Our Eternity Begins
DG32173

Sarah: welcome back to Chapter 5 of Our Eternity Begins. I'm so glad everyone seems to love what I'm doing here with this sister-series. Anyways, I won't keep you. Time for the review replies then the chapter.

REVIEW REPLIES

shnicky87: I've randomly burst out laughing in public because of watching Youtube or reading something, so don't feel bad. Elena doesn't interact with Mason, sadly. But at the end of this chapter you get to see a hint at how powerful Elena is even now with what she does to Katherine. That's all I'm going to say on the subject, so I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Leann Nickerson: here's the next update. I hope you enjoy it as much as you have the previous ones.

amazing Aisha: don't worry, it's human to forget stuff after a while of not being exposed to it. Lucky for you, this chapter differs a little bit from Damon's version of it, especially towards the end. The powers are fascinating and that's only the tip of the iceberg of what they can do even now. And now is only the tip of the iceberg of what they'll be able to do at the end of a century of having the powers grow stronger.

raniavhad80: glad you were excited about the update. Here's another.


Chapter 5
Consequences

I still have several hours of school left when I get a sense of absolute outrage coming from Damon. I decide to ask him about it after school. But barely an hour later, I'm shocked when both my name and Jeremy's name are called over the announcement system to both collect our things and come to the front office. Only something disastrous would have such an announcement being made. I immediately start worrying for Jenna. Only something happening to Jenna would have both Jeremy and I be called to collect our things and come to the front office.

As soon as I arrive, I see Jeremy is already there and so is Sheriff Forbes. My heart drops in my chest. This can't be good, not when the Sheriff comes to get us herself. "Sheriff Forbes?" I ask hesitantly.

"Elena, Jeremy, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but something happened to Jenna. I found her on the kitchen floor with a knife in her stomach when I stopped by to pay her a visit," she says. "She's on her way to the hospital now but I came to get you two."

"Dear God," I breathe. I catch Jeremy as he literally sways on his feet. "I have to call Damon."

"Call him while we're on the way," she replies, ushering us out of the school. "I'm taking you two straight to the hospital in my squad car."

As soon as I've fastened the seatbelt in the back of Sheriff Forbes' squad car, I punch the speed dial on my phone for Damon. He answers on the first ring, as always. "Hey, kitten, what's up?" he asks, his surprise at my call thick in his voice and echoing at me across the distance between us through our empathy link. I never call him during school hours.

I break down at just the sound of his voice. "Damon, I don't know how it happened, but Sheriff Forbes just came to the school to pull me and Jeremy out of class. It's Jenna! She's in the hospital! Apparently a knife somehow ended up in her stomach! Sheriff Forbes found her in the kitchen when she went to pay a social visit with her!" I sob hysterically. "Sheriff Forbes is taking us to the hospital now. Meet us there, please! I need you!"

He curses and I hear the sound of the Camaro's trunk closing. "On my way, sweetheart. I've got something to tell you when I see you next," he tells me before ending the call. I wonder briefly what it is he has to tell me before shoving the thought out of my mind to concentrate on Jenna.

Jeremy and I are sitting next to Sheriff Forbes in the ER waiting room, anxiously waiting for news on Jenna, when Damon rushes in. "Damon!" I sob, launching myself into his arms.

"Kitten, we need to go somewhere to have a private discussion real quick," he whispers in my ear.

I hear the urgency in his tone and nod. I allow him to usher me into the hospital chapel, which is thankfully empty right now. He sits me down on one of the pews before kneeling in front of me. "Elena, Katherine did this to Jenna," he tells me softly.

"But why?" I ask brokenly. "Why would she go after Jenna?"

"Because I taunted her today," he says. He tells me of how Mason had taunted him again, this time threatening me. I know he would never take any threat against me lying down. I know he'd repay even a verbal threat against me with death after torture. He tells me what he had done to Mason and the call he had made to Katherine after he had killed the werewolf. "She'll pay for this," he ends. I can tell he's making it a vow. "I'll make damn sure she pays for going after Jenna."

