Old Lockwood Cellar
November 1, 2010

"Nik, wait!" Elena shouted. Katherine could hardly breathe, not that she really needed to, but old habits were hard to give up even after being undead for over five centuries. Not that she had much of a future if Klaus had his way with her. Klaus's fingers were like a vice around her neck. She distracted herself from the pain in her constricted neck as if she had made a run for it despite the odds of being caught. It was hard to accept that she had lasted this long only to die in a cave of all things.

"What are you doing here Katerina?" Klaus seethed mere inches from her ear.

"Niklaus Mikaelson! I swear if you don't stop I will make you!" Elena yelled. To Katherine's surprise the vampire that had tormented her for much of her life released her but not before throwing her deeper into the chamber. As her latest injuries healed, she assessed her chances of escape and almost instantly didn't like the odds. Although she didn't know who most of Klaus's siblings were, she could guess at who was Kol and Finn by their apparent age. She was facing down five originals, the odds were hardly in her favor, but she was a survivor. She'd find a way to come out on top somehow.

"What are you doing here?" Klaus repeated.

"Looking for Elena but- what is going on? Who the hell is that?" Katherine asked, temporarily forgetting who she was actually talking to until it was too late. Although it was dark, she, like the others, could see perfectly fine and that was the first indication something was different about her counterpart. She didn't seem bothered about the lack of lighting. The flicker of light she saw earlier was Klaus's cellphone that he was glaring at for some unfathomable reason. It was only then she started taking in the differences. Whoever this person calling herself Elena was hardly looked like the sad doppelgänger she learned how to impersonate so well. Her dress looked hideous by both her and modern standards; it looked almost homemade by its appearance. But it was how she carried herself and although subtle at first glance even she could tell that whoever this doppelgänger was, she was at least in her early twenties.

It didn't make her feel any better when she caught the knowing smirk on all the Original Families faces as they watched her from where they were standing. Sometime while she was righting herself after Klaus had tossed her deeper into the chamber they had fanned themselves around her and made a semicircle with her as focal point.

Elijah was standing protectively close to her Doppelgänger and although she didn't want to admit it, at least publicly, that detail bothered her.

"Hello Katerina. I can understand your apparent confusion, but let me introduce my lovely wife. Elena Mikaelson nee Gilbert," Elijah said pleasantly. Katherine could have sworn that her mouth had been fully closed, so she felt like a complete fool with having to pick her jaw up off the floor. If her jaw had inexplicably unhinged itself for real, it would be more plausible than this latest tidbit of information about the Original family. Had it been a mistake to undagger Elijah before returning Klaus's siblings to him, she wondered regretfully.

"I'm sorry Elijah did… did you say your wife?" Katherine Pierce asked the one Original she had the better repertoire with. Granted, she had betrayed him but there was still a slim chance she could come out of this with her head firmly on her shoulders and her heart still residing in her chest.

"Yes… Although it was admittedly a shock to myself and my family," Elijah chuckled. Katherine frowned, taking in all their fixed expressions. She had the oddest feeling that she was not privy to the world's greatest joke and she was unfortunately its proverbial punchline.

"I… I still don't understand-" Katherine started but Klaus's snarl killed the next word's syllables on her now trembling lips.

"Niklaus really?" Elijah admonished his more volatile brother.

"I know this is hard to understand, Katherine, but all we want to know is where did my friends go?" The person calling herself Elena Mikaelson spoke gently to her as if she were a petrified animal. Maybe it was the way her counterpart worried her lower lip or how she wrapped her arms around her body, but it helped to embolden her resolve not to appear weak before these ancient vampires. Was it a glamour meant to confuse her? No matter, she wasn't going to appear weak before anyone especially not in front of these people.

"Elena, if that is really your name. Yes, Bonnie was her as was her mother. I don't know what type of game your playing but I saw Elena with two rugrats in tow with her, why do you-" Katherine never finished her sentence when her Doppelgänger moved so quick even she couldn't react in time before her body was slammed up against the wall with a petite hand plunged into her chest cavity gripping her heart. One wrong move and she'd be dead.

