The Heretics

If it's not one thing...

After defeating the heretics and giving Jude a second chance at humanity, Bonnie and the gang decided to celebrate in a booth at the Mystic Grill. Matt brought over a round of drinks and congratulated them all on a job well done before tending to his other customers. Everyone happily grabbed their margaritas while Damon made a face and just stared at his. Bonnie elbowed him. "Come on Damon we're trying to have a toast." He side eyed her. "Toasting with anything other than hard liquor is bad luck." They all jeered and insisted that he pick up his margarita and celebrate with them. He rolled his eyes and sighed as he reluctantly held up the glass. Stefan held his a little higher than everyone else's and said, "what should we toast to exactly?" Damon jumped in with, "to ridding the town of a worse evil than normal until the next big bad whatever inevitably shows up to try and kill us all." Bonnie, Stefan and Elena exchanged looks before shrugging and clinking glasses. "I'll drink to that," said Elena as she and the others besides Damon sipped their drinks. He placed his back on the table and put an arm around Bonnie who said, "you know not drinking after toasting is also considered bad luck." He hunched his shoulders and replied, "I'll take my chances. If it's not a glass or better yet a bottle of bourbon, I don't want it." Bonnie rolled her eyes, crooked her finger under Damon's chin and kissed him. Stefan and Elena's eyes widened in surprise and Damon smirked after Bonnie pulled away, ending the kiss. "Maybe margaritas aren't so bad after all." Teased Damon which made Bonnie grin. "So Bon," said Elena. "tell us exactly how you and Jude were able to pull this whole thing off?" Damon looked over his shoulder and beckoned for Matt to come back over before saying, "I've been wondering that myself." When Matt came, Damon handed his untouched margarita off to him and said, "be a dear Donovan and bring me back a double shot of bourbon." Matt scoffed and said with a small shake of his head, "coming right up, dick." Damon scrunched his face up in a condescending smile at him before Matt went to get his order. "Okay now that Donovan's off on an important errand; tell us how you did it Bon bon." "Well it was all thanks to Lily actually." Elena instinctively grabbed Stefan's hand under the table and stroked the back of his thumb with hers. He tossed her a small smile and asked Bonnie what she meant. "Vlad always watched her like a hawk but after what happened with Beth and Jude, his attention was diverted long enough for her to sneak away," "and commiserate with me and Damon." Finished Stefan causing Bonnie to nod once in agreement. "Yes but after she left your place, she took a detour to see me." A sense of surprised confusion fell over them which had Elena asking, "wait, is that why you said you'd meet me over there?" "I had ran into Lily on my way to meet up with all of you. She said she wanted to help with Vlad and gave me something so that Jude and I could communicate without raising suspicion." "Which was what exactly?" asked Stefan. Bonnie reached into her pocket and pulled out a vintage, round, ornate, flat case made of silver. Damon, Stefan and Elena all leaned forward to get a better look. "What is it?" asked Stefan as Damon snatched it and opened it up. "It's a mirror," Stefan took it from him so he and Elena could examine it more closely. Bonnie explained. "It's not just a mirror. In the late sixteen-hundreds people believed that vampires could be weakened if you forced them to look in mirrors," "because they thought we didn't have reflections." Damon said before shooing Matt away after receiving his drink. "Right," Bonnie continued. "so people who believed in vampires at the time carried mirrors with them, but didn't realize that they had also given the witches who they were also persecuting at the time a way to hide in plain sight and communicate with one another. Anyone who carried a mirror on them was automatically considered trustworthy by those who greatly feared the supernatural," "meaning any witch who had one was overlooked." Guessed Elena. Bonnie pointed to her. "Or vampire. As long as they also walked in the sun. But the witches also wanted to be able to warn their covens of raids so they spelled the mirrors to work like radios." Elena and Stefan 'ahhed' while Damon said, "I always knew witches were clever, but I think making 'prehistoric' walkie talkies takes the cake." Bonnie rolled her eyes at Damon's misuse of the word prehistoric and went on. "Unfortunately they were discovered and most of the mirrors were destroyed save for a few, two