Chapter Text
September 7, 2011
Hayley was terrified.
This was all too much. Her drunken one-night-stand landed her pregnant with Klaus Mikaelson’s child. Her journey to New Orleans brought no satisfactory answers about her family. Vampires and witches were everywhere, and she seemed to be the only werewolf in the vicinity.
Now, she was in some luxurious mansion with Klaus and Rebekah, after the hybrid had daggered Elijah for opposing him and shipped him straight to Marcel Gerard.
That morning, she’d heard a conversation that left her wondering how much worse things were about to get.
“Marcel possesses a weapon bigger and more powerful than an Original, and you handed our brother to him!” Rebekah shrieked downstairs. “How many times will Elijah forgive you? How long until his hope for your redemption finally dies?”
“I did what I had to do!” Klaus yelled back at her. “Marcel took our home!”
“And our home is worthless without family,” Rebekah spat. “I am finding Elijah— whatever it takes. Are you going to help me?”
A pause, which had Hayley worried. “Whatever it takes,” Klaus replied at last.
“Good,” said Rebekah, “because I think it’s time we tell Eisa.” Hayley expected that Klaus had not liked hearing this, because Rebekah added, “And don’t make that face, Nik, because there is no one I trust more than her, to help me find our brother.”
The whole day, Hayley had been wondering who this Eisa person was. Klaus didn’t seem to want to be around when this mystery being arrived, because he’d made excuses about seeing Marcel, which Rebekah had shot down, insistent that he ought to be there to greet Eisa. They had some argument about how Eisa would not be pleased if Klaus was acting so negligent. Klaus insisted that Eisa would rather die than help him.
“So, who is this person you two have been talking about all day?” asked Hayley cautiously, not sure if she was supposed to know about Eisa, or not.
“My backup,” said Rebekah simply, picking at her nails. “Nik is demented, and I need reinforcements.”
“That’s not answering my question.”
The Original rolled her eyes. “Eisa is my sister.”
Hayley blanched a bit. Was she really expected to live with four Originals? “You have a sister. Okay. Um, what’s she like?”
Rebekah wasn’t sure where to begin, or what to say, because there was so much she could touch on. But she decided on a point in history, and got going.
“If you hate Klaus,” started Rebekah, “then you’re not going to like Eisa at all. They call her ‘The Trickster.’ ‘The Temptress.’ ‘The Original You Really Don’t Want to Piss Off.’ She’s infiltrated secret societies, created them, driven men to end their own lives, sired armies of vampires to do her bidding and bring about bloodshed, all for fun. I don’t know if my father knew that her name meant ‘burning fire’ and ‘offspring of Loki’ when he dubbed her that, but as you can already see… It's accurate.
“She’s the third child my mother, Esther, bore. Our eldest sibling, Freya, died of plague. My parents brought Finn and Eisa to the New World, where Elijah was born, which brought about the rest of us. My sister used to be my favorite person in the whole world. Eisa was our second mother. She fed us, bathed us, clothed us, kept us safe when my father tormented us. She worked spells with my mother, then taught them to my brother Kol, and I, as we were the only ones who ever tried to understand our witch side. She gave up quite a bit, to keep us happy. Many men in our village wished to marry her, and she refused, because she wanted to help us thrive despite having parents who were frankly, terrible.”
“Eisa,” asked Rebekah, one day that the two had gone to a nearby river to fetch water. “Why won’t you get married?”
Eisa, who was sixteen at the time, shrugged. “I don’t want to, little Bekah.”
“But Papa says you are of marrying age.”
“Well, yes, but just because someone is of marrying age, doesn’t mean they have to marry.”
“But Papa always tells you and Finn that it’s bad to be unwed.”
Eisa smirked. “Our father is old fashioned, sister. Finn and I don’t want to get married, because we both wish to find love, first. Neither of us have found that in our village.”
“But why?” Rebekah insisted, following after her as they went into the water. “A lot of the men love you, Mama says so.”
