Chapter 72: Into the Rabbit Hole
It took them nearly two weeks to complete Matt's Hunter's Mark. Once it was complete, it was no longer invisible to everyone who wasn't a Hunter. The moment that happened, they all began packing to go after the cure.
The morning they were set to leave, Bonnie cast a spell to trap Klaus inside of his house. She bound the spell to the New Moon, which would be around for three days, and then he'd be free to follow them. But their plan was to find it before then.
They all knew Phoebe wouldn't like them doing it, but there'd be nothing she could do to undo the spell. They'd hoped she'd at least understand their fear of Klaus getting his hands on it first, and destroying it out of fear that they'd use it against him. She understood, but it didn't make her any less annoyed with their actions.
Phoebe had considered saying 'to hell with the cure' and staying behind, while the others went after it. But if she went, she could do more good than if she stayed home. At least there, she could probably find it faster than the others, make sure they didn't wake Silas, and stop Damon and Bonnie the Judgmental Witch from killing Shane. Whatever needed to be done at home, Hayley could take care of for her.
The cure, according to Shane, was on a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Others complained about the commute, but some of them understood that the whole point of hiding the cure was to put it somewhere people weren't going to just stumble across it…or Silas.
While the others were tying the boats to the shore, and gathering their gear, Phoebe took photos of Matt's tattoos to send to Hayley.
"You don't trust Shane, do you?" said Matt.
"I don't know. What I do know is he isn't going to share what he knows with the rest of us, because it's the only thing keeping Damon from killing him."
"So, what, you're gonna try and figure it all out by yourself?"
"Nope," said Phoebe. "I'm going to have someone I trust far more than the rest of you, right now, help me with it."
"Phoebe," Mat began.
"Don't. I don't wanna hear how you just had to kill Kol for whatever BS reason you all came up with," said Phoebe.
Matt was taken aback by the level of anger she still held in her voice. She must really be pissed.
"You know, it's funny. Just a few weeks ago, you were mortified that Klaus had turned an entire bar full of people into vampires for you to kill, and yet, you just wiped out an entire bloodline of vampires. For all you know, they could have been good people. People like Slater, who were using their immortality to learn everything they could; or people like me who became a vampire to survive a terminal illness," Phoebe argued.
"Yeah, and wasn't it you who said I couldn't be so picky about what vampires I killed, because we didn't have the time for me to interview them all and find out who was worth killing and who wasn't?" Matt shot back.
Phoebe couldn't deny that she'd said it, nor could she simply say 'that was different', because it wasn't.
"Look, I get that he was important to people that you care about; but I'm not going to apologize for trying to kill Kol. As far as I'm concerned, he deserves it."
Shane called for everyone to get going, signaling the end of their conversation. Matt put his shirt back on and grabbed his backpack. Phoebe sent the photos to Hayley, and did the same.
For such a small, desolate island, it seemed to be neither small nor desolate. The group walked all day towards the cure, and never came close; and along the way, Matt was attacked by an island native, only to be saved by someone else that no one saw.
As the sun was beginning to go down, Shane insisted that they make camp for the night – even with half of them vampires, it still wasn't safe to travel after dark. When some of them protested, he demonstrated a very cleverly disguised trap, and told them that there were plenty more like it, and far deadlier even to vampires, all over the island.
"What are you doing here, Damon?" Jenna asked. She'd noticed him watching Phoebe set up her tent from a distance. Damon gave her a questioning look. "You don't care that much to help get this cure for Stefan, and I can't imagine you'd ever want to be human again…Are you here for Phoebe? Because you think she wants the cure for herself?"
Damon shrugged. "She only became a vampire because she was dying, and didn't have another choice. She deserves a normal, human life."
"But Phoebe doesn't want the cure for herself. The only reason she's here is to find it, so everyone will stop fighting over it. Phoebe doesn't even see vampirism as a thing that needs to be cured, you know that." Then it hit her. "But her sirebond to Elijah is."
Damon didn't say anything.
"You're here because, if you can force her to take that cure, then she won't be sired to Elijah anymore." Jenna shook her head. "She'd never forgive you, Damon."
