Chapter 78: She's Come Undone

"April 17, 2011

It feels like nothing is going right, and every day seems to leave me with more questions than answers. I was so certain that Phoebe had altered the prom ballots to distract the two people who were keeping the closest eyes on her, but now I'm not so sure.

The day after we locked her up, Caroline told us that Phoebe had lured Tyler back to town. Tyler told her that it was Elena that he'd spoken to, but when she tried to thank Elena, she didn't know anything about it.

I can't think of a reason Katherine would want to lure Tyler to town, so it had to be Phoebe. But why? To use him as another distraction? To show us what power she had – the power to manipulate us and have us killed if she wanted?

If it weren't for her humanity being off, I'd have guessed she was doing something nice. Calling Tyler to make Caroline happy, and altering the ballots to make Rebekah happy. But no amount of super logic is going to rationalize her doing things like that out of the goodness of her heart.

Over the past five days, we've managed to get her dried out and free of vervain. She didn't need to drink it for the same reason the rest of us do, but more for the same reason Katherine did – to build up a tolerance to it, so no one could put her down with it.

I hate the idea of torturing her just as much as Elijah does, but we can't exactly do things the way Lexi did. Lexi would get into my head and make me think I'd been starving for days, weeks, months. But Phoebe's mind is so strong, even starving her, we can't get into her head. Our only option left is real suffering, until she gets emotional enough to do something about it.

I know it's still too early to tell, we haven't even started, but I don't see us making much progress anytime soon. Ever since we locked her up, she's been, as Phoebe would put it, bananas, crackers, and nuts. She sings to herself, she laughs, and she makes jokes. She seems amused and entertained by the whole thing."

"How ya doin in there?" Damon asked from the cell door.

Phoebe forced a weak smile, and gave him a thumbs up.

Damon opened the door and stepped inside. He looked at the partially desiccated shell, sitting on her cot, which used to be Phoebe. "You look terrible."

"I'm hungry," said Phoebe.

"Well, lucky for you, I brought lunch."

Damon held out a whole blood bag for her. She was suspicious of it – there was no way this wasn't some kind of trick – but still, she took it. After the first mouthful, she found out just what the catch was.

Phoebe choked on the blood, instinctively spitting out what little was in her mouth. "Vervain. Good one."

"How does that make you feel?" Damon asked. "Hurt, because I betrayed you? Angry, because I'd cause you pain? Or scared, because it's gonna get a lot worse?"

Phoebe smiled, and brought the bag back up to her lips. It burned to do it, but she continued to drink the laced blood. She refused to let Damon think he'd won.

Hayley and Elijah sat in the Salvatore living room, twiddling their thumbs as they waited for the brothers to join them. Elijah mostly paced, while Hayley sat on the edge of the couch.

"Can I ask you something?" said Hayley.

Elijah stopped and gave her a look that said she could.

"Why were you with Katherine? I mean, I get it's hard seeing Phoebe have so many love interests in her life, but you had to know that going back to Katherine was a bad idea, and not just because it would hurt Phoebe."

Elijah sighed. "As I told Phoebe, I was traveling when Katarina called me and asked for my help in brokering a deal with my brother. I had no idea what she had done to get that cure, and had I known…"

"Why go to her in the first place? Why help her?" Hayley questioned.

"Why does Phoebe continue to protect my brother, and defend him against those he has wronged, even after all he has done to her and those she loves?" he countered. "I know how I feel for Phoebe, and I know how she feels for me. But that does not mean either of us can give up on our past loves so easily."

Hayley nodded in understanding. Still, there was something else that bothered her.

"Before Phoebe left for the island, she talked to you pretty regularly," she began. "You never suspected something was wrong, when she suddenly stopped?"

"She didn't stop," said Elijah.

Hayley looked shocked. Why would Phoebe still talk to Elijah, if she didn't have her humanity?

"She never called, but she still emailed me to let me know how she was doing."

"But why would she do that?"

"I suspect for the same reasons none of you bothered to call and inform me of her decision to turn off her emotions," he shot back.

Stefan descended the stairs and joined them in the living room. "Hey."

Hayley rose to her feet. "So what's on the torture agenda today? I mean, I assume she's hungry enough for you guys to start the torture now."

"It's not torture, it's an intervention," Stefan argued. "The only chance we have with her is to provoke her."

"Where's Damon?" Elijah asked.

Stefan gestured to the basement. "He's giving her a bloodbag laced with vervain to see how much of a tolerance she still has to it."

