Reyna's pov:
Aunt Kaira woke me up this morning by spraying me in the face with some water, like a cat that misbehaved. I guess the passive aggressiveness is well deserved, but it was still a rude awakening. After drying off and getting changed into my outfit for the day, I slipped on my orange converse that Caroline hates more than the Backstreet Boys because they're, quote "obnoxious and loud" unquote, and grabbed my bag.
I decide that it's probably best to skip breakfast, but when I get downstairs, my Aunt is already gone for work and a jar of overnight oats is sitting on the counter with a note. I drop my bag on the floor by the door and head over to read the note. It's pretty short, and just says that I should always eat the most important meal of the day. I smile at the small show of affection before moving to grab a spoon from the drawer.
My phone buzzing catches my attention, so I pull it out and check the text. It's from Stefan. Apparently, I need to get to the boarding house for an impromptu meeting about protecting Elena from the Originals. Letting out a sigh, I slip my phone back into my pocket and grab my breakfast to go before snatching up my bag by the door and heading out.
The drive to the Boarding house is pretty short, so I get there in a pretty good mood. I grab my breakfast and bag before hopping out of the car and heading to the door. I knock and wait for a moment before just letting myself in. It's not like they don't know I'm coming.
When I walk into the living room, I'm greeted by the sight of the boys, Elena, and Rose hanging out. I just roll my eyes and take a seat since the boys tend to bury the lead about stuff like this quite often. "Well, since we're friends with my kidnapper now, I'm just going to sit here and eat my breakfast while you all discuss whatever it is I'm here to listen to."
Damon rolls his eyes as Stefan smiles at me. "Sorry about that, Reyna. Didn't want to tell you over the phone in case you didn't show up."
I swallow a bite of oats and wave my spoon at my best friend. "That's manipulative, but I forgive you anyway. Now, why am I here?"
"You're here because Rose and Elena have filled us in on Elijah's interest in you. We think you might be a bigger piece to this puzzle than we currently know."
"Well, that'll be different." Damon scoffs at my comment, but I choose to ignore him for my own sense of peace. I instead turn to Rose. "What d'you got for us, Rosie?"
"Well, I don't really know what's true and what's not. A lot of myth is mixed in with fact over the years, but that's the problem with all this vampire crap. But Klaus, I know is real."
Elena nods. "Who is he?"
Damon leans against the back of one of the couches while looking at Elena. "One of the Originals. A legend from the first generation of vampires."
"Like Elijah?"
Rose shakes her head and pauses her pacing. "No, Elijah was the Easter Bunny compared to Klaus. He was a foot soldier. Klaus is the real deal." Damon rolls his eyes.
Stefan shifts from his place on the arm of the couch to the seat beside me. "Klaus is known to be the oldest." We don't really know if that's true though. We don't really know anything, actually. Which is a problem.
Elena holds up a hand. "Okay, so you're saying that the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after me?"
"No."
"Yes."
I snort at Rose and Stefan's simultaneous and contradictory answers as Damon shakes his head and tries to correct the confusion. "What they're trying to say is– I mean, if what she's saying is true..." He walks over to stand by Rose.
"Which it is."
He glances at her. "And you're not just saying it so we don't kill you..."
"Which I'm not."
He looks back at Elena with a smile. "Then we're looking at a solid maybe." I snort as Elena rolls her eyes.
I set my spoon back into the jar with a small clink before holding my hand in the air for a thumbs up. "That was entirely unhelpful in every way. Good job, guys." Stefan tries to hide his grin at my sarcastic actions, but not well. Damon rolls his eyes as Rose and Elena both smile at me. I turn back to my breakfast and take another bite before looking up with furrowed brows and speaking around the food in my mouth. "So, where dove tha' leaf us?"
Stefan rolls his eyes and reaches over to close my mouth by pushing my jaw shut with his hand. I swallow and stick my tongue out at him before going back to my food as he stands up with a shake of his head. "Look, Elijah's dead, right?" He looks to Elena. "So no one else even knows you exist, right?"
