Mystic Falls, Virginia-1950
Finn couldn't believe it when he first saw the location of Mystic Falls on a map. It was the exact same place his family called home a thousand years ago. You'd never hear about it from any historians as their village was ravaged by Niklaus to cover up murdering Mother. Yet the ghosts of the past seemed to linger within the air as Finn drove Anna into the small town. He could remember the countless events that occurred during his childhood as he passed by where they occurred. There was a ravine he pulled Kol out of, the woods where his siblings all ambushed him and wrestled him to the ground as they joined him in fits of laughter, a hill where Finn watched his Mother perform a spell for the first time. So many memories but unfortunately, the best ones weren't here.
It was in Norway where the best years of Finn's life took place. The days where he would run around chasing Freya and awaited eagerly for Father to come home from his raids. Back when Mikael was a loving father and a loving husband. All four of their family was so happy until the day Dahlia came and took away Freya. She was the lynch pin of their family and with her gone, their family was destroyed. Father became bitter and angry, no longer showing affection towards anyone.
Finn shook such thoughts from his head. It didn't do any good to recall such things. Freya and Mother were dead and Father was nothing more than a monster.
Anna guided him down an empty dirt road and they parked within sight of the ruins of an old building. Much of it was gone with only the stone foundations and portions of the northern wall remained. The years had taken their toll as the woods began to reclaim the area. Vegetation had begun growing around and within the former church grounds.
Finn pulled a shovel out of the car trunk and the two headed inside the ruins to look for possible hidden passageways underground. Apparently the church had been built over top of a cave and that's where the vampires were spirted away to keep them safe when the church was burned down. Unfortunately what kept them safe was also keeping them trapped inside. The biggest problem was finding it which was actually easier said than done. They had no idea where the entrance or how deep they might have to dig in order to find it.
"Are you sure this is the actual church?" muttered Finn after they spent several hours digging around with no success. He didn't mention the idea that witches could have lied about saving the vampires and that Anna's mother was actually dead.
"I watched my mother dragged inside here before it was burned down. That's not something you just forget," Anna replied. Finn could understand that. The two moments that stuck inside his mind were the times Dahlia took away Freya and founding out that Mother was dead. Those two memories were burned inside of Finn's mind and something he could never get out no matter how much sometimes he wished they would vanish.
Finn struck earth with his shovel in a new location when he heard something different. It sounded like he just hit wood underneath the dirt. Strange thing to have buried within the church foundations especially since almost any wooden aspect of the building had been burned up in the fire. He dug deeper to find an old and almost rotted wooden door. Finn smiled as he grabbed it and using his superhuman strength, pulled it right out of the ground. Underneath it was a spiral staircase leading underground.
Anna came rushing over, her eyes widened in anticipation. She was excited, being so close to finally reuniting her mother. Finn took the lead, descending first. He didn't require a torch or flashlight to see ahead of him. The darkness had always been a friend to vampires with their enhanced vision. Though Finn still pulled out a flashlight to see where he was going better. The two vampires followed the staircase down to an underground chamber comprised of brick and stone. Judging from the pentagrams etched on the walls, this definitely wasn't part of the church.
"What is this place?" Finn asked.
"I heard rumors there used to be a haven for witches here. The locals drove them out and destroyed their home only to rebuild a church on top of it. Guess they didn't know about this," explained Anna.
A moan caught their attention. It was coming from behind a door sealed shut on a stone wall with a pentagram etched on it. Finn approached it and felt around but couldn't find any obvious way to open it. This must be what the witch used to seal the vampires inside.
"I'm guessing you need magic to open this," Finn remarked.
"Then it's time to use that necklace," suggested Anna.
Finn pulled out the ruby necklace he kept in his coat pocket. He tugged at the ruby gem, pulling it off the necklace. "Do you know how this is supposed to work?" he asked.
"You just throw it hard enough to shatter it and that should do the trick," replied Anna.
