The burdens of family

42

Arkyn spent the night with his girlfriend but went back home the following day for a change of clothes for him and Bonnie. He also talked to Alexis and Xavier, told them he knew he couldn't stop them seeing as Alexis had half the power Bonnie needed but that they'd be grounded for the rest of eternity after the whole Klaus mess. He then went back to the cabin in the woods.

"Tell me more." Bonnie demanded once he got comfortable beside her.
"More about what?" He asked.
"The curse."
"There isn't any more to it. Except it has to happen in the doppelgänger's birth place. Elena was born here in Mystic Falls which is why Klaus is so delighted she's not running."
"Why does he need to sacrifice a werewolf and a vampire?"
"I don't know. It was part of my mother's curse I suppose. I never really studied the curse like Klaus and Elijah." He said.
"Your mother killed a doppelgänger for the spell?"
"You have to understand. My mother- she made a lot of bad choices but she wasn't a totally bad person. She would never take a life, and she adored Tatia. But Mikael was a monster. He was more angry than he'd ever been. He forced her to. And the next day, he killed her."
"In front of you?" She said, aghast.
"In front of Klaus. The rest of us were out. He said she broke his heart so he would break hers."
"I still can't get over the fact Klaus was innocent once." Arkyn let out a laugh. He moved so he was facing her, and put his hands to her temples.
"He wasn't always Klaus." He started, and he entered her mind. He showed her a teenage Klaus, running after Elijah, the two of them holding swords. Elijah suddenly turned around holding his sword up, and Klaus blocked it.
"Give it up, Elijah. You can't win." Klaus was taunting, swinging his sword.
"Perhaps in your dream, Niklaus." Elijah grinned, moving to the side. Arkyn, who was barely ten, was standing on the sidelines, watching them, and Kol came up to him. Arkyn looked at his brother who put a finger to his lips. Kol waved a hand and Elijah's sword completely missed Klaus and struck the ground. Klaus took that as an opportunity to strike his sword and disarm Elijah, before holding his sword to his brother's neck.
"Why did you help him win?" Arkyn asked.
"I wasn't helping Nik win." Kol said. "I just wanted Elijah to lose."
"To us he was just Nik, our brother." Arkyn removed his hands from Bonnie's head.
"Wow." Bonnie said. "Did Kol hate Elijah or something?"
"No, he just loved winding him up. And it got boring watching Elijah always win. By rigging the fight, Nik finally had something to hold over Elijah."
"You were adorable." Bonnie said.
"Were?" Arkyn sounded slightly offended.
"You know what I mean. With your chubby cheeks." She gushed.
"I'm never gonna live this down, am I?" He asked and she shook her head.
"Some girlfriends see baby pictures, I got to see a memory of what you looked like."
"That's the only one I'm ever going to show you." He said.
"Never say never." She grinned, and he shook his head moving back to sit beside her, an arm around her shoulder.
"What was your sister like?" She asked.
"Rebekah used to be the sweetest little girl. She loved picking flowers, and hated that Mikael wouldn't allow her to wield a sword. She was a girl. Girls weren't supposed to fight, you know?" Arkyn said. "So she defied him as much as she could, but never outright. She'd steal Niklaus's sword and practice on her own in secret."
"Did your father ever find out?"
"He almost did once. Klaus was supposed to get his sword and fight against Elijah- for practice, but Rebekah hadn't returned it yet. Klaus got the blame for 'misplacing' his sword and Mikael was angry."
"Did he hit him?"
"Mikael always hit Klaus. But yeah, this time he beat him especially. We all thought he was going to kill him, so I stepped in. I saw Rebekah sneaking it back and pretended I accidentally took Klaus's sword because I mistook it for mine."
"What happened next?"
"Mikael left. He took Finn and Elijah and went to go hunt while our mother and Rebekah helped Klaus with his wounds."
"Did he do anything to you?"
"No. He just turned and left. He didn't really hate us. He just hated Klaus."
"What's the happiest memory you have as a human?"
"Oh, that's easy. It was the days after I learned I had magic. "
I couldn't control it though. My mom tried to help, but I couldn't learn with her method so Kol took me out to the woods, and helped me. Every time I got angry, I moved things. Or made the ground shake. Kol helped me find an anchor. He used his magic to show me how to slowly calm down." He smiled fondly at the memory. "Okay, your turn, Bonnie Bennett. What's your happiest memory?"
"Uh, we were in middle school. It was my birthday and Elena, Caroline and I were spending the day together. Elena and Matt were dating so he was hanging out with us too and so Tyler was also there. They were showing a movie outside in the town square. I can't remember what movie it was but I do remember Caroline being annoyed at it. She made such a big deal out of it. And we ended up annoying everyone who was there to watch the movie." Bonnie smiled. "We had to leave so as to stop disrupting everyone else so we went to the Grill. Elena and Matt were being all cute even for thirteen year olds. Tyler was being an asshole to them, mainly to Matt because it was his thing, you know? Caroline left to go to the bathroom for like five minutes and when she came back, she bumped into Tyler who spilt his milkshake over her. We all decided to just go back to Tyler's place seeing as he pretty much lives in a mansion. We stopped by Caroline's house first so she could get a change of clothes. By the time we got to Tyler's, pretty much everyone I knew was there. People we liked from school, my grams, Elena's aunt and Jeremy and her parents, and Tyler's parents too. It was pretty fun, and the Lockwoods got me this huge cake- and I'm talking tiered with like five layers of chocolate. Elena's parents stopped us from having too much and then grams walked me home that night, just me and her and she gave me this bracelet." She reaches her hand out to show him. "She said if I was ever scared, I'd just have to grip tight on this charm and everything would be okay."
"Are you scared?" He asked.
"Little bit." She admitted. "What if Elena doesn't survive this? What if Klaus wins and it ends up being for nothing? What if he comes after all of us afterwards for attempting this?"
"I'll protect you." He said. "I know I can't protect you from the actual ritual, but you will survive Bonnie, and he will not come after you. I won't let him."
"How are you going to stop him?"
"Maybe I have a secret weapon." He smirked.