Into the Wild

3rd Person POV

The group had finally made it to the island where the search for Silas would begin. It was hours of plane and boat rides combined with long awkward silences that left everyone on edge. Needless to say, everyone was in a mood.

Damon sat with Ellie on a log on the beach while they were both sharpening knives.

"You know everything is going to be okay right?" Ellie asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Damon asked.

"I mean with you and Elena. Despite this whole sire bond thing, I believe that she really loves you."

"Yet she's mad that Stefan's with you? That's called jealousy. If she were in love with me she wouldn't be jealous about you and Stefan."

"She's spent the past three and a half years being the center of yours and Stefan's world. Then I show up, steal Stefan's attention and all of a sudden she's not in the spotlight anymore." Ellie said. "Look, I'm not saying what she's doing is right. But you have to remember, even though she's a vampire she's still just a teenage girl. Her feelings are all over the place and now they are heightened because she's a vampire. Just give her some time. She'll come to terms with who she is as a vampire, or human if she takes the cure. But no matter what, I truly believe that you are the one for her. She's just blinded by her emotions right now."

Damon thought over what Ellie said and could only hope that she was right. "Thank you, Ellie."

Ellie just smiled in return. That was when Shane approached them.

"Couldn't they have hidden this cure in Hawaii?" Damon asked. "Where the hell did you take us?"

"Two hundred miles off the Nova Scotia mainland." Shane answered. "If you recall, the whole point was to hide the cure on the world's most obscure, desolate island."

"Oh yeah? I thought the whole point was that no one found Silas? The oldest, deadliest freak in the world." Damon pointed out.

"Yeah, that too." Shane said and held out some sunscreen to Damon and Ellie who were both now standing in front of him after putting away their knives. "Sunscreen?"

Damon and Ellie exchanged looks.

"Is that a joke?" Ellie asked.

"Right." Shane said, feeling stupid.

Stefan was tying a not in a rope while Rebekah stood next to him glaring daggers at Elena as she walked by.

"You know, you're not really helping." Stefan commented.

"You're perfectly capable of tying a knot." Rebekah replied.

"You giving Elena the evil eye, it's not really helping." He specified.

"She killed my brother and tried to get you to put a dagger in my back. She's lucky all she's getting is the evil eye."

"You know I can hear you, right?" Elena said, hearing the entire conversation.

"You know I don't care, right?" Rebekah asked back.

Elena stopped walking and within a second grabbed the white oak stake and sped after Rebekah only to run into one of those invisible shields that Ellie can throw up. She landed a couple feet away after ricocheting off the shield and sent an evil look to Ellie for stopping her.

"Rebekah is here to help. There will be no more attempts at killing her." Ellie said. "Alright?"

"Fine." Elena replied and she and Ellie shared a smile which confused Stefan and Rebekah.

In the middle of the flight over here, everyone had fallen asleep. Well, everyone except Elena and Ellie. Elena thought back onto the conversation they had…

Ellie looked around the plane and noticed everyone was asleep. Then she saw someone stirring and realized that Elena wasn't asleep. She thought this would be the perfect opportunity to clear the air between them, so she gently moved Stefan's head off of her shoulder without waking him up and made her way over to Elena.

She sat down in the seat across the aisle from Elena and right away Elena noticed her presence.

"Hey." Ellie said.

"Hey." Elena said back, not knowing what to say. The two hadn't spoken, just the two of them, since Ellie arrived.

"Look, I know that things are awkward between us. But this search for the cure is dangerous. We all need to be able to trust each other and work together in order to make it home alive." Ellie said.

"You expect me to trust Rebekah?" Elena asked.

"Okay, maybe not Rebekah. To be honest, I don't 100% trust her either. But when it comes to finding a cure that could make her human again, you can trust me when I say that Rebekah won't do anything to jeopardize that. She wants this cure just as much as everyone else and she's going to fight to get it. So… I'm not saying trust her, I'm saying trust her determination." Ellie said.

