I want to clear that I will not follow the TVD and TO storylines. This story starts at the end of episode 21 of season 2. All the characters of vampire diaries belong to the creators except for the ones created by me.
I guess that's all, welcome to "THE BROKEN PROMISES OF ALWAYS AND FOREVER".
Prologue
Somebody needed her.
She heard the desperate calls and pleas of help, the cries of pain. The unbroken litany proved what she already knew, there was no one to help, no one to listen those whimpers or so the man thought.
She could sense the blood slowly rushing in her veins, trying to restart her heart. She could feel the dampness of earth, the weight of soil. The spirits whispered it was full moon, the last full moon of the year Dreaken.
It was time to wake up; it was time to search for her brother again. But she had to help the man; his voice was faint, fading away. He was on verge of death.
The soil parted and she rose from her slumber, her senses keen and sharp.
She could smell the spilled innocent blood mixed with slightly tainted blood of wolf.
The branches bowed, she touched the rough bark, the glossy newness of leaves, and they had missed her.
"I missed you too, what happened here?" She murmured.
And as she walked the trees told her, the soil showed her what she needed to see. Too much had changed since she was sleeping, but she was awake now, she would help the man.
She remembered his kind deed, and it was time she repaid that kindness.
Stefan Salvatore had no choice but to watch the carnage left behind by Klaus and Elijah Mikaelson till his dying breath.
His body was half burned and burning further slowly, the agony was nothing compared to what he was going through. He held Elena's hand, cold from the life deserted. He had crawled to reach her.
He had failed her, he had failed his brother who was lying dead, his heart ripped out, and he had failed Bonnie, Jenna, and Alaric.
So perhaps this was his punishment, for putting his trust in Elijah's word. This is how Elijah had repaid Elena's trust.
If only he had been stronger, he could have killed Klaus and saved Elena.
He could hear the wind pick up, the crunch of dead leaves; it seemed as if someone was coming.
He lifted his head. His vision was blurry from pain but it felt as if he knew her, she was walking towards him and he gasped. He knew her, it had been 155 years since he had seen her, but here she was, looking same as ever, clad in royal blue. There were still flowers weaved in her long bronze hair but they weren't the blue wildflowers she loved, or the calla lilies he had last seen, these were roses, all deep crimson and half bloomed.
But everything was same, the intelligent green eyes, the oval face, the small nose. Her eyes were the greenest eyes he had ever seen in his 163 years, her lips were scarlet like the last time he had seen her, the upper lip fuller than the lower.
She stood regally like a queen, a sorceress, and goddesses surveying her kingdom. Her heart was beating like a human's but her blood smelt older even older than time, powerful, even more so than Elijah or Klaus's.
"Stefan what happened?" she sat down, with his head in her lap, his hands in hers.
And he broke, the tears he had been holding broke free, he cried in the arms of only mother he had ever known. He couldn't feel his pain because she had taken it. She had wiped his tears in nights when he had been afraid, she had sang him to sleep, she had saved him from his father's wrath more times than he could count.
"Verrira, they killed everyone." He sobbed.
She soothed him as she would sooth a child "I am here Stefan, tell me everything sweetheart."
And he told her, how he became vampire, how he had came back here, how he had met Elena, he told her how Elijah had broken his word, how Klaus had killed Elena and her aunt Jenna, and how Elijah had killed Alaric and Damon.
He told her how bonnie had sacrificed herself to kill the originals but she had died.
"She is dead and it's all my fault Ira, Jeremy will be all alone and it's my fault. How can I ever forgive myself?"
Verrira could sense the magic that was trying to bring Elena Gilbert back to life. She could feel the rush of energy that was trying to repair the broken tendrils of soul trying to escape.
"She is going to live Stefan." She answered back.
"But she will be all alone; everyone she cared about or knew is dead. Please help her Verrira." He had to drag each word out.
He could feel the slowing of his heart, he could sense his eyes fighting to close, his brain struggling to shut down to release him from the pain which was slowly returning.
"Promise me you will take care of them Ira, give your word that you will keep them safe, promise me they will have a long rich and happy life, swear to me you will punish them for what they did to Damon, Jenna, Alaric and bonnie. Promise me Ira."
He could feel the wetness in his hair, she was crying. Even after all this years she was still the same Verrira he had met when he had been 4.
"I promise Stefan." He could feel the weight disappearing from his heart, his eyes were dropping.
