Thank you for the reviews. They keep me going.

Hayley watched Nik then her eyes squeezed shut from a lingering pain. The torture spell may have stopped, but her body still burned as if the pain had broken into her bloodstream.

"A plan to abolish my family and I wasn't even invited?" Klaus said to the few witches who still stood their ground. There was the well-known mischievous and evil smirk on his lips. But when Hayley read his eyes, she could tell he was livid from someone trying to hurt the people he loved. She let out a gasp of breath. How could she have believed him to be that accused monster? He did care about all of them.

Hayley turned and instantly met Elijah's eyes. Without missing a beat, she rushed over to him and he met her halfway. The wall had dropped in the chaos, letting Elijah out of his cage. The second she was within his reach, his arms wrapped around her tightly. A gasp of relief escaped his mouth.

"Are you okay?" He rushed, barely pulling away to only grasp her face in his hands. His eyes tore into hers to make sure he could read any lie she dared to mutter. Hayley nodded her head. She seemed to be at a loss for words. Elijah had almost died and right in front of her eyes. But he was saved. She saved him at the last minute.

"You're lying. You are in pain." Elijah said right after her head shook.

"No-No, I'm fine." She was finally able to speak.

He looked over her shoulder to see the few witches facing his brother. His eyes searched for the redhead he knew. But it seemed Genevieve had disappeared.

"It's always witches who believe they have finally found a way to end my family." Klaus began addressing his new enemy as he sauntered forward a bit.

Elijah brought his attention back Hayley, ignoring his brother. "Hayley, you will take Rebekah and go with the Salvatores." She looked at him like he had just asked her to kill him. Elijah knew it was a strange thing to request. But he just needed her to get to safety. He couldn't hold onto his famous composure if she were in any sort of danger. And while the Salvatores hated his family and hurt Hayley once, no one would hurt her now. Even if Damon tried, Elena or one of her friends would stop him.

"What are you talking about? I'm staying. I'm staying here with you!" She urged. The words sped from her lips like he would disappear any second. She took a step back so her face was no longer in the grasp of his hands.

"It was rather stupid of you to stand your ground. I will let you know now, none of you are leaving this clearing alive." Klaus threatened casually as Elijah and Hayley had their own, hushed conversation.

"Hayley, listen to me!" Elijah said calmly but she could easily read the insistence in his voice. He grabbed her shoulders. "I need you to leave. I cannot focus on anything, but your safety." But as he finished his begging, he noticed that her eyes had drifted away from his. She was looking at the two witches that were now dead. "Hayley!" He didn't bother matching where she was looking.

"Elijah." She whispered as her eyes widened.

"You give us empty threats, hybrid." A warlock took one step forward and spoke with an unusual calmness. It made Klaus' arrogant smirk disappear from what he saw as a sign of disrespect. Then the warlock seemed to be looking at the dead bodies just like Hayley. "I thought, after all of your immortality, you'd remember that killing a witch never ends their magic. It only makes our family's stronger." The warlock added with a smirk and gestured to the bodies with his hand.

Klaus whipped around to Hayley and Elijah who were standing the closest to the bodies. But Elijah's back was to his brother while he firmly held Hayley's shoulders. She stared in horror at the bodies. Klaus watched too to see that there was a black mist that seemed to be escaping off of both the witch and warlock's bodies. Elijah finally followed Hayley's gaze and spotted it almost at the same time. He immediately pushed Hayley back and behind him even though he had no idea what it was.

Elena and all of her friends, who had been stunned by the turn of events, watched along with the originals. Damon stood a few feet in front of the group from his stumbling with the pain the witches had thrust upon him. But now he stood tall as if he was protecting everyone that stood behind him. He always tried to play the villain. But a true villain would have fled long ago, not standing at the front line where he would sacrifice himself in order to protect others.

Klaus' gaze narrowed at the mist that was rising into the air from the bodies. He whipped back around to face the warlock who turned down his threats. But all of the witches were gone. No one had seen them flee. Everyone had been too occupied trying to figure out what was happening to the witch and warlock's bodies.

"What's happening?" Hayley whispered as Elijah kept pushing her away from it and closer to Rebekah.

