It was probably the next day and I was simply leaning against the wall, trying not to fall asleep. That's when I heard something. I shuddered up against the wall and waited for some sign that I needed to do something. He gasped. "Elijah," I said lowly. I scrambled over to him on the ground and he groaned which had to be a result of him slowly coming back to life. I put my hand on his chest and he gasped again. "Elijah, it's me, Vivian."

The next thing I knew, my back was slammed against the wall again and it was my turn to groan. I dropped the dagger and grasped at the folds in Elijah's suit but he held me there until he made some noise. "I can't- I can't breathe," he said. Considering how close we were, I should've felt it so I believed him and I just continued to clutch at his suit. "What's happening to me?" he demanded. He bent forward and his head grazed my shoulder.

"I- I don't know," I said. I let go of his sides and he moved away like I'd been holding him there the entire time. When he moved back, he bent forward again, as if in some kind of pain and I grabbed him.

"I can't- I can't- I can't be in this house," he said between gasping breaths.

"Oh no, Elena owns the house now. You haven't been invited in," I said. I should've realized it sooner but I hadn't even been here when she'd signed those documents.

"Get me out of here." I let him go and Elijah left me down in the cellar in a matter of seconds. I grabbed the dagger off the floor and quickly ran upstairs, trying to be quiet. When I got into the main hallway, I saw him crouched on the other side of the doorway. Without thinking, I ran over the threshold and bent down beside him. When I touched him on the back, he flinched away.

"Are you okay?" I whispered. He made himself stand so I followed suit.

"What happened?" Elijah demanded, ignoring my other question. I shook my head and pointed at the house. I slowly shut the front door and gestured at Elijah to follow me to my car. He stood his ground until I handed the dagger over. My phone had started ringing and I shut down the volume. It was Elena. I didn't have time for this right now. They would all thank me later.

We sat beside each other in my car, each of us totally wary of the other. I reached into the glove department in front of him and he didn't so much as flinch. "Take your pick," I said, gesturing at the blood bags sitting in the glove department. "They're typically for Damon but you could use it so…" He slanted his eyes towards me then.

"Can I trust you?" I nodded, driving off.

"I wasn't in favor of them hurting you in the first place," I responded. "Can I trust you?"

"I give you my word." I smiled and drove down a ways until I was far enough away from the Salvatore house for a discussion. He downed two blood bags in the five minutes I drove.

"You look a lot better," I said. "I'm sorry about everything. I'm just- I'm so sorry. It wasn't my idea. I know that it looks bad but I promise you, I had nothing to do with this." Elijah mustered a smile so I took it that he accepted my apology.

"Where did you get the dagger?" he asked. I tried to keep my hands from shaking.

"Um, my birth father. John Gilbert gave it to Damon but he didn't exactly explain that it would take Damon's life to use it."

"Ah, yes, there is that loophole."

"I need your help, if you'd be willing to give it," I said. He slanted his eyes at me again and seemed to look me over, like he was trying to figure out if I was lying. "I might be able to help you too. I'm not too sure how I could but I could try."

"I'm much more willing to listen to you than Elena. Did she send you to do this?" I shook my head.

"None of them did. I just- I felt bad about what happened to you and I know you know something."

"How can I be sure you're telling me the truth?" Maybe this was actually a dead end. He didn't trust me and he had good reason not to. All he had was my word to go on that I hadn't been involved and that probably didn't mean much to him. My face fell and he just continued to look at me. It was clear he realized that I hadn't fully thought this out and he looked like he might even feel sorry for me. Then my phone started vibrating again. This time it was Damon. I looked to Elijah before I answered and he nodded at me.

"Hello?" I said.

"Vivian, where's Elijah? Next time you wanna be sneaky, try not to leave the cellar door open," Damon said. I forcefully closed my eyes. Of course there was something I had forgotten to do.

"He's right here. He's with me," I responded.

"Don't play innocence right now, Viv. Where are you? I'm coming. You've thrown Elena into one of her worrying fits."

"No, I can't. I need to talk to him, okay?" I turned to look out the window to try to give the conversation some privacy but I knew Elijah could hear us anyway.

"He can't be trusted! What did I tell you? Stockholm Syndrome! He'll use you to get to Klaus."

