I really do hope this interests y'all :)
And for the record, this is a Delena fanfic, but Damon and Elena won't see each other until Chapter 2... I promise a very... interesting... reunion.
Chapter 1
"Are you sure you're ready for this, Elena?" asked John, using Elena's first name, something she knew he very rarely did.
"I've been training for this the past six and a half years of my life," Elena deadpanned, fixing her gun tight to her belt that was wound around her waist, avoiding the question although she knew it didn't flow unnoticed to John Auld. Then she turned to make eye contact with him. "I think the better question is, are you ready?" John narrowed his eyes at Elena.
"Care to explain your implications more eloquently, Gilbert?"
"I'm not an idiot, John," Elena sighed and John chuckled. "I know he's like a son to you."
John's face immediately froze, his lips morphing into a taut line, and Elena immediately felt bad for stripping the poor elderly man from the little moment of happiness he'd just had.
"I know, Elena. And he always will be. But not the side of him that you'll be facing today." John's face turned grim. "I believe the old side of him is long gone. And I - no, we - must be strong enough to deal with this side of him," he replied.
"But... there's something you're not telling me," Elena realized skeptically. "Something you're so hesitant and unsure about that you're not willing to tell me just yet."
John cracked the smallest smile. "Definitely a natural talent. You must take after your parents."
Elena returned a forlorn smile back at the mention of her beloved - and dead - parents before snapping back and squinting at him disbelievingly.
John sighed. "Okay, okay, fine. I surrender." Giving another deep sigh, he looked down. "Look, I know I said that I believed that the old side of him was long gone. However, I never said it was gone for good."
Elena's face fell in confusion for a split second, before turning into a mask of horror. Her eyes widened. "You think I'll able to bring that side of him back," she stated for him, her eyes filled with an almost inhumane amount of lack of emotion.
"No, no, more definitely not!" John exclaimed immediately, but Elena just stared at him with an eyebrow raised. "No... it's just... A simple musing that I pushed away after a millisecond. We both know him, Lena," Elena smiled at his rare nickname for her, "he's stubborn as hell. Whatever thing in him that clicked more than six years ago, causing him to just drop everything - including his whole life - behind him and leave, it's going to take a lot to bring back."
"Well, good, I hope you don't think I will. Because he is a foul, evil, disgusting, loathsome creature that needs to be rid and exterminated from this world as soon as possible," I declared, but all I got in return was a skeptical eyebrow raise.
~o~
Clad in a black tank top, black jeans and suede ankle boots with two guns attached to her belt and one at her ankle, tucked inconspicuously into her boot, Elena waved her boyfriend Ben out of the car and nodded to John.
"Be careful, Lena," he said hoarsely, looking the most concerned Elena had ever seen him in her twenty-seven years. "Please. For your parents and for me. For Logan... for Ben. Damon is lethal and reckless right now."
Elena groaned before surrendering to her emotions and leaning back into the car to give John a hug. "I promise, I will. And I won't do anything to him that is unnecessary. For you, not for my benefits. I don't give a fuck about him anymore."
"He gave Elena a final nod, and she swore she saw a tear in his eye, but maybe it was the light.
He then turned to Logan, Damon's supposed best friend. "You, too, be safe. I'm so proud of you for doing this."
Logan took a deep breath, and Elena squeezed his hand comfortingly. She knew it killed him that she could no longer empathize. But she was past that so very weak and vulnerable and disgusting time period. That girl was long gone.
"Gotta do what you gotta do," Logan replied.
Giving John one last tight smile, Elena waved her team over, and stalked into the building, Logan and Ben by her side and her strongest team following closely at her footsteps.
~o~
"Walker, Mace and Wilson, take East. LeGrand, Costa and Parker, take West," Elena instructed as her agents gave her nods and disappeared off to their routes.
"Be careful," she added quietly to their retreating backs, and they turned around to stare at her.
"You, too, Lena," Parker said softly on behalf of all of them. "You'll need it the most."
She gave them all nods before turning to Logan. "I'm gonna save you from having to deal with Salvatore, so you take South, and tell me if you see anything, alright?"
Logan nodded before dropping a quick kiss on Elena's cheek and a meaningful "Be safe" before ducking out of sight, quickly and stealthily just as skilled as he was talented, a gun already out of his belt and firmly gripped in his hand, whilst the other hand had a tight hold of the gun still fixed to his hip, ready to whip it out when he needed to
Elena took a deep breath before turning to Ben and giving him a quick nod. "Our turn."