A/n: Still interested in this? Extremely outdated and behind but I do hate to leave things unfinished. I just lost my drive for a bit there (especially after the show doppelganger'd the crap out of us for a while there and disproved a lot of my theories on the Petrova doppelganger arc!).

I didn't get much feedback previously so I put my motivation into a different fic that I have gotten a good deal of feedback on and I find it to be much more of an enjoyable process knowing what people think and if they feel what you are trying to convey. So, hit that review button and feed a starving muse. Trust me, it's hungry.

Xxxxx

Somewhere between Elena calming her rage and Damon spatting obscenities through gritted teeth, the witch had snuck off to leave the four of them in the blood spattered wreck of a room. Katherine released Elena as soon as she dropped the stake she supposed she grabbed shortly after baring her teeth at her murderous doppelganger.

"I'm leaving now, you won't be seeing me again," Katherine said flatly, pulling her hand out of Damon's chest with a sickening pop.

Damon fell to the ground and let out a few moans before spatting almost comically, "You bitch."

Katherine took to wiping Damon's blood off her hand using the draperies that hung tattered from the spell-induced wind. She didn't look anyone in the eye when she replied, "I know you're angry with me Elena. Not that it brings him back, but I didn't plan on killing Jeremy."

Elena flinched at the mention of her brother's name. She turned away from Katherine, her mind overwhelmed with too many memories and too much information at once.

Katherine continued talking as she slowly walked past Elena to exit the room, "I don't know about you, but I'm going to find the witch. I need to know what this so called vision of the future Esther had is all about."

Elena glanced down at her abdomen, remembering Elijah's warning words and gaze. She heard Katherine stop near the hallway and turn before saying softly, "I'll let you know what I find out." In a flash she was gone and Elena was left with the Salvatore brothers staring at her tense back.

It wasn't until she felt their hands grasping either side of her as she crumpled to the floor that she realized just how angry she was with them both. They didn't tell her about Jeremy. They lied to her when she asked questions. She spent all this time wracking her brain on ways to help Katherine stop Tatia when she was of no use at all. In the end, Elena had just been a puppet in some stupid plan. She was always involved in some stupid plan and one of them got her brother killed. This cure was nothing more than a myth. It didn't give her a choice to be human again. It didn't save anybody she cared about. It was nothing. They all suffered and people died for nothing.

As if she would ever give birth to some child and willingly turn it vampire. She would never do that. Never. She looked down at her abdomen again as Damon tried to get her to peer into his eyes from his squatting position before her. They both looked worried and she couldn't hear the words that were falling from their silently moving lips. There was no way there was a child inside of her. She had only just been with Damon. Impossible and inconceivable.

This had all been for nothing. And with that, she fled from the house and crashed through the woods. She had to find Elijah. She had to make it go away again.

Xxxx

By the time Elena reached the looming Mikaelson mansion, she was weak and feeling little else than despair. Rebekah was the one to let her in with a quirked eyebrow and silent questions pursed on plump lips. She was ushered into an upstairs guestroom and into a huge garden tub. The water turned pink from the dried blood on her body. She couldn't remember if it was her blood, Tatia's spatter, or Damon's. Didn't matter, they were one the same right now.

Rebekah sat on the countertop warily watching Elena's every move as she scrubbed the blood and woodsy dirt from her skin. The beautiful blonde only spoke when Elena stood to grab a robe to wrap around her dripping wet body.

"I wondered which of you would make it back here. I always knew Tatia was a lying bitch. My family hated her. Save for Nik and Elijah of course," she droned on in that honey sweet voice of hers.

Elena kept her head down as she tied the robe tightly around her body. She wasn't in the mood for chit chat and she didn't trust Rebekah to compel away everything correctly. She'd probably tell Elena to eat shit for the rest of her life.

She continued talking even as Elena slowly gathered up her tattered and blood stained pajamas that she had been wearing when it all went down.

"They are out there burying her now. You probably don't want to be here when they return," Rebekah warned lightly, hopping down from the counter.

"I need to see Elijah," Elena admitted.

"About your baby?" Rebekah asked innocently.

Elena froze and let her clothes drop back to the floor. They were ruined anyway.

She said through clenched teeth, "There is no baby."

"Not yet anyway, but there will be. I had a nice chat with the witch before she was summoned for the ritual tonight. Seems my mother really had this all planned out. It's written in you girl's destinies you see. Tatia bore a child, Katarina bore a child…that leaves you. I think it means it's your turn and now you've a chance," Rebekah replied in an almost bored tone.

Elena shook her head and crossed her arms tightly across her chest, "I will die before I bring a life into this world to suffer the same fate. It isn't possible."

