"Previously on "the Vampire Diaries"..." "The only thing stronger than your craving for blood is your love for this one girl." "Your humanity is killing you." "Turn it off." "No!" "Turn it off!" " What did you do?" " I fixed him." "Fight for it." "Feel something, anything, Stefan." "'Cause if you don't, you're gonna lose me forever." "The necklace is a talisman from the original witch herself." "The old witch can draw power from this side because of her talisman." "Bonnie needs to destroy it." "They're looking for Mikael, the vampire who hunts vampires." "You don't want to wake him." "He will kill all of you." "I thought you might know how to kill Klaus." "I can kill Klaus, and I will." "There's an old Lockwood family legend about it, a weapon that can kill an original vampire." "Like the rest of their secrets, they kept it buried." "I found something." "What is it?" "I have no idea." "So the Lockwoods really have no idea that these tunnels are underneath their property?" "Yeah." "Careful where you shine that thing." "Bats hate the light." "Wait." "What?" "Elena." "Boo!" "God, Damon." "Scaredy-cat." "Just ignore him." "That's what I do." "So you really can't get in?" "No." "Seems even the ancient Lockwoods were anti-vampire." "What do you mean, ancient?" "See for yourself." "This is as far as I go." "What is all this?" "Well, as far as I can tell, it's a story." "In simple archaeological terms, it's a really, really old story." "That right there is a moon cycle." "A man." "A wolf." "A werewolf." "Yeah." "It's the Lockwood diaries, pictionary style." "I don't understand." "I thought the Lockwoods came here with the original founders in the 1860s." "Ah, maybe the Lockwoods did, but according to this wall, these werewolves have been here a lot longer than that." "How long?" "Long." "Gets better." "Show her, Ric." "Names, and they're not native." "They're written in runic, a viking script." "Vikings?" "This name here, when translated, it reads..." "Niklaus." "Klaus." "And Elijah..." "And Rebekah." "Rebekah, let me have at it." "Quiet, Niklaus." "I have to have my concentration if I'm not to slice off a finger." "Father will not like you handling the blade." "If I want to wield a blade," "I shall wield a blade." "Father need not know." "He will find out." "He always does." "That is because you always tell him." "I cannot help it." "He frightens me." "He frightens us all." "That is why we stick together as one, always and forever." "Right, traitor?" "Right." "Here." "You finish." "I'm to help mother with the meal." "Yes." "Go tend to dinner." "Leave the blades to the men, little sister." "Ahh." "Bekka." "It's just a little blood." "Be a man about it." "These are the names of the original family?" "Carved into a cave that's..." "That's been here since way before the founding of Mystic Falls or even the entire new world, for that matter." "Ok, this has gotta be one of Klaus' fakes." "That's what I said." "That could be true, except the last name up here made us think otherwise." "What's the name?" "Mikael." "Mikael." "Mikael, as in the vampire hunter who knows how to kill Klaus?" "Yep." "And I like to call him papa original." "These images tell a story to learn the story, you have to decipher these images." "Sloppy." "Shut up." "I'm new at this." "The ghost of Christmas past, Mason Lockwood, said that the cave would lead us to a weapon that could kill Klaus." "Yeah, but doesn't Mikael have a weapon?" "Yes, which probably means the wall will lead us to Mikael, who we've already found and lost." "Bang." "You're dead." "These images, at the very least, might tell us what that weapon is." "Then all we have to do is find out what they mean." "Well, fine." "Fine." "If I'm being irritatingly optimistic like you two." "How do you suppose we do that?" "Well, if the story's about the original family living here, then we go straight to the source." "You." "Goody." "I was hoping we could talk." "About what?" "Stefan?" "Don't worry." "I'm off him until he starts treating me better." "In fact, you should probably take a page out of my book, if I'm being honest." "Actually, I'd rather talk about this." "I'm curious why you and Klaus have spent a thousand years running from your father." "I should get back to the girls." "Homecoming's right around the corner." "Well, then maybe I'll ask Mikael when we wake him." "Heh." "You're bluffing." "You don't know where he is." "No one does." "So then who's rotting in that old cemetery in Charlotte?" "If you wake Mikael, we are all doomed." " So then tell me." " Why do you want to know?" "Why don't you want me to wake him?" "I need to get back to the girls." "Come on, Henrik." "Our brothers are fighting again." "Oh, look." "Sister's arrived to watch my fast-approaching victory." "On the contrary, Elijah." "She's come to laugh at