Hi everyone. Here is the next chapter; another long one as it is the second to last. The next chapter will be the final one, but I'll make sure it's a long one and has a big finale for you all.

Elena POV

Elena smiled as she felt feather light fingers stroking her cheek. "Mmmm Damon", she sighed and rolled over. She kept her eyes closed as she felt the bed next to her, searching for him. Her eyes snapped open and she flew to the other side of the room as the realisation sank in that the person next to her wasn't Damon.

"Sorry, my queen, I didn't mean to wake you; it's just your kind of beauty I have never came across before and I simply couldn't help myself". Gabriel put his arms behind his head and smiled at the ceiling.

"Stop calling me your queen. I'm not your anything", Elena spat in disgust. He had her on the bed in seconds. She wanted to ask how he was doing this: controlling her, being stronger than her and having no affect over her powers, but then she already knew the answer. He was the son of the devil; he controlled everything, not the other way around.

She struggled against him for a second and then gave up. He was going to do whatever he wanted, with or without her consent and all she could do was let it happen while she was helpless.

He shook his head and smiled, "pity I rather like when you struggle. Makes things more interesting." He got off her and pulled her to her feet with him.

"Get ready my queen. Today I want you to see where you and I will rule"

"Great. A day out in hell", Elena muttered back to him. He ignored her and snapped his fingers. Elena jumped at the unexpected loud booming sound he made with the simple action.

In the next few seconds two middle aged women entered the room and Gabriel swiftly kissed her hand and left.

The women, Elena noted with horror, were dressed in rags. Their short, badly cut hair was slick with sweat and their faces were covered in dirt. They wore no shoes on their feet and large thick padlock style chains were snug around their thin, dirty ankles.

"Oh my gosh" Elena said in horror. She hated to think of the pain and torture these women had clearly been subjected to down here.

"Please sit down" she said to the woman, tears running freely down her face. She didn't know how but she wanted to help these women get out of this horrible place.

Neither of the women looked her in the eyes as they silently thought about whether they should answer. The tallest woman decided to answer but kept her eyes on the floor as she spoke.

"Please Miss, we are not permitted to sit. We have come to help you get dressed." The women's voice held no emotion; it was bland and simple and she spoke to Elena in a manner that suggested she hadn't been addressed by anyone in a very long time.

Elena nodded in understanding. Clearly the women would get into trouble in some way if they sat down-but why? She didn't want to get the women in trouble but she decided that asking them questions wouldn't do any harm.

"Who are you?" Elena said. She moved closer to the women and noticed a slight flinch in the shorter one, who hadn't spoken.

The woman was about to answer when Gabriel strode back into the room. He had a look of annoyance clear on his face; the woman visibly shrinked in fear before him.

"My queen, is something wrong?" Gabriel said to Elena in a sickly sweet voice.

"Yes there is." As Elena spoke she noticed a tear run down the shorter girl's face. She misinterpreted what Elena was about to say and clearly Gabriel had as well.

She was about to explain that the way the women were being treated was an outrage, and demand that they be let free from this place, but before she could speak Gabriel had a long silver whip in his hand and both the women had turned.

Gabriel raised his arm to strike. Without thinking, Elena ran in front of the whip. The whip sliced through her arm and Elena tried not to scream out in pain.

Gabriel threw aside the whip and gathered Elena in his arms. "Why would you do that, you fool?" The woman had whirled around after hearing the whip strike something other than their skin and stared open mouthed at Elena.

Gabriel turned to the women and without speaking they rushed towards the kitchen. They returned in less than a minute and Gabriel sat Elena down gently on the couch.

He grabbed the things the women had brought over and started to clean Elena's wound. She expected the wound to heal instantaneously but the wound remained the same.

As he cleaned the wound, Gabriel barked at the woman to get out and wait for his summoning. Elena hated the way he was speaking to them; she never knew someone could be so cruel.

After the women left Gabriel placed a bandage over Elena's arm and flew into the kitchen.

"You still haven't answered me", he pointed out. He returned to her with a deep silver cup full of silver liquid.

"You can't treat people like that. Those women, have you even looked at them?" Elena said on the brink of tears again.

Gabriel shook his head and motioned for her to drink. Elena drank the liquid and felt a warm tingle spread over her arm.

"They are slaves. They are here because of the sins they committed in their lives. They are paying for their sins. Do not pity them."

