The night forest was full of life. The sounds of owls and rodents scurrying around in the bushes and trees disturbed the heavy silence... along with the sound of a shovel hitting a rock...

Elena, Jenna and Bonnie were shivering from cold nearby, while we all waited at the ruins of the old church, until the Salvatore brothers finished the preparations. Each breath we took came back out of our mouths as little clouds of steam, so I guess it was pretty cold, but that was the only indication of the low temperature for me. I felt nothing.

My head was clear of any thoughts as I stared at the hole in the ground where the sounds of a digging shovel were coming from with empty gaze, absentmindedly clutching Emily's Grimoire to my chest.

Caroline and Jeremy had already left to the party after giving me hugs and a few encouraging words, but I could feel anxiety radiating from both of them.

Everyone was on edge.

I was shaken out of my thoughts when the sound of a digging shovel had abruptly stopped, replaced by the sound of approaching footsteps.

"Cleared the debris away," Stefan said emerging from the ground. "Damon is finishing setting the torches like you asked. We can get down now."

He approached a large rock and put the shovel in his hands near a big pile of some weird looking equipment.

"What is that?" Bonnie inquired, eyeing the weird looking piece of technology.

"Is that a flamethrower?" Jenna asked dubiously.

"It's everything I need to destroy them," Stefan nodded.

I tuned them out and descended the stairs, guided by the light of a lamp that one of the brothers conveniently hung on the wall.

Damon stood with a flashlight in his hands right in front of the door to the tomb itself and watched me enter with his piercing blue eyes. Four unlit torches were installed in the middle of the cave, just as I requested, so without wasting any time, I went and stood right in the middle of the circle of torches.

Everyone else entered right behind me and gathered near the wall, making sure not to get in my way. I nodded at Stefan and he threw me a little bottle filled with water.

"Fire," I intoned and the torches lit up, scaring the darkness away and basking the chamber in warm orange light. I ignored the gasps of wonder from the girls and continued. "Earth." With my second word the stone of the floor rose slightly, creating a thin, half inch high stone circle right inside the circle of torches, indicating the response of the second element. "Air." The third element's response was accompanied by the screeching noise, as another circle appeared inside the circle of stone as if carved in the stone floor by the gust of wind so strong that it was able to cut through the rock. "Water." I called for the last element, uncapped the bottle and poured the water on the floor. The water however wasn't mindlessly splashed across the floor, but rather gathered in the air into a huge drop, before turning into a thin line that circled around me in the air. The circle of water then touched the ground right inside the circle of air and the preparations were now complete.

"Wow... that was..." I heard Elena whisper to the girls in astonishment.

"...magical." Jenna whispered back, just as astonished.

Bonnie just nodded, observing my actions with shining eyes, hungrily taking in the display of magic.

"ἐγώ αἰτέω μήτηρ ἑλκόω ἥδε ἔθισμα. (Mother, please, bless this ritual)" I whispered quietly in Ancient Greek, sending a prayer to Mother Magic with my eyes closed and my face turned to the starry sky that could be clearly seen through the hole in the ceiling of the chamber, which appeared there the day Bonnie fell down here and got trapped.

I prayed with all my heart for the ritual to go without a hitch, even though somewhere deep in my gut I knew that it was all in vain.


3rd POV

"What is she saying?" Damon asked his brother quietly with a frown, fidgeting with something in the inner pocket of his jacket. "I'm not familiar with that language, but you're the one who went to college, like, billion times for some reason, so what do you think?"

"I went to college only three times, Damon." Stefan sighed exasperatedly. "And no, I don't know that language. But by the sound of it, I can make an assumption that it's some variation of Ancient Greek. I assume that's where her ancestors came from."

"Huh. Who knew?" Damon shrugged, dismissing the topic completely and finally took out the item that his hands involuntarily kept touching in the last ten minutes.

"What's that?" Stefan took notice of his brother's fidgeting and peaked at the item in his hands, which turned out to be a blood bag.

"It's for Kathrine. Gotta have something to get her going, since I assume that none of our beautiful companions would be generous enough to offer their veins to tap." He smirked and waived cheekily at the girls only to receive a collective eye roll in return. He snickered and turned back to his little brother. "Admit it - you can't wait to get rid of me." Damon whispered to him dramatically.

Stefan simply chuckled and shook his head at his brother's antics, neither admitting nor denying Damon's statement.

"Come on, admit it!" Damon nudged him playfully in the shoulder, only to receive another eye roll in return.

"It wasn't that bad to have you around, Damon." Stefan then stated calmly and looked the older Salvatore in the eyes.

Damon's teasing smirk wavered a little, an unreadable emotion flickered in his eyes. He wasn't expecting this type of answer from his brother whom he promised an eternity of misery to.

Their relationship after they turned was complicated at best and filled with blood and betrayal, but they were pretty much inseparable when they were human. The Salvatore brothers - the bestest of friends. Neither of them would admit it, but deep down they both earned for that long lost connection to be revived.

Their moment was interrupted when Thalia suddenly stopped her prayer.

"I'm ready." She sighed and opened her eyes, before turning to the girls near the wall and giving them a calm and encouraging smile.

It seemed to calm their nerves a bit, but both vampires could tell from the stiffness of her shoulders and her rapidly beating heart that she was anything but calm.

They shared a look, but both decided against pointing that out, each for their own reason. And if Damon didn't want to waste their precious time, which would definitely happen if Elena and Jenna started fussing about it, Stefan was afraid that it would break Thalia's concentration which could result in dire consequences.

Following Stefan's train of thoughts, Thalia spoke once again as she opened Emily's Grimoire at the marked page with the spell.

"Make sure not to interrupt me while I'm chanting. It doesn't matter how it looks, even if it looks like I'm dying, if you break my concentration, the spell will backfire and then I can really die."

Everyone exchanged worrying glances and murmured in understanding.

Thalia pointed her right hand at the door to the tomb and started chanting.

"Phasmatos Tribum, Melan Veras, Et Vasa Quisa, Exu Quisa." The second Thalia intoned the first part of the spell, the torches flared up, the fire rising to the ceiling, resembling that of a flamethrower. The vampires took an instinctive step back, mindful of the dangerous flames that were one of the few sure ways to kill a vampire permanently, they were quite flammable after all, while the humans gasped, Elena's hand instinctively grabbed the hands of her aunt and best friend who were just as startled by the illumination of power.

However the Black witch kept chanting as if nothing happened. "Phasmatos Tribum, Melan Veras, Et Vasa Quisa, Exu Quisa." The fire of torches started bending in every which way by the strong wind that appeared to be coming out of nowhere. "Phasmatos Tribum, Melan Veras, Et Vasa Quisa, Exu Quisa."

The sounds of cracking fire and rushing wind died down and the chamber fell into silence for a split second only to be interrupted by the sound of stones grinding against each other. Damon and Stefan moved away from the wall when they realized that the sound was coming from behind their backs, as the stone door slowly moved aside by itself, opening the way inside the tomb.

"It worked!" Bonnie gasped in astonishment and took a tentative step forward.

"Of course it worked," Thalia spared her a smile before returning her attention back to the door and Damon who was already shifting forward about to enter the dark hallway.

"We have some fires to build," he told Stefan without sparing him a glance, his attention solely on the darkness ahead.

Stefan approached his girlfriend and spoke, gently touching her shoulder. "I'm gonna go get the gasoline, I'll be right back."

Elena nodded and the youngest Salvatore left, ascending the stairs out of the tomb.

Damon took a tentative step forward, about to enter, when he was stopped by Thalia.

"Damon, wait. I'm not finished yet. Opening the door didn't remove the seal, it just opened the door."

"What's the seal?" Jenna asked, eyeing her niece with worry. She foolishly thought that everything was over the moment the door was opened.

"Some seals keep vampires from entering. This one keeps them from coming out." Thalia shrugged and focused on the Grimoire.

"Well, I still can enter Glinda, can't I?" Damon asked, his eyes still on the entrance.

"You can, but you won't be able to come out until I removed the seal."

"Alright. You do that, meanwhile I'm gonna look for Kathrine. You'll be finished by the time I'm back, right?"

He didn't wait for her to answer and vamped inside the tomb, his figure disappearing in the darkness.

