Klaus sped past the sign that signaled he'd entered Mystic Falls late that night. He told Caroline he'd be there by morning, but he went out of his way to make it there before then. He didn't like the distress in her voice when he spoke to her. He could tell that she was terrified. Nothing less could make her call and ask him to return when they'd agreed that he would never come back again.
Elijah was in the passenger seat next to his brother. "Brother, I understand that you care for Ms. Forbes, but I still believe it was a mistake for both of us to come. The situation in New Orleans is tenuous at best. We have no real loyalty from the vampire factions. They will stage a coop if Marcel asks for it. Plus, there is Hayley to worry about."
"That's why I left Rebekah behind. Caroline asked that I bring one of you with me, and you were the better option. It shouldn't take long. I'm sure her idiot friends have just gotten her involved in one of their problems. We just need to fix it and be on our way," Klaus said.
"Are we meeting her at her home?" Elijah asked.
"No. She texted me a while ago. She's at the Salvatores'," Klaus said.
"Lovely," Elijah said flatly. He was not terribly fond of the Salvatore brothers. Frankly, he believed half the problems that occurred in Mystic Falls were because those two involved themselves in things they shouldn't.
Klaus hummed in agreement. About ten minutes later, they arrived at their destination, and he pulled into the driveway. He and Elijah got out and headed to the front door. They were met by Bonnie Bennet, who opened the door for them. "Ah, if it isn't our least favorite witch. I do hope you're not going to give us trouble. We're here at Caroline's behest, and no one will stop me from helping her."
"No, please come in. Thank you for getting here so quickly," Bonnie said before stepping aside to let the two Originals inside.
Klaus blinked a few times in surprise before walking inside. That was not the reaction he was expecting from the witch. It was actually a bit unsettling. "Where is Caroline?"
"The living room. Come on," Bonnie said before leading them to the living room where most of the others were. Caroline and Jeremy were sitting on the couch while Damon was in a chair with a glass of bourbon in his hand. Stefan was upstairs with Elena. They were taking turns watching her. They didn't want to chance anything else happening.
Elijah was surprised to see the younger Gilbert. "Jeremy. The last I heard, you were dead."
"At this point, everybody in this room has been dead before. Bonnie brought me back," Klaus said.
"Too bad," Klaus said coldly as he looked at the boy. He was looking at his brother's killer. He would never forget what he did to Kol. He was lucky he didn't kill him brutally right now.
Caroline stood up and approached Klaus and Elijah. "Thank you for coming. We really need your help."
"Of course, love. Well, I see almost everyone is here. You're only missing Stefan and the doppelganger," Klaus said.
"They're here. They're upstairs," Bonnie said.
Klaus smiled at Caroline. "What is it you need, love? I can only assume your idiot friends have gotten you into trouble."
"Hey, no one is making you stay here. Get lost. We don't need you," Damon said as he glared at the hybrid.
"Shut up, Damon. You're the only one who can't see the situation for what it is," Jeremy said before standing up. He had his father's journal in his hands.
Klaus chuckled. "Well, at least someone is behaving as expecting. It's actually reassuring."
Jeremy approached Klaus and held out the journal. "I know you hate me, but we need your help. Read this."
"What is this?" Elijah asked as he pointed to the notebook now in his brother's hands.
Caroline was the one who spoke next. "Recently we encountered a group of scientists who capture and experiment on vampires as though they're lab rats. That belonged to a member of the group."
"Humans? Humans have been experimenting on vampires? And a vampire hasn't killed them yet?" Klaus asked.
"Humans can be more dangerous than they seem," Bonnie said. They'd seen that just with the Council. It was almost funny. She used to think that vampires were evil, but she was beginning to see that humans could be worse. Grayson Gilbert was more evil than any vampire she'd ever met, present company included.
"Read it, all of it. You're not going to believe anything we say until you do," Jeremy said. What was in that journal was crazy. Most people wouldn't believe a word of it. The only reason he believed without reading that journal was because he'd heard it from people he trusted.
Klaus sighed before opening it up and reading. When he started off, he didn't think much of it. It started as written recordings of experiments done on vampires, mostly blood draining and organ removing. It was heinous, but nothing worse than he'd done himself. Then he got to an entry which detailed a new experiment. The author recited an experiment that involved samples being taken from an Original. That piqued his interest for obvious reasons.
Klaus read on as this mad scientist discussed how the Original was rendered incapacitated, and his blood and sperm were stolen. Whoever wrote this had then used his sperm to inseminate a human. Klaus was beyond furious. He was murderous. "Who wrote this depravity? Because when I get my hands on the person, I remove every piece of their body slowly before I kill them!"
"What does it say, Niklaus?" Elijah asked.
"You can't," Jeremy said.
"Watch me!" Klaus snarled. This human wasn't the one who'd used his brother as a specimen, but he was as close as Klaus could get, and the bastard had certainly used it to his benefit.
Elijah took the journal from his brother's hands and started reading it himself.
"No, I mean you literally can't. That was my father's journal. He's been dead for over two years. If he were alive, I'd help you tear him apart," Jeremy said scathingly. He'd never hated anyone the way he hated his father right now, not even Klaus himself. He didn't think he'd ever hate anyone that much either.