"Oh little girl, anything is possible with magic. I think I hear them now…"

Xxxx

Elijah felt heavy with a sadness he hadn't experienced in quite some time. His hand in Tatia's death would plague him for the rest of eternity. He only hoped her soul was finally at peace. He left Nik there to grieve alone because if he stayed he'd be sucked into the despair for another century. He couldn't do that now. Not when there was so much left for him to do.

He wasn't surprised to find Elena tucked neatly into an arm chair in the sitting room. He smelled traces of her as soon as he hit the doorway. It was jolting just how alike all three women's scents were. He wished he could find it comforting in this fresh wound of loss, but her smell washed over him like a cloud of misery.

"You've come with questions," Elijah stated tiredly, walking to the fireplace to prop an elbow on the marble mantle.

"I don't care about what the cure did or didn't do to my body. I just want you to do it again," she paused when he looked at her in question, "take the memories from me. This time I want all of them gone."

It was strange to him that she had not yet caught on to how little these compulsions help in the long run. She would still feel sadness creeping in. She would still catch herself drifting away in a seemingly happy moment and wonder why it was she was missing somebody. The memory would be gone but the feelings would always remain just under the surface of any lie he concocted.

"I won't be doing that anymore. This life happens the way it is meant to and we are meant to live it. There are better days ahead Elena Gilbert," he said.

She looked as if she had expected as much and for that he was grateful. He had little energy or patience for talking or looking too long at anyone with Tatia's face right now. He'd be happy to not look upon it again for a very long stretch of time.

"Can I stay here tonight? I just can't be…there," she asked in a whisper soft tone.

He couldn't deny her a comfortable bed in the silent empty wing of their home so he agreed before he retired. He would face her questions in the morning. He would tell her what she needed to know.

Xxxx

A night turned into a week, then two, and Elena had avoided talking to anybody her entire stay. The questions that should be bouncing around her brain just weren't there. She could only think of her brother and of the things she said and did when she had turned her humanity off.

Her phone rang constantly and she pushed her pinkies deep into her ears anytime she heard one or both of the brothers at the door. She had no desire to acknowledge their existence right now. She wanted only to mourn her losses and not have two mother hens questioning every tear and every gulp of alcohol and blood. She fed well here, Rebekah made sure of that. She liked the silence that covered the home. The only sounds were Klaus's mutterings and Rebekah's sighs. Elijah was just as silent as she was. It was like living in a tomb.

Elena couldn't sleep that night. She pulled on some leggings and a snug long sleeve shirt that Rebekah left on the bed for her before heading towards the only lit room in the expansive and cold home.

Klaus still had dirt under his nails and her scent all over him. Normally she would have turned right back around and marched up the stairs. She'd done a rather good job at avoiding him her entire stay, but she wanted the alcohol that she smelled from the stairs and he was the one holding it.

She sat on the couch and helped herself to a glass of whatever this divine smelling liquid was, and took a long sip. She noticed he was holding a package in his hand and staring pointedly at her. He tossed it at her as she took another sip in front of the crackling fire.

"What's this?" she asked, her eyes a little fuzzy from the alcohol.

"Appears to be mail. For you. At my house," Klaus muttered in his thick accent, pouring himself a glass from her bottle.

She wrinkled her nose a little at the elaborate handwriting on the front; Elena Gilbert. It had no return address and was just a simple yellow envelope no larger than a piece of paper.

She turned it over and ripped at the seam neatly with her gnawed on nail. She shook out a photo and narrowed her eyebrows at the roughly sketched faces that stared up from her lap. It looked to be old, the sketches smudged and faded underneath the protection of the shiny sleeve it was sealed within.

Klaus plopped onto the couch next to her and took a noisy gulp of wine from his glass before peering at the photo.

"Well, well…" he murmured softly.

Elena looked at him in confusion, part of her processing the faces, the other part trying to keep up. She stared into the eyes of the man drawn on the right. He was strong jawed but had gentle eyes and small lips that curved into a soft smile. The woman to the right had wide eyes that almost seemed surprised and long sheets of dark hair that framed a heart shaped face.

"What is this?" Elena asked again, dropping the picture onto Klaus's lap.

He smiled a little and lifted the sketch at arm's length with one hand and gulped back his drink with the other. The fire's glow caught the shine of the laminate as he turned it this way and that to examine the faces frozen in a stare.

"I knew these people well. I barely made it out alive the first time I met this man," Klaus admitted with a smile in his voice.

Elena moved closer to him, bringing her knees up to rest on the couch, barely brushing his thigh. She propped up on an elbow against the back of the couch. This was the last person she thought she'd be sitting close to on a Friday night.

"So…who are they?" Elena asked in an even tone.

Klaus turned his eyes to hers, the flames dancing against the deep blue surrounding his pupils. He stared at her thoughtfully then, examining her face with such thoroughness that she became uncomfortable even under the calming blanket of the alcohol.

