"Elena …"
Her aunt's voice broke through her shock and Elena threw her arms around her. "Oh my God … How …?"
"I have no idea." Jenna pulled away from her, resisting Elena's attempts to bring her inside. "I need help, Elena - something happened in the crypt nearest my grave - there's these kids, they need help. I came because I know the town; they lent me the car …"
Elena had a hundred questions, but she looked past Jenna at the car parked haphazardly in front of the porch and her blood ran cold.
"Shit. Stefan! Damon!"
The two came running, skidding to a halt to stare at Jenna in shock. "What the …?"
"No time," Elena said hastily. "That's a Laughlin Academy SUV - there's kids in trouble in the crypt nearest Jenna's grave - I can't …"
"That's the Fell crypt, isn't it?" Damon asked.
"Who cares?" Katherine asked. "You hold the fort, Lena; we'll go."
Elena nodded, still holding Jenna's hands. "Jenna, come inside. It's okay; they've got it. Did you come back as …?"
"A vampire?" Jenna finished, nodding. "I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't," Elena said gently. "I'm a vampire too. Come inside. I'm not going to let you hurt anyone."
"Elena …" Jenna began.
"We can talk, Jenna," Elena said. "Not right now, I need to deal with something first." She led Jenna through to the kitchen, where the two girls were waiting, rooted to the spot.
"Aunt Elena?" Ariana asked, her voice shaking. "What's happened at the school?"
"I don't know, sweetheart," Elena said. "This is my niece, Ariana, and my daughter, Jenna … Oh, this is going to get confusing."
"Why?" Her daughter asked.
Elena smiled. "This is my Aunt Jenna. She's somehow come back from the dead, but she's a very new vampire, and something's happened at the cemetery, so I need you both to go to your room and get ready for bed, so I can deal with this, okay?"
For a second, it looked like her daughter would argue, but Ariana took her hand and tugged her towards the staircase. "Goodnight Aunt Elena."
"Goodnight, girls," Elena said. "I'll make sure someone comes and tucks you in."
Jenna sank into one of the kitchen chairs, staring after the two girls. "Elena …"
"They're 14 in September," Elena said, fetching a blood bag. "It's a long story. What do you remember?"
"I don't remember anything," Jenna said. "One minute, Klaus killed me. The next thing I know I'm in a grave. How's Jeremy?"
Elena hesitated. "Jeremy's okay - it's a long story." She handed her a mug of warm blood. "Drink up. Have you fed since you came back?"
"One of the boys got me a blood bag from the car," Jenna said. "But thank you. Did we … I mean, you were supposed to die after me - is that how …?"
"It's not how I became a vampire," Elena said. "John got Bonnie to link us so he died instead of me. Everyone else is alive."
Jenna took a long drink. "Why did I die, Elena?"
Elena closed her eyes. "Jenna … I'm so sorry."
"No … Elena, no …"
She heard the chair scrape against the floor and Jenna's arms closed around her. Elena turned her head into the crook of Jenna's neck, returning the embrace.
"Honey, I wasn't blaming you," Jenna whispered. "It's not your fault, Elena. I just … I want to understand."
Elena nodded. "I know. I'll tell you everything, I will; I just … I need to help the kids first."
"Of course." Jenna released her. "Is that your phone?"
Elena grabbed it. "Stefan? How many rooms?"
"At least three, plus the usual."
Elena froze. "Oh God … What happened?!"
"Still trying to figure that out," Stefan said. "Hope and Lizzie are unconscious, Josie's hysterical, and Luke Parker was apparently dead for almost an hour but is now just out cold. We've also got three male students and one female. Two of the boys are brothers."
"Okay," Elena said. "Get them back here; I'll get set up." She hung up and got to her feet. "Sorry, Jenna, I have to …"
"Honey, you do what you need to do," Jenna said. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"
"Yeah, can you come and help me make up beds?" Elena asked. "I need to start calling people." She showed Jenna where they kept the spare linens and directed her to some spare rooms, before opening up the windows in Hope and the twins' rooms, and starting to phone people in New Orleans.
Every call she made went through to a dead line.
