His choices, they were supposed to save this town. And keep everyone alive, and safe, from becoming singed by hellfire. It wasn’t supposed to have went this way. He knew in that moment, that he was sacrificing the rest of his life with His husband. With his children, but it was what he did. He saved people, he was THE MARTYR. But he couldn’t let Damon be the one to sacrifice himself. To let Elena live a life without him, and that was what killed him the most. SOMEONE HAD TO BE THERE, someone had to stay there and make sure Katherine was in that exact spot when Bonnie sent the hellfire through. But even if he had stayed, even if they had found another way to stopped it all, without HIS DEATH. There was still the untimely question of, How Long. How long did he have left? How much longer could he cheat death when he had cheated it for so long now. Without his vampirism, his life was slowly windling, slowly starting to fade away. He saw what it had done to Katherine, and his time was next. But, no matter what he tried to tell Samuel. He knew what his husband would have said, that he didn’t care. That they could have done it together. But this was going down in a way that he didn’t want. Samuel was threatening to go do something that would prove to be fatal in the end. DIDN’T HE SEE THAT. Didn’t he know that if he was successful at bringing him back to life. That they would be sitting her in the same situation, days, weeks, months later.
❝ Samuel, I don’t got much longer. I can feel this place trying to take me away from here. You have to listen to me. You can’t do this, if you do, we will be right back here again. Right back here in this exact spot where we are now. I’m Human, or I was. You saw how Katherine was. She started to age rapidly, it wasn’t long before that was me. Please, understand that. ❞
❝ I can help you, can’t you see that! ❞ His words are explosive and loud and full of pain, desperation. This wasn’t Samuel, he wasn’t thinking clearly, grief held him tightly in it’s grip. He wasn’t willing to listen to what was being said. He had all this power, he should be able to stop all this. He was going to bring back his husband and nobody could change his mind. Elena could of lived without Damon, she would of survived. It should’ve been DAMON, not Stefan. They had children, a LIFE. In that moment he hated them both, they got to be happy. What about him, what about his happiness? What about the life that he had built with Stefan. That anger only swelled more in his chest, until he was seeing red.
He was doing this for them, their children. He had the power to change all of this and he was going to do just that. Before he knew it he was moving, grabbing various things he would need for the ritual. His dark gaze fell on his husband one last time. Then he was moving going to the room to prepare for the ritual.