A/N: This happens after the season 2 finale, but Katherine didn't give Damon the cure, and he's still dying. Plus Klaus didn't make Stefan go with him after all, he just made him drink the human blood and feed off that girl, then let him go (hoping he'd turn back into a ripper by himself after that, which he didn't). The prologue is in Bonnie's POV because it's the best way to explain everything.

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. Not the characters, the setting, anything. Not even the idea (which was kindly given to me by Danielle Salvatore [check her out; she's a very good authoress]) is mine.

Prologue

Bonnie POV

"You want me to turn you...into a human again?" I asked in disbelief.

Caroline had asked me to meet her at the Mystic Grill earlier, apparently to give me an absolutely ridiculous request. We were sitting at a booth in the corner.

Caroline smiled. "Well, I mean, you hate vampires, so it would do good to rid the world of one of them, right? And this whole vampire thing is kind of ruining my life. It sucks... and I just realized that sounded like an awful pun. But really, Bonnie, please?"

My eyebrows shot up. "Caroline, I don't think that's even possible. If it was, I would have used it by now."

Frowning, she pleaded, "Bonnie, please? Can't you just try? You know I'd do it for you."

I grimaced. "I'll check and see if something like that exists," I sighed in defeat. She started to squeal and stand up, probably to hug me, but I held my hands up to stop her. "But, Caroline, it probably doesn't. I don't want you to be disappointed if I don't find anything."

She nodded. "I won't be...but it's worth a try. I really hate this. Do you know what it feels like to eat a bunny?"

I held in a laugh. "No, and I hopefully never will."

She scrunched up her nose. "Hope gets you nowhere in life, Bonnie."

"Did you get that from a fortune cookie?"

"How did you guess?"

Later that day I was calling Caroline.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Caroline? It exists. The spell to turn you human. I'd never believe it, but it does..." I trailed off.

There was silence. Then, "Are you kidding?"

"Nope."

Caroline squealed. "Oh my God! This is great! When can you do it?"

"It needs to be done while the sun is going down, to symbolize the end of something. It doesn't matter what day, though."

"Well, there's no time like the present..." she said with a nervous laugh.

I was shocked. "You want to do it today?" I asked incredulously.

I heard her hum in approval through the phone. "Well, it would be nice, yes."

Shaking my head to myself, I said, "Okay then. I don't see why not. The sunset starts in about two hours, so some over around then. But I want to do it at the Boardinghouse, since my parents are home."

"Okay!" she chirped.

Tonight would be interesting, I thought. Human Caroline.

I called Elena to see if I could use the Boardinghouse, and she said it was fine. She said she'd probably be upstairs the whole time with Damon, who was on his deathbed from a werewolf bite. I'd never admit it but I was slightly worried about him—just a little. But then I figured, karma had to get him eventually.

Stefan had almost turned back into a monster to get him a cure, but Katherine apparently ran away with it. Klaus let Stefan go for some unknown reason—which had an ulterior motive, no doubt. Only question was what the motive was.

After the Klaus experience, Stefan wanted humanity more than ever. When he heard about me turning Caroline back, he, of course, wanted me to do it for him, too. I said I'd do it when the whole Klaus thing was over, if it worked, but that we needed him strong right now.

I was downstairs waiting for Caroline to show up, holding the wand I would have to use. I felt incredibly stupid, having to actually use a wand, but the spell book said I needed it to point at Caroline. And Grams said to never vary from what the books said, or it had consequences.

The doorbell rang, and I put the wand down. I opened the door and let Caroline in. She was nearly bursting with excitement.

"Aren't you nervous?" I asked.

She shrugged. "What's the worst that could happen?"

I snorted. "Um, death," I deadpanned.

She cocked her head. "Really? How?"

"Your body's going through a severe change. When you became a vampire, you died. So turning back into a human is...well, who knows what will happen? It's probably pretty painful."

She scowled. "Well, what's the chance of me dying?"

"Probably pretty low," I admitted. "But the chance of extreme pain is very high," I added.

She bit her cheek, considering. Then she shrugged. "Well, I can deal with pain," Caroline said positively.

"Well, then come on," I said and led her into the living room.

She took in the setting; furniture cleared, candles everywhere, wand sitting in the middle of the room.

"Is that a wand?" she somewhat sneered.

"Yes, it is. I need it for the ritual. Would you rather me cancel it?"

She shook her head. "No, no. It's just weird. I mean, a wand is so..."

"Cliche?" I suggested.

Nodding, she agreed.

I explained how the ritual would work, and she sat down in the middle of the room Indian-style, facing the door. I picked up my wand, then lit all the candles.

I stood about ten feet away from her and pointed the wand at her, channeling energy. Then I started chanting the words from the book, starting the process of turning her into a human again.

