Chapter Twelve
A.N. Not gonna lie, I completely forgot that Esther was the reason Alaric went after Klaus. For some reason I got super bored around the end of season three, and I tried to shove the last five episodes into one chapter. I'm having to go through and rewrite the last five episodes since I skipped through them to get to the Hunters arc, so these next few chapters are going to be a lot shorter while I work on them.
Also if anyone is interested, I posted a new story with my Game of Thrones OC! It's called The Little Raven, I'll post the summary! I have it written up to season three, it follows the plot through Season one, but my OC changes a lot so it can't really follow episode to episode after that. I'm planning to finish the Battle for Kings Landing and the Battle against the White Walkers and write a few chapter long epilogue, this storys been rattling around in my brain for a few years, and I keep getting more ideas for it, so it'll probably be a long fic.
The Little Raven- Westeros fell to fire and ice, and the Three-eyed Raven tired quickly of bloodshed. To change the tides of fate, they conjured a child of their own to be born alongside Cersei Lannister and Robert Baratheon's only trueborn son. With knowlege of the future no one else knows, how will Kailyah Baratheon change the tide of the war?
"It's done." Aailyah announced, sitting on the arm of the couch next to Elijah.
"Her body?" Klaus asked, running his thumb over Rebekah's knuckles.
"Back in her coffin. Sophie's flight arrives tomorrow, I'll have her seal the coffin after she unlinks us. Finn is on his way back as well."
"Good, the moment we're unlinked I say we get the hell out of this ridiculous town before it tries to kill us again." Kol suggested.
"We might be too late." Rebekah cut in.
"You're kidding." Aailyah groaned.
"I'm not. Elena ran. She made it to a room in the caves where vampires can't get in, it's where they hid mothers coffin. It's one of the ones we used to play in when we were children, and when I was throwing matches at Elena, I noticed this on the wall." Rebekah passed the phone to Elijah and Aailyah and Kol examined it over his shoulder.
"Is that-"
"A White Oak Tree. It was drawn three hundred years after we feld back to the old world, there must've been a sapling we didn't know about." Rebekah said as Elijah passed the phone to Niklaus.
"Fucking Mystic Falls." Aailyah groaned.
F&A
"We have a problem."
"We have at least seven problems Bex, you're gonna have to be more specific." Aailyah groaned, typing furiously on her computer. Her phone buzzed and she pulled it away enough to glance at it, before declining it and bringing it back. "I assume the Mayor didn't have anything useful to share?"
"Oh she did. The Mayor says it was probably cut down, and guess who owned the lumber mills?"
"Gilberts?"
"Close, the Salvatores."
"So we talk to the Salvatores."
"They're at the Grill, I already tried but they didn't tell me much before they blew me off. Apparently someone was murdering council members back then too, including one Zacharias Salvatore who owned a logging mill."
"Did they ever catch the killer?"
"Mm-mm, wrote it off as a vampire, but the only vampires in town at the time were Damon and Stefan."
"Huh. Well keep working on Damon and Stefan and I'll try to figure out what was happening in Mystic Falls in 1912."
"You got it."
"'Lijah, do yo know anything about the council member murders?"
"Not much, they arrested Alaric Saltzman as a suspect." Elijah murmured, setting down a cup of tea in front of her and kissing the top of her head.
"He's dating Elena's aunt right?"
"I believe so. Why do you ask?"
"The tree may have been cut down in the early 1900's to build Mystic Falls, and the owner of the lumber mills at the time, Zacharias Salvatore, was killed by someone who was picking off council members."
"Interesting, but what does it have to do with the Oak Tree?"
"Nothing really, I'm just hoping if we figure out what was going on back then we can find out what they did with the Oak Tree."
"The murders aren't our problem for now, let's just focus on the tree."
"I have a feeling our problems aren't mutually exclusive. They never seem to be."
"You're not wrong." Elijah turned, grabbing his keys. "I'll get into the hpspital and sheriff's office, see what they have so far."
"Thank you, love."
