chapter fifteen
season three, episode six and eight
smells like teen spirit, ordinary world

"Where's Stefan?" The two Mikaelson sisters brushed past Damon, walking into the Salvatore house. Rebekah had not taken the news of Klaus leaving them well, and had turned to retail therapy.

Arabella was just grateful Rebekah hadn't chosen Ara's method of dealing with anger.

"Who the hell are you?" Damon Salvatore questioned, looking after the siblings in confusion. Theodore had remained at Arabella's house, muttering something about dealing with Ophelia.

"He left me here," Rebekah announced, walking up to Stefan who was laid on the couch. Arabella faltered when she noticed the amount of girls surrounding him. "My brother actually left me here."

"You still have your sister," Arabella countered. Rebekah waved her off dismissively.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Stefan responded. "Your tone implies that I'm actually supposed to care."

Rebekah stared blankly at him, and Ara knew Stefan was teetering on the edge of causing Rebekah to throw a fit. "You're Klaus's sister?" Damon asked from behind the pair.

"Rebekah," The blonde turned around to face the older Salvatore. "Pleasure, I'm sure. Which one's my room?"

Arabella blinked several times in surprise. She had her own house, Rebekah didn't need to stay with the Salvatores. "You're not staying here," Stefan replied. "Arabella has her own house, stay with her."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not staying in that hobbit hole my sister calls her home," Rebekah deadpanned, while Ara's lips parted in offense. "I'll see to it myself."

Rebekah walked towards the stairs that led to the upper floor, and Ara studied Damon's face. She hoped, no she prayed, that Damon had been bluffing, and he wasn't actually going to wake her father.

"Well, I guess she's staying here." Stefan commented dryly.

"Can I help you?" Damon addressed Arabella, unsure on why exactly the youngest Mikaelson was still in his living room.

Arabella crossed her arms over her chest. "While my brother is a tremendous ass, I do wish to keep my own peace with the two of you." She informed them.

Damon scoffed from where he stood. "You helped Klaus. You're like his own little minion."

Arabella shook her head. "Don't you understand? He's my brother. It's just like you would still sacrifice everything for Stefan, no matter the bad he has done."

Damon looked at her in thought for a minute before a defeated sigh escaped his lips. "What does your idea of peace entail?"

"My sister, Theodore Blake, and a new vampire named Ophelia Adams are off-limits." Arabella answered. "I don't come after your friends, you don't come after mine. Deal?"

Stefan raised an eyebrow. "You're not including yourself in your little peace treaty."

The blonde sent him a smirk. "You act as if you would be able to take me down."

"Confident," Damon commented. Ara only shrugged before she waved goodbye to the brothers, heading to her own home.

"You talk to Ophelia?" Theodore's voice reached her ears as she entered her home.

"Haven't seen her," Arabella replied, locking the door to her house. It was pointless, but it brought her a tiny amount of comfort.

"Ara," Theodore sighed as he came out of his bedroom. "You need to restore her memories. You heard how it was for Stefan. Large gaps of her memory, gone. It's not fair to her."

"You did not see her face, Theodore," Arabella shook her head quickly. "She was broken. Whatever my brother had done to her broke her into pieces. She begged me to erase my family from her memories. It was her choice."

"You know what it did to Stefan," Theodore reasoned. "Knowing he was missing pieces of him."

"The difference between Stefan and Ophelia," Ara huffed in frustration. "Is Ophelia requested it, begged for it. She knew what she was doing. Stefan did not."

Theodore stared at Arabella for another moment before letting out a sigh of defeat. "Whatever you think is best, Arabella." He paused. "Where's Rebekah?"

An amused chuckle escaped the lips of the youngest Mikaelson. "She has decided to move in with the Salvatore brothers. She declared she does not want to live in my hobbit hole of a house."

Theodore let out a laugh. "She called this a hobbit hole?" When Ara nodded, Theodore glanced around the house. "It is a pretty small house."

"It's cozy!" Arabella defended quickly. "It's not my fault you had my sister spoiled with penthouses in New York!"

"Just admit it's a small house, Arabella," Theodore responded.

Ara rolled her eyes. "It is a small house, but that's not a bad thing!"

Theodore only laughed in response, and a thoughtful sigh escaped her lips once more. "Klaus ran. He took my brothers with him. I don't know how to free them."

Theodore looked at Arabella. "Do you really need to wake the others? Kol is a ruthless killer, who will hate you when he wakes up by the way, and Finn has been daggered for nine hundred years. He wouldn't exactly have an easy time adjusting."

