𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐈
⏤ John Gilbert ⏤
❝I'm good at surviving, it's kinda my thing.❞
𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 pounding echoed throughout Olivia's house, sending gentle vibrations through the walls and piercing through her skull on a continuous loop. Initially, she simply remained in the comfort of her bed, hoping whoever it was knocking on her door would eventually leave. Though after several minutes with no change in the aggravating knocking sound, Liv reluctantly made her way to the door.
"I'm coming. I'm coming..." she murmured beneath her breath in exhaustion at the persistent pounding before pulling the door open to see a familiar blonde vampire. "Hey... Caroline." Olivia began casually upon seeing her. Though her casual tone soon shifted to one of confusion upon seeing Caroline's appearance ⏤ several tears streaming down her cheeks and flooded her eyes and a fearful expression covered her features. "You look like you just got hit by a bus."
Caroline barely made any response to her blunt comment. "Olivia... it's Tyler..."
"He's not..." Olivia began; her eyes flickered with alarm.
"No! God, no." She quickly answered before a sigh escaped her lips. "He just showed up at my house this morning and I thought it was just about how we kissed the night before but it ⏤"
"Wait a minute, you guys kissed?" Olivia interrupted her explanation, slightly surprised.
"No... well, yeah. He kissed me... but I didn't pull away." She began, momentarily losing focus and thinking back to the event in a fluster before shaking her head to reconcentrate her thoughts. "That's not the point. I was talking to him one minute and then all of a sudden he just pinned me against a car and started yelling at me and harassing me with questions about Mason." She rushed to explain.
"What type of questions?"
"Like if he's dead and if we were the ones who killed him!" Caroline answered. She herself was still fairly confused about the Mason situation but the possibility of him being dead didn't even flicker through her mind.
Meanwhile, Olivia's thoughts were flickering in a different direction. Jules. Of course she told Tyler. What reason did she have not to? Perfect. This is just perfect. She thought sarcastically. Olivia's thoughts were interrupted however by a light vibration from her phone, checking the display screen she noticed several missed calls from Tyler who had been presumably trying to talk to her about the same thing he questioned Caroline on. "What did you tell him?"
"Nothing. I mean for most of the conversation he seemed to be pretty pissed off and in truth Olivia, I didn't know what to say. I mean you told us he left town and that you found a witch to erase his memories ⏤ whatever that means. But now Tyler seems to be sure that me, you and all the other vampires in Mystic Falls were the reason for his death. He thinks we were the ones who killed him!" Caroline exclaimed in exasperation.
"I knew I should've killed her yesterday." Olivia murmured her inner thoughts quietly.
"Killed who?" Caroline questioned.
"Caroline just.... go and tell Stefan, okay?" Olivia returned; him being the first person she thought of to come up with a practical idea revolving the situation ⏤ hopefully calm Tyler down. Olivia herself had intentions of handling Jules.
"What about Damon?" Caroline asked in response.
"Are you seriously asking me that question right now?" Olivia said back, knowing the minute Damon had a reason to kill Tyler, he indefinitely would.
"Okay, but Olivia..." Caroline paused nervously. "What really happened with Mason?" She asked though she wanted to believe what Liv had told them all before, she never could be sure with Olivia ⏤ she seemed to always be keeping something from them.
"It's complicated but I'll explain it all later," Olivia told her, dreading the questions everyone would eventually ask her once they found out about the whole Mason situation.
"Wait but... is he really dead?" Caroline continued to pry.
⏤⏤⏤⏤
A moderate amount of time had passed since her conversation with Caroline and Liv was currently rounding the street corner onto the small neighbourhood where the Gilbert Residence was located. She was initially planning on tracking down Jules with a locator spell but eventually received a text from Caroline simply stating, Stefan isn't answering my calls but I'm going to check the Boarding House. Olivia, in turn, thought she might as well check Elena's house for the younger Salvatore considering she was heading that way anyway.
Olivia approached the front of the Gilbert House, heading up the few stairs of the front porch about to knock on the door when it suddenly opened from the inside, Alaric walking out and almost bumping into her in the process. "Hey, Alaric," Olivia said upon seeing him, about to ask about Stefan when she noticed the look in his eyes that appeared to be one of annoyance yet misery. "Why do you look so..." she began, unable to initially find a word to describe his expression.
"John's here," he stated blandly.
