Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries.

Five

AJ couldn't tear her horrified gaze away from Klaus. She couldn't feel anything—all of her senses had numbed with his last sentence. Only her mind seemed to function, and just barely at that. It was stuck on repeat, as the last few words he'd said sequenced through it. 'Alexandra Jaeger—it's you. You're Elijah's victim.'

She opened her mouth to say something, as she already had five previous times, but still no words came out. Shaking her head, she closed her eyes. An image of Elijah formed behind her eyelids, so perfect and real. His liquid brown eyes gazing at her lovingly, his wonderful smile, the beautiful way with which he laughed. That was Elijah. That was her love, the way person he'd come to be because of her. And she was his love. Not his victim—the word made her think of morgues and corpses on slabs of cold, shiny metal. No. She wasn't a victim of anything.

"Yes," Klaus said quietly. "You are his victim, AJ. It's the only way I can describe it."

AJ looked at him, wide eyed. She hadn't realized she'd even spoken. "No," she said, her voice cracked and strained. "Elijah would never do anything to hurt me—he loves me."

Klaus dropped his gaze to his hands. They were still standing on the ridge, and the sun was beginning to rise higher into the sky. It was no longer an amethyst purple, but a bright, cloudless blue. He was keeping an eye on her in his peripherals. If she ever truly decided to do something to harm herself, he believed now would be the time. "AJ," he said, "Believe me when I tell you that I didn't want you to know about this—I knew it'd be terribly painful for you. But you have every right to know."

"No!" she shouted, turning around. Her voice echoed around them, a wretched noise. She breathed in and out raggedly. "He wouldn't do this! He wouldn't!" The world turned dreamlike and surreal. This wasn't happening. It wasn't true—Klaus couldn't be trusted. She didn't even know specifically what wasn't true; she just knew that it wasn't. It didn't matter that she said she'd try to trust him; it was an impossibility at this point. He was a liar—that was all he'd ever be. But deep down, she knew that his remorse wasn't pretense. He wouldn't even know how to fake feeling remorseful. Her breathing turned to wheezing, and she feared she was having a panic attack.

Klaus was in front of her in a flash. "Calm down," he said gently, putting a hand on her arm and rubbing it up and down. "You need to calm down, AJ."

She shook her head and backed away from him. Her world, at its very core, tore apart. It ripped open at the very fragile seams she'd mended it with months ago and sucked up anything and everything she once knew to be the absolute truth, replacing it with strange and foreign things that had no meaning to her. Things that didn't fit, that didn't belong there. It was like a finished puzzle had been scrambled, burned and melted, and now all the pieces were contorted and wrong. This wasn't right. It wasn't true. It couldn't be. She hadn't even realized she'd fallen to her knees, or that tears were streaming down her cheeks. She buried her face in her hands, silently sobbing. A feeling at her very core told her that it was true. Somehow, she knew it was true, to some extent. But her conscious mind chose to deny it.

Klaus stood back, unsure of what to do. He'd never had to handle a situation like this before. He hadn't even had a plan when he first decided she should know. He simply knew that she should; she deserved it. But now she looked more broken than he'd ever seen her, and he wasn't sure how to fix it.

Her head whipped up suddenly, and her gaze was intense through her red-rimmed eyes. "How?" she asked hoarsely. "And why? Why should I believe you?"

Klaus pressed his lips together. "Perhaps we should wait and talk about this when you feel—"

"No," AJ said in a dark tone, one that seemed so foreign in her voice. "I want to talk about this now."

Klaus frowned at her, but nodded acquiescently. "As you wish. May I sit?"

AJ sniffled and shook her head up and down. Klaus sat in front of her, his eyes roaming over her visage scrupulously in concern. But it was masked behind layers of guarded remorse. "When I first heard of you, I told you that I sent out factions of compelled vampires to try and find you. Each of them came up blank. Time after time, I grew very frustrated—nothing really worked. No spell from any powerful witch, no information other than the rumors, no proof. It's not easy locating a Warrior—you don't come from one single bloodline, like the Petrova bloodline. You come from several different ones. So I decided to start there. I went through each name, looking through hospital records to find out where the child was born and where they were then. Nothing about them really stood out, and I knew that it was possible for a new bloodline to be added, if they were much stronger than the others. But then I found something." He waved the piece of paper in the air, none too enthusiastically. "The other children were sons or daughters of doctors or factory workers. They were in school, getting average grades and whatnot. But then I came across this—this missing child. I immediately thought that it couldn't be a coincidence that one of the bloodline children went missing."