Rose interrupts. "Not that you know of."
Damon looks at her with a deadpan expression. "That's not helping."
Stefan moves to take a seat beside Elena on her couch. "Look, I've never even met anyone that's laid eyes on him. I mean, we're talking centuries of truth mixed with fiction. I mean, we don't know what's real. For all we know, he could just be some sort of stupid bedtime story."
Rose shakes her head. "He's real. And he doesn't give up. If he wants something, he gets it. If you're not afraid of Klaus, then you're an idiot."
"Alright, we're shaking." Damon looks over at Rose. "You've made your point."
Elena takes a breath and grabs her bag, shouldering it as she stands up. I take that as our cue to leave since I'm starting to get a bad feeling in the bottom of my stomach. She's probably going to do something she shouldn't and I'll have to cover for her.
Stefan looks up at her in confusion. "Where are you going?"
She stops. "School. We're late." I screw the lid back onto my empty jar and slip it into my bag before making my way to the door and waiting for Elena.
Stefan stands up. "I'll uh– Let me just grab my stuff, I'll go with you."
"That's okay. We know where it is." Elena makes her way over to me and grabs my hand, pulling me out the door with her and towards my car.
We both climb in and set out bags in the back before I start the car and pull out of the driveway. I get back onto the road before glancing at Elena. "So, where are we really going?"
I can see Elena smile at me from my peripheral vision. "I knew you'd catch on.... We need to make a few quick stops and I have to call Caroline, but we're definitely not going to school."
"So, a field trip? Fun." We both let out laughs as I made a turn. Stefan is definitely going to kill us when he finds out we skipped to go adventuring.
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After I drove Elena around town so she could pick up what she needed, we met Caroline in the woods and started walking. Elena explained that the only person that's met the Originals that we know is currently trapped under the ruins of the old church, in a tomb. I actually agree that Katherine is our best bet at the moment for information. Which is different, but here we are.
Elena is carrying a heavy duffel bag of supplies as we walk and she throws a glance back at Caroline when we start to get close to the tomb. "Tell everyone I was feeling sick and Reyna took me home from school."
Caroline shakes her head. "I can't believe I'm agreeing to this.... I'm a terrible liar." She is a terrible liar, but that's just because she's naturally such an honest person. It's actually endearing.
Elena disregards Caroline's worries. "And keep Stefan busy, I don't want him knowing what we're up to." We're going to be in so much trouble.
"I'm even worse at duplicity... And you know this." We come up on the ruins and I move a few paces faster to help Elena by clearing a small patch of the ground away so she can set up her supplies and we can sit down without sticks poking us. I grabbed the blanket out of my trunk to use, so that'll help a lot as well.
Elena once again ignores Caroline's arguments. "You managed to keep me occupied when Katherine paid Stefan a visit."
"Yeah, cause she threatened me. Not that I'm saying you should use that as a tactic. It's– Stefan's gonna see right through me."
Elena comes to a stop and turns to look at our blonde friend. "Caroline, as my friend, do you promise or not?" Low blow, but I guess we are on a time crunch.
Caroline lets out a sigh and looks around for a moment. "You had to break out the girlfriend code... Okay, I promise." I pat Caroline's shoulder and send her a smile before moving ahead to do my job of clearing a spot for Elena and I to sit.
I head down into the tomb, just outside the barrier, and start moving things around and setting up the blanket as Caroline and Elena come up behind me. "Are you sure you want to do this? Reyna, are you?"
"We're sure. She's the only one who knows the truth about Klaus, the only one that can tell me how to stop him. And Reyna agrees that this is the best way."
I look over my shoulder at my friend. "It's okay, Care. We'll be fine. You can do this." She sends me a smile and nods, turning back to Elena.
"Please." Elena uses her doe eyes and Caroline caves, moving over to the door of the tomb. She uses her vamp strength to move the large stone slab out of the way for us. She backs away from the opening and we wait for a moment before Elena calls out. "Katherine?"
