Paris, France
November 6, 2010
Hunters Safehold

Connor nudged the door open with the steel tip of his combat boot; he knew better than to rush into a room without at least taking some level of precaution. He had only been training Renée for the last seven weeks, but of all the potential recruits he's trained for the last decade. She had taken so easily to the regimented training even before he had been impressed. Connor knew that other hunters regularly praised their respective candidates but during his US Ranger Training none of his drill sergeants had, so he hadn't felt the need with respect to Renée. Maybe he should have, Connor considered on the way over to the Safehold. Regardless, he would have never verbally admitted that particular detail with her in earshot of him. Not that it really mattered now. He had to find her before she killed herself and if he was too late for that he must start the hunt for a rogue bloodsucker.

Inching cautiously into the main room, he paused every few steps to listen for proof that he wasn't alone before repeating the process again. It took him some time to clear the house, but what he found- or more accurately didn't find- only confirmed that they had been here and gone sometime ago.

Her room was the most obvious as far as Connor could tell. It looked like she had ransacked it; even the bed linen had been taken. Her backpack of personal belongings was missing too. He might have taught her too well; she removed everything she could that he might have taken to one of the witches the Brotherhood had on retainer. A tracking spell would have proven to be invaluable in his hunt for her, but still there were other ways.

She wasn't making it easy for him for sure. Renée had collected her toiletries, although he did find the Brotherhood provided cell phone he had gifted to her as a potential recruit. Grimacing, he reached into the bowl of the toilet and pulled out the soaked remains of the broken device. Closer inspection revealed that the screen was cracked. Whatever she had done had been in an effort to deny access to whatever information resided on it.

Moving quickly into the kitchen he found a ziplock bag and although he was tempted to grab the container of uncooked rice, he instead rushed into the workroom. After digging through the supplies, he filled the bag with silica gel granules before dropping her phone into the bag, then sealing it.

She was smart for ditching the phone. The Brotherhood could have tracked her movements with it; that she would have known thanks to him. However, leaving it here had been a mistake on her part. Whatever was on her phone that she didn't want to be known could be found out given the right expertise.

Pulling out his own phone, he paged through the list of contacts and after a moment of hesitation thumbed the contact icon. It was on the second ring his contact picked up.

"Connor Jordan, well isn't this a surprise! I thought you were on assignment in Europe? Wait, don't tell me you or your new initiate bricked some of your guys' equipment and you need my help to get it to work again, right?" An all too youthful voice asked through the speaker.

Connor clamped his mouth closed tight and slowly counted to ten in his head, not trusting himself to say something that would upset their would be tech prodigy. Most of their potential recruits both the fortunate ones that bore the Hunter's Mark and the regular run of the mill vampire hunters each had stories of their own connecting them to the supernatural world. Cortney Star was neither; she had hacked her way into the Brotherhood servers thinking she found a gaming company whose development team was busy crafting an online video world filled with witches, werewolves, vampires, and hunters. Having a pair of hunters track her down thinking she was human working for the very beings the Brotherhood hunted had proven to be an interesting encounter. Considering he had been one of those hunters was beside the point. When she learned the truth, she wanted to join them almost immediately. He refused outright but his partner had pointed out that if she could penetrate their security so easily what was to stop it from happening again but for less innocent reasons?

Cortney had been with the Brother of The Five for nearly five years now and had, by her nineteen-year-old self, spearheaded the revamped architecture of much of their security protocols and its associated systems.

"Unfortunately, Cortney, I need contact info for a data recovery expert we can trust in Paris, preferably within the city proper." Connor paused but frowned when he didn't hear any sound of her typing on her keyboard, as she normally did when he called, which was rare if he was being honest with himself. He tried to keep his contact with her at a minimum for various reasons.

"Cortney, are you still there?" he asked, feeling his annoyance grow he could hear her breathing, so it wasn't a bad connection so what was the problem.

"I'm not doing anything for you till you use my handle, Connor Jordan. Or I'm going to start calling you Buffy again, or maybe I will call you John Connor? You should know by now how much I hate my given name!" Cortney spoke stiffly over the line. Connor wanted to crush his phone with his enhanced hunter strength, but resisted the urge. If he did, Cortney Star would be the person he'd have to contact for a replacement.

Rubbing his hand over his balding head, noting that he needed to shave it again, he groaned audibly causing the young hacker to tsk him safe in her little hacker's paradise the Brotherhood had built for the tech genius. Why she wanted to have a handle of Cortana, he really had no idea. When she started to talk about some video game called HALO he mentally blanked out her rather detailed description. To this day he still had no idea who this Cortana character even was and how it related to Cortney Star herself. His parents had hated video games and had destroyed his younger brother's gaming console more than once; he was away on various deployments till his first encounter with the supernatural world. After he killed his first vampire and his Hunter's Mark affixed itself to his flesh, marking him as Supernatural Hunter. At the time, he thought he was losing his mind having a tattoo that no one could see. If it hadn't been for the Hunter that sought him out he might have eventually lost it.

