They got back to camp relatively quickly, slightly slowed down by the extra baggage but still able to use their vampire speed with no problem. Bonnie hurried over to them and started tying Galen's body up against a stump while Katherine explained what had happened. She bandaged what was left of his right arm to make sure he didn't die of blood loss before he could be of any use to them. They decided not to feed him vampire blood, just in case Galen tried to make any escape attempts or attempts at attack again. One arm less would mean a 50% less success rate if he tried anything.
The rain started falling shortly after. Pouring rapidly to the ground makes the dirt road even muddier, washing away any trail that might have been left behind or left undiscovered. The whispering hisses of the wind were soon replaced only with the hammering drops of water hitting the ground in plenty. The smell of rain mixed with the burnt wood and leftover coal from the campfire made for a pungent and lingering odor that was sure to stain their clothes.
The heavy air felt surprisingly hot as Klaus removed his shirt, sitting down steadily on the tent floor of his room. Katherine soon came up behind him, sitting down on her knees as she brought out the small knife she would use to cut his skin. He could not reach the bullets himself, so he had asked a very reluctant Katherine for the favor. She, of course, could do nothing but accept.
Her fingers lightly brushed against his back as she put one hand on his shoulder for support, the other moving towards the mended wounds where the bullets had pierced through. Katherine could tell precisely where they had pierced based on the smeared blood on the particular defined areas. Klaus's skin felt burning hot under her hand, and it made her painfully self-aware in that moment. A rosy, heated flush spread across her cheeks as she started digging out the first bullet.
"Why did you let yourself get caught by such a guy?" Klaus asked bitterly, breaking the painful silence. He knew the doppelganger was strong enough to fight off a mere hunter, no matter how skilled. Katerina was the only person to have ever been able to escape from him, and for 500 years too. Not just anyone could do what she did, so in his eyes, she was one of the strongest people he knew.
He couldn't find it in him to be too harsh with her, though. He felt a distant gratitude over the fact that she had saved his life, but it was only slight. It wasn't enough to push away any frustration or anger he felt towards her for getting herself kidnapped, or for any other reason at that.
He continued at her silence. "The plan was for you to capture the hunter, Katerina. Not get captured yourself. I told you he would show up, especially since he knew exactly where we were at. You could've ruined everything."
Katherine pinched the tiny silver bullet and yanked it out of his muscle as gently as she could, watching the wound mend together yet again. "I hesitated," she muttered, moving onto the next one. However, this bullet was trickier, having strained itself deep within his muscle tissue, so she had to pick with the knife's sharp edge to find a way to nick it out.
"Because of the curse?"
She nodded, although he couldn't see it.
"You should have just called for my help instead of being stubborn."
Katherine snorted, yanking out the third bullet with slightly more force, making Klaus growl in discomfort. He was not one to lecture her about stubbornness.
"Next time," she mumbled, removing the final bullet from his back. She noticed he wasn't as angry as she had expected him to be. No degrading remarks, no throat-grabbing or threats. It made her lip curl only slightly before Klaus suddenly got up, putting on his shirt again.
He looked down at her, reaching out his hand to help her up. "Thank you."
He treated her with slightly more kindness that afternoon, at least the few moments they weren't avoiding each other. He never asked her why she had saved him and she was happy about that, because she would have no answer to give him.
They set out to search for the well before dusk, dragging the unconscious body of Galen with them. It didn't take long to find the location they were looking for since Klaus had all the directions he needed from Shane. It wasn't even that hidden. Located underground in a small cave, it was just the place you would expect a well containing the corpse of a 2000-year old immortal and his cure for vampirism to be.
They let themselves down into the well one by one, Katherine being the last to step foot into the cave. Bonnie had already started searching for something that could look abnormal or out of place when they heard Galen groan slightly before suddenly gasping for air. He got to his senses within seconds, becoming aware of his new position and the fact that half his right arm was now missing but patched up. Realization dawned on him as he realized he failed his mission, getting a sort of devastated look in his eye.
"What am I doing here?" he gnarred, trying to wiggle himself out of the rope that bound his arms to his sides.
"You're here so we can unseal the passage to the cure, obviously," Klaus replied, crouching down to brush some leaves and dust away from one particular area on the ground. He ignored Galen's protests as he let his fingers trail over a long line that seemed to stretch across the ground, meeting its end at its beginning to form a perfect circle. "This is it," he whispered to himself.
"Did you find it?" Bonnie asked, joining his side to look at the ground below them. Sure enough, they were staring at a geometrically perfect circle. Something that wouldn't naturally occur in a place like this. It had to be the right spot.
"Get him ready," Klaus ordered and nodded to Galen. Katherine obliged, walking over to their hostage to untie him. She held him in place, his arm and a half tightly trapped behind his back in her grasp, just in case he tried to escape.
"Fine... fine! I won't protest, ease ya grip will ya? I'm not going anywhere ya know! What're ya even gonna do?" he rambled to Katherine, who didn't really care about anything he said. She was still blinded with the rage from earlier, fighting every urge in her body to not enact revenge on him for humiliating her.