"Believe it or not, but I am Elena and Katherine today is not the best time to be on my bad side, understand?"

Katherine jerked her head in understanding she relaxed slightly when the brunette carefully extracted her hand from inside her chest. This close up she easily noticed that this Doppelgänger was far older than herself.

"I'm waiting?"

"Someone broke my neck I… I was trying to convince who I thought was Elena to come to me. At the time, she was safely behind that magical barrier that blocked the entrance of that outer chamber. I might have needed to threaten her," Katherine gulped, not entirely sure why she added the last part.

Elena pursed her lips before breaking renewed silence. "How did you threaten a pair of witches? Especially Bennett Witches of all things?" she asked in a deceptively calm voice.

"I uh… might have borrowed one of Alaric's vampire hunter weapons," Katherine answered carefully. Choosing discretion was the better course of valor. There were still way too many unknowns about the current situation and she wasn't comfortable not having a better understanding about them.

"What did you do Katherine!" Elena's voice grew more heated.

"I might have shot Abby with two stakes from a pneumatic stake weapon. I promised Bonnie that I would heal her once she brought who I thought was Elena to me but-" Katherine backed up when Klaus snarled at her and the hostile looks everyone else was giving her but strangely she felt fear from her older appearing Doppelgänger.

"But what, Katherine? Did anything happen to either the children or Tatia?" Elena asked.

"Tatia? No, they were unharmed before I had my neck broken by either Stefan or Damon," Katherine said feeling defensive. She was a survivor despite her feelings for either Salvatore brother. If she could deflect some of the blame to them or someone else she would do it in a heartbeat.

"Why do I think you are avoiding telling me something?" Elena asked and Katherine could have sworn she heard a little bit of herself in the veiled question.

"I don't think I should tell you…" Katherine said, backing away but none of the Originals made any move to stop her. Strangely they seemed to be more than willing to let her would-be interrogator take whatever action was needed.

"You can't compel me I… I'm on vervain. You'll have to bleed it out of me to get me to talk and that might take more time than you have available," Katherine sneered. Showing weakness was a lesson she learned never to do without a decent plan.

"Oh… I don't think that will be a problem for me."

The older appearing Doppelgänger was on her before she could move. Holding her tight with hand wrapped tightly around her upper arm. Her mysterious duplicate placed two finger tips to her forehead, muttering in Latin.

"Sit sanguis tuus immunis ab externa pollutione."

Katherine's body felt like it was directly exposed to sunlight without her daylight bracelet. But while her skin wasn't blistering like it normally would it felt almost as if she were perspiring uncontrollably. Her body wracked with internal cramping she crumpled to the floor, spasming as a pool of her perspiration collected on the floor before evaporating into the air.

"What are you doing, Ella?" Rebekah asked.

"Just a little spell I've worked on in my spare time since I regained consciousness. As it right now its not the most ideal since technically this is the first time I've used it, and I wouldn't recommend using it on any one who is human. But it literally pulls the vervain out of an individual's body in a much cleaner and faster fashion than bleeding them out."

"Ella, you might need to teach some of my witches that little trick." Katherine heard Klaus suggest, but her only response was to groan in agony. Whatever was happening to her felt like the worst hangover she ever experienced. Thankfully, the pain eventually subsided, but she still hadn't fully recovered just yet.

"Will someone please help stand her up for me?"

Katherine wanted to protest, but she was pulled bodily upright and although her vision was blurred slightly, there was no mistaking the all too familiar face directly in front of her.

"Katherine, tell me what you don't want to say to me," Elena's voice pulled her and although she tried to fight it her mouth opened and the damning words poured forth from her traitorous lips. How is her counterpart doing this?

"I tried to give Abby my blood to heal her, but it was too late," Katherine responded in a monotone voice. She winced as she felt fingernails digging into her flesh.

"Nik wait! I can't tell you why just yet but I'm going to need her."

