"Okay, I give!" Bonnie tapped out. "Jesus Kenny, are you trying to kill me?" Bonnie stayed flat on the ground wishing for an early death, or at least some kind of break.

"Nah, you're just distracted, get up Bennett." Bonnie groaned as she took his hand and stood on shaky legs. "You're not focusing, where is your mind right now?" He peered at Bonnie in concern, "We can stop if you really want to, I have plans with Luke anyway."

"Yeah, that might be best. I'm not in the right frame of mind." She grabbed for the life line that he offered her with both hands.

"Anything I can help with? I've been told I'm a great listener." He took a swig of water and leaned in closer, "Plus, it might help to get an outsider's perspective." Bonnie was tempted to bare all, it had been two months since Abby had dropped her bombshell about someone wanting her blood, and so far she and Lucy had heard nothing more.

"No thanks, this is something that I gotta work through myself." She sent him a half hearted smile, "But thanks for the offer." She left the training area and headed to her room to shower and relax. She was entirely too tense waiting for a threat that was still undefined.

It was quiet…too quiet.

Bonnie had finished her last semester and was currently in Portland for the summer. She figured it would be better for her to be surrounded by other experienced witches if anyone decided to try and ambush her. She filled her days with training and learning, and her nights hanging out with other Gemini members. She spent most of her later nights with Kai, either enjoying late night dates or just wrapped around each other.


They had both pretty much stopped pretending that something wasn't going on between them. Well, they had to when they were outed by Kai's daughters. They had just come back from one of their dates and were walking through the gardens. Kai was trying to convince Bonnie to dress up in her old cheerleading uniform and do a cheer for him.

Bonnie would later blame the amount of alcohol that she had imbibed on her next actions. She pulled him deeper in to the gardens, magically changed into her old Mystic Falls uniform, and started to perform a racier version of one of Mystic Falls cheers that she and Caroline had come up with one day. She finished with a flourish and a bit of a drunken stumble before she walked over and straddled his lap. Kai had one hand buried in her panties and Bonnie was on the verge of coming when they heard the whispers and giggles.

Bonnie had exploded from Kai's lap, switched back to her regular clothes, and tried to appear as if she hadn't been just about to come from their father's fingers. Kai had corralled them and marched them back into their beds. Along the way, the girls had taken delight in telling pretty much everyone that they came across that 'Daddy and Miss Bonnie were kissing in the garden!'

The news spread like wildfire throughout the compound and for the most part all Bonnie received were a few raised eyebrows, and snickers. His family had no issues with it, thankfully. There were a few council members who had concerns, possibly due their age difference and how much power and influence Kai could wield over Bonnie. But even that died down eventually. The only person that seemed to still have a problem with them was Kai's mother-in-law.

Annalise had cornered Bonnie once while she was in the library alone. The older woman had hissed that Bonnie was nothing but a whore taking advantage of a grieving widow. She had vowed to keep Bonnie away from her 'impressionable grandbabies' and vowed to send Bonnie back to where she came from.

She had told no one but Lucy, Caroline, and Rebekah about that conversation, all had various levels of advice on how to handle it. Both Lucy and Caroline had advocated for Bonnie to snatch her bald. Rebekah, surprisingly, had had the most mature response in advising Bonnie not to push, to let the woman get used to seeing them together, and to reassure her that Bonnie wasn't trying to take her daughters place.

It was sound advice, and while Bonnie understood the woman's hurt over her son in law seemingly moving on from her daughter, the amount of vitriol in her voice worried Bonnie. She didn't think the older woman would try anything, but Bonnie made sure to keep as far away from her and her cronies as possible.


Steam wafted out into the air as Bonnie opened the door to her bathroom, the shower had helped to ease the stiffness in her shoulders and she was feeling a lot better. She changed into some comfy clothes and booted up her computer, she wanted to see if Caroline was online. She missed her blond bubbly friend and was feeling a little homesick for Mystic Falls.

She threw her towel in the hamper, turned to her bed, and was surprised to see a box on her bed that wasn't there before. It was a smallish unwrapped box with no card attached. Bonnie made her way closer to the bed, more curious than afraid. Maybe it was a gift from Kai? Bonnie shrugged, it's not like anyone would try anything outrageous here while she was safely ensconced in the Gemini compound. She lifted the top of the box and peered in…

And promptly scrambled up off the bed.

