15. Gone Girl

"She is brilliant" a shocked Damon whispered, after Brayden finished explaining what he and Caroline had discovered to both his brothers.

"We haven't noticed that Katherine's been inhabiting Kaitlynn's body for week and that's all you have to say?" Stefan asked his oldest brother.

"Yep" Damon simply said.

"He's in shock" Brayden told Stefan, "Because he's finally realising that it wasn't Kaitlynn who broke up with him, it was Katherine".

"Mm-hm" Damon mumbled.

"Right, so your little murder spree with Enzo where you killed Aaron, you nearly killed Jeremy, tried to kill Wes but got infected with that ripper virus that was all you reacting to Katherine" Stefan pointed out.

"Remind you of old times, Damon?" Brayden teased.

Damon glared at his twin, "I'm trying to figure out why you decided to tell a starving, bloodthirsty, vampire feeding ripper that his nemesis is still walking around alive and well while I'm stuck in this cell and can't do anything about it".

"Relax, don't get your boxers into a twist" Brayden said, "I have everything in control".

"I'd love to hear this" Damon said, not believing that his brother had this under control.

***

"Hang on here, Katherine's still alive?" a shocked Matt asked, as him, Tyler and Fae sat in the Salvatore's library while Caroline told them what her and Brayden had figured out, "How is that even possible?".

"Remember that time Nadia's ex, Gregor, hitched a ride in your head?" Caroline reminded, "Okay, well, it's kind of the same thing, Katherine is a passenger in Kaitlynn, except it's worse, because none of us seem to notice".

"She was at my house" Tyler pointed out, "How did none of us not figure it out?".

"Because it's Katherine" Caroline stated, "And she's smart and conniving and sneaky and--", Caroline let out a frustrated sigh, "And we're the worst friends ever".

"This makes no sense" Jeremy said, his voice coming through Caroline's phone that was placed on the table, "She saved my life, she gave me CPR when Enzo tried to kill me, Katherine would never do that".

"But Kaitlynn would" Fae pointed out, "That's what made Katherine and Kaitlynn so different, Katherine would let you die but Kaitlynn would never, and if Katherine wanted her performance to be believable she kind of had no choice but to save your life".

"I was sleeping three feet away from her" a frustrated Caroline said, as Brayden and Stefan entered the room, "She picked my bitter ball dress, and I let her use my toothpaste".

"Don't forget the main thing" Brayden said, walking over to the Forbes vampire and sitting on the armrest of the couch she was sitting on, "She lured your soulmate into a motel room and then tried to make out with him".

"Wait, wasn't she the reason you thought Caroline didn't want to be with you?" Tyler asked Brayden.

Both Caroline and Brayden's eyes went wide when they realised Tyler was right, "I thought she had misheard me" Caroline whispered.

"She didn't mishear you, she just wanted us to not get back together" Brayden concluded.

"Bitch!" a frustrated Caroline yelled.

"So how do we kill the bitch?" a curious Tyler asked.

"Well, passengers can be expelled from the host" Stefan informed.

"I saw it first hand when Gregor was expelled from Matt's body" Brayden added, "When Katherine stabbed Matt, nothing happened to him, but Gregor ended up dead, so in order to get Kaitlynn back and get rid of Katherine, we just need to stab her with the traveler's knife".

"I still have the knife that Nadia have me" Matt informed.

"Perfect, go get it" Stefan instructed.

"Wait hold on, guys, this is Katherine that we're talking about" Caroline reminded, "She's gonna see a sneak attack coming from a mile away, we got to get here to come to us, get her guard down, corner her".

"Fat chance you'll be seeing her today" Tyler said, "I'm pretty sure I bit Nadia".

"What do you mean you bit her?" a shocked Matt asked.

"I mean she was attacking Caroline and I might of nipped her a little" Tyler defended.

"And you're just mentioning this now?" an annoyed Matt asked.

"Don't tell me you actually have feelings for the bitch whose been messing with your head" Brayden said, "And she was attacking Caroline, you're lucky I wasn't here because I would have ripped her head from her body".

