The cot beside him was empty. Vicki had slipped away before dawn, leaving only the faint scent of smoke and wild perfume. Prestine white sheet, now stained with grool; his chest, half burnt, a layer of dried up drool like cobwebs.
Ayaan sat up, body groaning with the dull fire that never ceased. His skin, constantly burning, his head overcome by morning dizziness of pain.
On the table lay the diary, ten empty bullet points glaring back at him. One already carried a name. Vicki.
The Seals. Ten chains. Ten impossible condition. One tapasya. All the notes in my old room point to the dasbandhan vachan — The Ten Bindings Of Fate.
The pain of my body, matches the cost of that ritual. If my weakening sanity and emotional outburst are any indication, I only have a little more than two years at best.
dasbandhan—a ritual from legends. The oldest pennace of Gods and the Asuras. Only fate can unbind them, never the will. My curse, my covenant. Tapasya keeps me breathing. Pain is the thread. Without it, I break. With it, I turn into a monster.
More than a reminder, they were chants. His way of remembering what he was living for despite the unbearable pain and suffering.
I have to trust my past. He would have known the cost, more than I ever could. I'm just half a shell of my past. But it sure isn't easy. I just have to be with Vicki. Just like the letter said.
In the game of fate, there are only two outcomes: you win the wager of fate, or you die—completely.
He closed the book and crossed the room.
The machine waited — Measuring Yantra. A continental speciality for measuring fighting power—must have for all the C+ members to judge their strength.
You needed to have more than 1500N of power as an amateur to take the lowest D-level Continental missions. (AN: 650-900N is punching force of a normal untrained adult.)
He got up. Wrapping his fists in white cloth, he struck. Symbols flickered like hologram on top.
Force registered: 3,200 N.
— His tenth-best score, the strength of a top-tier boxer.
But just above, a golden number still glowed in funky 90s text.
7,100 N.
His true power, sealed away by the dasbandhan. A reminder of all he had lost.
Physical force brought by his activated German Saltzman bloodline—A family of hunters that originated more than 1000 year ago in the mediterarian.
He slipped into his black leather jacket, scars hidden.
On his cracked phone, the wallpaper glowed: three children, smeared in Holi colors, laughing in the Bennett house courtyard. Bonnie. Elena. Himself. Before the fire. Before the vow. Before the downfall.
The memory twisted in his head.
Elena's guilty glance toward Stefan yesterday replayed in his mind. Rage surged.
He took off the jacket in one swift motion and pummeled the sandbag again and again until his fists shook. Blood fist marks becoming prominent on the leather skin.
Suddenly, a knife shimmered into his hand out of nowhere — he stabbed deep, but the bag, like all Yantra, only mimicked flesh. Empty. Hollow.
~Om
He chanted. Patience. That's the way to control his emotion, and also Vicky. He dialled her number before leaving the room.
Behind the closed door, the interface pulsed across the surface of the sandbag.
[Mimickry]
[Classification: Vampire]
[Power Estimate: 200 years]
---
Mistic High
By morning, Elena and Stefan were walking toward the school gates.
"Sorry about yesterday," Elena murmured. "I wasn't in the right mood."
Stefan smiled gently. "Grief heals in its own way. We all carry it differently."
"Still, thanks for dropping me home. It felt good — like I could just be me again. After a long time."
"Even though I got rejected?" Stefan teased with mock grumpiness. "At least, we're still friends, right? Stop with all the thanks.".
Elena laughed softly.
Nearby, Tyler shoved Matt's shoulder. "Guess your lady's got herself a new boy."
Matt's jaw clenched. "Go hang out with Prince Fallen. At least then you'll match your arrogance in the field."
Tyler flinched at the name. Memories surfaced: two boys, joined by the hips. Patly because Tyler's mother Carol forced him to be friends with Ayaan, but mainly because how could someone not be friends with him—The golden boy.
But then he shook his head. The nickname cut through the courtyard. Whispers followed.
"You shoudn't talk like that about your brother-in-law." Tyler jeered. Matt's face getting paler by the second.
"Serves you right." Tyler thought. Althgough slightly jealous as Vicki and him were close. Almost on the verge of confirming their relationship if not for that damn fire and Ayaan's accident.
---
Vicki's car pulled up just then, Ayaan stepping out behind her. Bystanders' eyes narrowed. Prince Fallen. Hidden mockery was the only greeting he got these days.
