The two girls stare at Isobel in complete shock, this couldn't be happening.
"Hello, Elena, Buffy. It's nice to see you both again." Isobel says sweetly, playing up the innocent role as much as she could.
Buffy glares at her really wanting to beat her to a pulp, however, she pauses as Jenna turns to face them both, the look on her face just showed the utter heartbreak she was going through right now "Again?" She asks, her voice breaking.
"So you're the woman who's dating my husband." Isobel says as she turns to Jenna "I need to speak to Elena. May I come in?"
Elena and Buffy shake their heads "Not a chance in hell." Buffy hisses while Elena turns to Jenna panicked "No-n-no. Don't—don't invite her in."
"I need to talk to you, Elena." Isobel insists.
"No." Elena yells before slamming the door in her face.
The two turn to Jenna, who currently had tears rolling down her cheeks "You both knew she was alive? Rick? John? Did they know?"
"Jenna we can explain." Buffy tries but Jenna just runs for the stairs "Jenna, please." Elena cries as both cousins chance after her "No, wait. Jenna, please, wait."
Jenna slams her bedroom door shut and both girls try and convince her to open it "Jenna, please, we need to explain what's going on." Buffy tries but when she hears Jenna collapse against the door in tears she pulls Elena back "We need to leave her be."
The next morning Buffy heads out of the house early before anyone else woke up; she heads towards the graveyard.
She slowly walks along the path until she stops by her mother's grave. Taking a deep breath she glances at the name on the grave before placing her hand on the top of the grave "Hey mom." She says as she crouches down next to the grave.
"I know it's been awhile. To say things have been complicated...is an understatement."
Buffy sighs and leans her head against the grave "I meet someone new, another vampire. I'm starting to sense a pattern here, but I love him. I think you would have to. He's not gonna lose his soul if we..." Buffy freezes mid-sentence, that was probably not the best thing to bring up right now during this mother/daughter moment "...ah never mind, anyway turns out I'm like destined to be some psycho's queen. Funny right?"
Buffy closes her eyes "Jenna found out about Isobel, and I don't think she's ever gonna forgive me or Elena...I just wish you were here, mom, you always knew exactly what to say to fix things. I'm not like that, I don't know if I can do this." She pauses for a moment, this was killing her inside "I found the person responsible for making you sick, or at least speeding along the process. I promise I'll make her pay mom."
Buffy takes a deep breath and places a bouquet of flowers on the grave "I love you, mom." She says before standing and walking away.
Buffy climbs in through her window out of habit, and as she lands on the floor of her room she hears yelling downstairs. She frowns in confusion and quickly walks towards the stairs and heads down just as Jenna storms out and slams the door behind her. Buffy turns to Elena and Alaric "So wanna explain to me why Jenna just stormed out of here? Where the hell is she going?"
Elena sighs "She doesn't want to talk to us, she's going to campus."
"It's better that she's not here, what with everything that's going on." John says as he enters the room.
Buffy groans "You're still here. I was hoping you took off or died in your sleep."
John glances at her "Sorry to disappoint." He says before turning to Alaric "You know maybe if you had been a little more honest with her from the beginning, this wo—"
John is cut off by Alaric punching him in the face, Buffy chuckles while Elena gasps in shock.
"Sorry, girls." Alaric says before leaving the house.
Buffy turns back to John and punches him in the face "This is so your fault, I say you deserve that."
John who had fallen to the ground groans in pain and looks up at both girls "You know this is your fault, right?" Elena asks.
"Right." He says before both girls head away and up the stairs.
"This is bad, like bad bad, like the end of the world bad." Buffy says as she takes a seat next to Stefan "Well, almost end of the world bad. But still, all this, between Isobel, dumbass John and Jenna, it's getting very close to that bad."
"Yeah." Stefan breaths.
"What are we going to do?" Elena asks as she sits on Buffy's bed.
Buffy looks over at the brunette "I—" Buffy freezes when she spots John.
