A/N: ah here we are, at the final sin! probably the hardest trial yet...

CHAPTER 12: WRATH

As Elena floated back to consciousness, she was vaguely aware of the fact that she was lying down on a soft surface, perhaps on a bed or a sofa. The next thing she became aware of was the sounds of hushed voices hovering above her.

"There's not even any guarantee it worked…these things don't always go as planned!"

"You think I don't know that?"

Then, silence.

Elena focused on the drip, drip, drip of rain splattering onto glass. It belatedly occurred to her that something was terribly wrong. Everything felt too loud at once, yet at the same time oddly muted as though she was having an out-of-body experience.

"How much longer?" a third voice asked—a melodic girl's voice that sounded scared stiff. "It's been a long time…"

"As long as it takes," someone hissed back, "As long as it fucking takes!"

Elena's skin tingled, first feeling too hot and then too cold.

She shivered.

A chair scraped back, the wood grating against the floor. "Hey," the first voice whispered, "Did you guys see that? I think…I think I saw her move!"

There was a sudden rush of air around her and she felt fingers brush against her cheek gently. The warmth shot straight to her core and her eyelids fluttered in response. "Elena?" the voice sounded hopeful, "Can you hear me?"

Soft footsteps approached cautiously, one at a time. The same girl that had spoken earlier breathed out, "Damon, what's happening?"

Damon...

Elena suddenly found herself gasping for air, her lungs screaming for more. Her eyes flew open just as someone placed a heavy hand on her shoulder. "Breathe!" a rough voice ordered her, "Stay calm for me, Elena."

I don't feel very calm. Nonetheless, she tried to nod to show that she understood. She shut her eyes again almost instantly however, the brightness of the room straining her pupils.

"It's too bright for her," someone called out hurriedly, "Put something in front of the windows!"

"But the curtains are already closed…and it's really dark!" the girl complained.

"Caroline!"

Elena slowly reopened her eyes, squinting for a minute until she could recognize the three people standing over her: Stefan, Damon, and Caroline. The expressions on their faces were so somber that she immediately realized someone had died. Her heart sank as her gaze darted around the living room of the Salvatore house, but there was no one else there. Oh god. "Jeremy?" she croaked, "Where is he?"

"Shh," Caroline soothed, her eyes shining with unshed tears, "Jeremy is fine. He's at the hospital...Bonnie and Alaric are staying with him." She reached out to stroke Elena's hair and repeated firmly, "He'll be fine."

"Elena," Stefan moved into her line of vision, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. "How do you feel? Does anything hurt?"

"I feel..." she frowned, "Strange. Everything's so..." Elena looked past Stefan's shoulder and found herself taken aback to see that Damon's crystal blue eyes had been replaced by a dangerous stormy grey. "What's wrong with me?" she blurted out, suddenly arriving at the conclusion that something had happened to her. "Why do you all look like someone's dead?"

"Sweetie," Caroline began, but Stefan placed a hand on her arm stop her. He glanced behind him, seeming to ask his brother's permission for something. When Damon didn't move a muscle or respond in any way, Stefan sighed and knelt down so that he was at eye level with Elena.

"You don't remember anything?" he questioned her, "Anything at all?" She shook her head, attempting to sit up on the sofa. He helped her and then raised himself so that he was perched on the coffee table. "You don't remember what happened with Klaus?" he tried again, "The fight?"

Elena shrank back into the cushions, unnerved by the conversation taking place. "Stefan, what's going on?"

He opened his mouth to answer her, but then didn't say anything. His shoulders slumped forward and he once again turned to look almost pleadingly in Damon's direction.

Damon closed his eyes, his jaw clenching. But then he strode forward, taking a seat next to Elena on the couch and reaching out to clasp her hand within his own. "Two weeks ago," he began in a guttural voice, "We finally located Stefan and Klaus. We had been searching for months, running into dead end after dead end. But then we finally got a breakthrough."

"And don't worry about the bloodlust," Caroline put in when she saw Elena glance at Stefan, "We've been working on that. He's made really good progress."

Stefan attempted a smile, but it came out as more of a grimace.

"As you can imagine," Damon continued darkly, "Klaus was rearing for revenge. The big showdown happened last night."

"Klaus..."

"Is dead."

Elena let out a sigh of relief. At least I don't have to deal with Klaus in this trial. Then she remembered, "You said Jeremy was in the hospital?"

Damon's expression hardened, "He was trying to save you."

"Me?" she sat up straighter, and felt Damon tighten his grip on her hand, "Why?"

"It all happened so fast," a single tear slid down Caroline's face and she hastily wiped it away. "Klaus' witch was strong, and Bonnie was struggling...Tyler was unconscious, Alaric had been stabbed...Katherine and Stefan had both been vervained up." Caroline trailed off, "It was just me and Damon against Klaus...we didn't see what was happening until it was too late."

"You made me drink your blood, Elena," Stefan said brokenly in the sudden silence, "You wanted me to help with the fight and you knew that human blood would get the vervain out of my system."

Damon's grip on her hand was now painful.

"Jeremy pulled you off," Caroline shuddered, "He was screaming...and the storm was so loud...I looked over and saw you on the ground, bleeding to death." She paused, "Damon—"

"I fed you my blood," Damon cut in emotionlessly, "And then I got you the hell out of there." He looked down and swallowed, "I thought you would be safe, Elena. Everyone was engaged in the fight, I didn't think..."

