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Chapter Text

Normal POV

Everything was a mess at the Gilbert house that night. Katherine had been able to get in pretending to be Elena and stabbed John, while Jeremy had ingested pills to die with Anna's blood in his body. John was taken to the hospital and Elena stayed with Stefan, who had gone to check on Jeremy clarifying that he was human since he hadn't actually died. The vampire then offered to stay with him while Elena went to the hospital.

Bonnie had gone to the hospital to see Matt, thanks to Sheriff Forbes she discovered that Tyler had been distracted causing the accident due to a sound that only he had heard. There the witch realised that her friend had been affected by the Gilbert device, so she was indirectly to blame for what had happened to Matt and Tyler, making her feel bad. As she walked around the place she ran into Elena and told her about Matt's condition.

"Is there anything you can do? Like a spell or something?" Elena asked worriedly.

"She doesn't know how, do you?" guessed Damon, appearing before the girls after spying on them, and stared at Bonnie upon asking. He had gone to the hospital when he heard about the human's accident.

"No, I don't." Bonnie answered, looking at the older man angrily for saying that.

"No, you don't, because it took Emily years to learn a spell like that." he clarified smirking a little while thinking about witches capable of doing the spell, like his grandmother and his sister.

"Let me guess, Caroline knows how to do the spell because of her experience in magic." she commented ironically as she thought about the blonde girl, she still couldn't believe what she had done to her friends.

"Well, yes, she knows the spell. But I'm not gonna wake her up to do it, she deserves to sleep after she protected us and used a lot of magic." he affirmed proudly when thinking of the heretic, and remembered that with Stefan they should think about how to talk to her to make things up.

"Well, I learnt how to take down a vampire. The spell was easy to learn." warned the witch with seriousness for his words. She didn't like him rubbing the blonde's accomplishments in her face, she sure knew a lot since according to Elena she practiced magic before she was turned into a vampire.

Elena intervened to remind them that they were there for Matt, so Damon offered her to give his blood to the boy for being his sister's boyfriend so he could be cured. The brunette girl didn't agree with the idea, but her friends convinced her that he'd be fine since he was in the hospital and the blood would go away, so she agreed to let him do that. When Damon and Elena were left alone, he tried to talk to her about them kissing confusing the girl, but then Jenna appeared and mentioned speaking with Elena before, which she didn't remember. There Damon after analysing it a bit realised that Katherine was in town, and she was the one that he had kissed.

Stefan was at the Gilbert house taking care of Jeremy. At that moment Katherine arrived pretending to be Elena again and tried to kiss him, but Stefan realised that she wasn't his girlfriend and threw her on the couch to get her away from him. The younger one had managed to push her against a wall when he was distracted by the door opening, which the girl took advantage of to push him away from her and escaped from the house as Elena and Damon entered. And Damon told him that Katherine had fooled him before.

"Are you alright?" Stefan asked Elena when she returned to the living room with him and Damon, after she went upstairs to speak to Jeremy about Katherine's appearance.

"No, I'm not alright. I thought that with all the tomb vampires dead things would get better." the brunette exclaimed with concern about this new problem that they had.

"I know. We all wanted that." added her boyfriend a little resigned, and with a weird feeling.

"Katherine was in this house, that means she has been invited in. What are we gonna do?" asked the human while she glanced at the two of them, hoping they had a plan.

"Move." answered Damon smirking for a moment, but he felt like his brother.

"Very helpful, thank you." said the girl looking at him sarcastically, wanting a real plan.

"Katherine wants you dead, there's nothing you can do about it. You would be dead, but you're not. So clearly she has other plans" the older man hinted thoughtfully and Elena sat down.

"Right, and we need to find out what those other plans are, and not provoke her in the process. And besides, I don't think we should say anything to Caroline for the moment, do you think so?" the vampire suggested staring at his brother, thinking about the possible reaction of the heretic.

"Well, she's angry now, so she'll hardly talk to us in a decent way. But it's possible that the evil witch would want to tear Katherine apart, it would be fun." he affirmed smirking a little.

Then, at Stefan's insistence, Damon revealed to them that he had kissed Katherine that night thinking that she was Elena, to the surprise and anger of the girl and vampire respectively. Elena intervened between them before they fought to get them to focus on Katherine's return and reminded them that the older girl had spoken to John, so her boyfriend offered that they go to the hospital to talk to John in case he knew anything about the vampire girl's return or plans.

The next day, Bonnie went to the hospital again to visit Matt and saw that he seemed to be better, Damon's blood had helped him a lot. The boy was worried about his girlfriend since apparently she wasn't answering her phone or his messages, although the witch calmed him down by telling him that the blonde girl had had a little problem that she didn't know much about, and that afternoon she would go to see him.

Caroline had woken up confused that morning, but upon remembering the previous evening she decided not to talk to Stefan and Damon since she was still angry. She had heard that Matt was in the hospital, so she was going to go to see him after having breakfast when her brothers arrived.

"Wow, Elena's bodyguards came to see me. Don't worry that I'm not planning anything against her for now." she commented wryly, sitting down in a couch in the living room.

"Don't be like that Caroline. We just wanted to talk to you about yesterday. We know that last night you did a spell to protect us." Stefan started to say while him and Damon looked at her.

"Yes. I cast a spell, that's what evil witches do, right? But in my case I prefer to be an evil queen, they are powerful and get what they want, like me." affirmed the blonde.

"Great, now you put words in our mouths." added Damon, sitting down as well.

"Sorry but, you came to tell me how terrible and crazy I am? Or do you feel guilty about our fight after seeing me unconscious on the floor, and you want to apologize?" questioned the heretic with little patience, hoping that they would quickly get to the point of their visit.

"Don't be such a drama queen, blondie. We came to see you to talk about what happened yesterday, that's all." he clarified starting to get a bit irritated by the attitude of his sister, who sighed.

"Well, as you can see I'm fine. Now you can stop acting like worried brothers and go back to be Elena's followers. Did she let you come to see me? Or she doesn't know that you're here?" she hinted, sipping some of her tea, still remembering the argument with them.

"Please Caroline. We just wanna apologize for how we treated you yesterday. It was wrong what we did, and you had the right to be mad and worried for what Elena did." the younger vampire interjected gently, trying to get his siblings to control themselves.

"I admit that it was wrong how I handled the situation, but understand me. I wanted to know if someone wanted to use or attack me for being weird, but you instead of helping me for being family, you took care of helpless Elena. But no, I'm the villain for getting mad." the girl complained with irritation. She knew she had overreacted, but she couldn't be blamed for her reaction either.

"Can you stop this? You're exaggerating and being paranoid like always." Damon declared making his sister glare at him more annoyed than before, but they were interrupted.

"Can you both stop? Caroline, we came to apologize to you, not to make the argument bigger. Can you be nice?" her other brother asked looking at her so then she would try to listen to them.

"Nice? I'm just pointing out how you two were only worried and focused on Elena without caring about me, and telling you the truth. And the truth is that I think you don't care much that people know what I am, because you don't understand anything." argued the blonde girl standing up.

"Understand what? Oh, you're powerful, you got magic and youth. What an issue." Damon mocked sarcastically, standing up as well without understanding her, he thought that she was just making excuses.

"No. The problem is that many of the times that someone found out what I am I ended up being attacked, kidnapped, tortured or almost dead. The problem is that most people think that I'm an abomination of nature, so I have to protect my back." exclaimed Caroline without being able to avoid raising her voice a bit, catching her brothers off guard.

"Caroline, you're not an abomination." Stefan affirmed coming out a little from the surprise, not expecting the girl to say that, he didn't like to hear her talk like that about herself.

"I am. I go against nature's laws and most people hate me for that, and being paranoid keeps us safe. You don't know several things I've done over the years, because I wanted it to be that way and that's okay." she admitted, clearing her throat so her voice no longer trembled.

"I'm sorry Caroline, I didn't mean to…" Damon tried to apologize, feeling bad for what he'd said.

"It doesn't matter Damon. I love being a heretic so it's okay, I guess that those are the consequences of going against nature. A witch can't practice magic and be immortal as a vampire at the same time." the youngest girl accepted and finished her tea, wanting to end the talk.

"Caroline, look, we…" the younger vampire spoke, but she raised a hand and sighed.

"Stefan, I know you guys want to apologize, and I forgive you if that's what you want. But let's pretend that all this never happened. Because it could happen again and we'll fight again, and everything will be a mess. Just, just do what you want without worrying so much about me as usual." she suggested with a resigned tone and as if she was trying to control her emotions, making them feel worse.

"Come on little witch." said Damon trying to get closer, but they saw her hanging her bag on her shoulder.

"Go home, go back to Elena or whatever. And I will deal with my own business like always since it seems that I only care about me. Now excuse me but the evil queen, me, has things to do." added the heretic clearing her throat again and getting serious so they wouldn't ask her anything else, she gave them another look for a moment and left the house, and got into her car quickly so she could inhale and exhale so she wouldn't cry.

After leaving Caroline's house, Damon went to the Lockwood mansion for a meeting with the sheriff and Carol, and for the funeral of Mr. Lockwood. Meanwhile, Stefan went to the hospital with Elena to speak with John, who revealed that he knew nothing of Katherine's plans or where she was and said he couldn't stand Stefan, making Elena feel bad. When left alone with the man after Elena left, Stefan gave John some of his blood and threatened to turn him into a vampire if he didn't leave town that day, which was fine with Elena.

On her side, after managing to relax a little after talking to her brothers, Caroline went straight to the hospital, asked a nurse for Matt's room and went in.

"Caroline? What are you doing here?" asked Matt surprised to see her there and the girl approached him.

"Well, it's obvious I came to see you. When I heard what happened to you, I was worried about you." she told him, standing next to him and touched his face affectionately and then kissed him.

"I'm glad you came. Bonnie said that you had a problem but you were going to come." he affirmed while she left her bag hanging on the chair next to the bed.

"Yes, I just had a little discomfort last night, that's why I couldn't come before. But the important thing is that you tell me how you are." she clarified sitting down next to the bed and taking his hand. She had been worried when she found out about Matt, but luckily Damon had healed him.

"I'm still a little sore, but the doctors said that I'm healing very fast. And they think that if I'm better tomorrow, I may be discharged in the evening. So maybe I'll just stay another night." he explained what his doctors said and he saw her smiling.

"Really? That's very good. I'm happy for you. And don't worry that I'll stay here tonight to take care of you, I'm not going to let you stay alone." she decided, calmed that he was better.

"Are you gonna stay? It's not necessary, I can stay alone. And the nurses might not let you stay, they seem to be strict with visiting hours and night care." hinted the boy, a bit surprised at the girl's offer to stay there to watch over him.

"Of course I will, that way I can make sure you'll be fine. And those nurses won't be a problem, I know how to get what I want." the girl admitted with a playful smile, thinking that if necessary she would use compulsion but she couldn't leave her boyfriend alone with vampire blood in his system. It was a hospital but you never knew what could happen at night in that place, maybe she had seen too many crime and mistery movies.

"Thank you Caroline, I mean it." thanked Matt happy for his girlfriend's actions, he felt safe and comfortable with her. She smiled softly at him and came over to hug him gently.

At the Lockwood mansion, Damon ran into Bonnie and they got to talking about the Gilbert device that had affected Tyler and his father. The vampire took the opportunity to remind her that she had lied about having taken care of the device and had let John use it against them, adding that they should have given it to Caroline like he had said instead of trusting her. Bonnie clarified that she hadn't been fooled by him like the rest and threatened to finish him off if he did anything wrong and gave him an aneurysm, then she walked over to Elena.

"Oh my God! Damon drives me crazy, he goes around like he's some kind of hero for curing Matt, when it's his fault that all of this happened in the first place. And we know he's just being like this because Caroline didn't do anything." she complained to her friend that was actually Katherine, who was a little confused by what she said about the blonde girl.

"You think that Damon is acting like this because Caroline didn't cure Matt?" the vampire asked her curiously to see if she would reveal to her any useful information or secret about the youngest Salvatore.

"Yeah. If she had cast a spell to cure Matt, he wouldn't have had to cure him. But he said that she had to rest after protecting them last night and ended up asleep since she used too much magic." the witch affirmed without knowing that she had told Caroline's secret to Katherine, who was surprised to hear it but tried to hide it a little.

"You're right, he's just trying to look like the hero in this. And what Damon's done is just awful. I'm sorry Bonnie." the older girl agreed pretending to be her friend and supporting her in that, waiting for the witch to tell her more things about the blonde girl.

"Okay, better. Hateful Damon moment over," she accepted smiling and touched the arm of the brunette girl, instantly she felt that she wasn't Elena and she got worried. "I've got to find Tyler and pay my respects. I'll be back." she excused herself nervous and turned away from Katherine as she saw her nod. At being alone, Bonnie called Elena who hadn't arrived at the mansion yet and got worried, and turned to leave but ran into Katherine, who had followed her.

"We haven't officially met, I'm Katherine." she introduced herself while she looked at her seriously.

"I know who you are." she affirmed just as serious while she inspected her cautiously, wondering if the brunette girl would try to do something in that public place.

"Of course you do. You're the best friend, right? I've been putting all the pieces of Elena's life together. Isobel told me it was like a bit of a puzzle. I know who Jenna and Jeremy are, I haven't met that delicious ex-boyfriend Matt yet, who's sweet on that obnoxious Caroline, when she was alive I couldn't stand her. And then there's you, the vampire-hating Bennett witch. Did I do good?" the older girl explained as she walked around the room they were in.

A little nervous, Bonnie tried to escape from the place, but the girl stepped in front of her with her vampiric speed. Then the witch cast a spell to cause a migraine to the vampire who grabbed her head from the pain, but it turns out that she was just faking it.

"I've been around a long time Bonnie, you're going to have to do better than that," she warned her and grabbed the girl by the throat to push her against a wall, and flashed her fangs to intimidate her. Scared, the witch used magic to open the doors next to them and expose her. "Nice." she blurted out as her face returned to normal, then Stefan appeared in the room. Stefan managed to get Katherine to let Bonnie go and tried to find out why she'd returned to town, but the vampire only offered to walk together which he agreed to do.

"The Lockwoods have a lot more land than they used to have. The possessions of all the tomb vampires built them quite the fortune." the older one commented while they walked with Stefan around the grounds outside the mansion.

"Yeah, why did you want them dead? You're the one who turned most of them." asked curious the guy while he walked beside her, hoping to know her plans.

"There's nothing more annoying than a vengeful vampire, Stefan. Just ask John Gilbert." she replied, shooting him a glance while she smirked with some amusement.

"You haven't changed at all, have you?" he hinted while he stopped walking slowly, just as she did.

"But you have. You're stronger. Meaner. It's sexy." the brunette flirted as she slowly turned and looked at the guy standing in front of her in detail with a smirk.

"Don't flirt with me Katherine. I'm not Damon, I haven't spent 145 years obsessed with you." the younger one replied with a small smile, trying to show her that she was nothing to him.

"Yeah, based on your choice of women, I'd say otherwise. Although I'll admit it does bother me that you're falling in love with someone else." the girl admitted a little serious walking past him.

"I was never in love with you, Katherine. You compelled me, so none of my feelings were real." clarified the vampire firmly after turning around so he could see her.

"Believe what you want, Stefan, but I know the truth and deep down, so do you." she affirmed as she approached him and smiled a little, fully believing in what she was saying.

"The truth? Well, the truth is that you're the same lying, selfish, manipulative bitch that you have always been. So, whatever it is that brought you here, why don't you just get on with it and leave town? Because if you don't, I will hunt you down and I will rip your heart out." Stefan warned her as he moved closer to her with a frown, making her give him a somewhat irritated look.

"You want to know why I'm here Stefan? I came back for you" she revealed slowly without looking away from him, after she softened her gaze a little so that he would believe her.

"Well, the problem, Katherine, is that I hate you." exclaimed the guy glaring at her angrily. Then the girl picked up an iron bar from the ground and stabbed him in the stomach with it.

"You hate me, huh? That sounds like the beginning of a love story, Stefan, not the end of one." she commented feeling a bit annoyed while Stefan rested his head on the brunette's shoulder in pain. Katherine took the bar from his stomach and threw it on the ground to get away of there, leaving the guy kneeling touching his abdomen because of the pain.

"Are you going to be okay?" Elena asked Stefan later when she found him on the ground. They were sitting together on a bench while the girl cleaned his wound.

"Yeah, it will heal." he said as he looked at the wound that was slowly healing.

"That's not what I meant." she clarified while she stared at him, referring to Katherine and Stefan.

"I was trying to figure her out. I was playing along and I let her get to me." admitted the vampire while he looked at her slightly, seeming a little upset about what happened. Before they could continue talking, they were interrupted by Damon who appeared in front of them.

"I tried to track her but she's gone. Oh, cover up Fabio. We got a crazy ex on the loose. You better watch out, it looks like Katherine is trying to steal your guy." insinuated the oldest one looking at Elena with amusement, while Stefan covered his abdomen.

"That's not what's happening." assured him his brother so he wouldn't bother them.

"Isn't it? I mean, it's only fair since I went after your girl." he added throwing a glance at Elena, who got a little uncomfortable while her boyfriend rolled his eyes.

"I'm gonna go to check on Jenna and Jeremy. Let me know when you guys are done." the brunette commented after looking at the two of them and got up from the bench to go back inside the mansion.

"So what's it gonna be? Fight to the death?" Damon asked with a mocking tone and raised his fists like a boxer after they were alone, as his brother snorted. "Go ahead, make your threats, claim what you want." he urged him jockingly to come closer to him for what had happened before with Elena.

"I'm not gonna fight you." he denied, staring at him seriously and not following the joke, waiting for Damon to stop joking so they could talk about the problem they had.

"Why? I'd fight me." he insinuated playfully as he relaxed his posture.

"Katherine is going to try to play us against each other, you do know that right?" replied Stefan while standing up from the bench and pointing at himself and his brother to try to explain the situation to him.

"Don't you worry brother, our bond is unbreakable" he affirmed trying to sound serious, but sometimes he wanted their bond to go back to the way it was when they were humans. Though several things had occurred between them in all of those years so that wouldn't be easy.

"We need to stay united against her. So yeah, as much as I would like to kill you, I'm not gonna fight you." the younger guy repeated to get his point across, as he turned to walk the other direction and away from him.

"I kissed Elena." the older man reminded him with certain intention and Stefan turned around to look at him, unable to believe that he was trying to make them fight at that moment when they should stay together.

"Because you feel something for her, because you actually feel and I'm not going to let Katherine come in here and destroy that part of you that is finally, after all this time, willing to feel something. She will try to break you, she will try to break us and how we respond to that will define us. It's our choice. So no, I won't fight you." he said again hoping Damon had understood his explanation and turned away again but his brother spoke.

"And what about Caroline? Do you think that we should tell her about Katherine to join our united front, or will it be just the two of us maybe with Elena?" he inquired curious about what they should do with their problem and Stefan approached him again.

"Maybe it'd be best to wait to find out her plans, she may be better off not knowing" he suggested not really sure what to do. It was true that the blonde girl was strong and could help, but they wanted to protect her from the brunette so she couldn't do her any harm.

"We have to find out soon. Caroline will find out at any moment, and you know well that she always ends up discovering everything in one way or another." affirmed the older man, thinking of possible ways to take care of his sister and lie to her at the same time.

"Yes, maybe Katherine's plans have to do with us and Elena, so maybe she'll barely get close to Caroline before she leaves. We could tell her in a few days." admitted the younger also thinking how to protect the heretic without her trying to kill them because of her anger that would grow after knowing the truth, as he crossed his arms.

"Let's hope Katherine doesn't get close to her. She's already mad at us, imagine when she finds out we hid this from her," declared while looking around. "Uuh, maybe Caroline would want to get revenge on Katherine for what she did to us before, I'd like to see who wins out of them. I vote for the blondie." he joked raising a hand making the guy sigh.

"Focus on this. It's best that they don't meet and don't fight. We couldn't make peace with Caroline, and she'll kill us if she finds out that we didn't tell her about Katherine. We have to find a good time to tell her." they agreed and Stefan turned around to finally leave.

That night, Damon received a visit from Katherine at the mansion and he tried to ignore her so she'd leave. But Katherine got very close to him and tried to seduce him with her actions, getting them to have a very heated moment until he stopped them to find out how she really felt about him, in exchange they could start together from scratch since they had all the time that they wanted. Sadly, Katherine confessed that she had never really loved Damon, but for her it had always been Stefan, and she left him alone at the boarding house. So after drinking for some time, Damon went to Elena's house and entered her bedroom.

After he sat there for a while doing nothing, Damon started to insist to the girl that there was something strong between them, and that Elena was lying not only to herself but to the rest and kissed her for a few moments, making her feel uncomfortable as she didn't want that to happen and managed to push him away from her. Elena tried to get him to listen to her that Damon was better than that what he was doing, and she clarified that she cared about him but that she loved Stefan and it'd always be Stefan for her, infuriating the vampire for the second rejection.

Then they were interrupted by Jeremy, who had heard all of the commotion and went to check on his sister. Elena asked him to go to his bedroom since the atmosphere was tense, but Damon sped towards the boy quickly and snapped his neck, killing him. Damon looked at them for a moment and left, while Elena approached her brother crying, but noticed in the youngest boy's hand John's magic ring, the one that brought back to life whoever wore it.

"He saw the ring, that's why he did it. He knew." Stefan tried to say standing close to his girlfriend, not wanting to believe what he felt. Elena had called him desperate to come right away and help her.

"He didn't see the ring." she affirmed, sitting on the floor, cradling Jeremy in her arms.

"It's Katherine. She got under his skin. She undid everything that was good about him." the older guy hinted angrily at the possibility, believing that the girl was already ruining everything between them.

"There's nothing good about him, Stefan, not anymore. He's decided what he wants. He doesn't want to feel, he wants to be hated, it's easier that way. He got his wish," declared the girl in pain and anger at what Damon had done that night, disappointed at how he had behaved towards her and her brother. "I hate him, Stefan." she added crying and Stefan knelt down next to her.

"I know, I know." he said caressing her back and kissed her shoulder to comfort her. Suddenly Jeremy woke up with a big breath, so the vampire took his face.

"Is he okay? Stefan, is he okay?" the girl asked nervous, waiting for him to speak, staring at them without moving much from the spot or letting go of her little brother.

"He's okay. Shhh, you're okay." Stefan began to speak in an attempt to calm the boy who seemed very frightened and kept fidgeting nervously and agitated.

"He killed me! Damon killed me!" he repeated endlessly, feeling very uneasy and scared.

"It's okay. Oh God." Elena murmured hugging her brother while she smiled slightly after hearing him, both she and Stefan feeling relieved that he was well and alive.

Caroline had gone home to get some clothes for herself and was lying on the couch in the hospital room watching Matt sleep. Something told her that it would be best to stay with him that night, it was possible that maybe she was being dramatic since her boyfriend was in a hospital, but she felt better to be there close to him and making sure that he was fine.

The blonde girl was reading a book that she had brought with her when she decided she wanted to eat something, so she put it down on a small table near the couch that she was on and got up to get something of food. She was a little hesitant about whether to go or not as she didn't feel right leaving the boy alone, when she came up with an idea to protect him until she got back. So the girl went to the door of the room that she opened to leave and put a hand on one of the frames.

"Obex Manere." she recited and left the bedroom after closing the door, calmed that no one would come in since at that hour the nurses didn't come through the rooms often. She saw a nurse at the counter near the room, went over to ask her where to get food and left.

She walked away from the hallway, unaware that Katherine had arrived at the hospital at that moment because she planned to take advantage of Damon's blood that was still in Matt's system and kill him, so the boy would become a vampire not only to send a message to the Salvatore brothers for her, but also for one of her future plans.

The vampire approached a nurse, compelled her to tell her Matt's room number and not to bother her so she headed to the room. She thought that it was going to be a piece of cake, but when she got to the door and opened it so she could go in, for some reason she couldn't do that, it was as if something was preventing her or there was an invisible barrier in the way. She was still trying to get in there when she heard footsteps and hid in a hallway.

Caroline had gotten something to eat and drink, so she was returning to the room but was a little confused to find the door opened. She felt her spell was still there, it prevented anyone but her from getting in so she was relaxed.

"I left the door open? That's weird, I don't remember it." she said to herself and glanced around, in the hallway there was only a nurse so she shrugged and walked in. All that was seen by Katherine, who bewildered left the hospital.

"So Bonnie was right and Caroline has magic? That would explain the rumors of a vampire with magic for decades." she spoke aloud as she walked through the square, thinking the blonde girl had ruined her plan and she would maybe ruin the others, but she would deal with the little nuisance. So she pulled out her phone to call someone.

"Hey? It's me. I'm calling you because I need a favor," she said through the object and listened how the other person answered her. "I need something small for a very special person and I want it to arrive tomorrow afternoon at the latest." she told her contact, when she got an answer and explained to him more details of what she wanted she cut the call. "Take care Caroline, because I'll give you a little lesson." she whispered looking at the night sky and smirked wickedly.

Chapter Text

Normal POV

In the middle of the night Caroline was a little sleepy, but luckily she had enough stamina to stay awake. At one point she got thirsty for blood, so she decided to get out of there and take advantage of being at a hospital to try to get a bag of blood. She walked out of Matt's bedroom and saw a nurse sitting at the front desk.

"It's the middle of the night, go back to the room." she ordered and the blonde didn't like her tone very much.

"Yes, I'm going back to the room. I don't want to bother anyone." she affirmed with a fake innocent tone, and in a nearby room she saw some blood bags so she slowly went to take a couple of them and leave, but was stopped by the woman who had seen her.

"What are you doing here? You can't go in. Go back to your boyfriend's room." the nurse told her again and was about to take her by the arm when the heretic looked her straight in the eyes.

"You didn't see me coming into this room. Now you will go back to your work and leave me alone, all right?" Caroline said using compulsion and the woman got back to the reception after repeating what she'd told her. The girl smiled and returned to the bedroom after taking some bags.

The next day, everyone was preparing for the school carnival that night. The head of the organizing committee was Caroline, but Matt was going to be discharged that evening so she was going to help him and had left Elena and Bonnie in charge of everything.

"Katherine looked just like you, it was freaky." commented Bonnie standing outside looking at Elena.

"She is my ancestor. Hey, I moved the student booth into the cafeteria." she spoke looking up from the clipboard that she was using while organizing everything.

"Your vampire ancestor, and she didn't just resemble you like a family member would. She was you." affirmed the younger, taking a bag of prizes with Elena and moving it to another place.

"I don't know, I can't explain it. It's creepy, that's all I got." she clarified without knowing much about it.

"How do you know she's not still out there pretending to be you?" she asked while she stared at her again, thinking it was possible that the vampire could do that again.

"I don't know, but I could sit here and be tortured by the not-knowing or I could take these prizes to the ring toss." the brunette girl hinted walking away with a bag of prizes and opening it.

"Have you talked to Damon since he killed Jeremy or tried to kill Jeremy?" inquired Bonnie following her friend standing behind her as her friend turned around.

"No Bonnie, I haven't and I won't, and I don't want to talk about Damon or anything else that's vampire related, okay?" she asked while staring at her and handing her the bag of stuffed animals so she could take them with her. "I'm human. And I got to do human stuff. Otherwise, I'm going to go crazy." continued after turning to take another bag of prizes and turned to look at her friend. 

"Okay, I'm sorry, I'll focus. We have to make Caroline proud or she will kill us. And maybe she is capable of killing us, or at least hurting us considering what she did to Jeremy. She can be difficult to deal with. Have you seen her or talked to her?" the witch asked curious as they walked to another stall to arrange the stuffed animals, thinking about the blonde.

"No. Stefan told me that she knows she was wrong in what she did, but she is still angry and hurt with both of them for turning their backs on her. And from what he told me, I think something else happened between the three of them, but Stefan didn't want to tell me." revealed to her the older girl, going back to checking the clipboard with her duties and glancing at her.

"Maybe they talked about something very private or familiar, it seems that Caroline doesn't like you very much, maybe for Katherine." she suggested without realising it, and the girl sent her another look. "I'm sorry, let's work on the carnival. I don't know how Caroline does all of this." she admitted looking at her smiling.

"Well, because she's not human and she's not normal obviously." added the girl smiling at her as she wrote something and they couldn't help but laugh, then they continued working.

Meanwhile, Damon was in a meeting with Carol Lockwood. The woman told him that with the death of the mayor, she would act as the interim mayor until the elections were held and that she wanted Damon to be the leader of the Founding Council, which he agreed to do with the excuse that it was close to him for being part of a founding family. At that moment Tyler and his uncle Mason arrived, and the vampire started to listen to their conversation with his powers.

They were talking about the anger episodes of Tyler, who was telling his uncle what they were like and how he felt when they occurred to him. To Damon that was suspicious, more so if it was considered that the Lockwoods were affected by the Gilbert device but not affected by the vervain.

Caroline was going to Matt's room with a bag of breakfast, she thought that he needed to eat something to make him feel better. He would be discharged that afternoon, but her boyfriend wanted to go for a while at least to the carnival and was waiting for her opinion.

"I brought you breakfast, it's food of outside since you have to eat something. I heard that hospital food is gross and I didn't want to risk it." she told him leaving a bag in front of him, who smiled at her.

"You bought me something decent? Thanks for making sure that I eat well." he thanked her humorously and tasted the food, a little surprised that she'd gone to buy something for him.

"Yes, it wasn't a problem to go out and buy food. You couldn't eat something awful." she affirmed, putting her bag on a chair. She had also put some herbs in the food to help him heal.

"Really, thank you, that's very nice of you." he repeated, grateful for how she was taking care of him, and the girl smiled to then move a little closer to him and kissed him for a few seconds.

"The doctors said that you will be discharged this evening. I can drop you off at your house, then I'll stop by to inspect quickly that they haven't made a disaster with the carnival." suggested Caroline a little more serious than when she arrived and walked to the window to look outside.

"You don't trust Elena and Bonnie to do it right?" inquired the younger one, giggling a little.

"Not that much. I put a lot of effort into it, I want everything to be perfect and everything to go according to my plan. A piece of advice: it never hurts to check other people's work just in case." she commented smiling slightly, turning her head a little to see Matt who also smiled.

"Can I go check it out too? I promise I'll just walk around for a while and watch you play in the stalls, but I don't want to get bored at home." he asked her looking at her softly, he hoped that she would let him go with her to the event since he'd been looking forward to it so much.

"I don't know if that's a good idea. But I could ask the doctors what they think." she accepted somewhat doubtfully, but she giggled a little to see him happy for having convinced her and continued looking at the garden through the window thoughtfully, she felt something strange was going to happen that day.

Later, Damon and Stefan were at the school carnival watching Tyler and Mason who were playing arm wrestling. Damon was curious about them, so he offered that Stefan took on Mason, and was surprised to see his brother lose.

"You didn't put in any effort at all." exclaimed Damon angrily as his brother got near him.

"Yes, actually I did." he revealed looking at him seriously, just as surprised as the older one.

"Come with me," he ordered after looking to the sides and walked in a hallway followed by Stefan. "Is he…?" he tried to ask him after he stopped and turned to look at him doubtfully.

"No, it wasn't that kind of strength but it was more than human, if that makes sense. You also feel something strange, right?" he insinuated just as confused while he crossed his arms.

"Yeah. What is up with that family? They're not vampires, what the hell are they?" he asked exasperated.

"Ooh, maybe they're, um, ninja turtles." the younger one suggested jokingly.

"You're not funny." he affirmed, giving him an incredulous look.

"Or no, zombies, werewolves." he continued while he uncrossed his arms.

"No comedic timing at all." he denied irritated by his suggestions as he looked around, and noticed a young man fixing something near them, giving him an idea.

"What? What are you up to?" the younger guy inquired as he noticed where he was looking.

"This is reality and there's no such thing as werewolves or… combat turtles." commented Damon turning his focus back to his brother, not believing that he was right.

"I said ninja turtles, actually." he corrected him so he knew what he was talking about, but the older man completely ignored what he'd told him and walked over to the man behind them.

Damon stared at the guy and compelled him to fight Tyler, to piss him off and not stop for anything no matter what Tyler did. Then the vampire explained that it was an experiment to see how Tyler, who never backed down in a fight, would react and that maybe they would get his uncle Mason to intervene. Stefan was going to try to explain to him that this was a bad idea since someone would get hurt, but his brother disappeared.

After leaving the younger guy alone, Damon was walking down a corridor of the school when he felt someone nearby, and upon turning around he noticed that it was Caroline who was looking at him strangely.

"Hey, little sister, I thought you would be taking care of your injured boyfriend." he commented playfully barely turning his head towards her but he saw how the blonde girl barely reacted.

"I came to see the carnival, and I have some important things to do." she replied with a dry tone, walking slowly, which confused her brother who turned slowly towards her.

"Some important things to do? What, check everything like a neurotic control freak?" he mocked smiling a little with amusement, but she only looked at him seriously.

"No. I wanna find Elena to smash her face for what she did to me." revealed the girl as if it was nothing bad, catching Damon off guard.

"What? Are you crazy? I told you not to mess with Elena. But why the hell do you want to do that?" questioned the vampire incredulous while he approached her. 

"Oh, she didn't tell you? We met earlier at the carnival and all was good with her, suddenly she injected something strange into my arm saying I'd feel bad with my fangs for a few days. Then she added that it was for ruining her plan. And that she was going to play with all of you." explained the heretic with her face relaxed, but there was a slight annoyance in her voice.

"That doesn't sound like something she would do," he blurted confused, but got a strange shiver at the idea he had "Hey, why don't you come with me and we talk?" he offered staying calm.

"No, I'm sure you will snap my neck to protect the innocent little girl. I have a plan: find Elena and rip her head off for this as my revenge. I'm feeling bad and I don't like it, it's not good to mess with me in this state. I say game on." Caroline warned with a small smile and the vampire worried grabbed her arm to stop her.

"You're not going through with that plan, because now you're coming with me. You're not going near Elena until you're back to your normal, less violent self." Damon ordered and was about to pull her arm so she would follow him elsewhere, but the heretic had other plans.

"No one will get in my way," she said and pushed him hard down the hallway, he slid down it until he stopped and looked up a bit. "Not even you." she finished her warning and left with vampiric speed. The older man went over what his sister said, and upon realising that maybe it was related to Katherine he got up to look for Elena, who luckily he found first and took her somewhere else to hide her from the blonde girl.

Stefan was walking through the carnival when he saw Tyler and decided to follow him because of what Damon had done. He could see him start a fight with the guy Damon had compelled, the one who'd provoked him, and Mason intervening to separate them. When the guy started punching him as well, Mason inhumanly jumped over a car and then jumped on top of him and hit him. When the man fell to the ground, Mason and Tyler left the scene as Stefan approached the beaten guy and checked on him.

Caroline had been walking around the carnival looking around, but she couldn't find Elena or any of her brothers anywhere. Then she ran into Matt.

"Matt. You're still here?" she asked getting near him at one of the booths.

"Yes. I wanted to play at least a couple times and I was just leaving. Is everything fine?" he told her, moving closer to her and giving her a quick kiss, but he noticed she seemed a little tense.

"Yes. I was looking for someone. But it's as if she has disappeared," the girl hinted, smiling lightly to relax and noticed the game. "Do you want to play some more or do you want to go home?" she inquired, touching one of her boyfriend's shoulders with affection.

"I feel great. But I think I'm gonna go, you know, to rest just in case." he affirmed smiling and hugged her being reciprocated, but then Caroline looked at Matt's neck and could hear the blood in his veins, which made her very hungry so she moved away.

"Oh no, no, no." she murmured worried and tried to get away from him quickly, but he followed her.

"Wait Care, are you okay?" asked the boy trying to get closer, but she didn't even turn to look at him.

"Just go home, be careful!" she ordered trying to take a deep breath to relax.

Stefan had received a call from Elena to go see her and Damon in a classroom, and the vampire explained what had happened with Caroline.

"How is it possible she did that to her?" Stefan wondered, worried for his sister.

"Well, potions can affect anyone. They can be to help or to affect someone. Katherine took advantage of her appearance to get close to her, injected her with something unknown and we know the rest." explained Damon to them, leaning against a desk with his arms crossed.

"But why?" asked Elena confused, sitting next to her boyfriend.

"Because Katherine is a manipulative and evil little slut." he answered, smirking at her.

"And she said 'I'm going to play with all of you'? I mean, what does that even mean?" inquired the vampire thoughtful.

"It means that she's playing dirty. She wants us to know what she's capable of." he clarified them irritated.

"But why Caroline? It might be because they didn't get along when they met?" insinuated the girl doubtfully, thinking of what the older brunette could want with the blonde.

"Maybe because she's our baby sister and she thinks that she could weaken us this way. A possible distraction so she can go on with her plans." he suggested with a frown.

"Later we focus on why she did it, now let's focus on Caroline. She must be very confused about why she's feeling weird or why Elena did that to her." intervened the other vampire walking around the room, thinking of ways to help his sister.

"Yeah, maybe she's out of control, now she's just a danger to everyone. She just wanted to get close to Elena to tear her apart by herself." the older man commented, giving them a look.

"We have to find her." he decided, staring at him, considering helping her.

"Yes, then we fill her with vervain until she passes out and we lock her up for a couple of weeks until she apologizes for the attack." the vampire added without looking at them, leaving them surprised.

"What? No Damon, she doesn't have to apologize for any of this. This is Katherine's fault, and maybe a bit ours." exclaimed Stefan angry at that suggestion.

"Oh come on Stefan. This is Katherine's fault, but we still have to lock the little witch up indefinitely. It's the safest thing for everyone." he tried to convince him to agree.

"Because she wants to kill me?" Elena asked, looking at them both, worried for the blonde girl.

"Yes, and also because we don't know exactly what she has in her body. We have to leave her locked up in the basement until her stomach empties or something. Which will be kind of hard since we're talking about a vampire with decades of knowledge in magic. Maybe you, Stefan, will be in favor of her destroying the town but I'm not." admitted the oldest looking at them and smirked a little, believing that both she and his brother would agree to go along with his plan.

"Caroline must feel very bad about herself. As her brothers we have to help her, not make her feel worse. She won't want us to lock her, I wouldn't either if I were in her shoes. I know that we have to, but I want us to try to talk to her first. You're not gonna do anything to her." Stefan declared gettin near him, staring at him so he'd understand that he wouldn't make him change his mind and left the room. Elena got up to follow him.

"It's the only way." Damon added, throwing a glance at Elena while she walked behind her boyfriend, and he took a syringe out of his jacket that he passed between his hands.

Caroline was nervous and didn't understand anything. She had tried to siphon whatever that Elena had injected her but she couldn't absorb anything, she supposed it was something that affected her vampiric instincts or her emotions, and she would have to wait to find a solution. The heretic was away crying out of frustration, when she saw a man in the back of a truck wiping blood from his nose. Then the man turned his head and noticed her.

"Hey, is everything okay?" the man asked her gently and she tried to resist her hunger.

"I'm so sorry." she apologized still crying very afflicted, then she got near with her vampiric speed up to the man's back and bit him twice on the neck, then pushed him into the truck falling on his back. She got up for a moment and then sat on his chest to bite him again viciously, drinking his blood.

"You agree with Damon, don't you?" Elena asked Stefan referring to what the vampire suggested earlier as Stefan punched the side of a trailer.

"Damon's right. Not about what we should do with her, but about what's going to happen if we don't help her with this. Now it seems that Caroline is unstable and we don't know what she will do, or what Katherine actually did to her. Or worse, why she did that." he affirmed, concerned for his little sister while he looked around outside of the carnival.

"We can't let anyone get hurt because of Caroline, not just me but everyone. Maybe Damon's right and the best thing to do would be to lock her up if she's out of control Stefan. We did it with you when you were unstable." the girl said so he would get the idea.

"I hardly ever had self-control when I fed and I didn't want help from anyone. But Caroline's had self-control practically since she turned into a vampire. Maybe we could try to negotiate with her, offer her our support." he explained, sensing something in the air.

"Where could she be?" Elena wondered and she saw Stefan suddenly looking around. "What is it? Do you hear her? What's going on Stefan?" she inquired hoping for something good and the vampire looked at her.

"Blood, I smell blood." he announced and they hurried off in one direction.

