After coming up with nothing on the other side for the last few days, Anna showed up at the Boarding House for the group meeting that Elena told her about. She and Jeremy called her the other night to let her know they were just as lost as she was.
"Hey, guys. I hope I'm not late." Anna said.
"No, you're good." Elena said. "Alaric still isn't here yet."
"Isn't he that hunter that helped you when those idiots kidnapped Stefan?" Anna asked.
"Yeah, that's him." Damon said as the bell rang.
"Thanks for coming, Rick." Stefan said as he entered the living room. Anna stood behind Elena.
"Elena mentioned you needed my help." Alaric said.
"Yeah, we were hoping you could help sheet some light on the Lockwood family." Stefan told him. The others briefly looked to Anna.
"Don't look at me. All I knew was that they were part of the council and to avoid them." She said.
"Now, why would I know anything about the Lockwoods?" Alaric pointed out.
"Why you wouldn't. But your dead not dead vampire wife might." Damon explained.
"Isobel's research from when you guys were at Duke together." Elena said.
"You said that she has spent years researching this town." Stefan said.
"Who's Isobel?" Anna asked.
"She's Elena's birth mother." Damon told her. "I made the mistake of turning her." Alaric looked at him.
"Who are you talking to?"
"He can't see Anna, remember?" Elena pointed out.
"Anyway, Isobel's research here in Mystic Falls rounded in folklores and legends but at the time I thought much of which was fiction." He told them.
"Like that amazing vampire story."
"Aside from vampires, what else?" Elena asked.
"The lycanthrope." Anna felt a chill go up her spine.
"Wait, like werewolves?" Elena asked.
"No way, impossible, way too launchy."
"Is it?" Stefan challenged.
"It could be possible." Anna said. "I've never seen one, but it would make a lot of sense."
"I've been on this planet one hundred and sixty some on years, never came across one. If werewolves exist, where the hell are they?" Damon asked.
"Why do you suspect the Lockwood's?" Alaric asked them.
"Because vervain didn't affect the mayor at founder's day but the Gilbert device did and it affected his son Tyler." Damon pointed out.
"And at the school carnival his uncle Mason exhibited inhuman behavior when he fell into the carnival's worker It suggest it's some sort of a supernatural entity." Stefan added.
"We were hoping that Isobel's research could help us figure it out what it is." Elena told them.
"Well, all her things are still at Duke. I mean her office is still there, she's technically still missing." Alaric pointed out.
"So can we get access to it?" Damon asked.
"It's worth a try." Anna said. "I mean, I'm not sure if this werewolf theory is true or not, but it wouldn't hurt to find out."
At the Grill, Anna was surprised she was called there. She was going to help the group with the research, but knew she had to talk to Bonnie about some things first. When she got there, she was with Stefan.
"That doesn't mean I can use the spell." Bonnie said.
"Bonnie, you know how to drop vampires with a single look, okay? I think you can figure it out." Stefan told her.
"What's going on?" Anna asked. Though she knew the answer.
"Caroline killed someone, Stefan. I can't make it easier for her to do it again." Bonnie told him.
"No, we're not making it easier for her, we're just giving her the chance to survive." Stefan explained. "Listen, every day that she's cut off from her old life: from you, from Elena, from Matt, it'll make It that much harder for her to hold on to her humanity."
"And how do you know she won't hurt anyone else?" Bonnie asked.
"I don't but if we don't do everything we can to help her or at least trust the fact that she can keep it together, we must just stake her right now."
"Look, I know you don't like me right now." Anna said. "I wouldn't blame you if you hated me, but I know how hard it is. If it weren't for my mother, I probably wouldn't have survived the transition. And if Emily's taught me anything, it's that we can trust people like you."
"I don't know if I can trust her, though, Anna." Bonnie said. "not with this."
"Then trust me." Stefan told her.
"I have to go now. But tell Caroline to hang in there." Anna said.
She found herself at a huge building, inside a hallway. "Where am I?" She asked.
"Duke University." Damon told her. "I was wondering when you'd show up." The group entered an office. There was a girl sitting there.
"Excuse me, hi. I'm Alaric Saltzman, I called earlier."
"Yes, of course." The woman said. "I'm Vanessa Monroe, research assistant compare to folklore." She noticed Elena. Anna noticed her surprised expression."Uh, let me just grab Isobel's keys." She got the keys to the office.
