Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)

The Hybrid

"Whether suicide or a tragic accident, WPKW News has lost one of its shining stars." Damon turned his head to see the television screen in his room as he was standing by his closet, taking down all the pins where he had tracked Claire, Klaus, and Stefan. A young blonde reported on the screen, "A young reporter and weekend anchor, Andie Star, was discovered..."

"Just can't stay away, can you?" Damon called out as he returned to his daily bidding while Elena walked into the room, her expression piteous. He had a solid grimace on his face and refused to look at her as she entered, sighing at him.

"You've been dodging my calls."

"Yeah, well, busy dating a dead, fake girlfriend and all."

Elena gave a somber sigh. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Happy birthday, Elena! Stefan killed Andie. Cake?"

Bitterly, Damon brushed past the human with a bunch of the newspaper clippings in his hand from his closet full of maps. Without moving an inch, Elena called out over her shoulder. "He called me, Damon!"

Damon stopped and turned around. "What?"

"Stefan called me last night," Elena told him, moving to face the dark-haired, sour Salvatore. Damon paused.

"Well...what'd he say?"

"He didn't say anything." Damon's eyes narrowed, and she quickly defended herself. "B-But it was him! I asked Sheriff Forbes if she would trace the call's origin. It came from Tennessee."

"Where he's been binge-drinking on the country folk." Disinterested, Damon turned around at the fireplace in his room. "We went through this, Elena. Stefan's gone." She watched him throw the clippings into the fire and grab a match from the mantle and turned around with a sour smile. "And I don't mean geographically."

She didn't let herself get disappointed. Instead, she fought persistently. "If he was gone, he wouldn't have called."

Damon gave Elena an unimpressed look and, without wasting any more of his time, he turned his back towards her and looked down at the fireplace, waiting for Elena to leave. Elena stood at the threshold of his bedroom for a second, possibly two, before she finally turned to walk out. But instead of leaving, she stopped short and turned around with a frustrated breath.

"I don't know why you've suddenly given up hope on them. On her." Elena blurted out. Damon didn't turn around. "No matter what she did a hundred years ago...no matter what she does now, it shouldn't matter. You love her. You shouldn't give up so easily."

Without moving a muscle in his body, Damon listened to Elena's lecture before she walked around of the room softly, more disappointed than anything else. But instead of going after her, all he did was strike a match and light the fire in front of him.

Alaric woke to incessant rapping on the door. A half-drunk bottle of bourbon was lying beside him as he rolled over from his face-down position on his pillow from where he had passed out the night before. Sensitive to the light that was shining in from his window, he shied away from the brightness as the knocking continued, hurting his already pounding head.

"Go away, Damon!" the drunk shouted grumpily, but the knocking didn't stop. Frustrated, Alaric forced himself up from his bed and finally swung open the door to reveal Amelia, waiting impatiently. She opened her mouth to say something but just settled upon a disapproving look, eyeing his unbuttoned pants and his lack of a decent shirt.

"Good morning to you, too."

"You're...not who I expected." Alaric cleared his throat and buttoned his pants uncomfortably as he watched Amelia frown.

"I need to know everything Damon knows about Stefan and Tennessee."

"...Then why don't you ask Damon?"

"Look, I'm not up to talking to Damon right now. He's pissy and moody because his booty-call girlfriend was killed last night by Klaus's new puppet, who happens to be my boyfriend. Can I come inside?"

But instead of inviting her in, Alaric just leaned against the door and shook his head. "I don't know if you got the memo from Elena, but I checked out of all this last night. Go find some other way to bring your off-the-rails boyfriend back."

He tried to shut the door on her, but instead, she stopped it with her hand, pushing so hard that it was forced back open. Alaric sighed heavily and watched as she cocked an eyebrow at him. "You know, this isn't all about Stefan. This is about Claire, too. I need to find my sister. Please."

Alaric hesitated for a moment, but he realized that, whatever reservations he had about the guy who he had seen the victims of, Claire was (hopefully) not a part of the same business. On the same token, he knew that Damon was being stubborn and, in light of recent events with Andie, had given up on Claire entirely, which he didn't think was for the best. Finally, he stepped aside and gestured into the apartment.

"Come in, Amelia."

"Thank you," she chirped as she stepped through the threshold into the apartment. Alaric shut the door behind her and grabbed a shirt from a chair next to the door, slipping it over his shoulders as Amelia talked. "Yes, I need to find my sister. But, I want to find Stefan, too. Just because he killed Andie doesn't mean he's gone completely psycho."

Alaric rubbed his eyes. "Amelia, you didn't see his victims. I did."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Stefan's a 'ripper'. That doesn't change the fact that Stefan is still...Stefan. I'm not gonna give up on him and...and, well, Damon's given up on Claire, but there's no way I'd ever do that to her. I have to find them." She stepped forward and looked at him with serious eyes. "Please tell me what you know, Ric."

The teacher hesitated, debating internally what the right thing to do was in the sticky situation, but at last, he sighed and gave in, telling Amelia the whole truth.

The hot droplets of water cascaded down her face as Claire stood in the scorching hot shower, merely standing. Memories danced across her vision, memories of only a few weeks before when she had left Damon, sick and dying, to go and strike a deal with Klaus. It had only been a few months and she felt tired already, but there would be no giving into the temptation of leaving. She was Klaus's bitch, like it or not, for the rest of eternity.

Right as Claire finally stepped out of her long, hot shower, there was a sudden bang on the door and it was thrown open. She quickly pulled her towel close to her body and stared angrily at her intruder, the infamous Klaus staring with an inappropriate grin.

"Sorry to interrupt, love."

"Sure you are, you bastard!" she shouted before reaching forward on the sick, throwing a small bottle of lotion at him. "Get the hell out of here! This is the one hour a day I get to spend away from you!"

Klaus chuckled. "Cut the hour short, sweetheart, we've got to get going now. We have a busy day ahead of us."

