A/N: back with a slightly longer chapter, as requested.
Silas watched as thunder rolled; dark clouds forming in the sky as heavy rains began to fall. Harnessing the power of the elements, he cast his spell.
"The Salvatore's," Lydia yelled, not believing her ears. "First of all, ew," she shuddered, "grossest case of incest ever! Secondly, why didn't you ever tell me," she turned, asking her grandmama Sonya.
"The Salvatore's are descendants of Silas; it's true," Sonya told her young granddaughter, "but not of Emiliyah. You see, Silas had been a charmer back in his day. Before he ever set eyes on Emiliyah he was known for his ability to woo the village ladies. One of them became pregnant but he denied fathering the child. She was shunned, and returned to Italy where the only thing she could do was to claim she had been widowed so her child would not be shunned as well."
"Why does he want them now?" Lydia glanced back towards her very distantly related cousins.
"Not them, necessarily. Just one," Ilya jumped in. "Stefan."
"Why Stefan?" Lydia just wanted them to get to the point of this all so they could go back to their plan.
"Have you ever seen Silas's true face," her mother asked her.
"No. No one has," she pointed out. "Silas can take anyone's appearance; it's no wonder he hasn't shown his true face because he has the perfect way to protect that kind of information."
"You see," Ilya continued, "Ayana was the descendant of Qetsiyah, Silas's best friend."
"I remember," Lydia said. "At first everyone believed that she was the one who came up with the immortality spell that Silas cast but it turned out it was just him."
"But as his best friend and a witch, Qetsiyah knew the spell which is how it was passed down to Ayana."
"Okay," Lydia said confused, "why are we talking about this when what we should be talking about what Silas wants with Stefan," she argued; frustrated with the recent turn of events.
"When Esther took the spell from Ayana, she learned of a consequence of the spell; a tool that sealed and could unseal the spell. A doppelganger of the sacrifice," she explained.
"Tatia's doppelganger, I know. And since she didn't want Klaus to be able to access his werewolf side and become a hybrid, the spell to undo the curse; sacrificing the doppelganger, a werewolf and a vampire, was meant to ensure that he would be unable to create more hybrids."
"And who do you think the sacrifice was in Silas's spell," her mother asked.
"But how? How could Silas sacrifice himself and perform the spell?" Lydia was perplexed.
"The spell Qetsiyah handed down through her line of witches to be safeguarded was changed from it's original form. She didn't dare destroy it because she knew the answer to unsealing the spell would be found in it, but she couldn't risk others cheating death so she altered it.
"By calling on a sacrifice," Ilya continued, "she knew most witches would never use the spell because it is against our one basic principle; and it harm none, do what ye will. Obviously, she didn't count on Esther and Mikael's pathological need to preserve their children."
"So Stefan is Silas's doppelganger. Why does Silas want him now," Lydia asked.
"Because Stefan exists as a loophole to Silas's spell; a version of the original that could die, except when Esther used his spell and created an entire race of vampires, Stefan was saved from death. Remember, as a doppelganger Stefan shares a part of Silas's soul."
"Apparently the part that loves Petrovas," Lydia replied sarcastically before coming to a realization. "We're lifting the curse on the Petrova doppelgangers," she whipped her head around to stare at her mother and grandmama. "But you two are doing more than that aren't you? You're going to lift the immortality spell and make Silas mortal, aren't you?"
"It's the only way to do the work Hecate has called upon us to do," Sonya explained to her granddaughter.
Just then the attic windows came crashing open, flooding the attic with water. In the circle, the witches and Petrova doppelgangers remained safe as the other vampires started to come to. Stefan was the first one to wake as Damon and Caroline slowly came to, groaning in pain.
Touching his lips, Stefan suddenly realized that the rain hitting his face was more than just water. "Blood," he cringed as the dark veins suddenly came to life underneath his eyes. The taste immediately triggered his addiction and as Lydia tried to call out to him the vampire sped out of the room.
Elena stood in front Charlotte, in awe of this turn of events. It was no longer the little girl that Elena had immediately come to think of as a little sister but an old woman with silver locks that hung all the way down her back. Dressed in plain cotton garbs, there was a simplistic beauty to her ancestor.
Reaching out a hand, Charlotte looked upon the image of her sister. She had spent centuries taking care of all of her sister's reincarnations on the other side and here was the last piece of the puzzle. The purest piece. Elena was the core of what Tatia had encompassed. Elena was her heart.