"As in the John who tried to kill every vampire in Mystic Falls and just so happens to be Elena's biological father?" Olivia clarified, remembering the guy from her first week in Mystic Falls.
"Yeah," Alaric said simply before he walked off without another word.
Olivia's gaze followed him momentarily before her attention was pulled to her phone which had vibrated once more from her pocket and she looked at the screen, she was shown another text from Caroline stating that she finally found Stefan and was talking to him now. "Well, I guess that means I came over here for nothing." Olivia sighed out, about to turn and proceed to attempt to use a tracking spell to find Jules when the door opened once more and this time, an unfamiliar figure emerged who she could only presume to be John Gilbert. "Or maybe not," she murmured to herself.
"Who are you?" He asked with a tone of bitterness in his voice.
"What? No good morning, no nice to meet you?" Olivia asked sarcastically to which John widened his eyes slightly at the girl. "No wonder Katherine tried to kill you. You really should watch how you talk to people considering you're no longer wearing that ring of yours." She finished, causing John to somewhat place together who she was, or more accurately what.
"Let me guess. Another vampire. Are you another one of Elena's friends?" He asked, narrowing his eyes slightly as he spoke.
"Olivia." She stated her name in response. "And I wouldn't exactly call Elena my friend but ⏤" Olivia began to which John, who was growing impatient, interrupted her to hurry along the conversation.
"Elena's inside if you're looking for her." He said simply before walking around her, about to head off when she stopped him.
"Actually I was looking for Stefan but seeing as he's not here and I have nothing better to do..." she began once more to which John stopped, sighing. "I need to ask you about Isobel." She finished, causing John to turn around and though he felt slightly suspicious, he was overall suddenly interested in the conversation.
"What do you need to know about Isobel?"
"Everyone says she recorded everything she learnt over time and there's some information I'm looking for." Olivia returned. Although she was hoping to directly speak with Isobel, she supposed talking with John Gilbert would have to do. She needed to know more about what she was and the only way she could do that was by learning more about Klaus.
"What sort of information?" John asked her curiously in response.
"Klaus related information."
⏤⏤⏤⏤
Everyone had seemingly dispersed from the Gilbert Residence, Elena's aunt and uncle included, leaving the brunette alone for a decent amount of time before Damon showed up ⏤ the two finding themselves talking about the infamous Gilbert himself.
"Where's John?" Damon asked her almost instantaneously.
"He's not here, he left. He just blew in, announced to Jenna that he's my dad, and then took off." The brunette began. "But what was even stranger is that Alaric said he saw Olivia outside and that the two were together when he left." Elena returned, shaking her head to draw away from her subtle confusion.
"What?" Damon blurted out uncontrollably. It seemed no matter what he did or said, Olivia purposely intended to put herself in the middle of it all, like she wanted to be in danger constantly and like she wanted to put her life at risk.
"Yeah, apparently they just headed down the street together in casual conversation," Elena told him, still in slight disbelief at what she'd heard. She knew for one thing Olivia didn't particularly like talking to people, nor was she very fond of having friends and so for her to be casually talking to John Gilbert ⏤ someone who tried to kill her ⏤ seemed absolutely insane.
"Do you know where they went?" Damon asked Elena straight after. He too wondered what the blonde was talking to John about and found himself eager to find out about it, whether that would be from asking Olivia, or torturing it out of John.
"No, I have no idea." Elena returned. She had thought to follow them after Alaric called her but it seemed they were already completely out of the area. And she didn't have it in her to ask Alaric to do so after the whole situation this morning. "What could they be talking about?"
"I don't know." Damon returned, currently thinking about where the two could have gone.
"What do you think he's planning?" Elena then asked to which Damon began growing annoyed by her constant questioning when it was clear he knew as little as she did.
"I don't know Elena, I don't." He replied in slight irritation.
"Then what are we gonna do?" Elena asked Damon, sighing herself about how complicated everything always was.
"I know what I'm going to do." Damon began, heading to the front door of Elena's house as she trailed behind him. "I'm going to find John Gilbert and I'm going to kill him."
"Damon..." Elena warned him.
"I'm joking." He said to which she gave him a look. "Okay, I'm a little serious."
"Damon!" Elena scolded his name.
"I'm not gonna hurt him, Elena. I'm the good guy now, remember?" Damon told her.
Elena rolled her eyes in response. "What does that mean?"
