Ordinary People
Lorilei sits on the hospital bed after her check-up with the doctor, waiting for the results, with Klaus sitting in the chair across the room after what happened with her parents coming back from the dead for a day. The doctor walks back inside with a clipboard, looking at the couple warily, feeling the tension in the room. "Ms McKnight, all the tests came back and you have a clean bill of health, though I did have a question." Doctor Harris informs her, and she already knows where this is heading.
"Ask away," Lorilei replies, wanting to get out of there and help with the new Hybrids.
"Well, it seems you've had several miscarriages and refused counselling after your first when you were committed after your suicide attempt. I would advise you to at least think about it," The Doctor suggests, making Klaus look at him as he processes the last few words he just said.
"I do take counseling, but it's over the phone at the moment, as you can see. I don't live in New York anymore." She responds, wanting to leave this conversation. "Can we go now?"
"Of course, sorry to bring this up, but I just want what's best for my patients," The ER Doctor comments, growing flustered under the glare of the Original Hybrid, though it's not necessarily at him.
Meanwhile, in Mystic Falls, Elena and Alaric venture into the hidden tunnels of the old Lockwood cellar with flashlights. "So the Lockwoods really have no idea that these tunnels are underneath their property?" Elena questions, looking around.
"Yeah," Alaric agrees. "Careful where you shine that thing. Bats hate the light," he warns her.
"Wait. What?" She squeaks, peaking around to spot any of them above their heads.
"Elena," He calls, making her turn around, not seeing Damon standing behind her.
"Boo!" Damon whispers in her ear, spooking the girl and making her yelp, spinning around to face him.
"God, Damon!" Elena snaps, slapping him on the arm in anger.
"Scaredy-cat," He teases her cheekily, making Alaric roll his eyes.
"Just ignore him. That's what I do," Alaric remarks snarkily, eyeing the markings on the cave wall.
"So you really can't get in?" Elena questions, looking at the Vampire.
"No. Seems even the ancient Lockwoods were anti-Vampire," Damon retorts, annoyed.
"What do you mean ancient?" She asks, not understanding.
"See for yourself. This is as far as I get to go," Damon informs her, pushing against the invisible barrier stopping him from entering. Elena and Alaric keep walking further into the cave and stop in front of a wall; Elena moves the flashlight around, looking at the pictures carved into the stone.
"What is all this?" The Doppelganger asks, trying to decipher the meaning but not having any idea.
"Well, as far as I can tell, It's a story. In simple archaeological terms, it's a really, really old story," Alaric tells her, showing the various drawings. "That right there is a moon cycle. A man," He points to the picture as he talks. "A wolf. A Werewolf."
"Yeah. It's the Lockwood diaries, Pictionary style," Damon jokes.
"I don't understand," Elena frowns. "I thought the Lockwoods came here with the Original Founders in the 1860s?"
"Ah, maybe the Lockwoods did, but according to this wall, these Werewolves have been here a lot longer than that," Alaric remarks, pointing at the Celtic Runes on the wall.
"How long?" She wonders, not figuring it out.
"Long. Gets better. Show her, Ric," Damon tells his best friend and the Doppelganger, and Alaric shows her the other symbols on the wall.
"Names, and they're not native. They're written in Runic, a Viking script," Alaric explains, looking at her and making her look at him, thinking about Rebekah's comment when she came into his classroom.
"Viking?" Elena parrots.
"This name here, when translated, it reads… Niklaus," He informs her, pointing at the symbol.
"Klaus," She mutters in shock.
"And Elijah…. And Rebekah," The History Teacher adds.
In that very cave, 1000 years ago, Rebekah used Klaus' knife to carve into the stone wall, with the pre-Hybrid standing nervously, holding a torch. "Rebekah let me have at it," Klaus muttered, looking around as he tried to keep a lookout for his Father, terrified to be found out and receive a harsh punishment.
"Quiet, Niklaus. I have to have my concentration if I'm not to slice off a finger," Rebekah retorted sternly, concentrating.
"Father will not like you handling the blade," he warned her, trying to seem a bit brave.
"If I want to wield a blade, I shall wieldy a blade. Father need not know," She snapped.
"He will find out. He always does," The pre-Hybrid remarked nervously.
"That is because you always tell him," The blond teen retorts snarkily.
"I cannot help it," Klaus argued. "He frightens me."
"He frightens us all," Rebekah told him. "That is why we stick together as one, always and forever. Right, traitor?"
"Right," He agreed, smiling at his Little Sister, and she gave him the knife. "Here. You finish. I'm to help Mother with the meal."
"Yes. Go tend to dinner. Leave the blades to the men, Little Sister," The young Klaus joked, offending his Sister, who took revenge, cutting Klaus' hand as she sliced the blade across his palm. "Ahh. Bekka!" He yelped, covering his bleeding hand with the other.
"It's just a little blood. Be a man about it," Rebekah teased before leaving Klaus behind as he inspected his minor cut.
"These are the names of the Original Family?" Elena questions, looking at the carvings on the stone wall.
"Carved into a cave that's… That's been here since way before the Founding of Mystic Falls or even the entire new world, for that matter," Alaric explains, gesturing at the cave wall.
"Okay, this has gotta be one of Klaus' fakes," She argues, scoffing in disbelief.
"That's what I said," Damon agrees with her immediately.
"That could be true, except the last name up here made us think otherwise," Alaric retorts, pointing at a name away from the others.
"What's the name?" Elena asks him, looking at her housemate.
"Mikael," He answers.
"Mikael? Mikael, as in the Vampire Hunter who knows how to kill Klaus?" She wonders and looks at him, then at Damon back at the cave entrance.
"Yep. And I now like to call him Papa Original," Damon remarks. Later, Alaric takes pictures of the drawings and symbols on the cave wall on his camera.
Alaric returns to his apartment, which has become their base of operation away from the Gilbert House. He looks at the pictures he has developed while Damon and Elena practise fighting with a stake. "These images tell a story; to learn the story, I have to decipher these images," Alaric explains as Damon catches Elena's wrist as she tries to stake him, but he takes it from her.
"Sloppy," Damon taunts her, pulling her close and making Alaric roll his eyes at their blatant flirting.