"I think they have suffered enough; no one deserves to get treated like that. You were going to hurt them when they haven't done anything wrong. I couldn't just stand by and let you do that."

"They were being given a treat. They were told to attend to your needs and assist you in getting ready. Speaking to you is the lowest form of disrespect and I will not have that" Gabriel all but shouted at her. He looked so furious.

"But I spoke to them first. I asked them a question, and they were going to get whipped just for answering me." She was feeling stronger, but she couldn't help fear Gabriel - he was so clearly furious.

"This is the way things are and you better get used to them. Slaves are people who have committed sins in their lives that outweigh their good deeds. They are sent here to pay for their sins with punishment and slavery. Slaves are not committed to speak to us and may only speak amongst themselves privately - never in front of us. When slaves are given tasks, they are expected to complete them with no problems or face my whip. Do you understand?" he was speaking softly to her but his words cut her as much as the whip had.

She nodded in response. She understood him alright. She understood that he was cruel and unforgiving. He liked subjecting others to pain and misery and that's why he was in the perfect position. She understood that this truly was hell and she needed to escape from here before she was trapped forever.

Damon POV

To Damon's utter annoyance Stefan had been the first to find Bonnie. It didn't occur to Damon to check Bonnie's actual house. Stefan had a hard time bringing Bonnie back to the boarding house but she soon complied once Stefan had phoned Damon and told her where she was.

Bonnie looked uncomfortable. She was sitting on the couch with Stefan as Damon paced back and forth by the fire place. He hadn't sat still since Elena had been taken; he could have staked himself because of the guilt he felt for losing her, yet again.

Bonnie's eyes were wandering around everywhere; she had a sad look on her face. Damon was pondering how he should proceed when Bonnie interrupted his thoughts.

"Congratulations" she said with bitterness.

Damon almost went for her throat when he remembered that Bonnie didn't know about Elena getting taken again, so she was probably talking about the wedding, not aiming a jab at him for losing Elena again.

"Well you weren't exactly on best terms with the bride and groom, so it's hardly a surprise that you weren't invited" Stefan said picking up on her tone.

"I wasn't the only person who made a mistake, Stefan" Bonnie spat back at him.

"Yes but my mistakes were forgiven and I was best man". Bonnies mouth dropped open in shock.

She turned to Damon accusingly. "You made him your best man after what he did?"

"Yes because I realised that there are worse things he could have done. Like kill her", he said pointedly. There was more to it than that but he decided that answer was a good enough reason anyway.

"You know you're not the best thing for her. What makes you think I will help you if I can?" Bonnie spat back ignoring his jab at her.

In one quick second Damon had Bonnie against the wall by her throat. Stefan stood behind him with a frightened expression.

"Listen, you bitch, you owe me big time. Did you think I would forget what you did? Your life is so disposable, it's laughable. If you can't help me or don't try, I will kill you without hesitation. I am the strongest player now so stop pissing me off and get on with finding her" Damon said through gritted teeth. Bonnie struggled helplessly against Damon's strangle hold.

When he let go of her Bonnie sank to her knees with tears streaming freely down her face. After a minute or so Bonnie stood up, shaking. Stefan put his arm around her to support her.

Very calmly Damon gestured to the newly replaced front door. "Shall we?" His tone was carefully composed; he felt the threat of his anger at every passing second so it was hard for him to maintain control.

"Damon?" Stefan whispered.

Damon looked at him annoyed. He was surprising him. Damon thought Stefan loved Elena so why wasn't he as anxious to find her?

"What now?" Damon said struggling even harder to maintain control; he had to keep reminding himself that he needed them to find Elena.

"I think Bonnie is right." Bonnie and Damon both looked at him in utter shock. Stefan hurried to explain. "It's just; ever since we came to Mystic falls Elena has been in danger. She always gets taken away from us. Maybe some higher force is trying to tell us that we should leave Elena alone." Damon stepped forward and grabbed Bonnie's hand and began to drag her. He wasn't going to stand here and listen to this nonsense. He and Elena were meant for each other and nothing was going to keep them apart-not even God himself could.

Stefan moved to quickly block his way out. "Damon think about it please; what if you going after Elena results in her death?"

"It won't come to that" Damon said shoving him aside.

"What if to save her we all have to die?" Stefan said in a whisper.

"I talked it over with myself and we decided we can live with it" Damon shot back at him smugly. Stefan might be too much of a coward to go after her and face the person who took her-who was clearly more than human and very, very strong, but Damon wasn't. His own life without Elena meant nothing to him, so he had to go and face whatever was trying to keep them apart to save them both.

