Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon).
Damon and Elena quickly scrambled to put on their socks, boots and outdoor clothes before clambering out of the tent to find it was just Bonnie waiting outside for them next to a small campfire that someone had built whilst Damon and Elena had been having their 'alone time' in the tent.
"What the hell happened?" Damon asked as he looked around the empty clearing for everyone else.
"I dunno." Bonnie shrugged. "Stefan had the rope and apparently he thought Connor was asleep in the tent. The next thing they knew was that someone had cut the rope and Connor was missing." she told them.
Elena turned to Bonnie "So did you guys already start looking for Connor?" she asked.
"We've already searched the perimeter." Bonnie told her.
"Did you find anything?" Elena asked.
"No. He's not on the trail either." Bonnie told her. "I checked."
"Where's Professor Shane?" Elena asked looking round.
"He's gone to look through Connor's stuff." Bonnie told her. "To see if he could find any clues."
"His gear's still here." Professor Shane called out, prompting everyone to look at him as he hold up Connor's bag whilst he walked back towards the clearing from the hunters tent.
"He's not at the quarry, either." Stefan called out as he entered the clearing.
"The headstone is also gone." Rebekah shouted as she followed Stefan.
"Great, so not only are we missing a hunter, we're missing the piece of rock that does who the hell knows what." Damon complained, rolling his eyes in frustration.
"Maybe Connor took the tombstone?" Elena suggested.
"No." Stefan told her. "He went missing before that."
"Well who was babysitting the rock?" Damon asked.
"I was." Stefan admitted looking sheepish. "I realized that the rope didn't feel right, so Rebekah and I went to investigate and when we got back the tombstone was gone." he told them as Damon rolled his eyes in frustration.
"So it could have been Connor who took it?" Elena asked.
"Not enough time and there was no noise." Rebekah chimed in. "It had to be either another vampire or magic." she said causing Damon and Elena to look at each other, both wondering if Kol was responsible for taking Connor and the tombstone.
"Let's split up into two groups." Damon suggested.
"Fine, but I'm gonna try a locator spell first." Bonnie said.
"Okay. I'll stay here. I'll make sure she's safe." Professor Shane offered.
"And I'll stay here and make sure you're not lying." Damon offered a warning smile to the Professor, prompting Elena to look at Stefan and Rebekah, who glanced at each other awkwardly realizing that left the three of them to search the island together.
"Fine. We'll keep searching the island." Elena sighed, as Damon just nodded and walked over to their tent and Elena followed him. "Hey." she said smiling before grabbing his face and kissing him. "We won't be long." she said reassuringly.
"I know, but take this." Damon whispered as he slipped inside the tent, bent down and took the dagger and white oak ash from his bag, before climbing out of the tent and putting them both into Elena's bag, whilst Elena stood in front of him, to blocking the view of what he was doing from the others.
"Do you think they have any idea who it is?" Elena asked quietly, cocking her head towards Stefan and Rebekah who had already turned around and had slowly started walking the other direction.
"No, but make sure you get Bonnie to give you copies of the map." Damon told her. "She has them on her phone. That way if you find the tombstone you can try and get to Silas and the cure." he suggested.
"But don't we need either the sword or Professor Shane to read the map?" Elena asked.
"So you call Blondie and ask her to go find it. Maybe get her flirt with Klaus a little, he might spill the beans about it's location." Damon grinned as Elena playfully slapped him on the arm.
"When you two are ready..." Rebekah suddenly called out to Damon and Elena. "We've got a cure to find. Although if you want to stay behind and have sex then go ahead, but you won't get your hands on the cure, and whoever is lurking in these woods could come after you and I'm sure you wouldn't want to be caught with your pants down." she said. "Or maybe you would." Rebekah added, causing Elena to blush.
"Ignore her." Damon whispered as he wrapped his arms around Elena's waist.
"I will." Elena promised as she looked at Damon lovingly, before they began to kiss passionately, the world disappearing as if they were the only two people on the entire island. Stefan turned around to call out to Elena but instead he caught a glimpse of them just as they were about to kiss, his face fell at the sight of the way they looked at each other before they their lips met. Elena had never looked at him the way she looked at Damon. That was the moment Stefan realized he and Elena were truly over. Even if the cure made her human again and she did go back to loving him, he wasn't sure would she ever love him enough for her to look at him like she looked at his brother.
