03. Age Of Innocence

Five Years From Now, New York City

Jeremy brought a bowl of popcorn from his kitchen and sat in the living room, waiting for his girlfriend to arrive.

"April hurry up, I'm about to start the movie!" Jeremy yelled, getting impatient.

"Don't you dare start Iron Man without me Gilbert!" April yelled from their shared bedroom.

"Then hurry up!" Jeremy yelled.

"Be there in five, just changing into my pjs!" April yelled back, making Jeremy shake his head in amusement at his girlfriend. 

While he was setting the movie up, suddenly his phone started ringing, Jeremy looked at his phone in confusion when he realised it was no caller ID.

"Hello?" A confused Jeremy answered, wanting to know who was calling him.

"Little Gilbert".

Hearing the other person's voice, immediately caused Jeremy to clench his fist in anger, he wanted nothing to do with this man, not after he walked out on his best friend again.

"Why the hell are you calling me, Damon?" An angry Jeremy asked.

"Tell me you know where Aria is" Damon said, ignoring Jeremy's anger.

"Don't" Jeremy warned, "Don't you dare take Aria's name from your mouth".

"Look, I get that your angry at me, but my scar opened up again" Damon informed.

"What?" A shocked Jeremy asked.

"I need you to warn Aria and Kol, I tried to look for her but she's made it pretty clear she doesn't want me to find her" Damon said.

"Can you blame her?!" Jeremy snapped.

"No, I can't" Damon said, "Look you can hate me all you want Jeremy, but what I did, it was for Aria and our kids".

"Her kids" Jeremy corrected, "They are her and Kol's kids Damon, not yours, you lost the right to call them your kids when you walked out on them, for the second time, now excuse me, I have a best friend I have to warn while you run, like you always do".

Before Damon could say anything else, Jeremy hanged up on and immediately called Aria, hoping her, Kol and the kids were okay.

***

Today,

Dear Triplets,

So as you can see, now I am starting to write these journals to you three. Right now you three are in New Orleans with your Uncle Nik, Uncle Elijah and Uncle Finn and I miss you guys a lot, and by writing these journals to you guys I hope to achieve two things. Number one, it makes me feel like you guys are still here with me. Number two, in the future when I hand you guys my journal, I hope you three read it and learn something, learn that no matter what life brings your way, you must keep going, I hope that you three learn from mine and Damon's mistakes and make sure you guys don't repeat it, I hope these journals help you three become the best versions of yourselves.

Now let's start with what's recently been happening in Mystic Falls, I don't know why, but recently it seems like for some reason there seems to be only bad things happening around us, it almost feels like something even worse is coming and these are the warnings sign for it. Your grandmother Lily, and I use the word grandmother very loosely, is still residing in our house with her family of crazies, and honestly me and your father are kind of done with it, so--

While Aria was writing in her diary, suddenly she gasped in pain as the visions she got from the phoenix stone once again started coming infront of her eyes, causing her immense pain in her head and once again caused her to fall unconscious.

***

Alaric sat in his apartment, looking at the phoenix stone, the same stone he promised Aria he would destroy but never did.

"Have you seen my phone?" Damon asked, coming out of the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around his waist.

Alaric quickly shoved the phoenix stone into his jacket pocket, making sure Damon didn't see it.

"I've seen your empties, your dinner", Alaric grabbed a razor from the table and showed it to Damon, "Your razor, you know, clothes would be nice".

"Got it" Damon said, ignoring Alaric's comment and grabbing his phone that was next to the former history teacher.

"Why did you crash here last night, Damon?" Alaric asked confused, "Why not stay at the Mikaelson mansion with Aria?".

Damon sighed, "Last night Ria fell unconscious so I called Kai to check on her, who got annoyed with my constant threatening so he made Kol kick me out of the house, saying he can't help Ria if I stay, personally I think he just wanted to kick me out in revenge for eating his cupcakes".

"Wait, is Aria okay now?" A concerned Alaric asked.

"She's fine, she called me last night after gaining conscious" Damon assured.

"So why did she faint?" Alaric asked confused.

"According to her, ever since she touched the stone you had, she's been getting horrible visions that cause her to faint" Damon replied.

"So she fainted because of the stone?" A guilty Alaric asked.

"Yeap" Damon replied, his eyes on his phone, "Which makes no sense since you destroyed the stone".

Alaric looked at Damon, a guilty expression on his face, but before he could say anything, the apartment door opened and in came an exhausted Aria.

"You okay?" Damon asked in concern, recognising the exhausted look on Aria's face.

