Author's Note: Just a reminder on chronology. This spin-off started after Klaus's adoptive father, Michael was killed, but before his mother, Ester, got brought back to life out of the mystery coffin. Klaus has Rebekah daggered, but Stefan has Klaus's three coffins: his two brothers, Finn and Kol, and the mystery coffin. He's still holding the coffins hostage. Stefan is free of Klaus's compulsion and trying to get off human blood again. With Season 4 starting, it's easy to get confused. Also, with Season 4, can someone please give me any hope that anything new and interesting will happen?
When Damon's neck snapped, I felt everything that was him drain away. What is left is just a pretty shell and it isn't enough. A year ago, I would have gone to pieces. I would have screamed and cried and whoever just killed him would have made quick work of me.
I'm not that girl anymore.
I catch Damon as best I can, lowering him to the floor. It may not be graceful but it will at least save him more injuries to heal from later. Under the cover of his dead body, I steal the syringe of vervain that Damon took from my purse.
Then and only then do I go totally berserker crazy. My head knows he'll heal but my heart wants me to bite the face off whoever was stupid enough to try to take him from me. I pull myself out from under Damon and turn on his assailant.
It is a woman, a redheaded vampire with more lipstick than class. Every lesson Ric has ever taught me is queued up in my frontal lobe, itching to be released on this bitch who used my shouting as cover to sneak up on Damon.
I aim a chop at her throat, twist back to smash my elbow into her cheekbone, and follow with a knee to the nerve cluster just inside the hipbone.
She blocks everything but she doesn't fight back, so I front-kick to her stomach and try a combination of punches to get to her face. Her speed trumps anything I've ever learned, and the combination of adrenaline and hatred that is driving me falls maddeningly short.
I drop low for a lunging side-kick to her knee and when she bends to stop me I dive with my whole body for her throat.
I knock her flat on her back and choke her with every ounce of my inadequate strength, digging my fingernails into her resilient flesh, kneeing her stomach and ribs and anything else I can reach.
It takes her longer than it should to pry me off, because I am a clawing, screaming ball of fury and I want her blood on my hands.
She pins me face down on the floor and sits on me, holding my wrists with one irritatingly strong vampire hand. I'm still kicking whatever part of her I can reach and she tries to fend off my feet while she makes a call.
"Your hybridmaker is totally out of her mind-," she stiffens as whoever she called cuts her off.
It must be Klaus. God, could he stay out of my life for five minutes?
"I'm sorry. No, of course not. I was wondering if I could at least knock her out so she doesn't hurt herself. Right. Uh-huh. No, of course I can-, yes I'll do that." The vampire hangs up and squeezes my hands painfully, bones grinding together in warning.
"Listen to me, you crazy slut. Klaus says if you give me any trouble, he'll let me do to your boyfriend what I would normally do to you in retaliation. So unless you want him to wake up half the man he used to be, you'd better start meekly cooperating. Do you understand?"
"Yes," I spit the word at the carpet. "I understand that by the end of the day, your heart is going to be on the floor."
"Well, you can't do it, and he's pretty dead at the moment," the vampire says, unimpressed.
She lets me go. I get up and glare at her but I don't attack. I'm not wasting my one weapon on her and I obviously can't beat her in a fair fight. I knew that. I was just angry.
She hoists Damon over her shoulder. It is weird to see how easily she can carry him. She gestures impatiently for me to go ahead and herds me outside to her car.
Klaus only sent one vampire after us? After we killed nine at my house the other night? What new game is he playing?
I still have my phone, and I might be able to call someone while the vampire is distracted by driving. I doubt she expects me to try anything. I agonize over whether to try Stefan or Elijah, but in the end Stefan has a speed dial icon on my phone and I am trying to be quiet. Are these the tiny things that tip fate, that lives are lost for?
It doesn't matter, because as soon as I unlock the touch screen, the redhead reaches back and snatches my phone, rolling her eyes at me impatiently. She drops the phone out the window.
Out of options, I cradle Damon's body in the backseat of the car and wait for the moment when it heals enough that he comes back. I wonder where his spirit goes when this happens: if it is just quiet inside of his body or if he's briefly on the other side. I wonder if he'll see Rose there. If his parents are there or if humans go somewhere else.