"Like Hell! I'm not going to call you Cortana! Not now, not ever!"

"Alright then Buffy! You will just need to submit your trouble ticket and the next available tech will help you within one to three business days. Have a good-"

"Alright you win! Cortana, how about now you give me what I asked for? I shouldn't have to tell you this, but it is literally life or death!" Connor said formally cutting her off before she could hang up on him. Sadly, it wouldn't be the first time she had done that to him.

"Life and death, huh? That sounds rather extreme, doesn't it? Anyway, sure I can send you and your new initiate to a reliable tech asset the Brotherhood has available, what exactly is the problem?" she asked.

Connor didn't really want to respond. He'd have to tell someone but telling Cortney that his own initiate had used the training he gave her to become a vampire. Granted, it had only been a couple of hours since she'd escaped, but still enough time for her to come back to the Safehold and find a safe place to transition. The only positive thing was that it was still daylight so her movement would be severely hampered; still admitting all of this to someone was rather hard on his own pride.

"Connor? Hello? How's little Renée doing anyway? She called me about a week ago. Oops, I wasn't supposed to tell you that! Disregard."

His breath caught, and he managed not to crush his phone. Sometimes a hunter's strength could prove expensive; it had only been six months since he had to replace his last smartphone.

"She called you last week? What did both of you talk about? Tell me," he demanded, somehow keeping his voice level.

"Look… I'm not trying to cause trouble. She called me about a week ago on a landline begging me to help unlock her phone. It sounded like she forgot her passcode. After I fixed it, she asked me a few questions about what I do and some questions about the smartphones the Brotherhood provides to members and potential members like she is. What is so important about this?"

Glancing at his watch for the time, Connor debated about telling her, but he was going to need to tell someone at some point. Telling Cortney Star was one thing, but telling an Elder what had transpired was something he wanted to avoid as long as possible.

"It's important because by now," he consulted his watch out of habit. "She has completed her transition and subsequently gone rogue." Connor countered and then continued on to describe the events leading up to him calling for her help. The silence on the line was so profound he checked to see if the connection hadn't been dropped.

"She's a vampire?" Cortney asked incredulously.

"Unfortunately, yes, I should have seen her enthusiasm better than for what I assumed. I just don't know why she picked today?"

"Umm… I might be able to help you with that Connor. At the time I hadn't thought about it, but in light of what I know now it makes a twisted sort of sense."

"What do you mean Cortn- Cortana?"

"When I last spoke with Renée she was asking about data recovery and how to go about it. From what you told me, she damaged the screen to delay accessing and when she soaked it in the water she was trying to render it unrepairable. Thankfully from your description since the casing is fairly watertight and if the USB dongle port is intact I or a tech can read the data off the phone no problem," Cortney explained.

"Okay, but what does that have to do with the date she chose to betray the Brotherhood?"

"Connor, this is not for public consumption, but hey you know what sort of blabbermouth I can be when I talk about geek stuff. But regardless, it is policy that all our assets with smart phones have their respective data backed up on a cloud server. For privacy reasons, we do encrypt the stored data for each hunter."

He got it then his former initiate hadn't wanted there to be a record of what was on her phone being uploaded to the cloud. But did that mean the data was there or not? He wasn't sure.

"There is one more thing I can't unencrypt the data on the cloud or the device without authorization." Cortney said apologetically.

"That isn't a problem. As her Mentor I authorize you to unencrypt the data on both the cloud and the device for Renée Tremblay." Conner said, pushing as much authority into his voice. His prior experience in the US Military had taught him how to take command when needed.

"Sorry, access denied. The only type of person in our little hunters club is a full Elder."

"Fuck!" Conner muttered aloud. It seemed he was going to be informing the Brotherhood itself before he tracked down Renée and fixed the problem. Clearing his throat there was one Elder that would help him but he would owe him a favor afterwards. After getting the contact information for the nearest technician who could see about recovering the data on Renée's former device. Connor then found the contact info for the Elder he needed the authorization from. He personally hated owing favors, and to this hunter in particular. His call was picked up on the first ring. Much to his own annoyance.

"Connor Jordan? I would never have thought to hear you speaking to me again. I could have sworn you promising not to talk to me until you reached your century mark as a hunter." A rather cocky voice of the self important Elder asked.

"Galen Vaughn. I need your help with a problem," Connor said by way of greeting. Pleasantries with the Elder weren't even an option for him. Maybe if he was forced to, but Connor would have preferred to be drained dry by a nest of vampires. There were unconfirmed reports that a single supernatural hunter too badly injured to continue the fight was killed when two opportunistic vampires both decided to drain the wounded hunter dry. In doing so they both eventually fell because of the Hunter's Curse.

