Here we go with the finale of shit going crazy.
Disclaimer: I don't own TVD or TO. Y'all know the drill.
Meanwhile in the lower chamber, the two witches and the hunter walked along a passage, their flashlights lighting up the path. Charlene had to admit it, but she was getting weaker as time passed further in here. The thickness of the toxic magic made it hard to breathe, making her hold on to Jeremy as they walked. She didn't want to be a burden. She made it this far. Thankfully, the others didn't give her any side looks as the moved forward. They were so close to the cure. Her grams hallucination is going to tell her she is doing the right thing with the cure and that Caroline would be proud of her.
"Look at us," Bonnie scoffed. "A newbie hunter and a witch who needs adult supervision. How are we the ones that made it this far?"
"I'm glad we're here together." Jeremy added.
"Me too."
"Do I count as the adult supervision?" Charlene joked, trying to laugh off her condition at least just a bit. And hopefully the joke could take her attention from the anxiety too.
"Of course you can, especially since you helped to get my magic back. You can be whatever you wish to be." Bonnie humored her, showing a bit of a smile for the first time in months.
Silence fell on them again as Jeremy raised his flashlight ahead of them. "Where is "here," exactly?"
Before anyone could say anything, Charlene and Bonnie stood on both forks in the cave, standing there as if they were looking straight ahead of them.
"This way…" Bonnie's voice trailed off.
"No, Bon, it has to be this way." Charlene replied, her eyes too entirely focused on the woman in front of her. The woman who she hadn't seen since her death in the 1920s.
"Trust me, Charlene." The other witch argued back softly, "I know what I am doing."
In Bonnie's vision alone, she could see another woman dearly close to her giving her a knowing smile.
However, Jeremy could see what was truly happening because he wasn't caught up within the hallucinations that Silas was delivering. The witches were caught in his web.
Grams' voice sounded exactly the same. "Hello, Bonnie."
"Hi, Grams." The green-eyed witch's voice broke, torn from smiling and crying. God, she hadn't seen her in so long. "What are you doing here?"
"This place allows the living to talk to the dead." She explained it so simply, like it was a natural fact. The comforting allure of her grandmother's voice pulled Bonnie in like a month to a flame.
"Bonnie, what's going on?" Jeremy called out, trying to shake her out of it.
She only just ignored him. "I am so sorry about what happened."
The vision of Grams came closer towards Bonnie, almost wrapping in her arms. "It's okay. You're here now. And you are this close to bringing me back to life for good."
"How?"
"Silas can do it. All you have to do is reach him and feed him, and everything will go back to the way it was. I am so proud of you for making it this far, Bonnie, with everything you've gone through. Even Caroline would be proud too." Her grandmother began to lead Bonnie into the chamber, acting as her guide but unknown to her, Jeremy already knew what was going on.
"Bonnie, stop!" He yelled after her, grabbing her before she could go any further. He held her face in his hands, trying to steady her as much as he could. "Hey, you're not seeing your Grams. If she were here, I'd be able to see her, and I can't. It's not her ghost. It's a hallucination. What you're seeing isn't real. It's me. Your grams isn't here. I'm here. I'm real, okay?"
Bonnie, visibly upset, just stared at the hunter in front of her. And then as if the spell were broke, she could hear a whooshing sound blowing past her like a fast wind and her Grams vanished.
"What happened?" Her voice cracked.
"Silas. He was in your head. He was trying to control you." Jeremy tried to explain.
It was then that the realization about Shane and his wife hit Bonnie like a ton of bricks. "The illusions of Shane's wife. That's how Silas controlled him. And god, why did she have to mention-"
Bonnie couldn't even say her friend's name any more, it hurt too much.
"You need to block him out of your mind. Close your eyes." Bonnie could hear him instruct her. She obeyed his words, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.
"Listen to my voice and only my voice." Jeremy reassured her as he grabbed her hands, working on leading them to the passage. "I'm gonna get us there. Let's get Charlene before we go."
Meanwhile, Charlene was caught up within her own hallucination. The vision of Adelaide and her brown eyes with that stern yet warm gaze aimed towards her. She looked the same the last time she saw her.
"Are you going to say hello?" She asked with a slight smile.
As much as a small part of her felt sorrow and happiness of seeing her more in the flesh, a majority of her brain was screaming that something was wrong. There was no way in hell this woman could be alive. She was dead for too long, and every instinct told her that Adelaide wouldn't have been smiling if she knew what she'd done to her family. To the closest thing Adelaide held dear to her heart as her own child. Her family.
"What are you doing here?" Charlene probed, her mental shields around her struggling to shake the old witch off.
"Aren't I not allowed to see how my old student is?" The vision of the witch answered a question with a question.
"You wouldn't want to see me after what I've done over the last century." The shame of her words were evident.
"That wouldn't stop me. I love you too much, Char. You are my family."
But her words, fell on deaf ears. Her head kept screaming, something was wrong.
"Save yourself the trouble and just be quiet." Charlene gritted out.
