![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
[The Vampire Diaries + Buffy] A Far Better Place: Finale
Title: AFBP: Finale
Fandoms: The Vampire Diaries & Buffy the Vampire Slayer (crossover fusion AU)
Universe: Far Better Place
Rating: PG-13 (for references to violence, language, and sexual situations, usual CW stuff)
Relationships: past Jeremy Gilbert/Bonnie Bennett, implied Damon Salvatore/Elena Gilbert, implied Connor Angel/Dawn Summers, platonic Jeremy Gilbert+Alaric Saltzman, platonic Jeremy Gilbert+Elena Gilbert
Summary: The Other Side's collasping and not even Jeremy's new position as a Jr. Watcher can stop it.
Notes: A whole year ago, if someone had told me that I would've mashed up TVD & BtVS like this, I probably would've laughed in their face. Hard to believe I've come this far! I'm actually kinda pleased, even if I would've never thought I'd finish another multi-chaptered fic this year. What, this brings my total up to 3, counting AMM & 13 Days?
To read past chapters, check out the archived story on FF.net or the series on Twisting the Hellmouth.
The Other Side will collapse, and his ex-girlfriend along with it.
What a welcoming way to end his high school career. The coven's warning echoed with every breath, every step, and every motion he made. He could ebb out a quiet existence - one that looked like a damn luxury if Bonnie couldn't share it with him - or he could fight the doomed prophecy to the bitter end.
He dove headfirst into the Watchers' Council's cold cases, drowning himself in skyrocketing paperwork as he and Meredith blazed a path to clear each and every one of them. Surprisingly, neither Damon nor Enzo were involved in the demons roaming free - these agents acted of their own free will, rather than collaborating with Jeremy's living nightmares.
Figures that his struggles would rarely intersect with his friends'. These days, his loved ones were playing on a different chessboard. Katherine had temporarily possessed Elena; Damon and Elena had temporarily had a Ripper virus; and the Travelers were re-enacting Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. Worst of all, Liv kept flirting with him - and Bonnie wouldn't stop giving him the evil eye.
"I'm not even interested!" Jeremy protested, waving his arms wildly in the air as he marched after his ex-girlfriend. "Don't make me say it, Bonnie!"
Bonnie turned on her heels, folding her arms at him as she narrowed her eyes at Jeremy. "What? That we were on a break?"
Jeremy groaned, nearly running his hand down his face. "I'm not an idiot, Bonnie! I'm not dating Liv!"
Honestly, at this point, he would've taken the new Hellmouth. The witches were far less dramatic than his friends and family. While he had befriended the Parker twins, he allied himself with Luke. Liv only clung to him out of a desire to bed Tyler - and frankly, Jeremy wasn't interested in playing matchmaker. Those two were old enough to figure this romance stuff out.
Thankfully, the supernatural had recently ceased to interfere with his school life. From the blissful hours of 8 AM to 3 PM every Monday to Friday, he had earned peace of mind as he traveled across the vast school halls. He could interact with other students without the nagging opinions in the back of his mind. Vampires, witches, werewolves, Slayers, and even spirit mediums had called a truce, all in the name of acquiring a proper education.
Jeremy and Meredith even hosted homework parties, where their friends would quiz everyone on various concepts and reward each other with candy and non-spiked soda. It was the perfect set-up, and frankly, the perfect life for a few hours.
Not only would he actually graduate, but he would graduate with a high enough GPA to attend any major art school.
Bonnie, however, was strangely distant for someone who had repeatedly accused him of cheating on her. (Weren't they no longer dating...?) She would shrug at him, clearly judging his life choices without commenting on them.
He wasn't dating Liv. He wasn't, because if he had to pick a twin, he would pick Luke, and he wasn't even bi. While Liv had chased after Bonnie to reassure her (because Liv liked Tyler, not Jeremy), Luke had remained behind to help Jeremy with Traveler research.
Amongst the room's stark silence, Luke's suggestive eyebrows and slight smirks were louder than Bonnie's echoing footsteps. "What's got her all huffy?"
Jeremy glared at Luke. "Don't go there."
"That's what she said..."
Jeremy almost hit Luke with the nearest grimoire. Almost, because Luke side-stepped it at the last possible moment.
Luke shrugged. "Maybe it's her time of the month."
"Doubt it. She's kinda dead." (Did dead people even have periods? Scratch that, why was he even interested?) The Anchor didn't exist in either reality, instead cautiously floating between the realms of the living and the dead. She alone balanced these dimensions - as long as the Other Side existed, she would endure pain far beyond any mortal's imagination.
Still didn't explain her behavior.
"Do you think..." Jeremy couldn't voice it without acknowledging his innermost fears. He swallowed his own saliva, instead asking, "Do you think Bonnie's worried too?"
"Probably. The Travelers have consistently been one step ahead of us." Luke folded his arms. "I know you've been helping, but we could use the big guns too."
"And risk Elena killing Connor? No thanks."
Luke grimaced. "Ah, yeah, killing your mentor would be no bueno."
If Meredith were here, she would've smacked them for reckless use of the Spanish language. Jeremy laughed at the mental image, half-wishing his baby Slayer could've joined them for an impromptu research session. As it was, the other covens had fallen one by one with the passing of the Celestial coven. You decimate one coven, and the rest toppled over like dominoes. Meredith's and Connor's presence ensured that the US would suffer no more from new hotbeds of magical activity.
