{1.08 | Maybe I Should Start from the End | part 1}
Memory had never been one of Elara's strengths. Even before her entry into the supernatural world, Elara struggled with remembering a lot of things. History dates? No. State capitals? Maybe. Her childhood? Also, maybe, but she did block out a majority of it for good reasons.
Even after triggering her curse, and the added memory gaps from what she assumed was from her werewolf side, her memory wasn't the best.
But she knew her memory was not as terrible as forgetting how she ended up in a damn field.
She felt the grass beneath her first, the stiffness of it stabbing into her back like a thousand tiny needles. The fabric of her green tank-top wasn't so thin as for the blades to stick through, but it still brought her discomfort. She felt the beaming sun next, the gentle heat of its rays bearing down on her face. From nearby, she heard a faint sizzling sound.
Her body ached as a soreness ran through every muscle. A groan escaped her lips as she moved to sit up, but something weighing down her chest stopped her. Elara opened her eyes.
Blinking slowly, allowing her vision to sharpen, she realized the weight wasn't a something but a someone.
Hope let out a grunt as she lifted her head from Elara's chest and allowed her eyes to adjust to the brightness of the sun. Bits of mud were splattered on her face, and Elara was sure she looked similar. Hope's brows furrowed as she seemed to realize who she was laying on. Under different circumstances, Elara wouldn't have minded waking up with Hope like that.
What?
Both of them jerked into a sitting position, Hope carefully removing herself from Elara. Hope jumped to her feet and advanced towards where Elara assumed the sizzling sound came from, but Elara wasn't paying attention. There were too many questions on her mind. How did they get there? What day was it? Why was she suddenly interested in waking up with Hope?
The blonde jumped to her feet, brushing herself off. She didn't have any injuries, none that were serious, anyhow. Whatever had knocked them away didn't seem to have been dangerous.
"Where the hell are we?" she heard Landon ask from nearby. He stood a few feet behind, holding his side. Near him, Alaric let out a sigh. "What happened?"
Hope remained silent, looking at the smoking hole in the ground. She was thinking, lost deep in her mind, and Elara wished she could read it.
"I don't know," he answered, "but I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
It's after that statement that Hope turned around, looking between the three of them as if they had lost their minds. Maybe they had.
And the only way to figure that out was to find out what the hell happened to them.
THREE DAYS EARLIER
Landon was in trouble, and they didn't have time to waste. As quietly as they could, Hope and Elara climbed down the stairs into the common room.
The plan was simple. Hope was to grab Alaric's keys from his office, then the two would drive away, searching for Landon using Hope's magical bracelet as a GPS. They stopped at the front door and split up. Elara waited for Hope to reappear, and it didn't take long.
They turned to leave, but a voice stopped them.
"Going somewhere?"
Elara paused, her hand on the doorhandle. Next to her, she felt Hope tense. Crap.
Hope turned towards Alaric, taking a deep breath. It was clear he had just been sleeping. Now wasn't the time, but later Elara would ask Hope where she could get one. It was honestly pretty nice.
"Better questions," he continued, "where the hell do the two of you think you're going with my keys and without telling me?"
Hope glanced back at Elara as she thought of something to say. Whatever it was, Elara knew to back her up.
"Um, you know," Hope began, her fingers fiddling with the keys, and Elara contained her grimace. There wasn't much she was better than Hope at, but lying was definitely one of them. "I just said some really harsh things to you yesterday, and so I just wanted to get you an oil change as a peace offering."
Elara nodded, humming in agreement. "Plus, y'know, it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission," she added.
Alaric scoffed in disbelief. "At 3:00 a.m?" He looked between them incredulously, then he sighed. "You don't have your driver's license, Hope."
"I have mine," Elara defended, pulling the small card out of her jean jacket pocket. She really needed to get a wallet. "Although the process was a little complicated to get it. And I planned on driving, anyways."
