Brave New World

"Did you suspect that this is what Katherine would be like?"

Victoria shook her head, adjusting her position on the grass beside her beau when her side started to cramp. She cuddled closer to her lover, resting her head wearily against his collarbone, as the duo stared up into the sky, gazing at all the glittering stars shining up in the sky above them. "Absolutely not. She's both kinder and more bitchier than I thought, so it's like whiplash on two different fronts."

He hummed, and the sound vibrated through his chest and straight into Victoria's head. She giggled at the sensation and clung to him closer. He snaked an arm around her waist and held tightly to her, pressing her body straight against his own. "She seems like a woman of duality. She mirrors you, I should say, though maybe not in that certain regard."

"Mirrors me? Really?" Victoria asked with curiosity lacing her tone. She twisted her body until she was able to to look up at her lover's chin. "In what way?"

"Given the description of your times with her, I would say that she has a very maternal instinct and she has taken you under her wing, despite her otherwise deceiving exterior."

"She forced me into a deep sleep like Maleficent forced Aurora into a deep sleep," Victoria countered. She pushed herself up onto her elbows and peered down at his face as he turned to connect gazes with her. "It's the reason why I'm talking to you; otherwise, I'd be in the hospital bed, still. Season two really sucks. Did I mention that yet?"

"It has come up in prior conversations, yes."

"Good. Just thought it should be spoken aloud," Victoria consented, dropping back down so she could continue to be close to him.

His hand strayed from her back and to her hip, his fingers dancing gently on the tiny patch of skin in between her pants and shirt. "I do speak with conviction, though. This Katherine seems as though she cares deeply for you, though I do not know why since the two of you have just met. Your friend, Caroline, seems to be deeply involved in that care as well."

"Katherine and Caroline do get along decently sometime in season five, if I'm remembering correctly," Victoria recalled, her eyes dragging back up to the stars above her. The twinkling made her smile and she just wanted to drag her hand up and start tracing the stars, making stupid shapes just for the hell of it. "They would be Queen Bitches with Rebekah, who could rule the entire world just for the hell of it, if they wanted to."

"What of the other women of your collective? Yourself, Alexia, Amber, Bonnie, Elena, Pearl?"

"Pearl joins the automatic collective of MILFs," Victoria answered honestly. "We, surprisingly, have a good group of them. Elena's kind of a difficult case. On a good day? She can join the Girl Scouts, which I'll call me, Lexi, Amber, and Bonnie. Bad day? Throw her in with the Queen Bitches."

"An interesting direction this conversation has taken," he commented and Victoria giggled outright at his monotoned words. "So what shall you do now?"

"I'm not quite sure," Victoria confessed, snuggling her face deeper into his collarbone. "Wait, I guess. It's not like I have anything I can do. Until Caroline comes into my room, I'm at a standstill. It's okay, though. It's nice to have a little moment of rest."

Victoria paused, and she could feel tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. She breathed deeply and let it out as a harsh rush of air. Her fingers curled around the fabrics of his shirt and she whispered, her throat tight with emotions, "I miss you."

"I miss you too, my dear," he cooed in return, and he twisted his body just enough that his other hand could come and thread itself into the roots of her hair. Victoria wanted to whimper at how loving the gesture felt to her. Victoria smothered her face into his chest and took multiple breaths to try and keep herself calm. "Peace, Victoria. Peace."

"I miss you saying that so much," Victoria whimpered, her fingers tightening in his shirt. "I don't want to wake up from this. It hurts, Noble. It hurts too much."

"Pain is rather deceptive, my dear," Noble hummed, dropping his head down so his lips gently caressed the very top of her head. Victoria flinched at the motion and a single tear dropped down from her eye. Her whole body shook as she tried to keep herself composed. "It hurts now; yes, that is true. But tell me, my sweet Victoria, what is joy without knowing that the pain was worth it? What is light without its darkness? Grief only comes because you have gifted someone else your love. To live a life without that? It is not a life I would wish unto my enemies, let alone yourself."

"But it's so hard."

"I know. I know, my dearest, but it makes life that much sweeter. Do you feel more accomplished because something was gifted to you easily or because you strove for it, shedding blood, sweat, and evidently, tears?"

"You always know the right things to say," Victoria hummed, taking a deep breath and just letting herself inhale his scent. He always smelled so damn delicious.

"It is a skill that has taken many years to achieve," Noble teased, and Victoria grinned into his shirt at the comment. "Perhaps we should turn our conversations to a more lighter topic?"

"Well, what should that lighter topic be?"

"I believe once I heard you mention a type of writing known as 'fanfiction'. Perhaps you may indulge me and explain more on the subject."


Everything burned.

The light that used to hold such warmth and affection to her now simply caused her horrendous pain.

She could hear everything. The man on the second floor who had been caught cheating on his wife when his girlfriend arrived at the hospital to present him with flowers. The nurse who was pregnant with twins and nearly ready to pop.

She could smell everything. The burnt pancakes that the hospital's cafeteria made. The strong scent of IV fluids that made her nose burn and her head dizzy.

She could taste everything. The cleaning agent that they had used to clean her room before she had been admitted, so heavily applied that it was now more of a taste than a smell. The strawberry jello that she had had for lunch that day.

She could feel everything. The way that the hospital gown scratched her skin and made her so much more irritable. The way that the threadbare blanket that covered her legs couldn't hold back the chill in the air (though her legs didn't get goosebumps. She couldn't get goosebumps anymore).

She could see everything. The patches that had been done on the wall from a previously violent patient. The cheap paint that they had used to try and fix the patch to make it look normal, but it wasn't. It was just a shade off. She could tell.

But she couldn't find her.

They told her to sit down and wait.

"Just sleep," they had cooed to her when she had woken up in a frenzy, desperate to find her. "Everything will be okay. Just sleep."

She didn't want to sleep.

She wanted to find her.

She had to find her.

She couldn't be left unprotected.

She had been hurt too many times.

She wouldn't allow her to be hurt anymore.

Her own protector, the man who had been stationed in her room since the accident, a body with no living heart beating inside of it and yet, he had more heart than anybody else she knew, had been at her side since she had woken up. He had been the one to realize what had happened. He had cursed himself for allowing such a terrible thing to happen, and he had held her as she cried desperately for the life she had had stolen from her. He held her as she cried desperately for her.

She needed to find her.

They wouldn't let her leave to find her.

She would wait her time.

Sit down, sit still, look pretty.

It was not she hadn't done it before.

Because if there was one thing that she could be...

...it was patient.


"Have I ever told you how much I adore the sound of your voice?" Noble commented as he twirled Victoria around in a graceful circle. She wasn't wearing a skirt, so she didn't have that majestic poof of a circle when she turned, but she still felt like a princess (mainly because it was Noble who was turning her).

He skillfully led her back into his arms and she grabbed onto his shoulder as she answered him, "I don't believe it has come up into conversations before, no."

"I adore the sound of your voice," Noble then stated, leaning forward to rest his forehead against Victoria's. She sighed in pleasure and allowed him to sway the duo back and forth in a silent rhythm. "It is different from other singers'. Both lighter and stronger than I would have previous thought."

"Have you not seen me sing before?" Victoria questioned, glancing up through her eyelashes to look Noble in the eye.

"I have, but only once," Noble explained. "It was at your friend's funeral. You wore a black dress that should have subtracted from your outward appearance, but I could only stand in the back, mesmerized by your sheer beauty. I must admit I missed a bit of the song."

"Oh, you little flirt, you," Victoria teased, standing up on her toes to bump noses with him. "I haven't really sung much in front of people, let alone you. I think the only person who has come the closest to hearing me sing more often would probably be Damon. He's heard me at the funeral, at Miss Mystic Falls, and once he walked in on me while I was making pancakes in the Salvatore boarding house and humming to myself."