"I have never seen anything like it." He admitted only to her. Then everyone watched as it stopped rising and hovered just about their heads in the middle of the forest clearing. "Rebekah, take Hayley with you. Get out of town." He knew it was pointless to ask Hayley himself.

"I'm not leaving." She stood her ground. And she glanced at Rebekah to see she had no intention of leaving either.

Elijah opened his mouth to argue with both of them, with his eyes still on the mist. Except, suddenly, it flew from the sky and to the ground. But it didn't hit the forest floor. It went directly at Damon Salvatore.

The young vampire's eyes rolled to the back of his head as it leaned far back in a disturbing manner. "Damon!" Elijah heard Elena yell. She tried rushing forward, but Stefan held her away from him. Klaus was a few yards away, watching intently without any sense of alarm like everyone else.

Damon's neck suddenly snapped back to normalcy. Then his head turned, ever so slowly, until his eyes met Klaus'. But instead of seeing Damon's beautiful and glowing blue eyes, Klaus was met with blackness that smoked over Damon's entire eyeball. "You will finally learn what it's like to lose someone you care about, hybrid. If we can't kill you, your punishment will be to live knowing you are the only reason the people you love are dead." It was Damon's voice speaking, but not him. The witch, Louelle, and the warlock had taken over the vampire's body.

Klaus clenched his jaw tightly. It was a stupid move to simply kill them. He should have force-fed them his blood so they were in transition. Now there was magic in the body of a vampire: a deadly weapon. But Klaus' smirk barely faltered. He had to keep up his façade. There was a reputation to keep up. He shrugged his shoulders at Damon's body, trying to give off the exact opposite ambiance of fear or concern.

"You made your hybrids to fight the loneliness in your heart." Damon said as he stepped toward Klaus, whose smirk had disappeared completely. "Our family has a unique ability to look into other's hearts. It's even easier to read you vampires."

"First, it will be your sister, then your brother, then the girl who only died and became a vampire because she was your friend." He continued when Klaus remained speechless in the conversation.

With the mentioning of Hayley and his sister, Elijah turned around to make eye contact with both of them. He was about to compel Hayley to leave and take his sister with her. It was one of the hardest decisions to make, but it was the only way to get her to flee to safety. But just as he made eye contact with her, he felt a brush of wind on the back of his neck. He turned to see Damon right in his face.

In the same moment of his turn, Elijah grabbed for Damon's neck and attempted to break it. Perhaps it would end all of this before it began. But he was surprised when the young vampire grabbed his wrist and was somehow capable of ripping it away. Elijah paused for just a split second, stunned at Damon's new power. The witches must be channeling some sort of magic to make him stronger. But Elijah's hesitation was too much. Damon grabbed him by the neck and threw him yards away. Before he could even hit the ground, Damon was hovering over Elijah with a white oak stake someway already in his grasp.

Hayley was the first person to act out of everyone who was caught off guard by Damon's possessed actions. She rushed forward and challenged Damon, giving Elijah time to get off the ground and defend himself. But she underestimated Damon's new strength. Her hold over him was flipped and her body was trapped underneath his, pinning her to the forest floor. Elijah's eyes darkened as he saw her once again put into danger. But just as he took a step toward them, Damon held up his palm at him and a force of magic threw Elijah back once again. He landed right in the middle of the field.

Klaus had refused to intervene. If he stopped Damon, wouldn't it just prove that he cared about the people he threatened to hurt? But he underestimated how much he could handle watching them get hurt. Damon was choking Hayley. Klaus tightened and unclenched his fists from trying not to stop it.

Elijah instantly got off the ground but once again he was in his own invisible cage. Rebekah was too terrified and confused on what to do. But when she tried to finally intervene, she couldn't get anywhere near her brothers or Hayley.

Damon glanced at Elijah fighting against the invisible barrier and then looked back down at Hayley who struggled against his hold. "I'll deal with you in a second." He said to her that almost sounded like the real Damon Salvatore. As soon as he got up and walked a few feet away from him, Hayley rolled to her feet and prepared to tackle him to the ground and fight with every ounce of strength she had left.

As if he could read her mind, Hayley fell back to her knees and screeched with pain. "Don't try anything again." She was somehow able to hear Damon mutter as he walked toward Elijah. Leaves became tangled in Hayley's blonde-red hair as her body trembled on the ground. Klaus couldn't take it any longer. He rushed to her side, completely helpless on how to help.