I nod in spite of the tears streaming down my cheeks. "I'll help," I whisper.

He kisses me gently before guiding me back to the ER waiting room. We arrive just in time for the doctor to come tell us that while Jenna will need lots of bed rest and can't even climb stairs on her own, she will be okay. The knife had somehow miraculously avoided all her internal organs. "Thank God," Sheriff Forbes breathes while Jeremy and I hug each other in relief that Jenna's going to be okay.

Rick comes rushing in at the moment, obviously having gotten a substitute for his last class so he could come check on Jenna. "How is she?" he asks. Damon takes him to the side to fill him in.

I decide to take Jeremy to the side to tell him precisely how this could have happened to Jenna. I will never keep anything from my brother again. Damon takes my example and fills in Rick as well.

Sheriff Forbes excuses herself, saying she has to get back to work now that she knows Jenna will be okay. Rick, Jeremy, Damon, and I occupy an out-of-the-way corner to come up with a plan to take Katherine down for this. Before we can start, Stefan, Caroline, and Bonnie all show up, obviously having heard on the town grapevine what happened to Jenna. Once they're all reassured Jenna will be okay, they all insist on being in on the plan to take down Katherine. Damon and I are reluctant to let Bonnie participate because we don't trust her that much right now. But we decide to give her a chance to prove herself.

Once again, before we can start brainstorming, we're interrupted, this time by my phone. I glance at Caller ID and frown when I don't recognize the number. "I don't know this number," I inform the others.

Damon glances over my shoulder. "It's Katherine. Better answer it and see what the bitch wants," he tells me while motioning for the others to keep quiet.

I accept the call and put it on speakerphone so even the non-vampires can listen in. "Hello?" I answer.

"What happened to Jenna was just a warning. Too bad she missed. Tell Damon that if he doesn't bring the moonstone to me at the Masquerade Ball tonight, your brother and aunt will both die," Katherine says.

Before I can respond, she hangs up. "What's this about a moonstone?" Jeremy asks.

Damon briefly explains what he had told me in the chapel, about what Mason had revealed to him before he ripped his heart out. Then he looks at my brother. "Gonna need your help getting it, kid. Rick's in no shape to get into the pit where the werewolf hid it and he laced the water with vervain as a trap in case Katherine found it," he tells Jeremy.

"I'll help however I can," Jeremy says.

"Okay, once we have the moonstone, what are we going to do with it? We can't just hand it over to Katherine," Stefan says.

"I've got a plan, but it will require all of us to make it successful," Damon tells us. He then fills us in on the plan he had concocted rather quickly. I love the plan. We'll take Katherine down after delivering a nasty surprise to her. According to Damon, Katherine's doing all this because she thinks I'm still human and the 'human doppelganger', whatever that means, is needed for some curse breaking she wants to perform. Damon's plan will have the moonstone in Katherine's hand just before we reveal to her that Damon and I are in fact super-vampires, the second most powerful creatures in existence. I find I can't wait to see the look on her face when she realizes just what she pissed off by going after Jenna.

And Damon's plans have a role for everyone, including Bonnie. Though Damon and I can now use magic far more powerful than any mortal witch can wield safely, we won't be able to sustain the spell needed for his plan and deal with Katherine at the same time. That's where Bonnie comes in.

We spend the rest of the time waiting on Jenna's release from the hospital ironing out every potential flaw in the plan we can think of, such as if Katherine has her own witch or if she compels a human to retrieve the moonstone for her, among others.

Once Jenna is safely parked on the living room couch in the Gilbert house and filled in on why her trip to the emergency room happened, Damon, Jeremy, and I set off to retrieve the moonstone while Rick steps into his role of the plan to play guard over Jenna. Someone has to guard her while she can't defend herself and Rick volunteered for the job.

It doesn't take us long to retrieve the moonstone and then it's time for everyone to head home to get ready for the masquerade. Before Jenna's injury, Damon and I had considered skipping the party tonight. Not an option anymore. We need to show Katherine just what kind of sleeping dragon she had prodded with her antics.

