31| MASQUERADE

Gemma stands at the end of the couch with a glass of whiskey in one hand, her other shoved into the pocket of her jeans. She takes a long sip while Damon pours a glass of blood for Caroline, the blonde vampire practically shaking in her boots in front of the three siblings. Gemma was the unlucky Salvatore to answer the door when the blonde rang the doorbell, but what really hooked her was that Caroline was here because of Katherine.

"Here," Damon smiles tightly, giving the blonde the blood.

"I'm still shaking," her voice trembles as she takes a sip.

Stefan makes an entrance, his eyebrows furrowed. "What happened?"

"I saw Katherine today," she confesses.

The youngest Salvatore changes his demeanor, his hesitant eyes flicking to Gemma before clearing his throat. "Where?"

"At The Grill. I just stopped by to gawk and..." she trails off in embarrassment. "Quasi stalk Matt. He asked me if I needed a table, but I told him I wasn't staying. I lied and said I just needed the restroom."

Gemma rubs her forehead in frustration, rolling her eyes. "Get to it, Caroline. I'm here on important business, not to comfort your delicate sensibilities."

Damon side eyes her, but says nothing. Gemma understands his hesitance all too well. She's been on the other side of it far too many times, at both her brother's disposal. Now it was their turn.

"Then I had to pretend to use the bathroom even thought I didn't really have to go, because I'm a doofus!"

"Go on, Caroline," Damon urges.

"Elena came in, only it wasn't Elena. It was Katherine. I saw right through her and I tried to get away, but she was too fast. She told me to deliver a message."

"What was the message?" Stefan wonders.

"She told me to tell all of you that she wants the moonstone or she'll rip the town apart until it rains blood."

Gemma gazes at the blonde, bored. "Is that all?"

"What do you mean, is that all?" Stefan snaps, "she's going to kill innocent people."

The female Salvatore continues to stare blankly, "she already did."

"That's not all," Caroline interjects, trying to stop the siblings from arguing in her midst. "She said it happens tonight, at the masquerade ball."

Stefan nods, "she wants to do it in public. Killing Mason threw her off guard."

"She's running scared," Damon adds on. "What she did to Willow and Jenna was desperate. She's out of tricks."

"We can't underestimate her. We have to play this smarter than her."

"No, we don't," Gemma comments. "We just have to be stronger than her. Three against one, I like those odds."

"Can we just give her the moonstone so she'll leave?" Caroline blurts, her cheeks reddening as she gets flustered.

"No, Katherine's not getting dick!" Damon exclaims, "I've had it. I'm going to go to the masquerade ball and I'm going to kill her, tonight."

Gemma takes another sip of her whiskey, her eyes flicking to Stefan when he steps forward and shakes his head. "You're not going to kill her," he dismisses his brother.

"Don't give me that goody goody crap," the raven haired man scoffs.

"You're not going to kill her."

"Really?"

Gemma puts her glass down on one of the accent tables at the end of the couch, folding her arms. "Stefan and I talked last night. You're not going to kill her, Damon. I am."

Damon second guesses her, as Gemma suspected. "You slept with her less than a week ago," he reminds her. "You're not going to be able to kill her."

"I'll be doing it for Willow," she says stoically. "I don't care how we get it done. Katherine Pierce is dying tonight."

The eldest of the three contemplates for a long second before relenting, nodding almost solemnly. "Fine. It's your game, Gemma. Your plan."

-

Gemma sits rifling through one of the weapons bags Alaric brought, her fingers grazing a few of his arrows for his crossbow. She glances up when the door bell rings and she nods to Caroline, continuing her snooping while the blonde goes to answer the door.

"Hey, come on in," she greets their witch friend, Bonnie Bennett.

"I got Stefan's message," the girl enters the house and lets Caroline close the door behind her, her brown eyes surveying the scene before her.

"Hey," Stefan greets. "You brought the grimoire, thank you."

"What's going on?" She worries.

Jeremy makes his presence known, a smirk gracing his lips. "We're killing Katherine."

"I can explain," Stefan interjects.

"Please," she nods.

