Klaus
Klaus fell to the floor and as he fell Stefan fell under him. Bonnie scrambled up from her spot on the floor and together Bonnie and Elena heaved Klaus off of Stefan. Klaus was dead. Relief flooded Elena, there was a chance they'd make it out of this room alive. Would Stefan?
"Why didn't Klaus die when we killed Rebekah?" Elena asked desperately.
"I'm sorry Elena, he made me break the spell joining them together," Bonnie answered quickly. "He grabbed Caroline and I as soon as we came into the gym."
"So Kol, Finn and Elijah are still alive?"
Bonnie nodded miserably.
"Stefan?" Elena asked. The white oak stake had pierced his shoulder but the dying original had missed his mark. Stefan should recover.
"Pull it out," Stefan grunted.
Elena nodded and with two hands tugged the stake out of her ex-lovers' shoulder. Stefan gasped and Elena pressed her hand over the wound. "Is he dead?" Stefan asked weakly, unable to get up.
Elena nodded. "He's finally gone, you did it Stefan," she smiled.
"It wasn't worth it, but at least you'll be safe now," Stefan whispered. It hurt Elena seeing the defeated look in his eyes but loving Stefan and being in love with Stefan weren't the same thing, she couldn't give him back everything Klaus had taken.
"It looks bad, you need to feed," Elena assessed, offering her hand, "Wait – no - the vervain, Bonnie have you had any?"
"Not much, not since Abby left, I wear a vervain bracelet anyway," Bonnie timidly held out her wrist to Stefan. It was the last thing she wanted to do, but she owned Elena this much.
Stefan shook his head, "I don't do that anymore," he protested.
"Stefan you need to heal, Kol, Finn and Elijah could be coming, we don't know how they'll react. Elijah and Finn might be okay but Kol?" The name hung on her lips, full of foreboding, "I have a feeling he's not going to like this. Do you have any more white oak stakes?"
"Damon hid the rest, he should be awake soon. I can heal on animal blood, it will take time, but as long as Damon wakes up you won't need me." He looked apologetic, "I can't start again Elena. I can't give it to it again." His eyes pleaded with her.
"You had human blood that night in the alley and you didn't turn back into The Ripper, you can do this Stefan, I still trust you," Elena urged. "I can't protect Caroline and Damon without you," she added desperately, as if Kol would come crashing through the door at any moment. It might take Kol and Elijah time to return to Mystic Falls but Finn was still in town.
Stefan sighed and nodded grimly. She had a point. "Bonnie, you know how to stop me, make my head explode if you have to."
Bonnie nodded but tried to look trusting, as if she was lending him her car keys not an artery. "I'll count so you don't lose track, stop after ten seconds. That should be enough." Even in this she was in charge and organised.
Stefan nodded.
"Okay, one," Bonnie began. Stefan sunk his fangs into her wrist. Bonnie flinched and looked like she was ready to throw up, but she stuck it out. "Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten." Stefan pulled himself off before Bonnie had to make his brain exploded. They were both panting.
"Thank you," Stefan managed to gasp. Behind them Elena and Bonnie heard more gasps. Damon and Caroline were waking up. Elena ran to them.
Damon was cracking his neck back into place, "Hey, I missed all the fun!" he complained. "Just like Stefan to play hero and kill all the originals while I'm dead."
"Are you okay?" Elena asked, worried.
"Nothing a few teenagers won't fix. So they're all gone?"
"Kol, Finn and Elijah are still out there, Bonnie unlinked them," Elena explained. "She didn't have a choice, Klaus forced her," Elena added defensively.
"Interesting. I'm not sure I like the idea of three bereaved and angry originals," Damon grimaced. "Give me a hand up and I'll go find some refreshments," Elena helped him up and though she hated the idea of him feeding on her classmates she had to admit this wasn't the time to go looking for a blood bag and Bonnie looked too pale to do any more donating.
"I'll get someone," Stefan offered and dashed out of the room.
Bonnie was helping Caroline to her feet. Caroline looked pretty hungry as well. "So Klaus is gone," Caroline sounded just a little sad. "I have to ring Tyler and see if the sire bond has broken." She pulled out her phone and rang her werewolf on again off again boyfriend. She looked at the phone in confusion. "It's just ringing. He should be picking up. Surely he'd known if the sire bond was broken. Wouldn't he want to come home straight away?" Bonnie and Elena exchanged glanced but shrugged, no one knew what it meant.
Stefan returned, with two blonde cheerleaders. Elena groaned internally. Why did it always have to be young pretty girls? Couldn't they snack on the football team? Worse, these were girls Elena knew.
"Hey Elena! Caroline!" the first blonde greeted in an overenthusiastic voice.
"Hey, Stefan said the party was back here," the second grinned.
"Hi," Elena returned weakly.
"Hello ladies, right over here," Damon input, confidently, then as soon as he had the gaze of the one closest to him, "You're having fun at the party, so much fun you want to close your eyes and just listen to the music, when you leave here that's all you'll remember." The blonde nodded and Damon sunk his teeth into her neck, drinking deeply but not so deep as to give her any more than a touch of anaemia.
Caroline followed suit, with the same story, adding only, "and when you leave here you're going to go get a burger at the grill and drink lots of water."
Although it was always hard to see the vampires feeding Elena had to smile at Caroline's attention to detail. "So what happened with the sign? I thought I saw it on stage?" Elena asked Stefan while they were waiting.
"We switched it for a fake, hoped it would buy us a little more time, it almost worked," Stefan half-smiled. "Luckily Damon was prepared, he cut these three stakes with a tomahawk and hid the leftovers, nothing fancy but they worked."
"Yeah, the did" Elena agreed, with a long look at Klaus and Rebekah's fallen bodies. "I still can't believe Klaus is gone. Stefan, you don't think we've made things worse do you? If Kol wants revenge… Elijah was bad enough when he though we betrayed him…"
"Maybe it's not over yet Elena, but there won't be any more hybrids, and we still have a few more stakes, we can do this," Stefan tried to sound encouraging, but Elena could tell he was worried too.
"It's my fault, I shouldn't have broken the spell binding them together," Bonnie worried.
"They had you and Caroline, you did what you had to do," Elena reassured her. "If you hadn't helped Stefan with Klaus we'd all be dead." Bonnie nodded numbly.
"Tyler still isn't answering his phone," Caroline reported, clearly worried. She still had blood smeared across her face, which was unusual for Caroline who was usually the best mannered vampire Elena had ever met. Caroline hated for her friends to see her like that. "You don't think something's happened to him do you?"
Elena could see the panic on Caroline's face, "He's probably just busy, maybe his phone is turned off or he left it somewhere," even as she said this, Elena had a bad feeling.