"Shut up. I'm new at this," Elena grumbles and tries attacking Damon again while he talks.
"The Ghost of Christmas past, Mason Lockwood, said that the cave would lead us to a weapon that could kill Klaus." He muses as he dodges Elena's pathetic attempts at hits.
"Yeah, but doesn't Mikael have a weapon?" She grunts, swinging at the older Salvatore Brother.
"Yes, which probably means that wall will lead us to Mikael, who we've already found and lost," the proud Vampire smirks, taking the stake from the Doppelganger's hand again and catching her. "Bang. You're dead." He pretends to bike into her neck, making her giggle. Alaric turns back to looking at the pictures, trying to decipher them and ignoring the flirting not-couple nearby.
"These images, at the very least, might tell us what that weapon is," Alaric says, and Elena pulls away from Damon, joining him.
"Then all we have to do is find out what they mean," Elena reasons, looking at the multiple photos discarded on the dining table.
"Well, fine," Damon huffs, missing Elena's presence. "Fine. If I'm being irriatingly optimistic like you two. How do you suppose we do that?"
"Well, if the story's about the Original Family living here, then we go straight to the source," She suggests, thinking of the blond Original that has all the answers, though that doesn't mean Rebekah will give it up willingly.
Later, after school lets out, Rebekah stands on the football field with the other cheerleaders, stretching and practising, when Elena walks towards her, needing to talk to her about what they found this morning. "You," Rebekah sneers, looking at the Doppelganger with distaste. "Goody."
"I was hoping we could talk," Elena requests, looking nervous at the blond Vampire and knowing she has to lie and manipulate her to get answers.
"About what? Stefan? Don't worry. I'm off him for good." She interrupts, glaring at the Doppelganger. "Anyway, he's more interested in Blake. In fact, you should probably forget about him, if I'm being honest."
"Actually, I'd rather talk about this," The brown-haired teen says, removing one of the photos from her bag and showing it to the female Original, who looks at it in surprise and a little fear. "I'm curious why you and Klaus have spent a thousand years running from your Father."
"I should get back to the girls. Homecoming's right around the corner," The blond Original deflects, walking away.
"Well, then maybe I'll ask Mikael when we wake him," Elena threatens her.
"You're bluffing. You don't know where he is. No one does," Rebekah sneers at her angrily, wishing her older Brothers were there with her.
"So then, who's rotting in that old cemetery in Charlotte?" She questions, looking at her.
"If you wake Mikael, we are all doomed," The female Original warns the foolish human about the death of almost everyone she loves.
"So then tell me," The Doppelganger demands, gaining some confidence at the fear she can see in her eyes.
"Why do you want to know?" Rebekah asks, not trusting the Doppelganger and never will.
"Why don't you want me to wake him?" Elena counters with another question, not letting her know.
"I need to get back to the girls," she replies, turning around and walking off to the other cheerleaders, deep in thought. Rebekah looks behind her, checking to see if Elena has gone, and she has. She grabs her phone and texts Blake and then Lorilei, knowing they'll both be of help.
A thousand years ago, Rebekah ran through the village where she and her family lived with others from their original home, with her younger Brother, Henrik, chasing behind her. The youngest siblings spotted Elijah and Niklaus playing around in the village centre while they had free time from their chores. "Come on, Henrik. Our Brothers are fighting again," Rebekah exclaimed, smiling and running to join Niklaus and Elijah, watching them eagerly.
"Oh, look. Our Sister's arrived to watch my fast-approaching victory," Elijah smirked playfully at his younger Brother.
"On the contrary, Elijah," Niklaus retorted, smirking back at him as they clashed swords. He sliced Elijah's belt, shocking the older boy as everyone watching laughed. Mikael and Esther came back from the forest to see their two sons play fight.
"Relax, Mikael. Niklaus means well," Esther warned her husband, who glared at the younger Son.
"That is precisely my problem," Mikael growled, storming towards his sons, taking Elijah's sword, and stopping the fight. "So... Why don't you teach me that trick, young warrior?"
"Father, we were just having fun," Niklaus gulped, looking at the man in terror and wondering what he would do to him now.
"We fight for our survival. And you find time for fun?! I want to have fun! Teach me. Come on!" He snarled at the boy.
"Father, it was nothing," The unawakened Werewolf stuttered as Mikael swung his blade furiously at him. Klaus tried desperately to block the sword, but his Father hit harder, knocking it from his hand before pushing him harshly to the ground and raising his blade to his throat. Everyone in the village watched the scene of their bravest warrior as he bullied and humiliated his Son, all of them unsure of what to do or even to step in to stop him.
"You are foolish and impulsive, my boy. What? No more laughter?" The head of the Mikaelson family questioned as he looked down at his Son.
"You've made your point, Mikael," Esther snapped at her husband, stomping towards them, and Mikael moved the sword next to Klaus' face, intimidating the boy, who looked at the tip of the blade.
"Some days, it's a miracle you're still alive... Boy," Mikael growled before walking away and leaving Klau alone in the dirt. Not for long, though, as his siblings came to him and helped him up.
Alaric keeps trying to decipher the photos of the symbols on the cave wall, putting post-it notes on each to show what each of the drawings means when Elena arrives back at the apartment on the phone with Damon. "She's going to tell me," Elena assures him. "She's scared of him, Damon. I saw her face. I just have to engage in a little mean-girl power struggle first."
"Make sure she doesn't power struggle you into a wheelchair," Damon warns her, knowing that dealing with an Original can be dangerous, and they don't understand what Rebekah will do when backed into a corner.
"I've got this, Damon. If we can figure out a way to kill Klaus, Stefan will be free of his compulsion. So, how does he look?" She asks, knowing that Damon is keeping an eye on Stefan now.
"Mmm. Pasty and pouty," Damon jokes as he looks at his younger Brother from across the Grill.
"He'll have to get over it. Call me later," The Doppelganger replies and hangs up the phone, going over to Alaric. "Rebekah will come around."
"You sure about that? I mean, a thousand-year-old Vampire, I'm sure, has learned the art of patience." Looking at the teenager, Alaric questions when she receives Rebekah's text asking to meet her at the town square for a chat.