"Hayley, I'm sorry." He whispered. It took a situation as deadly as the current one for him to finally put his stubbornness aside and admit that he had made a terrible mistake. How could he have ever chosen his hybrids, a fake and forced family, over his true one? He kneeled at Hayley's side whose eyes were clenched shut from the agony.

"Help-Help him." She managed to drone through it. Klaus instantly moved his attention to Damon's possessed body as it walked toward Elijah, who stood firmly and looked as if he would kill Damon as soon as he was inside the enclosure.

Rebekah continued to test where she was able to move. And she let out a sound of relief when she was no longer being held back from Hayley and Klaus. She rushed to her side, ignoring Klaus who had got up and started walking toward Damon.

Hayley's pain pulsated less and less through her body. She opened her eyes and looked around to see what had happened while her pain blinded her. Slowly, she sat up to see Elijah was trapped and waiting for Damon to get close enough for an attack.

"Enough!" Klaus finally shouted. He stood his ground, facing Damon's back as he walked toward Elijah. He stopped but didn't turn to face Klaus. "You've made your point. But if you continue with this, you will only have lowered yourself to my vices."

Damon slowly turned, his eyes black as the night he stood in, and a smile appeared on his lips. But it wasn't the smirk that everyone always wanted to smack away. It was Louelle's smile. "I am on the other side now, hybrid. I will lower myself as much as I need to avenge the atrocity your mother created." Klaus had no rebuttal. He didn't know how to save his brother. Damon seemed to have entered to the Elijah's personal hell. Klaus walked as far forward as it would allow.

Hayley raced to his side. Klaus glanced down at her to see she was staring at Elijah with terror. She knew that there was no way he could win a fight against two magical spirits inside a dangerous vampire. She tore her gaze away from Elijah and looked at up at Klaus with the most wretched expression. "Do something." She whispered. But she looked back at Elijah who still stood his ground as Damon walked closer and closer to him. He knew that there was little chance of survival, but that didn't mean he was going down without a fight.

Damon held up his palm and Elijah was forced onto his knees by magic. Klaus watched the muscles ripple as his brother tried to fight the power. But Elijah stayed locked to the ground, looking up at Damon as he walked toward him. Klaus' stare raced around and he thought of something to end all of this. His eyes fell on a broken branch and broke half a dozen pieces into makeshift stakes. But when he threw them toward Damon, trying to kill the witch's host, they flimsily fell just before they reached him.

"She's too strong. She's probably channeling hundreds of witches and warlocks." Rebekah gasped as she stood behind her brother and Hayley. She could practically feel Hayley falling apart as she sensed Elijah's death approaching nearer and nearer. Damon stood barely an inch away from Elijah's hunkering and helpless form. A white oak stake was in his hand.

Elijah looked at it, hailing his death now. Then he glanced away and stared at Hayley. He didn't say a word. But everything in his gaze told her he was sorry. Sorry for putting her in his world, sorry for taking away her humanity, sorry for her immortality that would now be spent alone. As Hayley read it all, she shook her head and looked at the ground. Elijah looked at his brother in desperation. "Get her out of here!" He yelled. Elijah didn't want her to see. He knew what it would do to her.

Hayley raised her head and was met with another set of brown eyes: Elena. Hayley glared at the doppelgänger as dark thoughts raced through her mind. She wasn't giving up. She couldn't.

In the blink of an eye, Hayley sprinted across to the other side of the clearing and roughly grabbed Elena, dragging her away from her friends. Stefan took a step toward them, shocked by the sudden action. But Rebekah immediately knew what she was doing and blocked all of them. Stefan instantly began fighting with her, refusing to let the girl he loved be put into danger.

"Damon, I know you're in there somewhere." Hayley yelled angrily at him as his hand was raised with the stake in his grasp. "If you kill him, say goodbye to Elena." For a split second, Damon's blue irises showed through the blackness. But if Hayley had blinked, she would have missed them.

"A valiant effort, I admit." Louelle said through Damon's body. "But I can sense that you could never go through with it."

Hayley lowered her head and she glared into the black eyes. Her own went blood red and veins swarmed underneath. Her lower jaw fell just slightly to give her fangs room to breathe. "I'll do it." She growled as she could hear Elena's heartbeat beating rapidly. "Damon, either you fight this or I'll murder the girl you love."

