What Are Brothers For?

The volume of the sound dipped in and out, making every sound have a humming tone. Voices became muffled rings, lights became flickering flames.

I could not answer, for I couldn't even understand if he was either asking a question or stating something. Finally, I gave in to the beckoning darkness, slumping my head back. The world of pain was too much for me to handle as everything went numb.

Damon sighed in relief as he didn't get an answer. He quickly made his way to the other syringes and hid one inside his pocket, wanting to make sure that, if Stefan woke up or if he was playing a trick, he wouldn't be awake for long.

All what was left was for him to dive into his brother's mind once again, hopefully being able to break the Ripper's barrier to the memory. If he couldn't, then he'd have to keep on pressing his brother to try harder. He knew he was trying as hard as he could, but if neither of them managed to gain access to the memory, then the best thing for Damon to do would be to stake his brother.

With a sigh, he forced his way into Stefan's mind, wondering what it would be like with all its protections weakened.

It was dark and utterly silent as I waited for my eyes to open to reveal his face to tell me that everything was fine. If only.
Suddenly, everything went numb, all control over my mind was partially lost for those moments. In the midst of the silence, there came a deep voice that I had grown accustom to.
It was constantly mocking me, 'Stop being weak, open your eyes.' Mentally, I shook my head, forcing my eyes further shut. He may have won the battle, but I was going to be the successor of the war.

Everything seemed dark inside Stefan's mind, but it also seemed rather crowded. Damon was being able to see things he hadn't seen before, things the Ripper and Stefan's natural defenses had been holding back. He wanted to stop and have a look at his brother's secrets, but he knew he had no time. Sooner or later, the Ripper would reemerge.

He made his way to Stefan's memories, ignoring all the pointless ones as he tried to find the ones related to Lexi or to the Ripper. Finally, he found it. It was still protected, but not as much as it had been before. Damon was about to dive in when he suddenly felt... Anxious? He couldn't quite understand what he was feeling, but it was powerful.

"Stefan? Stefan, can you hear me?" He called his brother, wondering if Stefan's mind was awake enough to respond. "I'm going to open the memory and come out of your mind, alright? Then you can tell me what you remembered."

The obvious numbing was slightly alleviated when I could hear Damon's voice pushing through. As if I were awake, my eyes snapped open, frantically searching for his face.
"Be quick! He is becoming stronger." I called out.

My head began to burn, causing ripples of small jolts of pain to rush through my brain, "Hurry!"

Though Damon was glad to hear Stefan's voice, he had no time to appreciate it. If the Ripper was coming back, then he probably only had seconds to do what he had gone there to do before he had to stab Stefan with the third syringe of vervain. He quickly dived into the memory, breaking the weak protections that encircled it and hopefully allowing Stefan to access it. That is, it the Ripper didn't get to it first.

"Done!" He sent to Stefan, pulling himself out of his brother's mind quickly. He didn't want to get trapped in there with the Ripper. Hopefully, he had made it out in time.

My eyes snapped open, blood red and wide. The growls were emitting from my lips as I struggled to gain control. The waves of the Ripper were slowly drowning me, pushing me further and further down.
And just like that, everything snapped, all self-control was lost. Tugging furiously at the chains, I hissed, my eyes becoming darker, "I will never tell you anything," I stared into his eyes, a wicked smirk plastered to my lips, "as long as I am still kicking." My voice lowered, the Ripper hatching a plan.
"You wish for me to die, but if I go, he falls down with me."
My lips parted to give a menacing laugh, "Unless you want him dead, which I'm sure you do."

Damon sighed in frustration as the Ripper took over once again. He hated that he would have to cause Stefan further pain, and he hated that the choice he had made of having Stefan look at the memory instead of doing it himself was what would force him to keep mentally controlling Stefan to make him think that he was starving.

The words the Ripper said startled him more than he thought they would. What did he mean Stefan would die if he died? Was he just bluffing or did he really mean it? Lexi had managed to get Stefan in control, but was it possible that maybe the Ripper hadn't had that big of a grip on him back then. The possibility had to be considered.

