Mikaelson Mansion
December 17, 2010
Elena found him in the kitchen alone waiting for the microwave to finish with his meal, not that it really surprised her since she had already suspected as much when she went in search for the eldest Mikaelson brother. He wouldn't admit it even to his siblings but the culture shock was even more exasperated by the fact that, thanks to Klaus, he'd spent the last nine centuries in a box. Either Elijah or Klaus must have explained how the microwave worked.
Although he didn't need to feed from the vein thanks to the advent of blood donations and bagged blood, Elena already was cognizant that the consumption of the life-sustaining essence was something he thoroughly detested ever since being made into a vampire.
Elena, thanks to her Petrova heritage, found blood fresh from the vein more beneficial; having a staff of employed humans who, among their duties, were to provide nourishment to the Mikaelson clan and select cadre of Klaus's trusted hybrids.
"Finn, is everything okay?" Elena asked, hoping to get him to talk. Her brother in law had grown more withdrawn. Especially ever since Sage had started her covert mission of finding the whereabouts of the former White Oak sapling, she had only been able to sneak away from Damon on a very sporadic basis.
Before he could respond, the microwave's timer started to beep for attention. Elena waited as her brother in law retrieved his mug of blood, but didn't speak until he had taken his first sip of the coppery tasting nectar.
The guilty look of first ecstasy then one of self hate for even enjoying the crimson fluid made Elena's heartbreak for him.
"What do you think, Ella?" Finn asked, more harshly than he must have intended when his eyes clouded with shame for the tone he took with his sister in law.
"Would you perhaps like to talk to me about it? You were rather silent during dinner tonight." Elena pointed out rather unnecessarily, but he had been avoiding talking with her for weeks now. Ever since the truth had been revealed, she had hoped to delay it until things were settled in her hometown. But Tatia's announcement that she was pregnant with Klaus's child had taken the family by storm.
Especially after they'd worked out that she had gotten pregnant after Esther and Mikael had changed them, and right after Klaus had triggered his curse.
Even three weeks later, the encounter was still fresh in her memory. The envious look Rebekah had given her brother and his paramour turned to shock when Elena broached the subject of Dahlia and the bargain she'd made with her younger sister Esther over a millennium in the past.
Draining his mug of blood, he momentarily appeared as if he planned to smash the now empty mug into pieces before he sighed and washed out the contents in the sink. He made to leave but stopped, giving her an expression that balanced on hopeful and fearful.
"Elena, if isn't too much of a intrusion, could I-"
Taking pity on her brother in law, Elena didn't hesitate but for a moment. Taking the initiative she stepped closer to him then wordlessly took his large hand, which was roughly the same size as Elijah's, but his thin slender digits were more suited for a playing across the keyboard of a piano than anything else. Elena smiled up at him as he touched his long fingertips to the side of her head.
"Go ahead, Finn. I really don't mind."
Elena opened her mind to him while she focused on her memory of that one fateful Christmas party where her and her family's world changed. It had answered quite a few unanswered questions of her own, especially how Esther had reacted to the news that Elijah and she were expecting.
"Oh Freya, I- Um… Thank you, Ella," Finn coughed out in a choked near sob just after he hastily pulled back from her mind. Her heart went out to him. She knew he wasn't comfortable with showing supposed weakness to others, in particular family. Even dead Mikael's destructive influence over his children knew no bounds, Elena thought bitterly.
"I'm sorry Finn. I didn't want to keep this, especially from you, but I did come pay you a visit when I learned she was still alive. Thanks to the false memory spell your mother and Ayana crafted I couldn't-" Elena started but what she really wanted to say was caught in her throat.
"I understand Ella, but even I will admit that at the time I did find it odd that of all the times you visited me, you suddenly wanted to know more about my older sister. I won't lie. I appreciated the gesture but thinking about her only reminded me of everything I once thought lost to me."
"I'm sorry Finn. I didn't mean at the time to upset you. I-"
"Well, sister, I understand now, so thank you."
"Finn, I want you to know that while I can't speak for Elijah, I promise you that we will do everything in our power to get Freya out of that place and find whatever means of unbinding her from your aunt's clutches," Elena promised, touching his forearm.
"As do I, brother. We will both help you get our sister back to us where she rightfully belongs," Elijah added from the kitchen doorway.
Elena's smile grew as she took in the sight of her husband holding their daughter as she looked curiously about. Ever since Caroline had picked the cute toddler onesie with the 'Daddy's Little Girl' stenciled so prominently across her chest, it wasn't a difficult guess on who had picked that particular outfit out considering it wasn't the same one she had on at the start of dinner.
