With Katherine out of the Darkness, Damon got to work looking for more Knights. He decided that Charlie should be his first victim this time as he made his way straight to the place where he was killed but to his disappointment it was empty. He made absolutely sure that there was no one lying in wait for him. He then began wandering around aimlessly. He soon came upon a woman. He touched her shoulder and he could tell immediately that she was not supposed to be there. Instead of taking her back to the Passage, Damon decided to look for those who did belong there. He soon realised that he had a problem. Without Katherine to give him information, he had no way of finding out who the Knights were. He was almost ready to give up when he heard hushed voices. He walked towards the voices as quietly as possible and noticed two men talking about what they kept referring to as "the uprising". He was certain they were talking about the Knights.
Damon noisily walked closer to the two with his hands stretched out pretending as if he couldn't see. He managed to make contact with one of them and he knew that the man belonged to the Darkness and the man yelled at him, "Keep your distance, will you?"
"I'm sorry", mumbled Damon. "I still haven't gotten used to the lack of sight."
"I don't think you ever get used to it", said the other man with a snort.
"Where are we?" asked Damon sounding confused.
"You're in this place called the Darkness and you're going to be stuck here forever unless the Knights can figure out a way to get us out."
"Knights?"
"Yeah. They are kinda like the leaders in here. There are also a bunch of others called guardians. It's them you need to be afraid of. The Knights are trying to overthrow them", explained the second man. "In fact, Tim here was just telling me that one of the Knights, Charlie was looking for someone who's recently deceased. He just wants to know what the status on earth is."
"That's true", said the man Damon now knew to be Tim. "Are you up for a trip to see our possible saviours?"
"Anything I can do to help", said Damon.
"Alright then", said Tim. "Just follow the sound of my voice and try not to get lost, alright?" Without waiting for Damon to say anything else, he began walking forward. "Were you some kind of supernatural being when you died?" he asked.
"I was", answered Damon. "I was a vampire. What about you?"
"The same. I lived and in the 18th century. It's pitiful, isn't it - a supposedly immortal creature that didn't live beyond the average life span?"
"I wouldn't quite put it that way."
"Oh yeah? How long were you alive?"
"I was turned in the 19th century."
"And you died in the 21st. I would say you've done pretty well."
"Where are we going", asked Damon trying to change the subject.
"We are going to meet the Knights. Remember we told you that we're fighting against are called the guardians?" Damon nodded. "Well, one of them snuck in not so long ago and killed a bunch of the Knights. They were able to kill him but there was another guardian with him. So, the Knights were forced to find a new meeting place. That's where we're going."
"What happens when we get there?"
"You sure are one curious fella, aren't you?" said Tim with a chuckle. "Charlie just has some questions about what's going on right now on earth. You just have to answer them and then you can be on your own merry way, unless you want to join them. In that case, you would have to prove to them that you have what it takes to be a Knight and if they are convinced, they'll let you join them."
"So let me get this straight. We're stuck here because of the guardians and in order to get out, our leaders, the Knights are going to start a war?"
"Close. The Knights aren't our leaders. I guess you can call them the chosen ones. They are the ones destined to bring us our freedom."
"Do the Knights have a leader?"
"Not right now. The leader was a woman called Loraine but she was killed by a guardian. A new one is yet to be chosen. Word is, the Knights are delaying the decision making process because they think they'll be able to win this war and if they do, we won't need a leader anymore."
"A people without a ruler - you do realise that that is a recipe for disaster right?"
"Maybe, maybe not. Look, I speak for the majority of the people here when I say that we just want to live out the rest of eternity in a normal place where we can see and where life isn't constant battle. We're all tired of fighting."
"The place you just described sounds like heaven. But I hate to break it to you but this place is closer to being hell."
Tim suddenly stopped walked. "We're here", he said. "Charlie", he called out loudly. "I found someone who might have the answers to your questions. Meet my friend - I didn't catch your name."
At this point, Damon could see a group of three Knights standing close together. From the looks of it, they had just been interrupted from a very important conversation. He immediately spotted Charlie. As he took a step closer to Charlie he said, "I'm Damon" and stopped right in front of him. "Charlie and I have met already. Isn't that right, Charlie?"
Even in the dim light, Damon could see Charlie pale visibly. "Guardian", he snarled. "But how?" Damon could see confusion clearly etched on the man's face. The other two were still frozen in place. He was glad to finally know that his death had had the desired result.
"Haven't you heard the news? Guardians can't be killed." In one fluid move Damon snapped the Knight's neck and let him fall to the ground. The very next instant, he retrieved a stake from his jacket and plunged it into the other two Knights in quick succession, killing them both. He then turned to face Tim and said, "I know you're not a Knight. But you know something that I would rather keep a secret. I'm sorry but your time is up for good this time."
Tim clearly had better responses than the other Knights and he started running away from Damon. Damon thanked the universe for letting him keep his vampire enhancements after death and sped ahead and stopped Tim. "Don't make things any worse for yourself, Tim", he said and quickly pulled out his heart. Tim's body dropped with a loud thud on the floor.
