The Armoury labs, West Virginia, approximately twelve hours ago.

Doctor Robert Schun wheeled his patient round to the operating table, pulling back the sheet to note any physical changes made since the last procedure. He pulled the bed up into a sitting position to gain easier access to him, then picked up a recorder from his pocket.

"Research 109, this is Robert Schun. Patient 0506 is being trialled again for the twenty third time." He clicked off the recorder, and bent down to the equipment tray, picking up a syringe filled with a dark, thick liquid. He pulled off the plastic around the needle, and approached Silas, who glared at him sinisterly, bound from his sarcastic commentary by the bind taped to his mouth.

"Try not to tense." Schun said matter of factly. "It'll only make it worse for you."

Silas, of course, only tensed his muscles even further, rattling his chair to get away. A rope around his wrist frayed, twisted loose by his mind, unnoticed by the doctor.

"All right," Doctor Schun bent down over him with a needle. "This may hurt more than the last few, but it'll only last a -"

Crack! The disgusting noise of his head meeting the corner of the table filled the room. Blood spilled as his head split like a melon upon impact, and he slumped wordlessly to the floor, the syringe rolling away.

Silas telekinetically loosened his hands out of the bindings, fumbling with his fingers to loosen his restraints. He jumped to his feet, ripping the tape on his face off, throwing the binds to the floor and smirked. Suppose it was easy enough to plan an escape when the doctors and guards got so precocious in their power that they forgot just how powerful he was when not sedated property. He kicked the torture table over, watching instruments roll to the floor. The syringe caught his eye, and he snatched it up, emptying its contents down the sink.

Static filled the room. Silas jumped as a voice echoed around him."Doctor? Are you okay? We heard a commotion in the lab, is the participant still strapped down?" It was the guards outside. He swore as he tried in vain to locate the source. Why were they still here? It was getting late into the evening.

"Doctor? Please respond." Ah, there it was! He grabbed it out of the doctor's pocket, stepping carefully around the blood seeping across the ground.

"Yes, yes this is Schun." Silas replied in a poor imitation of said doctor, hoping the signal was too crappy to be heard properly. "I had a few complications, but it's all under control, the participant is now fully sedated." He tossed the walkie-talkie away from him, then pocketed a scalpel, grabbed the doctor and dragged him towards the door and scanned his hand. The door unlocked, and slid smoothly open.

As predicted, the guards turned and saw him as the door opened.

"What the -" the first man was cut off as Silas jammed the scalpel into his throat and then he used his magic to snap the other one's neck before he could react. He tried to get the uniform off the man, but his broken neck and the angle of his body made his efforts futile, so he stepped around the bodies and quickly hurried away from the labs, past the cells; he wouldn't be able to get in anyway, they were electronically sealed, and wandered around for a good five minutes looking for the control room. He spotted a map on a wall and traced his steps, checking for it. Once found, he dived down another corridor, anxiously watching for any guards, then finally stumbled across a plain wooden door. He could hear other people inside, and wasted no time getting what he wanted.

The door, ironically the only one not sealed electronically in the entire building, flew open under his power. Before the two inside could react, he'd flung the woman headfirst into a wall and thrown the other technician into the control panel. He stared at the screens showing all the cells and the labs, then at the buttons, completely lost, and then briefly wondered why he hadn't spent more of his little time in modern Earth in college or studying IT.

He heard a groan as one of the technicians sat up, rubbing his sore head. Roughly grabbing his arm, Silas hauled him to his feet and thrust him in front of the control panel.

"Disable all the CCTV cameras and unlock all the cells in the entire building, before I show you your intestines." Silas hissed menacingly, digging his fingers into the man's back.

The man shakily complied, pressing a series of buttons and entering commands. Up on the main screen, Silas saw a series of doors unlock, and immediately red lights started flashing as the computer system warned of the compromise in security, and instantly began streaming information.

"What's it doing?" Silas demanded as the computer kept doing its weird flashy thing.

"It's a - a backup program. If all the cells are compromised and we can't call for backup, all the CCTV and information on how to lock the cells is sent to another IT department and they save it and contact security and reestablish order." The man stammered.

"Where is this IT office?"

"Upstairs. You can get there through the fire escape."

"Great." Silas threw the man into the floor, knocking him out, and wasted no time in getting out, heading down the corridors and back towards the labs. He strode down into the cell section and opened the door containing the only occupant.