Caroline was sitting crying pitifully next to the body of the man that she had killed. She was part vampire and it was normal sometimes to kill people for her, but she wasn't used to losing control over her instincts like that. She felt out of control and unbalanced, she hadn't felt that way in a long time and she didn't like it at all.

"There you are little sis." she heard a voice and when she looked up for a second she noticed Damon.

"He's dead. I killed him, I swear I didn't mean to do it Damon. I don't know what's wrong with me, but help me." she asked the vampire while crying with her face full of blood.

"Hey, relax. It's okay, I'm here to help you." Damon assured trying to calm her down as he caressed her back with affection to comfort her.

"You know I'm not like this, something is wrong, you feel something is wrong. Can you really help me?" she inquired with sadness and hope that her oldest brother would help her.

"You're not like this. I'm gonna help you the only way that I can. I'm going to lock you up until I find out what happened." he declared, pulling her hair out of her face with concern for her. The heretic looked up in surprise, looked at him and got off the truck she was sitting in.

"You can't put me in the basement! I will try to behave but there must be another way." she denied somewhat anguished, she didn't want to end up locked up for who knew how long.

"It's the only way Caroline. You are really unstable at the moment and you're a danger for everyone. It's for the best." he tried to make her see reasons taking her shoulders.

"Please Damon! Let's just think of something else. But help me!" she begged still crying harder. It hurt the vampire a little to see her like that but he had made up his mind.

"Okay, I'm your brother and I will help you." he promised hugging her to calm her down as she seemed to be desperate and uneasy and let her cry on his shoulder.

"Just help me! Please, please!" she kept pleading while crying and hugging him tight. She was really upset, scared and felt that everything was wrong around her.

"I will help you. Relax. It's the only way." Damon sentenced and behind her back he was lifting a syringe full of vervain to stick it in her, when Stefan appeared and pulled her away from him.

"I told you that we wouldn't do that." reminded him Stefan, annoyed by the actions of his brother. Elena tried to get a little closer to Caroline who, when she saw her, got out of control.

"You! This is your fault! This is all your fault!" shouted Caroline furious wanting to get closer to the girl, but Stefan came quickly and grabbed his sister's arms to keep her away from her. "Let me go! Let me go Stefan!" she screamed struggling to get him to let her go, as she tried to get close to the brunette who stayed away from her.

"It wasn't Elena! It was Katherine's fault, she did this to you!" confessed Stefan making an effort to restrain her, but suddenly the blonde girl stopped and stared at him in shock. She looked surprised and as she didn't want to attack anyone anymore, so he let her go and approached his girlfriend.

"Katherine did this? Your psycho ex did this to me?!" she questioned shocked and annoyed, but she noticed that detail. "Wait, the three of you knew that she was here and you didn't tell me?! Who else knows?!" she claimed more furious than before, backing away from them.

"Bonnie and Jeremy. We thought that you'd be safe without knowing it." Elena revealed, hoping to calm her down so then they could take her somewhere else, but she was a bit startled when she saw Caroline clench her fists and near them some trash bags began to catch fire.

"Stay out of this! How did you think I'd be safe without knowing?! You know nothing! This it's your fault. How could you hide it from me?" she asked them crying feeling confused, tired and hurt by how they had lied to her, she just wanted to go home.

"Stefan, the best thing to do is to lock her up until she's herself again. She's a vampire with magic, which means she's a ticking time bomb." Damon intervened trying to convince his brother again. The younger guy slowly approached the blonde, who had stopped the fire in the trash.

"We'll find another way Damon, I don't want to lock her up," he refused his idea and looked at the heretic. "I know that you don't wanna go to a cell, I understand you. Let me help you and you won't go there, I promise." he asked her extending a hand, and after a few moments of hesitation she took it nodding.

"I won't let you put us all in danger for her, Stefan" the vampire objected and quickly got near his siblings with the vervain injection in a hand. Stefan stood in front of Caroline and Elena in front of them, making Damon stop dead in his tracks.

"Damon, she's your sister. She's scared and needs your help." Elena reminded him hoping that he would help his siblings, after a few seconds of thought he dropped the syringe.

"Okay. Stefan, deal with her." he ordered the younger guy who nodded and was about to take her to the bathroom of the school, when Bonnie appeared and looked at what was happening.

"Caroline? What did you do?" asked the witch approaching them while the blonde lowered her eyes with shame, then Bonnie passed in front of her towards the back of the truck, puzzled upon seeing the body of the boy from before with his neck open and full of blood.

"Bonnie, I, I…" Caroline tried to speak not knowing what to say, but Stefan took her to the bathroom and Elena got near her friend, hugging her while she put an arm around her shoulders.

When they got to the bathroom Stefan took some tissues and gave them to Caroline, who was wiping the blood off her hands but was still tearing and just wanted all of it to be a nightmare. But she was full of blood and that prick had hurt, so it was all real.

"I want it to be a nightmare. What the hell do I do now?" she asked herself desperately.

"Shh, relax, okay? We'll see what to do, we'll see. Come here." clarified the older guy close to her and began to wipe the blood from her face to help her, hoping she would calm down.

"I have to… to think what to do. I have to calm down." she began to murmur thoughtfully.

"One thing at a time. Now we're gonna clean you up, then we'll go to your house and you'll sleep until tomorrow. And tomorrow we'll see what to do. But I'm here with you." he said, taking more paper.

"This can't happen to me Stefan! I'm a mess, I'm a monster! I'm not like this." she wailed as she looked at herself in the mirror feeling like she was going to whimper and the vampire stared at her through it.

"Look at me. Now there's something wrong with you, something that's not your fault. The only thing you can do is breathe and relax, okay? You can do it, I know you will because you are very strong. You've always been." Stefan encouraged her stroking her back with affection so she would listen to him. But she saw the veins under her eyes appear for a few moments.

"I'm not this! I'm controlled, I'm under control, but now this happens. I feel like everything is going to explode, like everything is wrong Stefan." sobbed the heretic turning around and covering her face frustrated, but the guy took her face with both hands.

"Look at me, look at me! Look at me Caroline! At this moment you feel everything is wrong, that everything is falling down around you. But you can get through it, you can do it okay? You can with this, you just have to stay calm and breathe. Let us help you and everything will be fine, this will just be a bad memory. You don't have to go through this alone if we are here for you, just like you are always for us." he comforted her while she leaned on his hand. It hurt him to see his little sister suffer like this. After a couple of breaths the blonde nodded making him smile a little.

"Why did Katherine do this to me?" she asked without understanding what the vampire girl wanted with her, in the past she had watched her a couple of times but she wasn't even close to the brunette girl.

"I don't know, I wish I did. But like I said before you're strong. And I promise you I will not let anything happen to you and I'm going to help you when you need it. Come here, come here." he promised and hugged her letting her cry in his arms as much as she wanted. A while later, when Caroline felt a little bit calmer, they came out of the bathroom after cleaning all of the blood and went to look for Damon since the blonde girl wanted to talk to her brothers.

Bonnie was very angry with Caroline, Elena was trying to comfort her but she didn't know what to say to help her friend either. Damon showed with a shovel to bury the corpse his sister had left, but suddenly the witch started to give him a migraine until he ended up on the ground because of the strong pain. Then Bonnie with her magic opened a faucet doing a puddle of water, which caught fire and went slowly towards Damon.

Elena was desperately screaming at her friend to leave him, but Bonnie believed that everything that had occurred was his fault so she wanted to kill him. Damon was burning and screaming from the pain when the girls heard a voice near them.

"Bulla Praesidium." recited Caroline with a hand raised towards Damon, it seemed that there was some kind of bubble around the vampire who stopped burning and sighed relieved. Caroline then crouched down putting a palm on the ground, there appeared a slight red glow and the fire slowly disappeared until it was totally gone. Stefan approached Damon to help him as she went towards Bonnie and Elena with a hard look just like the witch.

"Why did you do that?!" Bonnie claimed while hiding her surprise at the girl's magic, since she'd never actually seen her use it and didn't expect what she did.

"Because no one messes with my brothers without going through me first. So if you want to mess with Damon, you have to mess with me first." she warned with a threatening tone that scared both girls a little but they tried not to show anything. Elena put an arm around her friend's shoulders and took her away. Caroline sighed and walked over to Damon, who was fine.

"I decided to accept your help with this, but on one condition," she began to tell them and when they nodded she continued. "I'm going to stay locked up in my house. If I have to be a prisoner, at least I want to be one in a place that gives me some confidence and I know like my home. Not in a cold and dark place." she suggested them in a doubtful and low tone, and the olders looked at each other.

"Okay, I think we can accept that. As long as you listen to us." clarified Damon who glanced at Stefan waiting for him to speak or maybe give another condition, while his sister nodded with resignation for lack of options.

"I have an object that if you put it outside a place, it locks whoever is inside when you put it there, and only a witch can take it out." she told them her idea and her other brother spoke.

"Then we'll do that." Stefan agreed, while his sister analyzed them in silence.

"You know, all this stuff about you two lying to me and thinking of locking me up made me think that maybe you don't trust me like before, or that you think it was the best thing for your dear Elena's safety. I mean, you think that I'm a danger for her." commented the heretic with a bitter tone.

"We don't think that of you." the vampire assured with a slight frown.

"Tell that to how Damon threatened and choked me two days ago, or how you 2 looked at me like I was dangerous instead of helping me. For our sake, let's just pretend that this never happened and please leave me alone a couple of days. I don't feel well and I think I need to be alone for a while." she asked in a tired voice and left before they could say anything.

Later, Elena had walked Bonnie home as she was still unsettled by the accident with the guy. Elena was standing in front of her school locker when Stefan arrived.

"Hey, Caroline wasn't very well after the accident, but I feel that she'll be okay. I'm gonna check in on her later." commented the vampire when he stood in front of her.

"What about the guy that she…" she tried to ask him a little uncomfortably.

"It's taken care of." he answered quickly, thinking that she didn't want to finish the sentence.

"Damon is right, isn't he? She's a danger to everyone being out of control." insinuated the girl with resignation, no longer knowing what to think about the blonde after that night.

"No, I'm gonna make sure he's wrong. Once she manages to stabilize herself, Caroline will go back to being the same old controlled girl." assured her the older one, confident in his idea.

"I can't believe what this day has turned into." she replied, feeling irritated by it all.

"Not your normal day, huh?" he spoke while he looked at her curiously.

"I was stupid to think that it could be. I mean, nothing about my life is normal. My best friend is a witch, my boyfriend is a vampire with a weird sister and I have a doppelganger who's hell-bent on destroying all of us." exclaimed the brunette girl in frustration.

"I'm sorry." Stefan muttered, not sure of what to say to help her.

"No, it's not your fault, Stefan. It's no one's fault, you know? It is what it is," Elena affirmed so he wouldn't feel guilty, and he touched her face. "I'm fine, I'm fine. It's just that… you know what? I'm fine. I'm gonna call you tomorrow, ok? Goodnight Stefan." she said goodbye, unable to say anything. 

"Goodnight" the vampire added, and watched his girlfriend leave while he thought about how to help her.

Damon was alone in the boarding house, he was thinking about what Katherine had done to his little sister and how he almost locked her up. He was silent when he felt something.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked the air, and behind him was Jeremy.

"You don't lock your front door." he replied with a stake in his hand, making him nod. "No, I wouldn't... I laced it with vervain." he revealed referring to the drink in his hand.

"Why would you do that?" he questioned after smelling the alcohol and turning to look at him.

"So I could stake you, with this." he continued speaking, showing him the stake, and threw it on the floor.

"You came here to kill me?" he inquired with curiosity, starting to walk towards him.

"It's only fair. You killed me first." he clarified without stopping looking at him with obviousness.

"What made you wisen up?" he asked after picking up the stake from the floor and walking around the room.

"My father hated vampires, my uncle too. They were absolute. They knew exactly what they stood for and I figure maybe I should too. I mean, stand for something. But killing you, what's that gonna do?" explained the younger boy hesitant to say what to tell him to excuse himself.

"Look, I don't do all the big brother thing very well. Sorry, I don't have any milk and cookies to offer you." he joked after sitting down on the couch close to him, thinking about his little siblings.

"Dick." he muttered angrily as he got up from the chair that he was in to leave.

"Wait. My father hated vampires too, everything of the supernatural actually, which was strange considering that he was raised by a witch. He hated them for the same reasons that your dad did. Only it was 1864, people knew how to whittle," the vampire revealed, giving him sideways glances, making him chuckle. "Did you do this?" he asked, holding up the stake.

"Yeah, I tried. It's a lot harder than it looks." he excused himself, looking at the floor.

After she got home, Caroline put outside the object that she had talked about earlier, a small wooden hoop with several purple, green and light blue ribbons tied on a side, so she could take a shower relaxed. Later, the heretic was lying down thinking about what had happened to her that day when she heard the door and was surprised to see Matt.

"Matt? What are you doing here? You should be at home resting." she asked worried as she let him pass and they went to the living room.

"I came to see how you were since you didn't answer my messages." commented the boy, sitting down on the sofa followed by the girl, who was thinking what to tell him.

"I was very tense because I argued with my brother Damon. I think that you should leave, Stefan might be coming to visit me and I don't think he wants to see you." she suggested in a kind way.

"No, you've been acting very strange today, and now I feel insecure compared to you who seem confident all the time." he revealed to her hoping she would let him finish and not throw him out.

"What do you mean?" she inquired feeling a little confused.

"I mean that I almost died, and I saw how I scared you and you took care of me, I got scared too. And it made me think, you know, because I'm not in a position where I can lose someone else now. I realised that, although I was confused by your attitude today at the carnival, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you and I'm afraid you don't feel the same." Matt declared with a little nervousness, waiting for her to say something. After some seconds in silence, Caroline kissed him and hugged him hoping to convey affection, in a moment she felt her face change for her vampiric features, so she breathed a couple of times and her face changed again.

A while before dawn, Elena was sleeping in her bed when Stefan appeared in the room and asked her to accompany him to a place, which she curiously agreed to do. They both arrived at the school carnival, that had ended a while before, and Stefan told her that he'd compelled the guard to let them in. He went on about how despite the bad things in their lives, such as Caroline's and Katherine's new problem, the mystery of Tyler's family, and having Damon there, they should enjoy the good times in their lives.

Thrilled by his gesture, Elena clung to her boyfriend and he jumped using his vampiric powers to get them to the top of the Ferris wheel, which made her laugh making Stefan happy. After staring at each other for some seconds, Elena agreed to go along with the vampire's idea of living their lives in spite of everything and they kissed, as she had wished that they would do that day at the carnival.

Chapter Text

Normal POV

A couple of days after the accident at the carnival, the Salvatore males and Elena asked Alaric for help in researching more about the Lockwoods using Isobel's research on the town. Alaric explained to them that his ex had done research on the legends of Mystic Falls, which covered vampires and lycanthropes, werewolves. Damon didn't think it possible that the werewolves actually existed since he had never seen any of them, but considering Mason's strange behaviour that maybe it was supernatural, they had to find out the truth.

Meanwhile, Matt was outside of Caroline's house waiting for her to open. They hadn't seen each other since he confessed that he loved her and that was very strange for him. While the girl was sitting in the kitchen finishing her tea.

"Caroline? Caroline." he called to her from the door to open it, he tried to call her on the phone but she didn't answer. She heard him and walked over to the door, but sat down on the floor.

"Hey, I thought you said you were at home. Tyler is doing a party at the swimming hole, I wanted us to spend the day together. Where are you? Call me." the human talked leaving her a message and left. She got up to go back to the kitchen when she felt a little of nauseous and ran to her bathroom, where she threw up something blue and sat back down on the floor.

"Calm down Caroline. Remember that this is for your own good." she said to herself as she got up and brushed her teeth. Those days at home she had taken the opportunity to look in her grimoires to see if she had any recipe to detoxify herself, and she found the recipe for a tea that her great-grandfather used to make. The bad thing was that while drinking it, she would vomit whatever that was in her body.

Later, Elena was at her house with Stefan who had accompanied her to pack some things, since Elena was going to travel to Duke University with Damon and Alaric.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Stefan asked her sitting on her bed.

"What part? Digging in my birth mother's life work or going to Duke with Damon?" she replied, barely glancing at him while she put some things in her bag.

"Either, both." he clarified, turning his head slightly to look at her.

"Well, I'm not sure about the first part but then again Ric is also a good buffer so we can bond in our anti-Damon solidarity. I wish that you were coming though." the girl commented throwing him a look, wishing her boyfriend would join her.

"You know what? Maybe we should wait a couple days, huh? Wait until Caroline is calmer and more friendly, and then I could go with you." he suggested while standing up and walking towards her.

"It's okay that I'm going, right? And be honest because if it's not then I can stay here and see you take care of Caroline. I would offer to help you, but I don't think that she likes me as much as before." she asked doubtfully staring at him, not knowing what to do.

"Soon she'll get over it, Caroline can't hate you forever. Listen, I want you to go, okay? I do. You have questions about your lineage and about Katherine and… look, I'm not gonna let the fact that Damon is going to keep you from an opportunity to get some answers." assured her gently the vampire, wanting to convey some reassurance.

"You hate it though." the brunette hinted, smiling slightly at him.

"I hate it, but I love you." he affirmed, smiling warmly and moving a little closer.

"I love you too." she smiled too and touched his face while kissing him. After that Damon and Alaric went to pick her up, and they said goodbye to go to Duke for Isobel's research.

After saying goodbye to his brother and his girlfriend, Stefan met Bonnie at the Grill since he wanted her to remove the hoop that locked his sister in, he thought that the poor thing deserved a break.

"I'd like to be able to remove the magic from her daylight ring so she stays locked up." the witch refused his request sitting at a table, she was still a bit angry about the accident.

"From what I learnt from Caroline, only the witch who created the rings can remove the magic from them, for example Damon's and mine only Emily could do it. Besides that Caroline doesn't have a daylight ring." the older guy told her, sitting with her and hoping to convince her to help.

"Why doesn't she have one? I thought that vampires needed one." she asked curiously.

"Because technically she's only half vampire, I think that her witch part protects her from the sun so she doesn't need one." he clarified while he contained his discomfort at her words, the accident wasn't Caroline's fault and she didn't deserve to be trapped in her house.

"She should still be locked up. Caroline killed someone, Stefan. I can't make it easier for her to do it again." she refused again, unsure of the older one's idea.

"We're not making it easier for her, we're just giving her back her freedom before she seeks it herself. These days she's been dealing with the problem and cleansing herself. She needs to get back to her routine." he argued trying to convince her.

"And how do you know that she won't try to hurt anyone else when I remove the hoop? She tried to hurt Jeremy because of her paranoia, and then she killed someone else while trying to find Elena to kill her." Bonnie questioned him doubtful about what to do with the girl.

"I don't know, but if we don't do what we can to help her or at least trust that she's okay, she will stop waiting and will look for a way to get out on her own. And believe me she's capable of doing that." he advised seriously while he thought of the times that the blonde girl had run away from somewhere.

"I don't think that I can trust her anymore, not with what you just told me and how she lied to me or tried to hurt my friends." hesitated the witch of what the older one had told her about the girl. His sister seemed so innocent no one would believe her to be dangerous.

"Then trust me, I'll take care of her." assured her Stefan in the hope that he had convinced her to help him, and she just stared at him uncertainly.

Later after the conversation, they went to the house of the heretic and Bonnie took it upon herself to remove the hoop. Stefan opened the door with a copy of the key and they went to Caroline's bedroom, who was reading a book on her bed. The blonde looked better but was still a little pale.

"Thanks Bonnie. I promise that the accident won't happen again. Stefan is a witness of my promise." promised Caroline while her brother was sitting in an armchair near her.

"I know that it won't happen again, because from now on there will be rules," the girl revealed to her surprising the vampires who looked at each other incredulously. "I have the hoop and I'm the only person who can remove it, so this will help you to control yourself." she explained holding the ring in her hand.

"First, you have no right to make rules for me. And second, I'm not going to hurt anyone. If you don't remember it, this was Katherine's fault." she replied irritated crossing her arms.

"You're half vampire, which means that the desire to kill is part of who you are. The minute you try to attack someone, I'll lock you up using this until you behave." she warned seriously as she stared at her and raised the hoop for them to see.

"Well, I don't like being threatened with my things, so…" she commented just as seriously and raised her hand in Bonnie's direction. The hoop in the witch's hand went quickly to the heretic's hand who took it, surprising the others in the room.

"So you just plan to keep on killing? I thought that you were good." she insinuated, annoyed at what she did.

"Well, I thought you were like my friend. I don't wanna kill anyone, that was an accident. And you all have no right to judge me since you don't even know me or understand me." she clarified angry as well. Stefan shook his head resignedly, but he understood her reaction.

"Bonnie, thank you for helping but the rules aren't necessary. Caroline is better and with help she'll be like before." he denied a bit incredulous about her idea of using the hoop of the heretic.

"Okay, but I'll still use my magic against you if you do something bad" she tried to threaten the other witch but she had to admit that she seemed to be very good at what she did. "She is all yours." she whispered to Stefan and left, a little annoyed that her plan hadn't worked.

Elena, Damon and Alaric arrived at the University of Duke where they were greeted by Vanessa, a folklore research assistant who had known Isobel and asked them about her. The woman let them into Isobel's office and went out to get something while they glanced around, but were surprised when Vanessa returned with a crossbow in hand and shot an arrow at Elena, who was saved by Damon that covered her.

Later, Elena pulled the arrow out of Damon's back and convinced him not to kill the woman if he wanted her to keep talking to him, while the assistant was with Alaric. Vanessa confessed to him that she had panicked because she thought that Katherine Pierce and Damon Salvatore had been dead since 1864, which she had read about in Isobel's research. At that Elena and Damon appeared there, the girl introducing herself as Elena Gilbert the descendant of Katherine and the daughter of Isobel, and clarified her that they needed to see the research on Mystic Falls.

On his side, Stefan had taken Caroline to the woods since he wanted to try a new technique to help her relax and get her back to the way she was before.

"Look, I want us to try something new. I want you to close your eyes, breathe and relax here in the woods." he commented slowly so as not to irritate her any more than she already seemed to be.

"Seriously? You want me to connect with my inner self and meditate?" she replied to him, incredulous at his idea.

"I'm trying to help you Caroline. I brought you here since you always looked in a good mood when you came back from your walks in the forest. I want you to think good thoughts and focus on your positive emotions. But if you don't want my help to relax just tell me." he explained crossing his arms, sometimes his little sister could be a bit difficult to deal with.

"I'm sorry. I appreciate your help, it's just that I've been locked up these days throwing up all the bad stuff in my body while everyone is having fun at the swimming hole and Matt is there. And he told me that he loves me but I have been avoiding him. And now you want me to meditate or connect with my humanity at remembering my walks here, so I'm kind of freaking out okay?" she admitted exasperated a little but she got irritated when she heard her brother laughing. "And you're laughing at me now, thanks." she added ironically.

"No, I'm not laughing. This isn't funny, believe me, it's just that this makes me laugh a little. I feel like I'm a motivational coach and everything will be fine." he affirmed giggling lightly.

"So basically you're laughing that you want me to connect with my inner self so I'm not a neurotic, irritable control freak?" she inquired confused, but she didn't want him to make fun of her.

"Well, I wasn't going to say it like that. How about you try sitting somewhere around here and think of a good memory? Then we'll go to the swimming hole." Stefan suggested her smiling, surprising her.

"Really?" she asked starting to smile when she heard her brother's offer.

"Yeah. You've been locked up emptying your stomach for days, what is partly our fault. It's the least you deserve, I want to help you." he clarified looking at her with affection.

"Thank you. Now let's sit down and think good thoughts." she agreed, but then she ran to a bush.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked behind her worriedly when the girl stopped vomiting and stood up.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I'll just drink some water." affirmed the blonde smiling slightly after cleaning herself and they went to some big rocks, they sat down there and she closed her eyes starting to breathe after drinking water.

Matt and Tyler were at the meeting in the woods near one of the Lockwood properties. The former was looking around in case his girlfriend showed up and told his friend that he didn't know how he was doing with the blonde girl, while the latter was talking to his uncle Mason who wanted his party to end before it got dark and they left. When Stefan arrived he saw Mason leaving in his car and they looked at each other seriously, until the man left.

"Something's going on with him, right? That's why you watch him with your serious and frowning look?" guessed the heretic next to her brother making him lose his focus and he looked at her.

"My what? My 'serious and frowning look'?" he asked incredulous at what she'd told him.

"Yes, it's different from your worried look, but it's also different from your relaxed look, so I call it that." she told him humorously, making him smile at her witticism.

"I get it. You think I'm too serious?" he tried to understand what the girl meant.

"Well, I wasn't going to say it like that." she mocked repeating what Stefan had told her before and they giggled a little. Then Caroline saw a girl near Matt and using her vampiric hearing she heard how she flirted with him discreetly and he didn't stop her, so she went towards them.

Matt was angry that she wasn't answering his calls, but he became even angrier at her for ordering the girl to leave. She just compelled her to go away but her boyfriend was upset that after days of just ignoring him, she acted like a jealous girlfriend and left her talking to herself, but first she claimed to him that he did nothing to stop the girl.

"Hey, I saw that. You compelled her." accused Stefan after seeing them as he got near her.

"Yeah, so? I didn't make her do anything wrong." she affirmed as if it was no big deal what she did.

"Caroline, no one deserves to have their mind messed with for shallow reasons." he clarified, staring at his sister with some seriousness for her attitude, making her roll her eyes.

"But I didn't do anything. Why does she have to flirt with a guy who has a girlfriend? And Matt didn't try to tell her anything, which is also bad." she excused herself glaring at him for his lecture.

"I admit that's true, but you still shouldn't let your jealousy bring out the bad in you." the older guy advised after sighing and looking away for a second, wanting to help her.

"Well, I admit I was wrong. But I only told her to look for someone single, it's the best not only for me but for her." admitted the heretic turning her face towards him smiling a little.

"Do you want to go meditate some more to relax?" he offered looking at her curiously.

"I'm fine, okay? I can handle my jealousy as well as anyone. Oh shut up." she added as she saw that her brother smiled avoiding giggling and crossed his arms, not believing what she was saying.

While at Duke University Elena, Damon and Alaric were looking for information about the werewolves or about Katherine. At one point Damon insinuated to the girl that he knew something secret about Katherine, but then they were interrupted by Alaric.

"Hey guys, check this out." announced Alaric sitting on the desk of the place with a book in his hands and the other three moved closer to him with curiosity.

"There are no records of werewolf mythology in Mystic Falls, but here are some records of some of the lesser-known legends. Everything from the Scandinavian skin-walkers to the Maréchal de Retz. Tonartsliitsii Metslii, which roughly translates into 'the Curse of the Sun and the Moon'." Vanessa told them while she took the book from the man's hand and saw it for a few moments and then showed it to Damon and Elena, who noticed that was filled with some strange drawings, which seemed to be very old.

"It's Native American." said the human while he looked at them curiously.

"Aztec. It explains one origin of the werewolf curse traced through Virginia. The short story: 600 years ago, the Aztecs were plagued by werewolves and vampires. They terrorized the countryside, made farming and hunting impossible until an Aztec shaman cursed them, making the vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants of the moon. As a result, vampires could only prowl at night and werewolves could only turn on a full moon. When the full moon rises in the sky, whoever is unlucky enough to fall under the werewolf curse turns into a wolf." she kept explaining while pointing to some of the drawings in the book in Elena's hands.

"Can they control the transformation?" asked the vampire walking around the office.

"If it were a choice, it wouldn't be called a curse," she replied with a certain obviousness, throwing a glance at him. "Werewolves would attack humans but instinct and centuries of rivalry had hardwired them to hunt their prey of choice: vampires." the woman revealed, making them curious.

"Well, if werewolves were hunting vampires, I would know about it." Damon hinted standing in front of her while smirking slightly, not believing that part.

"Not if there aren't that many werewolves left alive. Hundreds of years ago, the vampires hunted them almost to extinction." she said, leaning on the desk while she looked at the three of them.

"Why would they do that?" Elena inquired, interested in the story wanting to know more.

"To protect themselves. Legend has it that a werewolf bite is fatal to vampires." confessed Vanessa crossing her arms, while the others looked at each other with concern.

That night, Stefan and Caroline were still in the woods and saw everyone leave because of Tyler. The blonde girl was still a little upset with her boyfriend, and they both watched him alone from afar.

"He's mad at me." murmured thoughtfully the girl, looking at the human boy.

"Go talk to him. I'll wait." he encouraged her smiling a little, to which she nodded smiling and walked to Matt, while Stefan received a call "Hey." he greeted Elena walking away.

"Hi. Listen, we've learnt some stuff here and I know that it's gonna sound crazy, but I wanted to fill you in." explained the girl walking through the university, and he asked her to tell him.

"Are you still mad?" Caroline inquired Matt with some doubt about how he was.

"I thought you weren't insecure about being with me anymore, Caroline. I told you how I felt about you, what more do you need?" the younger boy asked confused, staring at her.

"Nothing, nothing, I don't need anything. I'm sorry Matt, I just don't like it when someone flirts with my boyfriend, and I like it even less when the boy does nothing to avoid it. But that's it, I'm sorry." she apologized to him, not knowing what to say to him while she moved closer to him.

"But I told you how I feel about you. I don't wanna put up with all the drama." he clarified with a certain seriousness.

"There won't be drama, I'll try. I promise." she promised, taking his face and they kissed for a few moments, then the human boy smiled and taking her by the hand he took her to another place.

"I don't know what that means or if we should even believe it but it's a full moon, Stefan. After what you saw Mason Lockwood do…" Elena hinted worried about that fact.

"I'll be careful." the older guy affirmed to relax her, thinking about going straight home.

"There's one more thing. According to the legend, the werewolf bite can kill a vampire." she revealed making Stefan look around for Caroline, but she wasn't there.

"Listen, I gotta go. See you when I get home." he said goodbye worried when he didn't see her and hung up, he called the heretic but remembered that she had left her phone at home so he went to get her.

Later, Stefan was still running in the woods preoccupied and looking around in case that he saw Caroline and Matt, but then he heard a howl and approached Mason's truck as he saw scratch marks on the ground. Looking inside the vehicle, he could see yellow eyes and a wolf jumped out the window falling on him to head for the trees.

While Alaric was saying goodbye to Vanessa, thanked her for the help with the research and told her the truth about Isobel, Elena and Damon were outside waiting.

"Allow me," Damon asked, walking towards Elena and opening the car door for her, upon seeing that she couldn't open it. "You're not gonna be able to hate me forever." he said as he blocked her way.

"Can we go?" she replied looking indifferent, even though she was angry at him.

"You didn't dig deep enough." he clarified as he gave her a book, which she took curious.

"'Petrova'. I saw it on a shelf." she commented, reading the title on the cover and looking up.

"Katherine originally came from Europe. Petrova was her real name. Katerina Petrova to be exact." he revealed staring at her, as she was throwing interested glances at the book.

"How did you know that?" inquired confused the brunette, frowning for a moment.

"Some time ago, I saw it engraved on an old heirloom. Men snoop too, you know. Let me know what you find, I'm very curious myself," he admitted throwing her a small smile that was ignored and Elena tried to get into the car but he stopped her. "You have every right to hate me, I understand but you hated me before and we became friends. It would suck if that was gone forever. So, is that so? Have I lost you forever?" he asked her with a certain seriousness in his tone, hoping that she'd answer him something good.

"Thank you for the book Damon." she thanked ignoring his question, to which the vampire resigned nodded and finally let her get into the car, and then Damon closed the door behind her.

Caroline was in the woods with Matt kissing, after they'd made up, when a strange noise was heard. They continued kissing until the blonde girl heard him speak.

"What happened?" asked Caroline stopping the moment, thinking she smelled blood.

"I'm clumsy," he said showing her the wound on his wrist. "What's the matter?" he inquired when he saw her attentive to his blood, which she licked as she took his hand and couldn't help biting his wrist for the taste.

"Caroline? What are you doing? Caroline! Caroline!" shouted the boy frightened at what his girlfriend was doing and she stopped. Matt could see how her face had changed and now she had fangs with something weird in her eyes. "Caroline your face!" he screamed again terrified when he saw her and she bit his neck. At that moment Stefan appeared and grabbed her away from the human.

"Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!" the vampire ordered her and her face went back to normal, but then they saw Matt fall to the ground and faint. "No, no stop. Listen to me. We have to get out of this woods now. We have to leave." he affirmed as he watched her try to get closer to her boyfriend.

"What was that?" asked Caroline worriedly upon hearing noises around her.

"Matt, stay down. Don't move." Stefan told the human in case he was kind of conscious and they heard more noises "You and me, we're gonna run. It's going to follow us, we have to get it away from Matt. Run as fast as you can, do you understand me? Go, go!" he explained in a hurry and they started running with their vampiric speed, until Caroline stopped near some ruins.

"What the hell is going on, Stefan?!" she questioned him uneasy and confused making him stop too.

"It's a werewolf! He'll try to kill us and he can!" he revealed nervously so they would keep running to save themselves and they heard more noises around them.

"What?! You should've started there! I don't want it to bite me and die!" exclaimed the girl now just as scared as her brother, who was surprised. Then Tyler appeared there.

"What are you two doing?" he asked confused to them, luckily he hadn't heard them talking.

"What are you doing?" Stefan replied, suddenly a wolf appeared and ran towards Caroline. The animal was over her, who in spite of not wanting it, screamed in fear since the wolf seemed to try to bite her. Then her brother used his powers and pushed the animal away from her, there they watched as the wolf stared at Tyler and left the place.

After checking up that the blonde girl was fine, the siblings returned to Matt and she compelled him into believing that an animal had attacked him, biting his neck. The boy repeated everything that she told him and the heretic walked past Stefan.

"I can't believe I hurt Matt, he's one of the people that I've never wanted to hurt. I admit that I have compelled him in emergencies but never this." the girl lamented.

"I know. You consider him one of your only friends here, besides being your boyfriend. Maybe you could be careful a little more and make sure you are clean." he suggested while she turned to look at him.

"I will do that. Maybe it was a bad idea to be with him, I'm not my normal self now. What if this happens again and I'm a danger to him, like everyone thinks I am?" she hinted concerned.

"I'm the last person who can judge or advise you in that. If I followed my own advice, I would have walked away from Elena a long time ago. But I can't." he admitted, hesitant about what to say.

"I can't blame you. You don't choose who you love, you can only accept it or ignore it until the feeling goes away. The second option is almost never possible." reflected the heretic thoughtfully and turned to leave him. "Hey, do you know who was the werewolf that tried to attack us?" she inquired curiously, hoping to get a good explanation from him.

"I think it was Mason Lockwood, Tyler's uncle. Elena called me and told me that a werewolf bite seems to be lethal to vampires. She's at Duke searching about them with Damon and Alaric," he confessed glancing around him for a moment and then looked at her doubtfully. "But, how did you know that if you get bitten you might die?" he interrogated this time with seriousness.

"Because I heard of werewolves. It's important to know the dangers we run as vampires. Besides, grandma sometimes told me stories and myths about them and about vampires." the blonde told him, seeing her brother's worried face.

"You know about them? Then do you know if the legend about their bite being deadly for vampires is true?" he asked her and his concern increased when he saw her nod with seriousness.

"It's true. If a vampire is bitten by a wolf, he'll have a couple of days left to live until he dies from the venom in his body. I met a couple vampires who lost acquaintances after having been bitten." she confirmed, fearing a little for the new threat in the town.

Later, Stefan and Caroline went to the Grill for food before he walked her home. Caroline was waiting for her brother when she saw Matt talking to the girl who flirted with him, so thinking about her talk with Stefan she made up her mind and walked over to them.

"Seriously Aimee?" she questioned feigning irritation when she was next to them.

"We were just talking." the girl murmured while trying to keep her calm.

"Oh, is that what you call it? I know what you are doing." she replied with a fake annoyed tone.

"Are you kidding, Caroline? She didn't do anything." asked Matt incredulously.

"No, I'm not Matt. She's interested in you and anyone can see it." denied the blonde girl with seriousness, getting the girl to leave after apologizing and her boyfriend stared at her angrily.

"Knock it off. What are you doing?" he questioned her without believing her attitude after her apology.

"This isn't my fault Matt, okay? She's after you and I shouldn't have to put up with that." the older girl answered crossing her arms without doubting her decision.

"I thought you said there would be no more drama." he exclaimed, equally annoyed.

"Well, I lied to you. It's hard to be drama-free if you're being flirted with and you don't do anything to stop it. I wonder if you would be jealous if someone flirted with me, knowing that I have a boyfriend, and I didn't do anything to avoid it." she replied ironically and the human gave her an irritated look.

"Didn't you flirt with me when I was dating Elena?" he insinuated and regretted upon seeing how surprised she was as he remembered that it had been a mistake.

"Are you comparing that moment with this one? You seem to have forgotten, but I flirted with you on my first day of school. I didn't know you had a girlfriend, I didn't even know your name, and as soon as you told me that you were with someone I apologized and I introduced myself properly. And that's quite the opposite of this since Aimee knows who you are and knows that you have a girlfriend." she reminded him feeling real disbelief and anger at him for trying to make her feel bad.

"I know very well how we met, but forget it, okay? Just forget everything and that's it." he asked her tired of her attitude and tried to get away from her, but she spoke again.

"Wait, are you breaking up with me?" she asked to make sure she was hearing right.

"Yeah, yeah. I guess that's what I'm doing." Matt declared and after looking at her for another moment he walked away. The heretic sat down at a table alone and tears began to well up in her eyes.

"Here I have the food," commented Stefan approaching her with a bag in his hand, but when he saw her face he became serious and left the bag on the table. "Hey, what's wrong?" he inquired worried, bending down in front of her to get a better look at her.

"Matt broke up with me. I made him break up with me." was all she whispered and covered her face. Her brother made her stand up and hugged her, letting her cry on his shoulder.

On her part, Elena arrived home and made it clear to Damon that even thought they had taken a trip together things weren't gonna change between the two of them. She then asked Damon if he knew that Jeremy had been using the magic ring when he had killed him, to which the vampire confessed that he didn't really know and that he had exploded after he had argued with Katherine and she had hurt him, and Damon apologized for killing Jeremy.

The brunette thanked him for being honest with her and answered his question about whether he'd lost her, which she followed up with that he had lost her forever. Angrily, Damon claimed that Elena had manipulated him for his help that afternoon, adding that she and Katherine had much more in common than just their looks. After staring at each other, Damon left.

When she arrived home alone after assuring Stefan that she was fine, Caroline couldn't help herself and broke a vase that she fixed using her magic. Then she went to sleep hugging a pillow to forget everything that happened those past few days. But there was something that told her things were wrong, and when she woke up the next day to see Elena in her bedroom she knew that the weird feeling was totally right, as always.

"I'm sure that you're not but, Elena?" she hesitated, hoping she was wrong.

"No, try again." denied the brunette and Caroline closed her eyes for a moment from exhaustion.

"Katherine." she affirmed, feeling the irritation growing and saw her sitting on her bed.

"I'm glad that you're not frightened, although I suppose that you're angry about my little prank with that potion. We're gonna have so much fun together, little witch." commented Katherine smirking mischievously at her, but that nickname only made Caroline scared and nervous.

Chapter Text

Normal POV

Stefan was sleeping in his bedroom with Elena but was suddenly awakened by the dream he had had, first about his time with Katherine during 1864 and then about Elena being with Damon, he tried to go back to sleep when he realised that Katherine was pretending to be Elena and he tried to attack her. Failing in his attempt, Stefan tried again to find out what the girl was doing in town, but the brunette only affirmed that she had come back for him.

The real Elena was at the Grill and ran into Damon, who revealed that the meal arranged by Jenna for that afternoon had actually been his idea. Turns out that he wanted to see Mason Lockwood, who was equally invited for being an old friend of Jenna's, so he could meet him and they would find out if he was a werewolf, so he was going to do it that afternoon.

At the Salvatore boarding house, Stefan saw Katherine again who was reading one of his journals. The older one confessed to know about werewolves and the danger with their bite. What left Stefan shocked was to learn that in 1864 there were werewolf attacks.

"From the moment I met George, I knew that he'd be a problem." the girl continued.

"So you're saying that all the Lockwoods are werewolves." he deduced, staring at her.

"The werewolf gene runs in the Lockwood family. It's not that they're all wolves." she clarified without stopping walking around the room while she kept glancing at him from time to time.