"Draw your power," Bonnie answered, placing both hands at his chest as she started channeling her powers. At first, the wind only seemed to blow slightly more wild, but after a short minute, it was so extreme that Katherine even struggled to remain her foothold. Blood started running out of Bonnie's nose as she only summoned more powers, making the walls crumble around them. Klaus and Katherine had to both watch out for themselves and Bonnie to make sure neither got crushed by the falling rocks.
After a long minute, Bonnie finished drawing out all the power from Galen's hunter mark. They both fell to the ground exhausted, and Katherine caught Bonnie before she hit the dirty floor, helping her back up on her feet.
"Is it done?" Klaus asked, waiting for Bonnie's nod before he proceeded to knock Galen unconscious again, tying him back up with the ropes he had just escaped from. "We'll leave him here, he'll just be a bother."
They continued further into the now open passage, trying to find Silas's remains. The water dripping from the roof of the cave made hollow echoes whenever a drop hit the ground, and every step they took sounded like a thud in the distance. Katherine pulled out a flashlight from her backpack, casting light upon the walls.
As Katherine and Bonnie followed Klaus, he suddenly stopped, making the two of them pause as well. He simply stood there, looking into a corner of the cave with wide eyes as if everything else got blocked out.
"Klaus?" Katherine called, but he didn't answer.
His mouth opened, but no words escaped his lips.
"Klaus," Bonnie said a little more affirmatively. "Whatever you're seeing, it's not-" She stopped mid-sentence as her attention suddenly turned to another corner of the cave as well. "Grams?" she whispered, taking small steps closer to what Katherine saw was a completely empty area, no grandmother or dead Bennet witch in sight.
"Bonnie..." Katherine started at the girl's sudden change of heart. However, her attention quickly shifted to Klaus when he suddenly called out his recently dead brother's name.
Katherine sighed, rolling her eyes as she realized she was the only one left to take care of the situation. Somehow unaffected by whatever mind control spell the other two seemed to be under.
"Hey, Klaus," she snapped, walking over to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, Kol isn't here, he isn't real, okay? It's Silas, he's in your head."
When she noticed he wasn't responding to her words, she put both hands on his shoulders and shook him violently. "You're the original hybrid, snap out of it."
At that, Klaus seemed to come to as he pushed Katherine off of him, narrowing his eyes slightly as he looked over at where he had believed his dead brother to stand. When he blinked, he realized it had all been an illusion of Silas to make them feed him the cure.
Katherine hurried and helped Bonnie snap out of it as well, and they realized they must be very close to Silas for his illusions to be strong enough to fool the likes of them. They did not have to go far before they entered a narrow, dark alcove of the cave. Silas's ancient, shrunken body laid wrapped in countless branches and thorns atop what seemed like a stone coffin.
Katherine walked over and studied the immobile figure, finding a small casket sealed tight in his hands. "This is it. The cure," she heeded to the others, grabbing a hold around the box. She pulled it slightly, trying to be careful with it at first, but it didn't budge at all. "What the hell..." she muttered.
"That small thing is supposed to cure all vampires?" Bonnie asked, puzzled, watching Katherine try to pull it out of Silas's hands.
"It's not," Katherine simply said as she pulled the box with more vigor. Even with all her vampire strength, it was no use. "It's like it's fossilized in place. It won't budge," she muttered.
Klaus rolled his eyes. "Move over," he commanded as he went to take Katherine's place by the cure, pulling with his even stronger hybrid strength.
"You lied to me?" Bonnie groused at the realization.
"Sorry about it Bon-Bon, there was no other way to get you to cooperate," Katherine shrugged, not really sorry at all. She smirked over at Klaus, who was obviously having a hard time freeing the cure too.
Bonnie rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Unbelievable, I should've known better than to help you," she spat.
"Don't pout, love," Klaus simply brushed her complaints off. "Katerina, come help," he ordered as he grabbed the cure again, this time with Katherine pulling by his side. They tried pulling the box in unison with all their might, but quickly gave up when realizing that it wouldn't budge no matter what when even their combined strength couldn't free it from Silas's grip.
It was then something clicked for Klaus. "There's only one way we can get the cure to unfreeze," he started, meeting Katherine's curious gaze. "We have to wake Silas."
"Wake Silas? Are you crazy?" Bonnie asked desperately. "He'll kill us all."
Klaus smirked, raising a brow as if he was contemplating something. Thinking of the benefits, perhaps, his hybrid army would outweigh any negative consequences raising Silas would bring. At least in theory. "Katerina, sweetheart. Get Galen for me."
She sped back to the opening of the passage and brought Galen with her. She knew precisely what Klaus would use him for, and it put a smirk on her lips. It was perfect revenge. They would kill him indirectly by feeding him to Silas, in return not retracting the hunter's curse.
Klaus bit Galen's throat and pressed his neck against Silas's mouth, forcing the blood down the immortal's throat. After a few seconds, movement started occurring in Silas's body as he lifted his hand to hold Galen's head himself. Klaus took that as his cue to grab the cure from his other hand.
"Come on, let's get out of here."