"No, Damon," I said, lowering my voice. "Elijah is noble and he gave me his word. He's honorable. I can trust him." My voice was practically a whisper now but I knew it didn't matter. "I'm not going to be stupid and betray him."

"You gave him the dagger, didn't you?" I didn't respond and he groaned. "I can't believe this! You can't do this by yourself."

"Just give me the day, please. Don't do anything like you normally would. I'll call you later okay?" Damon started to protest but I hung up the phone anyway. "I'm sorry," I said, turning back to Elijah. He half smiled and held out his hand. I gave him my phone. "Well, first off, Klaus is here." He seemed truly shocked at that revelation.

"He's here?" I nodded and I knew I was coming off nervous. But I was worried about Alaric.

"He's in Alaric's body and I don't know how."

"It's one of his favorite tricks," Elijah responded.

"Do you have idea what he might do next? I mean, what are his other tricks? You're the only one who knows him."

"Indeed, I do. I'll tell you but can I first get out of these wretched clothes?" I laughed a little and turned the car back on.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I should've realized how weird they were to have on. Damon killed one of your witch friends with some sort of fire hose because he was using a kind of teleportation magic? At least, that's what it seemed like. He was trying to take the dagger out of you before anyone noticed." I decided to leave out the fact that Damon had been blow-torching him all day prior as a new, fun hobby. Elijah made a noise at that. "Where do you suggest we go?"

"Carol Lockwood is off vervaine or she was." I nodded.

"I think she still is." The rest of the drive to the Lockwood mansion was in silence which I appreciated. When we arrived on their doorstep, I was ready for whatever Elijah had to tell me.

"Elijah? Vivian? What are you two doing here? What happened?" asked Carol as she gave Elijah the once over.

"I had a bit of an accident," he said. "I'm hoping you could help."

"Well, I'm on my way to a meeting so-"

"I won't take but a minute of your time." He stepped forward and I watched as he compelled her and she let us inside. "Well, first things first. I'm going to need a change of clothing."

"Well, we could try one of my husband's suits. I haven't boxed them up yet," she responded. Elijah gave her a charming smile as she wandered off. I twisted Jeremy's ring on my finger.

"Did you compel me?" I asked. "When I was at that house and in Richmond." Elijah looked over at me at then and I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"Do you believe I did?" he asked.

"I don't know. I should've been more scared of you than I was," I said, my voice low.

"No, Vivian, I didn't compel you. But you were scared. You were scared of me the entire time. You were scared of me earlier in the cellar and I am sorry for that. I hope I didn't hurt you." I shook my head.

"No, you didn't and thank you for telling me." I glanced at Elijah now and the corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. My mind flashed to what Damon and Andie had said before the dinner party, that Elijah might have a thing for me. I thought of how completely insane that idea was again and I waited for Elijah to get dressed in a new suit.

I sat in the Lockwoods' living room after Carol left and then Elijah came and sat near me. "I take it that the Martin witches are no longer with us?" he asked. I shook my head solemnly. "And Katerina?" I loved the way he said her name. "She would have been released from my compulsion when I died."

"Klaus took her. Elena and Stefan and Damon think that she may be dead."

"And what do you think?"

"I think she's escaped before."

"Well, it wouldn't be Klaus' style. Death would be too easy for her after what she did."

"Well, if you want Klaus dead, I don't understand why you still made Katherine pay for betraying him." I had a lot of questions about Katherine, questions she hadn't exactly answered even in she and Elena's heart-to-heart.

"I have my own reasons for wanting Katerina to pay. There was a time where I would have done anything for Klaus." He launched into telling me a story about when Katherine was still human and Klaus was having a birthday party for himself or that's what it seemed. Then Elijah mentioned something that took me by surprise. "Klaus is my brother," he said. He didn't sound ashamed of it but he did sound regretful.

"Really? That's- That's-" I began.

"Yes, I'm a little behind on the times but I believe the term you're searching for is OMG." I cracked a smile at that even through this new realization.

"So there's an entire family of Originals?"

"My father was a wealthy landowner in a village in Eastern Europe. Our mother bore seven children."

