Elena and Freya were in the living room training. It had been several weeks since Freya had learned the truth about Elena and been reunited with her and the rest of her siblings. She had essentially moved in with them. She still had her apartment, but she barely spent any time there anymore. It was mainly used to meet with other witches in the Quarter. Most of them didn't want to be around her siblings, and the feeling was mutual.
Freya's relationship with her siblings had greatly improved. Her relationship with Elena only got stronger, and the others had slowly begun to trust her as well. Klaus was the hardest to turn around, and even he was starting to let his guard down around her a little. If nothing else, they all believed she was who she said she was now.
"Alright. So, today, I'm going to start teaching you how to give someone an aneurism. It's a good offensive and defensive tool," Freya said.
"Okay. I've seen that done often enough. The witch friend I told you about did that often enough. But I need someone to use it against, like a vampire. I'm definitely not doing it to you," Elena said firmly.
"No, not me," Freya agreed.
Just then, Kol came into the room. "Hey. Elijah said you needed me."
"Yes, we do. I need you to be a guinea pig to help Elena," Freya said.
"No way," Elena said immediately when she realized what her sister intended.
Freya ignored her sister and focused on their brother. "I'm trying to teach Elena how to properly give an aneurism. I need a test subject."
Kol grinned. "Aneurisms! Lovely! Consider me your willing guinea pig."
"No. I'm not using Kol to experiment with aneurisms," Elena said firmly.
"Yes, you are. You need to learn this, and the best subject to learn on is an Original. They are the strongest. They would be the hardest to use it on. If you master it on Kol, you can use it against anyone," Freya explained.
"Where's Finn when you need him?" Elena asked in a grumbling tone. He's the only one of her siblings that she'd actually be comfortable doing this to.
Kol laughed. "That's the first time anyone's ever mentioned needing Finn."
"When and if Finn ever shows his face again, he's mine. I'm the older sister, and I'm going to thoroughly kick his ass until he sees sense," Freya said. She was seriously pissed off at Finn for what he put Elena through. She was being emotionally and mentally abused by their mother. She needed her big brother to look out for her. Instead, he became part of the problem.
"You may have to knock him into a coma before that happens, sister," Kol said.
"I'm not even sure that would work," Elena added.
"Alright, let's get started," Freya said.
"I don't want to hurt our brother," Elena said.
"Eh, you won't hurt me. It'll just be like a bad headache," Kol told her.
"I've seen vampires brought to their knees from a witch's aneurism," Elena said.
"Yes, but once it's over, they're fine. You won't do me any lasting damage, darling. Besides, I'm a willing participant. I want to see what you can do," Kol said.
Elena sighed, but she didn't say anything else. She knew she wasn't going to win this argument.
"Okay, so most witches can do this with just a thought, but new witches sometimes need something to channel it through. You can use your hand if you need to. You need to concentrate on exactly what you want to do," Freya explained.
Elena nodded before raising her hand towards Kol. She concentrated on causing Kol pain. Of course, she didn't truly want to cause her brother pain, so she wasn't sure how well it would work. She tried several times, but nothing seemed to be happening. Kol didn't appear to be the slightest bit uncomfortable. "it's not working."
"Probably because your heart isn't into it. You're not trying enough," Freya said.
"That's because I don't want to hurt my own brother. No part of me wants to cause him pain," Elena said.
"Okay, so then close your eyes and pretend it isn't me. Pretend it's Finn in front of you now. No, better yet, pretend it's Mother. I know you want to hurt her. Think of all the ways she tried to control you, how she made you run, how you're not allowed to even talk to your friends or your little brother because she'll have the means to find you if you do," Kol said.
Elena felt fired up just thinking about it. She shut her eyes and did as her brother suggested. It made her angry as she thought of all the ways Esther had hurt her and her siblings. She definitely would've liked to give her an aneurism.
Kol yelled out as he felt pain in his head. It wasn't as intense as it could be, but it definitely wasn't pleasant. "Well, not an aneurism, but definitely a very bad migraine."
Elena opened her eyes again. "Are you okay, Kol?"
"Yes, I'm fine, little sister. Good job. A lot of witches can't even do that to someone as strong as me," Kol said impressed.
