𝐃𝐎 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐆𝐎 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐄
everyone keeps leaving me and there is nothing i can do about it
CAROLINE, Echo, and Elena were walking through the gym hall which was being decorated for the 20s Decade Dance. Caroline had a clipboard and was in charge of the preparations because Rebekah had gone missing.
"So, Alaric is trying to pull himself together, why is that a bad thing?" The blonde questioned in confusion.
"It's not." Echo sighed and ran a hand through her growing dark hair. "I just wish there was something more I can do. Any spells I find haven't even done anything to help." She pulled her eyebrows together. "It also doesn't help that I got my head bashed in by a fucking baseball bat. You should've seen Damon last night. He didn't want to let me go at all, not even when I had to pee."
"I think it's cute," Elena said and then shook her head. "Not the fact that you were killed — again." She laid a hand on Echo's shoulder. "I think it's cute about how protective he is of you and how you guys have an epic love story." She moved away from them and picked up a chandelier. "Where do you want me to hang this thing?"
Caroline stopped walking with an annoyed scowl on her face. "You know what, if Rebekah wanted to hang this monstrousity she should have shown up to do it herself." She took it from Elena and handed the chandelier to a passingby student. "Just no!" She saw Matt and Jeremy hanging up stars from the ceiling. "What are you doing? You can't just hang them!" She yelled at them with her temporary authority. "They're supposed to trickle down." The blonde vamp used her hand to demonstrate.
Jeremy hit Matt's shoulder mockingly. "Trickle, duh!"
Echo laughed lightly while Caroline looked up at them. "Look at them all bromancy."
Elena nodded and looked at them as well. "Yeah I asked Matt to help Jeremy readjust. He got him his old job back at the Grill."
"Jeremy has got a lot on his mind. The whole thing with Alaric has got him really stressed out," Elena said with a loud sigh.
Caroline frowned. "Yeah. after everything he has been through... he's so strong." She then swiveled around to face Elena. "So who are you bringing to the dance?" She rolled her eyes when Echo placed her hands on her hips. "We all know you're bringing Damon. No surprise there seeing as you're madly in love with him."
Echo opened her mouth, about to say something before shrugging and smirking. "You're right."
Elena wrapped a feather boa around her neck before pausing in confusion. "What do you mean? I thought you, Bonnie, and I were going as girl dates."
The perky vampire made a face before looking at her. "Hm, Bonnie has a date." "
"What?" The younger brunette asked in shock and confusion. She couldn't fathom anyone wanting to be with the stuck-up witch.
Caroline nodded slowly and attempted to smile. "Jamie called and wanted to see her so she asked him."
Echo jumped when her phone buzzed in her back pocket, and she took it out to read a very dirty message written by Damon. She blushed heavily and looked up at her sister and best friend. "I gotta go do something." She began backing away slowly. "I'll see you guys later!" She exclaimed before running out of the gym, her face red and hot.
"Stupid Salvatore. Why do you have to get me all hot and bothered and you're not even here to—" She stopped mid-sentence when she saw a random girl giving her an odd look. "Uh.. hi!" She shouted with wide eyes before making her way out of the school, now embarrassed. "I'm going to kill him!"
ECHO HAD SPENT most of the day with Damon, staying in his bed, having sex, and eating tons of junk foods. But, Damon had gotten a text and had to leave, leaving Echo to take a shower.
Not that much later, she had gotten a text from Elena saying: Help. Esther has me, we're at the Salvatore crypt.
Echo had gotten there when Elena and Esther were walking towards the Salvatore tomb.
"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," Esther said sympathetically in a soft tone as Echo followed shortly behind, being careful of being seen.
"Just please don't hurt Alaric," Elena pleaded with narrowed eyes.
Alaric walked out from the tomb with a blank face. "She's not hurting me."
"Ric!" Elena said in relief and moved towards him, but stopped when she sensed something was different about him. "What's going on? What are you doing with him?"
Esther smiled over at her then looked at him. "I'm going to remake him."
"Remake him?" She questioned in confusion.
The millennial old witch nodded. "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. Like my husband Mikael before him I will make Alaric into a true hunter, a vampire to end all vampires." She smirked, overly joyed that she had the chance to kill her children again.
Elena looked at her appalled and shocked. "You're disgusting," she spat. "You can't create another Original. 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," Ester explained slowly to her.
"You don't know that, you don't know anything about him," The doppelgänger snapped furiously at her.
Esther began lighting candles inside the Salvatore tomb and preparing for a spell as she continued to talk to Elena, "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. Now he's getting his vengeance."
"See, here's the thing—" Echo said walking into the tomb with her gun raised, aiming it at Esther, "there is a lot more monsters out there, way worse than your children. They have taken a lot from me, but you don't see me turning into an Original!"
"Ahh, Echo, how lovely of you to join us." Esther smiled at her then wave her hand causing the hunter to fly outside the tomb onto the grass. Echo stood up and rushed to move back into the tomb but hit an invincible barrier. "But you're going to get in the way."
"O!" Elena shouted before turning to Alaric. "Ric, this isn't what you want. It's not who you are."
He glared at her in anger. "You don't know who I am, Elena. You only know the weakest parts of me, the man who lost his way befriending vampires instead of killing them."
She shook her head quickly. "You don't mean that."
"They're all monsters," he sneered viciously. "The blood of their victims is on my hands. Jenna's blood is on my hands."
Esther looked at him. "When you are ready."
"Ric! Don't." Echo yelled slamming against the barrier repeatedly. "Please don't!"
