Plan B - Part 1

"I need to talk to you."

Damon just wearily blinked at Jeremy, taking way too long to mentally process his words. He smacked his lips, trying to get the dry ache in the back of his throat to go away. Guess this is what I get for trying to drown in bourbon last night. When he spoke, his voice came out more in a rasp, "And why do I need to talk to you?"

Damon moved to shut the door on Jeremy, hoping that his movements would be fast enough to get the teeny-bopper out and off the property. However, the baby Gilbert was much more resourceful than Damon had supposed and stuck his foot out to block Damon from shutting the door completely. He could still shut the door if he wanted to break Jeremy's foot, but once Victoria got her memories back, she wouldn't be too pleased with him if he did that. "Fine, fine. By all means, come in!"

He flung the door open and sauntered back into the house. He scratched his stomach and smacked his lips some more. Where did his shirt end up again? He swore he had had it last night, but in between the rounds of booze, his memory had gotten a little fuzzy.

"Tyler Lockwood has to kill someone to activate his curse. He's not a werewolf yet," Jeremy announced, entering the house and shutting the door behind him.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Wow, fascinating. It's not as if Victoria had already sent a memo out or anything. Good info, Jerebear, but sadly, not enough."

"But Mason Lockwood is and he's looking for a moonstone, a special rock connected to the werewolf legend," Jeremy continued, not at all perturbed by Damon's not-so-invested interest. "That's why he's here. Not for Kelly, not for Tori, and definitely not for his brother."

Damon flipped around, giving Jeremy a puzzled look. "A moonstone?" He had been alive his fair share of years, and never once had he heard of a moonstone. Then again, he hadn't known about the Immortalis or werewolves, so this year was all about learning new things. "What the hell is a moonstone?"

"I don't know," Jeremy admitted, giving a shrug without a single ounce of determination leaving his face. "But! I know where it is."

"And you're bringing me this why...?" Damon drawled, cocking his head to one side.

"For many reasons," Jeremy announced, folding his arms across his chest. "One, you need to stop moping around now that Victoria has another bout of amnesia. Feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to bring her back completely -"

"- can't hurt to try, though -"

"- two, do I need a reason -?"

"- sounded like you had a reason -"

"- and three, I just want to help, okay?" Jeremy finished, dropping his arms back to his side. "We all are making sacrifices for this group. This is me just contributing to my share of things."

"What's your sister say about this little discovery?" Damon questioned. He doubted that Elena was too slap-happy about her precious little brother joining in on all the shenanigans. And, given that Jeremy remained silent and his jaw clenched and his heart skipped a beat, Damon already had his answer to that. "Oooh. Look at the little rebel. You haven't told her, have you?"

"Well, Elena doesn't want me getting involved in all of this," Jeremy grunted, his hands clenching into fists. "She also trusts everything that Victoria says now with a grain of salt, no matter how many times she's been right in the past -"

"- but you're a Gilbert and you just can't help yourself," Damon sighed, shaking his head. "Wow. Your search for life's purpose is as obvious as it is tragic."

"Are you going to let me help or not?" Jeremy growled.

"Easy, Buffy," Damon snorted, waving his hand around. "Let me have some breakfast first before you decide to go crazy on me, huh?"

"Is Jeremy finally threatening you with second death?" Lexi interrupted, sauntering in the room. She was wearing a fuzzy white robe, complete with matching slippers, and her hair was wet, as if she had just stepped out of the shower. She was holding a cup of coffee with a little something extra in it for her needed kick in the morning. She took a sip of her drink and then smirked at Jeremy. "I feel so proud."

"Jerebear has decided that he wants to help us find something that Mason really badly wants," Damon mused, walking over to reach Lexi's side. He moved to snatch her drink out of her hands, but Lexi just sidestepped him and gave him the stink-eye before moving to stand by Jeremy, who didn't try to steal her drink out of her hands. "Says he knows where to find it too."

"Way to go all Indiana Jones there, Jeremy," Lexi cheered, saluting the teenager with her cup. "Well, if you can wait for me to go home and wake my two kids, then we can come out and join you too!"