Elena knew that Rebekah would do whatever it took to get the cure, and that's what worried her. What if, in order to get to the cure, Rebekah had to kill Elena, or anyone that she loved? She knew that Rebekah wouldn't hesitate.

"But what I really wanted to say was, I know that you don't like me. I don't know if it's because of Stefan or you just don't like me as a person, but I want you to know that I'll do whatever it takes to help you get this cure." Ellie told her.

Elena said, "It's not that I don't like you as a person. Honestly, you're really sweet and funny and it's nice to have you around."

"So it's about Stefan." Ellie deduced.

"Stefan was my first real love. I'll always love him and care about him. And I know what happened between you and Stefan the first time. I can see the way he looks at you and I don't want him to be heartbroken if you just up and leave again."

"Elena, you have to understand that I didn't leave Stefan by choice. I left because I thought I was protecting him. Keeping Klaus away from him. What a great good that did huh?" Ellie commented which made Elena smile. "I love Stefan with everything I have, and it breaks my heart to think of what he went through when I left. I would never willingly leave Stefan. He's my best friend and the one I love."

Elena could see how sincere Ellie was being and Elena had to admit that she had acted like a real bitch towards the older vampire.

"I believe you." Elena said honestly.

"Can I ask you something?" Ellie asked almost shyly. After Elena nodded her head, Ellie asked, "Are you still in love with Stefan?"

"No." Elena replied instantly, calming Ellie's fast beating heart. "I love Damon. I don't know if it's the sire bond, but I can honestly say that loving Damon is the most real thing that I've ever felt. Even with Stefan I never felt this way. I never meant to act towards you the way I did, but I just couldn't help it. My emotions were and still are a big jumble. I've got a sire bond to deal with, this cure… there's really no excuse for it I know. Especially since I'm not in love with Stefan anymore. Maybe I was jealous, maybe I wasn't. Like I said my emotions are everywhere right now. I just want to make sure that one of my closest friends is happy."

"I promise. I'll do everything I can to make sure he's happy. That's all I ever wanted for him anyway." Ellie promised. "So… are we okay?"

"Yeah." Elena confirmed. "We're okay."

"Good, I'm glad." Ellie smiled. "Now, let's go get this cure."

The main thing Ellie wanted to do was clear the air between herself and Elena. She felt that going into the danger zone would be a lot better if things weren't so tense. Luckily, it looked like everything turned out okay. The two weren't necessarily friends now, but they were closer to friends than they were enemies now, which is exactly what Ellie wanted.

"What was that about?" Stefan asked his girlfriend.

"What was what about?" Ellie asked.

"That smile. I thought you two hated each other." Stefan said.

"We don't hate each other Stefan." Ellie said. At Stefan's unbelieving look she explained. "Elena and I talked on the plane and really settled things. You have nothing to worry about, I promise."

Stefan smiled at the happy look on her face and wrapped his arms around her waist bringing her body closer to his. "I love you, angel."

"I love you, too." Ellie said back and the two shared a loving kiss, ignoring Rebekah's gagging noises in the background.

Stefan was glad that everything was okay between Elena and Ellie and that the girls (Elena) could set aside their differences to work together. Although, from the looks of it, it didn't seem like they had differences anymore.

Stefan felt that things were looking up. Elena was accepting that he had moved on, they were going to get this cure, and he finally had his girl back.

If only things worked out as they all planned.

The group had been walking through the woods for some time now with Damon leading the way when Shane's phone began to beep.

"Satellite phone lost its' signal." Shane announced.

"Well, that's a good sign." Damon said, sarcastically.

"Is anyone else creeped out?" Elena asked.

"So then leave. Out of everyone, your presence is the least necessary." Rebekah snapped.

"Please, don't start." Stefan groaned.

"I'm merely stating the facts. Jeremy has the spell on his body. Ellie is the witch/vampire protecting Jeremy for some unknown prophecy. Bonnie is the witch that unseals the cure. Shane is the human compass. You and I have the tombstone, which does God knows what. And Elena has no point." Rebekah stated.

"What about me?" Damon asked.

"You have a nice behind."

