13. The Lies Will Catch Up To You

"Yeah, so when that Donovan kid rang the bell Cade wasn't the only one who escaped hell, I did too" Sebastian explained to very confused Damon, Kol and Alaric, while examining the siren's treasure, "I'm alive but at the same time I'm not, I mean I'm not a ghost, I can still touch things, I just can't feel or taste anything, side effects of being inbetween dimensions I guess, while one of my foot is on earth, the other is in Cade's nightmare world".

Kol glared at the man infront of him, and before anyone could react, he snatched Cade's dagger looking artifact from Alaric's hand and pinned Sebastian to the wall, the dagger on his throat.

"You murdered my fiance, on our wedding day!" an enraged Kol yelled.

"Technically that was Tatia" Sebastian defended, "I only helped".

"Your sister!" Kol yelled, "She was your bloody sister, you heartless prick!".

"I admit!" Sebastian quickly said, "That was a huge mistake on my part, I promise I'm not the same guy anymore".

"Your promises don't mean anything to me Sebastian" Kol snapped.

"Kol" Damon said, grabbing Kol by his shoulder, "Before you kill him, let him answer a few questions of mine", after glaring at Sebastian for a moment, a reluctant Kol stepped back and Damon stepped forward, "Let's start with the obvious one, how the hell are you here?".

"You tell me" Sebastian retorted, "You guys rang the giant hell bell, all I did was go for Mystic Fall when I could see it, hey, you guys wouldn't mind keeping this between us right? Like, let's not tell Cade that I escaped hell".

"You were in hell?" Damon asked.

"Yeah, your buddy over there killed me" Sebastian informed, gesturing towards Kol, who was still glaring at him.

"You said you had a better idea than killing Cade with this dagger" Damon remembered.

"I do, I know a way that will definitely kill Cade" Sebastian informed.

"What is it?" an eager Alaric asked.

"Yeah, it doesn't work like that, buddy" Sebastian said, "You want the information? Then you three are going to have to do something for me in return".

"Which is what exactly?" an annoyed Kol asked.

"Help me find a way that I can become permanent in this world" Sebastian replied, "And then I swear, I'll tell you three exactly how to kill Cade and get rid of him once and for all".

"Yeah, no deal" Kol stated, going to stab Sebastian but Damon quickly grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"We need him, Kol" Damon said, realising Sebastian was now their biggest chance at defeating the devil.

Kol glared at Damon, then at Sebastian, then without another word, stormed out of the room.

***

A furious Kol walked out the vault with Damon following him, Alaric staying behind to keep an eye on Sebastian.

"You don't know him, Damon!" Kol yelled, "Sebastian Connor isn't someone who helps you, he is the one who leads people to their death, do you want all of us to die?".

"Not necessarily" Damon defended.

Kol glared at the oldest Salvatore, he then shoved the dagger to his chest, which Damon quickly grabbed before it could fall to the ground.

"Then be my guest Damon, go trust the person who killed your soulmate in her pervious life, and while you and that dickhead try to outsmart the devil himself, I'm gonna barricade Ri and the triplets in here, I am not even letting that man's shadow touch Ri".

"I haven't forgotten what he did to Ria" Damon snapped, "Look, when I get out of him what I want, I will send him back to hell in pieces, I promise you".

"Do whatever the hell you want to do Damon, but I'm not getting involved with him, if I look at his face, all I remember is the worst day of my thousand year old life, and I'm tried of remembering that day" Kol stated, "Just do me a favor, whatever teamwork you two are going to, go somewhere else and do it".

"How about a little faith, huh?" Damon asked.

"Ask that question to someone who didn't have their whole life turned upside down because of that guy in there" Kol snapped, pointing towards the vault, before Damon could say anything to him, Kol turned around and walked away.

***

Aria sat on the floor of her and Damon's shared room, candles lit all around her, now that she had managed to save both Damon and Kol from Cade, she could now finally focus on herself, she could finally focus on somehow, someway getting her magic back.

"Come on" Aria whispered, her eyes closed, trying to feel any spart of her magic, "Please come back, I need my magic more then anything right now, someone show me a sign on how to get my magic back, please anyone".

Aria's mediation was interrupted when her phone started ringing, an annoyed Aria grabbed her phone from beside her and answered it.

"What do you need?" Aria asked, as soon as she answered the phone.

"What makes you think I need something?" Damon asked from the other side of the phone, while driving his car, Sebastian in the passenger seat, "Why can't I just call to check up on my amazing girlfriend?".

