Chapter 75: Shia Surprise!
Phoebe couldn't believe her eyes. "How are you alive?"
"Technically, I never died," said Slater.
"I saw your desiccated body, with a wooden stake still in your heart," Phoebe argued.
Slater gestured for her to sit down at a nearby table. He waited until they were both sitting to continue his story.
"Elijah's witch friend, Jonas, made a magical clone of me with a golem," said Slater. "Then he compelled me to stake myself – my clone."
Phoebe shook her head in confusion. "But why? Why fake your death, and why make you kill the clone?"
"Elijah didn't want Klaus to be able to find you or your sister, until he was ready. And since I knew who and where you were…"
"You were a loose end."
"Exactly."
"Okay, so why bother compelling you to kill a clone? Why not just kill you?" Phoebe questioned.
"I think he wanted to scare me, to show me what he was capable of, if I didn't do what he wanted," Slater guessed.
Phoebe thought about it, then realized something. "No, it was more likely he was trying to see if you were on vervain."
Slater made a face. "Do vampires actually do that?"
Phoebe nodded. "Some. Just those who know the Mikaelsons can compel other vampires. It's not pleasant to do, but it helps."
"Fascinating."
"So far you've only explained why Elijah would need you gone, and why he would force you to kill your own clone, but not why he wouldn't just kill you," said Phoebe. "Did he tell you why he spared you?"
"He told me I could prove useful to him someday. But until Klaus was dead, he couldn't risk me hanging around here for Klaus to find," he replied. "So he made everyone think I was dead, so no one would be looking for me."
"And if Klaus ever did get wind of you possibly having information on the doppelganger, it would look like his brother got to you first," she finished.
Slater smiled and nodded.
The two sat in silence for a few minutes, as Phoebe took in all the information. She was ashamed to say, that she hadn't given much thought to Slater's death when it happened. She'd liked him and was saddened by his death, but she hadn't known him well enough to be overly upset with Elijah over it. She'd also had more important things going on at the time; like learning to control her powers so she could kill Klaus, the monster coming to kill her sister.
"Where have you been all this time?" Phoebe asked.
"Mostly Hawaii and other sunny places. I don't have many contacts in those types of places, so I didn't have to worry about anyone recognizing me," he said.
"That must've sucked," said Phoebe. "Going to all those sunny places, and not being able to enjoy it."
"Actually, before sending me off, Elijah had his witch make me a daylight bracelet." Slater held up his wrist for her to see.
Phoebe looked impressed. "Wow. He must really like you."
"To be honest, I thought he forgot about me, until he tracked me down this past Christmas and told me I could come home."
That was when he'd left Phoebe to give her some space. That was the first opportunity he'd had, since Klaus' curse-breaking ritual to do it. After that he was daggered for six months, then had to stick around Mystic Falls to help Phoebe transition into a vampire.
"He told me a little bit of what's happened; Rose dying, Klaus still being alive, the rest of their siblings roaming around out there."
"Well, Rebekah, Klaus, and Elijah are up and roaming around. Their brother Finn is dead, and Kol is...well, it's complicated," Phoebe corrected.
"Wait, so you killed their other brother, but not Klaus?"
"I didn't kill Finn," said Phoebe.
"But the Anomaly is the only thing that can kill an original."
Phoebe gave him a look. How did he know what she was?
"I found it odd that you were a twin of a doppelganger, so I looked into it."
Phoebe thought back to the night she found out that she wasn't supposed to exist. It'd hurt her so bad to know that she was an abomination of nature. She'd grown used to hearing it, like Klaus, but it was still unpleasant to think about.
Slater studied Phoebe's neutral expression. "There's something different about you."
"Yeah, I'm a vampire now," said Phoebe.
"Well, I knew that the moment I saw your daylight ring."
"How do you I don't just like Lapis Lazuli?" she countered.
Slater smiled. "Because you know too many vampires for it to be that coincidental."
Phoebe couldn't argue with that.
"How did that happen, anyway? You and Stefan decide to spend an eternity together?" he teased.
Phoebe's brow furrowed. "Stefan?"
"Yeah, I saw the way you two looked at each other last time you were here."
Phoebe rolled her eyes. She looked over at the coffee counter and remembered them talking about Damon and languages.
"What is it?"
"You're not the first to assume there's something more than friendship between me and Stefan," said Phoebe. Her eyes returned to Slater. "So either everyone seems to think that we're incapable of being friends without being attracted to each other, or we're just too stupid to see it ourselves. My votes on the former."
"I don't think you're too stupid to notice, I just think it's on a deep subconscious level. Steadily building over time, until the day when it comes out of nowhere. Maybe not an overpowering declaration of love, but there will be a moment when your friendship changes in some small way. When that happens, it'll steadily make its way to the surface."
"Let me guess, one of your many degrees is in psychology?"
Slater laughed lightly. She clearly didn't want to talk about this, so he decided to change the topic. "Well, if not for love, then why did you become a vampire?"
"I was dying. The witch that created me stopped protecting me from the other witches, when I decided not to kill Klaus," said Phoebe.
"Why would you do that?"
"It's a long story."
Slater gestured to their surroundings. "I've got time."
Phoebe took a deep breath and thought of where to begin. She started with the day after they met, when she and Elena came back to find a way to contact Klaus.