He finally spoke, so softly she strained to hear, "You know exactly who these people are. You may be young but you are far from stupid, girl."

Elena's eyebrows furrowed as tampered feelings bubbled to the surface. She had always known in the back of her mind that not only were Miranda and Grayson Gilbert not her biological parents, but Uncle John and Isobel were also not contributors to her genetics, despite the fact that they conceived and bore her.

She was identical to Tatia and Katherine, wearing a face and commanding a body that comprised of two people who made a child so very long ago.

"Who sent this?" Elena hissed, blinking back tears and returning to her end of the couch.

Klaus ignored her inquiries, his mind molding around memories that were fuzzy and faint but obtainable and cherished. He looked at her then, his eyes softer and probing.

"I drew those you know. I drew all the town's portraits," he admitted.

She'd never really looked at him until then. The pain of watching Jenna die at his hands and the knowledge of his hand at willing the Ripper from Stefan's soul kept her from seeing him. With emotions dulled by loss, she could see him then. He was really just a broken man with a beautiful face and a bag full of sad stories that sometimes did monstrous things because of them; unforgivable things. She wondered when she too would cross the line into unforgivable acts. It seemed to come with the territory of loss in a vampire's heart; they ran too cold and beat too slow.

She didn't doubt Tatia fell for him all those years ago. With the pain of Jenna buried within, the turquoise of his eyes and sharp lines of his jaw caught her attention.

"What were they like?" she asked softly, her eyes flitting over his features before settling again into his gaze.

He shrugged a little and tore his eyes away to peer at the picture that rested between them now. "He was always laughing this full bellied laugh. It echoed against the trees and scared away the game. He loved his Tatia even when the swell of her belly shamed her. Her mother was so quiet and calculating. She rarely smiled but when she did it lit up a room. I never got her to smile but Elijah sure did. He's always been one with words."

Elena settled against the couch, letting her head sink into the back and feet stretch out on the floor. She crossed her bare ankles and flexed her chipped crimson painted toes. Klaus stood and walked to the fire to poke at it with the stake.

"It was a sad day when they realized their daughter was dead. They whisked away her daughter so fast I barely had a chance to bid them farewell. Turns out she wasn't dead after all," Klaus murmured, his back to her.

She stood and joined him at the fire, crouching next to him with her hands hung at her knees. He rocked back on his heels and gently laid down on his back and turned to face her when she followed suit.

"You know you have to face them eventually. Go on with life and whatnot. Whoever sent you this picture wants that very much for you," he pressed in a gentle tone.

She exhaled slowly out of her nose, eyes fluttering closed. She felt the emotions trickle into her chest. It hurt but she let them reach her throat and her eyes and then her mind. A few weeks ago and she'd call herself crazy for sleeping in the lion's den. Now, it seemed like the only place she felt herself. Perhaps because everyone was suffering in one way or another and were all selfish in their sufferings; it was a personal endeavor and the house was large enough to allow it.

Xxxx

It took a while for Elena to find a letter handwritten by Katherine in the Salvatore's things. She suspected Stefan would be the one who would possess such an antique; but it was Damon who had it stashed away.

She held up the letter, all brown and tattered, against the scrawl on her envelope. It was clearly Katherine who sent her the sketch.

She sighed heavily, sinking down the wall to let her hands drop lifelessly beside her bent knees. Elena didn't know where to go from here. She contemplated the same thing she battled with every waking hour of her eternal life; she tried to turn it all off. But she knew it wasn't possible. She knew the moments in between her last request that Elijah take it all away and her memory of him telling her he wouldn't do that to her again, he had compelled her to keep her humanity always. She had no definitive memory of this, it was something she just knew.

So she stood, took a final look around, and left the only home she ever knew. Mystic Falls would become a distant memory in time. Time, she had plenty of. Memories, she could certainly do without.

Xxxxx

Just as Elena suspected, the months passed and then it added up to a full year. She had ample time and opportunity to bring on this miracle cure child and it never happened. She called bull shit from day one. Didn't stop Elijah from tracking her down one night in the dead of winter.

She was miserable. Unable to turn off the pain and unable to truly feel it at the same time. So she took a page from Damon's book and kept the booze flowing, usually earning herself a hefty hangover and some slight confusion as to who's bed she lay in come morning.

A bright light and cold hands lulled her from a still-drunken state. She lifted her arm to block out the source of the light and squinted up into familiar caramel dotted dark eyes.

"What are you doing here?" she croaked at the original.

He said nothing, just scooped her half nude body effortlessly into his arms and whisked her outside. She went limp at the shock of cold against her bare skin and noticed the snowy flakes falling lazily all around them. Her eyes found the moon as her head bounced with each slowing step Elijah took in the slick of a parking lot.

