This is actually out faster than I thought it would be which is kind of sad because that means the story is coming to an end even faster. I can't believe we only have one chapter left, it seems almost unreal.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, please review, the more reviews the better.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's.

Chapter 36: The Sun also Rises

"Where are we going?" Elena mumbles, stumbling slightly on a stone as the woman leads her across a rocky path. Her heart is pounding hard against her rib cage; she swallows down the anxiety, the panic, the urge to run in favor of focus on just walking straight without falling on her face.

"This way." The witch answers, her tone annoyed like she had no idea why she was talking. Elena couldn't help it. She always found herself talking when she was nervous. "You're Luka's sister, aren't you? I heard about you. He and your father were looking for you."

"Well they we're wasting their time. I wasn't lost." They continue down the path, it becomes denser, rockier and Elena finds herself tripping again, pushing into what she amuses is a branch.

"I can't see anything." She snaps because it's true. If she held her hand out in front of her, she would only be able to make out the outline of it so she doesn't see when the witch waves her hand. She gives off a gasp of surprise when fire explodes to life all around her, in many different pits. She takes a deep breath, taking a moment to look around. Maybe she could recognize where she had taken her.

But it wasn't the scenery that got her attention, it was the crumbled body lying just a head of them, in a clearing of dead grass and rocks. She faintly realizes that there on a ledge overlooking a lake. Under any other circumstances the view would be pretty spectacular.

"Jenna?" Elena moves forward. "Jenna! Jenna!" She drops down beside her aunt. "Jenna! Hey, Hey Jenna!" Through tears she places two fingers on her neck, searching for a pulse and is filled with completely horror when she can't find one. "Oh, my god. No, Jenna, No." She turns her wide brown eyes to the witch behind her. "He killed her? Why?" She demands but it comes out weak, sounding more like a plea than anything else. "I did everything he asked."

Jenna's sharp intake of breath startles Elena causing her to jump back as her aunt shoots up, sucking in air as fast as she can. "She's not dead." Elena's turns her eyes back to the witch, her face paling as she realizes what's happening. "She's in transition."

Greta has moved from standing above them to standing over some makeshift bowl and Elena takes the time to look around them, searching for an escape. Jenna is clenching to her head, rocking back and forth on her knees. "Oh, my head. What's wrong with me?" She moans out. Elena moves over, getting closer. "Do you remember what happened?"

"You called me. You were so scared." Elena tilts her head, a look of understanding crossing her features and Jenna realizes with a curse that it was all a trick. "Oh, ah, I should have realized that it wasn't you. The second I walked out of the house, someone grabbed me. A vampire."

"Klaus. It was Klaus." Elena informs her softly.

"He made me drink his blood. And I don't... I don't remember anything after that." She looks around, trying to make sense of her surroundings. "Where are we? What happened?" She stops her questions there when Elena grabs her hand.

"We're at the quarry. He brought us here."

"Why don't I remember anything?" Jenna demands, her voice shaky with tears everything becoming overwhelming.

"Jenna, do you remember... When I told you how someone becomes a vampire?"

She nods, answering the question quickly in a chance to wave it off. "Yeah, if you die with vampire blood in your system, it's..." She trails off with a realization that leaves her whole body feeling cold. "Oh, god. He killed me."

Elena can sense the panic, the white hot panic that Jenna is feeling and she leans forward, squeezing her hand in hers tightly. "Jenna, listen to me. Listen to me; everything's going to be ok. I'm going to get you out of here."

"I'm a vampire?" It's the only thing Jenna can seem to focus on.

"And I bet you're hungry." Elena's brown eyes snap up to Greta who's approaching them slowly, with confident steps. As Elena watches her, she can hear Adele's voice in her head telling her that the bitch is too cocky, that she needs to be brought down to size. Elena's eyes fall to a sharply pointed rock just feet away from where they are.

But Elena isn't able to get it, for the minute she flings herself at it, Great throws a hand out and Elena goes soaring through the air, landing awkwardly on her side. She pushes herself up, ignoring the ring on burning flames that surrounds her as she makes to run at them only to be stopped by some invisible barrier.

"Don't bother trying to get through. I spelled the circle. You're trapped. No matter what you do." Greta explains as she picks up the rock Elena had been jumping after.

"Greta... Please, just- just let her go." Elena pleads softly as she slits her wrist with it wincing slightly at the stinging pain.

"Klaus chose her." Is all she says, adoration wraps around his name making Elena want to gag as she watches Greta lower her wrist to Jenna. "Drink it." She demands softly and Jenna stares at her wrist, watching the blood drip, hungry overwhelming every sense of her body as she leans back. She doesn't want to.

"Jenna don't!" She hears Elena but the hunger is so strong, like she'd been starved for years. It burns her from the inside making her lean forward.

"I can't…" She tries to fight, for Elena's sake but the harder she fights the stronger the burning becomes.

"Let her go, hey!" Elena's voice sounds miles away as Jenna gives in, sinking her teeth into the witch's wrist. "No!" Elena watches in horror, she wants so desperately to look away but something keeps her from doing so, her eyes filling with hot tears.

Greta yanks her wrist away, Jenna falling forward with a small whimper. She raises the flames, trapping Jenna the way she trapped Elena and Jenna sits up on her knees, every emotion that's running through her feeling that much more intense. "Look at me, hey," She turns her eyes over to her niece, she can feel her K9s extending, a vast hunger settling over her. "It's going to be okay." Jenna shakes her head, because she doesn't believe her. Nothing about this night was going to be okay.

