04. Disturbing Behavior

"There has to be more to this dress" Rebekah complained from the changing room, while Brayden, Stefan and Klaus sat in the waiting room, drinking champagne.

"There's not" Klaus said.

"So women in the 21st century dress like prostitutes, then?" Rebekah asked, finally coming out of the changing room, "You know, I got dirty looks for wearing trousers".

"You wore trousers so women today could wear nothing" Klaus said.

"And what is this music?" Rebekah asked, "It sounds like a cable car accident".

"It's dance music" Stefan replied.

"People dance to this?" Rebekah asked.

"Don't judge until you've tried it" Brayden said, drinking out of the champagne bottle.

"Are we done?" an annoyed Klaus asked his sister.

"And why are you so grumpy?" Rebekah asked her brother.

"I needed one thing from you for my witch to find out why my hybrids were dying" Klaus replied, "One thing, your necklace, and you lost it".

"I didn't lose it, it's just been missing for ninety years" Rebekah defended, making Brayden look at his brother, who had informed him that the necklace Klaus was looking for was currently with Elena, Rebekah turned to the two Salvatore brothers, "So, what do you two think?".

"Sorry, not interested" Brayden simply said.

"I like it" Stefan said.

Rebekah glared at the two brothers, "What's with the glare, we're being honest with you" Brayden said.

"Your honesty hurt my feelings, Brayden" Rebekah said, "And your brother is lying".

"Nice one, good work" Klaus told the brothers, once Rebekah had walked back into the changing room.

"You were the one who pulled the dagger out of her" Stefan retorted.

"I heard that" Rebekah said.

"It's rude to eavesdrop" Brayden said, standing up, "Now, excuse me, me and my brother are hungry for some real food".

Klaus didn't say anything, just kept drinking his champagne, both Stefan and Brayden walked out the store, what Klaus didn't know was that the brothers had spotted Katherine Pierce trailing them.

***

"What's with the trailing?" Brayden asked, as he and Stefan walked over to Katherine.

"You three look chummy" Katherine commented, "Klaus your guys new bestie?"

"I'd rather die" Brayden snapped, after getting Kol's memories back, his hatred for the hybrid doubled.

"You know if he finds out you're in Chicago, you're dead" Stefan said.

"Happy to know that you still care" Katherine said, "So tell me if I'm wrong, Rebekah's necklace that Klaus is looking for that's the necklace you gave to Elena".

"The stupidest move ever" Brayden said, shaking his head at his brother.

"Bye, Katherine" Stefan stated, starting to walk away.

"Hey, hey, wait" Katherine said, stopping the brothers from leaving, "You two are up to something, tell me".

"I'm not up to anything" Brayden said, "I'm just trying to see how much I can drink before I black out".

"What about you?" Katherine asked Stefan, "Brayden's not doing anything because he hates Elena, but you care about her, there's no way you're going to let them find out about that necklace".

"They don't know where the necklace is, we just have to keep them from figuring it out" Stefan said.

"Not we, you" Brayden corrected.

"If Klaus finds out about Elena being alive, he will figure out about Caroline being alive as well" Stefan pointed out.

"Don't worry about Caroline" Brayden said, "I know how to protect her, you worry about Elena, who has a tendency to stick her nose into places where it doesn't belong".

"Please tell me you both have a better plan than that" Katherine said, making Stefan shrug, "You do, come on, Stefan, you're not the diabolical type, whatever you're planning, it's not gonna work".

"Been telling him that since he told me about his stupid plan" Brayden said.

"Well, if the most diabolical woman I know can't seem to figure it out then I must be doing something right" Stefan defended.

"The bad brother role suits me Stefan, not you" Brayden said, "You're not bad, you don't know how to be bad, you're going to get yourself killed by the two originals".

"Brayden is right, don't get too cocky, Stefan" Katherine warned, "Klaus is smarter than you, he's smarter than everyone".

"Not everyone" Brayden snapped, walking away from Katherine with Stefan.

"And I've heard about that sister!" Katherine called out, "Be careful, she'll ruin you".

"You can't ruin people who are already ruined, Katherine!" Brayden yelled back.

***

After their encounter with Katherine, Brayden and Stefan met up with Klaus and Rebekah at Gloria's bar.

"You two left us" Rebekah complained.

"Yeah, sorry" Stefan apologised.

"Your complaining gave us a headache" Brayden stated, walking over to the bar and grabbing a bottle of bourbon.

