Oh my gosh, worst author over here or what? I'm so sorry that this took me so long, but it is about 4000 words so that's a good bit longer than usual. I'll update y'all some more at the bottom, but for now – enjoy!

*Trigger Warning – There is a good bit of violence in this chapter *

"Ladies and gentlemen, the traitor of Mystic Falls has woken up! Let the show begin!"

Alaric Saltzman.

I was screwed.

Alaric circled me, grinning smugly as he spoke loudly to the crowd. "Just look at her! This girl is the cause of all of the trouble, all of the heartache that we have seen these past few weeks! And do you think she's even remotely sorry? Of course not!"

I was kind of beginning to panic now. A quick glance around the stage showed guards at every possible exit and unless the citizens of Mystic Falls were willing to let me crowd surf through them, I was pretty much stuck.

I needed to keep him talking.

"You tortured those vampires." I said, and my voice resonated about ten times louder than what the level I had said it at. Were there…microphones in the stage?

God, Alaric Saltzman was a sicko.

"Well of course I took care of the vampires, Elena!" He was talking to me the way you would talk to a child. "What, are you telling me you think it was a bad idea to get rid of the vampires?" I could hear murmurings in the crowd as they looked at me with distrust. No, no, no, this was all wrong. They had to be on my side.

"But let's get back on track, shall we?" Alaric sauntered to the front of the stage, talking to them again. "Little Miss Gilbert here – well, why don't we let her explain?" He turned to me, a smug grin on his face.

"Tell the people, Elena. Tell them what you did."

I stared at him, my heart pounding.

"Well?" He gestured to the crowd with a grand sweep of his arm. "Why don't you let them all know what you did?"

What I did? I hadn't got a clue what he was talking about so he continued for me.

"Well, my friends, Elena here went, like the slut she is, went and fucked a vampire just so she could make herself more comfortable, putting all of us in danger by –"

"I fell in love!" I interrupted furiously. "I fell in love after this stupid organisation got my father caught and he gave me up as a punishment! You really think I went and found a random vampire just so I could –"

"You betrayed us!" Alaric suddenly screamed in my face, all pretences of being calm gone. "You betrayed us Gilbert, and you went against everything you were raised to believe! You're the reason this plan has gone wrong! Your loyalty should have belonged to the Militia, only the Militia!"

"Don't you dare talk to me about loyalty Saltzman!" I yelled, ignoring the alarm bells in my head that he was out of control. There was a vein throbbing in his forehead and his cheeks were bright red, his eyes bloodshot. "You and the Militia were hoarding food while the rest of us starved! You let innocent people die while you tried to think of moronic plans to get rid of the vampires and for what? You think the situation is any better now, huh? Are the people living well, are they healthy, do they have a roof over their heads? All of your life has been wasted on a stupid idea that, guess what, hasn't even worked!"

I was fuming, so full of rage that I wasn't able to stop the words spilling out of my mouth even though I could see that his fury was about to go over the edge.

"You will never be a leader, Saltzman." I hissed and he reached over and slapped me hard across the face.

A gasp rippled across the crowd but I barely noticed it. I slowly turned back to face this madman who was now so clearly insane that I wondered how I had never seen it before. Cheek smarting, I needed to make one last blow before he tortured me or killed me or did whatever the hell he was going to do to me.

"You're pathetic." I hissed slowly, dragging out the last word and then I felt the cool metal of a gun press against the side of my head. He had produced a shotgun from his belt and was now clearly going to pull the trigger. I squeezed my eyes shut, wondering what the hell you were meant to think as your last thought.

Eventually I settled on one.

I'm so sorry Damon.

I felt the joints in his fingers slowly tightening and just as he was about to pull back the trigger, I heard a shout and then a gun fired.

Except luckily, it wasn't the one that was being aimed at my head.

"Fucking hell!" Alaric shouted, and I opened my eyes to see him leaping about a metre away as a bullet whizzed past. I quickly looked to the source of the bullet, expecting to see Damon holding the gun. It wasn't.

It was my mother.

