Elena made her way into the Salvatore house. She'd quickly realized that her plan to do nothing and hope Klaus didn't come to Mystic Falls was not going to work. Because Stefan and Damon were never going to let it work. They'd made their intentions to find and stop Klaus before he could get to her clear. As though it would be so easy.
Elena cared for the two brothers, but boy were they arrogant for a couple of baby vampires. Most wouldn't consider creatures that had been around for hundreds of years babies, but for those that had been around as long as her or the originals, they were barely toddlers. Their arrogance was going to get them killed. Klaus would rip out their hearts before they even got a word out.
Elena hoped to at least give them some idea of what they were dealing with, as they seemed to think it was so easy to kill an original vampire. She considered telling them everything briefly, but she immediately rejected that idea. The outcome was too unpredictable. For all she knew, they would be even more determined to take on Klaus, Damon especially. He was very impulsive. For all she knew, he would go after Klaus in some stupid attempt to stake his claim. Stefan might do the same in a mistaken belief that he had to protect her. She couldn't risk it.
Once Elena had hopefully gotten the brothers to back off, she needed to find Elijah. She quickly realized that she was not going to be able to keep him in the dark. One of two things would happen if she tried. Best case scenario, he showed up to bring 'the doppelganger' to Klaus. Worst case, he actually told Klaus where she was. No, she had to tell him the truth and hope that he'd keep her secret. Unfortunately, that wasn't very likely. She and Elijah were on friendly terms, but Elijah's loyalty had always been to Klaus first.
Elena pulled out of her thoughts as she walked into the Salvatore living room. She found Damon and Stefan both there.
Stefan immediately walked over to Elena and kissed her on the cheek. "Hey. I didn't know you were coming over today. Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, as alright as it can be with vampires after me. That's why I'm here actually. I want to talk to you guys about this whole Klaus situation," she told him.
"What's to talk about? We're going to find him and kill him," Damon said as he poured himself a drink.
Elena resisted the urge to roll her eyes. That was the arrogance she was talking about. He honestly believed that he could walk up to a vampire that had been around for more than a thousand years and kill him without a problem. "Okay, Damon, let's assume for a second that Klaus would just sit and do nothing while you walked up to him and stabbed him in the chest with a wooden stake.
"Okay, we're not saying it would be that easy. We know we'd have a fight on our hands, but we will do what we need to to save you," Stefan said.
"It may not be as simple as staking him. I've learned some things about original vampires and it seems they are much harder to kill," Elena said.
"And where'd you learn that? What, from internet browsing," Damon asked with a scoff.
"Elena, search engines aren't reliable when it comes to supernatural information. It all comes from humans, and they know very little about vampires," Stefan said gently.
"Well, they've figured out the sunlight thing and that you can be killed by stakes to the heart. But, no, I didn't get the information from the internet. I got it from John," Elena lied. She needed a reason for having the information she was about to divulge, and John Gilbert knew a lot about vampires. He might actually know a little about original vampires. He probably wouldn't know much, but some was plausible.
"John? I didn't know you were in contact with your biological father," Stefan said. The last he knew, Elena didn't want anything to do with John Gilbert.
"We're not having any father/daughter heartfelt talks, but he's been fighting vampires most of his life. I figured he'd have some information about Klaus. Now, do you wanna know what I found out?" Elena asked.
"Of course, we do," Stefan said before leading her to the couch, where they both sat down.
Damon poured himself another drink and joined them. He sat down in a chair across from them. "I don't know if this dude is any more reliable than the internet would be. He might hunt vampires, but he's still human, and a shady human at that."
"We should still have all the information we can," Stefan argued.
"Well, first of all, Klaus is probably not the only original vampire. There's a group of them, but Klaus is the most dangerous. He's also the most ruthless. And they can't be killed by regular wooden stakes," Elena said in a serious tone. She was happy to see the nervous looks on both brothers' faces. Finally it appeared they were taking this more seriously.
"How do we kill them then?" Stefan asked after a minute of digesting the information.
"I don't think you do," she said.
Damon shook his head. "No, everyone has a weakness. There has to be some way."
"Well, there technically is. John said that an original vampire could be killed by a stake from a specific tree, but that that tree was extinct," Elena said.
"What's the tree?" Damon asked. If they knew that, they could at least try to find it. Maybe Gilbert was wrong about it being extinct.
"That, he didn't seem to know. I think he got his information second-hand," Elena said. She wasn't telling them what the tree was made of, just on the off chance that there was one left in the world. Klaus was an ass, but she didn't want him dead.
"Well, then all of this is unreliable. Not that it was all that reliable in the first place, since it came from John Gilbert," Damon said before taking a gulp of his drink.
"And what if it is true? You guys want to go after a vampire that you can't kill for no reason," Elena said.
"No reason? He wants to kill you, Elena," Stefan said in a slightly exasperated tone.
"But he doesn't know that I exist. Elijah was the only one that could've told him and he's dead," Elena said. That wasn't true, but she certainly wasn't going to tell them that Elijah was also an original vampire and that he'd lived. She was trying to get them to stop going after Klaus. That information would not help.
"That doesn't mean he won't. You really want to go through your life waiting to see if he just shows up one day?" Stefan asked.
"I'd rather that than watch the two of you get killed going after him," Elena said.
"Well, too bad. We're not gonna wait for Klaus to find and kill you. We're gonna stop him before he has the chance," Damon said.
"For once, I agree with Damon. I won't sit by and wait for Klaus to come and kill you. We have to find a way to kill him before he can learn about you. It's the only way.
Elena huffed irritably before getting up and leaving the room without another word. If she stayed in there much longer, she'd end up throttling them both. She supposed this was her fault. She shouldn't have taken over her doppelganger's life. Or she should have at least left when she started having feelings for Stefan. It was just that it was the first time she'd felt any happiness at all since she left Klaus. Sure, it wasn't the same as what she'd felt for Klaus, but it was nice, and she didn't want to give it up.
When Elena made it outside, she found a man leaned against her car waiting. She immediately walked over to him, stopping when she was just a few feet away. "Hello, Elijah."