GLORY
fandom: the vampire diaries
characters: bonnie bennett, kai parker and tbh nobody else matters
summary: a set of eyes had pinned him and became his version of a kingdom/she's everything the devil can't be | Post 6x21 AU and beyond.
a/n: so I watched ONE video of kat graham & chris parker and now I'm all the way down this cesspit rabbit hole of wanting more for Bonnie Bennett. I won't use this as a platform to vent about my frustrations with TVD. Instead I'll just set the parameters for this AU: I've legit only watched like three full episodes of TVD; instead just watching all of Bonnie's scenes and became obsessed with Chris Wood's portrayal of Kai and all the (wasted) potential of his character. So apologies for any errors in how I portray Bonnie's magic or anything like that. Also, the prison worlds make zero sense to me. But I don't think Julie Plec was exactly the continuity queen of anything making sense so just slide right past any misconceptions I have.
Blurry-eyed and barely able to move; Kai awakes to streams of white light pouring over him. Is this dying? The drums kick in before a second thought can cross his mind.
The Spin Doctors. I am dead. Kai is suddenly aware that the weight on his chest isn't metaphorical. He jerks his arms uselessly beneath the chains.
"So this is Hell." His tone is matter-of-fact. The sun rises in the East. It sets in the West. And this is the afterlife.
Wait.
"When did I die?"
"I thought you'd never ask." The last voice he'd expect to hear in hell – and the first voice that he'd hope for – cuts his chain of thought short.
Bonnie steps out from behind a stage light. Her green eyes don't stray from his for a second. If she's cautious, she's doing well not to show it.
Kai tenses his shoulders and sits up a little straighter. "Bonnie," he says seriously. "Is this 1903? You came back?" He widens his eyes in mock hope; thinking about the last time he saw the Bennett witch in considerably colder conditions.
"Cut the act, Kai," she sneers. "The game's over for good this time."
He pauses, taking a moment to weigh his options. The facade is too cumbersome, he decides, and a wolfish grin slides across his face. He sinks back into his chair.
"So either I made it to heaven, or you really lost your way," Kai smirks. "What'd you do, Bonnie? Talk dirty to me."
Her nose wrinkles in disgust. Before Kai can comment on how cute that makes her look, Bonnie pulls out a chair and sits on it backwards. She comfortably folds her arms on the seat back.
"You should be thanking me," she says cryptically, cocking her head to one side. She's enjoying withholding the truth from him. It's like a build-up to a punchline. "For all you know, this is a lot better than what Hell really is."
"Oh, I'm sure of it," Kai banters. "Tuesday night karaoke, your beloved Mystic Grill. All you need is to unchain me and we could have ourselves a date night."
Bonnie rolls her eyes, propping her chin up on one hand. "You would like that, wouldn't you? Too bad you being a mass murderer is a bit of a deal-breaker."
A not-so-familiar pang shudders through Kai's stomach. Ever since the merge with Luke, his body betrays him in times like this. A rush of adrenaline here, a hollow pit in his stomach there. It's exhausting, and he doesn't care for it. He swallows and attempts to disguise his discomfort. "All that time together. I thought we were past that."
"Playing dumb isn't becoming on you," Bonnie snaps. "I know about the deal you offered Lily." She pulls a remote off the table and pauses their incessant soundtrack. "Stefan got it out of her. That's your downfall, Kai. You don't get what it means to have a family."
Another pang. This one is harder to ignore. "Don't I? Lily's need to be reunited with her merry band of freaks was my ticket out. Of course I get it."
Bonnie shakes her head at him. She stands up and walks toward him, pacing in a circle around his chair. "Everyone assumed you wanted her blood just to be stronger. But I worked it out," she muses; unable to hide the pride in her voice. "You were going to kill yourself and take out your entire family while you were at it." She pauses in front of him and locks her eyes with his. "You're a monster. I knew you always had been."
Heat rises through Kai's body; his blood boiling. He clenches his jaw. "Well, could you blame me?" The anger is unfamiliar. He's used to feeling cold, calculated and entirely in control. Now his words escape him like he has no say whatsoever. "After my family realised what I was, they treated me like an animal. I couldn't touch anyone. I couldn't sit at the dinner table. They locked me in my room when I slept."
Bonnie frowns. She's never seen him so defensive. "That's not an excuse for what you did," her tone rising. "Or for what you were going to do. Jo is pregnant. Your sister."
Kai scoffs derisively. "And what a family she'll raise. Pitting those two against each other like lambs for a slaughter. It's sick. It has to end."
Blinking her eyes, Bonnie takes a step backwards. Is that…regret that she can surmise in Kai's tone? "No," she says adamantly, answering her own question. "You were doing this for revenge. There isn't a human bone in your body. You may have the others fooled with your post-merge act, but not me."
A laugh escapes him. "Oh, yes. The others. You and your friends are like a regular episode of Happy Days – except, oh wait! They're all blood-sucking monsters. Tell me, if I'm the mass murderer, how many lives have they clocked up between them?" Kai taunts her out of desperation. "How many times has it been your life?"
"You don't know what you're talki-"
"Don't I?" Kai cuts her off. "Don't I know exactly what I'm talking about? They use you, Bonnie. And here you are taking it all out on me." He squirms beneath his chains; knows that he's gambling now. "You need a monster to make up for all the things you've had to tolerate. And here I am."
