CHAPTER ELEVEN

"What the hell do you mean, Elena's missing?" Nyx questions; she's on the phone with Stefan as she paces back and forth in hers and the boys' motel room.

"We got back together tonight, and she was in my room. I went to get her some water and when I came back, she was gone." He tells her. "She left her necklace here, so I went looking for her. I found her car upside down in the middle of the road and there was blood, but she was gone. I looked for her and I've called her. She's not answering the phone, Nycole." He tells her.

"I'll call her and see if I can figure out what's going on." She says. "But first, why did she leave without saying anything to you, and why the hell did she leave the one thing that keeps her from being compelled?"

He sighs. "She was looking at some stuff in my room and she found..."

"She found?" The brunette prompts.

"It's not something that you should hear over the phone."

"Meaning?"

"Call your sister." He hangs up, and the teenager sighs.

"What's going on?" Dean asks, and Nyx looks at him and Sam.

"Elena's missing​. I need to go back home and help Stefan find her." She tells them.

"Are you sure?" He asks, and she nods. "Do you want us to come with you?"

"No, I'll be alright. Can you just take me to the airport?" She asks. "I'll call and have Stefan pick me up when I land in Virginia."

"Yeah, no problem."

"Be careful." Sam says, and she offers him a small smile before grabbing her things.

"I always am." The brunette tells​ him, and then she and Dean leave the motel.

"Are you sure about this?" Dean asks as he drives down the road, headed toward the nearest airport. "I gotta be honest here, I don't like the idea of you going to Mystic Falls on your own."

"I'll be fine." She tells him. "I have to check on Elena. Whatever differences we may have — she's my sister, and I love her... I just don't understand what would make her take off without a word to Stefan. I mean, he said that they had just gotten back together tonight."

"Well, she's dating a vampire — clearly, she doesn't make the best decisions." He argues. "Can you remind me again why I'm not allowed to kill them?"

"Because she loves him, Dean." Nyx says as she looks over at him. "I think we've all lost enough people that we love. Don't you?" She asks, and he sighs as he glances at her.

And truthfully, she can't help but think that Stefan sounds like a good guy — good enough anyway. He's not killing innocent people, so Dean and Sam wouldn't normally even know that he exists. Besides, so far it sounds like Stefan and Elena have a better relationship than the one that she got out of not even six months ago, and she was dating a human.

Nyx let Stefan know beforehand what time her flight would be landing, so he's waiting there for her as soon as she arrives back in Virginia. Once the pair are in the car on the way back into Mystic Falls, he tells her that he now knows where Elena currently is...sort of. More like, he knows who she's with at the moment. For some reason, that will undoubtedly baffle Nyx later on, Elena's with Damon and she doesn't want to talk to Stefan.

They get back to the Salvatore Boarding House, and Nyx then turns to look at the green-eyed vampire once they're in the foyer. "Okay. So, what is it?" She questions, and he looks down at her. "What's so bad that I couldn't hear it over the phone?"

He tells her to give him a minute and then he disappears upstairs. The brunette sighs as she walks over to sit on the couch in the insanely large living room and wait for him to come back. He makes his way into the room a couple minutes later and he's holding something in his hands.

"In 1864, I was human and I knew a woman named Katherine. She was a vampire and she started a relationship with both Damon and I." He tells her.

"And I'm supposed to care about this, why exactly?" Nyx asks as she looks up at him. "I'm not your girlfriend, I don't care who you and your dick of a brother dated once upon a time​."

"She's the reason that we're both vampires, she's the one who turned us." He says and then steps forward. "This is Katherine." He hands her the photo in his hand, and she looks​ down at it.

Her dark eyes widen when she sees​ a woman who looks exactly like her and Elena, but she knows​ that it can't be either one of them. This girl is wearing clothes that definitely don't belong in this time period.

"Katherine. 1864." Nyx reads the bottom quietly to herself and then looks up at him again.

"This is why I couldn't tell you over the phone."

"But she looks... How?" She questions, and Stefan shakes his head.

