CHAPTER SEVEN | KATERINA

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BURNING WAS THE FIRST THING EDEN FELT. Her eyes had fluttered open and she was there again— Steven's Quarry. She knew it was a nightmare, it just had to be. As she shakily brought herself up to her feet, she composed herself and stared over to the apparent altar in the short distance. It was the same man from her dreams. The man that she couldn't make out— the man that wanted her dead.

"It's been a long time coming, sweetheart." His voice whispered softly. He edged closer to the circle of fire that enclosed her like a caged animal, but not close enough for her to identify the man in question. "I have thought about this day longer than you can even begin to imagine. Centuries."

"Who— who are you?" Eden stuttered in a panic. Though, there was a strange sort of comfort in the desperate belief that this was a dream and that she was okay. 

"Let's not play coy now." He scoffed to himself as he circled the enclosure she was forced to remain inside. "You and your friends have been tirelessly devoted to stopping this. There has not been a second that my name hasn't left those pretty lips of yours, Eden—"

"—Eden. Eden!" Her eyes jolted open at the abrupt noise of her sister trying to wake her. Eden grunted softly and rubbed her eyes, a sigh of relief left her lips when she saw she was not at the Quarry. "Oh. Good. You're awake."

"Kinda hard not to be when you're around." The Gilbert girl sat upright in her bed as she yanked the blankets over her body more. "What is it?"

"Stefan called. We need to head over there." Elena pointedly told her older sister as she slowly made her way to exit Eden's bedroom, until she stopped. "Are you okay?"

At this point, Eden had two options— she could tell Elena could the dreams she had been having, which seemed oddly resemblant of the sacrifice every one had been talking about, or she could put it down to a severe case of anxiety. "I'm fine. I'll meet you downstairs." Eden smiled innocently until Elena left her bedroom. 

Eden chose option two. 

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Damon had ushered the two girls inside the house, but Eden couldn't help but notice the tension between Damon and Elena— however the tension seemed one-sided. But, they had bigger things to worry about than Damon. As soon as they stepped into the hall, Rose appeared from behind Stefan. 

"I— I'm not here to hurt you. Either of you." She began, holding her hands up in some sort of surrender. "I wanna help."

Elena and her sister exchanged looks. Eden took a deep breath, almost as if she were taking charge. "Fine. Then tell us exactly what we're up against."

The five moved into the parlour and Rose began to explain. "Okay. I only know what I've picked up over the years. And, I don't know what's true and what's not true. That's the problem with all this vampire crap. But, Klaus I know is real."

"Klaus?" Eden softly repeated his name underneath her breath. 

"Who is he?" Elena spoke over her. 

"He's one of the Originals." The eldest Salvatore vaguely answered. "He's a legend."

"From the first generation of vampires."

Elena nodded in understanding. "Like Elijah?"

"No." Rose exasperatedly sighed as her hands moved from her hips. "Elijah was the Easter bunny compared to Klaus. He's a foot solider. Klaus is the real deal."

"Klaus is known to be the oldest." Stefan carried on in a slightly less panicked tone than Rose. He didn't want to scare the twins. 

The eldest Gilbert folded her arms over her chest and glanced between Stefan, Damon and Rose. "So, the oldest vampire in the history of time wants Elena and I?" 

"Yes."

"No."

"What they're saying is—" Damon started, before he glanced at Rose and immediately corrected himself. "I mean, if what she's saying is true—" 

"—Which it is." Rose nodded.

"And, you're not just saying this so we don't kill you."

"—Which I'm not." She repeated.

"Then, we're looking at a solid maybe."

Their faces fell, and that's when Stefan took his opportunity to attempt to look on the bright side of the situation. "Look, Elijah's dead, right? No one else even knows the two of you exist. I've never even met anyone who's laid eyes on him. I mean, we're talking centuries of truth mixed with fiction. We don't know what's real. For all we know, he could just be some stupid bedtime story."

"He's real!" Rose pressed again. She seemed almost irritated in the way they were dismissing Klaus. "And, he doesn't give up. If he wants something, he gets it. If you're not afraid of Klaus then you're an idiot."

"Alright, we're shaking. You've made your point." Damon glared harshly at the vampire.

Eden and Elena had immediately rose to their feet and grabbed their purses. They started toward the door, but Eden turned around when she noticed the perplexed looks on their faces. "Before you ask— school. You know, the thing us teens do."