"How did that encounter end?"

"Oh, he scared me so bad that I accidently sent a table leg flying into his gut. He forgave me for it...eventually."

"I do not believe that Damon could ever stay angry at you for long periods of time," Noble confided, and Victoria grinned.

"Yeah, Damon's probably my second full-blooded bestie. He's tied right now with Caroline, but only slightly higher because I have physically spent more time with him, given how much he's been hovering lately."

"You know that Damon 'hovers' for a good reason," Noble replied, putting the subtle quotation marks around 'hovers'. "Do not repeat these words to him, lest I drop from embarrassment: Damon and I were never close, not in the way that you wished the two of us to be. He has a hard, cold heart, one that will only take one special person to thaw. Those he allows close to him, his inner sanctum, one might say, he would die to protect. He is strong like that. For those he allows close to his heart, he would take a heart. It is good that you are one of those people to him. Given how much you actually get into trouble -"

"- Hey now. Watch that sass, you little sassy fiend -"

"- It brings me relief knowing that Damon will always have your back," Noble finished, quirking up an eyebrow. "You know I am not wrong, my dear. Just how many times have you died again?"

That...

...was a very good point.

A point that Victoria had no counterargument to.

She just grinned sheepishly at Noble and giggled when he returned the same look of warmth back towards her.

"You make a very strong point, my fine gentleman," Victoria laughed, reaching forward to gently push his shoulder.

Noble suddenly pulled her closer, and the motion caused her hips to be pressed straight up against his. And oh...that friction. It made Victoria's head simply dizzy.

"But of course, my lady," Noble purred, ducking his head down so his lips brushed up against the very edge of Victoria's jawbone. Her eyes fluttered shut at the movement and she let out a breathy sigh as Noble pressed a gentle kiss to her jaw. "I lived for many years. I learned many things."

Lived.

Past tense.

It was like a cold bucket got splashed onto Victoria and she was now squeezing her eyes shut tighter, her hands clutching at the lapels of Noble's suit jacket as she tried her hardest not to cry again.

"My love," Noble sighed, and Victoria shook her head, choosing instead to bury her face deep into Noble's chest. He did not reject her "retreat", but he simply wrapped his arms around her frame, keeping her pressed tightly against him. "I apologize."

"Why did this have to happen to you?" Victoria questioned, her words coming out like a croak. "Why did this have to happen to us? Why us?"

"There are some questions in this life that we will never have the privilege of knowing answers to," Noble began sagely, reaching his hand up to gently brush through Victoria's hair. "I think, unfortunately, that this is one of those many situations."

"You'd been alive for hundreds of years!" Victoria argued, shaking her head. "Surely you must have been more resistant to vervain. You could have fought back!"

"My love," Noble stated firmly and he pushed Victoria away from him, just enough that he could cradle her face and force her to look up into his gentle brown eyes. "My dearest Victoria. Vervain is not truly a substance vampires can gain a resistance to. It is like you and wyrmwood. And I had to protect my most precious treasure. I led the authorities away until I could no longer, away from you. It proved well worth it. You are still alive."

"But you died," Victoria hissed. "You died, Noble, and it was all my fault."

"Victoria..." Noble breathed, but he was quickly cut off by a different voice.

A familiar voice.

"Tori."

Victoria froze and her ears prickled as she tried to pinpoint the voice. It was familiar but she couldn't for the life of her figure out why it was familiar.

"Did you hear that?" Victoria asked, her eyes flickering back to Noble's. He shook his head and Victoria frowned. "That's weird. I could have sworn -"

"Tori!"

Victoria pushed herself out of Noble's arms and flipped around, staring out into the darkness. She was hearing a voice. She was sure of it.

"Who's there?" Victoria demanded, raising her voice so that she was loud enough for anybody to hear her. "Come out, now!"

"Tori, wake up!"

"Who are you?"

"Tori, wake up!"

"W-Why do I know your voice?"

"WAKE UP!"


Victoria bolted upright in a startled gasp, her hands flying to her chest as all of her senses started to come back like they had been kickstarted.

Hearing: her heartrate monitor, pounding in her head like a whole platoon of drummers. The sound of heavy breathing coming from directly in front of her.

Smell: sweat and the strong scent of copper. Too strong. Blood. It was blood. And it was everywhere.

Taste: the blood was such a strong scent that she could even taste faint particles on her tongue. It was gross and it made Victoria want to vomit.

Touch: The cold bedding underneath her body. Something sitting on her legs, directly in front of her.

Sight: Caroline Forbes, sitting on her legs, dressed in normal, everyday clothes, with blood smeared all over her face.

And her eyes...

...her eyes were red.

"Holy shit!" Victoria hissed, having enough foreknowledge to keep her voice from becoming too loud. She slapped her hands over her mouth and just looked at Caroline helplessly. "C-Care-Bear."

"Hi Tori," Caroline whispered, giving Victoria an uneasy smile. There were fangs in her mouth. Literal fangs that dropped lower than her other teeth and they gave her a weird appearance. It looked unnatural. And her fangs definitely gave her a lisp. Caroline was not going to be pleased when she realized that. "I-I know I-I should be panicking right now, and trust m-me, I will and probably s-soon, but I-I need to find you and make sure you were okay."

"I'm fine, Caroline!" Victoria reassured her, reaching out instinctively and cupping Caroline's face with her hands. "I swear, I am okay."

At Victoria's touch, Caroline sagged and her eyes slid shut, as if the weight of the world had finally been taken off of her shoulders. There was a sort of rumbling noise that came out of her chest and Victoria's eyes narrowed slightly.

Was that...

Was that purring?

"T-Tori?" Caroline whimpered, her eyes still closed.

Victoria gulped and asked hesitantly, "Y-Yeah?"

"I-I need your help," Caroline whispered brokenly, and when she opened her eyes, they were red-rimmed and filled to the brim with tears. "I-I just sucked blood out of a nurse and w-we need to go and I-I can't stay here."

"Okay, okay," Victoria said, trying to placate her friend. "Just breathe, Care. It's okay. You're gonna be okay." She paused, then glanced worryingly towards the door. "Where's Lee? Shouldn't he be watching you?"

"M-Maybe part of the reason why I-I can't stay here?" Caroline commented, sounding terribly sheepish. Victoria raised an eyebrow at her and Caroline blurted out, "I just tried to give him a hug and then all of a sudden, he's on the ground in pain and then I panicked because I am a panicker and then I rushed out of the room and ran into a nurse and got really hungry and I didn't mean to, but it was the only way for me to stop being hungry and then I had to find you and then I found you and here we are!"

Victoria took a deep breath.

Then let it out.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure I caught that," Victoria sniffed, blinking her eyes slowly. "So -"

"- Oh! And I'm not breathing because you smell really tasty and I don't want a sip because I like life, even though I guess it's undead life now, and holy shit, I just died last night and I'm really not taking the time to really contemplate it right now, and I don't want to kill you," Caroline interrupted, rambling some more.

"Caroline," Victoria stated firmly, and Caroline's mouth shut with an audible click. "We need to find Lee again. He can help you, okay?"

"No!" Caroline shouted, shaking her head. "W-We can't. H-He's gonna hate me for hurting him and I-I really didn't mean to but we can't see him."

"Care..." Victoria trailed off.

Caroline's hand suddenly shot up and slammed itself against Victoria's mouth and she let out a quieted curse as she felt something in her jawbone crack. Caroline was much, much, much stronger than she realized. Caroline's head was cocked to the side as Victoria felt tears spring up in her eyes from the pain.

"He's coming!" Caroline squealed, and then suddenly Victoria was flying.