"She's a thousand-year-old Vampire who's joined the cheerleading squad. There's a whole different set of rules in play here, Ric. I've got this," Elena tells him and shows him the text on her phone, not knowing what will happen.
Damon walks over to Stefan and sees him with the ginger Werewolf, Blake, who is looking at her phone; Damon is unaware that he's about to be played. "You know, if you two keep trying to keep tabs on me all the time, I'm gonna think you've got a crush on me," Stefan jokes, looking at his older Brother. "What are you doing here?"
"You know I'm not a big champion of this whole Lexi recovery plan. But Elena thinks it would be a good plan… Weaken you out, break you down, and make you feel again," Damon explains, looking at his Brother and seeing the Brother he had 165 years ago.
"We should all listen to Elena, right?" Blake teases, earning a sneer from the older Salvatore Brother.
"I mean, her plans always work out so well, don't they? Why are you here?" Stefan agrees with the Werewolf.
"What are you talking about? It's family day. Just paying a visit to my Baby Brother," Damon retorts, grinning.
"Go away," He snaps, surprising Damon.
"Nah. Nah, I thought we could hang out. Little Brother bonding. How you been, Stef? Huh?" The older Salvatore Brother asks, trying to get his Brother back in the fold.
"You know, Klaus may want to keep Elena alive, but that doesn't mean she's safe with Rebekah," The former Ripper warns him, knowing that Rebekah is going along with the plan to warn them away from Mikael while they work on something to stop them.
"Liar, liar, pants on fire, Brother. Klaus compelled you to protect Elena, and if you thought for even a second that she was in danger, you'd be working a lot harder," Damon argues, making Stefan roll his eyes.
"Don't be stupid," Blake sneers at him, her eyes flashing gold.
"Klaus didn't compel me to do anything and the only reason I was looking out for Elena was because Lorilei asked me to." Stefan explains, making Damon look at her.
"Right," Damon nods, still not believing him.
"You got me. You're good. Congratulations. You can go now," Stefan teases, causing Damon to grow annoyed.
"You really have given up," The snarky Vampire frowns, not understanding his Brother anymore.
"Actually, this is my happy face," the younger Salvatore Brother retorts, putting on a fake smile. Damon smirks before ordering a few drinks. "What are you doing?"
"Screw this Lexi plan. I think we could both use a drink," Damon suggests, looking at Blake. "And the wolf, too."
Elena opens her eyes, looking around in shock to see a room she's never seen before. The room is pearl white, like a perfect cloud, with large windows on the far wall and a set of doors leading onto a small metal balcony. Elena gets up from the cream plush armchair, moving towards the swinging bed in the corner of the room near the balcony doors. The music is played by a fancy vintage record player that looks like it cost a few grand. She doesn't recognise the music, though it definitely sounds like jazz. "Hey, what's up?" Rebekah says, walking into the room behind Elena with a glass of champagne with the Roberts twins.
"You invited me to talk and kidnap me to somewhere I don't even know where," Elena exclaims, waving her arms around dramatically.
"Please, you're not that important. We just can't have you know where we live," Sara retorts, rolling her eyes and wondering how Stefan put up with her.
"Yeah, we're just trying on our Homecoming dresses; what do you think?" Beth asks, twirling around in a pretty satin blue dress. Sara wears a purple dress similar to her twin's, while Rebekah wears a red cocktail dress. Elena looks at them in shock at their careless attitude as the twins walk out to try on some more dresses.
"You've compelled your own private runaway show?" Elena questions, looking at the blond Original.
"Of course not," Rebekah scoffs at the audacity of the Doppelganger. "We all need Homecoming dresses. So what do you think?" She slowly twirls around.
"Heh. I'm not here to help you shop. I'm here to talk about why you don't want me to wake up, Mikael," She grumbles, frowning at the privileged blond. Rebekah rushes over to her as Sara and Beth walk inside, seeing the blond Original with her fangs out at Elena in anger.
"I said, what do you think, Elena?" The Original Vampire repeats the question.
"The red one!" The brunette human shrieks, cowering away at the sight of the fangs.
"There. That wasn't so hard, was it?" Rebekah smirks, returning to the Roberts twins, who have changed into green and blue short dresses with puffy skirts.
"What do you think?" The Roberts twins ask.
"I like it," Elena answers, though her opinion isn't requested.
"I agree, it looks great on you two," Rebekah agrees reluctantly with the Doppelganger and takes her glass of champagne, moving closer to her. "You do not threaten me. You will learn what I allow you to learn. Is that clear?" Elena nods quickly in fear, glad she gets any answers to her questions.
Alaric continues working on deciphering the symbols when Bonnie turns up at his apartment, knocking on the door before entering. "Hey there," Bonnie greets him, walking over and joining him at the table.
"Bonnie. Come on in," Alaric smiles at the young Witch.
"Got your message," She replies, looking at the photos.
"Yeah, great. Uh... I'm sorry the place is such a mess. I'm obsessed," He tells her, gesturing to the table full of pictures.
"Brought you the necklace that wouldn't die," The Bennett Witch informs him, taking out the necklace and handing it over.
"That's great. Are you okay?" The History Teacher asks, seeing her downcast face.
"Been better," Bonnie retorts.
"Listen, Jeremy is an idiot, and I know this with certainty because I was once a Jeremy. Trust me. We learn eventually," Alaric assures her, not knowing what is happening between her and Jeremy. He shows her a photo. "So I've been staring at this image all day, wondering why it looked so familiar…" He takes the necklace and places it next to the picture. "And I was right."
"It's the same design," She gasps, looking at them.
"So your Grandmother said this necklace belonged to the Witch that put the Hybrid Curse on Klaus, right?" He questions, looking at her. "This symbol is repeated all across the wall, and I've been trying to figure out what it meant. Now I know," He writes on another Post-it note and sticks it on the photo before showing it to Bonnie, seeing the word 'Witch' written on it.
Rebekah and Elena walk along the hallway of the Pack Den, leaving Sara and Beth behind to get changed as dinner begins; the girls enter Stefan's bedroom, surprising the Doppelganger at the dark room with a wooden panel behind the low queen-sized bed. "How fun is this?" Rebekah questions, looking around the room.
"We shouldn't be here," Elena tells her, stepping inside behind her.
