ACT THREE; MISSILES FIRED
SCENE SIX; ONE FOOT OUT THE DOOR
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SALEM WAKES TO A COLD SPOT IN THE BED BESIDE HER, INSTEAD OF KLAUS. It takes her off guard for a moment because it's been weeks since she slept later than him, even though they're both always up with the sun to begin with. She tries to remember if he'd even come to bed last night, and she'd heard the door open at some point, but was too tired to think if it was him coming or going.

She leaves the odd feeling in the sheets, stepping out of bed and grabbing her phone off the nightstand with one hand and pulling the carefully tied silk wrap from around her hair with the other. Her short strides towards the bathroom stop abruptly at the notification sitting at the top of her screen.

'Go to the library after the memorial for Carol Lockwood. Don't tell my brother.'

Salem scrolls up to the last texts she'd shared with Rebekah, mundane things about when Rebekah wanted to get her hair done again, and if she could braid it one day soon. Salem remembered looking at the texts the night Klaus daggered Rebekah in the dining room over the stupid hunter's sword, and feeling a wave of guilt wash over her like high tide. It nearly knocks her out again now, but she shakes her head and bypasses the bathroom for the closet instead, setting her phone down on the island in the middle of the ornate room.

She taps her fingers nonsensically against the marbled countertop and groans quietly, shaking her head. Quickly, she grabs her phone again and sends a response.

'Your timing is impeccable as always, Rebekah. I'll see you later. And don't worry about your brother– I'm not sure where he is, which means he isn't our problem today.'

She goes about getting dressed as usual, wondering to herself all the while what mess Rebekah could possibly be pulling her into now, and just how the Original has once again come back to the living without her brother's awareness.

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"Oh, Salem, kind of you to join us! I've missed you, darling," Rebekah grins widely as Salem walks into the library, her face twisted in confusion at the sight of Stefan, Elena, April, and Caroline all sitting at one of the round tables.

The blonde flutters over, bringing Salem into a hug, the former teacher briefly hugging her back, still relieved to see her alive and well despite her state of perplexity. "What's going on, Bekah?"

"We're having a pop quiz," Rebekah says, pulling away from Salem to turn and face her hostages. "April, my sweet, take notes!"

The girl follows the order directly and Salem's frown deepens when she registers the frustrated look on Elena's face, the panicked look on Caroline's, and the guarded but sad one on Stefan's. "Rebekah..."

"Let's start with a little quiz!" Rebekah ignores her dutifully and Salem crosses her arms over her chest, her curiosity winning out against her desire to intervene and talk Rebekah off of whatever homicidal cliff she was standing on. "In the year 1114, my brother learned, thanks to yours truly, about a brotherhood of vampire hunters with tattoos that grew with each kill. These tattoos reveled what? Elena?"

The newly-turned doppelgänger rolled her eyes at the dramatics, but had no choice but to answer. "A map."

"Which led to... Caroline?" Rebekah gestured for the blonde to elaborate.

"A cure for vampirism."

"Perfect," Rebekah chimed sweetly. "So we're all caught up. Stefan Salvatore, the last time we saw each other you had a vampire hunter, but in order to decode the map, you needed the location of the hunter's sword which you got out of me using some very dirty tricks. Assuming you found the sword, you must have found the cure and yet, you're all still vampires. Which means something went wrong."

Rebekah looks away from the three vampires at the table to look at the young human. "What are you doing?"

April startled, shrugging beneath the attention. "You asked me to take notes,"

"I wasn't being literal, darling," Rebekah tilts her head slightly. "But now that you mention it, a flow chart would be nice, which means index cards and push pins. Go fetch!"

She dismisses the human swiftly and Salem watches her scramble away.

"Rebekah, I could tell you all of this," Salem starts, pursing her lips when the girl turns to look at her somewhat unhappily. "You know I could."

"Yes, but where's the fun in that? Don't you think they deserve a little bit of torment from me, considering how many times they've literally stabbed me in the back?"

Salem sighs quietly as Rebekah turns back to the vampires at the table. Revenge wasn't ever something the Mikaelsons took lightly.

"So, what happened, then? You just gave up?" Rebekah scoffs, clapping her hands on her jean-clad thighs. "I thought you'd do anything to save Elena. Even if it meant taking the cure yourself so you could grow old and die with her."

Rebekah's voice takes on a mocking lilt that gives the words away as something she's obviously repeating from Stefan's mouth, and it makes Elena look at her ex-boyfriend in shock.

"Why do you look so surprised?"

Elena says nothing, looking away from Stefan quickly, and Rebekah's frustration visibly grows on her face.

"I'm missing something. What is it?"

"They broke up, okay?" Caroline bites out quickly, sending Stefan an apologetic look. "Now let us go."