Arabella's veins flashed with anger. "You did not just say that." She responded, glaring at him, and Theodore regretted his choice of words. "They are my family, Theodore! My blood. Finn will have his family to help him and Kol was not a killer when he was daggered."

She didn't disagree with the words that Kol would loathe her. But that didn't mean he deserved to stay locked up. He deserved to be free. To make his own decisions.

Theodore looked at Arabella for a moment before he looked back to the floor. "Why did Klaus run?" He questioned.

"Damon spoke Mikael's name," Arabella informed him. "Told us he and Katerina found Mikael and planned to wake him."

"Mikael?" Theodore repeated. "I've heard all of you speak his name, but Bekah never talked about who he is."

"Our father," Arabella replied. None of them liked to talk about Mikael, not after everything he did. Turning them into vampires, killing their mother, hunting them for centuries. "The destroyer."

Theodore furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "The destroyer?"

"That's what he's known as in the Supernatural community," Arabella let out a soft sigh. "The destroyer, the vampire that hunts vampires."

"He hunts vampires?" Theodore looked concerned. A vampire with the power and strength of an Original, who would hunt him.

"Only his children."

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The ghosts had infiltrated Mystic Falls.

Instead of choosing to aid Bonnie Bennett in getting rid of them, Arabella Mikaelson had spent her entire day at home, waiting for her mother to appear. She had to be on the other side, after all.

And when she didn't come, Arabella cried herself to sleep.

Rebekah had come to collect her the next morning. She told her sister she knew she had a rough night, due to the storms that plagued the skies.

Now, they were sitting on the couch of the Salvatore home, curled together for comfort. Despite being two one thousand years old vampires, deep down they were two scared girls who missed their mother.

"Elena is speaking of waking Mikael," Rebekah muttered to her younger sister.

Arabella nodded. "That is why Niklaus fled. Damon spoke Mikael's name."

Arabella felt Rebekah shudder from beside her. Ara's mind went back to their village, watching in fear and worry as their father would torment Niklaus.

She had no idea what she would do if he appeared.

"I told Elena to come over," Rebekah admitted softly, and Ara stiffened. She did not want to see the doppelganger. "Figured if we tell her a very short version of our childhood, she might lay off."

Arabella looked up as Elena finally walked in, and after a quick power struggle between Rebekah and the doppelganger, Elena finally agreed to listen.

Rebekah led the other two upstairs, opening the door to Stefan's bedroom, creeping inside. "How fun is this?" She questioned.

"We shouldn't be here," Elena spoke up, arms crossed over her chest as she glared at the two Mikaelson sisters.

"Of course we should," Rebekah retorted quickly, holding up a pair of Stefan's underwear and making Ara raise an eyebrow. "Come on, like you've never wanted to snoop. Boxer briefs. Now that's a change from the twenties."

Arabella let out a soft chuckle at the antics of her older sister, but Elena did not seem so amused. "Are you going to root through his stuff all night or are you going to start to tell me your story."

"You're very entitled," The younger blonde scoffed.

"What do you want to know?" Rebekah replied as Elena glared at Arabella.

"Well, Elijah said that your father was a landowner in Europe," Elena pushed herself off the doorway, entering the room. "How did you guys end up here?"

"Our parents had just started a family when a plague struck their homeland," Rebekah explained, picking up a paper and looking down at it. "They lost a child to it."

Ara frowned. Freya, the oldest Mikaelson. She was supposed to have another older sister. "They wanted to escape to protect their future children of the same fate," Arabella continued,

"So how did you end up here?" Elena persisted. "This part of the world hadn't even been discovered yet."

Rebekah chuckled in amusement. "Not by anyone in your history books," She replied. Ara nodded. Throughout the history of the entire world, pieces of stories had been added or removed. The story of her family was no different.

"Our mother knew the witch Ayana who heard from the spirits of a mystical land where everyone was healthy," Rebekah explained once more. "Blessed by the gifts of speed and strength. That led our family here. Where we lived amongst those people."

"The werewolves?" Elena realized, the pieces clicking as Arabella closed her eyes, her mind going back to the scream of horror that had left Niklaus's lips when he carried Henrik back to their village.

"To us, they were just our neighbors," Rebekah shrugged in reply. "My family lived in peace with them for over twenty years, during which time my family had more children, including Arabella and me."

"You make it sound so normal," Elena told them.

"It is normal to us," Arabella said softly, She missed her siblings and her mother tremendously. Running around the village with Kol, being taught how to hunt by Finn.

