Recap of what has taken place thus far and a new chapter after:

Tatia is now in Katherine's body as a vampire, and she is trying to kill Elena to restore all aspects of herself using the chanters. This woman was once immortal, but she turned her back on her own kind and disrupted the balance she was here to protect. She lost that immortality as a result of ending the last of her kind. Klaus had no idea of her real past or what she really was. All he knew was that she was his and Elijah's lover and her blood was used in the spell that made his family vampire's. He was aware she is the progenitor of all doppelgangers, but was unaware of the circumstances Esther used to outwit her claim to immortality. He did love her, but he was a plaything to her. She didn't mind helping his mother make them vampires since Esther promised her that she could make Tatia immortal again. This is what drives Tatia in the story and why she is pissed.

Here is the point. If you remember, each child born after Tatia's death etched away at her soul and her memory. (in Esther's spell this was how she made Tatia 'immortal' again without actually making her immortal. She lived on through her doppelgangers. This is not what Tatia wanted.) Esther was well aware she couldn't do this, but it also helped that Qetsiyah was her mentor and was in her ear about Tatia. Qetsiyah was also motivated by her own desire for Silas. So begins the double crossings. Tatia mentions that she thought Esther believed her to be a whore in one of the more recent chapters. That is true and she wanted her gone from her family. That was planted there so Qetsiyah could get her out of the way and have Esther use the spell to get her weak enough to kill. It was easy to manipulate since Esther already lost a child in the world and wanted to keep the remaining ones safe.

So Qetsiyah wanted Silas for herself. She even used Shane to get close to him. Shane lost his powers and became a traveler. So Shane is trying to help Tatia and restore her for his brother, and why he manipulated everyone to do so. He believes his brother will be thankful and restore him to his former glory. These are the people Tatia was supposed to protect the world from. They need a replica of the powerful blood that is inside of Elena. It is a mirror image of Tatia when she was alive. So they were in the process to sacrifice her and restore Tatia all in one go. There was only one way to play it and that was to promise Klaus his Doppelganger as human again. They even manipulated him into killing the 12 'demons' using Haley and Tyler to break their bonds.

So since that time and now, each 500 years a child is born in her likeness and has some characteristic of hers, but in a literal fashion-hence why she is after Elena and Katherine. Elena and Katherine cannot be the same- as in neither both human and both vampire- as it creates a paradox (all aspects of Tatia were hypothetically dead when Tatia got out of the Other Side).

Before she could dish out retribution in her life time for what Esther had done, Qetsiyah ended Tatia's life so she could have Silas herself. Silas was on the other side, but Tatia roamed the world in her own version of the other side and learned the full truth of what was going on. She was alone but saw Qetsiyah use everyone around her. She used Shane to get closer to Silas, but it was no use by then. After Shane learned what Qetsiyah had done, his brother lost the will to live. He ended his brother before he could take the cure. (this is comes to light in this chapter)

In the present, fearing she would forget herself, she took Katherine's body as she was most like her in life. Katherine was destroyed in that process. So we have several double crosses going on. Well, Tatia and Shane made a pact and a plan to get everyone they needed in place to undo the last thousand years. Klaus thought Tatia chose and loved him-and was giving Elena her humanity back for him to have hybrids-but it was all a farce to get all the players in one area. So he was also played but I haven't showed how or why yet. Bonnie is herself, and her mother is human as part of that deal, but they are no safer. Shane was trying to resurrect Tatia this entire time to restore her for Silas-his brother. They will bring Qetsiyah back from the other side, who killed Tatia when she was weakest, and make her suffer for what she did. That is what Bonnie is for. Both Qetsiyah and Elijah/Klaus were just lovers of the pair Silas and Tatia.

It was revealed that Tatia killed the last of her kind, and set the balance in disruption and that took her original immortality away.

And that brings us current. Enjoy.

TVD: Elena dies chapter 26

No sooner had her eyes shut, did Elena find herself in what looked to be a meadow. This isn't right, she thought with a mild sense of unease. Where am I?

"You are in between worlds," came a soft and sweet voice.

