A/N: I will mostly be writing in Elijah's POV, since I like writing him best, and Klaus and Kat can become a little OOC on my end. I will do my best, though. Hope you enjoy! Thanks everyone!

There is redemption from this crumbling sanity you walk in – I am Elijah Mikaelson

Destined to escape the winds of my death – I am Katherine Pierce

There is no light or darkness, there is only power – I am Klaus Mikaelson

We are broken. We are past the point of return. We are the storytellers. Hear our words.

A Plucky State of Affairs:

~Elijah~

It had been the early touches of summer when my brother and I invested in a small marble mansion outside of Essex England. The great house was surrounded by wild fields of flowers, simply bursting with life. It was a beautiful place, by far, one of my favorites we had stayed at over the centuries. Niklaus, of course, had not planned to stay long. It was only to get her…the beautiful and famed Katerina Petrova, who had the exact blood-appearance as…Tatia.

As my diabolical brother always did, he began to think of ways to lure the girl into our home. I was always urging him to leave the child be, but he would not see reason. Reason and Niklaus never did see one another in the eye. It had happened in other instances since the centuries of our youth, when our childhoods were shrouded with sadness and pain. He had lost himself in the rage of our parents' conspiracy, the tyrants of another time, willing himself to not become the form of Mikael… Yet he did. He desired power, forbidden knowledge, and to finally raise the hybrid army he had wished to do so since the very first centuries of our perennial lives. He became our father, despite his intense aversion towards him; he simply morphed himself into the very man he hated. We all took a piece of him inside of ourselves, Niklaus, sadly enough, received the largest serving of our parents' cruelty… He never recovered.

The opportunity finally arose in midsummer, a long-time companion of Niklaus and I, Lord Henry Hitchly, was to celebrate his thirtieth birthday. After some debating, we managed to suade Hitchly to our estate for his birthday. He wished to invite his beloved friend, Rosemary, who was in acquaintance with Katerina. That was simply it. Niklaus invited a hundred or so civilians, and Katerina came... She came like a wind of rebirth, blowing the aching past away... Like the light of a candle she lit up the room. Her long curls had cascaded down her back like a flowing waterfall. The light of the candles had touched her cheeks, her smile glimmering like a diamond in the rough. Like water she moved with a certainty across the floor, her confidence was like that of a flickering fire. My eyes had thought to have seen all the beauties of the world: pure and raw beauty from the Pyramids of Cairo, the golden oceans of Rio, and the citrus winds of Nigeria. None of it came to even an inkling of the girl. She was simply magnificent. Every curve, every curl, and every beautiful edge was screaming Tatia. Her dress was adorned in white, with golden engravings swirling down the sides like rivulets breaking off of some wealthy spring. Her laugh had seemed to break through the crowds and remind myself of a distant time, when the era of grief and loneliness had not lingered so close.

Her eyes like some source of an ancient and sacred entity moved to mine. She was like some deity of a past time. A goddess, some may have said. Her smile… Her smile had lit up her face like a flame to darkness. "Lord Mikaelson," her language was clipped with subtle Bulgarian, "how does thee fare?"

My own lips had responded by rising up at the edges. I reached up and took her hand, kissing the air above her skin. Her eyes had sparkled with youth as she chuckled like a child who was scared to face an overseeing father. Her blush that spread over her cheeks were like roses in the first bursts of summer. "Miss. Petrova," my words stumbling tentatively from my lips, "I am faring well-enough, although, it seems that my dear brother is doing tenfold of the happiness I share." I raised my glass to the blonde lord in the corner of the great room.

"What does happiness matter if we have no reason to revel in it?" She stated simply like it was a dogma she truly believed. Her magnetic eyes twinkling like stars and her lips turning into a devious grin. I felt the flame that she illuminated. The charisma she radiated was like a force of nature, only controlled by the whims of herself. Her laugh seemed to shatter the ice inside my soul with only the sweet sound of her innocence.

"Lovely maiden, would you like to meet my brother, then? The reveler of all things entertaining and amusing." My words suppressed the bitter taste that came onto my tongue.

Her eyes had widened like that of the moon's surface. A blush coming to her cheeks and she laughed in her scared and childish way. "Y-Yes, my lord… I would like that very much." Her arm intertwined with mine as we walked across the great ball room to my brother, who was amusing a group of imbecilic nobles. The men he claimed would bring a prosperous nation. I knew the truth. He did not mean to become their friend. He meant to become the wolf that would watch them vigilantly and never cease to catch their shortcomings. And when they least expected the moment, he would pounce and destroy them.

"Niklaus," the crowd of drunken humans had instantly parted as I walked through them. "This is Miss. Katerina Petrova, the girl you sought so relentlessly for." My brother's face was framing into a classic malevolent smile, as it slivered onto his face.

