A/N: everyone seemed so excited to find out what happened next that I was inspired to write this in less than a week ;) enjoy!

SALEM

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Elena sat in the corner of the room, her hands on her ears as the thunder became deafening. "Oh god, make it stop!"

Damon was sitting on the floor near her, his head leaning against the wall. "You have to learn to shut it out," he said hoarsely, "Focus, Elena."

"But it's so loud," she flinched as another bout of lightening flashed into the bedroom, accompanied by several rumbles of thunder. "I feel like my head is going to split open!"

Katherine was lying on her stomach across the bed, though she was upside down so that her feet were on the pillow and she could face them. "Maybe there's one perk to being human after all," she said, her voice neither smug nor taunting. Instead, she merely sounded exhausted—as if the very act of speaking was draining the last of her energy. "How long have we been locked in here?"

"No idea," Elena answered, and Damon turned to look at her in concern. Although she had looked different from Katherine earlier, now they both held the same pallor color with identical dark circles under their eyes. It was ironic that both a lack of blood and a lack of food led to the same results, vampire and human alike.

"It's easy to lose track of time," Damon agreed, realizing that they were waiting for him to say something. He gazed out the window as a nearly perfect lightning bolt streaked across the sky, and he reached out to hold Elena's hand before the next unearthly boom of thunder sounded. "You guys know this isn't a normal thunderstorm, right?"

"Witchcraft," Katherine mumbled, "Yeah, it's obvious." She tried to lean up against one elbow, but gave up the effort after only a few seconds. "Messing with nature," she said instead, leaving Elena to figure out what she was trying to say.

"Silas and Lucy," Damon explained when Elena continued to look confused, "The spell for the cure draws a tremendous amount of power from nature itself. It's unnatural, see. To change the very essence of who you are."

Elena's grip on his hand was borderline painful—and had he been human, she almost certainly would've broken the bones in his hand. When she spoke, however, she was whispering. "So does this storm mean that they're succeeding in the spell? That they're almost finished?"

"Sounds like it."

Elena groaned, licking her dry lips and trying to focus on anything other than the slow beat of Katherine's heart. "What are we going to do then? Once they make the cure, Silas is going to force Lucy to drop the veil to the Other Side again—and she'll do it, too. She's still not in her right mind, or she wouldn't be helping him!"

"I don't know," Damon admitted, though he hated saying the words out loud. "We'll just have to hope that Lockwood comes up with something."

"Putting all your eggs in one basket," Katherine's voice was so faint that he almost didn't hear her, "That's not like you, Damon."

With extreme difficulty, he pushed himself up into a standing position and stumbled towards her. "Kat?" When she didn't respond, he took a seat on the edge of the bed and tapped her chin. "Hey, can you hear me?" As his fingers brushed against her skin, he was struck by how utterly cold she was. "Katherine?"

"What's wrong with her?" Elena asked, and he turned in shock when he heard the slight hopeful quality in her tone. "Is she dead?"

"Elena."

"What?" she swallowed, digging her nails into the floorboards under her, "I'm so hungry, Damon."

"She's not dead yet," he snapped, though his own willpower was waning. "I can still hear her heart beating."

Elena watched with wide eyes as Damon methodically bit into his own wrist and tipped Katherine's head back. "What the hell are you doing?"

"She's dying," he hissed under his breath, "What would you want me to do?"

"You're—you're saving her life!?" Elena breathed in disbelief, "After everything she's done?"

"So you're saying she deserves to die like this?" Damon forced Katherine's mouth open and let the droplets of blood from his wrist fall between her parted lips. "Locked in some witch's house, trapped by Silas, starving to death, reeling from exhaustion—"

"Shut up," Elena slumped forward, covering her ears again, "God, just shut up!"

"The Elena I know is stronger than this," Damon's voice was fierce, "The Elena I know is a better person than this."

"Maybe you don't know me at all." When she looked up again, her fangs were bared. "Maybe you're about to see the real Elena."

"Stop it," he commanded, forcing himself to his feet and moving so that he was standing between Elena and Katherine. "You don't know what you're doing."

"I know exactly what I'm doing," she snarled, crouching into an attacking position. "I'm being a vampire. I'm feeding. It's what we do." Her eyes narrowed, "It's what you taught me."