"Just a bit," Jeremy teased, reaching in his pocket for his car keys. "Keep me updated, alright? We're gonna need all the help we can get if this thing blows up."
Thankfully, Bonnie had also opted to keep him in the loop. Ever since the Travelers had inadvertently succeeded in creating a magic-free Mystic Falls, the townspeople could breathe easy.
For the first time in his life, everyone acknowledged the supernatural. Students would idly chatter about the vampire attack that had killed Coach Tanner years ago, just as they wondered if Jeremy still saw dead people. (Unfortunately, yes, yes he did.) His teachers even lamented Jeremy's death, rushing to hug him and promising that they had believed him the whole time. (This had to be a parallel dimension. It had to be, because he wasn't used to this sudden affection.)
The principal had even offered a letter of apology, admitting that fear had prevented him from acknowledging Jeremy's every struggle. As graduation approached, Jeremy was even asked to draft up a short speech at one of their various ceremonies.
"We no longer fear what we do not know," His English teacher had mysteriously said, when he waved the envelope in her face. "I'm not surprised they asked you to speak up."
"Yeah, but..." Jeremy pressed his lips together. "My family can't attend my graduation."
If Elena stepped forward, she would drown. Caroline would suffocate to death, and even Bonnie would cease to appear before his eyes. (Damon could get shot again, for all Jeremy cared.)
His teacher had fallen silent, her sympathetic gaze remaining on Jeremy as she bowed her head. "I guess not, then."
Even Meredith started to suffer headaches every time she crossed the town border. After school, they instead trained at the edge of town, where Meredith's strength had fully recovered. Some afternoons, she would dare to step one foot across that imaginary line.
"I can handle it," she insisted, gritting her teeth until Jeremy inevitably pulled her back. "No, really, I'm good."
"Yeah, you're just powerless."
Unlike vampires who died upon crossing the border, Slayers like Meredith and half-vampires like Connor lost their magical edge. Magical energy no longer pulsed within its borders, and so the people no longer fretted about the magical creatures that had once threatened to kill them. (Jeremy also no longer saw dead people - which was the biggest relief in his short eighteen years of life.) Their piece of mind eased Jeremy - and technically, the magical border wasn't his problem.
The significant death toll, on the other hand, was. Jeremy couldn't handle the loss of nearly everyone he loved, no matter how ridiculous their deaths had been. Stefan had drifted to the Other Side, just as Tyler had - and okay, he was completely fine with Enzo dying. Enzo could deal with being an eternal corpse.
Damon had shared his plans with Jeremy and Matt, and later, Bonnie called him over the phone to work the final details out. "I should go with you," Jeremy had found himself insisting, even though he knew better. "You don't have to do this alone."
"Yeah, well... you need to go be a younger, hotter Bruce Willis, and if I take one step into Mystic Falls, good-bye magic, good-bye anchor, good-bye me."
Jeremy internally groaned. "At least tell me how this works."
Bonnie quickly re-iterated the basics of her plan (where Jeremy and Matt would disable the Grill's gas lines for Damon), along with the spell Jeremy needed to dispel. As usual, she refused to divulge details of how she ceased to be the Anchor - and no matter how he prodded, she clammed up tighter than an oyster.
The second she hung up, Meredith rushed to embrace him. "Hey - it's okay. We've got this."
A Slayer had no place re-instating a magical status quo in a town like Mystic Falls, so Jeremy had insisted on leaving her out of the plan. Even then, his rattling anxiety told him otherwise. Even the best plans were occasionally doomed to fail.
As he had promised, he and Matt would disable the main gas lines of the Grill. While Jeremy no longer worked there, he was unwaveringly loyal to the place that had given him his first job.
Matt had cracked a grin at him, right as they entered the tunnels that led to the main gas line. "Can we talk about the irony in blowing up the place dumb enough to hire us?"
"My work says they'll chip in to renovate it, if we succeed," Jeremy said absentmindedly, holding up a flashlight as they moved forward. Dawn had mentioned that the Council had enough funds to renovate several buildings, if so needed - though Jeremy had to wonder, where was the Council acquiring all their money? It couldn't be through legitimate means.
"Yeah, that's... actually what I wanted to talk to you about. You've been working for some big supernatural force, right? I saw those grimoires, Jeremy. You've been working on something big with Meredith Sulez and Luke and Caroline's philosophy professor." Matt's expression darkened as he stepped forward. "Why were you hiding that from us?"
Jeremy's throat tightened. "I didn't want to worry you. But, uh, I also didn't want Elena and Damon attacking the Watchers' Council."
"The... Watchers' Council?" Matt's ire had given way to confusion. "The hell are they?"
"They're this international group that kills vampires." Jeremy paused. "Or they supervise vampires, at least. I'm a Watcher, or someone that surveys supernatural activity in towns like this."
"Is Meredith a Watcher too?"
"Nah, she's a Slayer. Those are the girls destined to kill demons and vampires and crap."
Matt looked almost thoughtful as he peered up at the pipes near them, then at the map Damon had provided them. "So... once we get this job done, and you graduate high school, are you going to move? To go supervise vampires in another town?"
Jeremy shrugged. "Maybe. It depends on where they place me."
