The first Traveler appeared two days later.

Honestly, no one was sure what to look for. According to Katherine, the Travelers had an annoying little habit of changing bodies very often because of a curse that kept them from gathering together in large groups for extended periods of time. Anyone in town could be possessed, not just the nice blond bartender/waiter at the Grill who happened to be part of the friend group.

They'd been monitoring Matt, who seemed to be doing fine aside from occasionally bumping into the edges of tables at his job. Whoever was inside of him wasn't planning to make an appearance anytime soon. Katherine had no idea what spell could be used to bring him forth. She apparently needed to speak Czech to have any shot at performing Traveler magic. And though she likely knew the language (despite claiming not to), Maddy imagined her spells wouldn't have worked anyway, because she had never had to perform them before, and had no one there to teach her.

Maddy kept out of the house to avoid having to speak to Katherine. She wanted nothing to do with her, despite how unusually helpful the doppelgänger was being (though this was probably because she knew that she'd die if the others didn't have her back).

The middle Salvatore preferred for them to figure out the Traveler problem themselves once Katherine was in a grave six feet under. If the Travelers wanted Katherine for something sinister, chances were it wouldn't go too well for them. The best way to keep them from getting what they wanted is to get rid of the person they were pursuing, right?

However, Stefan insisted Katherine might know something they didn't. Something that she wouldn't see as vital until it came up in a dangerous situation. Maddy said that Katherine was pretty useless if she wouldn't reveal information until she was in a life-or-death situation. Stefan didn't find it funny.

Maddy and Damon feared that Stefan was forging a connection to Katherine all over again. They didn't see her as being less bitchy in her human form, but it seemed that Stefan noticed a greater appreciation for mortals coming from the woman who so easily stepped over them in the past. Obviously, Katherine had no problem being friendly with Stefan. Damon had placed a bet that it would take less than a month for Katherine and Stefan to sleep together. Maddy bet it would take less than two weeks.

Staying out of the house was the best way to avoid Katherine drama altogether. This ended up in Maddy coming across one of the stalkers.

She'd been walking casually to her car, having thought to go and get some groceries now that more people were staying at the house. Before she even clicked her key to open the car, she sensed someone was watching from the bushes a few meters away.

She pretended she'd noticed nothing, humming and skipping over to the other side of her car, as if she was fetching something. She opened the door, taking her sweet time, trying to figure out if the person was moving toward her. They weren't moving at all, so she figured she might as well catch them before they got any bright ideas.

She sped off, ending up behind a man that was kneeling down, out of sight. He'd just blinked, and suddenly, she was gone, having reappeared behind him. He flinched immediately, holding his hands up in surrender.

Maddy took the opportunity to seize him by the throat and pull him to his feet.

"What do we have here?" she asked wickedly. "My brothers and I are pretty famous but it's been a long time since the paparazzi watched us from the shadows. Unless, of course, you're one of those Travelers."

He faltered, and her grin widened. "How perfect," she said, before flinging him about ten yards away, causing him to land on the ground with a painful grunt. She heard a crack, which could have been one of his bones, or the twigs under the leaves he landed on.

"Let me go," he said fiercely, forcing himself to his feet. "I have nothing for you."

"You definitely know something," said Maddy. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be here. I suggest you spill before I go into your mind and get the information anyway."

He sneered, "You can't go into my mind."

"Actually, I can. You're incredibly weak, not to mention that a little torture always helps."

He gulped slightly. "If I tell you, they will kill me."

"And if you don't tell me, I'll kill you. Spill. Now. What the hell do you want with Katherine Pierce? You have three seconds to answer."

"You wouldn't understand," he said sharply. "You know nothing of the Travelers."

"Try me."

"The cure."

"I know about that. It's in Katherine's body right now. The stupid bitch thought to attack my best friend, and she got a mouthful of it in Nova Scotia. What about the cure? Why do the Travelers want it? You're already mortal... all of you. What do you need it for?"

