CHAPTER 61: THE RAGER
Mystic Falls High School
Natalie felt weird. Sure, it was only a small room and for most people it wouldn't really mean anything other than being a classroom. But for Natalie, it felt like a constant reminder that her father was dead, because she now officially hated history class for the simple fact that her father used to teach it. She watched as her sister and her sister's boyfriend (god, she hated calling him that) walked into the classroom, Elena plopping down in the seat next to her.
"It's the first time we've been back in Alaric's classroom..." Stefan suddenly noticed from his seat on the other side of Elena and he looked at the two sisters carefully and saw Natalie look down for a moment as Elena started glaring at her hands.
Elena grasped her own hands tightly as she took a deep breath as the heightened vampire emotions made it very easy to just burst out in tears. "First period, and I'm ready to bawl my eyes out."
But then another familiar face joined them, a blonde head coming through the door as she smiled at everyone in the room, speaking up with her British accent still as recognizable as ever. "Morning, everyone. So, I'm throwing a little anti-curfew party at my new house. Starts at fifth period and goes 'til whenever. Spread the word." Rebekah looked at Natalie with a large smile as she handed her a flyer. "You're as welcome as always." she then looked at the vampire doppelganger that was also there. "You're welcome to join, Elena, if you'd like to bury the hatchet."
"It's a pretty enormous hatchet." the brunette retorted, narrowing her eyes in suspicion at the much older vampire.
The blonde rolled her eyes at the young vampire's snappy answer. "Well, I'm feeling generous of spirit."
Elena grabbed Natalie's flyer right out of her hands, making the human frown in surprise as she stared at her empty hands for a moment as the older twin studied the flyer. "New house, huh? Did your brother finally kick you out?"
"He didn't kick me out, I left." the blonde corrected sharply, giving the other female an equally sharp look.
Elena's eyes widened in surprise as her sister returned the previous favor and grabbed the flyer out of her hands, the doppelganger looked at her sister with questioning eyes, gaining a smirk in return. "So, you left the only person on earth that actually likes you?"
Rebekah felt the need to rip her throat out but she didn't for the reason that she could hurt her so much worse emotionally than physically (and that said something). "Well, your boyfriend liked me once. Actually, a lot more than once."
Stefan looked up at the smirking blonde, not very happy with being dragged into the conversation like that and really just wanted it to stop as he was realizing that he had made out with all three of the girls around him and it getting really awkward. "Why are you still in town, Rebekah? Don't you have anywhere else to go?"
"Well, history's my favorite class. Actually, where is Mr. Saltzman...?" she paused dramatically as she saw Elena getting angrier but she didn't see Natalie grip onto the desk desperately as she tried not to run out of the classroom. "Oh, that's right, I killed him."
And Natalie got up abruptly at the same time and walked out of the classroom as Elena threw a pencil at Rebekah's face, but the clearly superior strength and reflexes of an original won as the older vampire grabbed it right before it hit her and threw it back at the brunette, hitting her in the shoulder.
She found that very amusing, especially considering nobody even noticed that Natalie had walked out of the classroom.
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A Trailer
She hated vague texts. Unfortunately, Damon loved them, or at least loved sending them, like the infamous text he sent her during the 60s dance junior year with the Bonbon dead jk, she witchy she live. But this time he was just telling her a place to meet him and no reasons as to why she should. But he was Damon and it was either him going to try and get her drunk since Alaric couldn't stop her now or something very, very important.
The moment she walked into that trailer, one thing came to mind as she saw an arrow stuck in Damon's back. And even worse, it was connected to what was easily recognized as a bomb. "Please tell me that's not a bomb."
"Okay. It's a kitten. It's an adorable, exploding kitten." he retorted, not even being able to keep his witty remarks to himself when he was connected to a bomb. But he was Damon, what do you expect?
"Well, I'm a dog person anyway. But can you tell me why didn't call your brother instead?" she asked, inspecting the wound, but without really touching anything in fear of it blowing up which, with her luck, had a 90% chance of happening.
"Because I'm proud, and stubborn, and...oh, look! You're already here." he exclaimed loudly and obnoxiously, and she simply rolled her eyes at the thought of him actually being one of her best friends. "Come on, you're not gonna get hurt. All I need you to do is be a good friend and cut out the arrow. I'd do it myself, but if I move... kaboom."
