[Episode 31 - Katerina]
The girl cries out, her sister and her mother on either side of the bed. She gives out a pained exhale, feeling her insides turning out.
Letta rubs her hand in between her own, wiping her forehead every minute "Just one more push, please Rina!"
Katerina pushes once more, her effort rewarded by the cry of her child. "It's a girl" their mother smiles as she takes the baby into her arms.
Katerina smiles, finding her ray of hope in the cries of the one she created "A girl. Please Mama, let me see her" she pushes herself up with a groan of pain, a motherly smile surpassing her painful eyes.
Papa shouts at mother "Don't! What are you doing!?"
Violetta gets up, leaving her sister's side for the fist time, "Papa, just once please" she begs, taking a step towards him. He holds the newborn away from her mother and aunt, "She has disgraced this family!"
"Papa please!" Violetta rushes forward, only to be hit down by the burly man. She gets only to be kicked down again "Stay back if you want her to live" he holds the baby roughly to himself, rushing out.
"Papa no! Please, no Papa! Papa...!" Katerina cries out in heartbreak. Violetta swallows her blood and runs to her distraught sister"Dobre e, Rina, dobre e (It's okay, Rina, It's okay)... Shh...".
"Letta please" she struggles, pushing herself to hold her baby, just once, once before she loses her forever.
"Mama please... Letta, please, my baby! Violetta..."
Kat! Kat! Wake up!
The Guardian jerks awake, her twin's face staring into hers "Wake up!"
Kat blinks, and blinks again,looking around. Realising that it was all a dream of her previous life, she plops back onto her pillows.
Her life is fighting it's way back, maybe she should let it.
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The Gilbert sisters enter the Salvatore Boarding House, each having their own reaction to the new person sitting in the parlour.
"You" Elena tilts her head.
"You" Kat growls, stepping forward with amber eyes, only to have Damon step in between them "Later".
"She tried to deliver us to the big bad sniffer"
"Apparently there's a bigger badder sniffer out for ya'll"
"Letta please" Rose sighs.
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"Okay, you have to understand I only know what I've picked up over the years and I don't know what's true and what's not true. It's the problem with all this vampire crap but Klaus, I know he's real"
"Who is he?" Kat frowns. Why do these originals have such weird names?
"He's one of the originals, he's a legend"
"From the first generation of vampires..."
"Like Elijah?" Elena asks, leaning against Stefan with a sigh at her fate.
"No..." she looks around "Elijah was the Easter bunny compared to Klaus. He's a foot soldier. Klaus is the real deal..."
"Klaus is known to be the oldest" Stefan puts in, maybe he read up.
"Okay, so you're saying that the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after me?" Elena asks, obviously forgetting that her sister is also meant to die for this.
Rose's 'yes' and Stefan's 'no' coincide, making the sisters raise their brows.
"What they're saying is, I mean if what she's saying is true..." Damon starts.
"Which it is" Rose defends.
"And you're not saying it so I don't kill you" Kat narrows her eyes. She wants to trust her, but she first wants to know how she knew her in the old life.
"Which I'm not"
Damon and Kat look at each other, before looking at Pixie "Solid maybe"
"Look, Elijah's dead, right? So no one else even knows that you exist..." Stefan says.
"Not that you know of" Rose says, making Kat try to jerk up. She's the only one who knows.
"That's not helping" Damon placates, holding her gently down.
"Look, I've never even met anyone who's laid eyes on him. I mean," the younger optimistic Salvatore gets up, pacing "we're talking centuries of truth mixed with fiction. We don't know if he's real. For all we know he could just be some sort of stupid bed time story"
"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" Rose glares at him. She came here to save Letta, she'd already given her life up once to stop Klaus, she couldn't possibly do it again.
"Alright, we're shaking. You made your point" Damon rolls his eyes, his words punctuated by both the Gilbert sisters getting up with a huff.
"Where do you think you're going?" Damon demands.
"I hear Antarctica is very good this time of the year, wanna come with?" Kat rolls her eyes.
Elena hands her her bag "School. And we're late"
"Let me grab my stuff" Stefan tries to get up "I'll go with you".
Elena rolls her eyes and Kat pushes him back onto the couch by a finger on his shoulder "It's okay, We know where it is"
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An hour later, Kat carefully puts her and Elena's sick leave slips in her bag as Caroline whines.