"Maybe because I told you that today I am going to be focusing on getting my magic back and you promised not to disturb me" Aria said, "And since you broke your promise, it means something happened and now you need me to solve it, so spill, the quicker you spill the beans, the quicker I give you a solution, the quicker I get back to somehow getting my magic back".

Damon sighed, "You said you were going to look into how Cade got out of hell, have you made any progress on that?".

"Um, all I know right now is that Cade used the Maxwell bell to get out of hell" Aria said, "Something we really need to keep out of his reach unless we want Mystic Falls to burn in hellfire, and with my magic gone, all of this is so much harder".

"But you're not a quitter, Ria" Damon said, slapping Sebastian's hand when he tried to turn the radio on.

"Who said anything about quitting?" Aria asked, "You out of all people should know that I don't quit Damon".

"Good, because I really need a solution that will bring someone else back from hell as well" Damon informed.

"Um excuse me?!" a shocked Aria asked, "You want to bring someone else back from hell? Who exactly is this person?".

"Let's just say I had a semi-ghost situation" a sheepish Damon informed, knowing Aria's wasn't going to take her brother from her past life coming back, the same brother who played a major part in her death, "Someone halfway in our world, who really wanted to stay here for real".

"Can I say hi to her?" Sebastian whispered.

"What? Shut up" Damon whispered back to Sebastian, before turning his attention back to his and Aria's conversation, "This is all hypothetical Aria, but what if we found how exactly to kill the devil? And what if the very small price to pay was us freeing a soul from hell?".

"Don't say us, because it's not going to be us, it's going be me" Aria retorted, "And also, you're sounding crazy Damon", Sebastian suddenly started drumming his fingers on the dashboard, which once again caused Damon to slap his hand, indicating him to stop it, but this time, Aria had sensed something, "There's someone next to you".

"Nope" Damon lied, "There's nobody next to me".

"Are you sure Damon?" Aria asked, "Because the weirdest feeling just passed through me, there is definitely someone in that car with you, someone you don't want me to know about, you're scared of my reaction towards this person".

Damon stopped his car at the side of the road, "Look, let me be clear" he said, stepping out of his car, "Even if there were someone else here with me, I wouldn't want you to know because of a certain mind-reading devil that's on the lookout for escaped souls, and what you don't know can't hurt us".

Aria closed her eyes, after a moment she opened her eyes in shock, "Sebastian" she whispered, "You're with my brother, Sebastian".

"Why would you even say that?" a shocked Damon asked, wondering how Aria knew.

"Because I have this extremely strong feeling that's flooding through my veins, I can't explain it, but I know I'm right" Aria said, her eyes wide in shock, slowly realising what was happening to her.

"Ria, everything okay?" a concerned Damon asked.

"Damon, before I tapped into magic, Grams told me that I was psychic" Aria remembered, "I mean that would explain how I knew you were hiding something from me and me knowing that Sebastian is currently with you".

"I am so proud of you Ria, and I promise we will celebrate as soon as we meet but I still have to ask if your new psychic powers can help someone get free of hell?" Damon asked.

"How am I supposed to know that, Damon?" Aria asked, "I literally just figured out that Grams was right this whole freaking time, wait, I don't know the answer, but I know someone who does".

"Who?" an eager Damon asked.

"Cade" Aria replied, "He's a psychic as well, I'm gonna ask him to help me with my new powers".

"No" Damon stated, all of his eagerness gone and instead replaced with immense worry, "Bad idea Ria".

"This isn't a bad idea, the bad idea is you trusting someone who killed his own sister" Aria stated, before hanging up on her boyfriend.

***

"Dad, how long do we have to stay in this boring place?" a bored Alec asked Kol, as the triplets and the original vampire entered a room in the armory.

"Not long at all if your Damon dad does his job well" Kol assured, he tried to get Aria to come along but she just made him promise that he will protect the triplets and keep them away from Sebastian while she figures out how to use her new psychic powers.

"Dad, did you bring us the new fifa?" Asher asked.

Kol held up a bag, "Everything you three demanded is in this bag".

"Except a play station" Mia said, sitting on the bed and giving her brothers a cheeky smile.

Alec looked at Kol, a betrayed expression on his face, "There's no play station here?!".

"Nope" Mia replied, before Kol could say anything.

"Mia" Kol warned.

"What?" Mia asked, an innocent expression on her face.

"Don't try to cause trouble" Kol said, shaking his head in amusement.

