The Forgotten One

by crowenfan

Aria never thought her life would turn out like it has, she was always ordinary while her sister Elena was to most, extraordinary. Then suddenly, she finds herself falling for someone she shouldn't, someone whose dangerous. Elijah. But the heart wants what the heart wants. UP FOR ADOPTION

22. Chapter 22

The Forgotten One- chapter 22

Episode- Ordinary People

A/N: thankyou to all my fantastic readers! And especially to the ElysiumPheonix who gave me the puppy's name and gender! Also: Who should face Aria? AND! OMG 100 REVIEWS! 108 FAVES! AND 153 FOLLOWERS! You guys are amazing! Love you!

888

"Is it a chick or a dude?" Jeremy asked as he watched me refill puppy's food bowl. Still unnamed.

"A chick. I think." I say and puppy enters and nibbles on the dry kibble.

"It needs a name." he says and I roll my eyes.

"I know genius." I say and sigh. "You need a name." I say to puppy and he yips in agreement and laps up water.

"Come up with a list, I'll help you narrow it down." Jer says and I nod and pick up puppy and put her on my lap where she nuzzles into my stomach.

"Mrs Rodriguez." I say to Jeremy and he makes a horrified expression. "Mrs Rodriguez?" I say to puppy but she just yawns. "No to Mrs Rodriguez." I say to Jeremy.

"Good because that would've been the absolute worst dog name in the history of dog names."

"Sparkles?" Jeremy shakes his head, "Clue?" he shakes his head with a chuckle.

"You suck at naming a dog." I scowl at Jeremy and he laughs again.

"Agamemnon?"

"No!" Jeremy yells and No Name Puppy startles in my lap and jumps off to walk into the living room where we follow and watch her roll around on the rug.

"Bourbon?" Jeremy shakes his head in frustration and groans.

"Can you name your dog something that doesn't make me want to kill myself?" he says and scratches puppy behind her ear and she yips happily.

"Prada?" he shakes his head and I groan. How is this so hard? It's just a name. I voice my thoughts to Jeremy and he shakes his head at me again.

"A name is not just a name. It should have meaning." He says and I sigh. I look over at my puppy and see that it has a smidge of charcoal from Jeremy's art supplies on her cheek.

"Smidge." I say and it's not a question. I think it fits her nicely.

"Cute. And finally, can't believe it took you that long to find a decent name." he says and I hit him in his arm and he winces, sometimes I forget that I'm a hybrid.

"Sorry." I say but don't feel it. He knows this and glares at me while I just innocently shrug. "Still don't see what was wrong with Agamemnon." I mutter. "So you got caught by Big Sis cheating, barely, on Judgy Witchy with Vamp Ex. Is that right?" I ask and he nods ashamedly. "Well I'm biased cause, I kinda… don't like Bonnie, but tell me this, do you like her?" he nods. "Do you love her?" he nods (A/N: don't know if Bonnie and Jeremy are up to the 'love' stage at this point but they are now), "do you like Anna, anymore?" he shakes his head.

"I did, but now… it was a mistake." He says and I nod.

"Then you just need to tell her how you feel. You need to tell her how sorry you are, how much you love her and end with a big gesture." I pause and search my brain, "you could stand below her window with a boom box, or climb her fire escape, something!" I say and he laughs. I walk away because my job as older sister is done for the day.

"Come on Smidge!" I call and she follows me up the stairs. "Alright, on the bed." I say and she does exactly that, I sift through my overflowing closet and hold up two tops, a grey singlet with spaghetti straps and the other a black tank top that would go perfectly with my new combat boots that I bought with Caroline. I show the grey top to Smidge and she shakes her head and show the black top to which she barks happily. "Awesome choice." I say and her tongue hangs out of her mouth happily.

I change into the black tank top and jeans with tears at the knees and lace the combat boots up, I don't bother with makeup and leave my hair out. I clip the leash onto Smidge's collar and lead her downstairs and walk to Alaric's. He still doesn't know about Smidge. I walk right in and see Elena trying to fight Damon… but failing. Obviously.

"Go Xena!" I whoop and she glares at me before looking at my adorable puppy confusedly.

"Since when did you have a dog?" she asks.

"Since yesterday." I say and shrug. I see photos of runes and pictures scattered on Alaric's table, "what's this?" I ask and hold up a photo of what looks like Elijah's name etched into a cave wall.

"It's nothing." Ric says quickly and takes back the photo.

"When did we start lying to each other Ric?" I ask suspiciously.

"You're sired to Klaus. You're not trustworthy." He says and my jaw becomes unhinged and I gape widely at him.

"Are you kidding me?" I ask absolutely flabbergasted. Whoa. Flabbergasted? Since when did I say that? Weird.

"No." Ric says and moves a picture.