"I gotta go." Elena finally said as they pulled away from their kiss, prompting Damon to pout teasingly, as she pulled the straps pf her bag over her shoulders and gave him on last chaste kiss on the lips. "I love you." she whispered.
"I love you to." Damon smiled back. "Get those pictures from Bonnie, it's your leverage against Rebekah." he reminded her, as they walked back over to the shed where they found Professor Shane and Bonnie.
"Does your phone have a signal?" Elena asked as Bonnie was looking through Connor's things to help her perform the locator spell.
Bonnie checked her phone and nodded. "Yeah, why?" she asked.
"Can you send me the pictures of the tattoo, just in case you find the tombstone?" Elena asked as Bonnie nodded and began texting Elena the pictures.
"It won't help unless you can decipher the map and know what to do with it afterwards, and for that you need me." Professor Shane told them smugly.
"Klaus has the sword." Elena informed him.
"But the tattoo is not just a map."Professor Shane told the three of them who all eyed him with suspicion at the new piece of information. "The tattoo contains a spell which is hidden inside the hunter himself, so you still need a hunter with you to open the tomb." he explained.
"You never mentioned that before?" said Rebekah, who'd overheard what Professor Shane had said as she walked back over to the group.
"Well it wasn't an issue before." the Professor gulped at the sight of the Original, she was only one he truly feared. "We had the hunter and a completed mark." he said.
"Well we'll just have to find him again then won't we." Stefan said, as he also joined the rest of the group.
"And we're going to need more magic rope to get him under control when we do find him." Damon added. "Or he's just going to want to kill us all."
"Can you spell some more rope Bonnie?" Elena asked, turning to her friend.
"Yeah no problem." Bonnie replied as she went to the shed to get some more rope, to cast the binding spell for them to use against Connor when they found him.
"Here." Damon handed over a gun and some syringes to Stefan. "This should knock him out until you can tie the rope around him." he said before turning to Elena. "If we find him I'll text you to let you know." he said as Bonnie returned and handed a piece of spelled rope over to Elena who put it in her bag.
"You guys get going, at least with your vampire sight, you can see in the dark." Bonnie joked as Stefan, Elena and Rebekah all walked off and out of the clearing to start their search for Connor.
Bonnie went back to her tent to prepare for the locator spell, whilst Professor Shane went into the shed and Damon followed. Once inside Shane took his phone from his bag and began checking for a signal again, but the frustration on the Professor's face suggested he wasn't getting one.
"I thought you said yours didn't work." Damon said.
"Yeah. I'm just...just checking the signal after seeing Bonnie and Elena being able to use theirs, I thought mine might be okay now." Professor Shane told him. "But it's not." he added.
"So you can call someone?" Damon asked. "Like whoever took Connor?"
"This place has a habit of getting to you, doesn't it?" Professor Shane remarked as he shoved his phone at Damon's chest. "See for yourself."
"I'm done trusting you." Damon growled as he pushed Professor Shane down onto a chair with vamp-speed. "Where's the cure?" he demanded to know, as Professor Shane looked at him, his expression a mixture of fear and triumph.
"You know that magical well I was telling you about?" Shane asked as Damon nodded in reply. "Silas and the cure are buried deep below it." he told him.
"So, you've seen it?" Damon asked.
"No. But you could say I heard it from a reliable source." Professor Shane told him.
"Who?" Damon demanded, as he grabbed hold of Shane's collar.
"My wife." Professor Shane replied, smiling manically.
"What does your dead wife have to do with a cure?" Damon asked, letting go of the Professor and standing back, frowning.
"She's got nothing to do with a cure." Professor Shane told him. "But she has everything to do with Silas." he said.
"Go on." Damon instructed him.
"I saw her." Professor Shane told Damon. "When I went down the well I saw my wife, Caitlin. She explained everything that I had to do. Complete the hunter's mark to access the spell and empower a descendant of Qetsiyah to perform it." he explained as Damon shoved him backwards down onto a chair, as Damon placed a finger on the Professors chest, signaling for him to stay seated.