Thalia sighed and shook her head in annoyance.

"What a love struck idiot," she mumbled, then cleared her throat and turned to the girls. "Alright. Now I'm gonna remove the seal which is the hardest part. Usually it would require a Bennett which to remove the spell of another Bennett which, but thankfully that rule doesn't apply to me, as my magic is more diverse."

She glanced upward at the sky above and nodded seeing the moon in perfect position. That wasn't really necessary as she already could feel the thickness of magic in the air. The power of the full moon and that of the four elements should hopefully be enough to get her through it safely.

She sighed and found the spell in the Grimoire and started chanting again.

"Terra Mora Vantis Quo Incandis, per Vasa Quo Errum Signos. Phasmatos selvus Terra Mora Vantis Quo Incandis, per Vasa Errum Quo Signos. Phasmatos selvus nos ex malom terra mora Vantis Quo Incandis per Vasa Quo Errum Signos. Terra Mora Vantis Quo Incandis."

With the first words of the spell the torches flared up once again, the air became heavy and the girls caught the smell of ozone, as if the air itself was charged with magic so thick, that even a smallest surge of power had a potential to spark the lightning.

They noticed that it was becoming harder to breathe with every second, but what concerned them most was the fact that Thalia's breathing was becoming more shallow with every spoken word, her hands that were holding the Grimoire started shaking.

Everyone except the chanting witch was startled when someone appeared in the chamber with a sudden whooshing sound. Elena gasped upon recognizing Anna and moved to stand protectively in front of her aunt and best friend.

Anna's eyes darted between Thalia, who was watching her with murderous eyes while still chanting the spell as if on autopilot and the dark entrance of the tomb. She took a tentative step forward, making the girls instinctively move closer to the wall in an attempt to get as farther from her as they could, even though there wasn't much space for that, but that was all she did before she suddenly gasped, clutching her head from a sudden excruciating pain.

With a thud, the Grimoire in Thalia's hands fell on the ground as one of her hands pointed at Anna, showing everyone that the vampire's pain was her doing, and all that while still chanting.

Even though she knew that she couldn't lose her concentration as she told her friends countless times already, she couldn't just stand there and do nothing when the vampire that kidnapped her sister and friend made a sudden appearance, her intentions unclear.

It was almost impossible to split her attention like that, which became obvious when she felt a warm sensation under her nose, over her lips and down her chin. Her body was telling her that she had just reached her limit.

"Please!" Anna shrieked, her knees buckled with the intensity of the pain. "I just want my mom back, I won't hurt anyone, I promise. Please! I just want my mom! Just my mom!"

Thalia felt her consciousness wavering and released the vampire, feeling pity for the girl who was desperate and ready to do anything to reunite with her mother.

Feeling the lack of pain, Anna stood up on shaking legs and looked at the witch, who, to her amazement, happened to be more powerful than any other witch she had met before. It was unheard of for someone to be able to divide their attention like that, or for a witch to perform two spells at the same time.

But despite her amazement by the Gilbert witch's show of magical prowess, she knew that she had to grasp the opportunity while she still could, so she took a few tentative steps towards the entrance of the tomb. When the witch did nothing to stop her, she slowly took a blood bag and a flashlight from her pocket and nodded to Thalia.

"Thank you," she murmured before disappearing into the darkness of the tomb.

The second she was gone another vampire whooshed into the chamber drawing squeals from frightened Elena and Bonnie, only for them to immediately relax upon seeing that it was Stefan. A disheveled Stefan with tears and traces of blood on his shirt.

"Anna ambushed me and destroyed the equipment, she..." He hurried to explain to his worried girlfriend.

"We know. She just ran into the tomb. Are you okay?" Elena immediately left the girls to check if Stefan was okay.

"I'm fine. Nothing a quick snack couldn't handle." Stefan said soothingly and hugged Elena to his chest.

However Jenna ignored all this, her attention solely on her niece who looked like she was about to collapse any second.

"That Anna girl broke her concentration!" She spoke hurriedly and took a step towards Thalia, who was still chanting while her whole body slowly started convulsing.

"Oh my God!" Elena gasped upon seeing her sister's condition, her eyes becoming moist with tears. "We need to do something!"

Her anxious screams were interrupted by a loud thunderclap from above. The fire of the torches diminished significantly as if lacking the "fuel" to burn as bright as they did before.

Thalia's voice became quieter and quieter, it quivered as if she struggled to squeeze each word of the spell out of her mouth.

And then everything stopped. The wind disappeared just as suddenly as it appeared before, the fire died down and the chamber fell into complete darkness. The eerie silence engulfed everyone, their ears rang from a sudden lack of the cacophony of sounds that was there just a second ago. Everyone listened with abated breaths but the only thing they could hear was the sound of their own beating hearts and labored breathing.

Just as suddenly as everything came to a stop, the occupants of the chamber burst into motion. Stefan reacted with his inhuman speed, took a flashlight from the bag that they left previously near one of the walls and turned it on, just as Jenna and Elena cried out Thalia's name in anguish.

They received no verbal reply and learned the reason why the moment the flashlight illuminated the center of the antechamber.

Thalia's limp body was sprawled across the center of the ritual circle, her red hair and blood on her chin and lips a stark contrast against the pale color of her skin. Bonnie thought with a sudden horror that her friend looked like a corpse.

"No no no no...!"

Jenna rushed to her niece with tears running down her face, her desperate pleas replacing the ominous silence. She scooped her head up and brushed a few strands of hair from her face with shaking hands, noticing with horror that her skin was as cold as ice, before putting an ear to her mouth.

"I can't... I don't hear her breathing... I think she's not..." Jenna broke into sobs, followed by Elena who frantically tried to feel her sister's pulse on her neck with her shaking fingers. Bonnie silently watched this unfold nearby, her hands covering her mouth in a desperate attempt to stop her own sobs from bursting through her lips, feeling utterly helpless and useless.

Stefan gently pulled his girlfriend aside and put his ear to Thalia's chest.

"She's alive, but barely. I can hear her heartbeat and it's getting weaker by the second," he spoke hurriedly and scooped Thalia's limp body up with ease.

"We need to get her to the hospital!" Jenna cried, relieved that her niece was alive.

"I'm faster than a car." Stefan looked at Jenna and she nodded frantically.

"Go, Stefan, please. Every second counts! We'll be right behind you."

Stefan didn't waste any more time and whooshed away. He could've given Thalia his blood, but he realized with a sudden despair that due to his diet his blood wasn't strong enough. He could've asked Damon, but his brother was still inside looking for Kathrine and he wasn't sure that he would leave his long lost girlfriend's side even to help his friend.

Everyone rushed out after the vampire and ran to their cars, desperate to reach the hospital in time. While on their way Elena called her brother to inform him and her other best friend about what happened.

In their worry for the Black witch, they completely forgot about Damon and Anna, that were still in the tomb. No one even knew if the spell even worked and if the seal was lifted or not.

But surely, just mere seconds after the sound of the girls' footsteps disappeared in the distance, a figure emerged from the dark mouth of the doorway and looked around with confusion.

Its confusion lasted no longer than a few seconds as another figure that it clutched in its arms suddenly stirred and moaned in pain.

Anna shook off her confusion by the lack of the Gilbert witch and her entourage near the entrance and murmured soft words to her mother that she finally was able to hold in her embrace after all these years. She lingered there for another second before disappearing altogether, eager to get her mother to safety in order to nurse her back to health.

Meanwhile, in the dark pathways of the tomb, between the withered and twisted figures of desiccated vampires lying near the walls, rang an anguished cry filled with pain and heartbreak, disrupting the decades long silence.

"SHE'S NOT HERE!"


Somewhere, miles away to the north, in the neighboring town, in the dimly lit room, the Original Hybrid was pacing in front of the fireplace like an anxious lion.

His mind was focused solely on one woman that slowly but surely took a permanent place in his heart, that he long considered dead. He couldn't shake off the ominous feeling of upcoming doom as he thought about the ritual that was taking place at this exact moment some miles away.

He foolishly thought that she would ask for his help at some point during their long discussions, but she never did. She never even hinted that she could use the help of one of his witches, considering the complexity of the unsealing ritual and the condition of her magic.

