Toby, Elena and Stefan were all in Stefan's room at the boarding house. Toby was holding up a cinder block, which Elena promptly punched through and broke.
"How do you feel now?" Toby asked.
"That did nothing for me," Elena replied in a kind of monotone voice.
Toby sighed and picked up another cinder block.
"Again."
He held it up for her to break. She took a step back and kicked at it this time, once again breaking it clean in half.
Stefan nodded in approval from behind Elena.
"Good, now focus on letting it go."
"Or, we could skip the sublimating part, and you two can tell me where she is so that I can rip her head off."
Toby and Stefan's eyes met from over Elena's shoulder.
"I don't know where Katherine is, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."
"Stefan, you're the one who told me to channel all of my emotions into one, single feeling."
"I realize that. I just figured it would be love or hope or compassion, not unwavering hatred for a ruthless vampire that's 500 years older than you."
Toby gestured up to one of the exposed beams on the ceiling.
"Give me 50 pull ups."
Elena turned around, facing Stefan, and jumped up to grab the beam.
"You wanted to kill Klaus when you got your emotions back."
"Yeah, and then he realized it was pointless and that he was missing out on things that actually mattered," Toby pointed out.
"You just don't think I can kill Katherine."
Toby sighed. "I don't think you actually want to."
"Maybe you're right. Maybe I just want to feel the warmth of her chest cavity as I rip out her heart and watch her face as she realizes I took it from her."
Elena dropped down from the beam after doing a couple of pull ups.
"Nah. I just want to kill her. It's that simple. I'm gonna go shower."
As Elena left the room, Toby turned to face Stefan helplessly. All Stefan could do was shrug in response.
xxxx
Bonnie and Josiah were sitting in the middle of a clearing, facing each other. They were holding each other's hands with their eyes closed, performing a spell. Actually, it was Bonnie performing the spell while she anchored herself to Josiah, like she said she would, in order to keep the expression from consuming her. She wasn't 100% sure it would actually work, but she figured she'd try, hopefully not dragging Josiah down with her in the process.
Angel was standing behind them, leaning up against a tree quietly. Katherine was on the opposite side of him with her arms crossed. She approached Josiah and Bonnie.
"Hello?" She said out loud in a singsong voice. They both ignored her. All around them, faint whispers could be heard. Katherine looked around. "Can you be any creepier? Why are we here?"
"Can you just let them do their job?" Angel asked. Katherine looked at him and narrowed her eyes.
Bonnie sighed and opened her eyes to look over at Katherine.
"You want me to make you truly immortal so that nothing can kill you. To do that, I need to talk to Qetsiyah, which means I need to lower the veil to the other side."
"That still doesn't explain why you made me trudge through mud in 500 dollar boots."
It was Josiah's turn to open his eyes.
"Nobody told you to dress like you were going to a Victoria Secret fashion show."
"I dress to impress, baby Ramirez."
Bonnie pointed in one direction. "A few miles that way, twelve hybrids were killed at the Lockwood cellar, and a few miles that way," she pointed in another direction, "twelve humans died at the Young farm, and this is the site where twelve witches were killed."
"Thirteen, if you don't get to the point."
Angel pushed himself off of the tree he was leaning against and stood up straighter at this threat. Katherine saw this and rolled her eyes.
"Calm down, honey bunch. I can snap your neck before you could even blink."
"It's the Expression Triangle," Bonnie explained. "I need to charge all three points and channel the mystical energy from Silas's tombstone. Once that happens, I can drop the veil inside the three points and just long enough to get what I need."
"And what exactly do you need?"
"Silas has done nothing but torment us," Josiah said. "Now he wants to unleash hell on earth. He's evil. In 2,000 years, only one person has been able to put him down."
"Let me guess. Qetsiyah."
Bonnie nodded. "If I can contact her, I can ask her how to do it. Now, hand me the rock."
"You're gonna flood Mystic Falls with dead, supernatural creatures so that you can ask a 2,000 year old witch to do not one, but two favors?" Katherine laughed. "I think I'll take my business elsewhere."