She was still pointing the gun where Alaric had been, clutching it tightly. The crowd had parted like the Red Sea to let her walk through and you could have heard a pin drop.

"Let her go Saltzman." She hissed through gritted teeth, and Alaric looked between us frantically before laughing manically.

"Of course! Of course you would be a traitor too, you bitch, it runs in the family I'm guessing –"

He was rambling like a mad man as he waved the gun all around the place. I began to try and feel around the handcuffs, trying to see if there was any way of getting out of them. They were pretty old and rusty, and I was guessing that a little brute force might be able to break them open.

All I needed for that was…Damon.

Mom was moving through the crowd now, still aiming the gun at him. "Let her go Alaric."

I glanced over at him, where he was looking between the two of us quickly and then behind him. The various guards had stepped back, looking a little alarmed. Clearly they had thought that this would be an easy 'kill the traitor girl', with no need for their actual services. I realised with a start that my father was one of them, standing silent a little bit apart from them. He had been there while the two of us had been threatened and abused and he hadn't intervened. He was watching this whole event with a kind of blankness, like he couldn't care less what happened anymore.

Maybe he didn't.

"Get her, you fools!" Alaric spluttered at them indignantly. There was a moment of hesitation as they tried to figure out if they really had to.

"Now!" He roared, practically aiming the gun at them. A few of them glanced at each other and then they moved uncertainly forward, reaching for their various weapons. I was about to yell, kick, scream, do anything to distract them but then I heard a whistle from the other side of the square. The guards heads all snapped in the direction of the sound and I spun around and couldn't stop a grin spreading across my face.

Caroline and Stefan were standing there, looking furious. I let my eyes flick to Alaric – he was white as a sheet, staring with unblinking eyes at these two vampires that he had left for dead in a dungeon. "You're an idiot, Saltzman!" Caroline yelled, stepping forward. "You don't mess with our family and expect to get away with it!"

"How dare you, you little leech! I'll kill you, I'll kill you all –"

"Don't bother Saltzman." Stefan interrupted. "You think you can win against us? You won't – I can tell you that in advance."

I wanted to laugh in sheer delight at the expression on Alaric's face but I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. I was about to scream but then I felt the familiar purr in my ear and my heart felt light it had lightened about ten loads.

"You need to stop getting yourself into trouble darling." Damon murmured as he grasped my two wrists and yanked them apart, forcing the rusty chain to snap in two. I wanted to throw my arms around his neck to hug him tightly but of course, these weren't exactly the best circumstances. So I made do with squeezing his hand and then turning back to see Caroline standing protectively in front of my mother, and Stefan advancing towards Saltzman, a smirk on his face. Alaric was freaking out, trying to shoot him but kept missing – whether it was because of his own bad aim or Stefan dodging each bullet, I wasn't sure.

Suddenly I heard someone calling from the crowd. When I turned, I saw it was Bonnie, a girl I had known when I was younger. She was a sweet little thing, maybe a few years younger than me. "Alaric, just let them go!" She said, sounding tired. "Look, maybe we can just talk this whole thing out, get Mystic Falls back to the way it was –"

Well, after that, I had no doubts about Alaric's aim with a gun.

Because he pointed the gun at her and shot.

There was a horrible cry of pain as she crumpled to the ground and there was a gasp as the crowd took in what had just happened. I stared, frozen, at the space where Bonnie had been standing a few seconds ago and where there were now people clustered around, crouching down and trying to help her.

I went to climb down off the stage to run to her, to help her or do something but Damon grabbed me by the arm. "It's too dangerous. You're too easy of a target down there." He snapped, not even looking at me – he was keeping his eye on Alaric, who was trying to get around Stefan who had at this stage, grabbed the gun from his hands and had snapped it in two, tossing the two pieces into different parts of the crowd.

"Damon, I have to help her –"

"You won't be able to help anyone if you get yourself killed! The guards aren't exactly in your favour you know. Don't be an idiot Elena."

"But I can't just stay here and –"

"You can." He snarled at me. "And you will."