Stefan and Ellie just laughed while Damon smirked at her reasoning.

They were still trekking through the woods well into the night. Shane was telling them the legend of the island.

"Centuries after Qetsiyah died, there were these miners who were excavating a well on the island who suddenly went mad. They bled themselves dry. No apparent reason. So, the legend spread that these miners, in exchange for a drop of their blood, saw visions of their lost loved ones in the well they were digging. The word traveled and explorers sought out the well to see if the legend was true." Shane explained.

"So, the well was magic?" Bonnie asked.

"Well, you know, some people believe the voices of lost souls were just a wind vortex whipping through the caves, and visions were caused by inhaling the island's poisonous plant life."

"And what do you believe?" Elena asked.

"I believe in magic." Shane said, then told them of his past experience on the island. "My wife and son died within months of each other. And so... I decided to try the well out for myself.'

"I offered my blood and I waited. I saw my wife. I saw her eyes, her smile... My blood let me see her again."

"Yeah, got it. Don't eat the poisonous flowers." Damon sassed.

"Wait. Stop." Shane said when they began walking again. "Stop. Stop! Is everyone paying attention." He picked up a large rock. "Our first lesson in survival." He threw the rock which triggered a net to be pulled up into the tress. "Stay together. Keep your eyes open."

Stefan instinctively pulled Ellie closer to him as they all looked around, making sure they weren't walking into any more traps.

"Are you doing okay?" Stefan asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ellie said. "I'm kind of nervous though."

"Why?" Stefan asked.

"Well, I'm apparently apart of some prophecy, but no one knows what it is. I'm hoping that by waking Silas or finding this cure, I'll finally know why I'm such a freak." Ellie explained.

Stefan laughed. "Ellie, you aren't a freak."

Ellie scoffed. "Come on Stefan. I'm 900 years old. I'm part human and part vampire. I'm everything that goes against nature. I'm a freak of nature!" She laughed.

"Okay, so maybe you aren't normal. But look around, none of us are. I'm sure that when we find out what you're destiny is or whatever, it will all make sense." He comforted her.

Ellie smiled, agreeing with him when she got a really weird feeling. She turned around and saw that Jeremy and Elena were a little behind the group. She heard a snap when she saw that there was a man with an arrow pointed at Jeremy.

She raced over and pushed Elena and Jeremy out of the way, barely escaping the arrow. She turned back to the man, only to see that he was dead with a hatchet in his back.

"You guys' okay?" Stefan asked.

"What the hell just happened?" Elena asked.

"Somebody just saved my life." Jeremy said, referring to the person who killed the unknown man.

"Okay," Ellie sighed. "From now on, stay with the group." She told both Elena and Jeremy. They couldn't agree more.

"What is this place?" Stefan asked as they joined the group again.

"According to island lore, a group of college kids came here for spring break. A few weeks later, they were all found dead, completely drained of blood." Shane said, taking pauses here and there to add drama and suspense.

"Well, tragic for hem, brilliant for us. Who sleeps where?" Rebekah said, and they went their separate ways to set up their tents.

Stefan and Ellie were sitting in front of the fire while Stefan was holding the headstone.

"Ya know. It's probably going to get really cold tonight." Stefan stated.

"You're right." Ellie agreed. "What should we do?"

"Well, I've heard that sharing body heat really helps to keep warm." He suggested.

"Oh, good idea." Ellie said. "I'll go see if Damon wants to share a tent tonight." She teased.

Stefan wrapped his arm around her and pulled her against his side possessively. "I don't think so. No one's getting any of your body heat except for me."

"Aww, Stef. There's no one else I'd want to share my body heat with." She winked at him and kissed his cheek.

"Good." He replied before capturing her lips with his. He tilted his head to deepen the kiss when Rebekah interrupted them.

"Alright. Knock it off. Save it for your tent." She said as she sat down next to Ellie.

"What's up Bek?" Ellie asked.

"Oh, nothing. Ya know, there's seven of us and no one thought to bring s'mores." She looked over and saw Stefan with the headstone. "What are you doing with that?"

