Continuation of Beautiful Darkness is here, everyone! Sorry it took so long to update, it was really hard finishing this chapter because I started writing this story before Kai was introduced. :-)
Disclaimer: I don't own tvd, it belongs to Julie Plec and L.J Smith, I am using their characters for my own story. No copyright infringement is intended.
No matter what anyone said, revenge really did give you a purpose. It wasn't a pointless waste of energy.
If we didn't have revenge, why would we want to live? The words have slowly changed over the past five hundred years, reminiscent of something she once believed in, but no longer thought she was capable of.
All this, Katherine regarded, as she studied Damon up and down and she elegantly rose from the chair she had been sitting on.
Damon blinked at her, and shuffled backwards a little. "You're dead."
"And judging from the circumstances, so are you." She smirked, coiling her fingers together in front of her. "Do tell how that came to pass."
"Travellers. I killed them by blowing them up. Let's just say it didn't end well for me in the process." He sneered. Katherine glanced behind him at Silas, waiting for her signal. It had been a silent agreement that she would have her way with him before they attacked him. "But anyway," Damon continued. "If you've been here this entire time, then I assume that you're behind the creepy going-ons that have been happening to Bonnie and me. What's wrong? Got a little bored not being able to terrorise people?"
"Actually, I...had a little company of my own to torment." Katherine added slyly, watching Damon's eyes narrow in confusion, and Silas quirk a smile at her. "And let's just say I haven't been in this world for as long as you think." She smiled.
"He's done." She muttered to Silas, and stepped away, as Silas gleefully smashed the chair leg into Damon's back before he could even react, jerking it upwards and grazing his heart. Damon slumped to the ground, choking and unmoving, eyes wide at Katherine in shock, the only person he could look at from his paralyzing position.
"Hey, Damon, remember me?" Silas hissed.
"Urgh, you're all buddy buddy with Silas now, are you?" Damon managed to groan out. "Last I checked, you two hated each other."
"And last I checked," Silas twisted the chair leg in deeper, causing another yell of pain. "You and Bonnie hated each other. Guess death really helps you find your true friends, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, but it doesn't change the fact that you're both raging psychopaths." Came Damon's choked reply.
Katherine stamped her heel through his hand in response.
"Aah!"
"And you, Damon," she smiled sweetly. "Always had that compulsive, obsessive streak in you. Wanted me for a hundred and fifty years, though deep down, you knew I could never really love you, and you think we're crazy."
Silas grinned. "At least we know when to let something go, Damon."
Damon groaned, rising to his knees. "I'm gonna rip your head off." He growled at them, turning towards Silas.
"No." Silas said. "You're not." And he smashed the bottles on the shelf with the chair leg, spraying Damon with glass and liqour, the liquid burning his skin. With another howl of agony, Damon slumped to the floor again.
We weren't sure which bottle you'd take, so we vervained them all." Silas raised his hand to stab Damon again, when a cold voice interrupted him.
"Stay away from him."
Katherine and Silas turned around at the sound of Bonnie's voice, a delighted grin on his face, and a wicked smirk on hers.
"Aah! The useless one is here. Thank God. We've watched you try to do magic for weeks now. What are you gonna do, fail at us? It's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for you." Katherine remarked snidely.
"What are you two doing here?" Bonnie deflected Katherine's statement, looking at them in complete shock. "Didn't you get blown away to...Hell?"
"Oh, trust me, we went to hell all right. A smothering darkness with creatures of the night that voice your worst nightmares." Katherine said darkly. "But we got out, we survived, to make you pay. But seriously, did you really think that you'd gotten rid of us for good? God, you're stupid."
"How could you have even gotten out? It's-it's not possible..." Bonnie stared at them, watching the sharp wooden object in Silas' hand with a wary eye.
"Well, I don't want to bore you with the details, but what can I say? Revenge really gives you something to think about, and in the end, not even hell could stand in our way." Silas smirked, stepping towards her with a malicious glint in his eye.
