Fanfic: Harshness of the Seasons (2/10)
Title: Harshness of the Seasons
Rating: T
Author:
terapsina
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Pairing/Characters: Elijah/Elena, Elijah Mikaelson, Elena, Finn Mikaelson.
Word Count: 3'197
Parts: 2/10
Summary: AU To those who know the story of the making of vampires Elena will be remembered as the girl who was sacrificed for the plague they became. But in Elijah's memory she will always be the wife he loved and lost to his parents' desperation. All that he now has left is the wane hope that the body Ayanna preserved will one day wake as she promised. Elejah.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: So writing this has become somewhat of a pleasure for me. I must have gone through it fifty times by now adding and subtracting stuff, correcting the mistakes I could see and yet enjoying it. That's a first for me, so I hope this means you like reading this as much as I loved writing it.
Death of Summer //Death of Summer//
Grieving Autumn //EYE OF THE STORM//
*o0O0o*
*Harshness of the Seasons*
*Grieving Autumn: Eye of the Storm*
*o0O0o*
There were two reasons, years apart, for why Elena had become what she was… will always be to him.
It's the second one, with her cold palm lying slack in his, he reflects on now. There is still that unreasonable hope that if only he doesn't let go, doesn't blink away from her face, she will wake up. That she'll open her eyes, smile up at him and reach out to remove a strand of hair from his brow, running her thumb over it like she's done a hundred mornings before.
But even as the sun dawns, slowly traveling over the treetops that surround them and up her torn dress to their joined fingers, even as he flinches away from the sudden onslaught of pain and the smell of burning flesh, she never once reacts.
Not even as he grabs her into his arms and, with a speed he's never before been capable of, runs towards home all the while gritting his jaw to smother the agony.
And he would suddenly do anything to have power over time, so he could take himself back to the day he looked at her and for the first time saw. Maybe he could stop her from what came after, maybe she would still be alive now if she never grew to love him.
-*-*-*-*-
Elijah, to rid his spear of the blood from the boar he had impaled it on in his most recent hunt, was cleaning it in the solitude of the place he preferred for its tranquil silence. The ancient oak he was sitting under shielded him from the sun that was pleasantly warm in the clearing he currently resided in, but rarely broke through to the ground of the massive forest around him.
Except this time, he needed to fight off the sensation of being subtly watched.
Carefully, keeping his activity monotonous, he surreptitiously watched the field around him for any out of place movements or sounds. Nothing seemed to be wrong and yet the feeling persisted.
Just as he was ready to dismiss his wakened alertness as the delayed reaction to the hunt, the branch above him creaked under some unknown weight.
Elijah rapidly sprung to his feet, removing himself from the vulnerable position under the hidden threat, and clenched his palm on the spear in readiness to defend himself. And yet what greeted him weren't the unmerciful eyes of a human wolf but the amused laughter of a young woman.
He relaxed, waiting for the mirthful girl to show herself. It did not take long until the person, he soon recognized as Finn's ward, expertly dropped to the ground with a proud smile.
"I expected you to notice me sooner Elijah. Are you sure you should be a hunter?"
Her teasing remark caught him slightly off guard, so he didn't take the time to think through his words as he usually would have.
"I almost killed you Elena. Must you always startle me when I'm holding a weapon?"
He regretted this oversight as soon as he spoke once Elena's eyes flashed with an old pain he more than understood the reason for. And he himself, a moment too late, remembered the day this woman had lost everything important to her. He chose to divert her wandering mind with a change of subject.
"What are you doing here?"
Elena inclined her head in gratitude at this and rolled her eyes in a sudden exasperation that ignited his curiosity.
"I'm hiding from your brother."
He lifted his eyebrow at this, as far as he knew Elena got along with Finn well enough. And after seeing some of the interactions between her and her guardian, he even carried the feeling that by this point Finn saw her as his own daughter.
"Finn? Why would you want to do so?"
