Three cheers for a next day update! My muse was really flowing and I'm quite happy with it.

Enjoy reading! :)

"Veena! You're still in bed?! I've been waiting outside for ten minutes! We're going to be late for school!"

It takes a couple more seconds for my groggy brain to process who's yelling at me, and why she's yelling at me, but when I do, my head flies off of my pillow as I spring up from bed. "Shit! Sorry, Caroline." I apologize quickly as I practically fly around the room, stripping right in front of Caroline to put on new clothes.

"What do you need in order to be out the door in the next two minutes?" She asks loudly, hands flailing exaggeratedly and blonde hair bouncing with her movements.

"I need something to eat that I can take in the car." Once I tell her that, she disappears from the room and I hear her shuffling around my kitchen to find something.

"And on the day of the Decade Dance!" She exclaims from downstairs, offended by my sleeping through the alarm I had set.

Fuck! I forgot that was today!

After I pull my hair into a messy bun and clean my face of smudged makeup, I grab my shoulder bag that holds my school supplies in it and rush down the stairs. Caroline is waiting for me at the bottom, a peach in her hand, washed and ready to eat. She shoves it into my hands and storms out the front door, leaving me to follow behind her.

"What the hell, Veena?!" Caroline asks, speeding at least ten miles over the speed limit in an attempt to get to school in time, with only a minute to spare until the late bell will ring.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't hear my alarm." I say lamely, knowing it must sound like a half-assed excuse for wanting to sleep a little bit longer, but it's true! My teeth sink into the peach in my hand, juice falling over the sides and into my hand.

"Hey! Guess what? Did you know your bedroom smells like sex?"

I choke on the bit of peach in my mouth, covering my lips with my hand as memories of Damon and I from last night flood my brain.

Oh, god.

Oh, god, oh, god, oh, god.

What the hell was I thinking?! I shouldn't have slept with him, not so soon to offering myself for the sacrifice in place of Elena. Everyone was going to hate me for that! Especially Damon.

I'm reminded by my train of thought that I'm going to have to figure out a way to stop Elena from going to the sacrifice.

"So, how was Damon?" Caroline asks bitterly.

Luckily, I don't have to answer, because she slams on the brakes and parks, leaving us to scramble out of the car and into the school at human speed, given some of the students around us are late as well. The late bell rings and Caroline curses under her breath.

"We will talk about this later." She warns me as we rush into class, just as I hear Elena's voice.

"Watergate was the seventies, Ric." I roll my eyes at her slip as I seat myself next to my sister. "I—I mean, Mr. Saltzman."

I set my bag down on the floor next to my desk and look up to find Ric staring at me with a look between confused and angry. Shifting uncomfortably, I glance around the room a few times before my eyes return to him. He seems to snap out of his little daze and his eyes find their way back to Elena.

"Right. It all kind of mushes together up here, the sixties, seventies." Ric comments in a tone that suggests he finds it funny. "Thank you…Ms. Gilbert."

In my math class, I sit with my hand under my cheekbone in an attempt to stay awake through another boring lesson.

"As I would hope most of you know, the quadratic equation assists us in—" The bell rings, cutting the teacher off and pulling me out of my half asleep state. "Remember, students, your Chapter 7 review assignment is due tomorrow, and I expect all of you to turn it in."

I give myself a few seconds to wake up a little bit more before grabbing my stuff and leaving the classroom. I'm glad it's lunch time. The peach didn't fill me up very much this morning and it wasn't the sustenance I actually needed. Ever since last night, with Damon, I've noticed that I crave to feed a lot more than I did before. It's probably a succubus thing, but it doesn't matter when it leaves me feeling on edge and horny.

I sit down at a table in the lunch room with Elena and Bonnie, rendering Bonnie silent. My eyes stare her down. "I tried calling you, like a thousand times." I tell her, raising my eyebrows in 'innocent' wonder.

"I've been busy." She tells me, a cold glare in her eyes.

