Fool Me Once - Part 1

Damon let out a frustrated growl as he used his hands to knock down every item that had been littering the desk in the Salvatore boarding house's library. The items went scattering, some flying to embed themselves into the walls, while others just bounced off of the bookshelves. Damon's shoulders were heaving with rage and his hands were clenched tightly into fists.

Victoria had been right. Damn it, Victoria had been right and Elena and Stefan had lied. Lied to him about their sense of loyalty. He had decided to take a chance with Elena, baring to her how he truly felt about Katherine, and how he wanted nothing more than to just live his life with her, and she had tried to go behind his back with his brother. Now Damon really wanted to murder something.

"Damon!" he heard Zach say in exasperation. His nephew was behind him and he made a frustrated groan from where he was standing. "I just got that organized."

"Did you know?" Damon demanded, flipping around. Zach was standing by the doors to the library, his arms hanging loosely by his sides and a tired expression in his eyes.

"Did I know what?" his nephew asked calmly.

"Don't bullshit me, Zach," Damon snapped, stomping his way over to his nephew. "Did you know that Stefan and Elena were going to try and keep the grimoire from me?"

Zach just let out a large sigh and folded his arms across his chest. The baby vampire leaned back against the doorframe and gave Damon a look that made Damon want to squirm. "Does I look like the kind of guy who hangs out with teenagers?"

"You deliberately spend your time with Lee, who might as well be a toddler, and Victoria, who is seventeen."

"Twenty-one if you decide to use the age she was when she transferred to this world," Zach corrected, lightly shrugging his shoulders.

"Just answer the question, Zach."

"I don't enjoy watching you fight with your brother, Damon."

"Because you don't like seeing him lose?"

"Because I don't like seeing you two ruin your relationship," Zach stated. "You two are my uncles; the only family I have left in this shitty world."

"I'm touched," Damon deadpanned, flipping around to stalk back towards his desk. "Honestly. I'm so moved that I might write an autobiography and dedicate a whole chapter to you."

Damon heard his nephew sigh, almost in defeat. "If there's anything I've learned in these past few weeks, it's that you need to keep those you love close to you. To spend time with them, to tell them how much you care because you never know when they will be ripped away from you. To answer your question, no. I had no idea that Stefan was going to do that. I think that the feud he has with you, this idiotic thought that you could be irredeemable, is overrated. He's looking at you through rose-tinted glasses. He doesn't see how much coming back here has changed you for the better."

"Nothing's changed me for the better, Zach, and don't let anyone fool you into believing that's true," Damon laughed harshly, flipping around to glare at his nephew.

Zach just shrugged again. He seemed nonchalant, relaxed in Damon's presence. What had happened to the cowering human who had been terrified of Damon's every move? Zach pushed himself off of the doorframe and stood sturdy on his feet, staring down Damon. It made him jittery, anxious. Why did it make him feel that way? "Victoria changed you."

Damon wanted to scoff; to laugh off Zach's crazy accusation. But he found that he was silent, and he couldn't speak.

Zach continued, not seeing the internal conflict raging inside of Damon's body. "Meeting her, however chaotic and somewhat damaging it was, changed you. She gave you someone to care for, someone to look after. Call it allies, call it friends, call it something more; I don't care. What I do care about is that the vampire who came back to this town way back in September was not the same man who sobbed when a teenage girl died for him."

Zach turned to walk away, but he paused. He risked a glance back towards Damon. "For what it's worth, I forgive you, Uncle Damon."

He walked away before Damon could say anything.

Lee was a man of simple pleasures. He liked peace, he liked hunting with Zach, and he loved his girlfriend. Like seriously, he would do whatever it took to annoy the crap out of her. Hunting down cougars, renting a pet cougar for a present (Lexi hadn't been extremely thrilled at that, but still, it was funny); lots of things to do with cougars. They were his favorite animal, after all. Anyways, as he had just said, Lee liked peace.

So when his phone started to ring, and it was a number that held no name, but was one he recognized, Lee was not happy.

Lee excused himself from his girlfriend's side, and Lexi gave him a pouting look before she rolled over and started to doze off to sleep. Lee slipped out of the bed he and Lexi shared in the boarding house and tiptoed into their suite. Once he was in their connected bathroom, he shut the door, locked it, and clicked the answer call button. He held the phone up to his ear and hissed through clenched teeth, "You got a lot of nerve calling me."