"Aren't you already mortal?" asked Stefan. "What do you need the cure for?"

The man's lip twitched. "Balance. There can only be one of each for what we are trying to accomplish. The Hunters failed, and we cannot."

"The Hunters were supposed to feed Silas the cure and kill him," said Maddy knowingly. "Is that what you're referring to?"

He assented.

"What do you mean, there can only be one of each?"

"One of each doppelgänger,"

"Silas is Stefan's doppelgänger," murmured Maddy. "Kol mentioned something."

"The faces repeat," said the Traveler, who obviously didn't know who Kol was. "The original doppelgängers live, though encased in stone. They must be killed. Silas and Amara will be found and cured, then killed, no matter what you attempt to do."

"Who's Amara?"

"The first Petrova doppelgänger. Silas's lover. The woman who became immortal with him, despite the existence of Silas's wife-to-be Qetsiyah, who created the spell for immortality and the cure. Amara and Silas cannot continue to live. There can only be one pair of doppelgängers."

Maddy snorted. "Don't tell Katherine that, she'll point you toward anyone but herself. I'm guessing you plan to kill her?"

"We won't need to. We only want the cure for now. Katherine Pierce means nothing to us."

There was a sudden 'woosh' and a rush of wind as the air shimmered around them, letting them know that someone was circling them. Maddy and the Traveler instinctively moved to stand back-to-back, looking around wildly, but unable to capture a face amidst the random movements.

"Where is Katherine Pierce?"

A new voice had spoken, and both the Traveler and the vampire turned to see a brunette standing beside them. She had to be a vampire, considering how suddenly she'd appeared.

"Where is Katherine Pierce?" repeated the woman, a cold expression shot toward Maddy.

The other woman crossed her arms. "Who wants to know?"

"Me."

"And who are you? Because if you're here to kill her, then please get in line, I've been wanting to murder her for ages."

The woman simply continued to glare. "Where is she?"

"You're not too far, you can find her yourself."

Maddy only then realized that the man recognized the woman. He was staring at her in disbelief, as if she'd just done something he hadn't thought her capable of.

"My patience is thinning," said the woman more irritably. "Tell me before I kill you both."

"She's in the house," said the Traveler harshly. "Nadia, how could—?"

She sped forward, snapping his neck, then Maddy's, before rushing to the house.

When Maddy came to, she was inside the Boarding House, laid on the couch, with Stefan and Damon waiting beside her.

"Mads," said Stefan immediately when he saw her blinking and starting to sit up. "Are you okay?"

"Did the brunette get Katherine?" she asked, massaging her neck.

Damon nodded. "Yep. The one time I leave the room—"

"You should have taken her down to the basement with you," said Stefan coldly. "Wouldn't have killed her to walk with you to get some booze and a blood bag."

"I didn't want her bothering me!"

"Let's focus on what the hell we're going to do," said Maddy. "I think we should call Klaus. Maybe he knows something about the Travelers that Katherine neglected to mention."

Stefan nodded, as if to indicate that this was a good idea. Damon had to swallow back a comment about how they shouldn't be asking Klaus for anything.

Maddy had texted him, since she knew he might be busy with Marcel. He responded quickly, letting her know that he'd call her once he gathered some old papers that detailed some of the Travelers' backstory.

"This is bad," said Stefan worriedly, once Maddy told them what the man had said to her outside. "If the Travelers want there to be just one male and one female doppelgänger..."

"Then we tell them to kill Katherine," said Maddy. "It's too late to stop them from getting the cure out of her, apparently, so the next best thing is to go along with it. It seems they need the final pair to be alive, not dead. If we ensure the final two are you and Elena, everything will be fine, you two get to live."

