"INTO THE WILD WE GO, IT WOULD SEEM." AURELIA let herself take in the cold, fresh air of the new environment surrounding the group venturing into unknown territory. "I was thinking—how many of these fools have camping experience?" Stefan looked around at Rebekah first, seated just ahead of them on their shared boat—then Elena and Jeremy in a neighboring vessel with Bonnie—then the Professor Shane—and finally back to Damon, who'd been sitting in the boat with them. "I'm sure if it weren't for the fact that some of them are vampires—" She eyed Elena with a small smirk. "They wouldn't last a second here."

"We don't know anything about this place either—not besides the cure." Stefan followed her line of vision, which had shifted slowly to the groups and mazes of trees past the shoreline they were about to reach. "I'm sure it'll be a good idea to—you know—be careful, even with supposed camping experience."

"Fair enough." The woman hummed, just at the boats came to a stop. "Well, looks like it's time to get this shit done with." And she jumped into the shin deep water, fingers wrapping quickly around the weighty, coarse rope Stefan handed her. "Rebekah, some help would be much appreciated," She continued, walking around to take a good look at her sister figure. "Considering you have at least six centuries on anyone over here."

"I'm good." Rebekah chirped, leaning back in her seat. "I enjoy when I'm being treated like a little princess—though, I would've preferred a bigger boat." She looked at the younger vampire, whose eyes had just so slightly changed in expression. Not disappointment, but impatience and annoyance—much to Rebekah's concern, it held a touch of threat in itself, making her rise to her feet quickly.

She'd heard about her brother's unfortunate demise, of course. She'd also heard, from Stefan and a malicious Klaus—who was still stuck in Elena's home under dear Caroline's care—of what Aurelia had pulled after finding his body.

Rebekah was devastated when she received the news. When she'd taken a look at Elena this morning, she wanted to gut the woman. Aurelia, having had far less spats and arguments with Kol over the centuries than she had, obviously had the closer bond with him.

It didn't take romantic love to react the way the Heretic had.

"I can help—" Stefan tried to suggest, but received a dismissive wave from Aurelia.

"Rebekah's a big girl," She assured with a sarcastic smile, throwing the rope for the subject in question to catch with a huff. "She'll manage just fine."

"I mean, if she doesn't—" Damon piped in. "I could always come to the rescue. As she said, Rebekah loves her princess treatment." Aurelia slapped him on the shoulder as they trudged through the shallowing water, towards the sandy beach.

"Please," She countered. "She's like—what? Eight? —eight centuries older than you are, pretty boy. You've got nothing on her." Damon pouted slightly, shaking a foot to get rid of the excessive water. "Heck, I'd do this better and faster than you, too."

"Well, as I always say—" His lips morphed into a slick smirk. "I love my women when they can fold me in a second." Aurelia raised her eyebrows and narrowed her eyes, concerned for her friend at the statement.

"Never heard you say that, first of all." She said. "Second, careful. You have a girlfriend now." She patted his back with fake sympathy. "I'm so sorry for your loss." Damon threw her an unimpressed look, earning a small shrug. "What? Feelings are work."

"Well, yeah—" Noticing she was a few strides ahead of him, her feet sinking slightly into the loose sand, he caught up to her. "I'm willing to put in that work with her."

"Even if she isn't worth all that trouble?" Aurelia's question hadn't surprised Damon—even he'd heard about the mess, and frankly, what he did want to ask questions about, was how Aurelia was able to restrain herself now. He was grateful for it, of course, but didn't like having to sit on the very line of peace and war with his little knowledge about his emotions.

He'd tried prying it out of Rebekah before they had set off on their course for the mysterious island, but with little time, and her own lack of knowledge on what thoughts were pooling in Aurelia's hidden mind, he was unsuccessful. "Yeah." He only answered briefly, not wanting to spark another fire in the woman's emotions.

They were waiting now, for both boats to be tugged to the shore, and for everyone to catch up with them. The wind was strong, going with their movements, so Aurelia anticipated it wouldn't be long until they were in the dense forest.

A few moments of silence passed between the two, and Damon couldn't shake off the awkward feeling—Aurelia and him had always gotten along well—and though they hadn't spoken the few weeks she was back, he worried for her.