"Hello, Alexander. Such a pleasure talking with you."

"Can it, Markus," Lee growled. He grabbed on tightly to the countertop in the bathroom and glared into the mirror. He hoped that his words would take on the spirit of the glare. "I got out. I left, so why are you calling me?"

"As there are few little of us left, you know that we must stick together," Markus continued, light and airy and sounding like he had no care in the damn world. "I am interested to know if you know where our commander is."

"I told Noble to never speak to me again or I would rip his heart out for failing his mission to protect Victoria," Lee snapped. "Looks like he's done the smart thing and not contacted me."

"I understand your frustrations with the commander, Alexander -"

"- They are more than frustrations, Markus!" Lee shouted. He heard Lexi sleepily ask him to shut the hell up and he sent her a whispered apology, promising to keep his voice down. He walked farther into the bathroom, trying to keep as far away from the door as possible. "He kept vital information from me, Markus. When the whole Raphael shitshow went down, I had no idea! I had to learn from Victoria herself. She was the one to tell me about Raphael, about her week spent being tortured by a vampire that Raphael turned without permission! Those are more than frustrations, Markus. Victoria was as much my charge as she was his, and yours, and Jeanine's, and Raphael's. I deserved to know what happened to her."

"But of course. You are -"

"- I was, Markus, not anymore -"

"- My apologies, Alexander. You were a leading member of this group, and as such, it was your right to be informed of all complications."

"And yet, I wasn't," Lee sniffed.

"And those are issues I shall bring up when I speak with the commander next, but first, I need to find him."

"And I don't know where he is," Lee stated firmly, folding his free arm across his chest. "The last time I spoke with him was days ago. I told him strongly that he was to lose my number and I was going to promptly lose his."

"You may not know where he is directly, but no one was as close to the commander as you were. You would have a guess as to where he might be."

Lee let out a large sigh and his whole body sagged. He dropped to the floor of the bathroom and pushed himself so his back was resting up against the wall. His head flopped back against the smooth material and he swallowed heavily. "Yeah...yeah. Yeah, I know where he might be. If he's not here in Mystic Falls, loitering around just out of my sight...check New York. Or this one old chapel in London. He used to go there a lot in the eighties and early nineties before Victoria was born. Said it helped him think."

"Thank you, Alexander. I shall speak to the commander about your displeasures within the group. En el nombre del Cruxifijo, we shall remember this help."

Lee was silent for a moment. He took a deep breath in and then let it out in one fell swoop. "En el nombre del Cruxifijo, Markus, I hope Noble meets your expectations."

Victoria shot up with a gasp, her hands flashing towards her throat. She panted, wincing as every breath twisted sharply in her throat. She blinked her eyes, trying to figure out what was happening. She was in a room that she didn't recognize, and it freaked her out. She was on a motel bed, with a twin-sized mattress. There was an identical twin bed a few feet away from hers and there was a large shape on it. It was human-like and it had a familiar look to it...

Victoria's eyes widened in disbelief. It was Elena! Which meant that she was in the motel room. Fantastic. She looked around; the room was dark, no lights were turned on. Through the darkness, Victoria's eyes were able to make out every shape. Ben wasn't there, at all. Her brow furrowed in confusion. That didn't follow the original script. Did something happen to him at the school?

Vicki (Mind Vicki, that is, but she had insisted that Victoria could just call her Vicki) had reassured Victoria that Walt was alright. In the few moments after Victoria's death, Vicki had seen Walt walking away unharmed. Ben didn't get to him, which brought some level of relief to Victoria, but it still didn't explain why she was at the motel. Where were Stefan and Alaric? She had been with them; even if Stefan had gone to Elena's house, wouldn't he have been worried when she didn't show up, as she promised?

Victoria pushed her body to the side, swinging her legs off of the mattress. Her bones felt sore and her neck was screaming for an ice pack or a heating pack or something. It ached like no tomorrow. And her stomach. Good graciousness, that threat she had made to Stefan about killing and skinning a bear herself because she was so hungry was true once more. It made her feel dizzy. Was this something that Victoria was going to have to deal with every time she woke up from death? She shivered. She really hoped there wouldn't be more "deaths" to deal with, but Victoria was realistic. She did live in Mystic Falls.

