Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Unmaking

A/N: Well well well. We're here. Thanks for coming. Please don't forget to tell me what you think.

But other than that,

Enjoy!

-x-x-x-

"I've been here before," Elena groaned.

Avery turned to her doppelganger as they trekked through a wooded area.

Oh, yeah. The draugr had as well. Just not in person.

"We're at the edge of Mystic Falls," Elena supplied.

Avery would've thought they'd be half-way across the world by now, out of reach from anyone Irina may have left alive in the boarding house, but she guessed they were heading to a placed she'd only dreamt of. And that's not to say it fantastically; if anything, reliving Katherine's first encounter on Elistear's Ridge with Irina could be considered a nightmare. Even if that event had linked them together and given the doppelgangers collective immortality, it still sent shivers up her neck.

Looking up ahead, Avery watched Amara walk, making sure to keep a step behind their original. Much like Elena, when she woke up, Amara had refused to eat. It was more to do with the atmosphere and less to do with defiance, but Avery understood. If the smell of blood wasn't so appetizing to her, she'd have thrown up rather than chosen to eat anything on that table either, no matter how enticing it was.

Avery sighed.

As eternal as Irina had wanted to make that dinner, it didn't last very long.

"The first of many."

Irina had said that, but Avery hoped it'd be the first and only.

After providing "willing" humans for her doppelgangers to quench their thirst, Irina had announced their leave.

Celeste had apparently gotten word that all their preparations were complete. Just in time for nightfall.

Turning back, Avery glared at the witch that walked behind Elena, making sure the three of them couldn't try anything as stupid as escaping. For more than a week, Celeste and the group had worked together. Besides Mercer, Celeste had been the most helpful when it came to the grimoires. At some point, Avery thought they'd become friends.

Clearly, that hadn't been the case.

Elena followed her gaze as they began walking up the steep dirt hill.

She shared a look with her doppelganger, and the vampire spoke her question to the witch, "Why are you doing this?"

That's exactly what Avery wanted to know too. From the short time they'd known each other, Celeste never gave off any indications of her true allegiance. Betrayal from the witch hadn't even crossed anyone's mind.

'But I guess, that's exactly how you betray someone,' she thought, 'Unexpectedly.'

"Me?" the witch looked up from watching her footing.

"Yes, you, Celeste. I've known you since I was a kid. And not to mention, you're a witch. Witches are meant to maintain the balance of nature."

She stared at them for a moment before laughing, "I'm the last Bennett witch. Did you know that? Even our distant cousins have met death some way or another. Do you know what opening the veil means?"

"Hell on earth," Avery deadpanned.

Amara glanced back as well, hearing the conversation. She didn't know Celeste like they did but she was probably just as curious.

"No," the Bennett shook her head, "My family will be returned to the land of the living."

Elena made a face, even now, reasoning with the older woman, "They won't be alive."

"No, but I have a way to bring them back for good. My father, my grams, my entire family if I wanted," she reached up to Elena's shoulder, and the girl didn't shrug away like Avery would've, "And Bonnie. Especially Bonnie."

"Bonnie…" Elena repeated.

"Yes, and for that I need the veil down."

Avery scoffed, "You're an idiot if you think Irina will let you do that."

"I know you don't understand, Elena," Celeste defended, ignoring Avery. "I am sorry for putting you through this, but I made a deal with her. Of course, she will."

"And I will," Irina affirmed with a sneer, "Unlike Qetsiyah, I keep my word."

Avery looked between their captives. Celeste may have her own goals, but to trust the Immortal enough to betray all of humanity just to gain her family back? Even if Irina kept her word, she would doubt that not one single Bennett would have something to say about their descendant's drastic actions. However well intentioned.

Celeste knew that. Or at least, she should.

At that non-verbal thought, Irina glanced at Avery with a smirk.

"Some people are so lonely, they could not care less about what the whole world thinks," she said.

The witch didn't react to the words, her face resolute as if she didn't care what even Irina thought of her. She had a goal, and she would see it through.

A hand suddenly appeared on Avery's shoulder, stopping her from moving forward. One side of Amara's lips lift as she'd stopped the younger girl from running into her.

They were at the top, and what Avery saw made her shudder.