"Two kids?" Damon questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"If either of you want to justify Lee not being a child and or him and Amber not being my kids, then I am willing to take papers on the subject," Lexi hummed, taking a long sip of her coffee. "Five pages each, double-spaced. Until then, boys. I'll be back in about ten minutes."

Lexi gave them another nod before she was off with a flash. Damon rolled his eyes and pointed a finger at Jeremy dangerously. "Go and make me some breakfast and maybe I'll find myself more willing to deal with your presence."

Jeremy snorted, not at all intimidated by Damon, but sauntered off towards the kitchen. Not, however, without throwing over his shoulder, "Aren't you a little ray of sunshine?"

He passed by Caroline, who was walking out of the kitchen with a tray of food in her arms. As she made to pass Damon, he tried to dart a hand out to steal a piece of bacon on the tray. Damn Caroline's vampire reflexes, though, because she caught him before he could even grab a piece. "No touching, Damon! This is for my mom!"

"I'm hungry too," Damon pouted, grunting angrily.

"Well, unless you've suddenly become my mother, then you can't have any," Caroline stated sternly, looking like she wanted to fold her arms if possible.

Damon huffed. "Some days it does feel like I am your mother." Louder, he added, mostly for Caroline's benefit, "The vervain is almost out of Liz's system. By tonight, we should be able to compel her to forget that your vampire side ever existed."

Caroline seemed to brighten at that statement, but not as much as Damon thought she would have. If anything, there was still a little bit of darkness hidden away in the depths of her eyes. Damon made a mental note to corner her later and figure out what that meant.

Damon waved her off, moving into the living room. He slipped his phone out of his pocket and shot off a quick text to Alaric, telling him to get his ass over to the boarding house as soon as he could.

Damon wanted to put his phone away, but his fingers had different plans. Before he knew it, he had dialed a number he had sworn to never call again and brought the phone up to his ear.

"She's not here, Damon," came Kelly's voice when she picked up the other side of the line.

Damon's mouth was dry when he rasped, "I wasn't trying to talk to her, Kelly-Beans. If I wanted to do that, I would have just called her." He swallowed heavily and shifted awkwardly on his feet. "How is she?"

"It's been less than a day since she lost her memories. You gotta give me some time to work on the official diagnosis," Kelly sighed.

"I don't need a diagnosis right now, Kelly. I just want to see how she's doing."

Kelly was silent for a few moments on the other side of the line, simply breathing as if she was trying to find the right words. Finally, she spoke, "For all intents and purposes be...she's normal. No motor functions seem to be inhibited by being shot through the forehead, which is a relief. Her personality has changed a little, yeah, but it's changed back into the personality that I remember from before you-know-who transferred over. She's wearing the same kind of clothes, loves my hot chocolate -"

"- Kelly, there may have been a long point in time when I hated you and wanted to rip your heart straight out of your chest, but I never disliked your hot chocolate -"

"- Thanks...I think? Anyways, she seems good. I've done my best to explain to her this morning all the different changes, things that have happened since the coma. It's like a reverse situation of the past six months. I told Jenna to let Carol know about it, just so we don't have another Tyler-Victoria confrontation because that would be odd."

"Thanks, Kelly. Where did she head off to, if you don't mind my asking?"

The doorbell to the boarding house rang just then, its tubular bells echoing throughout the large space. "Ah, that's Alaric." Damon sauntered over to the door. "Jeremy thinks he's discovered something of use that'll help us against Katherine and her posse," he may be a douchebag, but Damon wasn't going to be the one to tell Kelly that her boyfriend definitely hadn't come back for her and Victoria, "so we're going to be off soon, away from town. Can I trust you to keep an eye on Victoria?"

Damon reached the door and grabbed the doorknob, twisting it open as Kelly said, "Well first, I'll have to find her. No idea where she disappeared off to, just said that she was going for a drive."

Damon's mouth dried faster than the Sahara desert as he gazed down at the person standing on the other side of the door. A person who was definitely not Alaric Saltzmann. "Never mind, Kelly. I found her."

