I live.

I'm on a six week winter break right now, so I am going to try to get two more chapters out by the time my break ends.

Thank you to LoveDarkHina, Raven R. Mahmood, Bells-swan11, Faery66, Guest 2.0, jgood27, and GreenHoneyTea for reviewing. Responses to reviews will be at the end.

GreenHoneyTea suggested Kol/Elena and I really like the sound of it. If that were to happen, then Klaus would probably either be with Caroline, or he'd get with someone when the story gets to New Orleans.

I hope y'all enjoy.

She was shivering. There were cuts on her bare arms - she didn't know how she had gotten them. They were just there when she woke up.

Her only clothing was a thin, sheer shift. She had seen a man in strange clothing outside of her cell. His stare made her skin crawl. Not because he was looking at her with lust, or something of the sort. No, it was something more intense. She almost wanted to call it fanatical.

Her family - what had happened to them? She didn't know how much time had passed - there was no light aside from when that strange man came to observe her.

The door protested as its hinges wore forced open. She lifted an arm to cover her eyes as white light streamed into the room.

That strange man again. Suddenly angry, she spoke insistently.

"Why am I here?"

A confused expression appeared on the man's face.

"You are unhappy?"

What the hell kind of question was that?

"Why on earth would I be happy about this."

He gave her a piteous look. "You don't understand it. The greater purpose you serve."

That sentence, more than anything else in this entire shitty situation, was what terrified her the most.

"...why are you doing this?"

His expression was yearning. No, it was more than that. It was...reverent.

"You will bring Her strength."

Azalea jolted into awareness. That was the second one of those...wait. Where was she?

It was dark, too dark for a human to see. She was on her side, brushing against someone else. No, not someone. Elena.

They had been taken by Mikael. He had compelled her after knocking out Elena. Well, he tried to compel her. She had taken a hard blow from one of the 'were's, so passing out hadn't exactly been a hardship.

What had happened to Sage? She had been bitten by a werewolf.

Azalea started to push herself into a sitting position, when she felt a throb of pain. She peered through the darkness, and to her horror she found a deep cut on her arm. One that she didn't remember receiving.

She firmly shoved her rising panic into the back of her mind. One crisis at a time.

Ok. First, take stock of the situation. Then, wake Elena up.

She was in a sort of cave system, but that was all she knew about her location. She was Mikael's prisoner, and judging by the clean puncture on her arm, her blood had been taken for unknown purposes.

On the other hand, she was alive. That meant Mikael needed her. She had value in his eyes. That was good - she could use that. Mikael most likely knew that she wasn't human, but he apparently was under the assumption that she could be compelled. She could use that too.

Azalea carefully checked in on her connection to Elijah. Bonds weren't that evident unless one party involved was focusing on it, or if one party was in great turmoil. Usually they only gave a general sense of if the person in question was alive or not, if they were in danger, and just gave a general feeling of not being alone. It was a good thing - feeling another's emotions constantly would be very tiresome, no matter how much you loved them.

She winced. He was beyond pissed, and she didn't think that Finn was much better. That could either bode very well or very poorly. That entirely depended on the Salvatores. Yes, Azalea knew that they were responsible for Mikael - they were the only ones who would do something so monumentally stupid.

Neither Elijah or Finn were the type to act recklessly out of anger, but they were far more likely to resort to homicide than normal. When they figured out what Damon and Stefan had done Mystic Falls would most likely be short two vampires. Which would most likely hurt them in the long run. Unfortunately, the brothers were more useful alive than dead.

Well, that was the Salvatore's problem, not hers.

Elijah obviously felt her poking at their connection because he sent a veritable flood a rage-tined worry through it. Knowing that she could do nothing to truly soothe him, not as things were, she tried to suppress the panic and fear still screaming in the back of her mind, and focused on a general feeling of calm. She would not make things worse for him - it was already bad enough.

Elena shifted beside her, and began to sit up with a groan. Azalea felt her breathing picking up in panic, and reached out to touch her hand. Elena recoiled in fear.

"Elena, it's ok. It's just me.

"...Azalea?" Elena's voice broke on her name. Spirits, it was times like this that she remembered how young Elena was. She really didn't deserve to be dragged into all of this. Azalea was woman enough to admit to herself that part of the reason she went out of her way to help Elena was out of guilt for her part in introducing strife into her life.

"Yeah. It's me. We're in a cave system."

Elena grasped onto her hand.

"You can see?"

"Yes."

"What happened?"

"Mikael captured us. He needs us though. Or we wouldn't be alive."

Other Side take her, she was terrible at reassuring people.

"Ouch!" Elena's exclamation bounced off the cave walls.

"Elena?"

"There's a cut on my arm."