"But what if they don't use me, Mads? Think— he said Silas and Amara were the originals. They were lovers, which meant they lived during the same time. They were likely born around the same time, too. What if each doppelgänger has a counterpart of the opposite sex? What if there was a male doppelgänger for Tatia, for Katherine, and for Elena, and a female one for me? Doppelgängers born in the same generation that we don't know about? They could want the last existing doppelgängers of the line. Could mean Elena and whoever was born alongside her... which wouldn't be me."

Damon looked far more concerned, hearing this. "Never thought I'd say this but we need Klaus to call us back ASAP. If anyone knows more about this mystery woman and the Travelers, it's him."

Klaus's call arrived an hour later, when they'd had Bonnie do a Locator Spell using Katherine's hairbrush to try and find her. Unfortunately, they'd come up empty-handed.

"This lady must have some personal vendetta against her," snorted Damon. "All her bad deeds are coming back to bite her in the ass.

Maddy's phone rang, and she answered immediately. "Nik, you're on speaker."

"Very well, then," he began. "I perused through a few old books Kol had. The story appears to be inconsistent, but it all points back to two famous Traveler witches: Silas and Qetsiyah. It details the creation of the Other Side and the use of an anchor just as ancient as the two of them. One with mystical abilities. You stated that the Traveler said both original doppelgängers were encased in stone. Silas, in the caves. This woman... Amara... is the anchor. Preserved indefinitely in stone. Calcified completely and holding the balance of the Other Side. As an immortal, it keeps it stable."

"What doesn't make sense to me," said Damon, "is how they plan to get the cure out of Katherine."

"From what this book states, once one ingests the cure, their blood becomes the cure."

"Hang on," asked Stefan, "wouldn't that mean that extracting the cure from Katherine would kill her?"

"With any luck..." murmured Damon.

Klaus hummed. "There is nothing written about that. No one has ever taken the cure until now. Even 'the cure becoming the blood' sentence is marked as a prediction. Though, it seems to be the truth, considering Katerina is being pursued."

Maddy wrung her hands together. "If they manage to kill the anchor, doesn't that mean the Other Side would collapse?"

"I'd expect so, love. Witches are fond of balance. If the anchor that has held the Other Side upright for two thousand years were to die, then I expect that hellish limbo would vanish soon afterward."

That didn't sound like good news at all.

"What the hell do we do, then?" asked Maddy. "How are we supposed to stop them from doing that?"

"We don't have to do anything," said Damon. "We're not dead. We just have to try not to die anytime soon."

Maddy glared at him. "What about Ric? And Finn? And Kol? Even Sage? They're on the Other Side! What happens to them if it falls apart? And what if one of us dies no matter how much we try to prevent it? We're not going to peace, I assure you. That sounds like a one way ticket to hell."

The door opened suddenly, and the vampires turned to see the woman from earlier walking in, but without Katherine.

"I'll call you back, Nik," said Maddy slowly before hanging up. "What do you want?"

She stared at them emotionlessly. "The Travelers took her. I suppose word of my betrayal reached their ears quite rapidly."

Okay, so this lady was aligned with the Travelers before, but she wasn't now. Good to know. Maddy made a mental note of it.

"And who might you be?" asked Damon.

The woman's lip twitched. "Nadia Petrova."

"Petrova?" Stefan repeated. "As in... Katerina Petrova?"

"Her daughter."

They all stared at her, stunned.

"It may be too much for your small minds to comprehend," she said. "I only wished to tell her the truth. Unfortunately, she was taken before I could. I need her back. I believe our interests align here. I want Katherine to stay with me. You all want her and the Travelers out of your lives."

"Aren't we forgetting one obvious detail?" asked Maddy. "Katherine's probably already dead."

"No," replied Nadia. "I saw it with my own eyes. They extracted a great deal of her blood, but her heart never ceased to beat. She is alive. The Travelers have what they need. But they will kill her soon, if we do not get her back first."

"Sounds like you're the only one benefitting here," said Damon. "I don't give a crap if Katherine dies. So why would we help you keep her alive?"