Although Claire was thoroughly peeved, she looked ten times more pissed because of the fact that she was dripping wet with water and clutching her towel at her chest. Klaus realized her anger, but merely smiled in appreciation, whether for her attitude or for her appearance she didn't know. When a long moment passed, she sighed frustratedly.

"Is that it?"

"Yes, I believe so."

"Then get out!"

"Alright, alright..." he conceded, snickering to himself as he shut the door and left her to her bidding. Claire ran a frustrated hand through her wet hair and walked over to the sink, where she leaned on it for a few moments to curve the anger she could feel towards him. As her knuckles clenched the sink at her fingertips, she accidentally felt the marble chip. When she pulled her palm up to her eyes, she noticed it was more than a small piece, but a big chunk of marble from the countertop.

"Unbelievable," she murmured, unimpressed, as she threw the marble down into the sink and marched into her closet to get changed.

Two hours or so later, after she had a sufficient breakfast, Klaus, Stefan, and Claire were all walking through the forests of the Smoky Mountains. Stefan was dragging Ray on his back, causing Klaus's sarcastic concern for his well-being.

"You okay? Is Ray getting heavy?" he condescended.

Stefan exhaled heavily. "I'm fine."

"You sure about that? You know, we've been walking for quite some time now. If you need some water or a little sit-down..."

But Stefan wasn't taking it. Unlike Claire, who was just following behind without saying a word, speaking louder than her actions, he was so sour about their situation that he wanted to fight back. It was the only way, Stefan realized, for Klaus to give him some respect. The thing was, Claire already had hers. She was the originator of his strength, the King Blood that nourished him. Stefan, on the other hand, was nothing but a pawn, a servant, in Klaus's mind.

"You know, I get that we're...uh, we're stuck together, but if we could maybe just skip the chitchat, it'd be great," he ordered. Klaus groaned.

"So much brooding. Your self-loathing is suffocating you, my friend. Why can't you have the self respect Clarissa does?"

Klaus threw a look at the blonde behind him and watched as she scoffed and replied, "Don't mistake my hatred for you as self respect, Klaus."

The hybrid shrugged. "At least she's honest."

"Maybe my self-loathing is because I'm a little tired of hunting werewolves," Stefan suggested as they moved along the trail. "We've been at it all summer."

"Thanks to our pal Ray, we found ourselves a pack. There." Klaus came to a slow, causing Stefan and Claire to both halt as well as they came to face a civilization in the middle of the mountains, all of them werewolves in preparation for the full moon alter in the evening. Klaus smiled.

The three vampires moved forward, causing the pack of werewolves to all turn their heads at the intruder. When Stefan walked forward with Ray on his shoulders, they suddenly realized that what was about to happen was much more serious than they would've thought. Stefan threw Ray's transitioning body down on the ground, where a woman with dark hair rushed forward, her eyes wide.

"Ray! Oh, my God!" she cried out. Another male went to her side and noticed the blood on Ray's shirt. The dark-haired woman whispered and looked up at Stefan. "What's going on? Who are you?"

"The important question is...who am I?" All werewolves moved to look at Klaus and his polite, yet cold smile. "Please...forgive the intrusion. My name is Klaus." And with his name, the entire pack stiffened, whereupon Klaus smiled vindictively while they all stared at the almighty hybrid, his brute-force vampire, and the pissed-off blonde one right beside him.

"You're the hybrid," the woman with the dark hair realized.

"You've heard of me. Fantastic!"

"A lot of us like to keep to ourselves for the full moon. Chain ourselves up." Tyler told Amelia as they both sat at a booth at the Grill, talking lowly. She nodded along, urging him to continue. "But there are some werewolves that like to gather in places where they don't have to do that. Where they can enjoy it."

She nodded in agreement. "Okay, so where could I find them?"

"Mountains...state parks...deserts, that kind of stuff."

"Have you heard of any packs in Tennessee?"

The wolf nodded immediately without hesitation. "Yeah. Here, give me your phone. I'll try to pull up the map."

While he took her phone and looked up the destination he could point Amelia to so she and Alaric could track her sister and Stefan down, Amelia let out a deep sigh. "I really appreciate you doing this, Tyler. I know it's hard because of...well, because it's Klaus, but—"

"Don't worry about it, Amelia." He brushed her off, shaking his head to stop her from apologizing. "Look, as Caroline likes to remind me...Claire and Stefan are in this mess because I bit Damon. You know how close she is with Claire. I'll never be able to live it down." He laughed for a moment before looking up at the blonde teenager and smiling just a bit. "And...she's your sister. I guess I owe you one, too."

"Well, it's always nice to know I have a werewolf I can count on."

She shot him a bittersweet smile and he scoffed for a moment before asking, "Hey, have you heard from her today? Caroline?"

"No, actually. To be honest, I figured she was with you. Maybe she's with Elena or something."

"Yeah, maybe..." he trailed off before handing her phone back with the map pulled up. "Here. That's your best bet."

She looked down at her phone and saw the location, relieved. When she looked back up at the wolf, she smiled at him. "Thanks, Tyler."

"No problem."

"I'll text you if I hear from Caroline."

"Thanks," he said right as she lifted herself up from the booth and hurried over to Alaric, who had been waiting at the bar for her to get the information from the wolf. She realized that he would be slightly opposed to this, and therefore she had to phrase it in the nicest way possible.

"Did you get anything?" he asked her. She smiled mischievously.

"So...um...how opposed would you being to...oh, let's say...going on a hike with me in the Smoky Mountains?" For effect, she added her sweetest smile at the end of the rushed question and batted her eyes, but she had no such luck. The History teacher looked at her like she was insane.

"You want to hunt down a pack of werewolves on a full moon?"

"I know, I know! I suck at timing!" Amelia sighed, exasperated. "You don't have to come. I'll go alone, it's fine."

"No you won't." Amelia and Alaric both turned their heads to find Elena, who stormed up to them at the bar with intent written all over her face. She stopped at them and gave them both a sassy look. "I'm going with you."

Amelia and Alaric glanced at each other worriedly before Amelia turned back at looked at the brunette. "Elena, I don't think that's such a good idea..."

