𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐆𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐂
going with the idea that nothing can stop me
DAMON, ECHO, AND Stefan got out of his car and approached Damon's car, which was sitting on the side of the road out of gas after Elena and Rebekah stole it.
Damon was carrying two large containers in his hands as he clenched his jaw. "If they so much as even scratched the paint on my car..."
"Well, just be grateful Sheriff Forbes was able to track down the car after you let them, ah, you know, steal it from you," Stefan pointed out as his lips twitched into an almost smile.
"Remind me to send her some mini-muffins," Damon retorted which made Echo snort. "Do we really need ten gallons of gas, or are you making me just lug this around as punishment?"
"Well, they ditched your car after it ran out of fuel. You gotta fill it up," Stefan explained pointing at the light blue car. "Got a hundred miles before we get to Willoughby."
"Yeah, well I don't remember that name from the list of places I got from New York," Damon commented with furrowed eyebrows as they finally reached his vehicle.
"Oh, the list?" Stefan questioned and smirked in amusement. "The list they stole from right under your nose, after you let your guard down? They'll be there. Sheriff Forbes tracked down the car they stole after yours."
"Will you shut up?" Echo asked in annoyance, turning to the younger Salvatore. "If you don't, I can go on about what you allowed to happen in Mystic Falls..."
The older Salvatore was filling his tank with gasoline as he glared at his brother. "Screw the muffins. I'll get her champagne — if Elena is wherever it may be."
Stefan smiled over at him. "Willoughby. Creamed corn capital of Pennsylvania. They'll be there. Let's just hope we get to them before they get to the cure."
"Ooh, silver lining: if Rebekah takes the cure, then she's mortal and we can just kill her right then and there," Damon pointed out with a mischievous smirk.
Stefan rolled his eyes. "Look, why don't you just table the revenge fantasies for now, and just keep your eye on the prize. Find Katherine, get the cure, get out before you get your neck snapped — again."
"Why is he here?" Echo asked, pointing to Stefan in annoyance. "All he is doing is talking his ear off. I'm tired of it."
"Me too," Damon said which made Stefan look to him in surprise. "What? She's right. All you have been talking about in the last two hours was Elena getting the upper hand on us. It's getting to the point where I was going to allow Echo to choke you out."
Echo turned to her boyfriend with wide eyes. "You're telling me that I couldn't choked the life out of him this whole time, and you didn't let me?"
He shrugged and smirked as he continued to fill his car up.
NOT LONG LATER, climbed in Damon's Camaro, and soon enough, they arrived in Willoughby, and began walking along the street.
"Something's not right. Katherine Pierce does not hole up in Hickstown, P-A," Damon commented while studying the small town.
They then approached a vehicle parked on the curb. "Well, this is definitely the car they stole," Stefan mused unhappily as he studied it. "We're in the right place."
"Points to them for their choice of vehicles," Damon commented in a grumble as they kept walking.
"They seem to like the flashy cars," Echo stated and smirked, proud. "Just like a true Winchester."
Stefan turned to look at the couple with a curious, yet annoyed facial expression. "So let me ask you something. What happens when we find Elena? How do we get her back to Mystic Falls? I mean, she's not exactly gonna go quietly, and she has an Original vampire as her bodyguard."
"We do whatever we have to do," Echo said, shrugging slightly. "I don't care if we have to throw Rebekah under a school bus and wrap Elena up in a burlap sack. We do whatever we have to do."
"I'm serious," Stefan said unamused.
Damon stopped walking and looked at him sternly. "I am, too. I don't care what Elena wants right now. She's this close—" He held up his fingers as demonstration. "—to going off the rails for good and that ain't happening." He then rolled his eyes. "She's already a pain in the ass as is."
Echo smiled brightly. "I take responsibility for that."
IN A SMALL DINER, Katherine reached across the table for something, but Rebekah grabbed her hand and started crushing the bones in her arm when Echo, Damon, and Stefan appeared.
"Ladies, playing nice?" Stefan snarkily questioned with a smirk.
Echo glared darkly at Katherine, wanting nothing more to yank her head back by her hair, and chop away at her neck.
Rebekah released Katherine, who rolled her eyes in annoyance and sat back in her seat. "There goes the neighborhood."
"I see you got Katherine already," The eldest Salvatore commented to Rebekah then looked at Katherine. "You're losing your touch, evil one."
Echo sat in the booth across from the blonde and Katherine, and pulled out her mini crossbow under the table, and pulled the trigger. Katherine groaned and went to move, but Rebekah stopped her by laying a hand on her thigh.
