You are my Freedom

A New Day

Damon and Clara were sat on a ridge watching the sun illuminate the beautiful quarry.

"It's breathtaking," Clara says mesmerized by the view,

Damon brought Clara closer and kissed the side of her head savoring this moment with his wife.

"The first of a million sunrises we'll share together," he tells her.

Clara tilted her head back and smiled, her eyes drawing him in for a kiss. They sat in this perfect moment happy and in love wrapped up in each other's arms, thankful for everything that had led them to be here together.

Damon stared at their interlocking fingers admiring how sexy his ring looked on his wife's finger when he thought of the one thing that could make this an even more perfect moment.

He brought his head down, his lips brushing against her ear and whispers...

"Marry me."

Clara turned around confused,

she smiles, "we're already married..."

Damon shrugs, "It was rushed and in secret, marry me again in a giant hideous white dress in front of everyone." he practically dares her.

"Really?" she asks

Damon nods and brings their lips together in a tender kiss.

"Let's start our eternity off together properly, what do you say?"

Clara smiled and felt tears welling up in her eyes, "Yes, yes I'll marry you." 

Their kissing turns heated and they make love right there in the open not caring for anything but being as close to each other as possible.

elsewhere-

John is with Mayor Lockwood, he's preparing the device.

John holds up the compass's missing piece, "this is the key. Once inserted, the device will be activated. It will work only once, for an estimated time of 5 minutes." 

"Yes, how does it work?" Mayor Lockwood asks

"It's a high-pitched frequency that humans can't hear. Any vampires within a five-block radius will be incapacitated, exposing them. At that time, the sheriff's deputies will inject them with vervain and bring them here, when we will finish them off," John explains

Richard nods, "and you're certain they're attacking tonight?"

John smiles, "I have a source. One of the vampires from the tomb confirmed the attack."

Town Square

Elena, dressed eerily like Katherine, has finished getting ready for the parade part of founders day and Stefan has pulled her aside to talk telling her something truly shocking... about John being her father.

"John?! Is that even possible?" she asks not pleased with the news,

Stefan frowns sympathetically, "there is no proof, but he dated Isobel when she was a teenager and he was the one who brought her to your dad's office for the delivery."

Elena shakes her head not wanting to believe it, "my whole life I've never liked this man. I..."

Stefan grimaces, "sorry, I'm sorry. I just...I wanted to tell you before Damon dropped it on you in some typically inappropriate way."

"No, I'm happy that you told me, I just...I really hope that it's not true. What I am supposed to do? Do I just...confront him and say 'are you my biological father?'"

Stefan shrugs "I guess when you're ready."

Elena looking defeated admits, "I'm never gonna be ready. Stefan, I have enough problems with the family that I actually care about. Jeremy hates me, and why wouldn't he? My journal gave him every single reason to."

"He's just hurt, he's confused," Stefan tells her trying to at least help her with this.

"He's never going to forgive me for Vicki, for taking away his memories, for lying to him."

"He's your brother, he'll forgive you. Just give him some time." Stefan responds thinking about his and Damon's evolving relationship. 

He sees his brother arrive with a very modern-looking Clara and smiles a bit over their progress, not too long ago Elena was having to talk him out of violently killing Damon.

Clara was feeling very uncomfortable in her new jeans, it was so different from anything she had worn before and although she was completely covered she had never felt more exposed.

"Stop fidgeting, you look great," Damon says trying to calm Clara down,

"These pants are way too tight," she complains.

Damon squints his eyes at her, "you come from the time of corsets and you think skinny jeans are too tight?"

Clara turns to him, "yes! At least corsets served a point, giving you an hourglass shape... help with posture, what are the point of these skin-tight pants?" she asks.

"To show off your already perfect shape," Damon says dancing his eyebrows and giving her a peck on the lips, 

he sees Elena out of the corner of his eye and panicked for a moment, she looked so much like Katherine. Clara followed his eyes and saw what had spooked him. Her jaw clenched and fists nearly crushed Damon's hands,

"Remind me that's Elena and not Katherine before I go over and rip her heart out."