Bonnie shot over to the other side of her room to put as much space between her and the object that was in the box. Her mind was racing, while heart was beating a million miles a minute.

How the hell had someone gotten a hold of an ascendant?

She knew the ascendant couldn't travel between worlds, so this one couldn't be hers. There was another ascendant that was created to place Klaus in his prison world, but for obvious reasons, that one was wasn't made public. Logically, Bonnie knew there had to be at least one more, the one created specifically for Kai by his father, but she knew that one was safely locked away under various levels of magic.

So where the fuck had this one come from?

Bonnie retreated back into the bathroom after grabbing her phone, she needed to figure out what to do, and looking at that box was wreaking havoc with her ability to think rationally. The first person she called was her mother.

"Bonnie?" Abby answered on the first ring. It was rare that they spoke on the phone, rarer still that it was Bonnie initiating the contact.

"There is an ascendant on my bed!" She whisper screamed into the phone. "No, wait. Not just some ascendant, the same one that I used to get out of 1994!"

"You need to get away from it." Abby said forcefully. "Matter of fact, leave the place entirely."

Even though she knew her mother couldn't see her, Bonnie could only nod. Every second that she spent in the vicinity of the ascendant only made her more paranoid.

"I can't leave until I speak with Kai." Bonnie said to her mother.

"Why? Every minute you stay there you're putting yourself at risk. You can call him from the plane or after you get back here." Abby pressed.

Bonnie shook her head, "No, that wouldn't be fair. Besides, he needs to know that someone here is sneaking around behind his back with the coven's artifacts."

She could hear her mother sigh, "Fine, I'll come to you, then we'll both get out of there. I'm already at Lucy's so I can be there in a few hours." Abby's voice softened, "We'll figure this out, Bonnie. I promise."

Bonnie hung up and took a few deep breaths in order to calm herself down. Peeking out the bathroom door and noticing the package was right where she left it, she skirted around the bed and burst out into the hallway.

Bonnie grabbed the first person that she saw, "Where's Kai?"

"Umm, meeting with the high council right now, I think." The girl answered, eyes wide at Bonnie's obvious distress. "But I think they're almost done-"

Bonnie didn't wait for her to finish, she bolted out of the residence area and made her way to the main part of the compound. Once she was out in the open she deliberately slowed her steps as to not seem like she was running. She made it to the meeting area just as they were adjourning.

She stood to the side and watched the elder council members flow out of the room, making sure to greet each and every one that passed. Almost every person smiled and greeted her back, except of course for Annalise and her followers. They swept by Bonnie without so much as a glance in her direction.

"You'll have to forgive Annalise." Bonnie turned to face the older Hispanic man that was lingering in the hallway. Manuel Garcia had been one of the first people Bonnie met when she first came to Portland, he was an older man in his mid 40's who always seemed to have a smile on his face. "It's a hard thing to lose a child, even harder to watch while your grandkids get closer to someone that's not their mother."

Bonnie tilted her head in confusion, she wasn't ready to be anybody's mother yet. Annalise had nothing to worry about in that regard.

"She's afraid that you'll replace her daughter in the girls' minds." He clarified for her. "Everyone knows that the marriage between Kai and Lisa was mostly for the coven." His warm brown eyes seemed to bore into Bonnie' skull, "That marriage, and the fact that there were children born from it, solidified her place in the coven. You threw us all a curveball when you showed up, because I don't know if you realize it, but with you being a Bennett, should you and Kai ever have kids, Emily and Genevieve would be out of the running for the merge."

Bonnie blanched at that, sure she knew about the merge and what it entails, but the thought of sacrificing one of her children somewhere down the road was a big reason why she was religious about her birth control. If something were to happen, she already knew that she would keep the baby (or babies), seeing as she only had a few family members left in the world. No way was she ever going to give up a child for some ritual.

"Hmm, that's interesting." Manuel spoke as if he were talking to himself. Bonnie shook herself out of her stupor, how dumb was she not to remember that Manuel held the ability to read not only auras, but thoughts as well. She quickly slammed the lid on whatever she must have been emitting, but she knew that he had probably already seen too much.