Well, not literally flying, but it sure as hell felt that way. She couldn't feel the ground underneath her feet, there was a fast current of wind all around her, and the world was tilting in a barrage of colors as she was whisked away in a grip that felt like iron chains.

When the world finally stopped rushing past like Victoria was a NASCAR racer, she wasn't prepared for it. She tripped when her feet hit the ground and she landed in a heap of limbs down onto what felt like tiled floors. She let out a curse as her head bounced off against the tiles and her hands shot up, cradling her skull as it started to ache and throb.

"Damn it, Caroline, that hurt!" Victoria whimpered, hissing when she tried to open her eyes. The lights were just a little too bright for her. She couldn't be surprised if she was concussed from the fall. It definitely seemed like she had smacked her head enough for it to be.

"Shit, Tori, I'm so sorry!" Caroline cried out, and Victoria heard the clattering of her shoes as she raced over to Victoria's side. "I'm so new to this that I didn't realize that the stopping would be so much of a problem."

Caroline grabbed Victoria's shoulders and hauled her to her feet. Victoria was forced to snap her eyes open, lest she tilt and end up back on the floor with an even worse concussion. She clung to Caroline's side, her legs still too shaky to full support her weight by itself.

"Blondie? That you?"

Damon.

And then Caroline tensed up.

Victoria saw Caroline's eyes go even redder and her fangs drop lower.

And she just got this terrible sinking feeling in her stomach.

Something was wrong with Caroline.

Different the canon had portrayed her as.

She seemed much more aggressive.

Deadly.

"Damon, run!" Victoria cried out, pushing herself out of Caroline's grip just enough that Damon could see her and she could see Damon.

His eyes widened momentarily, obviously taken aback that Victoria was one, awake, and two, standing in front of him in what seemed to be the Mystic Falls High School (there were lockers on all the walls, and Victoria was pretty sure that Caroline wouldn't have taken her to a gym or something).

The situation seemed to sink in in Damon's brain and his surprise dropped away. He didn't flip around, like Victoria would have liked. Instead, he looked like he was about to start moving to towards Victoria when Caroline suddenly flashed away from Victoria. Without Caroline's support, Victoria's legs gave out, but she was able to redirect herself this time to land heavily on her knees and palms.

Did it hurt like a son of a bitch?

Hell yeah, it did.

But did she hit her head again?

No, so Victoria considered that a win.

Caroline was behind Damon, faster than Victoria even thought was possible. Damon was perhaps one of the fastest vampires Victoria had met, and if Caroline was faster?

That didn't necessarily bode well.

Damon flipped around, not expecting Caroline to be as quick either.

"I remember," Caroline growled, her eyes glowing an unearthly red as the dark veins underneath her eyes started to become more and more prominent against her paler skin.

"What do you remember?" Damon dared to ask, taking a subtle step back. One that didn't seem like he was backing down or away from Caroline, but rather to get a better view of the situation.

"I remember how you manipulated me," Caroline hissed, tilting her head as she took a step forward. Damon took another step back, and Caroline advanced some more. "You pushed me around, hurt my best friend in the entire fucking world, erased my memories of it all, and then you used me to try and hurt her. Remember calling me to your house so I could bust your sorry ass out?"

"Care-Bear, we might not be besties, but I know that you cannot be that mad at me," Damon argued, holding up his hands in front of him. "You are just freaking out. I get it. I do. But you're starting to scare Mama Bear, so I need you to stand the hell down."

"Memories have been coming back, in pieces," Caroline spat, ignoring basically everything that Damon had been saying.

"Because of what you became," Damon agreed, nodding his head. "I get it, but stand down, Caroline. We can help you but you need to back the fuck up."

"I have a message to you from Katherine," Caroline smirked. "She said, and I quote, 'Game on, Brothers. Say hi to Baby Bear for me, and tell her that this was all necessary'."

"Wait," Damon tried to say, but Caroline wasn't having it.

She took one step forward and planted both of her hands on his shoulders and just shoved.

The amount of strength from what looked like to be a tiny push was astronomical. Damon was sent through the air (like, literally through the air) before landing hard on his back and skidding the rest of the distance, ending up only a few feet from Victoria. She scrambled to his side, immediately grabbing his shoulder as she looked back up to Caroline.

She was gone.

"What the hell was that?" Damon swore, hoping up to his feet. He let out a mighty hiss and his hand snapped to his side. "Damn it, Blondie. Cracked a few ribs with that shove too." He turned back towards Victoria and offered his hand out to her. She grabbed it with both of hers and he pulled her up easily, moving to press her tightly against his side so she could help keep herself upright. "Are you okay, Baby?"

"C-Could be better," Victoria answered honestly.

Damon snorted. "Yeah, same too. We need to find Stefan and Elena. And Lexi. Hell, any vamp who's got a few hundred years on them. Newborns are a bitch to deal with sometimes."

"Z-Zach wasn't like this," Victoria whispered, clinging to Damon's shirt (Katherine's previous comment of "black, black, everything black" came back to mind as Victoria's fingers wrapped themselves around Damon's coincidentally black t-shirt). "S-She's so aggressive."

"Every baby vamp gets a different sort of quirk when they get changed," Damon growled, and then he said a few choice words in Italian that Victoria didn't recognize, but she understood they weren't exactly family-friendly. "I never wanted this to happen. Hang tight, Mama Bear."

Victoria instinctively wrapped her arms around Damon's neck and hopped up to wrap her legs around his waist. He wrapped her waist with one of his arms and then Victoria was flying through the air again, though only for a very short moment. They were in one of the classrooms now (seeming like a science classroom...was this Mrs. Landstrom's classroom? Maybe she should screw some of the bolts out of her desk) and Damon set her down into one of the desks. He slipped out of his jacket and passed it to Victoria, stating, "You might want to wrap this around your waist." Victoria's cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but she grabbed his jacket from him and wrapped it around her waist. Damon nodded his head before rapidly typing out some form of text onto his phone.

Within a minute, Stefan, Elena, Zach, Ms. Gibbons, Harper, Bonnie, Jeremy, Alaric, and Jenna were all filed away into the classroom (Jenna making a beeline for Victoria as soon as she saw her, checking over every inch of her to really make sure she was alright; Victoria had no idea how she was functional, considering she had been admitted to the hospital earlier that day for a stroke and she felt perfectly fine except for the probable concussion and potentially cracked jawline). Kelly was nowhere to be seen, and that left a sour taste in Victoria's mouth. Amber also seemed mysteriously absent. Stefan's phone had rung the moment he stepped into the classroom, and it turned out Lexi was calling from the other line, in the hospital with Lee.

"Lee and I are hiding out in a storage closet that doesn't seem to be used frequently," Lexi explained when Damon demanded to know why she wasn't there after his text. "Lee said that Caroline cracked multiple disks in his spine so we have to wait for that to heal back up."

"I-I can't believe that Caroline is a vampire," Bonnie whimpered, falling into the open desk beside Victoria. Victoria offered her friend a hand and Bonnie grabbed onto it tightly. "I-I just..."

"How did this happen?" Stefan demanded, looking towards his older brother for answers.

"Well, I fed her blood and Katherine obviously killed her," Damon began, gesturing wildly with his hands. "A plus B equals -"

"- But why?" Elena interrupted, and Damon just rolled his eyes at the teen.

"Because Katherine is a manipulative, nasty, little slut," Damon grunted.

"What about her words? 'Game on'? 'Say hi to Baby Bear for me and tell her that this was all necessary'? I mean, what does that even mean?" Jenna questioned, running a hand over her face tiredly.

