Disclaimer: I do not own the vampire diaries, tv or book version. I only own my OC and her intrusion into the plot and the divergences I will try to make. Please enjoy.

Edit: I don't hate Elena. I believe my writing comes across that way. But it is not my intention. I am annoyed by how her character was handled in later seasons.

1

Hunting Grounds

She was burning. The flames licking at her skin as the chains tore into her limbs and pulled at them. Her throat was so parched that she couldn't scream as she felt her muscles tear. She was in hell. She couldn't think of anywhere else. She heard the hellish screeches around her as a chain wrapped around her neck and slowly constricted. Just as it began to pull she bolted up in a bed. Sweat ran down her face in rivets and onto the duvet pooled around her waist.

"Clara! You need to open this door!" A voice yelled and she jerked.

Clara? She brought a hand up to her forehead and tried to remember where she was, or who she was. It felt like someone was hammering against her skull with a brick. Clara was her name; she had figured that out. She just couldn't place her surname. She slowly got out of the bed and found herself keeping a hand on the mattress to keep her balance. Her legs felt week. She stumbled towards the door and fumbled with the lock for a few minutes before slowly opening it just a crack. A girl with olive skin and long straight brown hair was glaring at her. She couldn't find it in herself to care, the girl didn't look like she could throw a punch to save her life.

"Happy?" She mumbled.

"No, you need to get ready," The girl hissed, "or else you'll make us late for school."

Clara rolled her eyes as she closed the door and stumbled about her room. School? That didn't sound right at all. She was a bit too old for school. She noticed a closet and swung the door to it open before rummaging about for something to wear that wasn't soaked in sweat. The bright colors that greeted her caused her nose to scrunch up and a sneer to form on her face. Those clothes would be easy to spot at night, and picked up on night vision. She found the one black shirt and yanked it off the hanger. It had translucent sleeves, but it was the best she could work with. A pair of tight black jeans joined it as she grabbed some underwear and headed into the bathroom attached to the room she was in.

A shower didn't help, and as she dried her wavy long hair she couldn't help but grow even more confused. Her body felt heavy, her limbs a bit slow in their response as she reached for things. She flexed her fingers and winced at the numb feeling of them. The continuous action slowly caused the numbness to fade and the response time to return to normal. She headed out of the bathroom and paced for a few seconds. She would play along with the girl from earlier, but she needed information and quick. She grabbed some black socks and a pair of leather boots. Those stood out to her amongst the colorful converse and heels.

She instantly searched the room and found a small journal with her name on it in cutesy lettering. She felt like gagging but opened it to the first page. Clara Gilbert, that's the name written inside of it. The first few pages informed her of who that girl had been. Elena Gilbert, the name did sound familiar. She felt that pounding in her skull reappear and she closed her eyes for a few seconds. She grabbed a book of a matching size from the built-in bookshelf and put it over the journal. She could read it and find out what else she was missing. She tugged on her auburn hair and noted the waist length, and curl to it. She was pale, compared to the olive toned girl from earlier, but they did look alike. She studied her reflection as she paused at a mirror on her wall. Her eyes weren't the deep brown Elena's were, but a lighter brown that was a shade closer to honey. She bit her lip, and her reflection did the action as well.

"This is wrong," She quietly muttered as she ran her hand through her hair and gave it a sneer.

Long hair like this could easily be grabbed onto. Did no one tell her that? She shook her head at that and exited out of the room that she gathered was her's. She ran into someone and grumbled slightly. Shorter male, teenage and full of angst. That had to be the Jeremy in that journal. He grumbled in response and glared at her. She raised a brow.

"Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" Jeremy asked.

"Something like that," She said as she closed her door and spun on her heel, "did you?"

Jeremy seemed taken aback by the sudden change in character from his perceived sister. Clara couldn't find it in herself to feel bad, but made a mental note to read that journal as quicky as possible. A change in personality like this could see her in a one-way trip to a psychiatrist. What would she even say to a psychiatrist? She had a nightmare about being in hell and when she woke up she was having trouble remembering things? That would see her drugged to the point of being incapable of doing anything. She refused to end up that way.

