ꗃ 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐈 𝐀𝐌 ˖ ࣪. ࿐♡˚.
𝚅𝙾𝙻 𝙸 ━━━ 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙷𝙴𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙻𝙴𝚂𝚂 𝙷𝚈𝙱𝚁𝙸𝙳
❛ 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖶𝖮𝖱𝖫𝖣 𝖧𝖠𝖲 𝖳𝖴𝖱𝖭𝖤𝖣 𝖠𝖭𝖣 𝖫𝖤𝖥𝖳 𝖬𝖤 𝖧𝖤𝖱𝖤❜

𝟎𝟑. ❛ 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝗅𝗈𝗈𝗄 𝖺𝗍 𝗁𝖾𝗋, 𝒔𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒐𝒖𝒔 ❜

𝐃amon plays with a stick as he whistled, him and Bonnie walking through the woods.

"You're in a good mood for the first time this decade." Bonnie spoke to the vampire walking ahead of her as he poked her with a stick in his hand, "Stop that."

Damon has a smirk on his face as he spoke in a teasing tone, "Because I have a hot date with my girl tonight."

"Yeah, assuming Kai and Stacie are telling the truth." Bonnie quickens her pace so that she's walking in front of him.

"I'm thinking dinner and a movie, you know what? Screw the movie and dinner." Damon keeps his smirk up, "Skip straight to the good part."

"Yeah. And assuming I can do that spell, which I won't...until I see it." Bonnie says.

Damon walks forward so that the two are walking side by side, "Whatever happened to hope, Bon? 'Member when I was all like, "boo, grr", and you were like, "hooray, hooray. we're getting out of here!"?"

"Look, I want to go home more than anything but Kai's a sociopath and Anastasia is an emotionless vampire with magic, who's to say he won't screw us over?"

"Me, I say, because I will kill Kai and anyone—," He playfully jumps with the stick in his hand,
"—who comes in the way of me going home."

"Hmm, you already killed me once, might as well kill me again." Anastasia comes out of nowhere with Kai following, the Parker boy carrying an ax with him.

"I heard our names. All good, I hope." Kai also has the ascendant in hand, using it to look up and block the sun from his face with it, "The eclipse will happen directly overhead." He looks at Bonnie and Damon, who glare at him, "In perfect alignment with the Gemini constellation." He looks towards Damon again, "You need to dig into the tunnels below us. And you." He turns to Anastasia, "Well, you just stand there and look pretty."

"Why?" Bonnie asked him.

"Because look at her, she's gorgeous." Kai motions to the green-eyed Salvatore with a smile on his face, "And i'm not just saying that because she's wearing my t-shirt."

"Not that." Bonnie rolls her eyes, "The constellation thing."

"Have you never portal-jumped through an eclipse before?" Anastasia talks to the Bennett witch as if she were talking to a child.

Kai takes a step forward, putting his arm around his wife's shoulders, "Okay, look, the light of the eclipse will shine down and activate the Ascendant, you spout a little witchy woo and then poof!" He makes an explosion with his hands, "Anyone standing in the circle of light holding the Ascendant goes home."

"By "witchy woo", I assume you mean the spell?" Bonnie asked.

"Uh-huh."

"Let me see it."

Kai pauses at her words, "When the time comes. Wife." He holds his arm out for her to wrap around as the two push past Bonnie and Damon.

"Where are the two of you going?" Damon questioned as they walked away from the two.

"Into town, I need to...gather some important supplies." Kai tells them, whistling as he walks away with Anastasia next to him.

࿐♡

𝐀nastasia sips on the straw stabbed into the juice box in her hand as she and Kai make it back to where Bonnie and her father were, a giant hole created in the ground.

"Looks like we got back just in time." Kai smirked, backpack in hand.

He moves to sit the bag down when Damon zooms forward and snatches it, tearing it open to look inside.

"Zima, grunge, every Alex Rodriguez car known to man, and a pager." Damon looks at him with a deadpan look on his face, "Really?" He drops the bag to the ground.

"I told him that he didn't need every single one, but he's hardheaded and half the time doesn't listen to what I tell him." Anastasia rolls her eyes as she drops the now empty juice box to the forest floor.

"555-Hi-Kai, no way I'm giving those digits up." Kai smirked.

"Also told him people don't use pagers anymore, but that also went in one ear and right out the other."

"These are the important supplies you needed to get?"

Bonnie suspiciously watches the three from the pile of dirt that she sat on.

