Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries in any shape or form. But I do own my OC.
A/N: This is the season finale for Season 1. We may even see some present day Klaus in this chapter, as well as a flashback. So, enjoy.
Reviews:
NicoleR85: Thanks, I'm so glad you liked this chapter!
Calliope's Scribe: Yep, it will be super emotional and angry and I plan on having them kind of skirt around each other for awhile. Unfortunately, they don't have the kind of relationship that can just be solved with a single reunion. They have a lot of work cut out for them if they (and by that, I mean Aliyah) want it to work. I did throw a Klaus POV in this chapter, so I hope you like the way I characterised mopey Klaus. He's definitely angry at his hellcat.
Guest: Thank you so much!
SkyewardMusicLover: Thank you so much!
LoveLiveLife22: Yes, Klaus and Aliyah will be together. And, as for the whole pregnant thing, as far as I know, Aliyah will not be getting pregnant in TVD.
Babaksmiles: I absolutely love Bonnie in this story. She and Aliyah definitely have this great relationship and Aliyah is most certainly very protective of Bonnie, and she definitely won't let Elena use her. Bonnie will be getting some romance in this chapter, so you'll have to read and find out who it is ;)
tate4eva: Thank you so much!
Linda Ku: Well, Season 2 should stay pretty much the same with Aliyah working her magic behind the scenes. I don't want to give a lot away, but I maybe changing something big to do with the sacrifice. Thank you so much! I'm glad you're liking Aliyah so much. I was really afraid introducing an OC into this story and I wanted to write a realistic Original OC who has been affected by spending a thousand years married to a guy who's slowly descended from this sweet human into this sociopathic vampire. I really want to write their reunion as well, both in Alaric's body and in his own body, it should be awesome!
Stormdancer
Chapter 8
Founder's Day
A man, in an apartment far, far away, stood in front of his easel, a paintbrush clutched, thoughtfully, in his hands. The painting never came right for him. All he had were his memories and the dozens upon dozens of sketches and paintings he had done for the last eighty-five years. It was all to stem the loneliness of not having her here at his side.
Sometimes, he felt the anger rush right through him. He would roar with the force of his range, the veins under his eyes rising and his eyes turning a bloody crimson, as remembered how she had dared to leave him. The impudence of the little chit that had ensnared him since the moment she had sweetly smiled at his toddler self as a baby. He raged at the nerve of her sneaking away from him at night, like she was nothing more than a warm body he had deigned to take his pleasure in.
And not his wife.
Like a thief in the night. He supposed that comparison fit her well. She was a thief. That night, she had taken something of him away with her that he wouldn't get back until she was by his side once again.
And she would be.
He would bathe in the blood in whoever dared to keep her from him.
What he felt for her, cities would fall before it.
She was his nirvana and he would have his nirvana.
At all costs.
"Thank you so much for coming over to help me." Caroline gushed as she stared at her reflection in the mirror.
"No problem at all, darling." Aliyah crooned, her voice slightly muffled by the pin she was biting into.
"I have absolutely no idea how to put this thing on," Caroline lifted up the skirt of her dress in emphasis. "And my mom's completely useless at things like this. She like only has one nice dress in her wardrobe and I had to buy it for her. Would you believe that?" She shook her head. Her eyes turned sad and longing. "Not to mention, she never has time for things like this. She's always working." She said, mournfully.
"I can't imagine that it's easy being the Sheriff of Mystic Falls." Aliyah pointed out, gently, wondering if this girl had been abandoned by her parents her all life. She had heard from Bonnie that Caroline's father had left Liz for another man when Caroline was much younger and Liz Forbes was a sort of workaholic. She imagined Caroline had felt quickly lonely throughout her life. "But, never fear, darling. I'm here and I'm practically a professional at doing this." Her needle slid through the hemline of the dress, making it much shorter and adjusting the length of the dress so that it fit Caroline much better.
Caroline's hands smoothed down the crushed silk of the skirt. "It looks much better, Aliyah." She looked down at the older woman who was kneeling in front of Caroline as she worked on the dress. "Thank you so much. I don't know what I would have done without you."
"No problem at all." Aliyah murmured, standing up and roving her eyes over the dress, making sure that the dress fit Caroline perfectly. "Okay, you can slip it off now." She ordered.
Caroline nodded and allowed the sleeves to slip over her shoulders, letting the dress fall to her feet in a pile, leaving her in her underwear. She picked it up, smoothing it over her arm and draped it over the back of the chair in her bedroom. "What now?" She asked, curiously.
"Um, first, chemise." Aliyah held up the simple lace shift and allowed Caroline to slip it on, the soft material falling to her knees and the cool lace soothing her skin. She moved so that she was standing behind Caroline, both of them staring at Caroline's reflection in the mirror. "Now, I'm gonna fix your corset. Warning, this will be painful." She allowed Caroline to hold the front of the corset against her bust, waiting for Caroline to fix up the front fastening busk, fitting it comfortably over her stomach.
Caroline positioned it carefully against her torso, as Aliyah pulled the back around Caroline and pulled the two ends of the corset together along the line of Caroline's spine. She pushed the lacing through all of the grommets until the two strands came in the middle.
Caroline hitched in a breath, as the hard material became tighter more and more, leaving her breathless and her ribs aching. "Wow, this is like hell." She wheezed. "How did women wear this in the 19th century?"
Aliyah snorted, remembering how Niklaus had cursed her corset again and again and had settled to simply tearing at the laces and the corset until they were simply scraps of silk and lace on the bed, before he tipped her back onto the bed and kissed her until she was wanton and mewling in his arms.
"I have wondered the same thing so many times." Aliyah shook her head, mournfully.
Sometimes even in the 19th century.
"Where did you learn how to do all of this, by the way?" Caroline asked, curiously.
"I… had a very avid adolescence, where I did things like this all the time. I've forgotten how many parties I have been to where the theme was the 19th century." Aliyah chuckled, shaking her head. "Not to mention, my husband came from old money and his family liked to relive their glory days." She shrugged.