Hayley didn't allow herself to meet Elijah's gaze. He didn't want her to do anything like this in order to save his life. And she knew that. Hayley's chest heaved up and down as she tried to find the immorality to kill a human being. It was inside her. It had always been. Esther had chosen her specifically from it to cater to both Elijah and her wicked son, Niklaus.

"Hayley, please don't do this." Elena begged as her hands clawed at her grip.

"Shut up." Hayley closed her eyes as she hissed the retort. Elijah's words rang in her head, "We feel even more than humans. To some, it can become so overwhelming that they choose to suppress all emotions completely." Vampires could turn off their emotions.

Hayley opened her eyes slowly. It was like everything appeared dimmer but hard. There was no wave of panic as she glanced at Elijah who was still overpowered by Damon. But then Hayley stared at Elena's neck. Without hesitating, she bit into the doppelgänger's flesh and felt the warm blood go down her throat. It tasted so good she hardly heard the screams of protest from her friends. But she perfectly heard Damon yell. Maybe the witch had let him through for just a moment. So Hayley continued. But her feeding so hastily stopped when she felt a pain in her back. Her mouth unlatched itself from Elena's neck. Hayley glanced down to see a stake piercing out of her abdomen and surrounded by a blood stained shirt. Her mouth fell open from just feeling the pain when she realized she'd been staked. She turned to see Alaric holding an almost fainted Elena in his arms. He seemed apologetic for his act, knowing Hayley's motive for trying to save his unconnected daughter.

Klaus, who hadn't tried to stop Hayley's dark turn, took action at seeing the vampire hunter attack her. He raced over and snapped Alaric's neck in one swift movement. Hayley slowly fell to her knees in shock and pain from stake that was still inside of her. As she slowly pulled the stick out in a silent whimper, she heard Damon scream out. Her eyes snapped up to see that his were flashing back and forth between Damon's mesmerizing blue irises to the possessed blackness.

Hayley's humanity slipped back like a light slips underneath the crack of a closed door. She didn't want it back. She couldn't handle it so soon. But it erupted inside of her, forcing her to face the guilt from her attempted murder.

Damon moved to the edge of the imperceptible enclosure, his chest rising quickly in anger. His eyes settled on Klaus, who would usually look satisfied with his wickedness. But now he just stared at Damon, daring him to continue with his plans. Damon's blue eyes held the hybrid's for a second before snapping back to black and aggressively strode back to Elijah, who was still powerlessly stuck to his kneeling. He grabbed Elijah's shoulder as the original cowered to the ground, unable to move. And it one swift upper cut, Damon shoved the white oak stake right into Elena's chest. Just as the movement had begun, Rebekah panicked. She moved away from her blocking of Elena's friends and went right for Elena herself. In a second, the original bit into her wrist, forced fed Elena her blood, and snapped her neck.

But it was too late. It didn't stop Damon. It didn't get him to fight the possession. Elijah's face was emotionless as his heart gushed from being stabbed with the only weapon that could truly kill him.

"NO!" Hayley cried out. Tears flowed down her cheeks. "NO!" She kept screaming as Elijah's body erupted into flames. She moved toward the unseen barricade that had now vanished. Damon ignored her cries as he slowly looked around at the seen around him. It was no longer the witch and warlock that possessed him. The real Damon Salvatore seemed confused as to what happened. Louelle lied: she and the warlock never had the power to possess Damon long enough to kill everyone Klaus cared about. Especially when the people Damon's heart loved most were being threatened in front of him. His slow gaze across the crowd stopped on Hayley, who was being held back from Elijah's flames by Klaus' strong clutch. But his guilt was short lived as he saw the thing only a yard or two away from Hayley and the hybrid: Elena, or rather, Elena's corpse.

Hayley had fallen to the ground as she cried and cried and cried. Klaus held onto her, pressing her back to his chest as he kept her away from his brother's body. Rebekah had fled; scared for her own life once she could no longer save her eldest brother's. Klaus could feel Hayley's body trembling as the sobs escaped almost violently. The flames from Elijah reflected off of Klaus' blue eyes.

I don't think anyone is reading this anymore. But it's not the end. I'm tired. zzquil is hard to fight. im weird.

review?