"I am completely trustworthy. I still haven't told anyone about that time that I walked in on you and Jenna on the cou-" he slaps his hand over my mouth quickly and blushes, he takes his hand away slowly as if testing to see if I would keep on spouting out all his dirty sex secrets. "I still haven't gotten that image out of my mind." I say and glare at Ric, "see, I'm trustworthy, I don't divulge on your secrets so you should trust me." I say and Ric grimaces before sighing in defeat.

"Just keep your mouth shut about all of this." He says and I make a zipping motion across my lips. "These images tell a story... to learn the story, you have to decipher these images." He says to Damon and Elena while I look over all the pictures. It was like a complex picture book had been torn apart and made into a jigsaw.

Damon disarms Elena, who tries to stake him, without breaking a sweat or putting in any effort. "Sloppy!" he teases Elena and she gives him a scowl that seems to be permanently etched to her face.

Elena grabs the stake back from him, "Shut up! I'm new at this."

"'Ghost of Christmas Past' Mason Lockwood set up the cave and lead us to a weapon that can kill Klaus." Damon says and that informs me of so much. Nobody tell me anything anymore, although did they ever? So what I've got so far is, I wasn't the only to get visited by a ghost and they have a weapon to kill Klaus.

"Yeah, but doesn't Mikael have a weapon?" Elena asks, Mikael? Who the bloody hell is Mikael? Wait… bloody? I spend too much time around Bex. And Mikael… as in Papa Mikael? Mikael who tried to kill his children Mikael. I remember Elijah vaguely telling me about him. He sounded like an abusive asshole.

"Yes. Which probably means the wall will lead us to Mikael, who we have already found... and lost." Damon says and I look at him sharply, why would they raise Mikael? He overwhelms Elena again, "Bang! You're dead!" he goes in to nibble on Elena's neck, she pushes him away playfully. Since when were they couple-y? Guess now that Ripper Stefan is around she needs somebody to keep his place warm.

"These images at the very least might tell us what that weapon is." Alaric says.

Elena steps up to the table and studies the images, "Then all we have to do is find out what they mean."

"Fine! Fine! If I am being irritatingly optimistic like you two...how do you suppose we do that?" Damon says.

"Well, if the story is about the Original Family living here, then we go straight to the source!" Elena says and I feel her eyes on me. Rebekah. She wants to speak to Rebekah.

"No." I say and shake my head and Elena continues to flash her Bambi eyes. "I won't do it." She pouts a little, "I won't!"

888

"I can't believe your making me do this." I grumble to Elena as we walk up to Bex who is in cheerleading practice. I pause and look down at Smidge who is connected to me by her leash and is pulling in the direction that a soccer ball lay. Aww baby wants to play. No Aria, focus! I internally scold myself. "Ha! Agamemnon! I kinda love it." Elena looks at me like I'm crazy and weird, maybe that's true.

"You! Goody." Bex says sarcastically to Elena and I smirk, her hatred of my sister was entertaining in a sick way for me, "and who's this adorable doggy?" she coos to Smidge and scratches her on the belly.

"Smidge. Cute little thing, isn't she?" and Bex nods.

"I was hoping we could talk." Elena cuts in and shoots me a look of annoyance and mouths for me to shut up, I roll my eyes upward and look at the sky.

"About what? Stefan? Don't worry, I'm off him until he starts treating me better. In fact, you should probably take a page out of my book, if I'm being honest." I nod along to Bex' words, Elena could learn a few things from this girl.

"Actually, I'd rather talk about this," I mentally smack myself for letting Elena talk, she never says the right things and always does something to provoke said 'evil', I think they just get called evil because they hurt the precious Elena, even though she probably deserved it knowing her and her big mouth and how much trouble she gets into because of it. And as I was thinking she couldn't screw this up more, she holds up photo of Rebekah's name written in Runic on the cave wall, a flash of surprise goes through Bex' eyes and she looks uneasy for a second before masking it. "I'm curious why you and Klaus have spent a thousand years running from your father."

"Not to sound Elijah-centric but he was running to, so you should get you facts right." I say to Elena and she scowls, jeez anymore scowling and she's going to get wrinkles. I nearly laugh at the thought, perfect Elena and wrinkles? Ha-ha. Gosh I'm starting to sound like a bitter old lady. And apparently a crazy one, talking to myself inside my head.

"I should get back to the girls. Homecoming's right around the corner." She turns to leave but Elena's big mouth gets in the way AGAIN.

"Well then, maybe I'll ask Mikael when we wake him." Elena says and smugness lies in the depths of those bambi eyes.

Bex stops walking away, turns around and for a second, fear lays in her eyes before doubt takes over, "you're bluffing! You don't know where he is. No one does." She says but I see that it's only half-hearted.

