Rewriting Destiny

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: Past and Future Collide

She felt as though she were being shoved through a very small, very tight tube, squeezed out by the magical force that had sent her here to begin with. There were lights all around her, pictures, images—memories of her life before now, but she couldn't make them out; they were going by too fast. But all at once, they slowed to a stop and she spilled out onto the floor of a cave, one that she knew with every fiber of her being because she had spent every night thinking of nothing else, tormented by the memory of her brother's dying place.

Her breath quavering slightly, she scrambled to her feet, hearing voices coming from the cave and her heart leaped at the sound of her brother's voice. She couldn't believe it, she thought as she slipped into the shadows, hiding from view; she'd done it. Bonnie had actually done it. She'd managed to send her back.

Elena Gilbert swallowed as she watched her little brother Jeremy, the great longing to run to him and wrap him in her embrace and keep him safe from any harm almost too powerful to ignore, but she knew she had to. Unless she did this exactly right, then Jeremy was going to die again—and Armageddon would arrive.

Wetting her lips, Elena kept Jeremy and Bonnie Bennett—the past version—within her sight as she quietly followed them, keeping a close watch out for Katherine and her own past self, all the while fingering the small vial of blood that she kept in her back pocket for safekeeping. After Jeremy was saved, after she'd stopped the apocalypse, then she would take it. And then, they were getting out of here.

She was done with all of it, with vampires and witches and originals and all of them; she wanted to put as much distance between the supernatural and herself as possible. If she was honest with herself, she wanted it to be done long before now, even in this time period. Elena had never wanted to be a vampire; she should have known that it would only be a matter of time before she was turned. Dating a vampire kind of ensured that eventually, she would have to join the undead community.

And if she took the cure and continued with this love triangle with the Salvatore brothers—or even just one of them—Elena knew it would not be long before she became a vampire again. Only this time, there would be no cure to keep her restore her humanity. She'd be a vampire forever.

Although her heart wasn't technically beating, Elena could have sworn that she felt it increase its beat as she followed Jeremy and Bonnie into the cave that would take her brother's life tragically before it began.

It took all her will not to rush over to Bonnie as she watched her get stabbed by the hunter; the only thing that stopped her was reminding herself that her witch friend would be all right. She was still alive. Jeremy wouldn't be . . . unless she could stop it.

Elena took a deep, unsteady breath as Katherine appeared, snapping the hunter's neck under the guise of Elena. Keep away from him, she thought as Katherine approached Jeremy, who was kneeling next to Bonnie, snapping at her to forget about the cure until she had healed Bonnie with her blood.

"I forgot how much of a brat you were," Katherine said irritably, catching Jeremy off guard and he slowly stood up, staring at her.

"And I forgot how much of a whore you were," Elena spoke up as she stepped out from the shadows, giving Katherine a look of pure loathing.

Spinning around, her vampire doppelganger ancestor gaped at her, stunned that she was here before her eyes narrowed slightly. Jeremy looked between Elena and Katherine, taking a step back away from them as Elena moved to stand in front of her brother, glancing back at Bonnie quickly before sending him a reassuring look.

"Don't worry; she'll be okay."

Jeremy met her eyes quickly before Elena turned to look back at Katherine, taking a defensive position. Katherine laughed.

"You really think that you can kill me, Elena? I'm older than you; that means that I'm stronger. One wrong move and I will tear your baby brother's heart out of his chest before you can even move a muscle."

"That's where you're wrong," Elena said flatly. "Besides, I'm pretty sure that Stefan and I are about to walk through here any second." Katherine looked confused. "Oh, by the way, you did knock me out, just for the record. I'm the Elena Gilbert from the future." Behind her, Jeremy stiffened slightly while Katherine gawked. "You know, stealing that cure just to bargain for your freedom from Elijah—I might be able to forgive you for that. But you killed my brother in my future," she added. "And that . . . well, Katherine, for that, you're going down."

For the first time, Katherine actually looked afraid as Elena charged at her, knocking her off the ground and the look-alikes fought ferociously against each other, both determined to destroy the other. Elena slammed Katherine into the wall, sending a vibration throughout the cavern, before she flipped her over and nearly took her head off, but Katherine forced her back, knocking her off her feet and was about to attack Jeremy.

Elena grabbed her leg, pulling her away from her brother, and grabbed her head, snapping her neck. Katherine went still and Elena slowly rose to her feet, looking back at Jeremy, who was wide eyed and speechless.