"I-I'm Baby Bear," Victoria whispered, and everyone's eyes shot towards her, a mixed reaction spreading throughout the group. "S-She knows that Damon calls me Mama Bear, and so she went with Baby Bear, I-I think. I tried to stop her from hurting Caroline, but she doused my blankets with wyrmwood while I was out of it. She compelled me to sleep until Caroline came and said that I would understand later why it was all necessary."

"It means she's playing dirty," Damon put it simply. "She wants us to know."

"But why Caroline?" Jeremy asked, sitting down onto the teacher's desk with folded arms. "Out of everyone in this group, I wouldn't have picked Caroline as the best to turn into a vampire."

If only they knew, Victoria sniffed to herself. Out of any option available, Caroline was probably the best choice to become a vampire. While Vicki became a worse version of herself as a vampire, and the same with Elena, Caroline flourished with the power. She became a better version of herself since she had been granted a second chance. But that was under everything that had happened to her during Season One, and Victoria had changed quite a bit of plot points from Season One, primarily the fact that Caroline actually knew about the supernatural previous to her transitioning. Who knows what that kind of information could do in this scenario?

"I would say I don't know, but that's a load of bullshit," Damon snorted, rolling his eyes once more. "Caroline Forbes may be a neurotic bitch, but she's our neurotic bitch. Katherine knew this."

"Ms. Forbes must be completely out of her mind," Harper murmured, using his crutches (which Ms. Gibbons had gifted to him after the parade on the Founder's Day) to hobble his way to the desk beside Bonnie. Bonnie scooted the chair out for him with a quietly uttered spell, and Harper sent her a look of gratitude before he sat down. "She may know about our kind, but I don't think any of us have gone into detail about what it's like."

"Care-Bear is a panicker," Lee agreed from the other side of the phone line, and Victoria winced. He sounded like he had been in better shape. "She's definitely going to be freaking out. She doesn't know what's happening to her -"

"- Oh, I think she does," Damon huffed, rubbing the side of his chest. "All of the compulsion I used on her in ye oldie days started to wear off and she chucked me across a hallway like I was John Gilbert and she was Mama Bear."

Yeah, Victoria had done something similar to John that Caroline did to Damon, hadn't she?

"We have to find her," Jenna stated firmly.

"What do we do when we find her?" Bonnie demanded, looking towards Victoria as if she held all the answers.

"Killing her, I'm guessing, is not an option?" Damon suggested, and he held up his hands in defense at all the glares that got redirected towards him. "I wouldn't be happy about it, but I'm being serious. The Caroline who threw me across the room? There's something different about her. It's a weird transition. One might say unnatural. She could become a liability."

"Damon -" Lexi growled from across the phone, and she sounded the same level of intimidating as she would have if she was in person.

"I don't want to be the bitch who brings this up, but I will," Damon snapped, gesturing wildly at everyone. "But need I remind you of a tragic little story of a girl named Vicki Donovan?" Victoria let out a sniff of discomfort and quickly looked down at her hands in her lap. "Vicki, someone who adored Victoria LeBlanc, tortured her for a week. None of us still know completely every little thing she did to her, and that was four months ago! Caroline, someone who loves Victoria more than anything else in life, will not make it as a vampire without hurting her or herself. Her mother is a vampire hunter."

"We are not killing Caroline!" Zach shouted, flipping around on his uncle. "Uncle Damon, I understand where you're coming from -"

"- Do you?" Damon hissed, his icy eyes seeming more red than blue.

Zach's eyes darkened a shade too and he tilted his head menacingly towards his uncle. "Yeah, Damon, I do, but Caroline is one of us. You didn't kill Victoria when she tried to kill all of us after Logan spiked her drinks. I know, under all that fear and worry for Victoria, you are scared that you might be right and you might have to kill Caroline, but that won't happen. We can take care of her. She won't end up like Vicki -"

"- You don't know that -"

"- I do," Zach stated firmly, and Victoria took a moment to really study Damon following that response.

Damon was standing tall, his body tense and his shoulders starting to shake. There was a tight emotion behind his eyes and he looked like a coiled spring, ready to pop out and just jump away. He looked like he wanted to believe Zach. Like, he really, really, really wanted to believe that Zach was telling the truth.

A thought popped up into Victoria's brain, and she stopped herself from immediately dismissing it.

Could it be...

Did he...

Did Damon blame himself for Vicki's death?

Did he still blame himself for her death?

Damon had been over-the-top protective of Victoria in the few months of the new year, but Victoria had primarily placed that reasoning due to the tomb incident. But what if...what if that protectiveness stemmed from earlier, but the tomb incident was just the one that pushed him over the edge?

"Damon," Victoria whispered, her voice filled with sympathy and tenderness. It made so much sense now that all the puzzle pieces connected together in her mind.

Damon's jaw snapped together tightly at Victoria's voice, but he didn't give her a response and he didn't turn to look at her.

Looked like she nailed it.

The shrill noise of a cellphone ringing broke out through the suddenly silent room and everyone jumped, startled by the sudden noise. It took Victoria way too long to realize that the noise had been coming from her cell phone. Well, the cell phone that Lexi had let her borrow since her own was still mysteriously missing (along with some of her clothes...weird).

When Victoria checked out the number calling her, her eyes flashed up and locked on with Damon's. She swallowed heavily and whispered, "It's Caroline."

That caught everyone's attention.

"Answer it," Zach ordered, and Victoria nodded.

She pressed her finger against her lips to indicate silence, and then she hit answer, switching it to speaker so everyone (including the humans) could hear her. "Caroline. Where are you?"

"She's right here with me, Ms. LeBlanc."

Oh, bless the Lord.

Victoria let out a sigh of relief and she sagged back in her chair, resisting the urge to laugh. "Pearl! It's so good to hear from you. We hadn't heard from you since the fire. Are you okay? Things have been a mess -"

"- I am fine, Ms. LeBlanc," Pearl replied. Victoria grinned. She sounded so sure of that. It was good that at least one of the many in their group was doing okay. "The passing of my...of my Annabelle," Jeremy flinched at that and glanced down at the cuffs of his jacket to keep himself distracted, "is one of the greatest pains I have ever faced, but I think...I think I have found a new purpose to my life. I ran into Caroline when I was coming to rejoin the group. We are outside of the school, closer towards town, away from the general populace. I figured this would be a safer place. Are you with the group?"

"Everyone but Kelly and Amber," Victoria answered, throwing Lexi and Lee in that collective as well (Lee's back must have been healed up by then. He was a fast healer, or so Lexi had said once during a random conversation).

"If you would be so kind, call them both to join you and come to the address I send to you," Pearl stated. "We can reconvene and discuss further options there."

"Options?" Victoria asked curiously, her brow furrowing slightly. What did Pearl mean by 'options'? "What options?"

"Options of retribution, Ms. LeBlanc," Pearl said, as if that answer was obvious. Victoria was still confused until Pearl laughed, her voice twinkling like little bells, and she added, "Ms. LeBlanc, in case you have not realized, this is not a check-up call. It is a ransom demand."

And the phone clicked to silence.


They made it to Pearl's selected address within minutes, Lexi and Lee included. Every human had gotten some form of supernatural travel (Harper, although down to one leg, could still bust a move pretty well). Damon took Victoria and Bonnie, Stefan had Elena and Alaric, Zach took Jeremy and Jenna, and Harper grabbed Ms. Gibbons. The address was situated out behind the school, a couple of blocks away. It was a part of downtown Mystic Falls that Victoria hadn't frequented. It didn't look frequented by much of human life. Weeds were overgrown in a majority of the yards and windows were shuttered up. The general aesthetic of the neighborhood gave Victoria the chills and she shivered. Damon stepped forward and slung his arm around her shoulder, and Victoria sighed when she felt his warmth (given to him artificially through coffee).