"Well," Caroline sighed. "You're a life saver." She said, sweetly.
Aliyah laughed. "You'll feel differently when I pull these laces, darling." She smirked. "Okay, take a deep breath and suck your stomach in." She warned. She yanked on the laces in the middle and pulled them tighter and tighter, all the time seeing the expression of utter agony on Caroline's face. Finally, Aliyah was pleased with how tight the laces were, making sure that it was acceptable against Caroline's figure before she tied it into a tight bow.
"Oof." Caroline rasped. "What is the point of these things?" She hissed, feeling her breath relax as she became used to the feeling of the corset constricting her torso.
"Well, corsets were used to raise and shape the breasts." Aliyah mimed pushing her breasts up. "They tighten the midriff, support the back and improve posture to help a woman stand straight. You know, because whale bones make it hard for you to bend." She rolled her eyes. "To be fair, I think most women had irreparable damage done to their bone structure and lungs." She mused.
Caroline groaned. "Please don't say that while I'm wearing this dress." She pleaded, weakly.
Aliyah laughed. "I'm pretty sure all of that fainting and swooning that went on in Victorian times was because of the corsets and not because of any impropriety that was going on." She joked. She observed Caroline's appearance in the mirror, staring at the pretty blonde with interest. "You look very lush, darling."
"Lush?" Caroline's brow furrowed.
"It means 'hot'." Aliyah explained. "Now, to get this dress on you." She lifted up the dress from the chair and slipped it over Caroline's head, giving Caroline some time to slide her arms through the sleeves, the rolled up sleeves falling to her elbow. She buttoned up the back of the dress and smoothed it across her the line of her back. She sighed, pleased. "You look lovely, darling."
Caroline sighed. "Thanks for this, Aliyah. You don't know how grateful I am for this." She said, sweetly, turning around and throwing her arms around Aliyah's neck, much to the latter's surprise, who, hesitantly, wrapped his arms around Caroline's slim body and patted her back. "Actually, I have one more favour to ask." She asked, hesitantly.
Aliyah blinked. "Sure, darling, what is it?" She asked, curiously.
"Well, you seem to be a professional at this sort of thing. Would you mind doing my hair and makeup?" She asked, softly, biting her lower lip.
Aliyah cracked a smile. "Sure, what the hell. I have time to kill before Bonnie gets back after changing for the parade." She shrugged. She pulled Caroline over to her vanity and made her sit down, pulling over the chair and taking a seat beside her. "Okay, did you have an idea of how you wanted your hair to look?" She asked.
Caroline shrugged. "Something simple." She said, shyly, not really used to all of the attention.
"Well, you have lovely hair. It has great length and volume. I think you should go with a simple hairstyle." She lifted up two thick locks right beside her face and pinned it back behind her with diamante bobby pins. "How does this look? It frames your face nicely and it doesn't detract away from the rest of your appearance. If we curl your hair in ringlets, it'll be perfectly 19th century." She murmured.
Caroline nodded and watched with interest as Aliyah carefully curled every single lock of her blonde hair, until it fell in near curls just past her shoulders. Caroline stared at herself in the mirror, unable to believe that the sweet face that was shown back to her was actually her. She bit her lip and glanced at Aliyah out of the corner of her eye, wondering exactly why Aliyah was willing to do all of this for her.
"Thanks, Aliyah." Caroline said, quietly. "I don't know what I would have done if you weren't there." She laughed, harshly. "I don't even know you that well and you're already nicer to me than most people."
Aliyah raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" She asked, carefully.
"Well, most people write me off as being shallow and an airhead." She turned away from her reflection. "My ex, Damon, he called me stupid, shallow and useless." She felt tears coming to her eyes at the way her stomach had fell into her feet and her skin had chilled when she heard Damon hiss that at her all that long ago.
Aliyah gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to flash over to Damon Salvatore and rip his head off his shoulders and turn the rest of his body into kindling. She allowed herself to relax and the anger to drain out of her veins.
"Caroline," Aliyah began, softly. "If there is something I have learnt about men after being married twice, it is that if a woman measures herself against what a man expects of her, she will always fail, darling." She murmured, laying a hand on Caroline's shoulder. "Men lash out and hurt women, but there is no law that women have to accept it."
Caroline felt her lower lip tremble as the tears fell, slowly. "Even my mom looks at me like that." She whispered. "Like I'm just this blonde bimbo whose head is completely empty."
Aliyah shifted. "Caroline, I haven't been here for very long and I haven't known you for very long, but from what I've seen of you and from what Bonnie's told me about you, I like you. You're not stupid. A stupid person wouldn't have been able to win Miss Mystic Falls and dedicate her time to this town as much as you do. You can be a bit neurotic and I'm sure you're selfish, but do you know something? Everyone's selfish. People who have the nerve to call you shallow and useless are just hiding the fact that they're actually shallow and useless."
Suddenly, Aliyah remembered having a similar conversation with a sobbing Rebekah a thousand years ago, after a particularly harsh confrontation with Tatia and some of the other village girls, and was struck with how similar the two blonde girls were.
Caroline wiped away the tears that had fallen onto her cheeks. "Why are you saying all of this to me?" She murmured in disbelief.
"Because I'm a strong believer in not letting other people define who you are." Aliyah said, determinedly. "I see you and I see a girl who is loyal, beautiful and determined. You have faults, but so does everyone. The important thing is not to be defined by your faults. You're Miss Mystic Falls, aren't you?"
Caroline nodded, weakly.
"Don't let the bastards grind you down." She said, sternly. "Go out there and show them exactly what being Miss Mystic Falls means." She said, encouragingly. She pulled a tissue from a box on the vanity and scrubbed Caroline's face clear of the tears. "Now, there's no need for you to cry. You're one of the most important people in this parade and you can't look less than stunning." She said, determinedly.