"Bonnie Bennett's related to this crazy-ass witch?" Damon asked surprised by this revelation as Professor Shane nodded in reply. "So you had the rock, hunter, Bennett witch. What about the dozens that died in sacrifice? Where do they fit into all this?" Damon asked.
"As you can imagine, that was not an easy pill to swallow." Professor Shane replied.
"And exactly how did you manipulate the pastor to blow up a farmhouse full of people." Damon tugged on Professor Shane's collar once more.
"He just wanted to see his wife again." Professor Shane protested.
"Okay, next question, We need three massacres. Fire at the Young farm. Holiday hybrid slaughter. What mass blood-letting am I forgetting?" Damon demanded.
"You're not." Professor Shane smirked.
"You're not finished are you." Damon said, realizing the Professor was up to something else. "Is that why you brought us all out here in the middle of nowhere? To complete massacre number three?" he asked.
"It doesn't work that way, Damon." Professor Shane told him.
"So how exactly does it work?" Damon asked, however Professor Shane refused to answer. Realizing Professor Shane wasn't going to offer up any further information, Damon decided to switch tactics. "I think you need to tell me where this magical well is." he demanded.
"You know I can't do that." Professor Shane told him. "And don't bother trying to compel it out of me, it won't work." he added smugly.
"Oh, I know. I know." Damon sighed, patting him on the shoulder and feigning sympathy as he spotted some rope on the floor. He walked over to the rope and picked it up, before tying Professor Shane to the chair. Once done he gave the Professor a sly grin before slapping him once again on the shoulder and walked off to get a metal tent rod he'd spotted on the floor in the corner of the shed.
"You don't frighten me." Professor Shane called out, seemingly unperturbed by what Damon was doing as he walked back over to the Professor with the rod in his hand.
"Where's the cure?" Damon frowned as he demanded to know whilst he stroked the rod in his hand lovingly.
"Does it matter?" Professor Shane asked. "I think we both know you'd rather just torture me." he said. "Torture gives you a sense of control, especially with your relevance slipping away." he continued to taunt Damon, who calmly broke the metal rod in half. "And look at you. Here you are, hours from Elena becoming human. You're starting to freak out a little bit. Listen, you want my advice? Leave. Go. Don't put yourself through this." he continued as Damon hit Shane on the leg with the the metal rod. "Agh! Fine. Okay. Let's say her feelings for you are real. How does that end?" Professor Shane's voice began to become panicked as he saw the glint of malice in Damon's icy blue eyes. "She's human. You're a vampire. It's doomed, Damon. See, you're not torturing me, man. You're torturing yourself by helping them find the cure." he said as Damon hit his other leg.
"I could kill you. Then no one would find it." Damon said smiling sweetly.
"We've established that you can't kill me without sending Bonnie off the deep end." Professor Shane said gloating. "You can leave the island. Have a modicum of self-respect. Don't stay here and watch Elena walk away from you when she takes the cure and realizes that only the vampire version of her was in love with you." he suggested.
"Right. Because if I'm not here, then I can't get in between you and whatever you're planning with Silas." Damon frowned before his face changed to anger and the veins began to protrude around his eyes. "Well, I'm not that easily manipulated, professor. And there is one flaw in your logic." he said as he bent down and whispered in Professor Shane's ear. "I don't give a fuck about the cure, Elena and I are here to make sure my brother and Bonnie survive this, then we're going to destroy both you and Silas." Damon stood back and grinned.
"We'll see." Professor Shane replied.
On the other side of the island, Kol dragged Connor along by the rope to their destination. He smiled to himself as he thought about how he had managed to take the hunter right from under the noses of his sister and Stefan. Despite being an Original vampire, Kol knew how easily Rebekah got scared, so he'd managed to spook some of the local wildlife to make enough noise to give her the jitters. Suspecting Stefan was still a gentleman at heart, he'd hoped Stefan would come to aide his sister in her hour of need, which he did, exactly as Kol had anticipated. It had been all so predictable and easy. Almost too easy. As soon as Stefan dropped the rope, all Kol had to do was cut it and nobody would be any the wiser. Becoming the holder of the rope, meant Kol had then been able to command Connor to keep quiet until he made his next move. As soon as Stefan picked the rope back up, Kol had moved it slightly so that Stefan knew something was wrong. By the time they realized that Connor was gone, Kol had taken him and the headstone far away and and they were now close to the cave he'd carefully selected to act as a tomb for the hunter.