"Not really" Aria replied.

Damon walked over to Aria and caressed her cheek, "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I fainted again" Aria replied, Damon's touch immediately calming her restless mind.

"Same visions?" Damon asked, worried for his soulmate.

"Mhmm" Aria replied, she then turned to her adoptive father, "That stupid stone that I touched yesterday, the one you promised to throw in the acid to destroy it, did you do it or not? Because I had another vision, it's actually the same vision over and over again until my brain can't take it anymore and I end up fainting".

"What do you see in the vision?" Damon asked curiously.

"I see horrified people who have a x shape wound on their skin" Aria replied, "Whenever I see those visions I lose about ten minutes of my day".

"Stone's gone and I, you know, watched it dissolve in hydrofluoric acid" Alaric lied, he felt bad lying to Aria especially seeing how the stone was effecting her, but he couldn't tell her knowing if Damon found out that he had the stone that was causing Aria pain then he would destroy it straight away, and Alaric couldn't have that as the stone was his last hope of bringing Jo back to life.

"You're hundred percent sure?" Aria asked, slightly suspicious.

"Aria, the stone's gone" Alaric stated.

"Who wants to go to Myrtle Beach?" Damon suddenly asked.

"I'm busy", "I have class" Both Alaric and Aria said at the same time.

"Well, that's too bad cause according to the few people left in our sheriff station, Lily made a bunch of phone calls that bounced off the cell towers there and something tells me she's not making plans for her spring break" Damon said.

"Why the hell would Lily send one of her crazies to a beach?" Aria asked confused.

Last night, after Aria had gained conscious and called Damon, he informed her about what he figured out, which was that Lily's family consisted of six heretics, however minus the heretic they killed, currently there was only four heretics in Mystic Falls, making the two realise if they found the last heretic then they could use him as leverage and force Lily to give them their house back, bringing them one step closer to bringing their children back home.

"Tell you what, you ask him yourself after he's safe in my car's trunk, hmm?" Damon replied, "So, anyone up for an old-fashioned leverage swap?".

"Does agreeing to go mean you putting on pants?" Alaric asked.

"And that I get to sleep in the car?" Aria asked.

Damon looked at Aria, "Of course you can sleep", he then turned to Alaric and took his towel off and threw it at his face, "Since Aria's tired, I'll give you shotgun".

Aria shook her head in amusement, "No one will believe that you are the father of three kids and are about to get married".

Damon smiled hearing Aria, "That reminds me, once we get our town back, we need to start planning the biggest wedding Mystic Falls has ever seen".

Aria smiled, "I'd like nothing more".

"But I'd like for you to wear yours pants!" Alaric yelled, throwing the towel at Damon's face, making Aria laugh and Damon roll his eyes.

***

Alaric cocked his gun, "Okay, so what's the plan?" he asked.

"Okay, fair trade, one heretic in good condition, in return for our house" Damon replied.

"No, I meant the plan where we try to capture a powerful heretic who'd prefer we were dead" Alaric retorted.

"Easy, witchy stuns him with magic" Damon said, "You shoot him vervain, I snap his neck".

"But before all that, we need him to somehow, someway, siphon these bloody visions out of my mind" Aria said, confusing both Alaric and Damon.

"Wait, what?" Alaric asked.

"The phoenix stone that gave me these visions had magic in it, meaning these visions are happening because of magic, this heretic is a siphon witch, so I'm going to take a risk here and assume he can taken these visions away" Aria replied.

"Why not just ask Kai to do that?" Damon asked.

"Because Kai texted me saying he's gone on a holiday and that he'll come back once the town is back to normal" Aria informed.

Damon looked at Alaric, "Any other suggestions of how we can rid Ria of this mysterious pain she's in, Ric?".

Alaric shook his head, making Damon narrow his eyes at him in suspicion but nonetheless stayed quiet, for now at least.

***

Damon knocked on room 227, where they had found out the heretic was staying in.

"Room service, free shrimp" Damon announced.

After a moment, the door was opened, "Yeah, you folks have the wrong--", the heretic looked at Damon in shock, immediately recognising him, "Holy, Damon Salvatore!".

"You know me?" Damon asked shocked.

"Of course, I know you, it's good to see you're well, old friend, come here, man", the heretic hugged Damon, while Alaric and Aria stood to the side, watching the scene in confusion, "Hey, all right, come in, come in, come on".

"This wasn't part of the plan, was it?" Aria whispered to Alaric.

"No, it wasn't" Alaric whispered back.

After exchanging one last look between them, the trio stepped into the hotel room.