Caroline gave one last sniffle. "What are you going to do about makeup?" She asked, carefully, her voice a little hoarse from emotion.
Aliyah's lips turned up at the corners. "Well, the trick to makeup is to look like you're not actually wearing any. And the Victorian era was big on that as well. Pale skin was a must, and you're quite pale on your own, so I think we'll stick with some sheer foundation." She dipped a sponge in the foundation and marked it across Caroline's face, leaving her face clear and resembling fine porcelain. "They didn't actually have lipstick back in 1864, but I think we'll cheat and use a light pink lip gloss." She whispered, conspiratorially, and painted her lips a slightly darker pink than her usual tone.
"Blush?" Caroline asked, curiously.
"Rouge is for whores." Aliyah said, bluntly, remembering how many times she had told Rebekah that in the 1800s, and laughed when she saw the horrified look on Caroline's face. "Makeup in the 1860s was for actors and prostitutes mostly, but I'm sure quite a few ladies cheated with the odd foundation." She shrugged. "We live in a day and age where makeup is a must for women. And I suppose you're already wearing a bra and panties, so there's no harm in bending the rules a little bit." She shrugged.
Bonnie opened the door and walked in. "I brought the camera." She looked, pointedly, at Aliyah, who rolled her eyes.
"What would I do with you?" Aliyah asked, her eyes softening as she took in Bonnie's form in her mauve cardigan, turquoise and purple patterned top and dark jeans.
Bonnie sighed. "Sometimes I wonder." She shook her head. She smiled when she saw Caroline. "Wow, Care, you look beautiful." She said, sincerely.
"It's all thanks to Aliyah." Caroline said, cheerfully. "She's a genius at this." She shook her head in disbelief. "Seriously, you should open your own beauty salon."
Aliyah laughed. "I love that idea." She mused. "I might actually take you up on that."
"Are you both done?" Bonnie asked, curiously. "Because I think we're running out of time. Caroline's supposed to be in the Town Square by noon." She turned to Caroline. "Is Matt picking you up from here or is he meeting you in the Town Square?"
Caroline stood away from the vanity. "Matt told me he had a shift at the Grill in the morning, but he got the afternoon off, so he said he'd just meet me at the Square." She explained.
"Do you want a ride?" Aliyah asked. "I'm driving up there with Bonnie away. And you probably shouldn't be driving on your own in that dress."
"Would you mind?" Caroline asked, hesitantly.
"No problem." Aliyah shrugged. "I've got room."
Bonnie grinned at Caroline. "You should see her car, Care. It's hot as hell."
"No, no, no, no, no! It's all wrong! The marching band should be in front of the Historic Society. Matt, get up on the float. Boys, I asked you to put chairs on the Founder's Float. Ladies! Time to get on the float." Carol Lockwood shouted, sounding very much like a drill sergeant, as she supervised all of the Miss Mystic Falls nominees and their escorts.
Stefan was standing alone, waiting, when Damon joined him.
"Look at you, all retro." Damon smirked, looking down at Stefan in his 1860s outfit, looking very much at home in the clothes.
Stefan frowned. "What are you doing here?" He asked, suspiciously.
Damon raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I be here? Bonnie deactivated the Gilbert invention, Isobel is gone and it's Founder's Day! I'm here to eat cotton candy and steal your girl." He said, playfully.
"Don't start with me, Damon." Stefan growled.
"Oh, you started this, Stefan, with that whole 'I'm insecure, leave Elena alone' speech. I'm enjoying that." Damon pointed out.
"So, it is starting, then?" Aliyah smirked as she walked over to them, camera hung around her neck. "I thought it would take just a bit longer. But it is a Petrova curse after all." She said, almost mournfully.
She wore a long white lace dress with a long ruby and pearl necklace around her neck. The sleeves of the dress were arranged so that they were irregular; one side resembling a thick spaghetti strap and the other one was a proper sleeve that came up to her elbow. Her feet were graced by simple black stilettos that contrasted against her tanned skin and white dress. Her hair was out and slightly wavy, coming to the middle of her back, looking very much like some Bohemian out of a magazine photoshoot.
Stefan chose to ignore her and turned to Damon. "As long as you heard it." He said, steely.
"What? You have no sense of humour, Stefan." Damon shook his head.
"Actually I've no sense of 'Damon humour'." Stefan corrected.
"Which is shagging your brother's girlfriend because she looks like the spitting image of the girl who screwed you over one and a half centuries ago." Aliyah finished.
Damon shrugged. "Hey, look, I get it, I get it. I'm the better, hotter, superior choice," Aliyah snorted in derision. "And you're scared. Now, that Katherine is out of the picture, that I'm gonna turn all my attention to Elena. But don't worry, Elena is not Katherine." He said, reassuringly.
"You're right, she's not." Stefan said, coldly.
Aliyah's attention was diverted to somewhere ahead of where she, Damon and Stefan were standing. "You may have said that a little too soon." She muttered.
She paled. All she could see was the silver necklace that hung around Elena's neck. It was a simple silver chain with a silver, circular locket acting as the pendant, a ruby inscribed at the top of the locket. She swallowed hard. It was Esther's necklace, then Rebekah's necklace. The only thing connecting Rebekah to Elena at this point in time was their shared affection for Stefan and she guessed that the necklace must have been a gift to Elena from Stefan. But how would Stefan have gotten a hold of it in the first place? Rebekah hadn't taken off that necklace in a thousand years.
Rebekah's going to be beyond pissed off when she sees that necklace on a Petrova doppelganger.
She might even kill her.
Now, wouldn't that be fun?
Damon and Stefan turned to see Elena approaching. She wore a goldenrod yellow dress, which had a pale green sash wrapped around her tiny waist. The sleeves were off the shoulder and the same pale green colour as the sash around her waist. Her hair was curled, as a contrast to her usually straight brown hair, falling just past her shoulders, and a few curls were pinned back, a red rose in her hair. Damon and Stefan swallowed hard, the resemblance to Katherine, now that she was wearing 19th century clothing, eerily similar.