"Ah, here we are." Kol smiled as he tugged at the rope, signaling for Connor to follow him as they got to the stop of a cliff when Kol stopped and removed his bag from his back. "I might be an Original vampire, but I'm going to have to get you into that cave and it's going to be a little bit of a tight squeeze, so I guess I'll just have to leave this here wont I?" he said, mostly to himself as Connor just looked at him blankly, the spell forcing him to keep quiet as of Kol's previous instructions.
Once Kol had removed his bag he walked over to Connor. "Time to show you your new home mate." he grinned and picked the hunter up,with the rope still attached, and jumped off the side of the cliff. He landed next to the entrance of a small cave and set Connor down on his feet. "After you." he gestured as the hunter got on his hands and knees and managed to crawl inside the cave whilst Kol followed him, still holding the rope. The floor of the cave was wet from the high tide, as Kol had decided that although drowning would be a suitable method to avoid the hunters curse, if he killed Connor too quickly, then Jeremy Gilbert would turn into a hunter and Klaus would try to get his hands on him, and he couldn't let that happen if anything went wrong and Klaus got out. So instead he'd carefully selected a cave where enough water would come in to keep the cave cold and wet, thus giving Connor a couple of days before he died of hypothermia. Hopefully that would be plenty of time for him to kill Silas and the Five would cease to exist and therefore Jeremy Gilbert would never become a hunter, thus no longer being of any use to Klaus in getting the cure.
Kol and Connor finally reached the end of the cave where it was almost high enough for them to stand up. There, Kol handed Connor a flashlight, a thermos and an apple that he'd brought to the cave on his earlier visit..
"So where are we going now?" Connor asked, looking back at Kol.
"You?" Kol smiled. "You're staying right here. Whilst I try and destroy Silas." he added and with that he vamp-sped out of the cave and placed a large boulder inside the entrance which was enough to allow air, water and a little light in, but it weighed at least a couple of tonnes, meaning that Connor would have no chance in moving it. "I left you some lunch." Kol called back smirking, knowing that he'd managed to find a way to kill the hunter without subjecting himself to the Hunter's Curse. "Have a nice life, and death." he added, laughing to himself as he climbed back up the rocks to the top of the cliff at a human pace.
Once back at the top of the cliff, Kol immediately realized something was wrong. His bag had been put on top of a rock near some trees and had been opened. Panic struck as Kol vamp-sped over to his bag and searched inside for the white oak stake, only to discover it was missing.
"Looking for this?" Kol heard a voice behind him with a Scottish accent, as he turned around to look at the thief and saw a scruffy looking young man with blonde hair who was holding the white oak stake.
"Give me that!" Kol demanded.
"Yer see. The funny thing is, when I found this, I thought you were a vampire hunter, one of the Five." the Scottish man said examining the stake. "But, there's no markings of the Five, so you couldn't be another hunter." he added.
"Who are you?" Kol asked.
"But then I discovered it was just a fancy looking stake." the blonde haired man said as he twirled the stake around in his fingers.
"Who are you?" Kol demanded once again, this time raising his voice as he vamp-sped over to the blonde haired man, ready to attack. However the blonde haired man was much faster than Kol anticipated.
"I'm Galen Vaughn." the man replied as he drove the stake right through Kol's heart. "And you're another dead vampire." he smiled as the Original dropped to the floor and set on fire, causing the man to frown at the unusual looking vampire death before shrugging and walking away, leaving Kol's burning body with the stake still protruding from his heart.
Bonnie was outside in the clearing, kneeling at the campfire holding a T-shirt which belonged to Connor. She closed her eyes, concentrating upon finding out where Connor was located, when suddenly the flames in the fire erupted and signaling it was time for her to hand over the personal possession to enable the locator spell to find the desired person. Bonnie tossed the shirt into the flames, and waited for a few moments, clutching the talisman Professor Shane had given her, until the flames started to spread beyond the fire pit, scorching the earth before they died down and leaving a path for them to follow out into the trees. Getting up, Bonnie made her way to the shed and opened the door to tell Damon and Professor Shane that the locator spell had worked.
