eyes to look at the pair standing at another end of the gym hall. He thought the two were fooling around when they told him they were going together, but he had clearly been the one thinking wrong.

"Hmm?" Hand wrapped around his arm while she stood in her own simple getup for the evening, Elena craned her neck to look for the two vampires, spotting them chatting with each other within seconds. "Oh, yeah, she said she'd take Damon to the dance earlier today. I guess she's given him a pass for the lack of suit." She took a quick look at Stefan's own suit. "Well, I wouldn't really put it past them, I guess? They're not that different so..." She trailed off with a shrug, expecting for Stefan to understand what she was trying to say.

"I thought she was kidding when she said that..." He began, raising an eyebrow as how close together they were as they spoke to each other. "So she really is trying to avoid me if she took Damon of all people." Elena shrugged once again.

"He doesn't seem to mind it." She commented with a small sigh. "Wait, why would she be avoiding you?" With a few blinks, she looked up at him, noticing his eyes were still trained on them. "Do you need to talk it out or something?"

"A few words were exchanged last night." He replied curtly, not in the mood to revisit all of the emotions he felt at the time. "When have you been so calm with her?"

"For the night, I guess." She answered. "She said that the Originals were heading out of town after tonight, so we decided to make peace for once." He looked at her in surprise. "Caroline made me feel a little for her, so I don't see her as badly as I did before that conversation—"

"Do you, uh," He looked down at her for the first time since the topic was brought up. "Do you mind if I go talk to her for a bit? I'll come back." A small moment of silence followed his desperate question as Elena's reluctance to agree showed.

"...okay," She replied. "I hope whatever you two sort out what you have going on." As she left his arm, she nudged him towards the chatting pair. With a grateful smile, he made his way to speak with the wonderfully dressed blonde.

"WE NEED TO FIX THIS, NOW—" At the sight of a familiar face approaching them, Aurelia stopped talking altogether, making Damon eye her in confusion as to why she had gone silent. She ignored him for a short while, eyes fixed on none other than Stefan Salvatore, dressed up in the default men's wear of the respective decade.

"You see," Damon began, not having spotted his brother yet. "You were coming up with some good ideas, and then you just stopped—" She glared at him once and held his chin, forcing his head to turn to where her gaze landed. "Oh."

"Good evening." Stefan said, his face expression neutral and unreadable. "I didn't think that you'd actually, well—"

"Go together?" Aurelia completed with a scoff. "You thought wrong, darling. I think you can see that." She eyed him up and down once, her grip on the canister Damon had passed to her again seconds ago tightened, and she clenched her jaw slightly. "Well, did you want something?" When she received no answer, she prepared to snap at him to shoo him away, but stopped when she noticed what he was looking at.

It was then when she realized that she and Damon were much too close for people to think that they were doing nothing more than discussing. With a quick look of disgust, she shoved the older Salvatore away from her in hopes that the younger would start speaking. "Ow, what the heck was that for? Aggressive." With a disappointed shake of her head, she looked at Stefan again.

"Glad? Can you talk now?" She asked.

"Join me for a dance." He said, more than asked—clearly pissing Aurelia off more than she already was.. "I wanted to talk to you about something." She rolled her eyes, thinking of any sort of excuse.

"The... the music," She almost stuttered. "You think this kind of music is the kind of music you want to have a somber conversation over—" Just as she brought excuse up, the music changed to one with a tempo slow enough to have a good conversation in. "Damn it!" She hissed, ignoring the snickers from Damon. "Fine, whatever." With a victorious smile Stefan held his hand out for her to take.

With a short, "Do I really have to?" look, she slipped her gloved hand onto his, trying desperately to ignore how gently his fingers wrapped around her own. "Have fun!" At Damon's comment, she suddenly found the resistance to maiming him wearing dangerously thin.

"Your brother's a dick," She stated, glaring at said brother as Stefan came to a stop towards the center of the dance floor. "I hope you realize..." She then fell short of words as she felt his arm snake around her waist securely, pulling her close to him to prepare for the dance. "What are you doing?"