"But Charlene, please. I only want to see you."
"You are not real." Charlene affirmed.
"Oh, but sweetie I am."
"You are not real. You are not real."
"Charlene…"
"YOU'RE NOT REAL!" Charlene screamed as she mentally struggled against the hallucination, a ripping wind blew right through her with the sound of a haunting screech reaching her ears. She fell to her knees on the ground shaking as all of her emotional discipline went out of the window.
"Charlene!" The green-eyed witch cried out as she dove to the blonde's side. This was the first time that she had ever seen the witch in so much pain. She took her into her arms, slightly rocking her. "I got you, Char. I got you."
"He got to me, Bon." Charlene stammered, her tears thick in her throat. "He got to me. He wasn't supposed to effect me. I'm supposed to be stronger than this."
"He got to me too, Char. It wasn't just you. I'm here. I'm here."
The dam holding back all of her emotions finally cracked. She crumbled in Bonnie's arms, not daring to make a sound with her pain. Only silent tears fell down her cheeks as she covered her mouth to keep the crying to a minimum. The haunting vision of her old mentor, the shame of the sins that she committed against her family, and now everything with Silas was too much. The dread churned so tightly in her stomach that she couldn't stop the urge to throw up. Everything hurt so much that it wracked her body. She didn't know what hurt more. The pain emotionally inside or the physically wrecking her inside.
Deciding that she needed help the rest of the way, Jeremy decided to do her a small mercy, and carried her bridal style in his arms with Bonnie leading the way.
Damon and Rebekah stood on one side of the cave fully in shock. Vaughn seemed to have been in the same boat with them, even with his gun fixed on them, all of their eyes were on the wolf standing on all four paws by the hunter's side.
"What the hell is she doing here?!"
"You know that thing?!" Damon asked in shock.
"She's with Klaus, you dolt. But she's supposed to be stuck in the house in Mystic Falls! How is she even out? It isn't possible. And how in the hell does she know about this bloody hunter?"
"If you don't mind," Vaughn interjected, "it would help if one of us actually try to close our mouths and kill each other?"
Finally, the hunter make a good point. "We can finally agree with something. Are we gonna dance or are we gonna play?"
The wolf snarled at Damon, her fur bristling as he had tried to take a step closer to them. He could see the angry saliva dripping from her mouth, shining from the deadly werewolf Venom.
"You know he can't hurt me, Damon, unless he's got the white oak stake."
"We still gotta watch out for Klaus' side bitch with the werewolf venom. One bite and we're fucked."
"You're fucked, Damon, I'm not."
Vaughn interrupted them. "You're already fucked already since I've got other toys."
Without missing a beat, the wolf threw her full force into the Original, knocking her out of the way so Vaughn could have a clear shot at Damon.
The hunter took the opportunity given to him and shot Damon three times before Damon could blink. Furious now, he vamp-sped over to the hunter and grabbed his throat, but a cold realization hit him once he felt something stick to his chest. Now this was a for time for everything. The grenade got stuck to his chest, and it was only a matter of time before Vaughn pulled the pin. Wooden spikes released into his body, drawing all the way to his back. He fell down to the ground neutralized and out cold.
But the other couldn't be said for the wolf. Even though old enough, she could tough it out against assholes like Damon with no problem. But an Original? Rebekah was a different ball game. She's got centuries of experience as her leverage when the only thing the wolf had was the venom.
After throwing her body into Rebekah like a bulldozer, the Original was pissed off. She had enough interruptions with this cure for one damn day. Time to bloody end it. The wolf used all of her strength to pin the young woman down, her instincts of snarling and barking loud in Rebekah's ears hurt. Giving a wolf a swift kick to the gut, the wolf landed against a pillar, whimpering slightly as she tried to shake it off. "I don't know what the hell you're here for or how you got out, but you better stay the hell out of my way. I was nice to you before, but I won't do that a second time."
Deciding enough was enough, Rebekah decided to end the conflict. All she would need to do is break her neck and she would be taking a temporary nap. But Rebekah forgot one thing, the hunter.
"Not on my watch." The hunter withdrew another weapon now at Rebekah; a lasso-like device covered in vervain, securing her to another adjoining post. Her groans of pain and choking noises could be heard through the cave.
Now having the opportunity, the wolf trotted over to the blonde Original, looking at her with almost sad copper eyes. Reaching with her mouth, she pressed her canine teeth into the vampire's skin, breaking it and making it bleed. However, the real damage was done. Werewolf venom flowed through her veins, incapacitating her for a little while, but not killing her. Thank God, she was still an Original.
But now that she had that finished, the wolf turned to the hunter, a smaller more subdued growl emitted from her throat. And much to Vaughn's dismay, she went into full blown barking. She kept turning her wolf head back and forth between Rebekah and her, Vaughn almost getting the hint at what she may be talking about.
"Lass, she's still alive, isn't she?" Vaughn asked sarcastically. "That was the goal, wasn't it?"
The wolf barked back at him as if they were having an argument.
"Now, it's not the time for arguing, lass. We need to go now. Jump up!"
