Name: The Rising
Genre: Mistery/Romance;
Fan-fiction type: AU canon-divergence;
Main characters: Elena, Stefan, Damon, Kaithlyn;
Summary: "Believing lies is easy when you want them to be true." The immortal Silas just wants to die to be with his one true love. Killing so many people in the process won't have consequences. The cure will fix all of Elena's problems. What Damon and Stefan do for her is for the better. And the group didn't leave a trail from that island back to Mystic Falls.
Relationships: Damon/Elena, Stefan/Elena, slowburn Damon/OC, Damon & Stefan, Damon & OC, Stefan & OC, Elena & OC;
Minor relationships: Jeremy/Bonnie, Klaus/Caroline/Tyler, Matt/Rebekah, Elijah/Katherine;
Story tags: vampire hunters, werewolf hunters, psychics, vampires, realistic relationship build-up, slow-burn, foreshadowing, plot-driven, action, fight scenes, actions have consequences, subplots are present, side characters have storylines, original characters, Jeremy is important, Hunter Jeremy Gilbert, Silas isn't a simp, Katherine doesn't get the cure, no humanity Elena but it's interesting, Elena isn't annoying, dark Elena, doesn't follow the season 5 storyline, every relationship is earned;
Story song: Control by Garbage;
Posted on: May 29th, 2020;
Edited on: August 8th, 2020;
Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries.
Casting: Kaithlyn is played by Jordana Brewster;
Note: Silas is not Stefan's doppelganger. He has no connection with Stefan. Travelers don't exist.
Note 2: For those who aren't familiar with relationship tags: A/B means there's romance involved and A&B is used for everything else.
Wanna know why you should read the story? Good! If the first scene didn't hook you, read the end notes.
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chapter 1: the day Jeremy died
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Every time the Gilberts lost someone, their house became uncharacteristically quiet.
Perhaps it was the suddenness of it all, she couldn't explain, but for her family, before there were wails and tears and noise —from thrown objects, slammed doors, bottles of alcohol filling up yet another glass—, there was silence.
Elena smiled.
Dog barks, drills, water running, lights flickering, cupboards drawing, lawnmowers, neighbors talking, children playing, trees soughing.
So much noise everywhere. The Gilberts didn't just lose someone. Any moment now, her brother would gasp for air and his heart would flutter.
"Elena?"
She could feel him behind her, his feet pressing into the wooden floor. Was there anything to say? She was calm now.
"What Meredith said-"
"She doesn't-" She swallowed. "Meredith doesn't know my family, Stefan." Elena had nothing to say to the woman who, after she messed with her life without permission, had the nerve to barge into her house to say her brother was dead.
Stefan's tone got softer. "I know… What I was trying to say…" He came closer to her, urging her to look away from her brother for a moment. "If it were true-" She grabbed Jeremy's hand tighter. "-what would you do?"
"It's not-"
"Think about it-"
"I don't have to think about it because it's not real, it's impossible," she snapped and eyed him coldly. "I'm a doppelganger!" The words slammed against the walls and what followed was all in one breath. "I was born to die, my destiny is to die. In what world does the doppelganger get to be undead while all the people around her die?"
Her eyes were wet, one blink away from letting it fall. But his gaze held her eyes open and it was only after he gave a short nod and mumbled "Okay" that she looked away, back to her brother. Tears fell from the corner of her eyes, making a shiny path down her cheeks.
One of his hands rested on a shoulder, but she couldn't grab it, she had to hold on to Jeremy, keep his hands warm.
"Damon messaged me," he said. "He just got off the island with Bonnie. They'll be here by nightfall."
Her head shook up and down and her eyelids pressed tighter together. Her chest moved up and down more easily because as long as they were on their way, she knew everything would be alright.
The cursed island was far behind them now. Nothing to take from it and nothing to come from it anymore.
,.,
The moment they hit the beach on the island it was apparent to her that Galen got into something deep.
Trees swayed in the wind and the song their branches produced wasn't just background noise. She had heard of those patterns before: if they weren't supernatural, they'd be fast asleep, lulled into a dream.
A nightmare, most likely.
"It's done," he said and came next to her on the beach. And done it was, the boat was hitched on the shore. "So this is it then? Kaithlyn…"
She nodded and pointed. "That's lupine growing on the bark of the trees… It's addictive to werewolves, it makes them go crazy."
He motioned his head toward a shrub. "Vervain."
Kaithlyn shot him a stare, but he matched her look with the same poise. How could he dare to explain the most basic hunting information to her? The flower she identified was one of the many with effects on werewolves, which was something his training didn't cover.
