A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for your amazing reviews! *huggles*

I'm not sure how to describe this chapter (other than that it's very long, obviously lol), but the next chapter's going to be a RIOT ;)

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries belongs to L.J. Smith & CW.

Chapter 18

Matt wasn't a stranger to weirdness. All of his friends had either become or turned out to be doppelgangers, vampires, witches, werewolves, hybrids or at the very least vampire hunters. He'd got dumped because he'd proposed. He'd lost a girlfriend to his best friend. His other best friend had sacrificed her life to save his. He'd died a couple of times, visited the Other Side, seen ghosts, agreed to being fed on by a newbie vampire, agreed to having his neck snapped by a guy who hated him, participated in morally dubious activities in Prague... and sometimes he thought he might be in love with a 1000-year-old girl who had almost killed him once... Yet, Matt was convinced that nothing weirder than what was happening right now had ever happened to him before.

"You want me to tell a six-month-old infant to synchronize energies with Bonnie," Matt repeated, enunciating each word and raising his eyebrows, because there was supernatural stuff and there was stuff that made no sense regardless.

But Jeremy's tone on the other side of the line remained stunningly sensible. "That's the phrase used in the grimoire."

Matt blinked, not sure if Jeremy really believed that was what Matt considered the most ridiculous part of the request. "OK. I feel stupid for saying this, but... shouldn't we call Klaus first or something?"

A brief, muffled noise that followed the question indicated that someone snatched the phone out of Jeremy's hand and Matt straightened up at the sound of a familiar voice that suddenly resounded in his ear.

"Matt, just do it. We have to check if this will even work. I'm not going to waste time asking Nik anything," Rebekah said impatiently.

"Yeah, I didn't mean to sound like I care whether I live or die a horrible death. I was just thinking out loud," Matt said, fighting a ridiculous smile that threatened to break onto his face at the mere sound of Rebekah's voice. He had to consciously stop himself from asking her to talk a little more, about anything, just so he could listen to her voice for a few seconds longer.

Rebekah stifled a snort. "I know channeling energy is not a perfectly safe thing to do," she continued, resuming her serious voice. "But it's not safe when someone's giving off their personal energy. If our theory is correct, Hope's gathered more energy than she can handle. It may even be good for her to give some of it away."

"Yes, but like you said, it's just a theory," Matt argued tentatively.

"You'll be watching her," Rebekah said after a pause with a small sigh. "If something bad starts happening with her you'll tell us and we'll stop."

"I'll ask Dr. Fell to stop by. I think she can read infants better than me," Matt complied after a moment of consideration and he wasn't sure, but he felt that Rebekah smiled, so he asked. "What?"

"These are your friends' lives that are on the line and yet you're worrying about my niece."

"Funny you should mention it, because I was also wondering why you're risking so much to save people you don't care about? There's nothing in it for you."

"Oh, just on the contrary," Rebekah said with the faintest hint of amusement in her voice. "Rest assured that I have my ulterior motives," she added, biting back a smile that nonetheless flickered across her face when Matt replied with a smile on his own:

"I hope so."

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena was running through the forest, trying to think only about running, trying to remember the forest without focusing on any memory in particular, hoping that it'd keep her from being followed.

Or at least from having her memories erased. She wanted to wake up, come back to the reality, but she was afraid that if Amanda wasn't bluffing, waking up would mean losing some of her memories forever.

Gritting her teeth, Elena stopped near one of the trees and pressing her back against it looked up at the dark sky.

It was true that some of her vampire memories were probably her worst memories. She wouldn't mind forgetting about Connor or about Jeremy's death or about that waitress whose name she didn't even know... But it didn't mean that she was afraid of not forgetting. She didn't need to forget anything. Not anymore. There was nothing more beautiful than feeling love, nothing more wonderful than loving others and feeling loved, but she also wanted to feel guilt and pain, because only feeling everything, not suppressing or forgetting, but feeling everything meant being alive. She needed to remember everything to truly be herself.

