Rebekah walked into the living room shortly after her siblings left to find the doppelganger picking up shards of glass off the floor. "We have servants for that."
"Yeah, well, your servants didn't do it, I did. The least I can do is clean up my own mess," Elena said. Honestly, if she thought Klaus would be the one to clean it up, she'd leave it, but she knew he'd just make the hired help do it. He always had someone to do his dirty work.
Rebekah rolled her eyes. "Just leave it. If you hurt yourself, Elijah won't let me hear the end of it for the next month at least."
"Get me a broom then. Keeping busy is helping me keep my nerves in check," Elena said. If she was focused on doing something, she couldn't lose control of her emotions and she couldn't break anything else.
"Fine," Rebekah said with a sigh before leaving the room. She was back moments later with a broom and dustpan, which she handed to Elena. Then she plopped down on the couch. If the doppelganger wanted to waste her time cleaning that was her choice, but Rebekah certainly wasn't going to help.
Elena swept up the glass with the room. Moments later, she heard her phone ring, which she ignored. She knew it was probably Damon again, and she had no interest whatsoever in dealing with him. Her phone was on the coffee table, and that was where it would stay.
Rebekah glanced at Elena's phone and saw that it was the older Salvatore. "You can answer that, you know."
Elena snorted. "Yeah, that's nice. I'm good. It's Damon. Talking to him is the last thing I need."
"Still bitter about this morning then," Rebekah said with a smirk. This was probably not what Elijah had in mind when he asked her to keep the doppelganger calm, but that was too bad. Next time maybe he wouldn't be stupid enough to leave her of all people to calm someone down.
Elena looked at her. "I don't actually care that much that he slept with you. I'm not interesting in Damon that way. I'm mad because I know why he did it. He was mad that I went and saw your mom last night after he told me not to. He wanted to get back at me. It's what he does when he doesn't get what he wants. I guess I should be grateful that he didn't break the neck of anyone I loved this time."
Rebekah found herself slightly annoyed by that. She'd relished in the fact that she was hurting Elena by sleeping with Damon. Now she came to find out that it didn't hurt her at all. She was just mad at Damon's attempt to control her. That was irritating.
Elena's phone rang again, causing her to sigh. Her nerves were kicking up. Damon wasn't going to leave her alone until she answered. That thought caused some rattling in the room.
"Oh, for goodness sake," Rebekah fumed in annoyance before grabbing Elena's phone and answering it. "Take a bloody hint! She doesn't want to talk to you!" she said before hanging up and turning the phone off.
Elena relaxed a little and everything stopped shaking. "Thanks, although he's probably just going to show up here now."
"Then I get to break his neck. It's a win-win," Rebekah said. She watched Elena go back to sweeping for a few minutes before speaking again. "Would you have let my mother kill us if this whole mess didn't happen?"
Elena stopped what she was doing and sat down in chair across from Rebekah. "I don't know. I don't want to believe I would've. I didn't want that to happen. I just wanted the people I loved to be safe from Klaus. It's the same reason I daggered you. No matter how angry you were, I knew you could never let Klaus die. I have a brother too. There's nothing he could do that would make me hurt him. For what it's worth, I hated doing it."
"Guilt matters very little to me. It doesn't change anything," Rebekah said.
"Fair enough, but you would've done the same or worse to protect your family. You can hate me, but you can't deny that," Elena said.
Rebekah said nothing, but grudgingly, she could respect the girl's words. She would do whatever it took to protect her family. She could understand it, but that didn't mean she'd forgive it. "Well, I suppose we're stuck here until the others get back, or until I'm dead, depending on how it goes.
"I have faith in your family's ability to survive," Elena said.
"We don't always survive. Our family was larger at one time," Rebekah said sadly.
"Right, you had an older sister and a younger brother," Elena said.
Rebekah nodded, but it wasn't either of them she was referring to. She was speaking of someone else she'd lost, but she certainly wasn't going to tell Elena about that. She didn't even discuss that with her own siblings.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
Elijah led the way onto the property of the old house his mother and older brother were currently waiting. They were both inside a circle that he knew they wouldn't be able to cross. "Hello, Mother."