The rock formation from her visions looked the same. The six boulders sat in the same places, and there were torches that circled and illuminated the entire hill. There were three other people there, walking around and placing what they needed where they should go.

Avery had to be honest.

She didn't think Celeste was the only one brainwashed by the idea of seeing her loved ones again, but she really hoped no one else had bought into the deception. Opening the veil wasn't the answer for their loneliness.

Around the five boulders was a circle of white ash that continued in an intricate pattern towards the middle where the one boulder sat. It acted like a table, holding items that Celeste would need to do her spell. A bowl, a knife, candles, the pyramid Celeste had presented during the dinner that Avery recognized as Ryora's Pyramid, and a few other things Avery couldn't discern.

She glared at the magical object warily. If Celeste activated it, it would serve as a big deterrent to any actions they might take against the ritual.

In between each of the surrounding rock was a chair; four in total.

"We do not need this one," Irina said, telling one of her people to put it aside. "There is only three of them here."

"That's for us," Elena stated, standing beside Avery and Amara.

"Yes," the Immortal answered, gesturing. "Come now, each of you take a seat. Anywhere you would like."

Where was Mercer? And the other sacrifices? Avery couldn't feel the least bit at ease knowing he was no doubt nearby. And she refused to sit around and just let this spell happen.

None of the three made a move.

Irina shook her head slow, and threatening, "Do not make me make you."

Amara glanced at her younger doppelgangers and sighed, seemingly in defeat as if to comply.

Avery eyed Celeste, who stood behind the trio.

Abruptly, Amara lifted her hands and a deafening pitch rang across the hill. Avery and Elena placed their hands on their ears but before they even reached them, the noise muffled out for them. The three goons dropped, hands on their ears, just as Irina winced away with a hand on her head, also being affected by the noise.

Avery may have been stronger but since she didn't have superspeed like Elena, she turned to deal with Celeste who had dropped to her knees while Elena moved onto Irina.

In an instant, fighting off the deafening effects, Irina held Elena's neck in a vice grip, surprising the girl. The Immortal was still affected by Amara's magic, but not enough to let herself be vulnerable to any attacks.

Just as Avery got to Celeste, the witch disappeared in a gust of wind, leaving the spot she'd occupied empty.

"Come on, guys," Amara begged, and Avery could see that she had blood running from her nose. She wasn't at full strength and holding the Immortal back was straining. "I can't hold much longer."

With a squeeze, Irina snapped Elena's neck just as Avery felt something go through her chest from behind.

She gasped, glancing down at the wooden rod protruding through her body.

An invisible shove, which she suspected was Celeste's magic, forced her to the ground.

Irina disappeared, reappearing in front of Amara with both her hands on her wrists. With a click, she tightened shackles onto her doppelganger and Amara's legs gave way as her magic sapped away from her. She dropped into Irina's arms, panting at the energy spent and the magic she had used.

Avery struggled with her cheek on the dirt floor as her hand clasped around the wooden stake. She couldn't get up.

"Stop fighting, Avery," Irina stooped down, having placed Amara on the ground nearby.

"If you want my cooperation," she huffed and cried out when Irina tugged at the long stake that impaled her. She didn't bother pulling it out for her, but Avery gained her breath, and finished her sentence, "—let Mercer go."

"Now, what ever would compel me to do that, my dear?"

Refusing to give up, Avery struggled, suppressing her pain. She hadn't seen her best friend, but she knew better than to think Mercer wasn't just around the corner, ready to be led to slaughter. She couldn't let him die. Not like this.

"Stop!" Irina ordered, but when Avery declined to submit, she placed her hand around the back of her neck.

Just as she'd done with Elena, she snapped it to the side.

-x-x-x-

Amara watched as Avery suddenly stopped moving.

The witch's head pounded as she lay on her back, her lips parted as she caught her breath. Everything had happened so quickly, and it seemed their final attempt at postponing the ritual was again in vain.

She was still conscious, but she could feel that the shackles around her wrists weren't ordinary restraints. It fed off her magic, leaving her with none to use, and she had no energy to do anything but lay there.

"Get them on the chairs," Irina instructed, signalling to her two of three lackeys who appeared to be supernatural. Vampires, she concluded as the other one lay dead on the ground. They came up to Avery and Elena's unconscious bodies, picking them up with ease.