"She's forgiven me for everything else; she'll forgive me for this."
"Okay, for argument's sake, let's say she does forgive you. Then what? You really think she's gonna just run back into your open arms?"
Damon gave Jenna a sour look at her tone. "She's already told me everything I've done wrong. Now I know how to fix things with her."
"You can't be serious…Damon, the sirebond is based on love. Making Phoebe human again isn't going to change how she feels about Elijah. And what are you going to do if Elijah decides to take the cure, and have a human life with Phoebe? Are you going to kill him? Because that will only ensure that Phoebe never loves you ever again."
Damon's face grew more bitter.
"Let it go, Damon. There is no way this works out in your favor."
After spending the day running an important errand for Phoebe, Hayley went over to the Mikaelson Mansion to see Klaus.
"Phoebe wanted me to give you this, and ask you not to retaliate against anyone for trying to kill your brother, and trapping you inside of your house." She reached out and handed him the white oak stake.
Klaus took the stake, but still argued, "They trapped me inside here, so they can get the cure and shove it down my throat. Once they make me mortal, they can kill me in any way they like."
"Phoebe isn't going to let that happen. That's why she went there, to keep them from doing just that."
"Maybe so. But Tyler has pushed me too far for too long; only earlier today, he was in here boasting about all the ways he was going to kill me, once they've forced me to take the cure. Reputation aside, he has done nothing if not beg me to kill him," said Klaus.
It was no secret that Phoebe wasn't overly fond of Tyler; but he was important to Caroline, and Caroline was important to Phoebe. Hayley was no Phoebe, so begging him to spare Tyler wasn't going to work, even if it was in Phoebe's name. So she tried the only other thing she could think to do.
"What about a compromise?" said Hayley.
Klaus looked confused. "A compromise?"
"Yeah. Instead of killing Tyler, why not sentence him to a life on the run, like Katherine. Your reputation as the Big Bad Wolf would remain intact, and you'd still be showing mercy to someone that is important to the people Phoebe cares about."
Katherine had spent more than 500 years on the run from Klaus, and even when he had her in hand he didn't kill her. This hadn't been for mercy-sake, rather for psychological torment – the fear of what he would do if he found her, even though no actual attempt had been made to find her.
"Very well. I shall extend Tyler the same courtesy, that I gave Katarina," said Klaus.
Hayley gave herself a mental pat on the back. She was happy that had worked.
"However," he began, his face deadly serious. "If any of them try to force that cure on me, once they find it, I will not hold back, even for Phoebe's sake."
Hayley swallowed, but nodded in understanding. She cleared her throat and looked away. "Speaking of the cure, Phoebe sent me pictures of Matt's tattoo. She wants you and me to decipher the markings and tell her where to find the cure."
"I thought they had Professor Shane to lead them," said Klaus.
"They do, but he isn't going fast enough for Phoebe. He's only telling them so much at a time, because he's afraid of Damon killing him, once he knows everything he needs to know."
"As would I."
Hayley gave him a look. "Phoebe's sick of all this, Klaus. Fighting each other over some stupid cure for vampirism? She just wants to find the damn thing, and get home. So will you help me or not?"
Klaus seemed to think about it for a moment, before disappearing to retrieve the Hunter's Sword.
The next morning, the group woke to find Matt had disappeared sometime in the night. After searching around the camp, they decided to break up into teams to search for him. Bonnie stayed at camp to do a locator spell. Shane stayed with her, and Damon stayed to watch Shane. Jenna and Rebekah paired up and went one way, while Stefan and Phoebe went another.
Along the way, Stefan tried talking to Phoebe, but she only ignored him – she was still angry.
Stefan did the only thing he could think to do to get Phoebe to actually respond to him, something he hadn't done in what felt like forever. "Lollipops."
Phoebe stopped dead in her tracks, but did not turn to face him. She may still be mad, but they had agreed long ago. They dropped everything for 'lollipops'.
"You know, you're gonna have to forgive us at some point," said Stefan.
"Why? You haven't even asked for my forgiveness, you just expect it." Phoebe turned to face him. "And even if you did ask me, why should I forgive you? Why should I give you what you ask, when you can't do the same for me?"
