A/N: since the gang is split into 3 groups for right now, current chapters will have three different sections so we can follow all their journeys at the same time. enjoy and thank you as always for your reviews!

Katherine stared sullenly into the side mirror as the 'Entering Boston' sign grew smaller and smaller into the distance. "What happened to stopping at a luxury spa?" she asked stiffly, not turning to face the man beside her. It was like he was mocking her by wearing Stefan's skin—looking exactly like him, like someone she had trusted. If only she'd been a vampire, she would've been able to tell the difference sooner, if only she'd been paying attention instead of consumed with finding a cure to her sudden mortality, if only...

"Stopping?" Silas gave a short, cruel laugh. "You mean so that you can attempt to run away or make a phone call? Yeah, I don't think so." Then he held out his hand, making his intentions clear. "Speaking of which."

She glanced down, her lips curling with distaste, "No. I'm not giving you my phone."

"I wasn't under the impression that you had a choice," he replied easily, "Hand it over, dear Katerina."

Katherine tensed, her body going cold. "Don't call me that."

He treated her to a broad smile, and she found herself cursing him again for looking like Stefan. Now that she was paying attention, she could see the lack of warmth in his eyes; the lack of recognition that sparked whenever she and Stefan were alone together, the lack of the connection they had shared from their past. Silas' eyes were dead, probably mirroring his utter lack of a soul.

"Because I'm not Elijah?" Silas smirked, "Your precious Elijah...I spoke to him, you know. He acts like he's superior to you lot, but he was fooled just the same. He handed the cure over to what he assumed was his contrite sister, Rebekah. That's his downfall, of course. The reason that he will never be great and powerful, the reason why people don't fear him like they should."

She gritted her teeth, "Because he cares for his family?"

Silas glanced over at her, "Sore subject, I presume." Katherine crossed her arms, but didn't respond. "He left you for his family," Silas said deliberately, clearly enjoying digging the knife in deeper. "Chose them over you, the woman he supposedly loved. I can't imagine how that must feel." After studying her for a second, he abruptly turned back around to face the road. "Of course, you have a lot in common with Qetsiyah," he added offhandedly, "Woman scorned and all that."

Katherine glared, "What do you want with me? I'm human. I can't do anything to help you reunite with your stupid lover, or whatever it is that you're planning now. And where is Stefan? The real one. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?"

"Calm yourself. He isn't dead, if that's what you mean. And the plan hasn't changed."

"If he isn't dead, then where is he?" she demanded hotly, to which he only shrugged his shoulders. "If you don't tell me, I'll—"

"You'll what?" he challenged, "You have nothing to bargain with, Katherine." He glanced at her reprovingly, "And you're asking all the wrong questions."

She seethed in her seat, her brow furrowed as she thought back to what he had said. The plan hasn't changed. "But it has to change," she said out loud, "The plan, I mean. The cure is gone."

"A minor setback."

Katherine looked at him incredulously, "There is only one cure, Silas. Without it, you can't die." As the words came out of her mouth, her eyes widened in sudden realization. "Wait, is there more than one? Did Qetsiyah create two?"

"It was I who created it," Silas corrected her, "I was the more powerful warlock, between the two of us. She merely helped me cast the spell." He paused, "And to answer your question: no, there is not another secret, hidden cure somewhere. There was only the one."

"Then, what? What's your grand master plan?"

Silas held out his hand again, "Phone, Katherine."

She blew out an exasperated breath, but nonetheless reached into her purse and dug it out. "Fine, here," she snapped, dropping it into the palm of his hand. "Now will you tell me?"

He examined it for a second before crushing it in his fist and tossing the pieces out the window. "Your pretty little head is just swimming with useful information," he told her, "It would be advantageous for me to keep you around, vampire or not." They passed the sign for Salem, and Silas eased up on the gas pedal. "Without you, how else would I have known that there was another Bennett descendent nearby?"

"Lucy isn't as powerful as Bonnie was," Katherine muttered petulantly, "She won't be able to help you. And once she hears that Bonnie is dead, she definitely won't want anything to do with you."

"Bonnie was weak when I first met her," Silas suddenly spat, "It was I who made her powerful, it was I who drove her to reach her full potential. If Shane hadn't taught her Expression, then she—"

"Wouldn't be dead," Katherine snarled, "It doesn't matter how you spin it. If she hadn't gotten mixed up in your boneheaded scheme, then she'd still be alive."

"If she hadn't tried to save Jeremy from the Other Side—where he was because of you, incidentally—then she'd still be alive," Silas retorted, "But no matter. Lucy is a Bennett witch. She's still a descendant of Qetsiyah. Ergo, she can be powerful too. All she needs is a little nudge in the right direction."