She heard footsteps outside on the patio and Victoria stilled. Her hands clenched in anticipation and she angled her body towards the front door. Push came to shove, Victoria would just mention Pearl and hope that Anna would be willing to reason with her. And shit! Was Bonnie at the motel or had Victoria's intervention, however late it was, still enough time to change the timeline?

No time to worry about that now. The sound of keys jingling and one being inserted into the slot filled the otherwise silent apartment. Victoria took a deep breath and let it out. Showtime.

The door opened up and it wasn't Ben who walked in. It was Anna. The vampiress turned towards Victoria and she gave Victoria a wary smile. Victoria's brow furrowed in confusion. Okaaaay then...?

Anna didn't make any move to try and approach her and Elena; she turned around and shut the door, making sure to lock it. Once that action was done, Anna turned around and approached Elena's bed. Victoria tensed up and Anna held up a finger to her lips. Victoria recognized the action; she had done it earlier when she noticed Anna inside of the school.

Victoria stayed where she was, hoping that putting a minuscule amount of faith in Anna wasn't going to backfire on her horribly. Anna knelt by Elena's side, her eyes running across Elena's form. She took in her breathing patterns, the way she tossed in her sleep, all of it, before rising to her feet. She walked around Elena's bed and came over to Victoria's. Victoria scooted back up onto the mattress, trying to put as much distance as she could between herself and the vampire.

Anna held up her hands, looking as if she was trying to exude peace and calm. "Easy, easy. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Could've fooled me," Victoria whispered back, keeping in mind how loud her voice was.

"I haven't touched you besides bringing you here," Anna argued, placing her hands on her hips. She plopped down on the far end of the bed, making Victoria bounce lightly. "And I don't even know why I bothered."

"Why's that?"

"You were dead," Anna muttered, her eyes flashing with fear and slight awe. "You were dead, and I thought that maybe you were a vampire, but now I can hear your heartbeat, and I..."

"You panicked, for lack of a better term?" Victoria couldn't help but comment. Anna blushed and nodded, looking awkward and sheepish.

"You saw me at the school," Anna stated. "In the hallway, and you didn't say anything. Why?"

Victoria shrugged. She didn't know how to explain it to Anna. "I can't explain it to you, but I can say that I want to help you, Anna. The way you're going about it, though, is not going to have anyone helping you."

Anna bristled and she rose to her feet. "You don't know anything."

"That's not true, Anna."

She whirled on Victoria, her eyes darker than previously. "You don't understand what I am going through. No one in this town understands! I just want her back! I just want my mother back! And I am willing to do whatever it takes to get her back!"

"And if I was in your same position, I would want the same, Anna," Victoria retorted, moving to her feet to be on the same level as the vampiress. "But kidnapping Bonnie and Elena is not the way to go about it. Threatening and hurting people is not the way."

Anna's eyes flashed with anger and her hands clenched into fists. "If it gets me my mother back, is it really that bad?"

"Um, yeah," Victoria stated directly, as if the answer was obvious. "This is not how your mother raised you. Pearl would never -"

"How do you know her name?"

At that moment, Elena's breathing changed and she began to stir. Anna turned to look towards Elena. And Victoria struck.

She threw her hands out, and her magic reacted accordingly. Her magic collided with Anna's body and sent the woman flying across the room. Her back hit the wall of the motel room and she slid down it with a slight groan.

Victoria was just standing in slight shock. The magic...it hadn't been white like it had been all of yesterday. It was black, like obsidian. The magic danced along her hands as the world fell into black-and-white and Victoria watched as Anna charged her. Victoria dropped to the ground, throwing herself into a roll to quickly get out of Anna's way. She was up on her feet in an instant and she spun around, throwing her hands out once more. The black magic circled Anna's wrists and Victoria clutched her hands into fists; the magic that sprouted from her fingers did the same around Anna's wrists and Victoria threw her hands down. Anna let out a yelp of fear as Victoria's magic knocked her off balance and threw her to the floor. Victoria's arms were tense and Victoria could feel a physical resistance as Anna struggled to fight back against it.

"What the hell?" Victoria heard Elena gasp, and Victoria saw out of the corner of her eye Elena scrambling off the little twin, moving as far away from her and Anna as she could.

"Get Bonnie and get out!" Victoria ordered, groaning as the muscles in her arms started to burn. Anna was thrashing around even more now that she had heard Victoria try to dismantle her plans. Victoria readjusted her hands, clenching her fists tighter. She heard a cry of pain from Anna and she tried to stop the rush of guilt she got in her stomach. "She's in the bathroom!"

