fill me in

"GOOD MORNING, ATHENA. AM I INTERRUPTING SOMETHING?"

"Elijah?"

Athena blinked, her speech centers rendered momentarily useless as she met the gaze of the smug Original. She forcibly looked away from Elijah to the two others standing behind him, one man looking less than happy to be standing before her and another fixated on her with a smirk she had the instinct to frown at.

Looking away from the other two, she met Elijah's imploring gaze again and quickly made a decision.

She took a step back from the open door and promptly slammed it shut, not missing the utter confusion on Elijah's face as the door swung shut in his face. Spinning on her heel, she frowned at the silence that followed the sudden arrival of the Original, and who Athena presumed were other Originals with him.

Her brows furrowed on her forehead and she physically shook her head, trying to clear the last bit of fogginess from it as she straightened her clothes and tucked her hair behind her ears. Clearing her throat, she turned back to the door and opened it again, this time meeting Elijah's gaze with a smile.

"Elijah!" She cheered his name, earning a raised brow from the man as she stepped to the side to allow him in. "Please, come in,"

Elijah nodded dutifully and stepped over the barrier, his eyes immediately flocking to the unusual disarray that lingered in the halls of the boarding house.

The other two men stepped forward and Athena raised a dark brow at them, a scoff leaving her lips. "Not you two, I don't even know you,"

Identical looks of shock and anger fell on their faces, but Athena paid no mind to them as she slammed the door shut in their faces and turned to Elijah. The Original looked pointedly at the front door, then at her, and then at the mess behind him, a small, curious smile twisting at his lips.

Athena held up a finger, shaking it at him in a warning. "I'm not inviting the rest of the vampire mafia in here until I know what you're doing here in the first place. As for the mess– we threw Caroline a surprise party and it got a little out of hand."

"I take it you had a good night, then?"

Athena hummed, stepping around an unidentifiable puddle that was close to seeping into one of Damon's rugs. She bent over and rolled the expensive fabric up, pushing it away from the puddle as Elijah followed behind her to the kitchen.

"Yeah, it was great, but I forgot the reason I don't throw parties at my own house is because I'm the one that has to clean it up after."

Elijah chuckled slightly as she picked up the trash can and began sweeping her arms over the counters and wiping all of the stray cups into the bin. "Was my brother in attendance, perhaps?"

She gave him a look over her shoulder and nodded. "He and Rebekah, actually. I would've invited you, but I can't picture you being ready to party so soon after being undaggered. Speaking of– I am very much under the impression you are supposed to be daggered right now."

"As was I, until a very familiar face came and woke my brother and me. Imagine my surprise when I saw Elena Gilbert standing in front of me, newly turned, with Finn at her side."

Athena dropped the trash can harshly, her easy-going attitude gone at the mention of the doppelgänger. "You're joking,"

Elijah observes her reaction curiously and shakes his head. "Though I can't imagine how she found our coffins, I was quite grateful to be undaggered, as was Kol. As for Finn, I'm unsure of how he found us."

"Elena was working with Mikael, I'm sure he knew where Finn was," Athena informs him, smiling wryly as his face falls in surprise. "Yeah, it only took one conversation with him to understand you are the way you are."

"And where is my father now?"

"Desiccating in a tomb again," A bit of the defensiveness leaks from his posture, and Athena affirms her words with a small nod. "He tried to kill me so he could get to Klaus and Rebekah, and presumably the rest of us."

Elijah's brows raise and Athena heaves a sigh, looking entirely like the immortal goddess she was and nothing like the carefree eighteen-year-old she'd been last night. "Things have gotten bad here, Elijah. And I understand that you're mad at Klaus, you and your brothers have every right to be, but your family drama will have to wait. There's too much riding on this for everything to go to shit now,"

Elijah seems to contemplate her words for a moment before he nods, letting his shoulders fall slightly. "It seems we have plenty to talk about."

Athena nods in agreement, though she quickly grimaces when she remembers the state of the house. "If you help me clean up, I'll tell you everything and maybe think about inviting your brothers in."

"Lead the way, Ms. Hunt."

──────

"So, Elena was somehow turned instead of dying in the ritual, and Klaus couldn't make his hybrids because the curse says the doppelgänger has to be dead, not just undead," Athena lazily gestured, the sudsy sponge in her hands dictating her movements as she spoke to Elijah. "So we came back here, hoping to fix the issue right away, but nothing we do ever works out the first time we do it so– here we are."

Elijah hums, throwing another plastic cup into the trash bag he was carrying around. "And after Mikael was daggered, you took him to where the rest of the coffins were, but we had already been undaggered?"

"Yeah," Athena sat back on her knees, looking up at him as she glanced back down at the stain in the patterned rug beneath her. "And then I called Elena from Mikael's phone, and just confirmed what I had already assumed– they were trying to kill us all."

"All things aside, that makes sense," Elijah's brows furrowed. "But what doesn't make sense to me is if Elena had brought Mikael here to kill all of us, why would she undagger us? And why would she be working with Finn? It would be easier to keep us daggered since she doesn't have access to any white oak,"

"Well," Athena thought on it for a moment, her face twisting to mirror his confused look. "Are you sure there's no more white oak?"

Elijah nodded firmly. "We burned every last bit of it to prevent something like this from ever happening,"

"That's–" Athena shook her head, suddenly feeling nothing but confusion about Elena's actions. "Why would she undagger you if she wanted you dead? She could've just killed you all in your coffins. It's what I would've done,"

"Perhaps she didn't want us dead, then?"

"I think bringing Mikael here made it very clear she did," Athena rebuked, earning a conceding nod from the Original. "Did she say anything to you after she undaggered you?"