Finn took a moment to ready himself then hurled the ruby at the door. The jewel slammed against the stone surface and shattered. Suddenly it exploded in a flash of bright light, so bright that Finn was forced to cover his eyes. He could also hear some kind of sound that was similar to a screech but it didn't sound like any living thing he's ever heard before. The sound diminished along with the light until the chamber became once again silent and utter darkness.
"Did it work?" Anna asked. "I know that might seem like a stupid question but…"
Finn understood her hesitation. Just because the ruby created a big lights show doesn't mean it destroyed the magic barrier around that door. Finn approached it and felt around again only this time the stone slab was loose. Smiling, he shoved it open as air blew inside of it probably for the first time in almost a hundred years.
"You go first. Let me know which vampire is your mother. I'll handle the rest," Finn said.
Anna nodded, taking the lead. She certainly wasn't happy about knowing the other vampires were going to be slaughtered but it was non-negotiable. They've been trapped down here for nearly a century and Finn wasn't going to let them take out their anger on the innocent people of this town.
The two entered the darkened cavern tunnel comprised of stone and brick as moaning echoed across the walls. The vampires could sense their presence and were responding with muffled cries for help. They came across their first vampire, a male chained to the wall and whose skin was so desiccated it was almost impossible to tell his ethnicity. Finn calmly knelt down and plunged his hand into the vampire's chest, ripping his heart out. He moaned and then went still.
"At least he won't suffer anymore," remarked Finn though it was clear Anna was uneasy by what she just witnessed. She probably knew some of them but Finn didn't have any sympathy for them. They were vampires and aside from a few like Rose, Lexi, Anna, and maybe Trevor, Finn considered the rest to wild animals that needed to be put down. He thought his hunter instincts died after what happened with Mikael in New Orleans but it seems the thirst for the blood of vampires had never truly gone away.
The pattern repeated itself as they moved from one vampire to the next. Finn would kill the male vampires instantly while allowing Anna a chance to examine the female vampires. So far she shook her head with each one so Finn finished them off. Their search ended as they approached another female vampire.
"Annabelle," the vampire whispered, her voice barely audible even with superhuman hearing.
"Mother!" shouted Anna as she rushed to her mother's side. Since they didn't have any other source of blood, Anna bite her own wrist and put it up to Pearl's mouth. "Drink Mother you need to regain your strength."
Pearl moaned, possibly to protest drinking from her own daughter but soon began to accept the crimson gift as it dripped into her mouth.
Now that Anna found her mother, it was time for Finn to finish the job. It didn't take him long before he made his way through the tunnel and killed the rest of them. He counted twenty six vampires including Pearl that had been trapped down here and now they wouldn't be a problem ever again. Finn returned to Anna to find her mother was starting to regain her strength.
Pearl struggled to get to her feet as her blood shot eyes narrowed at the sight of the Mikaelson. "Who…are…?" she asked in a raspy voice.
"He's a friend Mom. Let's just get you out of here," Anna urged.
Finn frowned as he started to hear the sound of cracking within the ceiling. What was more concerning was that it wasn't going away but it seemed to be getting louder. It just dawned on him that magic wasn't just what kept the cavern sealed but possibly from collapsing as well. By shattering that null crystal on the door, they removed the only thing stopping a cave in.
"Anna we need to leave," Finn said. Anna and Pearl glanced up, hearing what he could too. Finn grabbed both of them and took off down the tunnel as dust and rocks began to drop to the floor. They almost reached the end as the ceiling came crashing down on top of them.
Mystic Falls, Virginia-2010
Heaving as he pulled another rock out of the way, Damon Salvatore lifted up a several hundred pound boulder and hurled aside. He then grabbed the next one and pulled it out before tossing it aside. This whole process had been going on for days as Damon spent hours upon hours trying to dig his way into the collapsed tunnel. It might take him weeks to finally get through but that wasn't going to stop him.
