Ch.1: Awakened (set in 1x3)

*Five Years Ago*

        It was a rainy night in Storybrooke, as Katherine lay in a road. Despite everything she'd gone through in the prison world she'd escaped from that Kai was trapped in, she could make out that the town sign told her that she was in Storybrooke. She had a lower stomach wound with an arrow from Kai's crossbow. After she noticed the sign and heard the sound of a car, everything went black for her.

        The Evil Queen whom was known as Regina in Storybrooke, was driving for home. It was raining pretty hard, but she was able to see someone in the road in enough time to stop her car. It was raining so heavy, even she couldn't really see where she was going in her car. Then, when she stopped her car, she got out to investigate, only to find someone injured in the road. Someone she didn't know. So, when she couldn't find anything that told her who she was, she told Dr. Whale to let her know if anything changed, once she was taken to the hospital.

*Present Day*

        Mary Margaret was making her usual rounds at the hospital. There was a program going on that allowed her to take her class to see the patients in the hospital that day, so Henry, Regina's ten-year-old son, was with her when she set some flowers down on the end table by her bed that were in a vase.

        "Who's she?" he asked her. She was familiar to him because of his book of fairytales, but didn't want to give that away just yet.

        "Nobody knows. She's been like this for the past five years," she informed him.

        "Maybe you should read to her tonight," he stated. He was now ready to share with her, so he told her, "You should read her story. Then you can tell me if anything happened tomorrow morning," he added.

        Mary Margaret hadn't known that the girl's story was in his fairytale book. She just thought that it was an old book of fairytales that she'd given him to help him through what he was dealing with. She knew that he was lonely, so she wanted him to have something that was important. Something that would give him hope. She didn't think it would work to read the girl her own story, but she decided that if she did so and it did nothing, it would show him that fairytales didn't actually exist. And it would show him that without hurting him.

        "Okay, fine. I'll do it. Then we'll meet at Granny's Diner tomorrow morning and I'll give you a full report," she replied.

        That night, Mary Margaret sat on her hospital bedside and began to read her her story.

*1492- Flashback*

        It was a dismal night at a ball, as Katerina Petrova stood at the food table at a ball. She was waiting to be introduced to Lord Elijah and Lord Niklaus by Trevor. Trevor had found her and had escorted her here, once he'd invited her here, in which she'd accepted.

        When Lord Elijah came to stand in front of her, Trevor told her, "Katerina, let me introduce you to Lord Elijah."

        Katerina did a curtsy and gave a smile.

        "It's a pleasure, my Lord," she told him with a smile. Then she waited for a response, as he looked at her in silence for a few moments.

        "Apologies. You remind me of someone," Elijah apologized. Then he added, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

        "What of Lord Niklaus?" she inquired.

        "He's fashionably late as always," he stated. Then, a moment later, he saw his younger brother walk into the ball, heading towards them. Elijah then said, "Here he comes now."

        A few minutes later, Klaus was standing next to Elijah. That's when she did a curtsy for Klaus whom then kissed her hand. Then, when she called him Niklaus, he corrected her, saying, "Please. That's what my mother calls me. Call me Klaus." Then he gave her a smile as he spoken in Bulgarian, once Elijah told him that she was from Bulgaria.

        She gave him a smile and small laugh, complimenting Klaus, telling him, "Very good."

        Later, she came to live with Elijah and Klaus on their England estate, Klaus pretending to court her. She could sense that he didn't care about her at all, though. She even had a heart to heart with Elijah. Elijah was trying not to, but he was falling in love with her. Then they spoke of love, but he denied that he even believed in love.

        She looked at him, as they sat on a cement bench.

        "I'm sorry my Lord, but that is too sad for me to accept. If we cease to believe in love, why would we want to live?"

        When the night came that Klaus had to use her in a ritual to break the spell his mother set upon him 1,000 years ago, Katerina found out what existed and what Klaus needed her for. Then she stole the moonstone with Trevor's help and ran for her life, ending with her turning into a vampire to escape Klaus.

        However, when she heard of a rumor about a monster slaughtering a Bulgarian village, she rode on horseback to make sure her village was okay. That's when she found her entire village slaughtered. She then ran into the cottage she'd grown up in, only to find her father on the wall with a sword through his chest. Then she saw her mother on the bed with her throat torn open. She could care less about her father, but she was always so close to her mother. Because of that, she went and knelt by her mother, weeping over her until she couldn't cry anymore. Then she fled to keep ahead of Klaus.

