Hello!

Here's the heavily edited second version of Pond of no Return. (The original will remain up..)

There are a few questionable choices and liberties I took with this story, the most prominent ones being:

Rebekah is Enzo's sister - the Mikaelsons are not siblings here! - and Lily is their mother.

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This is dedicated to all of you Bonenzo lovers, especially to those of you who read and reviewed Pond and my other stories!

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"Yeah, I guess I'm not meant for a mind-bond." Frustrated, Bonnie shook her head and moved to get up off the narrow wooden chair she had been sitting in. But her best friend Damon didn't let her. Looking at her sternly, he pushed her straight back down.

"Try again," he half yelled over the rain rattling down on the roof above them.

She glared at him, annoyed. She didn't like his tone, or his treatment of her. Or the way his lips curved and made her cheeks grow hot - not that the latter was his fault... Mostly, though, she was upset by this whole freaking procedure. That it was even necessary. Thanks to the stupid war, of course.

A mind-bond... She rolled her eyes at the thought. But okay, there was no use getting riled up about the inevitable. She'd just give it one last shot. If it didn't work, then fine. It wasn't like she wanted a stupid bond anyways.

Worrying her lip, she tried to "clear her thoughts," as she had been instructed to do during Preparation classes. Staring out the small cabin's large window to her side, she took a shuddering breath to try and make herself relax a little.

This place, this little wooden shed was where the "hopefuls" were brought. Bonnie didn't know and didn't care how many places like this existed, but she knew this wasn't the only one, and she wasn't the only one trying out for a bond. All of that didn't change that she wanted to be done with it already. She never wanted to see this too cold, too stale cabin again.

The cold and humidity crept into her bones despite the thick walls around her and not even the quietly crackling fire in the small oven somewhere behind her could make her feel a little more comfortable. She could barely even feel any of the warmth coming from the flames.

Sighing quietly, she watched the little pond that was visible right outside the window, its surface in turmoil under a downpour of fierce rain. Hard drops were piercing its surface with such force that she could see the water splashing up.

The world seemed to be drowning, and Bonnie was holding her breath. She would have preferred getting drenched out there over sitting in the dry cabin, waiting for the impossible to happen. She wished she could feel the rain on her skin, in her hair. She just wanted to be anywhere but in here.

...

She sniffed, absently rubbing a hand under her cold nose before reluctantly averting her gaze yet again and concentrating back on what was happening - or what was supposed to be happening - inside the cabin, while the oblivious rain continued pattering down on the roof above her. She tried hard to focus on the sound, to clear her mind. But it was so difficult.

This was too ridiculous. She really wasn't meant for this, the tryouts, the war. She was no soldier. She wasn't disciplined enough. Hadn't she barely just scraped by in nursing school? And even there she had had trouble to hand in her assignments on time, hadn't liked following the orders of the head nurse at the hospital.

And now her people were hoping that maybe she was one of the special ones that would become part of a mind-bond, would thus be able to become a weapon in the age long war against the awful Silveren?

No, she really didn't think so.

But society didn't care whether you thought you were not eligible or special. They didn't care whether you wanted to try out or not. You had to. So here she was, finally actively trying her luck at establishing such a link between her mind and that of some random person out there.

But nothing had properly prepared her for this, certainly not Preparation with its tedious lessons on how evil the Silveren were, how vile their weapons. She had learned how long the war had been lasting so far, yes, and how the mind-bonds were tactically used in it. How to become linked, though? Not one concrete explanation.

Screw this! She had absolutely no idea how to even try to get her mind to latch onto someone else's. What was she supposed to be doing? Was there some secret she was unaware of? Damon hadn't been helpful at all with this, either. Groaning to herself, she squeezed her eyes shut, begging the world to just let it be over already. Let her be done.

"I can't feel anything," she announced, peeking over at Damon, who shook his head, eyebrows raised high. He was sitting hunched before her, looking up, the first button of his shirt undone as if he was too hot, despite the cold. (And he probably was. His blood had always run a little hotter than anyone else's.)

"You gotta concentrate," he advised her, and she glared at him, annoyed.