"You shouldn't be here," Esther said. She knew it was possible that her children would catch on to what she was doing, but not this soon. The full moon was more than an hour away from rising."
"Ah, yes, we should've stayed home and waited for you to murder us," Kol said.
"You do not understand what is happening here. You must let me do what I came back to do," Esther said.
"Let you kill us? You must be out of your mind," Klaus said.
"It's not enough that you plotted to murder your own children, but now you've upended Elena's life. Do you know what you've done to her? You inadvertently activated her witch powers, powers she didn't know she had, powers that have become completely unstable," Elijah said.
"It wasn't inadvertent. Although, I admit, I didn't expect her magic to reveal itself so soon or in the way that you're describing. It's a good sign," Esther said.
"What are you on about? You knew that the doppelganger was a witch. You untapped her on purpose?" Klaus asked.
"Of course I knew. I'm the one that blocked her magic to begin with," Esther said.
"What? Are you out of your bloody mind?!" Kol asked in disbelief. He'd thought a novice witch had done that. It was the only explanation for how irresponsible the act was. His mother had to have known better though. She was his teacher. "You know better than to block a witch's magic. You are the one who taught me how irresponsible it is!"
"I'm aware of my own teachings, Kol. It couldn't be helped," Esther said.
"You have been dead for a thousand years. When could you have possibly blocked the girl?" Klaus asked.
"A thousand years ago," Esther said matter-of-factly.
They were all speechless for a moment as they took in the information. Elijah was the first to break it. "Elena is eighteen."
"Technically, I suppose. It's a long story, one I don't have time to tell. The Bennetts will be here any minute, and I need to finish what I came to do," Esther said.
"You're out of your mind if you think we're going to let you kill us," Klaus said.
"I'm not here to kill you, Niklaus. I lied to Elena," Esther said.
"What?" Finn asked. He'd been listening to all of this in awe. He didn't know any of this. His mother had told him that they were there to end his and his siblings lives. He was ready for it. He knew nothing about the Gilbert girl being a witch or his mother blocking and unblocking her.
Esther turned to her oldest. "I'm sorry, Finn. This wasn't something I could trust with anyone, even you."
"What is it that you are up to, Mother? Tell us or I will kill both Bennett witches the moment they show their faces," Klaus told her.
Esther sighed. She didn't have any other choice but to tell them now. She just had to hope they would see things the way she did. "No need for such dramatics, Niklaus. I told Elena that I was linking you all together so that killing one of you would kill all of you. That isn't the case. I linked her to all of you, but I couldn't tell her that or she would've screamed bloody murder."
"Why would you link her to us?" Elijah asked.
"So that I could transfer the residual witch magic inside all of you into her. That is the ritual I am performing tonight," Esther said.
The Originals were once again rendered speechless, even Finn. They were so shocked and horrified, no one knew how to respond at first. Finally, Kol found his voice. "Are you crazy? She's already destroying everything in her wake when her emotions get out of control. You're going to turn her into an atomic bomb! That's if she can even survive with that much magic inside of her!"
"That's what the linking spell was for. It makes her as indestructible as the rest of you," Esther said.
"Why would you do this, Mother?" Finn asked.
Esther turned to him. "You know why, Finn. This is the only way to stop Dahlia once and for all."
"Who the bloody hell is Dahlia?" Klaus asked.
"I don't even care who she is. Mother, you are weaponizing an innocent girl for your own ends! Have you gone completely insane?" Elijah asked. Frankly, this was worse than his mother trying to kill them. She was trying to turn Elena into a human bomb. He wouldn't let her do that. That young girl had been used enough in her life.
"I am doing what I must for this family. It's best for the girl too. Dahlia will come for her, just as she will come for every firstborn child in our family," Esther said.
"Firstborn in our family? What?" Kol asked.
"You are implying that Elena is a part of our family, but that's impossible. Our line ended with us," Elijah said.
"No, it didn't," Klaus said, causing his brother to turn to him. It took only a minute for him to work it out in his head with the things his mother had told them, like that Elena was blocked a thousand years ago and the implication that she was one of them. "Rebekah."
Elijah's eyes widened as he realized what his brother was saying. He wasn't surprised easily, but he was utterly shocked right now. Elena was Rebekah's daughter, the daughter she currently thought was dead.