"Ella!?" Klaus grated.

"I swear it's important. You'll understand once I tell you why."

Katherine's injuries wouldn't fully heal until who she assumed was Klaus stopped digging his claws into her. She winced when Klaus slowly retracted them from her torn flesh. The bastard had taken his time removing them, she fumed inwardly.

"Thank you. Katherine, I want you to return to the Mikaelson mansion and stay there until I tell you that you can leave. Do you understand?" Elena compelled. She ignored the cry of indignation from the Original Hybrid.

"I understand," Kathrine repeated in the same monotone as before.

"Good," Elena paused, considering her options; she needed Katherine's assistance later. It didn't help that she felt guilty for what had happened to Abby. She had needed to feed after waking after being technically dead for more than a century. She knew at the time that she had taken too much, so whatever happens now she is to blame. Feeling rather stressed, her mind wandered as memories of the ritual and the smug look on her eventual brother-in-law which sometimes haunted her dreams on her Aunt's face gave her the courage to take the next step she had in mind. Besides, the cocky hybrid deserved it for all the things he had done to Katherine as well.

"Katherine, my brother-in-law has an impressive liquor cabinet. Help yourself to it while you're waiting for my return," Elena said succinctly, ignoring her bristling brother-in-law's reaction. "Off you go, then I will see you when we return."

The look Katherine gave her would have made Elena laugh if not for the urgency of finding her children and Tatia. Katherine, on the other hand, recovered quickly and vamp speed away through the exit to Ayana Spellchamber.

Once Katherine disappeared into the cave passageways, Klaus rounded on her. "What gives you the right to let that woman live after everything she has done? Then you have the audacity to give her permission to drink my bourbon?" he all but roared in her face. Elijah took a protective step in her direction but halted when Elena motioned for him to remain where he was. Rebekah, not wanting to witness what was coming, wandered back into the antechamber along with Finn. Elijah stayed wearily, watching his brother and wife. Kol leaned against the stone wall with an amused expression, watching and waiting.

"Niklaus Mikaelson, you're forgetting that I knew you when you were still human and all the abuse and ridicule Mikael put you through. I might have not been able to witness the changes the first five hundred years wrought on you being hounded by that man, but I was able to watch over all of you for half of a millennium. You made Katerina Petrova into Katherine Pierce the moment you killed her entire family because she fled for her life. Lest you forget I, on the other hand, was a willing sacrifice. True, I didn't want to die, but if my death at the time meant that my family and friends survived I could find peace with that. Instead, you turned my Aunt into a vampire and used her for your bloody sacrifice. I still don't fully understand why you did what you did. It didn't help that the second time I watched the entire ordeal I couldn't do anything else- it would affect the outcome."

"Like you allowed Henrik to die or not warn me about what would happen if I triggered my curse?" Klaus demanded.

"It's not like I had a particular date to go by and if I had told you that your mother had slept with another man who, it turns out, was a werewolf, would you have believed me? If you had, what would you have done? Tell me because I tried to keep everything from going the way it had. Did I change history? Maybe. I don't know. The story I heard at the time was that you and Henrik went to watch them change during the full moon. But who was poor Henrik with when the werewolves caught them?"

"Lokar. I… I tried to warn them that going out was a bad idea," Klaus gulped, recalling something. "I told them that I had a few close calls, but the wolves left me alone."

Elena took pity on her brother-in-law and hugged him close. "I loved Henrik too, Nik. He would've been a good uncle to Eirik and Astrid. Believe me I didn't want him to die. I tried, but-" she choked on a sob.

They stayed like that until a shaky cough from Rebekah drew everyone's attention back towards where she was standing. Elena's vision was still blurry from unshed tears so she couldn't really see the pallor of their sister's features.

"Rebekah? Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" Elijah asked for them all.

"You… You need to see this to believe it. Please just tell me I'm wrong," Rebekah stated, not giving any indication what was bothering her.

