The night air was cold, but she barely felt it. Her entire body felt raw, but the worst of it was the silence inside her body. She couldn't feel the hum of her powers or feel the earth beneath her anymore, or even the connection she once had. All that was left was just a cold, empty void wrapped in a ridiculous silver-white halo of hair. It was a suffocating kind of quiet, the kind that made every breath feel heavy and every step feel unanchored.
"You know, if I didn't know you, I'd say you committed a crime and are looking for a way to cover it up with all that pacing around," a voice came from behind her.
Bonnie stopped, closing her eyes tightly for a brief second to gather whatever resolve she had left. She didn't want to deal with his deflections right now. She didn't have the energy for it.
"Leave me alone, Damon," Bonnie said with her voice tight as she stared into the dark tree line. "I don't have time for this."
Damon said nothing. Before she could even think to turn and face him, a cold hand caught her upper arm. Damon spun her around, his grip firm, and shoved her backward. Her spine hit the rough brick wall of the carriage house with a dull thud. He didn't let go; instead, he stepped directly into her personal space, planting his heavy palms against the cold brick on either side of her head, effectively pinning her where she stood.
"What the hell are you doing, Damon?" Bonnie gasped as her breathing turned shallow and she stared up at him.
She brought her hands up, pressing them firmly against his chest to shove him back, but without her magic, she felt infuriarily small against his unyielding vampire strength. He didn't budge an inch. It was a harsh, physical reminder of the vulnerability she had just been handed.
"Let me go," she demanded, her voice cracking slightly.
"No," Damon answered with a blank stare, his blue eyes flashing with a dangerous look of apathy "You don't get to just walk away just because your magic is now shot to hell, Bonnie. You scorched your own brain cells to keep Finn Mikaelson from turning me into a human jigsaw puzzle!"
"I did what I had to do!" Bonnie shouted back, her voice cracking as the tears she had been fighting finally spilled over her lower lids. "You were going to die, Damon! Your heart was half-out of your chest! What was I supposed to do? Stand there and watch?!"
"Yes!" Damon roared, his face mere inches from hers, his jaw clenched tight. "You were supposed to run! You're the golden goose, Bonnie! You're the witch who holds the keys to getting me and my brother free of that insufferable sire bond, you were supposed to be the one to free my brother, Caroline, and every other unfortunate soul from that insufferable family, Bonnie! And you traded it for me? I'm the bad guy, remember? I'm the selfish one! You don't get to ruin your life, you don't get to turn into an early-bird special just to keep me breathing!"
"I couldn't just let you go!" she screamed back at him "Don't you get it, you idiot? I couldn't lose you too!"
Damon froze the exact second the words left her mouth. The manic, defensive anger that had been blooming in his eyes fractured completely, leaving behind a stunned, vulnerable silence. He stared down at her, the tight set of his shoulders dropping as the realization of her confession fully sank in.
"Don't blame yourself for this, Bonnie," Damon said "Don't do that. I know why you did it, okay? I know. But if anyone is to blame for those scorched channels in your head, it's me. I dragged you into doing what you did. I'm the one who put you in a position to make that choice."
He stopped talking, his gaze lingering on her tear-stained cheeks. His eyes tracked a single tear down to her lips, then flicked back up to meet her wide, terrified eyes.
"What are you doing?" Bonnie whispered with her trembling voice. The cold stone at her back felt a million miles away compared to the sudden, overwhelming heat radiating from him.
"Something I should have done a long time ago," Damon murmured.
He lunged forward, tilting his head as his lips smashed against hers.
Damon's hands left the brick wall, one lashing out to wrap tightly around the back of her neck, his leather-clad fingers tangling deep into her stark white curls, pulling her flush against his chest. His other hand gripped her waist, anchoring her to him with a fierce, territorial intensity. Bonnie gasped into the kiss, her hands instinctively climbing up his broad shoulders, clutching at him in sheer shock.
