3rd Person P.O.V.
After purgatory collapsed and the Mikaelsons were forced to send Hope away, things changed for everyone. Caroline, Elena, and Alaric packed up and headed to New Orleans, hoping to find a way to save Jessica, Damon, and Bonnie, while Stefan packed up and decided to find another life.
Mystic Falls is quiet now that magic isn't allowed and Caroline and Liz take turns visiting the other, although when Caroline visits, they have to meet in Whittmore. Alaric got a job as the occult professor at U.N.O. It turned out to be a lot easier since Meredith let them into Jessica's bedroom, that Vivianne had taken to staying in, where Jessica had all her journals about what she knew about the supernatural world, which was a lot.
After three months of trying to find a way to bring her best friend back, Caroline walked into a bar one day, outside the city since Vampires weren't allowed in the Quarter, to hear a couple of vampires toasting to Jessica, saying that she could change the vampires' position if she were alive. "I wouldn't say that. I'm not sure what you did to the wolves but it must've been bad for a reaction like this and Jessica always played fair," she comments after downing her bourbon.
"And how would you know anything about Jessica? I've never seen you around before and you don't seem like her type of friend," Marcel snarls, not wanting someone to dishonor Jessica's memory.
"I've been Jessica's friend since we were 3 and met in preschool so who the hell are you, and why do think that you know anything about her?" Caroline counters, ready to kill the vampire who is obviously older than her. Marcel studies her for a second before it clicks and he grins.
"You're Caroline. Marcel," he introduces before continuing. "Jessica always had a story to tell about you. I don't think she ever cared about anyone the way she did for you, not even her siblings," he reveals, paying for her drink and ordering her another one.
"Yeah, she mentioned you once or twice. Mostly called you her 'friend in New Orleans' because she said you didn't want Klaus to know you were alive. Clearly that worked well for you," she taunts, accepting his drink.
"I see why Jessica liked you. You two are very similar. Listen, I know you're a vampire and I'm sure that you want to see the Quarter, it was always Jess' favorite part of the city and she used to say how she wished she could show it to you, Elena, Jeremy, and Bonnie. I want to reclaim it, but I need some more vampires. Now I have Josh here," he motions to Josh, who holds a hand up in a wave, before speaking again. "And he's good at getting people but I want people that will make good vampires. I don't turn against their will, I just want to make sure that they deserve it. Jessica said you're one of the best vampires she knows, I think you'd be good at helping with control."
Caroline nods, liking the idea and remembering what Jessica had said about Marcel knowing a powerful witch. She agrees, hoping that he can help with their plan, when Enzo arrives only to be recruited too. Enzo likes Caroline and his company is growing on her but they both know they have a common goal, getting Jessica and Damon back, that's all.
Hayley is not handling her transition well, much to Elijah's dismay, and Klaus refuses to help. He hasn't told anyone but Elijah, who he forbade to tell Meredith, that he remembers Jessica so he is being forced to mourn both Jessica and his child with his only comfort being that Jessica forgave him. He has been tearing through his mother's grimoire in the hopes of finding a spell to get her back but has come up with nothing. The wolves that believe that they control the Quarter don't help. The newest Harvest girl has been making more rings but Klaus is too caught up in his problems to stop it.
Meredith, who had been added to the list of people that know about Jessica, has been helping her stay under the radar and can feel the strain in her relationship with Elijah, although she knows it has to do with Hayley's current state and is beginning to worry that Elijah might have feelings for the new hybrid.
Vivianne is finally getting used to her life as a tribrid. Being a wolf again was an odd feeling but not as odd as drinking blood. Luckily, Jessica has taught her how to control her magic so people don't know she has it unless she is using it. She has recently taken to being friends with Eric as they are both mourning Jessica, who Vivianne misses being whole.
They originally bonded over Vivianne,who needed someone to tell her to get over her feelings and that they weren't important as her heightened emotions made them seem, Oliver being a traitor is taking a bad toll on her. Eric comforted her and told her that her feelings were important and helped her process them. Elena has taken to sneaking off to Whittmore to see Luke and get some herbs that allow her to see Jessica.
She never really mourned Jessica because, deep down, she believed that Jessica would come back like Jer but now that she knows she's gone, it's hard. She misses Damon and Bonnie as well but she can't live without Jessica.
Meanwhile, in the prison world, Damon, Bonnie, and Jessica Gilbert have been stuck together for 4 months.
Damon was mourning Jessica for a couple days until they went to the Gilbert house to see if it was there. They heard something inside and went to investigate but before they entered, the brunette came out of the house with a tub of ice cream in one hand and a picture and newspaper in the other. "Look how cute I was when I was 5," Jessica said, handing the picture to Damon and taking a bite of ice cream. "Which is how old I should be, by the way. The year is 2008. May 10, 2008, if you'd like to get specific."
"What do you mean, 'May 10, 2008'?" Bonnie asks, taking the newspaper as Jessica eats more ice cream.
