TEMPLAR GARDEN, VIRGINIA

"You came all this way so I can tell you a story?!"

After returning from Church with Nate greeting Stefan with a brief, 'Hey, Drac!' The three sat around the dinner table as Nate looked at them with a raised brow, "I know it's been a while, Kid. But you can always come home; you don't have to think up a shitty excuse like that."

Aella rolled her eyes, "I'm serious, Uncle Nate."

"I know," He smiled, reaching over and bopping her nose with his finger. "You look so much like your mother when you do; it's so goddarn adorbs." He turned his gaze to Stefan, "Yes, I said, adorbs. All the cool kids are saying it now."

Stefan nodded at Nate amused, it was never boring around Nate and Aella, "I'll take that on board."

"See that you do," Nate winked at him. "I'm like totes amaze in with the cool kids."

Aella groaned, suddenly realizing how her friends felt when she was like this, "Unc, please! The story."

Nate frowned, looking between her and Stefan, "What? You're serious."

"Yes!" Aella exclaimed. She reached into her bag and pulled out the moonstone, placing it before Nate, who immediately picked it up. "We think the story has to do with this stone."

"Ooohhh, shiny," Nate admired the stone. He glanced at the two, "So smooth, too."

"Elena said that you told Aella the story when she was younger?" Stefan asked Nate, who was still ogling the stone.

"Huh?" Nate finally looked away from the stone. "Oh, yeah," he snorted. "Worst idea ever!"

Aella raised an amused brow, "Because you failed at scaring a FIVE-YEAR-OLD, or because it back failed spectacularly?"

Nate thought back to that time, "I'm gonna go with both." Then, he winced, "But your mom walking in on me telling you the scariest part and you laughing could be one of the scariest moments of my life. She was pissed."

"I wonder why," Stefan said in a deadpan voice.

"I was scarred!" Nate squeaked, pointing towards Aella, "This little gremlin made me repeat it for like a month. Every. Night! Especially when she had a sleepover, then it was like twice a night."

"It serves you right," Aella smugly told him. "Where did you find the story, anyway?"

"In my dad's library," Nate grumbled. "Your storybooks were so boring. I remembered reading it when I was younger and thought it would be a cool story. Some bits were a bit boring, so I zazzed it up."

"By naming your characters, Vincent Vein Gogh and Lycan Howlike," Aella screwed up her face. "Yeah, because such creativity is on the same wavelength as Tolkien and Jane Austen."

Nate grimaced as he pointed at his niece, "Is this you being a sarcastic teenager? Is this what hormones have done to you? You're more sarcastic than I remember. Mystic Falls wasn't supposed to turn you into... this."

"To be honest," Stefan tentatively interrupted the two. "I think she's more sarcastic around you."

Nate gasped dramatically, "Take that back this moment, Drac. Or you and I cannot be friends."

"I also get more migraines when I'm here." Aella groaned, rubbing her forehead, causing Nate to glare down at her. "Get the damn book, Uncle Nate!"

"Rude," Nate twirling his finger at her as he stood. "Very, very, rude."

As he left the room, Stefan glanced down at Aella with an amused smile. Despite looking away from him while she rubbed her temple, Aella somehow felt his gaze, "Don't Stefan, just don't."

It seemed Aella had just been given a taste of her own medicine.

MYSTIC FALLS

Caroline quickly explained to the girls what had happened, and Elena looked as if she were about to kill someone. The doppelganger looked to Anna, "You need to leave."

"What?!" Anna spluttered in surprise. "No, I can help."

"Jeremy can't lose another person, Anna," Elena desperately told her. "You need to be safe."

"I can protect myself," Anna adamantly told her. "If Caroline, who's been a vampire for like a minute compared to me, is staying. So am I. I'm a part of this group now; I'm not going to run at the first sign of danger."

"She's right," Caroline admitted with a shrug. "She's more powerful than me; if anyone can help Damon, it'll be her." She saw her mom on the phone, "But what I can do is find out more." She strutted over to her mother to hear the end of her conversation.

"Look, I can't talk here. Just get Jess and meet me down the hill at the entrance. And bring a...yes, we need it."

"What's wrong?" Caroline asked Liz, crossing her arms in anger.

"Nothing," Liz smiled sadly at her. "I just have something..."

