"Jeremy's going to be fine." Elena says after getting off the phone with Ric who was looking after Jeremy at the Gilbert house while she met Damon and Stefan at the Salvatore's. "He was wearing his ring. Thank God."
Damon comes back into the room with a glass of scotch after waking up from having his neck snapped. "I wouldn't go celebrating just yet. We still have one serious waked out sister to deal with."
"Yeah? How do you suppose we do that? Now that she's on team Klaus's."
"I'm not so sure she is." Stefan says after having had time to think about all that's happened.
"Giving Rick a concussion, nailing us to a chair, nearly killed Elena and then killing Andy isn't enough to convince you that she went over to the dark side." Damon sat down in the chair. "What about the fact that she killed the one person left that she cares about?"
"Jeremy was wearing his ring." Stefan replies to Damon. "She knew he'd come back to life. If she really wanted to kill him she would have taken it off before she suffocated him. She wanted to make it look like she had gone off the rails. She knew making it look like she'd be willing to kill Jeremy would make us believe it."
Damon thinks about what Stefan says and applies it to how he knew Alyssa mind worked. "It's why she wanted me to choose."
Lost, Elena looks to Stefan to help her figure out what Damon had just realized and Damon gets up from his seat.
"It was the only thing that was going to stop him from looking for her." Stefan explains. "She had to make him hate her. She knew hurting you was the only thing that Damon would never forgive her for."
"Why not just kill me?"
"For the same reason she didn't take off Jeremy's ring before she suffocated him." Damon says, staring into the fireplace. "She was hoping that we would be too pissed to notice she was only trying to make it look like she wanted you dead. She never planned on killing you. She just wanted us to think that she could." He turns around and looks at Elena. "She told me one day I'd have to choose and she knew it wasn't going to be her." He drowns the rest of his drink and walks back over to the bar.
"Then why do you say it?"
Stefan answers for Damon as he pours himself another drink and Elena looks at him why he explains. "He was the only reason she had left to come back. He destroyed that when he chose you. She knew he would but she needed to hear it. She needed a reason to go and stay gone. Him not choosing her gives her that reason. Now she doesn't have a reason to come back."
"Neither does Klaus which means we're safe." Damon leaves his glass on the tray and takes the whole bottle. "She's sacrificed herself for all of us."
"So that's it? We're just gonna let her spend the rest of eternity with Klaus doing whatever he wants. Killing whoever he wants."
"Unless we find a way to kill him or you die, hopefully from old age, whichever comes first." It was their only two options and the only way Damon saw this ending. He took the bottle up to his room.
Elena turns to him after Damon disappears out of sight. "We can't just leave her with him Stefan."
"I know. But Damon's right. Without a way to kill him…"
"This is all my fault."
"Hey," Stefan puts his hand on her shoulders and makes her look at him. "None of this is your fault. Klaus…"
"He has her because of me. He was after me and now he has her because I survived. Because she's trying to protect me. Because I made her turn. If it weren't for me…"
"We're going to find a way to save her Elena," Stefan pulls her into a hug as she begins to cry. "I promise."
Upstairs Damon's going through the same spurts of emotions that Elena was experiencing he was trying to force them away by drinking. But the more he drank the more he remembered.
He saw a discarded shirt on the floor and picked it up remembering the look on his face after he had complained about her wearing one of his good shirts to bed.
She turned off the bathroom light as she left out and told him that if he didn't like it he could come take it off her himself. The corner of his mouth raised and he walked over to her.
"You say that as if I won't."
She raised her hands and entwined them behind his neck. "I know you won't. Because you'd never do anything to hurt your chances with Elena. Somehow I don't see her being too forgiving after finding out you and I slept together. But by all means Damon, prove me wrong."
She waited for him to make a move but it never came as she knew it wouldn't. She dropped her arms and backed away. "That's what I thought." She walked out the door.
She didn't return that night like he thought she would. Instead she found one of the five rooms to sleep in.
He drops the shirt and walks over to his bed but stops and stares at the mattress. The white bed sheets were replaced by the two of them. She was lying in his arms and he was saying goodbye to her. Physically they were there but mentally they were back at the dance. She had just complained about taking her to a school dance and how she would have preferred Paris instead.
They danced and talked and it was when she told him she loved him for the first time but it wasn't going to be the first time that they said goodbye. He hadn't known it at the time but she had just agreed to leave town with Klaus in order to save him while he was professing his love for Elena. He also wasn't aware at the time that she saw and heard.
It wasn't until she confessed that she had seen him that he knew. The look in her eyes was sad and disappointed but it didn't last that long before it was gone and she was handing him his necklace telling him that she had to let him go.
