When everyone gathered for breakfast that morning at the boarding house, they were all enjoying themselves and completely unaware of what the day would bring. Bonnie's vision had hung over their heads for days now and they were beginning to wonder when the shoe would drop. That didn't seem to be the case this day though, they all shared stories and laughed and it were as if for an hour that day, that they were normal. As normal as a group of supernatural creatures could be.
Elijah had surprised everyone that morning in the boarding house, by being in the kitchen cooking some Scandinavian breakfast with Salmon that most had never heard of. Turns out he was a great cook, because even Damon enjoyed it, and generally Damon only enjoys pancakes in the morning.
The entire original gang was present, which seemed to mark a new beginning in the relationship of the two groups. They had met up before for dinner, but it was planned. This was a spur of the moment thing; that turned out to be a welcome distraction for the whole of them.
As they were all finishing up, a call came to Damon's cell phone from a number he didn't recognize, so he excused himself first and moved into the library to get away from prying ears.
"Who is this?" He muttered when he answered the call.
"It's Ric Damon, don't get your panties in a wad." Alaric said from the other line.
"Well then, nice to hear from you. Thanks for letting me know you were gonna just take off out of the blue. Really could have spared me the worry." He responded with sarcasm very evident in his tone.
"Sorry, I just got a little overwhelmed. Didn't mean to leave you hanging. I think it's good I did though. I've found something Damon. I think I may know what is coming." Rick replied solemnly.
"Well don't leave me in suspense." Damon quickly replied.
"Well I found out who the five are. They are brothers that were born so many ages ago that there is really no record, and apparently they are still around. They are set in slumber until the force of a particular union were to awake them."
"Bonnie and I." Damon interrupted.
"Yes I believe so. They are immortal by all that I know, but their purpose really isn't explained in anything that I've found. They are brothers. Quintuplets it seems, that were responsible for the original spell preventing heart's desire. Another term used to describe the two of you. The only information I found was from a text that was lent to me by the woman I wrote you about. There was a passage I'll read to you now, some sort of prophecy it seems."
Two will break true lovers curse; a pair that should not have been. Their world exists defying time itself; through death they see within.
A son born out of true fate, the product of perfect mates. Destined to change the world, he shall be the prince who rights the line.
The five will bring destruction and death; no weapon by man can help. The only recourse to dispel; is the light of true love itself.
The prince will find his princess, and their union will break the spell. True Soul Mates will find each other once more, this story they will tell.
When Alaric had finished reading, Damon couldn't help but feel in awe of it all. He wondered back on what could have brought them to this.
"Damon? Damon, are you there?" He heard through the phone breaking him from his thoughts.
"Yeah, was just thinking." Damon replied quietly.
"Well I'll keep looking, but I'll send you a copy of this to your phone. You should show Bonnie, and try and figure out what you can from it." Ric said.
"You said they also refer to the curse as heart's desire?" Damon asked quickly before Alaric hung up.
"Yes, I suppose they do." Ric replied wondering why he picked up on that specifically.
"So maybe there is more information out there, we just haven't been looking for it the right way." Damon said out loud, but more to himself than anything. "Gotta go Ric." He finished, hearing Ric say something like 'you're welcome' before the call separated. Damon needed to tell everyone what he heard.
When he made is way back into the dining area, nobody was there, but he heard Bonnie's voice coming from the backyard, so he made his way toward it. Something was off. He could feel it before he even made his way to the door. So he sped outside, preparing himself for anything. What he found there he did not expect. It was snowing, in July.
Everyone stood there just looking out at the green that was slowly being covered by white, and what should be morning, slowly turning dark, into night.
"They are here." Bonnie said quietly as Damon took her hand and moved himself in front of her for protection, although he had no idea which direction they would come.
…
"Okay, lets not just all stand out here and wait, everyone get inside quickly. The house is warded, which may be of some help. At this point your guess is as good as mine." Klaus said, motioning for everyone to move inside. Fear was even evident on his face, which is not something that happens often.
When Damon finally got Bonnie inside and seated on the couch he remembered he had some information to share. He wasn't sure how much time they had, but he needed to use what time they did.