A handful of houses down, Victoria's eye caught the faintest signs of motion. She tensed up, and Damon's eyes shot to where she was looking at.

The streetlights down this particular road were shoddy at best, but it was enough for the members of the group with enhanced sight. Pearl strode out into the street, decked out in an outfit that Victoria never would have thought to see the eldest vampiress in. Tight leather jeans showed off every contour and curve of the vampiress, and she was wearing a flowing blue tank top with a black leather jacket to complete the look. Her hair was down, not in its typical updo, and it was straightened, and holy shit, it was long. It fell down so the tips were gracing the edges of her hips. No wonder she always kept it up. Even in the faint light, the scar that crossed the entire length of her face was visible, though given vampiric healing, it had healed pretty well so it was more of a thick white line than anything else.

And, being pulled behind her, with Pearl's hand clamped firmly on the hair at the back of her neck, was Caroline. She had a slice of duct tape plastered on her mouth and her hands were wrapped with the stuff and secured firmly behind her back. The edges around her mouth looked red and inflamed and Caroline's eyes were red (not like crying red, but like "I'm a pissed off vampire" kind of red). She seemed to struggle against Pearl's grip, but those hundreds of years on Pearl's lifespan did make a significant amount of difference.

"Pearl," Zach stated, his voice firm and at an even volume. He took the initiative and stepped forward, presenting himself at the head of the group. "Let Caroline go."

"Is Kelly and Amber not going to grace us with their presence?" Pearl demanded, tilting her head to one side as she quietly observed Zach.

Zach didn't miss a beat as he replied, "They are driving out here to meet us right now. Not everyone can have vampiric speed."

"Wonder how Kelly would react if she could," Pearl commented, flipping her hair nonchalantly over her shoulder. "I think she would prefer to die than to be one of the kind she despises so much."

Victoria's brow furrowed slightly and she glanced at Damon out of the corner of her eye. It wasn't a secret that Kelly didn't particularly enjoy vampires, but she was always civil, if not friendly, with the vampires of Mystic Falls. Whatever information Pearl must have gotten about the LeBlanc matriarch must have been wrong, right?

Right?

There was a squealing of tires and Victoria glanced behind her long enough to note a strange car that she didn't recognize coming to a halt right behind them all. Kelly's face popped out of one of the doors, and Amber Bradley followed her on the other side. Amber's eyes were red-rimmed, like Caroline's had been only minutes ago, and she was holding onto herself like she didn't trust herself to stand alone. Lee rushed from the group and to Amber's side. The younger teen immediately wrapped her arms around Lee's torso and buried her face into his stomach while Lee just held to her.

Something had obviously happened there, and while Victoria was desperate to know why Amber looked like the entire world was caving in on her, she needed to focus on making sure Pearl didn't kill her best friend.

"Kelly Augustine LeBlanc," Pearl called out in a lazy drawl, and Victoria's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Did Pearl seriously remember Kelly's middle name from that family meeting they had had after Valentine's Day? Victoria was impressed. She honestly didn't remember Kelly's middle name that well, and Kelly was her own mother. "So kind of you to grace me with your presence."

"What is this about, Pearl?" Kelly demanded, folding her arms across her chest. She strode past the group as a whole, and Zach (who was at its head) and stood separate from them, staring down Pearl. "Let go of Caroline and let's discuss this as civil adults."

"You threw civil out of the window days ago," Pearl laughed. It sounded deranged, almost psychotic. It sent chills down every inch of Victoria's body. "Have you told them? Told them of your crimes. Of the people you've killed."

Kelly stiffened at that accusation and Victoria looked towards her mother with slight hesitancy. Kelly hadn't ever killed anyone...right? Even if she had, it would be hypocritical of Victoria to severely judge her mother because of that. Victoria had literally ripped a man apart without even touching him and Kelly hadn't held it against her. Victoria would just have to do the same.

"I did what I had to to protect my baby girl," Kelly said in warning, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Do not pretend to understand the reasons of what I do."

"But I do know the reasons," Pearl hissed, and Caroline let out a muffled whine as it looked like Pearl's grip tightened. Caroline thrashed harder in Pearl's grip. Pearl shook her fist hard and Caroline stopped trying to fight her way out. "November 27th, 1997." The date made Kelly gasp aloud and she even took a step back. "Your mother was in the hospital with breast cancer, stage four. She was a fighter, though, and all the cancer seemed to have disappeared, at least for then. She was cleared to return home the next day, but someone snuck into the hospital and drained all of the blood out of her body. She was just a husk of the woman who raised you when you showed up the next day to take her home -"

"- Stop talking, Pearl -"

"- You were furious: a single mother left alone without the help and support of her single parent," Pearl finished, her eyes wild and wide. Her head slowly twisted until her gaze landed on Zach, who was tense and looked ready to spring into action. Pearl's gaze softened just a bit, but it was enough that Victoria was able to recognize it. "But at least you had the support of your loving high school sweetheart. Victoria's father, one might dare say he was."

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

There was no way.

No way, right?

But...

There had always been something fatherly about Zach.

Maybe it was the way that he made food for her after she had had a hard day at school, or the way that he always looked out for her. The two of them could exist in dead silence and never feel the need to talk. They could just be. He taught her vampiric and Immortalis lore and she had taught him how to dance. He held her when she cried, and she had ensured that he had stayed alive after Damon killed him. He was the first of the many she had saved. And when the day at Pearl's house occurred, when Zach was on the ground, certifiably dead...it was like a hot iron had been shoved through Victoria's chest. She couldn't let him be dead. She just couldn't. She had chalked it up to an incredibly close friendship but...

...but what if it had been more than that?

Pearl didn't take note of any of the turmoil that had suddenly spread throughout the Mystic Falls group, instead focusing her attention back onto Kelly. "But then he made a decision you didn't like. That was a no-no. You wiped his memory, and changed the memory of you two together in everyone else's mind. I assume you would have done it to Victoria too, had she not died and had this Victoria transferred into her body."

"My daughter is not dead!" Kelly warned, her throat tight with emotions.

"Of course not," Pearl agreed, nodding her head. She gestured slyly towards Victoria and Victoria didn't like the glimmer in her eyes. "She is right there..." Pearl paused dramatically and the look in her eyes turned vicious. "Unless...you are not referring to this Victoria. Perhaps you are just biding your time, until your real daughter comes back."

The words struck Victoria like a blow to the heart and her head snapped to the side so she could look directly towards Kelly.

Pearl had to be joking, right?

She had to be.

There was no way that Kelly really felt that way.

But...

...but Kelly wasn't saying anything to deny her.

She wasn't arguing.

Why wasn't Kelly arguing?

"But what will your daughters, either of them," Pearl began again, taking a few steps forward. Caroline let out a muffled cry of pain as she was forced to stagger after Pearl, "think of what you've done?"

"I was protecting my daughter!" Kelly cried out, and it sounded like her eyes were filled with tears.

"A vampire hunting device," Pearl whispered, sounding like a witch casting a spell with her words. She was an enchantress, pulling everyone's attention until they were solely focused on her. "Turned off by the very capable Bonnie Bennett and verified to be off by both yourself and your daughter, Victoria. Except, once the watch was returned to you after having been cleared by your own daughter, a little slip of lightning came to the watch, and suddenly, it was as if nothing had changed. It was back to normal once again."

No.

No.

No.

No.

Nonononononononononononononononononononononononononononono.

Please let her be lying.

Dear God, please let Pearl be lying.

There was no way.

Not her.

Not Kelly.

"M-Mom?" Victoria whimpered, tears trickling down the sides of her face. She looked towards Kelly and just prayed. Prayed desperately that Pearl was just lying. "P-Please tell me that she's lying. Tell me s-she's not right. P-Please."

