"GOOD MORNING, SALVATORES!" Aurelia's powerful voice thundered through the halls of the Salvatore Boarding House. "Where on earth are the two of you brats at?! I was called and came here at command; you better have a good reason for it!"

"You're so damn loud, and for what?" Damon hissed at her, emerging from the entrance to the living room. "Plus, you're about six hours too late." Aurelia glanced at her phone's clock, before shrugging.

"Would you rather I never came?" She posed, tilting her head. "Fine, I have better things to do." She hummed once and spun around to leave, only to stop at the sight of Stefan blocking her path. "Ah, so you two really did want me here, didn't you?" She poked Stefan's chest with one finger and then entirely pushed him away from her. "I like my personal space, sweetheart. Please respect that."

"We informed you and had you help us with the murders at the Grill; it's only fitting that we repay the favor." He spoke, making her cock up an eyebrow. "Despite the fact that you had tried to kill us just days ago."

"I'm sorry," Aurelia's tone was now disbelieving. "Did the words, "If I wanted to kill you, I would've done it." Not register in your mind? I can take the two of you and rip your spines out right now, but I'm not. Why? Because I don't have to kill you yet." She was quick with her words, but strict as well; she needed them to understand that she had use for them. "Now, what did you have to tell me?"

"So," She walked away from Stefan in order to pay attention to Damon. "We've confirmed it was Samantha Gilbert who killed everyone in 1912. There's no need to ask what, how, and why; we've got the evidence for that, and what I'm saying to you is pure fact."

"Is that all?" She drawled.

"No," Damon stared at her with an unimpressed look. "The thing that confused us was the fact that I, in fact, had the pleasure of killing her. Despite that, the murders continued." Aurelia opened her mouth to speak, but he continued. "It was her; every single murder was her. After her supposed death, she was still up and roaming around Mystic Falls, killing people. The Founder's Council, of course, wasn't aware."

"Humans are oblivious." Aurelia remarked dryly, rolling her eyes to display boredom and impatience. "Get to the damn point, Damon. I have somewhere else to be and someone—" She cut herself off, instead opting to fold her arms and impatiently tap her foot as she waited for him to continue.

"Okay," Damon slightly narrowed his eyes. "Now, coming to how we found out. There was a documentary of her confession almost ten years later. She was assumed as crazy and was then locked up in an asylum." Aurelia nodded once slowly. "That was where the facts ended; now we're figuring out how it would link to today's situation."

"You don't think she turned?" She asked a valid question, much to Damon's satisfaction.

"She didn't," Aurelia looked at Stefan as he spoke. "We would've know if she was still running around alive." His eyebrow suddenly arched. "Wait, her Gilbert Ring... it protects her from death, doesn't it?" Aurelia groaned and rolled her eyes.

"I didn't think you'd call me over to brainstorm. I thought you already had the answer." She huffed out, her curiosity morphing into annoyance. "The Gilbert Ring doesn't protect you from death by old age." She then blinked a few times. "Wait, the ring... it was passed down, right? Who would have it now?"

"Jeremy," She could recognize the name as one that belonged to Elena's younger brother. "And Alaric. But how would it relate?"

"It's a ring for humans." She began. "If they've died a certain number of times, the magic's bound to mess with them. There's always a catch with such objects." Damon's face contorted for a moment. "How many times have they died?"

"I don't know, but Alaric's died more than Jeremy has." Aurelia let out a chuckle of realization.

"That's our answer." She concluded. "Your teacher friend." She then hummed. "Since it's no one I know well or have any direct relation with, it's not my problem."

"It will be when the town's suspicion passes onto us." Stefan countered, making her shrug. "You're older than the both of us combined, and we could use some sort of help." Aurelia only laughed at his reasoning.

"Must I remind you that you tried to have us killed?" She rhetorically asked, referring to herself and the Originals. "How do you expect me to offer you help? And don't bring up Stefan's addiction; if I were busier, I wouldn't be doing anything to sort it out." She then let out a breath. "Can I ask why you tried to kill me, though? Looking at you now, it doesn't seem like you hate me so much."

"We, uh," Stefan bit his lip. "We wouldn't have—"

"Killed my family if you knew I was linked?" She guessed. "How generous."

