Rebekah walked home looking devastated and opened the door, finding Klaus and Elijah arguing furiously.
"You said you killed him!" Elijah shouted in outrage.
"I did kill him!" Klaus roared angrily.
"Then who exactly did I see and speak to today?" Elijah shouted back, grabbing Klaus by the collar. "You lied to inflate your ego and left us and your children in danger."
KOL was eating Doritos while watching the fight.
"Ohhh, Rebekah came back early. Did Nik stand you up?" KOL asked amused.
"Rebekah, our idiot brother lied to us and said he killed our father," Elijah snarled furiously to his sister.
"Oh really?" Rebekah replied, ignoring the fight and continuing to walk.
"Hey... was the way Nik stood you up that traumatic?" KOL stopped eating his Doritos.
"No, he was out of commission," Rebekah replied with her head down.
"What? What happened? Couldn't he handle the two girlfriends?" KOL joked, and at that moment both Klaus and Elijah were already paying attention to the conversation.
"No, he was pinned to a wall crying like a baby," Rebekah answered absentmindedly.
"Who the hell hurt my son?" Klaus exploded.
"His mother," Rebekah answered automatically.
"Wait, he has a mother?" Klaus asked in shock.
"Of course he does. Do you think he came out of you?" Elijah answered irritably, considering he had already been angry before.
But it was the sound of Kol's snack hitting the floor that got their attention. KOL loved Doritos and would never let them fall to the ground.
"His mother?" KOL gasped.
"Yes," Rebekah said sadly.
"You didn't offend her, did you?" KOL was suddenly right in front of Rebekah, grabbing her by the collar. "Please tell me you didn't offend her? Rebekah, hhh."
"Get off her..." Klaus was the first one to pull KOL away from Rebekah.
He grabbed KOL by the collar and threw him across the room. KOL landed on his feet, irritated.
"KOL, why did you react like that?" Elijah asked, confused.
"Rebekah, what's going on?" Klaus asked, curious and nervous.
"I ran into Caroline and Amara on their way home while Hayley and I were going to Nik's house, and when we entered, I saw Nik pinned to a wall crying while a woman was deleting his games," Rebekah said absentmindedly. "I tried to save Nik."
"No..." KOL began biting his nails and planning an escape.
"But Caroline stopped me and said that woman was Nik's mother," Rebekah replied.
"Thank the gods," KOL sighed in relief.
"She also said that if Nik was being punished, then he deserved it," Rebekah sighed. "The worst part is that unlike anyone else, Nik was only crying and begging, but he wasn't showing any hostility at all, like a helpless child."
"Nik? My son, whom I wouldn't doubt could traumatize a child if he felt insulted, was acting like that?" Klaus looked completely shocked. "Something is wrong."
"Then after she finished deleting the games, she came over to me, recognized me, and warned me that the mother had returned." Rebekah looked down, now angry.
"Shit."
The word came from all of them.
"Then she vanished, like she teleported away, and Amara was in shock. When Nik's mother said hi to her, the poor thing started crying in terror." Rebekah looked even sadder now. "Real terror. Like, I've never seen anyone that terrified."
"Wait, that same Amara who supposedly defeated us at the ball?" Elijah was stunned. Klaus was too.
KOL didn't seem surprised.
"Then Caroline told me who she was," Rebekah murmured.
"What did she say?" KOL now looked surprised.
"She said Nik's mother's name was Qetsiyah, and when she saw I didn't react, she changed her approach and showed me what she could do," Rebekah whispered those words. "She pointed at Amara and said Amara was a vampire over two thousand years old, and Qetsiyah left her in that state, and that Nik's mother gave her to Nik as if she were a dog or an object. If he didn't accept her, Amara would be tortured even more. And you seem to know something?"
Rebekah looked at Kol irritably.
"Well, I don't know everything, but unlike you, I actually research the world. And yes, Elijah, I already knew Mikael was alive. The nobles identified him fighting a witch clan in Eastern Europe and Asia."
"But do you know Nik's mother?" Elijah brought the subject back.
"No, but we all know she is apparently the leader of the Bennett clan," KOL replied.
"So what?" Klaus asked irritably.
"You idiot, the Bennett clan is the most powerful witch clan that exists, with branches in every country in the world," KOL began speaking angrily. "And they are also tolerant of vampires and witches, accepting them into the family. We are talking about a clan with millions of witch, vampire, and werewolf soldiers."
KOL took a breath during his performance. Of course, he wasn't going to say that Nik's mother was actually the ancestor of the Bennett clan and that he had recently discovered she was a goddess.
"Damn, not even we could fight an army like that," Elijah said thoughtfully. "It's pretty obvious why his mother chose to raise him far away from Greece. The main clan might want to use him as a weapon."
"Damn it," Klaus growled.
"But back to the subject, what do you know about Amara?" Rebekah asked.
"Not much. Everything I know comes from legends about beings older than us," KOL replied. "I don't think it's absurd. The people from the village used to say Mikael killed a dragon when he was human... I always thought it was a snake or something."
KOL muttered and returned to the subject.
"There were legends about a being called Silas. According to the legends, he had the same powers we saw Amara use," KOL said with a sigh. "That he was the devil himself. Our ancestors called him Loki. Christians called him Lucifer."
"I followed his traces, and whenever I got close, he disappeared," KOL said in frustration. "But the last time you daggered me, I woke up some time later and there was no trace left. So if Amara was captured and she is the same species of vampire as Silas, then he was captured too and probably didn't have a good ending. And besides, she is a doppelgänger, or maybe even the original."
"Well, if what you said about the Bennett clan is true, I think they would be fully capable of capturing this Silas," Elijah said thoughtfully.