He was beginning to understand how she could've felt about standing in the grey area between the Mystic Falls gang, and the Original Family. He was feeling the same way himself—she, his friend, had a very good reason to kill Elena, his girlfriend. He wanted to protect his girl from anything Aurelia could possibly pull, but he wanted to be there for Aurelia, too.

Monster or not, Kol was close to her, and Damon was her friend. She was his best friend once, for Heaven's sake—he wanted to be someone she could confide in, too.

"...did you know?" Aurelia, who hadn't mentioned the incident even once since Stefan brought her back to the Boarding House last night, and remained eerily calm about it after she came down, looked at Damon finally, a tinge of hesitation lacing her voice. "She told you, didn't she?"

"No." Letting down his lighthearted, dickish attitude for once, he replied to her straightforwardly, not forgetting to look at her as he spoke. "I was stuck in the basement. I had no idea about it."

"Okay." And there was silence between them once more. Damon, however, felt like he could finally breath in the fresh air surrounding him. It was almost as if, despite Aurelia's calm demeanor, she was tense—and with him, now, she wasn't.

Maybe she'd been planning to do whatever she wanted with Elena to him, as well. He didn't know. But after he'd told her his answer, he'd noticed her relax somewhat. It made him optimistic.

Stefan quickly caught up to the pair of vampires with Rebekah, having tied up their boat before the second group had. His eyes flickered to Aurelia for a moment, and he could see her shoulders lower in relaxation, slightly, too.

"Are they going to take another year to finish their business up?" Rebekah made sure the people she was insulting could hear her, and see the dirty look she'd given them.

"We're done!" Shane said, jogging over to the group with Bonnie, while Elena and Jeremy tagged along behind the pair. "We made it."

"Couldn't they have hidden this cure in Hawaii? Where the hell did you take us?" Damon, who'd been adjusting his backpack while everyone caught up, couldn't go another minute without a pointed comment at the irritatingly vague professor.

"Two hundred miles off the Nova Scotia mainland." Shane, ignoring the quip, answered brightly. "If you recall, the whole point was to hide the cure on the world's most obscure, desolate island." He'd been to the island himself a year ago, and believed everything he studied about it.

"Oh yeah? I thought the whole point was that no one found Silas, the oldest, deadliest freak in the world." Damon didn't miss the lore on Shane's apparent obsession. He didn't believe it, of course, much like Rebekah and Aurelia.

"Maybe the fact that no one's found him yet means—I don't know—" Aurelia sarcastically shrugged. "That he doesn't exist."

"He exists." Ignoring, once again, the deadly look Aurelia gave him, Shane watched as everyone settled down and readied themselves to head further into the island. "And to answer your question, Damon—yes, it was also to ensure no one found him."

"Great." Damon clicked his tongue, tired of the Silas bullshit. He'd taken a seat on the sand, at this point, and Aurelia joined him. Both vampires eyed Shane as he ruffled through his bag before pulling out a bottle.

"Sunscreen?" Aurelia and Damon, as if on cue, glared at the human, sarcastic remarks of, "Are you kidding me?" and "Is that supposed to be a joke?". "...Right." Shane recoiled his outstretched arm, rescinding his polite offer.

"You know," Stefan had noticed Rebekah's stubborn glare on Elena, who was finishing up a conversation with her brother. "You're not really helping." Rebekah only huffed, folding her arms to further communicate her stubbornness.

"She killed my brother, tried to get you to put a dagger in my back." She listed the reasons confidently, finding more anger to fuel her hatred. "She's lucky all she's getting is the evil eye." Aurelia couldn't stop a snicker from leaving her lips.

"You know I can hear you, right?" Elena, who was now walking past the two to reach Bonnie, snapped at the Original Vampire.

"You know I don't care, right?" Rebekah's counter quickly made the youngest vampire of the lot stop walking, and race towards her to pin her down by the neck. Damon quickly rose from where he'd been sitting, while Stefan took a step ahead to try and stop the quarrel.

"Shut up!" Elena shrieked, and Rebekah noticed that she held the white oak stake, pointing it right at her eye—it only made her laugh.

"Go ahead and kill me." She taunted, before the doppelganger was forcibly lifted off her body. "My God, you're heavy." Elena, who was angrily trying to resist the grip that the unknown had on her, began to try to turn around to see who it was.

