❪ 𝓢𝑰𝑿 𝓕𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝓤𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹 ❫ ⚰️ ˖ ׁ ⁩ 𓂃
𝚃𝚅𝙳  ⸻  ✸ 🔮⭑.ᐟ
❝ 𝖲𝖮𝖬𝖤𝖶𝖧𝖤𝖱𝖤 𝖳𝖱𝖮𝖯𝖨𝖢𝖠𝖫 ❞

✦ ╮ 𝟓𝟔. ❝ 𝖣𝖮 𝖭𝖮𝖳 𝖦𝖮 𝖦𝖤𝖭𝖳𝖫𝖤 ❞ ── .✦

"𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘? 𝗜 will owe you for the rest of eternity!" Anastasia pleaded as she sat in the middle of her bed, phone pressed against her ear as she talked to Dylan on the other end. "I do not want to go through this on my own!"

"Where is Kol? Ask him to go with you!" Dylan exclaimed as he walked around his New York penthouse.

"I don't know where he went too. He was in Denver last I heard from him." She sighed, throwing herself back onto her pillows.

Dylan lets out a sigh as he runs his fingers through his hair, "Alright, fine. You said that this was a decades dance? What decade?"

"Ugh, the twenties." Anastasia groaned.

"Stas, you hated the twenties." Dylan reminded her, "And I wasn't even born in the twenties, what the hell am I supposed to wear to this thing?"

"We have a lot of our stuff from over the years here." She says, "I'm sure we could find you something."

"Okay, I'm about to leave now." He sighs, "The shit that I do for you, you know?"

Anastasia lets out a squeal, "I love you! I love you! I love you!"

"Yeah, yeah, I love you, too."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗦𝗢, 𝗔𝗟𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗖 is trying to pull himself together, why is that a bad thing?" Caroline asked as she, Elena and Anastasia are walking through the hall of the gym that was being decorated for the dance that night.

"I just...I wish there was something I could do." Elena tells her blonde friend, picking up a chandelier. "Where do you want me to hang this thing?"

"You know what, if Rebekah wanted to hang this monstrosity she could have shown up to do it herself." Caroline says as she passes it to someone walking by them, "Just no!" She sees Matt and Jeremy hanging stars in the ceiling, "What are you doing? You can't just hang them! They're supposed to trickle down!"

"Trickle, duh!" Matt jokes to Jeremy.

"Look at them all bromancy." Caroline says.

"Yeah, I asked Matt to help Jeremy readjust. He got him his old job back at the Grill." Elena says.

"That was nice of him." Caroline says.

"Jeremy has a lot on his mind." Elena says, "The whole thing with Alaric has got him really stressed out."

"You sure it has nothing to do with witnessing you and Damon getting hot and heavy in a skeevy motel?"

"I didn't tell you that so you could torture me with it."

"Awwe, what are friends for?" Caroline says, "You could end up Anastasia's step-mom."

Anastasia scoffed, "Please, I'd let someone stake me through the heart before a Doppelganger becomes my stepmother."

"So, who are you guys bringing to the dance?"

Elena wraps a feather boa around her neck, "What do you mean? I thought, you, Bonnie, Stasia and I were going as girl dates."

"Hm, Bonnie has a date." Anastasia smirked.

"What?"

"Jamie called and wanted to see her so she asked him." Caroline explained to Elena.

"Hmm."

"So here's a thought, why don't you ask Stefan?"

"I can't ask him on a date." Elena protested, "I just made out with his brother."

"All the more reason! Look, you're supposed to be figuring out what you want, that's what Stefan wanted you to do, right?" Caroline questioned.

"Yeah, but-,"

"But nothing! I've watched The Bachelor, okay? Fair is fair. It is Stefan's turn."

"Yeah and you're not biased or anything." Elena said.

"I'm sorry, but Stefan is your epic love. And I'm not going down without a fight." Caroline says before suddenly gasping and turning to Anastasia, "Jeremy could be your date!"

"No." Anastasia shakes her head.

