Blueeyeddevil06, thank you for being my beta!

Death came gently for Emily. It drifted over her, and the last breath she took was a contented sigh. That didn't help Elena. Palermo was theirs, Sicily was at their feet, and the capital belonged to them. Emily had been a large part of that—so had Maria. The island of Sicily trusted witches; after all, centuries of witches had protected them.

Elena loved Bonnie; she was the one who had given her a chance at…well, any happiness at all. The one she owed her whole existence and life to. Even knowing Emily, her ancestor, was a gift from Bonnie.

That said, Emily's death wrecked Elena, and only Damon got her through it. She had loved and lived with Emily for fifty years. Fifty years of memories and laughter.

Emily died as a pillar of the community. She was honored by the whole town and many in the surrounding areas. She was black and a witch, but her kindness and her abilities were all that mattered to the people. That gave Elena something to hold on to as she stood at her funeral. She wasn't the only one crying. People wept bitter tears for her death.

Emily had been responsible for saving many of the lives of the attendees. Saving them from disease and mostly from attack from human forces. Sometimes her magic was the only reason they were able to be conceived. And in the case of the woman standing next to Elena, she was a mother.

Elena clasped their hands together. It wasn't the only funeral they had attended together by far. And it wasn't the first death of the woman's parents. Her father had died six years ago.

He was a good and loving husband, and Elena liked him despite herself. He was young and a bit of a playboy type, and she hated that for her dear friend. That was until she realized all that didn't matter when he met Emily. His whoring days disappeared, and he focused solely on the woman of his affection and desires.

A heart attack had taken him. At least that was what Elena could work out. He was fit and healthy, and he died. Even in the future, the time she was born in. Men and women like him died. It broke her heart at the time. Or so she thought. Now Elena stood next to their daughter, Rosa, and broken was all she felt.

Still, Rosa was beautiful and Elena's hope for the future. She had her hands firmly clenched around Elena's. "Mother would hate this," she hissed.

Elena chuckled and said, "no, she knew it was unavoidable. She's just glad she's dead and that she doesn't have to witness this ridiculousness. She always said the Mayor was better with his dick than his brain."

Rosa chuckled, "she did have to heal the diseases of a lot of his whores."

"But they were always well satisfied. They had glowing reviews of him," Elena said, laughing.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Find the right woman, and you don't need whores." He knew completely what Elena had told him about his alternate self; it only made him more sure of what he said. Elena was the right woman, and he didn't have to fuck his way through every cunt to find her. She, blessedly, found him.

Elena frowned down at Emily's dead body. She was the last person to hold her to Italy. Rosa wasn't married and didn't want to be either. She was willing to go anywhere and see anything.

Then there was Enzo. War was brewing in Europe, and it came time to write to him. He was off on one of his many tours all over Europe. An hour after Emily's death, she had a letter off to him asking him to join them in Mystic Falls, Virginia.

Elena knew the deep, sacrificial love of family and friends. Love, true deep love, didn't have to be romantic. She sincerely believed that Emily and now Rosa were soulmates to her. That they were supposed to be bound in friendship just as much as Damon was bound to her in romantic love.

Elena looked over at Damon, and he was stoic. It made her love him even more. He didn't show his tears to anyone other than her. The fact that he needed to be stone-faced in front of what felt like all of Palermo mattered to her.

As bitter as goodbye was, and it hurt, there was joy too. Emily died peacefully, not burned and betrayed by Katherine. And their friendship had been epic. Now, those memories would be carried forward and told by Elena to Emily's descendants.

They had a long time of acceptance and the Mediterranean heat. It was time to move on. It was time to move forward and save the past of those she knew she would grow to love in the future. It was time to return to Mystic Falls.