The smell of spring time. For Alyss there was nothing that smelled sweeter than flowers in bloom and it always managed to make her heart swell up and feel as light as a feather. Mother said that this was because she and her brother Kol were special, two children born of the same mother at the same time and blessed by the powers of nature by the gift of magic. It meant that Alyss and Kol were not only connected by blood but by magic as well. Alyss wasn't exactly sure what that meant but her mother had that it meant that she was very important and destined for great things and Alyss would believe her mother as she had no reason to lie to her. Walking through the woods, heading back to the village after gathering some herbs for her mother and Ayana, Alyss became aware that someone was following her. She could hear their footsteps behind her, almost matching her step for step. It wasn't the men in the village who turned into wolves at the full moon as it was daylight so it had to be someone else. Alyss chose not to do anything about it as she wasn't in any danger of the sort so she just contained walking back towards the village. But as she kept walking Alyss could hear the footsteps behind her getting louder, despite the person's attempts to remain as quiet as possible. No matter how hard they tried Alyss was fully aware of the person behind her and she waited until they were right behind her and then she turned around and scooped the culprit into her arms.

"Got you Henrik!" Alyss giggled as she pulled her baby brother into an even tighter embrace and placed a loving kiss on his cheek before ruffling her brother's dark hair in an affectionate manner. Henrik, her dear sweet baby brother whom was the centre of her entire existence and the most beloved member of their family for good reason. He was like a little doe, so innocent and pure with this warmth about him that drew people in. Henrik was perhaps the person in their family who held the biggest spot in her heart, most certainly Alyss regarded her little brother with the most affection.

"Alyss!" Henrik whined as he struggled to release himself from his sister's grasp which only made Alyss laugh even more as little Henrik seemed to be growing up so quickly, brushing off all her affection because he was a man just like father and their brothers which meant he was too old to be smothered with her love and kisses. Henrik loved to point out that she didn't go around hugging Finn or Lijah with kisses like they were small children clinging to their mother's. It always made Alyss chuckle the amount her brother fought her on this as no matter how much Henrik would complain, it would never change the fact that for Alyss he was her most beloved baby brother.

"Aww, you're so cute when you're mad!" Alyss said as she let go off her brother and he immediately went about straightening out his hair and tunic. It made Alyss laugh as despite how tough her little brother made himself out to be, she knew he secretly loved the affection that was showered on him by Alyss and the rest of their siblings. But Henrik yearned to be a man, to be a warrior like their father who was tough and strong for his family and struck fear into everyone he approached.

"How long did you know I was there?" Henrik questioned.

"Not long." Alyss lied as she looked into her brother's dark eyes, so young and full of life not to mention hope. Alyss detested lying to her brother but she would do it because she never wanted to see that light disappear from her brother's eyes.

"But you still knew I was there…" Henrik said with a small pout and Alyss let out a small smile, her brother had recently trying to become stealthier which involved him running off and hiding somewhere before coming back and trying to sneak up on his siblings. It wasn't going too well for him and Alyss was always aware of when Henrik was trying to sneak up on her, but she couldn't fault him for trying and she found it quite sweet and funny although she would never tell her brother that as she did not want to hurt his feelings.

"I'll admit you've been getting better." Alyss said in an effort to try and cheer up her brother.

"Not as good as Niklaus." Henrik noted comparing himself to their brother Niklaus who he greatly admired and loved spending time with. If Alyss was ever looking for Henrik all she had to do was keep a look for Niklaus and sure enough she would find her youngest brother not far behind. The two of them could not be separated.

"I don't know whether that's a bad thing Little One, the way Niklaus manages to sneak up on people without them noticing isn't normal… Is that what brings you here? Does our brother require something from me?" Alyss questioned as whilst she admired how close her two brothers were, she did hope that Henrik wouldn't pick up all of Niklaus' bad habits such as his petulance of sneaking up on people. Alyss couldn't remember how many time Niklaus had managed to sneak up on her out of nowhere without making a sound and almost frightening her death. It was all rather unnatural.