"Of course we should. Come on. Like you've never wanted to snoop," She retorts, going to the black metal drawers, opening the top drawer, finding his underwear and taking out a pair of boxers. "Boxer briefs. Now, that's a change from the twenties."
"Are you gonna root through his stuff all night, or are you gonna start to tell me your story?" The dark-haired human questions, looking at the blond.
"You really are no fun. What do you want to know?" The Original Vampire asks, turning to face the Doppelganger with irritation.
"Well, Elijah said that your Father was a landowner in Europe. How did you guys end up here?" Elena asks her, remembering her short conversations with the Noble Original.
"My parents had just started a family when a plague struck their homeland. They lost a child to it. They wanted to escape and protect their future family from the same fate." Rebekah explains softly, thinking of the simpler time when they were all human.
"So, how did you end up here? This part of the world hadn't even been discovered yet," She wonders.
"Not by anyone in your history books. But my Mother knew the Witch Ayana, who heard from the spirits of a mystical land where everyone was healthy... Blessed by the gifts of speed and strength. That led my family here, where we lived amongst those people," The blond Original tells her, not looking at her.
"The Werewolves?" The Doppelganger questions, thinking of what Alaric told her about the symbols on the cave wall.
"To us, they were just our neighbours. My family lived in peace with them for over 20 years, during which time my family had more children, including me," Rebekah adds, smiling softly as she thinks of her little Brother.
"You make it sound so normal," Elena comments, looking at the Vampire.
"It was. Once a month, our family retreated to the caves beneath our village. The wolves would howl through the night, and by morning, we'd return home," She replies, shrugging her shoulders and reminiscing about the long-forgotten past.
A young Rebekah looked at necklaces hanging in the window of her neighbour's house when she touched one out of curiosity, the one she would later wear, and so would a Doppelganger. A woman watched the blond girl eyeing the necklace when suddenly the necklace burned her hand on contact, making her hiss in pain; looking around and seeing the other woman. "Ayana, you burned me!" Rebekah gasped.
"That is not yours to touch," Ayana replied when they heard someone screaming from outside, a voice they recognised.
"Mother!" Niklaus screamed, running into the centre of the village.
"Is that Niklaus? Something is wrong," she gasped, spotting Klaus running with a limp Henrik in his arms. The blond ran outside, joining the others, with Ayana behind her. "Henrik!"
"Mother!" He screamed again.
"One full moon, Klaus and my youngest Brother Henrik snuck out to watch the men turn into beasts. That was forbidden. Henrik paid the price," Rebekah tells Elena.
Elijah and Esther rushed over to Niklaus and Henrik, with the other siblings not far behind. Niklaus kneeled on the ground, gently placing Henrik on the ground. "Henrik, no. No. What happened?" Esther demanded, looking at her Son.
"The wolves. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Niklaus sobbed, sitting in the dirt.
"We must save him," she declared, tears running down her face. Looking at Ayana for help, she said, "Please, there must be a way."
"The spirits will not give us a way, Esther. Your boy is gone," Ayana informed her, unfortunately feeling horrible about how devastated her friend was.
"No, no!" The Mother shrieked as the Mikaelson family cried for their lost Brother and Son. Nikalus leaned back into Rebekah as she stood behind him, stroking his hair and trying to soothe her Older Brother.
"And that was the beginning of the end of the peace with our neighbours. And one of the last moments my family had together as humans," Rebekah finishes her story almost when Elena's phone rings. "You better get that. That'll be Damon checking up on you."
"Hello?" Elena answers the phone, but there's a lot of noise on the other line. "Damon, where are you?"
"No idea, but I'm pretty sure I'm overdressed. Still standing?" Damon asks her, growing a little worried about her being alone with the blond Original and not knowing she's actually alone with the Original as she's in the Pack Den of Klaus' Hybrids, Werewolves and humans.
"Yes. I'm fine, but I can't talk right now," she assures him, and she hears Stefan talking to Damon in the background. "Was that Stefan?"
"Yeah. I kind of went off-book, but don't worry. I know what I'm doing," He tells her, looking at his Brother.
"Damon, where are you two?" The Doppelganger asks him, turning her back to Rebekah, who smirks, knowing Blake is with Stefan at the Grill.
"I've got this, Elena," The sassy Vampire repeats before hanging up.
"Trouble?" Rebekah asks, making Elena turn around to face the blond Original, who has a smirk on her face.
"You know where they are?" Elena glares bravely at the blond Vampire.
Damon hangs up the phone and turns to Stefan and Blake as they sit at the bar at the Mystic Grill. "What are we drinking?" Damon asks his Brother.
"Hopefully, something a little bit warmer, a little blonder," Stefan jokes, turning around and leaning on the bar. The waitress comes over, and Damon smiles, eyeing the blond woman.
"Men," Blake groans.
"Hi," The waitress greets them, moving towards the two attractive Brothers.
"Hello, Callie," Damon greets her, reading her nametag. "I would love a shot of your best whiskey, and my Brother here would love a shot of you. The girl would like a soda." He compels Callie and takes her arm.
"What's the catch, Damon?" Blake demands, looking at the older Brother.
"No catch, Brother. Drink up. It's on me," He assures them, and Stefan looks at the waitress and then at Blake.
"No thanks," Stefan declines, as he has a cup of blood for breakfast every morning. Damon looks at his former blood-junky Brother in surprise but accepts, turning to the blond waitress.
"Hi Callie," The older Salvatore Brother smiles at her as they move to a table with their drinks and the waitress, her sitting in his lap. Blake sits close to Stefan, who moves his arm around the back of her chair.
"Drink up, Brother," He says, moving the empty glass across the table and beginning to play a game with some coins.
"Will you get us another bottle of this, hmm?" Damon compels Callie again, looking into her eyes, and she complies, getting up and leaving. "You've been on this bunny diet for the better part of 50 years, so how is it that Saint Stefan, of all people, gets good at a drinking game?"
"Well, the bunny diet gave me a lot of time to practice. Wallow in despair. Drown in guilt. Regret my existence. It's precision born out of tragic boredom," The younger Salvatore Brother retorts with a smirk, and Blake rests her head on his shoulder. "Drink up, Brother," He wins again.