"Hey, guys, focus" Caroline said, bringing everyone back to the original conversation, "Tyler's right, Katherine is not going to leave Nadia's side unless not leaving compromises her identity".

"Which means?" a confused Matt asked.

"We got to invite her to something that Kaitlynn can't say no to" Caroline stated, she looked at her witch best friend, "Say, Fae's surprise birthday party?".

"No, I don't want a surprise party, I want a spa day" Fae stated, "It's the least I deserve after feeling the death of every supernatural creature who passes through me".

"Wait, Fae's birthday isn't till next week" Stefan reminded.

"We know that, but I doubt Katherine does" Brayden said.

"Can we please say spa day instead of a party?" Fae pleaded.

"I'll get you your spa day on your actually birthday, Fae" Brayden said, "This isn't going to be a real party, it's just a ploy to lure Katherine to us".

***

"You're throwing Fae a surprise birthday?" Katherine asked Caroline, through the phone, "I don't know Caroline, I don't think Fae would want a big party for her birthday".

"Of course she does" Caroline said, "So when can you get over to Brayden's to help us set up?".

Katherine let out a sigh, "I can't".

"You can't?" Caroline asked.

"I would love to, but I just, I can't" Katherine said, "I'm making arrangements for Aaron Whitmore's funeral, the only reason Damon killed him was because we broke up so I kind of feel like I owe it to Aaron, you understand, right?".

A frustrated Caroline rolled her eyes, "Of course" she lied, "No, that's really nice of you".

***

Brayden bit into his wrist and let his blood pour into a glass.

"What are you doing?" a confused Damon asked, as veins started appearing under his eyes the minute he saw and smelled his brother's blood.

"Well, I can't have you desiccate, can I?" Brayden said, handing Damon the glass.

Damon quickly snatched the glass from Brayden's grip and downed the blood, once he was finished he looked at his brother, "I need more".

"You don't get more" Brayden stated.

"That was nothing" Damon said.

"That was exactly four ounces of my blood" Brayden informed, "You told me that when you and Enzo were out killing vampires, one vampire kept you good for eight hours, so Caroline decided to do a little bit of maths--".

"Caroline?" Damon asked, not trusting Caroline's calculations.

"Yes Damon, Caroline" Brayden confirmed, "One of the smartest girl I know, she figured out that four ounces of blood, three times a day, should be the perfect amount of blood that will help you manage your hunger".

Damon glared at Brayden, he slowly stood up from the ground, "You mean manage me".

"This is for you own good, Damon" Brayden said, "I'm trying to stop you from ripping someone else's head off, I promise I'll find a cure for you, but first I need to get our ex-girlfriend back".

"I'll deal with my own crisis" Damon stated, "Listen, you just let me out of here, I'll find Wes, I'll get the antidote".

"And then you'll skip town without facing Kaitlynn" Brayden said, knowing his brother too well, "Leaving the rest of us to tell Kaitlynn how you went off the rails thinking she broke up with you? Absolutely not", Brayden pulled his phone out of his back pocket.

"Who you calling there, buddy?" a curious Damon asked, seeing his twin on his phone dialing someone.

"Your ex-girlfriend, whose currently possessing your recent ex, she's been making a lot of excuses to not show her face here, but I have a sneaky feeling she won't say no to me" Brayden said, just as he dialed Kaitlynn, Damon's phone, that was in his pocket, started buzzing, Brayden took the phone out of her pocket and looked at it in confusion, "She's calling you".

Damon snatched the phone from his brother's hand and answered the call, "Kaitlynn, hey".

"Hey" Katherine, pretending to be Kaitlynn greeted, "How are you?".

"Well, you know, strung up, hungry" Damon replied, "Same old, same old".

"Now that the dust has settled, I was hoping that, I don't know, maybe, we can talk about what happened at the farmhouse" Katherine said, "Can I see you?".

