Elena paced the entryway of her home, waiting for her siblings to return. She couldn't believe how much had happened in less than an hour. She wasn't expecting that revelation from Finn. For the first time, she felt a little sorry for him. She still didn't like him much. He was a dick. That hadn't changed, but she understood slightly more why he might be like that. Esther had screwed him over just as much as the rest of them, maybe even more. She had him under her control. Elena was sure of that. She used his guilt to gain his loyalty. Finn hadn't told her that much, but she could see it. Esther was a controlling, manipulative bitch, and none of them were immune to it.
Elena was pulled from her thoughts when she heard the door open. She watched as Elijah walked in, followed by Nik right behind him.
"Elena, is everything alright? Are you okay?" Elijah asked concerned. His sister had called and told him to come home immediately. He could hear the urgency in her voice.
"Yeah, I'm okay," Elena assured them.
"What happened? Is it Mother?" Klaus asked.
"Yes and no. She's not here, but it involves her. Finn showed up at the door not too long ago," Elena told them.
"Bloody hell! How does he keep finding us?" Klaus asked.
"He knows how we think. We need to leave. Where's Freya?" Elijah asked. He knew Freya wouldn't want to leave, but it was their only option. Freya was a strong witch, but he was not sure she was strong enough to take on their mother.
Just then, the door opened again. This time it was Kol and Rebekah. "What's going on?" Kol asked.
"Finn has found us. We need to leave," Elijah said before turning back to Elena. "Elena, where is Freya?"
"She left with Finn. When he got here, she was livid. She kicked his ass using magic," Elena said.
"Oh, tell me you got that on tape," Kol said with a grin.
Elena ignored her brother. Under normal circumstances, she would right with Kol, taking pleasure in their brother's ass kicking, but not after what she'd learned. "Things got complicated quickly. There are things we didn't know. I think Esther abused Finn too in certain ways."
"Elena, you can't believe anything Finn told you," Rebekah said.
"What he told me didn't benefit him," she said.
"Let's have this conversation later. We need to get out of here before Mother arrives," Klaus said.
"Finn says she's not in New Orleans," Elena told them.
"And you believe him?" Kol asked incredulously.
"Yes, because if she knew where we were, she'd already be here," Elena reasoned. She wasn't naïve. She knew not to trust Finn's word on the matter, but she knew Esther well enough to know that she would already be there to drag Elena away if she knew where she was.
"Even if she's not, I'm sure she's not far. We need to leave," Klaus said again.
Just then, Freya walked in with Finn. "Good, you're all home. We need to talk."
Klaus glared at both her and Finn. "You would dare bring him back here?"
"Yes, because no matter what has happened between you, he's still our brother. And because there are things that he needs to say to all of you,' Freya said.
"No," Finn immediately argued. "I fully admit that I owe Elena an explanation, but not the rest of them. I don't owe them a thing."
Freya sighed as she turned to him. "Finn, the bad blood between you cuts both ways, and you know it. It has to stop now. The only way we're all going to make it through is as a family."
"He lost the right to call himself our family when he plotted against Elena," Kol said.
"I'd argue that happened when you left me daggered for nine hundred years!" Finn yelled.
"Stop!" Elena yelled at both of them. "Freya's right. Like it or not, everyone in this room is family. And I want to hear what Finn has to say."
"No, he's just buying time for Mother to show up, I'm sure," Klaus said.
"If that was my goal, I would've just brought her with me. She has no idea where you are and I have no intention of telling her," Finn said.
"And why's that?" Kol asked with quite a bit of skepticism in his voice.
"She crossed a line," he said.
Kol laughed bitterly. "She's crossed a lot of lines. It didn't seem to bother you before."
"Alright, let's just sit down and talk. That can't hurt anyone, right?" Elena asked.
"Very well, sister. If you're willing to hear Finn out, I see no reason why the rest of us shouldn't," Elijah said before motioning towards the dining room.
None of the others seemed pleased, but they all followed Elijah's lead and went into the dining room to sit down. Finn sat beside Freya and across from Elena.
"Go ahead, Finn. You should start from the beginning, the day Elena died. They need to know. That was where all of this started. Finn's guilt had swallowed him whole until it hardened him and turned into anger.
Klaus' eyes narrowed. "What about the day Elena died? We all know what happened that day."