"Stefan! Wake up!" He said, slapping his face, but Stefan still hung there by chains, dead to the world; an unfortunate side-effect of ingesting extra sedation. "Come on, Stef, I got us out!" He fumbled with the chains. An alarm began resonating throughout the building,and Silas hurriedly tugged on them even more. Only one link snapped, so he gave up and clutched onto the cuffs around Stefan's wrists and began whispering in Latin. The cuffs started sparking as they burned and melted away from the chains. Stefan stirred and moaned in pain as the metal seared his flesh and peeled away from the chains altogether. He slumped to the floor, and snapped awake, wincing against the light and the shrill alarm. Silas sighed in relief.

"Stefan, we have to go."

Grabbing an unsteady Stefan from the floor, he yanked him to his feet, and dragged him relentlessly down the corridor, again passing the labs, and stepped over the remaining guard in sight. The other one was nowhere to be seen, other than a blood trail leading away from the labs. Damn it. He should have checked that one. He sped up his movements, practically throwing Stefan into the fire escape ahead of him. He locked the door behind them using magic, and

There were two doors. One presumably led down to the tunnels, whilst the other, on top of a flight of stairs, must have led up to the top floor. Cursing his lack of vampric strength, he slung a loose arm around his shoulders as he prepared to ascend the stairs, but Stefan reared back, now wide awake, legs kicking as he struggled away from him.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Silas exclaimed as Stefan tried to fumble unsuccessfully back towards the door.

"We can't leave Caroline and Damon! Let me go back for them!"

"No we can't!" He hissed. "They're too far away! If we do it only increases our chances of being caught and it won't help!" Silas grabbed his arm and looked at him earnestly. "We'll come back for them, I promise."

Stefan looked at him wide-eyed, before Silas continued up the stairs, holding onto his arm.

They burst up into the Armoury office, and Silas took in a quick inventory, vainly searching for the IT office. He needed to delete all the footage as soon as possible.

Stefan was still looking doggedly at the fire escape, so Silas sighed, and grabbed his neck, turning his face towards him.

"Hey, after we get rid of that footage, we will find them." He muttered heatedly. His thoughts flashed briefly to Katherine, who he had last heard from a guard was on her way to New York, and hoped that that same fate hadn't befallen Damon and Caroline. "Okay?" He looked back around, and saw a door labeled 'IT' in the far corner. "And, you help me get rid of anyone standing in our way." He gestured to the office, and Stefan's blank eyes flickered towards it. Veins crawled beneath his eyes as they saw movement, indicating that a human was present.

"Okay."

Silas relinquished his hold. "Invisi Que." he muttered, and they both melted into the shadows. He crossed the room as quickly and quietly as possible, feeling his doppelgänger on his heels, and nudged the door further open another inch. Inside, he saw a man of average height wearing a coat locking up a cabinet. He must have been about to leave. A USB stick caught his eye; it was plugged into the computer, which appeared to be downloading information.

What a shame he would never leave his office.

He stepped carefully inside the room, brushing past the door into the room. Stefan slid in after him and melted away into the shadows in the corner of the room. They both watched as the man finished packing his suitcase, calmly, almost happily. It was apparent that he didn't yet know about the security breach, but it was still imperitive he didn't look at that USB. The more time they bought for themselves, the better.

Whilst the man's back was still turned, Silas held out his hand and the USB flew out of the computer port towards him and he caught it in midair.

The man turned, clutching his suitcase, back towards the computer. His eyes widened as he realised the USB was gone, and he began searching, trying in vain, to Silas' amusement, to keep that calm demeanor. Ah well, he supposed it didn't matter now that his time was up.

His invisibility evaporated, and he held up the USB.

"Looking for this?"

-X-

New York, ten hours ago.

They say you should never ignore your instincts.

And Katherine, survivor extraordinaire, normally would have been the first to heed that advice, especially being a witch, if only she wasn't being handcuffed and sedated whilst being locked in the very plane her instincts fought against.

Something bad was going to happen. She'd known it from the moment they'd arrived at the airport.

And that only made her more anxious at every little drop in speed or the pilot's movements.

"What's going on?" She demanded, as something in the plane sparked and they jerked in the air.

