Godspeed, Mama Bear - Part 2

Damon held his drink tighter in his grasp, staring blankly at the wall behind the bar. The amber-colored liquid swirled around in his cup, reflecting the warm lights shining from the bar's stingy lighting. The Grill wasn't as full as Damon suspected it would be, but it was enough. There was no one that Damon recognized; at least, there wasn't anymore. Bonnie had been there, but she had left pretty quickly after he told her the news of the night. One mind-splitting migraine later, courtesy of one Bennett witch, Bonnie was headed straight for Elena's house, wanting to comfort the girl through the struggle. It bothered Damon to no end. Elena was not Victoria's best friend, Caroline was. So why was Bonnie heading to help Elena and not Caroline? He didn't know. He didn't try to figure out the mind of a teenage girl. Too much trouble in his opinion.

It had officially been six hours, twenty-nine minutes, and twelve seconds and counting since Victoria died. That was how Damon counted the time of his life now. It was the only way that made sense to him. Maybe he was being dramatic. He didn't care. He thought he had lost his only opportunity at love, then Victoria showed him a way to save Katherine (the little voice in his mind, the one that sounded too much like Victoria, told him that it was possible that Katherine wasn't in the tomb). But then she (Victoria) had died at his expense.

Damon shot back his drink, enjoying the way that it burned down his throat. The burn helped him to feel, even if the alcohol would slightly muddle his senses later. It was worth it. The burn made him feel alive, and Damon needed a semblance of life in his undead bones if he was ever going to make it twenty-four hours.

He waved his hand blindly in the air, trying to signal the bartender to come over to him. The handsome guy (not in his personal opinion, but he had acknowledged at least seven teen girls ogling him in the span of three hours) walked over to him. In the boozy haze that clouded Damon's mind, he could recognize the barman as the guy from earlier that day. He had stepped in between him and Bonnie. "Another round."

"Don't you think you've had enough, man?" the guy asked curiously, folding his arms across his chest. He leaned against the bar's counter and perked an eyebrow up as he studied Damon. "You look like shit. Maybe some water and a nap would do better for you."

"I'm going to make this clear," Damon growled, glaring at the barman. "I've had the shittiest night of my entire life and I would like to drown my sorrows. So, another round."

"Sheesh," the pretty boy mumbled, shaking his head as he stepped away. He busied himself with filling up Damon's drink, but he couldn't help but comment, "Girl break your heart?"

"Something like that," Damon grumbled, looking around the Grill. He perked up when he noticed a familiar face striding into the Grill like a woman on a mission. It was definitely not the woman he had suspected to be in the restaurant, especially at that time of night. She spotted Damon and made a bee-line for him. Once she was within hearing range, he commented, "Blondie. Didn't Zach drop you off at your house?"

"He did," Caroline confirmed, nodding her head and folding her arms across her chest. She looked like a wreck. All of her makeup was hastily rubbed off and she was dressed in the rattiest sweatpants and over-sized t-shirt that Damon had ever seen. "I decided that I wanted to drown out my sorrows."

"Water's only good for two things, sweetheart, and that's hydration and actual drowning," Damon snorted as he studied Caroline. "I don't think you'll be able to drown out your sorrows that way."

Caroline scoffed and rolled her eyes, dropping into the seat next to Damon. That made him raise an eyebrow. Why in the hell was she sitting next to him? What happened to the two of them not being able to like each other? They had needed each other earlier that night (or late last night, Damon didn't know what time it was) but that was just it: they needed each other. Nothing more, nothing less. Why was she purposefully putting herself into his path? "You obviously have not been in this town long enough to know that every teenager besides Vict -" Caroline began, but she cut herself. She swallowed heavily and continued, rougher than before, "- besides her has a tab here for alcohol. You just got to know the right bartender." She raised her hand cheerfully and called out, "Hi, Ben!"

A voice snapped into Damon's head; more a memory than anything else. "...but the other one's name is Ben...um...McKittrick, I believe?"

Damon sat up straighter. Was this one of the vampires that Victoria had forewarned them about before the dance?

Pretty boy bartender turned at Caroline's voice and he smiled warmly, waving friendly towards Caroline. He finished up with the a customer on the far end of the bar before he sauntered down to where she and Damon were seated. Pretty boy passed Damon his drink, but his eyes were focused on Caroline. "Little Caroline. How are you doing?"

"Doing good, Ben," Caroline said with a sweet smile. There was a sadness hidden away in her eyes, but Damon felt as if he was the only one in the entire room who could see it. If you didn't know that it was there, it was hidden well. Something about that disturbed Damon, the fact that she was able to hide the sadness so well. He tucked that away in the far recesses of his mind. "Think you can slip me a little something special?"

"You know if your mom catches me giving alcohol to minors, I'll end up in jail like Graham did in November?" Ben said, raising an eyebrow. Caroline gave him a sweet smile and he sighed dramatically, looking towards Damon with a friendly, brotherly look that rubbed Damon all the wrong ways, "Can't resist a face like that, you know?"

"Sure," Damon snorted.

Ben pushed himself off of the bar and wandered off to grab Caroline a drink. Caroline sat back on the stool, observing the bar with a silent, cold gaze. It was familiar to Damon. He had plastered that same look onto his face ever since he got out of feeling numb. And drained two deer. Plus a squirrel. Not his first pick in food, but he wasn't too picky.

"You know that guy?" Damon asked, jerking his head towards the bartender.

