The sun had already begun to rise in the distance. An irritable and fuming Katherine dragged herself after Galen, both her hands tied behind her back and a rope around her neck. She really didn't appreciate getting dragged around like a dog, and the vervain-soaked string marking her used-to-be flawless skin didn't make it any better. She wondered if Klaus had woken up yet, and when he would find out she was missing. He would not be happy that Katherine let herself get caught. She knew that, and she feared the consequences. However, she didn't really mind Klaus's punishment as long as he would get her out of this situation she now found herself in. Tailing along after a vampire-hating bastard was surprisingly worse than following the evil-hybrid bastard.

"How long are we gonna just walk around," she spat through her teeth. They had just been walking for hours, seemingly going nowhere, and it bothered her.

"For as long as it takes," he jagged as he pulled the rope in one harsh movement, making Katherine crash into a tree. He seemed to take pleasure in her groans of discomfort and annoyance as her face met the bark. He kicked her down to the ground and put the heel of his shoe at her chest, pressing just hard enough to hear some of her ribs crack.

"I have a list of things I'm gonna do to you when I'm free," she fumed, instantly regretting her earlier hesitation. Even being stuck in the torment of her mind for 50 years would have been better than this humiliation.

"Ya can't kill me."

"No, but I can sure as hell make you wish you were dead."

Galen snorted with no hint of glee in his eyes, only a stern gaze as he picked up a stick and shoved it into her neck, drawing blood.

"I hate vampires, missy. Do ya really think ya should provoke me right now?"

She scowled at him, resisting the urge to wince in pain. "I'm not stopping until you tell me what the hell we're walking around for. Just waiting. You scared or something? Pathetic."

Galen only grinned and shoved the stick further into her neck, making her shut her eyes close in pain. "Do ya know what's worse than vampires? Vampires like you. Who doesn't care and just acts."

Katherine growled in frustration, trying to twist her hands out of the ropes but to no use. She was sure this guy was the only person in the world more annoying than Klaus, and that takes a lot.

"I told you. Ya'r leverage. Leverage to get that girl to open the cave to the cure."

Katherine couldn't help letting out a dry laugh, snorting at how pathetic he was. If she was leveraged to manipulate Klaus and Bonnie into doing Galen's bidding, he had picked the wrong girl. Klaus didn't care about her, and Bonnie certainly did not either.

"What's your goal?"

"Isn't it obvious? My goal is the same as any hunter's goal. Find the cure, feed it to Silas and then kill him. That's my purpose."

Katherine raised a brow at the fact that Galen also knew about the 'only one dose' thing. His goal was the same as theirs, only their purpose with the cure was different. She figured he had taken her hostage to make sure Klaus and Bonnie wouldn't try to manipulate or trick him if they decided to team up for the cure. There was no doubt in her mind that Klaus would come for her soon, but not for the reason Galen expected. Klaus didn't care to rescue her, but she was with the very hunter they needed for their plan to even work, so capturing Galen and saving Katherine came in one pretty little box set.

Ironically enough, as soon as she thought of the devil, she spotted him in the distance, only as a shadow closing in on them in a flash close to the speed of sound. "Found you," Klaus simply said as he appeared before them.

"Stay back," Galen warned, tightening the noose around Katherine's neck while raising a gun at Klaus.

Klaus just smiled smugly at him, raising a brow as he took a step back, playing along. He put his hands up, pretending to admit defeat. He wanted to hear Galen out first, to see what he wanted from them.

Galen continued. "Ya will act on my terms, or else she dies," he threatened as he pointed the gun at Katherine before directing it back at Klaus. "Make the witch open the cave, I'll let her go once the cure is shoved down Silas's throat."

"As tempting as that sounds, I'm gonna have to refuse your offer." Klaus shook his head in disappointment. "Hunters these days have become too arrogant, thinking they can order around an Original."

His playfulness soon disappeared only to be replaced with irritation. Irritation not only at being ordered around by such a lesser being but also at touching what was his. His prisoner. For some reason, seeing Katherine getting tortured by someone else gave him no pleasure at all. In fact, it just made him feel this almost uncontrollable rage. That if he wasn't the one to hurt her, no one else could, and at the moment, he did not wish to hurt her at all.

"You yourself is an important piece of unsealing this cure, if you didn't know already. I'll be taking both you and her back with me," he asserted as he sped over to Katherine and untied her. He acted all within a second, but Galen was clearly experienced as his reflexes quickly caught up, and he aimed the gun back at Klaus. Firing six shots at his back when he was open.

The vervain bullets pierced Klaus's back and graced his heart and spine as he fell to his knees in an instant. Katherine's eyes widened at what had just happened as she sped up on her feet, now free of the ropes. She looked down at Klaus, now the one crumbling in pain at her feet.

Galen moved closer to them both, now sure that Klaus couldn't get up and harm him. "Oh, ya don't think I know ya'r the original hybrid?" he gibed, making both Katherine and Klaus freeze. "My reputation as the undefeatable vampire hunter isn't for nothing. I always come prepared," he sneered as he pulled out a stake from his jacket. Klaus's eyes widened as he looked up at the object. A white oak stake.

"Where did you get that?" Klaus panicked, trying to regain his balance.

"Ya made a mistake, Klaus. Refusing my offer. I don't need you, or her. I just need the witch," he smirked as he bent down next to his crumpled body. Klaus growled as he scrambled to his feet, only managing a crouch as he had to support himself from swaying. Galen pushed him back down and held him in place as he raised his arm, prepared to drive the white oak stake through his heart.

Katherine fumed with anger at the sight before her, refusing to believe that pathetic hunter knocked someone like Klaus down, someone that was able to defeat even her. She wasn't sure why she did what she did next. However, her body just kind of moved on its own.

She grabbed ahold of Galen's arm before he could drive the stake down into Klaus's chest and bent it backward, snapping it in two. And before Galen's loud, painful shout could even reach her ears, she had driven her elbow straight into his skull, knocking him out.

Galen's body fell to the ground, and she calmed her breathing, not even thinking straight because everything had happened so quickly. Her heart was still hammering loudly in her ears, and she felt tears dwell up due to the adrenaline rush and the anxiety she had felt. After a few seconds, however, the two men on the ground made her aware of what she'd done. She had saved Klaus's life.

Klaus clumsily got to his feet, obviously in pain due to the bullets still inside him. He looked down at the mending hole in his chest and winced as he dug under his skin to pick out the only bullet that had gone through him.

"What a pain," he growled, not meeting Katherine's staring eyes. He couldn't quite make sense of what had just happened, so he did as every other time he found himself unable to fathom something. He shoved the thought away until it was no longer a concern to him.

This was the second time she had saved his life if she counted technicality, but now she couldn't defend it. The first time could be explained away as her wanting to save Damon's life, but now? Something had driven her to move on her own, and it wasn't her brain. Maybe duty sensed that since he had saved her, it was only fair she returned the favor. At least that's what she told herself as they started walking back to camp, Galen's unconscious body hanging limply over Klaus's shoulder.