Salvatore Boarding House
November 1, 2010

Getting Elena and Abby's earthly remains back to the boarding house almost turned into an utter fiasco as far as Bonnie was concerned. Bonnie would have paid more attention but her thoughts were fixated on the terrible fact that vampire business has impacted her family once again. Her mother, the same person who'd seemingly abandoned her family, who only just came back into her life, was dead. What was she going to tell Jamie? Should she call or wait to tell him in person? Bonnie's mind was a confusing mass of conflicted emotional turmoil.

It really didn't help matters when on the trek back to his car, Damon tried to take one of the infants Elena insisted on holding. In retrospect, Bonnie would later realize that he only attempted doing so in order to prevent Elena from stumbling with her additional burdens in the pitch black of the night sky. But Damon never did like explaining his actions to anyone.

"Damon, just stop!" Bonnie ordered.

Damon glared petulantly back at her and she was half tempted to melt his brain on the spot, but it looked like she needed to calm things down.

"I thought you compelled her to remain calm, Damon?" Stefan asked ahead of them. Thankfully, he was still carrying Bonnie's mother.

"I did, or at least I think I did," Damon snapped, but Bonnie did pick up a worried note in his tone.

"Maybe you did, but when you tried to take one of them," Bonnie suggested then to empathize with her point more she indicated to one of the now crying infants. "Your actions might have inadvertently found a possible loophole in your compulsion."

"What do you suggest, Bon Bon?"

"Damon, you know I really don't like when you use that nickname," Bonnie grated. Didn't this over a century old vampire have any understanding of the word 'tact'? But it wouldn't be the first time he did something like this. Bonnie was close to Elena and Caroline, but it had been Caroline who had told her the truth about what he had done to her when she was still human. If it wasn't for the fact that they were fighting to keep Elena alive both before and after the Sun and the Moon Ritual- they needed as many allies as possible- it still frustrated her that Caroline had begged her not to tell Elena what he had done, and more, importantly Elena herself was oblivious to the fact that Damon had repeated raped Caroline.

"Seriously?" Damon asked. The urge to give him the worst aneurysm she could conjure was right there, and it felt good to know she could drive him to his very knees, but she held herself at bay. Barely. Only two people on the planet call her 'Bon Bon' and the other individual is back in the cave with her neck broken. Bonnie made a mental note to do more than that to the vampire who'd killed her mother.

Ignoring him, Bonnie moved closer to her friend, who finally managed to comfort the one crying infant; it surprised her that the other was still fast asleep. Bonnie put a reassuring hand on Elena's back until her friend almost jumped away, but Bonnie pushed some calming magic into her touch and Elena visibly relaxed. When she was satisfied that her magic had done its job, she offered to carry one of the children. It was harder to get her meaning across since Elena still didn't seem to understand what she was saying. It took her miming holding a child to get her meaning across.

As she hoped, and to Damon's annoyance, Elena finally nodded in understanding. Bonnie carefully took the small child into her arms, cradling the tiny infant to her chest. She gasped when she felt the magic welling in the child, something which felt like a weakened charm was keeping it at bay but it was somehow still holding.

"What is it?" Damon demanded.

"This child is a witch. A very powerful one if I had to guess, but something is cloaking her magic. It's as if another witch was attempting to shield the child's magic from something," Bonnie said, not fully realizing that she had spoken the last part aloud. It wouldn't surprise her either if the other child didn't have magic as well, but with her hands otherwise occupied, she couldn't be sure until she actually touched the now sleeping infant.

"Well, whatever is going on can wait. Let's get back to the Boarding house," Stefan interjected. They had finally reached Damon's vehicle. Not surprisingly, it took Bonnie, not either of the two Salvatore brothers, to convince Elena to sit in the car. The startled reaction she had when they started driving back confused all of them. Had her memories of them been affected as well?

They drove in silence. Fortunately it didn't take very long to reach the Salvatore Boarding house, and Bonnie was grateful for that convenience. It still hadn't sunk into her psyche that her recently reunited mother was in Damon's trunk. She hadn't put up much of a fight when he told Stefan to put Abby in there; in all practicality the Camaro was going to be cramped enough with the four of them, and two thankfully sleeping infants, climbing inside Damon's pride and joy.

As they pulled into the gravel parkway for Stefan and Damon's home, Bonnie noticed that several cars were parked outside with several people seemingly milling about that changed when she noticed a rather tense standoff between Ric and a stranger she hadn't met before.

Damon was out of the car faster than she thought possible. It would have been comical if not for the fact her mother's body was in Damon's trunk. Ric had a loaded crossbow pointed at who Bonnie could only assume was a vampire. Caroline was blocking Ric's aim by standing in front of the other vampire.

