AN1: I asked, and I received! Feedback about the summary, I mean. I want to say 'Thank You!' to every single one of you who shared your opinion with me, and I got some seriously brilliant suggestions. Seriously. I actually find myself wishing I could have more than one summary for this story. Alas, I'll have to settle for one. So this is what I think I'll be going with:

Joanna, a woman - originally from a reality where TVD is fiction - is reborn as an immortal sister to Elena Gilbert. With the knowledge that she has on the events that have yet to happen, she doesn't hesitate to meddle, for the benefit of those she has come to hold most dear. Based on seasons 1-3. Will start with a kind of DamonOC, but will be ElijahOC. No love triangle. SI-OC.

As you can see, the summary isn't all that much different. That's because most of you seemed to like the original one well enough. But I still got some suggestions that I felt would improve the summary and used the ones I could. Again, Thank you, for sharing your thoughts with me. I truly appreciate it!

AN2: I have been asked (by a couple of reviewers) whether I plan to extend this beyond the first three season or even over to the Originals territory and the answer is: Sorry, but no. I'm rather set on keeping this story in the confines of seasons 1-3. In fact, there is a possibility I might be forced to contradict the later seasons (and the Originals). While blatantly ignoring and contradicting the canon is something I try to avoid, it is something I might be forced to do, and so when I say this is 'based on seasons 1-3', I mean I'm reserving the right to disrespect everything outside of those three seasons and won't hear any whining about it :)

Also, I was asked about whether Joanna has any weaknesses (like vervain for vampires) or any extra powers than what's been shown so far. She doesn't have a weakness, per se, but I think Joanna's main 'weakness' is her lack of strength. She's not enhanced like vampires and werewolves. No enhanced speed or strength or senses. Nor can she cast any magic like witches. In fact, without her immortality she would be completely defenseless. And concerning her 'powers', what you'll be seeing in this chapter is pretty much all you're going to get, so if you're hoping for her to discover some awesome new power, you're going to be disappointed.

Chapter 11: Niklaus

The next morning, when Elena and I were leaving for school, we found a letter on our front porch. It was addressed to her, and as I watched her read it and her eyes turn sad, I could actually guess what it was about.

"It's from Isobel", she finally said. She held it out for me, "Do you want to read it?" I shook my head. "She says she's sorry. And that we're never going to meet."

"She's a vampire and you have your whole life ahead of you", I calmly said. "She would realize the chances of you never meeting would be low. Unless one of you was dead."

Her eyes shot up to me in alarm from where she'd been eying the letter. "Do you think this is her way of warning me about Klaus?"

"No, she wasn't saying goodbye because she thinks you're going to die, but because she thinks she is", I gently corrected.

"But she's a vampire. Why would she - ?"

"I don't have all the answers, Elena", I told her. "And I think this is one of those things we're just going to have to take at face value. She's gone. End of story."

Her eyes teared up but she quickly blinked them away, "I never even got to meet her."

"That might be for the best."

She huffed a sad little laugh, "That's what she said. That her human self dreamed of the day she would meet me, but that after she was turned, she was no longer the person she would have liked me to meet."

I rubbed her shoulder comfortingly and then turned her towards the stairs that led down from the porch, "Come on, sis. School awaits."

O O O

Isobel having arrived to Mystic Falls was another sign of Niklaus' arrival approaching, so it was with that in mind that I stepped into the history classroom - history being our first class of the day - feeling a mix of trepidation and excitement. While my meddling had caused a lot of ripples, there was still a chance that Niklaus would want to have a look around town while covertly possessing our history teacher before stepping foot into town in his own body. So when Alaric stepped into the classroom, my eyes were glued to him.

He looked harried. Unprepared, and the way he looked around the room gave me the impression he was seeing something he hadn't seen before. And he spent half of his awake time in this room. When his eyes stopped briefly at Elena - briefly, but intensely - I knew there wasn't any doubt about it.

Niklaus had finally come into Mystic Falls.

As soon as class let out, I sent a message to Elijah to let him know about Niklaus possessing Alaric Saltzman and that I wanted to wait until he made his presence known. Then I committed to keeping a close eye on Elena for the rest of the day. I wasn't entirely surprised when the day passed without Niklaus making his move - at least as far as I could see - when there was such a perfect arena for mindfuckery coming just the following day, it being the Founders' Day. And not just any yearly Founders' Day, but the 150th Anniversary of the founding of Mystic Falls. The celebration was bound to be big and when an outsider could so easily blend into the crowds... Yes. He would be making his move then.

