A loud buzzing sound goes off and Elena, still with her eyes closed, reaches across Stefan. The time on the clock says 5:15 in the morning. She hits the snooze button.

"When did you get an alarm?" She asks, closing her eyes, lying back down.

Stefan glances at. "I didn't."

Alyssa bounds into the room heading for the window. "I did." She says with a smile pulling back the curtains to let the light in causing Elena to groan and stick her head under the covers. Alyssa pulls them back. "You're coming with me."

With her eyes closed she asks, "Where?" But I didn't get up.

"To start your training."

She raises up on her elbows and looks at her with skepticism.

"Stefan's more than welcome to join us," she turns towards the door to leave, "or Damon, whoever makes you feel the safest."

Elena collapses back on the bed after she's gone but eventually she gets up feeling curious as to the type of training she had in mind. She and Stefan meet her outside once they are dressed, both shocked to see Alaric waiting, looking halfway sober. Something he hadn't been for a long time.

"She called you too." Stefan says as they approach.

"More like dragging me out of bed and into the shower with my clothes still on."

Alyssa comes out of the woods "I'd be more than happy to help you undress the next time if you want." She stops in front of them.

"So this is going to be a common occurrence then?" Elena asks not to be thrilled with the idea of getting woken at five in the morning on a regular basis.

"Trust me, I'm not happy with it either but Klaus has compelled me to keep you safe while he's gone so that's what I'm going to do like it or not and I don't but since I have no choice and I can't and don't want to be on Elena duty twenty four seven."

She turns to Rick, "I thought it would be a good idea for Rick to train you in his ways. I set up a spot in the woods for you two to train. It's this way." She turns and heads into the woods where she just came from. Elena Stefan and Rick took it to mean they were supposed to follow and they did.

"Someone wants to catch me up?" Rick asks ducking under a tree branch as they begin their journey into the woods. "Cause last I heard she and Klaus were on a southern tour looking for werewolves so what is she doing back in Mystic falls and how are you still alive if Klaus knows you didn't die in his ancient ritual."

"Because he needs my blood in order to make more hybrids." Elena answers by stepping over a tree branch.

"So why not just take you when he leaves town?"

"Katherine wasn't the only one running from someone." Stefan answers. "A vampire Hunter named Mikeal was after him and thanks to Katherine and Damon we know where he is."

"No wonder he hightailed it out of town."

"Leaving me behind." Alyssa calls out behind, "which I don't appreciate," she stops next a mannequin that's used in self defense classes next to a duffle bag, "welcome to self defense 101," she put an arm around the mannequin, "vampire addition with our very own Alaric Saltzman playing the role of Mr. Miyagi."

"It's not like you gave me a choice." He says, stepping forward.

"Just because Klaus assigned me doesn't mean I have the desire to be the Kevin Cosigner to her Whitney Houston hence this little wax on wax off moment where having. Rick," she steps aside and lets him take over.

He opens the duffle bag pulling out the air compressed contraption they used on Katherine at the Lockwood's that lead to her being briefly trapped in the tomb. He quickly demonstrates it once and then straps it on her.

"So the pressure of your punch ejects the stakes."

"Easy enough." She punched the mannequin but the stakes stayed in the sleeve.

"That's weird." She tries again but it doesn't work. She hits it a few times. "Must be jammed or something."

"You're not strong enough. Better start lifting some weights, put some meat on your bones."

"Thanks for not sugar-coating it." He takes something out of his bag and shows it to her.

"You know what this is?"

"A vervain grenade. I've used one before."

"Then you know the element of surprise is your only advantage when it comes to a vampire."

He pulls the pin out of a grenade and throws it in Elena's hand.

"Surprise."

"Oh my god." She throws it in the air. Alyssa runs towards her shielding her as the grenade explodes so she doesn't get hit.

After all the shrapnel disappears she checks to make sure she isn't hurt and turns her sights on Rick pinning him to the tree. "What part of Elena doesn't get hurt, didn't you understand?"