Since I have nothing suitable for a masquerade, Damon lets me have my pick of the ball gowns in the boarding house attic. He immediately approves of my choice of one that matches his eyes that comes with its own peacock-themed eye-mask. He helps me get into it since it'll take no time for him to put on the tux and bandit mask he had picked out. Though tonight's plan is as serious as it gets, we don't let that stop us from flirting and a quick make-out session as we get ready.

Finally, just as the sun reaches the western horizon, everyone who's part of the Masquerade Capture, as we decided to call the plan, meets up outside the Lockwood manor. I had fortunately already scored an invite shortly after my transition thanks to an unsuspecting Carol Lockwood.

We don't exchange words, simply heading to our positions to wait for Caroline to trick Katherine to go into the room Bonnie has spelled to keep vampires in. Damon and I hide in the walk-in closet after storing the moonstone very obviously in the bowl of decorative soaps while Stefan hides in the wardrobe to await Katherine's arrival.

Suddenly, I get the uncanny sensation that someone's trying to cast a spell on me. I use my power to hold off the spell while checking to see what it's for. I'm furious to find that someone is trying to tie my life-force with Katherine's. I use my power to hold off the spell while also tricking the unknown witch into thinking that it's working. But I can't keep this up while we're dealing with Katherine; I might need the concentration it's requiring.

I touch Damon's mind with my own, taking care not to read more than his surface thoughts. 'Damon, she has a witch that is trying to tie my life force to hers. I'm managing to keep the spell from working while making the witch think it succeeded,' I tell him telepathically.

'We figured she might bring a witch along. You think you can hold the spell off for the duration or do we need Judgy to track down the witch to try to distract her from the spell?' he asks.

'It's taking a bit of concentration I might need later to hold the spell at bay and still make the witch think it is working. I'll contact Bonnie and see if she can put into play 'Witch Distraction'. I'll track her as she tracks down the witch. If she can't succeed in getting this spell off me quickly, I'll use my powers to knock the witch unconscious for a few hours, which should do the trick. I don't want to kill anyone unnecessarily,' I tell him before withdrawing from his mind and seeking out Bonnie's. I find her outside. Because she's not a vampire and she's not psychic, I find the contact to be a bit fuzzy around the edges, but workable. 'Bonnie, it's Elena. 'Witch Distraction' needs to be set in motion. Someone is trying to tie my life force to Katherine's and it is taking too much concentration. I might need to hold the spell off while making them think it's working. Work fast. If you can't get this spell off me quickly, I'll have to use my powers to knock them out for a few hours so that I'm not distracted while we deal with Katherine.'

'I think I know who the witch is. I hope I can find her again in this crowd,' she thinks at me.

'I'm staying in mental contact with you until you find her in case I do need to knock her out. I won't kill her, but I need this spell stopped until Katherine's dealt with and I will knock her unconscious if I have to,' I tell her.

'I think she and I might be related. I got this strange sense of 'family' when I bumped into her earlier. I'd really appreciate it if she didn't die tonight simply for helping Katherine,' Bonnie replies.

'If I have to knock her out to get her to stop this spell, I won't be sorry if she's left with side-effects from what I might have to do. I do not appreciate her trying to connect my life force with Katherine's, no matter what reason she may have for doing so. I won't purposely try to harm her, but I won't be sorry if she wakes up with a killer migraine and diminished powers as a lesson not to mess with me. So make sure she understands just what she's dealing with and what her options are. Tell her the girl of prophecy does not appreciate what she's doing,' I tell her.

'I see her,' Bonnie tells me.

I hear Caroline and Katherine talking as they come down the hall. 'Quickly, Bonnie, it's almost time to set the plan in motion. Caroline and Katherine are almost here,' I tell her, taking a brief look through her eyes to identify the witch.

