ONCE THE YOUNGER VAMPIRE sped off into the distance, Elijah had grabbed Zachary by the elbow as if afraid he was going to flee the second he had the chance. Zachary just shoved him off and walked ahead of him, guiding his brother into the forest where they could talk.
Leaning back against a tree, the bark pressed roughly against his back as his eyes lingered on Elijah's figure that was barely visible against the dark forest as it caught the sliver of moonlight that shone through the heavy canopy of leaves. It was quiet as the two vampires observed one another. Was Zachary supposed to start talking or...? He didn't know but he had one question that he desperately needed answered.
"Where's Niklaus?" Zachary blurted out, eyeing his brother down. "He's not with you, is he?"
Elijah sighed, running a hand over his face. "I am not in contact with Niklaus, Zacharias." The older original said, causing the younger to do a double take on his words. "I haven't seen him since he told us of our siblings' fates."
Zachary supposed that made sense. Elijah not speaking to their brother was such an irregular occurrence but considering what he had done last time they all spoke, it seemed Elijah's goal of Klaus' redemption had withered away completely.
He nodded in understanding. "Nor have I."
"It's been far too long, Zacharias."
"Zachary." He corrected. "And it hasn't even been two decades, brother. That's barely any time at all."
"Are you saying you haven't missed me?" Elijah asked, jokingly narrowing his eyes.
"Nope." Zachary smirked cheerfully, only half-lying. "It's been peaceful travelling by myself again." Elijah sent him a playful glare before quickly pulling him into a hug. Zachary froze, as he usually did, before awkwardly patting his brother on the back. "Yep. I missed this so much." He drawled, his tone practically dripping with sarcasm.
"Oh, be quiet." Elijah scoffed, pulling away. He really had missed Elijah but he just didn't know how to show it. Plus, he was still cautious of his intentions. Elijah, knowing this, took a step back to give his little brother some space. "Well, I missed you."
"I miss living in Paris more than I missed you." Zachary shrugged, a teasing smirk on his lips. "But it's good to know you love me, Lijah." He watched his brother roll his eyes, before continuing. "Why are you here?"
"Why are you here?" Elijah deterred.
"I asked you first."
"I asked you second."
"Exactly. So I answer second." Zachary scoffed, enjoying the nerved look in Elijah's eye due to their brotherly bickering. "Now tell me."
"The doppelgänger." Elijah stated simply. "I'm sure you noticed her during your stay in Mystic Falls."
Zachary just stared at him, blinking at his sarcastic answer. "And why do you care about her? If you're not with Klaus, like you said?" He asked, before quickly adding. "And do not lie and say for her protection. Because you have no reason to care about that."
"And you do?"
Zachary didn't respond and instead just narrowed his eyes. "Just answer the question, Elijah."
"I have a plan." Elijah said, refraining from saying more.
"A plan?" Zachary asked, raising at eyebrow at the vague statement. "And you are going to share said plan or...?"
"That depends on your answer."
"How ominous of you, Elijah." Zachary mocked. "Well, my answer is that our little friend Rose-Marie called. She gave me the doppelgänger, meaning that she is mine and that you cannot have her." He said jokily.
"She's yours?" Elijah asked, eyebrow raised as the two of them bantered. Zachary just rapidly nodded. "Ahh, I see. Guess I'll head home then."
"Yes, you should." Zachary said, wriggling his fingers in a wave as he smirked, slowly backing away hoping to leg it before he was interrogated any further. "Bye-bye."
Elijah shook his head with a gentle laugh, before wrapping a hand around his little brother's wrist before he could flee. The elder vampire shot him a vague look, as if to tell him to stay put as he let go. "So Rose-Marie gave you the doppelgänger for her freedom, I suppose?" Zachary nodded. "And then?"
"Then I was brutally attacked by two vampires, who just so happened to be people I had met last time I was here." Zachary explained comically, before his eyes narrowed in seriousness. "You know, before you and Klaus stuck a dagger in my heart and locked me away in a box, for how long was it...? Oh yes, I remember. Three decades."
"You have my apologies for that, brother." Elijah said with a light grimace. "It is amongst the many things that I regret."
"Good. You should regret it." Zachary huffed, having not quite let that go. "Now, tell me this plan of yours."
Elijah sighed. "Niklaus is still desperate to break his curse--"
"When has he not been?" Zachary interrupted, earning a glare so he shut up.
"However, he has no idea that the doppelgänger has once again been reborn into the world. What if we use that to our advantage?" He paused, watching his brother's reaction.
