"Mason."
Damon's voice was a mix of surprise and concern as he opened the door to find him standing on the doorstep. There was a slightly unnerved look in Mason's eyes as they flickered back and forth, and he kept turning his head and checking over his shoulder. Damon was not liking these worrying signs.
"I didn't know we'd be seeing you today. Is everything okay?"
"No. Katherine's on to me."
"Come in, let's talk." He stepped aside, giving Mason room to come through. "Is this a 'we can handle it on our own situation', or a 'we need to call everyone in situation'?"
"We need to call everyone in." Mason said voice filled with absolute conviction. "Katherine knows I've been playing her, and she's figured out that you have the moonstone, she asked me to deliver a message."
"What message?"
"'Tell Damon and Stefan that I want the moonstone, or I will rip this town apart until it rains blood. Tonight, at the masquerade ball.'" Mason repeated verbatim, what Katherine had said to him as she'd casually held him against the wall with a single arm, hand wrapped so tightly around his throat, that he'd thought he was going to pass out.
"You're right. I'm calling everyone in."
Damon shut the door behind Mason and led him into the lounge, pouring the guy a glass full of bourbon and shoving it into his hand. Maggie, who'd been sitting in the lounge, witnessed this and raised an eyebrow at his actions.
"We have a problem. Where are Enzo and Stefan?"
"Stefan's out hunting, and Enzo is in the garden with Maya. They were halfway through a re-enactment of the three musketeers last time I checked."
"There's only two of them." Damon said, too distracted by the message Mason had delivered to properly consider his response to Maggie until he'd already said it.
Maggie shook her head at him and raised her eyebrow again. He grimaced and shook his head.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, that's never mattered to them before."
"No, it hasn't, but I think you'll find that this time they've drawn Anna, Jeremy, and poor Harper into their game. Pearl is both supervising and playing the role of the Queen Anne. I was invited to participate, but since the glitter canons have made another appearance, I regretfully declined." Maggie didn't sound at all regretful, more borderline smug.
Mason seemed like he was struggling to understand what Maggie had said, a not uncommon reaction to anything involving Maya, Enzo, glitter canons, and sword fights.
"Right. We need to call everyone in on this." Damon said, once he'd digested what Maggie had said, including the growing realisation that he was going to end up covered in glitter before the day was over. He just knew he was.
"Mason, you call Tyler. Tell him to call Caroline and Bonnie, and Bonnie needs to call in Sheila as well." Damon ordered. "Maggie, could you call Stefan to come back here. I'll call Ric, he might be useful and him and Jenna should be able to keep Elena out of the way, especially if they know what's going on. And I guess I'll go wrangle the intrepid musketeers as well."
They both nodded and pulled out their phones, calling their assigned people, while Damon turned and headed through the house. Pulling out his phone and calling Ric as he did so.
"Hey Ric, we have a Katherine-shaped situation and I need you to come to the house and bring as many of your vamp-slaying weapons as you can. Also, if you could ask Jenna to keep Elena occupied, that would be great!"
"What -?"
"TRAHISON! LA PLUS BASSE TRAHISON!" Treachery! Most basest treachery!
If he didn't know better, he'd say Maya had timed her bellow, and the explosion of the glitter bomb, to coincide with the exact moment he opened the back door. Pearl was the only one polite enough to hold her laughter at the cloud of pink and purple glitter that had exploded around Damon, coating him from head to foot in tiny sparkles. Even Harper was chuckling at Damon's misfortune. Maya, Anna, and Jeremy were all doubled over with laughter, whilst Enzo was rolling around on the floor in absolute hysterics.
"– Damon?... Was that French?"
"Yes. Yes, it was. How soon can you get here?"
"Give me twenty minutes."
"Trouble?" Pearl asked, a calm façade on her face, though her eyes danced with amusement as they flickered over Damon. He knew he was going to end up covered in glitter somehow. He should have sent Maggie or Mason to get everyone in from the garden.
"Katherine's making a move, we need to make a plan."
"I see." She turned back to the others who were still laughing away. "Musketeers!" She called loudly enough to gain their attention, "Time to tidy up we are required inside, and make haste. Your Queen commands it."
Damon busy brushing as much glitter off as he could, snorted at her words, but he had to admit they were affective. Within five minutes, all the wooden swords had been put away, the glitter bombs and cannons had been picked up and placed back in their boxes, and everyone was heading inside towards the living room. Damon ushered Maya aside as she followed and, mindful of the ears in the house, began signing one conversation and speaking another at the same time.
"Katherine's made some threats, that I need to discuss with everyone else." "Katherine wants the moonstone."
"Okay." "Giving it to her?"
"I don't want you involved, kiddo." "Going to try not to. But need a back-up plan if she forces our hands."
"Why? What are you gonna do?" "Like what?"
