Stefan was leading Elowen through the woods somewhere a little ways outside of town. He refused to tell her where they were going and at this point, she'd just given up.

"Please tell me we're almost there," She whined. "Because unlike you, I'm human, which means my legs get tired."

Stefan laughed. "Okay, we'll stop and take a break."

Elowen sighed in relief. "You didn't think to bring water, did you?"

Stefan sheepishly shook his head. "Sorry, no."

"You're a terrible boyfriend."

"Hey! I didn't exactly plan this. It was supposed to be spontaneous and romantic."

Elowen rolled her eyes and continued her trek. "Next time, plan ahead."

They came to a clearing that revealed a waterfall on the side of the mountain. Elowen stopped in wonder to admire it.

"Wow… this is beautiful."

Stefan stopped behind her with a smile on his face. "Am I still a terrible boyfriend?"

"Yes."

Elowen giggled at Stefan's face of defeat, but gradually, her giggles stopped and the smile slipped off of her face. Stefan furrowed his eyebrows and cupped her cheek in his hand.

"Hey, what's wrong? You can talk to me."

Elowen sighed. "I know you took me here so I wouldn't think of Damon, but…"

"But?"

"It's just… not fair. He's been waiting so patiently for me to love him back, and when I finally do, he's already cast me to the side like I'm nothing. Was I just his most recent plaything? Did I mean nothing to him?"

"No, you meant everything to him. It's still hard for me to admit that my brother is in love with my girlfriend and that I don't have you all to myself, but I know one thing's for sure: he loves you in a way he never loved Katherine. He makes mistakes sometimes, big ones, and I think that sooner or later, he'll realize he's making a giant one."

Elowen went silent. Then, she opened her mouth. "I'm being unfair to you both, making you share me the way I have. You two deserve someone who's loyal to you, and-"

"Don't talk like that. It was my idea in the first place, remember? I don't think I'll ever really get used to this no matter how normal it seems at this stage, and yeah, hearing that you're in love with my brother hurts a bit, but it's what makes you happy, and I'm willing to sacrifice monogamy in order for you to be happy."

"Yeah, but with your brother of all people? That makes me look like one of the shittiest people on earth."

"Stop talking like that. I will never force you to choose, no matter how much I wish you would, because your happiness is important to me."

"At the expense of yours? Look, I love you, you know that, but you deserve to be happy, too."

"And I am, because no matter which way you look at it, I have you. As long as I have you, I am the happiest man on the planet, okay? This trip is about you, and it's a long way to the top. I want you to make the most of it."

Elowen looked back up at the waterfall. "You mean we're climbing all the way up there?"

Stefan nodded. "Mm-hmm."

"Can't you just, I don't know, do one of your superpower vampire jumpy things?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Stefan moved his hand from her cheek to her fingers. "Come on. Let's go."

xxxx

Katherine was looking in the fridge for a blood bag. She was hungry, but every single one she found was empty. She huffed as she tossed yet another empty bag on the ground. The sound of the lock clicking at the front door sounded throughout the apartment and she curiously stood up and walked over. Alaric was standing on the other side.

Katherine crossed her arms. "Look who's dumb enough to come back."

"Well, somebody had to invite him in," Alaric replied. "Damon, would you like to, uh, come in?"

Damon appeared at the doorway and stepped inside.

"Are you trying to get me killed?" Katherine hissed. Instead of answering her, he rushed at her and slammed her against the wall.

"I gave you vervain, now I'm here to collect." He called over his shoulder. "I got it from here, Ric."

"You sure?" He asked.

"Yeah, only one of us needs to get blamed for this and I sort of need a redemption arc. Get back to the house, help Esmeralda with Toby. She's gonna need it."

Alaric nodded. "Okay."

"Get blamed for what?" Katherine asked suspiciously once he was gone.

"Vampire Barbie is missing and I have a hunch she's the vampire Klaus is planning on using in the sacrifice, so I kind of need to know where she's being kept."

"No. You can't interfere, Damon. Klaus will kill you and everyone you've ever met."