"I overheard you talking. I know Stefan, Klaus, and Claire are in the Smoky Mountains so if you don't take me, I'll just go myself, then." The mischievous teenager shrugged half-heartedly and waited as they tried to come up with a response.

"Elena, this is ridiculous!" Alaric exclaimed, exasperated. She threw her hands up.

"What? You were the one who told me I could handle things on my own now."

"Yeah, I-I meant like frozen dinners and SATs!" She stared at him disappointedly and waited for Alaric to realize what he was saying. They lived in a world full of vampires and werewolves, not normal human teenager things like frozen dinners and SATs. At last, he sighed heavily, giving in to another teenager yet again. "Alright...alright, fine. Let's just...let's just go..."

"Alaric!" Amelia exclaimed, spinning around to face him with an alarmed expression. He sighed again, still frustrated. She slapped his arm. "Damon will kill me if he finds out we're throwing her into the wild! Klaus doesn't know she's alive and he would prefer it to stay that way."

"Klaus won't know," Elena offered. Amelia frowned at her. "Come on, Amelia! Please? I need to find Stefan and Claire. I want to help."

After some thought, and much internal debate, Amelia couldn't help herself. She knew how much Elena wanted to find Stefan and Claire, and she couldn't deny her of that. Besides, they could use the help.

"...Okay. Okay, fine." She looked back and forth between Elena and Alaric. "But no one is to tell Damon about any of this! He will literally burn me alive if he finds out."

Elena agreed wholeheartedly and Alaric just threw some money down on the bar to pay for his drink and shouted as they began to leave the Grill, "But I'm not driving!"

"It's fascinating, actually," Klaus admitted as he looked at the werewolves around him with a gleam in his eye, positioned in such a dramatic way that they were all forced to watch his theatrics. "A werewolf who isn't beholden to the moon...a vampire who doesn't burn in the sun...a true hybrid."

Right as he finished his tidbit of theatre, there was a loud inhale on the forest floor. Ray's back arched as he gasped to life, his eyes wide and his mouth dry, craving a special something that would complete the first transition of a new species. Klaus straightened with a smile.

"Excellent timing, Ray. Very dramatic!"

"What's happening to me?" the transitioning werewolf choked out as he rolled over on his stomach, desperate to ease the itch in his throat. Klaus turned to the bronze-haired vampire at his beckon.

"Stefan?"

Stefan gave a sour smile and looked around before standing up, shouting clearly, "Are any of you human? Your friend here...he needs human blood to complete his transition to vampire. If he doesn't get it, he will die."

"It doesn't take much. Just a sip," Klaus added as he stood from the rock he was sitting on and stalked around, surveying the prospects. As he looked around, he propositioned, "Anyone? A boyfriend, a girlfriend along for the ride?"

It was deathly silent around the pack, no one moving a muscle to indicate to Klaus there was a human amongst them. But, of course, being a vampire, Klaus could hear the human blood pulsing through someone's veins, and at last, he turned and stared at the man who was standing beside the dark-haired woman who had expressed concern for the werewolf they had killed.

"You." Klaus watched the human as his eyes widened upon realizing he was caught. But before he or anyone else could have a chance to react, Klaus flashed forward and bit into the human's arm, causing him to scream aloud in pain. When the would was open and blood spilled out, Klaus quickly tossed the man over to Stefan, who caught him and threw him to the ground, his wound exposed right in front of Ray.

"No!" the dark-haired woman shouted and moved towards Klaus.

"Clarissa..." Klaus demanded as he caught the dark-haired woman who tried to attack him and held her at arm's length. The blonde flashed over to him and restrained the werewolf as Klaus sadistically enjoying the screams from the pretty werewolf's throat. All the while, Stefan tempted Ray with the blood before him.

"If you don't drink it, Ray, I will. Problem is, I don't know how to stop..."

"It's the new order, sweetheart," the hybrid told the struggling werewolves in Clarissa's iron-clad grasp. He looked at the woman seriously. "You join us, or you die."

"I'd rather die than become a vampire!" she snarled.

"Wrong choice."

Claire watched as Klaus's face transitioned into a monster's, one half-vampire and half-werewolf as he bit into his wrist and shoved the blood into the woman's mouth. When he was finished force-feeding her the blood from his system, Clarissa shoved the woman's body to Klaus, who instantaneously snapped the werewolf's neck so that she fell limp and onto the floor, dead. For a moment, Claire watched as Klaus gave her a curious look, but then just snickered.

"She'll thank me for that later," he determined before bringing up his hand to wipe off a bit of blood on his lip with his bloody hand. He looked around the forest to all the other werewolves and smiled, his golden eyes sparkling in the daylight. "Okay! Who's next?"

Alaric, Amelia, and Elena all trudged through the forest one by one, Alaric leading them, Elena following whilst fiddling with her backpack, and Amelia last looking around to make sure there weren't any lurkers around. As they rounded a small cliff of the trail that overlooked the water, he pointed up to the other side of the mountain.

"In a couple hours, the full moon's gonna rise just above that ridge. If Tyler's right, that's where the pack will be!" he announced. Elena smiled.

"You were a boy scout, weren't you?"

"Shut up..."

She chuckled. "Boy scout-slash-vampire slayer?"

"Slash whiskey-drinking all-around lost cause."

As she laughed at his pessimism, Alaric came to a stop at a rock, where he set his bag down and opened it up to reveal his stash of weapons to use in their sticky situation. Amelia paused at the tree by the water and scoffed at Alaric.

"You should open a store with all those," she suggested, making herself smile. "Like...a vampire hunting store or something. You know, black market stuff? You could make a fortune."

Alaric looked back at her with a scowl, but it only made her laugh more. He shook his head and turned back to his bag, where he pulled out a jar full of liquid and herbs. He reached up to hand it to Elena.

"Here. Put that in your bag."

"Vervain grenade?"

"Wolfsbane." She nodded.

"Well, since we're exchanging gifts..." Elena pulled out John Gilbert's ring from her back and extended it to Alaric, who just stared down at the ring blankly. He then looked up at her.