"Sleep now sweetheart, Verrira won't let it hurt you anymore." She started to sing, the same song she had sung million times, the same familiar melody that had soothed him, he didn't understand what she sang but he knew it by heart.
As his eyes met hers for the last time, he slipped in the memories quite old. He remembered the first time he had seen her….
Stefan was running. Father had tried to hit him again. He didn't know why father hated him? Damon said he reminded father why mama was dead. Stefan didn't remember his mother; the house keeper said she died when he was 10 days old.
As long as Stefan could remember, he had always tried to be out of his father's way. Damon was okay, he sometimes came at nights to help when Stefan was too terrified to sleep.
Stefan stopped and looked around, he couldn't identify where he was. It was his luck, but it seemed he had lost his way.
He walked, as fast as his four year feet could carry him. Was it supposed to be this dark?
He staggered further to discover he had entered the graveyard and the only path was through it.
He wanted to cry, but he didn't want to attract attention of ghosts, so he continued and then he heard her.
She was crying heartbreaking sobs of misery that even four year old Stefan knew was for someone she had lost.
"Where are you Tas? I have searched everywhere, every realm that has ever been lightened by the moon."
As far as Stefan could see, she was clad in diaphanous blue, there were lilies weaved in her hair. She looked like a fairy. He remembered Damon telling him about fairies, they could grant any wish, so maybe she could return his mama then father won't be angry with him.
"Are you a fairy?" the single question took all his courage.
She turned and he could see the tears drying on her cheek.
"No love, I am not. But tell me what are you doing here this far in night? Are you lost?" her voice was soothing, just like fairy but she had told him she wasn't one.
"I am Stefan Salvatore and I am four years old, and I think I am lost." He answered after much thinking.
She started laughing, not the crazy I-am-gonna-have-you-for-dinner-laugh but nice one like you-are-so cute-and-adorable laugh. She picked him up quite easily.
"You are a sweetheart you know that?" her hands were straightening up his curls. Blush of shyness crept on his cheeks and he hid his face in her neck. She smelled nice, like he thought mums and fairies smelt.
"Why were you crying?" he asked. She got a sad faraway look on her face, he thought she wasn't going to answer and he was surprised when he heard her say "I was searching for my brother, love."
"Did you find him? We could ask Damon, he knows Mystic falls. He will help you." Stefan didn't know why he wanted to help her, maybe because she looked too sad.
"He has gone too far love, to a place where I can't see him or search for him." She gave him a sad smile.
"I am Verrira Mr. Salvatore and you may call me Ira."
"What does it mean?" he asked timidly, most of the time when he asked something from father he got scolded.
"I guess essence of truth, so what does Stefan mean?" she asked back.
"I don't know, do you?"
"Let's see, I guess it means crown." She answered.
"But I am not a crown." He pouted.
"But you are love, you are." She kissed him on cheek.
For a boy who wasn't affectionately held or kissed or hugged by a mother, it was wonderful.
"So shall I take you home love?" she was still carrying him.
His face fell. He didn't want to go home, if he went home before his father passed out from drinking, he would get scolded or worse beaten.
"I don't want to go home." He answered timidly.
She stopped, and turned his face towards hers. "What's the matter Stefan? Your mum and father will be worried when they don't find you at home." She looked concerned, so maybe she could help him. Maybe she knew fairies.
"I don't have mum and father doesn't like me." He hesitated.
"Oh you poor darling, my poor little love. Do not worry, now you have me and nobody is ever gonna hurt my Stefan." She hugged him close.
And then she sat, with him in her lap and she started telling him about fairies and leprechauns, magical places and mythical beasts.
He didn't know when he drifted to sleep, or when she took him home and tucked him in his bed. But when he opened his eyes in the morning he was in his room and there was no sign of Verrira. Perhaps all of it had been a dream.
But Verrira became a regular to Salvatore household; she got along fine with Damon, and even Mr. Salvatore. But the person who was most happy to see her was Stefan. She was boon for the young child, she took him on hikes, taught him about herbs of forests and he picked flowers for her which she would always weave in her hair at the end of the day.
Verrira was not human or was more than human. She could make things out of thin air, vanish things with twist of her fingers. She could appear or disappear in a moment, at any place, any time she desired. He had wanted to see how she did it, so she had scooped him up in her arms and one moment they were in his room, next they were standing beside mamas' grave. He always asked how she did it, and she would always say she was gonna teach him one day. Stefan might be a child but he knew how to keep secrets and he had promised her he would always keep hers.
