Elena's POV

It would've been quite an amusing scene to walk in on hadn't the situation been so serious. Katherine was lounging on the sofa on her belly, while Elijah perched uncomfortably at the very end of the sofa, trying to avoid her feet which were dangling by his nose. Caroline was sitting across from Katherine, and glaring at her with utmost hatred etched into her face, while Stefan sat next to her with his arm casually draped around the back of the sofa, a smug look on his face. Tyler was on the floor by Caroline's feet, staring curiously at Elijah, while Bonnie sat on the arm of the chair next to Caroline, also glowering at Elijah who was looking more and more uncomfortable by the minute. Lastly, Jeremy was looking reluctant that the only free seat was next to Stefan, and he was sitting there nervously playing with the strings on his sweatshirt. I also noticed that Alaric had turned up, and he was sitting on the armchair while glaring at Elijah. The atmosphere was awkward and quiet. The tension in the room was so thick I bet I could've sliced it with a knife.

"Hi everyone," I said brightly, sitting on the floor beside Tyler. Damon sat on the floor next to me, regarding Elijah's predicament with amusement.

Everyone all began to talk at once.

"What is she doing here?" Caroline snarled at Katherine.

"What is he doing here?" Bonnie and Alaric both snapped at Elijah.

"What are we all doing here?" Tyler asked.

Everyone began to talk hectically amongst themselves. Stefan smirked with glee, obviously enjoying himself too much. I exchanged a look with Damon, who shrugged and mouthed you handle it, as he also smirked. I glared at the two useless Salvatore brothers, and cleared my throat pointedly.

"HEY!" I shouted.

Everyone turned to look at me and I felt myself blushing as they fell silent.

"Thank you," I muttered, before raising my voice. "Look, Katherine's here because she has information on how to kill Klaus and she helped Stefan and Damon save me from Rebekah –"

"How can you trust her, Elena?" Caroline demanded, sending another vicious glare at Katherine. "All she does is lie!"

Katherine smirked at me, but I continued. "I can't," I said flatly. "But the more help we have, the better."

Caroline folded her arms sulkily and flung herself back into the sofa. Stefan laughed delightedly at her annoyance.

"Elijah is here also to help," I continued. "He knows what he did was wrong," I exchanged a brief smile with Elijah before turning apologetically to my friends. "But I have forgiven him, and he's willing to help. I know that we've both broken our words together in the past, but that's behind us now. And we're starting over, despite what happened before, okay?"

Everyone eventually nodded, still shooting doubtful looks at Elijah, but I knew they trusted my judgement. I nodded with satisfaction and turned to Katherine.

"So," I sighed. "What's your plan to kill Klaus?"

Katherine sat up, almost kicking Elijah in the face as she swung her legs around. She seemed to revel in the fact she had an audience hanging on to her every word.

"Pearl used to tell me stories about a dead vampire who hunted vampires," she announced. "And that vampire could kill Klaus. But she wouldn't tell me any more."

"Why not?" Damon interrupted.

"Because it was her leverage," Katherine replied simply. "But she did tell one other person."

"Anna," Jeremy murmured.

"Yes," she nodded. "Her daughter, Anna."

"Well, we've already hit a dead end," Damon sighed. "In case you haven't noticed, both Pearl and Anna are rotting in the grave."

"I know," she shot back irritably. "But it doesn't mean we can't perform a séance."

"No way," Caroline said stubbornly. "Last time we did that Bonnie got possessed."

"We have to," Bonnie said quietly. "If it means we can kill Klaus."

"What, you mean like, summon Anna's ghost?" Jeremy asked. "Are you sure that would work?"

"Of course I'm sure," Katherine retorted. "As long as we were at a place extremely powerful."

"The site of the massacre," Bonnie breathed.

"Exactly," she nodded.

Elijah stood up suddenly. "I will not help you with this."

Every single face in the room turned to face him in shock, including mine.

"Why not?" Katherine immediately demanded. "Do you know something?"

"I won't help you bring back that man," Elijah shuddered. "There has to be another way."

"Yeah, well there isn't," she snapped. "Do you have a better idea?"

I stared at Elijah in confusion. "Is there a problem with this plan, Elijah?"

"Of course there is," Bonnie said, her voice steely as she glared at Elijah. "You're worried this vampire hunter will kill you too, right?"

Elijah met her gaze steadily, and then turned to face me. "I'm sorry to have to let you down twice, Elena. But I cannot help you with this."

Everyone in the room was fuming, apart from me. They all began to shout angrily, and I honestly felt like I was in the midst of an extremely angry mob.

"Guys!" I tried, but no one listened to me. Damon looked at me furiously.

"Don't forgive him, Elena! He's just gonna dump us because he doesn't like the plan – even after we brought the bastard back to life!" he fumed.

"Damon, he's obviously scared!" I retorted. "There must be something about this vampire hunter guy that's got him on edge!"

"But he can kill Klaus!" Damon shot back. "Isn't that what it's all about, Elena? Klaus is going to drain you dry to make his freaking hybrids, and if there's a chance we can stop him then I'm going to take it! I don't care what Elijah thinks – he said he would help us and now he's bailing!"

"Well, what do you want to do, Damon, huh? Kill Elijah? The only way you can do that is with the dagger, which is currently keeping Rebekah dead!" I shouted.

Damon glared at me. "Fine, Elena. Go ahead; forgive him, whatever. Just know that if you let people walk all over you in your life, you can never win. People will just take advantage of you and use you."