"Right." She walked straight ahead, but he didn't follow.
"Listen," he said. "He might not mean much to you, but Galen was my master, he taught me everything I know about hunting."
His tone didn't fly past her head. With her back still to him, she asked, "If you regard him so highly, why did you report his absence to the council?"
Heavy steps thudded towards her until they didn't. Voice much softer now, he said, "It's never been like this… He likes to hunt on his own, but he never went this quiet for this long. I ignored it at first because it was him, but now…"
She chuckled. "Yes, it's him, Jayden. I wouldn't have gone on hunting missions with him if he was riff-raff, would I?" She took her hands from her coat pockets. "But this place is giving me a bad feeling. Let's see what's he been up to."
The air between them cleared and when they entered the forest, they did it side by side. Alert not to each other, but to the world around them.
Brown riding boots protected her feet from the twigs and thorny shrubs, while her black trench coat kept her warm from the cold late March afternoon.
They made a mess out of the vegetation on the ground, a sign of human life in a place that was just nature before. They weren't the only ones to leave their mark it seemed as they reached a part of the woods clearly walked on so much so that the ground was barren.
A path.
They exchanged a look. Who could have spent time on this island, which was naturally enforced against both humans and supernaturals?
As Jayden looked back and forth at the path, something caught her eye on the side. She grabbed a pebble and tossed it ahead. The sound of a whip cracked the air and a tree branch snapped in the way of the path.
Several pieces of wood jutted out, carved in such a way they were sharp at the tip. It was high enough off the ground that it was level with her chest. This was no nature.
"Hunter work," he said. "But in a place like this…"
"Is Galen the type to join a sect?" she asked and he shook his head. "Let me check again," she said and placed her hand over his chest.
Eyes closed, she used his connection to Galen to locate him once again. The same tingles in her palm and an internal compass directed her to the direction she found initially. And parting from the string that connected her to his location was another one much thinner and of different vibration.
"We're close," was all she said.
She didn't anticipate this. When she used her abilities last night, she found only one link. What could have happened between then and now that made his spirit vibrate like that?
It wasn't death, that much she knew. Galen was an expert hunter who had taken down dozens of vampires. And if the unthinkable did happen, why would a link lead her to another place?
What are you hiding?
Traps dodged on autopilot, they finally broke into a clearing of some sort. Dry dirt roads connected a series of huts, the grass between cut down evenly. The closest to them was shaded by a tree, at the base of which leaned a body.
Another look over her surroundings and she was next to the body, a middle-edge woman. The bark of the tree she rested against was covered in blood.
Jayden crouched and pulled away at her blouse. Her throat was nearly ripped out. "An aggressive eater," he said. "Or hungry… very hungry."
Kaithlyn placed a hand on top of her head and focused. She wasn't nearly as good at detecting the time of death as she was tracking, but she had a general estimate. "Today."
"If the vampire who did this and Galen are on the same island, then he took care of him." He got up. "But what would that selfish creature do in a place like this? Vervain bushes, traps, no steady source of blood. This is no vampire's land."
Why are you telling me all this? You think I didn't notice? she thought. They decided to split up and investigate. They were searching for survivors or any clue as to who they were dealing with.
We're not going to find anything, she thought as she entered a hut and found a body sprawled on the floor, half neck missing. He clutched a pendant in his hand. She took it and felt a wave of power. Witches, huh?
On a table by the window, a thick book grabbed her attention. She skimmed through it, taking note of the use of Latin and the odd drawings. A grimoire.
The grimoire she took as evidence and the pendant she put in her coat pocket. After all, it was time to return to their meeting place by the first corpse.
"This isn't a normal vampire attack," she said and handed him the book. "To keep the grimoire out in the open… I don't think he was the only witch here."
"I saw a few gardens and they didn't look like they were for food." He put the grimoire in his backpack. "Kaithlyn," he started, voice much deeper. "I didn't find a vampire corpse-" As if answering his unsaid question, she shook her head.
"To think a vampire pulled all this off without dying," she said.
"They're old, very experienced to massacre over a dozen witches in such a gruesome manner…" he said, trailing off.
"Or there was more than one." She looked around one last time. These guessing games were giving her a headache. "Come on."
Jayden was still crouched down, eyeing the woman. "We should alert the council…"
God, how much more do you want to stall this? she thought and rolled her eyes. "My role here is to help you locate Galen. That's what I came here to do, not your side mission. When we're done, you can do whatever you want."
Kaithlyn walked to the direction of her inner compass and he had no choice but to follow her, jogging until he caught up.
