I spoke to God today and she said that she's ashamed.
What have I become?
What have I done?
I spoke to the devil today and he swears he's not to blame
And I understood 'cause I feel the same.
Arms wide open
I stand alone.
I'm no hero and I'm not made of stone.
Right or wrong
I can hardly tell.
I'm on the wrong side of heaven and
the righteous side of hell.
Wrong Side of Heaven — Five Finger Death Punch.
It had been too easy for Katherine Pierce to follow them. But she knew it would be, with all of them being too worried about precious little Elena handling her vampirism —she could thank the spoiled Rebekah for that, although she would've loved to do the honors—, they wouldn't even suspect she'll be stepping on their ankles as they followed Jeremy's weird tattoo all the way to Nova Scotia. After all, five hundred years on the run had turned Katherine into a master of stealth. Sure, she loved to put on a show every now and then, cause a little mayhem, but she could be quiet as a mouse when she needed to. And this time, the stakes were way too high.
After she learned that they planned a trip to Canada, Katherine asked around, and it didn't take long for her to find the name Atticus Shane and his exhibition of antiques, but also the shady death of his wife. His witch wife to be exact. And he was a wannabe member of Silas' cult. This last fact was the one that caught Katherine's attention when she read the text one of her sources sent her. Of course Katherine knew about Silas, the first Immortal, buried alongside the Cure for Immortality, but, in all honesty, Katherine didn't need a way out of being a vampire. She loved it. She thrived on the power that ran through her veins, on the rush of the hunt, the idea of being beautiful forever. Besides, those were legends.
Or at least, she believed them to be, until she found out about the truth behind the Hunter's tattoo, and the little map to Silas' tomb. In most cases, she wouldn't have bothered. Let Elena Gilbert bathe on the Cure for all she cared. If her whiny doppelgänger wanted to be weak and eventually wrinkle like a raisin, let her. But she had her suspicions. Call it a sixth sense, one she developed out of her never-ending paranoia.
Maybe Niklaus 'Immortal hybrid' Mikaelson would want Elena to be human again and provide him of an army of werewolf-vampire mutts, or he'll shove it down Katherine's throat out of spite and use her as his hybrid-dispenser-machine instead. Either way, Katherine needed to secure the Cure. And an odd feeling on the back of her neck told her that, no matter how much of that Cure was buried by Silas' side, it wouldn't be enough to share with all the vampires who begged Elena and her Salvatore bodyguards for a sip. And good samaritan Elena would be the kind of dumb to go to the news and broadcast her findings for, you know, the kindness of her heart, or whatever.
Katherine slapped her neck, crushing the millionth annoying mosquito that sucked her neck. She secured the backpack that hung from her shoulder and pulled her phone out of the tight pocket of her pants. She checked her reflection for a moment —not bothering to check for signal, since she knew that god-forbidden middle-of-nowhere piece of dirt had nothing near five bars. She cringed at her reflection and stopped for a moment to press her hair flat against her scalp. No matter how long she spent in front of the mirror, her perfect curls wouldn't surrender to the hot iron. She hated how bland she looked, but she needed to look exactly like Elena Gilbert, in case someone found her. Specially Rebekah, whom she'd seen earlier by with Stefan and Elena by the beach. The blonde Original vampire wouldn't hesitate to rat her out to Niklaus. And Katherine had risked too much just by following them that far, but if it meant finding the one thing that would finally grant her freedom, she'd risk it any day of the week.
But oh lord, how she loathed seeing her reflection and having the mirror image of Elena Gilbert staring back at her.
Out of the blue, the doppelgänger in question showed up. Stepping into dried leaves and branches loud as an injured animal, Elena followed a much more silent Stefan into the entrance of a cavern. Katherine recalled seeing Rebekah sped inside not a few minutes earlier, but she also knew with battles not to pick, so the brunette resisted the urge to snap Elena's neck right there and decided to find a less crowded entrance. Showtime was approaching.