He was eight when she started to go away for days, first he thought she went to meet her family but as far as he knew she had no family in Mystic Falls. He asked Damon who shrugged it off. He even dared to ask father, but father didn't knew anything.
One thing that had surprised Stefan most was his father's behavior. It was as if he had changed, as if there was something or someone else residing in his body. He had stopped drinking, except for an occasional glass of wine in company. He talked nicely with Stefan, even tolerated most of the Damon's antics.
He didn't know much about Verrira except for her name and the fact that she had a brother for whom she cried almost every night. She thought she was being quiet but Stefan knew. He didn't want her to go away; she was the only person who had ever loved him.
So imagine his surprise when he found her in his room in middle of night bruised and bloodied as she tried desperately to hide her cries of pain.
The sleeves of her red dress were torn, her arms scratched and her face a canvas of blooming purple bruises. If he wasn't mistaken there were thorns in her hair and few of them looked as if someone had tried to nail them to the front of her forehead.
He panicked; he didn't know what to do. He started walking towards door thinking about calling Damon or father but her faint Stefan stopped him.
"Don't…. t-tell….. Any-yy-on-e, just need to sleep." She coughed up a good dose of blood on the front of her dress and passed out.
Stefan hooked his arms beneath her shoulders and started hauling her. It took half hours of panting struggling and falling after which Stefan arranged an unconscious Verrira in the most comfortable supine position he could.
He sneaked out of his room to find a bowl of water and a clean towel to wipe the dried blood and returned to find the most extraordinary sight he had ever seen in his small life.
Little golden star like lights were escaping from her skin, mending the broken blood vessels, repairing the torn skin, they moved from her hand to her face, as the bruises faded and slowly her face returned to its former glory, the thorns melted, the blood vanished and her hair fanned out like sleeping Valkyrie.
They enveloped her, the ochre magnificence healing and mending her and in a flash they were gone leaving her clad in the gown of royal blue, calla lilies in her hair.
Perhaps it was the way she opened her eyes so abruptly or perhaps it was the way her eyes took him in as if she was savoring his profile for a last time, but that pure childish heart of Stefan knew that she was
going to go away. It was itched in the way she came hastily and gathered him in his arms, written with her tears as they wet his hair.
"I was supposed to teach you everything; I was supposed to keep you safe from world." She sobbed, "oh Stefan how can they do this to me?"
He wanted to cry, to plead anyone who would listen to spare his Ira. But he had to be strong for her, brave so she could go away without worrying too much about him. In his life span of eight years Stefan Salvatore was going to lose the only mother he had ever known.
"It's going to be okay Ira, you are only gonna go away for a year or so right? I will be okay, really no need to worry for me; I am going to be fine." He answered with as much cheerfulness as he could muster at the moment.
He knew it and she knew he knew it that this was forever or as forever as a mortal life span goes. There was no turning back; she couldn't come back for him even if she wanted.
She had put off her sleep for too long, stretched her energy too far than her weak body was capable in this state.
And for what? Love, affection, compassion? Were these words answers for why she had squandered her limited energy, energy she saved so that she could be awake for few precious months every year to search for a brother who had just vanished in thin air, left her to deal with ugliness and absurdity that had became of the precious world created by the elementals?
If she was truthful with herself Stefan had reminded her of him, same shyness that same beating nerve of curiosity with which he took in the world around him.
The first moment she had seen him, she had fell in love.
What would the sub elementals think if they saw her like this? The mighty Verrira forsaking rationale and her judgment for love of a mortal child. Was she so starved for love? Was she so alone in the world?
And maybe the answer was yes. She was too ashamed to show her face to her brothers, she had betrayed their lifelong loyalty and love just to help her twin when she knew what he had done had been wrong.
But how could she forsake one brother for another? How could she let him rot in inferno?
Did reason made the stings of shame bearable? In her most lonely moments her heart cried out no. They didn't know what she had done, they continued to cherish her, and it was her own guilty conscience that served as her punisher.
Stefan was only one in the world who loved her, who needed her. He didn't know of the ugly truths of her past, for him she was just Verrira, his Ira.
Wasn't it the most ironic thing in the world? She who shaped and reshaped how the world looked like was too tired to hold on, even when she so desperately wanted to.
