𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍
i wanna live, not just survive

DAMON RECEIVED A call from Elena telling him that Stefan had regained his memory. Reluctantly, the blue eyes vampire slowly woke his lovely girlfriend up who was snoring loudly.

Together, the couple walked down the stairs to Stefan and Elena sitting in the living room, so Damon immediately began testing Stefan's memory. "October 1852."

"You broke my nose trying to teach me how throw a right hook," Stefan answered correctly almost immediately.

Damon nodded in praise before smirking mischievously. "But not on purpose," he clarified as he wrapped his around around Echo. "How much did you pay for that hunk of junk motorcycle you ride?"

Stefan laughed for a moment and sat forward in his seat. "That's a trick question. You bought me that motorcycle, although I'm guessing it was pretty expensive."

Realising that Stefan indeed did get his memories back, Damon made a face and narrowed his eyes slightly. "So Tessa just gave you back your memories, no strings attached."

"Well it wasn't exactly a gift. It was a lot to take in at once, everything from blowing out the candles on my first birthday cake to drowning in a safe," the youngest Salvatore explained then spaced out as he began to have a flashback of him drowning.

Elena noticed and took small hesitant steps towards him in worry. "Stefan," She called out to him to break him free of his mental torment as he held into his glass a little too tight, causing it to shatter in his hand.

"Whoa! Easy there, buddy," Damon advised calmly as the male doppelgänger snapped back into reality.

Elena frowned and glanced to Echo who rolled her eyes. "Stefan, where did you go?"

He looked down at the piece of glass in his shaking hand and laughed humorlessly. "All that and I still can't remember my own strength," he attempted to joke until he heard a sound downstairs and looked at Damon curiously. "What was that noise?"

"Uh, well that is..." The older brother trailed off unsure of how to tell him.

Echo crossed her arms. "It's a doppelgänger situation which you might like seeing as you like to stalk and date Katherine look-alikes. Let's hope this one has a set of brains cells on her."

Stefan looked between the three of them in confusion and stood up from his seat on the couch, causing glass to fall to the ground. "What are you talking about?

They walked down into the cellar and Stefan peered through the cell door window to see Amara screaming and trying to cut loose from her handcuffs. "I don't know! I don't know." She yelled frantically in terror to no one in particular.

He looked away from the Petrova originator and looked at Damon uneasily. "What's wrong with her?"

"Tessa turned her into a block of rock, left her in a box for two thousand years, probably went a little stir crazy like those deserted island guys who talk to volleyballs," Damon explained, making a reference with a shrug.

"I said I don't know!" She yelled again while she continued to attempt to get out of the binds.

Stefan looked at her again, then looked away. "So, you're telling me that this girl is the only thing holding together the other side?" He questioned incredulously.

"Yep. She's the anchor," Echo admitted with a sigh. She looked at the girl in worry, feeling sympathy. Amara reminds her of when she got out of hell the first where she literally thought she was going crazy.

"Leave me alone!" She snapped at them and backed into the wall.

"As long as she's alive, the other side exists, and we can keep trying to get Bonnie from over there," the older Salvatore added seriously. He wanted Bonnie back more than anything, not just for Echo and Elena, but because a small part of him, not that he'd admit it, missed the Bennett witch, who often scolded him for his reckless behavior.

Amara looked at them and shook her head. "I said I don't know!"

"Well, considering she's immortal, I'd say we have plenty of opportunity," Stefan commented, unaware of their dilemma.

"You'd think, except last night she stuck a hole in Silas' neck, sucked the cure right out of him, so now she's not only nuts, she's mortal, which means we have to keep her ordinary little human heart beating until we get Bonnie back," Damon explained to him with a small scowl.

"How would you plan to do that?" The Salvatore doppelgänger asked perplexed with a raised eyebrow.

"Silas made a pinky promise that he'd do a spell to bring her back," Elena stated with a huff as she remembered the little joke. "Unfortunately, he's taking his sweet time coming back to Mystic Falls."

Damon nodded and then looked at the anchor to see her biting herself on the wrists so she could bleed to death. "Ah! Amara, stop." He groaned while opening the cell door and quickly moved to stop her.

Echo ran inside too, and held the girl back in a gentle, but firm grip. She struggled against her and screamed, "No! No! Let me die. I want to die!"

Damon sighed heavily and looked to to his brother and Elena. "Let's hope love is blind or at least deaf."

LATER ON, the group; Damon, Echo, Elena, and Stefan were talking about the situation in the living room.

"We need to buy some more time, protect Amara. Maybe we should move her somewhere else," Elena offered up an idea to help save her best friend and protect her look-alike who didn't deserve what is happening to her.

Damon shook his head and paced the floor while thinking of what to do. "Silas is a witch. He's a living, breathing, GPS tracking device. He'll track her wherever we take her," he pointed out and they all groaned on realization.

"We can't let him anywhere near her until he brings Bonnie back," Elena argued, crossing her arms.

"And we will make him, El," Echo told her sister with a nod.

"Weren't you listening to anything?" Stefan suddenly questioned in a snarky tone. "He's not gonna bring her back." 

"First of all, watch your tone," Echo warned with narrowed eyes. "Second of all, if he doesn't, I will rip out his organs one by one."

"So, what, I should just give up?" Elena questioned incredulously with wide doe brown eyes. "Come on, Stefan. You got your memory back. You know me well enough that I wouldn't give up on someone I care about."

"You know what? You're right. I do know you. You put your hope in all the wrong places and sometime," Stefan answered, looking over at Damon and Echo, "in the wrong people." 

"Fuck off, douche!" Echo growled out, her vampire veins appearing underneath her eyes. "And FYI, you're the wrong people."