Rebekah grins, her anger easily replaced with utter delight with the news. "Broke up? Wait, I– I'm confused," She huffs out a laugh, going around the table to take April's empty seat. "I thought Elena was your epic love, Stefan."

At Stefan's continued stubborn silence, the Original leans forward, bracing her palms on the table. "I asked you what happened. You have to tell me."

"She slept with Damon."

Salem presses a hand against her mouth, stifling any words of shock that may come out.

Elena snaps her head towards Stefan, confusion in her brown eyes at his apparent knowledge of the situation until realization dawns on her and she fixes Caroline with a betrayed stare across the table that the girl avoids meeting directly.

A tense silence falls over the small group before Rebekah breaks it, slapping her hands on the table as she stands once more, making her rounds around the table. "So, vampire Elena is a trollop who likes bad boys which explains why Stefan reeks of alcohol. But what it doesn't explain is why sweet, loving, innocent Elena could be so heartless towards Stefan."

Elena and Stefan share a distant look full of hurt and apology.

"How could she hurt you like that? Answer, please,"

"She didn't know it at the time, but she was sired to Damon."

Once again, Rebekah's delight peaks and Salem watches silently as she pulls up a chair to sit in between the exes. "A sire bond. Fascinating. And what do you think about that, Elena?"

Elena clenches her jaw, looking at Rebekah with a sarcastic gleam in her eyes. "I think you're sad and bored, and in desperate need of a hobby."

Rebekah doesn't pay attention to her insults. "You're hiding something. Fess up."

Elena's passive aggressive smile doesn't falter beneath the compulsion, the words spilling out before she realizes it. "I didn't sleep with Damon because of the sire bond. I slept with Damon because I'm in love with him."

As soon as her words are spoken, a fresh wave of shock rolls through the room and Salem rolls her eyes skyward, desperation shining in them amidst her mental pleas to end this mess.

Looking more panicked than before, Caroline shrugs. "What does any of this have to do with the stupid cure?"

Rebekah looks between Elena and Stefan, pursing her lips. "You're right. We got off the point. Stefan, how do I find the cure? Unless you'd rather talk about Damon and Elena all day."

Stefan doesn't hesitate before answering, but his voice is weak as he speaks. "There's a professor. He knows where the cure is."

"Thank you, and, uh– where do I find this professor?"

"His name is Atticus Shane," Salem says from behind the girl, drawing the attention her way. "He works at Whitmore. He's been involved in this stuff for a while."

"Wonderful. I suppose I'll be meeting him soon, then."

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"So, once again, you all failed with your master plan to kill Niklaus and now you're all worried for your lives because you betrayed him? It seems your stupidity still runs true after all,"

Salem shifts her weight from foot to foot, giving Rebekah a narrow-eyed look. "What's your end goal here, Rebekah? If Klaus doesn't even know you've been undaggered, are you just going to find the cure without him? As if he won't know something is up?"

"Well, if everyone cooperates as they should, I have nothing to worry about," Rebekah doesn't look up from where she's been going through Caroline's phone for the last twenty minutes, much to the girl's chagrin. "Oh, look at this. Trouble in paradise? He's not even answering your texts anymore. Could it be because my brother murdered his mother three days ago and your failed evil plans are to blame?"

Caroline clenches her jaw as Rebekah dials her boyfriend's number and they all listen as Tyler picks up on the other end. "I told you I don't wanna talk,"

"I heard. And you're keeping all that rage bottled up inside. Caroline's worried sick about you."

"Rebekah?"

"Hello, Tyler," Rebekah shoots a pointed look at Caroline. "I heard my brother made a real mess of your life. Believe me, I can relate. You have my condolences. In fact– why don't you come down to the high school so you can accept them in person?"

"And why would I do that?"

"Because I have your girlfriend," Rebekah's smile drops, along with the fake cheeriness in her voice. "Maybe you have a better shot at saving her than you did your mother. Bye now."

Rebekah pulls the phone away from her ear, ending the call just as the library door is pushed open.

Salem startles with the rest of them, snapping around to find another undaggered Original poking his head into the library.

"Sister," Kol's brief look of determination shifts into that Mikaelson brand of amusement, his eyes running pointedly over Salem. "Look at this. You're even worse than Klaus."

Salem takes a step back from the door despite being several feet away, putting distance between her and Kol with a firm glare on her face.

"Kol, finally," Rebekah raises her brows. "Did you bring what I asked for?"

Kol reaches back into the hallway, shoving the professor into the library carelessly.

"You didn't tell me you undaggered him, too, Rebekah,"

The siblings look at her, varying shades of amusement and persecution in their gazes. Rebekah smirks and tilts her head. "Well, at least it's not Finn, darling,"

Salem flinches, eyes flooding with hurt she can't hide. It seems to delight Kol, while Rebekah completely disregards it. It earns her pity from everyone else.

