Chapter #5 – Our Element Magic, Our Brother Bond Power

Damon opened his eyes slowly, he felt like he had been hit by a train. He groaned, he felt something hold his arm down. It wasn't something, it was a hand, it was Stefan's hand. Stefan was sitting in a chair right next to the bed. Stefan was ok, Stefan is alive, I did it, were the thoughts that raced through Damon's mind. "Hello, Brother" came out of Damon's mouth. Stefan opened his eyes, "Hello, Brother, I've missed you."

Damon sat up and noticed he wasn't alone in bed, Elena was laying next to him. He turned to Stefan. Stefan smiled, "Well, my brother, you can't seem to get a handle on these protection spells." Damon looked completely confused, Stefan laughed, "You didn't have much faith in Bonnie's protection. Once the force field was broken, you cast a cloaking spell. No one could see you or Elena, except for me. We figured that out because of our magic, I can see you and your spells. Bonnie can't find you with a locator spell. When I was revived, I was able to see you. Bonnie thinks it is because of our brother's connection to magic. I see Elena clearly when I'm touching you, not just an outline if I'm on my own.

"Are you ok? Is she ok? What's going on? How long have I been out?" Damon asks. Stefan answers the questions in order, "I'm doing much better. Bonnie did a healing spell and I got a few antibiotics from the doctor. I'm not 100%, but I'm on the mend. Elena is ok, as far as we know, I think you can figure that out better than anyone else. Do you feel anything coming from her? Caroline can't get a read on her, you've cloaked her well, even when I put Caroline's hand on Elena, Care can't read her thoughts either. Finally, you've been out for 2 days. So, you want to explain to me, how you are a witch now?"

Damon gets out of bed and walks to the other side. He touches Elena's cheek, feels her love, and smiles. She is ok, she is alive.

Bonnie walks into the room, "How's he doing, any change?"

Damon says, "Bon Bon, I'm still here to irritate you for the rest of your life!"

"She can't see you, Cloak Master." Stefan says with a smile.

Damon "Oh yeah, I guess I'm going to have to do something about that." He concentrates and says "ἀλέκω" (an ancient Greek word that translations protect) the wind blows. Damon appears instantly out of thin air and Bonnie runs into his arm, "Don't scare me like that again, Jerk!" Damon hugs her back with a smile, "You look no worse for wear, seriously, that was a big spell, are you ok?" Damon looked down at her. He noticed her eyes were glossy, her cheeks weren't their normal rosy color, and he could see a faint outline of dried blood around her nostril. He knew she had been pushing the limits of her magical batteries, something Bonnie Bennett would never admit to and always did for her loved ones. She was pushing those limits trying to uncloak him, wake him up, save him, or undo the magic he did. He tightened his hold on her, his human heart didn't love her more than his vampire one did, his human heart did appreciate more the risk she took each time she pushed those limits. Somehow, learning that she and he were destined to be warriors fighting side by side in a battle against the same enemy just made sense, it was right, after everything they had been through, it was where they should have always been on the same side battling together, never against each other. Someday soon he would tell her about their destiny over a bourbon, she would laugh and tease him about how he should be glad he never actually killed her as he threatened so many times as a vampire. She so loved to throw that at him any chance she got, it always made him smile. He leaned his head down and kissed the top of her head, "You, Bonnie Bennet, are one amazing human being, I will never understand what I did to earn your friendship. I will do everything in my power to protect it for the rest of my existence, I promise." She looked up at him, "I missed you too." He loosens his hold on her and turned his attention to Elena. He straighten the sheet around her, he realized it was not necessary, she didn't feel cold or hot in her magical coma state, he couldn't help himself. His instinct was to protect her at all times for all reasons, he smirks, whether she agrees or not. Bonnie asks, "Is she ok?" Damon caresses Elena's cheek once again, "Not as good as she is going to be once we wake her up."