I glared at him, feeling a surge of anger. "And when have I ever let you be the boss of me, Damon Salvatore?" I snapped at him, wrenching my arm free. "I can take care of myself! This is my fault and I'm going to help her and if you think you can stop me, you have another thing coming–"

"ENOUGH."

Silence fell as my father stepped forward, speaking for the first time since I had arrived.

He looked…dead. Literally, there was barely any light in his eyes and his expression was blank.

My mother pushed past Caroline, tears spilling down her cheeks. "Grayson?" She asked shakily, opening her arms and I knew what she was doing – this was her way of offering a last chance at forgiveness, a chance to redeem himself. But he just stared at her expressionlessly, and her arms slowly drooped to her sides He turned to face the silent crowd – even Alaric was quiet for once.

"This is finishing." He said wearily. "This is finishing right now. I want the vampires killed, do you understand me?" He turned to the various LM members who were assembled around him. "I want them gone." His eyes flicked to me and his mouth hardened.

"Her too."

I knew it shouldn't – God only knew I was used to feeling incredibly let down by my father –but it still kind of felt like a punch to the stomach that he wanted me dead.

Then again, I sort of wanted him dead too so I guess we were even.

"Grayson."

Mom was advancing slowly towards the stage now, talking in a low, soothing voice like he was a startled animal. Maybe she couldn't see that the life had gone out of his eyes, that the spring had long left his step, that he had wanted to kill his own daughter.

"Grayson, please talk to me. You don't have to do this."

"It's too late Miranda." He said, not looking at her, his voice hard.

"Too late?" She was getting angry, climbing up onto the platform. "Too late? Grayson, I have spent the last twenty two years supporting you, being a good wife to you, raising your children. I put my life on hold for you, so you could run off organising this stupid rebellion. It's not too late. It's never going to be too late. You are always going to owe me, Grayson Gilbert and I am cashing in that favour right now!"

He was hesitating now – she could see it and her voice softened slightly. I glanced at Damon and saw that his brow was furrowed slightly but he was leaving this to her.

"Grayson, I'm your wife. I know we've had our differences but I still love you. I'll always love you, and I want to help you. So let me. Please. Either you fight today and lose or you stop this and have far more of a chance of getting the things that you want."

I held my breath as he turned the offer over in his mind – in fact, I think everybody did. Damon slipped his hand into mine and we waited, my heart pounding as we watched the unstable man that was my father.

Then he sighed and turned to face the LM members who were still waiting for further orders.

"That'll be all for today gentlemen."

A wave of relief crashed down over me. Damon squeezed my hand as my mother shot me the smallest of smiles as she approached him. Looking at him now, he looked like a pathetic old man. There were deep lines etched into his forehead and dark purple rings under his eyes. His face was gaunt and his hair was thinning. But he had the expression of a scared little boy as he fell into my mother's arms.

The LM members were kind of filing off the stage confusedly, probably more than a little relieved that there wasn't going to be any proper fighting today. Some of them were looking a little less than happy actually but whatever. They were all going to be jailed anyway.

I had to admit, there was a slight sense of an anti-climax. I mean, it was great and it was wonderful but this rebellion had sort of ended with a whimper, not a bang. It was great for us but it meant that my heart hadn't quite slowed down from anticipation that something else might happen. I tried to take a few deep breaths, reminding myself that I was safe now.

Suddenly I remembered Bonnie and I nudged Damon.

"We need to help the girl who was shot." I said softly and he nodded, but when he looked to the others for help, Caroline was already making her way through the crowd, which had parted like the Red Sea to let her through. Her blonde curls disappeared from sight as she crouched down to help her and I smiled to myself. If Bonnie was still conscious, there would be nobody more comforting than Caroline.

"We'll have to go and pick up Jeremy from the house." I realised out loud to Damon. "The poor kid's been brainwashed."

Damon nodded seriously and then a grin broke out across his face. He wrapped his arms around me tightly and I buried my head in his shoulder, the enormity of what had just been avoided only hitting me now.

"We're going to be ok." He murmured in my ear and I laughed with delight into his shoulder.

Suddenly a voice that I had temporarily forgotten about washed over us and my blood ran cold. I pulled away from Damon to see Alaric breathing heavily.

