Elena's POV

I was sick of people looking at me like I was a liability. Like I wasn't more than a pretty face with a serious sense of stubbornness. I can run. I can fight. And I am strong, no matter what people say. It doesn't take muscles like Damon's or Stefan's to be tough, or cunning like Katherine's to be powerful. My power is in the ability to die for those I love, and the skill to lie right to a vampire's face. Briana's, to be specific. I can do this; I will do this.

Briana's POV

"I want you to take me to Slater." My eyebrows hit my hairline as I turned on her. Points to her, she didn't flinch. The clock ticked in the kitchen. Rose's sleeping form heaved steady breaths upstairs.

"What? Rose's friend Slater?" I scrutinized her puffed out chest, shoulders back, unwavering brown-eyed gaze. From the looks of it, Elena seemed as if she was about to do something that took a lot of bravery. Or possibly stupidity. It's hard to discern which is which in this town.

"He has information; I want to find Elijah. I think a deal could be made," she said flippantly, but in a practiced tone. I bit my lip. I'd watched this girl now and then, and there was something strangely familiar about how she went about asking me. Was she... lying to me?

Elena's POV

I was so lying to her.

Briana's POV

"A deal?" I inquired knowingly, "Mm-hm. And what kind of.. deal would this be, Elena?" I gave a trilling, bright giggle, and she pinched her lips worriedly. Fear flashed on her face, but it flickered into composure.

"My friends and family must be kept safe. And I-" her voice quivered with nervousness.

"And you don't have anything other than your life to offer." She looked from side to side, reassuring herself neither Damon nor Stefan was there (they probably lock her in the basement cellar if she tried to pull something like this), and then nodded, only a brief dip of her head. "Don't be a martyr, Sugar-" I came up with the name in a snip "-and don't sacrifice yourself when you have enough back-up to keep you safe."

"Back-up?" she huffed indignantly. "We're not cops! I am a 'doppelganger', in which my only duty is to grow up, be discovered by some assholes who want to bleed me out on an alter. You are a bunch of vampires- not you specifically, of course- who, for some reason, would lay down your lives to save me." She leaned in close, her lip curling with distaste, and hissed, "Nobody else should die for me."

She turned on her heel and began to walk out. I puffed out a breath and bit my lip, indecisive and wavering. Finally, just as her fingers brushed the worn, golden doorknob, I yelled out, "Do you think they would move on, Sugar? Jeremy would have Jenna, sure, but they would both be consumed with grief. Stefan would... die! You are everything to him." I sighed. "And Damon would- Damon would go on a murderous rampage and slaughter half the town. And probably get himself killed in the process."

She knew it was true. I could tell by the look she gave me, a cocktail of fear and caution and unending exhaustion. Her tongue slid across her bottom lip in a pondering way, and she drummed her fingernails on the knob.

"If they knew that I wanted them to move on-"

"That would just make them sad and angry. You may think your just some girl who got caught up in this, but you're not." I sprinted up to her and she twitched her head back the slightest, her jaw setting. "You have people who love you: your brother, aunt, Bonnie and Caroline, Stefan... Damon." Emotion welled up in both of us, her guilt visible in the tears at the corner of her eyes, my jealousy obvious in the way my fingers curled into the lapels of her jacket. "But I swear to God, if you are so damn set on getting yourself killed, then I might as well be the one to take you."

A whoosh of air escaped her lips in relief when I gently let her go, smoothing over the raised indentations in the cloth. I frowned and she turned away from me, probably worried I might grab her again. It was going to take a lot of boldness to go and do this, but then again, Damon was my friend and that was it. Nobody else hear would mind killing me off if they actually knew how to kill me. I don't think mon ange had actually told anybody my secrets. But Elena had life her. Love. She had far to much to have people blaming her.

"Why should you help me. I know I asked, but..." she trailed off, waving her hand questioningly through the air.

"Because I have less to lose than you." Her eyebrows pushed together.

"But if I die, I'd be losing them anyway," she pointed out. A smile flickered on my face like a candle's flame.

