Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I just like playing with the timelines and adding my own spice to them.

Chapter 24: Unforseen Consequences

Outside the mansion back in the garden, Elena watches from the bushes in horror as Jeremy confidently walks up to Katherine. She can't hear what's being said, but as Katherine walks briskly off it's clear that Jeremy just relayed some sort of message.

He pulls out his phone, distractedly texting, and Elena seizes her chance. She pulls him behind the bush, startling him.

"What the hell is going on?" she demands.

"Elena!" Jeremy exclaims; his eyes wide with surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same thing," she points out. "I thought I told you to stay out of it!"

He sighs. "Rick told you," he deadpans.

"I figured it out pretty quickly after Jenna told me where you were," she points out. "Jeremy, what the hell!"

"Elena?" Bonnie's surprised voice comes from behind. "What-?"

"She knows," Jeremy interrupts.

"You shouldn't be here," Bonnie says, concerned.

"Neither should you!" Elena says, accusingly. She glares at Jeremy. "Both of you! Seriously, what the hell are you thinking?"

"We're thinking that she's gone too far this time," Jeremy replies firmly. "And she has to be stopped."

Elena stares at him, incredulous. "You guys are trying to kill her here?!"

"We saw an opportunity and we knew we had to take it," Jeremy replies calmly.

"Okay," Elena shakes her head. "Stop with the 'we'. Are you guys crazy? You're gonna get yourselves killed!"

"We know what we're doing, Elena," Bonnie replies.

"And how am I supposed to feel if one of you gets hurt because of me?" Elena points out.

"It's not just you anymore, Elena," Jeremy replies cooly. "She's messed with all of us. She has to be stopped."

Elena stares at Bonnie, but she can already see there is no talking either of them out of this. Bonnie's eyes meet hers; reassuring her that she knows what she's doing.

Elena is about to protest again when she suddenly lets out a scream instead. It's like a hot poker has gone through her! Her eyes widen in fear.

She can't hear her friends over the rushing of the blood in her head and the overwhelming feeling of her nerves being on fire, as if she really has been stabbed. That's when she can feel the wetness at her back and the blood pouring forth.

Oh no...

Moments later she feels it again, this time in her arm. She looks over, horrified, as the blood suddenly appears and she realizes that somewhere Damon and Stefan are fighting Katherine.

"Jeremy, it's Katherine!" Bonnie explains frantically as Elena tries not to pass out from the pain. "She's linked to Katherine, get them to stop! NOW!"

Damon hides inside the closet, his finger firmly on the crossbow trigger. A part of him is just a little bit eager to step out and end this, but another part is savoring this moment. Soon Katherine Pierce will be nothing more than a dried up corpse inside the tomb where she was supposed to be buried in, and he cannot wait to be the one to dump her in there.

"You don't really think you can kill me with that now, do you?" she purrs in her sultry voice.

She's walking toward Stefan, full of all the confidence that he's not going to hurt her.

"No," Stefan replies, "but he can."

Damon steps out and lets the bolt fly. It makes a satisfying sound as it hits her right in the back and she doubles over in shock and surprise.

Shit, he missed the heart.

On the other hand, a quick death is far too merciful anyway.

Stefan rushes forward, stabbing her in the upper arm. As he pulls the stake back out, Katherine shoves him backwards. Stefan lands on the small ottoman behind him, breaking it instantly.

Damon takes advantage of the moment of distraction to pull the crossbow bolt from Katherine's back. She turns as he tries to stake her, and shoves him hard. He flies back into one of the chairs. Damon winces not just at the painful landing, but the cost of the damage that he's going to have to somehow cover for Carol without her knowing he's the reason for it. Of course, he could always blame it on one of the many idiot teenagers at this party. Maybe one of Tyler's friends…but first things first! Time to take this bitch out for good!

Stefan and Katherine are playing a rather dangerous game of catch the flying stake as he rises to his feet. He moves forward with his own stake, but once again the bitch is too quick for him. She grips his wrist, fighting him back as he drives forward. Damn it, she's strong! They should have found some way to spike her drink with vervain first, but then, this is Katherine. She's always one step ahead.

She sends him flying again and he lands on yet another chair. They really should have picked a better spot to do this. Even teenagers can't be this destructive of personal property!

No more playing around, he decides. This ends NOW!

Damon grabs the stake and rises up to his feet again, determined. He aims it at her chest and drives forward again.

Katherine grabs his wrist and pushes him back. She's so much stronger and as she bends his wrist backward, pointing the stake toward his chest, Damon struggles to push her away.

