"I think I should be thanking you." Bonnie attempts to break the silence between them.
Stefan frowns not understanding what she has to be thanking him for.
"If it weren't for you, I'd be dead."
"From what I've heard, if anyone should be thanking anyone for that. It's the other way around."
Bonnie bites the inside of her cheek and looks down inspecting the contents of her cup.
…
"God, this is painful,"
Caroline tenses and turns to face the voice with a sense of dread. If it weren't for her certainty that the man outside with her best friend was in fact her Stefan. She'd have bolted and made a run for it with Bonnie in tow. But Tyler's arm snakes around her waist and moves her until he's the barrier between the two immortals. And she's not sure if it's to calm her down or if it's some sort of pissing match.
"You must be the half bred boyfriend I've heard so much about." Silas turns away from his doppelgänger's poor attempt at flirting to see the brown eyed hybrid staring right back at him. A smile gracing his face when he feels the guilt belonging to the blonde flood his senses. Clearly remembering all the time she spent with him under the guise of thinking him to be his shadow self. "It's nice to meet you Klaus—Tyler." He quickly corrects himself with a smile. Raising his eyebrows when Tyler doesn't react in the way he expects. Only a quirk of the man's lips.
"Hard to imagine why you have a powerful witch out for your blood."
Silas chuckles "Well if you knew Qetsiyah then you'd understand why I ran."
"This is a little reckless," Caroline steps in, peering around her boyfriend to look at Silas who shifts his gaze to meet her own. She knows she should be used to this considering her dealings with both Katherine and Elena. But she still couldn't for the life of her fathom how someone with the face of someone like Stefan, could make her stomach churn. "I thought that you'd be smarter than to risk exposure like this."
"To expose what? As far as anyone here knows I'm Stefan's better looking twin."
Caroline rolls her eyes restraining the urge to comment the contrary. Opting to tune him out she turns back to watch her two friends and feels her heart drop.
"Care," Tyler frowns when Caroline steps forward and walks outside. His frown deepening when Silas pushes past him to follow after his girlfriend.
"Maybe he's not as hopeless as I thought." Silas muses, something similar to a smile on his face as he stares at something out of the couple's sight. At least until Caroline rushes towards him, a breath of relief escaping her when she spots the amnesiac pair making their exit. Blinking when she spots the vampire's hand on the small of the witch's back as he holds the wooden gate open for her to pass.
"Do you maybe want to…" Bonnie started but then trailed off averting her eyes when she realized how her words might hint to something she didn't exactly mean.
"Run away while they're distracted?" Stefan proposed sensing her apprehension "Yes," He nodded setting both of their drinks to the side and hopped down from the railing. His eyes going to the door where Caroline, Tyler and someone blocked by a guy succeeding where he just might be failing going by the laugh he's eliciting from the girl with waist length ombre strands. That she pushes behind her ear as they both subconsciously moved closer to the other before his eyes went back to Bonnie.
"You caught onto that too, huh?" Bonnie smiled, accepting the hand he offered.
"Coffee?" Stefan looks to Bonnie with a raised eyebrow, when she suddenly stops walking. Not being able to stop his laugh at her response.
"Yeah," she answers reaching for the door that not even her fingertips get to brush against as he reaches around her to open "I don't think Caroline would appreciate it if I took advantage of you in your state."
He contemplates changing his clothes to match his shadow selves' and making an apparition of the Bennett witch when he spots Damon barreling his way through the crowd. Sparing a quick glance to Caroline and Tyler who look just as annoyed until the former spots the brunette following closely behind. Deciding against it, as with his power not at it's full height the couple at his side wouldn't go through with the facade.
"Damon," Silas greets with a smile that his descendant ignores.
"Where is he?"
"With Bonnie," Silas takes it upon himself to answer before the two to his side get the chance.
Damon levels a look at the immortal then looks to Caroline who doesn't protest to his claim. Only looks at Elena, as if she's waiting for the blowup.
"Caroline," Elena breathes out almost inaudibly.
"She got tired of me smothering her and he," she makes a point of looking at Damon who rolls his eyes "managed to push Stefan away even more."
"I thought you weren't playing Cupid for Silas," Damon deflects her tattling.
"I'm not, I told you it would take more effort to keep Stefan away from Bonnie. She's just...not denying her interest."