Their argument was temporarily forgotten for the moment. The Mikaelson family joined their two other siblings in the outer chamber, staring at the pictograms that, at least for Elena, had been the catalyst for bringing her to this place on her own. She didn't remember seeing the particular pictogram they were all fixated on. Had it been added by someone during her enforced slumber?

"We burned that tree to the ground," Klaus argued.

"Look at the markings that precede it. That's the native calendar the first inhabitants used before our arrival. Mother taught me that much," Rebekah pointed at the glyph markings off to the side. Elena had never learned them, but she believed her sister. Rebekah wouldn't lie about something like this.

"This can't be right," Klaus continued, still in denial. But Rebekah was just as stubborn as her older brother.

"We not only need to find Tatia and the twins, but we need to worry about this as well. If anyone figures out that three hundred years after we fled back to the Old World someone here must have had a sapling of the Great White Oak tree, a new tree to replace the old we destroyed. That bloody tree could kill us!"

"Bekah, do you remember when I showed you the pictures concerning your mother?" Elena asked carefully. She didn't want to upset her friend and sister. She knew that they were trying to adjust to their new reality that former Elena Gilbert also happened to be Elena Mikaelson.

"Yeah, what about them? I threw them in the fire, remember?" Rebekah asked really not understanding where Elena was going with her change of their discussion. Drawing in a breath, she looked down at her hands before looking back at her sister-in-law.

"You did, but thanks to Ric's digital camera he made copies. Those copies were the catalyst that ultimately led to me being sent back in time," Elena waved her sister and the others off from asking what she had seen. It wasn't important right now. Once they had time and their existence wasn't in peril, maybe she'd show them, but not now.

"Regardless, all the copies he took are at the Salvatore Boarding house. It's only a matter of time before they start asking questions about why that pictogram was important to leave for whoever came after," she finished. Elijah was the first to catch on to what she was telling them but Rebekah was the first to respond to the latest revelation.

"Bloody hell!"

Elena wasn't entirely positive who had uttered those infamous two words, but she agreed wholeheartedly with the implied sentiment. The list of things they had to take care of just continued to grow with each passing crisis or threat to her family. Which brought up another looming conflict Elena hadn't wanted to think too deeply about and the time for her previous life and her new one were on a collision course. And if she really thought about the outcome long enough, it outright terrified her. How would Jeremy or her two closest friends, who were more like sisters to her, react to their new reality even in light of their extenuating circumstances?


Salvatore Boarding House
November 1, 2010

"Lena, do you understand me?" Caroline asked a variation of the same question for perhaps the twentieth time. Jeremy wasn't sure he had lost count by now. It didn't help that both his and Caroline's phone kept going off until Caroline, in an exasperated huff, turned hers off for the night. Jeremy just let his go to voice mail after the caller ID kept coming up with an unknown number. He was partially annoyed with whoever it was calling him, but he had other more important issues.

"Care, she looks pretty hungry; and thanks to Damon's reluctant foresight we have some baby formula we can feed them as well," Jeremy suggested.

Caroline still appeared as if she wanted to argue with him but after his stomach growled as well she eventually gave in.

"I'll make some sandwiches for the three of us and bring back two bottles of formula for these little angels," Caroline cooed over the infants with fresh diapers, thanks again to Damon, who were now laying on top of the comforter looking up into the room's rafters.

"What type of soda do you want?" Caroline asked as an afterthought just short of the doorway.

"Uh… Coke is fine," Jeremy responded, then looked over at his sister, considering possible options. He was starting to agree with Anna's earlier assessment that something wasn't really adding up about his sister's behavior.

"Can you get Elena a Mountain Dew as well?"

"Jer, she doesn't like- Oh… Sure no problem, be back in a few." Caroline started but thankfully his sister's best friend hadn't argued too long and caught on to what he was attempting. His sister heartily disliked the sugary carbonated beverage after one too many parties where she mixed it and Tequila. His sister has always been known as a lightweight when it came to alcohol, but she had literally sworn on her knees in their shared bathroom that she would never touch either of them for as long as she lived. He knew it might be cruel, but if there was a chance they could trigger some of her memories of the past, she might snap out of whatever has been done to her. There were just so many unanswered questions. How did she end up in the same cave network as Abby and Bonnie?

