I do not own the Vampire Diaries. The CW and L.J. Smith do. No copyright infringement is intended. Thank you for reading. Enjoy! I also hope I didn't start the whole Jerome thing. I noticed a lot of people calling Jeremy, Jerome as an insult and the truth is I really like Jeremy.
Had Damon been paying attention instead of concentrating on what he was going to do when he reached the doppels, he would've noticed a rainbow dazzling in the night sky. Devon smiled in content as he saw the sign from Connie and he couldn't believe that they had succeeded. When he saw Damon coming alone, he knew he had been right. They were not united and that's why they were going to fail. As Damon walked up to the front porch, the door swung open and for a moment he was hesitant but then he remembered his mission. He was here to save Bonnie and so he confidently made his way through, ignoring the way the door closed behind him.
He whizzed into the house and noticed that it was eerily quiet and that unsettled him. The lights were flickering and he heard only a faint heartbeat. He followed the beat and came upon the door, and he was going to go for it when he saw two figures mysteriously appear right in front of the door.
He couldn't focus on his confusion, so he just appeared before them and Elijah style took their hearts out. The two collapsed and he threw their hearts beside them. He opened the door swiftly and was down the steps in seconds where the beating heart became louder. He rushed over to Bonnie and saw dried blood on her cheek. She opened her eyes and looked at him briefly before closing them again. Furious and angry that someone had decided to smite the Bennett witch, he carried her gently upstairs all the while listening to the doppels speak.
"Did you clean her up?" Devon asked Carolina and Steven as they continued to watch the rainbow.
Carolina shrugged. "I forgot," she said, taking out a cigarette from her pocket.
"You're getting on my nerves you know that," Devon said, narrowing his eyes at her.
Steven put his hand in Carolina's pocket and took out a cigarette for himself. She lighted him up and they blew smoke in Devon's face.
"You're going to be all right," Damon whispered in Bonnie's ear as he cradled her in his arms.
Damon opened the door to find Carolina, Steven and Devon waiting for him. They walked over to the massive living room where more of Jerome's four more fans surrounded them.
"Glad you could join us," Devon said.
"Get out of my way," Damon yelled. His hold on Bonnie tightened.
Steven started to chuckle and Damon was surprised to see no worry lines spread over his forehead. Unlike his brother, who was constantly brooding and preoccupied, Steven seemed like he didn't have a care in the world. Carolina wrapped an arm around him as she cast a menacing look at Damon. Sure Caroline had hated him, but this look was far more vicious than any look Caroline had ever sent him.
"I'll give you Connie. I know where she is," Damon said.
"Oh, I know where Connie is," Devon replied. "How could you think I wouldn't know where my darling was?" he said, shaking his head in mock shame.
Damon's eyes widened at the realization. "You think it was your idea to lock her up in the witch's house," Devon laughed.
"Why?" Damon said.
"Wow, you're really thick," he scoffed.
"I don't get it," Damon said, almost forgetting he had Bonnie in his arms.
"We're all here," Devon said. "Emilia is also in that house. She's our ally."
"Emilia?" Damon said, confusion marking his countenance.
"I don't know what the hell you call her in your world," Carolina spat, "but in our world she's Connie's ancestor and she is one badass bitch." Damon nodded as it dawned on him that they were talking about Emily.
"Well we got Pat," Damon said.
"You can have him," Steven said, shrugging his shoulders. "After all we just really like him for his money.
"Steven," Carolina said, giving him a gentle smack on his neck. "Don't say that about my ex."
"It's true, though," Steven said.
"What do you want from us?" Damon asked.
"Like we're going to tell you that?" Carolina said, rolling her eyes.
"I'm sorry about what happened to Bonnie," Devon said, "I never meant for that to happen to your girlfriend."
Damon was going to deny that Bonnie was his girlfriend but he thought it was better not to.
"Look, we fight but we still love each other," Damon said, touching Bonnie's cheek tenderly, "just let us go. We don't want any problems."
"Neither do we," Devon said, "but it's not that easy. We can't live while you continue to live."
"Then why not go back to Mystic Rise?"
"Mystic Rise no longer exists," said a familiar voice.
"Alaric," Damon said but then he realized it was just Alaric's doppelganger. Yes it was because the real Alaric would never wear a tweed suit with a bow tie.
"You can call me Dr. Rick," he corrected, fixing his pince-nez over his nose.
"Dr. Rick," Damon said, impressed. "Care to elaborate on what is going on."
"Gladly, you see Damon you and your people represent roadblocks or stagnant versions of ourselves. We are the supreme beings of you. Essentially what I'm trying to say, without any offense is that we are the best forms you can be. Basically you folks are failures."
Damon curled his lip. "Gosh, because that wasn't that insulting."
"I still don't get why we can't all just live here."
"We can't because not only will it get confusing, but also because we need your soul."
Damon's throat tightened. "Why do you need our souls?"
"On our way here we lost our souls and powers, along with some other things. We thought that when we arrived here it would be easy and that we would automatically inhabit your bodies but-''
"What?" Damon interrupted in surprise.