Elijah thought on it for a moment, and he nodded slightly, though he seemed nonchalant about it. "She kept mentioning you and how once you were out of the way, she'd have no problems getting to the bridge. I had, at that point, fully assumed she'd gone mad."

"A bridge?" Athena echoed incredulously, her face scrunching up distastefully. "What does that even mean? What bridge? Like, a metaphorical bridge, or a real one?"

"I haven't a clue, unfortunately,"

Athena thought on it for a moment, and when an idea struck her, the sponge fell from her hand onto the rug with an audible plop. "Huh,"

"What is it? Do you know what she was talking about?"

"I, uh, I might have an idea," Athena scoffed, smirking harshly. "That bitch. If I didn't hate her so much, I'd actually be impressed."

Elijah raised an impatient brow. "Care to share your theory?"

"Wickery Bridge," Athena scoffed. "It's where the accident that killed her parents happened. I was– I was with her that night. I got stuck in the car and drowned, and barely survived," Athena shakes her head, pushing to her feet as she continues. "But I don't know what Elena could possibly need with the bridge at this point. I haven't gone anywhere near it since then."

"Is there some sort of history behind the bridge? Something that could mean more to her? There's no telling what she's thinking right now, what with her switch off."

Athena hummed in agreement. "I'll get some of the old Salvatore records from Stefan and look through the Gilbert journals for something. There's gotta be something besides the accident that's taking her there, I don't know what else it could be."

She started walking towards the stairs, but Elijah stopped her. "What about the rest of the mess?"

Athena huffed, tilting her head back to look at the ceiling. "Klaus, wake up! Your brother's here, and I'm gonna let him kill you if you don't get that stain out of the rug!"

Stomping up the stairs purposefully loudly, Athena made a point to throw her voice in every direction so that the residents of the house couldn't possibly escape her. "Damon, Bonnie, Rebekah, you're on living room duty. Stefan, Caroline, in the kitchen. Katherine and Lexi, make sure there are no dead bodies or random teenagers in here, I don't want to deal with that."

Groans followed her words and she smiled as Damon walked out of his room, glaring at her through sleep-hazed eyes. "And what will you be doing, O Great and Powerful One?"

"I will be saving our asses because it's what I'm best at."

──────

"So, just to clarify," Damon gestured vaguely at Athena, his eyes full of disdain that was likely felt by the whole group standing in the kitchen. "There's a possibility there's still white oak out there, and our new residential psychotic doppelgänger is the only one that knows about it? How in the hell did she one-up us?"

"I don't know," Athena shook her head, adjusting the sleeve of her jacket as Stefan rubbed her back sympathetically. "But I do know that we have to kill her. I have to kill her."

Josh made a noise of agreement, reaching for a bottle blindly off the counter. "I'll drink to that,"

He took a large swig off the bottle, a wince twisting his handsome features as they all watched in abstract horror. Coughing, he pulled it away and wiped the back of his mouth. "God, what the hell kind of wine was that?"

"Bleach," Damon spoke, a degree of disbelief in his voice as he stared at the young god. "It was bleach."

Josh looked down at the bottle, the bright blue and red label suddenly registering in his brain. "Oh,"

"Oh, my god," Athena looked at her brother in horror, her brown eyes wide. "I'm surrounded by idiots."

"You know," Josh shifted, playing off his mistake. "Now that I know it was bleach, it wasn't actually that bad."

Athena let out a bleak whimper as she turned to look at Elijah, Klaus, and Rebekah. "Please, please tell me your brothers are smarter than mine."

The three Originals shared a collective look, and Rebekah lifted her hand in a so-so gesture as Elijah simply shook his head.

Klaus shrugged, nonchalance in his posture after he'd gotten over the surprise of his brothers being undaggered. "Perhaps Finn was, once upon a time, but after spending so much time doing the bidding of our father and apparently yours," He gives Athena a pointed look she rolls her eyes at, resisting the urge to say something about stones and glass houses. "I'm sure he's a mindless soldier, now,"

The large group is silent, all awaiting some sort of response from the goddess as she contemplates the complex situation they've found themselves in.

"I don't get it," She finally speaks, hesitant to admit her lack of insight. "Why is Finn here? Why didn't Elena dagger him if that's what she wanted to happen all along?"

"Maybe," Elijah speaks carefully, seeing the frustration slowly rising in the young girl. "If we invite them in, Finn will have answers."

"Right," Athena mutters, tugging at a lock of her loosely curled hair. "I'll be right back."

She steps out of Stefan's reach and passes by Caroline and Bonnie as she exits the kitchen, the tension staying even in her departure. Her heels hit dully on the freshly cleaned rug and she raises her chin as she wraps her hand around the handle of the door, swinging it open.

The two Originals look at her, the taller of the two glaring at her impatiently while the other eyes her like she's a full-course meal. Clenching her jaw at the varying emotions, she keeps a firm hold on her brow as she eyes them both down unflinchingly.

"Before I invite you in, you should know this," Her voice is firm and unwavering, and the threatening lilt to it seems to intrigue one and enrage the other. "I am capable of things your mind can't even begin to comprehend. I have more power in my pinky finger than both of you have combined."

Though they are expressing different emotions, they both scoff at her words, and she raises one of her sharp brows, giving them an entirely unamused look.

"One step out of line, one wrongly spoken word, if you even breathe wrong, you will become the centerpiece on my dining room table. I am a very angry woman, and there are very dark corners of my mind that even I don't know about. But if either of you care to help me find out," She huffs a laugh, a smirk twitching at her lips. "Well. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise for myself."

She spins on her heel and turns her back to them, her hair falling over her back as she gives them both a look over her shoulder. "Come in. I've got places to be, and doppelgängers to kill."

──────

author's note; heyyyyy nothing like a filler chapter am i right

originally published; 2.21.22.

edited: 12.9.23.

- liz