"No, are you sure you're okay?" Jeremy found himself asking as he followed one of his older sisters down the stairs.

"I'm fine," She answered in a clipped tone as she grabbed onto the backpack that was a bright pink.

She looked at it as if it was the plague. He was confused and slightly appreciative that she was starting to show a personality that wasn't like Elena. She slung it over her shoulder and headed into the kitchen as she placed a book in there. She ran a hand through her hair in a way he was unused to as he followed. She was acting weird, her eyes discreetly moving side to side as she surveyed her surroundings. If he didn't know any better he would say she was standing up straighter than usual, and had a militaristic gait to her walk.

"I can make toast," Their aunt Jenna said as she pushed some of her blonde hair from her face.

"It's all about the coffee, Aunt Jenna," Elena said as she breezed past Jeremy and into the kitchen to pick up a mug full of the hot liquid.

"Woah, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed there?" Jenna asked as Clara poured herself a travel mug of coffee and accepted some toast from her.

"Why is everyone asking me that?" She grumbled, "I'm fine."

"You're dressing like Jeremy," Elena pointed out, "you hate darker colors."

"Way to throw our baby brother under the bus," Clara pointed out in a blunt tone as she bit into the piece of toast.

"Hey, no fighting," Jenna warned them as she rummaged about in her pockets for her wallet, "it's your first day of school and I'm completely unprepared, do you need lunch money?"

"I'm good," Elena declined, and Jenna held it out to Clara who accepted it.

"Some of us eat a proper diet," Clara sniped as she took another bite out of her toast.

She was going to be testy for a while until she read up onto who the hell was surrounding her. She would pretend to be back to normal, but she felt like something had changed and her lack of memories was bothering her. She closed the lid to her travel mug and sighed quietly as Jeremy grabbed a mug of the caffeinated hot drink. Out of the three people she's met so far, she felt closer to him. That said something about the fact that she was having trouble standing her "twin".

"Don't you have a big presentation today?" Elena asked their aunt.

"I'm meeting with my thesis advisor at…" Jenna trailed off as she checked the time on her watch, "now , crap!"

"Go, it's more important we'll be fine," Clara said in a nonchalant tone.

Jenna gave her a strange look at that before smiling slightly. Clara was acting weirdly, but she would rather this out of nowhere attitude shift compared to the zombie she felt like for the past four months. Clara raised a brow at her and tapped her wrist with a free finger. She hurriedly grabbed her thesis and headed out of the house with a "bye" tossed over her shoulder. Clara added another person to her list of those she was starting to like.

"C'mon, Bonnie's waiting for us," Elena huffed to her sister.

"Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" Clara asked her as she finished off her toast and moved towards the front door.

"Don't even," Elena muttered.

Clara rolled her eyes and Jeremy smirked behind his cup of coffee. He still felt uneasy about the change. She paused in her steps and sent him a sharp look. He tensed up at it and he got the message behind it. Don't cause any trouble. He thought that the change would stop her from being a narc to him, but he was wrong.

"Deciding to change up your look, Clara?" Bonnie asked as she saw the two Gilbert twins getting into her car.

"It's like a whole attitude change," Elena answered.

"Thank you, Clara," Clara stated, and Bonnie gave the girl a critical look.

She was carefree, but even she could tell there was some hostility between the two girls. She cleared her thought in discomfort, and Clara almost seemed contrite for bringing her into family issues. That was new, Clara could be just as bad as Elena when it came to understanding other's emotions. If the change affected her like that, then she couldn't help but see it as a good thing. She hadn't been the same since the accident, so some form of personality was welcomed even if it was snarkier and serious.

"It doesn't look bad, does it?" Clara asked her as she looked down at the ensemble she had put together.

"I like it, very goth," Bonnie said and that got a slight smile out of the suddenly serious girl.