"What do you mean? He won't die if you die!" Damon asked, his voice with an edge of anger. "And I don't want my brother dead and you know it! This whole mess happened because I couldn't stand my brother's death!" His voice got angrier by the word, and as he finished his last sentence, he was already furious. He loved his brother. It had taken him decades to admit it to himself, but he did love Stefan.

There was a throaty growl, "I'll drag him down with me if I have to. Sure, he'll still be here, but I'll mess with his mind so bad, he'll want to-" I had finally managed to gain control, shutting my eyes as to not let Damon see the darkness that was evident within them.

"Chains!" I choked out, "Vervain chains!" I kept listing everything that Lexi did on that horrific night so many nights ago. It was a pain to remember, but it had to be worth it, "She wrapped them tightly around me, until it was practically digging into the bone." The memory sent a shiver down my spine at the pure pain of it.

I growled again, trying to keep the Ripper settled deep down, "Douse the stakes in vervain," I let out a cough, spitting blood all across the floor, managing to continue, "And keep plunging it close to my heart."

The next part was still a haze, knowing that I would regret informing him, "Keep starving me until I break." I snapped my eyes open, losing control once again.

Damon had no doubt in his mind that the Ripper would do that. But the only option he had was to try and be faster than him. Even if he let Stefan - no, the Ripper, Damon corrected himself - go, he would still mess with his little brother's mind. Stefan was the Ripper's playground, his little toy which he tried to break every time he picked it up.

"Vervained chains, vervained stakes and starvation." Damon repeated, closing his eyes as to not show Stefan or the Ripper how much he didn't want to do it, how much the thought of having to cause Stefan more pain had grown to bother him. For decades, Damon had been able to hate Stefan without any problems, but not anymore, especially not after that night, not after all what his little brother had put himself through just to save Damon. He couldn't deny how much he loved his baby brother anymore.

After stealing vervain from Mystic Falls' storage, he definitely had enough to do all what Stefan had told him to. Letting out a very low sigh, Damon made his way to where he had stored the vervain syringes and poured all its contents on a large water tray. He then soaked a chain and a few stakes.

Walking back to his brother, Damon did his best to put on a cold look as he got ready to begin his newest task. It would be hard to keep the Ripper tied down as he changed the ropes for chains, but he would have to do it.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. A little tip, the easy way hurts less."

I let out a throaty laugh, throwing my head back to enjoy the snide remark before narrowing my eyes, "Little tip," I leaned forward in the chair as so I could look him directly in the eyes, "The hard way sounds much more fun."

The small act he was playing did little to impress me, even the cold face he had placed on was barely enough for me to be intimidated. He appeared to be untangling the vervain-soaked ropes from around me, which was a perfect opportunity for me to escape, maybe even tear his heart out.

The wheels in my head began to turn, only to be slowed down tremendously by the annoying little Stefan trapped somewhere deep down, continuously beating down on all my future actions. He was only going to slow me down even more. I let out a cold, menacing laugh as I watched Damon prepare the chains, knowing that as soon as those ropes came off, I was gone, that is if the weaker me didn't stop me.

Before he could finish taking off the ropes he'd wrapped around Stefan, Damon decided that it was better not to take the risk of letting the Ripper escape. He was afraid that he'd end up actually stabbing his brother in the heart, but he was sure that he would rather die than have the Ripper run freely. Actually, Stefan had told him to stake him earlier, that it was the only way to stop his darker side from running free. Hopefully, he wouldn't get what he wanted.

"Then the hard way it is." Damon said as he blocked out all the newly developed mental breaks that were telling him that it was too dangerous, that he would end up killing Stefan. Granted, he would never be able to live with himself it he did hit his brother's heart, but he knew he was doing what was best for him.

With as much precision as he could muster while he still held Stefan prisoner by the ropes, Damon aimed at just bellow his brother's heart and brought the stake down.