"That's not helping me at all," she grumbled, but he wasn't having any of it. She felt his light touch on her shoulder, felt his breath against her cheek as he got really close to her, and she shivered involuntarily. If only he knew that he was making it even harder for her that way. But of course she couldn't tell him. Couldn't tell him how he occupied her thoughts or made her legs grow weak when he was around. She forced herself to wipe the unbidden thoughts and feelings away that had started washing over her as soon as she'd felt his touch.

Why couldn't she just get over him already? He had Elena...

"Try harder," he was breathing into her ear, the air tickling her, and she tilted her head a little to evade him. "It can take a while."

Slowly but surely, frustration made room for anger. It was not working. She felt absolutely nothing! She didn't know what she was doing, or what she was even supposed to be doing. Would she just have to sit here forever? Trying and trying until a miracle happened? Backing away from him, she blurted, "What the hell am I supposed to concentrate on, huh?! Care to explain? I mean, you've done this before, and quite obviously you succeeded! You and Elena are the picture perfect mind-bond poster couple!"

She threw the words at him with more venom than intended, her cheeks flushing with an uncomfortable heat at the realization. More quietly she added, "There's just... nothing there."

But Damon surprised her with a genuine smile. "I get it," he said, still kneeling in front of her, looking up, a warm hand on her too cold knee, and she wasn't sure whether she trembled because of his touch or the damn cold. "Believe me, I do." He wagged his eyebrows knowingly, sympathetically, and smiled. Shoving his sleeves up a bit, he suddenly turned serious again as he took her hands in his.

"I know this sucks, Bonnie. If I could give you any pointers, believe me, I would. But it's just not how this works. Otherwise they would have told us in Preparation."

"I know," she muttered, rolling her eyes, because her frustration was still clouding everything else. "I just don't think I'm meant for this. Maybe I simply can't establish a link. People fail all the time, right? Maybe we should call it a day and give up..."

What she kept to herself was, that maybe it wasn't working because, deep down, she didn't want it to. Maybe the problem wasn't that she wasn't link-material, maybe it was that she didn't want to be… And what if anybody found out?

"Give it one more try," Damon cajoled. He wasn't one to let anyone off the hook too easily, and while she usually appreciated that about him, it annoyed her now. "One last chance. You'll see. I found my link pretty much out of nowhere, too. Suddenly we both just… felt it."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. Sometimes Damon and Elena were just a little too saccharine sweet and perfect. They were like soulmates. And the link, that was just the cherry on top.

She stopped herself right there. Thinking about the two of them together was just not healthy. Given that Damon was her best friend, she really felt awkward about being so… unhappy and jealous of their relationship. What kind of a friend was she?

"You got this. Come on." He smiled at her obliviously. "I just know you're meant for a link, too."

"Yeah..." She glared at him, annoyed at his enthusiasm for something she couldn't feel excited about herself. "That helps me so incredibly much."

But she did close her eyes again, listening to him chuckle. Then she wiggled down in her chair to get a little more comfortable. "Alright," she announced, "one last try…"

…

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...

It was so cold Enzo's body had started shaking violently to keep itself warm, to no avail. It was freezing, he was freezing, and it took everything for him to stay on his horse as it was trying desperately to carry him away.

His brain felt fuzzy, his thoughts sluggish, but deep down, he comprehended how dire his situation was, how hopeless. The enemy would soon catch him, and in his current state he would hardly be able to put up much of a fight.

Clinging to the horse with one arm, the other slack and too heavy hanging down at his side, he put all his last strength into trying to remain in the saddle.

No, he was no threat to anyone like this, not even with the dangerous sword dangling heavily from his arm now, his Eternal Weapon.

He had only one chance. He needed to evade them somehow, or better yet, hide.

With a deep inhalation, he forced his heels into the horse's flanks, making the poor animal accelerate its gallop one last time.

One chance to get out of this…

They wouldn't let him live for long if they caught him.

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...

The bonds were a strange business. Bonnie was highly aware of that. At least Preparation had managed to convey that much - which was still pathetically little.

When you bonded your mind with someone else's, you were bonded to them forever. You shared your thoughts and feelings, you were always in each other's heads, you were never alone, you became one. Mindmates. Soulmates.