That didn't sway him. "Either way, you were gonna commit grand theft auto, which is a felony. The both of you are ditching school right before midterm exams begin," he explained.
Right, midterms. Well, Elara didn't want to study, anyways.
Alaric turned his attention to Hope. "And you've made it very clear to me that you see me as nothing more than an authority figure. So, tell me, why shouldn't I have you two suspended this very second?"
Elara wanted to make a comment about how Alaric had already threatened her position at the school before, but it seemed inappropriate.
Instead, Hope answered. She pulled down her sleeve, lifting the glowing bracelet in order for Alaric to see it.
"And what is that?" Alaric questioned.
"It's basically a supernatural compass," Hope explained.
Alaric gestured with his hand as he spoke. "Well, I hope it's leading you two back to your room, 'cause that's where you're going."
"We're going after Landon," Hope insisted. She lowered her arm, wrapping her hand around the keys. "If this thing is glowing, that means that he's in trouble."
Alaric's eyes danced between the two teenagers in thought. Then, he sighed again. "Then we're going, and I'm driving."
~-~-~
The first few hours went by quickly for Elara. Since Alaric had insisted on driving, she didn't have to and instead could take a nap in the backseat. After the past few days and sleepless nights she's had, she needed some rest.
Glancing in the rearview mirror at her, Alaric let out a long breath. He understood how she felt about the Necromancer and his actions. The monster brought back his fiancée and her father, and they both had to grieve all over again. He hadn't gotten a chance to talk to her after she left his office that night, but he needed to. He owed her that much after lying so many times.
"How is she?" he asked Hope quietly, careful not to wake the werewolf with his voice. The tri-brid sat in the passenger seat of the jeep, watching the trees fly by through the window.
Hope turned her head away from the window, glancing back at Elara. She looked peaceful with her jean jacket folded between her head and the window. "She's..." A gentle sigh escaped Hope's lips. "She's doing her best."
"I can imagine she's going through a lot," Alaric said.
"You can say that, again," Hope remarked.
A few minutes of silence passed between them. Whatever bond had formed between them had been broken, shattered like a pane of glass, and the Necromancer played a big part in that. He brought back the people that he knew would hurt them the most. His mind games beat them.
Hope looked at Elara again as the werewolf shifted in her seat, seemingly trying to get more comfortable. Their conversation at the graveyard had been... interesting, to say the least. Hope wasn't sure what came over her when she confessed to needing Elara, but it felt right. Despite the initial coldness between them, they clicked. Conversation flowed easily, it felt natural. She felt safe telling Elara her secrets, and Elara felt safe telling Hope hers (or, rather, Hope wanted her to). They hadn't known each other for long, but Hope felt closer to her roommate than she had ever thought possible.
Her decision to perform a head dive with MG into the Necromancer's mind had been reckless. She knew that, but she wanted answers. All she wanted was answers, yet her desire led to a piece of Malivore being unlocked. On top of that, they weren't sure how many locks were needed to be opened to release it.
But the Necromancer did answer what she wanted to know. Elara didn't get the exact answers she wanted, so Hope was going to get them for her.
"Why didn't you tell Elara that you knew her father?" Hope asked, her tone harsher than intended.
Alaric let out a sigh, peeking into the rearview mirror to make sure Elara was still asleep. He took a moment to think of his answer. "As an authority figure, I was hoping that I never had to tell her. If I mentioned knowing her father, I would've eventually had to explain that she wasn't a Davenport but a Laurent, and that was not going to end well."
Hope wanted to ask what he meant, but she waited for him to finish.
"Elara Laurent is meant to be gone. The Laurent line is supposed to have ended. She was meant to disappear," Alaric explained. He brushed his hand across his mouth as if he was anxious. "But she didn't. Not fully."
Hope decided not to say anything else. The werewolf had revealed what Cedric cryptically explained to her. Sure, Elara had anger issues and was somewhat unpredictable, but Hope could handle her. It was why Alaric roomed them together in the first place.
