The next morning, Elijah was sitting around the dining room table with his siblings. They were discussing the events of the night before and what their next move would be. Finn wanted to locate and free Freya, which was what they were arguing about now. It wasn't that Elijah didn't want to help Freya. Under different circumstances, that would be his first priority, but they had to consider Elena. Going after Dahlia would draw their aunt's attention to Elena, and she would come after her. Elijah could not put his niece in danger that way, and he very much doubted Freya would want them to. "Going after Dahlia now isn't the right course of action."
"You wish to leave our sister in her clutches?" Finn asked angrily. Saving Freya was his priority now that they knew she was alive and they had power to take their aunt on. They had a powerful witch in the family that might be capable of stopping her. He'd seen what Elena could do. She'd brought both him and his mother to their knees with minimal effort.
"No. I'd like nothing more than to rescue our sister," Elijah said. Despite the fact that he had never known Freya, she was still his sister, and his loyalty would always be to family. "But any action we take would draw attention to Elena. Do you think that that is what Freya would want? She went to great lengths to protect her child. Who are we to compromise that?"
"Elena is powerful. She was able to take Mother down without a problem. She may be a formattable opponent for Dahlia," Finn said.
"She may or she may not be. There would be no knowing until we've put her in crosshairs, and either way, I will not do that. Elena may be powerful, but she's still just a child. It's an easy fact to forget because she doesn't look it, but she is only fifteen," Elijah said.
"This whole thing is rather mind blowing, but Elijah's right. She's our niece. We can't put her in danger. And Freya used desperate and dark means to hide her daughter. She wouldn't want that undone for her sake," Kol said.
Finn sighed. He couldn't really argue it anymore. As much as he hated to admit it, his brother's made a good point. Elena was just a child, and Freya would not want her put at risk. Her actions thus far had made that very clear. He just wanted to help his sister. "Then we're to do nothing?"
"I didn't say we do nothing, but we must take the time to think our next course of action through, and we certainly cannot place Elena in danger. I suggest we speak with her again. There is a lot we need to learn about all of this. I personally still have many questions," Elijah said.
"What about Mother? What will we do about her?" Rebekah asked.
Elijah sighed. That, he didn't have the answer to. Letting her go wasn't an option. She had tried to murder them and would likely keep trying if she was allowed to roam free. Plus, she knew the truth about Elena. Elijah wouldn't risk her going to her sister with it. Of course, they also couldn't keep her locked in the house for much longer. Elena was very volatile towards her, and the temptation to try to kill her again was likely very risky. They'd barely stopped the girl from killing her last night.
"I say we end it now. I'll snap her bloody neck and then burn the body for good measure," Klaus said with a smirk.
"You're not killing our mother!" Finn snapped.
"Why not? She had no qualms about killing all of us," Klaus said.
Finn wisely chose to remain silent on that. He had no plans of admitting that he was a part of that plan. He had not wanted to live this existence any longer. He hated what he was. He had from the moment he was forced into it. However, things were different now. There was a chance of them one day saving Freya, and he could aid in protecting her daughter. He had a purpose now.
"And she apparently sold our sister and niece to a crazy witch," Kol said.
"She didn't have a choice in that," Finn said.
"Oh, bloody hell! Stop defending her! She failed every one of us!" Klaus snapped.
"It doesn't mean we should kill her," Rebekah argued. She was still reeling from what her mother tried to do, but she couldn't help but still love her. She was still her mother.
"I'm not certain we have any other choice," Elijah said.
Just then, they heard footsteps. Elena entered the room soon afterwards.
"Good morning, Elena. I hope you slept well," Elijah said.
"Well, I did have this wonderful dream. I was killing this evil old hag. Then a stupid hybrid stopped me with promises of revenge," Elena said as she glared at Klaus. She already regretted not finishing Esther off. She'd been intent on killing the old bitch. What was she thinking, allowing Klaus to talk her out of it?
Klaus chuckled. "All in due time, love."