Wincing, Elena slid to the ground, her back still against the tree. There was also another thing. Some of her vampire memories were her happiest memories and the mere thought of losing any of them was breaking her heart.

Elena inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to calm down. Giving in to despair and frustration wasn't going to get her anywhere, but it wasn't helping that she had to keep herself from recalling any of Damon's words that could make her feel better right now to avoid the risk of endangering her memories. She just tried to think about him, think about them without thinking about the past.

Hiding her head in her hands Elena closed her eyes, but then she abruptly looked up, startled by the soft sound of rustling leaves.

She jumped to her feet and looked around. In all of her memories she'd previously been to, the scenery and people had always been completely still, so now she didn't know what to make of the wind blowing through the trees above her. She wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad sign.

She was sure, however, that right now she wasn't thinking of any memories. She was surrounded by thoughts of a different kind.

Glancing around with a hesitant smile Elena realized that a moment ago she'd started thinking about something else... She'd started thinking... about the future.

xxxdelenaxxx

"What am I doing wrong?" Bonnie whispered in frustration, opening her eyes and looking at Rebekah who was shaking her head, updating Matt over the phone that still nothing was happening.

"Can't we just go there?" Damon suggested impatiently, glancing toward the empty space where the old hospital was supposed to be – and apparently was, because Alaric and Rebekah could see it.

Bonnie couldn't, but was hoping, like all of them, that the energy trick would work and she'd start seeing it.

They'd decided to meet here in hope that no negotiations would've been necessary; that with Bonnie, Alaric and Rebekah being able to see the invisible to human eyes building, it might've just been possible for them to barge in, find Elena, Enzo, Stefan and Caroline and get them out. And had they been ambushed by Amanda, Bonnie could've used some of the energy channeled from Hope... It was a very good, simple plan, really, except that it was becoming clearer and clearer that this plan was apparently solely based on wishful thinking, because Bonnie still couldn't see anything other than the empty field, just like Jeremy and Damon.

"I'll go," Alaric said at last with a determined frown. "We'll at least know if they're really there."

Damon's eyes darted to him and he nodded quickly. "Let's go."

Alaric grimaced. "Damon, wait. What's the point of you going there? You won't be able to see anything. You won't even know where you're going."

"I'll... walk after you," Damon muttered hastily on the verge of angry irritation, his eyebrows furrowed. There was something so indescribably annoying about not being able to just do what he wanted to do right now without relying on anything or anyone else. "You can tell me when you see them and I can-"

Alaric gave him a disbelievingly exasperated look.

"I don't think that makes much sense," Jeremy interrupted cautiously, exchanging a quick look with Alaric.

Bonnie looked between all of them, biting her lip and beginning to feel utterly terrible. The worst part was that she could feel the energy flowing to her, but it seemed as if she was surrounded by some kind of a wall and the energy was crashing into this invisible barrier – and then rushing away from her instead of rushing toward her. What was she doing wrong? She was trying to think of the fact that she was a witch, that she was able to do magic in the past, that she could do it.

"I'll go with you too," Bonnie said on an impulse, charging forward. "Maybe I'll start seeing this place once I'll be in it," she said, glancing at Jeremy who despite having every intention of being encouraging, couldn't help looking sadly skeptical.

"I don't think this is how it works," Rebekah pointed out with a dejected smile.

Bonnie gave her a grim look, feeling even more determined to do it now that everyone seemed so dismissive of the idea from the get-go. She looked at Damon and felt a little better when she saw that at least he wasn't saying anything against the idea, although that was probably mostly due to his reckless, vehement determination to do something – which she shared and wasn't going to let go of, especially that she didn't have much else to hold on to at the moment.

"I don't think-" Alaric started, but Bonnie cut him off, hoping that her determination would eventually make everyone give in.