I glowered at him, stung. "I don't let people walk all over me. I'm not letting you walk all over me, so let me handle this by myself," I stood up angrily and glared at everyone. "SHUT IT!" I yelled.

Everybody fell silent. Elijah had ended up walking to the other side of the room to keep the vicious arguers at bay. Stefan let a low whistle escape his lips which broke the tension.

"Let him go," I said flatly, turning to Elijah. "He's made his decision. He doesn't have to help us. Elijah's a man of his word," I added meaningfully. "But we all know how words get broken."

Elijah stared at me unashamedly. "I will not apologise for this, Elena. I'm not ready to face the demons of my past."

"I understand," I said coldly. "I guess you'd better be on your way. Just know that next time we won't be so forgiving."

Elijah met my gaze steadily. "Goodbye, Elena," he said, before walking out the door. I sighed, watching him go. Everyone turned to face me, surprise etched into their faces. Damon shot a glare in the direction in which Elijah had left, before getting up and storming away. Tiredly, I sank into one of the sofas. Stefan abruptly stood up.

"I'm gonna get a drink," he said. "Katherine?"

Surprised and smug, she stood up and followed him out of the room. Caroline and Bonnie both slowly came and sat next to me. Jeremy and Tyler shuffled awkwardly out of the room. I was just mentally exhausted. Feeling extremely fatigued, I leaned against Bonnie's shoulder and fell asleep.

I felt something poking me that caused me to wake up. Groggily, I forced my eyes open and came face to face with Stefan. Shocked, I jumped away from him with a yelp. He smirked at me.

"Jumpy," he commented.

I glanced around. I was in the back of a car. It was dark, and Stefan was outside the car peering in through the open door. Standing behind him in boredom was Katherine.

"Wow," Stefan continued. "I honestly thought you would wake up while I carried you out to the car. But you've slept the whole way."

"Where are we?" I demanded angrily, getting out the car. "Where is everybody? Where's Damon?"

"We are on the outskirts of Mystic Falls," he replied. "Damon left you with Caroline to get a drink with Ric and cool off his temper. He is pissed at the moment, in case you haven't noticed. And while Caroline left to get a blood bag, I was able to grab you."

"What do you want with me?" I asked, my voice quavering slightly. My hand shot to my pocket, but of course, they had taken my phone.

"Don't freak out," Stefan advised me. "We just needed to get you alone and far away enough that you aren't influenced by another opinion."

"Stefan, what are you talking about?" I demanded.

Katherine sighed impatiently and joined us. "Klaus called. He's coming to collect you in two days."

"He found a werewolf pack," I stated miserably. "Didn't he? And he needs my blood to make his hybrids?"

"Pretty much," Stefan nodded. "And we want you to go with him."

I nodded bitterly. "I should've guessed. Well, go ahead, Stefan. Let him take me. That's why you brought me here, right? So when he takes me, Damon won't be able to stop you."

"Weren't you listening?" Katherine snapped. "Two days. We're not waiting here for two days, dumbass."

"We can't let Klaus know what we're up to," Stefan said. "He can't know I'm working against him, so you have to act like the defeated victim and allow him to take your blood, while we bring back the dead vampire hunter who can kill him. Once we bring him back, we'll lure Klaus to Mystic Falls, or if not, we will come to you."

"Let's call it a Plan B," Katherine put in with a smirk. "It's not the exact way we imagined this would work out, but it looks like we'll have to deal with it."

It did make sense. If I was with Klaus it would completely throw Klaus off their trail, and he would never know what they were actually doing. It would work. But...

"Damon doesn't know, does he?" I said quietly. "He'll never let me do it, Stefan."

"I thought you were the one who said you didn't let people walk all over you?" he retorted.

"I don't!" I snapped. "But this is Damon! You know he won't allow this, otherwise you wouldn't have brought me here!"

"Well, then I'll tell him at the last minute," Stefan said, waving a hand dismissively. "And while you're leaving on your vacation with Klaus, I'll keep Damon at bay."

I sighed. "What about Bonnie and Jeremy? Or Caroline and Tyler – they won't let me do it either!"

"God, Elena, I thought you were in control of your life!" Katherine snapped. "You're what; twenty five now? Are you gonna make your own decisions or are you gonna let others make them for you?"

"They're not just 'others', they're my friends!" I retorted. "And I'll put them through hell if I go!"

"You know what your problem is? You care too much about others! Just focus on the long-term solution here, man up, and go pretend to be a defenceless victim! It's that easy!" Katherine said exasperatedly.

I sighed, hating the fact she was right. Yes, I would be lying to Damon, but it would be good in the long-term, right? If I did this, Klaus would be completely thrown off our tracks – he would never know that we were planning to kill him and bring back this vampire hunter. I couldn't believe how only a few weeks ago I had woken up in my own home in Thomasville; trying to forget the worries and problems Mystic Falls held for me. And now here I was with my ripper ex-boyfriend and a murderous vampire doppelganger scheming to leave with a hybrid so I could help him make new hybrids. God, my life had gotten so messed up so quickly. But I didn't regret a single moment as I thought back over all of my moments with Damon. If I hadn't come back, then I would've never been reunited with him. I exhaled tiredly, squaring my shoulders and facing Stefan and Katherine.

"Alright," I said; my voice coming out more confident than I actually was. "I'll do it."

A/N: thank you so much for my wonderful reviewers, you're what helped me write this chapter :) let me know what you think :)