Summary: They did the unthinkable. They raised Silas. There would be consequences. And the first one had a name: Kaithlyn Downright.

A/N: Hello! Welcome to The Rising. I'd like to clarify a few things:

-the story starts after season 4 episode 15;

-every character on the show will be included in the story;

-*attention* only the prologue, chapter 1 and 2 are Kaithlyn centric. Starting chapter 3, it becomes focused on the whole cast;

-I always leave clues as to what's about to happen next. What this means is that if something is written, it has a purpose to be there;

-Silas is different from the one in the show. He isn't a wimp;

-the story is plot driven. There is romance in the story, but it's a part of the plot, not the plot;

-this is a slow burn;

-Kaithlyn Downright is played by Jordana Brewster;

-blog: therisingseasons. tumblr .com

-the publishing schedule is on my author profile;

Well, I hope you'll be entertained.

(PS: chapter 5 and 8 are bomb af)

Disclaimer for the story: I don't own The Vampire Diaries. The story and the original characters are mine.

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Life is like the wind: you do not know where it'll lead you, but you have to trust it because no matter how badly things may transpire, it is all for you.

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The forest was dark and even in broad daylight, the terrifying aura didn't falter in its presence. The ground was covered in amber leaves and patches where the grassless ground revealed itself. Although most of the trees possessed the same dead foliage, a few sturdier ones had dark green leaves on their higher branches. This was definitely not the place to be, but she still found herself on the cold sand surrounding the forest—an unfortunate forest on a cursed island.

Even if she had yet to enter the forest, she noticed them. Vampire traps. Whatever treasure this welcoming island beheld, it definitely wasn't meant for a vampire to take. But this begged the question: what drew Galen there in the first place? On top of its eerie looks, there was one more reason it was so repelling to her. When she first took notice of its position on the map, she had a feeling of déjà-vu, but she couldn't put her finger on as to why.

"I took care of the boat." With no help from you, of course, he thought as his jaw tightened. The girl on the shore didn't flinch when he asked in spite of his rigid muscles, "Are you sure this is the place, Kaithlyn?"

Kaithlyn took her hands out of her coat's pockets and turned to fully face him as she said, "I never thought you'd doubt me and my powers, Jayden."

He returned her gaze and added, "It never hurts to make sure."

She started walking and he had no choice but to follow. To say he didn't like to be near her was an understatement. This whole mission started because the council didn't hear from Galen for a long time, so they sent the two of them to find him. He was here because he was a close friend of Galen's and Kaithlyn because of her tracking abilities.

When Jayden first heard of Galen's disappearance, he didn't think much of it because it wasn't unusual for him to leave by himself. He likes to hunt on his own. However… even then, he'd get in touch with someone, he thought. It was different now and this type of difference couldn't be glossed over.

Jayden continued to follow Kaithlyn closely behind. She wore a black coat and dark jeans paired with brown riding boots. Her dark brown hair fell perfectly straight on her back like usual.

Kaithlyn threaded through the forest, fully aware of how Jayden's eyes were staring each of her moves down. She chose to ignore it. She felt they were getting closer to Galen, but there was something more to it. Along with the trail they were following now, she also picked up on a strong attraction coming from another part of the island.

Her powers were certain. Nothing in her mind doubted that the direction they were heading in was the correct one to find their comrade. The other connection was not pointing to Galen, but probably to something important that had happened to him.

Finding him was the whole point of this mission, so they couldn't divert from their original route. This new discovery was intriguing, though. So what is it that you're hiding, Galen?she thought. Either way, she was looking into it.

Eventually they entered a clearing of some sorts. There were trees here and there, but significantly less. A few rusty cabins accompanied the trees, which served as an indicator of life.

Kaithlyn ignored this thought and continued on her way. "There'sa dead body over there," the guy behind her said. She stopped and scouted the surroundings thoroughly. Indeed, resting at the bottom of a tree was a body of what appeared to be a middle-aged woman.