"That's John Gilbert's ring."

The human shifted. "It was yours once. Go ahead. Take it, it'll protect you from whatever supernatural danger we're about to get ourselves into."

Alaric was hesitant, and for good reason, too. "He gave it to you."

"Yeah, but I'm a doppelgänger. It's not gonna work on me. He left it for if I ever have kids."

"Yeah, well, then why don't you save it for future generations of stubborn, relentless baby Gilberts?"

Elena sighed. "Okay, well how about you borrow it until after we survive this? I'd feel bad if I got you killed before happy hour..."

Seeing Elena's smile, Alaric couldn't help but chuckle at her judgey joke and watched as she waited patiently for him to take the ring, obviously not taking no for an answer. She urged him to take it again, and so he reached forward and grabbed the ring graciously to protect him from death by supernatural hand. Elena nodded with a look of relief on her face while Alaric turned around to his backpack. While the teenager took a sip out of her drink, Amelia turned around at the lake and smiled.

"I always liked the mountains. I don't know why, there's just something so—"

Just like that, Amelia realized there was something off and spun around, only to have her face kicked in so hard that she was knocked a few feet away, flying into the water below them. When she hit the water, she struggled to stand for a moment or two on impact, an angered gasp escaping her lips. The water cleared from her eyes and she looked up to find Damon with a sadistic smile on his face.

"You little bitchass!" she shouted at him, but he just smiled wider.

Elena, who was standing a few feet beside him, shocked, widened her eyes and demanded, "Damon! How are you even here?"

Damon shrugged and turned back at Alaric with a grin. "Thanks for the tip, brother."

Amelia inhaled dramatically. "Van Helsing! You promised!"

"You think I'd let the three of us come to a mountain range full of werewolves on a full moon without backup?" he shouted down towards her incredulously, but she was too hurt by his betrayal to respond. A few moments passed before Damon jerked his head back.

"Get out of the water, Blondie."

Amelia crossed her arms defiantly and huffed. "Nope. I'm comfortable right here. Because I'm not leaving this mountain until I get my sister and my boyfriend back and so help me God, Damon, if you get in the way of that again, I will never forgive you."

Damon scoffed. "Is that supposed to imply that I care?"

"You should!"

"Yeah, well, I don't. Get out of the water. We're leaving. Stop being an idiot!"

"You stop being an idiot!"

"Right now, you're both acting like idiots!" Alaric shouted at them both, tired of the childish back and forth. Elena crossed her arms and went right up to Alaric with a disapproving shake of her head.

"I can't believe you! How could you do this to us? You knew Damon wouldn't approve."

"Elena, it's not safe for us out here."

"It doesn't matter!"

"Yes it does, Elena," Damon retorted without turning his head to look at her. His eyes refocused on Amelia. "Now get out of the goddamn water, Amelia!"

But she stood her ground, still the defiant child. "I'm not going anywhere with you, Damon. Why do you even care? You gave up on Claire, anyways."

"I didn't give up on her! I faced reality. Out of the water."

Now it was pissing her off. She widened her eyes and used her hands to gesture: "N. O!"

Which, in turn, only made him mad enough to blow up at her face while making his way down the small cliff to join her.

"What's your genius plan this time, Amelia? Huh? You gonna walk into a campsite full of werewolves, roast a marshmallow, and wait for Stefan and Claire to stop by?!" he demanded, trudging through the water so fast that he was at her side within seconds, spitting his protests in her face.

"My plan is to find them, help them, and bring them home! Damon, this is our chance to get them back, don't you see?! We can't go home, not when we're this close!" she begged.

"Klaus thinks Elena died when he broke the curse. That makes her safe. You want him to find out that she's not dead? This is not safe!"

"Then take her home! I wanted to do this alone, anyways!"

"I'm not going home!" Elena informed them, shouting from the cliff above. Damon turned around sharply.

"Stay out of this Elena!" He returned back to Amelia and snarled, "It's a full moon tonight, Amelia."

"I understand astronomy! I know what it means!" the blonde snapped. He scowled. "Damon, I can't leave like this. We have to find them before then, we have to. Please. I want to bring my sister home. Please. I want to bring your brother home! Just please let me do this!"

Damon watched her, the desperation in her eyes wanting to find her family. He realized, very quickly, that no matter how he felt about what Stefan did to Andie or how Claire hid their pregnancy from him for a century, he still loved them both, and he wanted to find them just as much as Amelia did. Besides, there was no turning back now.

"Okay..." he agreed, and she erupted in a smile. "Okay! Fine. But we are out of here before the moon is full and I become werewolf bait."

"Great."

"Because the last thing I need is to hallucinate about 1864 again."

"Okay, okay! I get it."

"Good."

With that said, he stormed out of the water and Amelia followed him with a triumphant smile.

"There." Klaus removed his wrist from the human's mouth and stared the male in the eye with his compulsion flowing freely. "Good as new. Now you relax, okay mate? We're gonna need you when the rest of them wake up."

Klaus lifted himself from the ground—the ground soaked in the blood of the pack of werewolves that were all lying dead, waiting to be woken for transition. Klaus walked over to Claire and Stefan, who were keeping Ray company as the transitional vampire was shaking back and forth in disbelief at the sight of his friends.

"They're dead," the new hybrid whispered. "They're all dead."

Klaus cocked his head to examine him, but shrugged. "Well, he's through his transition. He should be feeling better soon."

Ray choked on his tears, still holding his body as if he were afraid of falling apart. Stefan lifted himself from the tree he was propped on and walked forward.

"So is this your master plan? Build an army of hybrid slaves?"

"No, not slaves. Soldiers, comrades."

"For what war, might I ask?"

"Oh, you don't arm yourself after war has been declared, Stefan. You build your army so big that no one ever dares pick the fight."

Stefan shrugged lightly. "What makes you so sure that they'll be loyal?"

"Well, it's not difficult to be loyal when you're on the winning team. That's something you'll learn once you shake that horribly depressive chip off your shoulder. You should be more like Clarissa."