"Stay out of this, baby girl -" Kelly warned her, but Victoria couldn't drop it.

No.

She wouldn't drop it.

"- Tell me that you didn't turn the device back on," Victoria pleaded, drawing in a ragged breath. "T-That everyone who d-died...that it w-wasn't your fault. Anna...Noble..."

"I said stay out of it, Victoria!" Kelly roared, flipping around to glare at Victoria. Victoria flinched at the terrifying look in Kelly's eyes and instinctively stumbled backwards, away from her mother and straight into Damon's arms. He took a not-so-subtle step to stand directly in front of her, a shield between the two LeBlancs, and Victoria was grateful for the extended bit of space. "Vampires took everything from us! They killed my mother and I would not have them killing you! You know as well as I do that everywhere that these people go, death follows. I will not allow them to do that to you. I don't care if you hate me, I don't care if you never speak to me again, but if I have the opportunity to thin out the herd, then so help me, I will do it!"

"I-If that's the case, then w-why did you try to s-save them all from the tomb? Mom, Anna died in the fire that you were a key part in starting," Victoria whispered in shock, tears streaming down her face more steadily now. "Noble died, Kelly!" The realization settled in Victoria's stomach like a lead brick. "Y-You..." She swallowed heavily and croaked out, "You killed Noble."

"These people were responsible for your death!" Kelly screamed. "If you hadn't known any of them, you would have been fine. You would have just been a witch and things would have been normal for you. Instead, some cultist vampire followed you around since you were born and decided to make you his own little pet project. Hell no. He did not love you -"

"- Y-You're wrong -"

"- He was just biding his time to when he could just get what he wanted and then leave you alone -"

"- M-Mom, stop it, please -"

"- He was a monster -"

"- M-Mommy, p-please -"

"- I did it once, I would gladly do it again and again," Kelly finished.

Kelly killed Noble.

Kelly killed Noble.

KellykilledNobleKellykilledNobleKellykilledNobleKellykilledNobleKellykilledNoble.

It was her fault.

Not Victoria's.

Her mother.

Her own mother.

Victoria was sobbing now, her fingers clinging to Damon. Damon was vibrating, hissing and raging towards Kelly. All the other vampires weren't much better. Everyone looked like they wanted to jump in and take a chunk out of Kelly. Amber was clinging to Lee, her face a perfect mirror of Victoria's. Elena was crying into Stefan; Bonnie standing close to Lexi with a hand up to her mouth, holding her cries inside. Jeremy and Jenna were clinging to each other, and Jenna's face...

Poor Jenna.

She looked so betrayed. Like she couldn't believe that this was what her best friend was really like.

"All cards on the table now," Pearl grunted, and Victoria turned her attention back towards Pearl and Caroline. Pearl shoved Caroline forward and the girl went staggering, landing hard on her knees on the pavement. Since her hands were behind her back, Caroline couldn't stop her momentum and ended up faceplanting into the asphalt. Pearl reached behind herself and it looked like she took something out of the waistband of her pants. The light hit the object in her hand just enough for Victoria to see what it truly was.

A stake.

She had a stake in her hands and a kneeling Caroline in front of her, probably vervained given how little she was moving.

She was going to kill Caroline.

"You took my daughter from me," Pearl spat at Kelly, and through her own tears, Victoria could spot a single tear dropping from Pearl's eye. "My companion, my best friend, for over half a millennia. I am a firm believer, Kelly, in an eye for an eye. I wanted to make you hurt, but I knew I couldn't kill Victoria. She saved my life from the tomb and that debt had to be repaid. However, I could take her temporarily out of the equation, though Katherine found Victoria rather fast. Still, the needed effect was accomplished."

Victoria wasn't stupid and she could connect the dots. Pearl had been the one to stash her inside of the body bag. She hadn't been around when Victoria had become a Transitioning Immortalis, so she hadn't known just how terrifying the action of being hidden away in a body bag was for Victoria.

"However, there was still someone who was mortal," Pearl continued, shifting the stake in her hands. She nodded towards Caroline. "The daughter that wasn't yours. You practically raised her, did you not? Of course, Katherine tried to fuck up that plan too." Victoria flinched. She hadn't ever heard Pearl curse before, and there was something disconcerting about it. "I didn't realize Caroline had transitioned into a vampire until she came back to life after I snapped her neck. Only a slight hiccup, but one that caused me great aggravation. I will be having words with my old friend."

"Pearl, you don't want to do this," Zach warned her, breaking formation to move ahead of Kelly.

Pearl's grip tightened on the stake at Zach's approach and Victoria's fingers twitched. She looked down towards her hands and tried to conjure up a ball of black magic. She had done it on numerous occasions previously.

Nothing happened.

The wyrmwood that Katherine had slathered all over her sheets.

It was still smeared onto her body and the hospital gown she was still in. It was soaked deep into the fabric, which meant that it was still there, even after all the hours of just sitting there.

Her powers were useless, and Pearl was about to kill her best friend.

She couldn't let that happen.

"Mr. Salvatore, out of this collection of people, you are not even in my top three closest friends," Pearl warned, glaring in Zach's direction. "Do not pretend that you have any chance in changing my mind."

"Why are you calling me Mr. Salvatore then?" Zach taunted her, holding his hands up as he continued his slow approach. He stepped forward slowly, one foot at a time, going heel-toe, heel-toe. "You're trying to distant yourself, emotionally, from me, because you've called Kelly by her name. Victoria and Amber too. You don't care what they think about you because they don't have a chance of changing your mind, but I do."

"We have known each other for less than three months," Pearl retorted. "You don't know me."

"I know that you are a mother who is willing to do anything to avenge her daughter," Zach stated in return. He placed his hands on his chest. "I am a father who is willing to do anything to avenge my daughter. Two sides of the same coin, Pearl."

"She deserves to pay for what she has done against my family!" Pearl shouted, her shoulders starting to shake as more tears came to her cheeks.

Zach's voice both softened and hardened in the same stretch. "She will, Pearl, but bringing Caroline into this isn't how to go about it. Caroline is innocent. She went to school with Anna, and she was raised with Jeremy, who loved Anna. Do you want to see the only connections you have left to your daughter go away?"

Zach took a few more steps forward. He was almost to Pearl's side. If he lunged, he could grab the stake away from her; he kept his distance, though. He walked tentatively, and with an ounce of respect in his step. "If..." His voice hitched and he swallowed heavily, but kept talking, "If Victoria passed, and I truly mean passed away and didn't come back...I would want to see the people she interacted with every single damn day. Because I see her in all of her friends. Caroline's positivity against all odds, Jeremy's sense of loyalty, Amber's steps towards self-confidence, Bonnie's art of forgiveness, Elena's mercy, Lee's ability to see the good in people, Lexi's stubbornness, Stefan's bounce that hadn't been there, and the light in Damon's eyes every time he looks or even thinks about her. It doesn't matter if I haven't seen Victoria in an hour or even twenty-four hours. I still see her, everywhere that I walk. I know, I know, Pearl, that you do the same thing with Anna. It hurts. I know it hurts, but she's here. Watching over you, and you know she wouldn't want you to hurt Caroline like this."

Zach finished his approach of Pearl and he rested his hand gently on top of the one clinging to the stake, which was now shaking tightly in her palm. Pearl was sobbing, looking down towards Caroline with tear-filled eyes. Zach's free hand reached out and grabbed Pearl's jaw, turning her head with a delicate touch to redirect her attention back to him. "Grief is loving them through the pain. You can be mad. You can be mad, and sad, and terrified of how to do life without them, because that's normal, Pearl. You can't kill Caroline. That can't be how this goes."

"I-I can't just let Kelly get away with t-this," Pearl cried, shaking her head feebly. "S-She deserves to pay."

