"Neither of you know me." Despite her lack of emotions, Elena felt slightly indignant at the fact that she was being portrayed as someone who couldn't be trusted. She rolled her shoulders slightly, limited to only tiny movements by whatever spell Davina had holding her down, and frowned at the young girl in front of her; ironically, irritated by the irritation she felt in that moment.

"You're friends with the Old Ones." Davina said, with the conviction that only a teenager could carry. "No one who associates with them can be trusted."

"I wouldn't say I'm friends with them." Elena grimaced. "Elijah and I have a mutual interest, that's all."

"Elijah…" Davina muttered, her eyes flicking upwards for a moment before looking back at Elena. "He's the one they call honourable."

Elena nodded after a second, her lips quirking downwards slightly. "I shouldn't be surprised that that's the reputation he holds."

"You know him well?"

Elena smiled to herself, shaking her head slightly. Davina was so innocently curious; in a way, she reminded Elena of herself, perhaps if her emotions were on that would be making her feel something other than amusement. "Probably better than most people," Elena shrugged, "our…relationship is pretty complicated."

Davina nodded slowly, biting her lip as she considered her next words. "Marcel told me you don't feel anything." She stated quietly, Elena only raised an eyebrow in response, sensing an unasked question. "What's it like?" She asked eventually, glancing at the floor as though embarrassed before she swallowed and looked back at Elena, her chin raised resolutely.

Elena supressed another smile at the girl's actions, if she wasn't a child Elena was sure the thought of taking her for a snack when she was freed would've occurred to her. Emotions or not, there were some lines you just couldn't cross. Kids was one of them.

She let out a soft sigh, rolling her neck as she considered Davina's question. "Freedom." She settled on eventually. "It's like freedom." When Davina said nothing in response, her small form leaching curiosity, Elena continued. "I feel truly free, for the first time in a long time. There's no hurt, no guilt, no doubts."

"No love?" The teenager asked softly, frowning at Elena when she shook her head to confirm her words. "I can't imagine enjoying a life without love." She admitted, rubbing her hands together unconsciously as she thought.

"With the lives we lead in this world, there comes a time when love is more painful than anything." Elena said, her voice a soft whisper as she stared at the floor, irritated with the girl for making her truly think about her emotions for the first time since she'd flipped her switch.

"What happened to you?" Davina probed gently, her curiosity only growing.

"It's a pretty long story." Elena muttered, suddenly wishing that the girl would stop asking so many questions.

"We've got plenty of time." Davina grinned at her sunnily, crossing her legs and folding her arms over her chest as she settled into her chair, waiting for Elena to start talking.

"What do you mean, she's not here?" Damon shouted, glaring at the oldest Original.

"I feel that's a rather self-explanatory statement, Mr Salvatore." Elijah sighed, turning a page of the grimoire he was reading. Hayley snorted, studying her own book.

"Where the hell is she?" Damon snapped, not at all amused by Elijah's sarcasm.

"Not in the quarter." Klaus announced, slamming the door behind himself and Rebekah, and rolling his eyes when he noticed Elena's gaggle of friends taking up his lounge.

"You lost her?" Caroline screeched, the first to process Klaus's words. "How did you lose her?"

"She left." Rebekah corrected, rolling her eyes and accepting the glass of whiskey Klaus offered her. "Now we can't find her, completely different to losing her!"

"Not sure it's a distinction worth making." Damon snarked, glaring at the siblings. "You're supposed to be keeping her in check!"

"We never said anything about that, mate." Klaus corrected, narrowing his eyes at the elder Salvatore. "Elena left of her own accord, if she's gotten herself in trouble, it's her own problem."

"Then why are you out looking for her?" Caroline asked softly, tilting her head at the hybrid. "If it's her own problem, that is."

"We have our reasons, love." Klaus raised an eyebrow at her as she glared at him. "Unfortunately for you, they don't concern you."

"Elena is our concern." Damon snapped. "We never should've left her here with you!"

"She's not a possession to be thrown around." Elijah drawled, his voice sounding relatively blasé to everyone other than his siblings, who could hear the edge to his voice. "She is free to make her own decisions."

"Not when she's making the wrong ones." Damon spat, turning away from the Original and storming from the house. "Come on, Stef, we'd better go clean up their mess."

Stefan sighed, but followed after his brother, determined to keep him from making anymore stupid decisions.

"You're doing research?" Bonnie asked, moving to stand behind Elijah and tilting her head to look at the pages of his book. "Have you found anything that could help?"

