The Cure

TYPE

Elixir (Originally)

Blood (After ingested)

USED BY

Elena Gilbert (On Katerina Petrova; 1st time) (On Herself; 2nd time)

Damon Salvatore (On Silas)

Amara (On Herself)

Bonnie Bennett (On Stefan)

Stefan Salvatore (On Damon)

USED AGAINST

Katerina Petrova (By Elena)

Silas (By Damon)

Amara (On Herself)

Elena Gilbert (On Herself)

Stefan Salvatore (By Bonnie)

Damon Salvatore (By Stefan)

STATUS

Destroyed (Original version perished with Amara)

Existing (1994 version was injected into Damon)

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.)

Qetsiyah shows Silas the Cure.

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 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.

Klaus claimed that he wanted the cure to give it to Elena so he can use her doppelgänger blood to create more hybrids. He forced Jeremy to kill vampires in order to complete his Hunter's Mark. Damon taught Jeremy how to fight, with help from Matt and Klaus. When Kol learns of their plan to wake Silas to obtain the cure, he begins to interfere in order to prevent them from doing it. Kol threatens to rip off Jeremy's arms so they can't find the cure, and Klaus tells him to stay away from Jeremy. Kol keeps his word, but instead compels Damon to kill Jeremy. Thankfully for both Damon and Jeremy, Stefan snaps Damon's neck and locks him in the cellar until they can break the compulsion by daggering Kol. Kol attempts to kill Elena and Jeremy, giving them no choice but to kill Kol, although Elena had been wanting to kill Kol since he compelled Damon to kill her brother. After Jeremy kills Kol, his hunter's mark completes itself, and Damon's compulsion is broken. Klaus gets extremely angry when he learns what Elena and Jeremy did to his brother, but Bonnie uses a spell to trap him in the living room of the Gilbert House until they can find the cure and use it on him to kill him. After Klaus finds out that there's only one dose of the cure, he withholds that information from anyone until he could tell Rebekah during a phone call with Caroline, knowing that if Rebekah got it first, it wouldn't be able to be used against him. He also tells her he wants her to live and die as she wishes, although it is unknown if he actually means it.

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.