Here's the next installment, I hope you guys like it as much as I do. It may not seem like much, but everything that is coming up in the story is building towards a HUGE conflict. You might have a guess as to what it might be, but I can guarantee you still won't see it coming.

Nightwing's Gal, thank you for following the story!

CalligraphersNib, I am so glad you like the direction this is going towards. I am not the biggest fan of Bonnie, but I think that is because she is underused on the show! I love Katerina Graham and think Bonnie has so much potential. Just like I have decided to adopt Kol, Damon and Katherine, I have decided to adopt Bonnie. I am not going to try and change any of them, but I want to add to them. I want them to be the characters they should be, if the show had more time to focus on them. I am glad everything still makes sense, if it doesn't, call me out on it. That is exactly the kind of thing that can disrupt my enjoyment of reading other fics so I wouldn't want to commit the same crime.

PLEASE REVIEW. I love you!

Lisolotte

"I am going to need a little blood from each of you. When I tell you, each of you will cut yourself and draw a piece of a star. There are four Mikaelsons and one Charlotte. Together, it should make a star. You are going to draw it inside this circle I have made on the floor. I didn't draw the star, but I figure you can handle that part. Simple enough, right?" Bonnie asked.

"Oh," Kol said. He looked at Bonnie appraisingly, although it was unclear where he was teasing or serious. That was often the case with Kol Mikaelson. "Bossy, I like it. Do it some more."

Bonnie glared at him and turned to Elijah. He was the only person she had directly addressed since she had arrived. Otherwise, she just spoke to the group collectively. Bonnie had obviously not finished on whatever journey it was that she was on. All that anger that she had left Mystic Falls with rolled off her in waves still. In spite of that, she was taking this seriously even though she had not met Charlotte. "Are we expecting someone else?"

"Just me," Katherine said from the doorway. She waltzed over to the group. She rearranged Charlotte's hair as so many people before her had done. It was surprising that her hair still looked so soft and clean after so many hands being run through it.

Immediately, Damon watched Elijah's reaction to the doppelganger knowing what he did from Tatia. He didn't notice anything immediately, but he had to admit that it didn't mean much. The Original could have so much going on under the surface that Damon wouldn't notice.

"Oh, yay, it is a gathering of all my favorite people. Are we going to invite my brother and his ilk next?"

A cough came from the doorway. It was not, in fact, Stefan or any of his "ilk." It was Lucy Bennett, cousin to one Bonnie Bennett. They had not seen her since she had helped Katherine at the masquerade. That felt like eons ago. So many things had happened since they had last seen her.

For the first time, Bonnie's hard façade cracked. For a brief moment, she looked like the young girl she truly was instead of the harden woman she had had to become. She started as if she was going to embrace Lucy, but checked herself.

Lucy stood just inside the door staring at the group before her. It was really intimidating. She had heard of Rachel and her legendary fight with Gloria. The Originals had a reputation that preceded them, especially the three that she did not know. She had not left on good terms with either Damon or Katherine. Bonnie and Elijah were the reasons that she was here. Elijah had called her in to help with Charlotte, the lush promise of a reward and a definite favor owed to her.

He had followed that up with a summary of what had been going on with her cousin Bonnie. Lucy had felt immense guilt about leaving Bonnie like she had. She knew that she needed to get away from the vampires especially with all the drama that they entailed and the risk they brought. She had abandoned her young cousin to those wolves because she had been scared. Bonnie had obviously looked to Lucy with the hope that she could guide her. Lucy had only found out later that Bonnie's grandmother had died leaving her directionless. Lucy felt like she was responsible in some way.

So, here she was, surrounded by vampires and elbow deep in their business again.

"Are you here to help?" Bonnie asked.

A shy smile crossed Lucy's face. "Yes, Elijah called me. He said he figured that he should get as many witches as he can. It didn't hurt that I have much more experience with dark magics than you or Rachel. Doesn't make me the most trustworthy, but it does make me valuable."

"Let's get started, then," Bonnie said with her badass attitude back in place.

The three witches gathered around the grimoires that Rachel had brought with her. "This is what I think we need to do to start," Bonnie told Lucy. "Rachel looked through as many as there as she could and found this," she said flipping to a different spell. "From everything she could tell, this spell is our best bet. We don't know what is doing this exactly. Tatia says that it is Esther, but that really doesn't make sense because she is very dead and we recently sent her back to the other side. Even knowing that it is Esther, we don't know how she is doing this or where she is. The only connection we have is her inhabitance of Charlotte's mind," Bonnie paused here and looked around the room. She might be addressing Lucy, but everyone was listening.

"It's a real setback that the Ghost Whisperer is out of commission, eh?" Damon asked earning him no less than 5 death glares.

"Anyway," Bonnie said with a determined look on her face. "This means that we have to do the incredibly risky thing of rooting her out of Charlotte's mind by force. Someone has to go in and get rid of her. Alone, that would be impossible. If not impossible, it would be highly ill advised. So before we go in, we need to perform a linking spell. It is not the same on that Esther performed to try and kill her children. This spell links life forces. This is just as risky because of this. It makes one person stronger than they might be, but also if one person draws too much from another person, they can die."

Bonnie turned to Damon at this point. "You can't do this with them, Damon. I know you are the one who found her and you are the one who brought us all here, but it is far, far too dangerous for you to be part of this. All the other vampires are old enough that it will probably be fine. I might not like you, but I am not going to let you run headfirst to your death."

A look of pure rage passed over Damon's face and then he sat down. What no one else heard was Tatia telling him that even though he might not like it, what they were telling him was right. Tatia went on to tell him that it wasn't like he was abandoning Charlotte, his actions had put everything in motion and it was going to fall on him to guard over not only Charlotte's body, but the body of whomever went into her dream to get her back. It might not be the most glamorous job ever, but it was important. Damon took was Tatia was saying and complied. In his mind, the idea that he was not going to be her white knight, but Elijah was instead was dominating everything. Not a single other thought could get past that for him. In the end, he simply nodded at Bonnie at sat down demonstrating that he wasn't going to fight them on it.

"I am helping," Katherine said with a determined look on her face.

Bonnie looked at her while biting her lip. "It's your choice, Katherine. You are much older than Damon so you will have such a better chance of surviving."

"I don't care about my chances of survival. This is Charlotte. I will either help bring her back or die trying. There is no other option for me," Katherine said with a completely serious face. Everyone in the room was shocked by the sincerity with which she spoke. Charlotte and Katherine had stated that they were very close friends, but no one in the room had ever seen Katherine do something without an ulterior motive. The idea of Katherine and a selfless act going together was purely alien to everyone.

Bonnie did not like Katherine, but another strong vampire helping did not seem like the worst thing ever. It seemed much easier than fighting her on it. "That's fine, Katherine. It means that you have to do exactly what I tell you." The vampire nodded in assent. "You will do one of the sides of the stars. Charlotte will just be the circle around the star, touching all five points of the star. It's no problem." She scanned the page. "Give us 2 hours to get ready and then we will be off running. Sound good to everyone?" Everyone nodded and looked to Charlotte.