Ayla was exhausted from the drama of the dance the previous night, but somehow she still managed to wake up earlier than usual. At the brink of dawn, she was up and out the door, running to get her mind clear from the events that took place last night.

She hated to admit it, but the prospect of immortal and imperishable vampires terrified her. It was true what she told Alaric and the others last night, she had no one here to watch her back. Her brother was gone and her uncle was murdered. She had no one but herself. She knew that if she had gotten involved, she would be the first one on the chopping block while the rest of them stood back and protected Elena and themselves.

She couldn't fault them for that, no matter how much she wished that she could.

As she had finished her run and then her shower afterwards, Ayla had quickly gotten dressed. She wasn't expecting to hear the doorbell ringing.

"I got it." Carol spoke up, walking to the foyer. Ayla stood at the top of the staircase, hoping and wishing that it was her brother returning to Mystic Falls, though she assumed she wouldn't be that lucky. And her assumptions were correct when Carol spoke up again. "Elijah! Elena, what are you doing here? What happened?"

"I've had a bit of an incident, Carol." The deep voice spoke, causing Ayla to walk further down the stairs nervously. "I'm hoping you could help."

"Well, I'm on my way to a meeting, so I—" She got cut off.

"I won't take but a minute of your time." Elijah compelled, seeing Ayla standing on the stairs still. "Your... step daughter can help us."

"Of course. Anything you need." She smiled, letting them into the house. "Ayla, help my friend Elijah, please."

"Thank you." Elijah smiled, still looking at Ayla.

"Sure, Carol." Ayla reluctantly agreed.

"Before you go Carol, I'm going to need a change of clothing."

"Well, we can try one of my husband's suits. I haven't boxed them up yet."

"Wonderful. Go get it, please." Carol nodded, walking off.

"You compelled my step-mother." Ayla looked to Elena and then to Elijah.

"How did you know she's not on vervain?" Elena asked him.

"'Cause I'm the one who get her off it. Right before you and your friends killed me. Twice."

"Well, I'll have to get her back on it. Can't be too careful with the vampires in this town." Ayla stated. "What are you both doing here?"

"If you'll excuse me, I'll be down in a moment." Elijah walked up the stairs, his gaze still on her as he went to find Carol.

"What's going on, Elena?" Ayla asked. "Last night you were trying to kill one original. Today you're with another one?"

"If you wouldn't have ran off, you would have known."

"I'm sorry." Ayla spoke genuinely. She didn't want to bail on them last night, but she saw no other option that would have kept her safe. "I was afraid, Elena. I am here all alone. I don't have a Stefan or a Damon or a Bonnie by my side to protect me at all costs, okay? And this isn't me looking for pity, because I don't want it. It's me looking for one of my oldest friends to understand why I left. I have spent the last few months trying to survive as a werewolf. And then I come back into town to find out that everything I ever knew was a lie. My uncle lied to me about why we were here and it got him killed."

"I never asked for you to get involved last night." She tried to counter.

"No, you didn't because you haven't said a word to me since the Founder's Day picnic. And I understand why." Ayla sighed. "Damon asked for my help and I agreed. I was just trying to be a good person, a good friend. Then Klaus figured out who I was. He targeted me. And I thought maybe one of your vampires was behind it. So I got scared and bolted. Because if there is anything that I have learned about being a wolf, it's that being alone is a bigger threat than any vampire or witch. Lone wolves do not make it. And right now, I am completely and utterly alone." Ayla could feel the remorse and the pity dripping off of her. And she didn't want it. It made her feel weak and uncomfortable.

"Klaus found out who you were because he was possessing Alaric's body. It wasn't because of Stefan or Damon."

"What?" She gasped.

"His plan was never to hurt me. It was to find out who the biggest threats were to him."

"Bonnie?" Ayla asked. "I-I felt her power, even just standing in the same room as her, I felt it."

"Bonnie's dead."

"No." Ayla shook her head. "No, she's not."

"She is. She's dead. Klaus killed her by forcing her to use all of that power she had." Ayla grabbed Elena's hand roughly, trying to see something... anything. When she went into her trance, she saw Bonnie's body on the cafeteria ground and it was unmoving. She held the girl's hand for another second but then she saw Bonnie on the video chat with Jeremy in the background.

