Chapter 31: The Isobel Endgame
The mental alert from my Sensory clone hit like a slap of ice water. Three heartbeats approaching the Gilbert house—two human, one vampire. But the vampire signature was wrong, predatory in a way that made my teeth ache.
"Isobel's here. Three compelled humans with her, vampire backup on the roof. They're moving on Elena now."
I was already moving, fingers flying across my phone as I sprinted toward my car. The text to Stefan and Damon was short: "Isobel's moving on Elena NOW. Gilbert house. Bring everything."
My four clones materialized around me as I drove, the car suddenly crowded with identical faces wearing different expressions. Mind Shield clone rode shotgun, his perpetual calm a stark contrast to Shield clone's paranoid muttering from behind me. Sensory clone perched in the back, eyes closed as he fed me constant updates, while Strength clone had drawn the short straw and was crammed in the trunk.
"Breaching the front door now," Sensory clone reported. "Isobel's compelled them to use non-lethal force. She wants Elena alive."
The Gilbert house came into view, and I could see the front door hanging open. My stomach dropped.
[EMERGENCY QUEST ACTIVATED: ELENA'S RESCUE] [OBJECTIVE: PREVENT ELENA'S KIDNAPPING] [REWARD: +1,200 EXP, RELATIONSHIP BONUSES] [FAILURE PENALTY: ELENA DEATH, MASSIVE STORY DIVERGENCE]
I didn't need the System to tell me the stakes. Elena was the linchpin that kept this whole supernatural house of cards from collapsing into chaos.
"Shield, get to Elena. Barriers up the moment you see her." I was out of the car before it fully stopped, Mind Shield clone already sprinting toward the house's side entrance. "Sensory, tactical overview. Strength, non-lethal takedowns on the humans."
The coordination felt natural now, like conducting an orchestra. Four months of training had turned my clones from separate entities into extensions of my will.
Inside, chaos. Jeremy was pressed against the living room wall, three compelled humans advancing on him with clinical precision. Their eyes were glassy, pupils dilated—classic vampire compulsion.
Shield clone burst through the back door, blue barriers erupting around Jeremy just as one of the compelled humans swung a taser. The electricity crackled harmlessly against the magical shield.
"Elena's upstairs," Sensory clone fed me. "Isobel's with her. Vampire backup just entered through the bedroom window."
I took the stairs three at a time, Mind Shield clone flanking me. The sound of Elena's voice, sharp with terror, guided me to her room.
"—don't understand. My mother is dead!"
"Your mother was weak," Isobel's cold voice replied. "I'm what she became when she stopped letting sentiment hold her back."
I rounded the corner to see Isobel standing by the window, one hand gripping Elena's arm. She looked exactly like I remembered from the show—beautiful in that inhuman vampire way, but with eyes like chips of ice.
"Sam Barton," she said without turning. "The psychic boy Katherine's so fascinated by. She described you perfectly."
My Mind Shield clone stepped between us, and I felt the familiar tingle of compulsion sliding off like water. "Let her go, Isobel. This doesn't have to end in bloodshed."
She laughed, the sound like breaking glass. "How wonderfully naive. Do you think this is a negotiation?"
The vampire backup—a thin man with dead eyes—dropped from the ceiling behind me. I spun, but he was already moving with inhuman speed.
That's when Strength clone came through the window like a wrecking ball.
My newest clone might have lost his Regeneration affinity, but the System's random reassignment had given him Minor Strength Boost. It wasn't much—maybe 50% stronger than a normal human—but it was enough. His tackle sent the vampire backup crashing through the bedroom wall into the hallway.
Isobel hissed, fangs extending. "Impressive. But not enough."
She moved toward the window, dragging Elena with vampire speed that made my enhanced coordination look sluggish. My Shield clone threw up a barrier, but Isobel simply went around it, supernatural grace making the maneuver look effortless.
"Elena!" I lunged forward, but Isobel was already through the window, using her grip on Elena to swing them both down to the yard below.
"They're heading for a van parked two streets over," Sensory clone reported. "I'm tracking, but she's fast."
