(4/26/21): Hi! I'm not great at responding to individual comments, but I am so thankful for them. For the repeat commenters and new ones, thank you so much! Also a big thanks for reading, following, and favoriting this story!
In this chapter, I was trying to convey how disoriented Sophia is from reliving another life; hopefully it reads well. I also got into Battlestar Galactica, and as a result, Sophia is a fan as well in order to keep the language Rated T.
I'm including an A/N at the end that includes minor spoilers, opinions, and ramblings on where I think the story is going if you want to skip that.
Thank you for reading!
*Trigger warnings: Canon typical violence, grammar/ spelling issues.
Season 4: Cark Reunion (Part 1)
Sophia eyed her friend with thinly veiled frustration as the blonde watched her with careful eyes, making sure she finished her toast and tea.
As Sophia ate, Caroline's words had turned in her mind.
Niklaus had attempted to bleed her sister dry. Her sister, who was a mirror image of Tatia.
The Salvatores had come to the rescue, and with the help of Bonnie, had desiccated Nik.
Elena's car accident was courtesy of Rebekah, who for a brief moment in time had been Sophia's sister in law.
That was a bitter pill to swallow.
The car crash had been fatal, and now her sister had to decide whether or not to die, and live on as a vampire.
Caroline herself was supposed to get as far away from Mystic Falls as she could, since Alaric's alter ego had sicced the council on her and Tyler.
Caroline had brought her to her house after their encounter with Alaric. While Sophia had been learning the intricacies of her former life, to her friends she had been in a comatose sleep throughout the day, and well into the night.
And now Nik is dead.
Her thoughts never strayed far from him.
If she were a better person, a better sister, she would be at Elena's side to help her with her decision.
But she couldn't.
Caroline had left briefly for the hospital, and when she returned home, she moved in a blur as she packed.
"I'm so sorry to leave to leave like this Sophie," the blonde despaired, her phone ringing.
"It's okay Care, you need to get out of here," Sophia affirmed, her mannerisms lackluster.
Caroline pulled her in for a crushing hug, then let her go, answering her mom's phone call as she headed out the door.
Sophia watched as Caroline was ambushed by a group of men, one of whom stuck a syringe in her neck as soon as she stepped outside.
The brunette reacted instinctively.
"Hey!" Sophia yelled as she stepped outside.
She attempted to grab Caroline, who was still within arm's reach, and was caught off guard when another man grabbed her, easily overpowering her.
I'm not a wolf anymore, she thought, dazed by the implication. As well as by the syringe stuck in her neck. It was not so much the verain filled syringe that had struck her numb, but the shock.
The fight had left her body as she was loaded in the back of the van alongside Caroline, where an unconscious Rebekah was already strapped in.
Sophia pointedly ignored the original vampire when she reawakened, and let Caroline do the talking.
Her head crashed firmly against the wall of the van when it flipped to the side.
"Sophie, are you okay?" the woman beside her asked.
Sophia's eyes were drawn to the blonde woman on the other side.
"Bekah, where are we?" Sophia yelled, panicked.
"Bekah?" huffed the blonde who sat in the middle while Rebekah looked at her wary eyes. Suddenly, the wall- door?- closest to Sophia was yanked open.
Then, a tanned, dark-haired man broke open the door onto... wherever she was.
A van, she remembered. As well as the name Tyler.
"Tyler?" Caroline asked, dazed.
"I'm harder to kill than you think," he said as he broke the binds that held Sophia and helped her out. And only her.
Soon, she was cradled in his arms as he whisked her off to the woods.
Sophia stared at the trees that surrounded her, confused. She did not know how to navigate these woods. How was this possible?
"Are you alright? You don't seem yourself," Tyler asked as he trailed behind her as she tried to make sense of her surroundings.
She looked at him, her forehead scrunched in confusion.
Why hadn't he saved Caroline?
Her breath began shortening as she took in the trees that surrounded them. So familiar to the woods she grew up in, yet at once foreign and sparse in their placement.
"Where am I? Why were we kidnapped-" Sophia began to wheeze, her head dizzy.
"Sh, sh. You're alright, love. I have you," said Tyler as he wrapped an arm around her waist, and encouraged her to lace her arm around his neck.
Love.
The endearment he called her seemed to ring in her head.
Sophia lifted her head to meet his dark eyes, the shade of brown much lighter than her own.
The cadence of his words was so unlike that of her childhood friend.
Her mind drifted to Alaric, and how his body had once been inhabited by-
"Nik?" Sophia asked tentatively.
Tyler's lips curved into a pleased smile.
"Always a clever one," he murmured, studying her face.
Blinding relief enveloped Sophia, and she wrapped her free arm around his neck and hugged him tightly, resting her head in the crook of his neck.
"I thought you died, how are you here? What about Tyler? What about-" Sophia babbled as she raised her head, asking the questions as soon as she thought them.
"Take a moment, Sophia. Breathe. All in due time," Klaus gently shushed her.
Sophia did as he said, her heart beating wildly all the while.
Something in her preened at being comforted by him.
Her face broke out into a smile, and for the first time since she woke up, she felt a semblance of safety. But, she could not let herself bask in the moment.
"Have you- what has become of our daughter's grave? Of my-" Sophia swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat at the thought of her lost babe. Her own death.
Niklaus's face grew somber as she explained that she relived yet another life.
Dizziness submerged Sophia. Klaus stood off to the side as she gathered her bearings.
She and her daughter's graves were not so far off from The Falls, where she and her sister had sneaked out so often for the not-so-occasional bonfire.
Trees had grown over their gravesite.
Sophia shook her head obstinately, striding over to the creaking, wooden bridge that overlooked the crashing waterfall, her head assaulted by past memories.
"Forgive me- if I am being intrusive but I thought it was Niklaus who had your favor?"
"Please just… Go away Niklaus"
"Your father is more a beast than any of the men or women in my pack."
"Please help me, my babe," she had begged.
She whimpered as she clutched the bridge's rail, and closed her eyes as she tried to let herself be soothed by the falling water.
Her eyes flew open when a hand touched the small of her back.
"We can come back another time, but we have to go now, Sophia."
The sun was falling, the evening chill caused Sophia to shiver.
She whipped around quickly to face the man who brought her here.
"Who are you? Where is Nik?" Sophia demanded, eyeing him warily.
The familiar man stared at her, confused.
"Sophia, I am Niklaus," he said tentatively.
Sophia edged further away from him.
"Impossible." A sob became wedged in Sophia's throat. "Please, just- take me to him." For some reason that was beyond her, she trusted the strange man to do that much.
Understanding filled the man's eyes as he nodded in agreement.
She resisted shivering as a resolute wall set over his face.
"I am a friend of Niklaus, I will bring you to him."
It was due to pure stubbornness that Sophia did not hide behind her tentative guide. The only source of light in the cave he brought her to was from various candles placed along its walls.
Her guide, Tyler, had come here seeking a wise woman by the name of Bonnie, for she was the one who knew where Niklaus was. Sophia was initially reminded of Ayana, but upon closer inspection, there was little resemblance between the two women.
This Bonnie was slimmer, her coloring not as rich as Ayana's, her hair finer, and her eyes were not as dark as the wise woman Sophia was accustomed to. It was difficult to discern her eye color in the candlelight.
She disliked the way Bonnie and the young man at her side glared at Tyler, the only person in the room Sophia trusted.
"What the- Sophie? How did you find her?" the young man had demanded viciously upon her and Tyler's arrival. Sophia instinctively clutched Tyler's forearm.
Sophia furrowed her eyebrows at him, he couldn't be much older than her. Curiously, his eyes reminded her of Tatia's.