Bonnie POV

There was no getting around it: she was going to die. Her feeble attempts to explain to Damon that she had no hope in heaven at finding Elena hadn't gone down too well. Damon had made it clear that if she couldn't help them then she would pay the price with her life. The saddest part was: Bonnie didn't blame him, and she knew it was just what she deserved.

Bonnie didn't resist Damon nearly tearing her arm out of her socket as he dragged her to her grandmother's grave.

She stood before the grave and reached out to stroke the familiar stone of her grandmother's headstone. She found a small comfort in being killed here; a small part of her hoped that her grandmother hadn't completely deserted her and they would find each other again when it was over.

Damon let her go and she sank to her knees-not caring that she was in her favourite jeans. She traced her grandmother's name with her fingers and whispered.

"I am so sorry Grams." She continued to sob her heart out. She prayed that somewhere, somehow her grandmother could hear her. She waited patiently for death to come and a small part of her wondered if Damon would make it quick or slow.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and held her breath then whispered to the grave, "Goodbye".

"You're not going anywhere."

Bonnie froze in shock; she couldn't believe it. She could hear her grandmother's voice. She was scared to turn around. She wasn't sure if this was just a trick.

"Bonnie." Her grandmother's soothing voice gave her the courage to turn around. She stared at her grandmother's smiling face and her tears began again.

"Oh grams, I thought I'd lost you forever." Bonnie threw herself into her grandmother's arms. Grams stroked her hair soothingly.

"Listen to me Bonnie. We are the ones who made the mistake. We wanted to teach you a lesson. We knew Elena had vampire blood in her system and we weren't happy about you killing her. We knew what she would become, so we took your powers away until you realised what you had done and truly felt regret for it."

Bonnie pulled back from her grandmother in shock. "So you didn't give my power to Elena? Then why is she so strong?"

Grams turned to Damon. "I am sorry that your wedding was interrupted; we take the blame for that." Her grandmother seemed truly sorry as she spoke to Damon.

She sighed and turned to answer Bonnie's question. "We didn't give Elena her power - she already had it - but it was hidden deeply, so deep that only in her death did she truly embrace her power. We knew this as well, but we were so absorbed in teaching you a lesson that we didn't warn you all of the consequences." Grams looked like she was about to start crying-if such things were possible.

"What consequences?" Damon said. He was impatiently hovering by them, awaiting the vital information he craved.

"Well when Elena was human and didn't embrace her power, she was protected."

"Protected from whom?" Bonnie asked. She could sense the fear in her grandmother's voice as she spoke.

"You are going to find this hard to believe" her grandmother was hesitating.

"Just tell us." Bonnie didn't care if her grandmother told her Elena was taken by fairies because she lived in a world of myths and legends; she herself was a creature of make believe, as some people see it.

"Elena was taken by none other than the Devil's son, Gabriel. When Elena came back and embraced her power he sensed it. She was too much to resist."

Everyone was silent for a few seconds and then Damon spoke in a strong, sure voice.

"Then how do we go after her?"

"I don't think you realise what this means, Damon. I truly feel for your loss but you can't win, not this time. He's the devils son; soon he will take over the underworld. He is the most powerful creature in creation - asides from his dad." Grams spoke in a soft comforting voice, but Damon's mind was already made up.

"I don't care who has taken her, I am going to get her back or die trying. So tell me what I need to do to get to her."

"Brother, please don't do this."

"Shut up Stefan, you coward. Just because you don't love Elena enough to fight for her, doesn't mean that I am going to cower here while she's been dragged to hell."

"Damon, there is nothing you can do. Gabriel will take Elena as his wife and they will rule the underworld. This has been predicted for thousands of years. No one can take Gabriel's bride away from him. No one." Grams looked at the ground.

"I'm not just anyone and I do not care; my life is meaningless without her"

Damon paced back and forth; he was tugging on his hair in frustration. "Just tell me how to get to her."

"I'm sorry. I don't know how. This is beyond me" Grams told him.

It seemed to Bonnie that she was secretly happy she couldn't tell Damon how to get to Elena. Bonnie wondered if it had something to do with her grandmother's reluctance to mess with fate.

Damon stood furiously before grams. His hands were tied, because if an old powerful witch with the connections she had didn't know how to get to Elena, then who on earth would?"

"I know how"…..

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