"Come now, Lijah', we musn't let the beautiful maiden miss all the entertainment." He took her palm within his, moving his lips along the soft, olive skin of her arm until he reached the crevice of her neck. His lips lingering for a moment longer there, he could smell the blood that flowed through her veins. The blood of the Petrova. Sweet and pure. "You have the eyes of plenty upon you, Miss. Petrova." He whispered into her ear. Her blush still remained on her cheeks as she giggled softly, looking anywhere but at Niklaus' face.

"My lord, Niklaus…" She tried to sink into a pretty curtsy, but her legs were quivering. Niklaus had not cared. Her blood was essential to the birth of his kingdom. He saw her and saw power. He saw not the face of a beautiful young woman, but a rung of leverage. His mind had possibly been whirling in ten directives, all taking into account the best way to end the young girl. She was nothing to him. She was neither beautiful to him, kind, or humorous. She was only power. She was simply another doppelganger.

~Klaus~

The world was my domain. It was mine. Katerina was mine. Hell, even my iron-tanned brother was mine. Katerina was simply fawning over the prospect of lying with the great and powerful Niklaus Mikaelson. How could one take blame onto the girl? In this age there was no one greater, than I. I had established the Mikaelson name as influential nobility, and many lords, even in some cases, kings, and beautiful women from across the lands, flocked to our modest marble-stoned estate. Sworn allegiance from my tongue had meant prevailing and with-standing nations, desires would be quenched, and one's worst fears unlocked, all at my command. Yet, beneath it all: the jewels, the riches, the virgin maids, and the dedicated alliance of my brother, one thing still clawed within my chest. A visceral and dangerous facet of myself lurked within the deepest depths of my mind.

My mother. She had tried to stop it with her soft and gentle ways, but it was him who had made her do as she did. Mikael. His name bringing horrible and archaic flashes of the past… Nightmares that had tainted my childhood forever. He had made her stop the darkness. He had made it all stop. They were foolish and ignorant like children, barely from their mother's teat if they believed they could stop me from unearthing the truth of my own self. The other half would soon be released by her blood. The wolf would, at last, be free.

"My lord Niklaus," her words were softly interrupting my thoughts. She looked at me with the innocence of a child and the curiosity of a philosopher. She was rather intriguing. She was nothing like Tatia, she was innocent and delicate, Tatia had been fire. Although, as my brother had smartly observed: she was Tatia's symmetrical image. A painful urge from the death my old love reached up and caressed my heavy heart, Tatia's angelic face coming to mind.

"Katerina." I spoke her name with a commanding and almost provocative tone. Her eyes instantly falling aglow with amazement and awe towards me. "How well does the lady dance to the lyre?" I purred against her neck, my lips gliding down her swan-like throat. Her heart began to skip beats, her skin breaking out in gooseflesh. She resisted the urge to release a pleasured moan. Her thoughts momentarily losing all focus, but to the presence of my proximity to her. It was comical, really.

"My lord, I…" She began.

"Be soft, my lady. If your beauty is as paralleled to your grace, then I'm far past certain you could be a master at the dance." She melted into nothingness as I twirled her across the floor. Elijah watched me with a subtle gaze of disapproval. His eyes lingering on Katerina for a moment too long and it was in that very moment, that I knew he had already begun to sink into her trap. He was already caught in her snare. Elijah's eyes came to meet mine with an ancient sadness that I had known too long. It was all very dull to see it every other moment of the man's life. He knew what I had planned to do. Katerina was a necessary sacrifice for a bridge to my new reign, even if she was as beautiful as the stars before sunrise… Well, then, whoever had said that the wolf could not tease the rabbit before killing her, was truly shameful. It was exactly what I intended to do.

~Katherine~

Handsome. Audacious. Beautiful. Graceful. Scholarly. Noble. Powerful. Confident. I was overwhelmed by the very breath of Lord Mikaelson's breath upon my cheek. His smile had simply made my heart leap. His eyes were set by his strong and powerful jaw, with his high cheekbones that seemed to be more like structures of steel and iron, rather than that of a human face. He was beautiful…as I hate to repeat myself, but he truly was. His masculinity was so dominant in his movements, while a powerful eminent aura radiated off of him. He was made to be a king, it seemed…

Would it have been wrong to say that I fell in love with him the very moment my eyes laid themselves upon him? The way he had twirled me across the floor, made me feel as if I floated upon clouds like a goddess in an old tale my mother would tell me. My mother. The very thought of her made my heart clench in agony. Tears of anger welled in my eyes, but knowing that Lord Mikaelson was watching me, I blinked them away quickly in fear that he would see.

"Miss. Petrova, it would be in my pleasure if you stayed for a moon cycle with my brother and I in our estate. We would be enjoyed by your lovely pleasantries." His voice was smooth, and nearly lulling like a lullaby of some foreign land. Before my mind could even begin to search for an alternative, I had already agreed.

"Of course, my lord… I… I would be so honored to stay in the presence of such great men as the Mikaelson brothers." What an adventure, I thought. Perhaps, by the end of the summer, I would be betrothed to the great Mikaelson himself.