𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄 . . . !
↳ 𝖆𝖑𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖊𝖌𝖔

              ELENA HAD INFORMED Violet about their theory that Alaric had been possessed by the Gilbert ring and begged her to come over so she wouldn't have to go through this alone.

The two needed to go get his wedding ring from his apartment in order to perform a ritual that would hopefully free Alaric from his alter ego.

When the two girls climbed the stairs to Alaric's apartment, they were surprised to see that Stefan was already waiting for them.

"Missed you at the house", Stefan simply stated while he leaned against the doorframe. "Alaric told me you'd be here."

Elena walked past the man, her eyes not meeting his, "You made yourself perfectly clear this morning, Stefan. You don't wanna be around me."

Stefan have her a suffering look, while he slowly shook his head, "I'm not trying to hurt you, Elena. I just can't be who you want me to be right now. I'm not in control."

Violet slowly opened the door to the apartment for them and Elena entered the apartment first, "So then what are you doing here?"

Stefan folloed after them inside, "Well, I did some more digging on Samantha Gilbert. Founding families were always pretty good about destroying their records but I found a couple of newspaper articles. Seems like she killed two people while she was in the institution. A nurse and a guard."

Elena rolled her eyes at him, "So she was a psychopath, I get it."

"She was under suicidal watch- no personal effects- no jewelry." Stefan told them after a moment of silence.

Elena's face dropped while her eyes snapped back towards him, "Wait, so you're saying that the violent behavior can still happen even if the person isn't wearing the ring?"

Stefan silently nodded his head at her and Violet exhaled deeply, "Shit."

"What if Bonnie's spell doesn't work? What are you gonna do with him?", Stefan questioned Elena curiously while he watched her search through Alaric's drawers.

Elena sighed deeply, still searching for the ring, "I'm not gonna do anything with him, Stefan. I'm gonna keep looking until we can find something that'll help him."

The man gave her a considering look, "You don't know how long this has been going on. Might be too late."

Elena's voice was filled with guilt when she spoke, "It's my family's ring that's doing this to him. It's my responsibility to fix it."

"You can't put that onot yourself. Not everyone is your responsibility. Not everyone can be saved", Stefan shot back at her, a little more agitated than before.

Elena scoffed loudly at him while she faced Stefan, a frown on her face, "Are we taking about Alaric here or are we taking about you? Because I wasn't planning on giving up on either of you."

After a moment of silence Stefan leaned down and opened a locked drawer for Elena, revealing a bunch of pictures that looked like they were taken at the crime scenes.

Violet couldn't help but frown at them in disgust while she felt sick to her stomach, "What is that?"

Stefan stated at the pictures, "Pictures of his victims."

They immediately started pulling out the pictures and folders that were inside the drawer and placed them into the table infront of them.

Violet opened a folder that had the name Jeremy Gilbert written on the tag.
She puked out the paged and read the message on the front out loud, "Jeremy, if anything happens to me, carry on my work. You have the other ring, let the ring make you strong. The Council must be cleansed before the work can begin."

Stefan took the paper from her hands, his eyes skipping over the pages, "It's the Founder's Council roster. Looks like some sort of hit list."

The brunette shook her head heavily, "No, Alaric didn't write this."

Violet gave her friend and skeptical look, "I don't want to believe it either but who else would have written it, Elena?"

After that Elena quickly searched through the rest of the drawer until she found the ring, the horror written all over her face. "I have to get back."

They quickly left the apartment behind and when they arrived back at the Gilbert house, it was dreadfully quiet.

The light downstairs was on, but nobody seemed to be there. Violet felt a shiver running down her spin when she felt Elena close the door behind her.

Suddenly they could hear footsteps and Alaric appeared at the top of the staircase, a smile on his face. "Hey there-"

He slowly approached them, walking downstairs and Violet realized that he had a towel wrapped around his hand.

Elena tried to act like everything was normal, so he wouldn't get suspicious, just in case the alter ego was currently in control, "Hi, where's Meredith?"

The man stopped at the middle of the stairs, "Oh, she got called for a last-minute surgery. But she'll be back later."

Violet nodded down at his hand, her looks a bit sceptical, "What happened?"

Alaric chuckled slightly, trying to play his injury off, "Oh- I- uh- I broke a coffee cup and sliced my hand open trying to pick up the pieces. But I'll live."

He then continued walking down the stairs, "Did Stefan catch up with you?"

Violet felt her heart pounding against her ribcage while Elena shook her head slightly, "No-"

"Did you get my ring?", Alaric raised an eyebrow at her. Elena still held her act up, shaking her head once more, "I couldn't find it."

"Yeah, well my place is a bit of a disaster. I guess I'll just have to go get it." He still chuckled slightly while he came to a stand infront of them. But then his gaze suddenly fell onto something on the ground and he stopped in his motion.

Elena and Violet both frowned at him before they followed his gaze, their eyes landing on a bloody kitchen knife that was laying not far away from them on the floor.

Their eyes snapped back towards the man, who suddenly had a dark look on his face and went to lung at them immediately.

Elena and ViBut in that moment Stefan came at him from behind and took the man into a chokehold.