"I'm Sofija, not… Sophie. I am here for Niklaus." Sophia stated in a strong voice. She felt Tyler's arm tense beneath her grip.
"Jeremy, don't agitate her. Them." Bonnie broke in, staring at Tyler warily, "She's in a- a dissociative state. Give her some time."
Sophia frowned and looked at Tyler, confused, but he continued to stare down the witch.
Jeremy resumed his place at Bonnie's side, his gaze routinely making its way back to her.
"She said she's not strong enough," Jeremy said protectively as Tyler made his demands.
Sophia had let go of him and stood near the entrance of the cave. She was confused by Tyler's request, and the ensuing argument.
"You were strong enough to put me in here. Surely you're strong enough to get me out," Tyler rebutted.
"I upset the spirits trying to save Elena, I can't use that kind of magic again, it's too dangerous." The young witch was not to be swayed/
Elena, Sophia's thoughts echoed, and again, she thought of Tatia.
"Bonnie, do the bloody spell!" he yelled.
Sophia folded her arms protectively over herself, a hint of uncertainty coursing through to her as Tyler grew increasingly hostile.
"Maybe- maybe we should give her some time?" Sophia asked hesitantly.
Tyler looked back at her, taking a visibly deep breath as he met her eyes. He tore his shirt as he turned away from her once again, right above where his heart was.
Sophia's eyes widened as pointed claws extended from his right hand as he looked determinedly at Bonnie. She gasped, horrified when he plunged the claws into his chest.
Tyler, Sophia remembered.
"What are you doing?" asked Jeremy.
"Ripping Tyler's heart out. I'll jump into someone else. Maybe you." Tyler threatened.
"Stop! You're killing yourself!" exclaimed Sophia.
"Fine! I'll do it. Just stop." agreed Bonnie.
Tyler lifted the claws from his chest.
"Good. Let's begin."
Tyler sat at Bonnie's feet while she chanted in a foreign language.
Jeremy took advantage of Tyler's absence and hovered protectively near Sophia.
Sophia watched, bewildered, as a new expression took over his face, and he soon passed out.
There was a brief respite of silence after the spell, and then Bonnie appeared to be talking to someone Sophia could not see.
"Let me go. Let me go!" Bonnie exclaimed, and it looked like someone had grabbed onto her palms.
A hazy fog lifted from Sophia's head at the sight of the terrified look on her friend's face.
"I'm sorry grams!" Bonnie shouted, then pleading to the spirits for forgiveness.
"Oh my god, what have I done?" Bonnie shouted as she fell to the floor.
Jeremy and Sophia crouched near her, attempting to comfort her, both unsure of what had happened
Sophia and Caroline spent the night at Bonnie's, huddled in separate arm chairs, while the blonde whispered of what she had endured while Bonnie rested.
Sophia steeled her breath as the blonde vampire described Elena completing her transformation.
Sophia apologized to Caroline for trusting Klaus, self- condemning for not doing more when he backed Bonnie into a corner.
"You weren't yourself," croaked Bonnie as she lifted her head from the pillow.
"Where did Klaus take you after he rescued you?" wondered Caroline.
Sophia bit her lip as she debated telling her friends her past with Klaus. She was here to support Bonnie.
"Sophie, you can tell us. The look on your face when I saw you today, and how much you wanted to see Klaus…" Bonnie looked at her worriedly.
Caroline nodded in agreement. "You were practically catatonic after I told you he was dead."
Sophia took a deep breath, and recounted the cliff notes of what had occurred in her past life. Her marriage to Klaus, and her young death. She kept the fact that she was a werewolf to herself, as well as her pregnancy. She had learned so much, and was still trying to make sense of it all.
All things considered, Bonnie and Caroline were incredibly sympathetic.
"Why hasn't Klaus come back for you?" Caroline wondered out loud.
"He seemed pretty- protective- of you earlier," Bonnie said in agreement.
Sophia shrugged. "A change of priorities?" she offered.
She didn't know why Klaus hadn't checked up on her. While a part of her was sad that she didn't get to see him with her own eyes, after what he had put Bonnie through, she felt it was for the best.
Sophia studied the blue charm on her wrist and took a deep breath. After she had gotten control of the side effects of living a past life, it had sat, unused, in her jewelry box. The events that happened yesterday showed that was not a luxury she could afford, not when her past self's first instinct was to find Klaus.
She had come home to shower before heading back to Bonnie's, still overfilled for guilt for just standing there while Klaus had threatened her friend.
"Sophie."
Sophia slowly turned around, taking in Elena who stood at the doorway. She hadn't seen her sister since the whole ordeal with Alaric.
"Elena."
Sophia studied the brunette, and had she not been informed otherwise, would not have picked up that Elena was a vampire. She just saw her sister.
"I came by to get a dress for the funeral." Elena nodded.
"I'm so sorry, Elena," Sophia said, thinking of her sister's death as she stepped closer towards her. She paused when Elena backed away.
"I- I'm still trying to get a handle on the- on feeding. I..."
Elena looked at her questioningly, then took a deep breath.
"Why haven't you told me what you've been dealing with? What you've done?" Elena asked. Anger coloring her tone just the slightest bit. "I had to learn from Matt that you were married to Klaus in your last life. That you tried to sabotage Esther's plan to kill them before we knew what we knew. I've talked to Caroline and Bonnie, and pretty much everyone but me and Damon knew what was going on. Even Stefan wasn't completely surprised by this with all the time he spent with Klaus."
Sophia sat on her bed as she gathered her bearings. Elena had a right to be mad, as Sophia had kept her in the dark. Was willing to put her safety in jeopardy one too many times.
"Look I- I'm sorry for not telling you. This whole time my past… self… has sort of rooted for Klaus. And I didn't know what to do, what it meant. I tried to resist, especially after everything that he's done but… Sometimes, that part of me overpowered me, and I quite literally wasn't in my right mind."
Sophia pinched her nose as she tried to find the right words. "Reliving my past life has made things slightly more confusing, I'll admit, but my first priority is this family. Okay. You and Jeremy. Everything else is… irrelevant."
Elena examined her for a long moment.
"I guess I'll have to take your word for it, " Elena said neutrally as she began to go through her closet.
"You're still going to the funeral?" Sophia questioned, wondering if that was a good idea.
"I just need to feed, and I'll be good," Elena said reassuringly, "Besides, one of us should be there."
Bonnie wanted some time alone, and so Sophia petered about her kitchen, busying herself with boiling water to make some pasta for dinner. Then she heard knocking at the door. Sophia stayed in the kitchen, hoping whoever it was would go away.
"Bonnie?" Stefan questioned, "I know you're in there. I can hear you breathing. Please, it's important."
Irritation filled Sophia at the thought of anyone asking Bonnie for anything right now.
Bonnie calmly lifted herself from the couch. "I got this," she said.
Sophia watched from the kitchen as Bonnie invited Stefan in, and let him comfort her.
Sophia sat in an armchair across from Stefan as Bonnie reaccounted the other day's events from where she sat on the couch, including how she no longer had access to her magic. Sophia nodded approvingly as Stefan attempted to leave without asking for Bonnie's help.
Sophia eyed her friend warningly as the witch in question insisted on hearing what Stefan had to say, but even Sophia had to admit she was intrigued as Stefan revealed the possibly enchanted bullets from the town's new residential vampire hunter.
"So, you and Klaus, huh?" Stefan questioned lightly as Sophia walked him out. A ripple of guilt crested over her. Stefan definitely made the list of people she felt the need to apologize to, as Klaus had put Stefan through hell. The benign vampire spoke up before she had a chance to.
"You don't need to explain yourself to me, of all people. If I'm understanding everything correctly, you were in love with him. You were married."