"Okay, sure" an extremely confused Damon said, wondering what was Katherine up to this time, "Why don't you just come to the house and we'll talk about it here".

"Perfect, I'll see you soon" Katherine said.

"Okay, bye" Damon said.

Once Katherine had hanged up the phone, a confused Brayden looked at his brother, "What the hell just happened?" he asked, "First she dodges Caroline and Fae and their attempts to get her here, but now she herself wants to come here?".

"Unless" Damon trailed off.

"Unless" Brayden repeated, slowly but surely, realisation drew on both the twins.

"She was testing me" Damon realised, "She knows".

***

Brayden and Caroline stood outside the cellar door, Brayden having just finished telling Caroline about Katherine knowing that they knew who she really is.

"Of course, the farther she gets, the worse our chances are of ever seeing Kaitlynn again" Caroline pointed out, "I mean, it's bad enough that we didn't recognize Katherine now we also just blew our only advantage".

"Nothing a little locator spell can't fix" Damon called from inside the cellar.

Brayden and Caroline looked at each other, both realising that Damon had a point, Brayden then proceeded to open the cellar door, revealing a smug looking Damon.

***

Caroline walked down the stairs and towards the cellar Damon was trapped in, "Hey, ready for a changing of the guard?", Caroline entered the cellar, expecting to see Damon and Tyler, but to her shock, she only saw Tyler laying on the ground, holding his neck in pain, "Oh my god", a worried Caroline quickly rushed over to her friend, "Oh my god".

"I'm okay" Tyler assured.

"He fed on you?" a shocked Caroline asked.

"I said I'm fine" Tyler repeated.

"But why would you come in here?" a confused Caroline asked.

"Why do you think?" Tyler asked, "Damon knew exactly how to piss me off".

"Are you kidding me?" an annoyed Brayden asked, entering the cellar room and seeing no sign of his brother, "You had one job, Tyler! Where the hell is Damon?".

"I think Damon went to go find Wes" Tyler informed, making Brayden let out a frustrated sigh.

***

After realising they needed a witch to do a locator spell on Katherine, Fae and Stefan tracked down Liv and asked her to do a locator spell on Kaitlynn so they could find Katherine, Liv ended up leading Brayden to a church, where he found no sign of Katherine, but he did find a hallucinating Nadia, without wasting a moment, Brayden picked her up and took Nadia back to the boarding house, realising she was going to be their leverage in getting Katherine back here.

"Nadia, I'm coming back to the church now" Katherine said into the phone, answering her phone thinking it was her dying daughter.

"Except your daughter's not at the church anymore" Brayden informed, having used Nadia's phone to get to Katherine, "She's at the boarding house now".

A shocked Katherine quickly composed herself and once again pretended to be Kaitlynn, "Stefan, why do you have Nadia's phone?".

"You don't have to pretend anymore, I know who you are, Katherine" Brayden revealed.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Katherine said, refusing to give herself up.

"Yes you do, you know that we've figured it out, you're not Kaitlynn, you're her psychotic sister who just refuses to die" Brayden said, "Now, your daughter is running of time Katherine, so if in that cold dead heart of yours, you care even a little bit about her, you'll show up here, or I will end Nadia's misery, brutally might I add".

"Prove it" a furious Katherine said, needing to be sure that Brayden had her daughter and he wasn't playing games with her, "Put her on the phone".

"Fine" Brayden said, before walking over to a dying Nadia and handing her the phone.

After a little bit of struggle, Nadia took the phone from Brayden's hand, "Katherine" she whispered, while glaring at Brayden, "Run!".

Brayden snatched the phone from Nadia's hand, "You can run Katherine, it's the one thing you're amazing at, or for the first time in your life, you can be a good mother and let your daughter see you one last time, the choice is yours".

***

"Hey" Matt greeted, lifting Nadia's head up and placing another pillow for her, he then sat next to her and grabbed her hand in his, "Your hands are like ice".

"Gregor?" a hallucinating Nadia asked.