"Not from making you pay."
The candle on the side flared to life. Silas' eyes flickered to it, and it went out again.
Bonnie stepped back, alarm in her eyes. "Run!" She yelled to Damon, who used their distraction as an advantage and sped off.
"Urgh, for God's sake." Katherine muttered, as flames soared up all around them, licking at them in a wicked circle. It was pathetic compared to what she had faced-what they had faced together.
With a flick of her hand, the flames roared up impressively, lighting up the bottles of bourbon in explosive fireworks of shattered glass. Just to let Bonnie know who was in control.
She fought back, oh, she fought, but they overpowered her two to one, sending her to her knees, Silas pointing the jagged end of his chair leg against her neck.
"Don't worry, Bon-bon." He smirked. "We'll be generous and make it quick."
He raised the stick, preparing to jab it into her neck, when Damon zoomed back into view, knocking Silas off his feet and throwing him across the floor. Katherine smiled; they'd played right into their hands.
With an indignant growl, Damon curled up into a ball as a double aneurysm hit him full-force, rolling off of Silas, who stood up promptly and with a twist of his hand, snapped Damon's neck, rendering Bonnie defenceless and Damon with a serious ego bruise.
"Now," Silas turned to Bonnie, the arrogant smirk Katherine had come to love back on his face.
"How about we get that ascendant?"
~X~
And, just typically, of course Bonnie and Damon don't have the ascendent. Of course, Bonnie doesn't know how to master her magic properly.
And of course they have a crazy loon tied to an armchair in front of the fireplace.
"Ohh! Goody, new people." He smiled dopily, and Katherine got the distinct impression that he didn't really know what he was looking at.
"Ignore him." Bonnie rolled her eyes.
"So I'm assuming that you know these people-how?" The man continued, glancing at her and Silas.
Silas smiled. "Oh, I'm Silas, this is Katherine, and I look exactly like Damon's brother, and Kitty-Kat here used to date Damon and conveniently looks exactly like the love of his life and Bon-Bon's best friend all because I cheated on my witch girlfriend and wanted to live forever."
"Oh, and we have a grudge against Bonnie because she let us get sucked into Oblivion." Katherine added, elbowing Silas and smiling sweetly at the witch, who was just departing the room.
"Kai." The man nodded, looking amused. "So that's what Stefan and Elena look like. I was wondering-"
"Fascinating, really, but just answer the damn questions, you guys. How are we going to get out of this Twilight Zone if we don't even have an ascendent-thingy?" Damon interrupted, sitting down on the couch opposite Kai.
"I got a question for you, first. Why do you think we're stuck on a repeating loop of May tenth, 1994?" Kai suddenly asked. "Doomed to relive a solar eclipse forever and ever, and ever."
"How the hell should I know?" Damon asked, taking a sip of bourbon.
"Well, I overheard you tell Bonnie this place was your own personal hell. I'm kinda curious why." Kai said, something malicious lurking in his smile, reminiscent of her own, the vampire she had been so long ago. Katherine wasn't exactly sure whether she liked Kai or not. And that scared her. There was something strange about him, something that said if you trusted him too much you would get a knife in your back.
"Yeah, Damon, now that it's been brought up," Katherine turned to face him. "Why do you think this is your own personal hell? You know, since we're all here with you."
"Maybe because I am here with all of you." Damon muttered, taking another swig of bourbon.
"Now, now, Damon," Silas smirked sarcastically, helping himself to another bottle of bourbon. "Negativity will get us nowhere. Thinking positively is what got me and Katherine out of our actual hell."
Damon glared at him, and opened his mouth to say something else, when Bonnie came back into the room, carrying a bag.
"I found everything you asked for: can-opener, shower drain, grinding wheel, jam, pocket knife, volume 'O' of the encyclopedia, a nail and a black marker."