O O O

It was the Founders' Day and the town square was filled with people. Just about everyone in Mystic Falls had come to see the parade that was to start in twenty minutes and the fireworks that would follow later in the evening. I was sitting at a stone bench with Elijah, idly chatting as we watched people being in such a festive mood, when Elena suddenly ran over. She was all dolled up in her old-fashioned almost gold-colored dress with a light green sash. I could only imagine how much she was giving the Salvatores flashbacks looking like this, and with her hair curled like Katherine's too. I glanced at Elijah and found him staring at her, while somehow staring through her and I knew he too was remembering Katherine - or Katerina - as she'd been when he had known her.

"Elena, what are you doing here?" I asked her, frowning. "Shouldn't you be getting ready to get on the float?"

"Klaus", she hissed, catching her breath, "Klaus is here. He compelled Linda to give me a message."

I looked at her curiously, "A message?"

"That he's here and looking forward to meeting me after the parade!" She replied, her distress obvious. She looked at me more closely and noticed I wasn't looking nearly as alarmed as she felt the situation warranted, "God, Jo! Can't you try to look even a little bit worried?"

I stood up, stepped closer to her and cupped her face, "Elena, I'm going to handle this. I want you to enjoy the parade and the rest of the day and leave Klaus to me and Elijah, okay?"

She grabbed at my arms desperately, "No. No! You're not putting yourself in danger, Jo! I won't let you go to him for me!"

I sighed, "Elena... We've talked about this." She just shook her head in denial. "You will let me do my sisterly duty and I will see you at home tonight, if not before then." When she just kept on shaking her head, eyes wide with fear and her fingers digging into the flesh of my arms, I added: "Elijah won't let anything happen to me. I'll be perfectly safe."

"Please don't do this", she pleaded, "I can't lose you too."

"You won't", I promised. "I swear to you, Elena... You won't."

I kept my eyes locked with hers, letting her see the confidence, the certainty in my eyes and she finally loosened her grip and slowly let go off me altogether.

"Now go", I told her. "The parade won't wait for you."

She nodded, with painful hesitance, and whispered "Be safe" before dashing off. I watched her go, only returning my attention to Elijah when he spoke: "I cannot guarantee your safety from my brother, you realize."

I smiled at him softly, "I don't expect you to." I gestured for him to get up, "Let's go." I began wading through the crowds towards the part of town where I knew Alaric lived. I had been sure to find out his address, knowing I might end up needing it, so even though I'd never been to his place, I knew where I was going. I also conveniently enough had his phone number and made use of it now. 'Something urgent came up. Meet me at your apartment in five.'

"Where are we going?" Elijah asked.

"To Alaric's apartment", I answered. "I sent him a message to meet us there. I would prefer to deal with him somewhere with less innocents to get in the crossfire if things go south."

"Alaric is still alive", he slowly said. "I won't be able to enter unless Klaus invites me in."

"I'm hoping I can get him to offer you an invite, but I'm not counting on it", I assured.

We reached Alaric's door just moments before he came up the stairs and down the hall over to us. He had a worried expression on his face, "Joanna. Your message was awfully vague. How bad is it?"

"Bad enough that I'd prefer a little more privacy than the hallway can offer", I gestured to the door, "Can we come in?"

The wariness on Alaric's face was very convincing as he glanced at the vampire next to me, "I don't know how I feel about inviting him in."

That was actually exactly how the real Alaric would feel about the issue, but since letting him know that wouldn't have served my cause, I frowned at him in a mix of confusion and disapproval, "You know he's on our side, Ric. You know he won't do anything to make you regret letting him in."

The man laughed weakly, "You're right... Of course..." He dug his keys out and unlocked the door. "You can both come in", he said with a twitch of a smile and then walked in, leaving the door open for us.

I glanced at Elijah and caught the look of appreciation he shot me before stepping into the apartment with him following behind me.

Alaric rounded at us and asked: "So what is this about?"

"It's about the message", I said, waited for him to look at me in question and only then clarified: "The message you had someone pass onto Elena." His eyes widened in surprise and I could see his pose stiffen slightly. "That wasn't very nice of you, Klaus."