Katherine was silent for a few minutes, picking apart the new strands of information she'd been given and rearranging the puzzle pieces in her head. "What's the point of convincing Lucy to lower the veil to the Other Side if you can't die?"

"Alright so I lied," Silas conceded, "The plan has changed a little. But the idea is still the same."

She could feel her frustration mount, "What are you talking about?"

"Even if Lucy can undo what was done to you, there is no way of getting the cure back," Silas told her as they slowly pulled to a stop on a side street across from a hotel. "But I'm still a warlock and she's still a witch."

Katherine stared at him, realization making her head spin. "You want to create another cure for immortality," she whispered, "And you want her to help you."

"That's right," Silas replied cheerfully as he got out of the car. When she didn't make a move to join him, he pointedly came over to the passenger side and pulled open the door. "I said that you would be useful to me," he said in a low voice, "Not that you were irreplaceable. Now get out of the car and don't make a scene. If you try running, asking for help, or doing anything else to thwart my plans, I will kill you. Are we clear?"

She clenched her jaw, but begrudgingly swung her legs out of the seat and stumbled out into the fresh breeze. "Fine," she hissed, because he was waiting for an answer. "No running."

"Good," he held out his arm to her, "While we are here, you will play your part convincingly. And, Katherine?" They were just about to cross the threshold into the hotel when he stopped her, looking at her intently. "What we were discussing before, about Elijah. It isn't his care for his family that is his downfall." She frowned in confusion at the change in subject, but Silas went on, "It's his trust."

"Trust?" Katherine echoed, "Elijah doesn't—"

"He trusts too quickly, too easily. He wants to believe the best in people; he wants to believe the people he cares for are inherently good." Silas stepped closer to her, and she instinctively shivered as his lips brushed past her cheek. "I'm not him. Don't try to play me, Katherine. Don't forget, I can get into your head, I can see everything. Got it?"

"Yes," she swallowed as he pulled away, "Got it."

Caroline was staring at the ceiling of her hotel room. It was 6AM, and sunlight had been streaming past her curtains for the past 30 minutes. She knew she should probably get up, but she couldn't bring herself to move. What if Klaus didn't want to help them? He hadn't exactly been happy with her the last time they'd spoken on the phone. In fact, he'd been downright rude.

Her lips turned down at the corners as she shuffled onto her side, burying her face into the pillow. She wondered how Matt was getting along with only Rebekah to keep him company. That certainly took a lot of trust—putting your human life into the hands of someone who had almost killed you—and that 'someone' being not only a vampire, but an Original at that.

Caroline shifted, vague memories flickering through her mind at lightning speed. "There's a whole world out there waiting for you, great cities and art and music, genuine beauty..." But it wasn't just her, it was all of them—Matt, Elena, Bonnie, Tyler—they had all grown up in Mystic Falls, never daring to dream big. They'd all had their predictable human lives laid out before them, forever tethered to small town life. "I'll take you. Wherever you want. Rome. Paris. Tokyo?"

"Must be nice," she mumbled, the memory slipping out of her grasp, back into oblivion where it belonged. "Must be really nice to just snap your fingers and get whatever you want."

Without warning, her chest tightened and she hastily tried to think of something else—anything else, really—but an errant tear still slid past her eyelid and down her cheek, cooling her heated skin. She angrily wiped it away. What was wrong with her? Was she actually jealous of Matt for jumping at the opportunity to do something that he wanted? She pressed her lips together, already disgusted at herself for even allowing the notion to cross her mind.

So what if Matt was traveling the world with Rebekah? After everything he'd been through, he'd come out on the other side with his head held high; human and stronger than the rest of them combined. He deserved a little happiness, even if it was with...Rebekah. Another whisper of a memory floated through her mind, and she groaned, fighting the urge to scream into her pillow. "So you've never felt the attraction that comes when someone who's capable of doing terrible things for some reason cares only about you?"

She irately flipped onto her other side, scrunching the covers into her hands and throwing them over her face. That had to explain why Matt had chosen to go with Rebekah. It was an adrenaline rush—someone over a thousand years old holding a torch for you, wanting to protect you, caring only for you...not she knew anything about that. She was only guessing, really.

A heavy knock sounded at the door, interrupting the snarky devil on her shoulder making claims about denial and Egypt. "Caroline?" Jeremy called loudly, "You ready to go?"

With a groan, she tossed the covers onto the floor and shuffled her way to the door. "Come in," she said grumpily to a surprised looking Jeremy, "I'll be ready in a few."

"Vampire speed," he nodded, eying the mess in the room and raising an eyebrow, "Right." When she didn't respond, he held a cup out to her. "Here, I went to the cafe down the street and got us coffee."

