The Cure

Rebekah: A cure. He said there was a cure.

**The Cure**, also known as **the Cure for Immortality** or **the Cure for Vampirism**, is one of the three known ways to reverse immortality, or more colloquially, vampirism.

"The Cure" is a potion created by the witch Qetsiyah to reverse immortality. When used on immortal beings, they are reverted to their mortal states and are thus vulnerable to death. The Immortality Reversal Spell or "second cure" was a spell created by Esther for her children to undo the curse she originally gave them. The final "cure" is another spell invented by the Travelers using the blood from the last pair of doppelgängers and a minor version of the Magic Purification Spell. Should a vampire drink the mixed doppelgänger blood coupled with the spell, it will undo all of the magic that turned the person into a vampire. The spell will, however, return the individual to the last state they were in prior to becoming a vampire, their death.

When the cure is ingested, the blood of the individual is converted; a "living" version of the cure. They become a viable candidate for a single dose. Should it be removed, whether in partial or full, and the individual in question had lived beyond their human years, the post-cure effects would begin to cause them to age and eventually die such as what happened with Katherine Pierce.

During the creation of two alternate dimensions by the Gemini Coven in 1903 and 1994, the effects of these dimensions duplicated all magical items, objects, and talismans therein; the ripple effect also created alternate versions of the cure. The 1994 version of the cure was discovered by Bonnie Bennett while searching for Silas' Tombstone on Nova Scotia in the 1994 prison world and she took it back to Earth. The non-duplicated version of the Cure perished along with Amara whereas 1994 cure is held by Damon.

## History

### Ancient Greece (1st Century B.C.)

After Silas stole the Immortality Elixir and left Qetsiyah at the altar, she found him in the wilderness with the woman he gave her immortality to: her handmaiden, Amara. Qetsiyah, furious at Silas for his betrayal, faked Amara's death and decided to give Silas a second chance with her by creating a cure for immortality, which she offered to him; she promised that she would take him back if he took the cure and spent out the remainder of their mortal lives with her. Silas, however, refused to take it, which led to Qetsiyah seeking her revenge on him by desiccating him and entombing him with the cure on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia. She hoped that, faced with an eternity of imprisonment, he would choose to instead take the cure in order to end his suffering by dying a mortal death; if he chose this path, his soul would be trapped in the supernatural purgatory known as the Other Side, which Qetsiyah had also created in order to ensure that Silas would be trapped with her forever even in death. To her fury, Silas refused to give into her demands by taking the cure until such time has he was freed from his tomb. This way, he could merge the Other Side with the living world by lowering the Veil and eventually die a mortal death so he would be reunited with Amara in the Afterlife, rather than be trapped with Qetsiyah. For 2,000 years, the cure was buried along with Silas, until Qetsiyah's distant descendant Bonnie Bennett opened his tomb, freeing Silas and the cure.

## Throughout The Vampire Diaries

### Season Four

In *Memorial*, a hunter named Connor Jordan arrived in Mystic Falls, claiming that he had come to investigate the fire that killed Pastor Young and his newly-reformed Town Council. He realized that Tyler Lockwood was a vampire after shaking his hand with his vervain-soaked gloves and seeing his hand burn, which led Connor to shoot Tyler multiple times in the chest with wooden bullets. Fortunately for Tyler, his hybrid heritage ensured that he didn't die from the attack, allowing him to get away and warn his fellow vampire friends. Connor continued attacking people, including April Young (who he stabbed to use as bait in order to reveal more vampires), as well as Tyler for a second time. Later, Jeremy and Matt saw him sitting at the bar at the Grill. Jeremy complimented Connor on his tattoo, which he saw covered at least half of his arm, but Matt scoffed at Jeremy's comment, as he couldn't see Connor's tattoo. Later, when Klaus and Damon held Connor captive, Klaus discovered, based on the symbol Connor carved into his stakes and an off-hand comment made by Damon about the fact that only Jeremy could see his tattoo, that Connor was indeed a member of the Brotherhood of the Five.