"How many werewolves are out there? I mean is it limited to just the Lockwoods?" asked the guy sitting in an armchair in the living room, curious about what she knew about his new problem.

"No, there are others. Not many, they are practically extinct. They mainly exist now in books and very bad movies." she commented putting down her glass and took a picture out of Stefan's journal. "My turn to ask a question. Why did you keep this picture? Why not burn it, tear it up?" she inquired him, showing him a picture of herself. "You want to know why I came back. Well I have a better question: why did you? For Elena? No, you came back here to fall in love with me all over again, didn't you?" she insinuated looking at him serious, to which Stefan quickly got near her.

"What is it about you that makes me still care?" he asked, stroking her cheek. The brunette stared at him for a few moments until she moved closer to him until she kissed him, but then Stefan stuck a syringe full of vervain into her back, making her collapse fainting on the couch. 

Then Stefan chained Katherine to a wall in one of the basement cells, declaring that the older girl would answer all of his questions if she didn't want him to torture her with his vervain reserves. The girl agreed to talk and began telling him about the Founders Ball.

It was the Founders Ball and the whole town was there, among them the Salvatores along with their guest Katherine, who was going as Stefan's date. The young man was looking around for his sister Caroline, so he didn't notice George Lockwood walking towards his date.

"She's all alone. Does this mean that I can speak with you now?" the young man asked her when he was in front of the vampire, who was drinking alone near a table.

"I thought I would see you following Caroline. By the way, I see your father has outdone himself." the girl pretended to flatter him to relax him so she could go straight to the important subject.

"Well, she was supposed to come so we could talk and be together, but apparently nobody has seen her. And as for my father, knowing him he will want to organize a Founders Party every year." assured the younger one looking around in search of the blonde Salvatore.

"I must admit that I was rather surprised that, considering you want to get close to her and perhaps court her, you came looking for me." Katherine insinuated with a small fake smile.

"Because you are the rope that the Salvatore boys fight over?" he inquired with a certain mocking tone while smirking, but he didn't expect an answer from the older girl.

"No, because I'm a vampire who could kill you in your sleep," she warned him seriously and saw that he pretended to be surprised. "Relax George, I know you know my secret." she admitted smirking.

"Let's end this conversation. I will go look for Caroline." he tried to excuse himself to leave but the girl took him by the arm to keep him in his place and continue talking.

"And I know your secret too. And I know that you are very strong, but not as strong as me." she continued speaking with a certain humor as she let him go and thought that she had made him nervous.

"How do you know who I am?" he enquired, worried for what she really knew about him.

"You think that I would settle into a town without knowing my enemies?" replied the older woman with some mockery in her tone and saw how he gave her a look full of irritation.

"What do you want?" he questioned seriously and Katherine smirked.

Caroline had arrived at Elena's house with Damon, who reminded her that they had to find out more about Mason and know if he was a real werewolf, so they had to be careful and know how to move. Also, Damon made it clear that later they should talk about what she knew about wolves and he went into the house first, while the heretic saw Elena sitting down outside.

"Hey Elena, were you talking to Stefan?" she greeted with a friendly smile after walking towards her and sat down next to her, looking at her with some curiosity.

"Hey Caroline, well yes. He hasn't called me back, so I don't know if I should be worried or not," she told her with a small smile trying to be nice. "And how are you feeling?" she asked interested since the last time that they had seen each other was at the carnival.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that Stefan is fine. And I'm better, but Stefan makes me eat because it's a good way to avoid the desire for blood. Although I'm controlling myself." commented the older girl, hoping that the food would be ready soon and looking at the human.

"I know that Stefan hates that part of himself, and he sure wishes he could control himself." the girl admitted with some resignation at the thought of her boyfriend.

"Yeah, and he must also hate that you are a constant temptation." added unconsciously the heretic, not looking at her, which puzzled the brunette girl a little.

"He said that?" she asked worried about what the guy had said and the girl looked at her.

"The desire to bite your jugular vein when he is with you? Believe me, it's there. You need control when being around humans. That's why I broke up with Matt." she explained to her hoping that it would be useful for Elena, then Alaric came out to tell them that the food was ready.

In the basement of the Salvatore mansion, Stefan was still interrogating Katherine, who was insisting that he had really loved her in the past and that he still loved her in the present.

"Anyway, George Lockwood was causing all sorts of trouble. He used the vampires to cover up his own tracks. He told the founding families about us. But he was willing to strike a deal." the brunette chained up continued to explain.

"What kind of deal?" he asked interested in that part, sitting in front of her.

"A deal to rid the town of vampires." she revealed to tell him more about their deal.

In 1864, Katherine was walking with George Lockwood on the grounds of the Salvatore estate.

"I just spoke with Giuseppe Salvatore. The round up happens tonight." the man told her, walking outside alone with her, who nodded.

"Good. Insist they do a body count before the church is set on fire." the brunette girl ordered him as she held up an umbrella and watched him nod. "27 vampires." she added.

"Once the flames create chaos, crawl to the exit under the choir loft. I'll be there to set you free." he explained quiet so no one would hear them.

"Make sure that you are not followed. I need everyone to believe that I perished in the fire." the vampire declared, trying to stay calm as she went over the plan in her head.

"You knew that they were going to burn the vampires in the church?" inquired the younger one, disconcerted.

"I practically lit the match." she affirmed with seriousness, as if it were no big deal.

"They were your friends, they were your family and you just sold them out." he exclaimed, unable to believe the cold way that she'd told him the story and how she had betrayed everyone.

"Without blinking." she added, keeping her face the same, indifferent to the fact.

At the Gilbert house, Caroline from the living room rolled her eyes at how obvious Damon was being in trying to upset Mason. She was thinking about whether she should explain to her brother how to dissimulate when Elena, who was rearranging the room with her, interrupted her.

"Do you think that it would be rude for me to leave here and go to Stefan's?" the younger girl asked turning to look at her, looking for good advice from her.

"Do you want to leave? But why?" inquired the heretic, hiding her nerves at the idea.

"It's just that he doesn't answer me and I got a bad feeling." she revealed, worried about her boyfriend.

"I don't think that's a good idea Elena." she denied, hoping to convince her to stay.

"Damon has everything under control here, and you can help him if things go wrong." the brunette hinted a little surprised by the girl's unusual attitude.

"Maybe Stefan just went out and forgot his phone. Perhaps there's nothing wrong." she replied trying to keep her calm so she wouldn't want to leave, she had to stay at home.

"Well, all the more reason for me to go. I'm just concerned, you understand, right?" questioned confused Elena so she would let her go, and Caroline came up with an idea.

"Yeah, you're right. How about I give you a ride?" suggested her the older girl trying to be friendly.

"Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks." thanked her and got out to get into the blonde's car, who walked over to one of the tires and with her vampiric strength deflated it to get in too.

In the basement of the Salvatore boarding house, Stefan was still listening to Katherine's story and her deal with George Lockwood to help her fake her death.

"What did George get in return? For giving you your freedom." he asked thinking about what had happened back then and how he had never liked the Lockwood boy.

"Something he wanted desperately." the older one commented, a bit tired from the torture.

"So you sent 26 of your friends to their death, just to fake your own? No, you were running from something. What was it?" he questioned serious, hoping to get something useful.

"Everyone has a past Stefan. Mine needed to stay far away but thanks to you my plan nearly failed before it even began. Once George told me that the round up was imminent, I made sure I could see you one last time, but your father used your love for me against you and he poisoned your blood. Then Damon being Damon, nearly ruined everything." explained the girl, referring to when the two of them had gone to save her and ended up dead.

"We both went for you, we tried to save you. And Caroline unbeknownst to us followed us into the woods" he told her with a hurt tone at the thought of that terrible night.

"I didn't want to be saved, and Caroline's thing wasn't my fault." she replied serious, making him angry.

"Then Damon and I died for nothing! And she died trying to save us! At least she died for something noble, but we did it for nothing!" he scolded furious at the girl's answer, he believed that everything that had happened to the three of them had been her fault.

"No Stefan, you two died for love! And I repeat that what happened to Caroline wasn't my fault." she repeated to make him understand, and the younger guy couldn't help but scoff.

"You're right about one thing. Her death is only partly your fault, because if we hadn't gone for you she would have been saved, but the turning was your fault." he clarified and looked away for a second.

"It was my fault that she became a vampire?" Katherine asked with some confusion.

"Of course it was. You gave blood to all three of us and that turned us into vampires. Don't pretend you didn't do it." he admitted irritated and left the basement for a while, leaving the brunette girl thoughtful.

After being abandoned by Caroline at the Gilbert house, Damon kept an eye on Mason, who went into the kitchen with him and tried to be friendly despite Damon's teasing.

"Okay. Enough with the innuendos, you win, you're hilarious." commented Mason tired of him.

"Thank you." replied the vampire as he smiled at him for a moment.

"Come on, man. You don't think I know what this barbecue is about?" he asked with mild annoyance as he wiped the smile off his face and went to the main topic.

"How do you know about me? Your brother was completely clueless." he affirmed while he erased the smile too and looked at the man with some caution.

"It doesn't matter. I'm not your enemy, Damon." the wolf assured him to forget the problem.

"You tried to kill my siblings." he reminded him irritated as he remembered the attack against the vampires, throwing him a look and tried to leave, but the other one approached him.

"That was a mistake," he clarified, making him look at him somewhat incredulously. "There was confusion. I couldn't chain myself in time. I have no control once I shift." he explained to make him understand him.

"What, no obedience school?" asked the older man, looking at him mockingly.

"I'm serious. Let's not spark some age-old feud that doesn't apply to us." the younger one offered with sincerity and some weariness, hoping they would get over the whole thing.

"You expect me to believe that you're in Mystic Falls planting peace trees?" inquired the vampire, not believing the werewolf's offer of peace, that maybe was lying.

"I lost my brother, my nephew lost his father. I'm here for my family. Let's be above this." the man exclaimed honestly and offered him one hand which was accepted. Mason left, leaving Damon alone in the kitchen, who took a silver knife from a box.

Caroline and Elena were in the former's car on their way to the Salvatore mansion. The human thought that the older girl was behaving a little strangely, she found it odd that she didn't want to go check if her brother was okay, so she decided to ask her.

"Why are you so weird today? You don't want me to get close to your brother?" Elena asked her a little tired of what the blonde had been telling her that afternoon.

"Sorry, I'm just speaking from experience. I'm sure that you'll beat the odds guys. Not that there is a probability study, what's the success rate of vampire and human couples? For me zero." the heretic argued with a calm tone as if she hadn't said anything while driving, but she only earned a serious look from the brunette.

"Okay Caroline, enough." she replied with a bit of irritation and they began listening to music on the radio, but then one of the car's tires blew out, so they had to get out.

The two of them were in the middle of the street waiting for the tow truck that was late. Elena suggested ideas for them to leave so they could find another way to go see Stefan, but Caroline rejected each of her suggestions and wanted them to wait there, then she got tired of her attitude.

"Caroline, don't you get I'm worried about Stefan? That he's actually your brother, but you don't seem to care what happens to him." she questioned annoyed and crossed her arms. She was fed up that the heretic didn't seem to care if the vampire was fine.

"I know that he's my brother, in case you don't remember it we've been alive for over 160 years. And I don't understand your need to be all over Stefan, maybe he's fine. Are you so worried about your relationship and what he does without you?" she replied with a hurtful tone. It bothered her that Elena accused her of not caring about Stefan when in fact it was the opposite.

"Look, I know that you're upset about Matt, but could you stop projecting it onto me and Stefan? Maybe he puts up with it but I don't." she denied feeling more irritated by her response.

"I'm not projecting anything! You are human and he's a vampire. You'll be 70 and wearing diapers while he'll still look like a teenager. Also you'll never be able to have children, and in a few years it'll be weird for you two to be together." Caroline declared with exasperation, hoping to create a seed of doubt in her head about her relationship with Stefan.

"I don't understand it. Where is this coming from?" she inquired trying to pretend that she was unaffected.

"I'm just trying to protect Stefan, I don't want him to suffer because of you." the older girl admitted calmly. That was what she wanted most, that her brothers wouldn't suffer for love again.

"Okay, well, do us a favor and let us live our relationship. He's capable of making decisions by himself." affirmed the brunette so that she would understand that she shouldn't get between them.

"Well, I will never stop taking care of him. Just as I told him once, I'm capable of anything to protect my family and you aren't capable of stopping me from doing so." she warned with seriousness, which gave her a shiver that she tried to hide. Then they heard the tow nearby and Elena turned around to walk when the blonde got in her way with vampiric speed. "You can't go away and leave me alone." the heretic denied so she wouldn't leave there as she took her by an arm.

"Caroline, you're hurting me! What's wrong with you?" she asked surprised, but Caroline let her go when she saw the tow boy getting near. Elena took the chance to leave and left her alone by her car.

A while after the meeting at the Gilbert house, Mason went to the Grill to drink something, not knowing Damon had followed him to the place.

"Damon? What, more dog jokes?" he asked as he saw the man approaching him.

"Nah, those got old." he commented smirking slightly, then stabbed him with a silver knife that he had stolen from Jenna, causing the wolf to fall to his knees as he walked to the back of Mason's truck, not noticing how he removed the knife and stood up.

"You know, I think it was the werewolves who started this whole silver myth. Probably for moments like this." he explained angrily while he walked towards his truck.

"Duly noted." added the vampire walking in the other direction, thinking about his failure.

"I was really looking forward to another drink. Now you made an enemy." he warned, staring at him so he'd understand the seriousness of the matter and walked away, leaving Damon a little worried.

Meanwhile, Katherine was still chained in the basement of the Salvatore mansion.

"Are you gonna tell me why you came back here or you're just playing another game?" Stefan inquired her as he walked, tired that despite the torture she wouldn't tell him the truth.

"Have you not heard a word that I said? I've answered that question five times over now." she replied, equally tired that he wouldn't stop torturing her and asking her the same questions.

"Oh well, make it six." he said mockingly, walking towards her.

"I want what I want Stefan, and I don't care what I have to do to get it. My list of victims is a long one, and I have no problem adding one more name to that list." the brunette slowly admitted as she shot him a couple of annoyed glances.

"Come on, Katherine. If you wanted Elena dead, you would have done it by now." he hinted a bit incredulously.

"I still can. If I have to, I'll snap her neck like a twig and you know it." she warned him without taking her eyes off him, to which Stefan quickly ran towards her with a stake in his hand to kill her, but he stopped instantly and threw it to the floor furiously walking away from her.

"I guess you don't hate me as much as you thought you did. I don't want you seeing Elena anymore. If you don't remove her from your life, I will kill everyone that she loves while she watches and then I will kill her while you watch." the girl threatened looking at him with great seriousness, making him run back to her without hesitation and strangled her, as in his face appeared his vampiric features.

"Don't you ever think for one moment that I will not kill you." warned the younger one with the stake in his hand and with fury, but he didn't expect her to push him against a wall to then break the bindings on her arms and legs that kept her tied to the chair.

"I've been sipping vervain every single day for the last 145 years. You caught me by surprise once, I wasn't gonna let it happen again. It doesn't hurt me Stefan." she confessed a little tired of the torture as she slowly stood up and approached him.

"What? Why?" he asked confused still on the floor, and watched while she crouched down in front of him.

"I told you, I missed you Stefan. I just wanted to spend some time with you." he affirmed seriously.

At that moment, they both heard Elena's voice coming into the house, so Katherine staked him in the leg and went to Elena. Both brunette girls looked each other up and down and Katherine approached Elena, who was puzzled by the resemblance between them and couldn't help but ask without receiving an answer. Then they were interrupted by Stefan, which Katherine took advantage of to leave the house leaving the younger vampire hugging Elena.

After having her car fixed Caroline had gone to the Grill to get something to eat. She was in the bathroom when she looked in the mirror and saw Katherine behind her, so she turned around.

"Katherine, coming for information?" greeted the younger girl with a bitter tone.

"Could you explain how you couldn't follow through with one simple task?" questioned Katherine with some annoyance, hoping for a good reason for her ineptitude.

"I tried, okay? It's not like I could kidnap her, I have to keep living in town with Stefan and Damon. Not all of us can fake our death and disappear like you." she replied a bit ironically, but she had to remind herself that it wasn't a good idea to make her angry.

"Occupy her, that's all I asked." she reminded her, the blonde shouldn't ruin her plans.

"I told her that their relationship was going to fail and all that mortality stuff. I think she was affected by what I told her." the heretic hinted believing that in spite of everything she did a good job.

"I hope so, because let's not forget what I told you. I know about people who'd be thrilled to meet the vampire with magic if I talk about you." she threatened her seriously and stared at her a few more moments before leaving. Caroline ran her hands over her face in some frustration and left the bathroom, thinking of some way she could get rid of Katherine.

Later, Elena went to the Grill with Stefan and they both saw Caroline sitting alone at a table so they went to greet her, but Stefan went straight to the bar leaving the girls alone.

"Caroline, I think we should talk." the human began to say and the heretic nodded.

"Look Elena, I'm really sorry about what happened before. It's just that sometimes I tend to go a little overboard when I try to protect Damon and Stefan, but I'll try not to let it happen again." apologized Caroline, a part of her didn't want to get between them.

"It's okay Caroline. You just want to protect your brothers. And everything that you said is true, it's just hard to hear, you know?" she accepted her apology still a little angry.

"Wait, so you're not mad at me?" she asked a little confused.

"You were just being a good sister, in your own way." she admitted trying to make amends.

"But it was a horrible way, I just don't like to see them feeling bad and I tend to overdo it sometimes. I'm really sorry for what happened." she apologized again telling part of the truth and Elena smiled at her to go sit with Stefan. Caroline sighed feeling a little better after having apologized to the girl for what she had done to her, and decided to look at them to think about how to carry out Katherine's orders, but was surprised to notice that they were tense.

"Listen, I know you're upset but we have to take her seriously. Today, it was all about how far she would go." Stefan tried to explain so Elena would understand the problem.

"If she was going to hurt me, she would have. I was standing right in front of her." she reasoned irritably.

"Elena, you caught her off guard. It doesn't mean that you're safe." he clarified, tired of the chatter.

"I'm not afraid of her." declared the brunette girl firmly, she wouldn't change her mind.

"Well, you should be." the vampire assured, staring at her.

"If Katherine had her way, we'd be breaking up right now." she hinted angrily at the turn their conversation was taking there.

"If today has taught me anything, it's that Katherine is used to getting her own way." he affirmed with equal parts seriousness and a bit of anger that she didn't understand.

"You're not actually saying that we should do what she says." she inquired puzzled.

"Listen, she's sadistic, okay? She threatened you, she threatened everyone." he reminded her worriedly.

"Yeah, no, I get it. She's dangerous, but every day that we are together, it's dangerous. Why are you giving her so much power over our relationship?" she questioned exasperated by his attitude.

"This is the reality of our situation." exclaimed the older guy, not knowing what to tell her.

"Well, the reality sucks. This is what she wants, she wants us to fight. She wants to get between us." declared annoyed the girl, while Caroline continued to spy on them.

"She already has, Elena." admitted the vampire with resignation, making Elena leave after staring at him. All their conversation had been overheard by Caroline and Damon.

After having spied on Stefan and Elena, Damon left the bar running into Katherine. The older girl told him that she had spent the day with Stefan and had told him what she knew about werewolves. She also advised him not to act like a hero since he would end up dead after the guy told her that he had failed to kill a werewolf.

Later, Elena had returned home after leaving the Grill, and had gone into her bedroom to find Stefan in there, whom she approached to hug him while smiling.

"I hated that fight." the girl declared hugging him tightly, referring to their talk at the Grill.

"I know, me too. It felt very real." he agreed with her that the fake fight that they had had at the restaurant had felt strange, then they broke apart only to kiss.

"Did you see Caroline? We were right about it, Katherine got to her again. She was hanging on to every single word." Elena commented with seriousness as she thought about the blonde vampire.

"Yes, I'm sure it's one of Katherine moves. I know Caroline too well and from what you told me that happened today, something must've happened to her. I feel that she's hiding something." Stefan confirmed worried for whatever Katherine had done to his sister.

"But how could she be capable of trying to hurt you? She's your sister and you two don't seem to have the same relationship as you have with Damon." she questioned confused by the attitude of the heretic.

"It's just that she wouldn't be able to unless she has good reasons, like protecting herself or maybe worse. Katherine may have found something to threaten her with. But Caroline is very protective of her loved ones." clarified the vampire so she wouldn't think badly of the girl.

"Are you sure? For me, sometimes Caroline doesn't care that much about what happens to you. She just lets things happen the way that she wants them to." she insinuated with some doubt so he wouldn't take it badly.

"That's not true. Caroline loves us and has always been there for me when I need her or tries to protect me from everything. But something very common in her is that she always has some reason to do what she does. If Caroline does this, maybe it's because she has no other choice." the older guy admitted, convinced of the blonde girl's attitude, he knew her very well.

"Changing the topic, I think that Damon was also listening to us fighting. Are you going to tell him that it wasn't real?" she inquired curious about what he was going to do with his other sibling.

"The only way Katherine is going to believe it is if everyone believes it. That's the best way to make her think that she's getting what she wants." the vampire argued convinced that his plan with Elena was going to work and the girl nodded convinced.

"All this… just to get you back, she even went so far as to mess with your sister who is a witch" she commented without being able to believe all that the brunette was doing for the guy.

"It's not why she's here, okay? No matter what she says, I know her. Katherine doesn't care about anyone but herself, she never has. She is incapable of love, she's here for another reason." Stefan declared very sure of what he was telling her, it wasn't possible in any way that the brunette girl had come back to town for him, she had other motives.

Meanwhile, Katherine was walking alone in the streets of Mystic Falls while looking at the moon in the sky and thinking about her last night in town, after remembering everything that she had said to Stefan that afternoon, she couldn't help but touch her lips smiling.

Having managed to escape from the carriage that was taking the vampires straight to the church to kill them, Katherine was standing in the middle of the woods looking at the bodies of Damon and Stefan, dead, meters away from her. Then she heard someone behind her back.

"Your carriage is waiting for you." commented George Lockwood approaching her.

"All done, George. Thank you." she thanked him for helping her fake her death.

"Now onto your part of the deal." he reminded her with some irritation so she wouldn't forget what she had promised him, and one of the reasons he had accepted the deal.

"If anyone learns of my escape, I will find you and I will kill you, and you can say goodbye to this opportunity to comfort and conquer that annoying Caroline if you want to. Don't think I won't." warned the vampire staring at him seriously as she pointed a hand at Damon and Stefan near them. Then she took a white stone out of her pocket and handed it to him.

"Do not doubt that I will comfort her and she will be mine. And we shall take each other's secrets to the grave. Now, you must hurry." ordered the wolf, putting the stone away and walking away to guide her. Before following him, Katherine ran towards Stefan's body and knelt beside him.

"I love you, Stefan. We will be together again, I promise." declared the girl caressing the boy's face affectionately and then kissing him for a few more moments. Then she stood up and followed George.

Chapter Text

Normal POV

A couple of days later, Mason told Tyler how he had activated his lycanthrope curse, which could be activated after killing anyone in any way, the only thing that mattered was that they died because of him. After answering his questions, Mason repeated to give him the moonstone as they had agreed, so Tyler showed him a safe of his father's since according to him it was a family heirloom, but the stone wasn't there, since Tyler had it.

Meanwhile, Elena was in the shared bathroom talking to Jeremy about the possibility that Tyler was a werewolf and that they'd already confirmed that Mason was one. When the boy told her that he was going to help them, Elena stated that even though she was telling him what was going on, she didn't want to bring him into the problem and went into her bedroom, finding Stefan.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." he apologized for having surprised her and they kissed after she closed the door. "Are you ready for today?" he asked her while they hugged.

"No. I hate fighting with you, even if it's fake." she said feeling a little bad after separating from him.

"I know but if Katherine thinks that we're fighting, then she'll think she's winning and it keeps her from following through with her threats." the older guy explained even though he felt like she did.

"Yes. But it doesn't make it any easier. Neither does knowing that Caroline will be there reporting everything back to her." she replied with some annoyance at the thought of how perhaps they couldn't trust her.

"Everything's gonna be okay. Yes, we have to keep up this ruse for a little while, but it's the best way to keep Katherine from hurting anybody, from hurting you." he tried to reason with her.

"Just promise me that she won't get her way with us. We can fake a fight, we can pretend that her threats are tearing us apart but none of that is real, okay?" clarified the brunette looking into his eyes while she put a hand on his chest.

"Okay, how about this? Today when we're fighting, if I say 'I can't do this anymore Elena', what I'll really mean is that I love you." the guy offered touching her cheek and she smiled.

"And when I say 'fine Stefan, whatever', well that means I love you too." the younger girl accepted still smiling, which was reciprocated and they kissed again.

Meanwhile, Damon had gone to visit Caroline at her house to speak with her about their recent problem, since she hadn't told him yet what she knew, or how she knew.

"So werewolves are dangerous to vampires? The whole venom legend is true?" he asked, standing near the living room with his arms crossed.

"Exactly, a vampire with lycanthrope venom in his body dies in a couple of days. That's why for centuries several were hunted and killed." she explained, leaving the kitchen.

"And how is it that I never heard of them?" the older one inquired confused, relaxing his body.

"Because the ones who escaped from those massacres hid to survive, to the point of being just a simple myth for several vampires." she continued while crossing her arms.

"You failed to explain why you know so much about wolves, while Stefan and I thought that they were myths until we were almost killed." he reproached with some irritation for that part. 

"Grandma told me stories about them when I was little, and I thought they were just myths until some vampires that I lived with for a while told me everything." she revealed to him as if it was nothing and noticed his doubtful look. "Yes Damon, I have friends. That's because I'm friendly, unlike you." she added throwing him a mocking smile and turned around to go back to the kitchen.

"Thanks, make fun of me instead of helping me come up with a plan to kill Mason and get rid of this wolf problem." replied the vampire glaring at her angrily and she looked back at him.

"No, you're not gonna kill him. In fact you're going to try to make peace with him for our sake. You know it's not in our best interest to fight him because he can kill us. Be nice with him or I'll handle the problem in my way." the heretic warned with seriousness, still folding her arms.

"Relax little sis. You seem very tense lately, is that just for the wolves running around here or is it because of that waiter you like?" he asked teasingly to calm her down.

"Apart from still being angry at you and that we might die because of a wolf, I'm still tense about Matt. I know I made him break up with me, but it didn't cost him to stop the flirting or tell me not to worry about that girl." the blonde exclaimed with some resignation.

"Maybe it's because he's an idiot. Just forget him, move on and that's all. Find someone better or at least good enough for you, I guess that you have decent taste in boys." hinted the older man hesitating what to say, he wasn't really good at giving advice on the subject of "boys".

"I admit I don't know what to say in response to that so I'll just say thank you. Now, let's go to the Historical Society picnic." thanked the girl sending him a soft smile.

At the public park of Mystic Falls, everyone was gathered to help fix the place on behalf of the Historical Society. Among them was Mason, who spotted Stefan nearby.

"Stefan right? The other Salvatore boy." he greeted him as he stood in front of him.

"One of the nice ones. The one offering an apology." he commented trying to be friendly.

"I'm not interested." he shook his head, not wanting anything to do with one of them.

"Look, my brother acted impulsively." he tried to say to start explaining his offer.

"You think?" the younger one couldn't help but retort on that part.

"If you and Damon keep being at each other throats, somebody innocent will get hurt and I don't want that. You have your family here, so I imagine you wouldn't want that either. So what do you say we just quit the whole alpha male fighting thing and call a truce?" offered calmly the vampire.

"I made that same offer to your brother. He turned it down with a knife." he reminded him with irritation.

"He made a mistake. I'm here to make sure neither of you make another one." he tried to reason with him to reconsider his offer and  accept it for everyone's sake.

"Tell your brother to watch his back." warned the wolf taking a box from the car and walked past Stefan, that grabbed him by the arm and spun him around so they were staring at each other.

"Well, I guess that he only has to worry about that during a full moon. Otherwise you're not as strong, am I right? Or you would've killed Damon by now. There's one of you, there's three of us. I think you're the one that needs to watch his back." the older one threatened discreetly looking seriously at him close to him, he'd fight if they had no other choice.

"If he comes at me…" he hinted staying calm despite his warning.

"He won't." he clarified him firmly, offering his hand, which was accepted and Mason left.

"What are you doing?" Damon asked from behind his brother, watching Mason from a distance.

"Negotiating peace on your behalf." he answered without moving from his position.

"I don't want peace." he affirmed with some irritation at this action on his part.

"Consider it opposite day." the younger one replied, and he watched him walk to stand in front of him.

"Stefan, please tell me that, unlike our sister, you have enough brain cells not to think that a handshake has just solved our problem." he exclaimed in front of him with his hands over his shoulders, not believing in the pacifist style of his siblings.

"No, actually I think that the first chance Mason Lockwood gets, he will drive a stake through your heart, then through Caroline's and then through mine, all because you took it upon yourself to try to kill him. So thanks, because we don't have enough problems." he admitted trying to disguise his annoyance while he touched the side of his neck and walked away from him.

After the conversation with Stefan, Mason went to speak to the Sheriff Forbes about the Founding Council and he told her that they lived with three vampires among them, the Salvatore siblings. The woman didn't believe that it was possible since Damon had killed vampires and was an ally of the Council, the attacks had started time after the Salvatore girl had arrived and all them could walk in the sun, so at her refusal he offered to get her some proof.

After working for a while, Caroline had been looking around when she saw Elena and got near her.

"Hey Elena, can we talk?" she greeted as soon as she was next to her and saw her nod.

"Hi Caroline. Sure, tell me." she agreed while they stopped and started painting.

"I wanted to apologize again for the other day. You know, I was a bitch." she affirmed without looking at her.

"Don't worry, it's all good. I guess you were very focused on protecting Stefan and overreacted. You don't have to worry about that anymore, though." she lied with some bitterness.

"I heard how you argued with Stefan. Did you talk after that?" the blonde asked interested and glanced at her, wondering if she would hear anything useful and what she would do with it.

"No, not since the fight. He's been pushing me away because he thinks Katherine might get jealous enough to hurt me. I don't know how to change his mind." the younger girl invented somewhat nervous and shot her a look, to which the girl put down her brush and came closer.

"A little bit of advice, even if you don't want it: Stefan's right to worry about Katherine. She's dangerous, he thinks that he knows her but he doesn't. I mean, she poisoned me just to annoy Stefan and Damon, we don't know what to expect." she advised after crouching down next to her.

"Thank you for the advice. The problem is, I know that he's just trying to protect me but it feels like he's giving up and I'm just…" she tried to explain, surprised by her words.

"Just what?" she prompted her to continue as she looked at her curiously.

"I just thought that we were stronger than that." she finished saying, turning to look at her, leaving the older girl a bit uncomfortable and not knowing what to do considering her situation. Later the girls were still painting when they noticed Stefan glancing at them, making the older girl curious.

"Stefan doesn't take his eyes off you." she commented while she stopped painting, with one hand on her waist.

"I'm gonna go talk to him." the younger girl declared, putting down her brush and walked towards him.

"What's her problem?" asked Damon standing next to his sister and looking at Elena.

"She's angry, doesn't care about Katherine." she answered him without taking her eyes off them, folding her arms.

"Why are you so focused on Stefan's love life?" he inquired, turning to look at her.

"You're wrong, I act as I usual do." she replied curtly, glancing at him for a few moments.

"Do you still care about Katherine?" Elena asked Stefan when she was in front of him.

"Don't do this. Please don't turn this into something that it's not." he denied without wanting to speak.

"So this is not up for discussion. That's what you're saying?" she questioned feigning annoyance.

"No, I'm saying that this isn't up for discussion now because we have ears on us." clarified the vampire and they both noticed that Caroline and Damon were spying on them. When they were discovered, both of them looked away pretending that they weren't paying attention to them.

"Okay, when?" inquired the girl looking at him again, but Stefan didn't know what to tell her. "I saw her Stefan. It's like we are the same person. How can you hate her and be in love with me?" she continued to question as she went on with the acting in front of everyone. 

"You're reaching. I'm not… I'm not Damon." he insinuated trying to end the conversation.

"How about we don't bring Damon into this right now?" she suggested pretending to look at him with irritation.

"You know, I can't… I can't do this anymore Elena." replied the older guy staring at her seriously as he went on with the acting, and used the code they had done in the morning.

"Fine Stefan, whatever." the younger girl said answering their code and walked away from Stefan, while the other vampires were still spying on them together from afar, having heard everything.

"Relationships are about communication." Damon commented after seeing Elena walk away.

"Yes. Add to that trust, love and not having some psychopath trying to break them up." the heretic added looking thoughtfully at her brother Stefan, and noticing that he seemed down.

"Right, you are an expert in love for dubious reasons." he added with a certain mockery, making her irritated.

Later Damon ran into Mason at the lemonade stand and they tried to be civilized. Then the vampire saw Stefan and accused him of faking all his argument with Elena since they didn't fight, least of all about him, and his brother ignored him. He was going to keep speaking about Elena when while drinking lemonade, Damon ended up spitting it out as he coughed worrying Stefan to whom he revealed that the drink had vervain in it, all under the gaze of Sheriff Forbes.

After walking away from Damon, Caroline walked around until she saw Elena alone and sat down with her.

"Hey, I'd ask you if you're okay, but I can tell that you're not." she spoke after sitting down next to her.

"Glad you noticed." she replied coldly without glancing at her.

"Maybe this is only temporary, or maybe it's for the best." she commented, not knowing what to say to her.

"It's not for the best, Caroline, none of this is for the best. It's only temporary," objected the brunette girl a bit curtly, and noticed how she had spoken to her. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to talk to you like that when you came to check on me, thanks for coming." she apologized, although she was still a little angry with her.

"It's okay, sometimes I'm mean to you so it doesn't matter," she accepted without being bothered by how she had spoken to her and softened her gaze. "I'm sorry you are fighting because of Katherine." she added with some guilt for what was happening, thinking that she was partly responsible for not confronting Katherine. At that moment she noticed the sheriff leaving in a hurry. "Where is she going?" she wondered interested.

"I don't know, maybe she's just leaving." she guessed just as curious, but she felt Caroline get up and take her arm for her to follow. "Wait! Where are we going?" she questioned confused.

"Summary: I tend to have premonitions some times, good and bad, they are almost always true. Seeing the sheriff like that makes me have a bad one, so since you know her better than I do, you will ask her what's going on, understood?" the heretic explained quickly, moving her towards the woman. After speaking with the sheriff, the girls only discovered that something important had happened.

"Did you notice how she was looking at you?" Elena asked when they were alone, looking at the girl.

"Yeah, there was something strange in her eyes. Something's up." admitted Caroline both worried and curious.

After his mouth cured, Damon rinsed himself with water and spit it out when he finished.

"I'm gonna kill him." he declared furious while referring to Mason and tried to leave, but Stefan stopped him.

"Listen to me! Sit, sit!" he ordered, struggling with him so he would sit down on a bench. 

"I'm not listening any more of your 'give peace a chance' crap. He's dead!" he spat out with  annoyance and keeping his tone low, after his brother made him sit down and keeping his hands on his shoulders. Stefan looked to the sides, checking their surroundings.

"Okay, I don't like it. He's making threats, he could expose us. We need to take him down, but without speaking to Caroline." agreed quietly the guy, glancing back and forth between the older man and the people close to them in case they had seen something, surprising Damon a little.

"Alright, so we don't put her in danger. Let's do it," he declared nodding and saw Mason going into the woods on his own over Stefan's shoulder. "Woods. Trash duty, come on." he added while he stood up so they could catch up with him, followed closely by the vampire.

"Where are you going? What's going on?" Elena asked Caroline behind her, while they climbed a hill.

"I need to listen everything, and in a high place is better. Something's wrong, Elena." she explained as she stopped and turned around to look at her surroundings, and closed her eyes removing her hair from her ears.

"Caroline…" she tried to speak more confused than before, but the blonde raised a hand.

"Shh, shut up. I don't hear." she muttered without moving, focusing on the sounds from outside. After blocking out the noise, she heard Damon and Stefan speaking to Mason far away and focused on them. But then she heard gunshots and two bodies falling. "Oh my God. Stefan and Damon." she whispered worriedly turning towards the woods and started walking.

"What?" the brunette blurted out in surprise as she followed, scared for the vampires.

At the Lockwood mansion, Tyler had met with a couple of girls and Jeremy, who had decided to approach him because of what Elena had told him. Tyler found out that the Gilbert boy knew about the lycanthrope curse in his family in a journal of his ancestor, which was a lie, and confirmed to him that his uncle was indeed a werewolf but he wasn't one yet since he hadn't triggered the curse, and revealed to him that it was triggered by killing somebody in any way. Jeremy asked if that was why Mason had returned, but he clarified that he was there for a stone.

In the middle of the woods, the sheriff Forbes and her police officers had shot Damon and Stefan, then injected them with some vervain rendering them unconscious. As they were taking the vampires to the ruins of the old Lockwood cellar, the sheriff and Mason were talking about what was going to happen to the Salvatore males who were going to die. The woman asked him to leave them alone as it was a Council matter, but the wolf offered to find the Salvatore girl so she'd die with her brothers. After many refusals, the woman gave him a gun with wooden bullets.

Near the place, Caroline and Elena were running looking for the vampires when the first one stopped.

"What is it?" inquired the brunette stopping when she saw the blonde girl staring at the bashes.

"They were here." she affirmed, bending down next to a plant and touched it, noticing drops of blood.

"What?" she asked nervously trying to see the plant, but they heard footsteps behind them.

"What are you two doing out here?" Mason asked, after putting the gun behind his back.

"Have you seen Stefan?" Elena questioned after turning towards him, looking at him cautiously.

"Yeah Elena, I've seen him. Seen Damon too." he revealed, throwing a glance at Caroline, who had stood up and was looking at him with a mixture of anger and caution.

"Where are they?" the younger girl continued, worried about the vampires.

"You don't need me for that. I'll let your friend here sniff them out," he clarified focusing on the girl, who didn't take her eyes off him. "Are you worried about your brothers? I'd be happy to take you with them" he offered staring at her with a certain mockery, making her annoyed.

"You lapdog…" she began to say going towards him to hit him for what he had insinuated about her brothers, but then Mason grabbed Elena from behind and strangled her by putting an arm under her chin, making Caroline stop in the place abruptly.

"Don't be stupid! Necks snap easy around here." he warned, glaring at the older girl.

"I can take you." assured the blonde girl while she looked at him cautiously, ready to act.

"Wanna bet?" he hinted with a mocking and challenging look, underestimating her.

"Yeah, I do." she said to quickly rush towards him, grabbed nis neck and pushed him against one of the trees, after he released Elena. "Told you. Try anything against my brothers again and I will tear you apart piece by piece." she threatened controlling her fury, but squeezed his neck for a few moments to make him understand what she said. Then she kneed him in the groin and pushed him against the ground on his knees, and gave him a strong kick in the stomach sending him against another tree, where he crashed to return to the ground in pain.

"Somnus." whispered the heretic snapping her fingers and Mason fell asleep. She brushed her hair out of her face and approached the wolf seeing a gun in his waistband, she took it and opened it finding wooden bullets that she dropped in her hand and checked them. "Aww, you wanted to kill me? You're not the first or last one to want to do it. Incendia." she added seeing how the bullets burned in her palm slowly, under the surprised look of Elena who approached her.

"Did you kill him?" she asked scared, throwing glances at the wolf sleeping on the ground.

"No! I won't kill him in the middle of the woods, he's just asleep. Let's go." she ordered, looking at her a little puzzled by the accusation of murder. After throwing the gun on Mason's back, Caroline ran towards the direction that the wolf had come from, followed by Elena.

In the ruins of the old Lockwood cellar, Stefan was still unconscious from the vervain while Damon had awakened, and was shot in the leg by Sheriff Forbes.

"This is how it's gonna work. Answer me and you don't get shot, understand? How many of you are there?" questioned the woman with her gun in hand, as he glanced at Stefan.

"Liz, please." he asked weakly on the ground, but she shot him again, making him scream.

"How did you fool us? How do you walk in the sun?" she continued questioning him without lowering the gun, but when she didn't receive an answer since he was complaining for the pain she shot Stefan, although he didn't react since he was unconscious. "I will drag this out painfully." she warned him so he'd answer what she was asking him, and the vampire glanced at his brother for a moment.

