CHAPTER 8: The funny thing about forever is that it comes with a side of never-never.

"That's not possible." Stefan remarks with a doubtful expression after hearing Fred explain their reason for being in town. There's no way a vampire can revert back to being human... just no way.

Faith and Fred exchange a knowing look thinking of the Shanshu Prophecy.

"Is it?" Stefan swallows thickly.

"We've never met a vampire that turned human, but this isn't the first time we've heard of this possibility either." Fred settles on saying.

"Anything is possible." Jeremy remarks aloud. "With magic… anything is possible."

"Bonnie brought me back to life." Jeremy reminds everyone firmly. "I was also haunted by my dead vampire ex-girlfriends because of it. Don't talk to me about impossible.

"Plural?" Fred remarks with a cute smirk.

Jeremy simply shrugs.

"And you think Jonathan Gilbert had something to do this?" Stefan crosses his arm. "He hated vampires. He was a member of the first council with my father. I knew him very well. He wouldn't have come up with anything like this."

"I don't think his device was meant to turn a vampire human. I think this is just a cosmic mistake." Fred answers.

"And I'll give you one guess about who cares about cleaning up cosmic mistakes." Faith adds rolling her eyes.

"So let me get this straight, Jonathan Gilbert wanted to talk to the dead and Bonnie's great, great whatever made it possible? Why would she do that?" Alaric asks, directing his question at Stefan.

"I'm sure she had her reasons." Stefan replies frustrated by the situation. "But there's no way Emily knew she'd be curing vampirism."

"And you don't know which vampire is going to turn human?" Jeremy asks quietly, even though Stefan can still here him perfectly.

"Well, it's either going to be me or Damon." Stefan shrugs, trying to act like it doesn't matter that much to him. He's not fooling anyone in the room.

"Or Caroline." Alaric suggests.

"The vampire is male." Faith corrects. "So it's got to be either of you guys, makes things simple. I mean, that is if there's no other vamps in town that you're holding out on us about."

The group remained quiet until Faith spoke up again. "That is unless I find this mirror and destroy it, then problem solved."

"Does this girl look familiar?" Fred asks, holding up a sketch in her personal notebook.

"That's Katherine." Stefan replies sourly. "Of course this is her fault. But she died... For good... Not too long ago."

"Or it could be my sister." Jeremy chides. "I mean, they do look exactly alike."

Fred and Faith share a knowing look, they've gotten all the info they needed without revealing too much about their agenda.

"Do you think it's possible that Emily was trying to help Katherine?" Alaric asks Stefan. "I mean, they were kinda close, right?"

"What? You mean if Katherine cared about becoming human?" Stefan retorts. "I don't think so, she always did like being in control. She frequently reminded me of the fact."

"Whatever, who cares, it obviously doesn't matter. It never worked. She failed." Faith states getting annoyed by the lack of direction in the conversation.

"You never explained the whole world ending thing." Stefan announces.

"Ending?" Jeremy repeats before staring at the strangers in wonder.

"The only way to stop the apocalypse is to find the device before this situation gets out of control." Fred explains calmly.

"But why would it matter if i... or Damon... or anyone else for that matters turns human?" Stefan asks.

"We don't have the answers that you're looking for, sorry... it doesn't work that way." Fred replies softly.

"Well, how does it work then?" Stefan probes, but gets interrupted by the sound of his cell phone going off. He quickly checks his phone and decides to pick up the call because Elena is trying to reach him.

"Excuse me." Stefan mumbles, walking away from the crowd and into the main hall.

"Hey." He answers in an even tone.

"What's wrong?" He asks realizing that Elena might need his help. She's usually in lecture around this time.

Elena stumbles over the line because she doesn't know where to begin.

"Where are you?" Stefan demands.

"At the hospital..."

"What? Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine. I'm calling about Damon." Elena begins hesitantly, she doesn't know how Stefan is going to react to the news. She doesn't want to hurt his feelings. Even though she didn't know this was going to happen, she still feels for responsible for carrying that mirror around.

After their brutally short conversation, Stefan reenters the parlor room quietly, so quietly that the only person that notices him is Faith. The Slayer makes eye contact with him as her senses go wild saying danger is near.

"You're too late." Stefan announces to the outsiders.

"Damon?" Fred concludes quickly, biting her lip in nervousness.

Stefan nods in affirmation.

