Unspecified past

...

The room was very dark, so dark, in fact, that the men walking in were wearing night-vision goggles.

It was a bare room. Very spacious, but very bare. The walls were tiled, but in the absence of light it would have been anyone's guess as to what color had been chosen. They were cold to the touch, almost icy.

The floor was blank concrete. Easy to clean. Just like everything else. It was necessary.

The men nodded to each other. They were ready and fully anticipated the attack that was inevitably happening as soon as they had opened the door and a sliver of silvery light shone into the dark for a split second. They had to be quick. It was always like that. He'd come charging at them out of some unseen corner of the room. He'd try to get out. He never did.

Once the door was locked again - and he was on the cool floor, incapacitated by a swift shot of vervain or sometimes something a little more… rustic - they'd wait for him to regain consciousness or turn back to life.

By the time he did, they had regrouped and were standing in every corner. Waiting.

This was by far the weirdest experiment to him. The torture? That he could understand in a twisted kind of way. But this? Did they want to test his senses? His reaction time? His… what?

It was both better and worse than being cut open and taken apart. He had been in the room for a while by then, with no clue as to how long exactly. There was no knowing whether it was night or day or weeks or months, or whatever. It may have very well been an eternity. An eternity of nothing to do and always waiting for the pain to start again.

He wished he could just kill himself, but since he couldn't exactly rip his own heart out or behead himself, he was stuck in life.

"Enzo." The voice sounded handsome, friendly. He hadn't heard it before. That one must be new, he thought.

Even with his enhanced vision, it was hard to make out more than a silhouette.

"We haven't met. I believe you've been in here for…" a light rustle of paper, "almost four months. I think it is time for your stay to end, don't you agree?"

His body tensed. His muscles strung taut, he just waited.

"It's rather impolite to not reply when you're being spoken to, Enzo. I'd have thought they'd taught you some manners in all the time you've been here. But alright. I could see why you'd be a little… distraught. So let me give you another chance…"

A white hot flash of light seared his eyes. Enzo couldn't quite stifle the noise of pain that escaped him as the burning sensation dug into his body, spreading out.

"Interesting. Well," the man's tone of voice changed from that of someone having a conversation to someone simply making an observation. "As stated, the subject is hyper-sensitive to any kind of light. The sunlight-imitating-flashlight burnt his eyes right out of his sockets. A little longer, and the subject might die."

Enzo was in agony, his body taking its sweet time to heal itself. He had sunken to his knees and couldn't even think.

"I'm sure you're happy to hear that you'll be brought over to your new lodgings now, Enzo. Oh," the man had the audacity to laugh a lighthearted laugh that sounded just as handsome as his voice, "where are my manners. Let me introduce myself: Grayson Gilbert, Enzo, I'm very thrilled to meet you and work with you from now on."

It would be another few days before he'd actually see the man that would be his torture master for the next few years. But it was at that moment that he memorized the name and the voice and swore to himself he'd get back at the bastard eventually.

...

Now

...

Bonnie tightened her grip on Enzo's hand and implored him to look at her. She touched the side of his face ever so gently and looked up into his troubled face.

"Enzo, what is it?" she asked very quietly, and she saw his jaw muscles work again. He was clenching his teeth, hard.

"I'm sorry, love, a bit of my past that I'd rather have left forgotten just reentered my life and I'm afraid I'm just not strong enough to let it go."

He didn't look at her, he couldn't. If he had, she'd have stopped him, and he couldn't let that happen. He just couldn't. All that pain... It was still there.

As he freed his hand from hers, she called his name, louder this time, but he gave her a sad apologetic look before he started walking away from her. "Stay away, Bonnie, I don't want to see you get harmed."

She was flustered, confused. What was going on? She followed him with her eyes and saw him march in a straight line, very determined, toward a spot somewhere on the other side of the bar. No, wait. He was walking straight toward Elena and her little family reunion gathering.

