Hey everyone! Coming down the home stretch here... just a couple more chapters to go! I'm aiming to have it done before the show airs for S3, but I don't want to make any promises I can't keep. :-) Comments and reviews are welcome as always! I read every single one and take it to heart.

Now... at long last... SHIT HITS THE FAN.

A/N: There is oblique reference to rape and torture in this scene. Nothing graphic happens, but if that is a no-no for your tastes, be warned!

They stood in the fashionably dim, plushly carpeted hotel hallway and Damon could hear Elena's heart in her throat. She was absolutely terrified, he knew, but all that showed on her face was grim determination.

She hadn't spoken much since he'd forced her to eat lunch earlier. He didn't care about that; at this point having her angry at him was easier, less distracting than the warmth of her love and the sensuality he'd been basking in for the past day and a half.

He did feel sorry for how he'd disturbed her, though, when he'd stopped at a local blood bank and came out with an extra-large ice chest full of AB positive (which was the type no one noticed he always made a point of taking, since the smallest percentage of people could use it).

"What on Earth?" she'd asked incredulously. "How long do you expect to be gone?"

"This isn't for me," he'd replied matter-of-factly. "I'd rather have too much than not enough to keep him under control until we get home."

At the horrified look on her face he immediately regretted the bluntness of his words. Clearly she hadn't mentally processed the realities of what it meant that Stefan would be in dire need of rehabilitation after they found him.

If we can even fix him at all when he's been this far gone for so long, Damon thought, but this time his treacherous mouth stayed shut.

He'd reached out to her then, aching to wipe away the pain on her face and was chagrinned when she pulled away from his touch.

Our time is over, he thought sadly. And so he swallowed the lump in his throat and started to rebuild his emotional defenses... the ones he'd spent decades building up only for one spirited young woman to blow them down like a house of cards. It was not a painless process. Shoving her away now was so much harder than it had been to keep her at an arm's distance in the first place... before there had been desire, lust, and loneliness, but now he knew what he'd be missing.

Sitting on the edge of his hotel bed he'd drained a blood bag and helped himself to a couple of the single-serving bottles of liquor in the mini-bar. He was sitting deep in thought (sulking was such an ugly word) when Elena walked in from the sitting room and looked at him for a moment before running a hand through her silky hair and asking, "are you sure it's a good idea to be drinking before we do this thing?"

Annoyed that she'd come in to tempt him with the smell of her shampoo, he looked up and glared at her saying, "I think I know my limits, Mother."

She opened her mouth angrily as though to retaliate, then closed it, pursed her lips, balled up her fists and stalked out of the room.

Good, he thought. It was much harder to deal with the idea of losing her when he was pretending like he had her. This was better, really. She needed to get used to "normal" Damon again eventually, and remember that "normal" Damon is an asshole who doesn't give a shit about her feelings. "Eventually" might as well be now.

Right.

That was hours ago. Now, with all their own posessions and Damon's massive supply of blood (except for the two bags stashed in Elena's purse) safely stowed away in their own room ten floors down, they stood outside the penthouse shite, hesitating to knock, waiting for the right moment.

Though, Damon thought in the reasonable part of his brain, it would have been better not to wait at all. If they think about this hallway even for a split second they'll sense someone is out here.

"Ready when you are," he told her and she nodded her assent, not meeting his eyes. Her withdrawn attitude made him ache.

It's for the best, he told himself, and then took out his anger on the door in front of him, kicking it in with the full force of his strength.

Everything happened in a blur. The door fell in to reveal Katherine, naked and slumped over, tied to a chair and with a sickly grey pallor to her olive complexion. Starved, he assessed immediately, and tortured. He hoped Elena didn't notice the scrapes and scratches on Katherine's inner thighs. The type of abuse they suggested was disturbing and their lack of healing meant she must have not eaten in weeks, if not longer. Her head snapped up and her glassy eyes opened and he could see her nostrils flare at the scent of Elena.

Well that certainly will not do.

Damon reached into Elena's purse and grabbed one of the blood bags he'd put inside for Stefan. Tearing it open with his teeth he walked briskly to Katherine and pressed it against her mouth. The whole thing was gone in a matter of seconds as she guzzled it down with no regard for the fact that it was spilling down her chin and chest. After she was done she licked hungrily at her lips and shoulder where it had drizzled. To see the normally fastidious Katherine guzzling blood like a wild animal...

Christ...

He looked up and down her body, trying to assess the damage she'd endured, but she snarled, face contorted and fangs extended and jerked her bloody chin towards the bathroom.

"Not safe," she whispered hoarsely, "leave now. Get out."

"Oh, Katarina," purred Klaus' silky feline voice as he sauntered into the room, "They needn't go so soon. They only just arrived!"