"Niklaus doesn't but Kol does, our brother asked me to come find you and bring you back to the village so we could all play!" Henrik stated in a rather animated manner and Alyss couldn't help but laugh as out of all her siblings, of course it was Kol who refused to grow up. Always wanting to play around and have fun as if he could be forever young without a care in the world.

"Is that so? How like Kol if our brother wants to play them I suppose we should hurry home so we can join in the fun!"

There weren't many downsides to be a vampire and already living for a thousand years, sure Alyss needed blood to survive, she required a ring with a very special and enchanted stone in order to walk around in the daylight and she had to be invited in to people's homes but apart from that? Alyss life was perfect and she didn't have a compliant except for the fact that she couldn't turn her memories off and she had about a thousand year's worth of memories stored in her head and there was a lot of loss in there. But for Alyss most of the time her mind wondered back to a thousand years ago, back when she was still human and before everything changed. Even after all this time her heart hadn't healed over the loss over the loss of her Henrik, her beloved little brother. 1000 years had passed, the world had changed in so many ways before Alyss' eyes and yet the loss of her brother was still as clear as day. Entering her apartment, Alyss paid no attention to the man who was standing in her living room as she kicked the door shut behind her and dropped her bag to the floor and went off in search for a drink. Upon finding herself a glass Alyss went about pouring herself a large scotch and downing it very quickly, ignoring the unpleasant taste it left in her throat. Even after all this time Alyss hadn't acquired a taste for scotch although she still allowed herself to drink it as it helped curb the blood cravings.

Alyss wore it so she could always have a bit of her little brother with her as even after a thousand years, she missed Henrik so much and the memories of the final days she would have with her baby brother often plagued her both awake and asleep. Going to put her glass in the sink Alyss became distracted by a potted orchid with a big bow on it that was sitting next to her refrigerator, which hadn't been there when she had left earlier. Even before opening the card attached to the flowers Alyss couldn't help but smile.

Alyss,

Gone out with the guys, be back around 6 – Cass.

x

Even after all this time that she had been living, there was nothing more that Alyss loved than flowers. Her love of flowers gave a small connection to nature given that upon becoming a vampire, Alyss had lost all her magic given that you couldn't be a witch and a vampire, witches were servants of nature and vampires were considered to be their enemy so the day that Alyss had become a vampire, her magic had been lost forever. It had taken some time to adjust to such a huge loss as magic had been such a huge part of her life but Alyss had learned to adapt. Once again looking at the note in her hand, Alyss couldn't help but let out a goofy grin as this had been a welcome surprise. Caspian Smith was somewhat Alyss' boyfriend but she used the term loose very loosely indeed. But he knew enough about Alyss to know that sending her flowers would cheer her up, he also knew about her name. In this decade Alyss went by the name Alice Taylor and spelt her name as Alice as it saved for less confusion and explaining when people asked why her name was spelt as Alyss instead of the more 'traditional' Alice. Being a thousand year old vampire living in New York City meant that Alyss needed to keep attention off her and her real name attracted the unwanted attention that Alyss didn't need. Her existence and her kind were kept a secret from humans for a reason and Alyss was intending to keep it like that. But Alyss didn't need to worry about that at the moment, as she needed to deal with the person in her living room, so turning around Alyss leaned against her breakfast table and looked out into her open plan living room where a familiar figure was standing in a crisp suit, waiting to be acknowledged.

"Hello brother." Alyss said with a small smile as she warmly greeted Elijah, her second oldest brother and the third born child of their parents eight children. Elijah was perhaps the only real family that Alyss had left in this entire world and he was the only person who she completely trusted.

"Alyss."