"I don't know." He says. "I'll explain everything that I do know to both of you as soon as Elena gets here."

Nyx sets the picture down on the coffee table and then runs her hands through her hair, pushing it out of her face. Her dark eyes fill with tears, and she's not entirely sure why. Partially fear of not knowing what's really going on or how any of this is even possible, maybe.

Stefan sits down next to her, and they wait there all night. Neither one of them says anything as they wait for Elena and Damon to get back from God only knows where.

The room may be calm between them, but Nyx's mind is racing.

—

The front door opens the next day, and Elena and Damon walk inside. Nyx immediately stands​ from where she was laying on the couch and then runs over to her sister. Elena hugs her as soon as she's close enough, and Nyx wraps her arms around the younger girl.

"My niece." Damon smirks, and Nyx pulls away from Elena to look at him.

This is the first time she's ever seen Damon, and the smile on his face makes her angry. Her hand balls up into a fist, and she punches him in the jaw; he rubs it as he looks back down at her.

"That's for what you did to Vicki." She tells him, and Elena pulls her sister away from him. The twins go upstairs, and Stefan follows after them.

"You could have told me." Elena says when they get to Stefan's bedroom.

"I wanted to tell you." He says.

"You said no more lies. Only the truth. I can handle the truth, Stefan." She says, and Nyx turns​ to face them. "As crazy as it is, I can handle the fact that you are a vampire. And you have a vampire brother. And that my best friend is a witch. I can accept the fact that the world is a much more mysterious place than I ever thought possible. But this... This lie, I cannot take. What am I to you? Who am I to you?" The brunette questions.

"You are not Katherine. You are the opposite of everything​ that she was, you both are." He tells the sisters.

"And when did you figure that out? Before you kissed me? Before we slept together?" Elena asks, and Nyx raises her eyebrows as she looks away from them. That part definitely does not concern her in any way.

"Before I met you." Stefan says, and Nyx looks back at him with a furrowed brow.

"What?" Elena questions.

"The first day of school. When we met — it wasn't​ for the first time, Elena." He tells her.

"Then when was it?" She demands, and her sister walks over to stand beside her.

"May 23rd, 2005." He says, and pure shock and confusion washes over both of the girls.

"But that was..."

"The accident." Nyx whispers, unable to speak any louder.

"That was the day your parents' car went off the bridge." Stefan says.

"You were there?" She questions.

"Every couple of years, I come back here to see Zach and see my home. Last spring, I was out in the woods, by old Wickery Bridge. And I heard the accident. All of it." He says as he moves closer to them. "I was fast getting there, but not fast enough. The car was already submerged... Your dad, he was still conscious. I was able to get to him, but he wouldn't let me help him until I helped the two of you." He tells them, and the twins instinctively reach for each other.

"Oh my God." Elena mutters as she squeezes her sister's hand. The girls are both choking back tears, and Elena presses her fingers over her lips. "When we woke up in the hospital, nobody could figure out how we got out of the car. They said it was a miracle."

"I went back for them, but it was too late. I could- I couldn't... I couldn't save them." Stefan continues. "When I pulled you two out, I looked at your faces. You looked like Katherine. I couldn't believe the resemblance. After that, I spent months making sure that neither of you were her. I watched you. I learned everything that I could about you. And I saw that neither of you were anything like Katherine. And I wanted to leave town, Elena, but I couldn't. I couldn't leave without knowing you. I'm so sorry that I didn't tell you. I wanted to, but you were so sad, and Nyx— You left to get away from everything. I didn't..."

"Why do we look like her?" Elena demands.

"You've both been through so much—"

"Why do we look like her?" Nyx cuts​ him off. "What are you not telling us?"

"It didn't make any sense to me. You're Gilberts, she was a Pierce." He says. "But the resemblance was too similar. And then I learned the truth... You were adopted." He tells them, and both of their eyes widen.

"I need to..." The older of the twins goes​ to sit down on a couch, and Elena sits next to her. Stefan moves to sit on the other side of his girlfriend.

"How do you know this?" Elena asks.