"Okay everyone, just stand down. We already have enough drama for tonight," Damon ordered.

"Damon, what the hell is going on here?" Ric asked, not bothering taking his eyes off the vampire.

"Mate, I think your friend here has a few loose screws rattling around in his brain pan," Enzo responded as well.

"Calm down, both of you. Ric I know you don't remember much but when Klaus was possessing your body, you- or should say he- helped me rescue my friend Enzo," Damon explained. Bonnie had to admit Damon wasn't flying half cocked now, but maybe because a loaded weapon was being pointed at someone. Still everyone else in the car remained seated where they were, even Elena seemed fascinated by what was going on as well.

"Ric, come on, we have other problems," Jeremy added, stopping near the group with a loaded wheelbarrow. Reluctantly, Ric lowered his crossbow and didn't resist when Damon gently took it from him.

"Damon, what is the big rush? Why did you call all of us and tell us to meet you back here?" Caroline asked.

"Umm… It's complicated, but for starters, we now have five Original Vampires to deal with and what's more is that we found Elena, but-" Damon started. Before he could finish, both Caroline and Jeremy were heading for the car. Damon stopped Jeremy, but Caroline, being a vampire, easily sidestepped him and was peering into the car. Her reaction was immediate and mirrored Bonnie's own.

"ELENA?!"

The once calm interior erupted to the sounds of two very startled infants and Bonnie didn't need to glance at her friend, she could almost taste the worried tension radiating off of her.

"Bonnie! What is wrong with my sister!?" Jeremy demanded from where Damon was still holding him back. She felt like an idiot when it finally occurred to her that everyone could see the interior with the door open, the interior lighting illuminated for all to see. Everyone's attention had apparently been focused on the recently concluded Mexican standoff between the vampire and her history teacher as well as semi-retired vampire hunter.

Before she could answer, two things happened. The first being Abby's mobile home arrived as it pulled in alongside Damon's Camaro. The second was the loud thumping as well as the near frantic screaming coming from inside the trunk.


Mikaelson Mansion
November 1, 2010

Even after over a thousand years, his family seemed to love drama, especially tonight, with all their surviving family members under the same roof. Although they were united in one goal and that was with an overly obsessive half brother. Elijah, for now, was content enough just to watch. Niklaus had brought this onto himself; it didn't matter that he was stronger than all of them being a Original Hybrid. Not that that particular facet of his unique nature worried them. There were more than enough of his incensed siblings blocking all avenues of possible escape. They had some unfinished business before leaving this place. Not him, however, until he made one stop first. He needed to find the whereabouts of the latest Petrova Doppelgänger to offer his sincerest apologies before he too took his leave from Mystic Falls. Ironically, it was he who returned here to recover their mother's body over a century before. If he wanted to lay odds, his sister would be the first to act. In retrospect, he should have made a friendly bet with either Kol or Finn.

"I like what you've done with the new place, Nik," Rebekah drawled out making a show of admiring the room's furnishings before picking up a rather priceless vase, then without a second of hesitation abruptly threw it at one of Niklaus's paintings destroying it as well as the vase.

Elijah managed to keep his mask in place but so wanted to enjoy reveling in his half brother's pained expression at the destruction his sister just inflicted. He might have intervened, not on the behalf of his brother but for the sake of the priceless vase. He would need to have a conversation with his sister sometime later about destroying such treasures.

"I wanted it to be for all of us. A place we could all call home. A place we could all be a family. None of us would ever have to be alone again," Niklaus pleaded. How often has his brother swayed them with such words? But he had gone too far, especially in light of what Elijah had learned about the depressing situation concerning the lovely Elena Gilbert and Niklaus' interest in the human girl. He felt a small measure of guilt for having betrayed her for the vulgar individual standing before them. He loved his family, but Niklaus' actions were truly testing his promise of always and forever.

"Well, you're right, none of us will be," Elijah explained and made no move to squash the look of hope in his younger brother's eyes. Not this time. He wasn't coming to his rescue, not after everything he's done.

"You're staying behind," Finn stated rather bluntly. Finishing his scotch before throwing the now empty crystal tumbler at the wall, just inches away from where Niklaus was standing. The indignation on his half brother's face was priceless.

"We're leaving you, Nik. Right after I kill that doppelgänger wench, then you will be alone. Always and forever," Rebekah said, as if speaking for them all. Fortunately her attention was focused only on Niklaus and not on anyone else. If she had she might have seen the slight change in her older brother's composure.

