When Klaus regained consciousness, he found himself on the ground in a wooded area. He could also hear chanting in Latin nearby. It didn't take long for him to figure out what was going on. The last thing he remembered was turning his back to his niece so that she wouldn't see the disappointment etched on his face. Then he felt pain. Now, he was in the very place he'd chosen for the spell.
"No!" Klaus exclaimed before scrambling to his feet. He looked around and saw Elena about twenty feet away. She had formed a triangle with Kol and Finn, holding their hands as she chanted. There were candles around them and him. Klaus immediately moved to approach them but found himself stopped by a visible forcefield before he could even take three steps. Upon some experimenting, he found that the forcefield circled around him. "Elena, stop!"
Elena ignored her uncle and focused on her task, channeling the power from Kol and Finn. She knew her uncle wouldn't be out long, and that when woke, he'd be pissed and loud. She also knew she had to ignore him.
"Elena, I said stop this! I forbid you to do it!" Klaus yelled loudly. He then turned to Greta and Rebekah, who were both standing nearby, looking directly at him. He had a feeling that the boundary spell was Greta's, not Elena's. "Release the spell, Greta."
"Respectfully, no," Greta said. She knew very well that she might end up dead when this was over, but she was willing to take that risk. She believed in what was happening tonight.
"Greta, she is my niece! I won't hurt her. You are another matter entirely! Your life will be forfeited if anything happens to her! I will make you beg for mercy by the time I'm done with you, and then I will shove you at my brother's feet for him to finish the job!" Klaus snarled before turning his glare to his sister. "And you three will be lucky if I decide to dagger you for eternity instead of leaving you at Elijah's mercy!"
"She's doing this for you, Nik. For some reason she cares for you enough to risk Elijah's wrath. Let her help you," Rebekah said.
"Do you think I don't care about her?! That's why I can't let her do this! She could get herself killed!" Klaus exclaimed.
"We won't let that happen," Rebekah assured him. Kol and Finn were watching closely as Elena worked. They would stop her at the slightest indication that it became too much.
Meanwhile, Elena continued to chant, ignoring the voices around her.
Kol smiled as he felt the power inside him rise to the surface. It was the closest he'd come to feeling magic in centuries, and it felt amazing. "I can feel it! It's working."
Elena finally stopped chanting after another minute. She could feel her uncles' power build inside of her. It was both exhilarating and overwhelming all at the same time. "Whoa! This is strong. I've never felt this much magic before."
"Are you okay?" Kol asked.
"Yeah. I think my high just increased though. It's time to finish this," Elena said.
"Elena, if you do not stop this at once, I will see to it that you are punished severely!' Klaus yelled at her in the sternest tone he had.
Elena snorted. Like that wasn't going to happen anyway. Had he met her father recently? Of course, she was going to be punished for this. She knew that before she even got into the care with Klaus back in Mystic Falls. Hell, she was going to be grounded for practically the rest of her life whether she ended his curse or not. She'd already gone too far for any other outcome. "Greta, when he starts to shift, remove the spell."
Greta nodded.
Elena started chanting again, this time, she was reciting the spell to end the curse. Almost immediately, she felt the magic inside her being sucked from her as it worked to do as she wanted. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling, but she took it as a sign that it was working.
Kol watched as Elena chanted. She chanted for about ten minutes, and he could see that it was draining her energy, but it didn't seem to be causing any adverse effects. Powerful spells could easily cause exhaustion, which seemed to be what was happening now.
Klaus suddenly doubled over as he felt the familiar pain of the shift.
"Release the spell," Rebekah told Greta.
Greta immediately uttered the incantation to end the boundary spell.
"Go, Nik!" Rebekah demanded.
Klaus ran. He needed to get as far away from his family members as possible before the transformation was finished.
Elena let go of her uncles' hands and stumbled backwards. "Whoa! I don't think the woods are supposed to spin."
Finn caught her before she could fall. "I have you, dear. Are you alright?"
"I think so. I'm kind of tired, and yet also very high," Elena said. She still felt so exhilarated, but at the same time she felt ready to sleep for a week. "It worked, right?"
"It did," Rebekah said as she approached her niece. "You did well, although I doubt Nik will thank you for a while."
"Let's get you home," Finn said before picking her up into his arms.
"No vampire speed please. I already feel like the trees are running circles around me," Elena said.
"A normal pace it is," Finn said before he led the way out of the words, carrying his niece in his arms.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
Elijah let himself into his brother's home. The house was apparently in Niklaus' name, or at least some sort of alias of his, so he didn't need an invitation. It wasn't too hard to track him down. Once he'd tortured the location of his brother's last residence out of Jonas, he'd gone there. He'd found a few vampires there that his brother had working for him. It took some 'encouragement,' but he managed to get one of them to tell him where Niklaus had taken his daughter.
