05. The Reckoning

Stefan groaned and slowly opened his eyes, his neck was hurting from the amount of times Klaus and Rebekah had taken turns in snapping it.

"Ah, he lives" Rebekah said, walking over to Stefan with a still weak Aria by her side.

"What happened?" Stefan asked confused.

"You took a beating" Rebekah replied, "My brother's been breaking your neck all afternoon, quite the temper".

"How could you?" Stefan asked Aria, remembering that Aria told Klaus about Elena being alive.

"Don't" Rebekah warned, before Aria could defend herself, "Don't even look towards Ariana, otherwise I will do worse then just break your neck".

"I had to" Aria whispered, "I couldn't keep lying to him Stefan, it wasn't right".

"His going to kill her Aria" Stefan snapped.

"She's destined to kill Ariana, I'm surprised my brothers haven't ripped the cows heart out themselves" Rebekah snapped.

"Where's Klaus now?" Stefan asked.

"With any luck, ripping that cow's bloody head off" Rebekah replied.

Stefan glared at Rebekah and Aria, and before the girls could realise anything, Stefan speeded towards Aria and pulled her to the floor, not realising that Aria hadn't healed properly and he just made her pain much worse.

"Where is she Aria?" Stefan asked, his hand around Aria's neck, making it hard for her breath.

Rebekah grabbed the back of Stefan's shirt and threw him into the truck.

"Are you okay?" Rebekah asked, helping Aria stand.

"I'm fine" Aria whispered, looking at Stefan with teary eyes, she couldn't believe that once upon a time they used to be best friends, and now, all Stefan did was hurt her, Aria had thought that maybe one day, they could be friends again, but the way things were going, that thought was proving harder.

"My brother said I can't kill you, but he never said I couldn't hurt you" Rebekah said, punching Stefan in the face, she then grabbed a crowbar and shoved it in his stomach then snapped his neck.

***

"So how you feeling?" Tyler asked Caroline, "You know, after everything that happened with my Mom, which by the way, I'm sorry, I didn't know she was going to do that.".

Caroline sighed, "It's okay, you don't have to apologise, and I'm fine, my Mom and Damon have been helping me a lot".

"There's a but somewhere there" Tyler noted.

"But, these past two days, something doesn't feel right to me, like someone very close to me is in pain" Caroline said, putting honey on the doorknobs.

"Someone like Aria?" Tyler asked, giving Caroline a knowing look.

"Yeah" Caroline whispered, "I haven't seen her all summer, and I know she's with Klaus, I know he won't let anything happen to her, but I feel like something did happen, I just want her to come back home to me so I can protect her, she might be a powerful witch, but for me she will always be the girl who started crying when she saw two humming birds, humming together".

Tyler laughed, "I remember that, we were in fifth grade and she was in awe of the humming birds and just started crying, whispering how beautiful they were".

"Exactly!" Caroline said, "My best friend can be very fragile at times and I need to be there to protect her, and I hate that I'm not".

"You can protect me now".

Tyler and Caroline turned to the voice, and Caroline froze seeing the person infront of her.

"Aria" Caroline whispered, tears welling in her eyes.

"Hey Care Bear" Aria whispered, tears streaming down her face seeing her best friend, "Told you I will keep my promise".

"Oh my god!" Caroline yelled, running over to Aria and pulling her into a tight back, "You're back, you're actually back".

"Yeah I am, but mind losing the grip, I'm still kind of sore" Aria mumbled.

"Sore!?" Caroline asked, breaking the hug, "Why are you sore? What happened? Are you okay? God, I knew something was wrong with you, tell me what happened", that's when Caroline's eyes fell on Aria's neck, where there were fingerprint marks, "Oh my god, who did that?! I swear to god I'm going to kill whoever did that to you Aria, just tell me a name".

"Stefan Salvatore" Rebekah revealed, shocking Caroline.

"That dickhead! Oh just you wait what Damon will do to him once he finds out about this" Caroline rambled, she then turned to Rebekah, "By the way, who the hell are you?".

"Rebekah Mikaelson, the original best friend" Rebekah introduced.

"Caroline Forbes, the current and forever best friend" Caroline introduced.