"Tell me about it" Klaus said.

"What happened to you?" Rebekah asked Brayden, "You weren't this rude when we met in the 20s".

"It's been ninety years since we last met" Brayden reminded, "People change in that time span".

"What's she doing?" Stefan asked, looking at Gloria who was busy chanting.

"She's failing" Klaus replied.

"It's hard to find something when you don't have anything to go on" Gloria snapped.

"So use me, I only wore it for a thousand years" Rebekah said, getting off the bar and walking over to Gloria.

"See? Now this one offers a solution" Gloria taunted, "All right, give me your hand, sweetheart".

"She's looking for the necklace, huh?" A worried Stefan asked Klaus, while Brayden sat on top of the bar and opened his bottle of bourbon and started drinking.

"I can sense something" Gloria suddenly said, making Brayden look at his brother, his look letting Stefan know he was screwed, after some chanting, Gloria finally opened her eyes and turned to Klaus, "I found it".

"So where is it?" Rebekah asked Gloria.

"It doesn't work like that, doll" Gloria replied, "I get images, there's a girl with her friend".

"Yes a dead girl with a dead friend, if I don't get my necklace back" Rebekah snapped.

"Well, I have to dive back in and get the details" Gloria said.

"So dive" Klaus ordered.

"I need more time" Gloria snapped, as Klaus leaned over her, "And space, you're harshing my juju".

"We can wait" Klaus assured.

"I'm sure you can" Gloria said, "But that's not what I asked".

"She wants us out of her bar, idiot" Brayden said.

"See, he gets it" Gloria said, giving Klaus a mock smile.

"Fine by me, but I'm taking this bottle with me" Brayden said, getting off the bar.

"Hey, you know, why don't we just come back later" Stefan suggested to Klaus, "I'm hungry anyway, I'll let you pick who we eat".

"Only I pick who I eat" Brayden said, walking out the bar and after a moment, Stefan, Klaus and Rebekah also followed him out.

***

After leaving Gloria's bar, the group of four vampires went back to the warehouse and started draining the blood of the girls they picked on the way.

"My girl's dead, I'm bored" Rebekah complained, while the guys were busy draining the blood of their respective girls.

"You weren't kidding about being hungry" Klaus told Stefan, as Brayden stopped drinking after realising he had killed the girl.

"It's been a long day" Stefan said.

"Try being related to her" Klaus said, gesturing towards Rebekah.

"You're being mean, why are you being mean?" Rebekah asked Stefan, "You used to love me".

"He had his humanity off when you two met" Brayden reminded, "He had no feelings towards you Rebekah, sorry to burst your bubble".

"Plus sister, I feel pity for any man who doesn't give you what you want" Klaus said.

"Would you stop making me out to be brat, I'm not a brat" Rebekah snapped.

"A thousand years of life experience says otherwise" Klaus taunted.

"You realise you're worse then her, right?" Brayden asked Klaus, "Since the day I've met you, all I've been trying to figure out is how to kill you".

Rebekah laughed hearing Brayden, while Klaus glared at the middle Salvatore, who ignored him and stood up.

"Excuse me, I have somewhere to be" Brayden said, walking out the warehouse.

"Same here" Stefan said, following his brother out.

"Where are they going?" Rebekah asked her brother.

"Stefan, to write a name on a wall" Klaus replied, "Brayden, to go relive his memoires with our brother".

"You have to undagger him, Nik" Rebekah said, "He deserves to be happy with Brayden".

"I will, Rebekah, but I need time" Klaus said.

"How much time?!" Rebekah snapped, "How long are Elijah, Kol and Finn going to suffer for?".

"Until he is dead" Klaus snapped back, "I will reunite our family once he is out of our lives forever".

***

Brayden entered his and Kol's apartment, the last time he came here, he remembered nothing about this apartment, but now coming back after getting his memories back, everywhere Brayden looked he was reminded of Kol.

Brayden looked towards the kitchen, remembering the various mornings he had spent cooking breakfast for Kol, though both the vampires took joy in draining the blood out of people, the quiet mornings was what both Brayden and Kol used to look forward to every night, they loved standing in the kitchen and talking about anything and everything while Brayden cooked them breakfast.

Brayden then looked towards the living room, remembering the various nights they spent sitting on those couches, annoying and loving the hell out of each other, he also remembered the bizarre dancing phase Kol went through in which every night Kol demanded that he and Brayden spend the night dancing together, at the end it usually ended up with them either arguing or having sex.