Vaughn could swear he saw the wolf rolling eyes at him before jumping all fours into his lap like a human carrying their pet husky. If there wasn't the looming threat of Silas over the horizon, the hunter would have thought this as hilarious. He carried the decent sized wolf in his arms before getting on the rope and gliding down to the bottom of the cave with the wolf in tow.
Rebekah stood against the post, choking against the ropes in pain. To make matters worse, the throbbing pain on her hand throbbed and pulsed with the stinging of werewolf venom coursing hot in her veins. The only thing keeping her alive was the fact that she was an Original, and eventually the werewolf venom would leave her system. However, it didn't stop the immediate hurting hallucinations pounding behind her skull.
"How could you betray me, after everything we went through?"
Her brother's voice echoed in her head, the anger towards her justified. She knew in her gut that she was guilty for doing her own desires, but there was only so much she could take. Her brother was going mad, off the rails. What else was she supposed to do?
"How dare you go to the people who killed our brother, our family, and tried to kill me many times before?"
"I'm sorry, Nik." She uttered to the hallucination of him, caught within the scene. His blazing blue eyes stormed in anger towards her. In all of this haze, she didn't know what else to say.
"You left me alone to rot for some bloody cure. Now, I'm going to make sure you rot in hell before I'm finished."
"Do what you must," she replied back, almost defeated at this point. She was so tired of fighting, so tired of the pain taking all of her energy. All she wanted to do was sleep.
She could hear distant wolf howling and the disturbing image of silver wolf before her back at the Gilbert House in Mystic Falls, snarling at her for her betrayal and leaving him there. The hallucination of the wolf jumped out at her before-
"Rebekah!" The image shifted suddenly, coming to the immediate face of Stefan, untangling her and cutting her from the vervain ropes. "Hey, it's me, Stefan. Breathe for me, sweetie. Breathe."
She could see the painful struggle on his end getting the ropes off of her, feeling pain himself too. Finally off of her, Stefan caught her in his arms, getting on his knees for her to rest and lean against. She hacked and coughed painfully as she tried to regain her wits. Rebekah's blue eyes shifted around the cave, finally finding the last one to the group. Elena. She was there tending to Damon, muttering to herself.
"What happened to him?" She asked in concern.
"A hunter and his bloody wolf sidekick happened." Rebekah croaked out annoyed, her cough cutting off her words again.
"Wolf?" Stefan asked in confusion.
"The same wolf who attacked you back in Mystic Falls, she's helping the hunter looking for the cure too." Rebekah explained, seeing them connect the dots and realizing their dread. "But you're wasting time. You need to be careful and just get the cure. Go."
"We're not gonna leave you." Stefan stated, holding the blonde more tightly to him, almost making Rebekah's heart skip a beat.
"You need to go now. I'm pretty much out for the account right now." Rebekah explained before moaning in pain, her face turned to Stefan's chest for comfort. "I can't stress this enough: be careful. The wolf down here has werewolf venom, and if you're bitten…you're screwed. We don't have the luxury of my brother's blood to help us, not that he would want to help with his crazy brain."
"We are not going to leave you, yes." Stefan agreed, but he turned to Elena instead. "But we got the memo. Elena, you need to go ahead. We'll be right behind you."
Elena hesitated. "Are you sure?"
"Damon is gonna be fine, Elena. We will be fine. Go."
Elena looked at the three of them for a moment longer before she jumped down through the shaft. Hopefully, she wouldn't run into the monster lurking into the dark.
It was a fool's hope.
"All right, come on. We have to catch up." Stefan urged the blonde, ready to carry her if necessary.
But Rebekah shook her head, her lungs hurting too much. "No, it's okay. I just need a minute, love. I'm only gonna slow you down. Go."
Stefan couldn't help, but give her a confused look. "What do you mean? You fought so hard to get the cure and to get this far. Now you want to walk away from it? I don't get it."
She was surprised that Stefan had been so kind and patient with her through this entire process. All of this was so crazy between her family, this cure, and all of the chaos. He knew how much she wanted it, to be human. It was a dream of hers to have a human life and have a family. She couldn't help the thought in her head, imagining her and Stefan possibly, making it work with their vampire selves, and maybe having a little world of their own. Rebekah couldn't deny the truth within her with those forest green eyes staring back at her.
"There's only one dose of the cure, Stefan. If Elena gets it, I accept it. I'm not so worried about it anymore. It's just…things have changed."
"Things have changed." Stefan agreed. "It's gone more complicated. I…just…I know how much you wanted this."
Feeling a slight joyful yet painful pang in her heart, she motioned Stefan to come over and gently brushed her lips against his own. "I know it has, but it's worth it with you. You're helping me to hang in there. But time is of the essence. Get your ass down the well. Help Elena get the damn bloody cure before I change my mind. Go!"
With reluctance, he gave Rebekah one last glance before jumping down in the side well, disappearing into the darkness below as she watched over his brother.