"Ew," Katherine complained as she leaned into a wall for support and accidentally touched something moist. She cleaned her hand with her pants and continued to make her way through the dark tunnels. She wanted to get out of there as soon as possible since the darkness and the rocks reminded her of nastier times of her life.
It'll be over soon, she promised herself. She'll get the freedom she deserved, the peace of mind she never had.
Her thoughts came to a stop and so did her steps. There was something behind her. Trying to put her best innocent face, she turned around facing the intruder. She expected Bonnie, or Jeremy, even one of the Salvatore brothers —preferably Stefan. She could've expected Niklaus. Everyone except the woman who stood before her.
"Mom?" Katherine's voice was flat as her back straightened. Her mother hadn't aged a single day. From her brown curls neatly braided on the top of her head to her chubby cheeks who she once loved to kiss. Her throat was dry all of sudden, and she couldn't find the right words.
Her mother simply smiled. "Katerina. My beloved daughter." She extended her arms towards her.
But Katherine didn't run towards her. "My mother is dead. Who are you?" She crossed her arms.
In truth, this was an illusion done by someone quite powerful, but she'd been around way too many witches who'd played too similar tricks with her head to be shaken. The illusion had the nerve to look confused. "What are you talking about, baby? It's me."
Katherine walked towards her and past it. "I've seen this whole show. Rabbit out of the hat, cutting the girl in half… Your magic is nothing new to me. And if you truly knew how to use it, you'll know my family's not going to cut it."
"Fair enough." The voice behind her morphed from her mother's heavy accent to a flatter, sweeter sort of pitch she hadn't heard in over thirty years. "I'm aware now, what you seek is your freedom." Only then Katherine turned around to see a different woman. Shiny brown hair, big doe eyes, and pink cheeks. It wasn't a face she usually remembered, so she was slightly taken back by the choice. "You seem surprised to see me."
"Imogen, isn't it?" Katherine pointed out. "Right, now you're just reaching. Out of all the people I've killed, I gotta say you could've chosen someone more significant."
Imogen flashed her a smile. Katherine remembered how she once thought it was so warm and calming, but this one seemed colder, mocking. "Seemed fitting. For one reason or another. You killed this woman to ensure you remained free. I just happened to like her face." She then sat on one of the big rocks and stared at Katherine. "So, how do you plan on claiming your long wanted freedom? Surely, waltzing into the one place where most of your enemies are gathered doesn't seem like the greatest strategy…" She trailed. "But, you're Katherine Pierce. The survivor. You and I have that in common."
"Who are you, really?" Katherine asked curiously to the illusion. She didn't remember bleeding at all, so how did someone get inside her head?
The illusion of Imogen shrugged. "The mosquito bite." She explained. "Just a bit of your blood from your neck, to your palm, to the wall… In case you wondered." Her eyes gleamed. "You could say I'm someone very interested in breaking Silas free. And seeing the witch on this cavern isn't doing much of an effort in doing her job, and you're too smart to manipulate, I'll ask you again, what do you want here?"
"Right." Katherine watched the tiniest spot of dried blood in her palm and rubbed it clean. "So, am I speaking with the devil's advocate or the devil himself?"Imogen said nothing. "If it's your concern, I'm just here to secure myself a piece of the Cure before my idiotic ex-lovers and a slightly uglier copy of me give it away to every lame vampire walking the earth."
"Oh, but you do know there's only one enough for one?" Katherine's heart skipped a beat. Imogen smiled. "Don't be so surprised. You had your suspicions, Katerina."
"I'm not exactly an optimist."
"No, you're not. You're a survivor. So you listen now," the illusion stood up and grabbed Katherine's shoulder. She felt nothing but a cold shiver where the woman touched her. "the only way for you to grab the Cure is by waking Silas. Right now, the witch and the hunter nearing his body. They won't wake him. They're too scared."
Katherine nodded. She could already imagine Bonnie and Jeremy looking for easier ways to grab the Cure. But now that she knew there was only a dose of the Cure… Katherine had known fear for too long. She swallowed. She was so close to gaining her ticket to freedom. Everyone would want that Cure. Especially Klaus. It was an easy way to kill him, turn him human and rip his heart out. Or use it on Elena so he could make more hybrids. Either way, it was a solid gold bargain chip she needed to have.