"And so you investigated," AJ said almost snidely, but she wasn't sure where the biting feelings were meant to be directed at. Don't shoot the messenger, she thought sardonically. But Klaus was hardly a messenger.

Klaus nodded. "Yes. I went to the address listed here, thinking that there was a fifty-fifty chance that there was something special about this child. They could have truly been abducted or murdered even, or they could have been taken away for a very… unique purpose. I met your—the parents," he mended, "I compelled them, asking questions. Neither had any clue what had happened to their child. They said she'd vanished one day—she was just gone. They hadn't gotten a ransom call or anything. So then I knew."

AJ wiped the tears in her eyes with the back of her hand. "You knew that the child was the Warrior. The one you'd been searching for." Her tone was deflated; void of life. Her eyes were dull and free of any luster that once filled them.

Klaus sighed heavily. "Yes. And I knew that there was only one other creature on the earth who'd also knew of your existence, your importance in my breaking of the curse. It could only have been Elijah."

AJ shook her head, pinching her eyes shut. "How does it make any sense?" she whispered. "He loves me, Klaus. I know he does. So how does it make sense?"

Klaus was silent for a few moments, deep in thought. AJ had opened her eyes and was studying him with a sense of detachment. She didn't feel right at all. She didn't feel like she belonged here or anywhere for that matter. It was like some void had opened up before her, and she was being pulled into it, sinking down like deadweight in quicksand. A dark feeling enveloped her, pushing down on her lungs, but there was something fighting that feeling. Some kind of hope and altogether knowing that was so abstract, she couldn't put words to it.

"I think," Klaus spoke up, "That in a way, it does make sense."

AJ clenched her fists together, preparing for whatever gruesome conclusion he'd come to. "And how is that?"

Klaus met her eyes reluctantly. "He was probably keeping you safe back then—from me. Eventually I would have found you. At that age, I wouldn't have known what to do with you—probably just leave a vampire to watch over and keep you safe until you were older. But Elijah rescued you, as he always seems to be doing. And then he went back to Mystic Falls when the rumors rose once more, only this time with there was word of a doppelganger. He went to keep you safe yet again."

AJ looked away, making a sound of complete agony. "Safe," she spat the word like it was the dirtiest thing she knew. "What he did was wrong—if I even believe it."

"I know that you don't want to," Klaus said, "You don't have to believe me, AJ. But I'm asking you to, just as you asked for my trust."

AJ sucked in a breath, trying to regain her composure. She gave him a sidelong look. "After everything you've done… you have to understand that it's hard."

"Yes. And after everything I've seen, all the times I've been deceived by others, you must understand that it's very difficult for me as well."

AJ nodded to herself. She knew that perfectly well. With her fingertips, she rubbed at her temples as she glared at the ground. "AJ," she said, enunciating the letters separately. "Alexandra Jaeger. That's why my name is AJ. I never really asked my parents why they'd give me such a weird name. It's a little pretentious, too. AJ Echo. I'd just figured that they named me after some great-grandparent or something, and their real name was ridiculous."

Klaus said nothing as she began to put the pieces together. But she faced him once more, glowering. "And you knew that for a very long time, haven't you? You could have told me the very first day you met me. But you didn't."

"AJ," Klaus sighed, his voice strained, "I had no intention of keeping you alive back then, if you didn't comply with my wishes. That much I knew. I would have had a vampire look over you until you were old enough to understand, and if you didn't comply, I would have killed you. But… things changed. They grew complicated."

AJ raised an eyebrow, a scowl on her lips. "Really? And what things would that be? How'd they get complicated?"

Klaus shook his head, looking at her solemnly. "Not now. We will not discuss those things now. We are speaking of you—what you don't yet know about yourself."

AJ scoffed. "We could talk about that for days, apparently. What else do you know that I don't? Why did the Echos' take me in? Why do they think I'm their child?"

A muscle flexed in Klaus's jaw. He breathed in a moment, thinking things over. "I believe," he said carefully, "That Elijah compelled them to think so. It would only make sense, unless they truly offered."

