ACT ONE; INITIATE CONTACT
SCENE FOUR; THE ORIGINAL HYBRID
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SALEM WATCHES WITH BATED BREATH AS THE LIGHTS FLICKER AND EXPLODE AROUND BONNIE AND ALARIC. A trail of blood falls from the young witch's nose and Salem watches concernedly as she struggles to stay standing.

She's not sure how she got here so quickly. One minute she was following Alaric into the cafeteria and the next she was hiding in the shadows as Bonnie threw spell after spell at his apparently indestructible body.

Salem watches from behind a pane of glass as Bonnie turns and looks over her shoulder at Elena and Stefan, and she pushes against the magically bound door handle again. She'd tried to fight her way in, going unnoticed amongst the chaos, but not even her strength could break through whatever magic had shut them out.

Alaric pushes himself to his feet one last time, and Salem watches with wide eyes as Bonnie turns back to face Alaric with a look of defeat that makes her heart ache. It's familiar, but it doesn't make it any less painful to see.

Bonnie's body seizes suddenly, and she hears Elena's screams echo even from across the room and behind two sets of doors. The lights go out in the cafeteria and Salem turns to run down the hallway, only to be stopped by a large hand clasping around her arm and yanking her back.

Alaric looks down at her, his eyes wide and breath heavy. Defensively, Salem's eyes glow yellow, and he tightens his grip on her, a seemingly satisfied smirk growing on his face.

"So much for an innocent art teacher, right?"

Salem frowns, but before she can argue, a crushing weight hits her temple and everything goes black.

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She isn't unfamiliar with waking from unconsciousness, but that doesn't make it any more enjoyable.

This time, it all happens much faster. Her muscles tighten, bound against wood and stretched uncomfortably behind her back. She winces, her hair hiding her face from where her head had been hung for god knows how long.

Slowly lifting her gaze, she looks through her braids and from beneath her dark lashes she sees an alarming sight. Her throat feels like sandpaper, and she tries to wet it with the little saliva in her mouth though it barely does any good.

"Elena?"

The brunette snaps her gaze up, and narrows her eyes from where she stands across from Salem behind Alaric's counter.

"Is that," She tries to clear her throat. "Is that blood?"

The girl rolls her eyes slightly, looking at the puddle of her blood that stained the floor. "Yes, it's blood, and I'm not Elena."

Salem groans as she lifts her head, wincing at the soreness in her neck when she meets the woman's dark gaze again. "You're not–"

"My name is Katherine, but you'd be surprised how many people confuse us." The woman, Katherine, smiles sarcastically. "She's a doppelgänger, a copy. I was here first."

"A doppelgänger," Salem echoes, eyeing Katherine in all of her glory. "I kind of thought they were made up."

"Oh, we're very real. We're just doomed to be killed, no matter when we exist. A sad fate, I must say."

Salem furrows her brows. "Killed?"

"Well, I was going to be killed in order to break a curse until I became a vampire. My whiny, human doppelgänger on the other hand is probably just going to die. And I can't say I'm mad about it, either. She's a total snooze fest."

Gritting her teeth, Salem clenches her fingers around the wolfsbane-soaked ropes digging into the skin on her wrists. "Where's Ric?"

"Oh, that's not Alaric."

Salem looks at her, eyes watching her movements closely. She seemed almost careless about the entire situation, as she roamed through Alaric's cabinets. "What do you mean?"

Katherine rolls her eyes again, and Salem presumes it's a familiar action for the woman. "You know, if I wasn't so desperate for interaction with somebody besides Klaus, I'd snap your neck for asking so many questions."

Salem tilts her head, her irritation rising steadily. "Then why don't you just answer my questions?"

"Your buddy Ric is being possessed by an Original vampire. Original hybrid, to be exact."

Salem grunts as the rope shifts on her hands, and she yanks her wrists apart, the ropes dissolving at her strength. "What is an Original?"

"How did you do that? I watched him put wolfsbane on those ropes."

Salem rolled her eyes, taking a page from Katherine's book as she leaned down and began untying the ropes at her ankles. "We all have our tricks. Answer my questions, please."

Katherine narrows her eyes and moves to stand a few feet in front of the woman Klaus had abruptly brought late last night. "They're the first family of vampires, they're the oldest and most powerful vampires in the world. How did you do that?"

"I'm a witch. Who is possessing Alaric?"