Stefan looked lost.
"All I've ever asked of you, since Klaus first moved to Mystic Falls, was for you all to stop trying to kill each other. It's a vicious cycle that you're all stuck in – someone does something unforgiveable, and so someone has to get revenge, and then that triggers someone else to get revenge for the revenge, and so on and so forth. It never ends. You couldn't do it when I was dying and needed a peaceful environment to transition, and you can't do it now when I'm learning how to be an empathic vampire, who apparently still has Anomaly powers!"
"Klaus is a monster, Phoebe. I don't understand how you can love the guy, after everything he's done to you. After everything he's taken from you, from all of us," Stefan argued.
"And what makes us any better? A human girl who got revenge on the she-wolf who tortured her by letting Klaus kill her in his sacrifice – and make no mistake, even when I was planning to kill him before anyone else got hurt, I was still going to let him kill her first."
Stefan looked surprise at her confession. He hadn't expected her to have been so cruel, especially as a human.
"What about the Ripper of Monterey?" she went on. "And let's not deny that the only reason Damon isn't as bad as Klaus in our books is that he hasn't been alive as long. Give him time, he'll get there."
Stefan said nothing as he considered her words. More than anything he wanted to argue that she was wrong. More than anything he wanted to provide reason for how Klaus was worse than any of them combined. But, in truth, he couldn't.
"I haven't forgotten the things Klaus has done, and I haven't forgotten the things that you, Damon, I, or anyone else have done. But what good does it do me to hold onto that anger?" Though it was a rhetorical question, Phoebe still gave a slight pause. "You can blame it on my being an empath, but I see it as a choice. You can either choose to hold onto your anger, or you can let it go. Not necessarily forgive the person, but let it go."
"You mean, like you're doing right now?" Stefan shot back. The words had left his mouth, before he even realized what he'd said.
Phoebe was about to argue that she was still learning to adjust to her heightened vampire emotions, along with sensing the feelings of others – not to mention this was her first time experiencing such anger since turning – but her satellite phone ringing cut her off.
It was Hayley calling with the translations from the Hunter's Mark. The up side was that they had finished the translations, the down side was that it had been in a severely dead language that only Klaus could read, and he was refusing to tell anyone but Phoebe what it had said.
Hayley handed the phone to Klaus.
"Are you alone?" he asked.
Phoebe glanced at Stefan. "I'm with Stefan. Why?"
Klaus began speaking to her in a language that he knew Stefan couldn't speak: Bulgarian. "The cure was only meant for Silas; for the Hunters to force it down Silas' throat, and then kill him."
"I already know all that, Shane told us," said Phoebe.
"What you don't know is that the cure is no fountain of youth – there is only one dose."
Phoebe didn't know what to feel. Angry that this had all been for nothing, disappointed in herself for not considering that as an option, sad for those who had gotten their hopes up for a cure only to now be denied it.
"You need to find the cure, first, and destroy it," Klaus instructed. "Once the others learn that there isn't enough to go around, they're going to go to war over it, and none of your friends are a match for Rebekah without the white oak stake or a dagger."
"I'll take care of it. Thank you."
No sooner had Phoebe ended the call, was Stefan asking what all the secrecy had been about. Phoebe avoided his eyes. "Klaus and Hayley finished translating the Hunter's Mark. There's no cure, it doesn't exist."
"What?" Stefan shook his head in disbelief. "That-That can't be true. Klaus has to be lying."
"Why would he lie about that, when he's paranoid that someone was going to use it on him?" Phoebe argued.
"Why would he need to talk to you in secret about it? Why not just gloat to us all about what fools we've been, killing each other over it?" Stefan countered.
Phoebe saw the pain in Stefan's eyes at the possibility that she was telling the truth. She couldn't lie to him, no matter how angry she was. So she told him the truth, "Okay, fine. You're right, I was lying."
"Why?"
"…Because there's only one dose."
Stefan thought for a second, then realized. "Qetsiyah. She made the cure for Silas, so he'd join her on the Other Side. Curing future immortals that she didn't even know would exist hadn't crossed her mind."
