A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews! I'm happy to read all of them! I was so sad about Kol's death last night!:( Don't worry I'm still continuing the story into season 4, but it's going to be different than originally planned out. I hope you guys like this chapter and thank you again!
Goodbye, Old You:
Somehow they all ended up inside an empty classroom, minus Elena, Caroline and Tyler. Elena was taken by Esther and they now needed to find her, before she did something to her. Bonnie was now working on a spell that would help break the boundary around the school, but she was having some difficulty with it. Damon, Stefan Klaus, Jamie and Jeremy were all standing around. "She does this all the time, right?" Jamie, Bonnie's date asked.
"What's taking so long?" Klaus complained. "All boundary spells have a loop hole. He reminded Bonnie. The last thing he would do is have Elizabeth do the spell, not after what happened when she unlinked them all. Beth shot him a look, telling him to shut up.
At that moment, Matt walked into the room. "People are walking right out of the dance, past the barrier." He informed them, confirming that vampires were the only ones that were trapped there.
"Matt and I can leave, we can stop Esther ourselves. We just got to find out where she is." Jeremy suggested.
"I'll go with you." Beth added in. Damon shot her a warning look, but she didn't care. There was no way she would let the two boys go by themselves, not after hearing that Alaric was somewhere with Esther and Elena.
"It's suicide, Beth." Stefan told her simply.
Klaus rushed over to Jamie and grabbed him by his neck, hoisting him up into the air. Bonnie gasped. "Suicide would be disappointing me." He turned to Bonnie. "Now, work your magic, witch or I'll start killing people you fancy." He didn't have anything to lose. Elizabeth obviously felt nothing, but hate for him. It wouldn't matter what she thought now, if she wouldn't hear him out.
Before Beth could yell at him, Stefan handled it calmly, stepping towards him. "Ah, don't be stupid, Klaus. Bonnie doesn't give a damn about us. The only reason she's helping us right now is to save Caroline and Tyler. You start killing the people she cares about, she'll tell us all to go to hell." Bonnie nodded, agreeing. Klaus thought about this for a second, before slowing putting Jamie down."
There was an awkward silence for a moment, before Beth decided to take the lead. She turned to Matt and Jeremy. "Come on, guys. We need weapons. Bonnie, we need a map of the town, it should be in Alaric's classroom." She told her. She nodded as the two witches left the room to the History classroom.
Bonnie grabbed the map off of the wall behind Alaric's desk and put it down. Damon and Klaus walked in behind them. "Here. Jeremy made a little Gilbert blood donation for your locator spell." Bonnie left quickly, not wanting to be in the room with them.
"I'll work on the boundary spell." She nodded at Beth before leaving. Beth looked at the two vampires.
"Can I get some space?"
Klaus backed off, knowing it was best to just do what she asked at the moment, but Damon wasn't that lenient. "You're still mad at me for what happened with Junior?" Damon scoffed.
"No, cause I get it. You have to save Elena, you always have to save her, even when she's not in trouble." Beth snapped at him. Klaus came between them before it got ugly, which he knew it could.
"How about we save this for later, love?" He asked her. She shot him a dirty look and turned to the map. Taking the blood from Damon's hand, she poured it onto the map. She closed her eyes as she muttered an incantation under her breath, but all it did was form a circle that wouldn't move. She pushed to try and make it move, but it wasn't working. "Love." Klaus handed her a handkerchief, worried and she took it to wipe the blood that she hadn't notice was coming from her nose.
Damon didn't notice though. "Esther is fighting me." She told them.
"Esther couldn't possible have this much power. Unless...she's channeling something." Klaus realized looking at the map.
"Hotspot?"
Klaus nodded and then grinned. He turned to Damon. "Get the humans ready, I know where she is." He told him. He left without another word as Beth wrapped up the map. "They're at the old cemetery, I suspect that's where that godfather of yours is. Elizabeth, I know this isn't the time, but we really need to talk about this."
"There's nothing to talk about." She insisted, turning away from him. "I need to get ready to go."
