Hello everyone! This is a fairly exciting chapter – it's not necessarily long or have a lot of action, but it will transition into that kind of chapter for next time :) Thank you to the fantastic Angel of the Night Watchersfor her editing. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter Eight – The Powers That Be
Elena was exhausted. She had stayed up later than she had thought she'd had to while she'd waited for Evie and Katherine to come back from their walk. It had been strange, watching them leave with so much attitude and seeing them return with as close to sombre expressions that she'd ever seen from either of them. When Katherine had stormed up the stairs – stomping the entire way up without so much as a second glance at the girl she'd come back with – Evie had just thrown Elena an innocent shrug and thanked her for waiting up.
Elena had taken her to bed, staying in her room and asking questions about her various objects on the desk in the corner. These things were new – not just new, but most had obviously not been invented in this century: expanding plastic boxes and metal Swiss-army knives with 72 settings, glass objects and jewelry, things that resembled credit cards and mini-CD's, and most curiously a glass slide with wireless ear pieces that was apparently the equivalent to a laptop. These things were the things in the multitude of pockets in Evelina's slick clothes from the night she had come back to their time to help them.
Not that anything has really happened since, Elena thought, immediately feeling guilty. She understood that it must be hard to get on top of things and get your bearings in a completely different time, but she was having a lot of trouble understanding why Evie was taking so much time with it. Evelina knew the dangers that were around them. She knew they had to somehow magically banish or possibly bind Klaus to leave them alone and they would have to get the other Originals out of here as well. On top of that, they needed to look into what would happen to her now that Elena had turned into a vampire before she'd gotten to bear the child that would later spawn Evelina's own family.
Why wasn't she rushing?
When Evelina came down stairs the next morning, it was actually closer to the afternoon. Elena had decided to take the day off of school so that she could try to bond with the girl just as Evie had taken time to bond with their most manipulative enemy – who was also asleep upstairs. Waiting until Evie had her hands around a large cup of black coffee with cinnamon, Elena cleared her throat to get the girl's attention.
"So, what's the plan for today?"
"Don't you have to educate yourself?" Evie asked darkly, twirling her finger in her mug and wincing when it was too hot. "I was hoping for more sleep."
"So you drank coffee?" Elena asked doubtfully. Evie looked down at her cup as if she didn't know the coffee had caffeine before placing in back down on the island between them. "I thought we might try to come up with some plans of attack today."
"Oh, I have a plan of attack," Evie barely sounded excited. It was like she was saying this for the hundredth time and yet Elena was sure she had never heard anything close to a plan. And even though Elena had the idea too, now she was curious: plan of attack for what? When would the do it? Who would be involved? Where would she be for it? Why had she not heard?
"You do?"
"I do," she said again, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. She rolled her head along her shoulders, trying to massage kinks out of her neck and wake herself up. It was something Elena did when she started to doze in class.
"Well what is it?"
"We find Tyler Lockwood and Klaus..." Evie made a face. "Or is it Klaus and Tyler Lockwood? I guess it really depends how you want to look at it to decide which order to put their names in. Either way, we need to find Klaus and his gracious host."
Elena had heard Evie spit words like that before, she couldn't help wondering if it was some sort of slang with the way she hissed them out. Maybe a discriminatory phrase, an insult, a title...either way it seemed that Evie hated having to say it.
"And then what?"
"And then we lure him out of the wolf."
Something told her it was not as simple as Evie let on.
"Good," Elena frowned. "And then?"
"And then the group of you have to make up with Bonnie so she and I can do some serious magical damage control," she smiled, taking her cup of coffee and cinnamon off of the table and blowing on it before raising it to take a testing sip. "So you'd better do that fast, because I know how to lure Klaus out."
"How?" Elena's eyes were sparkling in a way Evie always saw in the mirror, it made her smile more at her eagerness as she blew on her coffee again.
"Simple, Klaus is a selfish creature, all you have to do is play to his weaknesses." That did not seem that simple either.
"Well what are they?" Elena pushed, watching the dark smirk crawl over Evie's features that she knew quite well she had never seen on her own face.
"Oh Elena," she tutted, "you have to think harder, the answer's right in front of you."