Gemma stands from her kneeled position in front of the weapons bags, her eyes meeting those of the teenage witch. "I'm going to kill Katherine."

Before Bonnie can answer, Alaric cuts in and clears his throat awkwardly. "This is one of the weapons I'll be sending you with," he shows a black velcro cuff with a stake attached it. "This works with compressed air. The trigger mechanism is up here. I have two of these in a different size. For you, I recommend this." He shows Damon, "It fits nicely under the jacket sleeve. You use the trigger when you're ready." He fakes plunging his fist toward Damon's abdomen, the stake ejecting and almost stabbing the said vampire. Damon glares at the man and Alaric shrugs, furrowing his brows. "You wanted me to show you how to kill a vampire."

Gemma sighs tiredly, "quite frankly, I'm not sure we need all of these weapons to take down one vampire. I just want to get to it."

"We need to be prepared," Stefan tries to convince her. "Anything could happen. We don't want to rush in and then you don't get what you went for."

The woman hesitates before nodding, "fine. Let's continue, Ric."

-

Gemma stands around her living room, surrounded with her siblings along with Caroline, Bonnie and Alaric. They're all dressed in their masquerade ball outfits, sans the history teacher. He was staying to keep an eye on Jenna and Elena, keeping one safe and the other distracted.

Gemma had dressed in a red, body tight dress. It complimented her curves perfectly and even showed a little skin while remaining sophisticated and sexy. She already put her mask on, a red and black eye mask.

"Are you sure you guys don't want me there tonight?" Alaric wonders.

"No, we need you to stay with Elena," Stefan reassures him. "None of us want her to know about this."

"Okay, well, I'll make sure she doesn't leave my sight."

Stefan nods before glancing around the room, "alright, well, if anyone wants to back out, I'll understand."

"Yeah," Damon urges. "Cold feet, speak now. I don't want this going wrong if someone chickens out. Caroline."

"I won't!" She exclaims, "she killed me. Fair's fair. As long as there's no werewolf running around."

"Oh, Gemma took care of Mason." Damon smirks.

Gemma shrugs at the accusing look Alaric and Bonnie throw her way. "I felt a lot worse about it when I done it. You caught me at a bad time, sorry," she smiles falsely.

"And as long as Tyler doesn't kill anyone, he won't turn," Jeremy pipes up.

"Bonnie?" Stefan wonders, "are you in?"

She pauses, "but no one gets hurt."

"Except Katherine," Damon grins. "Tonight, Katherine gets a stake through her heart."

-

Night lights glisten all around her as Gemma stands within the crowd of people on the dance floor at the masquerade ball. She'll admit, Carol Lockwood knows how to throw a party. She just has a bad habit of inviting terrible company. Gemma straightens when she sees Katherine walking down the grand staircase into the back yard. After a short second, the Pierce disappears and stands behind Gemma, pouting.

"Dance with me," she purrs.

Gemma grits her teeth, "no."

"Fine, then tell me who I should kill," Katherine shrugs and feigns looking in the crowd. "Hm, she looks delicious."

The female Salvatore couldn't care less, but she spots Stefan across the dance floor and the look on his face threatens being drugged by vervain and locked up, so Gemma squares her arm and offers Katherine her arm. Her skin crawls as the woman takes it, her stomach curling into a pit of disgust. She couldn't stand being near her.

"It's a beautiful night," Katherine muses, wrapping one of her arms around Gemma's shoulder as they begin to dance to the music.

"What's with the game you're playing?" Gemma finally snaps.

Katherine meets her eyes for a short second before smirking, "when's the funeral for your therapist? I have to admit, she's a strong girl. She fought for so long."

Thick arms wrap around Gemma's midriff as she lunges at Katherine. The female Salvatore struggles in her brother's hold before she realizes she's causing a scene, her teeth creaking with the force she's using to keep her mouth shut.

"It's okay, Gem," Damon mutters, pulling her to his side and letting Stefan take her place with Katherine.

"Katherine?" Stefan calls, refocusing the vampire's attention. She hums with a smile and he gazes at her, stoically. "I don't want anyone to get hurt tonight."