Elijah shook his head, letting out a soft sigh. "No, there's almost no content on illness in vampires; anything that does reference maladies in our kind requires a witch's diagnosis."

"Okay?" Bonnie said, not seeing the problem with what Elijah said. "I can do that now if we have the right ingredients."

"Probably not the best idea, love." Rebekah interrupted. "Magic is currently forbidden in New Orleans, thanks to Marcel, its punishable by death."

"How can one man ban magic in the entire city?" Caroline asked, stunned by the revelation. "How is that possible?"

"We don't know." Klaus huffed, pursing his lips in irritation. "We have yet to figure that out."

"Right," Caroline sighed, "we need to deal with one thing at a time. We need to go find Elena. Bon?"

"I'll stay here." Bonnie agreed easily, sensing what Caroline was thinking. "I'll help Elijah with the research."

"Rebekah?"

"Yeah." Rebekah sighed, knocking back the rest of her drink and nodding at her hybrid brother. "Let's go."

"Jeremy died recently." Elena sighed, swallowing around the slight burn in her throat from talking so much. "Katherine murdered him; Damon used the sire bond to make me turn off my emotions, and here we are." She shrugged, amused at Davina's aghast look.

"I'm sorry." Davina said softly. "You've been through so much."

"You really mean that, don't you?" Elena tilted her head curiously before letting out a soft laugh. "I would've been you once, it feels like forever ago now."

"You've dealt with a lot, I guess I understand why you feel the way you do now." She mused out loud, regarding Elena with intrigue and sadness. "Do you ever regret not mourning Jeremy fully?"

"I don't regret anything." Elena snapped, glaring at the young witch. "We've covered that already."

"Do you think you will?" Davina prodded, not seeming to notice the danger of prodding an already angered vampire. "If you get your emotions back?"

"Maybe." Elena bit out, grinding her teeth together slightly and forcing herself to take a calming breath. "I don't ever imagine I'll be getting my emotions back."

"And if they were forced upon you?"

"I'd kill anyone who tried." Elena snarled, not liking the direction the conversation was turning; she'd already told Davina everything about her life in Mystic Falls, and now she was suggesting taking away her freedom? Was this girl that naïve, or just stupid?

Davina nodded slightly. "It's not nice having choices taken away from you. I understand that."

Elena relaxed slightly at the words; just naïve it was. "What happened to you, Davina? Why are you living up here?"

"Hiding." Davina admitted softly. "Marcel keeps me safe and I help him control the witches."

"I thought all witches thought of each other as family." Elena frowned, not sure how she was managing to be more and more confused by the moment. "Shouldn't you want to stop them being hurt?"

"No." Davina's voice was hard and resolute as she stood from the chair she'd been sat in, circling around to look back at Elena. "They deserve it."

"Why would you say that?" Elena asked, the sudden venom coming from the young girl surprising her.

"Because they're liars." Davina muttered like it was obvious. "All of them. They made me and my friends do this Harvest ritual." She continued after a moment. "They said our participation would bring our family strength, health...that we'd forever be celebrated as saviours of the community. But all they really wanted was more power. So, I left before they could get it. Now, they're running out of time, because after the Harvest, comes the Reaping. And if they don't complete the Harvest, there won't be a Reaping. Soon, all the witches in the Quarter will start to lose their power. Eventually, they will cease to be witches altogether."

Elena ignored the feeling that Davina was skipping over some parts of the story, choosing instead to ask the more forefront question on her mind. "What does it take to complete this ritual?"

"I have to die." Davina sighed, smiling at Elena softly. "I'm sure you understand how that feels."

Elena scoffed. "That's putting it lightly, but yeah, I do." She sighed. "What is the harvest? Why do you have to die for it?"

"That's what the Harvest was." Davina said sadly, her eyes glancing at her easel in the corner. "They said they'd put us four girls in a state of, like, peaceful limbo as part of the offering. And then later, at the Reaping, we'd awaken and be reborn. I never got as far as the limbo part, which means the Harvest isn't complete. That's why the witches are so freaked out. The Reaping is just around the corner, and if they don't finish it before then, it's over. All I have to do is wait it out."

"Then what?" Elena prodded.

"They're punished, and I'm free."

"Free from what?" Elena asked, her immediate thought jumped to Marcel, maybe he was keeping her here to make sure the witches lost their powers? She dismissed that thought quickly, Davina seemed to love Marcel; she wasn't a prisoner.

