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"Stefan Salvatore? The other Salvatore?" Mason asked, glancing over his shoulder as he lifted another box into his car.

"The nice one. The one offering an apology." Stefan replied, standing a few feet away, hands in his pockets, continuing to maintain a calm, neutral tone.

"Not interested." Mason shot back, his voice dismissive as he turned his attention back to the boxes, loading them with a practiced efficiency.

"Look, my brother acted impulsively." Stefan continued, stepping forward slightly, though not enough to be threatening.

"You think?" Mason's voice dripped with sarcasm as he slammed the trunk closed. He crossed his arms and stared at Stefan with a cold look.

"If you and Damon keep going at each other's throats, someone is going to get hurt. I don't want that, and I'm sure you don't either. You've got family here, Mason. I can't imagine you'd want them getting caught in the crossfire." Stefan said, his voice steady, trying to appeal to reason. "So what do you say? We just quit the whole alpha-male fighting thing and call it a truce?"

Mason narrowed his eyes, sizing Stefan up. He leaned against the car, resting his arm on the roof of it as he pointed directly at him. "I made that same offer to your brother. He turned it down—with a knife."

"He made a mistake." Stefan said firmly, though a hint of exasperation slipped through. "I'm here to make sure neither of you makes another one."

"Tell your brother to watch his back." Mason warned, lifting the last box from the ground. He turned to walk away, but before he could take more than a few steps, Stefan grabbed his arm, pulling him back.

"Well, I'm guessing Damon only has to worry about that during a full moon, right? Otherwise, you'd have already killed him by now. Am I right?" Stefan's voice lowered, growing colder. "There's one of you, Mason. There are three of us. You're the one that needs to watch his back."

Mason's eyes flickered with anger, his jaw tightening. "If he comes at me—"

"He won't." Stefan cut him off sharply, his eyes hardening. After a tense moment, Mason's posture relaxed, and he extended his hand.

"Fine. For now." Mason shook Stefan's hand.

As Mason walked away, Alice Salvatore emerged from the shadows, her arms crossed, watching the scene unfold with a raised eyebrow. "And here I thought you boys could handle this without me."

Stefan glanced back at her. "Alice, I told you I had this under control."

"Clearly." she replied, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. "Threatening him? That's the best you've got? I could've done that with half the effort and maybe even gotten him to apologize to us."

"You're not helping, Alice." Stefan said with a sigh. "I'm just trying to stop this from turning into an all-out war."

"You mean the war Damon's already started?" Alice's eyes flicked to Mason, who had gotten into his car, and then back to Stefan. "You can't fix his messes forever, Stefan."

At that moment, Damon appeared behind Stefan, his voice cutting through the conversation. "What are you doing?" Damon's expression was incredulous as he took in the sight of his brother, and Alice standing in the clearing.

"Negotiating peace on your behalf." Stefan replied coolly, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

"But I don't want peace." Damon stepped in front of his brother, grabbing Stefan's shoulders in a firm grip. His eyes were alight with mischief, as if the idea of peace was a joke to him.

Alice rolled her eyes dramatically. "Of course you don't." she muttered under her breath, clearly unimpressed with Damon's attitude.

"Well, consider it Opposite Day," Stefan replied.

Damon looked Stefan in the eyes, his hands still gripping his shoulders. "Please tell me you don't seriously think a handshake just solved our problem?"

"No." Stefan said, a little sharper this time, shaking off Damon's hands. "Actually, I think the first chance Mason Lockwood gets, he's going to drive a stake through your heart, and then through mine. And all because you took it upon yourself to try to kill him."

Alice stepped forward, raising an eyebrow at Damon. "Seriously? A knife? Couldn't you have at least tried something subtle?"

Damon gave her a devilish grin. "Where's the fun in subtle?"

"Right. How could I forget? You're all about the grand gestures." Alice quipped back, folding her arms across her chest. "It's not like we have enough problems already."

Stefan shot his sister a grateful look before turning back to Damon. "So thank you." He added, his voice tight with frustration. "Because we really didn't have enough problems to begin with."

Damon smirked, glancing between his siblings. "Oh, come on. We've survived worse."

"That's not the point, Damon." Alice interjected, stepping closer. "You can't just keep running around causing chaos and expect Stefan and me to clean it up every time. I don't know about you two, but I'm not in the mood to get eaten by a wolf who can't control his urges."

Damon waved her off. "We'll deal with it."

Alice's eyes narrowed. "No, you will deal with it. You started this. I'm not getting dragged into your mess again."

"She's right, Damon." Stefan agreed, his voice calm but firm. "If this escalates, it won't just be between you and Mason."

