Emma sat on the floor of the cellar and watched in wonder as Damon concentrated on getting inside of Elena's head and fabricating memories to make her feel nostalgic. Stefan came inside just as Elena had pushed Damon back out of her head and into reality.
"You still have her locked in the safe? You've been in her head for an hour. What, still nothing?" Stefan raised his eyebrow.
Damon didn't respond to his brother, instead walking up to the large safe that he had locked Elena in, he opened the safe door and a weak Elena nearly fell out, but Damon stopped her from hitting the floor.
"How you doing in there?" Damon asked, "Is the old you ready to come out and play?"
"Go to hell," Elena said weakly, but with as much fire as she could muster.
Damon shrugged and shoved her back into the safe and closed the door, "Okay, back in you go. We can do this the nice way, or we can do it the other way, but either way, we're not stopping until you turn your humanity switch back on."
Stefan sighed sadly and walked back out of the room. Emma could tell that Damon was troubled, this was his fault, he had been the one to use his sire bond to turn Elena into the monster she had become.
Caroline had come to visit and see how things were progressing with Elena. After a bitter exchange Caroline had made her way back upstairs to sit with Emma.
"We need to get Bonnie over here," Caroline sat back and crossed her arms, "there has to be something she can do to make Elena feel something."
Emma shook her head, doubtful, "Elena has reached a point where, if I didn't know her personally, I would be on the hunt. She's too far gone."
"I'm calling her," Caroline announced before pulling out her phone and dialing Bonnie, she waited for her to answer, as soon as she did Caroline jumped into action, "Bonnie! Where have you been? I've left, like, ninety-million messages."
Emma rolled her eyes at Caroline's obvious exaggeration and went back to flipping through an old tome.
"Studying French, we have final exams, remember?" Bonnie said as if it should have been second nature to Caroline to already know that.
"Ugh, don't remind me. Look, this whole thing with Elena...it's about to get brutal, and I know that she's not your favorite person right now," Caroline sighed, "but I could really use you over here."
"For what, moral support?" Bonnie's tone became accusing, "Or so you can check up on me?"
"Moral support!" Caroline was quick to defend herself but also quick to admit her other motive, "And maybe just a tiny check-in to make sure that Silas isn't playing any more pesky little mind games with you."
"I'm fine, okay? Silas doesn't control me anymore. And I think I'll pass on the invite. Elena tried to kill me. I'm not quite ready to forgive and forget. I'm gonna call you later, okay? I gotta go," Bonnie hung up before Caroline could try to sway her anymore.
Caroline huffed and turned to Emma, "Why aren't you studying?"
"Parce que je parle déjà couramment le français," Emma smirked at she looked up.
"That was hot," Damon grinned at Emma as he entered the room and sat next to her, she put her legs over his lap and laid back in a more comfortable position.
"I hate you," Caroline said frustrated as she leaned back in the chair roughly, "thank God I had to do all your school work, otherwise you would've gotten valedictorian."
Emma shrugged, "It's just as well, I don't need the title."
"You're really not going to Whitmore with us next year?" Caroline asked sadly.
"Really, really," Emma turned back to her book, "I don't need to major in occult studies to do my job."
"Hunting? Really Emma?" Caroline scoffed, "Do you know what you could accomplish with that brain of yours? You could be an archeologist like your parents."
Emma raised her eyebrow, "So I can get crushed to death in a tunnel on a wild goose chase? No thanks, I'd rather go out fighting."
Caroline pressed her lips together, she mentally scolded herself for suggesting that career path for Emma, "I'm sorry Em."
Emma held up her hand and waved off Caroline's comment, "It's fine Care."
Damon put his hand on the page Emma was reading to block her view and get her attention, "So you may hear some screaming later."
Emma looked at Damon curiously, "What kind of weird kinky thing are we doing later babe?"
"Ew!" Caroline covered her ears, even though she knew it would do absolutely nothing to block out anything.
Damon sighed, "Stefan and I are going to torture Elena, but we have to do it up here where there is sunlight."
"You think that will work?" Caroline asked hopefully.
