Chapter 18

A/N: Picking right up where we left off.

-4GMK

"I killed her."

Mouths hung agape at the retelling Bonnie had just finished. Hitherto, only Damon and Caroline had been informed of the change in their groups dynamic, and now, even they felt a bit sick on the stomach.

She had told them simply, stated her hand in the matter of her absence and even then there still remained doubts.

No, not Bonnie.

Bonnie could never do such a thing.

Bonnie loves Elena.

Three thoughts that for Bonnie, had dried up seven years before. They didn't believe her, so she showed them. Showed them the wedding they had had in the prison world, showed them Kai infiltrating their little sanctum, let them see the last time she saw Damon.

At this the elder Salvatore brother had to look gravely ahead of him. Sadly, Stefan looked over to his brother, taking a minute to clamp him on the shoulder as the video in their minds seemed to pause collectively.

A mind linking and a bit of telekinesis was altogether too easy for the Bennett priestess and she showed all in her presence the images in her mind simultaneously.
As Stefan moved to retake Caroline's hand, the video resumed and the screens in their minds were commanded by what happened next.

They saw Kai torturing Bonnie, taking her all the way to Portland just to stab her in the abdomen again. They saw Bonnie waking up, having bled profusely and screaming in terror as she searched her belly for signs that her baby had survived, and then collapsed into relieved yet terrified sobs as she wondered what would happen next.

She let them see how she had arrived back at the boarding house, collected Damon's things, and then carefully sealed them away in boxes. They saw her making pancakes alone in the Salvatore's kitchen six months later, wearing slippers and looking very pregnant. They watched as she read countless prenatal manuals on birthing, and set up the hospital's nursery and largest emergency room for the day of the event. Bonnie brought them up to the day of the event and they saw Mina, being bathed and swaddled in hospital dress, and watched her through the nurses bay window, the solitary child in the nursery.

They looked over Bonnie's shoulder as she raised Mina, saw through mothers eyes as the little girl grew and took on the world, watched as she introduced her to her fathers videotaped image. Her friends had a privy look in on the day she returned, on how Kai had rattled her, and winced at how Damon had looked as she forced all her recollections on him.

She heard a sigh from Caroline as she saw Damon holding Bonnie in his arms like she was the most precious thing, she heard them all gasp as Elena burst through the door while Bonnie simultaneously thrust Damon through time and space to remove him from the dorm room.

Now they were at the climax of the retelling, here things blew out in full color, in cold detail. Elena's sniffing the air for Damon's scent, Bonnie revealing that they were married, Elena's raged.

Before their mind's eyes the beautiful girl-next-door, whom they had all secretly carried a torch for, morphed into the monster everyone had refused to see. Eye's darkening to black, veins wriggling about, teeth bared and mouth agape, they saw Elena use her vampire advantage to bum rush Bonnie. They watched as Bonnie seemed to hold her own and used a combo move to knock their long-time friend down a notch, and stared in horror as Bonnie wrenched Elena's neck around and snapped it.

Before they could recover from their shock, more visions ran before their collective minds. Elena was tied to a chair, then released on the condition that she accept the new order. Refusing the offer Elena rushes at Bonnie again, only being stopped by an invisible wall of power.

Many of their gang was still reeling from the idea of Elena being anything but the Greek goddess they had placed on that high pedestal so long ago. Even little Caroline had her hand over her mouth,

and Stefan…

Pressing on, Bonnie moved them to the part where she placed her hands on her temples and looked into the future of Elena's plans.

Elena had planned to kill her, using several very artful and explicit ways which her vampire mind had so shortly come up with. She would take chances and manipulate all their lives. All her time would be consumed with trying to kill her and Damon. They all watched in horror at the many incarnations of Bonnie's dead body, as Elena laughed over her corpse and continued in trying to seduce Damon.

The atmosphere in the room turned dark and even the Original party groaned when they saw how she was planning on killing Stefan, Sarah, Matt and Enzo. If her plans succeeded, she would have even taken Mina. Slack jawed and broken, they all watched as Elena crept into her house and stalked up on her young daughter. Watched as her fangs descended and she drained the life from her small body. Their sensitive supernatural hearing was pierced when heard the little girl's voice ringing in her ears as she screamed out "Mama!"

