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Flashback

"Tyler sent me this package in the mail." Matt told her with a sigh holding up a few papers. His face was somber as he extended a piece of paper towards her. "And this is for you."

Isabel furrowed her brows took it. She glanced at the folded paper before looking at Matt, her stomach turning at his expression. "Is it bad? Because I- I don't know if I can't handle anymore bad things, Matty."

He placed a hand on her shoulder, not knowing what it said yet, but considering the other papers he was given, he had an idea. "Just read it."

Isabel let out a breath before she unfolded the paper and read over it.

Dear Adella,
I miss you and Rose more than I can put into words, but I know as long as Klaus is there, I can't come home. And the only way to make sure you and Rose are safe is for me to go and never come back. I left Matt the deed to the house. It will protect you in ways I can't. I will always love you and Rose with all my heart.

Isabel's eyes filled with tears as she flipped the letter over but nothing was written on the back.

"He- He's not coming back..." Isabel started sobbing and she turned in the dining room chair to face her brother. "He said he's- he's never coming back..." her breath hitched and Matt bent down and embraced her. "He's never coming back, Matty."

End

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

After shaking herself of thinking about Tyler, Isabel had put on a straight face told Matt to take care of Rose while she got her mind off of Tyler. She knew she wasn't being the best mother to Rose but she didn't want to be around Rose while she was upset, stressed and wanting to hit something.

And instead of going to get drinks from the Grill she went to the Boarding house to ask Damon and Stefan what the progress was with Elena only to find out by Stefan that they left to New York and she ended up collecting trash from around the house with Stefan before he had to leave to do something but not before thanking her for being willing to stay because the house was still a disaster after Elena's party and she wanted something to occupy her mind.

The werewolf walked into the parlor and found a cup that still had alcohol in it and debated whether she wanted more alcohol or not. Eventually she gave in and drank the last sip before tossing it in the bin she carried. She had a long day and even longer night. She wanted as much alcohol as she could get into her hands.

"Desperate times, I take it?" The voice she so didn't want to hear this early in the morning, asked.

Isabel refused to even glance his way as she asked, "what are you doing here Klaus?"

"What happened to Nik?" She didn't respond and just kept throwing in empty cups. "Oh interesting," he said sarcastically. "Well I'm not judging you, for starters, although if you are determined to get drunk, then perhaps I might recommend something a little more sanitary?" Isabel looked at him with a bored expression really not in the mood to be around the hybrid. Klaus stood with his hand clasped behind his back and he watched her hold eye contact with him as she drained another cup. Once it was gone she slowly let go of the cup letting it drop into the bin. "Well, then. You showed me."

"Shouldn't you be out chasing Tyler to the ends of the earth? Or screwing that man-stealing wench?" Isabel asked distastefully, resuming picking up the trash. "Or are there still some hopes and dreams you wanna crush around here first?"

"Depends. Do you happen to know where the young Brutus is?" They hybrid asked ignoring the other questions.

"I know where he's not- with me and Rose. And he gave Matt the deed to the house, so he's gone for good." She replied. She stopped picking up the trash and finally faced him.

Klaus nodded and walked closer to her. "Tyler made it his life's mission to kill me." He looked right in her eyes and raised his brows a slightly. "You can't hate me for driving him away."

"Oh I can, and I do." Isabel nodded to herself. "I'm your parabatai. I care about you dying. And Tyler agreed to listen to me but you're to paranoid to trust me! Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to spiraling into my dark pit of self-pity, so go along your merry away."

Klaus felt like she was angry at more than just Tyler leaving and now he's realizing just how bad he made her night. "What you saw-"

Isabel scoffed at the memory. "I know what I saw." She snapped. "It wasn't exactly hard to comprehend. Now would you please get lost."

They stare at one another until Stefan entered the room. "Actually, I asked him to be here." Isabel looked over at Stefan and slouched slightly before dropping her eyebrows. "Sorry Isabel. We need his help. I think Silas is in Mystic Falls."

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

"So some blood went missing from a few hospitals," Klaus said while pouring himself a glass of bourbon. "What about Elena? Don't vampires with their humanity off tend to overindulge in human blood, or were you the exception?" He turned to them and gave Stefan a look.

"It's not Elena." Isabel spoke up as she looked from the ground to the hybrid. She knew Elena was safely tucked away with Damon at the moment in New York.

"Well, let's say for a moment that it was Silas." He walked over to the couch and sat down. "I'm struggling to see how this affects me."