Damon looked up from Katherine's (now-healing) wounds and met the devil's eyes. There was so much power, so much arrogance and pride. Klaus truly believed he was invincible... a god. Despite his best efforts to control himself, Damon felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach and his predatory prowess yielded entirely to the all-consuming urge to RUN THE FUCK AWAY.

"Oh, there's nowhere to run, Damon," Klaus purred, almost as though he could read Damon's thoughts. "Have a seat, my boy, and stay put."

Compelled by an original Damon had no choice but to obey. Though he didn't want to move, his legs moved of their own volition and he found himself seated opposite Katherine on a scotch-guarded velour sofa.

Elena glanced quickly from Klaus to Damon as this was happening, and scurried over to Katherine, starting to release the rough, scratchy ropes that bound her wrists to the chair.

Those ropes are extra-cruel, Damon thought, The rope fibers are thick enough that they'll feel like wooden splinters against vampire skin. Tiny wooden needles... torture-licious.

Shaking off that thought he regarded the doppelgangers side by side for the first time in ages. The comparison between them was eerie. Day and night, life and death, Elena the vibrant avenging angel releasing Katherine who at this point seemed more zombie than vampire, with none of her trademark spirit or haughtiness anywhere to be found, his past love and his present...identical and opposite... and Damon realized suddenly that he was scared for them both.

Katherine was broken. Her past had finally caught up with her and the pain she'd clearly been enduring since he'd last seen her was enough to move even his own bitter and calloused heart. She looked like she'd welcome death, and the sight was as tragic as seeing a sickly tiger trapped behind the iron bars of a circus cage.

Tigers in captivity are still wild animals though, he thought, and as if on cue Katherine growled as Elena bent near her.

Damon gasped. If the bitch lost control and killed her human twin so help him...

Klaus watched the two women as though he was watching a particularly dramatic soap opera on TV.

Elena looked warily at him as she untied one of Katherine's wrists and, fishing in her purse she retrieved the other blood bag, handing it to the vampire woman and saying, "Hey, don't eat me. I'm trying to help you."

"You're going to die," Katherine croaked. "You two should have flown the coop and lived happily ever after weeks ago."

"Come on now," Elena said gently, with a touch of humor in her voice, "You of all people should know I couldn't leave one of them behind. And I don't plan to die today."

Then the two women shared a private moment that Damon couldn't see from where he was trapped. Two pairs of identical brown eyes glittered and Katherine tore into the blood bag with gusto. By the time she was finished her skin was starting to look more lifelike and less papery. Elena reached for the last rope.

"Not so fast there," Klaus said, bored with Elena's rescue attempt and Katherine's lack of attacking her. "Katarina, bonds or no you will not leave that chair."

It was a testament to how broken her spirit was that she didn't even react to the compulsion, just accepted it with a heavy nod of her head and let dull misery wash over her eyes once again, even after Elena finished untying her.

"Elena," Damon hissed, wondering what she was waiting for. She had the power to take Klaus out. Why wouldn't she use it?

Elena looked over and met his eyes then shook her head very discreetly. Clearly she had a plan, which he found less than comforting because most of Elena's plans ended in everyone being alive and well except Elena.

Klaus reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, jerking her towards him like a rag doll. She didn't even try to resist. Damon wanted to fight, to kill, to run and hide... but he'd been told to sit and so he sat like a fucking dog and watched in horror as Klaus tore away her shirt and ran his hands up her throat.

"I do have to say, my dear, in all my years on this Earth you're the only human I've ever had the chance to kill twice."

Elena, to her credit, did not flinch. She just stared ahead of her and refused to react. Damon tried to catch her eye but she wouldn't even look at him, and he wondered irrationally if it was possible to die from feeling powerless.

Klaus was continuing, "But as delightful as it was the first time, I feel liek surely I should let someone else have a chance to experience it. I wouldn't want to be greedy, after all. Stefan, dear, why don't you come out now?"

That got a reaction. Damon heard Elena's quick intake of air as his baby brother emerged from the bedroom and his heart finished breaking.

She has him back now. I don't stand a chance. Never did.

A tiny piece of him, he realized, had been hoping Stefan wouldn't be alive, that he could get all the credit for a rescue attempt without losing the girl.

You're a truly horrible person, he scolded himself with self loathing. But that thought only lasted until he met Stefan's gaze.

"Yes, Klaus?" Stefan asked, glancing at Elena with cold, uncomprehending eyes. Then he looked at Damon, and Damon realized that his baby brother, the king martyr, had actually shut off his emotions. He suddenly felt cold.

"Look what I found," Klaus said brightly, indicating Elena in front of him. "She's just like Katarina, your very favorite toy," he crooned, "only even better. Because this one is edible."

As if to demonstrate he lowered his head and bit, tearing her flesh unnecessarily as he did so. Elena screamed, and Damon let loose an involuntary protective and threatening growl, which made Klaus laugh.