Clara let that smile appear on her face. It was an attempt to get Bonnie to relax around her, but also some genuine fondness for the dark-skinned girl. Bonnie wasn't mentioned in the journal, but she had only read the first two pages. She would read it throughout the day when she was time. She opened her travel mug and took a sip out of it. Bonnie decided to keep the twins calm by talking about something her Grandmother had told her that was interesting and out of there.

"So, Grams started telling me I'm psychic," Bonnie informed them, and Clara took interest in that, "Our ancestors were from Salem, witches and all that. It's crazy, I know, but she keeps going on and on about it. I'm sitting there like, time to put this woman in a home already."

"That's a pretty cool ancestry," Clara stated, and Bonnie wasn't expecting that, "they're staples of individualism and free thinking."

"Yeah, maybe Grams is onto something when she tells me to be proud of who I am," Bonnie said with a smile, yeah she could get used to the change, "but some of what she says stayed with me. I predicted Obama and then Heath Ledger, and I still think Florida will break off and turn into little resort islands."

"What's your thoughts on Texas succeeding from the US?" Clara asked as she started to wrack her mind for some information.

Out of everything she could possibly know or remember, that little tidbit about Texas is what her mind choses to give her. She was a sitting duck if she couldn't pull more out the vacuum between her ears. Still, her question made Bonnie's eyes lit up. How rare was it for her or Elena to converse with Bonnie like a normal human being? Something about that didn't sit right with her. People were valuable resources and the way you treated them could be one's doom. She knew that like it was a second instinct.

"It's going to happen, I swear," Bonnie agreed before she stopped at a stop sign and noticed that Elena was staring out of the window in a dazed fashion, "Elena, back in the car!"

Clara watched as Elena jerked back into reality and she couldn't help but roll her eyes. She didn't know the whole story, but was annoyed at her "twin". She could get herself killed by spacing out like that. Killed? Her mind focused on that, and she felt her skin burning. Pain went up her spine and legs. It spread all the way to her chest and she quickly pulled her thoughts away from that subject. The pain vanished and she let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"I did it again, didn't I?" Elena asked, "I'm sorry Bonnie, you were telling me that…"

"I'm psychic now," Bonnie answered.

"Right, okay, then predict something," Elena smiled, "about me."

"I don't think it works like that," Clara muttered under her breath as Bonnie started driving again.

She was glad that the radio drowned out her voice. She watched as a crow dived down into the path of the car. It slammed into the windshield and Bonnie swerved to the side of the road with wide eyes. She instantly looked towards a startled Elena and began to apologize. She hadn't meant for something like that to happen. The window rolled down and Clara looked out of it. The bird was nowhere to be seen. She couldn't help but be intrigued by that. Something strange was happening. Her head cocked to the side as a calculating glaze appeared in her eyes. She pulled her head back into the car and rolled the window up.

"Well, the birds not in the road so it seems to have survived that," Clara informed them.

"You know what, I think that's a sign that my prediction is going to be right," Bonnie said with a relieved tone, "I predict that this year is going to be kick ass and that all the sad and dark times are over."

"Let's hope so," Clara said.

Bonnie continued driving and took them to the school. Clara kept the contempt from her face at the sign. High School? She was too old for high school. Wait, wasn't that wrong if her twin was still a teenager? She got out of the car the moment that Bonnie parked. She pulled her bag onto her shoulder and paused for a few seconds. She turned to face a confused Bonnie and Elena. She needed to thank the other girl for driving them, it was out of her way and needed.

"Thank you for the ride, Bonnie," Clara quietly thanked, "it's appreciated."

"Seriously, what happened?" A stunned Bonnie asked a confused Elena, "She knows that she doesn't need to thank me for a ride."

"I have no idea, this morning I woke her up and she glared me down," Elena answered, a slight stutter to her voice, "next thing I know is that she's snapping at everyone and dressing like Jeremy, I thought she had finally gotten better about what happened."

Bonnie opened her mouth to say something, but closed it. She got a strange feeling that she shouldn't say anything. If she wanted answers Clara would eventually tell her, that's just how she was. It just took her a while to do so. She got out of the car and gave Elena a slight smile and shrug.