"Elena, Buffy could you both please come downstairs, I need to speak to you."
Buffy scoffs and turns to Elena "Elena, can you hear something, sounds like a weird buzzing, maybe it's a bug."
"Please." John asks "It's important. You, too, Stefan."
The four of them climb downstairs, however, the moment Buffy spots Isobel she jumps over the railing and grabs Isobel. She shoves the vampire against the wall and wraps a hand around her neck.
Isobel coughs "I asked John for a do-over." She tells Buffy, the blonde simply rolls her eyes while Elena turns to John astonished, "You invited her in?"
"She had information about Klaus." He tells them "She'll tell us, once Buffy releases her"
Buffy chuckles "Yeah, not a chance."
John turns to the younger girl "Please, just listen to her, ok?"
Buffy glances over at Elena who nods "Fine." Buffy sighs before shoving Isobel away from her.
"What do you know?" Stefan asks as he comes to stand by Buffy's side.
"Since I was last here, I've been doing everything possible to find Klaus. We knew our best chance was to find him before he could find you...and Buffy." Isobel tells them as she sits on one of the chairs in the kitchen.
"Best chance at what?" Stefan asks.
"Keeping Elena alive, and making sure Buffy doesn't—" John starts to answer but Buffy finishes "Go all Darth Vader, we've already established that."
Elena steps over to John "You don't get to talk, ok, not after everything you've done."
"Were you able to find Klaus?" Stefan asks Isobel.
"No." She says as she shakes her head "Nobody knows where he is, not even Mary and that girl never takes her eyes off him for long."
Buffy's eyes widen in rage "Mary? Do you know where she is?" She hisses.
Isobel shakes her head again "No. The girl appears and disappears in a heartbeat, it's natural to her."
Stefan places a hand on Buffy's shoulder trying to calm her but then turns back to Isobel as she goes on "That's not what is important here. There are these rumours that are flying around that the doppelgänger exists and is being protected by the fallen slayer."
John interjects "Which means any vampire that wants to get in favour with Klaus will be lining up to capture you."
Elena shakes her head "I'm not buying any of this."
"Ditto." Buffy agrees.
Elena turns to Isobel and glares at her birth mother "The last time that you were here, you made it clear that you didn't give a damn about me. Now all of a sudden I'm supposed to believe that you wanna help me and my cousin."
"Isobel's been helping all along." John informs the group "Klaus has been obsessed with finding Katherine and Mary for centuries almost as much as he had been for you." He says as he glances over at Buffy.
Buffy shrugs "We get it he's big with the creepy, got anything new to share?"
"Look all it would take was anyone of those 1864 tomb vampires to spread the word around that Katherine and Mary were still alive, and it would bring him straight here to Mystic Falls, where the both of you were bound to be discovered, so we killed them."
Buffy glares at him "And almost killed Stefan and Damon in the process. Oh, and may I remind you that device almost killed me as well. Is almost getting me killed a hobby of yours?"
"I didn't know it would affect you."
Elena scoffs "Yeah right, you hate everything supernatural."
At that moment Isobel stands up and turns to Elena "I have a safe house that I can take you both too. The deed is in your name. No vampires can get in without your permission. Not even me. Let me help you. The both of you."
Elena continues to glare at her and steps closer "You wanna help? Then get the hell out of my house."
"Merci, Mon Cherie." Isobel says to the young man as she enters the house. Suddenly she feels someone behind her she runs and grabs the person by the throat. Katherine merely wipes her hand away and slams Isobel against the wall "Nice house." She hisses.
"Nicest foreclosure in town." Isobel tells her before smiling "Come here." She says before pulling her into a hug.
As Katherine pulls away Isobel smiles at her "It's nice to see you, Katherine."
"I must say the same." Mary says as she comes down the stairs "How have you been little sister?"
Katherine glares at her "Stuck in a tomb and starving, how do you think?"
Mary waves her off and continues makes her way down the stairs "But it worked didn't it? I told you it would. If those boys and John thought you were desperate enough you would get an in."