"I've found him." she cried out as she walked in, taking in the scene in front of her. "I've found Connor." Bonnie exclaimed before turning to Damon. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked folding her arms.
"We were just having a friendly chat, weren't we Professor?" Damon grinned as he untied the rope and patted Professor Shane on the back, who just kept quiet, knowing not to panic now Bonnie was back, as all he needed to do was to let Connor kill the vampire and he'd be out of their hair. Bonnie would never do it because it would hurt her friend. "Lets go find our hunter." Damon added, walking out of the shed, followed by Professor Shane. As he left the shed, Damon got out his phone to text Elena to tell them they'd got a track on the hunter, however it showed no bars. "Fuck!" he exclaimed. "No signal." he added, prompting Bonnie to check her phone.
"Me neither." she said. "It's getting cloudy, maybe it's blocking what little signal we did have." she said as Damon shrugged.
"Let's go. We'll try again later." he replied as they all began picking up their bags.
"The way this locator spell works is by showing us the way using a magical trail, I could make sure it doesn't disappear when we follow it." Bonnie suggested. "If they come back here, they might notice it and come after us." she added.
"Great idea Sabrina." Damon grinned. "Finally someone with common sense and good idea's. You get on it." he added as Bonnie closed her eyes and began chanting whilst holding her talisman. Suddenly the wind whipped up around them, and the branches on the trees began rustling as the dead leaves on the ground blew up into the air. As quickly as the wind started, it stopped and Bonnie opened her eyes and looked at Damon and then to Professor Shane.
"It's done." Bonnie smiled. "Let's go." she said and set off following the trail magical which pointed to where Connor should be. Damon and Professor Shane followed her into the woods, leaving the path of scorched earth still trailing behind them.
Back at the Gilbert house, Caroline was lying on Elena's bed, crying in a mixture of pain and anger at the werewolf bite which Klaus had given her. Tyler was stood with her, guilt etched over his features, worried that the woman he loved was going to die because of his macho pride.
"It's getting worse. I'm sorry." Caroline sniffed.
"No. It's my fault. I'm sorry." Tyler apologized.
"No. You didn't do any of this." Caroline insisted.
"I unsired the hybrids and turned them on Klaus. I should've just left it alone." Tyler sighed.
"You freed them, Tyler." Caroline encouraged him. "People put their faith in you because you're a leader. Don't forget that." she smiled, rubbing his hand.
"Then you trust me?" Tyler asked and Caroline nodded in reply. "Good, cause I've got an idea." he said as he picked Caroline up and carried her downstairs and into the living room, where he lay her down on the floor. Hearing the noise, Klaus turned around to see what they were doing.
"You want to be in control, Klaus?" Tyler asked. "Here. Now you get to be in control of her life. If you want her to die, fine. But then you can sit here and watch her die yourself." he said as he left Caroline alone in the house with Klaus.
Klaus walked over to Caroline who looked up at him beseechingly. "Nothing personal, love. If I cure you, that means victory for him." Klaus sighed sadly. "Don't worry. It won't be long now." he added, looking away from Caroline, who closed her eyes as her breathing started to become even heavier.
Meanwhile, back on the island, Elena, Stefan and Rebekah were continuing their hike through the woods in search for Connor and the tombstone.
"Connor! Connor!" Elena called out.
"Why don't you yell louder? Maybe we haven't drawn enough attention to ourselves already." Rebekah sneered. "It's not as if he's about to say 'Here I am' is it? He's more likely to jump out of the trees and stake us instead."
"I'm sorry, and how are you helping?" Elena asked sarcastically, realizing that Rebekah was right and shouting him might not be the brightest idea.
"I'm stronger than you and faster than you and I'm quite certain I can charm the islanders a lot easier than you." Rebekah smirked.
"Not disagreeing on the easy part." Elena said under her breath.