When she and her friends had talked about boys, and girls, and dating, and future husbands and wives, most of them had hoped to be part of such a bond. They had wished for it, daydreamed about it, she included.

How many times had she pictured herself and Damon as bond-partners back then? The memory made her grimace now. Because when he had actually gotten what they had all begged for, when he had linked his mind with Elena's, Bonnie had for the first time started to question those dreams. It had all gone downhill from there. Gone were the romantic notions of never having to be alone again and always having somebody who truly understood you, shared even your weirdest thoughts. They had been replaced by something way darker.

What if she could never hide any of her thoughts again? What if she'd get a link-partner and they'd inform the world about her forbidden feelings for one Damon Salvatore? What would they think if they saw the pathetic fantasies she'd come up with, where his partner died a terrible death, or merely left him, leaving poor Damon all alone, with only Bonnie there to pick up the pieces and slowly put him back together?

It sounded terrifying to her. Like she would never have any privacy again. She could be judged for merely thinking stupid things, without even having any intention of acting on them.

But she had always known this day would come. It was something she had been told almost from the moment she was born. Because her parents had been bonded, too.

But didn't the links provide nothing but false hope, anyways? From the news Bonnie knew that the Golden weren't doing too well in that stupid war. California, Nevada, New Mexico, Mexico, and Arizona had all long fallen to the enemy. Even Washington, Oregon and British Columbia were almost lost. The west was in enemy hands, and no link or bond or whatever you wanted to call it had prevented that from happening.

Yet here she was, following that stupid false hope, actually trying to open her own damn mind wide and let someone in. If it worked, she would never be completely alone in her head again. The thought was awe inspiring. Awful. Part of her wanted to run from it, far away. But that was not a choice. They would find her, and they didn't take kindly to people that were unwilling to try out and help the Golden empire.

They… Politicians. The military. Dark circles of influential women and men.

Unlike Damon, she was no soldier. She didn't know half of it, and she preferred to stay on the sidelines, as far away from the war as possible. If she ended up finding a link-partner, however, that passiveness would all be in the past. She shivered at the thought.

She didn't want to infiltrate the enemy with her potential partner and find out everything about their tactics, or whatever else they would ask of her, make her do...

She didn't even understand why they were fighting anymore. The war was so old, the soldiers so worn out. Did anybody really still know what had started it? And why they couldn't just sit down and end it already?

She huffed, jolting herself back to the present. The rain had not let up.

"Alright." She sighed. "It's not working." She looked over to Damon and started to hoist herself up and off the chair. And this time, he didn't stop her. At least not physically.

"Come on, Bonnie. You didn't give it a real chance."

"I did!" She stared at him indignantly, anger bubbling up inside of her. "I don't even know anymore whether I want this at all. What if the person I - potentially - link up with was a total douche and we wouldn't get along at all, or-"

"Stop right there." Her friend looked alarmed at her outburst. If anybody else had heard her she could have gotten in trouble…

But she never heard the rest of his words because right then, she felt the most peculiar sensation. A reaching out, a searching, like her mind had grown tendrils of thoughts and emotions, floating out of her, and up. Or down. She couldn't tell, it was so… weird. She made a small gasping noise, clutching the armrest of the chair, slowly letting herself fall back into it. Everything seemed to happen of its own accord. A spiral dragging her... elsewhere. Was this it? Was this what they all had been talking about?

Or was she just going crazy, losing her connection to sanity? She had gotten way too little sleep lately, so that was probably it. This all did rather feel like the spiraling down she sometimes experienced when her mind was falling asleep at a slower pace than the rest of her body. Surely, she would be jolted back out of it any second.

But that moment never came.

Her eyes pointed upward toward the roof, she stared blankly ahead, unseeing. Only hearing the rain. Until...

… she suddenly "touched" something else, felt her mind connect, a searing, sucking sensation that she wanted to stop.

She was struggling hard, fighting to make a connection to whatever her mind had encountered, whomever. She felt like a mere witness, unable to control any of it, she was just somehow there.

Then she was met with a rather startling and powerful resistance.

"Is this normal?" she asked, panting, growing slightly panicky. Small beads of sweat appeared on her forehead as she felt an uncomfortable heat creep into her body. "This is too difficult. I don't think I can do this. They're… they're fighting so hard!"

