After the doppleganger's outburst, silence hung in the air. Elena, Lillian, and Damon all wore the same shocked and fearful expressions, while the other girl looked extremly mentally disoriented. Isobel stepped forward and made eye contact with Lillian, "This is Daphne, the doppleganger. There, you have your proof now we're leaving," she turned back and grabbed Daphne by the shoulder attempting to shove her out the door. Elena, Lillian, and Daphne all shouted a different protest. "No mom! What the hell is a doppleganger? Why does she look like me?" Daphne asked.
"It is you that looks like me dear. I was born a century and half before you," Lillian smirked.
"You haven't told her anything about what we are, have you?" Elena asked, still keeping up the Katherine facade. Isobel gave Elena a pleading look, but Elena ignored it. Daphne turned to Elena and pointed, "I've seen you somewhere."
"No you haven't," Isobel interjected. Daphne scolded her mother and turned back to Elena, "I found a picture of you packed up in our attic." Elena's arrogant expression faltered and she glanced to Isobel who said, "That wasn't her."
"What is going on?" All five heads snapped to the door, where Katherine stood. Her hair was straightened and she was in jeans and converse, obviously impersonating Elena. Lillian glanced at Elena, mouthing What the hell? Elena shrugged her shoulders.
"Is this apart of the plan?" Damon whispered in Lillian's ears. His hot breath on her neck sent a chill down her spine. "Well if you didn't try to cock block my plans you would know, but no this is not apart of the plan. Just go with it though," Lillian replied. "Right," Damon agreed after a moment of hesitating.
"Elena," Isobel said in surprise as she looked over her daughter, "How are you?" Katherine stuck her hand in Isobel's face as she passed her, "Save it," Then she turned to Lillian, "Is this the doppleganger?" Lillian nodded and Katherine turned towards Daphne, giving her a small smile, "Hi I'm Elena Gilbert." Daphne looked at Katherine and then at Elena and then at her mother, "Someone tell me what is going on right now!"
"You going to tell her or should I?" Elena turned to Isobel. Isobel hesitated to answer so Elena crossed the room and began explaining, "Everyone in this room is a vampire, including your mother," she stood by Katherine who didn't have to fake the annoyed look on her face, "Her and I are dopplegangers. You and her are sisters." Daphne's eyes narrowed and she glanced over to her mother.
"Yeah, mommy dearest over there gave this one up at birth. Her over there," Elena pointed to Lillian, "That's my sister and your doppleganger. Now what is a doppleganger you may ask?" she crossed back over to stand in front of Daphne, "Basically a double of a living person. Though you have no supernatural powers, you're counted as a supernatural being so congratulations welcome to the family!" She said sarcastically. "Okay Daphne I think it's time we leave," Isobel attempted to push her out of the house once more. "No mom!" Daphne yanked herself from Isobel's grip, "I'm not going anywhere with you, you liar!"
"Ouch!" Damon commented. Lillian giggled a little but slapped him on the shoulder.
"Daphne I am your mother and you will not speak to me that way! We are leaving right now!" Isobel demanded. "You can leave but I'm staying here." Before Isobel could protest Elena interrupted, "Take a hint, you're not wanted here." Isobel stepped up to Elena, giving her a deadly glare, "You hurt my child and I swear you will regret it."
"Aw that's cute," Elena said and then Isobel vanished.
"How did she leave so fast? It's like she vanished!" Daphne asked in shock. "Because she's a vampire," Elena answered.
Katherine started slow clapping, causing everyone to turn to her, "Bravo Elena, who knew you were such a great actor," then she turned to Damon and Lillian, "Thanks, I didn't even have to lift a finger," she smirked and then both her and Daphne disappeared.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Lillian exclaimed. "What could she possibly want with Daphne?" Elena asked. "Klaus needs all four dopplegangers to break his curse. She's probably going to use Daphne's life as leverage," Damon answered.
"Or she's going to kill her," Lillian suggested.
"We can't let her do that!" Elena exclaimed.