"None of did," Stefan reached out to touch his brother's shoulder, "None of us could have guessed that Klaus had found a second witch."

Then they stopped talking, all equally unwilling to fill in the gaps of the story.

But Elena had already figured it out. And even though she kept telling herself it was just a trial, she still felt the horror spread through her veins. "I d-died?" she managed to choke out, "I was killed?"

"The witch," Caroline murmured, "She killed you...brought your body back to the clearing. Klaus was so pleased that he got distracted, sloppy. Bonnie was able to overpower him."

"So I died with vampire blood in my system," Elena looked over at Damon, "Your blood."

Stefan took her other hand, either not noticing or not caring that Damon hadn't let go of her. "You didn't come back to life for a long time," Stefan said quietly, "We were afraid it didn't work...that you would never come back..."

"Am I..." Elena struggled to force the words out, "A vampire?"

"If you drink human blood," Damon spoke finally in a gritty voice, "Then the transition will be complete."

There was a quiet knock on the front door at that moment and they all turned around to see Tyler walk into the living room hesitantly. He looked enormously relieved to see Elena sitting there and he flashed her a genuine smile, "You're okay."

Elena tried to smile back, but her face felt frozen. "In a manner of speaking," she said to him, not knowing if he was privy to what was going on. She glanced at Caroline, "Does he...?"

"He knows," Caroline answered her before turning to Tyler, "We just finished telling her what happened last night...she didn't remember much."

Tyler took a deep breath, shoving his hands in his pockets as he gazed at Elena. "Did you...decide?"

She had no idea what he was talking about and frowned, "Decide what?"

He looked perplexed, "If you're going to drink human blood? If you're going to become a vampire?"

Elena stared at him blankly.

Damon stood up, scowling, "She doesn't have to decide now. She still has some time."

Tyler nodded quickly, "Yeah, of course." He glanced at Damon but then looked back over at Elena, "I just...I want you to know that it's your decision, Elena. Don't let...other people...decide your fate for you. Me becoming a werewolf...it was something that I fought so hard against, but then I didn't have a choice. But this...It's up to you, Elena. Don't forget that."

"Thank you, Ty—"

"Get out."

Tyler's eyes widened, "What?"

Damon took a threatening step forward, "I said, get out."

"Hey," Caroline protested indignantly, "What's wrong with you?"

"You don't get to come into my house and tell Elena something like that," Damon snarled, "In fact, why don't you just stay the hell away from her from now on? This is all your fault, anyway!"

Elena got to her feet unsteadily, throwing her arms out in front of Damon. "Don't," she hissed at him, "It's no one's fault!"

"If you hadn't bit me, then I wouldn't have needed the cure, then Stefan wouldn't have gone and sacrificed himself, and then we wouldn't have had to go and rescue him from one incredibly unstable HYBRID," Damon bellowed, "And none of this would have happened! GET OUT!"

Stefan stepped in front of Tyler, trying to shield him from Damon. "You're angry, you're upset," he tried to reason with his brother, "You don't mean any of that."

"I do," Damon was breathing hard, "I mean every word."

Caroline looked furious, "If Tyler goes, then I go! If anything, you should be blaming me—You came to rescue me from that tomb, and I'm the one that wanted to help Tyler, remember?"

Damon's eyes flashed, "You know what? You're right. You can leave, too." When Caroline didn't move, Damon vamped out in fury. "LEAVE!" he shouted, shoving against her so that she flew backwards into Tyler's arms. "BOTH OF YOU!"

"Don't listen to him," Stefan muttered to Caroline, "He's not himself—"

"It's fine," she answered in a clipped tone, "I get it. It's Elena's life we're talking about. Trust me, I get it."

Elena stared on helplessly, "Tyler, Caroline...I'm sorry. You know I don't blame you guys..." She turned to look at Damon, but for the first time she was actually frightened of the rage etched across his face.

"It's okay," Tyler held up both hands as he and Caroline backed up towards the door, "It's probably best if we leave for a bit. Let everyone cool off." He nodded to Stefan, "We'll stop by the hospital and let them know that she's awake."

"Thanks," Stefan closed the door behind them and then turned towards Damon disapprovingly, "You can't take this out on innocent bystanders. You know it's not their fault."

Damon glowered, "Don't start with me, Stefan."

"Hey, look at me," Elena placed a hand on Damon's chest and looked up at him beseechingly, "A lot of things have happened. I get that. But..." She bit her lip, thinking. "You know what they say about chaos theory? The butterfly effect? When a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world, it can set off a series of events in a completely different part of the world..."

"You can't compare—"

"I'm just saying that the smallest, most insignificant thing can affect so much more than we could ever even begin to comprehend," Elena interrupted softly, moving her hand from his chest down his arm and intertwining their fingers. "We can't blame anyone for what has happened, Damon. Do you see that?"

Damon stared at her for one second before abruptly pulling away and stalking to his liquor cabinet. Elena watched worriedly as he sifted through the empty bottles angrily before letting out an enraged shout and hurling a bottle into the fireplace.

Elena instinctively lifted her hands to her face as the glass shattered loudly. She heard Stefan yell something and she lowered her hands just in time to see Damon whirl out the front door, violently slamming it shut behind him.

*another 2 parter! hmm, what do you guys think the actual trial will be? ;)