"You are not going to be easy to give up or let go Damon Salvatore," she sat the necklace he gave her in his hands, "but I have to." She pressed a soft kiss to his lips before telling him goodbye and leaving.
He always suspected that she would come back but not in the way that she did. He took another sip from the bottle hoping to forget but the more he tried the more he remembered and the more he remembered the more he felt. Guilt, anger, pain, all of it directed at himself and the choices that he made that lead them where they were.
But perhaps the most prominent emotion was he felt when remembering the way she looked at him the night after Jenna died. The night he kissed her to keep her from switching it off. He could see how much she cared for him in her eyes and the gentle way she touched him. He chucks his bottle across the room just as Stefan walks up and leans against the wall.
"I'm not in the mood for a pep talk Stefan."
"I just came to see how you were doing."
"Elena's alive," he says, popping the top of another bottle he kept stashed in his room, "Klaus is gone. So I'm just peachy Stefan." He pours a drink in a cup rather than drinking out of the bottle.
"You know it's okay to admit you made a mistake, Damon. It's okay to admit you care."
"You know what I want even less than a pep talk Stefan, you thinking that I feel something that I don't."
"Then what's with the bottle?"
He raises his glass. "I'm celebrating Stefan. Once again you and I are the only dangerous things in Mystic Falls. If you don't count that punk Tyler which we should really do something with by the way."
"Right now the only threat to us is you. Do you really think you should be drinking when you're upset?"
"Who says I'm upset?"
"The bottle of Scotch that was half full twenty minutes ago and it's now emptied and in pieces."
"She made her choice. She could have stayed and helped us find a way to kill Klaus but instead she went back to him like a good little hybrid."
"To save you. And I know you won't admit it but I know you're feeling guilty about that. And you feel guilty for not choosing her."
"Okay Stefan," he says so they could end the conversation. Because as much as he hates feeling it he hates talking about it more. "I feel guilty. She's with Klaus because she saved me and she was standing there practically begging me to save her and I didn't."
"So are you gonna just stand there and wallow in self pity or are you gonna do something about it."
"How much further is it?" She was getting tired of walking through mountains to track down the pack that Ray was running with and she was even less excited to be in Klaus's company.
"Not much further. Why?" The corner of his lips lifted. "Is Ray getting heavy?
She looks behind her where she's currently dragging Ray getting tired of carrying him, "I'm fine."
"You sure about that?" They had been walking for a while. "If you need some water or a little sit-down…"
"I said I'm fine."
"So what's with all the brooding then. You've been in a mood since you got back from Mystic falls. It wouldn't have anything to do with a certain Salvatore would it."
"I left Damon behind when I said goodbye to him the first time."
"Still, seeing him again couldn't have been easy for you."
"It wasn't but luckily I have an eternity to get over it." She sped up when she heard the werewolf camp. There's about a dozen people hanging around the camp setting up tents. "I think this belongs to you." She tosses Ray in front of them and a blonde woman with a short pixie cut rushes to his side.
"Ray! Oh, my God. What's going on? Who are you?" Klaus joins her.
"The important question is who am I. Please forgive the intrusion. My name is Klaus."
"You're the hybrid." Response to the women who intend to Ray.
Klaus smiles. "You've heard of me. Fantastic."
"We can skip the small talk and get straight to the good stuff. You all heard about him right. The vampire who's also a werewolf. It's fascinating, actually...A werewolf who isn't beholden to the moon, a vampire who doesn't burn in the sun. A true hybrid."
Ray wakes up. "Excellent timing, Ray." Klaus says. "Very dramatic."
"What's happening to me?"
"You're in transition." Alyssa looks around them. "Are any of you human? Your friend here needs human blood to complete his transition to vampire. If he doesn't get it, he will die and not the fun kind. Doesn't take much, just a sip. Anyone? A boyfriend, girlfriend, along for the ride?"
She spots a man looking a little nervous at the question. "You!" He rushes over to him and bites his forearm and throws him on the ground in front of Ray.
The woman protests and Klaus grabs her by the throat. Alyssa looks at Ray. "Either you don't drink it, Ray or I will. Only I'm not going to stop."
Klaus to the woman he still has by the throat. "It's the new order, sweetheart. You join us, or you die.
She responded. "I'd rather die than be a vampire."
"Wrong choice." He gives her his blood. Ray drinks the blood from the man. "She'll thank me for that later." He twists her head and kills her. "Okay, who's next?" His eyes are yellow and his fangs are out.
After feeding the rest of the pack Klaus gives blood to the human and compels him. "There. Good as new. Now you relax, okay, mate? We're gonna need you when the rest of them wake up."