One part of him was annoyed by the fact that she was so stubbornly endangering herself, while another part couldn't help but admire her insistence on fighting her own battles. It meant that her feelings for him were genuine, that she wasn't using him for his power, connections or his vast resources.

She was truly his perfect match.

He took a sip of his bourbon right from the bottle, which was another sign of his distress, since he would've usually preferred to slowly savor the expensive bottle of his favorite alcohol, rather than chug it down like plain water.

His thoughts turned dark, as annoyance washed over him once again. No matter how much he admired her stubbornness, he vowed to put her across his knee next time she was so foolish to put herself in danger.


Stefan ran into the hospital with Thalia's limp body in his arms and was immediately noticed by the reception nurse who quickly pushed an emergency button before rushing to them with alarmed expression.

"What happened?!"

"I... I think she fell and hit her head or something. I found her near the ruins of the church... there was a party in the woods... and... and... and she must've fallen and hit her head in the dark or something... I don't know... her nose is bleeding as well... I didn't know what to do..." Stefan did his best to sound like a terrified teenager and turned his acting skills on max.

The nurse hastily guided him to the nearby gurney and told him to put her on it. The sound of running footsteps echoed in empty hallways and a second later the doctor on duty came running from around the corner with two other nurses on a tow.

"Doctor Fell!" The reception nurse exclaimed and moved to the side giving the doctor some space to examine the unconscious girl.

"What happened to her?" Doctor Fell asked them urgently while lifting the girl's eyelids with her fingers and pointing a little flashlight that she took out of her pocket into her eyes.

"The boy found her unconscious in the woods. Those foolish teenagers decided that it would be best to throw a party near the ruins of the old church. He didn't see what happened to her but assumed that she fell and hit her head," the nurse answered dutifully.

"Typical," the doctor huffed. "She has a pulse, but it's incredibly weak, we need to take her up to the CT and..."

Just as the doctor was about to finish her sentence Thalia's body started convulsing on the gurney.

"We need to get her to the ER, now!"

The nurses grabbed the gurney with a convulsing girl lying on it and hurried down the hallway, towards the ER. Stefan followed them worriedly all the way until the doors of the ER were closed shut in front of his face. He could see them through the glass doors moving her body to the surgical table and attaching her to various devices. The heart monitor came alive and the beeping sound of her rapidly beating heart filled the room.

The reception nurse called him and broke his concentration. He forgot about her being there, and by the subtle annoyance on her face he realized that she must've been trying to get his attention for quiet some time now.

"Do you know her name? We need to contact her guardians as soon as possible. The sooner we learn about her medical history the better," the nurse asked him as soon as she became sure that she finally got the boy's attention.

"Her name's Thalia Gilbert and I already contacted her sister and aunt, they're on their way."

The second Stefan finished speaking they both heard the sound of running footsteps and frantic looking Jenna came running around the corner with Elena and Bonnie hot on her heels.

"Where's my niece?! Stefan, where is she?" Jenna cried out as she ran up to them.

"You must be the patient's guardian," the nurse spoke, answering her question before Stefan could. "Your niece is in the ER right now, our doctors are doing their best to stabilize her."

"Stabilize her? What do you mean by stabilize? What is wrong with her?"

"She's having a seizure, the doctors gave her something but it doesn't seem to be working," Stefan said taking Elena's hand as she walked up to him, and turned towards the window of the ER once again.

Everyone followed the direction of his gaze and watched as two nurses tried to hold Thalia's convulsing body down, so that the doctor could inject her with some sort of medicine.

"Oh my God," Elena cried, tears streaming down her face. Stefan was hugging her to his body, while the equally distressed Bonnie was holding her hand in support, but Elena's mind ignored all that as her eyes were glued to her sister who was fighting for her life in the next room.

"Has she ever experienced epilepsy episodes before?" The nurse asked.

"No, no, never," Jenna choked out through her tears. She heard the nurse's words as if through the water, the panic of loosing another family member squeezing her heart in a tight grip.

She felt herself slowly descending into a panic attack, her breathing becoming more labored with each passing second. She still remembered standing just like this in front of the hospital room, where her other niece lay in a drugs induced coma after barely escaping death. Still remembered having to identify the bodies of her sister and brother-in-law... She couldn't go through that again, she just couldn't... Not with Thalia... Please, God, no...

She was shook out of her thoughts when a pair of strong arms engulfed her into a tight hug.

Jeremy.

She looked at his tear streaked face and realized that she missed the moment when he and Caroline arrived, she missed Bonnie telling them everything about what was going on, she missed him repeatedly calling out her name... Tears were streaming down his face as he watched his sister fighting for her life and she gave herself a mental slap on the cheek. She needed to pull herself together, she couldn't let her fear of loosing Thalia send her into a panic attack when the rest of her family needed her to be strong.

Just as she was about to console him and tell him that everything would be okay, that his sister was the strongest person she knew and she'll be okay no matter what, the lights in the hallway flickered for just a fraction of a second and Thalia's convulsing body in the next room went completely still.

"What... what was that? What's happening?" Elena choked out through her tears, watching as the doctors in the ER started scurrying around in alarm.

Stefan was the only one who noticed what was wrong as his vampire hearing picked up on the change in the sound of the heart monitor.

"Her... her heart's stopped beating..." he breathed out, but it was loud enough for everyone around him to hear.

"No, no, no... this can't be happening," Jeremy wept, furiously shaking his head in denial.

Everyone watched, breaths abated, as the doctor took the defibrillator while one of the nurses put an ambu bag to Thalia's mouth and started squeezing it. The other nurse cut Thalia's shirt open and Doctor Fell put the defibrillator paddles on her naked skin and the next second Thalia's body arched on the surgical table, only to drop back down without any response.

"One, two, three, clear!"

Elena wept in her boyfriend's embrace, Caroline and Bonnie stood nearby sobbing and hugging each other along with Jenna and Jeremy, who was crying uncontrollably in his aunt's embrace.

"Paddles charging, clear!"

"No, no, no, please..." Jenna sobbed.

"Damn it!"

The doctor threw the defibrillator paddles aside, interlaced her fingers and started performing the indirect heart massage.

"Come on... come on... come on..."

Doctor Fell kept pressing on the young girl's chest, but with each passing second, seeing no changes on the heart monitor she eventually had to stop, realizing that it's been a minute since her patient's heart stopped beating. She gripped her teeth while listening to the loud and continuous beeping of the heart monitor that now showed a flatline on its screen. She hated that sound, since it announced another life that she was unable to save. She sighed in remorse and prepared herself for what was needed to be done.

"I'm calling it..."

Anguished cries were released by the Gilbert family members, who couldn't force themselves to believe in the reality of the situation.

"...the time of death..."

Before the doctor could finish announcing her severe verdict, the lights in the hallway flickered once more for just a second and the body on the operation table jerked and gasped, which didn't go unnoticed by the many a devices that it was connected to and the heart monitor cut off its gut-wrenching continuous sound and started beeping steadily once again, duplicating every beat of the heart that was alive once again.


Thalia's POV

I was consumed by darkness, floating in the endless nowhere for who knows how long. My mind was heavy, my thoughts flowed lazily without stopping on anything particular. Something was obviously wrong with the situation I found myself in, but I was too tired to care. Some part of my consciousness that was responsible for survival was screaming in alarm, but my mind was completely exhausted from constant worrying, paranoia and fear.

Was it death? Did I die? I couldn't remember...

Maybe I was on my way to the next great adventure... Even though my last adventure was cut too short...

When it felt like I've finally started living to the fullest, without lies and pretending, accepted by my family and friends for who I am... when I've finally found love... love...

"Will he miss me?..." I thought.

If only I had the opportunity to tell him I loved him for one last time... To tell all of them... that I was sorry...

So sorry for letting them down. I promised the people I love that I would protect them no matter what... I tried my hardest to create this image of a strong person... of someone they could rely on... a protector...

What a joke...

My sorrowful thoughts were interrupted when suddenly something changed in the surrounding darkness and I found myself somewhere else.

The change was so abrupt, that it took me a few moments to recognize the place I found myself in.

I frowned in confusion as I looked around my grandma's study, the same one where I spent years of my life studying magic under her tutelage... the same one I trashed after her funeral... searching for the clues she could've left behind concerning the "curse" that she put upon me...

