Mystic Falls, 2010.
AFTER A FEW HOURS OF DRIVING, Bella stopped her car in the front yard of Salvatore Boarding House. To be honest, it felt strange to return to a place after leaving it. She hadn't done it since 1864. Usually when she left a place, she would never look back again. But this time was different. Everything was different.
Just a day before Katherine's little visit to her house, Caroline sent her a warning. Bella had no choice but to leave immediately. Katherine couldn't find out about her, at least not yet.
She already took care of Caroline. She was quiet sure Damon and Stefan wouldn't tell Katherine about her since Katherine was their enemy now. There was no way they could be that stupid to tell their enemy something that could be their secret weapon. The only problem left would be Stefan's little journal since there was a possibility Katherine would try to read it, but she took care of that as well by ripping off the page about their family reunion.
Just when she entered the house, she heard something interesting from the study room. Without thinking twice, she flashed herself towards the room.
"Well, well, look at this." Her grin suddenly appeared when she found her brother crouched in front of the fireplace with a guy chained up to a chair behind him. "Just two days I'm gone, and you've found yourself a new toy." She folded her arms across her chest and slowly walked closer to them to get a better look at her brother's hostage. "I'm impressed."
Damon got up and turned to her with a frown. "Where have you been?"
"Richmond, doing a little shopping trip," she answered simply. "There's this branded bag I've been waㅡ"
"On a second thought," Damon quickly nutted in, "I don't wanna know."
Bella's grin widened as she found herself getting better at lying.
"So, what's the deal with this guy?" She pretended to sound curious as she turned to her brother's hostage. She knew exactly who he was, Mason Lockwood, the werewolf. She wasn't sure if the guy knew about her, but he somehow kept staring at her with a pleading look, like he was hoping she would help him.
"He's a werewolf and apparently Katherine's new pet," Damon explained shortly. His eyes then narrowed suspiciously at Bella when he suddenly remembered something. "You still remember her, right?"
"How could I forget?" she replied, trying to sound nonchalant.
"Then why weren't you surprised to see Elena?" Damon asked, sounding more suspicious than before. "She's a dead-ringer for Katherine."
Bella raised an eyebrow at him. "Who said I wasn't surprised?"
"Your face said it," he pointed out.
She just shrugged. "Good to know I'm getting good at hiding-emotions."
Their attention was immediately distracted when Mason tried to break free and made his chair fall backwards.
"Ooh, someone's feisty," Damon said mockingly. He then bent down to pick up the hot poker in front of the fireplace and walked closer to Mason.
"What?!" Mason shouted at him. Damon stabbed the hot poker into his chest, causing him to scream and growl in pain.
"You can hurt. Good to know. I was afraid you were going to be some beast mass with no affinity or pain," Damon commented. He then bent down to check the wound. "Oh, you heal quickly. Not good. Guess I'll just have to keep applying pain."
Bella chose to just stand still and watch her brother try to interrogate Mason. She was just as curious as Damon about that guy since he had something to do with Katherine. She had guessed that Katherine must have other minions, but she didn't expect it to be the werewolf guy.
Suddenly, someone else came into the library. It was the Gilbert boy, Jeremy. After placing the box in his hand on the table, he pointed his finger at Bella and asked, "Bella, right?"
Bella rolled her eyes and chose to ignore him. Instead she turned to Damon and mocked, "Your choice of allies was just... impeccable."
Damon took a glance at Jeremy, and then to his sister. "I didn't choose him. He's the one who keep following me around like a bug."
"Then why haven't you used your bug spray?"
"Can you two please stop talking about me like I'm not here?" Jeremy protested, looking slightly annoyed.
Bella just rolled her eyes while Damon finally turned to Jeremy and retorted, "I thought I told you to leave."
"Um," Jeremy cleared his throat and started opening the box. "I found something in the Ric's box of stuff."
"What is it?" Damon immediately walked towards the boy with interest.
"I did a search on my phone. It's a plant." Jeremy took out his invention and handed it over to Damon. "Aconitum Vuplaria."
