I don't own The Vampire Diaries or Twilight
Bella paced the length of her cell like a wild animal. For that was what she was, an animal. She could feel it, the beast within her just waiting to be unleashed. She almost lost it on the guards, Rebekah was the one who helped her keep her beast caged, but the cage was now breaking a part. Soon there would be no more Bella the fun loving girl who put her sister's death behind her and tried to live, all that would remain would be Isabella the girl full of hate and guilt, who would do anything, say anything, be anything to survive. Isabella died a few nights after Tatia, when the moon was full and wolves attacked. But Bella lived, she took the fact that she (mostly) survived the attack as a sign that she should make the most out of her life.
She hadn't felt this out of control since she tried to kill Ester, she hadn't felt this out of control since the night her sister died, she hadn't felt this out of control in over a thousand years. And she didn't care. Normally the lack of emotions would frighten her, but in this situation, with Elena slowly dying in the room next to her, it helped her focus. She was this girl's only chance at life, and she'd be damned if she let the girl with her sister's face have the same fate. So she would do anything, say anything, be anything- even a monster, if it would save the girl's life.
She stopped pacing and stood perfectly still in her cell and concentrated. She could hear the heart beats of the guard by the entrance. There was just one man on the inside, that was good for her and bad for them, before they knew what was going on she'd already be done. She made the plan quickly, it wasn't the best plan, but it would have to do…for Elena's sake.
She opened her mouth and screamed. It was quick and short, she followed it up with yelling.
"Oh my God! She's not breathing! Help! Somebody help!"
She saw Rebekah's shocked face and heard Stefan yelling. As she expected the guard rushed to Elena's cell, but Bella was faster and when he passed her cell by her hand shot out and she grabbed the man's jacket pulling him up to the bars. She brought her face to the man's neck, she could hear his heart frantically beat, she could see his vein thump with his blood, the very thing that gave him life, the very thing she needed.
"I'm sorry," She whispered as she bit into the man's neck.
He gave a startled gasp and tried to free himself from her iron grasp. His struggle was futile, the potion she had taken earlier to appear human was starting to wear off and the vervain was losing its effect. When the blood reached her tongue and with it the sweet taste of life, the nectar from the sweetest fruit, it only added to her strength, and her bloodlust.
Rebekah watched as Bella started to drink from the guard. She knew that this time she would not be able to stop her from killing the man. She had watched her friend battle with herself for the last few minutes, and it seemed that she had lost that battle to the beast that raged inside of her. So when Bella dropped the man and looked at her with blood smeared on her face and teeth Rebekah wasn't surprised. When she walked over to the bars that separated her cell from Elena's and forced her way through them, Rebekah was impressed. But when Bella finally got into the cell with Elena she seemed to be in pain.
"What is it?" Rebekah asked, "What's wrong?"
"I can't do this Bex," Bella said using her friend's nickname, "I can't curse someone to this life. It'd be better if she died."
"Why don't you just ask her?" Rebekah suggested.
"I can't, she unconscious." Bella looked at her with tear filled eyes, "the transition from human to vampire, is different for us then it is for you. The change takes days. Days full of nothing but pain. It's like your body is on fire. The venom races through your body, touching everything, burning everything as it heals you. When it finally reaches your heart, if you already didn't wish you were dead, you are praying for death. I can't do that to another person, not again. Death would be kinder."
"Do it!" Stefan shouted, "Do whatever you have to. Please just save her!"
"You don't understand," Bella said softly, "the pain-"
"Will she live?" Stefan asked.
"Yes."
"Does she need blood to complete the transition?" He asked.
"No, but she will once her heart stops."
"You said she would live." He shouted.
"If I do this she will, but as a vampire. As a Cold One. We don't have heart beats. Her skin would sparkle like diamonds in the sun, and she could live off animal blood if she wanted."
"But you had a heart beat earlier," he accused, "and you weren't sparkling when they brought you in."
