Chapter 10: Esther's back
Mystic Grill
"I feel like I'm going crazy. Totally paranoid all the time." Elena said to Bonnie who sat across from her.
"You have a right to be. Naruto is still out there and he knows you tried to kill him." Bonnie said eating a french frie.
"Why hasn't he made a move? There has been no sign of him. Nothing. Just my slow spiral into insanity." Elena stressed.
"Join the club. Every time I close my eyes, I have that nightmare. On repeat."
"The same dream?" Elena asked.
"Yeah! Four coffins, Naruto in one of them. It's weird." Bonnie explained.
"What if it's not just some dream? What if it's like...you know...witch dream?" Elena asked.
"It's just stress. I'll figure it out. And what about Stefan? Has there been any sign of him?"
"He betrayed us Bonnie. He helped Naruto, and even has a new girlfriend. The Stefan that we know is gone." Elena said dramatically.
"How is Damon handling it?" Bonnie asked with an raised eyebrow.
"Damon is...Damon." Elena said.
"So, I have that ring you asked for," Bonnie said as she pulled out the extra daylight ring that Elena had asked for Caroline, in light of how her father had taken her ring before and tortured her.
"Thank you, Bonnie." Elena said as she felt like crap for lying to Bonnie and using her, but Russell was the only way to get back at Naruto.
Elena left the Bar for a bit to go deliver the ring. She stepped into a car, and in it was Russell Edgington.
"I thought you didn't have a daylight ring?" Elena asked.
"Tempered Glass to block the UV rays," Russell said as he tapped the glass. "It's difficult to do anything when I'm helpless as a hamster for 12 hours a day."
"Well, I have something that might change that." Elena said as she pulled out the daylight ring that she had tricked Bonnie into making.
"Is that," Russell started.
"A daylight ring. You said you needed one to help us against Naruto. Well, here you go." Elena as she handed it to Russell.
Russell took it and slipped the ring onto his hand and then slowed lowered the window. When the sunlight did not burn him, he laughed gleefully.
"My hands are shaking. I feel like a little child," Russell said as he cried actual tears of joy. "One thousand years of night. You can't possibly know what it's like."
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Elena beckoned him to step outside.
Russel stepped outside and initially held his hand up to his face. Then, he held out his hands and laughed joyfully, "It's glorious. It sublime!" Elena smiled as her new ally was now much more useful, even though she had no idea what she had unleashed.
Bar
Damon and Alaric were sitting at the bar, with Damon having a lot of different alcohol bottles in front of him, while Alaric was reading something
"Oh, I give you a choice. Bloody Mary or Screwdriver. Brunch in a bottle. Come on Ric, I can't drink all this by myself. I mean I can but then somebody's getting naked." Damon said as he looked at the female bartender who looked back smiling.
"Oh man I can't believe you're making me drink alone." he whined.
"I'm busy." Alaric said without looking up from his work.
Damon looked to Alaric with a raised eyebrow "It's the eve of Naruto-ageddon. You're doing homework?"
"This may come as a shock but some of us have actual lives outside of the supernatural world. I am not here to hang out with you. I'm here to see Jeremy. Who is an hour late for his shift."
"Kids today...Where are their values?" Damon asked mockingly.
Alaric put Jeremy's mid-term paper on the counter which had the title "American History 201". It had an "F" "That's his mid-term paper. Copied it straight off the Internet. Didn't even try to hide it." Alaric said in disappointment.
"Ohh, somebody's getting grounded." Damon said.
"Did you say you are waiting for Jeremy-as in Jeremy Gilbert?" The bartender asked Alaric.
"Yeah."
"He was fired last week." The bartender said.
"Oops." Damon said going back to his bottles, while Alaric looked over to Elena who was at her table.
Later
Elena was on the phone, leaving a message for Jeremy, while Damon was shooting darts "Jeremy, the minute that you get this call me!" she hissed before she hung up as Damon got another bullseye "Unbelievable!"
"You're feisty when your mad." Damon flirted.
"It's not that I'm mad. I'm just-I'm worried." Elena explained.
"But why? He lost his job at the Grill. He can survive, Elena."