She simply shrugged and skimmed through the room in search of something sharp, and luckily, there was a knife on one of the surfaces. She grabbed it and started cutting around the arrow. "What's that?" she asked as she saw Damon holding a letter in his hands.
"Proof that Pastor Young was even crazier than we thought." he responded as he held up the letter to let her skim through it and agree with him.
Dear April,
I'm sorry for what you're going through. What I did was a necessary sacrifice, and I'm afraid it's only the first of many more sacrifices to come. There's always been an evil that spread through Mystic Falls, but now a greater one is coming. My death is but the first in the war ahead. I will see you again when we all find our salvation.
Until then, I love you.
Dad.
"Seriously? I can not deal with a greater evil right now. You and Klaus are more than enough for me." she shook her head as he lowered the letter, shrugging in agreement, both of them knowing that the greater evil would be so stressing and right now they just needed to relax. Natalie was just hoping that this time she wouldn't have anything to do with the greater evil. She hated when that happened. "So, why are you here instead of your brother?"
"Stefan had a Physics test." he responded sarcastically, unknowingly being correct.
She rolled her eyes, and she continued to try to cut the arrow out of Damon's back carefully, but she added a little pressure since he wouldn't actually say anything about it. "Yeah? Well, so did I! But you still made me come out here."
"I'm expecting a thank you." the raven-haired vampire smirked at her, but she wasn't really able to see it as she was behind his back.
Nobody said anything for a moment, but then Natalie just sighed and spoke up with something he didn't expect to have anyone say ever, because it didn't seem like something someone would say to him. "You're a good brother."
But, then again, there is his persistent need to act as if he doesn't give a crap about anyone and he was a monster that nobody could ever even come close to helping. Because it was who he was, the person who was down on himself for usually no other reason than everyone liking his brother better. "I'm the bad brother."
"Right. Because all bad brothers stay in a town they want to get out of just because they want to get rid of someone who might be a threat to the person you care most about in the world. Who also happens to be your brother." she said sarcastically, once again putting a little more pressure into her cutting out the arrow.
"I'm not just staying for him. There are other people in town that I care about. Like you." he reminded her of his deep care for her, his best friend because she was literally the only reason but Stefan and Elena that he even gave a crap at that moment.
"Aw, Damon Salvatore cares about me. That's such a big accomplishment, I should be making t-shirts." the brunette teased, smiling at him cutely. But honestly, she was very happy that he was her friend because even if he didn't want to admit it, he would do anything to protect the people that he loved, and being one of them was an honor, a privilege and a very good investment in your safety.
He grumbled in annoyance as she finished her work. "There, that should be good." And then he just ripped the arrow out of him without the bomb exploding because Natalie was amazing in his eyes and only cut it out so much that it wouldn't.
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Mystic Falls Hospital
Damon had so convinced her to go back to her old badass Natalie. He had tried to call Tyler to ask if he wanted to join, but for some reason, it was Klaus who picked up and it was Klaus who was going with them. In case you're wondering what her was going with them for, they were so going to kick some hunter ass, and use his own tactics against him.
This would be the first time Natalie would go up against a fellow hunter, but she had a feeling that she couldn't call herself a full-blown hunter anymore. But she was still so looking forward to feeling like herself again and being able to do something to contribute to the cause of everyone living to see another day.
"Is a hospital really the best place for a germaphobe?" an unfamiliar voice asked, of course referring to Damon as her and Klaus weren't out there with him yet.
"Did I say that I was a germaphobe? Pft, sorry, I meant vampire." Damon chuckled at himself for a moment, but then an arrow was heard being shot, and then another one and Damon couldn't help but smirk at the hunter in front of him. "Stings, doesn't it?"
Natalie saw him grasp for his gun, but without him noticing, her and Klaus walked behind him and she kicked it out of his reach and she just kept wanting to laugh but she had to stay in her badass mode and not be all cute. "Such a pleasure to finally meet you. Big fan of your work."
The hunter glared at her heatedly as he tried to pull an arrow out of his side, even if they were connected to bombs and then it'd definitely go kaboom. Damon just shook his head at his idiocy. "Keep it up, buddy. We'll be scraping you off the ceiling."
The hunter glared at him now, not seeing a reason as to why he shouldn't at least try to do anything to get out when he was with two homicidal vampires and an emotional badass. "You three are gonna kill me anyway."