Irina huffed out a breath, standing up and dusting herself off.

Celeste appeared above Amara, tilting her head as she reached down and grabbed her under her arms.

"Don't do this," Amara pleaded, unable to do anything else. From this view she could see the moon. It was full and was hanging close to it's peak. It was the perfect time to do the spell.

Celeste didn't reply, dragging her across the circle and placing her in one of the chairs.

Now that she was much closer, Amara could see that these weren't just regular pieces of furniture. They'd been modified with straps and blades on the arm rests.

She winced at the sight.

She knew that Irina needed their blood to augment the spell, and sitting alone in her cell for weeks, she had wondered how she'd go about draining them. For one, the majority of her doppelgangers were vampires, meaning they healed after any sort of cut. The fixed knives were the answer, but it seemed even if Amara was only a witch, she was no exception.

"No," she muttered desperately trying to get up as Celeste pushed her back into the seat. She struggled as the other witch held her in place, using her magic to position the doppelganger's arms on the sides with the sharp ends easily slicing along her forearm. Amara screamed using all her might to pull away. Celeste stood back.

Ultimately, Amara whimpered as she tried to move against her restraints, inadvertently cutting herself deeper.

Head bowed; she could do nothing but watch her own blood flow down to the ground.

It pooled around the ash, absorbing it and turning the white dust red.

-x-x-x-

"You are here for a reason."

Katherine felt weak. Her arms hurt like hell and to top it off, she had to listen to the incessant droning of her own voice. No—Irina's voice. Did she sound that annoying?

"A greater purpose."

Definitely not.

With a heavy head, Katherine looked up to see where she was.

Fire flickered in torch light, illuminating the place. Her heart clenched. She would recognize this place anywhere. There were people standing; four, one of them being Celeste.

Squinting, Katherine watched as Irina circled the boulders, and it was then that she saw two of herself in seats that held them in place. Elena and Avery. They were conscious, looking every bit as weak as she felt.

On the ground inside the circle, spread around evenly, were four other figures while Celeste stood in the middle. Each of the four figures were awake but for some reason they couldn't move. Katherine recognized two of them.

Mercer and Aran. A werewolf and a draugr.

A vision?

Katherine shook her head.

When had she fallen asleep?

How was she here?

"You!"

Irina stopped in front of her, staring into her eyes. She wasn't looking at the person whose point of view Katherine was looking through. It felt as if she was staring straight at her.

Her eyes widened.

"I am waiting, Katerina."

Katherine gasped, her fist clamping as she felt the blades slide down her forearm.

"Katherine?"

Stefan frowned at her, curiosity in his eyes.

They were in Tyler Lockwood's car, heading to Steven's Quarry, about to face the Immortal to stop her from opening the doors to the chaos from the Other Side. She shook off her fear and her immediate instinct to jump out of the car and run the other way. There wasn't much of a choice in the matter, but that didn't mean facing the Immortal didn't scare her to death.

"You're right, Tyler," she said instead, speaking to the driver. "They're at the Ridge right now."

She ran a hand down one arm to wipe off the invisible feeling of blood.

"How do you know that?" Tyler frowned through the rear-view mirror.

"Irina has them there," she said.

Caroline turned back from the passenger seat, and Damon leaned forward to look at Katherine around his brother.

All eyes were on her, and normally she would relish the attention, but her nerves weren't settling.

She shook her head. She wasn't even face to face with the Immortal and yet, she rattled her. It didn't help that for some reason Irina had known Katherine had been looking on.

Gazing out the window, she found what she was looking for. The moon hung in the same place as the dream. It had happened recently—a present one. The group predicted that Irina would use at least one doppelganger for her blood, but it seemed the Immortal was bolder than they gave her credit for. They weren't too late, but Celeste was already beginning.

"She knows we're coming," she said, aware how cryptic she was sounding.

"Irina?" Damon asked with furrowed brows. "You had a vision?"

"You fell asleep in the 2 minutes we've been driving?" Caroline questioned with disbelief.

"I didn't." Katherine rubbed her temple, feeling the buzz that she usually woke up with when it came to these stupid visions. A headache, just as unnecessary as the visions themselves. If they weren't so useful every once in a while, she'd hate them even more.

