Young Gods (A Klaus Mikaelson Fanfic)

Prologue

I remember everything about the day I changed, knowing I would never be able to turn back. Sometimes, I wonder if I'll remember it forever or if it'll get lumped in with all the other tragic things that have happened to me. Some people would argue that my life was already changed, they would likely argue about the true event that changed my life. Some might say that my life was forever changed the moment I was kidnapped at the ripe age of seven with my best friend Harmony Riggs.

Others might say that it was actually changed when she was murdered in front of me. I can understand that one. Seeing Harmony's life leave her body definitely changed me. No longer was I that happy little girl skipping around town in her group that included Harmony, her sister Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie. I became someone different. Someone who was too scared to let someone in out of fear of losing them. It didn't help that Elena had distanced herself, leading Caroline and Bonnie to follow. I think that the day I knew we would never be the same was the day I heard her say I wasn't her real sister. Just someone her parents had taken in.

Maybe the reason that people argue that wasn't the real moment I changed was that they thought I could come back. Children are resilient after all. Perhaps that's why when Elena approached me about going to the bonfire, I let myself be convinced. I fought it at first, not actually wanting to go, but Elena did and we both knew that I could convince my parents. Sometimes, when I really wanted something, it seemed as if I could just...change their minds. So I agreed, wanting my sister back, but that never happened.

I think that my parents dying was when things really took a turn. Not only because it was a precursor to the arrival of the Salvatores but because that was the first time I knew I was truly different. When I was younger, I remember thinking I was different because while Elena and Caroline fawned over Lucas Scott, I was too busy watching Brooke. My parents told me that it was normal, it just meant that I liked girls and not boys. When I told them that I definitely liked Dean Winchester they told me that I simply liked both before grounding me for watching a show I wasn't supposed to.

This was a new sort of different, however. I remember the accident. I remember my mom turning to look at Elena who was sobbing over her relationship with Matt because even though she didn't like him in a relationship way, he was one of her best friends. The car crash was sudden. One moment we were going forward and the next my dad was struggling with the wheel to gain control. They call it hydroplaning, I remember the word from Driver's Ed. They said it could lead to a crash but just like getting kidnapped, I thought it was something that happened to other people, not us.

After the car hit the water, everything went black. I don't know how long it was before I felt it, like a surge of energy. I thought that it was shock paddles as if someone were trying to resuscitate me but then I recognized a sort of...warmth, I guess. One that I associated with my father. When I was revived by the paramedics, they were shocked, assuming that I had been in the water far too long to actually be revived but I was a kid so they tried anyway. They called it a miracle. I called it cruelty. It wasn't fair that I once again survived while others died.

So I vowed to just...go through the motions. I wouldn't kill myself, that wouldn't be fair to the ones I loved who hadn't survived, yet I didn't want to live. Just like with hydroplaning, I knew what this was called: Survivor's guilt. Jeremy and Jenna did their best to be there for me but Elena had grown to hate me.

She blamed me for surviving rather than her parents saying I wouldn't understand because my parents hadn't wanted me in the first place. She blamed me for asking them to let us go and I didn't blame her because I blamed myself as well, for a different reason. I couldn't explain it, but I knew our father had given me his life so I could survive. I didn't know how, but I knew it was true and I hated it.

I would argue that the event that truly led to my change was something that had nothing to do with my parents or Harmony. I believe that the Salvatores would've come to town anyway and I would be in the same situation I am currently. Damon and Stefan were immediately infatuated with Elena and I understood it. She was beautiful and unlike me, she wasn't a walking tragedy, she was just a young girl who something tragic had happened to. They didn't notice me or maybe they just didn't care and that was fine by me.

What wasn't fine with me was Elenor Salvatore, Stefan's twin sister. She disliked her brothers, and Elena even more. Sometimes I wonder if that was why she sought me out. If she truly did want to befriend me or if she wanted to piss off Elena and her brothers by spending time with me. Whatever it was, no matter how much I initially resisted, Ellie wouldn't relent and I finally gave in. For the first time since Harmony, I felt a sliver of happiness.

She told me about her life, how she had been close to Stefan in youth as Damon protected them from the heavy hand of their father. She told me about how she used to hate the smell of liquor for years after turning because she couldn't shake the feeling that it was her father coming to finish the job of killing her despite knowing he was her twin's first kill. My favorite story was the story of Katherine, my sister's doppelgänger. El said that when Katherine came, she enchanted her father and brothers, that the two of them fell over themselves to gain her attention.

Despite adoring the attention, Katherine had quickly latched onto Elenor saying she was like the sister she wished she could've had. The first time she saw the bruises on Ellie, she gave her a small vial of her blood and said that even if Kat was no longer in town since she was running from someone, El could always take it to escape her awful father. She had taken the vial without intending to use it until Katherine was taken away. Elenor said that her father detested women, it was more than just an old-timey set of mind, she believed it had something to do with her mother.

Apparently, he had said that Elenor had to die for being a sympathizer but she knew the truth, he was killing her because he wouldn't risk her carrying on the Salvatore name because she was a woman. So she drank the blood, not to turn but to give her more time to decide. Then, sure enough, her father shot her, just as he had her brothers when they tried to save Katherine. Her twin was the first to turn and Ellie was the last. Even though he believed he forced her to turn, she drank it willingly, claiming that she felt something run through her, as if she had a purpose in life that she could only fulfill if she completed the transition, so she did and everything made sense.

Turning had revealed that the Salvatores had magic flowing in their veins. Emily had revealed that when Elenor accidentally stole some of her power she looked into it and discovered that Giuseppe's abuse went further than any of them knew. He had forced Lily to lock away Stefan and Damon's magic so they wouldn't be freaks like her but forced her to keep hers in case Elenor ever showed signs of what she had passed on. That was why her mother had died, not of consumption but suicide to get away from him.

Emily had learned it from Jonathan Gilbert in exchange for enchanting some devices for him to hunt vampires. Sadly, once the vampires were gone, Jonathan turned on Emily and burned her at the stake while Damon and Ellie protected her children. I wasn't sure what it was about her story that drew me towards Elenor more than before, perhaps it was the tragedies that had happened to both of us, or maybe it was the exchange of trust that made me feel secure and important in our friendship. Whatever it was, I didn't question it but rather welcomed it. It was that friendship that brought me here.