The tomb was cold and dark, the air heavy with centuries of isolation. Elena stood at the invisible barrier, watching her ancestor's weakened form with a mixture of pity and revulsion. Katherine Pierce - once Katerina Petrova - looked nothing like the terrifying vampire who had tormented them for so long.
"Why are we here again?" Damon asked, his usual snark barely masking genuine unease. "In case anyone's forgotten, she's not exactly reliable."
"Because," Stefan replied quietly, "she's the only one old enough to know about him. About the one they call Dracul."
At that name, Katherine's head snapped up, genuine fear flickering across her face before she could mask it. Even starved and weakened, that reaction sent chills through everyone present.
"You don't want to know about him," Katherine whispered, her voice hoarse. "Trust me on this - some questions are better left unasked."
"We need to know," Elena insisted. "The witches say he's coming - him and his family. And they're terrified."
Katherine's laugh was hollow. "Terrified? They should be. The King of Vampires, the Dragon, the one even the Devil fears..." She shook her head. "You have no idea what you're dealing with."
"Then tell us," Bonnie demanded. "Who is he really?"
Katherine shifted in the darkness, her eyes distant with memories. "I first heard about him in England, 1492. I was still human then, just another noble girl caught up in games I didn't understand."
"Trevor brought me to meet Lord Elijah," she continued, her voice taking on an almost dreamlike quality. "But it wasn't Elijah I needed to fear. It was his brother - Vali. The Original they called the Dragon."
"Why the Dragon?" Elena asked softly.
Katherine's laugh held no humor. "Because of what he does to those who defy him. They say when he truly unleashes his power, his victims see a dragon of living darkness before they die. But that's not why they truly fear him."
"Then why?" Damon pressed, his usual sarcasm absent.
"Because he's patient. Calculating. Everyone thinks Klaus is the volatile one, but they're wrong. Klaus's rage burns hot and fast. Vali?" She shuddered. "His is cold, endless. He'll wait centuries to execute a plan. And he never, ever fails."
"You ran from him," Stefan observed. "Like you ran from Klaus."
"No," Katherine's voice dropped to barely a whisper. "I ran from Klaus. I merely tried to avoid Vali's attention. There's a difference. Klaus hunts those who betray him. Vali..." she paused, genuine terror crossing her face,
"Vali collects them. Keeps them alive for centuries, perfectly preserved, just so they can witness what happens when someone truly earns his wrath."
"You're saying he's worse than Klaus?" Elena asked incredulously.
"Klaus is a force of nature - destructive but predictable. Vali is something else entirely. The mark on his arm..." Katherine trailed off, then seemed to catch herself. "But you don't want to know about that."
"The mark?" Bonnie leaned forward, her witch's instincts sensing something significant. "What mark?"
Katherine's eyes darted around, as if afraid speaking of it might summon its bearer. "Some say it's the mark of Death himself. Others claim it's something older. All I know is what I saw the night I truly understood what he was."
She shifted, drawing closer to the barrier despite her weakness. "It was after I turned. I thought I was clever, playing both Henrik and Elijah against each other. But Vali..." a bitter smile crossed her face. "He was always ten steps ahead."
"What happened?" Stefan asked quietly.
"I had arranged for some witches to help me disappear - powerful ones from an ancient line. They promised they could hide me from the Originals."
Her laugh was hollow. "Instead, they delivered me right to him. He had been playing them for centuries, letting them think they were gathering power to challenge him."
"And?" Damon prompted when she fell silent.
"And I watched him end a coven that had existed since before Rome with a single gesture. The mark blazed crimson, and suddenly..." she shuddered. "Have you ever seen a dragon made of living darkness? Seen it devour souls while leaving bodies perfectly intact? I have."
"But you escaped," Elena pointed out.
"Escaped?" Katherine's laugh held an edge of hysteria. "No, sweet Elena. He let me go. Said I was more useful as a cautionary tale than a corpse. But first..." she pulled down the collar of her shirt, revealing a scar that somehow hadn't healed despite her vampirism. "He marked me. Said that when the time came, he'd collect what was his."