"We're a day away from finding the cure. I'm not letting it out of my sight." Stefan explained.

Sudden animal noises in the woods caused Rebekah to jump and clutch onto Ellie's arm.

"Did you hear that?" Bekah asked. "I swear this place is haunted."

"Can't feel my arm Beks." Ellie stated, so Rebekah released her crushing grip on her arm.

"Don't tell me you're scared?" Stefan asked, although it was more of a question.

"Pshh, no." She denied lamely then admitted, "Okay, you got me. I'm a scaredy cat."

"You know you're an Original vampire right?" Ellie reminded her.

"Which is why you two should stop teasing me." Rebekah joked. The three of them sat in silence for a while until Ellie spoke up.

"I'm going to head to the tent. A day full of hiking wore me out." Ellie then leaned over to give Stefan a loving kiss. "Love you."

"Love you, too." He said back. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Night Beks." She said to Rebekah then departed for her and Stefan's tent.

Once Bekah saw that Ellie was out of sight she got serious and turned to Stefan.

"What are you going to do if when Elena becomes human she comes running back to you? You once said you'd take the cure to be with her. You'd have children and grow old. Is that still true?" Rebekah asked.

"Of course not." Stefan said instantly. "Things have changed since then."

"What if Elena's feelings for Damon really were because of the sire bond and she wants you back?"

"Then that's too bad. Elena knows that whatever was between us is long gone now. Ellie and I are together, and her becoming human isn't going to change that." Stefan told her.

"So you and Ellie aren't going to take the cure? Be human, start a family together?" Bekah asked.

"We don't even know if the cure would work on Ellie because of what she is so she isn't going to take it. And I'd rather spend the rest of eternity as a vampire than another 50-60 years as a human, as long as it meant I could be with her." Stefan said strongly. "But what about you? Why do you want to take it? Aren't you the perfect vampire?"

"Isn't it obvious? It's all an act." She answered. "Being a vampire is miserable. I don't have someone to stay immortal for. I would give anything to be human."

"I hope you get what you want, Bekah." Stefan said to his friend.

"Thank you. And I hope you and Ellie live long and happy lives together." Rebekah said back before getting up and going to her own tent.

Stefan sat in front of the fire contemplating his last 160 some odd years on this earth. 90% of it has been nothing but pain and guilt and sadness that being a vampire brought.

But there's the other 10%. And in that 10% percent lies Ellie. Everything that he is and everything that he hates about himself goes away when he is with her. And the matter of the fact is, without vampirism he never would have met her. He never would have felt the pure joy he feels when he sees a smile on her face, or even greater joy when he's the one who puts it there. The sparks he feels when they kiss, or the simple happiness he gets just by being around her.

With the uncertainty of what this cure would do to Ellie, he wasn't going to chance it. Hell, it could turn her human, no problem at all. But there's also the chance that it could kill her because of her unknown hybrid status and that wasn't a risk he was willing to take. So yes, he would rather spend the rest of his existence as a vampire with Ellie, than risk losing her if the cure doesn't work.

He stood up from the log in front of the fire to go and join the person running through his thoughts, but he made sure to grab the tombstone first. Their tent was on the other side of the small clearing they stopped in, somewhat away from the others' tents due to limited space.

He stepped into the tent and dropped the backpack to the side when he noticed that the tent was empty aside from a large sleeping bag and Ellie's own pack. He went back outside to see if she was out there and maybe he just missed her on the way, but she was nowhere in sight.

"Ellie?" He called out, hoping that she was just inside the treeline somewhere, but she didn't answer his call.

He went over to Bekah's tent to see if she was in there. "Hey, Bekah." He called out when he stopped by her tent.

Bekah unzipped her tent to see Stefan outside. "What?" She asked. She was just getting ready to go to sleep too.

"Have you seen Ellie?" Stefan asked, beginning to worry when he saw that she wasn't with Bekah.

"No, I haven't. She's not in your tent?" Bekah asked, stepping fully out of her tent.

"No. She's not." That's when an awful feeling took hold of his heart.

