Take a chance on me
Disclaimer: The characters and other things from The Vampire Diaries don't belong to me. Credit goes to the rightful owners.
Chapter 10: Sleep to dream
Katherine immediately took a defensive stance, stepping subtly between Gregory and everyone else, blocking his path to them.
"Damon," Katherine said without taking her eyes off the intruder, "put Elena down and stay behind me. Do it, Damon. You too, Caroline."
Damon began to protest but Bonnie opened one eye and took hold of Elena's hand, giving him a nod of assurance. He looked apprehensive but he took Caroline's arm and pulled her away.
"How nice, you were even kind enough to gather everyone you love in just one room." Gregory said calmly, stepping inside the threshold and facing all of them, lingering on each face as if selecting which one to kill first, "So many futures to destroy, which one…which one to start with…"
"I'm right here, Gregory," Katherine said, equally stoic, "You want me. Here I am."
"Yes, yes," Gregory said waving her words aside, "You most certainly are here. But, I still need you for something, for later, you understand."
"And what would that be," Katherine said, mirroring the step he took, instinctively keeping herself in front of Elena's body.
"Well," Gregory said smiling at her, "I didn't expect that you'd have so many people you care about considering when I last saw you, you were a murderous wench. So, I'm going to let you choose, which one will go first—the aunt or the brother?
"Neither." Katherine said suddenly lunging for Gregory, who sidestepped her cleanly, appearing bored as he watched her whirl around with a feral look on her face.
"Alright, I'm a fairly reasonable man. Let's go a notch lower. Since they're already unconscious anyway, might as well start with them. Who will it be Katerina—the witch or your other self?" Gregory asked benevolently.
Katherine didn't respond, regarding him angrily but not attacking him. Gregory stared at her, his head tilted, a small smile gracing his face as the seconds passed.
"Ah, my Katerina, my heart aches to finally see you and not the shadow that Alastair brought home, absolutely breathtakingly beautiful" he breathed, "but stubbornly uncooperative. I shall choose then. Since you have no need of the extra body, we will dispose of it first."
Gregory was crouching at Elena's side in an instant, the same second that Jeremy broke rank and ran to his sister.
"Elena! Nooo!" Jeremy yelled only to be pulled back by Damon, who shielded him from the blow of the monster that appeared. It roared angrily, its muscles coiling underneath its thick, black hide, its red eyes glowing with fury as it stood taller than anyone in the room.
"You've angered my pet, young man" Gregory said, standing up, leaving Elena for the time being, "You go next."
Damon was sprawled on the floor, clutching his chest from the impact of the hit, "Jeremy, stay back or I will break your bones myself."
"Damon, it's Elena. We can't let him-"Jeremy reasoned as Damon stood up in the blink of an eye and pinned him against the wall.
"You can and you will or I swear I will knock you unconscious to keep you from getting killed. I promised your sister I will protect you." Damon said through gritted teeth
"Even at the expense of her life, Damon?" Jeremy challenged
Damon clenched his jaw, ignoring the question, "You're not dying on my watch. Not this time. Back. Off."
Behind them, Gregory applauded, eyes glinting with malice, "I'm impressed….with how far you've fallen Damon. You could have had the world at your fingertips. And yet you choose to be the hero you will never be. Such misguided selflessness. You could have been me."
Damon turned around, "No, thank you. I never aspired to be desperate and delusional."
The monster growled as it crouched on all fours ready to pounce, prompting Damon to place Jeremy securely behind him.
"You really shouldn't be so rude, it angers my pet." Gregory warned, "You're more like me than you think. You love the same way. Everything you do is driven by it. But what sets us apart is that…I have nothing to lose. Not anymore."
With that, Gregory went to grab Elena but he wasn't fast enough. A solid wall of light surrounded Bonnie and Elena, enclosing them, protecting them. Gregory howled in frustration, directing the monster to break down the defense but the creature bounced off without even placing a dent in the shield.
In the moment of distraction, Katherine exchanged a look with Damon and Stefan. She began to move closer to Gregory, keeping Stefan in the corner of his eye as he tried to smuggle Jenna and Jeremy out of the room, while Damon moved to close in on the monster.
And then Caroline froze, her head snapped back with eyes wide open in fear. Her mouth was open in a silent scream as she was slowly lifted off the ground by an invisible hand. A blast of cold air shot through the room, encircling them with a wall of ice, trapping everyone inside.
"Ah, Katerina, you're not playing the game right…letting me make all the choices of who to kill? If you want someone dead, say the name. Don't try and turn the tables on me or this will go faster." Gregory said menacingly
"Let her go," Katherine said moving closer to Caroline.
Gregory tightened the invisible leash on Caroline after Katherine took one step, "You never did like rules, my dear, but this time you're going to have to follow. Take another step and her head comes clean off her body."
"Okay, okay." Katherine said palms up, "I'm backing away."