Caroline may have wanted to get info out of her mother, but she was also disappointed she'd believed Liz that work wouldn't interrupt their time. "You mean work? You've surprised me. You lasted longer than five minutes."

It hurt Caroline to see her mom wounded by her words, but it was the truth. If she had a dollar for every time Liz had sworn she would stay for an event and not leave, then did leave for work, she'd have been a millionaire.

"It's important."

Caroline scoffed, "It always is."

Tears grew in Liz's eyes at the hurt in her daughter's voice and the betrayal she felt over Damon, "I'm sorry."

As Liz walked away, Caroline followed with her eyes. Elena and Anna joined her, "She's going after him."

Caroline nodded at Anna's words, knowing she would have overheard the conversation, "She is. We need to find Damon, and someone needs to keep an eye on my mom."

"You two keep an eye on Liz," Elena told the two. "I'll go looking for Damon. It'll look suspicious if we all go missing."

With a nod, the girls separated. As Anna and Caroline followed her mom at a distance, Caroline looked over at the vampire, "If Elena finds Damon, does that mean I win the bet?"

Anna looked at the blonde as if she was crazy, "Hell no. Doesn't a bet have clauses that when there's an emergency, that the bet doesn't count?"

Caroline shrugged, "I guess it does now." She opened her mouth to continue, but Anna pulled her to a stop and hid them behind a tree, "Shhh." Looking through the bush, they saw Mason waiting as Liz sent him a nod and seemed to walk further into the woods. Until Mason moved, they were stuck.

Caroline groaned, wondering where the hell Tyler was.

TEMPLAR GARDEN, VIRGINIA

"Okay," Nate slammed the large book on the table. Then, smiling when Stefan and Aella began coughing at the amount of dust that flew into their faces. "Oh, I'm sorry. Was that dusty?"

Aella ignored her uncle's sarcastic tone, "Just find the damn story."

Nate's face mimicked Aella as he began leafing through the pages. When he reached the right one, he groaned at the amount written in such tiny writing, "Ugh! It's so much longer than I remembered."

"How about you give us the cliff notes version," Stefan offered out the idea.

Nate's eyes lit up, "You are back in the good books, Stefan." He glared down at Aella when she sighed heavily, "You? Not so much, missy!" He began reading to himself, "Okay, so, it's called, 'The Curse of the Sun and Moon Stone.' Sound useful?"

Aella and Stefan exchanged glances as Aella answered him, "Maybe."

Nate's brow raised, "Have you two gotten yourself into some new shit?" He looked to Aella and whined, "You promised me I'd be a part of the next Scooby Gang adventure!"

Aella only shrugged, "Well, now you are." She then winced a little, "And we've actually called ourselves Murder Inc., MI for short." She proudly turned the collar of her jacket to show him the button, "Look, I even made buttons!" Before Nate could whine again, she quickly pulled another from her pocket, "And I totally brought you one!"

Nate practically snatched the button from her and began pinning on his top, "That actually is a cool name, and not so much copyrighted." He 'bopped' Aella's nose again. "You are now back in the good book, niece."

Aella beamed as she proudly got herself comfortable in her chair, "Now the story?"

"Well, if this is helping the next adventure," Nate drawled out. "Then totes amaze, of course, I'll read the boring story. Even if it is the cliff notes version..." He found his place again and began telling them the story that Aella and Stefan had no idea how crucial it would be for their friends' survival.

MYSTIC FALLS

Caroline's eyes went wide when she saw Damon stomp over to Mason; she moved a few steps closer to see better when someone pulled her down. At first, she thought it was Anna when the male voice began speaking, "I wouldn't suggest that. Damon is pissed."

Caroline turned to him as she noticed Anna crouching behind her, "And Damon is surrounded. How could you let him come here?"

Tyler could only shrug as he looked past the girls to where Damon smirked at Mason, "Mason put vervain in Damon's drink." Anna winced at the thought, no wonder Damon was in a murderous rage.

"Don't look so surprised," They heard Damon as he glowered at Mason. "You knew this was inevitable. Go ahead, run. I'll give you a head start."

Suddenly shots ring out, hitting Damon, and it took all of Anna's strength to stop Caroline from running in to save Damon. As old as Anna was, Caroline was a newborn and had more human blood running through her veins than Anna could have. But she held on tight, "Stop, Caroline. We can save him, but not if you go in and reveal yourself to everyone."