Elena saw them staring at her, smiled, sweetly, and curtsied.
Caroline and Matt were posing in front of the float, wearing their Civil War costumes. Caroline wore a lemon yellow dress that puffed out at her waist and had ruffled sleeves that came up to her elbow. Her hair was curled, ending just above her shoulders, and had a few strands pinned back by silver clips. Matt wore a simple black suit and a murky green tie.
Bonnie smiled at them, having stolen Aliyah's camera, while the older woman stood behind them.
"Say cheese!" She called out, grinning.
Before she could press down on the button, Caroline interrupted her and turned to Matt.
"Oh, wait! Hide your cast, it's not era-appropriate!" She protested.
"Seriously?" Matt rolled his eyes.
"'Yes!" Caroline said.
"Okay, fine." Matt sighed and made sure that his cast was properly hidden.
Bonnie pressed down and a flash sounded as the camera took the picture of the happy couple. Tyler, wearing a traditional Civil War uniform, walked up to them.
"I want one with Bonnie now." Caroline declared, much to Aliyah's amusement.
"Here, I can take it." Tyler offered and took the camera from Bonnie.
Matt stared at him, clearly displeased. Aliyah vaguely remembered Bonnie mentioning that Tyler had kissed that awful drunk woman that Matt was forced to call mother at that Kick-Off Party where she had threatened John Gilbert.
Matt gave Tyler a flinty look. "I'll be on the float." He told Caroline and left.
Tyler looked at Caroline, who simply stared at him with admonishment in her gaze. "I said I was sorry!" He protested.
"You made out with his mother and then you beat him to a pulp. You're gonna have to do a little bit better than sorry." Caroline pointed out, rolling her eyes, and left.
Tyler turned to Bonnie. "I have no idea what to do." He sighed.
"Maybe you should just give it time, Ty." Bonnie pointed out. "Let Matt get over it." She said, softly. "He will, in time."
Aliyah watched with interest as Tyler's eyes softened around Bonnie's, his eyes roving over her face, worriedly. She hid a smile, wondering if there was something between them that Bonnie hadn't told her about.
"How are you, Bonnie Rabbit?" Tyler asked, softly.
Bonnie cracked a smile at the nickname he hadn't used on her in years. She remembered the times when she used to hide out at her grandmother's house when she was younger, and Tyler would sneak over and come to play with her, away from the attentions of his abusive father, and all to play with her. She remembered the possessiveness he had exuded when it came to her, determined that Bonnie was his 'Bonnie Rabbit' and no one else's. He had never allowed another boy or girl to play with her, only Caroline and Elena.
He had been her first kiss, an awkward peck when she was twelve. And then spoiled behaviour, angry outbursts and puberty had kicked in and Tyler had walked away from her, preferring the company of his football friends and Matt, and she had buried her sadness deep down inside of her and resigned herself to Caroline's and Elena's friendship. But then, they had come back together one alcohol fuelled night and lost their virginities to each other in a blaze of heated touches and hazy memories. Bonnie still trembled at the memory of how Tyler's hands felt on her bare skin, the way his tanned skin contrasted against her dusky hue, the way she had arched herself into his touch, the awkwardness of a first time disappearing when his lips had trailed down her quivering body. The next morning had been painfully awkward enough without having to add the drama of a relationship afterwards. They had walked away from each other after that episode and never spoken of it once.
And then Elena and Matt had started dating and Tyler and Bonnie had been pushed together all over again. It had been a shy and awkward reunion, but they managed to fall back into familiar steps with him. They didn't see each other very often, only when Matt and Elena hung out together, but when they did, they were inseparable. Tyler had always been her boy.
She placed a hand on his arm, her fingers stroking over the tweed of his frock coat. "I'm better now, Tyler." She said, sweetly.
Aliyah cleared her throat from behind them, her head cocked towards the sight as she regarded the pair. Both – dark-haired, one with fair skin and the other with tawny skin – turned to look at her. Bonnie looked almost elfin compared to Tyler's more thewy build. She had the errant thought that Tyler and Bonnie would have beautiful children together. She hid a smile, thinking that they reminded her much of what she and Niklaus looked like when they were standing next to each other. In fact, the similarities were uncanny. The untriggered werewolf with the abusive father and negligent mother, and the lonely witch with an absentee father and a maternal figure that had become her everything.
It was like looking in a mirror.
"Oh, right," Bonnie's eyes widened, and she flushed. "Ty, this is my… cousin, Aliyah. Aliyah, this is Tyler Lockwood. We grew up together."
Aliyah watched, interestedly, as Tyler stretched his hand out for her to shake. "You're the photojournalist my mom's been talking about." Tyler said, recognition dawning in his eyes.
Aliyah smiled. "Yes, I am. It's nice to meet you, Tyler, I've heard a lot about you." She murmured.
Tyler grinned at her. "If it came from Bonnie, it's all lies, I promise." He joked.
"I'm sure it was." Aliyah said, playfully.
"Oh, very funny, you two." Bonnie rolled her eyes. She turned to Tyler. "You need to be getting on your float. Don't go actually hurting Jeremy, Ty. Remember, it's just for pretend." She said, playfully. "So, go put yourself on display for the town, sugar. I'll see you later."
Tyler rolled his eyes. "See you soon, Bonnie Rabbit." He leaned down and kissed her cheek. He smiled at Aliyah. "It was nice meeting you, Aliyah."
"You too, Tyler." Aliyah grinned and watched as the boy walked away from them. She turned to Bonnie. "Now, that was interesting." She said, warmly.
Bonnie frowned and looked at her, her brow furrowing. "What do you mean?" She asked, confused.
"Are you and him…?" Aliyah asked, suggestively, smirking.
Bonnie raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "You're delusional. We're just friends." She protested, weakly.
"But do you want it to be more?" Aliyah asked, curiously. "The way he acts around you… He's mad for you, darling. I can see it." She said, seriously.
