Take away the one thing she can't live without

Can't live without

Can't live

Alive. That's what Elena needed to be, and sitting on top of Damon's car staring at the stars didn't seem like the best way to be accomplishing that goal.

She wished she could say that she was pondering life's existential meaning, or that she was imagining her life twenty years from now. But no—that was what normal people did. That was how normal teenagers passed the time, not how an orphaned, confused, part vampire-doppelganger thought. Elena thought about how her life had gotten so messed up, and how she was about to be merged with a five-hundred year old vampire that looked exactly like her. How many teenagers get to say that?

And now she had to figure out the one thing her evil vampire doppelganger couldn't live without—even though she'd only met the girl a few times, and all of those meetings had consisted of taunting, pain, and fear. What a great way to get to know a person.

Elena was so in thought that she didn't notice Damon until he was lying down on the hood next to her. Was she really that out of it?

"What are you thinking about?" he inquired as he stared up at the stars with her.

"Vampires. Magic. Immortality. Ya know, every teenage girl's fantasy," Elena joked as her frantic mind slowed to a quiet buzz.

"Every teenager except you," Damon smirked, turning his head to face her, "Really, Elena. What are you thinking?"

Elena sighed, gulping down a lungful of air. "I'm thinking…I'm thinking that this is all too much. That one of these days I'm just going to break in half, and that there won't be anything left of me to be able to complete the merger spell."

She saw the concern flit through Damon's eyes, so she calmed his worry before he could speak. "But I promised Stefan that I would fight. So as much as I wish that this could all just go away and I could go live in a white padded cell with a straight-jacket for the rest of my life, I can't," she sighed, "Which is why I'm sitting out here on your car pondering Harmony's riddle and asking the stars for answers."

"And are they giving you any hints?"

"Not even one," Elena smiled. The two chuckled, returning to the stars for the answers they unleashed. Minutes passed, and Elena wished that peace would come, too, to no avail as her worry and anger continued to

"The one thing she can't live without," Elena mumbled under her breath, "How am I supposed to figure this out if I've met her all of 5 times?"

Damon could hear the anger and fear in her voice, the tremble in her voice portraying the emotions she was too strong and stubborn to show to anyone—let alone him. "I don't know, Elena. But you're not alone; you've got me, Stefan, Bonnie, Caroline, and hell, I bet Katherine would even help you—if you left out the part about her dying," Damon joked, but quickly realized that she was no longer in the joking mood. "The bitch doesn't have any connections, Elena. No lover, no friend, no ally—she's all on her own. I don't think she even has any possessions that she carries around with her because she moves too much to keep anything."

Damon continued to talk, but Elena had long tuned-out as the past week's conversations suddenly rang a bell in her mind.

"She's been on her own for almost 500 years, so obviously she can live without him"

"The thing Katherine can't live without isn't something you can see. It's more metaphorical."

"She's all on her own."

Elena's body shot up off of the car, and Damon jumped in shock. "I know what it is," Elena gasped as a smile grew across her face, "She's been all alone for over 500 years—never getting attached to anything long enough that she can't live without it. She doesn't have anything she cares about because she's been on the run. She doesn't rely on anyone but herself because she's all that she's got!"

Damon was looking at her like she was crazy, but she continued, watching as understanding and agreement lit up his face. "Everything that she does revolves around her keeping herself safe. You take that away, and what does she have? Nothing. Without her self-reliance, she's not Katherine. So—"

"If we take away her freedom, we take away her life."