"Waking visions? Yikes," Tyler muttered, and Katherine couldn't agree more. It was already one thing to have random events she could care less about play in her sleep, and now she was assaulted with them wide awake? The best part was that she couldn't even control the damn things.

"What did you see?" Stefan asked, before addressing someone who wasn't in the same car as them. "Hey, Noah. You can hear this, right?"

The car full of vampires opened their ears, listening to the car with Noah, Jasmine, and Jeremy just behind them.

"Yeah," the draugr replied.

Katherine sighed, when everyone looked to her to answer Stefan's question.

"Like I said, they're at the Ridge. Everything's set up: a circle of ash, torches, the doppelgangers, and the four creatures she needs."

"And she's expecting us?"

She shook her head, "She's expecting me. Invited, actually."

"Invited? A bit confident, isn't she?" Damon commented. Irina was smart enough to plan for when her enemies would try and stop her, but she should know better than to taunt her own demise. Or at least, the chance of her demise.

"She's got Avery, Elena, and another doppelganger strapped to chairs around the circle, draining their blood. The ash was soaking it all up, but I doubt Irina would drain them dry."

"She only needs enough to darken the circle," Noah concluded. "It's too risky for her to leave only Katherine alive."

"What're they saying?" Jeremy asked, and the draugr promised to relay the message after.

"Yeah," Katherine nodded, even though Noah couldn't see.

"That should take a while, right?" Caroline asked, hoping it would.

"It should," Stefan assured, but Katherine had seen it. The circle was already halfway done.

"We're still sticking with the same distraction?" Tyler inquired.

At that, Katherine groaned. "Unfortunately."

A part of her… no, scratch that, all of her couldn't believe she had agreed to such a risky idea.

"Yes," Stefan nodded, "She won't see it coming. And we only need a second to shove that cure down her throat."

Katherine knew that was all they had, but she also knew that a second was all it took to turn the tables.

-x-x-x-

Damon felt everything.

From the whispering winds to the creak of a branch under the weight of a squirrel, he heard it all.

Even closing his fists, he could tell—he could feel the strength in them.

And most importantly, as the group moved along the trail to Elistear, he made not a single sound with his feet.

No more fumbling hands or stumbling feet. No more depleted energy or necessary breaths.

He was back! A vampire, just as he always knew he was meant to be.

Damon wiped the stupid grin off his own face, because despite getting what he wanted, it felt odd to be walking into certain doom with such elated spirits.

"Shut up, Damon," Katherine hissed telepathically.

To be covert, they had all decided to communicate via magic.

Jasmine had opened a channel that linked the entire group telepathically. Everyone knew better than to think that sneaking up and completely surprising a powerful, telepathic immortal was possible. It was inevitable that once they got close enough, they would be spotted, but this way, if Irina had guards, the group could work swiftly and in sync.

He frowned, "I didn't say anything."

"You didn't have to, your joy at being turned is deafening."

"Well, soorryy, for being happy—."

"Are you serious?" one of the hunters thought.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Caroline chimed in.

"Is there a way to lower the intensity on this thing?" Tyler questioned.

"Damon," Stefan began.

"Will all of you," Issac shouted, "just shut up—!"

Suddenly, the sound of chatter dropped, and Damon looked to the others as he felt the line cut off like a telephone, before a loud pitch exploded between his ears.

He held his head, just as it stopped.

"Everyone, behave!" Jasmine said, glaring at all of them. "This isn't the time to be childish."

Damon pointedly glared at Katherine which she returned with a challenging tilt of her head, but Stefan walked between them, shoving Damon aside as he kept walking.

"Come on, guys. We don't have time for this. We still need to split up."

"He's right, let's go," Jeremy encouraged, eager to rescue his sister. Damon only frowned as the group continued, because they were right. They didn't have time for any petty squabbling. Even the hunters were holding their tongues.

Quickly, they stopped where Katherine indicated. Yards away from the base of the hill, the group quietly segregate into their designated groups. Noah and Jasmine, along with two hunters, Vince and Josef, went to the right. Damon, Jeremy, and Katherine headed to the left. Since they could all use their vampiric speed to run, Stefan, Tyler, and Caroline were sent around to the furthest side of the hill. Meanwhile, Josiah, Isaac and the rest of the hunters headed straight up the path, hiding in the shadows of the trees until it was time.