For a split second, her brain screamed at her to pull away, to remember the chaos, to remember who he was. And then, she gave into it. She leaned heavily into his embrace, her fingers tangling in the collar of his jacket as the empty, freezing void inside her chest was momentarily torched by the sheer force of his mouth against hers.
When he finally pulled away, his forehead lingered against hers for a beat before he took a step back, his blue eyes unreadable in the moonlight.
Bonnie blinked, breathless, her fingers trembling as she touched her lower lip. "I... I wasn't expecting that."
Damon's trademark smirk crawled back onto his face, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Don't lie, Bennett. It doesn't suit the new hair."
Bonnie swallowed hard, trying to find her footing on the gravel. "What about Elena?"
Damon's smirk faded into a flat, neutral expression. "What about her?"
"You love her, Damon."
"Loved," Damon corrected her instantly with a sharp tone. He shook his head as a look of tired acceptance settled over his features. "Past tense, Bonnie. I know the score. She's always going to love Stefan. It's always going to be him, no matter how many times I try to rewrite the script. I spent a century playing second choice to my brother with Katherine, and I'm done doing it with Elena. It's time to move on. Besides..." He looked away, his jaw tightening. "We both know I'm not the guy people choose. I'm not good enough."
Bonnie stared at him, seeing right through the armor he had spent centuries building. Without a word, she stepped back into his space, reached up, and grabbed his shirt, pulling him down into another kiss. This time, there was no hesitation and no shock.
When they finally broke apart, Bonnie kept her hands resting on his chest, her eyes locked onto his with absolute certainty.
"Don't say that," Bonnie whispered, "You are good, Damon. Even if you spend every waking moment trying to convince the rest of the world that you aren't."
———-
On the northern ridge of Mystic Falls, near the crumbling remains of the old Fell property, Elijah walked with his hand resting casually inside his suit jacket. Beside him, Rebekah moved with her head tilting as she listened to the ambient sounds of the forest, her vampire senses picking up the rustle of leaves and the distant scurry of wildlife.
The silence between them was comfortable, until Elijah decided to break it.
"So," Elijah began with a smooth voice "How are things with Michael?"
Rebekah let out a soft huff, a knowing smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she kept her eyes on the path ahead. "How did I know you were about to ask me that?"
Elijah chuckled with a low, melodic sound. "That is because I know you well, sister. And your silence on the matter since we arrived has been uncharacteristically loud."
"It's good," Rebekah admitted, her posture softening slightly as she looked down at the forest floor. "We have resolved the matter of him abandoning us."
Elijah raised an elegant eyebrow, glancing sideways at her. "Just like that? You simply sat down, exchanged pleasantries, and erased centuries of radio silence?"
Rebekah shrugged with a defensive but amused glint appearing in her eyes. "Well... there was a bit of fighting first. Naturally."
"Oh dear," Elijah said, his tone dripping with mock shock "A bit of fighting? Let me guess. You threw a tantrum, shattered half the furniture in a ten-mile radius, and he let you win?"
"Shut up, brother," Rebekah snapped, though there was no real venom in it. She shoved his shoulder playfully, but her expression quickly turned serious as she looked back at him. "Weren't you angry when he left? After everything we've been through, he just vanished. He left us to deal with Niklaus's paranoia all by ourselves."
Elijah stopped walking. He turned to face his sister, the dappled moonlight filtering through the canopy and casting sharp lines across his features.
"For a time, sister, I was indeed upset," Elijah said softly. He sighed, looking past her into the shadows of the woods as he reflected on the complicated history they shared with the man leading them. "But then I remembered the reality of our situation. Michael has lived longer than any of us. He has walked this earth for centuries before we were even a thought in our mother's mind. I cannot fathom the things that man could have been chasing throughout his long life, or worse... what could have been chasing him."