"Let's go," Bonnie said and grabbed Damon's hand-

"Bonnie!" Jeremy jumped toward her when she almost lost her balance taking a hasty step backwards and dropping Damon's hand as if it had burned her.

"What happened?" Damon asked, blinking, his voice a little more hopeful than confused.

Bonnie shook her head and for a moment seemed at a loss for words. "When I touched you I saw..." she said at last rather shakily, her forehead creasing, but then her expression brightened and her head snapped up. "Maybe that's what I was doing wrong?"

"Hold on," Rebekah whispered into the phone, squinting.

"All this time I was thinking about the past," Bonnie said, closing her eyes. She tried to concentrate on the fleeting images that flashed through her head. Images and words... and she couldn't quite tell the difference between them... "While I should've been thinking about the future."

"Matt says-" Rebekah started, but then trailed off when Bonnie whirled around and chuckled brokenly at the sight.

She could see it now.

It felt as if she'd emerged from below murky waters, her eyes stinging from what felt like sand when she looked at the white-washed brick building with a bittersweet sense of relief. "Let's go."

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena began by imagining the simplest thing: a grainy forest road leading to a sandy beach.

The view, when she stopped on top of a wooden staircase, was breathtaking and without averting her eyes from the turquoise blue sea, Elena ran down the steps, making her shoes disappear before her feet touched the sand.

It wasn't very difficult to keep herself from concentrating on her memories when she could make her mind focus on something else. There was no end to future scenarios she could come up with. She didn't want to reveal her dreams, just in case her imagination could be stalked by Amanda the same way her memories had been. But making vague, flexible plans was another thing and creating a summer vacation gateway seemed like a pretty safe idea.

Of course it didn't really solve the problem, Elena thought with a sigh, slumping onto the sand and staring pensively at the waves. Avoiding Amanda in this imaginary world was one thing. But the threat of some of her memories disappearing when she'd regain her consciousness was another. She still didn't know how to prevent that from happening.

"Elena."

Elena straightened up and after a moment of hesitation rose to her feet and turned around, her eyes brightening in a smile. "Bonnie?"

Bonnie's eyes widened in surprise. "Can you hear me?" she asked hopefully.

"I can hear you and see you," Elena said, taking a few steps forward, only then noticing that Bonnie wasn't looking at her directly, as if she could only identify the direction her voice was coming from. "Can you see me?"

"Yes," Bonnie said with a frown. "I can see you, but... it doesn't look like you're saying anything..." Elena blinked in confusion, but then understanding dawned on her when Bonnie added. "We found you, but I think you're unconscious. Stefan, Caroline and Enzo are too. But don't worry, we will wake you up-"

"Bonnie, she said that when I wake up, I won't remember anything from the time when I was a vampire," Elena cut in with a grimace and then snorted mirthlessly. "She said she'd turn me 'mentally human.' I hope she was bluffing, but... What if it's true? What if it's going to be like that for all of us? Caroline would wake up not even knowing vampires were real. Stefan would wake up thinking it's 1864 and who knows what Enzo would be thinking and what year it'd be for him."

Elena looked at Bonnie, waiting for her to respond, but Bonnie's head was now turned to the side and she was repeating Elena's words to someone who must've been standing next to her in the real world, someone Elena couldn't see. She was about to ask Bonnie who she was with, but then Bonnie addressed her again.

"Elena, I don't know if I can do anything about that," Bonnie said quietly, wincing briefly. "I barely managed to get in here."

"It's OK," Elena said with a small, reassuring smile. "If there's no other way-"

"I think you told me once that there's always another way," Bonnie said with a broken smile glancing around and Elena wondered what she was seeing. "How did I do it the first time?" Bonnie suddenly asked after a moment of silence, her voice acquiring a note of desperate urgency. "Jeremy said you were the first person I told about this. How did I become a witch before?"

