For the first time in a long time, Eliza Petrova was actually excited. After a few weeks of tracking down where he was, Eliza had finally found out where Stefan Salvatore now lived. It had been at least 20 years since she had last seen him. Luckily, she had met him with his emotions turned back on. She liked him much more with his emotions rather than when she had first met him when he'd had them turned off. Stefan, for 90 years, had been a great friend of hers; their friendship was simple and easy, and Eliza practically adored everything about him.
Stefan Salvatore was one of Eliza's only true friends. She had first met him in the 1920's, where their other best friend, Lexi, had forced them both to go on a date. Apparently, Lexi had hoped that Stefan would end up falling in love with Eliza because her eyes resembled Katherine Pierce's, or Petrova as Eliza knew her. Eliza's sister was one of the Petrova doppelgangers, so needless to say, she looked exactly like Katherine. Eliza had tried to convince Lexi to replace her with Eliza's sister, Annabelle Petrova, since she didn't really think of Stefan in a romantic sense. However, Lexi refused to introduce Annabelle to Stefan because she claimed it would, "bring back guilt and pain, rather than love."
At the time she had been human, and knew nothing about the supernatural beings that Stefan and Lexi happened to be. That was until the day she had managed to fall down the stairs. She ended up hitting her head rather hard. Lexi had been there to cure her with her blood, but she had compelled her to forget. But later, somehow, for a reason she still was unaware of, Eliza had managed to die that very same night - whether it was murder, manslaughter or suicide, Eliza didn't know. Honestly, she didn't want to know.
When she had completed the transition, Lexi had no choice but to explain to her what they were, and what Eliza herself had now become. Eliza hadn't really minded since she loved Lexi. It was as if she was her sister. At first she he had been frightened. She couldn't remember anything from the night she died, and she was extremely scared to kill people, but she managed to get past that initial feeling. Lexi had been the one who taught Eliza to control her thirst and to live her life inconspicuously - and for that Eliza owed Lexi her life.
Another thing that Lexi had managed to achieve was getting Stefan to turn his emotions back on, meaning that Eliza and Stefan became best friends. With his emotions turned back on, Stefan was a completely different person; sweet, caring, sensitive, funny at times and enjoyable to be around.
However Eliza didn't really have much of a chance to befriend the new Stefan for that long, as after around a decade or so she went on a long search for Katherine. She was determined to find out Annabelle's whereabouts, leaving Lexi and Stefan behind. In the end, after endless amounts of research and travelling, it turned out that Katherine had killed Annabelle so that a man called 'Klaus' couldn't use her blood. Eliza still didn't truly know the whole story as she had never completely figured it all out, and nothing was ever really explained to her. So even as the years passed, she still continued to grieve over her sister's death, never having closure being the worst part. Never during her eternal life, could she forgive Katherine for what she had done. Eliza's family had been one of the most important things in her life, and she'd worked so hard to keep them safe all of these years. Still, she hoped that they had lived long, happy, lives and died peaceful deaths.
Now, she was travelling to Mystic Falls, where she knew she could find Stefan and hopefully Lexi. She had not seen them in so long, Eliza practically craved their presence.
The drive down to Mystic Falls didn't take long and she soon arrived at the Salvatore boarding house where Stefan and his brother, who she believed to be called Damon, supposedly lived. Around half a century ago she had met Damon briefly, but instantly, they didn't get along. Hopefully now things would be different.
Climbing out of her car, she walked up to the doorstep. Not bothering to knock on the door, she entered the household with a bright smile on her face. Her breath was then suddenly taken away, only to find herself suddenly pinned against the wall by the neck. Looking up, she met those familiar icy blue eyes that she had always loathed. Damon.
"Damon Salvatore." Eliza spoke first and Damon immediately recognized the, what he thought to be annoying, voice of none other than his brother's best friend.
"Eliza Petrova?" He said with a tone of surprise. Damon too had taken an immediate disliking to Eliza when they had first met; he believed that she was weak and too over emotional. Instead of being fun, Damon saw her more as being incredibly boring and someone who needed to "let her hair down" more. In fact, he'd once told her how he felt about her, and to say it didn't go down well would be an understatement. In the end, he was only left with a bright red mark on his cheek from where she'd slapped him.