Katherine smiles "True."
Mary chuckles "Plus I did owe you back for abandoning me in Prague in 1752, I almost got killed...again."
Katherine laughs before pulling her friend into a hug, after a moment she pulls away "So I've heard you've two have been busy."
"Yes, we have." Isobel says with a smirk "We have been making a deal with Klaus to save both of yours lives and get Mary looking pretty again."
"Here." Mary says as she hands Katherine a wine bottle "Sweet little vintner in Italy made a small donation.
Katherine smirks and takes a taste "Hmm, he's tasty."
As the three women sit down Katherine turns to Isobel "So what was with the surprise visit to the Gilbert house?"
"John told me Rick was dating auntie vanilla." Isobel says, her voice full of disdain "I got jealous."
Katherine smirks "You have obviously got John wrapped around your finger if he invited you in the house."
"When has she not had him like that." Mary says "Boy's like a sad little puppy."
Isobel smiles "He thinks I'm helping him protect Elena and Buffy, so he's been very useful in keeping me informed on everything that's been going on."
"So tell me what you know." Katherine asks.
"She couldn't get near Klaus." Mary tells her "But luckily one of his witches is a sucker for a pretty girl. I bribed, Isobel made the deal."
Isobel takes over "He said that Klaus is willing to grant you and Mary your freedom, as well as a way to give Mary her face back if we deliver the Moonstone as well as the doppelgänger and the Slayer to him."
Katherine nods "I can get the moonstone."
"Do you really think that Isobel's telling the truth that word's gotten out about the doppelgänger and the fallen slayer?" Elena asks Buffy, Stefan and Damon.
"Look..." Stefan says as he turns to her "...I don't trust a word that she says, but I think we'd be stupid to ignore the warning."
Buffy nods "True, but if she is lying, I am so going to enjoy kicking her ass."
Damon chuckles at the blonde "Please let me watch."
"Hundred bucks and we'll talk." Buffy tells him.
Damon thinks for a moment "Deal." He then looks between the cousins "Maybe it's best you both just stay here, it's better for us to keep an eye on you."
Buffy scoffs "Yeah, no."
Stefan turns to Damon "What, in the house that any vampire can enter? No. It's safer living in a house with a vampire slayer."
"Well, then we'll stay there."
Buffy rolls her eyes "Again I say... no. I'd rather not have you hogging my bathroom."
"You could always just join me." Damon suggests, waggling his eyebrows at her.
Both Buffy and Stefan glare at him, but then Buffy tosses a book at his head.
"Ow!" He moans as he rubs his now sore head. Elena laughs as does Buffy.
After Elena stops laughing she looks between both brothers "So is that the plan? Neither of you will let me or Buffy out of your sight again?"
Damon shrugs "Let me know when you come up with a better one."
Buffy raises her hand "I have one...I snap your neck and me and Elena go hang in our house where no vampire can enter. I'm stronger than both of you combined, I'm sure we'll be fine. Plus that house has tonnes of well-hidden weapons."
"Buffy..." Stefan sighs.
She rolls her eyes and huffs "Fine...but then one of you is gonna have to come with me to the Lockwood Luncheon. I'm not suffering alone because Elena's making me come."
Stefan smiles "That'd be me."
"Not me." Damon says "I have witch stuff to attend to with Bonnie."
Elena turns to Damon "Does that mean you're taking her to the—"
"Shh."
"Don't get quiet on my account." Katherine says as she enters the room "If you have a plan to combat the impending vampire doom, please do tell."
Buffy rolls her eyes "Can I cut off her tongue."
Damon sighs "It will just grow back."
Buffy scrunches up her face in disgust "Gross."
At that moment Katherine rolls her eyes "Seriously, what is the plan to get us out of this mess, hmm?"
Buffy turns to Katherine "You want the plan? Okay. We kill you and send your head to Klaus as a gift."