Jayden used this opportunity to catch up to her. "Stay here. I'll go take a look."

He jogged towards the body. Of course that Kaithlyn was right on his tail. You're so stubborn, K. He brushed Kaithlyn's behavior aside and focused on finding out the cause of death. The woman's neck was bitten and so was her wrist.

"Vampire attack?" Kaithlyn asked. "This is unexpected. Do you think Galen had anything to do with this?"

"If Galen and the vampire responsible for this were on the same island, then Galen took care of him," Jayden explained proudly, still examining the woman's wounds. "But you're right, this is weird. Vampires are self-centered creatures: they like to drink, fuck and don't care about anything as long as they're having fun." She bit the inside of her cheek. Jayden's explanation left a sour taste in her mouth. Does he really think I don't know the definition of vampirism? she thought. "This place," he added while pointing at the forest, "isn't exactly adequate to meet those needs."

They started searching for survivors, but only came across dead bodies. Looks like we aren't going to find out anything, Kaithlyn thought as she entered one of the cabins. This one also had a dead body in it, but the woman was holding a pendant in her left hand. When she grabbed it, she suddenly felt a wave of power. Witches, huh?

This was an isolated village on an island that had a witch living in it. Either she was the only witch and everyone else knew or this was a village full of witches. If that's the case, then we have a serious problem on our hands, Kaithlyn thought and came to the conclusion that this wasn't an ordinary attack.

She searched around the cabin and found a big book under a pile of clothes. As she skimmed through it, she took notice of the foreign language, which seemed to be Latin, and a few odd drawings. She recognized what she had found. A grimoire. This was a witch village.

After another quick glance through the grimoire, she decided it was time to head back. Kaithlyn took the book with her since it would count as proof of the witches that lived there. As for the pendant, she put it in her coat's pocket.

Kaithlyn met up with Jayden where they had found the first corpse. When she saw him, she said, "The villagers are witches. This isn't a normal vampire attack." She pointed at the grimoire in her hand. "This wasn't hidden, which means that either the human villagers knew about the witch and accepted her – which I highly doubt – or everybody is… was a witch or warlock."

Jayden processed the information he'd just received. If vampires attacked the place, how come he didn't found any vampire corpses? Vampires can kill only two types of witches: beginners and those with their guard down. But the grimoire proved they were no beginners. Also, wending his way through the village, he spotted a few gardens which didn't look like their purpose was to serve as food.

"We should head back, talk to the council and pick up from there," he blurted.

Kaithlyn briefly shook her head upon his request and a frown embraced her features. "We came here to find Galen and we're not giving up just because of one or two vampires. After we get the hunter out of the island, you can come with some back-up and investigate as much as you want."

She turned her back and returned to her route when she stated, "I don't want to be a part in any of that. It's not my department." He wasn't following, she noticed when she ceased to feel his heavy steps behind her. She stopped in her tracks and slightly rotated her body to the right. Indeed, Jayden didn't move an inch and his eyes were glancing around as if looking for answers. When their eyes caught each other, she finally said, "I came here to find your missing friend. This is what I was assigned to do, not your side mission. Let's go."

That seemed to have changed his mind, Kaithlyn thought as she sensed his presence following her lead again.

The walk gave her a chance to think about why she came here in the first place. When she was asked to accompany Jayden on his mission to track Galen, she immediately raised her eyebrows. Kaithlyn had always thought Galen was a strong man who needed no babysitter, but she guessed that his people didn't trust him as much as she did.

But maybe, just maybe, the main reason they wanted to check on him was precisely because of that. The stronger you are, the cockier you become: you stop caring about other people's opinions and you take risks even in a simple situation. The vanity you feel when people compliment your abilities becomes your worst enemy. And people complimented Galen's hunting skills... a lot.