She told him about training with Elijah, Rose's death, making friends with a werewolf, what had happened the night of the sacrifice, Klaus' daggers that he used on Elijah, Klaus' return to Mystic Falls, her friendship with Rebekah, falling in love with Klaus, hybrids, Finn's death, her death, her being sired to Elijah, Hunters of the Five, the cure, Matt dying, and what had lead her to this little coffee shop.
It took a long time to tell, and Slater had a lot of questions, but he never interrupted. He listened quietly and enthusiastically, waiting for her to finish, before asking for any clarification, or anything she'd left out.
Others wouldn't have appreciated her telling anyone about the white oak stake or the daggers, but Phoebe didn't see the harm. No vampire could use the daggers without it killing them, and with them in the hands of the originals themselves, they weren't likely to even get their hands on them. As for the stake, it was in Klaus' possession, so there was no getting to it, even if he wanted to.
Slater shook his head in amazement. "A sired vampire...and to an original, no less!"
Phoebe had never considered it all that special, but thinking back on it, she could understand his reaction. When they'd first learned about the original family, they were creatures of legend, meant to be feared. Now, she'd captured the hearts of two of them, and made friends with another. Now, she was sired to one of them.
"To get close enough to an original, emotionally, to be sired to them." He was still in awe.
Phoebe looked out the window, while she gave him time to process. It was getting late. The sun was low enough in the sky that she coffee shop would likely be closing soon. She hadn't realized how long she'd been talking to Slater.
"So what's it like?" Slater asked.
"Being sired?"
"Having your humanity switch off."
Phoebe's eyes shot back to Slater.
"When I said there was something different about you, I didn't mean because you were a vampire now. I meant that you seemed less happy than you used to," he explained. "I mean, I wasn't expecting an overwhelming outcry of emotion, but I thought you'd at least be happy to see me alive. Instead, through this entire discussion, you've seemed more...cold."
Phoebe took a breath. "It's less like you don't feel anything, and more like you don't care. You still get annoyed, pissed off, amused; but you don't care about how your actions effect others. Things don't make you sad, you don't feel love, you don't feel hate; you just don't care."
"Sounds like a stupid way of avoiding your problems," said Slater. "I understand how it might've seemed like an appealing idea at the time, but that pain is still gonna be there when you turn it back on. And if you wait too long, someone else you love could be dead, making it 10 times worse."
"You think I haven't thought of all that?"
"I think you haven't thought about what you're gonna do the next time you lose someone you love. You have a lot of people in your life that you care about, some of them mortals. What are you gonna do when they die? You can't just turn it off every time you lose a loved one," said Slater.
Phoebe knew he was right, there was no arguing his logic. Then there was also Silas to consider. The people back home needed to be focused on dealing with him, not chasing her all over the planet. And then once they did get her home, forcing her to feel again.
"If I go back now, if I turn it back on, I won't even be free to grieve," said Phoebe. "As usual, Mystic Falls is dealing with its own drama, that I'm going to have to take care of."
"So get your grieving done elsewhere," he suggested. "Go find Elijah, turn on your humanity, and grieve."
"You don't get it, Slater, I'm an empath. I'll cry for all of five minutes, then desperately cling to any excuse not to focus on it; and that excuse will be helping my friends and family with the latest antagonist of the story."
Slater's face lit up with an idea. "You said Silas was circling Mystic Falls, right?"
"That's what I was told."
"You also said that you think he was looking for the cure."
"What's your-" Phoebe caught on to what he was getting at. "If I find the cure and bring it back, then Silas will be gone."
"And you'll be free to turn your humanity back on and deal with your friend's death," he finished.
"Just one problem. Katherine has the cure, and I have no idea where to even begin looking for her," said Phoebe.
Slater's smile grew. "I might be able to help with that. With my connections, I can have people all over the world on the lookout for her."
"That might work," she agreed. "But that means I won't be able to go out there looking for her myself, because they could see me and think I'm her."
"Not if you change your look," said Slater.
Phoebe thought back to when she'd cut her hair last summer. She had finally grown tired of sharing a face with two other women, and did the only thing she could think to do to make herself look different. It was also a way to keep Katherine from pretending to be her again, because she knew Katherine would never chop her hair off just to impersonate Phoebe.
"Katherine likes her long wavy hair, she'd never cut it off," Phoebe began. "Last summer I cut my hair to keep her from impersonating me again. I'll just do it again."
"Great! I'll get the word out to look for Katherine, and ignore the one with short hair," said Slater.
"Here's to hoping it works."
SLATER IS BACK! I hate to admit it, but when I was writing the chapter where Phoebe met him I didn't know how to write keeping a character alive. I'd never done it and I had other plots that I was working on with this story, so it didn't even really occur to me. But going back and rereading this entire story recently, I realized that I liked him a lot as Phoebe's friend, and wished I could bring him back. Well, after thinking about it and reading what vagueness I wrote, I found a loophole that I think works. What do you guys think?
I already told you guys that Elijah would still be meeting with Katherine in the next chapter, but how is Phoebe going to react to that? Will jealousy make her feel again? Will seeing her sire again reawaken her emotions? Or will she be indifferent?
And what about Elijah? Will he think she's Katherine? Or will he know his Phoebe when he sees her?
So many great things coming this season, guys, I can't wait. I hope you guys continue to enjoy reading what I do with this story.