"Okay," she chirps. "Then, give me the moonstone and nobody will."

"Well, you see, I don't have the moonstone on me. So, you and I will have to go get it together."

Katherine shakes her head, amused. "I have a better plan. You go fetch it and I will try not to kill anyone in the meantime."

"My way, or you don't get it."

The pair are interrupted when a high school student by the name of Aimee, approaches Stefan with a small smile. "Hey Stefan, I can't find Matt. Oh, my God!" She gasps, looking at Katherine excitedly. "Elena, you look so pretty! I love that dress. You look gorge."

"Thank you," Katherine gushes in reply, pretending to be the Gilbert girl. "I love your necklace."

"Oh, thanks."

"Oh, it's twisted," Katherine frowns, moving to stand behind the girl. "Here, let me, here we go." Before any of the Salvatore siblings can react, Katherine snaps Aimee's spine, the girl falling limp in her hold. Stefan moves forward and grabs the girl from Katherine but she resists, his face paling in reply. "Paralyzed from the waist down," she then snaps her neck. "And dead."

Stefan catches the teenager when Katherine throws her forward, disposing of her dead body.

"The moonstone, Stefan. Tick-tock."

After shoving Aimee's body in her brother's trunk, Gemma meets her siblings in an unoccupied room of Carol's mansion. While Stefan and Damon were arguing over what to do with the teenagers body, Gemma took it upon herself to get rid of their baggage. "I put the body in the trunk for now," she informs them.

Stefan frowns, "the body? That was an innocent girl, Gemma."

The raven haired woman runs a hand through her unruly hair, bringing her eyes up to meet those of the brooding vampire. "Stefan, you confuse me with someone who cares. I'm here for one reason, and one reason only. Anyone that dies is collateral damage."

Damon side eyes his sister and clears his throat, "as flawed as Gemma's thinking is, she did the right think putting the body in the trunk. We'll dump her when we get back."

"This is exactly what I didn't want, guys."

"Good thing we don't base our plans off of what you want, little brother," the woman quips. "We'd never get anything."

"We need to call the plan off, Gemma," Stefan says begrudgingly.

"What?" Damon snaps, "who's hesitating now? Don't do this to us. This woman ruined our lives, she destroyed us! Tonight, it ends. We'll do it together. We've got your back, right Gemma?"

Gemma nods once, not giving a verbal reply.

The youngest of the three contemplates for a long minute before sighing and giving in, "all right. Let's do this."

-

Gemma hides inside of the coat closet with Damon, her fingers twitching where they lay wrapped around the miniature cross-bow Alaric gave her. Damon looks down at her with a silent, knowing look and she nods, her shoulders tensing at the sound of Katherine's voice echoing through the hall as Caroline leads her into their trap.

"Which room is it?" She demands.

"It's that one," Caroline sobs.

Katherine walks into the room and falls silent, huffing. "Where is she?"

The blonde's crying turns into quiet laughter, her voice bright and surprised. "I did it! I really didn't think I'd be able to fool you, but I did it!"

The Pierce rushes at the door to attack Caroline but stops short when a barrier forces her back from exiting. "What the—" she cuts herself off when she feels a presence emerge behind her. "Stefan?"

"Hello, Katherine."

Gemma can hear the smirk in Caroline's voice as she speaks to the brunette, "goodbye, Katherine."

Caroline moves away from the door and makes her exit, leaving Stefan and Katherine alone in the room. The brunette circles around him, her back facing the coat closet and Gemma forces herself to wait.

"You don't really think you can kill me with that, do you?"

"No, but she can."

Gemma practically breaks the door down as she slams through it, not wasting anytime in shooting Katherine in the back with her cross-bow. The raven haired woman drops the weapon and grabs the extra stake from her brother while Stefan rushes forward, plunging his into Katherine's arm. She cries in pain but rips the stake out, attempting to shove it into Damon's chest. Stefan grabs her from behind and puts her into a chokehold, falling to the floor with her and bearing her chest like a shiny prize.