"But you're my friend." he stated slowly as he turned his head to look at her.

"Our friendship was a lie. Answer me and I'll kill you fast." she threatened, glaring at him seriously as she barely moved, determined to get information out of him and then kill them. What she didn't know was that Caroline and Elena had arrived outside the ruins.

"What is that?" Elena inquired when she noticed that she had stopped near some ruins, but the blonde girl raised a hand to silence her and tried to listen inside.

"He's not going to tell us anything. Kill them both." she heard the sheriff order, causing her to put a hand over her mouth in surprise as she inhaled suddenly.

"Caroline. Caroline, what is it?" the brunette asked worried when she saw her expression.

"The sheriff. She's going to kill them." she revealed lowering her hand to her chest, with a lump in her throat from fear and nerves at the thought of losing them, she couldn't let her brothers die.

"What?!" she blurted frightened for the vampires, but before she could move Caroline tried to go downstairs to the ruins to try save them, so she grabbed her arm. "Wait. I don't want you to kill anyone, or at least try not to. We need a plan, we could use the surprise effect." she suggested in a low tone so only she would hear her and saw the older girl quickly nod, noticing the fear and worry in her eyes.

"Let's do this. Each with a stake in the heart, then burn them both. And let's use them to lure their sister." decided the sheriff talking to the officers who nodded. At that moment they heard a metallic noise. "Check it out." she ordered an officer who went to check, but he received a hit from Elena who got in the main cell, where Liz was.

"Elena! What are you doing?" she questioned pointing her gun at her.

"You can't kill them. I'm not gonna let you." declared the brunette from the entrance, but the policeman that she had hit appeared behind her and pushed her into the cell where they were as he pointed his gun at her. Then they heard a noise and a door close.

"What was that?" he asked confused, looking in that direction.

"Who else is with you?" inquired the sheriff turning to Elena, but they heard more noises that were actually Caroline surrounding them with her vampiric speed. She got near one of the agents and bit his neck, making the other officer shoot her so the heretic used him as her shield. When he stopped shooting at her, she ran at him and hit him in the back causing him to fall to the ground. Then she waved a hand, pulling the gun away from the sheriff.

"Hi sheriff." she said a little embarrassed with the mouth covered in blood and changing to her human features, while the woman looked at her very surprised by what she'd done.

Later still in the ruins both Stefan and Damon had woken up. Damon was feeding on one of the officers to the point of killing him and got slowly near Stefan, who was sitting on the ground next to Elena trying to relax.

"You need to drink some deputy blood." said Damon in front of his brother who looked a little pale and weak from vervain and blood loss, and touched his arm.

"No. I'm gonna be fine. It's just gonna take a little bit longer." assured the vampire resting his forehead on his arm tired, and Elena was touching his back to comfort him.

"Damon's right you know, you need it. If there is ever time to break your diet…" the blonde intervened between them, sitting away from them after the moment of nerves she'd had.

"He said he didn't want it, okay?" interrupted Elena giving her a look so she'd understand that she didn't want her to insist him, making Caroline roll her eyes in irritation, but Damon glanced at her giving her the implication to ignore her as he slowly stood up.

"This is a most unfortunate situation," began to talk the older man, looking for a moment at the other guy who raised his eyes at him. "Two deputies dead and you. What am I going to do with you?" he wondered turning to the sheriff and getting a little closer to her.

"Let me do it Damon. Look sheriff, we don't wanna hurt anyone, we can be very peaceful. We promise to do no harm, we don't want to kill anybody." explained the heretic slowly and staying in her place, but the sheriff kept her eyes on Damon.

"Kill me. I can't take this." the woman replied, surprising everyone.

"But you were gonna drag this out painfully." the oldest vampire reminded her, crouching down in front of her, but then he grabbed her shoulders and made her stand up suddenly.

"No, don't you dare." the blonde girl warned, getting up in case he tried to do something.

"Damon, don't!" Stefan added worried staring at them.

"Damon, please!" the brunette asked, nervous and scared that he would kill the woman.

"Relax guys. No one is killing anybody. You're my friend." declared the older man looking at the three who had spoken and looked at the woman who was bewildered. After that he looked around there. "We've got to clean this up." he added while glancing at his siblings, who only looked at each other.

Still at the Lockwood mansion, Tyler told Jeremy that the stone that Mason had gone to look for was a moonstone with supposed supernatural legends, and added that he didn't want to give it away since he still didn't trust his uncle. They were then interrupted by the girls who stole the moonstone from him and played with it, Tyler chased one of the girls through the stairs and tried to take the stone from her hand, but when he grabbed it the girl fell down the stairs and hit her head worrying everybody, but luckily the girl was still alive.

Later at the Salvatore mansion, Caroline got out of her car after inhaling deeply for a few seconds and went to the door to ring the bell, meeting Elena.

"Hey, sorry I took so long. I wanted to make sure that the Sheriff Forbes was all right before I left her. Now she's sleeping, but when she wakes up she won't remember anything of this day. And I also made sure she doesn't believe in anything that Mason says." she commented, entering the house.

"Really? That's why Damon and Stefan wanted you to take care of her instead of waiting for the vervain to leave her body? What did you do with her?" Elena questioned worried about the woman while she followed her down the hallway and the older girl looked at her confused because of her accusation, but before she could answer her anything Stefan appeared behind them.

"Hey, did you drink animal blood yet?" she greeted her brother, ignoring the girl.

"Yeah, I feel much better. Thanks, and thanks for saving us." he thanked her with a smile.

"No problem, it was fun hitting Mason. But if you guys want to thank me, try not to go on plans like that without telling me, okay? I like fights sometimes" she added, smiling with amusement.

"I don't know if I can promise that, it was an impromptu thing." he clarified giggling a little and hugged her. Then he went down to the basement to get blood for his sister, but he kept staring at the bag.

"Here you are, I… what are you doing?" he heard Elena ask at the door of the room.

"Katherine took a little vervain every day and built up a tolerance to it… I could do the same with blood. I could learn to control myself on it." he suggested in front of the fridge.

"But you can't, Stefan. You don't have to." she affirmed confused as to why he wanted that.

"I almost died tonight, Elena. Because I was too weak." he reminded her, turning to look at her not understanding her.

"But the last time you drank human blood…" she tried to tell him, entering the room.

"I told you I'd find a way to stop Katherine, didn't I? Well this is it, this is the only way as she's stronger than me. And unless I change that, I can't protect you." he interrupted her, approaching her, believing in the success of his plan.

"Can we talk about this later?" she asked him pointing to her ear, reminding him that they could hear them.

"They can hear us wherever we are, because they drink this. This is… this is the only thing that can help me!" the older guy exclaimed with slight irritation and showed her the bag.

"Are you serious? Are you pretending to fight? Because I can't tell if…" she inquired confused and puzzled in a low voice, not being able to believe that he wanted to drink blood.

"No, this is real. Stop pretending." he declared frowning a little. They stared at each other without totally understanding the other until Elena stormed out of the basement and up to the living room, but was a bit surprised to see Caroline sitting alone on the couch wiping her face.

"Caroline, are you okay? Do you want a ride?" she asked her after stopping and looked at her doubtfully.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just, I don't… I don't want to go home." she commented with a slightly shaky voice.

"Why? Is something wrong?" she inquired studying her, thinking she'd been crying.

"I wanted to stay here for a while, that's all." the heretic affirmed swallowing the lump in her throat.

"It doesn't look like that. I can tell that there's something wrong with you, I'm listening." she offered, getting closer to her.

"Because… Katherine is gonna be there, and she's gonna want me to tell her eveything that happened today. She told me to spy on Stefan and report back to her." she revealed looking at her embarrassed and distressed about eveything.

"I know, and I've been so mad at you. But then I tried to put myself in your position so that I could understand why you would do this to Stefan, your own brother who loves you and all he wants to do is protect you. Who did she threaten?" the girl deduced, sitting down next to her on the couch. The older girl stared at her in surprise for a few moments, but then looked at her thoughtfully and decided to speak.

"Stefan and Damon, she threatened them," she confessed to her, leaving Elena shocked. "Katherine knows I'm part witch, she threatened to kill Damon and Stefan if I didn't do what she wanted, and she said that she'd hand me over to some vampires who were going to kill me for what I am." she continued explaining with tears in her eyes at thinking of the brunette's threat, and how lost she felt.

"What? But Caroline, how could you hide that from us? You should have told us." the human claimed, processing what she had heard, not being able to believe that revelation.

"You wanted me to tell them that maybe it's their fault that Katherine knows about me? It doesn't matter, she was bound to find out sooner or later." the blonde supposed resignedly thinking about it.

"But you would have told them anyway. You could have done something." she insinuated, annoyed at her lie.

"But I did something, I acted as Katherine's puppet to make sure that they stayed alive. I'd rather suffer and do whatever she says to protect them. I don't know what I would do if something happened to them because of me or for protecting me." she exclaimed trying to not cry, and Elena looked at her pained.

"I'm sorry. You always say that, that you would do everything for them. It seems to be true." she commented with a soft look, remembering the panic in her eyes when she thought that her brothers were going to die.

"Yeah, I usually say that to them. It's not an exaggeration, you know? I have always done everything for them, to protect them from anything, I think I do it since I was a teenager. I guess that happens when you grow up hearing that family and loved ones are everything to us." the girl admitted wiping the remnants of tears off her face and looking at her hands that were still shaking a little, feeling a bit tense from everything that had happened that day.

"Wait, when you say everything… you mean everything?" she inquired, nervous about her words.

"I'm not really proud of what I've done, but yes. That's why sometimes they say I'm a bit crazy or I'm dramatic." she added with a shrug, a little embarrassed by what she said.

"Wow, I… I don't know what to say. I can't believe what you're saying…" Elena mumbled in shock, not knowing what to say after that statement from Caroline while she thought in that important detail about her limits, but the girl stood up suddenly.

"I think I'd better go. I was a terrible sister to Stefan." she blurted out taking her bag, ready to leave and look for another option to sleep for that night at least, when Stefan appeared in the living room with the blood bag he'd gone to get for her.

"Stay here Caroline, you can't leave like this. I heard it all, and I forgive you." he affirmed getting a little closer to her and opened his arms, getting a hug from Caroline who shed some tears on his shoulder while she whispered apologies, and her brother rubbed her back to comfort her and murmured to relax. Elena decided to leave the room for that intimate moment.

Later at the Lockwood mansion, after waking up in the middle of the woods, Mason had already gotten back and was trying to communicate with the sheriff when he was interrupted by Tyler, who confessed that he'd almost killed a girl that evening, worrying the older one who heard the whole story. Tyler added that he didn't want to become a werewolf and gave the moonstone to his uncle, who to his luck took it without question.

While at the boarding house, Elena went into the living room to get her phone and found Caroline who had fallen asleep, so she took what she was looking for and got out seeing Damon.

"Hey, Caroline is sleeping." she commented pointing to the living room where the girl was lying.

"I heard everything she told you, that must've been a strong statement for you. And where are you going?" he asked after glancing at his sister and looked at the brunette.

"I'm going home." she answered passing him and walked towards the door, but stopped. "What you did for the sheriff today, that's the Damon who was my friend." she clarified and then opened the door.

"Hey, Stefan didn't drink the people blood, if you were curious. But he needs to and deep down you know that." hinted the vampire interrupting her actions, leaving her a little thoughtful. Thanks to his words, Elena went to the library, seeing Stefan sitting down.

"You can come in." said the vampire sitting on the couch, feeling her presence behind his back.

"Do you really think that you can control it?" she asked him, standing in the doorway.

"I don't know, but if I don't try…" he admitted, hesitating to explain himself, wondering how she would react.

"So a little bit every day?" she confirmed as she walked slowly towards him.

"Yeah, just a few drops of blood in my system. I think it's worth trying." he affirmed as he turned his head to glance at her, inwardly surprised that she changed her mind.

"So do I, but I don't want you to do it alone." she decided staring at him seriously, then she took a knife from the table there under the confused look of the older guy.

"What are you doing?" he inquired, and saw how she cut her palm.

"It's you and me, Stefan. Always." declared the girl getting close to sit down next to him, she was holding the hand with the other one until she offered it to him. After looking at her doubtfully a few seconds, Stefan took the hand and drank the blood, feeling his face change but Elena didn't mind and kissed him. When they pulled apart, his face returned to normal and they kissed again.

That night, Damon walked down the stairs of the mansion and went into the living room, approaching Caroline.

"I thought you were sleeping." he said, sitting down on an armchair in front of his sister.

"I tried to sleep, but I didn't stop tossing and turning." answered the blonde sitting on the sofa with a blanket covering her legs, and she was levitating a handkerchief to distract herself.

"Maybe you can't sleep 'cause you're still thinking of what you did today. By the way, thanks for saving us." he thanked looking at her with a small smile, which was reciprocated.

"You're welcome," she said without stopping moving the handkerchief, which she focused on while erasing the smile. "I know you heard what I said about Katherine, you had to hear how overprotective and kind of crazy I am to the point of being a spy for an enemy." she added with her gaze lost in the fabric in the air, which Damon suddenly took making her look at him.

"I already knew that. I found it out, I processed it and got over it. I've accepted what you are. And sometimes it comes in handy." clarified the older man after sitting down at the table across from her and offered her the cloth.

"Aww, are you praising me? Those are special moments. Thanks." she thanked him smiling at him again and took the handkerchief from her brother, whose hand she squeezed for a few seconds and folded it putting it in her lap. But she was surprised to see Damon make her sit still with the blanket, then she saw him sit next to her and take one side of the blanket.

"Now, how about you tell me in detail how you kicked Mason's ass? Should I be proud of you?" he asked smiling with amusement as he covered his legs, making her giggle for a few moments. Enjoying those few moments when her oldest brother was good and showed the soft spot he had for her, and that he'd never admit having out loud, Caroline smiled with amusement and began to tell him about her afternoon.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Mason had snuck out of the Lockwood mansion and made his way to the woods where a car was waiting for him. Inside the car was Katherine, whom he'd known before he had triggered his werewolf curse the previous year. Katherine wanted to know what had happened to him with the Salvatores, whom she had asked him not to touch or go near them just in case, and that he should focus on finding the moonstone. When Mason confirmed that he already had the stone, the girl smiled at him and they kissed passionately.

Chapter Text

Normal POV 

A couple of days later, Damon got a visit at the mansion from Jeremy, who told him that Tyler had to kill someone to activate the werewolf curse, so he wasn't one yet. The vampire wanted nothing to do with the boy, until he added that Mason was looking for a moonstone and was telling him that because he wanted to help. After discovering Elena knew nothing about her brother's research, the older man agreed and let him into the house.

At the Lockwood mansion, many people were helping to set up the whole place for the Masquerade Ball. Elena was helping when she saw Bonnie and approached her.

"Caroline's not coming. She confirmed it to me." she said when she saw Bonnie glancing around for the blonde.

"Just making sure." she clarified turning to look at her after relaxing when she didn't see the girl.

"You know, eventually you could talk to her. You were friends, she helped you a lot time ago." she commented setting up candles on a table in the garden and looked at her.

"Please don't tell me that after spending some time together you're now on her side." replied the witch without taking her eyes off her and shaking her head, no longer wanting anything to do with the oldest girl.

"I'm on your side Bonnie, you are my best friend." affirmed the brunette girl leaving the candles.

"I thought Caroline was my friend and I could trust her. But she only lied to me about being part witch and hurt my friends." she reminded her with some irritation at the thought of the carnival.

"I know that it was wrong what she did, but maybe she was scared." she hinted trying to help her.

"Scared? Elena, you can tell that she knows what she's doing and knows how to protect herself. Ever since I found out what she is, it's like she won't stop rubbing in my face that she knows more than me." revealed the younger girl with a bit of bitterness and continued setting up the candles, while Elena watched her attentively.

"Come with me." talked the girl, starting to walk somewhere else behind Bonnie.

"Where?" she asked confused, turning to see where her friend was going. 

"Not here. Some place quiet. I want to tell you something." she admitted offering her a hand, which was accepted and they started to walk away from all the volunteers.

At the Salvatore boarding house, Damon and Jeremy were in the living room when they heard the door and saw Alaric enter with a box followed by Caroline who opened it and closed it for him.

"Ric. Caroline." greeted Damon getting a look from the girl who just went to the armchair.

"What are you doing here?" Alaric asked Jeremy after leaving the box on a table.

"Helping Damon. I'm the one who found out about the moonstone." the boy answered him standing near the table. Alaric looked at the man, who shrugged his shoulders, and turned back to Jeremy.

"Does Elena know you're here?" inquired the teacher, but only saw him shake his head.

"What do you have?" interjected the older man, looking through the box and pulled out a book that appeared to be old.

"This is Isobel's research from Duke. Her assistant sent it to me." he spoke as if it were nothing, but the vampire looked at him insinuatingly, earning an annoyed look as he took the book from him.

"That look means 'don't bother, Damon'. Let him breathe a little." intervened the heretic.

"Since you're here blondie, you can answer my doubts. Did you know how a werewolf activates the curse?" he interrogated staring at the girl who just nodded. "Then would you tell me why you didn't mention it?" he questioned crossing his arms, thinking she should've told him.

"You didn't ask." she clarified as if it were nothing, putting her legs over one arm of the armchair.

"It's no excuse. And do you know about the Sun and the Moon curse or a moonstone? Didn't you study of those things or heard from friends?" he inquired out of nowhere, remembering that she knew about things like that.

"I studied folklore time ago. I know the same thing you found out, but there are those who believe it to be a myth and those who believe it to be true, it depends on who you talk to. And my friends don't know about the curse." the girl denied and then checked her phone, earning curious looks from everyone.

"If you can't help then why are you here?" hinted Jeremy with crossed arms.

"Because I confirmed what they know about wolves thanks that I lived with vampires for a few years. Damon, come here," she asked her brother after glaring annoyed at the boy. "Silentium Bulla," she recited it when she had Damon next to her. "Could you tell me why the hell you accept the help of the emo boy? He's boring and annoying." she complained looking curiously at her brother, keeping one hand open.

"I know he's boring and annoying, but he's doing the work for us. He found out the motive why Mason is here, and he approaches Tyler for us." he admitted knowing what the younger girl had done, he saw her roll her eyes nodding and he walked away noticing her lowering her hand.

"Wow, what was that? I didn't hear anything you said." Alaric asked astonished.

"With concentration I locked the sounds creating a bubble around me for private chats, it's very useful. But tell us about the curse." clarified the girl noticing Jeremy irritated.

"Right. The Sun and the Moon curse tells that vampires and werewolves used to roam freely, until an Aztec shaman put a curse on them to limit their power. Since then, werewolves can only turn on a full moon and vampires are weakened by the sun." he explained, glancing at both of them while the youngest one got near him.

"Most vampires. Then there's my sister the weirdo who doesn't need a ring because she is part witch." Damon added, walking away from them and showing his daylight ring.

"Call me weirdo again and say goodbye to your ring for a month." she warned glaring at him.

"According to the legend, the werewolf part of the curse is sealed with the moonstone." he continued explaining to Jeremy showing him a map while ignoring the siblings.

"What do you mean sealed?" he asked while he looked at the drawings on the paper.

"It's a witch thing. Whatever that seals the curse is usually the key to breaking it. But it's usually a difficult process." said the blonde looking at her phone, no longer interested in the story.

"Maybe Mason Lockwood believes he can use the moonstone to break the curse." suggested Alaric thoughtfully, looking at Damon, who turned slightly to see him.

"If we start believing in some supernatural witchy-woo legend from a picture book, we're idiots. Who has the stone now?" he inquired, looking at the humans.

"Tyler." answered the youngest one without taking his eyes off the drawings.

"Can you get it?" he asked and he saw him nod. "See, now your life has purpose." he added mockingly as he turned to glance at him for a moment.

"So you do believe it?" he insinuated confused stopping glancing at him and looking at the map again.

"It's the same book that says that a werewolf bite kills a vampire, and Caroline's already confirmed that it's true. So I'm gonna believe so I won't be a bigger idiot. Let's go, follow me evil witch." he ordered finishing his drink and going to the door, followed by the rest.

Meanwhile, Elena and Bonnie were still walking and talking around the Lockwood property.

"I can't believe this." Bonnie blurted out after hearing everything that had happened.

"It's a lot I know. Katherine's doing everything that she can to drive me and Stefan apart and Caroline got caught up in the middle. But the truth is that what she told me makes me nervous." revealed the girl while they sat on a bench, more relaxed as she talked to her friend.

"What did she tell you? Did she threaten you again?" she inquired, worried about her and upset with the blonde.

"No, fortunately not. It's just that the other day I realised that Caroline doesn't seem to have limits when it comes to protecting her brothers. What if something happens with Stefan and Damon and she loses control, or she doesn't hesitate to risk everyone just for them?" she admitted thoughtfully, still remembering that talk.

"Don't worry about it, she won't do anything bad, not if I can help it. But I mean that I can't believe I didn't know you and Stefan were fighting." the witch clarified seriously.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to keep things from you, but you've made pretty clear where you stand with the whole vampire thing." the older girl apologized, looking apologetically at the girl.

"So that makes me the odd man out." she hinted a little irritated by the situation.

"No, not Bonnie. Of course not." the brunette denied quickly, not wanting to offend her.

"I know where I stand Elena, and I know where you stand. But where do we stand?" the younger girl asked staring at her so she would understand her point, hating that situation.

"You're my best friend Bonnie. I didn't mean to let all this craziness of Caroline becoming Katherine's spy come between us. You know I would never be against you." she said, staring at her.

"I know it, and I would never be against you either. But I need time with all this vampire stuff, especially with Caroline, she makes me feel like I don't know anything. I think that we should get back." commented the witch and got up to go back to work, making Elena sigh thoughtfully.

In the area where everybody was working, Mason was walking when he saw Stefan.

"Hey Stefan." he greeted bewildered as he carried a box and passed in front of him.

"Hey Mason." he greeted smilingly while he took some cups out of a box.

"Wasn't expecting you here. Or anywhere." he commented as he turned to see him, surprised.

"Yeah, I had a little accident. But I'm fine now. And you seem to be fine too, after a girl beat you, you know." the guy explained with some mockery, and Mason got closer.

"What did you do to Sheriff Forbes? A few days ago she almost killed you guys, and now she doesn't hear a word I say." he questioned lowering his tone a bit, angry at the memory of the blonde.

"I don't know what you mean, maybe she just thinks that you've lost your mind. But I guess that from now on, you'll have to do your own dirty work." he hinted with arms crossed and calmly.

"Not a problem. Take care." added the wolf looking at him serious and walked away from him, not noticing Bonnie behind him until he bumped into her. "Excuse me." he apologized to her and got away, not seeing the strange look that appeared on Bonnie's face who kept staring at him.

Stefan had seen Mason bump into Bonnie and the face she was making without taking her eyes off him, so he walked towards her worriedly to find out what was going on. The witch nervous revealed that by touching the wolf she'd seen Elena making out with Mason, but as Stefan thought about it a few seconds he realised that she'd actually seen Katherine kissing Mason.

What they didn't know was that Elena was watching them curiously from afar while she worked as well, then Damon approached her to ask her about Stefan, and he took the chance to tell her that Jeremy kept following him for things unknown, but he left when Jeremy got near his sister. Angry, Elena questioned the youngest boy why he was with Damon and what he was doing since the people that Damon used died and she wanted him away from him, so the boy clarified that he was in that issue because of her and she couldn't tell him anything.

"Katherine's with Mason Lockwood?" Damon asked surprised while he walked with Stefan from one end of where they were to the other, and Caroline was sitting near them.

"We missed it. He got into town right after she did. It makes perfect sense." the younger vampire clarified without stopping walking, thinking about that revelation.

"You missed it because A: it wasn't unusual for him to come to his brother's funeral and to see his family, and B: you were focused on the Elena-Katherine drama." added the heretic with certain obviousness.

"Don't blame us, you didn't notice it either and you were just focused on us using peace to deal with Mason. But I mean, really, she's with Mason Lockwood? Werewolf thing aside, the guy is a surfer. She's got to be using him." the oldest one affirmed.

"Should I remind you that I was locked up for days because of you two?" she reminded him, giving him an angry look for a few moments, then looked down at something in her hand.

"Using him for what?" Stefan stepped in between them, turning and approaching his brother.

"Mason Lockwood is looking for a moonstone that apparently can break the full moon werewolf curse. Maybe Katherine wants it as well." he explained after getting near him.

"Why?" he inquired confused and glanced at the blonde, but she still didn't look at them.

"Well… I have no idea. That's the beauty of Katherine, she's always up to something." replied the vampire turning again and walking away from him, thinking about what could be going on.

"All right, I don't want to hear you flattering Katherine. I'm going to get something to eat, I'm getting hungry. If you know what I mean." hinted the younger girl getting up to go somewhere else.

"Why didn't you feed at the house? We have a supply." Damon reminded her irritated.

"Because I didn't feel like it before, but now I do. Relax, I'll be careful as always." promised the girl with a tired grimace while she walked away and arranged her hair.

"So, how are we gonna find this moonstone?" the younger vampire asked curiously.

"Jeremy is getting it from Tyler." he revealed turning completely towards his brother.

"Why would you involve Jeremy?" he questioned getting angry about that fact while he walked past him and tapped his shoulder with his hand, walking away from the place as well.

"He's playing Indiana Jones. He involved himself." he excused himself turning around annoyed.

Near the site, Matt was hanging a couple of lanterns in some trees while Tyler was next to him guarding the ladder when he touched his leg and pointed in a direction far away from there. At looking up, they both saw Caroline glancing around and approaching a boy, to whom she smiled as she told him something and then took his hand so he'd follow her.

"Wow. She sure knew how to take that boy. And you say she's the same one who made you a jealousy scene?" Tyler asked confused as he looked where she had gone.

"I know, it's weird. She's an amazing girl, she's friendly and confident about everything, but she was so jealous the other day. And I nearly didn't see her until now." he admitted coming down the ladder.

"Look, you know what I think about Caroline Salvatore. She's a controlling, neurotic and a mean girl, and she acted crazy with you but she's talking to a boy." he started to say as if it was nothing.

"Hey!" the blond boy replied, upset at the way he was talking about his ex-girlfriend.

"But the girl's got heart, she means well and she seems to really care about you. You just gotta take the good with the bad sometimes." he advised undeterred by his voice.

"Yeah. I'm gonna get an extension cord. I'll be right back." he nodded and walked away from his friend, unaware that they were being watched from afar by Damon and Stefan who were standing idly by.

"Can I hit him?" Damon asked him seriously without looking away from Tyler.

"Not in public." Stefan answered him just as serious, not liking what they had said about his sister either. Then he pointed out to the vampire that Jeremy was getting near Tyler.

They listened as Jeremy told the boy that he'd researched the moonstone and apparently it was related to an old Aztec legend, but he wanted to make sure it was the same stone. To his surprise, Tyler revealed to him that he no longer had the moonstone in his possesion because he'd given it to his uncle, and that he wanted nothing to do with it. Damon looked pissed after hearing that, but Stefan hinted for him to drop it and they walked away to go get Bonnie.

Damon took Bonnie by the arm and led her away to explain that with Stefan they wanted her help with Mason and Katherine, since she had linked them together, and that they had a chance to confront them. They were going to continue explaining, when Stefan got a call from Elena who asked him for details of what he was doing with Damon and Bonnie.

"All you have to do is touch Mason Lockwood again to see if Katherine has the moonstone." Damon clarified to Bonnie after promising Stefan he would be nice.

"My visions don't work like that. I don't get to ask questions." she replied, irritated by his words.

"How inconvenient. Although, let's talk about that little witchy thing you do with me. You know, the fun one where my brain bursts into flames? What is that?" he asked curious about it.

"That's me giving you an aneurysm. Your blood vessels go pop, but you heal quickly, so I do it over and over again." the witch explained to him, staring at him and thinking about how much she hurt him.

"Is it vampire specific?" he inquired while he worked out a plan in his head.

"It'd work on anybody with a supernatural healing ability." she admitted as if nothing still unaware of the idea that the vampire was planning.

"Good, good, good." muttered the oldest one after confirming the possibility.

"Damon, I'm not gonna help you hurt him. Why don't you ask your sister who seems to like hurting innocents?" she questioned upset as she realised what he wanted to do.

"I could do it, but the evil witch would say it's a bad idea since Mason wants to kill us and we should do something else, like ignore each other. Mason and Katherine are the bad guys. Let me put it to you another way: they are a threat to Elena. So you, witch, are gonna get over yourself and help us." he declared while maintaining some seriousness, and Stefan stood next to him.

"Yes, he meant that as a question with a 'please' in the end," he clarified focusing on the witch who was looking at them doubtful. "Look Bonnie, it's okay if this is something hard for you. We could go talk to Caroline for help." he offered her trying to sound friendly noticing her face. The girl was left wondering what to do when she remembered what Elena had told her about Caroline.

Mason was going out of the Lockwood house to leave when he saw Bonnie trying to move a table by herself, so he went over to help her. Bonnie took advantage of that moment to give him an aneurysm making him fall down from the pain, then Damon appeared hitting Mason knocking him unconscious. While the witch got into Mason's car, Stefan appeared and helped Damon get the wolf into the car using his keys, and the older vampire got in as well to leave.

Damon and Bonnie went straight to the Salvatore boarding house to question him. As the wolf was unconscious, Damon checked his bag and found chains.

"What are you doing?" Damon asked Bonnie when he noticed she was touching Mason.

"You're looking for a moonstone. I'm trying to help you find it." she clarified, putting her hands on the sides of the man's head to try something useful.

"Oh, good, yeah. Find out if he gave it to Katherine, and find out where she is. And find out what they're gonna do with it once they get it." he ordered approaching them with the chains. As he chained the wolf to a chair in the living room, Bonnie closed her eyes in concentration.

"Somewhere small, dark. There's water." she revealed, keeping her composure and searching for visions.

"Like a sewer?" he suggested standing next to her, after having chained Mason.

"No. Like a well? That can't be right. Yeah, it's a well." she declared, focusing more on him.

"Why would it be in a well?" wondered the vampire confused, taking his eyes off her.

"I told you. I only get what I get." repeated the witch as she opened her eyes and lowered her hands, then Mason whined and grabbed Bonnie's wrist scaring her, so Damon pulled the wolf away from her. "That's it. That's all I got." she said turning to leave.

"Hey, judgey!" the older man called, making her turn to him. "Thank you. What you did today must've been ugly for you." he thanked staring at her seriously, and then she left him. "Come on, wake up, wolf boy." he ordered turning to a half unconscious Mason and he punched him in the face.

"Bonnie, hi!" heard the witch behind her and when she turned around she saw Caroline with a bag in her hand.

"Caroline, hey. How are you? It's a while since I saw you." she greeted, turning around to get a better look at her.

"I'm much better, like before. I'm glad you're here." she commented, smiling slightly at her as she got near her slowly so as not to scare her, thinking how to say what she wanted.

"Really? Why?" asked the younger girl confused since she didn't understand her.

"I wanted to apologize for all that happened, especially how I treated you. And I'm sorry for lying about being half witch, I wanted to wait a little bit." the heretic apologized, seeming sincere.

"Maybe you had your reasons to do that, but you could trust me." she replied a bit upset.

"I know, I trusted you even if you don't believe it. Now you can if you want to. And I'm here for you if you ever need help with magic." she offered smiling a little at her again.

"Thank you for the offer. I'll think about it." she affirmed liking her attitude, and tried to leave again.

"Did you find the moonstone?" inquired the blonde curiously, interrupting her.

"Not yet. Hey, do you remember if there are any wells in Mystic Falls or in the surrounding area?" she asked her suddenly as she thought that maybe having lived there so long she knew if there was.

"Yeah, there is one in the woods. On the edge of the old Lockwood property. Why?" she explained with some confusion at the sudden change of subject, not understanding that well thing.

"I think that's where Mason is keeping the moonstone. I got to go." clarified the girl while taking out her phone and sending a message to Stefan to then leave, but upon noticing the resigned look of the older girl she sighed and looked at her. "Hey, do you wanna come?" she offered hesitantly.

"Sure, I'd like to." she accepted smiling as they walked to the exit of the mansion.

Still at the Lockwood mansion, Elena was arranging some boxes with Matt.

"Hey, do you know anything about Caroline? I saw her around here a while ago." asked Matt as they took some costumes and masks out of some boxes for the ball to leave them on a table.

"Caroline came? I thought that she was busy. I didn't see her." she replied confused since she didn't see her.

"You know if she's seeing someone? I saw her talking to a guy earlier." he inquired unsure and curious if his ex-girlfriend was over him or if she was doing something else.

"I don't think so Matt, I think she's dealing with some family stuff. Maybe she just asked the boy for a favor or something like that" the brunette girl suggested to relax her friend, thinking about what he told her.

They were going to continue talking when Stefan and Tyler got in the room, the second one asking them if anyone had seen Mason but the vampire told him that according to Mason he was going somewhere and nothing else, so he kept looking. Elena was about to walk towards Stefan when he looked at his phone, where he had a message from Bonnie, and quickly left. After thinking about whether to stay to keep working or go to find out what was going on, the girl decided to follow the older guy. After walking a while, Stefan got to the well that Bonnie had mentioned.

"What's going on?" Elena asked, running to Stefan who was standing by the well.

"You shouldn't be here." Stefan said, turning his head to look at her.

"I know, but I am. What's going on?" she repeated as she walked to his side.

"Bonnie thinks the moonstone is down here." he answered while he took a lock that kept the well closed and broke it, removed the lid and threw it aside taking a flashlight so they could look inside. The vampire sighed and after looking at Elena he jumped to the edge of the well.

"Hey, be careful." asked the girl as she gave him the flashlight that he had left aside.

"I'll only be down there for a minute." he said to relax her and jumped into the well, but then the parts that touched the water began to burn, like his hands and arms where vapor was coming out, and he pressed himself to one of the stone walls. "Elena!" he shouted in pain looking up.

"Stefan?! Stefan, what's happening?!" she began to call out to him worried but he didn't answer. "What's going on in there?!" she continued talking while the guy tried to climb up and out without success.

"Vervain. Oh, God! Help!" he begged in a mix of fear and pain at not being able to get out.

"Stefan! Stefan!" she kept calling more worried than before, trying to look down and thinking of what to do to help him, but she didn't know. She tried to lift a chain that was on the ground next to the well and throw it inside to pull him out, but it was too heavy for her.

"Elena!" heard the girl and saw Caroline beside her, who had run when she heard her scream.

"Caroline, Stefan's down there and the chain is rusted." she explained in a trembling voice.

"What?!" she said scared and was about to climb up to the edge of the well to jump, but Elena stopped her.

"No, no, no! You can't, it's filled with vervain. Caroline, we've got to get him out. Now!" she urged her to do something for her brother, so she approached the edge of the well.

"Stefan! Do you hear me?! You want me to get you out with magic?!" she asked, trying to see something.

"No! I don't wanna fall back here!" exclaimed the oldest one, still pressed to the wall and scared.

"Thanks for the lack of trust!" shouted the blonde girl a bit offended by that and moved away from the edge to get closer to the chain that she lifted while the brunette climbed up to the edge of the well.

At the Salvatore mansion, Mason had already woken up and was being tortured by Damon, that was burning him with an iron poker even when he was healing quickly and questioning him.

"When did you two meet? Did she seduce you, tell you she loved you? You're supernatural so she can't compel you. I'm sure she used her other charms. Katherine's good that way." Damon questioned crouched in front of the fireplace as he glanced at him, and noticed Jeremy enter the room with a box. "I thought I told you to leave." he said turning to the fireplace.

"I found something in Ric's box of stuff." he commented, putting the box on one of the tables.

"Ooh. What is it?" he inquired, putting down the poker and getting up to walk over to him.

"I searched in my phone. It's a plant. Aconitum Vulparia. It grows in the mountainous areas of the northern hemisphere. Commonly known as aconite, blue rocket and wolfsbane." the youngest boy revealed while handing him a package, in which when he opened it he found a dried plant.

"What else did you read?" he asked with great curiosity, staring at the plant.

"Well, every source says something different. One myth says it causes lycanthropy, which sounds false. Another one says that it protects people and another one says, well, it's toxic." he continued explaining as he pulled out his phone and showed him what he had read, and Mason groaned at the last part.

"I'm guessing toxic." insinuated the vampire glancing at him for some moments and walked towards the wolf with a few leaves in hand. "What is Katherine doing in Mystic Falls?" he questioned standing in front of him, but at his silence he touched his cheek with a plant, noticing how it burned him. "Why is she here?" he continued asking leaving his face, while Jeremy was uncomfortable.

"She's here with me. Why do you ask? Are you jealous?" Mason mockingly answered after he complained about the pain, upsetting Damon who had an idea.

"How rude of me. You know, I just realised, I didn't offer you anything to eat." he replied with a fake smile and shoved the plant into Mason's mouth. "Yummy!" he said satisfied when he saw him groaning and vomiting something, then he spit the plant out coughing and Jeremy got more uncomfortable.

In the woods, Elena was sitting on the edge of the well wrapping the chain around her and hooked it against one of the links so she could climb down to get Stefan out.

"I got you, okay?" Caroline assured her to convey confidence, chain in hand.

"Yeah, don't drop me." she asked trying to stay calm, watching her nod again. But then they heard someone running towards them and saw Bonnie approaching.

"What's going on? You just took off in a blur." she asked confused staring at the blonde.

"I heard Elena screaming. Help her, now." she ordered looking at the witch who nodded and took Elena's hand to help her down from the edge. "Are you ready?" she turned to the girl to get her down.

"Yeah." she nodded without looking at her and started to go down the well slowly. When she reached the bottom, she saw Stefan who had his face under the water and was unconscious, so she grabbed his shoulder to pull him out. "Hey! Oh, oh my God" she exclaimed worriedly noticing his face and arms badly burned. Then, she took off the chain from her waist and put it around the vampire to get him out.

"Elena, what's going on down there?!" called her Caroline peeking to look down.

"Pull him up!" she ordered looking up. The heretic pulled the chain again to pull up her brother, who she got out of the well with the help of Bonnie and laid him on the ground.

"Elena? Ready for you!" she said, getting near the edge of the well again to pull her out too.

"Wait! I need to find the stone," she clarified, searching the well without stopping, finding a wooden box which she picked up. "Hold on! I think I found it." she said with the box, then she saw a snake wrapping around her and making her scream as she threw it away, but another snake passed near her. The nervous girl put the chain around her again to be pulled out.

"Elena! What's going on?!" asked the girl a little worried when she heard her scream.

"I got it. Pull me up!" she ordered frightened, the blonde girl pulled her out while the witch helped her to get out. "Oh God! Stefan!" she exclaimed and went over him, kneeling down and putting his head in her lap.

"What are you looking for?" Caroline inquired curiously when she noticed that the girl was looking around.

"Something to cut me and give him my blood." she answered without stopping checking everything, then the blonde took a knife from her pocket and gave it to her. "Thank you." she thanked incredulously and made a cut on her hand, putting the wound in the oldest one's mouth. "I have the stone, Stefan. Stefan, it's gonna be okay, everything's gonna be okay." she affirmed when she saw that Stefan had woken up and was drinking the blood.

At the Salvatore boarding house, Damon was still interrogating and torturing Mason when he didn't answer his questions, making Jeremy uncomfortable.

"If he was gonna say anything, he would have already!" Jeremy exclaimed in annoyance as he approached them.

"I'm taking your eyes out now." Damon threatened Mason, crouching down and he showed him a plant.

"The well! You can find it there." confessed the wolf tired of so much torture.

"I know where it is. I want to know what it does and why you want it." he clarified, barely moving.

"I'm getting it for Katherine. She's gonna use it to lift the curse." he continued to explain in a defeated and weary tone, wondering if he would let him go.

"Of the moon? Now, why would a vampire help a werewolf break the curse that keeps them from turning whenever they want?" he questioned incredulously as he stood up.

"So I wouldn't have to turn anymore. Because she loves me." he revealed staring at him, puzzling him.

"Now, now I get it. You're stupid. Katherine doesn't love you. She's using you, you moron." the older man commented after laughing for a few moments while smiling mockingly at him.

"I'm done talking." the younger man declared resignedly, exhausted from the torture and chatter.

"Yes, you are. It's time to take a walk, Jeremy." he said as he handed him the plant without looking at him.