Katherine glares at the blonde "I delivered you a moonstone, a werewolf, and the dagger to lure and kill Klaus, and right now all you have is a moonstone or so you tell me."
"No, we have it." Damon assures her.
"Where is it?"
Damon smiles "It's in a very safe place he says vaguely."
"I've been honest with you. Time to return the favour."
Buffy looks over at Damon "Do you think if we put a tonne of vervain in the wound, it will take a lot longer to heal. Means we will finally get some peace of quiet."
Damon thinks for a moment "Might work." He then turns back to Katherine "Let me be honest with you. Don't mistake the fact that we haven't set you on fire in your sleep or just let Buffy tear you to pieces as trust."
Katherine sighs "Fine. Be that way." She says unhappily before walking off.
"Hey." Stefan says as Caroline approaches, him, Buffy and Elena at the Luncheon "Any luck finding Matt?" He asks.
Caroline shakes her head, panicked "None. What if he tells somebody? What if he tells everybody."
"No, we just gotta find him and make sure that doesn't happen." Stefan turns to Elena and Buffy "Either of you know where he might be?"
Buffy shakes her head "Sorry." She says to Caroline.
Elena also shakes her head "I wish I did, but he wasn't really one to run."
Caroline shakes her head tears threatening to escape her "You know, this wasn't how it was supposed to happen. You know, I was supposed to tell him at the right moment in the right way and he was supposed to be okay with because he loves me."
Buffy nods "Care, we'll find him. Don't go all wiggy, we will start as soon as they stupid thing is over."
Caroline sighs "All right. Well call me when you're done, and I'll be out looking for him." She tells him before walking off.
Buffy watches for a moment as Elena heads over to accept the award, suddenly Buffy hears a familiar voice upstairs, her eyes widen. She starts to head for the stairs when Stefan grabs her hand "Buffy?" He whispers confused.
Buffy places a finger to her lips "Shh." She tells him before pointing at the stairs "Stay with Elena." She whispers before silently making her way up the stairs, Stefan watches worried.
"John!" Buffy yells as she sees Isobel take a bite out of him, Buffy runs towards Isobel but suddenly she falls to the ground and clutches her head as an agonising pain hits her.
"Long time no see." A woman says as she walks towards Buffy, the blonde looks up "Mary." She hisses before moaning in pain again.
Mary smirks "Did you miss me?" She asks before injecting Buffy with a needle. Mary turns to Isobel and smiles "The Watcher's Council really should be more careful where they store something that makes their prized position nothing more than a little girl."
Isobel smiles before tossing John down the stairs, as she does Mary crouches down in front of Buffy "I like your dress." She says gesturing to the grey dress Buffy was currently wearing "Hope you don't mind sharing." She says before kicking Buffy in the face sending her into unconsciousness.
Mary closes her eyes for a second and slowly her hair turns from its natural raven into a honey blonde, she quickly looks in the mirror before turning to Isobel "Get her and Elena in the car." She tells her as she glances down at the blonde slayer. Once she's sure she looks the part, Mary quickly heads down the backstairs "What the hell happened?" She asks as she approaches Stefan and Katherine who was now dressed as Elena.
Stefan turns to her "John's dead. Did you find anything?"
Mary shakes her head "Didn't exactly have time to look, with the whole death and crowd thing."
Stefan nods "Let's get out of here. Come on." He says to both women before leading them out.
"It's Isobel, Damon. It's gotta be." Katherine says on the phone as her, Mary and Stefan head towards the car.
Stefan turns to her "Tell him he needs to get over here and deal with John's body."
Mary takes the phone off Katherine "Dumbass get your ass down here, the council is wigging out, you're on council duty, fix the John being not so dead problem."
Mary hangs up the phone but suddenly Stefan pushes her into the car and grabs her "Where the hell is she? Huh?"
Mary smiles "Sorry, that's a secret." She says before raising her hand and pressing it to Stefan's temple, he groans in pain but then freezes as Katherine comes up behind him and injects him with a vile of vervain.