Elena turned, not sure why she was standing in the sunlight without…her ring. She blinked several times and grasped the side of her head with both hands. When she didn't burst into flames, she calmed a degree. Feeling a bit out of sync, Elena let her eyes travel over the woman.

"I know you," She said with certainty.

The woman smiled, but it was a sad smile. This made Elena pause, and she tried, but couldn't place the woman.

"Who are you?"

Again the woman smiled, "I was your mother."

"Was?" Elena countered. "Why are you no longer my mother?" Her eyes went wide, and she could feel a sudden and immense loss. It was like water thrashing through, as though a broken dam had happened. Wait…water….Elena's eyes flashed, but the woman moved to silence her.

"You are not in your world," was her cryptic response. "We have limited time and I know you have many questions, but please-"

"My world?" Elena asked with mounting unease. The woman seemed to almost glow, but she felt weary of the unnatural state of it all.

She looked around baffled, "this seems all pretty real to me." Her tone, while matter of fact, held an edge of fear to it. "Why am I here?" She demanded next.

"You are what we have been waiting for." The woman turned then, and walked to what looked like an alter.

Hesitating, Elena was unsure of what to do next. She stood there for all of three minutes and decided to follow the glowing woman. She was lighting candles when Elena caught up to her.

The wind picked up, tousling Elena's hair all over. She found herself grabbing at it, yet it settled on its own. "Weird," she noted. It seemed like physics didn't have a real effect here.

"Not so much," the woman said. "Things have a natural order to them. When properly cared for, things follow the rules. Rules are good, no?"

Elena turned back to the woman, noting the candles were still lit. Her brow dipped and her body turned that halfway it did when she got ready to argue, or was unsure of something. She even pointed and began to ask, then decided not to. Despite that, her mouth fumbled for words, and then she ended her attempt with a cocked head. "How is that still lit?"

"We already discussed that." The woman was wearing a white robe, and her hands were hidden from Elena's sight. She watched as her earthy child leaned from foot to foot. Elena found herself stepping back from the woman, but missed a strange warmth that she radiated.

Chills lined her skin as she stepped forward again. "What are you?"

"A warrior. It was my job and privilege to protect you."

"Protect me?"

"Your soul was not meant for that body," her mother said carefully.

Elena frowned at the choice of words, "What do you mean?"

"You are Light, named for your birthright, not for all this death."

Elena thought it was nice and well the woman said what she did, but that didn't help her here and now. "What is this place? Am I dead?"

The woman met her eyes, "you will be if you don't fight back."

"It hurts," Elena stressed. The memories of her last moment surfaced. "I'm tired of it always hurting. Can I not go to heaven or something with you?"

The woman looked down with a sad smile, "It is not your time to come home. You have a greater destiny."

I want to roll my eyes, Elena thought exasperated. There was a glowing and growing light that was forming behind the woman. "What is that?"

The woman looked off behind her, and then half turned towards Elena, "it is a choice."

"It's bright. I don't burn here without my ring."

She nodded, "it is so, but you are human now. But if you go there, many more people will die."

Elena pouted a moment, not sure what to make of such a statement. "How?"

"You were lost, like so many others, but are now found. You are the only one who can stop her. You were made for this."

Then she remembered a face, with stark blue eyes, black hair, and a hidden heart. "Damon," Elena said surprised. How did I forget? "Is he in there?" Elena pointed to the Light.

"Should he be, or will he be?"

Her eyes widened at the thought. "What do you mean?"

"Elena, the boy has changed because of your light. You bring out the best in people, you bring back life to things that are dead in that world. You believe and have hope-or a mindset few others have. Perhaps you were chosen. There was no way you'd have been born otherwise."

"Ok," Elena said and drew out the word. She really hated riddles. "But I was born."

"Your original destined family was murdered by vampires-something that was not meant to exist. Without children, there is no future."

Her mind blown, Elena considered her mother's words.

"A soul and a body are one. Without one, you cannot have the other. However, you…are special. If you go home now, the world will be left in ruins. Part of that beast chose good once, and then went astray. Perhaps not all is lost, but the world will grow cold and dark without you. He will grow cold and kill thousands more. She can control them if she drinks the Original Vampire dry. She has the hybrid Klaus who was born of two worlds. Wolves used to protect her, she would not have it any other way. A world with that army stands no chance of survival."