“Ah, they may love me, but I do not love them back. I don’t think a person should marry someone when that love is not wholly returned. They wish for me to be their wife because they believe our only duty in this world is to make children. I want more than that. Thus, I prefer to wait. And I will wait as long as it takes, until the right person comes along.”
“There was a time we almost left,” mused Rebekah. “Eisa turned eighteen, and wished to take the lot of us and abandon our parents. She still didn’t want to marry anyone in our village, and she desired to keep Mikael from tormenting Nik. It irked her that Esther allowed Nik to be mistreated. She was a strong witch, powerful enough to have been able to hide us from our mother. But the rest of us were so young— I was only ten— that she chose to wait, at least until I was eighteen, so that most of us would be old enough to care for our youngest brother properly.”
“This is absurd, Eisa,” said Finn when she’d proposed the idea to him in the dead of night, out in the forest, while they were pretending to take Rebekah out to see the stars. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Brother, please!” she begged, sinking to the ground and holding her hands up in a pleading gesture. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever asked you for. I cannot stay here any longer— I despise all the men who court me, I despise how Mikael harms the rest of us if we try to stand up for our brother. I have the magic we need, I can keep Esther from finding us.”
Finn yanked her up, and pulled Rebekah along with them, back to the village. “Listen to yourself! You and I cannot raise the rest of them alone.”
Eisa shoved him off, pulling Rebekah to stand behind her. “Elijah and Klaus are old enough, sixteen and fourteen apiece, they can help us!”
“And what of Henrik? He is only four. Kol and Rebekah will need to be attended to, as well— we cannot manage it. Where would we go? What village would take us in? We have to stay, Eisa.”
“I cannot leave when Niklaus is slapped around every day as if he were an animal instead of a boy! Esther does nothing to protect him, therefore, we must! Mikael has already struck Rebekah for coming between them. If you think I’d allow my sister to be abused by our father—”
“We can’t go, Eisa,” insisted Finn. “We cannot. We ought to wait for Rebekah to be older. Only then will we all be mature and strong enough to protect one another from Mikael.”
Eisa gritted her teeth. “Fine. The instant Rebekah turns eighteen, we are leaving this horrid place.”
“We didn’t get there,” sighed Rebekah. “When I was seventeen, my brother Henrik was killed by werewolves. We became vampires, and Eisa lost her magic. We no longer had the means to leave— we couldn’t hide from our mother. Nik ended up killing Esther, unbeknownst to us at the time, and we all fled our father, with Eisa, Elijah, and Finn acting as our parental figures. They kept us being careful, disposing of bodies properly, laying low.
“But my brother Finn despised our immortality, and his pessimism left him becoming insufferable. He no longer wished to be in charge. He was negligent and constantly complaining. Eisa had to take on his duties, and once more, she sacrificed her happiness to remain with us and keep us safe. She even defended him when we bickered. Eventually, we settled in Italy, and Eisa began working to help Finn appreciate his vampirism. She introduced him to a woman, Sage, and he fell in love with her. The rest of us had already turned someone into a vampire, but Eisa and Finn had not.
“When Finn turned Sage, I thought all would be well. But then those blasted daggers I told you about came to be… and Finn was left in his coffin. Eisa, in trying to defend him, was nearly daggered as well, were it not for Kol, Elijah, and I vowing to abandon Nik if he harmed her. Elijah and Eisa left us for awhile after that, because she was hurt that Nik would not allow Finn to be free. She returned… a different person.”
Hayley tensed. “What do you mean?”
“She hardly speaks of it… but she met someone, during that time. She fell in love, and was taken away from that person by Elijah and Nik, because Mikael had found us all, and we needed to leave. That person had been her first sireling.”
Rebekah was holding Eisa, who had not stopped crying for hours after she’d been undaggered. It had been Elijah and Klaus’s only way to bring her to their new home. “Sister,” she whispered. “Tell me what’s wrong? What happened over there?”
“They took me away,” Eisa sobbed, pulling back and covering her face. “They took me away from her, Bekah.”
“From Aya?”
