chapter two
brave new world
season two, episode two

Fifteen year old Arabella Mikealson was crying. Again. She was stood beside her mother, a dead flower in front of them. "Arabella, all you have to do is make the flower grow back."

"I can't!" Arabella cried, hands held up and shaking. Nothing was happening. "I don't have magic!"

"You're my child," Esther Mikealson shook her head. "Don't be ridiculous, of course you have magic."

"Then why is nothing happening?" Arabella sniffled, staring at her mother. She knew her mother loved her, but it was nights like these that made her think she was despised.

"I don't understand," Esther mumbled as she watched her daughter. "You're doing everything right."

"I'm sorry," Arabella sobbed, wiping her face in embarrassment. "I'm so, so sorry mother."

"Arabella," Esther sighed, crouching slightly to be face to face with her daughter. "Why are you sorry, my darling?"

"Because I don't have magic," Bella sniffled. "I know how badly you wanted all of us to have magic. To be able to teach us."

"Don't be sorry," Esther Mikealson spoke. "It's not your fault, Arabella."

Esther took her daughers hand in her own, smiling softly at her. The two watched amazed as an orange light glew where the hands were. "Mother?"

"Arabella?" Esther replied, equally confused. Arabella lifted her hand up, watching as the plant grew to life. She smiled softly.

Esther watched in shock as she lifted her own hand, nothing happening. "You're a siphon," She marveled.

"A what?" Arabella asked.

"A siphon witch," Esther explained. "Your body doesn't produce it's own magic, so instead you're able to suck it out of others. But only for a little bit, it'll return to me soon."

Arabella's eyes widened with shock. "Is that bad?" She paused, sniffling. "You still love me, right?"

"Arabella," Eather sighed, cupping her daughters face again. "I would love you even if you were a mermaid."

Ara smiled as she pulled her mother into a hug. "I love you, mother."

"I love you too, my darling girl."

Arabella woke up to a consistent pounding on her bedroom door. She groaned, lifting her head up. "What the bloody hell do you want?" She called, standing up.

She put a hand to her mouth, realizing her accent slipped out. Whoops. "Was that British?" A voice called with a chuckle.

Ara's eyes widened when she realized it was Stefan. She quickly yanked her fingers through her hair, opening the door. "I can copy accents," She spoke. Stefan only gave her an odd look. "Did you need something?"

Stefan blinked, coming back to his senses. "I just wanted to make you were okay."

Arabella pointed at herself in confusion. Stefan hadn't truly cared for her since the nineteen twenties. "Me?"

Stefan nodded in return. "Yeah. You seemed pretty startled the other night."

Ara blinked again, surprised he had noticed. "I grew up being told vampires were myths," She lied with ease. "And now I'm friends with two hundred year old vampires and a five hundred year old vampire is going after one of my friends. Sorry I'm startled."

The boy in front of her winced as he nodded in understanding. "Can I walk you to the fair?" He offered.

The blonde blinked twice to make sure she heard him right. "Sure," She finally responded. "Um you can hangout in the living room."

Arabella shut her bedroom door, breathing out slightly. For the first time in a hundred years she was nervous.

She huffed as she opened her closet doors, grabbing a crewneck and a pair of shorts. She yanked her brush through her hair, slipping on a pair of shoes afterwards.

Bella pushed open the door, walking into the living room. "Arianna?" Stefan questioned. "Why didn't I have to be invited in?"

Arabella's heart jumped. "You've been here before, remember?" She replies. "When the tomb vampires were released."

Stefan nods and Arabella prays he doesn't remember she hadn't invited him in then. "Where are your parents? Why do you live here alone?" Stefan continued.

Arabella blew a breath out in frustration before she took two strides over, making Stefan look at her. "My name is Arianna Cooper, I'm a sixteen year old human. You never question anything about this."

Stefan blinked as Arabella stepped back. He tilted his head. blinking again. "What was I saying?"

Ara shrugged. She felt awful. She hated compelling people, especially her friends. But if she wasn't careful the truth would come out and Niklaus would come and find her.

He couldn't dagger her, her body siphoned the magic out of his daggers. But he could hurt her in other ways, and she wasn't willing to risk that.

"You ready to go to the fair?" The blonde questioned. Stefan nodded and Arabella grabbed her bag off the chair, opening her front door.