"Oh here's Kai. You two kids have fun." With a wave he set off, whistling something that sounded familiar. Bonnie was turning to face Kai when she felt his hand wrap around her midsection and pull her into the now empty room. Bonnie opened her mouth to scold him, but only managed to get part of his name out before he sealed his mouth over hers. He backed her into the wall and kept her there with his weight pressed against her.

Bonnie took a moment to melt into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer. For just a little while she wanted to live in the moment and enjoy what was in front of her before she had to deal with the nastiness that was her life.

Kai broke the kiss but stayed pressed against her, "This is starting look like a dream that I had not too long ago. Wanna help me test the sturdiness of my desk?"

"What?" It took Bonnie a second to get her focus back, then his words registered. "No! My god this is where your council meets!"

"I could use some good memories to help me get through the excruciatingly long meetings that some people insist are necessary."

"No." Bonnie was adamant.

He kissed under her ear and sighed dramatically, "Fine, I guess we'll have to discuss desk sex some other time. What are you doing here? I know you like to steer clear of any official Gemini business."

Bonnie's stomach plummeted as she remembered why she came to see him. "We need to talk."

Kai's eyebrows shot up, "Those words are never good, what's wrong?" He led her over to the long table where the council members sat during meetings. He took the head seat and Bonnie sat to his immediate right.

"I'm leaving." Bonnie wanted to kick herself for just blurting it out like that. "I mean, I have to leave." She filled him in on the events that led to her leaving Mystic Falls and ending with her finding the ascendant on her bed, and Abby being on her way to Portland.

Kai listened to everything stone faced, not saying anything until she finished. He ran a hand through his hair, "Why didn't you tell me any of this before?"

Bonnie looked down and shrugged, "Before this, I didn't want to involve you or the Gemini because this has nothing to do with you guys. I'd always handled everything on my own, why should this be any different?"

"Yeah and look where it got you." Kai countered. "Plus, whoever it was managed to get past all the layers of magic and cloaking that I placed on it to retrieve it from my personal vault."

Bonnie closed her eyes, she had been hoping that it wasn't the ascendant for the prison world that was initially for Kai, but now held his father. "Okay, so the next question then becomes, who has access to your personal vault and how to get into it?"

His eyes narrowed, "Only a handful of people." He frowned as the rest of Bonnie's words registered, "Wait, Abby is coming here?"

Bonnie nodded, "Yeah, then we're both leaving to head back down to Lucy's."

"What? Does she not think you'll be protected here?" He leaned back in his chair. "She chooses now to be a mother?"

Bonnie frowned, "She's trying, okay? And you can't tell me that if Em or Gen were in danger, you wouldn't do the same thing."

"Oh, so you think you're in danger now?"

Bonnie tilted her head, "Why are you getting pissed?"

"I'm not."

"Could've fooled me."

"I take offense to the fact that your mother, who has been largely absent from your life, now wants to swoop in and try and play concerned mother at my, and my coven's, expense." Kai grit his teeth.

"So, you're mad that she's stepping on your toes? You wanna be the big damn hero in this story?" Bonnie couldn't believe what she was hearing. "What does it hurt if she's also here to help? I would think you'd be thankful for the help, seeing as you've got someone in your coven that's doing shit right under your nose." Bonnie knew that was a low blow, but she wanted him to see beyond his ego.

His eyes flashed, "Don't tell me how to run my coven, Bonnie."

"Don't tell me not to be thankful for my mother being concerned for me." She countered.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it." His hand sought hers, after a moment's hesitation, she took it. "I am the leader of this coven, and this shit happened on my watch. I want to make it right, I need to make it right. Having Abby here will be a visual reminder that I was caught sleeping on the job. No leader wants to see his lapses in judgement flaunted out for everyone to see."

"You're one person, Kai. You can't be everywhere. Abby isn't coming here to rub your nose in it, she's coming for her daughter. Plain and simple." Bonnie looked at their entwined hands on the table, "And after a lifetime of her not showing up, or her being a disappointment when she does show, is it wrong of me to be happy that she's attempting to mend fences?"

"No, of course not. This just isn't the way I thought I'd be seeing Abby again."

