Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries / The Originals, or any of the characters, plot-lines, dialogues from the shows or books
However, I do own Catherine Matthews/ my very own Katherine Peirce, her backstory, the storyline, and any additional characters that do not belong to The Vampire Diaries or The Originals. Characters in this story may not have the same opinion as you. These characters are all fictional.
"Why did I agree to do this again?" Hayley whispered to herself, but it was loud and clear for the vampires at the entrance of the main door to hear.
Katherine, however, just rolled her eyes at the whiny werewolf and asked aloud, "Did you find it?"
There was the sound of drawers closing shut and a few racks screeching open, followed by an annoyed sigh. Hayley came out of the room and held up the object in her hand, "Is this the one?" she asked.
Katherine threw her hands in the air in frustration. "Does that look anywhere near to what I drew on the paper?" She asked. The vampire honestly felt like she was talking to the little Groot in Guardians of Galaxy - II.
"Hayley, it should be like this," Stefan supplied as he held up the paper with the drawing, while he patted the Petrova vampire on her shoulders, afraid, she will smash her head into the nearest wall if this goes on for a while longer.
"Yes, I can see. I have a copy too," Hayley said, holding up the piece of paper in her hand. She turned towards her best friend, and asked, "Don't you have a 3D picture instead of this drawing you drew roughly on a steering wheel. It will probably help if I know what exactly I am looking for."
"No. It's not something I can find in google," Katherine said. She paced in front of the invisible barrier for a few minutes, and asked, "Alright. Think! You two. If you had a key for your destruction and are afraid of it, and you don't want anyone to find it...where do you keep it?"
"In a high-tech locker guarded by a SWAT team," was Stefan's quick reply.
"No," Katherine said unimpressed, "Everyone would look there."
"Really?" Hayley asked, confused, but Katherine paid her no heed.
"If it's a key to your destruction, you will always keep it on you and look at it every day, for a sense of security."
"In between my bookshelves," Stefan supplied.
"I checked there. I also checked the back of the paintings hanging around the house. I checked in the bathroom and in the cereal boxes in the kitchen," Hayley went on. "I am searching for this damned thing for an hour now while you both stood there, doing nothing but order me around."
"We don't have an invitation to come inside," Katherine defended, while Stefan tuned them out and was muttering to himself of all the possible hiding places.
"Under my pillow!" Stefan exclaimed after a while, and then turned to the werewolf, "Did you check under the pillow?" Hayley went to look there but came back with empty hands.
It was nearing three, and they only had half an hour before the house owner would be back.
"Come on, Guys," Katherine hurried them, "Think," she said, snapping her fingers in a hurry, "Scared little girls would definitely hide it under their pillow to calm their paranoid minds. What would grown-ups do?" the vampire said, bouncing on her heels, "Oh!" she exclaimed, snapping her fingers twice, "Oh, I got it. Hayley, check-in her underwear drawer."
Stefan scrunched up his face, and Hayley looked weirded out, "Just go," Katherine whisper shouted.
"Why are you making me go through underwear drawers?" Hayley said, clenching her fists, and went out of their sight, muttering, "I so hate you for this." After a few minutes of rummaging through the drawers in the bedroom, both doppelgangers heard a squeal from inside.
"I found it. Please tell me this is it," Hayley said, running towards them, with the old rusty item in her hand.
"Yes, this is it," Katherine said, taking it into her hands delicately. "You just finished the first step in helping you pack, wolfy."
"What? How?" Hayley asked as she shut the apartment door, hoping no one would even think they had committed a felony, and violated their privacy by going through drawers they shouldn't.
"This, darling, is the Ascendant. It is the key to find and bring back a crazy siphoner to the land of the living. And we get him in exchange for helping your Pack," Katherine said as she placed the Ascendant in a box and then kept it in her bag.
"Oh!" Stefan made a sound of understanding. Realization dawned on his face, "Is this the one you were talking about?" he questioned.
"Yup," The female doppelganger said, gleefully, "This is the key to the 1994 prison world, and the key to breaking the Crescent Curse, once and for all."
"So, the house we broke into," Stefan trailed off, as he followed the vampire into the parking lot.
"Why, yes. Josette Laughlin, or, you can say, Josette Parker. The twin-sister of Malachai Parker," Katherine said, a devilish glint in her doe eyes.
"Can anyone tell me about whom exactly we are talking about?" Hayley asked as she sat in the back seat of Katherine's SUV, and Stefan explained the story of the Psychotic Siphoner through half of their ride.
"I still can't believe you guys came and broke into a house without any questions asked," Katherine said with a smirk.
"We asked. But you wouldn't tell us anything," Hayley muttered grumpily, leaning back into the leather seats of the SUV.
"When you asked us to grab our jackets, I thought we are going to a movie or something, like normal people do," Stefan grumbled beside Katherine.
"Instead, you brought us on a 3-hour drive, parked the car in front of an unfamiliar apartment, showed us a drawing, and asked me to pick up a lock to a stranger's house, and you wouldn't even say why," Hayley complained.
"Yet, you did everything I asked," the vampire clicked her tongue when she felt their glares. "Oh! Don't be so grumpy. I am happy you trust me enough to commit a crime so willfully," Katherine said, chuckling at the whole thing.
Catherine knows people in here commit murder without a second thought, but she somehow found it funny that they agreed to break into the house without any complaints when she asked to do it so...randomly.
"So, how did you even know it is in that house?" Stefan inquired, "You also said the Gemini Coven are skilled in cloaking spells, what if it was cloaked?"