"Just turbulence." her guard assured her, as they dipped violently in the air again.

"It sure doesn't feel like turbulence." She muttered. Her guard shot a warning glare at her, and waved the control to her handcuffs at her mockingly as he passed her to get to the pilot cabin. She rolled her eyes and turned to face the window. The last thing she needed on top of being shipped off to god-knows-where after the nasty...incident which had befallen one of the lab assistants in a tiny plane, designed to be hidden in the sky and seemed to be only able to hold about ten people was some stupid guard asserting his power over her.

The engine sparked again, and she looked at it in alarm. Why on earth had the guard left the pilot door open?

"Is everything alright?" He asked. The pilots were looking at flashing screens and pulling levers.

"Actually no, there seems to be some sort of malfunction in the -"

The plane suddenly dropped downwards, plummeting towards the ground and she slid sideways, tugged uncontrollably down by the heavy metal cuffs. Her guard, at the front talking to the pilot, was thrown with surprising force down at the panel, his head smacking against the side. He slid to the floor, unconscious as the one of the pilots scrabbled at a first aid kit.

"Ah!" She shrieked as the cuffs dug into her skin, dragging her wrists down as the plane lost altitude. She yanked them up, almost tilting sideways with the effort, and grabbed onto a pole to pull herself up and headed towards the back of the plane backwards, watching the remaining pilot, who was steadying the plane to land, speaking frantically into a headpiece and wasn't doing a great job at multi-tasking. The plane juddered and shook uncontrollably, and Katherine grabbed onto a pole to steady herself.

The plane dipped down, heading straight for the ground. For a minute, it glided in the air without a problem, then suddenly jerked sideways. Katherine felt the shudder of the impact vibrate through her as the plane fell gracelessly into the ground, skidding sideways. The force of the flew into the wall and her head smacked into plaster. Hot pain bloomed across her skull, and she tasted blood on her tongue as she struggled to move back from the sparking engine as the plane finally ground to a halt, teetering precariously on its burnt wheels.

Quickly, she surveyed her injuries. A bitten tongue, some bruised bones, and a possible concussion, but nothing too serious, which meant the plane couldn't have been more than a few feet off the ground when the engine failed, and also meant she could make a quick escape.

She scrambled to her feet, fumbling around for a moment as she found her balance, which wasn't an easy feat with handcuffs, by placing her chained hands on the opposite wall and making her way towards the doors. The plane was overbalanced, tipped onto one side, the wing the only thing keeping it from toppling over, which unfortunately meant the door was still several feet off the floor, and faced the ground.

Ah well, you only live once or twice.

She viciously kicked at the door. It dented slightly, and she swore at the pain lancing through her ankle. She was still without her magic. She kicked again, and again, until the fifth time, where her supernatural spiritual strength hit and the door cracked open, and she pushed it further apart with her hands. She grinned at the grass beneath her, and prepared to jump out when something grabbed her ankle. She whipped back round tensely, until she saw it was one of the pilots, who had apparently dragged herself across the floor away from the engine, cradling her arm.

"Please…" she choked out and Katherine rolled her eyes.

"Maybe if you hadn't been taking me to a research clinic, I might have had some compassion for your pathetic condition. But," she lifted a shoulder. "You know what they say, every woman for themselves." She waved at the woman, then ducked out of the door and jumped into the ground.

She staggered away from the plane and toppled back over after about five steps on her bad leg. She stood up and giggled, her hands jangling in front of her, still loosely bound together, surprisingly painless. The electric current restricting her ability to pull them apart for some reason appeared to had been deactivated. She held them up in front of her, then as hard as she could muster, pulled her wrists apart.

The metal chain snapped cleanly. Katherine staggered back a few steps from the force, before reclaiming her balance. She looked back at the lifeless plane and smiled when she saw no movement, nobody struggling to escape.

Now she was free, free to hunt for her revenge, the deed she had desperate to achieve for eight years:

Find Tyler Lockwood.

-X-

Present Time.

"Caroline." Something shook her arm, disrupting her sleep. She burrowed away from it, determined to remain asleep, but still it persisted. "Caroline!" More vigorous shaking.

"What?" She snapped at Damon, moving away and trying to go back to sleep.

"Catch!" And suddenly she had a faceful of hair in her mouth. She shrieked and slapped it off, thinking Damon had delivered her a head, but it was only a wig. A black haired one.