*Present*

        That night, nothing physically happened, but in the morning, she'd woken up. Kat realized when she did that she was in a hospital she didn't know. She remembered seeing a sign that said Storybrooke on it, so she assumed this was the Storybrooke hospital. She also remembered hearing someone reading to her, but she didn't know who she was. She didn't even know how long she'd been in this hospital.

        Later that day, after school was over with, they went back to the hospital when they heard that she was awake.

        "See? I knew it would work," Henry stated to her.

        Katherine heard the boy talking to someone. Then she saw him come up to her with someone that had the voice of the person that had been reading her her story.

        "You're awake," Mary Margaret greeted.

        "Yeah. How long was I out?"

        "You were in a coma for five years," she informed her.

        "Well, thanks then. I guess you helped me come back," she replied. Then she looked at the boy. "And this was your plan I assume? If I overheard correctly, that is."

        "It was. Your story is in the book. No one knows who you are, but I do. The book is magical. If someone new comes to town, a new story appears in the book. Your story appeared in the book five years ago."

        "Well, considering the world I've lived in for so long, it's not too far fetched I guess. What's your name, kid?"

        "Henry," he told her.

        "Well, thank you, Henry. You should probably get going, though. I doubt this is your mother. I'm sure your real mother is probably worried about where you are, though."

        "I guess now we know who you are, at least," Mary Margaret told her. "It's nice to actually meet you, Katherine. I'm Mary Margaret. I've been leaving you flowers, but I didn't actually know who you are until now. Maybe we'll get to know each other some more later."

        "Yes. We should. I'll find you later, since I'm sure I'm getting out of here soon," Katherine replied. She then watched her leave. Then she saw someone else come in and approach.

        Regina approached the now awake Jane Doe, prepared to get whatever information out of her that she could. Then, when she saw Henry, she stood by him, saying, "I thought you were at the arcade. You're lying to me now?" Then she added, "Go on home and wait for me there. It's time we have a little chat about your disobedience." Then when Henry had gone, she turned to the stranger. "We haven't gotten a chance to meet. I found you five years ago. I'm curious. Who are you? How did you get here in the first place?"

        "First off, having had a daughter once, I'd say to take it a little easier on your kid. I'm Katherine Pierce. I got here on accident when I escaped a realm called a prison world. Kai's still trapped there as far as I know, so you won't have to worry about him, but he's a psychotic Gemini witch that doesn't like when other people leave without him. He injured me right before I got here. I was hoping for New Orleans or Mystic Falls, but instead, I got a glimpse of your town sign. Now that you know my name, who are you?"

        "You can call me Regina. As long as you're no threat, you can stay here if you'd like. Just to make it clear to you though, don't go near my son unless I know I can trust you. You don't know what I'm capable of," she replied.

        "Well, you don't know what I'm capable of either. I used to be the bad guy and I was pretty great at it. Then I was reunited with my daughter, which changed me into a better person. People that knew me before didn't want to see that I was trying to change, though. Then I died and ended up in the prison world, before I finally escaped. If you become my enemy, you don't want to find out who the old Katherine Pierce was," she replied to Regina.

        "We'll just have to see then," Regina replied, not really having anything else to say. She knew what it was like being the bad guy. She also knew what it was like to have a child, but also for everyone around you to see you as nothing more than the bad guy. She also knew that evil or bad guys weren't born, which made her wonder what had made her turn into a villain. To help her out a little though, Regina told her, "If you need something to eat or just a place to stay, you can ask Granny. She's always at the diner." Regina then left.

        Kat watched, as she left. Then, when she was discharged, she went to the diner for some Bourbon and something to eat. Then, when she'd finished her time at the diner, she left when it was dark out. She didn't know where to go, though. She didn't have a place to call home. She also didn't have money due to being a human, so she couldn't even ask for a room from Granny.

        Mary Margaret had just left the diner after a bad date with Dr. Whale. That's when she saw Katherine whom she'd only briefly gotten acquainted with earlier that day. She was standing against a wall, seeming to be having a dilemma with something, so she decided to go over and see if there was anything she could help her with.

        "Katherine?" she said, as she approached.

        "What do you want?" she asked her nicely.

        "I was going to ask you if you're okay. You seem to need some help of some kind," she answered the new Storybrooke member.