"I'm gonna have a civil conversation with your father," Damon said before leaving the house completely making Elena sigh internally as she hesitantly trailed.
⏤⏤⏤⏤
"Why do you want information about Klaus anyway?" John asked Liv as the two proceeded walking down the mostly empty streets that drifted into the Town Square of the small town.
"Why wouldn't I? An all-powerful and impulsive Original vampire coming to Mystic Falls doesn't exactly make me feel safe." She returned before continuing. "Besides I may have done something to piss him off during the 15th century." She answered and whilst her that wasn't her primary reason for wanting information about Klaus, the statement was true nonetheless ⏤ if Klaus ever did find out she had helped Katherine escape him in 1492, he would surely want revenge and that went for any Original for that matter.
"Have you met him before?" John then asked, slightly surprised by her words.
"Not directly, but that's beside the point," Olivia said, replying to his question before asking one of her own. "Does Isobel have any information on him?"
"Some, but not as much as you'd expect," he answered truthfully.
"Where is Isobel?" The blonde proceeded to question. SHe'd earlier found out Jon's arrival was linked to the phone call Stefan made to Isobel, Elena's birth mother, though him showing up instead was a vaguely unexpected surprise.
"She's busy ensuring Klaus doesn't arrive in Mystic Falls."
"No Klaus, no sacrifice. Solid plan, despite it being unlikely to work." She nodded nonchalantly. Whilst they had the right aim in mind, Olivia knew there was nothing that would stop him from accomplishing what he wanted most of all and that was breaking the curse. Though one thing she hadn't been able to work out over the centuries was why he was so persistent in doing so.
The sun and the moon curse surely wouldn't affect him greatly as what benefit for him was there for being able to walk in the sun or not being forced to change during a full moon when he was already immune to both. She had tried working out the real reason and even tried to get another one of her visions about it all but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to forcefully achieve the information. Her visions only showed her things she didn't have any intention of finding out, they never seemed to actually work with her or in her benefit.
"But don't worry John, I've got you covered if he does show up. I've got a plan B." Olivia continued, pulling herself back to the conversation.
"And that would be?" He asked her curiously.
"I can't exactly tell anyone that. The more people who know, the more of a liability they are." She returned ⏤ the moonstone truthfully being her backup plan in case anything went wrong, despite not exactly knowing what to do with it yet.
"Well as far as information on Klaus, I read everything she has and it didn't prove to be useful in this situation," John drew back to her initial question.
"Did it mention anywhere about what Klaus was?" She prompted, hoping he'd give her the information of Klaus's hybrid original she wanted to know without being too specific and potentially revealing it to him if he didn't in fact already know.
"About Original vampires? Yeah, there was a bit, nothing you probably don't already know."
"Anything else?" She questioned once more, fighting the urge to sigh as a brief wave of irritation passed her due to her plan not working how she had wanted it to.
"Not particularly, no." He replied to which Olivia finally couldn't retain her sigh.
"Well, then I guess this conversation was a waste of time." She announced blandly just as the two had reached the entrance to Mystic Grill. Olivia pulled the door open and began heading inside away from John as if he wasn't giving her any information, what point was there talking to him. It's not that she liked him; if anything it was the opposite, seeing as he had tried to kill her at one point.
"Maybe not. I do have something." He told her, following Liv inside and causing the tribrid to stop beside him by the doorway.
"And this something is?" She asked him curiously.
"Isobel left me something. Something that may help you with your Original vampire problem," John began referring to a certain white oak dagger he'd obtained.
Olivia listened in intently for his next words, but before he could say anything he was interrupted by Jenna. The strawberry blonde was seated across the Grill from them at one of the booths running along the side of the building, opposite a curious Alaric. "John, what are you doing here?"
Those words prompted the Gilbert to approach the pair, engaging in a rather unpleasant conversation with them, all the while Alaric's attention was directed at Olivia, giving her a look that quite clearly read: What the hell are you doing? Before he had a chance to approach her, however, and ask her what she had been talking about with John, Liv quickly spotted Jeremy who was seated alone at one of the tables and so headed over to him and seated herself in the chair opposite him.
"Hey, Olivia." Jeremy greeted the blonde upon seeing her.
"Jeremy." She nodded in reply.
"You know I haven't seen you since you told me you were going to stay with Tyler during the full moon." He began. "I've never met someone so persistent to put themselves in danger for no good reason." He finished with a slight smile forming on his lips.