The pair walked to the fair in a stiff silence. Ara hated that Stefan didn't remember her. He was the only boy she's loved in five hundred years.

"There she is!" Arabella smiled, walking up to Elena and giving her a tight hug. She winced as she saw the orange start to appear, stepping backwards. "The festival looks so good, Elena." She complimented.

Arabella sent a glare at Damon. The two didn't get along very well. They didn't hate each other but they didn't love each other.

"Barbie Ari!" Damon waved her over. Arabella rolled her eyes as she walked up to the Salvatore brother's. "You know a lot about supernaturals. Do you know of any other species besides vampires or witches?"

Arabella tried to keep her poker face as she looked at him. "Like what?" She questioned, feigning innocence.

"I don't know," Damon shrugged before his eyes flickered behind her. "Mason Lockwood is as strong as Stefan."

Arabella's eyes widened. The only species with as much strength as a vampire is a werewolf. And if there were werewolves in this town Klaus had all he needed for his ritual. "I thought vampires were the strongest species?" Ara questioned, faking innocence again.

"So did we," The Salvatore brother's exchanged a short look. "The Lockwood family has a secret, Arianna. You're going to help us find out."

Arabella rolled her eyes as Damon dragged her up to some poor guy. "Hey, you." He snapped.

"I have a name," The boy scoffed.

"Yeah, I don't care." Damon replied, grabbing his shoulder and forcing the boy to look at him so he could compel him. "I need you to pick a fight with someone. Kid named Tyler Lockwood."

"Damon, don't do this." Stefan spoke up. Ara's eyes were wide. If the Lockwood's were really wolves, this was not going to go well for him.

"It's just an experiment," Damon waved his brother off, continuing to compel the man. "Get him mad. Don't back down, no matter what he does, okay?"

"I won't back down," The man replied in a trance.

"I know you won't." Damon nodded, patting his back and watching him walk off. Arabella sucked in a breath, knowing wolf tempers were awful.

"You do realize someone's going to get hurt, right?" Stefan spoke up, turning to look at his older brother.

"No," Damon shook his head. "Someone's going to get mad, as in rage."

"And what's that going to accomplish?" Stefan questioned.

"That Tyler kid is incapable of walking away from a fight," The older Salvatore replied. "Let's see who intervenes. Maybe it's the ambiguously supernatural mystery uncle."

Arabella heard Stefan scoff lightly, shaking his head. "He's an idiot." Arabella commented.

"Yes, he is." Stefan agreed, walking toward his girlfriend.

Arabella looked around before she ducked into a bathroom, doing another locator spell. She sucked another breath in, realizing Klaus was back in the states.

She furrowed her eyebrows, noticing this time her blood had split four different ways. The new one was only a small speck, like her magic had barely broken a cloaking spell.

She gasped softly. This meant one of her siblings wasn't daggered. But she had no way to tell which one.

Arabella cleaned the bathroom, joining Stefan, who was ducked behind a bush. The pair watched Tyler start to wrestle the man, Mason Lockwood having to split it up.

Arabella's eyes widened in shock when Mason was thrown over the hood of a car. He jumped up and way over the hood of the car. Arabella bit her lip, realizing the Lockwood's did have the wolf gene.

Mason knocked the man out, grabbing Tyler's hand and pulling him up. "Are you alright, man?" Stefan questioned, jogging up to him.

"Why did I just do that?" The man groaned.

"You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time." Stefan told. Arabella nodded in agreement.

Arabella waited until Stefan disappeared before she turned to the man. "Hi," She smiled. "What's your name?"

"Trevor." The man sniffed. "Trevor Burns."

"It's very nice to meet you, Trevor." Arabella smiled in response. "My name's Arabella Mikealson." She lifted her wrist up, biting into it. She offered her wrist to him. "Drink. It will make you feel better."

Trevor took her wrist into her mouth and Arabella could see the moment he felt better. "What are you?" He questioned.

Arabella frowned, not excited to risk her secret being exposed. She made him look at her, sighing. "You don't remember me, and you don't remember anything that happened tonight. You were at the fair and you had a good time. Nothing else."

Trevor nodded, getting up and walking away. "Nice trick." Katherine smirked. Arabella sighed in frustration, grabbing Katherine's hand and leading her to a more private area.