One hundred and forty-six years Damon had waited to get inside this tomb, one hundred and forty-six years of betrayal, loneliness, boredom, and so many memories he was more than happy to forget. Whether it was being betrayed by his family or suffer boredom with members of the opposite sex whose only interesting traits was the blood flowing through their veins and the amusing screams they make as they die. Damon was desperate to finally bring back the one person who made him feel alive.
He met Katerina Petrova back in the 1860s and it was love at first sight. Well it was for Damon but Katerina…or to the rest of the town knew her as Katherine Pierce…wasn't so quick to make a choice. She loved to spend time with Damon and his younger brother Stefan, manipulating and playing the two. Damon wasn't an idiot. He knew he was a toy to her but he didn't care. He loved her and Katherine loved him in her own way. She wanted to turn him into a vampire so they could spend the rest of eternity together. She also wanted to turn Stefan as well but whatever. As long as Damon got to be with Katherine forever but Stefan had to go and ruin everything.
Little brother subtly tipped off Katherine's true nature to Daddy who in turn put vervain in Stefan's drink. When Katherine fed on Stefan, the vervain in his blood weakened her enough for Father to chain her up and drag her away to a Fell's Church. The founding families of Mystic Falls were gathering up vervained vampires and locking them inside the building before setting it ablaze. Damon couldn't save Katherine from being taken but he could ambush the cart transporting her to the church. Stefan tagged along to help undue the mess he made. He was lucky Damon needed his help.
The rescue was an epic failure. Not only did the brothers not rescue Katherine but they ended up getting shot and killed. That should have been the end of them but instead they arose the next morning neither living nor dead. They were in transition to become vampires caused by dying with Katherine's blood in their veins. All that was needed to finish their transformation was to drink human blood but Damon refused. He thought Katherine was dead and didn't want to live without her let alone as a beast. Stefan had other ideas and practically forced his brother to drink blood. For that Damon promised him an eternity of misery though to his brother's credit, Stefan has brought Damon his fair share of misery as well.
Damon received a daylight ring from a witch named Emily Bennett who had been a close friend of Katherine. The witch rekindled the vampire's hope when she told him that Katherine was still alive but trapped inside a chamber underneath a church. Emily couldn't undue the spell to open it until the comet she used to channel the spell in the first place returned which wouldn't occur for another 145 years. So Damon waited all that time only for the spirit of Emily to betray him and destroy the talisman needed to open the tomb to freed Katherine.
Damon searched for an alternate way to open it, only to be rebuffed at every turn. So he came to the ruins church one last time to say goodbye. He planned on leaving Mystic Falls and keep searching but to his surprise, there was a hole in the ground. It hadn't been there all the times Damon had been there before so it must be recent. He jumped inside to find the entrance to the chamber collapsed. Turns out the mystic barrier wasn't there, assuming it was ever there to begin with. Damon wouldn't put it past Emily to lie about some magical barrier to keep him away so he started digging and kept on digging for the next several days, only stopping to get a drink from a blood bag. His absence was probably noticed by Stefan and others around town. Damon had several missed calls but he didn't bother returning them. All that mattered was getting Katherine out of there and he wasn't going to stop until she was.
Damon heard something behind him. The sound of something hitting the ground dropped from the ceiling. He turned and to his annoyance, there was Stefan having jumped down into the chamber. "Wonderful. Just what I need," grumbled Damon.
"Damon…" Stefan tried to speak. Almost instantly, Damon realized what was going on. The guilty look on his brother's face and the fact that he wasn't stunned by this chamber. Stefan had already been here. The little liar knew about this and neglected to tell his brother. Yet another betrayal, what a shock.
"You seem remarkably unsurprised about all of this," Damon remarked, extending his hands out to indicate the whole chamber.
"Don't do this Damon," Stefan urged him. He wasn't denying the charge and that told Damon all he needed to know.