"Damn." Faith grumbles, shaking her head. "I could have grabbed him this morning, I shouldn't have listened to you."

Fred simply removes her glasses in a moment of self-reflection.

"Damon is human." Alaric states incredulously. "Like right now?"

Stefan nods in a heavy manner. His thoughts are so loud in his head, he can barely function.

"He doesn't get to stay this way." Faith whispers to him, placing her left hand on his shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Stefan asks alarmed by her words. "Just because I wish it had been me doesn't mean I'm going to help take this away from him."

Faith glares at him and Fred gives her a wary look. The girls know things could get complicated if Stefan gets in their way. Deep down though, Faith knows she'll have to take him out if it comes down to that.

CHAPTER 9: Don't give up on me, please remind me who I really am.

Elena keeps glancing at Damon warily because he's pretending that everything's okay and he's not going out of his mind. But she knows better, well, it's also easy to figure out by how much his hand is sweating. She tries to hold onto it, but he gives her the brush off. Not like she's supposed to be holding his hand anyway, they aren't like boyfriend and girlfriend. Damn! How did things get so confusing, she asks herself.

"So Stefan didn't say anything? No big reaction?" Damon scoffs on their way back to the boarding house.

"No, not really..." Elena answers truthfully. In all, she actually believes that Stefan might have gone into shock given his lack of response. It was by far one of the weirdest conversations in her life.

"That was sort of a dick move, huh? To just get off the phone with you like that, not even bothering to say hello to me." Damon sneers.

She's still getting used to the fact that he doesn't have an emotional censor anymore. It's never been easier to read him now that's he's no longer a member of Club Undead.

Elena takes a deep breath trying to think of something good to say. "I, he, uh, you know he actually sounded busy. Like he had guests over."

Damon rolls his eyes. "Right, like he can't pry his eyes off Vampire Barbie's…" He coughs abruptly realizing his words. Damn, he really has no filter. "I haven't been human since the fucking Civil War, so excuse me if I sound like I'm begging for attention..." He completes rather sarcastically.

"I know, Damon, I'm sure Stefan is dying to see you too. He must be curious."

"Curious?" Damon questions, turning away from the road to spare a glance at her.

"If you're the same like you used to be. You know, back them."

"I look the same, obviously." He scoffs.

Elena giggles for a moment. She can't help it.

"What?" Damon asks suspiciously, actually looking insecure for the first time in over a century.

"Nothing." Elena continues to giggle.

"Elena." Damon warns, attempting to sound menacing, but failing miserably which irritates him considerably.

"You're not so scary anymore." She teases, sticking out her tongue.

"Don't be so sure." He attempts a hard glare.

Elena shrugs playfully.

"What, Elena?" Damon say aggravated and she begins to giggle again.

"Damon... You are different now." She comments with a big goofy smile on her face. "I can totally tell that you're different. You're so... So... Cute."

"Cute?" Damon scoffs. "I am not cute!"

"You're so cute! Look at your ears, they're turning red because your bothered. Awe." Elena continues to tease and giggles some more.

The trusty blue Chevy comes to an abrupt halt in the middle of the road, thankfully there weren't any cars tailgating them. Damon roughly pulls at his hair in anger and much to his dismay it hurts.

"Damon! Stop!" Elena exclaims attempting to get him to stop. She knows he's having a bit of an emotional breakdown with the hair pulling. "Stop!"

"I can't do this." Damon finally stops, staring at Elena.

"Do what?" She asks slowly.

Damon is nearly having an asthma attack, which simply doesn't suit a man like him.

"Be human! How am I going to be human?" He asks desperately. "I don't know how to be human anymore. One second I want to laugh, the next I want to cry, and God help me, I want you so much, it fucking hurts!"

Elena gasps momentarily by his shattering honesty. It's been a long time since he's mentioned his feelings for her. There's something relieving about the fact that he still wants her, even though he's human now. That he's still thinking about her. Elena can't help the emotions she's feeling right now, she's never felt closer to him than at this moment.

"I'm right here." She promises placing both of her hands on his cheeks. "I'm not going anywhere."

They take a moment of silence before deciding that it be best that she should do the driving the rest of the way. She suddenly feels incredibly stupid for letting him driving home right after turning human. It's just Damon and his precious car, he never lets anyone come near that thing. Elena rolls her eyes and starts to drive, carefully, while Damon sulks. His head bangs on the window, overtaken by the feeling of his own beating heart. Why does it have to be so fucking loud, he thinks in misery.