of which Anne Boleyn came into possession of during her time with Vlad, Jude and Beth before they absorbed her." "No honor among thieves or psychopaths," added Damon as Bonnie continued. "Beth held onto them and after she attacked Elena and Vlad was deciding what to do with both her and Jude, Lily hid them away just in case." "Why not just use cell phones?" asked Elena. "The risk of someone overhearing is always too great. With the mirrors however, only the people speaking into them can hear what's being said. Plus the mirrors vibrate at the lowest frequency of magical resonance making them virtually invisible to highly sensitive magical beings such as the heretics." "But it's made of silver right? Didn't silver use to hurt Jude?" asked Elena. "It did which is also why no one expected it to be in his possession. He just had to use gloves to keep it from touching his skin." Damon gulped down his drink after letting the flavors flow on his tongue and said, "gives a whole new meaning to no glove no love." Stefan snorted and Bonnie smirked at Damon's joke. "I didn't see the other mirror at the house when we were clearing everything out so I figure it's the personal item of Beth's he used to lock her away." "How was Jude able to get ahold of the crystal without alerting Vlad and why put it in that cave?" Questioned Stefan. "After outing Lily to Vlad for conspiring with us, Jude gained his trust enough to be able to go look for the crystal with the bloody handkerchief he had snuck off me the night Beth attacked Elena." "Wait a minute," Damon held up a finger. "Jude is the reason the others knew about our plan?" "Yes." "Why the hell would he rat us out only to help us in the end?" Bonnie looked from him to Stefan and back. "Because of Lily. She knew Vlad would figure out any plan she was directly involved in so she asked me to tell Jude to reveal her betrayal to Vlad so Jude could gain his trust. That made it possible for me and Jude to come up with a backup plan in case the main one went awry. Which it did." Stefan's brow creased. "So, our mother used herself as bait?" Bonnie nodded. "She knew the only way to beat Vlad was to do something he didn't expect. When Jude went to him, he acted as though he wanted to help Vlad get Lily out from under the influence of both you and Damon and bring her back into the fold of their family." Damon scoffed. "If Dracula calling anyone else a bad influence isn't ironic, I don't know what is." Bonnie went on. "Lily made sure that Vlad focused on her so that Jude could do what was needed, like getting the crystal and putting it in the cave after using it on Beth which I didn't know he was going to do." "Why that cave in particular?" asked Elena. "Because it's where the prism came from. That cave dampens spells," "that's why the heretics' powers didn't work." Elena figured. "Right and neither could mine." Damon turned to her. "Wait a minute. You were powerless when we went against the heretics?" Bonnie nodded. "It was a necessary risk," "that thankfully worked out." Added Stefan. "Right except Jude and I had no idea your mom would sacrifice herself to try and stop Vlad." Bonnie reached up and interlaced her fingers with the hand Damon had hanging over her shoulder. "I'm sorry," she looked to Stefan. "That you both had to lose her like that." Elena touched Stefan's arm comfortingly and said, "me too." Stefan laid his hand over Elena's and leaned in to kiss her temple. The side of Damon's mouth twitched and Matt set another round of drinks down before heading back behind the bar. Stefan lifted his glass and said, "to Lily." Elena and Bonnie both lifted theirs and repeated his words before clinking their glasses together. Damon smirked half heartedly at the toast and swigged his second glass of bourbon before saying, "so what's next? Are we just going to leave the prism thingy in the cave?" Bonnie shook her head. "The entrance to the cave is covered but anyone can find it either by accident or through sheer determination." "And both the heretics and the prism are far too dangerous to leave lying around." Said Elena. Stefan pouted thoughtfully. "We could do with them what we were planning on doing to Klaus and drop the prism in the ocean." Bonnie's eyes lit up at the idea. "That's brilliant, but it can't just be any part of the ocean. It needs to be somewhere deep like..." "The Mariana Trench?" They all turned to Elena who shrugged and held her margarita with both hands. "It's the deepest part of the ocean which also makes it the most logical place to put them." "Mariana Trench it is," declared Damon before finishing his drink and adding, "who's up for a trip?"