Down in the lower levels, Elena ran. Running through the darkness to try to find any sign of the girls or Jeremy. It shouldn't be this hard to find them in this, but it honestly felt like a labyrinth in here. She didn't know where she was going. Her paranoia suddenly spiked when she heard a rock fall in the distance ahead of her, lookly around like a spooked animal of prey.
"Stefan?" Her voice echoed as she called out. Then another rock thudded to the ground.
That's when she heard it.
"Elena…" an unknown voice sang, echoing in the darkness, almost like a happy melody. And within the voice, the brunette thought she could hear a southern twang. "Where are yoooouuuu?"
The voice came closer.
"You playing hide and seek isn't going to help."
"Who are you?!" Elena yelled out, her nerves were fried and frayed to the edge. She didn't know how much more she could handle this.
"Hmmm, I don't know if I should tell you. It might spoil the fun." The southern voice replied, now coming closer than before, accompanied by footsteps and more rock thuds. Elena couldn't tell where it was coming from.
"You work for Klaus, don't you?" Elena questioned, hoping to keep the voice talking, maybe bringing it out of hiding.
"That bastard…working is such a strong word. Let's just say I was contracted against my will."
The brunette heard the whoosh of vamp-speed coming up behind her. Silence fell over them again. Turning around, and in the dim and rare light in the cave, she saw a female figure clad in dark blue skinny jeans, grey long sleeve shirt, and a black vest. Her golden brown hair was pulled into a messy high bun, copper to light brown eyes narrowed at Elena. What was unsettling was the predatory smile on her face. Reminded her too much of Klaus.
"Tell Damon that I said I was right."
"Why?"
"About the fact that I met you and agreed about my assumption. You're pretty dull." The unknown woman walked closer to her, fear creeping in her icy veins. "Too bad I can't kill you, we need you alive for now, but it doesn't have to be all the way. I'm sure you're gonna be familiar with this type of pain. It leaves a nasty…biting kind of pain. Time to meet with an old friend."
With a flash of her onyx-golden eyes that's when Elena realized what the woman was. No way-
"No!" Elena shouted before she fought the golden-haired blur with her ironlike grip, a hundred years of living and experience outweighs the newborn vampire's own, her poisonous fangs biting in her neck as the venom did it's work.
Meanwhile, in the lower cavern, Bonnie followed Jeremy carrying the other witch as they approached the side chamber containing Silas's tomb. All Charlene could do was hide her face against Jeremy's chest, the source of the toxic and heavy magic truly draining and getting to her now. The visual of the tomb made their bodies freeze in anxious dread. The shape of a human figure lakd on a table, covered in vine-like decorations. Its stone-like hands held a small box on its chest.
Jeremy set the blonde on the ground against the wall gently, letting her rest while he and Bonnie went to get the cure. But when Jeremy now seeing the box fully, he couldn't help his stumped reaction.
"Is this it? This is the cure?" He scoffed, unbelieving all of this. "How is that supposed to cure every vampire in the world?"
Bonnie couldn't help but have her doubts too. I'm way, her naive mind had thought with some foolish hope that maybe the cure was like a fountain of youth that would be able to cure everyone. But now, seeing this, the truth of reality was creeping in. She couldn't deny it any longer. " I don't think it is, Jer," she said with grave reluctance.
Jeremy tried to keep his thoughts straight on the task, trying to wrench the box out of the statue's steel like hands. Even an Original probably couldn't move this.
"It's stuck. Help me move it."
She joined him, and they both pulled as hard as they could with no success. It was in there right.
"It's, like, fossilized in place. It's like trying to bend stone." They both struggled against it, backing away from the tomb. And like a bucket of cold ice water, she knew what they truly had to do. Bonnie backed away from the tomb, doubts creeping into her brain if she truly wanted to do this. "Oh, my god."
"What, Bonnie?"
Bonnie tried to gather courage, but even that was tricky. "He's been frozen like a vampire statue for two thousand years. There's only one way we're gonna get the statue to unfreeze."
"You're not serious…" Jeremy stated, not wanting to put two and two together.
"We have to feed him our blood. If we want to get the cure out of his hands, we...we have to wake him up."
Meanwhile, Rebekah pulled himself over to Damon's body and pulled the wooden spikes out of him. After the last one was out, he coughed and began to wake up, groaning as he rolled onto his back.
"You're alive…after that? Bloody hell." Rebekah said, astonished.
Damon gave her a painful smirk. "Somehow I'm still swinging. What I'm surprised about is that you didn't go with the others."
"The evil wolf sidekick of my brother's gave me a good amount of werewolf venom. I'm not going anywhere any time soon." She replied before another episode of hallucinations hit her.
"You're lucky the werewolf venom doesn't burn you from the inside out. If it were up to me, you would suffer."
"Not again." She muttered sadly, trying to shake her head.
"Yes, sister. You're gonna feel it. Again and again and again until I've deemed your punishment completely fulfilled."
"Nik, how many times do I have to say I am sorry?!"
"As long as it takes until I see you die guilty and alone with no family to look after you anymore."
