Stefan sighs as he pulls his car over in front of the Salvatore Boarding house only for his eyes to widen as he doesn't get the chance to climb out as within a second of pulling over Damon appeared in the passenger seat covered in dry blood.
"Hey brother, where you been?" Damon asks with an annoyed smirk on his face ignoring the obviously confused look his brother was throwing him.
"Cleveland. With Willow...then New Orleans to see Buffy." Stefan stutters still staring at his brother in shock, to be honest, Damon looked like crap "What happened to you?"

Damon's eyes widen at the bombshell his brother had just dropped, he opens his mouth to question it when he quickly remembers the whole reason he had gotten into Stefan's car "Been held against my will, shot in the head. Now creepy ken doll has Elena and is planning to use her powers to kill every vampire in Virginia which aka includes me! So wanna get driving?"


"So this is the famous Scythe huh?" Oz asks curiously as he eyes the red and silver weapon that was currently resting at the Slayer's side as he led her through the Bayou where apparently all of these packs would be showing up. All of them wanting to get a view of the all-powerful Slayer who birthed a werewolf.
Buffy smirks slightly as her hands graze the scythe "Yeah, it's pretty cool."

Oz chuckles as he glances at the axe end of the scythe before his gaze drops to the stake end, yeah he had to admit it was way cooler in person than the stories he had heard from Willow "Badass."
Buffy chuckles before moving a few trees out of her way as they continue through the Bayou, hopefully getting closer to where she would be meeting with Hayley and Jackson.
"So how many people are gonna be there?"

"Not really sure." Oz admits as they continue to walk, raising his hand he rubs it against his bearded jaw before shrugging "Jackson said he's been getting word from a few packs outside of Louisiana. Even a few packs I ran with are making their way here. They wanna be here for the wedding. They want in on the unification ritual and the treaty with you."

Buffy's eyes widen at that, from what Hayley had explained to her clueless non-werewolf brain she had figured this was a one-pack kind of deal "Color me confused, I thought only your pack would be getting Hayley's special dodo power and then doing the whole bend the knee to the Slayer thing."

"Normally yes." Oz tells her as he turns leading her towards a small cottage in the middle of the Bayou where from the distance she could see Hayley and Jackson speaking "Unless they recognize Jackson as their Alpha. Then Hayley's power becomes their power. They want Hayley's power they all do. But more importantly, they want an allegiance with the Queen Slayer. They've all heard the stories about you, you and Hayley making this treaty, it's gonna change a lot." Pausing Oz turns to face the blonde smiling brightly at her "A few weeks after this wedding, once the rest of the wolves have bent the knee to you...you are gonna have one hell of an army to protect your little girl."

At his words Buffy couldn't help but smile brightly, this was good she could feel it, this was getting them one step closer to finally having Joy come home.


WHITMORE

Damon and Stefan immediately climb out of the car as Stefan pulls up outside of Whitmore, they had both decided very quickly that the best way to get Wes to hand Elena back over, was to threaten Aaron. So here they were prepped and ready to go.
As they move towards the college campus Damon glances over at his brother curiously "How is she?" He finally asks, he had been dying to know what had happened when his brother saw Buffy, they had already gone over the creepy witchy stuff Willow had done but hadn't gotten to Buffy.
"She's okay." Stefan admits after a beat thinking back to his conversation with Buffy the previous night when they had been sat just outside of the border of New Orleans. Okay wasn't even a way to describe it but he couldn't think of enough words given everything she had told him "Honestly, she's a little overwhelmed. Finn's making hell for them and is getting closer to finding Joy...plus turns out Buffy is now being called the Queen of Slayers."

At his words, Damon stops in his steps and spins around staring at his brother with wide eyes "Hold up, our Buffy? Queen of what now?"
Stefan snorts in amusement "Pretty much what she said. Apparently, the wolves think she's some kind of Messiah." Pausing Stefan's thoughts are quickly shifted as he spots Aaron sat in the corner of the room reading a book, tapping Damon's shoulder he points at the human before smiling "Let's go get him."


NEW ORLEANS

Buffy groans as she speeds back into the compound after Klaus had continued to keep harassing her with call after call demanding she come back. Storming upstairs she glares as she spots Klaus in the art room with both his sisters "Nik!" She yells drawing his attention "I'm trying to get the treaty sorted you can't keep pulling on me like a damn yoyo! Plus, they were feeding me ribs! Do you know how good those ribs are? Well, now I don't either!"

"You're lack of being fed are the least of our worries Luv." Klaus tells her as he pours her a drink and moves over to her knowing she was going to need it once he filled her in on what he had learned.
Buffy frowns in confusion as she takes the drink before glancing at Rebekah and Marianna who both had panicked looks on their faces making Buffy gulp "Those aren't happy faces. What happened now?"

"Aiden called." Klaus tells her hesitating for a brief moment before sighing "Finn has Marcel."