        "I'm okay, but I could probably use some money for a room. I never used to have to rely on money to get what I wanted and needed, so now that I'm alive again, I don't have any means for anything," Kat admitted to her, feeling that she was one of the few people here that she could actually trust.

        "Why don't you come stay with me? You can stay until you figure everything out," Mary Margaret suggested to her.

        "Well, considering my only option is not having any place to stay, I'll settle with that," she replied. Then she followed the elementary teacher to the apartment.

        Once they'd gotten to the apartment, the teacher made cocoa for them both, considering it was kind of a cold night. Then they got to talking, as they sat at the kitchen table across from each other.

        "So, I was wondering. Who does Henry think you are according to his book?" Mary Margaret asked her.

        "Well, he found me when I was still at the diner and explained it to me. He thinks I'm supposed to help everyone here get their happy endings back. He's also the only one that knows my story of what I've gone through. At least, the parts that aren't gruesome for children."

        "And what's your story? Everyone has one. Besides, you can trust me," she replied and assured her.

        "Well, to be honest, I grew up a lot like most of the fairytales in his story. I remember when horses were a form of transportation when you didn't want to walk or board a ship. I lived in a village in a cabin growing up, but my father and I never got along. I was very close to my mother, though. Then I got pregnant from someone that my father didn't choose for me. I was supposed to get married when my parents found out about my pregnancy. That's when my life changed. After Nadia was born, my father practically tore her from my arms and made sure that we could never find each other. My parents even banished me from Bulgaria entirely, so I ended up in England, where I had to quickly learn to be English. Then I met Trevor who invited me to a ball and introduced me to two brothers he knew. Elijah and Niklaus, though he liked it better when people called him Klaus. A while later, I learned that I'm a doppelganger and Klaus needed to do a ritual, because his mother set a spell upon him 1,000 years ago that he was trying to break. When Trevor told me all of this out of love he had for me, I ran with the moonstone Klaus needed, turned myself into a vampire, and fled. My first destination was back to Bulgaria to give my father what I felt he deserved after all the years he spent as not such a great father. When I got there, my entire village was slaughtered, including my parents. I had angered Klaus so much that he killed everyone I cared about. And that was the start. I spent 548 years running from Klaus, because he wanted his revenge against me. During that time, Elijah and I fell in love, but I also turned and fell in love with someone else. He hates me now for things I've done, but he once loved me the most. I did a lot of horrible things in order to survive Klaus all of those years, but I never orphaned children or hurt or killed any. After the cure for being a vampire got shoved down my throat, making me human again, my daughter found me at last. We made a connection, but a werewolf bite killed her. Old age killed me shortly after. Then I ended up in a different place called a prison world with a Gemini witch named Kai, before I found a way to finally escape," Kat told her. As she told her, memories came to the surface.

*1489- Bulgaria*

        It was a dismal night, as sixteen-year-old Katerina faced her father whom was supposed to care about her, but barely ever acted like he did. They were fighting once again, which had been happening since she was at least twelve. He used to show a lot that he cared, but since then, he hadn't shown it. They'd fight a lot and sometimes her mother had to intercept. Her mother couldn't always protect her from him, but she did her best. Most of the time, Katerina would just run into the woods for a while to get away from him.

        "You think you know what's best for me? I don't want to marry someone that's chosen for me. Especially, someone by you," she argued back at him.

        "Show some respect. I'm your father. Only I know what's best for you," he argued back.

        "If you knew what was best for me, you'd actually act like you care at all. You wouldn't be spending most of the night drinking yourself to death. You'd actually be home. You either work all day and go to a bar, or you rarely come home at all. You're no father to me," she argued back, hurting him the best she knew how, wanting to hurt him to make him suffer like she and her mother were by his drinking.

        She picked up the only container in the house that had her father's alcohol in it, before throwing it, making it break into pieces on the floor, which clearly angered him, as she stood by the kitchen table.

        He began to go towards her, but her mother stepped between them to stop him.

        "Get out of my way. That girl needs to be taught a lesson she won't soon forget," he said.

        "She's just angry. You both are upset. Go cool down," she told her husband.

        Katerina angrily looked at her father, before leaving the house. If something happened between her parents, she didn't want to be there when the fight began. She knew it made her father furious when her mother stepped in to try to protect her from him.