Damon pulled her close trying to reassure her, and also himself... "Its just Elena, I promise."

Elsewhere-

Caroline is taking pictures with Matt before the Founders' Day Parade, in their Civil War costumes. Elena spots Jeremy and runs after him.

"Jeremy!" she shouts after him,  "I was wondering where you were. You look great, and you guys did a really great job on the float."

Jeremy shakes his head at her, "go away, Elena."

Elena sighs, "Jeremy, come on! Please! I don't want it to be like this between us."

"Why don't you have Damon erase my memory again? Then I could go back to being your in-the-dark little brother," he counters not letting up,

"Jer, please," Elena begs hating this,

"Just don't! You can't fix this that easily; something like this doesn't just get fixed."

He looks at her and leaves.

The floats are parading. Carol Lockwood commentates.

The marching band and the cheerleaders parade, everyone applauds and scream.

Carol Lockwood speaks into the mic "and for a little local history, Mr. Saltzman's students have recreated Virginia's Battle of Willow Creek."

The float arrives in the street. Jeremy and Tyler are in it, they wave to the crowd and pretend to shoot at each other.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our stunning Miss Mystic Falls Court and their handsome escorts."

Elena, Stefan, Caroline and Matt, and the rest of the Mystic Falls Court and their escorts are on the float; they laugh and wave to the crowd.

"This is Caroline Forbes, Miss Mystic Falls. Aren't they beautiful?"

Elsewhere-

Bonnie is in the crowd. She smiles and waves at Elena. Elena smiles and waves back to Bonnie. Damon walks in front of Bonnie and stops, smiles and waves to Elena. She rolls her eyes and looks away. She looks at Stefan waves to the rest of the crowd. Damon turns around and sees Bonnie.

"What do you want?" Bonnie snaps,

Damon tries to appear casual, "just watching the parade."

She begins to leave, "Where are you going?"

 "Away from you," she snaps at him,

"I wanna say something to you." Damon tries to get Bonnie to stop and listen but she's not having it.

"Just leave me alone!" 

He finally gets in front of her, "Thank you." 

His thanks confuses Bonnie allowing him to speak a bit longer, "The device that Emily spelled could have killed me and you allowed my wife to walk in the sun for the first time in 145 years... I don't take what you did lightly so...thank you." Damon seems sincere and Bonnie has to remind herself just how horrible Damon has been in the past so no second thoughts about today bubble up.

"I did it for Elena," she tells him

Damon nods, "I know that, but I'm still very grateful. And...I owe you."

"Just keep your wife in check."

Damon smirks, "relax I just introduced her to cotton candy she's on her way to her first sugar coma,"

She looks at him wearily for a moment and shrugs her shoulders. Damon sees he's not going to chip away the iciness between them and makes his exit.

"Enjoy the parade." He says as he leaves.

The Grill

Clara stops in for a drink to curb her cravings around all these warm-blooded people and overhears an argument between Elena and a young man she is assuming is her brother,

"I don't believe that we can't fix this. I lied, I was wrong. But you're my brother, Jer, and I love you, and I have to fix it. So just tell me, what can I do?"

"You go to hell, Elena." she hears Jeremy say back, 

Damn, that was harsh, she decides to try and help mend fences and follows Jeremy out of the bar.

"Jeremy! Wait up." Clara shouts,

Jeremy looks at her confused, "Who are you?"

"The d**k who compelled you... the reason you're mad at your sister, he's my husband." she explains

"Yeah... I read something about that in Elena's journal along with several other things," He starts to walk away again.

"Wait, I'm sorry!" she says stopping him,  "About Damon... and your sister, I think she had only just learned about (whispers) vampires herself, and she was scared and overwhelmed, people tend to do gutless horrible things when they are scared and overwhelmed, and that's what your sister is... a person, a human being who made a mistake. She loves you and she's just thrown into this world that makes no sense to her so maybe instead of punishing her for not handling it perfectly you could be there for her and both navigate this dangerous world together... think about it."