"As much I would like to have a good cat fight, I need to take him to my brother" Rebekah said, pointing to Tyler, who was standing back watching everything unfold.

Before anyone could say anything, Rebekah speeded over to Tyler and after grabbing him, speeded over to the gym, where Klaus was.

"Okay, now that she's gone, tell me why do you look like you've gone through hell and back?" Caroline asked.

"You're not going to go after Tyler?" Aria asked confused.

"Tyler's a werewolf, he can handle himself" Caroline replied, "I refuse to let you leave my sight, you are never leaving me again, do you have any idea how miserable I was without you?!".

"I missed you too Care" Aria said, pulling Caroline into a hug, and both girls started sobbing into the hug, "There's so much I need to tell you".

"There's so much I need to tell you as well" Caroline cried, "But right now, just let me relish in the fact that my sister is back".

"Okay" Aria whispered.

***

After their reunion, Caroline and Aria went to the gym, Caroline claiming she didn't want to miss out on all the action.

Entering the gym, they saw Klaus, Elena, Bonnie, Matt, Rebekah and Tyler, all standing in the middle.

"I thought I told you to rest" Klaus said, forgetting about Elena for a second and just focusing on his best friend.

"Nik, I'm fine" Aria whispered, looking around the gym in uncertainty.

"You sure look fine" Klaus said sarcastically.

"Someone's going to die" Aria whispered, ignoring Klaus's sarcasm.

"Is that a witch prediction or banshee prediction?" Rebekah asked, Aria having told Klaus and Rebekah what Gloria did and said to her.

"Banshee?" Bonnie asked, as soon as Aria entered the gym, Bonnie could feel the immense power she had, she could tell that Aria wasn't the same girl she was when she left.

"Long story" Aria mumbled, "Can we just get on with everything?".

"Gladly" Klaus said, "Now you all already know Ari, now I'd like you all to meet my sister, Rebekah, a word of warning, she can be quite mean".

"Nik" Aria warned.

"Don't be an ass" Rebekah said, pushing Tyler towards Klaus.

"Leave him alone!" Elena yelled.

"I'm gonna make this very simple" Klaus said, ignoring Elena's words, "Every time I attempt to turn a werewolf, into a vampire hybrid, they die during the transition, it's quite horrible, actually", Klaus bit into his wrist and fed his blood to Tyler, "I need you to find a way to save my hybrids Bonnie, and for Tyler's sake, you'd better hurry", Klaus snapped Tyler's neck.

Seeing Klaus break Tyler's neck, caused Aria to flinch backwards and bump into Caroline.

"It's okay" Caroline whispered, knowing exactly what was going through Aria's mind, "You're not doing anything wrong, your relationship with Klaus is much more older then Tyler or anyone else here, so obviously your going to support him over others".

"Then why do I feel so guilty?" Aria whispered.

"Because your Aria" Caroline whispered back, "You're the most selfless person I know, you feel guilty when it's not even your fault, you have a pure heart, but some of these people, aka Elena and Stefan, they don't deserve you or your worry, so stop feeling guilty".

Unknown to both Aria and Caroline, Klaus and Rebekah heard their conversation, and both of them had a small smile on their face, when they realised Caroline had the ability of calming Aria down by just her words.

"Aria!" Elena yelled, breaking Caroline and Aria's conversation, "How could you let this happen Aria?!".

"I--".

"Now, now" Klaus interrupted, "Let me give you a warning Elena, if you have even a little part of you that wants to live, I suggest, you keep your mouth shut, because know one thing, hybrids don't come before Ari, so hurt her, and me and my sister will gladly rip you from limb to limb".

***

"So, my best friend is a witch banshee hybrid?" Caroline asked excitedly, sitting with Aria on the benches.

"Yeah" Aria said, smiling at Caroline's excitement.

"And you can have vampires babies?" Caroline clarified, Aria nodded, "Oh my god, imagine little Damon or Aria running around the boarding house".

"Or a little Kol or Ariana" Rebekah said, sitting on the other side of Aria.

"Okay, no" Caroline said, "I know your new here, but for your information, Damon and Aria are endgame".