Still, Elijah did not try to correct her, having already determined to intervene on the behalf of the Petrova Doppelgänger. His family, himself included, had inflicted far too much harm on her family as it was. The fury brewing in his brother's eyes meant their sister must have touched a nerve, Klaus pulled himself upright glaring at his siblings. Elijah couldn't speak for them, but he wasn't impressed by his brother's sudden show of bravado. They had, at one time or another, heard a variation of his next diatribe about to leave his conniving lips.

"If you run, I will hunt all of you down," Niklaus declared hotly. It would have concerned Elijah that he would even utter those words. How had the once hunted so easily forgotten the Destroyer who had sought their destruction for the last ten centuries? He couldn't allow this affronted behavior of his to continue without at least saying something to the contrary.

"Then you'll become everything you hate: Our Father," Elijah sighed before he turned to leave, but his brother's heated words stopped them all, causing them to peer back at him in sheer disgust.

"I'm the hybrid! I can't be killed! I have nothing to fear from any of you," Klaus shouted at the top of his lungs. Elijah had already prepared with a following retort when he felt the tiny hairs on the back of his neck rise as if in warning that another yet unseen predator had just entered their midst. At the same time Niklaus froze momentarily but just as quickly he, incongruously to their current situation, visibly relaxed as a slow sneer etched itself out on his cruel lips.

"Well, this is a pleasant surprise and apparently just in time, too. It looks like I don't need you lot. I'll have not only my hybrids, but my Doppelgänger as well. Now tell me-" Klaus started, but whatever he was about to say next was cut off as he was quite unexpectedly thrown backwards, crashing into the wall behind him. Whatever had just happened had been so sudden Elijah almost thought he imagined it, and yet as Niklaus struggled in vain to free himself from whatever unseen force was pinning him to the damaged wall it was also hard to deny with the facts starring them all right in the face.

"Tell your witch friend to let me down!" Klaus barked.

"Ahh… Nik, already making wrangerinn assumptions. Ek eigalwaysr villjumk til segðþessir, en ek really gerdisliker er þú kallmikr þinn doppelgänger," a new yet familiar voice tutted from behind them. As one they all collectively shifted their attention to the newcomer, a stunned silence filled the room. The newcomer continued, as if unconcerned by the presence of five Originals. With her outreached hand towards their brother, who, based on the amount of cursing, was still firmly affixed to the wall.

"Ok þú really þorfutilr watch throwing 'hybrid' of. Þú never veit er einnhverr maðr knáttkomar of ok einn upp jafn þú"

Although he could move, it was the utter shock of hearing her speak in Norse that only added to his growing confusion. What the hell has been going on in this strange town? He had only been daggered for a few months, but somehow she looked older, more grown into her adulthood, something neither of her predecessors had reached, and although he didn't know how Elijah found it suited her.

Although her hair was far longer and her clothing looked strangely familiar.

"Hello Lijah. Sorry I'm a tad rusty, but regardless I like how you've cut your hair since the last time we saw each other," the lovely doe eyed brunette said, switching back to English. It wasn't perfect, almost as if she hadn't spoken in that tongue for sometime. But how could this be, he wondered.

"Elena?! How did you do that? What do you mean the last time we saw each other."

She reached up to touch the side of his jaw with an expression he only seen directed towards another before she stunned him by leaning up to kiss him softly on the lips. She surprised him by her boldness; it didn't help that he also felt emboldened by her actions. He itched to take her into his arms. If not for his siblings, no doubt interrupting them, he found himself considering how far it might eventually lead. He lied to her about never falling for another Petrova Doppelgänger, it was his character flaw and he knew it. As if sensing his internal struggle, she reluctantly pulled her body back, but not before she touched their foreheads together, her brown eyes peering deep into his very soul.

"Believe it or not Elijah, from my perspective, it's been just shy of a century and a quarter."

"Pardon?" Elijah asked. He did not try to hide his confusion. The world around them faded into the background. Why did he feel like he was missing something? Something very important. Still gazing into her eyes, she didn't break eye contact with him when she surprised him yet again.

"Per sanguinem familiae nostrae tibi omnia arcana mea reserabo et tibi omnia revelabo."

If he could best equate the magic wavefront, it appeared like a ripple radiating outward, as if someone had just cast a pebble into an otherwise calm body of water. The magical pulse hit him first, leaving him dazed when he suddenly remembered everything, memories ranging from their first meeting in the middle of their village street to their wedding night came on like a thunderstorm. There didn't seem to be an end to them, and after another heartbeat Elijah looked up at his family. Based on their equally stunned siblings' expressions, they remembered as well.