Damon looked between the two of them, his smirk fading slightly. For a moment, it seemed like he might actually take their words to heart, but then his usual bravado returned. "Relax, I've got everything under control."

Stefan sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "You know, for once, I wish you'd just listen."

Damon smirked, watching Alice walk away. "Where's the fun in that?"

"Oh, gotta go." Alice muttered quickly, her pace picking up the second she spotted Elena and Caroline approaching from the other end of the street. Her heart raced as she turned sharply, determined to slip away unnoticed.

Stefan raised an eyebrow, watching his sister practically flee. "Seriously?" He called after her, his confusion evident. But Alice didn't look back.

"What's her problem?" Damon asked with a smirk, clearly amused by Alice's hasty exit.

"She's been acting weird around Elena ever since Katherine paid her a visit" Stefan said, still staring in the direction Alice had gone. "I don't know why, but something's up."

"Did she tell what Katherine had told her?" Damon questioned.

"Some. Werewolf bite is lethal to vampires, you know that kinda stuff, but definitely something else happened." Stefan replied.

Damon's eyes flicked to Caroline and Elena, now much closer. "Maybe it's not Elena she's avoiding," Damon murmured, catching the subtle glint in Caroline's eyes as she looked at Alice walking away while she chatted animatedly with Elena.

Damon's gaze lingered on Caroline, suspicion creeping in. Alice wasn't the type to run unless she had a reason—and something told him that reason had everything to do with Caroline's connection to Katherine.

But Caroline wasn't the only one who had seen Alice slipping away. The brunette next to her also frowned as she saw the Salvatore girl walk away.

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"Are you ever gonna tell what Katherine said to you yesterday?" Stefan asked as he was painting a piece of wood.

"Not here." Alice spoke as she looked over her shoulder at Caroline and Elena and since Caroline was obviously listening on their conversation, Alice shook her head. She hated this for Caroline, but she understood why she was doing exactly what Katherine had asked of her.

"I don't think Elena thinks like that." Stefan nodded his head at the spot Alice had been looking at to find out Elena had abandoned her work to come over to the youngest two Salvatores.

"Did Katherine say anything?" Elena asked as she stood in front of Alice, who was sitting on the top of one of the many table.

"Nothing important." Alice shrugged as she felt the eyes of her brother and Caroline burning the back of her head.

Elena crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes. "Nothing important? Really, Alice?" Her voice was sharp, frustration clearly bubbling to the surface.

Alice sighed, keeping her gaze fixed ahead, avoiding Elena's intense stare. "I'm not hiding anything, Elena." Her voice was calm, but her fingers tapped nervously on the edge of the table. "Katherine never says anything worth listening to, and you know it."

"Do you still care about Katherine?" Elena asked, thinking that was why Alice was behaving like this.

"Elena, let it go." Alice let out a sigh.

"Why?"

"Because we have ears on us." Alice spoke, turning her head around to look at the blonde and her brother, who quickly turned away as they saw them looking. "Okay, so let it go."

"How could you hate her and be friends with me?" Elena continued.

"You're reaching, Elena. I'm not doing this doing this today." Alice spoke, getting off the table and walking away.

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"Come with me." Damon spoke, grabbing his sister's arm and dragging her away from Bonnie. Alice shot an apologizing look at the witch over her shoulder as she just excepted her fate.

"What did you do?" Alice raised an eyebrow at her brother.

"I didn't do anything. But we are about to do something."

"And that is?" Alice asked when Damon finally released his grip on her arm.

"We're gonna kill Mason Lockwolf."

"Context?" Alice looked up to her brother with a frown on her face.

"Dude tried to expose me. This is the time you admit were I was right about him all along, Ali." Damon spoke, his voice sounding pissed off with what Mason had done.

When the three Salvatore siblings arrived at the place in the woods, where Mason also was, doing trash duty, the three made themselves visible so that the werewolf stood up straight.

"Don't look so surprised. You knew this was inevitable. Go ahead, run. I'll give you a head start." Damon spoke.

"You know, this is actually good for you." Alice started. "You won't ever have to do trash duty again." The Salvatore smiled at him, but her smile mixed with confusion as the werewolf crouched down to the ground.

Suddenly three gunshots were heard through the woods and both her brother were hit straight in their chest. The person who had tried to shot at her had missed by maybe an inch. They fired more shots, shooting the Salvatore brothers until they fell down to the ground.

Alice took a step forwards in anger, going over to the werewolf, planning to kill him, but another shot echoed through the woods. This time Liz Forbes had shot her right in her stomach. Alice kept going forwards to Mason, but the two officers also released their shots at her. The person who had missed her a minute ago, didn't miss again. He fired three more times together with the man on the other side of Liz, making Alice the Salvatore with the most shot, but she was also the one standing longest.

