"Hey, I- I called you ten times last night. We need to talk." Alyssa hears Elena say as she passes by her room. At first, she thinks she is talking to her, so she stops, and when she does, she sees that she's on the phone.
She expects it to be Stefan, so she doesn't think anything of it since she has spent most of the night with Stefan, the two of them out drinking and dancing, but she is surprised when she hears Damon's voice reply. "Sorry, I've been busy."
"If you're mad at me, Damon, you must get over it."
"Oh, I'm over it." He hangs up, and Alyssa walks into Elena's room.
"I wouldn't expect him to call back." She says, and Elena turns around. "He was pretty busy when I left last night."
"You were at the boarding house?"
"Yeah. Stefan, I went out last night. I wasn't ready to come home, and after Damon confessed to you, Stefan needed to clear his head. We found this cool bar outside of town with this cute bartender."
"How does Stefan know what Damon said?"
She shrugs.
"You told him."
"Of course I did. We're friends, and Stefan may be blind to what's happening between you and Damon, but I'm not, and the last thing I want to do is see him get blindsided."
"There's nothing between Damon and me." She denies.
"Not yet, but I see where this is going, and it doesn't end well for Stefan."
"What about Elijah? Does that end well for Stefan or any of us?"
"For once, something I do has nothing to do with you. I like Elijah and Rebekah. So yeah, I'm glad Ester has chosen to forgive Klaus."
"You wanted him dead more than any of us."
"That hasn't changed, but he's Elijah's brother, and as I said, I like him. Is it crazy? Yes. But being around him makes me feel good. You, of all people, know how that feels."
She knew she was referring to when she first started dating Stefan after their parents died.
"And being friends with Rebekah, I feel the same way I did when Vicki was alive. So I'm asking you, what did Esther say to you?"
"It's like I said, she just wanted to apologize."
"Okay."
After speaking with Elena, Alyssa takes a trip to the Mikealson mansion to talk to Elijah. Kol and Klaus were on their way out when she walked in.
Rebekah was still wearing her dress from last night, meaning she was arriving home.
"Whatever you want, I'm not in the mood," Rebekah says when she sees her.
"I thought sex was supposed to help you relax."
"Only when it's good."
"Then I know it was. So why are you more bitchier than normal."
Elijah enters the room, still holding the burnt sage, "Rebekah."
"Not you too, Elijah. Who I do in my personal life has nothing to do with you." She says, leaving the room.
Alyssa watches her leave. "She's delightful in the morning." She turns back to Elijah, and she can tell he's worried, and it's not about Rebekah. "You worried, and it's not about Rebekah."
"I'm worried about my mother. She's been exhibiting strange behavior."
"She's been dead for a thousand years. What's strange for her?"
"Burnt sage." Elijah shows her the sage, and she takes it from him. "She was doing a privacy spell."
"Why do you think she needs it?"
"I don't know. That's what have I worried."
Alyssa decided not to tell Elijah about her suspicions of Elena because she wasn't sure what he would do, especially after learning he thought his mother was up to something.
So she decided to go straight to the source. She called out to her as soon as she got in the house. There was no response from her, but she knew she was there. She could see both Bonnie's and Caroline's cars outside. So she knew she had to be there, and they discussed Ester.
"You should know she came to see Abby and me this morning." She hears Bonnie say. She stays downstairs and listens, hoping to hear what Elena hides from her.
"And all this time, you let me vent about Damon?"
"I don't want you to worry."
"Okay, well, what did she want?"
"She wanted to introduce herself. Abby and I helped bring her back. She's channeling our entire ancestral bloodline for power. I think she thought she was being polite."
"Okay, well, can you stop her from channeling you?"
"Even if there was, why would I want that?"
"I just keep thinking...Before the sun and the moon ritual, Elijah found a way to keep me alive. And now I'm in the same position, and I'm just going to let him die? It just doesn't feel right."
Caroline re-enters the room, and Alyssa takes the opportunity to go upstairs.
"Okay. First of all, this privacy spell is not working. Second. Elena, you are not doing this; Esther is doing this." She hears Caroline say as she stops outside her room. She is glad the privacy spell isn't working.
"There's no time to change your mind, Elena. He'll be dead by the end of the night."
She opens the door and comes in, looking at Elena. "You lied to me?!"
"What?"
"Caroline was right about that privacy spell. I am not working. Neither is your capability to lie. FYI your poker face sucks. What does she mean he'll be dead by nightfall?"
"You didn't tell her?" Caroline asks in disbelief.
"Tell me what?"
No one says anything at first, so Caroline cannot keep a secret, and she's scared of her and tells her. "Ester didn't ask her there to apologize."
"Caroline!"
"She needed Elena's blood to link them. What happens to one happens to them all. She's sacrificing Finn. So if he dies…."
"They all die. Rebekah dies." She looks at Elena. "Elijah dies. You knew that you would still let him die even after I told you how I felt this morning."