Everyone is gathered in the kitchen, Stefan looks around, Bonnie and Damon are sitting at the table eating the pasta he made. He smiles as his thoughts flowed back to Elena's house, when his vampire life was surrounded by humans, Bonnie, Caroline, Matt, Jeremy, and Jenna all the gatherings were in the kitchen with food, humans communicated, thought better, planned better, bonded better with food. He remembered standing in Elena's kitchen cooking for everyone thinking these very thoughts. Then, after Caroline and Elena turned, and Damon joined the cause, when the vampires outnumbered the humans, all the gathering happened in the great hall of the boarding house in front of the blazing fireplace with a glass of blood or bourbon. The tables had turned again, the humans outnumbered the vampires, Caroline was the odd vamp out, Stefan smiled at his wife, she being the most well-adjusted vampire in history. Damon was busy talking about everything that had happened in the dream world with Demetrius, bringing everyone up to speed. Matt was confused about how Damon and Stefan didn't know they were witches before they turned back in 1864. Damon started to retell the story as told to him by Demetrius, when he appears, Damon stops in mid-sentence, "Good morning, Grandpa, thanks for not being around, we could have used your insight during the last couple of days." Demetrius answered back, "You exhausted your magic, without the brother bond - Stefan's magic, you have nothing to draw on. You have been weakened and unable to summon me. Awakening Stefan's magic is an utmost priority." Damon nods in agreement "Agreed, how do we get Stef in the game." Stefan looked around and was confused, "Game, what game? Who are you talking to?"

Damon puts his hand on Stefan's shoulder and Stefan is startled as Demetrius appears out of thin air. Damon smirked, "Look who decided to drop in for coffee. So, you were saying. How do we awaken his magic? Can't he just use his own Doppelganger blood? That is what juiced me." Demetrius shook his head, "As a doppelganger, he was drawn to the magic, remember your magic is not blood magic. The immortality cure was purified by both doppelgangers' blood that is what awakened your magic, not the blood itself. Only by channeling your earthly elements together through your talisman and taking your place as high priest at your temple, only then will you be able to invoke Stefan's magic." Stefan questions, "What is our talisman and where is our temple?" Demetrius smiles and points to his hand, "My son, you've been wearing your talismans for 145 years, rings with lapis lazuli. As far as your temple, it is where you and Damon build it." The entire Scooby gang was looking at Stefan and Damon talking to the air in the middle of the room, with complete silence. Bonnie knew it was real for them, even if no one else could see this ancestor Demetrius, they could, they were communicating and learning information that she needed to know to help. Bonnie got everyone's attention with a very loud and well-placed, 'sshh'd' so she could hear the one-sided conversation.

Damon and Stefan look at each other 'build it'. Demetrius tells the story of when he and Silas built their temple. The brotherly bond to each other and magic create the connection to the place where your temple will be built. The site chooses you together, it will be your place of energizing, rituals, contemplation, and where your magic will be its strongest.

Damon and Stefan are overwhelmed with all the information they heard from Demetrius. Caroline speaks up and sits next to Stefan, "I heard you talking in here, it was very much a one-sided conversation. I did not understand any of it. I have one question. What are we going to do about Stefan?" Looking directly into Stefan's eyes "Are you going to die soon or not?" Damon answers "No, I will fix this. My brother does not die today or anytime soon." Stefan smiles at how 'as a matter a fact the tone Damon's tone was, Stefan agrees, "As Damon said Not today, or any time soon, my wife." Caroline shows no fear, "Good, because you, my husband owe me a honeymoon, I plan on collecting. I'm going to start planning it now." Caroline looks at Damon with big loving eyes "You fix this, brother-in-law, I'm the one that can break you now." Caroline stands up, leans down, and kisses Stefan with a passion that leaves him longing for more. She releases his lips, "That is how the honeymoon gets started, just in case you are wondering." She flashed him a grin, followed up with bedroom eyes that could ignite an iceberg, as she got up to leave. Stefan leans back in his chair to appreciate the view as she walks away.

Bonnie and Matt laugh "Caroline has the upper hand now." Damon smirks with a grin, "I'm not scared of Barbie vamp, she's all fang no bite." Bonnie still wanted more information, "What do this temple and elements mean to you two? It's been very hard to follow a one-sided conversation. Can you help fill in the other side now?" Damon knowing Bonnie won't stop until she knows everything, "Ok, temple and elements. We know what our elements are." Stefan's eyebrows go up in surprise, "We do?" Damon shrugs his shoulders with an oops that tells Stefan, he doesn't have the punchline yet, "Sorry, I do. My elements are Earth/dirt/rock and wind/sky/sun, yours are water/cold and fire/heat. And our daylight rings are the talisman. Do you still have yours?" Damon looks down at his, he hasn't taken it off, it has been part of his hand for almost 200 years. He knows he doesn't need it, it feels unnatural without it.