Elena nodded rapidly and disappeared out of sight, probably heading towards the bathroom. She heard the teenager yell out fearfully, "Bonnie!"

Anna's head whipped up to look at Victoria, and her vampiric features were on full display. She let out a menacing hiss and spat, "You said you wanted to help me!"

"Yeah, well, you were being a bitch," Victoria spat back. Anna jerked an arm back and the magic that was wrapped around that wrist broke. It felt like someone had shot Victoria's hand, the one that correlated with Anna's. Victoria let out a clenched tooth grunt of pain and tried her best to keep her focus on the remaining magically-restrained hand.

"Tori! I got Bonnie!" Elena shouted from the bathroom. Victoria watched as the teen dragged Bonnie out of the bathroom and towards the door. "Keep her occupied just a few seconds longer."

"Easier said than done, Elena," Victoria grunted.

She could feel her magic slipping; there was a dropping feeling in her gut that Victoria couldn't explain and the room was starting to tilt. That wasn't a good sign. Victoria lashed out with her other hand, and once the inky black magic connected with Anna's body, Victoria used her whole body to make a throwing motion towards the bathroom. Anna's body was easily picked up and thrown. She collided hard with the doorframe to the bathroom and she dropped to her knees, wheezing.

Victoria herself had fallen to her knees as well, panting. She felt like she had just run a marathon. She hadn't been so winded when practicing with Kelly. Maybe offensive magic is harder than defensive, Victoria surmised in her mind. Her whole body shook, as if her blood sugar was taking a hard nose-dive.

"Tori! We got to go now!"

Victoria rose to her feet shakily and staggered over to Elena. She did her best to help Elena get Bonnie out of the door, but Victoria couldn't continue. Once Elena and Bonnie were on the other side of the door, Victoria slammed the door shut with herself still inside the motel room. She hurriedly locked the door, ignoring Elena's calls for her to stop, to join the two.

"I can't keep going," Victoria hissed, flipping around. She held tightly to the wall and the doorknob to keep herself up. "Something's happening with my magic. It's draining me more than usual. I need you two to get out of here. Get to the boarding house, now!"

Anna pulled herself to her feet, and the young woman looked ready for blood. Victoria rolled her shoulders. Anna stalked around the bed that Elena had been residing in, and she rolled her neck. "You know, when I took you, I thought you were just some teenager that Ben had easily overpowered. I can admit that when I'm wrong, I'm wrong. So...what are you?"

"Haven't you heard?" Victoria sniffed, tilting her head to observe Anna. Victoria maybe only a few more moments left. Her body was starting to slow down. She could feel it. Perhaps, if she was to meet Henri again, she could ask him what was happening, and why it hadn't happened before. Victoria rolled her wrists and the inky black magic rose from her fingertips, whispering around her hands as if they were slinky black cats. "I'm the Immortalis."

Victoria pushed herself off of the door and threw her right hand forward, as if she was pitching a baseball. A solid ball of black magic flew forward, but Anna saw it coming and ducked out of the way. Victoria staggered towards one of the walls, sucking in a deep breath as stars exploded in her vision. She painfully turned her head towards the front door, where Anna was trying to rush towards. Victoria whipped a hand forward, and her magic grabbed onto Anna's wrist right before she grabbed the doorknob. The vampiress let out a frustrated growl and Victoria jerked her arm back, sending Anna careening towards Victoria. The two girls collided and they fell to the floor of the motel in a heap. Victoria groaned as her body hit the ground. Everything ached. She couldn't see properly. Her limbs felt like they were made of lead.

There was a weight on her body and suddenly Victoria couldn't breathe. Something was wrapped around her neck tightly, squeezing tighter and tighter. Victoria flailed as much as she could, and she even tried to use her magic to get the person off, but nothing was responding. Victoria could only lay there, the person over her having all the power.

"You may be the Immortalis, but you are a child compared to me," whispered the person above her, and a quick twist of their hands and Victoria was sent spiraling into darkness once more.

Damon was stretched out on one of the sofas in the library, his feet propped up onto the coffee table with Emily's grimoire held in his hands. Since his...rousing talk with Zach the night before, he had spent the morning diving deep into his study of the text. Everything that he was going to need to know about opening the tomb was written in the book. Thus, until all the knowledge was his, he and his new best friend were not going to go anywhere. His new best friend being the grimoire.