She sighed. There wasn't much she could do, so she maintained her pace, small branches cracking under her feet. Finally, they got to a small hollow canal where there had probably been water before. On the other side there was a body tied with rope and propped against a rock. Galen!

They traversed it quickly; it wasn't that much of a steep hill. When they reached him, Jayden immediately pulled a first-aid kit out of his bag and Kaithlyn cut the rope that restrained him with a penknife.

Kaithlyn snatched the kit out of his hands and said, "I can take care of it, announce the council!" She put some oxygenated water on a sterile compress and carefully pressed it against Galen's neck where the deep cut was. When she was sure everything was clean, she took a bandage and wrapped it around his neck, loose enough so it wouldn't strangle him, tight enough so it would stop the bleeding.

Jayden wanted to object. His friend's safety was much more important than a stupid announcement. He wanted, but he didn't. He couldn't pick a fight right there and then because it could mean the difference between life and death for Galen.

He took his phone out of the bag. It didn't seem like such a good idea to call somebody directly from the council as there was a high possibility they'd be busy and not answer, so he tried a different approach. He was going to call one of his friends, Dylan, who knew he'd be on this mission.

His phone had the signal to make a call, but he was more cautious than that. A normal call was more likely to be monitored than a Skype call. A hunter learns that with experience. After a few ticks, Dylan answered.

"Hello, Jayden. What's the matter you're calling me for today?" His British voice ringed on the other end. Jayden grabbed his hair in his fist and looked up at the sky. This wasn't the moment to be casual!

"There's no time for that. We found Galen and he's unconscious! Kaithlyn's taking care of him right now..." He pulled his messy golden hair, started trembling slowly and gave in to the tightness in his chest. His composure? Gone. His mask? Gone. His friend? Might be next on the list. And what was he doing to stop that? Chatting with Dylan.

The answer caught Dylan off-guard. He didn't expect a skilled hunter like Galen to be in this situation. No one did. His voice turned somber, "What do you want me to do?"

Dylan's finally in on this, Jayden thought and a new fire lit inside of him. They could do this. He inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled through his mouth. He just needed to think clearly. Galen wasn't going to die. He wasn't going to let that happen.

"Just ask for back up," he blurted out. "We can bring Galen to the shore, but he needs high medical attention right now." In the end, it was a good plan: they would come and have everything prepared to make sure Galen made it out alive. "Bring a fast boat too. We'll need it," he concluded.

Dylan retained the instructions. "Where are you exactly?"

"Just tell somebody with a high rank about this," he said glancing at Kaithlyn who was waving at him to hurry up. "I can't talk anymore, I need to help Kaithlyn. You just tell them what I said. They'll know where to send the boat." He closed the phone and crouched near them.

Before he called Dylan, he had a chance to glimpse of Galen's wounds. As much as he hated it, Jayden couldn't deny that Kaithlyn had done a great job cleaning and taking care of the cut on his neck. He had other wounds too, like small cuts caused by the ropes around his wrists, but those weren't fatal. She had taken care of the biggest problem and that was all that mattered.

After she bandaged Galen and checked his vitals, she tried to wake him up. She kept shaking his body and when nothing happened, she came to a conclusion.

Kaithlyn got back on her feet and dusted her pants. "I think he hit his head. I didn't get a response out of him no matter what I tried." A hit to the head was a death sentence, especially after all the blood loss. "When are they coming?"

"I talked to Dylan. He'll get a high-ranked hunter to take care of it."

They managed to get into contact with the others impressively fast, which was probably the life saver for Galen. Kaithlyn was satisfied because the critical part of the mission was finally over and everyone would stop worrying about where Galen was. She stabilized his condition and she trusted the medical crew: if there was one team who could bring someone from their deathbed back on their feet, this was it. Galen only had to keep his heart beating and Kaithlyn didn't see this as much of a problem.