"Hey, at least I didn't charge into a tomb containing a 500-year-old vampire who had a strong craving for blood." Olivia returned with a similar expression.
"Okay, okay. You made your point" Jeremy returned with a laugh.
"At least we're both still alive." She said with a brief smile, prompting Jeremy's thoughts to grow in the momentary silence between them.
"How do you do it?" He asked her with slight curiosity, voicing his thoughts without clear context as to what he was referring to.
"Do what?" She furrowed her brows back at him.
"Cope with constantly risking your life." He clarified to which Liv paused momentarily. When it came to her so-called life, things were difficult to explain. Sometimes she'd look death in the face and tempt it to overcome her and other times she found herself risking other people, innocent people just so she could live. And so she wasn't too sure what went through her head every time it came down to a life-risking decision. Though to avoid the complicated discussion with Jeremy, she gave him a different answer entirely.
"Like I told you before, Jer ⏤ I'm good at surviving. It's kinda my thing." She told him playfully despite giving him a relatively truthful answer because, despite the complications when it came to dangerous situations, no matter what, she seemed to always survive.
"Your thing?" He asked her, laughing slightly as he spoke.
"Yeah, like in the face of danger some rely on their werewolf or vampire abilities, some rely on their witch powers and others on their fighting skills. I, however, purely rely on my ability to survive." She returned playfully before both Liv and Jeremy shared a laugh just as they noticed Bonnie looking over to the two and upon sharing her glance, the witch instantly turned away. "She's still mad at me?" Olivia turned back to the boy.
"You did kill her cousin." He responded, causing the girl to sigh. Bonnie barely knew Lucy yet somehow she seemed to be overly devastated by her death ⏤ though, then again, human loss also proved to be a difficult subject to comprehend for the girl, never truly experiencing it herself. "Maybe you should go talk to her. Apologize." Jeremy suggested, not wanting it to be awkward between the two or for Bonnie to be mad at him every time he talked to Olivia.
"Apologize?" Liv questioned with raised eyebrows. She didn't really do the whole apology thing and if she did it was almost never sincere but upon seeing the look Jeremy was giving her, she sighed once more before getting up from her seat and heading over to the witch.
"Hey, Bonnie." Liv began, forcing a smile as she stood in front of her.
"What do you want?" She asked her bitterly.
"To talk," Liv shrugged simply in return.
"I'm busy," Bonnie moved to walk around her, but Olivia took a step to her left, blocking the witch's way, making the dark-haired girl sigh in retaliation. "I don't want to talk to you, Olivia." She said to which Liv inwardly rolled her eyes before taking a breath and attempting to figure out what she was going to say.
"Listen I know you hate me and that your mad I still haven't given you a good explanation for killing Lucy," she began to say, "but there are things far worse than any of you guys understand and if I didn't kill Lucy, It could've ended with thousands of deaths if not more and I'm pretty sure that goes against your whole moral system." She finished, causing Bonnie to begin growing frustrated.
"Why?" She questioned. "Why won't you tell me the real reason?"
"Because if I so much as tell a single person the truth, it would lead to everyone finding out and then eventually they would find out as well," Olivia explained without telling her too much.
"They? Whose they?" Bonnie questioned eagerly in confusion. She wasn't the biggest fan of Olivia and certainly wasn't over her killing Lucy but her primary feelings of hate were mostly overrun and compromised by her feelings of suspicion or confusion, or even curiosity in some cases.
Whenever she was around Olivia she felt a strange sense of power and she always acted so strangely. One minute she would be saving her and the next she'd be against her. She went from killing Lucy to saving her conscious, saving Luka and preventing her from potentially regretting doing something drastic for the rest of her life. Bonnie found herself continuously questioning what Liv's true intentions were.
"You know what? Just forget I ever said anything." Olivia returned in exasperation, regretting approaching the girl in the first place.
"How'd that apology go?" Jeremy asked as she slumped back into her previous seat.
"Great." She sighed back sarcastically in return with a fake smile before they both just sat there and talked for a while. It felt like it was only a short time but in truth, the two spent a relatively long amount of time just catching up with one another.
Every once in a while, Olivia eventually reached for her phone to check if there were any new messages from Caroline. Though there hadn't been one for several hours now. Her last text explained how Stefan was talking to Tyler and presumably dealing with the situation, though apart from that she hadn't said anything more to her. Olivia had decided to deal with Jules after Stefan and Caroline dealt with Tyler as she was guessing one event would lead to the other.