"Jer, I think this is more than just her memories being altered. Look at her clothing or how long her hair is and since when does your sister braid her hair like that?" Anna asked, taking a seat on the bed with him. Elena was examining herself in a Queen Anna Cheval mirror. For Jeremy, it appeared almost as if she'd never seen her reflection before.

"I know. Did you notice how she reacted to the lights? If one of the infants didn't need changing I highly doubt anyone could've gotten her to stop playing with the light switch."

"Yeah I did, it's as if all her memories have been wiped clean, but that doesn't explain how or why she is speaking in another language," Anna answered with a sigh. Both of them missed being able to feel each other's touch. Although neither wanted to move on, in Anna's case it would mean finally joining her mother.

"I know this sounds selfish, but I just wish that Bonnie wasn't worried about her mom. I don't blame her for wanting to be with Abby right now." Jeremy sighed, rubbing his eyes fighting the need for sleep. He desperately needed caffeine. Hopefully the Coke he asked Caroline to get for him would do the trick. If not he could finish off what his sister didn't with her Mountain Dew.

"I'm back!" Caroline cheerfully announced, carrying a tray with food and two soda cans, Jeremy wisely ignored the blood bag he didn't want to upset his stomach just before eating.

Salvatore Boarding House: Cellar

Bonnie hissed in annoyance as her cell phone vibrated in her back pocket again. She'll deal with whoever kept calling her later. Both Jamie and she had managed to convince Abby to let them in the cell with her, but she had made them both promise to keep their distance from her. Right now Bonnie didn't know how she felt. Yes Katherine had inadvertently killed her mother with a stake gun, but her blood had turned Abby into a vampire.

"Mom, are you sure you want to do this?" Jamie asked. Bonnie could see how much he wanted to comfort his step mother and she couldn't help to feel envious of their shared connection.

"I can't leave you both, not after everything still left unsaid. I left you Bonnie because I thought I didn't deserve to be your mother after what I had done. Just promise me that you won't let me hurt anyone." Abby asked. She had pressed herself into the cell wall farthest from the two most important people in her life. Her adoptive son and the daughter she abandoned while she was still a toddler.

Jamie and Bonnie exchanged a brief glance at one another, but what they communicated through their shared silence Abby wasn't sure until Bonnie produced a blood bag she liberated from Damon's blood stash.

Abby didn't waste time draining the bag. Once finished she cried out in pain as her new fangs pushed through her gums.

"Thank you both. I didn't want this for either of you," Abby sobbed. Bonnie had enough experience from Caroline's transition that her mother's emotions would be all over the place till she adjusted to being a new predator species.

"Are you okay?" Jamie asked.

"Honestly, I don't know Jamie. I do think however that it might be best if I were alone for a bit. Bonnie, I really hate to ask this of you but could you um…" Abby said, looking down at her crumpled blood bag she still held tight in her fist. Bonnie felt like crying for her mother, but understood instantly what she needed. She hated knowing that fact, but if she didn't learn to curb her craving for blood somehow, her mother might do something she'd regret.

"Come on Jamie I need to check on Elena, anyway. Let me grab something to help make Abby feel better. Do you need a book or bedding?"

"Yes, but Jamie can get it from our RV. He knows what volume I was reading," Abby smiled at her daughter. Bonnie could only shake her head in amusement. When they had unexpectedly been reunited in a cemetery somewhere in Charlotte Abby, a witch of Bennett Bloodline, was re-reading the entire Harry Potter Series. Not that she could judge; she'd read the series long before she ever knew anything about the supernatural world.

Several minutes later, Bonnie found herself knocking tentatively on the closed door where Jeremy had taken Elena. Bonnie had always thought that Damon and Stefan could have found a better use for the boarding house, maybe by turning it into a school or something. Pushing those thoughts to the side, she knocked again, this time a little more aggressively.