"I'm staying Damon. He's had enough." hinted the human worried about the wolf.

"Just help Tyler. Don't let this happen to him." Mason asked desperately, looking at the boy.

"Damon…" he whispered, but Damon quickly ran to him grabbing his neck and pushed him to the wall.

"You wanted to be a part of this? Well, here it is! Kill or be killed! This guy is a werewolf, he'd kill me the first chance he got! So, you suck it up or leave." he warned with a mixture of seriousness and anger staring at him, then he let him go and walked away from him.

"He wants me to kill him, anyway. Don't you, Mason? It really is a curse, isn't it?" added the vampire after turning and walking to stand in front of the wolf as Jeremy walked away. "You know, I see you, I see myself. A less dashing, less intelligent version." he expressed looking at him thoughtfully.

"I love her." he declared with a look of sadness and surrender, knowing what was in store for him.

"Oh, I know! I've been where you are. But Katherine will only rip your heart out. Let me do it for her." he replied slowly approaching and leaning down in front of him, then he reached into Mason's chest as he looked into his eyes and ripped out his heart.

Time later, Damon was wrapping Mason's body in a blanket when Stefan arrived home with the moonstone and showed it to him. Damon took Mason's phone and texted Carol Lockwood that he was going to Florida, then decided to call the last number dialed.

"No, no, no! Don't provoke her!" Stefan said trying to stop him, knowing that it was Katherine just as Damon, but they heard how the girl answered the phone.

"Mason, you should have been here an hour ago." the vampire commented as she picked up. Meanwhile, Stefan tried to take the phone but his brother walked away, so he turned away in frustration.

"Wrong boy toy." said the younger one smirking as he pushed the guy away.

"Damon. For once you've surprised me. I assume Mason is with you?" she asked a little surprised that he had called her with another phone, looking at herself in the mirror.

"He's right beside me! Although his heart is across the room." he revealed mockingly.

"You shouldn't have." she replied, catching her off guard, thinking about what she was going to do.

"I've had a very busy day today. I killed a werewolf, found a moonstone. Hey, did you know that he hid the moonstone in the bottom of a well full of vervain? I guess he didn't trust you very much. Although, he did love you. Poor guy. Hey, where are you? Because, you know, I could bring him over. Last goodbyes and all that" the vampire explained while he sat in the living room, under the watchful eye of Stefan who was listening to all the chat.

"You have no idea what you've just done." the girl clarified turning and walking in her room.

"Aww, did I put a kink in your master plan? I'm so sorry." he apologized mockingly.

"Do you honestly believe that I don't have a plan B? And if that fails, a plan C, then a plan D, and… you know how the alphabet works, don't you? Send my love to Stefan." she warned him with some amusement in her voice, as she erased Damon's smile, and ended the call leaving the younger ones curious.

At the Gilbert house, Elena was in the kitchen with Alaric and Jenna. But then her aunt who was talking to someone, passed the phone to Elena clarifying that it was for her, and found out she was speaking to Katherine. Katherine confessed that she knew that she was still with Stefan and that she had made Jenna leave all the vervain to become her spy. Then the oldest girl revealed that she'd ordered Jenna to hurt herself, and suddenly Jenna stabbed herself in the stomach.

After taking Jenna to the hospital, Elena went to the Salvatore mansion to talk to Stefan.

"I'm so sorry." apologized Stefan with tears in his eyes, knowing what had happened.

"We were stupid. Sneaking around, thinking that we weren't gonna get caught." she began to tell him.

"I know." the vampire nodded while folding his arms, knowing it was partly his fault.

"We did this. Stefan, Jenna's in the hospital and Jeremy could be next. All because we didn't… we didn't listen to her. Because, because we are together. Stefan…" she expressed close to tears, leaning closer.

"I know what you're gonna say to me." he admitted in a trembling voice just as she did, dreading what was coming next.

"Then let me say it. I've been so selfish because I love you so much, and I know how much you love me. But it's over Stefan. It has to be." the girl declared, trying to be firm.

"Elena, I…" he tried to speak in denial, but he felt a lump in his throat and was about to cry.

"Don't Stefan. It has to be." she repeated in the same state as him while she took his face to stare into his eyes, holding back the tears. After hesitating for a few moments, Elena kissed him one more time and they parted, stared at each other as a farewell and she left the library. On her way out she met a guilty Damon, to whom she told that Katherine had won.

Chapter Text

Normal POV

A few days later, Caroline was sitting on the sofa in the boarding house thoughtful, when Damon re-entered the room and walked towards her.

"Come on, drink this." ordered the oldest man handing her a glass of blood, which she accepted.

"I told you I'm fine, just irritated." she repeated tiredly and drank from the blood, and Stefan appeared.

"What happened?" he asked confused as he stood in front of the girl.

"Go ahead, tell him. You're gonna love this." the vampire commented, glancing between the two of them.

"I saw Katherine today at the Grill. I was passing by when I felt something strange and I went in to see Matt." revealed the blonde surprising her brother, and remembered what had happened a while before.

"Hey Caroline. Do you need a table?" asked Matt as he approached the girl and noticed that she was looking at him with a small smile, and then he noticed how she seemed a little nervous.

"No, I'm not staying. I just, I just needed to go to the restroom." she excused herself, smiling at him and left.

"Can you skip your teen drama and get to it?" Damon asked interrupting her.

"You don't care about my emotions, do you?" the heretic replied looking at him and turned towards Stefan. "Then I pretended to use the bathroom so he wouldn't think I was stalking him." she continued explaining and crossed her legs.

"Elena?" blurted out Caroline, who was in the bathroom washing her hands, after noticing the brunette girl through the mirror, but she knew that the girl was actually Katherine.

"Hey, I saw you with Matt. Everything okay?" asked the girl standing behind the blonde.

"Yeah, everything's fine, nothing weird." she said barely glancing up at her and tried to run away quickly, but the older girl grabbed her arm and made her stay in place as she got in the way.

"You're good. What gave me away? Was it the hair? Or was it my clothes?" she inquired with curiosity.

"Apart from that, she wouldn't come to talk to me since we're only acquaintances. I guess you don't know how to spy like I do." replied the younger girl, looking at her with some annoyance.

"I want you to deliver a message." clarified the brunette, focusing on what was important.

"What was the message?" inquired the younger vampire, staring at the girl with his arms crossed.

"Tell Damon and Stefan I want the moonstone or I will rip this town apart until it rains blood." she warned as she stared at her, making her lower her head from the intensity.

"Tell him the rest." Damon ordered looking at his sister who nodded and looked at Stefan.

"Tonight, at the masquerade ball." she specified staring seriously at Caroline and walked out.

"She wants to do it in public. Killing Mason threw her off guard." said Stefan thoughtful.

"She's running scared. What she did to Jenna was desperate. She's out of tricks." the oldest one hinted, watching as his brother started to walk and his sister watched them.

"We can't underestimate her. We have to play this smarter than her." clarified the younger guy without stopping walking, turning to look at his brother and thought about what to do.

"Can't we just give her the moonstone so she will leave? You don't even know why it's so important anyway." the blonde interjected, looking at both of them a little worried.

"Don't care, Katherine's not getting anything. I've had it. I'm gonna go to the masquerade ball and I'm gonna kill her, tonight." he decided while he walked glancing at her and got a little closer to Stefan.

"You're not gonna kill her." Stefan affirmed, catching his siblings off guard.

"Don't give me that goody-goody crap." he ordered getting more serious than before.

"You're not gonna kill her. Because I am." he declared standing in front of him and looking at him seriously, to which Damon smiled slightly impressed at him and Caroline lowered her head, shaking it resigned.

Later, Bonnie arrived at the mansion with her grimoire just as Caroline was going home to get something. The witch ran into Jeremy and Stefan, who revealed to her that they planned to kill Katherine after Bonnie saw Damon and Alaric had several weapons, and heard how the teacher was teaching them how to use the weapons to kill vampires.

Meanwhile, Katherine was in her room with her friend Lucy, a witch, getting ready.

"What's with the hair?" asked Lucy, noticing that she was straightening it while she stood up.

"I'm impersonating my dull-as-dishwater doppelgänger Elena. She has the worst taste." the vampire commented focusing on her appearance as she looked in a mirror.

"Except in men. Isn't it a risk pretending to be her in front of the entire town?" she inquired curiously taking a dress from the bed and checking how it looked in the mirror.

"I've gotten quite good at it actually and everyone is gonna be in masks. It's for some food this, some charity. It's for a good cause Lucy." she clarified smiling a little.

"Okay. Well, have you actually seen the moonstone before? I always thought it was some made-up legend." commented the witch nodding and picked up another dress, trying to choose one.

"I've seen it and I need you to help me get it back." she explained still looking at her hair.

"Oh yes? What are you gonna do with it?" she asked taking another dress, but Katherine tensed and tried to hide it as she turned to see her. "You want me to break the curse." she affirmed after seeing the expression on her face, staring at her waiting to see what she would say.

"Let's just get it first. All I really need from you is backup. I can't imagine Damon and Stefan are gonna hand it over without putting up a fight." admitted the brunette without wanting to tell her too much about her plans, and took one of the dresses to check it out.

At the Salvatore boarding house, Bonnie was talking to Stefan a little doubtfully.

"I know you love Elena and you want to be with her, but it's risky. Too many people could get hurt." the witch clarified while they walked through the corridors of the mansion.

"Look, I want Elena back, yes, but it's more than that. What Katherine did to Jenna crossed the line. She has to be stopped before it happens again." he said believing in the plan.

"I don't know, Stefan." she hesitated looking at him doubtfully, not wanting to participate.

"It's okay if you don't want to participate Bonnie, don't worry. I can ask Caroline to help us if you're uncomfortable. She'll know what to do and keep us safe." he admitted smiling in a friendly way, but the girl remembered her talk with Elena about Caroline days ago.

"You know what? I'll help you, for Elena, but with one condition. Can I talk alone with you and Damon?" she asked after sighing. The vampire, confused, nodded and went for his brother. After Caroline's return, all of them gathered in the living room to go over the plan.

"Are you sure you guys don't want me there tonight?" Alaric asked with arms folded.

"No, I need you to stay with Elena. I don't want her to know about this." affirmed Stefan seriously.

"Okay. Well, I'll make sure she doesn't leave my sight." promised the teacher with a nod.

"What's the plan? I have some ideas," Caroline spoke curiously and took a black notepad out of her bag. "Lock her in a room and interrogate her, torture her until she talks. Uuh, hurt her with magic?" she suggested reading the notepad, while her brothers looked at each other doubtfully.

"Well, we already have your part of the plan. When we tell you, little sister, you're gonna lead Katherine to a room upstairs spelled by Bonnie, then you're free." Damon explained with some hesitation at her reaction, and got concerned to see her giggle as if it was a joke.

"You're kidding. He's kidding right?" she asked confused looking at Stefan, who denied and she was puzzled. "What? Seriously? You're gonna put me as distraction? I told you that Katherine will go to the ball, you can't do this to me." she replied frowning, getting angry.

"We want to protect you from Katherine, she already hurt you so much." clarified the younger vampire.

"Must I remind you guys that that was your fault? Everyone but me knew that she was here, and she poisoned me because I didn't recognize her! You don't think I'm capable of killing her." she assumed firmly.

"Come on, we know what you're capable of, and you're kinda emotional. We just want you out of this." the oldest man insisted, rolling his eyes tired of hearing her, but he knew that she would continue.

"That's the problem? There have to be doubts to act with you two, Mr. 'obsessed with Katherine for a century and a half' and Mr. 'I'm in love with her copy'." she admitted pointing at him and then at Stefan who sighed and ran his hands over his face to keep calm.

"Look, we're capable of doing this. We want to make things right." he tried to relax her.

"Are you really going to trust Bonnie, who almost sent us to die weeks ago, instead of me, who has practiced magic practically all my life and knows what to do?" complained the older girl, folding her arms and glaring at them annoyed by their attitude, she felt that they were belittling her. So she didn't pay attention to the looks Bonnie and Jeremy were giving her.

"It's enough Caroline! You stay out of the plan and that's all. We trust Bonnie because she's a very good witch, she's a Bennett so she's capable of doing everything that you can and more, we don't need you." declared the oldest one exasperated upon hearing her, receiving a slap on the shoulder from Stefan, and when he looked at the heretic he noticed that her mouth was slightly open.

"Oh, right, right. Now I get it. All this crap about wanting to leave me out is not to protect me, it's for blood. Here it doesn't matter the experience but the name, and for you guys the Bennett's are the best. I mean, what does it matter that us three come from Salvatore witches right? It's not like we were good and all that." insinuated the girl with sarcasm, but she was hurt and offended.

"Damon didn't mean that, actually…" her other brother tried to reason with her.

"Don't talk to me Stefan, it's very clear what he meant. Bonnie is the witch, and I'm the backup girl so I'm the distraction. And as the distraction, I'll go get ready for the plan. I have to look like the pretty dumb blonde to fool Katherine, right? Bye." she sentenced frowning and turned to leave with her bag and her notepad in hand.

"Come, blondie! Don't be so dramatic." Damon asked so they could continue talking about the plan.

"I heard your plan. And I'm the drama queen according to you, jerk." exclaimed Caroline glaring at them hurt and slammed the door. She got into her car holding back tears and hit the steering wheel with the notepad that she threw on the seat, and drove off after taking a deep breath wiping her face.

"Excuse Caroline, she was very upset. But you shouldn't have said that Damon, you were kinda cruel." Stefan remarked glaring at the named one with some irritation for having offended the blonde girl.

"It's not big deal. It's Caroline, she throws a tantrum like a little girl who didn't get a doll and the next day she gets over it. Now let's get down to business. If anyone wants to back out, speak now, I don't want this to go wrong if someone gets cold feet." he clarified looking at everyone around.

"We can do this. Your evil sister didn't scare us." said Jeremy, hiding his anger.

"Bonnie? Are you with us?" asked the younger vampire addressing Bonnie who hesitated.

"But no one gets hurt." she reminded him after thinking a moment, remembering what Caroline had said.

"Except Katherine. Tonight Katherine gets a stake through her heart." added seriously Damon.

That night at the Lockwood mansion, the masquerade ball was being held and all the town was invited. Katherine arrived along with Lucy, but they got apart and the vampire found Matt, whom she compelled to fight with Tyler until his friend killed him to make him trigger the werewolf curse. Meanwhile, Damon and Stefan arrived at the ball looking around for Katherine, and assured themselves that they would be capable of killing her.

For their part, Bonnie and Jeremy arrived at the party at the mansion. They went upstairs and chose one of the rooms for the spell, entering with a bag in the boy's hand.

"Is that the spell book I read about in my family's old journal?" Jeremy asked curious as he pulled a gun from his bag and watched the older one check a book.

"It's my ancestor, Emily's. The spell I'm doing here is similar to the one that sealed the vampires into the tomb." she explained as she sat down and began to read the grimoire.

"Can you do all the stuff in there?" he inquired as he set the bag down in a closet and walked over.

"I mean it takes practice. I've worked on some small spells, spells that only do good. I don't want to know too much. I don't particularly enjoy any of this, in case you haven't noticed." the girl told him with some resignation and he sat down with her.

"If you don't enjoy this, why are you helping with the plan instead of letting Caroline do it? Although I don't really like her." he admitted, smiling bitterly at the thought of her.

"I heard that Caroline has no limits in protecting Stefan and Damon. I feel that she's capable of hurting anyone to do it, you know it well, and I don't trust her anymore. Besides, knowing about her family and that she practices magic so long ago, makes me wanna show her that I know what I'm doing." she confessed with a kinda doubtful tone looking at her hands, a part of her wanted to be just like her.

"Don't pay attention to her. She's a snooty, self-centered and she's surely jealous of you. I mean, she's something weird while you're 100% witch, that's cool." advised the younger one firmly.

"It's anything but cool. Did your family journal tell you what happened to Emily? Or what about my grams? It never ends well for people like me." she assured looking away.

"If you feel that way, why help?" asked again the boy confused.

"Because I don't want anyone else getting hurt, I wanna protect those who matter to me and I don't know how to get out of this." she answered seriously turning her head towards him.

At the Gilbert house, Elena was taking care of Jenna who had already returned from the hospital with Alaric. When she asked about Jeremy she discovered that he'd gone to the masquerade ball so Elena wanted to question Alaric since everyone had been ignoring her that day. The older man at first didn't want to say anything, but upon hearing she wanted to leave he revealed that Stefan had asked him to look out for her in case Katherine went while he was at the ball, increasing her suspicions.

At the masquerade ball, Bonnie and Jeremy were ready to tell Stefan and Damon that they had already prepared a room when the witch felt something strange in the air, she looked around finding Lucy, Katherine's date, who gave her a weird feeling. Stefan was on the dance floor when Katherine appeared wanting to dance with him, and he refused her until the girl warned that she would kill someone, so he offered her an arm and they danced.

"It's a beautiful night." commented Katherine smiling slightly as she danced with Stefan.

"Why the charade?" he asked remaining serious, not liking it all.

"How's Jenna? I certainly didn't expect her to survive that. Lucky girl. Clumsy. How does one stab oneself?" she asked with a certain mocking tone, irritating the younger one.

"Katherine? I don't want anyone to get hurt tonight." he affirmed, looking at her cautious.

"Okay. Then give me the moonstone and no one will." clarified the older girl without stopping moving.

"Well, you see, I don't have the moonstone on me. So you and I'll have to go get it together." hinted the guy wondering if the girl would fall for that offer.

"Hmm. I have a better plan. You go fetch it and I'll try not to kill anyone in the meantime." she suggested after nodding pretending to consider it and smiled slightly at him without taking her eyes off him.

"My way or you don't get it." he sentenced firmly so that she understood the deal.

They were about to keep talking when they were interrupted by Aimee who, thinking that Katherine was Elena, asked them about Matt. The older vampire took the moment to get a little closer to the girl and killed her in front of Stefan, warning him that she wanted the stone and went away, so Stefan called Damon for help to get rid of the body.

"This is exactly what I didn't want, Damon." he replied angrily, entering an empty room with him.

"Stefan, it's collateral damage." he affirmed trying to relax him upon seeing him walking restlessly around the place.

"Right, which is why we have to call it off." he admitted walking and giving him a look.

"What? Who's hesitating now? Hey! Don't do this to me! This woman ruined our lives, she destroyed all three of us, but more us! Tonight it ends. We can do it together. I got your back, all right?" exclaimed the older man getting serious while he approached him and took him by the shoulders staring at him, so he would be part of the plan again.

"All right." he agreed a little thoughtfully looking between him and their surroundings. After seeing his brother nodding, Damon sent a message to Jeremy to do his part.

On her side, Katherine was with Lucy, who was complaining to her since she hadn't told her that there was another witch at the party, that aside she'd felt very unusual energy and didn't like it at all. The vampire reminded her that she was there because she owed her a favor and wanted her as a friend.

"Elena." called Jeremy suddenly approaching them and took off his mask turning to Lucy. "Hey, sorry, could I talk to my sister?" he asked looking at her, to which the witch went away.

"What is it, Jeremy?" asked Katherine curious, giving him her attention like Elena.

"I got a message from Stefan. He and Damon want you to meet them at the edge of the lake by the woods. They brought the moonstone." he announced after standing in front of her.

"And why are you their little messenger?" she questioned, dropping her pretense while she analyzed him.

"Because they know I'm not afraid of you." the boy affirmed, trying to show that he was calm when talking to her, even though he felt tense having her so close to him.

"Hmm, you Gilbert men, so courageous. How is John by the way? Were they able to sew his fingers back on?" she inquired getting near him and touching his tie to then walk away. Jeremy was sending a message to Damon when he felt someone grab his arm.

"What the hell is going on?" Elena questioned annoyed, having escaped from Alaric.

Meanwhile, Caroline was walking around the party greeting some people until she noticed Matt with Tyler and a girl named Sarah. The blonde and Matt looked at each other for a moment and she smiled slightly at him, then he left with his friends as she saw a text from Stefan that it was her turn, making her roll her eyes in irritation. Caroline walked to an empty part of the mansion and was about to open a door until Katherine arrived and pushed her into a wall.

"What are Stefan and Damon up to?" questioned the brunette girl, pushing her face against the wall.

"What do you mean?" she asked pretending confusion, hating to be a mere distraction.

"I have Jeremy Gilbert luring me out to the lake. What's going on?" she asked again, still keeping her pressed against the wall with the wrist and pushing her head.

"I don't know… nothing. They don't tell me anything." she lied trying to stay calm and not to show how angry she was with the whole group. Then, Katherine turned her around and choked her.

"Don't lie to me Caroline. They're up to some thing, what is it?" repeated the older girl tired of not getting her questions answered, and she squeezed harder when she didn't get any answer.

"Wait, no, no! They are trying to kill you." she revealed in a strangled voice, barely feeling the air going in her lungs, and thinking about how to make her brothers pay for that plan.

"I figured as much. Where is the moonstone?" she inquired, loosening her grip a little.

"Bonnie has it. I don't know where she is." the blonde girl clarified glaring seriously at her so she would leave her alone, but she felt her squeeze tighter. "Okay. She's upstairs!" she declared with her eyes fixed on her, to which Katherine began to feel as if she had a slight migraine.

"You do this? Stop." she ordered without stop squeezing, but the migraine became stronger than before making her moan in annoyance so she released her and the migraine went away. "Hmm, not bad. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on you." she insinuated curiously, receiving an angry look.

"Try that again, and the next thing you know, you'll be screaming in pain until you pass out." she warned with a hand on her throat that still hurt a little, and Katherine nodded with interest.

In the garden of the mansion, an angry Elena was talking to Jeremy and Bonnie.

"What a horrible migraine, but luckily it's gone. You guys are causing it to me with this. Are you really trying to kill her here?" Elena questioned standing in front of them.

"We saw an opportunity and we knew we had to take it." her brother clarified.

"Okay, stop with the 'we', are you crazy? You are gonna get yourselves killed." she exclaimed trying to get them to remember who they were facing, glancing back and forth between them.

"We know what we're doing Elena." intervened the witch, staring at her friend.

"And how am I supposed to feel if one of you gets hurt because of me?" replied the girl, a bit exasperated that they didn't understand the danger they were putting themselves in.

"It's not just you anymore, Elena. She messed with all of us, she has to be stopped." declared the youngest one, making his sister look at him, hoping she would understand his point.

Inside the mansion, Katherine was dragging Caroline upstairs taking her hair.

"Is the hair necessary?! Take my arm at least!" asked the heretic with a frown.

"Shut up!" she ordered tired of listening to her talk while pulling her hair, making her complain again. "Which room is it?" she asked stopping in one of the hallways.

"It's that one." she answered pointing to one of the doors, Katherine let her go and got in the room while the blonde stayed outside fixing her hair and noticed her look around.

"Where is she?" she inquired confused upon not seeing the witch, and turned to the door.

"I don't know what's worse. That I was reduced to this or that you believe in anything I say. Maybe both." she insinuated with her hands on her hips. Katherine went to her, finding a barrier.

"But what…? Stefan." she said upset touching the barrier and turned to the room, finding Stefan.

"Hello Katherine." he greeted smirking with a stake in hand, and shot a glance at Caroline.

"I've done my part, don't bother me anymore. If you need anything call witch number 1." replied the younger girl smiling mockingly and waved at the guy to leave, while Katherine watched him.

"You don't really think that you can kill me with that now, do you?" she hinted coming closer.

"No, but he can." he declared glancing at the stake, then Damon got out of the closet and shot the girl a stake in the back, not knowing that at the same time Elena screamed in pain while on her back she had the same wound and bled, scaring Jeremy and Bonnie. Stefan drove another stake into the vampire's arm, hurting Elena's arm equally.

"What's going on?" Jeremy asked worriedly, crouching down in front of his pained sister.

"Jeremy, it's Katherine. She's linked to Katherine, get them to stop, now!" ordered Bonnie in the same position taking a hand of her friend, making him nod and go running inside.

In the room, Stefan lunged at Katherine to stake her again but she stopped him and pushed him against a small table, Damon pulled the stake out of her back and tried to kill her, to which the brunette threw him against a wall. Stefan started throwing stakes at the girl with the gun in his sleeve, but she kept throwing them at him as the other man got up and tried to kill her, until she pushed him into a couch. Damon stood up again and tried to attack her, Katherine turned his hand to stake him and almost killed him, until Stefan attacked her from behind and knocked her to the floor while he held her down, and Damon moved in to kill her, until Jeremy came in.

"Stop! You're hurting Elena! Everything you're doing to her is hurting Elena!" he said to which they stopped in surprise, Katherine smirked and stood up after Stefan let her go.

"You think you two are the only ones with witches on your side? Wrong and something tells me that my witch is better than your witches. Though your sister isn't that dumb apparently." she commented smiling at them with a certain mockery while she intercalated the look between them, then she took the stake from Damon's hand, who together with Stefan looked at Jeremy thinking about that revelation.

"Jeremy, go check on Elena. Make sure she's okay. And go for Caroline. Go!" Stefan ordered, pointing at the teenager who went to check on his sister, and they turned to Katherine.

"Let's all make sure poor Elena is okay. Just a little bit more pressure." insinuated the girl making a cut on her hand with the stake, that appeared in Elena's hand making her shout again, and Stefan hit her hand making the stake fall on the floor. While Elena was in a lot of pain and bleeding, Bonnie was desperate as she couldn't break the spell, so she tried to cast another spell to reduce the pain she felt.

"Are you okay?" Jeremy asked Elena as he arrived with the girls and crouched down in front of her.

"Are they?" Elena inquired worried about her friends, holding Bonnie's hand.

"They're stuck there with her," he replied and turned to Bonnie. "You were right. Katherine had a witch link Elena to her. Stefan told me to look for Caroline, but I can't find her anywhere." he explained irritated with the blonde, while the younger girl realised something.

"She must still be upset with all of us. But the girl I saw, the one inside! Stay with her, keep pressure on her shoulder!" ordered the witch, letting go of her friend and getting up.

"Where are you going?" asked confused the boy trying to get up like her.

"There's another witch here, I'm gonna find her!" she affirmed without stopping moving and ran to the house.

"The three of us together just like old times. The brother who loved me too much and the one that didn't love me enough." commented Katherine sitting on a sofa looking at Damon and Stefan.

"And the evil vampire slut who only loved herself." Damon added, touching the barrier.

"What happened to you Damon? You used to be so sweet and polite." she asked while he turned to look at her.

"Oh, that Damon died a long time ago." he answered smiling a little, angry.

"Good. He was a bore." she replied without taking her eyes off him, making him get serious.

"Oh, why don't you stop antagonizing each other?" Stefan interjected, standing near the girl.

"Where is the moonstone?" she questioned focusing on him, waiting for a good answer.

"What do you want with it?" he inquired looking at her curiously, but she just smirked at him.

"Does Elena enjoy having both of you worship at her altar? I can imagine Caroline's fury, you know, at having another girl between her and her brothers." she clarified, glancing between them.

"That was really desperate, Katherine. Don't you think we can see right through you?" he admitted, not letting the subject distract him, but he hoped his sister was fixing everything.

"So it doesn't bother you that Damon's in love with your girlfriend?" she hinted wiping away the smile to which the youngest guy began to shake his head. "Come on Stefan. Everything that I feel, Elena feels so go ahead. Or better yet, kiss me Damon, she'll feel that too." she suggested smirking again as she stood up and approached the older man a little suggestively.

"You know, this whole Mason thing has me a bit confused. Why a werewolf? The moonstone can break a curse that would help them destroy all vampires, so what's in it for you?" talked Stefan standing behind her, who turned to look at him doubtfully.

"Sorry about your pet wolf, probably should have kept him on a tighter leash." added the older man finishing with a smirk, making her turn towards him again.

"I'll have to remember that for next time. He's not the only wolf in town." clarified the brunette girl staring at him a bit serious, wondering if Matt had done what she'd compelled him to do.

Downstairs at the party, Caroline was talking to a couple of people and wandered off to get another drink. She had seen Jeremy nervously running upstairs, so just in case she had hidden from him until he disappeared again. She was walking when she thought she heard a knock in the distance so she focused more on the sound, surprised to hear Matt fighting with Tyler so she quickly went to find them, to Tyler's father's office.

"What is going on? Stop!" Caroline asked them rushing inside the office finding the boys fighting, she approached them and pushed Matt to the floor, who quickly got up and tried to run towards Tyler to keep punching him, but the girl got between them.

"I can't! Let me go, I have to finish!" declared the blond boy with one of the heretic's hands on his chest and grabbing her wrist so she'd let him go, struggling to free himself.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" questioned Tyler puzzled by the boy's attitude, being in the same position as him but without moving, with the girl alternating her gaze between them.

"Let me go!" he repeated furious glaring at them both. Caroline looked at him for a few moments, upon having an idea of what was happening she hit his face with her elbow making him fall to the floor unconscious, and turned to throw a look at a surprised Tyler, then focused on her ex.

"Matt? Matt?" she called him worriedly while she went towards him and she noticed the blood on his nose after the blow, not noticing how Sarah grabbed a letter opener from the desk.

"How did you…?" the other boy tried to say, coming a little closer to them, astonished by what he saw.

"Matt failed. If Matt fails, I can't." interjected Sarah getting closer behind Tyler's back, who didn't pay attention to her for staring at his friend, but the blonde girl heard it and turned to her.

"Tyler, look out!" she shouted as she noticed the girl behind him. Tyler turned instantly and Sarah drove the opener into the boy's chest who groaned in pain and pushed her away from him, but upon doing so Sarah's head hit in the desk and she fell to the floor unconscious. Tyler touched the wound seeing blood and looked at the girl, feeling a shiver on the back of his neck from fear.

"No, no, no! Come on, wake up!" he asked, getting to her and touching her arm. "Sarah, open your eyes, wake up! This can't happen, no, this can't happen. This can't be happening! Sarah! Sarah, get up! Sarah! Open your eyes! This can't be happening! Not like this!" he began to call out her increasingly frantic and terrified at not getting answers and not seeing her wake up. He stood up and started pacing in panic while Caroline got up and crouched down next to Sarah to check for a pulse, but she heard no heartbeat. As she raised her eyes, she noticed Tyler begin to moan while he grabbed his head, getting her attention.

"Tyler? Tyler?" she called worriedly while she stood up and moved a little away from him as she saw him screaming and bending over as if his head and body hurt. "Tyler, what's going on?" she kept asking.

"Get away. Get away!" he ordered more forcefully as he raised his head to look at her, leaving the heretic shocked to see Tyler's eyes glowing gold.

Still in the spelled room, Damon and Stefan were still trapped with Katherine.

"Damn it! Where are those witches? Maybe she's still with her tantrum." Damon asked, standing in the doorway and checking the spell, hoping that at least their sister would come for them.

"We can play charades." suggested Katherine, giving him a look as she stood in the room.

"You bargained the moonstone." murmured thoughtfully Stefan suddenly, pointing at the girl.

"What are you mumbling about over there?" inquired confused his brother as he turned to look at him.

"When you struck a deal with George Lockwood, to help you fake your death, you told me that you gave George something that he needed. It was the moonstone, wasn't it?" he hinted while he stared at her and followed her, after having gone over everything that had happened in his head.

"Good for you, Stefan. Two plus two… And it would have worked except that people found out that I wasn't in the tomb," the brunette revealed turning towards him, then looked at Damon. "Thanks to you, by the way. Have I mentioned how inconvenient your obsession with me has been?" she clarified with a bit of irritation in her tone while she moved closer to him.

"You and me both, honey." the vampire said with a smile and took a sip of his drink.

"Why do you need it back?" the youngest one interjected, looking at them with certain curiosity.

"I love you in a suit, so dashing." commented the girl, checking him out and ignoring him.

"What were you doing with it in the first place?" he continued to question her so she'd speak.

"You're wasting your breath, Stefan." the older man added tiredly, rolling his eyes.

"Unless it wasn't yours to begin with. In 1864 you faked your death. Who were you running from, Katherine?" he interrogated without hearing him and looked at the older girl, who saw the stake in her hand and then at him.

"In 1987 you were in Chicago, at a concert with that wench, Lexi. Come on Stefan, don't look so surprised. Of course I checked in on you over the years. You were in the front row, dancing all night. You were watching Bon Jovi and I was watching you." she confessed slowly approaching him and staring at him to make him believe in her, while Damon looked away.

"Who were you running from?" he asked again without paying attention to what she said, and Katherine didn't answer him but mouthed telling him "I love you" with a slight smile.

At the ball, Bonnie had been looking everywhere for Lucy who revealed that she knew she was a Bennett and made it clear that she didn't want to fight with her, but added she wouldnt remove the spell on Elena until they gave the moonstone to Katherine. Bonnie reminded her that she was on Katherine's side, but the older witch stated that she had no choice because she owed the vampire a favor so she had to pay back, then they held hands making the lights flicker and Lucy assured her that Bonnie could trust her.

In the room, Katherine and the Salvatores were waiting and were exasperated, to the point Damon wanted to kill the girl as soon as the spell linking her to Elena was broken. At that instant Lucy arrived with the moonstone saying that the spell in the room was gone so they were free, then she clarified to Katherine that once she handed the stone she didn't owe her anything anymore which Katherine agreed and took the stone, but she felt that she couldn't breathe and fainted, but before Lucy hinted that she should've told her about Bonnie and clarified that Elena was fine.

Meanwhile, Caroline was in Mr. Lockwood's office speaking with Carol.

"Matt and I were fighting, we broke up you know. Sarah was drunk and dancing and she tripped. I checked for a pulse but there wasn't heartbeat and she wasn't breathing." the heretic explained looking at the mayor near the body, changing the facts to cover Tyler.

"Okay. Sheriff Forbes is on her way and we've called Sarah's parents. It was an accident. It was a terrible, tragic accident." the younger one affirmed, looking at the blonde.

"Mom, the sheriff's here." Tyler announced as he entered the office, making them see him.

"I'll go prepare her. Can you stay here? She'll want to hear your story." she asked walking towards the door to go with the sheriff, but first she turned to Caroline.

"Of course, Mrs. Lockwood. I'm here for what you need." assured the girl making her nod gratefully and got out, leaving her alone with Tyler. "Matt's in the car asleep. I'll deal with him, I don't wanna involve him in this." she clarified firmly turning to him, who looked at her.

"What are you doing?" he questioned confused as he approached her.

"I'm fixing a very bad situation." she replied as if it was obvious, without understanding him.

"Why? I did this. I killed her." he reminded her, angry that she wanted to help him as if it were nothing.

"It wasn't your intention, that's what matters. And I think it's best for everyone…" she tried to suggest.

"But she's dead! You don't know what that means." he interrupted her thinking about the curse.

"Actually Tyler, I think I do." she revealed, softening her expression and thinking it was the right thing to do.

"No, you don't Caroline." he denied resignedly, knowing she couldn't understand him.

"Has your wound healed?" she asked ignoring his words, confusing him more. But he opened his shirt to see the wound on his chest, but was puzzled to see that it'd healed.

"How did you…?" he mumbled surprised as he raised his eyes to stare at her.

After having finished her work, Lucy was already leaving the ball.

"Please, wait." Bonnie asked, running after Lucy, who turned to look at her.

"Hey, sorry about that spell. Damn vampires, they pull you into the middle every time." the witch affirmed looking a few moments to the side and then at the girl, who nodded.

"How do I know you? When I gave you the stone, how did I know I could trust you?" she inquired curious about the strange sensation she'd had when talking to her, wondering what it was.

"The feeling you got, you ever felt it before?" she queried, watching her with mild interest.

"Being around family. My grams." answered the younger with a certain melancholy.

"My mother is Joanna, first cousin twice removed from Pauline, niece of Sheila aka…" she revealed smiling.

"Grams? Are we related?" she asked surprised by that revelation.

"Yeah, something like that. Nice to meet you Bonnie," she commented smiling wider than before, making her smile in return. "Seeing you tonight was a wakeup call for me. I gotta stop letting vampires control me. So thank you for that." she thanked and turned away.

"Please don't leave! I have so many questions. I don't want to be in the middle either. I hate it. But I also don't want to leave my friends vulnerable to another witch. How do I stay out of it?" she inquired close to tears as she followed her and made her stop again.

"Unlike me, you're one of the good ones, Bonnie. The middle of it is exactly where you need to be. And if that witch is the one I felt, don't let her influence your actions. You take care, cuz. Don't worry, you'll see me again. And here, call if you need anything." the older woman added giving her a paper with her number, smiled at her again and left the ball, leaving her thoughtful.

Meanwhile, Elena was alone outside until she ran into Stefan who suggested her to see a doctor. The vampire was going to hug her since their problem with Katherine was over, but the girl clarified that although she wanted them to be together again, she needed to wake up and know that the people she loved would be safe, and she needed to feel safe. Stefan, though a bit resigned, agreed to her request and let her walk away.

Later, Katherine woke up with the moonstone with her and discovered that Damon was going to lock her up in the tomb under the church, where the spell that trapped her still was, and according to the vampire where she should have always been. Seeing he was about to seal her, Katherine panicked and revealed that Elena was in danger, but didn't say from whom, and clarified that she hadn't killed Elena since she as the doppelganger and needed protection. To which Damon stated that he would protect Elena to close the tomb, although he had a weird feeling.

What no one knew was that Elena was alone in the parking lot of the Lockwood mansion, and was speaking to Jeremy who was taking Bonnie home. Cutting off the call with her brother, the girl was about to get in her car so she could go back home as well, but then an unknown man covered her mouth and took her away in a pickup truck.

Chapter Text

Normal POV

The next morning, an SUV stopped in a rural area abandoned and encountered another car. A man got out of the car and walked towards the driver of the SUV.

"Where is she?" asked the man in the SUV, rolling down the window a little. He had a cap on and was wearing sunglasses, not moving inside the vehicle.

"In the trunk, I did exactly what you said." the man answered looking at him from outside.

"Good, put her in the back." he ordered. The man nodded, went to the back of the SUV and opened it, then went to his car and opened the trunk revealing an unconscious Elena inside, lifted her in his arms and put her in the SUV. The older man looked at her in the rearview mirror and smiled, watching the other man close the car and walk back to stand at his window.

"Thank you for your help." thanked the man with the sunglasses and thought that he had nodded.

"Is there anything else?" he inquired curiously after he had complied with his orders.

"One more thing. Come closer, please." he asked. The man approached the window, but the other one took his neck and bit him, drinking his blood, then left after throwing him on the ground.

Meanwhile, Caroline had an unwanted visit from Damon, who wanted to know about Tyler.

"Matt thinks he blacked out, but I think they were both compelled by Katherine. That's why I helped Tyler and said it was an accident." explained the heretic, looking at herself in her mirror.

"Yeah, I don't understand that. The guy is a tool." he affirmed standing in the doorway of her room.

"I'll explain it to you slowly. Tyler getting blamed for Sarah's death creates questions that he can't answer, and it's not a good idea for him to tell his mom he's a wolf" she clarified with slight irritation walking towards her bed and putting a purse with makeup in her bag.

"Yeah, I think you're right. Wait, did you see Tyler's eyes turn yellow?" he asked curious.

"They were more gold with amber highlights." the blonde girl specified as she took her boots from the floor and put them on, making him look away incredulously at the clarification.

"That's bad, now at full moon he can turn and has increased strength. Does he know about us?" the older one inquired, seeing her put on a scarf, but his sister ignored him. "Hey! What did you tell him?" he questioned upset upon seeing her ignore him instead of answering him.

"Nothing, relax. I don't think he knows much, he seemed really scared. Maybe I can find out." she offered looking in the mirror and rolled her eyes to walk to her bed and look at her phone.

"No, don't do it Caroline! He cannot know about us. Remember a werewolf bite can kill a vampire so don't be his friend. Do you understand me?" he ordered earnestly for her to obey, but his sister still didn't see him and put her things in her bag.

"I will try. Can you leave? I'm too dramatic for you and I want to overact alone." she replied coldly ignoring him and walked past him to leave, but he followed her to stand in front of her.

"Come on, don't tell me that you're still upset about yesterday. You want me to apologize? Fine, I'm sorry." the vampire apologized falsely in front of her, thinking she should forget about it.

"Keep practicing, it wasn't fake enough. You're here for information, you got it so go away." she repeated angrily pushing him away from her to leave, still not wanting to talk to him.