"Ella?" Rebekah asked as if still unsure she trusted her newly unlocked memories. She edged closer to her formerly forgotten sister. Elijah felt the same, but on a deeper level. He hadn't yet begun to really consider all the implications of this startling revelation.

"Hi Bekah," Elena smiled back at her friend and sister-in-law. Seeing the confusion in Klaus's eyes too, she sighed before finally canceling the spell that was holding him against the wall.

Elijah was a patient man, but there were limits even for him. She was going to need to explain some things to all of them, but Elena Mikaelson, his wife once lost to them, was back with her family. He didn't exactly understand how, but somehow he just knew that she had taken the long way around to come home to her family. He swept her up into his arms and kissed her with as much passion as he could manage in a single kiss, which wasn't enough in his opinion. Then another long forgotten or suppressed memory came flooding back and he pulled away, leaving them both breathless.

"Elena, where are Eirik and Astrid?"

"I'll try to explain on the way there for everyone's benefit. Although Elijah should already know part of my story thanks to his restored memories, I'll most likely need the time to bring everyone up to speed. I'll start with what really happened back in eighteen eighty nine when he last paid a visit to Mystic Falls. Spoiler alert, it wasn't to collect your mother as he later told Nik."


His wife was right, he did remember and armed with these newly restored memories would no doubt lead to other questions, but for now he was content enough to revisit them but with a new sense of understanding and awe. They had to use two of Klaus's SUV's to caravan to their intended destination. Elijah, his recently returned wife, and Kol rode in the same vehicle. While the remainder were in the second vehicle with Klaus at the steering wheel. Probably a good thing, since of his siblings, only he and Klaus understood how to drive a car.

Mystic Falls:
Late Fall 1889

"Back in eighteen sixty-four, Katherine Pierce was feeding her blood to them and after they died, trying to ironically save her from the fate of the other vampires here at the time. So both Damon and his younger brother Stefan were turned before Katherine disappeared," Maya explained.

Elijah was a careful man. When he spoke, he was very precise in his wording in his speech, so he didn't miss her meaning. He felt guilty for grabbing her again, but he had to know.

"Are you saying what I think you are saying?" he demanded.

Maya didn't even blink. "That Katherine Pierce or better known to you as Katerina Petrova, is still alive? Yes, but before you ask, I don't know or care to find out her current whereabouts." Maya answered in a succinct tone that made Elijah stop short before he asked his follow on question.

"You don't seem to care about Katerina. May I ask why is that?"

"Before Katherine or Katerina, as you call her, made her escape she arranged for all the vampires with her to be killed to cover her escape. My mother told me that some of them had been with her for decades, yet she turned on them without a second glance. As a final insurance for her continued freedom, she somehow revealed the fact that my mother was a witch. They killed her shortly thereafter. If it wasn't for Damon's promise to protect my family, I would be dead, too. He found a way to put me into the care of the servants owned by the Lockwoods, and I have been here ever since. I have no love lost for Katherine Pierce. She burned her bridges between our family bloodlines as far as I'm concerned. And before you ask neither Salvatore brother is yet aware of her continued existence."

Elijah took a step back to give the woman her space. The venomous vitriol when she'd spoken Katherine's name and her betrayal to her own mother made him feel a sort of kinship with the Bennett witch.

"My apologies for her actions, Maya Bennett."

"Thank you… But you shouldn't need to apologize for the likes of her. Come, we are almost there," Maya said, pointing in the direction of their intended journey.

As they walked, he tried to consider the implications of the things he had learned so far, and yet it still left him with a strange feeling that something else was going on behind the scenes.

"We've arrived, Elijah Mikaelson. What you seek rests inside. You may enter this one time but after this your permission will be rescinded, do you understand?" Maya asked, her tone rigid and for a scant second Elijah felt as if the one speaking was not Maya herself.

"You're not Maya Bennett, are you?"

"You were always a very observant child, Elijah. While this body is of my blood, it's not my own, considering that the earth has already reclaimed it. If you think about it, you'll understand who I am."

"Ayana?" Elijah asked with no degree of hesitation. He felt sure of it, and the smile she gave him only confirmed it.

"It's good to see you again… Now come child, we have little time left," Ayana spoke. It felt strange for Elijah to hear Maya's voice but also know the young witch was being controlled by her long dead ancestor. Someone he had known when he was still human and a connection to his past.

Elijah stepped into the once forgotten but still familiar antechamber and froze at the sight that greeted him.