Phoebe nodded in confirmation. "Klaus wants me to destroy it, before you all go to war over it, but I think I might have a better idea. If I can get it before anyone else, I can see if there's a way it can be replicated. If it can, then we'll have an endless supply for anyone who wants it."
"And if not, then no harm done, because no one will ever know it existed in the first place," Stefan finished.
"We'll just tell them that it was some kind of myth, like the Fountain of Youth or Klaus' Sun and the Moon curse."
"There's just one problem. No one's gonna believe that it doesn't exist, until they get there and see it for themselves, Rebekah especially."
"Agreed."
"But how do we get to it, before everyone else? We need Matt back so Bonnie can do her spell to open to door, and we need Shane to help Bonnie do it. Then there's whatever the tombstone is for," said Stefan.
"Well, Matt wouldn't just wander off on his own, and whoever that was that saved him last night wouldn't just save his life, and then kidnap him," Phoebe noted.
"Not unless, there was someone else on this island, working for Shane."
Phoebe's brow furrowed. "Wait, you think Shane had Matt kidnapped?"
"Think about it. Matt goes missing, Bonnie does a locator spell to find him, while we all split up to look for him; Shane stays at camp with Bonnie-"
"Yeah, and so does Damon," said Phoebe. "If you're going where I think you're going, then there's a flaw in your thinking."
"Maybe he wasn't planning on Damon staying at camp too, which would give him plenty of time and freedom to take everything he needed and lose all of us," he suggested.
Phoebe began to come around to his logic. "Or maybe he did know Damon would stick around, and he has a plan to get rid of Damon in the only way he can."
"Either way, we gotta get back there and stop one of them from killing the other."
When Stefan and Phoebe arrived back at camp, Damon had Shane tied to a chair, and was about to kill him. Stefan put some distance between Damon and Shane by taking his brother outside to confront him on his behavior, while Phoebe freed Shane.
Phoebe waited until she heard the two talking outside, before addressing Shane. "What are you planning?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I know you have someone on the island helping you. They've already taken Matt, which Bonnie's locator spell has obviously taken her to, given that she's nowhere around. All that's missing is you and the tombstone," Phoebe recapped. "What are you planning?"
Shane smiled, impressed. "If you know all that, then why are you asking me?"
"Because there's only one dose of the cure; it was made for Silas and Silas alone. If I don't get to it first, they're all going to kill each other over it."
"How do you know that?"
"Hayley and Klaus translated the Hunter's Tattoo with the sword back at home," Phoebe said.
"And you think getting to it first is going to keep them from fighting you for it?"
"It will if I tell them there was no cure. That it was just a fairy tale created by someone who wanted Silas found and revived."
"And you really think they're gonna buy that?" Shane challenged.
"There's only one way to find out, and that way is you taking me with you."
Shane glanced at the brother's outside to make sure they were still talking and not listening. "Why should I do that? You're never going to let me resurrect Silas."
"You're right, I'm not. But I am your only way off this island alive," she answered sincerely. "No one else here cares whether you live or die, and a couple of them would even like to kill you themselves, Bonnie being one of them."
"And I'm supposed to believe that you actually care about my well-being?"
"Yes, because even though I don't believe the same things you believe about Silas, I don't see you as a manipulative psychopath, doing an evil man's bidding. I see a man who's lost more than he should ever have had to lose, and in his grief he found something to believe in – something he needed to believe in – to survive it. You're desperate and in pain, not evil."
Shane was touched by her words, but still conflicted about taking her. He needed to raise Silas to see his wife and son again; he needed Silas to bring back all the people that he'd rationalized killing in his name. The thought of them not coming back, made him feel sick.
On the other hand, if Phoebe could help him survive this trip, he could always come back and raise Silas on his own. He knew how to get there on his own, and Bonnie would have already opened the door.
"Okay," he agreed. "You can come along."
"What is wrong with you? Why would you kill the only man who could lead us to that cure?" Stefan questioned.
"Because I don't care about some lame-ass cure for vampirism, Stefan."
