Lightning Strikes Twice

Thirty Six

Elijah smiled at Cami as Méalla walked into the living room. "And you believe you have the power to resolve this."
Cami smiled but sighed. "It's not that easy. There's no'" Cami snapped her fingers. "and you're fixed. In cases like yours, sometimes not dwelling on the problem is more productive than examining it through the minutiae of therapy." She pulled out a list on a sheet of paper and handed it to him. "Staying mentally busy instead of physically. This house - though charming - is completely falling apart."
"So, this is your solution? Mend the home, mend the man?"
Cami smirked slightly. "Or, we could go fishing and I could tell you about the summer I lost my virginity..."
Elijah cut her off quickly. "I'll mend the home. Méalla, your tools are still in the stable correct?" Méalla laughed as she nodded.
"I'll spend the day with girls! And you spend the day not thinking. And fixing the heater, because this place is freezing at night."

"Alex, are you sure you don't want to join Cami and the girls at farmer's market?" Méalla asked.
Alex shook her head. "No, I found a stack of old Nancy Drew books I'd like to dive into." The girl said, patting the books next to her on the bed.
"Oh, you are so Méalla's daughter." Elijah's voice came through the window. Méalla grinned and kissed the top of Alex's head.
"I'll be just downstairs and Elijah all around the house if you need anything. Enjoy the books, they are a favorite of mine." Méalla left Alex to her books, going to find herself something to do.

