24|FOUNDERS DAY (PART TWO)

Gemma shuffles around behind Damon, her hands shoved tightly into the pockets of her black skinny jeans. The woman had been consistently stealing drinks from the teenagers since her conversation with Elena; which seems to be an alarmingly bad habit she's had lately. She doesn't necessarily know why the Gilbert has been unsettling her; she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

Damon shoots her an annoyed look over his shoulder before stopping in his tracks. Gemma peeks out from behind him before taking a sip of her beer with a loud huff.

"You're still around?" The eldest Salvatore questions Anna.

"There's something you need to know," she rushes out, her tone quiet to the human ear. "The vampires from the tomb are planning to attack tonight."

"How do you know that?"

Gemma shoves her beer into the hands of a passing by kid, the boy grinning before rushing off with an iron clad grip on the bottle. The woman scoffs and moves forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with her brother. "And why would we trust that you know this?" She can feel Damon's irritated stare on the side of her face and she knows he thinks she's too intoxicated to handle the situation, but she's not; really she's not.

"I went to them," Anna admits. "They think I'm with them but I'm not. They want the founding families dead."

"When is this supposed to happen?" Damon demands to know.

"When the fireworks start."

"How festive," Gemma smirks.

Damon side eyes her, "now is not the time, Gem."

"Why?" She shoots back, running a hand through my hair. "Why should I care? They're not my family, I have nothing to do with those people."

Damon glares at her, "you say that now because you're drunk. Tomorrow when you wake up cold stone sober, you and Stefan will be down a girlfriend and our brother will hate us."

Gemma folds her arms, "I gave away my beer for this conversation."

The Salvatore man huffs before turning back to the teenager. "John Gilbert wants us to use that invention on them."

"Then we can't be here!" Anna panics.

"It doesn't work, it's been deactivated."

"Then alot of people are going to die."

"Great," Gemma chuckles, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't know why we didn't do this sooner, guys. All of our problems are about to be solved."

"Shut the hell up," Damon finally snaps. "I've had it with you and your 'let Elena die' facade, Gem. You know how many times I've had to hear you  mope about how she hurt your feelings?" He squints at her, "either woman up or forget about her. Jesus, go to therapy or something."

Gemma tilts her chin upward in defiance, "I do go to therapy."

"Do you guys make everything a fight?" Anna stresses. "There are more important things to worry about!"

"Like what?" Gemma exclaims, her cheeks turning red in frustration. She wanted this whole ordeal to be over. Her brother-Elena-Katherine-tomb vampire-depression-alcoholic problems were beginning to get the best of her and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't tempted to kill the founding families herself just to make herself feel better.

"Gemma, they're already here."

===

Damon had a steel grip on Gemma's wrist as he weaves through the crowd trying to find Alaric. Gemma made one comment about going home and not helping and he hasn't let go since. She doesn't know why saving the founding families is so important to her brother; something about keeping their humanity intact, whatever bullshit that was. At this rate, Gemma barely had any left and she absolutely did not want to spend the last of it saving people who'd be dead in fifty years anyway.

"Stop," he hisses under his breath, yanking her along.

"It's my arm!" She nearly shrieks.

Damon all but throws her arm back by her side when he spots Alaric, shouting the man's name from afar to get his attention. He rushes up to the man, his eyes widened and his words hasty. "You keep those nifty little vampire darts in the car?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Because this square is crawling with tomb vampires," he informs the man.

"I think we might need a stake or two."

"Yeah, got it."

Gemma groans loudly when Damon grabs her arm and pulls her along again, pulling against him with all her might.

"We're going to tell Stefan and Elena, then I'm sending you on your own special mission, baby sister."

"What?" She scoffs.

He smirks at her over his shoulder, "you wanna kill the founding families so bad? I have just the person for you."

Gemma smiles drunkenly and lets her eyes take in her surroundings, the scene blurring the slightest bit. Seeing as she'd been washing the night away with copious amounts of alcohol, maybe Damon shouldn't be sending her on a little mission; maybe they shouldn't be walking toward the source of her problems, but never the less-

"Gemma?" Willow's soft voice calls. "I didn't know you guys would be here."

Stone cold dread washes over the vampire and she nearly wrenches herself out of Damon's grasp, the red flush draining from her cheeks and being replaced by a stark white. If there was ever a time to be sober, now would be it.