"Aurelia, don't forget you drove a dagger through my brother's spine." Damon brought up, making the blonde click her tongue. "We're even here." Aurelia spun back around to face him.

"That's nothing compared to what your mere intentions were." She retorted sharply. "If you have nothing to offer right now, I'm not helping."

"So this," Stefan eyed her up and down. "This is suddenly what you're doing? Only contributing if it benefits you? That's not very Aurelia-like of you."

"It's funny how you mix me up with a past version of myself." She stated. "People change; get over it." She then paused, mocking his short scan of her form by doing the same to him. "I'd say you have quite the reason to believe it. It's strange how you refuse to do so."

"What are you implying?" Aurelia chuckled yet again.

"You were this innocent, strong-willed, and virtuous man when you fell in love with me." She replied. "Now, I can't say the same. You're neither innocent- the blood-sucking and addicted side of you proves it; nor are you strong-willed, which is exactly why you keep falling off the wagon." Her words hit him with an ice-cold tone that surprised him. "When you've lost those two qualities, being virtuous no longer matters."

"Children!" Both of the vampires looked at Damon, who began waving a white piece of paper in his hands; one that wasn't on him before. "I have something to offer." Aurelia narrowed her eyes at the sheet, before they widened considerably in recognition.

"How the hell do you have that?!" She cried, moving swiftly towards him. "For the millionth time, it's none of your damn business; now hand it back to me!" She lunged at him, only to stop when she heard his answer.

"It was in Stefan's room; I was able to browse while you two were arguing." Aurelia frowned and slowly turned around to face Stefan, whose expression remained neutral and unmoving. "Right, brother?"

"You two really..." She started. Damon began to smile triumphantly, but a swift tug at his arm made the corners of his lips fall as he no longer felt the paper in his hand. "...need to learn about the concept of privacy. Elena wouldn't want you snooping in, would she?" The brothers looked over at Aurelia, who seemed to have used her speed to snatch the letter away from Damon's grasp. "Then again, she can't do shit by herself; having the two of you at her beck and call might just improve her quality of life." She glanced between the two of them and faked a smile. "I'm leaving."

"Aurelia—"

"Where's the teacher?" She cut into Stefan's protest, having answered his pleas before they could be raised. "Speak before I change my mind."

"Last I heard, he was at Wickery Bridge." Damon began, slowly speaking so as to absorb her sudden change of mind. "You're going to assist us?" He asked, his words still slow in order to sound passive.

"Not assist," She said. "I'm not a servant here; I call the shots with him. If he tries to murder me, I snap his neck." Her rules hit them harshly, and made them look at her in confusion. "Do we have a deal, Salvatores?"

"Snapping his neck is a little—"

"Do you want my help or not?"

"WAS IT REALLY A GOOD IDEA," Aurelia's pace slowed down to a complete stop as she looked around at her surroundings. "To have your friend in the presence of a majority of the Founding Families for some sort of..." She paused her speech and made a visibly disgusted face that Damon had faked a smile at. "Ceremony for a bridge?"

"Well when you put it like that," An annoyed scoff left his lips. "It sounds stupid."

"Correction; it is stupid." She responded, turning her head around to look for the man in question. "Where is he?" Damon wordlessly pointed over to a person in the distance, letting Aurelia's gaze follow his finger. "Him? He's your friend?" She let out a small laugh. "A bit boring for you, don't you think?" She stopped for a moment, pressing her lips together for a short thought. "Let's see how a sweet-looking, seemingly harmless teacher is compatible with you—" She took a short look at Damon. "—And how he could murder people."

She began walking at a much faster pace in order to reach him in a shorter period of time.

"Hold on, hold on!" Damon protested, trying to reach for the blonde's arm. "I should tell him that he's about to be babysat."

"And why is that?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at his sudden decision.

"You'd be coming off a bit too strong—"

"Isn't that the point? Fear makes people listen, Damon." Aurelia continued to walk towards the human being as she spoke. "When I come off as strong, he'll know that I'm not messing around." She explained. "And he'll know I'm serious when I say I will snap his neck if he irritates me."

