Tiberius Salvatore: Mikaelson Extended

43

Rio brought with him to Mystic Falls, his phone, wallet- minus two of his credit cards- and one of the photos Anya had replicated from the prison world in his pocket. It possibly would have come in handy with bringing Stefan back. Rio rushed to get his things in order- Damon had sounded as though he'd be going to bring her back immediately. Anya transported him to the Salvatore boarding house where he saw Bonnie, Elena, Damon and some other guy link hands as Bonnie and the other guy chanted. Rio nodded at Anya, before rushing with the intention of breaking the circle, only to accidentally joing and be sucked away to the prison world with them.
"Rio?" Damon asked.
"Yes. For God's sake, I told you not to, Damon. What are you doing?"
"You don't get to decide for me."
"No, but I get to protect you."
"No." Damon said, stepping forward and pushing his brother. "You, of all people, do not got to 'protect me'. You've never been there when I needed you most. I don't resent you for it, Rio, really I don't. But you don't get to come in here and play the big brother role. I'm a hundred and twenty four years old, I don't need you to childproof my life."
"Clearly you do, if you want to unleash a ripper, who killed over three thousand people in one go by the way, into a world full of people. Do you know what you'll be unleashing? What horrors this world will face? All that's here is a bitch who cares about herself and her so-called family. Not us, Damon. You let her out, all she's going to do is make sure her coven get out, and they'll go back to our plane, our real world, and suck as many humans dry as she wants."
"Maybe she's changed. After all, when was the last time you saw her?"
"1878 was the last time I talked to her, but I tracked her until 1903. But then, I did see her again the year before the last, when Joseph astral projected Anya and I to this snapshot, but she didn't see me."
"You knew my father?" The strange man stepped forward.
"Who are you? No, wait. Let me guess. You're the psychopathic siphoner?" Rio asked innocently.
"Well, I'm reformed now. I just have to prove it, so I'm trying to make things right."
"You merged with someone who actually has emotions?" Rio raised a brow.
"My, my. You're pretty clever, aren't you? And quite rude."
"No offence, whatever your name is, but I'm trying to have a meaningful talk with my little brother. I don't have time to be polite." Damon sped at Rio, taking that chance to try to snap his neck, but Rio was faster. "Seriously, Damon? I will smack you back into 1864. Do not test me right now."
"What happened to you?"
"There is no one that I hate more than the bitch in the other room, and you want to just free her into the world."
"What about Katherine?"
"Oh, mother surpasses Katherine on the bitch-o-dometer." Rio said. "Trust me."
"Let me decide for myself. Besides, I only need her to save Stefan."
"I will bring Stefan back."
"The last time you tried, he turned yours off."
"Yes, well, this time there's no one he can use against me. He and Caroline are the same, damn it. Can't you see? He's her link to her humanity, just as Elena once was for him. And her mother just died. That's another link to her humanity. Family and Love is what those two respond to best, Damon. The Lillian Salvatore we knew died in 1858. Right now, all that's left is another woman."
"Oh really?"
"Sure, her taste in men is more or less the same, if not worse, and yes she wears the face of the woman who gave birth to us, but that's it. She's not the mother you know, Damon."
"And what makes you so sure?" Damon sneered. "You were the one who said you'd never gotten to know her properly."
"Doesn't mean I didn't know her." Rio grabbed Damon by the shirt and hissed, "Damon, if you're going to take her out of this prison world, then do it. But then I'm going to go, and I'm never coming back."
"Are you asking me to choose between you and our mother?" Damon frowned.
"That's one way to put it, I suppose. Because I promise you'll never see me again, if you do this." Damon furrowed his brows for a second at his brother's ultimatum.
"You're a hypocrite. When the man I hated most came to town you did not stand by me."
"I stood by the both of you. Klaus and our mother are nothing alike. At least Klaus has loyalty towards his family."
"Klaus tried to kill me."
"And I stood by you. If I remember correctly, I saved your ass. And then you tried to kill him and I didn't go against you. You did the exact same thing he did, but I didn't get mad at you, like I did at him. And then, even though he didn't actually try to kill your brother, you killed his."
"Oh for God's sake, there's only so much I can take. I'm bored of this. Can we get on with this?" Kai exclaimed.
"Nobody cares what you think." Bonnie scowled. "You guys go ahead, decide whether or not we're bringing an extra passenger home. Meanwhile, Kai and I will start the locator spell on the Ascendant."
"But Kai just had the Ascendant. Why do we have to find another one?" Elena wondered.
"The Ascendant can't travel between worlds, which means we gotta find its mirror image here in 1903."
"Page 10 on the world-jumping rule-book. Shall we?" Damon gestured towards the boarding house, his tone full of sarcasm. Elena walked over to Bonnie, whilst the Salvatore brothers tried to talk again.
"Damon. You can't bring her back."
"You tried to give me an ultimatum. My long-lost brother or my long-lost mother. And I'm guessing you'd leave town anyways as soon as we got back to our time."
"I-" Rio pulled Damon further aside. "I have a baby girl, that I've adopted. She's almost a year old. I can't bring her to this town. What I want is for you and Stefan to come with me. Start a new life elsewhere. Be a family."
"We can be a family again. With our mother. Rio, you say she's an evil bitch, but what if she's changed? What if we can be a family again?"
"I'm sorry, but as long as she's there, I won't be. And she's just going to kill, and it'll be on our hands for letting her out."
"Oh right. I forgot. You've never killed or been responsible for someone's death."
"And I certainly don't intend to start now."
"You can't stop me, Rio. I'm bringing mom back."
"Then I guess after this trip, we part ways, because I'm not looking back."
"What if I'm right?"
"You're not. You don't think I've appealed to her maternal instinct, that she didn't even show an ounce of emotion when I told her you and Stefan were dead?" Rio got the photo out of his pocket. It was the one of his father, his brother and himself, all smiling on Rio's birthday. "Remember this day? We went to the festival on the other side of town. This is how I remember my family. My brothers and my father." Rio brought out the other photo of Damon, Stefan and Lillian, the three of them smiling. "This is how you remember your family-"
"You're missing from the picture. Oh how I wanted you to come with us that day, Rio. Why didn't you?"
"I was going to, I was supposed to, but mother made sure I stayed behind. You see, I've always been your older brother. Always looked after you, and maybe you're old enough to protect yourself, but I still can't help it. If I see you about to drown, I'll always jump in to save you. As long as I'm there, but I can't be there if you have her there."
"Then I'm sorry." Damon shrugged as Elena walked up to them and the duo walked ahead, leaving Rio standing by himself.