"As ever it is good to see you Elijah, you look as well as a decrepit old man can be whilst stuck in a never ageing body. So what brings you to New York all of a sudden? Not that I'm not pleased to see you Lijah, you know you're always welcome here but you generally don't come to New York." Alyss questioned as she eyed her brother who stood out like a sore thumb in her rather bright and colourful apartment. Out of the two of them, Elijah was the straight laced, always well dressed and polite with such refined taste. Then there was Alyss who was not quite the polar opposite of her brother but her and Elijah certainly had their differences and it wasn't just in clothes. Although Elijah for the most part was almost always dressed in a suit and Alyss was more causal of the two with a somewhat nice blouseand jeans with her dark hair always pulled into a ponytail. The two of them very much contrasted each other with how they chose to live their respective life's but Alyss always thought that was the reason that even after all this time they had still gotten along well with each other. Alyss had never had an easy relationship with her siblings, they all seemed to want to do things their own way, their personalities all becoming much stronger not mention more volatile once they had become vampire not to mention the temper they had all inherited from their father Mikael. But her and Elijah? They seemed to be the ones who had held onto their humanity the most and kept an eye on their wayward siblings as best they could.

"We need to talk." Elijah said and Alyss allowed herself to lazily roll her eyes as that was no big surprise as all her and Elijah ever did was talk that's how they chose to spend their time together. Occasionally they went to the theatre or even the opera given how Elijah had more mature tastes compared to Alyss and the last place you'd catch a man like him was in a bar in Hell's Kitchen.

"And you couldn't just call me? You do know that's why telephones were invented Elijah, so that people could still talk to each other without having to be in the same place." Alyss quipped but her brother failed to laugh or even acknowledge the joke. Alyss knew that Elijah had a very dry sense of humor but he usually found her funny. But there was nothing except a stoic expression on Elijah's face and it didn't take Alyss long to realise that there was something wrong. She knew her brother, Alyss had known her brother her entire life and she knew that he wouldn't have come all this way to New York to have an idle conversation with her. Elijah would have only come all this way if whatever it was so was important that he couldn't tell her over the phone, that it had to be discussed in person. No doubt it was something to do with Niklaus and some mammoth mess their brother was in the midst of creating that they needed to go and clean it up before things really got out of hand. "So what is it brother? What on earth is so bad that you were waiting for me to come home?"

"The next Petrova doppelgänger has been found Alyss." Elijah announced and Alyss was stunned as that had not been what she had been expecting to hear. Anything but that and yet the all familiar troubling feeling appeared in the pit of her stomach at the mention of those dreaded two words. The Petrova doppelgänger had caused nothing but trouble to her family especially in regards to Elijah and Niklaus. Nothing but troublemakers the lot of them each time they made an appearance which was about every five hundred years or so. It was the blood of a Petrova that had been used to turn Alyss and her family into vampires.

"That's not funny, don't even joke about something like that Lijah…" Alyss darkly replied as whilst she enjoyed a joke and a laugh as much as the next person there were something that you didn't joke about and the doppelgänger was not one of those things.

"Would I joke about such a thing Alyss?" Elijah questioned in an equally dark manner.

"Are you sure that it's her? It could be a mistake and just be that other doppelgänger Katerina…" Alyss questioned referring to the previous doppelgänger Katerina Petrova who had been so close in being sacrificed as part of the ritual to lift the curse off Niklaus until she managed to escape and run off before it was due to happen, transitioning into a vampire so her blood could not be used. Therefore, ensuring her survival albeit being forced to go on the fun for the last five hundred years because there were countless people hunting her down on behalf of Alyss' brother Niklaus.

"I went to see the girl myself, human blood is in her veins Alyss, she is the doppelgänger." Elijah quietly announced and Alyss sighed, she should have never doubted her brother about as she knew that Elijah telling her that he had found the second Petrova doppelgänger then he must have found her.

"What does Klaus have to say about this? I suppose he must thrilled about this, after all he's been trying to find a way to break this curse for the last 500 years without the doppelgänger and now one just appears out of nowhere…" Alyss asked referring to their brother Niklaus by Klaus as he preferred to go by. The Petrova doppelgangers were like the Maltese falcon or the Holy Grail to Klaus given that the curse he had been trying to break was one that had been bound to him by their mother. Klaus was actually Alyss and Elijah's half-brother, born as a result of an affair their mother had with a werewolf in their village but Alyss hadn't been aware of this. Pretty much nobody else in their family knew until Klaus has made his first kill after becoming a vampire and triggering his werewolf gene. It had become clear that Klaus wasn't like them, he was a hybrid; werewolf and vampire and the first of his kind. An abomination as their father Mikael would tell them and soon after their mother Esther placed a curse on Klaus, making his werewolf side dormant. To break the curse placed on him Klaus need a few things but the biggest component he need was the Petrova doppelgänger given as Tatia Petrova's blood had been used to curse him. In 1492 Klaus had come close to breaking it until Katerina Petrova escaped and became a vampire, needless to say he wasn't very happy about it ever since.