Caroline glanced between Damon and the man in question, surprised by his asking, but answering steadily, "Yeah. His name is Ben McKittrick. He was a senior when I was a freshman. Had the craziest crush on him for ages. I think Bonnie scored a date with him for this Friday, though, so he's off limits." Caroline shook her head suddenly and there was a darkness in her eyes that hadn't been there before. "I'm such an asshole. I'm thinking about cute guys a-and it hasn't even been a day since -"

Caroline looked like she was two steps away from a full on mental breakdown, and Damon did NOT want to deal with a crying Caroline (he already had done that earlier, and that had been enough for one lifetime), so Damon reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a tight squeeze. It was just borderline painful, but it snapped Caroline out of her head. Caroline yanked her hand out of his grasp and glared at him. "Ow. That hurt."

"You and I both know that no matter how much it freaking hurts, she would not want you to dwell," Damon stated, his voice low and firm.

Caroline gave him a steel-eyed gaze and retorted with the same level of intensity, "Then she was a freaking hypocrite. 'To grieve is to love', I believe she said to me once. Just because she is the other side of that equation does not mean that that statement does not apply to her too."

Damon gave her a firm look before leaning back and growling heavily underneath his breath, "She's rubbed off on you too much."

"Maybe I'm the one who imprinted this behavior on her," Caroline dared to suggest, her eyes sparkling. Ben appeared at that moment and set her drink down, and from the smell alone, there was no way that it couldn't contain alcohol. She thanked Ben with a saucy wink that seemed too fake to be authentic. It was confirmed to Damon a moment later, when Ben left and she dropped back into the girl who seemed broken and confused about what she was supposed to do next. She swirled her drink in her hand before she asked, "What was your favorite memory of Victoria?"

Damon flinched hearing her name and glanced at the clock that hung in the center of the bar's back wall. Six hours, forty-two minutes, and seventeen seconds since her death. He took his drink and hammered it back, not caring that the drink was meant to be sipped and savored. "I thought you hated me. Why are we having this little chat?"

"Because all my friends are grieving and crying and all I want to do is cry, get drunk, and think about my best friend with someone who really knew her," Caroline said confidently, and there was something that cracked in Damon's armor watching her.

In that one moment, she seemed so much like a mixture between himself and her that Damon found himself rolling his eyes, but answering honestly, "The first time that I hugged her."

Caroline's eyebrows shut up to her hairline and she sat forward, obviously intrigued by the information he had provided. He rolled his eyes again. Caroline gestured for him to continue. There wasn't much that Damon could expand with that information. How could he tell her that he had almost let Vicki die and that Victoria had been on the verge of a panic attack because she was covered head-to-toe with Vicki's blood?

But Damon could flub it a little by fluffing up the truth. "It's not news to anybody that the two of us didn't seem like the kind of people who would be friends. But she was at my house and she just had this panic attack about something that I did, or almost did, and I just gave her a hug. She hugged me back, crying into my shirt. I think that was my first hug in...years. Because despite everything shitty that's happened to me in the last few months, she trusted me enough to comfort her in that moment. So yeah...that's probably my favorite memory."

He grabbed his glass, even though it was empty, and gestured for Caroline to speak. The blonde took a sip of her drink, seeming to need the liquid courage, before she said, "I have a lot of favorite memories involving Victoria, but here's one of the top five. It was when the two of us were sixteen. It was..." Caroline trailed off, licking her lips tentatively, before continuing somewhat weaker, "It was a day before the accident. She had just seemed so blue and out of it for weeks. Months. She thought that no one noticed, but I did. We were sitting in her room and she was sprawled out on her bed like she was a cat. We were just talking about everything and nothing, and just out of the blue, she asked me how I would feel if she had never existed."

Damon's eyebrows raised in curiosity. That was a very out-of-the-blue statement, and one that could be considered triggering.

Caroline seemed to pick up on his incredulous look and nodded her head in agreement. "I've lived with a cop long enough to know that that phrase meant trouble. I told her exactly how I would feel. How her death wouldn't just affect me, but it would affect anyone who ever met her. She laughed it off, trying to explain to me that it wasn't any suicidal thoughts and how she didn't even mean it as death. She had just had some out-of-body experience deja vu kind of crap and she was pondering life's big question of our existence." Caroline rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. So I called her out on her bullshit and she just had this smile. It was content, happy, respectful, loving. So many emotions that I hadn't seen genuinely on her face for months. It kind of startled me. She confessed that she had been having troubles recently, but something had changed that made her feel wonderful. Special. She was going to tell me the night of the accident, but I fell asleep before I could take her phone call. I may have done an all-nighter the night before to binge cop crime shows. She never got to tell me."

"So she wasn't suicidal?" Damon clarified. "Just becoming Gandhi?"

"You hung around her enough to know that she has spouted off some wise words of wisdom before," Caroline fired back playfully, taking a long sip of her drink. "And speaking as her best friend, yeah. Trust me, I was really worried, but she just seemed so...calm, relaxed. And not in the bad way." She sighed and shook her head. "Trust me, she knew wholeheartedly what it would have been like for everyone if she left. She's the most selfless person I know. She would never do that to anybody she cared about."

"And that entire memory is in your top five?" Damon chuckled.

Caroline shrugged. "She just seemed so happy. If there is anyone who deserved to be happy, it was her."

Damon couldn't find any fault with that.

His phone started to buzz, the annoying ringtone that somebody in the boarding house had set him up with when he had been taking a shower. Damon grumbled angrily as he slipped it out of his pocket. His frown deepened when he saw the contact's name and he glanced up at Caroline questioningly. "Why is your mother calling me?"