That seemed to calm Caroline down as she watched Liz and her deputies arrive and inject Damon with what looked like vervain. But her anger grew again towards Mason as her mother thanked him, and Mason had the gall to smirk.

They watched as the deputies picked Damon up and began moving him deeper into the woods. Mason stared intently as they eventually left. When he turned to return to the charity events, the three gasped as they realized Mason would be walking their way. Anna cleverly jumped up into the green trees, hiding her form. Tyler was not so lucky and instead pulled Caroline up with him and pressed his lips to his.

Instantly Caroline froze as Mason walked. Past them, his smirk growing at the sight before him. "Go, Ty," Mason softly cheered and walked on as if nothing had happened.

TEMPLAR GARDEN, VIRGINIA

"There were once two brothers," Nate began to read. He looked away from the book to look at Aella, "You can see why I gave them names; in this, they don't have many names."

"I can see why," Aella nodded at Nate with sympathy. Knowing if she said anything else, they'd never hear the story.

Nate proudly continued, "The two had a strong brotherly bond that their dad just did not like. Their dad was like super buff and amazing at everything he did." Stefan's brow raised at the apparent divergence from the actual story, but he said nothing. "One of the brothers was like their dad, but the other was super weak, and the dad did not like that." Nate glanced back to Aella and whispered to her, "Dude hit his kid, not cool. So I kept that part out of your story."

Aella patted Nate's hand affectionately, "Thanks, Uncle Nate."

"The weaker kid got annoyed after years of being second best to his brother. So after hearing a story about a witch hiding in the woods, he asked his stronger brother to go with him to find the witch. And because he was an awesome brother, he did." Nate paused and held his hand up, "Now this is like so Harry Potter; I wondered if good old J.K had stolen this idea like she suddenly decided Dumbledore was gay. So anyway, they searched all night, and yet there was no witch. Until they reached a broken bridge and somehow they just knew to get to the witch they had to cross it. But what they didn't know was that the witch had caused the bridge's collapse to capture men and women for her spells.

"The weak bro was super clever," Nate smirked. "And he planned how to make a bridge, and the strong brother made it. The evil witch was not happy," Nate winced. "She was not happy at all but conceded to the brothers and pretended to congratulate them and offered them each a gift. They followed the witch further into the woods, and when they reached her house, they saw the bones of all the people who had failed to cross the bridge. Bones of men, women, and children." Nate stopped reading to lean over to Aella, "I kept that part in, and you freakin' loved it. My freaky little gremlin."

Stefan snorted at the pride in Nate's tone, grunting as Aella slammed him with her elbow.

"That's when shit hit the fan," Nate raised his brows. "Big bro got hella scared and wanted to leave, but the witch told them if he left, the other brother wouldn't get his wish. Weak bro cried to big bro that he needed his wish to finally be strong like him. Big bro realized his life was pretty damn cushy and agreed. So, the weak bro wished for strength; to be strong, to be fast, and cunning. The stronger brother could not think of anything, he loved his life, and so he wished for it to never change." Nate rolled his eyes, "Waste of a good wish, bro."

Aella had to agree, "Totally."

"Miss witchy did bibbidi bobbidi boo," Aella rolled her eyes. "And the changes were immediate. The brothers started feeling their bodies changing. Weak bro started growing big like he wanted, but then he started growing fur!"

Aella and Stefan sat up at that last bit, eyes wide. Fur? "He became a Wolf?"

Nate suddenly stopped reading and frowned at his niece, "Spoiler alert! I thought you forgot the story?"

"What happened to the other brother?" Stefan raised a weary brow.

Nate looked at him knowingly, "He felt a hunger take over him that he had never felt before."

Stefan laughed humorlessly, "He became a vampire."

Nate solemnly nodded, "That's when the witch revealed her true intentions. She knew the brothers would come running to her, just like their father had done years before."

Aella scoffed, "I'm betting the dad was just as weak as his son and made a similar wish to the witch."