"We may not have a choice but to kill her, kiddo. I don't want you to be a part of that." "Can you make a convincing double?"
"I don't want any of you to get hurt." "Yes. Really going to kill her?"
"We won't, I promise. Why don't you head up to your room, and do some homework. I'll come up and let you know what we decide later, okay kiddo?" He told her, before signing again. "You know where it is."
"Yes. I'll go copy it now." "Okay… I love you Babbo."
"Thank-you." "I love you to kiddo."
Stefan walked in a minute later, raising a brow at the dusting of pink and purple glitter that was still smeared over Damon, but his attention quickly passed to Mason who was still clutching the, now almost empty, glass of bourbon Damon had forced on him, face taut and drawn with worry.
"What happened?"
Stefan checked the 'Let's Kill Katherine' WhatsApp group Damon had created, internally rolling his eyes at the name. Alaric had checked in first, Elena was at home so there shouldn't be any issues of mistaken identity. Stefan wasn't sure how Jenna had managed to arrange that, but he applauded her all the same. Tyler and Mason were making sure the elder Lockwood's remained completely unaware of what was going on in one of their upstairs sitting rooms. Bonnie, Anna, and Jeremy were busy making sure the room was set-up and spelled, whilst Caroline and Damon were both mingling and keeping an eye out for Katherine. Pearl, Sheila, and Harper were on standby just in case, and Maggie and Enzo had stayed at home with Maya.
Stefan forced a smile on his face and joined the party, looking for any sign of Katherine. When they had been planning, they had decided Katherine was most likely to approach either himself or Damon first. With that in mind they'd decided to split up, Damon mingling inside, whilst Stefan would remain outside until it was time for stage three of the plan. Or possibly it was stage four, he wasn't sure which Damon had decided this fell under in the end. He was on the edge of the dancefloor when he caught sight of Katherine on the steps leading down from the back of the house. At least until she disappeared behind a group of partygoers.
"Dance with me."
Stefan spun round to find her standing right behind him.
"No."
"Fine." Katherine drawled in a bored voice as she took a strawberry from the tray the server was holding out. "Then tell me who I should kill. Him?" She asked bringing the strawberry up to her lips, " Hmm, she looks delicious." She finished with a purr.
She took a bite out of the strawberry, as she finished speaking, an amused look in her eyes. Stefan didn't know if she was serious, but he wasn't going to risk any innocent deaths. He offered her his arm, as she threaded her own arm through his, she placed the remains of the strawberry on a nearby table and allowed him to lead her onto the dancefloor, a smug look on her face.
Katherine chuckled as they began to slow dance.
"It's a beautiful night."
"Ha, ha." His own laugh was incredibly dry, "Why the charade?"
"How's Maya? I certainly didn't expect her to break the Doppelganger binding curse. Clever girl. How did she manage it?" Katherine asked, rather than answering Stefan's question.
He was momentarily stunned. He hadn't expected her to know about the curse, let alone realise that it had been broken. His surprise seemed to amuse her, and she laughed again.
"I'm not stupid, Stefan. I know when magic has touched me. It didn't take me long to put the puzzle pieces together."
"You can only put a puzzle together if you already have the pieces."
"Some of them at least." She replied, smiling coyly. "Remind me to thank Maya when I see her next, it's been a rather inconvenient weight around my neck. Well, most of the time, It did lead to some good times."
"It wasn't real Katherine, it was never love between us, it was all that spell."
"That's where you're wrong Stefan." She corrected, tilting her head to the side, and smiling fondly, "Oh, I was never passionately in love with you. I'll admit that. But I did love you, in my own way, you and Damon. It wasn't all the spell."
"It was all just some game to you, wasn't it? Damon and I back in 1864, you were just having fun, and we were stupid enough to fall into your trap."
"Believe what you want Stefan, you're going to anyway, no matter what I say." She tilted her head again, a cold look entering her eyes as she smiled. "Enough reminiscing, I want the moonstone, Stefan."
He'd known they wouldn't stray far from her real reason for being here for long. Time to set Damon's plan into motion. He's part of it anyway.
"Mm. Well, you see, I don't have the moonstone on me, So, you and I will have to go get it together."
"Hmm. I have a better plan. You go fetch it and I will try not to kill anyone in the meantime."
"My way or you don't get it."
"Hey Stefan, I can't find Matt."
The two of them stopped dancing and Katherine stepped back slightly, Stefan turned to see Aimee, one of his classmates, had walked over. She quickly looked Katherine up and down.
"Oh my god Elena! You look so pretty. I love that dress! You look gorge."
Katherine tilted her head to the side and smiled insincerely.
"Thank you. I love your necklace."
Aimee reached a hand up and touched it, smiling back at Katherine.
"Oh, thanks."
"Oh, it's twisted. Here, let me, here we go."