"No, it's Matt, I'm not--".

"Gregor, I'm sorry I betrayed you" Nadia cried, "I did it for my mother, I did everything for her".

"I know you did" an emotional Matt said.

"Forgive me?" Nadia asked.

Matt placed his hand on Nadia's cheek, "Yes, I forgive you", a small smile formed on Nadia's face hearing Matt's words, but that smile immediately went away when she found it hard to breathe, "Hey, hey, shh, it's okay, shh".

"I don't want to die" Nadia admitted, "I don't want to die".

As Matt was comforting Nadia, Fae, Stefan, Brayden, Caroline, Jeremy and Tyler entered the room, Matt stood up from his seat and let Fae take his place.

"What's gonna happen when I die?" an afraid Nadia asked the Bennett anchor.

"You'll grab my hand and I'll help you get to the other side" Fae informed, grabbing Nadia's hand in hers, "It's as simple as that".

"Will it hurt?" a terrified Nadia asked.

Fae immediately shook her head, "You won't feel anything, I promise".

The groups attention suddenly went towards the front door that opened and Katherine stepped into the boarding house.

"I'm here to see my daughter" Katherine informed, walking pass everyone and straight over to her dying daughter, once Fae stood up, Katherine took her spot and held her daughter's hand, "Nadia".

"You came back for me" an emotional Nadia realised, not expecting this.

"I won't leave you again" Katherine promised.

"Did you find a way to save me?" an hopeful Nadia asked.

"Klaus's blood would've saved you" Katherine said, revealing to her daughter that she failed to find a way to save her, "If I'd asked for it".

"You would have outed yourself" Nadia retorted.

"But you would have been alive" Katherine stated, "And now it's too late".

Nadia suddenly started gasping for air, "My mother's name is Katherine" she said, starting to hallucinate the time she was looking for her mother, "I'm looking for her".

"You found me" Katherine said, tears welling in her eyes, "Nadia, I'm right here".

"She is a liar" Nadia continued, "And a murderer, she manipulates, she betrays, she'll do anything to survive".

Katherine shook her head, her daughter's words hitting her right in the heart, "Nadia--No, I'm--I'm right here, Nadia, look at me, look at me, I'm here, I'm right here".

"I'm looking for my mother" Nadia repeated, unable to come back to reality.

"This is not what your life should have been" an emotional Katherine said, "Five hundred years, searching for a mother who ended up, being me", Katherine looked at her daughter, "Let me show you what your life should have been, what your prefect day, would have been like", Katherine closed her eyes and entered Nadia's head to show her their perfect day together, "You and I had a little cottage, it was an ordinary summer day, you'd been playing outside so you were tired, and it was time for bed, you told me about the fort that you'd built out in the woods by the river and so I asked if I could visit, you said when the sun came up in the morning, and I said", a teary eye Katherine opened her eyes and looked at her daughter, who in her last moments had a small smile on her face, "Good night Nadia, sleep well", tears streamed down Katherine's face as she watched her daughter slowly desiccate, "Your mother loves you".

Fae looked to the side where Nadia's ghost stood, watching her mother with tears steaming down her face, Fae walked over to her and held her hand out, after giving her mother one last glance, Nadia placed her hand in Fae's and passed through her to the other side, immediately Fae let out a painful scream, causing Stefan to quickly step forward and grab her in his arms.

Once Fae had composed herself, the group turned back to Katherine, who had closed her daughter's eyes and placed the blanket over her face before standing up and facing everyone, "So, this is it", Katherine looked at the door behind Caroline and Brayden and in an last attempt to save herself, she quickly rushed towards the door but the moment she opened the door, her way was blocked by Damon.

"Hello, Katherine" Damon greeted, "You didn't think I'd miss this, did you?", Damon stepped into the house and closed the door behind him.

