Elena's POV
And so it was done.

I was the bait, and I was risking my life to save my girlfriend's. Not a bad way to go, I supposed.

The plotting had taken more time than it should have, considering everyone was fighting over the way it should be done.

The group seemed to have split into three teams. One was comprised of Damon and Stefan (Team Salvatore), the other of Bonnie and Caroline (Team Bonnie and Clyde), and the final of just me (Team Can Everyone Just Get Their Shit Together, My Girlfriend Is In Danger).

Team Salvatore didn't want me to be the bait, so they were suggesting more safe versions of the plan, that were unfortunately also less likely to work.

Team Bonnie and Clyde were more interested in being my supportive best friends and trying to impress me by giving the super well working but extremely dangerous plans.

Team Can Everyone Just Get Their Shit Together, My Girlfriend Is In Danger just wanted to save Katherine. No matter what.

So there was quite a bit of a problem in coming up with a foolproof plan.

But eventually, we did it. A plan came up that everyone agreed with. There were obviously risks, and there was obviously the possibility that it wouldn't work at all, but we had to try.

So that's how I came to be standing here, in the middle of town square, alone, waiting for the demon to show up.

I kept telling myself that this was the right thing. That by doing this, I had the opportunity to save Katherine and so many other innocent people.

But that didn't stop me from shaking uncontrollably as I stood there. Everyone else was at the Salvatore house, waiting for me. There was no one to save me if I couldn't do this.

Everything was up to me. If I messed up, who knew what might happen. Would everyone be afflicted? Would no one be cured, ever again? And then again, maybe nothing would happen. Maybe the demon would just miraculously cure everyone and go home.

There was no way to know, but I didn't think it was a great idea to fail anyway.

"And you won't fail, Elena." I told myself.

As I stood there, waiting for the demon to show itself, the wind starting rustling through the trees. It picked up, making my hair fly in all directions.

As I tried to calm my hair down, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.

I turned to my side to see Katherine standing by my side, smiling at me.

I did a double take. There was no way she could be here right now!

"Katherine?"

Her smile grew wider.

"Are you- how can you be here right now?"

"How can I be here?"

She laughed, musical and light, her laugh drifting through the wind and carrying on into the sky.

"Elena, I've always been here, you just haven't noticed yet."

I shook my head, bewildered.

"No, there's no way you can be here now. You're at the Salvatore house right now."

Again, she smiled, but this time, it had a certain sadness to it.

"Elena, I'm here."

She placed her hand on my heart. I gripped her hand, surprised to find that she was solid.

"God, I've missed you so much."

"Now you know I felt when your humanity was off." she responded.

"I felt so alone, because I loved you so much, Elena. And all I wanted was to get you back."

She came closer, placing her hands on my face.

"Elena, I saved you before. Now it's your turn to save me."

And then, as quickly as she came, she was gone.

I wiped the tears that were now falling rapidly down my face away.

I wanted Katherine back, every bit of her sarcastic self.

And it was time to get her back. As I turned back to the sky, ready to focus on waiting for the demon, it appeared almost out of nowhere, hovering ominously in the air.

The air around me instantly changed. It became cold and dark, and it felt like time itself had stopped as I listened to the sound of my heart beat in my chest.

The demon seemed to stare at me for a second, and we were both frozen, waiting to see who would make the first move.

Turns out, it was me.

Instinctively, I took a step back, and that was that.

The demon came soaring towards me, faster than I could have anticipated, and as quickly as I could, I began running.

I picked up vamp speed quickly and raced away, houses, trees and cars all a blur as I ran.

I stopped for a break a few seconds into the chase, just to make sure the demon was still on my trail.

Sure enough, there it was, hovering in the air, right behind me. It had great speed, that was for sure.

As soon it spotted me, we were racing again, me leading to towards the Salvatore house, hoping it was oblivious to the fact that I was clearly tricking it.

Arriving at the front door of the Salvatore place, I checked quickly to make sure the demon was still there, and praying that it would follow me inside the house, I opened the door.

There was no need to alert the rest of the group that I was here. Their vampire hearing was good enough to hear the door open. I trained my own supersonic hearing to make sure they were opening the dungeon door in the basement and then waited, peering over my shoulder.

The demon was waiting outside the door as if for an invitation to come in, watching me as I stood there.

"Come and get me." I challenged under my breath, and though I doubted anyone could have heard that, the demon accepted the challenge and entered the house.

That was my cue.

I sped down the stairs to the dungeon rooms, leaving the door wide open for the demon.

Waiting for me was the group, all wide eyed and expectant, but completely silent so the demon wouldn't know it was falling into a trap.

I nodded slightly at them and then zoomed to Caroline's side, behind the wide open dungeon door.

As soon as I had done that, I regretted it.

Katherine was inside the dungeon door that was open, and I hadn't even bothered to look at her. If this plan didn't work, we knew what the alternative was.

Kill them all.

I should've caught one last glance of her.

I silently cursed myself.

Now the only thing to do was hope that I would be able to see Katherine back as herself.

The group and I watched through a crack in the dungeon door as the demon slowly entered the basement, looking for me.

It turned slowly, glancing at the wide open door.

We all held our breath as it decided whether or not to enter the dungeon.

And agonizingly slowly, it entered the dungeon. And as soon as it did, we closed the heavy door and locked it easily. The demon would be on there long enough for all of the afflicted to feed on its magical smoke, and they would all be cured.

We all cheered and clapped, giving each other hugs for a job well done.

Soon, we began to hear confused mumbling inside the dungeon, and shrieks when they noticed the demon was in there with them.

Damon flung open the door, and crowds of people came tumbling out. Damon took them all to the side to compel what had happened away, while Bonnie, Stefan, and Caroline worked on directing the demon over to the next cell.

But I waited.

There were a few confused stragglers left in the cell.

I knew who one of them was.

It took my eyes a minute to adjust to the darkness of the cell, but when they did, I finally saw her.

Katherine.

Yes, she was confused, and dirty, and clearly upset, but it was Katherine. And she was herself. And she was okay.

All I could have ever asked for.

Katherine's POV
There seemed to have been a time gap in my memory.

I didn't know why the hell I was in this room with all these random people I had never met in my life, and I had no idea why Elena was standing across from me in the doorway crying.

I called out to her.

"Elena, what's going on? I don't-"

She interrupted me by running forward and wrapping her arms around me.

I was so surprised that I jolted back a few steps, but hugged her back nonetheless, happy to have her in my arms, even though I was extremely confused.

"I love you, I love you, I love you." she kept saying over and over, kissing me on the lips each time.

And I don't know what it was, maybe the confusion of the day, or her affection, but somewhere between kisses and her tearful "I love you's", I said it back.