Clara walks away from Jeremy leaving him emotionally exhausted... he missed when he just felt pissed at Elena, it was an easier emotion to manage.

Dr. Gilbert's old office

Sheriff Forbes is talking with John and Mayor Lockwood.

"You want to use our town as bait? It's too dangerous, it's insane!" Sheriff Forbes exclaims

Mayor Lockwood ignores her concerns and explains, "We've gone over the plans with all your deputies, they're all on board."

She narrows her eyes at him, "You've gone behind my back?"

 "Yeah, because we knew this is exactly how you'd react," John says chiming in,

Sherif Forbes shakes her head at the two, "Our children are here."

Mayor Lockwood sighs, "Liz, we need to do this. We have no choice; this is the reason for the Secret Council. Our founding fathers created the Secret Council for just this purpose!"

[Long pause. They look at each other.]

"I'm the Sheriff, it's my call and I say no."

"Richard, let me speak to the Sheriff alone," John says, the Mayor looks between the two but finally leaves,

"John, you're not thinking clearly, I'm not gonna change my mind about this."

She turns her back and goes toward her desk. John hits her behind the head. She's unconscious. He removes her gun belt and handcuffs her to the radiator. He looks at her and leaves.

Outside

Clara runs into Damon on the street,

"Hey, I've been looking for you, you alright," Damon asks

 "I'm feeling a little shaky..." she admits,  "I tried to help Jeremy forgive Elena, I don't think it went well. And then I forgot about the drink I was getting to calm me down and now there are so many people Damon."

Damon brings her in close, "Hey, hey shh shh shh, it's okay come here. We'll just go home alright, you did amazing today you're still new to all this, okay."

Clara nodded trying to take solace in Damon's words,

"You should stay, I'll be fine... I just need to get away from the crowds," she tells him

"You sure?" Damon checks,

Clara nodded again and Damon fished out his keys, "Here at least take the car."

"You trust me to drive your car?" she asks surprised,

"You think I didn't know about you and Stefan sneaking out late at night so you could learn,"

Clara blushes with embarrassment,

"Relax it fine, it's not that far and no one will be on the roads right now. I'll see you when I get home." Damon kisses her on the forehead and Clara takes off.

It's night now in the Town Square the Sun is starting to set,

Damon is looking and walking around in the town square feeling about ready to go home when he runs into Anna.

"You're still around?" Damon asks unimpressed,

"There's something you need to know. The vampires from the tomb are planning an attack tonight."

"How do you know this?" he asks now a lot more interested,

Anna sighs, "I went to them. They think I'm with them but I'm not. They want the Founding Families dead." 

Dammit, Damon thinks, if something happens to Elena, Stefan will fall apart. "When is this supposed to happen?"

"When the fireworks start." 

Damon starts thinking quickly trying to understand what's happening, "John Gilbert wants to use that invention on them."

Anna looks alarmed, "Then we can't be here!"

Damon shakes his head, "It doesn't work, it's been deactivated."

"Well, then a lot of people are gonna die."

"Where are they right now?" Damon asks,

"They're already here, Damon."

The tomb vampires are meeting in front of a building.

Vampire leader: "Remember, we don't know which of them ingests vervain. It's not about the feed, it's about the kill. You know what to do."

[They walk into the crowd and disperse.]

Damon is walking toward Alaric (AS, for Alaric Saltzman, so he's not confused with R for Richard or A for Anna).

"Ric!" Damon shouts

"Yeah?"

"You keep those nifty little vampire darts in the car?"

Alaric looks at him warily, "Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Because this square is crawling with tomb vampires. I think we might need a stake or two." 

That wakes Alaric up out of his post-Isobel fog and he gets ready for action, he nods, "Yeah, got it."

Alaric leaves, Damon sees Stefan and Elena. He goes toward them and grabs Elena by the arm,

"What are you doing?" Elena cries,

"Saving your life." Damon tells her, "Fifteen words or less...Tomb vamps are here. Founding families are their target. (To Stefan) Get her out of here, now!"