"Maybe," Damon shrugged, "but the other night when Bonnie was doing her new voodoo on her, there was fear in her eyes, if we can tap into that and make that emotion stick, we might get her back."
"Well, get to it!" Caroline encouraged Damon to go ahead with his plan.
Damon gently pushed Emma's legs off of him and stood up, "Okay then, don't say I didn't warn you."
Emma's phone began to ring, it was Dean.
"Hey De-" Emma began to smile as she greeted him, but quickly pressed her lips together tighter as Dean began yelling from his end of the phone.
"Emma Brigid Peters!" Dean full named her, "Where in the hell have you been?"
"Your middle name is Brigid?" Caroline looked at Emma curiously, Emma ignored her.
"I was...a little tied up," Emma said with sarcastic irony, "Damon has his memory back."
"How did you pull that off?" Dean asked.
"Metatron released them, in return we just have to kill a witch named Silas, but we were going to do that anyway, so... win-win," Emma explained.
"You made a deal with an angel!" Dean yelled into the phone.
Emma groaned, "No, I didn't, Damon did. I made a deal with Silas."
"Who the hell is Silas?" Dean asked right before Emma heard him yell at Sam to get his stuff together, "That's it, we are coming."
"No, Dean, everything is fine okay," Emma tried to calm him down, but it fell on deaf ears.
"I'll see you tomorrow Emmy," Dean hung up the phone.
Emma huffed as she flopped back on the couch, "Crap."
"What does Brigid mean?" Caroline was suddenly curious.
Emma thought for a moment before smiling and letting out a small laugh, "She is a Pagan goddess of fire and life, usually symbolized by a raven or falcon."
"Do you think your parents knew that you were going to become a Phoenix when you were born?" Caroline asked.
Emma picked up a strand of her hair, "I think they had some clues, I'm the only red head in the family. I don't know if that is because of what I am but either way it was fitting I guess."
Caroline and Emma jumped when they heard Elena suddenly start screaming. Caroline scrunched her nose and covered her ears as she started humming to tune it out. Emma opened her tome back up and continued reading.
"I'm gonna call Matt," Caroline said as she got up and walked out of the house.
As soon as Emma heard Matt's truck pull up in-between Elena's screams, she got up and walked outside to see him.
"Hey Em," Matt smiled at her, happy to see she looked brighter than she had in months.
"We have to keep talking. If we don't keep talking, then I won't be able to stop myself from listening in, and I can't stand to hear Elena in pain," Caroline said, looking uncomfortable as she sat down on a chair against the brick wall.
"What do you wanna talk about?" Matt asked her.
"I don't know, anything," Caroline paused but only briefly, "I ordered you a cap and gown, you too Emma."
"You did?" Matt asked in shock.
"You didn't have to do that Care," Emma smiled softly at her friend.
Caroline shrugged, "I just figured that you'd forget and Emma has had so much going on, so I ordered both of yours when I ordered mine. And I got one for Elena, too."
"It's gonna work," Matt assured Caroline, sensing that she was distressed over Elena, "we're gonna get Elena back."
Caroline gave him a soft smile, but she was distracted when she heard a door open and close. She began looking around for the source of the sound, she looked into the living room.
"What in the hell is she doing here?" Caroline stood up angrily and stomped inside, followed by Matt and Emma.
Inside Rebekah was standing in the living room holding a brown paper bag.
"Hi," Rebekah looked nervous, it was slightly unsettling to Emma, "I don't mean to interfere. It's just, I happen to know all they keep in this house is blood and booze, so I brought a peace offering. Burgers?"
Emma noticed the way that Matt looked at Rebekah, there were definitely some feelings there as he smiled at her and took the bag out of her hands before muttering a thanks.
"Yeah, we can't really entertain right now, but thanks for stopping by," Caroline crossed her arms and popped her hip out in the proper mean girl fashion.
Emma rolled her eyes and grabbed a burger from Matt, "Thanks Becky."
Rebekah grimaced at the nickname but said nothing about it, "I think I might stay. Matt mentioned that he was failing classes and needed a study buddy."
"You're failing? Wh-why didn't you ask me to help you study?" Caroline was clearly offended about being over looked.