"Any luck?" Jenna called.
"Not yet," Elena answered. "How are you doing?"
"Four beds," Jenna said. "That's not enough, is it?"
"Luke in one room," Elena said. "Then we can split the three male students between two - I'm sure the brothers can share. The twins have a room and Hope won't mind sharing when she wakes up."
"How do you know them?" Jenna asked, following her downstairs.
"Trust me, you want that story later," Elena said, dialling yet another number.
"Elena?"
"Oh thank God!" Elena breathed. "Sophie, you are the only person in New Orleans with a working phone, you know that?"
"What do you mean?"
"Everyone else's lines are dead," Elena said. "I assume they're all at the school?"
"Seven students are missing," Sophie said. "Including Hope and the twins."
"I know," Elena said. "They're here. I don't know much - I just know that Hope and Lizzie are unconscious. I'll send an update when I have one, but I need you to go to the school and …"
"Yeah, of course," Sophie said. "You know they'll be on their way as soon as they hear, don't you?"
Elena's gaze slid to Jenna. "Yeah, I know. I'll deal."
She hung up, just as the front door opened. "ELENA!"
Elena sped downstairs, catching Josie as she threw herself at her. "It's alright, sweetheart; it's going to be okay."
"She's dead," Josie said into her shirt.
"No, she's not, honey," Elena kissed her little sister's forehead, her eyes falling on Luke, unconscious in Damon's arms. "Is he okay?"
"He's alive," Damon said, "but he's lost a lot of blood. What's your diagnosis, doctor?"
Elena rolled her eyes with a smile. "Take him up to one of the spare rooms. His heart sounds fine; I'll do a proper check later."
"You're a doctor?" Jenna asked from the top of the stairs.
"I am," Elena said proudly.
"Well, you could have led with that," Jenna said.
Elena shrugged, turning back to Stefan and Katherine, who were carrying Lizzie and Hope respectively. "Any ideas?"
"None whatsoever," Katherine answered.
"Okay, let's take them through to the living room," Elena said, guiding Josie through first. "Is everyone else okay?"
"It was just the girls that got taken. We were looking for them."
"This is Penelope, Landon, Rafael and MG," Damon said.
"I thought I recognised you," Elena said to Landon. "You were Hope's escort for Miss Mystic Falls."
Landon nodded. "That's right, Mrs Salvatore."
"Let's drop the Mr and Mrs," Katherine said. "We'll get confused."
"You're not Mrs Salvatore," Elena said. "Neither of you has dragged the other up the aisle yet. At some point, I'm going to do it for you. Okay, so I'm assuming you three are fine then?"
There were three murmurs of assent from the boys.
"We got there afterwards," MG said. "We don't know what happened any more than you do."
"Right then." Elena turned to Penelope with a smile. "Penelope … Josie's Penelope?"
The girl blushed a little but nodded. "That's right."
"Well, it's lovely to finally meet you," Elena said. "I wish it wasn't under these circumstances. Can you tell me what happened?"
Penelope hesitated. "I think so, but … I don't understand any of it. I mean, I was there, up to a point, and now I'm just … I have no idea."
Josie was still sobbing over her sister. Elena could hear Lizzie's heartbeat, slow but steady, yet Josie's hysterical belief that her sister was dead was so unnerving that she couldn't help staying tuned in to it.
Jenna clearly felt the same way; she had wrapped Josie in her arms and had two fingers resting on Lizzie's throat against her pulse point.
"Penelope," Elena said, "will you let me in to watch your memory of what happened? Josie's far too upset to let me in right now."
Penelope hesitated. "It won't hurt?"
"It won't hurt," Elena assured her. "I won't see anything you don't want me to see."
Penelope took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay."
"Thank you." Elena took her hand and closed her eyes, plunging into the girl's mind.
When she opened her eyes again, she was standing in the crypt beside Penelope, watching Maya Parker talking about the Merge.
When Luke came in and subsequently began choking on his own blood, Elena was left with another puzzle - maybe Josie was right about her sister.
Jenna and Luke had both been resurrected - maybe Lizzie had been as well.
