𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐃𝐀𝐘
you're still gonna get criticized, so you might as well do whatever the fuck you want
"JOHN?" Echo and Elena asked simultaneously as they looked at Stefan.
"Are you serious?" Echo shouted, running a hand through her hair. "Oh, my god!" She couldn't believe it. Stefan had just told them his theory on John being their birth father. "No fucking way!"
"Is that even possible?" Elena asked, confused.
"Well, there's no proof, but he dated Isobel when she was a teenager, and he was the one who brought her to your Dad's office for the delivery," Stefan explained.
Elena shook her head, saying, "Our entire lives, O and I have never liked this man. I-I..."
At noticing the distressed looks on their faces, Stefan said, "I'm sorry. I just wanted to tell you two before Damon dropped it on you in some typically inappropriate way."
"No, we're happy you told us, Stefan," Echo told him before making a disgusted expression. "We just really hope it's not true."
"What are we supposed to do?" Elena asked, looking at her twin, "Do we confront him and say, 'Are you our biological father?'"
"I suggest torturing it out of it," Echo said, smirking. "Or, maybe, make it out to be a game. Play truth or dare. Ooh!" She exclaimed, pointing at Elena. "What about charades?!"
Elena rolled her eyes and asked, "Why are you joking about this?"
Echo shrugged. "Because I can," she said, though, she knew that is what she does when things start to get hard for her. She makes a joke, play it cool, and then freak out after bottling it up after a couple of weeks.
"I gotta go!" Echo exclaimed before running off to find Caroline.
Echo had found Caroline and Bonnie with Tyler, and as Matt walked away, Tyler scoffed, and said, "I said I was sorry."
"You made out with his mother, you whore!" Echo stated, glaring at him. "And you tried to attack me. So, you're gonna have to do a lot better than sorry."
"El!" Caroline said, rushing over to hug her friend before sighing at seeing her in light blue jeans, a black tank top, and a leather jacket. "I cannot believe you bailed out of the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant."
"I'm thankful that I did," Echo said with a smirk as Tyler walked away.
Caroline rolled her eyes before seeing the look on her face, and she asked, "Are you okay?"
"Elena and I think we know who our birth father is," Echo said, and Bonnie and Caroline's eyes widened at that. "John..."
"No," Caroline gasped before hugging her. "You poor thing."
LATER that night, after the parade was over, Echo exhausted, and was eating cotton candy as she walked around the square.
As she approached Damon, he sighed, and said, "Thank God I found you. Come with me." Damon took her hand and their hands stayed interlocked as they walked through the people,
Damon practically dragging her, and Echo asked, "What's going on?"
"Let me find the lovebirds first," Damon said before spying a giggling Elena and smiling Stefan.
"What are you two doing?" Elena asked, eyeing their interlocked hands.
"Fifteen words or less, tomb vampires are here," Damon told them, pursing his lips. "Founding Families are the target," He looked at Stefan, "Get them out of here. Now."
"Wait, where are you going?" Echo asked as he started to walk away.
"That's more than fifteen words, Elaine," Damon said before disappearing in the crowd.
Echo narrowed her eyes. "How the hell did he find out about my middle name?" She asked to no one in particular.
"Wait," Elena said. "Jeremy's out here somewhere."
"Let's go find him," Stefan said, looking at them.
They all searched the grounds for the youngest Gilbert when suddenly, Stefan yelled out in pain as he collapsed to the ground. "My head," he groaned as Elena bent down to check up on him.
Echo saw Alaric and waved at him, trying to get him to come over just as a deputy started to run over to them. Alaric intercepted him, saying, "I got this one. There's one over there. Take this." Alaric handed him a stake. "Go. Go!" He ran over to the three as the deputy ran off in the direction that Alaric pointed, and he lifted Stefan off of the ground before carrying him into the underground area behind the Grill.
"I don't know what happened," Elena explained as she ran to keep up with them. "He just dropped."
"Yeah, he's not the only one," Alaric explained. "Cops are grabbing everyone who has gone down. Injecting them with vervain."
"What?" The twins asked before Alaric placed Stefan down on the stairs.
"They're rounding up the vampires," Echo said in realization as Alaric stood, heading out to see what kind of information he could gather.