At first, it was a dull pain followed by my vision becoming blurry and red. My head swayed around, face twisted. My eyebrows arched downward as my chest heaved up and down.
I growled beneath my breath, feeling the groans following shortly afterwards. The pain overcame me in waves, crashing upon me second after second. I wanted to scream out, but my lips remained sealed.
It was several moments later that I finally screamed out, releasing all of the bottled-up pain. Everything burned, my head, my eyes which were forced shut, everything.
Bit by bit, the layers of the Ripper started to ware off.

Wincing as he saw the pain he'd put his brother in, Damon continued to change the ropes for a chain. He needed to do it, he knew it, it didn't matter how much pain he'd but putting Stefan in. It was all for the Ripper, not for his brother. He hated it that Stefan had to feel it as well, but it was for the best.

Finally reaching the last layer of ropes, Damon watched as his brother's skin stuck to the vervain, making a gruesome image as he slowly pulled the ropes out, already planning on getting the chains. Those seconds would be crucial.

The ropes were off. That was the time. Damon lunged for the chains, hoping that when he came back Stefan would still be sitting in the chair.

It felt as if a huge pressure was suddenly lifted, removed from my skin roughly, yet gently at the same time. The burning was most definitely still present, but cooling down as so I could crack my eyes open. My eyes were bloodshot after popping a few blood vessels in them. My fingers were red from squeezing the edges of the chair with so much pressure.

My chest heaved up and down, breathes jagged and short. Everything was a blur, having to piece each image together slowly in my head. It took minutes to realize the ropes were off, watching as a blurry figure darted for something, but I had no clue for what though. I wanted so desperately to wipe my eyes which were burning like a burn on your finger from touching a flame. I was frozen, trying to keep myself still and not lunge out of the chair. This needed to come to an end, the Ripper needed to be destroyed. But I knew deep in my heart that there would be no destroying it, for once it was pushed away, it would find a loophole and creep back in.

And I would have to live with it for the rest of eternity, fighting to keep control day in and day out. It was an everyday battle that I was willing to fight in.

I scrunched my arms closer to my sides, suddenly feeling cold. It may have been from the sudden blood loss, knowing that vampires normally could not feel temperature changes. The panic set in when it became freezing, trying to scrunch my arms closer to my sides and retain at least some warmth. The air seeped in through the fabric of the remains of my blood-stained clothing, brushing against the wound that was still seeping blood.
Something strange was occurring, something that the Ripper most definitely was taking a part in.

I sat still in the chair, my eyes wide with a cold, lost look as I stared up to the blurry figure.

As he came back to the chair, Damon was relieved to see that Stefan was still sitting there. He hadn't run away, the Ripper either hadn't had time to react or hadn't been able to take control. Damon was about to tie Stefan back to the chair when he realized that something was wrong. His brother's arms were clutched close to his body, as if he were cold. With a human, he wouldn't find that strange. The weather was kind of chilli, and Stefan's clothes were ripped and wet with blood, which would make anyone cold. But vampires didn't feel those things. What was happening?

Damon wanted to stop and ask his brother was what wrong, but he knew he couldn't. At any moment, the Ripper could come back and run out of the chair. He could ask Stefan while he tied him up. Though that would definitely feel wrong, it was better than giving him a chance to escape.

The chains felt heavy in his hands as he began to wrap them around Stefan, roughly at first, needing to get the first turns done quickly to keep him from escaping, and then a little more gently, though he knew that he wasn't supposed to do anything gently. He needed to stop thinking of the person he was holding prisoner as his brother and begin to think of them as the Ripper.

"Is everything alright there, Stefan?" He asked, trying not to let his worry show. Stefan could even know that he was worried, but not the Ripper. The Ripper had to see him as cold and cruel.

There was an eerie silence as he placed the chains around me. My body was far too tired to even wince, the bruises on every inch of my body burning. I kept staring at the spot he had stood in minutes before, eyes lost. My sight had begun to improve, even if I was staring at the cement floor, wishing I was in my soft bed, sleeping away the night.

It was when his voice rang through the room that I snapped my head up. Having to process his words slowly, I only nodded my head, averting my gaze from his to stare at the other wall. There was no way that I was going to let him see the look in my eyes. It would show him that the Ripper was still there, even if it wasn't showing itself right now.