Damon now knew where he would be able to find the Knights. He retraced his steps and got back to where Tim had brought him. He began quietly pacing knowing that all he could do now was wait for more of the Knights to turn up. He hadn't forgotten that he was on a clock but right then, he didn't have a choice.
-xx-
Linus and Serena had decided that to talk to the other Knights who had left the Darkness with them. It had been easy to get them all together in one room. The two stood facing the twenty one Knights in an extremely crowded bar. When they were convinced that the missing Knights would not be joining them, Linus said, "We are yet to receive any news or signal from the Darkness and that does worry me. But I assure you that everyone there is working to get us free from the guardians. We have to start our rebellion soon. Asia has still been left unexplored. So in the first half of the week, we will recruit there and in the second half we will go back to every place that we've visited so far and brief them on our plan."
"And what is the plan?" asked a red headed woman.
"It's simple. We break the one rule that the guardians try so hard to observe. We start going after the humans, turning or killing them", answered Serena. "When the guardians agree to let us go, we'll stop. But from that point onward we will have to find a way to live in peace with the humans. Trust will be broken during the war and so we'll have to sign some kind of a treaty with them."
"Also if there are witches among your recruits, they can help us upset the balance", added Linus.
"What if that doesn't work?" asked a short balding man.
"It will work", said Linus with conviction. "The guardians' duty is to make sure that everyone obeys the laws of the universe. We will refuse to follow it until they meet our demands. I assure you they will see the error in their ways long before we kill the last human on earth."
Serena looked around the crowd and it looked like everyone agreed. "Any questions?" she asked. There were whispers among the Knights but no one said anything aloud. "That will be all then." The Knights slowly began to leave after splitting the continent among themselves. Soon Linus and Serena were left alone again. She turned to Linus and asked, "We're short two Knights. What do you think happened to them?"
"They either chose not to join us or they were killed by a guardian", he said simply. He then noticed Pia approaching them and nodded towards her bringing Serena's attention to her.
"Pia!" said Serena brightly. "Which part of Asia are you going to?"
"I'm not sure", she said. "If there's any place that isn't covered yet, I can go there."
Linus thought for a minute recounting the countries and then said, "Thailand. That's the only place we don't have anyone at."
"I guess I'm heading to Thailand then", said Pia. Giving the two a tight smile, she left the bar and walked quickly to a waiting car. She smiled when she saw Enzo sitting in the driver's seat. "What was that all about?" he asked as soon as she was within ear shot.
"They're planning the rebellion. It's going to happen in a week."
"Good to know", said Enzo as he started the engine and drove them to the airport.
"We have to go to Thailand."
"And why is that?"
"Because Serena and Linus think I'm going there and I'd like them to really believe in it. If I want to get out of here, it's the only way."
"Thailand it is", agreed Enzo reluctantly. He had a really bad feeling about this.
-xx—
Stefan sat at the edge of his bed, listening to Alaric give him an update on the whole Knights on earth situation over the phone when he heard a knock on the door. Without waiting for an answer, Caroline stepped into his room and waited for him to finish his call. When he was finally done, she asked, "What was all that about?"
"The Knights are spreading the word about the Darkness far and wide. Apparently, they're almost ready to start their so called rebellion."
"And how does he know all that?"
"Enzo. His Knight friend has been more helpful than I would like to admit."
"Oh", said Caroline. "Anyway, I have some amazing news." Why Stefan gave her a questioning look, she continued, "Bonnie might have found a way to lift the anti-magic spell on Mystic Falls."
"That's great news!"
"But she needs some help. Apparently she has a spell that needs to be modified for it to work. The problem is she doesn't understand a word of it."
"Wait a minute. I thought all the spells were in Latin."
"According to Bonnie that's not always the case. She's not even sure of what language it is. I told her to talk to Scott about it."
"Sounds like a good idea to me", said Stefan as he got up from the bed and started picking up a few books.
"I know", said Caroline, following him. "But I was wondering if you could take a look at it. It was among your mother's things so maybe it's in Italian. And what are you doing with those books?"
"I'm in college, Caroline. I have to study too. If you can get me a copy of the spell, I'll see if I can make any sense of it."
"You've been to college before. I thought you would just breeze through this while the rest of us sat around with our books."
"Let's just call it a part of the human experience", he said as he grabbed his bag and held the door open for Caroline and said, "After you, my lady."
Caroline smiled widely. "Why, thank you Mr Salvatore", she said stepping out of the room.
-xx-
AN: Am I the worst updater or what? My exams are almost done and I have the next week off so I will probably get more updates out after that. I know this chapter is a little shorter than the rest but this is just to thank you all for your patience and to tell you that I haven't forgotten about this or anything. I've just been a little busy. Anyway, thank you so much for reading. I hope you liked this chapter. Also, I would love to hear what you think about the story so I would love it if you could leave me your reviews.
One more thing I'm considering writing an AU/AH story revolving around Damon and Elena. Would you be interested in something like that? I've actually started writing it down but it still needs a lot of work. I'll probably start putting it up here when I reach the second last chapter of this story.
Lastly, I'm going to do a little shameless self promotion here. Follow me or tweet to me if you want to say anything at all using my handle Gracia_Michelle