"You didn't become a witch, Bonnie. For a long time you just didn't believe that you were a witch," Elena said, tilting her head to the side and looking at Bonnie who still seemed to be looking through her rather than at her. "You told me that your Grams was telling you about that and that you predicted a few things, but I think the first time when you said you saw something was on the first day of school three years ago. You said that when you touched my hand-" Elena trailed off when suddenly Bonnie's body flickered, like an image on a broken TV screen and she vanished.

Elena called Bonnie's name, but then her eyes flew to her feet and she noticed that she was standing in the water that was rising surprisingly fast.

She turned around toward the sea and her eyes widened at the sight of an enormous wave climbing higher and higher, towering above her, overshadowing all the light and Elena didn't even have enough time to close her eyes before it crashed down on her.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Did you really think you could just come here, get them and leave?"

Amanda glanced fleetingly at the four operating tables on her left while throwing Bonnie, Damon and Alaric against the walls, each of them landing in a different part of the room and Damon thought it was particularly frustrating to be thrown against things he couldn't even see.

Springing back to his feet he glanced around what looked like a completely empty field of half-dried grass. He shifted his eyes between Bonnie and Alaric and once he was sure they were fairly alright, he leaped forward.

"Damon, watch out!" Bonnie called to him a second too late, because in his attempt to get to Amanda he ran into the operating tables that were invisible to him and the collision seemed to be real enough, because he caused the table that Stefan was lying on to topple over.

In an instinctive attempt to stop whatever was happening, Damon blindly reached out, his hand landing on one of Elena's hands, his eyes widening at the sudden contact.

Having noticed the expression on Damon's face Bonnie blinked at the realization that he must've felt something... which was strange, because if he couldn't see anything in here, he probably shouldn't feel anything either.

Bonnie's eyes darted to Alaric who tried to intervene, but her gaze was absent as she almost stopped paying any attention to what was going on, her thoughts beginning to run through her head at an increased speed. If Damon could feel what he wasn't 'supposed' to feel, why couldn't she do what she wasn't 'supposed' to do?

Bonnie rose to her feet, thinking back to what she'd been thinking about earlier today: that magic was in fact nothing else but love. Love was magic. Bonnie's hands rolled into fists and she frowned. Or perhaps she'd watched too many movies in the last three months. Either way, this wasn't the best time to question her doubtful theories, especially that, for once, they were actually being helpful.

"I don't want to hurt any of you!" Amanda exclaimed in agitation, extending her hands and suddenly making it impossible for them to move.

"That's a peculiar way of showing it," Alaric grunted, watching Bonnie out of the corner of his eye and deciding that averting Amanda's attention from her was probably the best course of action right now.

"I don't care about your intentions," Damon said with a grimace and Alaric acknowledged with relief that this statement was hopefully going to win Bonnie even more time to collect her thoughts, because Amanda seemed genuinely hurt by Damon's words.

"See? That's what being a vampire did to you. These are the remains of that. Humans care about intentions, because intentions matter. Because they influence our actions. Vampires are only influenced by hunger, by their thirst for blood!"

"Do you really think that?"

Amanda snorted derisively. "And what was driving you when you were murdering all those people?What kind of intentions? Beliefs? Ideals? Feelings?"

Narrowing his eyes at her in an annoyed glare, Alaric was about to retort, but Damon cut him off.

"What I was doing and why... is on me," he said in a tone that was hard, angry, sad and bitter, but also calm and clear. "You can't make assumptions about everyone based on me."

"That's not what I meant," Amanda said, shaking her head. "I don't blame you. I don't blame any of you. It's not your fault. It's like a disease that takes control and there's nothing you can do. Sadly, in case of this disease the only way to cure it is to eliminate those who carry it. But I don't want to kill them," she added quickly gesturing to the empty space between her and Damon where Alaric and Bonnie could see Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo. "I can take their minds back to where they belong. I can make their minds human again. They'll be able to start over and help everyone by killing other vampires, not innocent people."