"Are you okay?" Elena asked as Stefan looked up, looking a lot better.
"It was like needles were piercing my skull and then it just stopped," Stefan explained, sighing.
"I saw at least five vampires go down," Alaric explained as he ran down the steps before looking at the twins. "They were taking them to your family's old building."
"It's the Gilbert device," Stefan said, "It has to be."
"But, how did he get it to work?" Elena asked in confusion. "Bonnie unspelled it."
"Maybe she didn't," Echo aid with a shrug.
"She did," Elena said with a nod. "We saw her do it."
Echo started to pace, trying to explain it, "No, he's right. Think about it. We asked Bonnie to deactivate a device that could protect people against vampires." She looked her twin in the eyes. "Vampires that caused Bonnie's Grams to die. And she doesn't like Damon." Her eyes widened. "Where is Damon?!" She exclaimed, looking around.
The teacher shook his head, saying, "I don't know. I haven't seen him since this started."
"Can you get our brother?" Elena asked Alaric. "Take him home?"
"Of course," Alaric said with a nod.
"Thanks, Ric," Echo said to him.
Alaric smiled at her and headed up the stairs before the twins looked at Stefan and said, "Let's go."
"WHERE'S Damon?" Echo asked John as she, Elena, and Stefan walked up to him.
"With the rest of them," John stated. "Where he should be. It's over for Damon."
"You're crazy," Elena said, shaking her head.
"Why?" John asked. "Because I'm doing what should've been done a hundred and forty-five years ago? This is the right thing."
Noticing Stefan's glances at the building that the vampires were trapped in, John said, "Go ahead. You won't make it out. It'll save me the trouble of killing you myself."
"You two know the building well," Stefan said to the twins, "Is there another entrance?"
"Utility door, there's one around the side," Elena answered, knowing the office like the back of her hand from when she would spend her afternoons there with her Dad.
The twins started to run after Stefan when John grabbed their arms, stopping them. "You two take one more step and I'll alert those deputies that they missed a vampire," John told them.
"We're asking you not to," Elena said, looking the man in the eyes.
He shook his head, saying, "That doesn't mean anything to me."
Echo's eyes narrowed as she spat, "As our father, it should."
John immediately released the twins, looking shocked before he said, "You know."
"We weren't sure," Echo said with a glare. "But now we are."
Echo grabbed Elena's hand, and the two ran off towards the building, leaving John alone.
"Stefan!" Elena yelled as they made it to the open utility door, seeing Bonnie standing outside of it.
"You can't go in there!" Bonnie said, grabbing the girls' arms.
Echo turned to Echo with a harsh glare that made the Bennett witch want to shrink back. "This is on you!" She shouted in her face. "I knew we shouldn't have listened to you. All you witches do is lie and get my family hurt!" She was more than angry, she was livid. "Damon is down there, dying, and you don't seem to care! You act like you're better than him, and any other vampire, but you're not!"
Bonnie's eyes widened with tears shining in them before she shut her eyes, held their arms tightly, and began chanting.
After a minute, she stopped chanting, and Elena asked, "Bonnie, what is it? Are they gonna be okay?"
Suddenly, Stefan and Damon stumbled out of the building, and as Elena helped Stefan stand, Echo ran towards Damon, pulling him in for a hug.
"You're not allowed to die, Salvatore," she told him, helping him up. "Understood? You die when I say you die."
Damon laughed and leaned against her as he said, "Understood."
LATER that night, Echo and Elena walked up to the front door of the house as Elena talked on her phone, saying, "I looked everywhere. Yeah, someone definitely took my stuff."
"Which is really weird," Echo added. "My stuff was with her stuff, and none of it was touched."
"Echo and I are going to check on Jeremy before going to the hospital," Elena told Stefan. "Can you meet us there? Okay. I love you, Stefan."
Echo fake gagged and Elena rolled her eyes at her sister before hanging up her phone, and unlocking the door.
"Jeremy, you up?" Echo yelled up the stairs.
Suddenly, there was the sound of plates crashing, and the sound of someone groaning. Echo immediately went into a defensive stance, and grabbed her stake from her boot.
Elena walked beside her twin as they followed the noise.