[Damon starts to leave.]

"Wait, what about Clara?" Stefan shouts,

"Don't worry she already went home and that's more than fifteen words, Stefan."

[He leaves.]

"Wait, Jeremy is out here somewhere," Elena says worrying for her brother,

 "Let's go find him, come on!"

Mayor Lockwood is giving his speech.

"For one hundred and fifty years, Mystic Falls has been the kind of town that everybody wants to call home: safe, prosperous, welcoming. And we have the Founders to thank for that. That's why I'd like to dedicate this evening's firework display to their legacy."

Everyone applause, the tomb vampires on in the crowd, looking at the Mayor. He looks at one of the deputies.

Dr. Gilbert's Old Offices

John is waiting for the signal. One of the deputies is with him.

"Get in position."

The deputy goes out. John goes toward the device and looks at it.

Town Square

"Enjoy the show!"

The firework starts

Dr. Gilbert's Old Offices 

John is preparing the device, Damon arrives. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

John smiles, "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do."

Damon goes toward him, John activates the device. Damon falls, he grabs the sides of his head he is shocked and confused and quickly the piercing pain makes him scream out and collapse.

Outside

Stefan falls experiencing the same pain Damon just did, frightening Elena.

"Stefan, what's going on? What's happening?"

"My head!" he manages to squeak out

"What?" Elena asks not understanding.

"My head!!"

Stefan is on the ground now holding his head. Elena's with him feeling helpless, a deputy runs toward him but Alaric runs interference and hurriedly talks to him. "Hey, I got this one. There's one over there. Take this, go! Go! Go!"

The deputy leaves. Alaric goes toward them and helps Stefan to get up. They go toward the stairs.

"I don't know what happened, he just dropped," Elena tells him,

Alaric nods, "Yeah, he's not the only one. The cops have gotten everyone who's gone down, injecting them with vervain."

"What?" Elena asks appalled and frightened.

"They're rounding up the vampires..."

Carol Lockwood is with her husband and he too is on the floor. "Please help him, he just went down."

The deputies inject him with vervain. Mayor Lockwood is unconscious and there is blood leaking out his ears.

Inside the Grill

Anna and Jeremy are hiding in the restrooms.

"Ahhhhhhhh my head!" She screams loudly causing one of the deputies to enter.

Deputy (into the radio): "I got one."

They inject her with vervain, the other holds Jeremy back from helping her.

"Hey, what are you doing? What are you doing? Hey, leave her alone!" Jeremy tries to break free of their hold but can't.

One deputy takes her, the other stays with Jeremy. "Leave her alone! Anna!!!"

Dr. Gilbert's Old Offices 

[The device is stopped. John takes everything back and goes in the basement. Damon is on the floor, unconscious. Deputies are bringing more vampires.]

"The device is done; the only thing keeping them down is vervain. We don't have much time, let's finish this." John says,

[Damon begins to wake up; one of the Deputies is pouring gasoline everywhere. John begins to leave but Anna catches his leg. She's on the floor. He looks at her.]

"Anna."

[Damon turns his head and looks at them.]

John tell the deputy to head on up that he can handle things down here.

[The Deputy leaves, Anna tries to get up, Damon is still looking at them. John takes a stake from his back.]

"Please...no!" Anna says trying to beg for her life,

He stakes her without hesitation or remorse, and Damon can do nothing but watch. John pours more gasoline as he goes up the stairs and throws a match down causing flames to erupt. Already some of the vampires begin to burn. Damon looks at them and tries to take comfort in the fact Clara will be saved but its not enough he is pissed, he finally got his happy ending and now it literally has all gone up in flames.

In The Town Square

Stefan is better, he's talking with Elena.

"Are you okay?" she asks still upset overseeing him in that much pain,

Stefan nods, "It was like needles were piercing my skull and it just stopped."

[Alaric arrives.] "I saw at least five vampires go down. They're taking them to your family's old building."