"Look. The future sounds great, alright? I'm super excited about the internet, but 1994 has been my home for most of my life." Kai tells them, "I'd hate to get homesick. So, let's get down there—,"

"No." Bonnie cuts him off as she walks forward, pushing Damon out of the way as he attempts to stop her, "We are not going anywhere until you show me that spell."

Anastasia rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest.

Kai shrugged, "Okay." He just stands in his place, which basically tells the other two that they were going nowhere."

"Are we literally not going anywhere?" Damon asked.

Kai smiles.

"You...want my magic." Bonnie holds her arm out, "Take it."

"Uh-oh, she's being brave." Kai turns to Damon and Anastasia, "Besides, I only siphon Natty's magic on demand. It makes me all tingly."

Anastasia snorts at his words and the happy smile on his face.

"I'm serious, Kai. This was your big threat, wasn't it?" The Bennett witch asked, "If I do this spell and let us out of here, you'll just take my magic, leave me for dead, and do the spell yourself. So go ahead. Take all of it."

Damon has a worried look on his face as Kai looks down at Bonnie.

"Don't mind if I do." The siphoner slaps both hands on her shoulders, the witch yelping in pain as she nearly goes limp in his arms.

"Bonnie?"

"It's okay, he won't kill me." Bonnie tells Damon.

"I'd kill her." Anastasia shrugged.

Damon ignores his daughter, "Doesn't look like that from here."

Bonnie grunts in pain, "Ow."

"Hey! Bonnie. Whoa, hey, guys. Stop!"

Kai releases Bonnie with a mischievous smile on his face as Bonnie regains her composure.

"He doesn't know the spell." Bonnie realizes, "Which means, we don't need him. Motus." She raised her hand and the ax that Damon had been using soars through the air before burying itself into Kai's chest, falling onto his back.

"NO! No! Bonnie."

Anastasia hides her smirk behind her hand.

After a while, Damon touches the Bennett witch on the shoulder with an impressed look on his face, "Great work, Bonnie."

Bonnie looks over at Anastasia, "Looks like your husband will be stuck here."

"Does this look like the face of someone who actually gives a shit?" Anastasia asked, an expressionless look on her face, her eyes void of any and every emotion.

࿐♡

❛𝐀re you seriously humming...Metallica?❜ Bonnie turns her head to look at Anastasia, who sat behind her humming under her breath.

"Yeah, I like their music...sue me." The hybrid shrugged her shoulder as she glanced over to where her dad was leaning against a tree, chuckling the bottle of Zima that Kai backpack, making noise.

Bonnie looks over at him, "Can you...stop. Let me concentrate?" She then looked back at Anastasia, "And can't you help with the spell?"

"Oh, I don't know." Anastasia shook her head, "Honestly, I could care less."

"On the bright side, this stuff's not so bad." Damon shrugged, "It's fruity, and fizzy."

"Damon, I'm working on something—,"

"On the not-so-bright side, is your intelligence, because you took the only chance of us getting out of here and turned him into a giant...douche-kebab."

"Think about it, Damon. What prison gives an inmate a key?" Bonnie asked.

"Is that a trick question?" He asked her, "Or is this stuff actually starting to kick in....?"

"I think the Gemini coven used a Bennett spell to create this place, what if that's why my Grams sent me here?"

"We told you that your magic was the key to getting us out of here." Anastasia sends the witch a look of pure annoyance, "Are you really this slow?"

"This is the face I make when I don't understand you." Damon says to the witch, crossing his eyes and pursing his lips.

"You know the last thing my Grams said to me...was to stay strong. What if that was her way of telling me I have the power to get out?" Bonnie asked, "I have the Ascendant, a massive celestial event to draw from, plus a burning desire to get away from you."

Anastasia keeps the same blank look on her face while Damon's smile doesn't reach his eyes while Bonnie holds up the Ascendant, shutting her eyes and chanting.

Damon's face becomes serious when Bonnie says the spell, the claws of the Ascendant pull free and twist as Bonnie looks up at the father and daughter, stumbling to her feet excitedly.

"That's why Kai wouldn't kill me. He needed a Bennett...I was his only way out of here."

"Whoa, where are you going?" Damon asked as Bonnie walked towards the hole that Damon had dug.

"Home." She turned to look at him, "You coming?"

࿐♡

𝐓he sky above them darkens from the eclipse as the three are underground, Damon sits on a rock, the hole directly under the eclipse so that the light was able to shine through.

Damon is staring at Bonnie who stands directly under the light, chugging the rest of his drink as Anastasia stands back with her arms crossed her her chest.

Bonnie uses the Ascendant to slice into her wrist, dripping the blood onto the round device, "Okay."