"You knew about this!" Damon shouted. "You knew that the chamber was open and that Katherine could be freed and you never told me!"
"Katherine had brought nothing but misery into our lives," Stefan protested.
"Oh right she's so horrible and yet you're knocking boots with her look-a-like," Damon mocked.
"Elena is nothing like Katherine," Stefan hissed.
"But you certainly are. You could have told me about this place so I can get Katherine out of here. We'd leave Mystic Falls behind and you can wallow in the hell that is high school with your precious Elena," accused Damon. "Instead you just kept your mouth shut. What's a matter Stefan? Jealous because you know that Katherine would chose to leave with me and not you?"
"Stop it," sighed Stefan, his brother getting on his nerves.
Damon couldn't resist twisting the knife. "Or maybe you want to keep me around so you can remind Elena what a great guy you are. Have me play the villain whenever the situation needs one so you don't have turn into the Ripper if you're ever in trouble. Then she'd see you for who you really are and she will hate you," he mocked.
Stefan lunged forward, taking Damon by surprise and tackling him into the short tunnel that the elder Salvatore had dug out over the past few days. Damon shoved his brother away, launching him across the room. He was about to get up and continue this little family bonding experience when a hand slide out from the debris right next to Damon. It was a women's and was unnaturally pale with no sign of rot. Probably had come loose during the little Salvatore brawl. What really caught Damon's attention was the familiar looking ring on the fourth finger. It was a daylight ring.
"Katherine?" Damon gasped. He immediately forgot about his brother and started digging away. To his credit, Stefan didn't try anything as Damon loosened the debris around the hand and started to pull whoever it belonged to out. It wouldn't budge so he kept digging, hurling rocks and stones out of his way. Finally he managed to have some success and pulled on the hand, wrenching its owner free from the cave in.
Damon turned the desiccated corpse over and to his disappointment, it wasn't Katherine. He sighed in disappointment then noticed another hand almost completely covered in debris. This one belonged to a man but Damon pulled him out anyways along with another woman, this one older then the first one. Both desiccated but no rot and they had distinct looking rings on their hands. They were vampires.
"Anna?" Stefan whispered. Damon turned to realize his brother was standing over the first woman.
"As in Pearl's daughter?" Damon asked, remembering that name.
"How she'd get in here? I saw her the night the other vampires were rounded up. I thought she escaped," Stefan frowned in confusion.
"Well why don't we find out Nancy Drew," suggested Damon. The quarrel between the two brothers was seemingly forgotten as Damon pulled out a blood bag from a cooler he brought and fed it to the youngest looking vampire. Instantly her eye's snapped open, bloodshot as she began sucking on the crimson offering.
"You're right it is her," Damon commented, recognizing her as Anna's skin began to smooth out and restore its color. She glanced up, finally noticing the Salvatore brothers.
"Damon? Stefan?" Anna whispered, her voice raspy and dry.
"What happened here? Where's Katherine?" Damon demanded.
"What?" Anna asked, confused.
"Where's Katherine?!" Damon shouted, losing his patience.
"Damon give her a moment," Stefan tried to calm him down.
"I've waited 145 years. I'm done waiting. Where is she?!" Damon snapped.
"Katherine? She's not here. She was never here," moaned Anna, still reeling from who knows how long she's been trapped in that cave in.
Damon suddenly grabbed Anna by the throat, violently choking her. "You're lying!" he screamed.
Stefan quickly intervened, wrenching Damon's hands from her and shoving him back. "Back off and let her speak!" snapped Stefan.
Damon glared at him but didn't make a move. He wasn't going to admit that his brother had a point. He needed to know what happened to Katherine.
Stefan turned to Anna and asked, "What happened here? I thought a spell kept the vampires in here trapped."
"It did but I found a way to destroy it," Anna answered. That caught both Salvatore's attention. "I was trying to rescue my mother when the cave collapsed on top of us. The witches probably rigged it that way in case anyone managed to bypass their barrier."
