A/N: A more emotional, and intense writing of the Cade/Bonnie/Damon fight scene in 8x14 as well as the hell fire scene in 8x16.
Warning: Involves sensitive subject matter. It is also fairly implied anti-enzo.
Clarity (Say Something)
Staring into the heinous eyes of Cade, Bonnie could feel her newly acquired power like a buzzing energy all around. Pushing with all of her might to overpower Cade, her wide eyes watched Damon as he struggled to keep his hold on the rock inbetween them. Bonnie's gaze shifted to Cade, and she pushed even harder. She could feel Cade's power hitting her like nothing before ever had. It was a feeling of dread, and as she looked down to see Damon was hanging on with little strength, she realized she was terrified. In the midst of the battle she felt small, and weak.
"Damon." Bonnie choked out. Their eyes met.
"Let go." Damon begged her, his blue eyes never leaving hers.
Bonnie could feel tears drip from her eyes. "No!" She refused.
At the last second she poured all of her magic towards Cade; but in this split moment, Damon's grip on the rock loosened. He went flying backwards towards Cade and in a moment of complete and utter terror, he was swallowed whole into an abyss. Bonnie screamed, a sound so loud and so intense it shook the already electrified air around them. With her body shaking, she put her hands forward and with every ounce of strength she could muster from the tip of her toes to the top of her head, she sent Cade's body into a state of paralyzation.
Bonnie felt every layer of the sticky poisonous tar surrounding her soul wash clean as Cade's power was overtaken by hers; and a clarity she had not felt in years bathed her. As air whirled around her, and she was brought back into reality, life came pouring into her eyes, as did her surroundings. Her heart lurched in her chest, and she felt more alive than she could remember feeling in months. Flickers of Enzo's face crossed her mind, the feeling of his lips against hers, his hands on her body, and all of this seemed like it had been a dream. As though the woman in her memories was not her, but ghost of her.
"Where am I?" Bonnie whispered, and took a wobbly step forward. She saw a fimilar dark skinned body on the ground with a knife plunged into his back.
"Bonnie..." Stefan's voice came from near the body, "It's okay, we beat Cade."
Her eyes flickered around, and she saw Damon's desiccated Body on the ground. The ghost of him no longer existing. A pain stabbed in her chest, and she put a hand on her stomach. "No...No, he's gone." she gasped, more tears streaking down her face.
As she turned around trying to figure out what was going on, flashes of bits and pieces of memories blinded her to the point that she let herself fall to her knees on the ground beside Damon's body. She sobbed, and screamed, the memories searing in her head as though the cover that had been placed over them was being revealed by flames. She could just barely feel a hand on her back, and Stefan's comforts were muffled in her ears.
With a shock, her eyes opened wide, blurry from tears. "I couldn't... I couldn't save him." she gasped, "God it hurts..."
"What hurts?" Stefan asked, worried, his own sadness being masked by concern for the moment.
"My head! The pictures!" Bonnie huffed, "The dreams with Enzo!"
Stefan grabbed Bonnie, though in his human strength he was barely strong enough to hold her in place close to him as she lashed.
"Bonnie, it's okay, I'm so sorry Enzo's gone, and now Damon is too. I know they loved you." Stefan tried to comfort her, but she couldn't pay attention, she couldn't calm down.
The clarity had been replaced by dizzying scenes playing over and over in her head.
"No!" she yelled, "No! That wasn't me...It wasn't."
"What are you talking about?" Stefan asked, squeezing her tighter, and struggling once she flailed a elbow at him, knocking him in one of his eyes accidently.
Bonnie sobbed, shook, squirmed, and flailed so intensely it was like she was having a seizure. "I never.. It wasn't me... Enzo did something to me..." she gasped out as she started to understand, and the flames died down in her head. All the pieces fitting together in two sections, of one reality.
"Bonnie, I don't understand. What's the last thing you remember?" Stefan asked his eyes wide, and heart beating hard in his chest. She could feel it against her back, and she jumped, scared, as though she only just realized Stefan was human.
"Whitmore...W-Whitmore...I remember...packing." she hiccuped, "I remember things, real things, I can see everything, but I didn't do them. I didn't." she cried, "I...I remember, Sybil. I remember...everything. Stefan I remember but it wasn't me. It wasn't."
Stefan wrapped his arms around her tighter, and she found herself pressing her face against his shoulder. He was at a loss for words, and let Bonnie continue speaking in between sobs. Bonnie shook, gripping his shirt tightly in her fists.
"I didn't want to do anything... I never did..." she cried, and tried to find better words to explain, but even she didn't truly understand. "Enzo messed with m-my head, he did something Stefan. It was like I was inside my body, but I wasn't."