"Well," Matt paused as he swallowed a bite of his burger, "I didn't exactly ask her either."
"What class are you failing?" Caroline demanded.
Matt hesitated, "I'm not failing, I'm just...really, really behind in history...and Italian, and math..."
"Matt!" Caroline chastised him.
"This year has been a little distracting, and you were already covering for Em," Matt defended his lack of action.
"We could both help," Rebekah offered, "all hands on deck, that's the motto around here, right?"
"We don't have a motto," Caroline scoffed at Rebekah before turning back to Matt, "look, if you need to study, we're gonna study. I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna get my flash cards, and my study guides, and some energy bars. This is gonna be good."
Caroline grabbed her bag and walked briskly out of the door.
"You dated that?" Rebekah looked at Matt and Emma couldn't help but laugh.
Matt shrugged innocently, "She likes projects."
"Ugh, hi barbie," Damon said as he walked into the room.
"Damon," Rebekah didn't bother to look his way.
"Em, I need you for a minute," Damon motioned for Emma to join him away from Rebekah and Matt.
Emma stood up and followed Damon into the kitchen, "What's up?"
"We need to really scare her, make her think she is really going to die," Damon told her.
"Damon," Emma looked at him hesitantly, "I don't have enough control, I might actually kill her. What happens if that ash touch thing happens? I can't reverse that."
Damon put his hands on Emma's shoulders and pulled her closer to him, he looked into her eyes, full of the confidence she didn't have, "You got this babe. I know that you can do this Em. Just...don't touch her."
Emma laughed slightly and stood on her toes to kiss Damon, he wrapped his arms around her and held her there for a moment.
"I love you," Damon whispered softly as he pushed a bit of Emma's hair away from her face.
Emma smiled up at him, "I love you too."
Damon grabbed Emma's hand and led her into the library where Elena was tied up next to the window. She glared both Damon and Stefan as if she were ready to pull their hearts from their chest. As soon as she caught sight of Emma a slight grin grew on her lips, but her eyes stayed menacing.
"I supposed I'm supposed to be afraid of an unstable bird," Elena said, unimpressed.
Damon shook his head, "You see, that's exactly why you should be scared. A completely untamed Phoenix who you royally pissed off."
"Yeah," Elena rolled her eyes, "you're not totally innocent either Damon. You should tell her about the time we almost broke your bed...and my bed...and the couch..."
"Keep it up Elena, when I burn his bed, I might make sure you are strapped to it," Emma snapped her fingers, causing sparks.
"Yeah, maybe," Elena turned her head to the side slightly with a cocky attitude, "doesn't change the fact that I dirtied your bed."
Emma pushed a blast of heat towards Elena, making her whimper slightly in discomfort, "Plenty more where that came from. I've been meaning to practice anyway."
Emma opened her palm and a small flame burned in it, she tossed the flame ball in the air and caught it with her other hand before tossing it towards Elena, but it dissipated just before it touched her. Elena flinched slightly but still showed no emotion. Emma raised her hand and made Elena's blood temperature rise to near boiling, this time Elena screamed in pain. Emma lowered her hand with a satisfied look.
"I've got news for you," Emma smirked, "I don't want to kick your ass while your emotions are off, I mean, where is the fun in that."
Emma raised her hand again, eliciting another scream from Elena as she felt her blood boil slightly. As soon as Emma closed her hand and cut off the magic, Elena began laughing, almost manically.
"We both know that neither Salvatore is going to let anything happen to me," Elena peered up at Emma with a smug smile.
Emma looked over to Damon, "Can you show her what I did to that Rusalka at the lake?"
Damon stepped forward and grabbed Elena's arm, forcing the images of Emma burning the monster until it was nothing but ash. Elena gasped as soon as he released her. Instead of scaring her, Elena only saw potential.
"Why haven't you tried that on Klaus or Katherine?" Elena asked.
Emma pursed her lips and nodded and motion for Damon to follow her out of the room, "She isn't afraid of me, but she did just hint at who she might be."
"Katherine," Damon said with his jaw tight.
Emma nodded, "Better make a call."