"Then we need to start thinking, because the only way for this to turn out good for any of us is to make sure Katherine dies," Damon replied, "I'll call Stefan and get him to look for her. Chances are if we can catch her by surprise we can keep her in the cellar."
"And then I'm going to rip out all of her organs one by one, starting with the least important ones and ending with the heart," Lillian said, sounding determined.
"Can I just say how hot it is to hear you talk about torture!" Damon said, looking at Lillian with a huge smirk on his face. Lillian had to bite her lip to keep her laughter from slipping past her lips. She shook her head at him and then went up the steps towards the library.
"Well if you excuse me," Damon said to Elena and then followed Lillian's path.
*****
Katherine was regretting her decision to keep Daphne alive. Clearly, annoyingness runs in her family. After an hour of sitting at the grill and listening to her babble on about how awesome it is to have big sister, Katherine concluded that she preferred her own sister better.
"Listen, I'm not your sister. I'm Katherine and I'm impersonating your sister who was also impersonating me. Get it?"Katherine asked.
"Uhm...no," Daphne replied. Katherine laughed, "Stick around long enough and you will."
"So let's cut to the chase, I know you're very new to this but I'm on a tight schedule and there is no time for adjusting so listen closely, You, me, Lillian, and Elena are dopplegangers. Klaus," she held up her phone to reveal a photo of the hybrid, "is a powerful original vampire werewolf hybrid and he is looking for all four of us to kill us so he can break a curse."
"What? I don't want to die!" Lillian's doppleganger exclaimed in fear. Katherine rolled her eyes, "I know you don't want to die and you're not going to because I have a plan," she replied with a confident smirk. She stood up and waited for Daphne to follow suit. "Where are we going?"
Katherine turned on the girl, her face completely vamped out, "The sooner you stop asking questions, the better. Just do what I tell you and things will be fine." Daphne's narrow eyes filled with fear but she just nodded and followed Katherine.
Once they made it to the motel room, Katherine bit her wrist and shoved it against Daphne's lips. Daphne was freaking out, struggling against the other girl's hold. "Drink!" Katherine demanded and Daphne listened. "Good girl," Katherine replied and then broke the human's neck.
*****
Lillian was pouring bourbon into two glasses. Damon approached her and took a glass.
"You realize you're going to have to give me my ring back right?" she said. He looked down at his glass and nodded, "Yeah I know."
"What is your deal anyways? You know why I came down here so why are trying to keep me from doing this?" Lillian asked.
Damon sighed, "It's just...Isobel caused a lot of trouble the last time she was here and I didn't want you to get into more danger then you already are."
"Well I got news for you Damon, you're not my father, my boss, or my boyfriend so stop trying to control me. I am older and stronger than you and can handle myself. I appreciate you looking out for me, I really do, but you're going a little overboard. So step back."
"Message received," he said in a glum tone.
There was thick silence in the air as Damon stared at the flames crackling in the fireplace and Lillian sipped on her glass of liquor.
"Just out of curiosity," Damon began causing Lillian to look up at him, "What were you feeling that morning when I came into the kitchen?"
"Uhm," Lillian said, clearly caught off guard, "Well, I was happy, confused, and then angry."
"Why were you angry?" he asked.
"Because while I spent the last century and a half missing you, I also spent it trying to convince myself to hate you because it made getting over you a little bit easier," she replied
"Clearly, it worked. How's that boyfriend of yours?" He asked. His facial expression was very brooding as he kept his eyes trained on the fire that was burning brightly.
"I caught him making out with my best friend the night Stefan came to get me. I think it's safe to say that my taste in men hasn't changed."
"Low blow," Damon commented. "It could have been worse," she replied giving him a playful smile. He smiled back at her and then returned to his gloomy expression, "So how do you feel about me now?"
"How do you feel about me?" she countered. She was actually pretty curious of his answer, but not sure if she was prepared for it. "I asked you first!" Damon exclaimed.
"What are you twelve?" she replied, giving a lighthearted laugh.
They both stared at each other expectantly. "Well I'm waiting," Lillian quipped.
