Elena took in a shuddering breath, wincing internally as Inadu used her foot to roll her over on to her back, her muscles still restricted by whatever spell had been placed on her.
Crouching next to her, Inadu grabbed her chin between her thumb and index finger, wrenching Elena's face in her direction. "It's kind of sad, really, how deluded you all are."
Elena glared at the woman in front of her; all she could do with the rest of her body frozen, wishing more than anything that she could tear her smug face from the rest of her body.
"I am the most powerful witch this world has ever seen. I created an entire species to curse my own family for murdering me, and you thought I would tricked by a baby illusion and a bloody knife?" Inadu tutted, shaking her head. "Although, I am wondering, where did you get my families blood? Don't tell me you kept the wolf's corpse next to Elijah's?"
Throwing Elena's face away in disgust, Inadu stood up, a brief motion of her hand stopping the movements of the slowly reanimating Klaus and Caroline. Eyes rolling into the back of her head, Caroline collapsed to the floor, unaware of everything around her yet again. Klaus only glared at the Hollow, seemingly suffering from the same affliction as Elena as his eyes flickered towards the barely healing Kol.
"I probably should thank you, Elena." She mused, turning her back on the hybrid easily and stalking back towards the doppelganger. "This makes three Originals that you've brought to me on a platter." She smirked, stopping abruptly in the middle of the room and crouching to the floor, touching her palm to the cool concrete, a blue light growing from her hand, slowly swirling and engulfing the witch.
As quickly as the blue light had appeared, it disappeared, spinning, and twisting, and writhing out of existence, a dark mass left behind in its wake, resting under Inadu's hand.
Recognition slowly dawned on Elena, the vague mass slowly taking form as her eyes readjusted to the darkness, the dark lump becoming a body, a horrifically familiar body.
"No." Kol grunted, his voice barely above a whisper as he tried his best to drag his crippled body towards Inadu. "Leave him."
Inadu laughed, barely sparing him a glance before turning her attention back to Elena. "It's cute, isn't it? The way that we hold on to our dead. Most of the time the dead are cherished more than the living."
Elena's chest heaved, her breath coming in faster, heavier bursts of anger as she assessed the situation in front of her.
"Inadu, don't-" Kol cut off with an abrupt gargle, red liquid splattering from his lips as he choked on his own blood.
"I am afraid I simply won't be following in your steps." Inadu continued, as though she had never been interrupted in the first place. "You see, killing Elijah was a good help, but I can do so much more if I can sacrifice his body to the Earth; I can become so much more." She smiled, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath as though savouring something.
She opened her eyes again, glancing at Kol and Klaus with the same satisfied smirk again. "Just imagine…just imagine what I could do if I sacrificed two more Originals! The Original hybrid one of them nonetheless!"
Utilising her only weapon, Elena glared at Inadu again, narrowing her eyes to the best of her ability, trying her best to convey the only message she could. She would kill Inadu, even if she managed to kill Kol, and Klaus, and Elena was left all alone, she would tear the witch apart.
Inadu winked at her, message received, her smirk said, game on. "What do you think, Elena?" She asked, turning back to Elijah's body. "Shall I finish with Elijah first? Or shall I pick a brother?"
Walking to Klaus, she crouched beside him, grabbing hold of his hair and wrenching his head upright. "The hybrid feels like a good place to start, no?" Tossing the paralysed hybrid down, she strode back over to Elijah, kneeling next to him and using the tip of her finger to carve a pattern into his head.
Humming as she stood up, she smiled at Elena again, letting out a soft laugh. "You know what? I think I'll start with Elijah, get a boost of power before I take out the anomaly." Inadu took in a breath, blue beginning to engulf her again.
"No."
"Excuse me?" The blue glow dampened as Inadu turned to look at Elena again.
"I said," Elena took a long breath between each word, clearly punctuating each in their own way, "no!" Her denial tore from her throat in a scream, a purple light erupting from her body in the same moment, illuminating the warehouse in a glow that only grew brighter.
