(The Stars Were Brightly Shining)
by adlyb
Disclaimer: I own nothing except these words.
Summary: After a one night stand with Klaus, Elena discovers she's not going to be alone for Christmas after all.
Spoilers: Seasons 3 & 4
Rating: R
Warnings: canon typical violence/ teen pregnancy / angst angst angst and Christmas
With all of their lives on the line, it doesn't take nearly as much convincing to win everyone—read: Stefan and Damon—over as she had expected.
"I vote to relabel this: saving ourselves," Tyler grumbles as Elena lays out her ideas.
Damon uncrosses his arms to raise his hand. "Seconded."
Elena shoots them all a glare. "Save Klaus, save all of you—does it really matter what we call it?"
Damon frowns at her. "No, what matters is that you're not coming along on this ride."
"You need me and you know it."
Caroline turns to Matt. "Unless…?"
"I already told you no," he tells her quietly but firmly, his head bowed. He won't look at Elena. Can't meet her eyes.
That's okay. She used to have trouble meeting her own eyes, too.
"Are you sure about this?" Stefan asks her, for about the dozenth time.
"If it comes down to it, I'll do whatever I have to do," she affirms.
They all turn to Bonnie, hunched over on the sofa in the other room, her arms wrapped around herself as she shivers convulsively.
"I'm going to need help," she tells them all with utter misery. "The closer I get, the less in control I'll be."
"I'll help you," Matt says. Something like relief flashes over his face. Relief that here, at least, is a job he can do. Will do.
"Tyler and I will too," Caroline adds.
Stefan and Damon glance at each other.
"Which leaves us with you, Elena," Damon murmurs.
Again, Stefan asks her, "Are you absolutely certain?"
She doesn't deign to answer him.
"It sounds like we're all in agreement," she tells the group at large. "Let's head out."
Bonnie intentionally gives in to the pull Esther exerts on her soul. Leads them out of the house, down the street, through the town, block by block, and eventually into the woods, where the sooty wreckage of the original town's ruins languishes interspersed with hundred year old trees.
No one says anything as the sun sinks lower, and Bonnie slowly, slowly leads them to Esther. They trail far enough behind her that Esther—or anyone else who may be working with her—will see Bonnie long before they spot the rest of them.
Bonnie giving in to that supernatural tug is a necessary risk—to make sure they find Esther in time, in case she plans to do away with Klaus somewhere other than the sacrifice circle.
They know that their conjecture had been right when a man and a woman step out from behind the twilit trees, their faces impossible to see clearly in the uncertain light.
"We've been waiting for you, sister," they murmur in eerie harmony. Sister—because all witches are family to each other, in a way.
As one, they gesture to the entrance down to the labyrinth of catacombs that run beneath the wreckage. The entrance yawns black and bleak as an open grave. A strange ripple emanates from its mouth— the uncanny aura of primal magic being worked deep within.
Without any need of a signal or cue between them, Damon and Stefan dart swift as death from the cover of the darkened tree line and break the witches' necks. It all happens in the space of a heartbeat. Their bodies hit the forest floor in tandem, the impact barely disturbing the leaf cover.
"That's one way to handle it," Tyler whispers.
Up ahead, the Salvatores peer into the cave, gesturing for the rest of them to follow.
Bonnie breaks through them to continue on without so much as pausing to mark the death of her two kin.
Stefan follows her in while Damon waits for them at the entrance. He jerks his chin at them, the silent motion as clear and impatient as though he had actually yelled at them to get a move on.
By the time the rest of them catch up, Stefan has already knocked Bonnie unconscious.
"That wasn't part of the plan," Caroline hisses. She kneels on the floor and cradles Bonnie in her lap. "We were supposed to hold her back, not give her a concussion."
"She's fine," Stefan says, eyes already scanning the dark. "And she'll thank us for it when she comes to and all of her friends are still alive because we wouldn't let her be used as a pawn in our deaths."
All four vampires cock their heads at the exact same moment—as though they'd heard something that Elena and Matt with their simple human hearing could not.