"One of my siblings is still alive," Arabella told her. "Besides Klaus. If I can find out which one, I might be able to get them to join us against Klaus."

"No," Katherine shook her head immediately. "No way. All of the other Mikealson's are too unpredictable when it comes to Klaus."

Arabella glared at her. "No, I need my siblings. The only reason I am going against Klaus is because my siblings are lost at sea. But if all of them are free, and not just the one,  I'm not doing it."

Katherine seemed panicked at the thought of Arabella Mikealson not being on her side. "No, Arabella, think of everything he's done to you. You should make him suffer."

"I swore a vow," Arabella replied. "That I would stick together as one with my siblings, always and forever. No matter what he has done, Niklaus is my older brother."

"You're already breaking it," Katherine argued. "You agreed to kill Klaus."

"If he has my siblings," Arabella countered. She snapped her fingers, watching as Katherine's neck snapped and her body crumpled to the ground. "We're done here."

She rolled her eyes in annoyance, stepping over Katherine's body and back towards the fair. "Arianna!" Elena called, grabbing her hand. "Situation. Come with me."

Arabella's heart flipped as she followed Elena. "Katherine turned Caroline into a vampire."

"What?" Arabella exclaimed. Katherine had totally blindsided her here. Caroline was a vampire now. She must be so confused and upset.

"Are you okay?" Elena questioned. "She didn't come after you, did she?"

Arabella shook her head. Katherine knew better to not come after her. Not that Elena knew that, of course. "Go find Stefan," Ara instructed. "I'll be okay."

Elena nodded, rushing off to find her boyfriend while Arabella sniffed the air. It reeked of blood.

She followed it, leading straight to Caroline who was kneeled over a body, sobbing. "Oh, shit." She cursed, crouching beside her. The man was dead. It was Caroline's first kill.

Damon was on the ground, Stefan standing over him with a stake a couple feet away. Arabella rolled her eyes, realizing Damon had attempted to kill Caroline.

"Hey, Care." Arabella said softly, putting her arm over her shoulder. "Come on inside, I'll help you."

The Salvatore brother's gave her a weird look, but Arabella tried to ignore them and only prayed they wouldn't figure it out. Arabella had been so scared when she turned and she had five siblings to help her. Caroline had no one.

Arabella led Caroline to a bathroom, helping her sit down. She grabbed a couple paper towels, wiping Caroline's face off. "You're okay."

Stefan followed them into the bathroom, helping Ara clean Caroline up. "Bonnie hates me." Caroline sobbed.

Arabella frowned. Bonnie hates vampires because of what happened to her Grams. But she would never hate Caroline. "No, no, no, she's just in shock." Stefan told the blonde. "We all are, okay?"

"And what about Matt?" Caroline questioned, still sobbing. "What am I going to do about Matt?"

Stefan shushed her comfortingly. Arabella had to admit, Caroline was taking it better than she thought she would. "One thing at a time," Stefan told her. "Let's just get this blood cleaned off. Come on, come on."

"I'm a murderer," Caroline sniffed, wiping at her hands. Ara bit back a smirk. Caroline had the blood of one on her hand. Arabella had the blood of a million. "I'm a murderer and a monster."

"Listen to me," Stefan spoke. "Your emotions are heightened right now, it's part of the transformation. It's completely normal. I promise you, alright?"

Caroline let out a frustrated breath when she saw her appearance. "Why does this keep happening to my face? They're hideous."

"Caroline, look at me." Stefan spoke, lifting her head up to meet his eyes. "Look at me, look at me. Look at my face. You see that? When you feel the blood rush in you tell yourself that you're going to get through it, that you're strong enough. No matter how good it feels, to give yourself over to it, you fight it off, you bury it."

Arabella smiled as she watched Stefan comfort Caroline. This is why she had fallen in love with him. He saw a broken girl and he brought her back to life. "You're so beautiful, Caroline." Arabella smiled when Stefan backed away. "So, so beautiful."

Caroline smiled softly as Ara pulled her into a short hug. "Thank you, Arianna."

Arabella separated from the two, walking behind a building and pulling out a map to check where her blood had gone. She looked at the small dot, deciding if her siblings were okay she wouldn't go after Klaus. She would go after Katherine.

rys rambles

so i think the chapters are going to be semi-short until elijah makes an appearance or honestly maybe until klaus does? bc i feel like there's not a ton of action before then