Elena's grief and rage, and fear and frustration ricocheted around the room, shaking the foundations of the building they were in in its might. So instinctual it hardly needed be given a direction, the power tore through the Hollow, her body, her spirit; her soul, crumbling to ashes as if they needed only a tap.
The abandoned lightbulbs, left for so long they refused to work anymore, shattered in their sockets, glass littering the floor with a soft twinkling sound. The few windows that dotted the walls of the building blew outwards, sending more glass to the ground outside.
Several deep gasps were drawn in from around the room, a combination of healing and reawakening as the light engulfed their bodies, bones cracking back into place, muscles rejuvenating, souls reawakening.
The light, a soft, pale lilac, pulsed around the edges of the room, growing and waning in equal measure, swirling and waving as the colour grew brighter and brighter; the purple dimming and making way for a more pink shade of light to engulf the room.
As quickly as it had emerged, the light retreated back inside Elena, her eyes glowing a bright, brilliant blue. Gasping, she bolted upright as the energy blew back into her, removing her paralysis and healing the bones Inadu had broken.
Scurrying to the back corner of the room, Elena pulled her legs to her chest, burying her face in her knees as a shuddering sob wracked her body. Ignoring the exclamations of her friends – family? – she drew her hands up to her head, winding them in her hair, tugging slightly.
Muttering vaguely to herself, Elena tried to make sense of what had just happened to her. How was it possible? How was any of it possible? Had that really just happened? Was Inadu dead? Really dead? Were they safe from her? Was he safe? Was his body, his memory safe?
"Elena?"
"No." She mumbled, shaking her head. "Nonono. No." She continued shaking her head, barely aware of the movements around her as another wave of power left her body. "I can't control it, I can't, I can't. Go, just go. Go."
There was a soft struggle in front of her, a quiet murmur; a change of person before her name was whispered again.
"No." She whimpered, pulling on her hair again. "I'm done, I can't. I can't control it. I saved him, this time, I saved him. Now I can't stop it, I can't stop it now."
"Elena, you can do this. You can. Look at me sweetheart."
She shook her head, desperately trying to ignore the voice. She'd done this before, the grief, the voices, voices that shouldn't be possible; that shouldn't be there.
"I really think you should-"
"Enough, Niklaus, she won't hurt me."
Hurt him? Hurt him? She couldn't hurt any of them, she couldn't, she couldn't. Not now, not ever. Not with her hands, not with these powers she didn't understand. Not at all.
"Elena, can you hear me?"
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him crouch next to her, sending her scuttling backwards as far as she could, stopping only because her back hit the wall.
"No. You're not here. Not real. You can't be."
"I am." He crouched next to her again, reaching a hand out to her when she flinched, desperate to move away, but blocked in. "I really am."
She shook her head, trying her hardest not to look at the hand on her arm, a hand familiar enough she knew there would be a gold band on there, a blue lapis lazuli stone wrapped inside it. A hand familiar enough she knew how it would feel on her bare skin.
"No. Nononono. No"
"Elena, sweetheart, look at me."
She shook her head, trying her darndest to place the voice in a way that could make sense. Kol. They looked similar enough, they probably sound more similar than she realised.
"Elena, come on." He coaxed, gently taking hold of her hands and prying them from her hair. "Please. Just look at me."
Hands clenching, she felt a soft flinch from him as heat rippled under her skin, lightly scorching his hands.
"Come on, I'm here, just look at me, Elena, please."
A soft whisper escaped her throat as he ran his thumbs over the back of her hands. Taking in a deep, shaking breath, she slowly lifted her head from her knees, peering up at the man next to her through her lashes, a tear escaping her when his face came into a soft focus behind the curtain of her hair.
A soft smile curved the corners of Elijah's lips as he looked back at her, releasing one of her hands to gently brush away the tear on her cheek. "There you are, hello."
"That's not possible. You're not possible. You died. You're dead. I watched you die." She blabbered, her thoughts running quicker than she could make sense of; words leaving her lips before she meant them too.
"I'm real, I promise." He whispered, stroking the side of her face out of habit and reflex. "Come on, just look at me, really look, you know the truth. You always do."
