𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙒𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙔 𝙁𝙄𝙑𝙀
ミ★ ( lion and the lamb, act one ) ★彡

     All was right in the world again. At least, with Stefan it was. Hazel knows there's still the pesky issue with Bonnie and Elena, who are still yet to speak but will have no doubt in rekindling their friendship sooner or later as they always do. The Founder's Day parade will most likely bring them back together again forcefully as they all are to come together to help Caroline—reigning Miss Mystic Falls—build the float. Bonnie can't avoid Elena or the vampires surrounding them forever, even if she wants to. Hazel does not blame the Bennett witch for having a distaste for them all after what happened with her Grams; in fact, she understands it. Hazel just hopes that this isn't the thing that washes away years of friendship.

"I'm supposed to help build the Miss Mystic float for the Founders' Day parade with Elena. If we don't, we'll get the wrath of Caroline. But, I wanted to check in first." Hazel tells Damon over the phone as she packs her bag.

"Well, I'm doing great, thanks for asking." Damon replies.

Hazel rolls her eyes, "Checking on Stefan."

"Oh, him? Oh, he's... he's terrible."

Hazel freezes and her face drops in worry. He was suicidal and she's on edge that it'll drop to that extreme again, "What's the matter?"

"He's just back to boring, strait-laced, off the junk." He informs her and she rolls her eyes at him again for his idea of a joke, "You've successfully cured him of anything that was interesting about his personality."

"Don't forget who helped me." She said in a sing-some voice.

"I hate myself." He says back in the same tone and a smiles before asking, "Hey, did Uncle John mention anything to you about my field trip with the history teacher?"

"No. I'm still avoiding him." She says before realising that it was their Uncle John they were talking about and how slimy he could be, "Why? What's he up to?"

"I don't know. But, I'd love if you could find out for me." Damon tells her.

"Okay, well, it'll have to be later. I've got to go, we're late." She says back.

"Have fun with the Mystic queen, I know I did." Damon says and she scoffs in disgust before hanging up the phone.

Everyone was in the cafeteria, helping out with the parade. Alaric was handing papers and giving everyone their specifications on what they needed to do. Elena had excused herself earlier and Hazel was sitting with Bonnie and Caroline at one of the tables, discussing the Miss Mystic Falls float, "Alright, show us." Bonnie says.

"Let's reference last year's Miss Mystic float." Caroline says as she searches up the Miss Mystic Falls float from the previous year, "This is what they did last year," She turns her computer and shows a picture to Bonnie and Hazel, "and this is exactly what we don't want to do."

"Ew." Bonnie and Hazel say simultaneously and Caroline nods in agreement, "Okay! So, what are we doing?" Hazel asks.

Caroline grins excitedly, "Southern classic elegance."

"Gone with the Wind?" Bonnie guesses with a deadpan.

Caroline's eyes widen, "How'd you know?"

"You channel Scarlett, daily." Bonnie replies.

"So true!" Caroline says with a laugh before she looks around and looks back at Hazel, "Where's Elena? She's supposed to be helping."

"I don't know." Hazel replies, checking her phone to see if she had sent her a text but hasn't. She assumed she was going to the bathroom but she had been gone a while now.

Caroline looks at Bonnie next, "Okay, what's the deal?"

Bonnie shrugs and plays innocent, "What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb." The blonde says, "You and Elena are fighting. Spill!"

Bonnie looks at Hazel hesitantly before saying, "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing. You know this whole float is supposed to be about friends creating something together and everyone is fighting. Matt and Tyler hate each other, you and Elena are on the outs and I—I don't like it!" She groans, "And I can't fix it if I don't know what's wrong."

"I can't talk about it, Caroline, I'm sorry." Bonnie says.

Meanwhile, Damon walks into Alaric's classroom where Stefan and Elena were with him. Alaric looks over at him to greet him, "Damon, thanks for coming."

