012. Heaven is not fit for this love (2.19)

"Thank you for coming with me, Elena."

       Anastasia guides Elena into a storage unit with the purpose of gifting her Elijah.

Anastasia has isolated Elijah's coffin from the rest of the family, lest Elijah find out they aren't gone. She's had access to the coffins because she hasn't awakened any Mikaelson without Klaus's heed before.

This is the first time she's done such betrayal, she hopes Elijah sees her determination.

(She hopes Klaus never finds out.)

As for Elena being here, well, it's a second gesture of goodwill. Or, a way to muddle Elijah's head. When it comes to Petrova women, he loses rationale.

Anastasia thinks this could only work in her favor.

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Before getting to the store unit on the outskirts of town, Anastasia called Elena, told her what she's been planning to do and texted her a picture of proof.

       Elijah in an open coffin.

Elena told her where to meet her, Anastasia allowed it to be on her terms. At the gate of the Salvatore's mansion, she climbed down from her car and was face to face with Elena Gilbert.

"You received the photo evidence. Everything I said is true," she says before opening the passenger car door for Elena.

Elena doesn't take a step forward, Anastasia heaves a sigh. She reaches into her leather purse, then digs out her car keys, offering them to Elena. "Fine then, you'll drive. Hard to do anything to you if you're behind the wheel, don't you think?"

Elena doesn't fully buy her words, but there's a tinge of sincere desperation to Anastasia's tone. She knows because she's never heard it before on her.

She needs Elena for this—and Elena needs Elijah for what's to come. With that, Elena steps forward, accepting the keys from Anastasia.

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Maybe it's because her words reminded her of Elijah. Maybe it's because she has a gut feeling that she can trust Anastasia on this.

Or, maybe, she simply doesn't want to die.

She stands with Anastasia before the storage unit, number 501. "As I understand, you made a deal with Elijah. You told me you're still willing to honor that deal."

With one hand, Anastasia pulls up the garage door, revealing a coffin with the Mikaelson family's sigil embellished on it.

       She lets Elena approach it first, then she opens it for her. Elena looks down at Elijah, then back at Anastasia, still bemused by her antics. "You lied to Eva."

"I know."

"Told her that you were her family. But you want to help me?"

"Don't mistake this for aid," Anastasia says. "It's simply convenience."

Eva informed the rest that Anastasia handed Elijah over to Klaus. If Anastasia knows his location, it means Klaus confides in her.

Upon this conclusion, Elena ponders the possibility that this could be a trap. She searches for confirmation it's not. "What's your history with Klaus?"

"I once loved him, then I realized he's not a man meant to be loved."

What does that make her? To want to destroy what you once loved. She knows it speaks the worst of her nature.

Anastasia steps aside. "Please, do the honors."

Her hands wrap around the dagger. Elena is skeptical as she slides it out. Part of her expecting a surprise attack from Anastasia, proving this to be a trap.

Anastasia never attacks her.

For a moment, Elena contemplates stabbing her, see if she would desiccate like an original vampire, or worse, die. But that would speak the worst of her nature.

They wait for Elijah to wake up.

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He startles out of his coffin.

Elena still holds the dagger, it's where his eyes first land on. He trails the movement of her hand, sees her reach into her bag. She hands him a blood bag, courtesy of Salvatore stash. Clearly, she came prepared for this.

Elijah tears into the bag. As he drinks, he loses his ashen complexion. Elena never looks away, Anastasia notices. She's not squeamish, long since fated to mingle with vampires.

"You look better," Elena says.

"Where did you get the dagger?" Elijah asks Elena because he knows Anastasia won't give a straight answer.

To his surprise, Elena doesn't either. "I'll tell you everything," she says. "But we have to work together, Elijah. I need your word."

He ponders her request, uncertain of how to respond. Perhaps, unwilling. But then Elena lifts her hand, offering up the dagger to him.

His expression loses its severity. He accepts Elena's gesture for peace. By which, he brings his gaze to Anastasia.

When he speaks to her, she's staring at the tear in his shirt, where she'd driven the dagger through. He notices it, then hoists up the terrible weapon. "It comes without question that I'll be keeping this."