~x~

Adele slides out of the SUV letting Alaric close the door behind her as she jogs to keep up with Elijah and Stefan who are walking quickly towards the location of Bonnie. She's been staying in that old house, the old witch burial grounds and to think it wasn't too long ago that Adele was arguing with Damon on the front lawn about her feelings for him. It seemed like a life time ago.

"The sacrifice is completed in stages as the full moon sets. First the werewolf is killed, then the vampire. Finally the doppelgänger. Once Elena dies, the curse will be broken. Klaus will become hybrid." Elijah explains to them as they walk, Adele comes up beside him leaving Alaric to walk behind. "So when do we attack?" He asks and Elijah stops walking to turn around and look at him.

"Elena's death will activate his dormant werewolf side. He'll be vulnerable during the transformation. That's when Bonnie comes in." He says. Adele lets out a breath of air as she looks up at him. "And you're sure Bonnie will survive this?" She asks quietly.

"If she can deliver him to the brink of death, I'll finish the job myself." He assures as Stefan's phone rings and he walks away from them to answer the call.

He's on the phone for all of a minute before he's looking back at Alaric and Adele with a surprised and worried expression. "What?" Alaric calls to him and Adele gets the feeling that this is about to get so much worse. "What's wrong?" He doesn't say anything for a second, listening intensely to whoever is on the phone before he mutters an oh, my god that has Adele even more on edge then she already was.

~x~

"How are you feeling?" Jenna is sitting, hugging her legs. She's not sure how to answer Elena, but she's going to try her best, Jenna understood the need for conversion on Elena's part. Elena was nervous and she always felt better when talking. "I feel like myself...Only not." She realizes that that isn't an answer that makes any sense, so she tries again. "Everything is brighter. The fire's hotter. Part of me is terrified, but there's another part of me that doesn't want to feel anything."

"Vampires can turn off the part that's human. That's the part that hurts." Elena explains softly and Jenna finally turns her head, to gaze up at her niece through the flames. "I'm going to die, aren't I?"

"No!" Elena's response is automatic. "Jenna, I'm not going to let that happen. I don't care what I have to do."

A twig snaps followed by a groan of intense pain is heard in the distance causing Elena and Jenna to look over. "Who's that?"

"That must be the werewolf." Elena mummers watching Greta appear pushing a woman to the ground, she's clinching her stomach, her eyes threatening to roll back in her head as she groans again. "What's happening to me?" She chokes out and Greta bends down watching the woman with a satisfied smirk. "I casted a spell to slow down your transformation; your insides are trying to tear themselves free." She stands, leaving the woman groaning on the ground as she sets a ring of fire around her, connecting the ring to both Jenna's and Elena's.

"Greta, witches are supposed to maintain the balance in nature. It's your duty to them to keep this curse sealed." Elena says, trying hard to talk her out of it but Great only smirks, Elena's attempts obviously laughable to her. "My duty is to Klaus! The new order." Elena's eyes move over Greta to the guy walking up beside her, his eyes holding both amusement and fondness but mostly amusement as he listens to the witch.

"Glad to know I still have a dance partner." He dwells and a new fear is gripping at Elena's gut. She's never actually looked at Klaus before but she was looking at him now and by god, he was good looking, it's kind of like the revelation made him that much more dangerous and terrifying as he turns his blue green eyes to them. "Hello my lovelies, are we ready?"

~x~

The sound of the werewolf's screams fill the area, Elena can't hear or make out anything that Klaus and Greta are saying. She paces back and forth in her ring of fire, feeling helpless. She stops noticing Klaus is now making his way to them.

"Everything I did…" Elena's eyes fall to the werewolf who is curled up on the ground, a frown crossing her pretty face. "I was just trying to help Tyler." Her eye brows raise as something clicks in her mind. This werewolf was the werewolf. The one that had bite Rose, the one that kidnapped Caroline and Adele, the one that tortured Damon and made her sister watch. This was the werewolf that had tried to kill her sister, twice.

"Are you Jules?" She didn't really need to ask, she was pretty damn sure but she felt she had to make…sure.

"I didn't want him to be alone." But you didn't have to try and kill my sister to help him. Elena doesn't say that, she didn't get the chance not that she was going to anyways. Elena was far too nice for that seeing as it would seem she was going to be the first one sacrificed. Klaus is standing over her ring in a smug kind of way, knowing none of them could stop him at this point. "Shall we?" He mummers to Jules as the ring of fire quickly retracts leaving Jules completely unprotected.

Elena watches her eyes flash gold and she makes a run at Klaus but he had been expecting it and whips around, flinging her easily to the ground, shoving his hand through her chest and Elena can't suppress the gasp that falls when he rips her heart out.

~x~

"Why did he take Jenna?" Bonnie exclaims, looking between the two vampires as Adele paces back and forth beside them. Stefan had just told her about his conversion with Damon, they sent Alaric down to talk to Jeremy as well.

"A punishment for meddling." Elijah answers like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Klaus was going to use Tyler and Caroline. But Damon rescued them." Stefan explains causing Adele to stop and look between them. Tyler? Tyler's back? She shakes the thought from her head, deciding to focus on the matter at hand.

"Then why not take me? If you wanted to hit everyone where it hurts the most, he should've took me." She says on the brick of hysterics, her blue eyes bright with frustrated tears. Nobody says anything for a moment as they think over her statement. They couldn't deny that she was right, while taking Jenna hit the Gilberts and Alaric the most, taking Adele would've hurt everyone and it's not like he couldn't. She was there at his disposal but if Stefan was going to be honest and just a little selfish, he's glad she wasn't the one he took.

"She's right," Adele cuts Elijah off. "Well I usually am so no surprise there." He sends her a look that tells her that this isn't the right time to which all she does is roll her eyes. It was always a good time for snide remarks. "But he didn't. He took Jenna." He finishes.