"Well, this is nice, isn't it?" He snarled, his face blotchy red. "All the family is back together, the rebellion has been cancelled and the vampire couple are back together. Really, just like the cover of a Christmas card!"

Stefan was still holding him, which was comforting at least but there was something even more manic than usual in his eye. He wrenched a shoulder free from Stefan's grip disgustedly and eyeballed us.

"You think this is finished, but it isn't, I can assure you of that –"

"Alaric, it's over." Grayson said quietly from the stage, standing closely to my mother and Alaric spun around to face him.

"Over? Over? We spent ten years organising this and you're willing to just call it off because your slut of a wife panders to you? You're a coward Grayson – I always knew it would be me running this thing. Luckily for you, I'm not willing to let it die that easily."

Before I could blink, he had pulled a short dagger from his jacket pocket and had plunged it into Stefan's shoulder. Stefan roared in pain, falling to the ground and I realised with horror that it must have been coated with vervain.

Alaric was up on the stage in seconds, gripping my mother's arm and yanking her towards me. He produced a tiny silver gun and held it to her head, holding her tightly.

"You." He hissed, waving the gun at Damon. "You step away from her or I will shoot."

I looked desperately at him, willing him to follow his orders but Damon didn't move and I saw Alaric's finger tightening on the trigger. "Get away from me." I snapped.

"Elena, I'm not –"

"Damon!" I cried, my voice cracking. "Damon, just get away from me!"

Unwillingly, he stepped back.

"No, no, no. Off the stage." Alaric insisted, ignoring my mother's whimpers.

I turned around to look at Damon pleadingly and he stepped off the stage fully, looking furious.

Alaric glanced back to Grayson. "You too, traitor. Off. The. Stage."

My father stepped off without any fight, staring at the gun with dismay.

Alaric looked at me then, with a small smug smile on his face.

"Well, it's just you and me again, isn't it Gilbert? Then again, I think it was always going to be."

"Let her go." I said through gritted teeth, trying not to let my voice shake.

"It's a pity how these things play out, isn't it?" He said cheerfully, examining the gun. "I mean, your mother wouldn't have known when she gave birth to you that she was going to end up dying for you. But that's fate I suppose."

"Alaric –"

"You weren't loyal, Elena! If you had been loyal, maybe you would have been saved! Maybe she would have been saved!" His voice was rising in pitch now. "But you betrayed us, you went against nature and you shacked up with a vampire. This –" He waved his arms around. "This is all of your fault. You do understand that right?"

I stared in horror at the small silver gun. "Please." I begged desperately. "Please don't shoot – you can't-"

I trailed off, not seeing any signs of giving in. "Please." I tried one last time, my voice cracking. "Don't- don't do this. Alaric, don't hurt her, kill me –"

"Too late, Gilbert."

I realised with absolute horror that nothing I would say would stop this. Fear, panic and everything in between surged through me and I sprinted forward but I was too late. The gunshot rang out through the air, silencing everything else and there was a horrible screech as it hit her and a crash as she crumpled to the floor. Blood began to flow from the hole in her chest quickly, too quickly and I stumbled over to her, ripping off my coat and trying to apply pressure to the wound but it kept coming, it wouldn't stop. Blood was getting all over my hands, my clothes, everywhere and it was making me feel sick but I had to keep trying, I had to save them because this was all my fault, it was all my fault, he had been right, it was all my fault…

I could hear shouts behind me but I didn't pay any attention to them – I had to save her, I had to, this wasn't happening, she couldn't die…But the light was fading from her eyes and she had stopped breathing. A feeling of dull dread settled in the pit of my stomach as I realised that she was gone and I wasn't going to be able to save her. And then the dread changed. Fury replaced it. I rose slowly, shakily to my feet and turned around to face him.

"I'll kill you." I promised softly, and he laughed.