"Alright everyone listen up. I know there's some nasty shit going on outside, I know anything that makes it snow in July and the day turn to night is obviously something strong, but we need information. We can't fight these things if we don't know anything about them." Damon spoke up.
Everyone began to filter into the living area where Stefan had been loading wood into the fireplace. A quick smirk at Bonnie and a motion toward the fireplace from Stefan put a smile on her face, and as she started the fire with her magic Damon was instantly grateful that his brother was there to ease her tension.
"Now Ric sent me a photo of a passage from a book he found. I'll send it to each one of you now. It's really the only mention of these creatures that we have found, but something tells me it isn't the only thing out there. We've been looking for stuff related to true soul mates or the Latin version of it, but he said the curse had also been referred to as the curse of Heart's Desire. So maybe we overlooked something somewhere along the way that could be helpful." Damon continued after sending a group message to them all, feeling uncomfortable about the situation they were in and not knowing what to do about it.
"The curse of heart's desire?" Bonnie asked. "I'll send that to Kayla now, see if she has found anything."
Damon could tell that they all had many questions as most of them stared at the screens on their phone, obviously going over the image he had sent of the prophecy.
"So the five, these things coming after us now are five brothers. Quintuplets Ric said. They apparently have been in slumber for a very long time, but are awoken by a certain union, which I think may have been Bonnie and I. I know the photo doesn't seem like much, but we have more information than we had this morning." Damon finished trying to convey positives.
"It looks like we also have a way to defeat them. Whatever the light of true love itself is." Elijah commented from the corner behind the couch.
"I'm going to make a couple phone calls. We need to use whatever time we have before they bang down the doors to gather as much information about the five and the curse of hearts desire as we can." Klaus said before he made his way into the library.
"What if we can't stop them?" Rebekah was the first to ask, but of course they all had been thinking it. Any force that could turn the day to night was something beyond any power they possessed.
"We will. We don't have any other choice." Stefan responded. He always was the most level head in the face of despair. Caroline grabbed his hand from where she sat in front of him on the couch.
The sound of a text message broke the silence that had filled the room. Everyone seemed to check his or her phone at once, hopeful for news.
"It's Kayla, she found something. It looks like a link to a webpage. I'll forward it in the group message Damon used." Bonnie spoke up and then the rest of the group buried their faces into their phones.
Technology. Damon thought to himself sarcastically before he opened the page himself and began reading. It was a website devoted to the curse of Heart's Desire. A lot of it was just legends and speculation about the curses existence. It had no mention of the prophecy that Ric had sent, but it did have some useful information about the five if any of it were true.
The quintuplets of Von Ducein are rumored to be a remnant of the old world. It had been recorded that when they were born their mother died after the last one left her womb. At the same moment their father passed with her, their souls having been connected by true love itself. Growing up they became angry that they had been orphaned due to a spell, so they sought out the power to destroy it. They never were able to shatter the spell, but they found a way to limit its effect on this world by separating heart's desire by time.
Three of the brothers entombed themselves in slumber, waiting for the time their curse would be threatened. The other two found they possessed no power alone, so they joined their kin as well. It is not known where their power came from, but it is not natural. They are shadowed in darkness for eternity, their sole purpose to destroy the light of true love.
"The quintuplets of Von Ducein." Damon spoke aloud, not to anyone in particular. Some of the group was still reading things over, but Damon was a quick reader, and knew that the rest of the information was useless.
For what had started as a wonderful day, in a matter of hours things had turned completely dire. They had more information now, but the appearance of darkness and the threat on their lives growing near, everyone had become solemn and quiet.
When Klaus returned back to the living area he had more bad news.
"Marcel just told me that Freya was no longer in New Orleans, so we can assume these five brothers are not the only new faces that will be showing up in Mystic Falls." He explained, although the threat of Dalia seemed miniscule to that of these shadowed brothers.
"We need to figure out what to do next. I don't think it is wise for us to just sit here and wait for them to show up." Elijah said from his place in the corner.
Everyone was quiet, and nobody made a move to speak. They were most certainly outgunned, and they really didn't have any idea how to go about their next moves. What they needed was a plan, but nobody had any idea where to start.