At the last minute, Stefan reaches behind her and puts her in a head-lock, pulling her away from Damon.

They both fall to the floor and Katherine struggles as Stefan holds her in place.

Damon raises the stake high, ready to plunge it into her cold, dead heart.

See you in Hell, bitch!

"STOP!" Jeremy cries from the door. "You're hurting Elena. Everything you're doing to her is hurting Elena."

Damon pulls away, feeling a combination of rage and concern.

Elena!

They should have known Katherine would pull something like this.

Katherine rises to her feet, her lips pursed into a smug expression and her eyes glittering with triumph.

"You think you two are the only ones with a witch on your side?" She purrs tauntingly. "Wrong. Something tells me that my witch is better than your witch!"

She grabs the stake from Damon's hands and walks back to stand behind Stefan.

"Jeremy, go check on Elena," Stefan says. "Make sure she's okay. Go!"

Jeremy rushes off and Katherine rolls her eyes, irritated.

"Let's all make sure that poor Elena's okay," she snaps. She places the point of the stake above her hand. "Just a little more pressure and…"

Damon tries to resist the urge he has to tear her heart out as Katherine cuts a line into her own palm. Stefan smacks the stake out of her hands.

Katherine rushes to retrieve it, a menacing look in her eyes.

"This is really gonna hurt," she says gleefully as she aims the stake at her stomach.

"Wait!" Damon shouts.

Katherine stops and looks at them, and it's evident by the look in her eyes that she knows she has the upper hand.

Damon stares her down. If he hadn't already wanted to murder her before this moment, he really wants to do it now. He wonders how long it will be before Bonnie can reverse this spell, because he'd like nothing more than to deliver Katherine's desiccated corpse to the tomb in pieces and then set it on fire for good measure.

"Okay," Katherine says, flopping down onto the sofa and crossing her legs. "So how about that Moonstone?"

Elena cries out as the red line appears on her palm. She realizes in horror that Katherine is inflicting this pain on purpose.

"Bonnie, it hurts," she whimpers, doing her best to hold on.

She knows that if they can't break this spell, Katherine's not going to stop until she gets what she wants.

Bonnie's eyes are wide as she looks at her friend helplessly.

"I can't break the spell, Elena," she says. "I'm sorry. But I can try to take some of the pain away, okay?" She places a reassuring hand on her shoulder in comfort, and then she closes her eyes and starts chanting in a language Elena can't understand.

The pain has started to dissipate to a dull sting, like if she had a paper cut. It's better, but she knows it won't last.

Jeremy rushes back to the table out of breath.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

Elena looks up into her brother's worried eyes, trying to be brave. If he only knew…but she knows he would only put himself in more danger if he did know just how bad this situation is. Sure, right now her hand might sting, but Katherine is sadistic. There's no telling where she'll inflict the next wound.

"Are they?" she asks, more worried about how Damon and Stefan are doing. They're trapped in the room, and if Katherine could hurt her like this then there's no telling whether the two brothers will be enough to stop her from doing some serious damage.

"They're stuck in there with her," Jeremy says breathlessly. He turns to Bonnie. "You were right. Katherine had a witch link Elena to her."

Bonnie's eyes widen in sudden realization.

"That girl I saw," she whispers. "The one inside!"

She gets to her feet quickly.

"Stay with her. Keep pressure on her shoulder!" she orders Jeremy.

Jeremy turns toward her, confused. "Where are you going?"

"There's another witch here; I'm gonna find her!" Bonnie explains quickly before dashing back to the house.

Jeremy crouches back down and before she can say anything he pulls off his ring.

Elena shakes her head. "No."

"Take this," he commands, holding it out to her.

"No, Jeremy…" she protests.

"Elena, listen," he interrupts her, placing a hand on her head soothingly. "You need this more than I do," he tells her.

Elena wonders for a moment when it was that their roles were reversed. When did Jeremy become the one to protect her?

She can't allow it though. She is the older sister and it doesn't matter that he's not a kid anymore; he's still her little brother.

"No, Jeremy…" she says again seriously. "What I need is for you to be safe."

"I'm okay," he protests. "And I'm not the one linked to Katherine right now. Elena," he says, eyes full of fear for her. "You could die! Katherine may not be able to bleed out, but you can. So take it!"

She shakes her head again.

"No."

"Damn it, why do you have to be so stubborn?" he cries in frustration. "This is exactly why we didn't want you involved. Because no matter what danger you're in, you always worry about everyone else, and all we want is to protect you. Damon said it himself earlier when he told Alaric to watch the house. He'd rather die protecting you than see you get hurt."