"Once a month, our family retreated to the caves beneath our village," Rebekah continued. "The wolves would howl through the night, and by morning we'd return home."

"Klaus and our youngest brother Henrik snuck out to watch the men turn into beasts one full moon," Arabella picked up where Rebekah had left off. "That was forbidden. Henrik paid the price."

Arabella closed her eyes, a tear trickling down as she went back to that night. To the last time she saw her little brother.

"And that was the beginning of the end of peace with our neighbors," Rebekah finished. "And one of the last moments my family had together as humans."

And the last time Arabella's oldest brother, Finn, had comforted her. After they were turned into vampires, Finn could not stand to look his youngest sister in the face.

Elena's phone started to buzz, and Rebekah cleared her throat before the tears could come. "You better get that. That'll be Damon checking up on you."

Elena took the call, and it was in fact Damon. Who had released Stefan from him prison. Arabella smirked at Elena, knowing the brunette hated not being in control.

"Did you get your fill of snooping yet?" Arabella asked her older sister, who was stretched out on Stefan's bed and reading his journal. "Can we get on with the story so she can leave?"

Elena looked at Arabella in confusion, unsure on when exactly the Mikaelson had started to loathe her. She had a suspicion it was over Stefan, since she had read Ara's journals from the twenties.

"Honestly, I don't get you two as a couple," Rebekah told Elena, holding a picture of the doppelganger and Stefan in her hands. "My sister and Stefan are much cuter together."

"You know what?" Elena breathed out in annoyance, standing up. "I'm just going to go."

Rebekah stared after her. "You haven't even heard half the story."

"And you're not going to tell it!" Elena snapped. "You're just bored and looking for someone to push around. The both of you. Find someone else to play with. Maybe you can compel yourself a friend."

"The necklace wasn't Stefan's to give," Rebekah spoke up as Arabella made the bedroom door slam closed with her mind. Elena froze. "It belonged to the original witch."

"The one who put the hybrid curse on Klaus?" Elena questioned as she turned around to look at the two sisters.

"Not just the hybrid curse," Rebekah shook her head. "She's the one who turned us into vampires. I'm thirsty, do you want a drink?"

Rebekah brushed past Elena, and Arabella realized that Rebekah was leaving the fact the Original witch was their mother out on purpose. Quickly, the blonde followed her older sister.

"The original witch turned us into vampires so the werewolves could not harm us any longer," Arabella told Elena.

"So, vampirism was a form of protection?" Elena questioned her as they walked down the staircase.

"What else would it be?" Rebekah deadpanned.

"A curse."

Arabella chuckled. Elena was right, the Mikaelson siblings were cursed, but that was not how their parents saw it. "Our parents only sought a way of keeping their children alive," Rebekah explained.

"Yeah, but why stay?" Elena reasoned. The only reason they had stayed was their fathers ego. Mikael was too prideful to run away from the wolves. "If they were so afraid of the werewolves, why not leave?"

"Pride," The older Mikaelson informed her. "Our father didn't want to run anymore. He wanted to fight and be superior to the wolves."

"Where they could bite, we had to bite harder," Arabella chimed in. "Where they had speed, we had to be faster. Agility, strength, senses."

Arabella went quiet for a moment, her mind going back to that fateful night, before she spoke up again, voice vulnerable. "It was not just pride, though. Henrik was the baby of the family, and as cruel as my father is, he did love him. I think a large part of it was the desire to get revenge."

Rebekah grabbed Elena's hand, sharing her memories from that night. "In her hands?" Elena spoke, repeating Mikael's words. "How could she do anything?"

"Because my mother was also a witch," Rebekah informed her.

"What?" Elena asked in shock.

Arabella let out a soft chuckle of amusement. "Where do you think I get my magic from, Elena? My mother. The Original witch."

Rebekah stalked into the study of the Salvatore home, looking for the alcohol. "Where do they keep their best vintage?" She asked her sister, who pointed it out for her.

Elena had little concern for the question. "But if your mother was a witch, and your sister,"

"Am I?" Rebekah interrupted. "No. A witch is nature's servant, a vampire is an abomination of nature. You can either be one or the other, never both."

"But Arabella," Elena argued.

"I never had my own magic, I could only take it from others, siphon it," Arabella explained. "I'm a vampire because of a spell, so my body siphons the spell and allows me to do magic. Loophole."

Arabella had spoken so fast Elena looked lost, the brunette only nodding shortly. "Our mother did this for us," Rebekah added. "She did not turn."

"How did you turn?" Elena questioned.