"All that effort wasted trying to tell you how boring you were, and now you finally agree with me?" The sassy Vampire jokes lighten up a little as he drinks more.
"Damon, you are worse than Elena. Getting me drunk. Brotherly bonding. What, you think I'll break down, and you can pull me back from the edge? Is that it?" Stefan questions, not buying the act.
"I happen to like this new Stefan. Your problem was your inability to resist falling over the edge. You were all or nothing, man. You couldn't just be. Although... Who am I to judge?" He remarks, missing the time he used to spend with his Brother before Katherine. Callie returns and sits on Damon's leg as he wins this round. "Drink up, Brother."
"I'm going to the ladies," Blake announces, getting up and grabbing her bag. Damon looks at his Brother and sees his eyes following the ginger Werewolf.
"She's a nice girl, I suppose," The older Salvatore Brother comments, making Stefan look at him with a frown.
"You giving me dating advice?" Stefan questions.
"No. I just think you need someone like her," He assures her.
"If you're going to ask about me and Elena, I'm over her completely as you guessed." The former Ripper replies calmly before throwing another coin into the glass. "Drink up, Brother."
Rebekah lies on her stomach on Stefan's bed, reading one of his journals as Elena paces across the room. "Did you get your fill of snooping yet? Can we get on with the story?" Elena demands, growing annoyed and bolder. Rebekah gets up and looks around the room, finding some photos from Stefan's past, even seeing one from over the summer with him and Lorilei.
"Honestly, I don't get you two as a couple," Rebekah remarks, looking at the Doppelganger with distaste.
"Why would you? You don't know anything about who he really is," She retorts angrily at the blond.
"I know exactly who he is. He's a Vampire. We're a predatory species. We don't have time to care about humans and their silly little lives," The Original Vampire replies with a sneer.
"Is that why you did that runway show earlier? Because you don't care about the Homecoming Dance?" The Doppelganger questions the older Vampire, but she doesn't answer. "You know what? I'm just gonna go." She gets up from the end bed bench and moves towards the door.
"You haven't even heard half the story," Rebekah tells her.
"And you're not going to tell it. You're just bored and looking for someone to push around. Find someone else to play with. Maybe you can compel yourself a friend," Elena snaps at the blond Original Vampire.
"The necklace wasn't Stefan's to give. It belonged to the Original Witch," She informs the girl.
"The one who put the Hybrid Curse on Klaus?" The brunette human questions, trying to piece everything together.
"Not just the Hybrid Curse. She's the one who turned us into Vampires," The Original Vampire adds with a tight smile.
Mikael and Esther sat in their home with Ayana after burying their youngest Son, Henrik. "Please, Ayana, I impore you," Mikael pleaded with the Witch. "You must call upon the spirits before the next full moon."
"I will not. It is a crime against nature," Ayana argued, shaking her head at her two closest friends.
"Ayana, we have already lost too much. We cannot lose any more. The spirits can help us find a way to protect our children," Esther begged her friend and teacher. The three adults were unaware that Rebekah was listening outside.
"I'm thirsty. Do you want a drink?" Rebekah asks, stopping her story for a second. Elena nods, agreeing and wanting to find out where she is. Rebekah walks out of Stefan's bedroom and onto the lifts. Elena can't help but be surprised at the size of the building and wonder where this place sits in Mystic Falls. The two women stand in the lift, and Elena watches Rebekah press the ground-floor button.
"So, Vampirism was a form of protection?" Elena asks, breaking the silence.
"What else would it be?" She questions as the lift stops after a moment before the doors open, and they step out into the lobby.
"A Curse," The Doppelganger argues, following the blond Vampire through the building. Elena looks around, impressed, until they come to a door made of black-painted wood.
"My parents only saw a way of keeping their children alive," The Original Vampire replies, opening the door. She is glad that no one is inside the office; only the Alphas, Klaus, and Lorilei are inside. Still, she wants to keep Elena away from the others for their own safety.
"Yeah, but why stay? If they were so afraid of the Werewolves, why not leave?" Elena wonders, stepping into the room and closing the door behind herself.
"Pride. My Father didn't want to run anymore," Rebekah replies, moving to the wet bar in the corner. "He wanted to fight and be superior to the wolves. Where they could bite, we had to bite harder. Where they had speed, we had to be faster. Agility, strength, senses."
Mikael talked with his wife and friend that night after the funeral of his Son. "Everything could be heightened. Our family could live forever," Mikael reasoned, needing to destroy his enemies.
"At what cost? This magic you speak of breed's consequence. This is the makings of a plague, Esther. The spirits will turn on you," Ayana warned her friends.
"Please, Ayana," Esther begged her mentor and friend again, wanting to protect her remaining children.
"I will have no part in it," She refused before leaving her friends' home, and Mikael turned to his wife.
"If she will not protect our family... Then it is in your hands alone, My Love," Mikael told her meaningfully.
"In her hands? How could she do anything?" Elena asks the other teen, sitting in one of the armchairs and watching Rebekah look around the office.
"Because my Mother was also a Witch," Rebekah reveals with a tight smile at the thought of her Mother.
"What?" She gasps, looking at the blond teen.
"The Witch of the Original Family, the Original Witch," The Original Vampire simplifies, smirking at Elena's surprise. "Where do they keep their best vintage?" She muses, searching the bottles.
"But if your Mother was a Witch, then…" The Doppelganger questions, pointing at her.
"Am I? No. A Witch is nature's servant. A Vampire is an abomination of nature. You can either be one or the other, never both. My Mother did this for us. She did not turn," Rebekah explains. She finds a bottle of vintage wine she knows the Alphas will hopefully not miss.
"How did you turn?" Elena asks.
"She called upon the sun for life and the ancient white oak tree, one of nature's eternal objects, for immortality. That night, my Father offered us wine laced with blood. And then he drove his sword through our hearts." She tells her with a straight face.
"He killed you," The human gasps in shock at the thought of a Father killing their children.
"And he wasn't delicate about it either," The blond teen remarks, opening the bottle of wine and grabbing some glasses.
Rebekah woke up with a gasp after dinner with her family and drank the blood-laced wine where her Father stabbed her through the heart with his sword. Next, Niklaus woke up next to her. "Rebekah," Klaus called his little Sister as she looked at the blood stains on her dress.