Bella smirked as she watched Mason's reaction at the mention of the plant.
Jeremy took out his phone and started reading his search result, "It grows in the mountainous areas of the northern hemisphere, commonly known as aconite, blue rocket, andㅡ"
"Wolfsbane," she continued without taking her eyes off from Mason. All eyes suddenly fell on her.
Jeremy confirmed, "Yeah."
"How do you know about that?" Damon looked back at his sister suspiciously.
"By paying attention at biology class," she claimed, with a smug smile.
Damon frowned in surprise. "You went to school?" He used to think Stefan was the only one who liked torturing himself by attending school.
Bella just gave him a nonchalant shrug. "Just when I was in the mood."
"What else do you know about this plant?" Damon asked furthermore.
Realizing that Damon would be even more suspicious if she explained any further about that, she decided to throw the question back at Jeremy. "Why don't you let your little bug explain so he can make himself useful?"
Damon rolled his eyes but chose not to argue. He turned to Jeremy and questioned, "What else did you read?"
"Well, every source says something different." Jeremy looked back at his phone screen and continued reading his search result, "One myth says it causes lycanthropy, which sounds bogus. And the other one says that it protects people, and another one says, well, it's toxic."
"I'm guessing toxic," Damon commented. He walked back to Mason with the plant in his hand. "What's Katherine doing in Mystic Falls?" he asked again while bringing the plant to Mason's face menacingly.
But Mason still refused to answer. And as Damon brushed the plant against his cheek, his skin burned, and he started groaning in pain.
"Why is she here?" Damon repeated his question.
"She's here with me," Mason finally yelled out the answer. "Why do you ask, you jealous?"
Bella couldn't help but repeat the question in a mocking tone, "Yeah, Damon, you jealous?"
Damon glared at her, but didn't say anything. He turned back to Mason and decided to take out his irritation to him. "You know, I just realized I didn't offer you anything to eat." And he forced a handful of the Wolfsbane into Mason's mouth.
"Why do you want the moonstone?"
Bella suddenly froze at the mention of moonstone. Her forehead creased as she tried to put two and two together in her head. Katherine, werewolf, and moonstone. Could it be...?
Her thoughts were suddenly shattered when she heard Jeremy snapped, "If he was going to say anything, he would already!"
Bella rolled her eyes and decided to step in. She blocked Damon's way to Mason and stretched out her hand to him. "Do you mind if I try?"
For a moment, Damon just stared at his little sister with a frown. But then he finally gave the sprig of wolfsbane in his hand to her and stepped aside.
"Thank you," she gave her brother a lopsided smile before turning to Mason. She knelt in front of him so she could look him in the eye. "Let's be honest, you know exactly how this is gonna end," she began. "Whether you tell us or not, you're gonna end up dead." There was no emotion in her face when she said those words.
She then stood up. "But you still have choices." After giving him a bright smile, she started walking around the chair. "You see, you can choose to go on the easy way..." She leaned closer and whispered to his ear, "Or our way. Fair warning; our way include a long last torture and this wasn't even the beginning."
Grabbing his face roughly, she forced one of his eyes to open widely while she brought the plant closer to his eyeball. "So, which one is it, Mr. Werewolf?"
"The well!" Mason finally answered. "You'll find it there."
"I know where it is." Damon took over again after pulling his sister away. "I want to know what it does and why you want it," he demanded.
"I'm getting it for Katherine."
"Why?"
Bella already knew the answer of this question. But she chose to continue listening to his answer.
"She's going to use it to lift the curse."
"Of the moon? Now why would a vampire help a werewolf break a curse that keeps them from turning whenever they want?"
"So I wouldn't have to turn anymore."
"Why?
"Because she loves me."
Hearing that, Bella couldn't pass up another opportunity to mock her brother. "Is it weird that he reminds me of someone?" she quipped and grinned at him.
Damon just sent her another glare before turning back to Mason. "Are you really that stupid? Katherine doesn't love you. She's using you, you moron."
"I'm done talking," Mason stated and looked away from Damon.