Arabella stiffened. She had been with Kol and Elijah, joking around like usual, when she watched her father plunge a sword into the hearts of her brothers before he stabbed her as well.

Arabella had not died instantly, instead suffering as she watched the light leave her brothers eyes. She had not known she would come back to life. She thought that was the end.

She wondered if she would have preferred that she had stayed dead.

Rebekah decided to tell the nicer part of the story. "She called upon the sun for life, and the ancient white oak tree. One of natures eternal objects, for immortality."

Rebekah stopped in front of the fireplace, staring down at the warm, flickering flames. "That night, our father offered us wine laced with blood." Rebekah took a shuddering breath. "And then he drove his sword through our hearts."

"He killed you?' Elena breathed out.

"And he wasn't delicate about it either." Rebekah informed her. Arabella remembered waking up in a pile of her own blood, blonde hair dyed crimson.

Rebekah popped her bottle open, throwing the top into the firepit. "We had to drink more blood to complete the ritual." The older blonde continued. "It was euphoric. The feeling of power was indescribable. But the witch Ayana was right about the consequences. The spirits turned on us and nature fought back."

"For every strength, we had a weakness to balance it." Arabella explained. "The sun became our enemy. It kept us indoors for weeks. With six siblings, you'd imagine that it did not go well."

Elena gave a tiny smile of amusement. "And though our mother found out a solution." Rebekah took over. "There were other problems. Neighbors who had opened their homes to us, could now keep us out. Flowers at the base of the white oak burned, and prevented compulsion."

"And the spell decreed that the tree that gave us life could also take it away." Arabella finished.

"So we burned it to the ground," Rebekah smirked.

That was the last time they had all been together as a happy family. Before their mother was murdered and their father had become hell-bent on murdering his children.

"But the darkest consequence was something my parents never anticipated," Rebekah told the doppelganger. "The hunger. Blood had made us reborn, and it was blood that we craved above all else. We could not control it. And with that, the predatory species was born."

Elena was silent for a moment as she processed the information, before she continued with her rather annoying questions. "Why did Mikael start hunting Klaus?"

"When Nik made his first human kill, it triggered his werewolf gene," Rebekah explained. "With that, he became our father's greatest shame."

"Yeah, Elijah and Arabella told me this part of the story," Elena cut in. "Your mother had an affair with one of the werewolf villagers. Klaus wasn't his son."

"She tried to make it right," Rebekah defended their mother quickly. "She put the hybrid curse on Nik to suppress his werewolf side, and then she turned her back on him. But Mikael's greatest weakness as a human was his pride. As a vampire, that was magnified."

"Elijah and I did not tell you the worst part of the story," Arabella cut in, feeling sick. "Our father did not just kill my mother's lover and his family. He went on a rampage, killing half of the village, before he came home and murdered our mother in cold blood."

Elena looked at Arabella in complete shock. "Mikael killed your mother?" She questioned them.

"He said she broke his heart, so he would break hers." Rebekah told her. Arabella closed her eyes as her mothers warm smile flashed into her mind. "He tore it from her chest as Nik watched."

"Afterwards, our father took off in a rage." Arabella spoke up. "And the rest of my siblings scattered. Nik stayed so he could help Bex and me bury our mother."

"He knew Ara and I had to say goodbye to our mother," Rebekah explained. "We were the closest to her. Her only daughters."

"I know you think she hated you, Niklaus, but she did not," Rebekah spoke, voice breaking as she stared at the grave he had made for their mother. "She was just afraid."

"She loved all of us," Arabella nodded her agreement, expression crestfallen. She struggled to find the strength within her to say goodbye to her mother. "She loved you."

"I'm sorry she turned her back on you." Rebekah said, facing her older brother. "I will never do that."

"I will never either," Arabella agreed. Now that her mother was gone, and her father had broken any last shred of a bond he had with his children, all the Mikaelson siblings had were eachother.

"Nor will I," A new voice joined, and Ara turned to find Elijah walking up to them. Arabella gave a smile of relief as she welcomed her older brother.

"We stick together as one," Rebekah told her three siblings, holding her hands out to Elijah and Niklaus, Arabella took the free hands of both her brothers. "Always, and forever."

A promise had been made that night. An eternal bond, a vow that tied all of them together. No matter how much life ripped them apart, they would always find their way home.

"Always and forever." Elena repeated. "Even though he locked you in a coffin for ninety years. Erased you from your boyfriends memories."

Arabella was startled Elena knew of that, but didn't appreciate it being thrown in her face. "We're vampires," Rebekah retorted. "Our emotions are heightened. I'm stubborn, Arabella is loyal, Elijah moral, and Nik has no tolerance for those who disappoint him."