To his surprise, Matt patted Jeremy's shoulder. "That's awesome, man. Congrats on your new job."
"You mean it?" Jeremy glanced back at him, holding up a flashlight to the pipes to confirm Matt's suspicion. "I kinda feel like I'm getting revenge on my old boss with this."
"If he ever finds out, we'll both be fired," Matt said with a slight grin. "Looks like we've found them, so all we have to do is wait."
Jeremy nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier."
"You had your reasons. Just promise me you're not going to fight them head-on? I kinda like you being alive."
"Hey! Mere's the one fighting them, not me." Jeremy nearly elbowed Matt. "I mainly make sure she has the tools and stuff to win."
A few months ago, Jeremy had expected the truth to burden Matt. Matt would have turned tail and ran back to Elena and Tyler. Matt wouldn't keep this secret in his heart, and Matt certainly wouldn't have supported him.
"Good. I don't want you dying on me again," Matt teased, pulling Jeremy into a sideways hug. "So why'd you wait so long to tell me?"
Jeremy sheepishly shrugged.
"I could've kept your secret too. Man, you underestimate me too much."
Jeremy really had. Some days, he wondered how he lucked out with such an understanding best friend - and he wondered how he could've ever thought to hide his deepest secrets from him. Matt deserved far more from him than this.
At seven o'clock sharp, they turned the gas lines on and rushed back to their designated spots.
Still no phone call from Bonnie.
Just when Jeremy had given up hope, Bonnie had called him over the phone. Her voice was unsteady, wavering with every syllable she uttered. "I'm so sorry, Jeremy - I lied. There was never any way for me to stop being the anchor. When the other side goes, I go with it."
No fucking wonder. No wonder she had easily agreed to breaking up with him. In hindsight, he should have guessed that her acceptance (and subsequent green-eyed monsters) were larger signs of a problem larger than their silly high-school-esque relationship.
Y-you told me you could come back," Jeremy responded, clutching the phone against his ear.
"If I told you the truth, it would have changed our last days together and I didn't want it to change."
"What, you mean you wanted me to move on?"
"You would've been happy. I... I wouldn't have been another lost Lenore."
"You could've told me, Bonnie!" So he had suffered one too many dead girlfriends. It was the inevitable Jeremy curse. It was also something that - strangely enough - he hadn't minded, because death was the only thing splitting them apart. "You could've been upfront and honest and..."
She hiccuped. "But... we haven't been lately."
"No, we hadn't." He grew quiet, recalling just about every instance where they omitted the truth from each other. "I'm sorry, Bonnie. I love you."
"I know you do. I love you too."
The phone hung up abruptly. His heart sank into an abyss even as Matt returned to announce that the main gas lines were off. Jeremy ignored his best friend, instead rushing into the woods, because Bonnie had promised she would be by the cemetery. "BONNIE!"
He wasn't in love with her. They weren't in love with each other, and Jeremy doubted he would ever fall in love with her again. No, he loved her with his entire heart - and just like Vicki, just like Anna, she was slipping through his fingers before he said good-bye.
He didn't know how long he ran through those woods. He ran and ran until his legs inevitably collapsed upon him, and the entire world went black.
When he woke, Alaric was hovering protectively over him.
"You okay?" Alaric reached over, feeling Jeremy's forehead. "You were out for quite a while."
Wait - Alaric's hand was no longer going through Jeremy's. Alaric was in the realm of the living again? Jeremy sat up, nearly causing his step-uncle to fall over.
"How are you here?"
"I passed through Bonnie." Alaric's expression grew grateful as he sat at the foot of Jeremy's bed. "I'm... sorry I couldn't watch over you better, kiddo."
Speaking of Bonnie... Jeremy furrowed his brow. "Where is she? Where's Bonnie?"
Alaric pressed his lips together. "The... the Other Side collapsed, Jer."
Just like the leader of the Celestial coven said it would. It collapsed, and he couldn't do a damn thing to prevent its inevitable destruction. Jeremy pressed against the bridge of his nose, struggling to rein in his anger.
"She can't be gone."
"No, I don't think so either," Connor's voice called from the doorway. He entered with a bowl of chicken noodle soup, carefully placing it on Jeremy's bedside table. "Willow thinks that she and Damon may have entered another dimension."
Alaric turned to glance at Connor. "It's certainly a possibility. How exactly does Willow know, again?" (Magical energy went boom? Willow was crazy good at sensing magical auras that everyone else had failed to notice.)
"She doesn't. It's a hunch, but it's better than assuming otherwise."
Jeremy reached for a spoon and focused intently on slurping down every last noodle inside his bowl. He was ravenous - far hungrier than he thought he was - and yet, eating was easier than thinking. His brain was starting to hurt at all these possibilities. Bonnie and Damon had failed to reappear?
Scratch that, they had disappeared together? Stefan was alive, Tyler was alive, Elena was alive, and they couldn't grab hold of Damon? The group's priorities must have shifted too far.
More importantly, Connor and Alaric were getting along far too well for total strangers. Jeremy looked up at them. "Wait, do you two know each other? Like before I collapsed?"
"Not really," Alaric admitted, his gaze shifting from Connor and onto Jeremy. "I knew of Connor, because I'd been watching over you, but we hadn't formally met until I crossed the threshold."
That explained everything and yet nothing at the same time.
