01: Breaking The Glass

He usually had the TV on for background noise when he was working, finding his new project to help out New Orleans with or another carefully constructed plan to save his family from doing idiotic things. Now that Kol had was resurrected and in his rightful body, Elijah had his hands full. Thankfully, Kol’s stint as a human had tempered the young vampire a little bit, and he was less rambunctious than he was before.

However, what he heard on the news was somewhat troubling. Thanks to modern technology he could rewind to the beginning and watched with interest how the story unfolded.

Cults have become somewhat of a rarity with the decrease in certain religious sects, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not still around in a different way. Various law enforcement agencies have disbanded one today that lived in secret for years in Louisiana. Not a lot is known about this community, but as you can see from the footage we acquired, it’s unlikely that it was a religious cult. Carlisle Cullen and his son Edward were arrested, and another fifty people were taken in for assessment.

This action has been the dream of several family members who’ve lost their loved ones to this movement over the years. They have been fighting for the release of their relatives for years and telling the police about their suspicions and are now relieved that soon, they’ll be able to put their arms around them again. The police doesn’t believe they’re dealing with an actual cult, more of a group of people gathered in a community with like minded thinking.

Mr. Billy Black, from Forks, Washington, was present when his son Jacob emerged from the gates, seemingly unharmed, with his arm around an unidentified young woman who seemed upset and scared upon exiting. Jacob Black, a Native American, 26, joined the collective a couple years ago after becoming disillusioned with his tribe. Jacob, much like the others who have been taken into custody, will be assessed and released again. Law enforcement agencies have set up a good safety system to help these people.

While some members joined on their own volition, rumors are that some were born into the collective that has been around for some fifty of years. We will get back to you once we have more information about this developing story.

Elijah blinked when he saw the footage. So it was true then. They had co-existed with the Cullens for at least fifty years, knowing of their kind, but had always left them in peace as they didn’t seem to be harmful in any way. They had kept to themselves, which was probably why they had managed to stay under the radar for quite some time.

Annoyance grew when out of the other room, he could hear his brother laugh, and it was then that he knew. “Niklaus!” Elijah bellowed before storming into his brother’s study. “What did you do?”

“I eliminated my boredom, brother,” Klaus smirked at him. “Oh, you should see your face right now, come, have a look in the mirror.”

“Are you drunk?”

“Quite possibly.”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Elijah was angry with his brother, furious that his brother had a hand in the Cullen’s discovery. “You have just kicked open a door we like to keep closed, what if it comes to light what they truly are?”

“Oh, but that’s part of the fun, brother,” Klaus grinned as he sat down on the sofa. “I have to admit, it wasn’t just my idea, I’m pretty sure our brother is watching it unfold in person.”

“I think we should put Kol back in his box, this is getting out of hand.”

“Relax, Elijah! Have some fun! Look at the misery on the Cullen’s faces!”

“Yes, and who are the innocent people they surrounded themselves with?”

“Collateral damage and now free.”

Elijah groaned as he rubbed his temples to get rid of an impending phantom headache. “I’ll tell you, Niklaus, nothing good will come out of this.”

“And just what good do you think came of those sparkling parasites controlling the humans as they were? Tell me dear brother, where are your morals when they were thinking themselves royalty practically under our noses all this time? Hm?” Klaus questioned as he stepped up to his brother and held his arms behind his back as he looked at him curiously. “What would you have done? Walked up to their door? Knocked and perhaps asked to share a spot of tea? Maybe politely suggested releasing their humans? I doubt that plan would have gotten far knowing how they tend to operate. Particularly with the Cullens.”

Elijah was quiet for a moment before he caught on. “You had someone on the inside.”

“Of bloody course I’ve had someone inside! I’m not stupid nor am I callous to the plight of the humans that are in their care! Our brother and a wolf are tending to them as we speak,” he finished, his voice softer as he turned away.

“Oh, brilliant. You send our brother to do damage control,” Elijah scoffed. “And a wolf? Which one?”

“A shifter. You don’t know him,” he sighed as he rolled his eyes. “If you are so unhappy the way I handled things, then why don’t you go and look into matters yourself. Go on! You are just going to try to take over no matter what I have to say.”

Elijah thought for a moment. “I think not. I’ll let you handle this on your own. You seem to have it all worked out, Niklaus. I’ll wait until it’s my turn to help you, as always.”

Klaus eyed him, cocking his head to the side. “Somehow I doubt that, but if that is true… You did seem rather enthralled by the story. If you truly wish to be involved in helping the darling innocents, then you are most welcome to join Kol. I have no qualms with you doing your own thing. He is only making sure that anything of our world remains hidden.”

“Fine,” Elijah said simply as he handed his brother his coat. “But then you’re coming with me.”

“Why do I need to come with you?”