"Then why the hell are you here, Damon? See, I think you do want that cure; and I think, once you have it, you're planning to shove it down Phoebe's throat," Stefan countered.
Damon rolled his eyes at the déjà vu. "So what? She's forgiven me for worse things; she'll forgive me for this."
"And, what, she's just gonna run into your arms the moment she's no longer sired to Elijah?"
This was his conversation with Jenna all over again. "She deserves a normal, human life, Stefan, to have a family."
"Maybe, but it won't be with you."
Damon grew angry at his brother's insult.
"We both know there would be nothing more miserable on earth for you than to give up being a vampire and become human again, even if it meant being with her. But you know who would take that cure to be with her? Elijah - the man she loves so much, that she's sired to him," said Stefan. "Do you really think turning her human again would change how she feels about him?"
"You know what, I am so sick of everyone rubbing that in my face. Phoebe's in love with Elijah, I get it. Human or vampire, she'll always love him. But at least without that sirebond, I'll have a chance again. And if forcing her to take the cure isn't an option, then I guess I'll just have to wait for the day that things get so bad, she decides to turn off her humanity switch, and severs that sirebond on her own."
Damon walked away without another word.
Later that afternoon, when Jenna and Rebekah returned, they found the camp empty, save for Stefan. Stefan pretended to have had an argument with Phoebe, who was still angry with them for killing Kol, and then she left. When he got back to camp, everyone was gone…so was the tombstone.
Rebekah became paranoid that they were all plotting against her somehow. They used Matt going missing as a way for them to all split up, so they could take the tombstone from her.
Stefan and Jenna eased her mind by pointing out that, even though it was certainly something they might do, Phoebe would not. If anything, Phoebe might have gone with Shane to get away from Damon, so they can pick up the pace and find the cure sometime this week.
After calling home with the bad news, and asking Hayley for the map she helped get from Klaus, the trio left a note at camp for Damon, if he came back, and headed out.
Jeremy and Elena were worried to hear that everyone had gone missing all of a sudden. Hayley, on the other hand, wasn't as worried. She knew it was Phoebe's plan to go out ahead of everyone and find the cure first, so she could control what was done with it. But to go missing with Shane, Bonnie, and Matt too...?
"I know Phoebe will be fine, she always is. And she's probably just going ahead of everyone to find the cure and bring it home," said Jeremy. "I've just got a bad feeling about all of this."
Elena reached out to touch her brother's arm comfortingly. "Everything's going to be okay, Jer. Phoebe will find the cure, they'll bring it home, and-"
"You do realize Phoebe isn't going to let you weaponize that cure, right?" Hayley interrupted.
"She may not like it, but that's the only thing that's going to keep us safe from Klaus getting revenge for what we tried to do to Kol," said Jeremy.
"Probably shouldn't have tried to kill another one of his brothers, then," Hayley sniped. The Gilbert siblings gave her a look. "I've already talked to Klaus on Phoebe's behalf, and he's agreed not to come after any of you for it. He's calling it even for killing Tyler's mother."
"He's obviously lying," said Jeremy.
"Yeah, he's just saying that, because he knows we have the upper hand, right now," Elena agreed. "They're going to find the cure, and we have the white oak stake."
"Actually, Phoebe gave it back to him."
"What?!"
"Why!?"
"Because she trusts him, and knows he's more likely to trust her if he has the only thing that can kill him. Besides, he already knows you won't use it. If you kill Klaus, you kill everyone you know; and if you kill Elijah, you kill Phoebe. And as for Rebekah, she won't be a vampire for much longer; so what does it matter who has it?"
"We tried to kill his brother, Hayley. He isn't just gonna let that go," Elena argued.
"No, he's not. He's angry, and he would love to kill you all for it," Hayley agreed. "But he isn't going to, because he loves Phoebe and Phoebe loves all of you. But that will only do so much."
"What do you mean?"
Hayley took a deep breath, before telling them what Klaus' terms were for Tyler.
Phoebe looked down at the big, gaping hole in the ground. When Shane had said 'well', she'd been expecting an actual well; this was more like a pit. Matt and Bonnie's faces said they thought similarly.