"Oh? This ought to be good," Galen smirked over the phone. Connor grimaced, but the sudden mental image of him punching the man did help to lighten his general mood somewhat. Still, the very thought that he would owe Galen Vaughn a favor didn't sit very well with him. Elder Galen Vaughn had always believed in tracking down the Original Family and forcing them to reign in their species. Nothing Connor had heard about them made him think it was even remotely possible, especially when it concerned the Original Hybrid.

If the rumors were true and the Original Hybrid had finally broken his curse, he was even more unstoppable than anything in recorded history. Which also meant that the race to be the first to find the current generation Petrova Doppelgänger had unfortunately gone in favor of Klaus Mikaelson. Now all the Brotherhood of the Five as well as the world could hope for a new variable in the equation. It would only be a matter of time before the scant few remaining werewolf packs around the world started going into hiding.


Salvatore Boarding House
November 6, 2010

"Are you going to be okay, Elena?" Tatia asked, finally releasing her friend. Elena looked around making sure they were alone, she flicked a finger and a box of tissues trembled as if unsure if it wanted to obey her before finally flying into her outreached hands. Her magic reserves were slowly replenishing themselves but if she had fresh human blood from the vein her magic would be restored instantly. Drinking them from bagged blood helped, but wasn't as good.

"I will be Tatia. It's been so long since I've seen, let alone interacted with my friends, but now they treat me like I need to be saved. Well except for Caroline, but she has other more important issues to worry about," Elena said, pulling out a tissue to dab around her eyes. Thanks to Rebekah prompting her to purchase the mascara she used, her appearance shouldn't be that ghastly.

Tatia seemed to be intrigued by the makeup Elena had conservatively applied. Not that makeup was an option in the past for them both. Once she got all of them out of here, she would take Tatia shopping. She might even convince Rebekah and Caroline to join them. But first she needed to get out of the room before Bonnie trapped her in, find the pictures Ric had taken of the pictograms from just outside Ayana's Spellchamber, and finally bring down the barrier around the boarding house.

Part of her wanted to rip Damon's heart out of his chest and it was a fifty-fifty chance right now she would let her husband do the honors for her.

None really needing Tatia's help to stand, but still feeling grateful for her help, Elena looked about the room. Everything she brought seemed to be here. Even the two stuffed wolves Klaus had gotten for Eirik and Astrid. Elena frowned when she didn't see what she was really looking for.

"Tatia, did you see the cooler I brought with me when I first arrived?"

"Cooler? I'm not sure whatever you're referring to by that odd sounding name," Tatia said, moving to stand next to Elena. Elena chided herself for the simple fact that Tatia wasn't yet accustomed to the future and described as best as she could the item she was in search of getting, or more accurately, its contents would help them in getting out of the room.

"Oh, that thing… Umm… After they brought you in and laid you on the bed one of your friends opened it and took it with him. But then later he came back and put some strange shaped bottles in that box thing over there. I didn't realize that we had another one in this room I've been getting that bottled milk for Astrid and Eirik from this one over here." Tatia pointed at the one Elena remembered seeing the baby formula in earlier.

Feeling curious, Elena opened up the small refrigerator and frowned at what she found inside, obviously intended for her. She pulled out a plastic bottle and noted the blood inside.

"Is something wrong? Is that blood?"

Elena nodded and cautiously unscrewed the cap. The coppery scent of the blood tickled her vampiric nature. The spider veins around her eyes started to engorge with blood causing Tatia to gasp but to Elena's surprise Tatia didn't step away as she had expected her to do; instead Tatia peered into her eyes in awe.

"You're-" Tatia started, but seemed to think better of what she was about to say. "You seem rather surprised, Elena? I thought you, of all people would know that I knew what Esther had done to all of you. Nik told me as soon as we could see each other afterwards," Tatia explained.

"Nik told you that we needed to consume blood? Did he ever-?" Elena asked, the bottle of blood temporarily forgotten. Tatia smiled and nodded her heading in understanding of her implied question.

"Yes. The first time he drank from me was a bit of a mess but by the second or so time afterwards he never once spilled a drop!" Tatia said rather proudly and Elena had to find a safe place to sit the still opened bottle down before she accidentally spilled it.

"Niklaus Mikaelson, my brother-in-law, has drank from you?" Elena asked in spite of herself but stopped and looked carefully over Tatia's still smooth neck and wrists not even finding a blemish. "How do you not have any old bite marks from him?" Elena asked, feeling rather shell shocked by Tatia's rather frank omission.

"My first bite mark from him is still there, but it's on a part of me that only a select few individuals have ever seen, Nik is one of them," Tatia said and Elena followed her ancestors eyes as they slipped downward to her own right breast when realization finally dawned. The reddening of her cheeks and ears caused Tatia to giggle at her rather human-like response.

"So how did your other bite marks heal?" Elena asked, already suspecting the answer, but that would mean that at least Klaus had learned their blood can be used to heal.