"Alar—"

"Damon's friend!" She quickly exclaimed over the fellow vampire, catching Alaric Saltzman's attention. Aurelia knew of him and his name, but refused to acknowledge it. "I heard you've been quite the murderer these last weeks; congratulations on that, by the way." Without letting him reply, she continued. "I'm here to make sure you don't end up somehow exposing your friends and my family, and I was chosen because I'm competent, unlike most in this town; I also get tasks done quickly, even if it means I have to resort to malice." She then smiled brightly, as if she hadn't just brought up a topic relating to murder. "I'm Aurelia Parker, vampire."

"Uh..." He chuckled nervously. "I'm... A-Alaric Saltzman." He then furrowed his eyebrows in wonder. "Aurelia... that's familiar."

Damon's eyebrows immediately shot up as he realized what the teacher meant. In response, he raised an arm and frantically shook it from side to side, as if telling him not to continue. "How so?" She asked, tilting her head to the left.

"Um—" Alaric glanced over at the paranoid Salvatore before meeting Aurelia's piercing gaze. "Never mind." Aurelia hummed slowly, eyeing him from head to toe as she took one step backwards.

"Alright." She said. "I'm going to be in your company and make sure you don't land up in some sort of trouble." She let out a sigh and looked around at the area, just until a head of long, unruly ginger hair caught her eye. "You have got to be kidding me." She muttered, turning her body towards the ginger, who had now been headed towards them.

"Ah, it's been a while since I've met the hot-headed bitch in the Mikaelson Family." Damon blinked a few times as he recognized the woman who just spoke, while Alaric stood there, completely dumbfounded.

Aurelia scoffed, poking the inside of her cheek with her tongue. "I agree," She began, maintaining direct eye contact with her apparent rival. "It has been a while since I've met the Original-obsessed slut in the house." Just after those words, an obvious look of anger spread across the woman's features, making the blonde smile dominantly. "It's not hard to believe that you've slept around for years and years while claiming your love from Finn Mikaelson."

"Don't cross the line, Parker." She simply laughed loudly at the weak threat. "I'm half a millennium older than you are; it's not hard for me to rip you apart."

"Cross the line?" She mocked. "That doesn't apply to me, Sage." With a small pause, she addressed the threat. "Even if I'm half a millennium younger than you are, I have a family of vampires and a hybrid over a century older than you. I've been trained better than you have and it's a fact. I may not be as strong as you are, but I have better technique." She then looked at her nails. "If you even touch a strand of my hair, I will rip your fingernails off and make sure that there are splinters impaling your raw nailbed."

Alaric and Damon shared a look. "Sage?"

"The same woman I was talking about the other day," Aurelia replied.

"Funny, because she looks a lot like the woman I knew in 1912." Damon brought up.

"Because I am her." Sage snapped.

"Is it safe for me to be here?" Aurelia looked at Alaric, before rolling her eyes and pulling him with her by his arm; it was clear she wasn't going to entertain the blast from the past.

"Oh, and Damon," She stopped for a moment to look at the Older Salvatore. "Find Rebekah for me; she's nowhere to be seen as of right now!"

"ELENA," STEFAN CALLED as he watched the brunette open the door to Alaric's apartment. "Good, you're here." Elena took a long look around the small living space, noticing the mess that wasn't there the day before.

"You've basically turned this place upside down." She commented. "Does 'Ric know you're here?" She questioned, dropping her bag to the floor and looking at him skeptically. "And why did you call me?" Stefan couldn't help but sigh irritably at her abundance of questions that she was too impatient to pause asking.

"I was trying to look for any traces confirming that it's him." He started, gesturing to a collection of open files scattered across the desk next to him. "We've confirmed that it was..." Elena made her way towards him slowly, her gaze fixed on the files.

"Bill Forbes..." She mumbled out the name she saw on one file, before moving over to the others. "These are all—"

"Pictures of the murders." Stefan completed. "Aurelia was right; it was definitely him. There's no denying it now."

"I-I," Elena cleared her throat to remove the crack in her voice due to the news that she didn't want to hear; Alaric was a man who served as a friend and guardian after she lost her parents and aunt. It would be unfair to lose him to a ring that took his humanity away. "I removed the r-ring." She stated, hoping that it was of some help. "Since when was, uh, Aurelia helping us?"