From the times they'd faced the Immortal, they knew, even outnumbered, that her strength still overpowered them. Infiltrating them from the inside, or straight up confronting her enemies, Irina was sure to gain the upper hand. The odd group of hunters and the Mystic Falls gang could barely decide on anything, but they had all agreed that their best bet was to surround the area. Katherine knew the area, no doubt the hunters were good strategists, and collectively, everyone packed a punch—so much more, once the witches arrive—so an ambush from all sides seemed the most appropriate.

The idea was that, hopefully, they could cause enough confusion for Irina and Celeste that at least one group could get the upper hand and shove the cure into Irina's face.

When in doubt, an overwhelming show of force always worked.

Following Katherine up the incline of the ground, Damon crouched alongside Jeremy. They weren't at the edge of the trees, but they were close enough that they could see.

"Oh my god," Jeremy thought, and Damon could hear Caroline echo the sentiment.

The sight was definitely not something one saw everyday.

Illuminated by torchlight, Damon could see how the black ash on the ground was slowly—no, wait, that was white ash. And the black, that was the blood dripping from the three doppelgangers.

The three women, who shared the Immortal's face, were hunched over in their chairs, conscious but barely there. It was a wonder that none of them were passed out.

Damon could hear their soft breaths. He could see the sweat perspiring on their skin. He could feel their hands, shaking from the loss of oxygen. And, most importantly, he could taste the blood flowing from their open cuts.

He swallowed, just as a firm hand grabbed him by his upper arm.

"What're you doing?" Katherine asked aloud; eyes narrowed.

Damon blinked, realizing his eyes had whitened and his fangs had come out.

He stared at her for a moment, a little surprised that he'd unwillingly let his instincts take over, before she whispered again, "Put those away."

Jeremy glanced at the duo, his eyes lingering on Damon's clouded ones before turning back to the scene in front of them while adjusting his grip on his crossbow.

"In position?" Noah interrupted the quiet of their thoughts.

"Ready," Stefan said, with everyone confirming the same.

Damon huffed out a breath, blinking a few times as he felt his features return to normal.

In the middle, the blood finished soaking the circle and a faint glow resonated around the ash.

In the center of the circle, Celeste read from the grimoire in front of her.

"Quod ex anima et spiritus vitae."

Jeremy shifted, looking towards the two beside him.

"Autem alienus eris causa immolatitium est. Ut autem moderationis simulatione captaret," Celeste continued, picking up a dagger from the center rock. "Aperi ianuam. Redde rationem ostium. Id planum diripiet. Dare aditum.

"Why aren't we attacking?" Issac questioned, stating the obvious.

The ritual to tear open the Veil was beginning, why weren't they stopping it?

Oblivious to the surrounding enemy, Celeste kept going, repeating, "Quod ex anima et spiritus vitae. Tu autem alienus eris causa immolatitium est. Ut aute—"

Damon clenched his fist, resisting the urge to run in there himself and intervene. Even though, the only person he considered worth rescuing in the circle was Elena—sorry, not sorry, Avery and Mercer, but he didn't know them well enough to care—he was no longer an original vampire. He didn't have the supernatural speed to pull off a quick snatch and grab.

And besides, they had a plan.

They were just waiting for the signal.

"The witches aren't here yet," Noah reasoned. It would be stupid to head straight into Irina's grasp. Attacking now without the fire power of the witches to cast the Immortal away for good would be useless, if not completely idiotic. Not two mention, since Irina destroyed the Streblorrhiza flowers Avery had gotten, the witches were coming with their own supply.

"Witches?" Irina asked loudly, interrupting the silent conversation.

She looked out to the dark of the woods, but her eyes never settled on anything specific. If Damon had to guess, she could hear the thoughts, but it looked like she couldn't pinpoint where they were coming from.

"You mean the ones on the way from Detroit?" Irina spun around slowly, delighted, "They're dead. Now come out, Noah. I know you're here."

The telepathic line dropped suddenly, but with his hearing, Damon heard Jasmine try and stop Noah from doing just as the Immortal demanded.