She felt her heart quicken at the thought. No, not Damon. He'd changed. "I don't believe that!"

"Fate has smiled on us that the two born of that wench were the evil and the good." The woman visibly sagged, "will you not go and save even one?" There was a small pause, "my Elena wanted to be a doctor and help people. It is your nature. The good in her only enhanced that greatness."

"You said I wasn't supposed to be born, but then why was I?" Something didn't make sense to Elena. She had to know the truth if she was going back to that hell hole.

"People are born with a purpose. When that purpose is lost, nature tries to rebalance itself. Left unchecked for so long, the evil has grown too powerful. Even the witches practice the dark arts more than the white. The goodness needed a vessel that was equally capable to house it. It was a carbon copied body, and you were a soul that would never have a body. It was the only way to balance itself. A body cannot live without the energy of the soul. It was incomplete and it chose you. There was also another that fate sought to reconnect you with. Despite the curse," she said knowingly.

Elena's voice was but a whisper, "Damon."

Her mother nodded. "He is powerful, loves deeply, loyal. He was meant for greatness inspired by you. When you were not born in the proper time…it was wasted and nurtured. He became darkness and turned away from the good."

"Katherine," Elena said with bitterness.

"Yes. Fate granted her a child, as was the curse of Tatia's line. The day she ended her human life, the choice was made, and the path clear for the next doppelganger to be born. All that was left was good, once the evil was born. Katherine rejected the good just as Tatia had. You have not."

"I have no child." Elena said.

"And thus Tatia cannot be broken further. She has sought to sacrifice you to bring back another."

There was a pain in her heart-or chest. It ached with a strange pain that Elena hadn't felt in a long time. It was hard to describe, but whatever the woman was saying, she believed Elena had no heart or hope. Worried, Elena let her eyes met the woman's. "Why does it hurt?"

"If you deny your destiny you will be permanently this way. Your soul is ancient. There is a true power in you. There were no more to be born but alas, you are Petrova! Yet you are Elena at the core. You are the light the world needs. You are the one who chose before the madness that killed your own kind. Had I only told you before I had died what would have been? You would have been prepared. That is why we'd decided to run, but darkness intervened. The spell that drew doppelgangers together…it is equally strong."

Elena felt tears fill her eyes, "Stefan." After she wiped her nose she asked, "Was any of it real?"

"You know your heart," her mother offered. "it is rare that we love just once, but there is that love that is once in a lifetime."

The woman wept then, more at herself than anything Elena had done. Is that what they were talking about before she willed herself to sleep? All the Petrova's were echoes of one another. She wondered that was her, and what the carbon copied part of herself was. That's why they wanted me dead, Elena realized.

She tried to reproach the woman who had calmed, "What am I truly? Am I the part of her that was good? The echo? If she ends me, won't she be whole? What about just me?"

"No, she will put that side to death when she reclaims herself. Naturally, the copy wants to combine with her as it was and is her. The good will cease."

She considered this for a moment. "Why does she want Silas so bad, if Damon is my other half?"

"I have told you this. She will not feel the draw like you and Katherine had. You feel Tatia's draw, and Katherine before you just as the next doppelganger would feel all three of you. This is why Katherine was drawn to the darkness. She only felt the evil. You were a soul like any soul-your own. However," she pointed out, "You were forced in this body, your own soul overlaid with," she frantically gestured, "this mimicked image and all that choice that it came with. Elena, you must end the curse. Even its blood and destiny are entwined with yours. Your lover is your true mate, just as hers is her true mate. Just as Stefan was Katherine's true mate. You are all part of one another, yet deep at the center…" she shook her head, "I cannot fathom how, but you carry two destinies now. You are you, but you are Petrova." Her eyes almost glazed with a faraway look, "nature found a way to fight back. You are somehow one and the same."