"Pfft. Vampires come by the dozen. He can just pluck somebody off of the street if he wanted. Now, where is she?"

Katherine stubbornly stayed quiet. An idea struck Damon and he decided to put it to good use.

"What if I told you Elena had vampire blood in her system?"

Katherine's wide widened. "What?!"

Damon simply raised an eyebrow. Katherine scowled at him.

"The tomb," she told him at last. "He's keeping her in the tomb."

Damon gave a sarcastic smile. "Thank you."

Then, he left.

xxxx

Elowen and Stefan were still climbing to the top of the hill. She hadn't been talking much, instead keeping to her thoughts. Stefan let her be.

"What's the best part about being a vampire?" She asked suddenly. Stefan stopped his walk in surprise. He stared at her for a moment before continuing on his way.

"You feel like you could do anything. Be anyone. Beautiful things are more beautiful. Everything's heightened. You just live more intensely, love more powerfully."

"And the worst?"

"Ah, you know the worst."

"No, aside from the bloodlust."

Stefan stopped again and turned to fully face her. "Anger becomes rage. When you're sad, you're in despair. Grief. Loss. It can cripple you. That's why so many of us turn our emotions off. It just becomes… too overwhelming. Y'know, for awhile, for me, the good just wasn't worth the bad."

"How long before you learned to handle both?"

"Well, I'm still trying. Everyday. What else?"

Elowen stayed quiet and then walked passed him without another word. Stefan sighed, but followed behind her.

xxxx

Damon was walking through the woods in the direction of the tomb. He was just outside the stairs when Maddox appeared from behind the trees.

"Which one are you trying to save?" He asked. "The blonde, or the wolf? Did you really think Klaus would leave them unprotected?"

Damon shrugged. "Wishful thinking."

Damon ran at Maddox and pinned him to the ground. He wrapped his hands around his neck and started to strangle him, but Maddox used his powers to throw Damon a few feet away. Once he was down, Maddox started to cast the spell Elowen loved to use so much and gave Damon a headache. He screamed and tried to fight through the pain back towards Maddox, but it was no use. Out of nowhere, a gunshot sounded and Maddox fell to the ground. Damon looked up and saw Matt Donovan of all people, standing there with a rifle. Not sparing him a second glance, as that wasn't the task at hand, Damon sped over and snapped Maddox's neck. Finally, he acknowledged Matt.

"What are you doing here?"

"Where's Caroline?" He demanded instead.

"Listen, man, not a good time to play the hero. That spot's already been taken."

Matt cocked the rifle and pointed it at Damon, who put his hands up in surrender.

"I'm serious. I'm just here to rescue her. Leave."

When Matt didn't make a move, Damon rushed over and hit him with the butt of the rifle, sending Matt to the ground, unconscious. He picked up the rifle and dumped the bullets out.

"You're lucky I'm trying to be the good guy or else you'd be dead."

He realized the bullets were wooden and crouched down to pick one up. He cast one last glance at Matt before he tossed the bullet back on the ground and headed for the steps.

"Damon?" Caroline questioned when he entered the tomb.

"Your boyfriend is worried sick. Try not to freak him out when there's an Original vampire on the loose, would you?" He walked over to Caroline and grabbed onto the chains that were bolted to the wall. "Oh, by the way, your buddy Matt is outside with a rifle loaded with wooden bullets. You have some explaining to do."

"Matt knows about you?" Tyler asked. Caroline was shaking her head before the question was finished.

"No-"

"Shh," Damon shushed. "Tomorrow's problem." He yanked on the chains and broke them. Caroline got up as Damon was already headed for the exit. "Let me just get you out of here."

"Wait, Damon, no!" She gestured to Tyler. "I'm not leaving without him."

"Ohh," Damon groaned. "It's getting dark soon." He looked at Tyler. "How fast can you get the hell away from here?"

"I need to get to my family's cellar," Tyler replied. "I can lock myself up."

"I'll help," Caroline quickly offered. Damon sighed and walked over to Tyler.