"Wow, I feel hurt you'd think so low of me. And I just thought we were getting to know one another. You can't trust anyone these days." the brunette reincarnation pulled a strand of hair behind her ear as she pulled forth a perfected hurt look on her face that really didn't showcase any real emotion as much as it showcased her acting skills.
"Let's start with the basics. Where are you from? What do you know? Maybe you can cue me in on this "greater evil," because we've fought this guy," Damon pointed at Klaus with a shrug. "And there's nothing more evil than that."
Klaus smiled in amusement of the way Damon decided to bring him up in the conversation, but he couldn't help but agree. "Yeah, truth be told, I'm as evil as it gets."
"I'm not telling you anything. And if you think if you kill me, it's gonna be over, there's another waiting to take my place." the hunter tried to scare them with, as if they couldn't simply just do this with the next hunter and the next and the next and the three would continue until Natalie was dead and they'd mourn her for a day before continuing. But she'd probably join in the next time she'd get reincarnated.
"See, this is what I like to hear; vague threats, ominous prophecies, disappearing tattoos." Damon smirked, showing that he had some kind of idea of what was going on with the whole situation that didn't really know all that much about.
"Our lives could've been a pretty interesting TV-show." Natalie muttered in acknowledgement, nodding her with the idea of it.
Klaus clearly recognized something very interesting with one of their statements (Natalie would like to think he just came up with the idea to start writing a pilot for a TV-show about their lives but he'd probably write him and Caroline as endgame and she'd find the white oak stake and stab him with it, and he probably wasn't down with that) as his eyes widened as he looked at the hunter. "What do you mean, tattoos?"
"Don't bother, you can't see the damn thing." the blue-eyed Salvatore dismissed it as if it was so much less important than it actually was (not that he knew that).
Klaus narrowed his eyes on the hunter, looking very calculating as he kneeled down next to him. "There's more to you than meets the eye, isn't there?" But then the hunter grabbed a close-by stake and was ready to stake the hybrid, even if it wouldn't hurt him at all. But Klaus being Klaus grabbed his arm before he could even get close to him. "Nice try, but I'm faster than your average vampire." He smirked as he twisted the hunter's arm and grabbed the stake out of his hand and noticed a very familiar carving. "You're one of the five."
"The what?"
Everyone chose to ignore Natalie's question as the hunter smirked at them, and without most of them noticing was getting ready to detonate the bomb. "And I'm faster than your average hunter."
That's when Damon started noticing what was happening and without hesitating, he grabbed Natalie and rushed out of the room, but it was being a little too late as he pulled the string that was connecting the arrow to the bomb, making Damon fly out with the flames, but he was able to pull Natalie in front of him so she was shielded by the flames.
Because if she got hit, she wouldn't heal.
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After a frenzy at the bomb (Natalie didn't really see why it was such a big deal, it was just a simple small bomb) exploding, Damon had some explaining to do to the Mayor, who was not falling for his tricks that easily until he mentioned money and then she loved him again. Natalie only heard parts of the conversation, not allowed to be involved in adult stuff. Pft.
But then Jeremy walked out, him being the one that lured the hunter into the room with the bomb in the first place, looking very proud as he looked at Damon with a huge smirk. "See? I told you I could be a badass."
"Shh, badasses don't say that." Damon shook his head at the boy he still felt like was a little kid, excluding him being the same age as Elena when he fell in love with her.
Natalie smiled at her brother/cousin as she walked up next to him and patted him on the shoulder comfortingly. "It's true. I would know."
Jeremy looked at her with a look clearly showing how little she was amusing him as he shrugged her hand off of his shoulder in annoyance. "I hate you."
"You love me." she dismissed his idiotic idea of him being against her in any way. She bumped his shoulder, even if she was a whole lot shorter than him so it didn't quite reach his shoulders. Stupid boy puberty.
"I do love you." he then agreed with a smile as he bumped her shoulder back affectionately, being as good of a brother as he could since he felt like they barely even spoke anymore, as opposed to when she first moved to town and he was pretty much the only teenager she knew. Which was very, very sad because he was kind of a loser.
"Aw, you love me." she exclaimed teasingly, putting her hand on his head and ruffling and messing up his hair, which made him glare at her at the same time as he was laughing with her because she had a very contagious laugh.
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A/N: Wow, I updated again. Further proof of how little I have to do during summer vacation.
Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.