Chapter 005

Loyalty

Monday, December 06, 2010, at around 10:00 p.m.

Outside the Salvatore Boarding House

Almost six hours and several phone calls later, Elijah pulls into the driveway of The Salvatore Boarding House and parks his Mercedes. He schools his features into a slightly understanding and sympathetic countenance, though, he makes sure not to overplay his part lest his enemies figure out the game he's decided to play with them all.

When Elena gets out of the electric blue Camaro, Elijah notices that her shoulders are drooped and although she's not making eye contact with anyone her eyes look even more haunted than they were back in Pennsylvania. He thinks, 'If Kol did, in fact, kill her brother, The Hunter, while he was inside her body then I have no doubt the girl truly is haunted.'

He finds it disturbing to see the once so bright and upbeat young woman look so downtrodden. However, in his humble opinion, she never should have planned to kill his younger brother. Elijah heard enough from his sister and Niklaus during his phone calls to them while driving to know there was an actual plan to kill Kol and that Elena and Jeremy actively set a trap, so he feels it's really her own damn fault.

Once Damon leads the original into the house Elijah turns to catch Damon's eye and compels him, "You will bring me down to the cell and give me the key. Then you and Elena will stand still and not move or say anything until I have left."

Damon repeats everything Elijah just said, but then Tyler comes out of the living room to investigate what's going on, so Elijah quickly compels him too before turning to Elena. Although catching her eye is a little more difficult than usual, he manages and then repeats the compulsion on her. Once she repeats it back to him, he sweeps his arm towards the stairs to the basement and tells Damon, "Lead the way."

Damon does as he's told and soon Elijah has the key to the cell in his hand, and he's looking in on Stefan lying on the floor looking a little too pale for Elijah's comfort while his brother is inside of the younger vampire.

Turning to Damon who is just standing behind him like he told him to, Elijah compels the usually sarcastic pain in the ass, "Get me three blood bags."

When Elijah has three blood bags in hand, he opens the door and walks in before squatting beside his baby brother's host and saying, "Kol, Brother, can you hear me?"

The younger original nods, "Yes… Brother… I… can… hear… you."

Kol's voice is weak, and it takes a bit of effort on his part to answer his brother. Elijah wonders, 'Just how much did they bleed Stefan and how is it that Damon didn't seem to care that by harming my brother he was also harming his own brother.'

Before Elijah gives his younger brother blood and returns his strength to him, he tells his baby brother, "I need you to listen very closely, Kol, okay?"

Though very weak Kol nods ever so slightly, so Elijah continues softly, "I have not done right by you in the past, and I know this, so I am going to help you now. I'm going to allow you to possess me, but first, once you are inside me and in control, I need you to find someone powerful and possess them and live their life for the rest of eternity. It can be me if you want, or you can choose someone else, that choice is yours alone, though, Niklaus has offered the use of his body until we can make other arrangements, so he might be the better choice because he is as close to indestructible as a creature can get. Either way, you are our brother, and we will not do wrong by you today. We only hope that we can make up to you our continued lapses in judgment when we repeatedly neutralized you, be it by giving you our bodies to reside in or even if it's just to get you out of here now. Know that you are our brother, Always and Forever, and if you do choose Niklaus' body for the time being, I will help you find the most suitable person to take over for the rest of eternity. If you remain inside me, Niklaus has sworn to do the same, and we brainstormed several ideas during our conversation, so he knows my thoughts on the matter.

Kol smiles just ever so slightly and softly says, "Always and Forever, Brother."

Elijah nods and repeats the words before he opens the first blood bag valve and holds it up to his brother's mouth. Kol quickly finishes the bag and has enough strength back to hold the next bag on his own. After he has drunk the second bag, he smiles and tells Elijah, "You do know that by feeding me human blood you are ensuring that Stefan will crave it and likely remain off the animal diet for the foreseeable future?"

Elijah shows he can be just as vindictive as his siblings when he smiles and tells his brother, "I am aware, and that is actually the only reason I fed you. Otherwise, I would have just allowed you to jump straight from him to me without feeding him. Consider it my payback for all he and his friends have done to our family."

Kol laughs and asks, "Will you object if I compel Damon and Tyler to do some things for me, once we leave?"