"She's dead." Ayla said, knowing that Elena told her so Elijah didn't know the truth, at least not yet. Ayla figured that she had some sort of plan and decided to go along with it. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have left. I should have fought with her. With all of you."

"It's okay, Ayla." She whispered, letting go of her hand. Ayla just looked at one of her oldest friend's as Elijah walked down the steps with Carol following behind him. A moment later, Carol was out the door and Elijah had met them in the formal sitting room. Ayla stood next to the fireplace while the other two intruders sat down on the chairs.

"So I assume that the Martin witches are no longer with us." Elijah sat down in the formal living room next to them.

"No. I'm sorry." Elena's voice was filled with remorse.

"And Katerina?" He asked. "She would have been released from my compulsion when I died."

"Klaus took her." Elena told him. "We think that she may be dead."

"I doubt that." Elijah said with an almost smirk. "Not Klaus' style. Death would be too easy for her after what she did."

"I don't understand." Elena shook her head. "You say that you want Klaus dead, but you still make Katherine pay for betraying him."

"I have my own reasons for wanting Katerina to pay." He sighed. "There was a time... I'd have done anything for Klaus." He took a pause, as if he was reminiscing. "Klaus is my brother."

"And you want him dead? Why would you want to kill your own brother?" Ayla spoke up.

"I have my reasons."

"Is he your only brother?" She continued to question him.

"No."

"There's a whole family of Originals?" Elena asked, completely surprised.

"My father was a wealthy land owner in a village in Eastern Europe. Our mother bore seven children."

"So were your parents human, then?" Ayla asked, not following.

"Our whole family was." He nodded staring up and moving towards Ayla, before he looked in the mirror above the fireplace as if he was envisioning his past. "Our origin as vampires is a very long story, Ayla. Just know... we're the oldest vampires in the world."

"And the most dangerous." Ayla stated.

"We are the original family, and from us all, vampires were created."

"Right, but Klaus is your brother." Elena tried to understand, still baffled by the revelation. "And you want him dead?"

"I need some air. Still feeling a tad- dead." Elijah said walking off towards the French doors that led them into the gardens. "Come. Both of you." He cleared his throat, nodding to them both too walk with him. "So, as you've seen, Elena. Nothing can kill an Original. Not sun, not fire, not even a werewolf bite."

"So then what?" Ayla asked, following them down the steps into the gardens. She looked around a the beautiful plants and flowers, trying to wrap her head around all of the information that was being spewed to them. "I'm part witch, so I know that everything is bound by a balance of nature. What is born must have some way to die. Nothing is truly immortal."

"You would be correct." Elijah nodded at her. "Only the wood from one tree; a tree my family made sure burned."

"That's where the white ash for the dagger comes from." Elena spoke up.

"Yes. Ayla was correct; nothing truly immortal can walk the Earth. Every creature needs to have a weakness in order to maintain the balance."

"So the sun can't kill an original. Why is Klaus so obsessed with breaking the sun and moon curse?"

"Right." He chuckled. "The curse of the sun and the moon. It's all so... biblical-sounding. Don't you think?"

"It's really not funny, Elijah." Ayla stated harshly. "You don't get it. You're a vampire, so you don't understand the unbearable pain and the misery that comes along with being a werewolf. Breaking every single bone in your body to become some sort of beast that horror stories are told about. I get why people want this curse broken. For a werewolf, it's torturous."

"I apologize for my discourteous comment, Ayla. That was not my intention." He looked at her with a genuine look of penitence. "The truth is, there is no sun and moon curse. It's fake. Niklaus planted the idea of the curse on any culture or continent we felt like."

"But why?" Elena asked, as the possibility of never having to change again physically left Ayla's body. She once again felt helpless and hopeless.

"The easiest way to discover the existence of a doppelgänger or to get your hands on some long, lost moon stone is to have every single member of two warring species on the lookout for it."

"But if there's no curse..."

"So it was just some game to you and your brother?" Ayla spat, cutting Elena off. "Screw the vampires who's skin will melt off in the sun and the werewolves who have to break every single bone in their bodies for years on end, right? Why care about them? They're just pawns in this game, right?"