"Bex, snap out of it. He's not here." Damon tried to get her out of the hallucinations.
"Easy for you to say, Damon. At least it's not one of you-"
"Jesus, so much appreciation for trying to comfort you."
Rebekah wasn't in the mood to be comforted, much to her dismay. "Best thing right now for you is to just be quiet."
"Fine. So much for trying to help you."
Damon was not the type though to be silent for long though.
"Did you really give up the cure though?"
Rebekah groaned as she tried to sit up. I didn't give up. It's just...my priorities shifted, that's all. Plus, as hard as it is for me to say this…but I can't control everything. Let's just say I made peace with that fact. Maybe the cure was not meant for me."
"Who are you and what have you done to the real Rebekah Mikaelson I like to hate?"
"It's not like I was replaced with a doppelgänger, Damon."
"And what about you, lover boy? I thought you would struggle to get up no matter what so you can get your girl the cure." The blonde jested.
"You're not the only one having screwed up realizations and made peace with it."
"Peace? You love Elena. You always will. If she becomes human, she may not feel the same way about you. You'll never know peace."
"Life sucks. Get a helmet." Damon sniped at her.
Rebekah threw a half smile at him. "You did something selfless, Damon. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were becoming a halfway decent person."
"Don't go spreading the word, I have a reputation to uphold."
After a moment of silence, Rebekah spoke again. "You know, an ending without you being involved with Elena wouldn't be so bad."
"Bex, I'm pretty sure you hit your head pretty hard against the rock floor."
"You can deny all you want, Damon, but we're not blind. There's someone else you care for on this island, and it's not your brother or another brunette."
"Shut up before I push you down into the cave and leave you there." He threatened, the words of the blonde working under his skin much to his annoyance.
"Try if you like, but it's the same fact you can't deny: You care for Charlene way more than you realize. It's enough to think about. Like I said, it would be a nice change. Blondes have more fun, right?"
"Like I said before, Bex. Shut up."
Meanwhile in Silas' crypt, Charlene slumped against the wall with her energy maxed out and barely keeping her head up. Trying to rest was hard when her anxiety was the only thing keeping her awake slightly. She didn't know how much longer she wanted to keep this up or for the others to keep this up. The longer they were here, the more in danger they were, especially Bonnie and Jeremy.
"Ah, come on!" Jeremy let out a frustrated yell.
"There's got to be a way to do this without raising him." Bonne said out loud, trying to run ideas out in her head. "Maybe there's a spell or something."
"Bonnie…" Charlene answered, letting out a tired sigh. "This tomb is solid stone, unless you have an explosive or a stick of dynamite lying around…you can't open it any other way."
"We still need to do something."
"We'll find a way-" Jeremy tried to reassure the girls before he got cut off by a gasp of pain coming from Bonnie. He couldn't help, but watch as the witch fell to the ground, and another hunter showed up before him.
Charlene's blue eyes widened at the familiar hunter. "Don't listen to the witch, boy," he said in his Scottish brogue. "We have to raise Silas, and we have to do it now."
"You sneaky son of a-" the blonde snarled at the hunter as she tried to get up before a wave of dizziness pushed her back, making her slump back to the wall once more.
"Bonnie!"
Jeremy sprinted towards her, trying to check out her vitals while Vaughn stepped over to the blonde. Bending down to her level, he inspected her. "Hmmm," he hummed to himself. "You're definitely the blonde lass she mentioned. Told me to leave you alone if I knew what was right for me, that was typical of her."
She? She, who? Wait a damn minute.
Was she on the island too?
"Are you talking about-"
"Now is not the time, lassie. Just needed to confirm you're alive."
If this bastard called her lassie one more time, she was going to make his head explode. All of that plan went out of the window when the immediate concern of seeing Vaughn dropping his blood towards the tomb sent everyone on high alert.
"What are you doing?!" The younger hunter asked in confusion.
Vaughn almost rolled his eyes at this point. What was going on with this kid? "What you shoulda done already. I'm gonna raise Silas…" he explained before dripping his blood into the tomb's mouth. "Then I'm gonna kill him."
Jeremy attempted to attack Vaughn from behind but the more experienced hunter threw him off easily. They didn't take long for both to be engaged in a fight within the crypt, the older hunter gaining the upper hand and putting Jeremy in a chokehold.
"You're a bit confused, Mr. Gilbert. We're on the same team here!" He tried to reason with him, but the boy didn't listen. He was too angry.
Jeremy jabbed Vaughn and broke his hold on him, and now the younger hunter managed to get a grip on the Scottish man from behind, eager to hash it out.
"You stabbed my friend!" He yelled angrily before they tussled a bit more before Vaughn deciding enough was enough, and threw Jeremy over his head.
"I don't mess around with witches, lad. They can be nasty."
Jeremy was crouched on the ground, painfully trying to regain his breath. "You can't use the cure on Silas."
Jesus, when was this kid going to get it?! "It's what it's meant for!"