Ray is sitting on a rock nearby, grabbing his body and shivering. "They're dead. They're all dead."
Alyssa looks back at where Ray watches the rest of his pack. "I guess they made it through the transition."
"He should be feeling better soon." Klaus says.
"So is this your master plan? Build an army of hybrid slaves?"
"No, not slaves. Soldiers, comrades."
"Are you planning on going to war?"
"Oh, you don't arm yourself after war has been declared." He walks over to her. "You build your army so big that no one ever dares pick a fight."
"What makes you so sure that they'll be loyal?"
"Well, it's not difficult to be loyal when you're on the winning team."
Alyssa looks over at Ray's eyes that are bleeding. "Something's wrong."
"You said it was gonna feel better." Ray says as he begins to shake. "Why doesn't it feel better?
The blonde woman wakes up.
"Derek, come feed your girlfriend." Klaus instructs him. He gets up. Ray snarls and makes a few jumps and leaves.
Klaus looks at Alyssa, "go get him."
She rolls eyes and gets up jumping on Ray and pushes him on the ground. Ray bites him and leaves. She's about to go after him but sees Damon walking towards her. She runs in his direction grabbing him and putting as much distance between him and Klaus as possible. "
She pinned him against a tree. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"What does it look like?"
She releases him and steps back. "It looks like you have a death wish. Klaus is on the other side of that river with a bunch of supercharged werewolves."
"Didn't think you care."
"I don't. Let Klaus see you. He'll probably kill you and if he doesn't kill you it's a full moon one of his new pet projects. What do I care about?" She turns and walks away.
"I actually have a theory about that."
"Do you?"
"I think you're going back, killing Jeremy, nearly killing Elena was a smoke screen. You were trying to get us to think that you've given in to your dark side to keep us from trying to save you."
"The only one I needed to save was myself and my constant need to protect the people I care about regardless of the consequences which I always ended up paying for hi. Klaus saved me from that."
"He turned you into a hybrid and forced you to kill."
"You're point."
"You can't trust the guy."
She stops abruptly and turns to face him surprising him. "And who should I trust Damon, you? You already proved that I can't. I've already learned my lesson. I don't need to learn it twice."
She starts to walk but stops when she sees someone run by and hears the sound of twigs breaking followed by a howl.
"It's not even a full moon yet."
"Those rules don't apply to a hybrid," She turns to him. "That's what Klaus was searching for all summer. Wolves, so that he can make a hybrid army. Only, things aren't going exactly according to plan. Right now I need to find Ray before Klaus finds you instead. He thinks I convinced you to stop following us. He has to keep thinking that. So you have to stop following me."
"I'm not about to leave you to play hybrid sidekick to his evil villain for the next eighty years."
"You don't have a choice." She turns around and comes face to face with Stefan. Damon jabs a syringe filled with vervain in the side of her neck. She passes out and Stefan catches her before she can fall and carries her back to the car, placing her in the back seat. He shuts the door and Damon hands her the phone she had on her.
There was only one phone number listed and he called it.
"I hope you're calling to tell me you've located our lost stray."
"Depends on which hybrid you're referring to."
"Stefan, well I can't say that I'm surprised. If you're calling I'm guessing you have Alyssa."
"I do. And I'll be willing to give her back but first we need to talk."
"Name the time and the place."
Stefan looks back at Damon, "I'll get back to you on that." He hangs up and walks over to Damon.
"I hope this plan of yours is going to work."
"Just get her home. I'll call you if I find out anything."
Damon looks back at Alyssa laying in the back seat. "When she wakes up, she's going to be pissed."
"Then you'd better get her home before she does."
Damon drives back to Mystic Falls with Alyssa passed out in the back seat the entire drive. He takes her back to his place and carries her inside and upstairs. Bonnie is just finishing spelling the room when he walks in and places her on the bed.
"I called Elena. She's on her way." She steps halfway into the room. "Elena told me what happened. You sure you want to be doing this."
"Yeah. Thanks Bonnie."
She turns to leave and runs into Elena on the way out. Elena stops in the door and looks at Alyssa.
Damon looks at her from over his shoulder. "You're not supposed to be here."
Elena drops her bag on the ground as she walks in. "Bonnie said she was still unconscious. How much vervain did you give her?"
"Don't know if you noticed but your sister has a bit of a temper. I wanted to make sure she stays out long enough for me to get her back here. Didn't want her snapping my neck while I was driving. She'll probably be out until morning."
She takes a seat beside her. "I'll wait."
"Then you should get comfortable," he says laying on the bed, "it's gonna be a long night."