" All right, we get it. You two hate each other. Can we just keep going, please?" Stefan sighed, wishing he was with anyone else right then, even Klaus's company would be an improvement.
"I tried to be her friend, but somehow, I ended up with a dagger in my back because I'm the evil one." Rebekah complained.
"Technically, you didn't achieve evil status until you killed me." Elena replied snidely, as she suddenly walked into what must have been a trip-wire because suddenly a piece of wood flew into the air with wooden spikes protruding out. Rebekah vamp-sped over to the trap to stop it from impaling Elena. Elena looked at Rebekah in shock as she tried to catch her breath.
"Nice catch." Stefan grinned.
"Thank you." Rebekah said smugly.
"No, actually, thank you. This thing would've killed me." Elena gasped with genuine gratitude, still recovering from the shock of nearly being impaled.
"I don't care what happens to you either way. But if you're gonna die, it might as well be epic." Rebekah shrugged.
"Does anyone else feel like we're being watched?" Elena suddenly asked, turning to look at Rebekah and Stefan.
"Why don't you go back to your boyfriend if you're so scared." Rebekah sneered.
"You know something, that's a really good idea." Elena stated, having had enough of Rebekah's company for one day, and after only a couple of hours apart from Damon, she was already missing him. "I'm gonna go back and check on Bonnie, see if she found anything." she said. "Be careful." Elena added more to Stefan, as she turned and headed off back towards the camp. Rebekah moved the trap out of the way and continued to walk on, as Stefan watched, before setting off after her.
Caroline was still lying on the sofa, Klaus's werewolf venom was now ravaging her body and she knew she was getting closer to the end. She was sweating profusely and her breathing was becoming more and more laborious by the minute.
"If you don't feed me your blood, I'll die." Caroline's raspy voice said weakly as Klaus stood across the room not looking at her.
"Then you'll die, and Tyler will have learned his lesson the hard way." Klaus said softly.
"How could you do this to him? To his mom? To me?" Caroline whispered.
"I'm a thousand years old. Call it boredom." Klaus offered.
"I don't believe you." Caroline said, her voice becoming weaker by the minute, but she knew she had to keep going.
"Fine. Then maybe it's because I'm pure evil, and I can't help myself." Klaus replied sarcastically.
"It's because you were hurt. Which means that there is a part of you that is human." Caroline insisted, she was beginning to run on what felt like adrenaline, although she wasn't sure vampires even had adrenaline.
Klaus walked over to Caroline and sit on the table next to the sofa."How could you possibly think that?" he asked curiously.
"Because I've seen it. Because...I've caught myself wishing that I could forget all the horrible things that you've done." Caroline's voice became firmer, but was still weakening.
"But you can't. Can you?" Klaus asked sadly.
"I know that you're in love with me." Caroline admitted. "And anybody capable of love is capable of being saved." she reassured him as she thought she Klaus' eyes start glisten with tears, Caroline felt a moment of hope as she suspected he had been moved by her words, however he looked away.
"You're hallucinating." Klaus told her defensively, confirming Caroline's suspicions that she was right and although she knew she was using emotional manipulation to save her life from her potential murderer, she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the man in front of her. She wondered what had happened to make him so angry? Caroline just hoped she'd live to find out, but in the meantime she needed to add a little more emotional blackmail to save herself.
"I guess I'll never know." Caroline said defiantly as her breath suddenly hitched, and she began to feel the room disappear around her.
"Caroline?" Klaus cried out, panicking, torn between what was the right thing to do, and what was right for his reputation. Eventually his feelings for Caroline won out and he lifted Caroline into a sitting position and sat behind her. Biting open his wrist, Klaus put it to Caroline's mouth and she began to drink his blood.
"There you go love." Klaus whispered. "I'm sorry." he added as he smoothed her hair whilst she continued to drink his blood and regain her strength.
After Elena left to go back to see Damon and Bonnie, Stefan and Rebekah continued their hike, searching through the woods for Connor.
"Haven't we been through here before?" Stefan sighed.
"It all looks the same to me." Rebekah shrugged, as what must have been another trap was triggered and a spear flew out of nowhere. Stefan vamp-sped Rebekah out of the way, as the spear hit a tree close by. They both gasped for breath, as Stefan pushed Rebekah's back up against a tree, his body wrapped around hers protectively.