"About that Alyss–" Elijah began and Alyss could see where this was going.

"You haven't told him? Why not? You do realise that Klaus has been waiting about a thousand years give or take a decade or so to break this curse Lijah." Alyss couldn't help but point out the obvious as this wasn't exactly information that the two of them could keep to themselves. Klaus would find out eventually, one way or the other, the news would eventually reach him.

"I haven't told him, yet…" Elijah said and Alyss' eyebrows just went to the roof over this whole thing as she knew that her brother was well aware that Klaus would be pissed as hell, when he found out that Elijah had found the doppelgänger and kept that information from him. Klaus had a temper, they all did but the Big Bad Klaus as he was known in the vampire community had even worse temper which stemmed from his werewolf side and Alyss liked to avoid as her brother was not one to be reasonable when he was angry and things had never ended well, they had always ended rather bloody.

"Far be it from me to try and tell you what to do big brother, but as your sister I think it's best that you tell Niklaus before he finds out from anyone else. You know what Klaus is like about secrets, he must know everything about everyone."

"I'm quite aware of that little sister but before I did that, I wanted to come and see you and talk to you about something that is quite sensitive to say the least." Elijah said in a cryptic manner and Alyss couldn't help but frown, her brother was being all weird and mysterious which was nothing new as Elijah was one of those typical silent kind of people. But given that this was no doubt going to involve the second doppelgänger Alyss couldn't help but be a bit wary but nevertheless she motioned for Elijah to continue. Instead he walked away from the windows of Alyss' apartment and idly walked though the living room before settling himself into the kitchen and picking up the discarded card that came with the flowers and glanced at it. Elijah didn't have to say anything for Alyss to know what her brother was thinking given the look that he was giving her, without a doubt he was curious about the sender and what sort of relationship Alyss had with him if she was receiving flowers from this Caspian character.

"Is that so?"

"I assume these are from the man in the photographs? Boyfriend?" Elijah questioned and Alyss couldn't help but blanche, clearly Elijah had taken a look around the place before Alyss had come home and noticed the photographs of his sister with a male companion and connected the dots. Alyss hadn't intended for Elijah to find out about Caspian, if she had known he was dropping in for a visit then she would have made a conscious effort to hide the photographs like she normal did. For Alyss there was a clear divide with her own personal life and her family. They were two separate things which did not interact with each other.

"He is nobody of interest to you Lijah…" Alyss quipped in an offhand and rather flippant manner as snooping through her life wasn't Elijah's style, it was more Klaus' style. Yet for some reason Elijah let out a small chuckle, it was something that Alyss hadn't seen in a while. "What may I ask is so funny brother?"

"Just then you sounded so much like Kol, even after all this time you two are still two sides of the same coin." Elijah said and Alyss felt her heart constrict at the mention of their brother Kol, who just so happened to be Alyss' twin. But the two of them weren't together, they had been separated for a century all thanks to Klaus. For Alyss it was like she was living life as a twin less twin, Kol was dead yet also alive but also quite dead in a manner of speaking given what Klaus had done with him. Alyss had never known what it was like to be truly alone until Klaus had taken Kol from her, sure they had both been neutralized at times but they had never been apart especially for this long and Alyss knew she was never going to see him again. Not a day went past then Alyss' heart didn't ache for twin brother.

"You said yourself that you wanted to talk to me about something sensitive Elijah and if you had wanted to spend this time talking all about Kol then you would have brought me something expensive to drink and made sure I had at least two drinks in me before you broached the topic of Kol. So let's get to the point Elijah as we are both not getting any younger."