Nothing happens for a moment before a figure shuffles out from the dark. A haggard looking doppelganger leans against the stone by the barrier entrance. "Hello Elena. Come to watch me wither away? ... Goodbye, Caroline."
Elena looks over her shoulder at Caroline, who looks hesitant to leave. "As long as we stay on this side of the door, she can't hurt us. We'll be okay... Please." Caroline sends me a look that says to watch out for Elena and she leaves.
Elena sets down her bag on my blanket that I'm sitting on and Katherine's croaky voice fills the air. "Stefan know you're here?"
Elena ignores her. "I brought you some things."
"You came to bribe me. What is it that you want?"
Elena chucks some clothes onto the ground inside the barrier. "I want you to tell me about Klaus." Katherine looks impressed with her descendent.
"Mmm. You've been busy."
Elena pulls out a large book. "I also brought you this. It's your family history. I've read it. It says here, that the family line ended with you. Obviously that's not true."
Katherine scoffs at the attempt for information. "You think that if you brought me some family keepsake, that I'd open up?"
Elena sighs and pulls out a bottle of blood. "I also brought you this." Katherine smacks against the barrier and stares at the bottle with a feral look in her eyes. Elena tilts her weight. "You don't look so good. How long before your body shuts down? 10, 20 years? Must be painful to desiccate and mummify. I can't even imagine."
Katherine slowly sinks to the floor next to the doorway and waits with a resigned look on her face as Elena kneels down on the blanket beside me and pours some of the blood into a tiny plastic cup. She sets the cup down on the ground and uses a stick to push the cup across the line.
Katherine picks it up and looks at her doppelganger. "You have the Petrova fire." She takes the blood like a shot in one gulp and some color returns to her skin. She looks more alive now.
I smile kindly at the woman since I have nothing personal against her and this will go more smoothly if we just get right to it. "More blood?"
Katherine swivels her head to look at me with dull eyes. "You must be the radiant Reyna. Stefan's talked about you the few times I've whittled information out of him these past few months. It's nice that he has a friend, especially one with a gift like yours."
I narrow my eyes at her. "What do you know about it?"
She just smirks and turns back to Elena without answering my question. "It's a long story, Klaus and I, goes all the way back to England, 1492, after I left Bulgaria. Or was thrown out."
Elena gets comfortable on the blanket and settles with her legs crossed. "Thrown out?"
"My family, your true ancestors... They disowned me. My indiscretions were not tolerated at the time. I had a baby out of wedlock. The shame."
I tilt my head and slide a pack of human snacks over the line without bothering with the stick. She's too tired to bother hurting us right now anyway. "It was kept a secret?"
She grabs a pack of snack cakes with a dull smile. "Mmm. My baby was given away. I was banished to England. And I had to learn to adjust. So I quickly became English. It was there that I caught the eye of a nobleman named Klaus. I was taken with him at first, until I found out what he was and what he wanted from me... And then I ran like hell."
Elena stands up and starts pacing the small room we're in. "So, what did Klaus want?"
"Same thing that he'll want from you. He wants to break the curse."
Elena looks away with a glazed look. "By sacrificing the Petrova Doppelganger."
Katherine nods. "He wanted to drain every single drop of blood from my body." I feel a wave of pity crash over me, so I pull out a bottle of water from my own bag and pass it over to the vampire that's tried to kill my friends several times over.
Elena walks back over and crouches down, pouring some more blood into the cup and pushing over the line with her trusty stick. "What does the Petrova Bloodline have to do with Klaus?" That's actually a pretty good question. Why them specifically?
"It's really tedious, but... The curse was bound by a Petrova blood. Witches are crafty with their spells. The Doppelganger was created as a way to undo the spell. Once the Doppelganger reappeared, the curse can be broken."
"So, you ran before he killed you?" Katherine tells us that she was sent to a cottage by Trevor, and that Rose was there when she arrived. Rose planned to take her back to Klaus at nightfall, but she pauses her story and Elena shakes her head. "Rose never ended up taking you to Klaus did she?"