"Sorry I'm late. The dog ate my, uh... never mind." He jokes before spotting everyone—especially Elena's—upset faces, "What's with all the furrowed brows?"

"I saw Isobel last night." Alaric tells him and Damon's head snaps over to look at him in shock.

"Isobel's here? In town?" He looks at Elena's sad face before turning back to Alaric, "Did you ask her about Uncle John? Are they working together?"

"No." Alaric answers.

"No, they're not?" Damon clarifies.

"No, I didn't ask."

"What about the invention?"

"Didn't ask."

"Did she know about the tomb vampires?"

"I don't know."

"Did words completely escape you?" Damon snaps.

"No, I was a little too distracted by my dead vampire wife to ask any questions." Alaric snaps back.

Damon then turns to Elena, "What did she want?"

"She wants to see Hazel and I, Damon." Elena explains to him sadly, "But, Hazel still doesn't know about the adoption. I—I don't know what to do." She shakes her head.

Damon looks around the room, finally noticing that Hazel wasn't present and his face went crazy with bewilderment at Stefan and Elena for keeping the secret from her, "Hazel still doesn't know she's adopted? Does Isobel know that she doesn't know?"

"No, we think she's under the impression that she does know. Alaric is supposed to arrange a meeting with them. We don't know why or what she wants." Stefan answers.

"You don't have to see her if you don't want to." Damon tells Elena and Stefan looked confused by this sudden sensitivity.

Elena shrugged, "I don't really have a choice."

"She's threatened to go on killing spree." Alaric explains.

"Oh!" Damon says nonchalantly, "I take it that's not okay with you guys."

"I want to do it." Elena decides, "I want to meet her. If I don't, I know I'll regret it."

"And what about Hazel?" Damon asks, "She deserves to know and meet her real mother too."

Elena's chews on her bottom lip. She had been thinking about this for months, and she thinks she's decided she doesn't want Hazel to know. From what she's found out about Isobel; she's a monster and will tarnish Hazel's view of their relationship with Miranda, "I can't tell her this. Not now."

Elena had agreed to meet Isobel at the Mystic Grill and asked Alaric to set up the meeting. Stefan had agreed to come along and make sure that nothing happened and that Elena was safe while Hazel assumed that Elena was out skipping school for the day because she just needed a mental health day. Elena hates lying to her, but she knows she's been holding onto this secret for too long that it's too late to turn back now.

She was sitting at the table by herself nervously, a coffee in front of her, "Can you hear me?" She asks Stefan quietly, who was pretending to play pool at the pool table, but was really watching over her. He nods his head, "Thanks for coming, I'm nervous."

Elena picks up the coffee and holds it in front of her face to take a sip but puts it down when Isobel arrives and sits down with her, her face dropping at the sight of her birth mother. Isobel spots the necklace with the 'E' on it, "Hello, Elena. Where's your sister?"

"Far away from all of this." Elena replies stiffly. She's on guard. She knows not to trust her after the things she's seen and heard so far.

Isobel huffs. She's not impressed that Hazel wasn't with her and it would surely bite Elena in the ass later on for not following one simple demand. She looks at Elena and tilts her head, "You look just like her, it's eerie."

Elena's eyes widen in shock to hear the implication of Katherine, "You've met Katherine?"

"She found me after I turned. Genetic curiosity, I suppose." Isobel shrugs, "She would be fascinated by you and your sister."

Elena looks at Isobel's necklace and notices the Lapis Lazuli gemstone on it, "Is that how you can walk in the day?" She asks.

Isobel places her hand on the necklace and smiled. It's clear that they might be friends, "Katherine helped me obtain it."

"Who's our father?" Elena suddenly asks.

"Not important. He was a teenage waste of space."

"A name would be nice."

"It would, wouldn't it?" Isobel tilts her head, "You ask a lot of questions."