"You want to turn them into killing machines and you consider that the right thing to do?" Bonnie exclaimed and Alaric noticed that the brick walls surrounding them began to rattle. He also noticed that there was a new edge to Bonnie's tone.

She was listening to the entire conversation and finding it strange how even the words that should shock her, seemed to be giving her some abstract, inexplicable strength instead. Somehow she was certain that there was a truth in between the words that Amanda was missing entirely. That she didn't know, didn't understand... And it was that truth that Bonnie suddenly found herself feeling protective of. That truth... These people...

"You'll find your way to the place, to the people that are your happiness, wherever that is, whoever they are."

"They already are killing machines," Amanda said with an unapologetic huff and then glanced at the walls.

She threw out her arm, but to her surprise the gesture didn't affect Bonnie in the slightest. The walls surrounding them were still shaking, beginning to disintegrate brick by brick. She tried again, but then to her further bewilderment, the force she was using seemed to bounce back and it pinned her against the wall.

Bonnie shuddered, a little startled, but then resumed her stance and focused on the tingling sensation of something coursing through her and she briefly thought she was just being oddly aware of the blood flowing through her veins, but then she realized that it wasn't blood, but something lighter, heavier, brighter...

She couldn't quite find the right words to describe it. But it didn't feel overwhelming or frightening. In a way, it felt rather intoxicating and Bonnie closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling until a loud noise broke her concentration and she opened her eyes to the building exploding around them as if a strong, tempestuous wind was mercilessly tearing the walls and the roof apart.

Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo were now all down on the floor and Alaric jumped toward them, trying to keep them from being blown away into some unknown direction. Without thinking twice about it, he tossed Elena toward Damon, who still couldn't see her, but apparently could feel her in his arms, and then, for the first time, Alaric found himself grateful for his weird super-vampire status that allowed him to grab and hold three people at the same time.

Bonnie exhaled shakily and the wind began calming down little by little. She wasn't really sure how she'd done what she'd done... whatever it was, but then she was struck by the idea that perhaps she was over-thinking this whole thing.

There were spells, of course, specific ones, she knew, but they were for specific things and she wasn't doing anything specific right now. She was just trying to protect the people she cared about.

"Let them wake up. Let them wake up," Bonnie started chanting under her breath, murmuring simple sentences that would describe as precisely as possible what it was exactly that she was trying to achieve. "Let them wake up with their memories intact. Let everyone see everything that's here. Let them wake up. Let them-"

She got so lost in repeating the words over and over again that she wasn't even aware of Amanda trying to thwart her efforts. When Bonnie opened her eyes she could see something that looked like tiny grains of dust floating around, a rippling curtain of shimmering crumbs going up and down in a constant, horizontal motion.

"Elena!..." Damon breathed out when after a few moments of fighting to see anything at all through a blinding light that was suddenly emanating from everywhere, Elena materialized in his arms, her body limp in his arms. "Elena..." He stroked her cheeks with the back of his hand, wordlessly willing her to wake up.

"Can you see them all?" Alaric asked just to make sure, trying to shake Stefan into consciousness.

Damon glanced up and looked around. "Yes," he said with a frown and then his eyes widened and he whirled around to shield Elena from a beam of dark, purple light that was thrown their way.

Bonnie's head turned to the side at the sound of Damon's muffled scream, her eyes widening in indignation when she realized that Amanda was targeting Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo again, apparently trying to keep them from waking up. Closing her eyes, Bonnie resumed her chanting, hoping that she wasn't just being naïve that it was going to work. It should work. It had to work.

She wanted it to work.

Almost simultaneously, the four vampires sat up gasping for air as if they were being awaken from a bad dream.

"Are you alright?" Alaric asked worriedly, grasping Caroline's hand when she looked so confused that he half-expected her to spring to her feet and zoom away in panic.

"Elena?" Damon cupped Elena's face in his hands, hoping that even if her memories were gone, she was feeling well otherwise.