"And you deserve to let go of this guilt," Zach cooed in response. It was so tender of a moment that Victoria felt like she was intruding on something. "You couldn't have known what Kelly was thinking of doing. Anna's death shouldn't be on your shoulders." He let go of the hand holding the stake and used his palm to cup the other side of Pearl's face. "You don't deserve that."

"W-Why are you doing this?" Pearl whispered in a silent demand.

"Because I felt this exact same way when Kelly broke up with me right before Victoria's fourteenth birthday," Zach answered at the same volume as Pearl's words. "Nothing has hurt as much as that night, thinking I would never get to live with my daughter, that I had helped raise from a baby, ever again. Well, maybe when she died at the dance and when I died, but I digress."

Zach stepped forward and rested his forehead against Pearl's. Pearl's eyes snapped shut and she inhaled shakily and with a little cry. "It's time to let go, Pearl," Zach whispered. "Don't fall down this hill. Don't become Kelly."

One of Pearl's hands snuck up Zach's side and rested on the side of his neck, clinging to him like he was the only thing keeping her upright. She, with a shaky whisper, breathed, "I'm not Kelly. I'm not Kelly."

Pearl's hand with the stake started to droop.

They were okay.

They were going to be okay.

It was over.

It was all over.

Caroline was okay.

She was going to be okay.

Victoria felt the hairs on her arm stand up on themselves and that was her first indicator that shit was about to go down.

Kelly flipped around, facing the rest of the Mystic Falls gang, and threw a hand forward. Her eyes were alight with literal lightning. Sparks of electricity flew from her fingertips, bouncing across the asphalt as they wove their way through the group until they got to their selected target.

Amber let out a scream of fear as the lightning bolts from Kelly wrapped themselves around her torso like a corset of death. Kelly yanked her hand backwards and Amber was dragged physically away from Lee. Everyone leapt out of the way, spooked by the electricity, as Amber flew across the pavement. The girl's sneakers were useless as she dragged them across the ground, trying to stop herself anyway that she could.

The girl only came to a stop once she was right beside Kelly. Kelly turned around and twisted her wrist, forcing the lightning surrounding Amber to turn around as well so the two were facing down Zach, Pearl, and Caroline.

Lee was feral, his eyes red and his fangs dropped as he tried to lunge for Kelly behind her back. The witch anticipated the movement, though, because she flicked her free hand and a bolt of lightning jumped straight up from the ground. It struck Lee right in his chest and he immediately collapsed, his body twitching and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. The scent of burnt flesh filled the air and Lexi's scream of, "Lee, no!" was the only other sound that echoed throughout the empty street.

"Kelly, what are you doing?" Jenna demanded, her hands moving to clench on tightly to Alaric's, who had moved up to stand beside her.

"Get everyone out of here, now!" Damon ordered, directing the order to Stefan. "Right now!"

"On it!" Stefan replied. As he started to flash away, members of their party starting to disappear as he grabbed them and brought them far away, Kelly began to speak.

"You threaten my surrogate daughter?" Kelly scoffed, her voice loud. She let out a laugh, and it sounded so wrong that it chilled Victoria's soul. "Alright then, that's within your right."

Kelly lifted her hand and squeezed her fist slowly. Amber's eyes widened and she let out a scream of pain as the lightning around her squeezed her. Amber's arms, which were pinned to her sides, looked like they were starting to get red from the lightning that graced her sides.

"But you hurt her? I kill your surrogate daughter," Kelly retorted.

"Mom, stop!" Victoria screamed, lunging for Amber and Kelly. Damon stopped her by wrapping his arms around Victoria's torso, keeping her cemented down. "Stop it!"

"I can't let you get hurt, Baby, and if you get into the middle of that, that's bad," Damon hissed in Victoria's ear.

Pearl let out a hiss and she stepped out of Zach's embrace to glare down Kelly. Between the two, Pearl looked ten times deadlier than Kelly was. Her eyes were red, a similar dark red to Zach's eyes, and her fangs looked sharp and deadly. "You wouldn't dare. She is too much like your daughter."

"But she's not," Kelly countered, tilting her head menacingly. "So, Pearl, ball's in your court. You hurt Caroline, I kill Amber."

"So your standards don't apply for Caroline," Pearl chided. Zach stepped forward and reached for Pearl's hand. Pearl's eyes softened, but she didn't turn her head to look at Zach. Instead, she said to him in a voice that was soft and delicate, "You are correct, Zach. I am not Kelly."

Her lips twisted, and even from the distance, Victoria could see a dark glint in her eyes.

A glint of revenge.

"I am much better," Pearl growled, before planting both of her hands on Zach's torso and shoving.

Many things happened in that moment:

- Zach went flying, slamming into the pavement hard enough to make the road crack underneath his body as he rolled away.

- Pearl's grip on the stake shifted and she raised the stake over her head. The trajectory was heading straight for Caroline's heart.

- A sound of thunder echoed throughout the street; Amber was sent tumbling into the asphalt and Kelly's fingers crackled with electricity as she threw her hand out with the lightning towards Pearl and Caroline.

- Damon let go of Victoria, already starting to sprint with Victoria to try and intercept Pearl's stake with Lee following closely behind (Lexi moving to get to Amber's side).

- Zach was back on his feet, and running. Running faster and faster then Victoria had ever seen him move before.

A loud squelching noise echoed throughout the silent street.

The stake had found its mark...

...but its mark had changed.

And it was like Victoria's whole world had shattered.

Zach staggered back and away from Pearl, the stake intended for Caroline's chest stuck firmly in his own. It was positioned perfectly where his heart was located, and there was blood spilling, spilling, spilling out and onto his shirt. He dropped to his knees, gasping for air, as a ghostly gray started to creep up onto his limbs. His fingers started to go first, and by the time it reached his wrists, Damon had redirected his sprint to get to Zach's side. The vampire held his great-nephew in his arms and just shouted, "No, no, no, no!"

Victoria was frozen.

She couldn't move.

Every single cell was just iced over.

This can't be happening.

This can't be happening.

Please, let this just be some terrible nightmare.

Pearl was gone, fled into the night.

No one cared.

Lee had ripped Caroline's ties apart and was at Zach's back, his hands planted firmly on Zach's shoulders.

And then, a faint whisper.

"V-Victoria..."

Victoria's body finally allowed her to move and she was in front of Zach in the blink of an eye. She dropped to her knees as sobs came out of her body at a rapid pace. "I-I can fix this, Zach."

"N-Not this time, I think," Zach whispered, shaking his head. The grayness had reached his elbows now. He drew in a wheezy breath and let it out in a rough cough. Blood mixed with spittle landed on Victoria's knees. "I-I can smell the wyrmwood on you. Y-You don't have the time to stop this."

"I-I saved you once, I can do it a-again!" Victoria insisted, moving her wrist up to bite into it. She needed to get her blood to the surface and fast.

Zach's hand, though already filled with the gray of desiccation, shot out and grabbed Victoria's wrist, stopping her from moving her hand any closer to her mouth. Victoria tried to tug her wrist from Zach's grip, but he was surprisingly strong given the moment. "Z-Zach!"

"My sweet, d-darling baby girl," Zach whispered to her, and she let out a cry of pain. It felt so right. So freaking right to hear him call her baby girl. It wasn't like Mason saying it, like some sort of imposter. Zach felt like the inventor of the nickname, and it felt just right. "Y-You have made me so proud. I-I love you, yeah?"

"Z-Zach, please let m-me do this!"

"Everyone's g-got a time to go," Zach hissed. The desiccation process was getting faster, the edges of it already poking out from the collar of his shirt. "I-I was proud to be your d-dad, Victoria LeBlanc, and I-I was glad to be your friend, V-Victoria Vanacore." Victoria sobbed. The desiccation was now at the base of his neck, moving higher and higher. "See you soon, Ms. Watson."