The door swung open to reveal a very exasperated Caroline Forbes, but her expression warmed only after seeing who was on the other side of the door. "Damn it Da- Oh sorry Bonnie, I thought you were Damon. We just managed to get the little angels to sleep after feeding them," Caroline whispered. Bonnie peaked inside and spotted the two antique cradles, it still baffled her the plethora of junk the Salvatore brothers had accumulated over their century plus existence.

Bonnie crept over to watch the two sleeping children with Caroline alongside her. Jeremy, on the other hand, was dozing in a seat next to the bed where Elena was also fast asleep.

"She's had a hard day like the rest of us, my mom dying and with vampire blood in her system. By the way, Abby decided to transition. Can you-?" Bonnie whispered to her friend but couldn't bring herself to complete her request of her best friend.

"I'll be there to help your mom adjust Bonnie, I promise," Caroline offered with no reservation in either her voice or eyes. Bonnie felt some of her tension ease already knowing her mother would be in good hands. Of all the vampires she had met ever since her junior year of high school, her friend Caroline Forbes was one of the most controlled vampires. She even had doubts that Stefan had as much control.

"Thank you Caroline. I really mean this, and Abby will want to thank you too. I just know it," Bonnie stifled a sniffle.

"Abby is going to be fine Bonnie. It will take some adjustment and once you make a daylight ring… Wait, does she want a ring? What about a pendant or even a bracelet!" Caroline peppered her and if it wasn't for the sleeping infants and the brother and sister already asleep or on the cusp of it Bonnie would have laughed at her friend's enthusiasm.

"Calm down, Care. I haven't asked her what type of jewelry she might want. Honestly I think she is still as shell shocked as I am," Bonnie soothed her friend's excitement.

"Okay, did she tell you what happened?"

"It's still hazy for her. She remembers the coffin opening on its own and then she said it was like someone else was whispering in her ear to pull something out. When she did, there was a bright flash of light and she was leaning next to the empty coffin with some black stone dagger in her grasp. I think she said it was Obsidian or Onyx. I don't know if that is important. That was when I must have found her. Shortly after that Elena shows up from out of nowhere, the same for Katherine too. When I get my hands on her-!" Bonnie hissed, the sound of her last sentence caused Jeremy to twitch slightly before settling back into his partial slumber.

"Tell me about it. I still haven't paid her back for smothering me with a hospital pillowcase. We'll find a way of getting even with the bitch," Caroline growled subvocally. Right about then her phone started vibrating again and she cursed her bad luck of turning it back on again. By the time she unlocked it, the caller had been forwarded to her voice mail. She peered at the caller ID and frowned.

"Hold on Bonnie, I need to take this. It's from my mom." Not waiting for a response she moved off to give herself some privacy. Caroline dropped the phone, the clattering of the plastic casing on the wood floor instantly woke Jeremy who bolted upright looking for trouble. Bonnie moved quickly to be by her friend. The horrified expression on her reminded her of the time when they learned that Elena and her parents had driven off Wickery Bridge.

"What- What is it Care? Is your mom okay?"

"No my mom is fine, my dad was taken to the emergency room by Tyler Lockwood. He was injured in an accident and while he is going to live the doctor wants to keep him under observation for twenty-four hours."

"Okay, I feel like I'm missing something. Care, tell me," Bonnie asked and moved closer when Jeremy joined their impromptu huddle.

"My dad has been helping Tyler Lockwood break his sire bond for about a week at the most. I think something went wrong," Caroline choked out, only just remembering to keep it just above a whisper for the sake of the sleeping children.

"Okay, but how were they trying to break the sire bond, and why did it lead to your dad spending a day in the hospital?" Jeremy asked. He was still pissed off with Tyler Lockwood but if his friend was trying to rid himself of Klaus, that was a move in the right direction. It still didn't square them until they had another chat.