Damon decided to answer her first. He had been itching to tell her how he really felt and there couldn't have been a more perfect time than now. "Fine, out of guilt I repressed the memory of your existence until recently when I heard of your upcoming arrival and ever since then I couldn't stop thinking about you. You can't imaging the amount of guilt I feel for how I treated you and I want nothing more than to start over with you and I thought I made that clear at Whitmore," Damon said wearing a very unreadable expression on his face, "Your turn," he said taking a huge gulp of his drink.
Lillian's stomach fluttered as Damon confessed his feelings for her. It was clear to her now how she really felt. "I'm not really over you and I'm not completely over what you did and I still can't believe that all this time you have been alive. If I would have known that you were alive while I was in the tomb, I probably wouldn't have turned my humanity switch off and I'm one hundred percent sure I would have came back to you. Which at that time would have been have been extremely stupid on my part, but now? I'm torn. On one side, I have Cam who I absolutely care about -love even, but on the other hand there's you...," she trailed off, avoiding eye contact as she finished her sentence, "and I've never loved anyone as much as I love you."
Damon froze, staring down at the girl on the couch as she look anywhere but at him. He couldn't believe that this was happening. After all this time, she still felt for him as she did 151 years ago. Maybe Elena was right, Damon thought, recalling the conversation they had when Stefan was in New York.
He set his glass down and marched over to Lillian. She finally looked up at him, curiosity flashing across her face. Damon held out his hand and she took it, allowing him to pull her from the couch and to his body. Placing both of his hands on either side of her cheeks, he leaned in and pressed his lips to Lillian's giving her a tender, passionate kiss. She complied without hesitation, enjoying the rush of euphoria his touch gave her. Before the moment became too heated, Damon pulled away, leaving a pout of protest on Lillian's lips.
"Damon-," Lillian started but he pressed his index finger to her lips. "I know you still need some time to figure out your unresolved feelings towards your boyfriend, but I just had to do that at least once, incase I never get another chance to in the future." He released her face and exited the study, leaving her staring after him.
She lightly touched her lips and then smiled.
Boy, did she have a lot of thinking to do.
*****
A couple of hours later, the entire gang of supernatural beings gathered in the Salvatore's living room per usual, plotting.
"So just catch everyone up, Lillian has a doppleganger, Elena has a younger sister, and Katherine has the girl in question. Now why that is bad for us is because Klaus has to kill all four of the female dopplegangers to break the curse. Katherine is going to do one of two things and those are use Daphne's life as leverage or just kill her. Personally I wouldn't have a problem with that," Damon shot a look to Elena who took over the conversation out of aggravation, "Katherine is the one that is going to die, not me, not Lillian," she glared at Damon, "and definitely not Daphne."
"Hey I'm all for that plan too," Damon replied. "Well what's the plan?" Stefan joined in.
"Don't hesitate. If you see that sneaky Bitch rip her heart out!" Lillian exclaimed. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Wait, if Klaus needs all four of you dead, then won't killing Katherine make it easier for him?" Caroline asked.
"No," Bonnie answered, "He has to perform a ritual to kill them. It will only work if he does the ritual with all four of them."
"Uhm," Caroline started. "What now blondie?" Damon snapped. "Does anyone know how long we have before Klaus shows up?"
Lillian pulled out her phone, and everyone watched her with a questioning look, "Just go with it." She tapped on the screen a few times and then pressed the phone to her ear. A few rings later a voice echoed through the other line, "You're not getting Daphne back. I don't think it's fair that you have eight people on your side while I have no one"
"That's your own fault for not being able to play well with others," Lillian quipped, "Daphne is the least of my problems. I want to call a temporary truce, can you come over to the boarding house?"
"I'll be there soon sister," Katherine replied. Lillian could practically see the smirk on her sister's face as she ended the phone call.
"Just follow my lead," she instructed everyone.
Katherine arrived in minutes, entering the house alone. She stopped at the door preparing to defend herself incase of any surprise attacks. After a few moments no one made any moves.
"What made you change your mind?" Katherine approached Lillian who was the only other one standing. "Common sense. If we're all the target then we should work together to take down the predator," she replied.
