Sorry for the delay. This was mostly finished, but I lost all motivation over the weekend due to some less than ideal circumstances.

Here is chapter 14! Chapter 15 is halfway finished, so never fear.

Thanks to Jenn, for being an amazing beta. You rock.

He knew he needed to be patient. He knew running out and searching for her wasn't going to get them anywhere. But why was everyone taking so damn long?

He had been pacing for the better part of ten minutes. Since hanging up with Caroline, he managed to shower, dress, and clean up some of his mess and they still hadn't shown.

"It's about fucking time," he growled loudly when he finally heard the front door open and close.

Caroline was the first to appear around the corner.

"Sorry we're late, but we ran into someone who thinks he can help," she said with a smile as Elijah appeared next to her.

"You know what happened to her?" Damon asked.

"I do," Elijah said with a simple nod. "If you will all have a seat I will tell you what I know."

Damon took Elijah's order surprisingly well. He knew from experience that he couldn't just jump Elijah for information, Elijah had to give it how he wanted to.

Caroline plopped down on the couch and Bonnie and Jeremy followed behind her to take seats of their own. Damon opted to standing in the corner, he didn't have the patience to sit.

"I take it none of you have spoken to your friend Tyler in a while?" Elijah asked as he strolled further into the living room.

All eyes settled on Caroline who shook her head sadly. She hadn't spoken to him much since that fateful night they killed Klaus. Tyler left town shortly after Elena did.

"Well apparently a sire bond is never broken, even after the sire's death," Elijah explained, "Once Elena returned to Mystic Falls, the sire bond was activated once more. Seems the doppelganger has an effect on a lot more than just brothers."

"So you are saying that Tyler still feels loyal to Klaus even though Klaus has been dead for years now?" Bonnie asked.

"Precisely," Elijah confirmed. "So loyal, in fact, that he took it upon himself to un-dagger our family. Including the sealed coffin."

There was a collective gasp heard around the room.

"But those coffins have been in our basement this whole time," Damon said.

"Apparently Tyler was aware of that fact and took advantage of you all being out of town," Elijah said with a careless wave of his hand.

"So who was in the sealed coffin?" Jeremy asked the question on everyone's mind.

"My mother."

"Your mother?" Damon asked skeptically. "I thought Klaus killed her."

"My mother had a spell done to preserve her body so that when her necklace was back in her child's possession and the doppelganger was near, she'd be freed," Elijah said.

"So what does Elena have to do with any of this?" Damon asked. He could feel the anxiety growing in his chest.

"When Tyler completed the steps to free my mother, she did a spell to put Klaus inside Tyler's body," Elijah explained.

"So Klaus isn't dead?" Jeremy asked, shock written clearly on his face.

"His mind isn't dead, but that is where Elena comes in. The blood of the doppelganger can bring Klaus back in his own body in a ritual that can only be performed by my mother, the original witch." The silence in the room was deafening. It was happening again. Elena was in danger and this time around, she had no idea.

"Seriously? Again with all this doppelganger blood stuff? Don't the witches have anyone else they can terrorize?" Damon exploded. He couldn't get the picture of Elena, cold, alone and scared, out of his mind.

"It's insurance, plain and simple, to make sure that no matter what Klaus tries, he will fail. Elena was supposed to die in that ritual, insuring that he could never create others like himself. Had she died, he would never be able to be brought back," Elijah explained.

"So your mother wants to sacrifice Elena?" Caroline asked with an eyebrow raised.

"My mother wants our family reunited now that my father has been...taken care of. Elena's sacrifice is the only way that can be completed. Klaus will drink half of her blood before he makes his transition to his own body, then he will drink the rest of her blood to complete the transition," Elijah paused. "While he is in Tyler's body and he is drinking from her, he is the most vulnerable. If you are able to rip his heart out at that moment, you can save Elena and keep Klaus from ever returning."

"Tyler has to die?" Caroline squeaked.

"Is there any way that Tyler could survive?" Damon asked for Caroline and she shot him a grateful look.

"Yes, there is," Elijah nodded, but his eyes didn't give away any hope. "The only way Tyler will survive is if Elena is killed and the ritual is completed."

Silence descended on the room once more.

"Where is she?" Damon asked, finally breaking the tense silence.

Elijah sighed and looked exasperated, "You can't go running off to be the hero, Damon. As far as I can tell you are not as strong and invincible as you used to be. The only way you can save Elena is if you plan accordingly and strike when the time is right."