"Your step-uncle is scary overprotective," Connor added, giving Alaric a bemused look. "I thought your friend Tyler was bad? Ric here takes the cake."
Ric beamed proudly. "I try."
Jeremy wanted to toss pillows at both of them. Instead, he settled for setting down his empty bowl of soup on the bedside table. "Thanks, by the way. I passed out in the woods, didn't I?"
"You were calling her name for hours." Connor smiled sympathetically. "I guess you still had lingering feelings...?"
"Not really."
Alaric raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
"I mean, I love her, right? But I'm not in love with her." Jeremy stared down thoughtfully at the soup. "I want her to be safe, and I want to protect her, but I'm not the guy she'll marry some day."
Connor and Alaric exchanged bemused glances, just as Meredith peered through the doorway. Her long, black ponytail had since unraveled, and she had dark eyes under circles. They all did, now that Jeremy was looking at his motley group better. Sleep had evaded nearly every single one of them.
Quietly, Mere dared to ask, "Gringo? You up?"
"Yeah, come on in, Mer." Jeremy grinned widely at her. "Sorry if I scared you."
She shook her head, stepping inside and rushing to hug him. "I'm just glad you're okay." After a few seconds of silence, she lightly nudged Connor. "Did you tell him?"
Jeremy blinked back surprise. "Tell me what?"
Connor rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, since you're graduating this weekend, and you never did declare a school... we were wondering if you'd like to pick our next city. Leave Mystic Falls behind, take your vampire sister along, and hit the road, so to speak."
Jeremy glanced over at Alaric. "You agreed to this?"
"Just for the summer," Alaric added. "Elena and I're heading back to Whitmore in the fall, but you and Connor and Dawn and Meredith're heading to DC. I heard a certain someone got into MICA?"
"Wait, seriously?" Jeremy couldn't wipe the grin off his face. So maybe he couldn't understand Elena anymore, but his sister had technically lost her boyfriend (again) and he had lost his ex-girlfriend, only to regain the uncle that they wished they had bonded better with.
Alaric could tether them together, and slowly, they could rebuild a family again. Even if the Gilberts could never enter Mystic Falls again.
"Why not?" Connor grinned, reaching for the tray so that he could take it back. "You deserve some semblance of a normal life, and we figure, this way, your family can come along for the ride."
"Connor and I thought it would be the best compromise, and hey, we've never actually had big families, so..."
"Hakuna Matata?" Connor offered up weakly.
Jeremy didn't have to think twice. "Hakuna Matata," he agreed softly. "So why don't we do a cross-country road trip? Knock out some sights, fight nomadic vamps... and maybe stop in a city for a month or two before we have to split again."
"Sounds good to me." Alaric turned towards the door. "I'll go tell Elena."
"Yes!" Meredith pumped her fist. "So, what do you say, Jerbear? To our new adventure?"
He leaned in and ruffled her hair. "To new adventures and beyond."
As a compromise to Jeremy, Mystic Falls High held its graduation outside town borders for the first time in its storied history. Elena, Caroline, Tyler, Matt – even Alaric, Connor, Luke, and Meredith proudly attended, cheering and hollering as the principal announced, “Jeremy Grayson Gilbert,” through a tinned microphone.
Jeremy didn’t remember walking across the stage to receive his diploma, nor did he remember his sweaty palm as he shook his principal’s and vice principal’s hands. He barely remembered the first annual outdoors reception afterwards, where Stefan reached for his graduation cap and fiddled with its yellow and red cords.
“So you’re really heading across the country,” Stefan said softly, turning his gaze towards Elena and Caroline, who were comparing cookie sizes across the field.
Jeremy nodded. “Just for the summer. What about you? You’re not sticking around, so I wondered…”
“I’ve got a car to repair,” Stefan confessed, with a smile Jeremy hadn’t seen on his face in almost a year. “I’ll keep myself busy somehow. Do me a favor and keep an eye on her, alright?”
“As long as you’ll actually answer her calls,” Jeremy answered, reaching to take his cap back.
Elena rushed to hug him from behind, resting her head on Jeremy’s shoulder as she offered up a diploma-shaped cookie. “This was the biggest we could find,” she said apologetically.
Jeremy was tempted to push her off. Only tempted, because she was still significantly stronger than him, and without Damon’s influence, she was… she was almost normal again. “Works for me,” he said, accepting the cookie. “Looking forward to our road trip?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” She clung to him fiercely, ignoring Tyler’s rolled eyes and Matt’s grin and even Stefan’s raised eyebrows. “Stef, promise me you’ll at least text.”
“Or what, you’ll selfie bomb me? Again?”
“Worse: I’ll send you my credit card bills.”
“Len, you really need to stop online shopping,” Stefan groaned, folding his arms and grabbing his own cup of punch. “You’re the only one who’s going to suffer with that credit report.”
“Which is why I need you to stick around. Who else is gonna tell me that?”
“Uh, Alaric will,” Jeremy pointed out, to absolutely no avail.
If this was the life that he had somehow fallen into – even if it was a life without Bonnie and Damon – then it was certainly the one he wanted most for himself. Traveling the country to uncover a spell to bring her home, to rediscover the family he had always loved, and maybe even to tour a country he had always known would indeed be the greatest adventure.