Hayley and Elijah's body language made it clear that they didn't approve of their methods.

"I wanna see her," Hayley demanded.

"We're not letting anyone see her, that's the whole point," said Stefan. "Isolation leads to misery, leads to emotion."

"She's been here for days, she hasn't improved at all?" Hayley asked.

"She doesn't want to, Hayley, not yet," said Stefan.

"I don't understand, it's not like she had nothing left to live for," said Hayley. "She has her sister, her brother, her aunt, me, you, Elijah, and a bunch of other people."

"She's a vampire now, which means her emotions are a lot stronger than they used to be, and this is the first loss she's had to endure since her transition."

"Making it that much harder to bear," Elijah finished for him.

Stefan nodded in agreement. "She didn't know how to process it, which is why she turned off her emotions in the first place. And she doesn't want to have to come back and deal with that loss, which is why she's fighting so hard not to feel."

Hayley let out an unamused laugh, as she slumped back down onto the couch. "The irony is getting ridiculous. First, we need Phoebe to find Phoebe, and now we need an empath to make an empath feel again."

Elijah's face said he didn't understand.

"After Klaus made Stefan turn off his humanity, Phoebe lured him away and used her empathy powers to make him feel again," Hayley explained.

Stefan awkwardly shoved his hands into his pockets. That had been the story they'd told everyone, but it was actually his fear of seeing Phoebe die that made him feel again.

A light bulb came on for Hayley. "Wait a minute; you know a lot about empaths. Do you know any?"

"I've met a few over the centuries, but none in recent decades," said Elijah. "They're more rare and harder to find than werewolves."

"What about that Slater guy," Stefan suggested. "He helped Phoebe find Katherine, hell, he probably helped her find Tyler, too."

"It's worth a shot," Hayley agreed.

"I'll give him a call." Elijah pulled out his phone, and walked out of the room.

Hayley hopped up off the couch, looking more optimistic than she had in weeks. "I'm gonna go tell the others. They could use a little hope right about now."

Stefan nodded, but didn't say anything. This wasn't a bad plan, but he remembered how hard it was for him and Klaus to track down werewolves for him to turn into hybrids, and Elijah said empaths were harder to find. He just didn't see much use in getting too excited over it. Still, they had to explore every possibility that they could.

Now Stefan had an idea. Maybe Agnes and Zoie could help. Maybe they could use magic to help track down an empath, or maybe there was some kind of spell that would force a vampire's humanity back on. There had to be cases in the past where an emotionless vampire would attack a witch and they'd force them to feel again, or something similar.

It was a long shot, but it was still a shot worth taking.

The bell above the shop door jingled, as Stefan opened it and stepped inside. He didn't have to wait long for one of the shop's owners to come out and greet him – it was good business to not leave a potential customer waiting.

"Stefan Salvatore, what brings you into our little shop of wonders," Zoie asked.

"I need your help finding an empath," said Stefan.

Zoie looked surprised. "An empath? They're really rare, besides, don't you have one?"

"We do, but-"

"Something's happened to Phoebe, hasn't it?"

Stefan turned his head to see Agnes now emerging from the back of the shop. He nodded to her.

The last time the two witches saw Phoebe, she'd just lost Matt. She was hysterical and angry, and there was nothing either of them could do for her.

"What's happened?" Agnes asked.

"She shut off her humanity," said Stefan. Both witches seemed disturbed by this news. "She couldn't handle losing Matt, and she just…We think if we can find another empath to force emotions onto her, it'll bring her back."

The two witches shared a look, and appeared to be communicating telepathically.

"I don't know about another empath," Zoie began.

"But there's a potion that could help," Agnes finished.

Stefan was happy to hear this, but tried not to let it get the better of him. If witches had a special potion to make a vampire feel again, it would be more well-known among vampires. Or, at least, Elijah would have known about it.

"It won't make Phoebe feel again, it's not a cough syrup cure-all for vampire humanity," said Zoie.

"Then what is it?"

"It will, temporarily, turn someone else into an empath," said Agnes. "Basically, it'll super-charge your emotions to make you capable of projecting them onto Phoebe."

"And to do it, you'll have to make direct contact with Phoebe, like she does when she uses her power," Zoie added.

Stefan still didn't smile for fear of jinxing it or something, but his face looked significantly more optimistic than when he'd walked in the shop. The witches, on the other hand, still seemed cautious.

"What's the catch?" Stefan asked.