"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this. I'm a terrible liar"
"And keep her boyfriend busy" Kat instructs with a reassuring hug "I don't want him to know what we're up to"
"I'm even worse at duplicity and you know this"
"You managed to keep me occupied when Katherine paid Stefan a visit" Elena retorts, plopping the heavy bag with an exasperated thud.
"Yeah, because she threatened me. Not that I'm saying that you should use that as a tactic, it's...Stefan's gonna see right through me..."
"Caroline, as my friend, do you promise or not?" Kat widens her eyes in demand, trying to bring up her puss-in-boots look.
"You had to break out the girlfriend code" the blonde grits out, rolling her eyes at her fate "Okay! I promise... Why don't you want Stefan to know?"
"'Cause he'll whine about Rina lying"
"Rina?"
Kat purses her lips, smacking them a few seconds later "Katherine, I mean Katherine"
Caroline glances at Elena "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Elena does the typical 'I'm carrying the whole world' sigh "Yes, I'm sure. She's the only one who knows the truth about Klaus. The only one who can tell me how to stop him"
"But you're asking for the truth from someone who's probably never given it. Are you sure about this?"
Kat narrows her eyes at her judgement. If there's anything her dreams in the past 4 nights have told her, it's that every story has a hero and a villain, but who is who, changes with who tells the story.
"I can't just sit back and wait. I have to know, Caroline. Please..."
The Guardian doesn't wait for anymore judgemental whining from either of the girls. She heaves the giant stone blocking the tomb entrance.
"Katerina?" she whispers.
Elena pats Caroline "We'll be okay from here"
They hear a struggling deep throaty breath from inside, with the Pierce stalking towards the mouth of the cave.
"Hello Letta... Elena" she looks at the younger Gilbert with a snarkish look "You come to watch me wither away? Goodbye Caroline" she waves.
"As long as I stay on this side of the door, she can't hurt me. Please..." Elena sends her off.
"Stefan know you're here?" they look back at Kitty, to see that surprisingly, she's talking not to Elena but Kat.
"I brought you some things" Kat pulls the bag towards her, stepping closer to the tomb than Elena would.
"You came to bribe me?" the vampire looks to her soul-sister with raised eyebrows "What is it that you want?"
Kat snorts. Elena puts in "I want you to tell me about Klaus". She didn't like her twin being at ease near Katherine.
"Hmm, you've been busy"
"I brought you this..." Kat smiles, handing her the Guardian manuscript and the Petrova family book.
"It's your family history" Elena provides commentary "It says in here that the family line ended with you. Obviously that's not true"
"You think that if you brought me some family keepsake that I'd open up?"
Kat chuckles, removing the actual present from the bag. She places it just outside the tomb.
"You don't look so good. How long before your body shuts down? 10," Elena frowns "20 years? It must be painful to desiccate and mummify. I can't even imagine"
Kat sighs in exasperation. She doesn't like other's being smug and sarcastic when they're the needy ones. Something tells her that Rina might not be far from the same.
Katherine sits down on the floor, a greedy anticipating hope in her dark eyes as she looks at the small bottle of blood. Kat pours some of it into a small cup and gives it to the vampire through the invisible barrier.
The older doppelganger surprises Elena when she takes the blood offering, hand-to-hand, with a proud yet thankful nod. Kat exhales lowly when she sees colour return to Rina's cheeks. She puts the cup down at the barrier, a silent demand for more blood, immediately obliged.
"It's a long story, Klaus and I. It goes all the way back to England, 1492, after I left Bulgaria. Or was thrown out"
"Thrown out?" Elena asks. Somehow, Letta knows why the Petrova was renounced by family.
"My family, your true ancestors, they disowned me. My indiscretions were not tolerated at that time. I had a baby out of wedlock..." she mock-gasps "The shame"
"It was kept secret?"
"Mhmm..." she licks some blood from her lip "My baby was given away" she looks at Letta, a pang reminding her of the nights she cried into her hair "We were banished to England and had to learn to adjust..."
"We?" Elena questions with furrowed brows.
"Um..." Kat gropes for ways to break it to her sister that she has another sister from a past life "We.." she dumbly states. Elena's eyes widen - Kat's accepted Elena's 'enemy' as her sister.
"So" Katherine continues to gather attention away from Letta "We quickly became English. It was there that I caught the eye of a nobleman named Klaus. I was taken with him at first..." she says, refusing to mention whose eye Letta had caught "-till I found out what he was and what he wanted from us. And then... We ran like hell"
"What did Klaus want?" Elena asks. That's the wrong question. Why did Klaus want. That is the right question.