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"Can't you break her compulsion?" Caroline looks at Salem pleadingly in the Originals' absence, eyes wide as Salem sits in April's empty chair. "Or, like, snap her neck?"

"And make Kol kill us all? I swear to god, you people have a constant death wish," Salem mutters, pinching the bridge of her nose tiredly. "Sorry. Jesus– I'm sorry. No, Caroline, I can't. It would take too long and if I rushed it, I'd probably just... blow your brain up or something. My magic doesn't like other people's minds, which means I can't possibly do something as intricate as undoing compulsion without taking a long time to do it."

"So, what, we just have to sit here and rot while she makes us answer her questions? How do we know she won't just kill us all afterwards?"

Salem clenches her jaw, eyes falling to the doors as Rebekah's heels echo down the hall, growing closer with each second. "I won't let her do that."

"Still glued to your seats?" Rebekah bursts back into the library, projecting her voice to the four at the table. "Oh, it's thick with tension in here. Let's spice things up a bit. Elena, truth or dare?"

"We're done playing your stupid games, Rebekah,"

Rebekah pointedly ignores Stefan. "Truth or dare, Elena? You're compelled. Answer."

Elena shakes her head, pursing her lips. "Dare."

The Original looks downright gleeful at the answer, leaning her hands on the table to look at the girl. "I dare you to tell Stefan the truth about Damon."

Caroline slaps her hands on the table, startling them all. "Seriously?"

Her outburst can't stop Rebekah's compulsion, though. "Being with Damon makes me happy."

"Makes you happy? Clowns make you happy, Elena," Rebekah scoffs. "Dig a little deeper."

"Rebekah," Salem says her name quietly, earning a short glare from the girl.

"When I'm with him," Elena starts, apology laced in her voice as she looks at Stefan. "It feels unpredictable, like... like I'm free."

Rebekah smiles satisfactorily at the hurt on Stefan's face. "And how do you feel when you're with Stefan?"

"Rebekah, you're being cruel. She doesn't need to do this,"

"Surely she does, considering she's compelled."

Elena gives Salem a grateful look, biting out a frustrated sigh as the words spill from her helplessly. "Lately, I feel like I'm a project. Like I'm a problem that needs to be fixed. I think I make him sad and I can't be with someone like that because... when he looks at me, all he sees is a broken toy."

Salem watches the tears build in Elena and Stefan's eyes, and feels the pit of her stomach grow with Elena's words. Despite the sire bond, Elena made a choice to leave someone that made her feel like that. She withholds the shaky breath she suddenly feels building in her chest.

"Do you still love Stefan?"

Elena barely hesitates. "Yes."

"Are you still in love with Stefan?"

"No."

Rebekah hums lowly, standing upright again to look down at Stefan. "Did that hurt? Having someone you love drive a dagger through your heart?"

Stefan snaps his head towards Rebekah, glaring hatefully through the tears in his eyes. "Go to hell,"

Rebekah quickly meets his eyes, gritting her teeth. "Did... that... hurt?"

Stefan clenches his fists on the table, trying and failing to fight the compulsion. "Yes."

Rebekah gives him a complicated look that's a mixture of sadness, satisfaction, and everything in between. "Welcome to the last 900 years of my life,"

There's a stiff silence that follows Rebekah's hateful sentiment, but it's broken by Tyler bursting into the library.

Caroline looks fearful at the sight of her boyfriend being roped into this mess, but Rebekah pays her no mind as she turns around to look at the hybrid. "Ah, good, you're here. It was just getting depressing."

"What the hell is going on?" Tyler spits out, lip curling in displeasure at the sight of all of them sitting at the table.

"Listen to the rules carefully," She turns to look at the group of vampires. "Stay in the building. No vamp-running in the hallways."

Caroline rolls her eyes. "Vamp-running from what?"

Rebekah smirks, turning to face Tyler again. "Turn."

"What?"

"Rebekah, do not–"

"He can't, he'll lose control!"

"That's the whole point," The blonde huffs, ignoring all of their refusals. "I've exhausted all your knowledge, and now I have the professor to help me find the cure. You're just competition. Whoever finds it first gets to decide what to do with it. Use it, share it, destroy it, save it. I want that to be me."

Tyler looks fearfully at his friends, and then back to Rebekah. "But if I turn, I'll kill them."

Rebekah smiles sweetly. "Yes, you will. Turn."

Tyler's eyes flutter shut as her compulsion runs through him and Salem clenches her jaw as Rebekah turns on her heel and disappears.

"All of you need to run," Salem wastes no time in speaking, turning to look at the vampires as Tyler backs himself away from them on unsteady feet. "As fast as you can."