She looks up at the two, breathing hard as she looks up at the blue light from the eclipse, shutting her eyes and doing the spell. The Ascendant clicks and opens, her and Damon staring at each other full of hope.

"It's time."

Damon sets his bottle down, rubbing his hands together as he gets up from the rock, "Alright."

Anastasia rolls her eyes, walking over to the two, both she and her dad placing their hands underneath Bonnie's, "Let's get the hell out of here."

Damon stares at Bonnie, "I'm sure there are about a billion people you'd rather be her with..."

Bonnie smiles, "Not exactly. Let's go — ah!"

An arrow zips out of nowhere catching Bonnie in her stomach, getting knocked back as the Ascendant falls with Bonnie.

Damon is taken by surprise, whirling around to see Kai standing with a crossbow pointed directly at him."

"Forgetting someone?" Kai asked as Damon stares incredulously.

Anastasia chuckled, "Yeah, did I forget to mention that he can't die here? Oops."

࿐♡

❛𝐃id you really think I hadn't tried to kill myself before?❜ Kai asked.

Damon looks back at Bonnie who's grunting in pain.

"Because I had—," He reloads the crossbow,
"—lots of times, lots of ways." He aims at Bonnie as Damon's eyes trail off to the Ascendant, "Grab that, and the next arrow goes in her heart. Your choice."

Damon speeds over to Bonnie, grabbing her so that he can hold her in his arms, "Okay, I got ya."

Bonnie yelps as Damon rips out the arrow, biting into his wrist, ready to heal her with Kai rushes forward to grab the Ascendant.

"Damon, no!"

Damon speeds Kai up against the wall, both struggling with each other as Kai drops the Ascendant. Bonnie, knowing that nobody notices her, drags herself across the ground with tears in her eyes.

With a roll of her eyes, Anastasia moves to kick the Ascendant in Bonnie's direction, more worried about getting the hell out of the prison world to help her father as Kai stabs him with an arrow.

࿐♡

𝐃amon and Kai are fighting still as Bonnie bleeds out, reaching for the Ascendant that Anastasia had pushed her way.

By now, the eclipse is fully overhead as Kai flips Damon over as he attempts to push the arrow in deeper.

"Bonnie....get...out of here."

"I'm not going to make it." Bonnie tells him before suddenly smiling, "Motus."

Kai is flung away from Damon, hitting the ground along with the arrow. Bonnie levitates Damon until he is underneath the circle of light, but he's quick to reach out and grab onto his daughter, tightening his grip as she struggles to get away from him.

Bonnie tosses the Ascendant to him.

"Don't!" Kai tells out.

"The Ascendant twist once more, clicking into place.

"No!" Damon yells out right before he and Anastasia are brought up into the light and with a flash, both are gone.

The only thing left in their place is the Ascendant, which shatters as it hits the ground. Kai screams furiously as Bonnie smiles right before a tear falls from her eye as she crumbled to the ground, letting out a grunt of pain.

"ANASTASIA!"

࿐♡

𝐒tefan opens the door to the Salvatore crypt, his eyes sad as he sighs and takes a swig of bourbon straight from the bottle in his hand, his eyes trained on the coffin that held his niece's dead body.

"Ahh." He laughs bitterly, "Yep. This is happening. I'm gonna talk out loud to a...a crypt filled with my dead family." Stefan's eyes search around the dark crypt, "Everyone but you Damon. Because where you are, it's not here."

He takes a seat on a small bench.

"I gotta say...I'm not doing so great without you. I keep trying to start over, but...I can't get anywhere. Because I'm lost, brother. I'm lost....and I miss my niece."

Stefan gets up angrily and tosses the bottle of bourbon when suddenly a hand catches the bottle. He stares wide eyed as he looks at his brother.

"So what? Gone a couple of months, you think it's okay to waste a perfectly good bottle of bourbon?" Damon asked, taking a swig of the drink, "Ahh."

Stefan stares, shocked and not quite believing what he was seeing, "Damon?"

"Yep. In the flesh." Damon smiled.

"How am I seeing you right now?"

Damon's face gets serious, "Because I'm not dead, Stefan. I mean, this stuff's good, but it's not, "I see dead people" good." He slowly walks towards his brother.

Stefan is frozen, eyes wide and red, rimmed with tears.

"It's a hell of a long story, but...I'm back. I'm back."

Stefan reaches out to touch his brother's shoulders.

"Yeah."

When Stefan's face scrunches up as he's about to cry, he pulls Damon into a tight hug, Damon wrapping his arms around Stefan.

"I'm back, Stefan....," Damon pauses before speaking his next words to his little brother, "...and so is Anastasia."