Hello again! I decided to post this chapter even though I am not completely satisfied, so I might end up editing in the future. However, I do not have time left to write fanfics these days, and this is just to let you know I am still alive. I will try my best to deliver some chapters for December, but for the moment, please dont be too mad at me.

Thank you to those who keep waiting for this story to continue. This is for you.

32. SOMETIMES THE DREAMERS FINALLY WAKE UP.

Caroline makes it clear she still thinks this is a bad idea, and everything related to Silas can only be bad news. It isn't as if there's no other way to find the travelers or the passengers, but this is the fastest way, and Stefan really wants to be done with these threats and constantly watching their backs for the next trap.

The headache is torture, the same as he remembers. Somewhere he hears Caroline calling for him, but Bonnie's spell must work, since it becomes a distant voice, and then his sight transports him somewhere else

For a moment he is Silas, frozen in stone and incapable to do a thing to free himself as the passengers carry him into the house. Despite the darkness of the night, Stefan recognizes the area. They had been searching around the house before, suspecting a couple of neighbors, but they were innocent and Enzo almost killed one of them for nothing. So he mutters an address, and Bonnie's voice asking him to come back fades away.

Stefan knows he should be done by now, but suddenly he is no longer restricted by Silas' capacity to move. Instead, he is pulled to cross the door and climb to the attic, where the immortal is waiting for him.

"Of course, you think these gypsies stay in one place or will let me stay in one place long enough for you to find me? You are still so naive, my shadow self. Wouldn't it be easier to kill every single human in Mystic Falls that could be a passenger? Then you would find me for sure."

He hears Silas before he sees his silhouette taking form, the immortal's mind is still strong enough that his presence takes over this shared space.

"I am not you, Silas. Killing just for the sake of killing, that is not what I do anymore."

"Do you really think we are not the same?"

Silas laughs and stabs him with a stake that appears out of nowhere.

Stefan!

Caroline is calling for him.

"My shadow self, you are just like me, so you should be going through hell, just like I've been doing all this time."

Stefan, come back to me, please!

He opens his eyes to meet a pair of worried blue eyes, and Silas' poisonous words cannot longer touch him.

They recover Silas and kill two of the passengers that were guarding the house, keeping only one alive for long enough to learn where the real travelers' bodies are. Torture is as effective as ever, and after burying yet another body Stefan wonders when this is going to end. Maybe he was right when he told Silas that they are not the same, and he does not enjoy killing like he did during his ripper days, but he is still killing. He is going to kill the passengers now that they know where they are. Human lives are important, but not as important as his family.

"Come on, there is no time for sulking Stefan," his brother reminds him "we have wannabe witches to burn."

"He is right, we should get going." Caroline says, "Every minute counts, maybe they already realized we found them."

Besides, Elena and Bonnie are reluctant to kill possessed people wearing faces they are familiar with, which leaves just three of them.

The traveler's strength is in the numbers. Once they set fire on the empty bodies, they will clean the town of the vessels. It is going to be hard to explain, but it is better hunting this way rather than killing indiscriminately, or so Stefan reasons when he tries to convince himself.

Silas is in their power, the cure is safe, and after there are no travelers left in town, he is going to hunt every single one of them around the globe, just to make sure.

Twenty hours later, when it is done and they might have compelled half of the town to cover for the sudden disappearances, Stefan closes his eyes and thinks he finally might get a good night's sleep.

"That's just blah blah blah, isn't it, brother?" Damon taunts him. "You won't kill me. We are family, after all."

The worst part is that he is right, because his hold on the gun with wooden bullets is faltering, and he wonders if his brother ended up like this because of him.

After all, Stefan stole his chance of being human, deciding to be selfish for once. He stole that life because he wanted it for himself and Caroline, but Damon knew it all along and even encouraged to do so.

They are family, he is his brother, and theirs is a bond that has been twisted so many times that it is difficult to disentangle the mess of their relationship. Most of the time, Stefan was driven by guilt, reminded of the things he took from Damon when he turned his brother into a vampire (and everything that followed in the century and decades that came after).

These non-humanity periods could be forgiven. They had always forgiven each other in the past, no matter the horrible things they did in that state. When he was a vampire, Stefan could understand.

No, he still understands. But Caroline's voice kept repeating in his ears. 'I am never going to forgive him this time, Stefan. Do you understand?'

Now Damon's hand is in his throat.

"A lesson you should have learned by now, brother. Never hesitate. Remember you are just a weak human now."

Stefan pulls the trigger. Once, twice, three times. Enough to make Damon loosen his hold on him and fall back.

"I know. A weak human, and I could forgive you if you had tried to kill me again. But Damon, you tried to touch my children."

Bring Damon's humanity back? Bonnie insists that is the right thing to do, but the truth is one day this would happen again.

This life that he and Caroline built together is the treasure that no one should ever threaten. Beth and Dante… they cannot be threatened ever again.

"You are willing to go so far? You, Stefan?!" He hates the laugh that comes out of Damon at that moment, and it makes him question if his brother deserves this mercy.

If Caroline and Rebecca get to him first, he'd die a much more painful death.

"This is the last time we go down this road. Goodbye, brother."