"SO YOU MADE ME COME BACK, only to get out of the Manor yet again?" Rebekah's whine made Aurelia roll her eyes, hoping that the former would quickly pick up on the hint and realize that she was in no mood to deal with her complaints.

"Hand me the ash." She felt a slightly heavy bag in her hand as she stuck it out to the older. "Is this all of it?" Able to see Rebekah nod from the corner of the eye, she brought the bag close to her chest, using her free hand to open the sealed zip lock. "Do I want to know how you got all of this?"

"Nope." With a small chuckle, Aurelia fully opened the bag and knelt down, her eyes set on the water body sitting in front of her hunched figure. "Is the quarry a good idea?" She then took a look up at Rebekah, who had her hands on her hips.

"Damon would most likely be at that bridge right now. If he saw this," She raised the bag in front of her sister. "He'd realize that an abundance of ash to coat those daggers isn't the worst substitute for white oak wood." She then turned back to the quarry. "So, going to the river under the bridge is a bad idea."

"Fair enough."

"You're home!" Caroline's exclamation was the first thing Aurelia heard when she walked into her sister's house. "Where were you all day? I hadn't gotten a text from you and it got me..." A shaky chuckle left the younger vampire's lips. "A little nervous."

"I can see that." Aurelia replied, shutting the door. "It's three in the morning Caroline, don't you have a bed to be in?" Caroline hummed slightly, eyes on Aurelia as the latter walked into the kitchen. "If I don't call or text, it means I will be home at some point in the night; you don't have to worry." Her assurance was followed by a slight shuffle when she adjusted her posture to lean on the kitchen island.

"I'm sorry," Caroline's lips curved downwards. "I just... I've just got to see you for the first time ever, and the stories Stefan told me made you look so fun-loving and sweet, and kind and gentle, like the perfect sister..." She trailed off to a small pause whilst Aurelia was unable to help a fond smile on her own face. "I was so excited, and I don't want to lose you or anything, especially considering—"

"I'm working with your enemies." The older completed softly, making Caroline visibly pout, before looking up at her as she felt her hand taken into both of Aurelia's. "I've obligated myself to a horribly dangerous life, and I fully understand your concern for my well-being, sister, but this is something I've chosen to do... and your worry can't be helped." Aurelia then sighed quietly, closing her eyes for a small moment.

"Just..." She looked at the sweeter woman. "Please don't get hurt..." At those words, Aurelia had to mask the truth and could only nod at it once, seeing that her liver was almost split in two just hours ago. "Do you want to eat something?" Caroline's hand slipped away from Aurelia's as the former walked to a cabinet. "We have cake, chips, cookies, peanut butter—" She turned around to see Aurelia with her nose scrunched up in disgust. "What?"

"You keep peanut butter in your house?" She asked. "That monstrosity of an edible—" Caroline dramatically gasped, pulling out a jar of the protein food. "I can't even look at it, oh my..." Aurelia placed her hands over her eyes, but her visibly disturbed expression was still out for Caroline to laugh at.

And that, she did.

As Caroline muffled her giggles and laughs with her hand to avoid waking up her mother upstairs, Aurelia began to smile sweetly at the warm sight; if she had a weakness, it was most likely the girl in front of her. She'd be able to stand watching Rebekah or Klaus in pain, considering she had a hard relationship with them, and they were practically immortal. If it were Caroline, she would surely unleash hell; the bubbly vampire deserved so much better than what she had gotten in the past one year.

Aurelia's jaw then clenched at the thought of Caroline under harm's way, especially in times when she had not been present- like when Katherine Pierce had made a short appearance there and turned her by suffocating her to death. It was previously assumed; had she met with the doppelganger bitch again, she would tear her head off.

"I'm making a PBJ sandwich." Aurelia almost missed Caroline's shaking words through her giggles as she was in her deeper thoughts. "Do you want cake?" With a small nod, Aurelia watched as Caroline walked towards the refrigerator to pull out her food of choice.

"Take your time," She had assured sweetly. "Even if we do sleep, we don't need it." Caroline erupted into a fit of small bursts of laughter yet again, leaving Aurelia to wander into her own mind again.