"This way," Damon says, pointing down one of the many branching tunnels. He pulls Elena away from the group so that they can split off with Stefan for their part in the plan.
"She'll wake up soon," Stefan warns the others before they go. "She might be herself or she might be totally lost in the grip of Esther's persuasion. Be ready for anything, but especially be ready to hold her down."
"And watch our escape route," Damon reminds them. "We might need to make a quick exit, and I don't want to find a horde of crazed witches blocking our way out."
"I'm not killing anyone," Matt reiterates.
Caroline and Tyler glance at each other.
Elena wonders which of them will do the dirty work if—when—it comes to it.
"It's fine, man," Tyler reassures him. "Everything's going to be fine."
"Don't screw this up," Damon warns them one last time. His tone doesn't convey very much confidence.
No matter.
She has confidence in them.
"See you on the other side," she breathes, before she lets the Salvatores spirit her away.
Or, rather—
Until she spirits them away.
It is her plan, after all.
The catacombs are nearly pitch black. The darkness is so heavy and so oppressive that she knows that without a pair of vampires guiding her, she would never be able to navigate her way through.
The thought of if they had refused her—if she had had to come down here on this brash rescue mission on her own—skitters over her nerves. She'd have gotten lost for certain. Would have likely gone in the wrong direction entirely, would have failed to ever find Klaus—would have likely wandered straight into Esther's clutches by sheer unlucky accident.
They walk for what feels like eternity without encountering anything, without hearing anything other than the echo of her breaths, the shuffling of her feet over the rough stone floor, the steady drip of some subterranean stream. For their parts, both Damon and Stefan are utterly silent. So silent, so tense beside her, that she wonders if their hearts even beat in their chests.
(If they could will them to stop beating, she knows that they would.
If their hearts would stop beating, then they would stop loving her.
Maybe, even, stop hurting her.
But the only true release for them—for any of them, really—will be in death. And maybe not even then.
Short of that, her refusal of them both is the only freedom she can offer them. The only freedom she can manage for herself.)
Stefan latches onto her arm and covers her mouth with his cool hand. Draws her close against his body, and presses them both flat against the wall.
Up ahead, a dim light gradually brightens the gloom. Barely perceptible as more than a flicker in the dark.
Damon dispatches the group of witches as methodically as he had the witches at the entrance. Motions for them to follow, just before extinguishing the lights.
They soldier on.
In the dark, it's nearly impossible to master her fears.
Nearly impossible not to fret about the possibility that she will be too late to save Klaus. That Damon and Stefan might suddenly drop and bleed out next to her and she may not even be able to find their hands in this abyssal dark in order to comfort them as they die.
She may have seen Caroline and Tyler for the last time and not even realized it.
Another horrible thought. What if her baby's life is somehow tied to Klaus's?
Her gorge rises at the possibility.
A hand at her back urges her forward. She's not sure whose.
They walk and they walk until Elena's thighs burn, until all she can smell is the damp rock and all she can taste is the acid in her mouth and all she can hear is her own heartbeat, echoing in the dark.
Occasionally, Damon kills another witch.
Every now and then, they come to a crossroads in the tunnels, and Damon and Stefan must silently debate which way to take.
Once, they argue for a while. Finally, Stefan flings a pebble down the direction Damon insists upon, only for the pebble to incinerate in flash of fire and smoke.
They go the other way.
Elena doesn't let herself think too hard about how many of these paths are warded like that. Booby trapped. What they'll do when they inevitably spring one.
They must be miles down. Further than she's ever ventured. She'd had no idea this subterranean network was so extensive.
Every moment is precious, but they don't dare move too quickly. Not with the possibility that they will spring a nasty surprise from Esther and these witches—whoever they are—that she's brought along to follow her.
At another fork, they test the three different paths, before choosing the one that seems safest.
They take a sharp turn only a few steps into the corridor before total chaos erupts around them.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Next chapter is almost complete! Please review!