Nadia's lips curled slightly. "The Travelers want the final two doppelgängers. No others can be alive at the same time. If Katherine lives, their plan will fail. They do not want to use Katherine for this."

Maddy hummed. "What do we do, then? If Travelers are witches, I doubt another Locator Spell will work. We couldn't find her even when she was just with you."

"The Travelers must find the anchor before they can kill her. A group might already be on their way to Silas. The other, to find Amara. The witch who cast the spell over Amara is dead. Which means there will be nothing stopping us from finding her if we use Elena Gilbert's blood."

The siblings shared a look. "I'll call her," said Maddy. "If she agrees to help, then we'll do it."

She chose not to follow them on the trip. Damon and Stefan accompanied Nadia once they had Elena's blood. The doppelgänger had to return to school shortly after. Maddy decided that a trip to Whitmore sounded like a good idea now that no one was there to bother her.

"Bonnie," she said, when the witch called her hours later, once she arrived in Whitmore. "What's up?"

"Elena told me about the trip to get the anchor and Katherine. I thought someone should know that I had a... really weird feeling just now."

"What do you mean? What's 'weird' about it?"

"I could sense a change. Something different in the world."

"Do you think they didn't make it in time? The anchor is dead?"

"I think so. Whoever the new one is, they were probably chosen arbitrarily... I doubt that this Qetsiyah lady had a back up in case the anchor stopped being the anchor. Chances are it's a witch. Doesn't bode well, considering us witches are mortal, which leaves the Other Side vulnerable. Any news on what the Travelers actually want with the doppelgängers?"

"No," said Maddy, narrowing her eyes when she pulled up to Whitmore and saw a blond man speaking with a brunette, who handed him something discreetly as she walked past him, before he started to move rather quickly in the opposite direction. "I'm at Whitmore doing some digging on something from my past. Maybe I'll get lucky and find someone who's involved in this."

"Be careful."

"I will be. How are you?"

"As well as can be expected now that I know that the Other Side might collapse with Kol and my Grams stuck there. I'm going to try and connect with them, if possible. Maybe there's a spell they can tell me about, to make myself the anchor. If I channel the entire Bennett line, living and dead, I can keep the Other Side intact."

"Are you sure, Bonnie? Why not just get a random person, turn them into a vampire, leave them to desiccate, and link the Other Side to them? Boom, something immortal. Then you'd just have to do Protection Spells to keep them from being killed."

"I can't hurt a random person like that, Maddy. It's not right. I can handle it."

"Bonnie, this is completely unfamiliar territory. I know you're strong but there's a point where it can become too much. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I'll figure something out. I'll talk to you later."

Maddy sighed as the Bennett witch hung up. She got out of the car, following after the blond man who'd accepted the small package from the brunette. She figured that watching him from afar was a safer bet until she learned who he was.

"Dr. Wesley Maxfield," she murmured to herself, watching him entering the Biology building through a marked door using a keycard. "I wonder what you needed so badly that you had to do what looked to be a drug deal."

She followed after him, trying to open the door, but being unable to. He was still in the main room, however, and heard her.

"Yes?" he asked, poking his head out.

"Prospective student here," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I had a few questions about the Biology program?"

"General or microbiology? I teach the latter."

"Undecided, so I'll say micro for now and ask about general later on. I'm trying to decide if this is a good school for me."

He hummed, looking over his shoulder. Maddy caught sight of a figure in a door window down the hall, likely someone waiting for him. Even just looking through the building was sending a chill down her spine. She had a feeling this structure stood over the cell she'd been kept in before. There was a chilling familiarity to the location.

"Well," said Dr. Maxfield, checking his watch, "I am a bit preoccupied right now, but I'd be happy to set a meeting for... this Friday, at six o'clock? Does that work for you?"

"Sure," she said. "Can I bring my brother? He'll be paying the tuition and he wants to know what benefits I'd get here."

"Of course. Um— your name?"