“I wanted to stay, I wanted to be with her, I wanted her to lead the Strix with me, and they forced me to go. Elijah promised me he’d never help Nik dagger me, and look at me now! No one has ever… ever made me feel the way she did. I had it all wrong, Bekah, this whole time, I wondered why I could never connect with men the way you do… I can’t love them because I’m not supposed to. I fancy women. I realized I loved Aya; I didn’t want to be apart from her. I don’t know where she went anymore, I don’t know how to find her… I lost my love and I’m never getting her back…”
Rebekah shivered a bit. “She became so… bitter afterward. She hated the world, she hated our brothers for a time, and she started to act in a ruthless way that earned her those nicknames I mentioned. She was known for her violence, and many feared her. It’s… difficult to think back on those times, Hayley, because my sister used to be so jubilant and gentle, even with her vampirism. It was as if she selectively turned off her humanity out of anger, and it never really reverted.
“Nik didn’t make it any better. In 1495, he daggered her, and she spent three hundred and twenty-five years in a box, paying the price for what my brother calls ‘the ultimate betrayal.’ Elijah and Nik didn’t get along in that time, and Kol even left us for a century because he, too, was furious that Nik would do such a thing to the sister who had protected us for so long.”
“Why the bloody hell did you dagger her, Nik?!” shrieked Rebekah on the evening in 1495 when she found her sister in a coffin. “What did she do to you?!”
Klaus was fuming, and didn’t answer as he brushed past her. Still seeking out answers, Rebekah turned to Elijah, who also looked quite cross. “Elijah, tell me! What happened?!”
“She betrayed us, sister,” said Elijah in a hard voice. “She helped Katerina Petrova escape.”
“What?”
Elijah put his hand on his forehead, sighing loudly. “I never even knew she… she felt that way about her. If I had known…”
“Elijah, you’re hardly telling me anything!”
“Niklaus and I had no idea that Eisa was also smitten with her. I— I was attempting to find a way to help Katerina survive the ritual. Eisa had other plans.”
“She— she’s the one that snuck her out?”
“No. But she aided the man who did, and in doing so, allowed Katerina to run so far, we’ve yet to find her.”
Rebekah was silent for a moment, thinking back to it.
Eisa had been in a relationship with a vampire named Mary Porter, the same woman who’d turned Rose-Marie. Eisa came to know Rose after she and Mary parted ways, and had been interested in her, but more interested in Katherine, upon her arrival in England. However, she’d kept from going for either woman, thinking she ought to first help Klaus with his ritual so he’d allow her the freedom of being with whoever she pleased.
Initially, she’d forced herself to be okay with his plans. She forced herself to accept that Katherine would die, and began to speak with Rose more often, though she never brought her around to where her siblings lived. And yet, Katherine would not leave Eisa’s mind, and at last, she realized she couldn’t sit idly by and let her die.
The night Trevor helped Katherine escape, Eisa had offered him a helping hand, after he’d told her that she could come with him, Katherine, and Rose to another country. Eisa had long since wanted to leave her siblings, but had no idea where to go. Thinking this would be her fresh start, her chance at freedom, she led Elijah down the wrong path, allowing Trevor to take Katherine to the cottage where Rose lived.
But when Katherine became a vampire and ran, Rose and Trevor had to follow suit, in a different direction. Eisa realized that she was in danger of being discovered, but ignored her own wellbeing, instead choosing to help the three fugitives, separately, by sending them money and meeting them where she could to help them hide. She forged documents and pointed them to roads that would lead them to safe havens. On the side where her siblings were, she’d been creating a false trail that would keep her brothers from finding them.
“Both Elijah and Nik played a part in keeping her down for so long,” murmured Rebekah once she started up again. “They were shaken to their very core at the knowledge that their sister had gone behind their backs in that manner. All she wanted was love. All she craved was freedom. For three centuries, she was in a deep slumber, rage bubbling up little by little.