Stefan talks knowing that his vampire wife's ears are still listening, "It's upstairs, Caroline, can you get me, my daylight ring. She knows where it is better than I do. She has our room organized regularly. She thinks I'm a packrat." Damon laughs, "Stefan, you are a packrat." Caroline vamp speeds into the kitchen with his ring in hand, "Here you go. Does this help? I want to help with anything. I am feeling a bit useless." Caroline looks at Bonnie and Matt, everyone seems to be in the same boat. Stefan pulls the chair out, "Honey, we aren't sure exactly what we are doing, so have a seat, maybe you might hear something and have an idea." Damon agrees, "Everyone, any thoughts will help." Stefan puts on his daylight ring, "I have to admit, I feel more…" Stefan pauses as he searched for the right word, "comforted with this back on, a bit more myself if that makes sense." Damon looks at his ring, "They are our talisman, according to Demetrius. I haven't been ready to take mine off. I attempted a few times, just to put it back on." Damon stands up, goes to the kitchen drawer, and pulls out a folded-up paper map. "Can't believe we still have one of these around" He unfolds it and lays it across the table, "Demetrius said we need a temple, from what he described, it needs to be a place that is hidden from plain sight, yet an area that we can channel our elements. So less populated, but easy to get to." Caroline leans into Stefan's shoulder, "You can't just build it here on the boarding house property." Bonnie looks around, "I don't think it matters where they built it, they have to be able to magically connect to it." Matt chimes in, "You two have been walking around the boarding house for days, have you 'connected' to any specific part of the house or grounds here?"

Stefan and Damon look at each other, shake their heads 'no', Damon taps the table with his hands, "I'm thinking of a brother bonding road trip around Mystic Falls and a burger. I'm getting hungry. This human body hasn't had enough human food. How about your human body, brother?" Stefan nods eagerly, "As long as I don't have to exert too much energy, I'm still pretty beat up from the burn and infection. I could sit in a car and a restaurant." Damon glances at Stefan with a look of concern, " Agreed, you need to conserve your strength. I'll meet you in the Camaro. I am going to check on Elena. I just want to make sure she is ok. She is out of the coffin and in the open. I feel like she is vulnerable. I'm just concerned." Stefan stands, "I understand, the sooner we get me in this magical game, the sooner we can figure out how to wake her up. Brother, we can bring her back to us all. From what Demetrius said, it sounds like our magic is older than Gemini magic, and the older the stronger, right!" Damon looked into Stefan's eyes and for the first time in almost 5 years, Damon had true hope in his heart.

With the brother's gone, Bonnie starts talking, "This magic that is supposed to be older than the Originals. Damon said something interesting, Qetsiyah was blood magic, Silas and Demetrius had Nature's magic or control over the element's magic. That is old magic. Ric, maybe the Armory has something on that, it would have to pre-date the Sirens and Cade. We should see if we can find something. I'm of Qetsiyah's bloodline, I might be able to summon something if it exists at the armory." Ric's mind starts thinking, "It might work, Dorian has been cataloging a new cave that we found last week. With some very interesting finds that seemed very random, maybe they aren't as random as we first thought." Matt gets up off the chair, "I'm going to do some patrolling, we need to know what is happening in this town, I have my cell, keep me posted." Caroline leans on the table with her arms crossed on the table, "I will keep the fort fires burning. You do realize, I'm the only vampire, I'm sidelined. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm the one with strength, hearing, and speed. I'm here at the house, staying put." She looks up and all the eyes are on her, everyone then turns away to continue their conversations or tasks in motion. Caroline continues her conversation with a room that isn't listening to her, "Ok, then, the girls and I will make dinner for everyone tonight. Hopefully, people can be back here at 7 for food."