"Caroline also said Nik inherited his personality from his mother," Rebekah dropped the final bombshell. "And that she has Klaus's temper, Elijah's mind, and Kol's cunning. And from what you said, KOL, she has an army at her disposal."
The room fell into silence.
A heavy silence.
An unpleasant silence.
Even Kol had stopped joking.
The bag of Doritos remained on the floor.
Something that, by itself, was already terrifying.
Elijah watched Rebekah.
Klaus watched Kol.
And Kol...
Kol looked like he was calculating escape routes.
That did not go unnoticed.
Elijah was the first to notice.
The most rational Original in the family slowly narrowed his eyes.
That was not ordinary fear.
Kol knew monsters.
Kol was a monster.
He had already faced witches, vampires, werewolves, hunters, and creatures that most people did not even know existed.
Even so...
He seemed genuinely nervous.
That was a problem.
A big problem.
— Kol.
Elijah's voice came out calm.
— What?
— You're scared.
Kol immediately replied.
— I'm not.
— You are.
— I'm not.
— You are.
Kol crossed his arms.
Annoyed.
Defensive.
Exactly like someone trying to hide something.
Klaus noticed it too.
And that made his stomach sink.
Because Kol rarely showed fear.
— Rebekah.
Klaus's voice became more serious.
— Did Caroline seem scared?
Rebekah shook her head.
— No.
— Then was it only Amara?
— No.
Now Rebekah looked disturbed by the memory.
— Caroline wasn't scared.
She seemed...
Respectful.
Careful.
Like someone trying to avoid a problem.
But Amara...
Rebekah's expression changed.
And that caught everyone's attention.
— I've never seen anyone like that.
Silence.
— Not even when Mikael hunted us.
— Not even when Klaus lost control.
Klaus made a face.
But did not interrupt.
— She didn't seem scared.
— Then what did she seem like? — Elijah asked.
Rebekah took a few seconds to answer.
Because she was trying to find the right words.
— Broken.
The word made the room become even quieter.
— When that woman appeared...
Amara stopped breathing.
Kol closed his eyes.
Because he knew exactly what that meant.
— She started trembling.
— Her hands were shaking.
— Her voice disappeared.
— She couldn't even look at that woman.
Rebekah clenched her fists.
The memory still bothered her.
— When the woman spoke to her...
Amara started crying.
Nobody responded.
— It wasn't normal fear.
— It was panic.
— Terror.
— Like she was looking at something that had already killed her before.
Klaus felt a chill.
Because he knew that look.
He had seen it before.
In victims.
In slaves.
In broken people.
That kind of fear did not appear all at once.
It was built.
Layer by layer.
Year after year.
Pain after pain.
— Nobody becomes like that just because they got beaten up.
Elijah's voice came out low.
Thoughtful.
Everyone looked at him.
— That was trauma.
— Deep.
— Ancient.
Kol remained silent.
Which by itself was already a confirmation.
Klaus started walking around the room.
Angry.
Restless.
Thinking.
— Caroline said that woman gave Amara to Nik.
Nobody responded.
Because everyone had heard it.
And everyone had understood.
— As a gift.
Klaus's voice became colder.
— Like an object.
— Like an animal.
— Like a pet.
That disturbed even Elijah.
Because it implied something very specific.
A person who does that does not see an enemy as a person.
They see them as property.
As a possession.
As a tool.
As something disposable.
— She doesn't care.
Murmured Elijah.
Rebekah looked at him.
— What?
— About the lives of her enemies.
— Their pride.
— Their dignity.
— None of that matters to her.
Elijah looked more disturbed with every conclusion.
— She took a creature older than us.
— One that apparently possessed absurd powers.
— One that should have been a threat.
— And turned her into something she could hand over to her son.
The room fell silent again.
Because that was absurd.
Monstrous.
And terrifying.
Klaus finally stopped walking.
His eyes were dark.
— She destroyed that woman.
Nobody responded.
Because nobody could disagree.
— Not physically.
— Not only physically.
— She destroyed her mind.
Her soul.
Rebekah lowered her eyes.
Because that was exactly what she had seen.
Amara did not look like someone who had been defeated.
She looked like someone who had been conditioned.
Someone who had learned that resisting only made everything worse.
And that was far more terrifying.
Kol finally let out a long sigh.
Everyone looked at him.
— Now you're beginning to understand.
His voice was unusually serious.
— People do not develop that kind of fear by accident.
— It doesn't matter how strong they are.
— It doesn't matter how many centuries they have lived.
— It doesn't matter how many enemies they have defeated.
He pointed at Rebekah.
— You said Amara started crying when that woman spoke to her.
Rebekah nodded.
— Yes.
Kol closed his eyes.
— Then the woman won.
— Won completely.
— Because Amara didn't even try to fight.
That hit everyone.
Because it was true.
Amara had defeated Originals.
Faced monsters.
Survived for millennia.
And even so...
She cried.
She simply cried.
Like a child facing a nightmare.
Klaus felt something rare.
Concern.
His son had been raised by her.
Loved her.
Respected her.
And apparently...
Feared her too.
The image of Nik pinned against the wall crying returned to everyone's minds.
And for the first time since Rebekah had arrived...
Nobody found it funny.
Not even Kol.
Because now they were beginning to understand.
Nik's mother was not merely powerful.
She was not merely influential.
She was not merely someone with an army.
She was someone capable of completely destroying an enemy, humiliating them, breaking their mind, and turning them into a harmless toy that would accept any abuse.
And then handing them over to her own son as if she were offering a simple toy.
And that was infinitely more terrifying than the fact that someone like that apparently had an army at her disposal.
Of course, Kol did not tell the truth and only shared half-truths and legends, but even that was enough to frighten the Originals and leave them worried.