"Blood. What happened?" Rebekah asked, looking around at her older Brothers. Klaus moved closer to her and pulled her closer to him.
"It'll be all right. We will be all right," He assured her when Mikael walked into the room with a weeping girl the same age as his Daughter. "What are you doing?"
"We must finish what we started. You have to drink if you want to live," Mikael ordered his children, moving the girl closer and cutting her arm with a knife, making the girl cry.
"We had to drink more blood to complete the ritual," Rebekah tells Elena, moving to sit opposite her.
"Drink!" Mikael snapped as Klaus fought with him, so Klaus pushed him away and looked at his Daughter. "Drink!" Mikael took Rebekah's head and made her drink from the girl's wrist, and Klaus watched.
"It was euphoric," She explains, sipping her wine glass. "The feeling of power was indescribable. But the Witch Ayana was right about the consequences. The spirits turned on us, and nature fought back. For every strength, there would be a weakness."
The new blond Original Vampire passed a window at home, which burned her skin, making her hiss.
"The sun became our enemy. It kept us indoors for weeks," The blond Original Vampire adds.
Rebekah later walked through the village in daylight, looking at her ring, which was now sitting on her finger.
"And then my Mother found a solution," Rebekah says.
Two girls from the village look at Rebekah and run, afraid of the innocent blond young woman.
"There were other problems," She smiles.
Rebekah looked at a man and woman, and the couple was afraid of her and her family. The couple entered their house.
"Neighbours who had opened their homes to us could now keep us out," The blond Vampire sighs.
Rebekah stood next to the tree in the centre of the village and touched the flowers at the base of the tree, burning her skin and making her hiss in pain.
"Flowers at the base of the White Oak burned and prevented compulsion. And the spell decreed that the tree that gave us life could also take it away. So we burned it to the ground," Rebekah tells her, not wanting her to get any ideas.
The Mikaelson family watched the great tree burn. Rebekah watched at a safe distance and turned her head, looking at two men from the village with hunger in her eyes.
"But the darkest consequence was something my parents never anticipated… The hunger," She explains.
Rebekah followed the two men, stalking them like prey.
"Blood had made us reborn, and it was blood that we craved above all else. We could not control it," The Vampire says, thinking of the hunger she had for the first time.
Rebekah vamped out, rushing over to one of the men, bit into his neck and drank his blood.
"And with that... the predatory species was born," The Original Vampire states, taking a large gulp of her wine.
Blake returns from the bathroom to find Damon dancing on top of the bar with Callie and another woman, leaving Stefan alone at the table; she joins him, sitting next to him and watching the older Salvatore Brother. "You can't take him anywhere," Blake muses as she watches him.
"I know," Stefan replies with a smirk.
"You know I can hear you, right?" Damon calls over to them and jumps down, leaving the women on the bar.
"We know," Blake replies with a smirk, watching him walk over to them and join them at the table again.
"All right, time to fess up. What's the point of the jailbreak?" Stefan asks his Brother.
"I thought you could use a hug, Stefan," Damon jokes, teasing his younger Brother.
"Come on, Damon. You know Elena's gonna hate you for meeting me, and we both know that you care about what she thinks." He reasons, knowing the Doppelganger has her claws in his older Brother.
"Maybe I wanted to remind you what freedom was like before Klaus took it from you," The snarky Vampire remarks, earning an eye roll from both Stefan and Blake.
"As long as I'm friends with Klaus and Lorilei, I do what they say," The younger Salvatore Brother strongly argues.
"That's my point, Stefan. You've been brainwashed. Now, you can sit around and be their little bitch, or you can get mad enough, and you can do something about it," Damon says, earning a scoff from Blake.
"Damon, Klaus can't be killed, so don't even try," Stefan warns him. "Leave them alone. You'll be killing everyone you know because you can't get it through your thick skull, I am their friend by my own choice."
"Maybe I can help with that," A voice says, making the table occupants look to see Mikael standing there. "The Salvatore boys, I presume."
"Mikael," he gapes, not expecting to see him again. He was told that the man was tied in chains and under protection spells to prevent his escape.
"Why did Mikael start hunting Klaus?" Elena asks, looking at the blond teen opposite her.
"When Nik made his first human kill, it triggered his Werewolf gene. With that, he became my Father's greatest shame," Rebekah explains with regret.
"Yeah. Elijah told me this part of the story. Your Mother had had an affair with one of the Werewolf villagers. Klaus wasn't his Son," She says, looking at her and remembering her talk before the ritual with the Noble Original and Lorilei.
"She tried to make it right. She put the Hybrid Curse on Nik to suppress his Werewolf side, and then she turned her back on him, but Mikael's greatest weakness as a human was his pride. As a Vampire, that was magnified. He went on a rampage and killed half the village. Then he came home and killed her," The blond Original explains, thinking of her Mother's death.
"Mikael killed your Mother?" The Doppelganger gasps.
"He said she broke his heart so he would break hers. He tore it from her chest as Nik watched. Afterwards, my Father took off in a rage, and the rest of my family scattered." Rebekah tells her, thinking of the woman they buried soon after their younger Brother.
Niklaus dug a hole with his shovel for his Mother, and Rebekah stood by him.
"Nik stayed so he could help me bury her. He knew I had to say goodbye to my Mother." Rebekah explains shortly.
"I know you think she hated you, Niklaus, but she did not. She was just afraid. I'm sorry she turned her back on you. I will never do that," Rebekah told him as Elijah joined them.
"Nor will I," Elijah assured his younger siblings.
"We stick together as one. Always and forever," she said, holding her hands out to them, and they took them as she cried.
"Always and forever. Even though he locked you in a coffin for 90 years?" Elena questions her decision.
"We're Vampires. Our emotions are heightened. I'm stubborn, Elijah moral, and Nik... Nik has no tolerance for those who disappoint him. Over a thousand years as a family, we've all made that mistake at least once. I've made it several times," Rebekah replies with a shrug.
"But you still love him?" She wonders.
"He's my Brother, and I am immortal. Should I spend an eternity alone instead? You've heard the story. It's time to go. I said leave, Elena. I don't know what you're up to, but I am no longer playing along," The blond Vampire argues, wanting the Doppelganger to go now as she stands up from the chair.