When her eyes fell on Stefan and Damon—who were a good few feet away from her, however, she paused, realizing who was behind her. "There, there, sweetie." Aurelia sweetly said, hand pulling back on her collar to force her clothes to tighten around her throat. "I wouldn't lose my temper now. You have no reason to behave like a brat."

Elena, who quickly cooled down, and forced herself out of Aurelia's iron grip. "Sorry." She said through gritted teeth, mind switching to the Heretic's murderous glare from last night. "I won't do it again."

Damon and Rebekah raised an eyebrow at the relatively civil conversation, while Stefan looked downwards and sighed through his nostrils disappointedly.

While everyone questioned what was going through Aurelia's mind, he was well aware, and wasn't sure how to feel about it. "Let's start with this, why don't we, Aurelia?" He asked, looking pointedly at her. Aurelia, who only poked the inside of her cheek with her tongue, understood quickly that he wanted to walk with her to keep her away from the doppelganger.

When she looked at him, though, she found her internal irritation soothe itself almost entirely, and her gaze softened. "Yeah, let's get started."

"SATELLITE PHONE LOST ITS SIGNAL." SHANE GAVE the little device in his hand a little smack, eyes focused on the path ahead of him. He hoped it would go on a little longer than just three hours, but was clearly wrong.

"Great sign." Damon snapped sarcastically, looking at the dry leaves crack and tear beneath his footsteps. "We should definitely think this whole thing is a good idea, shouldn't we?"

"Is anyone else a little creeped out?" Elena piped up from next to Damon, earning a groan from Rebekah—the Original was walking next to Aurelia and Stefan, just a few paces ahead of Elena, Damon, Bonnie, Jeremy and Shane.

"So then leave." Rebekah sneered. "Out of everyone, your presence is the least necessary." She turned a moment to glare at the little shit, who only rolled her eyes at the unnecessary remark.

"Please don't start." Stefan mumbled, massaging his temple as he trudged through the leaves.

He quickly realized the annoyance of not paying attention to his surroundings, and tripped over the root of a tree he was passing by—it was short lived, and he didn't touch the ground as Aurelia pushed him backwards by his chest. "Careful." She warned, an amused smile dancing on her lips. "I'm going to be saving your ass from all the monstrosities on the island." She teased. "I don't want to be watching for you just 'cuz you're clumsy, to top it all off." Stefan couldn't help the embarrassed smile.

"I can take care of myself."

"Suuuure." She drawled, her own smile growing. "Soon, you'll be running to me, screaming for help." She earned a light slap on the shoulder. "Just stating the facts." Stefan only shook his head dismissively, entertained and pleased by the slight lift in her mood, however superficial it was.

"As I was saying," Rebekah continued. "Jeremy has the spell on his body," She gestured to the Gilbert boy at the back of the group, whose tattoo grew entirely just last night, upon the death of Kol's entire sire line. "Bonnie is the witch that unseals the cure. Shane is the human compass and blood bag for us—" She earned an offended gasp from said blood bag. "Aurelia is the one with the link to spirit magic, however much the witches of nature may hate her—Stefan and I have the tombstone, which acts as a source of magic for Bonnie's Expression—and Elena," She spat out the doppelganger's name with venom. "Has absolutely no use."

"What about me?" Damon frowned; his ego hurt by the lack of importance Rebekah was giving him.

"You have a nice behind!" Aurelia and Stefan snickered at Rebekah's shameless comment, to which Elena only enviously growled at.

Once what felt like hours had passed by, Aurelia stopped for a moment to drop her bag near a tree, eyes closed to take a breath as she stretched her back out. Rebekah followed in suit, and the sound of bags dropping came through the silence of the falling night like dominoes. "Need water?" Aurelia chuckled at Stefan's comment, allowing her body to lean sideways on the large tree as she looked at him. "Blood, maybe?"

"Someone better have packed a blood bag—" Aurelia groaned slightly as she stretched out her neck. "What's Shane going on about?" Stefan turned to look at Shane, who'd been talking for some time.

"Centuries after Qetsiyah died, there were these miners who were excavating a well on the island." As the pair, and the rest of the group turned their ears to the professor, they realized he'd been speaking about something of actual interest for the first time in hours. "Suddenly went mad. They bled themselves dry."

"Silas and Qetsiyah lore, again?" Aurelia muttered. "We know this story, Shane—" She folded her arms. "We know it's not true. What if there's been some dumbass vampire roaming around?"