He looked at me in shock, for a moment, and then burst into laughter, "And you lured me away from her and your friends to protect them and then fooled me into inviting your guard dog in. How devious!" His face darkened, and a cruel smirk took over. The expression looked wholly unnatural on Alaric's face. "And how foolish. He is no match for me, surely he told you that?"

"I don't need anyone to guard me", I replied coolly, "Surely Isobel told you that?"

He looked at me calculatingly, "Yes, she did in fact mention something of the sort. Makes a fellow curious, it does. Curious and eager to test a theory."

The first thing that registered was the pain. It was like nothing I had ever felt, the immeasurable agony that radiated from my chest all the way over to the tips of my extremities.

Then I heard the gasp from behind me. The gasp of surprise from Elijah.

I sank to my knees, eyes fighting to stay open as I desperately gasped for breath, but I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe.

And there was a chunk of bloody meat in the hand of the man looming over me, blood dripping to the rough wooden floor in large heavy drops. He was looking down at me in detached curiosity.

The world was swimming. No air reached my lungs and I realized they must have been severely damaged because the thing in Alaric's - Klaus' - hand? It was my heart.

" - the only one who knows where the moonstone is!" I heard Elijah almost shout. I didn't think I'd ever heard him raise his voice before. "You had the chance of the millenium and you ruined it with your hasty actions and mindless violence!"

"Calm yourself, brother", Alaric's voice calmly replied. "She's still alive, is she not? And look! She's pulling herself back together as we speak."

Gasping for breath with desperation I weakly lifted my head to look at what he was going on about and saw that the heart in his hand was quickly falling apart, turning into ash right before our eyes. And the ash, instead of falling straight down, it was moving towards and into the bloody mess of hole in my chest like sucked into a vacuum.

"Impossible", Elijah breathed out.

"She didn't tell you?" Alaric - no, Klaus - sounded awfully smug. "The same source that told me of the doppelgänger being in Mystic Falls also told me that the doppelgänger's sister claims to be immortal. An immortal other than vampire."

It was like there was something just at the edge of my vision. I knew it was there, I could feel it, but I couldn't quite see it. The feeling of safety and belonging that came with it was all I needed to figure out what it was.

"She's a Wise One?" Elijah asked in wonder.

"That was the conclusion I too reached", the vampire possessing Alaric replied, "Though it was just a little too hard to believe without", he tipped his hand and the rest of the ash fell down and to me, "solid proof." It was mere seconds after the last of the ash entered me that I felt the hole quickly start to close and sweet - sweet! - air finally reach my healed lungs again. "After all, with the exception of us Original vampires, the Wise Ones are the only beings that have even rumored to be able to survive the loss of heart."

I looked up at him, intending to give him an angry look, but my eyes never quite made it that far up when I noticed the blackened skin of his hand. And it looked like it was spreading.

"Ah!" The man gasped in pain and brought his hand up. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the black, dead skin of his hand. "What is this!?" He asked in alarm.

I knew. And I knew I should have expected it. If my distress had been strong enough to attract Him, then it was no surprise that He would feel the need to retaliate. "Please!" I pleaded, "This isn't what I want!" I felt a strange sort of warmth envelope me - an equivalent of a hug from a formless entity, I figured - and unbidden the word slipped from my lips: "Father..."

And then He was gone.

Realizing I had closed my eyes, I blinked them open. I was sitting on the floor, and there were two men watching me cautiously. I let my eyes drop to Alaric's hand and found it was quickly looking better, healing.

"Child of the Father", Elijah quietly said, "For such a thing to truly exist..."

"Who would have thought", Klaus mused. "I had deemed them a myth when I never came across one in all my years, and yet here one is, a thousand years later."

I got to my feet and glanced down. My shirt was a lost cause. While the blood might wash, the large fist sized hole wasn't something you could fix. I was happy to note my bra was still intact, though it too was soaking in blood. I headed towards what I suspected was the bedroom door.

"And where do you think you're going?" Klaus asked.