"Lily Branson," she replied smoothly. "My brother Lorenzo will be coming with me."

"I'll be seeing you both here, then, Lily."

When she returned to the Boarding House, Damon and Stefan were back. Nadia had apparently taken Katherine to a safe house after the Travelers left her near dead form how much blood they drained. So far, she seemed to be doing fine.

No Travelers appeared the day after that. Or the day after that. Once the weekend came around, Elena decided that she wanted to throw a party, inconveniently around the same time that Maddy and Damon would have to meet Dr. Maxfield at Whitmore.

"What is this even a celebration for?" asked Maddy.

Elena bit her lip, before leaning in to whisper in her ear, "The Wicked Witch will soon be no more."

"Uh... what does that mean?"

"So... I guess that Matt and Rebekah had some sort of threesome with Nadia—"

"I'm sorry, what? Matt and Rebekah slept with Katherine's daughter? Ugh, yuck. I mean, she's hot, but yuck."

"The point is that Matt knows Nadia. The Traveler in him was Nadia's boyfriend. And I say was because Katherine used something called a 'Traveler knife' on him, which apparently expels Travelers from their hosts. Since this man's tre body was destroyed, he had nowhere to return to, so he died. Anyway, Matt ended up finding out that Katherine is aging suuuper rapidly since the cure exited her system. One of her molars fell out while she was eating a cookie. It's supposed to be kept lowkey, so don't tell your brothers. But Katherine is going to die soon."

Maddy hummed. "When she dies... that means the Travelers get what they want."

"We'll work on finding other doppelgängers, don't worry. Bonnie's figuring out a spell. I trust her. I know she'll be able to keep Stefan and I safe."

"Just be careful, okay?"

"You too. Why are you and Damon being so secretive about this business at Whitmore? Meredith told me that Damon refuses to tell her why he's going there with you."

"It's something personal, don't worry. If anything, contact Klaus. He knows the truth."

"That's ominous. Sure you don't need extra backup?"

"It's better you have your party and stay safe. We'll let you know if we need anything, okay?"

"Alright." Elena couldn't help but still feel worried.

Once Damon and Maddy got to Whitmore, they went right to Dr. Maxfield's office, entering it at six o'clock sharp.

"Lily, and Lorenzo, of course," said Dr. Maxfield, not noticing the look on Damon's face when he realized what his cover name was. "Come on in."

Again, Maddy caught sight of a figure in the far door of the hall.

"Who's that over there?" she asked curiously. "Eager student?"

Dr. Maxfield hummed. "A test subject, actually."

"Test subject?" asked Damon. "You're experimenting on people?"

"Not people. I would think you two would know, considering you're Salvatores."

The siblings shared a look. "Yes, I do know who you really are," said Dr. Maxfield. "I got curious, looked up the names Lorenzo and Lily Branson, came up empty-handed. But it did link me to an Alexia Branson, who was in a photograph with you, Madeleine Salvatore. Why the fake names?"

Maddy kept an air of confidence. "You know how it is in this world... you can't trust anyone. Using fake names is safer."

"How are you two related to the original Salvatores? A colleague of mine worked with them in the past."

"We're Zach Salvatore's kids," said Damon. "He died not too long ago. We didn't want to stay in town, but considering how vampire-infested it was when we came back for the funeral... we had to keep an eye on things."

Maddy glared at him, as if unhappy that he brought up vampires.

Dr. Maxfield didn't seem to think anything of it. "My research revolves around that. Vampires."

"You study their biological mechanisms?" asked Maddy, knowing that they'd hit the jackpot. Dr. Maxfield most likely had ties to Augustine. They just had to prove it. "That's actually kind of fascinating. That test subject... it's a vampire you captured?"

"No, he was actually turned into a vampire not long ago... he was a student of mine and he came, needing my help."

Damon snorted. "So you turned him into a lab rat."