"N-Not yet, Sherlock Salvatore," Victoria begged, moving forward to wrap her fingers around Zach's neck. She rested her forehead against his and closed her eyes, trying to call up any ounce of her power. Nothing was coming and it made her cry even harder. "I-I love you, so please, d-don't go yet!"

"D-Didn't think I'd get to hear that again," Zach whispered, his words sounding like they were starting to fail. "D-Damon? S-Stefan? L-Lee?"

"Yeah?" all three men asked at once, their voices interlapping with one another.

"T-Take care of her for me, y-yeah?"

And then silence.

No more words.

No more breaths.

Just dead silence.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Zach Salvatore was dead.

He was dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

DEAD.

ZACH WAS DEAD.

NO.

NO.

NO.

NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO.

The darkness.

The darkness that had been overwhelming her soul since the party at the Lockwood Estate.

The sparks at her fingertips.

They wanted to emerge.

They wanted to play.

They wanted to overwhelm her.

Surround her.

Control her.

Did she want to submit?

She couldn't.

NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO.

A loud snap was the last thing she heard before walking up in a meadow by a lake.


"Lee, what the hell?" Damon swore, watching their resident Southern standing over Victoria's dead body, her neck twisted at an odd angle on the ground.

Lee's shoulders were shaking and Damon thought for a moment that the vampire might want to get down on all fours and suck every drop of blood from the Immortalis' body. He twisted around and he staggered off of Victoria before collapsing onto the pavement. His eyes were filled with tears and he was struggling to breathe, but he managed to spit out, "The transition."

"What?" Damon asked, his voice hoarse with emotions that were just on frayed thread from spilling out. "W-What the hell are you t-talking about?"

"Strong negative or positive emotions make the Immortalis transition," Lee croaked. His eyes trailed to Zach's body and he whispered out a, "Shit." He wiped his hands over his eyes and sucked in a sharp breath before continuing, "She's been on the precipice since Noble died. None of you noticed because you don't know what the edges look like. I've seen her predecessor on the negative edge multiple times. Black sparks, the panicked look. She was seconds away from becoming a Negative Immortalis." Lee met Damon's eyes and whispered harshly, "There has only ever been a Positive Immortalis. If she had transitioned, I don't know what would have happened. She could have destroyed all of Mystic Falls in her grief if that was what her powers told her to do."

Lee looked past Damon's shoulder and his gaze hardened. His eyes turned red and his fangs dropped. He pushed himself to his feet and stalked past Damon, at a normal speed, towards Kelly LeBlanc. "You did this to her. You ruined her life because of your fucked up prejudices."

"Stay back, Alexander," Kelly warned. There wasn't a hint of emotion in her eyes from Zach's death.

Death.

His nephew was dead.

The youngest Salvatore.

Dead.

He was dead.

Damon saw red.

"Leave," Damon growled, his voice echoing throughout the empty street.

Kelly's eyes turned from Lee and to Damon. "Excuse me?"

"Go back to your house and if you want to even think about life, you will not leave for the rest of the night," Damon ordered, rising to his feet. He staggered towards Kelly and his hands tightened into fists. "You will never contact your daughter again. She is nothing to you anyways, so it shouldn't be so hard."

"You do not get to take my daughter away from me!" Kelly gasped in shock.

"You gave her away," Damon countered. "Leave. Now. Or I will call an open hunting season on you, Kelly, and your stupid boy-toy too."

Kelly glanced around, trying desperately to find somebody, anybody, who would stand by her.

The vampires that were there looked at her with red eyes, dropped fangs, and pronounced veins under their eyes. They all looked hungry.

The Empath didn't even look at Kelly, her eyes trained to the ground as tears fell down from her face.

No one was on her side.

Not anymore.

Kelly staggered away, leaving between two houses and disappearing into the night.

Damon wanted to collapse, gather Victoria up in his arms, and never wake up.

Never wake up.

Zach wouldn't ever get to wake up.

He wouldn't get to see Victoria go to prom.

He wouldn't get to see her next birthday.

He wouldn't get to see her get married.

He was gone.

There was a click of something, coming directly from behind Damon's head.

He froze.

That sounded suspiciously like the hammer of a gun being pulled back.

A cold cylinder pressed itself up against the back of his head and a way too familiar voice hissed, "I have seen many things in my life, but I have never seen a man go completely gray."

Damon glanced behind his shoulder and looked into the eyes of his younger brother.

Well, his younger brother's twin.

"Because I like you, Damon, you have exactly thirty seconds to explain to me why that man just killed Red," Tom growled, his grip tightening on the gun in his hands so much that his grip was white-knuckled, "and why I shouldn't call the cops on you right this second."


A/N: It's a little rough, but hey, I'm alright with it. I'm having such a struggle writing Season 2. I'm not really proud of any of the chapters (except for when Victoria dreams about Noble. I like those scenes) so it's hard for me to be like, "Awwwww yeah, here we go again!", you know?

Heads up!: I've been meaning to say this for weeeeeeeeeks, but Immortalis has a music playlist! It's up on Spotify, labeled something around the lines of "Immortalis - TVD Fanfic" by BecomingFearless. Give it a little listen if you'd like. It is a PG-13 playlist, so it's not entirely family-friendly. If that's something you guys would be interested in, let me know!


New Followers!: doglesshans, Bimurace, alexiajaugregui18

New Favoriters!: Oliviian, MadameCho, alexiajaugregui18

(I hope this is everyone, my site was acting real weird so I can't tell for sure)


Onto reviews!:

DBZFAN45: I love angst, what can I say? ;p. As for your comment regarding Katherine and Victoria...I can't say that you're necessarily wrong ;p. Oh yeah, Damon is really playing into the Papa Bear "I'm so tired all the freaking time of these ridiculous kids" trope. I know, it wasn't until you mentioned that did I go "Oh...Oh, I totally set it up for that". Don't know if Tom and Katherine will ever hookup, but that would be an interesting plotpoint in my story. We'll see about that one. You're welcome! I don't want to reveal anything, but I will say that she is not in a good mental state this season (as explained by Lee towards the end of this chapter).

BrookeWorm3: I'm excited for her to come into her full power too (and even just half of her power)! Yeah, Tom just kind of showed up. He's a lot like Lee, who showed up many episodes before I was originally planning on bringing him in.

theappleseed: Hey you! Yep, yep. I know.

Child Of Dreams: Probably everyone, but I think the context you are requesting is either Victoria doesn't want Katherine to kill Tom Avery or Caroline.

Charlie0925: Thank you so much! Oh, Elena's reaction will be funny, that's for sure!

Elyse1821: Hey! How was Disney? I think you must have gotten back by now. Did you go to World or Land? There's a reason Katherine is called the Baddest Bitch in Mystic Falls. Oh yeah...but I doubt you'll care what she has to say now XD. Yeah, Tom just blindsided me and just showed up. I totally didn't intend it, but I thought it'd be funny. Yeah, he's really observant. I won't say how it will end, cuz that's spoilers, you know, but I will say that Damon will confess his feelings for Tori in this season. Oh my gosh, you did? I'm both so honored and embarrassed at the same time. Heck yeah you are! Go big with Disney. I've never been, but I'm hoping to visit there in, like, the next few years.

kafo521: You're welcome! I love when people give me lists of questions. It's so much fun to answer them! I hope you enjoyed it!


The next chapter will be out on the 31st, so everyone should be dressed in their Halloween outfits (or if you don't celebrate Halloween, some comfy clothes as least; pajamas will do) when they read it!

Until next time,

Stay healthy and stay safe!

BecomingFearless1F