Olivia was moments away from checking her phone yet again, when her attention was drawn to the opening door of the Grill, hearing Damon and Elena's voices as they entered. "We just need answers. Please don't do anything stupid." Elena told Damon immediately.
"Yeah, but stupid is so much more fun." Damon returned with a smile before he scanned the room, his eyes instantly landing on Olivia who was seated with Jeremy at one of the tables.
"Damon, I mean it. All I'm asking is you try to keep it together. Be the better man." Elena continued though Damon ignored her words and instead began heading over to the table Liv and Jeremy were seated at ⏤ much to Elena's confusion as she thought he would instantly go up to John.
"I need to talk to you." He said in a low, relatively quiet voice.
Olivia tilted her head up to the Salvatore in response, "I'm listening." She said, waiting for his response though he said nothing for several moments, his gaze turning to Jeremy before his eyes narrowed.
"What's he doing here?" He asked bitterly, Jeremy rolling his eyes in response.
"You really want to know?" She asked him with a forced smile to which he once again said nothing; his gaze piercing through her. "Well, Jeremy and I are actually on a date right now and you're kind of interrupting so if you wouldn't mind ⏤" she began sarcastically but before she could finish, Damon no longer able to contain his anger abruptly gripped her arm and forcefully pulled her out of her chair and in front of him so she was facing him.
Olivia herself was slightly startled by the movement as were many others in the Grill who turned to see the action and didn't quite know what to think. Jeremy, stood up from the table about to do something when Elena upon seeing Damon's actions rushed over to the two. "Damon..." she began but he didn't listen to her words and Olivia interrupted her before she could continue.
"What's up with you?" She asked him in slight confusion before pulling her wrist from his tightening grip, completely unphased.
"What were you doing talking to John earlier?" He asked her, the bitterness remaining in his voice. Although he was angry about John he couldn't help his jealousy from getting the better of him again.
"Nothing," she shrugged, "I was just curious, that's all." She added simply and though Damon opened his mouth to say something in return, John arrived at their table before he could.
"Damon, it's good to see you." He said, his tone not implying any sarcasm despite his well-known character showing it all to well.
"John, buddy, how have you been?" Damon returned, trying to cover his anger with his usual cockiness.
Olivia rolled her eyes in response as the conversation continued similarly ⏤ mostly comprised of sarcasm, bitterness and empty threats that Olivia didn't particularly acknowledge. Mostly because she soon received a phone call and glancing at the caller ID she immediately saw Caroline's name. Without saying anything, Liv discreetly left the Grill; John and Damon were too caught up in their subtle argument to notice.
Olivia headed outside, and glanced around her now isolated surroundings, viewing as darkness began to overtake the area and a slight breeze picked up. She then finally answered the call and immediately began talking to who she thought was Caroline on the other end. "Hey Caroline, what's going on?"
"Olivia, nice talking to you again." A voice answered; a voice that was undoubtedly not Caroline's.
"Who the hell is this?" She questioned instantly.
"I think you know." The female voice returned, leaving Liv to bite her inner cheek slightly as the realisation washed over her.
"Jules." She stated in irritation. "What the hell did you do with Caroline? Where is she?" Olivia then proceeded to question. If Jules had her phone, she was unquestionably up to something, most likely holding Caroline against her will and may even be torturing her for all she knew.
"Right here. Want proof? " She asked. Olivia said nothing in response, simply listening to Jules's footsteps as she presumably headed into an indoor room. "She needs proof," Jules told someone over the phone as Olivia continued to listen in as a voice that was indefinitely Caroline's appeared to scream in pain.
The tribrid instantly gritted her teeth, taking a calming breath before continuing to speak. "Touch her again and I'll follow up on my threat from the other day. Or better yet I'll doom you to the same fate as Mason." Olivia returned, feeling a wave of slight anger rise within her.
"You see Olivia our conversation is one of the many reasons I'm doing this. That and the fact Stefan has Tyler." Jules returned.
"What do you mean he has Tyler? They're just talking." Olivia said back in exhaustion.
"Listen to me clearly because I'm only going to say this once. You either get your vampire friend to bring Tyler to me by the clearing near Wickery Falls or she dies. You have 20 minutes."