Katherine turns to Stefan "I'm sorry, Stef, but I can't have you following us." She then tosses him into the bush and turns to Mary "Shall we."Mary smiles and opens the car door "We shall." She says before putting the car in drive.
"Are we good to go?" Mary hears Isobel ask Katherine on the other side of the line.
Katherine closes the front door before answering "We're at your house, but we have to hurry. Damon knows your lodging tricks it will take him all of 20 minutes to find out where you're staying."
"We'll be long gone before that." Isobel assures her.
"Good. How far are you?"
"I'm sorry, Katherine. I had to do what I was told. He wanted the moonstone and he wanted you."
Mary steps over to Katherine "And that's exactly what we're gonna give him."
Katherine drops the phone and turns to Mary "May? He-he who?"
Mary looks at her sadly "I'm sorry Katerina. He made me an offer I can't refuse."
Katherine glares at her, she runs towards the witch but Mary merely raises her hand, Katherine screams in pain before collapsing onto the ground.
"I see you haven't lost your touch." One of Klaus' witches says as he walks over to Mary.
Mary smiles "Lucky thing about being immortal, you have a lot of time to practice." Mary pauses and looks back down at Katherine sadly, she sighs "It's time. Let's go."
"What the hell did you do to me?" Buffy asks Isobel as her and Elena step out of the car.
"Mary injected you with a small dose of the serum that diminishes a slayer's power. It was only a small amount so you'll have your strength back in the next few hours." Isobel tells her.
When both girls refuse to follow her Isobel sighs "Just because I can't compel either of you, doesn't mean I can't force you to come with me."
Both girls roll their eyes before slowly following her.
"So is that what happened?" Elena asks her birth mother "You were compelled to betray Katherine."
Buffy shrugs "My guess Mary did it out of her own free will."
Isobel nods "Klaus offered Mary something, she turned on Katherine just like Katherine has done to her many times before. Those two constantly betray each other to make their own lives better. For me, If I was, I couldn't tell you." She says to Elena.
"So you lied." Elena observes "You did find Klaus, didn't you? He knows where me and Buffy are now. Are you taking us to him?"
When she still doesn't answer Buffy rolls her eyes "Yo, vampy lady, you lose your hearing or are you just going insane?"
Suddenly Isobel comes to a stop, she bends down in front of a grave "What is this?" Elena asks confused.
Isobel moves some leafs out of the way, revealing her own name; she stands "My parents..." She glances over at Elena "...your grandparents, they put it here when it became clear that the police weren't gonna find my body. They visit every week, and they bring flowers, even though there's no one buried here. The Isobel they knew is dead. So maybe there's a part of me that's buried here, the—the human part, the part that I abandoned when I—when I choose to become a vampire, the part that used to dream about the day that she'd know her daughter."
Elena turns to her confused "What?"
"And instead you got to meet the other part...the part that would betray her own flesh and blood."
At that moment Isobel's phone rings, Buffy listens carefully and is shocked when she hears that Klaus is letting them go.
As Isobel hangs up she looks over at Elena "I'm so sorry, Elena...that I was such a disappointment to you." Suddenly Isobel rips the necklace from her neck and burst into flames.
As Buffy and Elena sit in the living room at the Salvatore's, Buffy turns to Stefan "I don't get it. All that effort and what he just lets us go? Maybe he's off his meds."
Stefan shakes his head unsure "Well anything John told Isobel we have to assume that Klaus knows, right? So he knows that Elena is not gonna turn herself into a vampire and he knows that you aren't one to turn away from a fight when that something threatens people you love. He knows that you have all of us keeping the both of you safe."
Elena's eyes widen as she comes to a realisation "He knows we're not gonna run."
"Which is why we need to take some precautions." Damon says as he enters the room.
Buffy turns to Damon "Hey, Damon, do you remember exactly where I told you 'not' to hide the moonstone, hmm?"
Damon rolls his eyes "I get it, you were right, you can gloat later. But we got played all of us." He says before dumping a load of paperwork in Buffy's lap.
