Always and Forever... For the Last Time (The Originals: Season 5 Fanfiction)

Chapter 4: Back in New Orleans

At an abandoned train station several days later... 

Elijah woke with a start, seeing me sitting at the far corner of the wall, along with Antoinette.

'Where are we?' he asked, sitting up. 

'Just outside the city.' 

'Why is my head on fire?' he asked. 

'Klaus' hybrids shot you up with vervain,' I said. 

'Not you?' he asked. 

'We were foolish to go there,' Antoinette said, sitting near us. 'I wanted my mother's friends to have a chance to pay their respects, but... we should have stayed away.' 

'I understand his anger towards me,' Elijah said. 'I just... this game, whatever it is that we're playing here...' 

'I don't think it's a game,' I replied weakly, Klaus' bite already pervading my senses with pain. Elijah stepped towards me, and I revealed the bite. 

'No,' he said in horror. 'No, no, no.' 

Elijah put the phone to his ear. 

'What did you do?' he snarled. 

'That's a question you should be asking yourself, isn't it?' Klaus asked over the line. 

'Antoinette's family was in danger, and now you've put the life of my wife in danger.'  

'And what a hero you turned out to be.' 

'This is revenge. You force me to to watch her die just to show me how it feels.' 

'Actually, on a day filled with sorrow, I'll take great pleasure in knowing how terribly she'll suffer.'

'You listen to me, okay? If anything happens to her, I will never forgive this.'

'One doesn't need forgiveness from enemies. And that's where we are, you and I. We're certainly no longer family.' 

'I want to make a deal.'

'Nothing you have is of interest to me.' 

'What if you could have me back?' 

'You've made your choice on that matter perfectly clear.' 

'No. My memory.' 

'No! No,' I cried out. Elijah cast a glance back at me in worry. 

'Marcel Gerard and Vincent Griffith cast the spell to take it away. My guess is they can bring it back.' 

'You would do that for her?' 

'Without hesitation.' 

'Your offer is rejected,' Klaus snarled and hung up the call. 

'You didn't even ask me,' I said weakly from the corner of the cell that I was sitting in. 

'I'm not going to lose you,' Elijah said. 

'The irony,' Antoinette said. 'My mother did all these heinous things because of some deluded ideology that vampires need to be pure. And now the only thing that will save her is the blood of the very creature she despised. Maybe this is God's way of punishing our family, or my father's stupid legacy.' Elijah sighed. 

'Maybe I deserve this,' I said with a shaky breath.

'Lilliana. Stop it,' Elijah said, turning to face me. 'We've got to fight this.' 

'And what happens when your memories have returned?' I spoke. 'You'll have your family back. You'll remember why you cared. The seven years we've spent together is no match for a thousand years of loving them... I just - I don't want this to end. Us. Our daughter. Our little family.' Elijah came over to me, kneeling next to me. 

'You are going to live. Okay?' Elijah said. 'And I'm going to find another way to get that cure.' 

'From a jail cell?' I asked, confused. 

'From a jail cell with this,' Elijah said, scrolling through the contacts and finding Marcel. 'Okay?' I nodded. 

'Are you ready?' Marcel asked. Elijah stepped into the circle, lined with candles, as I sat in the corner, still holding onto life, waiting for the cure. Elijah looked back at me. 

'I am.' Vincent stepped up behind him and began slowly chanting. Elijah's eyes closed, and then he looked up, Marcel entering the circle to compel Elijah again to remember. 

'The promise "always and forever", it anchored you, filled you, grounded you for a thousand years. Remember that love. The bond.'

Elijah opened his eyes, and he was in a long white corridor. At the end was a rustic red door. He began to walk down the hall, towards the door, his strides slow and intentional, one foot in front of the other. 

'Open the red door,' Marcel said. 'Let it all back in.' He began to tremble with fear. 

'No. I can't. I can't.' Marcel looked at Vincent for some kind of help, but there was none. He turned back to Elijah and continued to compel him. 

'Let it all back in.' 

In the white corridor, Elijah let out a pained sigh and continued towards the door. 

'No! No!' Elijah screamed, trembling harder. 

'What is happening?' I asked. 

'He's remembering,' Marcel replied. 

'You're hurting him!' I exclaimed. 

'Marcel, we can't stop now, man,' Vincent said. 'You've got to keep going.' Marcel turned back towards Elijah. 

'Remember the bond. Always and forever.' 

Elijah stepped towards the red door, and reached out slowly, almost tentatively. The tips of his fingers touched the handle, and he recoiled with a hiss of pain.

'Remember your family. Remember Hayley,' Marcel said. 

Inside the corridor, the door began to shake and tremble on its hinges. 

Elijah started to scream, and then immediately collapsed. 

'What the hell just happened?' Marcel asked. 

I pulled Elijah into my lap, attempting to wake him. 

'What did you do to him? Why isn't he waking up?' I asked in panic. 

'This didn't have anything to do with us,' Vincent said. 'This... there's some dark magic in his body. It's like, his mind isn't even there.' Vincent stood. 

'What do you mean?' Marcel asked. 'Like someone took him?' 

'Yeah.'

'Who?' Antoinette asked. 

'I could ask you that same question,' he replied sharply. 'It ain't like your mama doesn't have access to witches, right?' 

'My mother is dead,' Antoinette said. 

'Yeah, but her minions live on,' I retorted. 

'I had nothing to do with this,' she said. 

'Yeah, all right,' Marcel replied. 'But you better hope that he wakes up in time to clear your name and to get her this.' 

'I could be dead by then. Marcel, please. We were friends once.' 

'That sounds like a personal problem,' Marcel said, and he and Vincent walked towards the cell door. 'Open,' he said, and the hybrid guards opened the door. The two of them left.