My gut is a churning mess of relief and regret. I'm almost happy she took my phone before I could make the call. Saving all three of them might be impossible, and if I can't save them all, it would shred my sanity to have to choose who will die. I try not to think about it. Damon doesn't need me to angst right now. He needs me to be the better villain.
There will be all the long years of my life for regret, once this is over.
The vampire takes me to Klaus's mansion and carries Damon upstairs. She gestures to me to stay behind, but instead I try to punch her in the throat. I'm just sick to death of standing by and allowing all of this.
Klaus catches me and holds my arms while the redhead takes Damon into another room and closes the door between us.
"Easy, love, you'll see him in a moment," Klaus says mildly.
I shake off Klaus's hands and glare, trying to think of something I have that I can bargain with.
"Tell me where the coffins are," he prompts. "I'll send you both home in a limousine with a healthy blonde to speed his recovery."
"If I knew where the coffins were, I'd have given them to you when you threatened Jeremy," I say with exasperation. "I gave you Rebekah, even though she wants me dead. Why are we still playing this game, Klaus? What is it you actually want?"
"I wish to punish Stefan for his crimes," he says in his insufferably aristocratic accent. His eyebrows flicker slightly. "Unfortunately, your place in my life makes that more complicated than it would normally be. Fear not, dear Elena. I have the capacity to overcome such an obstacle."
He turns toward the door and pauses before opening it. "Also, I doubt the elder Salvatore is quite as ignorant as you are about the whereabouts of my family."
I push past him through the door and my heart swells and breaks all at once.
Damon is awake and appears alert. But he's chained spread-eagled to a wooden X, with winches tied to each limb that connect to a central wheel that tightens them all. I've seen something like this before. On Braveheart. It was much less frightening to have Mel Gibson on the rack.
Damon's barefoot, still wearing his dark blue shirt open across his chest, in a gruesome mockery of how relaxed and safe he felt just this morning.
I fly across the room to Damon. The rack tilts him back a few degrees so that his weight drags at his wrists. I reach for the chains holding him but they are too high for me and padlocked around his wrists.
They are going to use those chains to stretch his beautiful body until it breaks.
Everything I know pours out of me in one breath. "I don't know where the coffins are. I saw Stefan this morning, but I made him mad and he took off. I doubt he's coming back."
Damon looks down at me with a half-fond, half-exasperated expression. "It's as if you don't have any faith in me, Elena. At least let us go a couple rounds for form's sake before you spill your guts."
I flatten my cheek against his bare chest, holding on to him as long as Klaus will let me. Even though I know things are about to get worse, it is nice having him back in his body instead of that terrible approximation of death.
I want to button his shirt over his chest, as if that will shield him.
"Damon, we all know you can withstand torture. You've done it dozens of times, you have nothing to prove. Can't we just skip it this time?"
"I don't know. It is kind of a comforting routine," he says. "Like cold beer on the porch in August, or stealing people's presents on Christmas. Right anti-Klaus?"
Klaus smiles tightly and takes my arm, pulling me away from Damon. He doesn't take being mocked particularly well.
As soon as he lets go, I'm back at the rack, dropping to my knees to try and find a way to release the ankle chains. They're padlocked, too.
Klaus grabs my arm, less careful this time, and drags me across the room to a chair.
"That's very annoying," Klaus says.
He catches me with his eyes. They're a weak, watered-down blue, but I still can't look away.
"When I tell you to, you will scream with all the pain and suffering you could ever imagine. And you will not approach Damon," he says in a disturbingly kind voice.
He looks away and I feel the fist in my brain relax for the moment. Damon has been nagging me to drink vervain, but I haven't had any since Stefan's visit two days ago. Too late now.
"Besides, you haven't even greeted your other friends yet. How rude."
I look around, and he's right. Bonnie and Caroline are bound to chairs. I had been holding out a little hope that Bonnie was still free, that she might sense what was going on and be able to take action. Now, I don't try to hide my dismay. Caroline offers me a tremulous smile. Bonnie looks focused and dangerous, but her eyes flick between Damon and me and then soften for a second in sympathy.
"Why are they here?" I round on Klaus.