"Uh, you caught me in the middle of a 72-hour social gathering, make yourself at home", the trio watched as the heretic tried to hide the many bodies in his room, he then turned to Alaric, "Uh, friend with the vervain gun, if you could holster that I sure would feel a lot more comfortable".

"So, how do you know Damon?" Aria asked curiously, while Alaric put his gun away.

"Well, he's Lily's son, the hero soldier".

Aria looked at Damon for answers, who just shrugged in response, not remembering the person infront of him.

"We met at a bar near Gettysburg, July of 1863, nothing?".

"I go to a lot of bars" Damon simply said.

The heretic chuckled, "Right, right, right, uh, well, your mom was going through a rough patch, she could not move on until she knew her boys were okay, so she sent me out to find you".

"My mother abandoned her family and ran for the hills" Damon snapped, "She didn't give a flying crap about me".

"I sense hostility and that's fine, all emotions are valid and welcome here, but it's the truth, she just wanted to know you were happy, Damon, she loved you, hey, you guys, what can I get you? Cocktail? Joint? Jenny?".

"Does my mom know you're here?" Damon asked, ignoring the heretic's question.

"Hey, hey, hey, shh".

As the heretic stated laughing, Aria pulled Damon over to her, "He's high, Damon" she whispered yelled.

"Which makes all this so much easier" Damon whispered back, kissing Aria's head and turning back to a hysterical heretic.

***

"So why did Lily send you here?" Alaric asked curiously.

The heretic chuckled, laying on the ground, "She didn't send me here exactly, she had a job and I volunteered, she has the family on a short leash, back home, with this whole, I took you in as orphans, so I know what's best for you, vibe, no thank you, you know, you can get a drink served to you here in a fishbowl here?", the heretic sat up, "Oh, hey, the other day I called a number on this card and just like that, I had a girlfriend".

"That's not called having a girlfriend, that's called calling an escort" Aria corrected.

"But she really got who I am, you know? It was a beautiful human experience, and that's what I've discovered here, freedom, the bad trip inside that prison world has ended, my friends and I am breathing in what my soul was craving".

"Sex?" Aria asked confused.

"No, F-R-E-E-dom".

"Question, what's your name?" Aria asked, realising she had no idea what to call the man infront of her.

"Oscar".

"Okay Oscar, since you believe that everyone should be free, can I trouble you, a siphoner witch, by asking a favor?" Aria asked.

"Huh?" Oscar asked confused.

"Let me translate for you" Damon said, "My friend and fiance over here were playing with some mystical tools they didn't quite understand and now Ria's chasing her own white rabbit around the farm".

"So you want me to, what, siphon her problems away?" Oscar asked.

"Yeah pretty much" Aria replied.

"Just think of it as one big magical toke" Damon said.

Oscar suddenly started laughing, causing the trio to exchange confused looks between each other, not knowing what was so funny, "I don't really like to mix mediums if you know what I mean".

"Siphon the damn visions" Damon snapped, "We won't tell Lily that we saw you avoiding whatever mission you were sent to do and we'll call it a day".

"Okay then, come on" Oscar quickly said, standing up.

Aria looked at Damon, who nodded at at her, and with that Aria stood up and walked over to Oscar.

"Ready?" Oscar asked, "Okay".

"Ready" Aria replied.

Oscar placed his hands on either side of Aria's head and started siphoning, he went into her head and started seeing the same visions that caused Aria to fall unconscious over and over again, causing him to suddenly let go of the tribrid.

"Where's the phoenix stone?" Oscar asked Aria, shocking everyone.

"How the hell do you know about that stone?" Aria asked confused.

"How do you know about the phoenix stone?" Oscar retorted, "What are you people up to?".

Alaric quickly pulled his gun out and aimed it at Oscar but before he could use it, Oscar used a spell which caused the gun to fly out of Alaric's hand, and then with his magic, he caused the trio to fall to the ground, as pain shot through all their heads, and then with his magic he snapped Damon and Aria's neck and rendered Alaric unconscious.

***

After walking up, Damon rushed over to an unconscious Aria.

"Ria" Damon called out, lifting Aria's head up and patting her cheeks, "Come on Ria, wake up dammit!".

After a moment, Aria groaned and opened her eyes, "I've decided I don't like Oscar" she mumbled, rubbing the back of her neck.

Damon chuckled and brought Aria to his chest, ever since Alaric and Jo's wedding, whenever Aria fell unconscious the worse case scenarios started playing in Damon's head, he was terrified that if Aria falls unconscious, she won't come back to him, and just the thought of that made Damon want to murder everyone and everything that even dared to harm her.