Without bothering to stop or turn to face him, I replied: "To get myself something whole to wear. I'm flashing more skin than I'm entirely comfortable with given the current company." I pulled the door open and found Katherine sitting on the bed, looking at me calculatingly. "Katherine", I said in surprise, and then smirked, "I told you to run, didn't I? This is what happens when people don't listen to me." I shot a look at Klaus over my shoulder, "Something you might to keep in mind for the following discussion, Niklaus." I strode over to Alaric's closet and pulled it open. And wrinkled my nose at his taste in clothes. With a little digging I found a plain black t-shirt and changed into it after wiping the most of the blood off my front with the remains of my top.

I walked back out of the bedroom, closing the door behind me to the displeasure of Katherine. She could, of course, still hear what was going on, but with the door open she could have also seen everything. I walked over to them and Elijah gave me a worried look, "Are you alright?"

I opened my mouth to reply but Klaus was quicker with his - or Alaric's - tongue, "You always were so soft, brother. She's fine! Surely you can see that?"

We both ignored him. I told Elijah: "All healed, though not very eager to repeat the experience."

"I'm... sorry you had to go through that", he quietly said.

I gave his face a quick caress and gently said: "It's not your place to apologize for your brother, Elijah. And unlike how you might think, him being a first class asshole doesn't make you any less than the man you are."

Whether there was something he was going to say in response, I would never know, because again Klaus butted in: "Can we get back to the matter at hand? Elijah says you have the moonstone. I want it."

Slowly, I slid my eyes to meet his. "You want something from me?" I coolly asked. "That's interesting. Because I distinctly remember you ripping my heart out of my chest just moments ago", I pointed at the bloodied floor, "right here."

"Let the bygones be bygones", he lightly said. And then smirked at me wickedly, "Or I could try ripping hearts out of other people's chests and see where that gets me. Perhaps young Jeremy? I admit, I am curious whether immortality runs in the family."

I stepped over to him and glared up at him, "You will stay the hell away from all my loved ones or you will be getting your final death a lot sooner than you might like."

He narrowed his eyes at me, "Your sister is the doppelgänger. You know I can't agree to that. Not when I need her to break the Curse."

"You will get your Curse broken", I promised, "But no one - and I mean no one - gets hurt in the process unless I say so."

He looked at me confusion, "You intend to let me break the Curse?"

"Yes", I shortly replied.

"Even though the ritual calls for the death of your sister?" He pressed.

"There's an elixir she will be drinking", I said.

He caught on quickly, "Elijah's elixir." His eyes darted to meet Elijah's steady gaze, "You gave it to her?"

"Yes", Elijah confirmed.

Klaus' borrowed eyes narrowed and returned to me, "But there's a chance the ritual won't work right, with us trying to cheat it of the sacrifice it calls for. I am decidedly not willing to risk that."

I smirked. "Didn't I just warn you to listen to me mere moments ago, Niklaus?" I asked. "It's not just me, who wants the doppelgänger to come out of the ritual alive and well, but you as well. You need the blood of the doppelgänger to successfully turn a werewolf into a hybrid, didn't you know?"

"What are you talking about?" He asked, looking at me like he thought I was crazy.

"The only way for a werewolf to survive the transition into a hybrid is for the transition to be completed with the blood of the doppelgänger", I explained. "No other blood will do."

He shook his head in denial, "I have gone to countless witches, looking for answers about my Curse and not one - not one! - has mentioned there being any need for the doppelgänger after the breaking of the Curse!"

"Ah yes... The witches", I said, amused. "And where do you think the witches get all their knowledge about the Curse from?"

"The one who cast the Curse", Elijah quietly said. He looked rather sad and I knew he had realized what I was getting at. "The Original Witch."

"She cast the curse so naturally she wouldn't want you to break it", I said, "And if you did happen to succeed in your lifelong mission of breaking it, she would be even more determined to keep you from spreading that which she sees as an abomination. She never wanted you to be a hybrid, and is even less eager for there to be more of your kind. So she created a failsafe. A failsafe she hasn't even told the witches contacting her looking for answers.

"It really is a rather brilliant failsafe. Because for you to break the Curse, you need to kill the doppelgänger, but for you to create more of your kind, you need the doppelgänger alive." I could see he didn't want to believe me, but he also knew that this was something the witch in question would have done. "Even in the scenario that the doppelgänger had the chance to procreate before you killed her, you would still be waiting for the next one for several hundred years."

"You're lying", he said. He didn't sound very convinced however. "You couldn't possibly know that."