Ayaan ignored them. But when his eyes drifted toward Elena and Stefan on the grass, Vicki's voice cut sharp. "Careful, Ayaan. Staring won't win her back." A smirk tugged at her lips, but the flash in her eyes betrayed something closer to jealousy.
She leaned in. "See you at the party tonight." And left him in the murmurs.
---
Stefan noticed Elena zoning out, gaze lingering past him.
"Elena. Elena! I've said your name three times." His tone was light, but his eyes followed hers — to Ayaan.
---
Games period.
The whistle blew. Stefan sprinted across the field, weaving through defenders, scoring with ease. Applause rang. Another play, another victory. Tyler cursed under his breath.
From the stands, Elena watched. Stefan thought it was admiration. Thought each win pulled her closer.
But Elena's mind betrayed her. He's good. But...
Memories trailed: A boy, commanding the field, never missing a pass, never failing a block, carrying Mystic Falls to every championship. The King of the Ground.
---
Down by the railing, Ayaan leaned against the bleachers. He came every tryout, never missing one, like it was ritual. A way of watching a life that wasn't his anymore.
"Look who it is," a player jeered. "Prince Fallen. Guess watching's all you can do now." Laughter rippled.
Ayaan's jaw tightened, but he didn't move.
"Shut it, Side Character A," Bonnie snapped, venom in her tone.
The boy sneered. "Careful, Bennett. Don't make me tell everyone about your freak-show grandma and her witch junk."
That was enough.
In a blink, Ayaan had the boy pinned, fist cocked, eyes burning with a fury that belonged to the Seals, not him. Gasps broke across the stands. The silence wasn't awe. It was fear.
Coach roared, "That's enough!"
Ayaan let go, chest heaving, storming off the field as whispers followed him.
---
Later, outside, Elena confronted Bonnie, her voice rising."Is he out of his mind? Why is he going crazy like that?"
Bonnie snapped, her tone sharp with frustration."Stop it, Elena! I'm not his mother."
Her anger wasn't only at Elena. It was at him. At Ayaan.She had spent the night combing through the old books he'd left behind in her gram's house. That's when she found it — the Evil Fire. A curse disguised as a vow. And he hadn't told anyone.
How dare he keep this from us. How dare he throw his life away like it doesn't matter. How dare he.
Her hands trembled, tears threatening, but she blinked them back. She would not cry. Not for him.
Elena, thrown off by the outburst, softened her tone."Bonnie… are you okay?" She didn't understand why Bonnie was overreacting, only that she was hurting.
"I just meant—he's never been like that before," Elena went on carefully. "Ayaan was always calm. Untouchable. He never snapped. I know he did it for you, but you must realize—he's already lost a year at school. And people are noticing, Bonnie. His behavior… it isn't him anymore."
Bonnie's glare cut her off mid-sentence. Her eyes dared Elena to finish, to speak one more word against him.
Elena fell silent, annoyed, confused. What did I say wrong?
Bonnie looked away, lips pressed thin. For a long moment, she said nothing. Then, under her breath, almost to herself:"I read about the Vachan. The cost of it."
Elena frowned. "What?"
Bonnie's eyes darkened, shadowed with knowledge she could never share. Her voice dropped to a whisper meant for no one but herself."The cost of sanity."
Then, louder, flat and final:"Leave him to it, Elena. We shouldn't meddle in his life anymore."
Elena. Shell shocked. Unable to believe her ears that Bonnie was saying this.s
---
Later that evening
The two players who had mocked Bonnie wandered off after school, laughing to themselves. Their path curved into a narrow street neither remembered ever taking.
"Hey… wait," one of them muttered. "How did we end up here? We don't walk this way."
The other frowned. "Yeah… weird."
On the backs of their bags, faint sigils glimmered for a heartbeat before dissolving into nothing. The Confusion Yantra had done its work.
From the shadowed mouth of the alley, Ayaan stepped forward. His jacket collar framed his face, the fire in his eyes hidden by calm. Before either boy could register, his fingers traced another invisible pattern in the air. The Forgetting Yantra pulsed, its shimmer erasing memory like chalk from a board.
They wouldn't remember how they got here. They wouldn't remember him. But they would remember the pain.
