Elena's words had left everyone other than Mikael shellshocked. There was an eerie silence between all of them. The only thing anyone could hear was Mikael's grunts as he tried and failed to move away from the only person he'd ever feared.
Klaus and Rebekah stared at each other in utter disbelief. Neither ever knew that their mother had a sister. To their knowledge, she was an only child. They certainly didn't expect the current doppelganger to be her sister. Klaus wasn't even sure he believed it was true. He was suspicious by nature. He didn't just believe what someone told him. However, certain things made sense with what Elena was saying, like her power. His mother was a powerful witch. It only stood to reason that her sister would be too. It was also very clear that his father knew her. Hell, he was downright terrified of her, which was a sight to see.
Rebekah was speechless for several minutes. She knew that Elena was somehow related to them. She'd essentially admitted that when Rebekah asked her why she would help Nik. She didn't think she was her aunt though. It made a bit of sense with the way she spoke to them though. She spoke as though she was their elder. "You… You're our aunt? You're our mother's sister. She never mentioned having a sister."
"I'm not surprised. It would be a rather awkward conversation. She might be tempted to say something like 'she essentially raised me. Then I murdered her after stealing her child," Elena said bitterly. She supposed she was a little more blunt than Rebekah deserved. She could've been a little kinder about it, but it was hard. The anger and hatred she had for Esther was strong.
Damon stared at her with both disbelieve and disgust on his face. "You're one of them?"
"If by that you mean a member of their family, yes, I suppose I am one of them," Elena said with a roll of her eyes.
"You… You're not Elena?" Caroline asked.
Elena turned to her friend and sighed. "No, I am her. I'm just someone else too. I took precautions when it became clear what Esther and Mikael's intentions were. I was reborn into the body of a doppelganger, but she is as much a part of me as I am of her. I was desperate. I couldn't abandon my child, not even in death."
"You're child? Is it one of us?" Rebekah asked in horror. Elena had said that her mother stole her child. That led her to believe it was her or one of her siblings.
Elena nodded. It happened before any of you were born. Your mother couldn't conceive. She must have found a way around it, probably through magic. Before that though, she decided to steal my daughter, Freya to raise as her own."
Rebekah took in the information. Freya wasn't spoken of very often when she was young, but Elena knew who she was, of course. "Freya wasn't our sister? She was our cousin?"
"No, she's your sister, your half-sister," Elena said before turning back to Mikael. "Unfortunately, this piece of garbage is her father."
Klaus snorted as he recalled an earlier comment of Elena's about his mother's cheating. "Poetic justice indeed."
"You had a kid?" Stefan asked in disbelief. He'd never known this girl at all. She was not the human girl he fell in love with. Everything he knew about her was a lie. He felt used. It was a really bad day for his emotions to be back on.
Elena sighed. She did have some regrets for the way she'd treated Stefan. She'd used him. There was no question about that. She needed him as a way back into the supernatural world. "Hurting you was never my intention, Stefan. However, I won't apologize for doing what I had to do to find my daughter."
"Was all of this your plan? The sacrifice? Stefan going off with Klaus? Us bending over backwards to protect you when you didn't even need it?" Damon asked angrily.
Elena rolled her eyes. "Yes, because I could plan for you getting bitten by a werewolf or Stefan going to Klaus to try to save you. I am good, but I don't have ESP. And I didn't even know Klaus existed until after I met Elijah. As for you bending over backwards, no one asked you to do that. I told you to stay out of it. Your interference led to Jenna getting killed."
"He saved Caroline's life," Bonnie said. She couldn't stand Damon, but what happened to Jenna wasn't on him. If it hadn't been her, it would've been Caroline.
"I wouldn't have let Caroline get killed. I had a plan in place if Niklaus tried to use her in the ritual. I couldn't plan for Jenna. By the time I knew he intended to use her, it was too late," Elena said.
"Why didn't you tell us then? Why didn't you tell me that I was going to die, or at least come close to it?" Caroline asked, feeling more than a little betrayed.
"I planned to. I wasn't going to let him use you without your consent. I would've found someone else if you said no. I didn't tell you because when it got close, Klaus had taken Katherine. I thought he would use her. It was a miscalculation on my part, and I'm sorry," Elena said genuinely.
Caroline nodded, feeling better about it. At least her friend hadn't sold her out.
"And I was supposed to know about your secret plan? I was supposed to know Caroline would survive?" Damon asked.
"No, you weren't, but you didn't care either. You wanted to stop the sacrifice for my sake. You didn't care if Caroline or Tyler lived or died," Elena said.
"You make it sound like this was all under your control," Klaus said to Elena. He didn't like that one bit. He was the one that planned out the sacrifice. That night was his..
Elena smirked. "That's right, it was. I decided to indulge my nephew and give him what he wanted. If I wanted to stop it, I could have at any moment. And, Niklaus, you should consider yourself lucky that you are my nephew. Anyone else would not have survived Jenna's death."
Klaus glared at her. She got under his skin. She spoke to him like he was nothing more than a child that she gave a new toy to. That infuriated him. He was the most powerful being to exist. He couldn't be killed. Although, a small part of him began to have doubts about that given the way Elena had handled his father thus far.
"I'm getting way off track, aren't I? I'm afraid the rest of this conversation will have to wait," Elena said before turning back to Mikael. "So, what's going to be? Are you going to tell me what I want to know or do I have to resort to more… unpleasant tactics? Where is Freya?"
Mikael shuddered. He was dead either way. He knew that. Even if he could hand Freya over, the woman in front of him would probably still kill him. The fact that he couldn't, however, would make it much worse. However, not nearly as bad as if he said nothing. He would only be tortured until he told her, and he eventually would tell her. "She's dead."