Bonnie shook her head. "You're reading too much into it, Lee-Lee. Ty's a spoilt, rich playboy and I'm the quiet best friend of Elena Gilbert and Caroline Forbes… it would never work out." She shrugged.
"Bonnie," Aliyah sighed. "Don't write yourself off like that. You're more than just their friends. You're a witch. A very powerful witch. You're smart, loyal, funny, interesting, kind and beautiful. If you feel something for this boy, you should go for it, consequences be damned. You're too young to be thinking about consequences."
The floats were driving down the main road around the town square, while Carol Lockwood stood off to the side but in full view of the entire gathering as she commentated.
"Let's give a big hand to the Mystic Fall High School Marching Band!" Carol called out, beaming.
The marching band and the cheerleaders strode down the street, while everyone applauded and screamed.
"And for a little local history, Mr Saltzman's students have recreated Virginia's Battle of Willow Creek."
The float arrived in the street and Bonnie beamed, seeing Tyler standing tall and proud in it, looking very handsome in his Civil War Uniform. He smiled, widely, when he saw her in the car, practically on her heels, standing next to Aliyah, and waved to her, his smile only widening when she grinned back. He turned to the side and pretending to shoot at Jeremy, who was standing on the other end of the float.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our stunning Miss Mystic Falls Court and their handsome escorts."
Elena, Stefan, Caroline and Matt, and the rest of the Mystic Falls Court and their escorts stood on the float. They laughed and waved to the crowd.
"This is Caroline Forbes, Miss Mystic Falls. Aren't they beautiful?"
Bonnie smiled and waved at Caroline and Elena. Elena smiled and waved back to Bonnie. Just then, Damon stepped in front of Bonnie and Aliyah and stopped, smiled and waved to Elena, as if in Bonnie's place. Elena rolled her eyes and deliberately looked away. She looked at Stefan, who waved to the rest of the crowd. Damon turned around and saw Bonnie glaring at him from behind. Next to her, Aliyah tensed, minutely, and prepared herself to take a step forward to protect Bonnie if need be.
"Walk away, Salvatore." Aliyah said, coldly. "Unless you want me to hurt you."
Bonnie scowled at Damon. The fury that rushed through her at that precise moment made her see red. Her fists clenched and she could feel her magic rear up around her, ready to strike him down at a moment's notice.
"What do you want?" She snapped, clutching onto Aliyah's hand.
Damon shrugged. "Just watching the parade." He said, innocently.
Aliyah narrowed her eyes. "Tosh." She snapped. She attempted to drag Bonnie away.
"Where are you going?" Damon asked, interestedly.
Bonnie snorted, only too eager to escape Damon's presence. "Away from you." She said, scathingly.
"I wanna say something to you."
"Just leave me alone!" Bonnie hissed.
"Thank you." Damon said, sincerely, and Bonnie's jaw dropped. "The device that Emily spelled could have killed me. I don't take what you did lightly so… thank you." He repeated.
Bonnie's shoulders slumped, remembering that she hadn't actually removed the spell on the device. And Aliyah had refused to leave town until after the Founders' Council had activated it. All she knew was she would have to wait until they activated it to see whether it worked on her or not. Bonnie was hoping that the protection spell that Aliyah's mother placed on her would be enough to combat the effects of the spell.
"I did it for Elena." Bonnie said, half-heartedly.
"I know that, but I'm still very grateful. And… I owe you." Damon said, finally. Bonnie bit her lip as she looked at him. "Enjoy the parade." He told her and Aliyah and left them.
Aliyah narrowed her eyes at the icy look that adorned Bonnie's face and nodded, approvingly. "Don't believe him. You're smart, Bonnie. Very smart. Trust me, he doesn't care, darling. He'll use you the first chance he gets to do whatever it takes to save Elena's life only. If you become collateral damage in his venture, he won't give you a second thought."
Bonnie nodded, emphatically, her eyes narrowing at Damon's retreating figure as he moved through the crowds.
"You're right, Aliyah." Bonnie said, coldly. "Damon Salvatore is not a good person. He's the reason why I don't feel guilty at all for not actually putting the spell on the device."
"Let's cheer for the Mystic Fall High School football team. Alright! Let's show them our support, everybody!"
Jeremy was walking through the town square, not noticing that Damon was right behind him. He almost stumbled when he saw Damon take his place at his side.
"'I have so many emotions, but I don't have any way to express them. Being a teenager is so hard!'" Damon said, mockingly.
Jeremy scowled. "You're a dick."
"You do not talk to me like that!" Damon snarled. "I'm not your sister. And for now on," Damon grabbed onto Jeremy's arm with a firm yet punishing grip. "Don't talk to your sister that way either." He said, warningly, his voice deadly.
Jeremy raised an eyebrow, ignoring the way his stomach fluttered in fear. "So, you're going to kill me just because I hurt Elena's feelings?" He asked, incredulously.
"Cut her some slack." Damon said, pointedly.
"She erased my memories." Jeremy protested.
"No, I did! She was protecting you."
Jeremy glared at him. "It wasn't her call to make." He tried to push past Damon, but the grip on his arm prevented him. "Let go of me before I cause a scene." He hissed.
Damon smirked. "You'll be unconscious before you even got a word out."
"And you'll be dead before you could try." Aliyah said, coldly, from behind him.
Damon tensed and released him. Aliyah walked forwards, having seen the confrontation from her place in the crowd, her senses attuned to whatever mischief or damage that Damon could perform, and placed herself in between Damon and Jeremy, much to Jeremy's confusion and disbelief. The woman in front of him was small and sweet, compared to the much larger and brawny figure that Damon cut. He couldn't understand why she was protecting him. Stefan finally joined them as well, turning wary and furious eyes onto Damon.
Aliyah turned to Jeremy. "Are you alright?" She asked, formally, having had no prior dialogue to Jeremy other than that night where she had a drink with Jenna at the Gilbert House.
Jeremy nodded, a little confused. "Yeah."