CHAPTER 10: We change who we are to who we should be.

"We're here." Elena announces, bringing him back to reality.

Damon nods seeing the boarding house and slowly opens the car door, truth be told, he's rather anxious to see his baby brother. There's a small part, albeit a tiny one, that's terrified of seeing Stefan. He's not used to being the weak one. God, how is he going to get through this?

When Elena notices that Damon has trouble walking over the last step up to the front door, she grabs his hand and squeezes it.

"You're okay." She says in an even voice. "Come on."

Walking through the door, they instantly notice the talking inside has ceased and there's a bunch of eyes staring at them. Some eyes she doesn't recognize. Stefan sits up and walks toward him, but Damon's eyes are fixed on curvy brunette in particular.

"Do you know her?" Elena asks awkwardly, wondering if the girl is more his type.

"Brother." Stefan states looking over at Damon, his eyes ending at the pair's locked hands.

"You." Damon mutters at Faith.

"What is she doing here?" He asks Stefan.

"I-" Stefan begins.

"No, no, no." Damon snaps and let's go of Elena's hand. Apparently, he's still got his sixth sense that just knows when shit's about to hit the fan. Nothing good ever happens to him, it's not possible, not to him.

"Okay, everyone, what the hell is going on?" Elena demands and no one answers.

"Jer?" She turns helplessly to her brother, hoping he'll be the one to clue her in.

"Damon's human." Alaric comments in a mesmerized voice.

"Damon's human!" Elena shouts at everyone in the room like it's a National Emergency Announcement. "It's true. Okay, everyone, it's true."

Damon raises a brow at her hysterical behavior. She almost seems protective of him? Nah, she probably just doesn't like to be out of the loop, he figures.

"And I think he wants to get some rest." Elena declares in a regular voice. "Right?" She whispers to Damon.

He nods awkwardly. He doesn't appreciate feeling like the best in show with the way people are looking at him.

Elena takes the first step to the grand staircase and looks at Damon, giving him the support needed to follow her.

Before either of them can get to the staircase, Stefan flashes in front of them. Damon actually jumps, which is hilariously ironic, while Elena just glares at her ex-boyfriend.

"Yes… brother?" Damon replies taking a deep breath.

"We need to talk." Stefan says in his typical serious voice.

"Can't this wait?" Damon replies annoyed.

Stefan moves to answer, but he stops him. "Please. Just one night." Damon demands harshly, almost begging. He just knows that Stefan is bearer of bad news and wants his one night as human to go in peace.

"Stefan." Elena chides.

"Let him go." Faith assures Stefan, walking up to them, entering the conversation. "I think this will go better if I talk to Elena first."

"Excuse me?" Elena remarks, deeply confused. She doesn't know who this girl is, but the way Damon was looking at her when they walked in put her on edge to begin with.

"This is Faith." Damon introduces dryly, easily remembering her name from The Grill. Damn, that seems so long ago now. "She got here two days ago… wanting to see Zach. Guess she found Stefan though."

"What does that have to do with me then?" Elena asks slowly.

"Little girl, you should know by now that this is all about you." Faith remarks in her usual sassy swagger.

"You are the doppelgänger." Fred remarks, coming up to them with the sketch of Elena in her hand. "It's quite remarkable, isn't it?" She asks quietly to herself, in a studious tone as if Elena is a precious artifact rather than a person.

Damon instantly steps in front of Elena and glares down at them and more so at his baby brother. "Stefan. What the fuck. Why'd you let them in, if you knew they were after Elena?" He is seconds away from punching Stefan.

"They're not going to hurt her." Stefan promises.

"He's telling the truth. We don't kill humans." Fred says. "Well, at lest, we try not to."

Elena scoffs at the vagueness of her answer.

"I'm a vampire Slayer." Faith explains.

Elena looks even more dumbfounded given that Stefan is a vampire and he's being all buddy-buddy with her.

"You're a liar. And I don't like liars." Damon is pissed off and it even shows a little in the color of his face.

"She's a vampire slayer." Fred confirms.

"Oh, and let me guess, you are too I bet." Damon sneers.

"Nope. Standard-issue science nerd. I did spend five years in a demon dimension..." Fred replies automatically.