"The same thing that he'll want from you both... He wants to break the curse"
"By sacrificing the Petrova doppelganger and the Guardian...?" Kat speaks up for the first time.
"He wanted to drain every single drop of blood from our bodies"
"But why our blood? What does the Petrova line have to do with the sacrifice?" Elena leans against the rock wall near the hole from up.
"The curse was bound by the sacrifice of Petrova blood. A doppelganger's and a Guardian's. Witches are crafty with their spells. The doppelgänger twins were created as a way to be able to undo the spell. Once they reappeared, the curse can be..." she crushes the cup with renewed strength "...broken"
"So you ran before he could kill you?" Kat asks.
Oh Letta, Katherine thought, if only you remember what actually happened that day...
"Something like that" she clears her throat, telling them the story of how she became a vampire.
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"You killed yourself?!" Elena gets up, aghast that Katherine would prefer death and vampirism to Klaus. However, it didn't surprise Letta that much, Katherine did everything for a reason, a good one that too. There's something she isn't telling them.
"Klaus needed a human doppelgänger. As a vampire, I was no longer any use to him"
"But it didn't work. You didn't really escape, you've been running from Klaus ever since!" Elena's eyes widen more than before, now truly getting the gravity of her fate.
"I underestimated his spirit for vengeance" she shrugs "-but living in a suitcase is better than dying so you can have your blood spilled over some silly little rock" she looked at Letta, who's looking at her keenly.
Elena paces once again, ill at ease. She'd have to die. She'd have every drop her blood drained.
"What's wrong?" the vampire smirks "Afraid I'm right? You don't want to die?"
"Rose and Trevor spent the last 500 years running because you used them. Trevor just got killed!" If Elena could still escape, it would cause those who helped her to face the same fate as Katherine, Trevor and Rose.
"I was looking out for myself, Elena. I will always look out for myself. If you're smart, you'll do the same" she knew encouraging the stupid younger twin to save herself would only spark the martyr in her.
Katherine wanted the sacrifice to happen. And she wants freedom, something she sacrificed the moment the moment she became a vampire. Letta and her could live forever, no one has to die.
"So" Elena crosses her arms over her chest with narrowed eyes "-how much of your little story is true?"
"I have no reason to lie, Elena. I have no reason to do anything but sit here and read and rot"
"Okay, assuming it's even partially true, that's the reason why you came back isn't it? Because you wanted to be the one to hand me over to Klaus" That and to get Letta back.
"500 years on the run, I figured maybe he'd be willing to strike a deal" Katherine shrugs, sitting down with the books in hand.
"So you got Mason Lockwood to find you the moonstone" Elena says, without any knowledge to how sensitive the topic was to her sister.
"Right again" Katherine makes an imaginary check action in the air.
"What else do you need.... to break the curse?" the Guardian asks "It's not just a doppelganger or the Guardian or the stone, is it? Otherwise there would be no reason to trigger Tyler's werewolf curse..."
"Witches and their spells" the vampire's nose scrunches up in placation "...so many ingredients, so many to sacrifice...."
"So you need a werewolf?" Elena comes close to the tomb entrance with a deep sigh. Kitty scoffs "Believe it or not, they're hard to come by"
"What else?"
"A witch to do the spell. Mine bailed but Bonnie will do just fine..."
"What else?"
"A vampire...."
"Caroline" Kat sighs, lips pursing.
"So you were gonna just hand us all over to be killed?" Elena all but shouts in front of the stuck girl, who just tilts her head with a hidden pout "Better you die than I"
"We have to get going Elena..." Kat looks down at her phone.
Care: Stefan found out, run
Just then, a whoosh jumps down the open hole from up, revealing a panicked Stefan "Stefan, what are you doing here?" Elena walks to him, like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
He glares at the Gilbert sisters "I could ask you the same question" How could they be so irresponisble? Katherine tells nothing but lies, he mentally grits his teeth.
"Caroline told you" Elena sighs, expecting that less of her best friend.
"No, she kept your secret but it didn't take long for me to figure out what was the important that you'd have to keep it from me"
"I knew that you'd stop me" Elena starts going up, followed by her twin but Stefan holds them back "Listen to me, whatever she said to you is a lie..."
When he sees an unconvinced Kat, he turns to his girlfriend "Do not listen to her. She's a liar, Elena..."