"Kill me? Gilbert, you don't stand a chance –"

"I'll kill you!" I screamed, lunging at him and clawing, tearing, biting, punching, everything I could possibly think of to inflict pain on this monster who had just taken my mother away from me. There was blood on me and I wasn't sure whose it was but I didn't care, all I cared about was hurting him, killing him like he had killed her. He tried to fight back but I was too frenzied with pure white rage to feel anything. There were hands on my shoulder but I shook them off, screeching and kicking at those who tried to pull me away.

Distantly I heard someone calling me. "Elena, you're going to kill him. You need to stop." The voice was soothing, calm.

I was not calm.

"I don't care!" I roared, continuing with my tirade. "He killed her! He killed her! He…killed…her!"

Then, much to my fury, I was pulled off of him into the air. I spun around expecting to see Damon but found it was in fact Caroline who was holding me with tears spilling down her cheeks.

"Let me go back! Let me go back!"

"No, Elena."

I stared at her for a few moments, and then I broke.

"He killed her." I repeated softly and then I fell to my knees. I didn't even have the strength to cry anymore – I stayed there, staring at the ground in disbelief for a while before lifting my head.

Caroline was crouching beside me, biting her lip. The entire crowd was staring at me with a kind of shocked horror. A glance at my father and I saw that his eyes looked totally dead and then my eyes rested on Damon. He looked so scared, like I was crazy or something. I turned back to Caroline who was openly crying now.

"He killed her." I whispered and she nodded, pulling me into her arms.

"I'm so sorry Elena. I'm so, so sorry."

I sat on the edge of the stage dejectedly. The square was totally empty and it was getting cold. I didn't mind though - the cold could creep into my bones and freeze me for all I cared. I heard footsteps behind me and then a jacket was slid over my arms.

"You shouldn't do this to yourself." Damon told me softly as he sat down beside me. I said nothing and he sighed, looking up at the cloudless sky. The stars were beautiful tonight – they didn't know what horrors had happened down here a few days ago.

"Alaric's been sentenced." He said to nobody really in particular. "Locked up in a jail cell until the day he dies."

I nodded numbly and then turned to him, asking the question that had been troubling me since it had happened. "Why didn't Caroline let me kill him? I could have."

He laughed without humour. "I know you could have. I don't think I've ever seen a person so capable of killing someone. But I think Caroline couldn't let you do that to yourself, Elena. Killing someone…it breaks you. She didn't want it to haunt you for the rest of your life. She'd know that better than anyone. She remembers being human."

Maybe someday I would understand that but I couldn't imagine a time when I wouldn't want Alaric Saltzman dead.

We sat together in silence for another few minutes before I spoke.

"You know I have to leave." It wasn't a question.

He nodded. "I know."

"I just…I can't stay here Damon."

"I understand."

I went back to looking at the stars. "My memory never came back to me."

"Maybe it will, someday. You never know."

"I don't know if I want it too. That was…that was the old Elena. I can't imagine what she- I - was like before…this."

"She was as kind and loving as you are right now." He said quietly and I turned to him sadly.

"I'm sorry we didn't work out." He told me and I gave him a half smile, cupping his face.

"Maybe we will, someday. You never know." I said honestly, repeating his earlier words before slowly leaning in and gently pressing my lips to his for just a second before pulling away and standing up, pulling the jacket around me.

"It's getting late. I need to go. Take care of Jeremy, will you?"

He nodded and I squeezed his hand before hopping off the stage.

"Hey, Gilbert."

I turned back to see him smiling sadly at me. "Keep in touch." He said, giving me a tiny wave and I smiled properly for the first time in what felt like years.

"You'll have to come and find me, Salvatore." I told him teasingly before walking back into the night, ready to leave Mystic Falls for the first time in my life. Maybe I would come back some day, but for now, my path was unknown.

And I liked it that way.

I hope you liked it! It was kind of an intense chapter to write, man. I had to listen to a lot of sad music to get into the zone.

This isn't the last chapter, don't fret. I'm going to have an epilogue but that might not be for an week or two.

Thank you all so much for your continued support. Even when I was on a bit of a hiatus, the amount of lovely reviews and messages that I get daily continues to blow me away and know that I read each and every one of them and get a stupid, goofy smile on my face.

Thank you all my darlings, and I'll talk soon.

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