No one appeared to be there as Elijah made his way inside. That had left Elijah a bit crestfallen, but perhaps there was something that could tell him where Niklaus had gone and if he'd be back. He made his way through the house room by room. He walked into the living room and found a cellphone on the coffee table. After looking through it quickly looking though it, he'd determined that it was Elena's. He'd also determined that his messages had been received and ignored.
Elijah sighed as he put his daughter's phone in his pocket. He wasn't happy that his calls were ignored, but it was quite possible that it was Niklaus, not Elena to do so. Well, either way, he'd be punishing someone for this whole debacle, possibly more than one someone. Niklaus might just wish he could be killed when Elijah was finished with him.
After checking the rest of the first level of the house, Elijah went upstairs. He checked the bedrooms. In one of them, he found Elena's purse on floor by the bed. He searched around, looking for any clue as to where his brother had taken her. He checked the inside of the nightstand and found three silver daggers.
Elijah frowned as he removed the daggers. These were the daggers his brother used to incapacitate their siblings. To his knowledge, there were only four of those daggers in existence. Now, either Niklaus had found three more, or he'd lied to Elijah when he told him he'd buried their siblings at sea. Either scenario was possible. If these were the daggers in his siblings though, he wasn't sure how Elena had gotten ahold of them.
Elijah was pulled from his thoughts when he heard a door open and close. He put the daggers back where he found them and rushed out of the room. He hadn't even made it downstairs before he heard the voices of his daughter and his siblings.
"How is it possible to be exhausted and wired at the same time?" Elena asked.
"I don't know, darling, but you clearly are, so it must be possible," Kol said.
Elijah made it to the kitchen at that point and found his older brother carrying his daughter. His other siblings were there too, as well as a young woman he didn't recognize.
"Dad," Elena said happily when she saw her father. Thoughts of punishment weren't even in her mind at this point. It was a little clouded by the high she felt, and the fact that she missed her father.
Finn placed his niece on the ground but kept his hands on her shoulders to steady her.
"Come here, sweetheart," Elijah said before pulling his daughter into his arms and holding her tightly. At this point, he didn't care what happened or how willing his daughter might have been in it. He was simply glad to see that she was alright and have her in his arms again. "Thank god."
"Hi, Dad. I missed you," Elena said as she hugged her father.
It barely registered to Elijah that Elena had called him 'Dad' for the first time. If he weren't already so happy to know that she was alright, he would be filled with joy from that one word. "I missed you too, sweetheart. I was very worried about you."
"Sorry," Elena mumbled into his shoulder.
Elijah finally pulled away after a good five minutes and looked at his daughter. Her eyes were glossy and she seemed very disoriented. "Elena, have you been drinking human blood tonight."
"Yeah," Elena said with a chuckle.
"How much have you had?" Elijah asked. It had to be a lot because he'd never seen this far gone.
"Like ten pints," Elena said. It might have been more. She had a couple right before she started the spells too, and her mind was too addled by the blood and the added magic to think about it.
"What? Why would you drink that much? Were you doing magic?" Elijah asked.
"Uh huh. I undid Uncle Nik's curse tonight," Elena told her brother happily. At this point it wasn't even registering to her that she might not want to seem so happy about something that was guaranteed to piss her father off.
"You what? How?" Elijah asked in disbelief. The fact that his daughter was referring to Niklaus as 'Uncle Nik' was shocking in itself, but it was overpowered by the shock of her telling him she'd removed the curse.
"There was another spell in Esther's grimoire. It was powerful though, so I needed Uncle Kol and Uncle Finn. I channeled their magic to do the spell," Elena told him.
"Oh, bloody hell," Kol muttered to himself. His niece was so high right now that she lacked the ability to understand that she was dooming all of them by talking so much. Of course, he supposed they were already doomed.
Elijah narrowed his eyes at his siblings but said nothing. They would answer for this later. What were they thinking in allowing this to happen? At the very least, Kol and Finn should've known better. They knew the risks of using too much magic too soon, and they'd let her perform two very powerful spells.
"Dad, it worked! Uncle Nik's curse is broken. He started transforming!" Elena said excitedly.
Elijah turned back to his daughter. "Elena, did my brother force you to do this?"
"No, I kind of forced him. He said no when he found out we were related, so I broke his neck," Elena told him.
"Elena, you have the right to remain silent. Please exercise it," Rebekah practically begged.
Elena, what were you thinking? Using that much magic at once could've…" Elijah trailed off and forced himself to calm down. Elena would not benefit from a lecture right now. She was too far gone due to the magic and blood. Nothing he said was going to register. "Alright, we're not going to discuss this tonight. I'm going to take you upstairs and get you in bed. Can you walk?" Elijah asked.
"Not very well," Elena admitted.
Elijah nodded and picked his daughter up into his arms. He then looked at his siblings. "You three, go nowhere!"
Kol winced as he watched his brother carry Elena out of the room. "Is anyone else hoping for the dagger?"
Slowly, both Finn and Rebekah raised their hands.