"It was an opportunity, and I seized it," said Dr. Maxfield. "Human trials are a vital part of modern medicine."

Damon crossed his arms. "Yeah, but don't people usually volunteer or sign waivers? Maybe get some dough for tuition?"

Dr. Maxfield remained calm. "Sometimes you do what's necessary for the greater good."

"I'm not the greatest guy in the world, but sounds like some Mengele-level crap that you're spouting out. So I gotta ask, what is your greater good?"

"I want to create a new kind of vampire," said Dr. Maxfield, shuffling a few papers in his hands and moving to store them in some binders off to the side.

"That's awfully ambitious of you," said Damon.

Dr. Maxfield appeared smug for a moment. "I am awfully smart."

"I would assume so," said Maddy. "Studying vampires involves magic. It must be so much harder than just studying regular humans. What's this 'new kind of vampire' thing? I'm concerned enough with the problem we have in Mystic Falls. Damon and I have nearly died a bunch of times helping the Sheriff kill vampires. If this 'new vampire' ends up worse..."

"Definitely not," said Dr. Maxfield. "Vampires are dangerous to humans, because humans are their food source. I want to change that. If vampires don't need to feed on humans, they're no longer a threat. If I'm successful, these new vampires won't be satisfied with human blood. They'll need to feed on vampires to sustain themselves."

Damon and Maddy instantly shared a concerned look, that didn't escape Dr. Maxfield's notice.

"I heard of a vampire who fed on vampires, once," said Maddy, trying to act as if she and Damon weren't worried. "He was one of the first vampires, I think. He did it of his own volition."

"This wouldn't be a choice," said Dr. Maxfield. "It would be the only way to survive. They'd be unable to control their hunger once they get a taste of vampire blood. Vampires will cease to exist once they all begin to kill each other."

"Walk me through how that works," said Maddy, fingers twitching as they inched toward her phone as discreetly as possible. She thinking to rush out of the room and call Klaus immediately. "Would this Ripper vampire's blood turn other vampires into Rippers, too, or would you need to infect all of them for it to happen?"

"That's yet to be determined. The research is still in its first phase. I need more test subjects, first. Think you can get me a vampire?"

"Potentially," said Maddy, watching as Damon moved toward a nearby refrigerator, starting to snoop around. "It's hard to get them alive, though."

"What the hell is this?" said Damon suddenly, holding up a blood bag he found in the refrigerator. "Why does this say 12144?"

"What do you care?" asked Dr. Maxfield suspiciously.

"Because I was 21051," said Damon. "And Maddy was 21052."

The shocked expression on the professor's face indicated that he hadn't actually known that they were vampires, though he had clearly been getting suspicious as the conversation carried on.

"Hang on," he said. "You two were Augustine vampires?"

"Yeah," said Damon bitterly. "Vampire lab rads, coded subject names. We thought you guys shut down sixty years ago. We came to check... wondering. Turns out you're still active."

"That's a shame," said Maddy, getting to her feet and holding up her phone, starting to type her message to Klaus. "Looks like we're going to have to kill you, Wes."

He suddenly lunged for a button on the wall, slamming his fist against it. Immediately, a gas started to fill the room. At first, Maddy didn't think it would do anything, until both she and Damon started to cough and wheeze, sinking to the ground.

"Atomized vervain," said Dr. Maxfield. "When working with vampires, you can never be too careful. I'm sure Augustine will be thrilled to have you back."

Maddy didn't get to hit send before she passed out.

A/N: HI ALL! I finally moved into my dorm. Updated this chapter from there, hehe. I don't know how fast updates will be from hereon out... I know I usually update like once a day but now that I have roommates and classes in person (remote for the first two weeks but we'll see how that goes) I don't think I can manage to update every day. I will do my best to update often!! Please be patient with me, living far from home is not going to be easy ;-; also if any of you are from the Bay Area (California, USA) please give me tips/advice on how to navigate this new environment. Thanks!