Frowning again, Elijah shakes his head once and then tells him, "I meant what I said Kol, I will support you in all ways possible. My loyalty is now yours equally with Niklaus and Rebekah. No more playing favorites. I owe you no less for all the ways I have wronged you."

When Kol finishes the third bag, he stands and then tosses the empty container to the floor. Walking out of the cell he catches Tyler's eye before compelling him, "You will not remember the details of this compulsion or that Elijah was here and has helped me escape. When my brother and I leave, you will make your excuses and go find Matt, and you will kill him in the most painful way you can come up with. When you finish, you will return here and tell Damon and Elena what you did and stand still until Damon kills you. You also will not do or know anything for one hour after I release you."

Tyler repeats the compulsion, so Kol turns to Damon and compels him, "You will not remember this compulsion or that Elijah was here and has helped me escape. You will still think that I am possessing Stefan until he proves otherwise. When Tyler comes to you and tells you that he has killed Matt you will rip out his heart. Then you will find Stefan and rip out his heart preferably with Elena watching while you do it. You also will not do or know anything for one hour after I release you."

Damon repeats the compulsion, so Kol turns to Elena and compels her not to remember his older brother helping him or the compulsions he placed on Damon and Tyler. Then he turns back to his older sibling and says, "If you don't mind compel Stefan to lose an hour, but make sure you use his name just in case I can be compelled while in his body."

Elijah nods and says, "Of course brother," then he catches Stefan's eyes and tells him, "Stefan, you will know nothing and do nothing for the next hour."

Kol repeats his brother's words back to him, so he smiles and then holds out his hand. Elijah takes an unnecessary breath and then grabs hold of his brother's hand while he tries to consciously drop his mental defenses, so the younger man can enter his body.

The next thing I know, Elijah and I are sitting in the same cell Elena had been in while staring at the painting on the beige wall of the Gilbert's downstairs hallway from inside the mirror. I try to leave but again some outside force is preventing me from going elsewhere, so I sit on the ground and wait to see how long we will remain here. If Kol is smart, and he usually is, he will take Elijah's advice and find Niklaus and overtake him temporarily.

I have no idea how long we wait, but then suddenly I feel a pull, and then I'm looking at Niklaus and Elijah. It only takes me a moment to realize that Kol did, in fact, take his brother's advice and has taken over the hybrid's body, thus returning Elijah to his own body once more.

Kol in Niklaus' body turns to their older brother and says, "I hope you meant what you said, Brother, because if you betray me again, I won't hesitate to get even."

Elijah smiles and tells him honestly, "Always and Forever, Brother, mine and Niklaus' loyalty is now yours."

The younger original smiles and they embrace each other's forearm to forearm and then Elijah pulls Kol into a half hug. When Kol pulls back, he smiles and says, "This is a new beginning Elijah, I can feel it."

Elijah nods, and they go upstairs to their rooms to sleep after a rather long day. Surprisingly they fall asleep quickly. Tomorrow is a new day, and their enemies will be destroying themselves, and Elijah hopes he will be able to repair his relationship with his youngest surviving brother.

I stand in Niklaus' studio for a few minutes and then I think myself back to The Salvatore Boarding House to see what Damon and Elena are up to now that The Original Brothers have vacated the premises.

When I arrive at the boarding house I 'land' in the basement. Looking around the basement, I see that the foursome is still just standing there staring off into space totally unaware of their surroundings, so now I know that Kol managed to possess Niklaus in under an hour. I lean against the wall and wait for them to all come to. Roughly ten minutes later, first Tyler, then Damon, and then Elena shift their feet ever so slightly, so I look up and my eyes land on Damon and Tyler while Elena's do the same.

She wonders, 'How did we get here?' The last she recalls is going to find Katherine. She continues her internal questioning, 'Did Kol possess me again?' Pausing the doppelgänger considers her companions' appearances. They seem just as confused as she is, so she decides that Kol probably didn't possess her again because he couldn't have possessed all three of them at the same time. That also doesn't take into account the mystery of how they came to be back at the house. Kol possessing her wouldn't account for the confusion all three of them seem to be exhibiting.

