[Episode 29 - The Masquerade]

Kat hands her blonde friend a glass filled with blood, which she gratefully accepts with shaking hands. Damon comes in with his bottle of bourbon, keeping it away from Kat "Uh-uh, you're off the hard stuff. You need a clear mind"

She hugs Caroline once more as she explains how Katherine made her next move after one whole day of silence.

"She told me to tell you both" she looks between the Salvatore brothers "that she wants the moonstone or..."

"Or?" Stefan asks

"She'll start mass murders...." Kat provides.

"When is this supposed to happen?"

"....Tonight, at the masquerade ball"

"She wants to do it in public. Killing Ma-..." Stefan hesitates, only to be waved on by Kat "Mason," she gulps "you can say his name"

"Killing Mason threw her off guard"

"She's running scared" Damon cocks his head "What she did with Jenna was desperate. She's out of tricks" Damon ironically opens the band-aid on the unhealing injury of the Guardian, checking for any more bleeding or opening stitches. 

"We can't underestimate her. We have to play this smarter than her" Stefan insists, and Caroline shivers beside Kat.

"Can we just give her the moonstone so she'll leave?"

"No," Damon asserts, once and for all. 

And the doppelbitch's dead-sister's soul-carrier frowns "Katherine's not getting dick. I've had it. She doesn't come into my town and make bodies go flying. If anyone's dying, it's her. I'm gonna go to the masquerade ball, even if Hell freezes over and I'm gonna kill her, tonight"

"I get to kill her" Damon argues.

"You're not gonna kill her" Stefan stands up, resolution fixing his chiselled jaw.

"Don't give me that goody-goody crap" the other brother groans, tired of his baby brother's moral compass.

"You're not gonna kill her" Stefan states again. This time, Kat stands up, band-aid abandoned on the floor. She raises her eyebrows "Really?" No matter if she was Katherine's sister in her last life, she can't let anything happen to anyone human on the ground of Mystic Falls.

Stefan asserts his stance "Because I am"

▹▹▹

Stefan greets Bonnie as she walks in with her grimoire "Hey, you brought the grimoire, thank you"

She glances around the room, taking in the before-spartan-fight mood in the giant parlour. Weapons are on the couches and the tables, even Damon is paying attention to the History teacher as he palms several small stakes.

"What's going on?"

Jeremy comes from upstairs, vervain bottles in his hand "We're gonna kill Katherine"

"I can explain" Stefan steps in front of her, trying to defend those words.

"Please" she hugs the ancient book closer to her.

"We're gonna kill Katherine" Kat smirks.

Unsurprisingly, Bonnie shrugs as if the answer is acceptable, walking down to the living room, where Alaric Saltzman continues with the Buffy's whole series in 5 minutes.

He shows everyone the gun he used on Stefan months ago in his classroom "This works with compressed air. The trigger mechanism is up here" he points and everyone peeps forward "I have two of these in a different size. For you I recommend this" he hands one to Jeremy, who holds it with care and respect "It fits nicely under the jacket sleeve. You use the trigger when you're ready"

Kat, not letting anyone stop her reaches down to the table, taking a bow, fake-shooting at Damon and Stefan.

Alaric nods but takes it away from her "But you'll not have this, yours will have to be more discrete.." he searches and gives her rubber straps "These go to your shins, these holes hold the vervained knives. You can have stakes too"

She wears it on her left leg, carefully avoiding putting pressure on her right hand, and stands up. Damon and Stefan look at her with raised brows,as if expecting a move. She takes one of the knives from the makeshift table, holding it in her left hand for a second before she makes it go flying between the two brother, hitting the wooden coat stand. 

They look at her with wide eyes, speechless tokens.

"You wanted to be shown how to kill a vampire? Watch and learn hotties"

▹▹▹

"Are you sure you don't want me there tonight?" Alaric asks Kat, handing her the vervain bottles, which she keeps in her bag. 

"No, I need you to stay with Elena. I don't want her to know about this. She's scared already, she'll just worry her head off. And Elena needs to pretend to be me...."

"Well, we'll be spending time watching TV. Side-by-side" he argues and Kat chuckles "One lesson you'll have to learn from me about my aunt, is that she's ver-y cute when she's drunk" 

He chuckles "Fine, but just for today. I trust you to take care of yourself okay? Just save yourself. These people can save themselves"

"That is true lady" Damon jumps from the third stair "We can look after our asses, you're just willing to come because you need closure with that doppelbitch"

"Alright, if anybody wants to back out, I'll understand" Kat starts, only to have the elder Salvatore snark out "Yeah. Cold feet speak now. I don't want this going wrong if someone chicken's out" 

He's on edge and they all understand, but he feels the need to hide it.

