Chapter 1
Damon steps out of the Grill and into the chilly night air of Mystic Falls. He leaves Caroline behind in her lone booth, since Stefan slipped out shortly after his break up with Elena.
Like that'll last, Damon muses. He's certain that the tiff disrupting his little brother's epic love will resolve, and the happy couple will live happily ever after. Because Stefan always gets the girl.
Damon strides along the side walk across from the park, but he jerks to a stop when a unwelcome voice calls to him.
"Bad day?" says the she-devil. The pain of seeing her again is unbearable. He isn't sure if it's his heart or his pride that hurts more.
"Bad century," Damon says with a meaningful glare, but Katherine just tilts her head with a delightfully evil gleam in her eye as he continues. "I heard you where on the loose."
"What's the matter? Jealous I spent the day with Stefan?"
"I don't do jealous. Not with you. Not anymore." Damon sneers at the bitch that crushed his heart, then he walks away, refusing to give her any more power over him. But Katherine loves playing her games, and toying with an angry Damon is far more entertaining than a lovesick Damon.
"Then, why so pouty?" she asks, following after him.
"Tried to kill a werewolf and failed. Now, I feel like I'm not living up to my best self."
Katherine inwardly grins at the opportunity to hook her dear Damon. Outwardly, she sighs loud enough for him to notice. "Well, werewolves aren't easy prey."
Crinkling his nose with credulity, Damon twists back to Katherine, much to her glee, and asks, "What do you know about werewolves?"
"Why don't you ask your brother?" Damon frowns at the barb, but doesn't respond, so Katherine needles him a little harder. "Don't try to be the hero, Damon. You'll end up dead."
"Been there, done that. At least this time, it'll be worth it."
Damon smiles with deep satisfaction in his last insult before striding away to leave Katherine glaring at his back. He hates that her sudden appearance can affect him this much. He'll be glad when she finishes whatever evil plans she has for this town and leaves. Although, if her confessions of true love are to be believed, Stefan may have a hard time getting rid of the dirty slut. Damon thrusts his thoughts of Katherine into a dark corner of his mind and tries desperately to wall away the emotions they stir. He intends to build upon Katherine's wall every day until he doesn't have to pretend the hurt away anymore. He knows from experience that one day the wall will be enough to protect him from the pain and embarrassment that accompany memories of Katherine. His Enzo wall has held strong for over half a century.
Damon stops not far from the Grill when a loud crackling noise captures his attention. Both he and Katherine turn toward the park at the center of the town square and stare into the dark night, trying to find the source of the threatening sound. Trees litter the area with a monument in the center, and several people stroll along the pathways on their evening errands. The crackling noise grows louder, and an odd ripping sound joins the harmony. A handful of people stop to investigate, and others rush off to safety. Damon steps off the sidewalk for a closer look, but Katherine calls to him before he can cross the street.
"Damon, don't. You don't know what's out there."
"And, you do?" he says. She shakes her head, and Damon rolls his eyes. "Like I'd believe you."
He trudges closer to the park but stops when he pinpoints the source of the sound. It's coming from the monument. He rushes through the trees in a vampiric blur as the marble stone glows red-hot. The curious humans gather around, but none of them notice Damon's sudden appearance. Without warning, lightening erupts from the molten marble, arching through the night air, and strikes a nearby tree. The humans scream and take cover; most run for home or to local businesses. Strike after strike escapes the boiling mess, and Damon rushes back to a safe distance. He knows something is about to happen, but he has no idea what.
What if it's a bomb? The thought spears his mind, and fear laces through him. Maybe Katherine was right. This isn't a good idea.
As the marble melts into a puddle of hot magma, Damon steps further away and edges toward the street. Two humans remain huddled behind an undamaged tree.
Yeah, it's time to go. Just as Damon is about to leave the frightened Mystic Falls residents to their fates, everything falls silent. The crackling and ripping noise disappears. The pool of molten marble remains hot as ever, but the lightening seems to have stopped. Damon steps closer with a nervous frown. Then a naked and screaming Caroline stumbles out of thin air and onto the charred grass at the base of the monument.
"What the hell?" Damon says before jumping to help the baby vamp. Caroline writhes on the ground in pain, and Damon rushes to help her to her feet. He grabs her arm, but her skin sloughs off into his hand. That's when he realizes that all of Caroline's skin is melting like the marble monument. Caroline looks up at him, and Damon stumbles back from the horrible scene. The skin from her face droops into a molten mess leaving unharmed muscles and bone beneath. Luckily, her vampire healing kicks in to replace the shed skin, and Caroline's face recovers to the same seventeen-year-old girl he knows. Although, she's much paler than normal.
"Caroline, what the hell did you do?" Damon asks as she climbs to her feet, sighing with relief when her body finishes healing from the agonizing burns.
Caroline ignores his question and spins around with her eyes darting in every direction. "Did you see them?"
"Who?" Damon says. "All I saw was Chris Angels's magic show."
Caroline curses and grabs her head in pain. The two humans brave enough to hang around for the light show creep closer until they recognize the blonde teenager.