Claire, who was too preoccupied watching Ray as he blubbered oddly, muttered, "Again, I still loathe you."

"Loathe is just a word, Clarissa."

"No, it is also a feeling...which I have of you." She looked up at him. "Would despise be a better word or...?"

Klaus chuckled to himself. "You only think you despise me, love, but truth be told, there's much more than—"

"Okay, there is something wrong with him!" Claire interrupted the hybrid as she grabbed Ray's face and tilted it up to see the blood that spilled out of his tear ducts. With his oversensitive emotions and the odd blood crying, she knew that it was not normal and that there was a flaw. Klaus immediately sat down on the other side of Ray and did the same, examining the strangeness that was going on with his eyes. Stefan, too, was confounded at the behavior of the hybrid.

"Huh." Stefan looked over at the Original. "That shouldn't be happening, should it?"

"Well, obviously." He lifted himself from the log-bench and started to pace.

Ray, who knew that there was something wrong with him, only began to shake more, the blood spilling easier from his eyes. "You said it was gonna feel better. Why doesn't it feel better?"

He looked at Klaus for an explanation, but there was none. Stefan found it too easy to mock the situation, and the cards just fell right into his hands.

"Some master race."

"Lose the attitude." After Klaus's sour demand, there was a hard gasp beside them, where the woman they had first turned from the pack they had visited woke up, shooting upright as she gasped to life. Klaus, still extremely weary of the situation based on Ray's reaction, decided to continue with his experiments. "Derek, come feed your girlfriend."

The human stood up onto his feet and Klaus took his arm, but right as he was about to bend down and bite a fresh wound, there was a whoosh, and Stefan, Claire, and Klaus watched as Ray took off into the forest like a wild animal, jumping over rocks quickly as he escaped the clutches of the vampires. Stefan turned back to Klaus, who gestured forward.

"Go get him."

Stefan reluctantly went after the wolf. Claire, worried about the hybrid up against Stefan, decided to follow him while Klaus dealt with the waking werewolves. She flashed into the fight just as Ray bit Stefan in the arm, causing her shout in protest. She attempted to detain the off-the-rails hybrid, but he was gone too quickly, and Stefan was left on his knee groaning at the bite mark on his arm.

"Stefan!" Claire shouted as she dove onto the ground and grabbed his arm to look at the wound. He bit back the pain and, though rough breaths, assured her he was fine.

"It's fine. Klaus will heal me."

"He better," she snarled.

"Where'd Ray go?"

"The other direction. We've got to find him."

"Come on," Stefan urged her, getting them both up onto their feet. As they moved to find the wolf, they stopped cold upon hearing four familiar voices through the woods.

"How you doing?"

"Oh, get a life."

"I'm just saying, Amelia. Who decides to wear the ugliest three-inch boots on a hike? I know you're a vampire, Blondie, but it's still not practical."

"I happen to think they're cute."

"See, Damon! At least someone appreciates fashion. Thank you, Elena."

"Oh, she's just sucking up to you. Don't let it get to your head."

"Like you never kiss ass—"

"Stop it! What are you guys, twelve?"

"Stay out of this, Van Helsing, I'm still pissed at you!"

"Is that...?" Claire trailed off as she and Stefan walked over to a cliff towards where they heard the voices, only to see Damon, Amelia, Elena, and Alaric all dragging themselves up the hill onto the ridge. Claire's breath caught and Stefan stood still, not saying a word. They both didn't speak, but there was a sound behind them that threw them both off guard.

Klaus stood towards the edge of the cliff, almost able to see the bandwagon from Mystic Falls. "Where did he go?"

"He uh, he got away." Stefan rushed forward and walked onto the other side of Klaus to distract him from the edge of the mountain. Claire, as well, did the same. "Forget him. Let's go—"

Klaus caught Stefan's arm and forced him back, where he saw the wound growing on his arm. He let out a hiss.

"A fatal werewolf bite." The hybrid smiled. "Ouch."

"Heal him, Klaus," Claire demanded. He looked over at her with a cocked eyebrow, and so she crossed her arms and said sourly, "Please?"

Klaus inhaled deeply, pondering it for a moment before finally pointing at her as if initiating a challenge. "You know, Clarissa, I'll tell you what...since Stefan is out of commission right now because of this nasty little wound, how about you find Ray and then I'll heal him."

Stefan scoffed for her. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, I'm dead serious. Excuse the pun." He looked at Claire. "You better hurry. Like I said, that bite looks nasty."

"Klaus—"

"Come with me, Stefan!" Klaus ordered as he walked away from Claire, never bothering to hear her out. Stefan looked at Claire with wide eyes, but there was nothing they could do about it. Stefan, obligated to accompany Klaus back to the werewolves, was forced to leave Claire behind to find Ray and bring him back before he was dead.

The sun set over the mountains after a while, creating a pinkish colored sky in the distance. Alaric turned back to Amelia, Elena, and Damon, who were following closely behind him, to give them an update.

"We've got about a mile left."

Damon looked up at the sky and pursed his lips cautiously. "The sun's about to set."

Elena sighed. "We can see that, Damon."

"I'm just saying..."

"The moon doesn't reach its apex for a while. We have time."

Damon, Amelia, Alaric, and Elena all moved cautiously though the leafy bushes, on the lookout for anything abnormal that might pop out of them. Alaric, who already had a crossbow in his hand ready to pounce, looked around as a weary feeling washed over him. Sure enough, there was a figure that moved in the bushes, creating a rustle loud enough for them to hear. Immediately, Alaric pointed and they all watched as a man, his shirt soaked in blood stumbling around as if he were lost came out into view. He had blood dripping down his face, but didn't seem to know what was going on.

"Stay where you are!" Alaric demanded of the intruder as the bleeding, lost man just came to a slow in front of them all, calm as ever. And then, like something suddenly snapped in him, he looked up and saw Damon and Amelia both looking him up and down, assessing the threat, and realized what they were.