Elena looked around the kitchen for a moment, half in confusion and half wondering if anyone was hearing the ridiculous question that she was having so much trouble finding the answer to. She shook her head. "What are Klaus' weaknesses?"
"You."
Elena was in the kitchen with Stefan and Damon when Caroline knocked on the door. She walked in nervously, looking around and catching all of their eyes – glad not to be catching certain others. Her jacket and shoes had stayed on, showing just how anxious she was, just how ready she was to dash at any time. She looked around the room again before she releasing a breath.
"They're upstairs?"
"Yeah, they're finishing up." Elena answered distractedly, crossing her arms and going to stand by her friend instead of pacing by the fire like she had been before. "I'm nervous for her."
"I'm not," Damon pitched in, leaning farther back in his chair. "It's a stupid plan."
"Not really," Stefan said. "Simple, sure, but I don't think it's stupid."
"Evelina will never pass for Elena," Damon was firm on the point, as always. "They look too different."
"Which is why everyone thinks she's a doppelganger," Caroline added with a skeptical roll of her eyes. "It's a good idea...I just don't like that Bonnie has to be in on it."
Elena sighed, seeing the nervous energy that made Caroline bounce her knee and made her eyes flitter back and forth from the stairs. It was hard for Elena to forgive Bonnie for sparing Klaus and lying to them – no matter what the reason – but it must have been even harder for Caroline knowing that Bonnie was ready to sacrifice Tyler so carelessly. "As angry as we are, Care, we're all working for the same thing."
"To get Tyler back," Caroline nodded. "I just wish she didn't have to be the one to do it."
"I think for the most part Evie will be," Elena said with uncertainty. She wasn't quite sure on that part of the plan, but at least what she had heard could make Caroline feel more comfortable with the overall idea. "She was talking about how she needed Bonnie to help her channel power while she did the spell. She said Klaus will be hard to take down if he's possessing Tyler and has hybrid blood with hybrid blood. Then she said that pulling him out will take even more than that."
"We can take out Tyler," Damon snorted. "That's not the hard part."
"Jeremy's taking care of the hard part," Stefan chimed in. "He's going to get Klaus' casket so that we can transfer him back where he should be. Not that a desiccated body will help him much – at least, not until he feeds. We'll need to make sure Bonnie and Evie can be pulled away at any sign of trouble. We should have blood to give him, too. No one else needs to get hurt just because he can't stay put."
The three of them nodded to themselves, imagining all the possible scenarios of such a simple plan. So many things could go wrong and yet, if they made it any more complicated, too many things could help tip Klaus off. All in all it had been a good plan – no one seemed to trust the people that were putting it into action.
"Has Jeremy met Evie yet?" Caroline asked suddenly, changing the subject and putting sound back into the quiet living room.
"No, she came back too late last night and he went to get the casket right after school," Caroline nodded, her eyes could not stop themselves from flickering toward the stairs again.
"Do you really think this will work?"
"I think we have to try," Elena sighed, dropping her arms. She didn't like how often people were asking whether or not it was a good idea or whether or not it would work. It was putting doubt in everyone's mind, including hers, and she didn't need more doubt than she already had.
For a long time the four vampires stayed still, listening to the heartbeats and whispers upstairs. Evie was trying to reassure Bonnie. Bonnie was nervous that she had ruined her friendships. Evie was concerned that she would no longer exist. Bonnie was concerned she wouldn't be of help. The whispers of their worries continued until the girls abruptly finished and decided to come downstairs again, Bonnie staying near the stairs when she saw Caroline's tense posture.
It was eerie, seeing the three doppelgangers – or the two doppelgangers and the look-alike – standing in a circle together. Katherine was an important part of the plan too – one that involved straightening her hair and putting her in Elena's clothes and perfume. Evie had donned the same style, losing her darker themed wardrobe to for Elena's bright and casual clothing. Evie was sure that she kept her eyes down while she was walking, it helped with the effect.
"I refuse to cut my hair any more," she said, pulling at the strands of hair falling down her back. It was longer than Elena's when it was curly, nevertheless when they had taken the time to straighten it, but it had been cut to be at least six inches shorter – though still longer than the other two girls standing next to her. "So I'll put it up if I have to. I'm sure I'll still have no problem pulling off 'Elena Gilbert'."