Stefan is looking around too. No one seems to have realized he's not in the cell where they last put him until he asks, "Damon what's going on?"

All eyes snap to Stefan's before Damon responds by punching him in the face and then using his confusion to toss him into the cell. He slams the door closed and locks it. While he breathes heavily, he tells Stefan, "You won't fool us a second time, Kol."

Elena looks to Damon's left and sees Jeremy who says, "Yeah he won't be fooled like you were Elena. How could you let him kill me? It's all your fault. If you hadn't have come up with the brilliant idea for me to kill Kol and his entire sire-line, I'd still be alive."

She tears her eyes away from her brother's ghost despite her knowing he's telling the truth and focuses on what Stefan is saying, "I swear I'm not Kol. Ask me things only I would know."

Damon just frowns so his younger brother supplies, "I know it wasn't you who snuck into Mary Francis' room when I was seven and cut off her curls. I did it because she picked on me the day before, but her father accused you, and Father switched you in front of her father."

He pauses then adds, "I also know it wasn't you who glued the pages of Father's Bible to each other. I did that too figuring it'd be funny, but he thought you did it, and he switched you for that too."

Stefan pauses again and when his brother doesn't respond with more than a frown he tells Damon, "I know you lost your virginity to Ellen Lockwood on your 14th birthday."

Tyler chooses that moment to butt in with, "Dude, you slept with my ancestor?"

Damon still doesn't say anything, but I catch him rolling his cerulean eyes when Stefan says, "Uh huh, I can list all the women he slept with until Katherine turned us. Let's see there was Ellen and then Lucy Montgomery, and Elizabeth Fell, then there was…"

Damon takes a step towards the window and says, "Okay, I believe you're you, now shut up," then he reopens the door and goes in helping Stefan stand.

Despite having fed on three bags of human blood while Kol still possessed him, Stefan leans on his brother's shoulder while they leave the cell and the three vampires and one hybrid all head upstairs to the living room. When they get upstairs, Tyler tells them, "Uh, I have something I need to do, so I'll catch you guys later okay?"

I wish there were a way to warn them of Matt's impending death, but I know I'm helpless to stop or change the future in any way. Unaware of what's coming, they all nod, so Tyler leaves while the rest of them sit down and Damon looks at Stefan long and hard before he says, "So, somehow Kol escaped and we have no idea how or who he's possessing right now."

Stefan and Elena both nod, so while Elena ignores her mother standing to the left of her ex-boyfriend across from her she asks, "So what do we do now?"

Miranda throws in, "Oh, now you want to fix it, but you couldn't be bothered to save your own brother's life."

Elena puts her hands over her ears and tells her mother, "Stop, I didn't know Kol possessed anyone, or I would have stopped him from killing Jeremy."

She barely notices when Stefan's green eyes widen before he asks his brother, "Uh, Jeremy's dead?"

Damon nods and tells his brother, "Yes, Kol killed him while in Elena's body, so she's dealing with The Hunter's Curse right now. I don't know who she was just talking to, but you can be sure they're blaming her for everything and tormenting her at every turn."

Stefan just nods so Damon nods back then says, "What we need is a witch, does anyone know how to get in touch with that witch Katherine brought here when she was after the moonstone? She was Bonnie's cousin, right? Would her contact info be in Bonnie's phone?"

Nodding Elena tells him, "I know they've been talking hold on a sec. I have Bonnie's phone in your room."

Running up the stairs, I'm dragged with her while she studiously ignores my grandbaby's ghost who says, "Yeah just go rifling through my things. You let me die, and now I don't even get the right to privacy? You're useless Elena."

After she grabs the phone off the bedside table, she tells her best friend's ghost, "Shut up, just… shut up!"

Without waiting for the hallucination of Bonnie to respond, she just turns on her heel and heads back down the stairs and then hands the phone to Damon before telling him, "Her name is Lucy Bennett. You better call her because I'm not entirely sure what's real and what's not."

He nods and flips through my granddaughter's contact list before smiling and hitting the send button.

It picks up after the second ring, and the voice of my grandmother's great-great niece says, "Bonnie, how's it going?"

Damon frowns and says, "Uh, actually this is Damon Salvatore. I have some sad news. Bonnie tried to raise Silas, and he killed her before a hunter killed him."