"Alice." Alice heard her brother whispered as she fell to the ground, but they were also to weak from the bullets. The last thing Alice saw before she passed out was Liz walking over to her and injecting her with Vervain.

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"This is how it's gonna work. Answer me and you don't get shot, understand? How many of you are there?" Liz asked Damon as he started to wake up from the shot she fired in his leg.

"Liz, please." Damon muttered with a groan as he looked over to his two younger siblings.

Instead of listening to what he had to say, she shot him again, but now in his other leg, making him let out another scream from pain.

"How did you fool us? How do you walk in the sun?" She asked him, but he didn't answer her question. When she saw he wasn't going to answer, she shot both Alice and Stefan, neither of them reacted since they were both still unconscious. "I will drag this out painfully."

"But you're my friend." Damon muttered.

"Our friendship was a lie. Answer me and I'll kill you fast." Liz spoke but when the oldest Salvatore still didn't reply, Liz had decided. "He's not gonna tell us anything. Kill them all."

"Let's do this. Each with a stake in the heart, then burn them all." Liz continued after a while, keeping her gun pointed at Damon's head.

The two officers kneeled down, one next to Damon and the other one next to Alice, but they looked back up when they heard something from outside.

"Check it out." She spoke to the officer next to Alice, who slowly stood up and walked over to the door, following Liz' order. Only when he stepped outside he was knocked on the head by Elena. But not hard enough to knock him out.

"Elena, what are you doing here?" Liz asked the Gilbert girl she had knew all her life, pointing her gun in Elena's direction.

"You can't kill them. I'm not gonna let you."

The officer, who Elena had slapped with the wood came back inside and pushed her further into the cellar. Behind him the gate closed, but nobody saw who had done it, since the person had used their vampire speed.

"What was that?" The officer asked them.

"Who else is with you?" Liz asked the girl, who didn't answer, but she knew who it was since she saw Caroline moving past quicker than light.

Caroline came up behind one of the officers and bit his neck, using him as a shield as the other one started firing bullets at her. Once the bullets were all gone, Caroline vamped over to the other one and knocked him out.

As they were both down, Caroline turned to face her mother. Her mouth covered in blood of the deputies and her fangs still out. "Hi, mom."

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"You need to drink some deputy blood." Damon said to Stefan after he was done drying the officer, who got shot by the other, off his blood with his sister, who was sitting by Caroline, holding her hand for support since she saw Liz' hurtful face going over to her daughter every few seconds.

Stefan shook his head. "No. I'll be fine. It's just gonna take a little bit longer."

"Damon's right, you know? If there was ever a time to break your diet-"

"He said he didn't want it, okay?" Elena cut Caroline off.

"This is the most unfortunate situation." Damon said as he managed to pull himself up to his feet. "Two deputies dead. And you." He turned to Liz. "What am I gonna do with you?" He asked Liz, who kept herself quiet.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?" Caroline asked her mother, who looked at her for a second, before quickly looking away from her again. "Mom? Please?" Caroline spoke. "Look, I know that we don't get along and that you hate me, but I'm your daughter and you'll do this for me, right?" Still her mother didn't say anything. "Mom, please, he will kill you."

"Then kill me." Liz said with tears in her eyes as she looked up at Damon.

"No." Caroline spoke, standing up, wanting to walk over to her mom, who was facing Damon, shaking her head in denial.

"I can't take this. Kill me, now." The sheriff begged Damon as he crouched down in front of her so that they were face to face.

"But you were gonna drag it out so painfully." Damon grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet.

"No, no, no." Caroline screamed out in horror.

"Damon, don't." His brother said from the ground and his sister from next to Caroline.

"Relax, guys, no one's killing anybody." Damon spoke, calming everyone down. "You're my friend." He released Liz from his grip and turned around to the two deputies lying on the ground behind Elena and his brother.

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"I think I own you an apology." Alice softly spoke as she watched Elena put a blanket over Caroline's sleeping body.

"No, it's okay." Elena shook her head as she walked over to the Salvatore.

"Katherine told me that if I didn't stay away from you, she would kill you. I don't want that obviously. And I knew that Caroline was "spying" on us for her, so I thought if I faked a fight with you, Caroline would tell her and she would stop bothering you." Alice made question marks when she said the word spying since she knew Caroline didn't want to do it.

"But you forgot to tell me." Elena realised.

"Exactly." Alice replied, giving the girl a look, telling her sorry.

"Thanks for telling me now." Elena spoke as she smiled at Alice before going in for a hug. "God, I was so worried when I saw you lying there with those bullet wounds."

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Alice repeated softly in her ear.

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Words: 2806

Published: October 6, 2024

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mwah Katherine