Elena made a gesture with her hand, and Mikael started coughing up copious amounts of blood. "Do you take me for a fool, Mikael? If my daughter were dead, I'd know it." When she first realized the time she was in after arriving in her current body, she was devastated because it meant her daughter had to be dead, but she soon realized, she still felt Freya in the world. She wouldn't feel that if her daughter was gone.
"Elena, I'm sorry, but it's true," Rebekah said sympathetically. She felt bad for her. No one should have to lose a child, and Elena had lost hers twice. "She died of the plague when she was little. It's why we moved here a thousand years ago."
Elena turned to her niece. She did know that story, of course, but she didn't believe it now anymore than she did then. "I know that's what you were told, and I know you believe it, but I don't. When you carry a life for nine months, that life becomes an intricate part of you. Even when she's born, you can still feel her. If Freya died, that part of me would die too."
"It's the truth," Mikael said.
Elena sighed in annoyance before grabbing the sides of his head. "It seems you're going to make me do this the hard way. This is going to hurt, a lot."
Within moments, Mikael screamed bloody murder. He felt like someone was sticking knives into his brain. Even the aneurism from earlier didn't hurt this bad, and that was excruciating.
Elena ignored the screams as she delved into her former lover's mind. She sifted though centuries worth of memories until she found what she was looking for. She watched as Esther told Mikael that Freya had died of the plague and that she'd burned the body to prevent it from spreading to their other child.
Elena let go after a minute and waited for Mikael's screams to subside. "Well, I was wrong. You don't think I'm a fool. You're the fool. The bitch tells you that our daughter is dead, and you don't even demand to see proof? You're a pathetic excuse for a father, Mikael. Not that that surprises me."
Mikael shook his head. "No. She wouldn't lie about it."
Elena only shook her head in response. This wasn't how she wanted this to go. She still didn't know what happened to her daughter. Only Esther knew what really happened. Well, if she had to bring Esther back from the dead and force her to tell her, so be it. For now, however, she needed to deal with Mikael. "What am I going to do with you?"
"Just kill me. You're going to anyway," Mikael said. He'd resigned himself to his fate. He wasn't going to survive this night. He just wanted it over with. He only regretted that he couldn't take that little welp his wife forced on him with him.
Elena nodded. That was certainly true. Mikael would die eventually, but not tonight. She couldn't kill him until she knew where Freya was, and until she gave Freya a chance to have her say with him. He was still her father. "Rebekah, Niklaus, come. I want you to bear witness to what is about to happen and realize that this pathetic piece of garbage will never hurt you again. I only wish your other siblings could be here."
Klaus and Rebekah gladly stepped forward.
Elena turned to the Salvatore's next. "You two should pay attention too. This is the only warning you will get. Watch what happens to people who hurt my family."
Mikael looked at Rebekah and Niklaus. Neither showed any emotion towards him other than loathing. It didn't bother him with Niklaus, but it did with Rebekah. She didn't care that he was about to die in front of her. If anything, she seemed to relish in it.
Elena recited a spell and watched as large gashes appeared all over Mikael's body and he began to bleed out through all of them. "This is what happens to pathetic cowards who feel the need to beat on young children to feel important. I can't inflict the same torture on you that you did Niklaus, but I can come close.
Mikael screamed loudly. He was certain that all of Mystic Falls would've heard him if not for the fact that the area was cloaked by a witch's magic.
"Don't scream, Father. Take it like a man," Klaus said scathingly. It was what his father would say to him when he used to whip him until he was unconscious.
The process continued for about ten minutes until there was no blood left in Mikael's body and his skin started to grey.
"Is he dead?" Rebekah asked.
"No. I may still need him. However, he will remain in this state. The blood in his body is gone. If this was done the old-fashioned way, he'd need blood to recover, however, I used a spell that only I can reverse. You're both safe. He'll never touch you again," Elena promised them.
"Unless you release him, say when one of us does something you don't like," Klaus said while glaring at her.
Elena looked him directly in the eye. "I'm not Mikael or Esther, Niklaus. My protection doesn't come with conditions. I will not hurt you, nor will I let anyone else hurt you. If I feel you need to be put in line, I will do it my way, without the threat of violence."
Klaus didn't say anything, but the look on his face made it clear that he didn't believe her.
"Why do you care so much about us? You hate our mother, and for good reason," Rebekah said.
"Because I don't believe in children being held responsible for the actions of their parents. The bad blood between Esther and me is between us. You're innocent in it. You are my blood, and you are just as much victims of your mother as Freya and myself," Elena told her.
"And what about their actions?" Bonnie asked.
"That's none of your concern. None of this is. It's a family matter. And on that note, we should take this conversation elsewhere. There is much more we need to discuss. I'd like you both to come with me," Elena said to her niece and nephew.
"Is that an order?" Klaus asked. He would be damned if he followed orders from a woman he barely knew, his mother's sister or no. He didn't follow orders from anyone, except for occasionally Elijah, and even that was rare.
"No, it's a request. I suspect you both still have questions. We also need to get Mikael someplace secluded," Elena said.
"We'll come with you," Rebekah said.
"You're not going to just leave," Damon said as he stepped towards her. He wasn't just going to let her walk away after all of this, especially with the Originals.
"I suggest you watch yourself, boy. The deceptions are done, so I have no problem putting you in your place. Now, I'm more than happy to speak with the rest of you at a later date, but for the moment, I have family business to handle," Elena said before turning back to her niece and nephew.
"I have to deal with my hybrids first. I'll speak with Tyler, since the rest of them are unconscious from Katerina's attack," Klaus said before heading towards the house.