The Struggle: The Wakening
Author: Sarah August
Summary: An AU short story based fifteen years after The Struggle. I thought I'd post this separately. I didn't think it quite fit with the other story. A short sequel to The Struggle.
"I look like my mother," Raina said with a slight smile. "Or so I've been told. Why do I look almost exactly like her, and you?"
"It's complicated," replies Elena softly. She stared hard at Katherine's doppelganger daughter. She could almost pretend that Raina was her own child. They were so alike. "Didn't your father tell you?"
"He told me about the doppelgangers. But I just don't get why I look so much like you both. I'm Katherine's daughter...you'd think there would be more of a difference between us."
"In my experience the doppelgangers have always looked so much the same. At times, we've impersonated each other. It's so hard to tell the difference if you don't know us."
"I'm sorry to hear about your mother," Elena added.
"Are you now?" Katherine's daughter asks. In that moment, Elena could see how Raina was Katherine's daughter. She had the same sense of dry humor. Elena had to smile at her. Raina smirked back. She wore long brown curls down her back. "Thank you," Raina said after a long silence.
"How did she..." Elena trails off.
"My mother came across another cure. She took it. She shouldn't have," Raina replies with a soft remembrance.
"She found another cure?" Elena was stunned. "And she took it...why would she even chance it?"
"We found out something about me...my mother thought it was the only way..."
"Only way..." Elena pressed. She couldn't help it.
"My mother wanted a life time to be my mother..." Raina replies wistfully. "I was her second chance...she was devastated when she found out that I was half human and I will only live so long. She wanted a way, anyway to be with me."
Elena felt her eyes water. She felt for Katherine's plight. She rubbed her eyes quickly.
"Do you know where my father is?"
Elena stared the teenager in the eyes. Where could she begin to answer that very difficult question? "I wish I knew," She said.