Sophia looked at Stefan with wide eyes, wondering how he knew this. Understanding registered a second later.
"Caroline." The pair stated at the same time, fond smiles on both of their faces. Stefan cleared his throat.
"Look, those feelings don't just disappear, and your situation is more unique than most people's. You met him- You knew him back when he was human, and I'm assuming he wasn't born the monster he is today."
Sophia's eyes began to prick, and she braced herself against the oncoming tears. As much as she wanted to not want validation from anyone over her mixed feelings from Klaus, Stefan's empathy nearly put her over the edge.
"No, he- He wasn't. But what happened back then doesn't excuse the- person- he is today. What he's done. I… I'm still trying to work through everything."
"I'm not one to throw stones at glass houses, seeing as how I live in one myself. Everyone is going to have their own opinion on how you should deal with this, but just… Do what you feel is best. I've seen how much your family, your friends, mean to you. In spite of everything, I still trust your judgement."
Sophia laughed, her heart aching. Her sister's murderous, on again- off again, boyfriend's opinion shouldn't mean so much to her. But from what Sophia observed, most of her friends and family thought her too fragile, too unstable, to truly hold her accountable for her feelings for Klaus. Nevermind what they thought about her good judgment.
It made all the difference to know at least one person was reasonably confident in her, even if she wasn't herself. It was a touch ironic that that person was formally the president of the 'I hate Klaus Mikaelson' club, but beggars couldn't be choosers.
Sophia brushed aside a lone tear.
"Don't tell her I said this, but it's Elena's loss if things don't work between you too," she quipped.
By keeping Bonnie company for the day, both teenagers had sat out the mess that was Pastor Young's funeral.
They finally left the house after Stefan had called and asked them to meet him over by the high school.
They got there at the same time as Damon, who wanted to know what this impromptu meeting was for.
"We're finishing the memorial we didn't get to have earlier," responded Stefan as he passed out lanterns to everyone.
Sophia hadn't talked to Stefan much since he had turned his humanity back on, but between their talk earlier and this, she felt herself forgive him of his actions from then, as weird as that was. He was right, they needed to grieve, to heal.
Elena looked meaningfully at her as she announced that her lantern was for their parents, and Jenna.
Sophia was silent as she lit her balloon.
It was for Sofija, for Nik, for Mai. Her past self, the kind man Klaus no longer was, and the daughter that was lost to them.
Sophia and Elena had been tiptoeing around each other ever since Elena had transitioned into a vampire. Elena said she wasn't going dwell on the past, on Sophia's actions, for the same reason everyone else forgave her. She hadn't been in her right mind, was Elena's reasoning. It was more or less the same reason why Jeremy ultimately forgave her, but with Elena, it felt more ingenuine. As if Elena was suppressing all her anger on the issue. With her emotions heightened, her sister seemed all over the place. And because of the secrets Sophia had kept, the sable haired sister didn't feel that Elena was being entirely forthcoming with her about what she was dealing with.
If that wasn't enough, Sophia, who found it so easy to discern Katherine from Elena, was always confusing Elena with Tatia. Tatia's name was always on the tip of her tongue whenever she saw her sister, which was rare with Elena always at the Salvatores.
Both women were born as cousins to Sophia, if one wanted to be technical about it. Sophia thought back to Tatia's reasoning for not being able to choose between Niklaus and Elijah, and felt that she understood her sister just a little bit better. Although, like Caroline, it was difficult to not show blatant favoritism towards Stefan. Even with everything that he had done, Sophia rooted for him and Elena to work things out.
But a small voice whispered in her ear that Stefan was to Elena what Klaus was to Tatia.
Matt helped to act as a buffer as he walked with Sophia and Elena through school the next day.
They were already outside when Sophia had stumbled across them on her way to retrieve something she forgot in the car. She was confused as Elena eyed her, her face guilty.
Before Sophia could ask what was wrong, Matt intervened and said they should hurry to the car before class began,
Elena picked up a yellow flyer that was tucked into the dashboard.
"Town called for curfew?" she said, looking back and forth between Sophia and Matt. Sophia shrugged, this was news to her.
"Tyler got shot in front of half the town, everyone's a little freaked," he shared as an explanation.
"It was a valiant first day effort. No will judge if you wanted to go home," said Caroline.
Sophia nodded in agreement. Sophia, Stefan, Elena, and Caroline had gathered at the back of the school, as Elena calmed down.
If dealing with bloodlust weren't enough for her baby vampire of a sister, Rebekah continued to go to school and antagonize Elena. Elena was recuperating from the nearly attacking Heather, who Rebekah had sent after Elena to entice her. To up the stakes all the more, Stefan and Elena had seen the vampire hunter lurking around their school.
Isn't everyone dealing with enough? Sophia asked herself.
Elena put on a brave face, but Stefan managed to talk her into skipping school for the day to have fun. Elena, being the equivalent of being Elena on steroids, insisted on stopping by Rebekah's anti-curfew party to show how fun she could be. Sophia didn't foresee that ending well, but at least her sister was back on an upswing.
"Does she seem a little off balance to you?" Caroline asked wryly after Elena had left.
"Yeah, she's channeling all her emotions into rage, It makes her feel like she has a purpose. I used to do that to when I was… you know." Stefan nodded meaningfully.
"Ripper you." Caroline filled in.
Sophia entered the party with Stefan and Elena, eyeing the bougie mansion with raised eyebrows. She didn't expect anything less. It looked as if their entire high school showed up.
Elena spotted Rebekah right away, and tensed immediately, her eyes narrowing in anger. Sophia raised an eyebrow at Stefan, who nodded at her reassuringly.
"You're fixating," shared Stefan.
"No, I'm just quietly hating," corrected Elena.
Sophia took a moment to study Rebekah, and right before her eyes, 21st century Rebekah turned into viking daughter Bekah. She looked exactly as she had in her past life.
Sophia blinked rapidly until Rebekah wandered away.
"You know what, I think I'm just going to explore the house," Sophia said, breaking away from the pair.
Sophia was talking to one of Caroline's friends from the cheerleading squad when Elena stormed past her on her way to the front door, Stefan trailing after her.
Sophia excused herself and went to catch up to Elena.
"Are you okay, did anything happen?"
Elena huffed, but shook her head.
"I need to get out of here, wanna come?" Elena asked distractedly.
Sophia had ulterior motives for going to this party. She was working up the nerve to approach Rebekah, wanting to talk about what she had gone through in her past life with someone who had been there.
With this in mind, she shook her head.
"Okay, uh… Here. Take my keys, Stefan and I can walk. Please don't stay too long, I don't trust her." Elena said severely.
Sophia nodded, and trailed after the pair as they continued to leave the party.
She saw the irritated look on Rebekah's face as Elena performed a rather impressive keg stand, a throwback to more simpler times.
Sophia couldn't help but smile at the reminder of the reckless, party girl Elena used to be.
Turning her eyes back to Rebekah, her face fell into a frown when she noticed the blonde almost losing her grip of the railing, nearly falling over.
Rebekah scoffed when she saw Sophia just behind her.
"Please- leave me alone," the vampire requested as she continued walking over to a mirror. Sophia heeded the blonde's words at first, but sought the original vampire once again when she was nowhere to be seen half an hour later.
She wandered the hallways upstairs, and paused when she saw an open door to a cream colored bedroom. Sophia edged closer, hovering outside, hearing Rebakah gasping inside. When she peaked in, it was just Rebekah in the room. She seemed on the edge of a nervous breakdown.
Sophia weighed her options, acknowledging the part of her that wouldn't ever forgive the blonde for killing her sister. Hell, Elena probably wouldn't forgive Sophia for going to Rebekah for a heart to heart when she found out. And yet… her mind was flooded with images of the young viking girl who had once been her best friend, then sister in law. The friend who humored her, protected her, and nearly single handedly planned her wedding.