"We were protecting you, that's all. Get over it. We didn't mean to hurt your ego." he clarified backing away.

"You think I'm angry for my ego? The problem is that you guys treated me as if I was nothing and you weren't capable of telling me that you wanted to work with Bonnie, not me." the heretic hinted a little more annoyed, but she kept her cool in front of him and crossed her arms.

"That's not true, you're exaggerating." the older accused, slightly feeling that she was angry.

"You two wanted a witch who chose Elena over you two if something happened, because you don't trust me. If you wanted to protect me, you would have left me out of the plan like you left Elena out. Instead you left me defenseless with Katherine." she exclaimed feeling kind of hurt by that fact, her anger had been partly from noticing those details and what he had told her.

"We didn't do that. She wouldn't have killed you." he assured approaching her, not believing in that.

"How do you know? She pushed me against a wall, choked me and dragged me upstairs. She could have killed me if she wanted. But who cares about that, right? I mean, I don't have someone obsessed with me like you two are obsessed with Elena, so I have to protect myself. Now leave me alone at least for today." asked the younger girl after sighing tiredly. They stared at each other for a few seconds and before Damon could speak, Caroline left her house.

At school, Stefan was at his locker when Jeremy appeared at his side asking him and Elena to let him know if they were going to spend the night together so he could cover for her with Jenna and that he was fine with them getting back together, but to his surprise Stefan confirmed that with Elena hadn't gotten back together. Surprised, the human told him that the girl's bed didn't look used and that her car was still at the Lockwood house, worrying them.

On the other hand, the SUV had stopped at an abandoned mansion. The man took Elena inside and put her down on a couch causing her to wake up, then he tried to bite her for the wound on her arm. Out of nowhere a woman appeared stopping the man, Trevor, and pulled him away from Elena. When they were left alone the woman said that she looked just like Katherine, so the younger one clarified that her name was Elena and that it was a confusion, but she was surprised to learn she knew she wasn't Katherine, and before she could talk the woman hit her knocking her unconscious.

"This has Katherine written all over it." Stefan declared outside the school with Damon. He had called him to see him after hearing about Elena's disappearance.

"Katherine is in the tomb. Trust me, I'm the one who shut her in." he affirmed, looking at him thoughtfully.

"Did you?" he suddenly asked, leaning closer.

"Did I what, Stefan?" he replied with certain disbelief.

"Well, I know the hold that Katherine has on you." he hinted without moving and without taking his eyes off him.

"She's in the tomb, period. End of story," assured the older one seriously, watching his brother walk away. "But she said something to me right before I shut her in. I thought she was lying, but I felt something weird." he mumbled remembering that part, drawing Stefan's attention.

"It was a sign. What did she say?" he inquired with curiosity, approaching him again.

"Elena's in danger." he revealed, kind of doubtful about his reaction, noticing him a little irritated.

"What? And you didn't think you should ask her to elaborate?" he questioned staring at him incredulous.

"Everything she says is a lie. How am I supposed to know if she's gonna start spilling the truth?" he excused himself a little offended by his tone while he watched him walk away again.

"We have to go talk to her." decided the younger guy concerned, getting closer.

"No, no, no. Let me tell you how that's gonna go: we're gonna go ask her for help, she's gonna negotiate her release what we're gonna be dumb enough to give her, we'll have to ask Bonnie for help since Caroline's worse than ever, Katherine's gonna get out and kill us! This is exactly what she wants!" he exclaimed annoyed at his suggestion and thinking of something else.

"What's going on with Caroline? She's still mad?" he asked with a slight frown.

"She gave me a speech that no one cares about her and we treat her badly. But it doesn't matter, what matters is that we won't see Katherine. It's a bad idea." he repeated, focused on the problem.

"I don't care, it's Elena." he affirmed seriously, starting to walk to the school.

On her side, Caroline was at the school watching Sarah's locker with flowers thoughtfully.

"Caroline." she heard Tyler speak behind her and turned around to look at him.

"Hey, how are you?" she asked looking at him after what had happened.

"Not very good." he commented, remaining serious in front of her.

"How's your mom? She seemed a little freaked out about what happened with Sarah. I could recommend her some tea to help her relax if she wants." she offered in a friendly tone.

"How did you know?" questioned the younger without changing his expression and ignoring her offer.

"What do you mean?" she inquired confused, although she had an idea of what was going on.

"About me. How did you know?" he repeated, a little annoyed that she was avoiding the topic.

"Know what? That you were upset? I thought I was doing something good by covering for you. You didn't look very good." feigned confusion the heretic, not knowing if it had been a good idea to help him.

"That's not what I'm talking about." he clarified, glaring at her a bit irritated by what she was doing to him. He'd been thinking about the accident in his head, and he believed that the girl was hiding something.

"Look, it was an accident. Okay? And I have to go but... just don't blame yourself." she added as she turned and walked down the hallway to her class, under Tyler's watchful eye.

In the abandoned house, Elena woke up lying alone on a couch. She walked through the house to look for the people that had kidnapped her, she found them and heard them say that they had called one of Elijah's contacts, who received the message, and the only thing left was to wait. The man was hinting that they should abandon the plan, but the woman exclaimed that she no longer wanted to run and if Elijah accepted the deal they would be free. Then the woman heard Elena nearby, who asked her who Elijah was, to which she stated that he was her worst nightmare.

At the school, Bonnie was telling Stefan that she couldn't undo the tomb spell even if she wanted to, and reminded him that with her grandmother they had done it before. Then the witch added that Katherine wouldn't tell him anything without a deal, so she offered to find Elena.

"Alright, Alaric said we've got to clear out of here in 10 minutes. I got weapons, he stocked me up." commented Stefan entering Alaric's classroom and saw Bonnie with Jeremy.

"Are you ready?" Bonnie asked Jeremy, who uneasy nodded. She cut Jeremy's hand and let his blood fall on a map. The witch closed her eyes focusing to cast the spell and the blood began to move across the map until it stopped. "There, she's there." she pointed to a spot.

"That's 300 miles away." exclaimed the teenager seeing where his sister was.

"Bonnie, we need a more exact location than that. Can you see visions of where she is or something like that?" asked the vampire, thinking of what Caroline used to do when looking for someone.

"That's as close as I can get." clarified resigned the girl, unable to do more.

"We can map it, aerial view will show us what's around there, help us narrow down the area." the human suggested, alternating his gaze between the two.

"Perfect. Call me with whatever you find." ordered Stefan ready to leave the room and go find Elena but was interrupted by Jeremy. While Stefan and Jeremy were arguing since the boy wanted to go with him for Elena, some blood came out of Bonnie's nose who wiped it before they noticed it and turned around hearing Jeremy say that he couldn't do that alone.

"He's not. let's go." Damon announced appearing in the doorway of the room and looked at Stefan.

"You're coming with me?" he inquired a little surprised that he wanted to help him after their talk.

"It's Elena." he repeated what he had told him before as he stared at him seriously and they left the classroom, while Jeremy and Bonnie cleaned the place for Alaric.

After classes were over, Tyler was outside of the school playing basketball with his friends and jumped up scoring a point, surprising everyone. He then watched how Caroline waved to a girl as she walked to her car and he followed her until he caught up with her.

"Hey, uhm... are you okay?" the girl asked upon seeing him suddenly appear in front of her.

"You lied to me earlier. Why?" he questioned getting straight to the point and staring at her seriously.

"Look Tyler... I think that you misunderstood me at the party. I get it, it was very traumatic and you don't know what to do." she insinuated trying to look friendly to reassure him.

"You're lying." he accused her, angry that she denied what had occured and pretended to him.

"No, but I'm late." she said also getting serious and walked past him to leave, then Tyler grabbed her arm tightly to stop her, but she turned his arm behind his back and used it to push him to the ground, and he backed away while she glanced around her.

"How did you... you're stronger than me?" he interrogated puzzled while he stood with his hand on his arm, a bit scared when he felt the strength of the blonde who took the strap of her bag.

"No, it's just that... I know self-defense, that's all." she excused herself nervously trying not to look at him.

"Listen, if you know something you've got to tell me because I can't handle this." asked the wolf with some desperation, he couldn't deal with the curse without knowing anything about it.

"I'm sorry Tyler, but I think that you're still in shock about Sarah's death and I understand that." she clarified thinking since she didn't know what to say. Tyler looked at her angrily and walked away from her, he kicked a trash can that went flying until it hit a car, drawing everyone's attention. But he just looked at Caroline and walked away, and she thought about whether she would have to give him one of her "special teas".

While in the house, Elena joined the woman in a room and kept asking her questions.

"You got me, okay? It's not like I can go anywhere. The least you can do is tell me what you want with me." she asked tired of being ignored as she moved a little closer.

"I personally want nothing. I'm just a delivery service." she clarified without looking at her.

"Delivery to who? Elijah?" the brunette guessed watching her walk through the room.

"Two points to the eavesdropper." she said while she smiled slightly.

"Who is he? Is he a vampire?" she inquired walking closer to her.

"He's one of the vampires, the originals." she answered, arranging some books on a table.

"What do you mean the originals?" she repeated confused, frowning slightly.

"Again with the questions. Haven't the Salvatores taught you your vampire history?" insinuated the older woman, checking one of the books, without turning to look at her.

"You know Stefan, Damon and Caroline?" she asked, surprised that she knew the others.

"The girl not much, but I know of the boys. A hundred years back, a friend of mine tried to set me up with Stefan. She said he was one of the good ones. I'm more of a sucker for the bad boys though, but I digress." she explained while she thought about it, picking up another book.

"Who are the originals?" she interrogated as she folded her arms and got her to look at her.

"Trevor and I have been running for 500 years. We're tired, we want it over. We are using you to negotiate ourselves out of an old mess." she told her calmly.

"But why me?" she questioned, uncrossing her arms and moving closer to her.

"Because you're a Petrova doppelgänger. You're the key to breaking the curse." she revealed.

"The curse? The Sun and the Moon curse?" she added, thinking about that fact for a moment.

"Oh, you do know your history." she said rolling her eyes upong hearing her, seeing that she got near her.

"What do you mean I'm the key? The moonstone is what breaks the curse." Elena clarified.

"No, the moonstone is what binds the curse. The sacrifice is what breaks it." she specified without taking her eyes off her while she walked a couple of steps towards her.

"The sacrifice?" the human repeated worriedly, not liking the idea that she had.

"The blood of the doppelgänger. You are the doppelgänger. Which means, in order to break the curse you are the one who has to die." the vampire confessed, making her nervous.

Meanwhile, Caroline went home and walked in leaving her bag on a table, sensing someone in there.

"Who's there? Come out right now," she called walking cautiously in the foyer, until she felt someone behind her and turned around. "What are you doing here?" she asked Tyler.

"I know." he affirmed, standing in front of her and ignoring her question.

"Breaking and entering my house? I don't think your mom will like that. And I'll add how you're stalking me, she'll love it." she warned thinking he would leave, ready to use magic just in case.

"Go ahead. Keep dodging, keep changing the subject but I know. You're like me, aren't you?" he hinted while he walked slowly around her, as if he were analyzing her.

"Of course not." she denied as if it was obvious, with the boy behind her.

"Keep it up but I'm not buying it. I saw how strong you were, and I always thought you were kind of weird. I'm not leaving here until you tell me the truth." he sentenced walking and standing in front of her.

"You came to call me weird? Tyler, let's sit down and talk." she suggested trying to calm him down.

"You're a werewolf. Say it!" he deduced, staring at her seriously. The blonde looked at him silently for a moment, assimilating what he told her, and she couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"What?" she asked smiling as if it were a joke, but she didn't expect him to grab her by the shoulder and shove her roughly against the wall behind her back.

"Stop lying!" he exclaimed upset, putting his arms on either side of the girl's head.

"I'm not lying! Let me go!" she ordered, getting angry at the thought that he might attack her.

"Say it!" he repeated furiously hitting the wall next to her head, knocking a painting that was on the wall. The heretic made them turn around putting him against the wall with her arm against his chest, she showed him her vampiric features, especially her fangs, scaring him and pushed him to the floor.

"I'm not a werewolf, okay?" she clarified angry, as Tyler backed away from her in astonishment.

Meanwhile, Elena and the woman were still talking and they heard how Trevor came in.

"Tell me more." Elena asked staring at the woman, but she heard another voice behind her.

"Captivity has made her pushy, eh? What do you want to know?" asked the man, making her turn to look at him, while he took a piece of wood and covered the window.

"Who were you running from?" she enquired confused, turning to him.

"The originals." he answered, walking towards them.

"Yeah, she said that. What does that mean?" she specified, not quite understanding what it was.

"The first family, the old world. Rose and I pissed them off," he started to say, receiving a look from Rose. "Correction, I pissed them off. Rose had my back and for over half a millennium they wanted us dead." he clarified throwing her a look, and turned to the girl.

"What did you do?" she questioned, trying to understand what the "originals" were.

"He made the same mistake countless others did: he trusted Katerina Petrova." Rose interjected as she saw Trevor turn around, looking between him and the girl.

"Katherine." she said a little surprised staring at the older woman.

"The one and only, the first Petrova doppelgänger." she nodded as she walked away from them.

"I helped her escape her fate and now I've, sorry, we've been marked ever since." spoke again the vampire looking at the brunette girl and pointing at his friend.

"Which is why we're not gonna make the same mistake again." Rose declared, turning to look at him.

At the Gilbert house, Bonnie had cast a spell to send a message to Elena but she fainted scaring Jeremy. When she woke up, Jeremy gave her a glass of water.

"What happened? You scared the hell out of me." asked the boy sitting on the bed in front of her.

"It's nothing." she affirmed after drinking some water and put the glass on the bedside table.

"It wasn't nothing, Bonnie." he insisted a little worried, thinking about what had happened.

"I've been doing a lot of magic lately. It wears me down." she answered a bit doubtfully.

"When I'm worn down, I take a nap. You were... you were unconscious." Jeremy clarified staring at her, believing that there was more to the whole thing.

"Witchcraft has its limits. If I push too hard, it pushes back." she tried to tell him.

"How do you know all this?" he inquired, curious about the subject.

"It's all in here, it's like a reminder that I'm not invincible. Please don't... don't tell anyone." she explained, pointing to her grimoire for a moment and then focused on him.

"Why not? Even if I don't like it, maybe you can ask Caroline for help." he suggested a bit tense.

"I don't think I can ask her. I know she said that I could talk to her if I needed it, but I feel like she's so perfect in magic and I don't trust her like I used to. And this is a weakness, I don't want certain people to know that." she revealed with some bitterness at the thought of the blonde girl.

"By certain people, you mean Damon." hinted the younger one, thinking he understood her.

"I mean anyone that can hurt me." clarified the witch, making a pause.

"I won't tell anyone, okay? I promise." he promised seriously and they stared at each other in silence.

"It's hard, you know? My grams is gone and my dad, he doesn't want to know about what I am. He hasn't since my mom left. I'm all alone in this." she confessed with some resignation.

"It's how I feel a lot of the time, alone," he affirmed understanding her and they continued in silence. "Do you think that worked?" he inquired suddenly, thinking about the spell she had cast.

"I have no idea." replied the girl, not knowing that Elena being alone found Bonnie's note.

On an unknown route, Damon and Stefan were on their way to find Elena. At one point as a game, Damon offered his brother to drink a blood bag with him, but was surprised when his offer was accepted and even more surprised to discover that Stefan drank Elena's blood. Then Damon reminded him of when he lived killing people for the lust for blood and how that vampire had made him turn as well, and asked him what'd happened to his old version. Thoughtful, Stefan said that he had found something to live for.

Meanwhile at the abandoned house, Trevor met with Rose and Elena to announce that Elijah had arrived and that that was a mistake because he wanted him dead. Rose stated that she would get them out of that trouble since Elijah wanted Elena more than him. The vampire wanted her to deliver the doppelgänger to Elijah as she would receive his mercy while he escaped from the house so he wouldn't find him, but the woman reminded him that they were family forever.

Before that they could speak further, they heard the front door, a sign that Elijah had arrived. Rose ordered Trevor to remain calm and to watch over Elena quietly. Then she left the room and walked down to the door, seeing that he had opened it.

"Rose-Marie. Is there somewhere we can talk?" Elijah greeted when he had her in front of him.

"Yes, in here. You have to forgive the house." she returned the greeting, pointing to the place.

"Oh, no, what's a little dirt? I completely understand. So tell me, what is it that gives you the courage to call me?" he asked closing the door and walked into the living room, followed by Rose.

"I wanted my freedom. I'm tired of running. You in a position to grant me that?" she said stopping.

"I have complete authority to grant pardon to you and your little pet. What is his name these days? Trevor. If I so see fit." he clarified, stopping and turning his back to her.

"Katerina Petrova." she started to say, making him turn around.

"I'm listening." he affirmed, looking at her for a moment and sat down in an armchair.

"She didn't burn in the church in 1864. She survived." the woman revealed, keeping her distance.

"Where is she?" inquired seriously the vampire cross-legged.

"You don't seem surprised by this." she pointed out, slightly confused, not noticing any surprise.

"Oh, when you called and invited me into this armpit of civilization, which is a mere three hours from the town we know as Mystic Falls I surmised it had everything to do with Katerina. Do you have her in your possession?" he questioned getting straight to the point, without changing his expression.

"No, but I have better. I have her doppelgänger." she confessed getting a little closer to him.

"That's impossible, her family line ended with her. I know that for a fact." he hinted incredulously.

"The facts are wrong." she replied confidently, staring at him.

"Well, show her to me." he ordered while he sat up straight, waiting to see the girl.

"Elijah, you are a man of honor, you should be trusted, but I want to hear you say it again." Rose affirmed getting serious and moving closer, determined to get what she wanted.

"You have my word that I will pardon you." he promised after a few seconds of silence.

"Follow me." she asked without taking her eyes off him and left the room, followed by Elijah. They both went up the stairs and went down a corridor until they arrived to where a nervous Elena was waiting for them. Elena looked doubtfully at Elijah, who quickly approached her and slowly smelled her neck.

"Human. It's impossible." he murmured astonished when he saw her and confirmed she wasn't Katerina, under the attentive and scared gazes of the vampires and Elena respectively.  "Hello there." the original greeted the brunette girl lowering his eyes to look at her, while she was more and more tense.

On their side, Stefan and Damon had stopped near the house and got out of the car. Before going to the house, Damon hinted to the vampire that the person who had Elena was perhaps the same person that had been after Katherine in 1864, that they might have a 500 year head start against them and if he was sure to get in. Stefan stated that he was sure to go in, even if he didn't make it out alive, as he couldn't think of a better reason to die, then they headed to the mansion.

At the abandoned house, Elijah wanted to go far away with Elena, but first he clarified something was missing.

"I've waited so long for this day, Elijah. I'm truly, very sorry." Trevor apologized tensely.

"Oh no, your apology is not necessary." affirmed Elijah, walking slowly around him.

"Yes, yes it is. You trusted me with Katerina and I failed you." he clarified a little nervous having him so close.

"Oh yes, you are the guilty one and Rose aided you because she was loyal to you and that now I honor. Where was your loyalty?" he replied, walking up to stand in front of him and stare at him.

"I beg your forgiveness." he begged scared, hoping it was all worth it.

"So granted." he accepted, seeing a slight smile on Trevor's face, then the original cut his head off with a strong blow, getting different reactions from the women.

"You...!" Rose cried, looking at him with fury while she went down the stairs.

"Don't Rose, now that you are free. Come." he interrupted her as if it was nothing while he threw her a glance as he saw her crying, then he turned to Elena that was very shocked by what she saw.

"No, what about the moonstone?" she mentioned to gain time as she took a step back.

"What do you know about the moonstone?" he asked, pausing curiously as he listened to her.

"I know that you need it and I know where it is. And I can help you get it." assured the girl without taking her eyes off him upon believing that she'd caught his interest, and that maybe she could take advantage of that.

"Tell me where it is." he sentenced keeping calm, but interested in that part.

"It doesn't work that way." she clarified, shaking her head for a moment.

"Are you negotiating with me?" he hinted slightly surprised by her attitude and looked at Rose.

"It's the first time I've heard of it." interjected the woman with tears in her eyes, glaring at the girl. Elijah tried to compel Elena, but failing he noticed the necklace around her neck.

"What is this vervain doing around your neck?" he asked upon seeing it, thinking that it was mildly familiar, and pulled it off her neck to throw it aside. "Tell me where the moonstone is." he repeated the question compelling her while he took her head to bring it closer.

"In the tomb, underneath the church ruins. It's with Katherine." she revealed, unable to help herself.

"Interesting." he murmured as he knew where it was, then they heard broken glass upstairs "What is that? Who else is in this house?" he questioned seriously, letting go of the girl.

"I don't know." answered Rose confused. The oldest man took Elena by the arm and took her to another part of the house followed by the woman, they all heard strange noises around them and Elijah pushed the girl towards Rose. "I don't know who it is." she clarified when she noticed that he was looking at her.

"Up here." they heard a voice after noticing someone going up, and Elijah went up quickly.

"Down here." they heard another one making them look around. Suddenly Elijah received a stake in his hand and pulled it out noticing how Elena and Rose had disappeared, who were with Stefan and Damon respectively and made them keep silent.

"Excuse me. To whom it may concern, you are making a great mistake if you think that you can beat me. You can't. Do you hear that?" the oldest one announced, coming down the stairs, looking around him. "I repeat. You cannot beat me. So I want the girl, I'm gonna count to three or heads will roll. Do we understand each other?" he warned, picking up a wooden coat rack and broke it like a stake.

"I'll go with you, just please don't hurt my friends. They just wanted to help me out." Elena appeared on the stairs alone, hugging herself while they looked at each other.

"What game are you playing with me?" he questioned irritated after quickly approaching her, but the girl threw a vervain grenade at his face burning his skin, healing instantly. The oldest one tried to go after her to which Stefan appeared throwing stakes at him, but when he had no reaction he threw the weapon at him and tackled him, both falling down the stairs. Elijah stood up and was about to go towards him to attack him when Damon intervened driving a stake through his heart, and left him pinned against the wall as he desiccated, dead. Rose appeared and seeing what had happened to the original she ran away, and Damon almost went after her until he heard Elena.

"Just let her go." she asked from the stairs, and began to walk down as they smiled to each other.

"Hey, come here. Are you hurt? Are you okay?" Stefan intervened appearing between them, who were staring at each other, and hugged the brunette with relief. Elena hugged him as well, but watched the vampire over his shoulder and mouthed thank you, to which he did the same saying you're welcome with a small smile, although he was a bit uncomfortable to see them.

Later, Damon was in the library of the boarding house pouring himself a drink.

"Where's Elena?" he asked, looking at his glass, listening to Stefan walk.

"She's home." he answered walking into the living room with him.

"And you're here why?" he inquired a bit confused as he turned to watch him.

"Because she wanted to be with Jeremy." he clarified in front of him, who offered him a drink. "Thanks. Listen, um, what Rose told Elena about the curse..." he tried to say, leaning back on the sofa.

"I know, we'll keep her safe." he affirmed turning his back to him and took a sip of his drink.

"You know, the only way we'll be able to do it is if we don't fight each other. We let Katherine come between the three of us, especially between us. If we let that happen with Elena, we're not gonna be able to protect her." he began to explain with a bit of seriousness while his brother slowly turned to look at him again.

"Yes Stefan, I heard it all before." he hinted irritably sipping another drink and got away from him.

"Hey, I'm sorry." apologized the younger, catching Damon off guard as he turned to see him.

"About what?" he asked confused, wondering what he would tell him.

"For being the guy who made you turn 145 years ago." he revealed a little tense for saying so.

"Enough Stef, it's late. Don't need to rehash that." replied the older one, a bit puzzled and tensing up as he listened to him, getting a little serious and wanted to go to his bedroom.

"You know what? I've never said it out loud. I guess I just need to say it and you need to hear it. I'm sorry. What I did was selfish. I didn't want to be alone," he exclaimed getting a bit closer to him while he saw his back, wanting them to make up, and Damon turned his head to stare at him. "I guess I just needed my brother." he added staring at him and went to his bedroom.

On her side, Caroline had managed to calm Tyler down enough for them to talk about the matter. At that moment she returned to the living room with a bottle of alcohol and two glasses.

"You know, it may sound crazy but alcohol helps a bit with the inner nerves. Though I recommend you be a little careful." she said with a small smile, pouring some alcohol.

"I'm hot. It's like my skin is on fire." he explained taking the glass, sitting on the arm of the sofa.

"Yeah? I didn't have that. I guess that wolves are different." she hinted smiling at him for a moment and he nodded. "At first I was really emotional, uncomfortable and trying to control myself. Everything was heightened." she commented getting serious as he stared at her intently.

"I have that. How can you be a vampire?" he asked confused, not believing it.

"And how can you be a werewolf?" replied the heretic, dodging his question.

"Stefan and Damon are like you? Is there any other vampire?" he inquired after standing up from where he was while he left his glass on the table and walked around the room thoughtful.

"No, just me. They're actually distant relatives but we protect each other. And the vampire thing is a long story we can share another day. How many werewolves are out there?" she lied to him after a few moments of thought, deciding to protect her brothers for the moment even if she was a little angry. She turned to Tyler to see him standing in the living room.

"Just me and my uncle Mason, but he left town." he clarified doubtfully, crossing his arms.

"Look Tyler, you can't tell anyone, okay? About any of us. No one would understand, they'd just be afraid and things will end badly." she explained putting down her glass and coming closer.

"I know." he affirmed with a little seriousness without moving.

"I can tell you about our families, the founding families and the Council, but I need you to promise me that no one will know. This is life and death, Tyler." she assured with some concern.

"I have no one else to tell. I'm sorry about earlier. It's just, I'm alone with this. It's gonna happen to me. On the next full moon, I'm gonna turn and I won't be able to stop it. I'm scared." revealed the wolf as his voice trembled slightly, fearful.

"No, Tyler. Come here." she said softening her gaze and took his shoulders to hug him.

"Why are you hugging me? You barely know me." he murmured trying not to cry, reciprocating.

"I know but I think you need it. And I can't help it when I see that someone needs it." she added without stopping hugging him, wanting to comfort him despite lying about her family.

Meanwhile, Stefan was entering the library of the mansion when he heard a noise and thought that there was a vampire in the room, so he ran for a stake.

"Who's there?" he asked aloud, focusing on where he thought the vampire was.

"I'm not here to hurt you." affirmed Rose showing herself for him to hear her.

"Why are you here?" he inquired confused, staying where he was.

"Lexi once told me that you're one of the good ones." she commented without moving from the door.

"You knew Lexi?" he wanted to know more curious than before when he discovered that the woman had met his best friend, lowering the stake a little but staying alert.

"Trevor was my best friend. For 500 years I have lived with one person and he's gone, and I don't want to run anymore because I don't have anywhere else to run to." explained the older one with melancholy as she thought of her best friend and what had happened with him hours ago, as she slowly approached the guy so he knew that he could trust her not to attack him.

"Well, I'm sorry but I can't help you." the younger one denied without understanding what she wanted.

"I don't need your help, but I think that you need mine. Elijah may be dead, but this isn't over." she assured, stopping close to him without taking her eyes off him.

"What do you mean 'it's not over'?" he questioned, she had caught his attention.

"It isn't over. The originals, they'll come for her. They have to. They're doing it for him." revealed to him the vampire, a little curious as to what they would do with the information.

"For who?" Stefan insisted, worrying about Elena.

"For Klaus." she added, staring at him seriously, leaving him inwardly surprised.

At the Gilbert house, Elena was returning to her bedroom wearing pajamas when she saw Damon.

"I'm tired Damon." said the girl barely looking at him, wanting the day to end.

"I brought you this." he commented sitting on her bed, showing her that in his hand he had her necklace.

"I thought it was gone. Thank you." she thanked relieved to see it, thinking that she'd lost it when Elijah took it from her. She tried to reach over to take it but Damon pulled it away from her. "Please give it back." she asked him somewhat puzzled that he wouldn't give it to her as he stood up.

"I just have to say something." he clarified, standing in front of her, a little tense.

"Why do you have to say it with my necklace?" she questioned confused, not understanding.

"Well, because what I'm about to say is... probably the most selfish thing I have ever said in my life." the older one began to explain, determined to say it out loud.

"Damon, don't go there." the brunette asked him as she had an idea of what he meant.

"No, I just have to say it once. You just need to hear it. I love you Elena, and it's because I love you that... I can't be selfish with you. Why you can't know this. I don't deserve you, but my brother does." he confessed feeling the emotion in his voice and his gaze, then he kissed her forehead. "God, I wish you didn't have to forget this, but you do." he added staring at her so he could compel her while he shed a tear and Elena closed her eyes. When she opened them, Elena had her necklace on and was alone, and looked around confused while she sat down.

What no one knew was that in the abandoned house Elijah was still pinned to the wall. Out of nowhere he slowly woke up, his skin was slowly regaining its natural colour and he was regaining his strength. After a few moments, he took the stake in his heart and pulled it out.

Chapter Text

Normal POV

1490. In an unknown house in Bulgaria, Katerina was giving birth to a baby with the help of her mother, watched by her father. When the baby was born, her mother told her it was a girl and she wanted to see her, but her father forbade her as he took the baby away from her. Katerina begged him to let her hold her baby girl, but the man accused her of dishonoring the family and took her away, and Katerina kept crying inconsolably while her mother tried to comfort her.

The next day, Elena went to the boarding house at Stefan's request, but got surprised to see Rose, who had kidnapped her, together with Stefan and Damon, but agreed to listen to her.

"Okay, you have to understand I only know what I've picked up over the years and I don't know what's true and what's not true. It's the problem with all this vampire crap but Klaus, I know he's real." Rose started to say moving in front of the fireplace in the living room.

"Who is he?" asked Elena after sitting down on the couch in front of her.

"He's one of the originals, he's a legend." Damon answered standing next to the woman.

"From the first generation of vampires." Stefan added from the other side of Rose.

"Like Elijah?" the human assumed, trying to understand the explanation.

"No. Elijah was the Easter bunny compared to Klaus. He's a foot soldier, Klaus is the real deal." revealed the woman focusing on the girl while Damon rolled his eyes.

"Klaus is known to be the oldest." the youngest vampire continued saying.

"Okay, so you're saying that the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after me?" she tried to repeat to see if she had understood the story, looking between the three of them.

"Yes/No." answered Rose and Stefan respectively at the same time.

"What they're saying is, I mean if what she's saying is true..." interjected Damon as he got a little tired of the talk while he walked to stand next to Rose.

"Which it is." the woman clarified, looking at him and then at Elena.

"And you're not saying it so I don't kill you." he warned, giving her a look to shut her up.

"Which I'm not." she talked again rolling her eyes and ignoring his gaze.

"Then we're looking at a solid maybe." he kept saying, turning his gaze to Elena.

"Look, Elijah's dead, right? So no one else knows that you exist." Stefan reminded her while he got up from where he was and sat down next to Elena upon noticing her thoughtful face.

"Not that you know of." hinted the oldest vampire looking at them with a serious expression.

"That's not helping." replied the older man glancing at her for a few moments to keep her from talking.

"Look, I've never met anyone who's laid eyes on him. I mean, we're talking centuries of truth mixed with fiction. We don't know if he's real. For all we know, he could just be some sort of stupid bed time story." clarified the guy looking at the older ones, who didn't speak, and looked back at Elena hoping to relax her a bit after the warning.

"He's real and he doesn't give up. If he wants something, he gets it. If you're not afraid of Klaus, then you're an idiot." sentenced the older woman, standing up from where she had sat and stared at the girl.

"Alright, we're shaking. You made your point." affirmed Damon looking at her again.

Before they could continue talking, Elena got up to leave for school. Stefan tried to go with her to take care of her but she turned him down and left quickly, which to Damon was denial. What they didn't know was that Elena went to meet Caroline in the woods.

"I don't think that they'll ask you, but if for some reason someone asks you about me, can you say I wasn't feeling well and went straight home?" Elena asked carrying a big bag.

"Okay, I'll do that if they ask me. Are you sure you want to ask me for help?" she hinted confused.

"Yes, our relationship is a little strained so it'd be weird that you helped me. And I need you to keep Stefan busy, I don't want him to know about this." she explained sending her a look.

"True, but I keep my word. I owed you a favor. I'll try to deal with Stefan." she agreed, remembering how she had promised her a favor and she was already paying her back.

"I know you'll do it well, you managed to keep me occupied when Katherine paid Stefan a visit." she reminded her with slight bitterness that day, while walking through the woods in front of her.

"Yeah, because she threatened my brothers and me. I promise that I'll do what I can, but why don't you want Stefan to know it?" asked the heretic following her to her destination.

"Because he would never be okay with me doing this." she answered stopping and turned away.

"But I don't understand, why do you wanna talk to her? What's going on?" she inquired without understanding anything. Elena had only told her to meet her in the forest without anyone knowing.

"It's a bit of a long story, I promise that I'll tell you everything later, or Stefan can tell you everything. But she's the only one who knows the truth about all this." she said, not knowing if it was good idea to tell her about the problem after her fight with her brothers, and they went down to enter the tomb.

"But you're asking for the truth from someone who's probably never gonna give it. Are you sure that you want to do this?" she questioned still following her, and they stopped at the door.

"Yes. I can't just sit down and wait. I have to know, Caroline. Please," she asked again staring at the blonde girl, who nodded and got near the door of the tomb, moving the stone to let her look inside. "Katherine? I'll be okay from here." she affirmed, turning to look at her.

"Fine. Be careful, Stefan and Damon will kill me if something happens to you and they know that I had something to do with it." she implied seriously, not knowing if it was really just a joke or not, then they heard a noise and saw how slowly Katherine appeared before them.

"Hello Elena. Have you come to watch me wither away? Goodbye Caroline." she spoke looking at both of them, her voice showed how weak she seemed to be, apart from that her skin was dessicating.

"As long as I stay on this side of the door, she can't hurt me. Thank you." Elena thanked staring at the heretic, who nodded and left after giving Katherine an annoyed look.

"Stefan knows you're here?" the vampire wanted to know, looking at her curiously.

"I brought you some things." she commented, dodging her question and put her bag on a stone.

"Did you come to bribe me? What is it that you want?" she asked smirking as she confirmed her doubt.

"I want you to tell me about Klaus. I also brought you this," she revealed taking out the Petrova book Damon had given her, noting her surprise at hearing the name. "It's your family history. It says in here that the family line ended up with you. Obviously that's not true." she said thoughtful.

"You think that if you brought me some family keepsake that I'd open up?" she replied, staring at her.

"I also brought you this," she added showing her a bottle of blood, making her want to get out and crash into the spell on the door. "You don't look so good. How long before your body shuts down? 10, 20 years? It must be painful to desiccate and mummify. I can't even imagine." she implied with a hint of mockery, holding up the bottle. Katherine sat on the ground in irritation and Elena poured some blood into a glass she brought and pushed it with a stick.

"You have the Petrova fire." she accepted taking the glass and drank the blood, her skin regaining color.

"More blood?" offered the younger one, seeing her nod so she brought the glass closer with the stick.

"It's a long story, Klaus and I. It goes all the way back to England 1492, after I left Bulgaria. Or was thrown out." she began to explain with a little of gratitude, taking the glass again.

"Thrown out?" she exclamied, kind of surprised by this detail, watching her drink the blood.

"My family, your true ancestors, they disowned me. My indiscretions were not tolerated at that time. I had a baby out of wedlock. The shame." she confessed, staring at her.

"It was kept secret?" she inquired with interest, crouching down in front of her.

"Hmm. My baby was given away. I was banished to England and had to learn to adjust. So I quickly became English. It was there that I caught the eye of a nobleman named Klaus. I was taken with him at first, until I found out what he was and what he wanted from me. And then I ran like hell." the older girl explained seriously, remembering how Trevor had helped her escape from Elijah and sent her to a small house where she would be safe.

"So, what did Klaus want?" Elena asked curious about the story while she stood up.

"The same thing that he'll want from you. He wants to break the curse." she clarified moving her head.

"By sacrificing the Petrova doppelgänger." she affirmed starting to put the pieces together in her head.

"He wanted to drain every single drop of blood from my body." she added, looking up at her.

At the Salvatore mansion, Damon found Rose crying and told her he wanted answers from her, but Rose tried to dodge his request commenting on how he was in love with his brother's girlfriend, which he tried to deny. Damon cut to the chase by asking how to find Klaus since someone must know where he was and he reminded her that she talked to Elijah, so she told him that she did it thanks to a guy named Slater in Richmond, and they went to see him.

After school ended, Caroline was walking through the yard when she saw Stefan heading straight to his car to go somewhere, so she rushed towards him to stop him.

"Stefan! Hey, I need to talk to you. Where are you going?" she greeted, walking up beside him.

"Hey, I was going to see Elena at her house. She's sick and I wanna go check on her." he told her without stopping.

"But I want us to talk, and I'm still a little angry at you so it's important. You could visit her later." she tried to convince him, still walking, thinking about what to do.

"Can we go after seeing her? I'm kind of worried about her." he asked, sending her a look so she would understand him, then Caroline came up with a way to make him follow her.

"You know what? It's okay, you want to see Elena. It doesn't matter that I wanna talk to you, my brother, because poor Elena needs you." hinted the heretic stopping and letting him go.

"Caroline, wait..." asked the older one after he stopped as well upon hearing what she said.

"No, really, go with her and I'll wait to talk to you when you can." she replied turning around to go, knowing that he would follow her for feeling bad after having refused her request.

"No, I'm sorry. You're right, you are my sister and you need me. I'll go see her later. Tell me, what is it?" he inquired without wanting to offend her, remembering what Damon had said the previous day.

"I might have done something." she admitted seeing him doubtful, feeling bad for manipulating him.

"What did you do?" he questioned with a serious expression since he knew that guilty tone well.

"Told Tyler I'm a vampire." she revealed, looking like a child confessing a prank, and the vampire stared at her in disbelief, ready to judge her like a good older brother.

While in the tomb under the church, Elena was still listening to Katherine's story.

"What does the Petrova bloodline have to do with Klaus?" Elena asked, giving her more blood.

"It's very tedious but.." she began to say, drinking the blood and crashing the glass. "The curse was bound by the sacrifice of Petrova blood. Witches are crafty with their spells. The doppelgänger was created as a way to be able to undo the spell. Once the doppelgänger reappeared, the curse can be broken." she explained, still holding the glass in her hand.

"So you ran before he killed you?" she insinuated staring at her, interested in the story.

"Something like that." she affirmed thinking of the time. She remembered running to a cabin where Trevor's friend Rose was, to whom she revealed how she had stolen a moonstone that was part of the sacrificial ritual and had escaped before Klaus killed her. She thought Rose was going to help her hide to survive, but the vampire didn't want to risk death so she locked her in a room to take her back to Klaus later that night.

Rose and Damon went towards Richmond until they stopped at a coffee shop that had windows so the UV rays couldn't get in and vampires could hang out. In there they met the woman's friend Slater, Damon discovered that Slater knew who he was, when, where he had been turned into a vampire and Katherine had turned him, puzzling him. Then he heard how Slater had told Rose about the tomb under the church, adding to his surprise.

In the tomb under the church, Elena was asking Katherine more questions about the past.

In 1492, since it was night Rose went to look for Katerina to take her back to Klaus.

"It's nightfall. Time to go." she commented getting in the room and seeing her on the bed, but then she focused on the girl's stomach. "When did this happen?" she asked pointing at the blood.

"In the woods. I tripped." she affirmed with a hand on the wound on her stomach.

"It's a lie. I would have smelled it." she assured looking at Katerina's hand and found a knife.

"I'd rather die than go back to Klaus. Please, just let me die." begged the younger girl looking for a moment at the knife in the woman's hand, then looked up to see her.

"If you die then Trevor dies with you." she replied not wanting her friend to die, so she bit her wrist and put it against the girl's mouth, forcing her to drink her blood. When she released her, Katerina noticed how her wound had healed but couldn't say anything to her since they were interrupted by Trevor, whom Rose took into the living room so they could speak alone.

Rose was trying to get him to see the danger he had put them in by helping Katerina escape and hoped Klaus would show them mercy, but the man didn't want to take her to Klaus because he was going to sacrifice her and he loved her. The woman reminded him that the original would kill them for saving her from the ritual, but then they heard a noise inside the room and went running to find Katerina hanging from the ceiling with a rope around her neck, she was dead.