Damon stood at the doorway of this bedroom, the dark-stained pine door frame he had entered and exited hundreds of times over the decades. This bedroom had been his room for so long, it had also been their room, his thoughts went back and forth between the official and unofficial times it was their room. During all those times, the look of the room never really changed, sure Elena had put some of her clothes in the dresser with him and shared a bit of the closet. As he looked around, Damon realized that he, they had never really made it theirs, once she woke up, he was going to make some real changes. He walked towards Elena, and stopped in the middle of the bedroom, he turned around in a full circle, it was all Damon, not one remnant of Elena's life in this room existed. This isn't what he wanted her to wake up to, he wanted her to see her life was ready for her. He needed to change that right now, he thought. He went into the closet, into the back, there was a leather-bound attaché hiding behind the armoire. He had put it there before he and Ric headed to Europe when having Elena's personal things around was too hard for him. He brought the attaché out to the bed, and sat next to her, "Hi, baby, I'm so sorry, I wasn't trying to forget you. You already know how I am. It just hurt so damn much, not having you next to me. I wanted to keep it together. To be the Damon you want me to be. I didn't think, or I thought wrong, either way, I put your things away." He opened the case, the smell went straight to his heart, it smelled like her, her perfume, she didn't wear much or often, just a dab on her wrists for special occasions. Her jewelry box, he opened it, he spotted her daylight ring that Jo made her, a few pieces that were Gilbert family heirlooms. Immediately, he wished that he had given her more, he made a mental note, that she deserved beautiful pieces, pearls for her birthstone, diamonds, and sapphires, he would buy her more just because she should have them. Damon took everything out of the attaché and put each item where it belonged. The jewelry box went into the built-in closet drawer with his jewelry items. All of her perfumes and lotions went on the sink top next to his shaving items, he organized them with a his/her look. He placed her hairbrush and comb in the same container as his comb stood. He turned to her side of the bed stand, placing her favorite book and her strawberry lip balm just the way it was when she would go to sleep each night. The final touch was the photo of them she kept on her bed stand in her dorm room at Whitmore. As he ran his finger over the framed glass, he spoke softly, "This is to keep you company while Stef and I are gone." He put the photo under her arm, and smoothed the sheet, making sure she was tucked in as if there was a possibility of her rolling off the bed. He looked around, he felt better, it wasn't perfect, it was less him and more them. When she woke up, they would make the room 'theirs', together, he made a silent promise to her. He leaned over her and softly kissed her lips with a promise. "I'll be back in a little bit."

Damon pulled the Camaro into the carport to pick up Stefan. As Stefan got into the car, "Caroline is not too happy about us going on a road trip. She doesn't want me out of the house. Apparently, my temperature has not been normal for long enough." Damon declares "She is your wife, I'm not touching that one with a 10-foot pole. I know the day will come when Elena is on my case about something, you are not going to have my back at all, brother." Stefan looked at his brother and laughed, "You are very right and any grief that lady gives you, we both know you will have earned it, most likely double." Damon smiles, "Can't argue with that."

Damon pulls into the parking lot of a roadside diner along route 20, he noticed that it had been spruced up since the last time he had been there, "Must be new ownership, new paint, new windows, and new décor, whoever did it and did a good job. I'm ready to eat." The brothers get out of the car and walk into the diner, the server is a fair-skinned mid 50's gentleman in dark pants with a white apron, "Boys, just grab a table anywhere you like, the specials are on the board above the register." Written in neon colors were southern dishes that you would expect to find Brunswick stew, Country Ham, Biscuits & gravy. Stefan stares at the board, "I've been human for over a month, to be honest, things have been so crazy, I haven't stopped and enjoyed a real meal, it's been mostly hospital food and crappy cop approved donuts." reminded Damon of their hide n seek adventure. Damon frowned "No reminders needed bro. I haven't been human that long. I could use a good meal. Lily used to make a pretty good biscuit and gravy as I recall. And no Stefan, I don't want to talk about her. I'm just stating a fact for the sake of conversation." Stefan conceded, "Ok, I will not prod, I don't remember her cooking. I remember Emily's cooking. She was a wonderful cook. After turning, her cooking is what inspired me to learn." Damon's tone was reflective, "Hmm, you never told me that. I learned to cook because of Bonnie in our 1994 Prison hell. God that woman is an awful cook. I swear, she would have died without me cooking for her. She caught the kitchen on fire three times trying to make coffee." Stefan smiled, "Caroline is pretty good in the kitchen. I only have one complaint. There is this soup." Together with his brother, "Fix you up all Better Soup!" Damon shook his head with a shiver through his shoulders, "That stuff is awful, even with vampire taste buds that stuff was bad. Did she make it for you with the burns?" Stefan nods, "She tried, Bonnie told her that the salt would react with the ingredients of the potion I had to drink. I owe Bonnie another big one." Damon smiles, "That is going to be a tough one to pay back". The server stands at the table, "Ok, boys what can I get you." Damon answered immediately, "I'd like a Steak rare with sweet potato pie and green beans, please, I'm going to ask, without much hope, but being as we are Virginian gentlemen, if there is bourbon, I'd love a bourbon neat. Double." Damon nods his head with respect. The server smiles, "Young man, I can see your Pa raised you with the right manners, I'll see what we might have in the back, it may not be the best for nightcap sipping, but it will get you through the meal. And you, my young sir." Looking at Stefan "I'll have the same, minus the bourbon, I would appreciate a sweet tea with mint, and thank you." Damon looks at Stefan confused, "Sweet tea?" Stefan smirks, "I'm pretty sure a 17-year-old isn't going to get a Bourbon neat from this guy. But an amazing brother may drop some of his bourbon into his brother's empty tea glass." Damon winks.