It looked the same, every item was on its own place, every knickknack, artefact and book... The only difference - the room that always used to be basking in warm light of the candles, was now filled with shadows such a deep shade of blue that they almost looked black.

"Of all the places I could've visited after my death I found myself here..." I mumbled under my breath in confusion and a little annoyance. If I was dead I would've much preferred to see my loved ones for one last time, instead of appearing in the room that only stirred up conflicting emotions...

"You are not dead."

My blood ran cold in my veins when I heard that painfully familiar voice. I slowly turned around and there she was, standing as usual near the window with a warm smile on her face that made my heart fill with pain and longing.

"Grandma..." I choked out through the lump that suddenly appeared in my throat.

"Well met, my precious child," she smiled, her eyes full of unshed tears.

I took in her appearance, only now realizing how much I've missed her, despite everything she did. Black hair without even a hint of silver, regal posture and smooth skin, untouched by time - signs of a powerful witch, that made me realize yet again, that there was no way she could've died of illness or old age.

Then it suddenly hit me.

"This is wrong... It's not a vision, which means that you're a spirit, but it can't be possible... Even If I'm not dead - you are! And you're not supposed to be able to communicate with me! Only those witches who are stuck on the Other Side can communicate with the living! But you're a Black, you should be on your way to your next life, unless..." I choked on my words and looked at her with horror when it finally hit me. "What have you done...?"

"I'm sorry, darling. I didn't have other choice. It was the only way..." She was crying now, and I absently realized that my cheeks were wet from tears as well.

"What do you mean it was the only way?! The only way to do what? You connected yourself to the Other Side, which our coven vowed to never do, no matter what! Why, why did you do that?! What could've possibly made you do that?!" I was screaming and in my confusion and anger I even forgot about what she did to me and my magic. The very thought of her disrupting the natural cycle of life made my blood boil with rage.

"Look at you," she suddenly smiled through her tears and I became confused when I noticed her looking at me with pride. "All this time I've watched you search for answers about your magic, but when you've finally got the opportunity to get them, the first thing you do is get mad about me breaking our vow. You're a true Black Matriarch, Thalia. You always put family above everything else, even above yourself."

"To hell with my magic! Of course I'm mad! You did the very thing that we as a coven swore to never do and linked your soul to that wretched dimension! You've become just like those sorry excuses for witches that you so resented!"

"I know what I did, Thalia. But like I said, it was the only way." She took a deep breath and continued, seeing me waiting for the explanation that could justify what she did. "I did this when I learned that your mother connected her soul to the Other Side before her death."

My breath froze in my lungs and I suddenly felt lightheaded. This couldn't be happening... It was just another nightmare... There was no way...

"I... I don't... I don't believe you. You must be mistaken!"

"There was no mistake, child. I had my suspicions, but it wasn't until I performed a few powerful rituals that amplified my connection to the Nature and strengthened my Sight, that I learned that Adara indeed had linked herself to the Other Side before..." she paused and looked at me with sympathy.

"Before she went and gave birth to me in that hellhole, condemning me to years of agonizing torture!" I shouted.

"Thalia..."

"Okay, fine! The bitch decided that the torture at the hands of those psychos that she condemned me to wasn't enough and created a loophole so she could come back one day and finish what she started! I get it! But what I don't get is why on Earth would you follow her example?" I demanded angrily.

"She is my daughter. It is my duty as her mother to set her on the right path and..."

"Well it's too little too late for that, don't you think?" I forced out a humorless laugh.

"It's never too late to try and save your own child," she stated calmly.

"How can you even... After everything that she did to me...?"

I couldn't yet fully believe that Grandma really went through with it, that she really would go against all our beliefs to save that vile woman that she called daughter.

"I'm not downplaying what she did and I'm not asking you to forgive and forget. But I can't just leave her there, lost and insane. I need to force her to break the link, so her soul can be cleansed and she can join the river of souls as it should've happened in the first place."

I observed her for a few seconds, thinking about what she said.

"What if she doesn't want to be saved?" I finally asked.

"Well that is to be expected. I managed to find her soul here, but hadn't revealed myself to her just yet. I will force her to break the link whether she wants it or not, and then, we both will join the river of souls." She spoke with conviction that I didn't share.

"So what? You just took your own life just so you could go and save your precious daughter?" She froze, her eyes grew bigger when she realized that I managed to put two and two together. "I guess I just wasn't worth living for, huh, Grandma?"

"Oh, my dear child." She approached me quickly and took my hands in hers. "I'm so sorry."

"So it is true. You really did kill yourself." I wasn't sure until she unknowingly confirmed it.

"I'm sorry for what I put you through, I truly am. But I knew that you wouldn't be alone, you had people that loved you and cared about you, I knew that I was leaving you in good hands. I taught you everything I knew myself about our history, traditions and magic, you didn't really need me anymore."

"In good hands you say," I chuckled humorlessly. "You do remember that you left me not even a month after my parents died, right?"

She took a shuddering breath and looked at me guiltily.

"That is yet another thing that I am sorry for, darling. I've already started the "Last Blood" ritual when your parents tragically passed away, there was no going back. The preparations for the ritual take one month, from one full moon till the next one."

"The "Last Blood" ritual?" I asked, confused. It was the first time I was hearing of such name, which I thought couldn't be possible.

"I never told you about it and you couldn't have read it from any book in our library since it is passed down strictly from mouth to mouth," she smiled seeing my confusion and annoyance. She knew I was a sucker for everything related to magic. "It wasn't written down since it's very rarely used, in fact, in history of our bloodline, it was only used twice. The "Last Blood" was created by one of our ancestors when the coven's survival was seriously threatened. Since, unlike in other bloodlines, because of our exceptional magical prowess, there is always only one Black witch per generation, so when there's a possibility that the line could die out, the Matriarch can ensure the survival of the coven by passing down her magical core to her heir, thus doubling her magical prowess and increasing her chances of survival. It is also rarely practiced since the Matriarch dies right after being separated from her magical core, as no Black witch can survive without one."

Never have I thought that such a thing could be possible... For a Black witch to willingly give up her magic and life in such a way... It made me wonder if I could've ever done the same...

"So that's what this is about? No wonder it is rarely used if it takes so much time for the heir to recover from having her core doubled. It is insanely painful as well, even for me with my pain tolerance. I have no idea how other heirs even survived it in the first place... What?" I asked, seeing a grave look on her face.

"That's the point, darling. It wasn't supposed to be so painful. Normally it would've taken some time for the core to adjust, which would've been accompanied by some itching and a little pain in more severe cases, but what you went through..."

"Why? Why was it so painful then? Why in the world is my case so different?"

She looked at me for some time as if gathering her thoughts, which didn't sit well with me. Whatever she was gonna say, I was sure I wouldn't like it at all.

"If only I had another choice I would've never put you through this ritual, but I had my hands tied." She sighed and continued. "You are aware that we Black witches can always feel another witch of our blood when her magic is triggered for the first time, which is exactly what happened when I showed up at you doorstep all those years ago. But what you probably don't know is that with this ability of ours we usually confirm pregnancies..."

I looked at her, confused about where she was going with that. They used to confirm pregnancies, so what? What was so important about it?

"I don't understand," I frowned.

"What I'm meaning to say is, the new life usually develops magical signature from the very first day it was conceived, in a couple of weeks at most. So I should've been able to sense you when you were in your mother's womb. The fact that I didn't..."

She paused and started crying again, her gaze filled with sorrow.

"What does it mean?" I asked my question with trepidation.

"It means that from the very first day of your existence, when you were just a bundle of cells, your magic felt that your life and wellbeing was in danger, so it cloaked you by effectively sealing your magical core..." I gasped in horror and she nodded with tears streaming down her face. "It would've been understandable if it happened after you were born in a... hostile environment, with your magic feeling that you were in danger and trying to protect you, but the fact that it happened even before your core was strong enough to emanate any signature at all means..."

"It means that it felt threatened from the very first day I was conceived..." I couldn't stop my tears. I hated that woman for leaving me in that place to suffer, but this meant that I had far more reasons for my hatred. "What did that monster do to me...?" I whispered.

The room started spinning around me and I felt nauseous.