"Of magic. All our power will drain away. I'll be normal." Davina smiled at Elena, smoothing down her dress gently.

"Is that what you want? To be normal?" Elena frowned, she could vaguely remember the wants of her past life, when she was human; she'd wanted nothing more than to be normal, but now? She couldn't think of anything worse than going back to normality.

"I just don't wanna be what I am. I can't control it sometimes. Magic. I..." Davina shook her head, trailing off as she began to cry, "…hurt people. Even when I don't mean to."

Elena tilted her head at the girl in front of her, unsure what to say to her, but wanting her to stop crying. She hated crying so much. "Did you have friends? You must miss them." She tried, hoping it wouldn't make the girl cry more.

Davina smiled slightly, wiping away a tear. "There's Tim. He doesn't know about any of this witch stuff. He's normal. My best friend, Monique. She was a part of the Harvest too. She's lucky. No one ever fought for me, but someone fought for her. The only one who ever spoke out against the Harvest was Monique's aunt."

"Her aunt? Who's that?" Elena prodded, grateful to be away from the tears, the cogs in her brain turning at the new addition, perhaps this aunt could be useful.

"Sophie Deveraux."

"No one but Sophie ever questioned the Harvest. Not even my own mother. So, neither did I. We thought it was such an honor, we had such faith. We were so stupid." Davina scoffed, shaking her head slightly.

"What happened?"

"We were led out like princesses. My mother was so proud." Davina rolled her eyes, her lips pursing slightly as she appeared to be fighting back tears. "Bastianna, one of the elders, called upon the four elements to bind our past and future magic together. Earth, to connect us to our ancestors. Water, to heal the community. Wind, to carry us to our ancestors and back. Fire, to purify. After all our preparation, we knew exactly what to expect.

For weeks, they told us that the magic in the knife they used to cut our palms would put us to sleep, and that later at the Reaping, we would all be resurrected. They said we'd awaken, and all be together and more powerful than ever. And it was just like we rehearsed it. All that was left was a little cut on our palms for the blood sacrifice. Even after Sophie tried to stop it, we didn't suspect anything." Davina sighed again, shaking her head at her own naivety. "They slit Abigail's throat." She said eventually, her voice hitching slightly.

"Everyone involved knew it would happen." Elena breathed, a surprising rage filling her as she imagined children like Davina being butchered.

"Except the four of us." Davina nodded. "They weren't putting us to sleep, they were slaughtering us! I begged for someone to help. My own mother turned away from me. Sophie screamed and screamed for her sister, anyone, to do something. But no one did."

"But you survived." Elena denied. "Someone helped you."

Davina nodded, another tear falling from her eye. "Yes. Someone finally did."

"Marcel." Elena realised; her loyalty to the vampire finally making sense.

Davina nodded. "They managed to get Monique before the vampires could stop them. Every girl who died released her power on to the next. When I was the last one, I suddenly had all of it- all the power that was supposed to be released back into the earth to appease our ancestors."

Elena's eyes grew wide, that's how she was so powerful; why she could track the witches through all of New Orleans. "The Harvest was actually working?"

"Something was working." Davina corrected harshly. "And I knew that I was supposed to be killed so the Harvest could be completed, and we would all be resurrected. But, they lied to us about how they were killing us. How do I know they weren't lying to us about coming back? But mostly, I just didn't want to die. So, I let him save me. Marcel saved my life."

"You want the witches punished." Elena nodded, letting out a soft laugh. "I can't blame you, if I had any say in the matter, I'd kill the lot of them."

"You don't feel anything." Davina reminded her, raising an eyebrow.

"People don't hurt kids." Elena said firmly. "Emotions or not, that's a line you don't cross. Especially your own damn kids."

Teehee52: Ahhh I'm sorry! Please accept this quickly churned out chapter as my manifestation of guilt and apology for messing up! You're welcome though! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

midnight-writer97: I don't think I've ever done it before! I was just too excited to get the chapter up for you guys! Thank you so much! It's definitely soon because I feel so bad about messing up! ;)

Very quick update because I feel so, so bad about messing up with my posting yesterday! This chapter doesn't really introduce much unless you haven't watched The Originals, and a lot of the dialogue between Elena and Davina about the Harvest is taken from her conversation with Elijah in the show. It seemed the easiest way to get the story across without butchering it or skipping it completely, and I wanted to show Elena's reaction to Davina's past!

Hopefully I post this right this time and I look forward to hearing from you all soon!

Always

~ I x