"No. But not because she had a change of heart." She tells us about when Rose came to get her with ropes to keep her from escaping, she found that Katherine was bleeding from the side. She had stabbed herself to escape her fate, but Rose forced her to drink her blood, healing her wounds. When Trevor came back, Rose had a confrontation with him in the other room and Katherine used the ropes to hang herself.
Elena takes a deep breath. "You killed yourself?"
Katherine tilts her head. "Klaus needed a human Doppelganger. As a vampire, I was no longer of any use to him."
"But it didn't work. You didn't really escape. You've been running from Klaus ever since."
"I underestimated his spirit for vengeance. But living out of a suitcase is better than dying so that you could have your blood spilled over some silly little rock." Elena shifts in her spot and Katherine catches it. "What's wrong? Afraid I'm right? You don't wanna die? There's another way out.... I made the other choice."
Elena sighs. "Rose and Trevor spent the last 500 years running because you used them. Trevor just got killed." That was a gruesome scene.
Katherine grabs the book Elena brought and starts flipping through it. "Never would've thought he would last that long."
"You don't even care that you ruined their lives?"
She stops and looks up at Elena with a hard expression. "I was looking out for myself, Elena. I will always look out for myself. If you're smart, you'll do the same."
Elena scoffs and stands up. "So how much of your little story is true?"
"Why don't you ask the human lie detector?"
I shake my head at her assumption. "That's not how it works... more of a spidey-sense. Y'know, a danger only situation."
"Have you ever tried to expand on that? Test out other party tricks?"
"I... I don't really think that's on topic for what Elena asked. Maybe we can have this discussion another time and just focus on the problem at hand for now."
"Fair enough." She turns back to her Doppelganger with a sigh. "I have no reason to lie to you, Elena. I have no reason to do anything other sit here and read and rot."
Elena stops her pacing. "Okay, so you mean it's even partially true. That's the reason you came back, isn't it? Because you wanted to be the one to hand me over to Klaus."
Katherine shuts her book and turns to stand up and face Elena. "Well, 500 years on the run, I figure Klaus might be willing to strike a deal."
Elena takes a step closer. "So you got Mason Lockwood to find you the Moonstone.... What else is needed to break the curse?"
"Mmm, look who's getting smarter."
"It's not just me or the stone, is it? Otherwise there'd be no reason to trigger Tyler Lockwood's werewolf curse."
Katherine hums in amusement. "Witches and their spells... So many ingredients, so many people to sacrifice."
Elena nods. "So you need a werewolf."
"Believe it or not, they're hard to come by." I wonder if that's because they stopped having children to continue the line, or because they're in hiding... Maybe they just haven't triggered their curses in a few generations and don't know about it.
I stand up and hand Katherine another bottle of water. "What else?"
Katherine takes the bottle from me with a small smile on her face, opening it and taking a swig before closing it back up and setting it down. "A witch to do the spell. Mine bailed, but Bonnie'll do just fine. And a vampire."
Elena lets out a breath. "Caroline."
Katherine smirks. "Could've been anyone, I suppose, but I like the poetry of Caroline."
"So, you were just gonna hand us all over to be killed?"
Katherine takes a second to answer before letting out a breath. "Better you die than I." She slowly backs away into the shadows to pace her tomb. I guess this conversation is over.
I start packing up everything into the bag Elena brought and stand with my blanket, folding it back up. Elena stops her agitated pacing and smiles at me, grabbing her bag when I hold it out to her. She starts to make her way to the exit, with me on her tail, when Stefan comes down the stairs.
"Elena! Reyna."
Elena stops as he walks up to her. "Stefan, what are you doing here?" He looks over at the tomb entrance before turning back to us.
"I could ask you the same question."
Elena lets out a sigh. "Caroline told you."
"No, she kept your secret, but it didn't take me long to figure out what was so important that you'd have to keep it from me."
She shrugs. "I knew that you'd stop me."