Zachary blinked at him for a moment, waiting for him to continue but he didn't. "Do I have to call you ominous again to get you to stop with these dramatic pauses, brother?" Zachary taunted, getting a bit fed up.
"Niklaus doesn't know she exists, but we do. We could use that, Zacharias." Elijah began to explain, ignoring his brother's narrowed eyes at the use of his name. "What if we use the curse against him? We break it and use his short-lived weakness to remove him from our lives for good--"
"Are you suggesting that we kill our brother?" Zachary interrupted, his eyes wide in complete bafflement. "Permanently?"
"Yes." Elijah confirmed. "I understand your shock but you have to agree that for the millennia we've been alive, Niklaus has done nothing but destroy our family." Elijah paused, leaving Zachary to contemplate.
Klaus? Dead? Not daggered dead as that wasn't possible for him anyway-- but actually dead? That was something that he could barely imagine despite the many times that he had dreamed of it. Did he even want that? It was a risky plan and there were so many ways that it could go wrong and if they failed...
"I don't know, Elijah..." Zachary said after a while. Even if he did want Klaus dead, what about the things he had promised Stefan? He couldn't simultaneously help Elijah kill Elena and keep Elena alive for Stefan. That and what if it didn't work? Zachary couldn't even begin to comprehend the consequences.
"I understand your worries, Zacharias, but we cannot continue to let him rule over us as if he is some sort of legendary god." Elijah explained, finishing with a sigh. "Niklaus has damaged our family beyond repair and I refuse to allow him to drive us even further apart."
"Are you getting emotional on me Elijah? Because you know I do not know how to respond when you do that."
"Yes yes, I know." Elijah sighed deeply, knowing what his brother was like. "We cannot get the rest of us back, but we can avenge them."
"And killing our brother is the way to do that?" Zachary blinked at him for a moment. "You do realise how incredibly difficult this would be to pull off? What if it went wrong? There are an infinite amount of things that could go wrong. Can you imagine how immensely infuriated Niklaus would be to discover that we were plotting to kill him?"
"I know." Elijah admitted, running a frustrated hand over his face. "We'll just have to plan it out in great detail. Gather our strength."
Zachary didn't say anything for a bit and just watched his brother, processing his next words. "I will not help you."
"You won't?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Do my reasons matter?"
"Yes."
"Why? So that you may attempt to convince me otherwise?"
"Precisely." Elijah agreed. "If it is Niklaus' wrath that is concerning you--"
"He would permanently weld those daggers into our chests, Elijah." Zachary interrupted. "But that is not the only reason."
"And the other reason would be...?"
"I swore that I would help protect the doppelgänger." Zachary shrugged. "I cannot exactly go and help you kill her now, can I?"
"Information like this is why I wanted to know your reasoning for being here before I told you my intentions."
"And I purposely withheld that information knowing that if I mentioned it, you would refrain from telling me."
"How very generous of you." Elijah said, his eye wincing in annoyance at the younger vampire. This only made Zachary more pleased, loving to annoy his big brother.
"You are very welcome, Lijah." Zachary smiled cheekily. "I might not care about the doppelgänger, but someone I care about cares. So I care... once removed?" He explained, confusing himself with his own phrasing. Eh, it made sense in his head. "Hence, I took up the position of one of the doppelgänger's various protectors. Because apparently I'm kind now."
"I see." Elijah said as he thought the scenario through, nodding slowly as he processed. "And you're more concerned about your friend whom you've promised the girl's protection to than the risks on Niklaus' end?" Elijah asked, analysing the look on his face.
"Not necessarily." Zachary said, mockingly. "But both factors are important."
Elijah sighed yet again. This conversation was exhausting. Zachary could feel it too. "So you're not going to help?"
Zachary shook his head. "I can't."
"Well since I'm not going to be able to get you to agree to help me in the full extent of what I had originally planned," Elijah continued. "How about we compromise?"
"Compromise?" Zachary questioned. "How exactly do you want to compromise on killing our brother?"
"As concerned as you are, I know you want revenge on Niklaus as much as I do. You just do not wish to get involved in his demise in case something goes wrong and he punishes you for it." Elijah voiced out. "And you don't want to hurt your friend." He added. "So what if you were involved in a... less conspicuous way?"
"You are going to have to be a tad more precise than that, brother." Zachary prompted, rolling his eyes. "You're being incredibly vague and garrulous right now, and it's making it increasingly difficult for me to resist the urge to punch you."
"Once Niklaus discovers that the doppelgänger exists, he will come for her and she will be in danger. They know this." Elijah clarified. "I am suggesting that you since you have already befriended the girl and her 'various protectors' as you so dramatically phrased it, that you simply stick to your word and protect her."