An hour and a half later, the brothers walk out of the diner, Stefan opens the passenger door, "That was not a bad meal for a side of the road diner. What route are we on? We may have to file this away for off the main road stops when I'm a dirty old man and want to take my young sexy wife out for a date?" Damon closes the door, "Thinking about that already?" Stefan shrugs his shoulders, "Not really, it crossed my mind once or twice. I know it will come up, for now. I'm not going to think or concern ourselves with it" Damon adds, "When Bonnie first brought the cure back, I thought about it, a lot. Not about having an older wife, but me being without Elena, the after part. That is what made me think about becoming human again. I can't see a life without her. I don't want a life without her. The past 3 years have convinced me that I am right. Not having her in my daily life has been hell for me. I'm holding it together, because of you, Bonnie, Ric, and Care, even the twins help. I know at some point Elena is coming back to me, I have hope. If I didn't have that, I wouldn't make it, I would have put a stake through my heart a long time ago." Stefan wanted to change the topic quickly, going down that rabbit hole wouldn't help them at all, "Damon, we have more hope than ever, now. We just have to build a temple. By the way, what exactly is a temple? I keep picturing the Parthenon or the Acropolis in Greece. Is that what we are looking for? The reason why I asked if Tessa or Qetsiyah talked about her and Silas' wedding temple as a very different looking place? It was very beautiful, hundreds of blooming plants surrounded dozens of water features, it was much more of a garden setting than the temples you just described." Damon thought back to the dream where he first met Demetrius "I'm guessing the look and the feel of this temple is based on how we can channel our elements the best." Damon was silent for a moment. Stefan watches his brother, "Your thinking heavily about something, what is it?" Damon knowing his thoughts weren't as organized as they should be, "I was just thinking about all the magical stuff we know. How Bonnie needs blood or celestial events, and other supernatural beings to take power from. Every witch we have ever known needs special power for super spells. If what Demetrius says is true, we won't need any of that, it will always be with us, from the earth and us as brothers. It just seems impossible, almost too simple. Something inside of me says it's right. There is a spark, a light. I have no idea how to describe it. I'm driving, I'm turning the steering wheel like I know where I'm going, but I don't. I have no idea at all. I just know at the next mile marker I'm going to turn right." Stefan questions, "Magic locator spell?" Damon answers, "I think more like a magic beacon taking us home."

The brother continued to talk about magic and temples. The car found itself on a dirt road, Stefan looked up and said "Home". Damon stopped the car in front of the decayed ruins of the house they were born in. Out the front of the Camaro window, they see overgrown trees and hedges where perfectly manicured grounds once where, the circular drive that was daily swept and freed from anything but snowy white river rocks as demanded by Giuseppe Salvatore, was now nothing but dark brown earth covered with bushes and dead overgrowth. Stefan turned his head around to see the brick columns that once defined the archway entrance to the Salvatore Plantation, they were now just small mounds of crumbled red rocks. Damon points to a tree in the far left corner, "Look at Ole Thomas, he is still standing, you learned to climb trees on him, also broke your arm falling from him when you were 6. I got lashes for letting you climb by yourself. Thanks for not telling me by the way." Damon smiled. Stefan puts his hand on Damon's shoulder, after everything they had been through, a few lashes wasn't worried about at all, he was just giving him a brotherly hard time, a little bro banter, Stefan cherished this part of their relationship, he missed it too, from the ole Plantation days, "Any time bro". They get out of the car, as their feet touched the earth an unfamiliar sensation flowed through their bodies, and each looked at the other, Damon said "Did you feel that?" Stefan nods his head yes, "What do you think it is, witch spirits, ghosts from the past?" Damon touched his brother's shoulder and a physical spark flew between them, a magical current connected their bodies. Stefan reached out his hand and a single flame ignited on the end of his index finger. Damon immediately removed his hand from Stefan's shoulder and the flame extinguished. Stefan was surprised and excited, "How the hell did I do that?" Damon answered, "I'm guessing you channeled your element of fire. I have no idea how you did it. I'm also guessing we found out where we are building this temple of ours. Does it bother you that we are right back to where everything started or ended depending on the way you look at it?" Stefan's eyes met his brother's with an eerie look, each of their thoughts went to a dark place without restraint.