Katherine didn't respond. It seemed like she was contemplating her decision.
"Alright," she agreed, "but if you even think about double crossing me this alliances is over and you are all dead."
"Deal," Lillian said as she held out her hand. Katherine took it and they shook hands. "Oh and one more thing," Katherine said looking to Elena, "Daphne's a vampire." Elena's face turned red as she tried to contain her rage but truthfully she wanted to slaughter Katherine. Lillian walked up to Katherine and looked her in the eyes with an intense glare, "Harm Daphne and this alliance is over and you'll be dead."
"Deal," Katherine replied smugly with her signature smirk painted on her face.
"Okay, so tell us everything you know," Lillian said after a moment of silence. Katherine laughed and shook her head, "Oh no sweet sister did you really think it would be that easy? My information is the only leverage I have."
"That's not true. You have Daphne," Elena chimed in.
Katherine scoffed, "Oh please, you're the only one who cares that much about her."
"What is the point in creating alliance if you're not going to share what you know?" Jeremy spoke up.
"Katherine if you don't comply we'll have no choice but to turn on you. I know everyone here has something against you and I'm sure they wouldn't mind ripping you to shreds," Lillian said, wearing the smirk they were both known for.
As if on cue, Katherine was surrounded by everyone in the room. There was no where her to run and nothing she could do. Lillian smiled as she recognized the small amount of fear in Katherine's eyes. Laughing, she stepped towards the girl, "So what's it gonna be, sweet sister?"
When she didn't reply, Lillian shrugged and turned around walking towards the door, "Fine, kill her."
Katherine let out a cry of pain when Damon shoved his hand through her back, holding her heart in place. "Wait!" she screamed, causing Lillian to turn around, still wearing a smirk on her lips, "Yes?"
Damon removed his hand from inside her chest as she spoke, "What do you want know?" Lillian smiled in returned saying, "I knew you would see it my way. Now, everyone take a seat, grab a drink, and let's talk like adults, shall we?"
"Anyone touch my liquor and I'll rip your tongue out," Damon stated. Lillian then made a big show of walking over to the tray and making herself a drink. She winked at Damon before getting back to the task at hand, "So, first things first, I need to know when Klaus plans on arriving in Mystic Falls."
"Klaus will be here on the next full moon so, four days."
"Four days?" Caroline exclaimed. "Keep calm blonde one, we can work with that. Onto the next order of business, explain this ritual to me," Lillian assured the blonde and then returned to interrogating her sister. "Klaus needs all four female doppelgängers alive during the ritual. He has to link us together and then drain the oldest, which unfortunately is me, of their blood and then the rest just..die," Katherine explained, "Obviously there's more to it than that, but those are the basics."
"Final question, what was your plan?"
"You seem to be hitting the nail on the head with this interrogation," Katherine leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms, and planting a smirk on her lips. "If it doesn't answer my question then don't say it," Lillian quipped and sipped on her drink, waiting for a reply. "I already told you my plan; collect you and run."
"Well what's stopping you from running? Surely, you're not sticking around for me."
"What if I am?"
"Then you're a fool."
Katherine didn't reply. She sat back in her seat, arms folded, looking up at her sister with eyes that held so much hidden knowledge. "What are you not telling me?" Lillian demanded. "Answers to questions you haven't asked," the oldest girl replied. Her smart comment sent Lillian over the edge. She marched up the girl in the chair and gripped her by the neck, squeezing as hard as she could, "Quit playing around. This alliance can go smoothly, or it can be like pulling teeth. I'll let you decide but either way you are going to help us." Katherine rolled her eyes and snatched Lillian's hand from her neck, "You know you're not going to kill me because I have something you need. So I think that gives me the right to decide what I will and will not do and I think what I will do is go back to my motel," she stood and sauntered over to the door, "I'll be in touch dear sister," she blew a kiss and disappeared.
"Great, she has the upper hand," Caroline said sarcastically.
"No, that's what I want her to think, but new plan. Don't worry about Katherine. I'll take her down myself when the time is right."