“In 1820, my brothers woke her up. It was the same year we took in Marcel, and I know they used it as a way to keep her from retaliating against them. It worked. She was angry, but she kept it in for Marcel’s sake. She and Elijah were practically his parents, at least, until Elijah started to neglect him. Seeing he no longer cared, she stopped caring, too. She left for a few years, came back when Nik daggered me in 1835. She argued for my release, and he didn’t grant it.
“She traveled a lot, after that. Fell in love again. Had to say her goodbyes. Was daggered in 1864 when she snuck home to try and free me and my two brothers. She was even worse that second time daggered, even if it lasted far less. She and Kol were scheming against Nik. I… played a role in getting them daggered in 1914. I didn’t like that they’d excluded me from their plan, and I sold them out.
“Eventually, around 1933, from what I hear, she and Elijah went off on their own. It was going to be over for good. They started making a plan to kill Nik once and for all. That’s how they ended up in Mystic Falls. You know the rest.”
Hayley shook her head. “No… I really don’t. They’d already been there when I arrived, and I never spoke to them. I never even heard her name when I was there. I must have been really out of the loop, I guess, because I never heard Elijah’s name, either.”
Rebekah thought for a moment. “Well, she didn’t stay there very long, to be honest. You see, she and Elijah arrived there first with the intent of acquiring that doppelgänger bitch Elena and the moonstone to kill Nik. I wasn’t there for this bit, but I heard they practically made everyone there piss their trousers when they first popped up…”
Rose was nervous. The prospect of seeing Eisa again was terrifying enough. Knowing that Elijah was accompanying her was worse.
She moved down the staircase, and saw the two of them standing, waiting. If there was one thing those siblings had in common, it was that they liked for everyone to know they were rich. Elijah, in his suit, and Eisa, looking like a chic fashion model straight out of a Vogue magazine. They glared up as Rose came down.
Cold. That was all Rose could sense from Eisa. The woman who long ago had been her friend, nearly her lover, was looking at her without emotion. Rose had heard that Eisa’s punishment for helping her had been severe. This was the proof.
“Rose-Marie,” said Elijah when he saw her. “Is there somewhere we can talk?”
Rose’s voice initially caught in her throat. “Yes, in here.” She beckoned the two Originals into the next room. “You have to forgive the house.”
Elijah made to speak, but Eisa held up her hand, and he was silent. She walked in, standing tall, and following Rose into the next room, her heels clicking as she was led into a drawing room. “Rose,” spoke Eisa, her bland tone sending shivers down the younger vampire’s spine. “Five hundred years later, and you were brave enough to contact us. Why?”
“I wanted my freedom,” said Rose a bit shakily. “I’m tired of running. Are either of you in a position to grant me that?”
Elijah was already examining the room. “We have complete authority to grant pardon to you and your little pet. What is his name these days? Trevor. If we so see fit.”
“Katerina Petrova?” offered Rose.
Elijah would have heard her out. Eisa didn’t have the patience. “You don’t have her,” said Eisa, crossing her arms. “We knew the instant you chose this meeting place that Katerina was involved. But you don’t have her, because otherwise, you wouldn’t be so nervous, would you? You’d be smug. She is the reason you’ve had to run from my family.”
Rose gulped. “I have better than Katerina. I have her doppelgänger.”
Eisa sped toward her, gripping her throat and slamming her into the wall, causing Rose to croak. “Oh, you better have a good reason for using that word, because we didn’t come here for you to waste our time. Katerina was the last of her line. There are no other existing Petrovas.”
“There— there are!” Rose gasped, and Eisa released her. “I swear to you, I have her.”
“Then show her to us,” said Elijah sternly. “Otherwise, I believe Eisa is quite inclined to feast on your organs.”
Rose nodded slowly. “Elijah, you are a man of honor. You should be trusted. But I want to hear you say it again.”
Elijah’s lips quirked into a slight smile. “You have my word that we will pardon you.”
“Enough with all that!” snapped Eisa. “Show us the girl, now, and maybe, I won’t have to break the promise Elijah made for the both of us.”