He hung up and quickly pocketed the phone as he gazed down at Victoria LeBlanc. She seemed shifty, as if she was up to no good and felt guilty about it, and she was looking everywhere but at him...

...oh yeah. He wasn't wearing a shirt.

His mouth started to speak without his permission (something he thought very rude of himself). "Victoria. What are you doing here?"

"Can I come in?" Victoria asked softly, and it felt like someone had kicked Damon between the legs. How could this angel, this perfection itself walking, not remember him or anything that they had been through?

He didn't voice that, obviously, but swallowed and stepped aside. "Yeah, sure. Of course." He gestured for Victoria to enter.

She did so, looking around the architecture of the boarding house with a fond smile and her eyes seemed to glow with remembrance. It was all too much for Damon to take, so he swallowed heavily and blurted out, "Take a seat. I'll go put on a shirt real quick."

Never had Damon ran so fast before (at human speed until Victoria couldn't see him and then speed like a vampire). He nabbed the first shirt he could find (a white button-up that he was pretty sure he stole from Stefan at one point because he didn't have a lot of white button-ups) and then came back downstairs at a normal human pace.

Victoria was sitting on one of the couches, her legs pressed tightly against each other and her shoulders scrunched up. She looked like she was trying to make herself smaller than she actually was. Her body language was tense, but her eyes shone with fondness at the furniture all around her. She started to speak aloud, as if she could sense Damon walking into the room. "I'm glad Dad didn't change any of the furniture. These antique furniture pieces were really some of his favorites."

"They've been in the family tree for quite some time," Damon answered honestly, feeling a little more comfortable interacting with Victoria now that he had a shirt on (if she remembered him, he would be walking around shirtless as much as possible just to see that delicious red blush she did all the time). "This house is really old."

"Been around since the 1860s if I'm remembering my Salvatorian history right," Victoria giggled.

Damon decided to play things safe and took a seat on the couch across from her. Victoria was wearing her skinny jeans that made her ass look way too good, dark red socks (Damon had gotten her those for Christmas), and ankle boots that gave her some extra inches in height. She was also wearing Zach's Whitmore sweatshirt that Damon had gifted Victoria the day of the funeral. Kelly's anklet and Noble's choker were both on her (making Damon wonder how Kelly had gotten Victoria to wear those two pieces of jewelry).

"I don't want to seem rude," Damon began, trying to recall all those manners lessons his father had forced him to endure back when he was a child, "but why are you here, Victoria? We didn't exactly meet in the nicest of ways."

Victoria seemed to wince at the memory of that (she had threatened him with an umbrella). "Yeah, part of why I'm here. I wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have reacted that badly. I'm sure you can understand, though, where I was coming from."

"Yeah, I get it," Damon said dismissively, because, unfortunately, he did get it. He had had to deal with a memory-lossed Victoria before (even if that time she hadn't forgotten him because she hadn't even known him then).

"I had a long chat with my dad and with Caroline last night, and they did their best to explain some things," Victoria explained, her hands moving to fidget with each other. She swallowed heavily and Damon could hear her heartbeat start to pick up its tempo. "Dad said you and Stefan, your brother?" Damon nodded his head to answer her silent question and she gave a small, triumphant smile at remembering that piece of information correctly. "Dad said you and Stefan were his nephews?"

Damon nodded, not trusting himself to speak and accidentally mess up the lie.

"I didn't realize Dad had any siblings," Victoria commented offhandedly.

"Our parents had us when they were really young," Damon lied, falling into the lie that he, Stefan, and Zach had all worked in case anybody asked. "High school sweethearts. We bounced around a lot, military family. Dad died overseas and Mom followed shortly from a broken heart. Stefan and I went our separate ways for a little while, him jumping between relatives. Eventually, he came to stay with Zach for the rest of his high school years. I bounced over a day or so after Stefan and we've been here ever since. Even got Stefan's BFF and her beau to come over and stay."

"Lexi and Lee," Victoria stated, even though it sounded more like a question. Damon nodded again and she seemed to relax. "Lee was here last night, right? When I woke up?"

