The seven of them sat in the parlour of the Salvatore home; Damon, Elena, Alaric, Bonnie, Jeremy, Caroline and Tyler. The memory of Jenna's death, Elijah's betrayal, and Klaus' successful transformation still hung in the air, a reminder of all they had suffered, making the news they had just received even more bitter. Damon was dying, and Stefan was gone, under the allure that he had sacrificed himself to Klaus in order for his brother to live. Except his brother would not live. Before leaving, Katherine had told of her assurance that the cure would work, that it had been tested on herself and was successful. But Damon's recovery had lasted mere minutes before the sweat, the illusions, and the pain deep in his bones returned. That was when, in desperation, Elena had called the other five.
And now, here they were in the middle of the night, with another burden on their already laden shoulders that didn't seem to have a solution. Not this time. More than one of them realised how normally Stefan would solve it, Stefan would know what to do. But Stefan wasn't here, and by the look of Damon's deteriorating form, he would not have the time to come up with a solution even if he were. Damon lay slumped on an armchair, propped up by Elena, while the others, some seated and some stood, watched and each came to the realisation of how hopeless the situation was, and sure of the fact that Damon was going to die. The girls began to weep, Bonnie first and then Caroline, for Elena had not stopped since Katherine had left and Damon had slowly returned to his weakening state. Alaric paced back and forth across the room, trying to maintain control as technically the eldest, and yet grew more and more frustrated of how weak and helpless he was to stop another person he cared about dying. He sensed that the venom had already been to deep set in Damon's system for Klaus' blood to cure him, but he did not speak, knowing this would not bring comfort to anybody there. Instead he paced, over and over, counting each footstep- anything to distract himself from his surroundings, until a look from Jeremy and Tyler stopped him in his tracks. Then the only noises in the room were Elena's sobs and Damon's heavy raspy breathing.
Until the great door of the Salvatore home burst open.
Nobody moved. Normally either Stefan or Damon would have shot to the door in this moment. Realising her new position as the strongest, Caroline stood and made her way to the hallway, at a speed that wasn't quite supernaturally fast but not a human pace either, as if she was trying to put off the inevitability that something else was about to brace the group and either shatter them for good or be the hope that they needed. A few paces into the hallway, and Caroline was coming back again, or more she was forced back again. As Caroline's back connected with the furthest wall of the parlour, Elena gasped, and letting go of Damon, stood quickly like the rest of them to face the intruder. For a moment, everything was still, the night outside stopped it's usual noises and the heavy breathing of them all seemed to cease, almost as if time was hinting at the arrival of something big and was giving them a moment to process and prepare. Then everything seemed to happen in full speed.
A girl, moving quick and determinedly, did not approach the room but instead swept in like it was familiar to her, or just insignificant. In those brief moments before she came into contact with any of them, few things registered about her appearance; her hair was swept back into a tatty bun, and judging by the tendrils escaping it was long and curly, and she had big brown eyes and full red lips that both seemed to have had no assistance from cosmetics, coupled with a nose that was in proportion with the rest of her face. She wore a simple black dress, with military style laced up boots. There was a simple backpack slung over her shoulder. As first impressions go, she was beautiful. As she neared the first person in the room that had been closest to the doorway, Tyler, she did not speak, but continued on the path she seemed set on fulfilling, pausing only to fling him to the far wall of the room without ease when he put a threatening hand on her arm. Bonnie approached her next, as Caroline was still lain groaning on the other side of the room.
'You can't do thi-', Bonnie started, but she was silenced as the girl indeed did stop. The two spent mere moments sizing each other up, until Bonnie's arm raised and her mouth moved, beginning an incantation that would no doubt cause harm to the girl. And so, with a hand over her mouth and her arm twisted around her back, she was thrown to the third wall of the room.
The 'pure' human's, bar Elena's faint doppelganger trace, remained, though the girl made no move to harm them and they made no move to confront her. Instead she continued on the path she had never swayed from, which lead to Damon. He had sensed in his ruined state that there had been a commotion in the room, but he had been unaware what it was, only that it had caused Elena to move from his side. At the touch of two smooth cool hands on his face, he moved restlessly, perhaps the wrong move as it confirmed he was alive. The hands moved to the back of his neck for a moment before leaving for a moment. He heard the creak of two of his father's wooden chairs moving to the centre of the room and the other furniture, like the coffee table and sofa being pushed to the sides of the room. The hands returned to the underneath of each of his arms and lifted him up slowly. Then, in a less gentle movement he was dragged, his shoes scraping the polished floor, to one of the wooden chairs.
