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“Two one oh five one,” Enzo said wryly as he descended from the back of the rising seats of the classroom. He easily noticed Damon gaping at him which did confirm one of his suspicions before Damon carefully wiped his face blank. By then Enzo was close enough to pull him into a hug. “Damon! Good to see you, mate,” he said cheefully reveling in the chance to do this. Even aside from the fact that he missed him, he’d never been able to hug him from their separate cells.
Damon forgot how to breathe as his arms automatically came up and wrapped around the last person he ever thought he would see again. That he was so sure was dead and had been for more than half a century. “Enzo…” he breathed out once he remembered how, voice thick with confusion, worry, questions, and just plain happiness to see him again. Ripping off all those old wounds with Elena made him a little raw at the moment.
“Bloody hell, I missed you,” Enzo let himself say, holding back what else wanted to come out with it. The only secret he ever kept to himself all those years.
Damon had no idea how or why this was happening. Even if Enzo /was/ alive, he should despise him for leaving him there. But right this moment, he couldn’t do anything but hold on for dear life. At least until his brother interrupted. “Who’s this?” Stefan asked suspiciously.
Enzo realized then that they’d been holding on a bit longer than kosher, so forced himself to let go and step back. It was only polite to introduce himself to their other guests after all. “Name’s Lorenzo. But my friends call me Enzo,” he held out a hand. One that wasn’t taken and just looked suspiciously at. He was relatively sure that this was Stefan. The doctor had mentioned wanting both Salvatore vampires if Enzo could swing it, so he assumed that Stefan was with his brother.
“Enzo was another Augustine vampire. My best friend. Our cells were next to each other.” He had no idea what was going on, especially with Enzo’s apparent happiness to see him, but since he was, even if it wasn’t genuine, he couldn’t be as flippant as he would normally have hoped to have been. “I thought you were dead.” All thought of getting to Elena had flown from his head the moment Enzo hugged him like an old friend.
“I figured you did,” Enzo nodded. “That’s the only reason you wouldn’t have come back for me.”
“Wait, so he left you with the Augustines?” Stefan asked incredulously. And this guy was acting all buddy buddy? That didn’t add up. “For what? Fifty four years? And you expect us to believe that you’re okay with that?” He was clearly trying to get them to let their guards down for something. Probably working with the Augustines somehow. Fifty-four years, to say nothing of the fifteen before that, could cause some serious Stockholm Syndrome and if he was reading his brother right, Damon would be a sitting duck for it.
“Okay with them? Not a bloody chance in hell,” Enzo said disgustedly. “But that has nothing to do with Damon. If he thought I was dead, then he had no idea there was a reason to come back for me.” He turned to Damon and told him, “I noticed all the turnover for the first couple years after your escape. People disappearing and being replaced. I knew you were going after them. And had to have thought that you got them all too or you would have kept going.”
“Damn right I would have kept going. With or without my humanity I would never have let this travesty exist for a second. And I sure as hell wouldn’t have let my girlfriend and her friends come to school here if I’d had any idea they were still around,” Damon easily agreed.
“Kept killing people you mean. Killing my family,” Aaron chimed in bitterly.
“Your family deserves every bit of it. Anyone who can brutally torture, starve, and cage living /people/, listen to their screams and pleas for mercy, and still keep going, don’t deserve to live,” Enzo snapped.
“You begged for mercy?” Damon asked with furrowed brow. The Enzo he remembered would have died first, but half a century was a long time.
“Not me, but those other poor sods they turned to experiment on. Innocent kids from the college that they made for other experiments. Ones that I couldn’t do or they didn’t want to risk losing their only old vampire for. They begged. And cried. At first to be let go. To see their families and friends again. To go home to their lives. But it never took long before they were begging for the mercy of death,” Enzo sighed in remembrance. The last one had disappeared about a month ago. Just never came back from whatever experiment he was taken out for. Which made sense. They didn’t want to lose Enzo and the poor kid was a cannibal ripper by then. They probably wanted more than the one cell between them just in case. “They did get their mercy in the end I suppose.”
“And that’s supposed to make it right?!” Stefan asked incredulously.
“It makes it /justice/,” Enzo snapped at him before turning back to Damon. “So what happened back then, mate? I remember the party, the fire, you getting free, trying to get the cage open, and then you just looked at me like you didn’t even recognize me and walked away and left me in that fire.”