Thankfully, the witch is alone when Bonnie comes upon her. "Look, I don't know how we're connected, but I was just contacted by a friend of mine who told me that if you don't stop the spell you're casting to tie her life force to Katherine's, she will use her powers to knock you out to stop it," Bonnie says in an undertone to the witch. "She said to tell you, and I quote, 'the girl of prophecy does not appreciate what you're doing', whatever that means."

If anything, it's my message Bonnie passed along that convinces the witch she's trying to play in a league too powerful for her. The spell she's trying to cast on me fades away. I take a moment to invade the witch's mind to prove to her just what she's dealing with. 'Know who you're dealing with before you agree to help someone, witch. I have the power to wipe you from existence if I so chose. Be grateful I didn't,' I tell her, filling her mind with a taste of my formidable power. 'This is just a taste of the power I can call upon at will. My mate would not have been so kind as to leave you with just a warning to stay in your own league. Be grateful I am not him.'

Before she can gather her scattered wits enough to respond, I leave her mind and return my full attention to what's going on around me. 'Just in time. Vampire Barbie and Katherine are almost here,' Damon tells me telepathically.

We listen as Caroline puts on a damn good performance to get Katherine into the room. And the bitch actually falls for it, vamping into the bathroom to retrieve the moonstone. As soon as she has it in her hands, Caroline laughs. "I can't believe it," she says.

"Can't believe what?" Katherine demands. It's a little spooky hearing a voice so similar to my own.

"I can't believe you actually fell for it and went in there," Caroline says gleefully. "I had been so sure it wouldn't work on someone as old as you. But it did!"

Katherine vamps after Caroline but bounces off the barrier keeping vampires in. "What the hell?" she demands.

Damon nods to me and we step out of the closet. "Well, well, well, I'll admit, I also had my doubts my plan would work so spectacularly," Damon says as soon as we are behind her.

She whirls around, her vamp face out. Then she spots me and literally pales as she realizes instantly that I'm a vampire. "No," she whispers.

"I warned you that you didn't want to mess with me and mine, Katherine," Damon tells her as we each let out a tiny portion of our formidable powers. It's more than enough to have every trace of color drain from Katherine's face and stark terror flood her eyes. It's eerie to look at someone who looks so much like myself and know I'm not looking at a mirror. "I warned you that my powers are now beyond your wildest imaginings. I didn't warn you that Elena's powers are just as strong, and in some ways stronger, because I didn't feel like you needed to know she's now a vampire. What you feel coming from us now is only the minutest fraction of what we can call upon. You decided to ignore my warnings. You decided to go after Jenna and have your witch try to tie your life force to Elena's, which failed miserably, might I add. Your witch is probably cursing your name for putting her in the position you did after my mate showed her exactly what she was trying to mess with. There is only one creature in existence more powerful than the two of us now, and that is the Seer."

"Damon gave you a chance to walk out of this unscathed. Yet you decided to poke the sleeping dragon," I pick up as soon as Damon stops. "You decided to mess with us in whatever plan you had. I don't care what relation I share with you. As I told John before I killed him and as Isobel will inevitably find out, having blood relations to me does not keep me from dealing an appropriate retribution for even threatening those I actually care for. So I don't care if I am a direct descendant of yours. You caused Jenna to be hospitalized today. You threatened to kill her and Jeremy if we didn't play your game."

"Little did you realize that you were trying to play a game with super-vampires that are far above your league," Damon continues. "I told Elena that since she's the one most affected by what you did today, she can choose your punishment for waking the dragon. As you now know, no vampire will be able to leave this room until retribution is paid in full. So, Elena, what is it you have decided as her punishment?" Damon asks me, glancing in my direction. Katherine is literally trembling before us, finally realizing just how powerful the dragon she decided to mess with is.

"Katherine, you caused Jenna harm she will be a long time healing from. You threatened death on her and my brother to me," I say, using my formidable power to strip every mental protection from Katherine's mind, laying her every thought and memory bare to me, all the way back to her earliest memories as a toddler in fifteenth century Belgium. I am not doing this gently, either. Basically, I'm performing the equivalent of a mental rape on her. This causes her to cry out in pain. "You had your reasons," I admit as I tuck all that I've learned about her away for later consideration.