"Excellent start. As long as Kol's up for it, I want you to try a few more times," Freya said.
Kol nodded that he was fine with that.
Elena did it a few more times, but she didn't get further than a really bad headache with Kol. Once they were done with that, Kol left, and Freya taught her a couple of spells. They worked for a couple of hours before Elena started to get tired. "Can we stop for the day?"
"Yeah. I can see you're exhausted. Sit down," Freya said as she pointed to the couch.
Elena didn't need to be told twice. She sat down on the couch and laid her head back.
Freya picked up a bottle of water from the table and gave it to her sister. "Drink that."
Elena took the water and took a couple of large gulps of it.
"You're improving. You're going to be a very powerful witch soon," Freya told her.
"Thanks. This isn't just about me getting my magic under control anymore, is it? You're trying to prepare me for battle," Elena said.
Freya took a seat next to her sister. "You need to be ready in case you have to fight. Esther and Dahlia are both very powerful witches. I hope it doesn't come to having to fight them, but you need to be able to defend yourself if it comes to it," she said. She'd told her siblings that she wanted to make sure Esther and Dahlia never got near Elena again, and that was still true, but realistically, she knew that might not be possible. She needed Elena to be prepared if the worst happened.
Elena nodded. "Thank you. Most people in the past only wanted to shield me from whatever came after me, and I know that that was because there wasn't much I could do to fight the supernatural world, but it's nice to have someone to help me protect myself."
"Oh, I'm still going to protect you if at all possible, but I won't leave you helpless against two monsters," Freya said firmly.
Elena nodded and then rubbed her eyes.
"Try to get some sleep. You're exhausted. We might have pushed a little too hard today. Sleep for a few hours. I'll be upstairs," Freya said before standing up.
Elena nodded before stretching out on the couch and putting the bottle of water in her hands on the floor next to her. She closed her eyes, and within moments, she was asleep.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
Elena woke up a few hours later feeling much better. She looked at the time on her phone and saw that had slept almost four hours. She was obviously very tired after her session with Freya.
Elena heard the doorbell moments after she woke up. She was pretty sure it was just her and Freya home, so she got up to answer it herself. She went to the door and opened it, and much to her dismay, she found Finn on the other side. "You've got to be kidding me."
Finn smirked. "Hello, Elena."
"I blame myself for this. This is what happens when I open my mouth," Elena said. She had been joking earlier about how she wished Finn was here so that she could use him as her guinea pig instead of Kol. Now he was here. She'd seriously jinxed herself.
"It seems I'm getting better at this whole technology thing. I found you rather quickly this time. Of course, I must admit that I wasn't expecting our siblings to return to a place they'd already been caught in by our father. Now, be a dear and invite your big brother inside. I can only assume this place is in your name to keep unwanted vampires out," Finn said.
Elena laughed. "How about you kiss my ass instead? What do you want? Oh, I suppose that's a dumb question. You want what you always want. You want to do Mommy's bidding. Is she outside lurking behind a corner? No, she'd just come in herself. Have you called her yet?"
At this point, Freya made her way into the room. She caught the tail end of Elena's words.
"Actually, it happens that Mother is not here, and she doesn't know you're here. Look, I just want to talk. Let me in," Finn said.
"How stupid do you think I am?" Elena asked.
"Well, you chose to take off with our idiotic siblings when you'd finally gained Mother's trust, albeit by deceit, so quite stupid," Finn said.
Elena walked over to Elena and got her first look at her brother in over a thousand years. "Elena, invite him in. I can't properly kick his ass from outside."
Finn laughed mockingly. As if this woman could do anything to him. "Who the hell are you?"
Elena looked at Freya as though she was crazy. She couldn't let him in. She couldn't give him access to their home. "Are you nuts? He's here to turn us all over to Esther."
"That won't happen," Freya assured her.
"Freya, I don't know if you're looking for some kind of redemption from him, but I assure you, he has no redeeming qualities," Elena said before glaring at her brother.
Finn stopped paying attention to Elena. His eyes were on the blond woman with her. "F…Freya?"
Freya smirked at Finn. "Hello, little brother."