"But it doesn't make sense," AJ argued. "Not at all. If I'm not their child, then why do my brother and I look alike?"

Klaus paused. "Surely you've taken a biology class," he said carefully. "Science often argues that the immediate environment influences many things, including appearance. Were you two very close?"

Her face pinched together with anger. "I hate this," she said suddenly, with such acridness that Klaus tensed. "I hate this so much." She shoved to her feet, feeling wobbly and erroneous. Reasserting her balance, she crossed her arms. Klaus was on his feet a moment later. "Why couldn't you have told me sooner? Why not the first time I met you? Things would have gone much more smoothly for you."

"Perhaps they would have," he said, "But at the time, I was uncertain of your temper. For all I could have known, you might have done something… unwise."

Raising an eyebrow, she said, "Unwise, as in hurt myself? Or kill myself, even? Do I look that 'unwise' to you?"

Klaus looked down at her, his lips pressed together. It seemed that there was a new barrier between them, tall and wide, perhaps impervious to any comfort, could he have even offered any. "You look distressed and angry to me. Not unwise. But I admit, I do fear that your more dangerous tendencies will surface."

She breathed in and out slowly, carefully. "You don't need to worry about that," she said quietly, "I'm not stupid. Can I see the paper again?" She held out her hand expectantly, but didn't look at him. Klaus hesitated before placing it in her palm. Without unfolding it again, she shoved it into her pocket. Then she met his eyes slowly. "Stefan's probably tired of waiting for us. Where are we going next?"

He didn't answer; he only stared down at her for a long moment. "You're no longer upset?" he finally asked.

Her gaze dropped. "I am," she said shortly. "But that isn't important right now. I told Stefan we'd only be a moment, and I'm sure he's losing his patience. You said we were leaving earlier, so I'm guessing you know where we're headed. So where to next?"

Klaus shook his head slowly. "You're very puzzling. But I suppose you're right. We should be on our way. Of course, if you still want to talk—"

"I don't," she said in a sharp tone. Checking herself, she gave him an apologetic look, mending, "I don't right now. You can go head down. I'll be right there."

He didn't move from his spot. "I'm not going to leave you up here. You were only a moment ago nearing breaking down—"

"Klaus," she didn't look at him, "I'm not going to do anything stupid, and I'm not breaking down." He gave her a disbelieving look. "Okay, so I am partially breaking down. But—it's nothing I can't fix, if not for just awhile. I just want to think for a moment, by myself."

He paused, and then nodded, slowly passing by her. "Don't be too long," he said over his shoulder, "We're going to want to get on the road soon. And if you do anything stupid, you will regret it."

She rolled her eyes wearily and watched him leave, wiping at a few stray tears. As soon as he was gone, she stepped toward the ridge once more, looking out as the sun continued to climb higher into the sky. Images surged through her mind, one after the other, building up. Her mother, Laura, looking at her with the most stricken expression as she packed up her things to leave. It was time to leave, she'd told herself back then, she needed to. And then her father had come upstairs, yelling at her, screaming in tone she'd never heard before. Ben, her brother, had merely stood in her doorway, not objecting to her decision, but not completely for it, either. Still, she'd packed her bags and put them in her car. She hadn't spared a glance back until the very last second, when she was pulling away and her Laura was crying into Robert's arms. But why? Why would they feel that way? Those people—they weren't her parents. She had no blood of theirs, no kinship. She didn't belong with them. But who did she belong with? Who were the Jaegers? Who was she? Alexandra Jaeger—the name rang throughout her head over and over again, like something so familiar yet so foreign. But the question that pressed numbing icicles into her heart was: who was Elijah? What has he done?

Shaking her head, she turned on her heel to walk back down to Klaus and Stefan. She may not have many answers right now, but she would get them. And Elijah… he was still Elijah. What Klaus had said before, back in Tennessee about him not loving her—that surely wasn't true. She still loved him, dearly. But the next time she saw him, he'd better be prepared for a torrent of questions. Maybe even getting staked one or two times.