Before holding the bag over the water, Aurelia unexpectedly pursed her lips, causing Rebekah to impatiently huff. "Now what? Can't you just throw the bloody ash into the water and get it done with?"

"What did you say to Damon?" Aurelia stared up at the irritated woman pointedly, her expression contorted into a 'do-not-question-me' look. "About the wood, assuming he got there a minute too late."

"I told him we were all unlinked. That the spell mother had tried to link up with was broken as soon as he turned the Bennett Witch's mother." Her eyebrows shot up at the answer, before a cunning smile appeared on her lipstick-coated lips. "In case he was planning something else, I thought to scare him with it, even if it was a lie. That way, if he tried something with one of us, he'd think that the rest would be coming for him and would likely live a while in anxiety."

"Do you think he'd try to pull something?"

"Of course not, we've destroyed everything there is to kill us for now, at the very least." Rebekah was confident with her response, almost to a cocky extent. "Besides, we both know that he'd suffer if he attempted something." A wide and malicious grin stretched apart Rebekah's lips, showing her teeth in a sort of psychopathic way. Aurelia had only returned it but couldn't stop herself from doubting if her smile was as genuine as her sister's.

As her tongue ran over her plump lips, Aurelia wondered if Stefan and Damon's death could do much to affect Caroline; if the situation came to one where she or the Salvatores tried to kill one another, then Caroline would lose at least one of them.

She wondered if it would be worse for Caroline to lose them or her, even if it wasn't by her own hand.

"WHERE WERE YOU LAST NIGHT?" Aurelia looked towards Klaus, who was seating on the couch in the large living room that had a clear view of the main door. "I heard you and our sister leave the house at one in the morning; only one of you returned two hours later." She shut the door and slowly walked towards him. "Come on, you know I can hear you from there. Don't keep shut."

"You've heard of the white oak stake drama, haven't you?" She suddenly asked, taking a seat on the couch opposite him. "I'm sure Rebekah couldn't have come up with her elaborate plan to snoop around without a prompt from you. We both know she's a little too guided by her emotions, and hence daft."

"I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU WANKERS!" At the sound of Rebekah's useless reprimand, Aurelia laughed loudly, satisfied with the reaction to her decision to provoke the older vampire. "KEEP IT DOWN OR I'LL RIP YOUR HEADS OFF!"

"I went back home to Caroline's." She replied to Klaus' question, causing him to calm his small laughter from Rebekah's outburst. "You know, my sister's descendant, the one who wants to get to know me." Klaus pursed his lips slightly and pretended to think by shifting his gaze elsewhere.

"Doesn't ring a bell." He replied smugly, making Aurelia smirk deviously in response as another idea popped up in her mind.

"How about the girl you're doting on?" She asked, pointedly looking at him with a triumphant smile. His teasing expression faded before her, telling her she had won this mini-battle of wits. "Adorable, I forgot what it was like to see you lovesick over a girl." Deciding to leave him alone, she went back to the point of her answer. "As you know, Caroline and her mother had generously offered a place for me to stay, despite their knowledge of my other home." She glanced around the room once in reference. "I couldn't say no to them."

"They're your weak spot, like you are mine." Klaus observed in a matter-of-factly tone that made Aurelia's eyebrows raise in surprise. "But that doesn't mean you don't at all say no to them..." With a roll of her eyes, the blonde leant back in her seat. "What if she asks too much of you?"

"That'll be when I put you forward." She answered simply and without any hesitation. "You know that, don't you, Klaus? You've been with me since I was fourteen." Her eyes narrowed at him. "I think it's obvious."

"And if they tried to kill us?" That was when he didn't hear an immediate response, just as he had expected. "You're hesitating."

"Caroline would not directly do as such, brother." She replied, leaning forward to rest her elbows and forearms on her thighs. "She knows you are family to me, and she cares about me. If anything, she'd be coerced into killing you." A small pause followed. "And if it came to the minimal chance of killing me, well, I don't think her gang would even include her in the plan."

"But if they planned to kill me, which they eventually will blindly try to, they know that it'll kill you." Another laugh left Aurelia's lips at his observation.