"Yes, you are," Damon agreed and gave the rest of the Wolfsbane back to Jeremy. Without taking his eyes off Mason he added, "Time to take a walk, you two."
Bella rolled her eyes at this. "Really? You think this will be the first time I've seen someone kill someone?"
"No, but this would be the first time you see me doing it."
It was true. She might have known about the murders that Damon had committed, but she had never witnessed it firsthand. She swallowed hard as she claimed, "I can handle it."
"I'm staying too," Jeremy stated.
Damon groaned in annoyance. "Not you too."
"I'm staying, Damon," Jeremy insisted, eyes looking pitifully at Mason. "He's had enough."
Mason stared back at Jeremy with pleading look. "Just help Tyler," he begged. "Don't let this happen to him."
"Damon..."
Before Jeremy could finish his words, Damon had already flashed himself towards him. He cornered the Gilbert boy on the couch with his hand gripping his throat. "You wanted to be a part of this? Well, here it is; kill or be killed. The guy's a werewolf. He'd kill me the first chance he got! So you suck it up, or leave."
Bella groaned and finally decided to help Damon get rid of that annoying boy. "Come on," she exclaimed, grabbing Jeremy's arm and forcing him to leave.
And when they got to the front of the house, Jeremy grumbled, "Did he really have to go that far?"
"That depends. Do you really want the information or not?" she retorted, tilting her head to the side.
Jeremy argued, "He didn't need to kill him."
"So you're suggesting that we release him?" she concluded in disbelief. "And give him a chance to plot his revenge and kill us all one day?"
"There's gotta be another way," he insisted.
"Well there isn't!" she finally snapped, unable to hold back any longer at his naivety. But then she realized how pointless the argument was. "You know what? I'm not gonna arguing about this with you, because clearly you haven't lived long enough to understand how literal the word 'kill or be killed' is." Without waiting for any response, she went back inside and slammed the door in front of his face.
Unlike most vampires, Bella never disdained human. Sure, they weren't as strong as them vampires. But that didn't mean they were insignificant. She used to be one of them, so she respected them just as much. But human like Jeremy... they really pissed her off sometimes. The way they judged vampires for killing even though they knew it was for survival reasons, she really couldn't stand them.
She decided to go to her family's cellar to steal some of Damon's blood supply. The only thing that could suppress her current resentment was blood.
While she was enjoying her drink, her supernatural hearing accidentally caught on someone's conversation on in the dungeon. It was Caroline and her mom. The blonde had told her everything that happened yesterday including how her mom found out about her being a vampire because she chose to save Stefan and Damon.
Having finished compelling her mom to forget everything, Caroline went to the front of the dungeon to cry her heart out. But as soon as she noticed Bella's presence, she quickly stopped crying and wiped her tears with her hand.
Bella knew she went a little too harsh to Caroline at their first meeting. She knew that girl didn't deserve it. But it was necessary. And she swore if her plan worked out later, she would make it up to her. Right now all she could do was thisㅡ"I'm sorry about your mom," she uttered her sympathy.
"It's fine," Caroline replied and forced a smile to make it look like it wasn't a big deal. "It's for the best."
Bella replied, "Thank you for saving my brothers when I couldn't."
Caroline chuckled. "They would do the same for me anyway." Before Bella could comment at her statement, she quickly added, "And by 'they' I mean Stefan."
Bella let out a small chuckle and nodded in agreement. She then turned around and decided to finish her drink in her room.
But after only a few steps away, she stopped walking again when Caroline asked, "Whatever it is you've been up to... it's not something bad, right?"
"If by 'bad' you mean endangering people you care about, then no," she answered calmly. "Because that includes my brother and I would never do anything to harm them."
"But why you have to keep everything in secret?" Caroline questioned again in a whisper voice. "I mean you can at least tell your brothers."
Bella sighed at the question. "Trust me, Caroline," she assured her. "The less people know the better."
"WE'RE GONNA KILL KATHERINE."
Those were the first words she heard the next day she woke up. And it got stuck in her head, possibly for the rest of the day.