AJ had fallen asleep long after they departed from the Smoky Mountains, her thoughts churning with the name Alexandra Jaeger. Ultimately, her drowsiness had won out, and the motion of the car had lulled her into a deep sleep. Once or twice, she'd woken up, barely aware of what was going on until she looked outside and saw that they were still on the highway. The second time she'd woke, night had already fallen. She'd fallen back asleep again, her hand absently on the sun pendant that belonged to Klaus. Deep down, she knew that was the entire reason why she could rest well enough to retain some energy from it. However much she loathed that, she was also very grateful. It seemed to also keep the nightmares away, at least most of the time. There had been one or two that breached the walls in her mind; they'd been of Elijah, stealing away from her true family while she cried and screamed, kicked and fought, but he never let her go. He took her away, placing her in the care of strangers. The nightmares had faded away, dissipating at her will.

Now, as she woke, the dark of the early hours of morning greeted her. She'd become familiar with the difference between the blackness of the night, and the bleary shadowed sky of the morning. She sat up slowly, rubbing at her eyes. The truck was gliding into a warehouse, behind the larger dwarf-semi that contained the coffined bodies of Klaus's family. A shudder ran down her spine, but she quickly averted those thoughts, blinking around the warehouse.

"Welcome to Chicago, Stefan," Klaus was saying as they pulled to a stop. He glanced back at AJ, raising an eyebrow. "Good to see you've woken. You won't want to miss this." Abruptly, he opened his door and stepped out of the truck, followed by a wary Stefan. He exchanged an uncertain glance with AJ before he stepped outside.

"What are we doing here?" he asked, eyes narrowing as Klaus pulled open a heavy steel door at the far end of the room. AJ slid out of her seat, shoving her door open as well. Her boots touched the cement ground, and she slowly put her weight on her feet. Her muscles strained in protest as she did. Twisting from side to side, she stretched her achy muscles. Her eyes squinted against the harsh lighting in the warehouse, and she yawned as she slowly approached Stefan and Klaus. They both looked perfectly awake and fantastic, whereas she was certain there were dark circles under her eyes, and her hair was a little disheveled. Damn vampires. It was like they could go for days without feeling even a little bit tired, or messing up their freaking hair.

"Well," Klaus was saying as he opened the door wider with a broad smile on his face, exposing the glittering towers that made up Chicago off in the distance, "I know how much you loved it here. Bringing back memories of the good old ripper days."

Stefan squared his shoulders, gazing out at the city. "They're blacked out, mostly. A lot of blood, a lot of partying," he said in a way that seemed like the memories weren't very fond ones as he leaned against the doorframe. "The details are all a blur."

"Well that is a crying shame," Klaus said, the sides of his mouth pulling up in a devious smile. "It's the details that make it legend. Chicago was magical."

"Yeah, well I'll take your word for it," Stefan glanced back at him, wary. "Like I said, I don't remember much of it." He pushed off the doorframe, headed back towards AJ.

"Straight down to business, then," Klaus said, shutting the door.

Stefan crossed his arms, glancing from AJ to Klaus. "Why are we still waiting, Klaus? We had our fun, your hybrids failed… I mean, don't you want to move on?"

Klaus's face was impassive. "We're going to see my favorite witch," he said, "If anyone can help us with our hybrid problem, it's her."

AJ stepped back toward the door Klaus had closed, pulling it open once more. With her eyes on the lighted city, she pulled out the piece of paper Klaus had given her from her back pocket, unfolding it. Her gaze dropped down to it as she skimmed the lines with information. The Jaegers had lived in Illinois. Were they anywhere around Chicago? Did they move? An image of Elijah flashed in her mind, straining her heart. But she wasn't angry with him. Not yet, anyway, not fully and completely. She would hear him out. But what of her family? Did he know anything about them?

"AJ, darling," Klaus said from behind her, "What are you doing?"

Quickly, she folded the paper back up and shoved it into her pocket again. "Nothing," she said, "I'll be right there." What did it matter if they did or didn't live around here? They probably thought she was dead by now. It'd probably tear them apart to find out that she'd grown up with another family, unaware of their existence. She was tired of hurting people, even if she couldn't have done anything about it. Slowly, she shut the door again. Then she turned back to join Stefan and Klaus.

An hour later, they were walking into a dim-lit bar. It was classier than SOUTHERN COMFORT, with a swirly modern GLORIA'S neon pink string sign behind the main bar area. Small dust motes swirled in the air, giving the place an ancient feeling. It even smelled like history. Around the bar was crescent shaped booths, dimly smoldering sconces hanging on walls, among other things that were meant to give it a classier feel. As AJ watched the slightly awed look on Stefan's face, she knew this was a place full of memories.