Gemma doesn't waste any time in falling to the floor with them, straddling Katherine's legs and holding the stake above her heart. A quick second of confusion settles over her at the smug look in Katherine's eyes, but she doesn't focus on that. She focuses on Willow. She brings her arm back to plunge the wooden stake deep into the heart of Katherine Pierce and—

"Stop!" Jeremy screams, scrambling up the stairs and collapsing against the doorframe of the room. "You're hurting Elena! Everything you're doing to her is hurting Elena."

Gemma pauses before meeting Stefan's eyes and she purses her lips at his fearful look, attempting to bring her arm the rest of the way down if not for Damon yanking her back before she could kill the woman. Stefan releases Katherine and glares at his sister, moving forward and jerking the stake out of her hand. "What the hell is wrong with you? That would've killed Elena!"

The raven haired woman glances at him with little to no emotion before collapsing into one of the arm chairs, "yeah, well, that's a sacrifice I was willing to make."

Stefan grits his teeth before addressing Jeremy, "Jeremy, go check on Elena. Make sure she's okay."

Damon huffs in irritation and tosses his stake on a nearby accent table, following his sister's direction and sitting on the couch.

"Let's all make sure poor Elena is okay," Katherine mocks, grabbing the stake and cutting a thin line into the palm of her hand. "Just a little bit more pressure."

Stefan reaches forward and slaps the stake out of the vampire's hand, glaring at her. He doesn't anticipate her grabbing it again and moving to plunge it into her own stomach, but Damon does. "Wait!" He yells, stopping her.

"Okay," she shrugs, sitting beside him on the couch. "So, how about that moonstone?"

-

"The four of us together just like old times. The brother who loved me too much, the one that didn't love me enough and my favorite bunny."

"And the evil, slut vampire who only loved herself," Damon chirps, giving her a wry smile.

"Go screw yourself," Gemma spits, her anger running over.

"What happened to you, Gemma?" Katherine mocks, her eyes dragging over every inch of the woman's body. "You used to be so sweet and polite."

The raven haired woman casts her eyes toward the wall, ignoring Katherine burning gaze on the side of her face. Rage fueled Gemma, nothing else. If she were being honest, she knew she'd suffer the grief of Elena's death when she turned her humanity back on, but she couldn't bring herself to care while she hovered the stake over Katherine's heart. The woman needed to die and no amount of hard truths would change that.

"Why don't you just stop antagonizing Gemma?" Stefan says, sending Katherine a pointed look.

"Where's the moonstone?" She asks instead.

"What do you want with it?"

"Does Elena enjoy having you and Gemma worship at her altar?"

Stefan meets Gemma's eyes and scoffs out a laugh, "that was really desperate, Katherine. Don't you think that we can see right through you?"

"So, it doesn't bother you that Gemma's in love with your girlfriend?"

The female Salvatore arches a brow, throwing Katherine a bored look. "We all know if I wanted Stefan's girlfriend, I'd have Stefan's girlfriend. Just stop it."

"Or what?" Katherine goads, grinning. "You'll hurt me?" She pushes herself into a standing position and saunters toward the woman, a smirk tugging at her lips. "Everything that I feel, Elena feels, so go ahead. Or better yet, kiss me. She'll feel that, too."

Gemma makes a face, "been there, done that. You didn't impress me enough for a second kiss. Sorry."

Katherine's face flushes in anger and Stefan clears his throat, moving forward to gain her attention so her wrath doesn't aim itself at Elena. "You know, this whole Mason thing has me confused. Why a werewolf? The moonstone can break a curse that would help them destroy vampires so what's in it for you?"

"Sorry about your pet wolf," Damon taunts. "Probably should've kept him on a tighter leash."

"I'll have to remember that for next time. He's not the only wolf in town."

"You mean Tyler Lockwood?" Gemma muses, "good luck with that one. He's got the mental capacity of a goldfish."

Damon runs a hand through his hair, signing heavily as he stands up and presses a hand against the threshold of the door. The barrier doesn't give and he growls, slamming his hand against it in anger. "Damn it! Where is that witch?"