We can all hear the tears in Lucy's voice when she says, "Oh my God!"

With an ever-deepening frown, Damon tells her, "We're in a bit of a jam, and we need a witch to help contain an original who is possessing people and killing all of our loved ones while he is in our bodies. I know you don't owe us anything, but Bonnie would have helped us, and you're our last shot at figuring out how to fix this."

Lucy sighs and then says, "I'm not in Baton Rouge right now. I'm visiting friends in Charlotte, so once I get some supplies, I can be there in five or six hours. I'll meet you at the Gilbert's house around 7 a.m."

Damon nods even though she can't see it and says, "Okay, we'll see you then."

For five hours I sit and watch Damon try to soothe his girlfriend and compete with her hallucinations for her attention. Stefan seems lost in his own mind and after seeing that he's reliving fucking and killing several people the night before I do my best to stay out of his mind.

I sigh in relief when Damon says, "Okay, it's time to go to Elena's."

Fifteen minutes later, finds us in the Gilbert's old house. Elena wants to tear out her own hair because the spirits of her loved ones just won't leave her alone. On some level, she knows they're not real and are in fact just hallucinations, but they're very convincing. She finds it surprising, though, that none of them are trying to get her to kill herself this time for which she is incredibly grateful. Instead, the ghosts have been having fun ridiculing her every move and when she enters her house she cringes when Jeremy's spirit says, "Ah, back to where you hatched up the crazy plan that got me killed."

Damon leads Elena, who is very distracted, understandably so, into the living room and sits her down on the couch. He hasn't let her out of his sight for more than a few minutes at a time. When she asks, "Damon, why are you stuck to me like glue?"

He smiles sadly and tells her, "I remember what you tried to do the last time you were cursed, and I'm not going to lose you, not after everything we've been through to be together. I will always save you if I can."

A tear slips out of her chestnut eye, which he stops with his thumb before he leans in and kisses his girlfriend then he pulls back and says, "I love you, Elena. We will fix this."

She just nods and ignores Jeremy and Bonnie's indignant snorts.

A moment later the doorbell rings, so Damon gets up and answers the door. He comes back with a tall, statuesque woman that Elena knows is Bonnie's cousin. She's actually the granddaughter of my aunt, so she's my second cousin and Bonnie's second cousin twice removed.

She nods at Elena and asks, "It was a five-hour drive. Do you mind if I use your bathroom before we figure out what's going on?"

Elena shakes her head and tells her, "No, go down the hall, and it's the second door on the right."

Lucy disappears down the hallway, but all three vampires rush to her side when she gasps and says, "Oh My God!"

When we reach the hallway, she is standing there staring into the mirror, so Damon says, "I don't think you look bad even after a five-hour trip, so what's up?"

She points to the mirror and asks, "Do you know him?"

The three vampires lean in and look, and Elena thinks, 'Oh My God, is that Klaus?'

Damon frowns and says, "That's Klaus, the brother of Kol, the one possessing people. How is he in there?"

Elena reaches toward the mirror, but Lucy grabs her hand, "Whatever you do don't touch the glass or we'll have two originals possessing people. As for how he's in there, my guess is he's who his brother is currently possessing."

Elena just nods, so Lucy says, "Bathroom first, then I'll look through my book, I think I have the spell to fix this if you can get me the ingredients I'll need."

Now it's Damon's turn to nod, so Lucy strides to the bathroom, and we head back to the living room. A few minutes later she returns and sits down across from the vampires before asking, "So how did Kol die? I assume because his brother is trapped in your mirror that Kol died in this house?"

Damon explains all that has happened in the last few weeks and then Lucy nods and takes a big book out of her bag. She begins flipping through her grimoire, which I recognize as having been my aunt's at one point. Mumbling to herself she flips each page before quickly scanning what's written on it and then turning to the following page until she says, "Got it, so I need… damn, I don't suppose you have the DNA of either of The Originals?"

Damon's ever-present frown deepens, but he says, "We know where Kol's body is buried and Caroline was bitten by Klaus, that's how she died so his bite should have the remains of his venom, which would be DNA right?"