Stefan had headed straight in, with Klaus breezing in behind him. AJ had trailed behind the two vampires, wary. She had an odd feeling about this whole ordeal.

"Looks familiar, doesn't it?" Klaus said to Stefan.

Stefan's gaze roamed about the bar with a twinge of reminiscence. "I can't believe this place is still here." He planted his hands on a banister separating the elevated floor from the bar area, leaning on it. AJ leaned against a large post, separate from Klaus and Stefan.

"You've gotta be kidding me," a woman's voice spoke suddenly, making AJ follow the vampires as she whipped her head to find the source. An older woman, who AJ assumed was Gloria, stood at the top of a three-tiered staircase leading down into the bar. Her hair was grey and cropped short, like a man's, but suited her well. What stood out more prominently was her beautiful face, though it looked minimally wizened as if she wore a mask that added the slightest wrinkles to her smoothed out skin, and her dark, wise eyes. She was wearing a purple tank top, skinny jeans with boots, and shiny, silver jewelry. AJ figured she'd had to be a model or something back in her more glorious days.

Klaus was smirking. "So, a hybrid walks into a bar and says to the barkeeper—"

"Stop," Gloria said with a twinge of annoyance as she approached them, "You may be invincible, but that doesn't make you funny." As she walked, Stefan looked her over, and Klaus's smirk grew into a grin. Gloria regarded Stefan, an elegant eyebrow raised. "I remember you," she nodded.

"You're Gloria," Stefan stated, looking her over once more. "Shouldn't you be—"

"Old and dead?" she cut him off blatantly. A smile appeared on her lips. "Now if I die, who's going to run this place?"

"Gloria's a very powerful witch," Klaus said in a low voice to a puzzled Stefan and AJ.

"I can slow the aging down some," she explained, "Herbs and spells do the trick. But don't worry, it'll catch up to me one day. Now," she said crisply, her eyes focusing in on AJ, "I recognize Stefan and Klaus, of course, but who is this darling girl, and how did you come to be traveling with the likes of these two?"

AJ smirked, as she leaned against the banister. "I do ask myself that every day, you know."

Klaus shot her a dirty look, and then turned to Stefan. "Stefan, why don't you go to the bar and fix us up some drinks, hm?"

Stefan glanced at AJ, unsure. But he nodded his head, stepping away. "Yeah, sure thing."

"You look ravishing, by the way," Klaus said to Gloria the moment Stefan was gone, getting the natural dark gleam in his eyes.

Gloria looked peeved. She held up a hand, shaking her head. "Don't." She walked over to a booth, sitting down. Klaus nudged AJ to follow, and he settled in beside her, across from Gloria. "I know why you're here," she said, sounding none too enthused. "A hybrid out to make more hybrids? That kind of new travels."

"So then you know I need to know what I've done wrong. But I've also come for other things," he said, his eyes turning to AJ once more. Gloria was also looking at her intently, making AJ uncomfortable.

"Guys," she said, "I have this policy about people looking at me for too long—"

"I sense… power from you," Gloria interjected, sounding baffled. Her eyebrows pulled together, creating tiny creases in her forehead. "Great power. But something's blocking it—ah ha." Her eyes landed on the sun pendant of Klaus's, resting at the base of AJ's throat. Gloria gave Klaus a level look. "You bring her here with an amulet of protection?"

Klaus rolled his eyes dramatically. "She needed it. Darling," he said to AJ, "you can remove the necklace for now." AJ frowned in confusion, but did as he said. He held his hand out, and she carefully placed it in his palm. Feelings of what'd happened to her in the woods, before he'd given her the necklace passed over her; each of them was jarring and cruel. She shivered. "Now," he turned back to Gloria, "I need you to look at her."

Gloria looked dubiously between AJ and Klaus, but finally her eyes settled on AJ. "What are you, child? With the protection amulet, the power I could sense from you was great. Now, it's nearly… suffocating. But you can't possibly be—"

"Please don't call me 'the Warrior'," AJ said. "I have serious issues with it, mostly because it's damaging to my femininity. Just call me AJ."

