"Why does that name sound familiar?" Tyler wondered to himself. The group was still sitting around the Boarding House.
"She's my doppelganger." Elena told him. "And a vampire."
"Of course. Now I remember." Tyler said. "That day Jules' pack went after you, they said she hung around Mason."
"She's the reason he started looking for the moonstone in the first place." Caroline told him.
"But he got sidetracked trying to get the three of us killed." Damon added. Tyler looked at them, stunned by this new information.
"I'm sorry, Tyler." Maria said. "He really was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Hey, it's fine." He said, shrugging it off.
"You know, when we found out what Uncle John was up to, we couldn't stand him either." Jeremy told him. "But during the sacrifice, he put his life on the line to keep Elena human."
"I'm pretty sure that despite what happened, he wanted to keep you safe, Tyler." Elena added.
"So what are we going to do about her?" Damon asked, trying to get the group back on topic.
"I'm not so sure it's just her, Damon." Maria said. "Remember the dream the four of us had? The connection didn't break when Elena woke up and since she's human, it would've been broken right then if it were just one vampire doing it."
"So, what are you saying? That she's got a friend helping her?" Stefan asked.
"Maybe it was more than one." Bonnie said. "I remember Maria telling me something about how when there's more than one of your own kind, your power is stronger when you work with them. Like how witches spells are stronger when there are more witches involved."
"She's right, guys." Maria said. "The same holds true for vampires and possibly even werewolves."
"So you're saying she's got a whole group of them helping her?" Damon said. "This just keeps getting better and better."
"She's smart, though." Stefan pointed out. "There's no way she'd only turn a few people. She'd probably have at least twice as many people on her side than we think."
"She always loved having a back-up plan." Damon agreed.
"Last time she was in town, she tried to break us up." Elena said, holding onto Stefan.
"It's not going to happen."
"Besides, we've dealt with her before." Jeremy said. "We can do it again."
"Yeah, no one messes with us or our friends." Caroline said.
"Whoa, let's be smart about this, guys." Bonnie told them. "This is Katherine we're talking about. She's could have who knows how many vamps on her side."
"Bonnie's right. There's only nine of us and most likely a lot of them, plus Katherine herself." Maria said.
"So what are we supposed to do? We can't just sit around and wait for them to attack." Jeremy pointed out.
"Or let them try to destroy our lives. Not after what she made me do last time." Caroline added.
"I have an idea, but we're going to need help." Maria told them, glancing at Caroline.
"So what's your idea?" Alaric asked.
"I know it's crazy, but we need Sheriff Forbes on our side." She told them.
"But she hates what we are." Caroline said.
"She's just confused."
"We're probably going to need Matt, too." Tyler said. "Look he's our friend, he's the only other person who knows about us, and I know things are weird right now, but he's never let us down before."
"As much as I hate for him to get involved in this, he's right." Elena said. "We need all the help we can get with this."
"But how are we going to convince them to help us?" Caroline asked.
"I can help with that." Maria told her. "But I'm going to need you with me."
"Are you sure it'll work?" Tyler asked.
"I'm positive." Maria said. "I may not have been here long, but I'm not about to let some vamp girl that tried to ruin your lives before make another attempt at it."
"You really think we can do this?"
"We've gotten through it before and survived." Maria pointed out. "And this time, we're in it together."