The illusion of Imogen leaned to the ground and took a big enough rock and threw it against a wall. Katherine turned around, surprised, and suddenly very aware of another presence in the distance. "Stefan?"
She clenched her jaw at the voice of her doppelgänger. Imogen smiled wickedly. Katherine examined her features for a brief instant, remembering the girl she'd befriended many decades ago. The one who'd helped her hide in Chicago after someone ratted Klaus of her whereabouts. Imogen Phillips, a kind, broken-hearted girl who just wanted to help out a friend. Katherine remembered their nights together on the run, the road trips, the morning drinking sessions. She also remembered when she looked her in the eyes and pulled her heart out from her chest, and then burned her house to the ground and walked away without looking back.
She was brought back by another loud noise. Imogen had thrown another rock behind her. She put a single finger over her lips and mouthed. "You know what needs to be done."
Katherine nodded and disappeared in a second, following Elena's voice as she said: "Hello?" With the stealth of a cat, Katherine appeared behind Elena. Who turned around slowly and eyed her with fear. "No…" It was the only thing she could say before she grunted when her double pushed her to the ground.
Bonnie Bennet guided Jeremy through the darkness, following her instincts. In reality, she was exhausted from her use of magic, and really thirsty, but Jeremy kept walking with strength and resolution in every step until they reached a clear. In the middle, there was a tomb made of stone. A human-shaped statue laid over it in a sleep-like position, held in place by roots. Its face was covered with an iron mask, and the dark, blackish color of its skin reminded Bonnie of the pictures she'd seen when she studied the explosion of the Mount Vesuvio. Its hands laid over his stomach, holding a small box firmly in place.
She opened her mouth to say something, but Jeremy beat her to it. "Is this it? This is the cure?" He exploded incredulously. "How is that supposed to cure every vampire in the world?"
Bonnie sighed. "I don't think it is, Jer." She said in a small voice. She supposed it made sense. If Qetsiyah only wanted Silas to be mortal again so he could die and join her in the afterlife, why would she make more than one dose? It's not like there were that many immortals walking around in her times.
Jeremy looked at her before he took a step towards a petrified Silas and took the cure from his lap. Or at least he tried. She watched as the muscles on his back tensed for a long moment before he grunted. "It's stuck, help me move it." He breathed out.
She hesitantly walked to his side and put her hands near his, using all of her leftover strength to pull Silas' hand away from the box. "It's fossilized in place." She said in between teeth. "Ugh, it's like trying to bend stone." She let go of his hand when the realization came to her. "Oh my god." Bonnie took a few steps back.
Jeremy noticed her change of demeanor. "What?" But she didn't answer right away. Instead, she walked around the cave and stared at the emptiness. He began to worry and turned his face towards hers. "What, Bonnie?"
"He's been frozen," she paused. "like a vampire statue for two thousand years. There's only one way we're gonna get the statue to unfreeze." She deadpanned.
"How's that?" The hunter asked, but at that moment he already knew the answer. He just didn't want Bonnie to say it.
"We have to feed him our blood." He felt his skin crawling at the seriousness of Bonnie's tone. Like waking a millennia-old witch who even Kol Mikaeleson feared was the only reasonable answer. He faced her when she continued to ramble. "If we wanna get the cure out of his hands we…" she trailed off, shrugging like it was obvious. "We have to wake him up."
After a long moment of silence, Jeremy picked up a big stone from the floor and began beating the statue's hand with it. "Come on!" He yelled angrily. He was furious at the whole situation.
Bonnie hated to see him so altered. "There's gotta be a way to do this without raising him." she tried to reason. He paid no mind, continuously beating the stone with all of his force. Bonnie tried again… "We'll find a way…" But she was interrupted when something sharp cut her insides, jamming itself inside her from the small of her back. She gasped. The knife pulled out as fast as it went in and she was pushed to the side, falling like a sack into the hard ground.
