle Misha had created earlier for Elijah that intertwined with the one still binding Jeremy.
When Elijah rose and turned back to Misha, the warlock stepped forward and his face was suddenly illuminated by one of the several spotlights that Alec had brought back from the Jeep and placed around the camp so that their ministrations would have light in the darkness.
"Did you and bring the effigy we discussed?" Misha whispered
Elijah nodded solemnly and pulled a photograph from his pocket, then nodded to Kol, who knelt down to Niklaus' side and, after rummaging through his brother's pockets, pulled out a drawing Klaus had made years ago of his favorite witch, Seraphine.
Kol walked past Elijah and handed the drawing over to Misha.
Misha and Kol then turned to Elijah and watched the older original's lip tremble as he brushed his forefinger over Vivienne's face, smiling next to him behind the black and white gloss of the 1960s.
"Are you sure it will work?" Elijah asked, looking up as he reluctantly handed over the photograph of himself and his beloved friend.
"Vivienne and Seraphine are the witches who worked the original spell that trapped Luka in that compass. Bonnie says we'll need them. Only they have the power to unlock the magic attached to the compass and send the demon and Dominic through the portal. Luka can only be summoned by them." Misha said, looking down sadly to the photographs, "And we'll need him to send Dominic back. He's the only one truly strong enough."
Elijah nodded, then turned back and let his eyes fall upon Klaus' body.
Within moments, Bonnie came to his side, Vivienne's grimoire open in her hands.
Elijah turned to her and she eyed him without a word before she handed a pocket knife out to him.
"Your blood will need to flow freely," Bonnie said softly, "And so will Klaus'. Your blood will serve as a connection to the other side that will help open the portal. But, we'll need your brother's blood to satisfy the spirits and create the balance necessary for Vivienne's spell to work."
Elijah looked over his shoulder toward the others, his eyes meeting his siblings as they nodded to each other, giving each other strength.
His eyes then turned to Elena and she gave him a loving smile from her place at Damon's side that told him everything he needed to know.
Finally, Elijah took the pocket knife in hand and slit the palm of his hand and squeezed to ensure blood flow onto the ground.
He then knelt at Klaus' side and looked up to Bonnie for instruction.
"Slit both wrists," she said, "Hold one in the grasp of your own injured hand so that your blood flows together and place his other arm so that it bleeds over the boundary line."
Elijah's nostrils flared as he tried to keep his composure, then leaned forward and closed his eyes as he slit both of his brother's wrists. He gently placed Klaus' left arm across the boundary line of the circle where Jeremy lay, then handed the knife blindly up to Bonnie as he rested back on his haunches and wrapped his hands around Klaus' right wrist.
Bonnie looked over her shoulder to Misha and the warlock stepped forward behind her, Chogun walking around to the other side of the circle.
They were ready to begin.
"Bonnie?" Chogun asked, "Are you sure about this?"
Bonnie nodded, "I'm ready."
Elijah closed his eyes as he felt one of Bonnie's hands rest upon his shoulder and then, moments later, Misha's hand on his other.
Chogun leaned forward and placed one hand on the boundary line, while holding the photograph and drawing of Vivienne and Seraphine in the other.
As he began speaking in his native tongue, his body convulsed and his eyes rolled back into his head.
For moments he fought the pain as he channeled the two witches, trying to raise them from the other side.
Finally, with a final shout of words, he suddenly thrust out the hand that the photographs and they burst into flame, then their ashes crumbled under his fingers took flight into the air.
Immediately, Jeremy awoke, his eyes turning completely black as the demon awoke inside him.
Suddenly, Bonnie gasped as the ashes flew around the circle and she inhaled them.
She coughed in a fit for a few moments, then the others watched in stunned awe as the apparitions of the witches, Vivienne and Seraphine, passed out of the back of her body, seemingly using her as a gateway and stepping out onto the illuminated grass behind her.
Almost immediately, the apparitions turned to face the demon inside Jeremy that had now risen to its feet inside the circle, and, upon seeing them, began to snarl savagely.
They looked over to Bonnie and the young witch wavered for a few moments, then threw up the grimoire and Vivienne caught it as she fell back, unconscious.
Kol rushed forward with vampire speed and caught Bonnie in his arms, his eyes casted worriedly up to Misha.
"She's being channeled by them. They need her safe. Pull her back from the circle and protect her!" Misha called back over his shoulder.
Kol nodded immediately and picked Bonnie up, carrying her back toward where the others stood away from the fray.
Vivienne, the exact effigy from her photograph –a much younger version of herself and dressed in the clothing of the 1960s—and Seraphine, wearing a long dress and bodice, fashionable in the 1870s—now stepped forward, coolly, the grimoire resting across both of their hands.
They eyed the beast inside Jeremy and he eyed them back.
"The compass," Vivienne said, turning to Misha and the warlock produced it in his outstretched hand and flipped it open.
Jeremy snarled at the action and Dominic's chains rattled behind them.
Damon, Elena and Alec's attention immediately turned to the hunter and they sprinted forward to restrain him as he levitated to his feet.
Dominic thrashed as they pinned his shoulders to the tree that was splintering under their combined strengths.
Elijah winced in pain as the two witches now moved forward and placed their hands on his shoulder.
Misha visibly flinched as well as the connection was made.
Jeremy growled and pounced forward, but was immediately rebuffed by the circle barrier.
The women's voices echoed in the night as they spoke together, "Spiritus violenter animam… spiritus nostras voces…"
Jeremy screamed out in pain and crumpled over
"No!" Dominic's voice cried out as he lashed out at Damon and Elena, but his magical chains held him back
"Spiritus violenter in homine, spiritus nostras voces…" they continued
Elijah suddenly felt himself become light headed and start to sweat as he felt himself being drained almost immediately of his doppelganger life force.