"I thought you wanted me to prepare her. Vampires will take whatever they want. They will hurt whoever they want. And they'll do it without remorse. It's their nature."

"It's mine too. Remember that the next time you decide to teach her the element of surprise." She lets him go and he leans from against the tree and walks past her and back over to Elena.

"You gonna try and tell me that's part of Klaus' compulsion?"

"You want to tell me what that was."

Alyssa takes out her headphones that she had been wearing during a quick run in the woods when she saw Stefan standing outside of the room she had claimed in the boarding house. "What was what?"

"What happened in the woods."

"You mean the five a.m training?" She tosses her MP3 player on the bed. "With her being a doppelganger she's basically a vampire magnet. I thought she could use the training." She drank from her water bottle.

"I meant Rick."

"Oh," she caps the water bottle. "I just thought he was being a little too rough that's all."

"It's Rick. He would never purposely hurt Elena. You know that right."

She walks up to him. "What I know is that Ricks has been stockpiling alcohol like it's the prohibition and that he's drunk so much in the last three months that I'm sure his body is made up of eighty percent of whiskey and that his liver is swimming in it. I guess what I'm saying is I don't trust his judgement right now."

"Funny," he leans up from the wall. "I was going to say the same." He walks out.

She shuts the door behind him and undresses and she makes her way into the shower. She's in, out, dressed and out of the door in under thirty minutes. She runs into Damon at the bottom of the stairs on the way to the front door. She hadn't seen or spoken to him since her confession the night before and she had planned on keeping it that way. Unfortunately fate had other plans.

"If you're looking for Elena, she left with Caroline and Bonnie."

She avoided looking at him as she went through her bag, "Thanks."

"If you want, I could give you a ride."

"No thanks." She walks to the door without sparing him a glance just as Stefan walks down. "Give you a ride."

Stefan looks at Damon before answering, "yeah."

He follows her to the car and they pull out of the driveway with nothing but the radio to fill the silence But Alyssa knew there was something Stefan wanted to say especially after what transpired the night before.

"Whatever it is you want to say since you got in the car you should just say it."

"There isn't."

She looks at him like she didn't believe him because she didn't because she knew better.

"Okay," she turns her attention back to the road, "I was just thinking you should cut Damon some slack."

"And there is it."

"He cares about you."

"Yeah well he has a funny way of showing it."

"It's Damon. He's not good with showing emotions but it's our emotions that make us human. Feeling anything, even pain , is how we hold on to our humanity."

She looks over at him, "I'm not going to turn it off if that's what you're worried about." She looks back at the road. "I'm not going to lie and say I haven't thought about it either. I did. In the beginning," she looks back at him, "when I first left with Klaus I thought about it. I thought it would be easier to leave everyone behind if I did." She looks back out the window. "But then logic kicked in and I realized that if I did that, then there's nothing keeping me from telling him the truth. I had to feel the pain and live with the memories so I could remember what I was fighting for, what I was protecting. It's the only way I could live with what I did."

"I'm a ripper, remember." She turns to him. "I don't want to feel but feeling even the hurt is what makes being a vampire worth it because yes the pain is intensified but so is love and it's worth it."

"You have Elena and Damon who would both die for you. All I've ever done is sacrifice and for what. The people I love always end up dead or don't love me."

"Damon does."

She looks at him, "then why did it take him so long to look for me. I'll tell you," she looks back at the road, "because he was thinking what you were. Klaus is gone which means Elena is safe. For him," she looks back at him and she knows he knows it's truth behind her words, "she's the only thing that matters."

"It's not the only thing."

"Then why didn't he choose me?" She turns to face the road one final time as the school came into sight and Stefan couldn't find a comeback to her question. "Sometimes I think Katherine has the right idea. The only person anyone can depend on is themselves to hell with everyone else." She stops in the school parking lot and gets out as soon as the car is off.

She spots Matt still in his truck and walks over to him tapping on the windshield making him jump.

He relaxes but only a little when he sees it's him and gets out of the car.

