Chapter 35
Damon wakes to the cold sting of metal against his face and drool pooling against his skin. He lifts his head, and a wave of nausea slams into him. He groans against the cool floor when he recognizes the ache of a vervain hangover thrumming along his entire body.
"It's about time you woke up, since this is all your fault."
Damon cracks one eyelid to find future Caroline sitting against the wall of a large bare room. Her blonde hair lays in a tangled mess across her shoulders, and her pale skin gleams with sweat.
"What happened?" Damon whispers around his headache.
"You led us into a trap, that's what happened."
Damon rolls onto his back, breathing deep with his eyes closed. She's right of course. Klaus compelled him, stripped away his free-will, and used him as the bait in a live trap. And it worked perfectly. Damon didn't know what would happen when he called everyone to the boarding house, only that he had to get them there in one spot. He thought Klaus would show up and threaten them all or maybe the twins would whammy them with magic. He never expected swat guys to drop from a helicopter, knock them all out, and kidnap them like an 80s, Schwarzenegger movie. What kind of vampire has his own swat team?
Damon waits for the latest wave of aches and nausea to ease; then he sits up and bites back another groan at the pain. He looks around and spots human Elena and Bonnie laying unconscious on two cots in one corner of the room. He watches Elena's chest move with each breathe and listens to her strong heartbeat before glancing around. The steel room that houses the four of them has a large window and a solid-looking door that peers into an empty hallway.
"Where are we?"
"In a cell, genius."
He bares his teeth at Caroline. "I know that. How do we get out of here?"
She shrugs then grimaces. She leans her head back against the wall and closes her eyes with a sigh. "I don't know, Damon."
He frowns then scoots against the wall opposite from Caroline and next to Elena's cot. He closes his eyes and listens. He spots two heartbeats across the hall in another room, but he can't hear anything beyond the short hallway that ends in a corner.
Great. Either the building is soundproof, or we're underground.
Elena's heartbeat picks up a few seconds before she jumps awake. She lashes out at an invisible enemy with a cry and slips off the bed into Damon's lap. He puts an arm around her and squeezes.
"Hey, hey. Elena, it's okay."
Blinking away the drug induced haze, Elena looks at him and exhales a sigh of relief before hugging him. Surprised, Damon stills before relaxing into her touch.
"Are you okay?" She asks, and he nods.
"Are you?"
"Yeah, those people. They had tranquilizer guns." She rubs a hand over her thigh, still sore from the dart, and then she realizes her precarious position in Damon's embrace. He smirks when her cheeks brighten, and she inches out of his lap onto the floor next to him. Avoiding his gaze, her eyes dart around the room until she spots Caroline propped against the far wall.
"Are you okay?" Elena asks as she rushes to Caroline's side.
"Vervain," she whispers. "A lot of it."
Elena cringes at the pain crippling her friend, knowing there's nothing she can do to help. She glances at Damon to find him watching Bonnie, who thrashes in her cot. Elena jumps to help her.
"Bonnie?"
The teenager moans, rolling away, and covers her face with her arm. "Five more minutes."
"Not this time, witch," Damon says. "Wake up and break us out of here."
Bonnie sits up, rubs her eyes, then blinks at the room. "What?"
"She can't," vampire Elena calls from the cell across the hall. "These cells are designed to hold vampires, witches, and even werewolves. There's no way to break out. Trust me."
Damon stretches to see over the window ledge from his seat on the floor. He spots vampire Elena sitting in a corner of her cell, not quite as pale as Caroline, but seemingly aching from the vervain still in her system. Present Caroline lies on her back on one of the cots with a hand over her eyes.
"How do you know that?" Future Caroline asks then coughs.
Vampire Elena doesn't answer, choosing to stare at the wall instead. Bonnie and Elena stand to look at vampire Elena through the glass. Damon wants to join them, but it's an impossible task until the vervain wears off.
"What is this place? Who were those people?" Elena asks her counterpart.
"Whoever they are, they have money," Bonnie says. "They have their own helicopter."
"They call themselves the Armory," vampire Elena says.
"The Armory?" Future Caroline frowns and rubs a hand on her aching forehead. "I've heard of them. Vivi had trouble with them..."
"My daughter?" Bonnie asks with a smile despite their predicament.