"Dancing, what else?" He pretended to be oblivious, which only further irritated her. "You agreed to it, remember that." With another roll of her eyes at him, she placed her hand on his shoulder and her other on his own, swaying from side to side in sync with the lovely music—that she couldn't appreciate for a very obvious reason. "You look good, by the way. Makes me wish I could, well, see you in action during the 20's..."

"So...?" She encouraged him to get to the point, her patience already wearing out.

"What you said last night..." He sighed out, figuring out how to frame his sentences as he spoke. "It was surprising, considering I didn't think you'd pull something like that."

"That's what being surprised means."

"Can I speak without your interruptions for once?"' He asked, his tone getting aggressive momentarily. "This is serious."

"Fine," She huffed. "No promises; but before you can continue, I'll have you know that anyone who was thinking clearly would've seen that I was putting up a façade."

"I wasn't thinking clearly." He admitted the obvious. "The only thing I could see was, "I have a chance now, I can talk to her because she's warming up to me."." Another sigh. "Do you realize how that feels for a person in my position?"

"I..." Hesitant to reply, Aurelia thought her answer through before speaking. "...I do-don't."

"I can't count how many times I've brought this up before, but I was in complete love with you, Aurelia Parker. I don't even know if your feelings were ever genuine in the first place, but mine were. You were not my first love, but you were the love that swept me from the painful realities of the world. There's little that can do something so big." She looked at him with an unreadable expression.

"Are you trying to confess to me?" She asked incredulously. "After everything I told you? Besides you have ­Elena. Last I checked; you weren't into threesomes." Stefan chose to look past her poorly timed innuendo and continue speaking.

"I was looking for closure with you." He said. "Closure, not love. The way the both of us ended things—no, ended isn't even the word for it." He quickly corrected himself. "We were cut off forcibly by Katherine and my father. You died and so did I. I was left by myself until recently. Then you came. I'm bound to have some desire to speak to you and clear things out. My emotions were only natural."

"Well, you didn't see me shedding t-tears, did you?" She asked, gritting her teeth hard, almost to the point of her jaw aching. "There are more important things—"

"And once those were sorted out, I had to talk to you." He cut in. "And I'm sure you knew about my emotional state. Why would you take advantage of it?" He asked, making her break eye-contact with him for an instant. "Aurelia, answer me."

"Because, Stefan Salvatore," She spat his name out like it was venom. "Emotional betrayal, however minor it is, is one efficient way to help people realize certain things. In your case, I needed you to realize that there is no 'us'. The only reason I even tolerate you is...because of Caroline. I would've skipped town a long time ago if it weren't for her."

"So 1864," He continued pushing. "Meant nothing to you?"

"I didn't say that; where do these assumptions even come from?" She spoke too quickly, fast enough that she couldn't stop to filter her thoughts. "I...you don't know the whole story, Stefan." The smirk in her voice was gone now, replaced by slow and carefully picked words.

"Then tell me the whole story—"

"I can't!" She exclaimed, quietening down when she earned a few looks from couples nearby. "I... can't." Her repetition was calm and collected; however Stefan only grew more frustrated with her answers. "You need to understand that my family comes first. My allegiance with my family comes first. You attacked first; of course we're going to retaliate." It was hard for her to maintain a calm tone, wanting nothing more than to snap at him with no care for anyone around there. "I don't care if you knew of that or not."

"But you're leaving, aren't you?" He asked. "It's in the past; I don't see why you're still so hostile towards me when you're leaving in a matter of hours." She laughed quietly, taking a look towards another end of the gym; Elena stood there shyly, hands folded and a polite smile dancing on her lips.

"So she spilled." Aurelia observed, continuing to eye the brunette. "I don't mind," She then turned her head back towards her dance partner. "Besides, it's not me who's leaving; Klaus and Rebekah are." She clarified. "I'll still be here to bother you to no end." With a small smile, she hummed to the slow music once again, ignoring Stefan's look of utter relief at the discovery.

"There's no conflict left between us, Aurelia." Stefan tried to reason. "There's no reason left for you to hate me like you have in the recent weeks. They're leaving and you're still going to stay here. And it's probably just for Caroline, but it doesn't mean we can't be friends."