"But nothing that will get me to forgive you for threatening my loved ones," I continue. I can tell by her thoughts that she thinks the mind rape is the worst punishment she could ever experience. But I can think of something worse that she will still have to live with. "You think what I have just done is punishment enough. If you had merely made threats against my loved ones, I would agree with you. But you tricked Jenna into thinking you were me and then compelled her to jam a knife into her stomach if you called her and said a certain phrase with the intention of causing her death. That earns you a far worse punishment in my opinion. You better thank whatever it is you worship that she hadn't died or your punishment would be death. As it is, this is your punishment," I say before revealing to her just what I decided to do in retribution for her actions.

She cries out in alarm but her mind is trapped in my unrelenting grasp. She's helpless to stop me as I drive enough of my power into her mind to fragment it, causing her to let out an unearthly cry. I then use one Power the spells granted me to force her body to rapidly desiccate as if she had spent a hundred and forty-five years without blood only for it to happen within seconds. As the last part of the punishment I had decided on, I force her fragmented mind to play on loop every heinous action she had ever taken, but from the viewpoints of her victims. For this spell to end and her mind to be restored to her as well as her body to be free from the magical desiccation, she will have to wholeheartedly regret her worst behavior and be determined to make amends where she can.

I then retreat back into my own mind, feeling like justice had just come calling on Katherine at long last. Damon gives me a sidelong glance. "Remind me never to piss you off," he remarks dryly.

"You don't know even a fraction of what she's done to deserve what she got," I murmur, fatigued from the mental workout.

"Mind telling me exactly what you did to her?" he asks curiously.

I shake my head. "It would be better if you never knew everything I did to her," I say softly. "It's not a spell that I ever want to cast again. But she deserved it."

Suddenly, I feel Caroline's mental contact as she reaches out for Damon and I and obviously had been for a while. 'Dammit, Damon, Elena! Answer me! This is major bad news!' she shouts telepathically at us.

'What is it, Caroline? We just finished dealing with Katherine. What's wrong?' I ask her but allowing Damon to 'eavesdrop'. I can't keep my mental exhaustion out of my telepathic voice like I managed to do my physical voice.

'It's Tyler! Katherine compelled Matt and some girl at the party to attack him until he ended up killing one of them, even on accident. I managed to knock Matt out but I didn't realize the girl was compelled too until it was too late and he had knocked her backwards, causing her to bust her head on a desk and die. Tyler's a werewolf now! I saw proof of it with my own eyes!'

'Shit! Can nothing ever go right for even a day? Alright, get him to the boarding house so we can help him,' Damon telepaths the two of us. Then, on a public broadcast to everyone in our group, including Jenna and Rick way over at the Gilbert house, he telepaths, 'Katherine's dealt with, but she caused more trouble by forcing Tyler to become a werewolf. Everyone who can, meet at the boarding house so we can deal with this latest mishap. Jenna, Rick, stay where you are. We'll fill you both in when we get a handle on this. Judgy, come let us out of this room before you go.'

I can tell he stays in mental contact with everyone just long enough to get their agreement before retreating into his own mind. I don't envy him touching so many minds at once. It could prove overwhelming if kept up for too long.

Thanks to the mind rape I performed on Katherine, I know just what she was planning, just what her end game was. We'll deal with it if more comes of it. Damon and I are the most powerful, uncontrolled creatures in existence, far more powerful than even the Original vampires. Only the Seer is more powerful than our combined strength at this time, and she's strictly controlled by the Fates she works for. And we'll only get exponentially more powerful in the next few decades as our powers reach maturity.


Sarah: and there's Chapter 5. I finished up most of Chapter 4 and completed all of Chapter 5 of both books in just under a day. As I've said before, my muse insists certain things remain true to Cannon, but from here on, the stories will be diverging quite swiftly from Cannon to become their own unique universes. I've always felt that Tyler and Caroline had stronger, more likeable characters when they made the change into supernatural beings. My muse obviously felt the same. Review and tell me what you think.