But then, before Elena could have time to respond, he reminded himself that this same father's love might be reason enough for a woman with seventeen summers behind her.
"No, I meant Niklaus. He is under the mistaken impression that I enjoy his advances."
This was truly news to him. Elijah had not known Niklaus carried affection for anyone, let alone Finn's ward. He thought of maybe leaving to learn more from the source, but this new found information, for some reason, suddenly prompted Elijah to look at Elena in a way he until now hadn't thought of.
For four years, she had been the unlucky child of a fate's whim. The young girl, who survived tragedy only to then face the loss of everything dear to her.
She had grown in the four years since her family's death, matured, in a way that was not entirely physical. Her form had changed of course, her face lost the fullness of childhood and her body grown into that of a beautiful woman's, but it was more than that. Her eyes were less naïve but somehow more kind and she held herself with a certain poise that told him of the sureness, and strength, of her character. He could certainly see why Niklaus would find her a desirable bride.
Concerned with the direction his thoughts were taking he chose to lighten the surroundings that were suddenly charged with an almost solid energy which, by the way Elena was suddenly looking at him in curious interest, even she noticed.
"I would tell him to leave you be, but I'm afraid that would only encourage him."
His brother could be stubborn and as Elijah was well aware, - especially intent on the things out of his reach. If only to his own mind, Elijah had to sadly admit, most notable of those were their father's acceptance and their mother's affection.
"Probably."
Elena agreed ruefully and Elijah quickly concluded that if she could reach the same conclusion as him, she knew Niklaus at least a little. Maybe his brother did have a slight chance to gain Elena's favor. Yet unexpectedly, this possibility somehow brought on an unwelcome unrest he'd never before experienced and could not name.
-*-*-*-*-
That day marked the beginning of their story, it was this shared moment that revealed the first strands of the natural connection binding him to Elena. But now he will also remember this as the day that made them take the very first steps towards the journey that has led to her death.
*o0O0o*
As Godric sweetly looks up at Elijah, - his tiny fingers stretching out for his father's face and his own young one, with the determined intent to reach his set goal plain to be seen, scrunched up adorably in concentration, - the ripping pain in his chest somewhat eases.
But it also, sadly, simultaneously grows. For he recognizes that expression, that stubborn will to never surrender to hardship, and where the day before it would have made him smile, today it is a reminder of what has been torn from his arms by the person he had always been certain he'd be able to trust, without fail, forever.
His son has inherited Elena's spirit.
He understands Godric should be too young for Elijah to be able to claim this so firmly, but it is a truth he can feel on levels not supernatural, but also not grounded in earth.
It's similar to the feeling that told him his heart would always belong to Elena. He knows this to be fact, even now. Undeniable like the sense, at the back of his mind, had hounded him to find Elena after she went to meet his mother only the evening before.
Ignoring the darker urge demanding he turn away from his child's seeking hold he leans forward, giving Godric access to play with the nose that has seemingly fascinated him. And although he does not smile, the rigid lines of his face relax and his rapid breathing calms at the innocent touch.
Elijah knows that if he closes his eyes and buries himself in the scent of his son, he can pretend that nothing has changed since yesterday. Elena would be just outside, gathering water or berries, or kindling for their hearth. And when returning she'd find them like this, secretly smile at him and think him unaware of her gesture. He wouldn't tell her that when she joins his surroundings his eyes always find her, as if he could feel the comfort of her presence even if she makes not a sound.
But his useless dip into the lake of imagined is harshly interrupted by the knock at his door. His real world crashes back into place, shattering the beating drum within his chest once again.
And while he gently, carefully places Godric back into his warm crib a raw rage begins to coil under his ribs, contained only by his unwillingness to frighten his son. He swallows the urge to unleash all the simmering agony of his grief onto everyone he could reach, make them bleed as he is bleeding and then make them scream as he wished to at the sight of her cut wrists. Instead, unsteady and shaking with effort, he leans forward to the only piece of Elena still breathing and kisses their sons dark hair.