"You want me to protect the doppelgänger--" Zachary voiced, realising what his brother was asking of him. "--keep her alive so that she may be sacrificed when the time comes?" Zachary stared at Elijah in utter disbelief. It wasn't the worst plan in the world but it still went against what he had sworn to Stefan.
"Yes, that sums it up quite nicely." Elijah confirmed but was met with an unimpressed glare.
"You do understand that by allowing the sacrifice to take place, despite having protected her in the running up to it, still causes me to go against exactly what I have sworn to Stefan?"
"So it is Stefan."
"Stefan is irrelevant--"
"Clearly not--"
"Elijah." Zachary sneered. "I swore to Stefan that I would help keep her safe. I cannot break that."
"So you intend to protect her from Niklaus when he eventually finds his way here?"
"That was the plan, yes."
"He will dagger you just the same for trying."
"Yes, but at least Stefan will not hate me!" Zachary blurted out, finally admitting it after a lot of prying on Elijah's behalf. He hated that that was the sole reason he cared. Not because he was a good person or kind like it he had joked, but because he was selfish.
"Why do you care so much about that man?"
"Elijah, please--"
"Alright, I won't ask. But may I suggest that Stefan won't hate you if he doesn't know you're involved?"
"He's going to ask about you the second I go back. What am I supposed to tell him? That you're not my brother and that you don't want to sacrifice his girlfriend over a pretty white rock?"
"You tell him only what he needs to know." Elijah explained. "They trust you, Zacharias. You have that advantage where I don't."
"Maybe you shouldn't have spooked them so much then." Zachary jeered, provoking him.
"I did not spook them--"
"Clearly you did."
"I forgot how annoying you could be." Elijah muttered under his breath as if Zachary didn't have super hearing and couldn't hear him. He rolled his eyes as Elijah continued. "Elena and I made a deal."
"I heard." Zachary said, needing more information so he could decide where he stood within it all. "Do tell."
"I told her that I plan to use her as bait to draw out Niklaus and kill him, in fewer and more inconspicuous words. And that I would make certain that her friends remain unharmed."
Zachary nodded slowly in realisation. "But not her."
"Not her." Elijah conceded.
"What exactly would my role be in this then? If Elena has essentially given herself up to die, why must I be involved at all?"
"We made a deal, sure. But that does not mean that she necessarily trusts my word. However, she may trust yours." Elijah explained. "So by continuing to keep her safe, we can ensure she is protected until the time is right."
"You are asking me to lie, Elijah." Zachary complained. "I don't like lying. You know that."
"Then dance around the truth. Withhold information." Elijah shrugged, using his words form earlier. "Evidently, you're good at that."
"I am good at that." Zachary agreed, nodding to himself as he took the compliment. He paused for a moment, letting his mind mull over the information he was given and decide how to precede. He was determined not to let himself fall back into his old patterns of doing everything his family asked of him, eager for their love and approval. Since he was a small child, that was all he had wanted. And for a very long time, that hadn't changed. But he was insistent that now that he could change and that he was going to.
Going against Elijah was risky. But going about Klaus was suicide. Meaning that if he wanted to do as he had promised and survive, he was going to have to set some boundaries with Elijah.
"If I must be involved-- if you are refusing to back down from this little scheme of yours, then I have some terms."
"Yes, Zacharias?"
"My first term--" Zachary started hastily, "--is that you stop calling me that. It's Zachary. Zacharias makes me sound old."
"You are old."
"Not as old as you." Zachary rebutted, sticking his tongue out at his brother. "Secondly, my relation to you must be withheld. If either of us want them to trust me, knowing that you are my brother would tarnish my reputation amongst them. I would be guilty by association and their trust in me would soon dissipate."
"I agree." Elijah nodded. "Our brotherhood to each other and to Klaus will remain hidden from them. Is that all--"
"No." Zachary interrupted. "You will help me find a way to keep the doppelgänger alive, just as you did with Katerina."
"Zachary--"
"--If you are insisting that the sacrifice is to go ahead, my word will be kept intact and she will remain alive."
"And how are you to enforce that?"
"You either agree to my terms or I will turn them all against you and prevent the sacrifice entirely. Do not underestimate me." Zachary threatened. "I do not want us to be on opposing sides, brother. I have had plenty enough of that. But if you force my hand, I will stand against you."
"I do not want that either." Elijah admitted and Zachary breathed a sigh of relief. Not out of fear he would lose, but that he would lose his big brother. "And if we cannot find a way to save her?"