"I can fight this," Tyler pants, slamming himself against a bookshelf, rattling some of the books off the shelves to the floor at his fight.

"No, you can't," Salem says. "Which is why you guys need to run. Go, now. I'll hold him off until you're far enough away."

Tyler throws himself against a table, shattering it into splintered pieces, and it thrusts the vampires into movement, the three running out of the library, Caroline splitting off in one direction while Elena and Stefan went in another.

Salem backed herself up towards the doors, rolling her shoulders back with a sigh as Tyler's low growls filled the room, his bones audible snapping as he fell to his knees.

The hybrid dug his nails into the floor, fingers going white with the pressure, and when he snapped his head up to look at Salem, his eyes were glowing yellow.

"Shift, Tyler," Salem jerked her head in a nod, her voice just short of a command. "Stop fighting it."

The teenager shifts into a werewolf before her eyes and she looks unwaveringly into his eyes, ignoring the snarl of his lip, the rabid scrunch of his nose.

Salem's skin warms with her magic and she closes her eyes as her muscles ripple, her bones shattering all at once, not breaking one by one in a painful ritual. The white wolf stands in Salem's place, four paws on the ground, her eyes a burning ember of gold that glare against Tyler's.

She has more sense in this state than the hybrids do, or any other werewolf, but that instinct to chase still lives in her. It's quiet enough, though, that she can ignore it, ignore the way she wants to chase after the vampires and taste their bitter blood on her teeth. She can ignore it for this.

She echoes a low growl into the library that bounces off the walls and she watches Tyler's hackles raise, his head lowering as he takes a single step towards her.

She turns swiftly and jumps through the double doors, metal banging into the empty school, echoing against cement walls.

She takes off in a brisk run down the halls and it only takes a second for Tyler to follow after her, his rabid noises chasing behind her like a symphony of death.

Despite the head start given to them, it doesn't take her long to catch up with Stefan and Elena, the two vampires running through to another hallway, eyes widening at the sight of her stark white fur, chased by the shadow of Tyler's dark, foreboding wolf.

"Salem?" Elena's voice is a whisper, hesitant, but the white wolf ducks her head once in answer.

The white wolf snarls warningly at the vampires and turns to face Tyler, letting him lunge at her so she can snap her teeth around his neck and sling him into a bank of lockers.

The vampires take the distraction for what it is and barricade themselves on the other side of the hallway doors, leaving the two wolves to circle each other for a moment.

Their growls hit one another in heavy sound waves and her long, white tail flicks warningly when he doesn't back down.

Tyler's attention briefly goes to the doors the vampires are on the other side of still and Salem jumps towards him, stopping short, just to pull him away from the others.

It works as a diversion and Salem turns tail and runs the other way, leading Tyler towards the gym.

Salem bursts through the doors of the gym just as Tyler snaps his teeth around her hind leg, and she turns around with a loud bark of pain, lunging back at him, tackling him into the floor.

They fight against each other for a moment, teeth gnashing, heavy paws batting out like fists, but it doesn't take long for Salem to get the upper hand, pushing her weight against him to throw him towards the memorial table set out for his mother, candles still burning bright in her wake.

Tyler gets to his feet quickly but Salem gives him a noise of warning and wrenches her head in the direction of the memorial table, making Tyler's attention shift to it.

She watches the second the fight leaves his body, knowing that the grief for his mother would distract him from that feral instinct. The wolf turns back to look at her after a moment, and she ducks her head down, and he lays down in front of the table with no protest, hulking frame folding in on itself.

Salem watches him for a moment before she turns her back to him and sits down, eyes on the gym doors as she waits.

The panting breaths of the wolf behind her quiet after a few minutes, becoming distinctly human, and Salem's claws flex against the floor slightly in relief.

Tyler's weak voice comes a second later. "Salem?"

She grunts in response, not turning to look at him.

The boy's voice is shaky and unstable when he speaks again. "Thank you,"

Salem almost wishes she were human at the moment just to tell him not to thank her. He had nothing to thank her for– not when she was just trying to clean up Rebekah's mess, and subsequently Klaus's. Not when so much of it was her fault to begin with.

Salem sits patiently in front of Tyler for no more than ten minutes when Caroline finally comes in, her eyes falling to the weak frame of her boyfriend on the ground, and the giant white wolf sitting guard in front of him.

The vampire drops her makeshift weapon and hurries over to Tyler, draping a velvet cloth over his naked form before pulling his head into her lap.

Relief paints the girl's voice when Salem turns to look back at them, standing back on four feet. "Thank you, Salem,"

She ignores the words again and turns, walking out of the gym, pretending she can't hear Tyler's sobs for his mother.

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author's note; been missing Salem lately so here's this

edited and published; 6.4.24.

- liz