The Gilbert twins had been silently pacing the length of Alaric's classroom for the past ten minutes while they waited for everyone to join them. Emily and Elena were both riddled with nerves and anticipation to finally put a cap onto the emotionless Stefan Salvatore; the wildcard in their lives.
It was another three minutes (Emily definitely wasn't staring at the clock above the chalkboard every time she walked past it) before the door to the history classroom was thrown open. The Gilbert twins swiftly turned in unison to see Damon appear in the entrance way.
Elena immediately sprinted across the room before she ran into her boyfriend's arms. The human girl tightly wrapped her arms around Damon's neck before Elena released a breath of relief at the comfort of her boyfriend.
"Hey," Damon cooed as he wrapped his arms around the human girl's waist. Damon pulled back just enough to get a good look of Elena's face. "You okay?" The Salvatore vampire asked as he gently stroked Elena's cheek with his right palm.
Elena quickly nodded her head to not worry her boyfriend too much. "Yeah, I'm okay," the Gilbert girl promised as she looked up at Damon with a small smile.
Damon briefly pecked Elena's lips before he wrapped his arm around her waist and turned both their bodies towards the Radkova witch, who had gone back to pacing with her arms tightly crossed over her chest.
"Hey, Princess," the Salvatore vampire called out as he led Elena over to the pacing girl. "Tell me what's going on," Damon ordered. Damon, of course, knew the gist of what was happening from Emily's text message but he wanted all of the details about his emotionless brother.
Emily released a heavy sigh as she finally stopped pacing before she turned towards her twin sister and the Salvatore vampire. "Stefan is what's going on," the Radkova witch muttered. "He's too dangerous to just let him run freely around town," Emily told Damon as a frown appeared on her face.
A sense of protectiveness for the sisters quickly took over Damon's body as he glanced between Emily and Elena. "Did he do something to you?" Damon quickly asked the twins, "did he hurt you guys?"
"No," Elena hurriedly assured her boyfriend before she grabbed Damon's hand and it gave it a comforting squeeze.
"Not to us, no," Emily continued where her sister left off. "But I truly believe that he'll get there sooner rather than later," the Radkova witch admitted.
Emily absolutely hated the thought of Stefan hurting her twin sister but Emily knew she had to be honest with herself. If Klaus was really controlling Stefan, then the emotionless vampire would do anything and everything the original hybrid told him to. Emily just couldn't take that chance when there was so many innocent lives at stake.
"He called Emily a human blood bag," Elena told her boyfriend as a deep frown pulled onto her face at the memory of Stefan's words towards her twin sister.
"Well, he's not Stefan anymore," the Salvatore vampire muttered as he reminded the sisters.
"I know that," Emily proclaimed with a sharpness to her voice. "I love him. I will always love him," Emily softly admitted before she slowly shook her head. "But I don't trust him anymore," the Radkova witch murmured.
The Salvatore vampire nodded his head. "Good," Damon muttered before he added with a slight teasing tone to his voice, "you're finally being smart."
Emily rolled her green eyes at the Salvatore vampire. "I'm being serious, Damon," the Radkova witch exclaimed. "I can't trust him around Elena or anyone else for that matter," Emily stated as she tossed her arms up in the air.
Damon figured it was best to stop teasing the Radkova witch. He could see how stressed Emily was about this. Instead, Damon curiously asked, "well, do you have a plan, Princess?"
"We do," Emily confidently told the Salvatore vampire. "Elena thought of it," Emily stated to give her sister the credit that she deserved for coming up with the idea.
"The plan is to lock Stefan up until Mikael comes to kill Klaus and then we can work on turning Stefan's humanity on again," the Radkova witch uttered as she told Damon her and Elena's plan.
"It's not going to be that easy," Damon muttered as he glanced between the Gilbert twins.
"It doesn't matter if the compulsion from Klaus is broken, Stefan is still high off of human blood, okay?" The Salvatore vampire tried to explain to Emily and Elena. "And it's not just a few bodies, it's a lot," Damon mumbled.