"Look." Stefan started as he walked closer to the hybrid. "Silas wants to die and be reunited with his one true love, but he's supernatural, so if he takes the cure and dies, he gets stuck on the Other Side."

"How Shakespearian," Klaus responded, amused.

"But if he destroys the Other Side altogether, he can take the cure, die, and pass on, but with it being destroyed, every dead supernatural being will return to our side." Isabel had thought it over and no matter how selfish she wanted to be and bring Kol and whatever family and friends that were over there, back she knew she couldn't. Kol wouldn't want that neither would her mom or Jeremy or even Alaric. "And that means every werewolf, every witch, every vampire. I wonder how many of those you personally killed. Care enough yet?"

Klaus smiled slightly. "My interest is piqued. How do we stop him?"

"Bonnie said Silas needs to complete three massacres to do this spell," Isabel told them. "Before Professor Shane died, he convinced the pastor to blow up the Council. Next, he had you kill your hybrids, and now he only needs one more massacre, so if he's here, that's what he's doing. And we need to find him."

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

The three supernaturals walked into Shane's office and started looking around the cluttered place. "What are we even looking for?" Isabel asked looking at a few things as she passed by.

"Well, if Shane really was working with Silas, chances are he was helping him plan his next move," Stefan told his wolf friend as he moved a few things.

"Where?" Isabel asked sarcastically. "On his evil villain to-do list? 'Steal blood, perform three massacres, pick up dry cleaning?'"

"Actually, not to nit-pick, but we evil villains usually use minions to pick up our dry cleaning, that sort of thing." Klaus replied with a small smirk.

"And of course you would know." Isabel smiled sarcastically before dropping it and turning to Stefan, asking, "why is he necessary again?"

"Well, we don't know what Silas can do, so if we do have to go head to head with him, an Original hybrid who can't die might come in handy." Stefan informed her.

"Besides, Stefan and I work well together, or at least we did in the twenties," Klaus stated.

Isabel walked away from her corner having found nothing and walked straight to a shelf, pulling books and looking at the covers.

"Well, granted my emotions were off." The green-eyed Salvatore retorted.

"And that's why you were more fun, just as Damon is probably relishing in Elena's emotionless company in New York," Klaus said trying to get under Stefan's skin.

Stefan looked at him unamused as he stood straighter. "My brother knows what he's doing."

"Does he? Don't underestimate the allure of darkness, Stefan. Even the purest hearts are drawn to it." Isabel looked up from her searching, affected by his words but Stefan laughed it off. "Still, I'm sure it'll all be fine."

"I-I think I found something," Isabel said carrying a large book over to the desk Klaus sat at. "'Symbolic Figures in the Dark Arts.' Didn't Bonnie say something about Expression Triangles? Here." She pointed at a large, intricate drawing of a triangle.

Stefan looked it over before reading from the opposite page. "'In some schools of magic such as Expression, human sacrifice can be used as a focus for power. It's rumored that the addition of two supernatural sacrifice compounds the mystical energy, creating an Expression Triangle.'"

Isabel pointed at one of symbols in the triangle. "Humans- that was the council fire." She pointed at another symbol. "Demons- Klaus' hybrid failure."

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a failure." Klaus commented, shrugging. "What's the third?"

Isabel's blue eyes widened as she looked over the symbol. "Oh, no..."

"What is it?" Stefan asked, glancing at the girl.

Isabel's eyes shot up to meet both of the supernaturals. "Witches."

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

Nik and Izzy were alone in the office trying to find out where the triangle would lead them before time ran out and Bonnie completed the triangle.

The Donovan girl used a ruler and pen to draw lines as she talked to get her mind working. "There've been two massacres. Pastor Young's farm is here," she marked the area where the farm once stood with her sharpie. "And the old Lockwood cellar, where you spitefully slaughtered 12 of your own hybrids, is here." She drew a line connecting the two locations. "According to the book, the Expression Triangle is equilateral, putting it here." Isabel drew another two lines, forming a triangle on the map.

"Somebody's been skipping their geometry classes." Isabel frowned at Klaus as he took the ruler and pen from her hands. "There are actually two places where the third massacre could be." He drew two more lines, forming another triangle opposite of the blondes.

"Well, you didn't let me finish." Isabel pouted. They continue to look at each other across the desk when the door opened and Stefan entered with Caroline. Isabel quickly turned around saying, "hey. What's going on? Did you find Bonnie?"

Klaus stood straight up and watched Stefan. "No, but I found Caroline and talked to her dad." He told her.

"I think we just found Silas." Caroline finished for him.