"No, Ayla." He took her hand, trying to calm her down but she pulled away in anger from her misplaced faith. Her misplaced hope. "There is a curse. Just not that one. The real one is much worse. It's a curse placed on Klaus."

"What are you talking about?" Elena asked as her phone started vibrating in Elijah's pocket.

"Klaus has been trying to break it for the last thousand years. And you, Elena, were his only hope."

"What is this curse then?" Ayla asked, stopping next to Elena.

"Your phone will not stop its incessant buzzing." He handed it to Elena. "Answer it, please." Ayla walked further up by the pond looking at the water as Elena and Elijah continued to speak. Ayla sat down on the bench next to the water. She heard Elijah's footsteps coming closer towards her as Elena walked away from them. Elijah sat silently next to her before he spoke with a cautionary tone.

"You're a hybrid, Ayla. A very rare supernatural entity. Part witch, part wolf." He looked at her, but she refused eye contact. Instead, she just stared out towards the water with a frown on her face. "But you despise your werewolf nature."

"I do."

"And what of your witch nature?"

"I love being a witch but... it scares me. I don't know much about my powers. What I can do. How far I can go."

"Your family is of no help?"

"My mother died when I was young. She taught me some spells but she died before I could really practice magic. All I have is her grimoire, and I'm still trying to make sense of it all." She took a deep breath. "And I don't know the rest of her family. I never met them. She was never close with them and then she was shunned after they found out that she was pregnant with a child who carried the werewolf gene."

"You have no one else to help you learn of your nature?"

"I had my uncle... he was the one who was teaching me how to be a wolf. But he was killed."

"You're lonely." He spoke sadly, knowing the feeling of loneliness all too well.

"Tell me about Klaus' curse." Ayla threw a rock into the pond, ignoring his comment.

"My family... we were quite close. But Klaus and my father did not get along. When we became vampires, we discovered the truth. Klaus was not my father's son." He looked out into the water. "My mother had been unfaithful many years before. This was her darkest secret. Klaus is from a different bloodline. When my father discovered this, he hunted down and he killed my mother's lover... and his entire family. Not realizing, of course, that he was igniting a war between species that rages until this day."

"Werewolves and vampires." She widened her eyes in surprise, understanding what Elijah was hinting towards. "So Klaus is a hybrid, too? Part werewolf, part vampire?"

"You're quite right, Ayla."

"I'm not the only hybrid there is?"

"Well, Klaus is a different kind of hybrid. He would be deadlier than any werewolf or vampire. Nature would not stand for such an imbalance of power. Therefore the witches, the servants of nature, saw to it that my brother's werewolf side would become dormant."

"Unless he breaks the curse the witches put on him."

"He wants to trigger that part of him that's a werewolf. If allowed, Klaus would sire his own bloodline. He'd build his own race. Endangering not just vampires, but everyone."

"How would that even work?" She shook her head.

"He would find werewolves and turn them into vampires." He looked at her. "They would no longer be bound by the sun or by the moon."

"So they wouldn't have to transition anymore?"

"Exactly." Ayla once again grew hopeful at his response, if Klaus could break the curse, she could ask him to change her so she would never have to transform on a full moon again. She thought for a second, if losing her powers would be worth never having to transition again.

"Why did you help him? If you thought that what he was doing was dangerous, why would you help him all those years?"

"I helped him because I loved him."

"And you don't anymore?" She questioned. "He's your family, you don't just stop loving family."

"He must die, now."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" She shook her head. "Why involve me of all people?"

"I feel familiar to you, do I not?" Elijah looked at her and she looked at him with wide eyes. "The day I saw you in the middle of the field surrounded by those werewolves and the Salvatore brothers..."

"You recognized me." She told him, knowing where this was going. "How? I have never met you before. Have I?" He was about to respond when her eyes widened. "Wait, can I, like, time travel? And that's how you know me? We met in a past life or something?"

"No, Ayla." He sounded amused by her near excitement in her voice, causing her cheeks to redden in embarrassment. "Your drawings."

"My drawings?" She shook her head. "What are you talking about?"