"Ayana what is going on here who… Who is that?" Elijah asked but the witch only motioned for him to approach the rock outcropping near the far cave wall. It wasn't like he remembered; it looked almost like it was a crudely formed altar. But that wasn't what caught his attention, it was who was laid out on top of whatever it was that mattered more. Somehow it was her face he long burned into his memory till it haunted his dreams. The first was the alluring Tatia, then again with Katerina looking for love far from her home in Bulgaria.

As he stepped closer, he slowly reassessed his earlier unspoken belief that whoever she was. She wasn't either of the two Petrova Doppelgänger's. She looked older than either Tatia or Katerina and by his educated guess she was at least in her early twenties. Her clothing looked ancient by mortal standards, but he had worn similar clothing when he was still human. As he peered closer, he noticed that while she looked untouched by the passage of time, her skin was grayed with the spider veins running all along her exposed skin. But it was the black stone dagger firmly embedded in her chest that now held his attention. This was all too coincidental to be an accident.

"Ayana, tell me who this is!" he demanded in wonder.

The witch moved to stand next to him regarding the sleeping beauty before she reached for the stone dagger after muttering a incantation he wasn't familiar with. She then pulled it free from her chest. Taking care to set the stone dagger off to the side.

He was about to repeat his demand when she touched his forehead with her open palm and recited another incantation.

"Velum, quod tui amoris memoria celat, temporaliter sublevetur."

The spell effect was immediate. It was so disconcerting to have the memories he once thought intact unravel as if they were a piece of woven fabric that caught a loose thread on a nail. Was this what being under compulsion felt for non Originals or mortals he couldn't help to consider. He looked down at the reclined form in wonderment.

"Elena my Kærasta!"

"Child, you will need to feed her some of your blood to help revive her when she wakes up. She has been like this for nearly the last nine centuries," Ayana's voice pulled him back to the current reality.

"Did you say nine centuries? But that's longer than my brother Finn's been left neutralized?"

His daggered siblings were always on his mind; he swore to himself that he would find the means of getting them out of their confinement. Finn had never accepted what they had ultimately become, and all the more so when they destroyed the White Oak Tree that could both kill and possibly cure them of their immortality, but even his older brother admitted to him privately they were missing another spell ingredient.

"Indeed, your brother has been that way a few decades shy of eight centuries. And before you ask, how do I know that child I might be dead but I see things from the other side. Just as I've been watching over your wife, Elena," Ayana said calmly.

His wife's body twitched before sitting upright gasping for air, the pained look on her expression reminded him of the few times he himself had been daggered. His lungs had always felt pained when he gulped his first few breaths of fresh air. Like his body was struggling to recall how to function once more.

"Easy my Kærasta, you need to feed," Elijah's voice had a calming effect on her he was pleased to note. When he presented his exposed wrist to her, his wife carefully took his offered wrist into both of delicate hands and after a tender kiss to the fleshy underside of it she very carefully bit into it. He hardly felt the pain of her needle sharp fangs penetrate into his skin. Elena moaned as his spicy rich blood flowed freely into her mouth, then down her throat. How had he missed her teeth on his skin like this? he wondered. His arousal grew as she drank her fill of his blood until it was over far too soon for his tastes. He watched as she licked the last few drops of his blood away just before the puncture wounds sealed themselves as if they never were.

He helped her sit up and, unable to control his emotions, swept her up into his crushing embrace. If he had held a mortal like that, he might have easily killed them. He, like his wife, was stronger and more durable than they appeared. The kiss that quickly followed was intense and laced with the unbridled passion of two reunited lovers. Elena sighed into his mouth as he continued his fervent assault on her now swollen lips.

"How? Why?" Of all the people she knew, her husband would be asking questions now. Which only made her laugh as he pulled back with a confused frown. Did she not understand how badly he missed the sweet sound of her laughter on his eardrums?

"Hello Lijah, I've been expecting you for some time," Elena Mikaelson smiled up at him, still entrapped in his embrace. He wasn't positive but he would've sworn that his heart might have skipped a beat looking into her eyes. How could he have been made to forget her, and more importantly, why?

"Expecting me? I don't understand."

"That she has, Elijah," Ayana coughed before offering them a knowing smile on her lips. "Excuse my interruption of your happy reunion, but I need leave so I can gather the items you've requested, Elena. They will be brought to this location by individuals I trust. It should take several hours, so until then I will leave to give you back your privacy. Elijah, remember what I said. Once you leave this place your permission will be rescinded. And Elena, you can't leave until my preparations are completed."

"I understand Ayana. It's so nice to see you again with my own eyes, old friend," Elena said sheepishly. The witch smiled back at her former ward.

They waited until she was gone before they turned their attention back to each other.