"Quite by accident, if you're curious. Nik and I were kissing, and I became a little too aggressive and nipped his lip a little harder than I planned. I must have swallowed some of his blood. He noticed shortly afterwards that my bite at the time on my neck had miraculously healed. We were both confused at first, but eventually he figured it out was his blood that healed me. So after every time he fed on me he would bite his thumb and I would lick it until the wound sealed."

Elena was amazed. She had guessed they were spending time together back in the Village but the fact even then Klaus had excellent control of his blood lust was luck or he really didn't want to hurt Tatia and somehow found it within himself to have such control.

"Were you ever scared that he might take too much?" Elena couldn't help but ask.

"After the first time a little, but he swore to me that he would never hurt me and he never broke that promise. In fact I grew to crave him biting me," Tatia said wistfully.

"Tatia!" Elena blurted, but quickly apologized for her rude outburst.

"Sorry I should not have said it that way." Elena added.

"It's alright we were planning on telling everyone but things didn't work out that way. Before I continue, shouldn't you have some of that? Nik did tell me that the cravings are almost too hard to bear." Tatia shrugged before pointing at the still open bottle on the small desk.

"Oh… Yes, you're right."

Elena sniffed the blood, crinkling her nose. It didn't smell bad but something seemed off about it. Would they have drugged it, Elena couldn't help wondering, but what good would that do? Throwing caution to the wind she took a tentative sip of the red nectar and the very instant the life sustaining liquid touched her tongue she knew why it smelled familiar. Animal blood. But the taste only dredged up memories of her hunting alone one fateful night back in the past. That night changed things for her in ways she never imagined possible and that was in light of her being used as sacrifice to break a thousand year curse on man she once hated with all of her heart only through a quirk of time travel became his sister-in-law and a Original like everyone else in the Mikaelson Family.

Sometimes life really liked to play games with a person's preconceived notions about themselves. Something Elena Mikaelson was all too well aware of. To say her life was complicated would be an understatement.


December 3, 1001
Night of the full moon:

Elena was out hunting again and like the previous night she was alone. There was no denying the matter hunting for wild game was growing more difficult with each passing night. It was an unintentional boon when Kol and Finn had made good on their threat to leave their town. Having two fewer vampires competing for prey had initially helped but even now her family needed to range further into the wilderness. Inevitably, it was only a matter of time before their self-imposed restraint from feeding on their neighbors would diminish to the point that even Elena was starting to look at the humans in their community as something less than as friends and more than her next meal. Which both excited her and filled her with a shame that she was even considering sinking her fangs into someone. Werewolf or not, Jade's blood had been exquisite and Elena was ashamed to admit that she craved more.

Mikael had reassured everyone that the changes wrought on them by essentially turning them into another species had made them far superior to even the werewolves. At first Esther had seemed bothered by their continued need to consume blood, but one night after visiting with Ayana and her grandchildren Esther had come out of her former guardian's dwelling with a rather odd expression. Which was quickly replaced with her usual demeanor when Esther had finally noticed Elena watching her. Her mother in law, after her meeting with Ayana, now seemed to accept that her children needed to consume blood to survive and yet Elena wanted to know what had changed her mind. She tried asking Ayana afterwards, but was rebuffed only with a promise that Elena would know in time. Whatever that meant, she was immortal now and she had a new relationship. Elena was only just starting to come to terms with.

She hadn't told anyone in the family, not even Elijah, about her encounter the previous night with the former Jade. After draining every drop of his life giving blood from his body, she'd felt different. Not ready to talk to Ayana about it, she was slowly coming to the realization that she could see as well as feel magic in the world and was starting to manipulate it herself. Her emotions, for now, seemed to have a direct correlation to how the magic behaved.

Ever since draining Jade she hadn't felt the gnawing hunger to feed again, which was odd in and of itself. It didn't mean she would pass up a chance to feed, but for the time being she just felt satiated. It took awhile but eventually she found the location she had left Jade's corpse in the middle of a burnt out area which looked like a massive fire bomb almost obliterated everything. The nearest approximation from her knowledge of the future she could make a comparison to was the Tunguska event, which will take place in Siberia. Whatever had taken place here had been less intense as that event had been, but quite destructive enough for Elena's guilt for killing the man.

The full moon was out and in the past few years she had come to almost dread its monthly return but tonight she was feeling something else and she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Since the previous night Elena found her skin felt warmer than normal, but tonight it almost felt like it was on fire. Where it hurt the most at the moment was the upper part of her back and the searing burning sensation was growing too hard to ignore. Seeking relief of some kind, a wild thought that the cold December air would soothe the burning sensation. Her fingers trembling not from the cold but from the pain, she somehow untied the strings holding her dress in place. Shrugging out of her dress, she couldn't help to watch it pool at the bottom of her feet.

Only then did it register that she was standing in the middle of the burnt out area with the moon nearing its apex and she didn't have a stitch of clothing on.

"What the hell is going on with me?" Elena muttered, starting to grow more agitated with each passing minute.