Clara moved through the hallways of the school and that pounding sensation came back to her head. She ignored the stares as she briskly walked to her first class. She inwardly sneered at that; she hated the idea of sitting in a classroom. She couldn't dig too far into it, her recent try in the car was enough for her to be weary of it. The teacher gave her a cool glare and she took a seat in the back of the class and brought out the journal. Her reading speed was fast, so she knew that she could read quite a bit in one sitting. Information was crucial, and it made people ignore her. School shooter, that label was being thrown around and she rolled her eyes in response. Childish. The entire situation was childish.

She continued to think that way until history. She was in the class with the new kid. She had heard rumors of him already. Seems no one was exempt from that. Once again, childish. She couldn't skip, apparently she had a perfect attendance. Something that the Clara in the journal took pride in. The girl who had written inside the pink monstrosity was not her. She felt like it was obvious simply due to her thought process. If she was the same girl, then there should be some of that personality remaining. There wasn't any. She stared ahead as the teacher droned on about the civil war. She found that she didn't really care. Why should she?

The bell rang and she headed out of the classroom as soon as the teacher released them. She didn't care that those that knew "her" were starting to grow worried. She looked down at her boots and wondered just how bad a run in them would be. She shrugged, she'll deal with the fallout later. She exited the school building and began to jog the way they came. The air was crisp and clear, and was one of the few things that didn't set her on edge. People gave her odd looks, but she ignored them.

She reached her home, huffing and puffing. She bent over on the porch and tried to catch her breath. She needed to start timing herself when running, knowing exact times would help her to improve. She dug around her pockets for her house keys and pulled them out. The inside of the house was cool and she welcomed it with a relieved sigh.

"Did you run from the school?" A voice asked her.

"Yeah, I have no clue how long it took me either," She admitted as she looked at Jenna.

There was worry on the blondes face, and disbelief. She ran a hand through her hair before pinching the bridge of her nose. Who the hell was the girl in front of her, because she didn't act like her niece. Her niece was naïve and hated running. She hated the color black, the only reason why she owned any clothing that color was because her mother needed her to own something slightly formal. She was self-centered and didn't care who knew it. She was the epitome of the cheerleader stereotype and a partygoer. This Clara in front of her was militaristic with a haunted look in her eyes. This one would sooner question her judgment than agree with it, yet there was something about her that was charismatic.

"Think I can talk Jeremy into borrowing one of his hoodies?" This Clara asked.

"Not a fan of bright colors?" Jenna questioned with a raised brow.

"Not anymore," She answered in a quiet tone.

That spoke volumes. Her face was grim and there was a bit of grief mixed in. Jenna felt bad for being on guard around her niece. It was just a bizarre way of coping with her parents deaths. She sighed through her nose and took pity on the teen. Looked like she was going shopping with her. Clara knew she had her right then and there, her acting skills were better than she thought.

"C'mon, I know a good place," Jenna said.

"Can we spare some time to gather up some of the clothes I already have?" Clara asked, "I'd like to donate it if I'm not going to use it."

That was genuine. Of all the things she could say, donation was genuine. Clara couldn't place her finger on why it was, but she knew deep down she really wanted to donate those bright monstrosities. She felt bad for whoever got them. Jenna waved her up and she quickly gathered a bag of the bright shirts and skirts before heading down with a small handbag on her shoulder.

The ride into town was quiet and Jenna stopped at a local shelter that accepted clothing donations. She took them to a little boutique that seemed to be up to Clara's new clothing choice. Jenna let the teen wander the store, and watched as she chose clothing that looked like tactical wear. Just what was that girl watching to be influenced to such a degree?

"Ready?" Jenna asked as she saw the small amount of clothing.

"Yeah, I think this can tide me over until I get a job," Clara nodded, "not only that I can pay you back for these too."

"You want to pay me back?" Jenna questioned, "It's my job as a guardian to get you necessities."

"I had clothing, but you allowed me to donate it to try a new style," Clara quietly said as the boutique owner rang up the items, "you are also working through schooling and bills, it's the least I could do in thanks."

