(act two, chapter two: brave new world)

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To say that Buffy was pissed at everyone yesterday would be the understatement of the century. The only good thing of the day was that she would get released in a few hours so that she could go to the carnival.

Her mother had returned back to the hospital before Mason Lockwood had. Since she was in a hospital, Buffy had no chose than to sit down and listen to her parents. Well, she had tried to get out of it, but the nurse sent her back to bed.

Buffy had mentally cursed the nurse for it.

Jenna, in Buffy's opinion, had made the situation even worse for herself. And Alaric as 'father' had bettered a little for her. Just a little.

The blonde girl got told, that Alaric didn't abandoned them, but that he and her mom had a one night stand, resulting in her being born. What made her mad was that Alaric had left her mom that day, leaving her to raise their child alone, not that he knew. But she just found it insulting that he just left without leaving a single trace of where he was. She knew a lot of people did that. Leaving before the other person woke up when you had a one night stand, but it was just rude to leave the other person without an explanation.

Jenna also got a piece of Buffy's mind on the matter. For seventeen years her mom had told her that her father had abandoned them and now she told her she was the product of a one night stand. Someone who was never even meant to be born. Someone who was made by accident.

When Jenna had heard that, she told her daughter that was the exact reason why she hadn't told her about it. She never wanted her daughter to think that she was a mistake. Buffy truly had been the most beautiful thing to happen to her since the day she was born. But now Buffy was thinking that.

And if it wasn't for Mason walking in, the two would've probably gotten a row more of the most creative insults Buffy could think of.

And than this morning, Caroline shook her awake, her eyes full of terror, worrying Buffy.

"What's wrong, Care?" She asked, immediately sitting up.

"I think I'm a vampire." Caroline stated as looked out of the room to the other side of the hall where a room lay with sight on a blood bag.

"You can't be. You need vampire blood in your system to die." Buffy said, confused as to why her friend would just think she was a vampire.

"No, I'm definitely dead." Caroline said, starting to panic more now. "Elena killed me."

"Ele-" Buffy started confused. She didn't exactly see Elena killing Caroline yet.

"No, she said her name was Katherine. You told me about Katherine. Stefan and Damon's ex girlfriend, who was not in the tomb, where she was supposed to be." Caroline said, continuing to talk.

"Caroline, you can't be a vampire without vampire blood." Buffy said to her as she stood up from her bed. But she could feel herself panicking more as Caroline stared once more at the blood bag from across the hall.

"Damon or Stefan could've fed us their blood. The doctors didn't think we were gonna make it and suddenly we were both just better." Caroline said to her, doubting if she should tell Buffy what she had done. "Buff." Buffy nodded at her and Caroline took that as a sign to show her the empty blood bag, which she had emptied a few minutes before.

"Okay." Buffy said as she closed the door as quietly as she could since the nurse, who had send her back in her room yesterday, was sitting at one of the hospital desks. "We can check this." Buffy muttered, looking around the room. Her eye falling on the tray, where a knife was laying on.

She picked it up with trembling hands before cutting in the palm of her hand.

"Buffy, what are you doing?" Caroline asked her in shock, but when blood started dripping of her best friend's hand, the blood was suddenly the only thing she could focus on.

Speeding forwards, she pushed Buffy against the wall and pressed her mouth against Buffy's hand and started drinking, not pulling away until she heard Buffy's painful groan.

"Buffy. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that." Caroline apologized as she wiped off her mouth, where traces of Buffy's blood where still visible.

"No, it's okay. It's okay." Buffy reassured her, trying to not let her blonde best friend see that she was freaking out. But she was. Caroline was never supposed to become a vampire. She was supposed to be safe. And now the Salvatore's ex-girlfriend just came walking into the hospital and started turning people.

"Katherine said something before she killed me with my pillow. She told me to tell the Salvatore brothers 'game on'." Caroline said to her, remembering the words from the vampire.

"I don't care what Katherine wants. Are you okay?" Buffy said, already knowing the answer.