"I will fucking destroy you," Echo spat out with a malice filled smirk on her features.
Then they all stared at each other with different facial expressions until Stefan began talking to Rebekah. "Where's Elena?"
Rebekah tilted her head. "So, let me get this straight: I tell you where Elena is, you shove the cure down her throat, and then I end up in a box, right?" She rhetorically asked, then shook her head. "I don't think so."
Damon rolled his eyes and looked over at Katherine, who was smirking. "What about you over there, smiley? Do you know where she is?"
The doppelgänger smirked wider and leaned across the table. "I can give you a hint. Start by looking at the town morgue. She's probably dead." No one spoke, waiting for her to elaborate. "She went to meet up with a friend of mine. You may know him — an Original brother, impeccable taste."
"Elijah," Rebekah realized in horror.
"Elijah's here?" Damon asked in confusion with furrowed eyebrows.
"Well, you sort of have to question Elijah's impeccable taste if he's friends with you," Echo commented in a grumble.
"Oh, when I say friend, I mean friend," she emphasized with a smirk causing Damon, Echo Rebekah to groan in disgust. "It probably took him about ten seconds to realize that she wasn't me, at which point he probably yanked her heart right out of her chest."
"All right. Where are they?" Stefan demanded but Katherine smiled and said nothing. "Rebekah, you do realise if something should happen to Elena, you have no chance of finding the cure, right?" He pointed out hoping she'd understand the urgency of their situation.
The blonde thought about it then sighed heavily. "Fine. They were supposed to meet at the gazebo by the park."
"I'll go talk to Elijah," Stefan said standing up from his seat.
"You go deal with Elijah. Katherine will take us to the cure," Rebekah said, looking at the annoying doppelgänger.
Katherine scoffed and shook her head. "No, she won't. The cure is my one chance to win my freedom back from Klaus."
"You're gonna broker a deal with Klaus?" Damon asked her in confusion then laughed.
"No," Echo said, shaking her head as she thought about it. "She's gonna get Elijah to broker the deal for her. That's why you need your little friend, isn't it?" She rolled her yes and smirked. "She's too scared to do it herself." She shot another arrow at Katherine from under the table. "You really are pathetic."
"Fine," Katherine said rolling her eyes before turning to Rebekah. "Move. You have to follow me."
Echo turned to Stefan and glared. "You better do one right thing and bring my sister back safely to me. Or else."
A FEW MOMENTS later, they entered through the front door of Katherine's temporary home.
Damon pushed Katherine inside. "No sudden moves. No tricks either. No Katherine-ing."
Echo chuckled lightly and looked around with analyzing eyes.
Damon opened his mouth in surprise. "Wow. A quilt and a fish aquarium. Who the hell are you?" He questioned her incredulously.
"A very old lady with dreadful taste," Rebekah commented in disgust.
Echo laughed at that and held her up up for a high-five towards the blonde. Rebekah rose her brows before high-fiving her. "That's so true."
Katherine then began removing things from a bookshelf before opening a hidden safe and moving her hands around inside it. "It's gone. The cure, it was in the safe, but it's not there." She began to fake panic.
Damon imitated a loud buzzer. "Not falling for it. Where is it, Auntie Katherine?"
She looked at him with wide shocked eyes. "I swear it was in the safe."
"What, just like Elijah's really your boyfriend and this is really your life?" Rebekah questioned in annoyance an rolled her eyes. "And for all we know, this isn't even your house."
"Yeah, it doesn't look like the Katherine I know," Damon remarked in agreement.
"Maybe you don't know Katherine at all. Did it ever occur to you that you have no idea who I really am?" The doppelgänger asked him with a lot of attitude.
"Did it ever occur to you that you're not that deep?" Damon questioned in the same tone and a glare. "This whole small-town girl thing, we all know it's an act."
"You're just a pathetic bitch who is jealous of Elena, and wants to be everything she is," Echo stated with a roll of her eyes.
"Where is the cure?" Rebekah demanded sternly and Katherine looked at her with a hint of a smile causing the blonde to sped at her, but Damon threw his arm out to stop her.
"Whoa, whoa. Hang on!" Damon exclaimed, trying to calm her down. "We need her alive. The cure's not here. You check upstairs. I'll check down. I got this," he advised and Katherine smiled as Rebekah walked upstairs. "So if I was a paranoid, distrustful sociopath, where would I keep my most prized possession?"
Katherine chuckled and crossed her arms over her chest. "This should be fun."