"She's a Wise One", Elijah said. "You said it yourself. It's like Mother used to tell us. They have knowledge no one else does." He hesitated for a moment then added: "And what she's saying does make sense. You know how much she hated what you were."

Glaring at Elijah, Klaus growled, "And if she", he gestured angrily at me, "is wrong? You would have me risk everything at the word of my enemy? What proof have you to show me that this isn't just some ploy to hinder me, on both your parts!?"

Elijah lifted his chin proudly, "She told me you still have our siblings. She told me you lied to me, and I chose to believe her." He took a step closer to the possessed Alaric. "We will help you break the Curse and you will return my siblings to me. That is why I'm here."

I could see Klaus was considering lying, but then decided against it. "And if I should refuse to return them to you?"

Noticing Elijah stiffen in anger, I quickly grabbed his arm to stop him from doing or saying anything rash. To Klaus I said: "What reason would you have to refuse? After the Curse is lifted, you will be even more invulnerable than you are now. There would be no need for you to fear your siblings trying to pay you back for keeping them daggered for so long."

"It is not their wrath I'm wary off", he slowly admitted.

"You are keeping them daggered to protect them from Mikael?" Elijah asked with no little amount of disbelief.

"They are reckless with their lives, all three of them!" Klaus growled. "The only reason Mikael hasn't picked them one by one is because I have kept them safe."

"And if Mikael was no longer a problem?" I asked. I didn't remember much about the man in question, but I remembered one important bit: He had been desiccated by a witch some years back and had been trapped in a mausoleum at a cemetery somewhere.

"He has been hunting my siblings and I for a thousand years and you think you could end him?" Klaus asked incredulously.

"With my own hands?" I asked. "No. I'm not made for things like that. But that doesn't mean I couldn't come up with a plan for you big strong vampires to execute." I gave him an intent stare. "You will give us your word that the moment Mikael dies his final death, you will relinquish all three of your siblings to Elijah."

"Or what?" He asked, almost threateningly.

"Or the moonstone suffers a little accident and you will never be all that you can be", I told him.

"I would have your family dead", Klaus told me coldly, "All your friends... Everyone you've ever met."

I looked at him with a blatantly measuring look, "Perhaps. Or perhaps Father will grant me the favor of ridding the world of you first. He was awfully eager to do just that - ", I took his hand and rubbed his palm with my thumb pointedly. It was there that my heart had rested. And there that his - and Alaric's - death had begun before I had stopped it. " - and that was without me wanting it."

"It wouldn't have killed me, only this body I'm borrowing", he said dismissively. I could see the doubt in his eyes, however.

"You don't believe that", I said with a smug little smirk. I dropped his hand. "Come next full moon, you will bring your witch and I will bring you a vampire, a werewolf and a doppelgänger with the elixir to sacrifice, as well as the moonstone. You will refrain from terrorizing anyone until then and after the Curse is broken and we have dealt with the threat of Mikael, you will return your siblings to Elijah. Do we have an accord?"

He looked at me for a long silent moment. I refused to fidget. I didn't even blink as he stared down at me. And finally he grudgingly replied: "We have an accord."

"Great", I said and turned, "Then I'll be leaving."

Alaric's hand wrapped around my bicep before I could take even a single step towards the door, "Not so fast. I still have questions I expect to have answered."

I turned back to him and he let go of me. "About what exactly?" I asked.

"About your kind", he replied.

I looked at him blankly, "That's nice. Doesn't mean I'm inclined to satisfy your curiosity, however." Shooting him a calculating look, I continued: "Unless, of course, you're willing to answer some questions of mine."

"Quid pro quo, then?" Klaus asked, looking surprisingly happy about the compromise, "Alright. My first question: How did you become a Wise One?"

"I have been what I am since birth", I replied. He didn't look satisfied with my answer, but knew better than to press. I asked: "How soon are you planning to vacate Alaric's body?"

"As soon as possible", he answered. I could see the distaste he felt for possessing Alaric, but couldn't say whether it was due to him disliking possession in general or because he found Alaric somehow less than ideal. "Hopefully as soon as tonight."

"I hope you realize I expect you to leave Alaric alone after you are done with him", I commented. "That includes finding yourself a new place to stay since this is, in fact, Alaric's apartment."

