Silence spread out before them, twisting around their wrists and freezing them in place, looking at one another. Damon, waiting for a reaction to his grand declaration of love and Elena, always and forever staring up at him with those big, brown eyes, trying to put her thoughts into order, trying to figure out how to say all of the things she felt.
He didn't often leave her speechless, didn't often leave her without a witty comeback or something to argue about. How could she argue something like that? His declaration had been genuine enough, there was no room for debate. The real question came from inside her chest, a tearing feeling like being ripped in half. Of all of the moments that pained her, this, perhaps, fell among the worst.
For she could only look back up at him, her lips working to move around words she couldn't find. Loving him, or admitting to as much, should have been easy. It should have been like taking a breath. But she'd never stopped for a moment to think about her feelings for him. She'd always tucked them away for another day, and now that another day had arrived, those feelings were too jumbled for a clear response.
Whereas Damon, well, he'd obviously been thinking about it for quite some time, or perhaps he was just practiced in grand declarations of love. Her eyes scanned his face as his mouth parted as if to say something else. Elena wanted to speak, wanted to voice that she did love him, but nothing felt right. But that was the truth, wasn't it? Deep down amidst all the pain and loathing, amidst the chaos within her heart, it was love that bubbled to the surface, wasn't it?
The door flung open with a bang, striking the adjacent wall as Caroline stepped through in a panic, looking around, eyes immediately settling on the intertwined pair.
"He has my brother," she panted, out of breath. "And yours. Klaus," she explained, her words sharp and full of anxiety. "Whatever he's planning, it happens tonight."
Elena's eyes never left Caroline's, despite the feeling of Damon's eyes on hers. She moved past him. As she did, he spoke, "Elena," voice low, a warning, a plea, a promise.
Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, Elena chose cowardice. She averted her eyes and dropped into a sprint, following Caroline wherever they needed to go. Damon followed close behind as they ran, without a plan, with no idea what they were getting themselves into.
They came to a stop in the woods a few miles out from the house Elena had been kept at. Memories of Jeremy flooded her vision but she pleaded with them to go away, to let her do what she needed to do with a clear head, with a focused mind.
Caroline didn't want to stop running. Damon grabbed her by the wrist before they got too close and hissed, "With no plan, we're all dead. Do you hear me?" He looked at her sharply, searching her eyes for understanding.
She nodded and Damon continued. "What happened?"
"He found Marcus first, sniffing around Claudia," she explained, words rushed and running together. "Then Stefan." She paused, swallowing. "He let me go. I don't know why."
"He let you go?" Elena said.
"Not all love lost, I guess," Damon said bitterly.
Caroline looked as if she could crumble before them at any moment, and Elena knew the pain of fearing for one's brother better than anyone else. She would do whatever it took to save them. Her skin crawled with a rage and a desire for revenge. A new feeling, to want someone dead so badly while feeling no guilt at the idea of standing over their body. Thinking through the plan in her head, trying to put all of the pieces together, everything they'd learned, she paced back and forth, wringing her hands together.
"Marcus, he has the dagger," Elena said abruptly. "The one that killed Elijah."
Damon seemed to catch on to her plan despite all of his clearly voiced concerns regarding the decision she'd need to make. "Then we'll need a distraction."
The timing had to be perfect. Everything was an estimation, a best guess in the face of potential disaster or barely possible success. How close could they get to the house before Klaus sensed them? Did he have any vampires in his guard anymore, or had he killed them, too? Where was the witch? Where was he keeping Stefan and Marcus? There were so many variables to keep track of and too little time to think through every single issue. They had to take a risk, a leap of faith.
Caroline separated from the pair of them, stalking further into the clearing. Elena's heart clenched, remembering the last time they'd been here. Hopefully, this time, they'd all make it out alive.
Damon crouched next to Elena. Despite the fact that they were supposed to be listening for their cue, his eyes locked with hers, his hand reaching out to rest on her forearm.
"Promise me," he said, squeezing her arm gently.
He didn't need to finish the sentence for her to know what the promise referred to. Unfortunately, she couldn't find it within herself to lie to him. Not now. Not when it could be the end. "I can't," she whispered, seconds before a branch cracked behind her and a hand slipped over her mouth, dragging her backward.
She tried to fight with everything she had, tried to kick and thrash, but whoever held a hand over her mouth had frozen her body. Magic crackled over her skin. Instinct told her to look back, to find Damon, but instead, her eyes met Claudia's.
"Don't panic," the witch whispered, a placating expression on her face, one that confused the vampire before her. "Klaus doesn't know I'm here."
Still as a statue, Elena could not respond, but her eyes softened. Could the witch be telling the truth? And if she were, why had she sought the two of them out? The confusion must have been obvious in Elena's eyes, for Claudia continued.