"I know this might be hard to understand Lijah. I sometimes don't really comprehend it either. But I'm what Ayana calls a Child of Destiny and I was plucked from my time and deposited in the past." He listened without interrupting her, something she loved about him and she had missed dearly for so long. Still, Elena really didn't want to spend what little time they had together just talking, but she felt that she owed him some level of explanation. So she tried her best.

"I learned about the Sun and the Moon Curse you and Nik created to find both the moonstone and the Petrova Doppelgänger. In the future, that would be me," she let her latest statement hang in the air and she watched as he slowly made the connection. First the horror, then the fury roared to life behind his stoic mask, which not surprisingly looked ready to slip, and only made her heart break for him more. She took his hands, which he balled into fists, and she prayed that contact between them would help calm him- and it did to some degree. At least he wasn't storming out of there to seek out whatever retribution he was no doubt planning for his half brother.

"Lijah, listen to me. It's going to be alright," Elena tried calming his rapidly fraying emotions.

"Elena, how can it be alright? My brother kills my wife so he can break a curse that our own mother placed on him. How is that going to be alright!"

"Technically, Elijah Mikaelson, at the time I wasn't your wife nor your fiance at the time. I do end up surviving. It is what Petrova's do when faced with adversity," she joked. It didn't improve his mood, but it did help to ease the tension somewhat belatedly.

"I assume that Petrova isn't your former surname, is it? I know Niklaus has in some way or another investigated every girl born bearing that name in the vain hope of finding his next Doppelgänger."

Elena could almost imagine one of her brother-in-law's minions toiling away their lives digging through the birth registry in search of a birth certificate fitting those very specific search requirements. It would have made her laugh if not for her husband's angry expression. Was he mad at her or his brother was a question she wasn't quite ready to ask.

"I was adopted technically, but you're right. If you're curious, my last name was Gilbert once. I'm a Mikaelson now, don't forget that ever."

He nodded his head in silent understanding, but stopped when the name tickled a recent memory. It had been pure luck, but he looked up just as they passed a building and on the outside had been a sign for a doctor's office.

"On my way into this quaint town, I happened to have noticed a signage for a local doctor's office with the same last name. Are you suggesting…?"

"Yes, they are one and the same. Before you ask I was born in Mystic Falls too, so this is where Klaus will eventually be heading to finally break his curse."

"I've grown to truly hate that damnable curse with each passing century, more so now, given what you've related to me about your involvement with it. Niklaus is still unhappy with how things had transpired with Katerina. He almost became insufferable to be around with his constant obsessing over it. Now I find out that the woman I love and married will be the very same Doppelgänger he kills for his own selfish ends," his voice climbed with each uttered word and if she hadn't been there wrapped in his embrace, he might have done something he would no doubt regret later.

She told him about her family although she wanted to skip over some of the more troubling parts. Elena didn't hold anything back. They spent the next several hours enjoying each other's company, sharing parts of their lives and just soaking up their limited time.

She was running her hands through his short hair. A part of her missed it being longer but she knew that wasn't important. She really just missed her husband and extended family. Elena could hear Ayana returning and she sighed, knowing what she had to do already, dreading that it had to be this way.

"Elijah, Ayana will be coming back soon and I need to explain that as much as I want to be reunited with you and everyone in our family once more, I can't until we catch up with my original timeline."

Elena stood up and looked about the antechamber. It was hard to believe that she spent nearly nine centuries entombed in this place, but she hadn't really been alone in either.

"What are you implying, my love?"

Elena sighed, already guessing correctly that he wasn't going to be pleased, but they really had no other choice in the matter. She returned to the stone altar and picked up the stone dagger. She didn't have to look; she already knew he was watching her. In more intimate times that would have led to memorable things such as the one time by the vaunted falls of their hometown one summer evening. Sadly, this was going to be drastically different; perhaps it was a good thing that they were both immortal.

"Lijah, I'm going to need for you to dagger me just as I was only just a few hours ago," Elena spoke calmly, but even she could see the storm clouds brewing behind his eyes. Thankfully, she didn't have to wait long for the first thunderclap.

"Are you out of your mind, Elena? I… I just got you back and you're telling me I have to dagger my own wife?" Elijah's response was immediate. He took the dagger from her hands and Elena could see the tension building in him by how he held himself.

"Lijah-" she started, but he cut her off.

"Yes, I will admit it's hard for me to fathom that you are actually from the future and even harder to comprehend that somehow the Spirits of Nature picked you to become this Child of Destiny business. I've lost so much time without you and now you're asking me to do it again? Why can't you just come back with me and rejoin our family? I know Rebekah will be upset with you initially, but she will come around."