The night sounds assaulted her ears, but she couldn't detect any familiar heartbeat of her loved ones. Which was probably a good thing the voice in the back of her mind said when the first spasm of pain wracked her body, driving her to her knees.

"What is-" Elena's breath caught when another spasm hit and she felt her pelvic bones popping in unison. Struggling to breathe, her lungs felt like they were on fire. She could only watch helplessly as parts of her body twitched involuntary as the bones in her appendages started to break and reform.

"Impossible! This, this can't be happening!" Elena cried out from yet another powerful spasm.

But denial offered no real comfort when her spine cracked, forcing her to arch her back in agony. The rational side of her brain was trying to make sense of everything, but she couldn't believe what conclusions her laborious thoughts were coming to the inevitable conclusion. How could she be a werewolf?

Her birth mother Isobel as far as she could recall had not once said the Flemming family had the inherited genetic condition for Lycanthropy curse and she highly doubted the Gilbert family did as well. Unless Isobel had lied to her about the true identity of her birth father. But the facts were rather hard to ignore as her body twisted and she felt her body mass shifting. Her insides felt as if someone had cut her open and were rearranging them one organ at a time. The pain was intense and only getting worse with each passing minute.

For the briefest of a moment she felt like she wasn't alone. In a panic that Elijah or worse Mikael would stumble onto her mid transformation she looked around but only confirmed that she was thankfully alone. But that didn't explain why she felt like she wasn't.

Her mind was questing for answers, and the horrific realization that she must have triggered her curse when she killed Jade the previous night sent her reeling. She had been so caught up in the moment with the Petrova Eternal Curse finally being broken she hadn't correctly rationalized the sudden onslaught of intense pain she felt at the time. How could she have missed it?

"Who was my father?" Elena gasped, barely aware that she'd even asked aloud. She didn't think she'd get an answer, but even after asking the night air as if it knew the answer to her question and name surfaced in her consciousness. She didn't understand why, but she had no doubt a man named Morgan Labonair was her real father. Still, it didn't make any sense. How did she even know the name? Ever since she'd woken up after Mikael skewered her on his blade, she had crazy dreams as if she'd been talking to someone but the moment she woke herself up sometimes from a sound sleep the memory faded just as quickly.

Pushing these thoughts from her mind, she tried to focus on the changes being wrought to herself instead. While she felt a need to resist the changes, she did the opposite. Picturing the changes she pushed with her mind that the changes come faster. So it was a shock that it actually seemed to be working. It hurt more than doing this, but still she resisted the urge to give up. Elena found she couldn't stand erect anymore; her legs and body structure made that impossible now. The changes were coming quickly now almost too fast for her to notice although a few stood out.

The color faded into a strange black in white world around her and a rational part of her mind dredged up a once considered useless factoid that wolves were technically color blind. Something about them only differentiating between yellow and blue colors seemed relevant, but the night had no such colors nearby.

She was lost in exploring the new contrast to the world through her new eyes; she missed the white hairs sprouting all over her body. Once she finally noticed the changes to her entire body, as far as she could inspect was covered in a thick coat of perfectly snow white fur.

The final bout of excruciating agony she experienced was of her mandible bone painfully reforming accompanied by her cranial bones starting to push outward, taking on the all too familiar shape of a wolf's muzzle and skull. Then it was over. A large snow white wolf stood proudly amongst the devastation her rebirth had herald to the world.

Her inner wolf, now free of the shackles she had unknowingly reigned in for so long, took over. It was only then that Elena realized while she was still conscious of her actions, for now she wasn't fully in control of herself. Somehow she knew, as if it was instinctual that it would take time to gain some semblance of control.

A distant yet enticing sound perked her wolfish ears up and after a brief bout of hesitation she took off in search of its source. The world blurred around her faster than it had before. Was this what it had felt like for Klaus right after the sacrifice, Elena marveled? Slowing down to trot, the heady scent of four other wolves with a recent kill close by elicited a happy bark of greeting to them. The sharp snarl of warning abruptly halted her from approaching the pack any further.

Intellectually Elena was more than aware that as a Original she was faster and stronger by several orders of magnitude, but considering that she was a hybrid, now she realized thinking more on the matter. If anything, she was more like a tribrid; she could easily kill three of them with no hesitation but the fourth was a large wolf and there was something about its eyes that she recognized. It took her a second of tense standoff to realize that he was the Alpha and that meant.

"Ansel? It's me, Elena! Ayana's former ward."

It was only after the fact that she realized she had just tried to actually speak only for it to sound like a series of barks and yips to her who knows if she actually can communicate in the same manner she was accustomed to for the majority of her life. The wolf whom she suspected was the pack leader canted his head as if attempting to understand her when he slowly approached her. When the other wolves growled and started to advance on Elena until the Alpha snapped at them, keeping them from getting too close to her. Still not fully in control, Elena prayed that her newly introduced wolf side wouldn't get her into trouble. Maybe it was instinct, but Elena's posture took on a submissive display by tucking her tail and crouching low to the ground.