Katherine started to walk away, but she didn't get very far. An invisible force stopped her from going any further. She backed up, frowned, and tried to leave again, but was met with the same result.
"What the hell?" She mumbled to herself.
"I linked us," Bonnie told her. Katherine turned to face her with a glare. "Which means you're stuck with me for the day. Silas can be anyone. If he gets in your head and figures out that I don't need a full moon to do the spell, it's over. Now, about that tombstone."
xxxx
It was nighttime now. Josiah, Bonnie, Angel and Katherine were walking through the woods towards the Lockwood cellar.
"Ugh, that Lockwood cellar reeks of wet dog." Katherine scrunched up her nose. "I'll be staying up here."
"You obviously don't know how this works," Bonnie replied without casting her a glance. She took a step towards the stairs leading down to the cellar and Katherine jerked forward against her will, an invisible force pulling her along with Bonnie. Josiah and Angel followed behind them.
"You realize I'm not just some wandering child in a supermarket, right? I'm a vampire that can kill you."
"Whatever happens to me, happens to you. Do you really think I want you here?"
"And where is here? Oh, right, twelve dead hybrids. This should be good."
Josiah walked over to Bonnie and took her hands. Together, they closed their eyes and drew on the magical energy in the area left behind from the hybrid massacre. The wind started to pick up outside and in the cellar, causing the chains in the room to rattle against each other.
xxxx
Elowen, Caroline, Rebekah were at the bar in The Grill. Matt was standing behind it, working. Elena was over by the dart board, throwing darts. Stefan and Damon had been called to the hospital by Sheriff Forbes and Toby had gone with them, and Adriana and Veronica were back at the boarding house. A couple entered The Grill and wind whipped in through the door for a second before the door closed. Caroline furrowed her eyebrows.
"Is it supposed to rain tonight?"
"Do I look like a meteorologist?" Rebekah asked sarcastically. Caroline shot her an exasperated look while Elowen held back a laugh. Caroline nudged Elowen sharply before looking over at Elena with a sigh.
"Well, someone needs to do something before she explodes."
Rebekah grabbed a bottle of alcohol and a shot glass. "I got this."
As Rebekah left, Elowen leaned over to Caroline.
"She so does not got this."
They all watched as Rebekah poured out a shot and handed it to Elena. Elena took it, shot it back and then went back to shooting darts. They exchanged a few words before Caroline found herself giving in and walking over. Elowen followed her.
"What about us?" Caroline asked Elena as she approached her. "Are we still friends? All those things you said when your humanity was off. Is that how you really feel?"
"Caroline, I don't really feel like going down memory lane," Elena replied. "Besides, what happened to 'we grew apart, I'm closer to Elowen now'?"
Caroline glanced at Elowen, who shrugged. Caroline faced Elena again.
"Well, what about when you said, and I quote, 'You're a repulsive, bloodsucking control freak monster'?" Did you really mean those things?"
Elena hesitated her next dart throw for a moment, before recovering and throwing the dart in her hand.
"If you're waiting for an apology, you're not gonna get one. I can't let myself feel bad, because if I feel bad, then I feel everything, and… we've all seen how well I handle that."
Elowen tilted her head. "You know, I'm kind of glad you focused on your hatred for Katherine and not your hatred and jealousy for me. That wouldn't have ended well."
Elena's grip on her next dart tightened, but she drew her hand back and threw it at the dart board anyway. As it sailed through the air, the lights went out, shrouding everyone in darkness. Caroline, Rebekah and Elowen headed for the entrance to see what was going on, followed by Matt. Once they made it outside, they saw how bad the winds really were.
"The power's completely out!" Elowen shouted over the loud noise of the wind so everyone else could hear her.
"I'll call my mom!" Caroline yelled back. "Maybe she knows what's going on!"
Elowen nodded. Caroline pulled out her phone and disappeared back into The Grill.
xxxx
Katherine, Bonnie, Angel and Josiah were standing inside the house where Pastor Young had blown up the council.
"Twelve humans burned to death here," Bonnie said. "They died in vain for Silas."