"Dead?" Damon shared a look of horror with Katherine and Jeremy. Celeste knew about that plan but there was no way Irina had managed to take care of them while also keeping herself busy in Mystic Falls.

-x-x-x-

The last time Noah checked his phone, the witches headed to Mystic Falls were alive, well, responding to him via text, and almost to their destination.

Jasmine was worried her uncle and coven were, just as Irina said, dead, but Noah felt like his sister might be lying. Trying to catch them off guard.

There's no way she knew the route they were taking or had enough time to intercept. She had to be bluffing, but a part of him knew that her claims were completely viable.

"Call your uncle," he told Jasmine, just before walking towards the clearing.

The witch huffed, frustrated that he would easily walk to his death, before pulling out her phone.

"Sister," the draugr confronted, stepping out from the shadows, but avoiding the circle.

"Tell me, brother. Did you come here to offer yourself? I've brought Aran here," she gestured to the helpless draugr who had terrorized them for the majority of their childhood two-thousand years ago. "But using you would feel just as poetic."

Celeste's chanting continued, as if nothing was happening. She stepped towards one of the helpless sacrifices as she held the dagger in front of her.

"You don't have to do this," Avery begged weakly to the witch from her seat.

There, Noah had a better look at the three doppelgangers.

They were alive, but whatever effects the circle had, had them suffering. He didn't remember this. When he and Qetsiyah first made the Veil, she hadn't used a circle with this pattern or with this effect.

"She's right, you don't have to do this," Noah affirmed Avery's words, directing it to his sister.

"Do I not?" Irina tilted her head, her expression lit up from the sight of her brother, but it was sinister—dangerous, even, as she took a step towards him.

"You don't," he insisted, "I'm sorry for what Qetsiyah has done."

"What you've done," Irina corrected.

Noah shook his head. He knew what he did, but he refused to fall into her trap, "This isn't the answer. Vengeance isn't the answer."

"I don't know, little brother. It seems right; fitting," Irina said, shifting her feet, standing with a laugh in her tone, "Qetsiyah wanted a monster? I'll give her a monster."

"Irina, please!" Noah pleaded.

After two thousand years, he'd resigned himself into think his sister was beyond help. After all that's happened, he'd told himself he'd be ready to let her go, kill her even, if that's what it came down to. But looking at her now, he saw the sister he grew up with, the one that protected him, the one who saved him. It horrified him that this is what she turned into.

Damn the hunters, because if there was even a chance to get that Irina back, he owed her that much to take it.

"Please. Stop this."

Noah stepped forward, suddenly feeling a pit at the bottom of his stomach that was trying to grasp at him. He looked to the circle, seeing an object in the middle that didn't belong to the rest of this ritual. That was likely the cause of the feeling.

He stepped back.

Irina chuckled from inside the ash.

"What has truly brought you to me, brother? Have you genuinely come to convince me to change my ways? Give up revenge? After all this time?"

"Yes, please. What would father say?"

Irina squinted, unaffected by his words, "Father is dead. And you had two thousand years to free me from that tomb. Nothing you say now will have the ability to change my mind."

-x-x-x-

Damon watched as Noah spoke to Irina.

"If the witches are dead, we should attack," Jeremy reasoned to the two with him. They no longer had the telepathic connection to the rest of the group, and no doubt listening to each other via supernatural senses to relay their plan of attack was stupid. Those in the circle could easily overhear. "Celeste isn't stopping and Noah's already doing his part—"

Katherine shook her head, interrupting Jeremy, "No. If the witches are dead, that just means we don't have any magic to cast her out. At least none on this plane."

The younger Gilbert frowned, "You're saying we let them take the Veil down?"

"We're saying we have the cure," Damon shook his head. "We just need to wait."

In the middle of the circle, a scream rung out as the human Celeste began with, squirmed against the dagger in his chest before laying motionless. Still, the witch chanted, "—causa immolatitium est. Ut autem moderationis simulatione capta—"

Jeremy gripped his bow, watching the scene.

"Don't be stupid," Damon warned.

It was too dangerous to just run in, especially since Noah looked like he was being affected by something in proximity to the circle.

Unfortunately, Jeremy couldn't just sit back and watch people die in front of him.

With a quick pull, an arrow flew from his crossbow.