Jayden locked his shining eyes on Galen who appeared to be sleeping. This mere moment passed and he got back on his feet with tensed muscles. If they allowed themselves to get too comfortable, the walk back could take more than necessary. We can't waste any more time, he thought and said, "We need to head to the shore. There's no time telling how quick the help will come."

Kaithlyn agreed, but there was still a spot in her mind that thought about the other place her powers were guiding her to. She wanted to explore that and after all, she wouldn't help Jayden in any way by coming back with him because he was the one who would carry Galen's body. The path they came from was very safe the first time, so why wouldn't it be the second?

"You need to do that." Jayden widened his eyes. "There's no need for me to accompany you two; I'll just be a third wheel. I think it's better if we split up, so we would be more efficient." She looked him straight into the eyes as he slowly began shaking his head with parted lips. No sound escaped him and, honestly, she didn't care what he would say, she was going to do whatever her instinct told her to.

"But… the traps…. the vampires!" Jayden stammered. He had to come up with an idea to convince her to stay with them. The more people guarding Galen, the higher the chances they wouldn't get hurt on the way home.

Kaithlyn was sure he would bring this up, so she simply said, "You're a high-ranked hunter and a friend of Galen's, I'm sure you can handle that."

Her compliment untied one of the knots in his chest. Maybe it isn't that bad, he thought and gazed at her. His eyebrows furrowed and then slowly released. "If I'm going home, then where are you going?"

She brushed the question off with something along the lines of 'I want to check on something'. She didn't want to give much information away because, after all, she didn't owe anybody a report on her activities.

The man nodded and pushed the subject no more. It was none of his business. They weren't friends. They just happened to have a common friend and teamed up for the sake of that one friend. Nothing more. Frankly, he wasn't sure if he wanted more. He crossed enough of her boundaries already. What lenience she showed him was clearly linked to her friendship with Galen.

They muttered a quick goodbye and the standard 'take care' to each other and left.

Jayden put Galen's left arm around his neck and grabbed him around the waist.

Their walk back to shore was uneventful, as Kaithlyn had said. Jayden managed to dodge the traps and they hadn't encountered any force, so they quickly arrived at their original boat. The bad part was that Galen still didn't wake up. The medical crew was bound to arrive soon and it was this knowledge that calmed some of his worries away. It was reassurance and hope and it was exactly what he needed in that everlasting moment.

While Jayden was making his way back, Kaithlyn headed in the opposite direction. Because she didn't have that moron to worry about, she could quicken her pace. She dodged all the traps as if they were nothing. However, passing through so many was a little odd. What was there so important that needed that much level of protection?

Kaithlyn would soon find out. She entered the area of the place where something life changing had happened to her fellow comrade. The nature shifted a little bit, from the green tip tops to the bare brown color of the branches. Even a cold wind seemed to pick up.

If it wasn't a qualified wasteland before, it is now, she thought.

She stepped onto the barren ground. This was it. This was the place she searched for. She spun around inspecting her surroundings once more. Kaithlyn couldn't deny the truth: there was nothing there.

She wasn't about to let that trip go to waste, not when she got so far. Her head shot up to the sky. Nothing. Just the grey palette. She eyed the ground beneath her feet. Cold and infertile.

Left. Forest. Right. Rocks. These were the only other directions she could investigate. Entering the forest again would only result in getting further away from the area her powers had found. Taking a look at the rocks might potentially clue her into a new lead.

As she got closer, she noticed the curve of the rocks and how it sheltered something behind the shadows. A dark hole in the ground. A cave.

She came closer to it and decided to take the leap. After all, she did make the entire trip down there, she wasn't going to stop only because of an obstacle. Luckily, there was already a rope attached to the ceiling, so she could easily make her way in and out of the dark abyss.

Kaithlyn wrapped the rope around her wrist and checked its resistance. It was sturdy enough. She wrapped both her arms and legs around it and she jumped into the dangerous unknown. But no matter how ready was a monster to attack her, she was as ready to fight back.