Ayaan struck fast, every blow precise, merciless. A fist cracked a jaw, another snapped ribs. One fell to the ground gasping, the other clutching his face, teeth clattering loose. It wasn't just vengeance. It was punishment. For the insults they had hurled at Bonnie, at her grandmother — the woman he had once called his own.
When he was done, both lay writhing, barely conscious. He took their phones, and dialled 911.
---
Hour Later. Far from the street
Bonnie's phone buzzed.
"I'm outside," Ayaan's voice came calm over the line. "Pick me up."
When she pulled into the lot in his Continental GT Bentley, he slipped in beside her, expression unreadable. She gripped the wheel tighter, glancing once at the faint bruises along his knuckles. She didn't ask.
The phone rang again. Liz Forbes' name lit the screen.
"Ayaan," Liz's voice came steady, businesslike. "Two boys were just found beaten in the alley near the square. Doesn't look like vampire work, but can you check it out?"
Ayaan leaned back, voice smooth, controlled. "I haven't felt the presence of anything supernatural in that area. Whatever it is, it's not them."
There was a pause. Then Liz sighed. "All right. I trust your judgment. What about the murders in the forest? Animal? Beast?"
"No clues yet," Ayaan replied. "I'll let you know when I find something."
Beside him, Bonnie kept her eyes on the road, but her mind spun. About what she read about Evil Fire. She knew what it was doing to him. The heightened emotions. The fire in his veins. The anger he couldn't contain. The predatory hunger he couldn't resist.
Her thoughts wandered. Was she willing to let him use her — to be the balm when Vicki wasn't there? Memories of last night resurfaced in her head: the fleeting images through the gaps in the door, the sounds that had slipped past wood and silence and straight into her mind because of her psychic magic.
Her cheeks flushed crimson, heat rushing to her face. A restless tremor passed through her legs, drawing invisible patterns against each other.
She didn't know the answer. But she knew the pity and care in her chest wouldn't let her leave him to burn alone.
Liz's voice pulled her back."Ayaan, one more thing. Watch over Caroline at the party tonight. You know how she gets when she drinks. Don't let her make stupid mistakes."
Ayaan's lips tightened, but he answered evenly. "I'll keep an eye on her."
As the call ended, Bonnie glanced at him. Despite all he had lost — his prestige, his place, his calm — Liz Forbes still trusted him. Trusted him to guard her daughter.
Bonnie's gaze lingered. If Liz trusted him this much, did that mean the Council hadn't lost faith in him either? Probably not. Maybe it was only because Caroline had always clung to Ayaan in the past — and yet he had never once misused her naïveté. Maybe he was simply the only boy who could stand firm against all of Caroline's reckless shenanigans.
A soft chuckle slipped through Bonnie's thoughts as old memories returned: those silly little fights between Ayaan and Caroline, and how she and Elena used to laugh, teasing him from the sidelines. It all felt like a lifetime ago. Almost unreal. As if those moments had belonged to someone else. She could no longer reconcile the Ayaan with the burnt, gloomy face beside her now with the boy who once smiled like sunshine.
But who else sat with Liz behind the Council's closed doors? Bonnie didn't know. Not knowing unsettled her more than she cared to admit. Grams had never let her near their meetings, keeping her at a distance. She hadn't even known she was a witch until recently. Even though she carried fragments of truth, she was still blind to the whole.
Turning her eyes back to the road, Bonnie's chest tightened. She wondered if Liz's trust — or anyone's — would be enough to keep Ayaan tethered to this place. Or if, one day, he would simply disappear.
---
AN: Disclaimer: Story will follow the canon events with tiny flashbacks and memories of their past with Ayaan to slowly explore the new elements of this AU. I had decided on this writing style long ago based on Ayaan's memory situation. I'll stick to this writing style, with rarely a couple of journal enteries for the whole of volue 2; each volume x+1 will be loosly equivallent to TVD season x.
V2 == S1 & V3 == S2, etc.
AN: Beware. There will be no permanent shipping for Elena x Stephan/Damon/Klaus or Caroline x Tyler/Klaus long term. And I've no qualms in killing any of the main cast, if the story demands it. So beware. I've rough ideas of the plot that I want to take and how the Continental x TVD Universe shall combine to create a bigger story than the loophole driven Teen Drama that the TVD was. Happy Reding.