•|•

Elijah looked around his study while Isabel stood in front of him to talk. After dealing with Cami after her transition, Klaus had brought Hayley with him to help with Cami seeing as they could connect better being the newest to vampirism and all.

"Okay, so what's the plan? Cami's out there with the white oak, and I'm not gonna lose one more person that I care about."

"Niklaus and Hayley can handle Camille. 'Til then, I'll keep Aya distracted."

Elijah pulled out what looked like an ornately carved wooden scroll cover out of a desk drawer, and Isabel hesitated for a moment before she replied. "And how are you the one to achieve that?"

Elijah, clearly embarrassed by what he was about to tell her, paused, unable to look her in the eye. "She and I have history."

"Let me guess." She replied unamused. "You two had a thing?"

Elijah sighed. "Aya was a towering intellect with an insatiable curiosity. Passionate, fearless, and something of an outcast."

[flashbacks in italics]

Fifteenth century Elijah was playing the spinet in what looked like a church with stained glass windows when Aya -wearing a shawl that covered her hair and face- walked into the room and watched him before removing the shawl from her face.

"Long ago, I invited her... to join a rather elite company. I determined she was perfectly tailored to bear the responsibility of an immortal life. I made her like me."

She nodded in understanding. "She was one of the first Strix."

"We cared for one another deeply."

Elijah was passionately making out with Aya, whose hair was waist-length and braided, in the church.

Elijah looked embarrassed by what he was showing her, and explained his reasoning for what came after.

"Together, we created a fellowship unburdened by the limitations of man. It was the pursuit of a glorious new world." Elijah sighed deeply. "And then Father..." The Original paused and sat down on the edge of his desk. "Led by that unquenchable desire to slay his children, Mikael descended, accompanied by a small army. He laid to waste everything that I built. So... We had no choice but to run."

Elijah rushed into a room as the sound of approaching men on horseback were heard nearby. Elijah headed straight for Aya and caressed her face. "Come with me."

Instead of answering right away, Aya grew a conflicted look by his offer.

Elijah smiled weakly. "Aya did not. So, when Tristan found her, he rescued her. She, of course, came to see him as something of a savior. And, in time, beneath his corrupted guidance, they made the Strix what they are today- a hive of depraved and ignorant savages." He hesitated for a moment before continuing in a quiet voice. "And she's never forgiven me."

Elijah was in the woods with the rest of the Strix and had just given Aya -whose hair was now in the same style it was in present time and who was wearing clothes from a slightly later era- a saddened look before he walked away.

Aya turned and watched him as he left. Tristan, too, looked upset by what had just happened, but not as much as Aya, whose eyes were filled with tears.

Elijah looked down at the scroll in his hands with a sad expression. "I'm not entirely certain I've ever forgiven myself."

Isabel sighed as she said, "well, given all that... How exactly do you plan on keeping her distracted?"

Elijah held up his scroll before he turned to leave. "With a little salt... in an old wound." He then walked out of the room to find Aya.

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

Davina opened her eyes to see that she was on the balcony outside Klaus' study. Quietly, she walked into the room to find him packing up all of Cami's dark objects into a large bag.

After a moment, Klaus seemed to sense something and turned toward the balcony yet he did not see anything.

Despite knowing he couldn't see her, Davina reflexively gasped and froze in place out of fear. However, her astral self was still invisible to him with her spell, though it was clear on the hybrids face that he was unnerved by the weird feeling he had that he was being watched.

Before Klaus could investigate further, Isabel rushed in with a pissed mom expression. "Hey! Hey! Hey. Are you serious with all that noise?!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said sarcastically as he turned to look at her. "Has my therapist's betrayal inconvenienced your otherwise tranquil day?"

"You're not cute." She snarked back. "Our daughter has been upset especially Rose. They're... still dealing with the fact that Jack is gone, and the only thing that gets Rose to sleep is silence besides her music box and the only way Hope is calm is if she has her favorite toy, which Cami stole to get back at you." She gave him a look that dares him to fight her on the noise level. "So, if you wake either of them up with all this slamming around, so help me God, Cami will be the least of your problems."

Klaus sighed heavily and lowered his voice. "It pains me that the girls are upset." Klaus' tone then became sarcastic as Davina watched the two bicker with a curious expression. "So, I'll add it to the long list of grievances I'm already tallying, hmm?"

Isabel huffed in frustration but dropped her annoyed expression knowing he was struggling to handle Cami. She would have helped but after turning, Cami seemed to hate every single one of them and she had her own pain to deal with as well as her kids while everyone else was everywhere. "I know that you're angry at Cami, Klaus, but you know as well as I do that she's not in her right mind."

"I beg to differ. Camille seems quite lucid, tucked away behind the barrier spell in the City of the Dead as she taunts me with the very means of my demise!"

"If I was in Cami's position I probably would be doing the same thing." Klaus gave her an unamused look that she dismissed. "Keep talking to her and she'll eventually settle down. Somewhere deep inside her is still part of the Cami we know and love. We just have to drag it out."

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

Isabel was on her way home to her kids and Hayley after getting Hope a few more teething toys along with a few other toys for the kids from the store when she was slammed into the wall in an alleyway, the bag of baby stuff dropping. Isabel hissed through her teeth as she looked at Aurora. Isabel kicked and squirmed before finally prying her hand away and throwing the red head to the other wall then into some wooden crates causing them to break.

"Well look who found me." Isabel stood in a defensive stance as Aurora got to her feet. "What the hell do you want?"

"I want many things." Aurora smiled at her. "One of them is for you to no longer have a beating heart." Isabel tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at the red head. "You, your bitchy sister, and Cami piss me off."

"No." Isabel denied. "It's not us that piss you off. It's the fact that Klaus cares more for us then you."

Aurora growled and flashed the white oak she had gotten from Madison who had stolen it from Cami. "That won't be a problem for much longer little Isabella. Do tell the brothers about their upcoming end." She grinned as Isabel widened her eyes at the wooden toy. "And once you witness their end along with your sisters. It will be your turn. Until then." With that she sped away.

Isabel growled before picking up her bag and pulling her phone out. "Nik we have a problem. A red headed psychopathic one that now has the white oak."

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

Klaus and Elijah were drinking at the bar in the courtyard when Isabel walked in. "Aurora's involvement changes everything. If Aya and the Strix had the oak, we could at least be certain you were not the target. But with the weapon in Aurora's hands..."

"I do wonder which one of us she'll try and kill first," Elijah said. "You broke her heart, I... broke her mind. I suppose both of us share the sin of Tristan's unceremonious burial at sea."

"Mmm. It's normally we who pose the threat to our intimates." Klaus grimaced hilariously. "It's an odd feeling, the roles reversed. I always did loathe irony."

"It doesn't matter who she goes for first because she's coming for us all," Isabel told them. "Hand me a drink. I need one."

Klaus looked her over in concern seeing as she was disheveled and looked tired. He grabbed her a drink and handed it to her, looking at her in amusement as she gulped it all down and sat it on the bar.

"So I'm guessing you had a fun catch up with Aurora?"

Isabel gave Klaus a glare. "Your sarcasm makes me want to punch you sometimes." She looked at Elijah. "Has Freya found anything yet?"

Elijah sighed having had the same question from Klaus just a few minutes ago and a few minutes before that. "No. She has not. Now if you two would stop asking me every chance you get it'd be greatly appreciated."

Not much happening in this chapter :(