“You started all of this, you’ll see to it that it ends well.”

“The Cullens started this by getting power hungry!”

“Either you come with me now, or I will go over there and remove Kol from interfering with the humans.”

Klaus growled at him unhappily, scowling at being manipulated into having to do something he had intended to have others do for him. Grabbing his jacket, he stormed past his brother and down the stairs. “Let’s get this over with,” he muttered on his way to the door before stopping short, blinking as an attractive, fresh scent soon crossed his senses.

“Greetings, brothers,” Kol had just set foot on the staircase. “I come bearing gifts! She’s a little unconscious but yes, a gift.”

“What did you do Kol?” Klaus whispered. “You weren’t supposed to bring any back.”

“Well, your buddy said that she’s different from the others. We couldn’t find any paperwork on her to begin with, and he said that if she gets caught in the system, she’ll get lost. So I brought her here,” Kol said quietly, still holding on to the girl.

He growled as he avoided looking at her, choosing to focus on his brother. “So he couldn’t take her to his tribe?”

“She’s mute, so don’t worry about noise or anything.”

“I doubt that very much. The Cullens don’t exactly work that way,” he murmured as he turned his eyes upward. “Take her upstairs for now and call Rebekah or Cami to get her cleaned up. We’ll figure out what to do with her later. She is not staying here, though.”

“Sure she’s not,” Kol smirked as he walked past his brothers and brought the girl to an empty room. “Sister! Are you home?”

“I don’t think this will go well, Niklaus.”

Klaus hadn’t moved from where he had stopped frozen in place. Letting his breath out slowly, he closed his eyes and turned his head away. “For once, you and I might agree on something. However, until we know more, who are we to turn the girl away?”

Elijah blinked at his brother and shook his head. “You’ll have to talk to Camille about this girl, find the best way to approach her and handle her. If there’s no suitable way, we’ll compel her and let her go on her way.”

“The human way.”

“Exactly.”

Klaus shrugged and tried not to breathe in the new scent as it made him feel slightly euphoric. “Very well, I’ll go and talk to Camille. You keep your nose clean, brother, as you always do.” He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and dialed Cami’s number before strolling back to his study, relieved that he didn’t have to go out there and see the people the Cullens had victimized. He trusted his brother Kol in having done a job well done. If not, they’d soon find out anyway.

~o.O.o~

“And she hasn’t come out of her room?”

“No, Camille,” Klaus sighed as he pointed at the closed door. “Rebekah cleaned her up as well as she could and handed her something to wear, but neither of us has gone in, and she hasn’t come out yet.”

“And you think I’m the best person to do this? I don’t know anything about communes and their psychology.”

“You are the psychology major,” he growled in warning, his patience wearing thin.

“Fine, fine,” Cami threw up her hands in defeat and walked to the kitchen. She knew Klaus was following her, and that was fine, but if she were to walk into an unknown situation, she’d better come bearing gifts. Of course she had watched the news and of course it had peaked her interest, but never in a million years had she expected that she was going to have to shrink one of the survivors.

“Don’t make anything fancy, I’ve heard that she had a very dull and strict diet.”

She sighed as she grabbed a piece of bread, buttered it and put some cheese on it before finish making a cup of tea and headed back upstairs, once again being stalked by Klaus. “Stop it, you’re making me nervous.”

“I’ll be in my study.”

“Thank you.”

“Listening in.”

“Of course,” Cami said as she waited at the closed door for Klaus to disappear and knocked on the door before entering. At first, she didn’t see anything. The bed was a mess, and if she had to be honest, the whole room looked uninviting. Surely the Mikaelsons could have done something better? “Glad to see you awake,” Cami said into nothingness as she set the food down on the table and quietly sat down in one of the chairs. “I’m Cami.”

She saw some movement underneath the bed. Since the bed was quite low to the ground, she wondered how short the girl was, or how underfed she was. “I can understand you’re scared, but you don’t have to be. We don’t want to hurt you. Why won’t you come out from underneath the bed and have something to eat?”

The girl slid out from under the bed and looked down to her feet as she walked towards the table and sat down on her knees to start to eat the sandwich. Camille’s heart broke. It was the girl seen on the news, the one that had been so upset, and she looked as if she could use a few more pounds on her body. The way the girl devoured the simple sandwich was cause for concern too, and Cami put her hand over the mug of hot tea when the girl reached for it. “No, that’s still too hot. I don’t want you to burn yourself.”

The girl flinched as she rocked back on her feet. Having finished the sandwich, she just sat there on her knees, hands in her lap, eyes down. “You have nothing to be afraid of,” Cami said kindly. “What’s your name?” The girl mouthed something, and it was that she was sort of alright with reading lips due to her job in a noisy bar, she smiled. “Nice to meet you, Bella.”