"Yeah, she already has a date." Dylan's voice rings out causing the three girls to turn around. "I didn't come all this way from New York just to be ditched by your ex."

"I'm not ditching you for my ex." Anastasia rolls her eyes, "Now, we have to go figure out what the hell we're both going to wear."

Caroline and Elena watch as the two walk away, bickering back and forth with each other as they disappear out of the doors.

"He's so hot."

"Caroline!"

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗟, 𝗡𝗢." Dylan shakes his head as the green eyed Salvatore girl holds up different shirts for him to look at, "Anastasia, all of this shit is ugly as hell."

"Yeah, well I didn't decide what the fashion of the twenties were going to be like." She rolled her eyes, tossing the two shirts on her bed, "So, pick a damn shirt and get in the fucking shower."

"Oh my, God! You are so bossy!"

"It's in my nature." She smirked, pushing him in the direction of her large bathroom. "Now go take a shower!"

"I'm going! I'm going!"

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗗𝗘𝗖𝗔𝗗𝗘 makes me absolutely sick." Anastasia looks around the gym with a look of disgust on her face, arm looped with Dylan's. "This is why the sixties will always be my favorite. And the nineties."

Dylan looks down at her, "The nineties?"

"Yeah, I met you in the nineties." Anastasia grinned at him, "Ooh, but my dad did also kill you in the nineties."

"Yeah. Let's not forget that." He laughs, "What else happened in the nineties?"

"I got married in ninety-three." Anastasia tells him, and he looks down at her with wide eyes, "And well...here we are."

"Yeah, your human ex-boyfriend pinning over you, screwing your best friend because you've always been in love with him, at a high school dance with your ex that you thought was dead, but turns out wasn't." Dylan nods his head before pausing. "Wanna find a really strong drink?"

"Lead the fucking way."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗢𝗡, you two." Damon walks over to where his daughter and Dylan were standing with Matt at the drink table. "We need to talk about something important."

"Dad, we're in the middle of something." Anastasia groaned, throwing her head back.

"The two of you can get back to your drinking game after we talk about the something important that needs to be discussed." Damon says, grabbing his daughter by the arm and pulling her way, as she quickly grabs on to Dylan's ear and pulls her after them.

"Ow, ow, ow. That's my ear. Anastasia, you know I have delicate skin."

"Oh, suck it up, you big ass baby." She rolled her eyes.

"The two of you act like children." Damon rolls her eyes.

"Technically, I'm supposed to act this way." Anastasia smirked, "I was turned at 17, forever frozen at this age."

"Now, you're just being dramatic." Damon says before the three come to a stop next to Elena and Stefan. "The four of us, plus Anastasia's plus one, need to talk."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗜𝗙 𝗔𝗟𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗖 is sick then we need to find a cure. Something." Elena says as the five stand out on the quiet school hallway.

"We tried medicine, we tried magic." Damon lists off what they've already tried to help Alairc with his little problem.

"Why don't we get him off vervain, compel him?"

"What? To pretend to be Alaric?" Anastasia asked, rolling her eyes, "The guy that we know is gone."

"We're talking about someone who not only hates vampires, but vampire sympathizers. Which makes one of his most obvious targets." Damon says, looking at Elena, "I don't know, you."

"What? You think he'd go after Elena?" Stefan asked.

"I'm pretty sure he would go after Elena." Dylan butts into the conversation, causing the four of them to stare at him, "Okay, I'll just - I'll be over there." He walks to the other side of the hallway, and leans against the lockers.

"So wait, what are you suggesting we do?" Elena questions.

"I'm suggesting that we put him out of his misery." Damon tells her.

"What?!"

"No, no way in hell!" Jeremy exclaimed as he walked over, having heard the last bit of the conversation they were having.

"Oh come on, it's what he would want. It's a mercy killing." Damon says.

"You are out of your mind!"

"Jeremy....,"

He holds his hand up, walking away before Elena follows after him,

"Jer, stop...,"

Jeremy turns around to face his sister, "This is Alaric we're talking about! He looked out for us, now we need to do the same for him."