"What about Katherine?" demanded Damon.
"She was never in here Damon. I met up with her years after the church fire. She managed to get away," spoke Anna.
Damon wanted to call her a liar and rip her head off. Yet what reason did Anna have for lying to him? Maybe Katherine didn't know where Damon was and even if he was still alive. That might explain it. She couldn't find him after she escaped so she moved on.
Anna noticed the cooler and sped over to it, grabbing two more blood packs and rushing towards the other desiccated vampires. Stefan and Damon were in such shock that neither of them did anything to stop her. Anna stuffed tubes into both the vampire's mouths and squeezed the blood bags, forcing blood down their throats. Within seconds, the vampires began to twitch and their skin began to return to normal.
"Where is she now?" Damon whispered.
Anna threw him a look. "Are you kidding me? I've stuck in here since…what year is it?" she scoffed.
"2010," answered Stefan.
"Dammit," Anna cursed.
A furious Damon suddenly rushed her, slamming her into a wall and grabbing her by the neck. "Where is Katherine?!" he shouted.
"Damon calm…" Stefan tried to say but never got a chance to finish.
Suddenly Damon felt someone grabbing him by the throat and he was lifted into the air. He gasped, his attacker's grip was vice-like. Damon glanced down to realize he was being attacked by the male vampire who had been buried along with Anna. Son of a bitch this guy was strong and he recovered incredibly fast. He had just fed after being stuck in that cave-in for probably a long time and he already had the strength to overpower Damon with ease.
Stefan rushed in and managed to pull his brother free though it seemed the attacker wasn't interested in fighting anymore. Probably just wanted to make sure Damon didn't hurt Anna.
"Whoa everyone just calm down," Stefan told everyone.
"Anna," moaned the other woman who was a little dazed and trying to get her bearings. It didn't take a genius to figure out this had to be Pearl, Anna's mother. The little vampire did just admit that he got into the tomb to free her mother.
Anna quickly rushed to her mother's side while Stefan checked on Damon. "You okay?" Stefan asked him.
"I'm so touched by your concern Stefan that I almost forgot our little argument a few minutes ago," quipped Damon. Stefan rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"How long have we been trapped down here?" the strong vampire asked, though the question was to no one in particular.
"Well it's 2010 Sleeping Beauty so you might wanna grab a calculator and…" Damon jested only to get an elbow in the gut from Stefan to shut him up.
"Sixty years," the vampire hissed.
"Look we have a home on the outskirts of town. It's not too far and you can get yourselves cleaned up and more acquainted with what's happened over the past few decades," Stefan suggested to the other vampires.
His older brother glared at him and was about to protest. "And you can tell us everything you know about Katherine," Stefan added.
Damon shut his mouth, grudgingly going along with the idea at least for now.
Sixty years. Not since Finn was daggered by the Hunters and left to rot by his siblings had he lost so much time and he felt just as angry now as he did when he was awakened by Sage nine centuries ago. Six decades was nothing but the blink of an eye compared to Finn's long lifespan. The problem was that for the past nine hundred years, his life was nothing more than hunting down vampires and killing Klaus. But after what happened in New Orleans, Finn forsaked his old life and try to build a new one. He wandered aimlessly from job to job, city to city, until he ended up in Los Angeles.
During a job as a private investigator, Finn reunited with an old face from his past. Rose-Marie was the first vampire he ever spared along with her companion Trevor. Finn hadn't seen either of them in five centuries and yet ended up crossing paths with them along with two other vampires named Lexi and Anna. When Finn had been taken by the Strix, the four of them risked their own lives to save him. Finally Finn felt like had he had found people he could consider friends after so many years of intentionally isolating himself from others.
Then the cave-in happened while rescuing Anna's mother and now Finn truly felt the pain of so much lost time. He would have felt nothing losing sixty years during his vampire hunting days but that was before he had friends. Now who knows what happened to them, specifically to Rose. He promised he would help her if she ever needed it. Would Rose think he abandoned her after getting no response from him for more than sixty years?