"We should look for them," Elena says after a silence falls over them, looking to Caroline for backup that never comes as her friend is smiling at something on her phone.
"They'll call if they need me." Is all the blonde vampire says before grabbing Tyler's hand and leading him back inside to another part of the frat house leaving the dark haired couple alone with the immortal.
"So you've figured out why I need Katherine?" Silas stops both Damon and Elena as soon as they make their first step towards the lawn.
"Who?" Damon smirks.
Silas sighs at the vampire's reply, he doesn't think he'll ever understand what it is about Damon that makes everyone feel the need to keep him around or even tolerate him. Then looks towards the now lifeless body at his descendant's feet. Smiling when the first scream resounds, seeming to break through the intoxicated states of the college students surrounding them and countless bystanders rush towards where they stand.
"It's not like it's the first time." Silas looks at Elena when a mortified expressions takes residence on her features. The doppelgänger managing to look both relieved and disappointed at Damon using compulsion on everyone surrounding them. He wonders if she's just become resigned to her choice or if she's still holding onto her original rationale of her decision in the first place. "I'm only going to ask one more time before a waitress shows up at your feet."
On reflex alone, she stumbles back. Brown eyes watering, hand going to her stomach as the memory of the woman's life she took when her humanity was off coming back to the forefront of her mind.
"Qetsiyah has her."
"Qetsiyah has her or you gave her to Qetsiyah?" Silas looks at the doppelgänger, getting his answer when she averts her gaze.
"That's what you wanted, isn't it?" Elena guesses when she looks back and sees the smile on his face.
"It's what I hoped." Silas admits "Qetsiyah was smart enough to make sure her location couldn't be known to me. Even made it so I couldn't access it from your minds. But since she has Katherine, I now know that she's holed up in the woods. Surprising considering it's where she found me with the woman I actually cared for. I thought that would have her anywhere but there. Two thousand years is enough time to heal some wounds, I suppose."
Elena swallows when Silas takes a step towards her, his hand going to push a strand of hair behind her ear "If it helps, she didn't have much family left."
She doesn't understand the meaning of his words until a loud thump brings her attention to a petite blonde, choking on her own blood, and she's watching helplessly as the life leaves the young woman's eyes.
"So Stefan and Bonnie," Katherine starts waiting until Qetsiyah turns to face her from the witch's place kneeled at the fireplace. Trying her hardest to keep her nerves in check from her position. Seated in a wooden chair placed in a center of salt, peppered with various herbs.
"What about them?" Qetsiyah asks, turning back to the blue flames dancing around the pot containing the same potion she made a thousand years ago. The one that led to her current situation. She made a vow to herself that the spell would never see the light of day again. Due to the outcome of the last, but the reason behind her backtrack was too good to pass up. And with the face of the woman that betrayed her back in what she thought to be her prime guaranteed to show up again due to the latest having a living relative. There were really no consequences that she would have to face.
At least not to her. While she had initially allowed Elena to think she actually had a say in the matter, she always had in mind to extract the cure from it's current host and send Katherine on her way. With the way Bonnie currently saw her childhood friend, Qetsiyah didn't think it was a problem in having to see another woman from Amara's line paths to become intertwined with one from her own. And considering she was finally about to be granted peace, in her own knowing that Silas would never get the chance to do the same, did it really make a difference?
"Is it because of you?"
"Would it make a difference if it was?"
"Yes, actually."
Qetsiyah smiles "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint but no. Silas and I were a result of our coven wanting more power than they already had. He wasn't the only one that loved another. He was just the only one that dared to go after them despite our coven's wishes."
Katherine blinks at the reveal "But you created the elixir to spend eternity with him. And well, to be honest you kind of earned the title of a…" she stops herself short of ending up getting renegade "woman scorned."
"Long before our arrangement," Qetsiyah decides to fill Katherine in "Silas and I were friends. Had he told me that he did not wish to be mine, I would have created the elixir for him as a favor. As he knew I wished to wed for love and not as an obligation. Instead he led me to believe that he loved me enough to want to spend an eternity with me. As husband and wife. Then he left me at the altar to be with another woman. Had you been blessed with the ability to do as I did, would you have not done the same? My branding as a heartless vindictive bitch, or woman scorned as you so politely chose to put it is not a result of my feelings being hurt. It's of Silas' betrayal. Amara was only means to an end. Something to remind him of why he gained his fate. If he ever managed to escape. She was a fruitless conquest."