"It's not just him," Bonnie says. "Klaus dies. Isn't that what you wanted."
"Yeah, it is. I wanted Klaus to die. But what you're helping her do doesn't just kill him. They all die."
"Collateral damage." She shrugs.
"There has to be another way."
"There isn't. Klaus has to die."
"But they don't. We can find another way. There has to be another way, and I will find it."
Bonnie uses her powers on her, which causes her to stop and grab her head. "I can't let you do that."
"Bonnie?" Elena's calls.
"I let her go, she'll tell Elijah, and he'll stop it. Is that what you want?"
Elena looks at her sister as she drops on the floor in pain but doesn't try to stop Bonnie.
"Caroline," Bonnie says, and with hesitation, Caroline walks over to her and snaps her neck.
When she comes to, she's alone, and it's night, and she's a bit dizzy, but the events of what happened come rushing back to her. She tries calling Elena, but she doesn't get an answer.
She hangs up and goes to the Mikealson manor. "Elijah?" She had hoped he had been there.
He stepped into the living room from the ballroom and didn't look too happy. "Tell me you didn't know. Tell me that this wasn't just some elaborate plot for revenge."
"It wasn't." She has no reservations about approaching him. "Elijah, I swear I didn't know." She needed him to believe her, as she had told Elena earlier. She liked him and didn't want him to think she was using him. "Elena didn't trust me enough to tell me, and when I found out, I tried to tell you, but Bonnie did some kind of witchy thing so that I couldn't."
"Elena has gotten quite gifted at deception."
"Where is she?" From the start, he was weary of his mother, so she figured he would have pieced it together by now and guessed that he had Elena.
"With Rebekah. As you can imagine, my sister is just dying to tear her throat out. So...if you want to save Elena's life, I need you to help me stop my mother."
"Sorry, I'm rusty about killing thousand-year-old resurrected witches."
"Unfortunately, my mother doesn't want to stay dead even when killed. Not with the spirits of nature at her side."
"How am I supposed to stop her?"
"The witches that released my mother, she's drawing her power from their bloodline. That line needs to be broken."
"The only way to do that is if I kill them."
"I'd do it myself, but I don't know where they are. Besides seeing me, they'd immediately know my intent. They won't expect to be harmed by the likes of you. In any case, you have until six minutes after nine to find them.
"That's weirdly specific."
"By 9:07, the moon will be full, and my mother will have the power to kill my family and me. If you do not stop her before then, Rebekah will kill Elena."
"She's my sister, Elijah."
"I know." He said. She could tell he regretted his actions but knew he had to do it. "It doesn't change what either of us has to do. You have your timeline. I suggest you get started."
"Elijah has Elena." She says, entering the boarding house. "He found out about Esther's plan. Thanks for filling me in, by the way. He says we have until 9:06, or Rebekah will kill Elena. Esters are channeling the Bennett witches, so the only way to stop them is if they die."
Stefan pulls his phone out. "We need to call Bonnie. There's got to be a way for her to stop Esther from channeling all that power."
Damon stops him, "A. What if she's with Esther? B. What if she can't cut her off? C. I don't know how this stuff works, and D., neither do you!"
"You got a better plan?" Alyssa asks.
"Worst case scenario, simple mechanics. Can't draw power from a dead battery."
Stefan replies, "You want to kill them."
"If it comes to that."
"There's got to be another way," Alyssa says.
"Well, what if I told you I had a less diabolical plan." Damon holds up a silver dagger.
Alyssa looks at him incredulously. "You want to dagger Elijah!"
"They're all linked. One goes down. They all go down. The witches live, Elena's safe, problem solved."
"We don't know if that'll affect Klaus." She says, hoping to remind him that silver doesn't work on vampires.
"Ironically, Klaus isn't our current problem." He says.
"Dagger is lethal to any vampire who uses it, remember?" Alyssa reminds him.
"Well, I just so happen to know someone crazy enough to give it a shot," Damon says. "Klaus was at the bar with baby Mikealson when I was there with Rick. Might still be there."
Damon pulls out his phone, calls Rick, and asks if Klaus and Kol left.
"Yeah, no, they're still here. They've drunk their way through half the Grill's liquor supply.
"Good. It'll be easier if they're wasted."
"So, what's the plan?"
"Divide and conquer. First, we'll need a little blonde distraction."
They knew he meant Caroline. Klaus seemed pretty hung up on her at the party, so Alyssa thought it was as good a plan as any.
After Confirmation that Caroline just showed up, Damon hangs up.
"We should go," Damon tells Stefan.
Alyssa turns to Stefan, "You go. Klaus sees all of us there, and he'll know something's up."
He nods and follows Damon. Alyssa waits until she's sure that they're gone before she leaves. But she doesn't follow them; instead, she sets out to do just what Elijah sent her to do in case Damon's plan fails.