"The one and only." Eliza replied confidently as Damon released her from his grip. One thing that had always annoyed Eliza about Damon was the way he treated Stefan. Eliza had always been good at reading people, but Damon was a closed book, meaning she was constantly frustrated over the fact that she could never tell his true intentions. She always questioned whether or not he had meant to be so evil to his brother.
"Stefan, there's someone here to see you." Damon groaned. He reluctantly lead Eliza into the large, old fashioned living room. Cheerfully, Eliza took a seat down on the sofa by the fire, admiring the traditional decor that surrounded her. After a few moments, Stefan walked down the stairs with a Petrova doppelganger attached to his side. Straight away, Eliza was reminded of Annabelle, but she quickly repressed her wave of sadness and placed a slightly ingenuine smile upon her face.
"Eliza?" Stefan gasped, as he spotted her sat upon the sofa. Eliza's lips quickly curved up into a broad grin. Ignoring the doppelganger for that moment, Eliza raced towards Stefan and threw her arms around his neck, clinging onto him excitedly.
"Stefan!" She exclaimed in delight while Stefan hugged her back with equal enthusiasm. For as long as Stefan could remember, Eliza had always been the sweet and innocent one who hated violent acts and detested uncompassionate people. But, even if she did want to hurt someone, she probably didn't stand a chance as she was so very vulnerable. Despite her incredible vampire strength, she didn't fight very well. This was mostly due to her never being trained properly as she had refused when Lexi offered.
"I'm so glad you're here, I haven't seen you in so long." Stefan responded with a joyous tone, pulling out of the long hug they shared. He too now had a smile on his face, but in his eyes Eliza could still see a sort of... sadness. It was clear he was trying to hide it, but he wasn't doing a very good job of concealing it. For the moment though, she let it pass.
"I know! It's amazing to be able to see you again! Do you happen to know where Lexi is? I also haven't seen her in quite a while." Eliza questioned him, looking around expectantly, as if Lexi was going to randomly appear in front of her eyes at any moment. Her smile soon dropped as she saw Stefan's now stiff and most upset expression. After a few moments of silence, she spoke, "What's wrong, Stefan?"
"Lexi... Lexi's dead, Eliza." Stefan answered despondently, glaring at Damon who was currently stood drinking a glass of Bourbon whiskey. At first, Eliza was unable to comprehend the sudden news. All this time, Eliza had been so excited to finally see her best friends again, and now… now she was never going to see one of them again.
"D-Dead? H-How?" She stuttered out once she was able to retrieve her voice again. Stefan let go of the doppelgangers hand and comfortingly wrapped Eliza into a hug, letting her cry into his shoulder. For a few moments they both stood there, wrapped in eachothers' arms. Stefan continually shot daggers at the now smirking Damon.
"A few months ago... She came to visit me on my birthday and... Damon… Damon..." He couldn't finish his sentence. His voice sounded angry, and Eliza immediately knew what Damon had done. Eliza quickly pulled away from Stefan's hug. Turning to Damon, for the first time in a long time, anger flared in her normally calm eyes. It wasn't often that Eliza became angry; she usually managed to live life without fighting, unlike some vampires other vampires. But right now, she despised Damon Salvatore. Though she had disliked him before, that couldn't compare to how she felt about him now. Adrenaline now pulsed through her veins, and the dark side of her mind was urging her to get revenge. Swimming through her mind, all she could think of was all of the ways she could kill him. The hardest part would be picking the best one. What would cause him the most unbearable, excruciating pain?
"You killed her!" She shouted, the rage in her voice piercing the air. Tears were now spilling out of her eyes, streaming own her cheeks. Damon didn't find her scary in the slightest, and he'd already dealt with his brother about the same topic once before. There wasn't even a chance of Eliza hurting him; she wasn't strong enough and would never kill him. But right now, the fury on her face convinced a part of Damon that she was determined to get revenge.
"I may or may not have..." Damon replied with a careless, teasing tone. Typical Damon... using sarcasm as a defence mechanism. Slowly, Damon took a few steps away from Eliza with his hands up in surrender, noticing her enragement as she stepped towards him.
"What wrong did she ever do to you!?" Eliza shrieked at him. Hearing her shout like this had been something that neither Damon or Stefan had ever experienced before. In fact, nobody had ever made Eliza this angry. But her friends meant everything to her now that her family was all dead - she cared for her friends as much as she had cared for her family. Losing Lexi was like losing Annabelle all over again.