*October 15, 1489- Bulgaria, 3 months later*

        It was a dismal night in a barn, as Katerina Petrova met with a guy around her age. They lived in the same village in Bulgaria. They had been meeting like this since before she'd been betrothed to the rich Philip Draganov her father had chosen for her to marry. She didn't like him one bit, though. She and Anton Dabov loved one another, though. And she had never and still didn't care if she broke the rules. She's break rules before she followed them any day or night. She always believed that rules were made to be broken, after all. And she'd always been a wild kid, only obeying her mother. And so, once again, they were in a barn that sheltered a few horses from the cold, not caring about the world right now. They only cared about each other, as they made out, eventually ending up on a stack of hay left beside an empty horse stall. Then it turned into Katerina's first time ever. And she was happier than she'd ever been around Philip and her father. After all, neither of them gave her happiness.

        Later that night, Katerina snuck back into the big place she was forced to live with Philip in, successfully not waking him up in the process.

*1490*

        It was a dismal night, as Katerina sat on a bed at her parents' cabin she'd grown up in, having just given birth to a baby girl out of wedlock. She was told that she was a healthy baby, too. She was being forced to give her up, because the baby was born out of wedlock, though she wanted to fight to keep her. She wished that she would've just ran off, but where would a pregnant eighteen-year-old have gone by herself? Anton had had to leave the village, because his work as a stable guy had moved him elsewhere, causing them to be separated.

        She looked at the maid whom had helped her deliver her baby girl, Nadia, after sitting up in bed, her mother seated by the bed.

        "Please. Let me hold her. Just this once," she pleaded to the maid.

        After a moment of consideration, the maid was about to let her see her and hold her, but before she could step towards the mother, Katerina's father, Anthony Petrova, walked into the room and approached, ready to make the child disappear.

        "What are you doing, woman? Bring the child to me," he ordered.

        The maid gave Anthony the baby and he began to leave, but Katerina begged to him, making him stop at the threshold to the bedroom.

        "Please, Papa! Let me see her," she begged, tears streaming down her face.

        He looked at her without sympathy, saying, "No! You have disgraced this family! It's better for the both of you if you didn't know each other." Then he left with Nadia.

        "Mama, please," she begged, wanting her to make her father reconsider, even though she feared that it was too late.

        Her mother, Maria, tried to comfort her, but at the same time said, "Let her go, Katerina." After all, Maria knew that it was the rule that everyone should cover up an illegitimate baby, because those kinds of children weren't welcome. She wished she could do something, but there was nothing she could do. Ladies didn't exactly have rights to do anything. They were always told what to do and not do every single day.

*1492*

        After her father banished her from Bulgaria, leaving her with nothing but the necessities her mother had given her before she'd had to leave, she ended up in England. It didn't take long for her to learn English and soon meet someone she thought had good intentions for her. Little did she know, Trevor had his plan to take her to the Mikaelsons, knowing Elijah and Klaus were looking for a doppelganger. She was clueless, but also so full of light, not yet knowing what awaited her, nor did she know that vampires were real.

*November 29, 1492*

        After recently turning into a vampire, Katerina went by horseback to her Bulgaria village, ready to make her father suffer for every horrible thing he'd ever done. She found her entire village slaughtered, though. At first, she was shocked, bodies everywhere, some piled onto each other outside. Then, after a moment, she ran towards the cabin she'd grown up in. That's when she found her father hanging on the wall, a sword through his chest, dead. She was shocked at this, before she went looking for her mother. That's when she saw her on the bed with her throat torn open, also dead. She knew she was dead, but she ran over and knelt by her on the bed anyway, before weeping over her.

        "Mama."

        After she'd cried so much that she couldn't cry anymore, she gave her a proper burial, said her goodbyes, and fled from Bulgaria, assuming Klaus had killed them all to get back at her for running and turning into a vampire. She knew she had to keep miles apart from Klaus to survive, so she ran away from Bulgaria, but not yet knowing where she would go. She only knew that she would have to live a life on the run until she found a way that would end him.

*Present*

        After she told Mary Margaret everything, she looked at her with sympathy. Something Katherine hadn't seen for such a long time.

        "You've been through a lot. I'm sorry that happened to you. I'm glad you found this place, though. Maybe you can find this town as a home. There's always a job. Besides, it's nice to have a roommate for once. It can get too quiet," she replied to Katherine.

        "Thanks. You've been kind to me. Something I haven't seen for a while now," the doppelganger replied, before finishing the mug of cocoa. Then they both went to bed.