Large, anxious steps alerted Damon immediately to Stefan's presence within the library. He resisted the urge to groan. Was his younger brother ever going to stop annoying him when he was busy researching magical things? It was going to start a trend. But of course, Stefan was worried. He hadn't stopped calling Damon all night. The one voicemail Damon had dared to listen to mentioned something about Elena being missing and Anna being the culprit. Damon had made a little visit to the vampiress the night before, where he had gotten his hands on Johnathan Gilbert's journal. She wanted to team up. The only person that Damon did any sort of team up with was Victoria.

"Anna took Elena," Stefan said in place of a greeting.

Damon grunted and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He was getting better at controlling his urges to maul his baby brother, but only just. It was better not to push it. Damon barely glanced up from the grimoire towards Stefan. "Yeah, I got that from your six hundred voicemails."

Stefan strode across the room towards Damon, purpose in every step that he took. "Damon. All night long, every single street in town, I've been searching. What if your blood hasn't passed out of her system?"

Damon snickered and smirked up at his brother. "Well then, at least you know you'll see her again."

"Please," Stefan pleaded, dropping down to sit on the sofa beside Damon. Damon looked at him distastefully. Did Damon say that Stefan could sit with him? "What do you know? You were with Anna, you must know where she's living. Just tell me where I can find her."

Damon looked up from his book and shook his head. "Nope. You can go. Really." He made a shoo-shoo motion with his hand and looked back towards the grimoire. He was about to hit a breakthrough, he could feel it.

"You know, all I can remember is hating you," Stefan began. Damon let out an annoyed sigh, but put Emily's grimoire flat on his chest so he could pay a little attention to Stefan. Victoria would be proud of him. "There might have been a time when that was different, but your choices have erased anything good about you. But see, I also know you have just as much reason to hate me. This all began with me. Katherine got taken away from you because of me. And I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," Damon snorted.

"So please, just tell me what you know."

"Huh," Damon said, pretending to think about it.

Stefan could see that Damon was just pretending and continued with his begging, "It's Elena, Damon. If you know something, tell me."

Damon pushed himself to his feet, Emily's grimoire tucked tightly under his arm. Stefan followed him, rising to his feet and looking towards Damon with anxious eyes.

"I mean this sincerely," Damon began, and Stefan nodded, already anticipating his answer with anxiety. Damon's playful tone dropped and he glared at his younger brother. "I hope Elena dies."

Damon flipped around and stalked towards the library doors. Before he could reach the doors, though, Stefan was there. His shoulders were heaving with anger and Damon couldn't remember the last time he had seen his baby brother look that put out. Stefan jabbed a finger in Damon's chest and Damon growled lowly, "Do that again and you will be regrowing a finger, Stefan."

"I know you don't give a shit about me or Elena, but I do know that somewhere in that twisted little mind of yours that you care about Victoria," Stefan hissed. Damon snorted. "Can you imagine how Victoria would feel if Elena was hurt? Killed, even?"

"Probably ecstatic," Damon answered honestly, tossing Emily's grimoire back onto the couch where the brothers had come from. Something told him that this little argument of theirs was going to go down in legend, so he needed to have his arms free. "You're probably the only one around who is blind to how much anger there is in that relationship."

"Victoria isn't angry with Elena," Stefan retorted, but there was confusion lacing his words. He didn't know for sure. Damon could almost lose it at how blind his brother was.

"Yeah, she's not," Damon huffed. "But Elena's not exactly slap-happy with Mama Bear right now, either."

"They've had their issues, but Elena promised that she was going to work on them with Victoria," Stefan defended.

"Oh no, this is not an issue that can be easily fixed with words, Steffie-boy, and even I know it," Damon snorted, shaking his head. Stefan looked at him in confusion and Damon just thought, Screw it. "Her feelings, Stefan."

"Whose feelings? For what?"

"Mama Bear's feelings for you, you dumbass," Damon groaned. "That's probably been the root of fifty percent of their arguments with each other, whether either of them acknowledges it or not."

