Deep in the woods there was an abandoned underground shelter that the town had forgotten about. This was used to an advantage by a siphoner who needed the seclusion to house three hostages. One of these hostages was currently pacing the living area back and forth since waking up and seeing two of his friend.

"H-How is—what's going—what the hell?!" Tyler looked between a concerned Elena and a weakened Katherine, "how is this possible?"

"It's called a doppelganger, wolf boy. Keep up." Katherine croaked out from where she was sitting. Jasmine needed to make sure Katherine didn't attack either of the other two, so she decided it was best to keep Katherine to a corner, weak and spelled in.

"So, you're basically a photocopy of Elena?"

"Other way around considering I was born, oh I don't know, only over five hundred years ago." Katherine rolled her eyes and lulled her head back.

Elena stood from her seat on the couch and placed a calming hand on Tyler, "I know this is a lot to take in, Tyler—"

He gently pushed her hand off and continued pacing, "yeah, no kidding." He stopped for a second to look at the siphoner with an exasperated look, "why are we here?"

"Because you're useful."

Tyler stood there and watched her pick at her nails as he waited for her to answer. He couldn't believe how casual she was handling this, as if she didn't really care at all. His world changed in the span of minutes—he killed a classmate, he triggered his curse, he was kidnapped, and she didn't have the decency to even look at him. But he knew he had to control his anger if he wanted answers, "what do you mean?"

The air filled with silence before it was interrupted by a groan, "she means you're the perfect species for the ritual."

Tyler looked over to Elena, no, Katherine and furrowed his eyebrows, "what ritual?"

"The one where we're all going to die." Katherine replied with an amused smirk.

"Die?!"

Katherine grimaced at Tyler's sudden panicked state and directed her gaze to her doppelganger, "you should probably tell your friend to calm down before he has an accident."

Screw controlling his anger. Tyler let his fury over take him as he'd done many times even before the curse and turned to Jasmine, "I am not dying."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Katherine mused.

Without wanting a repeat of it, Elena agreed with Katherine for once, "yeah, Tyler, she's kind of dangerous. Please don't—"

Tyler began charging towards her but before he could have the satisfaction of breaking some of her bones, Jasmine raised her gaze to connect with his. It was a split second. One moment, he was going to defend himself and the next, he was on the ground writhing in pain after just looking her in the eyes. It was the first time he ever experienced such terrible and cruel pain—he hoped it'd be the last.

"Are you done yet?"

Jasmine's voice was so monotone that it fueled him once more. Forgetting the pain in his brain, Tyler quickly got up and tried again... and again... and again. He wasn't showing any signs of stopping but that didn't matter to Jasmine since he was wasting more energy than she was.

"This is almost too pathetic to watch." Elena shot Katherine a glare and crossed her arms to resume watching Jasmine torture Tyler with a grimace.

It was only minutes later that Tyler collapsed on the floor exhausted. Jasmine sighed heavily before addressing the three, "good, now if you'd let me explain what's going on, that'd be lovely."

"You can't do this, you know?"

Jasmine wasn't sure if Elena interrupted her just to annoy her because—well, she couldn't think of another reason. She let Elena drone on and on about how kidnapping was illegal and how the Salvatores would never forgive her if she handed her over. It was getting boring and repetitive... and she didn't seem to be the only one thinking that. Katherine stood from her chair with all the strength she had and hit the barrier.

"Give it up!" Elena stopped talking as she looked to Katherine in shock, "you sound like a broken record. You may think that they'd turn on her for good but you haven't witnessed what I have. She's killed many people and hurt many loved ones, hell she was even the reason that Stefan went all ripperfied for a good three years. If they wanted to kill her, they would have, but they can't."

Katherine took a breath, winded by the energy and looked at Jasmine, "they love her. After everything she's done... they still stick by her and think what you want, but she's always the one they go to. After I left them, after Damon's dark years, after Stefan's ripper phases... she's always the one that they want." She sat back down on her chair and directed her gaze to the floor, "so, no matter how much they may hate her right now and no matter how much you think you mean to the Salvatores, they'll never hurt her permanently and you'll never compare to her."

Jasmine felt saddened suddenly as she watched Katherine fiddle with her fingers. From Jasmine's point of view, Katherine was the villain that threatened her friendship with the Salvatores. She always whisked them away and made sure that Jasmine was never alone with either of them. Katherine was the villain in her story with the Salvatores, but Jasmine was hers as well. Sure, Katherine did do all of those things and more, but from Katherine's point of view... it was different.

Whenever Katherine spoke with either Salvatore, they always seemed to direct the conversation to Jasmine. How wonderful she is, how she behaved gracefully during one of Giuseppe's rants, the adventures she took them to, and of course, how much it'd crush them if she ever left. She was competing with the perfect woman in their eyes, so it made her territorial. Stefan was her true love, but when he showed more interest in Jasmine, Katherine moved onto Damon and ended up loving him, too. It was no surprise that Damon spoke highly of Jasmine as much as Stefan did, so she did the one thing she knew she could do when she couldn't control the situation or her feelings.