Alarmed, Azalea turned towards her companion. "Was it from the werewolves?"

"No. I must have got it while we were out."

That was very bad. Memini blood was rare, and therefore powerful in the right circumstances, but Doppelganger blood was in a class of its own.

Wait a moment - Doppelganger blood.

"I think I know a way to get help. But I don't think you'll like it."

At this, Elena looked at her - or tried at least. She was off by a good six inches.

"I don't think there's anything I'd like less than this."

She had a good point.

"I need to drink your blood."

"You're not a vampire."

Well, that wasn't a no.

"I have the ability to cast my spirit from my body…" She hesitated for a moment, gauging how much to tell Elena. "... but I...injured myself a while back, and I haven't regained the power for it yet. I think that if I drink your blood, I'll be back to how I was before my injury."

Elena fell silent at her words. Azalea was content to let her think - she was asking a lot of her.

What could Mikael be using their blood for? Azalea cast her mind back what Kol had taught her about blood magic. There wasn't much use her blood would have, only for things related to spirits, and possibly healing. Elena's blood, among other things, could amplify the magic inherent in her own, and it had a special connection to the vampire race as a whole.

"Do it."

Elena's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "What?"

"Do it."

Right. Azalea didn't do Elena the disservice of asking again.

"I'm going to take from your lower arm, alright?"

"Alright." Elena held out her left arm, and Azalea gently grasped it.

"I don't have fangs like a vampire, so it's going to hurt a bit more."

With that, Azalea bit down, wincing internally at Elena's hiss of pain.

The taste of Doppelganger blood was...indescribable. At her core, Azalea was a creature that fed on magic. Her natural prey was witches, though she generally sustained herself on a mixture of that and vampire blood. But the power in Elena's blood...it was the richest thing she had ever consumed. Her body was practically buzzing with energy for the first time in months.

She firmly denied the urge to take until she was satisfied and detached her teeth from Elena's arm after feeling her energy return to her. She covered her teeth marks with her hand, and let the healing power she hadn't used since before Klaus's curse had been broken well up within her.

A glimmer of blue light flowed into Elena's arm, closing the teeth marks.

"Thank you, Elena."

The teenager nodded at her, cradling her arm close to her body.

"I'm going to figure out where we are, and I'll see if I can get help. If something happens, shake me or something."

With that, Azalea cast her spirit out of her body.

How that she had made her way out of them, she recognized the caves they were captive in. It was the system that they used to hide from the werewolves all those centuries ago. She noticed werewolves roaming the woods as she made her way to Mystic Falls proper, being sure to stay invisible as she went.

She followed her bond to Elijah, which led her to Elena's house.

How had they gotten an invitation? Why were they even at Elena's house?

She phased through the front door, and saw more people than she expected.

A blond haired woman and a dark haired teenager, Damon, Stefan, Caroline, and Bonnie were all on one side of the room, with her family on the other. Kol was smiling, Klaus looked bored, Rebekah looked about ready to tear someone's spine out, Finn was hovering by Sage - she was healed, thanks the Spirits - both looking visibly annoyed, and Elijah was looking very blank.

In other words, they were all about ready to start ripping hearts out.

And then Azalea actually started listening to what was being said from Elena's side of the room.

"Maybe if you had left Elena alone, Mikael wouldn't have taken them."

She decided to interfere before someone got killed.

LoveDarkHina - I believe I responded to your review on ao3, but you have given me good food for thought on the pairing thing. Thank you for your input!

Raven R. Mahmood - The Salvatores are going to be lucky to live through this considering the stunts they pulled. Azalea cannot remember her past. That's all I've revealed in the story at least.

Bella-swan11 - That is part of the reason Mikael took Azalea. Elena has definitely been hit with a clue-by-four concerning the Salvatores.

Faery66 - I'm a little late, but ask and ye shall receive!

Guest 2.0 - I will do more fluff for sure.

jgood27 - Thank you for commenting!

GreenTeaHoney - Thank you for such a thoughtful review! I'm happy that you like the premise of this fic, and that you like Azalea and Elijah together. Yeah, that's pretty much how I think about the Klaus/Elena and Klaus/Caroline situation. I haven't explained it completely in the fic yet, but there are no pre-destined mates. There's a pull towards compatible souls, but it is all voluntary. Fate doesn't have much of a say in it. After a partner is chosen, none of the parties involved feel the pull to any besides their chosen mate. And breaking those bonds, as what happend with Klaus and Tatia is rare, but very traumatic. Klaus's potential compatibility with Elena, if it were to happen, would have nothing to do with her doppelgangerness, and everything to do with who she is as a person. I really like Elena/Kol, I will give serious thought to that. That could be really fun.

Thank y'all again for reviewing! See ya next time!