Chapter one

Undaggered

Damon sat alone in the living room of the boarding house, his only company the glass of bourbon in his hand. He heaved a sigh as he thought of everything going on at that moment, none of them good. Stefan was stuck between ripping out throats and going cold turkey, Elena was hell bent on saving him, and Klaus was running around using Elena's blood to make hybrids and ruining lives. Stefan's only obsession at that moment seemed to be killing Klaus, though that was Damon's obsession too. That, and keeping Elena alive. Both obsessions depended on each other, and both seemed impossible.

He missed the days were everything was simpler, less dramatic. He missed the days when he could be the bad guy guilt-free.

"Damon, there you are."

He looked up from his drink to see a very familiar girl crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her foot impatiently. Elena, was his first thought. Then he noticed the curls and the bitchy expression. No, it was the other Petrova doppelganger. Katherine.

He sighed and looked away from her. "What do you want, Katherine?" he asked exasperatedly. She was yet another person who wanted Klaus dead, but Damon didn't trust the selfish, manipulative bitch for a second. She was too obsessed with self-preservation and more than likely to throw him to wolves if it suited her.

"I've been looking everywhere for you," she complained, walking closer to him.

"Well, you found me. Now get out," he replied rudely. He wasn't in a mood to deal with Katherine.

The doppelganger frowned. "You're in an awful mood. What's wrong? Are you tired? Your infatuation with Elena does get exhausting, doesn't it? For me, it does."

He ignored the dig. "Get out, Katherine, or I'll make you," he said slowly, turning around top face her.

Katherine just rolled her eyes. "Fine. Then I guess I'll just have to find somebody else to share my plan with," she said, slowly turning around and walking towards the door.

Damon sighed but took the bait. "What's your plan, Katherine?"

"Oh, so now you want me to stay? Just to hear my plan to kill Klaus? I think you're just using me, Damon." Katherine smirked slightly and widened her big brown eyes innocently.

Damon glared at her. "Using you? Using you? Coming from the biggest manipulative bitch in town-"

"Relax, Damon." Katherine rolled her eyes. "I was just kidding. Learn how to take a joke."

Damon glared at her and gritted his teeth. He wanted Katherine out of his house, but he was also curious to learn what her plan was. He was short on those, lately. And the sooner they got rid of Klaus the Evil Hybrid, the better. Elena's life was at stake.

"You have five seconds to tell me about this mysterious plan to kill Klaus, Katherine, before I drag you out by your hair," he muttered, blue eyes hard and full of anger.

She sighed. Damon was no fun when he was in one of his moods. "I'd rather show you," she replied rather coolly, before turning around and walking briskly out of the room. Damon frowned as he watched her walk away.

He debated internally for three seconds before sighing, tossing back the rest of his drink, and standing up. He followed Katherine out of the living room and out of the boarding house. She was waiting for him out in the night, hands on her hips.

"Come on, we don't have much time," she said impatiently, walking to her car. Damon sighed again, but followed her.

What was he getting himself into?

He obediently got into Katherine's car, though, and she drove them to an abandoned house on the edge of town. His eyebrows were raised as Katherine got out of the car, and he followed her out.

"What's going on?" he asked her. "What's your plan, Katherine?"

"I'll explain everything in time, Damon. Just hurry up. We don't have a lot of time. As we speak, Klaus could be discovering what happened…" she trailed off, but looked nervous. Katherine didn't do nervous. She obviously did something risky, something dangerous, something out of character for Katherine.

What did she do?

Damon followed Katherine into the abandoned house. It was full of dust and spider webs and moldy cardboard boxes. It was completely dark too, meaning that the electricity didn't work. Damon absently noted that it had probably been abandoned for three or four decades at the most.

Katherine led him down a flight of stairs. He was careful not to trip in the dark, for he couldn't see a thing. "Katherine-" he started to say, using the metal railing as a guide to walk down the stairs.

"Shh!"

Damon was starting to get pissed off. What wasn't Katherine telling him? What did she do? Why were they on a time limit? Why was, according to Katherine, Klaus due to start hunting them down any minute now?

"Katherine, tell me what you did right now, or I'm leaving you to rot down here with the rats," he growled, stopping on the stairs.

Katherine sighed and turned around to face him. He could just make out her curls in the dark. "No need to be dramatic, Damon. I promise I'll answer all your questions eventually," she tried to sooth him.

"Answer them now," he replied stubbornly. He was thinking longingly about how relaxed he had been half an hour ago, just sitting by the fire with his bourbon. Then Katherine decided to bug him. He had half a mind just to leave her right on the stairs, not giving a damn about what she did to piss off Klaus.

She sighed again. "Fine," she said, then she paused. "What do you know about the originals?" she asked, cocking her head slightly to the side.

Damon raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"There are seven original vampires, do you know who they are?" She asked him impatiently. They didn't have time for this, but she couldn't afford Damon walking out on her now.

"Klaus- of course, and Elijah…" Damon trailed off, not knowing the five others. All he knew was that they were in coffins, carried around by Klaus. It was a little creepy, carting your family around in boxes. But since it was Klaus who was doing it, Damon wasn't really surprised.

"Rebekah, she was daggered in the 20's. I'm sure Stefan can tell you more about her," she added bitterly. Damon felt a dull ache in his chest. Katherine was just another person who preferred Stefan over him. "Kol, daggered in the early 1900's," she continued. "Finn, 12th century, Mikael, their father, still alive and hunting Klaus, last time I heard. I've tried to track him down and point him in the right direction, but he's hard to find. And then the last original and my personal favorite, Lydia."

