A/N: Day six and guess what? Still salty. Thank you loves for the tremendous reviews and outpouring of support for this story! XOXO. I think I may have 2-3 chapters left before I'm wrapping this up since some of the subject matter I plan to cover in another ongoing story I'm writing at the moment may segue into this, and certainly don't want to repeat story lines or conversations. But thank you once again for adding to your lists, following, and of course reviewing!

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith/CW Network. No copyright infringement is intended.

Right outside of Mystic Falls

If death was supposed to inflict the most fear, why then was it treated more like an escape from reality? If banishment from life was the quickest way to turn an enemy into an ally, and an ally into an enemy—why wasn't it handled with sacredness?

Was death final or simply the beginning of a new existence? If he thought long and hard about this, everything to some degree or another was immortal. People lived on through their descendants. Even the animals and plants of the world spread their seeds around making photocopies of themselves that continue on throughout the ages.

Doling out death had been his occupation, and something he thoroughly enjoyed, and committed as much as he could. He did it for blood, he did it for love; he did it simply because he wanted to. There wasn't always a philosophical reason to explain his methods. They were messy, created strife, yet saw results.

So far there was only one name on his hit list. Kai.

Damon walked back and forth flicking his eyes every so often at the dank walls of the Salvatore crypt. He hated coming here because it brought up too many unpleasant memories of the past.

He had become a predator thanks to vampire blood and a gunshot wound to the chest. A century and a half later he could still hear the boom of his father's musket. Smell the gunpowder, felt the impact of the round, metal bullet striking him and imbedding into his lung.

Damon had been unsure how long it may have taken him to die on that dirt road, but death hadn't been instant. He been rendered paralyzed and vaguely cognizant of what was happening.

And just as fast as total numbness engulfed him it was rapidly replaced with a foreign substance that was the equivalent of lead. His eyes popped open and he was staring at a blue sky.

A heavy silver ring had been placed on his finger. A silver ring inlaid with a large oval shaped lapis lazuli stone. Having spent time with Katherine and Emily by extension Damon knew what this ring symbolized.

A ring Bonnie tried to strip him of. Tried to get him to end it.

Where did vampires go once they were killed? He had an answer now. Beforehand, Damon had stopped believing in stories about heaven the day his mother died. The only alternative—he had been taught—was hell in which his life became one hilariously pathetic example of it.

He walked the earth unable to fill a void. A void which became a chasm that only grew deeper, darker, deadlier, and messier with time.

"The difference between you and Kai…you feel remorse. There's hope for you."

For the first time it clicked why those he tried to push away refused to give up on him. For the first time Damon felt worth the effort. It was one conversation with a witch who easily peeled back his layers and arrived at a conclusion that didn't pay homage to status quo. At that second Damon knew he didn't have to continue living as if he were damned. He had been granted another dispensation, another chance to make things right; only he wasn't quite sure where to start.

Initially, he had to start with ground zero—himself. Then Stefan. First though, he had to get Bonnie back.

His phone started ringing drawing him out of his reverie. Damon dug it out of his pocket and answered despite not recognizing the number. "Yeah?"

"Damon, I presume," came a female voice the vampire was unfamiliar with.

"Who wants to know?"

"Someone who can help you with a very specific request of yours you made to one of my witches in the French Quarter."

Damon's grip tightened on his phone. "Who is this?"

"How fast can you get to the witch mansion in Mystic Falls?"

"Is that a trick question? If I step one foot inside Mystic Falls that's it for me. So why don't we cut the shit and tell me who you are?"

A sigh tickled Damon's eardrum. "Someone who owes Bonnie a great debt. There's something hanging on the fence right outside of the crypt you're currently standing in. Wear it and get to the witch mansion as fast as you can, Damon. You're going to have to use something you have so little of…faith."

The line was disconnected. Inhaling roughly, Damon strolled outside of the crypt and sure enough there was a pendant necklace of some sort hanging from one of the posts in the wrought iron fence. Damon put the necklace on. The weight of it alone…he could feel something otherworldly beaming from the charm.