"Don't make me regret this."

He broke Tyler chains and helped him to his feet.

"Now, let's get out of here."

xxxx

"God, we made it!" Elowen breathed once her and Stefan made it to the top of the mountain.

"That's nothing if you've climbed Mt. Everest."

"Nobody likes a bragger, Stefan."

Elowen looked out at the view and took it in. Stefan came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Wow…" She breathed in amazement.

They sat like that for a few minutes before she felt Stefan deeply sigh against her. She looked up at him over her shoulder.

"What is it?"

"You can say it."

"Say what?"

"Whatever it is that you've been thinking about the whole way up here."

Elowen looked away and back out at the view. "I was thinking about how we were talking about making each other happy, and I know the thought has crossed your mind, and probably Damon's, too, but… what if I did it? What if I bit the bullet and became a vampire?"

Stefan immediately let go of her to turn her around. His face was serious and Elowen was having trouble reading him.

"No-"

"No? But, that's what you want, isn't it?"

"Let me finish. You've already made it clear that you don't want to be a vampire, Elowen. You're happy being human, being a witch. It makes you feel alive. You'd be miserable if you gave that all up just for me and Damon. Yeah, I'll admit it, I've thought about it a hundred times, and if it were my choice, I'd want to be with you forever, but that's not what you want. The last thing I want is for you to force yourself to become someone you don't want to be." He gently took her hands into his. "I already said that as long as you're happy, I'm happy, and as long as I have you, I couldn't ask for anything else. Besides, what about Evelyn and Claire?"

Elowen smiled softly. "You remembered."

"Of course I did, because that's something that's important to you. Having kids, starting a family, that's something you want. Your future, our lives together, those are things you deal with as they come along. You have a lifetime of those choices. You're supposed to grow up, Elle. Your life is just beginning, and there's no way I'm taking that away from you."

Elowen felt tears beginning to pool around her eyes and Stefan embraced her as she started to cry.

"Thank you for always respecting me and my wishes," she said through her sobbing. "I love you so much."

Stefan quietly shushed her and rubbed his hands down her back. "You're welcome. I love you, too."

xxxx

Alaric had come and picked up Elena from the boarding house and brought her to Elowen's house. That's where everyone had moved to and he felt a lot more comfortable knowing she was surrounded by people and not by herself with Jenna, even if it was in a house Klaus wasn't invited into. Speaking of Jenna, Elena was currently on the phone trying to get ahold of her.

"She's not answering. She was right behind us when we left, wasn't she?"

"I'm sure she's fine," Alaric reassured. "Talking when you're driving is dangerous, remember?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." She glanced upstairs. "How's Toby?"

Alaric look behind his shoulder. "Esmeralda said the transformation has started. They spelled the room to make it soundproof, so we won't hear anything. It's probably best that way."

"And he won't be able to get out, right?"

"Right. It's like the tomb spell, except this time, it's to prevent werewolves from leaving."

Esmeralda came downstairs and sighed loudly. "He's fully turned. Give it a few hours and he'll be back to normal."

Josiah was pacing around in the other room, while Eliana and Sydney were sitting in the kitchen with Binx. Josiah stopped and came into the foyer where Alaric, Elena and Esmeralda were.

"Where's Caroline?" He asked Ric. "You said Damon was on it."

"And he is. Klaus probably had Caroline guarded. He'll be here any second."

"Can't you just call him? Call him."

Alaric gave in almost immediately. Josiah looked worried out of his mind and seeing him so antsy and on edge was killing him. He pulled out his phone and dialed Damon's number.

"Bad time, dude," Damon said once he answered the phone.

"Sorry, Jo's just, y'know, casually freaking out in the living room. Please tell me you got Caroline."

"Of course I did. See?"

There was a beat of silence before Caroline's voice rang through the line.

"Tell Josiah that I'm okay!"

"I will. See you back at Elowen's?"

"Roger that."

Alaric hung up and nodded at Josiah. He let out a huge sigh of relief and felt like a weight was lifted off of his chest.