"There's a potion, but it makes you susceptible to vervain, which is how I was captured in the first place."
"Can we play twenty questions later?" Rebekah snapped. "I'm bored and want to see what happens."
"I can't do this." Bella said, "I'm sorry."
"Please," Stefan said desperately, "If you don't save her, I'll die."
"Stop being so damn dramatic," Rebekah said.
"I can't live without her," Stefan said quietly, "Isn't there a person you can't live without, Bella. Isn't there a person you would give up everything for?"
"You don't know what you're talking about." Rebekah said as she looked at her friend.
"Yes I do," Stefan replied, "You created the potion for Ester to use, but you never said why. It was for a person wasn't it? A boy? You loved him. You still love him otherwise you wouldn't have found a way to become immortal yourself."
"And look what my love did Stefan. It cost my sister her life and created not one, but two different sets of monsters. You don't know what you're asking. The change alone would be painful, more painful that you can imagine. I can't do that to another person again."
"I'm asking you to. I'm doing it, not you. Please? Who was it you changed for? Who was it your sister was killed for? You still love him after all of that. Elena will still love me after all of this. Please, just- just save her."
Bella took a deep breath, she could save Elena, but at what cost? Right now she had her beast under control, but what if Elena's blood was enough to set her over the edge? What if she came out of this worse than she did the night Tatia died?
She looked to Rebekah.
"I'll make sure you stay you." Her friend said, and that was all the encouragement she needed.
She bent down and tilted Elena's neck to the side. She brought her head down and hovered over her neck a moment. "I'm so, so sorry" she whispered, her lips brushing across the girl's collar bone before she bit down.
Elena's blood was even sweeter than the guard's. It had the taste of magic and the supernatural. It was the best thing she had ever tasted, and the beast inside roared for more, but Bella pulled back and looked at the girl.
Elena moaned and brought her hand to her neck. She opened her eyes and looked at Bella.
"What did you do?" She panted out, as her body started to react to the venom.
"What I had to," Bella replied as she turned to the bars at the front of the cell, "I'm sorry."
A few moments later Elena let out a pain filled scream. Bella could hear Stefan cursing and banging against his own bars. She could see Rebekah looking at her from the across the hall, a look of concern on her face. But nothing mattered except Elena's screams, so much like her own they caused her to think of the very night she was turned.
She ran through the woods, the pale full moon lighting her path. She could hear the monsters- the wolves behind her and she once again questioned her decision. She had to show Elijah her latest potion, she had to show him what his love could bring. For it was not only Isabella that blamed herself for her sister's death, but Elijah blamed himself as well. He refused to see her once he had heard what his mother had done. After Rebekah had told him of how she found Isabella in the caves weeping over her sister's body. Elijah knew the only reason Isabella would ever help his mother with magic was if his mother threatened him, and once he realized what he was- a monster, he refused to see her. But Isabella had to see him, just once more, and it had to be tonight since he was leaving in the morning.
She had to tell him how much she loved him. She had to show him that just because she wasn't a witch it didn't mean she couldn't do magic. She had to show him that their love could cause more than just death and pain, it could give life. She had to show him the potion she had worked tirelessly on over the past month. The ingredients were unstable and untested, most of them poisons. But it didn't matter, this was all she had left, this and her love, and her love was leaving in the morning. She could see him standing by the pine tree, the place they would always secretly meet. Although now looking back it hardly seemed like a secret since Ester knew about their affair.
"Elijah!" She yelled with relief, just as a beast snarled behind her. Maybe it was stupid for her to be tromping through a forest full of werewolves on the night of a full moon, but she was desperate…and in love.
"Isabella?" He asked concerned, "What are you doing out here? Do you not see the moon, it's full!"
"I did it!" She shouted back, just as she saw a beast lunge at her. She jumped back and just barely managed to dodge it.
"Did what?" He asked curious as to what would make her do something so reckless.