They walked around their previous home. The ruins of the home make so many memories from so long ago seem like yesterday. So many of the topics that were off-limits for so long, were now just normal parts of the conversation. The brothers no longer had anger or resentment in their hearts. They reminisced about life as children, old hiding places, life with their father, life without their mother, Katherine, and finally Emily. Damon blurts out, "I wonder why Emily chose Lapis for our daylight rings?" Stefan stopped in his tracks, and turned to look at Damon, "what put that thought into your mind?"

Jumping over what used to be the main cooking fireplace in the kitchen of the main house, Damon stopped and picked up a mangled iron hook for hanging a cast iron pot over the fire. He examined it, remembering how the cook would put the pot out to stir the stews and sneak him a taste before pushing the pot over the fire again.

"It's something that Demetrius told me about Katherine and what fate was bringing into our lives. Emily was from Qetsiyah's bloodline, we are brothers of Silas's blood. Nature's magic pulling the two bloodlines together to finish what was started, the bonding of the two magic lines, Blood & Nature magic." Damon paused. "Emily was coming for us, she was the one that brought Katherine. I remember Katherine saying that she was so happy that she listened to Emily's suggestion about coming to Mystic Falls. I was just thinking how different life would have been if Emily was the one that would have influenced us, not Katherine. I was a protector back then, I would have protected Emily, I would have figured out a way of releasing her from Katherine."

Stefan shrugged, "Maybe you're right, I was thinking, you were always my protector before Katherine entered our lives. Our entire childhood, you protected me from Giuseppe, not once did he put his hand on me. Yet, he tortured you regularly. You made sure I was protected. With Elena, whether I wanted to admit it or not at the time, you could and did protect her better than I could. It somehow connects that as a witch or warlock.. magical being.. you would gain strength and have influence over the earth and sky." Stefan paused " I can't count how many times you have told me that I have lived my life pursuing one extreme or the other. As a ripper or on the bunny diet, I never could find peace in the middle area, I could never put into words how "just being" was almost torture for me. Fire & Water, is the core of who I have been both as a human and as a vampire."

They were 20 yards behind the main house, between the old water well and where the stable had been. A few dead trees had fallen down, new trees had grown, and some of the quarry rock had shifted to make a natural formation that was covered in peat moss. Stefan stopped "Damon, I'm feeling a bit… odd is the only word I can think of" Damon "I wouldn't exactly call it odd" He reached for the rock formation, raising his hand, and the mound grew straight out of the ground. The brothers looked at each other, and at once they knew, without question, that they had found the exact spot that they had been searching for. Damon spoke first "It feels like my bones are alive, there is an energy that I can feel coming out of the ground, the earth, into my feet, and through my body." Stefan only nodded his head in agreement. Damon reached down, he lifted some of the earth into his fingers, and let it filter through to the ground, he could feel the energy, a power surge through his veins. He looked to the sky and suddenly a strong breeze swirled around them bringing pine needles and leaves around them as if creating a wall. Stefan looked around and said, "Are you doing this?" Damon looked at his brother and nodded, "I feel the earth, I feel the air, I know what it looks like, what it needs to move, grow, change, as if it is part of me, or I am part of it." Damon stood up and looked down, he let all the energy drain, and the wind followed, it calmed as well. Damon found an inner peace he had never known. He looked at his brother and smiled, a single tear slid down his cheek. He put his hand on Stefan's shoulder "Brother, we are truly Home."

Stefan asks "Do you think my powers will be as strong here?" Damon responds "No time like the present to find out." He squeezes Stefan's shoulder, "Close your eyes, your elements are fire and water, open your mind, let them find you. Don't stop the heat or the cold, whatever comes to you, know that you are part of it, it will make you whole."