"Why do you look like you just saw a ghost?" She asks but then thinks of Vicki, "oh Vicki. Are you still seeing her?"

"Yeah I think it's a side effect of dying."

"You think she would find something better to do than haunt this place especially considering how much she hated it." She says walking towards school.

"I don't think she can go anywhere else."

"Isn't there like some vampire on the other side she can go to? You know, find peace or whatever."

"I don't think a place like that exists for vampires."

"Then it's a good thing I can't be so easily killed cause that sounds like it sucks."

"You know," Matt stops in front of her. "You would think as her best friend you would be more concerned with the fact that she's stuck on the other side alone. She was your best friend."

"And now she's dead so…." She walks inside school running into Elena. She hadn't seen her since last night and that was on purpose too. She knew she was going to want to talk about what she had said to Damon but she really didn't want to get into it.

Elena comes up to her. "I didn't think you were coming."

"I didn't really have a choice. Klaus wants me to keep an eye on you. I'm just doing what I'm told. Besides, being here is better than being alone with my thoughts and right now I could use the distraction."

"I think we all could." She looks over at her friends.

"How is Tyler doing? I haven't seen him ask him myself. I figured they were both still angry with me."

"Caroline says he's doing okay but it hasn't been that long so she can't really say."

"I'll talk to him. See if I can do anything to help. It is my fault he's like this."

"No it's Klaus's. All this is because of Klaus."

"New rule. We are not allowed to mention or even think about him." Tyler walks over to his locker. "Until he comes back he's someone else's problem. I for one am grateful for that." She closes her locker and walks over to Tyler to see how he's doing when she sees something red on his shirt.

"Seriously Tyler." She grabs him and they go into the boys' restroom. Caroline sees them and follows and asks, "What's going on?"

Alyssa focuses her attention on Tyler once she knew they were alone. "First lessons in being a hybrid don't wear you to breakfast at school."

"It was just a blood bag. Rebekah hooked me up."

"Rebekah?" She didn't think the original was still here.

"Yeah, Klaus told her to keep a watch on me. Protect his new asset."

Caroline asked, "Hi what? Why are you amused by this?"

"I'm his first successful hybrid, Caroline. Don't you think that's the tiniest bit awesome?"

Technically he was the second but Alyssa kept that thought to herself.

Caroline looked at him like he was going crazy. "I cannot believe you just said that."

"Maybe we should have this discussion another time. When we're not in the boys bathroom, anybody can walk in." She got a few paper towels from the dispenser and handed them to Tyler. "You clean up and try not to eat anybody in between classes. You," she looks at Caroline, "out." She pushed Caroline out the door just as the door rang just as the bell for the first period rang.

They walk into Alaric class. Elena and Stefan are already seated. Caroline sat on the opposite side of Elena and Alyssa takes the seat behind her.

Alaric has written "AP AMERICAN HISTORY" on the blackboard in chalk and Alyssa takes out her books.

"Welcome back, seniors. Let's turn our brains back on, starting with this country's original founders...the Native Americans."

Rebekah enters the classroom.

"What about the Vikings?" She takes a seat at a desk next to Alyssa who along with Tyler, Caroline, Stefan, and Elena look at her.

"There's no evidence that Viking explorers actually settled in the United States. Who are you?"

"My name's Rebekah. I'm new. And history's my favorite subject."

Alaric ignores her for the time being and continues teaching. Alyssa looks at Rebecca once Alaric's back is turned. "Looks like I wasn't the only one who was abandoned." Rebekah looks at her but doesn't reply. "Bright side, at least you're not daggered in a box which is good because I think you and I can have a lot of fun together." She looks at Elena and Rebekah does the same. "How do you feel about becoming a cheerleader?"

Rebekah was all for it, so after school Alyssa took her to the field they practiced. Caroline was the first to notice.

"What is she doing here?" Caroline asks, eyeing Rebekah with disdain.

"I invited her. I figured since we had an opening in the squad Rebekah could fill it."