"You see, Jo agreed to relinquish her magic and help her Coven by betraying Kai as per the part of a deal - She can leave the Coven and their stupid traditions behind and leave her life on her own principles. But when she left, she took the Ascendant with her before anyone could notice," Katherine began.
"I have been thinking about this for a week now. Ever since I told you this story. So, I made a few calls and got the details of Jo. It was quite easy as I knew what her occupation was and where she completed her studies. And here we are..."
"Are you always this spontaneous, or did you hit your head while taking down Mikael?" Stefan asked, shaking his head, a smile on his face.
"I don't know," Katherine said, pursing her lips, "But I thought the risk was worth it. Jo doesn't have magic and can't do anything even if she found us. It was mostly a shot in the dark, though."
In between the bickering and changing songs on the radio, they reached home before they knew.
"Eve, Tell the wolves we are home," Katherine hollered as she parked the car in the driveway.
"Wow! That sounded like a Pinterest quote," The Petrova doppelganger mumbled, when Stefan and Hayley looked at her in confusion, she shook her head, saying, "Nevermind, you peasants wouldn't know about it." and both peasants huffed at each other and glared at the Queen.
"Where were you?" Eve said like an exasperated mom, "You have gone for hours and didn't even tell me where you were going."
"Oh! Eve," Hayley said, launching into her arms, hugging her tightly, squealing happily, "We found a way to lift the curse, and it won't take much time now."
"What?" Eve asked, confused but, her eyes twinkled, nonetheless.
Katherine was in the middle of full-blown laughter when the phone in her jeans pocket vibrated, indicating a call.
They were all in the backyard once again, celebrating their first step in victory, and drunk Hayley dancing along with a shy Eve. The wolves were running around the two, and Stefan had his hands over his face. Laughs were muffled by his hands at the dog show in front of him.
"Hello," Katherine said into the phone, a smile still on her face. She came a little far from the music and laughs.
"Kathy, hey," A person said as he exhaled a sigh. Grateful, the woman lifted the phone.
"Mason?" Katherine asked in inquiry, confused at the unexpected call.
"Hey. How are you?" He asked, clearing her throat.
"I am fine," Katherine said, a frown on her face, "I should be asking you that actually. I called you to inform you about Klaus, and you didn't answer."
"Yeah. I am...I am sorry about that," Mason said, "I was really paranoid, and I didn't know who is my friend and who is my enemy for a while."
"Well, it doesn't matter anymore," Katherine said. She was not going to use him now. He doesn't really have any plot in the story to be cautious of his life anymore. "How are you, anyway? How is your nephew?" she forgot his name for a second, "Tyler, was it?"
"Yeah. I am okay. We are okay," Mason said, and sighed, saying, "And it's all because of you."
Excuse me! "What do you mean?" The doppelganger asked, closing one ear to mute the music in the backyard, and trying to see if she heard the Lockwood werewolf correctly.
"Klaus found our pack, Katherine," Mason began, his voice gloomy, "He killed all of them after he fed them his blood. "But...but he spared Tyler and I. He said it was because of some favor you did for him. I don't...I don't understand. I thought you were running from him."
"I helped him turn into a hybrid after he held me captive for weeks. For that, he gave me back my freedom and granted me a favor of my own choice. I asked him to leave you two if he comes across your Pack," Katherine told the shortened version.
"Well, whatever it is. Thank you," Mason said with a sigh, "I don't want to think what all would've happened to us if Kalus didn't show mercy upon us."
"Where will you go now?" Katherine asked after some time, as an afterthought.
"We will stay right here. Start a new pack. Klaus is taking every hybrid back with him. He said he has some kind of fortress in Mystic Falls."
"Yeah. Klaus built a Mansion for his family there. All the 5 originals living under the same roof," Katherine commented.
"Does Carol know about this?" Mason asked, worried.
"Does she know about the Lockwoods being werewolves?" was Katherine's retort. When silence greeted her, she replied, "Then you got your answer. Don't worry. I don't think they will kill the Mayor."
After a light talk and words of reassurance, they both hung up.
Katherine had her fingers on her forehead as she processed what she heard. She couldn't believe it. Klaus Mikaelson, the paranoid bastard who won't listen to anyone but himself, just left two potential werewolves free.
For what? A favor she asked in return of half-arsed information about Greta Sienna.
What the heck was the narcissistic hybrid playing at?
"Hey, you okay?" Katherine heard Stefan's concerned voice. The Salvatore could see the worry, clear, on her face as she looked at him with furrowed eyebrows.
"Yeah," she muttered, and then shook her head a little, exhaling a sigh, before speaking again, more confidently, "Yeah. I am good. Just my paranoia, getting the best of me."
Stefan looked like he wanted to ask more, but held back, deciding not to push the elusive vampire. He just plastered a smile on his face and tilted his head back to where the party is being held. "Come on. Hayley is embarrassing herself with a few stories of her emo days. You will want to see this."
True to his words, Hayley was really humiliating herself. Katherine couldn't help but smirk. "Let's just hope Jackson won't run away after this," her eyes searching for the wolf among the Pack, "He is probably praying for all the gods out there for dodging the bullet by not being tied up in an arranged marriage with a crazy she-wolf."
"What? Why have I not heard about this?" Stefan exclaimed and demanded Katherine to tell the story.
And that's how they spent the night with Katherine forgetting all about Klaus and his little scheme. Because the only explanation Katherine could find other the improbable speculation of Klau's soft heart was that; he didn't have enough doppelganger's blood to feed to the last two Lockwood wolves, and so they were spared.