"We could play charades," Katherine says mockingly.

"You bargained the moonstone," Stefan mutters quietly, realization falling over his face as he stares at the Pierce.

"What are you mumbling about over there?" Damon snaps at him.

Gemma pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. The situations she gets caught up in are infuriating. Here she was, trying to avenge the death of her best friend, and now she's stuck in a room with three neanderthals that can't decide whether they want to screw each other or kill each other.

"When you struck a deal with George Lockwood, to help you fake your death, you told me that you have George something he needed. It was the moonstone, wasn't it?" Stefan asks the brunette.

"Good for you, Stefan," she coos. "Two plus two... and it would've worked, expect people found out I wasn't in the tomb." She glares at Damon, "thanks to you, by the way. Have I mentioned how inconvenient your obsession with me has been?"

He scoffs, "me and you both, honey."

"Why do you need it back?" Stefan questions, still on the topic of Katherine's past with the moonstone.

"I love you in a suit, so dashing," she deflects.

"What were you doing with it in the first place?"

"You're wasting your breath, Stefan," Damon grits out.

"Unless it wasn't yours to being with," the youngest Salvatore furrows his eyebrows. "In eighteen sixty-four, you faked your death. Who were you running from, Katherine?"

"In nineteen eighty-seven, you were in Chicago, in a concert of all places with that wench, Lexi." She giggles when Stefan looks at her, wide eyed. "Oh, come on Stefan, don't look so surprised. Of course I checked in on you over the years. You were standing in the front row, dancing all night. You were watching Bon Jovi, and I was watching you."

"Who were you running from?" He asks again, his voice demanding.

Katherine doesn't reply, letting a wide smile spread across her face as she mouths, "I love you" to the vampire.

Damon, making a face of disgust, moves toward a table that has alcohol occupying it. He grabs a  glass and pours himself a  drink, glancing at Gemma and raising a brow in silent question. She shakes her head and he shrugs, giving her a silent suit yourself.

"We're missing the party," Katherine complains, throwing a look toward Damon. "I'll have one of those."

"Right away, miss Katherine," he mocks the voice of a servant boy.

He shuffles over to her and hands her a glass full of whiskey, waiting with baited breath until she takes it to shove her against the wall with a stake against her chest. Stefan intervenes quickly, grabbing his arm with desperate eyes.

"No! No, Damon, don't!"

"Yes, Damon, please," Katherine taunts.

"Do it, Damon," Gemma urges him.

Damon hesitates before shoving himself away from the woman with a sneer, "the second the spell is lifted, I'm going to drive a stake right through your heart."

"God, you're hot," the woman in question breathes. "When did you get so hot?"

Gemma and her siblings get their attention diverted when the witch accompanying Katherine appears at the door, the moonstone gripped between her hands.

"Katherine, the spell on the room has been broken, you're free to leave."

"Thank God," she sighs.

"When I hand this over, my debt to you is over," the woman clarifies.

"Done."

"I owe you nothing."

"I said, done. Give it."

"I wouldn't do that," Damon threatens.

The witch looks at him unbothered before giving the moonstone to Katherine, watching is satisfaction as the Pierce begins to choke on her own breath, gasping for air as she collapses to the ground.

"You should have told me another witch was involved," she says. "She's a Bennet witch, Katherine, but you knew that."

"Wait, Elena!" Stefan panics.

"Elena's fine. The spell is broken. She'll heal quickly. Bonnie's with her." She glances between the three siblings, frowning. "I'm sorry for my involvement."

Damon and Gemma linger behind as the witch leaves, Stefan rushing out to find Elena soon after. Katherine lay on the floor unconscious and the two siblings share a look, hesitant on how to handle killing a woman who isn't awake to defend herself. Even they don't know if that's a line they should cross.

"What do we do with her?" Gemma asks, her arms hanging limply at her sides.

"Death isn't a punishment for what she did to Willow," Damon rasps, his voice thick. "That's letting her off easy."

Gemma nods in agreement, "do you have a better idea?"

He pauses before smirking, giving her a look. "As a matter of fact, I do."

-

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