"He is spiraling. Ever since he stopped seeing Vicki and Anna, he is moody, he is not really talking to anyone."
"It's typical teenager." Damon shrugged.
"Who's seeing ghosts and has lost everyone that he cares about." Elena replied.
"Not everyone. He still has you." Damon said before he went to retrieve his darts from the dartboard.
"You okay?" Elena asked.
"What makes you think I'm not okay?" Damon asked.
"Well, you're daydrunk. It's not exactly your most attractive look." Elena said.
"Hmm- what is my most attractive look?" Damon asked flirtatiously, as he moved closer to her.
"Ah, ah- I'm not saying you have any attractive looks. I'm saying this is my least favorite one..." Elena said with a small blush.
"Noted. See if I can make any improvements." Damon said turning back to the dartboard, causing Elena to sigh before she looked behind her and saw Naruto and his wife.
"Don't mind us." Naruto said as he leaned on the table, with Aurora standing next to him.
"Naruto." Elena said in fear, afraid he might find out what they did.
"You gonna do this in the Grill? In front of everyone? It's a little beneath you, don't you think?" Damon mocked.
"I don't know what you are talking about. I just came down to my local pub to grab a drink with my wife." Naruto said, to their shock .
"So, this is the doppelganger of this generation." Aurora said as she circled Elena inspecting her. "She doesn't seem like anything special. Personally I prefer Katherine."
"Well, of of course you would." Naruto teased as he quickly fixed both of them a drink, referring to the foursome they had the other night.
"I'm surprised you stuck around town long enough for happy hour." Damon said.
"My sister seems to be missing since she called me about Mikael. Need to sort that out." Naruto said, looking at them for any signs of deception.
"Cute blonde bombshell, psycho. Shouldn't be too hard to find." Damon deflected.
"Truth is I've grown to rather like what's become of my old home from 1000 years ago. Think I might fancy a home here. Oh I imagine you're wondering how does this is affect you. The answer is: not in the slightest. As long as I get what I want and everyone behaves themselves you can go on living your worthless lives however you choose." Naruto said as he grabbed the darts.
"What more could you possibly want?" Elena asked.
"Well for starters, you can tell me where I might find Russell Edgington." Naruto said as he threw some darts.
"We don't even know who that is," Damon said, the ringing in Naruto's ears caused by his lie detection telling him that Damon was lying.
"Well you see that is a shame." Naruto said in anger as they knew something. Naruto throws a dart and gets a bulls-eye, embedding the dart in the wall behind the bullseye.
"The crazy cunt stole my family from me. I need him found so I can take back what's mine." Naruto said.
"That sounds like a Naruto and Russel problem." Elena said.
"Darling, it seems this arrogant baby vampire and doppelganger are laboring under the delusion that we were asking for help. Why don't we correct them of this?" Aurora offered.
"Would you do the honors, beloved wife?" Naruto offered.
"Gladly." Aurora said as she snapped her fingers. As if a blanket was being pulled from reality itself, the bar bustling with activity turned into a blood bath with corpses, severed heads, and blood everywhere with the exception of Matt, who was on shift and cleaning up, and Alaric, who was grading his papers, as if he didn't care that everyone in the bar had been slaughtered. Damon and Elena saw Stefan on the floor feeding from a woman before he sat up gasping and began to get to his feet licking the blood from his lips.
"Meet the new and improved Stefan Salvatore." Naruto smirked as he pulled out his phone. "Do not forget that I am the greatest supernatural creature to ever walk this Earth, not to mention, one of the most intelligent. I know you know something about Russel Edgington. All the people in Mystic Falls that I compelled when I first came here for the sacrifice still report to me. He entered your house and then left carrying something, but they couldn't see what it was. And while I could torture it out of you, I don't have time to waste. I need to find my family before Russell harms them."
"And while I'm thinking about it." Naruto said before he made a call "Kali, show me our new friend."
Elena and Damon watched as Naruto showed them his phone where a video was playing as a door opened and they saw a buffed up man wailing on someone.