She glared at him as he chortled, seeing he had his own disguise with a curly brown wig and a flannel shirt and jeans. He looked ridiculous. "Put it on, Blondie!" He tossed her a bag. She peeked inside it and saw fresh clothes, a toothbrush, deodorant and face wipes. Though relieved at the chance to change out of the prison wear, she still rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"You woke me up for this?"

"At our last rest stop, you told me to wake you up when we made it to the airport."

She grunted at him.

"And we're here, now get out so you can change clothes, and we can ditch this car and get a flight out of this country." He unbuckled her seatbelt impatiently and jumped out of the car. Caroline followed suit, taking a moment to stretch her legs and appreciate the sun's warmth on her face. She hadn't felt seen or felt the sun in nearly two years, and oddly enough, her experience cooped up in the dark, an environment suited for a vampire, made her appreciate the fresh air, the sun's killing rays, and the warmth surrounding her, one daylight ring away from burning her to a crisp.

Speaking of…

She turned to face Damon. "Did you find a way to contact anyone?"

"No, I didn't stop to buy a phone, but we'll do it in the next country. Track phone signals, hire witches to do locator spells, send out a signal, whatever it takes to find the others." He said determinedly. "I overheard one of the guards mentioning something about one of us being transferred to a unit in New York, so maybe we'll find answers there." It was his confidence that reassured her; yes, they would find them, Stefan, Katherine, even Silas. No matter what it took.

"But...there's also the problem of these." He touched the back of his neck, the small lump where the tracker restricting their freedom lay. Caroline nodded. "We can compel a doctor to remove them as soon as we find a hospital."

"Sounds good. Now," he pointed to the boot. "Get changed, brush your teeth, preferably into the bag and get that wig on."

She pulled the boot up and jumped in. "Why can't I brush my teeth in the bathroom?" she asked, pulling off the gritty, stained shirt.

"Because your mouth is covered in blood and it would be quite unsettling, so would draw unnecessary attention." He said condescendingly, turning away as she threw her shirt at him. She quickly fitted on a clean bra, sprayed some deodorant, used the wipes to clean up and wipe her face and quickly scrubbed her teeth after pulling on the top and leggings, then, regrettably, slid the wig on.

She jumped back out, clutching the deodorant, and looked at a smirking Damon as she dumped the bag with her dirty clothes in the car. "There." She shook her head and black strands flew. "Happy now?"

"Very. Black is your colour." He winked. As they both walked away, he suddenly grabbed her hand. She squeezed it, and he squeezed back, seeking comfort from each other's presence, as they headed into the airport. She saw Damon put on a winning smile at a flight attendant, and briefly wondered if he had fed since they fled the Armoury as he leant on the desk for balance.

Once their tickets to New York were handed to them, using fake names of course, Damon compelled the attendant to forget any details about their appearance, and Caroline quickly ushered him onto the plane.

"Where are we where are we?" She scanned the tickets. She looked around, found their seat and threw herself into it, grinning as Damon shook his head at her antics, curly wig bobbing, and sat down next to her.

"I know you've had an extra hour's sleep, but please try to contain yourself. Us old folk need our rest." He smirked mockingly. She rolled her eyes, and sifted through the chair pockets and found a magazine. She flicked through it briefly, before stopping and turning to him.

"Damon?"

"Mmm?" He looked at her, eyes half-lidded.

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad you're here."

He smiled at her. "Me too."

-X-

Mystic Falls.

Matt stared heatedly at the two dots on the screen. They had slowed considerably since arriving in New York, and he was convinced. Convinced it was her.

And he was convinced that she would pay for what she had done.

He saw a car pulling up and turned off the tablet and set it down angrily on the seat next to him. Bonnie got out of the driver's seat, followed by Enzo. Both looked as drained as he felt.

"Hey," Bonnie said as she approached him.

"Hi." He tried to smile, but failed.

"Have you heard any news about where they are now?" She asked without preamble. He supposed there was no time for beating around the bush.