"Yeah," Damon confirmed, nodding his head. "He and Zach are really close. Practically BFFs themselves."

"I'm glad," Victoria sighed. "Dad always used to go on research rants, so it would be nice to have someone around that he could rant to instead of it just being me." She laughed at herself, seeming to speak some inside joke. She trailed off though and then looked awkwardly towards Damon. She swallowed heavily and rolled her neck. "They also said something about you and me..."

Damon did his best not to flinch, but it still came out a little. He could feel his tone darken as he grunted, "Yeah."

"We had been...dating?"

Damon laughed coldly. "If you could even call it that, I guess. Two days ago you kissed me after figuring out my feelings, we made out, you agreed to try and date me, and then you lost your memories last night."

Victoria flinched and her eyes widened in horror. "They didn't tell me it was that bad. I-I'm so sorry."

Damon waved her off. "Don't apologize. It's not like you had a say in gaining amnesia. Can't blame you for that and I'm not about to force you into a relationship you don't remember."

Victoria licked her lips and Damon couldn't help the way that his gaze trained on the movement. "What did you mean by 'agreed to try and date'? Why wouldn't I just say 'yeah, let's date'?"

"Because, ten days prior to that, so now it would be twelve days as of today, your former boyfriend died in a house fire."

"What in the Days Of Our Lives shit is this?" Victoria gasped, waving her hands frantically in front of her. "I had two boyfriends that I don't remember? The last thing I remember is the fact that I had had no boyfriends, hadn't even had my first kiss, and now you're telling me I had two boyfriends?"

"Again, not sure if I count if I was only one for two days," Damon sighed unhappily.

"Am I even still a virgin?" Victoria blurted out, looking really disturbed at the thought that she wasn't one anymore.

Damon waved his hands, shaking his head as he tried to keep chuckles out of his mouth. "No, no. You're still one, as far as I'm aware. You were very strong in your convictions."

Victoria's cheeks turned as red as her hair and she swallowed. "T-Thank you. S-Sorry to ask about that." Her brow furrowed and she commented, "Wasn't dating me weird?"

"How so?"

"I'm basically like your cousin, right?"

A sense of deja vu rolled over Damon (he remembered having this conversation with Victoria the day of Zach's funeral) and he chuckled, shaking his head, "Let's put a stop to that train of thought right now."

"Also, you're like, super old compared to me."

Damon raised an eyebrow and was hoping that Victoria wasn't too attuned to her advanced senses that she could hear how his heart didn't beat. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're like, what? Twenty-four? Twenty-five? Isn't it illegal for the two of us to date?"

"Only illegal if you engage in sexual activities," Damon quoted, rolling his eyes. He waved his hand dismissively. "You weren't about that and I was never going to push you to do that, so it wasn't an issue. Plus, you're going to be legal in like, five months."

"Yep, that's not really a sentence I ever want to walk in on again," came a voice from the front door.

Damon's head snapped over to the side, a grin popping up onto his face. "Ric! Come on in and bring all those stragglers behind you."

Alaric sauntered into the boarding house, arms filled with a box that seemed to be overflowing with stuff. Lee was right behind him, looking like a lumberjack (Damon hadn't seen him with that particular aesthetic in a while) and holding another box. Lexi and Amber came in next, though Amber looked like she was barely awake. Zach also sauntered in from the hallway, holding a cup of coffee and looking like he had spent the morning in the library.

Just then, Jeremy emerged from the kitchen, carefully balancing three plates on his arms like he was a professional waiter. He dropped one semi-haphazardly onto Damon's lap, earning him a glare from the vampire. He set one down in front of Victoria, grinning when she whispered, "Thanks, Jerebear." He set his food down beside Victoria's and took a seat by her. Zach came in and took her other side, and Victoria looked ready to melt into her father's side. Amber took the free spot next to Jeremy, while Lexi and Lee sat down next to Damon, one on either side.

Alaric sighed when he noticed Jeremy, shaking his head. "What are you doing here?"