"The potion requires a lot of rare ingredients, and we only have enough for one dose. So if the wrong person uses it, then we can't make you another," said Zoie.

"What do you mean 'the wrong person'?"

"The person who uses the potion, since they're not a natural empath, will have to be someone with a strong emotional connection to Phoebe. Not someone who loves her the most, nor someone she loves most. It has to be someone she's left an emotional imprint on," said Agnes.

"An emotional imprint? How are we supposed to-"

"It'll be someone she's used her powers on a lot, and not just her little take-a-nap trick," said Zoie.

"Alright, good to know," said Stefan. He was trying to think of whom Phoebe used her powers on enough to leave an emotional imprint on.

"A word of warning? Since the person taking this potion isn't a natural empath, and therefore not used to things like this, reading another empath's emotions will be very overwhelming."

"Even worse, if they're a vampire, because your emotions are already pretty intense," Zoie added.

"Whatever it takes to get Phoebe back to her old self," said Stefan.

The witches nodded in agreement, and then set off to begin brewing their empath potion.

Damon peered through the opening at the top of the cell door. Phoebe was curled up on her cot, looking absolutely awful. She was sweating, she looked like she was in pain, her veins were turning a darker color, and she looked even weaker than she had before.

"You look terrible," said Damon.

"Really? Because I feel fantastic." Phoebe opened an eye to look at the door. "Werewolf venom?"

Damon smiled. "I used the vervain to mask the taste, and so you wouldn't be so suspicious of a free bag of blood. And I knew you'd keep drinking it to spite me, which meant your body got that little extra boost I wanted it to have to spread that venom all through your system."

"Clever," said Phoebe, as she struggled to sit up. "So what's the plan? Provoke emotion from me by making me scared to die? Because let me just tell you all the ways that isn't going to work."

"No, no fear of death, I fully intend to heal you in the morning with Klaus' blood." Damon showed her the vial of Klaus' blood.

"Then what's your plan?"

"Well, you're no longer sired to Elijah, so we can't force you to turn it back on. And nobody really wants to torture you to get it out of you, so that just leaves one option: we let you convince yourself to feel again."

Phoebe made a face. "Come again?"

"You see, we can all try to reason with you until we're blue in the face, and you'll still remain a stone cold bitch. But I figure, who better to get through to Phoebe Gilbert than Phoebe Gilbert."

Now she got it. "Ah, so your plan is to make my hallucinations provoke feelings from me."

"Exactly," Damon beamed. He was rather pleased with himself.

"Good plan."

"I thought so."

"Well, we'll see in the morning, I guess." Phoebe laid back down and closed her eyes.

"Have a good night. Hope the hallucinations bite."

Damon looked exceptionally pleased with himself, the next morning. He was walking on air, not a care in world. To him, he was the hero who succeeded in getting Phoebe's humanity back on, and soon he'd be praised as such, even if they hadn't liked how he'd done it.

Stefan took notice of his brother's cheerful mood, and inquired about it. Damon gave one of his usual vague-type answers, which only left Stefan with more questions.

"Damon, what did you do?" Stefan pressed.

Jenna, Hayley, and Elijah all entered the Boarding House together in time to hear Stefan's concern.

"Relax, Stefan, she's gonna be fine," Damon insisted.

"What's going on?" Hayley asked.

Stefan started making his way towards the basement. "I think Damon did something to Phoebe."

The others followed on his heels, each of them afraid of what they'd find.

Phoebe woke up with a start, as everyone barged into her cell at once. Other than the standard blood-deprived look, she appeared no worse for wear.

"Oh, is it family therapy day already?" Phoebe joked.

They all looked back at Damon who was more confused than they were.

"Looks like I won, Damon," Phoebe beamed.

"What's she talking about?" Jenna asked.

"That's impossible," said Damon.

"Damon, what did you do?" Stefan repeated.

Damon just stared at Phoebe in disbelief. "Klaus had to have come in here last night and healed you."

"What do you mean healed her?" Elijah asked.

"You remember that blood bag he let me have yesterday?" said Phoebe. "Well it wasn't just laced with vervain."

Elijah's anger flared, but it was more directed at his own brother, someone who claimed to love Phoebe – it was the only place Damon could have gotten the venom to slip Phoebe. He made his way upstairs, as he pulled out his phone to scold his brother for his actions.

Jenna and Hayley followed with Damon. Stefan wasn't far behind, having had to relock Phoebe's cell.

