The next day, Cora, Elena, and Alaric had headed into the tunnels. Cora shivered, despite the fact she couldn't get cold. The place seriously creeped her out, and she wasn't the only one.
"So the Lockwoods really have no idea that these tunnels are underneath their property?" Elena asked, gripping her flashlight.
"Careful where you shine that thing. Bats hate the light." Alaric said.
"What?" Elena asked.
"Wait, there's bats down here?" Cora asked, suddenly feeling the need to repress the urge to run away. Then she heard Elena scream behind them, and turned around quickly. "What is it?"
"It's nothing." Elena said, annoyed. "Apparently Damon thought it'd be funny to scare the crap out of me."
"Oh, lighten up." Damon said, joining the group.
"Just ignore him. That's what I do." Alaric said.
The group walked toward the tunnels. "So you really can't get in?" Elena asked Damon.
"No. Seems to me like the ancient Lockwood was anti-vampire." The other night, Damon explained to Cora that there was some kind of barrier that prevented vampires from entering the cave they'd found.
"What do you mean, ancient?"
"See for yourself." They headed toward a cave with what looked like ancient writings. Damon stopped just ahead of the tunnel. "Well, this is as far as I get to go." He told them. Elena and Alaric entered the cave. Cora put her hand up to the cave.
"It's strange. It feels as though there's a wall here." She said.
"Just be glad you didn't walk into it." Damon told her.
"What is all this?" Elena asked.
"as far as I can tell, it's a story. In simple, archaeological terms, it's a really, really old story. That right there, is the moon cycle. A man, a wolf."
"A werewolf." Elena realized.
"Yeah, it's the Lockwood diaries. Pictionary style." Damon said.
"I don't understand. I thought the Lockwoods came here with the original founders in the 1860s." Elena said.
"I don't know. Maybe the Lockwoods did, but according to this wall, these werewolves have been here a lot longer than that." Alaric told them.
"How long?"
"Long. It gets better. Show her, Rick." Damon said. Cora noticed him shine a light at what looked like an ancient writing.
"Names. They're not native. They're written in Runic, Viking script." Alaric told the group.
"Vikings?"
"Okay, now I'm completely lost." Cora said.
"It's not that complicated." Alaric said. "This name here," He indicated it with the light. "I translated it and it reads Niklaus."
"Klaus." Elena realized.
"And Elijah...And Rebekah."
"These are the names of the Original family?" Elena said.
"Carved into a cave that's been here since way before the founding of Mystic Falls. Or even the entire New World for that matter."
"Okay, this has gotta be one of Klaus's fakes!" Elena said.
"That's what I said." Damon told her.
"That could be true, except the last name up here made us think otherwise." Alaric explained.
"What's the name?" Elena asked.
"Mikael."
"Mikael. Mikael as in the vampire hunter who knows how to kill Klaus?" Elena asked.
"Okay, I know I'm a little late to the game here, but can someone clue me in on this?" Cora asked them.
A few hours later, the four of them met in Alaric's apartment. Cora was helping him organize the photos he'd taken in the cave. "It's almost like they're hieroglyphics."
"I'm sure we can figure out what they mean." Behind them, they heard Elena and Damon practice fighting.
""Ghost of Christmas Past" Mason Lockwood set up the cave and lead us to a weapon that can kill Klaus." Damon called over his shoulder.
"Yeah, but doesn't Mikael have a weapon?" Elena asked. They had filled Cora in on the way home. About how Mikael had been locked up, but Katherine had freed him. Now they had no clue where he was.
"Which probably means the wall will lead us to Mikael, who we have already found and lost." Damon pointed out.
"These images at the very least might tell us what that weapon is." Alaric said.
"Then all we have to do is find out what they mean." Elena said.
"We should start with figuring out what the individual ones mean first." Cora said. The group looked at her. "I took a class last summer."
"Okay, but how are we supposed to figure out what it means?" Damon asked.
"Well, if the story is about the Original family living here, then we go straight to the source." Elena said.
"Are you sure?" Cora asked. "I mean, no offense, but Rebekah doesn't seem like the type who'd just tell you this stuff."