"Jeremy!" They heard Elena call out, so they ran over to her.

"What's wrong?" Stefan asked.

"We can't find Jeremy." Elena answered when she and Damon stopped in front of them.

"Ellie's not around here either." Rebekah told them.

"Well what the hell?" Damon asked. "Where could they have gone?"

"Ellie wouldn't just take off for no reason, especially without telling me." Stefan told the group as Bonnie and Shane made their way towards them.

"They're both gone?" Bonnie asked.

"Well, let's spread out and look for them. They couldn't have gotten far." Shane suggested.

They all split into groups of two; Damon and Elena, Stefan and Rebekah, Shane and Bonnie. They went their separate ways to search for the Hunter and the Hybrid. Hoping that wherever they were, they were together and

They searched all night with no luck of finding either Ellie or Jeremy. They all made it back to clearing at the same time.

"Did you find anything?" Elena asked Bonnie.

"They aren't on the trail." Bonnie said.

"His gear's still here." Shane held up Jeremy's bag.

"So is Ellie's." Stefan said.

"And they aren't at the quarry either." Rebekah informed them.

"They have to be here somewhere." Damon said. "Let's split up and try again."

"I'm gonna stay and try a locator spell." Bonnie said. "Stefan, I'll need something of Ellie's." She told him and Stefan nodded.

"I'll stay here. I'll make sure she's safe." Shane said.

"I'll stay here and make sure you're not lying." Damon said, looking at Shane skeptically.

Elena looked to Stefan and Rebekah. "Fine. We'll keep searching the island." She conceded, even though neither Rebekah nor Elena wanted to be around each other right now. Frankly, Stefan could've gone without being around Elena, but he knew they couldn't send her off on her own.

Damon followed Shane to the back of the shed to see him messing around with the satellite phone.

"Thought it didn't work." Damon said.

"Yeah. I'm just - just checking the signal."

"So you can call someone? Like whoever took Jeremy and Ellie?" Damon asked with a narrowed gaze at the professor.

"This place has a habit of getting to you, doesn't it?" Shane said then shoved the phone to Damon. "See for yourself."

"I'm done trusting you." Damon said and used his vampire speed to push Shane into a chair. "Where's the cure?"

"You know that magical well I was telling you about? Silas and the cure are buried deep below it." Shane said.

"So, you've seen it?"

"No. But you could say I heard it from a reliable source." Shane said then told him the story of seeing his dead wife because he was bleeding.

"What does your dead wife have to do with a cure?"

"She's got nothing to do with a cure, but she has everything to do with Silas." Shane said then told him the rest of the story. "And that's when she explained everything that I had to do. Complete the hunter's mark to access the spell, empower a descendant of Qetsiyah to perform it, and find the malefica mortus."

"What is Ellie's part in this?" Damon said but Shane kept quiet. Damon sent a harsh punch towards Shane's face. "Tell me. Now."

"Me knowing is my insurance to keep you from killing me right now. Plus, you can't kill me without Bonnie going off the deep end." Shane explained, trying to shake off the pain.

"You've known you needed Ellie for this cure the whole time didn't you? All that stuff about no knowing what her part really is was all a bunch of crap wasn't it?" Damon asked.

"She plays a part in this. A rather large part." Shane cryptically said.

Damon thought for a moment when he realized. "She wasn't created to kill Silas was she?"

"Not exactly." Shane said but explained no further.

"How the hell did you even know where to find Ellie?" Damon asked.

"Oh, I didn't. I simply found the Hunter and Bennet witch. The malefica mortus being in the same town was simply a stroke of luck. It's true what the say. Mystic Falls is like a magnet for the supernatural."

"Jeremy! Ellie!" Elena and Stefan kept shouting.

"Why don't you yell louder? Maybe we haven't drawn enough attention to ourselves already." Rebekah snapped, though she was more annoyed with Elena than she was with Stefan.

"I'm sorry, and how are you helping?" Elena snapped right back.

"I'm stronger than you and faster than you and I'm quite certain I can charm the islanders a lot easier than you."