I have to stop myself from scoffing. Sure, she's been busy. Haven't we all? "Will you just…text me later?" I ask, trying to tone down my obvious annoyance and let some honesty seep into my voice. "I really need to talk to you."

Bonnie takes in a breath before nodding simply, standing up from the table and leaving us.

"What was that about?" Elena asks, watching Bonnie walk away.

"I've been trying to get a hold of her, but she's not answering any of my calls or returning any of my messages." I explained.

Elena seems confused, but she doesn't dwell on it. "So, Stefan and Damon sort of gave me their house."

My eyebrows pull together in confusion. "Really?"

"Yeah, they think it will keep me safe from Klaus." This time, I let myself scoff. "Well, safer." She clarifies. "The deed is in my name now, which means no vampire gets in the house that I don't invite in. I'm going to be sleeping there and I think you and Jer should come spend the nights, too."

I tense slightly, thinking about all of the sexual tension between Damon and me. It's probably not a good idea to spend multiple nights in the same house with Stefan, Elena and Jeremy. "I don't think that would be a good idea."

"Why not?"

"What if Klaus stops by our house in the middle of the night to see if you're there and you're not? He goes on a rampage and kills everyone we know. So, I should stay so he thinks you're there. I'll sleep in your bed until this whole thing blows over."

"Veena, it's not safe—"

"Hey, Elena, there you are. Ok." A girl named Dana says as she walks over to us. "This is going to sound freaky, but this totally hot guy just asked me to ask you if you're going to the dance tonight."

Elena glances over to me with a sheepish smile and I raise my eyebrows. "Stalker Stan has a crush on you." I tease, to which she rolls her eyes.

"You could at least meet him." Dana continues, staring Elena down with a cheerful attitude. "He'll be at the dance tonight. Look for him. His name is Klaus."

I drop the fork in my hand and stand up, looking around for this guy, who appears to not have enough balls to show himself.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Elena asks through her shocked state.

"His name's Klaus? I know the name's stupid, but I swear he's hot." Dana says.

"Where is he?" I ask Dana. "Is he here in the school?"

She takes a few seconds to think about. "I…don't know." Elena and I share a look, signaling we both immediately know that she's been compelled. "But he wants to know if you'll save him the last dance. How cute is that?"

Using my supernatural skills of persuasion, I tell Dana to go away. She does so without thinking, waving goodbye to the both of us.

"That wasn't fair. You shouldn't have done that." Elena tells me, displeased.

I ignore her and dial Damon's number, before pausing and erasing the numbers, opting instead to go and find Stefan. It takes me a few minutes, but when I do find him, I pull him aside in the hallway.

"Veena? What's—"

"Klaus is going to be at the dance tonight."

"How do you know?"

"He compelled Dana to ask Elena if she'll save him 'the last dance,' as he so creepily put it." Stefan looks very disturbed by this information. "Is there any chance you could convince her to just stay at home with you tonight?"

"I doubt it. She's going to want to be there so none of her friends will get hurt. Especially you and Jeremy."

"I can't go if she goes, Stefan. Klaus would know about me and then I can't—" I cut myself off when Stefan gives me a questioning look and change what I was going to say. "It just wouldn't be a good idea."

"I think you should go." Stefan states. "If we keep you and Elena separate at all times, he will only ever run into one of you, never both of you. I can stay with Elena the whole time. I'm sure Damon wouldn't mind being your date." He comments slyly, a playful glint in his eyes. His serious look returns rather soon, though. "Look, I think we both know that Elena is prone to doing things that aren't in her best interest, so I would feel more comfortable taking her to the dance if you were there to help me stop her."

I sigh, debating the pros and cons. Of course I want to be there and I completely agree with Stefan when he says Elena is prone to doing stupid things, but there's some other things standing in the way. "I would have to be wearing the exact same thing as her, the exact same accessories and hairstyle…"

"We will figure it out. The important thing is that you're there. Besides, you don't want to miss out on all the fun and have Caroline yell at you for not going to the dance she helped plan." Stefan teases. I can't help but laugh at that statement. He couldn't be more right about Caroline's reaction.