"No one is gonna hurt him."

Jeremy turns around and starts to walk away but Elena grabs him by the arm and stops him.

"Hey. Hey....Look at me. I promise."

"Elena!"

The Gilbert girl turns around, finding Esther standing behind her.

"If you wish to help your friend Alaric, I suggest you come with me." Esther tells her.

"Jeremy go inside and get Stefan, Damon, and Anastasia." Elena tells her brother, missing the flash of fear in Esther's eyes as she speaks the hybrid Salvatore's name. "Now!"

Jeremy runs inside.

"I mean you no harm." Esther says, "But willingly or not you will come."

Elena follows after Esther and moments later the Salvatore's, Jeremy and Dylan hurry out the front of the school. All four vampires stop while Jeremy continues to walk until he realizes that they didn't follow him, a line of salt going around the school.

"Salt." Stefan speaks up, "It's the binding agent for her spell."

"We're trapped here." Damon says.

Anastasia glares down at the ground as she tries to get out again, but is still stopped. "I seriously hate this decade, but I hate that original bitch more. And when I do get out of here, she would've wished she stayed dead when Klaus ripped her heart from her chest the first fucking time."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗥𝗘𝗕𝗘𝗞𝗔𝗛, 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟 me back immediately! I only came to this ridiculous dance because you begged me to and now you're nowhere to be found!" Klaus spoke on the phone as he walked out of the school but he noticed the salt laying on the ground and stopped. "What is this?"

"I'll tell you what it is." Anastasia walks up behind him with her uncle, "Your bitch of a mother is back. And when I get out, she'll be more dead than she already is. C'mon."

Anastasia and Stefan lead the original hybrid into the school and an empty classroom where Bonnie stands chanting over some lit candles.

"She goes this all the time, right?" Jamie asked, looking between the group of people that he stood with.

"What's taking so long?! All boundary spells have a loophole." Klaus says, hands behind his back as he stands next to Anastasia and Dylan.

"People are walking right out of the dance, past the barrier." Matt says as he comes inside the room.

"Matt and I can leave, we can stop Esther ourselves." Jeremy tells them, "We just gotta find out where she is."

"It's suicide, Jeremy." Stefan tells his niece's ex-boyfriend.

Klaus rushes over and grabs Jamie by the throat, starting to strangle him, "Suicide would be disappointing me! Now work your magic, witch, or I'll start killing people you fancy."

"Let him go!" Bonnie says.

"Not until you get us out of here." Klaus tells her.

"Ah, don't be stupid, Klaus. Bonnie doesn't give a damn about any of us." Anastasia's face is cold as she looks over at Bonnie, the two girls having been on the outs ever since she turned her mother into a vampire, "The only reason she's helping us right now is to save Caroline and Tyler. You start killing the people she cares about, well, she'll tell us all to go to hell."

At Anastasia's words, Klaus let's Jamie go.

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘." 𝗗𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗡 and Klaus walk into the classroom where Bonnie stood on her own, "Jeremy made a little Gilbert blood donation for your locator spell."

"I have to do this with you two lurking over me?" Bonnie asked the two vampires.

"You're still mad at me for what happened to Abby. Let me apologize." Damon says, "I'm sorry Elijah forced us to turn your mother into a vampire to save Elena's life. Didn't exactly have a choice. I'm sorry that my daughter, one of your friends, was the one that killed her."

"There's always a choice." Bonnie says, "Whenever you and Anastasia make one someone else suffers."

"Let's cut the dramatics and begin, shall we?" Klaus asked, "I just know Anastasia is itching to be the one to kill my mother."

"Phasmatos Tribum Nas Ex Veras, Sequita Saguines, Ementas Asten Mihan Ega Petous." Bonnie chants before Jeremy's blood forms a circular pool that doesn't move. "Esther is fighting me."

"Esther couldn't possibly have this much power." Klaus said, "Unless she's channeling something."

"A hotspot?" Asked Bonnie.