“And you can actually forgive him for that?” Stefan narrowed his eyes. That was even worse than what he’d imagined about how it happened.
“I /know/ Damon,” Enzo frowned at him. “He would never have left me behind in that fire if he’d been himself. Sure, he has a habit of cutting and running when things get tough, but not leaving someone he cares about in danger to do it. I don’t know what happened, or why it happened, but that’s when I have to trust what I know of his character until I have the chance to find out.”
“So he left you to die in a fire, and then left you to be tortured, starved, and caged for another fifty-four years, and you still trust him?!” Stefan scoffed. Like anyone was supposed to believe that.
“Damon is the most important person in my life. The only person that I’ve connected with in seventy years of captivity. My only friend. If I can’t have faith in him, then I have nothing left. I may as well roll over and die,” Enzo told Stefan before turning back to Damon. “So what happened?”
“It’s not pretty. And I sure as hell don’t deserve any of that faith in me,” Damon winced.
“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that. I deserve an explanation regardless don’t you think?” Enzo said pointedly.
Damon sighed heavily. He’d been about to change the subject and get back to Elena who he remembered once he was scrambling for a change of subject, until that last part. Enzo really did deserve an explanation. But the chances of him deciding Damon wasn’t worth it and letting Elena rot in revenge were too great. Elena didn’t deserve that. He did, but Elena didn’t. “Where’s Elena first and I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
“I don’t know where she is. You really think they’re going to let me in on those kinds of secrets and then send me to you so I can tell you?” Enzo said wryly. The doc had also mentioned that Elena was Damon’s girl, so he was up on that particular gossip. It was the reason that Damon was considered the greater threat with Maxfield having the girlfriend.
“Tell us everything you /do/ know then,” Damon said tightly.
“And after, you tell me everything you know about what happened that day,” Enzo bargained.
“Deal,” Damon nodded, hoping that Enzo would have enough of a clue to point them in the right direction.
“Well you know the main facility underneath Whitmore house. I know there’s a secondary lab. It was mentioned more than once. But I don’t know where it is. And I’m pretty sure that’s not where they had your girl and me this morning. Where they had us was some sort of basement or something underground. It was clearly not used for much and had been on fire at some point recently. It was all burned up. But I was transported back here with a hood over my head and couldn’t even get auditory cues from the white noise. My best guess for time was maybe thirty minutes give or take.” He’d long figured out a method of a rough estimate of time by singing songs in his head.
“Which given traffic in a college town, doesn’t really mean much,” Damon huffed. They could have come from ten miles away as easily as they could have come from thirty. He turned to Stefan to try and get him out of the way at least before he had to spill his weaknesses. “Call him. Remind him that we have Aaron and we want Elena for him.”
“And if you could try and bargain for an antidote for me while you’re at it, I’d appreciate it, yeah?” Enzo chimed in.
“Antidote for you? For what?” Damon asked worriedly.
“Nifty little poison that will stop my heart and send me into a desiccation that blood won’t revive me from if I don’t come back. His insurance policy to make sure I don’t just take off with my newfound freedom.”
“Fuck,” Damon huffed. “Yeah, get Enzo’s antidote too or the last Whitmore dies,” he told Stefan.
Stefan didn’t say anything, but did nod. He would at least make a token effort to get the antidote, but Elena was the priority. That explained why this Enzo was playing nice though. He wanted their help to get him free. And then he would come after Damon and probably anyone he cared about along with him. He knew he would if he’d been betrayed like that. He stepped out of the room to make the call, taking Aaron with him, not trusting those two. He didn’t go far though, wanting to hear what Damon had to say.
Damon noticed that Stefan was still close enough to listen, but there was nothing for it. Enzo was looking at him expectantly and he wasn’t going to put off his story any longer. And the faith that Enzo had in him meant that he would be more open about it than he would otherwise have been too. Especially with that speech about how much Damon meant to him. “I was standing there watching you die, facing my own failure to save you, after you put your life in my hands, and I broke, Enzo,” he closed his eyes against the memory. “I couldn’t take it. I turned off my humanity. And once it was off, there was nothing stopping me from walking away. And it’s haunted me every day since.” He didn’t bother opening his eyes. Couldn’t bring himself to look at the betrayal in Enzo’s features. Just stood there waiting for the axe to fall.