Elijah took a step closer to Rebekah, his expression turning deeply earnest. "Think of the things he left unresolved in his own life just to become a brother to me and Niklaus. He came into our chaos, raised us to be the best versions of ourselves, and became a lover to you, my dear sister. He didn't have to take on our burdens, yet he chose to."
A small, genuine smile touched Elijah's lips. "That is why I simply stopped being angry. After everything he has done for this family, resentment felt entirely ungrateful. Think of how many times he has shielded Niklaus from our father's fits and horrific outbursts. He threw himself into the line of fire between Mikael and Niklaus more times than I care to count."
He shook his head, his voice dropping into a lower, more serious register. "He possesses the power and the means to end our brother. If Michael truly wished for Niklaus's demise, he could have executed it long ago. But he didn't. He didn't because I know, in his heart, he cares for us. Everything he has done, every secret he has kept, every time he has vanished into the shadows has been to make sure that we all don't meet a tragic end at the hands of our mother or our past."
Rebekah listened quietly and looked at Elijah, her blue eyes shining with a mixture of relief and lingering worry.
"I know you're right, Elijah," Rebekah said softly, wrapping her arms tightly around herself against the chill. "It's just... When you spend a thousand years expecting everyone to eventually drive a dagger through your heart, it's hard to trust a man who actually tries to keep you alive. I just hope whatever he's planning for Mother is enough to keep us all in one piece."
Suddenly, the air shifted, turning thick and heavy with the scent of ozone and freshly turned earth.
"Well, well, well," Elijah said without looking, "It seems our brother has forgotten the virtue of discretion."
Kol stepped out from behind a stone mausoleum, his hands shoved carelessly in his pockets with a sharp, manic grin cutting across his handsome face.
"Elijah. Rebekah. What a delightful surprise," Kol purred, his voice dripping with venomous mockery. "Are we out for a midnight stroll while talking about all the good Michael has done for you trio? His favorite little playthings." He stopped, his grin vanishing as he locked his gaze onto Elijah with a deep, bitter frown, before he suddenly chuckled with a cold, humorless sound.
Elijah stepped forward, his eyes narrowing to sharp slits as he evaluated his younger brother's erratic posture and volatile energy. "I am going to ask you this once, Kol, and I suggest you answer with whatever shred of sanity you have left. Are you currently yourself? Or are you still performing as a puppet under our mother's wretched thrall?"
Kol let out a bitter laugh, shaking his head. "A puppet? Oh, Elijah, always so binary. Mother doesn't need to pull my strings. She simply reminds me of what happens when I don't follow the choreography. Unlike you, I don't fancy spending the next millennium in a silver box or a shallow grave."
Before Elijah could speak, Rebekah cut in, her patience entirely spent.
"You've lost your mind," Rebekah hissed, her fangs dropping instantly as the dark, pulsing veins of her vampire visage veered violently under her eyes. "You're actually going to help that bloody witch against us! You're helping her hunt us!"
"I am surviving, Bex!" Kol roared, his face shifting into his vampire visage in a split second as the dark veins pulsed violently under his eyes.
He blurred forward, launching himself at Elijah. Elijah met him head-on, his greater age and centuries of disciplined combat giving him the immediate advantage. He caught Kol smoothly by the throat, using his own momentum to slam him into the stone mausoleum beside them. The impact cracked the heavy masonry, sending dust raining down onto the grass.
But Kol was wild, fueled by a frantic, cornered energy. He immediately brought his knee up into Elijah's ribs, breaking the hold with a sickening crack of bone, and spun away into the shadows.
Rebekah lunged to assist Elijah, her eyes fixed on Kol, but she never saw the shadow that sped across from her blindside.
CRACK.
Finn appeared directly behind Rebekah, his arm lashing out with brutal force. Before she could even register his presence, his hand clamped onto her chin and the back of her skull, twisting with a sickening, wet crunch. Rebekah's eyes went wide with shock, her body instantly going limp as her neck snapped completely. A dark trail of blood welled from her lips as she collapsed into the dirt like a broken doll.