Rose led them into the next room, where Elena Gilbert waited, alongside Trevor. Both Originals tensed at the sight of her, and each practically materialized in front of the girl, causing her to flinch. Elijah leaned down to smell her neck, and Elena let out the quietest of whimpers. “Human,” he told his sister, who came to stand behind Elena, and leaned down to sniff the other side. “It’s impossible.”
“Would you look at that?” crooned Eisa, making Elena shut her eyes as she purposely let her fangs graze her shoulder. “Ooh, I would thoroughly enjoy seeing you mauled to pieces…”
“Now, now, Eisa, don’t be rude,” scolded Elijah playfully. The woman walked away from Elena, smirking maliciously at her. “We’ll have all the time in the world… soon enough.”
“I can’t help it, Elijah,” said Eisa, coming to lean on his shoulder. “I’m hungry. And the perfect meal is in this very room.”
“So basically, your sister is rude, creepy, psychotic, and doesn’t care who she hurts?” asked Hayley. “That’s not comforting at all.”
“She’s better once you get to know her. Unfortunately, no one really tries to do that nowadays. Vampires gossip so much, the truth gets stretched, and the only thing anyone truly knows about her is that if you hear her name in passing, you’re going to wind up dead. It’s been true for too many vampires to count. She does this thing where, when someone is on her hit list for whatever reason, she sends someone to speak about her near that person. Almost every vampire knows our names. They know they’re in trouble if they hear Eisa’s, because it’s not very common. Once they hear her name in conversation, and her minion reveals that they mean Eisa, the Original… it’s over. The target will become paranoid. And on the day of her choosing, she strikes, and the person is never heard from again.”
“But the people in Mystic Falls aren’t dead. And they went up against all of you. If she’s so violent…”
“Oh, darling, we allowed them to live. I had my fun with the Salvatore brothers. Klaus had a little plaything— you recall Caroline. Elijah was fond of Elena, Finn saw Sage again, and Kol… well, Kol will sleep with anything that walks, so you can imagine how many girls he found there that were to his liking. They weren’t important enough for us to kill them. In fact, they were useful. We liked having them be afraid of us, without killing them, because just knowing that the Originals can kill you if they want… that’s nerve-wracking enough. We could get them to give us things. They were even helping us, for a time.”
“You didn’t mention Eisa in that last bit. Why would she let them live? Doesn’t seem like she made any connection to them.”
“Ah, she did. But again, one of those things my sister never talks about. So many reminders of her second love arose while she was in that town. I promise you, the only reason they aren’t all dead, is because Eisa was doing her past love one last favor. We all have the strength to end them. And we might, one day, if they ever get in our way again. But right now, what matters most to all of us who remain, is that child in your tum. Even Eisa is setting aside her heartless ways to come and help.”
The doorbell rang, and Rebekah stood up, causing Hayley to gulp. “That’ll be her,” announced the blonde, going to open the door for her sister.
Hayley didn’t know what to expect. She didn’t know what she was getting herself into. There was so much she still wanted to know about Eisa before she had to live with her, but it didn’t seem like any of her qualms would be put to rest yet.
“Always speaking as if I’m not going to find out what you said about me, Bex,” Hayley heard an unfamiliar voice say, in a clipped tone. “You never do remember how sharp my ears are, sister.”
“My nails are sharper, so watch it,” answered Rebekah.
“Oh, bite me, you may have been daggered less, but you can’t beat me in a fight.”
“Try me, why don’t you? I didn’t invite you here to brawl, Eisa. What’ve you been up to since we last saw each other?”
“You mean, since you got Elena Gilbert turned into a vampire? I’ve been enjoying my freedom without our parents constantly trying to murder us. It’s been rather nice not having Nik acting like an abominable little wart all the bloody time. Where’s the girl? I want to see her.”
The click of two sets of heels, before Hayley was able to lay eyes on her.
Tall, slender, with a calculating expression, short brown hair tucked back with clips, and dark eyes that seemed to stare into her soul. The wolf seemed to lose the strength to stand up when Eisa walked toward her, dressed in an extravagant evening gown as if she’d just been at a ball.
