The Wrong Face, I mean yeah she had definitely seen it, every second of it.
And still, Elena couldn't understand what had just happened. One moment, Jenna had been sitting there complaining about being hungry, annoyed and shaken as she explained how Klaus had kidnapped her and how Katherine had tricked her into stepping outside the Salvatore house. That part made sense. Painfully so.
Then Greta had fed Jenna her blood, a vampire transition.
Elena understood that. She hated it, feared it, but she understood it. Up until the moment Jenna screamed.
Jenna's body had begun to convulse, her spine arching unnaturally as both Elena and Greta froze in shock. Her skin rippled like water disturbed by a stone, bones shifting beneath flesh. Her face, Jenna's face had melted away, features pulling apart and reforming.
Elena had stumbled back, breath caught in her throat, watching in horror as Jenna became someone else.
A stranger sat where her aunt had been. Dark hair. Different eyes. A completely unfamiliar face staring back at them in pure, raw panic.
"Who, who are you?" the woman had demanded, looking from Elena to Greta, clutching herself as if she were coming apart.
Elena swallowed hard. "Who… who are you?"
The woman blinked, disoriented. "I'm" She paused, frowning. "I'm Olivia."
The name hit Elena like a slap. "Olivia?" she repeated faintly. Olivia nodded, rubbing her temples. "The last thing I remember, I was leaving a bar. I'd had a fight about something, I don't even know what anymore. Someone grabbed me from behind and then…" Her voice wavered. "Nothing. Just darkness."
Elena shook her head, trying to process it. "Then how the hell did you—"
She didn't even finish the sentence.
Because a scream tore through the clearing.
Elena spun around just as another woman was dragged forward, doubled over in pain, clutching her stomach as if something inside her was tearing itself apart.
"Oh my God," Elena breathed. "Jules." Jules groaned, collapsing to her knees. "What's happening to me?"
Greta crouched near her, careful to stay just outside the burning ring etched into the ground. "I've used a spell to slow your transformation," she said calmly. "It won't stop it but it will keep you conscious."
Elena turned on her, anger flaring through the fear. "Why are you doing this?" she demanded. "You witches are supposed to keep balance and maintain order, not destroy it!"
Greta looked up at her, eyes cold, unrepentant.
"I am maintaining order," she replied. "The only order that matters. The new one."
She straightened. "Klaus's order."
A slow clap echoed through the clearing. "Well," Klaus said as he stepped into the firelight, smiling, "I'm relieved to know I still have a dance partner."
Jules cried out again, clutching herself tighter. Olivia turned in a slow circle, taking it all in now the fire, the screaming woman, the unnatural heat pulsing through her veins. Her body felt wrong. Too alive… or not. Every sound was too loud, every smell too sharp. Fear and euphoria twisted together inside her chest.
"I— I don't like this," she whispered, holding her head. "What is happening to me? Who the hell are you people?"
Klaus was suddenly in front of her, "Now this," he said pleasantly, studying her face, "is a surprise. I must admit, Elena, I wasn't expecting this from your people… or maybe it was from someone else."
Olivia shrank back. "Who are you?" The smile he gave her made her skin crawl.
"Call me Klaus, Darling" he said softly. "And you, my lovelies, are going to help me with something very important."
Tears spilled down her cheeks. "I want to go home," she pleaded. "Please."
Klaus chuckled. "Oh, come now. Where's the fun in that?"He turned away, already bored.
Olivia broke then, sobbing openly as Elena rushed to her side, gripping her shoulders.
"Hey," Elena said urgently, forcing the woman to look at her. "Olivia, look at me. It's going to be okay. I promise."
Olivia shook her head. "Why do I feel like this?" she cried. "Everything hurts and everything feels too much."
Elena swallowed and softened her voice. "Because you're different now."
Olivia stared at her in terror, "You've been turned into a vampire," Elena said gently. "And vampires feel things… stronger. Emotions, fear, pain everything is amplified. It doesn't mean you're broken. It just means you need help."