"After my beloved Alexander, your grandfather, was killed by a vampire, Adara was devastated. She wanted revenge and she got it, when she hunted down the vampire and killed him, but she was still not satisfied. In her anger and grief she started slowly going insane, and she vowed to hunt down and kill every vampire in existence... I tried to reason with her, tried to persuade her to let go of her anger and hatred but I didn't succeed."

I shook my head furiously and let go of her hands in attempt to calm myself down. I was so angry that it made my blood boil, at that moment I wanted nothing more than to find that monster of a woman and tear her limb from limb.

"What did she do to me, Grandma!? WHAT DID SHE DO TO ME!?"

The shadows around us shuddered and twisted as if reacting to my angry outburst, the room started shaking, sending some items and books flying from the shelves.

"Hush, child. You need to calm down," Grandma ordered sternly, grabbing my shoulders and squeezing them really tight. "You can't lose control of your magic right now or the consequences will be dire. Listen to me: I used your near-death state to drag your soul here, so we don't have much time. It shouldn't have been this difficult but there's no going back now. The seal that your magic subconsciously put around your core is about to be broken."

"Isn't that a good thing? Why do you look so pale?" I asked, seeing that she was deadly serious.

"Under different circumstances maybe, but not in your case. The seal around your core should've been a temporary solution, it was supposed to disappear on its own when you were finally safe, but sadly that time never came. Even then it should've worn itself out in a year or two, if you hadn't started subconsciously powering it when you became old enough to understand that your magic was the one thing that those monsters wanted from you. You subconsciously suppressed your own magic in order to survive. Our cores usually grow with us, they change and become bigger as our magic develops and becomes stronger, but in your case... Your core was like a balloon made of steel, it kept producing energy that had nowhere to go, not even a spec of your mana could slip through those steel walls. So, as you can imagine, the pressure kept building up... It should have killed you, it really should have! It is a miracle that you even survived! With your core being ready to explode any second without any way to spend all that collected mana... and with all the pain and torture that you had to go through in that hell... My experience tells me that you should've lasted about a year before all that pent up pressure should've exploded, killing you and everyone around you..." I could feel her hands shaking on my shoulders, her eyes full of terror as if imagining the disaster she was talking about happening right in front of her eyes and I felt some of that terror affecting me as well. "But instead... it is impossible to even imagine... but your magic was so strong, that instead of exploding without a way out, slowly but surely, it began molding the "steel", forcing it to grow bigger and bigger to accommodate your growing reserves... It was a slow process, but it saved your life."

She was right there in front of me, but her words were slightly muffled due to the blood that rushed in my ears. My heart ached as I imagined my younger self - a lost and broken child, dying in that hellhole scared and alone... It pained me to think that I could've died in fear and abandonment, without ever getting to meet my parents, my family, without getting a chance to truly live, to learn about friendship and love...

"But it doesn't make any sense..." I choked out, shaking off the dreaded image from my mind. "I accessed my magic at the age of ten. If what you are saying is true, then how was I able to do that without blowing myself up, along with my brother and that stupid dog?"

"That's the thing, Thalia, you shouldn't have been capable of doing that! There should've been only one outcome! But somehow, instead of breaking completely and releasing all that monstrous amount of mana that your core has been accumulating all those years, there was only a slight crack in the seal. It was a tiny little chip, but it was enough to give you access to a smallest amount of your magic that you were able to use without hurting yourself! All these years I've been trying to figure out the reason why I couldn't sense your magic for so long, but only after my death have I found my answer. What happened to you is a miracle, my child. Your magic protected you from whatever my daughter was trying to accomplish in her insanity. If I had known about the seal I would've never initiated the "Last Blood" ritual. Instead of being crushed and ruined completely under the pressure, all those challenges you've been put through tempered both you and your core, making you one of the most powerful witches to ever live. But then I ignorantly added my own power to your already huge potential, turning you from a powerful witch to something much much more..."

"But, why is that a bad thing?" I frowned. "You've made me powerful enough for our bloodline to survive, you reached your goal, so why do you look so pale? Why do you look like you signed my death sentence?"

"Because that's exactly what I did..." she whispered with tears silently streaming down her face.

"What?" I felt my insides tightening into a knot, a sudden feeling of dread filled my heart.

"Your magic was already powerful enough darling, slowly but surely, the seal was getting weaker and weaker as you began learning and practicing magic, it was only a matter of time when it would've been gone completely, hadn't it been for my interference... Your already huge core almost doubled in size overnight, there was no way your human body could've survived that, but yet again your magic achieved the impossible. In order to save your own life, you subconsciously began closing all the "chips" in your seal, strengthening it enough to give your body and your battered core some time to adjust. It wasn't ideal, but it was the best you could do in that short amount of time, before your body exploded along with half of Mystic Falls..."

"Oh my God! Elena and Jeremy..." I gasped, horrified by the thought of me ending up killing my whole family.

Grandma nodded somberly, "Your magic saved you yet again, albeit barely. It was like trying to close the cracks in a huge dam with a masking tape. It was only a matter of time when the "dam" would've crumbled and the "water" would've flooded and destroyed everything in its way. But, however short that time was, it would've still been enough for your body to prepare for when the seal was to be broken, if only you didn't try your hardest to "fix" your magic. All of those hours of practicing the heaviest spells in your arsenal, channeling the power of the comet and then opening the tomb... It all significantly shortened the little time you had left and led to here and now..."

"So... I have only myself to blame for ending up in this situation? Wonderful..." I chuckled humorlessly and rubbed my face. It was rather funny that after going through all that pain and blaming it on Grandma, I ended up being the architect of my own downfall. "So what now? Am I... Am I really gonna die?"

"The seal is dissolving as we speak..." Grandma sighed sadly. "You're in a coma. Once the seal is completely broken the power that will break out of you will be enough to level Mystic Falls and a few neighboring towns to the ground... along with all the people..."

I shuddered and began pacing around the room. I felt like I was suffocating. All this information crumpled in one huge pile in my head and had me on a brink of a panic attack... again.

"So I am basically a freaking nuclear bomb! How am I supposed to... How am I supposed to fix this?! I won't be able to control that much power! I need to get the hell out of Mystic Falls, preferably somewhere without a living soul for many miles around!"

Grandma followed my pacing figure with sad eyes and shook her head. I already knew what she was about to say at this point.

"You won't be able to get out of there in time, honey. People will still get hurt. The only possible solution is for you to focus that power somewhere... elsewhere... in as less destructive way as possible... But that's neither here nor there. It still won't be enough... I can't even imagine where you should put all that power for this ordeal to not end in a complete and utter disaster... or if you even will be able to do it in time... before your body shuts down completely."

"So you're telling me that there's literally nothing I can do to fix this?" I stopped in my tracks, having a hard time believing that the smartest, wisest, the most experienced witch that I knew was telling me that there was no way to fix this mess.

"There's only one thing that can save you..."

"And what is that?" I waited for the answer with bated breath, but I really should've known better at this point.

"A miracle..."


3rd POV

Twenty one...

That's how many times Klaus had tried calling Thalia, only to receive no answer. Something was wrong, he could feel it.

He growled anxiously and opened another bottle of scotch... while four previous ones now resembled a pile of broken glass in the fireplace. Oh how he regretted not sending some of his vampires to watch over her! But he knew full well that she was too smart not to notice that she was being watched and wouldn't have appreciated such a liberty on his part. She had a heart of a warrior, that gorgeous woman.

But honestly, what was the possibility of such dangers lurking in a small one pony town, located in the armpit of civilization?!

He sighed and took a swig from the bottle, the light of the fire and the shadows dancing across his face, pronouncing his sharp features and making him look like a statue of a wrathful deity.

He was contemplating trying to phone her one more time, when Maddox, who had entered the room a while ago and was thoughtfully observing his master, called him from behind.

"In all the years I've known you, I haven't seen you this distressed. She had gotten under your skin, yet you keep denying that time and time again."

"I would be quiet if I were you, mate. I don't have patience for your ridiculous accusations at this moment," Klaus drawled out threateningly, without sparing his warlock a glance.

"Usually, I would've done just that," Maddox nodded, he knew his master quite well and could always tell when to keep his mouth shut. But... "But this time I'm going to take a risk, since you and I both know that my loyalty to you is unquestionable. I just don't understand why is it so hard to admit that you are completely in lo..."