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner," Nate pointed at her but then shrugged. "Kinda. Jack Torrance, eat your heart out. Daddy dearest promised he'd marry the ugly witch if she made him perfect. She did, and he thanked her by stealing her amulet and running off with her beautiful sister instead. Douche. Happily, the witch told the brothers that their bond would be broken. Neither would be able to return home or be together ever again because one would be at mercy to the moon, and the other would be at mercy to the sun."

"Hence the story being called, The Sun and Moon Curse," Stefan surmised.

Aella frowned at the table in thought, "The dad stole the amulet..." She looked at Nate, "Is that the magic stone you told me about."

Nate smiled proudly, "Someone remembers our storytime." He shrugged, "I used a magic stone in yours because I just knew you'd ask what an amulet was, and once I told you, you'd somehow ask a question on that, and it'd become a loophole. You were good at them," Nate pointed at her. "Question after question so you didn't have to go to sleep. Little gremlin."

Rolling her eyes, Aella urged for him to continue. So Nate did, "The sun-cursed brother soon realized what the witch meant when she told him he would be at mercy to the sun, as the sun rose the following day. His skin began burning until it set on fire, and he ran for cover, slowly he realized that he would never be able to stare at the sun again. The moon-cursed brother also learned of his fate the next morning. Unlike his brother, he could walk in the sun, but as the sunset and the moon rose, his body began to break until it was once again covered in fur, and he stood on four legs.

"During the day, the moon-cursed brother begged the witch to change him back, and during the night, the sun-cursed brother did the same, but the witch would not reverse their wishes. However, the brothers soon realized the upside to their curses; the once weaker brother was stronger than any man, even his brother. While the once stronger brother understood how his wish had been manipulated - his life would never change because his life was now immortal. He would forever be like this, unable to ever see his brother, or anyone, because the price for living for eternity was blood and only the blood of humans."

Aella glanced hesitantly at Stefan, "Sounds convincing."

Stefan sighed, agreeing with her, "Well, it could be true. But, unfortunately, we don't actually know how vampires and werewolves were created."

Aella snorted, "Turned because you had major daddy issues? That would be awful if it were true."

"Um, hello," Nate waved at the two interrupting them. "I'm telling a story here."

Aella chuckled at the petulant look on her uncle's face, "Sorry, Bilbo. Continue telling your tale."

Nate smirked, "Bilbo was an awesome storyteller." He found his place again and continued reading, "For years the brothers pleaded with the witch, which she ignored as she gleefully watched her sister die of heartbreak at losing her children, and her former love suffer at the loss of his wife. Finally, when the two died, only then did the witch lift the curse, temporarily telling the sons that once her stone had been returned, only then would she permanently lift the curse."

"I have a feeling that all did not go the way the witch wanted," Aella sarcastically quipped.

"You know it, girlfriend," Nate practically sang. "Papa gave her one last, f-you when the brothers got home, and they found the deceased bodies of their parents with a letter addressed to the witch in their dad's hand. The brothers returned it to her; as she opened it, she flew into a fit of rage, for the father had known all along it was her that took his sons and knew what she wanted. Thinking his sons dead, he got rid of the stone and wrote to the witch wishing her to burn in hell, unaware what this would mean for his sons." Nate winced, "The witch returned the curses to the brothers and warned them that only when her stone was returned would she remove the curse, but only to the first brother who returned it. It was then that the brothers became each other's enemy, which is what the witch had wanted, both searching until only one remained."

Nate looked at the both, "And that's it."

Aella roughly rubbed her face, "It makes sense why Katherine wanted the stone if she believes the story to be true."

Stefan reluctantly agreed with her, "Yeah. But why use a werewolf to find it, and risk him knowing the story too?"

Nate's mouth dropped open, "You guys got werewolves too? No fair!"

"Believe me," Stefan shook his head at the older man. "I'd be happy with anything else." Nate frowned, and Stefan explained his distaste. "A werewolf's bite is fatal to vampires."

Nate winced, "Ouch, dude. That is not a totes amaze situation."

Aella shook her head, mouth twisted, "This story could just be a story. I mean, how many movies are about the legacy of vampires and werewolves?"

"But they were not written in the book of a powerful warlock," Stefan disagreed with her.

Nate sighed loudly, "Usually, I'd agree with my niece..." He paused for a second as he picked up the stone Aella had given it and placed it on the page before him. "Until you gave me this stone." He turned the book towards them, and Aella's eyes widened.

"Holy shit!"