No one was safe from Elena's rage and hatred.

Not even the little girl upstairs snuggled in her covers whom they had just met.

Trembling from the visions Bonnie turned to their last scene, looking into the brunettes eyes, all of her friends could now see in Elena's eyes, what Bonnie had seen only the morning before; only darkness, only hatred, only spite. Elena's teeth flashed, white fangs descending.

"I will destroy you."

Her voice, cold and heartless, sent chills up the spines of all present.

They watched as Elena took advantage of Bonnie's momentary lapse in defense and sank her fangs into her neck, and held their breath, as her head was slammed repeatedly into the stones that lined the hearth. It wasn't until Elena's dead body was wrenched away from her by a desperate Damon, that they all let out the breath they had been holding collectively.

Shuddering they all came out of the vision, eyes wide as the heavy truth weighed on them. Silence reigned in the grand room and no one could meet Bonnie's eyes.

Bonnie felt tired. She hadn't used up a lot of energy to tell, or rather show, them her story, but she felt tired nonetheless. In a way, she was getting much too old to be indulging the people gathered here today in a show of her innocence. She was and always had been their go to person for a solution for trying to save Elena, but now they could all see it, they could all see the truth.

Elena was beyond saving.

And now what? Would they all leave, call her a murderer, and shun her? Would they storm out the door in a rush to leave behind the monster who took the blinders off of them? Who had revealed to them what slaves they had been to the façade that was Elena Gilbert?

Quite frankly, she didn't care.

No, not one jot or tittle.

She. Did. Not. Care.

If they were to all turn their backs on her, she wouldn't blame them, but she would have to restrain herself from dragging them all to their deaths. If she was going to be called a monster, she would certainly live up to her part.

She was, after all, Niklaus' daughter.

Bonnie was getting bored with their silence. They had, after all more pressing affairs to attend to. After getting over the initial shock of having someone not only after her but also after her daughter, she was now ravenously hungry, but she had heard that revenge was best served cold.

Already in her mind she had begun plotting how she would murder the Heretics when they came for her, Bonnie had always been the creative type after all. She could feel something tickling at her peripherals, during her current stream of thought, her vision had turned inward, she hadn't noticed the shift in the room. Everyone was looking at her.

Matt broke the silence first.

"We'll do it Bon, whatever it takes to keep Mina safe, we'll do it"

All of her friends nodded in response.

"Well that's touching" said a cynical voice from the corner of the study.

"But you lot fail to commit to the problem of how" sneered Klaus.

"Yes, my brother has a point," Elijah interjected "the Heretics aren't simply vampires, but also powerful beings that can siphon Power off of their own vampirism. I cannot fathom that they will go down without a fight"

"Hasn't anyone ever told you brothers that you lack imagination?"

Strolling through the doorway was a very stately looking woman, clad only in black except for the red flower adorning her jacket lapel. A Dahlia.

"Dahlia," Nicklaus breathed, "hasn't anyone ever told you to knock?"

"Forgive my son's stupidity, he was never one for manners or propriety" snarled a heavy, viking accent.

For a moment, everyone in the room stopped breathing. Entering the Salvatore library which consequently doubled as its impromptu conference room, was the first of the Original vampires himself.

Known by no other name than simply his given, Mikael seemed all the threat one could ever conjure. If he was here to fight, then certainly they were not in a good place. His outburst however was immediately shushed by the small creole woman by his side. Apparently, his wife Ester has sought to permanently commandeer her body, but Lenore had found a way to over come this.

"You'll have to pardon my husband, he can be a bit touchy, at times."

For the second time that night, mouths hung agape as the woman smiled and introduced herself. A vampire with priestess roots who now had accesses to all of the knowledge of what created vampires, werewolves and the like, she along with Dahlia, made up their trump card.

So now they were all gathered; Mikael, Lenore, Dahlia, Hope, Niklaus, Abby, Jackson, Hayley, Elijah, Celeste, Rebekah, and Marcel. Bonnie, Damon, Mina, Caroline, Stefan, Matt, Sarah, Alaric, Jo, Liv and Tyler. Four Originals, two hybrids, four werewolves, two former priestesses turned vampire, one former priestess turned human, three high order priestesses, four regular vampires, two very privileged humans, and two miracle children. 23 supernatural beings (give or take Matt and Sarah) all under one roof, now all they needed was a plan.

