❝repeat the question❞ 

"WHY ARE YOU HERE, DAMON?"

Katherine glares at Damon as he leans just outside the tomb, a smirk on his face.

"I just figured I'd come see how you're doing, still stuck in this dirt-hell and all."

She scoffs. "Considering I'm still stuck in here, I take it you didn't kill Elijah like I'd hoped, which means you know exactly how I'm doing."

"I do," He says smugly. "I just find insane amounts of pleasure at the sight of your misery. Speaking of things that bring me pleasure— John Gilbert is dead."

Katherine's face drops in surprise and she takes a step forward before realizing the barrier is stopping her. "What? What are you talking about?"

Damon rolls his eyes and pushes off the tomb wall, standing up straight. "Oh, don't act like you care, Katherine. He was in the way, and now he's not. You're familiar with that strategy, right? Better he die than I,"

"This isn't funny, Damon."

"Of course it is, Katherine," He crosses his arms over his chest, his smug look unwavering. "You'd better watch out, too, you might be next on the list."

She falters slightly, her face twisting in a rare show of nerves. "What? What are you talking about?"

"I mean, Elijah compelled you to stay in here so we wouldn't have a rogue doppelgänger again. There can't be any mishaps during this ritual."

"So, Klaus is finally going to become a hybrid and then what?"

Damon looks at her like she'd missed the point entirely, his eyes fluttering irritatedly. "Obviously he's going to kill you. Or worse. That's what happens when you ruin someone's chance at unlocking a curse put on them by their dead mother the first time around, and then run for five hundred years."

Katherine clenches her weak fist at her side, glaring at Damon.

"Well," He shrugs again, nonchalant at the thought of a mortal fate of the vampire before him. "Point is, you're staying in Mystic Falls until Klaus is ready to deal with you, whether that be in this horrid tomb or out and about the town. That being said, he should be here soon, and I think I speak for all of us when I say we're anticipating his arrival."

Katherine slams a hand against the tomb wall, dirt crumbling around her. "Don't you realize that you'll end up all alone again? One they're done with you, they'll leave you in the mess they created, Damon. The only people the Originals care about is one another."

She doesn't give him a moment to respond as she continues on. "You have no reason to be loyal to them, unless," She trails off, and a smirk grows on her face. "Unless you owe them something, too. Everyone does, eventually. So tell me, Damon, what do you owe them?"

Damon is silent for a moment, glaring at the woman before him. For a moment, she thinks she's victorious, but Damon's glare quickly grows into a humorous half-smile and she frowns in confusion.

"That's the thing, Katherine. I've already paid my debt to them. I guess I was just so damn charming that they kept me around. There's no rhyme or reason to my devious ways, Katherine. I'm doing this because it's fun, because I can."

He steps forward, barely an inch away from the barrier. "The second you understand that, is the second you learn to fear me just as much as you fear them."

Katherine bites her tongue hard enough to draw blood, but the wound quickly heals and disappears, leaving nothing but a copper taste in her throat that has her wanting more. "What do you want from me, Damon? Alright? You won. I'm trapped in this tomb for eternity at the mercy of the Originals, and people aren't just going to keep bringing me blood, so I'll rot if they leave me in here long enough. You got your revenge."

He resists a laugh at her words. He's sure she thinks she'll somehow still manage a last minute redemption like she always does, and get away with everything for another 500 years or so. It's simply humorous to him because Katherine's yet another unsuspecting pawn in the game he's been playing for decades now. Whatever may or may not happen to her is beyond him and his care.

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"How's our little prisoner doing, Rose?"

Damon shuts the door behind him, his face blank at the sight of Alaric's bloody face.

Rose sighs, cocking a hip out on her side. "He won't agree to stay quiet about all of this. Elijah was right, we'll have to compel him again."

Damon nods his head slightly, and Rose looks him up and down curiously. "What about Jules? Is she still alive?"

"Yeah, I threw a bag of chips in there earlier. I doubt she's on a hunger strike two days into captivity."

"If you're going to kill me, just do it," Alaric's raspy voice interrupts their nonchalant banter, and he lets out a forced breath that aches in his weak lungs. "I won't let you kill Elena or Jenna."

"Spoilsport." Rose deadpans, throwing herself down on the couch a few feet away. "I'm hungry. Can you handle this, Damon?"

He nods and waves her away, moving to pour himself a drink. With his back turned, Alaric tries to turn his head and look at him, but he groans at the pain that follows the movement. "Why are you doing this, Damon?"

"God, so little time and you're all wasting it on the same question." Damon rolls his eyes and sits down in front of Alaric, taking a large swig off his drink. "Because I want to. And no matter how much you all hate me afterwards, you'll eventually realize that I was doing what needed to be done."

"You're murdering innocent people, Damon," Alaric immediately winces at the strain in his angry voice.

"Innocent?" Damon scoffs and stands up, his face coated in disbelief. "None of you are innocent! You're all running around trying to save Elena's life, and even when she tries to sacrifice herself you're still willing to die in order to save her. And Stefan is far from innocent in this story, Ric, you of all people should know. He barely restrains himself daily from going on a Ripper Rampage, yet you all praise him because he's dating a human. The worst human, at that."

Damon swallows down the rest of his drink in one go and pours more, spinning around to look at Alaric with barely contained rage. "Bonnie hates vampires, I'm not sure where any of you got the idea she likes us, let alone enough to save any one of us, and Jeremy is just an idiot who manages to get himself in the way all the time. And you, you're still mourning a wife that left you to be an evil vampire."

He sits down, and takes a breath, matching Alaric's glare with one of his own. "I might not have come by it honestly, but I recognize the fact that I'm the bad guy of everyone's story and I'm okay with it. It's all of you that aren't. And that's not my problem."

Alaric is silent for a moment, before he shakes his head minutely. His anger has faded, in what looks like a shade of pity, and Damon huffs. "If you're doing this because of what Katherine did to your wife, or what Stefan has done, trust me when I say revenge does nothing to heal you. You just have to move on."

Damon scoffs. "I'm not worried about revenge, Ric, trust me. I just want to get rid of the doppelgänger hellspawns that seem to haunt me."

"So, what? You kill Elena and leave Stefan to be miserable? Killing Jenna is the cherry on top. If you do this, you'll lose everyone, Damon. Stefan barely forgave you for killing Lexi, he'll never let you live if you kill Elena."

Damon slaps a hand down on Ric's leg and smirks at the strangled yell of pain that echoes in the study from the wound on his leg. "You let me worry about Stefan, alright? You just keep losing blood and worry about trying to save your little girlfriend."

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈•ﾟ｡

author's note; here have this. this is to tide some of you over while you await the impending ****** update

this is damon

edited and published; 5.19.22. 

- liz