a backup plan

THE SILENCE THAT HAD SETTLED IN THE LOCKWOOD MANSION IS QUICKLY DISRUPTED BY ATHENA'S SUDDEN APPEARANCE. She doesn't bother with niceties as she storms through the house with Josh in tow, her black boots slamming heavily on the floor as she bursts into the Mayor's office.

"Hey, what are you–"

Tyler's exclamations are cut off as Athena yanks him off of the couch and chucks him carelessly to the ground. "Where is she?"

"What are you talking about?"

Athena nearly snarls at him as she kneels beside him on the ground. "Don't play stupid with me. Where is Caroline?"

Tyler's eyes widen and he snaps his gaze to the blond man standing tall behind Athena. "I don't– I don't know!"

"He's lying," Josh mutters, narrowing his eyes as he scatters his gaze momentarily before it lands on the teenager's cell phone lying carelessly on the desk. He reaches for it while Athena pins Tyler to the ground with a knee on his chest, uncaring of the way he struggles to take a full breath.

Josh scrolls through the text threads, reading each one rapidly. "An hour ago," He captures Athena's attention. "Jules texted him and said she would take care of everything."

Josh's green eyes flicker to Tyler and he shakes the cellphone at him accusingly. "What'd you tell her, Tyler? How'd you get her to go after Caroline?"

Tyler grits his teeth, glaring at the man before his gaze settles on Athena. "She's the one who told me about Mason,"

"Oh," Athena chuckles humorlessly. "So, the stranger comes to town and tells you that vampires killed your uncle, and you believe her when she says it's the ditzy blonde who you nearly killed a few weeks ago?"

"I didn't," Tyler inhales sharply, his eyes tinting yellow as he tries to control his anger. "I didn't know she'd take Caroline."

"Well that's why we don't trust strangers, Tyler," Athena speaks patronizingly. "I guess your dad didn't have enough time to teach you about stranger danger before he died."

A low growl rumbles from Tyler's chest and Athena rolls her eyes as she leans more of her weight down on him. "Where did she take Caroline?"

"I don't know,"

Athena draws her fist back, looking down at Tyler warningly. "Where'd she take Caroline, Tyler?!"

Tyler shakes his head stubbornly. "I don't know! I swear, I don't know! She just said she'd handle it, and get revenge for Mason!"

"If you wanted revenge, all you had to do was come and find me," She grits her teeth, leaning down into his face. "You're going to call Jules and you're gonna tell her she's got the wrong girl, and that if she doesn't let Caroline go in one piece, she's going to get a front-row seat to what happened to Mason."

Athena straightens her spine and grabs the phone from Josh's outstretched hand, looking at the highlighted contact as she presses the small green button and holds it to Tyler's ear.

The werewolf waits with bated breath as the phone rings and he almost hopes that Jules doesn't answer. But she does, with a question on her tongue as Tyler's heaved breaths come through the speaker.

"Tyler?"

"Jules," Tyler takes a deep breath, looking up at Athena daringly. "It's Athena! She knows you have Caroline, you have to help me–"

Athena rips the phone away and clenches her fist around it, feeling it creak and snap in her tight grip. "You really shouldn't have done that,"

Athena doesn't hesitate as she slams her fist into Tyler's jaw, watching as his eyes flash bright yellow. Even as Tyler struggles beneath her and her forceful punches, he's unable to escape her strength as she brings her fist down repeatedly onto his jaw.

"This is for Caroline," Athena punches him once more, her jaw creaking with how tight she had it clenched.

"This is for choosing Elena after the accident, you massive, self-centered, piece of shit!" Athena slams her fist into his nose, ignoring his cries of pain. "And this is for punching me in the face and breaking my nose at the football game."

She delivers one last punch and watches the bruises form on his face almost immediately as she stands up, letting him finally get a real breath of air and try to open his swollen eye.

"If Caroline is permanently injured in any way, I will come back here and finish the job,"

Athena and Josh are out the door as quickly as they came and they hurry down the steps of the Lockwood mansion, back to her car. She pulls her phone from her pocket and chucks it at Josh, who catches it with ease as he slides into the passenger seat.

"Call Damon and tell him that Jules knows we're coming, and that we're going to need that stash of wolfsbane he's got."

──────

Athena doesn't like the smell of the woods. It's oddly specific, and she hasn't always felt this way, but the last dozen or so times she's traveled out into the woods beyond the town of Mystic Falls, it has been on some sacrificial, borderline suicidal mission to rescue her boyfriend, or even digging up his dead dad– which she officially labels as their first date, much to Stefan's dismay.

She doesn't care to step foot into the forest again, but knowing that Caroline is being held in the dingy trailer, most likely being deprived of everything but pain gives her the incentive she needs to do so.

And now, as she watches the werewolf pace back and forth in the night, watching as her enhanced senses slowly come to realize she's not alone, she finds that she doesn't mind the woods as much with the scent of fear slowly overtaking it all.

"I know you're out there!"

She can hear the fear in the woman's voice from where she's leaning up against a tree, almost carelessly watching her from afar. She looks behind her for a moment, meeting Stefan's eyes for a moment before he nods slowly, and only once, in the only confirmation she needs to continue.