"They were my friends," she said, her eyes flicking downward into the dirt. "And he killed every last one of them." Claudia let that information sink in before moving her hand slowly in the air, a trail of purple energy following close behind. "I want to help you."
The magic fizzled out around Elena's body and she moved tentatively, turning back to look at Damon, still locked in place. Elena looked back at Claudia, meeting her eyes with a question, pointing a thumb back at Damon, to which Claudia shook her head.
"I know how to break the connection between the two of you," Claudia said, not leaving any space for Elena to chime in. "He thinks you'll sacrifice yourself, to take him down."
Elena chewed on her bottom lip. Wasn't this too good to be true? This witch finding her in the woods before the most important gamble of their lives, telling her everything that they needed to hear? But how could this exchange benefit Klaus in any way?
"Is he wrong?" Claudia asked, amidst the silence.
The vampire shook her head numbly. Given all the options they had available if the worst occurred, she would put that dagger through her heart before anyone had the moment to react. Maybe she should have felt something at the idea of ending her own life, but there was a warmth to the finality, to the idea that all of the pain would be over. She'd fought for so long, and with this last thing, with her loved ones saved, she could rest.
"You have no reason to trust me," Claudia said.
"You did kill me. Who's to say you wouldn't try again."
"We don't have time for this. When the link has been destroyed, I'll give you a sign. That's the most I can do. Strike before he does."
"Marcus has something we need," Elena said, studying the woman's eyes as she spoke. "If you're truly on our side, make sure we can get it."
In a gust of glittering magic, she vanished into the night, leaving Elena alone, kneeling on the forest floor. Damon came to behind her, rolling his neck to stretch out the crick. Then, he shot forward to grab her arms, assessing her for damage.
"Are you okay?" he asked, but Elena had tuned him out, thoughts racing, puzzle pieces clicking together, trying to determine at the very last minute, whether or not they'd be able to pull this off. When Damon gave her arm a gentle shake, she still hadn't quite decided whether or not to have hope.
Just as she opened her mouth to relay all the information, everything that Claudia had explained, a scream pierced the air in the distance, eerily familiar and downright distracting. They were out of time. He squeezed her arm again, and they began to creep slowly forward through the trees and into the clearing.
"Show's over," Klaus called out just before they emerged. He stood at the center of four interlocking circles, the lines not nearly as clear as they'd been during the first ritual. Leaves and dirt covered and smeared them, turning them ghostly. Klaus held Caroline to his chest, one arm barred over her midsection.
"It didn't work," Caroline said, shaking her head as Damon and Elena approached. Elena had to hand it to Caroline, she was a good actress. "I couldn't convince him."
Behind Klaus, Stefan and Marcus sat back to back, tied up at the wrists, ankles, and knees. They were in rough condition, subdued with vervain for whatever ritual he planned to perform, but alive—at least. Claudia stood far outside the interlocking circles in front of a dirt dais of her own craft, a pedestal rose from the earth once again. Atop it sat a grimoire that she worked through slowly under candlelight, paying no attention to the scene unfolding before her as she muttered under her breath in a language no one else understood.
"Yes, well. It was a good try, to say the least," Klaus said, spinning Caroline around as he withdrew something from his jacket, a stake, and drove it through her chest. Elena stepped forward, but Damon wrapped a hand around her wrist just as fast, holding her back as Caroline went limp. Klaus caught her around the midsection and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "Sorry about that, love," he whispered, before tossing her body to the side, letting her fall in a heap next to her brother and Stefan. Klaus looked at her body for a moment, the corner of his mouth turned slightly downward. It was almost in disgust. At himself?
Damon and Elena exchanged a glance, then Damon disappeared. Klaus' eyes darted around as he followed Damon's movement in slow motion. Elena didn't give him the time to track her partner. Instead, she withdrew a small stake from her pocket.
"I wouldn't do that," Klaus said, without looking at her.
She never listened, so what good would it be to start now? Flipping the stake just as Klaus moved forward, two things happened in a blur. First, she drove the stake, very carefully, to the right of her heart, straight through the breastbone. Second, Klaus' steps stuttered as the same wound appeared just to the right of his heart. Elena coughed and gagged as the wood prevented the wound from healing, the pain raging throughout her chest. But even as Klaus reached to grab her by the neck, she did not relent.
He never reached her. Taking his eyes off Damon was a mistake, as he barreled into the original vampire at full speed, sending him away from Elena, who—although she could have dropped to her knees in pain—used the rest of her speed to circle around to the other side of the clearing, where Caroline laid in the dirt.
The blonde's fingers twitched and Elena let out a breath as her friend's hand turned to reveal the dagger. Surging forward, through the protection circle that Claudia must have dropped for a fraction of a second, Elena dropped to her knees. She pocked the dagger and moved away in a blur, just in time to prevent Klaus from sinking her teeth into Damon's neck.
