Rating: E... Because of course.
Tags: Foreknowledge, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Sass, Banter, Seriously OP main character, Sorry Not Sorry, Self-Insert/OC – Freeform, More OC Than Self-Insert, Magic, Siphoners, Tattoos, elena gilbert is a magical unicorn, this is my sandbox, Seer, Bound to Death (more tags will be added as the story progresses).
Author's Note: Red back at it again with that SI/OC bullshit! Why is it when I get my writing muse back, it won't stay in one fandom lane and will instead toss and turn between a million different ones at once? One day I'm in the Through the Valley of Shadows zone and another I'm writing a story idea I originally had back when I actually used to watch Vampires Diaries as it came out!
Ah well, nothing I can do! Just let it be known that this story will be updated on a slower pace than Through the Valley of Shadows and Modus Vivendi as those two stories are my main focus right now, even though my muse refuses to listen to reason… I'm even writing another story alongside these three. Someone stop me. Please.
Masquerade
Chapter One
Danzleikr Lítit Barn
dance little children
(Wednesday the 9th of September, 2009. Sphinx Hospital, Mystic Falls, Virginia.)
The emergency room was overrun, filled with screaming children, the sound of beeping monitors, moaning, and exhausted nurses giving instructions to waiting patients. The waiting room was bursting at the seams, filled with people complaining of various ailments, and every member of the on-duty staff looked haggard and stressed as they ran about with either medication or charts in hand while attempting to do twenty other things at the same time.
Except for one, that is.
The doctor stood in the centre of the chaos, facing a wall with both hands clasped behind her white coat clad back, reading an x-ray of a gunshot victim's shoulder as though she were looking at a work of art in a gallery. After a few moments, she picked up the nearby chart and wrote a few lines of advice down for the attending doctor to follow, then turned to face a nurse who nodded towards one of the many curtained sections of the room.
Unhurried and serene, the doctor with the piercing eyes moved through the human mess of the emergency room, almost as though she was simply not a part of the chaos, as though she existed on a completely different plane of existence to it.
Curtain after curtain was then pulled back, a polite smile gracing her lips as she stepped into the space of patient after patient, her voice the same calm and accented tone as she treated injury after injury. She was unfazed by everything that greeted her behind the curtains, from a hysterical mother who had rushed her young son in for a small paper cut on the side of his finger to the numerous patients who had come in with various vegetables and household objects misplaced in unusual cavities.
One of which she was now on a first-name basis with due to the multiple visits a year.
After several hours had passed by, during which the doctor had circled the entire emergency room what seemed like a few hundred times, she eventually disposed of the latest pair of blue latex gloves she had been wearing into one of the nearby waste bins before then making her way over to the nearest elevator so that she could finally make her other rounds, rounds she hadn't been able to see to at all due to the rush of people that had been swarming the emergency room like ants to honey.
Giving the receptionist a smile as she passed, she then made her way into the elevator and pushed the freshly re-painted number two on the panel. The hospital had received a hefty donation some months ago that the hospital administrator had put to use redoing the entire interior. Everywhere had smelt an odd combination of stale air, bleach and paint for weeks.
At the sound of the feminine robotic voice announcing the arrival at her destination, along with the loud ding, she stepped out and made her way straight to the nurse's station. Her heeled shoes echoed throughout the corridors as they clicked across the tiled flooring, small wisps of wavy white hair bouncing free from her high bun with each step.
The only nurse on duty at the desk seemed to be Kieran, who was the newest member of the team. With his carefully messed brown curls and dark blue eyes, he had quickly become many of the patients' favourite nurse to be tended by. She had seen many of the residents' lingering around him when they were meant to be working as well. Dressed in his blue scrubs, Kieran leant over the desk as he shuffled through papers before the sound of her clicking heels caused him to look up.
An overly enthusiastic smile immediately crossed his lips, followed by a faint pink tint to his cheeks. "Hello, Doctor Rune! How is the ER today?"
"Good evening, Kieran," Doctor Idonea Rune replied. "It is as hectic as ever. Many of my patients today were ones with minor injuries, although I did happen to see a few of more accident-prone regulars in again today." She shook her head with a sigh. "Along with having to tend to William for the third time this month."
Looking down, the nurse straightened a stack of papers before stapling them together. He coughed as his mouth twitched at the mention of Idonea's most infamous patient. This week it had been a glass bottle William had misplaced, whilst last week it had been an Iron Man action figure. The break room always had a good chuckle over the details. After clearing his throat to stop himself from laughing, Kieran refocused his attention back on her.
"Have you heard the news?"
"What news would that be?"
"We have a new intern."
Idonea hummed. "How interesting, I had not heard. Do you know who it is?"
The last intern Sphinx Hospital had had, back in June, had been discovered stealing bags of blood from the blood bank refrigerators. After a lengthy investigation, it had turned out that she had been stealing the blood bags so that she could sell them on the side for a bit of extra cash. She had been swiftly removed from the hospital and barred from others.
