"I love you, little brother."
"I love you, too."
The moment was sweet. But that's all it was, a moment. Out of nowhere, Caroline zooms into the cave and breaks Damon's neck while Alaric sneaks up on Stefan, injecting him with a sedative.
"These two are idiots, and sedatives?" Caroline probed.
"After the whole Gilbert ring split personality thing, I added it to my stash. Just in case." Alaric replied. Caroline was impressed, but she didn't have time to think about that. She dragged Damon's body to the side of the tunnel, while Alaric just stood there. "What are we doing? We need to get as far away from this as possible. We can't risk this for the girls. They—"
"Do you trust Bonnie?" Caroline asked. She had this look on her face. Alaric had only seen it a few times. She didn't want to be difficult, but she didn't want to lose anyone. She was desperate and determined to see this through.
"Caroline, we don't even know if Bonnie has magic. At the wedding, that was—"
"Lizzie and Josie siphoning magic from Bonnie. Unless our daughters have spontaneously got powers of their own, what else could it have been, Ric? And that is your best friend and this is my husband." she said, pulling Stefan's body next to Damon's.
"I don't—" Alaric couldn't say anything even if he wanted to.
"I mean Bonnie was powerful enough to create her own dimension where she kept Enzo."
"And now it's gone. When Lizzie and Josie siphoned Bonnie, they took that dimension away from her. Caroline, you know what it's like to lose a mother. You can't do that to our kids. They need you. " Alaric managed to say.
"You know— " Caroline's voice trailed off.
Alaric was confused. Caroline didn't just stop when she went off on one of her rants. "What? Why—"
Caroline pushes her hair behind her ears. "Shhh, I think Bonnie did it. I hear the hellfire. It's coming back," she responded.
"Did we really argue that much?" He wasn't joking, but Caroline wasn't going to answer and Alaric knew that. "So what's the plan?" he asked again.
"Something the Salvatore martyrs failed to think of." she smiled.
A few minutes passed. Caroline and Alaric just sat there, re-daggering Katherine every time her body moved. "You'd think this would be more dramatic," Alaric said, pushing the dagger into Katherine, once more.
"Or fun." Caroline added. Alaric grinned. "Sorry, I just think that killing the queen of Hell and ending all of the misery she caused would be more fulfilling." Caroline was miffed.
"Careful, Caroline. Your Klaus is showing." Alaric joked.
Caroline rolled her eyes and got up. She pulled Katherine's body into the tunnel and yanked the dagger out of her heart. "Got any vervain in that stash?" Caroline asked, propping Katherine up in front of her.
"Yeah," Alaric said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a syringe. He tosses it to Caroline who injects it into Katherine.
"Ugh, why am I so groggy? And when did you get so knife happy, Caroline? I thought we were friends." Katherine groaned as she woke. Katherine didn't have much time to process. By the time her vision came back to her, all she could see was the yellow and orange of the fire approaching. "No, no. Caroline, please." Katherine tried to break free, but the vervain had weakened her.
"Burn in Hell, bitch." Caroline stabbed Katherine with the dagger and sped out of the tunnel as fast as she could. By the time she turned around, she only saw fire, but she didn't turn away from it. She waited and watched as the last of the hellfire left the tunnel. And when she couldn't hear anything, she let out a sigh of relief. It was all over.
Caroline turned around and grabbed Stefan's body, lugging it back to the car where the twins were sound asleep. "Do you think we'll ever tell them that they slept through Mystic Falls almost being destroyed?" Alaric whispered, dragging Damon's body to the trunk.
"Wha… Are we really putting our passed out family in trunk of the car?" Caroline snap-whispered.
"Do you wanna wake the girls?" Alaric chuckled, opening the trunk.
"Oh, God no." she said, tossing Stefan in. Alaric followed, placing Damon in.
When Stefan wakes up, his head is throbbing. It takes a few seconds for his vision to clear before realizing that his friends surround him. "What happened?" he asked, grabbing his head.
"Well, for starters, you didn't die." Caroline said. She gives Stefan a quick peck on the lips.
"No, then that means, Damon, what happened —" Stefan jerked up. He tried to push past Caroline but he wasn't strong enough.
"How is it that of all times to wake up, you choose the few minutes I go to take a piss?" Damon said, entering the room.
"Damon how? What? Is Katherine?" Stefan asked, confused.
"Blondie outsmarted us and saved both our asses. I guess we'll both just have to live with the mistakes we made." Damon replied.
"Actually, Bonnie did that. I just stopped one or both of you from killing yourselves in the process. And here this should help you head, Stefan." Caroline said, handing him an aspirin and water. "You bumped your head on the way back to the house, last night." He quickly downed the medicine and turned his attention to Bonnie. She was standing the furthest away, trying to hide behind the crowd, but it wasn't working. He got up and walked to her.
"I know that this wasn't part of the plan," he paused to get her to look at him, which Bonnie did, with hostility, "but I will spent everyday for the rest of my life trying to apologize for what I took from you." He said. Bonnie nodded, tears formed in her eyes. "Brother," Stefan said as he walked out of the room and Damon followed.
When Damon caught up to his brother, he was sitting in the back yard, a bottle of bourbon and two glasses next to him. "A little early to be drinking, Stefan." Damon smiled. Stefan didn't respond. "And mixing aspirin and booze. Your fragile body couldn't handle it." He added, sitting next to Stefan. That managed to get him to smirk.
There's a pause. Both brothers sit there, thinking of what to say, what to do, next.
"It's harder to live. If I died, I wouldn't have to look at Bonnie's face, everyday. I wouldn't have to think about Enzo and anyone else I killed during my ripper spree or all the misery I caused." Stefan said.
"That's life, Stefan. We've all done terrible things and we need to learn to accept it and let go. I know that you think everything that's happened over the past 200 years is your fault, but it's not. I killed Tyler Lockwood, it was my choice."
"No, Damon. That was Sybil. That wasn't your—" Stefan shook his head.
"And neither was your ripper spree. Seline saw that. She knew you felt remorse and that's why she didn't kill you in 1917. You were a slave to your addiction. And plus you were always a dick without your humanity." Stefan laughed. Damon had always loved making his brother smile, but this time was different. He could tell that the stress of everything had gotten to him. The lines on his face were a little deeper, but that didn't stop Stefan from smiling.
"I want to help you, brother." Damon said. Stefan turned to him. "I want to be there for you the way you've been there for me all those times over the past two hundred years."
"What, an eternity of misery passed?" Stefan scoffed.
Damon half-smiled the way he always did. "How about a new promise? A lifetime of redemption. No, a lifetime of fun."
"It's not nearly as catchy, but deal." Stefan grinned.
If you liked this, please let me know by leaving a review! I was thinking of doing an epilogue or something. Any thoughts on the idea?