Maybe killing Katherine would be a good venting technique.

"Caroline?" he turns to the blonde.

"I won't. Look, she killed me. Fair's fair. As long as there's no werewolf running around"

"Oh, Mason's...."

She rolls her eyes. Why does his name have to come up so often. "He's dead" she sighs.

"As long as Tyler doesn't kill anyone, he won't turn" Jeremy puts in.

"Bonnie? Are you with us?" Stefan asks the most important question of all.

She takes a deep breath "But... no one gets hurt"

"Except Katherine. I promise. Tonight Katherine gets a stake through her heart" Kat smirks.

Tonight's the night Katerina Petrova dies.

Thinking that thought loud in her mind, the girl's smirk dips just a tick.

▹▹▹

It's night andjust as Kat gets into her car, Alaric comes up "Hey..."

"Yeah?"

"I was doing some reading on Guardians in that book" The Guardian didn't touch that book from the moment she read about Violetta Petrova.

"Okay..."

"I saw you taking vervain earlier at the house" he pauses. 

"Acquired taste" she smiles slightly.

"Just... Keep that charm on you okay?" he points to the Guardian's necklace Stefan gave her. It's wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet.

"Why? Anything wrong?" her brows furrow. She might not want to read the book, but she'd rather she know what it says.

"A Guardian can be compelled when she has vervain. That charm-" he cringes as he points out "is the only thing between you and any vampire's compulsion. I want you to be safe..."

"Thanks Ric. I will. Take care of my girls for me will ya?" she smiles for the sake of it, and drives off to the Lockwood mansion.

▹▹▹

"Do you see her?" Damon cranes his neck and Miss Mystic Falls slaps his arm lightly "Don't make it obvious"

"You're sure you can do this?" Stefan glances at his brother and his plus-one, arm-in-arm, each nervous and agitated to the core, but not showing it.

"Who are you talking to?" Damon scoffs, offering Kat some punch, she declines.

"Oh, I had the chance to kill her and I hesitated" Stefan takes her glass, gulping it down in quick movements. 

"Well that is the fork in the road between you and me my friend...." Damon gives a non-smile "I don't hesitate"

"Boys boys boys" she holds both of their shoulders from either side "It's a party, one that I busted my ass off to coordinate. Contribute!" she pushes them towards the dance floor only to have both of them step back with shaking heads.

"I'll, uh, be around, drinking... Don't drink" Damon stalks off, a flute of champagne in his hand.

"He spent 145 years loving her, it could happen" Stefan says, stepping closer to her as he whispers.

"He won't hesitate Stefan. I know"

"Will you?" he asks the question that the Guardian had been asking herself for the past few hours. She holds out her hand with a sad smile "Dance with me?"

He smiles widely, "Thought you wouldn't ask". He puts a chiselled hand on her waist and take her right hand in his left one with gentle ease. They sway to the music, maintaining as much distance between them as the moves allow 

"I might..." the girl answers the vampire's question in a whisper.

"If I do, promise me, you'll ask me to kill her" she asks of him.

He twirls her hand with a small frown "I'll kill her"

She scoffs with sad green eyes "I can't tell you to kill the woman you love Stefan, I'm not cruel"

"I don't love her"

"Okay" Kat says, but her acceptance sounds anything but that.

"Do you love Damon?" he asks out of the blue.

"Where is this question coming from?" she scoffs.

"Do you?" Stefan presses desperately.

She sighs "I do" shocking the younger Salvatore. A short wave of burning emotion passes through him but...

"Just not the way you love Elena" her eyes dip to his shoulder, refusing to meet his. She just wants to stop feeling this way. 

"You'll find love..." he assures her, slowly dipping her down.

"True love doesn't exist for monsters like me Stefan Salvatore..." she says and she rolls her eyes at her own emotion. "Okay, that was totally exaggerated, I'm may be a monster, but true love should exist for me" she amends.

Stefan makes a noise at the back of his throat, something in between a laugh and a scoff and Kat hits his shoulder, before bursting into innocent, worry-free laughter.

He looks at the girl with a soft smile, leading her to the music, watching her mask cover everything except her twinkling jade eyes. She is not a monster. And true love does exist for her. He was going to make sure she holds it in her palm one day. Only, he didn't realise that she'd already fallen in love with a man she shouldn't love.