"Vampires."

In a flash, the bleeding man was about ready to grab Amelia, but Damon stepped in and struggled with the wolf instead. He managed to grab the man by his throat, but the abnormally strong supernatural being had him pinned to the tree a few feet ahead. Alaric triggered his crossbow, the arrow landing in the man's back, but it didn't seem to do anything but hurt him for a moment. Elena quickly threw down her backpack, zipped it open, and pulled out the jar of wolfsbane Alaric had given her.

"Damon!" she shouted as she pulled out the pin in the jar and tossed it, where the vampire caught it mid-air and it blasted all over the werewolf, who screamed aloud in immense agony, his face burning so badly that he released Damon from his grasp and fell to the floor, weak. As he struggled to get up and recoil, Damon walked forward and kicked him over, knocking the wolf unconscious. The four of them breathed heavily as Alaric said what they all were thinking.

"Let me guess. Hybrid?"

"No, Damon just needs to brush up on his strength routine." Amelia scoffed and reached into her bag to pull out a few feet of rope and chain. "Here, come on. Let's tie this bastard up."

Damon and Amelia grabbed the hybrid in front of them as Alaric and Elena started to soak the ropes and chains with vervain. They could see the hybrid beginning to stir as they chained him up, but luckily for them, he wasn't fully conscious. Damon shook his head.

"These ropes aren't gonna hold him much longer, what else do we have?"

"Ric, here, take these." Elena extended the ropes in her hand to Ric, but instead of the human who took them, Damon reached out behind him and grabbed what Elena was giving to him, but was instantly burned with the vervain on the ropes.

"OW!"

"I said Ric!" Elena defended herself. Damon moved away from the hybrid and Alaric took the ropes and tied them around the hybrid on the tree with a sigh.

"Alright, that's the last of the vervain. We don't have enough stuff to hold him." He looked up. "I don't think we're gonna make that ridge before the full moon."

Elena stepped forward. "If we can get him to talk, we don't have to."

In an attempt to wake the unconscious hybrid before them, the human teenager bravely stepped up and reached out cautiously to the supernatural being's face. Right as she was about to touch his face, the hybrid awoke with a start, causing Elena to jump back in defense. But the hybrid did not move—instead, they watched as he craned his neck and began to suddenly shout aloud, thrashing back and forth against the ropes. Damon's eyes narrowed.

"Is he turning?"

"That's impossible! It's still daylight," Elena hissed.

"Tell him that..." Alaric muttered as they watched the hybrid and listened to his agonic screams. Damon reached out and grabbed the hybrid's shoulders to delay the transition, but it wasn't working. Amelia's eyes widened.

"My plan did not account for werewolves out in the open before the moon is full!"

"You know, those ropes aren't gonna hold a wolf," Alaric announced. Damon, still gripping onto the hybrid's shoulders, jumped back as the wolf tried to bite him in the midst of his screams. Amelia looked around, desperately debating with herself. But she realized that it wasn't worth it. They couldn't risk the consequences.

"Damon, leave him!" she demanded and looked to Alaric and Elena. "We need to get out of here. Now."

"But Amelia—" Elena started. She shook her head.

"Elena, we don't have time for this! Let's go!" Alaric grabbed Elena's arm and they both sprinted out while Amelia walked forward and pushed Damon off the wolf. "Damon! Let's go, let's go!"

Reluctantly, the dark-haired Salvatore released the hybrid and, along with Amelia, flashed away to keep up with Elena and Alaric, all the while hearing the loud, painful screams of the transitioning hybrid behind them. As they ran and ran farther down the mountain back to the car, the sun set and nightfall came upon them, limiting the vision of the humans with the vampires. As a result, Elena, the clumsiest of the four, tripped over a tree branch at her feet, causing them all to stop and look at her, only to find something much more terrifying.

"Don't move!" Damon shouted at her, and the human froze. Slowly, her eyes lifted to find a wolf, eyes glowing yellow with hunger, staring at her in the face. She gasped and tried not to move, but inevitably, she was so frightened, her breath quickened. In a desperate attempt to distract the wolf, Damon came up with a plan. "Here, doggie, doggie!"

The wolf looked up at the vampire and he took off in an instant, the werewolf close behind. Elena quickly rose herself from the ground and brushed herself off. Alaric urged Elena and Amelia to come with him, but Amelia shook her head.

"Damon's still out there!"

"He can handle himself."

"I have to help him!"

"No, you need to help us, Amelia, now come on!" Alaric pushed her forward and grabbed Elena's hand. "Let's move. Now!"

Amelia knew he was right—if there was another wolf out there on the loose, she would have to help Alaric and Elena from it because she was the strongest of them all. She couldn't leave her friends like that, but at the same token, what about Damon? Regardless, she didn't have much of a choice as Alaric and Elena took off and she was forced along with them, finally retreating.

While the three of his bandwagon retreated from the stupid mission they had decided to go on in the first place, Damon found himself in the midst of a dark forest with no sound, which only made things worse. He had finally slowed, looking around carefully to spot the wolf who had followed him. He could hear a twig snap and turned around sharply, but no one was there. And then, out of the dark, he watched as a half-man, half-wolf jumped out and threw him back onto the ground with a hiss. Damon recoiled quickly and swung a punch at the animal, then dodged his rebuttal. After minutes of fighting, the half-man, half-wolf drew out a new trick, launching himself over Damon onto the other side in a cat-like move. Damon was surprised, and slightly impressed, but in the next moment, the hybrid was on top of him, desperate to chomp onto his neck like he was his next meal. Damon fought hard to restrain the hybrid from getting to him, but he had to admit that the freak was stronger than a regular werewolf and stronger than a regular vampire. He could feel himself start to slip, but that was when the wolf suddenly hissed and fell limp, dropping to the ground heavily.

And there she was, her golden hair sparkling in the moonlight as the heart of the hybrid melted in her hand, blood dripping onto her elbow. She stood before him, a hard look in her eye before she tossed the heart onto the ground and took a deep breath.