"You won't need to keep up the pretense for long, you'll be the one in the dark," Stefan pointed out to the witch, watching as she nodded. Damon went over to grab himself a glass of whiskey, making Elena sigh.
"Is this really the time?"
"It's the perfect time," he smiled sarcastically before chugging a glass down.
"He's drunk for our first attack plan," Caroline slapped her legs irritably. "Great."
"Maybe we should stick him in rehab," Evie suggested with a morbid appreciation for his frown. "He'd come home a changed man."
"And this town would have a changed population count," he said with as much dry enthusiasm as he could muster. Evie actually bent her head down to hide her laughter and Stefan threw Elena a look. It basically screamed 'stop this, now'.
"Let's go over the plan," Elena said quickly, clapping her hands loudly. "I'm going to go lurk around the Lockwoods', Katherine is going to go around the Grill, and Evie you're sticking to the woods..."
"Why is Evie in the woods?" Bonnie asked, taking a step further off the step. Caroline took a step closer to the fire, making Bonnie stop moving forward.
"Because her eyes give her away, she needs to be somewhere darker to distort her features," Stefan explained. "Then, whoever finds him first gives the word and we grab him. He'll be weaker in Tyler's body – but he's still a hybrid, so you have to watch out."
"Little Witch is the only one the big-bad-hybrid can't kill if he gives her a love nibble," Damon pointed out with a dark smile toward her. Her eyes narrowed and stayed that way even when Bonnie cleared her throat.
"Who do you think's most likely to catch him?"
"Me," Evie said strongly. "He'll stay out of the public eye because he's supposed to be dead, but Klaus will still need to hunt and he'll stay somewhere he can change into a wolf if he wants to. The woods are the best bet – that's why I'm going."
"Then why aren't we all just going into the woods?" Caroline frowned, Evie took a deep breath as if she were fighting off snapping at her.
"Because scaring him off with our numbers would be counter-productive and I'm bite-proof," she said simply. "One bite won't kill me."
"That's not necessarily true..." Caroline began.
"She'll be fine." Bonnie seemed confident. So confident that she had cut Caroline off despite the tension between them. She was so confident that it left Elena feeling little doubt that she would somehow be alright if Tyler came to take a bite out of her. She just had to remember that Evie was a witch and witches were born with the ability to protect themselves.
"Alright, well shouldn't a couple of the vampires at least be there for if-"
"When," Evie corrected.
"For when he decides to show?" Caroline asked nervously.
"No, you guys lurking around will scare him off and I have the best chance at incapacitating him when he gets close with magic," she seemed to have thought this all through. It was comforting to Elena considering that she had thought the plan was almost too simple, that Evie hadn't put enough thought into it. Listening to her answer all the questions without pause helped calm her nerves.
"How?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out," she smiled at Elena. Suddenly Elena was uncomfortable again because that was the first answer she didn't have. "But I'm not going alone anyway, didn't you order me a guard?"
"Yeah, that would be me," Stefan walked forward. Evie took a long look at him, sizing him up with a scrutiny Elena wasn't used to seeing on her before Evie shook her head.
"Actually, it will be Damon."
"Damon? No way," Elena cast a nervous glance to Stefan, meeting his eyes and showing the panic that was caused by the news. "Why would you want it to be Damon?"
"Who said I'll even go?" Damon added with a frown.
"You'll go because you want to pick a fight with Klaus," Evie said confidently. "And I'm the best bet for that. And Damon has to go because Stefan can't be around when I do magic."
"Then why can Damon?"
"If I could bring Katherine, I'd prefer her," Evie's eyes rolled while she dodged the question. "But since she's out of stock for today, I'm stuck with second best-" Damon glowered and crushed the crystal tumbler in his hand. "So let's get on with this. I want to shower, my hair feels gross."
The looks passed around the room were awkward but eventually they nodded. Taking a chance was better than waiting for everything to fall apart again and none of them could think about what else there was to dismantle. The job needed to be done and if Evie was willing to do it, who were they to stop her? Elena was sure to hug Evie before she left, Caroline and Bonnie doing the same. Stefan and Katherine got an awkward handshake that was too informal for their relationship but too intimate for how close they really were.