While Elena spoke softly to Olivia explaining the hunger, the fear, the overwhelming flood of emotion while Klaus had already turned away.
He returned to Greta. She stood before an altar-like formation of stone with a hollowed basin carved into its center as if it like a cauldron.
Klaus reached into his coat and withdrew the Moonstone. For a moment, he simply looked at it.
"I've spent five hundred years searching for this," he said quietly, almost reverently. "I'd hate to part with it now."
His gaze drifted back to the women trapped within the rings of fire with fear, pain, and confusion etched across their faces.
Then he smiled.
"Oh well," he said lightly. "Let's get on with it, shall we?"
He placed the Moonstone into Greta's waiting hands.
She nodded once and set it into the hollow of the stone altar. The moment it touched, the stone exploded with flame.
Fire roared to life inside the basin, not spreading outward but burning within the stone itself, as though the altar were consuming the blaze. It glowed red hot as Greta began to chant, her voice low and steady.
Klaus watched with a satisfied smirk. Across the clearing, Elena finished her explanation just as Greta looked up and gave Klaus a single nod.
"Let's begin."
Klaus returned to the center of the clearing.
The ring of fire surrounding Jules flickered… then faded. Elena's breath caught.
Jules felt it instantly. Despite the agony tearing through her body, she lunged forward, desperation overriding the pain. She ran with her werewolf speed and Klaus tackled her mid-stride.
They hit the ground hard. Before anyone could scream, Klaus plunged his hand straight into her chest.
"Shhh," he murmured calmly, almost tenderly. "There, there, darling."
Elena gasped and Olivia stumbled back, shaking her head. "No… no, no—"
Klaus withdrew his hand. Jules's heart was clenched in his fist.
He looked at it with open satisfaction before letting the body stay lifelessly to the ground.
Olivia collapsed to her knees, trembling violently. "I'm going to die," she whispered, tears streaming down her face. She looked at Elena, eyes wide with terror. "We're going to die… aren't we?"
Elena stared at Jules's body, frozen in horror.
She couldn't speak because she knew the truth… yes they were going to die.
———————————————-
Michael stood beside Elijah and Stefan in the library. Damon had joined them earlier, along with John Gilbert.
Apparently, John had decided to try something desperate, something pulled from an old Gilbert journal. A spell involving a mother's life force, used to save her child.
Michael of course knew exactly what he was talking about but at this point with what has been achieved already he simply didn't put much mind into it anymore. But still the spell only works for blood relatives, he thought, dismissing it just as quickly.
His gaze flicked briefly to Elijah.
'I wonder,' he mused, 'if I should tell him his family was never scattered at sea… that they're still very much with Niklaus.'
The thought lingered then was pushed aside.
Everything was falling into place. The greatest variable, Jenna had been averted. True, Elena would lose a father, but Michael found himself unmoved by that. John Gilbert had hardly been one. Elijah, soon to be daggered, would survive as he always did and Elena will come out alive at the end.
And the ridiculous spiral of events of Stefan groveling to Klaus for a cure after Damon's inevitable bite had been neatly cut off.
'Tyler, however…'
Michael's interest sharpened.
With Brandon now involved, Tyler's path had shifted. Michael wondered what would happen if Tyler were bitten by him and changed further, pushed closer to something feral, something more akin to a true werewolf… and then turned into a hybrid by Niklaus as well.
A slow smile curved his lips.
"Now wouldn't that be an experiment worth watching," he muttered. Elijah turned toward him. "What was that?"
Michael glanced over calmly. "Nothing."
Elijah frowned. "You're planning something else, aren't you brother?"
Michael chuckled softly. "Am I that transparent?" Elijah smiled faintly and looked away. "Not at all. If anything, you're the opposite of transparent."