She reached out for Josiah's hands and they both closed their eyes for a brief second. The lights fizzled out and the winds outside picked up even harder.
"What did you do?" Katherine asked as she looked around the house.
Bonnie opened her eyes. "I linked the final hotspot. It's time to drop the veil."
xxxx
At the hospital, Stefan, Damon, Toby and Sheriff Forbes were all positioned over a map that was spread out on a table. The power had gone out there as well, so their only source of light was from Sheriff Forbes's flashlight. Toby held it while she marked dots on the map as she talked to them.
"The power outages originated at three different places in town. The Young farm, the Lockwood estate, and a blown transformer off Old Miller Road."
Stefan picked up the marker and started connecting the dots. "Well, these are the locations of the Silas massacres. It's the Expression Triangle. Bonnie must be doing the spell."
"So much for needing a full moon," Damon commented.
"There's something else," Sheriff Forbes said. "One of the power company guys has a daughter who goes to school with Bonnie. He saw her leaving the Young farm an hour ago with two boys and Elena."
Stefan shook his head. "But… Caroline and Elowen are with Elena."
"Looks like Bonnie Bennett has a new doppelganger friend," Damon said.
Toby frowned. "Two boys?" Slowly, realization dawned on him. "Josiah and Angel. What could they be doing with Bonnie?"
Damon shrugged. "No idea. Bonnie has enough witchy mojo all on her own, so I have no idea why she'd need Josiah, and Angel… well, he's got the hots for her. He's probably trying to play the hero to impress her."
"So, how do we find them?" Sheriff Forbes asked.
"Well, they must be somewhere in the triangle. My guess is that they would be right in the middle." Stefan put a dot in the middle of the triangle on the map and then circled it.
"And where exactly might that be?" Damon questioned, looking down at the map, then back up at Stefan, Toby and Sheriff Forbes.
xxxx
Stefan, Damon and Toby all drove up to the high school and got out of the car. Elena and Elowen went outside to meet with them.
"Where's Caroline?" Stefan asked loudly over the blowing winds.
"Inside looking for Bonnie," Elowen replied, her voice as equally loud. "I think we should split up. You, Damon and I can look inside with Caroline while Elena and Toby look outside."
Toby nodded. "Alright, let me know if you find anything."
They all split up in their respective groups and went off to find Bonnie. Inside, Elowen pointed in a direction.
"Caroline went that way," she said. "Stefan, you go help her. Damon and I will go this way," she pointed in the opposite direction.
Stefan nodded. "Alright. Be careful."
"When am I not careful?"
Stefan shook his head endearingly before setting off to find Caroline. He found her in the cafeteria.
"Hey, there you are. Any luck?"
Caroline turned to face him. "I searched the whole school. She should be here."
They heard something fall in the distance and they turned towards the noise.
"What was that?"
Stefan shined his flashlight over and together, him and Caroline walked over to the kitchen cautiously. Caroline walked over and opened the freezer, except all that was in it was a bag of melting ice.
"Hm. Ice is melting," Stefan observed.
Caroline shut the freezer in frustration. "Ugh! It just doesn't make any sense! This is the center of the triangle. If she's gonna do the spell, she has to do it here. This is where they should be!"
"Actually, I think we're in the right place…" He shined his flashlight onto the floor, where the water from the melted ice was flowing into a drain. "... just the wrong elevation."
Down in the tunnels underneath the school, Bonnie, Katherine, Angel and Josiah stood in the middle.
"Okay, this is the center of the triangle," Bonnie said. "I'm ready. Now, give me the tombstone."
"The fact that this spell hinges on some crappy hunk of blood rock does little to inspire my confidence," Katherine replied, but she handed over a bag that had the tombstone in it anyway. Bonnie took it and took the tombstone out.
"It's filled with the calcified blood of Qetsiyah, one of the strongest witches in the world. It'll work."
Back up at the school, Damon hung up the phone with Stefan. He'd just told them about the entrance to the basement in the boiler room, which Elena had told him about, and told them to meet him there, so that's where him and Elowen were headed. Elsewhere in the school, Elena and Toby did the same. Toby suddenly stopped and put his hand on Elena's chest so she'd stop, too.