But then something hit his back and from Elena's reaction he guessed that the purple light must've set his clothes on fire.

"Damon!" Throwing her arms around him, Elena tried to douse the flames with her bare hands.

"Elena!" Damon caught her wrists, horrified – and relieved that she seemed fully awake and conscious enough to behave in her typical, reckless way. "Don't do this," he said with a brief smile, grabbing a handful of her hair and pulling her in for a quick kiss. "Are you alright?" He asked against her lips, drawing back, suddenly anxious what she was going to think if she didn't remember-

Stefan's and Enzo's screams interrupted them, because Alaric wasn't able to block all the purple rays at the same time. Tugging Caroline away from the trajectory of the attack, he shielded her with his body, but unfortunately there was nothing he could do for Enzo and Stefan.

"Bonnie, watch out!" Stefan called out and there was something in his voice that thankfully didn't scream 1864.

Then, as if to further confirm Damon's rather joyous suspicion that everything was alright, memories-wise, Elena pressed a hurried kiss to his lips before standing up while holding onto him.

Opting for an unimpressive act of ducking, Bonnie avoided a ball of shimmering, greenish light, but wouldn't have probably avoided the second one, if it wasn't for Enzo who grabbed her hand and tossed her to the side, the light missile hitting him instead.

Bonnie shot an angry glare Amanda's way and taking a deep breath, tried to draw upon all the energy that was boiling inside her, slowly and calmly at first, but then with more confidence, more heat and she could feel the air around her changing its consistency and sprouting silvery flakes of light into every direction-

But then she felt her energy dwindle down when she noticed that there was a golden thread of some sort, a thin, shiny cord that seemed to be coming out from inside of Elena, Stefan, Caroline and Enzo, stretch across the space... and end in Amanda's hand.

"I can kill them with one flick of my hand," Amanda said without waiting for Bonnie to ask the question.

"No, you can't," Bonnie replied sternly, resuming what she had been doing, but to her surprise the energy that she was trying to direct at the vampires to free them from this strange entanglement was dispersing in different directions in chaotic patterns.

"Maybe I'm not a Bennett witch, but you can't beat me. You can't control your magic without your memories," Amanda said with a fleeting, sour smile. "You may have the power, but you don't know how to use it. Right now, you don't stand a chance against me."

"Did you erase our memories?" Bonnie asked, struck by the thought, terrified but also baffled by the suspicion, because she remembered Damon telling her that it was her grandmother who had told them they could've come back to life, but the price was losing their memories... But how could her grandmother have known that some witch would've decided to wipe out their past? Why her grandmother wouldn't have told them what exactly was going to happen? Had she made it happened? Had she predicted that?

Why had they come back to this particular place?

"I didn't want to erase them," Amanda said, glancing at Damon. "But my father wouldn't let you live if you kept any of them, so I had to erase them all."

Bonnie stared at her, for a second getting lost in her thoughts, trying to put all the elements of the mystery together. Why were they here?

"Bonnie!" Caroline screamed and tried to zoom toward her, but Amanda tripped her and then threw a fiery icicle Bonnie's way.

Elena inhaled sharply and snatching herself out of Damon's embrace jumped toward Bonnie, swirling her around, the weapon missing them both and bursting into tiny, blue flames right next to them.

Bonnie's eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat when she suddenly realized that she was afraid. Not for herself, but for everyone else. It was a bittersweet kind of feeling, because while it was making her anxious, terrified and worried, it also felt comfortingly familiar, like a link, a hidden connection between this moment now and the past she didn't remember.

"Are you alri-" Elena started, but then felt as if every muscle of her body was being split into a bundle of nerves that were in turn being pulled by someone, her body dragged backwards and hurting as if a million of needles were piercing through it.

And that link had a name, Bonnie thought in awe, in fear, in exhilaration. It was danger that triggered it all.