"Yeah, but you got him off of it before," Elena spoke up as she reminded her boyfriend.
"This is different," Damon uttered in disagreement. "It's not a stint in rehab," Damon proclaimed as he tried to drill his words into the sisters' heads, "his humanity's gone. Light's out. No one's home."
"I refuse to give up on him, Damon," the Radkova witch argued. "He never gave up on me when I had my problems," Emily reminded the Salvatore vampire before she pointed her index finger at Damon and continued, "and he didn't give up on you, either."
"We owe it to the real Stefan to fight for him," the Radkova witch pleaded to Damon, "we have to."
Emily had tears clouding her green eyes as she whispered, "I don't know what I will do with myself if I can't bring him back."
"Emmie," the human Petrova doppelganger cooed when she noticed Emily's tears before she quickly crossed Alaric's classroom and pulled Emily into a tight hug. "It's going to be okay," Elena whispered against Emily's temple as she gently ran her fingers through her twin sister's brunette hair.
The Radkova witch tightly squeezed her eyes closed as she leaned her head against Elena's shoulder. Emily hated crying. It was the worst; especially when she was the eldest sibling and supposed to be the strongest witch in the world. Emily hated looking weak like this.
"Damon, we need to do this," Elena insisted as she looked towards her boyfriend over her sister's shoulder. "For Emily, we have to do this. We have to get Stefan back," the human girl pleaded as she stared into Damon's blue eyes.
The Salvatore vampire silently glanced between Emily and Elena before he focused his gaze solely onto the Radkova witch. "Are you sure about this?" Damon asked.
"There's no backing down once we get started," the Salvatore vampire told Emily. "You have to go through with this all the way or Stefan will be the reason for your death if you're not strong enough," Damon reminded his brother's ex-girlfriend.
Emily pulled away from Elena's tight and comforting embrace to stare across at the Salvatore vampire. "I'm sure," the Radkova witch vowed.
"I refuse to let Klaus win," Emily strongly proclaimed, "he has my blood and he already tried to take Elena away from us. I will not let him ruin Stefan's life as well."
"Listen, I'll do whatever it is you want me to do, Emily," the Salvatore vampire promised as he walked closer towards the Gilbert twins. "If you want to go through with this, then I'll help you," Damon swore as he placed his hand onto Emily's shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze.
"This isn't going to be fun, though," Damon warned the Radkova witch.
Emily nodded her head in understanding. "I know," Emily muttered before she told the Salvatore vampire, "but I have to do this."
"I can't keep letting Stefan hurt people," the Radkova witch whispered. Emily slowly shook her head as she added, "I will hate myself forever if he hurts Elena when I knew I could have stopped it from happening."
Damon's serious expression softened when he noticed the tears in Emily's green eyes. "Hey," the Salvatore vampire cooed. "I won't let anyone hurt you or Elena," Damon swore as he glanced between the Gilbert twins before he focused his blue gaze back onto the more stressed out of the two as he added, "especially not my brother."
Emily shot the Salvatore vampire a grateful smile. "Thanks, Damon," the Radkova witch murmured.
"You know I'll always have your back," Damon muttered with a smirk before he held his arms out. "Now come on," the Salvatore vampire commanded, "bring it in, Princess."
Emily playfully rolled her green eyes but that didn't stop her from walking into the Salvatore vampire's arms for a tight and comforting embrace.
The Radkova witch honestly felt a million times better after knowing that Damon was agreeing to her and Elena's plan for once. They would usually argue and waste time, so it felt nice that they were all on the same page.
Elena quickly joined the embrace as she wrapped her arms around Damon and Emily's shoulders for a group hug. "We'll fix this," Elena assured her twin sister as she tightly squeezed Emily's shoulder, "it's going to be okay."
Emily removed her left arm from around Damon's back to wrap it around her twin sister's waist. "I know," the Radkova witch whispered as she leaned her head against Elena's shoulder.
