Maeve and Damon became quite the friends when she took on him on the night of the founder's day amongst other rabid vampires. Damon was shocked to say the least when she took on him as easily as she did.

Maeve sat on the couch inside the Salvatore boarding house. "Why am I here again?" she asked Damon who walked into the room holding two glasses.

"Because..." He gave her a glass and sat on the arm of the couch, "Rose──your kidnapper is here."

"Why?"

"She wants to talk. About this Elijah dude." Damon rested a hand on the back of the couch. "How are you? After yesterday."

"Sleep deprived." Maeve laughed taking a sip of the bourbon.

"Tell me something...how'd you know Elijah was one of the originals?"

Maeve clicked her tongue tilting her head up to look at the raven haired vampire, "I speak vampire." Damon laughed looking away at Maeve's words.

"That was not funny."

"Why'd you laugh?" She asked raising a single eyebrow. Damon stood up and walked to the fire place, "what else do you know about him?"

"Let's see..." Maeve thought, "original. One of them. Oldest vampires. Stronger than anyone else."

"One of them?"

"There's another....I think, I'm a little mushy." Maeve confessed. "he──I think...I mean what I know, is that he's more dangerous."

"She's not wrong." commented Rose announcing her presence. "The other one, Klaus he is a real deal."

"Hey kidnapper, how's freedom?" Maeve seethed sarcastically.

"It's not been how I expected it to be." Rose confessed softly. Maeve sighed, "well, atleast now you won't look over your shoulder always."

"Thank you." Rose smiled, "and sorry I called you a big mouth."

"You called her that?" Damon reiterated, "not that it isn't true." Maeve's jaw fell open. "You son of a bitch!"

"Shhhh! Don't cuss." Damon pressed a finger to his lips mockingly.

Before their conversation could proceed, Stefan and Elena walked inside the room. Elena sat in front of Maeve, "morning Elena."

"Morning Maeve." she smiled.

"Rose, If you could..." Stefan asked her.

"Okay, you have to understand I only know what I've picked up over the years and I don't know what's true and what's not true. It's the problem with all this vampire crap but Klaus, I know he's real."

"Who is he?"

"He's one of the originals, he's a legend."

"From the first generation of vampires."

"Like Elijah?" Elena asked.

"No. Elijah was the Easter bunny compared to Klaus. He's a foot soldier. Klaus is the real deal."

"Klaus is known to be the oldest." added Maeve.

"Okay, so you're saying that the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after me?"

"Yes."

"No." Rose and Stefan said in unison.

"What they're saying is, I mean if what she's saying is true..." Damon began but Rose cut him off, "Which it is."

"And you're not saying it so I don't kill you." Damon snarkily spoke.

"Which I'm not." Rose admonished, making Damon roll his eyes before saying, "Then we're looking at a solid maybe."

Maeve shook her head, "could you be more indifferent?"

"Look, Elijah's dead, right? So no one else even knows that you exist." Stefan assured Elena.

"Not that you know of."

"That's not helping." Damon commented.

"Look, 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 if he's real. For all we know he could just be some sort of stupid bed time story." Stefan said trying to ease Elena's nerves.

"Sure Bunny boy. He's fiction and let's keep the glass half full." Stefan rolled his eyes at Maeve's words.

"He's real 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 made your point." Damon sarcastically noted taking the empty glass from Maeve and turning to the small table with bottle of bourbon. Elena got up from her seat.

"Where are you going?" asked Stefan watching her every move.

"School. I'm late."

"Let me grab my stuff, I'll go with you." Stefan offered but Elena shook her head stopping him, "It's okay, I know where it is." Elena left the room leaving Stefan standing in place worrying about her.

Damon looked at Rose offering the glass to Maeve, "She's in denial."

Stefan turned to his brother sharply saying "Shut up, Damon."

"He isn't wrong you know." Maeve pointed out. "When something like this, catastrophic level of new information comes to light, you tend to run away." Maeve swung her free hand around Stefan's shoulder, "it's a human thing, Stefan."

"You're right." Stefan said moving out of the room. Maeve drank her bourbon turning around to face the two vampires. "Well as enlightening as I thought this would be...it was not. So I'll take your leave." She finished the bourbon in one go and decided to leave.

Maeve stood in the middle of her studio apartment across the Mystic Grill. Her fists were gripping the metal stick tightly and waving it around, training like she always had. Her honey brown eyes were unblinking staring at the dull wall in front of her. The color had dulled down from white to a pale shade. The plaster had cracked and she could see the foundation of the building.

She leapt up in the air using both her feet to kick and with a summersault she landed on her two feet, bent by her knees. She closed her eyes catching her breath.

She felt a phantom ache in her chest. She felt the throbbing of her blood pumping through her veins in her ears. A tingling feeling of power stretched through her nerves burning at her finger tips making her curl them in a fist. Red flashed before her eyes before her nightmares infiltrated her vision once again.

Maeve snapped her eyes open. She gritted her teeth forcing herself up. She dropped the metal rod on the floor and instead went to the punching bag hung from the wall in the corner of the room by the only window. The panned window was covered in dust but she could still make out the outside world. The light that filtered inside her apartment through the translucent windows providing all the light she needed.

She used her fists and began punching the bag. She grunted at each strong punch and huffed out air everytime she didn't meet her own expectations. Her auburn hair with dark red highlights were in a tight bun preventing them from falling on her face.

Maeve trained for two long years since he life depended on it. She fought and fought every single day since the full moon night of her nineteenth birthday. This was her life; a string of lies.

Her phone rang again making her stop punching. She wiped a hand across her mouth and picked up the phone from the corner table.

*Brother Bear* flashed on the screen making her grin.

"Hey Zeke! What's up?"

"Moony! Nothing's up. Wanted to check up on you. You ended the call yesterday. What happened and who do I kill?"

Maeve laughed at her brother's words, "sorry, I was too sleepy to pick up."

"What happened?" Maeve sighed before explaining everything to her older brother Ezekiel.

"Wow. You are in some mess, Moony. What are you going to do now?"

Maeve moved around the kitchen holding the phone between her shoulder and ear, "well, I anticipate Elijah, that's for sure. I'll tell him why I am hiding myself and ask him to keep it a secret."

"He is the noble one. I mean, that's what they say. Be careful sis. I'm only a call away."

"I know. It's just──"

"You don't want a repeat of last year." Ezekiel completed her sentence.

Maeve shuddered at the memory, "I'll try to avoid it all as much as I can. If push comes to shove, I'll fight by way out."

"That's like my sister. Tell me what else is happening?"