Sophia recalled Stefan's words, how she needed to do what she had to do in order to work out her thoughts.
With a big sigh, Sophia entered the room.
Rebekah looked at her wildly.
"Stay- Stay away from me Sophia! You need to leave!" Rebekah yelled.
Sophia frowned. "Are you okay?"
Rebekah took shallow breaths as she shook her head.
"I don't- I'm not-" Rebekah clutched the nearest wall as she began to heave.
If Sophia didn't know better…
"C'mon, let's get to the bathroom, we need to get you to a toilet."
Sophia held Rebekah's hair back as she hurled the beer and blood she drank into the toilet.
After rinsing her mouth, Rebekah eyed Sophia distrustfully, then went back to the room where she laid on her bed.
Equally as silent, Sophia went and collapsed on the other side.
"Why are you still here? Surely you're mad at me too." Rebekah intoned.
"I'm pissed at you. You killed my sister, and I'm betting you didn't know Elena had vampire blood in her system when you were standing on that bridge."
"Then why are you still here?"
"It's a public service. A lonely, upset Mikaelson never leads to good things."
Rebekah laughed humorlessly.
"Honestly… I'm still coming to terms with my past life, and you're one of the few people I can talk to about it." Sophia shared.
The air was heavy as she waited for a response.
"I was so, so angry at Nik for not saving me after he rescued you. And it hurt, that he chose you over me," Rebekah sniffled, "But then I can't entirely hate him for it because you're you, the love of his life, whether he wants to admit it or not. I know it was ages ago, but you'd be surprised how our lives as humans- and those first few decades figuring out what it meant to be immortal, haunt us even now."
Sophia sat up and angled to look at Rebekah as the blonde, still laying down, finally met her eyes.
"I thought he was dead. I mourned for him. It was me at his side when even Elijah couldn't stand the sight of him. And the way he just left me there…" Rebekah said brokenly as tears flooded her eyes.
Sophia grabbed her hand.
While Sophia and Rebekah were upstairs, deputies had broken up the party, and little April Young had stayed behind to help clean up the mess.
Sophia smiled fondly at the young girl, remembering back to when she and Elena used to babysit her. As April shared that she preferred to stay behind and clean instead of staying at home alone and thinking of the family she no longer had, she knew right away that Rebekah would have a soft spot for the young teenager.
Rebekah looked to Sophia, then gingerly stepped off the bed.
"Hey, uh, if you want, I could uh- I could help you look into what happened at the fire at the farmhouse." Rebekah offered tentatively.
April laughed, not unkindly. "What are you gonna be able to do that I can't?"
Sophia nodded in support as Rebekah said, "You'd be surprised."
Rebekah drove April home not long after, while Sophia wandered around the front porch of the mansion. It was just after midnight when Rebekah returned.
"I acquired it completely furnished. The decor isn't exactly to my taste."
Sophia turned around to see Rebekah stepping up to the porch.
"What are extravagant mansions going for nowadays? Me, Elena, and Jeremy have been thinking about leveling up."
The vampire wrinkled her nose.
"Ugh. Please don't say that name around me for the foreseeable future."
Sophia snorted. "Seeing how she is my sister, that could be a bit tricky. How about for the rest of the night?"
Rebekah began to walk through the front door.
"Deal. Follow me, I could use a proper drink."
Sophia sighed as she followed the blonde for the kitchen. Here she was in the house of the woman who killed her sister, condemning her to a life of immortality. Sophia knew better than most that Elena wanted to take after their father, and become a doctor. To go on, get married, have children. Lacking Elena's certainty of wanting to be a mother, Sophia had been banking on being Aunt Sophie. None of that was an option anymore.
Then what was she doing, running around with vampires? What did she think would happen? A spiteful voice hissed in her ear.
Sophia immediately banished the thought away. If it hadn't been the Salvatores, it was doubtless that another vampire would have stumbled upon the highly sought doppelganger. Maybe this always would have happened, was meant to happen.
Something in Sophia curdled at the thought of fate.
"What on earth are you thinking right now?" Rebekah asked after Sophia sat on a dining chair.
How you've ruined my sister's future. No, Sophia wouldn't say that to Rebekah.
It was done. Sophia had let her feelings be known to Rebekah, there was no point in going back and forth on the matter. Rebekah has acted out to save her own life, and that of her siblings.
It had also been Sophia's decision to reach out to the original vampire. To an old friend.
"It was- shattering- waking back up into this life. I had just lost my baby, and I woke up, and Nik was lost to me. And as great as my friends are, their sympathy can only go so far when Klaus is part of the problem. He was… patient, and kind, after he rescued me that day. He took me to my gravesite. Our gravesite," Sophia became lost in her words as she touched her hand to abdomen.
Sophia's eyes snapped to Rebekah's. "He would have let me name her Mai."
A calm silence fell over the pair of women. Sophia accepted and downed the shot of brandy Rebekah passed over to her.
"But of course, he couldn't let a good thing be a good thing. He pushed Bonnie into giving him what he wanted, when he wanted it. Now, even if he did turn up, I wouldn't be able to look him in the eye. What he did caused Bonnie to feel the loss of grandmother all over again. To lose her magic."
Rebakh pursed her lips contemplatively for a moment, then handed the entire bottle of brandy to Sophia, who accepted it, her face puzzled.
"Nik… He wanted to go back for you that night. But after I escaped, I came across him packing up your awful sister's blood. Being able to create more bloody hybrids, that was his first priority. And I was angry, and denounced him as a brother. And I… I could see in his face that he thought he had a chance with you, now that you remember everything. A flicker of the very hope that time and time again he scorned me for...To twist the proverbial knife even more, let's just say I let it be known that there was no chance in hell of that happening."
Sophia studied the amber bottle of brandy throughout Rebekah's admission, and took a swig.
"Want to meet up with me and April at the Grill today? I'm trying to figure out where to start on the farmhouse fire." Rebekah's accented voice said through the phone that morning.
Sophia shook her head. "Sorry, I can't make it today. I'm tagging along with Bonnie, Elena, and Damon. We're going to Whitmore college."
Sophia heard Rebekah scoff. "And you need to be there because…"
"Bonnie was the one invited by a professor to check out the campus, and wanted me to go with her. Elena and Damon are going so Elena can learn how to feed on college students," Sophia tacked on wryly. Perhaps she should have more of a moral quandary with the situation at hand, but being a vampire was doing a number on Elena.
Her sister needed her support right now. She could only imagine the reaction the brunette would have when she learned that Sophia continued her friendship with Rebekah.
"What about your- the dissociative states you have?"
"I've upped my mediation exercises, plus Bonnie's ring. And Bonnie. I'll be fine."
"Call me if you run into trouble. Your sister and the Salvatore aren't a reliable sort." said Rebekah before hanging up.
The projector provided the only source of light in the dark lecture room. They sneaked into the class after it had already started.
Sophia had asked Hanah if she ever met this Shane guy. The fellow old soul said he was a graduate from her program, but she had never personally met him.
"Is that him?" Elena asked as she took her seat.
"Yeah" answered Bonnie.
"He's kind of-"began Sophia.
"Hot." Bonnie finished.
Sophia tried to pay attention to what the professor was saying.
"Witches have appeared across every culture in history. They're the architects of the supernatural. Responsible for everything that goes bump in the night, from ghosts to vampires to doppelgangers…"
"What is he? Witchipedia." Damon snarked as Bonnie shushed him.
Damon's solution to bypass Elena moral quandaries against feeding on innocent bystanders was a frat party. Apparently, there would be plenty of jerks there to help Elena get over any guilt she may have. They entered the party as Jack the Ripper and his ladies.