Katherine swallows and shifts in her seat.
"But as for Bonnie and Stefan. Society isn't as barbaric as it once was. Their loss of memories have only served to stop being a reason to not approach the other. Anymore questions or should we get started before the effects of the cure no longer being in your system start to run its course."
Katherine starts to ask what that means but decides to wait. No point in delaying what she wanted for something that did not concern her. So she takes the goblet that Qetsiyah offers and drinks the contents. Stilling as she starts to feel the effects. The power flowing through her body and a smile breaks across her face when she picks up the sound of Qetsiyah's heart beating. But then a thought occurs to her.
Silas never mentioned her current position being something necessary. And before she can question it she feels a cold sensation on each temple, panic seizing her as she loses all feeling below her neck and Qetsiyah's voice infiltrating her hearing.
"This is going to hurt,"
And the next thing she hears are screams. Not realizing that they're her own until she feels as if her throat is on fire, hot tears streaming down her face. Then everything fades to black and she feels as if she's been tossed into a pool of cement. Flashes of her life being played across her lids as if it were a movie.
It's not until one of her body moving until she's at a pool of water and sees her reflection does she realize that it isn't her own at all. Instead of wild, untamed curls and a dress that she doesn't have to hold at the skirts to move freely. There's a long pink dress, that slides against her hips as she kneels at the pond. One hand going to grab at the material covering all but her eyes, pulling at it until soft flowing waves spill down her back and over her shoulders.
"What is this?" Katherine asks, frowning when she hears her own voice yet her reflection's lips haven't moved. Her hand going to the water, watching her face ripple until a voice comes from behind her. One that she knew very well, in fact.
Katherine frowns as her body moves on its own accord. Rising to her feet, a foreign feeling in her stomach as Stefan nears her. She starts to move towards him but once again her body doesn't respond accordingly.
"Silas," Comes a soft voice that she hasn't heard since her days long before she had her child taken before she could even see their face.
"What-"
There's a shift and she's pacing back and forth. Hands wrenched together, bottom lip trapped firmly between her teeth. With something between a whine and a groan she reaches out until her hands grasp a purple cloth and goes about wrapping it around her head making sure her hair is fully covered and is about to go outside when he walks inside.
"I have it," He says holding out the goblet for her to take.
Katherine watches as her hands go for it and only drinks once he nods encouragingly. Holding his eyes all the while until he laughs telling her to stop unless she plans to spend eternity alone.
The soil beneath her bare feet slips and she finds herself on the ground. Looking around in all directions when she feels the wind start to pick up. She scrambles to get to her feet and run back to the home she prepared but stops when she sees a familiar face stepping outside.
"Qetsiyah," she breathes "Please, I-"
Whatever she had planned to say came to a premature ending as screams of agony took their place. Her hands grasping at either side of her head as she fell to the ground. The pain stops and she finds herself inside of her home. Qetsiyah standing before her, a vial in one hand that she says is the cure to immortality. A heart that the witch claims to be her own in the other. She looks down to her chest, and sees a gaping hole that slowly closes. Looking back up to Qetsiyah when she starts to speak of her plans to have Silas take the cure under the pretense of her death. Before she can question it, she's jerked to her feet, and sees blood covering everything in sight. A smile on the witch's face before she starts to chant. She tries to look towards the opening in hopes of Silas coming to help but her head jerks back to Qetsiyah.
"I'll make sure he thinks there to be a chance for your reunion."
Being the final words she hears as she collapses to the ground.
Her eyes pop open and she finds herself staring back at Qetsiyah from the witch's place on the perimeter of the circle of salt. That catches fire as soon as she gets up from her seat.
"She's not dead."
"As you saw, I only made one cure."
"Then where is she?"
"Describe an immortal."
Katherine frowns and rolls her eyes "Not this again," She mutters under her breath.
Qetsiyah raises an eyebrow.
"Indestructible, can't be compelled, can get inside your head, control what you see, hear and feel."
"What made you want to be one?"
"Because they're indestructible, they can't be killed."
"So if you were to do something like...create the Other Side. What would you use to make it so it couldn't be destroyed?"
Katherine frowns "That's why you're so sure he won't be able to destroy the Other Side."