you." "Ah." "Ho Ho." "Relax, Mikael." "Niklaus means well." "That is precisely my problem." "So..." "Why don't you teach me that trick, young warrior?" "Father, we were just having fun." "We fight for our survival." "And you find time for fun?" "!" "I want to have fun!" "Teach me." "Come on!" "Father, it was nothing." "You are foolish and impulsive, my boy." "What?" "No more laughter?" "You've made your point, Mikael." "Raah!" "Some days, it's a miracle you're still alive..." "Boy." "She's going to tell me." "She's scared of him, Damon." "I saw her face." "I just have to engage in a little mean-girl power struggle first." "Make sure she doesn't power struggle you into a wheelchair." "I've got this, Damon." "If we can figure out a way to kill Klaus," "Stefan will be free of his compulsion." "So how does he look?" "Mmm." "Pasty and pouty." "He'll have to get over it." "Call me later." "Rebekah will come around." "You sure about that?" "I mean, a thousand-year-old vampire, I'm sure, has learned the art of patience." "She's a thousand-year-old vampire who's joined the cheerleading squad." "There's a whole different set of rules in play here, Ric." "I've got this." "You know, if you two are gonna keep me locked in here for the next decade," "I think we can skip the routine visits." "You know I'm not a big champion of this whole Lexi recovery plan." "But Elena thinks this place is gonna..." "Weaken you out, break you down, and make you feel again." "We should all listen to Elena, right?" "I mean, her plans always work out so well, don't they?" "Humph." "Why are you here?" "What are you talking about?" "It's family day at vampire rehab." "Just paying a visit to my baby brother." "Go away." "Nah." "Nah, I thought we could hang out." "Little brother bonding." "How you been, Stef?" "Huh?" "You know, Klaus may want to keep Elena alive, but that doesn't mean she's safe with Rebekah." "Liar, liar, pants on fire, brother." "Klaus compelled you to protect Elena, and if you thought for even a second that she was in danger, you'd be working a lot harder." "You got me." "Yep." "You got me." "You're good." "Congratulations." "You can go now." "You really have given up." "Actually, this is my happy face." "What are you doing?" "Screw this Lexi plan." "I think we could both use a drink." "Hey, what's up?" "You invited me over to talk." "All right, girls." "Have at it." "Okay, now twirl, please." "You've compelled your own private runway show?" "I need a homecoming dress." "So what do you think?" "Pick one." "Heh." "I'm not here to help you shop." "I'm here to talk about why you don't want me to wake up Mikael." "I said pick one, Elena." "The red one." "There." "That wasn't so hard, was it?" "Go away." "Remember nothing." "You do not threaten me." "You will learn what I allow you to learn." "Is that clear?" " Hey, there." " Bonnie." "Come on in." "Got your message." "Yeah, great." "Uh..." "I'm sorry the place is such a mess." "I'm obsessed." "Brought you the necklace that wouldn't die." "That's great." "Are you ok?" "Been better." "Listen, Jeremy is an idiot, and I know this with certainty because I was once a Jeremy." "Trust me." "We learn eventually." "So I've been staring at this image all day, wondering why it looked so familiar..." "And I was right." "It's the same design." "So your grandmother said this necklace belonged to the witch that put the hybrid curse on Klaus, right?" "This symbol is repeated all across the wall, and I've been trying to figure out what it meant." "Now I know." "How fun is this?" "We shouldn't be here." "Of course we should." "Come on." "Like you've never wanted to snoop." "Boxer briefs." "Now, that's a change from the twenties." "Are you gonna root through his stuff all night, or are you gonna start to tell me your story?" "You really are no fun." "What do you want to know?" "Well, Elijah said that your father was a landowner in Europe." "How did you guys end up here?" "My parents had just started a family when a plague struck their homeland." "They lost a child to it." "They wanted to escape and protect their future family from the same fate." "So how did you end up here?" "This part of the world hadn't even been discovered yet." "Heh." "Not by anyone in your history books." "But my mother knew the witch Ayana, who heard from the spirits of a mystical land where everyone was healthy..." "Blessed by the gifts of speed and strength." "That led my family here, where we lived amongst those people." "The werewolves." "To us, they were just our neighbors." "My family lived in peace with them for over 20 years, during which time my family had more children, including me." "You make it sound so normal." "It was." "Once a month, our family retreated to the caves beneath our village." "The wolves would howl through the night, and by morning, we'd return