"Don't listen to the witch, boy," Vaughn says. "We have to raise Silas, and we have to do it now."
Jeremy was in shock when he watched Bonnie fall to the ground in slow motion, but he finally reacted. "Bonnie!" He screamed, throwing himself to the ground beside her, not caring about the man in front of him. He watched with a knot in his stomach as she breathed slowly. He pressed her own hands against her wound to keep the blood from pouring out.
Vaughn pulled a knife and this alarmed Jeremy, who stood up again. "What are you doing?" he barked.
"What you should've done already… I'm gonna raise Silas." He said in his Irish-accented tone, putting his bloodied hand over the mouth opening of Silas' mask, letting the scarlet blood drip inside. "Then I'm gonna kill him." He said as a matter-of-factly.
Jeremy pulled him back and threw him across the room, but Vaughn was a skilled fighter, so he recovered fast. Jeremy kicked him, and the other hunter blocked it. They exchanged punches for a moment before Vaughn managed to hold him in a headlock. "You're confused, Mr. Gilbert, we're on the same team!" But the little Gilbert hit him back and managed to break free from his hold. In a second, it was Jeremy who had Vaughn in a headlock.
"You stabbed my friend!" He hissed. Vaughn hit him in the ribs and then grabbed his torso with immense strength, pushing him in front of him and throwing his dead weight like it was nothing.
Vaughn wiped the blood from his face. "I don't mess around with witches."
Jeremy stood up slowly, maintaining eye contact. "You can't use the cure on Silas…"
"It's what it's meant for!" Vaughn yelled frantically, eyes almost popping out of his skull.
Jeremy built momentum on his legs and jumped, landing a solid punch on Vaughn's face, then grabbed his neck and hit his face with his knee. Vaughn brought his head up, breaking Jeremy's nose.
The younger hunter felt himself going dizzy, so his next punches were nothing more than sloppy. He barely noticed Vaughn's hold on his arm until he heard it breaking, and he felt every bit of pain explode, everywhere, when he ended with his back on the hard ground once again. He cried out in pain. "What else would you use it for?" Vaughn asked no one in particular before grabbing his knife back again. It didn't take him long to figure out. "Your friends." He walked towards a pained Jeremy, who was still whimpering. "Your sister." He breathed out, raising his knife. "Sorry but, it wasn't meant for that." He put his boot on Jeremy's chest and got closer to his level. "Nothing personal."
He was ready to bury the knife on the young hunter's neck when he was grabbed from behind. Jeremy watched as his sister grabbed Vaughn's jaw and was ready to dig her vampire fangs into the flesh of his neck, but he managed to groan a reminder: "The hunter's curse!"
Vaughn was breathing heavily when Elena rolled her eyes, blood cleaning from them and fangs retracting as she closed her mouth. Instead of drinking from his jugular, she settled for pushing his head against the grave, hopefully snapping something important. She watched happily as the hunter was rendered unconscious —but very much alive, before she extended a hand to a bloodied Jeremy, helping him up. "You ok?" She asked him.
He didn't say anything. Instead, he ran to Bonnie's side, consoling her. Elena's eyes remained locked in the box permanently placed in Silas' grasp. "Elena's here now, ok? Everything's gonna be alright." Jeremy told Bonnie.
The wounded witch whimpered: "We did it."
Jeremy smiled softly, incredibly thankful to have her alive. He felt a firm hand on his shoulder. "C'mon, we gotta get you up."
He stood up to Elena. "You have to help Bonnie, the hunter stabbed her. You have to feed her." He begged her.
Elena didn't listen, instead, she grabbed him and put him up until he towered over her. "Okay, I just need to make sure you're okay first."
"I'm fine! What are you doing?"
She turned and pointed at Silas' grave. "The Cure! Jeremy, after everything we've been through," she stuttered. "I-It's right there."
Jeremy pressed his lips together, hiding his disappointment towards his sister's selfish behavior. "It'll be there after we help Bonnie." He deadpanned, decided to help the witch first. As he kneeled next to her, he missed the angry look on his sister's face.