An entire world had opened up before his eyes, and to think – it had all started with one suspicious letter.
Fandoms: The Vampire Diaries & Buffy the Vampire Slayer (crossover fusion AU)
Universe: Far Better Place
Rating: PG-13 (for references to violence, language, and sexual situations, usual CW stuff)
Relationships: past Jeremy Gilbert/Bonnie Bennett, implied Damon Salvatore/Elena Gilbert, implied Connor Angel/Dawn Summers, platonic Jeremy Gilbert+Alaric Saltzman, platonic Jeremy Gilbert+Elena Gilbert
Summary: The Other Side's collasping and not even Jeremy's new position as a Jr. Watcher can stop it.
Notes: A whole year ago, if someone had told me that I would've mashed up TVD & BtVS like this, I probably would've laughed in their face. Hard to believe I've come this far! I'm actually kinda pleased, even if I would've never thought I'd finish another multi-chaptered fic this year. What, this brings my total up to 3, counting AMM & 13 Days?
To read past chapters, check out the archived story on FF.net or the series on Twisting the Hellmouth.
The Other Side will collapse, and his ex-girlfriend along with it.
What a welcoming way to end his high school career. The coven's warning echoed with every breath, every step, and every motion he made. He could ebb out a quiet existence - one that looked like a damn luxury if Bonnie couldn't share it with him - or he could fight the doomed prophecy to the bitter end.
He dove headfirst into the Watchers' Council's cold cases, drowning himself in skyrocketing paperwork as he and Meredith blazed a path to clear each and every one of them. Surprisingly, neither Damon nor Enzo were involved in the demons roaming free - these agents acted of their own free will, rather than collaborating with Jeremy's living nightmares.
Figures that his struggles would rarely intersect with his friends'. These days, his loved ones were playing on a different chessboard. Katherine had temporarily possessed Elena; Damon and Elena had temporarily had a Ripper virus; and the Travelers were re-enacting Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. Worst of all, Liv kept flirting with him - and Bonnie wouldn't stop giving him the evil eye.
"I'm not even interested!" Jeremy protested, waving his arms wildly in the air as he marched after his ex-girlfriend. "Don't make me say it, Bonnie!"
Bonnie turned on her heels, folding her arms at him as she narrowed her eyes at Jeremy. "What? That we were on a break?"
Jeremy groaned, nearly running his hand down his face. "I'm not an idiot, Bonnie! I'm not dating Liv!"
Honestly, at this point, he would've taken the new Hellmouth. The witches were far less dramatic than his friends and family. While he had befriended the Parker twins, he allied himself with Luke. Liv only clung to him out of a desire to bed Tyler - and frankly, Jeremy wasn't interested in playing matchmaker. Those two were old enough to figure this romance stuff out.
Thankfully, the supernatural had recently ceased to interfere with his school life. From the blissful hours of 8 AM to 3 PM every Monday to Friday, he had earned peace of mind as he traveled across the vast school halls. He could interact with other students without the nagging opinions in the back of his mind. Vampires, witches, werewolves, Slayers, and even spirit mediums had called a truce, all in the name of acquiring a proper education.
Jeremy and Meredith even hosted homework parties, where their friends would quiz everyone on various concepts and reward each other with candy and non-spiked soda. It was the perfect set-up, and frankly, the perfect life for a few hours.
Not only would he actually graduate, but he would graduate with a high enough GPA to attend any major art school.
Bonnie, however, was strangely distant for someone who had repeatedly accused him of cheating on her. (Weren't they no longer dating...?) She would shrug at him, clearly judging his life choices without commenting on them.
He wasn't dating Liv. He wasn't, because if he had to pick a twin, he would pick Luke, and he wasn't even bi. While Liv had chased after Bonnie to reassure her (because Liv liked Tyler, not Jeremy), Luke had remained behind to help Jeremy with Traveler research.
Amongst the room's stark silence, Luke's suggestive eyebrows and slight smirks were louder than Bonnie's echoing footsteps. "What's got her all huffy?"
Jeremy glared at Luke. "Don't go there."
"That's what she said..."
Jeremy almost hit Luke with the nearest grimoire. Almost, because Luke side-stepped it at the last possible moment.
Luke shrugged. "Maybe it's her time of the month."
"Doubt it. She's kinda dead." (Did dead people even have periods? Scratch that, why was he even interested?) The Anchor didn't exist in either reality, instead cautiously floating between the realms of the living and the dead. She alone balanced these dimensions - as long as the Other Side existed, she would endure pain far beyond any mortal's imagination.
Still didn't explain her behavior.
"Do you think..." Jeremy couldn't voice it without acknowledging his innermost fears. He swallowed his own saliva, instead asking, "Do you think Bonnie's worried too?"
"Probably. The Travelers have consistently been one step ahead of us." Luke folded his arms. "I know you've been helping, but we could use the big guns too."
"And risk Elena killing Connor? No thanks."
Luke grimaced. "Ah, yeah, killing your mentor would be no bueno."
If Meredith were here, she would've smacked them for reckless use of the Spanish language. Jeremy laughed at the mental image, half-wishing his baby Slayer could've joined them for an impromptu research session. As it was, the other covens had fallen one by one with the passing of the Celestial coven. You decimate one coven, and the rest toppled over like dominoes. Meredith's and Connor's presence ensured that the US would suffer no more from new hotbeds of magical activity.