Obviously, the other Katherine had to disrupt the moment. Contradicting the soft green of Kat's, the she-devil struts up behind them, all-black.

"Katherine" Stefan's voice sounds from one side and Damon's, from the other side. Kat looks behind immediately, putting a stop to the swaying as she judges the doppelganger.

"Dance with me" she demands the younger Salvatore with an open palm.

Kat squeezes the younger vampire's hand and steps back, only for him to hold on and square his shoulders "No".

"Fine then tell me who I should kill. Him?" she points to Chad "Hmm, she looks delicious" she turns towards the side table, picking up a cherry, almost biting it.

The Gilbert-Petrova snatches it from her with confident eyes staring through her green mask. She bites into it slowly, raising her eyebrow "You don't have to beg to dance sister" she stresses the word, rewarded when the Pierce's expressions fall.

Without another word, she takes Damon's hand, her steps almost flying over the marble floor of the courtyard. Stefan grudgingly offers his arm to his ex, moving close to the earlier couple.

"Why the charade?" Stefan asks.

"How's Jenna?" Kitty starts with her second-last straw at conversation "I certainly didn't expect her to survive that. Lucky girl. Clumsy. How does one stab oneself?" she mock-frowns.

Damon dips Kat, almost reading her mind. Upside-down, she smiles "One doesn't. That's why she isn't hurt"

She moves her partner towards the strong vampire as he raises his eyebrows "But your sister though..."

Her eyes go to the fading stitches on her arm. She curses herself, lost in her thoughts as Stefan comes back to the topic "Katherine?"

"Huh?"

"I don't want anyone to get hurt tonight"

"Okay" she shrugs with raised brows as if to say 'life's fair' "Then give me the moonstone and nobody will"

"Well, you see, I don't have the moonstone on me. So, you and I will have to go get it together"

"Hmm. I have a better plan. You go fetch it and I will try not to kill anyone in the meantime"

"Our way or you don't get it" Kat asserts as Damon twirls her. She's loving this game but it's dangerous.

Aimee Bradley walks up to the stalled foursome, gushing "Hey guys? I can't find Matt. Oh my god Kat!" she turns to the Gilbert "You look so pretty. I love that dress. You look gorge" she fawns over her, letting Kitty go ignored.

"Hi Aimee" Katherine puts in, smiling a very fake smile "I lo-ove that necklace"

"O, thanks" she murmurs, still not recognising who the black-clad girl in front of her is.

"Oh it's twisted. Here, let me, here we go" she sets it right, keeping her eyes on Stefan all the time. But that's not what the rest of the supernaturals notice. 

Katherine had her hand gently around Aimee's neck, each twitch chilling Kat of the possible consequences until she finally lets the teen go. The oblivious girl thanks the helpful one and goes off.

"The moonstone, Stefan. Tick tock" she smirks, glad that the extent she'd go for the moonstone being cleared for them.

▹▹▹

Stefan, Damon and Kat tread upstairs and into the secluded far-off room. Stefan paces "We need to call it off"

The Guardian stands there motionless, not really willing to declare that she agrees with the younger Salvatore. She feels something weird creep up her and she doesn't like it one bit.

"What? Who's hesitating now?" he holds his brother roughly by the shoulders, giving the girl a glimpse how he tries to keep his brother safe "Hey! Don't do this to me! The woman ruined our lives, she destroyed us! Tonight it ends. We can do it together. I got your back. All right?"

Stefan hesitates but nods "All right". They wait, sitting out of vision from the door as they wait for the woman of the century to enter. Till now, they'd been the prey stuck in her snare, tonight it ends.

Tonight.

In a few hours. Katherine Pierce won't be in her life anymore.

The girl visibly shakes the thought out of her head, Damon notices this and kneels in front of her "You okay?"

"I will be" she nods, avoiding his look.

They brace themselves, Stefan and Damon with their stakes and Kat with a stake in one hand and a knife in the other.

"Where is she?" Katherine snarls as she enters the room, Caroline thankfully staying behind. The blonde stops her sobs, morphing them into an excited chuckle "I did it! I really didn't think that I'd be able to fool you but I did it!"

The she-devil turns behind, rushing to get out of the room. Imagine her surprise when she encounters an invisible barriers that makes her thud back into the room.

She turns behind to look around "What the...?" a silhouette steps in from the far end of the room "Stefan?"

Kat steps out, loose locks from her updo bouncing as she hops down from the table.

