IT WAS ALMOST two in the morning when Bella drove back to the motel. There were no other cars or even pedestrians in sight. The street was dark and lonely, and the street-lamps stood like giants. The blonde-haired girl could feel her alertness growing, her hazel eyes couldn't stop glancing around warily.

But her attention shifted immediately as she felt a movement from the back seat of the car. She glanced briefly at it, at Kol who had just risen from his temporary death. The brown-haired original sat up, confusion was on his face as he touched his own neck.

"You snapped my neck," was the first words that came out from his mouth. His brown eyes narrowed in disbelief at her.

Without taking her eyes off the road, she replied, "Well, you snapped mine first." Her tone was nonchalant, and she shrugged. "I'd say we're even."

Kol's brows furrowed, and his gaze drifted off in thought as he tried to understand what had happened. By now, he had realized that Bella was only pretending to be drunk earlier so she could throw him off guard. The question wasㅡfor what? Just to get back at him? No, he didn't think so. There must be more to it than that.

"Darling, please stop the car," he said firmly. There was no hint of anger in his tone for what had happened, for what Bella had just done to him, but there was an unusual assertiveness in it that indicated that he really didn't like being disobeyed at the moment.

The blonde looked up to him through the rear-view mirror. Kol might never have been mad at herㅡhe always had bad temper, but not even once he ever took it out on herㅡ but Bella knew better than to mess with his patience. Without saying anything, she pulled the car over.

Climbing off out the car, Kol hurriedly went to check out the trunk. He had a guess as to why she did what she did, and his guess was proven right as he found out that his mother's grimoire was no longer there.

He looked over at her, who was now also outside the car and was leaning against the door. She was inspecting her nails at the moment, pretending she didn't notice his gaze at her. His eyes squinted as he inquired, "What did you do?"

"I did what I had to do," she answered, and finally turned to him, "preventing you from doing something stupid."

Her answer made him squint his eyes even more, and as he started walking towards her, she straightened herself up. "Think about it, Kol. You and your family have so many enemies." It was a fact, and even he quietly admitted it. "Not that I'm saying you guys need it," she went on, by now he was already right in front of her, "but right now, all the vampires in the world, enemy or not, would want to help keep you and your family safe. It puts all of you in an advantageous position. But if you unlink them from youㅡ"

"I didn't say anything about them," he corrected flatly, "I just want to unlink you."

The younger vampire quickly argued, "But if word gets out that there's a way to unlink a vampire from the original vampire who created the vampire's bloodlines, they would definitely try to unlink themselves."

"You think I haven't thought about that?" the male original countered, raising an eyebrow at her, "When I said I have everything planned out, that included a way to keep people from finding out about this." There was no change of expression on her face, as if she still hadn't change her mind about it, and it made him stare at her suspiciously. "I thought you were supposed to be willing to do whatever it takes to survive. I mean, you've made it clear that you only agreed to do this to make sure your own safety. And now I'm trying to help you with that, instead of supporting it, you're against it?"

She just looked away without saying anything, her lips pursed into a thin line.

"Making sure your own safety wasn't the only reason you agreed to come, was it?" he spoke again, starting to see right through her, "You want to make sure mine as well, regardless of how it affects yours." A teasing smile spread over his mouth, and his gaze softened. "I bet you'd still agree to come even if your life wasn't linked to mine."

She looked back at him in an instant, and she scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous."

"Or perhaps you just wanted to spend more time with me?" Kol teased again, lifting his chin confidently, "Because if that's the case, I wouldn't mind at all."

"Now you're just flattering yourself," Bella retorted dryly, with a sarcastic smile.

"Am I?" he replied defiantly, "Then prove it." His face suddenly turned serious. "Give me back the grimoire."

She frowned at him, her face turning serious as well. "Can't you understand that I don't want to be unlinked?"

"But why? I've answered your concern. I wouldn't be so stupid as to put myself at a disadvantage. So for what other reasons you don't want to be unlinked?"