"No, you don't, not all of it. I was with her that day. The rest of you were feeding. I was supposed to wait for you to return because Mother was too weak to care for her. I thought I would be alright. I underestimated my own blood lust. I was beginning to fear that I wouldn't' be able to control it for much longer. Then Father came home and instructed me to go feed," Finn explained.
Klaus' eyes flashed with rage as he realized what had happened. Thinking back, he did remember that Finn was meant to be looking after Elena. He never thought about it before. First, because his sister's death was originally said to be from natural causes. Then, when he found out the truth, there were other things on his mind. However, now, his brother was insinuating that he'd left their sister to be murdered. "You left her with him?!"
Finn felt the guilt swell up inside his stomach. It was a natural feeling for him by now. That guilt had never left him. "I didn't think I had a choice. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to control the bloodlust much longer. I told myself he wouldn't hurt a baby."
"How did that work out for you?" Kol asked angrily.
"Stop, both of you. It's not his fault," Elena said. She blamed Finn for a lot, but not that. Mikael and Esther were responsible for what happened. Finn had done the best he could under poor circumstances.
"No, they're right. I shouldn't have left. I should've known better," Finn said.
"And what would've happened if you'd stayed? You would've been the one to kill me most likely. Would that have been better?" Elena asked.
"Our bloodlust was nearly impossible to fight back then. What happened then wasn't your fault, Finn," Elijah emphasized. He made sure to be clear. That night wasn't Finn's fault. What he'd done to Elena later was.
Finn shook his head. He didn't believe that. He never would. He was responsible for what happened that night. "When I got back, Mother told me what happened. She told me the real story, not the accidental tragedy she told the rest of you about. She wanted me to understand what I'd done."
"She gaslit him. She's been using it against him every chance she's had since it happened," Elena told the others.
Elijah nodded. Now he understood what Elena meant when she told them that their mother had been abusing Finn in a different way than the rest of them. She'd been preying on his guilt to control him. It didn't excuse the things he'd done, but perhaps it did explain some things, such as why he'd seemed to be even more devoted to their mother since their baby sister's death, why he always did exactly as she asked.
"Even if that's all true, it doesn't make him any less of a bastard for the way he's treated Elena over the last year. If anything, it makes it worse," Rebekah said.
"You're right," Finn told her.
Elena looked at her eldest brother slightly taken aback. "That's the first time you've admitted any kind of wrongdoing during that time. I guess I can thank Freya for that."
"Just listen to him, okay? You don't have to forgive him, but hear what he has to say," Freya said to Elena.
Elena nodded and looked at her brother expectantly.
"I didn't know you were alive; you know. That was the one part of the story Mother held back. I found out she'd resurrected you the night of the ball, probably an hour before you did," Finn told her.
"Yeah, that doesn't exactly surprise me," Elena said. Of course, Esther kept that from him. It made it easier for her to control him with guilt. Before tonight, she had assumed he knew the whole time, since he seemed to be Esther's lapdog, but it made sense that he wouldn't with the new information.
"When I found out, I felt like I could finally breathe again for the first time in a thousand years. I…I wanted to make it right. I couldn't change what happened, but I could be a good brother to you now. I thought maybe Mother's dream of us all becoming a family again might be possible," Finn explained.
Kol laughed bitterly. "You've got a bloody funny way of showing that."
Elena leaned forwards so that she was looking Finn directly in the eye. "Finn, you have never once acted like my brother, not one time! This conversation we're having right now is about the closest I've come to even knowing anything about you, other than seeing you as an extension of our mother! You treated me like dirt. How exactly did you think you were being a good brother?"
"I don't know," Finn whispered sadly. "In my defense, I'd forgotten what it was like to be a brother. I hadn't allowed myself to be one since I watched Freya get dragged away."
"You witnessed that?" Elijah asked. He couldn't imagine what that had to be like. Finn wouldn't have been older than four at the time. It had to be extremely traumatizing to see something like that.
Finn nodded. "It was one of the two worst moments of my life. You can probably guess what the other one was. When Dahlia took Freya, she threatened the rest of us as well if Mother attempted anything. I…I was terrified of it happening again."
"Is that why you've never had any interest in us? Why you treated us like we were basically nothing to you?" Rebekah asked.
Finn glared at her. "You aren't exactly innocent in that are you? You never wanted anything to do with me either. You let them keep me daggered for centuries!" he said as he pointed towards Klaus and Elijah.
"Oh, get over yourself! As though you're the only one who has been daggered," Kol said with a sneer.
"Alright, everyone, stop! None of you are innocent when it comes to hurting each other. You have all done your fair share to each other," Freya said.