Elena shook her was frantically as tears pooled in her eyes. "No Ric, please don't. Don't do this. I won't help you, I'm not gonna give you my blood, you're gonna have to kill me!"
"That won't be necessary." Esther gestured towards Elena as a cut opened up on Elena's hand and started to bleed. Esther grabs her wrist and held it above the bowl so the blood could pour into it. She walked over to Ric with the bowl. "Drink. And let it be done."
"No Ric please, don't..." Elena pleaded as Ric grabbed the bowl. "No!"
He drank the blood in the bowl and put it down. "Is it finished?" He asked Esther curiously.
"Not just yet." Esther said then staked Alaric with the indestructible white oak stake.
"No!" Echo bellowed desperately and hit the barrier again. "Ric!"
"No!" Elena yelled and rushed to pull the stake out.
Echo kept punching the barrier, the feeling of air leaving her lungs, and she realized she was no longer breathing, and was silently screaming and crying.
"He'll wake soon. When he does he may for a time be his old self. If so you can say your goodbyes before his transition is complete," Esther explained dully to the two girls.
"You said you wanted to undo the evil that you created, but this..." Elena trailed off trying to find the right way to phrase the situation. "This is just as evil!"
The witch shook her head. "Alaric will never be what my children became. I have granted him enough power to complete his task. Then when the time is right, he will die."
"How, if he's immortal?" Elena questioned incredulously and glanced over at Echo who had fallen to her knees, looking at Alaric's dead body with tears streaming down her face. She knew how much Ric meant to Echo especially seeing as she can't see her real father.
"All you need to know is that when this is over we will have rid the earth of vampires once and for all," Esther vaguely responded.
"Yeah, but you'll be killing the good along with the bad, you're no better than Klaus!" Elena shouted enraged.
Esther looked at her amused and intrigued. "Am I not? I desire a world where you and your loved ones will not suffer at the hands of vampires, like your Aunt Jenna did."
The doppelgänger shook her head as tears ran down her face. "Don't you dare use Jenna as an excuse for what you've done."
"You may draw comfort knowing that your aunt is not in the place that I was. She doesn't know the torment of The Other Side. Though made a vampire, she remained pure. She knows peace. Which is all any of us can hope for," Esther grimly explained to the doppelgänger.
Echo furiously scowled at the witch as her fists clenched tightly around the handles of her guns. She was now standing up. "I am going to kill you. Slowly. I will string you up and peel your skin off piece by fucking piece until all that is left to see is nerves and bones. And while the birds are picking out your eyeballs, I will rip out your tongue and feed it to the wolves!" She screamed, her voice raw. She didn't care how Esther was looking at her, all she saw was red, and she wanted Esther to suffer. "You're the reason for all this! And you're going to pay!"
"We're here by your side, Echo," Jeremy said as he and Matt stepped up to her sides. Jeremy was pointing a crossbow while Matt was pointing a rifle. Echo furiously smirked and raised her pistols to aim at her too.
"Don't move!" Matt order sternly and cocked his gun.
"Where's Elena?" Jeremy demanded in the same tone of voice.
Just then, Elena walked outside. "Jeremy!" He looked at her then glared at Esther. "Let her go."
"How foolish of you, to risk your lives in defense of those who will kill you. But if that is your choice." Esther used her powers and made Jeremy, Echo and Matt turn their hands and point their weapons at each other.
"Matt! Matt drop your gun!" Jeremy yelled in a panic.
"I can't! I'm not controlling it!" Matt yelled back at him then looked at the hunter. "Lower your guns, Echo!"
"I can't, you bloody fool!" She yelled, fearful and stressed. "If you can't, I can't!"
"Esther stop it!" Elena yelled frantically to the witch.
Suddenly, Alaric came up and stabbed Esther from behind, having been temporarily his old self. "Oh my god. Where's my ring? Tell me what happened." He looked up at them as the three lowered their weapons at the same time.
The Gilberts then took him inside the tomb and explained everything. And shortly after, Klaus came by and took Esther's body away from them.
Soon, all of the group of friends were standing outside waiting for their turn to say goodbye.
Then, Elena walked out of the tomb and Alaric followed her. There were lit candles scattered around them and he smiled a little. Elena walked to Stefan and saw that Damon, Caroline and Tyler, Matt, Bonnie, Echo, Jeremy, and Meredith was standing there. Alaric teared up and walked into the tomb so Echo followed him.
"Hey Ric," she greeted with a small smile before turning to face him.
"Hey," he whispered tearfully before quickly pulling her into a tight hug and sobbing into her hair. She wrapped her arms around him, returning the embrace. She shut her dark eyes in an attempt to keep herself from crying. He pulled away and wiped his face furiously.
She looked up at him and sighed heavily to steady herself. "Thank you. For everything. You were a father to me and I—" She choked on her own words. "I can't see my father and I'm so glad that you were by my side through everything, even when I was acting terrible or stupid. You were there for me and I couldn't be more grateful." She took in a shaky breath and reached forward, grabbing his hands. "I'm going to miss you, you big blundering fool." They both chuckled lowly. "But... it's okay. It's your choice and I respect that," she whispered, tears skimming down her face.
He nodded causing more tears to fall down his face. "Don't get yourself killed again please. Keep an eye out on everyone and remember to never give up." Then Ric pulled her into another hug and gave her a lingering kiss on the forehead. "Goodbye, Echo."
"Goodbye, Ric," she whispered painfully before letting him go and leaving the tomb. Once she saw Damon, she ran straight into his arms, and started sobbing even louder.
"It's going to be okay, little warrior," Damon whispered against her head before tightening his hold on her. "Everything will be okay."