"Oh look, it's Professor creepy," said Damon, who had noticed Shane talking to some students on the staircase of the frat house.
"His name is Professor Shane, and he is not creepy." Bonnie defended.
Sophia cleared her throat loudly before taking a sip of the bloody mary another student had offered them. She agreed with Damon on this. What was the professor doing fraternizing with his drunk students after hours?
"I'm gonna go talk to him," Bonnie decided.
"I'll go with you." Sophia didn't trust this professor Shane guy, and figured she should leave Damon and Elena to it.
Shane smiled welcomingly at them as Bonnie and Sophia climbed the stairs.
"I put your grandmother's stuff around here, somewhere. There were a couple family photos, and a first edition Stephen King. Did you know she liked Cujo?"
Sophia barely registered Shanes words as she and Bonnie took stock of the drawings and relics in his office.
"This is amazing. This is stuff you picked up on your travels?" Bonnie asked, visibly impressed.
Sophia smiled tightly at him. The professor seemed genuinely amiable towards her and Bonnie, but she got the feeling he would have preferred to be alone with her friend.
"Yeah, I uh, do this thing. It's like a one man traveling occult exhibit to small towns. It funds my crazy Indiana Jones adventures."
As Shane stepped closer to Bonnie to hand her her grandmother's book, Sophia stepped over to the bookshelves near the door. The titles he had were not unlike Hannah's collection.
"Do you practice? Like she did?- I'm a true believer, just don't tell anyone." Sophia heard him ask softly.
She turned around to face the pair.
"You're saying you actually believe in witchcraft?" Sophia asked warily, if a bit rudely. That was a bold question for him to ask Bonnie, and she wanted to know what he knew. Bonnie looked at her, surprised by Sophia's attitude.
The professor raised his hands, palms out, in a placating gesture. Before he had the chance to elaborate, Bonnie spoke up.
"Excuse my friend, she's had too much to drink. No, I don't practice anymore. I lost control of myself, and there were consequences."
Shane looked at Sophia questioningly.
"Call me a believer too," Sophia said with a raised eyebrow, crossing her arms proudly. Defensively. She had only drunk half her glass of bloody mary, before setting it down and forgetting about it.
Turning his eyes back to Bonnie, he remarked, "Witches love their consequences," Sophia repressed a shiver when he looked back over at her meaningfully, "Don't they?"
Despite not being a witch himself, the kind professor offered to help Bonnie solve her magic issues with aid of the knowledge he picked up during his travels.
Frak. Bonnie looked like she was considering his offer.
The professor's office building had been a short walk over from the frat house. Bonnie and Sophia arrived to see that the party was still in full swing. Sophia and Bonnie exchanged disturbed glances at the sight of Elena dancing close with Damon. Too close for someone still in a relationship with his brother, as far as Sophia knew.
The sight of them seemed to kill Elena's buzz as she walked away from Damon, past Sophia and Bonnie, saying "I need to get out of here."
Sophia noted the fresh blood smeared around both of their mouths. The teenage girls followed Elena out of the party.
"Who am I? Why am I acting like this?" Elena asked.
Sophia briefly closed her eyes, remembering asking herself the same thing after her half- assed attempt to save the Mikaelson's.
"Because you listened to Damon," Bonnie answered, "And Damon makes everything he wants sound like a good idea."
Elena looked back and forth between Sophia and Bonnie.
"I should be here with Stefan. I shouldn't be here with him."
Sophia shook her head, and for a moment, she saw Tatia in Elena's place.
"I should be going through all of this with Stefan," Elena continued, when all three girls' heads turned to the sound of someone clearing their throat.
Bonnie took the words right out of Sophia's mouth. "You were supposed to help her, and you let her get completely out of control."
"She's not out of control, she was having fun."
Damon excused his teaching methods by declaring that the fact that he can revel in the blood he spilled and the pain he dealt out kept him from ripping people heads off, ripper style. By compartmentalizing the guilt, or just plain turning his emotions off. Sophia felt her insides twinge at the thought of Elena modeling her vampire existence after Damon.
"And you know what makes me able to drink my fill and leave someone breathing and not rip their head off like my brother? Is that I can revel in it. I can make it fun."
Irritation swirled through Sophia. First this Shane guy, now Damon. Sophia stormed after him before Bonnie or Elena could say anything.
"That's a load of shit Damon. Elena is not you, she doesn't revel in other people's pain. If Stefan, Caroline, and Lexie can muddle through their immortality fighting through the urge to kill people, then so could Elena and so could you. Bonnie's right, you weren't helping Elena."
Sophia was yards away from her friend and sister, and Damon a few feet ahead of her. Her words stopped him in his tracks, and he turned around, his face incensed.
"Poor, little, crazy Sophie, all self-righteous after your beauty sleep. I'm not going to listen to your criticism on my feeding techniques when you were married to the literal bastard who created them. Elena wouldn't even be in this situation if you had gotten your shit together earlier, and coughed up what you knew about the Mikaelson's in time for it to be useful. Hell, Ric and Jenna might still be here if you had."
Sophia saw red.
"Y'know what Damon, I have a list of people I'll readily apologize to and beg for forgiveness for my poor taste in men, but as the guy who spent the better part of his existence pining after Katherine Pierce and justifying the horror and murder you comitted for her sake in the name of love, you don't make the cut. And you're the last person who I'll let throw Klaus in my face."
Damon stared at her with cold eyes. "If only we knew all along we had Klaus's prized toy right under our noses. And I saw how buddy-buddy you were with Rebekah. We could've had them eating out of our palms. Katherine was right all along."
Sophia suddenly felt a slim hand holding hers.
"Enough. No, that enough Damon!" Elena said roughly when he tried to interrupt her.
Damon shook his head at the sister's and stalked away before Elena could say more.
Later, when Sophia curled up in bed for the night, it wouldn't be Damon's words that ate at her, but Elena's, and her reasons for why she was grappling with how to gain control of her feeding.
Sophia didn't have a high opinion of Damon at the best of times, and if he hadn't fallen hard for Elena, who knows what would have become of him. For better or for worse, she didn't put too much stock on what he had to say to her tonight. For that matter, neither did Elena.
When it came to her past lives, Sophia felt that she found out what she needed to in her own time. When it came to Klaus activating his hybrid curse and nearly everything that transpired after, she had no doubt he would do it the same all over again, nevermind that his lost love was the doppelganger's sister.
Sophia's thoughts turned to Elena's reasons for insisting that Damon had to be the one to help her adapt to being a vampire. Stefan and his animal diet wasn't cutting it, she threw up that blood. And apparently, Caroline was too perfect to be the one to teach her sister.
Caroline's very being gave hope to Sophia that Elena could pull this off. Sophia found Elena's reasoning that Caroline was just that good, that it was easy for her, to be unfair. They were there, they saw how hard Caroline worked at it.
Maybe there was some merit to the theory that being a doppelganger affected how Elena could drink blood, but Katherine never shared anything about any such thing. Not that the bulgarian beauty would be inclined to discuss such weaknesses.
Sophia learned from Caroline that Klaus had returned to town recently, and had stationed hybrids at the Lockwoods to protect Tyler after his brush with death. Hybrids were a rare commodity now, and he was closing ranks. Sophia sympathised with the blonde, and went over with her to the Lockwoods to check in on Tyler, who was being cagey with Caroline.
Sophia took a brief moment to feel the keen sting that was Klaus's name, and how he still had yet to seek her out.
Nope. Stop it. It's better this way, she told herself. Believing it was another matter.
According to Tyler, Klaus was out of town yet again, and wasn't courteous enough to share his whereabouts. Sophia was unsure what she felt about all of this.