Damon held out his arm warningly, "Stay back, Elena. I'm doing this for your own good. You don't want to kill her; you won't be able to live with yourself if you do."

She straightened, her eyes flashing, "I've killed before. I'll get over it."

"That's the hunger talking," he took a step towards her, "This isn't you."

"Damon?"

He turned back around at the sound of Katherine's pitiful voice. "Yeah, I'm here," he told her, still hovering protectively over her body. "Look, just rest. We'll get out of here soon."

"I'm..."

"Don't talk," he interrupted, "You're wasting your energy."

She breathed in, a deep shaking breath that Damon could hear in the very core of his body. "I have to say it," she murmured, "Before..."

The door to the bedroom flew open, though there was nobody standing behind it. Elena whirled around, running out into the hallway and looking down the staircase. Silas was standing at the bottom, a maniacal grin on his face. He waggled his fingers at her in a come hither motion, before disappearing around the corner and into the living room.

When she twisted around, she saw Damon standing at her shoulder. "Let's go down then," he said, his voice sounding dead. "I doubt we have much choice in the matter."

With that being said, they joined hands and walked down the stairs together. Elena almost felt like she was walking towards her doom; one look at Damon's face confirmed he felt the same way.

Silas smirked when he saw them, though his gaze was cold. "Where's the human doppelganger?"

Damon glared, "Dying."

"Well, that should make things easier at any rate," Silas replied flippantly, turning to look at Lucy as she came out of the kitchen. "Isn't that right?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Silas stared at Damon, as if contemplating whether to answer him or not. Eventually he shrugged, "See, the cure requires more magical power than either of you could possibly imagine. It's against what nature wants, against the balance it requires."

"So?"

"Going against nature means—"

"It means a sacrifice," Lucy cut in now, her voice loud and powerful. "And what better sacrifice than a Petrova doppelganger?"

"Wait," Elena said weakly, beginning to come to her senses as she leaned heavily against Damon. "No, you can't kill her."

"It's either you or her," Silas' eyes glittered menacingly, "And after all she's done to you? She deserves to die, doesn't she?"

Damon gripped Elena's hand tightly. For once, he didn't see a way out. He couldn't save them both, and there was no way in hell he was letting anything happen to Elena.

"She doesn't deserve it," Elena began, but Damon tugged on her arm so sharply that she shot him a startled look.

"Don't," he said in an undertone, "I love you. Don't do this."

She fell silent.

"Great," Silas clapped his hands, "It's all settled then." He gestured up the stairs, "After you, Lucy."

"What would Bonnie think!?" Elena burst out suddenly, her eyes pleading as she looked at Lucy. "Sh-she looked up to you, she respected you! She wouldn't want you to—"

"Lucy will find out exactly what Bonnie thinks when the veil comes down," Silas interrupted, "So no need for these hypothetical questions."

The door was flung open with such force that it sent the walls of the house shuddering. "Funny," Elijah said from the doorway, "Those are my favorite types of questions."

9:00AM

The taxi pulled to a stop a block away from the Lockwood residence, and Caroline hastily tossed some bills at the driver. "Keep the change," she said distractedly, not noticing the driver's face light up at the abnormally large tip she had given him. As soon as he began driving away, she took off in the opposite direction, running at almost vampire speed.

She came to a halt in front of Tyler's house and knocked at the door desperately. "Ty, you in there? TYLER? Where are—?"

The roar of an engine caught her attention, and she turned to see a motorcycle peeling down the street towards her. Caroline stared as it slowed near the house and then came to a stop at the edge of the driveway. Tears welled up in her eyes as the helmet came off and then Tyler was leaping off the bike, coming towards her. He stopped about ten feet from her and they simply gazed at each other, soaking in the sight of seeing each other after so long.

And then he blurred forward before she could blink, and he was suddenly in her arms, holding her against his muscled body and she was grasping onto his leather jacket, her fingers digging into his shoulders as she breathed in his scent."It's really you," she murmured as he burrowed his face into the crook of her neck, "You're actually here."

"God, Care," Tyler muttered before finding her lips and kissing her fiercely, "I missed you so freaking much."

"I missed you too," she gasped out loud as his mouth moved to her neck, his hands moving from her waist to skimming under her shirt. His fingers were hot against her skin as he pushed her against the side of the house, apparently not caring that they were giving the neighbors a show. "Ty," she whispered, "Wait...wait...just...will you wait!?"