Bonnie let out an undignified snort, "I keep forgetting that you had a whole life before I showed up. You knew Grams, of course you would have known Abby too." She side-eyed him, "Did you two ever...?" She trailed off, not even wanting to say it.

"No. Even back then Abby wasn't really one for sticking around. She rarely came with Sheila when she visited, and I only really saw her at coven events. I do remember being pissed at her for being so blasé about her abilities as a witch. She had all that power and just didn't care."

"Meanwhile you had no power, and was treated horribly for it." Bonnie said softly.

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

There was silence as both got lost in their thoughts. Finally Kai squeezed her hand, "Abby will be welcomed here, you don't have to worry about that. I'll send someone to pick her up-" he held out a hand when Bonnie looked like she was about to interrupt, "Someone from my family that I trust, and bring her here. In the meantime, you're my shadow."

"Yeah, cause that won't ring any bells at all." Bonnie rolled her eyes.

"Actually it makes the most sense, everyone knows about us now, why not show it? This way it'll look like you can't stand to be apart from me." Kai grinned.

"Or maybe like you can't stand to be away from me." Bonnie countered stubbornly. Kai laughed and pulled her onto his lap, "Either way, you're gonna be right by my side until we figure this out." He placed a kiss on her neck. Bonnie smiled sadly, Kai was confident that they'd figure this out, so was Abby. However, with her luck, she knew that it would get so much worse before it got better.


When Abby arrived she was brought straight into the gardens where both Bonnie and Kai waited. From the outside, it would simply look like Kai was doing the normal "meet the mother of the girl I'm seeing" ritual.

Once Abby released Bonnie from her hug, she turned to where Kai was standing nearby stone-faced. "Hello Malachai."

"Abigail."

"Have you found out who stole the ascendant and put it in Bonnie's room?" Abby pressed. "And for what reason?"

"No." Kai answered tonelessly, "When I went to retrieve it, it was already gone."

"Of course it was." Abby scoffed.

"Is there something you want to say?" Kai stepped closer, "Because now would be the perfect time to get it out."

"How could you let this happen?" She hissed, "You know damn well what could happen if Bonnie is around that ascendant."

"Yeah, I do know. Which is why I wanted to get it back."

"Wait, what?" This was the first time Bonnie had heard of any adverse actions to her being near an ascendant.

"You haven't told her?" Abby looked horrified.

"Doesn't look like you were too forthcoming either, mother of the year." Kai sneered.

"Seriously you two?" Bonnie wanted to scream, they were both older than she was, but acting like children. "Obviously you know something that I don't, what am I missing?"

Abby and Kai exchanged uneasy glances, it looked like neither one of them wanted to be the one to spill any more bad news. Until Abby took the lead.

"Bonnie, there's a good chance that-"

She was cut off by the sound of giggles and the arrival of two rambunctious little girls who inexplicably began to sing Happy Birthday to Bonnie.

"Girls what are you doing? It's not Bonnie's birthday." Kai traded confused glances with Bonnie.

"Grandma told us it was your birthday." Emily asked, her smile was slowly being replaced by a frown.

"We left a present for you on your bed!" Genevieve piped up, her face mirroring her twins.

"Oh my god." Bonnie gasped. That crazy old woman had used her granddaughters to get the ascendant from Kai's vault. Bonnie knew for a fact that they had access to it. While it was true that that was where he stored many coven artifacts like valuable Gemini grimoires, ancient scrolls that were passed down from leader to leader…

It also held items that once belonged to his late wife and the girls' mother.

Kai kept pictures of her around so the girls wouldn't forget her face, but there were more pictures, hand written letters and notes, even recordings that Kai was saving to give the girls when they got older. No wonder Kai hadn't noticed, it was set up to trigger an alarm when anyone else tried to open it, but his own flesh and blood? Could come and go as they pleased, and Kai wouldn't be any wiser.

"So there's no party?" Emily asked, her lower lip poking out.

"Where is this party supposed to be?" Bonne knelt down, making sure not to sound too urgent.

"Here, in the garden near the gazebo!"

"We can show you, we spent allll morning setting up!"