The dark furred wolf cautiously approached her and Elena held perfectly still as he took in her scent. His muzzle twitched and he pressed his nose closer as if needing to get a better sample. He backed away, shaking his head as if to rid himself of Elena's lingering scent. Tensing her body still while bracing for an attack, it was a surprise that it didn't come. Instead she felt him open his impressive maw and to her shock he started to chew on her muzzle. Emitting a whimper, Elena tried to crawl backward but stopped when his teeth locked, effectively grabbing her face keeping her still. Only once he was satisfied, he licked the side of her face, making welcoming huffing noises that she hoped meant she wasn't going to have to fight them.

The others approached her just as Ansel had, and each took a turn with her. Based on how they reacted there must be something about her scent that differentiated herself from the other wolves. She was different and while appearing as a wolf she was different enough that if she had to guess they would eventually prefer others who were pure werewolf, not a blending as she and ironically enough Klaus were now.

She only ate after the others had had their fill, but there was still enough that she felt satisfied. It was decidedly different eating the meat raw instead of cooked. Not that Elena had once in her life even considered eating raw meat. Even the animal blood somehow tasted better in wolf form, she quickly realized, and eagerly lapped up as much as she could with her canine sized tongue.

Once everyone was satisfied, she and the pack took off on a run and, not surprisingly, she was far faster than any of them. To her own surprise they all started to play a game of tag, or at least that's what it seemed like to her. Elena didn't know how long they did this before she started to grow tired and it was only then that she realized she had somehow gained control of her own movements.

Bidding the others goodnight and not entirely understanding how she accomplished that little feat, she returned to where she had discarded her clothing. It took some trial and error, but eventually she shifted back to her human form. Not surprisingly, the shift back was just as painful as it had been turning into a wolf. Dressing quickly, she took one last look around before heading back to her home. One thing was for sure; she was going to have some interesting dreams once she settled down for sleep to overtake her. Telling anybody what had transpired that evening wasn't an option and a kernel of dread of what was to come took root. Some Child of Destiny she was turning out to be.


Salvatore Boarding House
November 6, 2010

"Are you feeling better, Elena? You appeared to have drifted off somewhere?" Tatia asked. Her voice helped bring Elena back to the present.

"Sorry, Tatia ghosts from our shared past. Can I ask how far along are you?" Elena said, changing the subject. She didn't want to reveal that she was like Klaus just yet; she hadn't told her family yet either and the guilt had been eating at her for nearly five centuries. Ever since regaining consciousness alone in what had once had been Ayana's antechamber for her more impressive Spellchamber.

Tatia looked nervous but reflexively placed a protective hand over her midsection.

"Tatia, I'm just curious and I'm happy for both you and Niklaus. Truly I am!" Elena said encouragingly, pulling her friend close for a sisterly hug.

"Y… You mean it?" Tatia asked tentatively. Elena didn't respond verbally at first. Instead she kissed her ancestor on her temple and sighed into her all too similar hair. Although it was now scented like Honeysuckle, which made Elena's mind briefly consider which shampoo Elijah might like now that they'd been reunited.

"Yes. It's all we've ever wanted for him and by extension you Tatia. So, are you going to keep me in suspense? Ayana and Esther told me that you were expecting just before they daggered me, but I never learned how far along you were," Elena said. It sometimes felt a little disconcerting to be talking about people that have been dead for centuries but for Tatia it was only a few days since she last interacted with them.

"I mean I hope you don't think I'm prying too much," Elena added, sitting back from her friend.

"It's alright; at least you are here with me. Ayana said that I've only been with child for about four weeks. However, when Ayana informed Esther she started to get visibly upset, but whatever was bothering her she didn't explain why- neither did Ayana. Do you know?"

"I do unfortunately, but it's nothing you or Nik did anything wrong. I'll be honest with you, I've only been able together put the pieces of what happened after the fact for the last few centuries. I was flummoxed as anyone else. That was until I met someone quite by accident that shouldn't have been alive when I finally learned the truth. I promise to tell you, but this is something best heard with our family present."

"But when will that be? Why are these so-called friends of yours treating us like this? I don't know if I like most of them even when they couldn't understand me. They acted like they knew what was best for me, especially the one that has blue eyes and black hair. My apologies, but I still haven't attached their names I've heard to their actual appearances," Tatia complained. Which drew a snort of derision from Elena.

"Sorry… I'm not laughing at you, Tatia. By your apt description that would be Damon Salvatore, and the broody blond man is his younger brother Stefan."

Tatia looked momentarily stunned before taking a careful glance at the closed door. She leaned in and whispered, "Stefan? Is that the same Stefan that you and he-?"

Elena sighed. She was almost regretting telling Tatia about some aspects of her former life when stranded in the past. She couldn't go into any specific details at Ayana's instance but she had shared a few things with Tatia. It had helped pass the time and gave each of them a chance to know a little about each other.

