~•⚜️•~

It was already night when Damon Salvatore decided to come back to the abandoned cottage. Upon arriving at the house, he saw his younger brother, Stefan Salvatore just outside the entrance, leaning against the door.

"Do you know what I can't figure out? Why save me? Was it brotherly love, guilty conscience? Is the switch on, is the switch off?"

Stefan crossed his arms. "You have somewhere you need to be, Damon?"

"Reflection. That's not gonna work on me. I invented that."

Stefan walked over to Damon. "We're done. Can't you just go away?"

Damon narrowed his eyes. "Not until you told me why you saved me. You owe me that." he said stubbornly.

"I don't owe you anything."

"Fine. Next question. Why did you dagger Imogen? She's done nothing to you." Damon said with a frown on his face.

Stefan rolled his eyes. "I already told you didn't I? I wanted to protect her."

"Protect her from what? From who? From Klaus? We all know she's too precious for the evil hybrid to actually harm her." Damon said as he walked closer to his little brother. "That's not your only reason, is it?"

Stefan smirked. "Okay, you got me. Like I told Bonnie. Klaus took her away from me for 90 long years. I wanted him to suffer like I did back then."

Damon furrowed his eyebrows. "So you daggered her and put her inside her coffin. For what? For revenge?"

Stefan nodded. "Yes."

"Okay, so you daggered Imogen, put her inside her coffin and stole her coffin together with Klaus' other coffins?"

"Because they are his weakness I can use against him." Stefan explained.

"Use against him to do what? You're not gonna kill him, you know how I know? 'Cause there was only one way to kill him and you blew that to save me." Damon mocked.

Stefan walked over to Damon. "You're wrong Damon. Klaus isn't just get to just live forever. There's another way. There has to be."

Damon shrugged. "Fair enough. But whatever you're doing I want in."

"I don't need your help." Stefan said and turned to walk away from hi.

"Really? Last time I checked you're hiding in a haunted house." Damon said, making his brother turn back.

"I'm in this alone Damon."

"You're go after Klaus you have to be cutthroat and devious. I'm so much better at that than you." Damon said and walked over to Stefan. "Come on brother. What do you say? If you're gonna keep saving my life at least make it for a good reason."

"You want in?" Stefan asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay. But it's just me and you. Elena stays out of it." Stefan told Damon.

"Deal!"

"Follow me." Stefan said and walked away.

Damon looked at him then to the abandoned cottage, hesitant and unsure. "Wait. I'm not so welcome in there."

Stefan continued walking towards the house. "Don't you worry Damon. We all want the same thing."

Damon followed Stefan inside the witches' house, down the basement.

"Have a look." Stefan said.

There were no coffins.

"What? Klaus is allergic to dust?" Damon asked sarcastically as he turned to his little brother.

"Hm, look again."

Damon looked again and saw there were five coffins. His eyes widen in shock.

"Witch spirits hate Klaus as much as we do and a little fact, witches wanted Imogen far away from Klaus as far as possible, it's like they're trying to protect her from him." Stefan said.

"Wow, creepy." Damon muttered. "Imogen's some kind of friend to the witches or something to keep her away from Klaus?"

"They're using their powers to hide the coffins." Stefan stated.

"So even if Klaus comes in the house..."

Stefan smirked. "He won't be able to find them."

The Salvatore brothers shared a look. The older one smirked and looked at the coffins. "So which one here is Imogen?"

"The one higher than the others. The right one."

Damon walked over to the noirette's coffin and opened it. He whistled, amazed. "Is it just me or does she look amazing just lying there?"

Stefan faked a laugh as he stood beside his brother. He placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Don't start, Damon."

Stefan closed Imogen's coffin as Damon looked at him funnily. "What? I was just complimenting a daggered Imogen."

"Whatever Damon."

"Are you jealous or what?!" Damon asked loudly.

~•~•~

At the Salvatore Boarding House, Elena walked over to the entrance and opened the door to find Klaus standing outside.

"Thank you for coming."

Klaus ignored the doppelgänger and barged into the house. "I trust you have news of Stefan?"

"I couldn't find him." Elena lied as Klaus turned to her. "But I have something else."

In the cellar, Elena opens the door to Rebekah's cell, inside Rebekah laid on the ground, daggered.