Deciding he could reach the witch mansion faster on foot, Damon broke the sound barrier and arrived at the place in record time. However, he was afraid to take one step closer because he was still technically outside of the magic-free bubble surrounding Mystic Falls.

Licking his lips, Damon took that leap of faith and crossed into unsanctioned territory. He waited a moment to see if his skin would start to fry. So far nothing was happening to him.

Taking another step, a jolt went through Damon, and he thought, this was it.

Things were off like an overexposed picture. This place had become barren once the witches decided to move on to greener pastures, but there was a subtle vibration under his feet that Damon had never experienced before in all the times he had come here. He didn't know what it meant. If he should be weary, cautious.

The earth was alive and singing if he had to describe it. No, not singing but chanting. An electrified hum that was more befitting a church ceremony. It made his gums itch and his fangs almost spontaneously burst from their confines. The feeling rolled ashore like mist and disappeared like smoke.

"Hello!" Damon shouted. He didn't see the woman he spoke to on the phone, couldn't even smell her. You idiot this is probably a trap he thought as he took a few steps closer to the house.

There wasn't a pebble of light visible streaming from inside the mansion; and when he augmented his hearing, Damon couldn't even discern a single floorboard creaking.

A cold feeling like he was about to be surprised from the back swept past him. Damon spun around, but nothing was there apart from the empty lot.

The front door of the house blew open causing Damon to leap backward. A black mist spiraled and rolled from the dark depths of the residence, and Damon was ready to bolt for the hills, but he was ensnared around the ankle, pulled and landed with a harsh thud on his back. His teeth split his lip, sliced the inside of his cheek. He tasted blood.

Before he could mutter a single curse he was pulled across the ground, up the steps, the back of his head thudding against each one, and snatched into darkness. The door was slammed shut after his entry.

"Great," he muttered miserably.

B||D

The smell of unscented wax clogged his airways. Humming buzzed in his head, the sound of it driving him mad but keeping him conscious. Damon heard something dripping but that paled to the singeing of his flesh. Manacles drenched in vervain had been shackled to his wrists stretching his arms until he was sure his shoulders would pop out of their sockets. He winced and the coppery scent of blood seemed to be everywhere which made him ravenously hungry but also unfathomably nauseous.

Approaching footsteps caught his ear and Damon lifted his head just in time to see a woman with dark toffee skin, long wavy black hair peppered with gray, slanted dark brown eyes, and an unsmiling face join him in the basement.

Everything about her read witch but Damon had no clue who she was or how she knew Bonnie. In the last three years of knowing Bonnie they practically shared the same acquaintances. So who was this chick?

The woman assessed Damon from head to toe and back again.

He pulled on his restraints. "Is this really necessary?"

"Just a precaution," she answered and waved her hand in the air, releasing the manacles around the vampire's wrists.

Damon's arms dropped and he rubbed the lingering sting of vervain off his skin, gritting his teeth. Glowering, he demanded, "Who are you?"

"Lenore and that's all you need to know."

"What debt do you owe Bonnie?"

Lenore smiled crookedly. "I see you're as bullheaded as my sons."

That reference earned a peculiar look from the vampire. "I took a leap of faith in coming here unsure if I would be lit on fire once crossing into no-vampire land, and I'm entrusting you with something that could end horribly, not only for me but someone I…for someone close to me. So the least you can do is give me some kind of reassurance you're not just yanking my chain to amuse yourself."

The floorboards cracked under Lenore's feet as she drew closer to Damon. "I am, after all, the author of everything that has gone awry," Lenore smiled guilelessly. "You don't know this face. Neither does Bonnie, but you know this name…Esther."

Damon's eyes widened, "As in Mama Original?"

"More or less."

He cleared his throat and decided not to dwell on Esther's new look. Plus, he wasn't a novice in witnessing witches inhabiting the bodies of other witches, and he didn't care. So long as she had the wherewithal to bring Bonnie back, she could wear whatever disguise suited her fancy. However, his trust level plummeted to the ninth circle of hell.

"Right," Damon said. "Like I explained to one of the witches from the Quarter, Bonnie is trapped in 1994 with a coven murdering lunatic…"

Esther-Lenore nodded, "Malachi…killed his brothers and sisters, absorbs powers but only temporarily. Everyone knows about him. And Bonnie is trapped there with him?"

