About a week later, Elena was still in shock over what she'd discovered. She'd descended from the oldest family of vampires in the world. Well, if Isobel was right anyway, and Elena had no reason to believe otherwise. She was being hunted by someone from her own bloodline. Although, it wasn't the first time. Katherine had also come after her with the intent of handing her over to be killed. It was just strange to know that people who were technically family wanted her dead.

Elena soon heard a knock on her bedroom door, interrupting her thoughts. "Come in."

Bonnie and Caroline walked in a second later and shut the door. "Hey. Jenna let us in," Bonnie said.

"What's up?" Elena asked.

"We're worried about you," Caroline asked.

"Yeah, we wanted to give you space to take in everything that you found out, but we were wondering how you're doing with it," Bonnie said.

"I'm good, I think. I mean it is shocking, but it's not the first time I found out that I had ruthless vampires in my family. It happened twice before, if you count Isobel," Elena said.

"Yeah, but this is different. This is the first vampire to ever exist, and he wants to kill you," Caroline said.

Elena chuckled. "Thanks for the reminder, Care. He's not the first though. Katherine had no problem with me dying either."

"What are you doing to do about it?" Bonnie asked.

"What do you mean? There's nothing to do about it. It's simply a fact. Klaus and Elijah are the beginning of my family line. It's shocking and interesting, but it just is what it is," Elena said.

"No, it's not. This information might save your life," Bonnie said. That is what she took from this information. It was potentially a way to save Elena. Klaus might be less inclined to sacrifice her if he knew she was his descendent. It was a long shot, but it was a possibility if they couldn't come up with another way to stop him.

"Why? Because we're from the same bloodline? First of all, you're assuming he doesn't know. It is just as likely that he knows than he doesn't, maybe even more so. And even if he doesn't know, what makes you think that would change his mind. Everything we've learned about him suggests that he would kill anyone that got in his way. He slaughtered Katherine's family because she made it impossible for him to sacrifice her. This guy's not going to care about the fact that I happen to come from his bloodline," Elena said.

"You might be right, but it's worth a shot. You can at least try," Caroline said.

Elena shook her head. "Klaus has been trying to break this curse for at least five hundred years, probably longer. If I try to use this information to stop him, he'll just laugh in my face. I won't give him the satisfaction. I can't stop him from killing me, but I will not let him see me desperate. All I want now is protect all of you from being collateral damage."

Bonnie went over and sat on the edge of the bed before taking Elena's hand. "We won't let him kill you. We will stop him one way or another."

"Yeah, you can't give up, Elena," Caroline said.

"It's not giving up. It's not like I want to die, but watching everyone I care about die would be even worse. Listen, guys, let's just forget about the information I found. It's not going to help anything."

Bonnie nodded. "You're probably right. I think we were just trying to cling to any possibly of solving this without possible bloodshed, but it was probably naïve."

"What about Stefan? Are you going to tell him?" Caroline asked.

"I don't think so. There's no purpose to it, other than giving him the same false hope you two just had. Can you guys just promise not to tell anyone about this. There's no point in anyone knowing, and I'd rather not dwell on it any longer.

"Of course. This is your secret to tell or not to," Bonnie said.

Caroline nodded along with her.

Elena stood up. "Come on. Let's go out and do something fun. We haven't had a girl's night in a while."

"Absolutely," Caroline said as she led the way out of the room.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

A few weeks passed, and Elena was almost consumed with grief and guilt. It had been a few days since the full moon. Jenna and John were both dead because of the sacrifice. Elena couldn't feel more guilty if she tried. It wasn't just that they'd died due to a sacrifice that revolved around her. It was also that she kept wondering if she could've stopped it. Maybe if she'd told Klaus about their connection, she could've stopped it. It didn't seem likely, but the chances were better than zero. She hadn't said anything because she was afraid he wouldn't believe her, and she'd piss him off so much that he might kill Stefan too. And now Jenna and John were dead because she didn't say anything.

A moment later, there was a knock at the door. Bonnie entered a second later without waiting for a response. She found Elena at the kitchen table. It was clear she'd been crying. "Hey."

"Hi. Where's Caroline?"

"We decided it was best that only one of us come right now. I know this is probably a dumb question, but how are you doing?" Bonnie asked.

Elena shrugged. "Two of my family members are dead because of me."

"No! They're dead because of Klaus," Bonnie said.

"If I had told him about the connection between us, maybe Jenna and John would be alive. I should've tried, but Stefan was there, and I was afraid that if I even tried to prevent the sacrifice, Klaus would kill him too. Now John and Jenna are dead and Klaus has Stefan," Elena said as tears flooded her eyes again.

"Elena, you were probably right. It probably wouldn't have made a difference. Klaus was going to do what he wanted no matter what," Bonnie said.

"I could've at least told Elijah. Maybe he would've come up with a better plan that could've prevented this," Elena said. Of course, she supposed Elijah might have already known, but she didn't think so. Elijah seemed to regard family very highly. She very much doubted he would've allowed things to go down the way they had if he'd known, which was why she kept it from him. It also meant Klaus probably hadn't known either.

"I'm not judging you, but why didn't you tell him? I get why you didn't at first, but when you formulated a plan with him, why not tell him then?" Bonnie wondered.

"Because we had a plan, and it looked like it would work. I was afraid that if I told him, he wouldn't go through with it. I was afraid he'd try to hide me, and that would end in all of you being killed," Elena explained.

"It might have. You might have saved Jeremy and many others by doing it the way you did," Bonnie said.

"Or if I told Elijah or Klaus, I might have saved Jenna and John," she argued.

"Elena, you can't keep doing this. Playing this 'what if' game is only hurting you. It doesn't matter what might have happened. We'll never know. Your aunt and uncle wouldn't want you tearing yourself about over it," Bonnie said.

Elena nodded. That much she knew, but it wasn't so easy to stop blaming herself. She would have to try though. There was nothing she could do. "I never want to speak about Klaus being my ancestor again. I never want anyone to know."

"Of course. We'll never talk about it again," Bonnie promised.

"Klaus never finds out," Elena swore. She didn't know what if anything would happen if Klaus found out, but she knew it wouldn't be good for her. She vowed to make sure he never found out. However, even with swearing to never tell him, there was a voice in the back of her mind that told her she'd never be able to keep it from him forever.