"Let me, uh— let me grab my stuff, I'll go with you guys." Stefan pulled himself from the couch, but Elena shook her head.

"It's okay. We know where it is."

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"Tell everyone that we went home because we weren't feeling too hot." Eden informed Caroline as she, Elena and Caroline strolled through the forest. "Given everything that's happening right now, it shouldn't be too unbelievable."

Caroline's face fell. "I can't believe I'm agreeing to this. I'm a terrible liar!"

"Keep Stefan busy." Elena instructed as she lugged the large bag of incentive for Katherine through the forest. "I don't want him knowing what we're up to."

"I'm even worse at duplicity, and you know this!"

Once they reached the entrance to the tomb, a small scoff left Eden's lips. "Something tells me you'll do great, if your performance keeping Elena occupied when Katherine was with Stefan is anything to go by."

"Yeah, because she threatened me." The blonde vampire was quick to defend herself. "Not that I'm saying you should use that as a tactic. It's— Stefan's gonna see right through me."

Elena irritably grunted. "Caroline, as my friend, do you promise or not?"

"You had to break out the girlfriend code. Okay! I promise." She nodded. "Why don't you want Stefan to know?"

"Because he's super clingy and his history with Katherine will just screw this up. He thinks everything she says is a lie." The older of the two Gilberts explained as they reached the entrance of the tomb where Katherine was trapped. "She's the only person who knows about Klaus. We need to do this."

With a reluctant nod, Caroline moved over to the rock wall that covered the entrance of the tomb and pulled it out of the way. Caroline stepped back, whilst Elena edged closer. "Katherine?" She glanced over her shoulder to the blonde. "We'll be fine."

Shuffling footsteps echoed from the tomb until Katherine finally stepped into view. She looked horrendous— weak with hunger and dirty from the conditions of the tomb. "Elena. Eden. Have you come to watch me wither away?" Her voice was raspy, almost as if her throat had started to close in on itself. Katherine's gaze met Caroline. "Goodbye, Caroline."

"Trust me, it's okay." Eden smiled as she gripped Caroline's hand. "Look at her— she can't do anything." Caroline had finally left the tomb and Elena dropped the duffel bag to the ground. "We brought you some things."

A scoff left Katherine's lips. "You came to bribe me. What is it that you want?"

"I want you to tell us about Klaus."

At the mention of his name, Katherine's interest looked piqued. "Mm. You've been busy."

Elena pulled a bottle of blood from her bag, as well as the Petrova book they found amongst Isobel's research. "We also brought you this. It's your family history. It says in here that the family line ended with you."

"Clearly, that's a lie." Eden hummed.

"You think that if you brought me some family keepsake I'd open up?" 

"What about this?" As soon as Katherine locked eyes with a water bottle full of blood in Eden's hands, she sped to the edge of the tomb. She was stopped by the invisible barrier. "Oh! This gets a reaction outta' you."

Katherine sloped down to the floor of the tomb as Eden filled a small plastic cup with a few droplets of blood and slid it toward her. "You have the Petrova fire." Katherine told her, immediately taking the blood like a shot of tequila. "It's a long story— Klaus and I. Goes all the way back to England, 1492, after I left Bulgaria. Or, was thrown out."

 Elena shoved another cup of blood to Katherine. "Thrown out?"

"My family— your true ancestors— they disowned me. My indiscretions were not tolerated at that time. I had a baby out of wedlock. The shame." She sarcastically quipped. "My baby was kept secret and given away. I was banished to England and I had to learn to adjust. So, I quickly became English. It was there that I caught the eye of a nobleman named Klaus. I was taken with him at first, 'till I found out what he was and what he wanted from me. And, then I ran like Hell."

"So, what did Klaus want?"

"Same thing he'll want from one of you." Katherine sighed. "He wants to break the curse."

"The sacrifice of the Petrova doppelgänger." The older of the two siblings trailed off in understanding. "But, why this particular bloodline?"

"It's really tedious, but the curse was bound by the sacrifice of Petrova blood. Witches are crafty with their spells. The doppelgänger was created as a way to be able to undo the spell. Once the doppelgänger reappeared, the curse can be broken. I gained the help of Trevor, who sent me in the direction of a cottage. Rose-Marie released who I was, and said she would return me back to Klaus."