"She can't help it, that's her middle name" Asher said, throwing Mia her bunny stuff toy, a stuff toy that Damon had gotten Mia, a toy that Mia now always keeps with her.

"Don't throw fluffy like that!" Mia said, petting her bunny and glaring at her oldest brother.

"Dad!" Alec yelled, "Focus on me, where's the play station?".

"Since when are you so addicted to the play station?" Kol asked.

"Mom said today is our free day, we can do whatever we want today and don't have to limit ourselves" an excited Alec said, jumping up and down, "Do you know what that means?".

"Honestly, no" an amused Kol replied.

"It means video games all day" Alec stated, "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, please don't take it from me".

Kol chuckled, "Alright come on then drama queen, I'll take you three to the play station".

"Yes!" Alec and Asher yelled, rushing out the room, while Mia shook her head at her brothers and slowly walked behind them.

***

"Hey" Aria greeted, sitting in her car.

"Hey" Kol said, from the other side.

"All good?" Aria asked, confused as to why Kol is calling her.

"Everything's fine, the triplets are fine" Kol quickly assured.

"Did you guys reach the armory?" Aria asked.

"Yeah, we did" Kol replied, "Hey so, I know you're currently on a finding about your psychic powers mission, but I was wondering if after you're done you can meet us at Nik and Caroline's?".

Aria chuckled, "The triplets miss me?".

"A lot" Kol replied, "But there's something else I need to talk to you about".

Aria frowned hearing the worry in Kol's voice, "Kol, did something happen?".

Kol looked in the room the three kids were playing in, he looked around and saw most of the things in the room floating without the triplets even realising they were doing this.

"Um, kind of" Kol admitted.

"Do you need me to come over now?" a concerned Aria asked.

"No" Kol assured, "Figure your powers out, this can wait, for a little while at least".

"Okay" a worried Aria said, "I'll meet you at Nik and Caroline's around 8?".

"See you there" Kol said, hanging up on Aria and looking at the triplets in concern.

***

After talking to Kol, Aria drove to the cafe she had a feeling Cade was at.

Entering the cafe, Aria sighed seeing the devil sitting there, drinking a cup of coffee, "How did I know you would be here?" she immediately asked, standing infront of the devil.

"Simple, we share a kinship now" Cade informed, "An awareness of each other, for someone new to the gift, you're quite powerful".

"I am powerful" Aria confirmed, "But despite that, I don't know how these powers work, so as much as I hate you, I need your help, how do I control my powers?".

"Have a seat" Cade simply said, gesturing towards the seat infront of him.

Aria sat infront of Cade, "Don't try to set me on fire or anything" she warned the devil.

Cade chuckled, "That would be a poor way to start our lesson".

"Are you gonna teach me how to control my powers?" a curious Aria asked.

"I'm going to give you an understanding of what you've become" Cade clarified, "You've had a powerful traumatic awakening, just as I did, my true self sprang forth at the moment of my death".

"But I haven't gone through anything traumatic lately" a confused Aria said.

"Not recently you haven't, but you did some years ago, when you lost your mother at the old witches house" Cade informed.

Aria looked at Cade wide eyed, "Are you telling me I've been a psychic since then?".

Cade nodded his head, "But because of your magic, your psychic powers never emerged, but now that you don't have magic--".

"There's nothing stopping my psychic powers from emerging" Aria finished.

"Exactly" Cade confirmed, "Now back to my lesson, because your mother was the reason your psychic powers came alive, we're going use her to understand what you can do, I'm as much a part of my psychic dimension as it is of me, and so if you wish to locate your mother's soul, you must open your mind to me".

"My mother isn't in hell" Aria snapped, "She has gotten peace".

Cade smirked, "And how sure are you about that?".

Aria glared at Cade, "Don't play games with me Cade".

"I assure you I'm not playing any games with you Aria, I'm just helping you figure out where your mother really is, in peace or in hell" Cade said, he held his hands towards the tribrid, "Together, we may contact her".

Aria narrowed her eyes at Cade, after a moment of thinking, she placed her hand in his and closed her eyes, "I'm ready".

"I want you to remember the moment you lost your mother, for the second time in your life" Cade instructed, "Think not just of your mother, but of how it felt, to lose your mother to death once again", Aria closed her eyes, pain shooting through her whole body when she remembered losing her mother, "Think of your mother, think of her leaving you, think of her dreams, and of her happiness", the more Aria thought about her mother, the more things around her started to shake, "What do you feel?".

"Anger" Aria spat out, "At the witches, they took my mother from me, it hurt so much".

"Embrace it" Cade instructed, "It is the source of your power".