Caroline's face dropped into one of panic and she shot back her drink, wincing at the taste. "If she asks about me, I am not here."

"Noted," Damon snorted, before answering the call. "Sheriff, it's rather early in the morning. Was there another attack?"

Caroline's eyebrow raised in question, but she kept her silence. Ah yeah, she didn't know that Damon was working with her mother. Questions for another time.

"I think so," Sheriff Forbes spoke from the other line. Caroline leaned forward and Damon just gave her a glare, but that didn't dissuade her. He rolled his eyes, but angled the phone a little so she could be able to hear. He didn't think that the Sheriff would release any information that was too much of an issue. "One of my guys was patrolling around the woods when he spotted a vehicle off to the side. He went to take a look. It was an ambulance. But here's the big kicker: there were three EMTs inside. All of them dead. We're not sure on deaths just yet, but it looks like they were cooked from the inside out. There's a ripped body bag on the gurney. The entire thing just smells like death and blood."

Caroline and Damon caught each other's eyes, and while Damon didn't show it, he could feel the underlying current of panic that the two of them shared. Mystic Falls wasn't that big of a town. Only one ambulance had been running that night.

The one taking Victoria to the hospital.

"Are you thinking it's someone hungry or something else?" Damon asked. He held up a finger to Caroline when she opened her mouth to ask him what the hell he meant. He'd explain it to her later (or he would compel her to forget this conversation ever happened).

"As much as I hate to say it, it doesn't appear to be someone hungry," the Sheriff explained. She must have caught on to his subtle clue to keep her mouth mum to the word 'vampire'. "None of the EMTs have bite marks. It looks like someone or a group of someones wanted whoever or whatever was in the body bag really bad. I have no reports involving this ambulance. It shouldn't have been carrying anyone, so I'm running on empty."

"What's the ambulance looking like? What do you mean by 'really bad'?"

"The back of the vehicle looks like it's been peeled up like a can of sardines, Damon. If that doesn't scream someone or a group of people wanting a person or thing in the body bag 'really bad', I don't know what does."

"I'll call Zach and we'll get right on it," Damon reassured her, jumping to his feet. He began to stride out of the bar and ignored the tippity-taps he heard as Caroline followed suit. "If the ambulance is in the woods, it's safe to assume that these guys wouldn't be dragging a body into the town. We'll find them. Don't worry."

"I'm more worried about their intent. If it's a person in that bag, what do they need with it? And who is it?"

"I'm about to find out," Damon growled, and he hung up the phone angrily. He raced towards his car and slid into the front seat, sticking his key into the engine. He heard the passenger side open up and Caroline plopped down into the seat next to him. "Blondie, it's been fun, but get out of my car."

"Something happened to Victoria," Caroline stated, and Damon rolled his eyes.

"Astute observation. Now out," he ordered, jerking his finger towards the outside.

Caroline glared at him and pointed a finger back at him just as angrily. "Only one ambulance was running tonight. The one that was supposed to take Victoria to the morgue. And yet, somehow, it winds up in the forest. The forest is nearly ten minutes out of the way, Damon. Why on Earth would they be heading that way instead of heading towards the hospital?"

"I don't know, Blondie, and I won't be able to figure out if you don't get out of my damn car!" Damon growled. His irritation was reaching its peak. He had been pretty kind and considerate, much more than usual, towards Caroline since the event, but he was about to lose it all. "You're not coming with me."

"I am."

"I will make you stay."

"I'd like to see you try."

In his defense, no one had told him that Caroline was now the proud owner of some vervain (not that she was aware of it either). That was the excuse he was going with as he drove down some backroads out of Mystic Falls with Zach in his passenger seat, and Stefan and Caroline in the backseat. Caroline had been confused as to why Stefan was coming, and Stefan had felt the same way towards Caroline. Never mind the fact that there was a giant SUV tailing his car out of town (aka Lexi and Lee, who had refused to sit out as they hunted down whoever had kidnapped Victoria's body). Damon had tried to wheedle out Noble's help from Lee, but Lee had firmly stated that Noble was no longer in the picture and would no longer be in the picture. Kind of frustrating to Damon, honestly. He was finally getting on the guy's good side, but anyways.

Caroline did her part and kept quiet, not being her usual, bubbly self. It helped set the somber mood that lurked within the car.

As Damon continued to speed towards the ambulance wreckage, Zach whispered softly, so only he, Stefan, and himself could hear it, "Not a vampire?"

"Sheriff didn't think so," Damon replied, his voice equally as quiet. He kept his gaze cool and steady on the road ahead of him. "Said the EMTs looked cooked like a rotisserie chicken. I'm getting creative in my descriptions, but that was the basics of it all. Back of the ambulance looks peeled, not ripped, open. Not many vampires around who are strong enough to do that."

"Maybe Lexi if she's in the right mood," Stefan snorted, shaking his head.

Zach interrupted, his voice soft but still instructive, "If it's a vampire, it's gotta be really old. Well over Lexi's age, by maybe even a hundred and fifty more years."

"No one knows Noble's age, right?" Stefan murmured, glancing out of his seat's window. Damon looked towards him briefly through the rearview mirror. Oooh, he had his broody face on. Call the media. "It was never brought up?"

"If it was, no one was paying attention," Damon grunted, his grip tightening on the steering wheel. "But if there's anyone who has something to gain from this shitty evening, it'd be him. He's been a weirdo stalker for ages. Wouldn't surprise me if there's something he still wants from her."