"Come here little miss, now just where is your big brother? Hmm?" Elena cooed to her daughter once Elijah had rather reluctantly handed her over to her mother.
"Apparently he's still hungry, not like little Astrid here. Enskede, if Klaus's witches didn't say otherwise I would be more worried she wasn't eating enough."
Elena nuzzled her daughter, kissing her forehead, relishing the fact that after so many centuries she was once again holding her child.
"Brother, I know you want nothing more than to scout out the Dowager Fauline Cottage, but as Elena stated earlier, it has been spelled with a boundary spell to keep out unwanted visitors."
Finn didn't appear very pleased with where Elijah was going, so Elena decided it was better if she tried to help her husband.
"Finn, I promise you that Freya told me directly that she picked the Cottage specifically because even if Dahlia had found her before she had to enter her magical slumber, she would need to figure out how to leave the premises. Freya is safe for now."
He still appeared that he wanted to argue, but even he had to agree his sister had thought of everything.
"Ella, Elijah, I hate that she has had to face this all on her own. Without family offering her support. I'm just so angry that mother did this to her and-" Finn's gaze fixated on Astrid's back, not that it didn't take too much imagination to understand that he intentionally left unsaid. Despite the seriousness of the threat to her family, she was tempted to make a Harry Potter reference to using the Dark Lord's name, but Finn still was still behind the times.
"I know, brother, I don't like the situation either. But we are not going to let Dahlia have her way. Not only are we going to get Freya out of that place but we are going to find a way to disabuse her of the notion that she has any claim to either my or Niklaus's first born. Our mother be damned!"
"Making us into vampires now makes a sort of logical sense now."
"Pardon?" Elijah asked before Elena could.
Finn looked about the kitchen nervously. Thanks to her hearing she could tell it was only them since she couldn't hear anyone approaching so she contented herself with holding her daughter and waited. Finn was starting to open up more, but his forced slumber had left an undeniable mark on his soul.
"When I was trying to find a means of changing back into a human, I managed to get a glimpse of the spell mother had used and at the time I found something unusual but I only paid it minimal attention." Finn started.
"What did you find so unusual about it?"
Elena hadn't seen the spell Esther had used, but she knew enough about the Original Petrova Immortality spell that it was incredibly complex, so whatever Finn had found was important, at least to her.
"Has neither one of you ever wondered why we can't have children? At the time I thought this was an unusual trait and I don't even believe that Father was aware of it. But when all of us were remade, the spell had made all of infertile. It wasn't until Klaus, and I guess you as well sister, triggered your curse that our mother, for whatever reason had overlooked that potential loophole."
Glancing over at her husband she found his brown eyes watching her intently. After Klaus and Tatia had announced to the family they were expecting, Elena had decided that she couldn't hide her true parentage from her family any longer so the next evening she'd shared what Klaus already knew thanks to her. She had yet to make good on kicking his ass for the smug expression he had that evening.
Remarkably everyone had taken the news that she wasn't just a witch vampire hybrid but a tribrid instead quite well. Kol had made a crack about Klaus and she could take turns walking each other, both Elena and Klaus had taken turns breaking his neck until it was bedtime for her two little angels. Elijah would have taken her place, but she wanted him to help with the nightly routine.
"It never really occurred to me to be honest, brother," Elijah finally answered back.
"If that is the case then that means the Spirits of Nature found another loophole, one that none of even suspected and it was only stumbled upon by sheer accident." Elena declared. Finn looked confused by her statement, but Elijah's eyes lit with understanding. Elena nodded back with a broad smile. This was something that had bothered her for centuries and it just made perfect sense.
"Finn, one of the driving characteristics of just about every biological species in our world is the innate ability to reproduce. And since we can't, in part because of how your mother crafted the spell, we must turn people in order to propagate our species. Although not the most favorable methodology, since we are more akin to a parasitic species in more ways than one, nature works with what it has."
Elena felt her ears grow hotter as both Finn and Elijah stood there in stunned silence. An errant thought in her head pointed out the now obvious that she had been explaining the vampire equivalent of the birds and the bees to her husband and brother in law. Thankfully Finn took the lead by speaking first.
"What exactly are you trying to suggest? That the reason our kind can make more of us by, well… is just because nature found a bloody loophole?"
"Like my wife I'm beginning to believe so, brother. I just never heard it put to words before," Elijah added with a grin, making his wife want to slap him. Afterwards his teasing rebuke of her best attempt to explain vampire biology made her wish she indeed could follow through with her original impulse. Holding her daughter, she shifted Astrid, holding her tiny head to her shoulder as she started to drift off.
