Elena and Damon pull up to the Young house. Caroline must have heard them walking up to the porch, because she's out the front door before they can knock.

"Oh, my God. Did something go wrong? We thought you wouldn't be back for days!" she says, incredulous.

"We don't have a lot of time to explain," Elena says, "but we were gone for days. Where's Jeremy?"

"Here," he says, following closely behind Matt.

At full vampire speed, Elena runs to him and pulls him into a crushing hug. "Are you all right?" she demands, patting his arms, his chest, his face, desperate to be sure he's really still in one piece. "Jeremy, are you all right?"

"Yeah, geez, I'm fine. Are you? Caroline said-"

"Yeah, we're good," Damon answers for her. "Happy to be back on the right side of the tracks," he says, squinting into the sunset. "Not that it really looks any different at the moment."

"What-"

"Nevermind," Damon says. "Klaus and Stefan, where are they?"

"I called Tyler, like you said. He was already on his way back with his hybrids," Caroline replies.

"His hybrids?" Elena asks.

"Yeah, he and Hayley managed to get most of them unsired," Caroline explains.

"Klaus's off dealing with them right now," Jeremy says. "Stefan was supposed to go to the boarding house and get you, Damon. And I was supposed to get Elena."

"Where is he, then?"

"He's not answering any of my calls," Caroline replies as Stefan's voicemail picks up, yet again. "He wouldn't have gone to Klaus, would he?" she asks Jeremy.

"Stefan wouldn't," Elena replies.

Jeremy shakes his head. "No, Elena. You didn't see him. There's no predicting what he'll do."

"Tyler's hybrids won't spare Stefan just because he's our friend," Caroline realizes. "If he went... he'll be in danger."

"Go, Caroline," Damon commands. "I can't. I have to see this through." He fixes her gaze, trying to convey all the things he can't with words. "I'm trusting you, Caroline. Find my brother and keep him safe."

"I will," she says, and runs.

"Where are the others? Bonnie and that Vaughn guy?" Matt asks.

"We got separated." Elena decides on the short version of the story. "But the witches said they came back through before we did, with the cure."

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Jeremy says. "I'm not exactly sure this cure is what you're all thinking it is."

"Jer?"

He has their full attention now, and he draws out his sketchbook for reference. "Since I finished my mark, the nightmares have changed."

"You're still having nightmares?" Elena wishes she could make all this stop for her brother. He shouldn't have a to carry this burden.

"Changed how?" Matt asks.

"The Mark is a map, but nothing I've dreamt makes me think it leads to a vampire cure. I think it's a Hunter's cure."

In the dream, he can't tell how he knows, but he's very dead. And in a place that feels wrong on so many levels, but some instinct propels him on. Past a gate, up to a creepy mansion that reminds him so much of the one in New Orleans that he half expects Klaus to greet him at the door.

Instead, it's a beautiful woman. When she smiles, he wonders what secret it is that dances in her eyes.

"You found us. Good. Your journey is almost complete," she says, guiding him inside. As he steps over the threshold, the Power inside him crystallizes. He can feel the edges of it stretch and contract, suddenly certain it doesn't belong to him any more.

The woman-a witch, he realizes-ushers him into a great hall, bigger than the entire house that contains it, and shuts him in. Without warning, a second woman appears next to him, and takes his hands.

"Thank you," she says, "for your brave work. A long time ago, a great evil was done with the Power inside me, and I have been trying to make it right ever since. Your soul cried out to help, and so I made use of you. You collected the Power, and now you're here to put it back in its rightful place."

She lays a hand on his chest, over the spot covered in a collection of tiny five-pointed stars, and draws from it the twisting, churning Power within him.

When she finishes, the Mark has vanished from his skin, and he feels like his old self again.

"That's all I remember," Jeremy finishes.

Rebekah, safely undetected in the kitchen washing out teacups, can hear this exchange quite well, and reckons she understands it better than any of them. She turns to April, who's drying, rips the vervain bracelet off her arm, and tosses it on the table.