"Victoria and I are just friends, Damon. I don't get why everyone keeps assuming differently," Stefan sighed, shaking his head. "They keep reading the situation wrong. We are just friends -"

"- I'm about to tell you the cold-honest truth, and I don't do that often," Damon interrupted, raising his hand to tap Stefan on the chest. "Victoria LeBlanc, former White Witch and now the Immortalis, has been crushing on you for months. Maybe she's even in love with you. Only she doesn't see it, you don't see it, but everyone else here in the boarding house does. But here's the thing about Mama Bear: she's okay staying in the friendzone. She sees how happy you are with Elena, and she's more than willing to set her feelings aside because she is that kind of person." He enunciated the last few words with a tap, push, shove to Stefan's chest. "And you've been an idiot and have been flaunting your relationship with Elena in front of her -"

"- I have not been flaunting it in front of her -!"

"- You had sex with Elena in this house, Stefan, while both LeBlanc women were here!" Damon groaned, rolling his eyes. "First off, gross because there are four other vampires who are currently living here and we can hear everything. Second off, Victoria had just died, twice, only days before, and you thought that sleeping with Elena was alright? In the place that Mama Bear was currently staying, no matter how far her room was? I mean, I'm not going to deny that I can be a shitty person, but I'm not that low, Stefan."

There was a guilty look in Stefan's eyes and for some reason, that look sent a punch to Damon's stomach. He took a few steps back, disbelief coloring his gaze. He couldn't believe it. He could not believe it. But the truth was evident. Damon could read that look in Stefan's eyes from a mile away. "You forgot she was here."

"Damon..."

Damon cut him off with harsh laughter, shaking his head. "That stupid girl is almost as close to you as Lexi has been, and she's only known you for maybe six months. And yet, at every opportunity, you will knowingly set her aside to be with Elena."

"Elena is my girlfriend, Damon! What do you want me to do?"

"Treat Victoria with the decency that she deserves!" Damon spat, shoving his brother. Stefan staggered through the doorway. He enunciated each of his sentences with a shove, sending Stefan farther down the hallway and towards the entryway. "Show her that you care, no matter how insignificant! Be her friend! Be the good guy, Stefan!"

The two brothers reached the entryway, and Damon could spot Lexi, Lee, and Zach all congregating in the living room. Lexi was up on her feet and standing between the two brothers the moment she spotted them. Her hands outstretched, she stood with her feet planted between them. "What the hell is going on now?"

"I bet you don't even know where she is now, do you?" Damon asked, throwing his hands up in the air. "You've spent all night running around looking for Elena that Mama Bear has just slipped past your mind."

"She was with you!" Stefan growled, his fists clenching up. "You always are so chummy with her and she doesn't see that you are not the good person she deserves!"

"Neither are you!" Damon spat, but then he paused, blinking his eyes in confusion. What did Stefan just say...? "Wait, wait, back up: she was with me?"

"Yes, Damon, she was."

"No, she wasn't," Damon said, shaking his head. "Victoria promised to show up to the Gilbert family night and she never showed. I thought she just got tired and decided to go home."

Stefan's brow furrowed and he stood up straighter. "I got a text from her when I was taking Alaric out of the school. She had stayed in to grab the janitor. She said that she had gotten him out and that she was suddenly really tired and was going to get some sleep."

"And so you assumed she was going to come to me?" Damon asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

"You were going back to the boarding house and I figured that Kelly and everyone else would be here too," Stefan explained. He looked towards Zach and Lee. "You guys didn't see Victoria?"

"She hasn't been here since she left to go with you to the school," Lee supplied, rising to his feet. "You don't think..."

Damon scoffed and rolled his eyes. "This is Victoria we're talking about. Of course, she's in trouble." He turned and glared at Stefan. "I will go and fix this mess, your mess, because I can recognize how Victoria should be treated. Lee, Zach? You two wanna join?"

"What? I can't join?" Lexi huffed, folding her arms across her chest. Lee and Zach joined them over in the entryway.

Damon just gave Lexi a look. "Someone's gotta be in charge of Stefan, and at the moment, I trust you more than I trust him, so yeah." Damon reached forward and patted Lexi on the shoulder. "Hold down the fort."

He flipped around and stalked off towards the door, Lee and Zach following behind him silently. He heard Stefan call out, "Wait! Where are you going? Do you know where she is?"

"Of course I do," Damon grunted, throwing open the door. He stalked out into the morning, raising a fist to flip off his brother. "She is my friend, after all."

