Two hundred miles off the Nova Scotia mainland was where Silas and the cure were buried. In no time at all a plane had been booked and her friends had been called. Gear was quickly compiled, blood bags stocked and ready. It was astounding how quick they were able to act and get here.
When they stepped off the plane, it was as if things had become real. This was it. This was where they were to be to keep the place safe, to stop Finn, and for Elena to carry out her last fateful moments to live.
They camped in the woods. Elena, Elijah, Bonnie, Jeremy, Rebekah, Stefan and even Damon had come along to safekeep what was buried here. It had taken them days to walk and find it. Boobytraps were all over the place and sometimes what sounded like hushed voices were in the air.
It was only helpful and a bit of comfort to know that two Original vampires were with them.
As their night settled and a fire was made, Elena went looking around. Something felt off. Something felt strange. It was as if the hairs on her skin were standing up, telling her something was frightful in the night.
"Are you alright?" Elijah asked coming up behind her. He watched her jump at his voice. She seemed spooked.
"I don't know," she answered him glancing around. She couldn't place her finger on it, but something felt funny to her. Maybe it was just being on the island for days now. Between Damon and Elijah who were constantly glaring at one another and the mission they were sent on, it was getting to be quite stressful.
Elijah wrapped his arms around her trying to shield her from the cold night with his warmth. "Rebekah is taking watch. Everything should be fine."
She tried to put her body at ease, but she felt as if something lurked around. Using her vampire hearing, she found nothing besides the sounds of nature.
"Please try to get along with Damon," Elena requested, turning around in his arms. "I know he isn't easy, but the both of you constantly glaring at one another is making this harder on everyone."
"And-" Elena said cutting him off begore he could begin his words, "before you say anything, I've already talked to Damon and asked him to do the same thing."
Elijah pursed his lips in unhappiness. "Did he agree?"
"He said he'd try and that's all I ask," she said turning back around to face the night.
Before anyone knew it, Jeremy and Bonnie had gone missing. No one thought anything of it at first, until they realized it had been hours since anyone had last seen them.
"Where could he be?" Elena asked fretfully as the group decided to split up. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest while her breathing shallow. Her best friend and her brother were missing. This island was full of boobytraps and they still had over a day of camping to do to get to Silas's burial ground.
"I'm sure he's okay, Elena," Stefan said putting a hand on her arm for comfort. Rebekah went circling around the campsite twice for good measure hoping to pick up on a trail, while Elijah took a phone call.
"It'll be okay. It'll work out," Stefan said once more, trying to reassure her. Even he wasn't convinced of that though.
Cell reception was horrible on the island. Elijah could barely hear what Kol had to say.
"You have to watch out," Kol repeated. Elijah covered a hand over his ear to try and understand his brother through the cellular static. "Some guy wants to try and raise Silas. You cannot let that happen, Elijah."
"Who? Who is this man?" Elijah wondered, searching for a better area to hear Kol. He was constantly cutting in and out.
"I don't know. Some human. Some professor. Just be careful."
The line went dead before either one could say more. Elijah's jaw clenched. His brother's warning told them they weren't alone on this island, and he feared what that meant.
Walking carefully back to the group, Elijah held Elena close.
"We aren't alone," he told them all. "Kol said there is some professor looking to raise Silas."
"Do you think it has something to do with Finn?" Elena wondered.
Elijah wished he had the answer. "I don't know. But we must be careful."
They split up in small groups – Elena and Elijah, Stefan and Rebekah, and Damon on his own. They each went their separate ways, searching for clues and answers to their mysteries.
"Elena!" Elijah yelled, running over with speed to stop a spiked branch from hitting her in the stomach. Elena jumped back and sighed with relief. He just saved her life.
"are you alright?" he asked with worry, disassembling the trap and checking her over.
"Yeah," she breathed. "I'm fine. Thank you."
Kissing her forehead, he took in a deep breath. The sooner they found this Silas and Jeremy and the cure the better. The woods were not safe.
It was Damon who ran into another on the island. Galen Vaughn was his name. A vampire hunter. He tortured Damon for information of who he was and what he was doing here. Vaughn realized he was now up against a clock, racing to find the cure and shove it down Silas's throat before his friends or this Finn guy could get it.
"Come on," Damon whined as Vaughn dragged him around with vervain ropes. Vaughn tugged the rope, making Damon growl. "Do that again and I'll-"
"You'll what?" Vaughn asked. "threaten me?"
Damon huffed. "Fine. Well, tell me what you want with Bonnie and Jeremy?"
"Who?" Vaughn asked.
"Come on. The witch and the hunter? What did you do with them?"
"I didn't do anything," Vaughn said, tugging on the rope for Damon to follow him.
Giving a groan as his skin burned, Damon held his place. "We are on a remote island. There's you, me, and a bunch of unpleasant creatures out there. You expect me to believe that someone else took my friends?"
"I'm telling you, Vaughn said venomously, "It wasn't me."
Vaughn pulled Damon along, pushing him from behind to walk faster. Stopping as they both saw a dead body, the two peered over it.
"Was that you?" Damon asked, looking at some stranger with his neck torn open.