"I do enjoy your company, darling. You're going to come with me," she compels her.

"Okay," April replies complacently, and follows Rebekah out the back door.

"I'm here," Stefan says to Klaus. "What now, exactly?"

"I was thinking we'd kill them," Klaus says, matter-of-fact.

"I don't know. Tyler, what do you think of that plan?" Stefan calls across the lawn.

"He's welcome to try," Tyler replies cockily. "But I like my numbers. Whose side are you going to come down on, Stefan?"

"Hadn't really thought that far ahead." One of Tyler's packmates is trembling, curling his fists, ready to fight; Stefan keeps one eye on him, waiting for the inevitable.

"Then why, pray, did you come?" Klaus asks, clearly irritated.

"Not like I had anything better to do," Stefan answers, and leans against a short pillar. "Might be kinda funny to watch them kick your ass."

"And somehow, I can't even pretend to be surprised you've turned coat."

"Come on, Nik. This is your moment! Time to barter for help! I'm nothing if not willing to listen to offers."

"If you help him, Stefan, I can't guarantee your safety," Tyler says. "Don't be stupid. You wouldn't last against these guys. Just like he won't."

The trembling hybrid Stefan's been watching seems unwilling to let any more conversation continue, and he explodes with rage, breaking ranks to charge Klaus.

Klaus sets his stance. "Here we go, then," he says under his breath.

The hybrid attacks, his werewolf claws emerging from elongated fingers. Klaus grabs at both his arms, and twists them back on him, to use the werewolf's claws to rend open his own neck.

"That won't kill him," Stefan says, picking a piece of lint off his tee.

"No," Klaus says with a smile as the rest of the pack charges. "But this will." He digs his fingers into the wound and tears the hybrid's head the rest of the way off.

"Come on, mate. I'll make it worth your while," Klaus offers. "Or just stand there and watch me put up a good fight."

Stefan rolls his eyes and pushes off the pillar. He straightens his shirt and sets his jaw. If they can avoid Tyler, at least, they might live through this. And Caroline's wrath afterward.

Damon descends the porch steps, and Elena can feel the anger curling off him, like heat. Anger and disappointment. She recognizes it easily enough, as it courses through her own veins.

She takes a deep breath. "Okay, so the cure might not be a cure for me, but it might be a cure for you, Jer. That's a good thing."

"But we were all duped by Professor Crazy, who wants it for God knows what, and he currently has it and Bonnie," Damon reminds her. He turns back to Matt and Jeremy. "We got the message you sent. Did you find anything more specific on Shane's motives?" Damon asks.

"Not much more than we put in that letter," Matt says. "I'll get April to let you guys in, and we can look through the emails." He disappears inside.

Damon paces furiously, fists in his pockets, trying to calm down. Elena meets him on the bottom step and puts her hands on his shoulders to still him. They share a tense few moments in each other's eyes.

"This is just the next thing we'll have survived together," she says. "We'll add it to the list."

"The ever-growing list of our epic failures?" Damon asks dejectedly, and tugs at the hem of her shirt.

Elena cups his face in her hands. "Is it a failure if we can save Jeremy from being a Hunter? What would Ric say to that?"

He sighs, but doesn't answer.

They can both hear Jeremy shouting for April when Matt comes flying out the door. "She's gone! Rebekah must have taken April and gone," he says, holding up her bracelet.

"She was supposed to be ingesting the vervain, Matt!"

"It's a little hard to come by after most of the town's supply went up in smoke with the Pastor, Elena. None of us have had any yet today, what with all the commotion."

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that," Damon says menacingly. "Hopefully the urge to compel you to drop dead will pass."

Jeremy runs around from the backyard, and points. "They went this way."

"We'll track them," Damon says to Matt. "Hang back, QB. We're gonna run the wildcat."

Matt shakes his head, but doesn't protest.