"Yeah, she was leading your coven by then. It was a long time ago, but I remember she complained about the Armory. They were acting like supernatural police or something. They wanted to help people."
Vampire Elena snorts. "Maybe they used to."
"Used to?" Damon asks with a raised eyebrow.
"They don't anymore."
Human Elena frowns. "What does that mean?"
Her older version sighs then stands, using the wall to remain steady. Damon suspects that the vervain isn't affecting her as much as future Caroline. Perhaps she didn't get as high a dose.
"I don't think they started out wanting to police the vampires and witches. I think they grew into it, and then somehow, throughout the next century, their mission was warped," Elena says. "When Vivi dealt with them, they still wanted to help people. That's why they agreed to peace."
"That's right. I remember that." Caroline nods. "We weren't around when Vivi dealt with them. We were traveling or living out of the country or something. I remember the Armory caused the Bennet coven some trouble, but Vivi called a truce. As far as I know, there hasn't been any problem with them since."
"That agreement kept the Armory from interfering with Bennet affairs so long as they stayed out of trouble," Vampire Elena says. "Vivi made sure that agreement extended to the Salvatores. That's why they never bothered you and Stefan."
Damon smirks when Bonnie's eyes widen, and she looks from vampire Elena to future Caroline then human Elena. "Caroline and Stefan?"
Damon watches Elena stiffen and turn her back to him to hide her expression, but she nods to Bonnie. He wonders how Elena feels about knowing her boyfriend is destined to marry one of her best friends. Is Stefan still Elena's boyfriend? Does she still love him even after he tried to rip her throat out?
Of course she does. If she hasn't already, she'll forgive him the moment he returns to her, hat in hand, with his humanity dripping in guilt.
With a grim expression, he watches human Elena squirm under Bonnie's gaze before shrugging. Then she pauses and tilts her head to the side, and Damon spots the thoughtful twist of her mouth.
"You said they didn't bother Stefan and Caroline, but what about you and..." His name catches on her tongue before she takes a deep breath at continues, "Damon. You said there's no way to escape these cells, like you've tried. Like you've been here before."
Vampire Elena meets her human eyes then glances at Damon before biting her lip. She crosses her arms and turns away from the glass to lean her back against it.
Future Caroline growls at her sister-in-law. "Elena, you have to..."
"Damon and I had a run in with them. It was during...it was about ten years ago."
"Let me guess. You were swatted, vervained, and brought to this Hannibal Lecter inspired ward. Let's skip to the useful part, and tell us how you escaped," Damon says as he drags himself to his feet.
Feeling a little stronger, he shuffles forward to stand behind the two humans. He notes Elena's stiff posture, and a small current of excitement races through him when her heart rate spikes at his proximity. She doesn't look at him, but Bonnie glances between them with a disapproving frown that makes Damon sneer at her. He opens his mouth to comment on her judginess, but present Caroline surprises everyone when she sits up from her cot in the other cell. Apparently, she'd been conscious and listening the whole time.
"Wait," she says, looking at vampire Elena. "What were you doing that made them target you?"
"We drew too much attention. I hurt...we did things..." Elena shakes her head then presses her hands into her face. She takes a deep breath then another before finally turning to face them across the hall. "I made bad choices, and I did things that I regret."
"They were running around without their humanity," future Caroline says, and she meets Damon's gaze. "Both of them."
Damon furls his brow in confusion. Both of us? Why would we both flip our switches?
He remembers the last time he turned his humanity off. Losing Enzo devastated him, and leaving his best friend to burn to death was one of the most horrific deeds of his existence. Based on the sympathy in Caroline's eyes, Damon has a feeling that his next trip down the rabbit hole of oblivion is going to be triggered by one hell of a trauma.
A trauma that also affects Elena. He glances at the human in front of him, but she's staring at the vampire in the other cell.
"No," human Elena whispers. She shakes her head and fights the tears flooding her vision. She backs away from the glass, bumping into Damon.
"Hey," he says, rubbing his hands over her arms as she presses her back against his chest. "That's their future, not ours."
Elena calms against him, but doesn't move, and Damon doesn't remove his hands from her.
"He's right," Bonnie says, offering her friend a small smile. "The future isn't set in stone, especially with all the changes inflicted on this timeline. You can make better choices."