She compelled them.

Soon enough Stefan and Damon's feelings for Katherine were a bigger priority than their love for Jasmine. Could she have handled the situation better? Of course, she could have, but with them, she felt like the human teenage girl she used to be. And Katherine wasn't going to give that up so easily.

"They were going to kill you last night. If it wasn't for the link, they would have gone through with it." Elena stubbornly spoke out.

Katherine scoffed and lulled her head back again, "you're pathetic."

"And you're a selfish and manipulative bitch." Elena spat out causing Katherine to smirk.

"Find a better insult, you washed up version of me."

Jasmine stood from her seat when she saw Elena advancing towards Katherine. She lifted a hand and immediately Elena was rooted to her spot, "ladies, that's enough. Elena, do I need to place you into your own small bubble? No? Okay."

She sat back down and sighed heavily. This was more of a babysitting gig than a hostage situation. Her attention averted to Tyler, who was now weakly standing up, as he cleared his throat, "why are you doing this?"

"For revenge, to put it simply."

Tyler's eyes narrowed and glared at her, "what have I ever done to you?"

"Oh, I'm not getting revenge on you, Tyler, you're just collateral damage. The one I'm after is a much bigger threat than you can ever pose." Jasmine smirked as he sat on the couch and laid his head in his hands.

While Tyler and Elena were confused of who she might be referring to, Katherine's attention was suddenly alerted to the siphoner. Fear embedded into her veins at just the mention of him. Years of fearing him and running away, she was going to come face to face with him soon—and she wasn't ready to see him just yet.

"He's coming here already?"

Hearing the fear in her voice, Elena's confusion deepened, "who?"

Ignoring Elena, Jasmine answered Katherine's question, "yes. Jamison gave me confirmation that his men were notified. It's only a matter of time."

"You can't do this, Jasmine." Elena looked shocked to see Katherine cower. If whoever this person was could make the great Katherine Pierce shiver in fear then they should probably be taken seriously.

"I'm not asking for permission, Katerina. You wanted your freedom? Well this is how you get it."

"Being dead is not freedom!"

Katherine took a staggering step backwards as Jasmine sped up right to her, "it's being done with running! Aren't you tired of it after all these years? This is your only way out. Klaus knows it, I know it, and you definitely know it." Jasmine clenched her fist trying to calm herself down. A sudden rush of fear and panic rushed through her, but she pushed it down as strode towards the entrance.

"Where are you going?" Tyler called out.

"Into town. You guys are hungry, are you not? Don't worry, Katerina, I'll make sure to get a real juicy rat for you." Jasmine chuckled over her shoulder.

As they heard the doors slam shut, Tyler scoffed and turned to look at the doppelgangers. He threw his arms into the air in exasperation, not believing the predicament he was in.

"So, are we just supposed to sit here like cattle waiting for slaughter?"

Elena shrugged her shoulders helplessly, "we can't leave because of the spell and we can't call anyone because she took our phones."

Katherine sighed loudly before smiling sarcastically at Tyler, "so... moo."

----

As the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, Bonnie gathered Stefan, Damon, and Caroline near the parking lot to discuss the disappearance of their friends.

Stefan placed his hands on his hips as he threw in his suggestion, "it has to be Jasmine's doing."

"How'd she even get to them?" Damon questioned.

Caroline piped in when no one could think of a quick reason, "well, Matt was compelled to provoke Tyler so what if Jasmine compelled him to take them? I mean the last person to see Elena was Matt."

Stefan sighed loudly as it made sense, "how could we have noticed that?"

Damon saddled beside his brother, "because we were a little busy fighting that little fiery firecracker."

"Do you think Alethea helped? I mean it can't be a coincidence that when you were fighting her, Elena and Tyler were taken." Bonnie added.

Stefan nodded his head, "she did seem a bit off the entire day, so I wouldn't be surprised."

"Do you want me to do a locator spell?"

Damon let out a laugh and shook his head, "Jasmine wouldn't be stupid enough to leave herself exposed like that so there's no use.

The group looked between each other at a loss. If Bonnie couldn't locate her, then how were they able to save their friends? Bonnie and Caroline glanced at each other as they both thought the same thing—everything seemed to be much simpler when vampires and witches weren't brought into the mix.

Caroline sighed and crossed her arms across her chest, wanting a solution, "what else can we do?"

Reassurance was not what she got as Stefan shrugged his shoulders and muttered, "I don't know."

Bonnie fiddled with her hands as she paced in front of the group, trying to figure something out, "we're going to need help locating them since I can't do it."

"And how exactly are we going to acquire this help?" Damon asked as he began to grow tired of watching Bonnie's footing.

Bonnie stopped and looked at them with a somber look, "I know what to do."

----

The smell of coffee lingered through Francis' nose and books with bent spines lay on the table he was sitting at. He kept his gaze on the book in his hand as the server refilled his cup of coffee.

"That's a good book. I'm certain that I've read the entire series more than thirty times. What drew you to it?"