Stefan rolled his eyes. "Silas needs to die and put us all out of our misery," He snarled to Elena and Echo in pure rage. 

"So long as he's alive, I'm holding out hope that he can still help us," Elena argued strongly, ignoring his anger towards his doppelgänger. 

"Well, as someone who just spent the last three months at the bottom of a quarry because of the guy, I wouldn't hold your breath, pun intended. Silas needs to die, and I need to be the one to kill him, end of story," he snarled in general before getting up and about to storm out of the room. 

Echo called out, "here you go again, wanting revenge instead of helping the group!" He paused but didn't turn around. "This is the Klaus situation all over again. If you so much as ruin our chance to bring Bonnie back, I will rupture both your biceps with a monkey wrench."

"Do you ever shut up?!" He exclaimed in annoyance before zooming out of the house.

Just then, Jeremy rushed into the room and explained to the three of them what happened between Bonnie and Amara. "Amara could see Bonnie, and Bonnie could touch her. They made physical contact. It's like Amara's got a foot on each side or something." 

"Amara exists in both places at once, here and the Other Side?" Echo asked as she sat down on the couch beside Damon.

"Then she's not crazy crazy, she's just talking to dead supernatural beings roaming around in our basement," Damon said, finally putting all of the pieces together as his icy blue eyes widened. 

"The point is if Silas isn't gonna help us, what if Bonnie could be the same thing? What if she existed on both sides at once? What if she became the anchor?" Jeremy asked them, furthering their ideas for a plan. 

Elena thought about it for a movement before nodding slowly in agreement and standing up from her seat in the couch. "You're right. Jeremy, you're right. So, all we would need is someone who could do that spell." 

"Oh, please don't say who I think you're gonna say," Damon requested slowly, already dreading the possible answer. 

Jeremy looked at all of them holding his hands out knowing he had a valid point. "Think about it. Silas wants Amara to die, and Amara wants Amara to die, so who, besides us, in the one person with the biggest stake against letting that happen?" 

"Qetsiyah..." Echo reluctantly responded, pursing her lips. She sighed heavily and clenched her jaw as she looked at her boyfriend. "She may be our only shot at getting Bonnie back. We need to take it, Damon."

He met her eyes and stared at her for a moment before nodding with a wary sigh. 

ABOUT HALF AN hour later, the witch-bitch walked into the parlor and looked around in slight awe before focusing on Damon. "So, you live in this giant mansion with two doppelgängers that are destined to end up together? I swear there's a sitcom in there somewhere," she grumbled with an amused smirk before scowling. "So, where's the ancient boyfriend-stealing bitch?" 

"You're honestly ridiculous," Echo spoke up, rolling her eyes. "Two thousand years and you never learned to just get over it and move on? If someone didn't love me back, I would just forget about them and go on with my life no matter the pain."

"Show me to Amara before I kill your dreadful girlfriend," Tessa threatened both Damon and Echo through clenched teeth. 

"This way." Damon lead her out of the room and down to the basement while rolling his eyes. 

Then Elena opened the door to the basement room to show her Amara who was tied to a chair.

"That'll be all," the witch said, staring at the oldest doppelgänger before closing the door after stepping inside. 

Moments passed and Katherine showed up to help Tessa complete the spell to bring Bonnie back, turning her into the anchor to the Other Side.

Suddenly, the power went out and Damon and Echo walked around the house with flashlights, making their way into the room where all the doppelgänger's were

"Electricity's out in the whole house. What happened?" Damon questioned the girls with pursed lips.

"Silas is here," Qetsyiah answered in a frustrated growl. 

"Fantastic," Echo commented sarcastically and made sure her weapons were in eyesight and some on her body.

"Well, Silas owes me a fuse box," the Salvatore snapped then looked at them. "Hang on. I only count two doppelgängers. Where's crazy pants?" 

"And where's the other crazy?" Elena asked before realizing Silas was behind it, and walked out of the room. 

Echo grabbed her weapons and walked around the house while shining the flashlight so she could actually see where she was going.

"God, where the hell is everyone?" She mumbled as she went upstairs to look inside the bedrooms.

After a few moments of searching every dark corner, she went back downstairs with her crossbow raised high.

She wandered around until she entered the living room to see Elena, Jeremy and Caroline with Bonnie. 

"Bonnie?" Echo breathed out.

"Bonnie?" Elena questioned in disbelief as she turned around, tears pooling in her eyes, causing Bonnie to turn to face them. 

Caroline froze in shock and gawked at her best friend. "Please tell me this is real." 

"You guys can see me?" The former witch, now anchor, asked in shock and happiness. 

Jeremy looked over at her with a beaming grin. "Bonnie, it worked." 

"It worked!" She yelled with an overjoyed laugh.

Suddenly, Elena and Caroline ran to Bonnie and they tightly group-hugged as Echo stood off to the side, frozen in shock. 

"You're here!" Elena happily exclaimed, holding her friend closely. 

"Thank you," Bonnie whispered teary eyes. 

Caroline room a step back and jumped in excitement. "Oh my god, oh my god! And we can be roommates, 'cause we have that extra bed, and we can clear out half the closet—" the blonde began to happily babble and get ahead of herself. 

"Caroline!" Bonnie and Elena interrupted her in unison with amused looks on their faces. 

"I'm sorry, I just — I can't believe you're really here!" Caroline exclaimed grinning widely. 

"I'm here. I'm back," Bonnie said, hugging them tightly again. 

"You just can't seem to stay dead, can you?" Echo joked as she laid her crossbow down, and walked further in the room with a teasing smile.

Bonnie let go of the brunette and blonde to face Echo. "I missed you too, O." She smiled brightly, over-joyed to be brought back to life and surrounded by people who truly loved her.