She explored the maze with the humid black rocks and deafening silence. This wasn't the usual scenery for her—it was something outright of a horror movie. She expected her flashlight to suddenly beam over a dead body hanging from the roof. Turns out it wasn't that kind of a horror movie.

Time and space weren't as clear as before. The maze certainly helped with it. Did she spend a minute wandering around or had it already been an hour? Did she pass that big oval rock two times or was it just a similar one?

In this blur Kaithlyn escaped from the corridors into a big open cavern. This room was the source of the connection. A room with nothing but a big table in the middle, blood on the floor and a bag.

The first thing she did was check the bag to confirm it belonged to the person she assumed it would. The big pocket which contained tied rope, a crossbow and other vampire hunter material was enough evidence for her. She was right, it was Galen's. That didn't stop her from rummaging, though. She was hoping to uncover some clues about what had happened to him, but she didn't. However, she did find something useful in one small pocket. Galen's phone.

This might come in handy in the future.

Kaithlyn put herself in his shoes for a moment. If someone took her phone, she would be pissed because all of her contacts, all of her appointments were memorized in there. But what would piss her off even more would be never getting it back. Kaithlyn guessed Galen felt the same; after all, they did spend quite some time together.

That was one of the main reasons she wanted to take his phone. She would definitely give it back to him… eventually. Now that I even consider it, Galen should thank me. If it weren't for me, his phone would be lost forever, she thought and her eyes twinkled of mischief. She slowly shook her head and covered her daring smirk. She was such a good friend sometimes.

After dealing with that silly issue, Kaithlyn's face turned stoic. Enough dilly-dally, she thought and got back on her feet. Her eyes studied the blood at the entrance. Even at first glance it wasn't hard to notice that it was relatively fresh. Also, when the question of whom it belonged to immediately popped up, her first thought was that the person had died. But where was the body? She wandered around quite a lot before finding the chamber, so a dead body laying on the floor somewhere was unlikely.

The person had to be alive, but there was a lot of blood. The same person was probably healed by supernatural means, a vampire or maybe one of the witches from the small village. This person who apparently survived was the key to knowing what happened.

To be honest, this is quite easy. Someone's most highly spirited object isn't their car, favorite book or T-shirt, it's their blood. This patch of blood was making it way easier to find them than Galen. All she had to go with was one of his shirts, which had been laying around his room at the dormitories, and, even if she'd hate to admit it, her connection to him.

She crouched near the pool, placed her hand on the ground and brushed it along the edge. The first thing she felt upon contact was another wave of power almost like the dead woman's one, but stronger. That piqued her interest because of the high possibility of the witch present there and the dead one not being from the same lineage. These little things aside, she began to concentrate on the important matter: the location of the witch.

After a few seconds Kaithlyn knew where she would be heading next. Easy as a piece of cake, she thought as she got up. After spending so much time on the island and especially in the dark cave, she just wanted to finish her research and leave. Probably Jayden and Galen are already out on the sea, while I'm here sacrificing myself to know what happened to the so-careless-expert hunter. She sighed. She wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

The last thing to examine in the room was the big table. She came closer to it and traced its edges with her hands. She leaned forward and slowly touched the surface towards the center. She was doing it so slowly so she wouldn't miss any signals. Any clue about who the owner of the table was or who touched it last or anything for that matter was useful. She guessed it was abandoned for a long time because of the dust near the edges. Centering all her power in her hands wasn't nearly as easy as it might have looked, it was hard giving the present circumstances.

After less time than Kaithlyn expected, she stopped dead in her tracks and her eyes widened in revelation. She felt the presence of somebody she had met before coming to the island. Even if it was hard to believe, the little human boy she met only a few months ago, whom she could easily call friend, had been there. As shocked as she was, there was one single name that filled her mind.

Jeremy.

A/N: Thanks for sticking until the end of the prologue! You probably already know what the first chapter will be about, so tune in for next one. :)

Review for a sneak peak of the next chapter.