Damon doesn't miss the witch's side glance at him, inferring that he's a bad choice that she can avoid. Elena nods her head and wipes her tears but remains planted against the vampire. Damon doesn't mind and gently strokes his fingers across right arm, which dangles at her side. He tells himself that he's only trying to comfort her, but he enjoys the thrill of feeling her shiver against him at his touch.
"I can't imagine you without your humanity, Elena," present Caroline says as she shuffles to her feet. Just like for Damon, the vervain seems to be losing its affect. "Why'd you turn it off?"
Vampire Elena's mouth twists into a snarl as she turns away from all her friends. "It doesn't matter. The Armory didn't tag and bag us because they were the good guys. It was just an excuse."
"It doesn't sound like you and Damon were the good guys either," Bonnie says, and vampire Elena whirls around to glare at her. Upon meeting her stoic green gaze, Elena's anger crumbles. "You're right, as always, Bonnie. But nothing we did compared to what the Armory was doing to people just because they were supernaturals."
Damon sets his jaw, glances around, and then expands his hearing again. He searches for a hint of what their captures intend for the group, but he finds nothing. "Well go on, spill the beans. What were they up to?"
"I'm not sure when, but sometime between their truce with the Bennet coven and capturing me and Damon, they found the Augustine files."
"Did you say, Augustine?" he says in a cold tone. Elena glances over her shoulder to find his face unreadable.
Future Caroline shakes her head. "As in evil scientists and doctors that torture vampires?"
Human Elena spins around with a look of horror at the 200-year-old blonde, who stares at her sister-in-law for confirmation. When vampire Elena nods, future Caroline jerks a hand through the air in front of her, still on the floor.
"No, that's not possible. Damon and Enzo wiped them out centuries ago. All of them, including their families."
Damon jerks toward Caroline, surprising everyone. "What do you know about Enzo?"
She shrugs. "Tall, handsome, British, and permanently banned from Thanksgiving dinners because he's an insensitive douche. What about him?"
"What are you talking about? Enzo's dead."
Caroline's face twists in confusion, but vampire Elena understands.
"Damon," she calls, and he snaps his face to her. "Enzo is alive. He didn't die in that fire."
"That's not possible."
"It is. And it's true. I met him when I had a run in with the Augustine Society during my freshman year at Whitmore."
"There is no society anymore. I made sure of it."
"All that revenge you took and murder you wrought, yet you still missed one scientist," Caroline says as she climbs to her feet and leans against the wall to catch her breath.
"The point is that Enzo is still alive..."
Damon grimaces. "And they still have him."
She nods, and a storm of rage and guilt pummels him. He stumbles backward until his heels touch one of the cots, and he slumps onto his butt. Never in his life has he wanted a bottle of bourbon more. Or a neck to rip open.
"Who's Enzo?" Bonnie asks, and present Caroline nods.
"And what's the Augustine Society?"
Human Elena watches Damon from across the cell. He can tell that she's surprised by his outburst of emotion. It's not every day that he expresses remorse or concern for someone. At least not for anyone other than Elena or Stefan.
Future Caroline shakes her head in disgust. "They were a group of scientists that captured and tortured vampires. They claimed it was for the sake of advancing science and medicine..."
"But that was a lie," Damon says with a snarl. "They just got their rocks off on vivisection. It's quiet the experience having your eyeballs cut from skull over and over again."
Present Caroline gasps, and Damon flashes a grim smile. "And they've had Enzo for over fifty years."
"That's awful," human Elena says.
He can hear the horror in her voice, but Damon refuses to look at her. He doesn't want to see her sympathy or something worse. He stares at her feet as Elena walks toward him until she crouches at his knees to look him in the eye. Her brown eyes peer at him with all the compassion in the world for him. She takes his hand and squeezes it.
"We'll save your friend, Damon. I promise. No one deserves to be tortured. No one." She offers a small, gentle smile. "I saw him in one of the memories. He's free and happy in the future. He's your friend."
Damon fists his hands under Elena's fingers. He struggles against the overwhelming pressure of his guilty and Elena's unending compassion. It's too much. How can he be expected to help keep her safe, save his Lazarus best friend, fight the Armory, and avoid pissing off a thousand-year-old hybrid? All while avoiding his own personal hell-like future. It's just too much. Damon vamp speeds to the locked door and slams his fists into the glass, but they bounce off it without leaving a mark. He spins on vampire Elena with a snarl.
