Disclaimer: As you know by now, I don't TVD. If I did, a great many things would be different. Any recognizable characters, plots, and dialogue belong to L.J. Smith and the CW.

A/N: I can't put into words how much I continue to appreciate your reviews on this story. They keep me going when I am stymied and wondering if it's worth continuing. Even just a word to say that it was a good chapter put a smile on my face, so thank you. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. A bit more action and violence than there has been. Things are coming to a head, and I think we're heading into our last five or so chapters. Thanks for sticking with me on this adventure of what was supposed to only be a one or two chapter story.

Anyway, here we go! (And while you're reading this, I'm off to work on the next chapter!)

Klaus

Klaus left the Gilbert house in a hurry with the image of Kol desiccating burned into his vision. Sure, he had daggered his siblings more than he could count, but that had been to protect them. Sometimes from themselves, sometimes from the world around them, and sometimes just to protect them from his temper until he could calm down. Always and forever, after all.

Klaus raced back to the Grill to do what he could to set it right. He was unsurprised to find that Elijah, Damon, and Alaric were inside the restaurant. Even in towns as peculiar as this one, people being stabbed and mummifying might cause a scene. He used his heightened senses to follow Elijah's pretentious, preferred cologne of sandalwood and cypress, as well as the sounds of a whispered argument, in to the alley beside the restaurant.

He stopped before entering. As much as he wanted to race down it and exact his revenge immediately, he knew he might learn something more if he just waited and listened for a moment.

"That was… I didn't know what to expect…" The voice was feminine, but it wasn't any of the girls usually involved in plots against his family. He would need to take closer stock of who was now teaming up with their little band of malfeasants.

"You did well, doc," Damon said, and Klaus audibly growled. He had suspected Damon, of course, but when would that impetuous vampire learn to not mess with things greater than him?

He knew Damon cared for Elena, as much as anyone with a heart of stone could. That must mean he didn't know about the extent of the link. Oh, it would be so much fun to see the look on his face when he learned about that.

"Then, why do I feel think I just did something so- I feel-"

"Used?" That was Alaric. "Yeah, you'll feel that a lot around Damon. He doesn't much think before he forms his plans. I shouldn't have involved you in this."

"I said I wanted to help," the woman said. "But Elijah was being so kind, and I lured him down here. It's…"

"It was perfect," Damon said. "I had no idea you were so underhanded."

"You think I'm a serial killer but not underhanded?"

"Oh, come on, that's just our little joke, doc," Damon said. "You're the least serial killer-y person in town. There's way worse-"

"Like me," Klaus said as he suddenly appeared behind Damon before slamming him face-first into the brick wall. The sickening crunch of a nose breaking was music to his ears. He reached down and wrenched the dagger from Elijah's chest before turning back to the trio of conspirators in the alley.

"Now, since Damon here was behind your plan, completely unsurprisingly, you have all of ten seconds to get out of my sight before you all die very painful deaths. Ten...nine...eight-"

Alaric's eyes shifted back and forth between Damon and the woman, but when they paused on the amber glow in Klaus' eyes, his expression turned resolute. Klaus wondered if he thought Damon would be able to talk himself out of this, but Alaric likely knew his woman had less chance of survival because he took her hand and the pair sprinted off. At the entrance to the alley, he turned back once to look at Damon with a tinge of regret in his eyes, but he still disappeared, leaving Damon in the hands of a particularly aggravated Klaus and a rapidly reviving Elijah.

Damon watched them go before he stood back up and turned a defiant stare on Klaus, who was more than used to seeing that expression, but he also had experience with breaking down that look. Damon wiped the blood from his face and already-healed nose as Klaus spoke again.

"You have been a thorn in my side for months now," he said. "I should have killed you the first time I had the chance, but don't worry, I shall rectify that mistake now."

Damon tossed his shoulders back and glared at Klaus. "Go ahead," he said, a self-satisfied smirk creeping onto his face. "It won't make your own mother hate you any less. You know she's planning to kill you, don't you? You and all of your miserable siblings."

"I wouldn't recommend talking about my mother," Klaus said as he stalked over to Damon until they were nose to nose.

"Oh, sore subject? How does it feel to get your mummy back only to learn that she wants you dead?"

Klaus gnashed his elongated teeth, his eyes glowing with the full force of his anger, and swung at Damon, who tried to evade, but still caught a glancing blow, knocking him back into the wall. The bricks shifted slightly, and a cloud of dust rose, but Damon was already back on his feet and facing Klaus.

"Definitely touched a nerve," he said. His infuriating smirk was back in place, and Klaus flashed to him. He thrust his hand out faster than Damon could move and grasped Damon's beating heart in his hand. He gave it a squeeze before he started to pull back as slowly as he could manage, savoring each wince and groan from Damon.

"You did always like to draw things out," Elijah said as he stood and dusted himself off. He twisted his neck, reawakening stiff muscles before approaching Damon and Klaus. "I have always preferred the quick dispatch of a beating heart, but I don't have your fondness for their suffering."

"Come now, 'Lijah," Klaus said. "There have been a fair few occasions you stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me as we made others suffer for daring to act against us."

Elijah hummed as he watched Klaus continue to torture Damon with the slow removal of his heart. "You're not wrong. But, before you completely end Mister Salvatore, are you sure he's suffered as much as he can?"

"I haven't told him the full effects of his actions, no. Perhaps you would like the honor?"