Before Bella could think of a reason to tell Kol, something else had caught her attention first. Right there, at the intersection at the end of the street, a car appeared from the right turn. She recognized it as the same car that had followed her when she went to hide the grimoire, which she had managed to get away before. She didn't know who was behind the wheel, or what that person wanted from her, but it surely wasn't anything good.

Her eyes widened as she saw someone sticking up half of his body out of that car window, and in his hand was none other than a crossbow, and he pointed it at Kol's back.

"Kol!"

Everything happened so fast. Arrows flew at him, and Kol easily caught all of it. The car drove off to the left turn, but before either of them could chase it down, some people appeared from different directions. They rushed at the two of them with inhuman speed and started attacking.

All of them were vampires for sure.

Bella counted twelve vampires that were coming towards them, nine of them went straight to Kol while the other three were coming for her. It was clear that Kol had no problem fighting all nine of them at once as he managed to knock out three of the nine within a second. Bella might not be able to do it as fast as him, because one of the vampires she was fighting was stronger than her, but it was still quite impressive that she managed to beat the three of them alone. After all, strength wasn't the only thing that mattered in a fight. Technique and fighting skills were more important, and hers were beyond doubt.

The last vampire who attacked Kol earlier suddenly changed his mind. He realized that Bella was the easier target, and her back was right in front of him at the moment, but before he could even lay a finger on her, Kol had grabbed him by the back of his neck and slammed his head against the car window really hard.

Killing other vampires was really easy for an original like Kol, he could do it in the blink of eyes, and he could take down all of them including those who attacked Bella alone. The reason why he still chose to let Bella fight some of them was because he trusted her with it. But even so, he still secretly looked out for her, checking up on her every time he had the chance, because there was no way he would let her get hurt, especially not under his watch.

The Mikaelson boy bent down next to their last enemy and was about to rip his heart out, but Bella suddenly told him to stop. "We still need him, Kol," she reasoned, signaling through her eyes to the turn where the other car was going.

As much as Kol just wanted to finish the last vampire and get over with it, he knew she had a point. And he was just as curious as her about who was behind this, about who would dare to mess with him.

They quickly went back to their motel room with their hostage. And after a few while of waiting, the guy awoke. Lucky for them, he wasn't on vervain. That made it so easy for them to find out more about their attacker, with a little compulsion.

Apparently, there was a group of Kol's sirelines that was planning to capture him and secure him somewhere so all of them would be safe. Their number weren't too big yet because they were still recruiting, and the leader actually hadn't given them the order to attack, but after what had happened to Finn's sirelines, some of them became too paranoid. That was why after they accidentally spotted him at the bar, they decided to attack without their leader's knowledge.

"This could be a trap," she speculated, walking back and forth beside their hostage who was now lying dead on the floor. "I mean, which idiot would plan to go up against an Original but didn't even bother to take vervain?" She threw her hands up in the air and stared condescendingly at the lifeless body. "And the fact that he didn't even know who the leader was shows that whoever is behind this just wants you to know where they are so you could jump into their trap without knowing what they are capable of."

Not getting any response, Bella looked up to him who was now sitting on the bed. His eyes were fixed on the floor, and his face looked like he was deep in thought. "Kol?" She tilted her head to the side, there was a hint of worry in her tone as she couldn't read the look on his face at the moment.

His first response was taking a breath, and then he revealed, "I was trying to think of a name." He brought his gaze up to meet hers. "If this person is this sure that I created his/her bloodline, there's a high chance that I'm the one who turned him/her."

"And...?" She quirked an inquisitive brow, "Did you find a name?"

"Not just a name actually," he replied, and grimaced. "More like thousands."

Bella looked at him in disbelief, and she shook her head as she muttered sarcastically, "Of course."

Ignoring her sarcasm, the Mikaelson boy got back on his feet. "We need a plan."