Brayden walked into his and Kol's shared bedroom, he sat on the bed and recalled all the nights he and Kol spent on this very bed, he grabbed the photo of him and Kol and just stared at it for a moment.

"You should have listened to me" Brayden whispered, staring at Kol's face, "We should have stay home that day, Kol, maybe things would have been different today".

As Brayden was looking at Kol, he suddenly remembered the girl back in Mystic Falls waiting for him to return to her.

"Brayden, I'm falling in love with you".

"You and me against the world, Brayden".

"I love you".

"What the hell am I doing?" Brayden asked, standing up in frustration, "I shouldn't be here", Brayden looked at the photo in his hand and then remembered Caroline, his soulmate, "Dammit!", Brayden threw the photo on the bed.

Before Brayden could let his thoughts take over, his phone started ringing, "What?" he snapped, answering his phone without looking at who was calling him.

"Gloria has Stefan" Katherine said from the other said.

"Excuse me?" A shocked Brayden asked.

"Gloria is torturing Stefan to find out what he knows about Rebekah's necklace" Katherine revealed, "You need to save him, I would have gone but I can't risk Klaus seeing me".

Without hearing anything else, Brayden hanged up on Katherine and rushed out of his and Kol's apartment to go and save his little brother.

***

Brayden entered Gloria's bar, where he saw his brother tied up to a table, while Gloria was hovering over him, she was seeing Stefan's memories and trying to find out what he was hiding.

"There's a girl, she's your brother's lover" Brayden heard Gloria say, "He'd do anything for her, and he has".

"Argh! Ugh!" Stefan yelled in pain.

"Why are you and your brother so bent on keeping this girl away from Klaus?" Gloria asked, "Why would he be interested in her?".

"Don't do this" Stefan pleaded, not wanting Gloria to find out about Caroline and Brayden being soulmates, "Don't do this".

Gloria ignored Stefan and went back into his head, "They're soulmates" she realised, finally stepping away from Stefan, "That's why the moment I met Brayden, I've been getting a weird vibe from him, it's because him and this girl are the current soulmates, but the female soulmate is supposed to be dead, that's why Klaus can't make hybrids, isn't it?".

Before Gloria could do or say anything else, Brayden speeded behind her and stuck his hand into her chest, "One thing you got right about me, is that I'll do anything for Caroline, and to keep Klaus away from her, I will kill anyone and everyone if I have to", and with that, Brayden ripped out Gloria's heart.

***

"You two are back" Rebekah realised, seeing the two brothers enter the warehouse together, "Finally".

"Where's your annoying brother?" Brayden asked, sitting on top of Elijah's coffin.

"Nik went to check on the witch" Rebekah replied, making Brayden smirk, knowing Klaus wasn't going to find the witch as he and Stefan had taken care of the body, "Deary, isn't it?" she asked, seeing Stefan look at the coffins her family was placed in, "Family cargo".

"Why don't you un-dagger them?" Stefan asked curiously.

"Because he would hunt me down and kill me" Rebekah replied.

"So you're a coward" Brayden said, making Rebekah glare at him.

"I'm not a coward Brayden" Rebekah snapped, "My brother is a vindictive little bastard, he would hunt me to the ends of this earth".

"You can't die" Brayden snapped, "Even if he did hunt you down, you will have the rest of your family by your side, but you don't care about Kol and the others as much as you care about Klaus, right?".

"That's not true" Rebekah defended.

"It so is" Brayden said, "Despite everything Klaus has done, you still care about him, and you let your other siblings suffer because of him, sounds like a coward to me".

"You're crossing your limits, Brayden" Rebekah snapped, Brayden's words angering her.

"No Rebekah, I'm showing you the mirror" Brayden retorted.

"Why do you still care about him anyways?" Stefan asked.

"Well, I hated him for a long time, it was exhausting" Rebekah replied, glad to have a conversation with Stefan, allowing her to ignore Brayden's words.

"You know, when I met you two you were both on the run" Stefan recalled, making Brayden roll his eyes, his brother was playing with fire and Brayden feared he was going to get burned.

"Also exhausting" Rebekah said.

"Who are you running from?" Stefan asked, trying to get Rebekah to spill something.

"What do you mean?" Rebekah asked, pretending to be oblivious.

"Last night I saw you there was a man looking for you" Stefan replied, "You both seemed afraid, I just--I wouldn't think Klaus would be afraid of anybody".