"Rebekah!" Elijah shouted as his composure shattered into a raw, primal panic.
He looked at Finn with absolute fury, his breathing ragged, before his gaze flicked back to Kol, and then finally locked back onto his eldest brother. The betrayal burned like acid in his veins.
"What manner of despicable treachery is this?" Elijah hissed, his voice trembling with a lethal promise. "To strike down your own sister from the shadows? Have you truly fallen this low, Finn?"
"Save your breath, Elijah," Finn replied smoothly, his expression entirely empty, devoid of any remorse. "Your self-righteous posture is entirely redundant now. Mother demands a clean slate, and you will come with us to her. Willingly or in chains, the choice is yours brother."
Elijah's eyes narrowed, a cold, ruthless calm settling over him as he adjusted his posture. "Over my dead body."
He moved to intercept Finn, his speed blurring the air, but Kol tackled him from the side. The two brothers crashed violently through a massive, dead tree, causing pieces of wood and dry bark to fly through the air like shrapnel as they rolled into the dirt.
Finn stood over Rebekah's unmoving form with an empty expression. He reached down to grab her arm to drag her away—
BANG.
A high-caliber sniper round tore through the midnight air. The silver-tipped, enchanted bullet ripped cleanly through Finn's right shoulder, the explosive force shattering the clavicle and throwing him backward into a row of headstones. Blood erupted from the wound, sizzling as the magical alloy reacted with his ancient flesh.
"Get away from her, you ancient prick!"
The voice echoed loudly across the open field. Elijah looked up, his eyes sharp as he tracked the trajectory, to see Harry, one of Michael's Death Dealers standing tall, his eyes glowing a fierce, golden-yellow. The werewolf had two modified tactical pistols drawn at his side. Another Death Dealer was positioned as a sniper over the roof of one of the abandoned buildings, while three more Death Dealers clad in full tactical gear emerged from the tree line behind Harry, their automatic weapons tightly trained on the two hostile Originals.
Finn groaned painfully, clutching his shattered shoulder as he hissed, "Wolves..."
"A werewolf with a gun," Kol sneered, wiping dirt from his face as he stepped into the light. "How terribly modern."
Finn pushed himself up against a stone, his shoulder already smoking as his body forced the silver fragments out of the wound with a wet, squelching sound. He glared at Harry, his fingers twitching with murderous intent. "You are out of your depth, beast."
"Try me," Harry growled, his jaw locking as his claws began to violently extend from his fingers. "The Lord sent us to keep watch on his family. But seeing as you both want to harm the two on his side, you are automatically our Lord's enemy."
Harry brought the two pistols up, leveling them directly at the two brothers. The magazines were loaded with specialized rounds dipped in hellfire.a lethal gift from Michael's arsenal designed to burn even an Original from the inside out.
But before Harry could pull the triggers against the hostile Originals, a thick, unnatural fog rolled over the clearing within seconds, completely obscuring their line of sight. Just then, Kol slyly threw a small, metallic sphere that rolled aggressively through the grass right toward the werewolves' boots.
As soon as Harry saw it, his golden eyes widened in instant recognition. "Shit!" he barked.
A deafening, high-pitched shriek instantly pierced the eardrums of everyone present? the localized, amplified wail of the banshee's trapped inside the dark object. The Death Dealers and Elijah groaned simultaneously, dropping to their knees and clamping their hands over their ears as the agonizing sound completely overwhelmed their super-senses, making their vision blur.
By the time Harry cleared his vision, fought through the ringing in his ears, and raised his pistols back into the fading mist, the clearing was dead silent. He saw Elijah standing a few feet away, breathing heavily and looking around the empty space frantically.
Elijah turned to the wolves, his expression a mask of pure horror. "They're gone. And so is my sister."
Kol, Finn, and the unconscious body of Rebekah were completely gone.
————