"Then we need to go. Now. Before Jenna's been sacrificed. I can kill Klaus myself." Bonnie stands determent and while Adele would agree to this Stefan just won't allow it.

"Bonnie... If you use that much power, you'll be dead. We've already been through this. It's not an option." He's still doing this for Elena but now that the stakes have changed, really they should let her do it, it was better than his plan, at least in Adele's frame of mind it was.

"Stefan would agree with you." Bonnie sends Elijah a confused glance as Stefan steps forward.

"We're going to offer another vampire. One that he'll want more. Me."

~x~

Jenna forces herself not to watch Klaus, not to watch the gruesome scene before her. Instead she focuses on Elena; the brunette is pacing again and is in fact watching Klaus, watching him closely. "The day that the lawyers called to tell me that I was going to become your guardian, you know what my first thought was?" She suddenly finds herself saying, if she was going to die, she might as well get it off her chest.

Elena looks down at her, startled. She hadn't been expecting her to say anything especially not anything like that. She shakes her head. "Isn't there someone else who can do this?" Jenna laughs lightly, because if she doesn't she knows that she's going to cry well cry harder then she already was.

"Jenna, there was no one else who could have gotten me, Jeremy and Adele through all of that." Elena tells her softly, it's true. Well mostly. Adele had taken off. She hadn't given anyone the chance to help her. She found comfort in new surroundings but when she had gotten back, Jenna had been there for her.

"It's just the thought that I almost passed up taking care of you." Jenna shakes her head, repulsed by the idea.

"But you didn't." Elena kneels down to be face to face with her as well as she can in her ring. "You put your entire life on hold to help us."

"Look around you Elena," Jenna scoffs, like everything Elena was saying was a joke. "I failed you."

"No. You didn't. I failed you." And it was true. She thinks maybe if she would've told Jenna sooner, prepared her better she would've been ready for that fake phone call, she wouldn't be here right now. "I'm so sorry. Listen. Being a vampire, it intensifies your guilt. But it also makes you stronger and faster. You can fight back. I'm going to get through this. I'll be ok. I need you to believe that. Promise me, when you get the chance..." Elena lowers her voice, placing a finger to her lips. "Run." The word is barely above a mutter but Jenna hears her and nods her understanding.

~x~

Adele makes her way from the house, Bonnie is setting up to do a locator spell to find where Elena and Jenna are in order for Stefan to be able to find them in time to make the switch.

She spots Stefan pacing the yard and makes her way over to him; he turns as she approaches sending her a small warm smile that she tries hard to return. She doesn't say anything at first; she's not sure how to say what she wants to. There's so much to be said but no words to say it with. She finally settles with a tear-filled, "You can't do this."

His chest tightens as he looks at her; he's ready to cry himself as he watches the one tear slip down her cheek. He'd seen one to many tears from her; she's supposed to be the strong one, how we're any of them supposed to stay strong when the one person who's the strongest out of them all is breaking down before their eyes? "I have to." He mummers and she shakes her head, the hair that's fallen from her braid falling into her face.

"No you don't. You don't have to do it Stefan." He pushes the hair from her face in such a brotherly way that she's close to sobbing. "I do Adele. You know I do. You've both lost so much, you don't deserve to lose any more family then you already have."

"You're family Stefan. You're that annoying older brother that is always worried about my safety. The one I never wanted but am so glad I have." He laughs at this, it's all he can do to stop the tears that fill his eyes. "Please Stefan, please don't do it." He pulls her into his arms and she holds onto him like she had no intentions to let him go.

"I'm sorry." He whispers closing his eyes at the soft cries that follow.

~x~

Damon arrives just after Stefan leaves, and though all she wants to do is run into his arms she knows now isn't the time or the place and she's mad at him, what he did to Elena isn't so easily forgiven so she stands still against the wall, watching John enter behind him carrying a box of journal's. He looks like he wants to say something to her when his eyes fall on her but she shakes her head and presses her lips together so he keeps moving, down to the basement with Jeremy and Bonnie, leaving her, Alaric and Damon.

Alaric is the one to break the news to him, Adele just not having it in her to say it aloud, let alone tell him what Stefan is doing. "He did what?" Damon exclaims looking towards her and she nods.

"He wasn't going to let Jenna die." Alaric says.

"We have a witch." Damon is frustrated that much anyone could see. "She kills Klaus, no one has to die!"

"Expect for Bonnie." Alaric points out and Damon looks for something to say, before settling for a "God, Stefan, damn it!" with a punch to the wall that with his strength has his arm going through it. He pulls it out and Adele frowns as she watches him sway slightly. Alaric sees it to and sends her a worried glance. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He mutters before looking up having calmed down drastically. "Well that's my brother for you, always cleaning up my messes." He says walking away from them, out the door and Adele chases after him.

"Where are you going?" She calls and he stop turning back to look at her.

"I was thinking that I would go see if I can't stop him." He admits and she shakes her head running down the steps.

"No Damon. He's probably already there; you can't go running out there. Klaus might kill you." He snorts a laugh like there's some kind of inside joke she's not in on before shrugging and it causes her frown to deepen. "Isn't it worth a try?" She shakes her head, swallowing as she takes his hand. "No." She whispers. "Not if it means I lose you to."

"You'd be fine." He whispers back, he knows she will, he knows she'll have to be fine without him but he wasn't going to tell her that and all she can think is how wrong he is but she isn't going to tell him that either.