"Fair point," Elijah said before turning to Finn. "We shouldn't have left you daggered, but you hated us and what we were, and I feared that hatred would end up getting one of us killed. What if you decided that you wanted out so badly that you lead Father to us? I had to protect our siblings. I'm the only one that ever has. If daggering you was what was necessary to protect the rest of us, I was willing to do it at the time."
"I didn't hate you, not until after you abandoned me. No, I didn't let myself get close to you, but that was to protect myself from what would happen if Dahlia tried to come for any of us. Yes, I hated what I was, but not enough to bring that brutal beast upon the rest of you," Finn told them.
"And how were we to know that? We didn't really know you. You never tried to know us. You treated us as badly as we did you. You treated Elena even worse," Klaus said.
Finn turned back to Elena. "Niklaus is right. Nothing justifies the way I treated you. After talking with Freya, I realized that you likely saw me as no better than she saw Dahlia.
"Yeah, we've spoken about the parallels," Elena said before glancing at Freya. She and Freya had had many conversations about what happened to them. Elena certainly didn't believe what was done to her was anywhere near as bad as what happened to Freya, but they could emphasize with each other.
"I didn't see it that way when it happened. After all, she was your mother," Finn said.
Elena shook her head. "Not to me. I had just met her. The only things I knew about her were that she was the reason Nik had sacrificed me to end his curse and that she had tried to kill me. Other than that, she was a stranger to me. She was a stranger who had just told me something that should be impossible and who was planning to hold me hostage in a house with people who had proven to be a threat to me. The only person I was sure didn't want to do me harm in that house at first was Elijah."
"I…I didn't see it that way," Finn said quietly.
"Oh, I know how you saw it. You weren't shy about it. You told me I should've been grateful. Grateful for what? Her saving me? She's the reason I needed to be saved. I know you blame yourself for my death, but I don't. I blame her. She knew who Mikael was. She knew he'd hate me enough to hurt me, but she still decided it was a good idea to bring another kid around him," Elena said.
"I wanted to forget everything that happened a thousand years ago. I wanted to forget what I'd caused to happen. Mother made it seem like that was possible, but you couldn't forget. You couldn't accept us. You refused to accept her. After a while, you said you did, but I knew it was a lie," Finn said.
"I was never given the chance to accept her. She forced herself onto me instead of letting me deal with the truth at my own pace. If she had just let me deal with it in my own time, I could've accepted her. I accepted everyone else because they did give me that time. They didn't just expect me to love them in one day. I needed time, Finn. Instead, I was mentally terrorized. I was afraid of doing the slightest thing wrong and what the punishment would be if I did. So, yes, I lied, and I set you up to keep you from making my life even worse in that house," Elena told him.
"Do you remember what you said to me shortly before I told that lie about you to Mother?" Finn asked.
Elena shook her head.
"You said that I hated the world and myself. I hated you in that moment because you were right. You could see right though me. I felt as though you could see my guilt, and I hated that. Every time I looked at you, I felt like you were looking through me and seeing me for who I was. That was just the first time you'd vocalized it. It only made me feel more guilty when I looked at you\. Soon, the guilt turned to resentment and anger. I didn't really feel those things for you, but it was easier to take my anger out on you than myself," Finn said.
"Either way, you were taking it out on the wrong person," Freya said.
Elena sighed. "I don't know what you want me to say. If it's forgiveness you're looking for, you're going to have to earn that."
Finn nodded. That was better than he expected. She had no reason to ever forgive him. He wasn't sure he could do it if he were in her shoes.
"Finn, why did you come here?" Elijah asked after a moment. "You said that this epiphany didn't come until after you spoke with Freya, so you didn't come here to make things right with Elena. Why are you here?"
"I came to warn you. Mother has taken things too far," Finn said.
"What's your definition of too far? I'd argue she did that more than a year ago," Rebekah said.
"She crossed a line even I couldn't ignore. She's grown tired of chasing you, and she also wanted a way of controlling all of you once she finds you," Finn said.
"What has she done?" Elijah asked with trepidation in his voice. If his mother had done something that even Finn considered monstrous, it was cause for extreme concern.
"She plans a resurrection. She wants someone in her corner that will be able to control all of you, and I'm sure you all know there is only one person who has ever been able to do that," he said.
"No," Kol said quietly.
Finn nodded glumly. "If she hasn't already, she plans to resurrect our father."