Not that she didn't think Katherine didn't deserve it. Katherine deserved that more than anyone. But Bella had a better plan for her and right now her death would only ruin it.
Bella couldn't believe she would think of this, but she needed to find a way to save Katherine. Fast.
"All right." Stefan cleared his throat and looked at every face in the room. They had just put their whole plan in motion and he wanted to make sure no one having a change of heart. "If anybody wants to back out, I'll understand."
"Yeah, cold feet speak now," Damon chimed in. "I don't want this going wrong because someone chickens out."
But no one backed down. Not even Caroline. All of them were more than eager to kill Katherine.
"Don't you think... death would be too kind for Katherine after all the things she has done?" Bella decided to try her luck on talking them down into changing their mind. She didn't think it would work, but it was worth a try.
Damon narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his sister. As far as he could remember, Katherine never really did something to her, at least not directly. But she talked as if Katherine had done something worse to her than to the rest of them. "What has she done?"
"She ruined our family back then," Bella answered, not completely honest, but not completely lying either. She sighed as she added, "And it looks like she's trying to do it again."
Stefan quickly responded, "And that's exactly why we have to stop her, once and for all."
"Are you forgetting the fact that she is a 500-year-old vampire?" Bella tried again. This time she tried to put some logic into it. "Not to mention she's incredibly cunning."
"So you're trying to say you too scared to do this?"
Bella quickly turned to Jeremy and sent him a death glare. She couldn't believe that annoying human boy have a knack to accuse her of being a coward. "No, what I'm trying to say is... I don't do suicide mission." She got up from the couch and turned to her brothers. "So you can count me out."
When Bella started walking out of the room, Damon hurriedly blocked her. "Oh come on, Bell. We have a better chance to kill Katherine if we're all together. She doesn't know about you yet, so you can be some sort of our secret weapon," he persuaded, but Bella didn't show any change of expression. "You can be the one who drive the stake through her heart while Stefan and I hold her," he tried again, this time with an offer. "Hm? What do you say?"
"Tempting offer..." Bella pretended to think about it for a second. "But no thanks. I have better things to do." She gave Damon a fake smile, then walked past him to her room.
As soon as she got to her room, she started to think hard. She couldn't let them kill Katherine. But how to stop them?
You know how.
Bella groaned when the voice in her head said so. She did know how. She knew their whole plan and all she needed to do was sabotage it. But the question was, could she have the heart to betray her own brothers?
As the day began to turn into night, she finally knew the answer of that question. There were no other choice.
After rummaging through her closet for a while, she finally made her choice on a violet dress that went halfway down her thigh. Even though she didn't have much time to put on makeup, she still managed to look gorgeous with her curly hair and red lipstick. For the final touch, she put on a pair of black sparkly heels and a metal purple mask.
She made it to Lockwood Mansion just in time when Katherine entered their little trap. And thanks to her supernatural hearing, she could immediately find out which room they were.
Things were already heating up when Bella arrived. Both Damon and Stefan tried to throw stakes at Katherine, but Katherine managed to catch it with her hand right before it hit her. And when she almost missed one, Bella caught it for her just before it hit her chest.
Her arrival was caught both of her brothers off guard. "Bella!" they yelled at her in disbelief.
"Look who decided to show up!" Katherine turned to the youngest Salvatore with her infamous smirk.
But Bella ignored her. Her eyes glued to her brothers as she nonchalantly apologized, "Sorry, brothers. I told you not kill her, but you didn't listen." She threw the stake in her hand out of the room. "I have to take matters into my own hands now."
But that didn't stop them from trying to kill Katherine, so Bella had no choice but to join the fight.
Both Damon and Stefan were only a year older than Bella as vampires. It might not be much, but it was enough to give them an advantage in a fight against her. But since Stefan didn't drink human blood, she could easily beat him. That was why she chose to face Stefan while Katherine faced Damon. But of course, she didn't really want to fight her brother. She just wanted to stop him.
"Bella, she's trying to kill Damon!" Stefan's warning caught her off guard as she turned to Damon in worry. And Stefan used that chance to break free and throw her across the room.