"Well, clearly that never happened." Eden shrugged.

"No. But not because she had a change of heart. At nightfall, she arrived to take me back to Klaus. I had stabbed myself, hoping I would bleed out before then, but I didn't. She used her blood to heal me, but her beings to desperately distracted with her pet, she didn't see what I was doing. I hung myself."

Elena's eyes widened. "You killed yourself?!"

"Klaus needed a human doppelgänger. As a vampire, I was no longer any use to him."

"But, you're still running. Still hiding."

Katherine rolled her eyes at Eden. "I underestimated his spirit for vengeance. But, living out of a suitcase is better than dying so that you could have your blood spilled over some silly little rock." She noticed the anxious looked that had been exchanged between the twins. "What's wrong? Afraid I'm right? You don't wanna die? There's another way out." She used her nail to slice open her wrist. "You better hurry. Your opportunity is going, going, going and gone. I made the other choice."

Elena looked almost disgusted. "Rose and Trevor spent the last five hundred years running because you used them. Trevor just got killed." 

The Petrova vampire scoffed. "Never thought he would've lasted that long."

"You don't even care that you ruined their lives."

"I was looking out for myself. I will always look out for myself. If either of you are smart, you'll do the same."

"Hang on." Eden lifted herself to her feet with a slight smirk. "This is why you're here, in Mystic Falls, isn't it? You wanted to hand deliver us to Klaus."

"Five hundred years on the run, I figured maybe he'd be willing to strike a deal."

Elena slowly began to put the pieces together in her own head. "So, you got Mason Lockwood to find you the moonstone." Katherine nodded. "What else is needed to break the curse? It's not just us or the stone, is it?"

"No, because there would be no reason to trigger Tyler's werewolf curse. So, you need a werewolf, huh?"

"Believe it or not, they're hard to come by." Katherine smirked. "You also need a witch to do the spell. Mine bailed. But, little Bonnie will do just fine."

"What else?"

"A vampire." As the words left Katherine's lips, Eden and Elena's eyes both widened in realisation. "It could've been anyone, I suppose. But, I like the poetry of Caroline."

"So, you were gonna just hand us all over to be killed?" Elena asked.

"Better you die than I." With one final word, Katherine had slowly retreated a little further into the tomb. 

"Whatever. Look, we got what we came for. Let's just go, Elena." Eden started to gather up the bottles on the floor and placed them into a bag just as Stefan hurried down the steps. "Oh. Here we go. Caroline blabbed."

"No, she kept your secret. But, it didn't take long for me to figure out what was so important that you'd have to keep it from me." Stefan told his girlfriend with a slightly hurt look.

"I knew you'd stop me." She shrugged.

"Listen to me, whatever she said to you is a lie. Do not listen to her. She is a liar."

"Stefan, put your hate for her to one side for just a second because you heard none of that." Eden started. 

"Elena, you don't have to worry. I won't let anything happen to either of you."

"That's the problem. You won't." Elena whispered softly to her boyfriend, unaware that Katherine had stepped back out of the tomb. "But, you'll die trying, how is that any better?"

"There's nothing you can do, Stefan. I haven't even told you the best part of the story. When I finally made my way back to Bulgaria I was met with a massacre. He killed them— my entire family. Just to get back at me for running. Whatever you do to escape Klaus, he will get his vengeance. On your friends, your family, on anyone that you've ever loved."

"No. No. Don't listen to her, okay?"

"Always the protector. But, even you must realise that they're doomed. There's nothing you can do to stop it. Unless, of course, you have this." Katherine lifted her hand and twirled the moonstone within her fingers.

"Oh, look. There it is." Stefan scoffed in disbelief. "That's the ultimate lie, isn't it? You spun this whole thing so that we would have to get the stone from you, didn't you?"

"I didn't spin anything, Stefan. It's the truth."

"But, you wanna trade the moonstone for your freedom, right?" Eden raised an eyebrow in her doppelgängers direction. 

"You manipulative, psychotic bitch." The Salvatore spat.

"My freedom?" Katherine echoed. "There's where you're wrong. I don't want my freedom because when Klaus shows up to kill us all, and he will, I'll be in the tomb where no vampire will enter because they can't get out. I'll be the safest psychotic bitch in town."

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