Stefan's short reply wasn't enough to satisfy Damon. In fact, that summed to his lack of response as the chains were wrapped around him only made the older brother become more suspicious. Maybe the Ripper was there, not Stefan, and he was only playing him, pretending to be weaker than he was so that Damon wouldn't be ready when he tried to escape? Or maybe the Ripper was playing with Stefan to catch him off guard to take over? And then one terrible idea came to his mind. What if he wasn't the only one torturing someone? What if the Ripper was torturing Stefan?

Quickly finishing to wrap the chains around his brother, Damon ran to kneel in front of him, his hands reaching out to force Stefan to look at him.

"Don't lie now, Stefan. What's going on?"

No matter how hard I tried, my eyes stayed locked to the wall, eventually slowly making their way to stare directly at Damon's face, coldly staring into his eyes. I wanted to scream out, but found that I couldn't, as if my jaw was nailed shut.

Showing emotions with my eyes was what I resorted to, but it seemed that the Ripper didn't want this. Forcing me to pull away from Damon and lock my eyes to the wall again. Managing to open my mouth, I mumbled out, "S-s-o c-c-cold." It hurt to talk, but with the Ripper wanting to inflict even more pain upon me, it was unbearable.

Stefan really was cold. But what could possibly be causing that? Damon wanted to grab a sheet and wrap it around his brother, or a coat, but he knew that he couldn't. He needed to cause Stefan pain, not matter how much he hated himself for that.

He stayed there, kneeling in front of his brother, for quite a while as he tried to figure out what he should do next. He knew he should tighten the chains, which weren't wrapped as hard as Stefan had told him to since he'd been hurrying to talk to Stefan, and he knew that he should get started on the stakes, but leaving Stefan like that, shivering so hard that he could barely talk, was out of the question. While Damon knew that what he was going to do would hurt much more than that, he just couldn't leave his brother like that.

"Do you know what's causing it?"

I sat there, shivering, trying to form the words. After almost shrugging my shoulders, I choked out, "Ripper." It was the only word I could form, staring anywhere, but at Damon's face. I needed this to be over, for the sake of both of us.

So the Ripper was doing that? Damon had suspected that. But why was the Ripper torturing Stefan? In a way, he was helping him. Maybe the Ripper thought that he would be able to make Damon stop what he was planning on doing once he saw Stefan in pain, but he couldn't. He had plenty of experience doing things that a part of him found wrong, and he knew that the torture he would have to put Stefan through was for his own good.

Going against every instinct he had, Damon got up and made his way back to the chains, which he partly unwrapped and began to wrap them once again, more tightly this time.

"Why is he doing that?"

My body shook as I gave him a soft glare, "H-how am I s-s-supposed to kn-know?" The mocking voice in my head kept chanting words I couldn't quite understand.
I was too tired, just wanting to close my eyes as I mumbled out mostly to myself, "I just want this all to end; grab a stake and end it all."

Damon shook his head. He couldn't do that, and Stefan knew it. Killing his little brother was something that even when they were at a terrible place in their relationship never crossed his mind. He liked to pretend like he could kill him at any time, but he knew that he'd only do it if there was no chance of getting him back and he was suffering. But though he was suffering at that moment, there was a chance of getting him back, so Damon just couldn't do it.

"It'll end, Stefan. Just hang on." He said, trying to make his voice sound stronger than he felt. Never had he felt so absolutely powerless than he did at that moment, looking at his brother as he shook in pain and cold, unable to do anything about it.

As he finished wrapping the chains more tightly around Stefan, he looked around for a stake. That was the next step, and the one he most dreaded. But there was something else that he'd forgotten that he could do while he did the rest.

"Stefan, did Lexi use mind control to starve you?" He remembered Elena saying something like that when she was telling him about Lexi's Unrippering Therapy.

My eyes locked onto the stake on the ground. If I had managed to break away from the chains, which I could if I would be able to tap into my Ripper strength, I could grab the stake and end this now. The thoughts rushed through my mind before snapping my eyes back to Damon's face, nodding slowly, dreading the moment he would have to make me hallucinate as if I am starving, craving the blood.