"Thank god," he mumbled under his breath.

Outside, Stefan pulled up to the house and walked around the car to open the door for Elowen.

"Thanks for today," she told him as she got out. Stefan sensed something, quickly pushed Elowen behind him and turned around. Klaus was standing there. Elowen's whole body tensed and went slack at the same time at the sight of him. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened.

"It was you…" she whispered. Stefan turned to look at her in confusion. "It was you the whole time… You're Nik."

Stefan turned back to Klaus as it clicked in his head. "You mean…? He's the one you kept seeing? It was Klaus all along?"

Klaus was standing there in silence as he tried to figure out what was going on. How did she know to call him Nik? And what did Stefan mean by 'he's the one you kept seeing'? He was missing something, and it felt like it was something big.

Elowen swayed on her feet and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Stefan caught her as she went backward and helped her stay upright. When her eyes went back to normal, she pushed Stefan's hands off of her.

"Who are you?" Came the heavily accented voice of Marisol. "You were there that night Elijah was killed. You said you were friends of Kol's. That was a lie." She turned and saw Klaus standing there and made a beeline for him. "Nik! You're back in your body!"

She tried to hug him, but he deflected her. She frowned. He hadn't done that since she was little.

"Is something wrong?" She asked. "Is it because I'm not me? Elijah told me that this isn't my body, that I've been reborn into somebody named Elowen. Is it true?"

"We think so," Stefan answered instead. Marisol turned around to stare at him. "We haven't found a proper source that says so, but it makes sense. You look alike and you share the same power. She's your descendent, and she sees your memories sometimes. You're apart of her somehow."

Ah, so that's how Elowen knew to call him Nik. She had glimpses of Marisol's life. Marisol kept her eyes trained on Stefan for a long moment.

"You. What's your name?"

"Stefan," he answered patiently. "Stefan Salvatore."

"Stefan," Marisol repeated. "What is your relationship to this Elowen girl?"

"I'm her boyfriend."

Marisol suddenly turned wistful. "Oh. I never had one of those. I wasn't allowed."

"How come?"

"I was supposed to die." She shrugged. "It was useless."

"Then who was Kol?"

Marisol paused as if this thought had never occurred to her. "Kol wasn't… No…" Her eyebrows furrowed. The front door opened and out came Elena, Esmeralda and Alaric. When Marisol saw Elena, she froze.

"Who is she?" She asked Stefan. "And why do we look similar?"

It was Stefan's turn to furrow his eyebrows. "You mean you don't know?" He looked at Klaus. "You never told her?"

"Told me what?" She looked between Stefan and Klaus. "Told me what?"

"... You were just the replacement." It actually kind of hurt Stefan to be the one to break the news. She really had no idea. "You weren't the true doppelganger it took to break the curse. That's why it didn't work."

"Doppelganger? What's a doppelganger?" She set her eyes on Klaus. "Nik, what is he talking about?"

Klaus stayed deadly quiet. If he showed any sign of weakness in front of any of them, they'd know to use Marisol against him. Damn himself for letting this girl weasel her way into his life.

"Nik? Nik, what's going… on…" Marisol's voice trailed off and went weak as she started to topple over. Once again, Stefan swiftly caught her and helped her back up. Elowen blinked as she came back to the present.

"What happened? Where am I?"

"You're at your house," Stefan replied. "It happened again."

Elowen rubbed her hands down her face and glanced back up at Klaus. "Well? Are you just going to stand there?"

Klaus reached out hand out towards Elowen and one towards Elena. "Shall we?"

Elena stepped forward without hesitation and grabbed onto Klaus's hand. Elowen simply stared at Klaus's other hand. Stefan had taken hold of her arm and pushed her behind him again. Esmeralda had tried to go over to help shield her daughter, but Alaric quickly grabbed hold of her and kept her back. Stefan had her, he knew that, and there was no need for Esmeralda to put herself in danger.

"I'm not waiting all night, love," Klaus told Elowen. "You already knew this was coming."