"God, do you ever stop talking?" Bonnie is exasperated, whirling around and walking to the back of the Grill. She retrieves a bottle of some identifiable liquor from behind the counter and helps herself to a swig.
"If I'm wrong, where is everyone?" Kai asks quietly. "For someone who loves the view from their high horse, your take on justice is questionable at best."
"There is no one else," Bonnie replies calmly. "Just you, and your insecure little mind, and a song you hate…on a jukebox…playing over and over again, forever. Just like this day." An Ascendant appears from her pocket, and she turns the object over in her hands.
It dawns on him. "So, it's just like you leaving me in 1903 all over again? Only this time without the shock factor." Kai chuckles. "Maybe I will see you in hell."
Bonnie frowns. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Creating a whole new prison world just to lock me and all your insecurities away? You'll never admit it, but I know you Bonnie. And this isn't you."
A shudder goes down her spine at his words. "You don't know me," she finally says. With a click of the remote, the music is back on.
Kai blinks and struggles with his chains. "Bonnie?" He rocks back and forth as the panic descends. "No. Bonnie? BONNIE!"
A few hours later, when he's calmed down, he wonders if she heard him say her name.
And he wonders if that's the last thing anyone will ever hear him say.
No one asks her about Kai and her request to be left alone to deal with him. But, two weeks later when Jo and Alaric are safely on their honeymoon and Bonnie is still a reclusive shell of her once bubbly self, Caroline instigates drastic action.
"Come on, Bonnie. Come over for one drink. We miss you."
"Care, I'm really not in the mood. These past few weeks-"
"I know, I know. It's crazy. But that's why we have to keep close to each other. Look, Elena's here. It'll be just the three of us. I'll put you on speakerphone, one sec."
Before Bonnie can protest, she hears a familiar voice chime in with Caroline's pleadings. "Bonnie! We really want you here. We'll slumber it, like old times."
"We're not trying to get you hammered. No Tuesday night karaoke, I promise." Caroline laughs.
"What?" Bonnie nearly drops her phone as she jerks upward from her previously horizontal position in bed. "What did you say?"
"It's Tuesday night…what's the big deal? I said we won't go!" Caroline insists.
"Bonnie you just…you haven't been yourself lately. We're worried about you," Elena adds.
The thought of Kai Parker, chained to a chair, forced to live another round of Tuesday night karaoke cuts through Bonnie like a searing knife. His words echo in her head. They use you, Bonnie. She sucks in her breath. "Maybe I don't feel like myself because when I was stuck in another decade for six months, my friends baked cupcakes instead of trying to find me."
Bonnie misses her Motrola Razr flip phone. Jamming her thumb on the 'end' button of her touch screen phone is far less satisfying. Instead, she picks up a pillow, leans forward into her bent knees and screams with all her might. Tears of frustration and fury pool in her eyes. The Salvatore Boarding house, where her friends were happily cooped up with a brother apiece, wasn't her idea of a great girls night. There was nowhere left in Mystic Falls that didn't remind her of May 10, 1994. Getting rid of Kai hadn't ended anything. It didn't close a chapter of her life with a neat flourish.
Maybe he was right. Maybe she had been taking out six years of frustration on Malachai Parker, the Wicked Witch of the Pacific Northwest. Shaking her head, Bonnie flings the pillow across her room. Kai doesn't know her. None of her friends know her.
After splashing some cold water on her face, an idea begins to form in her head. She hops up on a kitchen stool and pulls a suitcase down from her closet. It's coated in dust: a sign it itself that it was time to leave.
She's packed in under ten minutes.
Bonnie Bennett may be plenty of things but a prison mastermind is not one of them.
Kai relishes this thought as he breaks his chains (unfortunately, only literally) after three days of imprisonment. As a Siphoner, he'd been forced to learn other magic tricks and picking locks was one of them. His muscles are in agony. He rolls his shoulders back and forth and attempts to stand. His knees give way and he's back in his chair with a resounding thud.
He feels so mortal; it physically hurts.
He's trying to avoid the other part of him that hurts: the part that's not physical. Years of uncertainty, empathy, anxiety…years of any feeling other than apathy seem to be descending on him at once. There's only one feeling he's moderately interested in, however. Only one that doesn't feel like more a burden than the chains that, until recently, were keeping him tightly bound.
Forgiveness. It's his only way to freedom. Though, how he can get Bonnie Bennett to forgive him when she is a whole other world away is beyond him – for now.
Once he musters the will to stand, Kai practically runs to the doors of the Grill. It's never daylight in this new world of his, but he's always been more of a night owl anyway. In any case, nothing can diminish the first breath of outside air. The sound of silence fills him with elation, and he starts walking.
At the first driveway he sees, Kai whips off his jacket and bunches it around his fist. One shattered window later and he's inside his first home in Mystic Falls.
He's got plenty of time to kill. One of these suburban nightmares has to be the Bennett home.
A/N: thank you for reading! Two more parts coming. I'm hoping the premise makes sense – Kai is stopped in his tracks before the atrocities of 6x22 can happen, but then we skip ahead to the only relevant parts of the S8 finale for Bonnie (sending Kai to a prison world and then going to live her own life like the queen she is). Feel free to leave any feedback on ambiguities in the comments.
[Edited 10/04 for consistency and proofreading]