"Yes. What I don't understand is why her Grams would put her in a place where she knows someone crazier than me exists."

"Because of the device. The ascendant. I believe Sheila thought it possible for Bonnie to get to it before Kai did and get herself out. Yet…here you stand."

Judgment hung in the air. Damon's chest expanded, but only to alleviate the ache that twisted his insides that once again he profited from something that had been intended for someone else. For Bonnie.

"Do you believe she's still alive?" Lenore questioned.

"Yes," Damon responded unequivocally. "She sent me a note telling me not to give up hope."

Lenore's…Esther's…dammit Damon didn't know what to call her, but her eyes shrank around the corners. "Bonnie, I could tell from first meeting her that she would be more powerful than any witch to exist because her spirit was so pure. She only wanted to do what was best for her friends, and it ended up costing her. Beautiful spirit, yet not so bright in how, when, but most importantly who to apply her gifts to. Nevertheless, she has youth on her side, she'll learn."

"Is it at all possible for me to go back to 1994 and bring her home?" Damon cut to the heart of the matter. He didn't need a lecture about Bonnie because he knew who she was. Had spent months learning things about her whether he wanted the education or not.

"It may be possible. You should prepare yourself for failure just in case," Lenore suggested.

Shaking his head back and forth, Damon insisted, "That is not an option for me."

Lenore studied him drawing her own conclusions. "Come with me," she crooked two fingers at him.

They emptied out of the old witch mansion where a retinue of witches and warlocks, each of them wearing the same pendant as Damon were waiting.

Lenore expounded, "These are some of the best and most gifted the French Quarter has to offer. We plan to harness traveler magic to open up the doorway between this plane and the one housing Bonnie."

He turned to regard the witch standing on the porch with him, "I thought traveler magic trumped spirit magic?"

"It's a purer source of magic, but if you know the right way to handle it, it'll do your bidding regardless of the origins of the blood that flows through one's veins."

Lenore led to the way to the middle of the front lawn where a large symbol that appeared similar to the Ying-Yang sign had been carved into the earth.

"Stand in the center and hold this," she passed over a vial filled with various herbs, scrapings of precious metals diluted in a water based compound. "You'll need to crush this once you have Bonnie so that the both of you can return. We can keep the spell going for an hour before it starts to drain us, and if the hour is up, and you're not back…"

"We're stuck," Damon finished.

"Unfortunately. Good luck, Damon. Here's where you get to prove if you're worthy of having been chosen to be the Bennett's protector."

Judiciously holding off on commenting, Damon waited for the spell to begin. Torches he hadn't even noticed began igniting one by one as the witches and warlocks held their palms facing out at their sides.

He expected the symbol he was standing on to erupt in flames as well. However, when pale blue light began to shine from it and blasted from his feet to the sky that pretty much cancelled that assumption.

Picturing Bonnie's face, Damon pierced his eyes closed.

The sound of maniacal singing meant the return of the derelict. Bonnie didn't rush off to the foyer right away. She was carefully funneling a deceptively sweet substance into a bottle of maple syrup, twisted the cap back on, and vigorously shook the contents. She expeditiously cleared off the surface of the kitchen island, and smoothed fly away hairs behind her pierced eyes.

Walking through the corridor to the front door, Bonnie opened it and there on the welcome mat was a very pink Kai.

He had changed clothes, and was missing quite a few patches of hair on his scalp. One of his eyebrows had yet to grow back, and there was a nasty burn scar marring the right half of his face. A pick axe might not kill him or any of the other various means he tried to off himself. Fire may have proven to be the most effective at least in slowing down his regenerative ability. Peeling off layers on top of cracked, blistered skin couldn't have been pleasant.

Bonnie suppressed any wave of sympathy for Kai. "Do you have the ascendant?"

"Not going to at least ask how I slept last night?"

"I really don't care how you slept especially if your night wasn't spent in a tremendous amount of pain."

"You know," Kai wagged a finger at her, "I didn't peg you to be a sadist and even I can admit to being wrong. But a sociopath can sniff out another of its kind. Guess I needed to look beyond the tight jeans, short shorts, and braless tops to see that between you and Damon, he's actually the nice one."