I cursed and followed them through the window, Mind Shield clone cushioning my landing. Behind me, I could hear Strength clone finishing off the vampire backup with wet, final sounds.
Stefan's black car screamed around the corner just as I hit the ground. Damon was driving, Stefan in the passenger seat with murder in his eyes. They'd gotten my message.
"Where?" Stefan called as their car skidded to a stop.
"Sensory clone's tracking," I said, jumping into their backseat. "Two streets over, then west toward the industrial district."
Damon floored it, the engine roaring. "I'm getting really tired of Katherine's little pets."
"They've stopped," Sensory clone updated me. "Abandoned warehouse on Fifth Street. Isobel's inside with Elena, but I'm detecting another signature. Ancient. Female."
My blood ran cold. "Katherine's there."
Stefan's jaw tightened. "Then this was always a trap."
The warehouse looked abandoned from the outside—broken windows, rust stains bleeding down the corrugated metal walls. But my Sensory clone could feel the supernatural presences inside like a physical weight.
"Four clones," Stefan said as we approached. "Can you coordinate them all in combat?"
"About to find out." I closed my eyes, feeling the mental threads connecting me to my clones. Shield and Strength were with us. Mind Shield was invisible, moving to flank the building. Sensory was perched on a nearby rooftop, feeding me constant intelligence.
"Isobel's got Elena in the center of the main floor. Katherine's watching from the catwalk above. No other threats detected."
"Simple rescue," Damon said, checking his stakes. "I like simple."
Nothing about this felt simple.
We moved in through the loading dock, the rusty door groaning as Stefan forced it open. The warehouse was a maze of old shipping containers and industrial equipment, perfect for an ambush.
"Elena!" Stefan called out, his voice echoing in the vast space.
"We're here!" Elena's voice came from somewhere ahead, strained but strong.
Katherine's laughter drifted down from above like poisoned honey. "Come in, boys. And bring your little shadow army, Sam. I'm curious to see what you can really do."
I coordinated the approach through mental commands. Shield clone took point, barriers ready. Strength clone flanked left while Stefan and Damon went right. Mind Shield clone circled around to come at Katherine from behind.
"Now," Sensory clone reported.
We moved as one.
Shield clone's barriers erupted in a defensive formation around Elena just as Isobel tried to drag her deeper into the warehouse. Strength clone engaged Isobel directly, his enhanced power letting him trade blows with the ancient vampire.
But Isobel was 150 years old. Even with my clone's boost, she was faster, stronger, more experienced.
That's when the real coordination began.
"Isobel, left ankle vulnerable," Sensory clone fed me. I relayed the information to Strength clone, who immediately shifted his attack pattern.
"Katherine's moving to interfere," Mind Shield clone reported from the catwalk. I sent him instructions to intercept.
Stefan and Damon attacked Isobel from opposite angles, turning the fight into a three-on-one that even an ancient vampire couldn't easily handle. My Shield clone kept Elena protected while feeding me tactical data.
The battle was chaos, but controlled chaos. Four clones, two Salvatores, and me, all moving with a precision that made Katherine actually stop laughing.
"Well," she said, dropping from the catwalk with casual grace. "This is unexpected."
Isobel was bleeding now, supernatural healing struggling to keep up with the coordinated assault. But she was also getting desperate, which made her dangerous.
"Enough!" She grabbed Elena by the throat, fangs extended. "Back off or she dies!"
Everyone froze.
Except for me. Because I had four sets of eyes watching four different angles.
"Alaric's here," Sensory clone reported. "Coming through the north entrance. He looks... broken."
Alaric Saltzman walked into the warehouse like a man heading to his own execution. His face was haggard, eyes red-rimmed with grief and bourbon. In his right hand was a wooden stake.
"Isobel," he said quietly.
The vampire who had been his wife turned, Elena still in her grip. For just a moment, something flickered in her dead eyes. Recognition? Regret?
"Ric. You shouldn't be here."
"Neither should you." He raised the stake. "You died two years ago. I buried you. This thing wearing your face isn't my wife."