"Not really, but I have a vague idea." He held up his phone. "I got a call from a hospital in New York because Tyler was attacked, and since I'm Tyler's next of kin -"

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, they're having him transferred to a specialist unit in the next state. It shouldn't be a problem, I know, but he uh...something's slowing his healing, and he was left with severe concussion, a broken nose and ribs, a punctured lung and internal bleeding from the broken ribs." He closed his eyes as Tyler's battered body, lying there lifeless in the hospital came to mind. "Not to mention, he developed septicemia and has to have antibiotics along with general anaesthetics because he has to have several operations to...to realign his…collarbone..." he breathed in sharply, unable to finish. Bonnie took his hand reassuringly.

"But he'll be okay?"

"Yeah, eventually. Lucky he's a werewolf, otherwise he wouldn't have even survived the journey to the hospital. If he survives till the next full moon in three weeks, he'll be fine."

"But you think it's them." Enzo said. "Or at least Katherine."

"Yeah. The Armoury files say she was on a flight there yesterday, which means she was in New York around twelve hours ago, so could be one of the two who are in New York right now. But, the trouble is, we don't know who to send out because -"

"You don't know who's who." Enzo finished. He ran his hand through his hair. "If we're dealing with witches, doppelgängers or vampires and in what area."

"Yeah. And it's gonna take a little while to gather all the necessary resources together to take on all of them, since the Armoury seem to be doing whatever the hell they want."

"What do you mean?" Bonnie frowned.

Matt sighed. It was eleven in the morning, and already he was dealing with five homicidal maniacs. He could really use a cup of coffee right now. "They were...experimenting on some of them. I don't know who, or the details, but when I spoke to Tony, he seemed very intent on getting them back in case whatever it was the Armoury did actually worked."

"Well we need to find out!" Bonnie snapped. They both looked at her in surprise, and the tension left her. "Sorry, it's just...I think we need to know exactly what we're dealing with here, because for all we know, they could be tracking us right now!"

"No, no, you're right, we need to do something." Enzo sighed. "I'll speak to the Armoury, to Tony, to ask for a specialist team to head out to New York to recapture the two there. Maybe that'll lure the others back in, you know, the whole prison bonding experience, and it shouldn't be too much of a stretch."

"Thanks. I just don't have the authority or power to go above him, and I'm literally waiting for his call." Matt waved his tablet. "And the most we've got to go on is these trackers to monitor whether they're regrouping, and a few scouts in West Virginia."

Bonnie frowned. "But that makes no sense. If Tony wants them back so badly, why is he waiting so long to capture them?"

"I dunno." Matt shrugged. "He's been more focused on scanning their records, their samples, something about 'knowing what we're up against.' I'm guessing he never got round to fully testing his research."

"Which is never a good sign." Enzo murmured. "Well, I propose we leave, and soon. If we get the Armoury involved, they can help us go undercover, and it'll allow us to watch their movements." He nodded to Matt. "Keep watching their movements and call if there's any changes. I'll talk to Toby, convince him to send out more lackies, and maybe get a look at this private research."

"Okay," Matt nodded, and Bonnie agreed. "Yeah, and maybe find a witch to do a blocking spell on us."

"Good idea." Matt turned to get back in his car. "Call me later with details. I'm gonna go home and get a few things."

"I know I'm probably the only one thinking this, but don't you think something's uneasy about this situation?" He heard Bonnie mutter.

"Chasing people who want us dead is by definition uneasy, love." Enzo chuckled. She shook her head.

"Not just that. If they barely saw each other, and were under complete lockdown and sedation, how on earth could they have gotten out?"

Matt shook his head. "I honestly have no idea. The security cameras were somehow disabled and we can't retrieve them."

And that idea scared him more than anything.

-X-

A student bus pulled over opposite Whitmore College. Students milled out, chatting energetically, refreshed from their summer break, and Katherine quickly mingled with the crowd, wearing a purple hoodie and black leggings, a suitcase in one hand, and curly hair tamed into a high ponytail. Keeping her head down, she quickly blended in as a model student heading towards the campus dormitories.

After successfully using Elena's name to get her room keys, she quickly hopped up the stairs and unlocked the old dormitory she had temporarily shared with Caroline nearly a decade ago, and dumped the suitcase down. She checked Tyler's phone; no new messages from any number, so she assumed that all was well, and Silas and Stefan were hanging around somewhere, assuming that they could find the correct dorm.