"It's why I made her the anchor and made it so she could only die at his hand."
"But what was the point of showing me this?"
"Because you're going to be her."
Katherine stares at Qetsiyah then looks towards the door. She speeds towards it but stops when she hits a barrier and frowns when she realizes that she wasn't nearly as fast as she used to be. In fact, a baby vampire two weeks without blood could beat her in a race from what she just saw."
"One thing about immortals as opposed to vampires. They're not nearly as fast or strong. Their power lies in the mentality. So if you took the time to project what you wanted to accomplish into my mind then you'd have been able to escape. But you're still thinking like a vampire." Qetsiyah looks at Katherine and shakes her head seeming genuinely disappointed to which Katherine feels taken back "The thing is, when I gave you her memories, it was so you could successfully pretend to be her. I was going to take your years and add it onto what she would have been able to do at her current age. That's two thousand and five hundred years to Silas' two thousand. By the time he realized what was happening, it would have been too late. But apparently I can't do that."
Katherine swallows and starts to shake her head back and forth frantically "No, you can, I just thought-"
"Not anymore," Qetsiyah purposely cuts her off at that point and raises her hand towards Katherine. Reciting the spell to strip the newfound immortal of her will "But if you pull this off we can revisit this."
Drinks prepped to their liking, both vampire and witch sit towards the back of the cafe. From the laughs coming from each, it's no secret to the others surrounding them that they are enjoying the other's company.
"Ten degrees, you enjoy college that much?"
"Apparently, but not enough to actually put any of them to use."
"Well to be fair, I doubt people would take a seventeen year old psychologist seriously."
"But they trust one to save their lives." Stefan counters remembering his time spent as an EMT.
"Fair enough," Bonnie grins "So what are you majoring in this time?"
"I'm not,"
Bonnie looks at him.
"It's weird, when I first came back, I didn't remember anything. Not my name, not my age. I didn't know what a vampire was, let alone that I was one. I didn't even know what I looked like until I came across a mirror."
Bonnie swallows and shifts guiltily in her seat.
"No, please don't apologize." he shakes his head before attempting to lighten the mood "I think I lucked out."
"Modesty, coming in at a close second there." She mocks him.
He halfheartedly shrugs "But, after Elena and Damon. I left and things started coming back."
She frowns at that, wondering what the two vampires had to do with anything but doesn't question it.
"Just basic things, aside from what I had already gathered or was told. I would walk by a car or a motorcycle and remember that I had a license." He half smiles knowing how strange that must have sounded until he sees the flash of understanding in her eyes.
"Yeah, I was in the music center the other day," she starts "Apparently I'm a classically trained pianist and dancer. My Grams…" she trails off, a brief flash of sadness clouding her eyes "would take me to my ballet classes and my dad hired a private instructor. And apparently I can speak three other languages. Which I didn't find out until I was going through the options for second language courses."
Stefan smiles and nods in understanding.
"Don't get all humble on me now."
"It's not fair," He tries to wave it off.
Bonnie openly laughs at that.
"Nine,"
"That you're completely fluent in. Not counting the fifteen that you can at least hold a basic conversation in." She guesses.
"Well yes, actually," He confirms taking a long drink from his mug. Feeling a wave of warmth run through him that he's almost sure has nothing to do with the drink in his hands. A frown settling on his features when he sees the worried look on her face. Before he can question the sudden change in her demeanor she explains it all on her own.
"I don't want them back."
Stefan lets out a long frustrated breath "He's been trying to convince you too,"
Bonnie looks up at him "You mean, you don't…"
"If it were up to me I would have left, but I didn't think Caroline would have liked that very much. When I first got back Tyler wasn't here, Matt was in and out and you weren't…"
"Alive," she says when he trails off "It's fine," She attempts to assure him when she sees how tense he's become.
"No, it's not."
Bonnie blinks at the tone of his voice.
"If this has taught me anything, it's that I shouldn't be worried about anyone's feelings coming before my own. From what I've gathered neither should you."
"And yet you still can't help it." Bonnie surmises.
"Yeah,"
Bonnie fiddles with the mug in her hands before taking a deep breath and deciding to push through her apprehension,
"So are you going to ask me when we should start working on that?"
Stefan looks at her for a moment, taken back by her question then smiles.