"Caroline! Oh my god, are you okay? Why are you naked?" One of the teenage girls says as she hands her friend her long jacket.
"Were you abducted by aliens or something?" The second girl says.
Damon snickers at the suggestion, but stops. He watches Caroline slip on the jacket and frowns as he considers the possibility. Vampires, witches, werewolves, why not aliens?
"Were you?" Damon asks with an honest concern.
Caroline finishes clasping the jacket closed with a grateful sigh that it's long enough to cover her unmentionables. Then she stops to stare at her sire in disbelief.
"No, Damon. I was not abducted by aliens."
"Then what was that? And why are you naked in the park?" One of the girls says. "Were we drugged? Are we hallucinating?"
"All good questions," Damon says. Caroline rolls her eyes at him then glances at the girls. She compels both teenagers to be quiet and to forget everything they see tonight. Then she drains them into unconsciousness.
"I see you've given up on Stefan's bunny diet," Damon says. Caroline wipes her mouth and widens her eyes at something behind Damon.
"Don't tell them that I'm here," she says before vamp speeding away.
Confused, Damon twirls around to find Katherine stalking toward him from the street. A fully-clothed Caroline stands in front of the Grill behind the she-devil. Catching sight of Damon and the two seemingly dead humans, the blonde vampire rushes toward him.
"What was it?" Katherine asks.
"Psychedelic light show. Totally not worth the ticket price."
"Oh my God, Karen and Tara! What did you do to them?" Caroline says, leaping to her friends' sides.
"What do you mean, what did I do to them?"
"If you didn't, who did, Damon?" Katherine says. She narrows her eyes at the older Salvatore and points at the remains of the monument. "Maybe, who ever was responsible for that?"
Damon flashes a satisfied smile, glad to finally have something on Katherine. "Too bad, you'll never know. Uh oh, are those police sirens I hear? We better be going, Caroline."
"What? No, I need to stay with my friends to make sure you didn't kill them," she says. She scowls at him with an accusing glare. Damon stares at her in confusion and opens his mouth to release a sarcastic comment about her terrible acting, but something behind her catches his eye. A naked blonde in a long coat watches from a dark alley as she hides behind a dumpster.
"Fine," he says.
"Where are you going?" Katherine says as he brushes past her.
"Don't worry about it. Besides, shouldn't you be sniffing around Stefan. I hear his epic romance with Elena has come to its tragic end. Now's the time to get your perfectly manicured claws back into him."
Damon smirks at the doppelgänger as police cars pull up, and Sheriff Forbes jumps out.
"Don't underestimate me, Damon. I will find out what you're up to. It's only a matter of time."
"Not tonight. Unless you want to pretend to be Elena for the next several hours and make police statements. Personally, I love spending time with my favorite sheriff. Your choice."
Katherine's eyes dart around at the growing crowd of people and police, then she glances back at Damon with a huff of resignation. When she's gone, Damon rushes to the alley hiding the blonde imposter. At vamp speed, he snatches her by the throat and pins her against the brick wall.
"Who are you? And, why do you look like Caroline? Does it have anything to do with why Katherine and Elena look alike?"
"Let me go, Damon. What is wrong with you?" The imposter complains in a compelling imitation of the baby vampire he loathes.
Angry now, he squeezes her tight and bares his vampire face. "Stop playing games and tell me, now."
The Caroline imposter doesn't cower at his threat or squirm for freedom as he knows the real Caroline would; instead she sneers at him and slips her hand over his grip on her neck. With ease, she squeezes hard enough to break every bone in his hand then rips it away from her throat.
"Ow!" Damon squeals as he steps away, cradling his injured hand.
"I don't have time for this, Damon. I need to find them."
"Find who? And you still haven't told me who you are. Or why you look like Caroline," Damon says. He flexes his newly healed hand as Caroline considers what to say and how to explain her current predicament. Then a familiar voice steals her attention.
"Caroline, what happened here?" Sheriff Forbes asks her daughter in the middle of the park. The naked Caroline snaps her head toward the sound when her vampiric hearing picks up her mother's voice. Forgetting about Damon, she steps around the corner of the building to peer at her mother speaking to her fully-dressed version. Hiding in the shadows, Caroline watches Liz's concerned expression twist into confusion as her daughter lies. She tells her mother that she doesn't know what happened. She found her friends alone in the park after leaving the grill.
The naked Caroline barely acknowledges the conversation. Everything else falls away while she memorizes every move her mother makes. Caroline struggles to breath past the bittersweet joy of seeing Liz again. The yearning to go to her mother and wrap her arms around her one more time is overwhelming. Tears blur Caroline's vision as she decides to run Liz and tell her how much her daughter loves and misses her.
But the moment she steps around the dumpster, Damon grabs her arm and twist her around to face him. He watches the swirl of emotions that pass over Caroline's face and steps back even more confused. Only a daughter could look at her mother that way.
"You don't just look like Caroline. It's more than that...How's this possible?"
"It's complicated," she whispers. She watches her mother load the other Caroline into the cruiser and drive away.
"Well, uncomplicated it."
"Okay, long story short." Caroline wipes away her tears and takes a deep breath to gather herself. "I'm from the future."
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