To Love a Phoenix (Elijah Mikaelson story)

Chapter 9: Return

Atalanta entered the warehouse containing the coffins after about an hour of walking around Chicago, dealing with her shaking resolve. She couldn't shake now, she needed to keep herself grounded in order to survive this. As she walked in, she heard Rebekah say,

"Because he would hunt me down and kill me. He's a vindictive little bastard, my brother."

Atalanta sighed and said, "That's no way to treat your brother, Rebekah Mikaelson."

The girl in question rolled her eyes at the slightly reprimanding tone of the huntress. Stefan then asked,

"But you still care about him. Why?"

Atalanta observed Stefan eyeing one of the coffins and she narrowed her eyes at the younger vampire. But she quickly put on a poker face, not wanting to give herself away. Rebekah answered the Salvatore with,

"Well, I hated him for a long time. It was exhausting."

With that, she sat down on the mysterious coffin. Atalanta noticed how the girl studied her then. Atalanta raised an eyebrow at that and looked at her straight on. Rebekah seemed to find her answer then and focused back on Stefan, who sat down next to her and said,

"You know, when I met you two, you were both on the run."

Atalanta then turned to another coffin. She felt a pull towards it again and walked up to it. Rebekah noticed this and studied the huntress again. The woman commanded respect from Klaus based off of her actions. She was kind and friendly to Rebekah. The female Mikaelson had miscalculated about her relationship with Klaus.

Atalanta put a hand top of the coffin, a sad, reminiscent look overcoming her features at finally being near the older Mikaelson. Rebekah observed the raw look of sadness come across the woman's features, as if she felt deeply for Elijah. She hadn't seen that look on a woman's features for her brother.

There had always been curiosity, lust, and awe in many of Elijah's lovers, but never something remotely close to what Atalanta seemed to show. But her attention was brought back to Stefan as he asked,

"Who were you running from?"

Rebekah instantly tensed and asked Stefan, "What do you mean?"

He seemed to notice how she instantly guarded herself from his question as he said,

"Last night I saw you, there was a man looking for you. You both seemed afraid. I just... I wouldn't think Klaus would be afraid of anybody."

Atalanta heard that statement and sighed. Why couldn't things be different? Atalanta made a fist with the hand that had been on the coffin. If she had the choice, she would remove the dagger from Elijah this moment. But it wasn't the right place or location for that.

Rebekah narrowed her eyes at Stefan, responding vaguely, "No one in this world is truly fearless, Stefan. Not even Niklaus."

Stefan persisted in asking questions, as he said, "Who was that man?"

Rebekah shook her head and responded with, "I can't. Please."

Atalanta noticed that Rebekah, despite acting really well, still must have had some type of feeling for the younger Salvatore. She saw the Mikaelson get off of the coffin and walk towards her. Atalanta allowed the younger Original stay by her side, leaning away from the coffin. Rebekah found some comfort in the huntress and a little flicker of confidence as she said,

"If Nik knew we were talking about this, he would-"

Stefan interrupted with, "No, no, no... I'm sorry."