~x~

She's still kneeling by the time Klaus makes his way back to them, this time he's holding a stake and Elena swallows. "Hello Jenna." Jenna stands slowly, eyeing him closely, waiting…just waiting for him to make his move. She was going to take Elena's advice. She was going to run, she's going to die if she doesn't anyways so she figures if she could actually get away and help keep Elena alive at least a little bit longer then okay and if she gets caught, well at least she tried.

Elena pushes herself up, facing Klaus. There was no doubt in Elena's mind that if Jenna tried to run, she'd be caught. He wasn't a threat to them for nothing. "Let her go." She demands quietly causing Klaus to look in her direction. "I understand that I have to die, but she doesn't!" She's walking forward completely forgetting about the fire and as she nears it, it roars to life nearly catching her arms as she reals back.

"Careful." Klaus warns as Jenna tells her not to.

"No! Jenna we can't leave Jeremy and Adele without a family." She turns back to Klaus. "I followed your rules, I did everything you asked, I didn't run. Please."

"Well, well…" Elena frowns as he begins to smirk. "I don't recall you being on the guest list." His head turns in the other direction and Elena follows his gaze, her breath coming out struggled as she sees Stefan standing on a cliff looking down at them. He says something that Elena can't hear but Klaus can. He sends Jenna a thought full glance before he's gone, reaching Stefan in seconds.

~x~

"We found something in the Gilbert journals." Bonnie explains after gathering the remaining members in the house into the basement. All this time they've been waiting for the time to come where they can finally kill Klaus, they've been searching for another way to save Elena's life. Her becoming a vampire was there last option and not a very good one at that. Bonnie thinks they might have something.

Adele gives them a look that tells them to go on when none of them start talking and its John who takes over explaining. "Jonathan journaled the story of a mother who called on Emily's services. The woman's baby was sick; dying. Emily cast a spell that would bind the woman's life force with her child."

"Skip to the save Elena part." Damon says and Adele thinks she vaguely understands where this is going but isn't completely positive yet.

"Well the child died but the mother's life force flowed through her, restoring her to life." John explained and Adele crosses her arms, leaning back against an old worn table surprised it doesn't give with her weight. "We already know that Elena's going to come back to life." She says.

"But as a vampire." Jeremy adds from his place by the fire.

"Not if her soul remains intact."

"Her soul?" Damon exclaims. "Really? You're going to put your faith in some act of god mumbo jumbo?"

John takes a few steps forward, coming to stand in front of Damon as he talks and Adele watches them closely. "I refuse to let Elena become the thing I've spent my life protecting my daughters against. And you can call that God or mystical energy, whatever you want, but yes...I'm putting my faith in it."

"John," Everyone turns to Adele, surprised to hear her addressing him head on. "If what you've been doing is protecting us, I have to admit you've done a pretty…horrible job of it. Nobody asked you to protect us and nobody's asking you to do this."

"Who else but me? It has to be someone connected enough to her."

"I can do it." It was a rhetorical question but it didn't stop Jeremy from answering. Bonnie stares over at him with wide eyes. Of course he'd give his own life up to save Elena but if this could actually work, she couldn't even think about letting him do it.

"You're not connected enough. In realty Jeremy, she's not actually your sister."

"But she is mine." At first Damon doesn't think she's serious about what's she's going to say but one look in her direction and he realizes she completely 100 percent serious. "I mean out of everyone in this room, I'm the one most connected to her. If anyone has the most chance at saving her threw life force, it'd be me don't you think?"

"No." Damon snaps, the idea is to painful to even think about.

"But if I can save her…"

"No!" Adele jumps as does everyone else; no one expected this kind of reaction from him. "It's bad enough Stefan ran off to be a hero for Jenna, You're not giving up your life for Elena's. He can do it, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work and she'll come back a vampire but I'll be damned if you die. I'm sorry but if I have to choose between you and Elena, it's going to be you. It's always going to be you." Everyone can't help but stare at the vampire. Most of them having never seen him so worked up before as he turns away from them to run his hands down his face. He was half way to hysterics at the idea and he needed to calm himself down.

"It's going to be me." John speaks up. "End of discussion." He's talking to Adele and for the first time since she found out the truth about him being her father, he actually sounds like a real father.

He makes his way back over to Bonnie who stands from where she's sitting and pulls a chair out form the table telling him to take a seat. She takes a minute to look over the grim war once more before settling behind him with her hand placed on each side of his head but not quite touching him.

~x~

"What's going on?" Jenna asks, she has no idea what's going on, she has no idea why Stefan would be here. Elena shakes her head, obviously as clueless. It didn't make scenes to her either. What was he planning? "I-I don't know." Something accrues to her and she quickly turns to Jenna with wide eyes. "You can hear them." Jenna looks back at her with her own wide eyes. "You can hear anything. Just - Just focus on them." She points to Stefan and Klaus, she's not actually sure how the hearing thing works, but she can guess it's kind of like that.

Jenna nods, before looking up at the two and trying. Elena waits patiently but when she doesn't say anything, she breaks. "What are they saying?"

"I can't – I can't make it out." She mumbles.

"You can do this." Elena encourages softly. "Just relax. Focus."

She focuses back on them, pushing hair behind her ear in an attempt to help. It does and she starts making out voices, Stefan's voice to be exact. "I can hear them. I hear Stefan."

Elena nods excitedly. "What are they saying?" Jenna stays silent, listening in closely.

"Oh my god." Jenna breathes.

"What is it?"

She can't bring herself to look up, can't bring herself to look up at Elena and when she does, she does it quickly. "He wants to take my place."

~x~

As Adele checks her phone, she realized that they must be cutting it close here. Elena's death is sure to be coming up which means there window of opportunity to kill this bastard as slim as it is, is going to get a whole lot slimmer if they don't hurry up.