Damon help Aria stand, "Good news, your visions are gone" he said, "Bad news, so is Oscar".

"He took the stone" Alaric informed.

"That's not possible Ric, you destroyed it" Aria said confused, "Right?".

"We need to find him right now" Alaric stated.

Aria stepped away from Damon, "Did you know about this?!" she asked.

Damon gave Aria a sheepish look, "I wasn't sure, I just had my suspicions".

Aria glared at Damon and Alaric, "You both lied to me" she snapped.

"I didn't lie to you" Damon defended, "I wasn't sure Ria, if I was sure I would have taken the stone and destroyed it myself, you know I would never let anything harm you".

Aria turned to Alaric, who was avoiding looking at her, "Damon, go find our bargaining chip, my father and I have some things we need to talk about".

"Gladly, I do not want to be stuck in the middle of this" Damon said, walking out of the room.

After Damon left, Aria glared at Alaric, "You saw" she snapped, "You saw how that stone was effecting me, yet you lied to me about it, is that how much you care about me, Ric? That my health, my sanity means nothing to you".

"Aria, you're important to me, but so is bringing Jo back" Alaric replied.

"Ric, we don't even know if that stupid stone works" Aria said, trying to get her adoptive father to realise how big of a risk he was taking.

"I was dead, gone, and so were you, Aria" Alaric reminded, "We came back, we got our second chance".

"You and I were on the other side" Aria argued, "Which if you have forgotten, then let me remind you, it no longer exists".

Alaric sighed, "Look, Jo is the love of my life" he said, "And if there is even a 1% chance that this could work, I need to take it, no matter how dangerous or insane it may be, because if I don't, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life wishing I had stayed dead".

***

"I lied" Damon said, walking over to Oscar, having found him pretty easily, "I do remember you, I was fighting for the South, it's not exactly a time I like to reminisce about in front of my friend and the mother of my children".

"Yeah, you had the same opinion back then" Oscar said, "Hated everything your side believed in, hey, you wanted to desert, but feared shaming your old man".

"You compelled me to take sick leave" Damon remembered, "The next day, my entire regiment was slaughtered in Gettysburg, you saved my life".

"I couldn't compel you back then" Oscar clarified, "All I did was talk to you, from one human to another, I told you to follow your heart, now it's my turn to desert, I don't wanna be a part of Lily's cavalry, okay, I don't want rules or a chain of command, I just wanna have fun, you know what, a little extra piece of advice? A lot of people want the phoenix stone, mess with it, you end up dead".

"Full disclosure" Damon said, "I don't care about the stone".

"Then why are you chasing me, man?" Oscar asked confused.

"Let's just say I'd like to cash you in for something way better" Damon replied.

Damon ripped a wooden plank and plunged it into Oscar's stomach he then punched his face, then kicked him on to the floor, before he could attack him again, Oscar started chanting, causing Damon to hit the ceiling then the ground, Oscar then stood up and after taking the stake out of his stomach started walking towards Damon, he grabbed him by his neck and plunged the stake in his stomach, but before he could do any damage, Aria came behind Damon and started chanting, causing Oscar to let of Damon and hold his head in pain, Alaric then came behind Oscar and shot him with vervain, Damon then finished the job by punching Oscar and knocking him unconscious.

Aria eyes landed on the phoenix stone, that fell out of Oscar's pocket, she picked it up and walked over to Alaric and held her hand out, "Here's the stone you lied to me about" she said, slamming the stone in Alaric's hand and walking away.

"Yikes, she's mad" Damon commented, "Good lucking getting out of this one Ric".

***

Despite being mad at Alaric, Aria decided to help him figure out if the phoenix stone could bring Jo back or not.

"Tell me this, what does a stone that makes you see screaming people whenever you touch it, have anything to with bringing people back from the day?" Aria asked, as her and Alaric sat in Alaric's office, discussing the stone that was currently placed infront of Aria, while she was reading a book that talked about the phoenix stone.

"I don't know, but I've read that book already, cover to cover" Alaric informed, "And it's a waste of time, and, in fact, all of these are a waste of time", Alaric gestured towards the various books and papers placed on his desk, "They talk about resurrection, the phoenix rising from the ashes but nothing about a stone that brings people back from the dead".

Aria sighed, she then looked at Alaric in concern, "Ric, I need to know that you fully understand what you're doing here" she said, "This isn't like how we died, when we died, we were on the other side, Jo's spirit isn't behind a veil that we can lift and magically bring her back, what we are doing here, it's called necromancy".