Bella felt the warmth flow into her heart at the word we, and she tried hard not to smile. No one knew how much she really appreciated Kol for not trying to exclude her from this with I-don't-want-you-to-get-hurt crap. It was the same as belittling her, and she really hated it. And she also hated it being left out, and Kol knew that. He understood that more than anyone because he hated it as wellㅡbecause he knew exactly how it felt. And then the memory of her making a promise to him that she would never exclude him from anythingㅡto which he replied with the same promiseㅡ suddenly popped up in her mind. She realized how unrealistic that promise was, but it was still really touching to see him trying to keep it.

"Yes, we do."

After all, this was what Kol asked her toㅡjoin forces.

BEING ONE OF THE strongest, fastest, deadliest vampires in the world made things always easier for Kol. It almost got to the point where he became too cocky, and then sometimes he would act reckless. But that didn't mean he couldn't be careful. In fact, he could do even better than his siblings when he wanted to.

"We have to assume that they have calculated everything. They know that you are stronger than all of them combined, so their only chance to knock you outㅡ"

"With element of surprise."

"We have to be prepared for that, and at the same time we need our own element of surprise in case things go wrong."

They knew where their headquarters were, and he was more than capable to kill them all. But what if they had a witch to help knock him out? Or what if they had the white oak ash dagger? Vampires couldn't dagger an original, but they could compel a human to do it if they had a chance. And for all he knew, if they managed to knock him out, they would go after Bella next. They would likely kill her before she had a chance to get his siblings' help. And there was no way Kol would let that happen.

"Only original vampires can survive the fire," she muttered again after a moment of thought. "If you came to their headquartes, all of them most likely would be there to defend their groups. And if they manage to knock you out with their element of surprise, then we just give them our element of surprise; set that place on fire. That way, they all would die, while you could walk away without a scratch."

So there he was, on his way to their headquarters the next day. His face was full of confidence. His chin was held level, his head was held upright, he looked relaxed. After all, they had everything planned out. All that's left was to run it.

"That's a pretty good idea, darling, but I don't think you should be the one to set the fire. They already saw you with me, which meant they most likely have guessed that you would do something to help me as soon as they spotted you there."

The brown-haired original climbed off from the big fuel gas tanker truck he was in as he was only a few miles away from his destination. Tracking down this truck was a challenge for him since it involved more advanced technology, but good thing Bella was familiar with it. And before walking into what could possibily a trap, Kol compelled the driver once again. He needed to make sure that the driver would run the giant truck toward his enemy quarters at the exact speed he wanted him to. That way, they would arrive in time. They would explode in time and kill every vampire in thereㅡexcept him.

"But if they didn't spot me there, they still would be suspicious with what we were actually up to," the younger girl pointed out, "then they would become even more cautious." Realization came across her features and with it another brilliant ideaㅡ"Which is why me being there and pretending to do something suspicious would be a good distraction to throw them off guard so that neither of them could see our fire coming."

Their headquarters turned out to be an abandoned building located in the middle of the woods. The path to the building covered with brown leaves. The parking lot started to appear from behind the treesㅡit was littered with broken glass and empty bottles. And before going inside, Kol deliberately looked around the wooded area, and as his eyes caught a pair of hazel eyes watching him from behind the trees, he winked at it.

After kicking the door wide open, he stepped in and announced, "Daddy's home, everyone!" With that, peopleㅡvampiresㅡstarted appearing. Each of them came from different directions, some of them brought weapons, and they surrounded him with alert gaze. Instead of looking scared, he smirked. He held his hands up into the air. "Let the game begins!"

While outside, Bella tugged the hood of her jacket over her head when her hazel eyes met the eyes of an enemy who was on the roof of the building. And as the enemy started calling his friends with a finger pointed at her, she put her mask and sunglasses on and started walking away.

"That's too dangerous for you. What if they caught you first before I could get to you?" the original argued, eyes filled with concern, "They could be older and stronger than you."

He wasn't trying to underestimate her, and she knew that. She also knew that he had a point. She might have a good technique and fighting skills, and she had beaten older vampires before, but it was mostly because her opponents couldn't put up a good fight. But there was always the chance that she would face opponents who were stronger and had the same or even better technique and fighting skills as her. Not that she didn't have balls to face them, but she was just being sensible.