"Stop talking," Echo snarled furiously at her and pointed a loaded crossbow to the vampire's temple. "
Damon began searching the room. "Because I'd want it to be close, but not on me. Accessible but not obvious. I'd want to keep it safe, but not so safe that it'd be too difficult to grab and run," he stated his thinking process out loud before stopping in front of the fish tank. "Well, that is a fancy little treasure chest-in a tank with no fish." Katherine said nothing so he smirked. "I think I'm gonna have to check that out." Damon stuck his hand into the water but was immediately burned. "Aah! Gah! Vervain water. Looks like we have a winner."
He picked up a large net to scoop out the chest but before he could, Katherine sped at him and shoved his head into the vervain water, holding him there for several seconds then threw him to the floor. Damon writhed in pain and Katherine scooped the chest out. She then sped at Echo and snapped her neck harshly causing the huntress to fall to the ground limply.
The doppelgänger ran for the door but Rebekah appeared in front of her. "Give it to me or you're dead."
"You're gonna kill me anyway. So what's more important to you, huh? Killing me or getting the cure?" Katherine held up a small pill-shaped object and threw it into the air behind her. Rebekah ran to catch it, and Katherine dashed out the front door.
Damon — face healing — was still on the floor and sped towards Echo, and fed her some of his blood, hoping it would help to wake her up.
He then looked up at the blonde. "Look, Rebekah...Don't even think about it," he demanded raspily and shook his head. She stood up, still in awe that she finally had the cure. "Let's just talk about this, like the two rational vampires that we are." She didn't move or respond. "Rebekah?"
The Original stared at the object in her hand. "Oh, give it a rest. Me taking this cure is the best thing that'll ever happen to you."
"Don't do anything stupid," he advised quickly. but was in too much pain to move.
Echo gasped awake, and sat up with wide eyes. She hastily looked around the room before standing up quickly when she noticed what Rebekah had in her hands. "Stop, Rebekah! Think about this! We could all live happy Katherine free lives. Don't ruin this for us."
Rebekah rose a brow, but popped open the pill regardless. As Stefan arrived at the open front door she tossed it back into her mouth.
"No!" The younger Salvatore yelled in desperation.
Rebekah gasped for a few seconds and fell down onto the sofa.
Damon rested his head on the floor and groaned as he fully healed.
"Stupid blonde bitch!" Echo spat out before she turned to her boyfriend and kneeled down. "Here. Have some." She offered her wrist to him, and he looked up at her with soft eyes before biting into it. She moaned softly and pulled him into her chest as he drank from her.
LATER ON, REBEKAH was still unconscious, but was now placed on the sofa.
Stefan was looking at the fish tank and talking to Damon, who had finally gotten up. "Did you even try to stop her?"
"You forgot the part where I was bobbing for boxes in vervain water," Damon commented gruffly in a slight still lingering pain.
"All you had to do was stall her, Damon," Stefan snapped at him in frustration.
"Sorry. It's Rebekah. I didn't have a pony to distract her, Stefan," he snarled back at him in the same tone.
"You let her take it, didn't you?" Stefan asked him in betrayal. "You were never on my side. Now Elena will be a vampire for the rest of her life just like you wanted."
"What does this have to do with you, asshole?!" Echo exclaimed loudly, glaring at the blonde. "Elena fucking broke up with you because you controlled her. And still, you're still trying to control her! She wants to be a vampire! She's likes being a vampire, so stop trying to turn her into the version of the person that once liked you!"
Just then, Rebekah gasped suddenly and woke up. She sat up on the sofa, looking refreshed, her as her mouth hung open in wonder.
Damon stood near a bookshelf, trying to calm Echo, and Stefan sat down on the coffee table opposite her. "How do you feel?"
"I — I feel good. I — I feel great. I feel alive," Rebekah answered overly happy with a beaming smile.
"Slight problem with being alive — I can kill you know," Damon said with a bitter smirk before throwing a letter opener at Rebekah to which she caught with vampire speed. They watched as the gash on her hand healed before their eyes.
Rebekah gasped in horror while Stefan sighed with relief. "I'm still a vampire. The cure didn't work."
"It worked just like she wanted it to. The cure was a fake. It must've been a concentrated shot of vervain or something," Stefan explained putting the pieces together causing Rebekah, who was still in shock, to look at him with her mouth hanging open.
"Katherine," Damon and Echo mumbled together.
Exclaiming loudly in anger, Echo grabbed a fancy looking vase, and flung it at the wall. "I'm going to stick white-hot needles under all her fingernails and toenails until she pukes out her intestines!"