Caroline looks confused.

"Yeah Dana's dead. Stefan killed her thanks to Klaus and since we have an opening in the squad I figured Rebekah would be the perfect person to fill it."

Caroline looks at Rebekah. "You can't just come here and infiltrate all of our lives."

"I'm only interested in yours. Your spunk, your popularity." She looks at Tyler practicing on the field. "Maybe even your boyfriend."

"Oh please you're an original," she says as they watch Tyler jog over to the coach, "you can do a lot better than Tyler Lockwood and this is coming from someone who had her boyfriend nothing much to desire there." She walks away.

"What does one do at a bonfire anyway?" Rebekah asks Alyssa as they get ready for the party in the room Rebekah claimed as her own once realizing Klaus ditched her.

"Drink mostly," she comes out of the closet carrying an outfit she thought would be perfect for the party and would look great on Rebekah. "Make s'mores, dance. But it's mostly drinking." She hands Rebekah the outfit and she takes it going into the bathroom. Alyssa sits on the bed. "I can't believe you have never been to one."

"I've spent the last ninety years in a box." She comes out and walks over to the mirror.

"Yeah, I guess that doesn't leave much room for a social life." She gets up and walks over to her standing behind her. "Lucky for you you've got me.

Rebekah smiles.

"The first rule of partying in the twenty-first century is to locate the alcohol." Alyssa tells Rebekah spotting and then pointing to the circle that was formed around the keg. "Next is scooping out the goods. I grew up with half the people here and there's not much to pick from but maybe you'll see something you like."

"I already have."

"Please don't tell me it's Tyler Lockwood." She turned to her. "I meant it when I said you could do better."

"Stefan's too hung up on that prudish little doppelgänger of his to give me the time of day and until then a girl has needs." She walks away.

Alyssa starts to follow but stops when she spots Stefan through the crowd and changes direction. "Don't tell me you came all this way to check up on little ole me." She says in a southern accent.

"No. I came for the keg and smores."

"You came," She leans against the tree next to him, "to check up on me."

"Elena told me you were here with Rebekah."

"Klaus might have left her here to keep an eye on Tyler but that doesn't mean she won't report back to him if she thinks I'm double crossing him. Given what I confessed back at the gym I thought it was best to play nice."

"Looks like she's buying it."

"I'm a good liar." She threw his words back at him. "Remember."

"Damon's certainly bought your act."

"It wasn't an act. And I don't want to talk about Damon." She leans up from the tree. "In fact I don't want to talk at all."

"You know you and Damon have that in common."

"You want to know what I know, you feel guilty." She gestures with her eyes behind him to Rebekah who was watching them. "You feel responsible somehow for me becoming a hybrid. Damon is your brother and in your mind if you hadn't forced him to turn then this wouldn't be happening. Cause for you everything goes back to that night. But what you need to understand is Klaus would have come for me either way.

Even if Damon had died that night this plan had been in the works for five hundred years.

What you did or didn't do that night wouldn't change anything. I still would have been born a werewolf. Klaus would have still come for Elena and I would have still ended up as a hybrid. Placing blame or feeling guilty isn't going to change anything but it is going to make you miserable and I'm done being miserable. I don't know why you aren't." She leaves him and finds a keg that's not so congested.

He catches on and follows her. "Who says I'm miserable?"

"You do. Though you'd never say the words" She hands him a cup full of beer and pours one for herself. "I know you are because like me you care too much. I've spent my entire afterlife worrying about everything and everyone but myself and it was exhausting. Constantly worried about everyone else's life never thinking I was worthy enough and because of that I never felt like I deserved to be happy. I know now that I am and I do. So from now on I'm going to put myself first." She pokes him in the chest with the same hand she held her cup. "You should too."

"So I should become the ripper and not feel."

"Whatever you do or don't do Stefan is your choice but if you want my suggestion find something else that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning. Because you won't always have her and for us always really is forever." She walks away in search of Rebekah but Damon finds her instead. She tries to walk around him but he steps in front of her. "You know I used to find you always showing up kind of endearing now it's just annoying." She tries to walk around him again but he steps in the way.

