this is what you get

"I DON'T LIKE NOT GETTING MY WAY," Athena's voice is low and steady, but the irritation is heard by all nonetheless. "I don't like when things don't go my way. It makes me homicidal."

"You should see a therapist–"

"I will hang your intestines like Christmas garland, Katherine, I swear to god,"

The doppelgänger huffed and rolled her eyes, sitting back against the couch with a petulant pout on her lips. "I don't even know why I'm here when all you people do is threaten me,"

Athena turns towards her, frustration burning in her dark eyes that makes Stefan hide his face behind his hand and Damon wince. "You're here because you are the eternal thorn in my side. Your existence was made to impede mine, and because you and all of the other doppelgängers exist, it means Elena Gilbert exists, which makes me despise you out of principle. And you– you– you're like a fucking cockroach! You just won't die! And you can't be trusted on your own, so you're under adult supervision until I find something better to do with you. That is why you're here, Katherine. That's why."

Silence fell upon the group tensely and Athena let out a stiff sigh, pressing her clenched fists into her eyes before dropping them back at her sides. "Look, I'm trying to come up with some way to outsmart Elena and handle this bullshit because Lord knows I'm always right about this shit and am therefore the only one capable of doing it, so I'm gonna need you all to contribute elsewhere."

"Where do you suppose that would be?" Rebekah's drawling voice had an inkling of taunting in it and Athena felt her shoulders tense again before she forced herself to relax and let out a calming breath.

Spinning on her heel, she faced the Original with a terse smile. "Someone needs to find Jeremy and remind him that I have a very short tolerance for people who don't do what I want them to do, and then tell him that I am a very experienced murderer."

Kol raised his hand, making Athena's eyes roll with a flutter. "What, Kol?"

"Who is Jeremy again?"

"Elena's little brother," She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "He's got a savior complex the size of the Empire State Building, and all it has managed to do for the past year is make my life harder than it already is."

The Original nodded and she waited another moment to see if he had any more questions before she continued speaking. "In a few months, I'm going to be graduating high school, and then I'm going to live forever, and I refuse to do that with Elena Gilbert running around thinking she has any semblance of power over me. She needs to see that I'm not losing– I don't lose."

She sighs, raking a hand through her silky brown hair. "As much as it affected Tyler, I don't think Elena is going to necessarily care about Carol being dead. If she's running around with her switch flipped, it's gonna take something a lot bigger to draw her out. We need to do something that's going to get her attention."

"I hate to break it to you, but you might have to cut back on the murdering for a minute," Damon taps his fingers along the arm of the couch, his laidback position impeding on a majority of the surface. "As heartbreaking as it is, Sheriff Forbes is still anti-vampire, and she's really anti-daughter-being-vampire, so she's not going to look the other way. Of course, if Caroline had let us compel her like she said she would,"

He trails off pointedly, earning a glare from the blonde girl. "Shut up, Damon, she's my mom. I couldn't just erase everything about her, okay?"

"Liz is irrelevant," Athena waved the topic off, giving Caroline an apologetic glance. "If it comes down to it, I'll handle her."

At Caroline's appalled look, Athena grimaces, shaking her head. "Not like that, Care, Jesus. I won't kill your mom. We are all aware that I know there are other options besides murder, right? Because I am very much aware of that. It's the reason half of you are even still alive."

"Not that that's not very reassuring," Klaus's sarcastic voice echoed into the conversation, drawing eyes his way. "But we've lost a member."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"It appears that my lovely brother Kol has decided to go for a stroll,"

Athena stopped, snapping around to where Kol had been sitting previously. "Where the hell did he go? Did anyone even see him leave?"

Negative responses echoed and Athena threw her hands out, an exasperated look twisting onto her features. "He's going back in a box when I find him, I swear to god. I can't believe I have to put Original vampires in timeout. Does anyone have any idea where he could be? He's been alive for like, a week, there's no way he's made any friends in town."

"Well it's not like he knows anything about cars or technology," Damon intones, giving Klaus a pointed look. "Being stuck in a coffin for hundreds of years will do that to you."

The hybrid raises a brow, faux obliviousness in his voice. "How odd,"

"He doesn't know anybody besides us, or Elena, but he has no idea where she's at right now since she's not at her house," Stefan leans forward, propping his elbows on his knees. "Maybe he just got bored with the conversation. His, uh, attention span seems to dwindle rapidly."

Athena snorts an exasperated laugh, shaking her head. "Yeah, except when there's murder involved," Murmurs of agreement echo out but Athena's humorous look quickly drops in realization. "Shit."

"What?"

"I know where he's at," She huffs, leaning down to grab her keys off the coffee table. "Damon, come with me."

"Can I ask where we're going?"

"He's going to Elena's," She faces the group, a wry expression on her face. "He asked about Jeremy. If he can't get to her, he's the next best thing."

Her dark eyes swung to Damon and she gestured for him to hurry. "You're coming with me because I don't want to deal with Jenna or Alaric if they're there."

Damon's face twisted unhappily and he glared down at Athena. "Why would I want to deal with them? They hate me,"

"Exactly," Athena clapped her hands together, stepping out of the living room. "You're great at dealing with people who hate you, you do it every day!"

"You really have a way with words, you know that?"

──────

Athena hurriedly parks the car outside of the Gilbert residence before she's up and out of the car, Damon close behind her. The front door is wide open and they both step through it with no resistance.

Sharing a brief look, they make their way toward the living room, stopping before the scene Athena had uselessly hoped wouldn't happen before they got there.

"What the hell did you do, Kol?"