"Okay, okay, stop. You're staying here."
Elena scoffed. "Are you kidding me?"
"Look, we really need to stop Bonnie from doing this spell, and you're being all murderous and it's gonna screw everything up."
"Is that really the reason?"
"Why would I have any other reason? Stefan has a point. Behind your rage, there is a tidal wave of feelings. All your guilt, all your grief, every emotion you've ever put off, and killing Katherine's gonna let it all in, and if you can't handle it, then we've back to square one."
"And if I can? What if killing Katherine takes away all that grief and guilt? What if killing Katherine finally lets me feel all the good things that I've lost? Toby, help me. As soon as I get over this hurdle, I'll be me. I'll be able to think clearly. I'll be myself, and everything will go back to normal?"
"God, do you seriously believe that? Listen to yourself, Elena! Killing Katherine will let you feel all the good things you've lost? You're not feeling any of that because you're not letting yourself. Look, Katherine is stronger than you, and crafty, and she will kill you."
Elena sighed, then, in one swift movement, suddenly stabbed Toby in the stomach with a stake. He let out a yell of pain and fell to the ground.
"At least I'll die trying."
She sped off, leaving Toby by himself. He sat up with a groan and tried to pull out the stake when someone spoke up from behind him.
"Need a hand?"
Toby looked up and saw that it was Alaric. He reached down and pulled the stake out. Toby coughed, but scooted backwards when Alaric crouched down next to him with a laugh.
"No offense, Ric, but there's a big, bad guy roaming around here pretending to be other people, and you're dead."
"You think I'm Silas? Are you kidding me?"
"Can you really blame me?"
Alaric shook his head and offered Toby a hand. After a moment of hesitation, Toby took it and Alaric helped Toby to his feet. At that moment, Elowen and Damon turned the corner and into the hallway. Elowen froze in her spot when she saw Alaric.
"... Dad?" She whispered. She tried to take a step towards him, but Damon stopped him.
"Need I remind you that a lot of people aren't exactly who they say they are right now?"
Alaric sighed. "You, too, huh?"
He paused for a moment as he thought of a way to prove that it was really him. After a beat, he walked towards one of the lockers, pounded his fist against it to pop it open, and then pulled out a bottle of alcohol.
"Now, would Silas know about locker 42?"
Elowen breathed in a sharp breath. Her eyes started to fill with tears.
"Daddy?" She asked in a whisper.
Alaric smiled at her. "It's me, baby."
Before anything could be said or done, Elowen rushed forward and threw her arms around Alaric's neck. She started crying softly into his shoulder as Alaric's arms wrapped around Elowen's smaller form.
"I saw you on prom night," Alaric whispered into Elowen's ear. "You were beautiful."
Elowen pulled away from the hug as a thought crossed her mind. She sniffled and started wiping away at her tears.
"Wait, wait. If I can see you, and I can touch you, then that means Bonnie did it. She dropped the veil."
"Well, not completely," Alaric started to explain. "It's only down inside the Expression Triangle. If I step outside of it, it's back to ghost world."
"Well, where is everybody?" Damon asked. "I figured with the veil down, it'd be like ghost-a-palooza."
"Well, not every ghost has a reason to come back to Mystic Falls. Just the ones like me, looking after their kids, fiance and idiot best friend."
"I'm more worried about the ones looking out for their enemies."
At that moment, somebody sped out of nowhere and slammed Elowen against the lockers, their hands wrapped around her throat in a vice grip.
"Miss me?" Luis hissed in her face as Elowen had her breath stolen away from her. He wasn't able to do any damage, though, as Alaric grabbed him and threw him across the hall, into the lockers opposite of them. Luis sped to his feet with a sneer.
"Damn history teacher. You're still around? Didn't peg you as the type of guy who was into damaged goods."
"Esmeralda's not damaged goods, but she's the way she is because you made her that way, asshole," Alaric snapped back.