"Thanks, but that wouldn't have killed me." Rebekah smiled at the gesture.
"Sorry. Force of habit." Stefan replied as they stared at each other, his face only inches from hers, whilst his hands were fixed tightly to her waist.
"Don't be a tease. Elena could be lurking somewhere in the woods." Rebekah teased suggestively.
"I doubt that." Stefan whispered.
"True." Rebekah agreed. "They're probably locked up in their tent at it like rabbits right now, like they supposedly were last night." she taunted, prompting Stefan to remove his hands from her waist and stand back before walking away from her.
"Did you mean what you said? About a cease-fire?" Stefan asked, before walking away, deciding to change the subject. Damon and Elena's sex life was not what he wanted to hear about.
"Why do you all assume that I hate Elena so much?" Rebekah called out after him as she quickly caught up with Stefan.
"Well, I mean, you did run her off a bridge." Stefan offered.
"You all seem to forget that Elena's death was the only way to save my family." Rebekah explained. "I did the same thing that every one of you would've done to protect the people that you love. And before you cast me as the bad guy, maybe you should remember that Elena not only daggered me, but she also helped to kill my brother. Maybe we're not as different as everyone's making us out to be." she shrugged as she turned and walked away. "Connor's not here. I'm going back." Rebekah added leaving Stefan looking pensive, before deciding to follow her back to the campsite.
About an hour after splitting from Stefan and Rebekah, Elena returned to the campsite clearing expecting to still find Damon, Bonnie and Professor Shane. Instead all she found was a deserted clearing, although the tents were still there, and the fire long burned out. Elena checked her phone and found no message from either Damon or Bonnie, even though there was a signal.
"Bonnie?" Elena cried out as she looked in Bonnie's tent only to find it empty, and Bonnie's things gone. Beginning to panic, she ran into the shed, which was also empty, Professor Shane's things were also missing. She ran outside to head to her own tent to look for Damon's things when she ran into Stefan and Rebekah, who she guessed must have set off back shortly after her. "Where is everyone?" Elena asked throwing her hands in the air in frustration.
"What are you talking about?" Stefan asked, confused.
"Well, Bonnie and Shane have packed up their stuff and gone." Elena told them. "And I'm going to guess that Damon's things have gone too." she added on the verge of tears as she began to head over to her own tent.
"Oh my god. The tombstone." Rebekah suddenly said as she vamp-sped over to Elena and Damon's tent, beating Elena and began rifling through what was left of the bags inside Elena's tent, as Elena clambered in behind her.
"What are you doing in my tent?" Elena snapped as Rebekah quickly moved over and grabbed Elena by the throat.
"Where's the tombstone? What have you done with it?" Rebekah demanded.
"What are you talking about?" Elena choked, confused by the accusation.
"Like it's not bloody obvious?" Rebekah cried. "I saw that look you and Damon gave each other, you know what happened to it." she said. "You set me up, pretending to have sex whilst listening in to our conversation and waiting for that moment when our backs were turned. All you people ever do is betray me and here you go again!" Rebekah shouted.
"Let her go. She didn't take it." Stefan cried out as Rebekah released Elena, who stumbled backwards and grasped her throat, before following Rebekah who'd already climbed out of the tent.
"Was any of this real? Or was it just a ploy to distract me while Damon, Bonnie and Shane ran off with the tombstone?" Rebekah accused Stefan, as she placed her hands on her hips, frowning at him.
"You think I would do that? You think I would let some psychopath run off with the cure?" Stefan asked Rebekah in bewilderment. " Every single moment of my last one hundred and forty six years has been ruled by the pain of being a vampire." he told her. "And this cure ends that. It ends the guilt and it ends the suffering. And you really think I would jeopardize that?" Stefan asked.
"Fine. You didn't take it. But that doesn't mean I trust her." Rebekah said to Stefan as she pointed at Elena before turning to glare at her for a moment. In response Elena removed her bag from her back and took out the dagger and white oak ash.
"I didn't take it, but here." Elena offered as she extended the the dagger and ash towards Rebekah. "Consider this a peace offering." she added.