Stefan kept his eyes on Damon, however. "What my brother is trying to say is, don't blame Elena for this. Damon turned Vicki; I killed her. She was a threat to you, and she was a threat to your sister. I'm sorry that it happened, I wish that it hadn't."
Damon rolled his eyes.
Jeremy scowled. "You shouldn't have made me forget." He said, before he walked away from the three.
"Good cop, bad cop, I like it." Damon smirked.
Stefan frowned in suspicion. "What are you doing?"
"He's being a punk." Damon protested.
"What the hell does that have to do with you?" Aliyah snapped.
"Elena's relationship with her brother is none of your business. So stay out of it!" Stefan snarled.
"Oh, there's only one "do-gooder" role available. My bad. I'm sorry." Damon said, mockingly, and laughed.
"Get over yourself. We both know you're not doing this for the right reasons." Stefan rolled his eyes.
"Yes, he really wants to shag your girlfriend." Aliyah said, her lips turning at the corners. Her eyes searched the rest of the town square and saw Bonnie beckoning her over. "Well, that's my queue to leave." She murmured and walked back in Bonnie's direction.
"You see, there you go with that little jealousy act again. What are the right reasons, Stefan? Enlighten me, please!" Damon crossed his arms over his chest.
"Well, see, Damon, it's only real when it comes from your desire to do the right thing for nothing in return, and I know that it is an entirely foreign concept to you. I completely understand that you wouldn't get it." Stefan said, coldly.
Damon stormed up to Aliyah.
"We have a problem." He said, tersely.
"What is it now?" Aliyah scowled.
"The tomb vampires are here and the Founding Families are their target. That means Elena… and Blondie, because you seem to care about her. But something tells me that if they get a look at your little witch, they won't mind taking a snack on her too." Damon said, quickly.
"Oh, hell." Aliyah hissed. "Who else knows about this?"
"Ric's gone to get stakes and vervain darts from his car. I told Stefan to get Elena out of here. The only one that's here is our resident witch. Get her out of here and come back and help me." Damon told her.
Aliyah hissed out of her teeth. "Fine." She snapped. "I'll get Bonnie out of here and you see if you can find out anything more." She turned on her heel to leave, but Damon stopped her.
"I think John's going to activate the device when the fireworks start. That's when the tomb vampires are due to attack."
Aliyah cursed. "Bloody hell." She kept her face blank. "The device has been deactivated. It is of no concern to us. Just keep the tomb vampires from biting innocent townspeople." She said, coldly.
She spun on her feet and her eyes search out Bonnie. Her senses tingled as she searched for the scent of the one person alive, other than Abby Bennett, who was directly descended from her line. Bonnie's blood called out to her in a way that she had only experienced from a few people. She presumed it was due to the extent of Bonnie's magic, her scent only becoming more and more fiercer as her magic developed. It made finding her extremely easy, like finding a needle on top of a haystack.
Mayor Lockwood stood on a podium in the middle of the Town Square, surrounded by throngs of Mystic Falls citizens who had eagerly joined to witness the culmination of the hundred and fiftieth year anniversary of the small town's founding.
"For one hundred and fifty years, Mystic Falls has been the kind of town that everybody wants to call home: safe, prosperous, welcoming. And we have the Founders to thank for that. That's why I'd like to dedicate this evening's firework display to their legacy."
Everyone applauded. Bonnie startled when she felt Aliyah's slim hand falling to grip her wrist.
"What's wrong?" Bonnie asked, worriedly.
Aliyah leaned down, making sure that there was no other vampire in their vicinity that could hear their conversation. "The tomb vampires are making their move. Their target is the Founding Families. Stefan has been entrusted to Elena's safety. Caroline, Matt and your Tyler have vacated the Town Square. You're the only one left."
"He's not my Tyler." Bonnie hissed.
Aliyah smirked. "Ha, you keep thinking that, Bonnie girl. And when you two have adorable babies and name me godmother, I will tell you 'I told you so'." She said, sweetly. "Now, time to go, darling. You have to be out of the line of fire."
"But the Gilbert device-" Bonnie protested. "If it goes off, I need to be able to protect you from John Gilbert and the Founders' Council."
Aliyah chuckled, feeling her insides warm at the thought of Bonnie's growing endearment towards her to the extent that she would want to protect her, a vampire, from humans.
"I will be fine, Bonnie girl." She swore, her hands falling to grip Bonnie's slim shoulders. "I swear it. I've been around awhile. I have quite the high pain tolerance." Wasn't that the truth? "I need to make sure that you are safe, Bonnie. I need you to leave." She said, softly. "I can't concentrate on killing the tomb vampires as well as protecting you from them, Bonnie."
Bonnie shook her head, stubbornly. "I'm not leaving you. I can take care of myself." She said, finally.
Aliyah gritted her teeth, wondering why she was so stubborn when obstinacy was legendary in the Bennett family, a trait that she held dearly herself.
"Fine." Aliyah said, coldly. "But if it gets too much for you, you run, Bonnie. And you do not look back. Do you understand me?"
Bonnie nodded a little hesitantly.
"Enjoy the show!" Mayor Lockwood called out, beaming from the podium.
The fireworks blared above the crowd and they all cheered as the sparks lit up the sky, silhouetting their faces in the bright light. Aliyah watched as Mayor Lockwood and Carol walked away from the podium, their bodies tense as they attempted to escape from the carnage that would soon follow. Aliyah pursed her lips when she saw tomb vampires following them on their way. They came into her line of sight and her hand tightened around Bonnie's, warningly.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry." The leader of the tomb vampires apologised when he bumped into Bonnie.
Aliyah pulled Bonnie into her.
Bonnie gave them a half-hearted smile. "I'm sorry." She swallowed hard, looking at his departed form. "He's a vampire." She mouthed at Aliyah.
She nodded. She looked back to make sure that the vampires were out of hearing range. "A tomb vampire. Keep walking. Act natural." She hissed out of her teeth.
