[ oh, elena will never trust the two are far as she can throw them.

even the agents she has come to know and like, she wouldn't say she trusts them. at the end of the day they're still the people in power. she's thought of it before - if the two give them incentives such as these so they'll cooperate, but it just doesn't make it any less important to her - that she gets to see ric again where he would otherwise be dead, that someone like rue is relatively safe as opposed to forced into the hunger games to a potentially equally grisly fate.

it matters, even if it's all meant for their own purposes. it doesn't mean elena can't find her own meaning in it. she has to. there's no choice in her being there as it is. it's just stronger than her, stronger than even klaus if it can strip him completely of his powers. ]

No, there aren't. And they claim to believe in an even playing field, so people with abilities - they're stripped of them. In some cases that's a really good thing. [ bc who wants klaus and katherine at their full powers? ] In other ways, it makes getting answers or leaving that much harder. It's just - it's bigger than us.

[ so she has to find a way to move on with her life in spite of that. ]