Camille gently blew in the tea for it to cool down a little bit. “Must be strange to be taken out of your home and to wake up in a new one, but I assure you, you’re safe here. The family you’re with are good people and they want to help you, for you to get back to your family.” The girl, still not looking at Cami, smiled at that. “Do you know who your parents are?”

The girl nodded.

“Can you tell me?”

She shook her head as she squeezed her hand tightly.

“That’s okay, you don’t have to tell me,” Camille made sure she didn’t sound disappointed or angry, just kind. She kept blowing on the tea as she noticed the slight aggravation in the girl. “I’m too nosy for my sake anyway.”

After a few minutes of simply observing the girl, the girl suddenly shot forward and grabbed the tea to drink it. The way she drank it made Cami think she was parched and hoped that the tea had cooled down enough. Even if it was too hot, the girl wasn’t flinching. Her eyes flew up to the door when there was some knocking. “It’s okay,” Cami said soothingly, reaching out for the girl, but she only dropped the now empty tea mug and backed away from Cami.

“Camille, can you come out, please?” Elijah’s voice sounded, causing Bella to scatter away back underneath the bed. Sighing, Cami grabbed the empty plate and empty mug, realizing that for today, she wasn’t going to get more of the girl, but she had seen enough. She opened the door, revealing Elijah, in his suit, waiting for her to come out. When she looked over her shoulder, she could see that Bella was looking at him from underneath the bed too.

“I’ll see you soon, Bella,” Cami smiled at her. “Don’t worry too much, okay? Everything’s going to be alright.” She gently closed the door and looked at Elijah. “Did you have to do that!” she breezed as she pushed the plate and mug into his hands. “Why did you do that!”

“To give you something to observe, of course,” Elijah replied as he followed her to Klaus’ study, where the rest of the family was waiting for Camille’s assessment. “I think you were successful?”

“You’re a jerk,” she pointed out. “That girl is scared out of her wits. I don’t think she’ll be able to stay here with you Alpha males in charge.”

“We could always just compel her,” Elijah suggested. “Make her part of the society again in a heartbeat.”

“No,” Cami shook her head, but Kol and Klaus said the same thing. “Look, you could compel her to take away the fear of being in a strange situation or having to deal with you guys, but to force a new life on her? I’m not sure that will stick.”

“Sure it will, we’re the Original Vampires.”

“Yeah, and you know what, buddy?” Cami shot at Elijah. “You’re an Original idiot. Bella needs to heal. She needs to find her own way. What do you know about her, anyway? I went in there blind.”

“Isn’t that the point? You see more when you go in blind,” Klaus teasingly.

“Nik’s friend told me that she was a special one. Not just because there wasn’t any paperwork on her,” Kol said quietly, leaning against the desk.

Camille looked at him curiously. “Why is she special? What makes her different from the others?”

“According to him, she was raised as a baby with the Cullens. Now, I’m not sure if that’s true, but she hasn’t seen the outside in a very long time.”

“Reason enough that compelling her a life wouldn’t work. All she knows is the supernatural. What else does he know or even suspect? Any information I can get would help,” she asked as she looked between each of them.

“He didn’t want to share much, to be honest. Only that she’s had it rough. I couldn’t compel his shifter ass either, maybe Nik can convince him to give him more information on her. She’s a mute. Does that help?”

“She’s not a mute. At least I don’t think she is,” Cami said. “I’ll have to work with her to see, but it looks more like she was conditioned not to speak.”

Klaus was quiet, growing more furious as he looked at his older brother.

“I do not wish to entertain all the possibilities that the Cullens could have done to her,” Elijah said quietly. “Cold Ones aren’t known for their… kindness, only when it suits them.”

“They molded a human being into something they want,” Klaus spat at his brother. “And you still think it was a stupid idea for us to intervene?”

Camille stared at the two, wondering what was going on. There was something unsaid that she wasn’t getting, and it was clearly going to make things much harder all around. “Whatever your issues are with one another this time, you need to figure it out or get over it if you are set on helping that girl. The last thing she needs is another hostile environment. Make this place as safe as you can for her. For originals, I hope you lot can manage that.”

“Of course,” Kol huffed as he pushed himself off the desk. “We’re not monsters!” He said in Cami’s face as he passes her on his way out. “I have things to do… Whores to see…”

“Pick up of items our guest could use…” Elijah added, not missing a beat. “Clothes… Toiletries…”

Kol let out a whine followed by a “Fine!” As his footsteps could already be heard on the stairs.

“Now please, knock on her door, slowly open it to reveal yourself and introduce yourselves to her, even if you can’t see her. You’re her hosts, for god’s sake!” Cami said to the remaining Mikaelsons as she followed Kol out. She had research to do. “And make this a livable bedroom,” she added under her breath.

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