⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

Elena Gilbert walked through the woods with her friend Caroline Forbes by her side. She was clutching a bag in her hand as she chewed her lip nervously.

"Tell everyone I wasn't feeling well and I went home from school." Elena said to Caroline, hoping the girl understands the importance of what she is asking her.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this. I'm a terrible liar." Caroline whined.

Elena ignored her, continuing, "And keep Stefan busy. I don't want him to know what I'm up to."

"I'm even worse at duplicity and you know this." Caroline reminded her.

"You managed to keep me occupied when Katherine paid Stefan a visit." Elena retorted.

"Yeah, because she threatened me!" Caroline exclaimed. "Not that I'm saying that you should use that as a tactic, it's... Stefan's gonna see right through me."

"Caroline, as my friend, do you promise or not?" Elena asked her firmly, turning to face her friend.

"You had to break out the girlfriend code... Okay, I promise." Caroline agreed finally.

Elena nodded, "Okay."

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

"Why don't you want Stefan to know?" Caroline asked the doppelganger curiously.

"Because he would never be okay with me doing this." Elena explained as the duo entered the church ruins.

The two girls stopped at the door to the tomb, Caroline glancing nervously at Elena.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Caroline asked again.

"Yes, I'm sure," Elena told her. "She's the only one who know the truth about Klaus, the only one who can tell me how to stop him."

"But you're asking for the truth from someone who's probably never giving it. Are you sure about this?" Caroline asked once again.

"Yes, Caroline," Elena repeated, trying to keep the annoyance out of her tone. "I can't just sit back and wait. I have to know."

Seeing Caroline's hesitant look, Elena added, "Caroline. Please."

Caroline nodded finally, reaching for the tomb door and opening it for them.

"Katherine?" Elena called out and then looked at Caroline. "I'll be okay from here."

There was a noise from inside the tomb, both girls turning to watch as Katherine came into view and stopped at barrier blocking the entrance.

"Hello, Elena," Katherine purred, still managing to sound powerful despite being weak. "You come to watch me wither away?"

"As long as I stay on this side of the door, she can't hurt me," Elena reminded Caroline upon seeing the blonde's look. "Please."

"Goodbye, Caroline." Katherine said firmly, causing the blonde to scamper away.

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

"Does Stefan know you're here?" Katherine asked Elena, her tone curious.

Elena ignored her, instead choosing to open the bag she had clutched in her grip, "I brought you some things."

"You came to bribe me? What is it that you want?" Katherine asked, eyeing her doppelganger warily.

"I want you to tell me about Klaus."

"Hmm," Katherine hummed with a smirk. "You have been busy."

"I also brought you this." Elena added, pulling an old book from the bag. "It's your family history. It says in here that the family line ended with you. Obviously that's not true."

"You think that if you brought me some family keepsake that I'd open up?" Katherine asked snarkily.

"No, I also brought you this." Elena held up the bottle of human blood. She had more in the bag but wasn't about to reveal all of her cards yet.

In an instant Katherine was rushing at her, but was blocked by the barrier spell.

"You don't look so good. How long before your body shuts down? Ten or twenty years?" Elena asked, her voice taking on a distinctly Katherine-esque tone. "It must be painful to desiccate and mummify. I can't even imagine."

Katherine lowered herself to the ground in resignation, "You have the Petrova fire."

Elena hummed, "I know."

She pulled a glass out of her bag and poured some blood from the bottle into it.

Katherine watched in surprise as Elena placed the cup on Katherine's side of the boundary with her hand, rather than a stick.

"Where's all that fear gone, Elena?" Katherine purred, gulping down the blood from the cup. Her skin immediately began to regain colour.

"It's a long story, Klaus and I," Katherine began, leaning up against the tomb wall. "It goes all the way back to England, 1492, after I left Bulgaria... or was thrown out."

The glass was placed on the floor for a refill, Elena complying as she repeated, "Thrown out?"

"My family, your true ancestors, they disowned me. My indiscretions were not tolerated at that time. I had a baby out of wedlock. The shame." Katherine explained, her tone mocking at the end.

"It was kept secret?" Elena surmised.

"Mhmm. My baby was given away. I was banished to England and I had to learn to adjust," Katherine explained. "So I quickly became English. It was there that I caught the eye of a nobleman named Klaus. I was taken with him at first, until I found out what he was and what he wanted from me... And then I ran like hell."

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

Woods, England, 1942

A human Katherine Pierce was running through the woods. She stumbled and fell, quickly hiding behind a tree. She knew Elijah and his men were looking for her.

"She's here." Elijah told his men. "Katerina! know you are near, I can smell your blood. It's pointless to run, Klaus will find you wherever you are."

Trevor approached Elijah, indicating to him a false direction in which he thought Katherine was, "This way! There is more blood over there..."

The men soon left, following Trevor's instructions. Katherine staggered to her feet and tried to continue running. In an instant, Trevor was in front of her.

"Head East. I cannot lead them astray anymore." Trevor instructed her.

Katherine gasped, "I can't run anymore."

Trevor's expression changed to one of pity, "Never mind. There's a cottage, you'll be safe there. Go now, go!"