"Yes, but they would remember you as the girl who got caught by an evil she couldn't outrun. If they knew you'd offered yourself up like this, they'd become... bitter, to put it lightly. You can't stand for people to remember you as the girl who was to weak to keep fighting. But me..." my lip trembled, "There aren't enough bright sides of me for people to feel anything but hate if I would, say, offer you up to Elijah and Klaus." She gasped and I smirked wickedly.

"But why, even in theory or games, would you do that?" I rolled my eyes, all my confidence coming back in one major rush.

"Because, if you're dead, Klaus will be proud and feel so safe that he won't have any problem wakin' up his dear old family, starting with that little blonde tramp of a sister." Heat spiked in my stomach. "Anyway, he'll have such faith in his, er, minions-" (did she know anything about the hybrids yet?) "-that he'll gather up his siblings and wake 'em all up. Which will be my perfect chance to kill them." Understanding dawned in her eyes. She opened her lips up and a little 'oh' fell from them.

"I envy you, Sugar," I whispered. Her hand fell off the door handle.

"Why? Why on earth would you want to be anything like me?" She threw her hands up in the air again, only this time in frustration and exasperation. "I'm about to go get myself killed!"

I laughed humorlessly and slouched back into the sitting room, staring wistfully into the whipping licks of fire curling up in the hearth. Orange, red, blue, yellow and the occasional wisp of white writhed among the glowing black embers, grappling for handholds on the gritty brick surface of the chimney. I took the bottle of whiskey off the table and poured some in, observing raptly how the fire blossomed and grew. Before I could think twice, I stuck my hand in it and there was a sickening sizzle. The stench of burnt flesh wafted from the fire.

"Wha-what are you doing?!" Elena shrieked, and I yanked my hand out, grinding my molars together.

A strained moan stretched through my teeth. Gruesomely, the skin wove itself over the bleeding, purplish-red sinew and muscle. In a few seconds, all that was left was a smear of scarlet and the smell of rot and burning. I turned on her, pointing my crispy, disgusting remnants of a finger that was still in the process of healing. She reared back and tripped into the chair. I wasn't going to rip her head off, dear Lord!

"You," I said pointedly, "have choices. You have a life, something I never had and never will. I will always be this. This... thing that never dies until I am forced to kill my family!" She tilted her head. "That's right; I die the moment my family- the Originals- do. I live, I heal, I sneak, I assassinate, and I'm gone.In basic, you're human. You could choose to walk out that door and we could never speak of this again. You could fight, and last through it. I envy you, because in your short, mortal time, you've managed to fall in love, and get friends, live!" I pulled the keys for Damon's kick-ass Camero off the hook on the far wall and dangled it precariously in front of her face.

"But your willing to give it all up because you don't think you'll hold up." She jutted out her lower lip and pulled her face to the left, not daring to look me in the eye. 'I'm takin' you to Slater, but it's not because I've given up." I wound my arm around her waist and she punched me in the arm, protesting wildly. "Just giving you the full impression of being kidnapped, Sugar."

"Who are you?!" I had a feeling she wasn't asking for my name alone. So I just laughed.

* * * * *

The apartment was low class, but sort of homey. Comfortable. I knocked on the wide, gray door and I heard it echo all across the hall. There was only silence and the soft sound of Elena's breathing. I clucked my tongue.Curious, I fingered the padlocked chain binding the two doors closed.

"Oops, guess they're not-"

"Move," she growled and picked up my hand, shoving it in my own face. "Break. The. Door." I cocked my brows and nodded approvingly. I guess not all the fight had gone out of her. When she released me, I reared back and jammed the doors open, my fist cracking through the thick metal chain around the handles. We broke into the house of a younger, male version of me.

"Abrasive little bitch, ain't ya Sugar?" I grumbled, and I swear she smiled. And then we walked into the living room.

"Oh my Gosh!" I whisper-screamed, and Elena covered her mouth with one slender white hand.

There on the hardwood floors was a chalky pale man in clean blue jeans, rectangular glasses and a torn white button-up. I clenched my fists, cracking my knuckles under my thumb. He had a slack, sort-of-cute face and curly brown hair. I couldn't tell what color his eyes were; they were hidden under the glare of his specs. But it was easy to see the finely carved stake in his heart. It was the cause of the musty gray veins crawling up his neck and mottling his handsome face. I'd heard of him, but never bothered to look into his case. He never seemed very important. Obviously, he was important enough to kill.

