originalwitch | teleios } { you deserve so much more than this

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teleios } { you deserve so much more than this

Esther leaves the Hale house and makes her way directly to Rebekah's front door. It isn't a place she visits often, or at all, considering she had never been invited over, but she does know where it is. She made a point of learning where all her children lived in their time here, if for no other reason than she knows which areas of the city where she was not welcome.

She's crossing those lines tonight. She doesn't have much of a choice.

She goes to Rebekah's first - she's closer - and if he isn't there she will find Elijah after that. If she's lucky, and she can't guarantee she is, they're both together and she can tell them at the same time. She tries not to run, as she does not want to attract attention to herself. Panic will only get more people hurt at this point. But once she reaches her daughter's front door, the pounding of the flat of her hand against the door is just as urgent.

"Rebekah!" She pauses for a moment. "Rebekah, I need to speak with you."

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Rebekah had invited Elijah over for dinner tonight -- Matt was out working on other things and it's been a while since she last had a meal with her brother. Not that she's cooked anything -- she picked it up in town -- but still. She's not expecting anyone else over so when she hears the knock, she's a little surprised.

Especially at what voice it is. She and Esther may be on better terms than they had been -- but she's never invited her over. She's always kept some distance, never fully forgiving their mother for what they did. And for the most part, Esther's respected that.

Which means if she's here -- well it's not without good reason. Rebekah sets the glass of wine she had been sipping down before making her way to the door, opening it.

"What's going on?"

"Is your brother here?"

She doesn't want to repeat herself if she doesn't have to, and she knows that they spend time together. There isn't enough time to have to answer the same questions twice.

Elijah had been happy to receive the invitation for a quiet evening with Rebekah. That they'd reached a place again where they could just be has been a blessing, and one he's loathe to let go of.

He's startled by the knock, as well, thinking it was just going to be them--and then concerned, immediately, when he hears his mother's voice. He follows her toward the door, stepping into his mother's vision as she asks the question.

"I'm here. What's wrong?"

Because clearly something is, and his mother being upset is never a good sign of anything for anyone, he's decided.

Rebekah steps aside to allow their mother to come inside. Her stomach churns a little with worried. Her thoughts are similar to Elijah's -- their mother being upset is never a good sign for anyone.

"What's going on?"

"Do you have any favors, with any agents? Something that can get you out of the city, and quickly?"

That's not telling them what's going on, Esther. There isn't time to explain all of it, even her role in things, but if she can get them far away from here, maybe they stand a chance. Even if there is no telling how far the realms will collapse.

"One or two." He hadn't really intended to shore them up or anything, but he's Elijah. Keeping a favor or two on hand for situations he might not otherwise anticipate just makes sense, as does doing what's needed to earn said favors.

He glances at Rebekah, not knowing if she's done the same. If his can't get them both out, and she doesn't, he won't go.

"Why do we need to leave?"

"I have a couple." Rebekah's been here long enough that she doesn't always need to redeem them right away.

But there are more pressing matters here.

"What's going on?"

She sighs softly, closing her eyes. "There's going to be an attack on the city. A dangerous one - one that even you won't survive. You need to leave Teleios, now."

Elijah moves closer to Rebekah on instinct, one hand reaching to settle in the small of her back. It's hard to think of there being something they can't survive beyond the stake, after all this long, but their mother warning them is novel enough he's not sure he can bring himself to discount it.

"What sort of attack? How do you know?"

He shouldn't be surprised she knows things, but, still. The basic level of distrust demands he ask it.

"How long do we have?"

There are other people Rebekah would want to warn. Matt. Her friends. But if there isn't time, if it comes down to just saving her and Elijah -- well it's a sad choice but one she'd make all the same.

"I don't know." That answer was directed towards Rebekah. The question Elijah asks her is harder because she knows that distrust is there. It's the wall they never managed to break through, and it's difficult in a time when she needs him to trust her the most.

"I know because they're using my magic to do it. I'm not sure what form it will take, but the spells that were solicited of me - separately they're harmless, but together ... together they mean to tear open a hole in this world."

Of course it's her magic. Elijah's gaze darkens a little, but he doesn't lash out. He also understands incremental pieces, the way things add up. It's just one more instance of how very much her and magic together seem to consistently screw up his and Rebekah's lives.

"Who are 'they'?" It's not as important, perhaps as finding a way out, but Elijah's thinking of others, as well. Not everyone has favors, not everyone will be able to flee, and he's made friends here. "Is there a way to stop them?"

Like Rebekah, he'll take her and go if that's what it comes down to. His priorities, as ever, are his siblings. But...so many other lives wrecked because of his family--again--isn't something he wants to bear. Why he keeps assuming guilt for Esther's actions he doesn't know. She's the parent. While he can blame himself for Klaus, for playing a poor patriarch, as it were, he shouldn't have to with her.

But he does.

"Why am I not surprised?"

Elijah might resist lashing out but even in a situation like this Rebekah can't let it go without some sort of comment. Control has never been her strong point.

"If there was a way to stop them -- I don't think she'd be telling us to leave."

After all, they're Originals, if this thing isn't something they can survive it makes sense maybe they can't stop it ether.