Michael inclined his head.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
Michael slowed his steps, a faint frown forming as his thoughts shifted. 'On another note… it had been far too quiet.'
'No whispers clawing at the edges of reality. No sulfur-tainted distortions noticed so far in this country or even continent. No howling screams bleeding through the veil.' For Cade, that silence was unnatural. Infernals did not simply stop. Ever since he'd figure out Michael possessed the real flames of hell he'd been dead set on getting it so no, the Infernals aren't one to just stop appearing.
'What are you planning you infernal bile?' Michael thought coldly.
The question lingered just as Bonnie stepped out from the house, exhaustion written across her face.
"Done," she said firmly. "Let's go."
Michael smiled faintly. "Oh, good." Then he blurred.
Two sharp cracks echoed through the night.
Stefan collapsed first then Damon with both bodies hitting the floor lifelessly as their necks snapped cleanly under Michael's hands.
Shock rippled through the group.
Elijah turned sharply, eyes narrowed.
Alaric stared in disbelief. "Michael what the hell?!"
Michael straightened calmly. "We can't have them following us. They'd only screw it all up." His gaze shifted to Alaric. "You, however, will be coming with Elijah and Bonnie."
Bonnie hesitated, then met Michael's eyes. He nodded once.
Elijah studied him. "Aren't you coming?"
Michael's smile returned thin and dangerous.
"Oh, I am coming, Elijah. I wouldn't miss this for anything."
'Why would I miss a nexus vorti like this?' he thought. An event where fate knots itself so tightly it can be rewritten.
———————/-//———————-
The clearing burned with ritual fire.
Klaus stepped closer to Olivia, his voice almost amused. "I rather like this setting. Don't you?"
"Please…" Olivia whispered.
"Klaus, please don't do this" Elena begged.
He ignored them both, "Three goddesses," Klaus said grandly, gesturing to the flames. "Paving the way to my freedom."
The ring of fire around Olivia flickered… dimmed… and went out.
Klaus tilted his head, smiling.
"Well then. It's your turn, darling."
"Olivia run!" Elena screamed, Olivia didn't hesitate and immediately ran.
Klaus blurred forward and his hand closed around her throat mid-step, lifting her effortlessly off the ground. "Really?" he said softly. "You think a newborn vampire can escape me?"
He glanced at Elena, mock offense flashing in his eyes. "I'm rather insulted."
The stake in his hand drove home.
Elena turned away as Olivia's body desiccated in Klaus's grip, her body, one tear slipping free before everything went still.
The blood in Greta's chalice began to boil, thick and dark, magic saturating the air until it vibrated. When the flames shifted again, Klaus turned toward Elena.
"My dear," he said gently, "now it's your turn."
The fire around her vanished.
Klaus chuckled as he approached. "You know, I was half-expecting one of your boyfriends to show up. Or even my dear god-brother."
He brushed her hair aside, lips hovering at her neck. "But this only proves my point, Elena."
"He'll always choose me his family over any of you."
He bit down and Elena's breath hitched as her strength drained away. Darkness crept into her vision and then she saw them.
At the edge of the treeline looking down at the whole scene. Michael and Elijah.
They looked down at her not with triumph, not with cruelty but with what she could only describe as pity… well Elijah did but Michael had a small… smile?
A single tear slid down Elena's cheek as her body went limp, darkness finally claiming her. She fell to the ground, lifeless.
"Is it ready?" Klaus asked calmly and Greta nodded.
Klaus moved to the cauldron, gazing into the churning blood.
"Now then," he murmured, lifting the chalice. "Let's get rid of this curse, shall we?"
Without hesitation, he drank it all, tilting his head back, wasting not a single drop.
The flames beneath the cauldron extinguished instantly and Klaus staggered forward, " I can feel it."
Above him, the full moon rose into view.
His body jerked violently as bones cracked one after another and suddenly his eyes blazing yellow as dark veins spidered across his face.
The curse is broken.
Patreon.com/Fredozy