"This is as far as I go," said Shane's native friend.
Shane looked at him in disbelief. "We're on the brink of a monumental event in human history. Come on, our work's not done yet."
"Mine is," said the man. "You said get the hunter and the witch. I did. I want to get paid now."
Shane gestured to Phoebe. "Give him the tombstone."
Phoebe, Matt, and Bonnie were confused, but Phoebe did what he said.
The man seemed excited to have the rock. He looked at them all, before leaving the cave. "I'll say a prayer for your souls."
"That's what the tombstone was for?" Bonnie questioned. "To pay off a mercenary?"
"The core of that tombstone is made up of Qetsiyah's calcified blood. In some witch circles, that stone is more valuable than the Hope Diamond," Shane explained.
All four of them gathered around the well, and looked down. "So…Who wants to go down first?"
"I'll go," said Phoebe. "I'm the most durable."
Matt gave her a look that said he didn't like it, but he didn't say it. He'd learned not to argue with her on some things, and they all wanted to just get this over with.
Phoebe took a breath and leapt off the edge into the darkness. After looking around to make sure it was safe, she called for the others to join.
Matt and Bonnie descended next, and Shane last.
"Alright, where's this stupid magic passage she needs to open," Matt asked, once they were all together again.
"Just look for anything that looks out of place, anything not occurring in nature," said Shane. "Like a drawing, or an inscription, or-"
"Or a geometrically perfect circle?" Phoebe asked, pointing at the ground.
Shane looked at the ground with excitement. "This is it. This is the spot."
After an exchange of looks among them all, Matt removed his shirt so Bonnie could use the Hunter's Mark for her spell. Shane talked her through it the way he had in their sessions, until the Hunter's Mark vanished entirely from Matt's body.
The entire cave began to shake, rocks crumbled down on them, it became difficult for any of them to stand. They all lost sight of each other, until the quaking stopped.
"Bonnie! Phoebe!" Matt called.
"Over here!" Bonnie called back. "I'm fine."
Matt looked for Phoebe next, even though she likely would heel from any injury she suffered.
Phoebe stood up so he could see her. "I'm fine, but Shane's leg is broken."
"It worked," said Bonnie. She was looking at the pathway she'd opened.
Matt looked between the two women.
"Go ahead," said Phoebe. "I'll be right behind you."
Matt nodded to his best friend, then he and Bonnie disappeared into the tunnels.
Heeling Shane wouldn't take long, and she had vampire speed to help her catch up.
"Thank you," said Shane, accepting her blood.
"I told you I wouldn't let you die here."
"I appreciate it."
Phoebe watched her blood take effect and heal his leg. "But I also told you that I wouldn't let you raise Silas."
"Phoebe, please," he pleaded.
"I'm sorry."
Phoebe touched her hand to his head, and a few seconds later, he was asleep. It had taken longer than it used to take, and it had taken more concentration; but it had been a while since she'd performed that particular trick, not to mention needing to control her own emotions to do it.
Phoebe heard something land behind her. It wasn't a rocky sound, so it wasn't more rocks falling from the cave-in; it sounded more like feet hitting the ground. At first, Phoebe thought it was Stefan catching up to her; but, without even turning around, she realized it wasn't Stefan, nor was it any of the others.
As an empath, Phoebe had a sense of what those close to her 'felt' like. It was like how people had distinctive scents or fingerprints. For Phoebe, she knew the emotional fingerprint for those close to her; and this person wasn't someone she recognized.
"Still the soft-touch, I see."
A cold chill ran down Phoebe's spine at the sound of her voice.
Phoebe stood up, and turned to face her. "Katherine."
After Damon had walked away from his brother earlier that day, he was attacked by someone who wasn't a native. Damon would have happily killed him, especially since he'd already been in a bad mood; but the Hunter's Mark on the guy's arm gave him pause, allowing the man to get the upper hand.
Instead of killing Damon, however, the man – Vaughn - had kept Damon prisoner, bound by vervain ropes. He told Damon what he knew about the cure and Silas, including that there was only one dose, which was meant for Silas. He also told Damon that the only reason he was still alive, aside from using him to trip any traps they came across, was to feed his blood to Silas. That would wake the immortal and get him to release the cure, so Vaughn could kill him.