Emily really hated the idea of their plan, trapping Stefan, but Emily knew it just had to be done. She couldn't afford to be selfish. Emily had to do this to keep Elena and everyone else safe from the emotionless vampire. It was their only option until Mikael came to deal with the original hybrid.
The Gilbert twins continued to embrace one another for a couple more minutes while Damon had pulled himself out of it thirty seconds into the hug to lean up against Alaric's desk before the classroom door was suddenly thrown open.
Emily pulled away from her twin sister's comforting embrace to see Alaric walk into his classroom with the Forbes vampire quickly following behind him.
"What's going on?" The vampire hunter immediately asked as he crossed the room to stand beside Damon and in front of the Gilbert twins.
"We're going to trap Stefan," the Radkova witch simply announced. "He's too dangerous with Klaus basically controlling his every thought," Emily explained her reasoning to the vampire hunter and the Forbes vampire, "we have to put a stop to him now if we're ever going to get rid of Klaus for good."
The new arrivals were silent for a moment before it was Caroline who spoke up first. "How are we going to do that?" The Forbes vampire inquired as she moved to stand next to Emily.
"Your family's jail cell," Elena simply told the Forbes vampire.
"We'll stick him in there until Mikael comes to deal with Klaus," the Radkova witch continued where Elena had left off.
"What's our plan?" Alaric curiously asked as he glanced between the Gilbert twins, who were taking charge. "Stefan may not have his emotions anymore but he'll still be suspicious if he sees all of us together," Alaric stated.
The history classroom grew silent for a moment as the group tried to think of the best possible idea to handle the emotionless vampire before Emily's green eyes suddenly widened when an idea popped into her head.
"The bonfire!" Emily exclaimed as she told the group.
Elena's brown eyes quickly widened as well at her twin sister's idea. "You're right!" The Gilbert girl proclaimed as she shook her point finger towards Emily, "that's perfect!"
While the Gilbert twins were agreement, everyone else in Alaric's classroom was quite confused.
"You wanna share with the class why that will work?" Damon questioned as he raised his right eyebrow towards the Radkova witch.
"Earlier on the track, Stefan asked me if I was going," Emily explained to the trio, who hadn't been involved in the conversation with the emotionless vampire.
"it's the perfect spot," Emily uttered as she repeated what her twin sister had said. "Everyone is going to be there since it's the back to school party," Emily further explained. "It won't be suspicious if we're all there," the Radkova witch stated to assure Alaric's concern.
"We have to do this tonight," Emily proclaimed as she glanced at each face in the history classroom, "this could be our only real opportunity to take out one of Klaus' soldiers."
Alaric's classroom was silent for a few minutes as everyone thought over the plan before the vampire hunter nodded his head. "I agree," Alaric uttered before he warned the group, "but we have to be careful with so many people around."
"I know," Emily murmured.
Emily knew their plan was risky when they would be doing this out in the open. The last thing Emily wanted was for more innocent people to get hurt by Stefan or to get exposed to the supernatural world tonight.
"That's why I was thinking of luring Stefan away from the bonfire," Emily told the group before she added, "the less people around, the better."
The vampire hunter released a small sound of agreement. "I'll be close by," Alaric offered before he told the Radkova witch, "if you can keep him distracted then I can shoot him down with a vervain dart."
Damon quickly joined in on the conversation from his spot leaning up against Alaric's desk as he asked, "can't Bonnie just juju him or something?" The Salvatore vampire moved his blue eyes over to Emily before he continued as he asked her, "can't you just take him out with your magic?"
Elena immediately shook her head as a deep frown appeared on her face. "I don't want Bonnie to be involved in this," the human girl mumbled. Elena quickly looked over to her twin sister before before she voiced, "I don't trust that Stefan won't hurt her."
"I don't either," Emily uttered as she reached over to give her twin sister's arm an assuring squeeze.
Emily honestly didn't want to involve Bonnie in any of this unless she really had to. Emily didn't even want her twin sister to be involved, either, but she knew Elena might have fought on her decision. Emily would usually try to keep Elena safe but they didn't have the time to argue about who was playing a part in the plan and who wasn't.