Reinforcing a point, Vaughn handled Jeremy again trying to attack him, to the point where he applied more pressure and pain and now Jeremy was tossed back on the ground like a ragdoll, his moans of pain being evident of that.
"What else would you use it for?" He asked a rhetorical question, retrieving his knife from the ground. "Trust me, I already know. For your friends…your sister. Sorry, lad. It wasn't meant for that. I'm not going to let it be for that, not at the cost of the world burning. Nothing personal."
He bent down towards Jeremy ready to strike down to kill him before Elena swooped in to her brother's rescue. Pissed and angry, she was about to make it to Vaughn's jugular before her brother cried out.
Thankfully, Jeremy caught her just in time. "Don't! The hunter's curse!"
His sister paused for a moment, contemplating what to do. Figuring he was better unconscious, she hit the hunter's head against the wall before throwing him to the ground. At least for now, they're safe.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine, I'll be okay. I'm more worried about Bonnie and Charlene." Jeremy answered, his head looking towards the witches' direction.
"Let me get this hunter away from the crypt. We need to be able to get the cure with no more loose ends." Elena suggested as she hauled the hunter over her shoulders. "I'll be right back, okay."
"Make it quick!"
He could hear someone calling out for him, shaking him hard. "Galen…come on. Come on, dammit. Get up!"
That voice. So she was really on the island…
The wolf who came to his aid wasn't a hallucination.
He blinked, his blue eyes opening, hard to see in the dark and the pounding headache behind his eyes. He looked above him, and there almost like an angelic savior was a familiar pair of copper eyes staring back at him. The familiar face in front of him held a concerned and worried expression. She kept shaking his shoulders to get him awake.
"Please…please. Answer me." Her voice edged towards despair for the first time in a while. "I need you alive."
"I am alive, lass." The hunter replied painfully as he spat out some blood. "But…how are you even-"
"There's no time to explain, Galen." The light-haired brunette cut him off before giving a kiss to his forehead. "I'm just glad you're safe."
"I didn't make it, my Bonnie lass." Vaughn explained gravely as the woman in front of him worked to get him sitting up. "Silas is most likely awake now."
He could see the dread filling her face now, her emotions always brewing under the surface with everything heightened for her. He was used to it, but it still felt so new to her. She should have been used to it over these last few months, but dammit. It was still hard to muddle through. He still had to thank her.
She was the reason why he was able to have his shot at taking Silas down. But now with the current situation, they would need to have another shot, another plan b.
Trying to reassure him and keep her temper in check, she gave him a soft kiss before trying to muster him in her arms. "We'll get through this. I promise you, we will."
He was almost taken back by the stroke of affection she gave him, but he kept his focus on the present. "Are you here for Charlene?"
"Char is gonna be taken care of. It was part of the bargain. At least with this one, it's a bargain I actually volunteered for and I know what I am getting into. Now, rest. I need to get you back to the surface."
With a whip of her speed, she dashed through the dark maze, ready to bring one of the few people she cares about out of this dark hellhole.
Stefan kept walking in the dark, his flashlight on hand, unsure of what he would be seeing next. This whole place was one dark maze that it was nearly impossible to track your way if you were a normal human. Pushing forward, he kept going as much as he could, looking for any sign of the others. That's when he saw her. Elena was sitting against the wall, moaning in pain, a sheet of sweat covering her body, and a nasty bite wound on display on the side of her neck. Stefan's heart jumped to his throat, seeing the sight that could only mean one thing: werewolf venom. But how? How was this even possible when Klaus was back imprisoned in the states?
"Elena. What happened?" He asked desperately, wondering what in the hell had happened to her.
The brunette whimpered. "You have to go get Jeremy! He's not safe."
"What's going on? What are you talking about?" He asked too many questions, but there was so much going on that he had to straighten out. First Jeremy, and now
Elena with a deadly bite. What was he supposed to do? "Who did this to you?"
"It doesn't matter what this did to me. You need to get to Jeremy, NOW! She's here, Stefan!" Elena yelled at him.
"Who?"
Still in Silas' tomb, Jeremy kept tending to Bonnie's wound while keeping an eye on extremely tired Charlene leaning against the other witch in support.
"Elena's here now, okay?" Jeremy reassured them. "Everything's gonna be alright."
"We did it." Bonnie replied with a weak smile, groaning slightly at the pain.
Charlene agreed, grasping the other's witch hand into her own with a tired and proud smile. "Gotta say, I'm pretty surprised myself."
Elena approached her brother, placing her hand on his shoulder. "Come on. We gotta get you up."
"You have to help Bonnie." Jeremy argued, wincing seeing Bonnie in pain. "The hunter stabbed her. You have to feed her. You could also help Charlene too if you can. She really helped us out."
Charlene watched the brunette, confused at Elena's reaction. She swore she could see a flash of annoyance cross her face, but it disappeared before she could blinked. Sure...she could have wanted to tend to her brother first, but she usually gets concerned about her best friend immediately. And Elena was cordial to her despite the issues between them. The tired blonde witch couldn't stop the puzzlement in her mind. This was normal, right? Unless...no.