"Not disagreeing on the easy part."

"Alright, we get it." Stefan stepped in. "You two hate each other. Can we just keep going, please?" He was eager to find Ellie.

"I tried to be her friend, but somehow, I ended up with a dagger in my back because I'm the evil one." Rebekah said.

"Technically, you didn't achieve evil status until you killed me." Elena said. She took another step forward and hit a trip wire that caused a log full of stakes to come swinging towards her right at heart level. Rebekah sped forward and was able to stop it just in time.

"Nice catch." Stefan said while Elena was trying to catch her breath from the scare.

"Thank you." Rebekah said.

"No, actually, thank you." Elena said to her. "This thing would've killed me."

"I don't care what happens to you either way. But if you're gonna die, it might as well be epic." Rebekah said, reminding her of her low feelings towards the younger vampire.

"I'm gonna go back and check on Bonnie, see if she found anything." Elena said, then said mainly to Stefan. "Be careful."

"Come on, Stefan. We've been through here before." Rebekah said after passing by what was probably the millionth tree since they've been there.

"You can go back. I'm not leaving until I find her." Stefan said just as one of them triggered another trap. A spear flew out of nowhere if and would've hit Rebekah if he hadn't pushed her out of the way and dropped to the ground himself.

They both looked up to see the spear lodged into a tree.

"Thanks. But that wouldn't have killed me you know." Rebekah thanked him as they both stood up and brushed dirt and leaves off themselves.

"Force of habit. Plus Ellie wouldn't like it if you got speared, even if it wouldn't kill you." Stefan said. "And, you're kind of my friend." He joked.

"I'm flattered." Rebekah said. "Hey, did you notice earlier that Elena and Ellie were actually smiling at each other? And Elena's eyes didn't hold the hate that they usually do when she looked at Ellie?"

"Yeah, I did." Stefan confirmed. "Ellie said they came to an understanding. I figured I'd ask her about it once all this cure stuff is over. I'm just glad Elena doesn't look at her with such hate and hostility anymore."

"Why's that?" Rebekah asked.

"Because I know it hurts Ellie. I know that when she sees Elena looking at her like that, she's reminded of the fact that she left me all those years ago. Even if she was doing it to protect me, I know it hurts her to be reminded of my pain. Now that Elena's not glaring daggers at her anymore, I think she'll be able to realize that it doesn't matter what happened back then. We're together now, and that's what matters." Stefan explained.

"Ugh, it's so gross how sweet the two of you are." Rebekah fake gagged.

"We're in love. It's not perfect, nothing ever is, but it works for us. I love her, she loves me. Simple as that." Stefan said. "Ellie and Elena have come to some sort of agreement, whatever it may be. Now what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Did you mean what you said? About a cease-fire?"

"Why do you all assume that I hate Elena so much?" She asked as they made their way back to camp to see if Bonnie found them with magic.

"Well, I mean, you did run her off a bridge." Stefan stated.

"You all seem to forget that Elena's death was the only way to save my family. I did the same thing that every one of you would've done to protect the people that you love. And before you cast me as the bad guy, maybe you should remember that Elena's helped not kill one, but two of my brothers. Maybe we're not as different as everyone's making us out to be." Rebekah said, and then sped back to camp leaving Stefan behind.

"Bonnie?" Elena stepped into her tent to find it empty. She ran back to the shed to find it empty as well with both Shane and Damon gone also. "Where is everyone?"

"What are you talking about?" Stefan asked as he entered the clearing.

"Well, Bonnie's not here and Shane's stuff is all gone." Elena explained.

"Oh my God." Rebekah said and then ran into her tent where they hid the tombstone. "The tombstone's gone."

Stefan angrily ran his hands through his hair. He knew that wherever Shane was with that tombstone, Ellie, Jeremy, and most likely Bonnie was there as well.

"I swear I'm gonna kill him." Stefan said suddenly.

"What? Stefan what are you talking about?" Elena asked.

"You don't think it's just a little strange that the Hunter, the witch, and the Malefica Mortus have all disappeared along with Shane who told us about all of this in the first place?"