"Just a bit," Jeremy teased, reaching in his pocket for his car keys. "Keep me updated, alright? We're gonna need all the help we can get if this thing blows up."
Thankfully, Bonnie had also opted to keep him in the loop. Ever since the Travelers had inadvertently succeeded in creating a magic-free Mystic Falls, the townspeople could breathe easy.
For the first time in his life, everyone acknowledged the supernatural. Students would idly chatter about the vampire attack that had killed Coach Tanner years ago, just as they wondered if Jeremy still saw dead people. (Unfortunately, yes, yes he did.) His teachers even lamented Jeremy's death, rushing to hug him and promising that they had believed him the whole time. (This had to be a parallel dimension. It had to be, because he wasn't used to this sudden affection.)
The principal had even offered a letter of apology, admitting that fear had prevented him from acknowledging Jeremy's every struggle. As graduation approached, Jeremy was even asked to draft up a short speech at one of their various ceremonies.
"We no longer fear what we do not know," His English teacher had mysteriously said, when he waved the envelope in her face. "I'm not surprised they asked you to speak up."
"Yeah, but..." Jeremy pressed his lips together. "My family can't attend my graduation."
If Elena stepped forward, she would drown. Caroline would suffocate to death, and even Bonnie would cease to appear before his eyes. (Damon could get shot again, for all Jeremy cared.)
His teacher had fallen silent, her sympathetic gaze remaining on Jeremy as she bowed her head. "I guess not, then."
Even Meredith started to suffer headaches every time she crossed the town border. After school, they instead trained at the edge of town, where Meredith's strength had fully recovered. Some afternoons, she would dare to step one foot across that imaginary line.
"I can handle it," she insisted, gritting her teeth until Jeremy inevitably pulled her back. "No, really, I'm good."
"Yeah, you're just powerless."
Unlike vampires who died upon crossing the border, Slayers like Meredith and half-vampires like Connor lost their magical edge. Magical energy no longer pulsed within its borders, and so the people no longer fretted about the magical creatures that had once threatened to kill them. (Jeremy also no longer saw dead people - which was the biggest relief in his short eighteen years of life.) Their piece of mind eased Jeremy - and technically, the magical border wasn't his problem.
The significant death toll, on the other hand, was. Jeremy couldn't handle the loss of nearly everyone he loved, no matter how ridiculous their deaths had been. Stefan had drifted to the Other Side, just as Tyler had - and okay, he was completely fine with Enzo dying. Enzo could deal with being an eternal corpse.
Damon had shared his plans with Jeremy and Matt, and later, Bonnie called him over the phone to work the final details out. "I should go with you," Jeremy had found himself insisting, even though he knew better. "You don't have to do this alone."
"Yeah, well... you need to go be a younger, hotter Bruce Willis, and if I take one step into Mystic Falls, good-bye magic, good-bye anchor, good-bye me."
Jeremy internally groaned. "At least tell me how this works."
Bonnie quickly re-iterated the basics of her plan (where Jeremy and Matt would disable the Grill's gas lines for Damon), along with the spell Jeremy needed to dispel. As usual, she refused to divulge details of how she ceased to be the Anchor - and no matter how he prodded, she clammed up tighter than an oyster.
The second she hung up, Meredith rushed to embrace him. "Hey - it's okay. We've got this."
A Slayer had no place re-instating a magical status quo in a town like Mystic Falls, so Jeremy had insisted on leaving her out of the plan. Even then, his rattling anxiety told him otherwise. Even the best plans were occasionally doomed to fail.
As he had promised, he and Matt would disable the main gas lines of the Grill. While Jeremy no longer worked there, he was unwaveringly loyal to the place that had given him his first job.
Matt had cracked a grin at him, right as they entered the tunnels that led to the main gas line. "Can we talk about the irony in blowing up the place dumb enough to hire us?"
"My work says they'll chip in to renovate it, if we succeed," Jeremy said absentmindedly, holding up a flashlight as they moved forward. Dawn had mentioned that the Council had enough funds to renovate several buildings, if so needed - though Jeremy had to wonder, where was the Council acquiring all their money? It couldn't be through legitimate means.
"Yeah, that's... actually what I wanted to talk to you about. You've been working for some big supernatural force, right? I saw those grimoires, Jeremy. You've been working on something big with Meredith Sulez and Luke and Caroline's philosophy professor." Matt's expression darkened as he stepped forward. "Why were you hiding that from us?"
Jeremy's throat tightened. "I didn't want to worry you. But, uh, I also didn't want Elena and Damon attacking the Watchers' Council."
"The... Watchers' Council?" Matt's ire had given way to confusion. "The hell are they?"
"They're this international group that kills vampires." Jeremy paused. "Or they supervise vampires, at least. I'm a Watcher, or someone that surveys supernatural activity in towns like this."
"Is Meredith a Watcher too?"
"Nah, she's a Slayer. Those are the girls destined to kill demons and vampires and crap."
Matt looked almost thoughtful as he peered up at the pipes near them, then at the map Damon had provided them. "So... once we get this job done, and you graduate high school, are you going to move? To go supervise vampires in another town?"
Jeremy shrugged. "Maybe. It depends on where they place me."
To his surprise, Matt patted Jeremy's shoulder. "That's awesome, man. Congrats on your new job."