Stefan feels the strength of his brother's grasp on his shoulder, he drops his hand to the ground. Stefan focuses on what Damon said lets his elements find him, he clears his mind and opens it to the possibilities of water. He can't stop himself from the memories of him and Damon as children playing in the streams on this very property, the fun they had, Damon teaching him to swim. Stefan became aware of the wet, he opened his eyes and saw water everywhere. He and Damon were standing in a puddle of water.

Stefan turned around and looked at Damon. Damon's smug, "I told you so" glare said it all. Stefan had accessed his water element. Damon said "Well, If I had known I was going to take a bath today, I wouldn't have taken a shower this morning. Ok, Stef, easy on the waterworks, we don't want to drown the first time out the gate."

Stefan lifted his hand off the ground and the water quickly receded into the earth, just like the magic that brought it up. Stefan felt the power, he felt the connection to the water, just like Damon had said, was it part of him, or was he part of the water. It started to make sense, the way that he felt when he was channeling the water, how he could, what happened when he did, Stefan put his hand back on the ground. As if instinct, so did Damon.

Just in front of them, a solid piece of granite slowly started piercing through the earth, forming itself into a beautiful rock formation with a flowing, cascading waterfall coming from the top.

The brothers looked at each other, extremely pleased. Damon was the first to say, "Not bad at all, dare I say we might have missed our calling as Landscape Architects." Stefan burst out laughing.

For the rest of the day, the brothers work together to create what Damon has deemed the "magical man cave". As the sun is setting, each brother stands in the middle of their element altars, they look at each other, quite proud of what was accomplished.

After the moments tick by Stefan turns, and his hand follows the length of his altar. He stops and picks up a sharp rock and pricks the tip of his finger. Holding his finger high in front of his face, just watching the few drops of blood fall to the ground as the simple cut starts to ease and close on its own. Damon knows his brother well enough to see the concerns fighting to come out of his head in the form of words. Damon waits, he waits until Stefan is ready to tell the stories that are forming in his mind. He is thankful that it doesn't take long.

Stefan puts his finger in his mouth and sucks the blood, it tastes completely different now. He wonders if his blood as a witch will be different than his human blood. He shakes his head as a reminder that really isn't what he needs to think about. He looks over at Damon who is just watching him, "What?" Damon answers, "I'm not the one who is busting at the seams." Stefan rolls his eyes, "I'm not busting any seams, I'm just wondering. Ok, maybe I have some concerns. Damon, seriously, I'm dying, right now, I'm dying. I'd like to protect the few days I have left." Damon laughs out loud, "God, Stefan, you are always so dramatic. Every damn day of your life. Drama… Drama… Drama. No wonder you were a ripper." The only thing Stefan wanted to do was sucker punch Damon in the jaw, the vampire side of him told him 'GO for it', but the human side of him warned of broken hands. He settled for honesty, "Do you think this is going to work? No cure, no chance of being a vampire again, if something goes wrong, this dead is for good." Damon smiled, "Nothing is going to go wrong. We got this." Stefan didn't share his optimism, but he did appreciate it. There was another topic that had Stefan concerned, "Can we do this? Be honorable witches, be examples, leaders, High Priests? I'm scared to put all this hope into us being the poster witches for pure nature's magic. We were vampires for 150 years, Damon, our redemption isn't even close to being earned. The evil that we have caused, the pain, the suffering that we have rained on this world, and just like that the good & evil switch is flipped. How can we trust this isn't some big master evil plan that we are playing right into? Where are the consequences?" Stefan paused, he was waiting for Damon to interrupt with some sort of wisecrack, when he didn't he continued, "So far, Damon, it has been all good, we are together, we are brother bonding, we are happy, we are working together as a team, and I've never felt closer to you, I'm happy. If this is an Eternity of Misery, we are doing it wrong."

Damon responds, "I can't tell you I haven't thought those same things, because I have. I also know that we have fought our way through and won against some of the biggest evils this and the underworld have to offer. I figure, if this is a big evil plot, if we are locked and loaded with magic, we have a weapon to fight with, we can give as good as we get before we die. It isn't like we haven't been willing to die for each other before, I know I'm willing to do it again." Stefan nods his head and says "Agreed"