Gloria's eyes were bugging out, now looking over AJ with such examination that AJ could feel where the witch looked. It was disconcerting. "But that's impossible. Klaus never allows a Warrior to live, and they never accept helping him. How has this happened?"

"Well," AJ said in a flat tone, shooting Klaus a dark look, "I didn't choose to help him. At all. It's just a really long, complicated story. Quite boring, actually."

"On the contrary," the witch said with a twinge of awe, "I'd like to know—is there truly a dark Warrior?"

Shifting in her seat, AJ crossed her arms, looking down at the table. The blunt question made her insides squirm the way they used to when she did have separate polar opposite sides existing within the walls of her head. The returned feeling made her feel jittery and on-edge. "There is not," she said quietly, "A 'dark' Warrior. I'm not like that."

"You're half like that," Klaus mended her words. She gave him the dirtiest glare she could manage. "Oh, come on, love. It's not a secret anymore."

"I told you not to call me that," AJ spat, growing more agitated by the second. This witch was giving her a strange feeling, and not having his necklace made her feel less peaceful. She'd never admit that to him, though.

Gloria was shaking her head slowly, her eyes never leaving AJ. "I have always wondered what the Warrior would be like. Of course, I'd always thought it'd be male…"

"And that is precisely the reason why I hate the term Warrior," AJ said, frowning.

"But truly—the energies you have within you—Klaus, why haven't you—"

Klaus tensed, speaking up immediately. "Gloria," he said pointedly, "I asked that you examine her. Something happened."

Gloria met his eyes knowingly, but seemed unhappy about something. AJ blinked between them, aware that they were both keeping a secret from her, but not sure why. Sighing as she gave up their wordless fight, Gloria rested her elbows on the cool table. "And what's happened, exactly?"

"Something attacked her in the woods," Klaus said, "She'd gone out for a short walk, but I heard her struggling. When I arrived, it seemed like something was strangling her."

"Okay," Gloria stressed the word, not getting the picture, "And? What was strangling her?"

"That's just it. There was nothing there, and yet she was being strangled. And it did something to her abdomen—there's a harsh, red circle left, and she'd been choking on blood." Klaus stole a sidelong glance at AJ as he said this, catching her nervous demeanor.

Gloria cocked her head slightly, also looking back at AJ. "You were being strangled by something invisible, and it inflicted a wound on you?"

Shrugging, AJ said, "One moment, I was headed out to a small clearing, and the next, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't really pay too much attention to detail at the time, since, you know, I was kind of dying. Anyway, the 'protection amulet' or whatever you called it stopped everything."

Gloria pursed her lips, shaking her head. "This doesn't make any sense…"

"Lemurė," Klaus said suddenly, "Have you heard anything of them recently, Gloria? They were Sylvan entities way back, and our location at the time she was attacked would be a perfect place for them to take up residence. But surely, it'd be coincidence that they were there."

Gloria's eyes widened into dark orbs. "Lemurė? Klaus—are you certain?"

"No," he said simply, with just a hint of annoyance. "Which is why I'm asking you. Have you heard anything of a group, or even one of them surfacing? Any sightings?"

Gloria clamped her gaping mouth, pensive. "The Lemurė are old—Ancient Rome, from the BC's, old. I thought they'd been cast into Hell centuries back. If they have resurfaced—oh my." She held a hand to her mouth, regarding AJ with alarm.

"'Oh my' what?" AJ asked, looking back and forth between the two. "What's going on and what's a… Lemurė?" She butchered the pronunciation. "Don't tell me, it's an ancient clan of rabid lemurs—"

"AJ," Klaus snapped, "You must take this seriously."

"Then why didn't you mention this to me sooner?" she said abrasively, all joking diminished. "Like, oh I don't know, after I nearly died? You definitely could have mentioned it then. Of course, you may not have trusted me then."

A muscle flexed in Klaus's jaw as he tried to keep a hold on his shifting emotions. "I did not tell you because you do not understand what this means. And I had no reason to frighten you without knowing for certain. As for what they are, they are restless, troubled spirits seeking out a powerful supernatural body to possess. Witches don't work—they ward them off too easily. But something different, something created a long time ago such as the Warrior—that has enough power to sustain their souls."

"You said there was a mark," Gloria spoke up quickly, "Where is this mark? I have to have a look at it."