Something foreign glinted in Stefan's eyes and his nostrils flared at the scent of Elena's blood. Damon knew true terror in that moment as he realized Stefan was going to murder Elena. Here. Now. While he was trapped and forced to watch. Even Katherine looked disturbed.

Elena was trembling but he couldn't tell whether it was out of pain or rage or fear.

"Well," Klaus said impatiently, "what are you waiting for? Come, boy, take your pleasure and eat your fill. This little lady is all for you."

Stefan stalked towards her so ruthlessly Damon wondered if the brother he knew was left anywhere inside this monster. Clearly Elena was thinking something similar, because he heard the thread of uncertainty in her voice as she spun in the circle of Klaus' arms and said, very quietly, "No, Klaus. Make him stop."

Klaus seemed slightly surprised at the sound of his own words as he looked at Stefan and said, "Wait, Stop, Stefan. No."

Damon's heart sang with relief as his brother's steps slowed. She'd been foolhardy to wait so long but now, with Klaus' mouth dripping her blood so freshly ingested there was no chance he'd be able to resist her. Her confidence was growing as she continued to hold his eyes and say, "Now let me go."

His arms dropped to his sides. He looked confused. Katherine made a sound of impressed disbelief.

"Now listen to me and listen well," Elena said, and her voice was icy cold enough that he could almost believe she was Katherine. "I can't kill you, motherfucker, but I can make you wish you were dead."

Klaus looked at her with incredulous eyes. "What have you done? What are you doing?" he asked, bewildered.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" she said by way of response, "Being compelled? Having no free will? Being at my mercy?"

Klaus' eyes began to widen. Katherine looked at Damon inquisitively, but he just smiled. Elena was going on.

"Let me tell you what my whim is, you cruel, psychotic monster, since you're my puppet now. In a few minutes I'm going to snap my fingers. When I do, you are going to forget everything. You are going to forget Stefan, Damon, Elena," she paused and took a breath, "and Katherine ever existed. You're going to forget Mystic Falls is even on the map. You're going to forget everything about who you are. Everything except that you are now a monster...and a very long time ago you used to be human."

"You can't do this, you idiot girl child," Klaus said, faking bravado, but Damon could hear the taste of nervousness in his tone.

"I can't come back from the dead either," she countered, "but I seem to be doing okay there." She smiled and it was cruel and cold. "You've ruined all the lives you're going to ruin, you God damned psycho. You murdered Jenna... and so the next time I snap these idiot girl child's fingers you're going to realize that the smell, the taste, even the sight of human blood makes you sick. You'll never want to touch another human again. In fact, you don't even want to be AROUND them. You're going to go hide in the woods of Mississippi with the rest of the mosquitos, and you'll stay there because you want to. You'll live like a king, forever, on the blood of bunnies and alligators."

"You can't do that," he said flatly, and reached out as though to strike her.

"Stop," she commanded, and his hand froze mid-air.

That was when Klaus actually started to look afraid, and that was the moment that Damon started to let himself hope that they would actually make it out alive.

"Now... release them from their compulsion."

"Stefan, Damon, Katherine..." Klaus said in a miserable, hollow tone, "I release you from your compulsion."

For Damon the next moment appeared to pass in slow motion as several things happened simultaneously.

Klaus' eyes flashed with malice as he spoke, focusing his gaze on Stefan. The look made Damon leap to his feet as soon as he was able. Elena snapped her fingers and Klaus' evil sneer faded into a blank look of wariness and confusion.

Katherine shouted, "Stefan, NO!" and reached for the younger Salvatore, but in her weakened state she wasn't fast enough to catch him as he lunged for Elena, the look of the hunt eclipsing any shred of humanity on his chiseled features. He was going to kill Elena. His predatory gaze was focused on the sweet expanse of olive skin that peeked out from her torn cardigan.

Damon didn't think, he acted, finding his feet in motion and running towards her before he consciously acknowledged that he needed to, flinging himself in front of her in desperation.

He heard Elena scream and sob as he fell to the ground, he heard Stefan snarl and growl, and he heard Katherine shout his name, but he couldn't figure out what had happened until he smelled his own blood and saw Stefan's mouth streaked in crimson.

"Don't kill her, dude," he croaked out hoarsely. "If you do, whenever you sober up and realize what happened you'll be insufferably depressing for the rest of eternity."

Stefan kicked him to shut him up, which made both women cry out again. He blinked repeatedly as his vision blurred. This was not a good sign. Massive blood loss was such a bitch to come back from, and Stefan would probably stake him before he was aware of what he was doing...

"Get out, Elena." he whispered... or maybe he thought it. He wasn't sure. Either way, it was the last thought he had as his consciousness slipped away along with the warm, sticky blood that was pooling around him.