Luis laughed. "And, what? You thought that you were the knight in shining armor who could fix her?"
Alaric shrugged. "Well, we were doing pretty good after Elowen killed you."
Luis's lip curled. He tried rushing at Alaric, but Damon sped in between them and snapped Luis's neck before he could get very far. When he looked up, he saw Elowen pressing her back flush against the lockers with her eyes shut tightly and breathing unevenly. He quickly walked over to her.
"Hey, hey, hey," he muttered quietly, placing his hands on either side of her face. "Wen, open your eyes. Look at me. Look at me. Wen."
Finally, Elowen opened her eyes, which flickered over to Luis's dead body. Damon moved in her line of sight.
"Don't look at him. Look at me."
Elowen's eyes moved onto Damon.
"There we go. He can't hurt you anymore. I won't let him."
"Neither will I," Alaric piped up.
"Ditto," Toby agreed.
"See? You're safe." Damon's voice was soft. "You're okay. Okay?"
Elowen's breathing had returned to normal and she swallowed hard. After a moment, she nodded her head.
"Come on. We need to find Bonnie. Let's go."
Gently, Damon grabbed Elowen and started heading for the boiler room, followed by Alaric and Toby.
xxxx
Down in the tunnels, Katherine paced around impatiently. Angel was sitting on a nearby rock, watching Josiah and Bonnie, who were kneeling in the middle of the cave.
"Tick tock, you two," Katherine spoke up in annoyance.
"Stop talking," Bonnie instructed, equally annoyed. "I can't reach out to Qetsiyah with you breaking my concentration every 5 seconds."
Katherine rolled her eyes, but walked over to a rock to lean against it, sighing loudly. Her and Angel both heard something in the distance, garnering a reaction from the both of them. Katherine tensed and stood up, turning to look behind her, while Angel furrowed his eyebrows and leaned over to the side to look around Katherine, towards the dark tunnel they had come from.
"Did you hear that?" He asked.
"Someone's coming," Katherine said at the same time.
"Can you two be quiet?" Josiah asked without opening his eyes.
"I have vampire hearing, Josiah, and there is someone here," Katherine told him before addressing Bonnie. "Unlink me so that I can go stall them while we wait for Qetsiyah to show up."
"I'm not letting you go," Bonnie replied. "Angel can go."
"Angel is a young 20 something baby vampire and I'm over 500 years old. Who do you think fares better against a mysterious something trying to sneak up on us? Just give me some slack."
Bonnie sighed. "Fine. Go. Stop them."
Katherine turned and left, leaving them alone. For a couple of minutes, it was completely silent, when suddenly, Bonnie yelled out in pain and fell over, onto the ground. Angel stood up from the rock he was sitting on in alarm and rushed over as Josiah opened his eyes to see what was wrong. Bonnie pulled her hand away from her stomach to reveal it covered in blood.
"Oh my god!" Angel blurted in shock, his eyes widening. "What's going on?"
"Katherine," Josiah realized. "They're linked! Whatever is happening to her, happens to Bonnie."
Bonnie shouted in pain again as her face started to burn. She grabbed it and gasped for air.
"What do we do?" Angel asked frantically as Stefan and Caroline ran into the chamber.
"Katherine!" Josiah said quickly. "Find Katherine! Now! Go!"
Angel nodded and started to make his way out of the tunnels. Stefan followed after him without asking any questions. In the boiler room, Elena was seconds away from staking Katherine when Angel and Stefan emerged from the basement. They both rushed at Elena and pinned her against the wall, Stefan holding one arm while Angel held the other.
"Thanks for the save, you two," Katherine said from behind them with a smirk.
"Get the hell out of here before I kill you myself," Stefan bit out.
"Really? I'm your biggest problem right now?"
Katherine turned and left, leaving them to restrain a struggling Elena. Once they were sure Katherine was gone, Stefan and Angel let go of Elena.
"How could you save her?!" Elena all but exploded on them. "She was as good as dead!"
"Yeah, and so was Bonnie!" Angel replied, almost matching Elena's tone. "She did a spell to link herself to Katherine, so if you killed her, you kill Bonnie."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I was with her."
