Elena was sitting on the couch in a shocked silence. She'd been like that since Mikael left. Her limbs were all shaking. Her entire world had been rocked. This was so much worse than the last time she'd found out her parents weren't who she thought they were. This time, her father was a vampire, the first vampire to exist. That meant that Elena wasn't entirely human. That was something she didn't know how to deal with. She supposed she already wasn't entirely human, since she was a doppelganger, but this was different than that. She had no idea what this meant for her.
Then there was Klaus. Her brother. That alone was enough to send her into the state she was currently in. She was related to the man who had murdered her. This was a man who had been nothing but cruel to her and her loved ones, and he was her brother. She didn't know how to even begin to come to terms with that.
Elena soon heard a knock at the door. She ignored it. She couldn't deal with anyone right now. She'd been ignoring her phone as well. Both Damon and Caroline had been calling her, but she couldn't talk to them. Caroline likely wanted to talk about Homecoming and Damon most definitely wanted to talk about the plan to kill Klaus. No, actually, the plan to kill her brother.
Elena heard a knock again, but this time a voice followed. "Elena, open the door. It's Rebekah."
Elena froze for a minute before getting up and walking to the door. She opened it to find Rebekah, her sister, there. She could tell just by looking at her that Rebekah knew. Elena opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She didn't have any words for what was happening right now.
"Let me in, Elena," Rebekah ordered softly.
"Come in," Elena said without hesitation before stepping back to let her in. Mere hours ago, she would not have so easily invited Rebekah into her home, but everything changed when Mikael dropped his bombshell on her.
Rebekah walked inside before shutting the door. Then she hugged her sister.
Elena was taken aback by the gesture, but she recovered and hugged her back. She didn't even know it until now, but she needed the comfort. Today felt like it had been the strangest of her life, which was almost hilarious given what typically happened to her on a daily basis.
Rebekah pulled away after a minute. "Let's go talk, sister to sister."
Elena could only nod before leading Rebekah to the living room. They both sat down on the couch. "Mikael told you."
Rebekha nodded. "He told me a lot of things. You're not the only one on information overload. Although, I'm still trying to figure out how much of it was true. I do believe he was telling the truth about you. I can't see any reason for him lie about that."
"I wanted to believe he was lying, but you're right. He has no reason to. I thought I was done with paternity secrets after I was told that my uncle was really my father. John must not have known this. He gave his life for me. He never would've done that if he'd known the truth. He especially wouldn't have done it if he knew my father was really a vampire. He would've probably killed me first," Elena said.
"He sounds like a bastard," Rebekah said.
"Oh, he was. I could barely tolerate him on most days. As I said, he gave his life for me though, to protect me unknowingly from my own brother," Elena said with a shudder.
Rebekah took her hand. "I don't suspect this will be much comfort to you, but Nik wouldn't have done it he'd known the truth. Even knowing you weren't his blood, he still wouldn't have done it. I don't think he would've anyway. I also didn't think he'd kill my mother though. There's a lot of things that I'm learning lately that didn't seem possible."
Elena looked at her with empathy. Rebekah was having her own problems with all of this. She also had a brother murder a family member, and she was probably reeling from everything Mikal told her. "I guess I'm not the only one dealing with a lot right now. Did Mikael tell you everything?
"You mean his story of somehow being forced to be an abusive tyrant? Yes, he did. It sounds as if you believe that," Rebekah commented.
"I don't know Mikael, but the Mikael you told me about hates Klaus, and I didn't get hate from Mikael where Klaus is concerned. It was the opposite, in fact. When I was processing all of this, I mentioned Klaus being my stepbrother. Mikael corrected me. He said that Klaus was his son, which made him my brother. And when I mentioned how horrified I was after Klaus killed me, Mikael defended him. He told me that it was his fault Klaus was the way he was," Elena said.
"Yes, he made similar comments to me," Rebekah said. She still couldn't get over the things her father had said to her. He'd looked right at her and told her that he loved Nik. He told her he wouldn't let anyone hurt him. How was she supposed to believe that though? She'd spent her entire life watching the hate her father had for her brother. He'd abused him so badly that he almost killed him once. "I wonder how much he's saying it for your benefit though. Perhaps he doesn't want you to hate him like the rest of us do."