When everyone was gone Evie turned to Damon, tilting her head toward the forest outside of the boarding house. She did not wait for him while she walked out of the house, managing to get to the edge of the woods before looking back at him expectantly.
"You're so brooding right now you almost look like your brother," she snorted. "Come on."
"You're really not nervous," he asked after walking quietly for a while. Silence was boring and she was fun to make fun of. "You like looking for hybrids on the loose?"
"I grew up around hybrids," she was panting a bit, though she was trying to hide it from him. He could hear her heart beat stuttering – either she was very out of shape or she was not as cool and collected as she was trying to let on. "Hybrids don't scare me."
"I guess being able to wave a magic wand must help," Damon conceded. She laughed.
"Yeah, something like that," she looked around her nervously, rubbing her hands on Elena's jeans. "I wish magic were as simple as it sounds. It's hard."
"So, your sisters have different kinds of magic..." he started slowly. He couldn't tell if he was curious because it was so strange or if he was curious because it would benefit him to know what kinds of magic could be done by the future of the Bennett line, but she didn't seem to catch onto the fact he was prying.
"Yeah, we all do. No witch is the same; Ello can manipulate anything alive...or undead," she smirked. "Eva's a channeller and a psychic, and Ella can control...no, not control, more like encourage anything to do with nature."
"And what about you?" Damon asked with a raised eyebrow. "What did you get stuck with?"
"Not the fun stuff," she sighed, but didn't give him a real answer.
Both she and Damon wandered deeper into the woods, their voices sounding more and more quiet as they realized just how much Evie's voice did not sound like Elena's. huskier and higher tone – something not as strained about it, as if she were constantly relaxed. She stopped speaking pretty much all together the further around they walked, just so that she wouldn't give them away. Eventually, Damon left her side and hid behind trees, hoping to lure Klaus out with the idea that she was walking alone.
But she was not Elena and he could see it in the way she walked, the way she moved, the sound of her breath which came out too steadily. Elena was never this calm being in the woods, it didn't matter who was there to protect her. How would Evie be able to convince Klaus that she was Elena when she couldn't even breathe like her? He wasn't going to show up. He was going to see the threat and he was going to run.
A vibration from his pocket broke through his thoughts and made him jump. He'd thought he'd turned the beeper off. He gritted his teeth as he looked at the text from his little brother.
Anything?
Apparently it wasn't just Evie, apparently Klaus had not shown up at all.
A scream shattered the quiet that he and Evie had created in the woods. He started, his eyes flickering to Evie in terror, only to see that she was looking back at him, just as petrified by the sound. It had not been Evie who had screamed.
Who was it then?
Eight hundred meters to their right, the woman screamed again. Both Damon and Evie instinctively took off at a sprint, listening for the woman whose screams had petered off somewhere to their left. Damon's agility landed him there long before Evie and he was glad that he had. He hoped that she would be too late to watch the woman's colour drain from her body as her essence drained into another. He didn't want Evie to have to watch while the blonde's life left her eyes, able to watch as Tyler Lockwood – Klaus – fed on and murdered the young woman – nearly Evie's own age. How would she react to death? Damon didn't know. He certainly didn't want to find out while she looked like Elena and they were facing Klaus – Klaus, who must have restrained feeding for a long time because he was not leaving any room for the girl's survival.
Evie ran into the clearing after the blonde was already dead. Maybe she had not known what she was running toward, maybe she had expected something less gruesome...but instead of running straight up to Klaus, she stopped behind him, turning her head away and letting out a shuttered gasp after she had taken in the scene. Was she really scared, or was she a good actor? Either way, Klaus had taken the time to look at her and she had acted intelligently by looking away and shielding herself from his gaze. Like this, Klaus could not see her eyes. Like this, Klaus would not know that she was something so much more complicated than a doppelganger.
But Klaus was not going to go easily. Klaus was not ready to be caught and captured again, he was not ready to be caught and brought out of his victim's body, just like he was not ready to die. His dark eyes, Tyler's dark eyes, caught Damon's and swivelled back to Evie's before he frowned, his face moulding into a look of terror he was sure Klaus had never played on his own face.
"Elena, Damon – you found me!" Ah, he was hitting below the belt, he was begging for survival. He was going to pretend to be Tyler Lockwood.