In *The Five*, while Connor was held captive by Klaus, Stefan later showed up, asking Klaus about the Five, since Damon had mentioned it to him. Klaus ultimately decided to be honest to Stefan about what he knew, as he knew Stefan would be interested in what having a member of the Five could mean for them, but only if Stefan helped him get Rebekah to forgive him, as he needed Rebekah's help and information for their plan. Stefan managed to get Rebekah to agree to dinner at the Mikaelson Mansion, where the two Mikaelsons explained to Stefan about their experiences with the Five. According to Klaus, the Brotherhood of the Five was a group of five supernatural hunters who were given supernatural strength and agility, as well as an immunity to any kind of mind control in order to help them in their quest to rid the world of vampires, with the ultimate goal of finding, curing, and killing Silas. The Five then turned up in Italy in the 1100's shortly after their creation when the five Mikaelson siblings were living there, and one of the hunters, Alexander, fell into a serious romantic relationship with Rebekah. During their relationship, Alexander confided to Rebekah several facts about their order, including the fact that they had a weapon that no vampire could fight against—a cure for vampirism. This cure would return any vampire to their formerly mortal state as a human, and the only way to find the location of the cure was with a map that was embedded in the Hunter's Mark tattoo on the members of the Five. Since Jeremy, as a potential hunter of the Five, was the only person would could see the tattoos, Klaus threatened to kill Jeremy if he didn't sketch Connor's tattoo for them.

They spent the next several months continuing their search for the cure, which included giving Jeremy more vampires to kill in order to activate his membership as a supernatural hunter of the Five and to completely reveal his Hunter's Mark, as well as finding the tomb where the cure was buried with Silas, with help from Professor Atticus Shane, the man who had taught Bonnie the Expression magic necessary to find it. In *Down the Rabbit Hole*, Bonnie and Jeremy found the cure buried with Silas, but it was fossilized in Silas' hands, and could only be removed by feeding Silas blood to wake him up. Katherine, impersonating Elena, bit Jeremy's wrist and forced his blood down Silas' throat, resulting in Silas further feeding from his neck before finally snapping his spine and killing him. While everyone was distracted with Silas' awakening, Katherine stole the cure and made off with it.

From there, the cure was sought out by many, including Stefan and Damon (who wanted it for Elena), Rebekah (who wanted it for herself), Klaus (who wanted it to ensure that it would not be used against him), and Silas. Over the span of several weeks, the cure moved from Katherine's possession to an associate of Katherine's, Lanie, who had been compelled to keep the cure safe at her home in case someone tried to come after her for it. After Rebekah had found and taken a cure decoy in Katherine's new home in Pennsylvania (which turned out to be simply an extra-concentrated dose of vervain), Katherine reluctantly gave the cure to Elijah, in hopes that Elijah could use it to help barter for Katherine's freedom from Klaus. Unfortunately, Elijah gave the cure to Silas, who had used his illusion powers to appear as Rebekah. Silas intended on bringing down the Veil between the living world and the Other Side with Bonnie's (unwilling) help, so he could finally kill himself and rejoin his true love Amara in the afterlife with no risk of ending up trapped in the supernatural purgatory with Qetsiyah. However, when Bonnie managed to neutralize Silas by desiccating him, Alaric's ghost managed to steal the cure from his body in order to give it to Damon to give to Elena, as she had wanted to be cured of vampirism since she had been turned. However, Elena ultimately decided to stay a vampire, and she instead held onto the cure, not knowing what to do with it. At the end of *Graduation*, Katherine, upset that Elena seemed to get all of the good things in life that she had always wanted, confronted Elena at the school and attacked her, gaining the upper-hand in the fight and shoving her fist into Elena's chest to rip out her heart. However, Elena, at a loss for options, grabbed the cure from her purse and shoved it down Katherine's throat, forcing her to fully ingest it and knocking her unconscious. When she awoke, she had been transformed back into a human/Traveler.

### Season Five

In *I Know What You Did Last Summer*, it was revealed that Katherine had spent the last several months on the run, as she was fearful that once all of the people she had screwed over in her long life figured out she was a human again, they would take advantage of her vulnerability and kill her for her various past betrayals. She sought protection from Damon at the Salvatore Boarding House, which he reluctantly allowed. However, Silas, who had spent the summer parading as Stefan while the real Stefan was locked in a large safe thrown at the bottom of a quarry, was also revealed to be seeking Katherine, and immediately tracked down Damon in order to use his psychic powers to read his mind and find out where Katherine was hiding. He then showed up at the boarding house, still pretending to be Stefan, and tried to seduce her in order to get close enough to her to capture her; unfortunately for him, Katherine's suspicious and paranoid nature picked up on his intentions, and she barely managed to get away from him before he could attack her.