Inhumanely fast, a small, wolfsbane-tipped dagger soars through the night and lands in Jules's right shoulder, making her stumble backward into the trailer, rattling it with all of its might.

The werewolf cries out as she feels the toxin practically drip into her bloodstream, and Athena steps out from the shadows as she throws a matching dagger into her other shoulder.

"Where is Caroline?"

Jules glares at the girl, the look deepening when she sees Stefan and Damon come out from behind her a moment later.

"Locked up tight,"

Athena sighs, running her tongue along her teeth as she staves her rage away. "Let her go, and I don't make the call on Tyler's life. I don't think you wanna risk losing your little prodigy so soon, do you?"

Defensiveness flashes in the woman's eyes at the mention of Tyler, and Athena thinks of what Bonnie and Josh could be doing with the werewolf while he heals from the extensive damage Athena had inflicted upon his face an hour ago.

"It's a little late to be making threats, don't you think?" Jules seethes, using a hand to white knuckle the grip of the dagger in her left shoulder as she rips it out and throws it on the ground.

"You need to leave town," Stefan's voice comes from behind her, and Jules's eyes shift to the vampire. "Nobody else needs to get hurt."

"I'm not leaving without Tyler,"

Athena rolls her eyes, shifting her weight from hip to hip. "Well, Tyler's currently indisposed and hopefully healing that ugly mug of his after what I did to him, and all he did was lie to me. You probably don't want to find out what happens when you kill my best friend."

Damon winces, feigning offense. "I thought I was your best friend," He holds a hand to his heart, looking mockingly to Jules for sympathy. "She's a mean one. Now come on, give us Caroline. Without a full moon, it wouldn't even be a fair fight and you know it."

Jules chuckles cockily, lifting her now-free hand to her lips and whistling an ear-piercing noise.

Slowly, werewolves come from the shadows, and Athena's calculating eyes quickly count at least a dozen.

"Now, let's try this again. Give us Tyler," Jules drawls, her southern twang pricking at Athena's nerves as the goddess heaves a sigh and turns to look at Stefan.

"I tried to negotiate. Didn't you hear me?" She gestures between Jules and herself, earning a raised brow from her boyfriend. "I promised I'd try, and look what she did– she threatened me. Now can we do it my way?"

Stefan sighs, crossing his arms over his chest. "At least you tried,"

Athena winks at him, a small smirk growing on her features as she turns back to face Jules. "Alright, you furry bitch," Two more daggers appear in the girl's hands and she swings them around a few times, adjusting her grip as her hands hum with that warm golden sunlight inside of her. "You asked for it."

Two groans come from either direction, and Jules's eyes widen as two of her pack members drop to the ground with the same gunmetal gray daggers in their throats that had been in Athena's hands moments ago.

Damon and Stefan disappear in blurs, and she watches from her right as Damon carelessly drops a bloody heart from his hand and steps over the now-dead werewolf at his feet. Stefan catches a stake aimed at his heart and flips it, immediately throwing it into the werewolf's neck.

Athena closes her eyes momentarily and feels a stake materialize into her hand and she sends it soaring into a man's heart, and her brown eyes fall onto a man with a buzzcut and a glare on his face.

The man's face curls into a snarl and she drops two more daggers into her hands that find themselves lodged in his thigh and abdomen as he lunges for her with a large, clenched fist.

Athena ducks underneath his fist and swipes her leg out, dodging him as he falls to the ground behind her. She spins quickly and kicks her booted foot into his ribs, grinning at the crunch beneath the crisp leather.

The man groans out and she pushes all of her weight into a punch that lets on his sternum and steals his breath. She kneels beside him as gunshots echo behind her, but she doesn't deter her focus because she knows he'll get the drop on her.

"Did you do it?" The man pants out, glaring up at her as she lays her arm across his throat and slowly applies pressure to his airways. "Did you kill Mason?"

She shrugs a shoulder, a disregarding frown crossing her face briefly. "I don't know, it might've been me, it might've been Damon. You know, the bodies just run together at this point. Maybe if he meant more to me I'd have paid more attention to whose hand it was that plunged into his chest,"

She grunts as she slams her fist into the werewolf's chest and wraps her hand around his beating heart, lowering her face to his. "And ripped his heart out,"

She complies with her words and pushes herself back to her feet with his heart in her hand, and she watches with rapt attention as a horrified look crosses Jules's face. Before Athena can relish in her glory, she sees Caroline stumble out of the trailer with Stefan close behind her, and her eyes widen.

Jules quickly grabs the vampire, though, and holds a gun to the back of her head that's full of wooden bullets.

Athena quickly materializes a similar handgun into her own hands and holds it at the center of the woman's forehead, a glare marring her features. "Let her go, and I'll let you live."

"Not gonna happen," Jules shakes her head, pressing the gun against Caroline's head threateningly. "You already killed everyone else."

"Yet you're still fighting," Athena takes a few short steps towards the woman and meets Caroline's fear-filled eyes with what she hopes is reassurance. "You underestimate me, Jules."

The woman raises a thin brow. "Oh, yeah? How?"