home." "Ayana, you burned me." "That is not yours to touch." "Mother!" "Is that Klaus?" "Something is wrong." " Henrik!" " Mother!" "One full moon, Klaus and my youngest brother Henrik snuck out to watch the men turn into beasts." "That was forbidden." "Henrik paid the price." "Henrik, no." "No." "What happened?" "The wolves." "I'm sorry." "I'm so sorry." "We must save him." "Please, there must be a way." "The spirits will not give us a way, Esther." "Your boy is gone." "No." "No." "And that was the beginning of the end of peace with our neighbors." "And one of the last moments my family had together as humans." "You better get that." "That'll be Damon checking up on you." "Hello." "Hey." "Damon, where are you?" "No idea, but I'm pretty sure I'm overdressed." "Still standing?" "Yes." "I'm fine, but I can't talk right now." "I'll be at the bar." "Was that Stefan?" "Yeah." "I kind of went off-book, but don't worry." "I know what I'm doing." "Damon, how could you let him out?" "I've got this, Elena." "What are we drinking?" "Hopefully something a little bit warmer, a little blonder." "Hi." " Hello..." " Hey." ""Callie."" "I would love a shot of your best whiskey, and my brother here would love a shot of you." "What's the catch, Damon?" "No catch, brother." "Drink up." "It's on me." "Hi, Callie." "Drink up, brother." "Will you get us another bottle of this, hmm?" "You been on this bunny diet for the better part of 50 years, so how is it that Saint Stefan, of all people, gets good at a drinking game?" "Well, the bunny diet gave me a lot of time to practice." "Hmm." "Wallow in despair." "Drown in guilt." "Regret my existence." "It's precision born out of tragic boredom." "Drink up, brother." "All that effort wasted trying to tell you how boring you were, and now you finally agree with me?" "Damon, you are worse than Elena." "Getting me drunk." "Brotherly bonding." "What, you think I'll break down, and you can pull me back from the edge?" "Is that it?" "I happen to like the edge, Stefan." "Your problem is your inability to resist falling over it." "You're all or nothing, man." "You can't just be." "Although..." "Who am I to judge?" "Drink up, brother." "Did you get your fill of snooping yet?" "Can we get on with the story?" "Honestly, I don't get you two as a couple." "Why would you?" "You don't know anything about who he really is." "I know exactly who he is." "He's a vampire." "We're a predatory species." "We don't have time to care about humans and their silly little lives." "Is that why you did that runway show earlier?" "If you don't care about the homecoming dance?" "You know what?" "I'm just gonna go." "You haven't even heard half the story." "And you're not going to tell it." "You're just bored and looking for someone to push around." "Find someone else to play with." "Maybe you can compel yourself a friend." "The necklace wasn't Stefan's to give." "It belonged to the original witch." "The one who put the hybrid curse on Klaus?" "Not just the hybrid curse." "She's the one who turned us into vampires." "Please, Ayana, I implore you." "You must call upon the spirits before the next full moon." "I will not." "It is a crime against nature." "Ayana, we have already lost too much." "We cannot lose any more." "The spirits can help us find a way to protect our children." "I'm thirsty." "Do you want a drink?" "So vampirism was a form of protection?" "What else would it be?" "A curse." "My parents only saw a way of keeping their children alive." "Yeah, but why stay?" "If they were so afraid of the werewolves, why not leave?" "Pride." "My father didn't want to run anymore." "He wanted to fight and be superior to the wolves." "Where they could bite, we had to bite harder." "Where they had speed, we had to be faster." "Agility, strength, senses." "Everything could be heightened." "Our family could live forever." "At what cost?" "This magic you speak of breeds consequence." "This is the makings of a plague, Esther." "The spirits will turn on you." "Please, Ayana." "I will have no part in it." "If she will not protect our family..." "Then it is in your hands alone, my love." "In her hands?" "How could she do anything?" "Because my mother was also a witch." "What?" "The witch of the original family, the original witch." "Where do they keep their best vintage?" "But if your mother was a witch, then..." "Am I?" "No." "A witch is nature's servant." "A vampire is an abomination of nature." "You can either be one or the other, never both." "My mother did this for us." "She did not turn." "How did you turn?" "She called upon the sun for life and the ancient white oak tree, one of nature's eternal objects, for immortality." "That night, my father offered us wine laced with blood." "And then he drove his sword through our hearts." "He killed you." "And he wasn't delicate about