When she felt him close, she said, "Vampire hunting isn't my specialty, is it?" And after that, he kept quiet.
They maintained a steady pace until they reached a small canal, which was dried up. On the other side, there was a body tied with rope and propped against a rock. Galen!
They traversed it quickly as it wasn't a steep slope. Jayden got a first aid kit from his backpack while she cut the rope with a navy knife which she pulled out from her boots.
She snatched the kit from his hands and said, "Tell the council."
Galen was unconscious, but still breathing. He had a gash in the side of his neck from which he was bleeding, blood seeping out with rhythm. An arterial wound.
She grabbed a gauze pad from the kit and applied pressure on the wound. Red stained white. One eye at his chest and another at the kit, she was searching for those bandages. She tossed the other things aside until she found them inside a little box.
The top ripped open, she grabbed one and put it above the gash and another one below. Then the magic happened. They glowed a yellow light for a few moments and disappeared. She lifted the pad from his neck. The wound had healed.
This was a first aid kit for a hunter, after all.
Kaithlyn checked him over from head to toe and front to back to look for other open wounds, but he was fine save for a few bruises and scratches.
"Medical help is on the way," he said, phone still in hand. He crouched next to them. "Is he alright?"
His eyebrows were furrowed and blonde hair tousled as if he ran his hands through it one too many times. She nodded. "He's unconscious, but vitals are good. Could be from the bloodloss."
He brushed away some dirt off Galen's shoulder. "To think he'd end up like this…"
She blew out a long breath and elbowed him away so she could place both hands on his shoulders. Closing her eyes, she connected to his spirit and searched for a potential match to the vampire who attacked the witches.
"Nothing," she said, eyes open. "The ones who did this to him aren't here anymore."
"You think who killed the witches-"
"-met with Galen? Obviously." She rose to her feet. "To have both of them on the island at the same time… What are the chances they'd miss each other?"
Kaithlyn scouted the surroundings one more time. For one moment, it dawned on her how far away she was from home, from the people she knew, from those she loved. She scoffed. How ironic life can be, throwing me into the wilderness to rub it in; I can't be close to the people I love…
She had taken this mission for the council only and in the light of her New Year's resolution, she had become their scapegoat. A mission like this she couldn't just deny. And now when the other connection she felt was still there, how could she walk away without getting the whole truth? When Galen would wake up and spew excuses, she'd be the one to tell the council the real version of events.
Jayden was up now, an arm around the waist of the hunter and the other holding his arm around his neck. "Coast clear?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said. He thought she was looking out for enemies or traps. "You can go now."
"What?" His posture stiffened, jaw tight.
She turned away from him. Did he want her to repeat herself? "My job's over. I found Galen."
"But where are you going? This place is dangerous…"
Tapping a foot to the ground, she said, "Oh, you're worried about me?" He denied. "Follow the same path we took to get here, traps are disarmed."
Jayden didn't say anything and she eventually heard the sound of feet dragging across the ground, traversing through the shallow canal until they stopped.
Eyes stared down her figure. She ran her hands through her straight long brown hair and stuck them in her coat pockets. Did he really think she'd start on the direction she wanted to go in while he was still here watching her?
Eventually, he gave up and footsteps started again until they were too far away for her to hear. One look over her shoulder to make sure he was gone and she was sprinting.
Without that moron slowing her down, things were getting interesting. The closer she got to her new destination, the more traps she had to dodge.
What the hell is on this island that needs so much protection?
At the end of her journey, her feet touched down in the middle of a field filled with stones, ground dry and barren. Woods and a rocky formation framed the clearing she was in.
She kicked a pebble off the ground. All this way for this? There was nothing there, not even blood or the sign of a fight or a cover-up.
Something life-changing happened to you here, Galen. Why does it look peaceful?
Pacing around, she checked for any sign again and she found nothing. Her powers never let astray, she was in the right place… Could it be that she wasn't at the correct height?
Kaithlyn inspected the rocky wall that stretched dozens of meters towards the sky, eyes lingering on a particular shadow. When she got close, she noticed a section jutting out and behind it, a chamber.
A beam of light peaked through a crevice, showing the room off to the best of its abilities and clawing down the hole until it got lost in the darkness.
You were in too deep. What are you hiding?
She wrapped the rope attached to the pulley on the ceiling around her wrist to check its resistance. With a sturdy hold on it, she jumped into the abyss.
At the bottom, there was a chamber made of black shiny stone, with several pathways branching off it. Flashlight in one hand and navy knife in the other, she explored the maze with her intuition as a guide.