"So, then who's rotting in that old cemetery in Charlotte?" Elena asks rhetorically, nobody tells me anything anymore.

"If you wake Mikael, we are all doomed!" crap. If Bex, of all people is gonna start breaking out the doomsday talk then this is possibly one of Elena's worst ideas, ever. And there have been a lot. Like her trying to give herself over to Klaus, her actually giving herself over to Klaus, letting herself be kidnapped at every bend and turn, deciding to be the damsel in distress rather than a badass. Could've saved everybody a lot of time.

"So then, tell me." Elena presses on and this time I do visibly slap myself in the face, hard enough that if I was a regular human being, my head would not be attached to my shoulders.

"Why do you want to know?" Bex asks suspiciously.

"Why don't you want me to wake him?" Elena retorts, I had to give her kudos though, she was growing some balls, bitchy balls but still balls.

Bex pauses again and turns around, "I need to get back to the girls." She does a full 180 and walks back towards the squad of self-consciousness and insecurity.

"Told you this was a horrible idea." I tut to Elena and she just scowls and leaves in a huff. "That went well." I say to Smidge and tug at her leash and we left.

888

"The red." I immediately say as the catwalk models all walk out in different homecoming dresses, I had done this all the time with Caroline when she needed an opinion on what to wear to a dance, she would pick a number of eager freshman to parade around in her dresses and I would give my opinion.

"You're sure?" Bex asks and I nod.

"I am one hundred percent positive." I say and eye the others with distaste, I don't know how there was ever even a competition, the red one is the only one worthy of being worn by someone as beautiful as Bex. She texts Elena and leaves to get us champagne to go with the fashion, perfect combo if you ask me, she gets a homecoming dress and I get free booze, win-win situation.

Elena enters and Bex cheerfully greets her which is very uncharacteristic. "Well I already know all of this so Elena, listen to her." I say and walk out the door without another word. I wander around town until I get to Marianne's office, I think I had an appointment earlier today that I missed because my sister wanted me to join her on her crazy kamikaze mission. "Marianne?" I call out and she emerges from her office holding a cup of coffee in a mug with her cats face printed on it.

"Oh. Aria! Darling! Come on in!" she says and opens her door wider. "I'm so glad you decided to show up! Come in." and she rushes me in and sits in her red chair that she spins in. "So, what's up?" she asks as she sharpens a pencil.

"My sister and my friends have a plan that could kill my other friend who saved my life." I say and Marianne stops sharpening her pencil and pauses before letting out a sigh.

"Why don't you tell the friend who is in danger about the plan?" she suggests.

"But then I would be betraying my sister and other friends."

"Think of it like this: who gets hurt more? You will be betraying your sister and friends but his other friend, if what you say is true, he could be in life threatening danger."

Who do I betray? My sister? I get why she is doing this, she wants her life back, but she'll never have it back, not with most of our friends being supernatural creatures, her being a doppelganger, me being a hybrid, her boyfriend (ex) being a blood addicted vampire. Klaus isn't the source of our problems, he isn't killing people, well right now he isn't, I still want to get revenge for him killing my aunt and uncle but he would be dying for something pointless if this plan went through, they aren't doing this for the right reasons, and the reasons they have are pathetic, not that there should be a reason at all, killing somebody for personal gain isn't right. Jeez, when did I become the moral police? Guess somebody had to fill the role while Stefan is off being all fun and non-caring.

"Thankyou." I say and she nods. "Why are you helping me?" I ask and she cocks her head to the side in that way she does.

"Why wouldn't I?" she asks.

"I live in a world where everybody is always doing something to benefit themselves and not others, so why?"

"It's my job. And also because I see a lot of myself in you from when I was your age, I had somebody to help me, and I want to be that someone to help you just like I was helped."

"So your trying to turn me into a bumper sticker speaking Ghandi?" I ask and she laughs.

"Yeah. Kinda." She shrugs and I chuckle, "I don't want you to change, I just want you to reach your full potential, and if that means becoming Ghandi then so be it." I laugh, "You're a very complex person. You're like an onion."

"I smell bad and make people cry?" I ask acting offended.

"In the words of Shrek, you have layers." She pauses, "on the outside you look cold and detached, kind of like a bitch." I laugh, is she even allowed to call me that? "But once you peel back a few layers and break down a few walls, your warm and sweet and protective, you care and you love." I bite back tears because I don't think any bodies ever said something so nice apart from Elijah, my parents or Jenna but they're all gone now.

"I think I know what I have to do but a lot of people are going to get hurt." I say and Marianne nods.

"Does it feel right?"

"More so than the other option." I say and she nods again.