"You mean it?" Jeremy glanced back at him, holding up a flashlight to the pipes to confirm Matt's suspicion. "I kinda feel like I'm getting revenge on my old boss with this."
"If he ever finds out, we'll both be fired," Matt said with a slight grin. "Looks like we've found them, so all we have to do is wait."
Jeremy nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier."
"You had your reasons. Just promise me you're not going to fight them head-on? I kinda like you being alive."
"Hey! Mere's the one fighting them, not me." Jeremy nearly elbowed Matt. "I mainly make sure she has the tools and stuff to win."
A few months ago, Jeremy had expected the truth to burden Matt. Matt would have turned tail and ran back to Elena and Tyler. Matt wouldn't keep this secret in his heart, and Matt certainly wouldn't have supported him.
"Good. I don't want you dying on me again," Matt teased, pulling Jeremy into a sideways hug. "So why'd you wait so long to tell me?"
Jeremy sheepishly shrugged.
"I could've kept your secret too. Man, you underestimate me too much."
Jeremy really had. Some days, he wondered how he lucked out with such an understanding best friend - and he wondered how he could've ever thought to hide his deepest secrets from him. Matt deserved far more from him than this.
At seven o'clock sharp, they turned the gas lines on and rushed back to their designated spots.
Still no phone call from Bonnie.
Just when Jeremy had given up hope, Bonnie had called him over the phone. Her voice was unsteady, wavering with every syllable she uttered. "I'm so sorry, Jeremy - I lied. There was never any way for me to stop being the anchor. When the other side goes, I go with it."
No fucking wonder. No wonder she had easily agreed to breaking up with him. In hindsight, he should have guessed that her acceptance (and subsequent green-eyed monsters) were larger signs of a problem larger than their silly high-school-esque relationship.
Y-you told me you could come back," Jeremy responded, clutching the phone against his ear.
"If I told you the truth, it would have changed our last days together and I didn't want it to change."
"What, you mean you wanted me to move on?"
"You would've been happy. I... I wouldn't have been another lost Lenore."
"You could've told me, Bonnie!" So he had suffered one too many dead girlfriends. It was the inevitable Jeremy curse. It was also something that - strangely enough - he hadn't minded, because death was the only thing splitting them apart. "You could've been upfront and honest and..."
She hiccuped. "But... we haven't been lately."
"No, we hadn't." He grew quiet, recalling just about every instance where they omitted the truth from each other. "I'm sorry, Bonnie. I love you."
"I know you do. I love you too."
The phone hung up abruptly. His heart sank into an abyss even as Matt returned to announce that the main gas lines were off. Jeremy ignored his best friend, instead rushing into the woods, because Bonnie had promised she would be by the cemetery. "BONNIE!"
He wasn't in love with her. They weren't in love with each other, and Jeremy doubted he would ever fall in love with her again. No, he loved her with his entire heart - and just like Vicki, just like Anna, she was slipping through his fingers before he said good-bye.
He didn't know how long he ran through those woods. He ran and ran until his legs inevitably collapsed upon him, and the entire world went black.
When he woke, Alaric was hovering protectively over him.
"You okay?" Alaric reached over, feeling Jeremy's forehead. "You were out for quite a while."
Wait - Alaric's hand was no longer going through Jeremy's. Alaric was in the realm of the living again? Jeremy sat up, nearly causing his step-uncle to fall over.
"How are you here?"
"I passed through Bonnie." Alaric's expression grew grateful as he sat at the foot of Jeremy's bed. "I'm... sorry I couldn't watch over you better, kiddo."
Speaking of Bonnie... Jeremy furrowed his brow. "Where is she? Where's Bonnie?"
Alaric pressed his lips together. "The... the Other Side collapsed, Jer."
Just like the leader of the Celestial coven said it would. It collapsed, and he couldn't do a damn thing to prevent its inevitable destruction. Jeremy pressed against the bridge of his nose, struggling to rein in his anger.
"She can't be gone."
"No, I don't think so either," Connor's voice called from the doorway. He entered with a bowl of chicken noodle soup, carefully placing it on Jeremy's bedside table. "Willow thinks that she and Damon may have entered another dimension."
Alaric turned to glance at Connor. "It's certainly a possibility. How exactly does Willow know, again?" (Magical energy went boom? Willow was crazy good at sensing magical auras that everyone else had failed to notice.)
"She doesn't. It's a hunch, but it's better than assuming otherwise."
Jeremy reached for a spoon and focused intently on slurping down every last noodle inside his bowl. He was ravenous - far hungrier than he thought he was - and yet, eating was easier than thinking. His brain was starting to hurt at all these possibilities. Bonnie and Damon had failed to reappear?
Scratch that, they had disappeared together? Stefan was alive, Tyler was alive, Elena was alive, and they couldn't grab hold of Damon? The group's priorities must have shifted too far.
More importantly, Connor and Alaric were getting along far too well for total strangers. Jeremy looked up at them. "Wait, do you two know each other? Like before I collapsed?"
"Not really," Alaric admitted, his gaze shifting from Connor and onto Jeremy. "I knew of Connor, because I'd been watching over you, but we hadn't formally met until I crossed the threshold."
That explained everything and yet nothing at the same time.
