A/N: Hey everyone. I hope you enjoy this chapter. As always, please let me know what you think xoxo p.s Check out my Instagram Artful_Becca for some cool updates about future fics and images I've created for this and other stories xoxo

SALVATORE BOARDING HOUSE

Instead of lying on her rumpled sheets and conjuring up every possible grim scenario for the night ahead, Elena stood with Nate and Ric, staring at a series of photos spread across Stefan's desk. The images, taken in haste under the flickering torchlight of a secret cave, offered a distraction from further despair thoughts of how she would die that night.

Ric, who had only just been shown the photos by Nate, leaned in closer, his face etched with a mix of wonder and disbelief. "This is incredible and right beneath our feet this entire time," he murmured, his voice a mix of awe and excitement.

Elena, her curiosity piqued, raised an eyebrow at the intricate carvings and symbols, each marked with colorful post-its. The ancient markings seemed almost out of place next to the mundane stickiness of office supplies. "What does all this mean?" she asked, her tone laced with a mix of intrigue and skepticism.

Nate, unable to hide his smugness, turned towards them with a cocky grin. "Luckily for us, Google has this awesome translation tool that helped me with some of these words, or should I say names," he boasted, his pride in his digital-age resourcefulness barely contained.

Ric's eyes lit up, shifting rapidly from the photos to Nate, his excitement palpable. "Names?" he echoed, leaning in even closer, as if the very word could pull the secrets straight from the stones themselves.

Elena's eyes rolled subtly as Ric's childlike giddiness took hold, but she couldn't help the ghost of a smile tugging at her lips. Nate, pointed eagerly at two specific photos spread out. "In the cave, Elijah deciphered Rebekah and Henrik, he believes Rebekah must have been down there and carved their names at some point," he explained, tapping the images as if to imprint the importance directly onto their brains.

He swiftly moved his hand to highlight three more photos, his fingers brushing against the glossy paper. "And then there are Elijah, Niklaus, and Kol," he added, ticking off the names with a certain reverence.

Elena's frown deepened, her mind racing through the archives of her supernatural acquaintances and enemies. "I thought Aella said there were five brothers," she pointed out, her voice tinged with confusion and a hint of concern.

"From what I could decipher in the cave alone. There were only these names," Nate responded, his hands hovering uncertainly over the collection of photographs. He nodded to himself, as if trying to confirm his own findings. "No. Yeah. There were only seven names," he said, a bit too hastily.

Ric's frown matched Elena's as he caught the uncertainty in Nate's voice. "You mean six," he corrected, his brow knitting together in concern.

"What?" Nate's head snapped up, confusion clear in his expression.

"You said seven names; there's only six here," Ric pointed out, his tone gentle yet firm.

"Huh?" Nate turned back to the photos, his eyes darting from one to another as he mentally recounted the names. After a brief moment of silent counting, he nodded again, this time a bit sheepishly. "Yeah, then I guess it was six."

Elena watched the exchange, her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned back slightly. The uncertainty in Nate's voice didn't sit well with her. "You don't seem so sure," she noted, her tone carrying a mix of skepticism and concern.

Nate's lips twisted as he muttered under his breath, his fingers tapping an erratic rhythm on the desk. "I could have sworn... no, there are six names. I printed off six names," he said, though his voice wavered with uncertainty that didn't escape his friends.

Ric, ever the voice of reason, chimed in, echoing Elena's earlier sentiment. "Elena's right, you don't sound so sure."

"Yeah," Nate acknowledged with a grimace, nodding slightly as if conceding to an internal debate. "I do feel unsure, which I hate because the word 'un' just doesn't sound great most times."

Then, as if a switch had been flipped, Nate began to list off a series of 'un' words, pacing slightly. "Unkind, undead, undies—" His voice trailed off, his eyes widening in realization as he continued, "—those two have a word meaning death in them, and that is never a good thing; that is a 'un' thing."

Ric glanced at Elena, his expression one of mild confusion. Elena merely shrugged, accustomed to the tangents Aella and her uncle could go on when something didn't sit right with their minds.

Nate gasped suddenly, a flicker of realization sparking in his eyes. "I still have all the original photos on my memory card!"

He rushed over to Stefan's computer, still muttering to himself about 'un' words, leaving Ric and Elena in the wake of his rapid thought process. "Unstable, unwanted, unsatisfactory, uncomfortable," he listed off, his voice a soft murmur filled with dismay. "Damn, I'm really uncomfortable with 'un' words."

Nate's hands flew over the keyboard as he searched through the digital files, his mutterings a constant undercurrent. Finally, he stood up straight, a spark of something—perhaps revelation—flashing across his features.

"Wait," he exclaimed, turning to face his friends with a look that mixed confusion and excitement. "I think I found something."

The printer attached to Stefan's computer sputtered into life with a sound reminiscent of a vintage car trying to start on a cold morning. Nate positioned himself in front of the machine, his lips curling into a smirk as the device spat out a single sheet of paper.

"I was right, there were seven names. I must have missed it," he announced triumphantly, the mischief in his tone palpable.

