This is one goes out to Miss Cuddles.

As always you lot are wonderful and incredible and inspire me so much when I write this.

This is a Bamon-heavy chapter. Not that anyone will be complaining ;)

"You are mine! And we'll see if one tree won't go as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it!" Caroline read in hushed whispers as she sat on the edge of the window sill in Lucy's loft. Closing the copy of Wuthering Heights in her hand she put it back on the pile in the corner of the window and stood to her feet. She was growing weaker, she could feel it. Damon had completely depleted their bagged blood supply, which hadn't fazed Enzo in the slightest but it had irked Caroline. She thought back to when she had first transitioned into a vampire and Bonnie had run for the hills. It had hurt then but Caroline understood it now. Bonnie had tried to do right by her, as Bonnie always did, and Caroline ended up being used as a pawn in Katherine's games. But Bonnie being Bonnie, was struggling with her hate for vampires and her hand in 'killing' her best friend. Something twisted in Caroline's chest as she thought of Bonnie and a hand flew to the point of pain as she frowned, pressing her fingertips into the skin to try and soothe it. This was much worse than when Tyler left, because he'd made a choice, it was worse than her father deciding not to turn, because again it was a choice. Caroline knew Bonnie, Bonnie never made a choice for herself; Bonnie dedicated her life to everyone but herself. Bonnie had never seen herself as someone who had a choice – there were always these insane requests waiting for her, where her life was never a matter of concern and the truth stung Caroline's eyes.

She wasn't surprised Bonnie sent Damon back instead of herself when it came down to it, it angered her, and saddened her sure, but it didn't surprise her. What did surprise Caroline however, the only one who'd managed to get them anywhere near Bonnie …was Damon. After he muttered that part about her being his, Caroline was shocked. All she'd ever heard from either Salvatore was 'Elena this…Elena that…Woe is me and my Katherine history, blah, blah Doppelganger sire-bond bullshit, I hate my brother but I'll always love him yadda-yadda.'

"Here." Lucy called out, walking up to Caroline with a something in her hands, "Your assumedly British lover and I went to procure some blood just now, this should help tide you over until my friend drops off some more blood for you lot." Caroline made a concerted effort to ignore the part about Enzo being her 'assumedly British lover'.

"Thank you so much." Caroline said with a grateful smile as she took the warm mug held out to her, taking a quick sniff before swallowing the contents all at once. With a sheepish expression, much to Lucy's amusement Caroline toyed with the empty mug in her hands.

"Oh, so I was reading through the words you managed to compel out of Liv," Lucy went on, walking to her large wooden desk that was covered in books, pages and diagrams, "For some reason when she's asked about the Gemini Coven she reverts to Slovenian dialect," Lucy shot a quick look of frustration in Caroline's direction before she continued scouring her notes, "I think it was meant as a failsafe in case she was one day stripped of her powers…You said that she said something along the lines of Zest-tra Zivvy?" Lucy asked, sounding it out and Caroline nodded as she stood beside the woman who had some sort of list printed out on a page in her hands. Before Caroline could even make sense of what the hell she was reading Lucy dropped the page. "I think what she said was 'Sestra' and perhaps 'Živi' that's all that makes sense when you cross-reference the pronunciation and the pre-existing words of the language." Caroline didn't even want to think how long it would have taken her to find the language let alone decipher what a compelled spell-bound ex-witch spluttered about a Coven she didn't want anyone knowing about.

"Why do you think it's those two words?" Caroline asked as Lucy put her hand on her hip.

"Well didn't you say Damon mentioned something about this Kai fellow having killed everyone but his sister?" the witch asked. Caroline's stomach fluttered at the memory and she nodded, crossing over her arms. "Well," Lucy went on, "Then I am sure. Because Liv said 'The sister, she lives'."

Bonnie knew why she was having trouble with the fifth element thing. She had to channel how she felt about herself to get her back home and she wasn't someone who'd made a habit of giving herself much thought. And, considering how crucial this specific instance was regarding her utter disregard for herself, it was really coming back to bite her in the ass. In a twisted way she could almost feel her Grams' disappointment, Bonnie had made a habit of putting herself last and now it was the only thing standing in her way from finally putting herself first and getting herself home and back to her friends and her real world. Growling in frustration she didn't even jump or react at all for that matter when Damon came to sit down next to her on the floor in the den. She flipped a page over in her Grimoire with more force than necessary and she could almost feel him smiling at her.

"Yes Damon?" Bonnie asked when the silence pressed on. She looked up and they locked eyes.

"You're running out of time Bonnie." He said simply, his face suddenly very serious and she frowned in response.

"In case you forgot this is an eternal purgatory." She pointed out, huffing and looking back down at her spell book. Damon moved then and shoved the book out of the way. He pulled her face up firmly and held her chin between his fingers, holding fast as she tried to move out of his grip.

"You Bonnie," he clarified, "You're running out of time. This can't be your world much longer, you need to push hard and fast with this spell and come back to me." Bonnie did yank herself out of his grip then, and her face was flushed with a flurry of emotions, the most prevalent being anger.

"See that's another thing you seem to be forgetting," Bonnie said, crossing her arms protectively over her chest, "You don't exist in the real world." Bonnie pointed out.

"I don't?" Damon questioned, still in her space as the eyed each other out testily from where they sat, "If I don't exist here on this plane then you won't exist back home."

"What the hell are you even talking about?" Bonnie spat, she was getting tired of hallucinating him, he only brought more headaches and heart ache at the repetitive remembrance of her letting him go home and staying behind.

"I'm talking about why you never questioning why I'm still here Bonnie, I'm talking about the fifth element and I'm talking about us." Bonnie didn't bother hiding her appalled confusion.