"You think Shane had something to do with Jeremy and Ellie?" Rebekah asked.

"He set it all up. He planned for someone to take Jeremy and Ellie. Then when he had the chance, when all of us were looking for them, he ran off with Bonnie and the tombstone." Stefan said.

"Ellie's a powerful hybrid. How could someone have taken her?" Bekah asked.

"She's still part vampire and it's not that difficult to get vervain anymore. Enough of it would knock her out." Stefan explained.

"But what about Damon?" Elena asked. "There's no way he would go along with this so what happened to him?"

Stefan thought for a minute before finally deciding, "I don't know."

"What are you doing in my tent?" Elena asked, seeing Rebekah going through all of her stuff.

"Just because Shane is gone, doesn't mean he took the tombstone." Rebekah said before racing over to Elena and grabbing her by the neck. "Where's the tombstone? What have you done with it?"

"What are you talking about?" Elena gasped out.

"Like it's not bloody obvious? All you people ever do is betray me and here you go again!" Rebekah snapped, losing her patience and letting her emotions get the best of her.

"Let her go." Stefan stepped into the tent. "She didn't take it. Shane did."

"Was any of this real?" She asked once she let go of Elena. "Or was it just a ploy to distract me while Shane ran off with the tombstone?"

"You think I would do that?" Stefan asked. "You think I would let some psychopath run off with the cure when he knows where Ellie is? Every minute spent here arguing about this is another minute that Ellie, Jeremy, and Bonnie are in danger. So no, I wouldn't risk that."

Rebekah calmed down enough to realize that he was right. "Fine. You didn't take it." She said to Elena then turned to Stefan. "But that doesn't mean I trust her."

Elena and Rebekah stared at each other for a minute when Elena bent down and uncovered the white oak stake before holding it out to Rebekah.

"I didn't take it, but here. Consider this a peace offering." Elena said.

"Don't you get it, Elena? There is no peace. We're all screwed." Rebekah argued.

"Exactly, Rebekah. We're screwed." Elena said. "Shane's got the tombstone. Jeremy, Bonnie, and Ellie are all missing. Who knows if Damon's coming back. So, us three, right here, this is all we've got. So we're either in this together... or it's over. For all of us."

They all looked at each other and made the same silent agreement. They had to work together in order to find both, the ones they loved and the cure.

Shane was running through the woods after stealing the tombstone. Everything was going according to plan. He met up with two islanders; one pulling along a tied up Jeremy, another who was carrying an unconscious Ellie.

"That was a bit of a scare yesterday, Jeremy. Thanks for fending off his attacker." Shane thanked the islanders.

The islanders shared confused looks. "His attacker?"

"Jeremy was attacked by an islander." Shane explained. "Ellie was able to push him out of the way in time, but I assumed one of you was his hatchet-flinging guardian angel."

"No, it wasn't us." One of them said.

"Well, then I guess there's somebody else on this island who's desperate to keep our hunter alive." Shane said.

Bonnie stumbled out of the woods from behind them. "How did I get here? What the hell's going on?"

"I see your locator spell worked." Shane said.

"The path behind me-"

"Magically disappeared?" Shane asked. "You can thank the talents of Massak." He pointed to the one that was pulling Jeremy. "He's a witch."

"What happened to Ellie?" Bonnie asked.

"Again, thank Massak. Enough vervain and a spell to keep her magic at bay and she'll be out for another hour or two." Shane informed her. "So, should you try to escape, he'll ensure you never find your way back. Looks like the gang's all here. Silas awaits."

Well, it's been over four months since I have updated this story and for that I am soooooo sorry. There are really no excuses for it. I've been working on my other story "My Hope That Keeps Me Going" and I've kind of neglected this story. I'm trying to get back on track with things so don't worry. It won't take near as long to update this time. And I decided to go with a 3rd person point of view because there's so much that happens in this chapter. Next few chapters might be that way.

Thanks to everyone who stuck with me. I love you all!

Review and let me know what you think! :)