"Is she dead?" Evie had asked it so quietly, in such a whisper, that it was hard to hear her voice over the wind. It barely sounded like her own and, even Damon had to admit, it could have easily passed for Elena's. But Klaus looked suspicious – Elena would have been glaring at him by now, Elena would have been aghast and insulted and have given her disgust away...
"I'm sorry – I was held prisoner. I was so thirsty!" Klaus pretended again, pitching Tyler's voice a little bit lower than it normally sounded. "I don't know what happened, I don't know how I survived...Elena-"
He grabbed Evie's arms almost desperately, shaking her roughly until she was forced to look at him. Damon could hear Tyler Lockwood's breath falter with the realization that the woman in front of him was not Elena Gilbert at all. The eerie gray eyes were explanation enough, the gray eyes that held him with such an intense hold he did not know how to struggle away from them. Even Damon, far away and behind the trees, was bewildered by the intensity of her stare. How could he have had the time to realize that she was slowly reaching into her pocket?
"Honoria?" the hybrid whispered, even more quietly than she had. She smiled widely, a striking smile that had never belonged to Elena or Katherine, a striking smile with devious intention layered behind it.
"Hello Niklaus."
She slapped the hybrid, causing Damon to move forward – the girl was going to get herself killed before they even caught him! – but instead of attacking, Tyler's body slumped forward onto the ground, his heart stuttering into an even and slow rhythm.
"What the hell?" Damon whispered, his chest aching nervously as he walked toward the hybrid on the ground – but he had to take a step back when he got too close. The smell...the smell was overwhelming. Something he had never smelt before – like wine and danger and cinnamon. It filled his lungs like smoke, heavy and present, something that he could feel swirling around inside of him.
On Klaus' face was a bloody handprint.
"That's why I couldn't bring Stefan," she explained, somewhat panting while she lifted up Tyler's eyelid and checked something. Whatever it was she found – or didn't find – made her sigh and rock back onto her heels. Damon looked to the bloody handprint scraping across Tyler's cheek and shook his head, trying to keep his eyes focused on Evie.
"What are you talking about?"
"That's why it had to be you. You know control," Evie took the time to smile. "I'm a blood witch, Damon."
Well, Klaus is almost back! What does everyone think? I'm absolutely loving the response I've been getting for this story, please keep it up :) To my fabulous reviewers:
SomebodyWhoCares: I love the Originals, completely adore them, so I wanted to make sure that they were all important and incorporated. You'll have to wait to find out about Rebekah, but you won't have to wait too long...
SilverMoonlit: Only Katherine could get away with killing a teacher to save a grade, hope you liked this chapter and thank you for reviewing!
nickiR0x: Ha, don't worry Damon will start to realize his feelings for Evie soon enough – but I'm not going to make it easy. It's not realistic that he'd fall for Evie fast considering he's in love with Elena and it's not likely that Evie would fall for him considering she doesn't know or trust him. I also think that Klaus and Caroline are adorable – I kind of want to just push them together in the show and scream "KISS!" but apparently TV screens are made of solid matter... anyway thank you for reviewing!
Tvdlover87654: I'm glad you like it, thanks for the reviews!
Angel of the Night Watchers: I haven't tried accessing the site from my phone, to be honest, but either way since I'm writing I'd be doing it on my laptop. Allergy tests suck, I've gotten a few but they aren't as bad as they were when I was a kid...it included needles in the back way back then. The weather here is warm during the day but cool at night. I'm really appreciating the last bit of sunlight before the snow comes - I do not like snow. Not one bit. I am the clumsiest person in history and I can't explain how many times a day I slip on ice! Yes, they're making the other Hunger Games books into movies - it'll be really hard. I have trouble thinking of how they'll pull the last book off, but I think it will be FANTASTIC if they can. And I have heard of Pitch Perfect, I'm going to go see it with my friend at some point, hopefully the next time our schedules coincide :)
Egyptian Kiss: I'm glad you like it! The name Honoria does keep popping up, doesn't it? And I love Elijah, he's such a fantastic character. I'm glad you like it, thanks so much for the review :)
Thank you for your thoughts everyone, I love hearing from you all! Please keep it up and give me inspiration, which I always get when people review!
-Egypt