Elijah is across the room and opening his doors seconds after, ready to unleash his fury on the person responsible for his loss. He wants to rip Esther apart till she's nothing but blood and flesh, the hungry monster seeking to appease the man's broken heart.
But it is not Esther waiting on the other side, nor is it his father who must be just as guilty of this betrayal if not more so. Although he should have prepared for this guest, he had not been. Only now, confronted with the face he grew up along with, does he remember there is one other man who would weep by his wife's grave.
"Finn?"
He grasps the edge of the open door, cracking it under his too tight hold, while he seeks for some nonexistent words that could possibly express his unending sorrow.
"Elijah!" Finn inclines his head, seemingly acknowledging Elijah's odd reaction at his presence, "Mother wishes to see all of us to explain… what has been done. So I came to gather you and Elena to meet her."
Realization, along with horror dawns, his mother has not confessed her gravest sin. Finn does not yet know who their parents have sacrificed without regret. Their mother has lacked courage to admit, to Finn, who is the one they have bled for their children's protection. And this means he must reveal the tragedy he shall never accept himself.
"I cannot."
His voice loses sound at the words as he stares into his brother's oblivious eyes. How can Elijah continue, when even that much barely traverses his lips?
"Why?"
So he chooses not to speak. Instead he grabs Finn by his arm and drags him into his home, to confront him with the body he has been mourning over for hours now. He knows the exact moment in time that Finn sees her, for he feels the man, who was almost a father to her, shudder against his palm. He lets go and observes as Finn rushes forward, crouches by Elena's side, and reaches for her face, but just like Godric was unable to touch him minutes ago neither can his brother connect with her skin. Unlike Elijah, who breached the space for the sake of his son, the daughter of Finn's heart does not respond.
It is this that prompts him to answer his brother's forgotten question.
"Because she is dead."
He's aware his words were unnecessary. By the presence of the heaving breaths of his usually calm brother Elijah knows he has already concluded this cruel truth, but the words have already escaped him.
It is as he observes his brother falling apart that something in Elijah dangerously quiets. The raging emotions, he was slaving under until now, do not disappear, he doubts they ever will now, but it's as if they are now circling around him in the way of hungry predators. He just needs to flinch under their sharp gaze and they will pounce at once, but while he stands still, unwilling to move, they just watch in wait for a sign of his weakness.
It is a hollow sensation, but it leaves his mind clear of the overwhelming noise and able to think… to plan.
"What happened to her?"
The question sounds angrier than Elijah has ever heard coming from this sibling, he has always seen Finn as the most steady of them, the one least likely to abandon his position of peace. He is the one who resolves any strife between Rebekah and Kol and the one who always tries to pull Niklaus back from the brink of a foolish or dangerous idea.
But now Finn is nothing except a father with a dead daughter and a rage without direction, seeking it.
So Elijah, battling back his scruples, mercilessly guides him to a target. Because he will need an ally, and in any case he is telling no lies with his next line.
"Mother needed a sacrifice. Elena fit the requirements of the spell that has been cast on us, apparently nothing else but our survival mattered. Not even Elena."
He knows he should understand the reasons of the woman who birthed him. She had only wanted to protect them from the same fate as the one that befell Henrik, but Elena was his wife, the mother of his son and the girl Finn raised as his own. She was family as well, and no explanation could ever suffice.
But he pushes all this out of his mind as he sees the table he has dined at every night crashing against a wall and hears the responding wails of Godric. He sends a glare towards Finn and goes to pick up the squirming, scared bundle of the babe that, until now, had happily been ignoring them.
It almost feels normal to soothe the cries of the child he loves more every passing moment.
He starts to hum the lullaby he's heard Elena sing to Godric before and closes his eyes, holding back the threat of the painful emotions that are crashing against him like waves against the dam in the middle of a storm. But he can still, even over the cries of his child, hear it as his brother starts pacing across his room.
