Elena drove like a maniac towards the Gilbert house. She couldn't believe this was happening. She had been so close. She was going to be gone in a little over a day. Stefan and Damon were going to be safe halfway across the country. Klaus was never supposed to find out about them, and if he did, it wouldn't matter because they'd be gone. It appeared that plan had failed spectacularly. Klaus had somehow found out about 'Elena'. He was currently in her home.
"Would it not have been more efficient to run?" Elijah asked from right next to her. For humans, driving made sense, but for them it was better to use their speed.
"No. I need the drive to think. How the hell did he find me?" Elena asked rhetorically.
"You know how. This town attracts vampires. Any one of them could have seen you and relayed it to Niklaus. That is why I wanted to get you out of here sooner than this," Elijah told her.
"I don't need, an 'I told you so' right now, Elijah. I need to come up with a plan," Elena said before turning onto her street. "I need to find a way to get Klaus out of here before he finds out about Stefan."
Elijah looked straight ahead as they came closer to the Gilbert home. He watched as the Salvatore's got out of their car. "Eleanor, I fear that that plan will be a failure."
"Damn it! Why is everything falling apart today?" Elena asked before coming to an abrupt stop right in front of her house. She immediately got out of the car and walked towards the Salvatore brothers. "You two need to get out of here now."
Stefan turned and looked at her in worry. "Elena, what are you doing here? I sent you a text not to come home." He'd gotten a text earlier from Jeremy that Klaus was in his home. He and Damon had come immediately, but not before warning Elena not to go home.
Obviously, Elena didn't get that text, as she'd broken her phone in a fit of anger. Not that it mattered. She would have ignored it anyway.
Elijah got out of the car and walked towards them a moment later, shocking the Salvatore brothers.
"What the hell? How is he here? I killed him!" Damon said in disbelief.
"He's an original. I told you; you can't kill an original vampire that easily," Elena said. Her voice was barely a whisper to keep Klaus from overhearing them. There was really no point of hiding the truth about Elijah any longer. Her secrets were all going to come out soon.
"And why the hell are you with him?" Damon asked with narrowed eyes.
"There's no time to get into this right now. The two of you need to leave now. You have no idea what you're walking into," Elena said.
"No, you're going to leave. We'll take care of Klaus," Damon said.
Elena didn't bother arguing with them. She didn't have the time. She needed them gone. So instead, she turned to Elijah and spoke very quietly. "Get them out of here now."
Elijah nodded and stepped forward to compel them. Unfortunately, before he could, the front door opened, and his brother stepped out.
Klaus smirked as he stepped outside. That was until his eyes settled on Elijah. "Elijah. The one person I wasn't expecting."
"Niklaus," Elijah greeted evenly.
"Well, shall we all head inside? I don't think it would do to put a show on for the humans," Klaus said as he beckoned them inside.
"Let these two leave. I'm the one you want, not them," Elena said as she pointed to Stefan and Damon. She did her best to sound like a weak and fearful human. She wouldn't be able to fool Klaus for long, though. He knew her too well. At some point soon, he was going to see past the facade.
Klaus only smiled at her. "Nonsense, love. The more the merrier. Now come inside before I get impatient."
Stefan and Damon were the first ones to enter. Damon glared at Klaus defiantly as he stepped inside, while Stefan looked incredibly worried.
Elijah, of course, said nothing and gave no emotion away as he walked inside. His only concern was the damage control he would have to do when this inevitably turned ugly.
As Elena went to pass him, Klaus Snaked an arm around her shoulders. "It is so wonderful to meet you, love. I have been waiting a thousand years for this."
Elena wasn't sure if she wanted to kiss him or break his neck. Hell, she might end up doing both. His arrogance was incredibly annoying, but she missed him. She didn't realize how much until he put his arms around her. That didn't mean she'd forgiven him for his crap, though. She would also be damned if she let him hurt Stefan and Damon.
Once inside, Elena was led to the living room, where she found Jenna and Jeremy sitting on the couch. Both looked pretty frightened. "Are you two okay?" They might not technically be her family, but she still cared about them. Jeremy reminded her of her actual brother. There was no way she was going to let Klaus hurt them.
"Elena what's going on? Do you know this man?" Jenna asked.
"It's going to be okay, Jenna. In the future, though, let's agree not to let strange men in the house," Elena said.
Klaus laughed. "That's good advice, actually. Of course, it wouldn't have mattered. I would have found a way to get an invitation one way or another."