"If you all are talking about what's going to happen tonight, I would like to hear it as well," Caroline loudly complained, and all the vampires in the car glanced towards her, some with annoyance (i.e. Damon) and others with pained compliance (i.e. Zach and Stefan). "Don't forget I'm a part of this expedition as well."

"How could we ever forget you, Blondie?" Damon drawled, sending her a look.

Caroline flipped him off. Damon wanted to applaud. That was ballsy of her. Victoria...

She would have been proud.

"There it is!" Caroline suddenly shouted, leaning in between the front two seats to point towards a section of the forest.

Damon jumped at her sudden intrusion of his personal space and he swatted her hand away, pulling off to the side of the road. All cop cars were sent away, as per the Sheriff's instructions. If it was a vampire, she had texted him earlier, she didn't want her men to know about it. Damon threw his car into park and exited quickly. Lee's SUV slipped in neatly behind his car, and everyone piled out of the two cars. Caroline's eyebrows shot up in surprise when she spotted Lexi, but she didn't say anything, miraculously.

Damon strode towards the ambulance, giving a low whistle when he finally saw the vehicle for himself. It was...hell, Sheriff Forbes' description had been pretty accurate. The inside of the vehicle first off looked like it had been given a good salad tossing. He spotted one body propped up against some of the cabinetry, its legs trapped underneath the overturned gurney. There, sitting in his lap, was the body bag.

The exterior of the vehicle was peeled open. The edges of the most ragged peeled pieces were smooth, something that didn't happen naturally or without a shit ton of force.

Zach peeled off from the rest of the group, and Lee followed him. The two guys went towards the front of the ambulance, which had struck itself hard against a tree. Damon, Stefan, Lexi, and Caroline approached the ambulance's rear. Caroline was letting out all kinds of soft gasps, and Damon was seriously regretting bringing her.

Stefan took a deep breath through his nose and nearly gagged. "Yeah, that's not a good smell."

"Bodies burnt to a crisp? Really?" Caroline hissed, glaring at Stefan. "That doesn't give your nose a tingling feeling?"

"Oh, I'm getting a tingly feeling alright," Lexi interrupted, wincing and shaking her head. "That's really nasty."

"What's that little nose of yours picking up, Stefan?" Damon called out, walking around the side of the ambulance to look at the peeled off pieces. Stefan gave him a glare and Caroline looked between the two of them in confusion. Damon shrugged. "Stefan likes to keep it close to his chest, but his dad was a bloodhound."

"We have the same dad," Stefan stated incredulously, shaking his head. Damon just smirked at his little brother and Stefan grumbled something under his breath before stating louder, "Over all the smell of burnt meat, antiseptic, and general sense of death, I can smell Victoria's scent."

"Roses," Caroline confirmed, nodding her head in agreement. The three vampires who were at the back of the ambulance with her gave her looks of disbelief and she shrugged. "What? I know my best friend's smell. I mean, I can't smell it now because I'm focusing too much on not throwing up, but I know what she smells like."

"Girls are weird," Damon snorted, rolling his eyes. He looked back towards the ambulance and folded his arms across his chest. "Are you getting the smell anywhere else, Steffie-boy?"

"Don't ever call me that again," Stefan ordered, but he took another deep breath through his nose. "No. The smell of roses end right here." He gestured roughly towards the body bag. "Which is stupid because if Victoria's body was taken anywhere, then her smell should accompany it."

"So we basically have no leads," Damon grumbled. "Great."

"No-go on the men up front," Lee admitted, coming round the edge of the ambulance. Zach was right on his heels. Lee's Southern twang seemed to become more profuse as his agitation grew. "They seemed to be dead before the ambulance got off the road."

"So we have no idea where her body is or who took her," Damon restated, wanting to make sure he got his facts straight. The group of men and women nodded and Damon let out a harsh growl. "Fantastic, well what are we supposed to do now -"

He clamped his jaw shut when he heard a loud crack coming from deeper in the woods. Like pointer dogs, all the vampires' heads shot towards the noise. It even seemed so loud that Caroline could hear it, because she verbally commented, "Did you hear that?"

"We've got a runner," Zach issued. "Lexi, Lee, Damon, you three go try and chase them down. I'll take Stefan and Caroline and we'll try to cut them off."

"On it," the first three vampires stated in unison. They rushed off, not taking off at their full vampiric speed until they were far enough away that Caroline wouldn't notice.

Damon was practically a child compared to Lexi, her being well over three hundred years old. That made him significantly slower than her, but he was still quicker than Lee, given his age. Lee seemed to have some prior training in running, though, because he was keeping up well with Damon.

They moved like a killer mass towards the noise, natural predators hunting down prey that had personally wronged them.

But that was when things got...hinky.

They heard the same type of noise in a different direction. And given by how quiet it was, it was much, much farther. It was impossible for a human to have made it that far, especially given how fast the three vampires were running. They switched directions in the drop of a coin and were headed towards the new noise in the blink of an eye.

They all skidded to a halt when they reheard the noise, this time at a different spot. Lee looked at Lexi and Damon incredulously and threw his hands up. "Just how fast is this bugger?"

Damon slipped out his phone and dialed up Stefan's number. His younger brother answered immediately, "Please tell me you're calling to brag that you caught them."

"They are faster than the literal Roadrunner," Damon spat, verbally growling. "We can't keep up. Every time we think we've found them, they end up being in the opposite direction far away!"