"What if she isn't? You didn't hear what she said" Kat purses her lips.
"You don't have to worry, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you"
"That's the problem Stefan, you won't but you'll die trying. How's that any better?" Elena furrows her brows, almost on the verge of crying. She thinks her sister is going to let Stefan or anyone die trying to protect them, then they'll be mistaken. Gravely.
"There's nothing you can do, Stefan...." Katherine comes at the edge of the tomb, the barrier stopping her, and for the first time, she's glad that it does so "I haven't even told you the best part of the story...."
"He killed them... Klaus killed my entire family, just to get back at me for running..." she refuses to mention that he was ready to kill his own family too, but Letta mustn't know that "Whatever you do to escape Klaus, he will get his vengeance on your friends, your family and anyone that you've ever loved"
Kat gulps, stepping in front of her sister just like she would when the monster comes into town. Stefan pulls back both of them, desperate "No, look at me. No, do not listen to her, okay?" he gently slaps their cheeks, but fails to gather their attention.
"Always the protector but even you must realise that she's doomed. There's nothing you can do to stop it unless of course you have..." she holds up the silver moonstone "...this"
"There it is" the younger Salvtore scoffs, stalking closer to the tomb "It's the ultimate lie, isn't it? You spun this whole thing so that we would have to get the stone from you, didn't you?"
"I didn't spin anything, Stefan. It's the truth" Katherine places the stone at the entrance behind the barrier, from where it taunts the younger twin.
"No," he says to Elena and turns back to his crazy ex "...let me guess. You want to trade that stone for your freedom, you manipulative, psychotic bitch..."
"My freedom?" she shakes her head "That'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...." she smirks.
Kat blinks at the stakes "She'll be the safest psychotic bitch in town...."
"Bye Letta" the elder vampire waves, retreating into the dark walls of the tomb with her family's two books.
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Stefan takes Elena to her house, while Kat walks back to the Boarding House. She doesn't see any lights on upstairs through the windows but the lower storey does have it's brightness.
"Hey Damon I need t-" she stops in the living room to see a shirtless Damon Salvatore and a half-clad Rose-Marie. They look up and to the right, encountering a still Kat.
"Um, hey, L-Letta" Rose stutters out, certainly flustered. She did sleep with her boyfriend, who is in love with her sister.
"Kat" Damon purses his lips in uncertainity. They never decided to be monogamous, but an angry Kat was harmful for everyone. Especially him.
She walks towards them, going around the couch they were leaning on. She stops in front of Damon with an angry jaw and bends down to his ear.
The seemingly fearless older Salvatore almost cringes, waiting for a head smack, or a lecture, or worse - an ear pull from the Guardian.
Surprising the duo on the floor, she smirks near his ear "You couldn't for me to join?" They look to her with wide eyes, to see her amused eyes.
"You're.... okay with this?" Rose stutters.
"Why won't I be?" Kat takes a bottle of bourbon from the stand, takes a swig and throws it to the aghast Salvatore who catches it with his reflexes.
"But I slept with your past-life friend!" he argues. The first reason he slept with Rose was to take his care for Elena out of his mind (he was stupid enough to think it would work). The second reason was to make his only best friend hate him.
"I'm not that stupid Smoldy" she hands a drink to Rose, sipping her own "You want me to hate you? I won't. You're stuck with me until I die. And my sister dies. Newflash - if you think detachment is going to help you let go of our impending death, I'll smack you"
Rose chuckles "You haven't changed a bit..."
"Haven't I?" she raises a brow, kneeling down momentarily, kissing Rose on her cheek, her glass resting on the vampire's shoulder.
"Um what?" Damon all but shouts.
Getting up, Kat tilts her head with a smirk "Just because you got to kiss her, doesn't mean I can't"
"The fuck?" he mutters with confused eyes only to have his friend fling a shirt at him, leaving "I would, but I don't swing that way, and threesome day is not today. I'll be around, use the bedroom" she shouts the last part, closing the door to the wooden mansion.
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Late at night, the Guardian jumps down the hole at the edge of the town, landing on dust and stone with a thud. She switches on her torch and hovers near the wall of the tomb.
Taking a deep breath, she steps a foot slowly into the enclosure "Rina?"
She hears sniffling more to the inside. "Rina it's me Letta..."
Katerina Petrova, sits to the farthest wall, tears in her eyes, dirt on her face and books in hand "Why are you here Kat?"