Finn had learned a little bit about the decades that passed by. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was over as the USSR no longer existed. Now the world powers were more obsessed with regions in the Middle East for one reason or another. Jazz and classical music had been replaced by countless other forms of music though Damon insisted Finn not bother with something called Punk. A black man had been elected President, that was certainly a change from the fifties. Phones had completely changed since Finn went into that tomb. Now they were cordless, handheld, and a mix of a camera, flashlight, calculator, and more rolled into one machine. Mankind had walked on the moon, something not even the most powerful witch coven ever thought was possible.
Yet the only thing Finn really wanted to know was if he had any messages waiting for him. Only Rose knew the number but Finn wasn't surprised the number belonging to the messenger he compelled was no longer in service. The human probably passed away from old age. Now Finn had no way of finding Rose and who knows how long it would take him to find her again. He comforted himself in the knowledge that he hadn't been looking for her before they reunited. Now he wasn't going to stop until he did find her.
Finn, Anna, and Pearl stayed at a large estate owned by the Salvatores as they drank extra blood to regain their full strength and get a better grasp on how society has changed. In exchange for their hospitality, Anna told the vampire brothers everything she knew about a vampire named Katherine Pierce. Imagine Finn's surprise when he found out Katherine was actually Katerina Petrova, the doppelganger who escaped from the clutches of Klaus thanks to Rose and Trevor. He didn't say anything about it though as it was ultimately irrelevant. It was clear that Damon was furious listening to all of this just as it was completely obvious that he was in love with Katherine. Hearing about the woman he loved being out in the world and apparently wasn't not even looking for him, Damon heard enough. He stormed out of the house in the blink of an eye.
"So what now?" Stefan asked Pearl.
"Now we reclaim our home," Pearl said firmly. "Mystic Falls was our home once and it will be again."
"Mother are you crazy? We almost lost everything here," protested Anna.
"The Council that tried to kill all the vampires in 1864 is still around. Mystic Falls isn't safe for vampires," Stefan pointed out.
"Then why are you here?" asked Pearl.
"…It's complicated," sighed Stefan.
"Maybe your reasons are but mine aren't. This was my home and I won't let it be taken from me or my daughter," Pearl replied.
"The Council may think vampires are gone for now but if they even suspect there are vampires…" Stefan urged.
"They already took away my home and more than a hundred and fifty years away from my daughter, they won't take anything else!" snapped Pearl.
Finn understood her anger but couldn't let this go on. From what the Salvatores claimed, Mystic Falls wasn't safe for vampires at the moment. It could be they were lying but the fact that 27 vampires were trapped underneath a burnt down church did lend their claims credibility. Anna and Pearl would be safer leaving this town but pride dug its roots deep. Finn watched it be the death of so many others but that wasn't going to happen here.
"Anna may I speak to you in private?" Finn asked. The younger vampire nodded and the two headed out into the hallway. Technically they were both in earshot of everyone else but if you whisper quiet enough then even vampire couldn't hear it. In order to do this, you had to speak so softly that you could barely hear yourself speak. It was virtually impossible for normal humans to hear such conversations but a vampire could. To a normal human, it would look like the two were lip reading each other.
"I could compel her to leave if you want. Normally I wouldn't use such a thing on my friends but if what these Salvatores are saying is true about this town, vampires aren't safe here. I don't have many friends and I'd rather not lose what few I have," explained Finn.
Anna didn't seem angry at the suggestion. In fact she seemed surprised. "Is that what we are? Friends?" she asked.
"Why else would I come with you? Killing those other vampires was just a precaution to make sure none of them were freed when we got your mother," Finn pointed out.
She glanced at her Mother then back at Finn, uncertain. "I give you my word I won't do it to either of you unless you ask me to," the Original promised.