"Twiggy or sexy hippy?" Elena asks Stefan as we search through a box of clothes from the sixties.

"Damon just had this…laying around?" I question as I continue to shuffle through the clothes. Normally, I would never wear the same clothes as Elena at the same time. I hated the idea of being completely identical to my sister. I needed to have a separate identity.

Stefan and I filled Elena in on the plan to wear the same thing, but so far we weren't having any luck. Elena didn't really like the idea of me pretending to be her if I was confronted by Klaus, but we all agreed it was best if Klaus doesn't know I exist. I didn't mention the fact that I was planning on pretending to be her for the sacrifice, too.

"There should be another one of the purple dress in there." Damon comments from the doorway.

I turn my head and lock eyes with him, straightening my posture slightly. After staring a little bit too long, I return my attention to the box and search until I find the extra purple dress. "Looks like luck is on our side today." I say to Elena, wiggling the purple dress around on the hanger.

Elena chuckles softly. "Good, we're going to need all the luck we can get."

"So, hair. Up? Down? What's the verdict?" I ask her, given I'm the one pretending to be her.

"High ponytail, bangs clipped to the side." She says, tossing me a pair of earrings, still hooked into the paper package. "I got two pairs of these earlier when I was shopping with Bonnie. I figured we could wear these white boots that I happen to have an extra pair of." She slides the box over to me.

I nod, glancing from Damon, to Stefan, to Elena. "Sounds good to me."

Stefan and Elena leave the room, Elena with one of the purple dresses, leaving me and Damon alone.

"So, looks like I'm your date for the evening." Damon says as he comes closer toward me.

"Looks like it." I reply absentmindedly, trying to appear cool as I pull my liquid foundation out of my purse to apply to my neck for the seventh time today.

"Ooh, I got you good, didn't I?" He comments, brushing my hair to the side to reveal the trail of hickeys on my neck.

"I've been covering them up all day." I tell him with slight bitterness. In all reality, I'm not actually upset with him. "These have faded quite a bit, too. You should have seen them this morning."

"Mmm, I wish I could have." He replies huskily, hands resting on my hips as he presses a kiss to the back of my shoulder.

I want, so badly, to just relax into him, but the dance has already started, and I need to get changed. Not to mention the guilt I'm feeling right now, keeping my plans for the sacrifice from him. "I have to get ready." I tell him reluctantly.

Ten minutes later, I'm ready to go. The ponytail wasn't too hard to accomplish, so once I added the dress, earrings and boots, I was ready.

Stefan drives all of us to the dance in his car. When we arrive and enter the gymnasium, decorations are set up all over the room. Music from the sixties floods the room and many of my classmates dance to the beat with each other.

As Elena and I walk side by side, we come to a stop by Caroline and Matt, who are dancing together.

"Wow," Caroline says when her eyes land on us. "I don't think I've seen you guys dressed in the exact same thing since kindergarten."

"Yeah…it's weird." Matt says, though he looks very confused. "So, I'm probably an ass for asking this, but who's who?"

Elena chuckles and rolls her eyes. "I'm Elena."

"What? No, I'm Elena, Matt." I tell him seriously. He only grows more confused.

"Ha ha. Very funny." Elena comments dryly, flicking my arm.

"Come on, Veena. Don't be childish." I tell her in a condescending tone which is very much Elena.

"So, quarterback, who's who?" Damon asks from beside me.

"Uh…" He plays with his collar, loosening his tie a little bit. "That's Elena." He points to me, causing my lips to quirk into a smirk. "That's Veena." He points to Elena.

"Ha! I win! I am champion of everything!" I taunt to Elena, doing a little victory dance. Matt makes a noise of defeat.

"I thought we were closer than that, Matt!" Elena says disapprovingly, but she makes sure to remain playful. Stefan chuckles and regains Elena's attention, cupping her face and pressing a kiss to her lips.