Their faces cleared and they grabbed Bonnie and Kai's hands and led them to the gazebo where there was a table stacked with gifts of many sizes. It was set up for a birthday party, sure, but there was nobody else there.

"You need to go back to the house, I'll start going through the gifts to find the ascendant." Abby whispered in Bonnie's ear. She didn't want to crush the little girls spirits, their enthusiasm had ramped back up and were now chanting 'cake, cake, cake'.

Bonnie got a better idea of how to determine which box held the ascendant, she called the girls back to her, "Which was the present that grandma said I had to open?" They both ran to the table and pointed to a box that looked like the one that Bonnie had on her bed earlier.

"This one!" They said in unison.

"Great job!" Kai gathered them both close, "Even though it's not Miss. Bonnie's birthday, we can still have cake." Scanning the table and noticing there were no plates or silverware, he pretended to think "now where did I put the plates?"

"I'll get some!" With a pop of magic, they disappeared. Presumably to find and bring back the missing items.

"It's not in here." Bonnie whipped around and Abby held the box upside down, clearly showing that there was nothing inside.

"Are all the boxes empty?" Bonnie asked, moving to go to the table herself. But Kai held her back with one arm, "Bonnie, I didn't tell you this before but-" He was interrupted by Abby's yell. Bonnie watched in horror as Abby pulled her bloody hand out of a big box. There was a whirring sound and before she could move, Abby disappeared much like the girls had. "NO!"

Except Bonnie knew her mother didn't just pop into the kitchen for silverware.

The box Abby had been holding tumbled to the ground and Bonnie could see the ascendant still clicking. The girls rematerialized right next to the box at that moment, and Bonnie didn't hesitate to dash forwards and forcibly throw them back towards Kai. The last thing she saw before her vision went dark was Kai clutching a daughter under each arm.


Bonnie landed on the ground with a groan of pain. Why couldn't this damn thing ever have her land on something soft? Shaking off her grogginess, she looked around to get a feel for where she was currently. Her jaw dropped as she took in the blood splattered walls, and the nagging familiarity with the house.

She was back in the 1994 prison world that she escaped from.

Suddenly she remembered Annalise's threat that she was gonna send Bonnie back to where she came from. The old bitch must have known that if Bonnie were to ever portal jump again, she'd end up back where she started. That also meant both Kai and Abby knew as well, seeing as they were both trying to keep from being near the ascendant.

"So nice of you to join us, Ms. Bennett."

Bonnie didn't recognize the voice, but she knew who she would find when she turned her head.

"How rude of me to not introduce myself. My name is Joshua Parker." He was sitting in an armchair with a roaring fire behind him.

"How?" She croaked out. There was no rhyme or reason why this Joshua Parker was in the blood soaked home of the original Kai Parker. They were from two different timelines, it should have been impossible.

"How did I manage to get here?" He gave a short laugh, "You didn't really think that as prior leader I didn't make it my business to know everything there was to know about Prison Worlds? Including how to jump from one to another?"

"Where's my mother?" Bonnie knew the time between Abby showing up and her appearance, Joshua hadn't had much time, so Abby still had to be somewhere in the vicinity.

"Oh, Abigail is a little tied up at the moment." He waved a hand aimlessly, "I was a little disappointed when it was her that came through initially and not you, but you proved true to form."

"You know nothing about me. We've never even met."

"No, we haven't, but I've still got eyes and ears everywhere. You've made an impression on certain members of my coven."

Bonnie raised her eyebrows at that, surprised that the exiled man still considers the coven as his. "So what do you want?" She got straight to the point, the less time she spent here, the better.

"I need your blood." Joshua was blunt.

"You have Abby as well, she's also a Bennett."

"Her blood has been tainted by her stint as a vampire." He scoffed. "Yours, on the other hand, is pure."

"What for? If you want to get out of here, I can let you out. Of course Kai is going to just lock you back up again, though. Or maybe skip all that and finally kill you, but hey, it's your choice." Bonnie tried to stall for time.

"I appreciate your concern for my well-being, but it's not warranted." He pulled out a syringe, and Bonnie scrambled to get up from the floor. "No need to run, this will only pinch. If your idiotic vampire friends had managed to get your blood like they were supposed to, we wouldn't be here right now."

"What?"