Bella groaned in pain as her body hit the wall roughly. But she hurriedly got up when she saw Stefan holding Katherine in a headlock while Damon was about to drive the stake into her heart.
"Stop! You're hurting Elena!" Everyone stopped abruptly when Jeremy came to the view and brought the news. "Everything you're doing to her is hurting Elena."
Katherine smirked and got up from her position while the rest of them looked at each others in surprised. "You think you two are the only ones with a witch on your side? Wrong. And something tells me that my witch is better than your witch." She took the stake from Damon's hand and walked over to the couch.
Bella suddenly felt stupid for having bothered to save Katherine. Of course Katherine already had a plan to save herself. She didn't survive 500 years of her live for no reason.
Stefan turned to Jeremy and ordered, "Go check on Elena, make sure she's okay." Jeremy nodded and ran down the hall back to Elena.
"Let's all make sure poor Elena is okay," Katherine mocked. "Just a little bit of pressure." She stuck the stake into her palm, making herself (and Elena) bleed. Stefan quickly slapped the stake out of her hand, but she picked it back up and held it to her stomach. "This is really going to hurt."
Damon quickly shouted, "Wait!"
Katherine smirked and sat down on the couch. "So, how about that moonstone?"
Bella rolled her eyes and walked towards the other couch. Sitting down, she removed her own mask. Just then Damon walked over at her angrily and demanded, "Why are you on her side?"
"Haven't you heard, Damon?" Katherine spoke up in mocking tone. "We used to be besties. We used to paint each others nails and gossiping about boys all the time." Her eyes turned to Bella as she continued, "Speaking of, how's life been treating you so far, Baby Bellz? Or should I say Miss Belle Blake?"
Bella just glared at her since she knew better than to waste time to answer Katherine. Stefan walked over to them and gave a signal for Damon to leave their little sister alone since they could deal with her later. Right now they had to focus on Katherine.
As they stuck on the room together, Bella had no choice but to watch the three of them in silent. At first, Damon and Katherine tried to antagonizing each others. And then Stefan tried to put two and two together about the moonstone and whole werewolf curse things, but every time he got closer to the truth, Katherine would distract him by trying to seduce him.
"In 1864, you faked your death. Who were you running from, Katherine?"
Bella swallowed hard as she heard that question. Katherine stole a glance at her then once again redirected the question, "In 1987, you were in Chicago, at a concert of all places with that wench Lexi. Come on, Stefan. Don't look so surprised. Of course I checked in on you over the years. You were standing in the front row, dancing all night. You were watching Bon Jovi, and I was watching you," she informed and looked at him with admiration.
But Stefan ignored it and repeated his question, "Who were you running from?"
Instead of answering, Katherine just mouthed the word 'I love you' to him.
Bella rolled her eyes again. They weren't in the position to interrogate Katherine. And even if they did, she doubted Katherine would say anything that she didn't want them to know.
She was getting too lazy to try and keep her brothers from killing Katherine as Katherine herself kept trying to get under their skin. And her misery finally ended when a woman came with the moonstone and told them that the spell in the room had been lifted.
The woman handed the moonstone over to Katherine but as soon as she touched it, she began to suffocate and passed out. After informing about Elena's condition and apologizing for her involvement, the woman left.
Realizing what all of that meant, Bella hurriedly vamp-sped towards her brothers and put herself between them and Katherine. "Please don't kill her," she begged, looking pleadingly at them in turn.
Damon pushed his sister against the wall with his hand around her throat. "Why are you keep protecting her?" he hissed angrily.
"I am not!" Bella yelled and slapped her brother's hand away from her neck. "Trust me, I hate her as much as you do, maybe even more, but I really need her alive."
Stefan appeared beside Damon and questioned, "Why? What are you keeping from us?"
"It's just..." Bella tried to find the right word, but she couldn't. Sighing, she finally decided to tell the truth. "If you kill her... I can't stay here anymore." She bit her lower lips and continued, "I have to start running, again."