It figures. They finally make a home for themselves again and it's ripped from them.

It probably doesn't matter to them now that she didn't know where this was going. It's not something that came to her until much later, when she was thinking over the list of spells and realized what they would mean together.

"I've tried. I've tried breaking the spells, I've tried finding the thing itself, but I'm running out of time. There's one more thing I haven't tried, but I wanted to warn you before - "

She hears the shattering glass before she realizes anything else, the sound of the window behind her breaking. It seems discordant, almost, as though that wasn't the thing that was supposed to happen in that moment, but it isn't until she looks down and sees the arrow sticking out of her chest.

Oh.

That saves her some trouble doesn't it?

It happens so fast that Elijah can do nothing but stare for a long moment. So fast, even, that he's moving to catch her before he's fully processed why he needs to. Funny, the things that become instinct. Emotions do that, too, flare when you don't expect them to, and it suddenly doesn't matter what she's done, what she did, what she might have been going to do in the future.

"Mother!"

Klaus is there with Henrik's body, and Elijah's holding his mother again, wanting nothing more than to turn back the clock somehow and make it all better, and knowing, as he'd known that day, there's nothing to do to take it back.

She's his mother, their mother, and he doesn't want to lose her a third time. Foolish and stupid and how could he have wasted this chance they'd been given, building a home with Rebekah, but keeping her on the edges instead of seeking reconciliation. He's forgiven Klaus so many horrible, atrocious things, things that hurt all of them, but he withheld it from her when surely...what they were, what they'd done. It wasn't as if the world probably wouldn't be far better if they weren't on it.

"Mother, please..."

He's still running on instinct, reaching for the arrow, then pausing, because, no. Remove it and she'll bleed out and he needs to fix it before then and there's only one way to do that he knows. His eyes darken and his fangs flash, sinking into his wrist before he offers it to her. "Drink, Mother. Please...we can fix this..."

It's strange. One moment Rebekah is giving her mother a hard time and then there's a arrow sticking out of the women and her heart feels strangled in her throat. She remembers Klaus coming to her, telling her how he saw their father kill their mother (she knows the lie of it now, but memory remembers it all the same). She remembers staying behind to bury her.

It's her mother. She spent centuries mourning her, crying over her. Wearing her necklace so she could still feel connected to her. Which is why Rebekah makes her way to their mother's other side, watching as Elijah tries to feed her his blood. Her eyes sting with tears she tries to blink back.

"Please, mother..."

As much as she should, as much she should drink and save her own life, she knows that she can't. This is the only chance that they have. If she dies, some of those spells will be broken and maybe it's enough to mitigate some of the damage. She pushes Elijah's wrist away and shakes her head.

"Now you have time."

"We've had a thousand years." Wasn't that what she'd said--they'd already lived too long? That she wants them, truly wants them, to live longer, at the expense of her own life, registers somewhere, somehow in his brain.

"Please..." It's not a word he uses often, and the tears in his eyes aren't ones he ever lets be seen. "We can all leave together..."

He can force her, he knows, make her have to swallow his blood, but he can't do that--there's too much memory of betrayal in the gesture. Still, he cradles her close and offers it again, something desperate in his gaze. "Mother..."

"We can. We don't have to leave you."

For all of Rebekah's snark, for her distrust for Esther, it's still her mother. The woman she mourned for centuries. The one she lost far too soon. To watch her die, to lose her again, she's not sure it's something she can handle.

It's not just for them, really. It's for everyone in this city, for the chance that maybe this won't be a complete loss. One hand comes up, shaky to rest against his cheek for a moment, a small gesture of love that she hasn't given in a long time.

"You need to." This has been a long time coming. From the first time Niklaus killed her, to the time she attempted to return the favor, the children who had held on to her the most needed to let her go. "Go to Matt, Rebekah. You don't have much time."

She won't take the blood. She's not meant to survive, and she's already had her borrowed time. "I did what I did so you would survive." Both a thousand years ago and now. It just took her some time to remember that. It's not long after that that her breathing stills and Esther is gone.

And it's not long after that that the city rocks violently beneath their feet, a bright white light coming at them from somewhere in the center of town.

Elijah stares blankly at their mother's body as he feels the life leave her body. He can't move for a few moments, but to not do so is to focus on his own grief, his own feelings...and that's not what he's good at, not when someone else is hurting.

Carefully letting Esther go, he moves to Rebekah, pulling her close, but knowing that she might want to run, to get to Matt.

"She's gone..."

What feels like an earthquake makes him glad he's already on the ground--even with their abilities, he's pretty sure he'd have fallen if standing. When he sees the light coming, his arms tighten around her, not willing to let go now. If this is the end, it should be together.

Rebekah hugs her brother tightly in return, allowing her eyes to shut as she did so, trying to blink back the tears spilling down her cheeks. There are people she should go to, she should warn but she is too emotionally compromised at the moment to move.

The ground shakes -- there's a flash of light and she knows there wouldn't have been time now.

If this is the end -- well then it should be like this. Together as one.

Always and forever.

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teleios } { you deserve so much more than this

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