Damon seems to be having the same thoughts as he begins to look a bit anxious. He begins pacing as Bonnie is doing the spell and finally just breaks all together snapping his fingers impatiently. "Come on Bonnie, we got a hybrid to kill." Alaric sends him a look but doesn't have the chance to say anything when Bonnie opens her eyes, her hands falling to her sides. "It's done." She mutters and Adele raises an eyebrow.

"That's it?" She asks and Bonnie nods.

"Let's go." Damon says rushing off back to the main floor of the house. Adele glances around at everyone before slipping up the stairs as well. She knows that there's no way Damon is going to let her go with them no matter how badly she wants to but she has to think about it rationally.

Elena was there biggest worry right now and Damon couldn't focus on getting to Elena if he was worried about her safety, not to mention she's not exactly sure what she could do. She's a human in a world full of the supernatural there isn't much she's capable of in a situation like this. I mean she can act like she's of good use when in reality all she really is, is a pretty face to look at. If she went, she'd just be in the way. She's accepted it and she's moved on. Sure it sucks to feel so useless but she would do her part in saving Elena even if it meant sitting idly by while others save her.

"It's time." She hears Elijah say, as he spots Bonnie and Damon leaving the house. Adele takes a seat on the stairs, wrapping her arms around herself. "I have weapons in the car." She watches Elijah walk from the house muttering about Bonnie being the only weapon they need. Alaric is stopped when he tries to leave the house, an invisible barrier keeping him in.

"Bonnie…." The three supernatural creatures stop walking, Bonnie turning back to look at Alaric. "What is this?"

"I can't put anyone else at risk." She answers.

"I can't stay here with Jenna out there."

"I'm sorry."

"You can't do this!" He turns his gaze to Damon. "Damon?"

"Sorry buddy, she's right." Alaric turns slightly to look at Adele and she simply shrugs looking defeated, not willing to fight anything at this point.

"No!" He snaps, upon turning back to see the three walking away. "You can't do this! Bonnie! Bonnie!"

~x~

"Elena…" Jenna says for the 5th time but her niece continues to pace, muttering about how she has to do something, how this can't happen but in all honesty what exactly was she supposed to do? What could they do against a guy that was both stronger and faster than any of them combined?

"Quite the predicament." Elena's brown eyes snap up to look in Klaus direction but never make it that far. Her gaze gets stuck on Stefan's solemn expression. He was really doing this. Did he realize how much this would hurt her? "You know, it's funny, all this talk about preserving family, and here's Stefan, granting your wish."

"Stefan…" His name falls in a whisper and he sends her a tight smile.

"It's okay." He assures her.

"Well…" They all turn back to Klaus. Elena eyes the stake in his hand for a minute before her eyes meet his. "Who's it going to be, Elena?"

Elena's mouth falls open just slightly as she stares at him. He mentions the stake between Jenna and Stefan and if he thinks she's actually going to choose between them, he was sicker then she originally thought. "No."

"Oh, don't worry. There's actually no choice." In a blur of colors, Klaus is behind Stefan shoving the stake into the middle of his back. "No! Stefan! No!" Elena cries out as Klaus breaks the stake off, leaving a piece wedged into his back in a place he can't reach. It leaves him paralyzed, unable to move from the hunched over position the stake leaves him in. "I have other plans for your boyfriend." He tells her moving around the young vampire. "I want him alive. But for now..." In one fluid motion, Klaus snaps his neck and lets him fall leaving Elena to gasp as she's forced to watch.

"Whenever you're ready Greta." Klaus calls to the witch and Elena can take a wild guess and say that he actually means for her to begin now which is what the witch does as she makes the ring around Jenna disappear. "No." Elena mutters. "No, Jenna no." She can't move though, she can't do anything from inside her ring. She's never in her life felt so helpless.

"It's alright Elena." Elena looks up at her aunt, her heart breaking even more as she notices her expression. "I know what I have to do." Elena blinks and she's gone, having used her new found speed to get to Greta. She bites her, viciously causing the witch to cry out. Klaus is behind her just as fast, wrapping an arm around her neck and using the broken stake to stab her in the side pulling her away from Greta who falls to the side. He lets her go, letting her to fall to the side, landing hard on her side. "Jenna, no!"

She picks her head up, her eyes meeting Elena's across the clearing. She can see her just fine despite the brightness of the flames surrounding her. Her emotions are a mirror to her own fear. "Just turn it off. Jenna. Turn it off. You won't be scared anymore." She doesn't yell it, but Jenna hears her as if she had.

And she's forced to watch when he stakes her, yelling out as he does. There had been nothing she could do and the scene she knows will forever haunt her.

~x~

Once Alaric had calmed down enough to make a coherent thought he went back down into the basement to look over Jeremy who still sat unconscious in the chair John had sat him in. Without the man noticing, he slipped from the basement hoping to find his remaining daughter somewhere in the house. He was relieved when he found her sitting on the steps overlooking the front yard.

He stood leaning against the door way watching her. While he'd been able to peruse Elena, while he'd been able to study the young brunette from all angles, he'd barely had the chance to talk to Adele. She was always gone, always off doing her own thing. Even now while she had no idea who was going to live to see tomorrow and who wasn't, she had something else on her mind. He could see it, it was in one of the ways she was like Isobel.

He'd wanted to get to know her more, wanted to spend time showing her that he could be there for her. Elena had been willing to look past what he'd done, had been willing to give him a second chance despite the way he'd hurt her and a part of him couldn't understand why Adele couldn't do the same but he understand now. Out of his two daughters, the one who was more easily hurt by those she trusted and loved was Adele. When it came to the ones his daughters held dear, she was most vulnerable to being hurt first. Nobody seemed to realize this expect him and he hates to attempt it, Alaric.