"Hello Katherine" Stefan greets dramatically.

Caroline and Kat fake-frown with sadly tilted heads "Bye Katherine". The blonde goes off, a pep in her step as the vampire who troubled her day and night is stuck with the only people in town who can kill her.

"You don't really think that you can kill me with that now, do you?" she pouts to Stefan with puss-in-the-boots eyes.

"He can't," Kat speaks up, making Katherine smile, then making it fall "But he can"

Damon Salvatore literally jumps of the closet, staking his love-nemesis in the back with Alaric's gun. At the same time, Kat throws her vervain-knife perfectly into 1864's femur. Katherine grunts under the impact and surprisingly, so does her soul-sister.

Blood drips off her back and knee as Kat falls down with just air leaving her mouth. 

The Salvatore brothers lay oblivious to the fallen Guardian, as Stefan pins the vampire to the far wall, pushing a sharp stake through her arm.... that so happens to be the same place of the healing scar on the Guardian's hand.

Kat screeches, startling the members in the room. They turn to see her writhing on the floor in a foetal position, clutching her arm.

"O my God Kat!" all of them rush to her, including the Petrova vampire. "What's happening!" Stefan panics as he holds her bloody arm, only to have her shout and snatch it back towards herself.

They hear Jeremy's voice " Stop! You're hurting Elena! Everything you're doing to her is hurting Elena!"

"O god no....!" Kat groans, trying to sit up but cries out again. "Kat!" Jeremy cries, trying to rush in Stefan stops him "Jeremy, go check on Elena. Make sure she's okay. Go!"

"But K-"

"Go!" she shouts in pain, her head surprisingly in Katherine's lap. 

"What did you do to them!" Stefan chokes Kitty onto the floor.

Damon tears into his wrist and brings it to the mouth of Kat, only to feel no response. The girl's green eyes just roll back by the second, making him panic.

"Stefan!" he shouts out "She's not healing. What did you do?!" he pins the doppelganger to the wall.

"I had a witch link Elena to me, but Letta wasn't supposed to come in between" Katherine winces as the angry vampire tightens his choke-hold more "How do we heal her?!"

"Only... I can" she gasps out, taking in a breath once he drops her to the ground "Do it!

Katherine crawls to her soul-sister, swallowing the lump in her throat as she gives the unconscious girl her blood.

Not expecting any invitation, she settles on the leather couch, shaking off her worry for Letta, she'll be fine, don't give away a lot, she tells herself "The three of us together just like old times" she plasters a smirk, crossing her legs "The brother who loved me too much and the one that didn't love me enough"

Damon sighs in relief as the Guardian winces to consciousness. Stefan slumps in relief, taking her head into his lap "You're okay.... You're okay..."

"And the evil slut vampire who only loved herself" Damon glares at his ex.

The said evil slut vampire spreads her arms over the back of the couch "What happened to you Damon? You used to be so sweet and polite"

"Oh, that Damon died a long time ago"

"Good" she smirks "He was a bore".

"Oh, why don't you two stop antagonising each other?" Kat sits up, eyeing her red-tinted pixie dress with pity. So much for not staining it with punch.

"Where is the moonstone?"

"What do you want with it?" Stefan questions.

"Does Elena enjoy having both of you worship at her alter?" Katherine smiles sweetly.

The trio look at each other before Kat raises her eyebrows "That was really desperate, Kitty. Don't you think that we can see right through you?"

"So it doesn't bother you that you guys have all the couples warped up?"

"Oh, stop it" Stefan says, with a tinge of insecurity as well as fear.

"Or what? You'll hurt me?"

She gets up confidently, shoving herself onto Stefan "Come on, Stefan. Everything that I feel, Elena feels, so go ahead" 

She looks at Damon. Smirking, she adds, "Or better yet, kiss me Damon. She'll feel that too"

"You know, this whole werewolf thing has me a bit confused" Kat frowns "Why a werewolf? The moonstone can break a curse that would help them destroy all vampires so what's in that for you?" Kat sits up, grateful that her arm has also healed.

"Sorry about your pet wolf, probably should have kept him on a tighter leash" Damon smiles, not at all sorry. Kat gulps, standing against the wall beside Stefan.

"I'll have to remember that for next time. He's not the only wolf in town" she makes a thinking pose, eyes looking up in mock-confusion.

The Guardian's eyes widen as she rushes to the Pierce "What did you do to Tyler?! Answer me Katherine!"