Elijah is back in the horse stable, putting away all of his tools, when his phone starts to ring. When he sees it's Klaus, he answers it. "Niklaus. "
"Finn knows. About Hope, about Saoirse, about everything. I don't know how long until he gets there, but he is on his way."
Elijah tensed as he saw something coming toward him. "Yes, remarkably well on his way, I would say, brother..." Finn, who had just arrived, stood in front of Elijah's face as he hung up the phone. Finn said nothing, but simply flicked his wrist and telekinetically threw Elijah backwards into the wall.
Elijah picked himself off the floor and glared at Finn angrily as he lunged for him. Before Elijah can touch him, Finn waved his arm in front of him and cast a spell to protect him.
Elijah looked at him murderously, but Finn just smiles and shrugs.
"How'd you find me?"
"A little help from our sister."
"Rebekah would never lure herself to wallow in your filth."
"We have a third sister, you know. And I get the sense she doesn't like you all that much."
Elijah was shocked. His mind was racing, trying to think of ways of alerting Méalla and Alex to get away from Finn without notice but hearing Finn's words made his thought stop short. "Freya?"
"Mother warned me Dahlia would kill us all to acquire another first-born Mikaelson. And me? I'm in no mood to die!"
Elijah is still in the stable, pacing around, while Finn stands defiantly.
"Cowering behind your witchcraft? You always were pathetic, Finn."
"After nearly a millennium of dishonorable acts hidden away in your own mind, you have the audacity to call me names? Ha! What I do now, I do for the members of my family who can still be saved. Unfortunately, neither you nor Niklaus managed to make that list."
"What about Méalla?" Elijah called loudly, hoping Méalla's hybrid hearing would pick it up.
"Maybe. She never did care for being ruthless, no matter how much she supported everybody's mistakes."
"What about before we were turned? You treated her awfully then too."
"Enough." Finn shouted before Finn useing his magic to telekinetically throw a nearby pick-ax into Elijah's back. While Elijah desperately tried to pull it out, Finn telekinetically threw the handle of a shovel into his heart, temporarily neutralizing him. Elijah fell to the ground, and once he's down, his skin starts to desiccate. Satisfied, Finn left the barn and walked toward the house.
Méalla was startled from her writing when she heard someone outside the house, mumbling. She had heard voices outside before but it stopped before she became too worried. She regretted that thought as soon as she turned around. Finn was in the doorway, smiling and chuckling as he gazed around at the room covered in baby toys. "Méalla. So I may have been wrong about your parenting after all." Méalla lumped towards Finn but was thrown back with a wave of his hand. She got up as he advanced.
"Never thought you and Klaus would be the type to send away their daughters for their safety. Well, one of them, for you. How is sweet little Alex by the way? Is she here?" Méalla again lunged for Finn without saying a word but he threw a vase into her face. "Relax, I'm not here about her. Listen, Mother told me Dahlia wants the firstborns of each generation. I'm not looking to go with her, considering I just got Freya back."
"Neither you, that old hag, or Freya is touching any of my or Klaus' children!" Méalla growled, tossing a shard of porcelain from the vase into Finn's shoulder. She sped around him, determined to grab Alex and run. She'd come back for Elijah. Suddenly, a large knife flew through the open front door and embedded itself right into Finn's abdomen. He yelled out in pain as Elijah walked purposefully through the door in his direction, kicking the door shut behind him. Méalla sighed in relief as Elijah gave her the high sign. She heard Finn groan as he pulled the knife out.
She barged into Alex's room, panicking when she didn't see the baby wolf. "Alex?" She hissed, hearing something from the closest. She sped over to find Alex hiding behind the clothes, clutching Howl.
"He's here, isn't he?"
"Yeah, but you and I are getting out of here. We're going to find Cami and the girls and we're going to get to safety. Come on, I'll pick you up, we'll move faster." Méalla reached down and picked Alex up off the floor, the girl pulling her legs up so they wouldn't drag. She raced down the stairs and outside, past her fighting siblings, feeling Finn casting a pain inflection spell but not slowing down. She heard Cami talking to Hope and Saoirse a few miles down the road and she burst out of the driveway, intending to stop them before they got there. She collapsed before she could make it any further. She heard Finn yelling after her. She saw Cami's car a short distance away, one Alex could move quickly.
"Alex, Cami and the girls are just a short distance away. You are going to run down the side of the road, get into the car with Cami and then you are going to tell her to drive as far and as fast as she can okay?"
"What about you? I don't want to leave you!"
"Alex, I'll be okay, I promise. You are so brave, you know that? I need you to be brave for just a little longer, until you meet Cami. Now please, run." Méalla kissed the girls head before feeling another pain infliction spell and the girl took off like a rocket. Méalla watched as she ran towards the approaching car and turned back to go deal with Finn.
Back in the house, Finn was against the wall in probably magical pain, and Elijah was frozen, staring at blood on his shirt. Méalla made her way over to Elijah.
"Elijah. Snap out of it." She whispered as Elijah looked at his hands in a daze.
"There's nothing to snap out off. Just play along for a minute okay?" Elijah projected a plan into her head. She looked at him in shock but nodded.
"Look at you, brother. You're a mess. And, as we both know, untidiness is your undoing. Tell me, do your soiled clothes serve as a reminder of your filthy memories? Your many sins? Are you having bad memories now, brother? Perhaps of the innocent Tatia? Or any one of the other poor souls who met their fate at your hands? It's a shame, really, because, in a way, the children are just more of your victims. Had you the will to stand against me, you might've saved them. But, because they was left under the protection of a wretch, a beast that basks in the blood of others, they will die. I suppose your little nieces never really had a chance." Elijah held Méalla back from lunging at the eldest Mikaelson. "I'd ask for a response, but I wouldn't want to taint myself with the vulgar refuge that must, even now, be flashing through your mind."
Elijah put down his hands in annoyance. "Let me assure you, my mind is quite clear." Finn looked alarmed as he stared at Elijah and Méalla. "Much like the gas that has pervaded every single room in this home whilst you've been rambling like the lunatic that you are." He and Méalla turned to face Finn, who was staring at them in shock. "You have disgraced this family for the last time." Elijah slowly took off his daylight ring and held it in one hand while he held his other hand in the sunlight. "Goodbye, brother." Elijah's hand burned and burst into flames, igniting the gas in the air and blowing up the entire house in a humongous fire-ball.