She dragged herself over to the full body mirror and yanked out her ponytail. Urgh, she winced at the dark circles under her eyes and her hollowed cheeks. She needed a proper meal and a shower. And to sleep for at least a decade. She hadn't been able to switch off on the two flights, or the bus journey, and was still somehow wired from the adrenaline of freedom. But of course, those luxuries were hard to come by when you escaped from one hell and then got thrown into another not a year later. Reliving the loneliness, the intense fear of being dragged back into that thing -

No! Katherine gripped the mirror violently and rejected the agonising memories. She couldn't let the last ten years rule her life. She had to start over, do something fulfilling with her life, other than running and living in fear.

She took a deep, calming breath, smiling weakly at her reflection, and reached behind it to find some sort of brush, when she saw a shadow jump up at the window, obscured by the thin curtain. She jumped and whipped around, a scream lodged in her throat, and grabbed the first object she saw, which happened to be a clothes hanger, and crept warily towards the window. The shadow began tapping the window incessantly, so hard she thought the glass would crack, and she grabbed the curtain, thinking desperately of some useful spells, yanked it back, and screamed anyway.

"Seriously?!"

Silas hovered on the windowsill, eyes wide at her reaction as he clutched onto the edge of the window. He gestured frantically at the lock, and Katherine quickly twisted it round, slowly opening it up to let him duck his head and twist his body to jump inside, Stefan following suit.

"Seriously Kat," Silas laughed, pointing at the clothes hanger she was still gripping. "What good would that have done? The window was locked."

"Yes, well, I'd rather be safe than sorry, you stupid prick -"

"Nice to see you too!" He smirked, dodging her attempts to hook him with the wire.

"God, why couldn't you two be normal and knock on the door instead of nearly giving me a heart attack?" She swiped playfully at him, grinning reluctantly.

"We just got the trackers cut out down at the medical centre and thought we'd come up the short way!" Silas said innocently. "It's not our fault that we thought you had better sense than to think some other weirdos would come knocking at this particular dorm."

"I didn't think you were the knocking-on-the-window-of-a-third-floor-dorm kind of weirdos!"

"Hey, you stalked me for a century, you should know that that's exactly the type of weirdo I am! Besides, I descend from him, enough said." Stefan jumped in, dodging away as Katherine began prodding him too, continuing to snigger childishly with Silas.

"Don't you start!" She said, giggling. "I've had a rough day. I had to escape a malfunctioning plane and travel halfway across this country to get here!"

"Aww, poor baby," Silas teased, and held open his arms. "Okay, come here," she sighed, then after a moment, smiled, and fell into his chest, breathing in his familiar, earthy scent. "I missed you too. Now go shower before telling us all about your little misadventures. You know," he wrinkled his nose, "Priorities and all."

She glared up at him. "Just when you were becoming more tolerable."

"It's not an insult, it's just me helping you out!"

"You have a funny way of showing it."

"I'm sorry," he said, sounding completely unapologetic, "but wouldn't you like to know that your hair looks like a hedgehog before going out into public? And trust me, I know that the prison shower facilities at the Armoury aren't even worth rating."

"Keep making me feel better, prick." She swatted his head playfully as she pulled out of his embrace and headed into the bathroom. She looked around, seeing it had only a college-provided shampoo, conditioner and soap on the side, but no towels.

Katherine poked her head out the door. "Towels!" and was rewarded with one of the thick, fluffy things being thrown in her face. She shut the door, stripped, and quickly scrubbed her hair out with the shampoo and conditioner and spent a good half hour cleaning and rinsing away the dirt of the Armoury.

She stepped out, feeling considerably more refreshed, and dried herself off, leaving her hair to dry and reluctantly shrugging her clothes back on. She came back into the room and headed back over to the mirror, fluffing out her damp, knotted hair.

"Ah, well there's an improvement. You almost look alive again."

She rolled her eyes at Silas as he and Stefan chortled at his childish comment. "If you would both kindly shut up, you'd realise we have better things to do, you know, like finding Caroline and Damon and removing this thing." She jabbed a finger at the back of her neck. "And I don't know about you, but I feel that Bonnie, Lorenzo and Matty are due a visit."

"Relax kitty kat," Silas stood up, holding her shoulders in a way that was immensely familiar to her, that reminded her of cold, dark emptiness, in a lonely void, where they quickly found refuge in each other. "We'll sort it. Our trackers are on their way out of Virginia, and we'll sort yours out the same way. We can track Damon through Stefan, and hopefully he'll be with Caroline."