Stefan sighs and shakes his head before leaning down a little. "Listen to me. Whatever she said to you, is a lie. Do not listen to her. She is a liar, Elena."
I step out from behind Elena and stand beside her. "What if she isn't? You didn't hear what she said. And I believe her."
Elena nods. "I do too."
Stefan lays his hands on Elena's upper arms and looks at her with a soft expression. "You don't have to worry, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."
"That's the problem.... You won't. But you'll die trying. How's that any better?"
Katherine moves out from the shadows. "There's nothing you can do, Stefan. I haven't even told you the best part of the story.... He killed them. My entire family. Just to get back at me for running. Whatever you do to escape Klaus, he will get his vengeance. On your friends, your family, on anyone that you've ever loved."
Stefan pulls Elena to look back at him. "Hey, look at me. Do not listen to her, alright?"
"Always the protector. But even you must realize that she's doomed. There's nothing you can do to stop it.... Unless, of course, you have this..." She holds up the Moonstone.
I tilt my head. "What?"
"There it is." Stefan points at Katherine. "The ultimate lie, isn't it. You spun this whole thing so that we would have to get that stone from you, didn't you?"
"I didn't spin anything, Stefan. It's the truth."
Stefan approaches Katherine. "No, let me guess, you wanna trade that stone for your freedom. Hmm? You manipulative, psychotic bitch."
She lets out a scoff. "My freedom? There's where you're wrong, Stefan. I don't want my freedom. Because when Klaus shows up to kill us all – and he will, I'll be in the tomb, where no vampire will enter because they can't get out. I'll be the safest psychotic bitch in town." She moves back into the shadows of her tomb and leaves us in a tense silence. That doesn't bode well for any of us...
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After Stefan corralled us out of the tomb, we headed back to my car and I drove them over to Elena's house. She asked me to spend the night so she wouldn't be alone while processing everything we learned from Katherine, so I dropped them both on her porch before driving back to my house to pack an overnight bag and tell my Aunt about it before driving back. By the time I made it back to the Gilbert residence, Stefan was gone.
I grabbed my bag and headed inside, briefly saying hi to Jenna before going up to Elena's room. She wasn't in the mood to talk about the Katherine drama, so we just popped some popcorn and watched cheesy action movies from the 80's until we both fell asleep.
In the middle of the night, I woke up to a bad feeling churning in my stomach, causing me to sit upright and look around Elena's room. I couldn't see anything amiss, but there were voices in the hallway.
Climbing out of the bed and padding over the carpeted floor, I push the door open a little wider and poke my head out to see what's happening. The sight I'm met with was not one I was expecting to see at three in the morning. My history teacher, standing in his boxers with a bowl of ice cream, having a standoff with Elena and looking as awkward as I suddenly feel.
They both glance over at me when the door creaks and I step out of Elena's room. "Hey, I was just feeling a little nauseous. Gonna grab a glass of water from the kitchen." I don't wait for a response before slipping past both of them and down the stairs, passing Jenna on the way down. She smiles nervously at me, but doesn't make any chit-chat, probably wanting to get back to Alaric.
I can hear the three of them talking a little more as I head down to the kitchen, voices fading a little the farther into the house I go. When I get to the kitchen, the bad feeling starts to fade a little, whatever caused it having passed. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it's not my problem anymore.
I grab a glass from the cabinet and fill it with a tap from the sink before taking a big gulp and swallowing, trying to drink enough to clear my head. Water usually helps. Keeping my body hydrated when I'm having weird feelings helps stop the headaches and nausea to a certain degree, so I try to keep up with it.
After finishing the glass of water, I set the glass into the sink and turn to climb the stairs once more, not bothering with turning on any lights as I hold onto the railing. I bounce up the familiar staircase and creep towards Elena's door, not wanting to wake her now that she's back in bed. I gently push the door open and pad over to the bed, carefully climbing in and settling down into a comfortable position, turning to my side and trying to get back to sleep. I just hope the feeling doesn't come back.
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