Suddenly, Aliyah stopped moving.
She could feel the pressure hitting her head like a lorry. But it felt second-hand, as if it were not actually happening to her. It didn't actually hurt her, but it felt like the many other times a witch had been stupid or negligent enough to attempt to attack her. She took in a deep breath and allowed the strange feeling to pass away, allowing her senses to clear. Her hearing stretched out and she could hear the vague screams of the tomb vampires, Stefan, Damon and Anna, who had collapsed to the ground as pain as hot as white-hot iron struck them in their heads.
"The Gilbert device has been activated." Aliyah said, lowly.
Bonnie's eyes turned wide and panicked. She clutched onto Aliyah's arms with whatever grip she could muster.
"Are you okay?" She whispered, hurriedly, her eyes wild and terrified. Her hands trembled with the force of her fear that she may have indirectly caused Aliyah to experience considerable pain at the device she had failed to deactivate.
"I'm fine." Aliyah said, reassuringly, her voice steady and firm. "I truly am, Bonnie. The device didn't affect me. It must be the protection spell that my mother cast. It was strong enough to neutralise the effects of the Gilbert device."
Bonnie bit her lip, feeling tears unwillingly coming to her eyes. She trembled. Aliyah pursed her lips, seeing that Bonnie was about to about to sob her heart out. She wrapped her arms around the young girl and brought her into her chest, stroking her hand against her hair, her fingers twisting into Bonnie's waves.
"I'm fine, Bonnie girl." She said, soothingly. "I really am. And I'm not saying that just for your benefit, darling." She pulled back, looking Bonnie in the eye. "You did good, darling. I am so proud of you." She whispered.
"Should we go find the others?" Bonnie whispered.
Aliyah's shoulders slumped. "If we have to." She grumbled.
Aliyah and Bonnie walked up to Grayson Gilbert's office. Aliyah could tell by the distant screams of the tomb vampires and the sound of wood sinking into flesh that this was where the Council was dragging in all of the fallen vampires.
"This is the place." Aliyah muttered, her eyes wandering over the building until they fell onto an emergency door. "There has to be an entrance from which the Council can drag the vampires in. It must be the emergency door." She said, coldly.
"There's fire, Aliyah." Bonnie hissed.
Aliyah nodded. "A sure-fire way to take out all of the vampires." She explained, lowly.
They watched as Stefan ran up to the emergency door, his eyes wild, and Aliyah wondered how quickly it had taken him to recover from the effects of the Gilbert device.
"Hey, you can't go in there!" Bonnie protested.
"I beg to differ." Aliyah muttered under her breath.
Life for would be so much simpler if the Salvatore brothers would just jump into the fire-ridden building and be burnt to a crisp.
Stefan ignored Bonnie's warning and opened the emergency door.
"The fire will take you out." Aliyah pointed out.
"He's my brother!" Stefan protested.
He ran inside the building and tried to open the door to the basement, but the doorknob was glowing red from the force of the heat. Bonnie was watching the building, knowing that it wasn't in her to let innocent people died, but there was that dark voice in her mind that whispered that the Salvatore brothers deserved everything they got.
"Stefan!" Bonnie heard Elena scream, rushing up to the office which had once housed her father's practice.
Bonnie couldn't let innocent people die. No matter how angry she may be at Elena.
"Elena, you can't go in there!" Bonnie protested.
Elena frowned. "Bonnie, what are you doing?"
"They're vampires, Elena. They've killed so many people. They deserve to die." Bonnie said, coldly.
"I agree with you, wholeheartedly, but not now." Aliyah said, finally. She leaned down to whisper something in Bonnie's ear, much to Elena's disbelief. "Unfortunately, we need them to protect Elena."
"I can protect Elena." Bonnie hissed.
"Yes, but I'd rather have two fools that are intent on dying for her, than you. They are an acceptable loss to me, Bonnie girl. You are not." Aliyah said, sternly.
Bonnie pursed her lips. "For Elena, then." She said, almost accusingly. She wondered if the woman in front of her, her family, had only stayed in Mystic Falls for Elena's sake. She wondered if she had lost something else to Elena Gilbert yet again.
"No," Aliyah's voice turned icy. "For you. Everything I do in this bloody town is for you, Bonnie Bennett." Her voice softened. "I will explain everything to you later, I give you my word."
Bonnie took in a sharp breath and closed her eyes, her body trembling with the force of her magic as she unleashed it towards the building.
"Ex spiritum intacullum, in terrum incendium, fes matos salvis adisdum." She mumbled.
"Bonnie, I've got to get in there!" Elena screamed.
"Not until Bonnie's gotten rid of all the fire." Aliyah snapped.
Bonnie kept reciting the words of the spell. In the building, Stefan was finally able to open the door but the fire inside the basement was too large. Suddenly, the flames diminished, as a result of Bonnie's spell. Stefan rushed into the basement and found Damon lying on the floor, weak and in agony.
"Damon! Come on, hurry!" Stefan shouted, picking Damon up with his vampire strength and rushing out of the basement at vampire speed.
Outside, Bonnie finished her spell to remove the fire and she looked at Elena, carefully.
"Bonnie… Bonnie, what is it? Are they gonna be okay?" Elena asked, worriedly. Then, she saw Stefan carrying an injured Damon out of the building, and she ran in their direction. "Oh, my God!"
Stefan was just about to enter the Mystic Grill when Bonnie stepped outside.
"Oh, hey." Stefan's eyes widened, wondering exactly how he was supposed to act around the young witch now that they found out about her deceit.
Bonnie pursed her lips. "Hey." She said, shortly.
"You… you're gonna miss Elena." Stefan murmured.
"I was looking for you actually." Bonnie explained.
Stefan's brow furrowed. "Oh."
"Elena is my best friend, and because she loves you, I couldn't let you or Damon die in that fire." Bonnie explained, coldly. "And if I'm gonna protect Elena, I'm gonna need all the help I can get."