it either." "Rebekah." "Blood." "What happened?" "It'll be all right." "We will be all right." "What are you doing?" "We must finish what we started." "You have to drink if you want to live." "We had to drink more blood to complete the ritual." "Drink." "Drink!" "Drink!" "It was euphoric." "The feeling of power was indescribable." "But the witch Ayana was right about the consequences." "The spirits turned on us, and nature fought back." "For every strength, there would be a weakness." "The sun became our enemy." "It kept us indoors for weeks." "And then my mother found a solution." "There were other problems." "Inside." "Neighbors who had opened to their homes to us could now keep us out." "Flowers at the base of the white oak burned and prevented compulsion." "And the spell decreed that the tree that gave us life could also take it away." "So we burned it to the ground." "But the darkest consequence was something my parents never anticipated..." "The hunger." "Blood had made us reborn, and it was blood that we craved above all else." "We could not control it." "And with that..." "The predatory species was born." "Nothing to see here." "Just run along." "Okay?" "Hey, hey, hey." "Ease up." "Ease up." "She's giving us her employee discount." "Now just run along." "All right, time to fess up." "What's the point of the jailbreak?" "Hmm?" "I thought you could use a hug, Stefan." "Come on, Damon." "You know Elena's gonna hate you for letting me out, and we both know that you care about what she thinks." "Maybe I wanted to remind you what freedom was like before Klaus took it from you." "As long as Klaus is alive," "I do what he says." "That's my point, Stefan." "You've given up." "Now, you can sit around and be his little bitch, or you can get mad enough, and you can do something about it." "Damon, he can't be killed." "Maybe I can help with that." "The Salvatore boys, I presume." "Mikael." "Why did Mikael start hunting Klaus?" "When Nik made his first human kill, it triggered his werewolf gene." "With that, he became my father's greatest shame." "Yeah." "Elijah told me this part of the story." "Your mother had had an affair with one of the werewolf villagers." "Klaus wasn't his son." "She tried to make it right." "She put the hybrid curse on Nik to suppress his werewolf side, and then she turned her back on him," "but Mikael's greatest weakness as a human was his pride." "As a vampire, that was magnified." "He went on a rampage and killed half the village." "Then he came home and killed her." "Mikael killed your mother?" "He said she broke his heart so he would break hers." "He tore it from her chest as Nik watched." "Afterwards, my father took off in a rage, and the rest of my family scattered." "Nik stayed so he could help me bury her." "He knew I had to say good-bye to my mother." "I know you think she hated you, Niklaus, but she did not." "She was just afraid." "I'm sorry she turned her back on you." "I will never do that." "Nor will I." "We stick together as one." "Always and forever." "Always and forever." "Even though he locked you in a coffin for 90 years." "We're vampires." "Our emotions are heightened." "I'm stubborn," "Elijah moral, and Nik..." "Nik has no tolerance for those who disappoint him." "Over a thousand years as a family, we've all made that mistake at least once." "I've made it several times." "But you still love him?" "He's my brother, and I am immortal." "Should I spend an eternity alone instead?" "You've heard the story." "It's time to go." "I said leave, Elena." "I don't know what you're up to, but I am no longer playing along." "I'm just looking for one good reason why we shouldn't wake Mikael." "And I've given you a thousand." "But you will anyway." "I know you want him to help you kill my brother." "I'm not stupid." "It's no secret that I want Klaus dead." "He has a hold over Stefan's life and over mine." "Do what you need." "Wake Mikael at your own peril." "But make no mistake." "If you come after my brother," "I will rip you apart." "And I get my temper from my father." "Now leave." "Has Klaus entered the country?" "I can't tell you." "Has he spoken to you since he left?" "I can't tell you." "All right." "Can you tell me the last time you spoke to Niklaus?" "I am compelled to do what he says, and he says to keep my damn mouth shut." "I really hope this game of 20 questions isn't your secret weapon." "You see, Damon," "I've been a vampire Hunter longer than you've been alive." "It's why I found you here." "It's why I'm gonna find Niklaus." "Well, Klaus has been running for about a thousand years, so if you think you're gonna get a workaround he..." "Careful, Stefan." "One move, and his heart's gone." "Now..." "Where is Klaus?" "Come on." "What's the trick question, Stefan?" "One twist, and he's dead." "Unless you don't care, of