Katherine explained to Elena that since Klaus needed a human doppelgänger, being a vampire then was no longer of any use to him. The human reminded her that she didn't actually save herself from Klaus because she'd been running from him ever since, the vampire clarified that was better than dying and implied that Elena didn't want to die, so she offered her of her blood to turn as well and save herself from the ritual, but after refusing she heard how Katherine took another choice.

A few moments later, Katerine had awakened lying on a bed.

"What did you do, Katerina? I would have helped you live." questioned Trevor standing near her, still unable to believe that the brunette girl had killed herself knowing the possible consequences.

"You would have helped me run. That was never going to be enough." Katerina excused while she slowly stood up from the bed and walked around the room, feeling a little strange.

"It was enough for me." he claimed moving to the other side of the room, looking at her annoyed.

"Do you not see, Trevor? She used you to help her escape and me to turn her. Klaus will see our role in this." Rose interjected, entering the room and standing next to him, just as annoyed.

"And for that I'm sorry." she clarified exchanging a look between both of them.

"As am I... for this." she replied with a stake in her hand and advanced towards the girl, but she took the woman that they lived with and used her as a shield, so Rose hurt her shoulder and Katerina drank her blood, completing the transition into vampire.

"Please understand." she asked after looking up at them, with blood on her lips.

"You have just signed our death sentence." the older woman affirmed standing next to Trevor, both angry and surprised by what she did, and by what would surely happen to them.

"Better you die than I." she admitted with her gaze fixed on both of them, feeling different after her change. She pushed the woman towards them and escaped with her new vampiric speed.

Meanwhile, Caroline had convinced Stefan to join her at the Grill to eat.

"Thanks for talking to me. I had to tell you about Tyler, it's important." Caroline thanked him sitting across from the guy at the table and pointed at him with the fork she was eating with.

"Don't thank me, it's necessary. What else did you tell Tyler?" he asked curious and serious.

"Not much. I was trying to keep the questions to a minimum. Are you mad?" she inquired doubtfully after noticing how restless he was, and that he was putting his head in his hands after leaning on his elbows.

"Yes Caroline. As a matter of fact, I am a little mad at you. I mean, you put yourself at risk. If Damon finds out..." he admitted looking up and stared at her with mild irritation at her actions.

"But you're not gonna tell him yet, are you?" the heretic interrupted him, a bit worried about that.

"No, of course not. He would kill you." he hinted, softening his expression to relax her.

"Always taking care of me," she affirmed smiling a little, but she couldn't help but keep talking. "Well, you almost always take care of me." she added in a whisper and ate more of her food.

"Are you still angry for the other day? We wanted to protect you from Katherine, I'm sorry if we offended you." he apologized. It was very possible that she would still be mad, and Damon didn't tell him what happened between them.

"I guess Damon didn't tell you what we talked yesterday. In short, I think that you guys actually just left me out because you don't trust me." she replied with some bitterness and lowered her gaze.

"We do trust you, but everything is tense and we don't know what to do." clarified the older, moving his food a little distracted, not liking that his sister believed that about him and Damon.

"That's no reason to treat me like Damon did. It hurt me what happened, you know what I went through with other witches. But maybe the best is to put that aside." she declared with a slight smile.

"I know it hurt, I felt it when I saw you. And I want all this to get better." he assured smiling since he wanted things to relax between them. "And if you excuse me, I have to go." he said about to stand up.

"What? No! What do we do about Tyler? I don't want Damon to kill him 'cause there's a full moon coming up and Tyler is freaking out." exclaimed the girl keeping her nerves under control and got him to sit down with her again, while he lowered his head thoughtfully.

On the other hand, Bonnie was walking in the Grill when she passed Luka, a new boy she had met at school that day. Luka invited her to sit with him and his dad, Jonas Martin, who told her that he'd met some Bennetts time ago in Salem, distant relatives of Bonnie who was caught off guard a bit. Before they could talk further, Jeremy arrived there and Bonnie said goodbye to the Martins to go towards her friend.

Meanwhile in Richmond, Damon and Rose were talking to Slater. Rose was telling him how Slater knew a lot about different things for having gone to college and studied practically since he turned into a vampire. Then Rose focused on asking for a way to contact Klaus, Slater explained he would send an ad to someone who knew someone who knew Elijah, but his connection was no longer of any use to him since Elijah was dead. What none knew was that Elijah was alive and was standing outside in front of the shop watching them.

Still at the Grill, Bonnie and Jeremy were playing pool while chatting and having fun, at one point they were joined by Luka to play since his father Jonas was gone. Away, Caroline and Stefan were still together when the guy said he was leaving and she wanted to stop him.

"No, no, no. Caroline, you have two seconds to come clean." Stefan declared getting serious.

"What do you mean?" she asked him feigning confusion so he wouldn't get suspicious.

"I'd believe the innocent act if I didn't know how good you are at manipulating and distracting, I've seen you getting what you want just with words. You work for Elena?" he went straight to the point without taking his eyes off her. He knew the girl well enough to know what she was capable of.

"I owed her a favor and she took the chance. I can't tell you where she is." she clarified staring at him as well, dropping her pretense since he had already discovered her lie.

"Are you kidding me? Elena was kidnapped, she could have died. And you can't tell me where she is?" replied the vampire incredulous for what she said considering her relationship with Elena.

"She was kidnapped? When?" she inquired, puzzled by that detail she didn't know.

"Yesterday. You work for her and she didn't tell you that? What did she tell you?" he questioned with slight irritation.

"Nothing, actually. She just asked me to keep you busy, but I wouldn't have let her put herself in danger or you would've killed me. You know me." exclaimed the blonde just as irritated.

"Yes, I know you because we're family. And as my sister, you should tell me where she is instead of listening to her." he affirmed frowning slightly for not getting any answers, but he still leaned on the table to get closer to her and softened his gaze so she would help him.

"Funny that you talk about family loyalty when Damon and you chose the copy over me, or tell me what happens when you have no choice. You know what, tell me what's going on and I tell you where Elena is, seems fair." she offered tilting her head to the side, wanting to know everything.

"Don't call her copy. But fine, it's fair." the older guy accepted resignedly after sighing, bothered by her nickname for the girl. "It's about the Sun and the Moon curse and Elena. Have you heard about the originals or at least somebody named Klaus?" he asked with a curious look thinking that maybe she would know something, but he was caught off guard by the surprise in her eyes.

"What? You want to know about the originals and Klaus? You are crazy, you two are really crazy. Tell me what the hell is going on and you can go." the heretic ordered leaning closer to him, while in her head she wondered what trouble those two were getting into now.

After hearing Katherine's whole story, Elena was quiet processing it all.

"So how much of your little story is true?" Elena asked, standing up from the ground.

"I have no reason to lie, Elena. I have no reason to do anything but sit here and read and rot." she commented turning her back to her as she looked through her family's book.

"Okay, assuming it's even partially true, that's the reason why you came back, isn't it? Because you wanted to be the one to hand me over to Klaus." she hinted stopping walking and stared at her.

"500 years on the run, I figured maybe he'd be willing to strike a deal." she agreed after turning around to look at her and stood up holding onto one of the walls.

"So you got Mason Lockwood to find you the moonstone." she added standing back.

"Right again." she nodded, just staring at her with seriousness and listening to her words.

"What else do you need to break the curse?" she inquired just as serious as she was.

"Hmm, look who's getting smarter." she mumbled smirking slightly for a second.

"It's not just me or the stone, is it? Otherwise there would be no reason to trigger Tyler Lockwood's werewolf curse." she guessed moving a bit in her place thoughtfully.

"Witches and their spells: so many ingredients, so many people to sacrifice." she told her in an insinuating voice.

"So you need a werewolf?" she assumed, looking back at the vampire.

"Believe it or not, they're hard to come by." she confirmed, no longer needing to hide it.

"What else?" asked the younger girl, getting closer slowly.

"A witch to do the spell. Mine bailed but Bonnie will do just fine." she added as if it were nothing.

"What else?" she repeated, getting angry as she heard more about her plan.

"A vampire. I wanted to use Caroline, but I guess that her being half witch makes her useless" she revealed still leaning against the wall, leaving out that she had planned to use Matt before.

"So you were gonna just hand us all over to be killed?" she questioned not believing in her plans.

"Better you die than I." she replied with a serious tone. They both stared at each other in silence, thinking about everything they had talked about that day, then Katherine turned and went back to the back of the tomb as a sign that their talk was surely over for the moment, leaving Elena alone to process again what she discovered.

Meanwhile Damon was still sitting at a table in the coffee shop in Richmond with Rose and Slater.

"Here's what I don't get: Elijah moved around during the day, which means the originals knew the secret of the daylight rings. Now, why would Klaus want to lift the Sun and the Moon curse?" Damon asked without understanding much, sitting across from Slater.

"To prevent the werewolves from lifting it. If a vampire breaks the sun curse the werewolves then are stuck with the moon curse forever and vice versa." the youngest explained, looking at the man with a very slight smile.

"But werewolves are extinct." Rose interjected confused, sitting between them.

"True. I've never seen one but rumor has it..." he nodded smiling, turning his face to watch her.

"Not such a rumor." the older man affirmed, looking off into nothingness and couldn't help but smirk at those details, remembering how Caroline had told him that for most people wolves were myths.

"Mystic Falls? God, I've got to visit this place. It sounds awesome." Slater murmured in surprise and smiled, not knowing that Elijah was using his powers to hear them from outside the shop.

"Awesome doesn't even begin to describe it. Can we stop the curse from being broken at all?" he inquired looking at him with curiosity, deciding to focus on his problem.

"What do you mean?" he asked without understanding what he was talking about.

"Well, if we make the moonstone useless, would it stop the curse from being broken?" he implied as if it was just a simple assumption, leaving Rose thoughtful who noticed what he wanted to do.

"Well, yeah, probably, but why would you want to do that?" the younger guy questioned.

"I might have a way to do that, but just in case I want backup ideas. So tell me how." he ordered staring at him serious and then smirked for a few seconds, internally thinking that if things went the way he wanted then his sister would take care of the stone.

"You think I'm gonna help you figure out how to do something that will piss off an original? And keep them from walking in the sun?" he exclaimed a bit puzzled by his request. He certainly didn't want to mess with an original vampire, especially not if they broke the curse.

"You want to walk in the sun? I can make that happen if you help us." the vampire offered with a little of exasperation to convince him to talk. Then Elijah threw some coins against the window, shattering them and causing all the vampires without daylight rings to start burning from the sunlight. Slater and Rose were burning as they all ran away, to which Damon put his jacket over the woman and carried her in his arms to the parking lot the car was in. While Rose was healing from her burns, they both wondered about who could have done it but the older woman being nervous believed that it was Klaus' doing.

Bonnie was at the Grill watching Jeremy who smiled at her, but then she was joined by Luka.

"Hey Bonnie. I'm sorry about earlier, my dad is not very subtle with the whole Bennett/Salem thing. He picked up on you, he was just fishing around, he didn't mean any harm." Luka explained sitting down across from her and took the salt shaker from the table, noticing she was on alert.

"I felt something too." she admitted doubtfully, looking at him with some caution.

"I know, that's why we're having this conversation right now. He uh... doesn't like anyone to know," he started to say looking around and opened the salt shaker pouring some on the table. "But we were both worried that you would bail us." he kept staring at the girl, who was confused, and he made the salt levitate for a few seconds. "He just wants us to fit in here for once. It's tough Bonnie, being different." he affirmed upon finishing it, seeing understanding in her gaze.

"You're a witch?" she asked very surprised just to confirm that fact, although that made the strange feeling that both he and his father had given her made sense.

"Well, we prefer the term warlock." he corrected her with a light smile, making Bonnie's expression soften a little as she understood his situation, and they both began to talk about their very different but similar lives as witches, and the girl was glad about that detail.

After being left alone for a while, Elena looked at the tomb restless and thinking about what had happened. Then she took the bag and bottle of blood to return home, but then Stefan appeared.

"Stefan, what are you doing here?" she asked in surprise when she saw him coming down the stairs of the tomb.

"I could ask you the same question." he affirmed standing in front of her, relaxing at seeing her safe.

"Caroline told you." she assumed with some bitterness as she thought of the blonde's betrayal, and how perhaps she couldn't be trusted considering the vampire was in the tomb.

"At first she didn't want to tell me your secret. But I know how curious my sister is, especially if something gets her interest. We made a deal, information for information." he clarified noticing how she didn't expect that. He remembered how after telling her the whole story, the heretic had understood better Elena's request and she had agreed to reveal what she knew of her plans.

"I knew that you would stop me." replied the girl without knowing what to say to him, believing it was the best thing to do.

"Listen to me, whatever she said to you is a lie. Do not listen to her. She's a liar Elena." exclaimed the older one worriedly and pointed to the tomb, thinking that nothing of Katherine was true.

"What if she isn't? You didn't hear what she said." she hinted nervous after throwing a glance at the tomb and looked at him again, with the vampire's words repeating in her head.

"You don't have to worry, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." he assured, staring at her.

"That's the problem, you won't but you'll die trying. How's that any better?" Elena complained, unable to avoid being annoyed that the guy wanted to risk so much to protect her.

"There's nothing you can do, Stefan. I haven't even told you the best part of the story." they heard Katherine's voice, who was approaching them from inside the tomb, interrupting their conversation which made them turn their heads to look at her.

Some time after becoming a vampire and running away, Katerina had managed to return to Bulgaria to the house where she had grown up, but was puzzled to find dead people outside of the place when she approached the entrance. She ran into it and was shocked to find her father dead with a sword in his chest, but her pain increased when she saw her mother lying over the bed dead as well, so upon realising that she had lost her family and this time for good, she knelt down in front of her to start crying inconsolably.

"He killed them, my entire family, just to get back at me for running. Whatever you do to escape Klaus, he will get his vengeance on your friends, your family and anyone that you'd ever loved." the older brunette warned staring at them, noticing the different emotions like surprise and pain for her story on the faces of the younger ones.

"No, look at me," said Stefan taking Elena by her arms to get her attention and focus on him. "No, do not listen to her, okay?" he continued talking while they stared at each other, but Katherine went on.

"Always the protector, but even you must realise that she's doomed. There's nothing you can do to stop it. Unless of course you have this." she added, relaxing her expression a bit while she held up a hand showing them the moonstone.

"What?" the younger brunette blurted out taking a step towards her, but Stefan touched her arm.

"Oh no, there it is. It's the ultimate lie, isn't it? You spun this whole thing so that we would have to get the stone from you, didn't you?" he hinted slowly approaching her as he pointed at her.

"I didn't spin anything Stefan. It's the truth." the older girl declared lowering her hand that held the stone and relaxed her arms, imagining that the younger was going to have a reaction like that.

"No, let me guess. You want to trade that stone for your freedom, you manipulative, psychotic bitch." he assumed standing at the door of the tomb and pointing at the stone at times, believing that it was actually all just a simple tale made up by the girl in front of him, even though he'd heard about the originals and his sister had told him some myths about them.

"My freedom? That's where you're wrong, Stefan. I don't want my freedom because when Klaus shows up to kill us all, and he will, I'll be in the tomb, where no vampire will enter because they can't get out. I'll be the safest psychotic bitch in town." clarified the vampire staring at Stefan as she talked about that idea, then she shot Elena a look so she would remember what they'd talked about and turned around to go back to the tomb.

Later, Stefan accompanied Elena home hoping that she would tell him what she had discovered from Katherine, but on the journey they were immersed in silence.

"Elena." he spoke nervous because of so much silence and feeling that she was very tense.

"I can't talk about it, Stefan." she denied turning her back to him since she was trying to open her door.

"You have to. Don't shut me out. Elena please." he asked worried about her and how she was, more when he saw that she couldn't get in the house and took a few steps to the side as if she couldn't breathe and couldn't help shedding a few tears, then she turned around to look at him.

"I wanted to know the truth and I got it. It's not just me that's in danger. The only thing that saved Caroline was that she's half witch, but it was almost her and it's Tyler and it's Bonnie. They're all part of breaking the curse. I can't blame anyone else anymore because it's not because you came into town or because you and I fell in love. That's not why everyone that I love is in danger. It's because of me, everything is because of me." she exclaimed with her voice trembling and more and more tears streaming down her face while they slowly crept closer until Stefan wrapped her in an embrace, letting her cry in his neck as long as she needed to, and he kissed her on the head.

Damon and Rose had returned to the boarding house after the accident at the coffee shop, and after talking a bit about their lives they had been together. A while later, Rose' phone rang and she had a call from Slater who had healed from the burns. Slater revealed to her that after Damon's request for backup ideas to break the curse, he had found a way to destroy the curse but for that they needed to get a witch and the moonstone, and then the witch would do the rest of the work. But what Damon and Rose didn't know was that Slater wasn't alone at home in Richmond.

"Very nicely done." complimented Elijah standing behind Slater, who turned to watch him.

"Thanks. I have a degree in theater. How can you compel me? A vampire can't compel another vampire." he asked looking at him with some nervousness for that fact.

"I'm a special vampire." he answered simply and smiled very slightly.

"What, because you're an original?" he hinted more tense than before because of the posibility of having an original vampire in front of him, while remembering the myths he'd heard about them.

"Hmm. Now I want you to take this and drive it through your heart." he ordered as he raised one of his hands and offered him a wooden stake he had found somewhere.

"But that would kill me forever." said the guy in fear of his possible death, although he couldn't help stretching out his hand and accept it anyway according to his orders.

"I know. But it's necessary." he explained using his compulsion to make him obey him, to which Slater with a trembling hand raised his arm and drove the stake into his chest, making him fall to the floor while he slowly dessicated to death under Elijah's cold gaze.

"Was it, really?" came the voice of Jonas, Luka's witch father, with arms crossed and standing near Elijah at Slater's house while he took a few steps in his direction.

"It had to be done. He delivered his message. Won't be long now." admitted the original, turning around to stare him in the face and thinking that the situation would go according to his plans if eveything went as he imagined they would, and Jonas was looking back and forth between Elijah and Slater.

Chapter Text

Normal POV

After a couple of days, Elena was sleeping in her bed when she woke up upon hearing a noise in the house. She tried to ignore it and go back to sleep but out of curiosity she got up to check so she went to the hallway, she walked down it until a noise was heard behind her and she turned around scared, but was shocked to find Alaric and Jenna in their underwear. After smiling at her aunt's happiness she went to her room and lay down to sleep, unaware that Jonas stole some things from her.

The next day, Stefan and Damon went to the woods and opened the door of the tomb between the two of them to speak to Katherine personally, and waited outside until she appeared.

"Please, come on in. There's plenty of room for all of us." commented the eldest holding onto one of the walls, her pale, hungry appearance showing her hunger.

"I'd rather poke my eyes out." replied Damon leaning against the frame of the tomb entrance.

"Mmm, they're so pretty eyes." she said taking a couple steps toward them and kept her distance.

"We're here for the moonstone." Stefan explained, standing in the other frame with crossed arms.

"Feel like tossing it over?" his brother added, looking at her with a serious expression.

"Tell you what, you get one of your little witches to get me out of here, and you can have whatever you want." offered the girl exchanging glances between them, closer to the door.

"I thought you liked it here. Nice and safe where Klaus can't get to you." remembered the youngest tilting his head somewhat confused, as Damon gave her a curious look.

"I've had time to reconsider." she insinuated, focusing her gaze on him.

"Meaning you're hungry." the man clarified without moving from his place, making her look at him.

"I'm starving, Damon. And dirty. But above all, I'm bored," she admitted walking a few steps to the entrance, with some irritation in her voice as she stared at the two of them, until she stumbled and leaned against a wall. "At least running from Klaus wasn't boring, so here's the deal: you get me out of here, you get the moonstone and I'll disappear of Mystic Falls forever." she offered them looking at one and then the other, while the younger ones shot each other a look. "Let me know what you decide." she added raising her hand, showing the moonstone and turned around going back to the back of the tomb. Then, Stefan and Damon went to speak with Elena.

"According to Rose's friend Slater, there's a way to destroy the spell that Klaus wants to break." Stefan told her standing in the kitchen of the Gilbert house looking at Elena.

"No spell, no doppelgänger sacrifice. Ergo, you live." Damon added away from the guy.

"How do you destroy it?" Elena asked against the frame of the kitchen doorway with crossed arms, thinking that the conversation with the vampire was a bit particular.

"The plan is to give Caroline the stone to remove the spell. And in case she doesn't succeed, which would be weird, we have another idea." revealed the younger guy, resting a hand on a table.

"Why would it be weird if she can't?" frowned the brunette, not quite understanding the plan.

"One of her powers is that she can undo any spell that she touches by absorbing it, hence the name siphoner. But if for some reason she can't, the plan is to break the spell by releasing it from the stone." he commented, putting his arms over the table and leaning a little.

"She can break spells just with touching them? Wow, that's amazing. But how do you guys even know this is gonna work?" exclaimed the younger girl with some annoyance and taking a few steps towards them.

"Cause we have another crafty witch on our side. The good witch agreed to do anything she could to help us." interjected the oldest one, taking a few steps and his brother looked at him.

"You discussed it with Bonnie. But we have to focus on Katherine, who has the moonstone. She's not gonna give it to you." she replied more irritated than before, knowing that her friend was included.

"We're gonna get it from her." affirmed the younger vampire, staring at her.

"Well, what he means to say is that we will pry it from her cold, dead hand if we have to." clarified Damon pacing from one side to the other, turning his head to look at her.

"Bonnie just needs to find a way to release the seal long enough for us to get in, get the moonstone, and get out in time for her to return it." specified Stefan in the same position while his brother stopped and the three of them leaned against the kitchen table. The brunette girl sighed and ran a hand down her neck before turning her gaze to the oldest one.

"Wow. I mean, it sounds like you guys already have it all planned out. Except for one thing, I don't want you to do it." she declared, interjecting a glance between the vampires, who looked at each other for a moment.

"What are you talking about? Elena, we don't have a choice." questioned the guy puzzled after turning his head towards her again, not understanding why she didn't accept the plan.

"What about Klaus?" she inquired staring at him, unable to avoid feeling nervous at his name.

"We'll find him right after we get the moonstone." he remarked to make her relax.

"Is that before or after he kills everyone that I care about, including the two of you." she admitted with concern as she thought of what the original vampire would do to her loved ones while pointing at Stefan and Damon, who was a little surprised by her gesture.

"Elena, if we can de-spell the moonstone, we can save your life." the younger one reminded her.

"I know. Everyone keeps saying that." blurted the girl with a certain bitterness in her voice, throwing a glance at the two of them to get up from the chair where she had sat, leaving her kitchen to go away, leaving the guys alone, who were taken off guard by what Elena said.

That day, Bonnie was talking to Luka about their lives as witches as they walked in the schoolyard. Bonnie was telling him about the physical effects of doing magic like her nosebleed, when the boy explained that to feel good she needed support from nature, she could channel something to get power. Noticing the younger girl confused, Luka gave her an example by channeling each other using an object from the other, suddenly the air around them intensified making things fly until it stopped and they started laughing.

Meanwhile, Elena had gone to the Salvatore mansion finding Rose waiting for Damon in her robe, but the vampire went to get dressed after learning that Elena wanted to talk to her.

"It's a bad idea." Rose stated after hearing her plan, pacing thoughtfully around the room.

"No, it's not. From what Stefan told me, your friend Slater obviously has more information about Klaus. You and Damon just gave up before you got it." she clarified on the living room couch, after watching her pacing back and forth silently considering her idea.

"Because somebody blew up a coffee shop with us in it." she reminded her after stopping.

"There's more to learn. We just have to find a way to learn it." she exclaimed without taking her eyes off her, making the older woman look away in disbelief for a moment.

"Why are you coming to me with this?" she questioned with some suspicion, focusing again on the girl and hesitating, believing the whole idea to be partly risky and dangerous. 

"Because you owe me. One word from me, and Damon and Stefan could have killed you for kidnapping me." the brunette hinted holding back a sigh, she wanted her to just accept and that was it.

"Or maybe it's because you know they wouldn't want you doing this. And that moonstone caper gives you the opportunity to sneak away." she deduced looking at her a bit impressed to hear the little warning she gave him from her friends, as she took a few steps closer to her.

"We're having a disagreement, okay? They're willing to risk everyone that I love and I'm not." she declared after sighing and stared at her, not wanting anyone to suffer because of her.

"They're just trying to protect you." remarked the older woman, softening her gaze a little. She thought it was nice how the two vampires, and apparently other people, cared so much about Elena.

"And you've proven that you couldn't care less whether I'm protected or not. So we're back to you taking me to Slater." she admitted not caring much if she sounded a little harsh, as it only mattered to make sure her friends were okay. After sighing, Rose went to sit with her.

"What exactly do you hope to achieve by this?" she asked, softening at her plan.

"How would you like to be able to walk during the daylight?" she inquired after being quiet for a while.

"I've been a slave to the shadows for 500 years, what do you think?" she replied a bit confused.

"I think that I know a witch who's willing to do whatever it takes to help. If you're willing to make a deal." she offered, leaving the woman a little surprised.

In the schoolyard, Tyler was playing basketball when Matt came over to apologize for fighting with him at the party and what happened to Sarah. And after apologizing again, Matt walked away.

"Matt," he heard a voice and after looking up he noticed that Caroline had approached him as well. "How are you?" she asked with curiosity when she was standing in front of him.

"Hey. I, I've been better." he commented giving her a tense smile. "I gotta, I gotta get to class." he blurted getting serious because of the awkward silence and quickly went somewhere else.

"Okay." she said with some bitterness even though he was gone and took a few steps towards Tyler.

"You two still on the outs?" asked the boy, after seeing his friend practically run away from her.

"So it seems, but I'll see what I can do. How about you? I mean, the full moon is coming up." she clarified, interested in whether he had any idea of what he was gonna do as she crossed her arms.

"Vampires don't have enough problems, you want to take on mine?" he questioned with a smile, incredulous that the blonde girl in front of him was so interested in what was happening to him.

"It's something important. Have you thought about it, about turning? Do you know what you're gonna do?" she enquired after taking a step close to him and lowered her voice a little, while he glanced around.

"I have a plan." revealed the younger one, thinking she was going to leave him, but then she gave him a slight smile and looked at him expectantly. "It's kind of private." he added, smiling a little uncomfortably.

"I'm vice president of the Student Council, head of the committees of various school events. Not to mention that I am more powerful and I have supernatural knowledge. And you will turn down my help?" replied the heretic with a certain pride in her tone, as the wolf softened his expression.

On the other hand, Bonnie had gotten a message from Damon, so she and Jeremy went to see the vampire and Stefan at the boarding house to talk about the moonstone and their plan.

"I might be able to lower the spell on the tomb long enough for you to get in there and grab the moonstone from Katherine." Bonnie commented, standing in the library.

"How? It took both you and your grams last time, and look what happened to her." Jeremy reminded her, watching her serious at their plan, standing close to her.

"We can call Caroline to help you with the spell if you want." Stefan offered her, standing between Jeremy and Damon with his arms crossed, wondering if maybe they should call her.

"I'm well aware of what happened. But I don't need her, I can do it on my own. I've learned a few new things." assured the witch believing in herself and glancing for a few seconds at the human boy, who looked at her very hesitant. "How will you get it?" she asked the elders.

"She hasn't been feeding. She's weaker, we're not." explained the younger vampire with confidence as well pointing with his head to Damon, who showed her a glass of blood.

"You wouldn't be underestimating her, would you?" she hinted doubtful, glancing between them. 

"It's a plan. Is it perfect? What plan is?" Damon excused himself as if it was no big deal.

"Let me do it. I've got my ring. I can get in, get out, no spells necessary." intervened the human again looking at the three of them and touching the ring. He didn't want the witch to take any chances.

"Wow, thanks, you 16-year-old child. Why didn't we think about that? Why are you even here?" the oldest one replied sarcastically, looking incredulous at the boy for his, in his opinion, foolish idea.

"Maybe I can help better the plan. Do you have something that belonged to Katherine?" the girl spoke so they wouldn't fight, making Damon look at Stefan who got a portrait of the brunette girl.

Bonnie used magic to turn that portrait into ashes that, when someone threw them at Katherine, would leave her incapacitated for a couple of minutes which would give them time to enter the tomb and leave with the moonstone. But none of the men noticed that some blood had fallen from Bonnie's nose, who quickly wiped it away so they wouldn't see it.

Elena and Rose had gone all the way to Richmond to Slater's apartment. When they didn't receive an answer from Slater, they got in the house and were surprised to find the guy dead and a stake through the heart, which the woman believed occurred because Slater possessed information. Elena tried to check the younger guy's computer, but since she needed his password Rose told her to go back to town until they heard a strange noise, so the older woman walked around the place cautiously until a girl hugged Rose while she sobbed for Slater.

Meanwhile, Tyler had accepted Caroline's help and they had gone to the woods together.

"Matt seems really low." commented the younger one after walking in silence for a while.

"I know. But it's better this way. Believe me." she affirmed, glancing at him from time to time.

"I get it." he agreed, nodding and looking straight ahead.

"Really? You do?" she asked him with a hint of disbelief in her tone.

"Yeah. You can't be honest with him," he replied with some sympathy while they stopped for a moment and stared at each other. "It's not really fair to be with someone and not let them know who you are. I get it." he added without taking his eyes off the older, who only looked down.

"In part. Everything is... complicated now." she accepted, not noticing how he nodded and kept walking.

"Right over here." he guided her without stopping walking, hearing her follow him. "There's a cellar that goes to our old property." he explained while they approached some stone stairs.

"Oh, the old Lockwood property. I remember a few of your ancestors showing it off like it was a castle." the girl commented looking around unavoidibly and remembered how her brothers had almost died there. Hearing what she said, Tyler stopped to turn to her.

"You met some of my ancestors? How old are you?" he questioned, looking the blonde up and down for a moment, thinking that she still looked pretty good.

"Yeah, a couple, they were no big deal. And I told you I was... a little older than you." she admitted, smiling with amusement as she remembered how irritating they were and how much fun she had annoying them sometimes.

"No wonder you're so good in history, I'll remember it when I need help." he said understanding more things about the heretic and they went down the stairs. "I'm guessing this is where Mason headed the night he turned. It's this way." he walked around after shining a flashlight.

"Did Mason tell you about this place?" she asked curiously walking behind him.

"Mason bolted before I triggered the curse, but I found these." the boy revealed approaching one of the walls, making her come closer, and they saw some marks.

"Wow, they look old." she murmured surprised, seeing that they were claw-like marks, while he pointed the flashlight at another part of the wall and saw chains hanging from rings.

"And these bolts and chains. I need new chains, but the bolts could still hold." he walked to one of the rings and pulled on it to show its strength. "I think that's what this place was for. Full moons." he deduced throwing a glance to the cellar. The blonde girl looked at the place too and thought that she saw something on the ground, so she went towards the object and bent down to take it.

"What's this? Do you think it was Mason's?" she hinted with interest getting up and approaching him, she removed a cloth that wrapped the object and saw it was a journal so she gave it to him.

"I have no idea." he said just as interested and opened it to look inside. "'August 31. My body is changing. I'm edgy, angry, impatient. I get so mad I black out and forget what I say or do. I'm not myself, not since Jimmy's death. What's happening to me?'. He chronicled everything. 'The full moon is tonight'." he read looking up at her.

"Well, does he say what happened?" the older girl wanted to know, exchanging a glance between him and the journal in his hands. Tyler turned the page and saw a memory stick taped in that part.

At Slater's apartment, Rose had comforted the girl named Alice to relax, although she told Elena that Alice was just dramatizing since she was with Slater to be turned into a vampire. Elena walked over to Alice and offered her a cup of tea, to in a very friendly way ask her for Slater's computer password and check his files but it only made her upset, so she tried to get her help with another idea.

"What if I could convince Rose to turn you? Will you show us his files then?" she offered to the girl, who looked up interested and nodded while Rose looked at them in surprise.

"Someone has been here. The hard drive's completely wiped out." commented Alice after checking the older guy's computer, to which Elena turned around resignedly. "Lucky for you, Slater was paranoid. Everything's backed up on a remote server." she revealed, drawing their attention.

"You know that she's not going anywhere near my blood, right?" Rose murmured, approaching Elena.

"I know, she doesn't." she remarked, shooting her a look, surprising Rose a little. "These are all leads to vampires?" she asked Alice after walking up to stand next to her.

"Slater was obsessed. Almost as much as me." she added, looking at the list on the computer.

"What about that one? Cody Webber. They exchanged dozens of emails about Elijah." hinted the vampire standing next to Elena and leaned over a little to watch the list, to which Alice offered to call him.

"Tell him that we're trying to send a message to Klaus. The doppelgänger is alive, and she's ready to surrender." the brunette ordered handing her the phone, puzzling the oldest one who stared at her.

"Oh my God. I knew I recognized you." the human blurted turning her head to see her.

"Get him the message please." she asked looking at her for a few seconds to then go to another room, rested her hands on a table and exhaled forcefully, trying to relax the tension in her body.

"What are you doing?" questioned Rose confused after following her, not understanding what she was doing.

"I'm getting Klaus' attention." she admitted, turning around to look at her seriously.

"If Klaus knows that you're alive, he'll find you and kill you." she reminded her as if it was something obvious, making the girl stare at her and there she understood everything. "Which is exactly what you wanted all along." she continued more surprised than before, since everything that day took on a different meaning.

"It's either me or my family." the brunette girl accepted with a slight frown, sure of what she ws doing.

"So this whole charade is some suicide mission so that you could sacrifice yourself and save everyone else?" she clarified raising her head a little, caught off guard by Elena's attitude, who couldn't answer since Alice came in saying that Cody was on his way.

Later, Bonnie went into the woods to meet at the church ruins with Stefan and Damon, and was a little surprised that Jeremy wasn't there yet. The vampires were about to follow the girl to the tomb when Damon got a call from Rose who asked him to go to Richmond. At the same time, Stefan and Bonnie went down to the tomb when the guy turned his head.

"What the hell?" Stefan blurted bewildered when he saw something white lying on the ground.

"Is that the moonstone?" Bonnie asked surprised behind him, who rushed over and took it.

"I hate to interrupt... but today has just been full of surprises." they heard Katherine's voice behind them and looked at the entrance of the tomb, seeing the vampire with her mouth stained with blood and looking stronger. Then Katherine pulled Jeremy from behind the wall, downcast eyes and a bite to his neck, making Stefan run to the door but he stopped.

"I'm sorry. I took some powder." the boy revealed weakly, remembering how he'd gone to the tomb alone and thrown the moonstone outside before the girl reached him and bit him.

"Don't worry, I know that he's wearing his ring, so no matter how many times I kill him, he'll just keep coming back for more. So, I'm going to be in the back playing with my new little toy," commented the older girl looking at the vampire and pushed Jeremy to the back. "And you guys just give me a holler when you have the tomb open." she added throwing a glance at the two and slowly walked away, making the others look at each other doubtful of what to do.

At Jonas' house, he was meeting with Elijah to find Elena using the items he had stolen from the Gilbert house last night. With some blood from the original and a picture of Elena, Jonas recited a spell and Elijah focused on her, then saw Elena standing at a window watching outside. Opening his eyes, Elijah affirmed he had found her.

Meanwhile, Bonnie and Stefan had prepared everything in the tomb to execute their plan they had created earlier. Bonnie was going to lower the spell at the entrance just enough for the vampire to enter and pull Jeremy out of there using the remaining ashes against Katherine and weaken her. As she started the spell under Stefan's watchful eye, Bonnie was channeling Luka, unaware that Luka was sensing her doing that from his apartment.

After continuing to check the Lockwood cellar, Caroline and Tyler had gone to the heretic's house with the journal to check the memory. Tyler put the memory in his laptop and they discovered that it was a video of Mason's first transformation to wolf, who had written the whole process in his journal in Caroline's hands. The girl was reading the pages while the younger boy watched more of the video, both more and more amazed at the transformation that lasted for hours. At one point, Tyler couldn't stand the video any longer and, with tears in his eyes, exclaimed that he couldn't go through the transformation, with his trembling voice he said that he couldn't go through it.

At Slater's house, Elena was walking into the living room drinking a glass of water when she noticed Alice's surprised look, so she turned around and was startled to meet Damon.

"What are you doing here?" Damon asked with seriousness, with his eyes fixed on her.

"What are you doing here?" she replied confused and heard Rose enter the room, so she turned to her. "You called him?" she questioned looking at her annoyed since she'd ruined everything.

"I'm sorry, Elena." apologized the woman, taking a step towards her, thinking it was the best to do.

"You said that you understood." she reminded her with a slight frown.

"She lied." added the younger vampire, then Alice approached him watching him with admiration, so he looked at Rose. "Get rid of her." he ordered irritated, not needing any more trouble that day and Rose took her out of the room. "Come on. We are leaving." he affirmed, pointing to the door with his head.

"No." said the younger girl with firmness in her voice, making him take a step towards her.

"I said we're leaving." he repeated, more serious than before without looking away to make her obey.

"I'm not going with you." she refused without lowering her head, determined to follow the plan in spite of the vampire.

"You do not get to make decisions anymore." he declared, trying to control his anger at what she was doing.

"When have I ever made a decision? You and Stefan do that for me. Now this, it's my decision." the girl clarified, shaking her head slightly, not wanting them to control the situation.

"Who's gonna save your life when you're out making decisions?" he hinted with an annoyed frown.

"You're not listening to me, Damon. I don't want to be saved. Not if it means that Klaus is gonna kill every single person that I love." she exclaimed, softening her expression. Though part of her was nervous or doubtful and she understood Stefan and Damon, she couldn't imagine her loved ones suffering.

"Get your ass out the door before I throw you over my shoulder and carry you out myself." the vampire threatened her with the same hard expression as before and grabbed her arm tightly.

"No!" she said struggling to free herself from his grip. Then Elena threw a punch, which Damon stopped with his hand and clenched her fist as he got closer, making her gasp in shock.

"Don't ever do that again." he warned without changing his cold expression while he stared at her and released her fist to move away from the brunette, who stayed watching him surprised and frightened.

In the tomb Bonnie was still doing the spell while Stefan, Katherine and Jeremy watched her attentive, but the human was worried because he didn't believe her capable of doing that. At home, Luka started to feel bad for being channeled drawing the attention of his father Jonas, who became concerned when he saw blood dripping down his son's nose. Bonnie's nose was also bleeding but she was going ahead with her spell despite Stefan and Jeremy's protests. At one point, Luka fell to the floor taking his head from the pain so Jonas grabbed his head and muttered something, to which the younger boy sighed in relief despite the weakness.

At the same time, Bonnie suddenly fell on the ground fainting and Stefan knelt down next to her to check on her worried until the witch woke up, upset after failing to help Jeremy and that maybe she wasn't that strong. Then Katherine, who was waiting to get out of the tomb, affirmed she was hungry and might not give them another chance before biting Jeremy, but Stefan ran into the tomb and grabbed Jeremy pushing him out of there where Bonnie was. Bonnie and Jeremy just stared bewildered at the tomb, because Stefan was now trapped with Katherine, who looked at him smirking.

For her side, Caroline was still reading Mason's journal, partly feeling a little bad after how things had ended with him. At one point, they read a page where Mason called the transformation "the worst night of his life", scaring Tyler even more.

"Look, he wrote that the transformation was getting faster," Caroline started to say softly so as not to affect him, but she saw him drink his glass of alcohol in one gulp. "So if you can get through this first time, then..." she kept talking to try help him.

"Why are you helping me?" he interrupted her, raising his head to look at her.

"What do you mean?" she asked confused, standing in front of him who was sitting on the sofa.

"Why do you care? We hardly know each other, and we're not friends." he remarked, puzzled by her help. If he was honest, he would have never expected the Salvatore girl to help him.

"I don't know. I felt you... needed it and I couldn't help it," she said and sat with him. "I was alone when I turned, I was nervous and desperate for so many changes. I knew a few things of vampires but I learnt to control myself and my powers alone because...I didn't feel good." she confessed with a hesitant voice and a lost look, having flashes of the night that she turned.

"You didn't feel good as a vampire?" he doubted with his head towards her, interested in her story.