"I'm dead." Caroline said as she sat down on the bed and Buffy quickly joined her. "The sun burns. I'm never going to be able to go outside in the sun. I need to drink blood to survive. Everyone is gonna hate me."

"No, this was not your fault, Care. If anybody even tries to say a word, I will kick their asses of a building. I'm going to call someone who can help you." Buffy said as she stood back up and walked around the bed, taking her phone out to call Stefan, to tell him what was going on.

When Stefan arrived at the hospital, Elena and Damon were with him. For once and for Caroline, Buffy decided to set her anger for the two aside as she explained what the two of the had discovered. "How did this happen?" Elena asked as she looked at Caroline, who was rocking back and forth on the bed.

"Well, I fed them blood and Katherine obviously killed Caroline and A plus B equals." Damon explained, even though Elena already knew that Damon had fed them his blood. She had been the one against it.

"But why?" Elena asked, not understanding for what Katherine would need Caroline to become a vampire for.

"Because Katherine is a manipulative, nasty, little slut."

"And she said game on? I mean, what does that even mean?" Stefan asked the others, not understanding what the vampire had meant by it.

"It means she's playing dirty. She wants us to know." Buffy said as she walked over to her best friend and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "But why Caroline?" She asked.

"I don't know." Damon admitted to her, before turning to Caroline. "We're gonna have to kill her."

"I don't think so." Buffy said as she stepped in between Caroline (who's head had popped up as she heard what Damon had said) and Damon, blocking his path from the blonde.

If he thinks about even laying one tip of his finger on her, he's dead.

"She knows who we are. She's officially a liability, and we've got to get rid of her." Damon said to her, trying to convince her.

"Actually," Buffy started. "She has known for a while now." The three looked at her with surprise. "I told her. A few days after Jeremy found out." Buffy said to Elena. "She was going to find out anyway. I figured better now than later." She turned back to Damon. "So if you wanna kill her, you'll have to kill me first."

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"What the hell are you two even doing?" Buffy asked the Salvatore brothers as she and Caroline joined them in a hallway in the high school. They were both staring at Tyler in an arm wrestling competition with another student.

Caroline had fed a bit earlier before coming here and Buffy was hoping that had been enough, because she didn't want her best friend attacking someone out of nowhere.

"We're observing." Damon replied.

"He's more like obsessing." Stefan said to her.

"About what?" Buffy asked them, curiously as they all watched Tyler win.

"He's got strength." Damon told the three the thing they all had seen.

"He's a triple letter varsity athlete, of course he has strength. You're reaching." Stefan said to his brother as Buffy's dad arrived to arm wrestle his younger nephew, almost directly beating the younger Lockwood.

"Okay, he's the champ, who wants to go next?" Tyler asked around the crowd, distracting them from the fact that he lost in front of Buffy.

"Stefan wants to go." Damon said, volunteering his brother for the next round."Yeah, sure, I'll give it a shot." Stefan spoke as he walked over to the table where Mason waited for him.

"Get him Stef!" Damon said, fakely sheering his brother on.

"My brother over there thinks I can beat you." Stefan said to Mason ad he nodded to Damon."Your brother's wrong." Mason replied. The two started arm wrestling, both putting in effort to try and beat each other, but eventually Mason easily won, surprising Buffy and Caroline, but angered Damon.

"You didn't put in any effort at all." Damon said to him as Stefan walked back to the three.

"Yeah, actually I did." Stefan replied with confusion on his face, surprising the others."Come with me." Damon said to them, before walking away from the table, where when Buffy looked over her shoulder, Mason defeated the next contestant.

"Is he-?" Stefan cut Damon off. "No, no, it wasn't that kind of strength but it was more than human, if that makes any sense."

"What is up with that family? They're not vampires, what the hell are they?""Oh, maybe they're, um, ninja turtles!" Stefan said, joking around.

"You're not funny." Damon told him."Or no, zombies."