She understood why her own existence produced fear amongst the supernatural. The Mikaelson legacy was infamous, and being a tri-brid broke the rules of nature. People saw Hope as a monster because of who and what she was, but Elara wasn't a monster. She wasn't a freak of nature. Plus, Hope had never heard of the name Laurent before. It wasn't infamous like her own.
She recognized the look in Alaric's eyes. He wasn't just grieving the loss of his friend. He was afraid of what's to come because of his reappearance, because of his legacy.
And his legacy was sleeping peacefully behind them.
Eventually, with the sun finally in the sky, Elara woke up. A soft yawn left her lips as she sat up, raking a hand through her blonde hair.
"Morning," she greeted. Up front, Hope and Alaric had been sitting in silence. At the sound of Elara's voice, which immediately caught her attention, Hope removed her gaze from the window.
"Morning," Hope said in return. "Sleep well?"
"Mhm," Elara hummed. She leaned forward, placing her chin on the back of Hope's chair. "How far along are we?"
It was Alaric who answered, but instead of answering normally, he did so in a sing-song voice. "Indiana. Crossroads of America. Either of you know the capital?"
Elara looked at Hope with her brows lifted, expecting her to answer. School wasn't one of her strengths.
"We learned that in, like, eighth grade," Hope said.
"Oh, good, then you should know it," Alaric pointed out.
"I didn't say I absorbed the information" Hope added.
Alaric looked at Hope briefly. "Yeah, well, you're not saying much of anything."
Subtly, Hope lifted a brow. She had said a few things, but it seemed that Alaric wanted to hide their conversation from earlier.
She didn't agree, but she was going to be trapped in a car with him for several more hours. It was in her best interest to play along.
He turned his attention towards Elara, waiting for her reply, but her answer wasn't any better. "In eighth grade, I was in two different homes. The state capitals were the least of my worries."
"Look," he started, "if you can't handle grade school geography... the two of you are going to flunk all of your exams."
"Are Lizzie and Josie studying?" Hope countered. "Maybe you should focus on them."
Elara thought that was a good idea. They were his daughters, after all.
"Yeah, well, they're still in Europe with Caroline, thank God," Alaric responded.
"Religion has no place in the classroom, Dr. Saltzman," Hope quickly said. Elara's brows furrowed. Hope was talking about that court case that Elara couldn't remember the name of, but she didn't have to ponder over it without an answer for long. "The Supreme Court made sure of that with its ruling on Engel v. Vitale."
She wasn't going to admit it aloud, but Elara enjoyed watching Hope show off. The tri-brid was always confident, and Elara admire that about her.
Elara steeled her expression as not to reveal her train of thought. Since when did she admire Hope?
"And Indianapolis is the capital of Indiana. I'm getting an 'A' in geography." Hope turned to look out the window again. "Chill."
Elara glanced down at Hope's wrist, noticing the gemstone changing. "Hope," she said. When the older girl looked at her-- their faces a lot closer than either of them realized before-- she motioned for Hope to check her bracelet, ignoring the creeping blush on her face.
Hope did so, seemingly ignoring her own blush, and Elara hastily leaned back into her seat. What the hell was happening with her?
"Take the next left," Hope instructed, her voice steady and strong. "He's on the move."
"All right," Alaric said, carefully turning the wheel. He glimpsed at Elara in the rearview mirror, catching her eye. Crap. "Indiana is surrounded by what four states?"
She knew that one.
"Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio," she answered quickly. "Personally, I've only been to Kentucky. Didn't get to do much, though."
"See? We know geography," Hope chimed in, shooting Elara a supportive look.
Alaric sighed. "Fine, let's move on to science, then."
Hope rolled her eyes, and Elara leaned her head back, groaning dramatically. Car schooling had not been a part of the plan and seeing as they had however many more hours on the road, Elara wanted nothing to do with it.
Even if she really did need to study.