"Where is she?" Damon practically snarled as he advanced on Elijah.

"In the cave on the Lockwood property," Elijah answered reluctantly.

"I'm going to get her," he said simply, before he stormed past the Original in his living room. He barely made it four steps before Caroline was in front of him.

"You can't do that, Damon. You're still human. You could get yourself killed," she said in a panic. "You heard what Elijah said."

"I can't sit by and let her die, Caroline!" he yelled and gestured to the door.

"What we need is to make a plan. They won't hurt Elena - she's too valuable to them right now. The only way you can save her is if we make a plan," Caroline said seriously, which got his attention. Caroline was rarely seriously and she hardly ever got in his way. He sighed and ran a frazzled hand through his hair.

"Fine," Damon relented and turned to reenter the living room.

"We will make a plan and then I will take you to see Elena a few hours before the ritual is set to begin," Elijah said as he tried to offer some comfort to Damon. "Besides, it will be my watch shift."

Everything was dark and everything hurt.

Her eyes burned with the strength that it took to open them. Once they were opened, she wished she'd kept them closed. Her wrists were bound by shackles and it wasn't until she took in her surroundings that she realized she was being held up by her wrists. The toes of her ever-present Chucks barely scraped the ground. She glanced around and noticed she was in some sort of cave, there was a little light streaming in from the cracks in the rock above her. That's when she started to panic.

Her heart started to pick up and she fought against the restraints, crying out in pain when they only cut further into the delicate skin on her wrists. She felt tears burning her eyes from the combination of fear and pain. All she wanted was to be in Damon's arms all snuggled up in his bed.

She tried desperately to remember how she got here. She remembered everything she read in her journal, she remembered the urgent feeling that she needed to tell Damon the truth, and she remembered leaving her house and running toward her car, but that was it.

"Ah, she's awake. Finally," a whiney voice echoed through the dark cavern.

Elena watched with dread as the blonde that attacked her at Ric's wedding appeared out of the shadows. She recognized the woman that attacked her in the bathroom. Rebekah.

"Hello, Elena," she spoke with a sick smile.

"What do you want with me?" Elena asked in a shaky voice.

"Oh, Elena the things I wish I could do to you, but Mother won't let me," Rebekah pouted. "But we can still play."

Elena felt her blood run cold at the sadistic smile on the blonde's face. Her breath came out in frenzied pants as she watched Rebekah walk around her in a slow circle before disappearing behind her. Elena tried to turn and look, but before she could see what Rebekah was doing, she was jerked off the ground by the restraints around her wrists.

Elena tried to hold in her anguished cries, but when she felt the blood from her wrists trickle down her arm, she could no longer hold them in.

"Rebekah!" A sharp, deep voice echoed through the rock cave. "Enough! I'm taking over the watch now."

Rebekah huffed and Elena fell back to the ground, her feet hit so hard that she fell to the ground onto her knees, her wrists still bound and hanging above her head. Her whole body sagged from the pain and exhaustion.

Rebekah stomped her foot like a petulant child, but she eventually disappeared. Elena heard her footsteps fade and heard a man's heavy steps nearing her. She raised her heavy head to see the intruder. A large man stood a few feet from Elena and she could feel the fear coursing through her veins once more.

"Hello, Elena," the man repeated the blonde's words.

"Who are you?" she asked in a voice that sounded utterly terrified.

"Do not be afraid, Elena," he said softly, holding his hands in front of him as if he was approaching a wounded animal.

"Who are you?" she repeated, her voice a little stronger.

"I'm Elijah," he said with a smile. As he stepped further into the light, she could make out his eerily familiar features.

"Elijah," she breathed, recognizing his name from her journal. "What's happening?"

"There is to be a sacrifice to bring my brother back from the dead," Elijah said grimly. "And you are the sacrificial lamb."

Elena felt the air being ripped from her lungs. She was to be sacrificed? This was a cruel twist of fate. She remembered reading about the first sacrifice that unleashed Elijah's brother's dark side.

"Do not be afraid, my dear," Elijah reassured her. "We'll make sure that my family does not succeed."

She was too panicked to even think about responding, so she settled with a terse nod.

"I brought you something," Elijah said with a little warmth in his voice, and took a large step to the side just as another figure came down the steps and into the cave. He walked forward and she instantly knew who it was. She didn't need her memory to remember him. She took one look at his face and visibly wilted with relief.

"Damon?"

I would have put their reunion in this chapter to make it longer, but it just didn't feel right. So next chapter is full of DE goodness. I promise.

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