"To break the bond, Tyler needed not to feel any degree of loyalty or gratitude towards Klaus. So in order to accomplish that he needs to endure the pain of the shifting he once felt during every full moon. So my dad has, for the last week, been encouraging Tyler to shift into his wolf form then back again. Over and over again until he longer fears the pain of all his bones breaking and shifting around. Once he masters this, then his sire bond will be severed permanently."

"Oh my God!"


Elena Mikaelson née Gilbert felt like tossing the stupid cellphone out the passenger window. Lucky she didn't, if not for the reason she had borrowed it from Rebekah in order to try calling her friends. So far, other than hearing their voice mail greetings she had yet to actually speak to any of her friends; even Jeremy wasn't answering. Not that she really could blame them. None of them would recognize Rebekah's number, anyway. Although at the time she reasoned that Stefan might have been an exception considering their past history, but when she tried calling his voice mailbox was already full. Which was unusual; she might have been indisposed for the last ten centuries or so, but she still remembered that he was quite regular on keeping available space in his voice mail box free for incoming calls.

Her husband glanced over at her from the driver side, his expressionless face saying more than most people ever could. Rebekah had already called what they did with their eyes something akin to 'eye sex', whatever that meant. Neither of them had yet addressed Rebekah's description just yet. They had more important matters to deal with first.

"Damn it! I can't get in touch with anyone. Not that I would expect them to answer an unknown number, but you'd think with repeated calls from the same number they'd take the hint," she fumed to his unspoken question. Not wanting to meet his gaze she chose instead to stare at the road ahead.

"Seriously, like Stefan should know my number," Rebekah groused and Elena couldn't help to feel the same way but for an entirely different reason. Her sister was still adjusting to the latest century and manner of speech, Elena noted dryly to herself. She sometimes wondered what it would have been like if she had remained undaggered with her family, but that might have affected her future.

She had a long time to think about things. Some of that spare time had been about her relationships with either Salvatore brother and while she still cared for them, both things will have to change between them. Like it or not, she was an Original and by a quirk of fate far older than either of them by at least nine centuries. That was not even including all of her other unlocked abilities, but she wasn't going to let the cat completely out of the bag just yet. Ironically, her brother-in-law had taught her to have multiple sets of plans.

That was part of the reason she loved the homicidal vampire wolf hybrid so much.

"If they so much as hurt my Tatia, I will-" Klaus's voice growled through Elijah's speaker phone. Elena glanced in the side mirror, seeing Klaus all but tailgating their SUV.

"Calm down Nik, and if you keep this up you'll be in our back seat with the way you're driving!" Elena sighed looking over at her husband who only rolled his eyes in agreement with her assessment of Klaus's driving.

"How am I supposed to calm down?!" he demanded.

"Nik, if we fly in there with guns blazing we will probably cause more harm than good." The silence on coming from the other end of the line emboldened Elena to further elaborate.

"Tatia must be terrified, considering the circumstances. Unlike me, when I traveled back in time she wasn't spelled like I had been by Ayana, so she doesn't speak or understand English and with everyone crowding around her, treating her like she is me, will only compound the problem," Elena said and immediately knew it had been the wrong thing to say. With a growl of annoyance, Klaus snapped his car into the other lane to pass them when a pair of oncoming lights from a car speeding in their direction caught her immediate attention.

"Elijah!"

"Bloody Hell!" Klaus muttered the same time he slammed on his brakes. For a mere instance Elena was too stunned to speak in the short period where things would have gone very badly if not for vampire reflexes. She was surprised to have caught glimpses of a pair of very familiar wide angry blue eyes as her friend's car came to a screeching halt mere inches from Klaus's front bumper. Elijah not missing a beat pulled the SUV he was driving right over, preventing Caroline Forbes' Ford Fiesta from backing up and effectively sandwiching her friend's car in between two oversized Black SUVs.

Despite the Mikaelson's, Elena now counted herself among them, being older and faster than any other vampires in existence, Caroline Forbes jumped out of her car and slammed her fist on the hood of Klaus's SUV, putting a sizable dent in it while shouting at him through the front windshield.