"Dude, that metaphor doesn't even make sense," Jeremy points out.

"No one around here appreciates my humor," Damon asides.

Damon takes lead, the best at tracking among them. He makes an effort to stay at a human pace so that Jeremy can keep up, but he knows that Rebekah gets farther away the longer they spend not running at full vamp speed after her.

Just when his patience is about to break, Elena's phone chirps.

"Bonnie, thank god you're okay. Where are you?" Elena asks.

"At the witches' burial ground, behind the house. I'm setting up the spell. How soon can you be here?"

"Jeremy's with us, so we'll be a few minutes still. Bon, be careful. Rebekah's coming to find you and the cure, and she's not coming at human speed."

"Don't worry. If she comes, I can handle her. I've done it before."

Elena hangs up and relays the information to Damon and Jeremy. It's only a few minutes later that the nagging question in the back of her mind finally takes shape. She stops mid-step, and thinks hard.

"Wait, Damon. When has Bonnie ever fought Rebekah?"

"She hasn't. Bonnie's a smart cookie, and she's stayed as far away from Originals as possible."

"But on the phone, she said she'd 'handled' Rebekah before."

"Let's just get to her," he replies, and picks up his pace.

At first, Stefan thinks they are holding their own against the wolves.

Tyler wants them all to stop, but his packmates aren't listening. He hasn't been alpha for long, and their former slave master wears the blood of a fallen brother. Klaus will get a death sentence, one way or another.

Stefan pulls two hybrids from the outskirts of the pile attempting to attack Klaus, slamming one against a nearby tree and tossing the other a few yards into the forest, where he caroms off his packmate. A third he rips the arms off; a fourth he knees in the back and then twists his neck clean off.

"What are you doing? Stop!" Caroline calls desperately.

Taken by surprise, a wayward wolf charges her, and though Caroline manages a punch to his gut, his fangs seal over her free forearm. She cries out, but finishes the wolf with a second blow before dropping to her knees.

"Caroline!" three voices shout in near-unison.

Distracted, Stefan barely notices when the hybrid he's fighting sinks claws and fangs into him, too.

"No!" Tyler shouts, and every hybrid stops and obeys.

In the end, it takes four hybrids to restrain Niklaus for the journey back to the Lockwood estate.

Tyler drags Caroline away. She struggles, vehemently protesting being torn from her charge.

And the darkness of the forest is Stefan's only remaining companion.

Full dark has settled across the dilapidated property when Jeremy, Elena, and Damon arrive, save for the small fire Bonnie and Shane lit in the clearing behind the house. It throws eerie shadows against the trees, and reminds Elena too much of the first time she died.

Vaughn, standing sentinel, tenses at the sound of the newcomers, but relaxes when he sees Jeremy.

"Glad you made it," Jeremy says.

"You too, brother," Vaughn replies.

"Enough flirting. Bonnie..." Damon refocuses the conversation to interrupt her chanting over a grimoire. She opens her eyes and quiets. "You got the cure from the witches?"

Bonnie nods.

"Is it a vampire cure? Or a Hunter cure?" Elena asks. "Jer said-"

"Both were my spells," Bonnie replies. "But I will not cure the Hunters. There will still be work for them to do when we finish."

"Speak English, Sabrina. What's that supposed to mean, both were your spells?" Damon interjects.

"Damon," Jeremy warns him, pulling Elena a few steps back from the fire. "That's not Bonnie."

"Don't worry," the-thing-that's-not-Bonnie says. "Bonnie is fine, but she's not the one who can work the spell we need right now. I am."

"And just who in hell are you?" Damon demands.

"Ayana," Rebekah replies, entering the clearing from the opposite side, behind Vaughn. He turns, quick as a flash, but it's not fast enough. A serene smile spread across her face, Rebekah reaches into his stomach and rips out a handful of red and warm.

He falls, dying without a sound besides the thud of denim, cotton, and flesh against dirt.