"Do you know about Dante Rossetti's painting "How They Met Themselves?"
Damon knew of the painting and nodded.
"As you recall in that watercolor, two lovers walk through the woods and meet their doppelgangers and one lover so shocked falls down and faints. All of you were supposed to automatically faint or die rather."
"Why do you think we invited you to the party? Why do you think we called Carolina over that day we met you?" Devon questioned Damon.
Damon's mind took it all in. Why hadn't they fainted? he wondered.
"We figured, someone intervened or knew we were coming. Someone saved you that day and continues to save you now but of course you are not going to tell us."
"Of course not," Damon said, faking like he knew.
"Anyway we figured we would get help from Emilia and some other reinforcements," Devon told them.
Damon was now curious. Who else had they asked for help?
"I know it's all a lot to mull over. We hope your friends come to help since we need them," Dr. Rick said.
Damon sat next to Bonnie on the couch and placed a hand on her hip. Taking everything that Dr. Rick said he began to wonder who had helped them. Bonnie couldn't have known the doppels were coming. Tyler had no way of knowing either. Dr. Rick had mentioned that they were the best versions of themselves. How was Carolina or Steven the best version of Stefan and Caroline? He looked at Devon and how happy he had been with Connie. He then looked down at Bonnie and speculated if he could be happy with her. They always fought but managed to find common ground when it came to Elena. They managed to get along somewhat if they had to and that had to count for something.
Suddenly the door opened, and Connie burst in and ran into Devon's arms.
"You made it, darling," Devon said, spinning her around.
Connie whispered something quickly in Devon's ear but Damon had heard. "The others are coming."
Damon took out his cell phone, getting ready to alert the others when Dr. Rick snatched his cell phone from his hands. "I'll be taking that. Thank you."
Damon had seized the man's hand and began crushing it, when Connie stood in front of him and her eyes glowed. "I'm stronger now Damon. You do not want to mess with me," she said and Damon felt his own hand begin to get hot. His hand felt like he had sunk it in a pot of boiling water and it began to bubble up and turn red.
"Connie stop," Devon soothed in her ear, calming her down. Her eyes began to soften and the glow disappeared, and she put her hand to her head. Taking a deep breath she stepped away from Damon and turned to Devon, who began to rub her shoulders in comfort.
"Are you okay? Dr. Rick," she asked, taking Dr. Rick's hand and saying a quick spell she healed him.
"You know you were my favorite student," Dr. Rick said, patting Connie on the shoulder. "Thank you."
Damon found the whole thing odd and he didn't know how everything was going to play out. Had the doppels gotten their powers back? And if so how were they going to inhabit the bodies?
"Jerome, take Bonnie and Damon to the panic room. The others are coming right now," Dr. Rick said.
Jerome carried Bonnie, while Damon thought about killing him, he saw Connie come along and thought better of it. He noticed that he was surrounded and that Taylor had joined them as well. They came to a big metal door at the end of the kitchen and Connie typed in a code and it opened. "Get inside," she demanded.
Damon went into the small space and Jerome placed Bonnie on the floor next to him. Locking the door, Damon felt that all hope was lost.
Damon looked down at Bonnie and took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood off her face causing her to stir.
"Damon," she said hoarsely, "where are we?"
"We're in some sort of panic room," Damon informed her. "And you are going to get us out of here."
"I'm so tired," she said, touching her cheek. The pain came back full force. Noticing this, Damon bit into his wrist and offered it to her.
She denied him by shaking her head. "Judgy, please," he pleaded.
She did need her strength and she pulled his wrist toward her mouth. She stopped when she could no longer feel the pain anymore. Determined she sat up as Damon recounted everything the doppels had told him.
"How come we didn't faint?" she asked him.
"That's what I would like to know," Damon, beginning to pace around.
"What about, hello love?" Bonnie said, cryptically.
"Huh?" Damon said, looking at her confused.
Bonnie shook her head at how slow he could be sometimes. "Yes, love," she said again trying on an English accent and this time Damon eyes dawned with realization.
Meanwhile Stefan, Elena, Caroline, Matt and Jeremy were near the Tudor house. They had watched Damon head inside. Alaric had joined them, armed with all his weaponry. Stefan's plan had been that each would fight their own counterparts. With Jeremy's information that said that doppelgangers usually couldn't coexist on the same plane, they prepared themselves to fight themselves.
"Stefan, how am I going to fight myself if I have all these friends surrounding me?" Jeremy asked.
Jeremy did have the most difficult task since Jerome was constantly with toadies around him. There was also a sense of doom that if they killed the doppelgangers they would somehow die if Connie had created some sort of linking spell. Unfortunately even though the plan wasn't great it was all they had.
"What are we waiting for?" Stefan asked. "Let's head inside."
Together they marched up the house, which now seemed so foreboding.
"Do you honestly think they are in there, darling?"
"We don't know now do we."
"At least we're going to have fun."
Tell me what you think.