No-one had mentioned to Idonea that they would be receiving any anytime soon, as she tended to be one of the doctors that interns usually shadowed more often than others. But, trust for it to be the young nurse that was the first to let her know, for the boy seemed to always have an ear out for the latest hospital gossip that he could then relay to others. That, and as her other co-workers had been so quick and amused to inform her shortly after he had joined the team, he had a mild crush on her.
As if the accelerated heart rate hadn't already told her that.
Kieran shrugged as he leafed through another pile of papers. "A member of one of the founding families that just graduated from a big Ivy League university." He then paused; forehead scrunched into wrinkles as he thought. "Ah! Meredith, that was it. Meredith Fell."
"I see."
The name was familiar in two ways. Idonea could recall the exact moment that she had first heard it and the first moment she had ever laid eyes on Meredith Fell. Fell had worked several weekends at the clinic Idonea had interned at a few years back now. She hadn't seen much of her even then, however, as she had had so much else going on.
The first time she had ever heard the name Meredith Fell, however, had been a lifetime ago, when she had been a completely different person. In body and mind. Quite literally. Idonea briefly debated what she wanted to do with the young founding family member, before concluding that there was no need to do anything for a while at least. There were other more pressing matters that she needed to set into motion beforehand.
She'd have someone keep an eye on her, anyhow, just in case something changed.
"Has anyone been in to see my latest patient today?"
Kieran chewed on his bottom lip as he scanned through the digital visitation log for the day. The hospital administrators had decided away with the books some months ago as some of the nurses had gotten into the habit of forgetting to transfer them over to the computer systems at the end of the day.
"The one that was brought in last night for severe bleeding? Her brother checked in about half an hour ago, but he's the only one."
Idonea nodded. She had been expecting as much. The mother had been called as soon as she had been rushed in the previous night, but so far there had been no word back. She had heard rumours that the mother had run off with her latest new boyfriend, leaving her children to fend for themselves, so the young doctor wasn't expecting to hear much at all or to see any visitors other than the brother.
Thanking Kieran for his assistance, which turned him a bright pink as blood pooled in his cheeks, Idonea continued her way through the corridors. She passed a few other on-duty doctors and nurses here and there, as well as other visitors, all of which she smiled and nodded at politely as she made her way to her patient's room. She had always hated rude people and had always prided herself on never being like them, always striving to be polite. Some people tested her, but that was just how life went.
She arrived at her patient's room to find her sat on her bed, knees pulled up to her chest as she stared out the nearby window. Her brother was sat in one of the chairs in the corner of the room, head tilted up to the ceiling, fast asleep. The doctor gently knocked on the wood of the door frame before entering as not to startle either of them.
"Hello Miss Donovan, how are we doing today?"
The teen glanced over her shoulder briefly, "I hurt," then turned back to the window.
"As to be expected, considering what happened," Idonea replied with a smile. "The painkillers will help."
"Don't you have anything stronger?"
"Nothing that I can give you, I am afraid."
Vicki huffed before rubbing at the bandages that wrapped around her neck, covering the bite marks that marred her skin. Idonea followed the movement for a moment before then turning towards the bedside monitor to go over her patient's vitals and check on the IV bag, which looked as though it had been recently changed. Vicki had lost a lot of blood, of course, and she had needed multiple blood transfusions throughout the night.
Idonea peered out of the corner of her eye as she examined her patient's appearance. The colour had come back to her somewhat, returning her to a skin tone more akin to her natural light complexion, but she was still much paler than what she was normally. Her lips were no longer blue, however, so Idonea expected her to make a full recovery soon enough.
"Can't I get something to drink?" Vicki then whined. "My throat is scratchy."
"I'll get you a drink, Vick."
Idonea glanced over her shoulder to find that the brother had awoken sometime during her observation of her patient. She smiled at him politely as he left the room to hunt down one of the few vending machines in the hospital, all of which were scattered sparingly throughout the first floor. The administration had been meaning to get more so that patients didn't have to travel so far, but no-one had managed to get around to it just yet.
"Is there anything that I can do for you?"
"Another pillow? This one is hurting my neck."
"I can do that," she replied with another smile.
Idonea then went back through the corridors as she made her way to one of the nearby stock rooms on the floor, which was relatively close to the nurse's station. She entered the room, flicked the light switch on and looked over the shelving units for a few moments. She eventually found a couple of extra pillows that had been shoved at the back of one of the shelves, hidden by a few plastic containers. Pillows at the hospital seemed to disappear as regularly as the blood pressure cuffs.
Grabbing a somewhat plump one, Idonea tucked it under her arm as she retraced her steps back to Vicki's room.
Once she arrived, however, she was greeted by the sight of Vicki laying down in the bed with a man hovering above her. Everything he said, Vicki repeated it back in monotone. Idonea watched the pair for a moment, watching as the compulsion began its weak hold on the girl before the young vampire was then flung across the room and pinned to the wall. The door closed with a faint click as it was sealed. All of this happened without Idonea taking her eyes off of her patient, without her moving an inch and without her saying a word.