"Really? A shower drain? I think he made you get those so you'd look like an idiot." Katherine remarked snidely. Silas snorted, nearly spraying alcohol everywhere, before quickly recovering and making it sound like a hasty cough.
Bonnie gave them both a death glare, before she shoved wordlessly past them to the table in front of Damon's couch before dumping the bag of objects onto it in a moody manner.
"Now what?"
Kai grinned knowingly. "Can't show you with my hands taped."
Silas grabbed the pocket knife, ignoring Damon and Bonnie's warning glares and cut off the tape binding his wrists.
"Thank you."
"Okay," Katherine said. "So we know that the ascendent teleports us back to where we came from, but seriously, how is this pile of crap going to be of any use to us?"
"I'll explain...as soon as you tell me what you did on May tenth, 1994, Damon." Kai smirked, rubbing his wrists. Katherine looked up at those words. Of course; that had explained why she had felt so uneasy about that date. She'd almost forgotten, but this had been the day that Damon had committed the very unforgivable act that had sealed her love for Stefan infinitely. What Damon had done was the final thing that had made him unlovable in her eyes.
"What difference does it make?!" Damon demanded, looking angry and frustrated.
"Well," Silas began, "it wouldn't hurt to know that you really are the monster your brother thought you to be."
"Anyway, Bonnie's magic is one part of the equation. My as-yet undisclosed knowledge is the other. Since you already know about the ascendent, I think I deserve a little more information, just to see if you deserve to come along." Kai shrugged.
Within a flash, Damon had grabbed the pocket knife from Silas and lifted Kai up into air, pressing the knife against his neck.
"Oh, right." Katherine nodded. "Take it out on him, I'm sure it'll make you feel much better."
"Or I could just torture you until you say something useful. Or something that Silas doesn't already know."
"Or..." Katherine said. "I could just tell you what he did. It was horrible. I'm glad you feel guilty about it, in fact, it was one of the final reasons I chose Stefan over you."
Bonnie reached out and snatched the knife out of Damon's hand, who had been watching her, half-scared, half-annoyed. "Are you gonna tell us your story, or is she?"
"Maybe I don't want to talk about the worst thing I ever did, Bonnie." Damon replied quietly.
Katherine snorted. "Yeah, because you finally have some feelings? Actual guilt about what you did? Your time's run out, Damon. Time to admit what you did."
"Oooh, now I'm listening," Silas smirked, pouring out another drink. He handed it to Katherine, with a surprisingly empathetic look, who tossed it instantly back, trying to dislodge the burn of tears in the back of her throat. How he knew what she was feeling right then was beyond her, but she couldn't stop herself suddenly feeling grateful for the motion.
"Coming from the girl who's screwed over and killed so many people that she's lost count?" Damon sneered. Katherine swallowed, stung, and turned around to face him.
"Leave her alone." Silas said in a threatening tone.
"What? All I'm saying is, if you hadn't have been so selfish, turning me and Stefan and then abandoning us, then I wouldn't have mourned you, and lashed out, and done all those horrible things either! If you had just stopped being selfish for one second you would realise that."
Katherine felt as though she had been slapped. The glass in her hand shattered without any measure of control as her rage grew and burned within her. "Don't you dare blame me for all the horrible things you've done! I didn't tell you to mourn me, to kill countless people in my name, just like Klaus didn't tell me to, but I certainly didn't tell you to kill a pregnant woman!" Her words echoed out in the shocked silence that followed. She couldn't hold back the tears anymore; they fell freely down her face with no sign of ever stopping.
"So, Kai," she muttered in a trembling voice, turning around to face him.
"Now you've got your information. Tell us how to get out of here."
~X~
"Phasmatos tribum, nas ex viras, sequitas sanguinum." Bonnie muttered for the third time at the map. The candles around her lit up, but there was no chance with the drop of Kai's blood on the map. Katherine sighed and rolled her eyes impatiently. After several attempts, the witch had still proven that she was next to useless when it came to magic, but Kai had insisted that it had to be a Bennett witch who performed the spell.