"To lure Stefan back, of course. I've been holding off in respect of our business deal, but-," there are cracks in his polished façade, making his eyes shine with a terrible light. "I must have my family back. If Stefan is beyond being moved, then I will hurt people until you or Damon agrees to give me what I want. I haven't retrieved your brother from Colorado yet, but I can. We have time," he threatens.
I'm watching Klaus very carefully. These pieces aren't adding up. The vampires at my house were a half-assed attack. Sending one vampire after Damon this morning would never have worked if I hadn't been distracting him. The photo-shopped picture of Jeremy is the same pattern, as is the planned car crash. He could have easily forced Jeremy to stab himself and it would have been a much more certain death. Why was Klaus suddenly pulling his punches?
The fracturing light behind his eyes was more than fanaticism. What was bothering him? If I knew what it was, I might be able to turn it to my advantage. Vampires were faster than humans. Older. Usually more ruthless. But they weren't necessarily smarter.
Klaus runs one finger over the wheel that controls the rack. So many calamitous possibilities are contained within that finger. I can't take my eyes off it.
Two out of three ain't bad. I remember Damon singing those words to me, teasing me about being upset that we hadn't killed three Originals at once. Now, Elijah didn't know what was going on, so he wasn't here. And I chased off Stefan. He was probably on a killing spree, each life lost my fault. I saved two, and I wouldn't take it back. But looking across the room at Damon, I can't help but think that I'm lucky no one is going to ask me to make a trade. Two for one.
Because God forgive me, I might do it.
I blink and hold my eyelids closed until I can focus again. There is no space in my head for despair right now.
"I know that sometimes quick vampire healing makes their torture not as, mmm, satisfying, shall we say?" Klaus gestures to the rack and to Bonnie. "To that end, I have provided some technology to mix things up a bit. And a human, in case that eventually loses its appeal."
I try to ignore his words, counting my enemies. He always travels with an entourage. Is he frightened or just a prima donna? There are five vampires in the room, waiting to do his bidding. At least I assume they are vampires. Elijah told me once that Klaus had gotten very paranoid over the years. What if it wasn't just paranoia? What if he surrounded himself with people for another reason? He wanted the hybrids so he wouldn't be alone. He originally stole Stefan because they had been friends once.
"Wait," Caroline says. "Stefan doesn't care about me anymore. He didn't even call when I was dying of a werewolf bite. So it's not like he's going to magically, like, care now if you torture me. And I don't know where the coffins are."
"No, but hurting you will upset Elena," Klaus points out. "I find I can get many things accomplished through that alone."
A fat tear rolls down Caroline's cheek. "But I hate being tortured. I know I heal fast but it still hurts and I don't know anything!" She's crying in earnest by the time she finishes.
"Caroline…" I say, feeling terrible. I don't know how to comfort her. "She's right, Klaus. I don't know anything and neither does she. She's no use to you."
Klaus's face is calm, but he looks at Caroline for a moment longer than he really needs to. Is it possible he cares about her?
She's sobbing now. She was a wreck after the werewolves tortured her. She's just not the kind of person who is meant for pain. She shouldn't have to be. If I hadn't brought vampires into our lives, she would have planned parties and run charities and worn pretty dresses. No one would have ever hurt her. At least not physically.
"Buck up, Vampire Barbie," Damon says. "A little torture is good for you. Makes you tough. Hey, you'll write better poetry."
I glare at him, even though I know he's trying to help, in his own way. Caroline's sniffles are breaking my heart.
"Use me," I tell Klaus. "Put me on the rack. You can heal me with vampire blood, so I'll still be around to make hybrids. If you're trying to get to Stefan, I'm the best tool you have." I don't know if this is still true. I try not to think about what I will do if Klaus takes me up on my offer.
"Oh, but I already have, love," Klaus smiles. "Let's call Stefan, shall we? Oh, but sweet Caroline." He bends and dabs tears from her cheeks with a linen handkerchief in a manner more intimate than he's entitled to. "We'll leave you for very last, shall we?" he whispers, smiling at her before he turns away.
Yes, there's definitely something there. But can I signal Caroline to use it?
"I'm sorry I have to do this, my dear," Klaus said, walking toward me.