"You would be right if it weren't for the fact that our dear Rebekah made up a sweet and elaborate lie." She replied. "They think we're unlinked." With a small huff, she explained the aftereffects. "If they kill one of us, they'll have to face the rest. I do, however, hope that you're finding a way to unlink us." With that statement, Klaus nodded once.

"Plan's already in action." An eyebrow arched on her forehead when she realized that he was more prepared than she thought. "Nights ago, you had watched Stefan and Damon Salvatore kill and turn Bonnie Bennett's witch mother, Abby." With a small hum of confirmation from the female, he continued. "Since it was a Bennett witch Esther used to link us, it will be a Bennett Witch I will use to unlink us."

"So you'll be using Bonnie Bennett." The name fell from Aurelia's lips like it was something she had said over and over again. Bonnie Bennett was a woman who had a growing magic that had only recently started to take Aurelia's attention. The blonde had always heard of her from Elena and Caroline, considering she was their best friend. "But she'll refuse."

"Relax, sister." Klaus assured smoothly. "It's a plan in action." The repetition didn't calm Aurelia like it was supposed to, it only made her frown more. "Trust me."

"Two words of yours that I will never listen to, Klaus," She shot back. "No matter how much you think I will stand by you." Klaus simply sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "A few hours, that's all I'll be patient for."

"More than enough." He said, making her smile in approval. "Oh, and you might want to check in on Rebekah, she's been asking for you since morning." On instinct, Aurelia looked at the grandfather clock in her line of sight, pushed up against the wall and ticking.

"It's literally halfway through the afternoon now—"

"So, for her to be calling you for the past six hours..." Klaus trailed off at the surprised expression on the younger's face. "I'm not lying, you can go to the ballroom!"

"Hah," She began to say, but a loud scream pierced right through the air of the Mikaelson Manor, making both vampires stare straight towards the direction of the incomparably large ballroom, which was just a few rooms from where they were.

"I think that's a hint." At Klaus' words, Aurelia looked at him with wide eyes that blinked several times in disbelief. "Care to fathom a guess at who that was?"

"You're kidding me, right?"

"SO I WAS RIGHT," THE TWO HEADS THAT were faced towards each other turned to look at Aurelia, who had been leaning on the grand entrance to the empty ballroom with an unreadable expression on her face. "Rebekah, what business do you have with this man?" She asked, waving an arm to gesture to the figure standing smack in the center of the vast chamber. Two metal chains had been attached right to the ceiling and led straight down to bear traps that were clamped into and breaking through the skin on his wrists, with a dark red liquid coating the metal and dripping down his arms. It was a sight that pleased the sadistic side of Aurelia, especially with the man's baby blue irises disappearing beneath his drooping eyelids, and his shirt ripped open to reveal a chest filled with healed and open wounds that shamelessly bled down to his pants and stained the cloth.

"I was bored." Rebekah's answer made her laugh once. "And if there's one thing better than feeding, it's torturing."

"I agree," The younger vampire pushed herself off the frame and took her time to walk towards the two others at the center of the room. "There's nothing better than doing as you please with other people, especially if it involves blood."

"What do you think I should do to him next?" The question had her thinking for a moment, all while she ignored the disbelieving stare on her from the chained up Salvatore. "Cut, dissect, pull out an organ...?"

"Carve?" Aurelia playfully suggested, tilting her head. "Maybe the handsome Damon Salvatore would want, 'Traitor' carved right onto his forehead?" Damon scoffed once, the sound coming out in a frail manner due to the pain he was in.

"Why are you here?" He croaked, beginning to sway. "I thought you were at Caroline's."

"Even if I was, it wouldn't be long before I figured out that you're looking for yet another way to kill us." She retorted. "I'm crueler than I am generous, Damon. I wouldn't miss a chance to hurt a person that threatens my family." Once she spoke, a small and pleased smirk appeared on her plump lips.

"Far off from 1864—" He let out a loud yelp at the feeling of something sharp piercing his abdomen, before looking down to find the long knife that Rebekah had been holding just seconds ago in Aurelia's grip. "Oh, hell."

"Damon, don't get me wrong..." She began, pushing the knife further into his body. "We were the best of friends once upon a time. That once upon a time was almost one and a half centuries ago, so if you try to piss me off today, you will be treated like I treat everyone." Her voice suddenly dropped when she held the knife with a firmer grip. "So, avoid nostalgic memories if you want to avoid this knife moving upwards and through your sternum."