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

It was dark out when Klaus and Isabel walked through the woods, navigating the way to their side of the triangle with Klaus' phone. He looked at the map again but he wouldn't let Isabel see which frustrated the girl. "For the last time, I just want to see where we are."

"You know, when we split up you did have the option of going with Stefan and Caroline," Klaus told his parabatai.

"And leave Bonnie's life in your hands? Yeah. Fat chance. Do you even know how to read a map?" She asked stepping over a branch.

"Yes, and do you know who taught me? My friend Magellan," the hybrid said pocketing his phone.

"Wow! You had a friend?" She asked sarcastically. "Was he drawn to your darkness, too?"

"Actually, I was referring to Damon and Elena when I said that, but clearly it struck a chord with you," Klaus said amused.

"That's because there is no 'allure to darkness.'" She told him while doing the bunny ears with her fingers.

Klaus stopped and turned around to face her. "Really? So you've never felt the attraction that comes when someone who's capable of doing terrible things for some reason cares only about you?"

"I..." She trailed off as her mind took her back to Kol feeding Rose and Klaus laughing with her during the Miss Mystic pageant. "I..."

Klaus watched her for a moment, smirking, knowing he caught her before saying, "well, we're here, although judging by the lack of witches, here is not the correct location."

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

Klaus and Isabel ran to the other location in no time to see witches stood in a circle with Bonnie and another woman in the middle.

"They're linked. Bonnie's gonna kill them," Stefan told the two.

"Not if the witches kill her first," Klaus said slamming Stefan up against a tree.

"Klaus, we need to save her," Isabel told him.

"How?" Klaus frowned, not looking back at the two blondes. "The only way to stop the witches is to kill them, and then Silas gets what he wants."

"She's our friend." Caroline yelled at him.

"Spirits, take her soul." Aja -the witch kneeling behind Bonnie- said. "Free her from darkness." Aja held the dagger over Bonnie as Bonnie screamed in pain. Isabel and Caroline who were getting anxious, glanced at each other when Isabel suddenly ran into the circle and pushed the dagger into Aja's chest, killing her instantly.

She only did what she had to do.

"No!" Nik shouted, letting Stefan go.

Isabel dropped the witch and glanced around her to see the witches forming the circle began to drop dead and the torches' flames burning out. Isabel looked around, shocked by what she's done, but she knew it had to be done to save the teenage witch.

"Bonnie." Izzy called out kneeling next to the witch as Caroline sped over to her side.

"Bonnie!"

Bonnie opened her eyes to reveal they are milky-white. "The triangle is complete." Bonnie told them, not completely herself.

≪≫•≪≫•≪≫

It was early in the morning when Klaus shoved a shovel into the ground while Isabel sat on a tree stump near him, Stefan and Caroline had left long ago to take care of Bonnie.

"There." The hybrid started. "Twelve graves for twelve witches. Like it never happened." He rolled down his sleeves and put his jacket on. "Only it did happen, and now Silas has everything he needs to open the gates to hell on earth."

Isabel looked up at her parabatai with a somber expression. "You were just gonna let Bonnie die."

Klaus walked closer to her. "I know arithmetic isn't your strong point, but one is still less than twelve."

Isabel stood up. "Yeah, but that one is my friend." She told him softly. "And she didn't deserve to die for something that she had no control over."

"You tell yourself whatever you need to so you can sleep at night."

Isabel's plump lips part as she frowned at nothing, in particular, the overwhelming realization hitting her. "I just killed twelve people."

Her breathing started to get choppy which he noticed. "Hey." He tried to soothe her as he placed his hands on her arms. "Hey. You look like you're in need of comfort." Isabel nodded and looked up to meet his eyes. He pulled her into a hug as she sniffled. "Hey, it's okay, Bel."

Suddenly the blonde werewolf pulled away. "I-I have to go." She stuttered. She quickly left as she tried to smell any other scent than the bitchy little werewolf, Hayley. He was smothered in it and her suspicions about it being Hayley he was with last night was confirmed.

Klaus turned back toward where he placed the shovel, but then sensed someone behind him and he knew it wasn't his parabatai. With foreboding, he turned around to see Silas, in Shane's form.

"Thank you." He looked around, a solemn expression marring his face. "Of the three massacres, this is the one I was dreading," Silas told him.

Klaus smiled falsely. "Silas, I presume."

There's a parallel in the second scene of this chapter and a scene in the next book. It's great. 😂 It's growth. That I didn't even realize till I edited this scene.

Also the look on Klaus' face when Silas pulled out the white oak has me snorting. he said "Now where did you get that?"