He pointed at Stefan. "And me and Stef have the Bozo and Matt situation under control. As soon as we're all together, and all reasonably safe from the Armoury, we'll finish what they started."

She grinned, her mood lightened considerably. "You sent the postcards?"

"Written, sent, delivered, and I'm now imagining the priceless looks on their faces." Stefan said dryly, though there was a hidden delight behind his eyes as he lounged on a bed.

"So, you managed to escape, buy new clothes, find our nemesis' addresses, send them postcards, and remove your trackers all in the space of twelve hours?" She smirked. "Who are you?"

Silas smiled eagerly. His eyes always were brighter when he smiled, brighter than Stefan's. Katherine had never noticed that before. "Well, I'm stupendously amazing and all powerful, so of course I managed to escape and convince the techy people to unseal all the cells, grabbed Stefan, and -"

Stefan cleared his throat pointedly. Silas looked at him and scowled, and Stefan shook his head. "You're forgetting one major detail."

"That's because it's not major -"

"What Silas meant to start with," Stefan said loudly, with an innocent smile. "was, 'the reason I managed to escape was because…'"

Silas rolled his eyes. "My dear doppelgänger took my meds for me so I had the strength to escape, then we destroyed the evidence, stole a car, picked up some clothes at a convenience store, and we looked up our 'targets' online by the way, and we found them easily enough. Matt is a hero police officer, and Bonnie's a semi-famous author, all three have Facebook, and their general location was Mystic Falls, so they've probably staying in the same houses they had five years ago. If not, we named them so someone would have given it to them by now. After we dropped the postcards off at a post office near the town, compelled one of the postmen to double-check they still lived there and to allow for a special delivery, we drove to Whitmore, and the rest you know."

"Huh." She said. "And here I was thinking that Stefan or Caroline, or me would be the ones leading our escape."

"Hey, I'll have you know that it's easy enough to pretend to be unconscious after sedation and escape after Stefan the blood sucker drains it out of you." He smirked jokingly, looking at Stefan, who rolled his eyes in response. "My genius and his fangs are what got us out of this hot mess."

"Keep on believing that, buddy." Stefan stated, stacking his hands on top of his stomach. "But you know we slowly build up a natural tolerance to drugs or sedation over time, so one of us would have gotten out. It was just a matter of time."

"Huh, I think I like that idea more than the fact that Silas was the one in charge of saving us." She teased, flopping onto Stefan's bed backwards. "Give me a pillow."

"Speak for yourself, miss 'I survived a malfunctioning plane'." Stefan mocked, throwing a pillow towards her. She tucked it under her head.

"Hey, it's nothing to make fun of, those could have been my last moments alive!"

"Ooh, pray tell." Silas exclaimed. She felt the bed dip, and his legs resting on top of hers.

"I was on a plane to New York when the plane somehow malfunctioned. They were able to redirect it before it crashed, and after it landed, I took advantage of their surprise to attack and escape, but I think one or two of them survived. I didn't stick around long enough to find out."

"You've finally outworn your usefulness then." Silas said. "You would have made our lives so much easier if you'd just stuck to your reputation and murdered everyone even if it wasn't necessary."

"Oi!" She swung her pillow at his head as he laughed. "But I suppose I should thank you."

He glanced back at her, confused. "For what?"

Her eyes narrowed. "You know, halting the plane so I could get out."

"I didn't cause the plane to malfunction."

"What? But, you escaped, so I thought - you would have also disabled the plane around about the same time."

Silas frowned. "I didn't even know if you were still on a plane, and I didn't want to risk trying to get anyone to hack it if you were still on board and didn't survive a possible crash."

Katherine's eyes narrowed. "Well, Damon and Caroline were barely out of the cells and would have been travelling cross-country, so were still focused on running, let alone finding us, so that can only mean…"

He finished her trail of thoughts. "We have someone from the outside helping us."

Thank you for reading! Now that they're pretty much reuniting, I am going to be doing flashbacks five years ago, to around the same time as the season 7 finale, only it'll be different to how the episode ended, and I'll also be doing some scenes in the present time to develop characters. Please drop a review, let me know if it was worth the read! And by the way, there's a reason why Silas wasn't behind the attack on the guard Caroline found, but it'll be revealed in good time.