"Aurelia, Aurelia, dearest." Rebekah gently pulled Aurelia's hand off of the knife's handle and let go of it in an attempt to prevent further rage. "I'll take my revenge on him, but I need you to do me a favor." It was easy to turn her attention away from the bleeding Salvatore. "Watch Stefan and Elena for me, will you?"

"Why?"

"I don't want to have to look for them once I've bled the vervain out of Damon's system." She replied calmly. "You see, my plan is to compel him when I can, and I want him to kill Stefan or Elena." Aurelia took a small step back in slight shock, not expecting for Rebekah of all people to compel a man to kill his own brother. "Something wrong?" When she didn't answer, Rebekah pushed further. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." She mumbled.

"Oh my God..." Even without much of an answer, Rebekah seemed to have gotten what she wanted to know. "Don't tell me you're conflicted." Aurelia's eye suddenly twitched at the accusation. "You just shoved a knife into him and threatened to drive it up into his bone!" The exclamation only further irritated her. "Do you really still care—"

"Don't start." She cut her older sister off. With a glance towards Damon, who had been eyeing her the entire time with suspicion and curiosity, she huffed. "I wouldn't care about people who don't even know me."

The curious light in his eyes flickered away as soon as those words left her mouth, making her grit her teeth together harshly as she looked away from him. "Wow, how shocking." As expected, his comment came dripping with sarcasm, enough to satisfy the vampire.

"I'll watch over the couple, though." Aurelia purposely referred to the broken-up couple as such for the sake of self-satisfaction and vague identification but couldn't help a smile when she saw Damon react by rolling his eyes. "Don't worry, Damon, I won't replace you as the third-wheeler there."

Rebekah began to laugh but coughed loudly to hide it as she let Aurelia know how much she was enjoying the moment.

"Toodle-oo." With a mocking wave of her fingers, the blonde spun around and left the room.

"GET READY." STEFAN MUMBLED INTO THE PHONE, quickly disconnecting the call right afterwards in order to prevent any prying ears from getting more information.

His eyes then fell on a couple seated much further away from the bar than he was. They had been taking different kinds of alcohol for a spin for the past few hours; it was fitting, considering one of them was an Original Vampire who had been in a coffin for nine centuries.

Finn Mikaelson was his first target. He had his plan ready to execute, and he was just waiting for Matt Donovan to feed them the vervain required to catch them off guard and spot him.

"I wonder who you're spying on." At the sound of a voice he hadn't expected to hear in the day, he had jumped slightly in surprise. "Aw, sorry for the scare." He watched as Aurelia Parker took a seat opposite to him without bothering to politely ask.

That, however, didn't surprise him. "What are you doing here?" He asked right away; Aurelia wasn't supposed to show up or interact with him at any given point in the day. It would only disrupt his plan to kill an Original.

"Does it matter?" She asked. "Klaus won't entertain me, I haven't been able to find Caroline all day because she's been busy for whatever reason, Rebekah's out torturing your brother, which leaves me with you." With a small shrug of her shoulders, she dismissed any following questions he had.

"I still don't understand why she wants Damon." He murmured, making her smile. "She's not going to kill him, is she?"

"No," Her arms crossed themselves. "I doubt she is, after I interfered." Her implication made him arch an eyebrow in surprise, having thought of Aurelia defending them as an impossible scenario. "What? I have morals. You don't kill a man after he hurt your feelings, especially if you're Rebekah." Just as a sigh of relief left his lips, she continued. "But we're not using feelings as a reason here. I'm sure you've heard of your brother's plans to retrieve the White Oak from underneath Wickery Bridge?"

At that, he blinked several times, evidently caught off guard. "Uh, yeah, no, I heard him break a few things i-in the house last night." He nodded a few times as he spoke.

How was he going to hide the fact that he and his gang had successfully been able to carve twelve stakes out of the wood that Damon had snuck home the previous night?

Moreover, how was he going to go through with his plan to kill Finn Mikaelson when Aurelia had unexpectedly popped up right in the middle of it?

"That's why she's doing it." She continued,