When Hope began whispering to Lizzie, Elena tried to listen in as well, but she could only hear what Penelope could - and Penelope couldn't hear a thing.
Hope gave Lizzie her necklace and something niggled in the back of Elena's mind, something she was sure she'd been told, but the scene changed before she could catch it.
Maya Parker emerged from the staircase. "It's time."
"Please don't do this," Josie whispered. "We're your granddaughters. There's no reason for this; it doesn't do anything. Please …"
"I'm sorry," Maya said. "Coven rules are coven rules." She began chanting and the twins stiffened, beginning to scream almost in unison.
Penelope screamed as well. "Josie!"
The chanting suddenly stopped, as Lizzie collapsed, like a marionette with her strings cut.
Elena found herself torn on what to focus on - one the one hand, Maya was clearly startled by that; on the other hand, Hope had just collapsed as well.
"What the … Hope?" Penelope dropped to her own knees beside the bars. "Hope, what happened?"
"Can't breathe …" Hope gasped out. "Pen, you need to … You need to help them …"
A lock clicked and Penelope rose to her feet, watching Maya enter Lizzie's cell, bending to check on her.
With a whispered spell, the woman was thrown backwards, out of Lizzie's cage and against the wall, crumpling unconscious to the ground. There was a flash of light and Penelope was able to unlock the door of her cell, but before she could do anything else, Hope screamed, a blast of magic exploded out of her, leaving her unconscious.
Elena blinked, pulling herself out of Penelope's mind. "Hmm. Thank you."
"Did you understand it?" Penelope asked.
"Not really," Elena said, reaching for Stefan's hand.
She wasn't surprised when Damon took her other hand and Katherine leaned across to touch her arm, passing the images to all three of them.
"Well," Katherine said, once she had digested it, "I think we can assume that Hope resurrected Luke and Jenna."
"You think?" Elena asked.
"She'd just watched Luke die," Katherine said. "And Jenna was the nearest grave. Not to mention she's a sticking point."
"True," Elena conceded. "So let's say Hope's magic exploded and resurrected them …"
"It hit me too," Landon added. "Raf and MG didn't feel anything, but it nearly knocked me over."
"Well, that's weird," Katherine said.
"Let's say that happened," Elena said. "That would explain why Hope's unconscious now. It doesn't explain why she collapsed in the first place."
"Maybe it had something to do with whatever she talked to Lizzie about?" Stefan suggested.
"No, that makes no sense," Damon said. "It looked like Hope wasn't expecting to collapse. My guess is when she collapsed, her magic reached out to try and protect them, and did that by resurrecting Luke. I'm willing to bet that Jenna and whatever happened to Landon was an added bonus."
"There's something about the necklace," Elena murmured. "I'm sure there is. Why would Hope give Lizzie a Mikaelson crest?"
Jenna tugged the necklaces out of Lizzie's shirt. "She didn't. Neither of these are any kind of crest. Which one was Hope's?"
"Must be that one," Josie said. "Lizzie wears the heart one all the time."
Jenna untangled the second necklace, rather awkwardly with one hand as her other arm was still holding Josie tightly.
Once she had it free, she passed it over to Elena, who examined it.
"Is that … is that pendant …?" Katherine asked, peering over her shoulder.
"It is," Elena said. "Didn't …?"
"She did, yes."
Rafael raised a hand. "Is anyone else confused?"
"Doppelgängers," Damon said with a sigh.
"They do this," Stefan added.
Katherine took the necklace and gently undid the pendant, revealing an empty, hollow interior. She took a sniff and nodded. "You're right."
"Could one of you fill us in now?" Damon asked.
Katherine went over to check on Lizzie, lifting one eyelid to check her pupils. "Yeah, I can. Caroline gets Hope to carry a small vial of her blood around, so she doesn't do anything dangerous to heal her friends."
Translation: Hope's blood was supposed to be regular witch blood but did all kinds of things it wasn't supposed to, and Caroline wanted to keep it a secret for as long as possible.
"Wait a minute …" Stefan said slowly. "That means …"
"Hope collapsed because she triggered her curse," Katherine said. "Lizzie's in transition."