Buffy looks down at her lap confused "What are you suing me or something?"
Stefan shakes his head "No, that is the deed to our house. It's in Zack's name as soon as you sigh it, it'll be in your name."
Buffy just stares at the brothers stunned "You're giving me a house, dude so not a good idea, I kill my goldfish I can't own a house."
"Look, Isobel had the right idea with the safe house. You'll both just stay here till it's all over."
Damon cuts in "That way you little miss vampire slayer can decide you gets invited and who loses a head. Although I'll be super pissed if you put me on the head list."
Buffy glares at him but he simply smiles at her, at that moment a loud gasping noise comes from behind them, the four turn to see the dead John now alive. Damon quickly runs over and lifts John off the ground "I swear I had no idea what she was gonna do." John tells Damon "I'm sorry." He looks over at the cousins "I'm so, so sorry."
Buffy sighs "Let the man go, Damon."
Damon turns to her astonished but she simply shakes her head and looks over at Elena who nods "He and I need to talk."
"Hey, Bonnie said the spell worked." Damon tells Buffy and Stefan.
Stefan sighs "At least something went right today."
Buffy nods in agreement "You can say that again, Little old me is sick of being drugged by crazy people."
Stefan smiles before realising something "Hmm. Katherine has no idea that Bonnie got her powers back."
"Mn'hmn." Damon mumbled.
"And Isobel had no idea what you and Jeremy took Bonnie to do today."
Buffy smiles "Nope."
Stefan smiles "We're the only ones who know."
"That literally makes Bonnie our secret weapon." Damon says.
"Wake up." Mary hisses to Katherine.
Katherine mumbles before slowly opening her eyes, she looks over at Mary "What—"
Mary places a finger over her lips and points in the corner. Katherine looks over and sees Klaus' witch standing in front of a man, chanting.
Mary quickly stands and drags Katherine to stand with her, as she does the man stands, he turns to them "Alaric?" Katherine asks confused.
Alaric slowly steps towards them and when Katherine tries run she is stopped by a barrier. Alaric continues to walk towards them "Zdravei, Katerina, Marianna. Mmm. I have missed you."
Katherine's eyes widen "Klaus."
Los Angeles, California
"Come on we should be celebrating. I got my GED." Cordelia says.
Angel sighs "Cordelia."
She huffs "Fine." The two of them go back to watching Doyle, who is pacing in the other room "So, he spoke to her."
"Yeah."
Cordelia turns to face Angel "Didn't go too well, huh?"
"I think she just needs some time."
Cordelia goes back to watching Doyle "He's still really hung up on her, isn't he?"
Angle nods "Hmm. More than he knew probably, yeah."
"Well, someone has to go out there and cheer him up."
Angel starts to stand but Cordelia stops him "Oh, please. Someone with a heartbeat." Cordelia leaves the room and heads over to Doyle "Hi, Doyle. Are you gonna become the loser-pining guy, like, full-time now? 'Cause, you know, we already have one of those around the office."
"Hey." Angel yells annoyed, as does Doyle.
Cordelia rolls her eyes "He can get away with it. He's tall and...and look at the way clothes hang on him. But you..."
Angel interjects "Ok. I think you've cheered us up enough."
Cordelia turns back to Doyle "You can't live in the past. You've gotta move on. Let it go. Forget it. Tomorrow's another day. Did I mention letting it go?"
Doyle nods "Twice."
Cordelia sighs and goes to sit next to him "You'll get through this, Doyle. Nice guys don't always finish last."
"You think I'm a nice guy?"
Cordelia smiles "I think it, I say it. It's my way."
"Thanks."
"Feeling better?"
Doyle nods "Yeah." Suddenly Doyle gasps in pain and he grabs his head.
Cordelia jumps away "Not my fault."
"He's having a vision." Angel tells her.
Doyle continues to see flashes of Buffy fighting. When the vision finally stops he looks up at Angel.
"What? What'd you see?" Angel asks.