Elena didn't realize she spoke aloud, "Is that why Katherine and I loved Stefan?" Then it hadn't been real. Her own words haunted her, 'when it is real…' "I loved him because of a curse, and because Katherine had." She squinted as the confusion lifted. This wasn't something she could wrap her head around easily. Her entire life had been a lie or a copy of someone else's dreams and hopes. It explained why Katherine hated her so deeply. I've made my own destiny out of everything that has been predisposed to me. Deep down, she noted as she stared at her mother, she knew something inside her was different. It had been kept locked away until now. "I am stronger than them."

Her mother took both of her hands in hers. "There is a man who wishes to deceive you. I was a warrior sent to protect you. Like your father…"

"And my real parents?"

"They were vessels to create you. They were not a mated pair, but alas, were forced to pair out of blind need. They felt the draw, but their loves had long past in a different age. Humanity suffers for all the darkness woven in. Do you understand now? This darkness has forced its way in. The red haze will bring the darkest of everyone's nature to the surface. Tatia's choice is manifested in life and her power is pure and it is evil. Vampires rob time, but they rob souls, and what would have been families from even existing as they were meant to, in their right times. Damon was desperate to turn you once, yes?"

Elena looked up at her and felt a chill. "Yes," she murmured. He'd changed though, since then. "He regretted it."

"Your father told me. He took the death for you." There was a sad face that lingered. "He gave his life to preserve the human. She almost came through that day. It was how this all started."

There was love there, unrequited love maybe. "Was he yours? Your mate?"

Wow this is weird, Elena thought as she came into herself. So Damon had felt drawn to Katherine because part of me was tied to her? How did that work? Obviously, really well since you fell in love with Stefan equally hard as Damon had Katherine, Elena. Or was it because Katherine was part of the curse? But why did I feel so much more after death for Damon than I had in life, she wondered.

As if her mother knew she said, "We were not of the same age. When you turned, you were on the same wavelength, in a manner of speaking, as Damon. For the first time you were stronger than the pull of the curse and the doppelganger fate. You once said you 'felt more alive in death', Elena. That is the truth because you were more of yourself than any other time. You were the same, and magnetically shifted to your true mate as you would have in life. No matter the case, you felt it though. When you were human, right?"

Elena felt a blush creep over her face. This was her mother, but not. She felt like a sister more than a parent now. She regarded her mother, who she realized was not flesh and bone, but a soul. Regardless she confessed, "He always got me, and no matter how in love I was with Stefan I was, there was just something there with Damon. Like he saw through me. I fought it because it was wrong to feel that way-especially for his brother."

"It was destined to be another way, Elena. You must have felt yourself going a little crazy. I would not have envied the next doppelgangers life."

"Yeah," Elena added feeling glad she'd never have a child if that was the fate of the unborn in the next four hundred and eighty years.

"But you fought it, and he was seeing you his other half, not the doppelganger. He acted…rash, but such is the rejection of a fated mate. Twin souls are rare now. There was not even a thought to compare you both. She was darkness. While I hadn't seen the day you first met, when I died, he watched you for some time. You did right by being strong. It was the good side of Tatia, that side that is now part of you. It is your destiny. Your chance to fix things. Your choice."

"Is it really?" Elena asked carefully. Could I be free of this woman who'd ruined my life? She considered the chance with a giddiness she hadn't felt in years. "Can I fight her and win?"

"If you have the true heart and desire, I believe so. You are special, Elena. Just as Katherine embraced all the pain and hurt and made the evil her own, you did the same with the good. I believe that is who Katherine was anyway. Just as you are who you are. Use that. You are still you, just more. Her soul is not yours."

"Katherine suffered more than I have," Elena noted. "If I had suffered the same…"

"If you could choose to now, after losing it all and suffering as you have now, would you change anything?" That reminded Elena very much of her mother in life. It was her, she thought curiously.

It took no more than an instant, and Elena knew the answer. "No," she said with a confidence she was surprised by. "I could do nothing else but what I have done."

I want it to end, Elena decided. "Why," she asked knowing she'd felt tempted with Damon one too many times. Was I the same? Would I crack out of need for my other half? It was like I was two people at once, Elena felt almost terrified by the thought. Yet, she shut that fear down and pulled her chin up high. It certainly explained the duality I'd always endured in my heart, she finalized, but I am who I am. "Why did she give everything up and take what she wouldn't have. Why was her other half so different in the first place?"

