We walked up to the clearing, leaving the sealed tomb behind. Damon was already there, but he seemed a world away, rooted to the spot where he'd discovered the final, crushing truth. He stood in the faint moonlight, his chest rising and falling heavily. His hands were still caked with dirt, and his eyes were hallowed out by a despair far deeper than anything I did seen in his demeanor before.
The realization that Katherine hadn't been trapped for 145 years, that she had been walking the earth this entire time and hadn't once come looking for him, and hit him like a physical blow. The obsession that had consumed him for over a century. That singular, driving hope, and been revealed as a grotesque lie.
"She was never in there. All this time...all these years...and she didn't even care." He whispered. The sound of his voice was raw and broken. He let out a bitter, strangled laugh that held no humor.
"Damon, I am so sorry..." Elena said as she took a step toward him. Her face softy with pity and a flicker of the guilt she carried for being Katherine's lookalike.
"Don't. Don't pretend you understand." He snapped. His voice was cold and hard, a whip crack in the night air. He didn't look at her, he just stared at the dirt, dissecting the fragments of his shattered world.
Elena flinched but she stayed quiet. He was right. How could she, the girl whose life had only just begun, understand a century of misplaced devotion? Damon had loved a woman who had played him, used him and discarded him. The pain in his eyes was something only someone who had lost everything to the same monster could truly recognize.
"Damon, it's not Elena's fault. None of this is." Stefan interjected, stepping closer toward his brother. His expression a mixture of anger at Katherine and concern for Damon.
"I don't need a lecture from you right now, Stefan. I don't need anything from you." Damon shot back with a withering look.
The tension between them was palpable. I watched silently, knowing that no words from me, or anyone could heal the wound Damon was nursing. He needed time to process the trauma of his century long delusion. This was Katherine's legacy, destruction wrought by manufatured devotion.
"Natalia, I still don't understand. Why were you going to leave Damon in there? If I didn't make you, you would have leave him there? You promised to help us." Elena finally broke the loaded silence. Her voice was hesitant as she turned to face me.
"Really? We are doing this again? I just had a fight with these two witches, and now you want to create another one? Didn't my words in the tomb cover all?" My patience, already thin, frayed completely. I sighed, forcing a slow, deliberate breath. My exasperation was genuine.
"Yes. I did promise that I would help you. You wanted to open the tomb? Check, done that. You wanted to let Damon get inside the tomb? Check, done that. You wanted Katherine out with Damon, I would have let that happened if she were in that tomb, but she isn't! And that is not my fault! And yes, I do have extra plan that I hide but that plan is gone into thin air when we find out she wasn't in there."
"So technically, I fulfilled our agreement. My priority was, and always will be, keeping the Petrova bloodline safe. Whatever extra happened just now was all because of your bestfriend and her grandmother."
"Look. Katherine cannot be allowed to roam free. She is dangerous. I have health with people like her before. I have dealt with her too. She doesn't care about anyone else but herself. You don't know what she is truly capable of." I said as I stepped closer, my gaze demanding her attention. Elena's face softened slightly, recognizing the truth in my warning. She knew I was right. Katherine had already caused enough damage.
Stefan however, wasn't ready to let the issue drop. He looked at me, his expression hard and challenging.
"And what about Damon? You were going to leave him in there to die."
"Yes. Because I wasn't given that many options Stefan. And I didn't trust him, and I still don't." I met his gaze without flinching.
"Well, isn't that just lovely. You don't trust me? Guess what, sweetheart, I don't trust you either." Damon scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief. His words were sharp but they bounced off me. Trust was a luxury none of us could afford.
"You were wiling to leave my brother in that tomb. What makes you any different from Katherine?" Stefan said as he stepped closer to me, and his voice a tense whisper. His accusation stung, a familiar, mortal judgment.
"I am nothing like Katherine. I don't play with people's lives for fun. But if I have to make a hard choice to keep Elena safe, I will make them. Even if it means Damon gets caught in the crossfire." I paused, letting the full weight of the statement settle.
"My life has been defined by those hard choices, Stefan. I live because I was ruthless enough to make them." I added.
"But you know. Thinking it all again. We share the same blood. Maybe I am just like Katherine, or maybe it was Katherine who was like me?" I said and Stefan's jaw tightened. He hated it, but I saw the reluctant understanding in his eyes. He knew my calculus was sound. I turned to walk away, ready to be done with the conversation, but Elena's soft voice stopped me.
"Wait. Natalia, please. You said you are going to help us. I know you think you are doing what's right, but, I need to believe that we can trust you. That I can trust you." Elena said softly, and I froze with my back to her. I couldn't turn. The emotional exposure was too great.