He didn't offer me any promises, instead asking: "It has already been established that you are immortal and have some useful knowledge. What other special traits do you have? Traits separating you from human?"

I shrugged, "I'm immune against compulsion and all kinds of magic", I took a moment to consider whether there was anything else I should - and could - mention. "Also, turns out my blood is quite delicious to you vampires." I noticed his eyes drop to my neck and immediately shot him a warning look, "You bite me and I'll make you pay for your daring, you hear?"

"But you have allowed vampires to feed from you before?" He asked. I rather liked the fact that he assumed I had willingly offered my blood instead of having a vampire just attack me. It showed he subconsciously had at least some respect for me.

"It's my turn to ask a question", I pointed out.

"You can have two after you answer this one", he easily argued.

I looked at him in silence for a moment and then answered: "Yes, I have let vampires drink from me before. More than one."

Klaus' - Alaric's - eyes slid to where Elijah was watching on quietly, mere two feet from my right shoulder. "And I imagine my brother has been one of those lucky ones."

It wasn't a question, and neither Elijah nor I felt the need to give him the satisfaction of confirming or denying his subtle probing. Instead, I went on to ask: "Is Isobel still alive...ish?"

He looked at me curiously, clearly wondering how much I cared and how his answer would be received. "No. She walked into her final death yesterday."

"And you had no hand in that, I'm sure", I muttered. "No matter. She made her choice", I said dismissively and then began to ask: "Do you have any - ?" Sadly, I was interrupted by both vampires' heads snapping to face the bedroom door.

I frowned as Klaus growled wordlessly and stomped over to the door, swung it open with quite some force and then snarled: "Katerina..."

I followed him into the bedroom and found the female vampire gone. I noticed my discarded - torn and bloody - shirt near the open window. The shirt was several feet from where I'd left it and the window had been closed the last I'd seen it.

"Maddox has some serious explaining to do", Klaus muttered angrily.

I chuckled, "I wouldn't be so quick to accuse your warlock of failing you."

"It was his task to keep Katerina from escaping!" Klaus snarled. "As you can see, she is gone. He has failed me."

"To be fair, he couldn't have foreseen this", I calmly argued, "And even if he had, he couldn't have done anything about It."

"You know how she escaped then?" Elijah asked curiously from the doorway. I hadn't even heard him come over.

I pointed a finger towards my bloody shirt, "She had my blood in her system. Drinking my blood gives vampires my immunity to magic for a brief moment. She must be one hell of a smart bitch to figure that out though from just hearing me tell you about my immunity." Of course it was also probable that Katherine had looked into how Damon had gotten into the tomb and had used that little mysterious piece of a puzzle to figure out the effects of my blood as well. Still, that took some serious smarts.

"I have hunted for her for five hundred years and she slipped from me because of your carelessness..?" Klaus lowly said, eyes narrowed murderously at me.

I frowned at him, feeling somewhat pissed about him trying to turn this on me, "Hey now. It's not my fault that someone decided to take their time instead of just killing her while he had the chance." I poked his chest. Hard. "You knew exactly how slippery she can be and yet you decided to drag it on? You can't blame anyone for this but yourself, Niklaus, and you know it."

"She wouldn't have gotten away had you not left your blood lying around carelessly!" He growled.

"My blood would have been safely inside my body had you not decided to fucking rip my heart out!" I snapped. "So suck it up like a man and stop whining!"

He took a threatening step closer to me, almost pressing against me as he growled down at me with eyes that screamed murderous intent.

I met his glare with one of mine and opened my mouth to tell him exactly what I thought of him when Elijah cut me off: "Alright, that's enough of you. Having you at each other's throats won't help us recapture Katerina."

Stepping away from the possessed Alaric I huffed, "The bitch will emerge eventually. She won't be able to resist meddling. And it's not like we have any real need for her."

AN: I've been suffering from a writer's block for a while now, so I unless my muse decides to make a sudden return, the future chapters might take a little - or a lot - longer than the chapters so far. I have most of chapter 12 written and I have a good idea about where I'm going with this, so there will be more to come, and in the not too distant future too. But probably not next week. Or possibly even the week after that. But I'm hoping to not have to keep you waiting for too long. Just giving you fair warning, that's all. Thanks for reading! Feedback is treasured, as always!

Posted on June 27th, 2015.