"Just you wait till Kol gets here, then we will see whose endgame" Rebekah said, making Aria shake her head at her two best friends.

"He killed him" Matt mumbled.

"He's not dead, Klaus's blood will turn him into a vampire" Elena said, glaring at Aria, Caroline and Rebekah, wondering how could they could be so calm and happy.

"And if Bonnie's successful, he'll live through his transition, go on then" Klaus urged, "Go fetch your grimoires and enchantments and whatnot, I'll hold on to Elena for safekeeping".

Elena nodded at Bonnie, and after much hesitation, Bonnie left the gym along with Matt, to find a solution to Klaus's problem.

"So this is the latest doppelganger" Rebekah said, walking over to Elena, "As ugly as the original one".

"Okay, I don't appericate her shipping you and Kol, but I do love her hating on Elena" Caroline whispered into Aria's ear, making her chuckle.

"Enough, Rebekah" Klaus said, with a faint smile on his face, "Take the wolf boy elsewhere, would you?".

After waving Caroline and Aria goodbye, Rebekah grabbed Tyler's arm and dragged him out of the gym.

"Just ignore her" Klaus told Elena, "She hates Petrova doppelgangers even more then me".

***

Aria's head was on Caroline's shoulder, as more time went on the more drowsy she got, as she was about to fall asleep, the gym doors slammed open and in came Stefan.

"You!" Caroline yelled, speeding over to Stefan with a wooden mop in her hand.

"No Care, wait!" Aria yelled, but it was too late, Caroline had already shoved the mop into Stefan's stomach.

"Caroline!" Elena yelled, shocked with her friends actions, while Klaus looked on, amused.

"That's for hurting my sister, you bastard!" Caroline yelled.

"Relax love" Klaus said, grabbing Caroline before she literally killed Stefan.

"Let go of me Klaus, he hurt Aria!" Caroline yelled.

"As much as I would love to see him dead, I need him for now" Klaus said, "Why don't you go see what my sister is up to, go calm yourself down before you end up killing him".

Caroline looked towards Aria, who nodded.

"Don't go easy on him" Caroline told Klaus.

"Of course, love" Klaus said, very amused with Caroline's actions.

"Stefan" Elena said, as Stefan took the mop out of his stomach, "Are you okay?".

"Come to save your damsel, mate?" Klaus asked, after Caroline left.

"I came to ask for your forgiveness, and pledge my loyalty" Stefan replied, completely ignoring Elena.

"I doubt that" Aria whispered.

"Well, you broke that pledge once already" Klaus said.

"Elena means nothing to me anymore" Stefan insisted.

"Liar" Aria whispered.

"And whatever you ask of me, I will do" Stefan promised.

"Fair enough" Klaus said, "Let's drink on it, kill them", Klaus pointed towards Chad and Dana.

"Wait, Klaus, no" Aria said, "They are innocent, don't involve them, please".

"Relax Ari, I know what I'm doing" Klaus insisted, he then turned to Stefan, "What are you waiting for? Kill them".

"No, Stefan, don't" Elena said, "He's not gonna hurt me, he already said--".

Before Elena could complete her sentence, Klaus backhanded her, causing her to fall to the ground, seeing Elena hurt, Stefan went to charge at Klaus, but Aria stopped him with her magic.

Klaus walked over to Stefan and held him by his neck, making Aria stop her magic, "She means nothing to you? Your lies just keep piling up".

"Let her go, I'll do whatever you want, you have my word" Stefan pleaded.

"Your word doesn't mean much, I lived by your word all summer, during which time I never had to resort to this" Klaus said, compelling Stefan, "Stop fighting".

"Don't do this, don't do this" Stefan pleaded.

"I didn't want to" Klaus said, "All I wanted was your allegiance, now I'm gonna have to take it".

"Don't, don't" Stefan whispered.

"You will do exactly as I say, when I say it, you will not run" Klaus compelled, "You will not hide, you will simply, just obey".

"No" Elena whispered, "Stefan".

"Now, kill them, Ripper" Klaus said.

"Nik, no!" Aria yelled, about to run towards Chad and Dana, but Klaus speeded over to her, blocking her view.