Elena scoffs angrily. She remembers Miranda telling her that it was good that she asked a lot of questions, and now she's seeing the juxtaposition between the two because Isobel was insinuating it was a bad thing for her to be so inquisitive, "Why did you compel that man to kill himself? Right after he told me to stop looking for you."

"Dramatic impact." Isobel answers, "I wish it would have been more effective."

Elena's eyes narrow, "Human life means that little to you?"

Isobel smiles, "Means nothing to me." She says and it only confirms Elena's decision to keep Hazel away from her, "It's just part of being what I am."

"No, it's not." Elena disagrees, shaking her head, "I know other vampires. That's not true."

"You mean your sister's boyfriend over there by the pool table?" She questions and Elena's face drops, "Stefan Salvatore. Why Stefan? Why didn't she go for Damon? Or are you trying to enjoy both them both like Katherine did?" She asks and Elena is shocked by the question while Stefan looks uncomfortable. He knows that what Damon and Hazel have is simply platonic, and Stefan loves Hazel. He would never do that to her. Elena was the same.

"Why did you want to meet us?" Elena deflects from the question, "It can't be to just catch up."

"Because I'm curious about you." Isobel answers but she knows that she's gotten underneath Elena's skin with her probing, "But, the real reason is: I want what your uncle wants; Johnathan Gilbert's invention."

Elena blinks and scoffs in surprise. Of course it leads back to John, "How do you know our uncle?"

"I used to spend a lot of time here when I was younger. John had a crush on me for years. He was the first one that told me about vampires." Isobel smirks.

"So, what made you want to be one?"

"It's a very long list of reasons, Elena. All of which I'm sure you and Hazel have thought about." Elena shakes her head in denial, "That was your first lie." Isobel comments and Elena blinks, "It's inevitable, you're going to get old, Stefan and Damon won't." Elena looks at Stefan, and he seems sad at the thought that Hazel will grow old and eventually die, "Forever doesn't last very long when you're human."

"I'm sorry but I don't have what you're looking for." She says and gets up but Isobel catches her arm and forces her to sit down.

"Sit down." Stefan is going towards them, "And tell Stefan to walk away." She demands and Elena looks over at him, giving him the signal to walk away. Stefan reluctantly obliges and leaves the Grill, "I want the invention."

"I don't have it." Elena tells her.

"I know that. But, Damon does." She smirks, "And you're going get it for me."

She scoffs at her demands and shakes her head, "He's not going to give it to me."

"Then the blood will be on your hands." Isobel tells her and gets up from the table, grabbing her bag and jacket, "It was nice meeting you, Elena. I hope to eventually meet Hazel next time, too."

Isobel leaves and Elena finally lets herself cry. She was such an awful person and she couldn't believe that was her mother.

Bonnie then walked inside and saw that Elena was standing there in tears. As she was just about to approach her, she sees Stefan behind her. Bonnie thinks about it for a moment but eventually leaves too.

      The next day, Hazel got a text from Bonnie to meet her in one of the classrooms. When she got there, she saw Elena already there and she blinks, "Hey! Thanks for meeting me. I wanted you two to see this." Bonnie says, flipping through a spell book.

      "When did this happen?" Hazel asks, pointing in between her sister and best friend because she didn't know they were on good terms again, and then pointed at the book, "Is that Emily's spell book?"

      "Bonnie came over last night to talk while you were at Stefan's. We sorted everything out." Elena explained and Hazel made an 'oh' sound.

     "I've been going through Emily's spell book since Grams died. But, I thought you guys should check this out." Bonnie says and shows them the book, showing the page with a sketch of the vampire compass surrounded by words in Latin, and their eyes widen when they recognise it.

      "That's the vampire compass." Elena realises.

      "Yeah, according to Emily, Johnathan Gilbert never actually succeeded in inventing anything. Emily secretly spelled them all with magic—compass, rings and the mystery device you told me about." She explains as she flips through pages of the book before finally showing them another page where the device was redesigned.