"What are you up to?" He asks with a furrowed brow.

"What makes you think I'm up to anything?"

"Because you're you."

"I think you're getting me confused with you and Stefan whose every thought revolves around her. All I care about is her blood and as long as it flows through her veins everything else is inconsequential including what she may or may not feel and who she may or may not feel it for."

She finds Rebekah sitting near a campfire holding a marshmallow over a stick.

"Is this supposed to be fun? I've been through 10 of these."

"You're just looking at it all wrong. This is a little rough on the outside." She pulls off the burnt outer layer of the marshmallow. "But the inside…" She holds the stick up to her and she takes the marshmallow off eating it.

"Mmm. It's good."

"Now try it with these." She holds the Graham crackers and a piece of chocolate.

Damon watches Alyssa with Rebekah. Stefan walks over to him as Alyssa shows her how to combine the marshmallow with the cracker and chocolate.

Damon looks over his shoulder at his brother before turning to watch the girls again. He had seen Rebekah watching her and Stefan and he knew that she knew it as well, which was the reason for their little performance. Though he suspected that there was some grain of truth to it. So he had to wonder if what she had said to him was actually.

"Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!" A crowd cheers around Alyssa as she does a keg stand. She stops drinking before she gets to the minute mark knowing most humans couldn't go past that without the blood rushing to their heads and even then it was pushing it.

The crowd shouted louder when her feet finally touched the ground. She stumbled a little bit as she turned. When she was stabled she raised both her arms in the air and hollered which started another round of hoots.

She passes by them all grabbing a cup as she goes to find somewhere quiet. Stumbling over to the bleachers she sits and watches the stars. She lost track of time as she sat there but she had a feeling that it had been a while when he came to find her.

"When I was little, Jenna and I used to lay out our sleeping bags in the backyard and map out the stars. Sometimes we would make up stories about how they got there. Jenna used to say that the brightest stars were the parents and the littles one were their children and no matter how far they got from their parents their light was bright enough to reach them. It was a beacon in case they were lost and needed to find their way back. I was hoping it would help me find mine. It didn't."

"It's going to take some time before things start to feel normal."

She looked back up at the sky. "Normal?" She didn't even know what that felt like anymore. She looked back at Stefan. "I'm a vampire/werewolf hybrid who's in love with a vampire who is in love with my doppelganger sister who as it turns out isn't even my real sister and she is in love with his brother who also happens to be a vampire. Nothing about my life is normal."

"You went from being human to a vampire and then a hybrid. It's going to take some time before you're feeling like yourself again."

"And who is that? It's not Gilbert. Miranda and Grayson weren't my parents. Jenna and some unknown wolf were. And any chance I had of figuring out who died with her. So how could I ever feel like myself when I don't even know who that is anymore?"

He climbed over the railing on the bleaches and sat atop of it." Well you're stubborn, impulsive, fiercely loyal. You're willing to do anything to protect the people you care about, even sacrificing your own life. You love without apology. You see the good in people when they don't always show it and accept when there's nothing good to be seen. That's who you are, Gilbert or not. I will remind you of that every day for the next a hundred and fifty four years if I have to."

"You forgot great in bed."

He smiled slightly. "I wouldn't know."

"You could if you weren't so obsessed with Elena."

"And you weren't so obsessed with Damon." He threw back.

Alyssa didn't bother denying that she wasn't her being a hybrid spoke for itself. "True." She sits up. "Only I wish I wasn't. Scratch that I wish he wasn't in love with your girlfriend. But he is and I can't seem to turn off the way I feel about him." She stands up and heads down the bleacher steps. "I mean I could but then I'd probably end up like Katherine and nobody wants that."

Stefan followers her to the parking lot. She was about to head over to her car when she suddenly remembered, "I forgot Elena."

"She's with Damon. You've been drinking. You shouldn't be driving."