Elena had watched in horror, but much to her shame, she did not intervene with the actions of the girl in the black dress. Alaric moved first, as the girl began tossing furniture around the room. Out of the corner of her eye she sensed his approach, and stopped and looked at him warily. She had an air of authority to her, so rather than demanding furiously who she was and what she wanted like he would with most other intruders, he proceeded with caution.
'Excuse me?' he began, 'who are you? What are you doing?'
She slowly looked around the room. Tyler was now mobile, thanks to the aid of Caroline, and Bonnie was back in her original position next to Jeremy. Elena was stood behind Alaric, though the girl could tell she was torn between listening and going to Damon's side. Realising she had all their attention, and that there was no way she could fight them off and carry out her task, she began to speak in a tired voice, a voice beyond her age. The voice of somebody that had suffered more, perhaps more than anybody here, than a person should ever suffer in a lifetime.
'My name is Allie, short for Alvara,' she said, as she turned to Elena and Jeremy with a pained expression, 'I could have saved your Aunt Jenna's life. But I didn't.'
Jeremy's eyebrows shot up. This was not what he was expecting. His eyes flickered to Elena, but she stood frozen with a stone cold expression painted on her face. However the girl, Alvara, did not pause for their reaction but continued.
'And now I'm here to apologise to you both. And to pay you back.' And, as though that was enough explanation, she went back to rearranging the furniture.
Tyler erupted from his silence. 'This is bullshit! How did you throw each of us across the room? What are you? How do you know us, how do you know about Jenna?' In his frustration, he took a step towards her and once again grabbed her arm to make her turn. She turned with a steely glare and took his neck like it was a simple twig between her fingers, pulling his face entire body towards hers.
' I'm a slayer, and not just a vampire slayer. I slay all kinds of things, including your kind, and if you make one more threatening gesture towards me I will snap your neck without a second thought,' she said through gritted teeth, 'so, why don't you back the hell off and let me save this thing's life, which by the way I really do not feel comfortable doing, before I change my mind and kill the lot of you. Bar the three I haven't touched of course.' She shoved him, letting go of him as he tumbled backwards coughing and rubbing his neck. Neither Caroline nor Bonnie made a move towards her, but instead joined Alaric Jeremy and Elena in staring at Tyler's bruising neck in astonishment and at Alvara with fear. She frantically pulled clear tubes, beakers, all kinds of equipment from her backpack and tossed them on her floor, before heaving a huge sigh and pausing to muss her fringe up with her fingers tiredly and turned to Jeremy and Elena.
'I came here to survey the situation. The people I work for, Vespa, they knew something odd was going on here, though they didn't tell me what. I figured that much out for myself,' she moved towards Damon and straightened him on his chair for something to do, 'I was told to watch and to step in if human life was harmed, though you kind of all like to keep to your own supernatural selves, except you three of course. And Jenna. The four of you, and Caroline's boyfriend Matt became my main priority, as well as the rest of this town as a whole of course. Reports soon came in from all over of what the Originals were up to, what Klaus wanted, but we didn't know why. This would mean harming a human life, you Elena, but because of your situation as a doppelganger you were not considered as important.' She winced at that last part, realising the absurdity of that statement.
'After a month of being here, I was told not to interfere and instead to leave; we at Vespa are only supposed to get involved when there is a direct involvement of human life and to protect it at all costs from any form of the supernatural. On the day I was leaving, the day of the sacrifice, I found out that Jenna had been taken, and I realised what for. So I reported it. At this point we were still under the illusion that the legend was real, that the moonstone was the key to breaking a curse that kept vampires and werewolves isolated at different times during 24 hours. Vespa thought that the two kinds would finish each other off in their haste to break the curse, and even once the curse was broken and they were in the same time frame; thus in the long term more human lives would be saved. They thought the sacrifice should happen, and so Jenna's life would have to be taken in order for so many other lives to be saved.' Her face turned to disgust as she paced and fidgeted.
'They said if she knew, she would be honoured. I knew it was wrong, I knew it went against Vespa's aims, against human beings own morals, but I left under orders. Until reports came in of this bogus legend and I realised what was happening, that we had unwillingly let a monster be created, and your beautiful Aunt had had to die. And I had let it happen, even when I knew something wasn't right.' She came to a stop. 'And I am so sorry. I owe you; I am in your debt. And when I caught a whiff of this guy,' she gestured to Damon, 'I realised how I could repay that debt.
I cannot bring your Aunt back. But I can save this vampires life.'