888

I smoothed the multi coloured feathers out on the skirt of my dress, it was homecoming. The feathers were an array of hot pink, fluoro green, aqua, lemon yellow and white, it poofed out and added contrast to the sequined top wrapped with a shimmering black bow around the middle, it was very short, coming to the thigh. I coated my lips in a pale pink lip gloss, mascara, gold eye shadow and put in my silver dangly earrings with hot pink feather attached that tickled my shoulder. I put on black sequined pumps to match and silver, turquoise and pink bangles. I put my hair up into a waterfall braid and walked down the stairs of my childhood home, I always thought that I would have Jenna here for this, to burn my hair and tell me I look like a knockout, as I'm about to leave out the door I look back at Smidge who is sitting on the stairs like a good girl.

"Do I look hot?" I ask her and she yips excitedly, guess that's a yes. "Do I look ready to betray my friends and the only family I have left?" she barked and I frowned but then she licked my toes and I smiles, "wish me luck." I say to Smidge and hurry out the door. I really hope she's potty trained.

Just as I walk out the door hands grab my neck and twist, a snap and I'm down. Darkness is all that follows after that.

888

Muffled voices break through the buzzing and ache in my neck. "The big bad wolf. You haven't changed. Still hiding behind your playthings like a coward. You only forget. They may be sired by you, but they're still part vampire. And they can be compelled by me." I hear a British voice like Elijah's, Bex's and Klaus', I open my eyes to see myself being held by a buff man, hybrid. The voice belongs to a man with gold hair and scruff, a cold and threatening demeanour and he resembles the description that Elijah gave me when talking about his father. Mikael, the vampire that hunts vampires. They didn't listen, should've listened. A female hybrid snatches me from the man and shoves me into Mikael's arms along with Elena, but with better taste, she looks at me and her eyes widen a fraction before winking at me, Kat. "Come out and face me, Niklaus. Or they die." Mikael's grip on our necks tightens, but we don't need oxygen, were technically dead.

"Go ahead. Kill her." Klaus says and he looks terrified, underneath all that murderous, cold exterior he's just a scared little boy who seeks acceptance from the one man who is supposed to love him unconditionally and without reason.

"No, Klaus. He'll do it." I gotta give it to Kat, she's a great actor.

"If she dies, this lot will be last of your abominations." Mikael says and he sneers at me when he says this, not a fan of hybrids I'm guessing.

"I don't need them. I just need to be rid of you." Klaus says and I gulp, dammit I am going to die. Because of my sister. Again.

"To what end, Niklaus? So you can live forever, with no one at your side? Nobody cares about you anymore, boy! What do you have other than those whose loyalty you forced? No one. No one."

"He has me." I choke out and Klaus, Kat and Mikael all look at me in shock.

"Forced allegiance only goes so far darling." Mikael says to me and smirks at Klaus.

"Its not forced allegiance, I like to think of it as friendship." I say and Mikael scowls.

"I'm calling your bluff, father. Kill them." Klaus says and sends what I think is an apologetic look in my direction.

"Come outside and face me, you little coward. And I won't have to." Mikael says getting antsy and impatient.

"My whole life you've underestimated me. If you kill her you lose your leverage. So go ahead. Go on. Kill her. Come on, old man. Kill her. Kill her!" He yells and tears brim his eyes and threaten to fall.

Mikael laughs mockingly, "Your impulse, Niklaus. It has and will forever be the one thing that keeps you from truly being great." Mikael stabs Katherine with a dagger, she falls to the ground, posing dead, then he thrusts a stake into my chest and I feel it scrape against my heart, my skin starts to turn grey and for the second time tonight, I am unconscious. Or dead.

888

I groan and sit up from the comfortable position I was in on the bed that isn't mine. I turn over and see Klaus sitting in a chair beside the bed, I'm in the Lockwood mansion.

"You missed out on all the fun." He says without looking up from his sketchbook.

"Oh damn." I say sarcastically. "What happened?" I ask and rub my chest.

"You got staked but since your a hybrid you were only neutralized, Damon tried to stake me but Stefan saved me, I gave him his freedom and killed Mikael, took you up here and then Stefan stole my coffins." The pencil in his hand snapped.

"Boy I missed out on a lot." I draw out. "So..." Klaus cuts me off.

"Did you mean it?" He asks and I look at him confused, "Did you mean what you said about us being friends?" I nod.

"Yeah I did, and it's not because of the sire bond or whatever. Your not that bad you know?" He smirks.

"I think you've been deceived if that's what you think."

"I have not and that is what I think, your lonely and you seek acceptance, you lash out because you do not tolerate disappointment or betrayal." I say and he 'hmph's'.

"I see how my brother is so entranced by you."

"Hey, if were going to be friends then no talk about the 'E' word, put it in the no talk pile, out of friend boundaries and whatever." He nods and I hold out my hand to shake, he takes it. "To a friendship that's going to make people hate us even more." I say and he smirks.

"But that's the beauty of it."