Vicki blinked once, twice, and then her eyes went cloudy as she stared into space.
"You know, I do not take kindly to others compelling my patients." She tilted her head to look towards the vegetarian vampire, who's eyes were wide as he struggled to free himself from her telekinetic hold. Not that it would do him much good, considering just how weak his diet and age made him, along with how much power she herself had at her disposal. The youngest Salvatore had no idea just what he had stepped into when he had tried to swoop in to clean up his brother's mess.
Moving towards the bed, Idonea placed the pillow behind Vicki before then turning towards the struggling vampire. She raised a hand to caress the side of his face, taking in his strong bone structure and deep green eyes. He was easy on the eyes, she'd give him that, but Idonea had always had a thing for pretty boys, even long before Idonea had been her name. He was far too broody for her tastes, however; she preferred bad boys. A shame really. She traced a finger across his skin, watching as her manicured nail left a thin, bloody line in its wake.
Idonea was so very tempted to remove the spell that had been placed on the male doppelgänger, but considering that it worked in her favour, she ignored it.
Stefan's expression twisted into one of pain as a red hue began to glow beneath the hand pressed against his face. The doctor smiled, her carefully tailored person suit slipping ever so slightly to reveal the monster that lurked beneath as the familiar rush of power and control flowed through her veins, and she basked in its intoxicating radiance. Then she uttered the words to a spell in a long-dead language and the magic she had siphoned from Stefan's vampiric nature seeped into the talisman around her neck, hidden underneath her work clothes.
It was far easier to keep a hold of foreign magic inside of her talisman than in herself.
Idonea then looked into Stefan's eyes, where she could see her own reflected back at her and for a moment, she saw dark brown instead of an odd blend of the light shades of teal and seafoam green.
"Your meddling has interfered with my plans, Stefan." Idonea sighed. "Rather than kill you, however, I think I will make use of you. You will keep me informed on anything that has to do with Elena Gilbert or anything strange that happens in town, immediately, but never remember doing so. You will do exactly as I say when I say it. You will not act against me. You will protect Elena, and you will forget ever seeing me here or that any of this happened. You came here, compelled Vicki Donovan, and then left."
Stefan parroted everything back to her in a monotone, and once she released him from her compulsion and removed the spell on the door, he flashed away down the hall. Idonea sighed again as she brushed non-existent lint from her coat before then turning towards her patient, who was frozen like a statue as she stared blankly at a spot on the blank walls. The doctor wondered briefly what it was that the young girl saw in the illusions she had cast, before then shaking her head with a sigh.
"It is unfortunate, really," Idonea said. "I had seen this going a much different way."
The illusion spell was then removed and Vicki rapidly blinked as she came back into herself.
"Doc? What happened? I—"
She shook her head, her hand coming up to rub at her face.
Idonea moved around the room so that she was stood beside the bed. Vicki turned to face her, and the doctor smiled as green and green connected. It was a shame really, as she had had plans for the young Donovan, but she had never planned on her living. She was far too rude and unuseful for that. Idonea could tolerate rude if the person was also useful to her. Still, she couldn't risk the possibility that the troublesome Salvatore brothers managed to get the young girl turned, as her death would then plant her on the other side.
Granted, she could make it so that the girl simply left town, but she had never been one for loose ends.
"When you return home, I want you to take every single pill you have, along with the ones I give you. You will not stop until you have consumed every single one of them. Once done, you will then go into your bedroom, lock the door, and go to sleep. Nod if you understand this."
Vicki nodded; her pupils blown wide under the influence of Idonea's compulsion. The doctor then placed a small orange bottle in her hand and Vicki's fingers automatically wrapped around them, her face blank and her motions robotic.
"You will remember that you had pursued Jeremy Gilbert into giving you this bottle if asked, but you will not remember this conversation. Now, I want you to turn around, tuck the bottle under your pillow and go to sleep."
Then the teen did exactly that. She turned around and settled into the bed, tucking her arm under her pillow with the pill bottle still in her grasp. Idonea, herself, didn't move until it had become clear that Vicki had fallen asleep as her breathing slowed to a rhythmic pattern.
She then turned around and left the room.
The name on the label of the pill bottle underneath Vicki's pillow read 'Elena Gilbert'. Idonea thought it fitting, considering that the doppelgänger had been the cause of her death. Indirectly or not.
Author's Note: Everyone, meet the puppet master of Mystic Falls! Idonea is vastly different from many of my other characters and I wanted to have fun with her. I've taken a few personality traits from some of my favourite characters and tweaked them into Idonea's. The person suit was, of course, a nod to Hannibal.
I also made a few changes to Mystic Falls Hospital, which is now Sphinx Hospital, and am basing it sort of on Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital from House.
I'm also expanding on what I think siphoners could be. I loved Kai's character, and I think siphoners could have been so much more than what the show ended up with.