Elijah was completely horrified as he read. He thought he'd seen every level of evil there was in the last thousand years, but this went beyond anything he'd ever seen before. This man had used his brother to not just experiment on vampires, but to create an experiment. Or at least he tried. It said he was successful, but it shouldn't be possible. Vampires weren't supposed to be able to have children. Niklaus was believed to be the first to achieve it, and they believed that was because he was a hybrid. Perhaps that wasn't the case though.
"Your father wrote this?" Klaus asked.
Jeremy nodded. "We knew for a while that he hunted vampires, but we never guessed he did things like this to them."
Elijah kept reading. He soon came to an entry that mentioned someone named John and his girlfriend. That was apparently who Grayson Gilbert used. "Jeremy, this entry references someone named John. Does he mean John Gilbert?"
Jeremy nodded. "Yeah. I don't think John knew." John hated vampires. He didn't experiment on them. He wanted them dead. The only exception had been Elena's mother. He never would've given his life to save Elena's if he knew the truth.
Elijah didn't read any further. He didn't need to. He'd connected the dots. John Gilbert was supposed to be Elena's father. His brother had raised the girl as his own. He referenced using John's girlfriend as his guinea pig. Elena was the product of the experiment. Even the dates matched up with the time Elena should've been conceived. "Where's Elena?"
"She's upstairs sleeping. Stefan is keeping an eye on her," Caroline said.
"Why does he need to do that?" Elijah asked with trepidation in his voice.
"She didn't handle it well," Bonnie said.
"What on Earth are you people talking about?" Klaus asked.
"It's Elena, Niklaus. She is the result of this sickening experiment. She's our blood," Elijah told him.
"What? Why would you think that?" Klaus asked.
"The notes reference John Gilbert's girlfriend being used in combination with Kol's sperm. John Gilbert was supposedly Elena's father. My guess is that neither of them knew the truth of Elena's origins. They thought the child was theirs," Elijah said.
"It was Kol then? There's no chance it was one of you or Finn?" Caroline asked. She was really hoping to find out that one of them had fathered Elena. It wouldn't have taken away all her pain, but it might have taken away her desire to hurt herself.
"No, it was Kol. I know when this happened. Kol was attacked by a woman he was seeing. She pumped him full of vervain and broke his neck. When he came to, she was gone. We never knew why she did it until now," Elijah explained.
Klaus shook his head. He didn't accept this. The doppelganger couldn't be his brother's child. He couldn't have killed his own niece just over a year ago. "This is ridiculous. We only have the word of a madman that this is true. For all we know, his experiment failed. The girl was human before she was turned."
"But she had vampire blood inside of her. It seems it was dormant until died in the car accident. We have proof, Klaus. Elena was stabbed in the heart, and she came back. It also appears that burning in the sun won't kill her," Caroline said.
Elijah narrowed his eyes slightly. "How did you come by the knowledge of that last one?"
"Like we said, she didn't take it well. Not only does she feel like a complete freak because of what Grayson did to her, she's figured out that it's Kol's DNA inside of her. She took her daylight ring off this morning and walked out into the sun," Bonnie said.
Elijah closed his eyes sadly. "Oh, dear God!"
"That's when we knew we had to call you. We don't know if she thought walking into the sun would kill her or if she was just trying to torture herself, but either way, she needs help. She has stated that she wishes she were dead. We didn't know what to do. If she tries something else, we're not going to be able to stop her," Caroline cried.
Before anyone could say anything else, they heard scream come from upstairs.
Elijah bolted out of the room and headed upstairs. He ran into the room Elena was in to see her thrashing in her sleep while Stefan took ahold of her arms.
"Elena, it's okay. Wake up," Stefan said.
"No! Leave me alone, please! I'm sorry!" she screamed in her sleep.
"Elena, wake up please," Stefan said.
"No!" Elena screamed. She wasn't awake, but she felt hands on her, and she shoved them off of her.
Stefan was flung across the room and hit a wall.
Elijah went to Elena's side. He pulled her up and took her in his arms. "Elena, wake up, sweetheart."
"Elena's eyes popped open. "Elijah?"
"I'm right here," he told her as he held her firmly in his arms.
Klaus came in next, followed by the others.
Caroline went over and helped Stefan up. "Are you okay?"
Stefan nodded.
"I'm so sorry!" Elena cried.
"I know," Elijah told her.
Klaus turned to the others. "All of you, leave."
"We're not leaving her with you," Damon said angrily.
Stefan grabbed him and hauled him out of the room. Elena didn't need an audience right now, and Klaus looked downright murderous as he glared at Damon.
The others looked helplessly at Elena before leaving as well.
Elena looked up at Elijah with tears in her eyes. "Kill me, please! I deserve to die!"
"Shh. No, Elena. Don't say such things," Elijah said as he rocked her. Her words crushed him. The girl in his arms had always been so strong. He didn't think anything could break her like this, but everyone had their breaking point. There was only so much pain and guilt one person could take before it swallowed them whole. Well, Elijah wouldn't let that happen, not to his own niece. He owed it to her and to Kol get her through this. He didn't know how he was going to do that right now, but he would. He, Niklaus, and Rebekah would find a way to get her though this in time.