Rebekah paused to collect herself as Ara's gaze went onto the floor. "Over a thousand years as a family we've all made that mistake at least once. I've made it several times."

"But you still love him?" Elena questioned.

Arabella gave her a blank look. No matter what Niklaus did, they would always share the same blood. "He's my brother," Rebekah shrugged. "And I am immortal. Should I spend an eternity alone instead?"

"When you are in our position, than you can talk," Arabella added on. "Until then, you have no idea what you are speaking about."

'You've heard the story, it's time to go," Rebekah's voice broke as she hurried to the door to escort Elena out. However, the brunette did not move. "I said leave, Elena! I don't know what you're up to, but I am no longer playing along."

"I'm just looking for one good reason why we shouldn't wake Mikael," Elena told the sisters.

Arabella let out a cold laugh. "We have given you plenty. He is called the destroyer." She stepped closer to Elena, voice dropping dangerously low. "Mark my words, Elena. If you wake Mikael, I will not hesitate to murder you and your entire family."

"Do what you need," Rebekah added, blue eyes cold as she looked at the Gilbert girl. "Wake Mikael at your own peril. But make no mistake. If you come after my brother, I will rip you apart. And I get my temper from my father."

"Now leave."

Elena actually listened, leaving, but to the two Mikaelsson sisters dismay, she was back within an hour. "I thought I told you to leave," Rebekah spoke as Elena stormed in.

"How do you know that Mikael killed your mother?" Elena's words made Arabella freeze.

"Nik was there," Rebekah explained. "He told me."

Elena let out a heavy breath, shaking her head. "He lied to you?"

"And how do you know that?" Rebekah questioned. Arabella hesitated. Niklaus was a lot of things, liar included, but he would never dare to lie to them about their mother's death.

"The cave where you carved your family's names is covered in symbols," Elena answered as she walked up to the two sisters. "The story of your family, how your parents arrived, how they made peace, the spell that turned them into vampires, and this."

Arabella's eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the pictures of drawings Elena was laying down. They must have been done by the other villagers after all the Originals fled.

"This is the symbol for hybrid," Elena explained, though it was futile. Both sisters knew how to read the drawings. "It's the combination of the werewolf and the vampire symbol. And this is the one for your mother."

"Her necklace," Rebekah spoke, eyes trained on the drawing.

"Get on with it," Arabella told Elena impatiently.

The doppelganger hesitated. "And this is the story of her death. The hybrid killed the Original witch. Not Mikael."

Arabella shook her head repeatedly. No, no. Klaus had said- Klaus told them it was Mikael. Mikael killed their mother. Klaus wouldn't, Klaus couldn't harm their mother. Elena was lying. She had to be.

No.

"No, no he wouldn't," Rebekah protested weakly.

"She put the curse on him, made it so that he would be the only one of his kind and then she rejected him," Elena reasoned with them, although it fell on deaf ears. "With the werewolf gene comes aggression and violence. When he turned, all of that was heightened. He killed her, Arabella, Rebekah. And then he made up this entire lie about your father so that he wouldn't lose the two of you."

Had it been a lie though?

It couldn't be a lie. Klaus would not do that to them. He may be horrible, but he would never go that far.

He couldn't. Elena was a liar.

Arabella's emotions swirled inside her, and the pictures on the table burst into flames. Elena looked at the blonde in shock. "Those mean nothing." Rebekah snarled, pointing at the burning pictures. "They're just stupid drawings done by stupid people who had no idea who our family was!"

"Then why are you so upset?" Elena questioned. Arabella resisted the urge to tear the girl apart. Elena needed to stop talking, and leave.

"Why are you doing this to us?" Rebekah snapped, her despair clear in her tone. Arabella let out a broken noise, and the glass from the windows shattered all around the house. "I've done nothing to you!"

Elena refused to stop, only causing the girls anger and hurt to grow. "Klaus killed your mother. He has a hold on you two, on me, on Stefan, on everyone. He has for a thousand years, we have to make it stop!"

"Stop talking!" Arabella shouted, her body expelling a burst of magic that threw Elena against the wall, holding her in place. "I'll kill you, just shut up!"

Rebekah let out the most broken noise, body shaking with sobs as she collapsed onto her knees. Elena dropped down as Arabella joined her sister on the floor, thunder shaking the house as she cried.

Klaus was a liar.

Klaus killed her mother.

Arabella was alone again.

Arabella would be alone, always and forever.