"It's the Gilbert's device. It has to be." Stefan says

"But how did he get it to work? Bonnie unspelled it." Elena asks,

"Maybe she didn't." Alaric suggests

"She did, we saw her do it!" Elena tells him trying to stick up for her friend,

"No, no, no, he's right. " Stefan says, "Think about it. We asked Bonnie to deactivate a device that could protect people against vampires."

"So we could protect you." Elena argues.

"And Damon... vampir-" Stefan stops himself suddenly aware he doesn't know if his brother is one of the vampires that were caught, "Where is Damon?"

 "I don't know." Alaric says,  "I haven't seen him since this started." They all look at each other worried.

Back in the basement

The fire is still blazing on. Damon looks around him and sees the mayor which surprises him.

"Mayor. Is that you?"

"What are you doing here?" Richard asks,

"I'm a vampire. What's your excuse?" Damon thinks on this more and is stumped that Richard found himself down here, "No, really. The vervain didn't affect you, you're not a vampire, what the hell are you?"

The mayor scoots backward to get away from Damon. He bumps into the tomb vampires' leader, who is waking.

Vampire leader: "Mayor Lockwood!"

The vampire leader reaches an arm around Mayor Lockwood from behind and grabs his chin, pulls violently and snaps his neck.

Town Square

Elena and Stefan see John and race to get answers from him,

"Where is Damon?" Stefan asks feeling protective of his brother for the first time in a very long while,

John smirks uncaring, "With the rest of them, where he should be... where you should be, It's over for Damon."

Elena shakes her head not believing this man could be her father, "You're crazy!"

John looks at her, "Why? Because I'm doing what should have been done a hundred and forty-five years ago? This is the right thing, Elena."

Stefan is looking at the smoking building. John looks at him. "Go ahead, you won't make it out. It'll save me the trouble of killing you myself."

Stefan looks at Elena. "You know the building well, is there another way in?" 

Elena thinks for a moment and then remembers, "Utility door, there's one around the side."

He goes toward the building, Elena follows him but John catches her arm.

"You take one more step and I'll alert those deputies that they missed a vampire."

"I'm asking you not to." she tells him,

"That doesn't mean anything to me." John replies thinking he has beaten her but she surprises him,

"As my father, it should."

There's a long pause, they look at each other.

"You know?" he asks feeling exposed,

 "I wasn't sure, now I am." She breaks her arm free of him and goes towards the building.

Stefan runs towards the emergency door but Bonnie arrives and tries to stop him,

"Hey, you can't go in there!"

[Stefan opens the door.]

"The fire will take you out." Bonnie warns,

"He's my brother, Bonnie!" Stefan shouts back,

[He goes into the building, he tries to open the basement's door but the doorknob is too hot. Bonnie is looking at the building when Elena arrives.]

"Stefan!" Elena calls after him

Bonnie stops her from following "Elena, you can't go in there!"

"Bonnie, what are you doing?"

Bonnie looks down, "I'm sorry I lied to you."

She catches Elena's arm, realizing she can't let her friend lose her boyfriend like this, she closes her eyes and begins to recite a spell that will hopefully allow Stefan a chance to make it out.

"Ex spiritum intacullum, in terrum incendium, fes matos salvis adisdum!"

In the building, Stefan can finally open the door but the fire is too large. Suddenly, the flames diminish, thanks to Bonnie's spell. Stefan goes into the basement and finds Damon.

"Damon! Come on, hurry!" Stefan picks Damon up and vamp-runs out of the basement. Outside, Bonnie finishes her spell and looks at Elena.

"Bonnie...Bonnie, what is it? Are they gonna be okay?" Elena asks still not seeing anything but smoke coming from the building,

 Bonnies not sure, but she's done what she can,

Finally, Stefan and Damon come out of the building, 

Elena runs toward them.

Damon struggles for a while to get the smoke out of his lungs but finally turns his body over on the pavement and looks to Stefan, "Thank you, brother."

Stefan gives him a nod unable to express yet what his brother means to him after hating him for so long but knowing now he doesn't want to live without him.