"No one in this world is truly fearless, Stefan, not even Niklaus" Rebekah said.

"Who was that man?" Stefan asked again, making Brayden shake his head at him, he was being too obvious.

"I can't, please" Rebekah replied, walking away from Stefan, "If Nik knew we were talking about this, he--".

"No, no, no, I'm sorry, just forget I asked" Stefan quickly interrupted, "Okay?".

"Nik told me about the girl you love, whose waiting for you back home" Rebekah suddenly said, "He also told me that you and Brayden are only with him because he saved your guys brother".

Stefan nodded, "That's true" he said.

"I think he secretly admires that about you two" Rebekah said, "That you two would sacrifice anything for family, don't tell me I told you that".

"Don't worry, I'd rather go in the sun without my daylight ring then have a civil conversation with your brother" Brayden said.

"And I also promise not to tell your brother anything either" Stefan assured, "Your secret is safe with me".

Stefan turned to walk away from Rebekah, when she suddenly grabbed her arm and forced him to face him and smashed her lips on to his, but before the kiss could escalate Brayden speeded over to the duo and pushed Rebekah away from his brother.

"What part of his taken do you not understand?" Brayden snapped, glaring at Rebekah, he then turned to his brother, "Are you out of your mind?!".

"Bray--".

"Don't Bray me" Brayden snapped, "Like Rebekah said, there's someone waiting for you back home!".

"I didn't kiss her!" Stefan snapped back, "She kissed me".

"Why didn't you push her away?!" Brayden asked.

"I didn't get a chance" Stefan defended, "You pushed her away before I could".

"You--"..

"Gloria's gone" Klaus interrupted Brayden, and entering the warehouse, "She has cleared out, we need to find a new witch immediately", Klaus frowned seeing his sister glaring at the brothers, "What's going on?".

"Something's wrong, they were asking about Mikael" Rebekah replied.

"They?!" Brayden asked, anger evident in his voice, "When the hell did I ask about Mikael?! I don't even know who Mikael is!".

"They're not with us, Nik, I can sense it" Rebekah said, ignoring Brayden.

"She's wrong" Stefan told Klaus.

Before any of the brothers could react, Klaus had speeded over to Stefan and snapped his neck, while Rebekah snapped Brayden's neck, rendering both the brothers unconscious.

***

"Elena?" A confused Damon asked, opening the front door of the boarding house and seeing the human doppelganger infront of him.

"That's not Elena" Kaitlynn said, walking over to Damon and immediately recognising her sister, "Hello, sister".

"Oh come on, Kait" Katherine complained, "You ruined my fun".

"What do you want?" Damon asked, in no mood to deal with Katherine.

"I'm just a girl looking for her sister who used to be her partner in crime once upon a time" Katherine said, "You feel like hitting the road, big sister? Getting the hell out of Dodge? You can bring lover boy along if you want".

"First of all, not my lover boy" Kaitlynn said, "Second of all, where the hell are we going, little sister?".

"Away from here" Katherine replied, "That's all I'm gonna give you two for right now, but believe me", Katherine showed Damon and Kaitlynn, Elena's necklace which she stole from her, "It's good".

Damon and Kaitlynn looked at each other in confusion, both wondering what was going on in Katherine's head this time.

***

Both Brayden and Stefan woke up from their snapped neck, looking around they realised they were in the back of a truck, with Klaus sitting in the corner, keeping an eye on the two brothers.

"Just give us a chance to explain ourselves, okay?" Stefan said, in an attempt to save him and Brayden and their secret.

"No need, I'm not mad, I'm just curious" Klaus said, "Rebekah seems to think you two are holding on to something, a piece of your old life, while Stefan I assume you're holding on that heretic, I'm curious why does Brayden still have a hold of his humanity?".

"Cause I'm never going to give you the satisfaction of breaking me" Brayden snapped.

"Maybe that is the case" Klaus said, "But I still want to make sure, I want to see for myself what it is that you two are hiding".

Klaus walked over to the truck door and slid it open, showing Stefan and Brayden the view of a town they knew all too well.

"Welcome back to Mystic Falls, Brayden and Stefan" Klaus said.

***

Presenting 3x04 of The Vampire Diaries . . .

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on Stefan and Brayden meeting up with Katherine?

Thoughts on Brayden reliving his and Kol's memories?

Thoughts on Brayden killing Gloria?

Thoughts on Klaus bringing Brayden and Stefan back to Mystic Falls?