The Original spins around, a wide, maniacal grin on his face. He holds his arms up, displaying the mess he'd made of the room. "You said we needed to get Elena's attention in a big way,"

"So you killed her little brother?" Damon's voice bounces incredulously off the walls, and his words spark genuine confusion in Kol's eyes.

"Uh, yes?" He scoffs, shrugging as he steps over Jeremy's limp body on the floor. "She's got her switch flipped, nothing was going to make her care enough to crawl out of whatever hole she's been hiding in."

Damon's jaw clenched as Athena stepped silently past Kol and bent down beside Jeremy's body, examining the damage done.

"You're a psychopath, you know that? You can't just take off and go murder people– that's how we get killed!"

"No, that's how you get killed," Kol corrected him smugly. "I am otherwise invincible."

Damon raised a brow at him. "Oh, really? Like Mikael was invincible?"

Anger flashes through the Original's eyes and Damon nods knowingly. "Yeah, not to mention the fact that your brother keeps those handy little daggers on standby with your coffins. You're not immune to consequences, idiot,"

"I–"

"This is good."

Damon's head snaps towards Athena, incredulity lining his features. "Excuse me?"

Kol throws his hands up exasperatedly. "Thank you, Athena! You see, this is why I like you so much–"

"Shut up," Athena cuts him off, her eyes narrowing as she stands to her full height again. "You're still an idiot for doing this without telling anyone, but it doesn't matter because he's not dead."

"Uh, I can assure you he is very much dead," Kol scoffs, a satisfied look mixing with his confusion at her words. "Do you see the blood? It was very artful."

Athena raises a silent brow, waiting for his dramatics to finish. "Right. He's not going to stay dead," Her eyes drift to Damon. "He's got the Gilbert ring on. I guess Ric saw something like this coming."

Damon huffs and rolls his eyes, muttering something under his breath she doesn't bother to listen to. "Please explain how this is a good idea, whether he's dead or not,"

"Well, by listening to what I said, Kol wasn't wrong," She reluctantly tilts her head at the Original who looks smug yet again. "But, again, it was my idea that got him to this point, so really, I was right again. Shocker."

"That's not the explanation I was asking for."

She hums, giving him a look for his impatience. "Elena's a total psycho now, so we needed something big to draw her out. Killing Jeremy is the first step in doing that. She finds out through the grapevine that he's dead, she'll come directly to me, and I will then rip her heart out and freeze dry it like fruit."

"We're not putting a heart in the freezer, that's for food only,"

Damon's scolding voice makes her roll her eyes and she flutters her gaze to Kol, who is already looking her way. "Kol, ask me what the next step in my genius plan is,"

He narrows his eyes at the demand, but she knows his curiosity will win over his pride, so she simply sets her lips into a smirk and awaits it.

"What is the next step in your genius plan, Athena?"

"We're gonna burn this house down,"

The words set in for both men at the same time, though she gets two different reactions from them.

"So, you've finally lost it, then. Great,"

"I think I love you,"

Athena just grins.

──────

"Are you sure this is gonna work?"

Athena glanced up at Josh, her brows furrowing slightly before she smoothed her expression out. "Well, pretending Jeremy's really dead is one thing. We don't have any way of her finding it out, so we've gotta go bigger."

"So you're gonna burn her house down?"

"I really didn't think you'd ask this many questions, Josh," Her tone creeps with irritation and she feels Stefan rest his hand on her back, a silent but calming gesture as he murmurs with Damon and Bonnie off to the side. "I'm not letting her hide anymore. She's done nothing but terrorize us since the moment we stepped foot in Mystic Falls again, and I'm tired of it. It's time she learns what happens to people who fuck with me."

Turning away from her brother with a look of finality, she looks to the trio standing beside her inquisitively.

"Bonnie and I are gonna handle it," Damon rubs his hands together, gesturing to the witch at his side. "Since we've already got Jeremy here, there's nothing else to do."

Athena nods, glancing at Bonnie. "Are you sure you wanna do this? I won't care if you can't,"

Bonnie smiles tightly before she nods. "I'm comfortable with where my loyalties lie, Athena, trust me."

The goddess mirrors her small smile. "I do," Her eyes flicker to Damon, who nods silently, reassuring. "Let me know when it's done."

Damon nudges Bonnie gently towards the door, murmuring a quiet farewell to the rest of them.

Watching them go, she waits for the door to shut before walking over to Jeremy's body and crouching down, smacking the back of her hand against his cheek lightly. "Hey, shithead, it's time to wake up."

"Is he alive yet?"

"I can hear his pulse," Athena mutters, rearing her hand back to strike his cheek roughly.

The boy gasps awake, his hands flying automatically to his cheek where Athena's handprint has started to imprint on his skin. "What the hell?"

Athena grins, all teeth and threatening aura. "Morning, Jer-Bear. How was your visit to the afterlife?"

"What the hell is going on?" Jeremy looked around the room panickedly, his eyes darting wildly before Athena gripped his jaw tightly in her hand.

"You're gonna be staying here for a minute, Jeremy," Releasing her grip on his jaw now that she knows she's got his attention, she lifts his hand to her eyes and slides the large ring off his finger. "For once in your life, you're actually going to be useful."

His eyes follow the ring in her hand closely, fear seeping into his gaze. "What are you doing with that, Athena? What do you want from me?"

"I'm going to kill your sister, Jeremy. And you're going to help me by sitting in here, and being a good little prisoner."

──────

author's note; i always return with a murder, don't i

originally published; 5.20.22. 

edited: 12.11.23.

- liz