Damon ignores Fred and returns his attention to Faith. "If you're really the Slayer… does that mean Buffy died?"

"Twice actually." Fred corrects, fixing her glasses.

"What?" Damon looks shocked.

"Wait, you know B?" Faith is in complete shock over the new development.

"I saw her in California, few years back, but it's not like I approached her." Damon rolls her eyes. "I actually like- liked being undead."

Everyone looks at each other for answers, but in the end, everyone stares at Damon.

"I'm gonna go and let you guys be… weird." He shakes his head and turns around.

"I'll, uh, just, uh check-in with you later." Elena calls up to him.

"Whatever." Damon dismisses, he's past the point of caring and too fucking tired to keep his eyes open anymore. Man, being human is exhausting.

CHAPTER 11: Damn, this wild heart of mind, it's gonna get me in trouble.

"Now are you going to tell me what's going on?" Elena asks, walking away from the staircase after looking at it longingly. All she wants right now is to be with Damon, because she knows he's going to have a hard time adapting. Who wouldn't after such a big change? She doesn't want him to hurt himself.

"If you're a vampire slayer, then what do you want with me?" Elena crosses her arms. "I'm not one, obviously."

"Yeah, the gig's a little bit more than just slaying." Faith remarks in a patronizing tone.

"Faith. Maybe it's better that I talk to her." Fred chides.

"Be my guest." Faith concedes with a smirk. "I'll just sit tight."

"How rude of me, by the way." Fred introduces herself. "I'm Fred."

"You obviously know who I am." Elena rolls her eyes.

"Okay." Fred nods forming her thoughts. "See, the thing is, we were sent here to investigate some things after getting a tip that something bad was going to happen."

"What?" Elena asks confused. "So you're here to protect me then?"

"Not exactly." Fred stutters.

"Let me clear this up." Faith speaks up impatiently. "When she says 'something bad', what she actually means to say is the world's going to end. And that's something I can't let happen."

Elena just looks at both of the brunette's like they're total freaks.

"It's simple actually. You ever hear the story of that special little girl that wasn't supposed to exist because she continues the doppelgänger line?"

"I thought you weren't going to hurt me." Elena points out backing up, looking at Stefan helplessly.

"I'm not. Stop interrupting." Faith snaps.

"Woah, okay. Everyone just needs to calm down." Jeremy finally butts in, not appreciating the sudden aggressiveness that's being directed at his sister.

Fred and Alaric look at each other helplessly, not sure what to do about the tension in the room.

"Well, kiddo, you exist and that's a problem. But you know what, you were born and there's nothing I can technically do about that." Faith continues. "So one day, this dude shows up to town claiming he's the world's baddest bad."

"Klaus." Jeremy supplies.

"Reality check. He's not." Faith scoffs.

Elena's eyes go wide in absolute wonder.

"He doesn't even make the list of the worst recorded." Fred adds.

"There's a list?" Alaric asks suddenly more interested in the conversation.

"Many." Fred whispers.

"Right." Faith waves them off, placing her hand on her hip. "The thing about Klaus, he was right about one thing. Your blood is the key to unlocking the hybrid race."

"A vampire and werewolf sharing one vessel." Fred explains in a monotone voice.

"I know what a fucking hybrid is!" Elena snaps.

"Yeah, but I'm thinking that you don't how important they are!" Faith retorts.

"Important?" Stefan asks cautiously. He doesn't like the direction of this conversation. They never went in this deep with him earlier.

"The best way to explain this is one day there's going to come in time where every supernatural creature on this earth is going to have to choose a side." Fred replies.

"And we don't want the hybrids on the other side of an already rough snitch." Faith explains. "So that means, you need protecting, because we're not about to give The First Evil anymore open invitations to run this world."

"The First Evil?" Alaric mouths at Stefan in confusion, but both of them are blank on the subject.

"Wait, back up guys." Jeremy announces. "Klaus is stuck at the bottom of the ocean with nearly a ton of steel holding him down."

"You guys are a hoot and a half." Faith comments mockingly. "Do you even know what a Hellmouth is? Because I'm headed back to one!"

"Bottom line is your blood is special." Fred snaps. "A doppelgänger is a rarity and it gets worse now that you're an easy target - out in the open like this. People will always be after your blood." Fred adds.

"When did it become public knowledge what I am?" Elena asks instantly, alarmed.