From the corner, Damon speaks up, sounding genuinely bored even to my ears. "You know, not that I owe you any advice, since you're kind of a dick, but take it from me. That girl is much more cooperative when you're nice to her. Besides, my brother is over her. The only person he might show up for would be me, and I sort of doubt that. He tried to go off the human blood, snapped, and went Ripper again this morning. Now really isn't the best day for a guilt trip. Poor scheduling on your part, Dr. Evil."
Klaus doesn't respond, so Damon keeps going.
"Or should I call you Oliver Twist?" Damon asks. "Something poor and orphan-y," he muses aloud. "Now that you're clean out of parental figures, biological and otherwise."
Klaus ignores Damon and dials Stefan's number. I wonder if he'll even answer, as upset as he probably is.
"Ah, hello friend. I'm having a delightful morning. Very good company, don't you know? Would you like to say hello?"
Klaus stops in front of me, nods. I don't intend to, but my mouth opens and out pours the loudest, most wrenching scream of my life, breaking halfway through as if tripping over something intensely painful.
Damon stiffens as if someone has cracked a bullwhip across his naked flesh.
Klaus smiles and turns away, and the sound releases my throat. I'm horrified. Stefan may hate me right now, but he will not ignore that sound. If I shout that I'm ok, he'll hear me. I don't know if he'll stay away even then, though.
What really stops me from shouting is the selfish, immoral part of me that knows Stefan is my best shot at getting Damon out of here alive. I love them both, so I should be willing to risk one to keep the other at a distance, should be willing to at least save one rather than risk both. I know I'll never rest as easy in my own head again but I look at Damon chained to that device, that endless well of pain and I say nothing. Maybe I could have kept Stefan away, maybe I couldn't, but I'll never know.
Klaus crosses the room to Damon.
"No, Stefan, it turns out I have many guests this morning. I have Caroline and Bonnie, friends of yours I think? But they're merely dessert. And the lovely Elena is only an appetizer. The main course, Stefan, is your brother. Because we both so value our siblings."
"Klaus." My voice is utterly flat. I think that is what turns him toward me. "I can get your family back. Give me a day. Not only that, I know where Elijah is. If Elijah knows you won't hurt me, he'll leave town with you, with us." I let the offer hang on the air. I can't tell if Stefan is saying anything, but Klaus appears to be giving me his full attention for the moment.
"Look, you have dealt fairly with me. You could have killed Jeremy to make a point, but you didn't. You weren't even cruel when you killed me for the ritual. I have to work with you forever, to make your hybrids. But we could be friends, too. If you're going to be part of my life, I'd rather not be at odds with you. But if you hurt Damon, there's no going back. I can't forgive that."
"You're bluffing. You wouldn't forgive me so easily for corrupting your boyfriend and stealing him away." Klaus turns his back on me. God, he doesn't even remember Jenna.
Klaus turns the crank, the chains on Damon's wrists and ankles snapping taut and beginning to pull.
"The thing about your brother," says Klaus into the phone, "is that he is such enduring entertainment. Vampires can withstand torture without perishing for such an excruciatingly long time. Indefinitely, really."
"Come on," Damon says incredulously. "Isn't it a little cliché for the bad guy to underestimate the good guy? Do you really think you're dealing with the Stefan of a few months ago? Do you not remember erasing his conscience?"
Klaus turns the wheel another half turn and Damon stops for a second, the strain showing in his face. He visibly shakes it off to continue.
"Cause what you have now is more like the Joker, Dark Knight vintage. Same bad hair but now he's into anarchy and mind games. And most of all, pissing you off." Damon sounds more amused than angry. "So go ahead, stretch me until you need a bigger rack. He's going to drop your precious coffins into the mid-Atlantic Trench."
Klaus keeps his eyes on Damon, but I can tell he's no longer entertained. He spins the wheel one more turn and this wrings a groan out of Damon and a smile from Klaus, who inches the wheel even tighter.
The sound as Damon's shoulder comes out of its socket is as ghastly as the scream that follows.
"What, nothing to say, Stefan?" Klaus inquires politely. "Threats, bargains, trades?"
Damon won't look at me. He won't look anywhere near my side of the room.