"Well, dammit," I complained, "that's an issue." She turned to me and gave me a look that crossed 'Duh' with 'Really?' and I shrugged innocently. There was a rustle that was either a sob or a choke somewhere in the room. I murmured, "There's someone here." She crouched back towards a wall, looking like a fugitive hiding from the police.

I followed the stray scent of human trailing from the room covered behind two white doors. They smashed into the wall as I kicked them in, flecks of paint chipping off the wall and falling into a small pile of crushed drywall on the floor. Around the corner, there was a weeping girl there. She was stooped towards the ground, thin and shaking with layers of slick, dyed black hair and smudged, shadowy eye makeup. Tears streaked down her cheeks and pooled in her trembling palms. I picked her up by the scruff of her lacy blouse and dragged her into the room where Elena hid.

"Found our little rat." I looked at the woman. "And who are you?" She cried out and clawed at my hand, muttering senseless things.

"His," hiccup, cough, "girlfriend." My hard edges softened and I set her down. She was so weak and wrought with grief that she collapsed anyway.

"Oops," I said, like a child who'd bumped the desk and sent the fragile vase sitting atop it toppling over the edge and onto the floor with a crash. I think I used that as a diversion once... possibly so Katherine could compel somebody in the room...

"P-please don't k-kill me-" she sniffled "-please." I scoffed and rolled my eyes, crouching down beside her.

"Honey, I'm not gonna kill you. But it would be nice if you could tell us who did this." She swallowed and took a few deep breaths until she was simply sitting there with blotchy, human cheeks soaked with still-flowing tears. She looked to the floor as if it had all the answers inscribed in it.

"He, um," she thought deeply, "called him Eli... Eli-"

"Elijah!" I snipped. She shook her head up and down in this twitchy, crazy little motion I assume was a nod. Pursing my lips, I switched my attention to Elena. "Well, it looks as if we've caught who you're looking for. Now it's just a matter of getting him here."

"There's a computer," she said, pointing to an array of supercomputers set up in a super geeky-slash-superhero-bat cave-type-way.My face cleared of any emotion but awe as I stood up, pulling the wretched, crying brat with me.

"Now, that is more than a computer, Sugar. That is effing awesome." The corner of her mouth shifted up, but she forced it back down. "C'mon, you can smile." So she did. It wasn't toothy or too bubbly, or even plastic. It was genuine and cute, dimples creasing around her lips; it made me sigh.

"No wonder he loves you," I said under my breath. Her smile dropped.

Elena's POV

She wasn't talking about Stefan.

I walked over to the epic computer setup and clicked the space button. It whirred to life, a swirly blue Microsoft screen popping up along with a password box.

"It's password-protected," I grumbled.

"The term's 'Kristen Stewart'," stuttered the black-haired-girl. My face crumpled in confusion for a moment, but I shrugged and typed it in anyway. Over the miniscule icons and plain background of a waterfall, a box popped up.

Files Have Been Successfully Cleared. Press OKAY to continue.

I groaned.

"Files have been erased," I stated, but the girl shouldered through softly, as if she was trying not to upset me while still trying to take control of the situation.

"The thing is," she injected into the conversation, "Slater always kept a backup file." Her fingers flew across the keyboard, occasionally taking breaks to push the mouse across the page and click on something. Several boxes extended from names and links and technological things I couldn't understand. "He said all this information would be the death of him. He was worried for me and said he'd, er, change me before somebody could come harm us... but I guess he was wrong."

She whimpered, and I think Briana went pale. Briana was an odd case. I'm pretty sure she'd slept with Damon, and the thought made my stomach up-end for some reason. Like someone had kicked me in the gut. As she called him, 'Angelface' said he knew things about her, but what had she told him? Apparently it was a lot, because Damon had been acting off lately, and when she had told me of how she died when her family died, she said it like it was so obvious. Like it was something she'd said before. I had to grill the (chuckle, chuckle) Angel about this later.