Katherine plops down in the seat across from Salem, watching the woman burn through another set of ropes around her ankles and stand carefully, balancing her weight on her weak limbs. "His name is Klaus, and he's a hybrid– a werewolf and a vampire. What kind of witch can do that?"

Salem huffs at their back and forth interrogation and stands straight, looking at the carbon copy of her student. "How about this, you answer all of my questions first and then I'll answer all of yours."

Katherine contemplates it for a moment before she nods and stands as Salem walks into Alaric's kitchen and gets the bottle of bourbon from the cabinet above the stove that she presumes Katherine had been searching for. "Do you know why Klaus is possessing Alaric?"

Salem slides her a glass of bourbon, watching the vampire take it hesitantly.

"He's a hybrid, sort of. There's a curse on him, preventing him from being a true hybrid. The key to breaking that curse is the doppelgänger's blood."

Salem sighs, taking a gulp of her own glass. "Elena."

"Exactly. He's parading around town in your friend's body because it was the easiest way to make sure he could complete the ritual successfully this time. He had to have the inside track."

"So, why couldn't he use you to break the curse?"

"He was going to," She shrugged. "But I turned myself and it made my blood useless. No doppelgänger, no sacrifice."

Salem furrows her brows. "Wait, becoming a vampire renders the doppelgänger blood useless, right? Why not just turn Elena into a vampire?"

Katherine's eyes widened and she huffed a laugh. "I have tried that time and time again, but they don't want to hear it. Elena doesn't even want to be a vampire, she'd rather die in the ritual."

"They? Stefan and Damon? Are they trying to save her?"

Katherine nods, waving a finger at her. "Those idiots are lovesick. It's a shame, too," The vampire sighs wistfully. "They used to be so fun."

"So, let me get this straight." Salem lays her hands flat on the counter, looking at Katherine confusedly. "Stefan and Damon are trying to stop Elena from being killed by one of the most powerful supernatural beings on this planet, and Elena doesn't want to be saved?"

"Got it in one. You're good at this, you know. If Klaus wasn't going to kill you, I'd keep you around."

"Klaus isn't going to kill me." Salem shakes her off easily, biting her lip as she trails off into her thoughts. "They'll be killed, eventually. Given you explained most of that in past tense, I'm assuming you're pretty old– no offense. Which means Klaus is even older, because there's no way you don't become this smart without time to think through every possible scenario a hundred times over."

She hums, tapping her fingers on the counter aimlessly. "You talked about Stefan and Damon in past tense too, which means they've also got to be past double-digits, though their age apparently doesn't help their intelligence. If Klaus has spent his life trying to break this curse, nothing will stop him. If they don't just let Elena die, they'll die trying."

Katherine looks at the woman with wide eyes before she slowly nods, an almost bitter glint in her dark gaze. "They would die trying to save Elena before they thought about giving up."

Salem shakes her head, eyeing Katherine. "Why are you here? What does Klaus want with you if you aren't useful to him?"

Slight fear creeps into her and she hides it behind another sip of her bourbon. "Five hundred years ago, I stopped this ritual from happening. Klaus is making sure I can't do it again."

Silence settles between the two women for a moment, Katherine thinking of her fate in Klaus's hands, and Salem thinking of the inevitable choice she'd have to make in this apparent fight.

Feeling Katherine's gaze on her, Salem looks up from beneath her lashes and perks a brow. "What?"

"What are you?"

Sighing, Salem stands straight and gestures for Katherine to hold out her palm. Hesitantly, the vampire does, and Salem takes it gingerly. She folds Katherine's hand into a cupped position and traces two fingers in her palm for a second.

A ball of yellow, glimmering magic appears in her wake and Katherine inhales sharply, instinctively jerking away. Salem stills her, shaking her head slowly at the look in Katherine's eye.

"It won't hurt you." She twists her fingers into the ball of magic, making it swirl like a yellow flame. "I'm a witch,"

Salem swipes her hand through the magic, leaving a furry figure standing on four legs in the vampire's palm. "And a werewolf."

Before Katherine can even begin to put her shock into words, Salem's head snaps up and she looks to the door. Katherine furrows her brows, but attunes her hearing to the hallway outside the apartment and frowns.

"Is that Damon?"

Katherine's eyes widen and she drops Salem's hand, the wisps of magic disappearing as she sprints to the front door. Her hand stops right before she can reach the doorknob, and Katherine grunts in frustration as Salem makes her way to the door seamlessly.

"Is there a boundary spell on this apartment?"