"He said that?" Elena asks, momentarily distracted from the pain in her hand.

"They both said it," Jeremy says. "Stefan and Damon both care about you, Elena. I could see it in how they immediately worked together to stop Katherine. They both would rather give you up than put your life in danger, and as long as Katherine is a threat…"

"They can't leave…" Elena says with sudden realization.

"Yeah…" Jeremy confirms.

The pain has vanished and Elena feels a renewed sense of strength. The wound in her hand closes up and her shoulder feels better. She breathes a sigh of relief.

"She did it," Jeremy smiles. "She broke the link!"

Elena nods, feeling relieved that now they can end this.

As Caroline makes her way back to the party she's grinning. She still can't believe it! She actually managed to fool Katherine and beat her at her own game!

After months of living in fear, it would soon all be over.

She can hear the sounds of furniture cracking as the brothers fight with her upstairs, but she knows they can handle themselves. Stefan is pretty strong now that she shared her blood bag supply with him. Her mom can always get her more, after all.

Just as she's about to look for Matt, she hears shouting coming from somewhere down the hall.

She rushes in just in time to see Matt fighting with Tyler.

"What is going on?" she cries!

Matt doesn't respond, continuing to wrestle with Tyler.

She pushes them both away from each other.

"Stop!" she shouts.

Matt gets up and rushes forward again.

"I can't," he says. "Let me go. I have to finish…"

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Tyler shouts, obviously confused as to why his best friend is acting like this.

"Let me go!" Matt shouts again.

"What?" Caroline gasps in horror as she realizes what's really going on.

Matt's been compelled, and she has a bad feeling that it has something to do with Tyler's werewolf curse. Katherine had set up yet another chess piece in her game tonight.

This was her Plan B!

With Mason dead, she still needs another werewolf! Whatever this stupid Moonstone does, it's bad.

She just hopes Matt won't remember this in the morning.

She knocks him out cold and Matt goes down. She can see the blood from his nose and hopes she didn't hit him too hard.

"Matt?"

She crouches down beside him, calling his name again.

Please be okay, she prays. She can hear him breathing, but he might have a concussion, and with Tyler and Sarah both here she can't even heal him.

"How did you—?" Tyler stammers.

"Matt failed," Sarah says in a monotone voice. Caroline's heart leaps into her chest. Oh no…

"If Matt fails, I can't," she says, picking up the letter opener on the desk.

Caroline turns in time to see Sarah move forward, ready to stab him.

"Tyler, look out!" she shouts!

Sarah stabs him in his chest and he shoves her away. Sarah falls back and Caroline watches in horror as she hits her head on the table. The crack is sickening, and Sarah lies still. She doesn't move.

Tyler crouches down to her, frantic.

"No, no, no!" he says pleadingly. "Come on, wake up!"

He shakes her, getting more panicked as she doesn't respond. "Sarah! Sarah, open your eyes. Wake up."

Caroline rises to her feet, the dread already forming in the pit of her stomach. If she's really dead then that means…

"This can't happen," Tyler says, shaking his head. "Oh no. This can't happen. This can't be happening. Sarah. Sarah, get up."

Caroline watches as Tyler continues to plead for Sarah to wake up. But she still doesn't move, and there's no heartbeat.

"Sarah!" Tyler shouts, shaking her harder. "Open your eyes!"

She can see that it's starting to hit him. Sarah is not going to wake up, and Tyler knows what that means.

"Oh god. Oh, this can't be happening," he repeats again. He's in shock. He stands up and backs away.

Caroline crouches down, pretending that she doesn't already know that Sarah's heart has stopped. She places her fingers to her throat. No pulse.

Tyler puts his head in his hands, and then he cries out, as if he's in pain.

She looks up, realizing that it's happening. He's being triggered.

He clutches his chest and falls to his knees, slamming his fist to the floor.

"Tyler?" she asks, rising to her feet.

He can't seem to hear her.

"Tyler!" she calls to him again. He's in so much pain. This isn't like when she turned at all. It wasn't this bad. Part of her feels sorry for him. He's going through this alone.

"Tyler, what's happening?" she asks.

"Get away!" he groans, still not looking at her. He's hunched over, his head down.

"What's happening?" she shouts again.

That's when he looks up and she sees his irises glowing gold.

Author's note: I'm speeding through these chapters as fast as I can. It's not easy with everything else I'm doing and as a single mom with kids on winter break I make no promises. However my goal and intention is to have this story done in the next few months so I can move on to some other ones I left unfinished.

Reviews are love, so if you're enjoying this timeline then you know what to do!

~Temptress Kitten