"There's no apparent reason." Shane said. "Good theory, though. Then, legend spread that these miners, in exchange for a drop of blood, could see visions of their lost loved ones in the well they were digging." Aurelia raised her eyebrows. "The word traveled, and explorers sought to see if the legend was true."

"So, the well was magic?" Asked Bonnie.

"Well, you know, some people believed that the voices of the lost souls were just a wind vortex whipping through the cave. The visions- they believe- were a result of inhaling the island's poisonous plant life."

"And you clearly believe that Silas is alive." Rebekah chaffed.

"I believe in magic." Shane answered. "My wife and son died within months of each other. and so, I decided to try the well out for myself."

"That's weird." Aurelia muttered to Stefan, who shrugged.

"I offered up my blood and waited." He continued. "I saw my wife. I saw her eyes; I saw her smile. My blood let me see her again."

"Yeah, got it." Damon said. "Don't eat the poisonous plants." He began to walk further with his bag, and the rest followed through.

"Wait—stop, stop!" Shane shouted, causing the group to freeze in alarm to look at him, only to see a large rock in his hand. "Is everyone paying attention?" He threw the rock a few feet away—and a loud crumble quickly echoed throughout the trees, putting the vampires on high alert as they watched a large, human-sized next swing upwards and tightly bind itself to the tree. "Stay together and keep your eyes open." He warned.

"Maybe you do know something useful." Aurelia commented, lifting herself up over a larger rock. "Give us survival tips, not fantasies, Professor. I'm bored." At the sound of her name softly being called, she turned to look at Stefan catching up to her. "Hi. All okay?" She carefully asked, assuming something was wrong immediately.

"Hey." He said, as she looked at him, eyebrow raised. "What did I do, now?"

"Nothing—I just thought something was wrong." She amusingly clarified, raising her hands in surrender. "Forgive me for assuming that you needed saving on this mysterious, booby-trap island." Stefan only laughed slightly and shook his head.

"Aw." He poked her. "You were worried about me." Scoffing, she shoved him into another tree, before immediately apologizing out of concern. "Moving on," He brushed the dirt off his shoulder. "Why don't you believe all of this?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Never had a reason to. Did you just come here to chat?"

"What?" He asked innocently. "I can't just talk to you?" Even though she was well aware of the fact that he was teasing her, she shook her head defensively.

"I thought you'd be more stressed out. I mean—scary island and all—and you're all broody with your hero hair, as Damon calls it—"

"Oh my God," Stefan covered his face with his hands. "Damon, of all people got to you?"

"I take that as an insult!" Damon called out from somewhere ahead of them, making Aurelia laugh.

"Any opportunity to make fun of you, darling." She taunted, and it was his turn to shove her. "It's fun, admit—"

A loud scream from much further away than anyone in the group quickly made heads turn towards the source of sound—only to see there was none. Aurelia's gaze quickly switched to the panicked and sputtering Jeremy, who was clutching his chest from shock, his body hunched over as he fell to the ground and tried to collect his thoughts. "Jeremy!" Elena, who was also on the ground, panting, scrambled over to her brother, checking him over for any injuries.

"What the hell just happened?" Damon asked—eyes wide and looking at the siblings.

"There was a man—" Jeremy breathed out, looking up at the elder Salvatore. "He s—shot an arrow at me—"

"And then someone threw a hatchet at him—" Elena completed, hand running through her hair in an attempt to soothe herself. "I think somebody just saved his life."

"Oh, great." Rebekah huffed. "Traps, and now murderous saviors?"

"I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU," AURELIA SIGHED OUT at the sight of Rebekah as she walked into her tent. "But I don't have a good feeling about camping out here in this clearing." She took a moment to admire the large makeshift shelter, which was lit up by a lamp Rebekah had just lit up. "I didn't know you knew how to set up a tent."

"I was daggered for nearly a century—but I'm not stupid." Rebekah replied, turning away from her lamp to look at the younger. "And I decided not to fight Shane's decision—if some serial killer vampire comes to bleed the mortals dry, we'll be fine."

"Fair enough." Aurelia hummed. "Got a blood bag—" Before she could complete her request, one was thrown at her chest. "Ouch, I could've used a warning for that."

"I think