"Aria", Aria heard a familiar voice call out to her.

"Mom" Aria whispered, realising her mother was calling out to her.

"Focus" Cade said, "Live in the trauma, call her name".

"Mom" Aria called out, as the wind around her picked up, "Mom".

Aria opened her eyes and immediately she was confused seeing herself at her childhood home, the same house she had seen her parents dead body.

"Aria".

Aria turned around to face the voice who called her and immediately her eyes filled with tears seeing the women infront of her.

"Mom" Aria cried, running over to her mother and giving her a tight hug, "I thought I was never going to see you again, the real you".

"Aria, baby, listen to me" an extremely worried Amelia said, breaking the hug and cupping her daughter's face in her hands, "Get away from Cade, he's using you to find me, he wants to take my soul to hell".

"Wait mom, what's going on?" a confused Aria asked, "Grams said that you had gotten peace? If that was the case then how can Cade get to you?".

"I can't explain it now Aria, we don't have time, just remember, never trust the devil" Amelia said.

In real life, Aria gasped and opened her eyes.

"What did you see?" a curious Cade asked, "Was it your mother?".

Aria looked at Cade, "No" she finally said.

"Then why are you so upset?" Cade asked, clearly not believing the girl infront of him.

"Are you serious?" a furious Aria asked, "Maybe I'm upset because I just relived losing my mother for the second time in my life! Thanks for your useless lesson, I think I'll be going now".

Before Cade could say anything to her, Aria got up from her seat and walked out the cafe.

***

As soon as Aria stepped out of the cafe, her phone started ringing, taking it out of her back pocket she realised Damon was calling her, Aria went to answer her phone but suddenly stopped once she looked ahead and saw Cade leaning against her car.

"You gotta be kidding me" Aria whispered, hanging up on Damon and storming over to Cade, "Why the hell are you following me?".

"Because I'm not done with you" Cade revealed, "I've been wondering for a long time what happened to your mother's spirt after the witches tried to destroy her, I knew she hadn't gotten peace and she wasn't in hell, she was the one soul who I could not locate, but finally, years later I have my answer, when the witches were trying to destroy your mother's spirit, you screamed her name, and something extraordinary happened at the moment of your deepest pain, a powerful psychic blast created an entire world, a private dimension linked only to you, hidden, even from me, do you realise how rare that is? In all my thousands of years, not a single person alive has ever done anything like what you did, like, what I did, but, sadly, your mother's soul belongs to me".

"No it does not" Aria snapped, "My mother wasn't evil, she was a good women, I will not let you take her to hell".

"I don't care if she's good or evil Aria, all I care about is that she is someone you love, and since you're the reason I lost Damon and Kol, it's only fitting in return I take your mother from you" Cade said, before Aria could say anything to him, Cade placed his hands on either side of Aria's head, Aria gasped in shock, the wind around them started picking up and everything started to shake.

After a moment of Cade trying to access Aria's head, Aria finally shoved his hands away from her, "Don't touch me!" she yelled.

"So, not only are you hiding Amelia Connor from me, but you believe Sebastian Connor could be out in the world" Cade said, "How long have you suspected this?".

"Since today" Aria snapped, glaring at the devil, "But I'm not sure, it's just a feeling".

"If you think you can continue to harbor secrets from me, you truly do not understand why they call me the devil" Cade said, glaring at Aria.

***

"Mom!" the triplets yelled in unison, as soon as they saw their mother enter the Mikaelson's mansion.

Aria immediately knelt down and hugged her children, "Hey, guys" she laughed, "How was your day with Kol?".

"So good" Asher said, after breaking the hug.

"Just so you know mom, I took full advantage of you allowing us to do anything today, I played video games all day" Alec bragged.

Aria chuckled, "I expected nothing less from you" she said, ruffling Alec's hair.

"Mom, not the hair" Alec complained, immediately fixing his hair.

Aria shook her head in amusement at her son, "Did you guys eat?".

"Uncle Nik and Care Bear are in the kitchen making us food" Mia informed.

"More like Care Bear is making us food and Uncle Nik is annoying her" Alec corrected.

"That sounds more like it" Aria laughed.

"Salvatore's, your food is ready!" Klaus yelled from the kitchen.

"Coming!" the triplets yelled, before running straight to the kitchen to eat everything their Uncle Nik and Care Bear made.

Once the triplets had run away, Aria stood up and turned to Kol, who was leaning against the wall, looking at the scene with a small smile on his face.

"About time" Kol teased.