"Well, I have to try, at least." Elena said. "If we stand any chance of taking Klaus down…"
"I get it. Just promise me you'll be careful around her."
"Don't worry, I've dealt with worse before." Elena reassured her. She walked out of the house.
"So, any ideas on what these pictographs mean?" Damon asked.
"Well, I'm no expert at it," Cora said. "But I'm sure we'll figure this out."
About an hour later, she and Ric were still looking at the photos. "I think I figured this one out." Cora said. "From the caves, I've seen this symbol repeating across the wall."
"And?"
"If what Elena's saying is true, this is the sign for vampire." Cora told him.
Alaric looked at the picture. "I think you're right." Elena walked in as they continued going over the other signs.
"Rebekah will come 'round."
"You sure about that? I mean a thousand year old vampire, I'm sure, is not in the art of patience."
"She's a thousand year old vampire, who's joined the cheerleading squad." Elena pointed out. "There is a whole different set of rules that play here, Ric. I got this." She showed them a message on her phone.
"You think you can handle this?" Cora asked her.
"I think so." Elena said. "Besides, she's the only one who can tell us anything."
"Good luck." Cora said as she left the room.
"It's almost like your sisters." Alaric said.
"Well, I used to have one." Cora explained. "And Elena reminds me of myself. We both care a lot about our friends."
"Yeah, though some of them are kind of weird."
"How did you become friends with them, anyway?" Cora asked.
"Believe it or not, Damon actually killed me." Alaric explained. Cora looked surprised. "Long story short, I have this ring that keeps me from dying at the hands of vampires." He held it up so she could see it.
"I think I heard about that. The Gilbert ancestors wore them, right?" Cora asked. Now it was his turn to look surprised. "I used to live in Mystic Falls in the early 1890s."
"That would explain how you know so much."
"Yeah, and the others?"
"Well, like most of the students, I kinda got pulled into this." Alaric said. "We've been trying to keep Elena safe since before the sacrifice ritual."
"Yeah, I kinda figured." Cora said. "You're also their legal guardian, right?"
"Well, I used to date Elena and Jeremy's aunt." Alaric explained. "Then Klaus killed her."
"I'm sorry." Cora said. "I know how hard it is to lose someone important in your life."
"Thanks. But I guess it kind of worked out. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for these guys."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Cora said. "I've only been here three weeks and I already feel like I'm one of the group."
"Well, it's hard not to fit in this town." Alaric pointed out. He looked at one of the pictures. "Hey, does this symbol look familiar to you?" He showed it to her.
"I think I've seen that somewhere before. I don't remember where, though." Cora said.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sorry, Ric. I don't know. Maybe we should call someone who knows more about symbols and their meanings." Cora told them.
About two hours later, Bonnie entered the apartment. "Hey. I got your message."
"Yeah, great! I'm sorry that the place is such a mess. I'm obsessed..." Alaric said.
"Well, we've been working on this almost all afternoon." Cora pointed out.
"I didn't see you for a second." Bonnie said, noticing her in the room for the first time. "Brought the necklace that wouldn't die." She held it up.
"That's great." Cora noticed that something seemed slightly off about Bonnie. Alaric must've noticed, too. "You okay?"
"Been better." Bonnie said. She looked at Cora. "I'm guessing Elena didn't tell you."
That's when Cora remembered. Elena explained that Jeremy had seen the ghost of his ex the other day and that he and Bonnie broke up. "Bonnie..."
"Listen, Jeremy's an idiot." Alaric told her. "I know this with certainty, because I was once a Jeremy. Trust me, he'll learn...Eventually."
"I'm sure he will. Whenever he talks about you…" Cora broke off as Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, this is not the time to talk about it."
"It sucks, but worse things have happened." Bonnie shrugged.
"I've been staring at this image all day, wondering why it looked so familiar. I was right!" He showed them the picture and held the necklace next to it.
"It's the same design." Bonnie realized.
"I knew it I'd seen that pattern somewhere before." Cora said.