"I'm just looking for one good reason why we shouldn't wake Mikael," The brunette snaps, standing seated.
"And I've given you a thousand. But you will anyway. I know you want him to help you kill my Brother. I'm not stupid," Rebekah sneers angrily.
"It's no secret that I want Klaus dead. He has a hold over Stefan's life and mine," Elena argues, shaking her head and getting up from the armchair.
"Do what you need. Wake Mikael at your own peril. But make no mistake. If you come after my Brother, I will rip you apart. And I get my temper from my Father. Now leave," she threatens her, making Elena leave the office. However, she doesn't see anything else as everything goes black.
"Has Klaus entered the country?" Mikael asks, sitting opposite Stefan at the table while Blake sits, holding Stefan's hand, and Damon watches.
"I won't tell you," Stefan replies, glaring at the man.
"Has he spoken to you since he left?" He asks another question.
"I'm not telling you," The younger Vampire repeats.
"All right. Can you tell me the last time you spoke to Niklaus?" The Vampire Hunter tries compelling him, but it doesn't work, as Stefan takes Vervain.
"I can't be compelled to tell you what he says, and even if I did tell you, it'd be to keep my damn mouth shut." Stefan sneers angrily.
"I really hope this game of 20 questions isn't your secret weapon," Damon comments, looking at them.
"You see, Damon, I've been a Vampire Hunter longer than you've been alive. It's why I found you here. It's why I'm gonna find Niklaus," Mikael retorts, glancing at the older Salvatore Brother.
"Well, Klaus has been running for about a thousand years, so if you think you're gonna get a workaround, he…" Stefan remarks, and Mikael thrusts his fist into Damon's chest, making him gasp, and Blake jumps to her feet.
"Careful, Stefan. One move and his heart's gone. Now... Where is Klaus? Come on. What's the trick question, Stefan? One twist, and he's dead—unless you don't care, of course." He says, looking at the former Ripper, who glares at the Original Vampire.
"His emotions have been shut off. He can't care," Damon argues, trying to stop Mikael.
"Really? His link to Klaus is so strong that... He would let his own Brother die? No ideas? Hmm? Think, Stefan," The Original Vampire Hunter muses, but Stefan doesn't say anything, and Mikael looks at Damon. "I guess you're right. He's a dead end. And so are you, Damon."
"Wait. I can bring him back. I can lure Klaus back to Mystic Falls," Stefan blurts out, making Blake look at him in shock. She knows Stefan's loyal to Klaus and wonders why he's selling Klaus out now for his Brother. Mikael removes his hand from Damon's chest and wipes his hand clean with a napkin from the table. "And there is our loophole. Just had to rile him up a bit. Get Klaus back to Mystic Falls, and I will gladly drive a stake through his heart. Fail... I'll drive it through yours." He gets up from his seat and walks out of the Grill, leaving the Salvatore Brothers and Blake, who look at each other.
"Stefan, a word!" Blake growls, her eyes turning gold. Stefan looks at her and jumps to his feet, pulling her away to the bathrooms so his Brother won't hear them. Blake slaps Stefan across the face before he can say anything.
"I got a text," Stefan informs her and fishes out his phone, showing her the text from Lorilei after Rebekah had called her about Elena.
"Who was that then?" Blake wonders, looking out at the restaurant.
"Robert," He answers with a smile.
"She's amazing," She sighs, glad he hasn't betrayed Klaus.
Alaric takes Elena back to the cave under the old Lockwood Cellar, and Bonnie is there to show her what they've put together. "Yeah. Filled in what we could. Got Vampire, Werewolf, slaughter, mayhem, et cetera, et cetera." Alaric explains, putting post-it notes next to the symbols matching each word as Elena looks at them.
"That's the white oak tree that was used in the spell to create the Vampires. Which means that was when they burned down the tree, destroying the only way that they could be killed." Elena informs them after she talks with Rebekah earlier, and she finds herself alone on the porch of her home when she wakes up.
"Okay, so tree equals weapon, sort of, but we already knew that. What we're not sure about is this. We've got the Witch symbol and what looks like a bleeding heart. Upside-down figures usually signify death of some kind," He tells her, pointing at the symbols.
"Mikael killed the Witch by ripping out her heart. But why is that one connected to the Witch's death?" She wonders, looking at them.
"I don't know. We haven't gotten that far," Bonnie informs her.
"Oh, my God. Rebekah doesn't know the real story," The Doppelganger gasps, stopping herself from smiling at the news and feeling the need to tell her.
Rebekah stands in her bedroom with a glass of scotch, needing to decompress after her talk with Elena. She gets another text from Elena, who allows her to go back to the Pack Den with the Alphas' approval again. "I thought I told you to leave twice?" Rebekah questions, not looking at her as she enters the room.
"How do you know that Mikael killed your Mother?" Elena asks her, avoiding the question, and Rebekah sighs.
"Nik was there. He told me," She argues, turning to face the Doppelganger.
"He lied to you," The dark-haired human informs her.
"And how do you know that?" The blond Original Vampire inquires.
"The cave where you carved your family's names is covered in symbols, the story of your family…" Elena reveals and takes out the photos, puts the pictures on the end table, and shows them to Rebekah. "How your parents arrived, how they made peace, the spell that turned them into vampires, and this. This is the symbol for Hybrid. It's the combination of the Werewolf and the Vampire symbol. And this is the one for your Mother." She shows more photos with the necklace symbol.
"Her necklace," Rebekah mutters, looking at it.
"And this is the story of her death," She says, showing more pictures. The Hybrid killed the Original Witch, not Mikael, Klaus."
"No. No, he wouldn't," The Original Vampire shakes her head in denial and anger.
"She put the curse on him, made it so that he would be the only one of his kind, and then she rejected him. With the Werewolf gene comes aggression and violence. When he turned, all of that was heightened. He killed her, Rebekah, and then he made up this entire lie about your Father so that he wouldn't lose you." The Doppelganger tells her, thrusting the pictures in her face.
"These mean nothing. They're just stupid drawings. Done by stupid people who had no idea who my family was!" Rebekah shouts, taking the photos and throwing them into the fireplace.
