When Stefan woke up, he was in his own basement. It didn't take him long to realize he'd screwed up. His hands were chained above his head, and Klaus was in front of him with an evil smirk on his face. He wasn't the only one there, either. Stefan's brother was there as well, along with Rebekah, Caroline, and Bonnie. Even Jeremy was there. Apparently they all came to see him be tortured.
Klaus twirled a stake in his hand while he smirked at Stefan. "Welcome back, Stefan. We've been waiting ages for you to wake up."
Stefan struggled in his restraints for a bit, but it didn't do any good. "This was a stupid move, Klaus. You can torture me all you want, but you won't break me. I won't tell you where your family is, and Elena will die of starvation if you keep me here."
Klaus laughed. "Break you? Don't get me wrong, I certainly could with enough time, but I have no need to. This isn't about breaking you," he said, before stabbing Stefan in his lower stomach with the stake.
Stefan screamed in pain.
"The fact that you'll feel torture is merely a happy side effect. When I'm done with you, you will give me the locations of Elena and my siblings. You won't have a choice. Once I've bled you of the vervain, I can simply compel you to tell me their locations. and once they are back where they belong, I will grant you a slow, painful death," Klaus said, before stabbing him again, this time in his carotid artery.
Stefan screamed again. He watches a massive amount of blood pooled from his neck onto the ground. It never occurred to him that Klaus might try to remove the vervain from his body. he probably should have considered it, but he'd never heard of anything like that happening before.
"Of course, you could save yourself a lot of pain by telling you where they are now. You would still die, of course, but it would be a lot less painful. That's your choice though. Either way, my family will be home in the next twenty-four hours," Klaus said, stabbing him on the other side of the neck.
Stefan yelled and started screaming profanities before looking to his brother. "You're gonna let him do this to me? You all will?"
Damon didn't look at Stefan as he answered. He could barely stomach watching this happen. "Did you think I'd just sit back and let you use Elena as a weapon? She didn't do anything to deserve what you're doing her."
"You brought this on yourself, Stefan. You crossed the line by going after Elena," Bonnie said with a glare.
Stefan yelled out as Klaus stabbed him in the stomach again. It took him a couple of moments before he was able to speak again. "Elena brought it on herself! She could have stopped all of this by telling the truth. She's the reason I've done all that I've done."
Rebekah laughed loudly. "Is that what you've convinced yourself of? If so, you're a bloody idiot. My brother wanted you because he liked the kind of killer you were. He was impressed with your Ripper tendencies. That is why he took control of you, and he would have done so regardless of Elena's status with this family."
Klaus hummed in agreement. "Yes, my sister knows me well."
Stefan shook his head. "If she had said something...
"Shut up!" Jeremy snarled. It was hard to believe that this was the same guy his sister had been fawning over several months ago. There was no trace of the man who would have done anything to protect Elena. He was just another monster now. "Stop blaming other people for your damn problems. Elena isn't responsible for what happened to you. She would have done everything in her power to help you. She still believes in you, even after everything you've done in the last few months. And you sit here wanting people to feel sorry for you?"
Klaus looked on in Mach fascination as Stefan's wounds began to heal. "It's truly amazing how quickly we heal, isn't it? Well, I suppose that means I'll just have to keep going."
"Stop! Klaus, stop!" A voice yelled just as Klaus went to stab Stefan again.
Everyone turned to see Elena and Elijah in the doorway. Damon was the closest and the first one to get to her. Jeremy, Caroline, and Bonnie were close behind him, but gave them space. "Elena. Hey, are you okay?
Elena hugged him. "Yeah, I'll be okay,"
Rebekah started walking over. "Why is there blood on your arm then?"
Elena pulled away from Damon and looked at the dry blood still on her arm. She then glared at Stefan and took a few steps towards him.
Rebekah stood in Elena's path while Elijah gently took hold of her arm.
"Not another step, sweetheart," Klaus said softly. Stefan wasn't currently in a position to be a danger to her, but he wasn't taking any chances.
Elena looked around her. There were three originals standing in the way between her and Stefan. They were trying to protect her from him. She would laugh at the hilarity of it all if it weren't so devastating. "I had to cut my arm to feed Elijah. I knew he'd be starving when he woke up, so I knew I couldn't let him drink straight from my veins.
Stefan glared at her. "You weren't supposed to wake him up.
Elena charged forward as if to attack him, which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do as she couldn't hurt him. It didn't matter though, because both Elijah and Rebekah stopped her from getting any closer to him. Elijah held her tightly in his arms while Rebekah put a hand against her chest. "Is that right? So then I should have just sat there and done nothing, right? I should have been a good little hostage and waited for you to decide what you were gonna do with me! Screw you, Stefan!"
