CHAPTER 63: THE KILLER

The Gilbert House

Out of all the people in the world, Natalie had to say that one of the most annoying ones was Klaus Mikaelson. After she convinced Stefan that she just had a little breakdown and it wasn't that much of a big deal (even if she suspected that he didn't quite believe her), he left her to sleep. But Klaus happened to be the person that would stop her from sleeping.

She was currently sitting, still in her pajamas on her bed as she had to talk to him over the phone, and he was in Italy so, he was paying the expenses for that very expensive conversation. "How did Connor escape?"

He responded, and he sounded like he walking somewhere, probably to consult his sword digging minions. "I'd blame my numbing incompetence, but pointing fingers isn't going to help me, you're going to help me."

"He could be anywhere by now." she rolled her eyes at him thinking she would be able to magically track him down somehow. Because, newsflash, she was neither a witch who could do locator spells nor a vampire with heightened senses.

"Think, Natalia. He took the hybrid's head which means he wants werewolf toxin." he reminded her of when she got told that Connor had gone into Tyler's hospital room and taken his venom right out of his fangs, which was really weird.

"So, he'd going to stay in Mystic Falls to kill the vampires here, at least." she sighed, not really telling him about the fact that he was talking about her being the person that awakened some weirdo or something and that she could see his weird, disappearing tattoo.

"Which is a pity, as I'm half the world away digging up a dead hunter, you'll have no access to my blood and therefore, the antidote. Nevertheless, his tattoo is our only map to the cure, so your task is quite simple; find him, catch him, and above all, keep him alive. He's no good to us dead."

"Well, that might not work out seeing as Damon has been out looking for him as often as he can. And, as we all know, he's not the best at the not-killing part of life." the huntress informed him, her eyes closing for a moment as she relaxed, but then bursted open as she remembered that she couldn't fall asleep.

"You'll need to keep Damon in check." was the only answer she got to the problem that he was potentially causing. That just helped her a great deal because she could just tell him that he needed to be in check and he'd be in check. Easy as that, right? Wrong.

She shook his head at his awful way to give advice, and she kinda wished he was there so she could throw and arrow at him. "How am I gonna do that? The only way I might be able to is if you'll either me or Stefan tell him the truth."

"You trust Damon with the cure? I imagine he prefers Elena the way she is." he retorted, trying to act as if Natalie simply wanted her sister to be human again and that was the only reason she was helping them get the cure.

"I don't want the cure so that I'll get the human Elena back. I want the cure so that everyone who does gets her back, and weirdly enough, she's one of them so I'm doing it for her. And, you know what? I trust that Damon would do anything for her to be alive and happy and even if that wasn't the case, I'd still trust him with my life, so don't try anything."

He was clearly not amused as he let out an angry groan for a moment as he really wanted the cure so Elena would be human and he could make his hybrid master race once again. "And I trust no one. Which is why my sister is lying daggered in a box. The more who find out about the cure, the more who will go after it. Nations have gone to war over less. You mark my words, tell one soul and I will throw the hunter's sword in the Mediterranean and we can end this quest right now. Am I understood?"

She didn't respond but just hung up in annoyance, but she did give someone else a little more information, but calling was so 2000s, she was more up for texting.

To: Stefan
Need your help. Don't tell Damon.

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The Lockwood Mansion

Natalie had met up with Stefan to talk about he whole thing but it didn't last very long. It might have been because of Stefan getting a text telling him that Connor had hostages at the Grill and that it was sent from Jeremy's phone. Of course, Natalie was pissed and wanted nothing more than to rip his head off but she couldn't because she was supposed to keep him alive. Stupid Klaus. But she had been called non stop by Damon and Elena who were worrying where she was before she listened to a message telling her to meet them at the Lockwood house after getting the same text.

The duo walked through the doors to the house as they saw Damon and Elena discussing a strategy (that would most likely fail). But then they noticed the two walk into the room they were currently in and Elena was just happy to see them and called out their names, but Damon was a bit more interested in something else. "Where the hell have you two been?"

"Coming up with a plan. Duh." Natalie responded, looking at him as if it a very obvious answer, even if she just as well could have been secretly making out with his brother in the woods.

Damon narrowed her eyes at her in annoyance as she easily could've come with him and her sister to work on a plan, instead of going with his brother where they couldn't all have worked together. "Yeah, we have a plan. The plan is I'm gonna rip Connor's heart out and I'm going to feed it to him."