"I'll use my magic if I have to," Emily stated as she answered Damon's question. "But it'll be a last resort," the Radkova witch uttered. Emily shook her head as she added, "I don't want to use my magic with so many innocent people around."
Damon innocently raised his hands up in the air. "Whatever you say, Princess. It's your plan. I'm just following along," the Salvatore vampire muttered.
Emily rolled her green eyes at the Salvatore vampire and his antics before she turned her attention onto the other vampire in the room. "Can you have the jail cell ready before the party?" The Radkova witch asked Caroline.
The Forbes vampire quickly nodded her head. "I got it," Caroline promised before she uttered, "I'll head over there as soon as school is let out."
"Good," Emily murmured. "Thank you," the Radkova witch praised Caroline as she shot the blonde vampire a small smile.
"Aren't we forgetting about a key player here?" Damon asked. "Rebekah," the Salvatore vampire reminded the group, "wherever Stefan goes, the blonde ponytail tends to follow."
"Oh, trust me, I know," Emily muttered as she remembered all of the times that the original vampire 'accidentally' bumped into her during school today.
"That's where I need you to come in," Emily told the Salvatore vampire, "I need you to keep her away from Stefan."
Damon stared at the Radkova witch like she had gone crazy. "How!?" The Salvatore vampire screeched. "Last time I checked, she's an original," Damon reminded the Radkova witch.
Emily lazily waved her right hand to brush off Damon's concern. "She won't kill you," the Radkova witch uttered. "You just need to keep her busy for a bit," Emily told the Salvatore vampire. Emily shot Damon a smirk as she joked, "just irritate her to death like you do the rest of us."
"That could work," Alaric quipped.
Damon rolled his blue eyes before he looked over to the vampire hunter. "Are you ever not going to be mad at me?" The Salvatore vampire asked in annoyance.
"Nope," Alaric deadpanned.
Elena completely ignored the duo, who were either best friends or arguing over something small and stupid, as she turned to her twin sister. "What about me?" The human girl asked in hopefulness, "what can I do to help?"
The Radkova witch quickly grew silent at Elena's question. Emily really didn't want Elena to be at the bonfire but she knew she had to give her a task or Elena would somehow get herself involved.
"I want you to be on look-out," Emily told her twin sister. "Blend in at the party but make sure you keep away from Rebekah," the Radkova witch added as she warned Elena.
"She doesn't seem to like anyone who looks like Katherine, so keep out of her sight," Emily instructed her twin sister, "hide but make sure Rebekah doesn't go looking for Stefan."
"What if she gets suspicious?" Elena asked as her brows pulled together in concern, "what if she realizes something's wrong?"
"Don't worry," Alaric called out to the human girl. "I'll give you some vervain darts," the vampire hunter assured Elena.
"Vervain doesn't exactly harm originals like it does us regular vampires," Damon told the vampire hunter as his mind immediately went to his first introduction to Elijah. "It doesn't even phase them," Damon muttered.
Emily was silent for a moment as she thought of a solution before Emily turned towards her twin sister. "Use the vervain but also, scream as loud as you can," the Radkova witch told Elena.
Emily gave her twin sister's hand a short squeeze. "Damon will probably get to you before any of us," Emily muttered before she swore, "but we won't let anything happen to you." Emily shook her head as she vowed, "I won't let Rebekah hurt you again."
Elena stared at her twin sister before she slowly nodded her head. "I trust you," the human girl murmured as she squeezed Emily's hand back.
Damon swiftly jumped up from his spot leaning against Alaric's desk before he walked over to his girlfriend. "I'll snap her neck before she gets the chance to touch you," the Salvatore vampire promised as he brought his palm up to Elena's cheek.
The history classroom was only silent after Elena and Damon's moment for a few seconds before the door was suddenly thrown open. "Sorry I'm late!" Tyler apologized as he quickly crossed the room to join the group.