Slowly, Elowen moved out from behind Stefan and started towards Klaus. Stefan hooked his hand around her wrist and tried to stop her. Even Esmeralda managed to get a few steps forward before Alaric caught up with her.

"You're not taking her," Esmeralda said fiercely. "Take me instead. Take me."

"What?" Alaric questioned from beside her. "No!"

Klaus smiled tauntingly and Esmeralda wanted nothing more than to smack it off of his face. "Sorry, love, but I've already made up my mind." He looked back to Elowen. "Come along. There's no reason for the rest of your family to die."

Elowen pulled her wrist from Stefan's grip. She turned around to face him. "It's fine. It's fine, I'll go. No one needs to get hurt." She glanced at Esmeralda and Alaric. "None of you need to get hurt." She got on her tip toes and kissed Stefan. Then, she walked over to hug Esmeralda and Alaric. Esmeralda was crying.

"Honey, please don't do this," she begged her daughter. "We'll figure something out, okay? Don't go."

"I have to, mom. He'll hurt you if I don't."

Elowen backed away towards Klaus. She grabbed hold of his still outstretched hand and took one last glance at Stefan, Esmeralda and Alaric. She tried to smile at them.

"I love you guys. Don't forget that. Close your eyes."

Stefan closed his first, followed by Alaric. Esmeralda sniffled and sobbed loudly, but did as she was asked. When they opened them, Klaus, Elena and Elowen were gone.

xxxx

Damon burst into Alaric's apartment. Stefan had called him and told him Klaus took Elowen and a newfound sense of anger washed over him.

"I wasn't aware you'd been invited in," Klaus said as he turned around.

"I've come here to tell you to let my girlfriend go. You can do whatever you want with Elena, I don't care. Just give me Elowen back."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, mate. Her bloodline is my right. I don't take promises lightly, even if it wasn't made by her directly. You should be lucky I'm not punishing her for what her ancestors did."

"What if I told you I rescued your werewolf and vampire and killed your witch?"

Klaus's face turned dark and threatening as he stood from his seat. "Excuse me?"

"And you can kill me for it. I don't care. It was all me."

"Katerina, give us a moment."

Katherine looked at them for a moment before leaving the room. Klaus approached Damon.

"I've heard about you. The crazy, impulsive vampire, battling his brother for the affection of the same girl. I knew one of you would try to stop me. It was just a 50/50 guess on who." Klaus picked up his phone, where a livestream of Jules's transformation was playing on the screen. "The nice thing about werewolves is that they tend to travel in packs. The other one, Toby, was it? Was too heavily guarded. It would've been too much trouble. Need a closer look?"

Klaus tossed the phone over to Damon, who caught it.

"Jules," Damon mumbled to himself when he took a look at the screen.

"When you spend a thousand years trying to break a curse… you learn a thing or two. First rule, always have a backup. Backup werewolf. Backup witch."

"Backup vampire," Damon finished.

"I've got that covered, too."

Klaus rushed at Damon before he could react and the next second, he saw black.

xxxx

"Where are we going?" Elena asked the witch Klaus had handed her and Elowen off to.

"This way," she told them without answering Elena's question.

"She's Luka's sister, Greta," Elowen replied for her. "Him and your father were looking for you, y'know."

"Well, they were wasting their time. I wasn't lost."

Elena tripped in the darkness and Elowen crouched down to help her back to her feet.

"God, I can't see anything," Elena complained as she stood back up. Fire suddenly sprouted from all around them, illuminating their surroundings. There was a figure lying on the ground a few feet in front of them. Elena immediately recognized her and ran forward.

"Jenna?" She started to frantically shake her. "Jenna! Jenna! Hey, Jenna!"

Elowen had made her way over, dropped to one knee and felt for her pulse. There was none. She shook her head at Elena.

"Oh my god, no! Jenna! No!" Elena looked up at Greta, who was standing over them. "He killed her? Why? I did everything he asked."

Jenna abruptly sat up with a loud gasp. Greta smiled down at them.

"She's not dead. She's in transition."