Francis looked up at the server with a smile, "the possibility of magic being real." He set down the book and extended his hand, "Francis Aldric."

"Octavius Temps," The server said as he shook his hand, "and I like to believe that magic is real." He sent the witch a wide grin before turning around to head back behind the counter.

Francis returned to his book about witches and wizards as he called out in a taunting voice, "I'd expect nothing less from someone like you, Temps. That's French, right?"

Octavius stopped wiping down the counter for a second before resuming. Francis obviously was making it clear that he knew about him, so why not return the gesture? He wiped the look of annoyance of his own face and replaced it with one of curiosity, "yeah, it is. And Aldric... I've only heard of that name being associated with one specific family. A family of witches. Crazy, right?"

Francis examined him and chuckled, "yeah, crazy." The discussion was dropped as Francis' phone began to ring. His eyebrows furrowed as he saw the caller ID flashing. Shrugging his shoulders, Francis clicked on the 'answer' button, "well, this is a surprise. Have you come to a decision, Ms. Bennett?"

On the other end of the call, Bonnie ignored the looks of the group and answered, "not exactly. We need a favor."

'We'... that had Francis' attention. He placed the book down once again and raised his cup to his lips, "we don't do favors for leeches."

Bonnie realized her wording and tried to deviate from it, "it's not for them. It's for my very human friend, Elena Gilbert. Jasmine has her hostage and I need help locating her."

Francis knew that if he helped the Bennett witch then it could sway her into joining his coven, "very well. Knowing Jasmine's instincts, she wouldn't have made it easy to find her... Ms. Bennett, I do hope you know that if we help you, you're accepting my offer."

There was a slight sound of distortion coming from her end making Francis think that someone was trying to wrestle the phone from Bonnie's grasp. He was right. Panting and keeping Bonnie an arm's length away, Damon Salvatore spoke into the phone, "can't it be a trial run? You know, see if you were actually powerful enough to want to work with."

Bonnie regained hold of the phone in time for Francis to mutter through clenched teeth, "you're with them."

Bonnie shot Damon a hardened look, "yes but it's only because I need their help, too."

Francis finished the rest of his drink, set his book down, and threw a twenty dollar bill on the table, "like I said... we don't do any favors for leeches." He ended the call and stood up from the table.

"Leaving so soon?"

Francis paused and cast Octavius a sly smile, "trust me. It's better I leave now before I exploit all of your secrets."

Before Francis was fully out of the door, Octavius called out to him, "yeah because then that'd lead to me telling everyone that you're a witch. Alongside your coven, of course."

"You practically did." He gestured to the rest of the customers who were actually not paying them any attention.

"Don't worry about them."

In awe of how Octavius' powers extended, Francis let out a joyous laugh, "see you around, Temps." He ignored his response as he closed the door behind him. In his lifetime of living and reading of past ancestors' encounters with supernatural beings, he had never come face to face with such a being.

His wonderment was put on hold as he saw a raven haired woman sauntering out of the Mystic Grill with two bags of take out food. Bonnie's words rang through Francis' mind. On one hand, he could help the Bennett witch and gain something from it. On the other hand, he could let them fend for themselves. Whatever his decision, he needed to make it fast as Jasmine neared her car.

"So, we meet again!"

Jasmine stopped in her tracks and looked around to find the source of the voice. She found it in the man jogging towards her, "hmm, the mysterious leader of a coven that's set out to kill me." She continued her walk but slowed significantly so that Francis could walk beside her.

"Ah, the secret is out. Shouldn't you be more on edge around me?"

Jasmine scoffed and shook her head, "you don't intimidate me. Is there a reason you stopped me on my way to my car or were you just bored?"

"You have someone I need." Francis said as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. As they reached her car, Francis grabbed hold of Jasmine's elbow and turned her to face him.

Jasmine looked at him for a second with a slight glare before tugging her arm away, "I have a couple of someones so you're going to have to be more specific."

"The doppelganger."

His expression seemed serious but it was obviously that he was joking by the glint in his eyes. Well, that's what Jasmine hoped. There was no way that he was seriously asking her to hand over Elena. With a click of her tongue, Jasmine opened her car door and got in, rolling down the window so that she could continue their conversation, "no can do. She's very near and dear to my heart so I can't just give her up. Unless you have another human doppelganger?"

Amused, Francis jokingly checked his coat pockets thoroughly before shaking his head, "I don't seem to have one on me at the moment."

"Shame." Jasmine said and then proceeded to drive off.

He watched as the car turned the corner and was immediately out of sight. He blew air out of his closed lips and considered his options again. He could leave it alone and let the 'Scooby Doo gang' to fend for themselves which would lead to them with the probability of not being successful. Or he could just--

Francis didn't even know that his subconscious had decided for him until he heard the sound of the call being picked up.

"Are you ready to help me?"

——

a new character is introduced!

he won't be seen as much or hardly at all in this book but he will have his own short story based on his cafe :)

the cafe has been mentioned before of having magic radiate off of it so it'll be explained in the short story.

graphic by CarKann