Try {One | Alaric Saltzman}

Do Not Go Gentle

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

"To do what, Stefan? To pretend to be Alaric? No." She resumed her pacing. "We have to find another way to bring him back."

"We're talking about someone who not only hates vampires, but vampire sympathizers. Which makes one of his most obvious targets..." Damon pointed at Elena. "You!"

"What are you suggesting we do?" Elena asked.

Damon looked at each of them for a long second, saving Abigail for last. "I'm suggesting that we put him out of his misery."

"No!" She pushed him into the lockers. "No way in hell!"

He regained his footing. "It's what he would want. It's a mercy killing."

She could make out Jeremy running down the hall, the sound of Elena saying her name, Stefan scolding his brother, but what stood out the most was the way her voice sounded as she yelled, "You are out of your mind!"

She backed out of the building, ignoring her siblings as they called her name. She wanted to turn around, she really did, but the part of her that was no longer human wouldn't let her. At least until halfway through the parking lot when they caught up to her. When Jeremy took her right hand and Elena took her left.

"This is Alaric we're talking about! H-he is-"

Esther appeared in front of them. "If you wish to help Alaric, I suggest you come with me."

"Jeremy," Elena quaked. "Go inside and get Stefan and Damon, now!"

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

Abigail and Elena followed Esther through the Old Mystic Falls Cemetery toward the Salvatore tomb. She spoke only to the latter, the one she needed, as the path narrowed and widened. And if Abigail said anything, if she took one step out of line, she reminded her of it.

"You'll forgive me for taking you from the dance this evening. That's the burden of being the doppelgänger, I'm afraid. Your blood is a potent binding agent for a witch's spell."

"Just please," she persisted. "Don't hurt Alaric."

All he said was, "She's not hurting me."

"Ric!" Abigail moved toward him, stopping the instant she sensed that something was wrong. "What's going on? What are you doing with him?"

"I'm going to remake him," Esther answered.

"Remake him?" Abigail repeated as a question.

"Make him strong, fast, like my children. Indestructible. For one final time I'm going to tap into the dark magic I used a thousand years ago," Esther explained. "Like my husband Mikael before him I will make Alaric into a true hunter, a vampire to end all vampires."

"You can't create another Original." Elena took over speaking when Abigail couldn't, they had always done that for each other, but this time it was different. It was different because although Abigail had the questions, she did not have her voice. She did not have anything but what was in front of her. And in front of her was not Alaric. "What if he turns out to be an even bigger monster than your children?"

"He won't now that he has embraced his darkest aspect; his hatred for them will become more pure and uncompromising. In death that hatred will be magnified."

"You don't know that. You don't know anything about him."

"That is where you're wrong. Each time he died with that ring during his brief journey into death I was there on the Other Side. I spoke to him, I nurtured him knowing that every death brought him closer to his true self. Vampires took everything from him." She looked to Abigail. "Including you."