Chapter Six: Founder's Day
After spending 3 weeks catching up on events and speedrunning classes at school by testing out of them, Max concluded a few things.
In the 7 months since Max had been missing, many things happened. The tomb vampires got freed. Grams died. The tomb vampires were causing a ruckus. And, like canon, Elena has both Damon and Stefan wrapped around her fingers.
"First things first, Grams ain't staying dead on my watch," Max thought aloud, teleporting Grams' resting place.
Max dug up her corpse and worked his bio-organic matter manipulation ability, imbuing life force into the corpse, before calling forth her soul from the other side, then bonding it to her body. Not only did she come back to life, but she also looked 20 years younger than when she died.
GASP!
Gasping awake, Grams looked at Max, startled. "Max… How? I died… How am I here?"
"You died. But I brought you back. Bonnie needs you now more than ever," Max gestured, before explaining to her the situation.
When he finished, he teleported the both of them to Grams' house, where a startled Bonnie yelped in surprise at the sight of them.
"Max? G–Grams? How? You died!" Bonnie rushed over, hugging her grandmother with tears in her eyes.
"I was… resurrected…by Max here," Grams hugged her granddaughter. The two both thanked Max in wordless lip movements.
"You look so much younger than you were when you died," Bonnie commented, when they separated. "How do you feel, Grams?"
"I feel okay… No, better than ok," Grams nodded, beaming. "I feel as I had in my prime. Even my magic connection has deepened somehow."
"I'll leave you two to catch up," Max mentally told the duo, then looking to his great aunt. "Your life force is much stronger than before, even more than in your prime. Try not to die too soon. It'd be a hassle to bring you back a second time."
With that, Max teleported home. He needed to rest. Bringing Grams back to life had been immensely draining, even for someone like Max. His energy reserves were at 15% at the moment, which, for him, is dangerously low. And the worst part? Max still needed to bring someone else back. His mother.
"If I wait until the next full moon, I could use the celestial event to use less personal energy in the resurrection process with greater results," Max muttered to himself, using chalk to etch energy replenishment runes around the area of his bed. "With these runes, my restorative process during sleep becomes much more effective and swifter. Hopefully, during the time I plan to sleep will be enough. I know the next full moon is on Saturday, June 26th. I should be fully restored and my energies replenished by then, no doubt."
June 16th, 2010 — The Grill
Today was the day of the Founding Day celebration. And if Max's memory serves properly, it was also the day of the Founder's Day Massacre — a slaughter plot of vengeance by the freed tomb vampires. Only, said plot resulted in the vampires' deaths, during the fires of the old Gilbert Medical building… Or something along those lines.
As Max sipped a bit of his margarita, sitting down at a corner away from the majority of the crowd, silently watching all in the Grill prepare for the nightly festival and fireworks, he noticed Elena walk in and interact with Damon, before making her way over to a brooding Jeremy.
"I don't believe that we can't fix this. I lied. I was wrong," Elena said. "But you're my brother, Jer, and I love you. And I have to fix it. So just tell me, what can I do?"
'Don't fall for it, Jere,' Max thought, his werewolf hearing picking up on their every word. 'Just because someone cares about you is no excuse to messing with your memories.'
"You can go to Hell, Elena," Jeremy said, and Max merely stifled a giggle, getting up from his seat, following Jeremy out the door.
'That's my boy,' Max thought in response.
"I have so many emotions, but I have no way to express them," Damon mocked, coming up behind Jeremy, while Max calmly kept his distance. "Being a teenager is so hard."
"Dick."
"You do not talk to me like that. I'm not your sister. And from now on, don't talk to your sister that way either," Damon made a grab for Jeremy's arm.
What he got in actuality… was a mind-blowing migraine. Clutching his head in pain, Damon stepped back, eyes close to passing out.
"What did I tell you would happen if you laid a finger on Jeremy?" Max appeared from within the crowd, startling both Damon and Jeremy, but Damon most of all.
"Ugh! I thought you were dead," Damon casually remarked, clutching his head in evident pain upon sighting me. "Where have you been, witch? Ahh!"
"Leave Damon, or I'll melt your brain through your ears," Max said with a straight face.
Damon, realizing Max was serious, eyed Jeremy and then Max, then Jeremy again. Then, tsking, he whooshed himself away, leaving Jeremy shell-shocked.
"Maximus? I thought you were dead —everyone thought you were dead!" Jeremy was flabbergasted.
"Nah, just sleeping a long slumber," Max chuckled, slinging an arm around Jeremy's shoulders, as he steered him out of the crowd. "Tell you what, I'll give you a way to fight compulsion if you give this friend of yours a proper bro hug — And a drink! What ya say, buddie?"
"I say you're as insane as ever," Jeremy chided.
"Insanity is synonymous with geniusness, bro," Max grinned.
"Only one of those are nouns used to describe you, man," Jeremy smirked. "And 'geniusness' isn't the one I'm talking about."
"Whatever. You're just mad because I'm better looking than you are," Max laughed heartily.
Later that day, Max was introduced to Anna, who he guessed was a vampire—much to Jeremy's surprise. Jeremy himself already knew that Anna was a vampire, but he wasn't expecting Max to deduce her true nature directly upon meeting her.
Still, Max kept his word, turning Jeremy into a werewolf—the very first bitten werewolf.
That night, during the slaughter of the tomb vampires, a scene from the series did not happen—Jeremy did not try to commit suicide, though it wasn't without grief of Anna's death — soemthing Max was able to comfort Jeremy through. Max was able to keep Jeremy close by; by the time of the slaughter, when word had been sent to them from Damon, Jeremy decided then to run through the forests as his own wolf — a grey-red wolf of average build and amber golden eyes:
Plus, it helped that Jeremy had already been turned into a werewolf by the time that news had reached them.