"I did it to protect myself and Stefan." Damon answered after a few seconds, dropping his hands back down to his sides and placing a serious look upon his face. The guilt for killing Lexi had already passed from Damon - it had been merely short and almost unrecognisable. But he was not going to let a little girl like Eliza make him feel something that he didn't want to.
"I'll murder you!" Eliza threatened, seething with wrath, preparing for her attack. Questions of how she would kill him were still vivid in her mind.
"Oh, I highly doubt you could do that." Damon smirked playfully, knowing that this would annoy Eliza. Seeing that Eliza was about to pounce on Damon, and that it wasn't going to end well for either of the,, Stefan quickly grabbed Eliza before she could strike him. It would take a century's worth of training before Eliza could ever beat the ever so skilled and strong, Damon Salvatore. Instantly, Eliza tried to break free from Stefan's iron grip on her, but he didn't budge. For a while she struggled in his arms, before finally giving up and collapsing to the floor in a flood of tears. Damon was about to speak again but Stefan swiftly grabbed him and lead him out the door, leaving Eliza and the doppelganger in the room alone together. It took a few moments for Eliza to regain her composure, but she soon managed it after awkwardly sitting there crying in front of the girl who had no idea what to do.
"Your one of Stefan's best friends?" The doppelganger spoke to Eliza for the first time, and Eliza immediately turned her attention to her, quickly trying to wipe the tears from her now red face. If she grieved over Lexi now then she would end up crying for hours, meaning she wouldn't be able to acquaint herself with her newest descendant, who was now the only living family she knew she had left.
"I am... and you're a Petrova Doppelganger. I'm Eliza Petrova." Eliza stated, attempting to return her voice back to normal. She spared a few moments to study the new doppelganger, and unsurprisingly found that there was no difference between her and Annabelle at all. The girl resembled her sister and Katherine precisely. Unlike Katherine, however, she looked kind and caring, rather than manipulative and self-centered. Already, Eliza could tell that the girl would be an exact replica of her sister. Whether this would be a good thing or a bad thing, Eliza didn't know yet.
"I'm Elena Gilbert... So… how are you related to Katherine?" She asked curiously, smiling at Eliza politely. But it was definitely a fake smile as, like Stefan and Damon, Eliza could tell that there was something bothering Elena. Curiosity was beginning to grow on Eliza and she found herself wanting to know what was bothering them all. Whatever it was, it must have been big, considering Stefan's worriedness still showed through all the happiness he felt for seeing Eliza again.
"She's my great great grandmother I think..." Eliza gulped as she prepared to talk about her sister. Anabelle was and would always be a sensitive subject for her. " My... my sister, Annabelle, looked exactly like you," She quickly changed the ever still painful subject. "So… how are you friends with Stefan?" Eliza asked, knowing that her and Elena were probably going to be great friends - this was of course based on the fact that Eliza wouldn't be able to resist being friends with someone as similar to her sister as Elena was. Annabelle had always been someone that Eliza had admired. Because of this, Eliza had already taken a liking to Elena, hoping the pain of losing Annabelle would lessen as she grew closer to Elena.
"Elena's my girlfriend Eliza..." Stefan asked, entering through the front door without Damon this time. "But, speaking of Annabelle… did you ever find her?" Eliza forced a smile onto her face as she looked up to meet Stefan's eyes and again she saw the same worry that had been haunting Stefan continually since Eliza had arrived.
"Katherine killed her so that... a man couldn't use her in some kind of ritual." Eliza answered bluntly, hiding all emotion as she said this. Elena gasped in shock at hearing this and Stefan frowned at her deeply, giving her a sympathetic look. What he had just witnessed proved that Eliza didn't react to death 'well,' meaning that she was probably still trying to cope with her sister's passing. Stefan remembered the countless stories that Eliza had told her about Annabelle. He knew they had always been close.
"Do you know who the man is?" Stefan questioned cautiously, not wanting to trigger anything.
"Well, no I didn't know him personally, but he goes by the name of Klaus, I believe."
Suddenly, Elena's, along with Stefan's reaction changed from sympathy to ... to something else she couldn't exactly figure out.