"That's not a plan. That's a stupid thought. Because, I don't know if you remember, but we have to be careful because he has hostages, including Jeremy." she reminded him, narrowing her eyes right back at him for acting as if he was just ready to barge in and rip out the heart of somebody they were supposed to be keeping alive.

The vampire smirked in response and had to throw out a little comment that would seem as if would make it all make sense but didn't really. "Hence, the open heart surgery."

"Damon's right. Connor's strong, but he's not going to be able to take all of us." Elena spoke up, as if Damon suggested that they all take him on together as opposed to him just simply ripping his heart out and it would all be okay and nobody had to do anything at all but him.

Tyler then signalized his precense in the room by speaking up with some very helpful information that he got done. "I called in the hybrids to help too."

A blonde vampire, also known as Caroline Forbes, then walked into the room after doing her share of the plan and stopping innocent civilians from getting hurt. "My mom put squad cars blocking the streets. They're saying it's a faulty gas main. We're good to go."

Damon shrugged as if it all was working out and it just going out and getting him left of the plan. "Good, great. No cops, no witnesses, no reason to wait around."

Stefan looked at all the faces there that were ready to walk into something they knew nothing about and realized that they were a whole lot of people and it would most likely be too much. "All right, hold on, you're not all going."

"He shot me, like, nine times. If we're killing him, I want in." Tyler told the much older supernatural creature standing in his house, remembering the reason why he was in the hospital and got his venom stolen.

"He's got Jeremy. I'm going." Elena sent her boyfriend and almost-glare for suggesting otherwise.

"Listen, nobody is going anywhere until I figure out what we're walking into," Stefan exclaimed, stopping them from trying to make any argument of going, but then he glanced to his side, where Natalie was standing and saw the brunette look at him with her eyebrows raised challengingly. "Until we figure out what we're walking into." he corrected, looking at her again to see what she thought now, and this time she sent him a cute little smile in agreement.

Damon frowned at his brother's insinuation of the two of them leading the charge when he definitely thought that he would be the leader of this. "Until you figure it out? Is that where you and Natalie have been all morning? Out buying bossy pants?" 

"Come on, Damon, he's right. He's always setting up traps, like that trailer with the bomb, and I don't think it's a good idea to just walk into something unprepared when he has werewolf venom which could kill anyone in this room but me and Tyler." she reminded him of past experiences, and she held out her palm towards Tyler and he high-fived it as they were the immune-against-werewolf-venom-people.

"Does he?" Elena asked, not being sure if he had anymore, even if she was very familiar with him having it before as she was affected by it but was lucky that Klaus decided to come to her rescue.

Stefan shrugged in response as he saw where Natalie was coming from with the thought that he still had some left. "He's had it before." 

Damon sighed in defeat as he realized that they were right after seeing Elena contemplating changing the whole plan around. "Fine. Fine, if you want to take some time to do recon, you get one hour. But we're gonna need some extra help. So, where the hell's the Wicked Witch of the West?"

"She can't do magic." Caroline informed him, knowing how much one of her best friends was hurting because of her difficulty to call into her magical abilities. 

"Really? Well, call her, tell her Jeremy's life is in danger; maybe that will bring her out of retirement."

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The Old Lockwood Cellar

Yes, what she was doing might be considered stupid by some. And idiotic at most, but she had it figured out and she knew what she had to do to save those people inside, knowing they most likely couldn't protect themselves so she had to. Sure, it might all go wrong and she would regret even thinking about doing it, but sometimes you have to take a risk. And she didn't see herself just waiting for Stefan or Damon to bring everyone back.

She glanced down at her phone that she had in one hand, her having a crossbow in another. She saw the stream of messages coming from Stefan begging her not to do what she was going to. She sighed as she put it back in her pocket, hearing it's screen meeting the vial in her jacket. She still remembered, word for word, what she had sent him that sent him into this frenzy.

To: Stefan
I'm getting them out. I have a weapon, I have a vial of Elena's blood that she gave me a few days ago. Just get a hybrid in position. I'll be okay.

She let herself walk further into the tunnels that led towards the Mystic Grill, and in case you're wondering how she knew where to go, Alaric was a bit too interested in the tunnels under the city and sent her maps and random information all the time. God, she wished he there so she could thank him. 

Suddenly, she heard a weird noise. It sounded like a hammer or something knocking against the stone wall, she picked her phone up and glanced down at the map on it as she noticed that the noises were coming from the directions of the Mystic Grill, that, of course, made her start sprinting towards it.