At his words Buffy's eyes widen in panic and as Klaus suspected she quickly downed the drink in her hand, "This family is making me an alcoholic." She breaths gesturing for Klaus to refill her glass while she tries to think of why in the hell Finn would have taken Marcel.
Marcel may have helped Elijah fake Joy's death while she and Klaus were still in Mystic Falls but he didn't remember any of that, nor did he have any idea of where they were hiding Joy.

"I see my timing is as impeccable as usual." A cocky voice pipes up from the doorway causing all of them to turn only to spot Kol stood there staring at Mary mostly "Long time Marianna."

Mary snorts as she watches her elder brother "Back to being a witch Koley. Let me guess you still haven't improved from your last go at it." She taunts smirking remembering back to their time as children, while she had been the model magic student he had struggled immensely compared to her.
Klaus smirks as Kol's face tighten in annoyance, enjoying his brother's misery he hands Buffy a newly filled glass before turning to face his younger brother "Well, the traitor thinks he can just waltz in here like he's welcome."

Rebekah who had remained silently seething finally snaps as she glares at her brother, he was the whole reason she had been locked in that asylum being thrown around like a rag doll "As gracious as your apology better be...you're still getting one hell of a slap! Buffy do me a favor throw that bloody thing at his face!" She hisses gesturing to the scythe making Buffy shrug and pull it from her holster. Normally she didn't take orders but for Bekah, she would happily ruin Kol's face "Okay." Moving to launch it Kol quickly raises his hands in surrender "Wait, wait!"

Buffy arches a brow and without a word, she speeds over grabbing Kol by the throat and shoving him into the wall "Get with the talky, make it snappy."
Kol struggles desperately before looking over at his now smirking siblings desperately "I understand the irony of what I'm about to say. But I came here because I need your help."
Buffy groans in annoyance before dropping Kol and turning to Klaus "Can I kill him now?"

"Not until he undoes his body swap trick!" Rebekah argues glaring down at her brother with furious eyes.
Buffy snorts "Well if it helps you're pulling this body off nicely."
"Agreed." Mary says from the corner of the room as she glances out the window before frowning as she glances at the body again "Actually I'm pretty sure I have slept with this witch you're in."
Rebekah couldn't help but groan in disgust at her sister's words while Mary merely grins back at her "Why does that not surprise me?"

"She did sleep with Katherine." Buffy argues as she places the scythe back in her holster and moves over to Klaus getting her drink back off him.

Kol ignores the three women turns to Klaus, desperation in his eyes that Buffy had never seen, honestly, every time she had met Kol he had only ever acted cocky and smug, she had never seen him vulnerable.
"You don't understand, Nik." Kol argues as he moves towards the hybrid couple focusing only on his brother making sure to keep his distance from the terrifying weapon in Buffy's hands "Finn has locked me in this body. No more jumping. He's put a curse on me, Nik. I am dying."

While the three siblings merely roll their eyes Buffy watches him carefully and tilts her head curiously, honestly while she knew his brother and sisters may not believe him...she could hear it in his voice. That slight waver of fear, it wasn't obvious but for someone who had been resurrected just like he had, she recognized it.

"You're hardly the champion of truth-telling." Klaus argues with a shrug, while Buffy turns to Mary "Can't you witchy juju him to confirm it?"

Mary groans in annoyance before moving over to Kol and places her hands on the side of his face causing him to cry out in agony and drop to his knees while Mary's eyes go pure black as she searches through his memory.

As Kol continues to shake and cry out in Mary's arms Buffy glances over at Klaus "Do you believe him?"
"His most recent actions merit a certain allowance for disbelief."

Suddenly Mary gasps and stumbles away from Kol and right into Rebekah's arms, Rebekah watches her sister carefully with worry but Mary had yet to take her gaze off Kol.
Gulping she turns to glance in-between Buffy and the rest of her siblings "Finn did something...I can't see exactly what...but... It's true. This body, it's breaking down, a few days at most."

"I told you." Kol breathes as he tries to catch his breath before clearing his throat looking in-between the four of them desperately "Yes I pulled one over on you..." He says glaring at Rebekah without an ounce of remorse before turning back to glance in-between the others a rare vulnerable look crossing his features "But I don't deserve to die. Certainly not at the hands of my own family."

Buffy sighs and when Klaus glances at her she shrugs, while yes he was telling the truth about this, he had still screwed them over by helping Finn, and considering all Finn had done, how could they risk Joy's life unless they were certain?
Kol noticing the worrying looks between the two of them finally pulls himself back up to his feet "Nik, I was helping Marcel for Davina. Finn has him. He's trying to get a secret out of him. Something he thinks Marcel knows about you."

When everyone in the room goes stone-cold silent Kol frowns as he spots Marianna's nails dig into her palms. It was something she did when she was worried, she had done it back when they were children. Rebekah merely refused all eye-contact which she always did when she was withholding something, while Klaus and Buffy both spared a glance at each other. The exact same expression covering their faces.
Kol couldn't help but exhale as he realized that everyone except him was in the loop "He's right, isn't he?"
"Marcel doesn't know anything about anything." Klaus argues immediately with a cold tone as he glares at his brother.