"How do we get out of here?"
"We can't."
"But you escaped once before," Bonnie says. "How did you do it that time?"
"We had help." Vampire Elena throws her arms into the air. "The Armory was going to torture us for the sake of science just like the Augustine Society. Damon and I did everything we could think to escape, but we couldn't make a dent in these cells. The only reason we escaped was because..."
A loud crash echoes from around the corner, and Elena stops to glare at the group of men and women that stroll into the hallway. Damon notes the wash of sound that floods the hall through the open door only to snap to silence when the door closes again.
That's some heavy duty sound proofing.
A petite woman with plump lips and short, dark hair stops in the path between the two cells, and the four soldiers following split into two groups to stand guard at either side of the doors. She jams her hand onto her hip with a military-like stiffness and confidence that tells Damon she's in charge.
A second woman with a clipboard and pen stands back from the windows and on the side lines. Damon almost dismisses the tall, thin woman with dark hair until he notices vampire Elena's expression. The 200-year-old vampire, who faced Katherine without hesitancy or fear, pales at the sight of the young woman with the clipboard. Elena inches away from the glass without taking her eyes from the brunette, who has yet to notice her.
The woman in charge looks to human Elena with an expectant gaze. "My name is Yvette St John, and this is the Armory."
"As in, Enzo St John?" future Caroline asks, and Yvette blinks at her interruption. Damon can tell she didn't expect the comment and planned to say more.
The young woman clears her throat and narrows her eyes at Caroline. "Yes, there was a vampire in my ancestry by that name. In fact, his father founded the Armory. I hadn't realized that you were old enough to have known him before he died, again."
Caroline opened her mouth to explain Enzo's status as a living dead person, but Damon cut her off.
"She isn't."
"I see," Yvette says, eyeing him. "You're Damon Salvatore, and you are old enough to have met him."
"I'm also old enough to rip your throat out along with every one of your little minions if you don't let us walk out of her right now."
"No." Yvette's cold tone matches her eyes as she meets Damon's boiling glare. "You cannot escape this place, therefore you cannot leave until I allow it."
"Why did you attack us and bring us here? We weren't hurting anyone," present Caroline says with a whine. "Mostly."
Yvette looks at her with a hint of sympathy. "I know. That's why I don't want to hurt you. I want you all to go home unharmed. Whether that happens or not, is up to one person."
"Klaus," future Caroline says. "He put you up to this. And he didn't compel you. You obviously have boat loads of vervain at your disposal. He convinced you to help him, but you have to know that he's using you."
"I'd say that we're using each other. At first, I was certain that his claims of time travelers from the future were absurd, but he convinced me. And of course, here you are, Caroline Forbes. Both of you." She motions to human Elena. "Two of them can be explained. They are doppelgängers. But you and Klaus are not. And seeing the portal in person helped. It's pretty intimidating."
"You find out time travel is real, so naturally you agree to help Klaus fulfill his master plan?" Future Caroline scowls. "That doesn't really track."
"I don't know anything about his endeavors. I simply made a deal. My team detains you all, and I get what I want from you."
"Are you going to experiment on us?" present Caroline asks, backing away from the glass.
"No." Yvette tries to hide an amused smile. "We aren't scientists, and I don't care for torture...unless necessary."
"Then skip to good part and tell us what you want," Damon says, crossing his arms over his chest.
Yvette frowns at him. "One of you has visited this facility, or will visit, depending on how you look at it. I want to know which of you can claim the honor."
When no one jumps to answer, Yvette glances between each captive, searching for a sign. Caroline and Damon glare back at her with silent promises of pain and destruction, while human Elena and Bonnie stare at the ground in an effort to hide the truth. Present Caroline tries to meet her gaze, but the young blonde ultimately looks away as well. Vampire Elena, on the other hand, huddles in the corner, staring wide-eyed at the clipboard lady, who watches her with small smirk. Damon's unease doubles when he recognizes her expression as one he's worn countless times just before devouring his latest meal. Yvette may be running the show, but her assistant is the big gun.
Yvette eyes vampire Elena, cowering in her cell, then flicks her gaze to clipboard lady, and Damon spots a hint of confusion and concern before she turns back to Elena. "You've been here before."
