Fighting For A New Future

Chapter 24

Third Person's POV
At the boarding house, Elena is sitting next to the fireplace with tears in her eyes. Stefan enters with a cup in his hand.

"Hey." Stefan said. "Here, drink this." He handed her the cup.

"I can't."

"Yeah, you can." He said, looking at her with pleading eyes. "Please drink this." She took the glass and placed it to her lips, but before she could drink it, she began crying.

"This is my fault."

"Oh, come on, she is not even dead." Damon grumbled as he finished his bourbon. "She only had one job and could not even do that." Stefan glared at his brother. "The old witch said it was magic depletion."

"She was attempting to protect me."

"Could you please calm her down?" Damon fixed his gaze on Stefan.

"Do not act as if I am not standing right in front of you." Elena looked at the older vampire, and something clicked. "You knew! Didn't you? You knew she would die if she harnessed all that power, didn't you?"

"Yes." He confessed. "Yes, I knew." Gritting her teeth, Elena slapped him.

"You must listen to me and prepare yourself for what I am about to say." He began. "Bonnie had to die, Klaus using Alaric's body took him completely by surprise; he was not expecting it, and we thought he would not stop until he knew she was dead." He refilled his glass once more. "He had to believe it." He turns around and walks to the stairs, Stefan and Elena follow him.

"You know, you could have told me." Stefan told his brother, Damon faced him and scoffed.

"How do I know when you're going to go blabbing things to your girlfriend?".

"You understand what you put her through?".

"See, that's why I didn't tell you, 'cause you would have never been able to do it." He knew his brother very well, the second he was informed of the plan he would run to Elena and tell her everything, putting herself in danger. "Don't get me wrong, Stefan, I don't mind being the bad guy." He made his way up the stairs. "I'll make all the life-and-death decisions while you're busy worrying about collateral damage, I'll even let Elena hate me for it." He tilted his head to look at the girl who was the carbon copy of his past lover. "But at the end of the day, I'll be the one to keep her alive." They watched as he disappeared from their view.

At the Old Witch's House
Elijah paced the room as he waited for his mate and the others to return. He was worried how his brother would react to actually being confronted by the group, he knew Klaus would say one thing but when pushed would do something entirely different. He stopped his pacing when golden mist appeared, a sign of Bianca's magic, the group of four emerged from the mist. Jeremy jumped into his mate's arms and the elder male smiled at the action, someone cleared their throats and the pair turned to the new guest.

"Well, this is a new side of you brother." Klaus spoke from Alaric's body.

"We will need to get you to your original body, this one took some damage." Bianca stepped forward. "I'll make the preparations, Elijah why don't you go with Klaus to retrieve his body." The noble original looked at his brother whom he had spent the last few years planning to destroy because he never truly understood him.

"Alright." He said still staring at his little brother. "I'll come with you." It wasn't much but it was a start to bettering their relationship. The quartet watched as the brothers set off, the air between them tense with the weight of their history.

Being vampires, the vampires could have used their speed to reach their destination in under 3 minutes but they chose to walk at a normal pace because they knew they had something they wanted to say but didn't know how to say it.

"I stood up for you once." Elijah started, taking the chance to confess what he had stored up for centuries. "Before we found out you were not Father's child, I went to him and told him to stop hitting you, to hit me instead." Klaus stopped walking and Elijah turned to him. "I lasted a week before I broke." He laughed at the memory of his defeat. "Father cursed me and called me weak and I agreed with him but I told him that if my brother could still stand after taking these blows for many moons then he was the strongest person I knew, he didn't like that at all." Elijah smiled at the memory. "He gave me the worst beating that night."

"That was the night you were so bruised you couldn't move for days." Klaus found himself saying and Elijah nodded in agreement.

"I trained harder after that so that I could protect you but every time I thought I grew stronger Father would prove that I still had far to grow." Elijah sighed. "I was always with you throughout the years, whether it was to accompany you or help you try and break the curse mother placed on you." Klaus closed his eyes at the mention of his mother's betrayal. "I didn't understand how important it was for you to break the curse until Bianca told me that you were never whole, that half of you was missing."

"Bianca, she keeps surprising me with her knowledge of our life." The younger of the two smiled softly.

"When you told me you threw our family away, I lost it." Elijah confessed. "I thought that there was no hope for you. No redemption. But I should have known you couldn't do what you had said."

"Family means more to me than anything in this world Elijah, Finn, Kol, Rebecca and you are the only thing that will destroy me." He looked at his brother. "Everyone says I don't have a weakness but truthfully, I have 5."

"I know that now and I'll never leave your side again. Always and Forever brother."

"Always and Forever." Elijah pulled Klaus into his arms embracing his brother as he had when they were younger. Elijah felt Klaus hesitantly reciprocate the hug and held on to him tightly. Elijah swore that he would never abandon his family again no matter what they had done or will do.

Meanwhile, Katherine was making her appearance. She entered the Mystic Grill and made her way to the bar as there was her target. She leaned across the countertop and grinned at him.

"Burbon, your taste is still the same after all these years." She commented and her smile widened when he choked on his liquor. His head snapped to her with widened eyes.

"Katherine." He whispered.

"Hello, Damon."