Gregory released Caroline, allowing her to drop to the floor with a flick of his wrist, and she coughed as she hit the floor trying to crawl towards Stefan.
"Good. Now, tell the witch to stop whatever it is she's doing." Gregory ordered, "Or the humans will feel how it is to literally have their hearts explode inside their chest."
"Bonnie, drop it." Katherine called out but the witch was acting on instinct and could not really process what was happening. Bonnie was protecting her friend and was focused solely on that, completely ignorant of the additional threat Gregory posed, "Bonnie!"
"Too bad." Gregory said without any remorse and proceeded to choke both Damon and Stefan from a distance, showing them exactly how his power was beyond what they had anticipated; "Now they have to pay, Katerina. I'm sorry but you're going to have to live the little left of your life without them."
"No! No! Wait!" Katherine cried out, sounding frantic than her initial unruffled beginning, "Please."
"No." Gregory said, tightening his hold, doing the same to everyone else in the room, creating a captive audience to Katherine's dissolving composure, "Such a beautiful shame that you had to get back your humanity. Now you can't even try not to care as I drain the life out of every single one of them. Did you get it back because you thought I was capable of pity? Is that the power you think that other part of you had? To elicit compassion?"
"What do you want?" Katherine murmured weakly, tears silently falling on her face as she watched Stefan slowly lose consciousness, a battle the humans were losing faster, "What do you want that I can give so you stop this madness? You want me broken as I watch them die? Mission accomplished. You want revenge for Alastair? You want me dead? Fine!"
"I wanted you to love me!" Gregory yelled, losing his own calm, "But you were too caught up in Alastair's ill-conceived plot to make you what you are that you never noticed all I've done for you."
Gregory rounded on her, his face an inch from hers, "You didn't meet that witch by accident, or that daughter of yours didn't simply appear by some lucky twist of fate—I orchestrated all that. I wanted to free you from your pain that you carried with you but I wanted to leave you with a shred of passion alive in you, so you could love me. But you were never supposed to kill Alastair."
"I can never love you…like I never cared for your brother. He murdered my family!"
"No," Gregory said with his eyes flashing, "I did. Alastair tried to stop me, too weak to do what was necessary to rid you of your baggage. But I had not the patience to wait for you to realize on your own that this is what you've always been meant to be. You were too precious for mortality, but your human limitations prevented you from even seeing that. I had to push you, make sure you hit bottom so that you'd be renewed and you'll see how much better life can be as one of us. I almost had you, you were begging for release…I just had to kill that infant and you would have cut your own ties to that world, so that when you were turned you would automatically shut down all your emotions on your own, without magic. But Alastair, my poor brother, was in love with your human self and wanted to preserve it. He saved your daughter and took you for himself."
"He should have just let me die!" Katherine exploded, "It would have been kinder to have let me die."
"No. It would be kinder to let the Salvatore brothers die now." Gregory declared with every sense of bitterness possible in him, "Your love is like poison. It corrupts and destroys from within. I watch them now and I see how much they want to save you, thinking if they do so you'll return that to them, even if it's already tearing them apart. Their bond, my Katerina, doesn't stand a chance against you. Because human or not, you don't know how to love, to truly give yourself to someone and trust them with your heart. That's why it never lasts Katerina, isn't it? Why every man in your life always has an expiration date? Why you could never choose…because deep down you don't want to. Because you're too focused on saving yourself from the hurt since your first love died."
"Let them go," Katherine said with steel in her voice.
"No, you let them go," Gregory said forcefully, "and the game stops, only you will die tonight. I've decided I pity them, for falling prey to your charms. They never had a chance and now I choose to give them one—if you decide to die in their place. What will it be, my love?"
"Katherine, no." Stefan managed to get out in a strangled voice, meeting her eyes, pleading with her, "There are no guarantees. It's not worth it. We're not worth it."
"Ah, Stefan, the nice brother, so much like Alastair," Gregory said smoothly, "Are you saying that Katerina save herself and let the rest of you die? And here I thought Damon was the anti-hero. Choose Katerina, your life or theirs."
"You promise you won't hurt them…after?" Katherine said, sounding more like Elena than ever.
"I do but you won't really know, wouldn't you? You will just have to trust me," Gregory said sensing his victory.
"Will you answer me one question?" Katherine said to Gregory as she turned towards Stefan, whose eyes still tried to reason with her, then to Damon who looked at her with restrained rage.
"Of course," Gregory acquiesced, "A final gift to you."
"Why did you love me? I want to know." Katherine said, staring at Damon, willing him to understand her intent, "Why did you ever fall for me?" she continued, turning this time to Stefan.
Gregory looked taken aback, stunned to momentary silence. Katherine closed her eyes and repeated her question, "Why did you love me?"
"I still do." Gregory whispered, "You don't remember but I do. You were alone one day, picking flowers, and you fell, looked around then laughed loudly at yourself. Never, to this day, have I heard something so beautiful, so pure. I wanted to know you, understand how it was you kept your innocence in a world that in my eyes was filled with so much darkness. I wanted to be part of that world. Or bring you into mine, with the hope that you would make it better, make the curse feel bearable."