AJ's head spun with thousands of thoughts, most of them baffled and perplexed. Klaus's explanation didn't really do much to clear up her confusion. She frowned as she took in Gloria's concerned expression. Then she nudged Klaus to let her out of the booth. After he did, she stood by Gloria, raising her shirt only a little bit to expose the still harsh, reddened circle just barely beneath her ribcage. A blush surfaced on AJ's face; she was aware of Klaus's eyes on her bare skin. It sent strange shivers down her spine.

"May I?" Gloria asked as she held out a hand to the mark. AJ nodded, and Gloria touched a single finger to the area. Not a moment later, she shrieked, jerking her hand away from AJ. AJ's shirt immediately fell back in place as she gaped at Gloria.

"What happened—are you hurt?"

Gloria shook her head, her eyes closed. "No, no, I'm not hurt. But the energy—your energy, mixed with whatever else has done this too you—it's powerful. Too powerful. It's like you've been touched by one. Are you certain you saw nothing when she was being strangled?"

Klaus rolled her eyes. "As certain as anyone can be. I can't see the dead."

A sudden, frightful realization came over AJ. Her eyes were transfixed on the table, the simple thought of it being a possibility sending her into shock.

"She's remembered something important," Gloria said quietly to Klaus, as they both looked warily at AJ. "I can feel it."

AJ shook her head slowly, burying her face in her hands. "You said Sylvan entities," she said through stiff lips, not looking up, "As in those that belong in forests, right?" A solid sense of dread weighed down her shoulders and tightened her throat as she waited for an answer.

"Yes," Klaus said slowly, "They are most commonly found in wooded areas. It's where they get enough life-force from nature to be able to sustain their non-corporeal state and remain in this world. Why?" He watched as she dug her fingernails into her arm, leaving angry, raw marks behind as she continued. Quickly, his hands flew out and grasped hers, preventing her from causing any more harm. "AJ, why? What do you know?"

"I know," she said slowly, not giving his hands over hers a second thought, "How completely and utterly stupid I am. Throughout the summer, I've seen just the faintest glimpse of them. I always thought I was hallucinating—I admit I really don't sleep well anymore. Anyway, back in Tennessee, I remember seeing something out in the forest. And…" she trailed off, suddenly acutely aware of his hands, how warm and rough they were, yet gentle and soft at the same time; her eyes rose to find his, before quickly diverting them back to the table again. He released her hands, and she placed them on the sides of her arms defensively, shifting on her feet.

"And what?"

She shook her head, groaning in frustration. "I should have told you, and I apologize, Klaus. I was so stupid to think—to believe it was actually a possibility—God," she said, exasperated, "How could I have even thought it was possible?"

"AJ," Klaus said, losing his patience, "What are you talking about?"

"Elijah," she said finally, and anguish surfaced in her voice. "I'm talking about Elijah."

Gloria blinked at AJ. "How could you possibly know Elijah?"

Rolling her eyes, AJ said, "Because I'm in love with him. Like I said before, it's all a very long, complicated story." The look on Gloria's face said that she finally understood it had to be a very complicated story.

Klaus huffed, his impatience reaching its peak. "Why are you speaking of Elijah? Have you contacted him?" At the mere thought of her reuniting with his brother, his teeth ground together.

"No. I haven't spoken to him since we left Mystic Falls. But when I went out to walk in the forest—I lied to you. I wasn't leaving because of what happened with Ray. I'd thought I saw Elijah…" she trailed off as she took in his expression. It was a scary sort of calmness, like he was trying very hard to conceal his more violent emotions, and it was not something she liked to see on his face. It was unnerving.

"But really," he said crisply, "It was a Lemurė. I can only think it was that sort of creature. You should have told me this."

AJ shook her head back and forth, placing her hands on either side of it in frustration. "I know that now. I'm sorry, it's just I—"she stopped, breathing in and out sharply, and pinched her eyes shut.

"You wanted to see Elijah," Klaus said in a low voice, one with hardly any emotion to it.

AJ rubbed at her eyes wearily, but finally looked at him. Something in his eyes, through the guarded, fake lack of emotion, she could detect something deeper. Something sadder. "Yes," she said, strained, "I wanted to see Elijah. I'd seen the thing moving as fast as you can, way out in the woods, and I assumed it was him."