      "Yeah that's it—well, a part of it." Hazel recognises, "Damon only has the one piece."

      "Emily pledged her loyalty to Katherine. But, she couldn't stand by and watch innocent people get killed. This was the only way she could think of to help—to let Johnathan Gilbert believe that he'd actually invented these devices." Bonnie says.

      "Does it say what it does?" Hazel asks.

      Bonnie leans in to read the page before standing up straight, "This is a weapon... against vampires."

      Everyone was putting together the floats for the parade when Hazel was walking through the crowd to get to find Stefan and tell him about the invention. Jeremy came running up to her, "Hazel!"

She smiled when she saw him and gave him a hug, "Hey, have you seen Stefan? I need to find him."

"No, not lately." He tells her, "Listen, do you have a second?"

Knowing he needed her, she nodded her head, "Yeah. What's up? What's going on?"

"Well, it's Anna. I've left her all this messages and she hasn't gotten back to me, not even a text." Hazel almost pales at the mention of Anna. She hasn't ran into her since she used her to help wake up her mother, and she was glad about that. Anna definitely scared her and she was happy to stay away.

"Anna? I didn't know that you guys were still friends." She responds.

"We're more than friends." He informs and Hazel wants to throw up. Is she still using her brother as a pawn or does she genuinely like him? Whatever it is, Hazel doesn't trust her, "Look, something could be seriously wrong and if you know anything you've got to tell me."

"I haven't talked to her, Jer." Hazel answers him genuinely, but she is concerned with the way he thinks something is wrong.

His eyes narrow onto her, "Are you lying to me right now?"

Hazel was taken aback, "Why do you say that?"

"Because that's all you and Elena do—lying." He seethes and she blinks in surprise, "You lie about everything. I know what Anna is and I know that you know."

"You know..." She repeats, realising that he had figured it out, "You know about everything?" She asks and he nods. He knows about vampires, "How?"

"I read Elena's journal. It had everything I needed to know in there—and save me the speech about invasion of privacy because I read a section about Damon erasing my memory and about what happened to Vicki." He explains and her eyes widen at how careless Elena was for writing that in there and leaving her journal out for him to stumble across. Elena always had the most obvious spots for her journal and Jeremy always found those spots to read it during his younger years, "So tell me, do you have any idea where she is?"

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you." Hazel shook her head shamefully, "We should've. We just wanted to protect you." She says. Hazel didn't agree with the decision, and she still doesn't, but she could understand eventually why Elena had done it because she had explained that she just wanted to take away his pain. It was all over her face and it was like their mom and dad died all over again and it hurt her to see him like that, "But, no, I haven't seen her—and that's the truth. I'm sorry."

Meanwhile, Elena was also looking for Stefan in the crowd, and she turns around to see Isobel standing right behind her. She stiffens, "Isobel. What are you doing here?"

"I'm your mother, Elena. I want to be more involved in your life." Isobel answered in the same cold and calculating tone she's now used to.

"I don't want you in my life." Elena spits, "And neither does Hazel. Stay away from us."

"I understand that. You already have a lot of people that you care about, but I've been studying. Let's see if I got this right." She looks at Bonnie, "There is the witchy best friend, Bonnie. Gonna stay away from that one." She looks at Jeremy, who was still having a heated discussion with Hazel, and she smiles, "And there's my other beautiful daughter, speaking with sad, little brother, Jeremy." She frowns before she moves her head to watch Caroline on the float, "And there's Caroline... obnoxious Caroline, Hazel's best friend. I got all of my info from her by the way; which she let me know that Hazel has no idea about me. She had no idea who I was, and she wouldn't stop yapping. Oh..." She pouted before she looks at Matt, "And there's Matt, friend, ex, yappy's future ex. Lots of connections there."

"Matt is not involved in this." Elena tells her.

"He's involved with you, isn't he?" Isobel retorts.