"If he thought he was justified in his hatred for Klaus, would he even care? Look, I don't know. I just don't think he was lying, but I don't have the same history with him as you do. One thing I'm very sure about is that he doesn't have any intention of killing Klaus," Elena said.
"He's claiming that anyway. If that's true, I don't know what his endgame is," Rebekah said.
"Forgiveness, maybe," Elena said.
Rebekah snorted in response. Well, he wouldn't get that. Nik would never forgive him. None of them would. Even if he was telling the truth, which Rebekah still had serious doubts about, it didn't change the fact that his hands had brutalized them every day for years. How could they ever look past that?
"I keep waiting to wake up from this. I don't know how to deal with all of it," Elena said.
"I understand, but it will be okay. You don't have to deal with it alone," Rebekah assured her.
Elena smiled slightly. "This is weird. You came here to help me, but a day ago, I had the impression that you didn't like me much."
"Don't take it personally. I don't like anyone," Rebekah said bluntly.
Elena laughed.
"But family is different. "Don't get me wrong, sometimes I don't like our siblings either, but we always stand by each other. That's something you're going to learn very quickly. It doesn't matter what happened in the past. You're a Mikaelson. Mikaelson's look after each other. We protect each other no matter what it might cost anyone else. Always and forever. You can be sure of one thing. No one will ever hurt you again unless they want to spend their remaining time on earth begging for death," Rebekah said.
"That shouldn't comfort me, but it does. It means we can't let Klaus be killed either, doesn't it?" Elena asked. She'd had a hard enough problem with the idea of killing him before she found out she was related to him. She was doing it out of a necessity. Now, there was no way she could do it. He was her brother. She hated that fact and she hated him, but it was the truth. She didn't have it in her to kill her own brother or even to just let him die.
"Yes, it does. I don't think I ever would've been able to do it, despite the fact that I agreed to the plan. I would've stopped it," Rebekah said. Mikael had been right, although she would never admit that out loud. She was furious with her brother, but he was still her brother. She didn't want him dead.
"Well, Mikael doesn't want him dead anyway, so it doesn't matter," Elena said.
"Your friends aren't going to stop trying. They want him dead, and while I doubt they could ever do it, their stupidity could lead to unforeseen consequences," Rebekah said. That was probably why her father wanted them stopped. Under normal circumstances, she'd just say kill them and be done with it, but that would cause Elena pain.
"Yeah," Elena said quietly. Rebekah was right, they wouldn't stop. Not even her asking them to would get them to stop. In fact, finding out that Elena was related to Klaus was only going to make it worse. She didn't want to think about what their reactions were going to be like. It would be ugly, at least where Stefan and Damon were concerned. Well, Stefan probably wouldn't care, since he didn't care about anything right now, but Damon would be pissed.
Rebekah could see that this whole situation was stressing her sister out, so she decided to try to relieve it. "Well, we don't have to think about this right now. Nik isn't even here yet. I say we do something normal right now. Homecoming is in a few hours."
Elena looked at Rebekah like she grew a second head. "I don't want to go to homecoming. I didn't want to go before all of this happened."
Rebekah smiled. "You need to do something normal. We both do. We'll go to the dance. Afterwards, we'll get drunk and forget this mess for a while. Then tomorrow, we'll deal with the family drama."
Elena groaned. "I don't know. I'll have to talk to people, and I'm definitely not in the mood for that. Plus, I don't have a date. My boyfriend was compelled not to care about me by my brother. God, this isn't going to stop being weird anytime soon."
Rebekah laughed. "Welcome to my world, sister. Nik has killed most of my boyfriends. Get used to not having a love life. And don't worry about the dance. I'll be with you. I'll keep any unwanted people away from you."
"Aren't you supposed to go with Matt?" Elena asked.
"Oh, well. He'll get over it. I'm going with my sister," she said.
"Alright. I'll never hear the end of it from Caroline if I don't go anyway. Maybe it will take my mind off things," Elena said.
"Great. I'll pick you up in a couple of hours," Rebekah said before standing up.
"Thank you, Rebekah. You know, this is all very freaky and overwhelming, but I've always wanted a sister," Elena said.
"Me too. It's going to be so much fun having a sister, and the first thing I'm going to teach you is how to give our older brothers hell," Rebekah said with a smirk before heading for the door.