Pointedly ignoring his younger brother's interaction with his obviously annoyed wife Finn, after a little amount of searching a discreet cabinet, triumphantly produced the same dust encrusted liquor bottle his other brother had stashed before pouring himself a healthy amount. He drained it in one mouthful. Klaus had thought he was being clever, hiding it there instead of the liquor cabinet in the main family room. Klaus's loss but his gain and right now he needed something stronger.
"Brother?"
"It's one thing to find out that our mother did this to us, but then… Give me a good reason I don't leave this accursed place and save my beloved elder sister? Sorry Ella." Finn said rather sheepishly when Astrid's head jerked up in obvious response to her uncle's raised voice.
"SHHH…. Everything's alright," Elena cooed gently to her daughter, trying to calm her down once more. Astrid, unlike her brother, took longer to go to sleep. Especially if she was accidentally startled.
"I understand your feeling of helplessness, but for now we still have some time. Neither Freya nor Dahlia are due to wake up for at least for a few years."
Looking somewhat abashed for his outburst, Finn apologized once more to Elena and made good on his departure from the kitchen. Elijah returned the bottle back to what he assumed was Klaus's hiding spot before rejoining his wife in quiet contemplation.
She wouldn't say it aloud, but when Klaus and Tatia had announced to the family they were expecting, it had been sheer luck that prior to that encounter Sage had managed to extract herself from under the mindful eyes of the Salvatore brothers. If Sage hadn't been there for her paramour, Elena honestly didn't know how Finn would have reacted to the revelation that Freya, the Eldest sister to the Mikaelson clan, was still alive but also on the run from their evil aunt. There are times Elena often wondered if she was living in a television drama. If that were the case, she seriously wanted to have a few choice words with the show writers about a few things.
It didn't help that she had a lot of things on her mind with the threat of the founders council being co-opted to her family and friends, as well as her brother's odd behavior over the last couple of days. Elijah didn't want to intrude, but had told her more than once she needed to talk to him. Something she really needed to do, but ever since starting Vera and Lily's lessons with magic, her down time was almost nonexistent. Not to mention caring for the needs of her own children. She felt like she was being pulled from multiple directions.
Mystic Grill
December 17, 2010
"What's wrong, Stefan? I thought you'd be happy for me, having decided to rejoin the cheer squad?" Katherine asked innocently. Toying with her straw, she refused to drink the artificially flavored sugar carbonated water humans had unfortunately become addicted to, just like all the junk food they consumed in the last century. It really annoyed her that she had to consume any of it in a setting such as where she and Stefan presently had their 'date' after school.
"I'm sure Caroline was overjoyed, Elena," Stefan responded, to anyone that was listening they might have been concerned how Elena's brooding boyfriend had taken pains in emphasizing her name.
Not that she entirely enjoyed pretending to be her dull as dishwater Doppelgänger descendant. Especially if she was being forced to do so because of Klaus and his family. Her only consolation prize was the time she was spending with the one and only Stefan Salvatore.
"What's wrong Stefan? And here I thought you'd enjoyed seeing me in my cheer uniform."
Katherine smiled, giving Stefan her best impersonation of Elena's mannerisms. She had spent weeks practicing before officially making an appearance. When Katherine was getting herself ready for school, Elena had only rolled her eyes in mild exasperation when she found she would be double in her cheerleading uniform.
Naturally of course, Elena had texted her best friend Caroline, but to Katherine's own surprise the Blonde Vampire had taken the initiative and put Katherine through all of their routines. If Caroline's ultimate motivation was trying to embarrass Katherine, she had fortunately always been a quick study.
It still annoyed her that Caroline was the captain of the team. Apparently the real Elena and she had been co captains, but after the accident Caroline had assumed the role as leader, at least until Elena Gilbert rejoined the team the next fall. Katherine resolved to ask Elena's best friend if she hadn't felt a measure of satisfaction after the fact.
The only problem was that Rebekah Mikaelson was on the team. It was the only major drawback, at least as far as she was concerned.
"I think we are done here," Stefan answered and made to stand up. Acting on instinct, Katherine's hand snapped out to catch him from leaving.
"But we just started our date and our food hasn't even been served yet."
"I'd rather chew on broken glass than sit down and have a meal with you, Elena," Stefan hissed only lowering his voice when other diners' looked up from wherever they were sitting just to witness what some might believe a date going south rather quickly.
Not for the last hundredth time did she wish she could compel them to mind their own business, but thanks to the actions of the founding council the vervain was making even finding a meal somewhat aggravating. If it wasn't for the blood bags back at the Mikaelson Estate, Katherine would have dessicated by now.