Bonnie suddenly felt sick to her stomach, and she barreled out of Stefan's arms that had made the mistake of relaxing once Bonnie was crying into his shoulder. She crawled about five feet away, closing her eyes with her face towards the rocky ground. "He touched me...He touched me! I never wanted that! Stefan he..." Bonnie sobbed, her breath coming in choking gasps, her tears dripping and making a paste with the dirt on the ground. "He was...in me.. oh my god..." Bonnie gasped and suddenly vomited all over the ground for several moments.
She sat up, and started to grab at her own clothing, ripping her jacket off, tearing at the sleeves of her shirt, scratching her own skin in the process so hard that she bled. Stefan shot up and grabbed her, pulling her back from her vomit, and holding her arms so she couldn't hurt herself anymore.
"Bonnie it's going to be okay..." He repeated, and held her, letting her cry on him. And in these moments, Bonnie finally had her life back; yet, part of her did not want it.
"No... and Damon's dead.." she said, spiraling back around, and her anguish filled the air.
Bonnie stood facing the hellfire. Her mental and emotional pain made fighting to save Mystic Falls a battle in it's own. Facing the strongest enemy she could ever possible face, she stood with only one regret, and one wish. Not killing Enzo years ago. That whenever she went, Damon was there. She was not facing the fire with false hope, she knew that facing the fire was facing the end. There was no peace to be made with this, she could feel only anger, fear, and sadness. What more was burning to save her town?
As she chanted to the fire, to push the glowing powerful flames away from here and down the tunnels were Stefan was waiting with Katherine, Bonnie put her hands out. The heat licked at her skin, melting it as the seconds went by and the pain was so unbearable she had to close her eyes. Every ounce of her power was sent forward, her legs buckling underneath her, and her bones aching. The pain was millions of times more agonizing than fighting Cade.
Bonnie went to the floor on her knees, and suddenly she felt hands on her shoulders and her back. The chants of hundreds of others filled her ears, and she chanted with them. With her very last breath, she said the word that finally sent the hellfire down the tunnels with a roar. The terror and pain was gone in a second. The burning flames no longer licking at her with sharp tongues. A fuzzy warm feeling overcame Bonnie's ghost, and suddenly she felt whole again. Her painful memories, and the ache in her heart, the feeling of violation and betrayal was gone. She was no longer hurt by the things done to her in life.
"Sweetheart, get up." a similar voice said, and Bonnie opened her eyes to the bright sunlight.
Her eyes adjusted to the light, and Gram's face poured into her vision. Bonnie was still on the ground, but her face was pressed against warm black pavement, and not the floor of the old church. She shot up from the ground with a joyful energy and wrapped her arms around her grandmother. Grams hugged her back tightly, and rubbed her back softly. They stayed in this position for what felt like hours, seconds, minutes, it was all the same. The sun hadn't dimmed, and there were no clouds in the sky.
"Damon...Stefan..." Bonnie whispered softly, and Grams pulled back from her.
"Go, child, I'll still be here. I'll be at my house." she assured her granddaughter.
Bonnie nodded, and hugged her one more time. "I love you, I love you, I love you." she said quickly, and kissed her on the cheek.
Then, she went running down the street she recognized at the road Gram's lived on. Bonnie remembered the way to the boarding house perfectly, and she ran all the way there without feeling tired or breathless. Her heart beat fast in her chest but it didn't hurt, or feel painful. She skid to a stop at the door, and just as she was about to knock the door swung up.
Standing there was Stefan, his bronze hair as perfect as ever and a friendly smile on his face. Bonnie smiled back at him, but didn't hug him yet. Her emerald eyes moved behind his shoulder where she saw the face she'd been dying to see. Literally.
"Damon!" Bonnie yelled, and went barreling through Stefan's arm and the foyer over to the black haired man standing in the middle of the room.
She flew into Damon, wrapping her arms around him, and he lifted her up off the ground. Her legs wrapped around his body as well, and he held her up with ease. Yet the sun did not burn him, nor Stefan she noted somewhere in her mind where the things of life were remembered. Damon hugged her tightly, squeezing her to him like he had not seen her in a million years. Bonnie squealed with happiness, and happy tears dripped down her face.
Her face moved back, and she looked into Damon's eyes so deeply she was falling into them. He looked back at her without a word.
"Well, say something!" Bonnie said with wide eyes and a smile so beautiful it made him grin even harder.
"I fucking love you Bonnie Bennett." Damon told her with absolute certainty.
Bonnie smiled even bigger and she laughed with overwhelming happy emotion.
"I love you too Damon Salvatore." Bonnie told him.
Their lips met in a second. Perfectly warm, and melting against each others. Deeply and utterly pure. Their hands roaming along each others hair, and waists like they were searching for home but were already there at the same time.