"What the hell, Klaus? I don't have time for this! Get out of my way!"

Thankfully, with how Elijah had angled his vehicle, blocking her Ford Fiesta, the side windows facing in her direction were heavily tinted. Although Caroline didn't seem to care, her attention was solely focused on Elena's Hybrid brother-in-law.

"She is a temperamental strumpet, isn't she?" Kol's voice pinged through the still open call. Elena wanted to smack Kol upside the head. Even from her angle as the suddenly tense shoulder blades meant that her friend had heard his snide remark. Crap, this is only going to get worse if someone did intervene. Thankfully, her husband was already moving before she was. In truth Elena Mikaelson, despite being a Original Vampire and a mother of twins, was slightly terrified of her friend's wrath. Caroline had been a vindictive person before her becoming a vampire and her turning had only amplified it by an order of magnitude.

"Strumpet?! Is that your brother? He sounds like a total douche canoe," Caroline growled. Thankfully neither Klaus nor anyone for that matter in his vehicle seemed to have any interest in exiting the relative safety of SUV interior. Immortal as they were, her friend was a force of nature when it came to incensed indignation. It near legendary in the retelling of what a mere seven year old Caroline Forbes did to one Bobby Truett when he decided on fateful day to push her on the school's playground while she had been standing in line for her turn down the slide.

"Miss Forbes, my apologies. We only wished to have a chance to talk with you," Elijah said from behind Elena's childhood friend. She was still on the other side of the SUV when Elena's enhanced hearing heard her friend's heart speed up as she spun to face her husband. It wasn't exactly true they were on the way to Stefan and Damon's place but it wouldn't hurt to find out what she knew considering there was no other reason Caroline would be driving this direction. Elena couldn't yet figure out why her friend seemed on edge.

"What, so you can betray us like you did the last time?" Caroline sneered. Elena winced she had long suspected that her friends were still bitter about Elijah saving his brother after everything that had gone down with Klaus breaking his curse. With exception to her aunt and uncle dying, Elena had already forgiven Klaus, but she highly doubted her friends would be so forgiving. Still, it hurt that her childhood best friend was talking to her husband like that. Taking in a deep breath, she stepped clear of the SUV. She was in Caroline's periphery vision, but it was only a matter of time before her vampire senses picked up on her presence.

"Oh great! Yet another Original! What the hell do-" Caroline halted only after her brain caught up with what her eyes were seeing. Elena had been both hoping and dreading this moment, the very moment she finally realized that thanks to her immortality she would eventually see her friends she had thought forever lost to her. Never mind that she was an Original Vampire; she knew that she changed. Spending over three years in the past, she had grown up. She no longer had the body of a teenage girl; she was forever frozen as a twenty-one-year-old mother of two. She couldn't help wondering what her long-lost friend was thinking about her appearance. Her hair was still long and she mentally took a note to make an appointment with her stylist. As much as she loved her dress, it was unfortunately archaic by modern standards. On the car ride Rebekah had mentioned going cloth shopping, and she might have to take her sister up on the idea. Her old clothing still in her childhood home probably didn't fit her anymore. Cursing under breath for her woolgathering, she smiled at her friend and made a shy hand wave gesture. She had to say something, and it was inspiration that helped guide her words.

"Hi Care…" She smiled feeling her heart skip a beat.

"I wanted to personally say thanks to all of you, but since Bonnie and Jer are not here, but I find I can't wait any longer. The message you all sent me really boosted my spirits when I got it and every time I read it afterwards." Elena said her voice tight. She couldn't hold back her tears and found that she didn't want to.

"Lena?"

"It's me, Care. I'm back."

Caroline scrutinized her, looking for more signs of her friend. Katherine had fooled her before but it was how Elena wrapped her arms around her waist and her habit of worrying her lower lip that finally did it for her. If her family weren't vampires, they might have missed the blur of movement as Elena and Caroline wrapped themselves together in a embrace that caused them both to finally break down.