The Lockwood hybrid immediately wrapped his arms around Emily's body as he pulled her tightly into his chest. "I got your message," Tyler stated before he leaned back to look down at Emily's face. "Are you okay? What's going on?" Tyler worriedly asked.
Emily mentally cursed herself at Tyler's words as she realized that she had accidentally sent the S.O.S. message to the group chat that the new hybrid was in. The Radkova witch had been so focused on not using the group chat that Bonnie was in that she completely forgot about their other issue that was Klaus' first successful hybrid.
Tyler was the last person, other than Rebekah, who the Radkova witch wanted to know about their plan with Tyler's strange pull that he felt towards Klaus.
It was common sense in Emily's mind. If Tyler felt loyal to Klaus, then he would also feel protective if he knew the plan that they had for Stefan, who was like Klaus' right hand man at the moment. It could completely mess up their plan if the Lockwood hybrid knew the truth.
The Radkova witch had planned to be as vague as possible with Tyler but that went completely out the window when Elena opened her mouth.
"We need you to raid your mom's vervain supply," Elena cluelessly told the Lockwood hybrid, "enough to keep Stefan down for a while."
Tyler looked at the Gilbert girl with a deep frown on his face. "You can't do that to Stefan," the Lockwood hybrid stated as he shook his head.
Tyler quickly turned his brown gaze over to Emily, who's blood and magic made him, with a sense of confusion. "Emily, I-" the Lockwood hybrid had began to voice his puzzlement before he was soon interrupted.
"Why not?" Caroline asked with her own confusion at the hybrid's disprovable to their perfect plan.
Elena, still oblivious to what she was causing, continued to tell her sister's best friend, "trust me, Tyler. It's in his best interest."
Elena..." The Radkova witch mumbled as she tried to warn her twin sister.
Tyler let out a humorless chuckle as he moved his gaze back onto the human of the Gilbert girls. "Yeah, well, it's not in Klaus'," the Lockwood hybrid proclaimed with a hint of anger appearing in his voice.
Caroline looked at the Lockwood hybrid with even more confusion; not understanding what was going on with the half werewolf. "But Klaus is the bad guy, Tyler," the Forbes vampire reminded the new hybrid before Caroline mumbled, "you know, you're acting like some freaky, hybrid slave minion."
Caroline's description of Tyler immediately gained the attention of the Salvatore vampire. "It was the 'slave minion' that caused Damon to turn his gaze over to the Lockwood hybrid before he uttered, "uh-oh."
Alaric quickly caught onto the Salvatore vampire's whisper. "What is it?" The vampire hunter asked as he looked over to Damon.
Meanwhile, Tyler was full-on glaring at the Forbes vampire now. "Klaus made me who I am, Caroline," the Lockwood hybrid snapped. "I owe him everything," Tyler proclaimed before he turned his gaze over to the Radkova witch and added, "I owe Emily everything."
Emily instantly cringed at the Lockwood hybrid's choice of words. She did not like where this was leading with Tyler.
"Oh, boy," Damon muttered.
Emily quickly turned towards the Salvatore vampire when she heard his mumblings. The Radkova witch quietly walked away from Tyler and over to Damon. "Do you know what's going on?" Emily whispered to the vampire.
Damon nodded his head. "Yep and it's not good," the Salvatore vampire whispered back.
Elena finally realized something wasn't right once she noticed the looks of concern on the faces of her twin sister, boyfriend, and history teacher. "What's going on?" Elena asked in confusion.
Damon ignored his girlfriend for the time being as he silently grabbed a single vervain dart off of Alaric's desk. "Don't let him leave," Damon whispered to the Radkova witch.
The Lockwood hybrid felt something was very off when he turned his glare off of Caroline and noticed how hostile everyone else was looking at him. "Uh... I'm just going to go," Tyler muttered.
"Tyler, wait!" The Radkova witch hurriedly called out before she quickly crossed Alaric's classroom to stand directly in front of the Lockwood hybrid to stop him from leaving.