His wife sighed and gingerly reclaimed the stone dagger before he pulled her into his chest. She would be lying if she didn't admit she missed this, but she needed to make him understand the importance of what she was asking of him.

"Elijah, I'm different from all of you. Yes, I'm an Original Vampire but I'm something more than that as well," she stopped, letting him digest what she just said. It had taken her some time to come to terms with what she had ultimately become; it was highly likely it wouldn't be any different for her husband.

"Like your brother's curse, there has been a curse on my Petrova Bloodline for as long as, if not longer than, Niklaus'. It's taken me this long to learn how to control my magical talent."

"Magical talent? But Kol and Finn… How?" Elijah interrupted. It took her a second to realize that he hadn't intended to interrupt, but she could understand his confusion.

"Kol and Finn are witches and servants of nature. The Petrova Bloodline were magically inclined, but our magic is different and has orders of a magnitude stronger. That difference is why the majority of witches ultimately turned against my family and their followers," Elena paused, then continued relating the story just as Ayana had centuries before.

"Why did the witches turn against them?" Elijah asked finally, and she was ready for this part as well. It was one of the last things Ayana had told her before placing her in a nearly nine hundred year slumber.

"It's ironically enough tied to the reason vampires need to consume human blood to survive. Amara and her siblings gained magical powers through the consumption of blood. I don't know if it was something unique to their- or more correctly my- family genetic heritage, but blood helped to boost our magical output and when we killed someone by draining them dry, it is several orders of magnitude of magical potential," Elena explained. Then she explained her first time of taking a life, both of who it had been and the resulting aftermath.

"So if the Petrova are truly the first immortal beings of this world, what happened to them?" Elijah asked. She wanted to smile. She had asked the same thing herself.

"There is a balance in everything you know that with all the weakness we gained after being changed by your mother. She wasn't fully cognizant of the underlying implications of Amara's Immortality Spell. Before Amara created it, they had complications with consuming that much blood. The human body can only handle so much before the digestive system rejects it. Amara's spell changes the body, so that isn't a problem, but it comes at a cost," Elena said, trying her best to sound unruffled, but the concern in his expression said otherwise.

"What is this weakness?"

"Madness, or catatonic behavior, take you pick," Elena said stiffly but quickly added. "Amara's remaining older brothers were more than willing to kill their victims, draining them of their blood. So naturally they succumbed first. There is only so much magic the body can take. While she was more reserved, I strongly suspect that she was ashamed of her family's need to consume blood and then, subsequently, what her immortality spell had wrought on the world. Their war with witches fell apart and, to save the world, Amara imprisoned her siblings in another dimension, cutting them off from gaining more access to human blood. She was subsequently captured and allowed herself to be cursed, thus creating the Petrova Doppelgängers."

"Where is this Amara Petrova?"

"Unknown, though I have reason to think they used her body as an anchor for this prison world she initially created for her siblings. If I were one of those witches, I personally would have then imprisoned her body in stone and then buried it somewhere lost to time," Elena speculated aloud.

"Will the same happen to you?" Elijah finally asked after a long pause.

"Yes… But that will only happen with the more humans that I drain dry of their blood. Thankfully, with me being locked up myself, I have gained control of my bloodlust through the simple passage of time. I'm already working on a possible solution to keep anything bad from happening, Elijah. Trust me, I've had nothing but time to think of a solution." Her explanation seemed to relieve him, but as she had already guessed it would lead to his next question. Thankfully, she didn't have long to wait for it.

"Wait a minute, just how have you been working on a solution with that stone dagger in your chest? Speaking of which, why is it made of stone?" he asked, raising his voice just a little as he retrieved the dagger from her hands and studied it, waiting for her explanation.

"Until the middle of the fifteenth century, for a lack of a better word, I was dead to the world. But one day, I don't recall exactly when, I slowly regained consciousness and yet my body was still immobilized."

The horrified look on her husband's face when the full implications of what she just explained penetrated into his very soul almost made her break down as well.

"AND YOU WANT ME TO DAGGER YOU AGAIN!?"

"Elijah, calm down I have several reasons I must and it's really not that bad, not like it is for Finn," Elena said but froze when she realized she might have revealed more than she originally intended.

"How do you know about Finn?" he asked dangerously.

"In the same manner, I've been keeping an eye on all of you. Astral Projection," she answered quickly.

"Astral Projection…" he paused as he considered her partial explanation. "I think I might understand, but what does this even relate to the situation with Finn?"