"Helping Damon," Jeremy stated, like it was obvious with a mouthful of eggs. He swallowed before he continued, "I'm the one who found out about the moonstone."

"What's a moonstone?" Victoria whispered to Zach, and Damon felt like slapping himself.

Of course, since she didn't remember anything, it wouldn't be productive to include her in the conversation. Add in the fact that this Victoria didn't know anything about the supernatural, and then...

Zach came prepared, it seemed, because he whispered, "I'm researching something for an author of this new fantasy novel series. She's doing a story based on real life elements, myths, and stories and so I asked everyone to try and help me out because it's a lot more work than I originally thought."

Victoria nodded, seeming to believe the lie (it was pretty believable, given how much Zach was a researching nerd).

"Does Elena know you're here?" Alaric grunted, setting his box of things down onto the table.

"Not exactly," Jeremy sniffed.

Victoria leaned back over to him and whispered, "Why should Elena know where you are?"

Jeremy leaned back and whispered to her, "She's just overprotective. I'll explain it later, okay?"

Victoria nodded, accepting the answer.

"What you got?" Damon asked, plopping down onto the ground so he can start digging through the box.

He came across a book and he scanned the title and cover art as Alaric said, "This is Isobel's research from Duke. Her assistant sent it to me."

"Mmm, Vanessa," Damon commented, cocking his head. "Not the badass, hottie ambulance driver. The scary one."

Alaric reached out and snatched the book out of Damon's hands, shooting the vampire with a glare. "That Vanessa, yes. Now, do you remember the old Aztec curse she told us about?"

"Sun and the moon, blah, blah, blah, blah."

"An Aztec curse?" Victoria hummed. Her mouth turned into a smile and she giggled, "Cool."

Victoria's giggle seemed to have a soothing effect on the group as a whole. Damon could see the tension dissolve from everyone's shoulders and Alaric nodded. "Yeah." He stuck a hand out to her for a handshake and introduced himself. "I'm Alaric Saltzmann. I've been your new History teacher at the school for a couple months. Mr. Tanner was in an accident and unfortunately passed away." Victoria's face dropped a little in a short moment of sadness before she nodded and shook Alaric's hand. "Anyways, supposedly, vampires and werewolves used to roam freely until a shaman put a curse on them to limit their power. Since then, werewolves can only turn on a full moon and vampires are weakened by the sun."

"That makes sense," Victoria piped in, a contemplative look coming to her eyes. "Elsewise, they would definitely become the new apex predators on land. That would be terrifying, I think, if vampires could walk during the daytime."

Cue all four vampires in the room subtly thumbing their daylight rings and trying hard to not make eye contact with each other or with Victoria.

Alaric cleared his throat and continued, "According to the legend, the werewolf part of the curse is sealed with the moonstone."

Alaric reached forward into the box and whipped out a rolled up piece of what looked like to be parchment. He unrolled it out as much as he could. Jeremy and Victoria took their plates onto their lap so Alaric could have more space. Jeremy tilted his head and studied the map with squinted eyes.

"What do you mean sealed?" Victoria asked curiously.

"It's a witch thing," Lee explained with his usual Southern twang. "In folklore, whatever item a witch uses to seal the curse is usually the key to unsealing the curse."

"Maybe you-know-who," Zach commented, giving Damon a look that said 'Mason Lockwood', "believes he can use the moonstone to break the curse."

Lexi interrupted, "If we start believing in some supernatural legend from a picture book without solid evidence, then we're going into this like idiots. Who has the stone now?"

"Tyler."

"Can you get it?" Amber asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes with a closed fist.

"Yeah," Jeremy stated firmly.

"See, now your life has purpose," Damon snickered.

"So, you do believe it?" Jeremy asked incredulously.

Damon tapped the box that Alaric had stolen from him previously with the end of his fork. "It's the same book that says a werewolf bite kills a vampire. Ignoring it would make me an even bigger idiot. Let's go."

"Why would Damon ignoring werewolf bites killing vampires make him an idiot?" Victoria whispered to Zach and Damon wanted to facepalm. "Also, why does Tyler have this moonstone thingy?"