"We will. You found a way before. We will find it again." Zachary said, determination alight in the contrast of his dark eyes. "Now, do we have a deal?"
"We have a deal."
"I'm going to need your word." Zachary commanded, his eyes not straying from Elijah's even for a second.
"You have my word, brother." Elijah confirmed, all the previous hesitancy that displayed itself on his face was gone.
And Zachary believed him.
·༓。*ﾟ✧ ★ ✧·ﾟ*ﾟ。༓·
"ARE YOU OKAY?" STEFAN ASKED, speeding up to the original as soon he returned to the Boarding House.
Zachary wasn't particularly great at perceiving people's facial expressions, he never had been, but considering Stefan was always worried, Zachary had picked up on that one pretty quickly. However, he was not used to it being directed toward him.
"Yeah, yeah." Zachary nodded, wanting to make the vampire's features relax.
"What happened?" Stefan asked him, guiding him inside and sitting him down on the sofa next to him, where he continued to watch the original with caution.
'Only tell him what he needs to know.' Zachary prompted himself, before answering. "Elijah and I talked. That's all."
"About what?"
"About Elena mainly. He told me about the deal that they made."
"And?"
"And what?"
"Can we trust him?" Stefan asked, those damned jade eyes alight from the soft marigold flame of the fireplace looking as gentle as ever, with the way they flickered over his face in search of the truth. How could he lie to that face?
'It's not lying. It is just withholding information.' He reminded himself as he took a deep breath to steady himself. "I think so." Zachary confirmed. "Elijah just wants Elena to stay out of trouble. If word gets out that she exists, then any vampire that wants Klaus' approval will be eager to find her and take her to him." Zachary explained, which was true. "None of us want that."
"Why does he care if she's safe?"
"Klaus will find her here eventually. I do not think there's anything we can do to prevent that entirely. So when he does, Elijah is going to kill him."
"Kill Klaus?" Stefan asked, receiving a nod in response. Stefan seemed happy enough with that answer, Zachary thought. "How did Elijah compel Katherine?"
That was something Zachary had completely forgotten Stefan had witnessed. He paused for a moment before he spoke, hoping that simply stating Elijah as an original would explain how they knew each other, eliminating any further questions about that. "He's an original. Being able to compel vampires comes with that."
"You can compel other vampires?" Stefan asked, his eyes once again wide in shock. Zachary didn't like that expression.
Zachary nodded. What an unhelpful piece of information to reveal. They were going to trust him so much more now - hooray!
"Wow." Stefan said, thinking through what that meant for them. "Have you ever...?"
"No!" Zachary exclaimed, brows furrowed in worry. He hadn't. He would never. Not to Stefan. And he didn't want him to think that he would. "I haven't."
"Why not?" Stefan questioned him, his eyes searching Zachary's.
"Why would I?" Zachary asked back. "I don't think I could ever do that to you. Take away your will like that." Stefan's gaze only grew in intensity as the two of them sat there in silence for a few moments. Zachary could only hope Stefan believed him.
"I- um..." Stefan stammered, blinking rapidly as he tore his eyes away. "I should go. See Elena."
"You haven't been to see her yet?" Zachary asked, shocked at his words. He had expected Stefan to run straight to her once he had been released from the tomb. But he hadn't.
"No, I waited for you." Stefan shook his head. "I had to make sure you were okay. And you are, so..."
"Right, yeah." Zachary nodded. "Bye then."
"Bye." Stefan responded, before speeding out the door.
'That was weird.' Zachary thought, running over the scene once more before pushing it out his mind with a deep sigh and a shake of his head. He knew realistically where he and Stefan stood, despite it not matching with his own feelings.
And he refused to be delusional enough to think that Stefan may ever feel the same.
·༓。*ﾟ✧ ★ ✧·ﾟ*ﾟ。༓·
NOTES
sorry about the wait again! uni is taking a bigger toll on me than i had hoped. irregular and spaced updates are just gonna have to do for now.
if you haven't noticed, i've been writing zachary with the intent that he is autistic. it's kind of working like a bit of therapy for myself in a way and i think it creates a more diverse and interesting approach to a character as it's not something you often see in books. i think representation is extremely important so i am trying my best to accomplish that in these small ways - simply by explaining zachary's unique way of thinking (basically my brain lol)
anyway, i hope you enjoyed a peak into zachary's brotherly bond with elijah! i love their bickering and zachary's awkwardness when receiving affection. it's like looking into a mirror, honestly.
thank you to everyone who's reading, voting and commenting! it really does a lot <3