"Yes, What is that look for?" Elena asked standing up and with a grimace picked up the bottle of animal blood and tried not to taste it. She downed it as fast as she could swallow each mouthful, not surprisingly her efforts were only partially successful.

"Well… Uh… I was expecting someone more like your husband, from what I've seen he is nothing like Elijah," Tatia confessed.

"Stefan is special in his own way. You remember what I said he was there for me when I really needed someone for me. I had never heard of a vampire outside of fiction or movies," Elena said, feeling a little defensive. She understood Tatia didn't mean anything by what or how she said it, but Elena still owed a lot to Stefan and her friends so she needed to do something about getting out of here with Tatia and her children. Still not feeling the reinvigorated rush of magic coursing through her veins, Elena opened the mini refrigerator in vain hope of finding a misplaced bag of human blood.

"Are you okay? You look frustrated," Tatia asked.

Debating about telling her their predicament but deciding that she might as well and explained the problem and a possible solution but even Elena wouldn't go that far. She had been in far worse situations before and there almost always had been other options.

"Don't be an idiot Ella. If you're saying that you need to do this to get us out of here. I don't see it as a problem," Tatia said. Tatia moved like a predator stalking her prey, which was a shift of their roles in the world. Elena felt the urge to run but there was only so far she could go in their would be prison. Still in denial, Tatia stood directly in front of her. Without so much as a whimper of fear, Tatia bravely moved her long braided hair to the side she tilted her head to one side offering her neck up to her friend.

"What… What are you doing? Tatia I… I can't do this to you!" Elena gasped, taking a step back. Tatia surprised her by grabbing her hand before she could move another step away.

"You said that you need human blood. I'm offering?" Tatia said and Elena was amazed that she hadn't heard a skip in Tatia's heartbeat, nor did she sense the slightest hint of fear humans often exhibited when her kind was about to feed from them. It brought up more personal questions about how often Klaus had fed off Tatia in the past, but Elena wasn't about to feed on a friend.

"Tatia I… I can't. You're pregnant, I could take too much," Elena pleaded, but Tatia's grip was surprisingly strong.

"I trust you and I know you won't hurt either me or my baby."

A part of her wanted to argue some more, but the immortal inside of her was clamoring to drink Tatia's blood. Time and the need to be proactive in their escape won out.

"Okay, but I'm going to give you some of my blood afterwards to help heal you," Elena declared. Mostly to herself. Her gums ached as the need to feed grew stronger. Allowing her vampiric visage to emerge once again, Elena's teeth elongated. As gently as she could manage, ever fearful of hurting her friend, Elena's fangs pierced into the offered neck. Other than a short gasp of pain, Tatia made no attempt to pull herself free of Elena's grasp. Elena allowed Tatia's heart to do the work; using the utmost care she barely took a few mouthfuls of blood as it slowly filled her mouth with every beat of her heart. With each one, her magical reserves came rushing back with each swallow. Way before she heard the telltale warning of Tatia's heart stuttering from the loss of blood volume, Elena pulled back, pushing down the need to consume even more than she had all the while wiping the blood from her lips giving in to impulse she licked the tiny amount when she stopped in amazement. The two perfect puncture wounds in Tatia's neck started to heal on their own.

"What's wrong? You have the strangest look-"

"Umm… I guess I don't need to give you my blood to heal. It looks like something or someone is already taking care of that for you."

"Pardon?"

"Later… I want to see if I can slip around this barrier without actually bringing it down. I'll need to check on a few things before we get out of here. I promise to come back for all of you," Elena said, changing the subject. She already had enough to worry about as it was. She wasn't fully recharged, but it should be enough to find the photographs and find a means of getting them out of there. She couldn't afford to worry about what her family would do or how they would react once they found out how she had been treated as a supposed guest. She highly doubted Caroline had been involved, but it still stung her that even her brother and one of her closest friends had detained her as they had.


Forbes Residence
November 6, 2010

Liz has had to deal with the curve balls that life threw at her for most of her life. She'd married fairly young in spite of her desire to seek out a career in local law enforcement. At the time, it initially surprised her that her new husband was so supportive of her desired profession. It wasn't until the reasons for their separation and eventual divorce that had left her afterwards second guessing his real intentions back then.

Still if it hadn't been for the fact that she married into a founding family, Liz had wondered how long it would be before the local gossip brigade started a campaign against her for not assuming a more traditional role for herself in being a proper housewife to a founding family with a seat on the town council. It really had moved her when her husband, Bill Forbes, had requested the honor of pinning her shield into place for her, that day once had been one of her proudest moments in her life. It hadn't lasted when she learned she had gotten pregnant right at the start of her career.

"Mom? Didn't you hear me? I'm serious. Elena is a Original now and thanks to a trip into the past she's been married for a very long time," Caroline said drawing her mother's attention back to her forever young daughter. Liz's heart clenched with the pang of loss that Caroline would never make her a grandmother. It had taken her a great deal of soul searching after discovering that her little girl had become one of the creatures that she was charged with exterminating that not every vampire is a soulless Demon she has pledged to dispatch.