Stefan started to stand, when Katherine's fingers closed tightly around his wrist. Katherine was experienced enough to know all it took was just the right amount of pressure in the right location. The audible crack of Stefan's Radius bone was thankfully overtaken by the ruckus voices of the Mystic Falls football team by the television.
She had to give Stefan props for not uttering a sound; not even a groan or whisper of pain. Frustratingly, at least for her, he also withdrew his hand from her touch. Which, although rather upsetting, it wasn't like she would show or even admit that to him or anyone else for that matter. She hadn't survived for so long by showing that fact she did indeed care about others. No matter if she had fallen in love with them or not.
"Come now, Stefan, we are supposed to be out on a dinner date. I mean how would it look if you didn't at least hold your girlfriend's hand?" Katherine asked, as she pushed her fondest wish that he would actually do it.
So it was a rather rare sight to behold when a near speechless Katherine Pierce, as Stefan did, by all appearances, take her up on her verbal challenge. She couldn't resist the impulse to study how Stefan's much larger hand was now placed almost possessively over her own. Feeling a little intrigued by his otherwise conciliatory gesture, Katherine looked into his eyes, yearning to see the same spark she once saw the very night she'd needed to compel him not to panic upon her accidental revealing her nature to her lover.
Unfortunately his eyes were devoid of emotion she had so vainly wished would be there.
"What exactly are you getting out of this, what I guess you'd call an arrangement, that you have with them?"
Katherine could have pretended that she didn't understand his question but oddly she didn't want to lie to him either, so she opted to tell him the truth as best she could give him. Not that he would likely believe her, but she had to start somewhere with repairing their strained relationship. Elena's earlier words to her threatened to intrude back in her thoughts but she ruthlessly suppressed the memory.
"Only that if I help them until this latest crisis is over, then Elijah and his wife-" Katherine started, but paused collecting herself. "They will grant me my freedom to leave this god forsaken town and more importantly gain parole from the Original Hybrid himself."
She was still piecing together how things had changed. Based on her own assumptions and subtle clues she'd garnered listening to the Original family's discussions; it still seemed impossible, but somehow little Elena Gilbert had traveled into the past and changed things. There was so much more she could add, but Elena's and Klaus's layered compulsions placed on her prevented her from saying more. Katherine's gaze met with his and something in her made her add a hope she'd wanted to voice aloud for some time now.
"And Stefan when I do leave. I want you to come with me."
December 17, 2010
Dear Diary,
Something is going to happen soon. I don't exactly know what or how, I just know. Before, it would not have concerned me, but I have my children and extended family with me now and I am worried about whatever is coming. I was discussing this with Elijah when Kol, of all people, pointed out that my own magic, with its innate connection to nature, could be gifting me with glimpses of future events. To be honest this has not once transpired before now, even while I was only able to explore the world in Astral Form.
I honestly don't know, or maybe I'm just becoming a little more paranoid like my brother in law Niklaus.
Although, ever since Tatia and he have finally been reunited his overall demeanor has changed for the better. Oh, don't get me wrong Klaus can be moody. If it wasn't for his need to train his hybrids or spending time with Tatia. They honestly can't keep their hands off each other. No one has asked, but if I had to guess her pregnancy hormones are partly driving them. All I can say is that I'm thankful that all the family apartments have been soundproofed both using non-magical and magical means.
Klaus would have sooner ripped out his own heart than hurt the love of his life.
There is still so much to do. We need to find where precisely all the lumber harvested from the White Oak ended up. Thanks to Finn and Sage we know the former tree was used in its entirety in a single construction project within Mystic Falls. And also thanks to my adoptive mother's work in the Historical Society we have narrowed it down to just one of two structures built in the same time frame. Which is why Finn is out with Kol, confirming this very fact, today.
Our other problem is what to do with the council? We want to leave and return to New Orleans, but I don't want to leave Caroline or the other vampires specifically with such a potential threat to their existence as an unresolved problem. It doesn't help that Bekah and Klaus are more than willing to apply their usual solution to such problems.
Killing the council isn't something I want to consider unless we have no other option, which we still do. And I will be damned if we pick the easy way out of this cluster fuck.
I need to talk to my brother too. Something seems off about him. I've tried to talk to Anna when I've seen her around but she seems to be avoiding me and I don't understand why. Elijah is concerned too although he hasn't told me anything specific other than I really needed to have a discussion with Jeremy about a strange vision he apparently had after touching one of Klaus's belongings. I wonder if it was anyway connected to the dreamscape Anna and I found him in.