She shrugs, confirming her doubts. Katherine Pierce is set out to make Tyler Lockwood a triggered werewolf. She beckons for Stefan's phone and dials Caroline's number with shaky hands "Caroline! It's me, Kat. Get to Tyler NOW! Don't let him near anyone do you understand! GO!"

"Why would you do that?" she accuses the oldest vampire in the room, smashing a vase against the wall. Her eyes flicker between jade and amber.

A while later, Stefan suddenly breaks the silence "You bargained the moonstone"

"What are you talking about?" Damon frowns, standing at the edge of the room. Now that Kat's okay, he wants to make sure Elena's not in pain. 

"When you struck a deal with George Lockwood, to help you fake your death, you told me that you gave George something that he needed. It was the moonstone, wasn't it?" Stefan asserts louder.

"Good for you, Stefan" Katherine nods "Two plus two...And it would have worked except that people found out that I wasn't in the tomb" she huffs out and all eyes go to Damon Salvatore.

"Thanks to you, by the way. Have I mentioned how inconvenient your obsession with me has been?" she says, speaking despite facing the older Salvatore's back.

Damon and Kat sync in their chuckles "You and me both honey"

"Why do you need it back?" Kat asks about the moonstone. Katherine almost answers 'to save us' but nature should give her some credit.

She looks to Stefan "I love you in a suit, so dashing" she fawns breathily.

"What were you doing with it in the first place?" he asks. Hopefully she'll talk to him.

"You're wasting your breath, Stefan" they all hear the nervous lilt in her voice.

"Unless..." Kat gets up "-it wasn't yours to begin with. In 1864 you faked your death.... Who were you running from, Katherine?" 

Once again, the youngest vampire in the room seems to be the most approachable person in the room "In 1987 you were in Chicago, at a concert of all places with that wench, Lexi" Katherine snarks out. Kat takes an angry step forward upon hearing her talk like that about Lexi. But fortunate for her sister and her Pierce sister, Stefan stops her 

"Come on Stefan" the vampire scoffs "-don't look so surprised. Of course I checked in on you over the years. You were standing in the front row, dancing all night. You were watching Bon Jovi and I was watching you..."

Kat couldn't imagine the feeling in Damon right now. Katerina has been keeping an eye on Stefan but she left Damon to just spiral down on losing his lover.

"Who were you running from?" the Guardian grits out.

"I love you" she mouths to Stefan and this time, Kat decides she's had enough of her hijinks. Speeding in front of her, she chokes the vampire with hazel eyes "Choose your next words very carefully Katerina". Her eyes widen before she chokes out "Elena".

Kat gets off her with an angry curse. Damon goes to the beverage stand, pouring himself some whiskey.

"I'll have one of those" Katherine smugs out on the trio. Damon drops his emptied glass, turning about and vamping Katherine to the opposite wall. Stefan runs to him "No, no! Damon, don't!"

"Yes, Damon, please..." she softly smiles.

He inches closer to her face "The second the spell is lifted, I'm gonna drive a stake right through your heart"

"God, you're hot..." she moans right in his face "When did you get so hot?"

The moment is fortunately interrupted by a woman "Katherine, the spell on this room has been broken, you're free to leave"

"Thank God" she rushes forward, hand out, expecting the moonstone.

"When I hand this over my debt to you is over"

"Done"

"I owe you nothing"

"I said done. Give it" she beckons impatiently.

"I wouldn't do tha-" Stefan starts, but Katherine gets the rock.

When Katherine touches it, she can't breathe. She gasps to let in air, dropping down in breathlessness.

"You should have told me another witch was involved" the woman grits out "She's a Bennett witch, Katherine, but I'm sure you knew that"

"Wait, Elena!" the standing trio shouts "Elena's fine. The spell is broken. She'll heal quickly, Bonnie's with her..." 

She looks down at Katherine's suffocating figure and then back at the people in the room "I apologise for my involvement"

▹▹▹

Stefan and Kat go outside, escaping by the back door. They stop as they see Elena hug herself, looking around. 

The Guardian smiles sadly at the vampire, giving him a gentle push towards her sister "Go".

He hesitates and she pushes him harder "Go, she needs you.... She loves you"

She watches as the couple talk seriously. They'll sort it out. They're Stefan and Elena. Kat walks into the almost empty parking lot quickly. She finds her car at the edge and walks towards it.

She takes one step towards her destination, when three vervain darts hit the back of her neck, knocking her out almost instantly.

The angel has fallen.