"Look, like you said; Hazel has no clue you exist, you shouldn't be here. You need to leave."

"No. I have some friends here, too. Look, you see that man over here, standing next to Matt by the float?" She points to the float and Elena looks over to see an unfamiliar man who was inspecting it, "His name is Frank, he's very handsome and he's also quite handy; and he'd noticed that the axles are a little rusty which is very dangerous. So, all you have to do is apply a little bit of pressure and..."

Elena watches him get up onto the float and yells, "No!" Frank jumps on the trailer above Matt, causing Matt's arm to get crushed. Elena tries to run for him but Isobel grabs her, holding her in place to watch while Matt yells for help. Tyler rushes to help him with some friends and they try to remove the trailer. Thankfully, Stefan arrives to help lift it, and they remove the trailer with ease to get Matt free. Caroline and Hazel rushes to see Matt to check on him while Stefan advised the blonde to call for an ambulance. Elena looked back to her birth mother with horror, "Why are you doing this?"

"I'm showing you how easy it is to hurt the people that you care about." Isobel tells her.

"And you're doing this just because of Johnathan Gilbert's invention?" Elena can't believe it. She's in shock that their flesh and blood was like this.

"Hand it over and the fun will stop."

"I told you, Damon is not going to give it to me." Elena shakes her head hopelessly.

"I think that you underestimate how much Damon cares about you." Isobel tells her, recalling the way that Damon confronted her for trying to come close to either of the twins.

"He'll kill you before he gives it up."

"Is that before or after I kill your brother, Jeremy?" Isobel asks and Elena turns to see Jeremy, expecting him to be near Hazel but he has disappeared.

"Jeremy?" Elena calls out and Stefan looks at her, seeing her frantically look for her brother everywhere even when Isobel disappears, "Jeremy?!"

After Isobel had kidnapped Jeremy, Elena realised that Isobel was going to go to great lengths to get the invention from Damon. Elena realised that she's going to have to tell Hazel about Isobel sooner rather than later—and by sooner, she means now; because their brother has been kidnapped and there's no other way to explain it.

Well, there is one way besides the truth: that John Gilbert is simply working with a ruthless vampire named Isobel to do his dirty work to get the invention. Hazel has never met Isobel, but she doesn't like her especially after hearing the way she's been emotionally torturing her sister and kidnapped her brother.

Bonnie had agreed to spell the device to ensure that it wasn't harmful to vampires in order to make Damon feel comfortable with handing it over to John and Isobel. It was going to be the only way that they would get them to back off. Next, was getting Damon to agree to the plan.

"Absolutely not!" Damon snaps when he hears Elena's suggestion back at the Salvatore home.

"Just hear me out." Elena pleads.

"I'm not gonna give the device to Isobel so she could give it to John who is going to turn it to kill me. I like being a living dead person." Damon argues like it's obvious.

"But, it'll be useless, Bonnie can take its power away." Hazel says, gesturing to Bonnie.

Damon looked over at the witch, "I don't trust her." He states. He tried to kill her, and got her Grams killed. There's always been a hatred between witches and vampires, and no witch will ever do anything to protect a bunch of vampires—especially ones she doesn't even like.

"I can remove the original spell." Bonnie informs from her seat on the couch.

Elena holds her arms out, "John and Isobel will never know."

"No, I'll get Jeremy in my own way." Damon shakes his head in refusal. It was too risky.

"Really? How are you going to do that?" Stefan challenged, "Because Isobel is a vampire and Jeremy could be dead the second you walk in the door." He says and Hazel frowns instantly at the thought of her brother dying.

Damon ignores his brother's comment and looks to Bonnie, "Are you even up for this?" He asks, crossing his arms, "I mean no offence, you're no Emily Bennett. Emily knew what she was doing."

"I've been practicing." Bonnie tells him confidently.

"It's not piano lessons, honey." He remarks.

Bonnie stands up and walks to him, "What's your favorite book?" She asks and Damon deadpans, "Name a book. Any book."