Before either of them could so much as utter a word, however, Elena glanced past her brother as she heard hurried footsteps coming from the cavern beyond and her own past self appeared, looking frantic as she reached Jeremy, holding him tightly against him before she stared first at the fallen body of Katherine Pierce before flickering to Elena, her expression shocked and confused.

And then Elena felt herself being pulled towards herself, colliding with the past version of herself. As the future changed, the past and future versions of herself were merged as one, uniting in one body with the memories of the now changed future.

Jeremy was standing next to her, his expression confused as Stefan Salvatore appeared, staring openly at Katherine before looking at Bonnie.

"What happened?" he asked as he rushed to the fallen witch, using his blood to heal her injuries from the hunter's attack.

"I'm not sure," Elena lied, sending a look at her brother that clearly said 'go along with the story, don't tell him.' Jeremy seemed to get the message, because his expression changed to shaken but perfectly okay. "I just came in here and she was unconscious. I'm not sure what happened."

Absently, she felt in her back pocket for the cure, relieved when she felt. At least it still remained there after the merge. Bonnie was worried that it might disappear when the future was altered, but apparently not.

Stefan looked perplexed, but moved towards Silas and the cure, which was locked in his unawakened hands. "Is that it?"

"Forget it," Elena said flatly as Jeremy was helping Bonnie to her feet. "We're not risking the fate of the world on my account."

"But—"

"Stefan," Elena interrupted him before he could say anything, "I said leave it. No one—not me, not Rebekah, not anyone is worth destroying the world. Not to cure only one person. Maybe what Kol said about Silas was a lie, maybe it was true, but we don't know that. Now let's get out of here before anyone else finds this place." She pushed Jeremy and Bonnie towards the exit.

"Elena—"

"I said no, Stefan."

"So we came all this way for nothing?" the younger Salvatore brother said, sounding exasperated.

"No," Elena murmured with a slight smile, her gaze on her brother. "Not for nothing."

Leaving him behind to stare at her in confusion, thoroughly wondering at her behavior, Elena led Jeremy and Bonnie out of the cave and into the sunlight, knowing that once they got home, she was going to have to explain things in full to her little brother. That was okay, though; so long as he was safe, she could get through anything.

"So . . . what exactly happened?"

Elena sighed as she joined her brother on the bed, resisting the urge to wrap him up in a tight hug. "It's a long story," she confessed.

Jeremy looked at her. "I think we've got the time," he said quietly. "Lena, come on, what exactly happened in that cave? And what was that stuff you were saying about being from the future? And . . ."

"Okay, okay, Jer, just calm down," Elena sighed, running a hand through her hair as she shifted her position to look at him directly. "Okay, first thing that you need to know is that yeah, I did come from the future. Bonnie cast a spell to send me back."

"Why?"

"It was the only way."

Looking anxious, Jeremy folded his arms across his chest, his brown gaze meeting hers. "Tell me," he said, leaving no room for argument. Elena nodded briefly, though she wasn't sure where to start. "Lena?"

"Look, before I start telling you, none of this is going to make any sense," Elena explained. "I have to explain what happened before I came back, so you need to bear with me while I explain all this, all right?"

Jeremy met her gaze, searching hers intently, before he gave a small nod, gesturing for her to continue.

"Okay," Elena murmured. "When we went to that cave, I was knocked out by Katherine, who impersonated me until you and Bonnie found the cure. She used your blood to wake up Silas, but he couldn't stop drinking. He drained you of your blood and snapped your neck. That's how I found you, Jer," she whispered, remembering the pain of seeing her brother's body in that cave. "He killed you and . . . that's pretty much what sent me in my downward spiral of destruction. I couldn't deal, so Damon, using the sire bond, had me turn off my emotions, figuring that he could control me until he had me turn them back on.

"Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way," she said with a short laugh. "Funny thing about vampire sire bonds? It's created by emotions, so turning them off is pretty much what breaks them. And I was left to run wild, emotionless, not caring about anything or anyone, leaving everyone around me to deal with the fallout. I was buried deep in there, no matter what anyone did or say to pull me out.

"Meanwhile, Silas was loose; he had woken up and Katherine had stolen the cure, so he went to Bonnie, using you to manipulate her, and she agreed to work with him to bring down the wall of the Other Side. She killed all kinds of people in order to create the Triangle that was needed to bring it down. But she didn't realize what she was doing until he released her from the spell he had her under. By then, the damage had already been done. The wall was down and every single vampire, witch, werewolf, and supernatural being that had ever been killed was released. Including you," she said softly, laying her hand on her brother's hand. "That was the only good thing that happened from all of this. You came back and you managed to turn my emotions back on. You brought me back," she told him gently.