"You," she said slowly, as if restraining herself, "were supposed to stay away from us."

"Claire," Damon whispered, as if he were seeing a dream. She stared at him, but it was colder than the way she looked at him before, but still not quite detached enough. He watched her as she stiffened.

"Damon, you need to leave. Now." He watched as she bit her cheek, grimacing at him. "I don't want to see you. I told Stefan to tell you that. What don't you understand?"

"Why you wouldn't tell me yourself. Besides, blame your sister and her doppelgänger sidekick," he retorted sharply. "I had nothing to do with this."

"Well I'm telling you myself now. I don't want to see you, Damon. Go." She turned her cheek. "And tell them to stop looking too, okay? We don't need to be saved."

Though he was so thrilled to see her, he couldn't help the sourness from his mouth. "You want them to stop chasing you? Tell your best friend to stop with the late-night phone calls. Really messed with their heads."

She shook her head. "He didn't call anyone."

"Sure he did!" Damon shrugged. "They're not gonna give up on you two. Just face it."

"They have to! You have to." Claire raised a sigh deep in her chest and shook her head slowly. "We're never coming back. So please...just leave. Get out of here." But he could see the pain in her eyes—the little glimmer of sadness that shone through them. It was like she didn't want to look at him, she just kept looking beyond like he was invisible to her. Damon hesitantly stepped forward, but she watched him and stepped back with a violent and rigorous protest. "Don't. Don't, please. Leave."

"Clarissa—"

"Damon, go!" she snapped. It wasn't that she didn't want to touch him. She ached to do it, she ached just to touch him, even for just a second. But she knew that, if she did touch him, she would start right back where she was at the beginning of the summer—speechless for days without knowing what to do. She would want yet again to get herself killed in a sparring match with Klaus because she wanted to escape his clutches. None of those thoughts, she realized, would get her back to Damon within the next century. It was better a century than never.

Damon stared at the woman who refused to look him in the eye, her cheek turned, patiently waiting for him to leave her presence. At last, when she looked up, he was gone in an instant, and she just stood above Ray's body, fighting back the tears that threatened at her eyes.

"Damon!" Amelia shouted as she quit her incessant pacing in front of the car Alaric and Elena had parked on the side of the mountain. She flashed up to him as he walked towards the rest of his bandwagon, looking as if he were hit by a train. Her eyes widened. "Are you okay? Are you alright? Did you get—"

"Fine. Bite-free. Let's go."

"Hey! Quit being a jerk, I'm just concerned about you!" she snapped. He crossed his arms at her.

"Okay...be concerned, but be concerned in the car." He brushed past her and looked up at Alaric, who had stepped out of the car with Elena, both wanting to see him fine and healthy. "Hey, Ric, did you happen to see where I parked my car?"

"You're so unbelievable!" Amelia snapped at him as she stormed back to Alaric's SUV. "You know what, from now on, I'm just not gonna be concerned about you. Ever."

"Fine by me." He shrugged. All the while, Stefan, who had managed to break away from Klaus for a few moments, stepped out onto the edge of a cliff and watched as the four argued, Damon and Amelia like brother and sister and Elena trying to intervene like she was the youngest child. When they were finally in the car, Amelia sighed and rubbed her head, having had a headache after the day's events. But up in the corner of her eye, she saw a figure and gasped, straightening in her seat as she blinked to focus on who it was.

Of course, whoever it was, their figure was gone and nowhere to be seen. But she had a feeling she knew exactly who was watching them.

Claire finally returned to the wolf camp, dragging Ray behind her like he was a broken toy. She stumbled upon Klaus, who was sitting down on a log with two bottles of open beer, looking solemn and pissy as ever. Stefan was in the corner, standing against a tree without a word, memorizing what he had seen down on that cliff, holding onto it like it was his last hope. Upon Claire's arrival, Klaus looked up at her while she tossed her hair with her bloody hand.

"Well, well." She looked around the camp at all the dead werewolves. Pursing her lips, she looked over at Klaus with a pout. "Guessing it didn't work out too well?"

"They went rabid," he told her, as if she really cared. "Some of them, I killed. The others just...bled out." He lifted himself from the log and walked over to Claire, where he saw Ray's dead body. "In the end...they're all dead."

And then, in a sudden burst of outrage, Klaus spun around with a sharp yell that could be heard from miles away, throwing his beer bottle across camp so that it shattered somewhere nearby. He yelled again, as frustrated as ever.

"I did everything I was told! I should be able to turn them! I broke the curse! I killed a werewolf." He looked at Claire. "You're not dead, but I killed your vampirism. Your husband's spell only transferred his to you, but your vampirism is dead. And I killed the doppelgänger!"

Claire tried not to move, because she knew the truth. Elena was not dead. The elixir brought her back to life, which meant that nothing of her had died, not her humanity nor anything else, she had merely restored. Stefan knew the same, but he didn't dare say anything, either. At last, Klaus looked up at Claire, his face stoic.

"You look like hell."

She scowled. "Heal Stefan. I brought Ray back."

Klaus looked down at the ground. "You brought Ray back dead."

"Yeah, well, I had to kill him. He attacked me. It was the only way to get him to stop but Klaus, so help me God—" She stepped forward and pointed a stern finger at him. "If you don't heal my friend, I will leave. Now."

"You don't get to make that deal with me, love," the hybrid snarled. "I saved your precious Damon. I saved him and you, in turn, promised me your company. You do not get the choice to walk away!"

With his sharp words, Claire shrunk and did not say anything more in fear of being berated yet again. At last, Klaus turned on his heel and walked over to the log he had been sitting on, grabbed one of his beer bottles and looked between Claire and Stefan cautiously. Then, with a swift movement, he reached up and bit into his wrist and let the blood spill from his hand into the bottle. He walked over to Stefan and nodded.

"Bottoms up." Stefan took the bottle from his hand and watched as Klaus turned around to look at the defiant blonde a few feet away. "We're leaving, Clarissa. I suggest you lose the attitude before then."