"So your parents were human…"

"Our whole family was. Our origin as vampires is a very long story, Vivian, and I'm afraid you don't have the time for it. Just know, we're the oldest vampires in the world." I nodded, taking in all of the information he was willing to give. I wanted to know about the origin of them as vampires but I didn't want to pressure Elijah. "We are the Original Family and from us, all vampires are created."

"I have a question." He nodded and I continued. "Klaus is your brother and you want him dead? I don't know what Elena or Jeremy could do to make me feel that way." He smiled grimly.

"Would you mind going outside? I think I could use some air." I grabbed my jacket and nodded, following him out onto the grounds. "As you've seen, nothing can kill an Original. Not sun, not fire, not even a werewolf bite. Only the wood from one tree can do it. A tree my family made sure burned."

"So that's where the white ash for the daggers comes from."

"Yes. The witches won't allow anything truly immortal to walk the Earth. Every creature needs to have a weakness in order to maintain balance." I found myself trying hard to keep up with him.

"Okay, then I have another question. If the sun doesn't matter to you and the other Originals, why is Klaus so concerned with breaking the sun and the moon curse?"

"Right. The curse of the sun and the moon." Again he had a bit of humor to his voice that I liked. "It's all so biblical sounding, don't you think?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand…" Was he insinuating what I thought he was?

"It's not real. It's sort of something Klaus enjoyed making up." He was saying exactly what I thought he was.

"So he drew the Aztec drawings of the curse that we've been looking at?" I asked.

"Roman scrolls, African tribal etchings, and any other culture or continent we felt like planting it in."

"But I still don't understand why either of you made it up in the first place?"

"The easiest way to discover the existence of a doppelganger or to get your hands on some long-lost moonstone is to have every single member of two warring species on the lookout for it." My breath caught in my throat. If there wasn't a curse of the sun and the moon, then why did they need the doppelganger?

"So it's got nothing to do with the Aztecs or the Romans or the Africans at all? Is it all about Klaus?" He nodded.

"You're figuring it out." Elijah started walking again and I started after him. This still wasn't making much sense. "Klaus and I faked the sun and the moon curse dating back over a thousand years."

"If there's no curse, why does he still need Elena?" He turned to me then and gave me a look I couldn't quite decipher, like maybe he understood my need to protect Elena… or he knew a lot of things that I didn't.

"There is a curse. Just not that one. The real one is much worse and it's a curse placed solely on Klaus."

"What kind of curse?" I asked. I heard my cellphone buzzing in his jacket pocket and I knew it had to have been going off the majority of the time I was here.

"Klaus has been trying to break it the last thousand years and Elena is his only hope." I started to say something but Elijah pulled my phone out of his jacket and handed it to me. "It won't stop ringing," he said, sounding annoyed. "Answer it, please." I nodded.

"Damon-" I asked without even looking to see who was calling. I assumed it was Damon. Instead it was Elena and she started talking at about a mile a minute. "Slow down. What's wrong?" Elijah furrowed his brow and looked off on the grounds of Lockwood mansion, like he was trying to give me privacy.

"It's Jenna," she responded. "Jenna knows everything. Klaus came over to the house, still as Alaric, and started telling her all this stuff about vampires. Then he threatened her life. We're lucky Stefan was there. He made sure she got out."

"Oh God," I said.

"I think we need to sit down with her. She's not taking it well and she's been demanding to know where you are. Where the hell are you, Vivian?" I knew Elena was mad at me for just going off but she'd thank me later. The only problem was Jenna. She'd be mad we'd known the entire time and never told her about it. It hadn't been fair to never explain anything. But it didn't change my circumstances with Elijah.

"I don't think I can come right now." Elijah turned back toward me at that comment, leaving to rest all thought that he couldn't hear what was going on.

"Don't be like this right now, Vivian! Jenna needs us." I turned away from Elijah then.

"I can't," I said. "I made a deal and I can't retract it."

"Yes, you can! Tell him you'll be back. Jenna is the only family we and Jeremy have got left."

"Okay," I said. "You're right. I'll be there." I heard her breathe a sigh of relief and I hung up the phone. When I turned back to Elijah, he was only staring at me. "I, uh- Klaus went after Jenna and she knows everything now. Elena says we need to see her. I tried to tell her I couldn't but-" He shook his head to stop me.