Both Klaus and Gloria tensed visibly. They exchanged looks, making nervous twists flutter through AJ's stomach. "You say they were as fast as a vampire," Gloria said slowly, returning her gaze to AJ. "Are you certain of this?"

A crease formed between her eyebrows. "Yes, I'm positive. It's the only reason why I thought it was Elijah."

Gloria began shaking her head, mumbling something to herself. Klaus's mouth was set in a hard line, his jaw clenched. He seemed the most unsettled that AJ had ever seen him before.

"Guys," she said, looking between them warily, "What is it? I'm really not in the mood for the whole cliché horror movie, 'Dun dun dun' suspense type thing at the moment, so you can just, you know, say it. Like, right now." Gloria was still murmuring something to herself, and Klaus seemed to be growing angry, though he looked deep in thought as well. AJ huffed, exasperated. "Guys!"

Gloria's eyes flicked back up to AJ, but what AJ saw instead of the peeved-with-Klaus wise witch was something completely opposite. Gloria appeared to be horrified, fascinated, and appalled all at once. It made AJ all the more uneasy, and she became fidgety on her feet.

"The Lemurė," Gloria began, her voice a cold, rough whisper, "do not have the speed equivalent to that of a vampire. Not even remotely close. Though they are non-corporeal, and most definitely can materialize on will quite quickly, they do not have speed."

AJ pressed her lips together, and the crease between her eyebrows formed into a complete line. "I don't understand," she said, "You mean that I didn't see a Lemurė? Well, then what did I see?"

Gloria's features grew very grim, and Klaus was stiff. "In connection to the Lemurė," Klaus said, his voice tight, "Are what you might call occultists. Extreme occultists. They worship them, believing that their tortured souls deserve retribution for what happened to them during their lives as humans. The occultists, being corporeal, could very easily attempt to… alter themselves to have the strength and speed to capture something powerful enough to sustain the souls. You didn't see a Lemurė, love. You saw a rabid occultist, who I'm assuming, is quite bent on achieving retribution for these souls."

AJ blinked at him. Her mouth had pulled down slowly into a frown as what he said sunk in. "You're joking, right? An occult? As in a black-clad-robe-wearing occult? You're saying that an occult—one that's altered themselves, as in they're vampires—are trying to take me for some ancient Lemurė revenge stuff?"

Klaus paused for a moment, and then nodded briskly. "Unfortunately, that is exactly what I'm saying. It's no joke. But they couldn't possibly get to you," he said, shrugging, "I am an Original, AJ. A hybrid. They will not touch you so long as I'm around."

AJ stared at him, and her vision blurred for a moment. Was that supposed to be comforting? It was, in a way, but it was also extremely disturbing. She shook her head slowly. "It totally figures," she said to no one in particular, "that after all the things I've already been through, I'd draw some kind of freaky vampire-things and ghosts after me. It just totally figures."

Klaus pressed his lips into a hard line, looking up at her. He undid the amulet necklace from where he'd wound it around his finger, holding it out to her. She looked at it for a moment before accepting it, and when she pulled it over her head, she chanced a look back at Klaus. He met her eyes, piercingly rapt. She couldn't tell exactly what that meant. All she knew was that life couldn't possibly get any freakier than it already was.

A brief image flashed up in her mind's eye, cutting and sharp with perfect clarity. There was the fleeting thing in the woods, dressed in dark colors, the way she would expect Elijah's suit to be. But as she looked closer, as she truly looked at the thing, instead of what she'd wanted it to be, she saw the stark difference. The creature moved differently. It was definitely less graceful than a vampire, and bleakly stiff, hardened, like a soldier. Another image dredged up in her head. Klaus's vampire, Jenkins. The one who'd escorted her from the sacrifice back to Alaric's apartment, dislocating her shoulder and inflicted a number of different injuries on her on the way. He'd moved exactly like that. And he'd said he wanted to have his time to play with her.

A/N: Happy Halloween, everyone! Okay, so I know some of this was a little different, but it'll make tons of sense later on. (By the way, soon, I think I'll start posting some scenes on my page from this that wouldn't exactly be included in this, but would definitely be tied to it. Thoughts?) But what'd you think of the chapter? And how do you like the story so far? Do I have any huge Elijah fans, or just Klaus? Let me know! (And have an awesome night.) (-: