TYLER Lockwood stormed furiously into the Gilbert house and glared at Klaus furiously. "Where is it?"

"What ever do you mean?" Klaus questioned smugly, having no idea what he was referring to but pretending that he was playing his former hyrbid servant.

"The sword." Tyler sneered harshly and took a step closer toward his sire. "Where. Is. It?"

"Oh, you mean this sword?" Ingrid questioned curiously as she held it up with a mischevious smirk. "You see, Tyler, you and your friends are not as clever as you think you are. If my calculations are correct... your group has broken into my house a total of four times now. And well... it begins to become predictable." She glanced at him with a fake sympathetic expression then laughed mockingly. "Besides, you aren't exactly quiet about it. Be very careful of what you discuss in private, you never know is lurking in the shadows." She remarked with a suggestion tone of voice.

"Give it." The Lockwood demanded sternly and sped toward her with an angry glare.

She glanced at him with an unimpressed expression then took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she reopened them, she plastered a bitter and condescending smile on her face. "Mind your tone." Ingrid snarled though gritted teeth then pointed the blade at him menacingly. "I will kill you where you stand. And trust me, it will be of little effort. Just count yourself lucky that Niklaus has dibs."

Caroline walked into the house and stood inbetween them, pushing Tyler away from the Original. She turned to Ingrid with a blank expression and pointed to the sword. "We want the sword because it does this." She explained before turning the crytex in the handle.

"I'm well aware of what I does and why it's important." Ingrid replied in irritation and turned it away from her grasp. "Never assume you have more knowledge than me."

Klaus looked at the blonde, amused. "And what do you think 'this' is?"

She rolled her blue eyes and turned to face him. "It's called a cryptex." She replied and Tyler looked at her in surprise. She scoffed and looked at him in offense. "I've seen The da Vinci Code. You turn the different sides to the different symbols to get the translation on the other side. And with the magic of the internet, Elena sent over these." She held up print-outs of Jeremy's tattoo. "So now all we have to do is cryptex away." She said while walking across the room and sitting down in one of the chairs. "If you happened to want to help, we wouldn't stop you."

"Right. Well, might I suggest using the magic of the internet to purchase an Aramaic-to-English dictionary from your nearest retailer." Klaus remarked with a wide smirk and Ingrid laughed loudly.

Tyler ignored them and turned to Caroline in confusion. "What's Aramaic?"

"It's a dead language. It hasn't been used since, like, biblical times." Caroline explained with furrowed eyebrows.

"Qetsiyah's native tongue, I'm guessing. You know, even if you had the best dictionary in the world, it could take days to translate." Klaus teased and sat down on the floor. "Perhaps weeks. "In bas so-teen-too ara-ma-eet." He said in Aramaic causing the vampires to glance at him in confusion.

"What does that mean?" Caroline questioned, clueless.

Ingrid glanced at Klaus, grinning, then looked at her condescendingly. "If only you spoke Aramaic."

The couple groaned and rolled their eyes at the hyrbids' dramatics. Caroline had the pictures of Jeremy's tattoo and index cards of the Aramaic symbols lying on the table. She had her computer open and was sitting with Tyler. "Okay, this is it. We've translated all the symbols on the tattoo." She then read the translation. "Passage inside...requires a young senator, and a pretty flower." She growled, irritated, and threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "Okay, none of this makes sense!"

Klaus spoke Aramaic then translated it into English for them. "Requires a powerful witch and a hunter in full bloom."

"What are you doing?" Tyler asked him, guarded and worried about his intentions.

"I don't need to tell you my reasons." Klaus responded in a dull tone then waved his wife over. "Ingrid, my love, bring the sword over here." Ingrid walked over and held the sword out to him passed the barrier. He took it from her and began to read it before translating it. "Silas rests on the far side, the means of his destruction at hand." He glanced at the pictures of Jeremy's tattoo on the computer screen and turned the cryptex to the right. "The top of the hilt reveals a key to a nautical map." He mused and turned it to the left and turned the other piece. "There's something else." He said aloud then read it Aramaic.

"What does it mean?" Caroline asked and Klaus smiled at her but didn't answer. "Klaus, what does it mean?"

Ingrid turned to him with a blank face, not hinting to them about what he said. "There is only one?" She questioned him in Aramaic and nodded with a smile. She nodded with pursed lips for a moment before throwing her head back and laughing.

"What does it mean?!" Tyler snapped at them impatiently but Ingrid continued to laugh and Klaus simply smiled at him.

"Call Rebekah." Klaus spoke to no one in particular, amusement crossing his face and his dimples peaking out from his cheeks.

Caroline pulled her phone out and dialed Rebekah's number. It rang a few times before she answered. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Caroline." She greeted quickly then got to the point. "We have the translation of the tattoo. We're emailing you pictures of the map and instructions right now."

Rebekah paused for a moment as she waited for the email then responded once she had recieved it. "Got it. Thanks."

"Actually, it was me." Klaus called out to her in pride.

"Nik, you helped?" Rebekah questioned in shock.

"You sound so surprised, little sister." He responded with an eye roll then the corner of his mouth twitched slightly into a half-smirk.

"Shouldn't I be? I mean, you don't want me to be human. You don't want any of us to be human. Why would you help us find the cure?" She questioned her brother in a stern manner, still furious with him about his continous attempts for destory her happiness.

"Maybe I finally realized the longer I stand in the way of what you want, the longer you'll continue to hate me. Perhaps I want my sister to finally know happiness." Klaus replied with a genuine smile and placed his hands behind his back.

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me a hundred times--" She began to snarl at him but was interrupted.

"No more fooling. No more games. I hope you get to live, and die, as you wish." He stated in an affectionate manner.

"So do I." She mused happily.

"There is one more thing, Rebekah." He said calmly causing Caroline and Tyler to look up at him on confusion. He licked his lips and began to speak quickly. "There is only one dose of the cure. You need to find it first and take it. It's the only way you'll--" He was cut off before he could finish because Tyler rushed to end the call.

Ingrid glanced at him and shrugged her shoulders with pursed lips. "I guess the cat's out of the bag now." She remarked with a giddy smirk and stifled a laugh. "Oops."

Caroline and Tyler sat on the porch, talking amongst themselves as Ingrid and Klaus stayed inside the Gilbert home. Ingrid stood right outside the barrier and glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, darling, I think it's safe to say that no one will be shoving the cure down our throats now."

He laughed at her and shook his head side to side. "I can agree. Seems like we're in the clear now."

She nodded slowly then frowned as she realized what have only one cure would mean. "Rebekah isn't going to get the cure, is she?"

"Unfortunately, I don't think she will. Knowing the Salvatores, they'll give it to Elena with no regard for any one else." He replied with a blank expression.

She opened her mouth to respond when the front door opened and Caroline walked in. She look the opposite of aggressive or angry, and instead was calm yet sad. "You can't kill Tyler." She whispered softly and Ingrid turned to face her.

"Not only can I, I have to." Klaus responded in a strong tone. "I have a reputation to uphold. Moreover, I want to."

"I'm not asking you to forgive him." Caroline clarified as tears pooled in her eyes. "All I'm asking is that you let him live, somewhere far from here."

"So he gets to live a happy life after he turned all my hybrids against me, after he tried to kill me, after he made it his life's mission to find the cure so he could use it against me--" Klaus began to angrily vent and stood to his feet.

Caroline interrupted him defensively. "We all want the cure."

"Do we?" Klaus questioned with a raised eyebrow and Caroline stared mutely at him. "Do you?"

"It doesn't matter." She replied quickly, hoping to brush it off and move on. "There's only one, so it's not like I'm gonna get it anyway."

"But if you could...you wouldn't, would you?" He asked again, raking a step forward with an intrigued face and Caroline was silent but her face gave away her answer. "You prefer who you are now to the girl you once were. You like being strong, ageless, fearless." He concluded with a warm smile. "We're the same, Caroline."

"Then show me. You know how much I love Tyler. You can see how scared I am to lose him. If you and I are so similar, then show me your compassion. Show him the mercy that I would show you." She desperately pleaded with him and Ingrid turned to Klaus, her face blank of all emotions.

"Mercy? For Tyler? Very well. Tell him to leave town immediately." He ordered and started walking away but turned back with a dark smirk. "And tell him to run and hide in a place I will never find him."

"Of course." Caroline replied in hope then turned and walked away, grabbing her jacket.

"Tell him that this is the mercy I extend for your sake... that I will give him a head start before I kill him." He added in anger and Caroline's face fell as she turned back to Klaus.

"We intend to hunt him for sport. We want him to live in constant fear that one of us may be lurking around the corner for him. We want him to have to always look over his shoulder. Dismantle every ounce of trust he could possibly have." Ingrid commented with a smug smile and rolled her eyes in feigned annoyance. "Niklaus does have first dibs though. You don't want to know what he'll do if he gets to him first." She then tilted her head to the side and pondered over her next sentence. "My suggestion for him would be to run and never stop running. If he thinks he's safe, he's not. He will never be safe."

Caroline nodded and spared one last glance at them before turning on her heels and walking out onto the porch again. Once she was gone, Ingrid turned to Klaus with an affectionate smile. "Care to wager who will kill him first?"

"I have first dibs." He reminded her with a matching smile and took a step toward the barrier.

"That's if you find him first or we find him at the same time." She clarified then laughed lightly. "Now, if I find him first, it is fair game. You're just going to have to beat me to." She then walked over to stand a few inches directly in front of him, staring up into his blue eyes. "Don't worry, darling. One more day and you will be free from this poor excuse of a house." She put her hand up in the air, centimeters away from the barrier.

Klaus put his against the barrier but found that he could cross through it. He smiled happily and placed his hand on Ingrid's, coming in direct contact with her skin. "Looks like I don't have to wait that long."

She glanced at their hands in amazement before chuckling and intertwining their fingers.

Caroline heard their interaction and walked in the house. She paused immediately in her spot after seeing Klaus and gaped at him in both horror and amazement. "How did you get out?"

"I fear something awful has befallen your friend Bonnie." He replied in a grim tone then took.a hesitant step out of the barrier. He took a small breath of relief and wrapped an arm around Ingrid's waist. "Time to go home." He then looked down at her with a smirk and rubbed her side up and down.

Caroline glared over at him, furious and heartbroken. "You've done enough. I can't just let you go."

Ingrid laughed at the blonde in enjoyment and clicked her tongue. "And you're planning to stop us, how exactly?" She questioned in curiosity. "You don't have the stake and you have no golden daggers. What's the plan here?"

When Caroline realized that she was right, her face fell. She had no way of keeping the Mikaelsons here and they out matched her by thousand fold. They could kill her without even breaking a sweat and it would be nothing more than an everyday task for them. She knew she also couldn't kill them without killing her entire bloodline or killing Elena. So sighing heavily in defeat, she glanced up at them with a frown.

Ingrid smirk triumphantly and pushed passed the vampire. "I wouldn't worry Tyler." She remarked while making her way toward the door. "See it as Niklaus taking care of the trash for you."

"How can you justify wanting to kill him?" Caroline questioning in sadness and anger.

Ingrid stopped in her place and turned to face her with an unreadable expression. "Tyler not only turned all the hybrids against Niklaus but he also planned to neutralize him. Again." She jeered, enraged. "I am baffled by the many attempts to harm my family for your so-called revenge. If you would all pull your heads out of Elena's ass, you would see that the world really does not revolve around you and your problems." She began to grow angrier and louder as she went on. "You all play the role of the innocent victims but you need to take a long, hard glance at yourselves in the mirror. You feed, kill, and steal in the exact same motives as us. However, you have seemed to convince yourselves that you're doing it for the goodness of mankind." She mocked while waving her hands in the air and crossing her eyes. She then scoffed and dropped her hands at her sides. "You want a justification for murder? Where's yours? Hmm?"

"Stefan betrayed Niklaus, he stole my family, threatened to throw our daggered bodies in the ocean. You all killed Finn thinking you could kill us, made twelve stakes against us, daggered me, almost got Niklaus killed. Then you have the audacity to break into our house because you actually need something from us. You planned on daggering Kol and Rebekah. Oh! And then you killed Kol in front of us and trapped Niklaus in this house with his charred corpse. Now that--- that part is one of the cruelest things you have ever done. And all because we hurt your feelings." She said in a baby voice with a fake pout. "Get over yourself and drop the innocent, good girl act. Once you accept your wrong doings, life will get easier for you." Ingrid then turned toward the door again and flung it open. "I won't kill you because I want you to live with the possibility that you will never see Tyler ever again. Goodbye, Caroline."

Niklaus was quick to follow her out the door, an amused smirk on his face and his head held high. He didn't acknowledge Caroline on his way out and the blonde stood in her place with her mouth hung agape and tears pooling in her eyes.

---
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-the1andonlytifftiff