"Klaus is going to find out about the doppelgänger eventually and when he does, he is going to come after her and make sure that this time things go to plan and he doesn't have a repeat of what happened with Katerina. I want to use the doppelgänger to lure Klaus out and then kill him when he tries to break the curse." Elijah stated and at first Alyss was convinced that she had misheard her brother until it was apparent that she hadn't. She did indeed hear him say that he wanted to kill Klaus. Alyss found this hard to believe as there had been countless times over the centuries where she wanted to disown Klaus, she had threatened to kill him a couple of times and it was Elijah who had been the one to stop her. Always playing the family card and yet now he was having some serious change of tune.

"Forgive me for asking the obvious, but why? After all this time why do you want Klaus gone? Mikael has wanted him dead for hundreds of years and you always made sure that father didn't get to Klaus, you always went out of your way to protect him… We all did. So why have you changed your mind Lijah? You've always been about keeping the family together." Alyss demanded.

"I used to think that Niklaus could be saved, call it naivety or blind faith on my part but I believed that us being together and being a family could save him and what little humanity he had left would remain but I am ashamed to admit to admit I was wrong Alyss. There is no humanity in Klaus anymore as why else would he enjoy committing the atrocities that he has done? How much blood is on his hands from the people he's hurt simply because he could? Klaus has hurt, maimed and tortured innocent people for his own enjoyment and do I even have to remind you about what he has done to our own family? Klaus daggered Finn, Kol and Rebekah and buried them at sea. You've been without your twin brother for a hundred years and I know you miss Kol every day Alyss."

"I miss them all Lijah. Every day I think of them even Finn, whose been neutralized for the last 900 years. Now I admit that Klaus is no angel and he has done some terrible things in his time but haven't we all? I'm not saying we should ignore what he's done Lijah or even forgive him for those actions but hunting our own brother to kill him? Makes us no better than Mikael or even Klaus himself and if I should simply agree to kill Klaus because he took Kol away from me then within that reasoning I should want to kill you as well Lijah, as you may have not put the dagger in that time but you've helped Klaus to dagger Kol on occasion and I do recall the two times you did it to me and I'll remind you once again, that it hurt what little feelings I have Lijah. Naturally it was something I expected from Klaus but never you." Alyss replied in a rather idle manner as whilst she wasn't the biggest fan of Klaus, killing him seemed to be a bit drastic. Usually when she wanted to kill Klaus, she was very emotional and in a very volatile state of mind.

"I've apologized for that several time Alyss, I would not have done it if there was any other option but it needed to be done, Kol was out getting out of control all of those times and nothing could be done to stop him. It was better for us all if he was out of the way and not getting into trouble for a while." Elijah replied and Alyss allowed her to scoff.

"Better for who? You, Klaus and Bekah who were like some merry little band always running off together. I know that Kol is a handful at times but that's just who he is, he's gone through so much that you could never understand, so he acts in this wild manner because behind that cocky and arrogant young man is someone who is struggling with some personal issues and has been for a long time which is why I didn't try to control him. He deserved better from you of all people. You have the nerve to suggest that Kol is difficult but I have always been able to handle Kol, he listens to me and if I asked him to do something I knew he wouldn't like, he did it albeit with some complaining but he did it because I treated him like he mattered. Like he was important to me because that's what he was Lijah, Kol mattered to me, he was my twin brother."

"You don't think I know that Alyss? We all knew how close you were which is why I neutralized you those two times. I knew that you would have preferred that than to be without him." Elijah retorted and Alyss had to admit that she was surprised to see that her brother was becoming quite emotionally invested in this conversation. Clearly she had ruffled his feathers a bit by suggesting that Kol wasn't important to him.

"Besides if you're calling Kol difficult than what on earth would you call Niklaus? Certainly not difficult that's for sure! Let's not get started on Bekah as even though she wasn't nearly as bad as Klaus, she did have her moments!"

"Even after everything that Klaus has done to you after everyone he's taken from you Alyss you still love him. It's rather admirable. Not many would…" Elijah replied with a weary smile.