Rebekah smiled at the young woman in front of her. She misjudged Elena. She thought she was just a weak human, but she wasn't. She'd proven tonight that she truly was a Mikaelson. She did what she had to do, despite the fact that it might have ended badly. "You did exactly what you were supposed to do. You did what was necessary to survive. That is what we do in this family. We protect ourselves and each other no matter what the cost. And that is why we will make sure that Stefan is never a threat to you again."
Elena couldn't resist the bitter laugh that escaped her lips. As she laughed, she looked at Stefan in complete disgust. "You know, those are words I never thought anyone had would ever have to say to me. I never thought anyone would have to protect me from you. You were everything to me, Stefan. Even with your humanity off, I never gave up on you, even though I know you wanted me to. Well, you get your wish now. There is nothing left in you that I even recognize. The Stefan I knew really is lost to me."
"Yeah, well that's your fault," Stefan said.
"Grow up Stefan! Stop blaming everyone else for your damn problems!" Damon snarled. He was more than tired of listening to his brother blame Elena for his issues. She wasn't responsible for any of this. It was Klaus that turned off Stefan's humanity, but the way Stefan was acting wasn't even Klaus's fault. Stefan's humanity wasn't off anymore, and he wasn't even compelled. The way he was acting was on him.
"Well, I think it's time to end this now, don't you all?" Klaus said before raising the stake again, this time towards Stephan's heart.
"Niklaus, stop! I gave Elena my word that we would not kill him," Elijah told his brother before releasing Elena and taking a few steps towards his brother. After hearing the venom coming from Stefan's mouth, he wished he hadn't made that promise, but he did. He would not go back on his word.
Klaus turned and glared at his brother. "And why would you do that? This little bastard has targeted members of our family. Elena could have died trying to get you her blood."
"I know, brother. Believe me, nothing would give me greater joy than to watch you murder him right now. However, Elena has been through enough. She has asked that Stefan be spared, and we owe her that. You owe her at least this much," Elijah told him.
Klaus stared at the youngest member of his family. His brother wasn't wrong. He did owe Elena quite a bit. He caused a lot of damage to the young girl. A day ago he wouldn't have cared about that, but now she was a member of his family. That fact alone made everything different. "Fine. I will let him live, but this is the one chance he gets. The slightest infraction on this family and he dies a very painful death."
"Agreed," Elijah said.
Elena nodded that she understood before turning to Stefan. "I want you to know that I'm doing this for Damon. He still loves you, despite what you've become. I won't hurt him by letting them kill you. If it weren't for him, though, I might just say screw it." She was lying. Despite everything she didn't want Stefan dead. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing that, though. She wanted him to think she hated him so much she wanted him dead.
"Well, since all of this is settled, I think it's time we take our leave," Klaus said before approaching Elena. He took a hold of her arm gently. "You're going to be coming with us now, sweetheart."
"The hell she is! My sister isn't going anywhere with you," Jeremy said.
All of the others aside from the originals and Stefan began protesting too. None of them were willing to allow Klaus to take Elena away.
"Everyone, please stop!" Elena yelled loudly to get everyone's attention. She then glared at Klaus. "Let go of me. I want a few minutes with my brother in private.
When Klaus made no move to release Elena, Elijah stepped in. "Release her, brother. Elena understands what needs to happen, but you will allow her to speak with her brother."
Klaus let go of Elena after a moment. "Very well, but don't go far, love."
"We'll be in the living room. No one listen in," Elena said before heading towards Jeremy.
"Elena..." Damon started.
"Later, Damon. I need to speak with Jeremy," she said before taking her brother's hand and heading out of the room with him.
Elijah, meanwhile, walked over to Stefan. In one swift move, his hand was in his chest and holding on to his heart.
Stefan gasped and grunted in pain and shock.
"It is taking everything I have not to rip your heart from your body right now. It is nothing less than you deserve for what you did to Elena. But I gave her my word that I would not kill you. You will not go near her again. If I find that you have so much just looked at her without her permission, I will kill you as painfully as I can. I have learned many torture techniques in the last thousand years. I would be more than happy to implement every last one of them on you. Do you understand me?" Elijah asked, still squeezing his heart.
"Yes," Stefan croaked out.
After a few more moments for effect, Elijah released Stefan's heart and took his hand out of his chest.
Klaus smirked. "Well done, brother."
Elijah turned and punched his brother in the face, hard. "For the dagger, brother."