He looked at her tenderly before continuing, "You don't remember how I was the first one to save you."
"The snake..." Katherine said whirling around, her eyes glossed over remembering her human past.
"Yes," Gregory said with a distant voice, "Everyday you came back to that place, as did I. I watched you as you moved about without a care in the world and then I heard you scream. It pierced through me. I felt your fear, your pain. Both exquisite yet I only recognized the horror that your humanity meant I could lose you before I even knew you. I went to your side and already you were in a daze, the snake's venom already coursing through you."
"You bit me, I felt it," Katherine whispered, her fingers flying to her mouth.
"I sucked the poison out, cleaning your blood."
"I felt it—the relief. But there was something else...I was so confused but I'm sure I felt something else…"
"Power. Your first taste. I made you drink, a few drops of my blood. I wasn't sure I had healed you. I wanted...I wanted you to live." Gregory said achingly, looking at Katherine who took steps towards him.
"Why?" she asked
"Because you said thank you. Such simple words, yet in all my life, before I turned and after, you were the only person who recognized I was capable of something like that. It was like you saw beyond the monster. You saw the man, you saw me. It meant the world to me…I…I wanted you to live." Gregory said, his voice softer, losing its edge
"And now you want me to die." Katherine said bluntly, "Unforgivable evil wench, am I not? The murderer. I've lost her, right? You don't see that girl anymore when you look at me. In your eyes, I'm covered in the blood of your brother. I'm the girl who went through this world with selfish intent, blinded by self-preservation and the need for blood. Not the girl you saved, not the girl you loved."
"Yes." Gregory answered with his face blank, unreadable.
Katherine nodded, defeated, "So what next? What do you have left to live for?"
"Nothing, Katerina. But it won't be enough to save you, because I didn't have one to begin with. You will die tonight. I will kill you."
"No," Katherine said shaking her head, "I will kill you."
In a flash, Katherine threw off the monster against the wall of ice, which whimpered as it crashed hard on the ground. Katherine took Gregory by the throat in a crushing grip. His eyes widened in shock, feeling her power radiate through her as Katherine tilted her head and smiled.
"I don't think you'll be needing this, you barely used it anyway," Katherine said plunging her hand into his chest, taking his heart out swiftly. She watched him the light leave his eyes as he went limp in her hands.
Katherine flung the body to the side and whirled around to see everyone fall to the ground as the ice vanished around them. She listened to each of them sputter and struggle to breathe. She felt Bonnie release the barrier over her and Elena. Relief flooded Katherine, so much so that she almost missed the movement from the monster she left for dead.
The beast lunged straight for Elena's motionless body, sensing the perfect prey for retribution, for the master they had killed. Katherine was quick, absorbing the shock and crumpling to the floor on impact. Immediately Damon and Stefan were on the monster, immobilizing it before moving in for the final kill. It took less than a minute but the damage was done.
Katherine lay beside Elena, her body twisted in an odd angle, blood blossoming from her shattered skull.
"Why is she not healing?" Caroline cried out, "Bonnie! Help her! We might not get Elena back! Please! Do something! Bonnie, wake up!"
"Caroline," Stefan said gently, "Let me have a look. Come on, let me check on her. Go, try and wake up Bonnie."
Caroline nodded, watching as Damon and Stefan surrounded Katherine, both seemingly waiting for a cue on what to do. Jenna ran to Elena's side, followed by Jeremy, trying to shake her awake by calling out to her.
Bonnie awoke with a gasp, clutching Caroline as she struggled to get a hold of herself. "Bonnie!" Caroline said frantically, "Please, Katherine is bleeding all over and she's not healing. She's a vampire and she's freaking not healing. Do something, please. Elena's not waking up either. Please."
Bonnie nodded and went to Katherine, placing both palms over her head, chanting faintly as the blood cleared around her as the wounds closed. She stopped after a few seconds, looking confused.
"It's done. She's healed. Why isn't she up?" Bonnie said, panic rising in her voice, "I don't understand...Why…Why?"
In a flash, Damon was at Elena's side, taking her body from Jenna, cradling it against him, "Elena, wake up. Dammit, get up. Get out of Katherine. It's over. Heinous villain is dead. We're all okay here, just please get up. Please."
"Damon," Stefan said with a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head, "we have to wait. It must be happening, whatever it is. That's why Katherine won't wake up. Let her go. She'll come back to us when it's time."
"No. I. Can't." Damon said through gritted teeth, "She has to come back. She has to come back now."
Damon lowered his head and whispered heartbreakingly to Elena, "Please. Elena, please. I need you. I love you."
He lifted his eyes, expecting her to open hers after he spoke, hoping his voice was enough.
But there was nothing. She didn't move. It was like Elena wasn't even there.