I was on the fence about the fic and waiting to make up my mind until the first Salvabro snuffed it, figuring that would be the litmus test...and was super disappointed. Damon's death should have been a HUGE thing that set off character work/reactions and insight for everyone, and it was quickly pushed aside for Klaus and the hybrids and Stefan's betrayal. It made everything that came after ring false. This is a shallower fic than I'd hoped for.

Kinda meh on the Bonnie characterization. Well I was meh on many of the others too but since Bonnie is central I wanted to see where you'd take her. But she's a mish-mash of different Bonnies from different seasons, sometimes she's S1 or S2 Bonnie, sometimes S4. It's like you draw on Old Season Bonnie when it's not justified, a lot of the time.

Sputters with laughter about Elena finding out :)

So many happy feelings running through me... this could only be better if I had ice cream... maybe I'll make someone pick some up for me ;) Lol.

Can I just say... and I mean this with utmost sincerity and gratitude... you MUST be quality people ! This is like one of my long held wishes completely realized. Wonderful title too, concise and filled with wonderful promises :) Hehahahaha! (Joker's laughter a la Heath Ledger)

First chapter down. Love this already.

Sorry, I just read over my earlier reply and realized that I might have given the wrong impression, because I was typing in a hurry: like I said in my original review, it's totally up to you what you do or don't write, obviously! That goes without saying. I'm just...disappointed, I guess? Because I went into this fic hoping that it would give me everything I'd ever wanted when it came to these kids reacting to the abuse they'd suffered from Damon and Stefan, and once again I just encountered an instance of at least one of the victims not really having their abuse and their trauma understood or cared about by the writer. I've just yet to come across a fic that truly respects all these kids enough to do them all justice when it comes to how they've been wronged by the Salvatores, and that's what I'm looking for, because that's what I'm missing from the show.

But thanks again for responding so thoughtfully - like I said, I really appreciated it.

Hi, I hope you don't mind my responding here, I saw your reply to my review on your tumblr and wanted to respond. Thanks for being so kind and understanding in your reply, by the way. I really appreciated it. I just wanted to maybe clear up two misunderstandings, because I think maybe I didn't express myself well enough the first time around?

"I broke [Caroline and Tyler] up because it was inevitable."

I'm really confused by this statement because nowhere in my review did I say that this was a problem I had with the fic. Because it's not a problem. I can totally buy a breakup between Caroline and Tyler. I could go either way with it given what I've seen in canon, and obviously it's up to the writer of the fic to decide where they want to take it. The problems I had with the fic had to do with the continued erasure and downplaying of Caroline's abuse at Damon's hands (and also the extent to which she's been manipulated by Stefan, but mainly it's the Damon thing) and what I felt was a lack of...sympathy and understanding of her POV and WHY she's been influenced to be so blindly loyal towards Stefan and Elena, especially. Not shipping.

"As far as not including Caroline on their plans to kill Damon and Stefan, though Caroline would have been sympathetic to killing Damon, I don’t think she would have gone along with it because of Stefan."

I can definitely see this point of view, though honestly my take on the character is that if she felt like anyone was on her side about Damon to the extent that she could talk about it honestly and openly, and if she felt like her friends wouldn't hate her for it, she'd be up for killing Damon.

But to get back to your point: I was fine with Caroline not being included in the plans (which is why I kept reading past the initial chapters.) Obviously there's nothing I'd love more than to have ALL the secondary characters band together against the Salvatores, but I was cool with this writing choice. But it was the complete neglect of her reaction to Damon dying - the lack of any sense in the MANY ways in which this would affect her - that finished me. I've had enough of that from the show, plain and simple.

I think ALL the secondary characters have, to greater or lesser extents, had to suppress, repress, and silence themselves and put themselves last to prop the three main characters. I know some people think Caroline is more blindly supporting of the mains than Bonnie - and I know others who see it the exact opposite way. They're BOTH written to be far more accommodating of the Salvatores than they should be, and honestly? I think it had more to do with stanning and character preferences than people maybe realize. In the case of both girls I see it as a tragedy for them because it's their way of adapting to their hellish environment and trying to cling desperately to the ties that they do have.

The same goes for whether or not Caroline is favored in the narrative. Is it better to get more screentime and be rigorously silenced, shamed, and degraded by having to apologize for hating your abuser? Or to get less screentime and at least tell the Salvatores outright that you don't owe them anything? I don't know.

Thanks again for responding!

I already put up a review for the first chapter of KK, so this might be a little redundant, but it would be so wrong to not say anything at the end of 40 chapters of awesomeness!

This fic is amazing, I really can't believe it's your first (it isn't, is it? I mean there aren't any others on your profile, but I would just find that so hard to believe). Your talent for building suspense, plotting out believably imperfect and yet entirely compelling characters, and creating super intense action sequences that just have you on the edge of your seat is incredible!