"Keep going," she heard Damon's reassuring voice. Sonorous, calm. He'd always had the power to soothe her, but for some reason it wasn't working so well right now. She was terrified. This did not seem right at all. "You're almost there," he was saying, and she tried hard to concentrate on his words. "Elena wasn't too pleased at first, either. It can be quite disturbing for the passive partner to have somebody enter their mind."

His explanation didn't calm her one bit, rather the opposite. She was starting to get positively scared.

Suddenly, there was a new feeling, an intense pain washing over her. But strangely, she knew that it wasn't hers. It wasn't hers…

She was hurting the other person. "Oh no," she breathed, and she tried to sever her mind from whoever it had connected with, although she quickly realized that she couldn't. She had no chance but to fight on until the link was properly established, ignoring the other's fight and revulsion.

"Can't I stop this somehow?" She looked to him for guidance, scared, barely seeing him. Everything was a blur. It was too hot all of a sudden, too. "I don't think this is the right person. Something's wrong. They're fighting me…"

She felt his hand on her leg again. She grabbed it, hard. He didn't seem to mind.

"Once your mind has started the process, it can't be reversed. You gotta do everything in your power to work on that connection now, BonBon. If you don't succeed…" He trailed off. But he didn't need to say more. She perfectly remembered that lecture from Preparation. There was no going back. If something went wrong and the link didn't get completed, both partners would die.

"I can't do this much longer! How long is it supposed to take?" It was bewildering how taxing it felt. She was physically exhausted, as if she was running the last few miles of a marathon.

"It should be done soon." He still sounded soothing, but she was too distracted to feel it.

"You said Elena didn't like it at first either, but… was she actively struggling?"

"Uh…"

Great, his non-reply was answer enough. "Oh gosh, this is so wrong," she hissed, her eyes wide and white. She felt her body start shaking, and she squeezed her eyes shut to focus on her strange task.

"Please, make it stop!" She suddenly yelled as the pain grew and grew, overwhelming her. She clutched Damon's hand so hard her knuckles turned white and he flinched in pain.

"Bonnie. Bon!"

In that moment, a sensation rolled over her like a wave, roaring in her ears louder than the ocean, louder than thunder, or the rain outside, and she slumped over in her chair, losing consciousness as she did.

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...

Enzo was just about to give in to the pull of gravity, letting his body roll off the horse's back and into the harsh snow underneath, not caring anymore whether the enemy troops were still on his tracks or not, when a searing pain shot through his temple and deep into his brain. Letting go of the horse abruptly to clutch at his head, he ended up falling off way harder than planned.

Agony. Worse than the pain in his arm had ever been. This was… What was this?! Death?

He couldn't think clearly. There was a jumble of foreign thoughts and emotions, too many. Too much for him to process.

It needed to stop.

Stop. Stop!

...

…

…

When Bonnie came to, the first thing she saw was Damon's worried face. "Hey, are you all right?" His voice was a mere whisper, his hand on her arm just a soft touch. She closed her eyes, then opened them again.

Her blurry vision slowly improved and she noticed Elena was now sitting next to him. When had she gotten there? Bonnie frowned. But their worried expressions made her smile a small smile. It was good to have them with her now that whatever had happened had happened.

"Yeah," she replied, rubbing her hands over her face wearily, slowly pulling herself into a sitting position from the gurney someone had put her on. "I'm… okay, I guess. What happened?"

"You passed out."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious. I got that much."

It was Elena's turn to speak, her voice as soft and quiet as usual. "Damon told me about your struggle… your partner put up quite the fight, huh? I mean, I thought I had been resistant when Damon first 'attacked' my mind, but… this was something else." She chuckled a little awkwardly, then offered a hand to help Bonnie stand. She looked at her curiously, contemplating. "So, who is your partner?"

Bonnie gave her a puzzled frown, then scoffed incredulously. What kind of question was that? "Am I supposed to know that?"

Both her friends stared at her with frowns of their own. Elena gently touched Bonnie's forehead as if to see whether she had a fever. The gesture was a little too intimate for her liking and she took a step back. Elena let her hand fall awkwardly to the side.