"Oh, did you not know? Annalise was so sure that she had them convinced, but oh well." He still looked like he was just having a relaxing sit by the fire.

"That was Annalise? How did she even know about what was going on there?" Bonnie thought back, she had always tried to downplay any mentions of her Mystic Falls companions. Especially since most of the Gemini were stuck in their ways.

"Oh, she's taken a special interest in you. You see, she stumbled across a spell that would let her resurrect her beloved daughter. All it takes is blood from a powerful witch….and that witch's body, obviously." He chuckled, "Of course she has no idea that the spell won't work, she's not powerful enough to raise the dead, even with the combined magic of her little circle of friends. I would say she'll join Lisa on the other side, but since you've already taken care of that for me, she'll just die from overuse of magic."

Bonnie put the pieces together, "She didn't just stumble across that spell, did she? You put it in her path, and you used her grief over her daughter dying to manipulate her into helping you." As much as Bonnie hated the other woman's actions, a part of her understood her motivation. She remembered what it was like to overdo it with magic. When she had revived Jeremy in that cave, that brief feeling of euphoria, followed by unimaginable pain. At least she had had her grams and the other side to fall back on, Annalise would truly be dead if she went through with her plan.

"It wasn't hard." Joshua confessed, "I can't physically leave this world, but I've found ways to communicate when I needed to. A whisper here and there, written notes in books that can be sent through, a recurring dream in which that person has everything she's ever wanted." He leaned closer to Bonnie as if to tell her a secret, "There are all kinds of ways to get people to bend to your will, just figure out what they want, and make them believe they can actually have it."

"No matter who gets hurt in the process, right?" Bonnie snarked. 'Do you even care about your granddaughters?"

"Of course I do." He looked like he was offended Bonnie even asked the question, "As soon as I'm free and my son is here in my place, I'll be sure to bring them up the right way. The Gemini way-" Bonnie watched in amazement as he suddenly pitched forward and landed on the floor in a heap. Abby was standing behind his chair with a bloody brick in her hands.

"He's always been a talker." Abby threw the brick and grabbed Bonnie in a bone crushing hug.

"I think I've worked out why I was not supposed to be near another ascendant." Bonnie said dryly.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I really thought Kai would have." Abby apologized.

"No time for that right now, we need to find a way to restrain him before he wakes up, then we need to find the ascendant to get out of here and warn Kai." Bonnie chose to focus on the more immediate threat.

"Where was it the last time?" Abby asked.

"I don't know" Bonnie replied helplessly, "that kai already had it when we met him in Mystic Falls."

"It was made here in Portland, he wouldn't trust mom with it all the way across the country." Abby theorized. "So he must have it nearby."

Bonnie looked at Joshua's slumped over body that was now tied to his chair, if he really was Kai's father, then that would mean he'd keep it with him at all times. Especially if he were expecting to use it relatively soon after she arrived.

"It's on him." Bonnie said with certainty. "It has to be."

They both looked at each other, wondering who would be the one to go check when Abby darted forward and picked up the brick, and hit Joshua over the head twice in quick succession.

"What the hell, mom?" Bonnie stood frozen in shock.

"Just wanted to make sure he stayed out while I searched him. We're not doing any dumb horror movie clichés here." She quickly searched him, and just like Bonnie predicted, the ascendant was tucked away in a pocket of the coat he was wearing.

"Okay, let's go." Once they were both outside, Bonnie took a moment to breathe. That was the relatively easy part, they still needed to get back to Mystic Falls and wait for the exact time to portal jump.


It was the weirdest road trip Bonnie had ever been on.

She and Abby had stolen the car right outside the Parker home, driven to the city and swapped that for something that would get them to Mystic Falls faster. Since they were back in 1994 they once again had to rely on maps to navigate their way across the country. Bonnie had taken a camera and extra rolls of film to document their journey. If nothing else went right, they would still have this time together as mother and daughter.

They didn't dawdle too much, knowing full well that Joshua would be, at the most, only a day behind them. Soon enough they were speeding past the familiar welcome sign. Bonnie felt a little bit of the anxiety that she was feeling ease up, they were almost there.

She led Abby to the specific spot in the woods and together they unloaded the tools that Bonnie had insisted that they'd need in order to access the perfect spot.