He broke away from her lips, looking dazed. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Caroline shook her head to clear it, and she fumbled in her pockets for a second before extracting what she was looking for. "Your key," she said to him, "Matt left it with me before he went off on his summer road trip with Rebekah. He said to give it to you when you came back."

Tyler took the key, though the look on his face was priceless. "Matt and Rebekah, huh?" When she didn't respond with her usual dramatics, he looked past her. "How did you get here so fast?"

"I took the first flight out of Louisiana," she bit her lip before plowing on, "Klaus pulled some strings to get me a ticket."

The change in Tyler's demeanor was readily apparent as he stiffened. "I see. And where is Klaus now? He didn't come with you? I thought he was friends with Stefan—he wouldn't even come back to help?"

Caroline swallowed, pushing down the shared betrayal that she felt on Stefan's behalf. "He said he was busy," she answered in a clipped tone, "So it's just you and me, Tyler." She looked back at the motorcycle, "Where were you?"

"I took the first flight out of Boston and got here a couple hours ago." He led her away from the motorcycle and towards the back of the house, where she was surprised to see Matt's new pickup truck. "I stopped at the hardware store and picked up some things I thought we could use.

She peered into the back of the truck, her hands sifting through the heavy duty rope, a long metal chain, a large hook, and several towels and blankets. "Good," she said, staring at the items without having any sort of clue about how they were actually going to use them. "This is good." Then she frowned, cocking her ear in the other direction as she heard the sound of tires rumbling up the driveway. "Who could that be?"

Tyler raised an eyebrow at her, looking secretive. "Why don't you go around and check?"

Caroline shot him a suspicious look before striding around the corner. Then she came to a standstill, her mouth dropping open. "Mom!"

Sheriff Forbes got out of the car, looking weary. But she still smiled when she saw her daughter. "You're okay," she embraced Caroline tightly, "You're really okay. With everything that's happened, I was afraid..."

"I'm fine," she reassured her mother, but then took a step back. "What are you doing here?"

"I called her," Tyler replied, his hands in his pockets as he came forward to join them. "I figured we'd need reinforcements." He nodded towards the trunk of the car, "Did you bring it?"

"As much as I could get away with," Sheriff Forbes walked around the car to pop open the trunk. The stinging scent of blood struck Caroline's nostrils and she fought the vampiric instincts threatening to take over as she gazed at the three large coolers sitting there. "Think that's enough for someone who's been drowning without blood?"

Caroline looked over at her mother in surprise, "You know?"

"Tyler told me," Liz responded uneasily, "Now, about this Silas character...how do you guys plan on getting rid of him?"

"That's not for us to worry about right now," Caroline shook her head, running her fingers through her hair as she thought about what to do. "We're here to rescue Stefan, let's just focus on that for now."

"Agreed," Tyler said, revving into action. "Care, you and me will take Matt's truck and drive it to the edge of the quarry. Liz, you can follow us in your car. But when we pull Stefan out, I want you to stand as far away as possible, okay? We don't want him to smell your blood and attack you or anything like that."

"Will he..." Sheriff Forbes looked pained, "Even be able to move?"

Caroline flinched.

Tyler looked over at her quickly, but kept his face expressionless. "Better safe than sorry."

"Ah yes, that is what I always say, isn't it, Matt?"

Everyone turned around to gape as Rebekah strolled casually across the sidewalk to meet them, with Matt by her side.

"Wha—what?" Caroline stammered, "What on earth are you two doing here!?"

"I heard reinforcements were in order," Rebekah said briskly, the sunlight shining on her blonde hair almost like a halo. "Double crossing and betrayals aside, Stefan is an old friend. If Niklaus couldn't be here, then he wanted to send the next best thing." She smiled widely, "Me."

"Klaus sent you?" Tyler demanded, "But I thought you were...away."

"We were just leaving Niagara Falls when Klaus called," Matt said, speaking for the first time. "We came right away." He paused, sounding uncertain, "Will Stefan be alright?"

"We won't know till we get there," Tyler said, when it became clear no one else was going to answer. "Okay, so change of plans. Matt, you can drive your truck down to the quarry with Rebekah. I'll drive there on my motorcycle, and Caroline you can come in your mom's car. Everyone good with that?"

Rebekah nodded, straightening as her expression became serious. "Let's go save Stefan."