Kol couldn't help but clench his jaw as he watches his brother "Well, you better hope that that's true. Because believe me...Finn has the means to get it out of him." Pausing he turns to glance at Mary "And not even you will be able to stop him."


MYSTIC FALLS

Wes moves around the still mute Banshee and smiles as he pulls out a journal, moving to sit in his chair he pulls it over to her gurney and begins reading it out for her "After enduring 3000 volts of electricity, the subject continues to have a heartbeat. June 26. More success. Subject was exposed to 4000 volts today. Seizing continues after electrocution. Flesh remains hot to the touch." When Elena makes a disgusted sound and glares at him the doctor merely rolls his eyes "Don't look at me like that. This isn't my journal Elena. These are the handwritten medical findings of Dr. Grayson Gilbert. Your father. And all of his research was funded thanks to his brother in law. Your uncle Hank Summers." Pausing Wes puts the journal down and picks up a vial of blood from the table beside Elena's gurney "Speaking of your uncle...this here is what I have left of your cousin Buffy's blood."

Moving over to the banshee he places his hand on the muzzle around her mouth loosening it ever so softly to the point where Elena could sigh in relief as she feels a bit of pressure come off her jaw "Why?" She whispers her voice coming out rough.
Wes merely smirks down at the young med student "You know rumor has it...Banshees can kill with their screams. Their final scream before death known to be the most deadly. So I'm going to use your cousin's blood to over-power you, the demon part of your sister's blood will make your last scream take out every vampire in Virginia."


WHITMORE

Stefan sighs as he spots the incoming call from Xander who had now probably been informed that his girlfriend was missing, ignoring the call Stefan turns back over to the terrified looking Aaron "I have Elena's boyfriend calling me every five seconds now. So tell us where she is."

"I don't know where Wes took her." Aaron argues shaking his head in a panic as Damon merely continues to smirk at him enjoying the fear in Aaron's eyes.
Stefan sighs before leaning closer to the human glaring at him, they didn't have time for this, if they didn't stop Wes before he did what he planned, then Elena was likely about to kill them all "Well, they're not at his lab, so where else could he hide someone like Elena?"

Damon smirks as he turns to Aaron "I'd speak up quick. You've never met Elena's sister...I'll give you a hint, the last time someone put Elena in danger, her sister ripped a guy's head off. I bet she could use yours as a bowling ball." He laughs as he tilts his head at Aaron almost as if he were measuring it to see if it would work to knock down pins at a bowling alley.

Aaron gulps at Damon's words before shaking his head trying to hide his own fear as he glares at the vampire "How are you not dead? I shot you."
"You went for the head." Damon reminds him as he glances around making sure no one was paying attention to them before turning back to the disturbed human "You gotta go for the heart. Go for the heart next time. Now, where's Elena?"

"I have no idea. All Wes told me was to go about my life as usual."
Damon sighs in annoyance just as his own phone begins ringing, pausing he pulls it out and rolls his eyes, answering it he huffs out in annoyance "Xander the human equivalent of pure annoyance I'm a bit busy preparing to torture your girlfriends friend for her location. I'll call you when we know something."


"Just find my damn girlfriend!" Xander hisses before hanging up and throwing the shovel to the ground in frustration, he was beyond freaking out right now. The Salvatores had frozen him out of the Elena search and now he was being forced to just sit around and wait.

"They are right you know?" Katherine pipes up from behind where she continued to do star-jumps to try and get her body back into shape, without her vampire endurance she had quickly realized that she couldn't eat whatever she wanted and expect her body not to change.
Xander sighs and leans against the equipment to his side watching the human carefully "And why's that?"

"You're human. Therefore just going to get in their way." She tells him catching the bottle of water he tosses her, taking a large swig she sighs as she looks at the construction site before watching him carefully "So you still haven't told her yet? About this whole thing?"

Xander sighs before glancing around the now empty sight, the crew all had the day off, he had only come here to do something to keep from freaking out over Elena's disappearance "I want it to be a surprise for her."

Katherine arches a brow at him curiously before looking over at the work board to his left, along with the designs and blueprints there were a few photos up there "So any news on when I'm getting kicked out of Buffy's house?" She asks as she spots the photo of Xander Buffy and Willow, who were probably only about 16 during the time the photo was taken.
Xander shakes his head "She wouldn't kick you out...but nope. She's busy getting the rundown as her new role as The Queen or whatever."
Katherine arches a curious brow however before she could question it she frowns as she spots a blurry figure in the distance, rubbing her eyes she couldn't help but sigh, her hearing was already going, her hair graying and falling out. If her vision started to fail she was going to scream.

"Who is that? I can't see."

Xander frowns and glances behind him only to smile as he spots Katherine's daughter walking towards them "It's Nadia. I told her you were helping me today. When I thought you were actually gonna help."
Katherine's eyes widen in panic and she couldn't help but pull the hard-hat over her face as though trying to hide from Nadia's harsh glare. This was not going to be a pleasant conversation she could feel it.