Sorry for the delay, I've been quite distracted.

Runaways V: Vines

"So," Elena said slowly, as she and Jeremy walked through the carnival that was going on around them. "How are you?"

Jeremy raised his eyebrow at her.

"What?" she asked.

"I don't know, it just seems strange for you to be asking," he shrugged.

"I know," she said. "But we haven't had much time to talk lately. Things have been pretty crazy."

"Really?" he asked mockingly. "I hadn't really noticed. I guess I've been too busy with all the insanity."

Elena rolled her eyes. "Really though, how are you?"

"I'm good," he shrugged. "As good as a person can be, given everything that's been going on."

"And… how's Tyler?"

Jeremy sighed. Somehow he knew that this was where the conversation would lead. "Look, I know you don't really approve-"

"No! I totally do. I mean, at first it was a little weird, and I was worried, but," she shrugged. "You've been a lot happier since you've been with him. And I told him as much."

Jeremy's eyes widened. "You've been talking to him?"

Elena nodded. "And I told him he should stop sneaking into the house." Jeremy blushed a little. "He's welcome anytime," she added. "In fact, I invited him over for dinner tonight."

"Oh, I'm sure that will go great," Jeremy said sarcastically. "You, me, Alaric, Damon, and Tyler. So many ways this could end badly."

"As long as no one tries to get me into the kitchen, I think we'll be okay," Elena laughed.

"Hmm," Jeremy began thoughtfully, as he saw Damon and Alaric approaching. "Does it ever bother you that your boyfriend's best friend is your father figure?"

"All the time," she nodded. "What's up, boys?"

"We have a problem," Damon said.

"I'm beginning to think that should be your catch phrase," Elena said. Then, more seriously, she added "What's going on?"

"Matt and Tyler have been captured," Alaric said.

"What?"

"Are they okay?" Jeremy asked.

"Highly unlikely," Damon answered, making Elena want to stomp on his foot for his lack of tack.

"Well we've got to help them!"

"We will," Alaric assured him. "But you two should go home, while we take care of this-"

"Like hell!" Jeremy exclaimed at the same time Elena cried "No way!"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Always with the heroics." He sighed, knowing it was pointless to argue with them, though he knew he could easily overpower both of them. "Come on, we need to find Stefan and Caroline."

"Caroline is right there," Elena said, nodding to one of the nearby booths, where Caroline was flirting shamelessly with two guys.

"How exactly does one go about capturing a Hybrid?" she asked once the situation had been explained to her.

"That witch has access to all kinds of power we don't know about," Damon said.

"Let's go find her!" Caroline said, determined to do some damage.

"Find me?" Bonnie's voice interrupted them. "I'm right here."

"Bonnie," Elena said softly. Seeing her like this was difficult. Blood red eyes and black veins. She was hardly the Bonnie they once knew.

"Silence!" Bonnie exclaimed, and though Elena tried to talk, no words came out of her mouth. "I'll take you to your friends. I'll take you to them, and you can watch them die, knowing that you'll be next."

"Bonnie-" Jeremy tried. "Please, it doesn't have to be like this."

"You're just as bad as them," she hissed. She held out her hand and vines began to grow out of the ground, twisting around their ankles, then crawling up their bodies, binding them completely. If anyone at the carnival could see what was happening to them, they didn't care.

"Vervain," Damon choked, struggling futilely.

Alaric somehow resisted the binds long enough to throw a knife, which was stopped inches from Bonnie's heart by an invisible barrier.

"I liked you," she growled, levitating the knife as the roots worked their way around him. "I thought you might join me in cleansing this town. But you're no better than them, are you? You befriend them, conspire with them, drink with them. You would never help me, would you?"

"Never," he agreed, drawing a gun and firing.

But she was faster than the bullets, inhumanly fast, and in the blink of an eye, she was standing behind him, his knife in her hand, slitting his throat.

"NO!" Elena and Jeremy cried, unable to do anything to stop her.

"I'll kill you," Damon said.

"That's where you're wrong," Bonnie said, turning her attention back to them. "I will kill you. But I want to watch you suffer first."