It would've hit Celeste dead on, but it bounced off instead, clattering to the ground by Mercer. She had a protection spell up.

Those in the circle turned their attention to her. Irina shook her head, unsurprised by the turn of events as she looked to Noah, "Or perhaps you've just come to betray me once again?"

Celeste looked up, spotting the place it originated from.

"Betray you?" Noah questioned, "You betray yourself. This isn't you, Irina, I know you."

"You knew me," Irina articulated, "Do recall, that I have been encased in stone for two millenniums thanks to my own blood."

"You were killing innocents! I didn't know what Qetsiyah had planned."

"Excuses," she shook her head, resolute.

One of Irina's vampires moved quickly, following Celeste's instruction.

Like a whiplash, Damon felt the wind speed him away from where he'd been crouching, and something pushed him against a tree. He grunted, but Katherine shushed him with a finger to her lips as she looked back to where they'd been a second ago.

"I pity you and those you've convinced to align themselves with you," Irina spoke, gesturing blindly to the woods around them.

The vampire grabbed Jeremy, whisking him back into the light of the torches.

"You must be Jeremy," Irina greeted as the boy grimaced. He sat up, unaffected by the pyramid, unlike the others inside the circle.

Did it only affect the supernatural?

"Irina, no," Noah stepped forward, placing his hand on his torso and groaning before stepping back again.

"That idiot," Damon muttered. It served Jeremy right for being stupid enough to fire an arrow, but Damon knew Stefan and his hero complex would be just as, if Irina decided to end Jeremy's life. "You have to stop Stefan."

Katherine frowned at him, letting go and looking towards where the Salvatore in question, Lockwood, and Blondie were hiding. Damon would never get there in time, he wasn't fast enough.

"He's going to try and save him," Damon reasoned. If Stefan wasn't going to do it for Elena, then it was because he was just that concerned about his friend.

His brother was so predictable, it was annoying.

The group outnumbered the foursome in the middle but charging in head-on was the last thing they should do. Irina was powerful, and two vampires, a suped-up Bennett witch, and the weakening barrier only added to that.

"Elena's little brother, correct?" Irina questioned, pulling Jeremy's shoulder so he would look up. Irina had positioned him to face Elena, and the doppelganger shook her head weakly.

"No," Elena muttered, trying to get up.

Grabbing Jeremy by his hair, Irina jerked his head back. He cried out, holding her forearm, and trying to keep his balance in the face of being so vulnerable.

"I rather think I'm doing you a favour. Is it not true that they say, history repeats itself? As a sign of good will, I wouldn't want you to suffer as I did," Irina pulled out a knife, twirling it in one hand, as she leered between Noah and Elena.

"Don't touch him!" Elena hissed, gripping the arm rests.

"Katherine," Damon called from where they hid, but she only looked back to him with a raised brow.

She wasn't about to put herself in danger. Not like this.

Stefan knew better than to jump in, but they both knew that knowing and not following through were two separate things.

"He'll betray you no sooner than my brother did I. It's a pity we already sacrificed the human," Irina jerked Jeremy to his feet and holding the knife close to him, she instructed, "Say goodbye."

"Irina!" Noah shouted simultaneously with Elena's, "No!"

Jeremy closed his eyes, Irina pulled back her arm, ready to stab him through the side, but a hand appeared on her wrist.

Stefan grunted, fighting off Ryora's effects but struggling to even stand up as he tried his best to hold the dagger away from the younger Gilbert.

Celeste had moved on, killing the sacrificial vampire and continuing to chant with determination, "—alienus eris causa immolatitium est. Ut autem moderationis simulatione captaret—"

Irina tilted her head at Stefan, dropping Jeremy from her grasp and grabbing the vampire by the neck.

Without thinking, Damon moved forward meaning to jump in, but a firm hand on his chest stopped him.

"Wait," Katherine said.

Damon didn't resist.

He knew better, but like Stefan he couldn't resist the initial impulse.

"Listen."

Damon narrowed his eyes at Katherine, conceding to her instruction.

Aside from Celeste and the ritual, the doppelgangers, the remaining draugr and werewolf sacrifices, Irina and Stefan, Jeremy and Noah, he could hear… the hunters?