"Okay, gimme a second." Elena replied back, flashing over to the blonde first, her hands gently holding the witch's face in her hands. Before Charlene could blink, the brunette's chocolate eyes came to face her first. Taking her bag out, she gave the girl a bottle of water and helped the water to her lips. "Here, drink some. It'll help you."
Charlene was forced to have the water down her throat, unable to fight the strength of the vampire. Her body was too weak. It only took a few moments for her to be able to swallow. With tired eyes, she watched as the vampire approached Bonnie, doing the same thing. Except this time, she added a bit more blood, just enough to probably heal the wound. Pressing the bottle of the murky red water to the other drained witch's lips before taking it away from her.
Something wasn't right, though. This was Elena's best friend. You would think that she would be more vocal in their reunion, making sure she's okay right?
That's when Charlene felt it.
A heavy cloud of tiredness hung over her and pushed her body over the edge, her vision almost becoming black. Her limbs became heavy like lead now. She couldn't lift her arms or her legs. She moved with agonizing effort like moving a boulder to check on Bonnie. She passed out. No…no. This can't be.
Elena turned back to Jeremy, whose back was turned. The brunette watched as she struggled against heavy haze around her, barely seeing the vampire deliver her a silent sign of shushing her before giving her a very un-Elena-like smile.
"Je…Jer…" Charlene whispered in vain.
"Are they okay?" The younger Gilbert asked in concern, about to turn his head before the brunette caught him.
"They're going to be okay. I gave them something to help them rest. You and I can do this together." The brunette urged him.
"Let me check on Bonnie at least before we do this." He crouched to the passed out witch's side, his eyes scanning over her, unaware of Charlene's looks of warning thrown at him.
Once again, the flash of annoyance returned to the brunette's face. The vampire grabbed his arm and took him towards the sarcophagus once more.
"What are you doing, Elena?"
"The cure. Jeremy, after everything we've been through, it's right there!" She urged him again, almost a little eagerly
Jeremy shook his head, done with rushing this. "It'll be there after we help Bonnie."
As he crouched to check over to Bonnie again, the sisterly mask that was on the brunette melted away, leaving an annoyed and familiar expression that Charlene remembered almost too vividly like a distant dream.
"God, I forgot what a brat you were." The cat was out of the bag at this point. There was no use hiding it anymore.
"What?"
"Jeremy…watch out for-"
"I'm done playing nice."
But the blonde's words were too late.
And like a scene from a horror film, Charlene was helpless and she couldn't move. All she could do was watch as everything unfolded before her.
Katherine grabbed Jeremy before he could fight back and vamp-sped over to the tomb. Slicing open his wrist, she held it over the stone figure's mouth. Every second filled with dread for some while for others it was seconds away to freedom.
"Katherine." Jeremy finally spoke her name, trying helplessly in vain to get out of her grasp.
"It's been too long, little Gilbert."
As if things couldn't get any worse, Charlene's eyes widened as the stone figure before them in the lingering darkness began to move.
"Sorry. Family reunion is gonna have to be cut short." Finally finishing the job, she pulled him up again and sunk her fangs into his neck, then forcing the screaming hunter down again, leaving him to his fate as Silas' first meal in over too many decades. With Jeremy's bleeding neck over Silas' mouth, the immortal's arm swung up and held Jeremy in place akin to a boa constrictor preventing their prey from escaping.
Katherine finally seeing the box containing the cure, she freed it from Silas' grasp. Before speeding away, the brunette waited until Jeremy's fate as another loose end was being tied up. She slowly walked towards the blonde, horrified blue eyes shifting to her and back to the scene in front of them as they watched.
It didn't take long for the unbearable and inevitable sound of the hunter's neck snapping to fill their ears.
"Looks like you got a guardian angel, beautiful." Katherine commented, biting into her arm. Her blood kept dripping onto the cave floor, marking more of the blood she already spilled for the cure.
"No...no." Charlene moaned weakly as the magic of the cave and the island continued to press down on her. "Get away…from me."
"No choice, blondie. Don't need another pissed off wolf coming on my trail. Besides, a deal is a deal. I will get the cure if you are still alive and well among other things."
Charlene couldn't fight Katherine's strength right now, not with the state of her strength dwindling. Her whole body felt like lead and it was too hard to move. Surprisingly, the brunette gently brought her wrist to the witch's mouth, making her drink the coppery liquid. After tilting her head back, Katherine made sure the witch had enough to regain a portion of her strength. It appeared the blonde wasn't going to be able to do much with the magic of the island overwhelming her. With her supernatural strength, Katherine took the blonde witch into her arms and vamp-sped across the caves. Not reaching the surface too long before she was in a safe spot.
Somewhere on the island, Katherine came to the promised meeting spot. She spotted them. The hunter was unconscious on the ground with the familiar she-wolf's lap being occupied by the hunter Kat just gave a bad beating to. And in a way, Katherine could almost see the look similar to the way she looked at Elijah.
Love.