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

"So, what did Klaus want?" Elena asked the older vampire curiously.

"The same thing that he'll want from you," Katherine explained. "He wants to break the curse."

"By sacrificing the Petrova doppelgänger." Elena murmured in understanding.

"He wanted to drain every single drop of blood from my body." Katherine spat, disgust in her tone.

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

Elena gave Katherine another glass of blood. The older vampire was being surprisingly cooperative.

"What does the Petrova bloodline have to do with Klaus?"

"It's really tedious but..." Katherine began, finishing the glass of blood. "The curse was bound by the sacrifice of Petrova blood. Witches are crafty with their spells. The doppelgänger was created as a way to be able to undo the spell. Once the doppelgänger reappeared, the curse can be broken."

"So you ran before he killed you?" Elena guessed.

"Something like that." Katherine hummed.

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

Katherine frantically knocked on the door of the cottage in the woods.

An old woman opened the door and Katherine almost collapsed in relief, "Help, please, help me!"

The woman just stared at her so Katherine pleaded again, "Please, help me."

"I don't invite strangers into my home." The woman said to her as she went to shut the door.

"No!" Katherine cried out. "Trevor. He said that you'd help me."

Another woman, Rose, appeared at the door with the old woman.

"Damn him. Always making promises I don't want to keep." Rose spat, annoyance clear in her tone."Let the girl in. Bring her water and something to eat."

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

"You must be Rose. Thank you. Trevor said to show you this." Katherine thanked the woman as she entered the cottage. She pulled out the moonstone to show her. "To prove I am who I say and that you'd help me to freedom."

"You stole this from Klaus?"

"It was to be part of the sacrifice ritual, so I grabbed it and made my escape." Katherine explained.

"People do not escape from Klaus. Everyone who tries ends up back in his grasp and anyone who helps them dies." Rose explained, her tone disbelieving.

"I know the risk you bring on yourself by giving me aid." Katherine thanked her.

"I'm risking nothing. At nightfall, I'll bring you back to Klaus and beg him to show us both mercy." Rose said to them, caught the girl by her wrist and pushed her in an empty room.

"No! No!" Katherine screamed as Rose closed the door.

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

"Rose never ended up taking you back to Klaus, did she?"

"No," Katherine confirmed. "But not because she had a change of heart."

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

"It's nightfall. Time to go." Rose said as she entered the room.

She noticed Katherine was bleeding from her stomach,"When did this happen?"

"In the woods, I tripped." Katherine whimpered.

"Do not lie, I would have smelled it." Rose snapped.

"I'd rather die than go back to Klaus. Please, just let me die!" Katherine begged.

"If you die then Trevor dies with you." Rose growled, biting into her wrist and feeding Katherine her blood.

"No. No!" Katherine yelled as the blood was forced down her throat.

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

"Where is she?" Trevor demanded upon his arrival.

"You have set us both on the path of death. I only hope Klaus sees the honour in returning that girl to him." Rose snapped at him as she pushed him into a wall.

"He will sacrifice her." Trevor pleaded.

"Then so be it!" Rose yelled.

"I love her, Rose."

"He'll kill you. He won't stop until he has all of our heads." Rose whispered.

"Then we shall run until we die." Trevor replied.

There was a noise that sent them both running to the room.

Inside, Katherine was hanging from the ceiling by a rope.

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

"You killed yourself?!" Elena gasped.

"Klaus needed a human doppelgänger," Katherine reminded her. "As a vampire, I was no longer any use to him."

"But it didn't work..." Elena whispered. "You didn't really escape, you've been running from Klaus ever since."

"I underestimated his spirit for vengeance," Katherine admitted. "But living in a suitcase is better than dying so you can have your blood spilled over some silly little rock."

Elena felt sick.

"What's wrong? Afraid I'm right?" Katherine taunted.

"If you don't want to die, there's another way out..." Katherine reminded the human girl, running her nail along her wrist.

Elena watched at the blood pooled there.

"Better hurry..." Katherine said, watching as her wrist began to heal. "Your opportunity is going, going, going an--"

Before she could register what she was doing, Elena had launched herself across the boundary and into the tomb.

She looked up a Katherine hesitantly.

The older vampire merely tilted her head.

Elena took Katherine's wrist into her mouth and drunk, Katherine's warm blood spilling into her mouth.

It was better than Elena thought it would be, and was surprised to find that she enjoyed it.

Katherine made a noise of surprise, but let Elena drink her blood. She eventually pulled her wrist away.

"I knew you were smart." She commented, brushing Elena's hair back from her face so it didn't get stuck to the blood on her lips.

"Is this the right thing to do?" Elena whispered, her eyes so wide Katherine thought she looked like a cartoon doe.

"That's a decision only you can make." Katherine reminded her.

"I want to be strong. I want to be like you, Katherine. I want to be able to help. Will you help me?"

"If it's what you want." Katherine found herself murmuring, using the pads of her thumbs to wipe away Elena's tears.

"I do."

Katherine jerked Elena's head to the side, gently dropping the dead girl's body to the ground.

⊹‧˚₊✞‧₊˚⊹

isa talks!

a fun little season 2 episode 9 au oneshot <3

let me know what you think!