"I was going to heal her this morning," Damon insisted, after explaining his actions.

"That isn't the point, Damon," Jenna argued. "The point is you poisoned her to begin with."

"Klaus isn't much better, even if he did sneak in here last night to heal her. He gave Damon his venom in the first place," Hayley argued.

"It wasn't Klaus," said Stefan. "I was down here all night, and I never heard anyone come in."

They all looked to Damon, silently asking if he'd broken down and cured her out of guilt or fear.

He pulled the vial of Klaus' blood out of his pocket and held it up. "Wasn't me."

"Then how did she heal?"

"She did it herself," said Elijah.

He'd just finished speaking to his brother, who denied breaking in to heal her at any time in the night. And judging from Damon's reaction downstairs, Elijah could tell he hadn't gone down to do it himself.

Everyone stood there silently awaiting Elijah's explanation.

"Phoebe's natural element is water. That means any passive ability, such as absorbing moisture from the air to stay hydrated, comes naturally to her."

"So you're saying she sweated it out, like a fever?" Stefan guessed.

"Precisely," said Elijah.

"But I thought she couldn't use her powers without her emotions."

"To use her more active abilities, yes. But this is passive, meaning it's as unconscious a thing as breathing for her," he explained further.

They all sat in silence, as they mulled this information over in their heads. Damon's ludicrous idea, Klaus' compliance in it, and Phoebe's supposed immunity to werewolf venom.

"I'm taking Phoebe back to my family's home," Elijah said, breaking the silence. "We can lock her in the room Stefan stayed in when he was suffering the Hunter's Curse."

"She needs to feel isolated and miserable, not sit in luxury with two men who are wrapped around her little finger," Damon argued.

Elijah looked insulted, and was about to argue how much safer she'd be with him around, but Hayley cut him off.

"I hate to say it, but he's right," said Hayley.

Jenna nodded her head in agreement.

"If you take her, it's only a matter of time, before she convinces you to let her out," said Stefan.

Elijah was outnumbered. "Fine. But if I hear of anymore torture, or pain infliction, or anything worse than simply denying her of enough blood to escape on her own, I promise you will not only regret it, but I will be taking her far away from here. Have I made myself clear?"

"Who elected you dictator of what happens to Phoebe?" Damon challenged.

"She did," said Elijah. "When she asked me to be her sire."

Stefan stared at the door to the basement. It was late. Everyone had gone home or gone to bed, except him.

He looked down at the potion bottle in his hand. He still hadn't told anyone about his trip to see Agnes and Zoie, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. What good could actually come of it? Sure, Phoebe might actually get the help she needed, but everyone else would only have more problems.

First, there would be a lengthy debate on who was best suited to do this. Someone related to her, like her twin? Her sire? One of her two remaining best friends? Someone Phoebe was in love with? Someone in love with Phoebe? The point was, it wouldn't matter the directions Agnes and Zoie had given Stefan, they would all argue over who had the closest connection to Phoebe to be able to pull it off.

Secondly, once they eventually did figure out who that person was, there wouldn't be celebration in the streets, there would be more fighting. It wouldn't matter that it would work and get their Phoebe back; all that would matter would be that someone else was more connected to Phoebe than whoever wished it was them.

Then there was also the problem of Damon. Damon was always willing to do whatever it took to get things done, especially where Phoebe was concerned, even if it meant everyone, including Phoebe, would end up hating him for it. That meant Stefan didn't trust him to leave things alone, just because Elijah commanded it.

Stefan wanted to avoid all of these things, as well as Damon's next idea possibly failing and Elijah taking Phoebe away. So there was only one thing he could do: hope and pray that he was someone right for the job of taking this potion.

He'd been thinking about it since he spoke to Agnes and Zoie yesterday. Off the top of his head he knew of a few times Phoebe had used her powers on him in ways she hadn't on someone else. The night of the 60s Decade Dance, she'd projected her own feelings onto him to show him how she felt.

Then there was when he decided to start drinking little bits of human blood to become stronger. Phoebe used her powers to help take the edge off for him, so he wouldn't get lost to the blood and crave more.

It didn't seem like a lot, but the blood part had dragged on everyday for several weeks. In his book, that was a lot more than occasionally doing her sleeping trick, which he couldn't even remember her doing to him. The closest she ever came was when she used her power to calm him enough to let her go, when Klaus came for her the night of the sacrifice.