"Willow, you shouldn't be here." Gemma strays from Damon's side and from her peripheral vision, she sees her brother keeping walking toward the couple. The female Salvatore was the least concerned with Elena; she had more than enough people protecting her and her family right now, but Willow didn't have anyone. She was here alone and Gemma was drunk and there's no one else that's willing-

"What's going on?" Willow murmurs as she shuffles closer to the woman. "You look stressed."

"You shouldn't be here," she says again. "It's not safe, you need to go. Willow, you need to leave right now."

Willow has the audacity to giggle, "it's a festival, Gemma, I'm sure it's perfectly safe."

Gemma has never been more angry that she wasn't willing to spill her secrets than right now. She didn't want to scare Willow off, she didn't want to have to compel her fear away; she wasn't sure she was capable of manipulating the blonde in that way. 'Please, Willow, I don't have time to argue. You need to leave."

Willow gapes when Gemma tries to waltz past her. She hurriedly catches up to the dark headed woman and grabs her by the wrist, "Gemma-"

"You're going to get hurt if you stay!" Gemma finally cries out. "You aren't safe here, things are going to happen soon and-"

"I know, Gemma."

Gemma's voice dies in her throat, "what did you just say?"

Willow softens her grip and smiles, her eyes shining. "I know, Gemma."

"You... you know what?"

Willow flattens her smile, "don't act dense. You can go do what you need to do but promise me you'll come have a session, okay?"

Gemma shakes her head, her drunk mind spinning. She could only focus on one thing at a time when she was like this and there was so much going on, too much to handle; too much to even comprehend what Willow was telling her. She sucks in a deep breath and nods, stumbling away from the woman with shaking hands. She needed to go, she needed to get away. The chore that Damon laid out for her, the life he had labeled as useless, the 'go ahead' he practically waved in front of her kept rearing its ugly head and Gemma finally found her laser focus.

John Gilbert.

It doesn't take her long to find the old doctor's office he's using as a hideout, not when she's using every inhuman sense she has to focus on where he could be and what he was doing. Her intentions may have been bad at first, maybe she was feeling a little murderous after her conversation with Willow; but she didn't have a solid plan, not yet. She wanted to start with confronting the man and that's what she did; even showed him the kindness of asking if he knew what he was doing.

John Gilbert didn't seem to take that into consideration though. As soon as  he could, he triggered the device and Gemma crumbled to her knees with a searing pain attacking her every sense. Her body felt like one big electrical wire, and not in the good way. She could only assume her siblings were feeling the same way and dread washed over her. They'd know she failed, that she couldn't stop John Gilbert from killing them and all of the others like them.

The pain was like nothing else; she found herself hoping death would come, that maybe she'd pass out from the pain but if she didn't, she was perfectly okay with dying. As if the pain from the device wasn't enough, John Gilbert injects her with what she can only guess is vervain. It's just to be cruel, Gemma knows it is; there's no way she'd be able to stand on two feet, much less attempt to hurt him.

Two deputies come from one of the back rooms and scoop her up  by her arms, dragging her limp body behind wherever John is leading them. The female Salvatore is no longer able to cry or whimper out in pain; almost like her body is aware she's ready to give up, ready to let go. They drag her down into some basement and throw her onto the floor in a heap. She able to force her limbs into a fetal position, the searing pain going through her making her body curl up.

"The device is done," John informs the deputies in the room. Gemma didn't notice what they were doing before but the smell infiltrates her nose and it becomes terrifyingly obvious. They're going to burn them alive, all of them. "The only thing keeping them down is vervain. We don't have much time, let's finish this." John tries to leave but a vampire- Anna, catches his leg. He looks down at her and nods. "Anna." He casts a glance to the deputies. "You can head up; I'll take it from here." The deputy leaves and John shoves Anna back down when she tries to pull herself up. He takes a stake from the back of his pants and forces it into her chest despite her begs and pleads.

Gemma lets out a heavy breath and continues watching the man. He grabs a can of gasoline and pours it behind him as he goes up the stairs, the teenage girl he murdered long forgotten in his brain. He pulls a box of matches from his pocket and takes one out, his eyes meeting those of the female Salvatore. He pauses, breathes, casts her a sick smile and lights the match.

==