He couldn't wait for this amnesia business to be done.

"I can't believe this," Bonnie whispered in disbelief, shaking her head. Elena had finally decided that she had enough time for her (her, one of Elena's best friends) and had explained all the chaos surrounding her and Stefan, explaining how Caroline had apparently been a pawn for Katherine (that made some sense) and what had gone down with Victoria (and Zach was back alive? How?).

"It's a lot, I know," Elena answered, nodding her head in agreement. "Katherine's doing everything that she can to drive me and Stefan apart and Caroline just got trapped in the middle of it. Then add onto the fact that Victoria's memories have gone haywire and Katherine's always showing up at the boarding house..."

Bonnie plopped down onto one of the benches that decorated the Lockwood Mansion's property, Elena taking a gentler seat next to her.

"My reaction isn't because you and Stefan are pretending to fight," Bonnie scoffed, shaking her head. "It's that I didn't even know you guys were fighting at all!"

"I'm sorry," Elena sighed, hanging her head slightly. "I don't want to keep things from you but you've been seeming distant recently, since the Kelly and Caroline and Zach thing happened."

"So that makes me the odd man out," Bonnie grunted.

Elena immediately started shaking her head. "No, no, Bonnie, of course not."

"I know where I stand with all of this, Elena," Bonnie argued, rising up to her feet. "I've known where I've stood for months. And I know where you stand. But where do we stand?"

Elena rose to her feet too and reached out, grabbing Bonnie's hands. "You're my best friend, Bonnie. I didn't mean to let this craziness with everything get in the way of this, but -"

"- Not right now, Elena," Bonnie stated, yanking her hands out of Elena's grasp. "I'm...I think I'm going to go and find Victoria. See if she needs anything."

Bonnie flipped on her heel and started to march back towards the mansion. Her hands felt ancy, like they needed to be moving. She flicked her fingers, hoping that she wasn't doing some sort of mental magic that was exposing her or something. Bonnie didn't know anymore.

When had their lives gotten so crazy?

Thankfully, just as she was about to hit the staircase for the front door, she heard her name being called out from behind, and it wasn't Elena's voice. "Bon-Bon!"

She looked over her shoulder and couldn't stop the smile that came to her face. "Tori! There you are!"

Victoria came barreling down the driveway, Damon, Zach, Lee, Lexi, Amber, and Jeremy following her, though more slowly. Bonnie opened her arms wide and grabbed onto Victoria in a fit of giggles when the redhead came colliding into her. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever, Bon-Bon!"

"We did see each other yesterday," Bonnie laughed, pulling herself away from the hug. She hipchecked Victoria and jerked her head subtly towards the rounds of vampires that were approaching. "Elena was just filling me in on everything that happened. Got to say, am surprised to see you with all of them."

Victoria nodded bashfully and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her cheeks turning a little rosy. "I, uh, stopped by the boarding house this morning to talk to Damon. Mom had been filling me in on a couple of things and I wanted to clarify stuff."

"That's a smart plan," Bonnie told her truthfully. "Always better to have strong boundaries made with ink than lines made of chalk."

"Are you stealing my mom's slogans?" Victoria chuckled, and Bonne just grinned mischievously at her. "So what's happening here?" Victoria gestured towards the mansion as a whole.

"Masquerade ball, tomorrow night," Bonnie explained. "Are you going to go?"

"This town really loves to party," Victoria snickered, but she nodded. "You know I would never pass up a dance."

Bonnie laughed. It felt good, to laugh alongside Victoria. She couldn't remember the last time that two of them had hung out with each other, one-on-one, without the complications of the supernatural. Maybe she should try and have a coffee date with her sometime soon...

"Come on, I can show you all the decorations they have up right now," Bonnie explained, holding a hand out to Victoria.

Victoria laughed, and reached out, grabbing onto Bonnie's hand -

- and Bonnie found herself in a place that she didn't fully recognize.

Bonnie blinked her eyes, feeling a sudden sense of deja vu wash over her like a wave. She staggered in place, feeling both like she was weightless and weighted down, all at the same time.