I'm at Whitmore's, I took Shane up on his offer.
Sophia cursed under her breath after she read Bonnie's text.
"What's wrong?" Caroline asked from the driver's seat.
On the way to Tyler's, Sophia explained Bonnie's situation, Shane's offer, and her own reservations about the sketchy professor.
"Did you get the vibe he sleeps with his students? Was he sleazy?" the blonde asked protectively.
Sophia smiled thankfully.
"Maybe I shouldn't have biased you. That way when you hear this from Bonnie, you would have had a clearer view on the situation. I don't know- he just gave me the creeps." Sophia muttered as she tucked in her hair behind her ears.
She left out the added stress of Rebekah not responding to her texts and phone calls. She had asked the original vampire if she had gotten anywhere with April's investigation, but she received no answer. With the hunter drama, and Klaus flitting back and forth out of Mystic Falls, Sophia didn't have a good feeling.
Just as they arrived, Tyler received a text from Jeremy's phone saying there the hunter was at the Grill with hostages.
Elena and the Salvatores met them there soon after, since Damon and Stefan had received the same text. Caroline had undated her mom, and Tyler asked the hybrids for help. For some reason, Klaus had a stake in this and approved of the hybrids helping.
Sophia breathed a sigh of relief when Stefan talked everyone down from bursting into the Grill, guns' a blazing.
No offense to the dead, but this hunter seemed more on the ball than Alaric had been, and there had to be more to this situation than met the eye.
That noted, Sophia couldn't help her underlying panic over Jerermy's safety. She shook her head at Caroline as Damon insisted they contact Bonnie for help. She had hope they would get her brother out of this alive, and there was no sense in making Bonnie feel as useless as Sophia herself did in that moment.
Not long after Elena, Damon, and Stefan left to recon and take stock of the hostage situation, Sophia felt a dizzy spell, and a migraine she began to seep in. She cursed when she realized she had forgotten to put the bracelet Bonnie had made her back on after her shower that morning.
She got lost in the long, fanciful hallways that made up Lockwood manor. Her mind clouded with memories of smoky bonfires and wise elders telling her pack legends of how the wolves came to be.
Sophia's thigh crashed hard into a vintage- steel hallway table. As painful as it was, and it would definitely bruise, it did the job of snapping her out of her reverie
She had been attending Founders Balls here since she was a kid.
You think you would remember where the damn bathrooms are by now, she berated herself now that she was more clear minded.
"Shit," Sophia muttered as she nearly bent over, ready to upchuck right there. She just managed to hold it in.
"Who are- Woah there, are you okay?" Sophia heard an unfamiliar voice ask.
"I need- Where is the restroom?" Sophia managed to ask, feeling the burn of acid in her throat.
"Right over here, come with me," the woman said, leading the way around the corner.
At the sight of the porcelain toilet, Sophia's knees buckled as she fell before it and hurled. She briefly felt a cool hand touch her neck as the woman gathered Sophia's hair for her.
"I've been there, just let it out," the stranger soothed.
When Sophia was done, she closed the toilet, flushed, and took a seat. The woman who brought her here had stepped over to the sink and filled a glass cup with water and mouthwash.
A light olive skin hand entered Sophia's vision. "You should probably rinse," the woman offered wryly.
Sophia looked up and met hazel- green eyes. The woman who had helped her was absurdly attractive, and the way she held herself reminded her of Astrid.
Another life, Sophia reminded herself.
Sophia drank the cup and swished the minty liquid back and forth, then walked over to the sink to spit it out, washing her hands as she did so.
"Thank you for- Just thank you. I nearly threw up on Mrs. Lockwoods century old carpet." Sophia said, suddenly bashful.
"No problem. I'm Hayley, by the way. Tyler's friend," the woman offered her hand.
Sophia smiled kindly, but it dimmed when she remembered the danger Jeremy was still in. "Sophia, also a friend of Tyler's"
"He has a lot of those," Hayley said dryly. "I think I overheard you earlier. I'm so sorry, your brother is one of the hostages, right?"
"Yeah he, um, he's a hostage. Can you help me find my friend to see if she has any updates. You might have seen her around. She's about as tall as me, blonde…" Sophia trailed off when recognition filled Hayley's eyes.
"Caroline. Yes, I actually ran into her not that long ago."
Sophia bit back a wince. Recalling how the girl introduced herself, and considering Hayley was a rather beautiful, formerly unknown friend, and not family, Sophia didn't imagine that meeting going well.
"Yeah, I don't think she liked me much," Hayley surmised casually, reading Sophia's expression well.
Sophia joined Hayley on her mission to find Tyler, and in the process learned fromm Hayley herself that she was a werewolf who had met Tyler when he was in the process of breaking his sire bond, as well as Klaus's seemingly odd commands that his hybrids don't use lethal force when going after the hunter, which had angered Tyler. Hayley seemed to have a chip on her shoulder about Tyler not willing to demonstrate that he broke his sire bond to the other hybrids.
When they found Tyler, he looked crushed. A friend of his , a hybrid, had died in an attempt to subdue the hunter. Tyler assured Sophia that everyone else was safe, including Jeremy. Still visibly distraught, Hayley hugged Tyler, while Sophia pressed her lips together to hide her smile over the news that her little brother was safe and attempted to leave the room.
Just as walked out, Caroline bulldozed right past her.
"I apologize, am I intruding?" she heard her friend say.
"Caroline, it's not like that," Tyler jumped to explain.
Sophia sighed as Hayley excuse herself so the couple could talk.
"Thank you. That's very big of you." Caroline sniped.
Sophia nodded at Hayley when the werewolf joined her on the front porch.
"Your friend's a jealous one," Hayley said as she leaned against the manor's wall.
Not wanting Hayley to get the wrong idea about Caroline, she responded, "She's actually really great, it just seems like both her and Tyler are going through a lot."
Hayley shrugged noncommittally.
Sophia thought back to what Caroline had told her earlier. How she shared that Tyler hasn't been the most reassuring boyfriend lately.
Feeling eyes on her, Sophia looked up to see Hayley studying her.
"Sorry for staring, it's just- Have we met before? You look so familiar."
Sophia's lips quirked into a small smile as shook her head. "No, we haven't. But I get that a lot."
"Elena killed the vampire hunter," Sophia said slowly, not able to process her own words.
Stefan nodded, his eyes haunted.
"Why… Just… I know Jeremy was in danger but was that really the best-" Sophia floundered, the concept of Elena killing somebody mystifying her.
"Elena didn't trust me. I was- I was lying to her. And Damon didn't trust me, and… He told Elena to kill the hunter. They thought it was the best option at the time."
In the wake of this new information, as well as worrying about how Elena was coping with all this, Sophia didn't think to ask Stefan what he lied about. What caused Elena to lose faith in him.
"Sophie! Jeremy!"
Sophia woke from her fitful sleep. When she had gotten home that night, Elena had been visibly distraught over the life she took, but she didn't want to talk about it with her sister. After the lights had turned off, she heard Elena's heavy breathing as the vampire tossed fretfully in her bed, and Sophia feigned being asleep, eventually falling into a tentative rest.
Sophia haphazardly glanced at the clock across the room when she stepped out of her bed, nearly tripping over her shoes in the process. It was 4 in the morning.
Jeremy had beaten Sophia to the staircase and was stomping down them. Sophia entered the kitchen just in time to see Elena stick a knife through their brother's neck.
Elena pulled the knife out of Jeremy's neck, and the steel blade crashed to the ground as Elena tried to catch their collapsing brother.
"Jer! Jer! No no no no," Elena cried out as she fell the floor with him
Sophia tried to walk towards her siblings when felt a hand wrap around her neck.