"Ennis, Naruto wants to see the kid." Kali said on the video before the man moved and to the horror of Elena, and Damon, they saw Jeremy tied to a chair with his face bloody.
Damon glared at Naruto, while Stefan smirked before he held up Jeremy's ring causing Elena to pale. "I want my family back, and I'll kill every person in this town to get them back." Naruto said.
"I'll leave them with you, Stefan. Beat it out of them if you have to." Naruto said to Stefan, who smirked, who started to stride forward.
Damon burst towards Elena at Vamp speed, trying to get her out of here, but he stopped right in front of her. He tried to move his body, but it wasn't responding to his commands.
"Damon, what's wrong?" Elena asked.
"I can't move." Damon groaned, a squelching sound could be heard.
"Because I'm not letting you." Stefan said, as they looked at him, seeing his outstretched clenched fist. "I learned a few tricks from Naruto over the summer, besides learning to control my bloodlust. One of them, was how to control the elements of fire and water. And because a majority of the human body is water, I can control your bodies by the controlling the water in your blood. The two of you are not going anywhere."
"Stay with him. Make sure he doesn't overdo it before you get the information. I'm gonna meet up with Jennifer and Morgana and we will track down Russel." Naruto said to Aurora, kissing her goodbye before heading to meet up with Jennifer.
With Russell
Old Witch House
Russell was inside the old witch house, where the Rebekah was daggered on the ground, in her homecoming dress. Elena had stabbed her in the back when she was getting ready. Only two coffins were arrayed in a neat pattern, made invisible by the witch spirits. Valerie was also there, bloody and tied up to a chair.
"Well, that is unfortunate," Russell said on the phone. "Find the girl and let me know when you do."
Russell hung up the phone. "You're a fool." Valerie struggled to say. "Ten thousand fools like you have gone up against my father. None of them live to tell the tale."
"Well, unlike them, I have the aid of someone very special." Russell then looked away and spoke to what appeared to be thin air. "Isn't that right, ma'am?"
Valerie looked at his hands and saw a peculiar ring on Russell's hands. "Where did you get that ring? That's one of my father's cloaking rings. The one stolen by Julian."
"Hmm?" Russell said as he looked at the ring. "Oh, well this is terribly awkward. See, Julian was a vampire that I sired myself. He also had the benefit of being sire-bonded to me, so I could make him do whatever I wanted him to do. When I learned of you, I sent Julian after you, as he was expendable and I wanted to hurt the Mikaelson's, by taking away two members of their family."
"You gave the order?" Valerie said lowly before she started thrashing in her chair in anger.
"Oh please, stop your thrashing," Russell said in annoyance. "The serum I've injected you with is made from herbs that prevent you naughty little witches from focusing their power, so no spells for you. And those chains were mystically enchanted to hold vampires. Although there is the issue about you siphoning powers." Russell then ripped off both of Valerie's hands, causing her to cry out in pain.
Valerie huffed as her wrists bled, "He's still gonna find you. That cloaking ring can't protect you from a Mikaelson Warlock, a High Priestess of the Old Religion, and a Darach. Their power combined will find you in seconds. "
"I know that they will find me. But they will be looking for you. And the ring will do what it needs to do just long enough. " Russell said, as he looked at his phone and saw a text from his compelled spies that they have the girl he was looking for and are bringing her to the location.
"Good, guess I can stop waiting then." Russell said as he shot Valerie in the heart.
"What did you shoot me with?" Valerie asked.
"Werewolf venom." Russell said, to her horror, "And without your hands to siphon it away, you better hope your daddy gets here in time to save you." With that Russell sped away, just in time to avoid Naruto, Morgana, and Jennifer.
"They are here." Naruto said as he kicked down the door to the witch house and they hurried in. Naruto came upon Valerie, angered at what had been done to her.
"Valerie!" Naruto shouted as he rushed to his daughter. He smelled the werewolf venom and noted her hands had been ripped off. Naruto placed his hand on her chest and siphoned away the magic of the werewolf venom, rendering it benign, before summoning Valerie's severed hands to him, so he could re-attach them.
"Father," Valerie moaned in pain as her nerves, muscles and bones reconnected themselves to her hands.