Katherine rolls her eyes. "No. Klaus compelled me to stay."

Salem frowns, and the two girls look at the door as a sudden jiggling comes from the other side of the door.

The door slowly pushes open and Salem raises a brow at the brunette woman standing by Damon's side with a purse hanging off her arm. Damon scans over Katherine, who breathes a sigh of relief, but his frown is quickly replaced with a look of surprise.

"Salem? What the hell are you doing here?"

The teacher smiles sardonically, watching the woman traipse into Alaric's apartment. "It's a long story, but I promise I'll explain it as long as you take me with you."

"You can't leave me here," Katherine latches onto Salem's wrist, her eyes wide. "Klaus will think I let you go, and he'll kill me immediately."

"I'm not staying here to get killed, Katherine." Salem takes her arm out of the vampire's grip, rolling her eyes. "There's no reason Klaus would take me unless he saw me as a threat– which I am. Hence my departure."

Katherine grits her teeth, looking at Damon's slightly amused smirk at her apparent captivity. "What if he comes after you?"

"As far as I know, I can't be killed, and I can't be compelled, so he'll have to figure something else out if he wants me dead that bad." Salem shakes her head, shifting towards the open door as Andie Star steps into Alaric's apartment and looks around curiously. "And he won't know where to find me if you keep your mouth shut."

"I'm sorry," Damon frowns, not stepping over the mantle. "Am I missing something here? Why does Klaus even have you in the first place?"

Salem snaps her gaze to him and her eyes flash yellow, and a look of understanding comes over his face. "Get why I need to get out of here now?"

Damon nods slowly, his eyes momentarily flickering to Katherine, who cocks a hip at his attention. "What are you even doing here, Damon?"

The vampire rolls his eyes slightly. "Thought you might be dead."

"Unfortunately not." Katherine glares, crossing her arms over her chest. "What do you want?"

"We are here to rescue you," Andie smiles, oblivious to the tension settling in the apartment.

"No, sweetie," Damon corrects her with a tight smile. "We are here to see if she deserves to be rescued."

Andie nods, grimacing apologetically at Katherine. "Right."

"I figured you still might be kicking. Alari-Klaus was blending way too easily. Figured he probably had some coaching."

Salem huffs, looking between the two vampires. "Not to interrupt, but is there any way we could leave before the man possessing my best friend gets back?"

Damon sighs, lifting a small vial full of clear liquid in it and shaking it tauntingly at Katherine, who straightens automatically at the sight of it. "Is that–"

"Vervain? Your salvation."

Katherine pushes away her premature hope. "It's not going to undo anything."

"There's always a loophole." Damon smirks. "Did he tell you to stay in this apartment until he said it was okay to leave?"

Katherine inhales, beginning to answer, but she abruptly stops and furrows her brows, making Damon hum smugly. "You can't say. Did he tell you to do absolutely everything he says until the end of time?"

"No,"

"There's your loophole. Drink this and prevent any further compulsion."

Katherine stomps towards him, stopping when she reached her compelled barrier. She folds her arms stubbornly, looking at Damon expectantly. "Give it to me."

Damon held it just out of her reach. "Answer one question first," Katherine sighs, and he continues. "You double-crossed us with Isobel, why?"

"I didn't think you could stand a chance against Klaus, so I was looking out for myself."

Damon smirks. "And where'd that get you?"

Katherine shakes her head, a bitter look coming across her features as Damon hands her the vervain.

"Here. Be careful with that. If he finds out you have that, you're never getting out of here." He glares as Katherine chokes on a sip of vervain, beginning to turn from the door. "You owe me, and I will collect."

His blue eyes flicker to where Salem stands beside Katherine, and he jerks his head towards the hallway with a slight whistle to get her attention. "Come on. You have a lot of explaining to do, Ms. Teacher."

Salem steps out of the apartment, glaring at the man. "Whistle at me again and I'll kill you."

She hurries down the stairs, Andie and Damon trailing behind her as she goes. As they step outside, she looks over her shoulder and grits her teeth. "My apartment is across the hall from Ric's. It's probably not smart for me to stay right under Klaus's nose, so,"

Damon sighs, looking back up at the building. "Depending on how much we want to kill one another, you can just stay with me."

She smiles overly sweet at him, though the mocking twist of it isn't missed. "How generous. Now, let's go before you all end up dead."

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author's note; chaos 

edited and published; 2.5.23.

- liz