"Then I guess I need my own element of surprise."

An idea brought a mischievous smile to his lips as his eyes captured Bella's whole figure for the umpteeth time. "I have an idea."

Bella was well aware that they were following her, and that was exactly what she was hoping. Deliberately leading them down the main street, Bella went inside a restaurant where someone, who had same figure as her and was also wearing the exact same outfit as her, was waiting. And before any of them could follow Bella inside, her copycat had exited the place and made them follow her instead. There were five of them, Bella counted it as she peeked outside. And just then as they disappeared from her sight, she quickly got out from her hiding spot.

She knew exactly where her copycat would lead themㅡto her apartment room in which there was a surprise waiting for them. And the Salvatore girl caught up with them just in time when they got the surprise.

The walls, floor, and even the roof of the room were covered with vervain water. And all the five vampires were covering their faces with their handsㅡtheir skin was burnt. Bella's copycat was lying on the floor, dying from the vervain grenade she had detonated herself just as she was compelled to. And without wasting anymore time, Bella started finishing her jobsㅡshe staked two of them and rip the heart of the rest. Then, she took off all her disguise attribute.

"I'm impressed," exclaimed a female voice from the open door, and Bella jerked her face in surprise. "You're smarter than you look."

Meanwhile in an abandoned building, Kol still had his hands full with the vampires who kept coming at him. But he didn't mind that at all, in fact he was actually enjoying it, thinking of it as a sport. After all, it had been a very long time since he had last been in a fight.

Then, the corner of his eyes caught a very familiar face among the crowd. And instead of trying to attack him like others, the person silently left.

It got him a bad feeling. He suddenly felt really worried about Bella. Then he took a quick glance at his watch as he threw a vampire against the wall. There were only seconds before the truck arrived. And he decided it was the time to leave and check on Bella.

He fled just in time when the truck hit the wall of the building to shreds and explode. Without wasting anytime, he went to where Bella was.

The woman standing in the doorway of the apartment room was a stranger to Bella. A slender woman in her early twenties. She had long red hair and a refined, classically beautiful face. She was not knockout gorgeous like Bella, but she was still really attractive.

"I'm sorry, but who the hell are you?" the blonde vampire asked, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"Oh, right, where are my manners?" the woman replied, shaking her red head slightly. "I'm Joanna." Stepping in, a barely-noticable smirk appeared on her face. "I'm sure you've heard of me from your handsome original."

"No, actually, I haven't," Bella replied, frowning.

"Really?" the woman responded, and she continued to walk closer, making Bella start to raise her guard. "He did not tell you about our marvelous time together 500 years ago?"

Bella didn't know how many women Kol was with 500 years ago, but she had a really strong guess about this one. "Oh, so you were the princess."

"See?" Joanna exclaimed cheerfully, confirming it. "He did tell you about me."

"Yeah, I remember he said something about you nothing compared to me," Bella retorted, with a sardonic smile.

"Now I know you're just jealous." The older vampire scoffed and rolled her eyes. "But that's okay, I understand." Then she flashed a wide smile. "And speaking of, how's that Sexy Mister doing?" Her smile slowly turned into a smirk. "Is he still that good in bed?"

Bella's lips twisted into a satcastic smile. "Guess you'll never find out."

"Oh, don't worry, sweetie." Joanna let out a chuckle, shaking her red head. "Right now, I'm more interested with his safety rather than his sex skill."

Suddenly, Joanna took out a silver dagger from her inside pocket, and Bella's smile slowly faded away. Her hazel eyes widened slightly, and that didn't go unnoticed by Joanna.

"You seem like you don't like this idea, which is weird since my people told me you're also part of his sirelines," Joanna observed, tilting her head to the side. "And what's even weirder is that the fact that you don't want to be unlinked." She frowned at the blonde, and then she shrugged nonchalantly. "But it doesn't matter what you want. Because you will make him unlink us all."

