The Unknown Variable

Part 9

"Don't you worry nepos meus, I'm sending some help until I can reach you. They'll keep you safe." He whispered before laying the paper down on the table with the daggers.

With one last glance at the container holding the coffins, the man disappeared in a whisp of smoke. The only way to know he had truly been there were the silver daggers that lay on the table and a single piece of paper. A paper that held an image of a young proud Damon Salvatore who held a look of anger, sadness and pain within his icy blue eyes.

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Hunger burned through him like a fire as his eyes snapped open. His thoughts were scattered as he shot up from where he lay in his coffin. Elijah's eyes narrowed as he scanned the dark room that the coffins were placed in. He knew that Niklaus would have never awoken him in such a manner, unless he needed something. If that were true however, then where pray tell was his younger brother.

A blur shot through the room as Elijah got himself standing in the shipping container by his coffin. Elijah's breath caught in his throat as he recognized the blur that had sped past him. "Rebekah." The words pierced the air at just above a whisper, capturing his younger sister's attention in a steel trap.

"Elijah." No sooner had the words left his younger sister's mouth did he have his arms around her. His breath felt as if it had been stolen from his lungs as he held her tightly in his arms, inhaling her natural scent of pine and orchids. Elijah had never been accredited to being of the sentimental sort but in that moment, he found himself desperate to memorize the feeling of her in his arms.

 After so long of thinking his siblings were dead and gone forever, Elijah was struggling to keep together the emotions cascading throughout him. "I have missed you so dearly, Rebekah." Elijah whispered into her hair as they both clung to one another.

"Please tell me, you do not expect such a display from me as well." A male voice called out from their backs. Elijah's head shot up at the words, Rebekah freezing in his arms, slowly the siblings released one another turning toward where the voice had emanated from. "Kol!" Finn!" Rebekah yelled, shooting forward to hug each of her brothers in turn.

 Elijah felt himself falter back at the sight of his brothers. Confusion and Joy wared inside of him at the sight of his brothers. Elijah knew Niklaus would have never woken up his siblings unless he had some ulterior motives.

Out of the corner of his eye, Elijah saw light leaking into the storage container from the doorway. His back stiffened at the thought of Niklaus lying in wait for Elijah and their siblings to meander from the enclosed space they had been stored in. "Not happy to see us, brother?"

 Despite the joking tone, Elijah could see the hurt carefully concealed within his younger brother's eyes as he turned back around to face them. "There will never be a day where I am not elated that you all continue to exist before my eyes." Elijah told them slowly after a brief pause to contemplate his words.

A grimace etched its way onto Kol's face at Elijah's words before he spoke hesitantly, "The sentiment is...mutual." Elijah had to bite back a smirk as the words hung in the air, Kol had an expression covering his face that made it seem as if speaking the words had physically pained him. 

A snort from beside Kol tore Elijah's gaze towards his older brother, Finn. The usually expressionless and somber Original was fighting a smirk as he looked on at the antics of his younger siblings.

Finn's eyes flickered to Elijah's as if feeling the weight of his gaze on his face. With a subtle incline of his head toward the door, Finn came to join Elijah closer to the entrance. His gaze hard as both he and his brother regarded the door with unapologetic weariness. The sounds of Rebekah and Kol bickering childishly filled the background as Elijah and Finn moved as if in sinc. Walking out of the container, Elijah walked towards the left while Finn scanned the right-hand side of the room.

Elijah's breath caught in his throat as while he failed to spot his younger hybrid brother, he had discovered something else. Standing before him was a long silver table that held every single one of his and his sibling's daggers and the white oak ash needed to use it. They lay symmetrically along the tabletop, separated only by one single sheet of paper with a message written across it clear as day. "Elijah, brother! Have you found anything?" Finn called out from behind him.

Elijah found his words lost to him as he couldn't seem to tear his eyes from the paper that lay before him. Warmth, anger, sadness and so much more surged through him as he moved towards where the paper sat. He could distantly hear his siblings talking in the background as he finally grabbed the one thing that changed any plans he had recently made.

"So Klaus isn't here..." Kol trailed off as he spun in a circle gesturing wildly around him, "We can go anywhere and leave no trace for him to find us." He finished as a wide grin broke out on his face at the possibilities that lay before them in his mind. 

"Not quite yet, Kol. There is one thing we must do first." Elijah called out as he walked over to where the three siblings stood talking. "And what could we possibly have to do after so much time in those bloody boxes?" Kol growled in frustration at the elder Mikaelson.

Elijah merely smiled sadly as he held up the sheet of paper in one hand, all of their daggers clasped in his other. "A retrieval." He stated simply as his siblings peered at what he held before him as if they could not grasp what lay on the paper. For what lay on the paper was a single image with two words written in large dark coloring. An image of Damon Salvatore standing tall and proud was shown to them but, where his stance was proud, his eyes portrayed more than what one could ever hope to understand.

His eyes held anger, pain, loneliness, fear, and sadness yet despite this it seemed as if he was trying to keep his expression guarded. If the Mikaelson's had not felt all those emotions before in the same way Damon had, they would have never recognized them in his eyes. Written below the image of Damon, the words lay bold and clear as day, HELP HIM!!!

(*Nepos Meus- My grandson)