Damon raised his eyebrows, not knowing why Katherine was giving him a history lesson on the original family. "Lydia?"

"She was daggered the same year I was turned. I knew her when I was still human. She didn't like me that much." Katherine shrugged.

Damon smirked slightly. "Then I'm sure we would get along great, if she was still alive," he said dryly.

She rolled her eyes again. "Come on," she said, walking down the stairs. Damon 's eyebrows furrowed and he followed her.

"What do the original vampires have to do with anything?" Damon asked as he stumbled down the stairs. Katherine just ignored him and walked into a room.

He groaned and walked into the room as well. "Katherine, what's going-" he cut himself off as his eyes widened.

In the middle of the room, surrounded by candles, was a coffin. It was closed, but he had an idea what was in it. Damon narrowed his eyes and turned to Katherine.

"What did you do?" he growled.

She frowned at him. "I came up with a plan, Damon. A plan to kill Klaus. That's more than what you've done," she replied bitterly.

"A plan that involves an original? I think you've forgotten that they're all related to Klaus," he snapped. He never thought Katherine to be so stupid.

"And I think you've forgotten that he killed them all," Katherine retorted. "They're not going to be happy with them, if and when they wake up. And you and I both know how vengeful vampires can be. They're going to want him to pay for what he's done, and we're going to want a powerful vampire on our side." She took a deep breath to calm herself down.

Damon walked closer up to the coffin. "And you stole this from Klaus?" he asked disbelievingly.

She shrugged. "Well, I didn't do it personally. I had help. It wasn't easy, either. I'm very, very lucky that Klaus didn't walk in on it happening."

"I think he'll figure it out when one of his coffins is gone," Damon replied dryly.

Katherine rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid, Damon. Klaus still has five coffins. One of them is just empty," she said.

Damon sighed. He didn't trust Katherine's plan. He didn't trust the dead original in the coffin, whichever one it was. But they were out of other ideas, and Katherine wasn't stupid. The worst possibility was that they all died, and that was already a possibility.

He sighed again. "Let me call Stefan," he muttered, before walking out of the room.

~SD~

"I told you not to bring Elena."

Elena frowned at Damon as he led her and Stefan into the room with Katherine and the dead original. "I deserve to know what you two are doing," she reminded him.

But you'll live longer if you stay in the dark, he wanted to snap at her, but instead just settled for rolling his eyes.

Stefan broke in. "Why are we here, Damon?" he asked his brother.

Damon just shook his head. "It's easier to explain if I just show you."

The three walked down the stairs in the dark, and then into the room with candles, Katherine, and the coffin. The Petrova smirked at Elena who frowned with distaste at her double.

"What's she doing here?" she asked the Salvatores, but both were busy studying the coffin.

"It's my plan, Elena," Katherine said with a smirk. Elena just chose to ignore her and looked at the coffin instead.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "What's that?" she asked, walking towards it.

"It's an original," Stefan said, eyes widening with recognition. He remembered the coffins that held Klaus' family from the months he had been the hybrid's lackey. He then looked at Katherine. "How did you get this away from Klaus?"

She just smirked seductively at him. "I'm very good, Stefan," she purred.

Elena's frown deepened and she turned to Damon. "You're not… going to undagger it, are you?" she asked hesitantly.

He smirked at her. "Why, that's exactly what we plan to do, Elena."

She opened her mouth to protest, but Stefan spoke up. "Let's do it."

Damon raised an eyebrow. "You're okay with this? No objections at all?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Klaus killed them. They're all going to want revenge on them. We can use that to our advantage," Stefan said.

"My exact thoughts," Katherine said with a smirk.

"Stefan-" Elena argued, but all three vampires were ignoring her.

"Let's move this along, then. I do believe that you said we were short on time before Klaus finds out one of his coffins is missing," Damon said, already walking towards the coffin.

He lifted it open to reveal a young woman with dark brown hair, slightly pale skin, and high cheek bones. She was beautiful, despite her gray skin and overall dead appearance.

"She's kind of hot," Damon muttered under his breath, earning a dirty look from Elena. "You know, for a dead person," he added with a slight smirk.

"This is Lydia," Katherine said, gesturing to the dress Lydia was wearing, undoubtedly from the 15th century.

Stefan raised an eyebrow at her. "Why did you pick Lydia?" he asked her.

"Because Lydia is the most loyal out of all the originals," she said, walking up to Damon. "Therefore, she's the most vengeful."

Katherine raised an eyebrow at Damon. "Well? Would you do us the honors?"

Without a word, Damon reached over and grabbed the dagger protruding out of Lydia's unmoving chest. Then he yanked, and the dagger slid out of her like she was made of warm butter.

Nothing happened right away. In fact, the four had to wait almost half an hour until any signs of life came from Lydia. Elena leaned over the coffin to see the original twitch slightly as life came back into her. She frowned and leaned closer into her.

"Elena-" Damon started to say with alarm, but it was too late.

Lydia's brown eyes popped open, quickly turning red. Veins protruded under her eyes, and her white fangs flashed from her mouth. She let out a growl of thirst.

Elena didn't even have time to scream before Lydia grabbed the human and sunk her fangs into her neck.

~SD~

A/N: First chapter! You guys should remember how loyal Lydia is. She's very, very loyal, and it'll be important as this story goes on.

Thank you to: sez23, SomebodyWhoCares, CherrySin, wizziewoo123, BeckyBoo12221, and jemmamaree for reviewing!

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~Abby :)