Lucy nods, so Damon turns to his brother and asks, "Do you feel up to collecting DNA, Brother, because you're the one who buried them and therefore you know specifically where they're at?"

Stefan nods and takes the keys from his older brother's outstretched hand.

Despite being slightly tired Lucy is incredibly determined, so she stands at the same time Stefan does. She smiles kindly at all of them and says, "I need some things from my trunk, I'll be right back," and then she follows Stefan outside.

She returns a minute later with a small box filled with jars before she says, "Fortunately, I had some idea of what herbs I would need. I brought everything I thought might be required, so I think I have all the herbs necessary for the spell."

Setting the box on the coffee table she begins taking jars out of it.

Meanwhile, Elena just stares off into space while she unsuccessfully ignores her parent's when they say, "You're such a disappointment, Elena. The daughter we loved wouldn't have killed our son."

She tunes everything out to the best of her ability and just sort of zones out, and I take my cues from her and follow suit. I'm brought back to the real world by Stefan coming in through the front door. He hands Lucy something wrapped in cloth before he says, "The finger is Kol's, the other is what I could get of the bite in Caroline's shoulder."

Caroline chooses that moment to appear and tell her best friend, "Yeah a bite I wouldn't have gotten if you hadn't come up with the harebrained idea to kill a freaking original. I'd still be alive, Elena, if it wasn't for you!"

Elena sits up straight and staring straight into her best friends eyes she shouts, "Shut up, just shut up I know it's all my fault. I know." As soon as the last word leaves her lips, she deflates and hunches over in her seat while staring at her shoes. Damon squats in front of her and turns her face up so he can look into her watery eyes, "You listen to me Elena, I know the hallucinations are telling you this is all your fault but they're wrong. You can trace it all back to Katherine and Klaus's conflict. If Katherine hadn't turned herself, Klaus never would have come to town, and you'd still be human, and Caroline, Bonnie, and Jeremy would still be alive. None of this is your fault, do you understand?"

She nods as much as his hand on her chin will allow, so he leans in and steals a brief kiss before standing back up and turning to Lucy, "Okay, so what do you need? Anything else?"

Lucy nods and asks, "Elena, do you have a pastry brush?"

The still sniffling teen frowns before wondering, 'What the hell is a pastry brush?'

Damon laughs and tells the witch, "She wouldn't know what one was if it bit her, but I think I recall seeing one during one of the many times I've cooked here."

He walks into the kitchen and opens a drawer before coming back with a small brush in his hand. When he hands it to the determined witch, he asks, "Out of curiosity, why do you need it?"

Lucy smiles and says, "If I touch my skin to the glass, Klaus will be able to jump bodies and possess me, and I'll be trapped in the mirror. I'm pretty sure Kol would be free and clear, and you would be unable to put him back, or at least not without some serious planning and organizing and trying to manipulate people into giving their DNA, plus you'd be down a witch. Anyhow, the brush will allow me to brush this paste I've made onto the glass without having to touch it."

All the vampires present nod, so she asks Damon, "Can you take the mirror down and bring it in here? Whatever you do don't touch the glass!"

He nods and goes into the hallway before returning a moment later with the mirror. He places it down on the coffee table beside all of Lucy's supplies and then steps back to let her do her work.

She paints the paste mixture onto the surface of the mirror in the shape of a Pentagram and then she begins chanting. The lights go out, and a wind blows through the house, and when the lights come back on, Kol is inside the mirror and baring his teeth at everyone in the room.

Elena jumps in her seat a minute later when Lucy takes a hammer out of her box and begins smashing the mirror into pieces. When she's satisfied that the mirror is nothing but shards of shattered glass and the slivers are small enough, she turns back to Damon and tells him, "I need a dustpan, a broom, and a garbage bag and, if you have it, a box."

Damon hurries away to get her what she needs before coming back and standing beside his girlfriend while we all watch Lucy brush the pieces of mirror into the garbage bag and then tie it off before placing it in the box. She adds Kol's severed finger and the remains of Caroline's torn flesh to the box and then closes the lid.

Handing it to Damon Lucy says, "If I were you, I wouldn't trust the garbage man to get that into the dump. I'd bring it yourself and bury it. Then there will never be a possibility of him ever getting back out."

