Author's Note: If, after this chapter, you still have questions, just review and let me know! (Zoraya Windwalker, I'm lookin' at you :P)

The lyrics are from the song 42 by Coldplay.

The story title is from the song by Linkin Park.

Rated M for language, sexual content, sensitive matter, and dark themes.

"Damon!" Elena leapt up, glowing with happiness. Then she spun around, and leapt into Damon's arms. "It happened! Oh my God, I was so scared that it wouldn't! Oh my God!" She pulled his face down, and kissed him hard.

For his part, Damon hadn't moved a muscle. He figured that he knew what had happened, but he was still a little shocked. Elena had let him go, but was now spinning and bouncing around, laughing uncontrollably. He frowned, but before he could say anything…

"Oh!" she stopped moving for a moment, and turned to face Damon, "You have questions! You want to know where I was!" She laughed again, her eyes brilliant. "Sit! Sit with me!" She flounced down to the ground, and looked up at him expectantly, waiting for him to be seated.

As he sat down, he still looked like a deer caught in the headlights, so instead of waiting for him to ask, Elena spoke first.

"I can start at the beginning…"

You thought you might be a ghost! You thought you might be a ghost! You didn't get to heaven but you made it close! You didn't get to heaven but you made it close!

"The night that you tried to break up with me," Damon coughed awkwardly, "I was headed to Jenna's, like I told you. I was cutting through the forest, like I usually do, and that was where They got me."

"Who are They?"

Elena smiled gently. "Well, They're more of an 'It' I guess. They were… A voice. The Voice. They were the ones who sent that moose a long time ago, that I almost hit with the car. It wasn't real, but They were trying to get me alone to take me. And then that freak snowstorm that didn't actually happen. That was them too! And those dreams that you were having, that made you feel like you needed to break up with me…"

Damon growled. "They were messing with my head? And you thought that you were safe there?"

She stroked his face for a moment. "They weren't really planting anything new, you know." She looked away and picked at the grass. "The resentment and anger was already there, but They stoked it. They were in your head even before that, back when you were imprisoned. The dreams that we were having, that felt real…. They were trying to bring us together, so that you would push me away, push me to them."

She went quiet then, until Damon put his hand on her knee. "So They came down and…"

"They came down, and told me that I was so innately good, that They needed me. I told them that I didn't understand what They meant, but that I wasn't interested."

There were tears in her eyes, "I couldn't leave you. But that was when I realized that They weren't giving me a choice. So I went."

You thought you might be a ghost! You thought you might be a ghost! You didn't get to heaven but you made it close! You didn't get to heaven but you made it close!

Damon was a little conflicted. On one hand, he was overwhelmingly glad that Elena seemed to finally be back to normal, and was able to confess everything that she needed to. On the other, he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to know some of this. Like the fact that this 'They' forced Elena to do something against her will. They made her cry. They took her away. Safe to say that he didn't like this one bit.

"So where did They take you?"

Elena exhaled loudly. "I was," she paused, unsure of how exactly to describe where she had gone, "Everywhere, I guess? Nowhere? I was… I was as close to a god as anything could become. Everything that I am, vampire or succubus, the power comes from something dark. But They said that everything that I've done has always been good, so They wanted me to come and help them. I saw everything; I felt everything. They needed someone who could feel it when something bad happened, but who could effect change for the good because of it."

"So I was everywhere, and nowhere, and I was nothing, and I was everything. And I did what I was supposed to do, forever. Or, at least, it felt like forever." She shrugged and smiled a little when Damon reached over and took her hand. "But I kept telling them, begging them, to let me go back, because I couldn't just leave you behind, no matter how angry you were. So They finally told me that there was a way."

"I don't want to get into it too much; it was just… It was a lot. I had to do things, say things… They made my worst fears real and I had to… Anyways… I did everything They asked, and then I had to wait."

Damon met her eyes. "For me?"

She nodded. "You had to say that you needed me back here, and mean it, to prove that I wasn't being selfish about wanting to go home. So I sat and waited. The whole time I was gone, I was with you. And Stefan, Jeremy, Bonnie, Caroline, John, Jenna, Ric, Cole and Francis. But mostly you, always you. I saw everything that you did, I infected your dreams. I stopped Jeanette in Atlanta from staking you, and I helped you comfort Caroline when she and Bonnie were fighting."

Suddenly, Damon was on his feet. "Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa! You were in my head? You were controlling me?"

Elena looked bemused as she rose to face him. "Of course I wasn't controlling you, the same way that They weren't controlling you either. I was taking advantage of thoughts and emotions that were already there. You wanted to comfort Caroline, or, at least, you wanted to want to comfort her. I just amplified it," she said nonchalantly. "And I already told you, sort of, that I was in your head. The first night that I was back, when I asked you to touch me. I couldn't miss you properly because I was always with you, but I could never interact with you, dreams notwithstanding."

Damon stared at the grass beneath his feet for a moment, processing this information. Then he asked, in a quiet voice, "Did it hurt? Coming back?"

There was silence as Elena tried to remember. "It was… strange. Yeah, I guess it hurt. I mean, I'd spent an eternity as a formless entity, and then I got shoved back in a frozen, atrophied body. So I had to get used to that. Plus, I had gotten so used to having everything in my head all the time, so that's what the adjustment period was. Retraining my brain to filter information as it was presented, and allowing it to repair itself." At Damon's look, she clarified. "Having all that knowledge, inside of one mind, is pretty much impossible to fathom. Having it all dumped in at once…. That's painful and confusing, and if I hadn't been a vampire-succubus-god-like thing, my brain probably would have melted out of my ears before I could even get out of the bed that I was laying in when I woke up."

It was quiet again, the wind blowing Elena's skirt a little, and ruffling Damon's hair as he spoke. "One more question…" Elena nodded. "So John had absolutely nothing to do with this? At all?"

Laughter rang out of Elena's throat. "He wasn't involved at all. Although, the morning that they found me, he was driving here hoping that you would kill him out of frustration." She frowned. "Actually, I think he and I need to have a very long conversation."

Those who are dead are not dead; they're just living in my head.

Damon took a step forward and cupped Elena's face with his hand.

"So that's it then? No more disappearances, no more being hunted down by forces of good and/or evil?"

Elena leaned in, pressing her forehead to Damon's, their lips almost touching.

"Nope, we're completely free to do whatever we want, not a care in the world."

They kissed then, with more passion and longing than either of them had shown since Elena had gotten back; since before she had left. They kissed like it was the end of the world, or the beginning of the world, which it was, for them. And they held each other tightly, never ready to let go. They knew they would have to let go physically eventually. But metaphorically speaking, they were done for. This was it for them. This was perfection, and they would have it forever.