There was also the feeling he and Hayley had gotten when they found Phoebe in that small town with Katherine. They were only there looking for Katherine, when they felt Phoebe's presence. Stefan supposed that could also mean that Hayley was equally linked to Phoebe. They did have those tattoos linking them in some way. But Stefan still felt he was better for the job.

It wasn't because of how he felt for Phoebe, or that he needed to be the one to save her, but because of what Agnes and Zoie had said about the heightened vampire emotions combining with this potion. It would make it overwhelmingly amplified, like Phoebe's powers were now. Maybe that could give him a little bit more of a boost to get through to her, more emotion to force onto her.

It didn't hurt that doing it this way would mean not having to get anyone's hopes up and then crush them, if it didn't work.

Stefan snuck down to Phoebe's cell, and opened the door.

"Well, isn't this a treat." Phoebe's voice was heavy with sarcasm. "One brother fails, so they send in the other one to fail, too."

"I'm not going to fail," said Stefan. His voice sounded confident, but he felt far from it.

Phoebe let out a snort of laughter, but any remark she was prepared to make was interrupted the moment she saw the bottle in his hand. "What's that?"

Stefan said nothing in return. He simply uncorked the bottle, and chugged the contents. Stefan fell to his knees in pain, holding his head between his hands. It felt like his brain was on fire.

Phoebe rose to her feet from where she'd been sitting on her cot. After a few more seconds, Stefan was okay enough to stand back up.

"I recognize that nasty side effect," said Phoebe. "But what do you need with a memory potion?"

"It wasn't a memory potion," said Stefan. He steadied himself to look her in the eye. "It was an empathy potion."

"A what?"

"I have no idea how long it's going to take Slater to find another empath to help us get you back, hell, we may never find one. And I can't trust Damon not to try something worse than poisoning you with werewolf venom."

Phoebe looked uncomfortable, as she began backing away slowly.

"Agnes and Zoie said this was going to be overwhelming, and I have no idea how to do this…But I'll do whatever it takes."

Phoebe made a run for the open door behind him. Stefan blocked her path, and grabbed her by the upper part of her arms.

Phoebe squirmed. "Let me go!"

Stefan's grip held. "Not until I feel something from you. Anger, hatred, sadness, anything."

Phoebe looked around for anything she could use to escape.

"You're scared," Stefan noted. It was an odd sensation to feel her emotions without her projecting them onto him.

Phoebe stopped and looked into his eyes, but she said nothing.

"Damon said you weren't afraid of the venom making you see things, but you're afraid of this. Why?"

"I'm not afraid, I'm just annoyed," said Phoebe. "I'm like Constantine when he checks into a psychiatric ward for a vacation, and you're kinda ruining mine right now."

"You're babbling. You only do that when you're scared," said Stefan. "What are you scared of?"

"I told you, I'm not scared."

Stefan didn't want to do it, but he had to. Feeling a little bit of fear from her wasn't enough to do the trick, he needed more from her.

"Come one, Phoebe, what would Matt think if he saw you like this?"

Phoebe shrugged. "What's it matter? He can't see me like this, because he's gone."

Stefan felt a momentary flicker of pain at his mentioning of Matt. He'd found the sore spot, now he just needed to press a little harder and make her feel something real.

"He's not gone, Phoebe, he's dead! Katherine fed him to Silas, so she could take the cure and use it as a bargaining chip to be free from Klaus!"

Phoebe swallowed the lump building in her throat. She knew Stefan could feel her anger and her pain, but she refused to give into it.

"You know, if your idea of getting me to feel again is to remind me of the reason I turned it off in the first place, you need to seriously rethink your strategy," said Phoebe through a partially clenched jaw.

"Then don't cling to a negative emotion, find a positive one," said Stefan. "Your love for your family, for your friends…for Elijah. You still have people who care about you, Phoebe."

Stefan could feel himself getting through to her. He could feel her guilt now.

Phoebe shook her head and tried to suppress the feelings again. "No. I can't."

"Phoebe…"

"No!"

Without meaning to, Phoebe displaced the emotions she was trying to suppress onto Stefan. It was so overwhelming for him, he released Phoebe and fell to his hands and knees in tears. He'd never felt such emotion, his brain didn't know how to process it.

Even Phoebe was in shock at what she'd done. She reached down and touched his shoulder. At first it seemed like a simple gesture of compassion, but then Stefan began to feel like a weight was being lifted from his chest.

The feeling didn't last long. They both heard Damon stir upstairs, and in a flash, Phoebe was gone.