He strode quickly towards his car, grabbing his phone from in his pocket. He scrolled quickly through the numbers until he got to Victoria's new one, the one that had just called him last night. Damon clicked the number and waited in annoyance for someone to pick it up.

Once he heard a click, and he knew someone was listening on the other end, he sniffed, "You know, you picked the wrong person to kidnap."

"You weren't going to help me. I figured I needed some leverage," Anna replied, her voice filled with sass.

Damon rolled his eyes and snapped at Lee and Zach, gesturing for them to get into the car. Zach took the passenger seat and Lee slipped into the back, both waiting for Damon to finish up his phone call. "Yeah, trust me when I say that that was a terrible decision."

"Aww, do you have feelings for her? How sweet. Well, I needed someone and she was just...conveniently there. She just looked so helpless, so I figured I would step in and bring her with me."

"I am going to come find you and you are going to hand her over to me," Damon stated firmly. "Keep whoever else you've taken with you, but she comes with me, comprendo?"

"That's not how negotiations work, Damon. If you're going to take something from me, I want something in return."

"I work alone," Damon growled, rolling his eyes. "We've already established this."

"That's sweet and all, but you are not going to see her unless I get something in return. And why would I send her back to you? She knows things, Damon. She knew my mother's name."

"Yeah, she's special like that," Damon mused, pulling open the driver's side door. He plopped into the driver's seat and made himself comfy while he slammed his door shut. "Now listen, I am coming with two vampires who each have a bone to pick with you because of the lovely person you've kidnapped. Guess who can enter your motel room? All of us. Now, get her ready to come with us, or I will enjoy standing over your pathetic carcass."

Damon slammed the 'end call' button and tossed his phone onto the dash of his car. Zach just gave him a side-eye look and murmured, "Well, that was certainly dramatic."

"I don't do things halfway, my dear nephew," Damon retorted as he threw the car into drive and peeled out of the boarding house's driveway...

...only to slam on his brakes the moment he was about to move from the driveway to the street because Elena Gilbert came stumbling out of the woods. Damon's brow furrowed in disbelief and he whispered, "That is Elena, right?"

His nephew responded quickly with a "I believe so."

Elena looked worse for wear. Her clothes were ripped and she was sweating, as if she had sprinted hard. She looked hysterical, and her eyes were red and puffy, like she had been crying. She spotted Damon's car and her shoulders shook with more sobs as she rushed over to them. Damon threw the car into park and the trio of vampires got out.

Elena slammed into Damon's chest, and it startled Damon so much that he actually staggered back a little. The teenager wrapped her arms around his chest in a tight, fierce hug, and it was so reminiscent of Victoria that Damon found himself hugging Elena back, awkwardly patting her back. "There, there?" He had to state it like a question, because even he had no idea what was going on.

He and Ms. McJudgey hadn't been on great terms (in fact, there was still a part of Damon that wanted nothing more than to rip her throat out), but all negative feelings towards her flew out of the window when Elena cried, "Anna's got Tori and Bonnie! She's got them. She killed Tori!"

A/N: Yeah, this chapter's a bit all over the place. Mostly filler. We got a whole slew of perspectives in this chapter, with Damon, Lee, Tori, then Damon some more. It was perfect to me at like 4,300 words, but I like my chapters to try and at least hit 6,000 so I had to keep adding some more things.

I had a reviewer apparently make it two chapters before they said they "couldn't finish this shit. This isn't slow-burn, this is slow torture". So...yeah. That happened. ::shrugs:: If you can't take the sexual tension instead of romance, don't read then? I had to add a warning at the start of my story now to warn everyone that this story is going to take a while. Hopefully we won't get anymore reviews like that again. Stay positive y'all. It's the only way to live in this world happy and content.

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} (17.5): insert name here XD, sammyleann's dad, TikiKiki, Maistryia, Don't-Say-It-Feel-It, another guest, Lime, herewegoagain, K, emma, just another guest, BookwormStrawberry, heyyeah, Guest (3), guest4ithinklol, Guest (6), Guest (9), guest (1), theappleseed, Anaidiana, Hayden, Takinginspiration1, Serena Salvatore, Prometo, Lolita

Team Datoria {Victoria/Damon} (37): 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), Guest (15), TrembleB4DietCoke, dhariti, Hayden, Guest (17), Elyse1821, Dannn, Yukihino-Sama, Dede

