She appears as Katherine.
First Elena is showing a glimmer of her old humanity and making him smile, and then she's emotionless and the humanity less Elena he so desperately wants to slap. Then she falls to the ground and Katherine's perfectly manicured hand retreats. He lurches from the wall, and then halts. Because she's there, but she's not his Katarina. She's their Katherine.
He bends down, cautious of creasing his perfectly pressed suit, and she's stalking towards him, "Sorry I'm late, I got held up."
And he hates the sarcasm that drips from her mouth and the fake venom she shares with Damon Salvatore, because she's their Katherine, not his Katarina.
"She could use a nap, must be exhausting trying to be me." He can feel the smirk on her lips yet his eyes are still on Elena. He can hear her cocky hips with their seductive sway pacing up and down the alleyway.
"You killed Jeremy Gilbert." It's a statement, not an accusation, and he's disappointed in her, he so desperately wants her to deny it, but she doesn't. His voice is empty and hollow, and hers in malicious and fake.
She stops, and breathes in. Because she knows he's disappointed, because his Katarina would never have killed a child.
"Yes, Elijah. I killed Jeremy Gilbert," and for a moment she sounds almost sorry.
"A bombshell I bet she just couldn't wait to drop on you. Ironic, since she supposedly doesn't care about anything.
And there it is. Katherine Pierce, in all her glory, jealous and spiteful, just like Tatia.
When he speaks again his voice is harsher, yet still composed.
"Well I care," he rises from his perch at Elena's side.
"Do you honestly feel nothing for this girl, a girl destined to live the same life as yours? And now you have taken the last of her family, just as you lost yours."
Katherine stares at him, her mouth open in a perfect "O" because he's detached and has yet to smile at her. He hasn't smiled at her since she was human.
Then she's his Katarina.
"Why are you looking at me like I enjoyed it? He was collateral damage, I had to do what I did to survive."
He's walking away from her in the detached manor he uses with his family, and she follows him without the seductive sway the Salvatore's are so accustomed to.
He turns, in an almost fury, and she's convinced, that maybe, he turned off his feelings too.
"Is that what I was to you? Collateral damage? A means to survival?" He stalks closer, and she feels a shiver of fleeting fear and his true Original appears.
"Don't," She scrambles, pointing to Elena's lifeless body, scrambling for someone to blame. Because Katherine Pierce never , ever apologises, and she never, ever, loses. It's always sweet little Elena's fault.
"She hates me. She wants to convince you that I can't be trusted." She's almost crying now, and Katherine Pierce never cries. She will not turn on her humanity, she will not. Although, she is pretty when she cries, so defenceless. Maybe more sweet than Elena when she cries.
"I. Asked you. A question." His tone is final now, and she knows she won't have him much longer, and she is so desperate for him to stay.
"No." She says it with such finality and firmness with her heart twisted round her words that he almost believes her. But Katherine Pierce has fooled him more than once.
He shakes his head. And she's almost pitiful now, the way she shakes her head too and creases her eyebrows in disbelief because he can't stop loving her. Not now.
"Of course you're not a means of survival. You looked out for me when I had no one, your giving me a second chance now. When no one else will," She puts her soft hand to his chin to force him to look at her when he wants to look away.
"I love you," She says it with finality and he knows it's true.
"Elijah," She's defeated. He doesn't love her anymore.
He straightens and shrugs off her hand.
"You don't believe me."
"I want to. It's my disease, I want to believe you. But how can I when at every turn you give me reason to doubt you. I don't know you,"
It's the first emotion he's shown her. Sadness. Anger.
"Huh,"
"I don't know that I ever will."
And his voice is on the edge of breaking so he brisks away before she can see the tears in his eyes, because he doesn't. Five seconds of his Katarina do not repent the five centuries of Katherine.
She rushes up to him, she needs him, wants him. Her hand tightens on his arm and she will not let go.
"Wait, you gave me your word that you would talk to Klaus. I can't make a deal without you."
Stay Elijah. Please, stay. That's what she wants to stay.
He looks down at her hand distastefully, and then he walks away with the brisk walk of a man who couldn't trust.
She watches him leave and she cries when he's gone, because after all this time, he's finally left. She's had many lovers over the years, and not even Stefan came close to him. She loves him. She's in love with Elijah Mikaelson.
As he walks away his heart bleeds with pain he'll never show, not to anyone. Not even his sister. What a set they are now. The girl who loved to easily, the man who couldn't love, and the man who couldn't trust.
He doesn't trust her, but he's certain that he loves her.