Chapter 9:

Earlier, Alice confirmed the time of Victoria's arrival: she'd be here tomorrow night. Assuming that they didn't have a witch willing to spell daylight rings for an entire army of vampires, they would be forced to attack at night. Because of the imminent threat, everyone was suddenly making use of the short time we had. Stefan and Jasper were becoming friends; I'd overheard them reminiscing about the civil war era together. Jasper, like Damon, had been a Confederate soldier which intrigued Stefan. I was glad that he had someone to talk to. Tyler, Elena, Bonnie, and I, the supernaturals of Mystic Falls, hadn't lived nearly as long as Stefan and Damon and now that Damon was gone Stefan had no one to talk about the old days with.

If it weren't for the upcoming war, I could see myself becoming close friends with Alice or Bella. Alice's fashion sense was to die for and Bella was just refreshing to be around since she wasn't as serious as Elena or as terrifying as Katherine.

"Why is Rosalie so cold to Bella, if you don't mind me asking?" I had brought up the subject while we made breakfast together. Edward and Bella were out in their secret meadow that they apparently had so they weren't in the kitchen with me today.

"She's just jealous," Emmett said.

"Jealous?" I asked incredulously while taking a chili pepper jar from his hands before he added it to the eggs. "Why?"

"Bella's human and she's choosing to become a vampire. Rosalie is upset that she didn't have that choice," he explained and grabbed a black pepper shaker, correcting his mistake.

I turned my head to the side. "Why would Bella choose to turn? No one wants that."

"She wants to live forever with Edward. There's not much she can do to do that other than turning so I guess it makes sense. Rosalie wanted a family and to grow old but unfortunately, infertility is a side effect of dying. Bella gets to choose between a life and love and Rosalie thinks that she's choosing wrong." While he gave his explanation, he forgot about the eggs he had still sitting on the stove. I ran to his side and took the sizzling pan from his grasp and moved it off of the heat.

"Then why hasn't she turned yet?" As much as I tried to salvage the eggs, they were hopelessly burnt. I scraped them into the trash and Emmett took two more out of the fridge to try again.

"She would have to give up the family she has now if she turned. Months after we turn we're like mosquitos, feeding off of everything that moves. Actually, that's probably not the best analogy, it just sounds good for some reason. Well, our eyes change color and our skin is too pale for us to pass as human to those who already knew us. If she was to turn now, she would be forced to somehow never see her parents or her friends again whether that's by faking her death or by completely ghosting everyone."

"That's awful. I see why Rosalie wouldn't want her to change. Oh, don't do that!" I yelled as he tried to flip the egg on the pan like one would flip a pancake by tossing it in the air. His reflexes were good but not good enough to catch all the pieces of the scrambled egg flying around the kitchen. It was his best attempt yet so he proudly pushed it onto a plate while I swept up the mess. "When I turned, I was able to fake it for a pretty long time before my mom found out," I told him. I placed the jam covered toast on the plate next to the "scrambled eggs" and gave him a high five.

It was midnight and Bella and Edward had been arguing about who knows what in his room and for their privacy, I chose not to listen in for once. But because they were there and Alice and Jasper were out hunting, Stefan was downstairs in the living room while I was alone in Alice's room. Her room was filled with pictures of the Cullens and Bella all having fun together. All these memories lined the walls of her bedroom and I couldn't help but miss my friends that I had my own memories with.

It's not that I don't like Forks. I do. But I still don't know why we're even here. Stefan left Mystic Falls to start a new life away from the supernatural and we somehow ended up allies with a bunch of vampires. It's barely our battle to fight and had Edward and Bella not looked like Stefan and Elena I would have left a long time ago.

Left to where? I thought. Because of the travelers' magic border around our town, I really wasn't welcome there. And the entire friend group was split up and I'd spent most of my summer with either my mom or Alaric trying to fix Mystic Falls. Elena was at Whitmore, partying with the other freshmen and not remembering the love of her life. Bonnie and Damon are dead. Matt and Jeremy were living inside of the border and Tyler's busy trying not to become a werewolf. That left Stefan, I guess.

I wasn't falling asleep anytime soon. I focused on the sounds from downstairs and Stefan's breathing told me that he wasn't asleep yet either. So not to disturb Bella and Edward, I carefully tiptoed past their room and down the stairs. "I can't sleep," I said quietly to Stefan.

"Me neither. Sit down if you want," he said, moving over to share the couch. I threw myself onto the couch next to him and pulled a pillow onto my lap.

"I'm nervous about tomorrow," I said. "I mean, you've seen the news, there have been so many 'murders' in Seattle that her army must be huge. We only have the two of us, Angela, and the- how many Cullens are there again?"

"Six."

"Right. The six of them and Bella. Do you think we really stand a chance?"

He shrugged. "The Cullens are stronger than Victoria's army. Since they can't be staked, they're almost as indestructible as the Originals. And I have a hundred fifty years on these vampires. You're a great fighter yourself, you could beat me."

"You let me win," I mumbled.

"I wish," he said. "You're actually pretty good. I want a rematch at some point." He lightly nudged me with his shoulder but because of my position on my knees, I lost my balance for a second. I playfully pushed him back and we both laughed when he leaned on my side until I fell over again. We sat in a comfortable silence for a while.

I sighed. "What are we doing here, Stefan?"

"What do you mean?"

"If we somehow do beat Victoria, what do we do next?" I looked at him but he still was staring down at his lap.

"Damon is still dead, Caroline. I'm not going back."

I frowned. "But what about Elena? Or my mom? They're still there."

"You still need them. I'm not in love with Elena anymore. I'm going to start over." he said. I felt tears forming in my eyes.

"Why did you come here in the first place? There are so many places you could've gone and you came here," I demanded.

"I came to the west coast for the Gemini Coven."

"I don't believe you," I accused him, feeling my face growing warmer. "The Gemini are in Oregon, even a quick stop in Washington wouldn't be all the way north in the peninsula. You came to Forks specifically, the only other place with the doppelgängers and vampires. And there are vampires all over the continent but you somehow ran into another race that somehow our vampires didn't know existed."

"You haven't figured it out yet?" he snapped. "Edward is dead. He doesn't have any blood."

"What does that have to do with why you came here?"

"The magic part of the doppelgängers is the blood. Klaus was bound by the blood of Tatia, unbound by Elena's. By becoming a vampire and having no more blood, Edward ceased to be a doppelgänger, other than his looks of course."

"I still don't see how it's connected."

"He's not really a doppelgänger. Meaning that his and Bella's relationship is entirely by chance, not fate. Now that I'm no longer in love with Elena, the universe-prophecy thing basically pulled me to Forks because I'm supposed to be with Bella," he said, finally meeting my eyes.

"Oh," was all I could say.

"I don't love Bella, obviously. But evidently, no matter how hard I try I always end up wandering my way to another doppelgänger. I might as well give up trying to avoid it. I can start a new life somewhere else and eventually, another doppelgänger will come along. As you said, the third time's the charm."

My friend was able to translate the entire French review and don't worry, I love long reviews! I don't want to spoil anything, but I was planning to do a lot of what you suggested (You inspired the Emmett breakfast scene haha).

All the reviews are great, thank you. I'll try to update within the next week.