"Careful..." Klaus growled, cutting Maddox mid sentence. "I don't have to explain myself to you. Nor do I enjoy repeating myself. But since, as you put it, your loyalty is unquestionable, I will indulge your curiosity one last time. She is a powerful witch and the sister to the doppelganger, her safety is of importance. That's all you need to know."

Klaus wasn't even sure, why he kept undermining Thalia's importance, especially in front of Maddox, who was one of his most loyal followers. Maybe it was because of his deep-rooted fear to get attached to anyone, after all, each and every being that he became close to, his siblings excluded, had a tendency of meeting one gruesome end: destroyed by the man who he once called father. Every time he began caring about someone, that someone either ended up getting killed by Mikael or compelled by himself to forget his existence as he once again was forced to flee with his tail tucked between his legs. He refused to even think what that pathetic excuse for a father would do should he learn about Thalia...

He had long accepted his feelings for her in the security of his own mind, but dared not to declare it out loud, his paranoia screaming at him not to trust anyone, especially when her safety was at stake.

His heart has been broken far too many times and he eventually ended up sealing it behind hundreds of steel doors.

Yet that insufferable woman managed to find it and steal it as if all those obstacles were nonexistent, he thought fondly.

"You keep saying that she means nothing to you, but you didn't really mean it even when you said it the first time," Maddox shrugged. "Remember, when we found out who she was?"

Oh Klaus did remember. He will never forget that fateful day.

He just returned home after walking Thalia back to the exhibit and stood in front of the window with a glass of scotch in his hand, lost in thought. The bold attack of the Italian clan of vampires, that he hadn't destroyed merely because of their insignificance in his eyes, angered him greatly. How dared they to come after Him!? HIM! Niklaus Mikaelson! He must've been spending too mush time in America, for the rest of the world to forget that he wasn't someone to mess with. Perhaps it was time to remind them all what happened to those that dared to go against him...

Yet, hadn't it been for that beautiful and intriguing young witch...

"You won't believe what we've found!" Greta spoke, interrupting his murderous thoughts, walking into the room alongside Maddox, with a laptop in her hands.

He turned to them with mild interest, remembering tasking them with finding information about the redheaded beauty that caught his interest.

Greta put the laptop on the table and turned it to him with a satisfied smirk. Wondering about what had made her this happy, he focused his gaze on the screen and instantly felt his heart beginning to beat faster from excitement.

The first thing he noticed was that he was looking at the picture on social media, the picture of two girls hugging each other happily. His gaze was pulled towards the one with beautiful red hair and a mischievous smirk on her rose, velvety lips. She looked younger on the picture but still strikingly gorgeous, while the other girl in her embrace...

"Her name is Elena Gilbert, she is 16 and lives in a small town called Mystic Falls," Greta reported gleefully.

"Impossible..." he muttered, drinking in the sight before him. It couldn't be true. "I slaughtered Katerina's family, all of them..." It was one of the rare times when he cursed his temper. He should've been smarter about it, yet he was so blinded by rage caused by Katerina's flight, that he only came to his senses when he was already drenched in Petrova blood, surrounded by the gory remains of Katerina's whole family.

"There are pictures of her growing up, Klaus. She's truly human! We've found the doppelgänger!"

He should be elated, he knew he should, and some part of him was. And yet...

He hummed. "And what of Thalia? How are they related?" He found himself asking.

He dreamt about this moment for five centuries, yet every time he tried to focus on familiar features that looked innocently at the camera (which was a rather knew look on a face that he once loved and hated), the features that reminded him of Tatia and Katerina, his gaze kept wandering to the girl that was protectively hugging his doppelgänger...

"They are sisters," Maddox replied, closely observing his master's reaction, or the lack of thereof. "They have a younger brother, parents died in a car crash few weeks ago."

"I will order to prepare the private jet," Greta added happily, completely missing Klaus' weird rection. "We should head out immediately..."

"Oh there's no need for that, love," Klaus spoke absentmindedly, taking a sip of his drink.

"What?" The witch frowned, confused. It wasn't the answer she was expecting.

"We are yet to find the moonstone, Greta, if you forgot. Without it, abducting the doppelgänger is rather pointless. We know where she lives, so now you can focus on finding the last ingredient, without spreading yourselves too thin that is."

"But... I don't understand..."

"You don't need to understand anything, love. You will simply do as ordered," the hybrid shrugged, his eyes still on the picture.

"But..." Greta stuttered, flushing with anger and confusion. Then came a weird thought. "Is it because of that witch? Don't tell me you..."

"Watch your tongue, love, before you say something that upsets me," he finally took his eyes off the screen and walked towards her. The look in his eyes sent shivers down the witch's spine. She knew that look rather well, she liked to call it "the calm before the storm", it said that one wrong move could bring her either a great pain or an endless pleasure... But something told her it wouldn't be pleasure this time. He cupped her jaw gently with one hand, his piercing eyes looking right into her very soul. And just when she relaxed, thinking that she misinterpreted his mood, his large hand painfully squeezed her jaw, his fingers dug into her cheeks ignoring her painful gasp. "We wouldn't want to ruin this pretty face now, would we?"

Klaus tried to convince himself that it was the right decision to make, that it was only logical not to act right away, since he knew the doppelgänger's exact location, that she wouldn't go anywhere while he concentrated on finding the moonstone, but... He didn't have a habit of lying to himself.

The redhead beauty intrigued him. There was just something about her that called to something deep inside of him, drew him in like a moth to a flame. His agonizing mind that seemed to be always plotting and scheming, full of paranoia and hatred, it quieted down in her presence, bringing him peace he never knew he needed.

He didn't like that at first, there was no way that there wasn't some kind of magic involved, because when it came to him it was always the case. She must've bewitched him, there must've been a plot in place to take him down, because there always was one. He already lost count of how many times he was targeted, by witches, werewolves and vampires alike, and yet he always managed to remain the only one standing, his enemies' corpses lying in torn pieces at his feet.

Thus he was fairly confident in his ability to get to the bottom of it, to unravel whatever sick scheme the gorgeous witch was trying to catch him in. And so he decided to play along, to let her think that she had him right where she wanted him to be, before letting her sample the bitter taste of defeat.

That was the plan.

But somewhere along the way, between flirting with her and getting to know her, he realized that maybe for the first time in all his hundreds of years of existence, someone wasn't trying to harm him. There was no scheme to take him down, there was no plot to desiccate him and bury his body at the bottom of the ocean or anything of sort. There was only this young woman who, despite knowing who he really was, still looked at him with such fondness, desire and care... It was truly astounding.

If he was curse-free, a true hybrid that he was always meant to be, if his inner wolf wasn't put in a deepest slumber, he would've assumed that she was the one who was fated to walk by his side. His mate.

But he was yet to break his curse, and even then...

But just the idea of her being destined to be his, as it was customary for werewolves alone, filled his heart with the long-forgotten sense of longing. The part of him that personified his werewolf side yearned for that feeling. Another birthright that he was denied...

He came out of his thoughts, realizing that Maddox was still patiently waiting for some sort of reply.

He sighed in exasperation and finally turned towards the warlock. He would never admit it out loud but he was rather fond of the man and he knew that the warlock was well aware of it, that being the reason why he felt so free to say certain things to his face, without fear of having his heart ripped out of his chest.

"What do you want me to say, Maddox?" he asked with a sigh and a raised eyebrow.

"You began courting her. You claimed that you were doing it just because she was the doppelganger's sister, that you merely wanted to gain her trust and I believed you." Maddox gave him a small knowing smile, his lips twitching in a barely concealed amusement, which did nothing to stop Klaus' growing annoyance. "Until you got rid of Greta, that is."

"Greta should've known better than to disobey me," he grumbled and took a sip from the bottle. "I told her to stay away from Thalia."

"Yeah I remember," Maddox chuckled. "But still, for you to willingly get rid of a powerful follower... and Greta was powerful, if slightly insane... it was unheard of. That's when I started suspecting that Thalia meant more to you than just a powerful witch and a link to the doppelganger... much more."

Maddox suppressed a snort when Klaus huffed and rolled his eyes. It was rather amusing to watch his all powerful master and friend trying his best to hide his crush towards the young witch. It was rather surreal, he mused. He never thought that he would witness such a thing.