"That's why you've been running all these years," Stefan realized. "Not just from Klaus..."
"Klaus would just kill me," Katherine said simply. "Vali? He has plans. Always has plans. Why do you think I'm really in this tomb?
You think your little witch spell could hold me if I truly wanted to leave? I don't leave because there's no point. He has already planned against any way possible..."
"What does he look like?" Elena asked suddenly. "This Vali - this Dragon everyone fears so much?"
Katherine's laugh echoed through the tomb, sharp and brittle. "Why don't you just look at Alexander?" Her eyes gleamed with dark amusement as everyone turned to the youngest Salvatore. "Nature's perfect echo of the monster himself."
"What?" Damon's voice was sharp as he looked between his younger brother and Katherine.
"Oh, you didn't know?" Katherine's smile was cruel despite her weakened state. "Your baby brother is a doppelganger, just like Stefan and Elena. Nature's attempt to balance power it never should have tried to match."
Alexander stood frozen, his usual confidence cracking slightly under this revelation. Katherine's smile widened at his expression.
"That's why I always enjoyed playing with you the most, Alexander. Sweet, noble Alexander," her voice turned mocking. "Watching those expressions of vulnerability, of love, of weakness cross that face..." She shuddered with remembered pleasure.
"It was like seeing the Dragon himself brought low. The closest I'd ever get to seeing such emotions on the face I feared most."
"You're lying," Alexander said, but there was uncertainty in his voice.
"Am I? Haven't you ever wondered why you feel so... different? Why sometimes your reflection doesn't feel quite like your own?" Katherine's eyes glittered with malice.
"You're wearing his face, Alexander. The face of the most dangerous creature to ever walk this earth. And you don't even know it."
"Stop playing games, Katherine," Stefan growled, stepping protectively closer to his younger brother. "If you're going to tell us something, tell us straight."
"But where's the fun in that?" Katherine pouted, though her eyes remained sharp. "Besides, watching my little dragon squirm is so... entertaining. Almost as entertaining as it was making him fall in love with me."
"That was a long time ago," Alexander said quietly, though something in his voice wavered.
"Was it, sweetheart?" Katherine's smile turned predatory. "Tell me, does it hurt knowing I only chose you because you wear his face? That every time I kissed you, touched you, whispered sweet nothings in your ear... I was imagining what it would be like to have that kind of power over him?"
"That's enough," Damon snapped, but Katherine wasn't finished.
"But here's the real joke, my darling copy - you're not even the first attempt. Nature tried once before to create a counterweight to the Dragon's power. That one was born dead." Her laugh echoed through the tomb.
"Even nature itself fails when it tries to replicate true perfection."
"If what you're saying is true," Bonnie interjected, "then why hasn't he come for Alexander before now?"
Katherine's expression shifted to something almost pitying. "Oh, sweet little witch. Who says he hasn't been watching all along? Why do you think I really came to Mystic Falls?" Her eyes found Alexander again.
"He's been waiting, my little dragon. Waiting for all the pieces to align perfectly."
"What pieces?" Elena pressed, though part of her feared the answer.
Katherine's smile widened. "Think about it - two Petrova doppelgangers in one place, Silas's shadow walking around in Stefan's skin, and nature's attempt to balance the Dragon himself..."
She gestured at Alexander. "All we're missing is a Bennett witch, a werewolf, and a vampire willing to die. Oh wait..." her eyes glittered maliciously, "we have all of those too, don't we?"
"A ritual," Bonnie realized, her face paling. "You're talking about some kind of ritual."
"Smart girl," Katherine purred. "Though you don't know the half of it. Tell me, my little dragon," she turned her attention back to Alexander, "have you ever wondered why you dream of crimson light?
Why sometimes you wake up feeling like there's something burning under your skin, right here?" She touched her own forearm in the same spot where Vali's mark would be.
Alexander's sharp intake of breath was answer enough.
"That's what I thought," Katherine's voice dropped to almost a whisper. "Nature trying to echo his power, creating pale imitations of the mark that makes him truly immortal. But you're just a copy, darling. A beautiful, breakable copy."
