Chapter Text
Elijah saw nothing. He stared out into what he knew to be a calm Pennsylvania suburb, but he did not see it. He certainly did not feel it. The sound of the blood rushing in his ears was like a howling wind, and though he was certain he looked the part to any unsuspecting passerby, he was anything but calm.
“You're mistaken.” Even as he said it, he knew it wasn't true. Niklaus sounded stricken in a way he never had before, and it could only mean something unimaginable had happened—something like the sudden death of their youngest brother.
“Hard to be when I saw it. There is no mistaking what happened.”
“Then how? If you were there, how could this have happened?” Elijah hadn't meant to sound quite so accusatory. He just couldn't understand.
Their family is the strongest in the world. This was an irrefutable fact. For centuries, nothing could touch them, and with their father dead, they should be invincible. Yet now, here they were, fragmented beyond repair, another deep loss in far too short a time, this one incomprehensible and by far the most crippling. How was he meant to make sense of that?
A choked noise roused him from his thoughts, reminding him he was still on the phone with a concerningly quiet Niklaus. The sound was punctuated by a sharp inhale, followed by a shaky exhale. Elijah listened for a few moments more as his brother's breathing grew more erratic and came to the shocking conclusion that he was crying.
“Niklaus?” he questioned hesitantly, floundering in the face of his cruel brother’s unexpected vulnerability.
“I tried- Elijah, I swear it. I- I didn't do this! This wasn't my fault! Tell me you believe that?”
It took him longer than it should have to form an answer, the sheer desperation and pain in Niklaus’ voice rattling him to his core. He knew better than to underestimate what his brother was capable of, especially on the grounds of something as meaningless to him as sentimentality. Still, no matter how terrible he could be, Elijah couldn't entertain the thought that he would take the life of one of their siblings. If he believed that, he would truly lose all hope.
“I didn't mean to suggest you were at fault. It’s just difficult for me to make sense of this. What exactly happened? I don’t…” he trailed off, at a loss.
“I don't know everything myself. I…was too late to be of any use to him.” Niklaus swallowed thickly, his tone quiet and somber.
“That’s… that's alright. Just explain what you know. What did you see?”
There was a long pause before he answered, stilted and distant. “It was the Gilberts. The little doppelganger and her amateur hunter brother. They lured him out and stole the stake from him. Elijah, I… I saw him burn. I still see him burn-” Niklaus broke off with a choked sob, and Elijah could do nothing but listen in horrified silence as his brother fell apart.
Elena did this? How? Why?
Elijah never would have thought her capable. She seemed too compassionate and far too meek for premeditated murder. He was sure she and Kol had been engaged in some conflict that led to this, not that any explanation would spare her from the wrath of his family.
It was then he thought back to his last conversation with Kol. At the time, he was so angry and betrayed that he’d swiftly dismissed whatever worries his brother had, believing them to be baseless excuses. Now he had the sinking feeling that he’d been gravely wrong.
Elijah cleared his throat, but his voice still sounded raspy to his own ears. “Take deep breaths, Niklaus. Focus on my voice. I am with you, brother.”
For the first time in quite a while, he wished they were together. The instinct to comfort and soothe Niklaus was nearly overwhelming. Instead of holding his brother close like he would when they were younger, a grounding hand on the back of his neck and a reassuring arm around his shoulders, he could only listen helplessly as he fought to calm himself.
Elijah stared blankly, his thoughts a mess of confusion and a distant sort of grief, the type that builds in the background before it incapacitates, while Niklaus’ breathing slowly evened out in his ear. Nothing that was happening seemed real to him. Sensations and feelings all seemed as though they were heavily filtered through his body, only a weakened version reaching his loosely tethered mind.
He was so disconnected that Niklaus’ voice seemed sudden and jarring.
“How soon will you be here?” His brother's tone was a valiant attempt at its usual arrogance, but it was weighed down by an underlying sadness, rendering the pretense hollow and flimsy.
Elijah floundered for a moment, his instincts warring. He wanted to tell Niklaus that he would be there as quickly as possible, that nothing would keep him from returning to his family in their time of need, but his promises to Katerina left him bound in place. He could not abandon her when they were so close to achieving their goals. If he were to leave, she would have no one left and no hope of bartering for her freedom.
“I'm not sure. I'm involved in something at the moment, and I don't know how long it will be before I can step away.”
Niklaus was quiet for what seemed to him as far too long a time before he responded in a tone of voice so raw and sincere, Elijah felt certain he had never and would never hear it again.
“Elijah, I know the two of us are not on the best of terms. I know I am to blame for that. I've broken our relationship, perhaps beyond repair, but I don't think I can do this without you, brother. I need you.”
He was unable to speak, the words he might give in response stuck behind a lump of emotions expanding throughout his chest.
Niklaus sighed, “If you won't do so for me, then please, return for Kol.”
He should say yes. He owed as much to Kol, especially as he now understood just how difficult it must have been for him to renounce his help. Elijah closed his eyes tightly, a thousand apologies on the tip of his tongue for his brothers and the ways he failed them.
“I'm sorry, Niklaus, but I can't. I swear to you, I will be at your side as soon as I am able.”
The breath Niklaus let out was a harsh, painful thing. It rattled in his ears with the sting of betrayal. Elijah pressed his lips firmly together, knowing that if they opened, he would take it all back without thought.
Silence lingered, the stifling kind, before Niklaus spoke in stiff and short sentences. “Right. Of course. Bye, Elijah.”
The call disconnected, and he fell to his knees, the reality of it all crashing into him at once.
Two of his brothers were dead.
He had just abandoned his last living one in his greatest time of need.
He had failed his family in every conceivable way.
Elijah hung his head and cried, uncaring of the eccentric witch and his young vampire ward waiting for him inside. He wept openly as regret and guilt consumed him, begging anything that may be listening to grant his brothers solace wherever they were.
A soft breeze blew through the quiet street, weaving through a nearby wind chime and cooling his damp face. He breathed out with its passing.
Brother, I'm sorry.