The Flight to Greece
Elijah didn't travel by plane—he couldn't afford the exposure. Too many eyes watched the skies. Instead, he moved by magic-infused teleportation stones, relics he'd uncovered centuries ago and restored with blood from the roots of the Hollow tree. Each jump took a toll, distorting space and time, leaving a ghost of his presence in each city he passed through: Naples, Rome, Delphi.
By the time he arrived, his suit was torn, soaked with sweat, and his pulse throbbed with restrained magic.
Delphi was quiet under moonlight. The old ruins of the Oracle's temple stood like forgotten bones on a broken hillside. Beneath it, the entrance to the Catacombs yawned open—a pit carved into the rock, sealed for nearly a thousand years.
Elijah inhaled deeply. The air reeked of sulfur and old blood.
He descended.
---
The Catacombs of Delphi
The moment his feet touched the stone floor, he felt it—time slowed. His vampire senses dulled, his werewolf instincts growled in warning, and his magic rippled against an unseen force.
The tunnel was long, lit only by glowing runes embedded into the walls. They pulsed faintly, like a dying heartbeat.
He pressed on, silent.
Then the whispering began.
> "You were never meant to be this... abomination."
> "You betrayed your own nature."
> "You are not Elijah Mikaelson. You are a mistake."
He ignored it.
He'd heard worse in his own mind.
---
The Forgotten Tribrid
At the catacomb's heart was a vast chamber, shaped like a dome, with chains suspended from the ceiling and a black circle of scorched stone at its center. And there, kneeling in that circle, was a figure.
Naked. Pale. Covered in runes. His face was skeletal, skin barely clinging to bone. But his eyes… they burned gold.
"You've come," the figure rasped.
Elijah stepped into the light.
"I have."
"I remember you," the creature whispered. "You were a child when they bound me. You watched."
Elijah frowned. "That's impossible."
"Not when you live outside time."
Elijah knew this being—Kael—the first tribrid. A mistake of spellcraft, created during the rise of the Dark Coven in the 9th century. He had been sealed here by the Ancestors themselves.
"Why do you remain?" Elijah asked.
"Because I am the price of power."
Kael stood, joints cracking, chains falling away as if undone by thought alone.
"You came to see what you might become," he said.
"No," Elijah replied. "I came to end what should never have been."
---
Battle Beneath the Earth
Kael moved with terrifying speed. Not vampire speed—something more jagged, more ancient. Elijah parried his strikes with a mixture of blood-fueled spells and bone-breaking werewolf strength.
They clashed, shattering stone with every blow. Kael's magic burned black, corrupted by centuries of decay. His strikes carried the agony of the sealed dead.
Elijah bled. His shoulder torn open. Runes etched in pain across his chest.
But he endured.
He summoned the power he'd trained to control—the fusion of vampire instinct, werewolf fury, and witch precision.
Kael laughed. "You're just a candle trying to outshine a star."
"No," Elijah said, and his voice trembled the catacomb. "I am the storm that devours both."
He cast the Seal of Severance, slicing Kael's essence from the walls, cutting him off from the runes that fed him.
Kael screamed.
Then, Elijah drove his palm into the creature's chest, unleashing a pulse of raw tribrid force—crimson, gold, and silver magic erupting into the chamber.
Kael's body turned to ash.
The whispering ceased.
Silence returned.
---
In New Orleans: Klaus Dreams
At the compound, Klaus awoke in a cold sweat. He had dreamt of fire. Of Elijah. Of chains snapping in a dark place.
He stormed into the courtyard where Rebekah and Kol stood.
"I felt him."
"Where?" Kol asked.
"I don't know. But something happened. Something catastrophic."
Rebekah was silent.
Kol cursed. "We need to find him before he returns a monster."
---
A New Ally
In Delphi, as Elijah emerged from the catacombs, he was greeted by a figure standing at the cliff's edge. A woman in a white cloak.
Kora.
"I didn't think you'd survive."
"I didn't think you'd care."
"I don't," she said. "But I didn't want you to face him alone. The Ancestors wanted me to ensure Kael remained sealed."
Elijah nodded slowly. "He's gone."
Kora studied him. "And what are you now?"
Elijah didn't answer.
Instead, he walked past her, gaze fixed east.
"There's one last rite."
---
The Rite of the Mirror
Back in his sanctum outside New Orleans, Elijah prepared for the final step of his transformation: The Rite of the Mirror. A spell created by the Hollow's enemies—used to confront the self. Not the illusion. Not the myth.
But the truth.
He lit the candles. Drew the runes. Poured his own blood across a basin of black obsidian water.
Then he stared into it.
And what he saw nearly broke him.
---
Visions of His Past
He saw Tatiana, the woman he loved and lost, torn apart by Mikael's enemies.
He saw his mother, placing the spell upon them that made them monsters.
He saw himself, slitting the throat of a thousand innocents for survival, pretending it was honor.
He saw Klaus, weeping alone in a forest after Elijah's betrayal in the 14th century.
He saw Rebekah, begging for peace in Paris, as he walked away.
He saw himself—not noble. Not honorable.
But broken.
---
And Then He Saw Hope
Not a vision.
A real one.
Hope Mikaelson stood in the doorway, eyes wide.
"Uncle Elijah?"
Elijah turned, startled.
"You should not be here," he said softly.
"I dreamt of you," she said. "You were surrounded by fire… but you were the fire."
Elijah smiled, heart aching.
"I'm not the man you remember."
"I don't care," she said.
She hugged him.
He didn't deserve it. But he held her anyway.
---
The Return to the Compound
Elijah walked through the gates of the Mikaelson compound like a ghost.
Klaus appeared instantly, his face a mixture of fury and relief.
"Elijah—"
"You don't need to speak," Elijah said. "Only listen."
"I've become something more than what we were."
Klaus scoffed. "And what is that?"
"A solution."
"To what?"
"To us."
Elijah looked him in the eye. "I will not let us destroy each other. I've carried your rage long enough."
Kol and Rebekah appeared, watching.
"I want peace," Elijah said. "But if you cannot stop, I will end what must be ended."
Klaus stared at him.
Then smiled. "There's my brother."
---
The Rebirth of the Family
That night, the Mikaelsons sat at the dining table—for the first time in years.
They didn't speak of war. Or death. Or power.
They spoke of memories.
Kol laughed about the 1800s.
Rebekah teased Elijah for his terrible poetry.
Even Klaus relaxed, just a little.
But they all felt it.
This was a pause.
Not an end.
A storm still loomed.
---
Kora's Warning
In the bayou, Kora summoned a crow—a messenger of the Hollow.
She whispered a warning:
> "He has awakened. The Tribrid walks. The Ancestors cannot stop him. If he chooses darkness… all bloodlines fall."
The crow flew east.
Toward a rising storm.