course." "His emotions have been shut off." "He can't care." "Really?" "His link to Klaus is so strong that..." "He would let his own brother die?" "No ideas?" "Hmm?" "Think, Stefan." "I guess you're right." "He's a dead end." "And so are you, Damon." "Wait." "I can bring him back." "I can lure Klaus back to Mystic Falls." "And there is our loophole." "Just had to rile him up a bit." "Get Klaus back to Mystic Falls, and I will gladly drive a stake through his heart." "Fail..." "I'll drive it through yours." "Yeah." "Filled in what we could." "Got vampire, werewolf, slaughter, mayhem, et cetera, et cetera." "Which means that was when they burned down the tree, destroying the only way that they could be killed." "Okay, so tree equals weapon, sort of, but we already knew that." "What we're not sure about is this." "We've got the witch symbol and what looks like a bleeding heart." "Upside-down figures usually signify death of some kind." "Mikael killed the witch by ripping out her heart." "But why is that one connected to the witch's death?" "I don't know." "We haven't gotten that far." "Oh, my God." "Rebekah doesn't know the real story." "I thought I told you to leave twice." "How do you know that Mikael killed your mother?" "Nik was there." "He told me." "He lied to you." "And how do you know that?" "The cave where you carved your family's names is covered in symbols, the story of your family..." "How your parents arrived, how they made peace, the spell that turned them into vampires, and this." "This is the symbol for hybrid." "It's the combination of the werewolf and the vampire symbol." "And this is the one for your mother." "Her necklace." "And this is the story of her death." "The hybrid killed the original witch." "Not Mikael, Klaus." "No." "No, he wouldn't." "She put the curse on him, made it so that he would be the only one of his kind, and then she rejected him." "With the werewolf gene comes aggression and violence." "When he turned, all of that was heightened." "He killed her, Rebecca, and then he made up this entire lie about your father so that he wouldn't lose you." "These mean nothing." "They're just stupid drawings." "Done by stupid people who had no idea who my family was!" "Then why are you so upset?" "Why are you doing this to me?" "I've done nothing to you." "Klaus killed your mother." "He has a hold on you, on me, on everyone." "He has for a thousand years." "We have to make it stop." "Shut up!" "Just shut up!" "Don't talk anymore!" "Nothing!" "Well, I give you 10 points for flair." "At least now we know where Klaus and Elijah learned their tricks from." "Don't think you had to wait till the last second to have your breakthrough, though." "Heh." "Didn't have a breakthrough, Damon." ""Ooh." "Ooh, my brother's about to die, and I just had to save his life for the bajillionth time."" "Careful, Stefan." "Your humanity's showing." "Actually, you know what?" "You're right, Damon." "You're right." "You reminded me what my freedom felt like." "Ah." "And when we kill Klaus," "I'll be free, free to leave." "See, I didn't do this for you, Damon." "I did it for myself." "Sure, Stefan." "Whatever you say." "Why are you doing this, huh?" "What do you want from me?" "Why is everybody trying to save me?" "Because I have to, Stefan." "Because you're in this mess with Klaus because you saved my life, because I owe you." "And I can't just leave you in a cell to rot." "Aww." "Better be careful, brother." "Your humanity's showing." "Damon, seriously?" "We got Mikael." "What?" "How?" "No idea." "I guess Katherine came through." "The plan's in motion." "See?" "Told you I had it." "Go ahead." "Kick, yell, scream." "I'm sure you've been planning your rant all day." "I'm not gonna yell at you." "Why not?" "I went behind your back, freed Stefan." "And you know what?" "It backfired." "He's an even bigger dick than ever." "It's just now he's a dick that's on our side." "I'm not mad." "I'm tired." "I just..." "I want to go to bed." "No, I think Mikael's weapon is a stake, because he mentioned something about it." "Well, then they must have carved it from the white oak tree before they burned it down." "So I was right." "After all that, the wall led us to Mikael." "It led us to more than just that." "I think I got Rebekah on our side, too." "Really?" "What'd you learn from her?" "I learned that she's just a girl, then she lost her mom too young, and she loves blindly and recklessly, even if it consumes her." "You know, when all is said and done, there's nothing more important than the bond of family." "You should tell that to my brother." "I'm not mad at you for letting him out, Damon." "I think that you're gonna be the one to save him from himself." "It won't be because he loves me." "It'll be because he loves you." "Can I tell you the rest tomorrow?" "Sure."