"We're in a prison world," she informs them. "I don't know how you two got here but I was sent here on a mission by Nature."
"What mission?" Damon asks, stealing the ice cream and spoon to eat a bite. Jessica lets him eat his bite before snatching it back.
"Can't tell you. I can tell you that this prison world has nothing to do with you, Damon," she says, shocking him until he realizes that she read his mind. "Sorry, seems that death has made me more powerful, because that's what I needed. Anyway, I felt you two cross over here."
"But why here? Why this day?" Bonnie doesn't understand what is happening, so Jess tries to explain.
"There was an eclipse on this day. I remember because my dad had to work and Mom was out of town visiting Jenna so he left me with Liz, even though Care was with her dad. She took me to the Salvatore house to see the eclipse. I was fascinated by it because it was a celestial event, which connects with magic, which I had recently tapped into.
"Anyway, things were going well until a vampire showed up and killed a bunch of people, including Zach's wife, but Stefan got her to the hospital in time for my dad to deliver her baby. Stefan found a good family for her and compelled Zach to forget about his wife and child. Meanwhile, the council restarted because dad was pissed I almost died from a vampire attack."
"How did you survive?" Bonnie asks.
"The vampire was going to come after me," Jessica says, shooting Damon a glare that Bonnie doesn't miss and he looks down in guilt as she continues. "But I used magic and it snapped him out of his rage. To his defense, he looked appalled by his actions and got down to my level and tried to compel me to forget, but even at 5, my mind was too strong to allow compulsion. I hadn't discovered sex or alcohol yet," she jokes before Damon confirms Bonnie's suspicion that he was the vampire by responding.
"If you remembered, why didn't you kill me when we met at the bonfire the night your parents died?"
Jessica shrugs. "I didn't recognize you until I saw it in your memories. I felt your guilt Damon, and I saw it that day. Besides, I fell in love with you and despite what you like to think, you aren't a terrible person, just misguided, like Nik."
"Oh yes, Klaus who was so misguided that he killed you."
"Because I manipulated it into happening Damon," she scolds before continuing. "Look we can leave but we have to find the ascendant and something tells me that whoever's prison world this is has it or hid it since it's the key to leave. They probably hid it though. We would need to find him and get his blood to track it."
"Great, how do we start?" Damon questions and Jessica frowns.
"We can't find him. He'll find us," she says. "He's linked to this world so he has more control than us. Plus, Bonnie needs to jumpstart her magic," she says before getting up, making Damon and Bonnie follow while she got up to go to the boarding house.
4 months later, they still had yet to figure out who the prison world belonged to as Jessica lied, saying that she didn't know, and both Bonnie and Damon had yet to notice something was different in Jessica. Although that wasn't hard considering that Damon spent most of his time in bed with Jessica, knowing that as soon as they left, she would run right back into Klaus's arms, and whenever Bonnie and Damon were in the same room, a fight would break out.
While Jessica was attempting to make progress on her mission in the prison world, her other half was trying to make progress in New Orleans on the second mission. She knew that Esther was in the Harvest girl which meant that the former next-in-line Regent, Vincent something or other, was Finn since he was never too far away. The only person she had yet to get a lock on was Kol.
This made her feel slightly better knowing that he wasn't as much of a traitor as she thought but still it was hard. She has dyed her hair blonde and taken to straightening it as well as doing a spell that made it so people wouldn't recognize her face. She knew that as soon as the two souls combined, she would take Jessica Gilbert's body as she was the main soul but for now, she needed to be safe.
She was the one with the connection to the original family and Jessica Gilbert had fewer emotions, that's why they had which mission they did, but even if Jessica Carter didn't have the connection with Gilbert's friends and family, she still ached seeing them mourn someone who was not dead.
She wanted, more than anything, to tell them that Jessica would come back, she had no doubt that Gilbert already knew the way out of the prison world, she just needed to form a bond with Kai, it wouldn't be hard for her, despite her cut off emotions, people were drawn to her. That was another reason she was sent to the prison world.
However, she never wanted to reveal herself more than when she heard Elena tell Alaric her plan. She said that mourning Jessica and Bonnie was hard but her love for Damon was worse. She said that everything was so overwhelming and she can't handle it anymore so she asked him to erase her love for Damon. She claimed it wouldn't be hard as he wasn't as deeply rooted in her head as Jessica and Bonnie and that she believed it would be helpful.
"I didn't just lose the man that I loved, I lost my sister. I don't know how to live without Jessica but I know that I can't mourn her and Damon, so I need to do this. It's like I can't allow myself to move on from him and we weren't even together when he died," she claimed and Carter knew why. Anyone could see her love for him but everyone also knew that he would always love Jessica more.
Which is why Alaric agreed, wanting to make things a little bit better for Elena and making Carter rush back to the dorms to try and find a way to stop Elena from making this terrible mistake.