The good news is that my Ladies maids are progressing well in learning how to use their magic. In fact, I had them both replicate my first introduction to magic by Bonnie. And of course Klaus was somewhat annoyed with me, since I had ruined a perfectly good pillow. I'm not worried. It's not like our family doesn't have enough financial assets, but I do get his point.
Anyway time to go feed my little ones.
Pastor Young's Ranch
December 17, 2010
They stood in grim silence watching over the workmen's continued efforts to improve the newly installed holding cells, which the Pastor reflected with a degree of loss until recently would have been their horses' stalls of all things. He would have preferred to keep them as they were, but after paying for his wife's medical bills- not to mention they had to sell not only the entire herd of cattle their family had raised for decades, but all the ranch's horses as well. Not that it had mattered in the end. His and April's prayers to a god he privately was starting to believe didn't care for his people, or worse didn't exist, hadn't earned them a reprieve from the malignant cancer that once ravaged his wife's body.
Regardless of his prayers or that of medical science she was gone now, leaving just the two of them, alone. He'd taken April out of her private school to help better reallocate their funds to pay off the remainder of medical bills. April's mother had made him promise to keep their daughter enrolled even though she was sick but afterwards he didn't want to be separated from their daughter any more than necessary.
It helped that April still had friends in their hometown.
So far April seemed, at least to him, to be adjusting to being back home. She had even made a new friend on her first day back. A girl whose first name he barely remembered, but he did know her surname, Mikaelson. From what he understood, she belonged to the new family that had constructed a new home for themselves; he knew nothing about them either and that was starting to worry him. Considering he hadn't even encountered any of them during church, but that still didn't prove anything.
Only the founding families and, in rare circumstances, those spouses of founding family members were ever included in council discussions which focused their entirety on supernatural events within their community.
Not for the last time did he miss having Greyson or Miranda Gilbert input into those particular occasions.
"So Pastor, care to take a guess at what you might think we are doing wrong?" Eben Hartnett asked, his voice came out almost with a growl.
Pastor Young turned just enough to glance at his companion, giving him a studious expression prior to answering the newest member of his cadre. Finding the nest of the oldest vampires in recorded history wasn't as easy as either of them had bothered to consider.
"Mystic Falls has nearly seven thousand residents, and that doesn't take into account those who commute here every day for work or other sundry reasons. Last time I checked, in the last six months alone we have had a total of fifty seven families either move in and out of our community."
Pastor normally did better at making a point of greeting the new additions to their community but ever since his wife's death he'd been neglectful of some of his self appointed duties.
"Well-" Eben started, but the Pastor continued.
"We have swept all of the foreclosed residences for their kind. And thanks to the deputies placed under your command we have continued to sweep them for potential nests for said vermin," Pastor Young answered with honest appreciation for the man's suggestion.
"I only wished we had found more than those two poor souls, sir."
The Pastor nodded in agreement. It had been pure luck when during their initial sweep Eben had caught two vampires that based on their apparent age had been turned as pre-teenagers. Afterwards it was only through photo verification of their remains they had positively identified them as runaway siblings from a foster care house in West Virginia.
"Agreed, but thanks to you and your men's productive encounter, at least we had the opportunity to release their tortured souls from the demons that wore their stolen flesh," Pastor Young answered, offering a silent prayer for the former children.
"Yes Although I think there were some remnants of their former humanity trying to keep from fading completely away, it was only a matter of time."
The questioning look from the Pastor at his ally prompted the former security consultant to further elaborate.
"Mind you these are just my own assumptions, but I don't think either of them had been turned into bloodsuckers for very long. The foreclosed house we cornered them in was littered with animal carcasses'." He paused, waiting for the Pastor to make the connection.
"What? Oh! Let me guess. All of these animals were drained of their blood?"
Eben smiled at his superior.
"Every single one, which might have been a good thing. If they had been feeding on people, they would have been stronger."
"Perhaps you're correct. They were trying to hold on to their remaining threads of humanity. A noble effort, however still a pointless gesture. The demon would have pushed them to eventually do the unthinkable," Pastor Young noted regretfully.
"Moving on, I think there isn't much more we can do to make these cells any stronger. The good news is that the vervain infusion ventilation system is almost completed. We should be able to do a test run tonight."
"What was wrong with the previous system?"
"We needed a better blower motor to service all of the cells, but I think the extra duct work we installed should help with concentrating the air where we need it the most."
They moved back to the farmhouse to continue their plans, with the holidays only around the corner but maybe they could use that fact to their advantage.