Elena doesn't respond, but the clipboard lady looks to Yvette in silence. She jots down something and listens like a good little assistant while her boss continues.
"You opened the vault in your timeline."
Elena's head snaps up to glare at Yvette then the clipboard lady. "No."
"You're lying. I know you opened it. Klaus told me. I want to know how you did it."
"No, I won't help you." She addresses the clipboard lady as through she were the one demanding her help. "You'll never get that door open."
Yvette glances at her assistant again, and Damon wonders at her clear confusion. He looks to future Caroline with a raised eyebrow, but she shakes her head and shrugs. Human Elena steps close to Damon and whispers.
"Who is that?"
"No one good."
Yvette steps closer to press a hand against the glass of vampire Elena's cell. "There's something inside that vault that I need in order to help a lot of people. That's what we do here at the Armory. We track down dangerous, supernatural knowledge and artifacts to lock them away from the public. We stop them from ending up in the hands of malevolent witches and vampires, and even humans, that want to hurt people."
Elena snorts and shakes her head before glancing at her with a chastising expression. "Nothing in that vault will ever help anyone. It will only twist and consume them."
"There is a book, a journal, that belonged to my great-grandfather. He had it with him when he was sealed inside the vault. He tracked down countless artifacts that we need to find. They're dangerous, and they will hurt a lot of people if we don't find them before..."
"There is no book."
"Hundreds of lives could be at stake. We have to get inside..."
"She's lying to you."
Yvette blinks. "What are you talking about? I'm telling you the truth. I'm trying to save the world."
"You can't see it, but you're just a pawn," Elena says to Yvette, then turns back to the clipboard lady. "I will never help you open that door again."
Damon watches the assistant pause in her notes to flash Elena a gleeful smile, and Yvette latches onto Elena's slip up.
"How did you do it the first time?"
Elena shakes her head and stares at one of the empty metal walls of her cell.
Yvette snarls. "Tell me what you know, or I'll make you."
When vampire Elena doesn't respond, Yvette straightens, taking a deep breath, and steps back from the glass to stop next to the cell door. The two guards move aside, and she places her right hand onto a digital lock. Damon watches the console glow green before offering several selections. Yvette presses a finger against an orange symbol, and sprinkler heads pop from the ceiling of the cell. Vervain water sprays down onto the two vampires while they scream. When they fall to the ground, Yvette removes her finger from the interface, and the sprinklers cease spraying and disappear back into the ceiling. Yvette presses another button, and the cell door slides open.
"Grab her."
The two guards jump to obey, snatching Elena by her arms while she struggles on the ground. They drag her from the cell and prop her against the hall wall, pinning her arms against the metal, so she can watch her friends in the far cell stare back her. Yvette closes the open door with a quick jab at the console, and then shuffles to the glass of the opposite cell. Her assistant stands a few feet from Elena, who watches her like a cornered mouse watches a house cat. Yvette clears her throat and waits for the vampire to roll her eyes and attention back to her.
"There's nothing you can do to me that will make me help you," Elena says, and Yvette believes her.
"I understand."
She motions to the second set of guards next to the unbreeched cell door, and then points to human Elena through the glass. "I want the other one too."
Damon and Caroline step between the door and human Elena as Yvette walks to the console outside their cell, but they can do nothing against the vervain water. Bonnie stands firm under the harmless rain and waits for the door to open and the guards to hustle inside; then she lashes at them with her magic like a momma bear protecting her cub. One man slams into the bulletproof glass while the other pulls an electric prod from his belt. He swings the prod at Bonnie and Elena to coral them into the far corner. The witch lifts her arm to magically yank the cot through the air and toward the remaining guard, but he jumps out of the way and jabs Bonnie with the electrified prongs. She screams and hunches against the ground in pain before slipping unconscious.
Without a witch or vampire to protect her, human Elena cannot stop the guards from pulling her from the cell. She tries, but her untrained punches and kicks are easily managed by the men wearing military gear.
"Let go of her," Damon says from the wet, metal floor. He manages to push himself to his knees and reach out as the two guards drag Elena past him, but the guard with prod shocks him in the ribs.
Yvette closes the door behind human Elena then motions toward the guards holding vampire Elena. "Let's go. We have Cell 5 set up for them. Maintain a ten-foot distance. I don't want any accidents."