As time slowed and their eyes met across the clearing, Damon still shaking his head, still begging her not to do anything drastic, Elena dug her fingers into the bloody wound of her chest and ripped the small sliver of a stake out, gritting her teeth. She drove it in again, closer to her heart this time, but still not quite. Anything more and she'd take herself out without promise of bringing Klaus down with her. But still, she needed him away from Damon, she needed to kill time while Claudia finished the spell.
The stake didn't stop him, didn't keep him from ripping a chunk out of Damon's neck and throwing him to the side like a rag doll. He landed in one of the four circles. Its outline encircled with flame.
Klaus raised a hand and a stake shot into his hand. He cocked his head to the side. "Neat little trick, don't you think?" he asked, then thrust it through his own stomach. Pain overtook Elena, but he didn't stop. He summoned another stake, and then another, putting them through his body in rapid succession. "You must think yourself quite intelligent for this grand plan of yours, Miss Gilbert."
She clutched her stomach, reaching for stakes that weren't there, that she couldn't remove. Damon moved to the edge of the circle in a blur, trying to catch her gaze through the flame that kept him contained. The same flame began to encircle Caroline, Marcus, and Stefan. She couldn't bear to meet Damon's eyes, the pain keeping her from even lifting her head.
But Klaus continued to speak. "You think you're the only one with plans, with schemes." He shook his head as he knelt down on one knee next to Elena, one arm on his thigh like he was a teacher about to help a child with a skinned knee. He twirled another stake between two fingers. "This won't kill me," he said, looking down his nose at her. "But you, on the other hand."
He put the stake through his own chest, so close to the heart. "You forget yourself, Elena. This is a game we can both play." Elena fell forward, pressing one hand into the dirt to keep herself from collapsing completely. "At least, for now." Klaus, despite all of the stakes in his abdomen that apparently were more of a nuisance than anything else, picked Elena up with one arm and threw her over his shoulder.
"Let her go!" Damon yelled over the blaring fire. "Kill us all for your evil plan, fine. Not her."
Klaus tossed Elena into one of the empty circles, flames surrounding her fast. Then, he stepped into the final circle and turned to face Damon with a smile on his face, chuckling under his breath. "Unfortunately my hands are tied. I admit, it was a mistake to turn you all, and for that I am sorry. Consider this unmaking my formal apology."
Pressing her hands into the dirt, Elena tried to push herself up to her knees. Even the slightest movement ached, the holes in her abdomen bleeding, staining her clothes down the front. She managed to get to her knees again, one hand holding her up. Finding Claudia's eyes across the clearing, she stared, watching and waiting for some kind of sign, something to spur her forward into action. But all hope felt lost as the pain continued to burn through her.
"Now, Claudia," Klaus demanded as the flames rose higher then subsided to almost nothing, only embers surrounding them all. Hope did not return at his order, for even if the connection between them was severed, she couldn't take him like this. Her best shot at taking him down lay in her pocket.
On shaking feet, she rose. Klaus looked at her with a chuckle. She took pride in his laughter, in the fact that he expected nothing more from her, that he thought himself stronger, faster, and more intelligent, that he again, like many others, had underestimated her.
She withdrew the dagger from her pocket and held it in the air between two fingers and her thumb. "Recognize this?" she asked, her voice dry and ragged.
"Claudia," Klaus said, words stressed, tense, pressing. Fear bloomed in his eyes. Elena met the witch's gaze over the smoke, but Claudia shook her head. Damon spoke her name with a similar inflection. A don't do this to Klaus' finish this. Klaus moved quickly forward, but the same protection spell that kept them all in their respective circles stopped him, as well. Fear transformed into anger, vivid and bright, threatening to consume everything.
It wasn't so scary behind bars. Elena managed a smile in her weakened state as she raised the silver dagger up to her chest, holding it with all the strength she had. Klaus raised a hand, but no stake flew into it. "Claudia!" he sneered, but nothing came to help him. It seemed his tricks were really hers all along. What was he, if not an empowered vampire, slightly stronger and harder to kill than the rest? That did not seem worth all the destruction he'd wreaked.
Her hand did not shake as she pressed the tip of the dagger into her chest, right above her heart. She closed her eyes for a moment, summoning all of the courage she had available. This was her chance, her shot to save everyone. She had to take it. And looking into Damon's eyes from across the clearing, she knew exactly why.
"Elena," Damon looked at her, brows drawn together, eyes sadder than she'd ever seen. But she did not release the pressure, did not drop the dagger. "I get it now," he said, trying to hold eye contact with her. "When we met, you had this fierce argument about love. You stood up that very first day in class and told everyone that people ruin themselves for each other, that that's what true love really is."
Something softened in her chest, but she didn't dare acknowledge it.