"Take a seat, Elena. Breakfast should be served soon," Elijah said as he pointed to an empty chair to his right.
Elena did as her uncle suggested and sat down.
"I was hoping you'd be up to answering some more questions. If you'd like, we can wait until after breakfast though," Elijah said. He didn't want to push her. She'd just woken up, and yesterday had to have been taxing for her.
"No, it's fine. Ask whatever you want," Elena said.
"What do you about our aunt?" Elijah asked.
"That she's an evil bitch, even more so than the one you've got chained in the basement," Elena said.
"I was hoping for a little more than that," Elijah said.
"She's powerful. She's maybe one of the most powerful witches to ever exist. She treated Mom essentially like a slave. She used her for her power. That's not enough for her though. She's always after more. She wants to be immortal, and she sort of achieved that with the sleeping spell, but she doesn't want to live like that for eternity," Elena explained.
"Can you tell us a little more about the sleeping spell? How does it work?" Elijah asked.
"She and Mom sleep for a full century and build magic during that time. Then they stay awake for exactly one year. I think that's part of why I became so powerful myself. My mom went to sleep not long after she became pregnant with me. I think I gathered magic then too," Elena said.
"So, because she was pregnant with you, she only slept nine months?" Kol asked.
"Uh, no. My growth was slowed down because of the sleeping spell. Mom got pregnant with me in the eighteen hundreds and I was born in late nineteen ninety-four. She gave birth not long after waking up," Elena told him.
The Originals all longed in shock as they took the information in. Finally, after a few moments, Finn spoke. "Did Freya know she was pregnant?"
"No. She told me it was a huge surprise," Elena said. She remembered asking her mother once if it was an unwelcome surprise. Elena could understand why it would be under the circumstances, but her mother sat her down and told her nothing about her was unwelcome. "Anyway, she took me on the run right after I was born. We were always moving. That's how I spent my life until almost four years ago."
"What's your name, love?" Klaus asked. He knew her true name wasn't Elena. That was just the name of the girl whose body she was in.
"Elena is fine. I'm used to it now, and it's not safe for you to call me anything else," Elena said.
"We would still like to know," Elijah said.
"Brenna Mikaelson. That's the name I was born with," Elena told them.
They all nodded. Elijah spoke again after a minute. "Did you know who I was when we met."
"I suspected, yes. I knew all your names. Mom did too. When Rose and Trevor mentioned the names Elijah and Klaus, it was not hard to figure out. Elijah was a common enough name, but Klaus wasn't, and both together definitely were not," Elena explained.
"So, I guess I didn't actually compel you that day," Elijah said with an impressed look. Witches couldn't be compelled, so his compulsion wouldn't have worked. She'd tricked him, and she had done so very well.
Elena smirked. She did like the fact that she got one over an original vampire. In fact, she got many things over several original vampires.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Rebekah asked.
"I was never supposed to say anything to anybody. My mother made me promise that I would never tell anyone who I really was. But then I found out Esther was alive, and that pissed me off," Elena grumbled.
"You could've stopped me," Klaus suddenly said, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. "You could've stopped the sacrifice many times, but you didn't."
Elena glared at him. She had a lot of resentment for that night. She didn't begrudge him ending his curse or even using her to do it. The problem she had was that he'd used Jenna. Jenna may not have technically been her aunt, but Elena had a lifetime of memories of her, and she'd lived with her for months. She cared about her. "I didn't want to stop you, not until I found out who you were using for a vampire."
"Why didn't you want to stop him? He was planning to kill you," Finn said.
"Well, when I found out about the so-called sun and moon curse, I knew something else was going on. Even if there was a sun and moon curse, all he needed was a damned daylight ring, which I figured he had by now. Even if he just wanted to stop werewolves from using it, there were better ways than giving an advantage to call vampires. I knew something else was going on. When Elijah told me the true curse, I saw it as an opportunity. I needed him. I figured he could help me in saving my mom. It wouldn't be enough, but it would be helpful," Elena explained.