"These are my friends Elena and Damon. I hope this isn't too much of an imposition." Alaric said.
"Oh please, Isobel's office is right through there." Vanessa said. She lead the way to another room. "Isobel's was one of my first professors. I'm a grad student, she was brilliant and one of the reasons I went to folklore. Uh I have to ask, has it been any news?"
"No, I'm afraid not." Alaric told her.
"It's this way." She opened the door and they all went into the room. Anna could hear suspicion in her voice. "I'll grab the light, feel free to look around. It's fascinating isn't it?" She left the room while everyone else was looking around. Anna noticed this.
"There's something up with that research assistant." Anna told Damon. He noticed Vanessa was missing.
"Where did she go?" Damon asked. That got the others attention. Vanessa came back into the room holding a crossbow.
"Elena!" Anna yelled. Elena turned just as Vanessa fired it at her, so Damon and Anna got in the way. She tried to use her powers, but it was too late as Damon got hit in the back. Alaric grabbed Vanessa and shoved her against a wall.
"I'm so sorry." Anna said.
"Don't apologize, just help me." Anna tried to touch the arrow, but it went through her hand.
"Damn it! I can't touch it. Elena, I need you to help him."
Elena was trying to remove the arrow without hurting him. "I can't reach it, Elena. Just pull the damn thing out. It hurts." Damon said.
"Keep complaining and I will make it hurt." Anna told him as Elena removed the arrow from his back.
"That bitch is dead."
"You're not gonna kill her." Elena said.
"I don't know, Elena. That woman seems kind of suspicious to me." Anna said.
"We need her help, though. She's the only one with the access to Isobel's research." Elena pointed out. "Either of you touch her and I swear I will never speak to you again."
"What makes you think that has any power over me?" Damon asked. "Because I took an arrow in the back for you? You're so overestimating yourself."
"Right. I forgot that I was speaking to a psychotic mind who snaps and kills people impulsively. Fine, go ahead, do whatever you want."
"I take it she's still mad about the Jeremy thing." Anna said.
"You think?" Damon asked. "She's just trying to manipulate me."
"If by "manipulate" you mean "tell the truth" okay, guilty." Elena said. He forgot that she was still in the room.
They headed back to where Alaric was with Vanessa. "Please! I freaked out okay?" Vanessa told him. She seemed scared. "Alright, you would have done the same thing, it's not possible! Katherine Pierce can't be alive and Damon Salvatore died in 1864. Okay, I read Isobel's research."
"Well, you should know just how possible this is." Alaric pointed out.
"No kidding." Anna said. Then she remembered they couldn't hear her and cursed to herself. Elena and Damon walked in then.
"I'm Elena Gilbert, Isobel's daughter and a descendant of Katherine Pierce. And this is Damon Salvatore who you just shot."
"I'd be extra nice to me right now." Damon said. Anna used her powers to throw him to the ground. Vanessa looked surprised.
"Let me guess, Anna again?" Alaric asked.
"Yeah." Elena said. "She's sort of a friend of ours." She told Vanessa. "Look, we need your help okay? We need to see all of Isobel's research, anything related to Mystic Falls."
"Just do me a favor and make sure she doesn't try to contact me through any weird means, okay?" Anna said.
"Don't worry, that's not going to happen." Elena said.
A few minutes later, the group was looking through Isobel's research. Elena was going through a box of things. She found another portrait of Katherine. "It is so eerie how you two look alike." Anna said. Elena nodded.
"Any luck?" Damon called to the group.
"There's nothing in here about Katherine that we don't already know." Elena said.
"Ah, you know, it's a bummer we're not friends anymore because I could tell you what I know." He said.
"Now who's manipulating who?" Elena said.
"Damon, stop being a jerk." Anna said.
"Hey guys, check this out." Alaric called. The group headed over to where he and Vanessa were.
"There's no record of werewolf mythology in Mystic Falls but here are some records of some the lesser known legends. Everything from Scandinavian skin walkers to Aztecs legends." She showed them the book she was holding. "It's translated into the "curse of the sun and the moon"
"It's Native American." Alaric told them.
"Aztecs. It explains one origin of the werewolf curse traced through Virginia." Vanessa explained. "The short story: 600 years ago, the Aztecs were played by werewolves and vampires. They terrorized the countryside, made farming and hunting impossible until an Aztec shaman cursed them, making vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants of the moon. As a result, vampires could only prowl at night and werewolves could only turn on a full moon. When the full moon is crossing the sky, who's ever unlucky enough to fall into the werewolves curse turns into a wolf."