Damon, who had not said anything - not for lack of trying - while suffering at Klaus' hand, managed to gasp out, "Don't care what you-"

"Ah, but I think you will," Elijah said. "See, my mother didn't just link all of her children. There was a sixth person linked with us, and I think you'll care very much that she felt the effects of your endless crusade against us."

Damon paled, and Klaus removed his hand from Damon's chest cavity none too gently before grasping the younger vampire by the throat to keep him from running off.

"Someone who more often than not finds herself in the middle of things," Klaus said. "Who has an uncanny ability to actually care for people she shouldn't. Ringing any bells yet?"

"You're just saying this to throw me off," Damon said, trying to pull out of Klaus's grasp, but wincing when the grip on his throat stayed firm. "There's no way-"

"I could show you," Rebekah said, suddenly appearing on Klaus' other side from out of nowhere. "I was there with her when it happened, and she very nearly bled out before I could get to her. You're lucky saving her life was the only way to save mine, or your precious Elena would be dead right now."

"No," Damon gasped.

"Oh, yes," Klaus said. "My mother doesn't only hate us. I think she intends to eradicate all vampires and take the last doppelgänger with us so that no one can recreate her mistake. In trying to rid yourself of us, you could have ended it all for her."

"I don't- I don't believe you," Damon said.

Rebekah moved behind him and pressed her fingers to his temples, forcing him to watch her memory. With Klaus' hand still wrapped around Damon's neck, he was taken along.

He watched as his sister stumbled and looked at her greying hand. He watched as she looked across the cavern at Elena's collapsed form. He savored the dismayed shout from Damon, watching the spread of crimson across Elena's shirt, rapid and terrifying - if you cared about the girl. The Rebekah of the memory stumbled over to the doppelgänger and bit into her own wrist, thrusting it against Elena's mouth before also collapsing.

As they reemerged from Rebekah's memory, Damon gasped and shook.

"What have I done?" he asked. "I never meant to-"

"She's alive," Rebekah groused. "The perfect Elena is fine. I don't understand why everyone's always so worried about her. She's hardly anything special."

Damon, frowning, and Klaus, with eyebrow raised, both turned to look at her, but Elijah didn't even react.

"Have you finally seen sense, Elijah?" Rebekah asked.

"In regard to what?" Elijah asked, now turning to look at her.

"Elena," she said. "These two both seem to care what happens to her, though for vastly different reasons I'm sure, but you act as though you couldn't care less."

Elijah didn't respond, which made her arch her brow.

"Kol and I believe Mother cast another spell," he told her. "And we're finding the effects, like Elijah's sudden inability to hear questions, rather irksome to work around."

"You can imagine how frustrating it would be to be the subject of said spell," Elijah said. "Separatum animarum is a most irritating thing, which is, I suppose, why its use is so frowned upon."

"What's that?" Damon asked, unwisely returning the attention of three tense Originals on himself. "Please tell me it's painful."

A smirk Klaus thought would look more at home on his own face spread across Elijah's as he turned to face Damon. "It can be," he said, "but thus far it has only served its initial purpose of keeping Elena and I from talking."

"Finally, something is keeping her from you. I never understood why she thought talking to you was a good idea."

Klaus grew bored with holding onto Damon. He figured that the information Elijah was imparting would be enough to shock Damon into not moving. And if not, he knew that between him and his two siblings, the Salvatore wasn't going anywhere. He wiped Damon's blood off his hand and onto Damon's shirt, leaning back to let his brother savor this reveal of information.

"But that is only the first, most basic part," Elijah continued, prowling closer to Damon. "You see, the curse can only be cast on a certain type of person - well, pair of individuals. I think you'll find this interesting, if a little unsettling. Separatum animarum, a spell I've studied in the past but chosen not to have cast because of its cruelty, can only be cast on soulmates - particularly unrecognized soulmates. Of course, it works best when they don't already know each other and thus won't realize something is missing, but I digress."

"That's crap," Damon spat. "There's no way you and Elena are soulmates!"

"It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not," Klaus said. "It's an old spell, and it will turn painful, could probably kill Elena if left in place for too long. But hey, if you don't believe in it, it will likely go away, right?"

Elijah, however, scowled down at Damon. "I think you'll find that it doesn't matter in the least what you believe. Now, are you done serving your own selfish wants, or would you like to protect the interests we all share?"

"I don't share anything with you, asshole," Damon spat.

Elijah reached out, quick as lightning and snapped Damon's neck, watching with detachment as his body fell to the ground.

"Very well," he said, gazing down at the body.

"Are you just going to leave him like that?" Klaus asked. "I was hoping that we could finally kill him."

Just then, three cell phones chimed. Klaus and Elijah both pulled theirs out to look at the messages, and the third chime came from Damon's pocket. Rebekah reached in and looked at his phone before looking up at her brothers.

"What has Kol been up to today?" she asked.

Klaus read his messages again.

Bennett witch and doppelgänger taken by Mother. Need to distract - not kill - Mother in order to fix what's been done.

Apparently, girls have a "plan."

They're at an old witch house. I'm told Elijah is familiar.

"It appears killing Damon will have to wait," Elijah said. "Though, I will happily assist you once this is over, Niklaus. Something slow, I think." Rebekah rolled her eyes as matching grins spread across their faces. "However, for now, who would like to visit the site of a witch massacre?"

Before they left the alley, the brothers carelessly tossed Damon into a nearby pile of trash bags. Klaus laughed as they did so, and a grim smirk adorned Elijah's face. Rebekah merely followed them once they'd had their moment of petty enjoyment.