Chapter 4.

Elena stood up pulled Bonnie up then put with her hands on her hips. The old Elena was back.

"Ok we need a plan," she said.

I looked up at her and smiled; "No offence Elena but I think we are going to need a whole heap of plans."

"Well we better get started," she said determinately as she and Bonnie helped Matt and me up. Matt looked back at Damon and Stefan who were now being kept apart by Sage.

"What about them?" he asked indicating back to the vampire brothers.

Elena looked at them thoughtful and sighed. "Leave them they need to work it out, we have more important things to do," and she dragged us into the kitchen.

The kitchen looked very different than it had twenty minutes ago. The fridge door was open and food was spread everywhere. Bonnie looked guilty as we cleaned away the mess; it was obviously left over from when she rushed to get something for Damon. I squeezed her hand as she put some plates away. She quickly gave me a hug then finished her work. By this time Sage had managed to get Stefan and Damon into a headlock and was pulling them into the kitchen.

"Now you two sit down and shut up we have much more important things to do at the moment," the vampire roared. I would never admit this out loud but Sage was really scary when he wanted to be.

Elena pulled out the books and files I had given her before our trip into the dark dimension and started sorting out the bits of paper into piles.

"Ok now everyone is here we can get started," She stated and motioned for everyone to sit.

"We have four different situation we need to deal with here, one: there is the situation with Caroline and Matt; two: there are the psycho twins and their path of destruction; three: the girl's of fell's church they are still seriously messed up plus the damage they have caused fell's church and four human Damon and finding the kitunse."

Stefan looked up at Elena. He looked all right; Damon on the other hand was a mess. His clothes and hair was dishevelled, I could see a giant bruise forming around his eye and by the way he was favouring his left side Stefan had obviously broken a few ribs. Considering how mad Stefan was it looked like Damon got off lightly.

"Elena love I told you we weren't going to go back to the dark dimension"

Elena looked back at him; "I know I heard you but I remembered something I read in Mere's research there is a sanctuary for good kitsune somewhere in China."

I looked at Elena. I had completely forgotten about that place and for good reason.

"Elena that place is a myth plus anyone whose gone looking for it has never made it back," I said.

"I know that too but we have a better chance of finding that then going back into the dimension, less of a population to search through."

Elena looked at me nervously obviously wanting my support behind this decision; "I get that Elena finding the needle by removing the haystack but its dangerous Alaric said so," I could see Damon roll his eyes at the mention of Alaric. Those made me smile a little for some reason.

"I know that's why we are going to meet up with him and only Stefan and I will go, less people less damage if we don't find anything we'll be ok plus while we're looking you and Bonnie can come up with an acceptable plan B," she winked at us. I recognised this Elena there was no point trying to stop her now.

"Ok General what's the plan for the rest of us troops?" Bonnie said. Elena smiled.

"Glad you asked you and Sage will stay here and try and figure how to save the girls and Fell's church – you know Bon try and do the hoodoo you do so well"

Matt spoke up; "What about me?"

"You and Mere I was thinking could start hunting down the last star ball as well as keeping the location of the one we have moving"

Matt cast his eyes to the ground like he was ashamed of his thoughts

"I don't know Elena I think my ankle's broken and I don't want to slow Mere down," the always noble and thoughtful Matt said.

"It's ok I can go by myself," I said. I tried to say it as overly excited as I could so he wouldn't feel bad but it seemed to have the opposite affect. It led with a feverous chorus of nos.

Bonnie was the loudest "No way Meredith I mean I love you and I know how tough you are but seriously no no no no no," as she sprouted her protests she ran over and wrapped her arms around my shoulders.

Stefan was the next to speak; "Looking for Shinichi's star ball will be dangerous and you will have to keep the other safe at the same time you need back up." Everyone slowly looked around the room.

"Damon could go with Meredith," Mrs Flowers said. What? Seemed to be the reaction on everyone's face. Mrs Flowers however looked like she knew something we all didn't as always.

"It makes sense, Damon needs someone to watch him while he's in his fragile condition but Damon in a few days we still be strong enough to help keep the star balls and Meredith safe," Sage said. The mysterious vampire sat very still like he was bracing for a sudden violent backlash. Damon and I looked at each other. I would have rather had my tongue nailed to the table that very instant than spend any time alone with Damon but unfortunately the argument for this arrangement made sense.

Damon peered out from underneath the ice pack Mrs Flowers had given him; he was waiting to see what I was going to say. I took in a deep breath and looked at Elena.

"It makes sense it's not my ideal situation," I said looking over at Damon; "but it makes sense."

Damon looked like he was going to complain, you could tell from the ways his eyes kept darting to Elena he had wanted to go with her, but from the steely look of fury that Stefan kept throwing his way I could tell that Damon knew when to pick his battles and this was not an issue to fight everyone on. He threw his hand into the air in submission and simply nodded my way. As much as I didn't like him it was very unsettling to see Damon give in like that.

Elena let out a deep breath, the first time she had in awhile and continued.

"Ok that's that then Matt can stay here with Mrs Flowers and try and figure out how to save Caroline let's go."