"Okay" Katherine said, turning around and addressing everyone else, "So who's got the knife? Which one of you is gonna get to kill the elusive Katherine Pierce once and for all?", no one said anything, "What? Suddenly everyone's speechless? When I was on my deathbed you all had plenty to say", Katherine looked at the Lockwood wolf, "Is it you? Tyler? Because I triggered the werewolf curse? Gave you an identity, and made you matter?".

"You've done nothing for me" Tyler retorted.

"Oh, please, Tyler, if I hadn't walked into your life, you'd just be a wasted nobody with a boozy mom and a temper problem" Katherine taunted.

A furious Tyler took a step towards Katherine to attack her, but Caroline quickly put her her hand on his shoulder, "Hey, don't, don't".

"And you" Katherine said, looking at Caroline, "I'm not worried about you offing me, because we both know I made you better by making you a vampire".

Caroline rolled her eyes, "Goodbye, Katherine".

"Bye-bye, Caroline" Katherine said, before walking over to Matt, "The one girl here who actually appreciates how beautiful you are, you wouldn't stab me in the heart, would you Matty blue? No, I don't think so, you will definitely go down as the best night I never had, oh, well".

"Oh, well" Matt repeated.

Katherine then walked over to Jeremy, "Well, little Gilbert, I honestly have nothing to say to you", Katherine turned to Fae, "Fae, no need for goodbyes, I'll see you on the flip side", Katherine looked at Stefan who was standing next to his girlfriend, "Stefan Salvatore, the epic love of my life, I know you think what we had wasn't real, but it was, every moment of it was real for me, so I wouldn't be mad if you decided to stab me".

"Goodbye Katherine" Stefan simply said.

Katherine let out a sigh, "Goodbye Stefan" she said, before turning to the oldest Salvatore brother, "Damon, oh, how you would love nothing more than to drive that blade right through me".

Damon shook his head, "We've already done this, Kitty Kat" he reminded, shrugging his shoulders, "I've said all I needed to say".

"I know, but I never got to say what I needed to say to you" Katherine said, "I'm sorry, you blame me for who you are, and I'm sorry, I'm sorry that I turned you", Katherine took small steps towards Damon, "I'm sorry that you didn't get to die as a forgotten nobody on a bloody battlefield and that your father didn't get to live another day to be disgraced by you, Damon, I'm sorry that I gave your life purpose, passion, drive, desire, I'm sorry that you are who you are because I'm the one that taught you how to love".

"I'll see you in hell, Katherine" Damon simply said, not wanting to give Katherine the satisfaction that her words actually got to him.

Katherine winked at Damon before turning to the last person remaining, "Brayden" she whispered, "You know, I always wondered what it would be like to be loved by you, a part of why I chose Kaitlynn is because I knew how strong your feelings were for her, and those feelings don't just go away Brayden, somewhere deep inside, you still love her, and she still loves you", Katherine stepped closer to Brayden while Damon and Caroline exchanged a look between them, "Brayden, I love you, and I'm just glad that if not me, then at least Kaitlynn will experience your love all over again".

Katherine let out a shocked gasp as Brayden stabbed her in the stomach with the travelers knife, "I'm not in love with your sister Katherine, and neither is she in love with me, that ship sailed a long time ago".

"Then I guess this is how our love story ends" Katherine whispered, before falling to the floor next to her daughter's dead body, she looked up and saw everyone hovering over her, then suddenly she closed her eyes and the next time she opened it they were pure black, she closed her eyes again and this time when she opened it they were back to Kaitlynn's original eyes and then she fell unconscious right next to Nadia.

***

Damon, Brayden and Stefan sat in Damon's room, waiting for Kaitlynn to wake up.

"Why is she not waking up?" a worried Damon asked his brothers.

"Relax, she's fine, this happened to Matt as well, apparently when a traveler leaves your body, it takes you a while to wake up" Brayden told his twin.

Stefan glanced at his older brother, "Which gives us a little bit of time to talk about what the hell you did".

"Relax" Damon said, "Thanks to Tyler's friendly donation, I'll be fine for a couple hours".

"And what happens after a few hours?" a curios Brayden asked, "What's your plan, Damon?".