"You can't do this," vampire Elena says. "She doesn't know anything."
"I told you that I didn't want to hurt any of you. If I had my way, you'd all be on your way home unharmed. But it's not up to me. It's up to you. Tell me what I want to know, and I'll let you all go right now. That's a promise."
Vampire Elena glances at her human version, who watches her with wide eyes. The vampire shuts her eyes and emits a sorrowful wail. When she opens her eyes again, she shakes her head. "I'm so sorry, but I can't."
Damon watches the guards drag the two Elenas down the hall, opposite from the entrance, and around corner. Yvette and her assistant follow in silence. He crawls to the glass and presses his face against it to watch them disappear.
"We have to stop them."
"We have to escape this cell first," Caroline says, crawling to her best friend's side. "Bonnie, wake up. Are you okay?"
Bonnie moans then opens her eyes. She spots Caroline edging toward her and Damon propped against the glass. She opens her mouth to complain about their situation when a calming sensation floods her body. Damon frowns at the relaxed and almost numb expression that settles onto Bonnie's face.
"What is it?" he asks.
She offers a small smile. "Someone's coming."
In Mystic Falls, Stefan knocks on the front door of Caroline's house with a grin. Among other commands, Klaus compelled him to stay within the town borders, and had his humanity been intact, Stefan would've fought against the hybrids control. But in his current state, thanks to Jo's spell, Stefan only feels rage, a slow boiling fury that burns away the deepest parts of him while he hyperfixates on crafting a revenge meant to leave his victims as ash in the wind. With Caroline and Damon out of reach at the Armory, he can't inflict his madness on them directly, but collateral damage can be just as impactful and, in some cases, more painful.
"Sheriff Forbes, please open the door. I'm looking for Caroline. Have you seen her?" His smile broadens as he imagines the sorrow and regret that Caroline will experience upon returning home to find her mother murdered. How should he present her body? Maybe he should leave only pieces behind.
The veins under his eyes darken, and he licks his lips. He decides to leave only her head and a note on where to find the rest of her body, creating a sick little scavenger hunt for Caroline. She deserves it. How could she sit back and let Damon take advantage of Elena? How could she allow them to marry knowing the sire bond would restrict Elena from denying Damon anything he wanted from her? What kind of friend would let this happen?
He knocks harder, and the door shutters under his vampire strength. "I know you're in there, Sheriff. I can hear your heart beat."
"I'm not inviting you in, Stefan. Go away," she hollers from down the hall. "I know you're not yourself right now, but that's no excuse."
"Aren't you worried about Caroline and the others? I can help you find them."
"I'm not stupid. I know you had something to do with what happened at your house. Your neighbors called the police on the low-flying helicopter and the flash bangs. Your friends are good, but they left enough evidence behind that it wasn't too hard to figure out that my daughter and her friends were ambushed and...taken."
Stefan steps back from the door and glances around the porch. "Taken? How do you know they aren't dead?"
He spots a large potted plant next to a bench and picks it up. He waits for a response, but the Sheriff doesn't answer.
"Vampires die every day," he says. "And their bodies are almost always disposed of without grace or dignity. Maybe Caroline is buried in the middle of the woods in a lone, unmarked grave."
"She's not dead. You wouldn't be here if she were. You want to hurt her by hurting me."
"Wow, you really aren't stupid."
"I'm not opening the door, and I'm not inviting you in, so you're just wasting your time," she says in a stern voice. "Go home before anyone gets hurt."
"It's too late for that."
Stefan chunks the potted plant at the wooden door, and it splinters into sharp chunks. Liz screams from the end of the hall as the shattered remains of her pot and door blasts past her. Stefan peeks through a hole in the door that's the size of his head and spots the sheriff scrambling away and into the front bedroom.
"Hello, brother," a familiar voice says from the bottom of the porch, and Stefan spins around.
Damon leans against the railing of the steps with a raised eyebrow. "Care to explain why you're terrorizing Liz?"
"What are you doing here? How did you escape?"
Damon pauses to blink at Stefan's question then shrugs. "What can I say, I have a particular set of skills."
Stefan frowns and hurries down the steps to stand a few inches from Damon. His lip curls as he speaks. "Klaus said the Armory could hold you for decades if needed. I should've guessed that he was full of it."