"Insane is a key word, mate. Insane means unpredictable and uncontrollable. That's not a trait I welcome in my followers. Hence why I sent her back to her family."

"If you don't care about her that much, then why have you been pacing around the room ever since she stopped answering her phone? How many times have you tried calling her in the last hour? Fifteen? Twenty?"

"I am merely concerned about there being any complications with the tomb vampires, I don't want them anywhere near my doppelganger.'

Maddox hummed, deciding to let go of the matter, seeing that Klaus wasn't about to give him an honest answer.

"Why didn't you tell her that Kathrine isn't in the tomb? If you're worried about the tomb vampires, then wouldn't it have been better to just let them all rot away down there?"

"I would've if it changed anything." Klaus huffed in annoyance. He was so bloody done with this conversation. "Katerina isn't the only reason why Thalia wants that tomb opened, she's merely a gift to the older Salvatore, whom she, for some odd reason, considers her friend. And besides, if I told her that Katerina wasn't in the tomb, she would've asked me how I knew who Katerina even was and then all the truth about her sister being the doppelganger would've come out. I am not ready for that to happen yet."

"How do you even know that for sure?" Maddox inquired curiously. "That Katherine's not in the tomb, I mean?"

"I always know where she is," Klaus replied simply. "She thinks that she is smart and sneaky, but she is really not."

Maddox nodded. He knew that Klaus never put his eggs in one basket, that him and Greta weren't the only witches at his beck and call. Niklaus Mikaelson was the man of nearly endless resources, he had contacts and spies everywhere, sometimes said spies and contacts weren't even aware of who they were spying for. He suspected that he had eyes on Katherine, probably even a 24/7 surveillance put in place, but neither he nor Greta were privy to that information.

"Why didn't you just kill her?" he asked then curiously, even though he thought that he already knew the answer.

"Because I wanted Katerina to suffer for running away and making me hope for another doppelgänger to be born, when I could've been freed of this curse half a millennia ago," Klaus growled, squeezing the bottle in anger. The memories of his first attempt at breaking his curse still fresh in his mind. "Besides, death would be an easy way out for her, which she doesn't deserve. The only thing that Mikael taught me was how impossibly hard it is to be always on the run, to never be able to settle down and call a place home. Trust me, Maddox, there's nothing worse than a feeling of never-ending fear and paranoia. It's exhausting to be always looking behind your shoulder in an attempt to spot the approaching danger. The loneliness of such an existence is the worst thing in the world. I don't even know how I would've fared if it wasn't for my siblings. They sure do their best to annoy me, but they will always have my eternal gratitude for siding with me against our father."

The silence fell over the room. While Maddox pondered over his master's words, Klaus took out his phone and eyed it thoughtfully. He didn't really want to think about Katerina at the moment, his heart getting heavy with worry as his thumb hovered above the call button near Thalia's contact yet again.

He huffed in annoyance, downed the rest of his drink and was about to put the phone back in his pocket, when said phone suddenly started ringing, making him freeze in mid movement.

Maddox saw Klaus' eyes widen for a second before he hastily answered the call.

"Finally, love! I've been worried sick! How did it go? Are you alright?"

The warlock was about to smirk, seeing his master so easily admitting to being worried about the witch, even though he's been doing nothing but denying that fact for the last couple of hours. Before Maddox could let his amusement show on his face however, he felt the mood shift in the room dramatically. He unconsciously shivered and finally threw a glance at Klaus who was now radiating the killing intent, so strong that even him, who he believed to be immune after being exposed to it for the last decade or so, felt his body paralyze from fear. He could practically feel Klaus' body filling up with rage. The rage of a predator.

Only none of that rage could be heard in his voice when he spoke next: "I see. Thank you for letting me now."

Maddox didn't know what was happening, but he could deduce that it was nothing good and knowing Klaus, he expected him to start shouting in anger, to throw his phone into a wall in a feat of rage or something of sort... But what he didn't expect in million years was for Klaus to calmly hang up the phone after bidding a polite farewell to the person on the other side. For some reason, this reaction from his usually hot tempered master and friend frightened Maddox to death.

"Klaus?" Maddox asked hesitatingly. He felt like he was walking on a mine field.

"I need you to head out to Mystic Falls immediately." He watched as Klaus calmly walked to the sofa where he left his jacket and put it on. "I'll meet you at the local hospital. Don't make me wait."

"Wha...?" The warlock wasn't able to finish the sentence, Klaus was no longer in the room.

Finally when his master's order registered in his fear induced mind, Maddox cursed and rushed to the little coffee table where he left the keys to his car. Judging by Klaus' reaction, he knew it would be indeed unwise to make him wait when he was in such a state. Truth be told, for the first time in so many years Maddox felt scared for his life. Something told him that his loyalty would not save him this time if he failed his master.


"Thalia's in a coma..."

Those words spoken by her aunt's shaking voice rang loudly in his head as he sped towards Mystic Falls. For centuries Klaus imagined how it would feel to return to the place he and his family once called home, to the place where his little brother let out his last breath as he succumbed to his wounds, where his family fell apart, where they left the last pieces of their humanity...

For centuries he wondered how it would feel and yet...

None of those thoughts even appeared on his mind as he ran at an inhuman speed through the woods, along the roads and fields, while the skies above his head rumbled angrily, as if the nature itself shared his rage. The strikes of lightning lit up the skies every few seconds as the wind got stronger and stronger, bending the trees to the ground and attempting to blow away the roofs of the houses, exposing the humans shivering inside from fear to the nature's rage.

All of that registered in his mind, but he didn't think too much of it, as he finally reached the town, passing the "Welcome to Mystic Falls" sign and speeding towards the hospital, the location of which he already looked up on is his way here.

He sneaked inside the hospital, unseen by the mortals and security cameras and compelled one of the nurses walking down the hall to tell him Thalia's whereabouts. It was 3 a.m. and the place was almost deserted. As he walked towards Thalia's room which was right around the corner, he stopped in his tracks as he heard some hushed voices, one of which was familiar to him. He focused on his hearing and listened as Thalia's aunt spoke to someone.

"I'm not going anywhere! I can't just leave her here like this! She needs me!" He heard Thalia's aunt, Jenna, argue desperately with someone, supposedly the doctor.

"I told you she's stable! We did everything we could, now everything's up to her. She'll wake up soon, I promise you. But for now you need to concentrate on your other niece and nephew, Jenna! Go home, shower, have some rest and come back in the morning. We'll keep an eye on her," the doctor promised hotly.

"But, Meredith..."

"No buts! Take the kids and go have some rest! You all need it. Let us do our job."

The woman sighed heavily in defeat and mumbled something under her breath, before he heard the door to the room being opened and Jenna trying to convince her charges to go home for the night. "I'm not leaving Thalia!" and "No way in hell!" could be heard as the teenagers refused to leave their sister's side, but the young woman was able to convince them eventually.

Klaus disappeared inside a nearby empty room as he waited for his girlfriend's family to leave and as their footsteps quieted down in the distance he didn't waste any more time and vamped to Thalia's room. But just as he was about to enter, his keen sense of hearing picked up on another heartbeat in the room, which made him stop and peak inside through a little window.

He watched with furrowed eyebrows as a dark-haired young woman wearing scrubs took a syringe out of her pocket and was about to inject its contents into Thalia's IV. It wouldn't have rung his alarms if he didn't pick up on the doctor's rapid heartbeat and a subtle smell of fear and anxiety she was radiating. He realized that something suspicious was happening and was about to speed inside and rip the doctor's heart out before she could do Thalia any harm, when he picked up on another scent, this time coming from the syringe in the doctor's hands. Vampire blood.

His eyes widened slightly in realization, as he watched the doctor inject some vampire blood into Thalia's system. He disappeared again and watched the weird doctor leave from the shadows, before finally speeding towards his girlfriend's unconscious body.

His breath hitched as he observed her pale and fragile form. It hurt him seeing her like this, his vibrant and brave warrior princess looking sick and defeated, dressed in a pale green hospital gown, all covered in wires and sensors that monitored her condition.