"I'm nice enough to hold off in trying to kill you until after the ascendant has been repaired. So show me yours and I'll show you mine."

Kai grinned and then winced at the still healing muscles in his face pulling uncomfortably. "I like the way you think," he unzipped the book bag in his hand and tilted it so Bonnie could peek into its contents and he could peek down her shirt.

"Those are all the pieces?" Bonnie arched an eyebrow.

"Yes."

Snorting, Bonnie mumbled a few words lowering the shield, and then stepped aside.

Kai stretched one leg over the threshold, and when he didn't meet with an invisible wall of resistance his other leg followed. He swept into the boardinghouse.

Bonnie reached behind her, feeling for the cutthroat razor she found in Damon's shaving kit that she stored in her pocket for added protection.

Kai groaned as he lowered his weight to a couch cushion and tucked the back pack protectively next to him. "Ready to get home where you can continue to fall on your sword for your friends?"

Ignoring the obvious dig, Bonnie made a beeline for the kitchen, poured the syrup on a pile of pancakes and returned.

She stretched the food offering out to Kai. "Figured you might be hungry."

"Trying to assuage your guilt?" he greedily snatched the plate away and sliced through all three layers of griddled flour, vanilla extract, milk, eggs, and…poison.

Sitting gingerly across from Kai, Bonnie picked up the grimoire and casually flipped through the sepia pages. Occasionally she flickered her eyes at him as he ate ravenously. Bonnie did her best not to grimace.

"Wouldn't hurt if I had something to wash this down with," Kai talked with his mouthful.

Rolling her eyes, Bonnie retreated back into the kitchen and returned with a glass of water. She sat it down next to his almost empty plate and he wasted no time guzzling it down.

Once his last meal in this godforsaken place was digesting in his belly, Kai belched and grabbed his pack. "Ready to go?"

Bonnie stared at him questionably. "I thought we would repair the ascendant here?"

"Why? So you can trap me in the house? I don't think so. We're headed back to our lover's nest in the woods."

It didn't matter either way to Bonnie. Kai would be dead within an hour if she mixed the contents of that poison correctly. The recipe had been in the grimoire, however to make sure its taste went undetected that had been coded in the newspaper. And hopefully it was a poison that would kill him irrevocably.

Shouldering her own bag, Bonnie took one final look around the boardinghouse living room. In her reality she had spent her fair amount of time within the paneled walls, but actually living in the estate, in its own way had become home.

They drove in the truck Kai had painstakingly learned to hotwire since he didn't trust to ride in Damon's car unsure if Bonnie may have concealed weapons in the interior.

Together they walked down the bumpy path previously taken by her and Damon only this time the trek was made in blistering silence. She thought back to three days ago. How happy and carefree Damon seemed; he was damn near skipping. He had fondled her butt with his walking stick when talking about plans he had for Elena. Other than being annoyed, Bonnie certainly hadn't wanted to be used as an illustration point for what Damon had in mind.

Now that she was thinking about it, she couldn't help but wonder if Damon and Elena's reunion was at all what he had hoped. Bonnie hadn't even allowed herself to think about reuniting with Jeremy. She broke up with him over the phone and then disappeared into an alternate reality with the person she liked the least. Bonnie had always hated telling people goodbye, and assumed it would hurt less if she didn't have to see Jeremy's face while she broke his heart that there had never been any real way for her to survive.

Besides, Bonnie wanted to bring only the good memories of them with her into whatever came next if anything came after the destruction of the Other Side. Seeing the devastation on Jeremy's face undoubtedly would have killed her resolve. Made it that more difficult to go through the end alone, not to feel resentment; or that life was being unfairly cruel to her.

But she hadn't been alone.

She and Kai arrived at the cave opening. The coven slayer shrugged off his jacket, spreading it on the ground like a blanket where he proceeded to dump the pieces of the ascendant on top.

"Milady," he waved a hand for Bonnie to take a seat.

She sighed and lowered her body taking care to keep her distance from Kai.

Silently they began organizing the pieces into an assembly line according to size. This was going to be like trying to put a clock together without a manual.