"You almost killed your best friend, Elena," Stefan said.
Elena looked between the two of them, shaking her head. "I don't believe you."
"Really?"
"You never wanted me to kill Katherine. Why are you protecting her, Stefan?"
"Listen to yourself! Your rage is making you crazy."
"Do you still have feelings for her? Because I don't think Elowen would appreciate that."
"This isn't even about Katherine, is it?" Angel asked. "It's about Jeremy. Look, I'm still new here, so this whole humanity switch thing threw me in for a loop, but you don't want to face the fact that your little brother is dead, so you've convinced yourself that killing Katherine will take all of your pain away. It's just a distraction, isn't it?"
Elena scoffed. "You're right, you're still new here. Keep your nose out of my business and don't lecture me how to feel about my brother. You don't know what it's like."
Angel's face turned into one of disbelief. "I don't know what it's like? I have two baby sisters, Elena. As their older brother, it's my job to look after them, and now that this whole supernatural bullshit is in the mix, I have all the more reason to. I'm dead and immortal, so really, I have all the time in the world to make sure that they're safe. If anything ever happened to one of them, you best believe I'd be the first person on the scene to 1) make sure they were okay, and 2) beat the hell out of whoever hurt them, except sometimes, it's not worth it! And in this case, it's not worth it, because you have nobody left to defend, and you don't want to face that. Not to sound like I'm spitting in your face or anything, but if Adriana or Veronica died, I'd deal with it like a grownup, not take the easy way out."
Anger glared in Elena's chest and she raised her fist to swing, but Angel caught it midair and used his strength to crush her hand. Elena's mouth opened up in a silent yell. Stefan quickly stepped in and broke the two of them up.
"Look, Elena, Angel's right," Stefan said. "This is all just a distraction. So is killing Katherine, and turning your emotions off. There's no shortcuts. You're a vampire. Loss is part of the deal. Look, I've been alive for 163 years. I have lost more loved ones than I can count, and it hurts me every single time."
"So there's no hope?" Elena asked. "You're saying I'm hopeless?"
"No, he's saying that you're refusing to grieve and you need to face that," Angel said from behind Stefan. "And you don't have to do it alone. You have friends, and a boyfriend. Let them help you. Stop pushing them away."
Elena shook her head. "I don't have to take this from you two."
She turned to leave, but Stefan tried to stop her.
"Hey-"
Elena whirled around on him and punched him in the face. Angel winced as it happened.
"Ouch," he mumbled.
This time, when Elena tried to leave, Stefan let her.
Back in the cave, Josiah and Caroline were crouched around Bonnie.
"Are you okay?" Josiah asked worriedly as he watched her.
Bonnie nodded. "Yeah, now that I unlinked her."
Josiah gently grabbed onto Bonnie's arm and him and Caroline helped him up.
"What are you guys doing down here?" Caroline asked.
"Waiting for Qetsiyah."
"You might be waiting awhile," Caroline replied in a strange, faraway voice. Josiah frowned at her when she suddenly disappeared.
"Qetsiyah isn't coming," a voice said from behind Josiah and Bonnie. They turned around and saw a disfigured Silas standing there.
"Silas," Bonnie breathed in shock. "But- I saw Caroline! How? I thought you couldn't get inside my head."
"That's what I wanted you to think. I can make you see whatever I want you to see. Am I a disfigured monster?"
Silas disappeared and reappeared behind them, this time looking like Stefan.
"Of course not. The monster is what I wanted you to see."
Josiah and Bonnie were left whirling around the cave as Silas kept changing his form, taunting them.
"That's the beauty of all this," Silas said as Caroline. "You have no idea who I am."
Now he was back to Stefan. "Or what I look like."
He was once again back to the disfigured man. "Or how deep I am inside of your head."
Back to Stefan. "You thought that you were more powerful than me?"
He was Caroline again. "I am stronger than you can imagine. I defeated the hunter's curse in minutes. You thought that you could betray me? You can't. I will always be one. Step. Ahead."