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Coming home after my encounter with Stefan I found Elijah waiting for me on the porch. If he was sitting there outside my house it was clearly a form of courtesy because since I wasn't a human anymore my house was a free zone for vampires; no invitation required. These well behaved manners didn't do anything to diminish my anger. I trusted him and he betrayed me. I tried to calm myself because I knew it wasn't in my best interest to antagonize an Original, be it the most calm of them.
I approached him and looked at him questioningly.
"Hello Elena! I'm sorry for your loss." He said sounding sincere, but I was still very much pissed.
"Oh, you mean my life? No biggie. It's not like you promised you and your family will leave us alone." I couldn't help but say.
"That was unfortunately, I admit. And I don't want to excuse what Rebekah did, but you see she thought that Klaus was dead."
"Even if he would have been dead it wouldn't have been because of us." I said more rationally.
"Well, that might be up for disagreement, after all he was incapacitated, unable to defend himself because of you. But I don't want us to fight over faults, be it ours or yours. It all went completely wrong and that's the truth. What we should do is assure that nothing tragic happens from now."
"And what do you propose Elijah?" I asked curious.
"That you and the Salvatore's give us Klaus's body. We already have a witch to do the restoration spell, so no need for Bonnie's involvement. And then we will leave you all in peace. There's no need for any more suffering Elena. You as a vampire are no longer of use for Klaus. We can put an end to all."
"Sounds nice, but I think we already done that deal and your family broke it. You see, Elijah over the past year the two of us always tried to make deals, to help each other somehow, completely ignoring the fact that we were actually on two opposite sides. And it only brought us betrayal. I betrayed you, you betrayed me. And we keep on trying to fool ourselves that we can come to an understatement. We should face the truth Elijah, maybe in another life we could have been the best of friends, but in this life we are enemies; our families are in a deadly war and we cannot stop it by diplomacy."
I saw a flicker of emotion in his eyes, he knew I was right and it seemed that it almost made him sad.
"You're going to regret this Elena; this war is not one that you could possibly win." And with those words he left, but after a few steps he turned around and said with a bitter smile.
"I would have loved to meet you in another life Elena."
And with that I was alone on my porch shivering with fear; my eternal life as a vampire suddenly could become a very short one.
After less than an hour the whole gang was in my kitchen trying to decide what we should do next. We knew that Klaus wouldn't give up without a fight, we expected him to be back, but the fact that his siblings were ready to help him made our odds even less favorable.
Looking around the table I saw fear in all of their eyes, Damon's weren't an exception but in his you could also read determination, he was ready to fight. That gave me a little bit of hope, I would fight next to him and as I told him before 'we will always survive'.
It was the first time the brothers and I were in the same room after my break-up with Stefan, and I wondered if Damon knew about it. If he knew, he sure as hell didn't let it show. I desperately wanted to be alone with him, to tell him I loved him, to make up for all the time we lost, to try to erase all the harsh words I told him over the years. But it would have to wait a little longer, even though each minute seemed an eternity now that I embraced this love.
As I finished letting them in with what Elijah had to say the first to talk was Damon.
"I think kudos is in order for not making another of your marvelous deals with Elijah. I mean it started getting on the point of 'fool me onceā¦'"
"Damon." Stefan said simply.
"It's okay Stefan, Damon is right, I couldn't deny any longer the reality that Elijah is not on our side." I saw Stefan flinch as I agreed with his brother.
"Alright, sane judgment checked, sides checked, just around the corner war checked. Now all we have to do is prepare a strategy, figure out our strengths and our vulnerabilities." Damon said while looking to all of us.
We were not a good sight to be quite honest; and the silence was almost painful. Jeremy, Matt, Stefan appeared so tired. Caroline was absolutely devastated and Bonnie, well, Bonnie was lost in her own thoughts. And I knew exactly what those thoughts were about. She knew that she could give us a tremendous advantage by doing the spell that would separate Klaus by the rest of his lineage.
"I see no one wants to take the floor; so I will begin. You can call me 'General'. First of all our weaknesses are quite obvious, we are not Originals. As advantages go we have Klaus's body, this is of most importance. We have the enhanced by magic white oak stake. Good one also. And we have Bonnie's magic, a little bit of desiccation spell might go a long way." Damon continued.
"But we can't use the stake." Stefan pointed out.
"We can't use the stake on Klaus but the others are up for grabs." Jeremy interjected.
"Listen to the kid, Stefan. At least we can reduce their army. I'm starting to enjoy all these references to war, the boy in me rejoices." Damon attempted desperately to lighten the mood. It was so transparent and not at all successful.
"It doesn't matter how well we've hided Klaus's body, if he has a witch on his side he will eventually find it and get back in it." Bonnie voiced her concern.
A desperate silence engulfed us all for a moment or two.
"Let me ask you something Bonnie. What will happen if Tyler would die?" Damon asked nonchalantly and I saw Caroline shiver as the meaning of the question sank in.
Bonnie sighed but answered. "Well, then Klaus will be trapped in some kind of limbo state, and it would be very difficult to transfer himself to another body, even with the help of a skilled witch; but not impossible Damon."
"Still, it's our best chance. Klaus trapped; the rest of the Originals fair game as the stake is concerned. That might actually work." Damon drew a conclusion.
"Damon, we can't kill Tyler in order to buy a little time. It's wrong." Stefan argued.
"If it increases our odds at survival I think is a smart move, brother. After all he is one, we are a bunch. It's common sense."
"You don't care about us; you only care about Elena and her survival. So stop with the charade. You would stop at nothing to make sure she lives, no matter who gets hurt in the process." Caroline yelled, no longer able to contain her rage.
I would have stepped in, I would have said something, I felt the need too. But I couldn't because as much as I cared about Caroline, Damon wasn't the only one ready to sacrifice others or even himself for his love. I was equally selfish. And I couldn't bare the thought of Damon dying. Between Tyler and him I chose him. I would always choose him. So I said absolutely nothing as I watched Caroline storming out of the house.
As she entered the Mikaleson house Rebekah pinned her to a wall.
"What are you doing here?" she hissed through her teeth.
"I came to speak with Klaus." Caroline said determined.
"Well, I think I have a better idea." Rebekah continued smiling viciously as she increased her pressure on Caroline's neck.
"Nik, there's a young lady seeking for you." Kol shouted undisturbed by his sister's menacing glances.
Klaus made his entrance immediately, being quite surprised by Caroline's appearance.
"My love, haven't you heard that a war had started? Your presence here, delighting as it is, is as well quite foolish." Klaus said in Tyler's voice which made it all so more disturbing for Caroline.
"This is why I'm here." The blonde answered bluntly.
"Mmm. To be quite honest I must confess I'm rather excited by what this war means. You see, you and I are fast becoming the modern Romeo and Juliet. With a spin. It's tantalizing indeed."
"Yuck. I'm not here because of that, you perv. I just have an offer you can't refuse."
Klaus laughed.
"I see we are all about classical references today. What a pair, don't you think? I admit I'm intrigued. So please, follow me into my chambers. We could talk more privately."
As the two of them climbed the stairs Caroline wondered if she wasn't making a mistake.
Author Note: Hello! I'm very thankful for you guys reading this and I'm especially thankful to those of you who stopped by in the review section. Hearing from you makes me a little more confident about the story . Well, until the next time (chapter)!