"She's your family. I understand."

"Will you stay here and I can come back?" I said desperately. He nodded again. "Thank you. I promise you, I'll be back."

I drove to the Salvatore house almost maniacally. According to Elena, Jenna wasn't holding up well with this new information. I wondered whether Stefan had tried explaining the situation with Klaus and Alaric yet.

I ran inside to find Jenna sitting with Elena on one of the couches in the study. Jenna was crying. I wondered why Jeremy wasn't here for this family meeting. Maybe it had all been a ploy to get me away from Elijah.

"Jenna, are you okay?" I said, sitting to take her other side. She shook her head.

"No," she responded.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"I never meant for any of this to happen," said Elena but Jenna had scooted away from her anyway.

"When I was little, your mom used to tell me bedtime stories," Jenna said, looking between us. "Stories about vampires. I never thought that what she said could be true."

"It is true, Jenna," said Elena. "I tried to keep it from you both. I thought that if you didn't know, you'd be safe. But things got so out of control and everything I'd done to keep you out of it blew up in my face."

"We should've told you," I told her.

"You knew about this too?" Jenna asked me.

"Only for a few months," I said.

"Who else knows besides the two of you?" She looked between the two of us and I glanced at Elena. I wasn't going to say anything. "Jeremy?" Elena nodded. "John?" I nodded.

"We were just trying to protect you," I said.

"Protect me?" Jenna sounded hurt then.

"I'm so sorry," said Elena. "I will tell you everything."

"No, Elena, Vivian, I am the one who is supposed to be protecting you both and Jeremy."

"I know," I said, "but there's literally nothing that you could have done. There's so much more to it than you think."

"No, this is like- this is so- I don't know how I-"

"I know," said Elena. "Believe me, I know."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Elena only shook her head. "I'm scared."

Again Elena responded with, "I know." I reached out for Jenna and she came into my arms and I hugged her until she stopped crying. When Elena nodded at me, I made some false excuse and scooted out of the house as quickly as I'd entered it. Luckily, no one spotted me leaving.

Jenna was having to deal with a lot right now and I should've been there earlier. We all should've told her earlier and maybe this situation wouldn't be as bad as we were making it out to be. My hands gripped the steering wheel and I drove off. Elena could help Jenna better than I could anyway. Most of the things that had happened supernaturally had happened because Elena happened to be the doppelganger.

I showed up on the Lockwoods' doorstep again and let myself in. Carol still hadn't come back from her meeting so Elijah and I had the place to ourselves. "Hey, it's Vivian," I said. I walked into the living room again and there he was. He was actually smiling.

"Welcome back," he said. "How was it?" I shrugged.

"She's not taking it as well as I did but I think she'll come around. Elena's explaining everything to her now." He nodded again. "So what's the curse on Klaus?" I sat down on the couch closest to the room's fireplace and waited.

"My family was quite close but Klaus and my father did not get on too well," he said as he sat down beside me. I felt nervous when I realized how close he was sitting. "When we became vampires, we discovered the truth. Klaus was not my father's son." I gasped a little. I was becoming incredibly invested in this story. "My mother had been unfaithful many years before. This was her darkest secret." He paused a moment to see if I'd catch on to something. "Klaus was from a different bloodline. Of course, when my father discovered this, he hunted down and he killed my mother's lover and his entire family. Not realizing, of course, that he was igniting a war between species that rages until this day."

"Are you saying that he was a werewolf?" I asked slowly. "Is he somehow both? A werewolf and a vampire?"

"Yes," he said. "A hybrid would be deadlier than any werewolf or vampire. Nature would not stand for such an imbalance of power. Therefore the witches, the servants of nature, saw to it that my brother's werewolf side would become dormant."

"Oh wow. So that's the curse that Klaus wants to break. He wants to become a full hybrid."

"He wants to trigger that part of him that's werewolf. If allowed, Klaus would sire his own bloodline. He'd build his own race, endangering not just vampires but everyone."

"But you still helped him?" I asked.

"I helped him because I loved him. That's changed now. He must die." Elijah looked away for a second but turned back just as quickly.