"But there were consequences," she said grimly. "There were vampires that sought revenge against us, werewolves, hybrids . . . all of them. The entire world was in peril and there was only one way that we could stop it."

"To send you back," Jeremy completely.

Elena nodded. "It was a very dangerous spell. Bonnie used the last of her magic to do it and it still took a combination of witches for them to pull it off," she sighed, running her hand through her dark hair. "But it worked; they sent me back to the very moment that I needed to change. What you saw in that cave, when my future self and past self kind of collided? That was because the future had changed; because it was changed in such a way, it merged my two selves and they became one. I still have the memories of the other future," she explained, tapping her brain, "but that future's gone. It's changed."

She took a deep breath, watching her brother carefully; he wasn't looking at her, but staring at the wall opposite, trying to work through all of this. Elena gave him a full ten minutes before she moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around him.

"Jeremy, are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said softly, brown eyes wide. "Yeah . . . yeah, I'm okay. It's just . . . it's a lot to take in."

"Trust me, I know," she said with a small sigh. "I'm just so glad that I got you back; I lost you twice and I don't think I could stand losing you again." She laid her head against her brother's, relishing of having him back in her arms again; he was the only thing that she had left in her life and she didn't want to lose him, never again. "Jer, there's something else that we need to talk about."

"What you just told me isn't enough?"

"I know, I'm sorry," Elena apologized. "But we need to get out of here."

He looked at her quickly. "What do you mean?"

She reached into her back pocket, feeling for the vial of blood that was lying in there, pulling it out and showed it to him.

Jeremy stared down at it, then looked up at her, and then back down. Slowly, he reached out and took the vial, inspecting it carefully with wide eyes.

"This isn't . . ." he began, not tearing his gaze from it. "This is . . . no way, this is . . . it's not . . . is it?"

"Yeah," Elena agreed, taking it back. "This is the cure; the one from the future. Bonnie gave it to me right before I left; she knew what I was planning after I fixed everything and she agreed with me. Jer," she said quietly, "if I take this, then I'll be human again."

"But that was the whole point . . ."

"I know, but look at where we live!" she exclaimed, gesturing around him. "We live at Vampire Central and half the people that we are connected with are vampires. Sure, they would rather me stay human, but so long as we are around them, then the chances of my becoming a vampire again are pretty high. We both know that."

Jeremy glanced at the cure again, then up at her, realization dawning on him. "You mean, you want to leave here for good."

"It's more than that," Elena said, squeezing his hand. "Jeremy, I want to leave here in a way that nobody will follow us. I want us to get out of this life that we somehow got sucked into after Mom and Dad died. They wouldn't want this for us and I don't want it either. I've seen the future and I don't like how it ended. And I honestly believe that if we stay here, it's only going to end up the same way for us. I'll be a vampire again, maybe both of us, and this time, there will be no cure. It'll be wasted. So I say that we get out, we skip town, and we make sure that they can't follow."

"How?"

"We burn down the house," Elena told him. His head shot up. "And we leave here tonight, before they think something's up. We take as few belongings as possible, so nobody will think anything's missing, and we get as far away from here as possible." She paused, watching her brother. "Jeremy, if you don't want to go . . . if you don't want to do this . . . I'll stay a vampire and hide the cure. I know that you don't want to leave Bonnie . . ."

"No," Jeremy interrupted. He looked sad. "She doesn't care about me in that way anymore. I still love her, but . . . I know we're not meant to be together." He sighed, bowing his head and wrapping his arms around his shoulders. "What I said last year . . . I still have you. But I want the human you." He paused. "Let's do it."

Elena looked at him. "Are you sure? Once we leave . . . there's no going back."

"I'm sure," he said firmly.

With one look at him, Elena nodded, shifting her position as she popped open the top to the vial.

"Okay," she said shakily, raising the vial to her lips. "Bottom's up."

She swallowed the contents and promptly passed out.

AN: Okay, guys for the record, I started this story precisely after this episode, so a lot of what actually happened after this is changed. I think you'll notice the changes between my history and what really happened on the show. Anyhow, I hope it made sense and hope you enjoyed it. Please review!

Lady Dawson