Damon puts an arm around my waist and whispers in my ear, "We should split from the happy couple. Much more of watching them devour each other's faces and I might puke."

I nod and let him lead me away, but not before Caroline tells me she and I will have a slow song together, since we are the cutest pair to ever grace the state of Virginia.

"Thanks for being here, everybody!" Dana says over the microphone, causing the entire crowd to clap and cheer. "We have a special shout-out tonight. This is for Elena. From Klaus." Damon and I immediately start looking around for said creep as the crowd claps again, but he's nowhere to be seen.

"That was a lame, cheap shot." Damon comments, a hand on the small of my back. I nod my head in agreement. "What's with the twin dress up games? I never thought I'd see you wearing the same thing as your sister."

I stiffen, wondering why he's asking me this. Didn't Stefan tell him the plan? "We thought it would be funny to see how our classmates react."

"Wouldn't that require you two to be right by each other at all times?" He questions, raising an inquisitive eyebrow as he continues to survey the room.

Thankfully, I'm saved from answering his continuous questions by the arrival of Ric.

"Special dedication, huh?" Ric asks, glancing between the two of us. "This guy's a little twisted."

"I'm not impressed." Damon says.

"No?"

"Let me know if you see anything out of whack." Damon leaves us to go talk to someone.

"So? What do you think?" Ric asks me. "Saving the last dance, song dedications…"

"It's all just a way for him to prove he doesn't have a small dick."

Ric looks somewhat shocked. "I don't think I understand what you mean."

"I mean, look at what he's done so far. Asking for the last dance, now the song dedication; he's just trying to prove he can be ballsy by infiltrating the safe zones." I explain, still looking around to see if Klaus has decided to show his face yet.

I decide to break off into the hallway to look around for Klaus. Instead, I find my brother Jeremy, wandering around, looking like a sad puppy who just got its toy taken away from it.

"Jer!" I call out to him. He turns around and looks at me expectantly. "Hey, what are you doing out here? Are you going to leave your date to dance by herself?" He just looks away from me, not saying anything. "Jer, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." He answers shortly, glancing around.

I wait for him to decide to go on and explain to me what's happening to make him feel this way, but he doesn't. "Jer, you can talk to me."

He hesitates for a few seconds, but finally decides to confide in me. "It's—it's Bonnie."

"What about her?"

"You know Bonnie is planning to take on Klaus tonight if he shows up." I nod, recalling how she is going to channel her dead, creepy ancestors to have enough power to kill Klaus. "If she channels all that energy, it'll kill her."

My eyebrows raise in shock. "What?"

"She doesn't want Elena to know, 'cause if Elena knows, she's going to try to stop her." He tells me, growing more anxious as he does. "And it's Elena that could turn up dead, so…" He takes a few shaky breaths. "What am I supposed to do?"

I take in a deep breath and shake my head. "We'll figure something out, okay? Nobody's dying tonight except for Klaus." I tell him firmly.

Jeremy nods and suddenly wraps his arm around me. I do the same in return, clutching him to me. I know how important Bonnie is to him.

I decided to tell Stefan about what Bonnie was planning to do. He told me he was going to tell Elena. As I walk back into the gym, I spot Damon and stalk over to him.

"Did you know?" I ask angrily.

"Know what?" He asks in a defensive tone.

"That Bonnie could die if she channels all that power?"

"Oh, good, Jeremy told you, I suppose?"

"What the hell, Damon?" I snap, shoving him away from me when I see Bonnie and Elena exiting into the parking lot. My feet carry me in the same path to find them arguing about what Bonnie plans on doing.

"No." Elena says firmly. "No!" She says again, her voice growing weaker.

"Bonnie," I start, shaking my head in confusion. "There's got to be another way."

"There isn't." Bonnie states confidently.

"Elena!" Ric comes running over to us.

"What is it?" She asks.

"He has Jeremy."

"What?!" Elena, Bonnie and I all ask.