Meanwhile, Ric, not one to idle, had already immersed himself in the other cave markings spread across the table. His finger traced the lines of a story etched in time, his voice filled with the wonder of discovery. "As far as I can tell, it's a story," he told Elena, who leaned in closer to catch every word.

"In simple archaeological terms, it's a really, really old story," Ric elaborated, his eyes dancing with the thrill of the find.

Nate, ever the joker, perked up from his station at the printer. "Like Pictionary? I love Pictionary," he quipped, drawing a brief, amused smile from Ric.

As Nate returned to the computer to finalize the translation of the newly printed photo, Ric continued his explanation to Elena. He pointed to a sequence of drawings. "Nate's correct with this. This is the moon cycle; see the colored circle, below it a half colored circle, then below that an empty circle," he described, his hand moving in a slow, deliberate arc.

Elena nodded, following along, as Ric pointed to another depiction. "A lone man," he noted.

Just then, Nate's voice chimed in from behind them, "Mikael."

Ric and Elena turned to look at him, surprise etched on their faces. "What?" Ric asked.

Nate approached, laying the seventh name on the table with a dramatic flair and sticking a yellow post-it on the photo. "Mikael: that's the last name," he declared.

Elena peered down at the script, a frown knitting her brow. "Is that the fifth brother?"

Ric hummed thoughtfully, the wheels in his mind turning. "Possibly, but if Elijah's family is as old as he says and these are Viking runes, then the family would follow Viking tradition when naming their family. The first child could be called Mikael, but in this case, I doubt it very much."

"Why?" Elena asked, genuinely curious, sensing the historical significance in Ric's tone.

Ric, now fully in his element, couldn't hide his excitement. "In Viking times, surnames were created from the father's name; Elijah's surname is Mikaelson, it literally meant Mikael's son."

Elena's eyes widened, absorbing the implications of Ric's explanation. "Which means this isn't the name of another brother."

With a knowing smirk, Nate rearranged the post-it above the other photos of names. "That's Daddy Original," he concluded, almost theatrically, as he stepped back to let them see the bigger picture he had pieced together from the fragments of the past.

In their collective surprise at unearthing the identity of the Mikaelson family patriarch, an important detail slipped past Ric, Nate, and Elena—how Nate initially had seven photos and then suddenly only six. This oversight, small and seemingly insignificant in the moment of their discovery, was exactly the kind of detail that could ripple out into unforeseen consequences. If only they had paused, questioned the inconsistency more thoroughly, perhaps the series of events set to unfold that night would have taken a different course. But as is often the case in the whirlwind of revelations, the excitement overshadowed the anomaly, setting them on a path none could have predicted.

ALARIC'S RESIDENCE

Katherine Pierce was no stranger to playing the long game, especially when it involved self-preservation. On this particularly tense evening, she found herself perfecting the mundane task of making coffee. The apartment was pristine, wiped clean of any trace from the recent unwanted visit by Damon and Aella. Now, she needed every ounce of her cunning to maneuver through the impending storm named Klaus.

With a tight smile and an overly casual flick of her wrist, Katherine stirred the coffee, her senses on high alert. She sensed him before she saw him—the imposing presence of Klaus filling the doorway.

"Everything okay?" she asked, her voice a melody of feigned innocence as she glanced over her shoulder.

Klaus studied her for a moment, his eyes narrowing slightly. Katherine doing something as pedestrian as making coffee was as likely as a fish riding a bicycle. "What have you been doing?" he asked, his tone dripping with suspicion.

"Making coffee. Do you want some?" Katherine replied, turning to face him fully now, her expression the picture of nonchalance.

In a flash that was almost too quick to see, Klaus was upon her, his hand gripping her throat with an ease that belied his supernatural strength. He leaned in close, his eyes boring into hers. "Tell me what you've been doing," he demanded, his voice low and dangerous.

Katherine, ever the actress, continued her ruse, her voice slightly strangled under his grip. "Making coffee," she gasped out, the lie slipping smoothly from her lips despite the pressure on her windpipe. Her immunity to compulsion—a secret safeguard thanks to the vervain Damon had supplied—was her ace in the hole.

Klaus's suspicion momentarily wavered as he released her, stepping back to survey her reaction. Katherine clutched her throat, feigning distress, her eyes wide and watering as she turned slowly around to face him again. That's when his gaze zeroed in on her wrist, catching the glint of her bracelet. The thought that it might contain vervain sparked a new command from him, his voice sharp and commanding. "Wait. Take off your bracelet."

With a calculated reluctance, Katherine slid the bracelet from her wrist and handed it to him, her internal alarm bells quieting slightly as she cleared this hurdle. However, Klaus was not finished testing her yet. His next command was a direct challenge, his eyes narrowing as he watched her closely. "Now, I want you...to walk over to the window and stand in the sunlight."

The hesitation that flickered across Katherine's face was not feigned. The sunlight was a true danger to her, and her mind raced with the repercussions of her next actions. Yet, she knew hesitation could reveal her resistance to his compulsion. "But I'll burn," she protested, her voice a mix of fear and resignation.