They were moving, so quick that the next second a stake shot out of the trees from the opposite side of the clearing.

Immediately tin cans clattered onto the stone floor, spinning as vervaine gas erupted from it. The two vampires in the clearing began to cough. Celeste stopped what she was doing, coughing as well, while Irina stood with Stefan, unphased but paying attention to where the attack would come from.

Almost immediately, the visibility into the clearing was gone.

Damon squinted but all he could do was listen in on what was happening.

The hunters were on their feet, stomping into the clearing, eager to end a two millennia old mission. There was coughing all over from all the vampires affected. Damon could hear Irina shouting and grunting as she fought off her attackers. The sound of arrows flying and hitting flesh. Metal chains. The smell of blood.

Much like Irina, he couldn't decipher where and who was doing what, but it was clear. A fight had broken out in the middle, yet, unlike the hunters, the supernatural still couldn't just run in blindly.

As suddenly as it appeared, a gust of wind blew from one side, effectively clearing out enough smoke for some visibility.

Jasmine Rivers stepped out from the trees, homing in on Irina as the immortal held a bloody hunter in her hand.

"Causa doloris!" she casted, effectively hurting Irina enough to drop the body.

On the other side, Celeste held up her hand, casting the same spell to drop the rival witch to the ground. The two vampires were quick, attacking the Rivers witch, as Noah stepped in to help his friend.

Dodging the swing of a hunter's sword, Irina held the blade, and snapped her hand away not because of its sharpness but because of its glow.

Issac smirked, "The enchanted blades entrusted to the Five, meant to aid in the fall of the Immortal. You're dead."

"And you speak too much." Swiftly, Irina moved, coming up behind Issac and attempting to crush his neck only to have to dodge another hunter. In a blur, she dodged and killed hunter after hunter, stopping only when she held Josiah by the neck, holding his hand with her other and preventing his attempt to shove something towards her face.

"What is this?" she asked.

She pried the object from his hand, revealing the cure Stefan had given him.

"You meant this for me?" she mocked.

Eying the cure, she crushed it, spilling the blood between her fingers.

She watched Josiah's shock before crushing his neck.

"No!" Noah shouted from outside the circle, having killed the two vampires, he was helping Jasmine up.

"Like pigs to slaughter," Irina laughed, addressing the witch at her side. "Finish it, Celeste."

From one of the chairs a voice plead, "Celeste, please!"

"Avery," Mercer spoke to her from where he lay as the Bennett witch approached him. "This is not your fault."

At the side, Noah pointed Jasmine to the object in the middle. To the pyramid preventing him and anyone else from going in.

She reached out starting her chant.

This prompted Irina to step out of the ash, but Noah stood in her way.

Everything happened to quickly. Ryora's pyramid shattered, Mercer shouted from the pain at the dagger in his chest, Irina grabbed her brother by the neck, Jeremy scrambled to his feet, Stefan sped over to Elena with the knife Irina had intended for Jeremy, and Avery shouted as Celeste finished the ritual.

In that instant, the ash shot out blinding white light.

A ripple moved through the air.

A woman was hunched over in the middle of the circle as the light disappeared. She had straight blonde hair, a slender frame, and looked twice the age of Irina.

"Qetsiyah," Irina hissed with so much malice, she nearly dropped her grip on Noah.

Behind Qetsiyah, Celeste clamped a hand over her ancestor's mouth, and forced her to swallow the cure.

The woman choked at the object; a pain Damon didn't remember crossing her face as she felt herself become reduced to human. She looked up, a fear in her blue eyes that didn't match the powerful ancient witch she was no longer.

There was a blur, and then…

"Irina!"

Spinning around, Irina's eyes fell onto Katherine.

"You're too late," the immortal taunted.

"I don't think so," a voice, Stefan, spoke from the opposite direction.

From the other side, behind Qetsiyah and Celeste, were Stefan, Tyler, and Caroline. They stood behind each doppelganger.

With speed, they showed her their hands, each one holding the heart of a double—a heart of her lifelines.

Her eyes widened as she turned back to Katherine, who wore a smirk on her face as she held the arm Damon had across her chest.

"Goodbye, bitch," she gloated, gasping as Damon plunged a stake into her heart from behind.

He held her as she started falling limp, and her skin turned grey.