"Your birth certificates from the city records — they say Elena Gilbert and Nycole Gilbert. Mystic Falls General. But there's no record of your mother ever being admitted. There's no record of her ever being pregnant." He tells them.

"What else do you know?" Elena asks, and he looks between the twins. Nyx looks over at him, waiting for him to continue.

"For me to go any further, I would've had to look into the Pierce family, and I couldn't do that. It's too much of a risk." He says. "If someone found out I was asking about Katherine— Listen to me, it doesn't matter. You are the woman that I love." He tells Elena. "I love you."

She hugs her boyfriend, and Nyx gets up and leaves the room. Elena needs to be with him right now, and she understands that. But she needs to just walk away from this whole thing for a second. Nyx makes her way downstairs and sees Damon in the living room. He looks at her, and she clenches her teeth as more tears start to form in her dark eyes.

"Are you okay?" He asks her.

"Did you know too?" She asks. "That Elena and I are adopted and possibly related to your ex from a hundred years ago — Katherine?"

"Yeah." Damon nods. "I knew."

"Do you know anything else?" She asks, and he shakes his head.

"Nycole." Elena walks over to her sister, and she looks at her. "Stefan's gonna take us home." She says, and Nyx nods.

They walk into their house later that night, and their aunt — Jenna — turns in their direction. "I don't set a lot of rules, Elena. Not with you. I trust you to tell me the truth." She says as she gets up off of the couch and then sees both of the twins standing there. "Nycole."

Nyx doesn't say anything to her, and she looks back at Elena.

"Where were you? And why did you lie to me about it?" She asks. "I mean, were you just getting your sister from the airport or something? Because that's great, but you can't keep things​ from me for this long while I'm worrying about you. And Nyx, you haven't answered any of my calls all day. I thought that we were closer than that." She says, looking between the two girls.

"Now is not the time you want to talk to me about lies." Elena says, and she and her sister start to go up the stairs.

"Don't do that. Don't turn this back on me." Jenna says, stopping them from leaving her in the room all alone. "I didn't do anything​."

"Okay, question." Elena looks back at her. "Are we adopted?" She asks their aunt, and Jenna just stares at them, obviously caught off guard. "We trust you to tell us the truth too, Jenna. How could you not tell us? I thought we were closer than that."

Nyx starts up the stairs again, and Elena follows her. "Girls, I didn't— They asked me not to." She calls after them.

"We don't want to hear it." Nyx tells​ her, and the twins go to their bedroom. "You haven't changed anything." The older girl says​ as she looks around.

"Of course not. It's our room." Elena says, and her sister lays down on her bed as a small smile tugs at her lips.

Early the next morning, Nyx's phone rings,​ and she pulls​ it out of her back pocket. The caller ID says Dean, so she decides to answer it. "Hey." Is all she says as she lays down on her bed in her room.

"Hey." That familiar deep, husky voice comes through the phone. "How's Virginia?"

"It's, um..." She pauses as she takes a deep breath. "I think I'm gonna have to stay here for a little while longer. Elena and I just found out that we were adopted, and there's a woman that Stefan and Damon knew back in 1864 who we look exactly like." She tells him. "I'll...try and explain it all a little better the next time I see you guys."

"Do you want us to meet you there after we finish this job?" He asks.

"No, you don't have to do that. I'm alright, really. I just need to be with Elena for right now." She says. "But I promise I'll call if anything else comes up."

"Alright." He says, and she hangs up the phone.

Elena walks over then and lays down next to her sister on the older girl's bed. "So, tell me about this guy you've been traveling with. I wanna hear all about him. His name's Dean, right?" She asks, and Nyx takes a deep breath as she looks at her sister.

"There's nothing to tell." She says,​ and Elena gives her a deflated look. "Okay, fine. He got me arrested and then saved me from a wendigo a week later." She tells​ her. "How's that?"

"A... A what-igo?" She questions. "Wait, no, start with the arrest and then just go from there." She says, and Nyx then tells her what she, Dean, and Sam have been doing while they've been traveling the country.