Katherine went behind Aimee and began to fiddle with the necklace. Before Stefan could move there was a horrifying snapping noise. Pain and terror washed over Aimee's face.
"Paralyzed from the waist down." Katherine smirked and there was another snapping noise as Aimee fell completely limp. "And dead."
She pushed Aimee's limp body forward into Stefan's arms.
"The moonstone, Stefan… Tick tock."
She was gone before he could do more than gape at her, leaving him alone on the dancefloor with a dead body in his arms. A dead body… that was giggling. Stefan's head turned away from where Katherine had been and looked down at Aimee, who was giggling like mad.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I couldn't keep it up."
"Aimee?" He asked, as she straightened back up, eyes dancing with absolute delight.
"She wanted me to pretend to be dead for a while longer, but I just couldn't. Your face was just too funny."
"Uh-huh. And what else did she ask you to do?"
"She said to tell you… Give her the moonstone or the next person she kills will be Caroline, and she wont break her neck, she'll tear out her heart. Good luck explaining that one to darling little Maya." Aimee parroted it back, mimicking all of Katherine's mannerisms as she did so.
As soon as she'd uttered the last word her eyes glazed over, and Stefan knew she'd been compelled to forget everything.
"Oh, hey Stefan." Aimee said cheerfully, smiling at him. "Have you seen Matt? I wanted to ask him to dance with me."
Stefan shook his head,
"No, I haven't. Sorry."
"Oh. Well will you dance with me?"
"Maybe another time. I've got to go find my brother."
"Okay then. See you at school."
Stefan nodded distractedly and sent a message in the group chat, asking Damon where he was and telling everyone else to get eyes on Caroline ASAP. Ignoring the flurry of questions from everyone else, Stefan headed to the room Bonnie had spelled where Damon was waiting.
"What's going on?" Damon asked as soon as he walked into the room. "Why does Caroline need eyes on her?"
"I spoke to Katherine. She threatened to rip out Caroline's heart if we didn't give her the moonstone."
"Why Caroline specifically?"
"Because then we'd have to explain to Maya, how we got the girl she sees as a big sister killed."
Damon swore viciously.
"How could she even know that?"
"How does she know anything!" Stefan exclaimed, pacing up and down, "We need to call it off! Just give Katherine the moonstone."
"No! We follow the plan. We do that and no one gets hurt. We can do it together. I got your back. All right?"
"All right."
"Good." Damon pulled out his phone and let Jeremy know it was his turn. "Lets get in position."
Stefan nodded. It was a tense ten minutes as they hid out of sight of anyone entering the room, until Katherine appeared, Mason in tow. She strolled into the room and looked around.
"Where is she?" Katherine bit out as Mason began to chuckle.
"You know Kath. I really didn't think you of all people would be this easy to fool."
Katherine rushed at him and slammed into an invisible barrier.
"What the…? Stefan?"
Stefan stepped out of his hiding place, twiddling the stake he was holding.
"Hello Katherine."
"Goodbye Kath." Mason said, walking away and leaving her to her fate.
She strolled towards him in a sultry manner, though the look on her face was scornful.
"You don't really think that you can kill me with that now, do you?"
Stefan smirked.
"No, but he can."
Damon stepped out of his own hiding place and fired a stake at her from the compressed air gun Alaric had loaned them for the evening. It missed her heart, but she still bent over and yelled in pain as it penetrated deep into her upper back. Before she could fully recover, Stefan rushed forward and lodged his own stake though her upper arm. He pulled it out and went to stab her again. But she pushed him back sending him stumbling over a chair a few feet behind where he had been.
Damon grabbed the stake out of her upper back and raised it above his head, but before he could bring it down on her, she'd grabbed his arm, pulled it down and tossed him into the wall. Stefan back on his feet released one of the stakes from his under-sleeve mechanism and threw it at her, she dodged, and it lodged into the wall. Without hesitating he released another one and threw that, but she caught it and threw it back forcing him to duck to avoid it.
Back on his feet Damon attempted to stab her again but, he was once more thrown away, over a chair this time. He recovered quickly and attempted another strike; she grabbed his wrist and turned it back towards him. It was just about to pierce his neck when Stefan grabbed her from behind an pulled her back with enough strength that they both went tumbling to the floor. He wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled back, trying to snap it and incapacitate her, but she was pulling at the same time forcing his arm loose enough that he was unable to. Damon rushed forward and raised the stake he was holding above his head ready to plunge it into Katherine's chest when Jeremy appeared in the doorway.
"Stop! You're hurting Elena!" Jeremy cried. "Everything you're doing to her is hurting Elena!"
Damon stopped. They couldn't go through with the plan of breaking Katherine's neck to put her out of action long enough to get her in the tomb. Nor could they go with the back-up plan of staking her in the heart, because either choice would kill Elena. He didn't much like the teenager, but he didn't want to kill her just to take Katherine out. Katherine smirked at him as Stefan released the grip, she had on her neck, and she sped to her feet.