"Well, now that we're all gathered, what say you we come up with a plan?" Said Niklaus, as he helped himself to some of the Salvatore's famous liquor cabinet.

"We need the get the children somewhere safe,"

"Well, that was the single most ignorant thing I've ever heard you say Aunt" seethed the Wolf King "that is the reason why you're here isn't, or is there some other reason you've decided to grace us with your presence while simultaneously painting a target not only on my daughter's back but also now my granddaughter's by bringing Hope here."

Klaus was raging, but he had himself a point. The tension in the room rose to a new high as eyes shifted back and forth to those once considered foes.

"As I've said, Dahlia, my son has no manners. Please excuse me while I beat them into him"

"Now Mikael, these things can be ignored, especially under the circumstances. Niklaus does have a point. I wouldn't have risked so much danger if I didn't have a plan."

"Well, by all means tell us, grace us with your knowledge, Aunt."

Damon wasn't speaking now, brow buried as it was in a tumbler of bourbon, but his shoulders were ridged, and Bonnie now longed to touch him. To somehow communicate with him how much she felt the heavy burden. She wanted her husband back, and her family safe, and her life, undisturbed. She wasn't going to sit her and watch her husband break, She wasn't going to let her marriage be broken just because someone saw her daughter and her sister as shiny new toys they wanted to collect.

Amongst the din of voices that were now raised in argument, Bonnie heard her own voice, like a knife cutting through the chaos.

"How?"

Dahlia, wasn't stupid. She had watched the young priestess, and saw the emotional ties that ran between her and her vampire of a husband. The elder Salvatore brother. So this was Giuseppe's spawn. She couldn't say if the younger brother had much of his temper, he must have taken after his mother, Lilly, who now belonged to their mortal enemies; but for sure Damon was a Salvatore boy if she ever saw it. Wild, bitter, and emotionally unstable, that was Giuseppe alright.

But something about him must have changed to catch the eye of such a pure and young priestess. Dahlia was sure that it was her purity of heart that brought about the change in him that allowed her grandniece to be conceived. She was the one, it seemed, who would bring about balance to the curse of the Gemini. Those rouge priests who often turned to evil, yes, she could be the balance. And as Dahlia watched her, she recognized that strength of backbone, and that set of mind that would allow her to do exactly what she had come here for. She could rest now, seeing that Bonnie would be able to carry on her legacy of strength when her time came.

Smiling, she looked directly at the young Bennett priestess. Those Bennett's, they always had a penchant for sensibility, she could give them that.

"I thought you'd never ask."

Rising to her feet Dahlia easily captured the attention of those around her.

"These precious young girls, need to be protected from the dark priests who call themselves the Heretics. They need to be secluded from their pursuers in a Holy place, one that cannot be infiltrated by their sinful hearts, or their dark desires."

"Speak plainly Dahlia," said Bonnie, and the look on her face spoke volumes about the amount of crap she was going to tolerate that night.

"The Heretics made themselves into Vampires out of unholy motives and desires. They were priests, but they sought to circumvent the will of God to attain more power. In their pride, they aligned themselves with the darkness. Because of this, they cannot enter the sacred grounds of a hallowed city."

"So where is this 'Holy city'" Klaus inquired "because we need to get there, now."

"Well, it is far from her, but, I think Bonnie can transport us there if she wants to try that. Otherwise, its customs agents and long lines and scouring the globe for redeye flights to Italy."

"Why Italy?"

This time, it was Damon who spoke, and Bonnie couldn't help the fire in her heart at the sound of hope in his voice.

"Well, I doubt he has died, but I do have friends in high places darling," Dahlia cooed, her former lover had the same no nonsense attitude, she missed that.

"Answer the question, Aunt"

This time it was Bonnie's turn to speak, and she mimicked the earlier words of her step-father, who beamed at the recognition (it really was more of a leer, but, no matter).

"The Vatican, darling, we're going to the Vatican.

A/N: Surprise?

-4GMK