"Friends?" She asked incredulously. "After the way you fell for my trick last night? I'm sure you'd struggle with it that."

"I've gotten over you." He enunciated the entire sentence, almost to the point where Aurelia thought he was trying to convince himself that. "I truly have; I just think that this hostility is unnecessary and—"

"Just stop talking." She hissed, hoping that he would notice that she knew all of his reasons and fully understood them—not to mention he had been blabbering and she really wanted it all to stop. "I want to enjoy this music."

"Please..." She finally sighed loudly, dropping her head to break eye contact with him; she could not understand his desperation and need to talk to her and be on good terms with her. It was almost irritating, but more intriguing than anything else. It brought up the question, "What could it be about me that draws him in so much?" or the question, "Is there an ulterior motive?" Her curiosity was suddenly in full action, and her clear annoyance dissolved into an expression that Stefan was unable to read. "Hey."

"I'll..." She internally grimaced. "I'll think about it."

"GOD, YOUR BROTHER IS..." Damon chuckled and handed Aurelia the canister, looking at his brother while she took a large gulp of the bitter drink she'd long before acquired a taste for. "He is one determined bastard. He convinced me to be nice to him—well, on speaking terms at the very least." She closed the empty canister. "Something like what we got."

"But more permanent." He added, making her shrug. "What? You said this would be for the night. Not that I mind a second drinking buddy." He cunningly smirked, making sure she would catch it and take his hint. "Stefan did make a few good points, though; they're all leaving," He hinted at the Originals. "You're staying because of Caroline—who mind you, is our friend; you may wanna terrorize this town but you're gonna live with us whether you like it or not—"

"I'll summarize your speech for you." She huffed. "You wanna be friends, too."

"Well, when you put it that way..." He teased her using a tone much too similar to her own. "Maybe."

"You're not lovesick, and you're a little more tolerable." She pointed out with a tilt of her head, before shifting her gaze towards him. "So, yeah, maybe." Exchanging knowing smiles, the pair decided to drop the topic, satisfied with their agreement. "Now, continuing with the important thing, I think we need to tell everyone about Alaric."

"Now?" He asked, relaxed visage turning into a scowl.

"No, in a century." She snapped sarcastically, slapping the back of his head harshly. "Yes, I mean now, you dimwit."

"IF ALARIC'S SICK, THEN WE NEED TO FIND A CURE." Elena plugged in her opinion, stating it in a matter-of-factly tone that only pissed off Aurelia and Damon after their detailed explanation. "What?"

"Elena, the only cure we had isn't being used in the first place. The Alaric we know is gone!" Aurelia spat in irritation, pinching the bridge of her nose in order to prevent herself from yelling at the doppelganger and the rest of the group.

Yes, when she said that she had taken a certain liking to the teacher, she meant it. She was only concerned for the man's well-being, considering how he was trapped with an alter ego he had absolutely no control over.

"Not to mention," Damon chimed in with a tone that could match Aurelia's. "His alter-ego hates vampires and vampire sympathizers." His point made everyone nod once. "Which makes one of his obvious targets—I don't know," He looked at Elena with a dangerous glare, gesturing to her with a wave of his hand. "You!"

"What are you suggesting?" Stefan inquired, not yet knowledgeable on where the conversation was headed towards.

"That we put him out of his misery." At Damon's quick reply, his brother and Elena looked at him in clear shock, not having expected for him to bring forward such a proposal—he was Alaric's best friend, after all.

"Are you out of your mind?" All four heads turned towards the doorway of the classroom at the voice that erupted amidst the chaos. "He's Alaric! We're his friends! We can't do that to him!" It was safe to say that Jeremy had turned red in anger as he threw out exclamations to defend the teacher and change Damon's mind.

"Come on." The elder Salvatore insisted. "It's what he would want: a mercy killing."

"You're crazy!" Following the frustrated exclamation, Jeremy didn't bother listening to Elena's calls for him, instead opting to leave the classroom and run down the hallway—presumably out of the school itself from what Aurelia remembered of the campus map.