He hears more than that, hears the blood rushing through Finn with a steady thrum responding to his beating heart. He can hear his brother's chest expanding for air and the little hiss he lets out when he exhales. He doesn't need to look at him to be able to guess exactly where he stands, exactly how far from him.
It's as if he suddenly observes Finn as an enemy despite the opposite being far truer.
Not too long later Godric calms down, Finn says nothing in the time it takes, but as the quiet begins to linger Elijah knows that more questions are brewing. So instead of waiting for one, he reveals the single thing he knows will gain him Finn's support in whatever awaits him.
"I will get Elena back."
Finn stops, staring at him in incomprehension. Elijah connects their gazes, willing his brother to believe him, hoping his own face looks more assured of this than he is himself.
"How? She is dead. Gone."
He grimaces, still not quite alright with hearing those words in connection to Elena, but squares his shoulders and explains himself.
"Asleep. Ayanna cast a spell on her last night, it will preserve her body so time does not ravage it. I just need to find a way to wake her up."
"Are you certain of this Elijah? Completely sure?"
He can see Finn starting to hope in the same way he has since the witch gave her word. And he wished he could respond with a 'yes', but although he has decided to use Finn's love for his wife in his quest to save her, he cannot lie.
He will betray his honor only as far as it takes, but no further.
"No. But does that at all matter?"
Finn doesn't respond. He doesn't really need to, after all Elijah knows that they share the way they look at this. Elena is important to them both and so a mere possibility is all that's required for them to do anything within their power, to seek out a way, to save her.
Elijah chooses not to admit to what 'anything' requires of him.
But there must be something Finn has guessed, for he walks towards Elijah and grabs him firmly by his neck, holding him in place, as he looks him squarely in the eye. This is a position he remembers well, he could never forget the last time Finn placed him in this grip.
"What have you bargained with?"
He wishes to look away but does not, like he did not before. Although in this case Elijah refuses to respond at all. Finn does not need to know about the high price of Elena's life, only he should carry the burden of the secret which will require of him to deceive Niklaus.
And as he readies to change the subject, he tries and fails to not recall the time last spring, when Finn placed him in this same firm grip and asked him a question with only one correct answer. He can still hear the earnest promise he made that day, the one he now has failed to upkeep.
"So brother, shall we go meet mother and let her explain this?"
The memory begins to blossom within his mind and he unwillingly shudders under the rabid gazes of the predators.
-*-*-*-*-
"I have taken care of Elena since you brought her to me, wounded and unconscious, and with the news of my wife's death besides. I watched her grow and soothed her nightmares. I taught her how to use a bow and how to wrap a wound. So Elijah, I will give you my blessing to your love for her, despite the secret you and her have kept from me. But you must promise me, you will protect her in my place now. You will not let any harm come to her."
His brother's arm was tightly, on the edge of painful, clamped against the back of his neck. Finn's eyes were serious and unwavering, waiting for his answer as if Elijah's life depended on the one he gave.
Their brother's bond had always been strong, but this once it would mean nothing, for Elijah knew Finn found Elena to be far more precious. And he did not condemn it, for Elena deserved all the devotion in the world.
"Elena is fully capable of protecting herself, we both know this."
Finn's intense glare did not waiver, clearly waiting for more. So Elijah uttered a vow he had no intention of breaking.
"But if she ever faces something beyond even her, you have my word Finn, I will stand in the way of the monster wishing her harm."
*o0O0o*
// previous chapter// // next chapter//
*o0O0o*
A/N2: So what did you think? Did you like how I wrote Finn? Turns out he's harder than he looks, especially the human him who hasn't yet faced all that would someday turn him a bit suicidal. Also don't you think I chose the perfect brother for Elena to share a bond similar to the one canon has between her and Alaric?
Alright the next chapter is the last one placed in this time, after that there's going to be a time jump. Did you enjoy the flashbacks? I'm personally rather proud of the first one.