Suddenly Bonnie remembered and put two and two together as soon as she did. Hadn't they found out that Elena's dad had been with the Augustine Society? And Enzo… had been an Augustine vampire. Her hand flew to her mouth as she gasped in shock. Quickly, she pulled herself together and started making her way in his direction.

"Enzo!" This time, she yelled. As she ran after him, she felt a huge fear creep up her spine, threatening to burst out of her. It felt almost like a living thing. So powerful and unpredictable. So very much like that strange blast just a few hours ago. It terrified her. She felt it drain her. It wanted out. But if she gave in, she worried it'd tear her apart, and with it, the world. She had to get it under control. She stopped in her tracks, almost hyperventilating, before she forced herself to slowly breathe in, then out, then in, slowly, slowly, slowly, until she had calmed herself down considerably.

By the time Bonnie seemed to have regained her control, she noticed that all eyes were on the Gilberts. She spotted Enzo and called him again just a split second before he came down on Elena's dad like a force of nature.

She ran as the world slowed around her, then sped up.

...

Everything was a bustle of activity, a flurry of movements, as a few more shocking things transpired…

Enzo would have probably killed Grayson Gilbert, had it not been for the fact that he didn't seem to have any of his former vampire powers.

Damon, while shocked and taken by surprise, would have probably killed Enzo - because how could he not protect his one true love's family like it was his own? - had it not been for the fact that he, too, didn't seem to have his former strength.

And Elena's father would have probably either died or killed the two vampires, had it not been for the fact that a quick injection with vervain didn't seem to hurt either of them one bit and as he quickly stabbed the one that had attacked him, Enzo, the Augustine Vampire he had known for so many years (and what the hell was he even doing there?) just crumpled to the floor, bleeding and bleeding and bleeding, with not even a first sign of healing.

"Noooooo!" Bonnie cried. "Enzo. No!" She fell to her knees right next to him, sobbing. It was all too much, a deja vu from hell. "Please," she pleaded, "not again. Not after I just got you back." She pulled him toward her, trying to stay focused on helping him, but she didn't even know where to begin. There was so much blood. "I can't be without you," she told him as he stared up at her with something like pain and wonder in his eyes. "Don't you dare leave me again, Lorenzo St. John."

He looked at her disbelievingly, his lips moving as he tried to speak. "I think I'm human again, Bonnie Bennett. I think I'm human, and I'm dying."

"No, silly. You're not." She couldn't stop her tears. She was barely aware of Elena pushing her dad away, or of Damon gently talking to her, then telling Enzo to lie still and drink his blood.

"You're not dying, because I won't allow that to happen. Drink Damon's blood! I don't know what happened and how you could even be human right now, but since it can't have been the cure, his blood should help you heal."

"We might have a problem there," Damon chimed in, his voice quiet and bewildered, "I don't think I'm a vampire anymore, either." He looked down to where he had just tried to prick open his wrist and the pain had been way more intense than usual and the blood was just freely dripping out of him.

"Damon?" Elena and her father both called out at the same time.

"You've been dating a vampire?" Grayson stated in shock. But Elena had already left his side, taken off her sweater and started tending to Damon, while Bonnie met her two best friends' gazes briefly, before looking back to where Enzo still rested against her, her one hand pushing down on his chest to stop the flow of dark red that already saturated his shirt.

"I'm sorry, love," he rasped, "I should have…"

"Sh… it's alright, babe," she shushed him, trying to smile for his sake. "You can apologize all you want later. For now, though, please just focus on staying with me. Okay?"

She smiled a teary smile at him that he returned, though his eyelids were growing heavy and he had trouble keeping them open.

This was not how he had anticipated any of it. Definitely not being human again with Bonnie. But it was okay, with her there with him, it was okay. He wasn't alone. He only wished he could have spent a little more time with her.

"I love you, Bonnie."

"Enzo…"

She bit her lip as she held onto him. She couldn't do this again. It would kill her. In one way or another, it would kill her if he died again.

Unless...

... she didn't let it happen.