"Your step-uncle is scary overprotective," Connor added, giving Alaric a bemused look. "I thought your friend Tyler was bad? Ric here takes the cake."
Ric beamed proudly. "I try."
Jeremy wanted to toss pillows at both of them. Instead, he settled for setting down his empty bowl of soup on the bedside table. "Thanks, by the way. I passed out in the woods, didn't I?"
"You were calling her name for hours." Connor smiled sympathetically. "I guess you still had lingering feelings...?"
"Not really."
Alaric raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
"I mean, I love her, right? But I'm not in love with her." Jeremy stared down thoughtfully at the soup. "I want her to be safe, and I want to protect her, but I'm not the guy she'll marry some day."
Connor and Alaric exchanged bemused glances, just as Meredith peered through the doorway. Her long, black ponytail had since unraveled, and she had dark eyes under circles. They all did, now that Jeremy was looking at his motley group better. Sleep had evaded nearly every single one of them.
Quietly, Mere dared to ask, "Gringo? You up?"
"Yeah, come on in, Mer." Jeremy grinned widely at her. "Sorry if I scared you."
She shook her head, stepping inside and rushing to hug him. "I'm just glad you're okay." After a few seconds of silence, she lightly nudged Connor. "Did you tell him?"
Jeremy blinked back surprise. "Tell me what?"
Connor rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, since you're graduating this weekend, and you never did declare a school... we were wondering if you'd like to pick our next city. Leave Mystic Falls behind, take your vampire sister along, and hit the road, so to speak."
Jeremy glanced over at Alaric. "You agreed to this?"
"Just for the summer," Alaric added. "Elena and I're heading back to Whitmore in the fall, but you and Connor and Dawn and Meredith're heading to DC. I heard a certain someone got into MICA?"
"Wait, seriously?" Jeremy couldn't wipe the grin off his face. So maybe he couldn't understand Elena anymore, but his sister had technically lost her boyfriend (again) and he had lost his ex-girlfriend, only to regain the uncle that they wished they had bonded better with.
Alaric could tether them together, and slowly, they could rebuild a family again. Even if the Gilberts could never enter Mystic Falls again.
"Why not?" Connor grinned, reaching for the tray so that he could take it back. "You deserve some semblance of a normal life, and we figure, this way, your family can come along for the ride."
"Connor and I thought it would be the best compromise, and hey, we've never actually had big families, so..."
"Hakuna Matata?" Connor offered up weakly.
Jeremy didn't have to think twice. "Hakuna Matata," he agreed softly. "So why don't we do a cross-country road trip? Knock out some sights, fight nomadic vamps... and maybe stop in a city for a month or two before we have to split again."
"Sounds good to me." Alaric turned towards the door. "I'll go tell Elena."
"Yes!" Meredith pumped her fist. "So, what do you say, Jerbear? To our new adventure?"
He leaned in and ruffled her hair. "To new adventures and beyond."
As a compromise to Jeremy, Mystic Falls High held its graduation outside town borders for the first time in its storied history. Elena, Caroline, Tyler, Matt – even Alaric, Connor, Luke, and Meredith proudly attended, cheering and hollering as the principal announced, “Jeremy Grayson Gilbert,” through a tinned microphone.
Jeremy didn’t remember walking across the stage to receive his diploma, nor did he remember his sweaty palm as he shook his principal’s and vice principal’s hands. He barely remembered the first annual outdoors reception afterwards, where Stefan reached for his graduation cap and fiddled with its yellow and red cords.
“So you’re really heading across the country,” Stefan said softly, turning his gaze towards Elena and Caroline, who were comparing cookie sizes across the field.
Jeremy nodded. “Just for the summer. What about you? You’re not sticking around, so I wondered…”
“I’ve got a car to repair,” Stefan confessed, with a smile Jeremy hadn’t seen on his face in almost a year. “I’ll keep myself busy somehow. Do me a favor and keep an eye on her, alright?”
“As long as you’ll actually answer her calls,” Jeremy answered, reaching to take his cap back.
Elena rushed to hug him from behind, resting her head on Jeremy’s shoulder as she offered up a diploma-shaped cookie. “This was the biggest we could find,” she said apologetically.
Jeremy was tempted to push her off. Only tempted, because she was still significantly stronger than him, and without Damon’s influence, she was… she was almost normal again. “Works for me,” he said, accepting the cookie. “Looking forward to our road trip?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” She clung to him fiercely, ignoring Tyler’s rolled eyes and Matt’s grin and even Stefan’s raised eyebrows. “Stef, promise me you’ll at least text.”
“Or what, you’ll selfie bomb me? Again?”
“Worse: I’ll send you my credit card bills.”
“Len, you really need to stop online shopping,” Stefan groaned, folding his arms and grabbing his own cup of punch. “You’re the only one who’s going to suffer with that credit report.”
“Which is why I need you to stick around. Who else is gonna tell me that?”
“Uh, Alaric will,” Jeremy pointed out, to absolutely no avail.
If this was the life that he had somehow fallen into – even if it was a life without Bonnie and Damon – then it was certainly the one he wanted most for himself. Traveling the country to uncover a spell to bring her home, to rediscover the family he had always loved, and maybe even to tour a country he had always known would indeed be the greatest adventure.
An entire world had opened up before his eyes, and to think – it had all started with one suspicious letter.