"Can they control the transformation?" Damon asked.
"If it were a choice, it wouldn't be called a curse."
"No kidding." Anna said.
"Werewolves will attack humans but instinct and centuries of rivalry have hardware them to hunt their prey's choice: vampires." Vanessa said.
"Well, if werewolves were hunting vampires, I would know about it." Damon said.
"Says the guy who didn't believe that they didn't even exist until an hour ago." Anna pointed out.
"Not if they aren't many werewolves left alive. Hundreds of years ago vampires hunted them almost to extinction." Vanessa told them.
"Why would they do that?" Elena asked.
"To protect themselves. According to the legend, a werewolf bite is fatal to the vampires." Vanessa said. The group looked to each other.
"Didn't you say they'd be in the woods?" Anna asked.
"Yeah, he's trying to help her." Elena said. "I'll warn them."
"I'll try to see if I can help." Anna said.
In the woods, Stefan had just got off the phone with Elena and was looking for Caroline, who had left and forgotten her phone. "Stefan." He turned around and saw Anna.
"What are you doing here?"
"I know about the wolf bite being fatal. Wait, where's your blonde friend?" Anna asked.
"I don't know."
"We better hurry and find her." Anna said. "If what that lady said is true…"
"I really don't want to think about that, Anna." Stefan told her as they ran into the woods to look for Caroline. Anna fell a little further behind. Eventually, they found Caroline with another guy, who she'd accidentally bitten.
"I turn away to help the others, and this is what happens?"
"Hey, hey, we were all new at one point." Stefan pointed out. "Even I still don't have it fully under control."
"Oh, right. I forgot about the beauty pageant incident."
"Oh my God." Caroline said as she looked at the guy. She went over to help him.
"No, no, stop. Listen to me. We need to get out of these woods now. We need to leave." Stefan told her. That's when they heard it.
"What was that?" Caroline asked.
"It's a wolf, isn't it?" Anna asked Stefan.
"Matt, stay down. Do not move." He told the guy. The sound of something moving was getting louder and closer.
Stefan turned to Caroline. "You and me we're gonna run. It's going to follow us, we need to get it away from Matt. You need to run as far as you can." He said. He turned to Anna. "Hold on if you can." Anna nodded and he turned back to Caroline. "Do you understand me?" Caroline nodded. "Go. Now!" They ran as fast as they could. Anna had her eyes closed as she held onto Stefan. They stopped all of a sudden.
"Wait! What is it?!" Caroline asked.
"It's a werewolf!" Stefan told her. "He will try to kill us and he can!" Then another guy showed up.
"Hey! What are you two doing?" He asked them.
"What are you doing?" Stefan shot back. Suddenly, a wolf came out of nowhere and jumped on Caroline. It looked around suddenly, as if it were on alert.
"Animals can be perceptive to spirits." Anna explained. Stefan looked at her, wondering if it was true. "I read about it in a book when I was trying to find out about ghosts." It turned back to Caroline.
"No!" The kid said. The wolf turned to look at him. Then it ran off.
"Now that was weird." Anna said. Stefan nodded and went to check on Caroline.
"You okay?"
"Yeah."
A few minutes later, the group was doing some damage control. The three of them sat down together, although Caroline couldn't see Anna. "What are we gonna do about Tyler?" Caroline asked.
"I took care of it and I will get Matt on vervain, it'll keep you from being able to compel him and also to keep you from drinking his blood." Stefan told her.
"I can't believe I hurt him." She said.
"I know."
"He is the one person on this entire planet that I never wanted to hurt."
"It's not going to get any easier. You just have to work that much harder."
"It was tough for me, too." Anna said. "It gets a little easier, though."
"I shouldn't be with him, should I?" Caroline asked. "Because if there is any danger…"
"I'm the last person to make that kind of decision for you." Stefan told her. "If I had followed my own advice, I would have walked away from Elena a long time ago."
"Do you ever think you should have?" Caroline asked.
"I know I should have, I just can't." Stefan said. Anna looked at him.
"You really love her, don't you?" She asked. He nodded and walked away. Anna looked over at Caroline. She wrote on a sheet of paper and sent it to her. Caroline read it and got up, leaving the woods. Anna didn't know how long she'd be around, but she did know that she was going to stay long enough to deal with Katherine.