Ester was channeling from the Bennett line, and she knew there was only one place that she could go to channel such power.
Outside the old witch's house, Finn is lighting torches around a pentagram on the ground made of salt. Bonnie and Abby are with Esther. Alyssa stays out of sight while she waits.
She hears Esther explain to Abby about the Pentagon they've just drawn, how it represents their connection to magic, and how the salt symbolizes the earth...
"The torches?" Bonnie asks.
"Five torches. One for each of my children."
"What's the spell you're doing?"
"As the witch who cast the spell that made them vampires, I can reverse it. When they become human again, they can be killed. As they are linked, my brave Finn will be the sacrifice. With his death will come theirs."
Abby asks Finn, "And you're just willing to die?"
"My mother has released me from an eternity of shame. It's not a sacrifice. It's a gift."
Neither Bonnie nor Abby asks any more questions as they watch Esther finish the spell. Not long before she's done preparing. Finn dies and falls to the ground.
Esther looks down at him, "something's wrong."
Bonnie looks at Abby and tells her that they should go inside. Abby does as suggested, and not long after, Finn awakens.
Not a minute after that, Stefan calls to tell her their plan didn't work. Klaus stopped them before proceeding, and Elijah moved up the timetable.
"We need to find Bonnie."
"I have." She replies, walking towards the old witch's house. "Don't worry, Elena will be fine."
"Where are you?"
"The old witch house."
"Whatever you're thinking about doing…." She hung up before he could finish and walked inside.
She hears Abby and Bonnie talking as they walk through the house.
"This place has some serious vibe in it." She hears Abby say.
"The witch spirits will protect us from the Originals."
Alyssa appears in front of them. "It's not the originals you need to worry about."
Bonnie attempts to attack, but Alyssa's vamp speeds up and grabs Abby before she can perform any magic tricks holding her by her neck.
"Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice, and your mom gets to join your dead witchy ancestors on the other side."
Bonnie stands down.
"Smart choice."
Alyssa sits Abby back down but doesn't let her go.
"I won't help you."
"Even if Elena's life depends on it."
"You won't hurt her. You never could."
"True. But Rebekah can. And she will unless we find a way to stop her."
"I can't stop her. She's channeling us!"
"Bonnie, if you can't stop her, I'll have to find another way."
"Even if you kill us, Esther is channeling every witch in our ancestry, living and dead."
"Esther's drawing from the witches. The only way to cut her off is if," she bites her wrist and feeds her blood to Abby, "one of you is no longer a witch."
"No!"
Stefan runs into the witch's house as Alyssa snaps Abby's neck. Stefan runs and catches her before she falls, and Alyssa looks at him before she walks out of the house.
Finn and Esther are gone. Elijah, Klaus, Kol, and Damon stand around in shock.
"It's done," Alyssa says to Elijah as Stefan carries Abby's body out of the house, followed by Bonnie, who looks at Alyssa as she walks out.
"I had no choice."
"We always have a choice."
"You're right. The choice was my family or yours. I chose mine. I'll always choose mine." _
"Is she safe?" Alyssa asks Stefan walking onto the porch.
"Yeah. Rebekah, let her go."
"Does she know about Abby?" She decides to sit on the porch swing.
"Yeah. She's with Bonnie."
"I doubt she's going to want to see her. She is the reason her mother died. The reason I killed her."
"You did it to save Elena."
"Yet again, someone else dies because of it." She hangs up before he can answer.
She got up to go inside but stopped when she felt someone behind her and turned to see Elijah.
"Let me start by apologizing for my behavior. Today I did things I hate to protect the one thing I value most. My family. If anyone can understand that, it's you."
"Esther backed you into a corner. You had no choice."
"You're friend Bonnie was right when she said we always have a choice, and today I chose to use my sister's hatred toward Elena to get what I wanted. I wielded her like a sword. My sister. All My talk of virtue. When it suits my needs, I kill, maim, and torment. Even today, I terrorized an innocent. Mother was right."
"Elena is far from innocent, and Ester made you vampires. So she isn't the paragon of virtue."
"Mother made us vampires, but she didn't make us monsters. We did that to ourselves."
"What's happening to your family now?"
"Esther and Finn are gone. Kol has fled."
"And your next," She guessed.
"I think I overstayed my welcome."
"Not entirely."
With a final lingering look, he speeds away. Elena and Stefan showed up just as he left.
"Hey," Elena begins, but Alyssa goes inside before she can say anything else. Elena follows behind. "I'm sorry that I had to lie."
You didn't have to lie. You choose to, she stopped to say but then would be the point instead says, "You did what you had to Elena."
"You're not mad?"
"If the roles were reversed, I would have done the same. So don't worry about it, okay." She turned around and went upstairs.
Elena turns to Stefan after she's gone. "That was weird, right?"
"Yeah." He says, looking after her.
"Should we be worried?"
He told her no, but he didn't believe it himself.