"Don't watch" Klaus said.

Hearing Chad and Dana's screams, Aria buried herself into Klaus's chest, her banshee prediction turned out to be right, someone died tonight.

***

"Come on, pick up" Caroline mumbled, walking in the corridor of the school, trying to get a certain Salvatore on the phone.

"Blondie, you have some seriously bad timing" Damon said, finally answering the call, "I'm currently trying to stop the evil slut vampire, from waking a vampire hunter that's after the originals".

"Aria's back Damon" Caroline said, ignoring Damon's words.

"What?" Damon asked, not sure if she heard Caroline correctly.

"Aria's back, you need to get to the school, now" Caroline demanded.

"I'm on my way" Damon said simply.

***

"It's always nice to see a vampire in his true element" Klaus told Elena, making sure Aria didn't see Stefan kill the students, "The species has become such a broody lot".

"No, you did this to him" Elena spat.

"I invited him to the party love, he's the one dancing on the table" Klaus said.

"Where is it?!" Rebekah yelled, entering the gym with Caroline behind her, "Where's my necklace?".

After talking to Damon, Caroline had manged to locate Rebekah and both of them waited for Tyler to wake up, while waiting Caroline started showing Rebekah some pictures of her and Aria and their friendship group, that's when Rebekah saw a picture of Stefan and Elena, her necklace around Elena's neck.

"What are you talking about?" Klaus asked.

"She has my necklace, look" Rebekah said, showing Klaus, Caroline's phone.

"Wait, hold up" Aria said, "Elena's necklace, is your necklace?".

"Yes" Rebekah replied.

"Well, well, more lies" Klaus said.

"Where is it?" Rebekah asked, glaring at Elena.

"I don't have it anymore" Elena replied.

"You're lying!" Rebekah yelled, biting into Elena's neck.

"Knock it off!" Klaus yelled, pulling Rebekah away from Elena.

"Make her tell me where it is, Nik!" Rebekah yelled.

"Where's the necklace, sweetheart? Be honest" Klaus said, kneeling infront of Elena.

"I'm telling the truth, Katherine stole it" Elena revealed.

"Of course she did" Aria mumbled.

"Katerina" Klaus said, "Of course, well that's unfortunate, if we had the necklace it'd make things easier for your witch, since we're doing this the hard way, let's put a clock on it, shall we?", Klaus turned on the gym clock, "Twenty minutes, if Bonnie hasn't found a solution by then I want you to feed again, only this time, I want you to feed on Elena, you know you want to".

"Klaus, don't do this to him" Elena pleaded, "Aria, please stop him".

"Why should Aria help someone whose done nothing but hurt her?" Caroline snapped.

"I'm sorry" Aria told Elena, even she wanted to stop Klaus, Caroline wouldn't let her.

"No one leaves, if she tries to run, fracture her spine" Klaus ordered, leaving the gym with Rebekah, Aria and Caroline.

***

"As soon as you're feeling better, I'm gonna kill you" Bonnie told Matt.

To talk to Vicki, Matt ended up drowning himself in the pool, Bonnie ended up saving him by giving him CPR.

"But it worked, I saw her, I saw Vicki" Matt said.

"You did" Bonnie asked shocked.

"She said she had a message for you" Matt replied.

"For me?" Bonnie asked.

"From the witch that put the hybrid curse on Klaus, she said it's not because of Elena that Klaus's hybrids are failing, it's because of Aria" Matt revealed, "She said that Aria shouldn't have survived Klaus's ritual, the hybrids can't transition because Aria's still alive".

"Tyler" Bonnie whispered shocked.

"He's gonna die, isn't he?" Matt asked.

"Yes he is" Klaus replied, walking over to the duo, "Given the choice, Ari or hybrid, I go Ari every time, however, I have a sneaky suspicion, your ghost sister is wrong about this".

***

While Rebekah and Caroline stayed with Tyler, Aria decided to quickly use the bathroom, coming out she gasped in shock, seeing Stefan standing infront of her.

"Stefan, what are you doing?" Aria asked, slightly scared of the men infront of him.