"I know your there. I'm not completely oblivious you know." He's snapped from his thoughts, his eyes refocusing as he becomes aware of her blue eyed stare, piercing through him. He still doesn't understand where she had gotten such blue eyes. They we're so intelligent, so consuming, so hypnotizing.

"Sorry." He mutters with a shake of his head. "I was just thinking."

"Join the club." She scoffs and he moves forward, slowly taking a seat next to her and if she didn't want him to, she doesn't say so.

"How are you feeling?" He asks and she seems surprised as she gazes up at him if her wide eyed stare is anything to go by.

"I don't know." She whispers. It's his turn to be surprised. Was she actually going to talk to him instead of telling him to F off? "There's so many emotions that I can't make sense of them." She glances away from him, something flashing across her features as she does. "Why'd you do it?" She blurts out and he sends her a confused stare. "Why'd you…give your life for Elena's?"

"All I ever wanted to do was to protect Elena, to protect you. It's the reason I gave you up so willingly. I knew that Grayson and Miranda could give you the life you deserved. I knew they'd be the parents that you needed. Isobel knew it to." She flinches at the mention of her birth mother, the memory of Isobel ripping her necklace off still so fresh in her mind.

"When you we're just my uncle…the uncle who came to stay with us a couple weeks out of every year, I loved you. I thought you we're so cool. Jenna and Elena seemed to hate you but I don't know, I didn't but then you tried to kill Damon and everything I thought I knew about you shifted and then Elena finally told me the truth and I felt so…so hurt. I pretended it didn't bother me, I pretended I hated you and that was that but it was more than that. It was knowing that I just found out I'm adopted and while my birth mother is some emotionless vampire who couldn't give a damn about us, my father is my uncle, who's been in my life the whole time and I thought, "God, could he really not have wanted me so much that it didn't bother him to see me every year calling his brother dad?""

Despite himself, he found himself tearing up. This had been what he wanted, he wanted to hear her. He wanted her to talk to him and now that she was, he wasn't sure he wanted, he wasn't sure he could handle hearing what she had to say.

"If you we're some random guy, I think it would've been better but you're not. You've been here the whole time." Her voice cracks, a tear slipping down her cheek.

"I love you and your sister Adele. I always have. Everything I did I did to protect you." He stops talking to run a hand over his head and she looks up at him, her eyes shining with tears she's trying hard not to shed. "I'm your father by blood but in reality, Grayson is your dad and even now you still can't look at me like a father figure because you already have one. Alaric is more of a father to you then I could be ever wish to be." Adele feels like she should say something, tell him that it's not true but she can't. "Here…" He holds out a white envelope that she slowly takes, when it's in her hands, he leans over and kisses her forehead, before standing up and leaving the porch, leaving her alone staring at the envelope.

~x~

The first thing he's aware of is the excruciating pain that seems to be everywhere at once. The 2nd thing he's aware of is the sound of someone, somewhere in the distance chanting in a language that's not English. The third thing, he can open his eyes and he does, briefly confused by the surroundings he's met with. He realizes what's happened, his memories flooding back and he reaches around groaning as he can't seem to get a hold of the broken stake in his back.

Elena.

He lifts his head his eyes finding her kneeling in her ring crying silently to herself. He rolls his head to the side, taking in the scene around him and when his eyes land on Jenna, he drops his head. "No." He picks his head back up to look at Elena who is staring back at him. "I'm sorry."

She brings a finger to her lips telling him to be quiet. "They're going to kill him?"

"Yes." He mouths and her eyes leave him to look a head of her, to watch Klaus approach her slowly.

"It's time." Her ring goes out and she clamps down on the sliver of fear that stirs. When she was younger, she always wanted to be like Adele. She wanted to be tough like her, wanted to be able to laugh at her fears and say go to hell. She watches him hold out a hand and grabs a hold of every ounce of hatred she has built up for this one guy and pushes herself from the ground. She ignores his hand and pushes past him.

She takes her place, making a point to stare at the ground. He comes up beside her, and grabs her chin. She fights him but he forces her to look at him. "Thank you, Elena."

"Go to hell." She spits out, having the briefest thought that Adele would've been proud before it's gone left in its place is the pain of his fangs slicing into her skin and her lips part in a silent gasp. The pain subsides, leaving behind nothing but a numb sting as her eyes meet Stefan's. Everything around her begins to dim, if it wasn't for Klaus's arms wrapped so tightly around her, she would've fell. Everything swims in and out of focus, the world spinning around her and she tries hard to hold on, tries hard to keep her eyes from fluttering closed but it's useless, everything she tries just slips through her fingers and she's soon swimming in nothing but black.

~x~

"I can feel it." Stefan's looks away from Elena's lifeless body to watch as Klaus begins to make his way away from Greta who pushes herself from kneeling on the ground, her eyes locked on Klaus as well. "It's happening."

Stefan flinches as Klaus looks to the sky and his bones begin to crack, popping in and out of place, reforming themselves in a way that should be painful but all the vampire does is laugh with enough glee to make him feel sicker then he already does. His eyes begin to glow, that yellowish gold that comes with being a werewolf.

A crack of thunder sounds and lightening lights the sky and Klaus is thrown through the air, the fire in the pits reigniting and relief rushes through his veins at the sound of chanting from behind him, chanting that belongs to Bonnie.

He sees Damon first, who comes up behind Greta who is lifting her hand in an attempt to stop Bonnie. He snaps her neck and the witch who'd so blindly followed Klaus falls dead while he moves to grab Elena, picking her up from the stone she's lying on.