Anna frowned, "Why would I ask you to compel me?"
"In case you want to forget some painful memory or want to make sure you don't do something no matter what. I once compelled Rose never to kill a human being unless in self-defense and she called it a gift," Finn explained.
"Uhhh….I appreciate the offer but I'll pass," Anna said, clearly uncomfortable. Finn couldn't blame her knowing someone could tamper with her mind as easily as a human's.
"So if I…convince your mother to leave, where will you go?" asked Finn.
"I don't know. Somewhere far away from here and somewhere with no vampires or humans plotting their demise. Just somewhere quiet we can settle down and start over," Anna spoke. Finn tried that several times over the centuries but they always ended in failure. The problem with immortality is that your life never ends whereas everyone else around you eventually fades away. It's hard to build up relationships with people when you know they always end up dying.
"What about you?" Anna asked.
"Rose is still alive, I just know it. She survived for nearly five hundred years on the run so I'm certain she managed to survive the past sixty years. I'm going to find her," Finn stated.
"Well if I hear anything about her, I'll let you know," promised Anna.
The front door opened as someone stepped inside. "Stefan!" a women's voice called out.
Finn couldn't believe his ears when he heard the voice. He hadn't heard it for a thousand years but he remembered it well. Tatia lived in the same village as Finn and the rest of his family. After her husband died, both Elijah and Klaus competed for her attention and affection. Personally Finn found it nauseating but Tatia herself wouldn't live long to enjoy her games. After the Mikaelson children were turned into vampires, Elijah killed her and Mother covered it up. Finn remembered watching her using magic to make Elijah forget the unspeakable crime of murdering someone he loved.
Finn dashed towards the main hallway to see his suspicions were correct. There standing before him was the spitting image of Tatia. She gasped upon seeing the Original. "Who are you?" the doppelganger demanded, starting to back away.
"Katherine!" hissed Anna who had followed Finn. She bared her fangs before attempting to rush at the doppelganger. Finn managed to grab the younger vampire by the arm, holding her back.
"Wait," Finn urged her.
Stefan and Damon entered the hallway to investigate the commotion and realized what was happening. Both of them quickly dashed in front of Elena in case Anna managed to break free of the Original's grasp.
"Anna stop. She's not who you think she is," Finn told her.
"Katerina," gasped Pearl who entered the hallway, her furious eyes fixed on the doppelganger.
"Wait! She's not Katherine," Stefan spoke up.
"I cannot believe you two are still…!" shouted Anna, obviously not believing the Salvatore.
"She's a doppelganger!" Finn yelled, drowning everyone out. Thankfully that managed to get everyone's attention and somewhat diffuse the situation at least for the moment.
"I'm a what?" frowned the doppelganger.
"Elena what are you doing here?" demanded Stefan.
"Let me guess. Stefan left you a message not to come over and you decided to do it anyways. My brother has that effect on people. Whenever he tells me to do something, I always do the opposite," smirked Damon. Elena and Stefan both glared daggers at the elder Salvatore.
After everyone calmed down, they assembled in the living room where Finn explained what he knew about the doppelgangers. He neglected to mention everything that could give away that he was an Original but he did share that the doppelganger phenomenon has been going on for probably more than a thousand years. No one really knows their origins but supposedly their blood was a very potent magic catalyst that witches could use to perform various spells and rituals.
"I know of only two other doppelgangers. One was a woman named Tatia who lived in the same village I grew up in and the other was Katerina Petrova. She betrayed a friend of mine and has been on the run ever since," explained Finn.
"On the run from who?" asked Damon.
"His name is Klaus," answered Finn. That got all the other vampires' attention especially Pearl.
"Klaus?" gasped Pearl, the blood starting to drain from her face. "As in one of the Originals?"