"So, your grandmother said this necklace belonged to the witch that put the hybrid curse on Klaus, right?" Alaric said. "Now, this symbol is repeated all across the wall. I've been trying to figure out what it meant. And now I know." He wrote a post it and placed it on the photo. It read "witch".
"I still find it strange that Elena's necklace belonged to the Original witch." Cora said.
"Well, we never found out where your brother got the necklace from." Bonnie told her. She sat down next to her. "Stefan gave it to her when they started dating. A few weeks before you showed up, it shocked her."
"You think someone was trying to trace its location?" Cora asked.
"I don't know, but if it's true, it must've been how Klaus and Rebekah found out about her." Bonnie said.
A few hours later, Cora was sitting outside the cave while the others were inside talking. She'd helped Ric and Bonnie transcribe the pictures the best she could. They were explaining everything to Elena now.
"We filled in what we could. (He sticks post-its to the different symbols) a Vampire, werewolf, slaughter, mayhem etc."
"That's the white oak tree that was used in this cult to create the vampires, which means that was when they burned down the tree, destroying the only way that they could be killed." Elena explained.
"Wow, sounds like Rebekah filled you in on a lot." Cora said.
"Well, she let me walk out alive, so that's saying something." Elena shrugged.
"O.k. so tree equals weapon, sort of. We already knew that." Alaric said. He aimed his light at a small drawing they hadn't seen before. "What we are not sure is this: we've got the witch symbol and what looks like a bleeding heart. Upside down figures usually signified death, of some kind."
"Huh, that's weird. I guess we didn't notice that sign before." Cora said.
"Mikael killed the witch by ripping out her heart." Elena explained. "But... why is that one connected to the witch's death?"
"We don't know. We haven't gotten that far." Bonnie said.
"Wait a minute." Cora said, pulling a copy of the notes she'd written out of her bag. "What's that symbol connected with the witch?"
"I don't know." Elena said, walking toward the entrance. Cora glanced at the symbol again briefly, then at her copy of the drawings she'd hand-sketched with the words underneath.
"Elena, look." Elena looked at the notes, then back at the symbol, figuring it out.
"Oh my god! Rebekah doesn't know the real story!" Elena said.
"You figured it out?" Bonnie asked.
"That sign is a cross between the one for vampire and the one for werewolf." Cora explained. "But that doesn't make sense…"
"It means hybrid." Alaric said. "So that means…"
"Klaus killed the Original witch, not Mikael." Elena said. "And she thought it was Mikael the whole time."
"Hang on, Elena. I'm not so sure telling her's a good idea." Cora said.
"Well, what are we supposed to do? Let her keep believing a lie?" Elena pointed out. "Besides, she would probably find out sooner or later."
"I guess you're right. Just be careful." Cora said. "Last thing I want is for her to tear your head off."
After spending another few hours anaylzing the drawings on the wall with Bonnie and Ric, Cora returned home. She was about to head upstairs when she passed by the living room. Rebekah was sitting alone by the fireplace.
It was true that she didn't particularly like the Original, but she had been raised better than to leave someone that was hurting. "Are you okay?" Cora asked, entering the room.
Rebekah turned to her, eyes still wet with tears. "I'm fine, really…"
"I know the truth hurts, but the world's a hard place sometimes. Especially these days." Cora said.
"So, it is true." Rebekah sighed. "My family is so messed up."
"So what? I've got two brothers who are fighting, and one of them's been compelled by yours." Cora said.
"Well, Nik has trust issues. He left me daggered in a box for ninety years for crossing him." Cora looked at her, surprised by this information.
"At least you're not trying to end your family feud." She finally said.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" Rebekah asked.
"Because I know what it's like to feel like you're alone." Cora said. "And I know we're not friends or anything, but you looked like you needed someone to talk to." Rebekah smiled.
"Well, I don't want to be your enemy, but I have family to protect, too."
"I understand." Cora told her. She headed upstairs. She was telling the truth, she didn't really want to fight Rebekah, but she also knew she had to help the others save Stefan. She collapsed on her bed when she got a text message. She looked at it.
We managed to find Mikael. Tell you about it tomorrow-D
She relaxed and leaned into her pillow. It wasn't long before she fell asleep.