"Hey, I'm right on time" Aria defended.

"Actually Ri, you're five minutes late" Kol reminded.

"Oh boo hoo" Aria mocked, making Kol chuckle, "So, what was it that you wanted to talk about?".

The smile suddenly left Kol's face as he remembered what he saw, "Um, how about we talk after dinner? It's a really long conversation".

Aria nodded her head, "Yeah, I'm fine with that, I have something to tell you as well".

"Everything good?" a concerned Kol asked.

"Kind of" Aria replied, "You?".

"Kind of" Kol repeated, as the two vampires proceeded to walk towards the Mikaelson kitchen.

***

"Care Bear, I want the grey cup" Aria heard Mia say, as her and Kol entered the kitchen.

"Honey, you always have the pink cup" Caroline reminded.

"No!" Mia yelled, "I want the grey one!".

Mia went to grab Alec's cup, but Aria quickly walked over and stopped her, not wanting the triplets to start fighting over this, as she grabbed the cup, Mia's hand landed on her wrist and she immediately started siphoning the magic from her mother.

"Ow!" Aria winced in pain.

"Mia!" Kol scolded, rushing over to the two, "Remember what I said? No siphoning".

Mia's eyes immediately filled with tears once she realised she hurt her mom, "I'm sorry mom, I didn't mean to hurt you".

"You hurt mom" Alec said, glaring at his sister, "How can you hurt mom, Mia? Incendi--".

"Alec, no!" Both Aria and Kol immediately yelled, Kol going over and picking Alec up in his arms, while Aria picked Mia up, and Klaus and Caroline kept an eye on the other three kids present in the kitchen, who were just watching the scene in shock.

"Alec, we don't say that to each other" Aria scolded, "Someone could get really hurt by that spell".

Kol hugged Alec and looked Aria, "This is what I needed to talk to you about" he said, "The triplets magic is starting to attack out, I tried to help them but I couldn't help them control their magic, and from the looks of it, they can't either".

***

"How do I know for sure you won't kill me as soon as I give you the information on how to kill Cade?" a curious Sebastian asked, as after a day of walking around Mystic Falls and trying to keep Sebastian alive by feeding him people, they walked back into the armory, where Sebastian promised to tell Damon how to get rid of the devil.

"You don't" Damon stated, extremely annoyed with the man behind him, "But if you want out of hell, it's either trust me or run from Cade forever, now come on, clock's ticking creeper, tell me how do I kill Cade?".

"Sure, but before that I need something" Sebastian said.

Damon sighed in frustration, "What is it that you need now?".

Sebastian looked at Damon, "You" he said, before Damon could register anything, Sebastian grabbed Damon's wrist and started siphoning from him, "So, here's a fun fact, when I was alive, I thought I had no magic, but when I went to hell, I found out that I'm actually an siphoner, cool, right?", Damon groaned his pain while Sebastian took out Cade's dagger from his back pocket, having stolen it when no one was looking, "Now, if I'm going to do this right, then I need a lot of magic, I need to drain someone who can give me a lot of magic, aka you".

"Sebastian, stop" Damon whispered, falling to the floor, his wrist still in Sebastian's hand.

"I'll be honest Damon, I didn't come back to this earth for redemption or to run away from the devil, I came back to finish what I started a thousand years ago, killing my little sister once and for all".

"No" Damon whispered, fear rising in his heart for his soulmate.

"You really should have listened to Kol and Aria" Sebastian said, "You should have never trusted me".

Sebastian finally let go of Damon's wrist after seeing him start to desiccate, he let go of Damon's hand and Damon fell to floor, his body desiccated, while Sebastian left the armory to finish the task he started a thousand years ago, the death of Aria Connor.

***

Presenting 8x13 of Cold Hearted!

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on Aria finding out that she is psychic?

Thoughts on the triplets losing control of their magic?

Thoughts on Aria finding out that she unlocked her psychic powers when she lost her mother at the witches house? For reference, this happened in season two, I know it was a long time ago but I'm going with the fact that Aria's magic was so strong that she never realised she had other powers, but now that her magic isn't here, she's finally realising her other powers.

Thoughts on Sebastian betraying Damon?

YOU GUYS!! THREE CHAPTERS REMAINING! I REPEAT WE ARE UP TO OUR LAST THREE CHAPTERS OF ARIA AND DAMON'S STORY, I AM NOT READY! October might be the month we say goodbye to our favorite couple 😭

INTRODUCING SHAHID KAPOOR as SEBASTIAN CONNOR