"I could say the same about you." Alyss stated as not only had Klaus taken their family from them but also friends, people who both Elijah and Alyss had cared about in a more intimate way. But Alyss wasn't sure that the two of them could just decide to kill Klaus for that. Klaus was many things but he was still their brother despite how unhinged the man was. He wasn't all bad, sure his humanity was questionable but there were some good parts in him somewhere.

"None of us ever imagined things would end up like this when mother and father made us like this, us becoming vampires was supposed to keep us together but looks what's happened. Mother is dead, Mikael is god knows where and Finn, Bekah and Kol are at the bottom of the ocean leaving the two of us and Klaus. This was not how things were meant to be Alyss and you know it. Just how much more do we have to go through before enough is finally enough? There was a reason why mother placed the curse on Klaus, a person should not be both a vampire and a werewolf and if Klaus is already bad enough now, how bad do you think things are going to get if he breaks the curse and his werewolf side is no longer dormant?" Elijah asked and Alyss knew he had a point, Klaus was as close too evil as you probably got and she had the displeasure of calling him her big brother.

"Elijah… I agree that Klaus should not be allowed to break the curse but killing him? Besides if Klaus even so much as found out about this crazy idea of yours or even suspected anything of the sort that he would hunt us both down and dagger us before tossing us into the ocean to join the rest of our family. Call me selfish but I don't want that and I don't like being daggered, it hurts like hell!" Alyss hissed, whilst she understood why Elijah wanted to kill Klaus and sympathized with him as their brother was literally the devil incarnate but Klaus was still their brother. Alyss also knew it was a beyond stupid idea that would never work. Not to mention she did not want to deal with a pissed off and vengeful Klaus who would hunt her down just for knowing that Elijah was plotting to kill him.

"Alyss…" Elijah began but Alyss didn't want to hear it in the slightest.

"You know I am right about this Elijah, you know what Klaus is capable of and what he does to people who betray him. Hell, Katerina Petrova is still running from him even after five hundred years and let me tell you something now, from personal experience it is no picnic going on the run from him. Or do you not remember that I went on the run for seven years after Klaus daggered Kol the last time? He knew I wasn't happy about what he had done and so Klaus wanted to shut me up for a while because I wasn't afraid to let him know that I didn't like what he was doing. Klaus knew I wouldn't let him get away with daggering Kol so of course he was going to come after me. There was no way he would live with me barking in his ears about Kol for the next century so he thought it was best to hunt me down. It took yours and Bekah's intervention to stop him and then he went and daggered her in the 1920's…" Alyss interrupted.

"You don't need to remind me, I remember but I can't do this without you Alyss."

"Yes you can Lijah, you just don't want to." Alyss pointed out with a pained smile. "I understand why you want to do this but Klaus is family too Lijah, if we kill him then it makes us no better than him. We can't pretend that we're the ones with the moral high ground if we go around doing things like this! It's not right!"

"Sometimes we have to do hard things for the greater good, it's a necessary evil." Elijah stated and Alyss knew he had a point, whilst she loved Klaus there was something's he had done which she could not forgive him for. Things she did not want to forgive him for. If he broke his curse more people were sure to die, starting with the vampire, werewolf and the doppelgänger who all needed to be sacrificed for the curse to be broken.

"We do this, then we have to do it properly and have an actual plan or several because we have to get this right. There's no way we can kill him with a White Ash Stake and we both know that the daggers don't work on him but there has to be a way. Nature would not have allowed for Klaus to even have a possibility of being a hybrid without there being a way to kill him. It's going to take power that we don't have along with time as Klaus will find out about the girl eventually. We need to be aware of the risks, we could succeed but maybe we won't and Klaus won't neutralise us, he will actually kill us and I'd preferably like to avoid that as I would like to live for at least another thousand years before I even ponder the idea of dying for good." Alyss found herself saying with a small sigh as despite everything, all the more issues that Alyss had with this she knew Elijah was right. Klaus had to die.

"I'm working on it."

Alyss slowly nodded her head before going about making herself and Elijah two very large glasses of scotch, given that they had just decided to kill their brother she thought they were going to need several stiff drinks down their necks before they got to work.