"But you would've died. How would that be helpful?" Kol asked.
"I wasn't going to stay dead. I was looking into ways to survive even before I knew the true ritual. Then Elijah suggested his elixir, and the problem was solved. Then, of course, Damon had to shove his blood down my throat. That seriously pissed me off. I almost killed him on the spot," Elena grumbled. The last thing she had wanted that night was to lose her magic because an idiot vampire forced her to turn. "The answer ended up coming from the real Elena's father."
"You said you wanted to stop me once you found out who I was using for a vampire. Why didn't you?" Klaus wondered. Again, she could've stopped him. She was powerful enough. That was hard for him to admit, but she was powerful enough to at least put up quite the fight.
"I had a freaking ring of fire around me! Yes, I could've gotten out of it eventually, but not in time. You were supposed to use Katherine," Elena told her uncle with a glare.
"Perhaps I should've," Klaus said. It was as close to an apology as he would get.
"Why did you dagger me?" Rebekah wanted to know.
"Because it was expected of me. Damon didn't trust you to follow through with helping to kill Klaus. He wanted you out of the way, and I was the only one who could. I planned to take the dagger out after Mikael was killed, but then Stefan got even dumber than usual. Yeah, let's take coffins full of original vampires from a volatile hybrid and see what happens. Idiot," Elena vented.
"But why did you help them at all? You said you needed Nik. Why did you want him dead?" Rebekah asked.
"I didn't. the dumbass Salvatore's did. It was their plan. It wasn't supposed to happen the way it did. I was supposed to be there to aid Klaus in secret," Elena said.
"You were there," Klaus said as he remembered the night. He'd spoken to her and his father had used her as bait. Then it dawned on him. Katerina. "Bloody hell."
"When are people going to stop confusing me for Katherine? After that, I just had to hope for the best. I had faith in your ability to survive. And Stefan's idiocy was actually helpful that day," Elena said.
"Did you actually love Stefan?" Rebekah wondered. The way she talked about the Salvatore's made it seem like she didn't even like them much. Not that she blamed her much. They were insanely stupid. She didn't remember Stefan being this stupid when they were together though.
"I did. His stupidity could be extremely frustrating, but I did love him, until he tried to drive me off a bridge," Elena said.
"You do realize you're not allowed to see either Salvatore ever again, right?" Klaus asked. Even if Stefan hadn't nearly killed Elena, he wouldn't allow it. She was much too young to be with either of them. In fact, he had half a mind to murder Stefan for touching her, regardless of the fact that he didn't know she was fifteen.
Elena gasped in sarcastic outrage. "I can't hang around with controlling idiots that might get me killed at a moment's notice. Please give me a moment to go cry."
Klaus laughed. He couldn't believe how little he truly knew this girl. She was nothing like she appeared to be. Quiet, sacrificing little doppelganger was nothing more than a façade. It was nothing more than act his niece used to keep her secrets. He very much looked forward to getting to know the real her.
Just then, the servants came out with platters of food. Plates and silverware were put in front of each of them.
"Go ahead and help yourself Elena. After breakfast, I'll take you to pick up your belongings. As we said, you will be living here from now on," Elijah told her.
"You know, that might be a little suspicious. People will wonder why Elena Gilbert is living with the Mikaelson's instead of at home," Elena said, hoping to find a way to get out of this. She liked her current living arrangement. Alaric was more like a roommate than a parent. She could come and go as she pleased. She doubted that would be the case at the mansion.
Elijah smiled at her attempt. "Nice try. I don't care. I will not allow my fifteen-year-old niece to live in a home with no parental supervision. Now, eat."
"Alaric's there," Elena pointed out.
Klaus snorted. "Yes, because that's parental supervision. He lets you do whatever you want."
"Well, yeah, that's obviously part of the appeal. Fine, whatever," Elena said before piling some food onto her plate. She immediately started eating.