"At least I will have a pretty wife to ease my burdens," the man sneered as he prepared to slam her head against the wall.
"Ned!" Sophia gasped as she tried to pry his hand off her neck.
"I didn't mean to, Sophie. I didn't see until-" Elena's voice fell into sob.
The sound of her sister jolted Sophia. Suddenly, Ned was gone and it was her own hands wrapped around her neck.
Sunlight fell through the windows as Elena paced back and forth in front of their brother's still body, despairing over how she was going to explain herself to Jeremy.
"Thanks for not ditching the family ring after it drove Ric crazy?" Damon offered.
Sophia, who was sitting against the window, crossed her arms and looked at Damon unamused.
"You should have called Stefan," he admitted, looking at Elena.
"That's what I said." The younger Salvatore had been Sophia's first choice.
"I don't want to talk to him," Elena looked at Sophia, then back at Damon. "He's been lying to me and hiding things from me. He compelled Jeremy to forget god knows what."
The two vampires debated furthermore over Elena's choice when Stefan entered through the front door.
"P.S. I called Stefan," The blue-eyed vampire admitted.
"So did I," said Sophia as she pulled her hair into a ponytail.
"According to Elena, Stefan was working with Klaus on… Something, or other, and Jeremy knew about it, and Stefan compelled him to forget it."
"And now Elena not talking to him at all?" Caroline asked over the phone. Elena was upstairs showering, and Sopha needed to vent.
"Yup." Sophia popped her lips as she answered Caroline.
"But it's- It's Stefan. And now that he's in his right mind, he only wants what's best for Elena.
What is she thinking?"
Sophia shook her head, wondering the same herself.
Okay. Fine. After saying everything out loud, the situation didn't sound too good. But still. Sophia didn't want to live in a world where Damon was right and Stefan was wrong. Perhaps it was irrational thinking.
Damon had attacked her way back when, and Stefan had nearly driven her and Elena off Wickery bridge. Now that Elena and Damon both had killing Jeremy in common, perhaps it was time to let bygones be bygones.
Sophia momentarily shut her eyes. Everything was so frakked up.
"I'm almost at Tyler's," shared Caroline, "And I really hate to pile it on, but there's something you should know."
Klaus was back in town. Caroline and Tyler had been tipped off by Hayley. The brunette she-wolf was now in Caroline's good graces after Tyler shared she was helping him bypass Klaus to liberate the hybrids.
While Sophia wanted to root for them, she couldn't help dwell on the consequences of what would happen when they got caught. Niklaus was the hybrid. Over a thousand years old, and Sophia had the feeling they weren't scared enough of what he was capable of.
"Elena. What's wrong? Elena!"
Sophia heard Damon's voice from where she sat on the back porch. After she entered the house, she saw Elena run through the front door.
By the time Damon and Sophia made it to the front lawn, only Stefan stood out there.
Stefan shared how Klaus kidnapped Elena, and before that, implied that some sort of curse would drive her to suicide. While the Salvatore brothers were stuck on getting Elena back from him, what piqued Sophia's curiosity was why Klaus would care about preserving Elena's life in the first place. He wouldn't have, unless there was something in it for him. It was just how he operated. She was being kept out of the loop on something important, and thanks to one too many knowing looks, it dawned on her that the Salvatore brothers knew what. They played dumb when she asked what Klaus wanted from Elena, and brushed her off as they debated how powerful this 'hunter's curse' could be.
Bonnie arrived not long after Sophia called her for help, and the petite witch insisted that she needed Shane's help if they were going to help Elena get past the curse.
"I'll drive," stated Damon swung his car keys on his index finger. As luck would have it, Shane was presenting an exhibit at the high school.
The trio heard Professor Shane's voice before they saw him, and Sophia's knees buckled when she entered the room.
"You're looking at what people believe to be the world's first tombstone. This item was donated to Whitmore college last month… "
An unimpressive lump of granite rock.
In red ink, all over the exhibit where Shane was lecturing, his name.
Like dark, splattered blood over thin, tarp walls.
Silas. Silas. Silas.
"... It belongs to a very powerful witch. A witch so powerful, in fact, that Silas- that was his name- created a spell that would grant him immortality. Now legend says that Silas did the spell with the help of a lady witch who loved him. A woman named Qetsiyah."
Sophia felt the echoes of long held grudge steep in her stomach, making her blood run hot.
"Sadly for Qetsiyah, Silas wanted to give immortality to another woman. So Qetsiyah killed her, and buried Silas alive."
Elena's face flashed in Sophia's mind. But a different name was tied to her face.
Amara.
"Leaving him powerless, immortal, and alone. This might actually be the origin story of hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
The edge's of Sophia vision began to blur, and she felt a hand on her shoulder steady her.
"You got this?" she heard Damon ask.
"I'll bring him to you," Bonnie responded.
And with that, Damon tried to guide Sophia out of the room, but she clutched a nearby wall, wanting to hear the professor's final words.
"Now it's said that Silas wants to rise again. Regain his power. Wreak havoc on the world. Maybe we should be afraid."
Sophia let Damon pull her away. As they left the room…
"Or maybe it's all a bunch of crap and that's just an old rock."
The pair found their way to Alaric's old classroom.
"So, you're clearly on the brink of another… episode. Think you can keep it together until we get Elena back?" As he spoke, he withdrew a bottle of bourbon from the last drawer in Alraic's former desk, and passed it to her.
Sophia briefly focused on breathing in and out, then unscrewing the cap and tossed the liquor back down her throat. The burn on it's way down soothed her. She nodded and gave the bottle back to Damon.
"You're missing all the adventure pal," he said to the room, raised the bottle, then took a drink of his own.
Right after, Bonnie and Shane entered the room, and she reintroduced him to Damon and Sophia.
Shane tried to talk shop with Damon after Bonnie alluded that Damon was also an expert in 'monster stuff'.
Shane looked over the sketch Damon provided of the hunter's mark in shock, and explained when a hunter is killed by their prey, that person is cursed to be haunted by the curse until the next hunter in line is activated. A potential.
Where's Buffy when you need her? Sophia wondered, half serious.
Shane left to go put together more research he had on the subject. Sophia sorely wanted to learn more about what he had to say on Silas and Qetsiyah, but that could wait.
Bonnie wondered where they were supposed to find another hunter, and Damon's first call was her little brother.
At that moment, Sophia's cell phone rang.
"Are you sure about this? I mean- it's not like he's hurting Elena." Good intentions or bad, Klaus was protecting her sister from herself. Not that she would admit it out loud, but Sophia trusted Klaus moreso with that task than she did the Salvatore's.
"Stefan thought it through, and Tyler's really sticking his neck out for this. Please, Sophie. Don't think of it as distracting him. You two have stuff to air out."
Sophia looked at her Caroline shrewdly. It was bold of her friends to trust her to be Original bait after last time. Letting out a heavy breath, Sophia unbuckled from the car.
Sophia walked over slowly to Klaus, who sat at the bar. She self consciously unfolded her dark hair from its braid, and it fell in lazy waves an inch or two past her shoulders.
She determinedly sat in the barstool next to him.
"Buy me a drink?"
Klaus angled his body towards her, not quite surprised to see her. His eyes were soft.
"Sophia," he breathed.
Sophia's eyes were bright, and she failed to fight off the small smile that made its way to her face. Klaus mirrored it.
The corner of her mind that had been screaming bloody murder in the wake of hearing Silas and Qetsiyah's names finally quieted.
For all that you revile him for, he's become the powerful protector we knew he could be, an ancient voice reminded her.
Klaus's expression grew amused.