"The other thing about my brother," Damon says, "is that our governess taught him to count. So he's fully aware, even if you're not, that he has three of your coffins and you only have the one brother. Not the weightiest bargaining chip. So he could drop off one or two coffins just to see how fast they sink and still have leverage left over to make you jump like his marionette."
Klaus flicks his wrist and Damon's other shoulder separates.
"You had better make haste," Klaus snaps. "I'm in a maiming kind of mood." He hangs up and regards Damon with distaste.
"Look, Klaus, your way isn't working," I say, and then regret my phrasing when he turns to look at me, the cracks in his sanity visibly widening.
"Hybrids are good, but they aren't family. They aren't the same as friends. Elijah and I can get your family's coffins back. I'll leave town with you once we've done that. I think there are others that would join you, if you gave them a chance," I glance quickly at Caroline, who picks up my drift immediately. She sniffles and does her best to look thoughtful. I'm glad she doesn't overplay her part. A year ago, she would have.
"If you could get my coffins back, you would have already," Klaus says dismissively, but he doesn't look away, his lips falling back into their slightly petulant tilt, the aristocrat fading away easily in the face of something he really wants.
I cross my arms. "If you really wanted Stefan, you'd have been watching my house for him."
We stare each other down.
"I can't give you Stefan back, but I can give you everything else you need. Let my friends go."
"You want me to believe you would leave them behind?" Klaus scoffs. "Stefan, Damon, Jeremy? All your family and friends? For me?"
He wants to believe me. That's why this battle has been so half-hearted. The only thing he wants more than his family is a friend. A real one.
I am the world's worst actress. How am I going to sell this? I can't lie straight out. That's never worked.
I shrug and let my gaze drift to the floor. "What do I really have, Klaus? Jeremy's already moved. I'll miss Bonnie, but I can visit her." I look to Caroline, open my mouth and then deliberately let it fall closed again as if I'm not sure if she might come with us. I purse my lips unhappily.
"Stefan's lost. You started that, sure, but you couldn't have done it without him." When did I become so cold and calculating? Was I always capable of this, or is this new? "It is his own evil that's driving him now, not you. I wish I could blame you for all of it, but I can't."
"What about Damon?" Klaus asks distrustfully. "You are not untouched by his pain. Lie if you wish but it's late for that."
I open my mouth and I have no idea what to say. I'm as surprised as Klaus when it's the truth, a part of it as valid as any other in my mind.
I laugh bitterly. "Damon Salvatore? Happy to take second place to his brother? No matter what I do, I'll never be able to erase that I was with Stefan first. He thinks he wants me now, but once the shine wears off, once I'm no longer forbidden…" I swallow past the tightness in my throat that doesn't want to say this with an audience. "He'll realize that I'm just another teenage girl, and that there are dozens of them who would choose him first."
I squeeze my hands in my lap, pushing on my knuckles. They're just hands. Not particularly strong, or beautiful. It takes me a second before I can look at Klaus.
He's totally focused on me, the same way Damon always looks at me. On Klaus's face, the expression makes my skin crawl as if I'm covered in flies.
"Prove it," Klaus says hoarsely. I'm offering him everything he wants. He desperately wants to trust me.
I hold out my hands, palms up. "What would you like me to do?"
He gestures with a subtle sweep of his hand to the wheel that controls the rack.
"Klaus, I didn't say I didn't care," I say desperately. "I said I was willing to leave. That doesn't mean I'm going to torture anyone."
"A moment, only. To prove your loyalty. Without loyalty, what is a friend?" Klaus's voice is a whisper, a shadow of itself. He is too close to the edge. Closer than I ever want him to be when he's on the same planet as me, much less with half my loved ones at his disposal.
I can feel Bonnie's eyes on me. I know what she's thinking. I can hurt Damon for a second, or I can refuse, and Klaus will hurt him a lot. I can get us all free of this, right now.
"If you want to prove yourself, you can approach him. For the next minute," Klaus's eyes catch mine, "you can approach him if you want." He's given me a hole in the compulsion, but hasn't taken it off. It is my moment of truth. I swore that I could do what is necessary. I know, deep in my core, that I'm capable of whatever I need to be to save Damon. To save all of them.
I stand up.