He brings her over to Stefan laying her down beside him as Bonnie continues the spell. He moves over behind Stefan and yanks the broken stake from his back causing the vampire to groan in pain, rolling over onto his side. "I need you to get her out of here."

"What about you?"

"I'm not leaving till he's dead." Stefan pushes him softly. "Go." Damon moves past him, Stefan backing away so he can pick her back up and disappearing into the darkness around them. Stefan staggers to his feet turning his head to watch Elijah walking up to Klaus who is now lying painfully against stones. Bonnie lets her hands fall, a satisfied smirk gracing her features as Stefan comes up beside her.

"Elijah?" Stefan hears Klaus mummer and he watches as Elijah stares down at him. "Hello Brother." The original mummers back before striking out, his hand shoving through Klaus's chest to grip his heart. "In the name of our Family, Niklaus." He twists causing a small gasp to fall from the hybrid.

"I didn't bury them at sea!"

Elijah pauses in his actions. "What?"

"Their bodies are safe. If you kill me, you'll never find them." Elijah sits up a bit straighter, his grip on Klaus heart loosing as he stares down at his brother.

"Elijah!" The original glances up at the younger vampire who can see the obvious change in him. "Don't listen to him!"

"Elijah, I can take you to them. I give you my word... Brother." He looks back down at Klaus, his thoughts jumbled and his plan for revenge foiled. How could he kill him when he was the only one who knew of his family's location? That was if he was telling the truth.

"Do it and I'll take you both out." Bonnie calls out, seeing the decision he's clearly already made.

"You'll die." He reminds her gazing up at her with a look that's challenging.

"I don't care!" He turns his eyes away from her, back down to his brother. His eyes are pleading and he takes a deep breath before turning back to Stefan and Bonnie. "I'm sorry." He mutters. The two lunge forward, both yelling out a loud, "No!" but he's gone, having jumped over the ledge and the fire, into the water far below them, taking Klaus with him.

~x~

By the time he's walking through the door, the sun had risen and he moves forward into the house, towards the small couch in what he's assuming is the living room. "Come back as a vampire and I'll stake you myself so don't." He mummers softly not that she can hear him. He lays her down on the couch, as he hears the sound of her heels.

He moves, stepping off to the side as she kneels down. She'd taken her hair out of its braid leaving it to fall in soft waves down her back, her manicured hands brush hair from her sister's face, her blue eyes roaming her pale face. While he knows she knows he's there, nothing else mattered to her in this moment, nothing but her sister.

"How is she?" Damon turns to face Jeremy and Alaric who'd just come running into the door way. Adele doesn't look up, she just continue to run her fingers through Elena's hair. "She's dead." She mumbles just loud enough for them to hear.

"What about Jenna?" The question is enough to tare her eyes from Elena and they turn to gaze up at Damon who gazes back at her, his own blue eyes sad and she swallows looking away from him as her eyes quickly fill with hot tears.

"I'm sorry Jeremy." She hears him mutter as Alaric is backing out of the room. Elena sucks in a breath, her back arching off the couch and Adele jumps, her eyes widening as her sisters eyes pop open. "Elena."

"Adele?" She breaths out, looking between her sister, Damon and Jeremy who had come up beside Adele.

"How do you feel?" Damon asks softly, searching her eyes as she looks at him.

"I…feel fine." She nods and Adele lets her head fall with a sigh of relief that mirrors Damon's and Jeremy's expression.

~x~

She slips her locket over her head letting it rest against the fabric of her black dress. She lifts her puffy blue eyes to the mirror flinching at her reflection. She picks up her brush ripping it through her tangled blonde hair. She puts it up in a half French braid, half pony tail. She places the brush down as her eyes fall to the white envelope sitting next to her body spray.

She hadn't opened it yet, she hasn't had the heart to. After Elena had woken up, they had to explain to her why she wasn't a vampire and that led to the discovery of John. He hadn't made it any further then the front yard. She picks the envelope up and turns around, making her way to her bed where she sits down, folding her legs up under her as she rips the envelope open. She shakes the contents onto the bed, a letter and the Gilbert ring that he took from Alaric.

She picks the ring up first closing it tightly in her hand before picking up the letter and opening it slowly.

Adele,

This isn't how I wanted to do things. I didn't want to write you a letter but I find I have no choice now. Whether or not you're actually going to read this is beyond me. For all I know you might burn it but if you are reading this then that means I've done something right.

There are a few reasons I've written this letter to you, one because I know that you won't talk to me and two because if you actually did talk to me I wouldn't know how to say what I want to say. Writing what I want to say is one thing but actually saying it is a whole different ball game, especially when it comes to you.

The third reason is because I'm dead, because if I wasn't you wouldn't be reading this. You wouldn't have it because while living I made a promise to myself not to give up on you. I wanted to be able to say this to you, in person but since I'm no longer there, this will have to do.

Your special, you've always been special. You're smart, you're strong and you're beautiful. You're everything I knew you would be and more and I'm confident that you'll do amazing things.

I want you to be happy and I realize now that with a normal life in a small town you could never be truly happy. You deserve to be happy and if being with Damon is what makes you happy then so be it and if you're with Damon I know sometime in the future you'll become what I've tried so hard to protect you from but that's okay because I know that if there's anyone who'd make it as a vampire it's you. It hurts me deeply to attempt that you would make an extraordinary vampire.

I don't ask for you to forgive me, because I know you can't and I don't ask you to forget because it's not who you are, all I ask is for you to believe me. Believe me when I tell you that I love you now as I've always loved you and always will love you.

John.