"You can't go with them." He said incredulously. She scoffed at him. "Love, you can barely do a simple spell, without having a reaction. There is no way you're going up again my mother. You and I both know it's not just stress and that you're sick and you won't stop doing magic.
"It is just stress and I can do this. You don't know my limits, Klaus. And you of all people can't tell me what to do." She snapped back at the hybrid. The fact that he was trying to tell her what to do was laughable, if she wasn't so angry with him. Klaus swung her around to face him.
"I know that this is hard for you to believe, but I care about you. I do, Elizabeth and I can't stand by and watch you get hurt. I can't risk your life, again, love. I made a mistake before. There's nothing more in the world that I'll regret than what I did to you, but I can't stand by and let you get hurt again." He told her sincerely. If he lost her because of this, he didn't know what he'd do.
There was a part of Beth that desperately wanted to trust what he said and take his advice, but she knew what he did. And she couldn't' wait around while her family was in trouble. "I need to go, Klaus. I'm sorry." She said softly as she walked past him and into the hallways where the boys were waiting for her. As soon as she was gone out of his sight, he punched student's table, splinting the wood, but he didn't care. He ran off the only person besides family he cared about and he didn't know if he'd ever get her back again.
xxxxx
Beth walked quietly with Matt and Jeremy, as they walked quietly to the tomb they knew Esther, Elena and Alairc were in. "Over here." She whispered as Matt went on the other and she stayed next to Jeremy. Slowly, Esther walked outside. "Don't move." Matt shouted, cocking his gun.
"Where's Elena?" Jeremy asked from the other side. At that moment, Elena came running out of the tomb.
"Jeremy." She said with fear. She didn't understand how they found her, or why they were here, but all she wanted to do was get her little brother away from her. Beth went to grab Elena, but something stopped her from moving and she stood in front of Esther.
"Let her go."
Esther looked at the teenagers confused. "How foolish of you, to risk you lives in defense of those who will kill you. But if that is your choice." She suddenly made Matt and Jermy point their weapons at Beth.
"Matt! Matt, drop your gun!" Jeremy shouted as he realized that it was aimed directly at Beth's head and his crossbow was aimed at the same angle. "Beth, move!"
"I can't!" She yelled. She tried to stop Esther from controlling the boys, but she had too much power on her side. Just trying to stop her, gave her a splitting headache. "Matt!"
"I can't I'm not controlling it!" He shouted back apologetically.
"Esther stop it!" Elena screamed, scared.
Before she could get hurt, Alaric came up from behind and stabbed Esther, from the back. She fell dead and Jeremy and Matt, could put their weapons down. Alaric looked shocked and immediately looked over at Beth, who ran into his arms. He hugged her close, thanking God she was safe. He suddenly, remembered to check his hand. "Oh my God, where's my ring?" Elena looked away somberly. "Tell me what happened." Alaric tightened his grip on his goddaughter, as she waited for Elena to explain, knowing that her answer wouldn't be good.
After Elena explained everything to them, Jeremy and Beth went out to meet Damon to tell him everything. They walked back inside to see Alaric and Elena together. "Damon's here and Klaus took Esther's body." The younger Gilbert informed them.
"Does he know about the stake?" Ric asked.
"No, only that she tried and failed to turn you into a weapon." She nodded, before looking at the two of them. They both looked guilty, but more than anything heart-broken. "What's going on?"
"Listen guys, I'm...I'm not going to completely the transition. The dark side was dangerous enough as a human. I can't be a vampire." He told them honestly, looking mostly at Beth for her reaction, but she couldn't speak. Her face said it all though. She didn't know how to take it.
"So, what? We're just going to lock you in here and let you die? No, no we can't!" Jeremy said completely against the idea. He looked to Beth for support, but she still couldn't find her words.
Listen, Jeremy, it's the right thing to do, okay. After everything that's happened, after all that I've done. Maybe I had it coming." He sighed. Jeremy shook his head and started to walk away. He didn't want to hear that. Elena sighed going after him.