"I wanna show you something" Alaric told Aria.

Aria looked at Alaric in confusion but nonetheless nodded.

***

Alaric and a creeped out Aria stood in the hospital's morgue.

"The hospital can only preserve the body for a set amount of time" Alaric informed, "I've been paying off the tech to fake the logs", Alaric opened of the doors and pulled out Jo's body.

"I think I'm going to be sick" Aria whispered, looking away from Jo's dead body.

"Jo is still in there" Alaric said, "She has to be".

"Ric listen--".

"I know what I'm getting myself into" Alaric interrupted, "I just can't do it alone, at least tell me you will try".

Say no, say no, say no. That's what Aria's head kept telling her, and she was tempted to listen to her brain and say no but seeing Alaric look at her with such a hopeful expression, made Aria realise she couldn't take his hope away from him, especially since the hope of seeing Jo again is the only thing that is keeping him going.

"I will try my best, but I can't promise you anything" Aria said after a moment of silence.

***

"Damon" Lily greeted, answering her phone after seeing it was Damon calling.

"You should've come yourself" Damon said.

"It's been a long day, I have little energy for your riddles" Lily said.

"Gettysburg, 1863" Damon reminded, walking over to Oscar's unconscious body, that was currently laying on a stretcher with vervain being pumped into his body, "You sent Oscar to check on me, had it been you, would've changed the entire course of my life".

"I was supposed to be dead" Lily reminded.

"And I was supposed to be your son" Damon retorted.

"How do you know this?" Lily asked confused.

"Your prodigal heretic was fear-and-loathing in the armpit of Myrtle Beach" Damon replied.

"Oscar" a worried Lily realised.

"But don't worry, mommy" Damon assured, "He's in the middle of a vervain detox, I want my house back, then maybe I won't kill him".

"You will not lay a hand on another member of my family" Lily warned.

Damon sighed, "You know this whole family thing really irked me at first" he said, walking away from Oscar, "But now I get it, you loved me, time passed, and you moved on to a new family", Aria walked over to Damon and laced her fingers with his while Alaric stood to the side, Damon smiled and kissed Aria's forehead, "And so did I, but because of you I had to send my children away from their own home, see though you might not care about being their for your kids but I do, and I want to be there to see my kids grow up in the house they were born in, in the town their parents grew up in, so why don't we end this mutual disdain once and for all? Give us our house back, and once my kids are back in their home, you get your son back".

***

Five Years From Now,

"Are you there?" Kol asked.

"Yeap" Aria replied, getting out of the car while talking to Kol on the phone, "Are you sure you can handle them tonight?".

"Ri, I've been handling them for the last five years" Kol reminded, "I've got them".

"I just hate leaving you guys alone" Aria mumbled, walking towards the entrance of the studio in which her sister worked in.

"And we hate you leaving us but it's yours and Caroline's monthly night together, we understand" Kol assured, "Right, guys?".

"Yeap!" Aria heard all three of her kids yell together, making her laugh.

"Okay, well I'll be home soon" Aria said.

"Take your time" Kol assured, "Love you".

"Love you too" Aria said, hanging up on Kol and entering the studio.

Immediately Aria frowned seeing all the lights being turned off.

"Caroline?!" Aria called out, "Caroline Forbes-Mikaelson, where the hell are you?!".

Aria walked further into the studio, just as her phone started, a huge smile formed on her face after seeing who was calling her.

"Don't tell me you got April pregnant" Aria teased, answering her phone.

"Damon's scar reopened" A concerned Jeremy said, getting straight to the point.

"What?" Aria asked shocked.

"Damon called me Aria, telling me to warn you that his scar reopened" Jeremy replied.

"No" Aria said, shaking her head, "Jer, that's not possible, not unless--".

"She's back Aria" Jeremy finished.

Aria opened her mouth to say something else, but she gasped in pain when someone threw a stake at her, hitting her right below her heart and causing her to fall to the ground.

"Aria?!" Jeremy called out, having heard Aria's gasp, "Aria, are you okay?! Aria, say something dammit?!".

But no matter how much he yelled for her to say something, Jeremy didn't hear his best friend's voice.

***

Presenting 7x03 of The Vampire Diaries . . .

How was the chapter?

Thoughts on Damon, Aria and Alaric going on a road trip together to find the last heretic?

Thoughts on the trio wanting to exchange Oscar for the boarding house?

Thoughts on Aria and Alaric's argument regarding the phoenix stone?

Thoughts on the flashforwards?