In *Original Sin*, it was revealed that Silas (who had teamed up with Nadia when he learned her mysterious agenda aligned with his own) was seeking Katherine out because once Katherine ingested the cure, her blood became the cure, and feeding on all of her blood would allow Silas to cure himself and return to being a Traveler witch. He pursued her for several days until *Monster's Ball*, when he finally succeeded on feeding on Katherine's blood with Damon's assistance, though Katherine did not end up dying as she was expected to do. Also, as a result of ingesting Katherine's cure-laced blood, Silas' own blood became the new cure.

In *Handle with Care*, it was revealed that Katherine taking the cure had a negative affect on her now-human body, which had begun to age aggressively to compensate for the 700+ years that Katherine had been alive. These consequences included Katherine's hair going gray and her teeth falling out, among other complaints. At the end of the episode, the newly-awakened Amara, upon hearing that Silas had ingested the cure, stabbed Silas in the neck and fed on his blood so she, too, could cure herself of the immortality she had come to hate after 2,000 years of being the Anchor. It can be presumed that this led to Amara's blood becoming the cure, but this was not confirmed, as no one else attempted to cure themselves with her blood, likely in part due to the negative consequences Katherine had experienced due to her advanced age.

### Season Six

In *A Bird in a Gilded Cage*, it was revealed by Bonnie that she had brought the cure back with her after escaping from the 1994 prison world. While on the Island to use the remaining magic in Silas' headstone in order to return home, she had remembered that the cure was with Silas in 1994 as no one knew about it at the time. She had taken it with the intention of giving it to her mother, Abby, however she had grown accustomed to her life as a vampire. Instead, she gave it to Damon for Elena. Bonnie tells him do whatever he wants with it.

In *I'd Leave My Happy Home For You*, Elena takes the cure and becomes human again. She regains her memories of her previous relationship with Damon back as one of the cures affects is stripping away the compulsion she had Alaric do at her request in *Yellow Ledbetter*.

In *I'll Wed You in the Golden Summertime*, Damon claims that he is going to take the cure and become human again to be with Elena, and have a human life with her. Stefan tries to convince him, not to take the cure, giving him visions of what their life could be like, however, his plan fails and infarct makes the opposite effect. Damon confirms that he will take the cure. However at Alaric and Jo's wedding, Kai attacks, resulting in Elena falling into a coma.

In *I'm Thinking Of You All The While*, Damon will wait to take the cure until Elena wakes from her long slumber.

### Season Eight

In *You Made a Choice to Be Good*, Bonnie removed a portion of the cure from Elena's body and injected it into Stefan to save herself.

In *I Was Feeling Epic*, Stefan used a syringe to collect some of his blood, which contained the cure and then injected into Damon when he was trying to send Katherine back to hell.

## Throughout The Originals

### Season Five

In *When The Saints Go Marching In*, Klaus reveals to Rebekah that he has arranged for her to receive the cure in Mystic Falls so that she can live a mortal life as Rebekah has always wanted. However, Klaus states that Rebekah will have to wait "a handful of decades" until it's time, presumably when Damon is at the end of his life from old age so that losing the cure won't kill him. Rebekah later reveals this to Marcel Gerard when she proposes to him and he accepts the proposal even knowing that she will eventually age and die after living a human life.

## Owners

* Qetsiyah (Creator; Formerly)
* Lanie (Formerly)
* Elijah Mikaelson (Formerly)
* Silas (Ingested via Katherine)
* Alaric Saltzman (Briefly/Formerly)
* Damon Salvatore (Formerly)
* Galen Vaughn (Briefly/Formerly)
* Elena Gilbert (Original version; (briefly/formerly) - 1994 version; ingested, then injected in Stefan via her blood)
* Katerina Petrova (Ingested, then drunk by Silas via her blood)
* Amara (Ingested via Silas' blood)
* Bonnie Bennett (Formerly)
* Stefan Salvatore (Injected via Bonnie, then injected in Damon via his blood)
* Damon Salvatore (Injected with Stefan's blood by Stefan)

## Cured Immortal Beings

* Katerina Petrova † (Forced to drinking the cure by Elena)
* Silas † (Cured by drinking Katerina's blood)
* Amara † (Cured by drinking Silas' blood)
* Sloan † (Cured and killed by The Magic Purification Spell)
* Tyler Lockwood † (Cured and killed by The Magic Purification Spell; Resurrected)
* Ivy † (Cured and killed by The Magic Purification Spell)
* Many unnamed vampires † (Cured and killed by The Magic Purification Spell)
* Alaric Saltzman (Cured by The Magic Purification Spell and saved by Josette Parker)
* Tripp Cooke † (Cured and killed by The Magic Purification Spell)
* Elena Gilbert † (Cured by drinking the cure - 1994 version)
* Stefan Salvatore † (Cured by injection of the cure - 1994 version)
* Damon Salvatore † (Cured by injection of the cure - 1994 version)