F&A
"What?" Aailyah snapped after declining Caroline's call for the eighth time.
"We need to talk."
"No, apparently you do. I am busy."
"Look, I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings-
"I've known you for two weeks, Caroline. Don't worry, you haven't crushed my fragile heart." Aailyah mocked, typing furiously on her computer. "Has no one in this town heard of keeping records?" She muttered under her breath.
"Aailyah, you were holding Elena hostage-"
"Elena assisted in the attempted murder of my entire family, everything that we did after was in self defense."
"You killed Bonnie's mom!"
"Damon killed Bonnies mom, I was incapacitated at the time, thanks to your assistance. Are you finished wasting my time or do I need to continue to care about people who have been nothing but trouble for my family since we arrived?"
"Hey! You kidnapped Elena with the intent to kill her! You started all of this!"
"Elena made a deal, and because of that deal she came with us willingly and walked away at the end, still alive. If there is more you want to complain about, find someone else, I'm busy. Bother me again and you'll regret it."
"But-" Aailyah hung up, and a moment later her phone rang again.
"Caroline I swear to god-"
"I'm not gonna stop, you might as well hear me out!"
"I'm busy. You should be to, aren't you helping witchy's mom through her transition?"
"How did you-"
"Goodbye Caroline. Bother me again and I'll set your car on fire." Aailyah hung up, declining Carolines next call and blocking her phone number.
"Kol!" Aailyah called, turning back to her computer.
"Yes luv?"
"Do me a favor and set Caroline's new car on fire?" Kol lit up like the sun, smiling deviously.
"Really?!"
"Bonus points if her phone is inside it."
"On it!"
"Anything?" Klaus asked, striding inside the kitchen and setting down a stack of papers in front of her.
"Not much beyond elections before the early 2000's, Mystic Falls must not be big on preserving their history.
"Au contraire, sister. I stayed in the archives while Bekah went to pester the mayor. Apparently Mystic Falls is very proud of their rich history, they just haven't recorded anything Supernatural."
"Well, no one here knows anything about the Supernatural, except… the council." Aailyah trailed off, tilting her head to the side.
"Perhaps they have records of their own." Klaus arched an eyebrow, smirking down at her.
"Get Tyler to invite you in, see what you can find." Klaus shook his head, stepping back.
"Send Kol, instead."
"Where are you going?"
"As it turned out, the woman Alaric attacked was my new paramore, Meredith Fell."
"Founding family?"
"A council member as well, and right in the center of the current drama. What kind of man would I be if I didn't make sure she was unhurt? Perhaps I should even walk her home, just to be sure she is safe." Klaus smiled darkly, and Aailyah rolled her eyes, pulling out her phone.
"Don't have to much fun, and remember to call Tyler." Klaus strolled out, and Aailyah pulled her phone out, calling Kol.
"You should've seen her face, Alli!" Kol cackled, and Aailyah smiled, listening to the faint sound of crackling flames and Carolines furious shrieking.
"Send me pictures?"
"I only had time to take a few, the Bennett witch was in a right rotten mood, I thought it best not to stick around."
"Fair enough. Before you come home, stop at the Lockwood mansion, Tyler should meet you there. Ask him to take you to any family records or journals, look for anything dated around the early 1900's."
"Homework, really, Alli?"
"May I remind you that you got to commit arson while I have to slug through town records?"
"Fair enough."
F&A
"Did you find anything?"
"Looking at the Councils personal records, I don't know why they were so sure it was vampires killing the council members, everyone was stabbed. That didn't change their minds, especially after they found a body drained of blood. They tested every male in town with vervain, none of them had any reaction to it. Of course, they didn't test the Founding Families, so the Salvatores got out of it."
"Apparently the Salvatores weren't the only vampires in Mystic Falls at the time. Damon had a paramore, a pretty redhead named Sage."
"Did he really?" Aailyah humed consideringly, tilting her head to the side. "Alright, thank you Bekah."
"I'll keep trying."