"No. You?" Vaughn wondered.
"No," Damon said cautiously. There was someone else now, maybe that professor that he had been warned about. Whoever it was they were out for blood.
"I reckon there really is someone else on this island," Vaughn said glancing around.
Great, Damon thought. Just great.
This crazed professor was out of his mind. Somehow, he knew where Silas was buried and somehow, he knew Bonnie was a witch. He wanted to raise Silas from the dead.
"It's just amazing, isn't it?" Professor Shane asked the two kids as they looked around a large open cave.
Bonnie and Jeremy nervously wondered what was to happen next as the professor went darting around as if he were looking for something. If this man succeeded in raising Silas, Silas might kill them all.
"This is it. This is the spot," The professor said, knees to the floor wiping the dirt on the ground. "A geometric spot. A perfect circle."
"So…what now?" Jeremy wondered glancing to Bonnie.
"Now she opens it," Shane said staring to Bonnie.
The ground began to shake under Elena and Elijah's feet.
"Something's happening," Elena said, holding onto Elijah for stability.
After a few rumbles and almost colliding with a falling tree, the pair went venturing on.
"What was that?" Rebekah asked as she felt the ground shift underneath her.
Stefan stared at the forest floor. "I have no idea. Come on," he said taking Rebekah's hand and leading the way.
It was by pure coincidence that they had all made their way to one another. Vaughn had led Damon to the entrance of the cave, and got sidetracked on the fact that people had already beaten him there. It was the perfect opportunity to deal with the hunter, if only Damon was strong enough.
While Rebekah had tried to come to the rescue to save Damon, Vaughn was clever. He stuck a wooden spiked bomb to her chest and set off, leaving Rebekah dead on the floor and then slingshot tied Damon to a beam. It had given the hunter an opportunity to take a line down to the tunnel to Silas before Stefan could reach any of them.
"Damon!" Stefan called to his brother. Damon was tied by the neck to a wooden post. Laced with vervain, it stung Stefan's fingers as he tried to pull it off of him.
Footsteps echoed through the cave and Elena and Elijah appeared in view. "Rebekah!" Elena called, rushing over to her friend who was passed out on the ground. The pair looked no worse for wear.
Once Elena knew Rebekah was safe, she went over to Damon, attempting to also pull him free from the vervain laced strings.
"You're wasting time," Damon croaked to her and Stefan. Wincing as Elena gave a tug to the ties, he pushed her away. "Just protect the cure. Go." The sear of the vervain against his neck made him hiss. Vaughn was already down there and someone else. The cure was not safe and neither was Silas.
Elena glanced back to Rebekah and Elijah. She was still unconscious and Elijah was still busy pulling the wooden spikes out from her abdomen and back.
"We're not going to leave you," Elena said distressed. Damon was in pain and hurt. They needed to get him off the vervain ropes.
"No, we aren't," Stefan said. "You need to go ahead," he told Elena. "We'll be right behind you."
Elena looked to the Salvatore brothers and then to Elijah. He too was hesitant on the idea, but he couldn't just leave Rebekah.
Strapping herself to a line, Elena looked at them all before making her way down to the cave.
"Where do we go from here?" Jeremy wondered, glancing around the cave with his flashlight. After Bonnie opened the tomb to where Silas laid, rocks collapsed all around them. It had trapped Professor Shane and broken his leg, crippling him so that he was unable to walk. He pleaded for the teens to help him, but with certainty they left the mad scientist where he was – far away from Silas. Going further inside the tomb, Jeremy didn't know where he was going. The map didn't give them directions for in here. They were on their own in finding the immortal creature.
They stopped to try to figure out the way. A fork in the cave was making them pick to go straight or left. "Grams?" Bonnie asked in the darkness. It was her Grams. She was here.
"Bonnie," Grams said, walking over to her.
Jeremy looked to where Bonnie was gazing, even turning the flashlight to the scene. There was nothing but air. "Bonnie?"
"I'm so sorry Grams," Bonnie spoke with tears filling her eyes.
"Bonnie, it's a trick. I don't think it's real," Jeremy spoke, but Bonnie wasn't listening.
"We can be together again Bonnie. Silas has the power to drop the veil if we raise him. All you have to do is reach him and feed him, and everything will go back to the way it was," Grams said with love and enthusiasm.
Bonnie began walking with Grams' guidance and Jeremy quickly ran to grab her. Moving in front of his friend, he held onto her and tried to shake her from the spell. "Hey, you're not seeing your Grams. If she were here, I'd be able to see her, and I can't. It's not her ghost. There must be something else."
Jeremy glanced around. What had they gotten themselves into? "Silas." It had to be him. He was trying to control Bonnie to help him rise.
Stefan finally got Damon free as Elijah waited on Rebekah. He had pulled most of the wooden shards from her body.
"Go, I'll be fine," Damon groaned, his legs giving out as he tried to stand. He slid down the beam.
"No, Damon, come on. You can't quit on me now."
"Get your ass down the well and help Elena protect that thing," Damon commanded. He had already failed Elena once in pushing her away. He couldn't let it happen again by not sending backup.
Stefan sighed. Moving to do as his brother commanded, Stefan jumped and ran to catch up.