"Well that's just fantastic, because someone just ran through the road. We nearly hit them, but we have a pretty good guess where they're heading. Get back to the boarding house."

"On it," Damon said. The two other vampires didn't need direction. They took off like a shot and Damon followed a quick moment later.

It took them longer than usual to get to the boarding house, but they still managed to get there just as Zach, Stefan, and Caroline pulled up in Lee's SUV and Damon's car. Damon stewed angrily, but he was at least a little relieved that it had been Zach driving his car. If Stefan or Caroline had touched his car, he wouldn't have taken too kindly to that.

"How the hell did you guys get here just as we did?" Caroline asked incredulously, gesturing towards Damon, Lexi, and Lee. "You guys took off running in the opposite direction."

"There's a lot of trails that cut right back to here," Lexi supplied absentmindedly, looking towards Stefan. "We were already close. Where do you think this mystery person is heading?"

"Here," Stefan explained. Damon quirked an eyebrow up in confusion and his brother caught the look. "Listen, we didn't see much more than a shadow pass by us. Someone was there and then they weren't. And they were headed straight here."

"What do they want with us?" Damon questioned, subconsciously turning towards Zach for some answers.

His nephew shrugged, seeming disturbed by the information. "Maybe it's something in relation to Victoria. Is any of her things here? Something that they might want?"

The object in Damon's pocket burned hot and he reached down, wrapping his fingers tightly around the thin chain. Something in him forced him to speak up, "Maybe."

Damon dragged the item out of his pocket and lifted it up, showcasing it for the group to see.

Caroline verbalized exactly what they were all thinking. "Her anklet?"

The others picked up on his wavelength, understanding that the anklet had had some force that prevented compulsion on Victoria that wasn't vervain. But to Caroline, it was just another piece of jewelry. "Is this guy like some sicko stalker that got too obsessed with her?"

"We don't know, and we won't know unless we catch this slippery bastard," growled Lee, folding his arms across his chest. "Alright, ideas, people. What's the next step?"

Before anyone could speak, there was a crack noise. Lee, Lexi, and Damon perked up. The noise that they had been trying to track down for...Damon quickly checked his phone - eight hours, sixteen minutes, and fifty-eight seconds since her death - ...nearly an hour. And it sounded like it was coming straight their own backyard.

"Caroline, stay here," Damon ordered, before he stalked off towards the noise. Lexi and Stefan fell into step behind him and he heard Caroline start to argue, but Zach and Lee said something to shut her up before following suit.

Damon slipped through the back gate and strode quickly, reaching the back of the boarding house. The back lawn was not something to be extremely proud of (they had been a little too busy fighting vampires to really take care of the grass) but it slipped away into the woods. There was a little baby clearing a mile out from the house. Damon checked his hearing and heard another crack coming straight from the clearing. The five vampires took off, scrambling to be the first one there.

Damon arrived first, being at the front of the group, and skidded to a stop. There was a dark figure in the clearing, their back to the vampires. He sniffed the area; it smelt like burnt flesh and death. The exact same smell of the ambulance. Whoever this mysterious person was, they had been at the ambulance.

"Stop right there, asshole!" Damon called out, his hands folding into fists. The figure froze, their body locking up. If only the moon would shift its beam just a little forward, then Damon would have gotten a better glimpse of the figure. "We just have a couple of questions for you."

Stefan slid to a stop next to Damon and sniffed. He gagged and shook his head. "You smell like the ambulance. You were there. Did you kill those men?"

The figure flinched and cowered in on themselves, but they didn't dare take another step forward. Seemed like a guilty conscious. Maybe they were giving up the chase. That still didn't explain how they were able to move almost faster than all the vampires, but Damon was grateful if that was the case.

"There was someone very precious to us in that vehicle," Damon grunted, taking a step forward. His foot hit a tree branch and it snapped. The figure flinched again. "So, we're going to keep things simple. Give her back to us and maybe we'll make your death fast."

"Death."

The figure spoke and its voice was raspy, unused. Damon would have dared to say it sounded like they were speaking for the first time. It was dirty, low, and gritty, so it was hard to determine a gender from the voice. The figure seemed to shuffle in their spot, and when Damon squinted, it looked like they were...hugging themselves?

The figure spoke again. "I-I was dead. N-Now I'm not. H-How?"

"New vampire?" Lee proposed, appearing behind Stefan. He kept his voice low, as to not aggravate the new figure. "Some of the newbies can get very rambunctious with our abilities."

"Seems like the best case; still doesn't really explain the bodies," Damon grunted. He paused and angled his ears towards the figure.

There. It might be hard to hear, but he could definitively hear the steady pumping of a heart. He schooled his shocked expression and whispered, "Hear that? They have a heartbeat. Not a vampire."

"Vampires," the figure whispered, and Damon's eyes widened in surprise. How the hell had they been able to hear Damon speaking? No normal human could have been able to do that. Must be some sort of supernatural creature. He wasn't exactly the expert on those. "N-Not a vampire. Didn't drink any blood. I-It wouldn't stay."

"It wouldn't stay where?" Lexi called out.

"Wouldn't stay down," the figure replied.

"Enough of these charades," Zach growled. He stepped out in front of the other vampires and Damon watched as his eyes took on the deep red that was unfamiliar to the rest of the group. "Turn around and tell us your name."

The figure clenched up, fearful. But after a moment, they did turn. The moon seemed to answer Damon's plea and the trees' leaves shifted just enough that a bright moonbeam hit the figure square in the face.

And the literal wind was knocked out of Damon's chest.