"What's your name?" I asked, poking the girl's shoulder. Her expression drooped, like she wasn't sure why anyone would talk to her.

"A-Alice," she stammered. I wasn't sure what to do. I had always been the one people were trying to comfort, as if I couldn't carry myself. Besides Jeremy and Jenna, I wasn't really sure how to comfort other people, seeing how she was a total stranger and I didn't know how she would react to me trying to be maternal.

"Here!" she exclaimed softly, clicking on a file named Webber. In it was two things: the name 'Cody Webber' and a brief explanation claiming he was basically one of Elijah's pets. It said we could reach him through a hidden name in his phone. My brows raised.

"Call him," I commanded. Alice looked at me like I had just said, 'butter the chicken with salamander seeds'.

"My boyfriend just died because of that guy-"

"Elijah," Briana snapped, for some reason irritated with Alice now.

"Whatever," she retorted emotionally, "Why would I want his minions here? If I was a vampire, I probably could've helped him," she mumbled, and everything clicked. Sure, she was sad because she just saw her boyfriend die, but that wasn't it. She was crushed because now there was no one to turn her into the undead. That bitch!

"Call him," I repeated, "and Briana will turn you." Her head shot up. Briana gave me the look I'd just gotten from Alice. It looked like she didn't just refuse to change her, but that she literally couldn't. Strange.

Why wouldn't an old vampire be able to change a human?

Briana's POV

Because I'm not a vampire! I thought. I can't change her because I'm pumped up with human blood, and I have a limited supply a vampire blood in this vial in my pocket!

Elena gave me a look that said she knew I wouldn't do it, but she thought I was just being selfish and that I didn't want anybody having my supernatural blood. Because she didn't know about my anti-vampirism.Either way, Sugar was lying to Alice. Go her. The selfish little wench looked from me to her. I had met her type: the humans who only hook up with us so that we can turn them. Bitch.

"Fine," she complied, and I grinned toothily. I think it creeped her out.

She walked back over to where Slater's lifeless (wasn't it lifeless before?) body laid and gingerly reached into his right breast pocket, cringing at the idea of touching her finally-undead-dead boyfriend. Confusing. It was a sleek, black touch-screen phone- and I hate touch screens- that glowed to life at Alice's touch. Brushing her finger across the smooth surface, she scrolled through messages and contacts, put the phone to her ear and walked out of the room.

"You'll never believe who just walked in my door," she said. Points to her, she made it sound like she was deceiving us.

Elena gasped somewhere across the room, and I noticed her shoulders pressed back, mouth hanging open in shock and slowly stepping away from the window. There was nothing in the window except a couple rain drops and an extensive back-view of the city. I rushed to her and knocked my knuckles on the window. Elena was quickly trying to calm herself before anyone would notice. Something clicked.

"That's double-paned glass. Rejects the sun's UV rays. How interesting," I observed and gazed at her, "What did you see?" She raised her brows.

"See? Um, the other side of the window..? What do you mean-" I sighed angrily.

"Don't play dumb, Sugar, I've seen witches and warlocks alike pull that trick. You saw something in the window. What. Was. It?" She worried her lip, wondering whether or not she could trust me. I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled, waiting for her to realize that I already knew everything and anything she has to say probably won't shock me.

"Elijah." Never mind.

"Oh!" I said, "Then maybe you won't have to worry about waiting for him to come get you." She smiled, but shuddered nevertheless. Faltering slightly, I touched her arm. "You okay?" She nodded, definitely sure now.

Sure she wanted to be stolen. Now we only had to wait.

* * * * *

The door swung open. Only it wasn't Elijah or his dogs.

It was Damon.

"Angelface!" I exclaimed, passing it off as though he was walking in on me in the Mystic Grill or the park instead of a dead vampire-encyclopedia's house with his 'kidnapped' love and waiting for the most serious danger he's yet to face. "Come play with us-"

"You kidnapped Elena?!" he said loudly.

I paled. He was positively flushed with fury- and vampires don't flush. I could see he felt betrayed; it was all over his face, and for some reason, that made me feel like someone was tearing my throat out. But I told Elena that I would cover for her, and that I wouldn't let people think of her as a martyr. That was going to take some grit.