"You don't just die and come back to life without alerting anyone. Everyone knows who you are." Fred answers quickly with a knowing stare.

"So, basically, you're saying that Elena's blood can sire hybrids and Klaus isn't the only threat?" Alaric assess slowly.

"Pretty much." Fred nods.

"And that we don't really click with hybrids when it comes to the Big Fight." Faith remarks, crossing her arms.

"Okay." Elena replies calmly taking this all in. "Then what do you want with Damon?"

"Yeah… about that…" Fred replies uncomfortably.

"He's not supposed to be human." Faith answers. "He's supposed to be a vampire when the Big Day comes."

"They want to reverse the spell, Elena." Jeremy whispers quietly.

"What?" Elena huffs. "You can't do that! You can't take this away from him!"

Faith shoots her an intimidating look.

"Stefan… come on… this is Damon." Elena asserts turning to him.

Stefan looks absolutely shattered by everything and can barely think at the moment.

"Maybe it's just me, but I still don't get the whole Damon and Elena connection with the world ending thing." Jeremy interrupts them.

"Damon needs to be alive to protect Elena, doesn't he?" Alaric turns to Fred.

Fred nods in affirmation.

"I'll protect her. I can protect her. Just leave Damon alone." Stefan retorts in a sharp tone.

"Seriously?" Faith replies incredulously. "It doesn't work that way. Even if we wanted to, it's not like we can just send someone here to be her permanent bodyguard."

"Why not?" Elena asks trying to get her emotions in check.

"Pain. Death. Apocalypse. This is very real. It's written very plainly." Fred replies. "The prophecy states that'll it be this particular union.."

"I thought you didn't know it was going to be Damon?" Stefan asks alarmed.

"We knew it'd be between her and a vampire she loves." Faith clarifies.

"She loves me too." Stefan blurts out.

"I mean, you do, don't you?" He whispers to Elena.

"Stefan." Elena gasps. "You know I'll always love you…"

"But not the same way you love Damon. You love him. You do. I can tell." Stefan deduces.

"So, the mirror…" Elena begins awkwardly.

"Found your soulmate and turned him human at the same time." Fred explains what she's been wondering this whole time.

"Soulmate?" Jeremy asked Elena.

"The mirror was supposed to find my soulmate. Like a compass. Pretty… silly… right?"

"Yeah, real silly Elena." Alaric comments sarcastically. "How did Damon takes the news?" He asks curiously.

Elena blushes, but doesn't have a chance to reply.

"Seriously, we've been on this for like hours. We found the doppelgänger and the vampire that loves her." Faith says. "And now I'm beat."

"Yeah." Fred agrees and groans. "Besides I've still got to hit deep research mode on how to turn him back without killing him."

"You guys don't know how to turn him back?" Elena asks relived.

"Don't worry." Faith smiles. "We're pretty good at our jobs. So just don't go anywhere and we won't have a problem."

Elena isn't sure how to reply as she tries to process all of the events.

"We'll narrow it down and be back by Midnight tomorrow." Fred adds, she shoots a glance at Faith and the girls walk off to the front hallway.

"I'm gonna offer them a ride, maybe find out some more…" Alaric relays to Stefan.

"I'm coming too." Jeremy moves to his side. "You've gotta drop me off and I'll call Bonnie from home and we'll see if she has any ideas."

"Good idea." Elena nods.

"I'm staying here." She adds as an afterthought.

The siblings exchange quick hugs before parting, leaving Elena and Stefan in the parlor room alone.

"So… soulmate, huh?" Stefan breaks the silence awkwardly.

Elena rolls her eyes, not really caring to talk about her feelings about Damon. She cares more about saving his life. "Stefan, you have to stop them. You can't let them turn him back."

"Elena, it's not that easy." He retorts.

"Then make it easy."

Stefan looks uneasy before replying. "She's stronger than me, ok? Faith is stronger than me. She's a vampire slayer!"

"But she's human?"

"Elena… no… I can't just kill her to make this problem go away."

Elena's fists ball up. "Then find someone who can or I will." She threatens before marching upstairs to check on Damon.

A/N: Woo Hoo, there's a bunch of stuff for my DE fans out there. I get asked whether I like Damon human more (a lot actually?), but it's not true. I love any kind of Damon.:) Also, I just finished reading the Hunger Games, omfg. Anyone else a fan? BE GOOD & REVIEW!