Bella had two answer options at this point; pretending to agree with it or telling her to go to hell. Joanna was definitely stronger than her, so the right answer would be the first one. However, she still had one more trick up her sleeve. That was why she chose to go with the second one.

"That's just the thing, you know?" The Salvatore girl responded, eyes staring mockingly at her. "I don't take orders from anyone."

"You don't think I can make you?"

"Oh, you can certainly try."

"I'll take that as a challenge."

With that, another fight began.

Bella threw the first punch, and it hit Joanna's chin as the older vampire noticed too late that it was a feint. Then Joanna grabbed her, trying to throw her down, but Bella dodged. The blonde lunged for her and twisted her arm up her back, then she kicked the back of her knee. Joanna collapsed to a kneel, but she grabbed Bella's arm and pulled it down over her shoulder. Bella landed on her feet, teetered, but the younger girl quickly recovered.

Then Joanna was up again. "Not bad," she commented, with a smirk on her face. "But not good either."

"Less talking, more fighting, would you?" Bella gritted her teeth, her hazel eyes narrowed sharply at her.

"Fine then."

It was clear that Joanna was not only stronger than her, but she was also an experienced opponent. None of Bella's strategies and tactics worked on her, Joanna always saw that coming and she knew exactly what to do with it.

"Did I hurt you, love?" the redhead mocked after successfully slamming the blonde to the floor for the second time. A groan of pain escaped Bella's lips, and she crawled away from her. "Are you tired already? We can take a break, if you want."

Joanna was too busy mocking that she didn't realize Bella was secretly taking a small tube out of her jacket pocketㅡ it was filled with blood. As a vampire, blood was the source of her strength. That was why Bella always brought it with her since no one knew when she would be attacked by the enemy. And she brought the small one on purpose because she needed to keep it hidden, and even the small amount of it was enough to give a difference in a fight.

Not having a chance to drink it properly, Bella put the small tube in her mouth as she continued to crawl away. And she crushed the tube with her teeth, causing the blood to slide down her throat. She pretended to cough in pain as she spat out the shard of the tube from her mouth.

"What are you gonna do now?" Bella finally stopped crawling and turned her body around to look at her. "Kill me?" she asked weakly, her voice was hoarse, and her eyes closed wearilyㅡit was just an act for sure. "Yeah, that would definitely make Kol unlink you."

"Of course not," Joanna replied, with a lopsided smile, and she bent over her. "I'm just going to keep you." Grabbing Bella's head with her hands, her smile slowly turned into a smirk. "For now."

Joanna's jacket opened to the side as she bent down, revealing the inside pocket where she put a silver dagger. Bella's hand stealthily crept up to the pocket, but Joanna grabbed it before she could touch the dagger. "Nice try."

Deciding it was the right time, Bella grabbed her jacket collar with other hand and yanked it closerㅡand she headbutted her. Bella's full strength successfully threw Joanna off guard, and she didn't waste that opportunity. Within a flash, the blonde shoved the redhead away, and she flashed herself behind her with a hand thurst into Joanna's chestㅡgripping her heart.

Joanna's eyes bulged, and she gasped as she felt how firm Bella's grip was on her heart. Bella smirked, and she decided to take a moment to enjoy it. "You know... sometimes, you need to let your enemy think they're winning. Because then they would become too cocky to pay attention to little things," Bella whispered to the older vampire, her voice was low and dangerous, and there was a wicked gleam in her eyes. "Nice to know you, Princess Joanna." Then, she rip her heart out.

And just as she let Joanna's body fall to the floor, she realized that another stranger was on the doorway. It was a man this time, and he appeared in his early thirties. He was built like a brick shithouse. His eyes bulged with anger as he glanced at Joanna's lifeless body. "You shouldn't have done that."

Oh, shit. She was out of trick.

But before the man could take a step forward, he had his heart ripped off his body, and he dropped dead to the floor, revealing Kol standing behind him with a bloody heart in his hand. It made Bella let out a breath that she didn't even realize she was holding.