"If you think I don't wonder why you're still here every day then you don't know me at all Damon, or whatever or whoever you are. And I know it's not the real Damon because he would never refer to what is or for the matter what isn't between us as an 'us'." Damon laughed then, a boisterous, condescending sound and Bonnie was met with an expression more suited to the vampire she first met back when she found out she was a witch.

"Don't even go there with me." Damon hissed, getting right in her face as he scowled at her, "You and I both know we are a far cry from sworn enemies, even when we were on Earth. You and I Bonnie…Me, I ca- I love you and I know you love me. You wouldn't have done something like that for someone you can't even tolerate. That ideology is about as plausible as thinking you and Kai stand a snowballs chance in hell as a couple. Bonnie…I need you to hear me and to understand me…we love each other. You need to hone in the fifth element and come back home…come back to me."

"How the hell am I going to do that and how are you still here?" Bonnie asked, lifting herself up so that they were eye to eye, "And don't you dare disappear on me when I need a straight answer from you."

"You need to learn how to love yourself to get yourself back, how to fully put yourself first for once in your life – that's how you get home…as for me…well, I'm here because we both messed up. Something, that I don't even think has ever existed before was borne when you sent me home with that ascension device; the fifth element was alive and well went you sent me away from you…and now that's why I'm here," he said waving around him, "Because I'm in here." He pointed to her heart then and smiled. A dazzling bright smile. He looked over his shoulder and Bonnie felt her heart contract painfully.

"Don't leave." She asked, she'd allowed herself to get used to him, to start to seek out his presence and it was too late to turn away, she couldn't deny any part of the bond between her and Damon now, she was just scared because she found herself relying on it so damn much, "Just five more minutes."

"The fifth element is far more important than seeing my face right now." Damon said, planting a soft kiss to her forehead and tapping her nose after he pulled away. "Come home." And then, just like that he was gone. Bonnie stared at the space that he'd occupied for a few quiet moments before she replenished the wards with a wide sweep of her arms and then went upstairs. As she moved to take the next step in her ascension her eyes fluttered closed of their own volition and she fell down onto the stairwell awkwardly, her body suddenly limp and lifeless.

Damon hadn't woken up since he'd staked his claim on Bonnie and Enzo was growing wary once more but he was doing his best to listen to Lucy and not interfere. Thanks to his keen vampiric senses, he noticed distinctly when Damon's body shuddered and then went impossibly still, like something had switched off somewhere inside as he lay there. Enzo called out for the women in the other room without hesitation, keeping his eye on Damon's haunted form.

Damon and Bonnie didn't know it at first, but they were both in the same space for the first time since they'd been sucked into the alternate universe. They both recognised the bright jade trees of the warmly lit forest that they traversed to get to the cave to use the ascension device. They also didn't know that a link had been formed between the two of them through the fifth element when Bonnie sent him back after Damon had insisted she leave without him. That mutual love and synchronicity of the other elements as well as the ascension device and the solar eclipse had bred an unprecedented bond. And now, with them being apart, they were both slowly losing their minds, one faster than the other plagued by a distinct guilt. Bonnie's small feet made quick work of the path she assumed she was dreaming through. Then, a twig snapped somewhere off in the distance, echoing until the small sound thrummed right into her ear. She spun around but didn't see anyone.

"Damon?" She hoped aloud, her heart picking up its pace. Kai could be anywhere. "Damon, tell me that's you."

"Bonnie?" She heard a disbelieving gasp and turned back to her original direction and saw a silhouette standing far away, barely discernable between the trees even though it was clearly clad in black. The figure began running then, "Bonnie!" he called out and she knew it was him so she leapt into an outright sprint to get to him. A frown marred her features as she felt the wind pick up and begin to tug her petite body back in the direction she came. "Bonnie!" Damon called again, and she could have sworn she saw as his leather jacket was tugged off of him by the wind and promptly forgotten as he kept chasing towards her. She kept pushing as well, as vicious as the unnatural sudden vortex tried to pull them apart. But she had to get to him, she knew that much. She felt it right down into her bones …dammit, right in her soul, that the second she could touch him it would all be okay. So she dug her shoes into the earth and propelled herself forward. The details of Damon's aesthetic became more and more evident and he broke out into a wide smile, even as the wind pulled at his hair and clothes. Damon watched as Bonnie ran towards him, her small body barely moving forward with the impossible wind desperate to keep them from one another. Damon managed a burst of vampire speed and they were metres apart then.

"Damon!" She called, a naked relief threatening to strangle her voice as he got closer to her. Voices began to swirl around them, calling their names, telling them to come back, away from each other but they fell on deaf ears as Damon and Bonnie got in reaching distance of one another. Without thinking twice about it Damon launched himself at Bonnie, catching her body in his strong arms and twisting them around so that they landed on him. As they landed the world around them fell silent and still. Bonnie looked down at Damon as he stared up at her.

"I'm not getting cold." Damon said, his arms tightening around Bonnie's waist as she used a free hand to poke his chest, wondering why he was wearing black again. He was still lying on his back with Bonnie on top of him, neither of them at all opposed to the familiar contact.

"What do you mean you aren't getting cold?" Bonnie wondered with a frown, lifting her eyes up to him.

"When I touch you I get cold, you know this, when I hallucinate you." Damon explained.

"I hallucinate you, Damon." Bonnie said with that you're-an-idiot tone he'd missed so much. They both froze with a sudden tentative yet overwhelming realisation. As they locked eyes something impossibly extraordinary happened. Both Damon and Bonnie watched as one eye they were looking into changed colour. Damon's one eye turned a brilliant emerald hue while one of Bonnie's paled to a bright blue.

"No way." The both muttered in dumfounded awe.

HOLY MOLY LANA WHAT DID YOU DO?!

Hee hee

Stay excellent.