"You're gonna be okay, baby girl. I got you." Naruto whispered as he bit his arm to draw blood so she could feed and recover from her torture quicker. He held in her arms as she bit into his arm and drank.
Naruto saw Rebekah in red dress, lying on the ground with a dagger in her back. "Oh Rebekah, what did they do to you?"
"Naruto, we have problem," Jennifer said as she and Morgana finished checking the house for everything. "The coffins holding your mother and Finn are missing. Russell must have had them moved."
Mystic Grill
10 minutes earlier
Aurora sat at a table watching as Damon, who had been stripped down to his underwear, thrashed as he was staked on top of a few tables that had been pushed together. The skin on his left arm had all already been peeled.
Stefan was stirring his Bowie knife in a glass of liquor filled with Vervain that had been magically enhanced by Naruto to be ten times more effective than normal Vervain before he walked around the table and slowly ran it along Damon's right arm, peeling his skin right off, the alcohol and magically enhanced Vervain on the knife causing the older Salvatore to yell in pain. He tried to move but Stefan was keeping him pinned by using his power over water to control Damon's blood and thereby, control his muscles.
"Damon, I'm not in a good mood right now. Tell me and Aurora what we want to now, and this stops." Stefan growls as he skinned Damon up to his right shoulder, leaving all the muscles on his right arm bare and bloody to the world.
"I can't." Damon groaned.
"I don't care what you can or can't do. What matters to me is what I care about is saving my girlfriend from the psycho that has her now." Stefan said.
"Now don't be like that, I ne-ugh!" Damon was unable to continue as Stefan shoved his hand into his gut grabbing his spine and using his new power of fire to burn Damon's nerves connected to his spine.
Damon screamed in pain and saw his little brother glaring down at him with hatred. "I don't care what you, or Elena need. All I care about is getting Valerie back, so if you don't want to keep suffering, you better give me what I want!" Stefan growled before he ripped out Damon's spleen.
"Please, please I can't-Make him stop!" Elena pleaded.
"Well, that is not going to happen, darling," Aurora said. "My husband believes you and your boytoy know something about Russel and I am inclined to agree." Though admittedly, this was taking too long.
"Stefan," Aurora said, getting his attention, "This is taking too long. I'll bleed him out and then compel the truth out of him." Aurora moved to stand near him, and used her power over water to forcibly expel Damon's blood from his body, causing blood to spray from his mouth like a geyser.
"Damon!" Elena shouted in worry as he was bled out.
"Well, that is quicker. I have to admit, I was getting a bit frustrated at the lack of progress." Stefan said in admiration for the upgraded Originals skill.
"Stefan, Please, let me go," Elena pleaded as she struggled futilely against Stefan's control.
"Can't do that." Stefan replied.
"Please Stefan. I love you." Elena said.
Stefan sighed in frustration as he looked at Elena with cold eyes. "Let me explain this, Elena. Valerie Tulle is the love of my life. I fell in love with her within a day of knowing her as a human, and if it wasn't for a certain vampire that I killed, we would have been parents. Fast forward to the 1920's. I'd been on a Ripper binge for 8 years and who do I happen upon but Valerie, who I unfortunately could not remember because it had been so long. Even though I was my worst self and my emotions were off, I still fell in love with her again. Do you have any idea how significant that is? I loved the same woman twice, once as a human and once as an humanity-less Ripper. Against that, you are nothing. In fact, if it wasn't for my memories of Val being compelled away, I would not have spared you a second glance."
While Stefan was breaking Elena's heart, Aurora finished compelling Damon to tell them everything that they wanted to know.
"Now talk. Did you and Elena meet with Russell Edgington?" Aurora ordered Damon.
"Yes." Damon admitted, unable to resist the compulsion.
"What did you two discuss?" Aurora questioned.
"HE came to us offering his help to take down Naruto. We were fresh out of useful allies after Mikael so I accepted." Damon said.
"What did you give him?" Aurora said.
"We gave him Rebekah. Elena had stabbed Rebekah in the back before homecoming, so she couldn't interfere in our plan. I told him where to find Valerie." Damon admitted.