"My poor sister. I can't turn my back on her and Imogen for a moment." Klaus muttered. "I leave them and when I come back, Rebekah was daggered and Imogen was kidnapped by Stefan."

Elena flinched. "You have Rebekah. A deal is a deal."

Klaus looked at Elena. "The life of my sister in exchange for your brother? Yeah I'd say that's a bargain. Consider him spared."

"You should know I was the one that daggered her. When she wakes she'll come after me." Elena told him.

"I can control Rebekah. Besides I still need your help finding Stefan."

"I told you I don't know where he is." Elena lied again.

"You're lying." Klaus said as he undaggers Rebekah. "Fortunately you have no shortage of loved ones. If I don't find my dear Imogen with my family the question you should be asking yourself is who's gonna die next!"

"Bonnie? Caroline? Damon?" Klaus smirked as he said Damon's name. "It's only a matter of time before Stefan gives me what I want."

"He doesn't care about me anymore. You made sure of that. You turned him into a monster. And you know what? He only cares for a certain Immoral Being that he took from you. Now he's your problem. And just so you know I'm not the only one that Rebekah wants dead. She knows what you did to your mother. She knows that you killed her. You can let yourself out." Elena said and left Klaus with his still unconscious sister.

~•~•~

Klaus walked in a room of his mansion, where Rebekah was lying on a table, her skin still gray.

"Here we are, Rebekah. Home sweet home. Only took a thousand years and to think I was counting on you and Imogen being here with me. But that's all ruined now, isn't it?" Klaus said and then saw one of Rebekah's fingers moving a little.

"I'm so sorry." Klaus whispered as he stroked his sister's cheek. "I'm sorry I ran away leaving you and Imogen, and look what happened. You were daggered and Imogen was taken."

"Sister, we'll meet again one day. With Imogen, with everyone." Klaus daggered Rebekah again.

~•~•~

At the abandoned cottage, Stefan and Bonnie entered the room with the five coffins in it and Bonnie walked up to one coffin, which was beside Imogen's opened one.

Bonnie glanced at Imogen before staring at the locked coffin in front of her. "This is the one I dreamed about." she said, trying to open the coffin but failed.

"Don't bother. It won't open." Stefan told Bonnie.

"What do you mean? Is it locked?"

"Nope. Just won't open. I've tried everything. Blow torch, axe, crowbar. Can't even scratch the finish."

Bonnie thought for a moment. "I think it's closed with a spell."

"Meaning whatever is in there, should probably stay in there."

Bonnie turned her head to Stefan. "You said you wanted to make him suffer. The witches led me here for a reason. I think whatever is inside this coffin is our answer."

Both Stefan and Bonnie looked at the locked coffin.

~•~•~

Bonnie was in the basement of the abandoned cottage, casting a spell and chanting in Latin. She was trying to open the locked coffin, but it was still locked shut.

"Why won't you open?!" Bonnie yelled in frustration.

The coffins disappears and Bonnie hears the floorboards squeaking, there was someone else in the house.

"Hello? Someone there?" Bonnie called out.

Damon and Stefan were walking towards the abandoned cottage. "You didn't say anything to Elena about the coffins, right?"

"No, I said I wouldn't." Damon said.

"I know what you said."

Damon furrowed his eyebrows at Stefan. "Why are you asking?"

Stefan looked at his brother. "Because protecting the location of Imogen and the coffins are my number one priority right now."

Damon smirked. "I thought your number one priority was Imogen?"

Stefan glared at his brother. "This is serious, Damon. Plus, the fewer people who know about this, the better."

Damon abruptly stopped walking, Stefan stopped too.

"What?"

Bonnie walked slowly to the staircase, when she turned to walk up the stairs, she saw Damon there. He puts his finger to his lips to quiet her and listens intently. A hybrid walked out of the house and ran into Stefan. The hybrid vamped out, but before he can bite Stefan, Damon ripped his heart out from behind.

Damon scoffed and threw the hybrid's heart on the ground. "These hybrids, really bringing the neighborhood down."

After Bonnie left to school to help Elena decorate Caroline's locker for her birthday, Damon was fiercely hitting the locked coffin with a shovel as Stefan watched.

"You're wasting your time. It won't open. Did you bury the body?"