Jeremy heard echoes of voices in the distance. He decided to leave Bonnie to try and figure out what was going on.
And that's when he saw it.
Elena. Elena with Finn.
But something was different. Narrowing his eyes, he carefully watched her mannerisms.
Katharine.
It was difficult to tell the difference between the two – almost nearly impossible, but Jeremy knew. He could pick out his sister anywhere. Watching as Katharine pretended to be Elena, she talked carefully with Finn. It would have gone well; Jeremy would have stayed in the shadows and been hidden if it hadn't been for a small rock. It had fallen from the spot on the wall where he placed his hand, and immediately it gave away his hiding place. Before he knew it, Katharine had him in her arms.
She took him without a thought, running him over to Silas and fed him to the immortal beast. Silas needed to feed and how perfect it was that little human Jeremy Gilbert had shown. Taking a large bloody bite from his neck, she held him down for Silas to feed.
Jeremy screamed in agony as Silas drained him. He watched helplessly as Katharine took the tiny box which held the cure from Silas's tomb. The only good thing was Finn beginning to slip deeper in his delusional state.
Finn caught Katharine before she could flee, taking a large bite from her neck like she had with Jeremy, but it wasn't to maim, it was to feed. Katharine sank to her knees as Finn held her by the neck. Her last hope was the wooden stakes she held up her sleeves. Stabbing Finn in the upper calf and then the chest, Katharine fought with Finn, only to come out on the losing side with a broken neck and stake to the heart.
Finn fled the scene after that. His eyes looked more clear and his head no longer filled with paranoia. Grabbing the cure off the ground, he tucked it in his jacket pocket and disappeared from sight.
The agony was soon over for Jeremy. Trying to rip himself from the clutches of Silas, he fought to his last breath as Silas then broke his neck.
It wasn't clear on what had happened. When Elena got to the scene Silas was grunting, attempting to rise from the chains that held him. Jeremy was lying on the ground, and she was dead? What?
"Jeremy!" she called out rushing to his aid. He was flat on his back, pale and cold. "Oh god, oh no, oh god," she spoke, bringing him into her arms and cupping his head. His body was limp.
Glancing over to her look alike, she found Katharine on the floor, stake to the heart.
Elena's attention went back to Jeremy. She checked for a pulse, she checked the rest of his body and then with a sigh of relief she found he was wearing his ring.
"It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. You're going to be okay. The ring will bring you back," she chanted as Silas groaned and wriggled against his chains in the background. "It's okay. You're gonna be okay," she told her brother.
And that is how the rest of the group found her.
Elena was clutching Jeremy in her arms, rocking him and keeping her hands around his head to shelter him from the evil beside them.
"Elijah," Rebekah breathed, taking in the horrendous sight. From Jeremy Gilbert to a rising Silas. It had all gone wrong.
There were no words Elijah could speak in that moment. His eyes couldn't pry from Elena's dead brother, laying in her lap. Any air he had in his lungs was gone, replaced with nothingness.
Jeremy Gilbert was dead.
"No," Damon whispered, holding onto Stefan with disbelief. Silas was rising and Elena was a wreck.
"It's okay. It's okay. You're gonna be okay," she told Jeremy. "You're going to be okay Jeremy. You're gonna be fine," she sobbed.
Elijah and Rebekah went carefully over to Elena and Jeremy to get them away from Silas's proximity. The chains were the only thing holding that immortal being from escaping and Elena was dangerously close to the creature.
"How did this happen?!" Damon asked looking to Stefan. It had all become a mess. Bonnie was still gone. Jeremy was now dead. And Silas was half risen.
"From what I can tell, Katharine must have fed Jeremy to Silas. I have no idea how Katharine ended up dead and the cure gone. Finn maybe? …I don't know Damon. Katharine must have been following us this whole time. Or maybe she was working with Finn and double crossed him," Stefan answered. He could only guess on what went down. There were too many unknowns and so many possibilities.
"What are we going to do about Silas?" Damon wondered.
Now that he was fed, he was trying to rise, how were they going to put him back to sleep? Especially when they couldn't find Bonnie.
Stefan was at a loss for words, but he kept his sole focus on Elena. "Damon, Elena is waiting over there for the ring to bring Jeremy back to life," he said glancing over to the scene. Rebekah was hovered over Elijah, who was kneeling next to Elena. Elena was still holding onto Jeremy, not letting go. The two Originials had known what this meant.
Not seeing a problem with this, Damon went to go be with her as well. "No wait, Damon," Stefan said stopping him. "Jeremy was one of the five…. a hunter."
He waited for recognition to hit his brother's face.
"He's supernatural," Damon answered. "The ring won't work anymore."
Jeremy Gilbert was dead. He was really dead.
"It gets worse," Stefan spoke. "Elena's quest is over. We've reached Silas and the cure has been taken. The deal with the witches is now complete."
It was time for Elena to die or transition.
"We need to find Bonnie," Damon said determinedly. Elena wouldn't want to live without her brother, no matter how much she loved Elijah. He didn't give a damn about the cure. He needed Elena to live. "I'll go look for her. You get Elena off this island."