"So can we use your dagger on him?" He shook his head.

"When a werewolf is wounded by silver, it heals. An Original can't be killed by anything but white oak ash on a silver dagger. So you see the conundrum? The dagger doesn't work."

"What do you mean? Klaus can't be killed?"

"There's one way to kill any supernatural species. At the hands of the servants of nature themselves."

"A witch. That's why you had the Martin witches. But that only works if they can channel that much power and that would kill them." Of course.

"The curse must be broken during the full moon when Klaus is in transition. That's when he'll be at his most vulnerable. A witch with enough power can kill Klaus." I didn't want to say it but I knew I had to. Bonnie was going to be brought into this no matter what.

"I know a witch that can channel that much power."

"Then there's one more thing that you should know." He started telling me again about when Katherine was human and before she ran away. I hung on every word because I had known from the beginning of him telling me anything that he'd cared for Katherine. He said he might have found a way for her to not be killed during the sacrifice.

"You can save my sister?" I asked. I felt a lump growing in my throat and I stood up from the couch and turned away.

"I did find a way to spare the doppelganger," he said. "Unfortunately, Katerina took matters into her own hands first. I believe you already know how that played out."

"Yes," I responded. "You cared about Katherine, didn't you?" I turned back and saw that he was standing now too.

"It's a common mistake, I'm told," he said. I could tell he wanted the subject changed so I moved on.

"Speaking of her, she told me something before Klaus took her. It's about my blood. She said it would prove to be as important of Elena's." Elijah grimly smiled before walking over to me.

"I did some research into you when I realized that the doppelganger had a twin. I'm sure you hear constantly how odd that is." I nodded fast. He knew something, he really knew something. "Witches were involved with your birth. Seems as though everyone understood the doppelganger was coming. In fact, even my father looked for her as a child." I started to ask a question about that but he went on. "Your blood… It's exactly the same as your twin's. It's as if you were identical." I sank back down onto the couch in shock. I didn't need to ask him how he knew that because it was obvious that's what Katherine had meant.

"Could I take her place in the sacrifice?" I asked. He shook his head.

"You aren't the doppelganger, therefore it wouldn't work."

"Then why do this to me at all?" I questioned. "Why would they make our blood the same unless they wanted me to protect her?"

"It's not that simple and it is in fact all I know. But you are human so I would suggest keeping that ring on." I glanced down at Jeremy's ring. How did he know what it could do?

We left soon after that so that we could explain to Elena, Damon, and Stefan the good news. Elena might be spared yet.

When we entered the house, after I practically begged Elena to invite Elijah in, I heard noise and I almost rolled my eyes. Elena was reprimanding Stefan and Damon from down the hall so they must've been fighting over something. When Elijah and I entered the study after her, he walked in front of me and when a vase smashed against the wall beside us, I realized why. I flinched when glass splattered on the floor around my feet.

The fighting stopped as the two of them turned and stared at us. "What the hell is this?" asked Damon. "You invited him in?"

"Vivian said we can trust him," said Elena. Damon looked at me and gave me the ultimate eye-roll. "Elijah and I will renew our deal."

"The two of you will come to no harm at my hands," said Elijah. "I only ask for one thing in return."

"What?" demanded Damon.

"An apology." I pleaded with my eyes at Stefan and Damon, clasping my hands together and giving them several looks.

"A what?"

"I'm sorry for the part that I played in your death," said Stefan. He was trying to be the better person and I appreciated it. "I was protecting Elena. I will always protect Elena."

"I understand," Elijah responded. Damon stood his ground and looked dismally at all of us.

"The sacrifice is going to happen, Damon," said Elena.

"Bonnie will be able to kill Klaus without hurting herself and Elijah knows how to save Elena's life," I said.

"Is that true?" asked Damon.

"It is," said Elijah.

"And you're trusting him?" He was directing this at Elena.

"I am," she said. My work here was done.

"You can all go to hell," said Damon. I practically threw up my arms and walked out of the room. Damon did that for me.

"He's angry with me right now but he'll come around," said Stefan.

"Perhaps," said Elijah. He turned back to look at me and I only nodded. Eventually, Damon would have to come around.