"Yeah. Any sign of our little hybrid buddies?"

Stefan shook his head. "Nope, just the dead one."

Damon threw his shovel away and looked at him. "Alright, Klaus has 6 siblings. Rebekah is now with Klaus. There was one dead kid in the old world, one dead kid in the new world, which leaves Elijah and two others. Three sleeping originals and Imogen, five coffins. So, who is in the locked box, beside Imogen's?"

Stefan shrugged. "No idea. But whatever is in here, Bonnie seems to think will help us kill Klaus. So, the sooner she can get this open, the sooner we will know if she's right."

"Oh, you think the spirits of a bunch of dead witches that can make the coffins invisible would have figured out how to open one." Damon tilted head towards ceiling towards the spirits expectantly. "Fine, don't help."

"They're already helping hide the coffins. You know, none of this is gonna do us any good if Klaus's hybrid friends find our hiding place, right? They need to go away." Stefan said.

"Oh yeah, that's a great idea Stefan. Why don't you just ask them to pack their bags and take a long rest while we are at it." Damon said, sarcastically. "How about try to keep the peace? Don't attract attention to the real thing we are trying to hide."

"Well, I'm not gonna play defense when I have what Klaus wants. He does what I say, or I'll hide Imogen from him forever while I dump his family to the bottom of the ocean."

"And then he kills you and everyone you know like, I don't know, me!" Damon exclaimed.

"No, he's bluffing. His family means more to him than anything else."

"You sure about that?" Damon asked.

"I'm sure about Imogen but his family, well I don't know. I mean, I guess there's only one way to find out, right? Call his bluff."

"The only way to call someones bluff, Stefan, is to be willing to lose everything if you're wrong."

Stefan smiled at Damon and left the house, ignoring the older brother's words.

~•~•~

"Sweet dreams Rebekah." Klaus said as he closed Rebekah's coffin then turned to Mindy. "Show her to her room, would you, love?"

"Sure." Mindy said and wheeled Rebekah's coffin away.

Klaus smirked. "I'm surprised you're still in town. I gave you your freedom, you could have gone anywhere."

Klaus turned and saw Stefan leaning against a doorframe.

"I live here, Klaus." Stefan said.

"Well, if we're playing this game, then, I was here first."

"You know, I don't like your hybrid friends. They're everywhere, kind of like fleas. I want them gone."

"Yeah, well I kind of like having them around." Klaus shrugged. "You know, I'm hurt. I hoped that when I freed you, we'd pick up where we left off. But here you are, guzzling vervain like the rest of them, I'm sure. So much for friendship."

Stefan smirked. "Friends don't strip friends of their free will."

"Okay, granted, yeah, that was a little extreme, but I get a little moody. Just ask Imogen and my siblings. Speaking of whom, isn't it time you handed them over?" Klaus asked, nonchalantly.

"Klaus, get your hybrids out of Mystic Falls or I will remove them myself." Stefan threatened.

"Hmm. You see, if you continue to threaten me, I'm gonna be forced to retaliate. Kill people. And it will get messy again." Klaus warned.

"Do whatever you want, I don't really care. Or you know what? Maybe I do. Maybe I care so much, that I'll drop Elijah in the Arctic." Stefan threatened the Original Hybrid yet again.

"Well, maybe I'll be willing to lose one brother if it meant killing yours." Klaus warned back.

"Try me, let's find out." Stefan said as Mindy walked in.

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine, Mindy. Stefan was just leaving after failing to make his point." Klaus said.

Stefan waited for a moment before grabbing a saw from the work table he's next to and rushed over to Mindy and sliced her head off from her body.

"Well, one down. You may want to, ah, send the rest of them away before it gets messy, again." Stefan sassed and threw the saw back on the table and leaves Klaus' mansion.

Stefan was dead serious when he said he wanted Klaus' hybrids gone. First, Stefan tried to behead someone in the middle of a Council party but Damon luckily stopped him. Second, he used Elena. Stefan took the doppelgänger and made her drink his blood against her free will and threatened Klaus to drive her off the Wickery Bridge. If Elena became a vampire, Klaus couldn't make more hybrids.

Klaus gave in and did what Stefan wanted to send his hybrids away from Mystic Falls.