"What?" She questioned them both after a brief period of them staring at her in disbelief. Neither Stefan or Elena spoke and, instead, looked at each other with solemn, concerned expressions.
"We know Klaus…" At this you let out a gasp. "Klaus has come to Mystic Falls and tonight... he plans on killing Elena in a ritual that will turn him into an original hybrid - a vampire and werewolf combined. " Stefan spoke quietly. She guessed that this was the ritual Klaus intended to include her sister in. This was what had been bothering all of them.
Frowning deeply, Eliza ran up to Elena and hugged her gently, not wanting to lose the only family she had left. Eliza had lost enough people and she didn't want to add Elena to the list. Shocked, Elena stood frozen for a moment before hugging Eliza back.
"I'm so sorry Elena... I wish I could do something to help you. You're... exactly like my sister... you don't deserve to die like she had to." Eliza told her making her voice soft as they both pulled away from the hug. Elena could tell that Eliza was being sincere from the sympathy and sadness that was now showing in Eliza's eyes.
"Thank you… and I'm also sorry about your sister. But I'm not going to die. Well, not entirely. Damon already fed me his blood, so I'm planning on coming back as a vampire." Elena answered stiffly. From Stefan's reaction to Elena saying this, Eliza sensed that Elena being turned into a vampire was not the ideal solution for either of them. This added to the list of all the things wrong with Damon Salvatore.
"Now really isn't the right time to be in Mystic Falls, Eliza. Klaus is willing to kill a lot of people, and he could hurt you too." Stefan said with a small frown, knowing too well that Klaus was ruthless and wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone in his path.
"Well I'm not leaving now. I can't leave knowing you're both in danger. I'll do whatever you need me to do. What is this ritual that Klaus planning to perform?" Eliza asked, willing to help as much as she could.
"Klaus is an original vampire, but he's different from his family. He was born werewolf and made vampire by magic. To gain control of his werewolf side, choosing when to turn, and become a true hybrid, he has to perform a ritual It requires the sacrifice of a vampire, werewolf and doppelganger. He plans to do it tonight on the full moon. But, Elena's friend, Bonnie, is a Bennett witch and has enough power to kill Klaus. So that's what we plan on doing tonight, with the help of his brother, Elijah, who also happens to be an original vampire." Stefan explained carefully.
"Which vampire is he using?" Eliza immediately asked worriedly, hoping that it wouldn't be Stefan. He was another person who she would definitely not allow to die today. If Klaus was going to kill Stefan than Eliza might as well take his place.
"We don't know." Stefan said, but was interrupted by Damon walking casually through the door again, strangely without his typical smirk.
"Actually, yes, we do. Caroline and Tyler are missing." Damon told them, oddly with a slight look of worry on his face. Instantly, Elena began to look even more distressed at the new news that she was hearing.
"No. We have to go find them, Stefan!" Elena exclaimed in a frantic voice, and it only took a fraction of a second for Damon to leave again as he ran at his vampire speed out the door, mumbling something along the lines of "already on it."
"I can't have them dead too, Stefan." Tears were now welling up in Elena's eyes, and Stefan pulled her into a loving and warm embrace. The love that Elena and Stefan shared radiated around the room, and it was obvious to Eliza that this was a couple that was bound to last forever, though it appeared Damon was at the will of Elena as well.
"I wish we could spend the day catching up Eliza, but I need to get Elena out of here for a day. You're welcome to stay here for as long as you want." Stefan told Eliza solemnly as he kissed Elena softly on the forehead. Understandingly, Eliza nodded.
"It's fine, I understand. You two spend all the time you need together. I'll just be looking around the town. Call me if you need help with anything, and I'll be back tonight to come to the ritual with you so I can help." Eliza promised, handing both Stefan and Elena a piece of paper with her phone number written down on it. After smiling sympathetically at both Elena and Stefan, Eliza left through the door ready to diminish all the worried thoughts from her mind and explore the town of Mystic Falls.
There was no doubt about it, Eliza had definitely returned completely at the wrong time. Now, she herself could be very much in danger…
I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, next chapter Eliza will meet Klaus and you'll get to see Klaus' reaction to seeing her again. Please leave a review and follow/favourite this story if you liked it so far. Thank you so much for reading!
-DareToDream