"Name a book..." Damon sighs as he thinks, "How about Call of the Wild by Jack London?" Bonnie exhales and turns to look at the library. A book flies from the shelf and lands in Damon's hands while Hazel's eyebrows raise, thinking back to the time that she lifted feathers from Elena's pillow to now this in just a matter of months. Damon looks at the book, "Jack London. Great parlour trick."

"We're doing this, Damon." Elena decides, "And we're doing it our way. Now give us the device. We're wasting time!"

Damon keeps his eyes on Bonnie, pointing at her with a small smirk, "I don't trust you, I tried to kill you."

Bonnie hums and mimicked his facial expression, "You're right, you can't trust me."

"But, you can trust me." Elena says, "And you can trust Hazel, too." Damon looks at her and sees the sincerity in her eyes before obliging and handing her the device, to everyone's shock, "Thank you." Elena says with a whisper. Maybe she did underestimate how much he cares for her.

      Elena hands the device to Bonnie, and she takes it and walks over to Emily's spell book to open it and lights the candles. She places the device next to the book and begins the spell by taking out the inner piece before holding her hands over it. The piece raises and she closes her eyes, the lights flicker and the fire in the fireplace burns brighter. When the lights went out, Hazel reached for Stefan.

Eventually, everything went back to normal and the piece returned to the table. Bonnie looked up to everyone and said, "Done." She gives the device back to Elena.

"Great. Now what?" Damon asks.

"Now we give it to Isobel."

Hazel didn't want to come to the town square to meet with Isobel because she wanted to stay away from her, and Elena could only be eternally grateful that she didn't. Elena was sure that Isobel was going to say something that was going to turn her sister against her, and it'll be her own fault for it too. She could feel her phone vibrating in her pockets, but chose to ignore as she waited for Isobel.

Isobel arrives behind her with a swoosh of air, causing Elena's hair to fly around, "Where is the device?" She asks.

Elena turns to look at her, "Where is my brother?"

"This isn't a negotiation. Where is the invention?"

Elena only stays firm and crosses her arms as she asks again, "Where is my brother?"

"Do you really think that I came alone?" Isobel threatens as Frank and Cherie arrive behind Elena, two humans that had been compelled to do her bidding. Elena had seen them both at the parade preparation the day that Jeremy went missing.

"Did you really think that I came alone?" Elena retorts as Damon and Stefan arrive behind Isobel.

She looks at them and rolls her eyes, "For God sakes, call home."

Elena blinks, "What?"

Isobel rolls her eyes again, "Call home and ask to speak to your brother, Jeremy."

Elena takes her phone and calls home frantically, he answers after a few rings, "Hello?"

"Jeremy, are you okay?" Elena asks.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, Uncle John hit his head. It was an accident." Jeremy says.

"We're all laughing." She hears Jenna say in the back.

"But, yeah, I'm okay." Jeremy tells her softly.

Elena lets out a sigh of relief, "I'll be home soon, alright?" She says and he says okay before hanging up the phone. Elena looks back at Isobel, "You were never gonna hurt him."

"No, I was going to kill him." Isobel corrects her, shaking her head, "Don't look for any redeeming qualities in me. I don't have any."

"But, you took a risk with Damon. How did you know that he was gonna give it to me?" Elena asks.

"Because he's in love with you." Isobel tells her and Elena notices the way that Stefan and Damon looked at each other uncomfortably.

Isobel holds out her hand and Elena gives the device to Isobel, slamming it into her hand harshly, "Thank you." She says.

"For what?"

"For being such a monumental disappointment." Elena answers, "It keeps the memory of my real mother perfectly intact."

"Goodbye, Elena. As long as you and Hazel have a Salvatore on each arm, you're doomed." Isobel tells her, "Katherine was smart. She got out. But, we all know that you're not Katherine." Isobel looks at her and leaves.