"You don't have to do this. You don't have to ruin yourself, not for me," he said, and the gates broke, the walls she'd built up came crashing down finally and fully. The hand that held the stake shook and she wanted more than anything to drop it, but the situation was more dire than ever now and she couldn't bring herself to do it, couldn't bring herself to do anything but ruin herself over and over again for him.
She nodded, holding back tears. "I do. I do," she said, stumbling over words. "I've never been in love before," she called, wishing more than anything that they could close the distance, but knowing that if he got any closer that she wouldn't be able to do it, she wouldn't be able to go through with it. And if she didn't, they would all die. This was the only way. "But I would ruin myself a hundred times over for you, Salvatore." Then, she laughed. A deep, dry chuckle. "That's why I have to do this."
Klaus paced in his circular cell, snarling in her direction and sending threatening glares to Claudia.
"Elena, please," he begged. "We can figure out another way. We will. You don't have to do this. You don't. You can love me and live."
She shook her head. "This is me loving you." Her hand tightened around the stake and she could have heard Damon suck in a breath from a mile away. "I just didn't realize it until now. I'm sorry it took me so long."
Klaus chuckled dark and angry. "Stop wasting time. Or perhaps you aren't capable of what you've been threatening," he said, stopping his pacing to look her dead in the eye from a few inches away, both at the edges of their respective circles. "You're weak. You don't know what it means to sacrifice." The same fire that reflected in his eyes glowed in hers.
"Maybe I am," she said, voice still ragged. "Maybe I don't." She looked at Damon, memorizing this last moment with him before closing her eyes and pressing the tip of the dagger deep into her skin.
Pain didn't come. Instead, a buzzing energy surrounded her, forcing her eyes open once more. The clearing lit up with purple energy as it surrounded her body and Klaus' and outlined the circles just as the fire had. Klaus' snarl turned into a wide grin as the wounds in Elena's stomach knit themselves back together, healing. Her eyes lifted, meeting Claudia's gaze from behind Klaus. The witch nodded, and all hell broke loose.
The protection circles dropped. Marcus and Stefan were on their feet in an instant, with Caroline close behind as they pulled the stake from her chest. Elena's hand froze, stopping the dagger from moving any further into her chest, stopping it from piercing her heart, from killing her. Her hand withdrew the dagger at Claudia's behest. Damon rushed to Elena's side, gripping her face despite the pandemonium that developed around them. But Klaus did not move. He remained statue still wreathed in purple energy. Claudia's nose bled as she called, "I can't hold him," through gritted teeth.
Elena, dagger in hand and free to move of her own accord, stepped forward, over the line that separated her from Klaus and looked him in the eye. "You are weak," she said, her voice low and cold, but filled with all the fury and sadness and stress she'd experienced over the past year. "And you are nothing, and you will not be remembered."
She placed a hand on his back and moved forward, striking him in the chest with the small metal dagger, upwards through the ribcage and into the heart. Killing him did not satisfy her as much as she'd hoped. After all, she'd been certain of her own death only moments before. But she took pleasure in the fear behind his eyes, in the pain that crossed his features as he grew even colder. The magic holding him fizzled away but she remained, holding the dagger into his chest, holding his now corpse upright, needing to feel the death in her hands to know that it was real.
Long minutes passed before she felt Damon and Caroline's hands on her. Caroline placed a hand on her shoulder and Damon slipped a hand over hers, pulling it away from the dagger.
"It's done?" Elena asked, still looking forward, even as Stefan lowered Klaus' body to the ground.
"It's done," Damon echoed.
Without thinking, she touched her stomach, phantom pain lingered behind. How many stakes had he struck himself with? How many plans had he strung together, only for none of them to work in his favor? She loosed a long steady breath and everyone waited and watched, for what, they did not know.
"Does anybody want a drink?" she asked.
An hour or so later, after burying the corpse of their adversary in the backyard of the country house, they sat in the living room passing a bottle of bourbon around, too exhausted for individual glasses and still coated in blood with torn clothes and battle-worn expressions. No one spoke. Occasional eye contact was exchanged, but no words. There were no words for what they'd done, for what they'd accomplished. No words for how happy they were to have made it back in one piece. No words for the pain that flooded Elena's chest. Not a physical pain, but the pain of relief. Of something inexplicably heavy being lifted off her chest after ages of pressure. The soreness of its impression, of the scars left behind raised and red and new. The burn of the liquor did not lessen the pain, did not make the scars fade. Only time could do that. A few tears slipped silently from her eyes as she passed the bottle to Damon and rested her head on his shoulder, realizing for the first time since she'd slipped the dagger between Klaus' ribs that they had all the time in the world.
THE END
A/N: Genuinely so emotional to be posting this. This has been such a labor of love since May 2024 and I really didn't want it to be over. Thank you all so so so much for all the love and support you've given this story, and to everyone who's reading it in the future after it's finished! Stay tuned for an epilogue asap!