PS. I'm giving you my ring. It's yours now and you may do with it what you want. If you give it back to Alaric I just ask that when he's done with it, he gives it back. I feel better knowing that you have it, knowing that in the end it'll still be with you.

She clinches the ring tightly letting the letter fall to the bed as she closes her eyes willing herself not to cry. She's done so much crying these past couple days. She's just been able to get herself to stop.

A knock on her locked bedroom door causes her to jump and she drops the ring onto the bed next to the letter. "Adele?" It's Elena and she slips from the bed, putting on her black flats as she grabs her phone from her bed side table. She slips out of the room her eyes lifting to meet her sisters. "You ready?" Adele swallows, glancing to her feet as she shakes her head. Elena reaches out, grabbing her sister's hand and squeezing it tightly and Adele takes a deep breath lifting her eyes back up.

"Let's go."

~x~

Jeremy's hand grips tightly to her own his eyes dark and his expression tortured as they reach the Gilbert Family plot, where two new graves have been made next to those of his parents. Neither he nor Adele had been back to their parents grave since the day of their funeral and there both regretting it as they look between the three gravestones. As hard as she tries to fight it, her blue eyes are filling with hot tears and she grips tighter to her brother's hand, as if it was her life line.

Elena with the roses in hand moves ahead of them. She bends in-between the two freshly dug graves and looks at the roses in her hands. She places one on each grave, first on Jenna's and then on John's before she pushes herself up and her eyes move to the gravestone next to theirs. She moves over to it, bending down and letting the tears finally spill over as she reads the stone.

Grayson Gilbert and Miranda Sommers Gilbert

May 23, 2009

Loving Parents

As she lays the roses on each side of the stone, Adele finds herself looking away over to Damon who has ventured away from them. He seems to sense her stare and looks up from the ground, his glowing blue eyes meeting hers as she lets the tears spill. It just didn't seem worth holding them in.

Damon sends her the smallest of smiles and she finds herself choking back a sob. She has no idea what's going on with him, here she was needing him more than ever and he was distancing himself from her. He'd barely even look at her let alone be with her and that hurt, making everything she was feeling, the loss, the fear, the sorrow that much worse. She turns away from him to watch Alaric place a rose on Jenna's grave. He squeezes Jeremy's shoulder and sends her watery smile when he passes them.

~x~

"We're going to head back to the house." Stefan informs his brother, walking up behind him. He'd been watching him closely, watching the way he stayed clear of Adele. Something was wrong.

"I think I'll skip the coffee and Tea cakes." Damon mutters fixing the sleeves of his jacket and dress shirt.

"Damon, they need us. All of us." He reminds him and Damon shakes his head, refusing to turn around and look at him. "And then what's the plan, Stefan? The curse is broken. How does one go about killing an all-powerful wolf vamp and his two-faced older brother?" Damon still couldn't believe what had happened. After everything they did, the bastard still got away.

"I have no idea." Stefan attempts with a sigh.

"We need to get an idea." He finally turns around, his eyes more serious then Stefan's ever seen them. "Fast."

"I'm not going to let Elena or Adele lose anybody else."

"I wouldn't make any promises, brother." Damon mumbles causing Stefan to frown. "What's that supposed to mean?" He asks watching as Damon yanks up his sleeve. "Tyler Lockwood bit me." He holds his arm out and Stefan moves forward, his expression one of disbelief. "It's actually more of a nip really but there it is." Stefan takes his arm gently, inspecting the infection. The skin is red, irritated and the veins under the skin pulse and move. He yanks his arm back when Stefan's green eyes move up to look at him.

"We'll find something." He finally whispers, his voice weak. "A cure."

"There is no cure Stefan." Damon reminds him, looking away, over towards Adele who is standing with Elena and Jeremy, her face pale and her eyes puffy as she's hugging Elena tightly.

"We kept Elena human right?" Stefan says but Damon refuses to look away from the blonde. "We found a way when there was no way. Hey." Stefan pulls his brother's attention back to him. "I will do this."

"You want to do something for me? Keep this from Adele. The last thing she needs is another grave to mourn." He slaps his brother on the shoulder lightly, before rolling the sleeve to his shirt and jacket down. Stefan lets him walk away, watching him with an expression that is tortured. Neither of them seeming to realize Adele watching him walk away as well.

~x~

"Are you okay?" Her blue eyes snap up from her mug and she blinks as she looks up at Caroline standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Everyone but Damon was in the living room and she had noticed after a few minutes that Adele was missing, she got up with nobody seeming to notice and went in search of her finding her leaning against her elbows on the counter staring blankly into a mug of coffee.

"No." Adele mutters, her eyes falling back to the mug. "But I will be." Caroline can't help but smile at her.

"Of course you will, I don't think there's anything that could stop you." Adele cracks a small smile in her direction before it falls and she pushes herself up to stand.

"Something's wrong with Damon." She says softly and Caroline frowns at her. "I don't know what but I know there's something wrong."

"Maybe he's just overwhelmed. We're all a little shaken." Caroline offers moving into the kitchen to stand across from her at the counter.

"I don't know. I just wish he would talk to me, look at me, just give me something other than this silence. I don't understand it; he's never been this way with me. I need him and he's just…shutting me out." Caroline shakes her head at her best friend, sending her a comforting smile.

"It'll be okay. He'll come around."

"I hope so." Adele whispers as her phone buzzes on the counter next to her mug. She picks it up and swallows back her tears as she sees it's Jasmine. She slides the bar over, answering the call before pressing the phone to her ear. "Hey, Jazzy…"

"He took Michael!" Adele's eyes lift from the mug, to stare straight ahead at Caroline, her lips part in a silent gasps as her spine stiffens in surprised horror. "James took Michael!"