"Victoria?" he breathed incredulously, his eyes wide with distress.

There was no way. There was no way.

The person in front of him looked like a dead ringer for Victoria, though. She was wearing a dress that looked identical to the one that Victoria had worn the night before to the dance, including the large hole right in her torso where the stake had been. She wasn't wearing any shoes, Noble's necklace wasn't there and there was no anklet. Everything seemed to be identical.

Except the hair. Victoria's hair was a dirty blonde mixed with brunette. This woman's hair was red. Not a deep cherry red like Stefan's coupe, but more lighter. Almost like the woman's hair had been blonde but then it had been stained red.

"I-I was dead," the Victoria look-alike stammered, her arms wrapped tightly around herself in a pathetic hug. The woman staggered towards them, one shaky step at a time, and the vampires were frozen, unable to move. "I-I was dead but then I was here. I-It was dark, so d-dark. T-Then pain. A-And then I-I was here." She looked up and her eyes latched onto Damon. Damon flinched at the eye contact. The woman staggered towards Damon, holding a hand out as if asking for his touch. "H-How am I alive?"

"Stop moving," Zach ordered, but even his voice shook with shock.

"H-Help me," the woman begged, tears coming to her eyes. "P-Please."

Wait. Those weren't tears. Damon squinted his eyes for a better look. They sparkled in the light like tears, but...

Tears were supposed to be translucent, weren't they?

From the woman's left eye dripped a substance that sparkled and looked pure white in color. Her entire eye turned the same shade of sparkling white. In a ying-to-yang effect, her other side was crying black tears, glittering as if doused in sequins. Her right eye was completely black.

The woman stumbled and dropped to her knees. She opened her mouth to speak, but instead, the white and black ooze that was coming from her eyes came from her mouth. Same sides and everything. It freaked Damon the frick out.

"P-Please..." the woman was able to murmur before all hell broke loose.

The woman let out a heart-wrenching scream and what Damon could only describe as pure chaos burst out of her body. The vampires were all knocked flat on their asses as a wave of...something...hit them square in the chest. Damon's head slammed hard in the ground and it sent of rush of pain through his body that was gone in the next moment. Thank you, speed healing.

He jumped to his feet, but quickly realized the error of his way.

The Victoria look-alike knelt in the clearing still, but the chaos around her was what drew Damon's eye. The black and white ooze from her body seemed to take on a gaseous form, circling around her like a ying-yang tornado. Everywhere that the cloud touched, trees would snap in half and branches would be taken up, swirling around in a swirling vortex. One wrong move and any one of the vampires would be dead in a moment.

"Okay, everybody, up, now!" Damon ordered, reaching down to grab Stefan. He shoved his little brother towards the boarding house. "Head straight for the house!"

"What the hell is that thing?" Zach demanded as he jumped to his feet. He let out a startled yelp and quickly ducked, Damon following suit, and a large tree branch swooped right over their heads. Had they been standing, both men would have been impaled. Zach stumbled back to his feet and watched as the branch rejoined the growing chaos. "And why does it look like Victoria?"

"I don't know, Zach, otherwise I would be telling you!" Damon snarked, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Right now, we have to get out of here and figure out how to kill it!"

Another scream came from the woman, and Damon growled at the sound. It made his non-beating heart hurt. Why did it hurt him? There was no reason for it to.

"Maybe she's a skinwalker?" Lexi suggested, grabbing Lee's hand and yanking him to the side as the group started to make the perilous journey back towards the boarding house. It seemed like with every step they took, some force tried to drag them back. It made walking more difficult then Damon liked. "The thing took Victoria's body?"

"Those aren't real, Lexi!" Lee shouted, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend and yanking her to his side. Another piece of wood flew by and Stefan let out a hiss of pain as the wood nicked his hand. "We have to get you a better fact-checker!"

Damon took another step, then found that he had lost his footing. He grunted as his body hit the dirt, hard. Then he started moving...backwards. Towards the woman. He dug his hands into the dirt, but the force pulling him, dragging him backwards meant that he just left claw marks in the ground.

"A little help here!" Damon shouted, and the vampires then noticed their fallen comrade.

Zach flipped around to try and help, but he couldn't step towards Damon. None of them could. Each tried, of course, but it was like they were being held back by some invisible force. He was on his own.

Damon flipped around onto his back so he could get a better look towards where he was heading. And it wasn't a pretty sight.

The woman was on her hands and knees and it was the ooze was being sucked straight from her soul. Her cries hadn't lightened up, and they seemed to become full-bodied sobs the more Damon approached (unwillingly).

He braced himself. Ready for the sting that would come as wood impaled him. There were too many branches flying all around. There was no way he would even make it to the woman before getting stuck.

A sharp boom echoed throughout the entire area and a light so bright shocked Damon. He covered his head instinctively and slammed his eyes shut. He ducked his head down for good measure. The loudest roar of thunder Damon ever heard sounded out from the sky and Damon then realized he had stopped moving.

Tentatively, Damon started to drop his hands from his head. His eyes widened in disbelief as he took in the picture before him.

The gaseous cloud of white and black ooze was now sectioned off, divided into little quadrants. And surrounding the quadrants...was lightning. Literal lightning. The bolts would bounce between other lightning quadrants, but none of it was in a hurry to try and touch the ground. The woman in the center of the madness was sitting back on her knees, panting hard. Her face was smeared with the white and black ooze, and it stained her skin. She looked to be in pain. Horrible, horrendous pain.