"Learning how to Astral project myself happened accidentally. When I first started it took a lot of energy out of me, so I needed to periodically rest and build up my magical reserves. As for your brother, there is one unfortunate side effect that happens after prolonged use of the silver ash daggers. After several centuries, the white oak ash on the dagger loses its overall effectiveness and while the body is still immobilized, a degree of consciousness returns. Wait!"

In spite of her desperate pleas, he walked at a human pace towards the exit. Cursing, Elena reluctantly held up a hand and muttered an immobilizing spell for the lower portion of his body. If he hadn't fully believed that she could do magic, he had all the evidence he would ever need now.

"Elena! Release me!"

"No! Not until you listen to me. Did you forget what Ayana said about not leaving this place?" she ordered and the guilt for freezing him like she had ate at her core. Watching his broad shoulder sag didn't make her feel any better, either.

"Tell me why I shouldn't leave and return to New Orleans and pull the dagger out of Finn's chest, my brother be damned."

Still unsure about how he would react, she kept the spell in place, but did turn him around to face her.

"Like all of you, I learned I could enter another person's dreams. One night after practicing on my Astral Projection, I noticed Finn and at the time Kol's coffins and I was curious. I tried Kol first and nothing happened. I think it was because he hadn't been under long enough for his consciousness to return. Finn, however, had been, so it was a shock when I found him in a dream. We talked and as I expected he had no memories of me, thanks in part to his own altered memories. Ever since then I have been taking the time to visit him. In fact, I was just with him before you removed the stone dagger from my own chest."

"How is Finn?" Elijah asked. Elena could hear the need to know and the dread in his eyes about her answer.

"He's naturally pissed off about how Niklaus is treating the family. Although he doesn't recognize me thanks to the magic that is keeping you and everyone else's memories altered. He has more than once thanked me for spending time with him. It helps that with what little magic I can do when projecting I can put him to sleep if it becomes too much for him."

"Thank you for doing that. It has been killing me that I can't free him or anyone else for that matter. It's a miracle that Niklaus removed Rebekah's dagger recently."

"I know, I was there the day he removed it," Elena offered in sympathy. It had been hard for her to see her sister daggered all in the name of love. She couldn't tell her husband that it would happen again.

Realizing they got slightly off topic, Elena cleared her throat, refocusing herself before she continued.

"Elijah, by a really rough guess, I won't be born for a little over a century from now. Even if you retain your memories and return home to our family, it would only be a matter of time before Nik and the others get their memories back as well and then all bets are off," Elena said, then stopped him with a mild glare when he looked ready to deny it.

"I know him just as you do. He is so obsessed with breaking the curse that even if he knew that his sister-in-law is the very Petrova Doppelgänger he needs, it wouldn't make a difference. We can't afford the timeline to change. Try to imagine if the events leading up to my conception were interrupted by someone in our family who wanted to be there or for my eventual birth? Mystic Falls needs to be the safe heaven it was for me before my inevitable introduction into the supernatural world. As much as I love Klaus as a brother, I know how protective and overbearing he can be."

He sighed and looked up at his wife, his mask gone and the misery that had taken root broke her heart and she started to cry in earnest. It was only his arms and body wrapped tightly around her that kept her from dying inside. She hated to be separated from him, but it was necessary if they wanted to have a future together. After what felt like an eternity, her tears having stopped, she looked up at her husband.

"Elijah, do you notice anything different about this chamber?" Her question must have caught him off guard, she realized, and he let go of her and looked around curious. He froze when he noted that the entrance to Ayana's Spellchamber wasn't there but was in fact a solid rock wall.

"That is actually a rather elaborate illusion; it subtly repulses anyone with an ounce of magic in their blood to conceal its deceptive nature then uses a barrier spell to keep others out. Before you ask, there is no way to unlock the spell until the proper time, which is roughly just over eighteen years after my birth. That is when the three occupants temporarily locked in stone will be allowed to emerge."

"Who are they?"

"Our children Elijah, little Eirik and Astrid just as we left them."

The dazed look on her husband's handsome face was priceless, but she needed to continue. "The final person waiting for us is Tatia Petrova."


A/N: I wanted to include the English translations for the Old Norse I tried my best with the translation. Please leave a review.

Ahh… nik already making wrangerinn assumptions. Ek eigalwaysr villjumk til segðþessir, en ek really gerdisliker er þú kallmikr þinn doppelgänger

Ahh… Nik already making the wrong assumptions. I've always wanted to say this, but I really do dislike when you call me your Doppelgänger

Ok þú really þorfutilr watch throwing 'hybrid' of. Þú never veit er einnhverr maðr knáttkomar of ok einn upp jafn þú

And you really need to watch throwing 'hybrid' around. You never know when someone might come around and one up even you.