"Don't hurt him", Elena quickly begged and Stefan nodded slightly while struggling to be careful. "I'm trying not to."

After a couple of seconds the man went unconscious and Stefan let him fall to the floor while panting loudly.

Suddenly his face expression changed and Violet gave him a questioning look, "What?"

Stefan didn't look at them while he started walking upstairs, "I need you to come upstairs with me-"

Violet frowned at him, "Why?"

"I'm gonna need your help."

The two girls quickly followed after him and when they reached Elena's bathroom, Stefan broke the door open for them, revealing Meredith, who was laying on the ground, surrounded by a puddle of her own blood.

Elena and Violet quickly went to the woman and tried to wake her up, but the woman was unconscious because of her high blood loss.

Stefan seemed to be struggling for a moment, the dark veins popping out from under his eyes, but after a couple of seconds he managed to get ahold of himself.

He hurried over to the unconscious woman, but his wrist and made her drink his blood.

Elena softly patted her head, "You're gonna be okay." Her eyes met Stefan's and after that Stefan quickly left them behind.

Violet quickly got to work and started cleaning the blood off the floor while Elena sat with Meredith and held her in her arm till she woke up.

Her wounds were healing pretty quickly and it seemed like she was alright when she went home.

Violet knew that there was a good chance that Meredith would be the next woman to leave Alaric behind, but could one blame her? She could've been killed.

Stefan had carried Alaric into his bed and Violet just washed her hands in the sink when Damon suddenly appeared in the doorframe.

His blue eyes were seizing her up and down and Violet glanced over at him, breaking the silence between them.

"How could you just go out feeding with Stefan like some vampire pub crawl?", she gave him a disappointed look while she turned the water off. "You stood there and let him feed on an innocent girl."

Damon stared at her, still leaning against the doorframe, "I didn't let him do anything. If you wanna get nitpicky about it, I made him."

Violet's eyes widened at him while she inhaled a deep breath, "Why would you do that?"

Damon gave her a unnerved look, "Because we're vampires, Violet. We need human blood to survive! We're predators, not puppies."

The dark haired girl shot him a glare, "Well Stefan found a way around that before -"

Damon rolled with his eyes before he pushed himself off the doorframe and straightened up, "Stefan built himself a delusional wagon, which he's repeatedly fallen off of. What he needs to learn is control."

Violet kind of agreed that Stefan needed to learn control, but not like this. "He was able to manage when he was drinking Elena's blood, right?"

"Uh, yes- back when the two of them were in love and it was all rainbows and unicorns." Damon gave her a sarcastic smile, like he always did when they were arguing.

Violet felt the anger rise inside of her before she shot Damon a nasty glare, "Well, I'm just saying, maybe you are not the right person to be teaching Stefan about self-control."

Damon remained silent while she pushed past him and went downstairs to say her goodbyes and leave.

               "ALARIC SALTZMAN killed my father?", Caroline questioned her two friends while they walked through the woods to meet up with Damon and Stefan.

Elena gave her an apologetic look, "I can't expect you to be okay with this but these herbs that Bonnie's giving him, they're healing him and keeping the dark side burried."

"Oh yeah? And that's supposed to make everything okay?", Caroline let out a sighed while she gave Elena a pointed look, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Elena immediately shook her head at the blond, "No- Caroline. It's not okay! It's horrible! And I feel horrible about it, but he's a victim of something supernatural. He didn't ask for this. It just happened to him. Just like Bonnie's mom. I mean she didn't ask to become a vampire and neither did Stefan or Tyler."

"Or me-", Caroline finished for her, her voice only above a whisper now. Elena nodded her head at the blond, "Or you- None of you asked for this. But who would I be if I just turned my back on any of you?"

Caroline inhaled deeply before she interlock her arm with the brunette's "Oh, Elena Gilbert. Savior of the cursed and the damned."

They all let out a chuckle before Matt appeared, interrupting them. "Hey- so what's with this cryptic text?"

Violet shrugged at him, her hands burried in the pockets of her coat, "I don't know. Stefan just said to meet here."

Stefan made the other's aware of Damon and his presence, "Where's is Bonnie? I texted her too."

Caroline sighed heavily, "Uh- Bonnie's mom bailed on her again. So I think we should leave her out of this one."

Violet felt her heart drop at the news from Bonnie and her mother. She would definitely check in with the witch later.

"What are we doing here?", Matt questioned them. Damon proudly smirked at them, "I found some more white oak. Long story, wait for the movie."

Violet frowned at them, "Hold on, White oak? You have a weapon that can kill Klaus?"

"Nope, we all have a weapon", Stefan corrected her while he presented them a bag filled with white oak stakes.

"Klaus has always been one step ahead of us- but now we have the advantage. We're all armed and they are all linked. Meaning we only need to kill one of them. We need to seize the best opportunity, which means we need to prepare for every opportunity."

"Scenario number one- You get to play Klaus", Damon grabbed Violet by her shoulders and pushed her forward. Violet smacked his hands away from her in annoyance.

"Rebekah is our target. So we distract her and catch her off guard. To do that we need to keep Klaus separated and occupied-", Stefan explained to them before his gaze fell onto the blond vampire. "Caroline."