"I know I'm a sight for sore eyes sweetheart, but it is rather rude to stare. Though I suppose I'll allow it, as we haven't seen each other since I was placed in an inferior body."
Sophia blinked rapidly, realizing she had, indeed, been staring at him.
"Sorry, it's just, um… You're right. It's really good to see you," she said sincerely. In his proper body.
"Knowing the lot you align yourself with, that can't be the reason you're here."
Please give Elena back, she had practiced in her head.
"Why didn't you come back for me after you got yourself… sorted out?"
She might have put the reason together after her conversation with Rebekah,but she wanted to hear it from him.
"Are you saying you would have been happy to see me? Did you even want to see me?"
Yes. No. Sophia remembered the anguish that had overwhelmed Bonnie's face, how her friend had relived her grandmother's death, and pressed her lips tightly together.
"That's what I thought," he said, holding her eyes as he finished his drink.
Sophia looked away first, and folded her hands together on the countertop.
"Can you give my sister back?"
"You may find this hard to believe, but I'm doing you a favor. I'm keeping her safe."
Sophia tilted her head towards him and raised a curious eyebrow, and he answered her silent question.
"I'll spare you the gory details, love, as I remember, you have a lot on your plate." Klaus cleared his throat. "How long does it take you to adjust, once you've relieved a former life?"
A bartender silently placed another drink in front of Klaus, and inconspicuously moved on to another patron.
Sophia grabbed it before Klaus could, and took a gulp. It was only in thanks to becoming a borderline alcoholic in order to cope with the trauma of her past lives that she did not cough up the severely dry, scotch whisky.
Sophia winced as she swallowed, and felt her face grow warm.
She held the glass out to Klaus, who took a sip, savoring it. His smirk was teasing.
"It took a few month's to get a hold of it the last time. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but the side effects feel… worse, this time around. I think it's because I'm stuck at the scene of the crime. Mystic Falls. Almost anything can trigger a dissociative state. You saw it, the last time. And it happened again this morning when Elena stuck a knife through our brothers throat." Sophia paused.
Instead of thinking of Jeremy in that moment, she thought of Ned. Of the man she had killed in the very same fashion, triggering her werewolf curse.
She felt a warm hand cover one of her own, relaxing the fist her hand had balled into.
"I can't imagine your immortal once husband walking around is helping out much in that regard."
Sophia laughed despite herself.
"You would think so, except that when you're not maiming my family or threatening my friends, I actually find you rather charming." Sophia let out a breath. "I missed you even before I knew who you were, what you meant to me. And now that I know, it somehow makes that feeling worse."
Klaus's face fell just the slightest bit at her words.
Sophia felt her phone vibrate, and she took a second to check the texts she received. They were from Stefan.
I lost Elena.
I need a vampire to kill. I'll turn someone if I have to.
Get an answer. Fast.
Frakkin A'.
Sophia looked up and smiled faintly at Klaus. Her friends really needed to stop trying to pull one over on him, as they didn't have the best track record on succeeding in their endeavors.
"Good news and bad news. Bad news is that Stefan broke Elena out of where you've been keeping her. While I was sent here to… entertain you. But! But, we've also figured out a way to get her hallucinations to stop." Sophia spoke quickly, hoping to mitigate any rash reactions.
Klaus responded through gritted teeth. "I'm listening."
Jeremy fumbled with the house keys as he tried to find the right one to unlock the front door.
"Jer, let me," said Sophia, holding her hand out.
Jeremy ignored her as he found the right key and unlocked the door.
"I am so sorry Jeremy that you had to be the one to," Sophia breathed sharply as she remembered her brother hacking off the head of the hybrid that Klaus had provided, alleviating Elena of the hunter's curse in the process. She encouraged him to do the very thing she and Elena had tried to get him away from.
"It's- Well, it's not okay, Sophie. But I would do it again if it keeps Elenna from killing herself."
Sophia stayed just outside the front door as Jeremy made his way to his room.
"Of all the people, what the hell were the odds of my little brother being the next hunter in line."
She asked herself.
She heard a cough behind her, and turned around to see Klaus standing on her front lawn.
"I wanted to make sure you got home safely."
"And your shiny new hunter?" Sophia asked blandly.
"Him too, yes."
Sophia moved to sit on her porch.
"Why do you care so much about him and Elena? Believe you me, I don't think so highly of myself to even consider that you care so much for their safety for my sake. So what is it?"
Klaus walked over and sat on the other end of the porch.
"Somehow, Jeremy is descended from the five…"
Sophia listened patiently as Klaus explained his history with 'The Five' original hunters, the importance of their tattoo that grew when they killed vampires, and how it was a map that could possibly lead to the cure for vampirism.
She stayed silent after Klaus had finished speaking. The influx of information nagged at her, the same feeling she got when she first heard of the sun and moon curse. Possibly the very same feeling she had when she learned of the big bad Klaus.
"Do you really believe that the cure exists?"
"I'm confident in its existence, yes."
For some reason, she thought of Silas again. And Sophia was long past the point of believing in coincidences.
"Well. Even though I'm pretty sure I can guess why you're helping so much with restoring Elena's back into a human- Thank you. For trying to keep Elena from offing herself. For… sacrificing your hybrid. It couldn't have been an easy decision."
Sophia turned her head to see Klaus gazing intently at her, and felt her skin flush. This man was once her best friend, her husband. And now they were essentially strangers.
"I can only begin to imagine what you've been up for the past thousand years, but… Did you ever think about me, from time to time?" And what could have been.
Sophia looked back towards the street, not able to look at him. Despite this, she felt Klaus edged closer towards her so that their shoulders brushed.
"You were the love of my mortal life, and your death haunted me for the better part of a century. My immortality stretched out far beyond me, and I had to learn how to make something of it without you. I- I do wonder how things might have been different had you not died in childbed. If you and our daughter had lived on."
A tear slipped down Sophia's cheek. Klaus wrapped a tentative arm around her, and Sophia leaned in as she reciprocated and hugged him back.
"To learn that you were reborn time and time again since then, to know that we were reunited and I failed you yet again… I wonder if it's the price I pay for straying so far from the husband you knew."
The names Qetsiyah, Silas, and Amara crashed and collided in her mind, and her head throbbed in pain as a consequence. Her ears rang and when she closed her eyes, she saw stars.
She hid her face as she quietly sobbed into his chest.
Sophia knew with certainty that the blame lied with her, the reason for why it took them so long to find each other again.
She felt Klaus press a soft kiss into her hair as he held her tighter.
A/N: The following includes my opinion on some characters and a tentative plan of where this story is heading.
Sophia & Klaus: It wasn't my original plan, but this story turned into an unintentional slow-burn (I think?). It'll probably take a while longer for Sophia and Klaus to resemble a functional relationship.
This story will transition into The Originals.
Sophia & Elena: I don't have an exact number, but I get the sense that a decent amount of TVD fandom doesn't like Elena. For me personally, Season 3-4 and onwards is when her character starts to go a little downhill for me, and the things she does and stuff she says makes it harder to defend her. That said, I am trying to write a fair portrayal of her. There will be some sisterly conflict in the upcoming chapters.
Sophia & Hayley & Hope: I actually really love Hayley as a character, as problematic as she can be. She will have a role in Sophia's life going forward. There will be no Klayley (Klaus X Hayley) baby. But there will be a baby.
Damon: A problematic character (isn't everyone), though not as reprehensible as he could be after changing his dynamic with Caroline in Season 1 (?).
Everyone else and happy endings: I am aiming for a happy ending/ bittersweet ending. I foresee potentially 3 endings, and I might just include alternative endings when I finish this story. A real challenge for me is figuring out how much canon I want to change going forward, as well as endgame pairings outside of Sophia and Klaus.