Just looking at her, she knew she meant business. Eisa didn’t let her know what she was thinking at the moment. She could have been judging her, or she could have been worrying about what Hayley would think of her.
“Hayley Marshall, I hear?” asked Eisa, extending her hand to her. “Eisa Mikaelson, the Original Bad Bitch and ‘Evil Girl Version of Elijah’ according to your pal, Damon.”
“Oh, uh, Damon isn’t my friend,” said Hayley awkwardly. She sort of slapped Eisa’s hand without meaning to, and the vampire stared at her as if she had noticed, but hadn’t felt it happen. It was making Hayley’s heart rate accelerate, because Eisa hadn’t moved her hand away. She expected her to greet her properly, and would not relent until she got what she wanted. The wolf did her best to shake her hand in an acceptable manner, and only then did the Original stand down.
“That trip was horrid,” said Eisa, going to slump on a nearby chair, the slit on her skirt parting around her legs, leaving them on full display.
Most people couldn’t remember the moment that made them realize they weren’t straight. Hayley didn’t remember the first time she questioned her sexuality, but this was close enough to the first time, that she fixated on it.
Her mind had wandered to unholy places when she watched Eisa lean back, crossing her legs and closing her eyes as she began to speak to her sister, mentioning something about flight attendants and planes. She’d flicked her hand, revealing well-manicured hands with short, almond-shaped nails painted to match her dress. Around her wrist, golden bracelets danced with one another, and a shiny ring adorned the third finger from left, on her right hand.
It was as if she was posing for an artist, and she knew exactly which angles brought out her best features. She seemed to glow, and she moved ever so slightly at times, readjusting her body to accentuate another part of her body. There was a moment when she arched her back a bit to stretch her arms and reach out to a servant, which was how handing her a glass of wine.
Hayley didn’t realize she’d been staring at her breasts like an idiot until she came back to reality and saw that Eisa was in front of her, snapping her fingers right in front of her face.
“God, is being pregnant really as terrible as they say it is?” she asked. “You look as though you’re watching a horror film, gawking at a screen that isn’t even in front of you.”
Hayley tried to compose herself quickly. “Uh, it’s just a lot to take in, you know. The whole, miracle baby with Klaus thing. I uh… don’t have morning sickness yet… so I was just wondering what that might be like.”
Eisa knew this was a lie, but she wasn’t going to have her speak on it. Instead, her jaw twitched, and she set her glass of wine down. “Speaking of my brother…” She stood up, and Hayley was almost sad as the skirt covered her legs. With a loud yell, Eisa called out, “NIKLAUS!”
He was in front of her within seconds. “I knew I recognized that whiny voice. Sister!” He clapped his hands together. “What a pleasant surprise.”
Eisa stared at him blankly. “Don’t pretend you're happy to see me, considering how we parted ways before.”
Klaus was glad to drop his smile. “Wonderful, because you’re the last person I wanted to see in the first place. Tell me, why did it take this revelation to bring you back to my doorstep? Last I heard in Mystic Falls, you wanted nothing to do with me. What, sister, is your business here? I have enough problems as it is, and I didn’t ask for another one.”
Eisa raised a brow at him. “In case you’ve forgotten, Nik, you knocked a twenty-year-old girl up and left her carrying a bloody hybrid. Elijah wanted me to be here, and now, funnily enough, he’s nowhere to be found, according to Rebekah. I decided I wanted to see what my baby brother was up to in our city. I rather liked New Orleans, and wished to return home in time to make sure this child grows up with a father. Two of our brothers are already dead, and I’m getting a nasty inkling that you or Elijah might be next. So, are you going to accept my help, or not? Because I’m fine going back to Germany, I was naked on a couch in front of a gaggle of newbie art students when Bex called.”
Klaus wasn’t going to say no. After all, Eisa had practically been the one to raise him, since Esther and Mikael were completely incompetent. He wanted both his sisters here to support him, even if he’d never admit it aloud.
Smirking, he bowed to her. “The Queen of Mischief is gracing the streets of New Orleans once again. I can only hope that no one gets in your way, now that you’re here.”