Damon stiffens, and his breath catches. But Stefan doesn't notice; instead he glances around the front yard, scans the empty street, and checks over his shoulder. "Where's Caroline and Elena? I know you wouldn't leave them behind."
When Stefan's gaze returns to Damon, he steps backward in surprise at the heat in Damon's glare. "The Armory took Elena and Caroline? And you helped them? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Me? You're the one who betrayed me!" Stefan snarls, and Damon stares at him like he's lost his mind.
Stefan opens his mouth to continue his rant, proclaiming his victimhood and justification for vengeance, but stops when he finally notices Damon's beard. It's a short stubby beard that takes two to three weeks to grow, and it's certainly not the result of one night. Since Stefan clearly remembers a clean-shaven Damon torturing him at the Lockwood estate yesterday, the beard shouldn't exist. And yet...there it clung to his brother's set jaw.
"That's a bit more than a five o'clock shadow, Damon. When did you have time to grow that? Your hair's shorter too."
Damon scratches his scruffy chin and grins. "I guess I am a bit out of style for this decade."
"It's you. You ruined everything." Stefan lunges, but Damon is much faster.
After the younger Salvatore crumbles to the ground with a broken neck, Damon stares at his 'dead' body. That certainly wasn't a sane or emotionally stable version of his brother.
Someone's been playing with their humanity switch. It's definitely too soon for Stefan's bad guy phase. Damon shakes his head and steps onto the porch. What have you girls done to this timeline?
"Liz?" Damon calls and tugs the broken door open. A thunderous bang answers him, and ten tiny, metal balls rip into his abdomen. He crashes through the wooden railing and lands on his back in the mulched flowerbed. Crying out from the shock and pain, he struggles to breath. He grabs at his chest, at first, to ensure that his heart is still intact and then to determine if his lungs where obliterated by buckshot. They finally kick in and draw a wet, bloody breath about the same time Liz peeks through the remains of her door.
"Oh my God, Damon. I thought you were Stefan." She drops her shotgun and rushes to his side. He watches her eyes scan his wounds, trying to decide where to start first aid. She reaches for his stomach, but he snatches her hands.
"Jacket."
She shakes her head, fighting to stay on the useful side of panic. "What? You're not wearing a jacket. You're in shock. You're wound is bad. I need to..."
"I need a...jacket... Find me one."
Liz bites her lip, wondering if she should listen to the seriously injured man on in her yard. Not man, vampire. If the vampire says a jacket will help to heal his eviscerated stomach from a shotgun, who is she to argue? She jumps up and hustles to track down a jacket for him, making a beeline for a couple of storage boxes in her garage labeled 'Bill's crap'.
Damon squirms and groans under the pain of his healing body while he waits for her return. He closes his eyes in relief when the skin over his stomach smooths out, and the pool of blood around him stops growing.
"I found one," Liz says as she rushes back to the porch, only to pause mid-stride when Damon sits up. He hacks and coughs until one of the tiny, metal balls pops out of his mouth and onto his hand. He rolls it into his finger and brands it up between them like a trophy.
"Here you go," he says, slipping the ball into her hand. "For the future, wooden pellets work better on vampires."
"I'm sorry. I really thought you were Stefan. Speaking of which, where..." She spots Stefan's body on the ground and mouths a silent 'oh'.
"Don't worry about it. It's not the first time you've shot me. In fact, if it weren't for the excruciating pain, I'd be down right nostalgic."
"I've never..." Sheriff Forbes shakes her head once then stops when it clicks. "You're not Damon."
"Of course I am, Liz." He climbs to his feet and snatches the jacket from her, slipping it over his bloodied clothes. When he zips the thick work jacket over his clothes, he checks for any visible blood stains. Satisfied, he nods and strolls into Liz's house, while she follows after him.
"What are you doing here? You should go help Caroline and Elena and...you."
"That's the plan, but we need a favor first."
"Fine. Whatever you need, you got it. As long as you promise to get Caroline home safe, both of them."
Passing through the kitchen, Damon snickers. "I'm more concerned with what she'll do when she gets home."
"What do you mean?"
Damon stops at the back door and flashes a smirk over his shoulder. "There's someone you should meet."
He opens the door to reveal Stefan waiting on the back steps with an eight-year-old boy.
"Hi, Grandma!"