"I found a way for us to be together." She said with a smile.
"Isabella…"
"Forever." She said.
"Forever? What do you mean forever?" Elijah asked confused.
"A potion for immorality."
"A potion like the one mother gave me?" He asked sadly.
"No, different. No one had to die to make it. Just the unfortunate mountain lion and copper head snake. I needed the lion's heart and the snakes venom, with some diamonds, and the ashes from a witch that was burned."
"Ashes from a witch?"
"You know I can't do magic. The ashes are what bind it to the supernatural And since the witch's essence is immortal, it in theory creates immortality."
"Oh…" He didn't know what else to say, "did it work?"
"I don't know," she said with a smile as she lifted a clay bowl to her mouth, "let's find out…together."
Just when the bowl touched her lips a wolf leaped at her from the forest. Elijah watched in horror as the monster's claws raked across Isabella's chest and blood poured from her body. She staggered back, the potion lay at her feet, miraculously some still remained in the bowl, but most of it now covered the leaves and sticks on the forest floor.
"Run!" She shouted at Elijah as she picked up a rock and hit the beast in the head. It fell to the ground unmoving as blood poured from its wound, "more are coming. They smell the blood. Go! Please."
"I can't just leave you," he said coming towards her, "let me help you."
"Go Elijah, I can't let you die too."
"But Isabella-"
"No, Elijah, I already lost my sister I can't lose you too." She said with tears streaming down her face.
"Run!" she shouted as another wolf leaped from behind a boulder and she dove in front of Elijah, the wolf catching her in the back and throwing her to the floor. She picked up a sharp rock and jabbed it into the beast's neck, blood spewed onto her face as the monster went limp. She roughly pushed it off of her and looked around, she was surrounded and sunrise was at least another hour away.
Elijah gave her a look of longing before he took off through the forest like a comet. She sighed in relief, she had accepted her death the night she made a blood oath to kill Ester, she wouldn't allow Elijah to die as well. She reached down and picked up a long stick and held it like a sword. She swung it around and tried desperately to keep the wolves at bay. She only had to last an hour and then they would revert back to men. But looking at them now with their lips pulled back in a snarl and growls rumbling low in their throats she didn't think she'd last the next few minutes, let alone until sunrise.
Elijah had stood at the edge of the woods for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only an hour. He had waited for the moon to set and the sky to turn purple with the rising sun before he ran through the forest. He found her where he left her, only this time she was unmoving on the forest floor. Elijah just stood there in shock. His heart was lying there on the forest floor, dying. He was dying. He fell to his knees and let out an animalistic wail. He was aware of nothing in his state of grief until a soft hand caressed his face. He opened his eyes and saw Isabella. She had crawled along the ground just to touch him once more before she died. He brought his head down to hers and ensnared her lips in his. It was the softest, and yet the most passionate kiss they had shared. It was full of love and life, but also longing and loss and sacrifice…and he never wanted it to end. But soon-too soon Isabella pulled back and smiled at him. She held up a stick, the end had been sharpened into a stake, it was soaked with her potion.
"Let's see if it works," she said softly.
"Together." He agreed.
She handed him the stake. "It's too late to drink it, I won't survive long enough." She took a shuttering breath, "you'll have to stab the stake into my heart."
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"It's the only way." She said with a smile, "after this we can be together forever."
"It will hurt."
"No worse than the potion." She said, "and I would take any pain so long as I could stay by your side for all eternity."
"I love you," he said as tears fell from his eyes.
"I know," she said with a smile.
She leaned forward and captured his lips once again. This time in a show of trust, she was trusting him with her life, and he would protect and cherish it forever.