“That was the most likely of my many theories of that day,” Enzo nodded his understanding before pulling Damon into another hug. “I don’t blame you, Damon. I can’t say I would have handled watching you die if our positions were reversed any better. The only ones to blame are the bloody monsters who put us in that position.”
“You’re stronger than I’ve ever been,” Damon said hauntedly, still unable to prevent holding tightly to the hug he knew he didn’t deserve. “You wouldn’t have broken. You wouldn’t have given up.”
“You’re stronger than you think you are, Damon,” Enzo assured him. “And I’m not as strong as you think I am either.” Watching Damon die would have destroyed him. He liked to think that he wouldn’t have gone so far as to turn his humanity off because of it, but one never could know until they were in that position. The fact that it was Enzo’s impending death that caused Damon to turn it of rather than a need to survive meant a lot. Enzo had considered the other way in his many years of thinking up a hundred different theories for what happened at that party. After he got over the anger and bitterness and feelings of betrayal to realize that there /had/ to be more to the story. Once he found his zen again. If Damon had done it to survive, he could have lived with that, but the pain of watching his best friend die was easier to let go.
Before anything else could be said, Stefan returned to tell them, “He’s not sending her…or the antidote,” he thought to add. That little conversation hadn’t made him feel any better about this Enzo guy. Either he was angling for revenge and playing them, or he was genuine which was just as bad given his obvious influence on Damon.
“Doesn’t he know we have Aaron?” Damon asked incredulously.
“He doesn’t care. He’s willing to risk it,” Stefan was rather surprised himself. While he wasn’t actually in the habit of taking hostages, he was under the impression that it usually worked better than this.
“Well let me talk to him. He’ll listen to me,” Aaron said frantically.
“What part of ‘he doesn’t care’ are you not registering,” Damon asked pointedly before asking Stefan, “You want to kill him or should I?”
“Whoa whoa whoa! Hold on!” Aaron protested, backing away fearfully. “Wes gave me a bunch of files on my family history,” he scrambled for anything that could save his life. “They’re in my dorm. Maybe there’s something in there you need. A name? A-a-another lab?”
“That’s a timely revelation,” Damon said dubiously, sharing a look with Stefan.
“Yeah. Well. You know…he’s not gonna help me, so why should I help him?”
Damon stalked towards him slowly as he backed away. “I don’t like you. I don’t like your family. I don’t like you messing with my relationship. If you’re lying I’m gonna take my thumbs and I’m gonna gouge out your sad little eyes out of your sad little head.” Just like he did to the kid’s grandfather at that party.
“Damon,” Enzo got his attention with a gasp, feeling the pain wash over him as the poison hit his heart.
“Enzo!” Damon closed the distance and grabbed his elbows as the first signs of desiccation started. “Hang on, buddy,” he said worriedly as he helped Enzo to a seat.
“Find the antidote. Or put me out of my misery. Don’t let me desiccate forever,” Enzo managed to get out before he was unable to form words anymore. Or move at all.
“Fuck!” Damon cursed, running a hand through his hair as he made a decision. He hadn’t missed the fact that Stefan didn’t exactly make an effort to get Enzo’s antidote, but he knew the other lab that Wes had. That it was more for virology and samples. If there was an antidote to be found it would be there. Assuming that Wes didn’t have him on him which would be stupid. He would have it hidden to use to revive Enzo later. “Okay, you take the kid to find these files. Call me if you find anything, kill him if you don’t,” he told Stefan.
“What are you gonna do?” Stefan frowned, wondering if Damon was really giving up on Elena for this guy. That was /not/ a good sign.
“I’m gonna check the other lab. See if I can find an antidote there. Then, if you haven’t found Elena yet, Enzo and I will be helping obviously,” Damon told him as he picked up his desiccated best friend and headed for the door before there could be any further argument. Stefan could save Elena, but he was the only one who gave a crap about saving Enzo. It was the reasonable division of resources. And if he could get Enzo’s antidote, two more people on the hunt for Elena would be even better if Stefan hadn’t found her by then. He would always feel better walking into a fight with Enzo watching his back regardless.