F&A
"Aailyah?" Sage answered her phone cautiously. "Finn's not here, he left to pick up the rental car-"
"You were in Mystic Falls in 1912, yes?" The line went silent for a moment.
"How did you-" Sage trailed off, and Aailyah waited patiently. "Yes, I… Yes. Finn and I separated for a while."
"And you were with Damon Salvatore?"
"We weren't… together. We would drown our sorrows with each other, but there was never any kind of… relationship." Sage took a deep breath. "Finn doesn't know."
"He won't hear it from me. But if I were you, I would talk to him about it. He's coming back to be unlinked, and Damon isn't exactly subtle."
"Okay." Sage said quietly, and Aailyah sighed, trying to hide her annoyance. This wasn't why she called.
"Finn is crazy about you, Sage. You made him want to live, when none of us could. I don't think a dalliance with another when you weren't together will be the end of three hundred years together."
"Right. Right."
"How long were you in town?"
"Only a few days."
"So you weren't responsible for the Council murders?"
"No."
"Who was?"
"Some girl. I saw her, the night she killed one of them. The Mayor? She stabbed him in the back with a stake."
"What girl?"
"I don't know her name. She was one of them though, one of their 'founding family's'. I think she ended up confessing to the murders, but no one beleived her."
"Men always underestimate women. Maybe that's why she snapped."
"Maybe. I tried talking to her after, it was like… she couldn't see me, or hear me. It was like she wasn't even there. She just walked away, she didn't even react when I grabbed her."
"Hmm." Aailyah bit her lip, sitting back in her chair. "Alright. Are you flying back or driving?"
"Driving, we should get in by tomorrow."
"Alright, see you then."
F&A
"I hate to say it Alli, but I think you might be hyperfixating." Klaus drawled, strolling into the kitchen to find his sister in law exactly where he'd left her a few hours ago, hunched over papers scattered across their kitchen island.
"Fuck off, Nik."
"Find anything?"
"Bekah didn't have any luck with the Salvatore brothers, and I can't find a thing in the town archives about a White Oak Tree. I did find out that it was a Gilbert girl who was killing the council members in 1912. She confessed but wasn't charged, and I found her admission to a psychiatric hospital outside of town. Elijah picked up her file, she confessed to the murders but thought she was possessed, she said she was losing time, waking up in strange places covered in blood."
"Intresting."
"Mm. What'd the Fell girl say? Or did you not do much talking." Aailyah asked, arching an eyebrow at his sex mussed hair.
"She didn't have much to say on the subject, she was surprisingly cagey about the whole thing. I did find files for each victim, including Mr. Saltzman, where she concluded that his wound may have been self inflicted."
"Really." Aailyah arched an eyebrow, turning back to her computer and typing in his name, running a background check on him. "Didn't he tell the police he didn't remember anything about the attack?"
"That's what he said in the police report, but he could've said that to avoid mentioning anything Supernatural."
"It was Liz Forbes who took his statement though, she knows about the Supernatural."
"She still has to file it publicly. She probably altered it."
"If she altered it but she thought he was innocent, why didn't she give him something more believable than 'I can't remember' to keep him out of jail?" Aailyah drummed her fingers on the table, thinking. "That ring that he and Jeremy wear, it is a Gilbert family heirloom, right?"
"Yes?"
"Coming back to life isn't natural, it goes against nature itself. Theres always some kind of consequence."
"So?"
"So, he's died and come back how many times? What if he came back… wrong?"
"Even if he did, why go after Council members? Why not vampires?"
"Kol!" Aailyah called, not answering him, and Kol appeared in the doorway a moment later, headphones around his neck and a wireless Xbox controller in hand. "What do you know about the Gilbert ring?"
"The what?"
"Family heirloom created by a witch, it brings whoever is wearing it back to life if they're killed by a Supernatural creature."
"Really?" Interest lit in Kol's eyes, a fire that always sparked when magic was involved, and Aailyah smiled.
"The Bennett line created them."
"I'll let you know what I find."