"I always have a backup plan," As Athena finishes her sentence, the few remaining werewolves drop to the ground in pain, and Jules quickly drops her gun as she clamps her hands over her ears in pain.

Caroline stumbles away from Jules into Stefan's chest and the vampire pulls her away from the corpses of the werewolves with careful arms. "What's happening?"

Athena's brown eyes shift upwards and she finds the man's eyes as he holds his hands above the werewolves that had been accidentally spared. "Someone coming through on a promise,"

She gives Caroline a brief once over, reassuring her safety before she walks over to Jules and stands above her with her jaw clenched dangerously tight. She readjusts her grip on the gun in her hand and shoots two bullets into each of the woman's kneecaps before waiting for her screams of pain to dwindle.

Nudging the wolf with her foot, she catches the woman's frantic gaze with her unwavering one. "When you heal and when your buddies wake up, you're going to run and you're not going to look back once. Do you understand me?"

Jules grits her teeth, and Athena raises the gun again threateningly, pushing back on the woman's infuriating stubbornness. "You're going to get the hell out of this town, or you're going to die in it. It's your choice."

Athena doesn't await a response this time as she turns back to four people watching. She nods gratefully to Jonas, who returns the action before taking his leave and then turns to face the trio watching her closely.

The gun disappears into nothing from her hand and she cracks her knuckles to get the stiffness out of her fingers before she reaches for Stefan's hand and intertwines their fingers. "Is anybody else hungry? I'm feeling a burger and some fries from the Grill,"

Stefan shakes his head exasperatedly but pulls Athena into his side and kisses her temple as they begin their trek out of the woods. "I am feeling a bit peckish,"

"I could use a shower first," Caroline looks at her dirtied clothes, and despite her trembling figure, smiles at the three of them in thanks.

"Great, so," Damon claps his hands together, leading the group. "Showers first, then we go to the Grill. I know you said burgers, but I was thinking about just snacking on a waitress for dinner."

Athena stops short, picking up an acorn out of the forest floor of twigs and leaves and hundreds of other things, and throws it at the back of Damon's head with a smirk.

The vampire snaps his head around, glaring at the three technical teenagers with disdain as they all stifle laughter. "Are you picking on me because I'm the oldest, or because I'm the best-looking one of us? Jealousy is a disease, you know,"

"No," Stefan drawls, a taunting glint in his green eyes. "We're picking on you because you're the most annoying."

Damon scoffs, ducking under a tree branch. "How can you even say that when Josh exists?"

──────

"John Gilbert visited me while you were in the shower. He gave me a gift," Damon narrows his eyes as Athena comes down the stairs with Stefan in tow. Caroline anxiously bites at her nails from the couch, watching the vampire reach for the so-called gift.

Athena's eyes widen and she looks at Damon questioningly. "What is it?"

"A way to kill an Original," Damon holds up a pointed dagger with a delicately designed handle and a jar of ashes of some sort. "He wants us to protect Elena from the Originals, apparently, and this is the way to do it."

The goddess shakes her head in slight disbelief. "Why would he give you that to do a job we were already doing?"

"He knows about Elijah," Damon shrugs, setting the dagger and ashes back down on his desk. "And apparently knows about Klaus and the whole sacrifice thing. He supposedly just wants a temporary truce while the Originals are in town, trying to kill daughter dearest."

Athena scoffs. "Well, we're not killing Elijah. And we can't kill Klaus if he never shows his face in Mystic Falls. There's no point in arming us for a threat that doesn't even really exist yet. He's got to know something else– didn't Elena say something about him possibly working with Klaus or something?"

Caroline shakes her head at Athena. "I don't remember,"

The brunette sighs stressfully. "Well, it's not like I listen when she speaks, so someone's got to figure out something. Listen,"

She sighs, looking at the three people before her. "Klaus hasn't even shown his face yet, right? And from what Elijah has told me, he's a recluse, he doesn't do the dirty work he just comes in at the end and wraps everything up in a neat little bow when he gets his way."

They all nod, agreeing with her more or less.

"So, why would John Gilbert, a practical nobody in the Original's eyes, know so much about them, let alone how to kill them?"

Stefan, Damon, and Caroline share a look.

"He's not telling us something, I can feel it," Athena rolls her shoulders back and pushes her damp hair off her shoulders. "Let me talk to Elijah tomorrow, and I'll see if he knows anything about Klaus possibly working with John."

"Athena," Stefan looks at her worriedly. "He fulfilled the promise tonight with Jules and the werewolves. If you want answers, you're going to have to make another deal."

She shrugs, biting her tongue briefly. "I'm prepared to make another deal, so long as it means none of us get hurt. And, uh, do me a favor,"

Stefan nods slightly, looking at her questioningly. "What is it?"

"Call Lexi, and tell her everything," She tells her boyfriend. "I don't think she'll want to miss when this all blows up."

──────

author's note; I am awful at writing action scenes so I literally refuse to reread half of what I just wrote out of pure fear of ctrl + alt + deleting my existence so <3 here's this dumpster fire 

originally published; 1.26.21. 

edited: 12.3.23.

- liz