"Don't you get it, Elena? There is no peace. We're all screwed." Rebekah shouted.
"Exactly, Rebekah. We're screwed." Elena admitted. "Bonnie, Damon and Professor are gone. Both the tombstone and Connor are missing. So, us three, right here, this is all we've got. So we're either in this together...or it's over. For all of us." she insisted as she held out the dagger and ash to Rebekah again, who after careful consideration decided to take it.
Suddenly a thought occurred to Elena. "Maybe they left a trail?" she suggested.
"Good idea." Stefan agreed. "I can't imagine Bonnie leaving without letting us know where they were going." he added as the three of them began examining the area only to come up empty handed.
"Something feels off about this." Elena frowned.
"Why?" Rebekah asked.
"Bonnie and Damon wouldn't just leave without finding a way to let us know where they were going." Elena replied.
"Maybe something happened here." Stefan suggested, worry beginning to etch into his features.
"Well the only thing we can do is find out where the cure is." Rebekah suggested. "Wherever the cure is hidden, is likely to be where they're going or have been taken to." she said.
"And who do you think would have taken them?" Elena asked.
"Well I for one don't trust that Professor." Rebekah admitted. "And I'm convinced that someone has been watching us whilst we've been here." she added as Elena and Stefan nodded in agreement.
"I guess it's time to call Caroline." Elena said. "But I need a better signal than this. It was pretty good at the beach." she suggested.
"Then the beach it is." Rebekah smiled as she started to walk off in the direction of the beach as Stefan and Elena followed.
Damon, Bonnie and Professor Shane had been following the trail from Bonnie's locator spell for a few hours. Periodically both Damon and Bonnie had been checking their phones for a signal, but their reception had suddenly become really poor, meaning they couldn't let the other party know that they'd gone to search for Connor. Eventually the scorched earth trail had led them out of the woods and to a cliff overlooking the sea which is where it ended.
"You don't think he's dead do you?" Damon asked as he looked over the edge.
"No." Bonnie told him. "The spell wouldn't work if he was."
"Hmm, maybe he's decided to row out to sea." Damon suggested.
"He's a vampire hunter and there are vampires on the island." Professor Shane chimed in. "Do you really think he'd want to leave the island with vampires still on it?" he asked, as Damon noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
"Wait here." he said as he walked over to what turned out to be the remains of a burned body with the white oak stake sticking out of its body. Completely ignoring him, Bonnie and Professor walked up and looked down at the body in shock.
"What the hell?" Bonnie cried.
"Who is it?" Professor Shane asked.
"Well Klaus is locked up in the Gilbert jail, Finn is dead, Rebekah is with Stefan and Elena, which leaves Kol and Elijah." Damon said, narrowing down the options. "Now Elijah wouldn't be seen dead in anything other than a suit, which leaves just Kol." he explained.
"But I thought Kol was daggered at your place." Bonnie asked, turning to look at Damon.
"Well someone obviously undaggered him didn't they." Damon said sarcastically. "And I'm having this." he stated before pulling the white oak stake from Kol's chest and putting it in his bag. "But at least that answers the question of who took Connor. What it doesn't tell us is where the hell Connor is now and what happened to the tombstone." he added frowning as Bonnie turned to look behind her.
"What happened to the trail?" she asked confused, as Damon and Professor Shane both turned around to see the path of scorched earth had disappeared.
"Maybe your witchy mojo isn't working too well." Damon scoffed. "Has that lost it's signal too?" he asked sarcastically as Bonnie glared at him.
"Or maybe there's another witch on the island." came an unfamiliar voice with a Scottish accent from the nearby trees. "Did someone say they were looking for this?" the voice asked, as a scruffy looking young man with blonde hair emerged from the woods smiling, holding the tombstone in his tattoo covered hand.
"You're another one of the Five." Professor Shane said, his eyes lighting up.
"Looks like we won't need Connor after all." Damon grinned. "Bonnie, do your worst." he added as the man suddenly dropped the tombstone and doubled up with pain, whilst Damon walked over and wrapped the magic rope around the new hunter's hands. "Looks like we're back in business. I say let's go find the cure." he added as they set off with Professor Shane leading the way.