Continuing to call for her younger brother, Elena took off after him, her heels making contact with the floor in rhythmic clicks that reduced in volume as she got further and further away from the classroom the three vampires were in.

"As if this situation couldn't get any worse." Aurelia clicked her tongue loudly after her remark, unable to bear the awkward silence that befell the trio in the empty classroom. "So, what the hell are we going to do if killing him isn't an option?"

A few minutes of silence continued to pass until someone spoke and pulled Aurelia out of the awkward state.

"There's no other option, 'Lia." Damon stated. "The Alaric we know is gone, as you said. There's no way to bring him back because not even Bonnie knows enough about the Gilbert ring to find a way to reverse the stupid side-effect."

"And how do you plan to kill him when you clearly can't even find him?" She continued to ask, practically testing him on his plan. "He's not gonna magically drop out of nowhere for your convenience—" She stopped speaking as she heard running footsteps back towards the classroom, glancing upwards to see that Jeremy had returned; she couldn't hear the familiar clicking of heels, which meant that Elena wasn't back.

And judging by the alarmed look on the Gilbert boy's features, she quickly put the pieces together and realized that there, in fact, was no such thing as a break in Mystic Falls. "Esther—Elena was following me and Esther—" He cut himself off as he caught his breath while the Salvatore brothers looked at each other with worried expressions. "Esther took her."

"Damn, we had a deal, Elena, you weren't supposed to piss me off. Playing the martyr pisses me off." Aurelia slightly whined, slapping her hand on the table. "Esther's surely back to kill us, which means—" She spun towards the brothers. "Every vampire in town is at risk. We need to leave now." Wasting no time, Aurelia walked out of the room and down the hallway she'd seen Elena and Jeremy leave through.

The wind hit her as she neared the exit door of the school, but her hair stayed in place with help of the excessive hairspray she had inhaled and coughed out when Caroline practically poured it all over her hair. "Do we have any idea where she even went?!" She asked loudly, stopping a moment to turn back to the three men following her. "A scent, anything?"

"We don't right now, we need Bonnie." Jeremy replied, breaking into yet another run back inside the school to search for the Bennett Witch, hoping that she'd comply and help out with a simple locator spell.

"Smart kid." Aurelia remarked in a quieter voice as she watched his figure grow smaller and smaller in the dimly lit hallway. "Now come on, we can find traces of her or any sign of Esther—" As she turned back around to continue walking, her eyes shot downwards to a bright white shade that looked out of place on the dark pavement.

Taking one step backwards, she kneeled down and looked closely at the white grains piled on the pavement for several seconds as Stefan and Damon caught up with her. Before they could pass her, she held her arms out to prevent them from taking any further steps.

"Stop." She curtly stated, looking around. "Salt." The one word had the brothers looking down at the line of salt that stretched out a long way around the school. Aurelia remained silent and reached out for the air above the salt. As expected, her palm stopped at an invisible barrier. "It's a binding agent. Esther's performing some sort of spell."

"We're trapped here." Damon summarized with a sigh.

"BONNIE BENNETT," AURELIA POLITELY GREETED, placing down a map of the town on the table in front of the Bennett Witch. "Hurry up, our lives are on the line here, alright?" With a small smile, Aurelia left the map—not before taking notice of the witch's glare on her.

"People are walking right past the barrier." The blonde's head shot towards the doorway, where Matt Donovan had walked in with an offer. "Jeremy and I can get out of here and look for Esther or ambush her after Bonnie locates her."

"It's suicide, Matt; Esther's gonna sense you from miles away." Stefan shot back. "We need to figure out a way to drop the boundary spell—" A clatter of the tables caused Aurelia to whip around to spot Klaus straight behind Jeremy, arm wrapped around his neck with a threatening glare.

"Klaus!" She scolded. "You're going to make things worse! We need to get out of this shit alive, how else are you going to flee town, huh?" She asked, using her usual supernatural speed to reach the two men. Within moments she had ripped Klaus' arm off the human boy, letting the latter breathe in deeply to catch his breath. "Blackmail works, but not right now."

"And how so, dearest?" He asked, glaring at the adamant