"Fine," Anastasia cedes, her stare traveling up to his face. If she tried to fight him now, there's no possible scenario in which she could take him by surprise, and that's the only way she ever wins against him. With a hand to his shoulder, she says. "Make me proud, Elijah."

He merely hums. His gaze shifts to Elena, the young girl enraptures him in ways she can't fathom.

Elena, who for a young, human girl, holds more fortitude than most people would at knowing their death is impending.

If Anastasia had been anything like her, her family's lives would have been spared. She would've died, like a martyr. The rest would've lived. Perhaps, after some time of knowing this, she would've found peace. But she chose to be selfish, fought claw and nail to come back into a world that would've rather left her for dead.

In this twisted, devastating way, Anastasia thinks Elena is doing the right thing.

Like before, the same thing can't be said for Anastasia. Elijah reminds her of it, hand reaching out for her arm. "One day you'll have to stop playing both sides, especially if it involves my brother."

Anastasia stares at him, then at the hand on her arm. Even with this much familiarity between them, she finds no response. But she knows this: if there's no Klaus, there's no need to play both sides.

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"Where were you?"

For a second she wonders if this is a test where he knows what she's been up to and he is trying to see what she'll say. But she talks herself out of it, Klaus doesn't know. There's no way he'll know. "Terrorizing the innocent, you know me."

He takes her words with humor, then tells her. "Maddox is retrieving my body."

Her brows furrow for a moment. "Good, that's good."

"And I wonder, are you busy tonight?"

"All yours."

He smiles. "Perfect."

In any other circumstance, one where he looked his real self, she would've kissed him for his charming ways. But he looks like someone else, so all she does is smile back.

Later, when she's curled up to his body, head laying on the chest she knows, she'll come back to this moment. Replay it over and over in her head. By putting another face to his frame—that of an innocent man—she'll find it easier to let the guilt in.

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Eva isn't certain of whether to believe Anastasia's claims. The taint on her mother's name after she hadn't hesitated to unjustly taint her father.

       It could all easily be a lie.

       How else would Halle be willing to play such elaborate schemes against her own daughter?

       Eva knows her mother. She's been with her all of her life. The notion that Anastasia could know her better than she does feels impossible.

       With her friends she had only shared what could help them, that being Anastasia taking down Elijah and handing him over to Klaus, therefore having been working with Klaus all along.

       What she doesn't tell them is the bargain she offered her back at the Grill.

       A way to save Elena's life.

The bargain implied Eva would be the one doing the saving, she would need to be able to do powerful magic. Beyond her scope, beyond anything she's done before.

While she isn't completely versed on her magic, she recognizes that this requires necromancy—one of the hardest to achieve, if not the hardest.

Either she's lucky or her friend dies.

It'd be at Eva's hands now, knowing she could have saved her—that the only thing keeping her from it would be her incompetence. That is if what Anastasia has told her is true.

It'd certainly be a way to get Eva on her side.

Eva pictures it, an alliance bound by her love for her friend. It's what Anastasia wants from her—and what's the price for it, if not love?

Eva has felt different since she'd been sick. Her full health had begun to return to her after throwing up, the remnants of the tea her mother had given her gone from her system.

(She hasn't accepted that it'd been the tea that made her sick.)

A random stomach bug, she thinks.

Now, she's not only back to her full health, but also more aware of the magic coursing through her veins. Ancient Bennett blood, mighty Morrigan blood. It feels like it wants to burst from her fingertips. The more she tries to ignores it, the harder it is to.

       And somehow, Anastasia had known this is what she what she would be going through.

       At dinner, sitting across from her mom, Eva asks, "Did you know who she really was before she came to our home?"

       Halle purses her lips. "Eva, honey, look..."

       The confession provokes Eva, making her magic burst from her. Her dinner plate slides across the dining table, ceramic splintering on the floor.

She jumps, irked by her own actions.

Halle looks away, hiding how she knows what she's going through.

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       Klaus returns to his original body. He steps out of a crate, surrounded by ritualistic candles. "Now, that's more like it."

He is beautiful and terrifying, like a god would be.