Fortunately for Damon, he and Vaughn had reached the well the same time Rebekah, Stefan, and Jenna had. They were able to get Damon away from Vaughn; but after forcing Rebekah to take a deadly shot for Jenna, Vaughn escaped down the well to find Silas.
Damon was still weak from his time with Vaughn, and Rebekah was down for the count, so it was up to Stefan and Jenna. Damon tells them about there only being one cure.
"I know," said Stefan.
Jenna and Damon were surprised.
"Phoebe had Klaus and Hayley translate the Hunter's Mark back home. Klaus told her what they found, and told her to destroy it to prevent us all from fighting over it," Stefan explained.
"Of course, she already knew, she's Phoebe," Damon sneered.
"We need to find them before that guy does," said Jenna.
"And she won't know he's a hunter," Damon added. "The guys tattoo disappeared the minute Bonnie did her spell."
"Let's go."
"You go. I'll stay with Blondie." Damon gestured to Rebekah.
Stefan and Jenna hopped down the well, prepared for a fight. What they weren't prepared for was finding Phoebe and Shane laying there, both out cold. This couldn't have been Vaughn, because he'd have killed Phoebe, not knocked her out. Even then, he hadn't been down there long enough for a fight to be over between them.
So what had happened?
When Vaughn found Matt and Bonnie, they were arguing over how to get the cure from Silas. Matt refused to feed him the blood he needed to be able to move again, and release the cure. Bonnie, however, believed it was the only way.
Bonnie gasped in pain and fell to the floor.
"You should listen to the witch, boy." Vaughn stood there, where Bonnie had just been standing. "We have to raise Silas, and we have to do it now."
Matt charged at the man in defense of his friend. And what about Phoebe? She'd never caught up to them. Had he done something to her, too?
Both hunters put up a good fight, until Katherine came in from nowhere and knocked Vaughn unconscious. She'd have been just as happy to kill him as Damon would have, but she knew he was a hunter and didn't want to suffer the Hunter's Curse anymore than he had.
Sure the mark was gone now, but she didn't really want to risk it. Besides, showing compassion was Phoebe's thing, and if she was going to convince Matt that she was Phoebe, she needed to act like it.
The problem came, when Matt tried to get her to use her blood to heal Bonnie. Katherine wouldn't do it. She didn't need to do it, now that she was mere inches from the cure, with multiple choices on food source for Silas.
Katherine took advantage of Matt's confusion, and acted. In a flash, she had his wrist cut open, and pressed to Silas' mouth.
"Katherine." Matt struggled to get free.
Katherine just smiled wickedly, as she bit into his neck, and forced his head down to Silas' mouth.
Silas began to come to life. So much so, that he released the cure to grab a hold of the first decent food source he'd had in centuries.
Katherine grabbed the cure and ran as fast as she could.
Bonnie watched helplessly as Silas drained Matt of every drop of blood in his body, snapped his neck, and then dropped him to the floor…Matt Donovan was dead…
Holy crap, I've almost got 600 followers on this story! That's amazing, guys! Thank you so much for sticking around when I had to disappear for a while, and pushing through some of the more lackluster chapters. It means a lot to know I'm doing something right to keep you guys interested and reading.
There are still so many things I'm looking forward to doing this season, that I hope you all enjoy. As for Klaus' baby momma, I said a while back that it couldn't be Phoebe; but some of you begged for me to change that, so I said that if I could come up with a not-to-far-of-a-reach way to do it that I'd consider it. I never gave you an answer beyond that, and I won't now. All I'll say is, since I have votes going either way, that those of you who don't get what you're wanting still stick around.
The lingering question about Phoebe's humanity switch gets answered next week. What will her decision be? Will anyone call Elijah? Will he be the one to tell her to turn it off for now? Will someone else make the suggestion, or will she come up with it on her own? If she did switch it off, would her sense of logic keep her in some control like Caroline was, or would she be more careless like Elena?