"I'm very grateful Bonnie, I hope you know that." Stefan said, earnestly.
"I do... but I hope you know that things have to change. Damon has to change." Bonnie said, hardly.
"We both want the same thing." Stefan tried to explain.
"We both want to protect the people we care about. The difference is, for you, Damon is one of them. You saw what I was able to do tonight. I know who I am now, and if Damon spills so much as one drop of innocent blood, I'll take him down. Even if I have to take you with him." Bonnie said, coldly.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Stefan sighed, knowing that there could be no reasoning with Bonnie now.
He could see into her eyes and see the rage and the hate. The power and the feeling of limitlessness. The feeling that she could conquer anything with just a flick of her wrist.
It was the feeling he had when he drank human blood.
He just hoped that Bonnie could come back from it.
"Let's hope it doesn't." Bonnie said, loftily, and pushed past him, on her way home.
She wouldn't let anything happen to the people she cared about. She had already failed Caroline when the young blonde girl had fallen into Damon's clutches. She would never let anything else happen to the people she loved.
Even if Mystic Falls had to rain with Salvatore blood to protect them.
When Aliyah walked into her bedroom, slipped her heels off and dropped her camera somewhere on the table, she ignored everything in reach and decided to do nothing but collapse onto the bed and throw her hands over her eyes. She felt something crinkle underneath her and she frowned in confusion. Her hands reached underneath her body and pulled out a single sheet of paper, which had been folded in half.
She tensed and knew at that moment that it couldn't have been Bonnie who had left her the note. No other vampire would have been able to enter without an invitation from the human owner of the apartment and she had secretly changed that owner to Bonnie a few days ago, not that she had confided this fact with the young witch. The renovations for the house in the woods would be finished tomorrow and she and Bonnie could move in and she would confess to Bonnie that she owned the house.
She opened the letter, trembling as dread settled in her stomach, and tears unwillingly came to her eyes.
I'm sure you've realised by now that there is no place on this Earth that you can stay hidden from me, Aliyah. Although, I was surprised to hear of your relocation to Mystic Falls of all places. Were you feeling homesick, hellcat?
She could practically hear his taunting voice. The bastard.
You have managed to escape my grasp right at the eleventh hour for the last eighty-five years, my love, but you haven't managed to hide from me for much too long. And your luck is running out, I'm afraid. I am always watching and I always know where you are. But simply watching and knowing is not enough for me anymore. I intend for us to meet soon, and we will meet, I can assure you that. I have grown weary of your absence and I desire my wife at my side once more.
I have no intention of letting you escape me for much longer. You have much to answer for all of the pain and suffering and loneliness and betrayal you have made me endure for decades, Liya.
Always and forever,
Niklaus
"Fuck." Aliyah hissed.
The tears slipped down her cheeks, wetting them, until she wiped them from her skin, harshly.
That was how Bonnie found her when she returned home, Aliyah on the couch, drinking from a bottle of scotch, a letter laid out on the coffee table in front of her, her eyes dark and fathomless and looking at nothing in particular. Immediately, fear struck at Bonnie and she rushed over to the older woman who had become so important to her in such a short time – friend and family in one.
"Aliyah, are you okay?" She asked, worriedly, placing a hesitant hand on her shoulder.
The touch was what Aliyah needed to snap out of her brooding and turn to Bonnie.
"Hm?" She raised an eyebrow.
"You okay?" Bonnie asked, slowly.
Aliyah shook her head, hopelessly. "No, Bonnie girl, I am most certainly not okay." She said, hoarsely.
"Who's the letter from?" Bonnie asked, curiously.
"My husband." Aliyah whispered. She jumped to her feet and grabbed the neck of the scotch bottle, hurling it at the wall with all of her strength, feeling something light up low in her stomach when it hit the wall and shattered into a mixture of glass and alcohol on the floor.
"He's found me." She hissed out between her gritted teeth.
"What do you mean 'he's found you'?" Bonnie asked, carefully, approaching her like one might approach a skittish animal.
Aliyah laughed, harshly. "Bonnie girl, my husband's been hunting me for eighty-five fucking years. And he's finally trapped me." She explained, reluctantly.
Bonnie swallowed hard, seeing the fear in her eyes and wondering exactly what her husband was like to make the strong woman in front of her be so terribly helpless at his hands.
"What do we do?" She asked, earnestly.
"Nothing." Aliyah shook her head, grimly. "Now, we're in trouble. And it's only just beginning."
A/N: Hope you all liked the chapter. I definitely enjoyed writing this one. It was pretty hard and it took me a little over two days to write it. I hope you liked the look we got at present day Klaus. He's really angry at Aliyah for leaving him and he's not going to be so forgiving towards her, but she's not going to be begging for his forgiveness any time soon, so they'll just have to find another way to work it out.
I hope you also enjoyed the extra Caroliyah bonding in this chapter. Don't worry, Season 2 is where we see those two growing close, after Caroline turns into a vampire and I have a twist coming up for that.
And I've decided on my other pairings in this story. I don't think Aliyah will have another love interest before Klaus comes into the story because now he's always going to be at the back of her mind. She wouldn't dare begin anything with someone new with the fear that he may be coming to Mystic Falls.
And we have Tonnie. I find the pairing really interesting because they didn't have much of an interaction in TVD and I didn't really like that. Plus, I like the parallels to Aliyah and Klaus. The werewolf and the witch is repeating itself. Tyler even has a nickname for Bonnie. He calls her 'Bonnie Rabbit', isn't that adorable? Their relationship will develop in Season 2, I promise.
As for Caroline's romance, I do have a pairing worked out for here, but that won't be for a while. She will be with Matt for majority of Season 2, but they will break up sooner or later, because I do know who she's going to be with.
And Klaus knows where Aliyah is now. Uh, oh. I hope you liked the letter – I was going for both sweet and threatening at the same time and I hope I reached my goal.
Anyway, hope you all liked the chapter and don't forget to review!