"Yeah, Klaus has Jeremy. Come on." Ric heads toward the building again. We all follow him without even thinking about it, because it's Jeremy. If Klaus has him…what were any of our efforts worth?

"Okay, so where are you taking us?" Elena asks as we follow Alaric inside the building.

"Just a little further." He says breathily, walking with determination.

What the hell is going on here?

"Wait. Something's not right." Elena says, glancing behind us.

"Where's Jeremy?" Bonnie demands forcefully.

Alaric slows to a stop, chuckling. "I just had to get away from that dance. The sixties, ugh." He turns around and faces us. "Not my decade. I mean, whose call was that, anyway?" He holds his hands out to his sides. "I much prefer the twenties. The style, the parties, the jazz."

"Alaric." Elena says seriously. "Are you on vervain?"

"Now why would you ask me that question, Elena?" Alaric retorts.

"He's being compelled." Elena says to us, taking a step back.

"Nope! Try again."

Bonnie puts her arm in front of Elena and I, her other arm out in front of her, ready to attack. "What's going on?"

Alaric sighs dramatically. "Okay, I'll give you a hint. I am not Alaric."

My confusion only grows, but Elena figures it out a few seconds later.

"Klaus…" She whispers.

"Surprise!" Klaus says in glee, a sickening smile on his face.

No. No, no, no!

"No, it's not possible." Elena states in disbelief.

"Just relax, Elena. I'm not here to hurt you. You're not on my hit list tonight." Klaus's eyes break away from Elena, landing on me instead. "You, Veena, and your witch friend, however…"

Bonnie uses what might as well be the fucking Force™ to fling Klaus back into the wall on the opposite side of the hallway.

Klaus groans and chuckles, pulling himself back onto his feet. "Now, did I mention that I know a witch? You're going to have to hit me a lot harder than that."

He charges toward us, but Bonnie sends him flying back yet again, this time into the trophy case, which shatters beyond recognition.

"By all means, fire away!" He tells her. "If you kill this body," he pulls himself up again. "I'll just get a new one. Maybe Jeremy." He taunts.

I flash toward him, pinning him to the wall by his neck. My eyes glaze over with blackness and Klaus smiles knowingly. "Ah, yes, Veena Gilbert, the succubus. I've heard you're a rather ferocious thing."

A growl burns in my throat as my grip on his neck tightens. I breathe in deeply as I steal energy from him, watching it lift out of his mouth in a white wisp. I stop when I'm confident he's weakened, because I don't want to kill Alaric. My hand pulls him back from the wall and throws him into the lockers on the other side of us with great force.

"Go. Run. Run!" Bonnie tells us. Elena looks hesitant, so I flash over to her, grab her arm and pull her away, running out of this hallway and into a different adjoining one. Bonnie follows us, flinging the doors shut behind us with her magic.

Damon rushes into the hallway, coming to a stop in front of us. "What happened?"

"Klaus took Alaric's body to use as his little plaything!" I tell him angrily.

"He's possessing it, or something." Bonnie says, expanding on my not so helpful analogy.

"Wait, he knows about you?!" He asks for clarification, his anger skyrocketing through the roof. "Dammit! How could you two let that happen?" He asks Elena and Bonnie.

"Damon, that's not important right now!" I say.

"Go find Stefan." He commands Elena and I. "Now."

I begin to protest, but Elena pulls me along with her. We run into Caroline and Matt on the way to find Stefan. She tries to ask us what's wrong, but Matt doesn't know about anything supernatural, so Elena dismisses her worry.

Stefan spots us and Elena rushes over to him. His attention is immediately wrapped up in her, so I manage to slip away without being noticed.

I rush back to Bonnie, following her as she stalks through the halls, looking for Klaus.

"What are you doing?" She asks me when I fall into step with her.

"Protecting my sister, same as you." I challenge. She glances at me, raising an eyebrow, but continues on and doesn't argue. "Besides, I really don't want you to die."

Bonnie slows down as we come upon the broken pieces of glass scattered all around. We both look to the left, where Klaus is sitting at one of the tables in the cafeteria.