"I can't bite Elena" Stefan replied, having extreme difficulty resisting Klaus's compulsion, "I won't bite her, but I have to bite someone".

Before Aria could say anything, Stefan speeded over to Aria and bite her in the neck, making her scream out loudly.

Before Stefan could cause serious damage, he was pushed away from Aria, and his neck was snapped.

"Bad move, brother".

"Damon" Aria whispered, before falling to the ground.

"No, no, no" Damon whispered, biting into his wrist and feeding his blood to Aria, "I just got you back, don't make me lose you again Ria".

***

After Stefan had bit Aria, Damon fed her his blood and speeded her over to the hospital, Caroline had told him that Aria was tortured by a evil witch the pervious day, which she learnt from Rebekah, and not wanting to take any chances, Damon ended up taking Aria to the hospital.

"So turns out even in her death, the original bitch won't leave Ariana alone" Rebekah snapped, waiting outside the hospital with Klaus, both wanting to know if Aria was okay.

After Damon took Aria, Klaus figured out in even in her death, the original witch couldn't tolerate Aria alive, so she lied about Klaus's hybrids failing because of Aria, turns out, Klaus's hybrids were failing because they needed the doppelganger's blood, and as a punishment for hurting Aria, Klaus forced Stefan to turn his humanity off and feed on Elena.

"Seems so" Klaus said, angered that Aria got hurt.

"How is she?" Rebekah asked, seeing Damon walk up to them.

"I don't know" Damon said, "The doctors are running tests on her, I'm just waiting for her to wake up then I'll take her home but it's taking longer because for some reason my blood isn't healing her like it should".

"Vampire blood heals banshee very slowly" Klaus revealed, he learnt that when his blood wouldn't heal Aria of the wounds Gloria had created straight away, causing Rebekah and him to do some research on banshees.

"Great, just great" Damon whispered, Caroline having told him about Aria being a hybrid now.

"She will be fine" Rebekah said, not only convincing Damon and Klaus, but also convincing herself, "She's a fighter, she will survive this".

"I know she will" Damon said, "Before I go back to her, there's something you both need to know".

"What?" Klaus asked.

"Katherine's going to wake Mikael up" Damon revealed, shocking Klaus and Rebekah, "I went with her to stop her, but Caroline called me and I had to see Aria so I came back, but I'm pretty sure Katherine has woken Mikael up, who she told me is after you guys".

"Why are you telling us this?" Rebekah asked.

"I promised Aria that I won't let anything happen to the people she cares about, which now includes you guys" Damon replied, "Just know this, when it comes to Aria and her happiness, we are on the same side".

"Would you go against your brother for us?" Klaus asked, knowing after what he did, Stefan's hatred for him had increased.

"No" Damon replied, shocking Klaus and Rebekah, "Not for you, but I will for Aria".

***

After warning Klaus about Mikael, Damon went back to Aria, and after forcing a tired Caroline to go home, Damon sat by Aria's bed, waiting for her to wake up, her hand in his.

"Damon" Aria whispered, slowly opening her eyes, but feeling Damon's touch.

"Hey" Damon whispered.

"Is this a dream?" Aria asked.

"No Ria, I'm really here" Damon replied, "And so are you".

"You saved me" Aria said, remembering what happened at the school, "You were my knight, once again".

"I will always be your knight" Damon whispered, kissing Aria's forehead, "God, I'm never letting you out of my sight again".

"Take me home?" Aria asked.

"Gladly" Damon replied, slowly removing the wires around Aria and picking her up in his arms.

And after a very long and tiring summer, Aria and Damon were finally reunited.

***

And they are reunited! Daria and Caria are reunited! I know there wasn't much of Daria this chapter, but there will be in the next one 😉

Alsoooo, as you guys could tell there are two teams now Damon, Aria, Caroline, Alaric and maybe Jeremy are with the Mikaelsons, while Stefan, Elena, and Bonnie are against them, things are about to get heated, if you guys don't like Stefan and Elena being the bad guy, please don't read, otherwise hope you enjoy Stefan being the bad brother for once and not Damon.

Thoughts on the original witch wanting Aria death, even from her grave?

words: 3454

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