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The Mystic Grill

She had spent no less than a few minutes running after the source of the noise, but she finally managed to get there, and she saw an opening, like a door simply leading into the backroom of the Grill. She thought it'd be harder but turns out that it was pretty freaking easy. But, the worst part was when she saw who was in there. It was her good friend, Matt Donovan, and the girl she had seen pictures of, but never talked to face-to-face, April Young.

She smirked as she heard someone talk to Connor outside of the backroom, and she knew that Stefan had followed through with getting a hybrid in position. She hadn't known how quickly the whole plan would be carried out, but then she heard an explosion and knew that Connor had triggered a bomb. 

She ran forth as she saw April opening her mouth to scream, and grabbed her from behind, holding her hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. She hushed for a moment, and Matt nodded at the younger girl as if to signalize that Natalie was alright and they could trust her.

Natalie then heard a gunshot, and guessed that the hybrid that had been used for the mission had been killed, once and for all, seeing as he would have survived the explosion with hybrids' difficulty of dying.

She then turned to the two fellow humans and grabbed her phone out of her pocket once again and pulled out the map she used to get in so they could get out. She handed it to Matt, because he was the only one of them she actually trusted, seeing as he was her friend. "Follow the map, get out of here and get her to Caroline." she whispered as quietly as she could, not wanting Connor to know that she was there.

"Okay," the blond boy nodded. He then glanced out at the door, the one that was leading out into the area of the Grill that they usually were at, the hangout, worriedly before turning to the brunette. "Natalie, that guy is armed. If you go out there, he's gonna kill Jeremy."

"Oh, someone's dying today. But it's not Jeremy." she promised him spitefully. He nodded at her, sending her a quiet wish of luck before grabbing April and hurrying out of the building, allowing Natalie to get Jeremy out herself.

She started walking towards the door, grabbing her crossbow from the floor, where she had left it to talk to Matt, and glanced out, seeing the Hunter's mark on Connor's arm grow, so she definitely knew that he had killed the hybrid now.

Natalie sighed, knowing that she would be an idiot for this, and as much as she'd like planting an arrow in his face, she had to try to negotiate first. She stood up against the door, pointing her crossbow at him and called out for him. He turned around quickly as well, pushing Jeremy somewhere. He pointed his gun at her as he glared, noticing the crossbow and that she actually seemed to be able to handle it as she was clearly aiming straight for his head. "You don't have to do this."

But then she heard the heartbreaking cry of her brother, not that far from her as she glanced over to see him standing on a pressure-sensitive mat that would trigger another bomb. He had made another trap. "Natalie!"

But the only way it could be disarmed was if she was able to negotiate some kind of deal with Connor, or kill him so she'd be able to figure out a way to disarm it. "If you put down the gun then we can end this all now. I have information about you, you have information about me. We can have another little chat."

He simply took a step closer to her so he could make an easier shot against her, ignoring the fact that he was probably meant to keep himself from killing her. "I don't make deals with sympathizers. And, anyways, I don't have that much information. I only know that I need your blood to wake someone I'm supposed to kill. And I'm guessing you don't know a whole lot about me either."

She let out a bitter chuckle as she let out a quick glance at her terrified brother that was trying to keep himself from moving too much and maybe, accidentally set off the bomb. "Trust me, I know a lot of stuff about the Five. And I know that you need me alive, so you should just put down the gun and let Jeremy go and everything will work out. If not, well, I'm not afraid to kill."

"I just said that I needed your blood. Never how much. And you don't need to be alive for me to take your blood. But it'd be easier, wouldn't it? But I don't need him." he responded, quickly changing his aim so that it was now on and Jeremy, and he knew that even if it wouldn't be a killing blow, it would still kill him because it would set off the bomb.

For a moment, it was almost as if Natalie blacked out. She couldn't think clearly and she couldn't see the consequences her actions might bring. All she saw was someone threatening to kill one of the only two family members she had left. And in a moment of simple rage, she pulled the trigger of the crossbow, sending an arrow shooting towards Connor's skull. 

He wouldn't have been able to see it coming if it wasn't for her glare and the twitches in her finger, but he ducked and without thinking either, he pulled the trigger of his gun, hitting Jeremy in the stomach in revenge because that's what he promised to do.

Jeremy started clutching his wound as Connor smirked. Natalie's eyes widened in fear as the irrational action of acting on her fears of losing the people she loved caused her to maybe lose one of the people she loved. But now was the time to think quickly. Jeremy stumbled as his shirt had easily spotted spots of red that came from blood all over his shirt and that meant that the bomb was about to go off.