"Who are you and what did you do with my niece?" Jenna questioned with a slightly serious tone.

"I decided a change was in order," Clara shrugged, "maybe I got tired of being just like Elena."

Jenna didn't know what to think of that. Clara seemed to love being just like her twin. Those two always got along, but this morning there was a rift between them. Something happened, and Jenna didn't know what it was. Clara carried the bags back to the car and the red head followed. Militaristic, that definitely suited the niece she was looking at. From the walk to the way she stood at attention when waiting. Did Clara get into war movies and books? That wouldn't cause such a shift in personality. She would get to the bottom of it.

Clara was quite pleased that the trip was so short. She had gone for items that were practical, yet stylish. Tactical fashion wasn't a big hit yet, and she was most likely going to get in trouble with the police. Yet, something felt right about it. She ran her hands over the pockets on the pants and let out a quiet hum before removing any tags and tossing them into a clothes basket. She was going to busy for the rest of the night. It also helped her to ignore the Gilbert's, and Jenna, until she was able to get an act together.

Color her surprised when a buzzing sound grabbed her attention as she was folding her clean laundry. She looked at the bedside table and picked up a flip phone with a strange expression on her face. That didn't look right. Who still had flip phones in this day and age? She shook her head and flipped it open.

"This is Clara Gilbert," She answered.

"I need to talk to you," Bonnie's voice was a surprise but an oddly welcomed one.

"All right, do you want to chat over the phone or in person?" She asked.

"Can I spend the night?" Bonnie asked.

"I'll ask Jenna," She softly told her.

Bonnie sounded highly on edge and she wasn't about to cause her any more discomfort. Clara knew that wouldn't get her any information. She tilted her head in thought and looked to the side. Did this make her a manipulative bitch? She thought on it. No, she didn't think it did. She was practical, realistic. She calmly walked down the stairs and looked around for Jenna.

"Hey, is it cool if Bonnie spends the night?" She asked.

"As long as you go to school tomorrow," Jenna answered.

"Permission has been granted," Clara said into the phone and Bonnie gave a light laugh at that.

Bonnie didn't take long to appear with an over night bag on her shoulder. Clara calmly invited her in and the both headed up the stairs and into her room. The room was already in sleepover mode and Bonnie sat down on the bed and let out a quiet sigh. Clara joined her with a patient expression.

"I think somethings wrong with Stefan Salvatore," Bonnie informed her, "I got a bad feeling from him."

"I see," Clara quietly muttered, "it's not unfounded, bad feelings are an important part of our survival instincts."

"I don't know how things have changed that I'm able to talk about these things with you," Bonnie admitted, "it's nice."

"What are friends for?" Clara shrugged, "You needed someone to talk to, and I don't mind being a helpful ear."

It gave her a way to collect information. Bonnie smiled slightly at her words and brought a hand up to pat the other girls shoulders. Her dark eyes glazed over as her body froze. Clara wasn't completely worried, no this felt familiar. Witch. Her head started pounding again and she tried to ignore it. Bonnie jerked and pulled her hand away from her shoulder.

"You okay?" Clara asked.

"You…" Bonnie couldn't put into words what she had seen, "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry."

Clara. Who was Clara Gilbert, but at the same time wasn't. Those honey eyes looked at her in slight worry, a part of it was genuine another falsified. Bonnie had seen bits a pieces of this Clara, the one that showed more sympathy while broken than the self-centered girl she had grown up with. She trusted her, because of those glimpses.

"Don't be," Clara quietly said, "you didn't do anything wrong."

"Right," Bonnie said with a slight nod before changing the topic, "Are you excited for the comet."

Clara blinked at that before nodding slightly. The comet? It sounded vaguely familiar. She didn't know why, but something about it felt right as well. Bonnie watched the calculation on Clara's face and sighed quietly. Yes, the comet will be a turning point for both of them. For now, this girl needed her help. That glimpse told her everything she needed to know. She could do this, because if she didn't then Clara could end up becoming a danger to Mystic Falls.