"Tatia was not meant to breed. Her mate was a witch. It was forbidden. She ended her entire race to have him. She became mortal, they had a child. That child was cursed. It was sad. Evil is old my sweet. By then too many guardians had perished."

"So I am her decedent." Wow, so they don't care. Elena asked herself one question. Why even break the rules and have a family then knowing you were letting evil in the world? Maybe it was easier to make sense out of evil when it was the same face. Regardless, she shook herself.

Her mother nodded, "You were never meant to enter this family. You were meant for other things. In the past, as I have been told as a warrior who protected the Guardian's once, even the great men and women of old had their fallacies. No one is perfect, but the meddling needs to stop. If you decided, you must protect. You will live once more. And the gift of Immortality is yours."

"What is the cost," Elena asked her fearing that Damon was off limits. I'd just found him, she thought as she waited for her mother to respond. "If I return, will I be human?"

"Immortality is cost enough," her mother said. "yes, but not for long."

That didn't answer her question, "Will I lose him then?"

"The man you love is your twin flame. He has burned with rage, anger, and he needs his other half. The fates have smiled on you both and brought you together. Your love is stronger than the spell the travelers put on the doppelgangers also-the one that drew you to Stefan. You knew love, would you deny others that same chance?"

Elena felt a pang in her heart, but she had dreaded the truth of it once she slid that blood into her mouth and sealed her fate as a vampire. One drop seemed to have erased all the lies that had bound her into uncertainty. She'd never wanted to consider herself so cold, but there it was. "I can't lose him."

"Resist the fear. Accept the destiny. I believe he was spared because of the effect you have on him. There will be others that will come to you. The five. Your are to help them. The wolves will answer to you. That is what my Elena was meant for. She will save vampires from their nature. Shane will try to stop you. He is with Damon now."

Panic surged in Elena's head. She backed away from the Light that had stopped growing. "I can't let him go."

"If he dies?"

All the breath left Elena's chest, and she felt to her knees and gasped. "I can't…" She panted.

"It is possible. You need to let go of the fear."

Elena let out a wail, all her suffering and indecisions had ceased the moment she'd taken Damon into her arms by the fire. Why now?

But she knew the answer as she realized there was more to life than just him. There was the purpose she'd always felt inside. With the misery and fear on her mind, she found the will to stand. It was like some band was snapped and she felt a rush of power.

"You have chosen well. You must wake now and claim that destiny."

The women nodded at one another and held each other's eyes for a moment longer. "I am glad you were my mother," Elena confessed. "it is good to know there is more to life than just what I've seen."

"His soul is so much more than his body too, Elena. You are stronger than Silas and Tatia, even as a pair. You are who you were meant to be. You chose once, you must choose again and reclaim what is yours…as it is yours now. Become one with your destiny. The world has been kept separated by time, and blood for so long. Souls lost as they seek to find their mated pair and never find him or her. These things," she said with a vehement voice that shocked Elena, "have torn families apart. Fated ones never met."

"With everything I am," Elena answered. "I will do what I can."

"Then turn and go my lovely child. I know when you are at your strongest, you will face your fear and find the answer you seek."

Elena continued to walk towards what felt like some literal hell. But she had loved once. Each step was like lifting feet though tar, but she went on. It was a mass and a dark cloud, but she wasn't afraid. If anything she was pissed off. Damon was hers, and she was tired of these assholes playing their games. I've died, and I've lived, I've been harassed and manipulated. All that ends, she thought just as her eyes opened to the bitch who started it all.

"Hello," She said to Tatia and gripped her neck like it was plastic.

Check out my other stories:

TVD- s/8290533/1/A-Darker-Love

TVD- s/8943905/1/This-Intensity

Moonlight-(Josef!)

s/11634120/1/Josef-s-little-human-not-JosefBeth

Veronica Mars-(premise) coming soon, read about it here

s/11983207/1/Destiny-rocks