"Um..." Stefan pursed his lips as his fingers moved across a file to shut it. "She spent some time with us... the night that you caught me feeding on s-someone." He felt his breath get caught in his throat at the memory. "We were able to get to some point because of her."

"Even after she tried to kill you?" He looked at the doppelganger with a small frown. "Stefan, she's on Klaus' side."

"She's not on a side with this situation, Elena..." He countered softly, looking away from her. "She just doesn't want there to be mishaps here because it would expose her and us." His defense made Elena's eyebrows shoot up. "She's not going to kill us because they've unlinked the spell.

"She's selfish, Stefan!"

"Yes, she is!" Stefan raised his voice at her, making her flinch slightly as he took a deep breath. "It's why she isn't going to kill us; despite the fact that she's attached to the Originals, she has a connection to me, to Damon, to Caroline." He sighed. "People don't change as much as them seem to; there's still a little bit of them from the past remaining."

Elena sighed, picking up on the sense of hope in his tone. It was like he was trying to convince himself of that possibility.

"THIS IS ELENA'S PLACE?" Aurelia's eyes darted to each and every corner of the room. "I can't seem to remember it from when she had invited me in. It's smaller than I thought it would be. She always acted like some sort of martyr princess." She let out an amused chuckle. "I guess I expected the house to go with it."

"Elena's not that bad, you know." She turned around to face Alaric at the sound of his voice. "She's just... trapped in a cycle that she didn't choose to be a part of."

"If you look at it like that, Mr. Saltzman," She slowly walked over to the couch and let herself fall onto it comfortably, a breath of satisfaction leaving her lips due to the comfort of the soft material. "Aren't we all trapped in that cycle? They're all different cycles, but are interlinked. That's when two people interact." The relaxed expression on her face fell and turned into one of thought. "In addition, it's a cycle we never asked to be a part of. You developed an alter-ego that makes you kill people; Klaus and the rest of my family were turned against their will and lived through a long time of torture due to their bloodlust and father; Damon and Stefan turned against their will by Katherine Pierce; heck, even Caroline." She looked up at him pointedly. "Elena isn't the only victim here. She just plays the role because she keeps putting herself in trouble." A small pause followed. "Whether it's with the intent of making everything revolve around her or the intent of actually wanting to do a good deed- which is unnecessary and foolish- I don't really know."

"What about you?"

"Pardon?"

"You said everyone was trapped in a cycle, and you've given almost every example..." Alaric moved over to stand a few feet away from her. "...Except yourself." Aurelia felt her stomach twist at his observation. "What's your cycle?"

"I never told Stefan; what makes you think I'm going to tell you?" She laughed cockily, running a hand to push her hair out of her face. "Nice try, Mr. Saltzman, but I'm only here with you as an escape from Sage. I doubt you'd expose your own vampire friends, and your ring's off, so there's no danger of you turning into a murderer." She then stood up. "I think it's time for me to leave."

"I don't really know you, Aurelia." She stopped at his words. "And you have no emotional baggage that relates to me because we've just met. Stefan, who you knew in 1864 may affect you, but telling me a few things wouldn't do any harm."

"That's not a good tactic, Mr. Saltzman." Aurelia tilted her head as she teased him.

"Points for trying?" She finally let out a laugh as he spoke. "I'm just curious here. Besides, since my ring's off, it's not like I'm going to kill you."

"True." She sat herself back on the couch. "I am in a cycle I never asked to be a part of because I'm like everyone else. The only reason that it doesn't seem like it is because like my family, I've learned to take what is thrown at you and make the best out of it." She explained. "The person who I am is the complete opposite of the person I was in 1628, when I turned."

"You're four centuries old?" She hummed.

"I was born in November of 1611, that makes me three hundred and ninety nine years old now." She smiled at Alaric's wonder and curiosity. "My transition was an accident; I wouldn't have been here today if I hadn't slipped and fallen that night..." She trailed off for a moment and blinked a few times. "When I woke up for the first time after death, I refused to turn. I didn't want to be a monster and kill people. Klaus couldn't handle my decision to die, so he spiked my drink with his blood."

"So you were cursed with this life." She snickered at the use of dramatic diction for his response, earning a perplexed look