He drove the stake through her chest, through bone and muscle, and into her heart. She gave a little gasp before she looked at him and softly smiled. Her smile soon faded, however, when the venom started to take its course. She could feel it making its way through her body, every pump of her sluggish heart only increased the pain. She clenched her jaw to keep from crying out, but it wasn't enough and a few hours later she screamed in agony. She tried to stop, to keep the screams locked inside, for every one ripped form her lips was like a stake to Elijah's heart. Finally at sunset the pain had reached its apex, her heart was beating like a humming bird's wings, and the fire-the fire raging in side was burning every piece of humanity out of her. She felt like if she made it through this there would be nothing left of the girl Elijah loved, in her place would stand a monster. Moments later when she thought the fire would burn all the good out of her, her heart gave one finally thump and stilled.
She opened her eyes and looked at Elijah. He had laid her down on the forest floor when she started screaming hours before. He stood a few paces away, his face etched in pain, his eyes never leaving her.
She gave him a shaky smile, "I think it worked."
He came forward quickly and enveloped her in a hug. She hugged him back just as fiercely and he grunted, but didn't release her. She had never felt so safe before in her life. His arms were like a fortress erected for the sole purpose of protecting her.
"Something worked," he said with a smile, "you're a lot stronger than I remember."
She smiled in return, "That's good, I would have hated becoming immortal if it mean we couldn't touch each other," she said kissing his cheek.
He stepped back and looked at her, his smile dropped and his face shifted into one of confusion. "Um…are you supposed to be shiny?"
"Excuse me?" She asked confused.
"It's just when the sun caught your skin you sparkled." He said confused.
Bella lifted her hand into the light of the setting sun and watched in amazement as the light was reflected off of her skin. She smiled, "Must be the diamonds," she mused, "maybe that's also how I'm strong enough to hug you."
"I don't care if you sparkle or if you turn purple, so long as I get to hold you in my arms forever," he said stepping forward and embracing her once more.
"I'm not going anywhere," she replied as she laid her head on his shoulder.
They just stood there for the rest of the night. Each taking comfort in the other's presence. Elijah happy that Bella's potion worked and the wolves did not kill her. Bella excited that she could live forever by Elijah's side. She would take the pain again and pay whatever price to love him for all eternity.
When Bella was brought back into the present she noticed that she was now cradling Elena's head in her lap and holding down the girl's thrashing arms. She remembered how painful the transition was, but she also remembered how happy she was when it was over. She remembered Elijah's face when he realized they could be together forever. She had never been so happy in her life, and she would do it all over again if she had to. She just hoped Elena would feel the same way.
"Now what?" Rebekah asked.
"Now, we wait." Bella said grimly, "the venom will take its course and she'll become a Cold One."
"H-How long?" Stefan asked.
"It took a few hours for me, but it can take days."
"Days? She's going to be in that kind of pain for days?" Stefan asked shocked.
"Maybe, maybe not," Bella shrugged, "it depends on how potent the venom is. She was bitten by me, so maybe it will only take a few hours to a day. Plus she's died before and was brought back by a spell, so maybe dying once before will make it work faster." Bella looked around, "I do know that we have to get out of here soon."
"Why?" Rebekah asked. "I mean why rush, they're not trying to kill us."
"Because when she wakes up she's going to want blood," Bella said looking at Elena, "and she'll do anything to get it. I don't know about you, but I don't want to lose a hand trying to stop her from killing all the humans in a ten mile radius."
"Can't you get us out?" Stefan asked, "You did get into Elena's cell."
"I can get us out, but you'll have to carry Elena." Bella said laying Elena down gently and standing, "Do you have a place where she can go for a while. She shouldn't be around humans for the first few days at least."
Bella wasn't really listening when Stefan started to animatedly talk about the boarding house he shared with his brother. Instead, she was formulating a plan. What had started out as a relatively easy reconnaissance mission had just turned into something more. Now she had to escape the Council's compound, take care of new born vampire, and find out what the Hunter was up to. She sighed, she also would probably have to pay Klaus a visit, and if the ending to their last encounter was anything to go off of, it wasn't going to be pleasant.
Sorry if it got a bit cheesy in the middle there, I promise the next chapter will have some actually action