He walked closer and gently caressed her cheek, ignoring a slight tremor in his fingers. He smoothed a strand of hair away from her face and took a shuddering breath.

"You are not allowed to leave me, princess," he whispered to her as he leaned down to put a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Not now, not ever..."

He closed his eyes and let their foreheads touch, as he slipped inside her mind. Or rather tried to...

He wanted to enter her mind and help her find the way back to the land of the living, but as he followed all the familiar steps and tried to sneak his way inside her mind, something unexpected happened. The second he appeared in the darkness of her subconsciousness and was about to search for her, the darkness around him roared angrily and he was forcefully pushed out of her head.

He gasped and flinched from a searing pain in his temples and behind his eyeballs. He shook his head in astonishment and concern, having experienced this kind of resistance for the first time in all his years.

He dragged his fingers through his short hair in frustration, he wasn't able to do anything to help Thalia or even learn anything that could've clued him to what was happening to her. The only thing he got from his attempt to venture inside her mind was a short image of her sitting in the darkness with her fingers burrowed into her hair and rocking back and forth as if in some kind of a trance, and even that little detail could've been missed if it wasn't for his mind being hundreds of times sharper than that of a regular human or vampire.

Klaus sighed in defeat and decided to sit by her side for now and wait for Maddox to arrive, hoping that the warlock would have a few tricks up his sleeve that he could use to help Thalia.

The next hour and a half until the warlock's arrival was spent in a chair near Thalia's bed, with her hand firmly grasped in his much bigger ones, that he would place a kiss on every now and then. During his wait he even gave her a few syringes full of his blood freshly taken by a compelled nurse right from his vein, remembering Thalia mention that the older the vampire and the fresher their blood the stronger and more potent it was. But still, even after that, he received no response from his little witch. It appeared that the problem wasn't in her physical condition, but rather in the state of her magic.

Meanwhile the weather outside was getting worse and worse with each passing hour. His hearing picked on the nurses in the hallway mentioning something about the hurricane warning. That must've been the reason for Maddox being almost half an hour late to arrive, but it didn't make him any less angry with his loyal warlock.

Finally he sensed the familiar presence of his servant entering the hospital and waited patiently till he reached Thalia's room. The door opened but there was no sound of entering footsteps.

"Took you long enough, mate," Klaus grumbled without taking his eyes off the unconscious woman before him. He waited for a response but didn't get any. "I didn't know you required a formal invitation to enter."

The hybrid felt himself losing his temper, as Maddox kept wasting the precious time, but when he turned around angrily about to growl at the warlock, the expression on his servant's face made him pause.

"I... I can't..." Maddox stood in the entrance to the room, with the expression of pure horror on his face. He tried to speak but kept choking on his words, as if he was struggling to breathe.

"What is it? Tell me!" Klaus ordered angrily, seeing that his warlock wasn't indeed fooling around.

"It's too... it's too much... I can't breathe..." Maddox struggled to move, he was trying to step back and get the hell away from the witch but couldn't even make one step. He tried to call for his magic to help himself escape, but it turned out to be the wrong thing to do.

The second he started gathering his magic in order to fight the overbearing magical presence in the room, the lights in the whole hospital flickered and he found himself on his knees as a searing pain exploded in his head. He remembered once asking Klaus how the trick with aneurism the witches liked to use against vampires really felt, but the pain he was experiencing now was so so much worse than what Klaus had described. It was as if a foreign force entered his body and was "cutting" him from the inside. But it shouldn't have been possible, no witch or warlock should've been able to do that! In his pain induced mind he heard his master calling his name.

"What's happening? Answer me!"

Maddox forced himself to raise his head and almost lost consciousness from the effort. He finally managed to look at Klaus from his kneeled down position, when he started bleeding from his eyes, nose and ears.

"Get... me... out... of here..."

Only God knows how hard it was for Maddox to utter those words but as soon as he did, he found himself in the hallway, right across Thalia's room. But, thankfully, it happened to be enough. The pain was gone.

The warlock was gasping for air, leaning against the wall and trying to comprehend what had just happened, while staring horrified at Thalia's peacefully sleeping form across the hallway. That witch was...

"Now when you're finally sane again, I would like to know what had just happened, and I would like to know it NOW!" Klaus spoke calmly, still somehow puzzled by what he had just witnessed.

"It's her... She did this! I mean, not directly! It's her magic! It's her magic... it's..." Maddox began mumbling crazily, still too shocked to speak clearly, which didn't sit well with Klaus.

"Whatever do you mean? And please do try to make more sense this time!"

"It shouldn't be possible!" Maddox exclaimed madly, raising his gaze to look at his master. "I... I felt it on my way here... The weather, it was in the weather! The magic! I couldn't believe my senses, but as I was getting closer to Mystic Falls the feeling got stronger! I felt as if I was heading right towards the eye of the storm, but instead of being the safest place in the surrounding madness, this one is a complete opposite! The concentration of magic in that room is completely insane!"

"You're telling me that Thalia's messing with the weather for many miles around the town and managed to almost kill you while still being in a coma?" The hybrid asked incredulously, trying hard to make any sense of what his warlock was saying.

"Y-yes! No! I'm not sure!" Maddox exclaimed, rising to his feet and mindlessly wiping the blood from his face with a shaking hand.

"But I entered the room without any trouble, as did her relatives and the hospital staff. So why did her magic "react" only when you tried to get close to her?" The Hybrid asked suspiciously.

"It didn't attack you or her relatives because she considers you all family. Her magic knows that the doctors and nurses are only trying to help, so they were all considered harmless, but me... She doesn't know me. I am some unknown warlock, a potentially hostile stranger, so her magic immediately tried to protect her while she's in that state the only way it could, by eliminating the threat."

Klaus threw a thoughtful look at his girlfriend, torn between being concerned and completely amazed by the potential power his woman could wield, while Maddox took a tissue out of his pocket in order to finally get rid of the evidence of his near death experience, which was a little hard to achieve when his hands kept shaking like those of a junkie during a withdrawal.

"She told me once that she was quite powerful before this whole ordeal with her magic happened, but I couldn't even imagine that she had this much power at her disposal..." the Original uttered mindlessly.

"You don't understand!" Maddox exclaimed almost hysterically. "It's so much more than that! No human body is supposed to contain that much power! I don't know how she ended up receiving such a gigantic power-up, but there's no way she will survive this! Just so you understand, I am a powerful warlock in my own right, but she - she wields the power of thousands of me's right now! She has so much power that it's messing with the weather for hundreds of miles around this town and it's still building up! We need to get out of here! We need..."

"I'm not leaving her!" Klaus growled, his blood running cold from the conviction in the warlock's voice. "There has to be a way to save her!"

"It's not just about her, why can't you understand! It's about this whole town and maybe even a couple of neighboring towns too! The explosion that will take place when her body gives up will wipe them off the face of the earth and not even you will be able to survive!"

Maddox's panicked voice rang through the empty hallways of the hospital. He looked at his master in hopes of him finally accepting the reality, but only saw his retreating back.

"I'm not letting her die. If you wish to leave - then leave! I will figure something out myself," Klaus told him calmly and went back inside Thalia's room to sit back in the chair that he was occupying before Maddox showed up.

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" The warlock asked incredulously, watching as his master took one of Thalia's limp hands and planted a kiss on her pale fingers. "If you stay you'll die! Permanently! That much power will be more than enough to kill the Original!"

He waited for his master to react, to show any signs of fear or concern from being told that he, one of the oldest and most powerful immortal beings to walk this Earth could die, but Klaus didn't even spare him a glance, his mind now solely focused on the woman he loved.

"I'm not keeping you Maddox. Go back to the rented house, I'll keep in touch."

Maddox was about to say something when the lights in the hospital flickered again and the building itself shook slightly as if from a minor earthquake. He decided that there was no point to argue, knowing that once Klaus makes a decision, it's final.

Klaus gently caressed Thalia's fingers, listening to the sound of his warlock's retreating footsteps.

"Just give me a sign, little witch," he whispered desperately. "Anything. I know you. You won't ever go down like this. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it. Please."

Unshed tears shone in Klaus' eyes as he desperately waited for any response from Thalia's comatose form. No matter what Maddox said, somewhere deep down in his soul he just knew that it wasn't the end of their story.

It was just the beginning.