Klaus's smirk was cold, devoid of humor. "You don't have a choice."

Katherine's heart pounded as she took tentative steps towards the window. This act might truly be lethal, but showing defiance to Klaus could lead to even more brutal consequences. As she reached the sunlight, the rays touched her skin, and immediately her flesh began to sizzle and burn. She couldn't hold back the scream that tore from her throat, the pain excruciating and real.

Klaus watched, a satisfied smile playing on his lips as if confirming his power over her. Katherine's screams filled the room, a harrowing sound that would chill anyone with a semblance of compassion. But Klaus was unmoved, his eyes gleaming with a cruel delight.

"That's enough."

Katherine slunk into the shadowy corner of the room at Klaus's command, her body a tableau of pain and agony, the scorched skin making even the slightest movement a torment. Klaus, seemingly unperturbed by her suffering, merely shrugged off the smell of burnt flesh permeating the air, his attention already shifting to other matters. "Guess I was wrong," he mused, almost to himself, as he casually took a seat and pulled a folder from his jacket.

Katherine watched through watering eyes as Klaus began to lay out photos on the small table before him. Despite her pain, curiosity piqued within her, a diversion from the physical agony. "What's that?" she managed, her voice rough and strained.

Klaus continued with meticulous care, aligning the photos perfectly before finally responding. "I sent Isobel ahead of us; before she revealed herself, she did a little reconnaissance." His voice held a hint of pride, perhaps in Isobel's thoroughness or his own foresight.

The photos, spread across the table, featured Aella, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. Klaus's voice pulled Katherine from her pain-induced haze. "Tell me, Katerina. You tried to impersonate Elena for some time; you'd know everyone here. Who are they?"

Katherine forced herself to focus on the task, identifying the figures next to her longtime adversary. "Bonnie," she said, pointing to a girl with a somber expression. Klaus hummed in acknowledgment, "The dearly departed cousin."

Her finger moved to a photo of Aella with a blonde, both laughing heartily. "Caroline," Katherine said, a hint of bitterness seeping through.

Klaus's touch lingered on Aella's face in the photo, a strange, wistful expression crossing his features. "The best friend, your sire, if I'm correct?" he asked, looking up at Katherine with a pointed gaze.

"Yes," Katherine confirmed, feeling a chill at this softer, more reflective Klaus. He then pointed to another picture, this one including a young man and woman alongside Aella. "Jeremy and Anna," she explained, her voice flat.

"The doppelganger brother and his vampire girlfriend. I heard you two were familiar?" Klaus's smirk suggested he enjoyed unearthing these connections, perhaps imagining the complications they introduced.

"Anna's a child. Pearl treated her as one, and even now she behaves as such," Katherine responded dismissively, eager to steer the conversation away from personal entanglements.

Klaus then pointed to an elder woman in the photos. "And her?" he queried, his interest apparent.

"Sheila Bennett, Aella's grandmother," Katherine replied, watching Klaus raise the photo for a closer look.

"She doesn't look well," Klaus observed, not without a hint of genuine concern.

"She has cancer. Terminal," Katherine added, her voice softening despite herself. Cancer was an enemy that couldn't be healed; even with vampire blood.

"Shame," Klaus murmured almost reflexively, his gaze lingering on the photo. The image captured a moment of genuine affection, Aella smiling at her grandmother with an expression of love and sadness. It was a smile Klaus had seen directed at himself once, in another life. Klaus, lost in thought, seemed momentarily transported by memories of similar smiles given to him, a reminder of what had been lost along the way. "They look close."

Katherine winced internally at Klaus's observation, the pain of her burning skin momentarily eclipsed by the weight of his scrutiny. "They are. Aella would do anything for her. It's Aella's biggest fault: her love for her friends and family. It'll be her downfall," she remarked bitterly, her tone laced with a mixture of admiration and resentment.

Klaus, lost in thought, continued to stroke the images of Aella before him, his expression distant as if lost in memories of his own. "So alike," he murmured, more to himself than to Katherine, though she couldn't help but wonder at the significance of his words.

Katherine's mind raced with a whirlwind of thoughts, trying to piece together Klaus's sudden interest in Aella. Was it mere curiosity, or did it hint at something deeper? She needed to tread carefully, ensuring her own survival while navigating the shifting dynamics of Klaus's attention.

At Klaus's mutter, Katherine felt a flicker of hope amidst the chaos. "What?" she replied, her voice tinged with cautious curiosity.

"Nothing," Klaus responded cryptically, gathering the photos before turning his gaze back to her with a more decisive air. "I need you to do something for me."

Suppressing the urge to reveal her relief, Katherine maintained a facade of composure. "Of course," she replied smoothly, masking her inner turmoil with practiced ease. This, she realized, was her chance to secure her own safety, to leverage Klaus's trust to her advantage. It was a delicate dance, but one she was determined to master.

Check out my Instagram Artful_Becca for some cool updates about future fics xoxo