"Thanks," she tried to smile, putting it on the desk without taking a sip. "So, I'm just gonna shower," she told him, grabbing some clothes out of her bag without paying attention to what they were. "Then we can get out of here. It's a six hour drive from Atlanta to New Orleans, so we'll be there by early afternoon."

"I'll drive today," Jeremy said, grabbing her wrist as she walked past him. "What's wrong?"

"What?" she asked, startled. "Nothing's wrong." She put on her best bubbly smile, "I'm always a little grouchy in the morning. Don't worry, it'll wear off after I add a blood bag to that coffee you got me."

"You've been crying," he stated, not letting go of her wrist. "So I think this is about a little more than early morning blood cravings. Talk to me, Caroline. It's just the two of us out here, who else do you have?"

"It's...it's nothing, okay?" Caroline pulled away, letting her hair swing forward to hide her expression. "I was just thinking about what's going to happen if Klaus and his witches refuse to help us, and what that might mean for Bonnie."

Jeremy took a seat on the edge of the bed, looking thoughtful. "You can't think like that," he said quietly, "We have to be strong. For Bonnie's sake."

She took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. "For Bonnie," she murmured to herself, almost like a mantra. Then she nodded, squaring her shoulders. "You're right," she told him, "We're going to make this happen for Bonnie, no matter what it takes." She picked up her coffee cup and raised it in his direction, "To Bonnie."

"To Bonnie."

Elena opened her eyes, glancing around the unfamiliar surroundings for a minute before remembering that she and Damon had stopped for the night in Pennsylvania. He had booked them an extravagant hotel room, and then had wasted no time in christening every surface of it. She smiled a little as she arched her back, still feeling deliciously satisfied after last night. Come to think of it, she didn't know when the two of them had actually fallen asleep—and on top of the bed, too. That was a surprise.

Her leg was already thrown lazily over Damon's body, her knee nudging against his hip to bring him closer. All she had to do was raise herself off the bed and shift a few inches to the right until she was straddling his waist, her long hair tickling the bare skin on his chest. "Someone's awake," he mumbled, keeping his eyes closed but smiling slightly as her hands danced along his arms. "I thought I tired you out last night."

"You did," she knelt forward, brushing her lips against his until he drowsily responded. Her lips parted as he deepened the kiss, his hands moving up her legs to rest on her hips, holding her in place. She sighed appreciatively when he shifted her closer, entering her in one swift move. She closed her eyes, her head falling back as she steadied herself by placing a hand on his chest and riding back and forth at a languid pace.

It was always like this with them in the mornings; slow, unhurried. It was what they both needed after the insatiable nights, where they just couldn't seem to get enough of each other. She didn't know if it was a vampire thing or a them thing. "You're thinking too much," Damon murmured, interrupting her thoughts. His fingers trailed upwards to her cheek, "Look at me."

When she did, he flipped them over and she let out a startled gasp as he picked up the pace, driving into her at just the right angle. She threw her head back as her fangs elongated, her vampiric side fighting for dominance. "Go ahead," he grunted into her shoulder, and she felt his own fangs scrape her neck at the same time that she bit into him. Supernatural instincts took over as they became a mere blur, each of them striving to find their release.

...

"I just finished talking to Caroline and Jeremy," Elena said as she hung up the phone. "They hit the road early this morning, so they're about an hour away from New Orleans."

Damon nodded, glancing down at the GPS. "We're just crossing into Connecticut now, so it looks like we'll be in Salem in about three hours. Two and a half if I have anything to say about it." Even as he spoke, the speedometer creeped upwards. "Who's been texting you?"

"It's Jeremy," she frowned, "He couldn't say it over the phone because Caroline would overhear, but he says that he's worried about her. She hasn't been acting like herself."

"Can you blame her? She's been through a lot," Damon shrugged, "She's been holding up pretty well, I'd say."

Elena smiled, reaching over to squeeze his arm. "You have a lot of respect for her, don't you?"

"Maybe Stefan is rubbing off on me," he answered wryly, to which she grinned. "But no," he went on, his expression becoming serious. "I've seen how far she's come, that's all. I don't want her to lose that, just because everyone's either dead or..."

"Missing," Elena breathed, her mouth dropping open as the car came to a screeching halt. A figure stumbled out into the middle of the highway, directly in front of their car. "Is that...but it can't possibly be..."

Damon killed the engine and they both stared in disbelief as the person collapsed against the hood of the car. His clothes were tattered, his tanned skin streaked with dirt, and his once perfectly groomed spiky black hair was overgrown, drooping across his forehead. Elena tore off her seatbelt, rushing out of the car, "TYLER!"