Time and space became fickle in a way she couldn't put her finger on. She wasn't going in circles, at least it didn't feel like it, but everything looked the same. If it weren't for the other connection showing her the way, she wouldn't be able to navigate these caves.
At some point, she escaped the corridors into an open cavern. Her flashlight went over the following things in order: a table made out of stone, blood on the floor beside it, and a backpack against the wall.
That's more like it.
The backpack had a crossbow attached to it and rope, first aid kit, guns among other things inside. She rummaged through it trying to understand what happened and why Galen decided to come here. She didn't get any answers, but she did find something in a hidden pocket. A phone.
She focused her powers to check if it was his and it tingled with his energy. The poor hunter lost his phone, what a pity.
Her eyes twinkled with mischief as she put it in her coat pocket. She would definitely give it back to him… eventually.
Illuminating the blood, Kaithlyn noticed it was relatively fresh. Could the person it belonged to be dead? She didn't find any corpse on her way here, but to think someone survived this bloodloss... Healed by supernatural means, probably.
If they survived, if they were out there somewhere, then she could find out the real version of events of what happened in this room, not whatever Galen would say when he woke up.
She crouched and picked up blood on the tips of her fingers. They tingled with high frequency. Another witch?
To have the most highly spirited object anyone possessed available made locating easy for her. If the witch didn't use a spell to cover her tracks, that was.
Her inner compass spun until it landed on a single direction and just like that she had her next target. A place more welcoming, she hoped.
At last, Kaithlyn examined the table in the middle of the cavern. Centering her powers in her hands, she traced the table: edges at first, then the center, inch by inch. Any clue would be useful. It was when one of her hands gripped the edge and another was in the middle that she felt a presence.
Kaithlyn gasped, hunching forward, the sound bouncing off the walls and playing back in echos. It couldn't be, could it? Questions and answers spiraled in her head, but no matter how she tried to put it, her powers never fail.
The little boy she met in Denver six months ago had been here.
Jeremy?
,.,
The silence came when Elena least expected it. She had just told April that Jeremy was dead and the line went dead and everyone froze.
For a moment there was nothing. No one in the house took their breath, no one moved, no one looked around. There was nothing.
Then the storm hit.
Next thing she knew she told Damon to put Jeremy on the couch. Words tumbled out of her mouth, quickly and without stop. It wasn't that she wasn't aware of what she was saying, it was that the moment they were out a new memory pushed her to say something else.
The cupboards, the drops of alcohol, the broken bottle, the slammed picture-frame — those she heard very well, the reverb still shaking her heart.
"There's nothing left for me anymore-"
Her body collapsed on the floor and nothing they were trying made strength return to her legs, because it didn't stop the pain, nothing could stop the pain-
"I want you to let me help you…"
She didn't believe it to be possible until it happened. With him as guidance, she reached out into the depths of her psyche, flipped the switch, and then there was light.
She could see everything around her as if she opened her eyes for the first time. And she looked, she looked at the house and she looked at Damon. And he was just there looking at her with those eyes, asking for everything to be alright.
Elena got up and she felt it, the allure of two paths: leave the house or grab the match. As she eyed Damon who was still at her feet, she knew exactly what to do.
She lit it.
"Wait," Stefan said. "What if, after all this is over, you want to come home?"
And she felt a tug from Damon too, urging her to blow the flame off.
For the first time since she knew them, since she turned, she could say, "This is what I want" and just let it fall on the floor, fire catching at her feet.
Elena was the first one to go. Damon followed, walking next to her. Stefan was behind them, paused on the alleyway to look at the flames.
"We need to go," she said and finally, they all walked away from the house, orange hues reflecting on their bodies until they got too far away.
A/N: Why you should read The Rising:
- because I'm having Elena without her humanity and it's not annoying, it's interesting. I promise to deliver on character conflict and a different view of her relationship with the brothers.
- passionate DE, conflicted SE and a brewing closeness between Damon and Kaithlyn
- because DE will get explored the way it should, keeping their elements from the first seasons.
- because KC has a specific reason for coming to be and it's an angsty one ;)
- because Matt getting together with Rebekah is so cute
- because I didn't forget about Jeremy and his potential
- because Bonnie has a storyline that involves her going after what she wants. Bonnie will be happy.
- because I explore character conflicts with depth and attention
- because TRAVELERS DON'T EXIST, enough said. (Stefan and Silas aren't related)
- if you wanna remember what it's like to fear a villain and to have a villain with a motive on the show
- if you want to find out new exciting things about the world of TVD
And if all that sounds exciting, help me out with a review. It really does make a difference. :)