He nods, and while Lucy puts her supplies back into her box, he tells her, "Thank you, Lucy, you don't by chance know how to locate a future hunter do you?"

Her eyes pop open wide, and her jaw drops a little before she frowns and asks, "Why would you need to do that?"

He frowns back and tells her, "Elena is cursed with The Hunter's Curse until the next hunter is called which requires them to kill their first supernatural. The last time she suffered this curse, she tried to kill herself because the hallucinations got so bad, so I'd like to speed up the process by handing the next hunter a supe to kill on a silver platter and break the curse sooner rather than later."

Lucy frowns and sighs before dashing his hopes for a quick and relatively easy resolution, "I'm sorry, I'm not aware of any magickal way to find a hunter before or after they're called. It's part of their magick, other magick can't find them. Otherwise, The Original Family would have hunted them all down and killed every one of them before they could be called."

Damon nods and puts the box of broken glass down before shaking Lucy's hand and telling her, "I figured as much, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask. Thank you for everything, and I'm sorry for your loss. Bonnie and I didn't always see eye to eye, but she was a good person."

Despite having only briefly known my granddaughter, Lucy loved her fiercely, so she has tears in her eyes when she laughs and says, "Based on what I know of you, as well as what I know of your relationship with my cousin, the fact that you just said that speaks volumes about the kind of extraordinary woman Bonnie Bennett was."

Damon nods so she smiles through her tears and tells him, "Keep my number in case Kol comes back or anything else goes down that requires a witch. If I can help you, I will, in memory of Bonnie. She would have wanted me to do that for all of you."

The three vampires all nod, and Lucy nods back before she walks out the door. Damon turns to his brother and tells him, "Elena and I are going to go bury this in the landfill. You coming with us?"

Stefan frowns and shakes his head before saying, "No I just want to sleep for a year."

Elena laughs at that before she follows the two brothers out of her house into the early morning light and then gets into the Camaro. A moment later Damon starts the car and drives towards the County dump to dig a hole and hide a box full of an angry original.

I still can't escape, so I'm forced to watch while they climb the mound of garbage and then proceed to bury the Fed-Ex box. When we get back to The Salvatore Boarding House from the dump, Tyler is waiting for them with blood covering him from nearly head to toe. He frowns and tells the two vampires, "I don't know why, but I just killed Matt, and I'm supposed to come here and tell you."

Damon's eyes go wide, and he says, "Dammit, you must have been compelled." Then he surprises the two teens by walking up to Tyler and sticking his hand into his chest and pulling the young man's heart out.

Elena gasps and asks, "If he was compelled, why did you do that?"

Damon's brows furrow and he shrugs slightly while he stares down at the heart in his hand and says, "I don't know I just had to."

Elena thinks, 'Shit that means he was compelled too. God, will this nightmare ever end? What if we're compelled to do other things too?'

When she voices the concern, Damon frowns deeper and says, "Well, we just imprisoned our one chance at undoing the compulsions, so I think we just have to hope for the best as much as that idea pisses me off."

She nods with a deep frown on her face before Damon picks up Tyler's desiccated body and carries it into the house. Stefan is in the living room pouring himself a drink when we enter, and his eyes go wide before he asks, "Uh, what happened?"

Still frowning Damon tells his brother, "Kol happened. We think he compelled Tyler to kill Matt and then compelled me to kill Tyler."

Stefan's mouth forms an 'O' while he just stands there for a minute. Then he says, "Well barring any further complications I'm heading to bed."

When he walks by his brother, Damon reaches towards him and rips out his heart before dropping to his knees and cradling his brother's heartless body softly repeating, "No, no, no. God Dammit. Stefan, I'm so sorry, God, please let this just be a nightmare."

Elena is on her knees too, and the tears are pouring from her eyes while she looks at her ex-boyfriend's face still frozen in shock from when he realized what was happening a moment before Damon pulled his heart out.

The spirits of her loved ones gather around the three of them, and the newly dead Stefan tells her, "This is all your fault, Elena. If you had just left Kol and The Cure alone, none of the people who have died this week would be dead. This all falls on you."

She just nods while she watches Damon rocking his brother's body and crying silent tears that match her own.