Damon got them to the lab and laid Enzo out on the table as he started to search. Giving up wasn’t an option. He’d spent all these years thinking he killed Enzo and it had broken him. Actually going through with it would be a thousand times worse. Mercy or not. If he couldn’t find an antidote here, he would study everything this bastard had in this lab and even dig deeper into virology if he needed to so he could /make/ a damn antidote. Even if it took years. He couldn’t believe that Enzo could forgive him for what happened back then. He sure as hell wasn’t going to compound it by giving up on him now.
It took him a while of searching before he found a tray that held a bunch of vials labeled antidote. The chance of any of them hurting Enzo was slim enough so he just injected them all and hoped for the best. But in the meantime, while he waited for it to work, he started going through the computer. He was looking for the research for that particular poison and hopefully the antidote connected to it. If it came to making something himself, he would need it.
He had just found the files when his phone rang and he breathed a sigh of relief that Stefan had Elena and she was fine. At least that meant they didn’t need to worry about the doctor anymore. The idea that Stefan could have let him live didn’t even dawn on him. Even if it came to an argument over whether the rest of the organization deserved to die, the butcher of a doctor wasn’t even questionable. Damon promised to meet them at home later and resumed his search, finding a thumb drive to copy all the files and research onto before he would wipe the computer as best he could. Might as well not give anyone else the chance to find it and pick up where Maxfield left off.
He was just starting the memory wipe, and starting to lose hope about any of the antidotes working, when there was a groan from the table as Enzo started waking up and he gave a sigh of relief as he turned around. “Huh. Never mind,” he tucked the thumb drive away. May as well keep it for now, just in case there were other side effects, but he didn’t need to worry about it for the moment.
“What did you do?” Enzo asked worriedly, not liking the surprise Damon was showing that he woke up.
“Well I injected you with a bunch of these that say antidote. I guess one of them worked,” Damon shrugged. “How are you feeling?”
“Much better. Aside from the hunger,” Enzo said wryly. Apparently the desiccation used up all of the meal he got while waiting for Damon to show. “I’ll eat on my way out.”
“Your way out?” Damon asked, trying to keep the vulnerability from his voice. Wondering if maybe Enzo really was just stringing him along to get the antidote and now was taking off on him. Though if he wasn’t sticking around for revenge that was some measure of forgiveness in and of itself, but he had hoped to get his best friend back. Especially after the evidence that Enzo believed in him, even after everything.
“Don’t worry, mate. I’ll be back. Just need to spread my wings a bit, see some sights, remember how to live and all,” Enzo assured him.
“I can come with you,” Damon offered automatically, not even thinking of everything he would be leaving behind. Not even sure how much he wanted to hold onto everything he would be leaving behind. He was all a jumble right now.
“Nah, mate. You have your brother, your girl, friends I would presume, a whole life here. I’m not gonna take you away from all that. I won’t be long. A few weeks, maybe a few months at most, just to get my head together and all. We’ll have eternity to catch up after that, yeah?”
“Yeah, okay. If you’re sure,” Damon definitely wasn’t sure about anything.
“I’m sure. You enjoy the life you’ve built for yourself and we can figure out where I fit into it once I get back.” Enzo didn’t want Damon to make a quick decision he would regret. He knew there would be some confrontations over all this and didn’t want Damon to take the easy way out and take off with him rather than deal with it. He’d gotten the hint that Stefan had only just now heard about the Augustine mess and Enzo would imagine that the girlfriend hadn’t known about it either. Damon was never one to talk things out. Even in the cells where there was nothing to do /but/ talk, it had been like pulling teeth when it came to the hard stuff. Damon needed the chance to fix things with his friends and family first. He wasn’t even going to ask Damon to help him take out the rest of the Augustines after Stefan’s comments before. With them taking out the most obvious evil in the doctor, Enzo could handle the rest on his way out.
“I’ll see you in a few months then, I guess,” Damon accepted the bracing hug. “And I’m here, anything you need, whenever. You know where to find me.”
“Appreciate it, mate,” Enzo grinned, clapping Damon’s back before letting go. “Later, Damon.” He was out the door before he changed his mind and brought Damon along with him. He had a lot to figure out himself too though, and at least some of it was best done alone.