She was at the Lockwood Mansion, that much she did know, except...everything seemed a little...off? Like it had all been reversed. She seemed to be looking out of a window, on the inside of the mansion looking to the outside. Trees and shrubbery weren't in places that they should have been, and Bonnie could see her friends and herself, standing at the bottom of the steps to the porch, but they were all frozen, her body included.

An out-of-body-experience. Kelly had told her about these once, but she had never had one to this extent...

"Bonnie Bennett?"

Bonnie stiffened and her eyes widened in disbelief.

She hadn't heard that voice in months.

Literal months.

Because that voice...

...that voice belonged to a dead girl.

Bonnie flipped around (the inside of the Lockwood Mansion, which she could surprisingly see, was also reversed, and it was so weird) and standing in the middle of the drawing room (the one where she, Katherine, and Victoria had almost gotten into a fight) was Vicki Donovan.

"V-Vicki Donovan?" Bonnie gasped. She closed her hands into fists and rubbed them aggressively against her eyes. She dropped her hands and lo and behold, Vicki was still standing there. "What? What is happening? Did I die?"

"How are you here?" Vicki demanded, marching up to Bonnie. Vicki's hands popped up and grabbed either side of Bonnie's face. The dead girl tilted Bonnie's head back and forth, studying every inch of skin that she could see. "You can't be here. That's impossible."

"You want to talk about impossible?" Bonnie retorted, yanking herself out of Vicki's hold. "You're dead! You died five months ago! Unless..."

Bonnie had grabbed onto Victoria before appearing in this reversed world.

It was well-known by then that Victoria had been seeing a dead visage of Vicki for months, whom she had nicknamed Mind Vicki.

And Bonnie was pretty sure she hadn't died, which meant...

"...you're not Vicki Donovan," Bonnie finished, her mind working overtime. "You're Mind Vicki, the one that's inside of Victoria's mind."

"I would give you a gold star if I had access to a Target here, but unfortunately, I don't," Vicki grunted, moving past Bonnie to stare out of the window. "Listen, you definitely don't have much time here and I wouldn't be surprised if you poofed out of existence back into your body any moment now." Vicki flipped around to glare at Bonnie. "How do you feel?"

"Excuse me?"

"You're in the middle of one of your premonitions, except it's taking on this place. How do you feel, Bonnie Bennett? Don't think, just tell me your gut instinct."

For some reason, talking to Vicki like this made Bonnie blurt out, "Scared." Vicki raised an eyebrow, a silent request for Bonnie to elaborate. Bonnie bit her lower lip and really tried to articulate how she was starting to feel. "I've got this deep sinking feeling in my stomach. Like...like something isn't right, but I just don't know what it is. Everything is kind of blurry. And I'm thirsty. Like, really, really thirsty."

"For soda? For coffee? For what, Bonnie?"

"Water," Bonnie stated firmly, surprised at how determined she sounded. "I'm thirsty for water."

Vicki nodded her head in confirmation (why would she be confirming anything?). "I wish I could tell you more, Bonnie, but I physically can't. Just remember these things, remember who brought you here, and know this: not everybody is what they seem."

Bonnie was shot back into her body like she was a bullet from a gun. It was so jarring, so frightful that Bonnie actually staggered back away from Victoria, gasping.

Victoria immediately rushed to her side, and Bonnie couldn't help but flinch backwards. She didn't want to touch Victoria again. She didn't want to risk going back to that place. Victoria saw the flinch and her face fell immediately. "Bon-Bon...?"

Zach appeared at Victoria's side, placing a fatherly hand onto her shoulder. Victoria looked up towards her dad, who gave her a reassuring smile. "Go inside. I'll take Bonnie for a walk. We've been up all night so she's probably just tired and not thinking straight."

Victoria didn't look as convinced, so Bonnie licked her lips and rasped out, "Sorry, Tori. Just got startled. It's been happening a lot since the first time you lost your memories."

A knowing look passed over Victoria's face and her frown into a smile of sympathy. "Of course, Bon-Bon. Find me later?"

"Definitely," Bonnie replied immediately.