"What took you so long?" He asks, a knife in his hand, eyes glued to Bonnie. "Now, do you want to do this the easy way, or the hard way?"

Bonnie holds her hand out and twists it, making Klaus groan in pain as his wrist breaks and the knife slides across the floor.

I run forward to assist her, but a splitting pain aches through my skull, causing me to clutch my head and scream in agony. Bonnie looks toward me, but I glare her down and shake my head through whatever consciousness I have left. She has to focus on killing Klaus. "No, Bonnie." I cry out.

"Don't worry, Bonnie." I hear Klaus say as I grow woozy. "I'll make sure to take good care of our little succubus here."

I collapse onto the tile floor and manage a few fading whimpers as someone's arms go underneath me and pull me up.

I black out.

Stefan walks into the living room, back at the boarding house. Elena sits in a chair near the fireplace, tears rolling down her cheeks from experiencing Bonnie's death.

"Hey…" He whispers, walking toward her. "Here, drink this." He extends the black mug in his hand toward her.

"I can't." She says quietly.

"Yeah. Yeah, you can." He crouches down, setting the mug in her lap.

Elena picks it up, brings it to her lips, only to erupt into shuddering gasps. "This is my fault."

"No, no, no, no, no. Listen to me. This was Klaus. Klaus did this."

The front door opens and Damon walks inside.

Elena's eyes flash up to him, standing as she asks, "What did you do with her?!"

"Would you please calm her down?" Damon asks Stefan.

"Don't talk like I'm not standing right in front of you." Elena says, shaking her head.

"Please. Calm. Down." Damon says to her, widening his eyes.

"You knew. Didn't you? You knew that if she harnessed all that power that she would die, didn't you?"

"Yes." He says immediately. "Yes, I knew."

Elena's palm whips across Damon's cheek in her anger. Damon keeps his composure long enough to say, "You need to listen to me and prepare for what I'm about to say." Elena gives him a confused look. "Bonnie had to die. Klaus using Alaric's body was a total surprise. She wasn't prepared for that. And he wasn't going to stop. And we weren't going to be able to stop him until he knew she was dead. He had to believe it." Elena's eyes light up with hope. "She cast a spell. Bonnie's okay."

Elena sighs in relief when Damon finishes explaining to her.

Soon, Elena is set up with a video call to Bonnie.

"Tell her how sorry I am for what Damon and I had to do." Bonnie's voice says through the speaker.

"Well, uh, why don't you tell her yourself?" Jeremy responds.

"Bonnie!" Elena exclaims in relief upon seeing the face of her best friend.

"Elena." Bonnie says, tears tightening her throat. "Elena. Elena, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, it's okay. I just needed to see for myself." Elena says.

"There wasn't enough time for me to tell you."

"It's okay, seriously. Damon explained it all." Elena tells her, smiling wide at the sight of her best friend.

"Where's Veena?" Jeremy asks, moving into view of the camera.

"She's not with you guys?" Elena asks in panic.

"Elena…" Bonnie starts. "Veena followed me when I went looking for Klaus. I saw the power she had when she attacked Klaus in the hallway. She was going to help me fight him, but…" Her voice breaks just as Damon comes back down the stairs and into the living room, eyes alight with questioning terror. "One of Klaus's witches showed. She went down and I—I wanted to help her, but she told me not to. She wanted me to protect you."

"What are you saying?" Elena asks, new tears forming in her eyes.

"Klaus said he would take good care of her."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Jeremy asks.

"She fainted and the witch took her away. I'm so sorry, Elena."

Bonnie breaks into sobs. Elena shakes her head and cries again. Jeremy punches something off camera. Stefan looks at the computer screen in disbelief. Damon grows angry and clenches his fists by his side. In the next second, he's out of the boarding house, leaving everyone else behind.

Sorry for so much of the same thing you've already seen in the show, but the canon plot for that episode needed to be applied here for my plot to work out the way it needs to.

What did you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the reviews!

Thank you for reading!