Why give up Valerie?" Aurora questioned.
"To hurt my brother. To make him suffer." Damon admitted.
"Why?" Aurora wondered.
"Because, he despises me." Stefan said as he walked over to them. "In fact, He promised me, after I chose to save his worthless life by forcing him to turn, that he would make it an eternity of misery for me. And so far, he's done a fairly good job of that. I mean, in 1912, he convinced me to drink human blood, even though I couldn't handle it, and that is how I became the Ripper. He kills all of my human relatives, up to and including a pregnant woman and her unborn child. Oh, he also raped a close friend of mine, using her as a blood bag and would have killed her had I not stepped in."
"Oh come on. Don't tell me your actually still mad about-Urgh!" Damon choked as Stefan gripped his throat.
"It was rape! You tricked her into letting you into her bed, then fed on her and raped her for at least a week. If you compel someone to have sex with you, it's not of their own free will and is by definition, rape. I may be a violent vampire that rips people's heads off, but I never would rape a women or kill an unborn child, like you have!"
It was then that Aurora's phone ringed. She answered, "Darling, I'm glad to hear from you. Did you find them?"
"I have Valerie, Rebekah, Elijah and Kol here with me and Jennifer. Val was tortured but she will recover fully. But there is a problem. The coffins that housed my mother and Finn are missing. Tell me you found something from them." Naruto said.
"You were right. Damon and Elena knew about Russell. In fact, they were working with him." Aurora said.
"Since you have them, ask them why Russell has a daylight ring, and who made it." Naruto said as Valerie has mentioned she had seen him with a Daylight ring, causing Aurora's eyes to widen.
"Which one of you imbeciles was stupid enough to give Russell Edgington a daylight ring!?" Aurora asked in a loud voice.
"It was me." Elena said, thanks to also being compelled, to their surprise. "I convinced Bonnie to make one by lying to her and telling her Caroline needed a spare."
One of Naruto's spies called him while he was on the phone. "Hang on, I have another call." Naruto told his wife as he put her on hold. "Go."
"Abby Bennett was spotted in Mystic Falls, being dragged away by some men, out to an graveyard. Bonnie Bennett was spotted having the same done to her." the spy said.
"Keep me posted," Naruto said as he answered his wife, finishing healing Valerie and pulling the dagger out of Rebekah's back, before turning her over to drop some of his blood into her mouth to help heal her faster.
"Bonnie Bennett and her mother Abby are currently being dragged away to the old cemetery, which is the very spot I made Mikael murder Esther." Naruto said as he rubbed his head. "That's it. That's what he wants. He's going to revive Esther."
"What I don't understand is how they know each other. Esther was dead long before Russell became a vampire." Aurora said on her end.
"It must be the Other Side." Morgana pondered.
"I think your right." Valerie said, "He seemed to talking with someone I could not see. I thought he was just crazy but maybe he was talking to Esther."
"Aurora, you and Stefan meet us back at the house. Kill Damon and bring me Elena. We don't want Elena falling into Esther's hands. Doppelganger blood is a powerful binding agent." Naruto said as he hung up.
"You can't kill me. You've never been able to go through with it." Damon said.
"There's a difference between can't and don't want to Damon. I came very close to killing you months ago when you murdered Lexi. I came close to killing you when you murdered Gail. The only reason I didn't was out of some misguided delusion that I could redeem you, that it was my fault for turning you into this. It's only recently that I stopped blaming myself for that." Stefan said as he paced. "I'm cursed in some ways. I'm like Elijah, fighting for the redemption of the Family and all. But tell me Damon, what is there to redeem!? You've always despised me, even when we were kids, you turned me into the Ripper, you've murdered all of our human relatives, you murdered my best friend and you raped my new one, and have tried to kill her on more than one occasion. And now you sold out the love of my life to one of the craziest vampires who has ever lived!"
"So, that's it. You're finally gonna do it." Damon said in resignation as he saw nothing but utter hatred brimming in his brothers eyes.