"Get the humans ready." Klaus says, "I know where she is."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗬'𝗥𝗘 𝗔𝗧 the old cemetery." Stefan stands in the empty gym hallway with Caroline, Dylan, Tyler and his niece. "Jeremy and Matt are headed there right now."

"You let them go?!" Caroline exclaimed, "They're gonna get themselves killed!"

"I didn't have a choice, Caroline." Stefan tells her, "We're useless right now stuck in here. Anastasia can't even get out; she can get out of anything."

"Hey, she'll be fine." Caroline tells him, "Elena always manages to find her way through this stuff."

"Yeah, well I'm just as worried about what Esther is up to." He says, "She led Klaus here for a reason. If she succeeds in whatever she's
doing-,"

"-Klaus could get killed." Tyler cuts him off, "And I die along with him."

"No one is gonna die, okay?" Anastasia puts a hand on her best friend's shoulder, "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Ty."

"Bonnie is still looking for a way around the boundary spell." Stefan says, "It's not too late. Stacie, Dylan."

The three of them leave.

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗪 this is your fault." Klaus says to Stefan as they stand outside of the school, Dylan and Anastasia sitting on the ground behind them, playing rock paper scissors as a result of their boredom of being trapped. "You set us on this path when you released my mother. I wonder if revenge will prove worth the cost."

"Oh, I'm done with revenge." Stefan said, "As far as Esther; we've stopped her before, we'll stop her again."

"We're strange bedfellows, you and I. You know, all of this, reminds me of our time together in the twenties."

"You say that like I'm supposed to have happy memories about it."

"Well, there were moments. Real friendship. Brotherhood."

Damon walks up to them, "Well, he already has a brother. Not to be, you know, territorial or anything."

"Oh no, of course, the Salvatores. And their unbreakable bond. I wonder what'll happen when Elena finally makes her choice. Will we see you shake just a little bit?" Klaus asked, "Of course, the last time you chose a Doppelganger over your own daughter, Little Warrior over there, ended up with my family."

Damon clenches his jaw at Klaus's worlds.

"Question is, where will she end up when Elena picks which brother she really wants?" Klaus smirked.

"On the beach somewhere." Anastasia's voice makes the three turns to where she and Dylan sat back-to-back, leaning up against each other. "Somewhere tropical and as far away as this shitty town can get."

"Ooh, I hear the Bahamas are nice this time of year." Dylan nods his head in agreement.

Bonnie comes out of the school, "It's done. Esther's not fighting me anymore. The boundary spell is broken."

Klaus tests the boundary with his arm, and seeing Bonnie's words were true, he rushes away.

"Oh, thank fuck." Dylan stands up, helping Anastasia up with him, "I really need to start telling you no when you drag me into this shit."

"Thank you, Bonnie." Stefan turns to the Bennett witch, "For everything."

"I didn't do it for you."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗔 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗦 out of the tomb after talking to Alaric, the history teacher following behind her. They see everyone - including Dylan and Meredith - and that causes Alaric to smile just a little.

Alaric begins to tear up and turns to make his way back into the tomb, but one voice stops him from moving any further.

"Hey, Ric!"

He turns around to find Anastasia smirking sadly in his direction.

"That day you first showed up, and I asked if you were in the right place?"

"Yeah?"

"I was flirting with you." She says, causing her, Alaric and Matt to chuckle sadly with each other.

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗟, 𝗧𝗢𝗡𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 has been one for the books." Dylan groaned as he threw himself onto Anastasia's bed as the Salvatore girl slowly made her way into her bedroom. He sits up, looking towards the green eyed girl as he bottle lip begins to tremble. "Woah, hey, hey. No, don't cry."

"I can't believe he's gonna let himself die." Anastasia lets a sob leave her lips and her knees buckle from underneath her, and Dylan is quick to rush to her side, both of them sinking down into the floor as he holds her tightly to him.

"Hey, it's okay. It's okay, baby." Dylan runs his hand down her hair, placing a kiss on the crown of her head, "I got you. I'm right here."