She started tensing up, and I could tell that a lot of power was entering her. I was almost done.

Suddenly there was a voice behind me, though, saying, "Well, what is going on here?"

I spun around, feeling all the power leave Caroline and come back into me. Elena—no, Katherine—was leaning against the wall with her eyebrows raised, a vial in her hand.

I was frozen for a moment, disoriented. Then I felt the energy push out of me again.

And straight into Katherine.

She screamed in agony and collapsed on the floor, curling into a ball. I was still frozen. I quickly recovered though and ran towards her. I wondered if this would kill her.

I heard Elena's voice approaching, asking what was wrong. I turned to her when she came down the stairs, and said, "It's Katherine..."

Her eyes widened and she ran over, too, Stefan right behind her.

"Where? What's she doing? Is that..." Elena trailed off when she saw the body on the floor.

Katherine was moaning in pain, still curled into a ball.

We all froze for a moment, wondering if we should restrain her or leave her be. She didn't exactly look in shape to hurt anyone, but this was Katherine...

"Stefan, you should hold her down," Elena suggested.

Stefan nodded and knelt down to grab Katherine, but froze.

"This is the cure... She was bringing us the cure," he said. He quickly grabbed the veil from earlier out of Katherine's hands and gave it to Elena.

"Go give this to Damon... it's the cure; it will heal the wolf bite."

Elena seemed shocked for a moment but then turned and ran up the stairs.

Suddenly Katherine stopped and rolled onto her back. I briefly wondered if she was dead but then her eyes fluttered open.

"What... Stefan? What the hell is going on here?" She started to stand up but then made a strangled noise.

She grabbed her throat like she was choking, and then her face started turning purple... but she was a vampire, she couldn't be choking. She didn't even need to breathe.

Unless...

Oh my God.

"Stefan? She can't breathe. Stefan, oh... The spell. It turned her human instead of me," Caroline cut in from behind me with a gasp.

Stefan looked at me with wide eyes, as if asking if it was true.

"I think it did..." I confirmed.

"Should we help her? She's suffocating," Caroline said, pointing to the choking girl.

Stefan squeezed his eyes shut, looking extremely distressed—or as distressed as Stefan could look.

He seemed to hesitate, but he bent down and slapped her on the back. "Katherine, breathe."

Her eyes got wider (if that was even possible) and she did as he said. She sucked in a huge gulp of air.

We all backed off.

After a moment of heavy breathing, she looked up at us.

She glared at me. "You!" she spat, while standing up. "You turned me into a human!" She said "human" like it was the most disgusting thing in the world.

I glared back. "You startled me. I turned around and accidentally changed you back to a human, yes. But don't act like it's my fault, Katherine. This is all on you."

She glared, but she didn't say anything. Just then Damon and Elena walked down the stairs, taking in this scene while we took in theirs. Damon looked perfectly fine—like nothing had even happened to him.

"Why is no one holding her down?" Elena asked.

"She's human," Stefan supplied.

Damon, for once, seemed shocked. "She's what?"

"Human," I clarified for Stefan. "I was turning Caroline back, but Katherine showed up so quickly, I accidentally pointed at her."

"I, for one, am extremely upset about this," Katherine cut in. "I'm human now. Which means vulnerable. Which is not good."

"No one cares," Damon sneered.

Katherine smiled sweetly, ignoring him. "Any chance one of you want to change me back? Come on, it's a chance to kill me."

"We could just kill you normally, you know. Since you're so vulnerable," Damon said.

A flash of fear crossed her face, but only for a brief moment. "You wouldn't."

Damon smiled evilly, but didn't make a move towards her. I saw her visibly relax after a few seconds.

"Well. You're human. This is wonderful and all, but I think it's time for you to leave, Katherine," Stefan said, breaking the silence.

Katherine's eyes got wide. "You're kicking me out? When I'm like this?"

"Did you expect to stay?" Elena snorted. Katherine certainly brought out her nasty side.

Katherine opened her mouth, then closed it.

There was a silence.

Then Katherine spoke up. "Well, your friend did this to me. The least you could offer me is a place to stay and protection."

"Are you kidding?" I blurted. "It's your fault!"

She glared. "If I would have known you'd turn me into this, I wouldn't have come!"

I was about to say something else, but Caroline interrupted. "You know, maybe you should let her stay. It's not like she can really hurt anyone as a human...plus she kind of does deserve it. She came here to help, but she ended up getting something she didn't exactly sign up for..."

Everyone took this in. Katherine raised her eyebrows expectantly, and Elena said, "Caroline has a point."

Stefan sighed in defeat. "As much as I dislike you, Katherine, it's true. Thank you for helping Damon. You can stay here for a while."

Nobody protested. There was another awkward silence, and then Katherine shocked us all.

She said "Thank you."