Zach gave Victoria's shoulder a single squeeze before stepping forward, gently redirecting Bonnie to turn around. With a gentle push against the small of her back, Zach started to lead Bonnie away from the group. Bonnie tried her best to focus on putting one foot after the other. She was in a dazed sort of state, fully relying on Zach to redirect her where she needed to go.

Zach moved Bonnie until they were out of eyesight of the main group, and then he helped her find a bench that wasn't too close to anybody. He held an arm out and used that to help set Bonnie down onto the bench. Bonnie sighed when her feet no longer had to withstand the pressure of her standing.

She looked up to Zach, who was staring down at her with all that fatherly-like love (it made her heart pang; it had been a while since her father had truly looked at her like that). She gave Zach a small smile. "Thanks, Zach."

"What did you see?" Zach asked immediately, skipping all the pleasantries.

Bonnie, startled by the sudden switch, just stammered, "W-What?"

Zach gave her a knowing look and it made Bonnie want to hide her face. "Bonnie, I've been around the supernatural for longer than you have. I know the look on someone's face when they're not entirely in their own body. It was only for a second, but I saw it. So, tell me honestly, what did you see?"

Bonnie licked her lips, trying to gather all her thoughts so she could think coherently. "I-I was still here, at the Lockwood Mansion, but it was like...like I wasn't? Everything was flipped, and I mean really flipped. I was also inside of the house? And Vicki was there, but not the real Vicki. Mind Vicki. I don't know how that happened, since I thought only Victoria could see her, and a little bit of Damon, I guess. She asked me how I was feeling."

Zach nodded his head and asked gently, "How were you feeling, Bonnie?"

"Scared," Bonnie blurted out. "Scared and with this deep sinking feeling in my stomach. Oh! And I was thirsty. For water, specifically, because Vicki said it was important that I specified that. And she said to remember who brought me there and to remember everything is not as it seemed."

Zach nodded his head knowingly, resting back onto his heels as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. He looked down at his feet, like he was contemplating something, before he looked back up at Bonnie. His smile was tense, and so were the crinkles around his eyes. "Vicki was telling the truth, Bonnie. Not everything is at it seems."

"How do you mean?" Bonnie asked.

Zach gestured for her to scoot over and so she did, leaving some room for him on the bench. He took a seat and leaned back, letting out a grunt of relief. He licked his lips and studied the scenery for a moment before he said, "You know that I've died three times now, right?"

That...

That was not where Bonnie thought this conversation was leading.

"Yes?" Bonnie said, making the single word sound more like a question.

"First was when Damon snapped my neck and I turned into a vampire," Zach explained, taking his hands out of his pockets to fold them across his stomach. "The second was when John Gilbert blew up Ms. Gibbons' former house and hurt Harper, Pearl, Victoria, and then killed me. Victoria brought me back from that one. Then, there was when Pearl tried to stab Caroline and I got in the way."

"Yeah..."

"I should have died back when John blew up the house," Zach hummed. "But Victoria brought me back." He glanced over his shoulder towards Bonnie. "There have been...consequences because her actions because of that."

"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked, her interest peaked.

Zach waved his hand loosely at her. "I'll get into that at a later time, but suffice to say, we can say that I'm a little more...connected to Victoria than we had previously thought. Waking up, alive, in New Zealand, was a testament to that. Anyways, what I've been trying to say through all this rambling about nonsense backstory is yes." He leveled his gaze at Bonnie and Bonnie noticed his jaw tense up. "The Victoria we are looking at is not the same Victoria we knew two days ago. And I believe that that is a very bad thing, indeed."

A/N: Heeeeeey!

I've returned. Sorry I've taken a bit of a break. I really needed it so I can get back into the groove of things, but hopefully, I'll be able to start a more consistent releasing schedule (I say that a lot, but I'm actually gonna try it this time!)

Hope you guys haven't lost interest in this story, because things are about to get good real fast!

Well, I hope you guys like this chapter! It's kind of a filler boi, but I enjoyed making it.

Until next time,

Stay healthy and stay safe!

BecomingFearless1F