"God, I forgot what a brat you are." She muttered flatly.
At these words, Jeremy turned around, confusion plastered on his face. "What?"
"I'm done playing nice." The Elena look-alike pulled Jeremy harshly to his feet and sliced his wrist, draining the blood from his hand into Silas' mouth. The statue began to move slightly as it fed from the hunter's arm.
Jeremy finally realized the truth. "Katherine."
"It's been too long, little Gilbert." She mocked, forcing him to remain in place as the Immortal gained forces. She saw Silas' fingers snap out of place. "Sorry, family reunion is gonna have to be cut short." She said a second before she lost her patience and pulled Jeremy's head back, using her teeth to cut his carotid open and pushing it to Silas' mouth to speed up the process. She knew she didn't have much time before Elena and the rest of the crew to find them. She pushed him hard until a hand shot up to his head and held him. Katherine gasped when Silas' cinder-covered hand kept Jeremy in place to feed from his neck. Jeremy groaned in pain, but it didn't ring on Katherine's ears. All she cared about was the Cure, now free from Silas' hold.
She grabbed it inconspicuously and, after a final look at her surroundings, ran at full speed out of that place. Not caring that she left Jeremy Gilbert to bleed to death in the hands of an Immortal.
Katherine saw daylight at the end of the tunnel. So close, she was almost there. "Leaving so soon?"
She turned to see Imogen once more. She gulped. "Silas." she held the Cure closer to her chest. "I-I don't… You're awake now and… I just…" She stuttered nervously. She eyed her vision from head to toe in confusion. Why would Silas try to mess with her head now that he was awake? He probably wanted the Cure back, but how fast could he recover from being frozen two thousand years?
This vision of Imogen, however, was nothing like Katherine remembered her. Where Imogen was an impeccable woman with fancy bejeweled short dresses and her hair cut in 20's fashion, the girl before her seemed to be a younger version of her. A good decade younger, probably close to Elena's age. Her hair was no longer in a clean, straight cut, but it fell to her waist in dirtied brown waves, barely braided away from her face. Her thin body was also wrapped in a disheveled cream-colored tunic. "I can't let you leave with that."
It was impossible that this was Silas. Or maybe he was, disguising himself as Imogen. But how could it be? If not even Katherine had met Imogen when she was as young as the girl before her. "Who are you?"
The girl opened her mouth, but all of the sudden her eyes were lost as if she was suddenly having an out of body experience. Katherine took the change and ran away, but she only made it so far as the mouth of the tunnel before Imogen was before her. The young girl smiled. "You're lucky, we don't seem to need it just yet."
"We?" Katherine asked. Instead of an answer, Imogen grabbed her arm tightly.
Katherine felt something she'd never felt before, not in her five hundred or so years of miserable life. It was like her life was being drained from her. As if her energy left her body altogether. She grew weak, hungry, tired. Her knees gave out in a second, but she held to the cure with every last bit of strength she had. And she didn't cry out, no matter how scared she was. She looked at the girl in Imogen's face, who opened her eyes and they flashed a dangerous red before it faded away.
"All you need to know is that you need to keep that safe." She pointed at the cure before she let go of her arm. Katherine was relieved to feel herself growing stronger. "Stay far away from now…" She then smiled slyly. The girl raised her arm and touched Katherine's chest. She felt a burning pain in place of her palm and pulled away. The fake Imogen raised her hands in surrender, but the evil smile on her otherwise innocent face remained. "At least until we need you again."
Katherine didn't stay to ask questions. As soon as the girl moved out of the way and waved her goodbye, Katherine sped away in the distance. Leaving not even a footprint to mark her presence on the island.