In a split-second, Kol was already in front of her. He cupped her chin and gently turned her head to look at him. His brown eyes burned with concern as he asked, "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Kol," she answered, pushing his hand away from her face without trying to be rude. She then swallowed hard. "Did you burn them all?"

"Yeah, all of them." He looked around at the bodies lying on the floor, and his gaze fell on Joanna's as he spotted her. "I already suspected she was the one behind all of this ever since I saw that guy there." He gestured towards the door, at the corpse of the man he had killed earlier, and he informed, "He used to be the best soldier in her kingdom."

"I think we were right about the trap," the Salvatore girl replied, kneeling by Joanna's body to reach into her inside pocket. "She had a silver dagger," she took out the silver dagger from it, and she held that up next to her face, "and probably the white oak ashes as well." Standing up, she handed the dagger to him. "She must have changed her plans once she found out that you were planning to unlink me."

Taking the dagger from her hand, he cleared his throat. "About thatㅡ"

"It's still a no, Kol," she interrupted, her tone was stern.

His reflective gaze searched her face, his brows furrowed with confusion. "And you still haven't told me why."

Yeah, Bella darling, why? A voice whispered in her head. You never had a problem doing even the most terrible thing just to survive before. Your life always comes first, remember? What had changed now?

But nothing had changed. Because behind the rational side that Bella always showed, there was still an emotional side beneath it.

She knew that Kol wouldn't be easy to kill, and that he had the same survival instincts as her. He would fight for his life, and she was more than willing to help him with it. But there was always a worst case scenario where all their attempts would fail and result in his death. If that happened, Bella would rather die with him than have to go back to suffer the pain of losing him forever.

Bella had been through that once, she had suffered the pain once. It was way worse than anyone could imagine. She had tried everything to make the pain more bearable, but nothing had worked. It was still hurt like hell. And as much as she didn't want to admit it, since it would embarrass her rational side, but there was one time when she saw suicide as a solution, and that one time was when she thought she had lost him forever.

"All I want is for you to be safe," Kol spoke again, snapping her out of her reverie. His brown eyes were like soft chocolate pools as he gazed into hers.

Bella's heart was pounding hard and warmth invaded her whole body. His love really had touched her heart, but something was holding her to give in, something that made her announceㅡ "I'm going back to Mystic Falls."

She wasn't asking permission, and he knew that. And he couldn't force her to stay if she didn't want to. After all, the whole 'forcing' things were what screwed things up between them.

It took more than twelve hours for them to get back to Mystic Falls, and Bella was acting really weird during that time. She became more reserved, responding to his words without any interest. She grew distant, cool, and impossible to read. It was clear that something was bothering her, but she refused to tell him about it.

When they were finally back in Mystic Falls, right after he'd pulled the stolen car into her driveway, he tried again. "We make a pretty good team, don't you think?"

There was a brief pause before Bella replied, "Goodbye, Kol." Climbing off out the car, she didn't even look back to him as she went inside.

His eyes narrowed as he watched her back disappear behind the door. He let her go easily last time. There was no way he would let it happen again.

A/n: So, here's the thing. When I didn't recreate a scene, that means the scene happened the same way like in the show. In heart of darkness, before Bella catch up with them, Kol still answered the question about did he turned Mary Porter the same as he did in the show. He confused them about it, protecting not only himself but also his siblings. The same with Bella. When she refused to tell Stefan who turned her, she wasn't only protecting Kol but also his siblings because that way her brothers couldn't try to kill either of them without risking killing her too. And she also had secured all the last remaining white oak stakes, so the Scooby Gang wasn't really their problem at this point.

And if in the previous chapter I tried to show how they resolve their problem little by little, in this chapter I'm trying to show how good they were when they worked together. And Bella might be just a regular 161 years-old vampire, but she won't be a liability for Kol. But I won't overpower her either just because she's the main character. Bella's strengths will lie in her intelligence.

There will be a big reveal in the next chapter, and it will explain Bella's sudden change in behaviour at the end of this chapter. But first, can anyone guess why she acted like that? A little clue; try to look deeper. She's a complex character xD