"So…what exactly do you think you'll be going back to?" Kai asked with a deceptively inquisitive expression on his face. "From your many arguments with Damon you seemed more concerned about getting him home so he could screw some other chick. What was her name? Eliza or something?"

"This doesn't require the use of your mouth in any shape, way, or form. So I suggest you shut it."

Kai snapped his fingers. "I understand what your problem is now. You've got to be sexually frustrated out the wazoo. Trust me, sister I understand and share in your pain. Would you believe me if I said I was a blushing virgin and your sexual tension with Damon made me uncomfortable…yet a little horny?"

Bonnie exhaled loudly and lamented. "You're worse than a sober Justin Beiber!"

"Considering I don't know who that is I will take it as an insult."

"Smart man," the witch mumbled under her breath and tried to fit pieces that looked like they should fit together—together.

Some pieces easily snapped into place whilst others took a little more elbow grease. Thirty minutes into their work, Bonnie's hands turned into pools of sweat. In spite of Kai making disparaging or lewd comments here and there, she could almost put him completely out of her mind and begin to focus on the next step of her strategy.

Their heads had drawn unconsciously closer as they snapped the final pieces of the ascendant into place.

"There," Kai announced. "I think that's it. It's fixed."

"We won't really know that until I try to use it," Bonnie informed, wiping her sweaty palms on her jeans.

She rose to her feet and peered down on Kai.

Confidence came with judicial planning. Knowing your worth, and applying the skills you honed to get the job done. It was about playing the other man against himself, making him believe he was the victor when really all along he was just the pawn.

Bonnie knew she could do this. She was just ready to get it over and done with.

Come hell or high water, she was getting out of this gotdamned prison and she wasn't looking back.

"Ready?" Kai asked and coughed.

"Absolutely," Bonnie telekinetically lifted the ascendant from his possession. "I'll just hold on to that," she tilted her neck to look up at the sky. The moon was moving into place, the eclipse would be happening very shortly.

Kai coughed, drawing Bonnie's attention. He coughed once more and kept coughing. He covered his mouth and when his hacking subsided, he pulled his hand away. It was speckled with blood.

Furious blue eyes scorched in Bonnie's direction who smiled.

"What did you do to me?"

Bonnie sang, "That girl is poison. Never trust a big butt and a smile," she grinned broadly.

"Fucking. Bitch," Kai enunciated and gave chase.

Bonnie turned, prepared to jump down into the cave, but Kai caught her and threw her down the dirt mound. The wind was knocked out of her, the ascendant went flying out of her hand. She quickly made a scramble for it, but Kai was on her back, arm around her throat. Choking her.

Her heart raced as she reached behind her, digging a hand into her pocket and extracting the razor. She sliced his forearm from elbow to wrist.

Kai roared and stumbled away from Bonnie. His face twisted in a malicious mask of fury and he balled his hand—his good hand into a fist ready to throw it. Yet Bonnie moved preternaturally faster, threw her hand out sending him careening sideways into a tree.

Collecting the ascendant and her bag, Bonnie ran back up the mound and sucked in a deep breath. She took the plunge and landed incorrectly on her feet. Her ankle shattered on impact.

Her screams of agony echoed off the cavernous walls, but Bonnie clutched the ascendant and pushed herself to a sitting position. Pain from her ankle shot up and lodged itself at the top of her cranium. Gritting her teeth and stifling screams, Bonnie endured it.

Head pounding, Bonnie mentally lacerated her hand and dribbled her blood on the small round crystal in the center of the mechanism.

This thing better work even with me on my ass, Bonnie groused and said the words she had spoken three days ago.

There was no reaction but a piece of the ascendant did fall off.

"Shit! No! Don't do this," Bonnie wheedled and tried to repair the ascendant with shaky fingers.

No matter how she tried to configure it, the piece wouldn't fit. The hope her ingenious plan filled her with began to bleed out of her in addition to the color in her face.

"Missing something?"

Gasping, Bonnie snapped her head up. Kai stood up right in front her holding something in his hand.

"I figured you'd try to play me some kind of way, Bonnie. That you agreed far too easily to work together and let me out of here. So I needed to come up with my own insurance policy."