The Guardian kneels down with a sad smile, abandoning her torch "Not Kat, Letta. I'm here for you Rina..."
"Really?" the hope in her voice brings tears to Letta's jade eyes. She hugs her, book and all, whispering over her shoulder "I'm sorry I let Papa take her away".
"You remember?"
"Bits and pieces, like that life is drawing out a snare. And I hate myself to not help you that night, I should have fought harder..." she wipes her sister's tears, feeling like a piece to a lost puzzle returned to her heart.
"I should have too...."
"I have a lot to apologise for, are you ready to listen?" she sits beside her, not giving a care whether her back gets bruised.
Katherine gently nods, resting her head on the Guardian's shoulder, sniffling.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't help you survive, I'm sorry for leaving you, an-"
"I'm sorry...." Katherine whispers.
She runs a soothing hand over Rina's hair "For what Rina?"
"For leaving you that day, I was so scared... I left you to die..."
"I told you to go, it's not your fault"
"You don't know the half of it Kat..."
She takes the other doppelganger's hand in her own "Then tell me"
▹▹▹
The hurt Guardian runs and runs, stumbling over rocks and thorns, not understanding why her powers were not working.
"Letta! I know you're near me" a voice booms through the forest. The hurt girl, clamps her hands over her mouth, swallowing her tears and stopping her breath. She closes her eyes, praying for Rina to not come back for her.
It had been so long since she saw her sister. She just wants to say her last goodbye to Rina.
"Letta" the voice whispers in her ear, making her scream. She runs back, only to stumble down, falling hard to the ground.
"Letta!" she hears Rina's voice cry out from behind her. She looks around to see the blurry image of all vampires standing around her in a circle, right in front of her, a heartbreaking scene.
Elijah stands, his arm pinning Katerina to his chest, hand hovering over her heart.
"No!" Letta crawls forward, only to be yanked backward by the hair, into the chest of the cruel Original "You destroyed my chance, you're paying".
She kicks back, struggling. She refuses to give up without a fight. Elijah, in front of her, digs his fingers deep into her twin's heart "No no no! Stop! Please! Elijah please! Stop, please stop" she cries, slumping into the hold, not fighting anymore.
"You have me, kill me, please let her go, I was the one who stopped you, please, Elijah please tell him, let her go" she sobs.
"So granted" the vampire waves to Elijah, who immediately lets go of the girl in his hold. She takes in a breath, crawling weakly to her sister "Don't do this Niklaus, please don't" Rina begs.
He can't kill her. She's family.
"Rest in peace Letta" breaths chill her ear, as Klaus pushes a branch mercilessly into the girl's stomach. She falls down to the moist ground with a shout, when the two people she loves rush to her.
"No no no, no... Letta, no!" Katherine places her dying twin's head in her lap, rocking back and forth, tearing into her wrist and giving her blood.
Elijah cries "No, Letta please... Don't!". The dying Guardian smiles "It's okay... I l-lo-ve, love you..." she takes his hand, squeezing it tight.
"Anytime now" she says to her desperate twin. The wound wouldn't heal, and her sister's skin keeps getting paler and paler by the second.
She takes both their hands, putting them over her wound, groaning, crying " Lubov... L-Lub-bov(love)" she sighs, going still.
That was the day Elijah Mikaelson put family over love, and lost the girl he should have treated like a miracle.
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"E-Elijah?" Kat frowns, "Of all the handsome suit-wearing vampires, I had to choose him?"
Her lips lift up in a sad smile "Don't underestimate the allure of darkness Letta, even the purest of souls are drawn to it"
She swallows the lead in her throat and lowers her head into Rina's lap. "Klaus going to kill us all isn't he?"
"He will... But I'm not leaving without you"
"How can you save anyone from this?" tears well up in her jade eyes as she gets up, looking into her soul-sister's confident ones.
"Because Elijah will come for us"
"Elijah's dead Katherine" the Guardian frowns. She saw him desiccate in front of her eyes. Now reminded of that moment, she feels a pang in her chest.
"Letta, look at me, look at me" she gently pushes her sister's chin upto her "Elijah's been dead before"
The Guardian's eyes widen "Oh my God"
A/N - Woohoo! So, giving some Kaletta moments! Aren't they LOVING? So, next time on Allure, a certain straight-haired martyr makes a mistake, a certain Original comes back to with surprises, Kitty acts bitchy... O the usual. Ciao!!