Katherine approached the group carefully, the crunching of her boots catching the wolf's attention. Her copper eyes narrowed.
"Here she is," the brunette said as she placed the blonde on the ground. "Just as promised."
The she-wolf stepped over to the blonde, taking a good look at her before
"We are even now. I gave her some of my blood so she can heal. Is Elena taken care of?"
Earlier Katherine expected she was going to have another moment with the wolf, but that wasn't the case. She was met by the woman behind the wolf.
Kat saw the lines of scars making up on the fair skin of her back that showed in the open with her tank top. The previous jacket she had before was used into as a makeshift pillow to make the hunter comfortable Long light brown hair cascaded in wild waves. On her lower back, you could see from the rising tank top in the back that there was a tattoo with words in latin in a decorative script: currens sunt lupi. Her once dark claws had shifted back into her dark fingernails. Katherine could see her body was toned from the constant running that came with being a werewolf.
And finally, after all this time, Katherine seeing the human form of the wolf face to face was a little alarming. Brown eyes met with the familiar the black sclera and golden orbs flashing before they faded to the copper color she saw before with the wolf previously.
"The bitch you hate is taken care of. Got a nice dose of werewolf venom flowing in her veins." The she-wolf answered, her eyes still holding a glint of bloodlust. "Honestly, it felt really good to let loose. Too bad I couldn't just kill her."
"You know why we can't, but I know your pain." Katherine replied, almost agreeing with her as if they were friends. "How you put up with being around Klaus for days baffles me. It would drive me to insanity."
The mention of Klaus brought a hard scowl to the wolf's face. "I'll do what I have to do for now. This is all for me and Charlene to be free from the damn bastard."
"Whatever you do is up to you as long as it doesn't interfere with the plan," Katherine added. "If I were in your place after what you went through, I would have saved myself the trouble and made blondie pay."
It was that moment that Katherine crossed a line.
With strength she didn't anticipate, Katherine's back painfully slammed into the tree, sharp wolf claws digging into her skin. The other woman's hand clutched around the vampire's throat in a vice grip like a dog with a bone, and her arm coming under Katherine's chin holding her tighter against the tree. There was no way she was letting go. The brunette gasped in shock and struggled for air as she was stared down by fierce and angry golden and black eyes. Similar eyes that reminded her too much of Klaus.
"I KNOW what she's done." The werewolf hybrid snarled, her hot breath fanning the vampire's face. "But she is my responsibility. Mine. Alone. Neither you or Klaus or anyone else is going to touch her...understand me?"
"Cr..ystal..." Katherine struggled out before turning the tables on the wolf.
Biting hard with her fangs into the wolf's skin, a loud and angry scream emitted through the trees. Gathering her strength, Katherine pushed her body into nasty kick to the other woman's stomach, freeing herself from the grip around her throat. And now she had to be quick.
Years of experience came to the surface, and she knew if she got one bite, she's dead.
Not waiting for the wolf to attack her again, she grabbed a thick branch and swung it across the wolf's head with another hit, knocking the werewolf to the ground. Despite the werewolf being strong, Katherine's strength still outdid hers because of the advancement in age. Five hundred years trumps a hundred, anyway. Flashing over again before her opponent could get up, Katherine pushed her foot down on the she-wolf's spine resulting in a sickening crunch.
"AHHHH!" The wolf howled in agony. "What the fuck?!"
"Just extra measures so you can't use those deadly fangs on me." Katherine said as she got on top of her back, grabbing the wolf's arms behind and pinned them. Taking out a stake, she positioned the point on the side where the heart resided. "And just for an extra measure…"
She brought the stake down slowly inch by inch.
More agonized screaming ripped through her lungs, the loud scream of pain echoing around the island. Feeling satisfied that she made her point, she stepped away from the female hybrid, and stepped over to the hunter. Tilting her head to the side, she couldn't help but think that he was definitely easy on the eyes. No wonder the hybrid was so protective of him. Blond hair and blue eyes were never Katherine's thing, but each to her own. Katherine pressed her two fingers against his neck, feeling the warm pulse speeding underneath the skin. He was still alive. That's all she needed to know. Plus, she had her own love that she needed to get back to, and with getting the cure now, she and Elijah would be free.
"Don't worry, you won't be like that all day. Just until your lover here wakes up or blondie will once she comes to." Kat said, her strange way of reassurance didn't deliver all too well. "At least you have good taste, accents are truly the icing on the cake."
"Yeah, like that is really going to fucking help my day here." The hybrid growled out in pain. "Goddamnit, you bitch. Was it really necessary?"
"If you were in my place, yes." The brunette vampire replied, tossing her stuff into one of the open boats nearby. "Besides, there's a lesson that every newbie needs to learn when it comes to me, whether they're a newbie vampire or a werewolf hybrid. And here's that lesson, Jean," Katherine said before she finally finished. "Don't fuck with Katherine Pierce."
"All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
We can be like they are
Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, I'm your man
La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la,"
Don't Fear The Reaper by Spiritual Machines