She smelled the thickness of exhaust coming from the low rumble of an engine and that's when the trembling started. He lowered her to the ground and she leaned into him as her legs locked up from the contact to her bare feet.

"No…" she mumbled when she caught sight of the blue of Damon's car.

"I'm afraid so," Elijah murmured, his words forming whisps into the bitter air.

He wrapped his jacket around her bare form, pulling his gloves off with just his teeth to busily button her up.

"I hate you. I hate you," she managed the hiss, the alcohol making the words easy to summon but less easy to enunciate.

He looked sad then but said nothing. Instead he opened the passenger door to Damon's car and set her in it, closing the door firmly behind her.

Damon kept his eyes on his hands that gripped the steering wheel even when she told him to let her go; even when she said much worse to him than she had to Elijah. He never flinched, he never wavered.

She must have passed out in between slurred accusations because the next time she woke the sun was blaring heatedly through the smudged window that Elena's head lay painfully against. She groaned, swallowing thickly against the bourbon-tinged bile in the back of her throat.

"I'm going to be sick," she whispered, grimacing and fumbling for the door handle.

"Unless you're going to tuck and roll, try to hold it in until I can pull over," Damon responded softly.

Her heart jilted at the sound of his voice. How had she forgotten the exact sound of his voice? Had it really been so long? Had the familiar huskiness to his murmurings really been so morphed from the passage of time in her memory?

The car was barely stopped when she tumbled out a few steps and fell to her knees, heaving up the crimson of the man Elijah had pulled her from the night before. It was almost a pretty sight, the blood red spattered across the white of snow like some sort of spilled paint can.

Damon didn't exit the car to assist but for that she was thankful. The car just rumbled idly behind her as she scooped up snow to rub at her face and cleanse away any remnants of bile infused blood. She snuck a glance behind her. He was busily texting someone, surely Stefan.

So she ran.

Xxxxx

"I suppose your detective work paid off." Stefan glanced up at Katherine who was running her polished fingers absently along the length of her small jaw line.

She let out a sigh and pursed her lips. "She'll be thrilled to be back home…"

Stefan stuffed the phone back into his jacket pocket to stand and stretch out the kinks in his tense back. He'd been a bundle of nerves since Elijah and Damon had left a week ago to track down and snatch Elena from her hiding spot. Somehow she had made it all the way to Tennessee. Why there, nobody knew. Katherine had a way of finding probably because she had a way of hiding.

"She'll put all that aside for this," Stefan stated with a firm nod.

Katherine shot a yeah right look at him and rolled her eyes before standing. "We're made from the same stuff. The last of her family was killed off and now she remembers how and why. She's not the Elena you're going to remember. Don't be surprised if she's changed her name to Ellen and buried Elena next to Katarina."

Stefan felt his shoulders sag. Unfortunately her words made more sense to him than the reassuring bull that his heart was feeding his tired mind.

He just hoped Damon could handle that notion better than he could.

Xxxxx

Elena made it to the other side of the woods that lined the highway before Damon finally caught up, spatting out obscenities.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" he managed to toss out in between ragged foggy breaths .

His eyes looked even icier in the gray of the dead forest. She noticed red smudges in all the places her bare feet must have made contact with the harsh ground beneath the soft blanket of snow. She'd heal.

They stood like that for a while; their breath clouding noisily around their faces as cars whirred far off where they abandoned Damon's car. She darted her eyes at a rustle in the forest which was time enough for Damon to sweep in and snap her neck.

Xxxxx

Damon sent another text Stefan's way with a watered down version of Elena's lunatic failed escape plan as said lunatic rolled around in his trunk. It was harsh but he didn't know what she was capable of right now.

He should have listened to Elijah and taken him up on the extra set of able hands on the way back. The Original had warned him that she was a little…unpredictable in ways she hadn't been before. The pain of losing Jeremy had proven too much for her.

He crossed another state line before the kicking and muffled shouts started up. That was quick.

She did minimal damage to the inside of his trunk because she was weak. Pretty much all the blood in her system went into healing the damage her stroll-on-speed through the forest and his snapping her neck; there wasn't much spunk left in her now.

He pulled her out into a sitting position, her bare legs dangling between his knees, eyes rolling around almost sleepily in their sockets.

"Are you going to behave yourself?" Damon asked, his hands firmly placed on her shoulders to keep her upright.

She nodded and swallowed thickly, eyes flitting up to meet his. He felt his heart drop a little. She looked emotionless and he couldn't see how this was any better than her being allowed the decency to turn it all off. Elijah remained adamant that she work through it without that option.

"Where are you taking me?" she finally croaked. Her head fell forward causing her chin to bounce at the scratchy wool of Elijah's jacket.

"It's time to come home Elena," he replied softly.

Xxxxx

AN: Depending on interest and feedback I'll continue on and wrap this up.