"Hey, wait, Jer...Alaric this isn't your fault."
Alaric sighed looking at the siblings and his own goddaughter. "Please, guys let's not make this any harder than it already is. You should go. Damon's here. He'll make sure it'll all go down the right way." He assured them. Jeremy started to walk away again. "Hey."
"Don't. Don't give me some crap speech about how I need to be the man of the house." Jeremy said upset.
"Okay, I won't." He nodded as he hugged him. Jeremy hugged him back, before slowly pulling away and leaving.
"I'm sorry." Elena cried as she hugged Alaric.
"Hey, this isn't your fault. There's nothing you could have done." He assured her as he gave her a hug too. He couldn't look at Beth just yet. He didn't know what he could say. "You should go." She nodded and left, understand that he and Beth needed to be alone.
As soon as Elena left, he turned to Beth. "Beth."
"Please, don't do this." She asked him, finally looking up. She couldn't handle losing him. He could see she was crying and he hated to see that. Instead of answering her, he just brought her into his arms. "Please, Alaric. Please don't leave me."
"I'm sorry, sweetie. I'm so sorry." He apologized, holding her close.
"I should have done something. This is all of my fault. I-I should have protected you. I said that we were going to protect each other." She sobbed into his shoulder. Alaric kissed her head, in an effort to soothe her. He was the one person who had been there through everything and now she didn't know how to say goodbye to him.
"It's not your fault, Beth. Hey, you couldn't have done anything." He told her truthfully. He pulled back so she could look at him. "Hey, don't you dare blame yourself. You've been with me through everything, but I can't risk your life being in danger because of me."
Beth nodded. "I need you, Alaric. Y-you've been then just a guardian, you're...you're my dad. You're my father, Ric. A-and I need you to keep being my father, please." She cried, hugging him again. Alaric started to tear up at her words.
"Hey, it's going to be okay. You, Beth, you're strong enough to get through anything, You're the strongest person I know." He told her honestly, wiping away her tears. "And I've never been more proud to be like a father to you. Taking care of you has been the closest thing I've come to the life I wanted, Beth." Beth smiled weakly at him.
Alaric sniffled, in a way to rid himself of the tears, he knew would come. "I love you. I need you to be strong, okay?" She nodded, not trusting herself to respond. "Alright, you should...you should go. Damon will make sure everything goes down okay. I don't want you to see this." Beth hesitated, but nodded as they walked outside of the tomb, where they saw a gathering of their friends. Stefan, Damon, Caroline, Tyler, Matt, Bonnie, Jeremy, Elena and even Meredith were there, holding candles. He was touched and he couldn't hold the tears anymore. Giving one last sad glance at his goddaughter, he went back inside the tomb.
Beth didn't move for a moment, looking over at her friends she knew that she didn't have it in her to put on a brave face and talk to them. Damon took a step towards her, as a sign of comfort, instead, she went around the side of the tomb into the woods, not letting anyone see her as the tears fell.
xxxxx
Beth somehow ended up deep into the woods. She couldn't go back to the loft right now. She didn't care that it was late or that she had no idea where she was. All she wanted to do was stop Alaric and make him drink blood, but she couldn't. She looked behind her to make sure no one followed her. As soon as she realized she was alone, she broke down. It came on sudden as the tears rushed down her face and she sat on the floor of the woods, and let all the pain, rage and sorrow come out. She hadn't cried like this since her mother's death and it was worst this time around.
Beth was unaware that there was someone walking towards her, until they were right in front of her. Seeing shoes, she lifted her head to meet the eyes of Klaus. He looked down at her with sadness and sympathy. She stood up before hitting him in the chest. It was a weak hit, but she needed to do it, so she did it again and again. To her surprised, he didn't stop her, just let her hit him, until he grabbed her hand and pulled her against him. After a few minutes, she eventually stopped completely and let herself cry into his chest. She didn't fight him as he held her close and rubbed circles in her back as in effort to calm her down. She just cried, not knowing the worst was yet to come.