Footsteps sounded from Damon's side and his head snapped to attention, looking towards the noise.

"You've got to be shittin' me," Damon breathed.

Kelly LeBlanc stood tall, her arms held to the sides of her body as if she was a waitress holding some orders. In her hands were little balls of lightning. How the frick that was happening, Damon didn't know. He wasn't some weather scientist. In Kelly's eyes there was a flicker of lightning, as if the lightning was in her very soul. There was a bead of sweat rolling down Kelly's brow and her body was tense, as if she was straining to hold something back. Damon followed her eyeline straight towards the subject of her vision.

The woman.

The cloud.

The lightning.

It was all Kelly's doing.

The LeBlanc witch.

Damon had been looking for answers in the wrong LeBlanc woman.

"Do it now, Damon!" Kelly screamed.

Damon didn't stop to question anything. He was up onto his feet and bolting towards the Victoria look-alike. She saw him coming, she had to have, and she didn't try to stop him. Their eyes connected. Damon saw a glimmer in the woman's eyes. She knew what he was about to do...and she didn't try to fight him. Why?

He wouldn't know.

Damon fell to his knees and thrust his hand forward. There was a resistance of bone and muscle, but his arm penetrated the woman's body and went straight through, coming out of the other side holding her heart in his hand.

The woman's body gave one jerk, before it fell limp. A pained gasp fell from her ooze-covered lips. The gaseous cloud dissipated in one fell swoop, and the lightning that had been keeping it together dropped to the ground, filling the air with the scent of burnt pine cones.

The woman's eyes were trained on Damon's face, even though they had lost their light. The white and black ooze was gone from her eyes now, and instead, they shined a stunning steel-blue. Damon recognized those eyes. They were...

Damon felt a strong pressure on his neck and there was a loud snap. Darkness entered his world a moment later.

A/N: I am such a hypocrite, because even though I said I was tired and exhausted on the last chapter, I wrote this one in a total combination of maybe six hours on Thursday night/Friday morning. That's impressive for me. Like, applause to me! And yay, a day early, cuz I like to be weird and not follow any of my scheduling.

Also, like, invoke the name Vilijah and shippers start coming out of the woodwork. They broke 30 votes and they have retaken the lead, all for a character who hasn't even appeared yet...I applaud you.

KELLY IS A WITCH! More specifically, Kelly is the LeBlanc Witch! Who saw that coming? Did any of you? Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for this new development! And who is this new figure who looks like Victoria? Is it Victoria? Or is it someone else...? And for the "cloud" powers at the end of the chapter, imagine like a black and white version of Wanda Maximoff's chaos magic from the MCU.

THE SHIPPING WARS! (feel free to keep on voting (you can vote for more than one ship!); 1 full point for if you choose one ship, two half points for two separate ships, more than 2, smaller decimals. Anything that is not a full point will be italicized. This will not decide the final pairing; I already know who Victoria will end up with, I just want you all to be able to guess):

ROMANTIC:

Team Stetoria {Victoria/Stefan} (16): insert name here XD, sammyleann's dad, TikiKiki, Maistryia, Don't-Say-It-Feel-It, another guest, Elyse1821, Lime, herewegoagain, K, Yukihino-Sama, emma, just another guest, BookwormStrawberry, heyyeah, Guest (3), guest4ithinklol, Guest (6), Guest (9), guest (1), theappleseed, Anaidiana

Team Datoria {Victoria/Damon} (28.5): Sciave, Guest, ArganRose, CrystalAris, Marine76, Assenavira, CarlaPA, Guest (1), Maistryia, emma, just another guest, Freeshavacahdoh, Guest (3), Guest (4), Guest (6), sabrinaannpierson, Guest (7), Guest (8), Guest (9), guest (1), hfgfgfrdr, lillen20, Yolo, theappleseed, Guest (10), Juko, Bulma, Ellay, V, Ghest, charlievini, Guest (13), Guest (14)

Team Vilijah {Victoria/Elijah} (31): guest, Guest, SoraLover987142, insert name here XD, sammyleann, Orange keys 25, LoyalElijahFangirl, Hinata Megumi, A. G Herz, Aryabloodlust, ferallahey, AngelColdHeart, BlueDragibus, dreamwalkerlisa, Guest, Stachelbeere, Guest (1), jocillyria, Guest (2), BookwormStrawberry, Ieviheichu, Teghan-Potter1370, karenc0r, Hachiko33200, Guest (11), Anaidiana, Dalia2009, wolfcorgi, Nia, Rory, Teghan-Potter1370, Guest (12), Shiro7

Team Klatoria {Victoria/Klaus} (5): Tayla141, TikiKiki, Guest (9), Mythology216 the Beard King, thisIsNotATest, Guest (10)

Team Koltoria {Victoria/Kol} (2.5): DreamerPop, MelissaMorningstar, Guest (11)

Team Vinn {Victoria/Finn} (1): silentmayhem

PLATONIC:

Vinn {Victoria/Finn) (1.4): LoyalElijahFangirl, Orange keys 25, silentmayhem

Varcel {Victoria/Marcel) (1.4): LoyalElijahFangirl, Orange keys 25, jocillyria

Zinn {Zach/Finn} (.9): LoyalElijahFangirl, Orange keys 25, karenc0r

Jol {Jenna/Kol} (1.4): LoyalElijahFangirl, Lime, Orange keys 25, karenc0r

Kelas {Silas/Kelly L.} (.4): LoyalElijahFangirl, Orange keys 25

Koltoria {Victoria/Kol} (.2): Orange keys 25

Kennett {Kol/Bonnie} (.5): Lime

Autoria {Aurora/Victoria} (1.2): LoyalElijahFangirl, hfgfgfrdr

Vonnie {Victoria/Bonnie} (1): bpopa7110

Vibekah {Victoria/Rebekah} (1): BookwormStrawberry

Datoria {Victoria/Damon} (1): Guest (10)

