Author's Note: I am so sorry this is so late, you guys! And it left on such a cliff-hanger and I've gotten such incredible comments... I really can't apologize enough. I've been crazy-busy with real life stuff. I am so, so sorry! I want you all to know I have read every single review and every time I'm feeling just the slightest bit down I re-read them and I start to feel better. So thank you guys so much! I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you yet! But to show my appreciation (and my apology for the delay in chapter-posting!) I'm posting two chapters! Thank you all so much for sticking with this story and coming back to read and leaving all of these wonderful reviews. Truly, thank you!
The woman who emerged from the box Elena had stepped into looked like Elena in every way. She was older, of course, but it was undeniably Elena. She looked strangely innocent and goddess-like in bare feet and a long white dress, dark hair spilling out over her shoulders. She looked around, at all of them, finally focusing on Elijah.
"Elijah?" she asked, and that was not Elena's voice anymore than Katherine's was. "Elijah!" She threw her arms around him, hugging him fiercely.
Damon watched as he hugged her back, clutching her to him in something akin to relief. Beside him, Klaus had tensed, but he made no move to strike, almost as if the woman were a shield. A barrier he could not cross.
"Where are we?" the woman asked, pulling back to look up at him. "Where are the children?"
Damon had never seen the composed, strangely inflectionless gentleman look so emotional. He cupped her cheek gently. "They are gone, Annabelle," he said softly.
"Gone?" she repeated, sounding bewildered. She turned around, surveying the occupants of the room again. "But…" She paused, studying Klaus, her eyes widening with horror. "You," she whispered.
Klaus stepped forward. "Hello again, Annabelle," he greeted calmly.
She staggered back several steps, backing into Elijah. "What have you done to me?" she cried. "What did you do?"
Damon watched Elijah's tender expression sharpen into one of fierce hatred as he lifted his eyes, glaring at his younger brother. Klaus' body was tense, but his voice steady. "I merely… traded you, for awhile," he told her.
Elijah stepped forward, putting himself in front of the woman. "What have you done?" he seethed, his eyes burning red.
Klaus' hands curled as if into claws. "It was her fault," he growled. "She was always shooting me coy looks—taunting me with what could never be mine. She is to blame here, brother! Not me!"
"What did you do?" Elijah shouted thunderously, his voice shaking the room.
"I traded her," Klaus repeated coldly. "For the woman inside of her who could not resist me."
Damon quickly jumped out of the way as Elijah threw Klaus against the far wall. He hurried to the others, shepherding them and the woman into a corner, standing in front of them as the two vampires flew from one side of the room to another, their backs cracking the stone under them.
"What… how are they…?" he heard the woman breathe.
He turned around, struck by her resemblance to Elena. He steeled himself. "You were replaced with a doppelganger. A bunch of curses later, I'm your descendent a million times removed, and those two are vampires."
He seized her shoulders, ignoring her gasp of surprise. "And the woman I love just traded her life to bring you to back, so you better be able to stop it and lift all these curses!"
She trembled, nodding, and for a moment, Damon thought he could see a shred of Elena inside of her. And then she stepped past him, holding up her hands as she began to chant, her voice wavering.
The two original vampires suddenly stopped fighting, looking over at her.
"No!" Klaus yelled.
Elijah clutched onto him, holding him back. The woman stopped chanting, her hands hesitating. "Finish, Annabelle," Elijah urged. "Finish it now, and let us all rest in peace."
The woman's arms straightened, firming. Her powerful voice rose as she continued her chanting. Damon watched Klaus struggle against Elijah's grip, fighting to get to the woman, but Elijah held firm, holding him back.
The woman finished with an explosive cry, the two vampires collapsing in front of them. The woman panted for breath, taking unsteady steps to Elijah's quickly deteriorating body. She held it in her arms, hugging him tightly.
She chanted softly under her breath, still holding him, tears streaming down her cheeks.
And then she collapsed on top of him.
Katherine Pierce let out a shriek of pain, clutching her arms around her stomach. She looked up at the nameless, faceless man in front of her, who she had charmed into being her hot lunch. The man straightened, alarmed, staggering away from her.
She watched in horror as her arms began to gray, the veins bulging from beneath weathered, leathery skin. She was dying. She was dying, and it didn't make any sense.
She thought of Stefan and Damon, then, the two Salvatore boys she had always loved and held a strange fondness for. Of all the boys she had ever loved, it was those two who had stolen her heart the most. She stared at the white ceiling above her head, remembering the feel of both men on her arms.
And then everything went black.
Stefan Salvatore felt his foot lift from the gas pedal, frowning at the open road in front of him. He slowly pulled off to the side of the road, stopped the car, and stared into the distance. He looked down at his hands, feeling strangely… connected. Almost like a missing part of him had been restored.
He thought of Elena, back home in Mystic Falls, and his brother, at Klaus' mansion. Before, he hadn't been able to control the urge to get back to Elena and see her again so they could figure out how to see Damon, but he suddenly felt unsure about the burning desire. This was his brother, after all… And even if they both died trying to fight Klaus, they would die together. There was no need to involve Elena in it.
He pulled a u-turn on the open road, heading back in the direction he had come from, a renewed sense of determination in him. He would get back to Elena when he could, but first, he needed to save his brother.
Alaric watched, stricken with grief as Damon finally stumbled forward, almost like a zombie. He fell to his knees beside the woman holding Elijah's quickly-decomposing body, and pulled her into his arms. Alaric felt tears in his eyes as Damon hugged the woman's lifeless body to him, clutching it.
"Wherever you are," Damon said softly, "remember that you're loved here."
Elena's eyes flew open as she woke with a gasp.