"You think you two are the only ones with a witch on your side? Wrong."
She slipped the stake out of Damon's hand and sauntered a few steps away as Stefan stood up and looked at Jeremy.
"Jeremy, go check on Elena. Make sure she's okay. Go!" He ordered. At the same time, whilst keeping his hand out of Katherine's sight, he flashed his fingers in the agreed upon signal to call in the back-up, Jeremy nodded and took off.
As he left Damon and Stefan shared a glance, they'd known something might go wrong, but they couldn't implement any of their back-up plans whilst Elena was linked to Katherine. They were stuck.
"Let's all make sure poor Elena's okay." Katherine said, drawing their attention to her. "She placed the point of the stake against her palm. "Just a little bit more pressure."
Stefan slapped the stake out of her hands, but the damage was already done, a slice had opened up across her palm. It healed quickly on Katherine, but he knew it wouldn't on Elena. Katherine smirked and picked up another stake, placing the point against her stomach.
"This is really gonna hurt."
"Wait!" Damon commanded.
Katherine smirked at him and took a seat on the sofa.
"Okay. So, how about that moonstone?"
Neither of them answered her, but that just seemed to amuse Katherine. Seeing that she'd given up on hurting herself to get a rise out of them, Damon went to the door. Anna was calling in the others and it wouldn't take Sheila long to sort both their current issues. Still, he couldn't resist running a hand across the invisible barrier, just to check it really was still there.
"The three of us together just like old times. The brother who loved me too much and the one that didn't love me enough."
"And the evil slut vampire who only loved herself." Damon retorted in a fake jovial tone.
"What happened to you Damon? You used to be so sweet and polite."
"Well see I fell in love with a lying manipulative little bitch. Got killed by own father, became a vampire, and then found out the woman I'd loved, the one I'd died trying to save, couldn't care less about me or anyone else but herself."
If his words upset Katherine at all, she didn't let it show on her face, just eyed him curiously.
"How did you find out I wasn't in the tomb with the others?"
"Henry and Fleamont Potter."
She laughed, delighted.
"Of course, it would be the Potters. They always did have a knack for discovering things people would rather remain secret."
"You speak like you know them." Stefan said.
Katherine smirked at him.
"I'm over five hundred years old Stefan. I've known a lot of people in that time."
"Including Niklaus Mikaelson?" Damon asked, seeing as he had nothing better to do than poke at her right now.
The smile dropped off her face and she stared at him for a moment, face open and vulnerable, it seemed he'd finally been able to surprise her enough to get a genuine reaction. It didn't last long though, her face closed off, perfectly blank, no amusement, no anger, no hate, no fear, just nothingness.
"I see Pearl's been telling tales." She murmured, turning away from him, and looking back to Stefan. "Where's the moonstone?"
"Why do you want it? According to Pearl you should want as much distance between yourself and the Originals, and anything they want as possible. I mean in 1864 you faked your death to put them off your trail, yet here you are throwing yourself back into the think of it."
"In 1987 you were in Chicago, at a concert of all places with that wench, Lexi. Come on Stefan don't look so surprised. Of course, I checked in on you over the years. You were standing in the front row, dancing all night. You were watching Bon Jovi, and I was watching you." She smirked and turned to Damon, "You were in Peru that year. Esperanza Quispe, that was her name, wasn't it? Most of her family had been killed by a gang and she wanted the power to protect the rest of them, so you turned her, trained her, and got her a daylight ring."
Before Damon could respond a stranger arrived in the doorway, holding the moonstone in her hand.
"Katherine, the spell on this room had been broken, you're free to leave."
"Thank God." Katherine replied, standing up and ambling over to her.
"When I hand this over my debt to you is over."
"Done."
"I owe you nothing."
"I said done. Give it."
"I wouldn't do that." Damon warned.
Both the women ignored him, Katherine had her hand held out and the other woman placed it atop her palm. Katherine smiled for a second before tensing up, no longer able to breathe.
"You should have told me another witch was involved." The woman said as Katherine choked and fell to the floor. "She's a Bennett witch, Katherine, but I'm sure you knew that."
"What about Elena?" Stefan asked.
"Elena's fine. The spell is broken. She'll heal quickly, Bonnie's with her."
They all watched until Katherine lost consciousness, before the woman nodded her head at them.
"I apologize for my involvement." She said, before turning and walking away.
Pearl and Harper arrived a few minutes later.
"Sheila's ready to seal her in the tomb as soon as we place her inside."
"Good. Lets get this done, before she wakes up."
Pearl nodded and hoisted Katherine over her shoulder. Harper, Damon, and Stefan quickly tidied up the room and gathered all the weapons they'd brought and the four of them slipped away from the party, with none of the guests any the wiser about what had transpired.