"Tell her everything I did" Damon said, looking at Kaitlynn, "Let the chips crash and burn where they may".

"Optimistic" Stefan commented.

"I don't wanna be another Katherine Pierce" Damon admitted, "Katherine spent her whole life running from her problems only to die here, old and alone".

***

Fae stood in the church, lighting a candle for all the people they lost, when suddenly she heard a laugh from behind her, immediately she knew who it was.

"You've gotta be kidding me, right?" an amused Katherine asked, "Something tells me I'm about five centuries delayed on the whole believing in a higher power thing".

"Don't act smug now Katherine, the fact that you're here, means it's all over now" Fae said, "You're finally dead and out of our lives for good".

"True" Katherine agreed, "Then again, your friends didn't really give me much of a choice in the matter, using my only daughter against me? Harsh, I suppose I could've spent the next five hundred years running, but for what? My daughter was dying, Brayden would never love me, I was back to having nothing, and Kaitlynn was back to having everything".

"She's your sister Katherine, how could you be so bitter towards her happiness?" a disgusted Fae asked.

"I'm not bitter towards her happiness, I'm bitter that it was suppose to be me and her, but she left me behind, she got everything I ever wanted, call me a bad sister but I'm really starting to get sick of Kaitlynn getting everything that I want" Katherine said.

"What the hell are you on about?" a confused Fae asked.

"Wes had no intention of helping Nadia" Katherine revealed, "He was just using her as a case study in his project to wipe out vampires off the face of the earth".

"And why is this important to me?" Fae asked.

At the Salvatore Boarding House, Kaitlynn let out a small groan, alerting the three brothers.

"Kaitlynn?" a happy Damon called out.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again" Katherine said, "Kaitlynn left me behind and had the life I always wanted, well, until now".

"What did you do, Katherine?"  a suddenly concerned Fae asked.

"Brayden thought he gave me a choice, run or die" Katherine reminded, "But that's not really much of a choice, is it? After all Nadia was the only person in this world who really loved me, and I wasn't about to let my daughter die alone, but Katherine Pierce wasn't about to go gentle either".

Kaitlynn finally opened her eyes and immediately a small smile formed on her face seeing Damon infront of her, "Hey".

"Are you you?" a slightly skeptic Damon asked.

"Yeah" a smiling Kaitlynn confirmed, "It's me Damon, I'm finally back".

Kaitlynn tried to sit up but stopped when she felt something in her jacket pocket, as soon as she took it out, the three brothers immediately knew what that was.

"I left Kaitlynn with a little bit of a parting gift" Katherine informed, "If I can't have Brayden, then neither can she".

"Kaitlynn doesn't want Brayden!" a frustrated Fae yelled.

"Think of this as me being sure" Katherine said, "Anyways, now I'm ready".

Katherine placed both her hands on Fae's shoulders but to both her and Fae's confusion, nothing happened.

"Nothing's happening" a confused Katherine pointed out, "What's wrong?".

"I don't know" an equally confused Fae said, "This is the first time this is happening".

Katherine once again placed her hands on Fae but again nothing happened, angering the Pierce vampire, "Fae, what are you doing? Let me pass through", Katherine grabbed Fae's arms, "Why won't you let me pass through?!".

Fae shoved Katherine away from her, "Don't blame this on me, I don't control all of this Katherine".

"What?" a confused Katherine asked.

"I can't control who goes to the other side and who doesn't" Fae clarified.

"Then who is it up to?" Katherine asked.

Before Fae could say anything, the wind around the two girls started to pick up, papers started to fly everywhere and suddenly Katherine was flung backwards.

"Fae?" a suddenly terrified Katherine called out.

"I can't do anything, Katherine" Fae said.

"What? No, no, no" Katherine cried, as an invisible entity started pulling her back, "No!", a frightened Katherine looked back at Fae one last time before she was pulled into the darkness, the only thing heard was her scream.

***

Presenting 5x15 of They Don't Know About Us!

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