He was on her in a nanosecond draining healing power out of the young woman. She screamed, groaned, and tried to twist away. Kai fed on her until the scars from the burns she inflicted were gone, the laceration on his arm sealed shut. To his dismay, he couldn't shake the poison from his system.

He could feel it. Necrosis taking over, but he refused to accept defeat.

When he let Bonnie go, she fell backwards staring up at the shaft of light.

Kai nudged her with his boot. "Get up. You still have your part to do."

A tear rolled from the corner of her eye. She was going to have to kill this asshole. Remove his heart from his chest, set it aflame, then dismember him. Could he come back from that? Could she do that to another human being though Kai was far from human and not have it affect her or give her nightmares? She didn't know, but was willing to take the risk.

"Get up!" Kai grabbed her by the shirt and hoisted Bonnie to her feet.

Her broken ankle made its presence known as pain burned through her nerves. It was like someone pulling on the roots of her hair, while taking a chainsaw to her bones.

None of it mattered. Slowly her eyes closed and opened owlishly.

Kai flicked his gaze between her lips and verdant irises filled with hatred and felt himself harden in his pants. Just as he thought: What the hell? Kiss her, he lowered his head and then air rushed out his mouth in a strangled sob.

Bonnie—poker face, slammed her hand in Kai's chest, breaking through his ribs, fingers worming around his heart.

He grabbed her wrist and chuckled tiredly as black bile poured from his mouth. Everything within him seemed to slow down, crawl at a snail's pace while his heart tried in vain to expand between Bonnie's fingers. He didn't think of home or revenge. Just irony. "Between us…who should the world fear the most in being released?"

A light from over his shoulder distracted her and then before she knew it the sound of a neck snapping filled her ears.

When Kai dropped to her feet his heart was in her hand. Bonnie stared at it puzzled, and then looked at the figure looming in her peripheral.

At first she was staring at a broad chest covered with a black T-shirt and a leather jacket thrown over it. Up her gaze trailed over a bobbing Adam's apple, grizzled chin, petal pink lips, aristocratic nose, and finding their home in the depths of a pair of cerulean orbs.

Bonnie breathed, "Damon," she smiled and almost collapsed out of sheer relief. But then she shook her head. "No, I'm hallucinating. The pain is messing with my brain. You're not real."

"If I wasn't real could I do this?" a hand cupped her face causing her to jerk slightly, but once she felt it caress her skin, Bonnie nuzzled into his touch.

Her eyes were wide open and glittering with unshed tears.

Damon wanted to say something witty but came up with nothing because the way Bonnie was staring at him was how he always wanted someone to look at him. That made the veins in his head pound, and he quickly averted his gaze.

"Let's get you out of here," he suggested.

Bonnie was pretty positive this was all in her head. Being temporarily drained of power, the blinding pain percolating in her skull, ribs, and ankle gave birth to a glorified fantasy.

Her feet cleared the ground and she was swung up into Damon's arms, her eyes on him the whole time.

"Bringing a souvenir with you?" he teased.

Bonnie remembered she was holding Kai's slimy heart. "Yes."

He crushed something in his hand and then…hot light consumed them.

The witch and vampire were moving without seemingly moving. Living a hundred lifetimes in one second.

Nausea dropped kicked her stomach, and Bonnie nearly vomited once the rush of movement subsided.

Something hard was underneath her and it wasn't just a cold slab of concrete. Hesitantly opening her eyes, Bonnie was greeted to the sight of barren dirt strewn walls, candelabras, and a stone bench. The air was musty with decay and earth but the stench was familiar.

Her body relaxed and her grip on Kai's heart loosened. It tumbled to the ground and the sight of it made her stomach roll, but she concentrated and sent it up into flames.

She was jostled and, craning her neck, Bonnie blinked rapidly as Damon stared down at her just as curiously and openly.

A nervous and slightly incredulous laugh fluttered past her lips. Her forehead touched his chest, and then she was crying. Heaving and sobbing in disbelief that she was out. That she was back. That she was free.

Chapter end.

A/N: Bonnie is back, Bamon is reunited. What's going to happen next? Thanks for reading!