"Balance genuit, statera servetur, per portam, et in tenebris!" Vivienne cried out alone and Klaus' body visibly shook beneath Elijah's hands, the blood pouring from his wrist into the circle binding Jeremy, then suddenly and seemingly by power and will of its own, it flowed out in larger volumes and started to run in both directions around the edge of the circle, filling in the line.
Chogun stepped back and removed his hand from the line as the blood reached the top of the circle and, when it did, Jeremy's body convulsed and contorted unnaturally before he fell back on his haunches and his mouth opened.
Vivienne and Seraphine watched, their faces devoid of emotion, as a dark, black, shapeless cloud flowed from Jeremy's mouth like it was a smoke stack and the young man fell to the ground, unconscious.
The black cloud flew around the binding circle for a few moments, seemingly trying to find a way out, but kept getting rebuffed by the barriers created by Klaus' blood.
"The demon has no way to go, but back to the portal," Vivienne said
"Portal?!" Rebekah cried from where she stood with Caroline, "There is no portal!"
"Yes, there is," Chogun replied and nodded toward Elijah, "We didn't just draw that circle out of nowhere. Elijah's sitting in it. He's the opening to the portal!"
"What?!" Damon cried out as he and Elena held Dominic's chains, "You're insane! You're all insane! Look at him! He can't survive that! He's almost done for already! And what if the demon takes his body?"
Suddenly, as if immediately hearing and understanding his own words, Damon turned to Elena, whose face had fallen.
"Alec!" Damon cried, realizing what Elena needed, "Help me! Take the other side from Elena!"
The spirit warrior immediately moved forward, just as Elena let her side of the chain go.
"He might survive it or he might not," Chogun said, "This was his choice and his life or death is for the spirits to decide, not us. He will not be possessed. He is a vampire. His body holds a demon already…it will fight any others. And Klaus's body is sacred now—it cannot be possessed by the demon."
Immediately, Elena rushed to Elijah's side with vampire speed and fell to her knees next to him, taking his face in her hands.
"Elijah…" she whispered, but Elijah's eyes remained close and his body rigid with its connection to Klaus and he did not respond
"Misha," she said, looking up to Misha, who was wincing as he tried to hold his own connection to the circle, "We have to do something. Using him as the portal…it will kill him. Damon's right! Look at him! He doesn't have enough strength left."
Misha looked over to Chogun across the circle and the old man nodded, reluctantly
"You could help him…" Misha replied, turning back to Elena
Elena's eyes widened as she took in Elijah's placid, pale and sweating face as the spell channeled him, cementing him to Klaus.
Suddenly, she understood what Misha meant.
They might need her doppelganger powers after all...and it might save the man she loved.
"Elena, don't!" Caroline cried, rushing forward, but Rebekah caught her
Elena closed her eyes for a moment, then leaned forward and whispered into Elijah's ear.
"I love you, Elijah…." she said softly, "Fight with me…Don't leave me, ok? Don't leave me alone in this world without you…"
Then, she slowly pulled back and looked up to Misha.
"Give me a knife!" she called out and Kol immediately rushed forward with Bonnie's knife
Elena quickly cut her hand, threw the knife aside, and without reservation, placed it over top Elijah's on Klaus' wrist.
There was a tremendous jolt that shook the earth and everyone cried out in surprise and shock, trying to keep their bearings at the small earthquake.
"We are ready!" Misha cried toward the witches
They nodded in unison then placed their hands on Elena now and she cried out in pain, then Elijah did, too, followed by Misha.
"Aperite regni tenebrarum..." they spoke in low tones, their voices rising
"Neque absorbeat me!"
Suddenly, Elijah cried out and fell limp, his eyes rolling back in to his head as his hand fell from under Elena's and he reeled back toward the ground.
He had no more strength left.
"Elijah!" Elena cried out, sensing his break from the connection, but kept her hand on Klaus
Misha saw it at the same time Elena did and gasped, nearly falling back with the original.
"Totum ad me ut spirituali est domum… suam nec rursus repere - numquam rursus repere!" The witches cried in unison and closed the grimoire tight.
Suddenly, the circle around them began to glow, its magic breaking without Elijah, releasing the demon…
"Hurry!" Misha cried, "We have to reconnect him to Klaus!"
But, immediately, a dark, delicate hand reached out from behind Elijah and pushed him up next to Elena again, reconnecting him to the portal.
It was Chogun.
"It's too late! The connection broke. Only the spirits can help us now!" Chogun cried, then reached forward and hastily put a hand on Elijah's neck under his shirt, his eyes immediately turning completely white as he summoned his powers and called out in a booming voice, "Come forth…I command you! Come forth! Rise! Give strength to one who once gave you yours …and now has none!"
It was then that Elena remembered…
The totems on Elijah's neck…
He had never taken them off.
Misha gasped as the spirit of his mother, Ayanna, suddenly appeared at his side and placed a hand on Elijah's shoulder, then on Misha's.
Her eyes then lifted to the demon hovered above them now, free, but stopped dead in its tracks by the woman who had once set it free upon this world.
"Demon. We meet again," Ayanna said, "Only I'm not here to summon thee, but to protect those I love. This man and this portal have more than one guardian...and you don't just face him…you face us all!"
Suddenly, the apparitions of Gloria, Kaspar, Henrich, Octavian, Finn, Liliya, Ioan, Matt Donovan, Stefan Salvatore, Katherine Pierce, and Klaus Mikaelson surrounded the broken circle and, joining hands, created a barrier that the demon immediately flew around and threw himself against, trying to break through, but couldn't.