"Then why are you so upset?" Elena counters smugly, folding her arms.
"Why are you doing this to me? I've done nothing to you!" She cries as tears fall down her face.
"Klaus killed your Mother. He has a hold on you, on me, on everyone. He has for a thousand years. We have to make it stop," The brunette says, trying to get the Original on her side.
"Shut up! Just shut up!" The vulnerable Vampire weeps, grabbing Elena by the neck and pushing her against the wall. "Don't talk anymore! Nothing!" She releases her and cries, falling to her knees. Elena looks at her, and the door bursts open behind her, making her jump to see Sara and Beth rushing inside to see their friend crying by the fireplace.
"Get out. You're not welcome here anymore," the twins snap, their eyes glowing in anger, and Elena backs out of the room.
"I need to call Lorilei," Rebekah sobs, but Sara stops her, seeing Phoebe in the doorway.
"I'll let the Alphas know. We'll get this sorted for you, Bekah," Phoebe assures her before walking away.
Damon and Stefan leave the Mystic Grill as Blake stays behind, getting a call from her parents. "Well, I give you 10 points for flair," Damon comments as they walk to his car.
"At least now we know where Klaus and Elijah learned their tricks from," Stefan remarks, feeling his phone buzzing in his pocket.
"Don't think you had to wait till the last second to have your breakthrough, though," He snaps lightly at his younger Brother.
"Didn't have a breakthrough, Damon," The younger Salvatore Brother argues.
"'Ooh. Ooh, my Brother's about to die, and I just had to save his life for the billionth time.'" The sassy Vampire mimics his Brother. "Careful, Stefan. Your humanity's showing."
"Actually, you know what? You're right, Damon. You're right. You reminded me what my freedom felt like. Ah. And when we kill Klaus, I'll be free, free to leave," Stefan replies sarcastically. "I didn't do this for you, Damon. I have other reasons for doing this. And none of them are about you or Elena."
"Sure, Stefan. Whatever you say," Damon shrugs, not believing his words, still in denial.
"Why are you doing this, huh? What do you want from me? Why is everybody trying to save me?" Stefan asks, looking at him, and Blake emerges from the Grill.
"Because I have to, Stefan. Because you're in this mess with Klaus because you saved my life, because I owe you. And I can't just leave you in a cell to rot," He argues, thrusting his arms out and nearly hitting Blake in the face.
"Aww. Better be careful, Brother. Your humanity's showing," The former Ripper jokes and pulls Blake towards him. Damon punches Stefan, who rushes at him, but the older Salvatore is faster and throws him to the ground, then kicks him in the stomach. Stefan laughs, but Blake doesn't find it funny as she pushes Damon away, punching him.
The Alphas sit in their office at the Pack Den after Elena is sent away again, and Rebekah cries in her bedroom with the twins comforting her. The Alphas are on the phone with Klaus and Lorilei, explaining what they've learned from Rebekah in between her sobs. Klaus soon hangs up in a rage, and Lorilei calms him down as best she can as he calls his Sister, who ignores his calls. Lorilei tries calling her this time, and Rebekah answers. "Beks, you need to talk to Nik," Lorilei tells her softly, hearing her sobs through the phone. "Let him explain." She hands the phone to Klaus, who sighs before speaking to his little Sister.
Elena comes out of her bathroom after being kicked out by Rebekah again on the porch of her house. She enters her bedroom to find Damon waiting for her on her bed. "Damon, seriously?" Elena questions, looking at him and wondering why he's here.
"We got Mikael," Damon informs her with a smug grin.
"What? How?" She asks him, frowning.
"No idea. I guess Katherine came through. The plan's in motion. See? Told you I had it. Go ahead. Kick, yell, scream. I'm sure you've been planning your rant all day," He replies, looking at her.
"I'm not gonna yell at you," The Doppelganger assures him, feeling the effects of the day taking their toll.
"Why not? I went behind your back to see Stefan. And you know what? It backfired. He's an even bigger dick than ever. It's just now he's a dick that's on our side," The smug Vampire tells her, looking at the beautiful teenager.
"I'm not mad. I'm tired. I just... I want to go to bed," Elena retorts, pulling on her duvet to get Damon off her bed, but he doesn't budge.
"No, I think Mikael's weapon is a stake because he mentioned something about it," Damon comments, looking at her.
"Well, then they must have carved it from the white oak tree before they burned it down." She muses, thinking of Rebekah's story from earlier.
"So I was right. After all that, the wall led us to Mikael." He grins, and she finally lies in her bed beside Damon, giving up. She goes under the covers while he lies above them.
"It led us to more than just that. I think I got Rebekah on our side, too," The Doppelganger tells him, smiling at him.
"Really? What'd you learn from her?" The older Salvatore Brother questions, looking at her.
"I learned that she's just a girl, that she lost her mom too young, and she loves blindly and recklessly, even if it consumes her," Elena tells him and turns on her side so she can look at Damon. "You know, when all is said and done, there's nothing more important than the bond of family."
"You should tell that to my Brother," Damon retorts.
"I'm not mad at you for seeing him, Damon," she assures him, turning off her light and leaving them in the dark. "I think that you're gonna be the one to save him from himself. It won't be because he loves me. It'll be because he loves you. Can I tell you the rest tomorrow?"
"Sure," He agrees, and she closes her eyes as he stays next to her, watching her while she falls asleep with love in his eyes.
Rebekah sits at the table with the others for a late dinner as the adults talk, and Stefan and Blake come in, joining them. "What are we going to do?" Martin asks, looking at the other Alphas.
"We do what Lorilei told us. They want to kill Klaus with Mikael's help, but she can't find the weapon he keeps thinking about. That's why Stefan is going to keep tabs on them, if that's alright with you?" Leo asks, looking at Stefan, who sits at the table.
"Lorilei already asked me. I told her sure. But they're likely thinking Rebekah's on their side too." Stefan tells them, digging into his food.
"I don't know what to do," Rebekah mutters, hanging her head after talking with her Brother and hearing what he told her about what happened that day. She doesn't know if she can forgive him, but she can understand a little, and he even promises that once Mikael is dealt with, he'll wake their siblings.
"You do what you think is best," Diana tells her, placing her hand on the blond Original's, trying to comfort her.