Natalie could easily say with the utmost honesty that she had never ran so fast in the entire 18 years she had been on the earth for the third time. She jumped as she knew it would go off and pushed both herself and Jeremy under some tables for coverage. It worked, fortunately as Jeremy was able to stumble quite a bit and Natalie was easily able to run and push a whole lot. 

She knew she didn't have a lot of time and there were many reasons as to why she should have kept it for herself because the hunter would definitely hurt her now, but she grabbed the vial of Elena's blood in her pocket and took away the cover that kept it from spilling all over her jacket and poured it down Jeremy's throat, but she didn't stay ant longer than that, knowing that she had some business to take care of.

She wouldn't let him get away. She grabbed an arrow from the floor and knew that even if it wasn't much, but all she had, and let out a roar in rage and ran at him. He was a whole lot stronger and a whole lot faster and he had better weapons, but Natalie was very agile and slid underneath his open legs and got up, kicking him in the back, stabbing him with her arrow afterwards.

He was as supernatural as a human hunter could become, so he wasn't as fazed as he could have been, but she still couldn't get further up than his knees. He had a knife on the floor and grabbed it, trying to stab Natalie, but she was able to move her side out of the way before he could hit.

"You missed." she hissed before grabbing the knife out of his hand and driving it into his neck, seeing him fall down as she breathed heavily, sending a glance to her healed brother at the other side of the building before sending a cold look to Connor's dead body.

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The Gilbert House

They were all worried for her. She didn't really understand why as she sat on her bed, staring at the mirror as one hand with dried blood all over it gripped another one. Stefan sat next to her as Damon and Elena stood at edge of the room staring at her worriedly.

"What you did today was stupid and incredibly reckless, you know that, right?" Stefan informed her, looking at her blank facial expression as she looked into the mirror, seeing the blank expression for herself.

"I know." she responded monotonously, her eyes almost looking as if she dead inside and it just seemed so empty, as if she gone or something was weighing on her, as it was.

"But Jeremy told us you killed Connor. Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?" he asked worriedly, but she didn't respond. She just kept staring at her own reflection, almost as if she was wondering what had happened to her, and what made her seem so empty? He then reached over to grab her chin, making her look him dead in the eyes and he gave her meaningful look back. "Are you okay?"

He released her chin, and she didn't turn back around to stare at herself but looked at him, not smiling, not moving a muscle that wasn't required for her to speak, not changing her facial expression. "Of course I am. It's not like I haven't killed before."

"You haven't done it in a very long time. And you've never killed a human before. Don't tell me this isn't killing you, because I know it is." he demanded, putting his hand over her hands, making her glance down at what he considered a sign of comforting, but she considered a sign of pity.

She ripped her hands away from his, because she didn't want to be pitied and she seemed to be the only one that remembered that Damon and Elena were still watching them. "He was a threat, Stefan. I kill threats. This isn't killing me, I'm fine. I just want all of you to leave me alone because it's been a long day and I'm tired."

He nodded in understanding, because he knew that she  might be ready to talk about it in the morning, but not right that second. So he stood up and gestured for Elena and Damon to follow him out of the room so she'd have her privacy.

She turned her head back to the mirror and saw little to no emotion on it. But then she frowned as she looked down at the dark, dried blood on her hands and looked back to her reflection. She killed him. Someone who was confused about what he was and only knew that he needed her and he needed her for her blood to wake someone to kill that someone and then it all probably be over. But she killed. 

No, she didn't feel guilty for killing him. She felt guilty for not feeling guilty. 

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She kept trying to get the blood off of her hands, sure, she was able to get most of it away pretty quickly but she felt as if there was always some of it left, even when the water stopped being red and was rather just simple water and her hands looked completely clean but she kept washing them just in case she had more of his blood on her hands.

But then the water suddenly turned red again, but this time it was just pouring out a blood-like liquid that kept running down on her hands. The moment she saw it, she turned the water or blood off as she looked at the blood dripping on the floor from her hands. But then she looked more down on the floor and saw that it was all covered in blood. She let out a squeal-like noise in fright, but then she glanced up further, to the mirror.All across it she saw blood running down from the one word that was written, and it was all written in blood.

KILLER

She backed up in surprise, but she seemed to have forgotten the puddles of blood on the floor and she slipped, hitting the ground pretty hard, having to close her eyes to deal with the pain as she let out a groan. 

But when she opened her eyes, all the blood was gone.

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A/N: Yes, Natalie was the one who killed Connor and yes, I am very excited for next episode which will be very emotional and I am so ready, you have no idea. And in case you forgot, there's a very special couple that just so happens to break up in the episode, just in case you forgot.

Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.