At the place, the girl that looked like Imogen wasn't smiling anymore. She tried to lean onto the wall, but she felt herself out of air. She cursed herself for her weakness, but the tracking spell was something she needed to do to ensure she'll find the elusive Katerina Petrova. She grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground, trying to steady her head. Time caught up to her in a matter of seconds, now that the other Immortal was awake. Two thousand years of solicitude felt heavy on her shoulders. The hunger, the cold, they drained her from strengths. She gagged, feeling like she was going to throw up, or pass out, or both at the same time. As she crawled out of the tunnel, her eyes flinched at the aggressive sunlight. She coughed when she tried to laugh at the feeling of warmth against her skin.
She'd forgotten how the sun felt.
She inhaled, filling her lungs with the fresh air of the woods.
She'd missed the air of the wilderness.
For one second, it was as if time hadn't passed at all. But then a figure cast a shadow over her face. She felt the coldness of the darkness once more, and she squinted her brown eyes to see the newcomer. It was an older man with curly raven hair and a beard. The girl tried and failed, to get back on her feet. "Who are you?"
She dug her nails into the spaces between rock and managed to get back on her feet for a second. When her knees were about to give in, the man held her by the elbows. "I'm offended you don't recognize me. Then again, you look like you could use a good meal."
The girl looked into his face, searching for a clue of his identity. There was something familiar on him. His pose, the way he smiled at her, that gleam in his otherwise unfamiliar eyes… "Silvanus?"
He smiled openly. "Well, they call me Silas around here but, how could deny anything to my littlest sister?" He caressed her face and pulled a stray hair behind her ear.
The girl pressed her lips together. "Why do you look like this? Why can't I feel the real you?" She demanded, pushing his arms away from her for a moment, giving two steps forward before falling to the ground again, only to be picked up by her brother.
He held her to his chest and tentatively hushed her as she felt herself drifting away, giving in to the tiredness that suddenly consumed her body. "Easy now, Veronica. I'll explain everything to you, but first, you need to rest." She heard his voice far away when she closed her eyes and met darkness. His last words echoing inside her mind in a way she could almost hear the voice of the brother she once knew. "We have work to do."
Author's Note:
So, you'll notice I'm not one to publish too much. Actually, just today I sat down and wrote (and kind of edited and corrected) this entire thing, with a little help from Grammarly, but there might be an error or two. Hopefully not in continuity, because I drafted the basics of this chapter for a whole week. It's just that it takes me way too long to actually sit down and get it done.
I'll introduce myself now. I'm Nicole, 20, and I'm currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Spanish is my first language, but I love to do my writing in English -hence most of my spelling or grammar mistakes, so forgive me for that. Although I'm living in Buenos Aires, I'm Venezuelan, and I've also lived in Orlando, Florida, and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina (both in US). I've also been pretty much everywhere there is, so if you wanna make conversation about it, let's do it. I hooked with TO not long ago, but I've followed TVD casually for a while now, and I haven't seen many people exploring Silas' character enough, and I plan on exploiting the crap out of his storyline and move my OC Veronica onto the TO universe soon after. But we'll cover the basics from this episode all the way to the pilot of TO and Graduation, then it's mostly 100% TO. Just wanted to clear that out since I didn't put this story in the crossover section, and I don't plan to.
As far as rating, I'm keeping this M to be sure, because I don't hold back on gruesome details, explicit scenes, or language, so keep that in mind. I'll probably forget to put warnings before any chapter with explicit/triggering material. Please let me know in advance if you really want me to include those warnings.
Also, let me know what you think so far. I'll put a song that inspires my writing before every chapter, with some lyrics that really speak about the story, my OC, or the relationships. Feel free to listen to those to get in the mood. And do let me know what you think of my writing skills and the storyline so far.
There ARE some plotholes right now that I will cover as the story unfolds (like, who the hell is Imogen as why Katherine confused her with Veronica). Let me know your predictions. And consider that the Klaus/OC pairing will not be immediate. Actually, it will be one of the slowest burns you'll ever read. Hope you enjoy pain and angst, 'cause I have a ton of those.
I'll try to keep the updates on the weekly basis, but I tend to suffer from writer's block. Also work is crap.
I'll cut it short now. Let me know what you think please, rate, review, follow, whatever you want. This will be a long ride. Hope you're in it with me.
Love, Nicole.