"Ugh, who did this the last time?" Abby stopped shoveling to wipe her brow.

"Damon." Bonnie admitted. "I figured he was the vampire, he could do the heavy lifting."

"The one time I wish he was around." Abby grumbled to herself, resuming her digging.

"Right?"

It took them most of the night to dig down into the cave. Sometime in the early dawn, they retired to Grams' cottage to rest a little before heading back to catch the eclipse. Bonne knew Abby had set up a warning perimeter around both the cave and where they were resting. Before they left the cozy home, Abby ran back to her mother's room and grabbed a few things to take back with her.

Bonnie couldn't see Joshua, but she could sense he was here. It was the same feeling that she'd had when Kai was playing hide and seek with her and Damon. He didn't come near the house, but she just knew he was there. They decided against using the same car that they came in, figuring it was better to be safe than sorry. Bonnie once again hot-wired a car and they set off.

They arrived at the cave with minutes to spare, Abby once again reinforced her circle, and Bonnie wasted no time in cutting her palm and starting the spell. Out the corner of her eye, she spotted movement behind Abby, but she didn't stop. Motioning with her head to her mother, she let her know that Joshua was there, but he was already staggering into view holding a cross-bow.

The ascendant clicked open and started its movement, Bonnie glanced up and for a second, the world blurred and it was Kai standing in front of her once more. Bonnie's eyes widened as she remembered what came next.

Apparently Abby knew what was coming too, Bonnie watched in what seemed like slow motion as Joshua pulled the trigger the same time that Abby stepped in front of Bonnie, her body blocking the path of the arrow. Abby clutched at the arrow as she deliberately stepped out of the circle and collided with Joshua. She glanced at Bonnie and gave her a sad smile, "I love you, baby girl."


Bonnie came to in the woods, at the edge of the falls.

This damn thing really loves just dumping me in random places. She huffed to herself as she rolled over to lay on her back. She remembered Abby's sacrifice and wept softly, no matter what she did, it seemed that she was destined to never have both of her parents in her life at the same time.

She's not sure how long she laid there sniffling, but soon she started shivering. She figured she could head to her Grams' place and call Kai from there to warn him about his father. She trudged through the forest and soon was standing before the one place that she could honestly say always felt like home.

"Well, well, well. Llook who came back from the dead." Turning around she spotted Caroline walking towards her. "What kind of fucked up trade is this? My mother dies and you come back." The blond was wearing a black dress that didn't really seem to be her normal style.

"Wait, your mom died?" Bonnie was aghast. Why didn't Caroline tell her?

Caroline rolled her eyes, "Oh right, the whole you've been trapped in a prison world thing. Here's the summary, she had cancer, now she's dead."

"When did this happen? I just talked to you last week!" Bonnie was certain she was having some sort of brain twitch. She would have remembered if Caroline had said anything about Liz having cancer. She glanced at the baby vamp, something was off about her.

"Um, no you most certainly did not. My carrier does not do world to world calling." She tossed her hair over her shoulder, still looking blankly at Bonnie.

"You turned off your humanity." It wasn't a question. If Liz Forbes truly did just die, her Caroline would be a wreck, but this person in front of her was stone cold.

"Points for the un-dead witch!" Caroline clapped. "Honestly I don't even know why it's such a big deal. It's not like I don't know how to control myself, I'm not Damon or Elena."

"Caroline, what's happened?" Bonnie was starting to get frantic. Something wasn't right here.

"I just told you. Jeez, why am I supposed to be glad you're back?"

"No," Bonnie brushed past the barb, "I mean what's happened since I went away?"

Another eye roll, "Let's see, you used your anchor-ness to let everyone pass through you, except Damon for some reason. We all thought you two died, but then Damon comes crashing back a few weeks ago, and then this Kai guy showed up. Turns out he's Luke and Liv's hot, older, psycho child killing brother who is also related to Jo-" She stops and shakes her head, "Oh that's right you don't know Jo, but anyways they were supposed to merge when they were kids but like I said, child killer, so they locked him away but he got out and merged with Luke. So Luke's dead-"

"Oh no." Bonnie whispered as Caroline rambled on.

She was back in her original world.