Team Vilijah {Victoria/Elijah} (37): 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, alessandra92, Guest (16), Guest (18), Karina, Serena Salvatore, xrysatsan, Lolita

Team Klatoria {Victoria/Klaus} (6): Tayla141, TikiKiki, Guest (9), Mythology216 the Beard King, thisIsNotATest, Guest (10), Tris Hart

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

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

PLATONIC:

Vinn {Victoria/Finn) (1.9): LoyalElijahFangirl, Orange keys 25, silentmayhem, Prometo

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

Zinn {Zach/Finn} (1.4): LoyalElijahFangirl, Orange keys 25, karenc0r, Prometo

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

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

Koltoria {Victoria/Kol} (1.2): Orange keys 25, Serena Salvatore

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!: majaosterholm, LaurenA007, Nicka-Dan-Eisha, JessEwa26, loki98065, Pawesome Sauce, EspressoPatronum13

New Favoriters!: majaosterholm, LaurenA007, JessEwa26, Pawesome Sauce, ExpressoPatronum13

Y'all have some of the best usernames ever and it always make me smile.

Onto reviews!:

grapejuice101: Surprise! No one has died just yet. Heartbroken Damon is terrifying, but Papa Bear "Don't You Dare Touch My Mama Bear" Damon is slightly more intimidating in my opinion.

Tris Hart: Your vote has been added. No problem! I like to update Mondays for sure, and then Thursday or Friday depending on if I can get the chapter done.

edwardsgirl21: Aww thank you! You're very sweet. Not very many people do deserve Victoria. Is there anyone in particular that you feel could really deserve Victoria in all her beautiful glory?

Lime (Ch.39): Haha! I was wondering so that's why I threw in that little note. I like getting your reviews. They make me smile :). Yikes. That's not great (in regards to the professor). Oh yeah, Kol's reaction to Tori will be interesting, but maybe for a different reason than you're thinking of. Oh yeah; they have been looooong overdue for a girly chat with each other. Oh yeah, I felt like that was a total Damon move. I'm glad you agree. I literally lost it when you said check the apple juice date XD. I did, don't worry.

DBZFAN45: There might have been a slight miscommunication. I did have COVID, it just wasn't as bad as I suspected. But I'm all better now, so no worries! And yes, Pearl gets added to the MILF list of Mystic Falls (so far I think it's her, Kelly, Carol, and Jenna. I have no doubt that others will be added). There are a lot of Mother Bears scattered through the TVD universe, and I have added some more (Jeanine being one of them). I feel like while Henri is soft-boi, he is also fashionable soft-boi. She totally should start charging rent. Make some money. I am soooo excited for Katherine's arrival. It will be awesome. Mhmm. That does make sense. 2nd Amendment: Thank you! I was wondering if it was going to feel natural or just misjointed. I usually hate reading fanfics with new supernatural creatures, but I really wanted to try a take on it and see how it would work. Stefan and Tori do need to have another dance. I'll try and fit that in somehow.

Dede: Your vote has been added! Thanks for reviewing!

Lime (Ch. 40): I'm glad! Duuude, I have been napping so much recently. Like, I'm always tired. I understand. I'm glad again! Hey, it's warranted. They are poor darlings. Yeah, that does make sense, but it always frustrated me. Like, have some hope, Alaric. Hence, MIA instead of KIA. Yeah, Anna's hard for me because one moment, I'm like awww, and the other I'm like, please, just shut up. I don't know why. I mean, it's true (in regards to the Mikaelsons). I forgot I wrote that line XD. And haha, yeaaaah. All fallout, no discussion. Yeah, Mind!Vicki will become a main member of the place of peace whenever Victoria visits now, alongside Henri. Yeah, Omnicron is weaker. I had a terrible headache too (it's the only symptom that's been progressing past the sickness). My sister got a fever, but I'm convinced she's super woman (she was walking around and acting normal when her temperature was like 102!). My dad's been hit by it too. My brothers are the only ones who haven't gotten it (one's vaccinated, the other is not) so it's been an adventure in my household XD.

Lolita: You put it in the right place, don't worry! Your votes have been added! Thank you for reviewing!

I think that's it for now :D. I'm glad y'all have been enjoying the story. We're at the tomb episode! So much drama is about to go down, y'all haven't even seen. By the end of this episode, y'all might hate me, but I'm excited to see the fallout!

Until next time,

Stay healthy and stay safe!

BecomingFearless1F