"What do you want?" Stefan asked.
"Oh, I think you know the answer to that already. Now I had planned to wait until the full moon to take the lovely doppelganger, but then I decided, why chance fate? I certainly don't intend to have another Katerina situation on my hands. So, Elena here will be coming with me tonight," Klaus said before squeezing Elena 's shoulders a bit. He still had not released his hold on her.
"That's not gonna happen!" Damon snarled before taking a step forward.
"Don't, Damon," Elena said. If he interfered, he'd end up dead. Actually, this might be their best option right now. If she could get Klaus out of the house now, before he found out who she was, she might be able to still save Stefan and Damon. Elijah could then compel them, and they could leave. However, it was going to be difficult for her to get Klaus out of there before he realized who she was. She was actually surprised she hadn't figured it out already. She could only chalk it up to the fact that she hadn't spoken very much so far.
"Yes, you should listen to her. Unless, of course, you wish to end up dead as well," Klaus said.
"No one has to die tonight. I'll go with you, Klaus. Just leave them alone," Elena told him.
Klaus smiled at her with an impressed look on his face. "Well, aren't you surprising? You're a far cry from Katarina, aren't you? She would have sacrificed all these people in a second to save herself."
Elena resisted the urge to glare at her husband. She hated any sort of comparison to Katarina. "Just because we're from the same family line doesn't mean we're alike."
"True. Where is Katarina by the way? She has something of mine, and I owe her for her treachery," Klaus said.
"Let's get out of here and I'll tell you everything you wanna know," Elena promised him.
Jenna suddenly stood up. "Elena, no! I'm not going to let you leave with this man."
"Jenna, there's nothing you can do to stop it. You'll only get hurt if you try," she said.
"Indeed. However, I see no hurry," Klaus said.
"Niklaus, there is no need to toy with these people. You have what you want. Let us take our leave," Elijah told his brother.
Klaus turned to his brother. "Ah, yes, Elijah, I'd nearly forgotten about you. Tell me, brother, how did you find the lovely doppelganger?"
"Wait, brother? They're brothers?" Damon asked in shock. He looked over at Elena, who was clearly not shocked. This did not seem like news to her. In fact, her demeanor in general was bothering him. He wasn't surprised that she would sacrifice herself to save them. She'd always been like that. However, her lack of fear was starting to unsettle him. She didn't seem frightened of Klaus.
Elijah rolled his eyes and spoke in a bored tone. "I imagine the same way you did. A couple of vampires looked to make a deal for her."
"And why did you not inform me of this?" He asked.
"Perhaps because your paranoia has all but turned you into a hermit. You are not exactly easy to find," Elijah told him.
"Why isn't she afraid?" Damon suddenly asked. He did nothing but stare at Elena for the last several minutes. There was not a trace of fear in her eyes. There hadn't been since she arrived. In fact, she almost seemed annoyed by this whole thing.
Stefan followed his brother's gaze to his girlfriend. Damon was right. Elena didn't appear afraid. Klaus 's arm had never left her shoulder, and she didn't even seem fazed by it. She didn't seem the slightest bit uncomfortable to have the most deadly vampire in the world right next to her. She did seem a little worried, but nothing else to support fear. Why didn't she fear him? Even Stefan had a degree of fear for this man, but Elena didn't seem to.
Meanwhile, turned to Elena and stared at her. Damon Salvatore was right. She didn't have an ounce of fear for him right now. It was strange because most that met him feared him, even centuries old vampires. In fact, he'd only met one woman who knew exactly who he was and didn't fear him. "He's right. You're not afraid. Eleanor?"
"Damn it!" Elena swore, before bringing her hands forward and swiftly breaking her husband's neck. She was trying to avoid it, but it had become her only option.
Everyone in the room gasped in shock, except for Elijah. No one else expected her to so easily be able to break someone's neck.
Elena turned and glared at Damon. "Five minutes! All I needed was five minutes or less to get him out of this house! You couldn't stay quiet for that long?"
"Elena you just killed someone," Jenna said in horror. Under the circumstances it was understandable, but it was still hard to process the fact that her niece had just murdered someone.
"He's not dead, Jenna. He'll wake up in a few hours and he'll be pissed," Elena said.
"Katherine," Damon said to Elena. He was clearly not looking at Elena. She would never have been able to break a vampire's neck. That made it almost certain that she was Katherine. "How'd you get out of the tomb? And where's Elena?"