"Sweetie, I heard you, but I'm just having a little trouble believing it. In retrospect, even I would say I'd been fooled by Katherine posing as Elena. But this? I mean how-?" Liz started, but couldn't find the right words to express her disbelief.

"How is this possible?" Caroline finished for her mother before giving her a look that told her that she wanted to say something more but was reigning in her emotions. After living with her vampire daughter, she'd learned how heightened their emotions become.

"I honestly have no idea! Lena mentioned something about Spirits of Nature and then her being something called a Child of Destiny. She was rather vague on who or what they are, so if I have to guess she doesn't know either. Look I know it's hard to believe, but on the day she disappeared, she was magically transported one thousand years into the past and once there she met the Original family," Caroline sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"But if she did as you say and traveled back in time, why didn't she try to prevent the events that culminated with them becoming the first vampires?" Liz snapped and instantly regretted it. She didn't mean to respond so harshly towards her own daughter as she had just done. Her former husband had been correct; it took a little investigating on her own. There was no doubt that some of her own deputies had been spending an inordinate amount of their free time over at the Young farmhouse, just outside of town.

"I'm sorry Caroline. I shouldn't have snapped at you just now. Thank you for sharing what you learned from Elena. If I have any spare time I would really like to talk to her myself."

"I know she'd like that. Elena's worried about how the others will take her change, but as far as I can tell she is still the same person I played Barbie Fashion Show with," Caroline declared, making Liz Forbes smile. Even as a child her daughter had played with such flair and extravagance that she hoped her daughter would escape from Mystic Falls and make a name for herself. Not that she couldn't now, but both of Caroline's parents had already concluded that their daughter would most likely need to leave home far sooner than she planned before people started noticing that she wasn't aging like everyone else. How long could it be before Caroline and now Elena could return to Mystic Falls without people realizing they are the same person? Damon had always downplayed it when she asked him, but it had to weigh heavily on a person to leave everything behind. Knowing that the next time they returned, the people they knew would either have died or were many decades older. Liz honestly didn't understand how either Damon or Stefan did it and because of that she often worried for her daughter.

"Honey, I hate to interrupt, but I'm more concerned about what you told me about Elena's new family and how Damon Salvatore and all of you are using the boarding house as some safe house or something. We are in the midst of our own council drama because of persuasive manipulation by Pastor Young," Bill said finally joining in with their discussion.

Liz wasn't entirely sure which topic would be better served. However from what both her daughter and former husband told her about what Pastor Young was doing in the hospital their town's vampire drama could wait for now. What was rather disconcerting for her was how her authority in the town had been so blatantly sidestepped considering the deputies he used were under her jurisdiction. The Pastor, for as long as Liz could remember, had been quite vocal about having a woman for the position of Sheriff. Fortunately, until now, his attempts to find a more appealing candidate to be elected into her job hardly ever gained a paltry handful of votes.

"But why is he doing this? I mean he always seemed so normal and pleasant during Sunday sermons when I was growing up. Granted, I haven't been to church as much as I used to, but the few times I've seen him about town or at social functions he's never made me feel unwelcome. In fact, he asked me how things are going with planning the next Miss Mystic Falls pageant," Caroline asked but frowned when her phone, which had been set to vibrate, started up. Liz watched as her daughter picked it up and after checking the identity she hung up and turned her attention back to her parents. Before she could even ask who it was, Caroline's phone started to vibrate again.

"Who is it?" Liz couldn't help asking.

"Damon. I don't want to talk to him if he is going to send texts that just say 'where are you?' or 'Pick up your phone!' Nonsense," Caroline huffed out a growl when her phone started to vibrate yet again.

"Honey, I think you should see what he wants. What will he do if you don't answer?" Liz asked, already knowing the answer.

"Knowing Damon, he will probably come here and drag me back to the boarding house," Caroline grumped, but still she accepted the call. "Hi Damon- no… Wait, what do you mean that you tried- no, I'm at my moms… Alright I'm on my way back. I'll meet you there."

Caroline looked resigned, but her mood changed. "Sorry, I need to meet Damon back at the boarding house. It turns out that Elena was supposed to find some picture Alaric had taken weeks ago and Damon wants to get to them first."

"Pictures? Whatever for?" Liz asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine. I need to get going. I will call you later, okay?"

"Honey, you look upset. Is something wrong?" Liz aske. Sshe had promised herself to be a better mother for her daughter. If she had paid better attention, she might have noticed her daughter had been struggling with something, but how might she have reacted if she discovered her daughter's transition into a vampire sooner?

"Um… I don't know, I think I might need to make a call on the way there," Caroline said but didn't elaborate further. Liz didn't feel comfortable letting her daughter go without saying something. Despite being turned into a vampire her daughter was growing up into a fine young woman.

"Be careful. I love you."

"I love you- both of you- too."