"I'm better than I was human," Isobel said, but her voice lacked its earlier coldness. "Stronger. Free from all those messy emotions that held me back."
"Those emotions were what made you worth loving."
Alaric moved faster than I'd ever seen a human move. The Gilbert ring on his finger caught the warehouse's dim light as he drove the stake through Isobel's heart.
She looked down at the wood protruding from her chest, surprise replacing the predatory coldness. Then her grip on Elena loosened, and she crumbled to ash.
Elena stumbled forward into Stefan's arms, gasping. Katherine slow-clapped from her perch on a shipping container.
"Bravo, hunter. Very dramatic. Very final." She smiled that Katherine smile—beautiful and utterly without warmth. "Impressive show, psychic boy, but you still can't beat me."
She was gone between one blink and the next, supernatural speed carrying her into the night.
Alaric stood over the pile of ash that had been his wife, stake still in his hand. The silence stretched until he finally spoke.
"She's really gone now."
I approached him carefully. The man looked like he might shatter at any moment. "She was gone the moment she chose to become a vampire. You just... finished what Katherine started."
He looked at me with hollow eyes. "Did I? Or did I just murder the woman I loved?"
"You freed her," I said firmly. "Katherine turned her into a monster. You gave her peace."
Alaric nodded slowly, then sat down hard on a crate. Stefan helped Elena to her feet while Damon secured the perimeter, but I stayed with the broken hunter.
"Sam," Alaric said after a long moment. "Promise me something."
"What?"
"If I ever become something I'm not—if vampirism or magic or anything changes me into a monster—you'll end me. The way I ended her."
The request hit me like a physical blow. I thought about the Gilbert ring, about resurrection magic and its prices, about the darkness that lived in this world.
"Alaric—"
"Promise me." His grip on my arm was desperate. "You've saved so many people. Promise me you'll save me from becoming something that dishonors Isobel's memory."
I looked into his eyes and saw a man drowning in grief and guilt. In the show, the Gilbert ring's resurrections would eventually drive him insane, turn him into a killer. Maybe that wouldn't happen this time. Maybe I could prevent it.
But if I couldn't...
"I promise," I said quietly.
[QUEST COMPLETED: ELENA'S RESCUE] [REWARD: +1,200 EXP GAINED] [TOTAL EXP: 1,200/10,500 TO LEVEL 11] [NEW RELATIONSHIP STATUS: ALARIC SALTZMAN - BLOOD OATH]
The drive home was surreal. All four of my clones crammed into my car—Shield riding shotgun, Sensory and Strength in the back, Mind Shield folded into the trunk because we'd drawn straws and he'd lost.
"This is undignified," Mind Shield's voice came muffled through the seat backs.
"Should have won rock-paper-scissors," Strength clone replied without sympathy.
I caught myself smiling despite everything. My clones were developing distinct personalities, and the casual banter between them felt... normal. Like having brothers, maybe.
My phone buzzed with a text from Caroline: "Mom's cancer is completely gone. The doctors are calling it a miracle. I love you so much it hurts."
The smile became real. I'd given up my Regeneration affinity to save Liz Forbes, lost the power that could have kept me alive in tonight's fight. But seeing Caroline's joy, knowing her mother would live...
Worth it. Every single MP I'd ever spent, every risk I'd taken, every sleepless night spent training—all of it was worth that text message.
Another message followed immediately: "Also, why do you smell like vampire ash and why is your shirt torn? We need to talk."
I laughed out loud. Caroline knew me too well. The supernatural world might be full of ancient monsters and impossible magic, but some things—like your girlfriend worrying about you—remained beautifully, perfectly normal.
"Home," I told my clones. "We'll debrief later. Right now, I need to convince Caroline I'm not secretly joining fight clubs."
"Good luck with that," Shield clone said dryly. "She's scary when she's worried."
"Scarier than Katherine?" I asked.
All four clones considered this seriously.
"Different kind of scary," Sensory clone finally decided. "Katherine will kill you. Caroline will make you wish you were dead."
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