She shook her head, more tears running from her eyes. "I don't. I don't understand, this isn't possible, you can't be real. You-you're a trick, or an illusion, or-or something."
He shook his head, shifting slightly to pull up his suit pants and kneel next to her. "I'm not, Elena, I swear to you, I am real." Sensing her protests, Elijah placed a finger over her lips gently for a moment, using the same finger to brush her hair out of her face as he rested his forehead against hers. "Do you remember what I taught you?"
"What did you teach me?" Elena whispered, her eyes closing of their own volition.
"No." He returned, just as quietly, shaking his head slightly. "That's not the point, you have to remember, Elena."
Drawing in a long breath, Elena wracked her brain, trying her best to calm her racing thoughts; trying her hardest to assuage the wreckage of her mind.
He taught her. What had he taught her? Not control, no, not reading, or writing, or numbers. Not singing, or dancing, or how to cope with the racing of her heart when she was playing sports.
Her heart, her racing heart.
Slowly, hesitantly, she lifted her hand to his chest, placing it over his heart lightly.
A relieved exhalation left Elijah, a smile taking over his face "That's it. See, you're still here; you're with me." He took another breath, searching, searching for the right words, the words to bring her back around. "It's me, Elena, it's really me."
"Anyone can be me." She murmured, shaking her head slightly.
"They can, that's good, Elena. My name is Elijah Mikaelson, I have had six siblings over the course of my lifetime, now that Kol has been returned to us, three remain alive. I kissed you in Willoughby when you were pretending to be Katherine because I was so enamoured by you I couldn't turn down the chance. You're my soulmate, Elena, bound to my soul as I am to yours. I am so sorry I left your side, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that never happens again."
Elena drew in a long breath, her body trembling as she tried to keep the burning in her throat at bay. Grasping at his hands on the sides of her face, she squeezed them as a sob slipped out of her lips. "I don't understand." She whimpered, all too aware of her hands trembling. "How is this possible?"
"We can talk about that later." Elijah whispered, pulling away from her slightly to place a kiss on her forehead. "For now, I think we should just get out of here."
Taking his hands out from under hers, he wrapped one around her back and one under her knees, gently lifting her with him as he stood up. Her arms winding tightly around his neck and her face burying itself in the crook of his neck, a soft cry shaking her body.
It was impossible. And yet, it was real.
Elijah was alive.
godric777: Thank you :)
wazman: It's never too much to hope for where I'm concerned! I'm not sure when the explanation will come in, but Elijah's back!
lauramorgenstern: Oooh yay! I'm so glad! I feel like it's just enough to put in the realistic doubt about why Elena daggered Rebekah in the first place, it's also been a while since I touched on Elena's revelations while her emotions were off!
HisSecretLover18: Thank you! It was so last minute so I'm so glad you liked it so much! I hope you enjoyed!
qvnthesia(ch46): I feel so bad I brought Elijah back from the dead for her :( It's given me such a nice opportunity to write Klena in such a sweet way though, I've had so much fun with them the last few chapters. Thank you!
qvnthesia(ch47): Oooh, I do feel the Dahlia vibes! She was such an interesting character! The cliffy wasn't my intent, but I kind of love it...
StellaBaby: Ahh you're so welcome! I'm so, so glad you loved it! I haven't brought Kol into this fic as much as I would have liked to yet, but it's getting a bit long, so that might be something for a sequel... I love the sass! Thank you! I hope you enjoyed!
Guest: Yay! They could have totally been such good friends if Julie hadn't decided to spoil it :( God, I feel that, the power and the story is so interesting! But don't worry, that hoe got killed! Ugh, much love and appreciation back at you! :)))
SorayukiChinatsu(ch6): Ahh, this is very true!
SorayukiChinatsu(ch10): Caroline always knows when to step in and cool the situation down! People should listen to her more!
The cliffy has been resolved...mostly. I couldn't leave Elijah out any longer, I've missed writing Elejah too much :(
I've written too many exciting chapters so I'm running out of ways to tell you all how excited I am to hear from you! But, this is the big one guys, Inadu is dead; Elijah is back! God, I'm thrilled!
Until next time
~ I x