"You are only alive today because I forced you to turn, which, in hindsight was my biggest mistake. You were gonna kill yourself all because some girl was dead. Your immortality is a gift that you can never repay. You promised me an eternity of misery." Stefan growled as he raised his arm, "Well, now I'm ending yours."
Stefan plunged his hand into Damon's chest and gripped his heart, causing the older brother to groan, with Elena screaming for mercy in the background. "Say hi to dad for me." Stefan said as he then ripped out his brother's heart with all his strength. Damon's painful protest was short lived as the hand that gave him immortality years ago removed his heart, his features slowly turning grey. Still pinned to the door, he slumped backward, no more life in him. Stefan let the heart flop to the floor.
"I understand that this must have been difficult for you. He was still you brother." Aurora said.
"We had this cycle where we would fight, then we would make up, then one of us does something to piss the other off, Damon lashes out, which kills the people I love, and cycle goes back around. There was also this obsession with stealing my girlfriend. First with Katherine, then with Elena. He didn't give a crap about me. It just took me this long to see it." Stefan said as they ignored Elena's wailing in the background of losing Damon's before she could admit how she felt. The two vampires then turned to take Elena back to the Naruto's house.
Naruto's house
"So, Niklaus, what did we miss?" Elijah said as he finished his blood.
"Don't get us wrong, Naruto, I'm still cross you daggered me. You've still got a long way before I'm ready to forgive you, but this," Kol gestured to several drained bodies around him, "Is a start."
"Brilliant." Naruto said uncaringly as Rebekah tended to Valerie. "Look, under normal circumstances, I'd love to fix our relationship as brothers, but I have a massive crisis on my hands. Esther is back and she has Finn and Russell Edginton working for her."
"What?" Elijah asked, alarmed that particular member of his sireline was working with their mother.
"Or at least, she will be in bit. I have Morgana and Jennifer doing a spell to find her so we can put a stop to her before she wakes up.
"It maybe be too late." Morgana said as she entered the room. "We found her, but we can sense she is about to awaken."
"Damn it! Where?" Rebekah asked as Morgana mentally projected the location of where Esther was and they sped off to stop her.
They appeared in the cave systems underneath Mystic Falls to a particular part of the cave, to see Esther getting out of her Coffin, with Russell Edgington and Finn standing next to her.
"I don't think so!" Naruto shouted as he summoned a long sharp spear mode of stone, and threw it, Impaling Esther in the shoulder.
"Mother!" Finn shouted, as Naruto rushed her with a fist coated in lightning. Finn grabbed Naruto's hands with his own. "Get her out of here!"
Russell pulled out the stone spear from Esther's shoulder and Esther spoke a quick spell, causing both of them to vanish in flock of Starling's.
"Teleportation spell." Naruto grumbled.
"She's gone now." Finn said, struggling and failing to hold Naruto back.
"She's been dead for 1000 years, you've been in a box for 900 of those years. There is no where she can go that I won't find her. She's brought herself some time, but you're lucks run out,traitor." Naruto growled as his lightning coated hand pierced Finn's abadomen.
"I'm never going back in a box." Finn said reaching behind him to a box and pulling a white oak stake out and stabbing the distracted Naruto.
"NO!" Rebekah shouted with tears in her eyes as her brother husband was stabbed with the one thing that could kill him. At least as far as she knew.
Naruto looked in shock at his chest as Finn took a moment to bask at finally getting revenge, before he heard chuckling, confusing as Naruto should be dying. Naruto backhanded Finn, causing him to fly into the wall, before Naruto pulled the stake out of his chest and threw it at Finn, spearing him in the heart and staking him to the wall, causing him to scream in pain as Elijah, Kol and Rebekah all saw Finn desiccate and the stake caught fire.
Naruto ignored the now burning corpse, and grabbed the box Finn had reached into to see it was filled with stakes, before blasting them with white flames.
"White oak." Naruto frowned, as he picked up Bonnie, who had been drained of blood and was on her last legs, while her mom lay behind her, completely bled out and dead.
"Impossible." Kol said
"Finn is burning with a stake in his chest." Naruto replied "Esther and Russell are in the wind, probably with one of these. She's wants to kill us, we have to kill her first".
Chapter end