"Why are you telling us this?" Stefan demanded.
"Because," Katherine's smile turned sharp as she began to laugh hysterically "Nothing matters anymore! He's gonna be here soon! I set everything up for him, came here myself, all so that I can regain his favor. All so that he still cares enough to gift me life once more..."
"You're insane," Elena said, taking an instinctive step back from the barrier. "You talk about him like- like he's some kind of god- you've lost your mind down here."
Katherine's laugh started low, almost normal, before rising into something high and hysterical. "Insane? Yes! Yes, I am!" The laughter grew more manic, echoing off the tomb walls. "Five hundred years of running will do that to you, sweet Elena. Five hundred years of knowing he's watching, waiting, playing with his food..."
Her laughter suddenly broke, dissolving into quiet, terrified weeping. The transformation was jarring - the confident, manipulative Katherine Pierce crumbling away to reveal something broken underneath.
"You don't understand," she whispered through her tears, all pretense gone. "None of you do. I've seen him tear apart armies like they were paper dolls. I've watched him make angels bleed. And the whole time..." she shuddered, curling in on herself.
"the whole time he wears that same calm serene smile, like everything's okay. You don't know what it feels like for him to hug you with bloodied hands, kiss your brow and tell you that one day you'll die for him..."
Her eyes found Alexander again, genuine pity mixing with her fear. "My poor little dragon... you don't even know what it means to wear that face. To be a mirror of something that makes the devil himself think twice."
The silence that followed Katherine's breakdown was deafening. Even Damon, who always had a sarcastic comment ready, seemed at a loss for words.
"Katherine," Stefan started, his voice gentler than before, "when exactly did you last see him?"
Her head snapped up, a bitter smile crossing her tear-stained face. "That's the thing about the Dragon - you never really see him until he wants you to. But I felt him..." she shuddered.
"Two weeks ago. I was trying to get a message out to him, and suddenly the mark's scar started burning."
She pulled down her collar again, revealing the strange scar. To everyone's shock, it was pulsing with a faint crimson light.
"It's been getting stronger," she whispered, pulling her collar back up with trembling hands. "Every day, the light pulses brighter. Like it's counting down to something."
"To what?" Bonnie asked, though her voice suggested she already dreaded the answer.
Katherine's eyes darted around the tomb shadows before she spoke again. "Haven't you noticed? The way the darkness moves differently lately? The way shadows sometimes seem to have eyes?" She laughed, the sound brittle. "He's watching. Through every dark corner, every reflective surface..."
"You're being paranoid," Damon started, but Katherine cut him off.
"Am I? Tell them, Alexander. Tell them about the mirrors in your room - how sometimes your reflection moves wrong, how sometimes you see something vast and ancient looking back through your own eyes."
Alexander's silence was answer enough.
"The Dragon's getting closer," Katherine continued, her voice dropping to barely a whisper. "I can feel it in my bones, in this cursed mark he left on me. He's coming to collect what's his - all the pieces he's spent a millennium arranging. And there's nothing..." her voice cracked, "nothing any of us can do to stop it."
"There's always something we can do," Elena insisted, though her conviction wavered.
Katherine's responding laugh held an edge of madness. "Sweet, naive Elena. You still think this is a game you can win? This was never our story - we're just characters he's been moving around his board since before we were born. Even this conversation..." her eyes went wide with sudden realization. "Even this is probably part of his plan."
She curled in on herself, rocking slightly as she continued to speak, her voice becoming more frantic. "He's going to come through that door any moment now, wearing my little dragon's face but with eyes that see through everything, and he's going to smile that terrible gentle smile..."
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. So, how do you find the legend of Vali Mikaelson, the Dracul(meaning the Dragon), the Vampire King?
How did you all find Katherine's breakdown?
Though I wish to address something. Soon in chapters after this, you may see things that seem to make no sense, but do know I have a plan.
I am someone who hates things not making sense, so never doubt, when I write something, I do so with my best attempt to not forget established lore.
So yeah, hope you all enjoyed the chapter,
Do please comment and review if you haven't, and hopefully, I'll see you all later,
Bye!)