"I was high most of sophomore year and still finished top of the class." She starts walking again. "I can handle a ten minute drive." She stops when her shoes hit something wet. It hadn't been raining and it didn't smell like beer. She lifts up her feet and is hit with a strong odor. "Is that gas?"

Stefan follows the trail where it stopped at a car with Elena inside.

"Elena," Stefan whispers as the gas starts burning. They reach the car just as it catches fire.

"Elena! Elena!" Alyssa yells. "Open the door!" She tries but it won't open.

"I can't! It won't open! What the hell?"

Stefan rushes to another car to try to find something. He finds a lacrosse stick. He returns and tries to break the door window with it but it doesn't work. Elena tries to break it with her feet but it doesn't work either.

Alyssa runs to the back of the car and sees Damon in the trunk unconscious. She tries to break the back of the window but it doesn't budge. She takes a step back as the fire gets stronger.

Alyssa jumps on the top of the car punching a whole through the roof and ripping it open large enough for Elena to be able to climb through it. "Elena!" She calls out but realizes that Elena has just passed out. She jumps inside. She kicks out the back window and Stefan reaches in and grabs Elena. Alyssa grabs Damon on her way out of the car and vamp runs away from the car just as it explodes.

She looked over at Damon and Elena who had regained consciousness and was coughing the smoke out of her lungs. "Everybody okay."

Elena nodded and coughed out a yeah hanging on to Stefan. "I don't know what happened."

"Let's just get you out of here. We can figure that out later."

They return to the Salvatore house and after making sure Elena was okay physically Alyssa goes up stairs and takes a shower to wash the smell of smoke off her. Stefan, now a conscious Damon and Elena, were all waiting downstairs when she came down.

Elena was just getting off the phone when she said, "that was Bonnie. She said that Vicki Donavon started the car fire with help from a witch from the other side who told her if she killed me she would help her come back."

"It's the original witch. It had to be. She was the one that suppressed Klaus's werewolf side and told him that Elena had to die in order to make more hybrids which we now know is a lie. She'd do anything to make sure he doesn't succeed, unfortunately for us that means getting rid of Elena."

"It means we have to take care of Vicki Donavon." Damon says.

"Matt already did." Elena says. "According to Bonnie she was using him as an anchor into our world. She helped him close it so she's gone."

"And you're safe." Alyssa says. "Which means I can finally get a good night's sleep." She hadn't had one in months. "So I'm going to bed."

Damon goes after her. "Guess that makes us roomies again."

She stops and turns around. "Actually, I think I'm going to find one of those six other rooms to sleep in."

"If you're worried about Rebekah?"

"It's not about Rebekah Damon. It's about us and the fact that there's never going to be one. You're never going to love me the way that I want to be loved. The way I deserve to be loved. The way you love her. And that's not your fault, it's just the way that it is and I've said that I accepted it but what I've really been doing was holding onto hope but I know now there is none.

I can accept that now. It doesn't make getting over my feelings for you any easier but I have to and to do that I need space and you need to give that to me. But you never will." She says more to herself than to him. "I can't do what I need to do to keep you safe if you feel even a small part of what I feel for you. I need to find some way to move on and the only way that I could do that is if you forget and there's only one way you'll be able to do that."

She walked over to him and took his hands in his not sure if it would work but she knew she had to try. She looks into his eyes, tears in her own.

"You have to stop caring about me. You have to stop trying to save me. I know you feel guilty because I went with Klaus to save you but you have to stop. It'll only give me false hope when you do and loving you the way that I do knowing that she is the one you're in love with is hard enough without the lingering looks and it all needs to stop. When you look at me all you'll see is Elena's little sister. You'll feel nothing. It'll all be a distant memory in 5," She holds onto his hands right.

"4," She closes her eyes as she feels the tears flow down her cheek

"3," She raises on her toes bringing her lips closer to hers.

"2," Her lips lightly touch hers and she presses a firm lingering kiss to his lips.

She whispers "1."

He opens his eyes and she's gone.