Perhaps that was why her grandmother had sent them her, of all places. Because she'd known they would've been in danger here and she must've known, Bonnie thought, following a train of thought that was becoming clearer and firmer and more astounding in her head with every second, that they would've wanted, most of all, to come back home and perhaps the only way for them to come back home was to be in danger, because only danger could trigger- Because maybe it was danger that had triggered it the first time!.. Because only danger could-

Elena's hand slipped out of Bonnie's, but Bonnie didn't even move. She stood frozen to the spot, looking at her outstretched hand, her fingers trembling at the lost contact while Elena was being pulled away from her.

The same thing was happening with Enzo, Caroline and Stefan.

Damon grabbed Elena and managed to grab Stefan, glancing at Alaric who was trying to hold Caroline and Enzo in place.

But resisting the force that was pulling them toward Amanda seemed impossible. It was now pushing everyone toward her, the threads in her hand seemingly unbreakable despite having an appearance of thin, transparent rays of yellowish light.

"If the threads break, they will die," Amanda warned.

"What the hell are you doing?" Enzo muttered angrily, trying to get hold of the thread coming out of his chest, but his hand just kept going right through it.

"I told you in the projection. You'll lose your vampire memories, be almost human again, become an Augustine."

"You're insane!" Caroline hissed in annoyance, stifling a cry at the pain caused by the thread stuck in her chest. It felt as if a countless number of little hooks were sunk in her body and tugging on every part of it.

"It's almost done," Amanda said with eerie tranquility. "It's like a sire bond. I'm sure you've heard of it. You'll be sired to the Augustine Society. You'll be truly happy helping us, I promise. And like I said, you'll feel almost human."

"No!..." Elena whispered, shaking her head and looking up at Damon whose arm was still firmly wrapped around her, but his eyes kept darting to the thread springing out of Elena's chest that looked like it was about to be severed.

"If the thread breaks, she'll die," Amanda repeated, apparently noticing what was happening.

Alaric looked between everyone in dismay, so focused on what was going on that it was almost only accidentally that he realized that Bonnie had been completely quiet for more than a few seconds.

She was standing motionlessly, staring straight ahead with unseeing, glittering eyes, her breathing even, but very shallow.

Wielding another icicle made out of flames, Amanda sent Damon and Alaric to the ground, dark blue flames rising around them.

Helplessly trying to fight against being dragged away by the golden thread along with Enzo, Stefan and Caroline, Elena screamed. She was beginning to see her surroundings only as an amorphous, blurry shape and she realized that she was crying, that something horrible, something irreversible was happening and that she was going to lose more than just some of her memories. She was going to lose herself, she was going to lose everything-

Elena felt the tears roll down her cheeks and she closed her eyes. It was a feeling similar to what she'd felt when she'd been running madly through the forest, trying to get away from Katherine's spell.

She couldn't believe that something like that was happening again, that her life was going to be torn away from her again, that she was going to forget her past, that she wasn't going to have the future she wanted to have, that she wasn't going to feel what she wanted to feel, be whom she wanted to be, that she'd lose, again, everything that she'd been fighting so hard for, that she'd recovered against all odds and was going to cherish forever if only-

"I saw a crow."

Elena's eyes fluttered open in what felt like neverending slow-motion.

She didn't know if it was her who had somehow stopped moving or if Amanda had stopped pulling them toward her or if the entire world had stopped altogether... All she knew was that there was something in Bonnie's voice that rendered everyone silent, even if no one else was able to understand the meaning behind her words, the words that brought tears to Elena's eyes even before they fully registered in her mind.

Bonnie's voice wasn't loud or quiet, happy, sad or angry, hopeful or defeated. It just sounded broken. It sounded as if it was breaking with every word. Over and over again. Each word was heavy with tears, each word seemed to be weighing Bonnie's entire figure down, pushing onto her shoulders, onto her thoughts, bringing more and more tears to her feverishly shining eyes.