From the corner of the room, Anastasia observes it all with a glass of wine in hand, which she takes her biggest gulp yet from. But she won't admit that it's the sight of him causing this reaction.

She didn't think it'd be so hard to look Klaus in the eye since it hadn't been back in Atlanta. The setting of Mystic Falls provides a certainty to her betrayal—one she's not so sure she can face anymore.

Without a word, Anastasia heads out of the apartment building to smoke, seeing Klaus has put her nerves on edge.

She's on her second cigarette when Klaus finds her leaning against the brick wall. She drops the cigarette and steps on it to put it out.

"Need something?"

"I thought you'd be more excited to see me."

Anastasia shakes her head, chuckling a bit. She recalls using those exact words on him when she visited him at their home in Atlanta. She thinks he knows that too.

"I want to show you something."

Anastasia raises her brows and is given no time to protest as Klaus brings her into his arms and rushes away with her.

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He stops in the middle of the woods by the town's lake. The trees are tall, encircling a clearing where moonlight freely reigns on.

The sacrifice spot.

Although he's let go of her, he extends out his hand for her to take. She glances from his hand to his face, he sees her look of hesitation. Concerned, he asks, "You seem troubled. Are you okay?"

He's noticed how she's been distancing herself from him. Something that hadn't been happening—not until she set foot in Mystic Falls.

He hasn't pinpointed the origin. But it stems from her reunion with Elijah, the first talk she had with him. Forgive, I never said I have. You and I know well you haven't either. She's been replaying that accusation ever since. Elijah believes that after all these years, Anastasia hasn't forgiven Klaus—not for what he took from her.

Lately, she's only been proving Elijah's accusation true.

Her head hangs low, eyes avoiding her lover. "I'm okay."

He knows she's not. He brings a hand to her face, gentle thumb caressing her cheek. It forces her to look at him, her mouth parts but no words come out. His brows furrow. "Have I been mean to you?"

The softness in his voice paired with his touch reminds her why she's still here—not only that but the genuine concern he seems to show for her.

It doesn't erase his past mistakes.

She lets his hand cradle her face, palm opening for her. His cold skin has become a comfort. When you have nothing else, the cold feels like warmth.

       With a softness that mimics his, she lies, "I'm okay. We're okay."

       He stares at her for a moment. As he searches for signs of deceit, he gets taken in by her beauty. A face of many myths.

       He kisses the top of her head. It makes her eyes shut from the tears that form. She attempts to hide them but one escapes, rolling down her cheek. Her vulnerability surprises them both.

All that they needed was the mythical breaking of a curse to bring them together.

       "I'm sorry."

       A true apology, the thing he asked for. It isn't as satisfying as he thought it'd be—not if it means her breaking down for it.

But she's not apologizing for guarding Elena's existence; that's not something she's sorry for.

       Before he can ask, her arms wrap around him, tightly as if she fears him letting go. He returns the embrace, running one hand along the back of her head. With her face pressed against his chest and the soothe of his embrace, more tears come, wetting his shirt.

       She wills herself to pull away. Vulnerability is the only thing that brings out guilt in her. He could probably count the times he's seen her cry. When she feels like crying, she chooses to isolate herself.

She's a deceiver. "You know I do feel guilty about what I keep from you."

But he believes the worst, that she's hiding something bigger than the doppelgänger. He's a deceiver too. "Not to worry, love. I've grown used to it."

They tread on each other's lies. She smiles at him, wiping away the last of her tears. He motions around their surroundings. "Care for me to show you?"

       She swipes her palm on her jeans. "Right, of course."

       This time, she holds her hand out for him. He takes it. He tells her where everything is set to take place, motioning around them. He speaks with intoxicating vehemence and she feels herself get roped in it. A thousand years waiting for this moment, five hundred since he came close to it.

She looks at him. "And where will I be in all of this?"

He tucks her hair behind her ear. "By my side if I'll have you."

       His use of if brings out a fondness in her. Even after everything together, he doesn't take her companionship for granted.

She should feel guilty and confess her treason.

Instead, she wraps her arms around his neck and says, "We should christen this place."