"The very same," nodded Finn. Pearl looked like she was about to have a panic attack but Anna remained calm and silent. Finn was glad she wasn't exposing his identity as an Original in front of all these strangers. It wasn't something he usually bragged about and usually people who found it about it ended up dead by Finn's own hands. But that was another lifetime when Finn was a hunter and he swore those days were over.
"Who are the Originals?" asked Elena.
"The first generation of vampires," spoke Stefan.
"What did Katherine do to piss Klaus off?" Damon asked.
"He needs the blood of a doppelganger to break a powerful curse. Katherine escaped before the ritual could be performed and managed to turn herself into a vampire, making her useless. Klaus isn't known for letting things go and he's been hunting her down ever since," Finn replied.
"How do you know that?" asked Elena.
"Because my friend that I mentioned earlier was the one who turned inadvertently turned Katherine so she's been on the run as well," Finn spoke.
Pearl got to her feet. "We're leaving Annabelle," she said firmly.
"Wait but I thought…." Anna started to say.
"I'm not staying within a hundred miles of this town. If Klaus is coming after Elena then we can't be anywhere near here," Pearl said.
"How you know Klaus even knows Elena exists?" asked Stefan.
"We're not staying here in case he does. This is not someone you want to make an enemy of," Pearl said. Finn and Anna shared a relieved look. At least Pearl didn't need to be compelled to leave town.
After leaving a cell number for Finn to be able to reach Anna, she and her mother left and headed to the nearest bus station for a ride out of town. Finn stayed a little longer in the Salvatore estate to get his bearings on the current times. He used something called the Internet to get caught up on how society evolved and how it had an unusual obsession with people named the Kardashians. Finn found them to be a waste of time and was perplexed why so many people found them entertaining but that's not what he was truly searching for.
Finding Rose would be like finding a needle in the haystack. She hadn't stayed alive for centuries by being stupid but Finn did have a lead. Rose said that she and Trevor often stayed in cities, usually near hospitals with large blood banks. He painstakingly wrote down the phone numbers and addresses of almost every major hospital in the country and blood banks of the Red Cross. This would take a long time to go through them but Finn was immortal and had nothing but time. There was no guarantee he would even find a real lead to her but he still had to try.
However before he could leave, Finn still needed to do one more thing. He asked Stefan and Damon if he could speak to Elena. The two agreed but only they were in the same room as well. Finn could tell both of them cared about her and found it slightly irritating. Watching Klaus and Elijah fawning over Tatia was nauseating enough so seeing it repeat itself on another doppelganger was somewhat annoying.
"As long as Klaus doesn't know you exist, you'll be safe but should he ever find out then he will never stop hunting you," Finn explained.
"Gee aren't you just a ray of sunshine," muttered Damon.
"Which is why I'll be willing to help you if he does find out. Klaus and I have some unfinished business," Finn replied.
"He killed someone you cared about didn't he?" Elena surmised. Finn found himself speechless for a moment. It's been so long since he's spoken about Sage and he found it difficult to talk about.
"He did," Finn finally spoke up. "And I have spent virtually every moment since then plotting his death. I came close several times but he escaped every time. Don't get the idea that fighting him would be easy though. Klaus is more dangerous than you can possibly know. The best thing any of you can do is keep a low profile and try not to draw attention to yourselves. Hopefully you'll be able to live your entire life without Klaus every knowing but if he should come for you…"
Finn handed Elena a piece of paper containing the number to the cell phone the Salvatores got the Original. "…call me and I'll come."
(Okay that should cover season one of TVD in this story. I know this changes several things in the latter half of the season without the rest of the tomb vampires and Anna and Pearl leaving Mystic Falls but things mostly stay the same. John Gilbert uses the Gilbert device to try and kill Damon and Stefan but fails. Mayor Lockwood is still alive, Katherine shows up in town and causes the same havoc. Rose and Trevor abduct Elena, Elijah kills Trevor, Stefan and Damon save Elena, and Rose shows up at the Salvatore estate to offer her help.)