Anyway, not too get too sentimental about it, but I'm so happy you wrote and shared this with us. Tonnie and Beremy and OT3 perfection! Definitely one of my fave Bonnie fics ever.

Omg! This story was incredible! And that eNding! Stefan was a sneeky bastard! B T and J were sloopy sloopy sloopy for not thinking twice about the with who helped stefan! Well none of us did! Amazing story! I hope the sequel have more tonnie!

Oh i'm going to miss this story but i'm glad that's there is chance for a sequel, you're a great writer!
You hit all the emotional notes perfectly and shaped the characters to a new direction that i wish the show would go to.
The ending was perfect and i love how you managed to close one door but left another open.
Great story and hope to hear you soon.

Why'd you make me cry? Did you really have to do that? In general, I don't care about April at all but you made me feel for her...and then Bonnie dealing with her guilt, crying in the shower with Jeremy holding her *sobs*...maybe the hit me extra hard considering Thursday's episode. Ugh...then you gave me feels with the Tonnie on the porch (you're all sorts of awesome). And leave it to Stefan (whose death, and all the steps that led to it, was fantastically squeal-worthy) to have a backup plan. Now that the witch relayed his message to Elena, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next! I'm thoroughly excited about the sequel because one, you tell a great story, and two, the title means that the trio hasn't fractured and they're continuing with they're plan...

Anyway, this is absolutely one of my most favorite fics around; you did a stellar job!

I hesitated a long time over whether or not to leave this review but I finally decided to do it.

First of all: I was very, VERY excited about this fic going in. It had a lot of elements that I have wanted to see more fully explored on the show. Elena's protagonist privilege, what it costs her friends to continually have to sacrifice for her, Tyler's perspective on the whole thing as a relative outsider who doesn't put Elena first the way everyone else does. And most of all, the fact that a lot of the secondary characters have good reason to hate the Salvatores and wish them dead.

Second of all: I absolutely recognize and respect that it is your personal preference to concentrate on Bonnie, Tyler, and Jeremy. Nobody is obligated to write anything they do not want to write, obviously.

But the deeper and deeper I got into the fic, the more bothered I got by the fact that there is very little exploration of Caroline's POV. Obviously this is a matter of personal preference. But after the horrific abuse that Caroline suffered at Damon's hands, I was SORELY disappointed by the lack of exploration of the effect that Damon's death would have on her (of course, to tell you the truth I wish she had been in on the scheme because there is nothing I want more than Bonnie and Caroline teaming up to kill Damon.) Especially since, clumsily handled though it is, we have seen Caroline react with visceral physical aversion towards Damon on many occasions.

I wasn't expecting to have it dismissed with a quick, "After all, Damon had hurt Caroline too" from Tyler. There is a reason the writers of the show have never had Tyler find out about Damon's abuse of Caroline onscreen. It's because they know that would lead to a fight with either Tyler or Damon dead and they would rather erase Caroline's abuse instead, and live in this tenuous limbo-land where the viewer can assume that Tyler doesn't know. I'm really not interested in seeing her abuse and trauma be further erased in fanfiction, too: especially fanfiction that (it seems to me) deliberately seeks to redress the wrongs and the biases of the existing original text.

Also, while the text sometimes does have a certain affection for Caroline I also sometimes get a sense of...contempt, condescension, and dismissiveness towards her that I find unsettling (and this is not about depicting Caroline's flaws. I have read fics that portrayed her at her absolute worst but where I still felt the writer had a true love for her.) And I went and checked out your tumblr and...well.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I was looking forward to a fic that would finally give a voice to the poor kids who have suffered so much because of the Salvatores (and yes, I would say Caroline has suffered because of Stefan as well as Damon: he manipulates her and increases her dependency on him and makes her feel like he "fixed" her to become a "better" person after she got turned), and I am ultimately left with a huge sense of disappointment because I was hoping for so much, and there are so many things in this fic that I could like a lot if it were just slightly different, but ultimately it's just yet another case of some characters being favored over others, just like the show itself. And the character getting the shaft is a female abuse victim. Just like the show itself.

EVERYTHING AND THE WHOLE KITCHEN SINK HAS JUST HIT THE FAN

CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING YOU AND EVERYTHING THAT YOU ARE AND CHOOSE TO BE

THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS

TOO BUSY FLAILING TO TURN OFF CAPS

CHSDFKGDHKLJGHFD

Brilliant! Can't believe this is your first fanfic- you have a natural talent. You've weaved such an awesome story with intricate characterizations and compelling storytellers. Love the last little bit with Elena finding out. It's been an awesome ride, can't wait for the sequel!