"You should know, yeah." She didn't look at her.

"Huh." Bonnie was honestly confused. "I guess it didn't work after all then," she said, but Damon laughed at her like she was being dense.

"You'd be dead by now if you hadn't succeeded."

Elena made a scolding face at him, lightly slapping his arm, then she returned her attention to Bonnie. A little gentler, she speculated, "You're probably just not used to the link yet."

But she wasn't so sure. To her it felt like something had gone wrong. This didn't feel like anything she had been told by her parents, or Damon and Elena. There was no feeling of completeness. She didn't feel different at all.

She honestly had no idea who her partner was because she was pretty certain she was still alone in her head.

"This all feels so wrong." She felt a lump in her throat and swallowed hard to try and get rid of it. She didn't want to cry, not in front of Elena, and Damon...

"Um..." Damon sighed. "Maybe they are just unconscious, like you were. I'm sure it'll all be fine once they're up," he chirped, always one for taking things lightly. "Welcome to the club! Let's get you set up. Tomorrow you'll start some basic training on how to use your bond, so you'll soon be able to help us win this war against the freaking Silverscum."

She stared at him. She was starting to feel terribly out of place. Hugging herself for comfort, she dared to ask just one question.

"What do you think I… we will have to do now?"

Damon patted her shoulder lightly, pulling her against his side, a too familiar gesture. Too comfortable. She wished she could just give in to that hug and never let go. She needed him right now, more than ever. Yet she couldn't have him.

"One of you might have to infiltrate the Silveren Armies," he started explaining, unaware of her thoughts, and she shivered at the idea.

"What if my partner doesn't want to work with me, though?"

Both her friends laughed. "That won't happen," Elena assured her, "They might be a bit confused and reluctant at first. But usually that goes away pretty quickly and you two will learn to enjoy being linked. It can be quite the comforting feeling to know that someone is always there for you, just a thought away." The two smiled at her, then at each other. Bonnie could see their love for each other so clearly that she felt a pang of jealousy.

Would she really have that? With someone that was still a total stranger to her?

She wanted that. She really did. But she doubted anyone could ever understand her crooked thoughts and feelings. And she simply didn't want to share everything.

"I hope you're right," she mumbled, then gasped suddenly and grabbed Damon's arm as something - someone - was stabbing her mind with a single thought.

Reverse this!

"Bonnie?"

What the hell did you do? Reverse it! Leave me alone!

The feeling was so strong, she felt like she was going to topple over.

"Bonnie, come on. Are you okay? Is it your link? Bonnie!" Damon looked at her, worry in his soft eyes. He exchanged a glance with Elena, who shrugged.

Her grip on his arm tightened, but she couldn't say anything. She was too focused on the stranger in her mind.

Reverse what you have done! It boomed in her head.

But… I can't! she yelled, though it was only in her mind, and Damon and Elena stared at her worriedly while she was in another sphere.

That link, it didn't feel like it was fully formed at all. She could distinctly feel another one's presence, though it was merely touching hers at the edges. They didn't seem to be completely merged at all.

You have to. The voice in her head - it was a male voice - suddenly sounded so desperate, so weary that it pained her.

It's not possible. I'm so sorry, but… didn't you pay attention in Preparation at all? Once a link is formed, it can't be reversed. We live and we die together.

What the hell is preparation?

The response came as a shock. She gasped. What?! Are you…

This was not happening. Alarmed, she exchanged glances with her two friends, who both gave her a puzzled look. Then Bonnie turned her attention back to her link partner and quietly asked, Who are you?

You are a freaking Golden, aren't you? he concluded, sounding weary and disbelieving at the same time. Then, as if to himself, he added, Fucking atrocious luck.

Her throat constricted. A horrible feeling of doom washed over her that made her knees weak and wobbly. Are you not a Golden?

But her partner never got a chance to reply. Because right then she heard something. It was so close to her ear as if she was right there. She heard someone yell.

"Gotcha, you bastard. The Golden Army takes you prisoner! - Freaking Eternal... - Lieutenant, take his weapon away from him!"

The words had barely processed, when Bonnie suddenly felt a searing pain, all the way up to her elbow, before she passed out again.