New Followers!: anny777, limacostakaylla, BabyDoll-of-Fandom, Wanderers123321

New Favoriters!: limacostakaylla, BabyDoll-of-Fandom, Wanderers123321, DBZSUPERGT

Onto reviews!:

Shiro7: I don't think Victoria is going to be jumping into anyone's beds for a little while. She really requires a personal connection between someone before she falls for them like that. I don't believe she really had any romantic relationships back in her own world (the 2021 one) so she's new to romance. Elijah really did have cruddy luck with women.

silentmayhem: Lowkey, your PMs are starting to scare me just because they are so accurate. Like, how are you reading my mind? Are you a LeBlanc or Bennett witch? Some parts of your review are completely true, and others are a little off the guess, but super close. I'll let that simmer because more will be explained in the next chapter. It's totally cool for you to do this. What do you mean English is your fourth language? What other languages do you speak? I know a handful of phrases in different languages, so I'm curious. Your grammar is fantastic, don't worry at all! Onto your review, awwww, thank you! This story was not meant to be pro-Damon in any regards originally. I couldn't stand him compared to Stefan, but he grew on me, you know? Everyone will have their bashing moments because nobody's perfect. You should see my Google Docs. I have probably over a hundred fanfic ideas that will never be published cuz I don't got the time. Is that an official Vilijah vote? Elijah is just too hot for words. My goodness, I got flustered every time I see him on screen. My sister thinks I'm weird.

Guest: I know, the sweet little baby. You're Guest (14) by the way, and your vote has been added! If it was the end for Victoria, that'd be traumatic.

DBZFAN45: The Salvatores are the kings of the "I'm Fine" face; almost on level with Sam Winchester. Here's your chapter ;). Ooooooh, I really like that Wolf apologizing to Sheep analogy. I might totally steal that for a line in this fanfic. Oooooooh, she totally is! I didn't even think about that! Victoria is like a female version of Elijah in some ways, especially the looking for the good. I think Damon and Caroline will probably have a friendship, but it will definitely start as a "I hate you, but I hate them more, so I'm tolerating your presence right now" kind of a friendship. Ooooooo. Damon and Lee will be getting A-GRESS-IVE if/when Noble shows up in person again. 2nd Amendment: AWWW! THANK YOU! That's very sweet of you. I really wanted her death to be at the end of Unpleasantville because it's such an out-of-the-blue episode. Nobody does anything dramatic on that episode, so I wanted to surprise and startle people.

Guest: Aww thank you! I hope you still end up reading no matter what happens. Is Tori back? Your vote has been added and you are Guest (13).

Guest: They do have platonic soulmate vibes, don't they? Keep that thought about Victoria in your mind, alright? ;) It'll definitely be harder for the Mystic Falls gang if they choose to try and hurt the Mikaelsons.

charlievini: Haha, your vote has been added! We'll just have to wait and see what is in store with Datoria.

Teghan-Potter1370: Aww thank you! That was the goal. Yes! I was really worried how they were written, so thank you. That really does reassure me.

Anaidiana: Yes! I'm so glad people are reacting like this to the story. I feel like Tori does know how many people she affected, but maybe not the depth of how she affected of them.

edwardsgirl21: Yay! I'm happy to hear that. I do have her resurrection planned. It may or may not have just happened in this chapter ;). Thank you! I love your compliments!

Rory: I am happy. And oh my gosh, I relate hardcore to that pockets comment XD. If I could get paid for writing fanfics, I would live a happy and content life. Maybe I should make a XD. Nice usage of that quote.

Nia: It's true, I really like making everyone's lives much harder. It's so interesting that over 30+ people in some ways have voted for Elijah and he hasn't even shown up in the story yet. Meanwhile, the Datoria shippers primarily started because of what they've seen in the story. An interesting contrast when one looks at it.

wolfcorgi: Thank you! Your vote has been added!

Lime (Ch.34): I know, I do it a lot. Cool! Lee's full name will now be Alexander Melchizedek Ledger. Glad we got that very important information solidified. Awwww. Maybe I should make a one-shot series based on things that might have happened in this story but didn't, such as the Mikaelsons getting told about Tori being sorry for missing them. Yep, those two scenes really do seem a lot alike. Mama Kelly is one of my favorite people in this entire story. I love her.

Lime (Ch.35): Glad you're ready with your food. I want food. Zach seems like the kind of guy who is in touch with his emotions, so he's not necessarily afraid to show them off, but he also wants to be the support for others so it's hard for him. I'm glad Stefan's breakdown was good. Yeah, Tori's Dad will not be as much of a focus in the next coming chapters (if you can't tell based on the drama in this chapter). Yeah, I know some people who have been having a really cruddy 2022, so yeah, just kick it. I lowkey feel like that's how Lexi would handle a bad 2022.

Dalia2009: Thank you! Your vote has been added!

I'm so excited for these next few chapters. It's going to be so freaking awesome! EEK! And y'all, 341 reviews, 282 Followers, 218 Favoriters, 1 Community, a handful of views away from 41k+ views, and over 300k+ words! We are living the life!

Stay healthy and stay safe!

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