Suddenly she wished she had slept, she wished there was a way she could keep him with her. But she wasn't selfish as that to take away his childhood, she wasn't monster enough to take away his naivety, to take him away from a father he knew, a brother he loved.
She could feel the magic trying to cleave her soul in two, trying to break free the chains she so rigorously put on it, she could feel her sanity escape bit by bit. She was aware of the split in the fabric of reality because she could see her twin, she could see Veritas standing there and taunting her, asking her why she couldn't save him.
She had to sleep, but she won't leave Stefan defenseless.
She left lingering drops of her magic in him, it would protect him till she woke again, if he lived that long.
"I am sorry Stefan, forgive me?" she gasped, her time was running out.
He was crying, her poor baby. If only she had something left inside her, she would never have left him. She had built her house of cards, imagining one day he would grow up and she would teach him everything, pass on her legacy, see him becoming her successor, but they were all dreams. And someday dreams broke; you had to wake up or in her case go to sleep.
"Come here love" she murmured. He came in her arms and she had to gather every ounce of her energy to sit, with him curled in her lap, and she started to sing.
She sang and she cried.
She cried for all those things that could have been. She wept for all those stupid choices she had made, she cried for her brothers, sobbed for the poor dear who clung to her as if she was his lifeline when in fact it was other way around.
She saw his eyes closing, and soon enough he was sleeping, his hand clutching hers. She tucked him in, and gave him a last kiss.
She had enough energy to teleport away to the place that was gonna serve as her bed for the last eternal sleep, after this her curse would be broken; she would be free to roam the world.
She stumbled, and the earth parted to reveal the bower of flowers and plants, her temporary grave.
She turned around to have a last look at the window far away where light still lingered. Tears escaped her eyes, she turned and walked in, and the earth closed in after her.
When Stefan Salvatore awoke in the morning, there was a calla lily beside his pillow with a note,
that simply read "I love you Stefan."
The oppressive silence brought her back from his memories that were no longer there, she let her tears fall and she let her heart grieve.
There was nothing more she could do for him except to fulfill the promise she had given him.
From what she could gather from his memories, there was a vampire named Katarina Petrova who had changed him and all this destruction was a result of her selfish intentions.
And for Klaus and Elijah Mikaelson, it seemed fate had bought them time.
If it wasn't for her promise she would have devoured them tonight, killing them over and over again for what they had done.
But first she needed her staff. She reached inside her, gathering the renegade wisps of magic and weaving them in a solid physical state. Slowly a form materialized in her hands, long and curved at the tip, the blade shining deadly in the full moon light. She ensnared the darkness and gave it a visual shape, placing an emerald orb in the centre of the staff.
It hummed with power in her hands, and she could feel the familiar warmth as rush of magic invaded her senses.
"I create you in darkness, I create you from darkness." Her voice was a beacon of clarity in reining chaos as elements battled in their ultimate fury to create something from nothing, the air hissed as it met the sharp slap of lightening creating fissures in the earth where she stood and in the next moment everything died down leaving a grinning young man standing near her.
"It's been too long my lady." His eyes were full of mirth and amusement.
"Marcus" she acknowledged, "we have work to do."
The next day found the town of mystic falls in uproar as the murdered bodies of Gilbert family, Salvatore's, Alaric Saltzman and bonnie Bennett were found.
As now the last surviving gilberts Elena and Jeremy were dead along with their guardian Jenna Somers, everything passed on to a distant cousin Marcus Somers who came next day of being informed, and he arranged for the proper burial of bodies and service.
The Salvatore's niece, Verrira Evyanton returned quickly after she took care of the paperwork and burial ceremonies.
As the day drew to an end, the trees and the earth saw a man crying, sitting beside the headstone that read
ELENA GILBERT
A sister, a friend, a daughter…
The coming night saw him lay a single red rose on the grave and walk back heavily, his heart burdened with the weight of broken promises of always and forever…
DUN-DUN-DUN. Who is the man? Well I am sure most of you have guessed. But how did Jeremy die and Elena, why didn't she come back to life? Who is Verrira Evyanton or more accurately what is she? Well we are going to know part about it in next chapter. Love it; hate it, whatever you feel just let me know. Till then review, I will be waiting. And yes one thing more, this is gonna be Elena Elijah fiction with a dash of Klaus and Caroline, but if you want anyone else then let me know. Till then watch TVD and TO.