Her plea hung in the cold air. Trust. The thing I had lost believe in centuries ago. How could I expect her to trust me when I barely trust myself? When I knew the darkness that resided within my own survival instinct?
"I will always help you. But don't ask me to spare those who would hurt you or bring you into danger. Don't ask me to betray my own judgement. I cant promise that. My priority is to keep you safe, keeping my bloodline safe." I said after a long, weighed moment. My voice was low but firm.
"Bloodline?" Bonnie repeated, confusion evident on why the Petrova's bloodline is so important to me.
"Yes, Bonnie. Bloodline. As long as Elena is alive, she will one day carry on the bloodline of Petrova." My words were brutal in their simplicity. It was a cold, genetic truth, but it was the core of my motivation. There was a long pause before Elena spoke.
"Okay. I understand." Her voioce was barely a whisper, imbued with a new, hesitant acceptance.
I didn't turn around. I simply walked away from the group. The weight of a thousand years pressing down on me. My mind swirled. Katherine's escape, Damon's hearthbreak, Stefan's moral code and above all, I couldn't shake the image of Jeremy from my mind. His eyes, a mirror of my little brother Daniel, haunted me. A painful crack in my iron control.
The night stretched on as the others dispersed. Each retreating into their own internal struggle. Damon had disappeared into the woods, likely to rage and lick his wounded pride, his broken heart a dangerous new element in Mystic Falls. Stefan stayed close to Elena, his protective instincts now bordering on obsession, ensuring she was completely safe now that the immediate threat seemed to have passed.
I lingered at the edge of the clearing. It has been hours since my argument with them at the tomb and yet, every emotions that I feel then is still visible in me.
My eyes constantly scanning the darkened woods. The tomb was closed, but the real danger was still out there, elusive and cunning.
The thought chilled me. Katherine wasn't a creature of brute force. She was a predator of psychology. A creature that thriving in the shadows, manipulating everyone around her to serve her own ends. Now that we knew she was free, every move she made would be calculated to bring chaos. The entire town was now her playground, and Elena will be the grand prize.
I wouldn't let her win. Not again.
I let out a frustrated, low groan, running a hand through my hair. This might have been catastrophic failure of intelligence and execution. Stefan had been reckless, Elena too trusting, and Damon? Damon was the volatile bomb that had just been detonated.
Damn it.
"Natalia."
I turned. Stefan was approaching, his face tight with tension, but his eyes softened as they met mine. He looked utterly exhausted, the toll of the night heavy on him.
"I had a conversation with Elena. I am sorry for lashing out at you. I, I know you were trying to do the right thing, even if it was brutal." He said as he take a tentative step closer. I didn't immediately respond as I crossed my arms over my chest. My anger handn't vanished, but the immediate crisis had passed.
"Natalia, I know you are angry, but, we couldn't just leave him in there." He pleaded, the brotherly bond undeniable.
"You are reckless, Stefan. You could have gotten yourself trapped. Or worse. Do you understand that Sheila's spell is final? What if Sheila couldn't hold on?" I said and he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I know. But he is my brother. I couldn't just, let him wander off in there. No matter what. And Elena is in there? Her scream scared me."
"I get it with Elena, but Stefan, you are going to get yourself killed if you keep throwing yourself into danger like this. All in the name of a brother who has tormented you for over a century. " I said as I shot him a glare. The intensity in my eyes unwavering.
"I know the risks. But I can't abandon him." Stefan said as his eyes met mine. I groaned in defeat, throwing my hands up slightly.
"You're impossible, you know that?" I said.
"Yeah. I've been told." His lips curled into a small, tired smile.
We stood there in a charged silence, the emotional tension slowly easing, replaced by a grim resolve. But the danger hadn't passed. Katherine was still out there, and the clock was ticking down to her next move.
Finally, I turned to Stefan, my voice low and serious, all professional focus returning.
"We need to find her, Stefan. Katherine. Before she finds Elena. She knows everything that happened here. I know she heard us, she saw the tomb open, she's been waiting. This was all a diversion for something bigger." I said.
"Where do we start? She's been gone for a century and a half. She could be anywhere." Stefan said as he nodded. His face grim.
"I will deal with that part. I want you to watch Damon. He's broken, which makes him reckless. And a reckless vampire is a predictable target for Katherine." I said and he nodded. There was a flicker of understanding and gratitude in his eyes.
I watched him go, the forest silence swallowing him whole. I had a long night ahead, and a war to plan. A war against the woman I hated most in the world, the woman who had ruined my life, and the woman who now posed the greatest threat to my bloodline.
I could only hope we weren't already too late.
"I know the risks. But I can't abandon him." Stefan said and his eyes met mine. I groaned in defeat, tthrowing