"The man with the werewolf eyes and vampire fangs. It's Niklaus. You're drawing my brother."

"How is that possible? I don't know him. I've been dreaming of him for over a year now and I could never figure out why I was dreaming of him or what he wanted."

"And he wondered the same of you." Ayla's eyebrows furrowed at the comment. "You questioned how I recognized you. We were turned into vampires in the year 1001, over the centuries since then I have seen remnants of you in paintings and sketches. Klaus' paintings and sketches."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Klaus has been seeing visions of you since he was turned. My siblings, we have all watched Klaus draw and paint you since then. We have watched him search the world for you. In each new city we arrived to, he had always been looking for you, unsure of what you wanted from him or why he was envisioning you. And so he continued to use you as a muse for his art often. I think he feared that his dreams would end and that he would one day forget your face." He looked at the younger girl who's eyes were widening animatedly. "But perhaps he was seeing you because you will play an integral role in ending him and his torturous life."

"Why are you telling me this, Elijah? Because you want me to kill him? A one thousand year old vampire?" She scoffed and shook her head. "I'm never going to be able to kill him. I told you, I know basic spells from my mom's grimoire. Other than that, I just see and feel things sometimes. I don't know what any of my visions mean. They could be from the past or the future, I don't even know how any of it works. It's unpredictable. I'm not gonna be any use to you."

"Your power's stronger than you know. You can help us kill Klaus, Ayla."

"You have that dagger with the ash... use that."

"You know silver does not hurt a werewolf." He told her, trying to convince her. "But there is one way to kill any supernatural species- at the hands of the servants of nature themselves."

"Witches. If they can channel enough power."

"Yes, Ayla. And you may not see it, but you are powerful. One of the most powerful young witches I've seen."

"I couldn't even hold down all those werewolves for more than a few minutes the night you saved us. You have barely seen me do any magic. So how do you think I can kill what is probably the strongest supernatural creature on Earth?"

"You and Bonnie Bennett, whom I know is still alive. With the power of a hundred dead witches on your side and the celestial event of a full moon."

"I won't be able to do it. I can't practice magic when I'm transitioning into a wolf."

"Bonnie could slow your transition so you could garner enough time to weaken him. When Klaus breaks the curse, he will have to transition as well and that is when he'll be at his most vulnerable."

"No. It would kill me and it would kill Bonnie." She walked away from him and back towards the Lockwood Estate but he sped in front of her to stop her from walking.

"You feel a connection towards him because of your drawings."

"What are you talking about?" She scoffed.

"You drew him dozens of times. And he drew you hundreds."

"I told you, I don't know why. It just happens." She spoke quietly. "I draw a man that I have never met or seen. How does that even happen?"

"Because you feel a connection towards my brother and he feels one towards you. It's partly because of your magic, but you feel his emotions when you draw him, do you not? You feel something. Some sort of resemblance between the two of you. You see yourself in him." Ayla just scoffed and rolled her eyes as she continued walking. "And now you know the truth about him. Do you think that since you're both hybrids, bastards, broken... that you are similar? You are not." She stopped walking and turned towards him.

"You don't even know me, Elijah."

"I know that there is a light in you, Ayla. And Klaus... he is nothing but darkness and evil. You haven't seen the blood that he has spilled or the violence that he is capable of... not truly."

"I don't have any connection with Klaus or anyone else. I feel what everyone feels. All the time!" She screamed, tears pooling in her eyes. "Right now, I can feel the disappointment that you feel in me lingering over you. So, no. It's not a connection because it's impossible to connect with anyone when you feel what everyone else feels all of the time." She wiped the tears. "The drawings of him... that's all they are, drawings. Maybe my magic and my visions are trying to tell me what's supposed to happen in the future."

"Or maybe, Ayla, they are trying to warn you."

"Maybe." She nodded. "I'm very sorry, Elijah. But I will not help you kill him." She spoke with sincerity, a frown on her face. "Please, do not try to come back and convince me to sacrifice myself for your own agenda again."

AN: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Thanks Blu3b3rryT3a for reviewing, I hope that you like this one too. Please don't forget to review, let me know what you like and don't like! I love reading reviews and constructive criticism!