"Everything is weird and too much at first, and I believed I deserved to be alone. But sometimes I would've liked to have someone who understood, even though like a fool I thought that I could get through it alone." she revealed, lifting her head to look at him. "And you Tyler, though sometimes you're an idiot who lives talking to Matt about me, you deserve help in this. I don't want you to feel like that." she affirmed, holding his gaze so he would believe her words and see the honesty of her help. The wolf nodded with understanding, grateful for her support, until he noticed a detail.

"Wait. How do you know we talk about you?" he asked caught off guard by the comment, to which the heretic smiled slightly and sighed more relaxed at the change of subject.

"I have enhanced senses. I hear everything very clear, like your heart racing," she hinted in a particular tone, and her smile grew at seeing the slight fear in his eyes. "Relax, I promise not to eat you." she promised softening her expression, feeling better to see him smile a little.

"Thanks Caroline, maybe you're not that bad." the boy thanked honestly, feeling a bit more calmed than a few moments before after listening to her story and understanding her actions.

"Don't thank. Sometimes I stop being mean." she joked making Tyler smile and they stared at each other for a moment, until they heard the doorbell ring and she stood up from her sofa. "I'll be right back. Matt." she said surprised, after going to the door and seeing through the glass the boy, so she opened it.

"I know I should have called. I'm sorry." the blond apologized when he had Caroline in front of him.

"It's okay. What are you doing here?" she asked curiously after going outside and closing the door behind her.

"I don't know, but I was driving home from work and I just... kinda found myself here." he answered with some hesitation since he didn't know how she'd take it after everything that happened.

"And, are you okay? I was worried, we barely talk." commented the girl with a doubtful tone.

"I miss you." he declared out of nowhere holding her gaze, making her slowly smile fondly at his words and she couldn't help but laugh lightly, which made Matt smile in return.

"Matt, I..." she tried to say something, thinking of what to answer him but then the door was heard opening from behind her and Tyler appeared by her side, both of them in front of Matt.

"Hey." greeted Tyler to his friend and they exchanged glances, as Caroline looked between the guys not knowing what to say for the tension in the atmosphere. Then Matt looked down, inwardly wondering if Caroline was trying to get over him with his best friend.

Later, Elena and Rose were sitting quietly in the living room of Slater's apartment, but raised their heads when they heard Damon come out of one of the bedrooms.

"Time to go. Alice is soundly sleeping and won't remember a moment of this horribly stupid day." the man ordered walking towards them, but out of nowhere the front doors opened and three men walked in, making the girls get up from the couch.

"We're here to meet the doppelgänger." said one of the men advancing towards them.

"Thank you for coming." commented Elena trying to walk in their direction, but Damon stopped her.

"I will break your arm." he threatened in a whisper stretching an arm to stop her and gave her a look, then he raised his head. "There's nothing here for you." he clarified raising his voice.

Then the man standing in the doorway dropped dead and behind him Elijah appeared, startling everyone. Cody and the other vampire stared at him so he quickly approached looking between them, while Rose ran out of the house with her powers.

"I killed you. You were dead." Damon remarked very puzzled when he saw in front of them the original vampire that supposedly had died, while said original looked at him and Elena.

"For centuries now. Who are you?" he asked after diverting his eyes again to Cody.

"Who are you?" he replied confused, looking him up and down.

"I'm Elijah." he answered simply, seeing in the younger's eyes how the surprise appeared.

"We were gonna bring her to you. For Klaus. She is the doppelgänger. I don't know how she exists, but she does. Klaus will want to see her." he affirmed, speaking to him with a little more respect than before and both glanced at Elena for a moment, who was silent behind Damon's back.

"Does anyone else know that you are here?" he questioned still focused on Elena and paying no attention to Cody, who shook his head. "Well, then you have been incredibly helpful." he added while he intercalated his gaze between the vampires. Suddenly, he reached into their chests and ripped out their hearts, to which the men fell to the floor dead and Elijah dropped their organs to his sides. Damon stared at him seriously preparing to fight him, but the original took both him and Elena by surprise when instead of attacking, Elijah turned and left the apartment fastly. So Damon turned to look at Elena, both shocked by Elijah.

After leaving the house, Elijah went directly to Jonas' apartment and waited for him there.

"Where is Luka?" he asked Jonas when he heard him enter the living room.

"Asleep." he answered, advancing a little, seeing the original looking out the window.

"Your shadow spell was successful. I was able to track the girl. However, I had a little run in with one of the brothers that killed me." he commented simply, lowering his eyes.

"I assume he didn't live to tell about it." he hinted, looking at one of the walls thoughtful.

"Actually, I spared him. He'd die before he'd let anything happen to her. They both would. She'll be kept safe." he revealed without looking away, as he witch threw him a glance.

"For now." he clarified looking away from him, understanding his actions and his plan better.

"Well, that is precisely what we need her to be. Safe." remarked the older man turning his head to finally look at him. And they talked for a few more moments. "Now, if you'll excuse me Jonas, I have something to do." he added giving him his hand, seeing Jonas nod as he shook in greeting mode, and left the building taking his phone to confirm an address.

That night, Damon and Elena had returned to town and stopped at the Gilbert house.

"Thank you for bringing me home." thanked the girl sighing as they walked to the door.

"Well, your ride left you. I didn't want to leave you stranded." he commented climbing up the steps.

"She was just scared. She didn't mean to run." she declared when they reached the door of her house.

"Yes, she did. She's been running for 500 years." he affirmed, very sure of what Rose had done.

"I can't believe Elijah is alive. Why do you think he killed those two vampires and just let us go?" the brunette wondered curiously, trying to change the subject. 

"If I had a dollar for every time some evil vampire surprised me." he joked with his serious face, making her avert his gaze and move closer to the door until he grabbed her arm. "What you did today was incredibly stupid." he clarified getting closer to her.

"Actually, the only thing that was stupid was that I got caught," Elena admitted and let go of his grip. "I don't question why you and Stefan and everyone else tries so hard to save me. You shouldn't question why I would try to save all of you." she replied irritated and Jeremy opened the door. "Damon, good night, okay?" she was about to enter when she saw the boy.

"What?" Damon asked confused when he saw that Jeremy was staring at him especially.

"It's Stefan." was all he told them, giving Damon a particular feeling on the back of his neck.

After dealing with the light tension between Matt and Tyler and saying goodbye, Caroline, already in her pajamas, was tidying up the living room a little when she heard the doorbell ring. She looked at the time in confusion and went to the door, but paused for a moment when she saw through the glass a man.

"No way," she mumbled puzzled by the visit, kept walking until she opened her door and focused on him. "Elijah?" she asked while a smile began to form on her face.

"Hello Caroline. You may hug me if you want." the original affirmed with a friendly expression as he opened his arms knowing what was waiting for him, and he wasn't wrong since the girl wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him with a bigger grin than before.

"I can't believe you're here." she commented a few moments before parting from him and put her hands on his shoulders, seeing better that the man had changed the style. "I knew you were gonna show up soon, and I'm glad to see you again." she added still smiling and lowered her arms.

"It's a pleasure to see you as well. We felt your absence." he admitted staring at her, still with a soft expression on his face, making her nod understanding his words and opened the door more.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Come on in Elijah. Let's have a chat." she said with a lighter tone and motioned for him to get in, making him shake his head with amusement at her attitude and went in.

Elena and Damon discovered that Stefan was trapped in the tomb with Katherine and went to see him. Damon prevented the girl from entering and held her against the wall to stop her, making the brunette enraged so she pounded his chest nonstop while begging him to let her go, thus going in to look for Stefan, to no avail considering the older man's calm expression. After Damon released her, Elena tried to enter the tomb again but he stopped her, causing the girl to leave the place upset. At that moment Stefan came out, who told his brother that he'd be fine there while he worked together with Bonnie and Caroline to get him out, and made him promise to keep Elena safe, which to Katherine was the worst mistake of his life.

After talking for a while, Caroline and Elijah sat in the former's living room drinking tea.

"Tell me Elijah, how is everyone?" she asked with curiosity sitting in an armchair in front of him.

"They are very good, busy with their businesses." he answered simply, taking a sip of tea, catching her attention. "But now that I see you, there is something that caught my interest. I saw your brothers time ago." he admitted after swallowing and looked up at the blonde.

"Yeah, I heard about the encounter. And how they tried to kill you." she added looking at her tea and took a sip.

"Exactly. Imagine my surprise when I realised they knew nothing about original vampires. Especially considering your... past with originals. Does it mean you didn't tell them anything about it?" he consulted interested crossing his legs, making her frown.

"No, I didn't tell them. Things happened and I didn't have the opportunity yet. And... I prefer to leave the subject like that for a while." hinted the younger after relaxing her expression and looking at her hand for a few moments.

"What? Are you not going to tell them about Klaus and the curse?" he exclaimed with certain bewilderement in his voice and frowned slightly, finding it a little hard to believe what the girl was thinking of doing.

"Don't look at me like that. Even if I have doubts, I know what I'll do." she clarified somewhat irritated pointing a finger at him, and lowered her hand sighing. "Look, they are my brothers and I love them, but those times that they hurt me were accumulating inside me and I want them to pay." she declared in a serious voice, clenching her fist. Her brothers believed that with a simple and vague apology they could fix the problems with her, but then they only hurt her again as if nothing happened.

"I understand your reasons. You felt betrayed by them, so you want revenge. I know a thing or two about revenge. And what is your plan?" inquired the original relaxing his tension, understanding slowly what the blonde girl was thinking, and he couldn't help remembering someone else.

"I want them to feel like me, with fear of losing someone they love. Give them a taste of their medicine. My plan is easy, I won't do anything." she revealed smirking with mischief and sipped her tea.

"I do not understand you." he cocked his head to one side, putting down his cup for a moment and put his elbows on the couch.

"Now they're desperate to know everything about Klaus and the curse. I'm like a box with all they need to know about Klaus, and I'll stay aside just watching how they go mad trying to save Elena." she explained tilting her head slightly towards him and stared at him.

"That will be your revenge. That you could help them save Elena or talk to Klaus for them, but you will let it all happen." he nodded looking away, though her plan caught him off guard.

"Yes. I mean, since they don't need me because they have Bonnie, then let them fix this problem on their own." the heretic declared, but in her tone there was certain bitterness for being treated in that way.

"Alright. I had forgotten that sometimes you are kind of evil." he added smiling a bit and raised his gaze to her, with a sympathetic expression since he realised how much they crossed her limits.

"You know me Elijah. And that's why I want us to hide all this for a while." she asked him smiling as well like before and raised her cup towards the oldest man, who sighed and took his cup to clink it with hers as a "toast" to take a sip, closing their agreement.

Chapter Text

Normal POV

A couple of days later, Elena was in her room with Bonnie talking about the moonstone and what they would do. Bonnie explained to her that since Caroline had failed to siphon the spell in the stone, then the witch had to find another way to remove the spell so the stone was going to turn useless. Elena thought that they should focus on getting Stefan out of the tomb, which Caroline was going to do according to Damon, but they were interrupted by Jeremy. At one point the brunette took the moonstone and was about to leave, until her friend revealed how they tested her and as a way to protect her she'd cast a spell to lock her in the Gilbert house.

At the same time, Damon had gone to the tomb to visit his brother and speak with him.

"You trapped her in the house?" Stefan asked surprised, leaning against one of the walls and looked at his brother, who was standing a few feet away from the entrance of the tomb.

"It's for the best, trust me. Elena is on a martyr tear that rivals your greatest hits. You should be glad the witch and I are getting along. I brought you this," Damon commented walking towards him with a bag and left it at the entrance. "Care package: candles, lanterns and... lunch." he added raising a hand to show him a bottle of blood that he extended to him.

"Give that to me and I'm gonna have to share it with her." he remarked staring at him even though he was grateful for his attempt to help. Damon saw behind Stefan at Katherine standing a few feet away, and he nodded just as serious while he retracted the hand with the bottle toward himself.

"You two are surprisingly calm, considering Klaus will hunt you down and kill you if you mess with his little plan." the girl reminded them with her arms crossed.

"I've been dead before. I got over it." replied the older man looking at her for a few moments and focused on his brother. "While Bonnie deals with the moonstone, Caroline works on a way to get you out without absorbing the spell completely." he revealed softening his voice a little, and he remembered how he'd talked to the heretic into helping them somehow.

"At least it looks like you guys made peace. But make sure Elena's safe." the youngest one asked, casting another glance at the tomb and being thankful that at least his siblings didn't seem to be trying to kill each other. Damon nodded again and after throwing a glance at them, he left.

At the Lockwood mansion, Tyler was packing some things in a bag to go to the Lockwood cellar as that night was his first full moon like a werewolf. He was about to leave the house when a woman named Jules arrived looking for Mason, but since he was in a hurry he went straight to the Grill leaving Jules talking to his mother Carol.

On the other hand, Caroline was sitting alone in the Grill speaking on the phone with Damon.

"No, Damon, it wasn't my fault I couldn't siphon the spell from the moonstone. There are a few things that siphoners can't absorb." the blonde girl stated with the phone to her ear and looking at her hand, a slight satisfied smile on her face. She remembered how the day before she'd gone to the mansion since Damon asked her to undo the spell on the stone, to which she pretended she couldn't siphon the spell when in reality, she just felt that it was there. She was a good actress.

"Exactly, that's why we now have to use plan B. The one time we need your powers and they're useless." he replied with irritation getting into his car that was parked near the woods.

"Do I have to remind you that you told me to get Stefan out of the tomb? And maybe I could try to use my powers again. I could siphon your energy until you're an ugly mummy, and you don't bother me for a few days." she warned cocking her head to one side and frowning a little.

"Don't be mean blondie, I was just joking. And we can't leave our dear brother stuck in there with Katherine for a long time." he admitted rolling his eyes, taking advantage that the heretic couldn't see him while he was driving, on his way to visit Elena at the Gilbert house.

"Stuck by something you two planned to do. I'll do my best to help considering you don't let me siphon the spell off the tomb." she clarified rolling her eyes as well, thinking about what they almost did without talking to her until they needed her, again. Then, Caroline raised her head and saw Tyler. "I gotta go, bye." she said goodbye quickly and hung.

"Hey." greeted the boy as he stood in front of her, noticing with curiosity how Alaric, who had sat several meters away from Caroline's table, was giving them a look.

"Hey, what's wrong?" the oldest one asked confused looking up from her phone, noticing some discomfort in his expression while he glanced around.

"A girl Mason knows stopped by the house. She said he never made it back to Florida. My mom is freaking out and was on the phone with Sheriff Forbes when I left." he revealed staring at her, as he wondered what had happened to his uncle Mason.

"Really? And you believe her? Do you think she's telling the truth?" she inquired moving slightly her shoulders upon noticing how some tension suddenly appeared after hearing from Mason, and internally blamed her brother Damon for her tension since technically he was the responsible.

"Honestly, I don't know what to think. But we should get going." he affirmed nodding his head towards the door, not noticing how Alaric was still watching them and eavesdropping on their chat.

"Sure." she agreed grabbing her bag and getting up to walk behind him, but she looked at Alaric as she walked in front of him and waved her arms to make him understand what to do before leaving.

After his sister hung the call so suddenly, making him look at the phone a few moments confused, Damon arrived at the Gilbert house and entered calling Elena's attention.

"You should lock your door." he commented going to the living room and on the couch saw the girl, who looked away from him and crossed her arms in annoyance. "Oh, come on pouty. At least give me two points for ingenuity." he joked standing still, making her look at him again.

"Do you think this is funny?" she claimed with some irritation in her voice, barely moving from her position. She hadn't liked at all to discover that her friends had locked her in.

"Yes Elena. I find hilarity in the lengths I have to go to repeatedly save your life." he replied ironically while he frowned slightly at her stubbornness.

"What does Stefan say about this?" she asked looking away from him again for a few moments.

"We had a good laugh." he lied, stopping leaning his hand against a wall to get closer.

"And what did he say about Elijah still being alive?" she insisted, raising her head a little to look at him.

"Yeah, that... I didn't tell him." the vampire revealed sitting down next to her and putting an arm behind her, having no choice but to tell her some details of his conversation with Stefan.

"Why not?" she questioned with some confusion since she thought he was going to tell him about the problem.

"Well A: he can't do anything about it, and B:... what I just said." he excused himself thinking for a second what to answer while he stared at her, and at that moment Jeremy entered their living room. "Where is Bonnie?" he asked him taking a look around without noticing the witch.

"I thought she was meeting you." the teenager affirmed curious approaching them.

"No, she's working on the moonstone and I'm keeping an eye on Elena." he detailed glancing at him a moment, and then turned to Elena pointing at her with his head to emphasize his point.

"And who's with Tyler Lockwood and the full moon?" he inquired with some curiosity because of how important that night would be for the wolf, getting the brunette's interest.

"Vampire Barbie said she could handle him, and since I know her I know that she can do it. And if he tries to hurt her, there's a high chance she'll kill him which would solve one of my problems." the oldest one explained raising his head with some amusement, as he knew well that his little sister wouldn't hesitate to kill the boy or maybe at least hurt him if he tried something against her.

"Hold on a second. Tonight's the full moon?" Elena intervened, uncrossing the arms and turning her body towards Damon, glancing between the men as she was surprised that the full moon had already arrived. While she spoke, Damon's phone began to ring.

"Yes, but you were too absorbed in your suicidal tendencies to notice." he clarified picking up the phone as he got up from the couch and left the room seeing that it was Alaric. His friend told him how Sheriff Forbes had declared that Mason was missing due to the sudden appearance of a girl, who claimed she had no news of Mason and was looking for him, to which Damon decided that he would go to the Grill with Alaric and cut the call short to return to the living room.

"Change of plans. You babysit." he ordered pointing at Jeremy who nodded and walked over to Elena laying down on the couch with his head in her lap. "Hey, you should get out, enjoy the sun. Oh wait, you can't." he mocked looking with a smile at the girl, who angrily threw a cushion at him that barely touched him and he walked out of the house. While Jeremy laughed at the joke, causing the older girl to push him off her lap and he fell on the floor.

After leaving the Gilbert house, Damon met at the Grill with Alaric and they saw who they assumed was Jules walk in, but confirmed it upon hearing her ask for Tyler. The vampire hoped that the girl wasn't a wolf because they were on a full moon and it'd be dangerous, but he believed they had to find it out soon, so he pulled some wolfsbane from one of his pockets.

While, Caroline and Tyler had gone to the woods in the heretic's car and walked to the Lockwood cellar, where they began to prepare everything for the transformation.

"Tell me you brought everything you need." spoke Caroline, looking at him with her arms crossed. She'd already taken care of her part of the work and had started to watch him from afar.

"Tell me you brought the wolfsbane." he replied, crouching down with his bag and looked up at her.

"Yes. Not an easy herb to find but I have contacts. This it is." she confirmed walking towards her own bag and pulled out a small bag with herbs inside, thinking that luckily she had gotten the plant from a friend. She took out the herb and held it out to Tyler who reached over and touched it, but pulled his hand away immediately as he felt his fingers burn.

"I have a bottle of water in my bag, we can mix it in there." he suggested touching his hand for a few moments and pointed with his head to his bag, so she took the bottle and put the herbs. "The guy at the hardware store said this set-up could hold up to 5000 pounds." he explained checking the chains on the wall again and tested the resistance they had just in case.

"Is that more than a werewolf can pull?" the girl asked with curiosity while she gave him sidelong glances, finishing mixing the water for the wolf to drink.

"I have no idea." he admitted, concentrating on the chains so as not to think so much about that night.

"Hey, how do you feel? Do you feel hot or cold, something strange in the body?" inquired the older girl after a few seconds in silence just seeing him, crouched down and with the bottle in her hand.

"Not for now, still human." he answered remaining serious, but looked up at the heretic who stood up. Tyler walked behind her back and started to take off his shirt, at the same time Caroline turned around to speak but she was caught off guard by that action, and looked away quickly as she raised her hand and covered the side of her face.

"Eww, warn me before you get naked, can you? I don't wanna see that, I'd rather see bodies of men I like. No offense." she exclaimed bewildered frowning and closing her eyes for a moment, she certainly didn't expect or want to see Tyler's body if she could help it.

"I'm not offended. And it's elastic. What should I wear? I don't think that it's like 'Hulk', where I get to keep my pants." the boy affirmed shooting her an irritated look, taking advantage of that she still had her back turned to him and hiding that her comment had annoyed him a little.

On her side, Bonnie had gone alone to Luka's apartment to apologize for channeling him without permission and almost killing him, but clarified that her spell was very important to her. After that they made peace, Luka showed her his dad's collection of grimoires and explained to her about the loyalty between witches, to which Bonnie took the chance to ask for his help in a spell to break the link between a talisman and a spell, what she planned to do to render the moonstone useless, and to her luck the boy agreed to help her.

At the Grill, Alaric had approached Jules, who was at the bar, and sat flirting with her a bit while pretending to be drunk to buy her a drink. There Damon got near accusing his friend of bothering the woman, whom he distracted while the human was putting the wolfsbane in Jules' drink, and sat down next to her to wait that she drank it, which she didn't do.

On the other hand, Elena was still bored trapped inside her house so she went downstairs to see Jenna who explained how she was helping Mrs. Lockwood with Historical Society matters, and at that moment Elijah appeared inside the house. As the girl controlled her nerves at the original in front of her, her aunt revealed Elijah was doing research on Mystic Falls so she was helping him. As soon as she had the chance Elena went to tell Jeremy about their guest, who appeared in front of her and ordered her not to say anything, which she agreed to do and asked him what he wanted so Elijah stated that it was time for them to talk.

Night had already come, and in the sky was seen a full moon. In the Lockwood cellar, Caroline had sat down on a stone on the ground to wait while watching Tyler away from her.

"What time is it?" asked Tyler looking at her with certain trepidation. He was standing shirtless but covering his bottom, besides that he had chains around his neck, wrists and ankles and they were all hooked to the walls. She took her phone out of her bag and checked it.

"Almost eight. Do you think that the moon has to reach its highest point?" she consulted curiously after putting the phone in the bag next to her, trying to distract him by seeing him stressed.

"I don't think so. Mason's journal said that the first transformation can happen before the moon hits its apex." he explained, moving around the cave a little and pausing to look at her.

"And does it say how long you'll be a wolf?" she inquired without taking her eyes off him while she wiggled her fingers.

"A couple hours. Maybe more, maybe less." he hesitated, trying to control his voice so it wouldn't shake, but it was kind of difficult since he had the nerves shaken by that night. He approached her and tried to sit next to her, but for the distance of the chains he almost fell to his knees next to the heretic. After glancing at the chains frustrated for being like that, he took his water bottle.

"Are you sure you want to do that? It'll burn your mouth." she reminded him with some concern for his condition that was worsening, watching as he walked away from her with bottle in hand.

"Yeah. Mason said it'll diminish my strength so I can't break free." he answered opening the bottle with the wolfsbane and watching the liquid to gather courage, he threw a glance at the blonde who got up nervously and he drank the water. But then he began to choke and to gag, then fell to his knees and threw up while she approached him and crouched beside him. "No." he blurted out in a raspy and pained voice, having a burning sensation in his throat.

"Hey, it's okay." the older one murmured, stroking his back to comfort him.

"Don't! Don't!" he shouted at her exalted making the girl stop and move her hand away for a few moments, but she did it again while he remained on his knees. "I'm sorry." he apologized and raised his eyes to her, feeling bad for exploding against the only person who was by his side.

"Don't worry." she affirmed staring at him, then went toward her bag to pull out a bottle of green liquid and returned to Tyler. "Do you wanna drink this? It's a mix of herbs and honey. It'll relax your throat and your nerves." she offered opening the bottle and held it in front of him, who after looking at it hesitantly for a moment raised a trembling hand and took the bottle. He brought it to his mouth slowly and drank a few sips, making him close his eyes and exhale in relief.

"Thanks Caroline." thanked the boy after drinking some more and giving her the bottle, looking at the heretic more relaxed than before for the warm and soothing feeling inside his throat, part of him unable to believe he had someone like her being his support that night. Caroline sighed somewhat calmer and ran her hand in his head comfortingly.

Meanwhile, Elena had Elijah in front of her inside her bedroom.

"Forgive the intrusion. I mean your family no harm." he apologized without looking at her face, as he walked to Elena's window and freed the seat so he could sit down.

"Why did you kill those vampires when they tried to take me?" she asked confused and took a few steps in his direction, thinking about some logical reason why he had saved her.

"Because I didn't want you to be taken. Klaus is the most feared and hated of the Originals, but those that fear him are desperate for his approval. If word gets out that the doppelgänger exists, there'll be a line of vampires eager to take you to him and I can't have that." he explained after sitting down at the window so he watched her better and leaned his back against the wall.

"Isn't that exactly what you're trying to do?" she hinted with a slight frown.

"Let's just say that my goal is not to break the curse." he said looking away for a moment.

"So, what is your goal?" she consulted, taking another step towards him, trying to understand him.

"Klaus' obsession has made him paranoid. He is a recluse. He trusts only those in his immediate circle. I am not anymore." he revealed, sitting up straight and shook his head.

"You don't know where he is, do you? So you're trying to use me to draw him out." the younger girl assumed crossing her arms, receiving the confirmation when he looked down for a moment.

"Well, to do that I need you to stay put and stop trying to get yourself killed." he admitted leaning the shoulder against the wall and cocked the head, ready to go follow his plans.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" she asked staring at him seriously, hesitating to trust him.

"If I wasn't being truthful, all your family would be dead and I'd be taking you to Klaus right now. Instead, I'm here and I'm prepared to offer you a deal." he remarked with some irony, moving back away from the wall and resting his arm on one of his legs.

"What kind of deal?" she enquired taking another step, believing he was partly right.

"Do nothing. Do nothing, live your life, stop fighting and then, when the time is right, you and I shall draw out Klaus together and I shall make sure your friends remain unharmed. Then I'll kill him." the older man detailed his plan getting up from the window, and walked to some furniture where there was a notebook that he glanced at, and then Elijah turned to stare at her during the last part.

"Just like that?" she doubted with some disbelief that it was such an easy plan.

"Just like that. I'm a man of my word, Elena. I make a deal, I keep a deal." he assured her firmly so she would believe in him and accept his deal, willing to try whatever it took for that.

"How are you gonna be able to keep everyone safe?" the girl questioned, hesitating to accept.

"I notice you have a friend: Bonnie, is it? She seems to possess the gift of magic. I have friends with similar gifts." he commented, relaxing a little the tension in his body.

"You know witches." she affirmed nodding since it made sense and folded her arms.

"Together, we can protect everybody that matters to you. So, do we have a deal?" he offered taking a couple of steps towards her, without looking away, believing he had her interest.

"I need you to do one more thing for me." she clarified approaching him and raised her head to see him better, with a small idea forming in her mind at his last revelation.

"We're negotiating now?" the vampire replied, slightly surprised that she was asking something of him, though part of him was relieved since that meant that his plan could go on.

While, Bonnie and Luka were on an unknown rooftop in town preparing the spell.

"You know, this is good. This is really good. There's a clear view of the moon and it's private." commented Luka crouched down with a grimoire on the floor and Bonnie was lighting a large circle of candles.

"If anyone looks out, they'll think we're insane." she added smiling, approaching him and copying him.

"Are we? So, what is this mysterious talisman we are unbinding?" he inquired while they stood up straight, then the girl pulled the moonstone out of a pocket and handed it to him. "Oh, wow, a white rock. This is fascinating." he joked, taking it to get a better look at it.

"Hey! I know it doesn't look like much..." she tried to explain herself, a little anxious about what he would think.

"What's it spelled with?" he interrupted checking the stone, but for the silence he raised his eyes and saw she was only watching him pressing her lips together. "Really? Help a girl out, she still keeps secrets." he hinted throwing her a slight smile, making the witch feel bad.

"Sorry..." she apologized with a slight frown, not knowing if it was good idea to tell him everything.

"I'm just teasing you." he clarified without stopping smiling to relax her. The boy put the stone in Bonnie's hand and they held hands, then they closed their eyes and started to recite the spell at the same time. At that moment, the fire of the candles grew as the moonstone levitated in the space between them and they opened their eyes raising the gazes, until the stone exploded in the sky in a shower of sparks that fell over the witches, who smiled and began to laugh at the success of their spell looking around them.

At the same time in the Grill, Damon was still talking to Jules, trying to figure out what she was.

"You know, listen, I'm really tight with the sheriff. If there's anything I can do to help locate Masion, I will. He's a great guy, and after his brother's funeral, he stuck around and helped his nephew and..." Damon commented still sitting at the bar next to Jules. He'd been sitting for a long time chatting with the woman waiting that she drank the drink, but nothing.

"Tyler?" she interrupted him in a moment after hearing about Tyler.

"Yes. Mason was with him the whole time. Helped him through all that grief. You haven't touched your drink." he pointed out seeing the untouched glass in front of her with a slight smile.

"You know, I'm not much of a drinker. I should get going." she affirmed raising her glass a moment as if she was going to drink like him, but then she lowered it to put it back on the bar.

"Oh, come on. Look, one drink." he tried to convince her moving a little, seeing she wanted to leave.

"It'll help me sleep," she accepted after looking at him for a few moments and picked up her glass again to take a sip, but she just sniffed it and left it annoyingly on the bar. "You fool. You think you're clever don't you?" she replied without the friendly tone of before, turning her head to look at him better.

"What do you want with Mason Lockwood?" the older man questioned coldly, bringing his face closer to hers, after exchanging a look with Alaric while she wasn't looking.

"He's my friend." she remarked with the same seriousness as him, unfazed by the closeness.

"Well, I'm sorry to inform you that you probably won't find him." he insinuated keeping the same voice as before, but frowned slightly for how his anger was growing.

"And why not?" she said with a blank expression, which was bothering him more.

"You should leave town." he warned seriously, but tried to keep his face under control.

"You're threatening me? On a full moon? How stupid are you?" exclaimed the younger woman, bewildered and with some disbelief that this man treated her like that exactly that night. Alaric appeared behind her to try to relax the situation, but Damon interrupted.

"You think I'm afraid of you?" replied the vampire after shushing his friend and making him finish his performance, and he stared at her again with some superiority, but Jules only got up from her seat.

"No, I don't. That's your vampire arrogance. You should be. I sniffed you the moment you entered this bar, along with your pathetic wolfsbane. I've been at this a long time and any other night of the month, the situation would be reversed, but tonight is not the night to pick a fight with me. You've been marked." she sentenced with a threatening tone causing the slight smile to be wiped off Damon's face and left the Grill, while the men looked at each other.

Inside the Lockwood cellar, Tyler's transformation had begun and he was suffering, the pain in his bones was unbearable and he felt something warm burning his body.

"I want to help you with the pain, but I don't know what to do." commented Caroline crouching next to Tyler, who was lying face down on the ground of the cave. When his transformation began, Tyler had been unable to stop himself from screaming and crying for how his bones were breaking.

"There's nothing you can do." he mumbled half-opening his eyes, having barely started the process and he was already tired, but he slowly knelt down anyway. There his bones began to break again along with his spine, to which Caroline recoiled scared. "Get out!" he shouted despite the pain, turning his head to at least glance at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Wait a little!" she said, standing far away from him, although she had decided to stay as long as she could.

"Get out! I don't want to hurt you." he pleaded in the same position as a couple of tears fell from his eyes that were mixed with sweat due to so much effort. He was terrified at the thought he might do some harm or worse to the girl, after she offered to help him.

"Not yet! We have time." she declared approaching him again after taking a deep breath and hugged his head putting her hands over it, then she came up with an idea to help him with the pain. "Asinto Curis Muphelo, Baphea Caris. Asinto Curis Muphelo, Baphea Caris." she whispered with her face hidden and in a very low tone, she closed her eyes and concentrated on the spell.

"I feel different, what's up?" the wolf suddenly asked confused when his head cleared a little after all his suffering. He felt as if the pain was slowly leaving his body and it wasn't as bad as before, even though his transformation was still going on. He was lying quietly and with his eyes closed, comforted by her embrace.

"Nothing. Just try to hold on, okay? You can do it." she assured trying to encourage him in the same position as before, listening to his heart relaxing by little and she sighed. But suddenly the boy felt a spasm in his limbs, he cried out from the pain while his bones continued breaking so the blonde girl tried to comfort him and he didn't keep stressing.

"Just go, please!" Tyler begged not to hurt her while crying and sweating but the older one kept hugging him in order to support him and refusing to follow orders, until she fell on the ground sitting down as his bones were breaking and saw Tyler's eyes change to their golden colour and the fangs appeared, so she quickly moved away from him and went towards the door. As Tyler looked around, the girl closed the gate grille with chains and lock just before the younger lunged at her after ripping off his chains that were on the wall. She stepped away from the grill, stared in shock at Tyler's new lycanthropic features and then ran to the other cellar door, closed it behind her and leaned her head against it for a moment.

"Prope Atis Porta Enua Quod Capti." she recited with her eyes closed and hands braced against the door, breathing agitated wanting to calm her nerves. When she focused her hearing on the inside of the cell, she could hear the rest of Tyler's transformation: that his bones were still breaking and he was screaming from the suffering, and those screams sounded each time more muffled which was perhaps part of his transformation. At one point, only pure silence could be heard which worried her a moment and she moved from the door raising a hand, until she heard animal-like noises so she went running with her powers to the woods.

On the other hand, Damon had returned towards the mansion after Alaric ordered him to be careful for Jules' warning, as there was a chance he'd die from a werewolf bite, so he wanted him to lock himself in the boarding house. When he arrived home, he locked up and went to the library finding Rose, who tried to apologize to him since Elena had almost given herself to Klaus under her care and declared she hadn't been aware of the girl's plan at any moment.

At one point they heard glass shattering and went towards the living room, but were puzzled to find a window broken while a wolf entered, so Damon grabbed a sword hanging on the wall to attack the wolf. Until Rose pushed him off just as their attacker lunged at him and bit her shoulder, but the vampire man stabbed the wolf who quickly went through the window and he moved nearer Rose, watching how the bite healed.

After saying goodbye to Bonnie, Luka returned home meeting his father Jonas and revealed to him that he'd succeeded, that she had believed all his show and didn't suspect him as he handed him the moonstone, although he caught his father's curiosity since he seemed to be upset for something. Before Luka could go to sleep, Jonas stopped him to reveal that Elijah needed that both of them did something before the full moon was gone.

That same night, Stefan and Katherine were still stuck bored together in the tomb.

"Are we really not going to talk at all?" Katherine asked him with certain frustration at the silence, standing against a wall away from Stefan holding a lamp.

"We could talk about how you regret all you've done to make my life miserable." he replied sitting on the bench, glancing at her for a moment.

"What do you want me to say, Stefan? That I'm sorry for everything I've done? Well I'm not, okay? It's called self-preservation. I've been looking out for myself for 500 years." she admitted seriously, walking over to a stone that was there and left the lamp to turn and watch him.

"Look where it has gotten you." he hinted ironic looking at her, leaning the back of his head against the wall.

"Yes, I've done terrible things. I know that, but I do love you Stefan. Even if you don't believe it." she declared as she slowly walked towards him, fully believing what she was saying.

"You want me to believe you? Show me. Do something. Prove to me that there's something inside of you that's actually worth trusting." the younger one offered when she stopped in front of him, turning his body to face her better and rested his arms over his knees.

"And then what? You're still gonna hate me." she clarified resignated, sitting down on another bench near him. A small part of her knew that no matter what she did, Stefan would never stop hating her.

"Maybe, and maybe I'll see that there's still hope for you after all." he affirmed staying in the same position and stared at her, while she remained silent for a few moments.

"You're playing me. You want to find Klaus? Kill him so you can protect your precious Elena?" questioned the brunette girl with some bitterness in her voice, leaving her surprised.

"Let me guess: you know where he is." he assumed sitting up straight in a serious tone.

"No, I don't, but I could help you find him." she revealed, hesitating a little to do so.

"For a price I'm sure." he insinuated as that made sense, but he noticed seriousness in her eyes.

"Start with Isobel, Elena's mother. She was a research expert. She found me. You're welcome." she dodged his words after doubting for a few seconds at hearing him, and they both remained in silence until they heard the door of the tomb opening, so after looking at each other curiously they got up and went to see who it was, being surprised at knowing. "Elijah." she blurted out shocked to have in front of her one of the originals, and Elijah of all people that could be.

"Good evening Katerina. Thank you for having the good sense to be frightened." he greeted staring at the girl with a blank expression and some coldness in his voice, receiving a cautious look from her, and turned to Stefan. "Your release has been requested." he declared surprising him.

"What? By who?" he asked, caught off guard by the words while he exchanged a glance with Katherine, wondering exactly what was going on outside.

"The lovely Elena drives a hard bargain. However, we reached a peaceful agreement, she and I. Please, come." explained the older man, gesturing for him to come out of there.

"I can't." he affirmed, more bewildered than before. Although he remembered that according to Damon, Caroline was working on a way to get him out, he didn't believe that she was working with Elijah.

"Yes, you can. I've had the spell lifted." he clarified interjecting his gaze between both vampires. The guy took hesitant steps towards the entrance, surprised when he could pass and Katherine tried to escape too using her powers, but the original got in the way. "As for you, however, you should not exit until I say so. When Klaus comes, he'll want to know exactly where you are." he warned staring at her to compel her while the younger girl glared at him, then turned to Stefan. "You are free to go. Elena will explain the arrangement to you. If she keeps her word, I'll keep mine." he remarked with a serious expression, heading for the stairs and left the tomb, under Stefan's attentive and surprised gaze.

"Stefan no. Please don't let him leave me in here." asked Katherine getting his attention, with a nervous and worried tone since she didn't want to stay locked up in there alone. The youngest vampire just watched her in silence for a few moments until he made a decision.

"Goodbye Katherine." he told her without taking his eyes off the brunette, who only looked at him puzzled and with certain helplessness, to then head for the stairs and got out of the tomb.

Some time later, Caroline was sitting alone in the woods looking around and listening to everything. In a moment she stood up and decided to go check on Tyler considering that for her spell he couldn't escape of the cellar. She went down to the door and focused her ears inside, but could only hear what sounded like human breathing.

"Tyler? Do you hear me?" she called from outside concerned, but kept the door closed in case that the transformation hadn't finished yet and he was still a wolf.

"Caroline." she heard Tyler's tired and hesitant voice in a faint tone, making her sigh in relief and raised a hand to the door, there appeared a slight red glow and the spell disappeared so she opened the door and walked into the cellar seeing Tyler being human, lying exhausted on the ground and was also naked, so she covered him with a jacket.

"Tyler. It's okay, you made it. You went through the first time, and didn't get out. Tell me how you are." she started to say touching his shoulder so he'd look at her, thinking that luckily nothing had happened, nor had he escaped or he chased her until catching and killing her, which was good.

"I'm not okay. I'm not." he wailed shaking his head as his voice cracked and he started to cry again, thinking about how that night had been the worst of his entire life.

"It's over now, yeah? It's over and I'm here, you're not alone." assured the heretic softening her voice even more as she hugged his head to comfort him, making her feel bad seeing how he cried, or feeling how his body trembled from crying and how he clung to one of her arms due to how bad he was feeling, and she stayed hugging him as long as he needed.

Elena was sitting in her bedroom looking out her window impatient, since she was still locked in. At one moment, she saw Stefan through the reflection of the window so she turned around and saw Stefan was free from the tomb, like she had asked Elijah who had kept his promise. The youngest girl couldn't help but run into his arms and hug him relieved being instantly reciprocated by the vampire, then they kissed and ended up lying on the bed.

That night, Damon had called Caroline to talk about Tyler's transformation in case that he had bitten Rose, but the blonde girl confirmed that the boy had been locked up all night and she had made sure of that herself, so their only option left was Jules. Damon couldn't help but apologize to Rose that she had been bitten since Jules wanted to attack him, but the woman let it pass because she'd been cured and they supposed that maybe the werewolves had made up that legend to keep vampires away from them, and Damon added that Caroline or her vampire friends had been mistaken and that myth was just a lie.

Then Rose told him that she had decided to stay in Mystic Falls to help them with protecting Elena from Klaus and the originals, since she liked Damon and still believed in friendship, stating that Damon needed all the friends he could get. When the younger man hinted that they could be more than friends while he kissed her, the woman clarified that she didn't love men who loved other woman, though she could be his special friend and they laughed to kiss again. At one moment, Damon touched one of her shoulders making her moan in pain, which surprised both of them so he checked her and they discovered that Jules' bite hadn't healed, but it seemed much worse than before and they looked at each other shocked.