"Or maybe even mermaids or werewolves." Buffy suggested, also joking around with Stefan, finding it funny how annoyed Damon got with them.

"No comedic timing at all." Damon said to them before turning his head and he saw a boy that Elena and Bonnie had met earlier at the carnival. Carter, who was repairing something further away from them.

"What? What are you up to?" Stefan asked him as he looked at his brother who kept looking back at Carter.

"This is reality and there's no such thing as werewolves or combat turtles." Damon said.

"He said ninja turtles, actually." Caroline said, but Damon ignored her as he walked towards Carter.

"Hey you." Damon greeted him but Carter let out a scoff as he looked at Damon.

"I have a name."

"Yeah, I don't care." Damon told him as he grabbed Carter by his shoulder to compel him. "I need you to pick a fight with someone, a kid named Tyler Lockwood."

"Damon, don't do this." Stefan said and Damon shushed him.

"Seriously, this is a bad idea. We can just ask them." Buffy said.

"They're not just gonna tell you." Damon said, before turning back to Carter. "It's just an experiment. Get him mad, don't back down no matter what he does, okay?" Damon asked Carter, even though he knew he was compelling him.

"I won't back down." Carter replied to him with no emotions.

"I know you won't." Damon said as he released Carter and patted him on the back as the boy left them.

"Do you realize someone is going to get hurt right?" Caroline asked him.

"No, someone is going to get mad, as in rage." Damon replied.

"What's that going to accomplish?" Stefan asked Damon.

"That Tyler kid is incapable of walking away from a fight. Let's see who intervenes. Maybe it's the ambiguous, supernatural mystery uncle." Damon said to them before walking away from them, into an empty hallway.

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Tyler was walking through the carnival and entered the parking lot while texting on his cell phone. Stefan, Buffy and Caroline followed him and hid themselves to observe as Carter was walking in the opposite direction of Tyler and intentionally bumped into him with his shoulder as he passed Tyler, since the Lockwood wasn't watching were he was going. "Watch where you're going." Tyler told him as he turned around to look at the dude who just half pushed him aside.

"You got a problem?" Carter asked, also turning back around because of Damon's compulsion.

"Yeah, you walked right into me." Tyler replied.

"What are you going to do about it?" Carter asked him.

"You're kidding right?" Tyler asked and Carter gave him the first push. "You better back off." Tyler warned him, but Carter pushed him again. "You hit me again, I swear to god-" However, Tyler's angry voice was cut off when Carter punched him straight in his face, causing them to start fighting.

"Hey! Tyler! Hey!" Mason yelled as he pulled Tyler of Carter and pushed Carter away from Tyler, standing in between them so that he could keep the two separate. "What the hell man?" Mason asked Carter, who stepped forwards again, causing Mason to grab his throat, to try and hold him back but Carter punched him in the face twice, before pushing him against a car.

And gone was Buffy next to Stefan and Caroline.

However, when she got closer to the fighting, Tyler pushed Carter back as Mason jumped over the car, and over Carter, who looked up confused.

It wasn't just Tyler who noticed his uncle's eyes, but so did Buffy.

"Your eyes." Tyler managed to speak out as he looked at his uncle with eyes, glowing yellow.
Mason didn't respond as he got back up and hit Carter, causing the teenager to fall to the ground. As soon as he did that, he extended his hand to Tyler, who grabbed it as he got up.

"Come on. Gotta go." Mason said to Tyler as he nodded towards the car. "B, go back inside." Mason said to her as Carter started to get back up on his feet. Out of all people to see what he was, Mason had always hoped Buffy was the one who would never know it, since she would never turn into a werewolf. Tyler could if he broke his curse.

"Fine." Buffy muttered as she pretended to turn around, but when she heard her dad running away after his nephew, she turned back around and Stefan and Caroline joined her this time.

"You all right man?" Stefan asked Carter.

"Why did I just do that?" Carter asked himself more than them.

"You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Stefan said, as he pretended not to know exactly why Carter had done what he did.

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Words: 2433

Posted: July 22, 2024

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