"Why do I always have to be Klaus bait?", the blond argued with them, her arms crossed over her chest.

"'Cause he's obsessed with you. But for right now we need you to play Rebekah", Damon stated simply while he approached the blond and positioned her. "We use the quarterback to distract her- just keep her talking."

Matt gave them a questioning look, "How?" Damon shrugged at him, "Act interested- she's lonely- desperate."

Caroline's eyebrows raised and she couldn't help but let out a snarky remark, "Clearly - she slept with you."

Violet suppressed a chuckle and smiled at the blond. Damon on the other hand only gave Caroline a smirk and continued his speech, "Beefcake holds bombshell, I come up from behind her, grab her arms like this-"

Damon took a hold of Caroline's arms and Stefan pretended to stake Caroline through the heart. "- which gives me time for one shot."

Stefan gave them a quick nodd, "Got it? Good- so we all have one stake. We keep it hidden, and we look out for any opportunity we have."

"No last minute attacks of pity for any of them", Damon stared at Elena and the brunette immediately shook her head at him. "Don't worry about me- not after what happened to Bonnie's mom."

Damon then raised his eyebrows at the blond, "Barbie?" Caroline nodded her head at him, "I'm ready- anything that will free Tyler from his sire bond with Klaus." Violet nodded in agreement, "Same goes for Ethan."

Damon's eyes lingered on Violet before they wandered over to Matt, his eyebrows raised at him, "Busboy?"

Matt gave them a questioning look, "Do I have a choice?" Damon gave him a quick nodd, "Good point."

Stefan seemed optimistic about this plan, "We have 12 stakes. Twelve shots at killing one Original. We can do this. All right, let's try another scenario- "

"Elena grabb a crossbow. Matt, you play Klaus-", Stefan instructed them and after they went through every single possibility, so that they would be prepared.

Matt, Elena, Caroline and Violet decided to have some lunch at the Grill after they were finished in the woods.

Matt, Caroline and Violet were talking about the Alaric situation while Elena called Bonnie, "Bonnie we are starting to worry about you- call me back! Or call Caroline, just call someone, please."

"Mr. Saltzmann was like the most normal guy in town", Matt stated while he stared off into the distance.

Violet and Caroline nodded in silence before Elena interrupted them, "Is it weird that Bonnie's not returning my calls?"

"Is it weird that Klaus brother is in the middle of Town Square?", Matt suddenly questioned them, making everyone follow his gaze over to Fin.

"That's Fin. I thought he left town", Elena stated while they watched him and a red haired woman walking through town square.

Caroline pushed her blond hair behind her ears and started to listen in on their conversation.

"Well, seems like she is some ex-girlfriend of his- they're just talking about the past-", Caroline told them and Elena immediately called Stefan's number.

After a couple of seconds, he picked up and Elena spoke, "Hey, where are you?"

There was a short silence before she lowered her voice, "Klaus' brother Fin is in the town square and he's with some ex-girlfriend or something."

Elena exchanged a quick glance with Violet, before she questioned, "We have an opportunity- so how do we do this?" There was another short silence, "Well, then get Damon and get down here.- Stefan?"

Her eyes then quickly shot up and met Violet. The dark haired woman gave her a questioning look and Elena ended the call.

The brunette sighed heavily before she explained the situation to Violet, "Rebekah attack Alaric and Damon- and she has Damon."

Violet released a deep breath before she shook her head to herself, "Great- that's just great." Violet felt how she started to worry about him, "So how do we get him out of there?"

"I don't know yet- Stefan has a plan and is meeting us at the Grill, so let's go", Elena explained to her before the group made their way over to the Grill.

Violet didn't let Fin out of her sight and they waited until they spotted Stefan, who was approaching them in the sidewalk.

"Hey, how is he?", Elena immediately questioned the vampire about Alaric.

"Hey he's just banged up. Caroline is gonna stay with him, make sure Alaric stays Alaric. Matt texted me. Finn is still in the grill- we need to plan our next move", Stefan stated while he came to a stand infront of them.

"Rebekah has Damon- Our next move should be finding him", Violet immediately joined in on the conversation.

Stefan gave her an annoyed look while he sighed deeply, "No, we need to stay on point. See an Original, kill an Original. That's the plan."

Violet could feel herself getting frustrated while she started arguing with him, "Yeah, that's was the plan before Damons life was hanging in the balance."

"Look, I understand you're concerned about my brother's life, but if he even knew for one second that we were talking about missing a chance to kill these people he'd lose his mind", Stefan stated while he gave her a glare, his body tensing up.

"Yeah, and if the roles were reserved he would stop everything to save you!", Violet argued back at him, the anger could be heard in her voice.

Stefan immediately dismissed her concerns, "I know what my brother would want.'

Violet glared at him, her voice firm while she spoke, "What he would want and what we should do are two different things."

"Are you gonna help me with this or not?" Stefan questioned them, his eyes cold.

The two girls remained silent, making Stefan exhale loudly, before he spun around and walked away from them, "Okay, I'll figure it out myself."