Damon and Alaric jumped across the flames that vanished once they were clear of them.

"There was fog..." Bonnie continued and suddenly her voice seemed to be losing its innate brokenness. Suddenly it sounded all patched up, as if it was healing, syllable by syllable. "A man..."

Amanda's eyes narrowed in suspicious bewilderment. It didn't look like Bonnie was doing anything, her words making no sense whatsoever and yet...

Elena's breath caught in her throat and she choked on air, Amanda's eyes flying to her, darting between her and Bonnie as she was trying to decipher the significance of the words Bonnie was saying that only Elena seemed to understand.

"And I have this feeling..." Bonnie whispered and then to Amanda's and everyone else's further confusion she laughed and Elena laughed too, fresh tears springing to her eyes when ignoring the thread, not even knowing or caring if it was still there, Elena whirled around, her gaze meeting Bonnie's when she added, her voice shaking so much she was hardly able to get the words out. "That it's just the beginning."

Both Elena and Bonnie were crying and laughing at the same time and Amanda was beginning to feel annoyed by this, but then her blood froze in her veins when Bonnie's eyes shifted to her emanating with light she'd only suspected during these last three months, but had never seen.

Bonnie closed her eyes for a second and when she opened them again, white feathers were swirling everywhere. Elena grinned feverishly and when she turned around she landed in Damon's arms.

"She remembers," Elena whispered and Damon's eyes widened in surprise.

"I can do this," Bonnie whispered to herself when she heard Hope crying in her head.

She ended the connection and tried to find the strength within, tried to draw the power only from inside her mind, inside her heart.

With a frown Amanda realized that the white feathers that were swirling around everyone, especially Elena, Caroline, Stefan and Enzo, were blocking her energy from impacting them and the threads in her hand that kept them linked to her were beginning to fade.

She tried to stop that from happening by countering Bonnie's energy with hers wasn't really working, so with the last, greatest effort, she splashed what looked like a cloud of dirty dust over the four of them.

Bonnie intensified her efforts, tears mixed with blood flowing down her face and at last she managed to start pushing back so hard that Amanda was thrown back so far away that they lost any sight of her.

All the four threads snapped at once.

Caroline, Stefan and Enzo dropped to the ground right in front of Alaric's eyes and when he looked to the side he noticed that Elena collapsed in Damon's arms.

"They're alive," Bonnie whispered, answering the dismayed looks on Damon's and Alaric's faces.

She slid to the ground and wiped the tears and blood off her face with the back of her hand, her breathing noisy and uneven.

She looked up as if she was seeing the sky for the first time, her nails digging into the ground and she couldn't quite decide if the breathtaking feeling pulsating in her head, in her chest was mostly regret or relief or perhaps just both, entwined.

"Are you alright?" Damon asked, cradling Elena to him and looking Bonnie up and down.

Bonnie nodded with a grim smile.

"Why did they lose consciousness?" Alaric asked, looking between Caroline, Stefan and Enzo.

"I couldn't-" Bonnie coughed and then drew a breath. "I had to choose what to protect while breaking the spell," she said with a grimace. "I couldn't protect everything. I chose to protect their lives," she said quietly, but Damon and Alaric still looked rather perplexed, so she added with a frown. "I couldn't protect their memories."

Alaric exhaled slowly. Damon blinked rapidly a few times before his eyes shifted to Elena.

"They lost all of their vampire memories," Bonnie said, wincing. "I'm sorry."

Damon's eyes darted to her. "You're sorry?" He echoed and Bonnie marveled inwardly at subconsciously expecting what he was going to say next. "You saved them," he said with a brief smile and a thankful nod.

But then after taking a look around at everyone his eyes returned to Elena with an involuntary sigh.

"Do you see a future with me? Because that's all I see."

With a weak half-grimace, half-smile Damon leaned his forehead against Elena's and closed his eyes.