"I don't trust him." Silas muttered, nearly making her jump.
"Neither do I, there's something about him that just doesn't add up." Katherine hissed back. "And I wouldn't trust those two as far as I could throw them, either."
"Hmm," he murmured, leaning closer to whisper in her ear, sending shivers down her spine, and it was all she could do to restrain herself from kissing him right there and then.
"So, does that mean you trust me then?"
She laughed, hoping it would cover up the nervous butterflies she felt fluttering in her stomach at the fact that yes she did trust him, but she didn't know how to say it.
"Hey, what are you two whispering about over there?" Damon remarked, throwing a paper plane across the room.
"Just about our lack of trust in you lot. But you already know about that." Silas called across the room.
"Oh, trust me, pun intended, you aren't the only ones thinking about that." Damon smiled back.
Katherine scowled at him. "Well, considering we're the ones Bonnie let get sucked into hell, it's us that-"
"Hey, shut up please! I'm not going to help you guys unless you stop bick-er-ring!" Kai announced in a sing-song voice. He sounded almost rhythmic, saying everything in the same, happy, slightly sarcastic tone all the time and Katherine had to grit her teeth hard to force herself from arguing further, as Bonnie stopped her hocus pocus, looking down in annoyance at Kai's blood, which still hadn't moved.
"It doesn't feel right. Maybe I need a bigger map?"
"Or maybe you're just out of practice and you suck at magic now." Silas smirked snidely.
"Ignore them, Bonnie. Pretend they're a white-noise machine. That's how I used to tune out my siblings." Kai leaned forward towards Bonnie, something almost seductive in his gaze. It was disturbing to say the least, Katherine thought to herself. "I grew up with a ton of little sisters and brothers. You know, all of them constantly yammering. But it taught me how to focus." He was only a few inches away, looking as though he were almost about to kiss her.
"Easy there, big brother! She doesn't know you. At least buy her a drink." Damon stood up instantly, almost startling Katherine with the intensity in his gaze. With his glowering expression, his clenched fists, it almost looked as though...
As though Damon had feelings for Bonnie.
"So," she smirked, stepping towards Bonnie. "You and Damon..."
"What about us?" Bonnie asked, still looking intently at the map.
"Come on, you know what I mean. Are you and Damon...?"
"Shut up, Katherine!" Damon snapped tersely.
"Oh, you aren't answering the question. That's a probably definitely yes." She grinned.
Bonnie looked up at them icily, cheeks a furious red, silent in shock for a moment, before continuing the spell. "Phesmatos tribum, nas ex viras, sequitas sanguinum. Phesmatos tribum, nas ex viras, sequitas sanguinum."
Katherine smiled triumphantly, and was about to turn around to Silas, when Kai leaned towards the map, frowning. "The spell's moving towards Virginia. That can't be right."
"It's finally working?" Silas said, his voice thick with sarcasm. "Oh, well better pop the champagne, this is a miracle!"
Bonnie ignored him. "Mm-mm, the spell's working. It's showing me Mystic Falls. It feels so... close." She turned towards Kai, holding up her hand. The candles flames around her almost instantly intensified.
"It's right here." She touched Kai's chest, and the candle flames instantly went out. Katherine frowned as Kai laughed, then reached into his shirt pocket, drawing out a small, hexagon, made of silver and gold metal all intricately slotted together. Without a doubt, this was the ascendent.
"Very good." Kai smirked.
"That's the Ascendant?" Katherine demanded, fuming with anger. All this time, wasted on finding a device they already had that they could have spent finding the underground tunnels to go home!
"The one and only." Kai replied, flipping it in the air.
"Thanks for the mind games, jackass." Silas growled. "What was the point in that?"
"It was just another little test to make sure Bonnie's magic was precise enough for the spell we need to get home." Kai shrugged, rubbing his hands together
"I do believe you're ready. Pack your bags-we're going home."
Thanks so much for reading! :-) xx