"Emmie, this isn't right," Tyler muttered as he shook his head. "We can't do this to Stefan," the Lockwood hybrid stated as a deep frown appeared back on his face. "He's helping us," Tyler tried to remind the Radkova witch.
Emily ignored Tyler's words as she shot him a small smile after she noticed the Salvatore vampire slowly walking behind the new hybrid. "It's going to be okay," Emily promised her best friend before she watched as Damon swiftly jammed the vervain dart into Tyler's neck.
The Radkova witch quickly wrapped her arms around Tyler's waist to stop him from slamming face first onto the ground. Emily carefully lowered Tyler to the floor before she gently laid his head down while his body was overtaken by the vervain in his system.
The Forbes vampire gasped as she watched this all go down. "What the hell are you guys doing!?" Caroline asked as she glanced between the Salvatore vampire and the Radkova witch.
"He's been sired," Damon simply responded.
"What?" Alaric asked in confusion.
"Sired," Damon muttered like it was obvious. Damon pointed his index finger towards the Lockwood hybrid as he explained, "he feels loyal to Klaus because Klaus' blood created him." Damon nodded his head over to the Radkova witch before he added, "Emily too."
"Loyal how?" Elena curiously asked her boyfriend.
"Like... He'll seek acceptance from his master," the Salvatore vampire further explained to the group.
"No wonder he was bragging about Klaus this morning and practically besties with Rebekah," the Radkova witch muttered as she glanced over to Elena and Caroline, who had been present at the time. "That's probably why he didn't want to hurt Stefan," Emily guessed.
"Yep," Damon mumbled as he nodded his head in agreement with the Radkova witch. "It's really rare," Damon stated before he added as his shrugged his shoulders, "but maybe not so much in hybrids."
Elena frowned as she moved her brown eyes down to the Lockwood hybrid before she asked her boyfriend, "how are we supposed to help him out of it?"
"You don't," Damon simply uttered.
"Damon," the Radkova witch warned the Salvatore vampire as she shot Damon a sharp glare.
Emily knew this was just another issue in their long list of problems for the day but Emily refused to let Tyler be stuck forever loyal to the original hybrid. Tyler didn't deserve that.
The Salvatore vampire raised his hands up in innocence. "What?" Damon asked before he muttered, "I don't exactly have a handbook on hybrids."
Emily rolled her green eyes at her sister's boyfriend. "I'm not just going to do nothing," the Radkova witch proclaimed as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"We really need to focus on one problem at a time," Alaric told the group before a petty argument could produce between the Radkova witch and the Salvatore vampire. "Stefan is our biggest issue right now," Alaric stated.
Caroline was the one to jump in to help ease the Radkova witch's worries as she offered, "I can take him back to my house." The Forbes vampire pointed down to the unconscious hybrid as she uttered, "I can watch over Tyler and vervain him if I have to, so he doesn't try to tell Stefan anything."
Emily shot the blonde vampire a grateful smile. "Thank you," the Radkova witch murmured. "At least someone is helpful," Emily muttered before she shot Damon another glare.
Damon rolled his blue eyes right back at the Radkova witch. Damon knew their was no point in egging Emily on or they would be here all day, so he decided to just follow the young witch's orders.
"Let's just get this night over with," Damon muttered before he squatted down to help the Forbes vampire lift up the passed out hybrid.
Emily released a deep breath as she watched the two vampires carry Tyler out of the history classroom to hide the hybrid until they dealt with their Stefan problem.
This was not the first day of school that Emily was imagining when she woke up this morning. It seemed like their problems were constantly pilling up on each other when they had to do with Klaus.
The three big ones were, of course, Stefan, Tyler, and Rebekah. The Radkova witch really wished she could help her best friend out of his sire bound to Klaus as soon as possible but Emily knew she couldn't be selfish, once again.
They could easily keep the Lockwood hybrid at bay since Klaus wasn't in town while Stefan was the main issue for them. If their plan went well tonight, they would definitely be in the right direction to finally rid Mystic Falls of the original hybrid for good.