Klaus turned on his heel and took off, leaving Stefan and Clarissa behind in the camp full of dead werewolves to clean up his mess. Claire watched as Stefan walked forward to her and drank the blood, healing his bite immediately, and as he stopped in front of her and threw the bottle on the ground, the both of them looked at each other, and she couldn't help it anymore. Stefan reached forward and pulled her into his arms to console her as she cried for just a moment, all of her emotions flooding back after seeing Damon after three months. The two stood there for a while before they had to pick themselves up and move on yet again.

Amelia stepped out of Stefan's bathroom, ready to sleep the day's hard work off, when she saw Damon lying on her bed looking at the picture of Stefan and Claire on Founder's Day. She noticed him and his calm self, surprisingly without a glass of bourbon.

"I was wrong," he told her, not bothering to look up from the picture. Amelia cocked an eyebrow.

"No! Alert the press! Damon Salvatore was wrong?!" Damon scowled, and she gasped. "Oops. Sorry. Totally insensitive joke considering..." He turned back to the picture and she climbed onto the bed, lying down onto the pillow despite her wet hair. "And what would I suppose you were wrong about?"

"There is hope for her. For both of them." Damon set down the picture onto the nightstand and sighed. "I thought Stefan was gone, too, but I was wrong."

Amelia lifted herself onto her elbows and stared at him. "You saw him? How was he? Is he okay—?"

"No, Amelia. I did not see Stefan." Damon frowned. "I saw Claire."

"And?"

"And...she tried to convince me that she didn't care anymore. She tried to convince me that she didn't want to see me anymore. But I can tell when she's lying, Amelia, and she was. And she was lying for Stefan, too."

Amelia paused and watched him as he contemplated his words and pursed his lips, as if remembering her presence and trying to get it to pause there for the rest of the night.

Quietly, she began, "I know this whole situation sucks. I know you want answers about what Claire told you before she left, and I'm sure you'll get them soon. We'll get them back, Damon. We have to."

Damon turned his head and looked into Amelia's green eyes with a small smile. "Thanks for being so concerned about me that you abandoned your rogue mission to find them, help them, and bring them home."

"It would be a crying shame if you died before you told me where your secret stash of bourbon is." She rolled her eyes. "Of course I worry about you, you idiot. You're my brother. I can't let my brother die."

He shuddered. "I am not your brother. If I were your brother, I would be Claire's brother...and that would be extremely wrong."

"It's a figure of speech, dumbass. Plus, we're not even blood related."

"Good. Because no brother and sister should do what we have done in the past."

"Ew! Damon, TMI. Too much information." She fake-gagged as she laid down beside him and yawned. "Man, I'm extremely tired. Too tired to be a vampire."

"That's because you're a freak. Goodnight, Amelia."

He lifted himself from his brother's bed and she turned out out the lights and shouted back to him, "Goodnight, Damon. I'll see you in the morning."

She turned on her side with her hands tucked under her head and waited for Damon to close the door, but as he did, she heard him hiss, "Hey! No sex dreams about my brother."

"Damon!" she shouted, lifting a pillow from beside her and throwing it at the door. He chuckled as he left the room and she laughed for a few moments before finally lying down and getting a good night's rest.

Finally finished this chapter! Had this in the works for about a month and a half but never really got around to finish it, and of course now I'm doing it when I should really be studying for finals :P Oh, well. Thanks for reading! Please review!

grapejuice101: Oh, he's definitely starting something. It'll be even better/worse in the next chapter :) Thanks for the review!

RHatch89: Thank you! :)

NicoleR85: Thanks! Sorry this one took a while. Hope you enjoyed it!

adela: Thank you! Here it is! Sorry for the wait.

Guest: Yeah, me neither. But you know, when it's a situation as sticky as this one, he's gonna be mad for a little bit about it until they can really hash it out and have a conversation about what she did. Thanks for reviewing!

SomebodyWhoCares: He tried in this chapter lol but eventually they'll get there! Thanks for the review!

Tvd2014: It's gonna be a little delayed by some unfortunate event that will be happening in the next chapter, however they will end up talking about it in this season, and that secret will really be a major obstacle they may or may not get around going forward. Thanks for the review!

klandgraf2007: Yep, we're finally here! This is definitely gonna change everything in their relationship. I mean, Damon still loves her obviously and Claire clearly has some sort of feelings for him (enough to make her break down to Stefan after she saw Damon for the first time in three months in this chapter) but in the same token, this is something that he feels is important enough to stick their relationship on the line for. Stefan and Claire's friendship will develop a LOT over the next few chapters and even a lot during this season, though they're both gonna be pretty occupied with not screwing up their lives. Thanks for the review!

FizzWizz2011: Thanks! Here's the update! Sorry for the wait.

Guest: It wasn't so much as 'plot hanging', I sort of just imagined her as really not wanting to tell Claire and afraid that Katherine would act out if she did. Thanks for reviewing!

Guest: Katherine actually cared about Christopher the most (she repeatedly tells him and shows him that multiple times). Besides, it's not just the fact that Katherine "cared" about him the most, it was the fact that Claire looked like Tabitha who basically killed her own family because of Klaus's orders that made her really hate Claire. Even when she claimed it was about Damon, it was really just about the fact that Claire was a deep, dark reminder of her past plus the fact that she was taking everything of Katherine's. So in Katherine's mind (at least in this story) she could care less about what Elena does with Stefan, it's just the fact that she undeniably hates/is jealous of Claire. Thanks for the review!

piper: Interesting ideas! I'll see if I can fit them in anywhere or something but I don't know if I'll be able to keep all the Originals alive for the sake of cannon. Sorry for the wait on these chapters but thanks for the review!

silusyne: Here it is! Sorry for the wait. They'll be back soon! Thanks for the review.

Kris: Thanks! Here's the update.

Kristie: Thank you! Here's the update. Sorry for the wait!

beth: Sorry! Had a lot to do over the last few months, but here's the chapter!

river: Sorry! I was super busy over the past few months, but here's the chapter!

heytay1: Here it is! Sorry for the wait :)