## Effect

* If an immortal, vampire, or vampire-hybrid takes the cure, they would be free of their immortality and no longer be dependent on blood for survival. They will return to their former species prior to immortality.
* The cure will remain in their circulatory system and their blood will become the cure. As long as the cure remains in the former immortal's blood, they will continue to age normally. If the cure is drained from their blood, whether partially or in full, and the immortal has lived longer than physically possible, the former immortal's body will have to compensate for their extra years of immortal or undead life and will begin to rapidly age to the point of where they die of old age.
* If a vampire affected with a sire bond takes the cure, they will be free of it as they will no longer be a vampire.
* There are three possible outcomes for the sire line of an Original vampire who takes the cure:
	+ **SIRE LINE REMAINS ALIVE:** The Original vampire will turn human, but due to a break in the blood connection, his sire line remains intact. Vampiric descendants of an original vampire would continue to be vampires. This would also mean there the connection between an Original and his sire line is ultimately a passive one.
	+ **SIRELINE IS CURED:** Curing an Original Vampire cures every vampire in their sire line. This would turn every vampire sired by an Original into humans and remove the link between them, which would mean the Original's death would not affect those formerly in their sire line.
	+ **SIRELINE DIES:** Curing an Original Vampire kills every vampire in the sire line. Vampires are known to share in the magic of an Original Vampire, which is why killing the Original Vampire destroys the sire line. Being cured of immortality means the magic keeping the sire line alive is destroyed thus might end up killing all vampires in the sire line
* **Taking the cure:** Once you take the cure you cannot be turned back into a immortal/vampire, nor can they be healed by a vampire's blood. Ingesting vampire blood will not work, and will cause a violent reaction that will force the drinker to vomit up the vampire blood they have consumed.
* It does not appear to take much to remove the cure completely from a former immortal's blood as Stefan Salvatore only took a syringe of his blood to cure Damon but stated to Elena Gilbert in Limbo that he would've soon begun experiencing the aging effects.
* It is assumed that should a vampire who was bitten by a werewolf take the cure, they will be cured of their immortality and will not die from the effects of the werewolf bite.
* In *I'd Leave My Happy Home For You*, after Elena took the cure, she regained her memories that Alaric had compelled her to forget. This means the cure would end the compulsion for any vampire who had been compelled.
* In *You Made a Choice to Be Good*, Damon speculated that the cure would turn Arcadius mortal and planned to remove it from his body where he believed it would age him 4,000 years and he would shrivel into dust. Bonnie, however, wasn't even sure if the cure would work on Arcadius, given he was an immortal psychic that created Hell. This remains only a theory as the cure was never used on him.

## Differences

### The TV series

* The TV series is different from the books with this concept. There is only enough of the cure for one person to use.
* Elena force-fed Katherine the cure in *Graduation*.
* The cure was in Katherine's blood. Then, Silas fed from her and it passed on into him and also turned him into a witch again. Then, Amara fed from Silas in order to become human, so the cure was in her before she died along with the cure in her.
* When Silas drained the cure out of Katherine, Katherine began to rapidly age with her hair turning gray and her teeth falling out. It is later revealed that after having the cure drained from her, that her 500 years is starting to catch up to her, and only had a few months left to live. This wouldn't have happened if the cure wasn't drained from her blood. She would have aged normally had it had not been removed from her blood.
* After the cure was drained from Silas, he did not seem to start rapidly aging immediately as Katherine did. As Silas was not undead, he may not have been affected the same way as Katherine was, or he used witchcraft to halt the effects.

### The Books

* When vampires go back to being human in the books, they begin aging normally, as if they had never been a vampire.
* In the books, the cure is a rose, while in the TV series, it's a liquid potion in a small vial.
* Damon takes the cure (sniffs the rose meant for Stefan) by accident, but is turned back into a vampire sometime after.

## Trivia

* It is possible if a vampire wanted to be cured, a witch can place their cleansed spirit into a human body like what Esther did with Finn and Kol. Esther also offers to place Klaus and Hayley into the bodies of werewolves.
* Silas did not show signs of aging, such as Katherine, after Amara took the cure from him. It remains unknown why he did not experience. It is possible, however, since Silas was truly immortal and not a vampire he wasn't affected by time in the same way or that having never died had some effect on him. Regardless, was never addressed as Silas died very soon after.