Elena glared at him. "Damon I'm already seriously pissed off. Don't make it worse by mistaking me for that woman."
"Elena what the hell is happening?" Jenna asked. It was clear from her voice that she was close to a mental breakdown.
Elena sighed and walked over to her. She could only hope that the vervain was out of her system by now. "Jenna, look at me. You're tired. You're gonna go up to bed and sleep for the rest of the night. When you wake up in the morning, you won't remember any of what happened tonight."
They all washed as Jenna paraded off what Elena said to her and then walked upstairs.
Jeremy glared at his sister, if she even was his sister. "Am I next?"
"No. I compelled Jenna because she doesn't know anything about the supernatural. I didn't see the point of forcing that world onto her," Elena told Jeremy.
"Who are you? You say you're not Katherine, but you're not my sister," Jeremy said. He supposed it was possible that she'd just suddenly been turned into a vampire, but he didn't think it was likely. Neither Stefan nor Damon knew anything about it. Whoever this woman was, she wasn't Elena.
"Klaus called you Eleanor," Stefan said, still in shock. He just watched his supposedly human girlfriend break a vampire's neck. He agreed with Jeremy. This wasn't Elena. "Where is Elena?"
Elena turned to him. "I'm the only Elena Gilbert you've ever met."
"You're lying. You're not my sister. My sister isn't a vampire," Jeremy said.
Elena turned back to him and looked at him sadly. "You're right, I'm not. I'm sorry, Jeremy. This was never supposed to go on for this long. Your sister died the night of the accident with your parents."
Stefan shook his head. "That's not true. I pulled her out."
"You did, but you didn't save her. She succumbed to internal injuries moments later," Elena told him.
"My... My sister's dead?" Jeremy asked in a broken tone. That couldn't be true. His sister survived that night. She'd been by his side, looking after him ever since. Except that that might not be true. That person might have been the woman standing in front of him who was not his sister. "You've been living my sister's life for months? Why?"
"It's hard to explain and it won't give you any comfort. Just know that I never set out to hurt you, Jeremy. Although I have to admit I didn't consider you much at all until later. By then, the damage was done. I'm sorry," Elena told him. She truly was sorry. She'd heard him worse than he needed to be hurt. She hadn't considered the damage she might do to Elena 's family.
"If you are not Elena or Katherine, who the hell are you?" Damon demanded to know.
Elena turned back to the Salvatore brothers. "My name is Eleanor Petrova Mikaelson. I was the doppelganger before Katherine."
"It's not possible. If it had been you the whole time, we would have noticed you were a vampire," Stefan said. He couldn't believe any of this. The girl he'd loved all this time was Elena Gilbert, the girl he'd saved. Now he was finding out that all of that had been a lie. He hadn't even saved Elena. That was if what this woman was telling him was true.
"You didn't notice because I go out of my way to make sure people don't notice. I prefer people don't know what I am. That's especially true in this town, where half the town knows about vampires," Elena told him.
"So, this whole time we were trying to protect you from Klaus, and you knew he wasn't a threat?" Damon asked angrily.
"Oh, he's a threat. He's just not a threat to me. You're the ones that needed protection, not me. That's why I asked you not to try to take him on. I knew what he would do to you if he found out about you, especially Stefan," Elena said.
Damon was confused at first, but then he figured out what she meant. "Oh my God. You're involved with him."
"It isn't that simple. I haven't seen Klaus in the better part of a century," Elena said. She didn't deny that she had been with him, though. She couldn't.
"Eleanor, I suggest we speed this along. You still need to decide what you want to do next," Elijah told her.
"Oh, and of course you're familiar with this guy too. Were you with him too?" Damon asked.
Elena ignored him and turned to Elijah. "Can you handle Klaus for a little while? I need to deal with Stefan and Damon."
"Eleanor, I do not believe it is a good idea for me to leave you alone with them," Elijah said.
"Elijah, we've been through this. I can take care of myself. Just get your brother out of here and try to keep him under control until I can get back to you," Elena requested.
"I will do my best," Elijah said before grabbing his brother and throwing him over his shoulder. He then walked out of the house with him without another word.
Jeremy glared at the woman with his sister's face. "Get out. You're not my sister. I want you out of my house."
Elena nodded. She couldn't blame him for his anger. She'd done a lot of damage to him. "I'm so sorry." She then turned to Stephen and Damon. "Let's talk at the boarding house. I know you both have a lot of questions. I'll answer them."
Without another word, Stefan led the way out.