Author's note: Hi everyone! You are all so utterly and beautifully delightful. :D

So, this chapter's quite a bit darker than I anticipated. No-humanity Elena, after a while, is incredibly ruthless and empty. Empathy's a really big part of who she is, and without that, the contrast is stark.

"Is everything all right, honey?" Elena's mother asked, concern written all over her pretty features. Miranda Gilbert was undoubtedly a perceptive woman, and seeing her daughter's almost blank expression completely threw her – especially considering how laser-focused she seemed lately – she and her new friend, Anna Zhu.

"Oh, absolutely, mom," Elena quickly recovered, pasting her most innocent rendition of a smile on her face. "I'm just a little under the weather tonight. Would you mind if I skipped the movie, and just went straight to bed?"

Miranda furrowed her brow. "Is this because you're missing that party, Elena? I'm really sorry, but I have to be firm about this. You're still grounded. There will be other parties."

"I know, mommy," she said with utmost contrition. At least not having her humanity kept the shame of blatantly lying to her parents securely at bay. At her mother's uneasy nod, Elena made a show of trudging upstairs, only to vamp speed out of her window and straight to the party in question.

"I think I need to kill them," Elena pragmatically revealed to Anna as the two stood before the bonfire, sipping what was undoubtedly cheap wine from their red solo cups.

"Kill who?" Anna dreaded to ask, though she suspected she had an idea.

"My parents," Elena raised both eyebrows. "They're getting suspicious. And my dad's apparently a vampire hunter. Just think about how much easier things would be if they were gone. Aunt Jenna would probably have to come take care of us – and she's a clueless ditz who can't see beyond her own reflection where a party's concerned," she scoffed.

Anna narrowed her eyes, suspecting that the description was far from generous and not entirely fair. Jeremy had told her about their Aunt Jenna, and though she admittedly had a weakness for a good party, she was hardly the self-absorbed vanity case Elena just described. "And what about Jeremy? Wouldn't he be devastated?"

"He'd get over it," Elena shrugged. "And everyone would attribute my behavior to 'the tragedy,' anyway," she mocked in an overdramatic voice, with air quotes sprinkled on top, then affected a wicked grin. "Maybe you could help him."

"No," Anna said flatly.

"Why not?" Elena demanded, genuinely wanting to know.

"Because, eventually, your humanity will come back, and you'll be devastated. You're my friend, and I won't put you through that."

"It's your fault I'm like this in the first place," Elena snapped, knowing very well that Anna continuously blamed herself for the predicament, so she took every opportunity to twist the knife a little further. Anna might be hundreds of years older, and therefore stronger, but she had one weakness compared to Elena, as far as she was concerned – and it was a glaring one – her empathy.

Although Anna looked at her defiantly, Elena could see the slight tremor in her lip, the set in her jaw, the nearly-there haunted look in her eyes. "It was an accident," she said through gritted teeth. "Why is your humanity off, anyway? You had literally no reason to flip the switch."

Why, indeed, Elena thought. It had been a question she asked herself almost nightly – hours lost on silent contemplation – but she could not come up with a good answer. Vampires often turned off their humanities to run from some kind of tragedy – avoid trauma – and yet everything in her life seemed rosy aside from her sudden switch to the undead.

She had first met Anna mere months ago, when the girl approached her pretending to be a shy new student – fresh from home-schooling and desperately trying to acclimate to the hectically social world of public high school. Elena immediately felt a pang of sympathy for the sweet girl and took her under her wing. By the end of the day, Anna was introduced to Bonnie, Caroline, and the rest of the cheerleading squad. By the end of the week, she had started accompanying Elena to parties as her 'plus one,' where there was hope of making even more new friends, and helping Anna feel increasingly at home in her new environment.

A few days later, Elena invited her new friend over to study; Elena was only an average History student, since most of her love had gone to English and Biology, but Anna seemed an outright ace. She knew so much of what happened in the last few centuries – and her knowledge of local history for the last hundred and fifty years seemed so vivid, it was as though she lived them.

And it was only days later, when the girls were discussing some local folklore and the alleged supernatural in her ancestors' journals, that Elena had come to learn that she did.

The hints to Anna's true nature were quite soft at first – almost subtle and seemingly inconsequential. She'd seemed to mimic Elena's cheer routine a bit too well – with an almost supernatural grace – or overhear some gossip from too great a distance.

Caroline, in particular, seemed to love that one.

Bonnie only furrowed her brows, then brushed the feeling aside as having been particularly tired, and told Anna not to worry.

It took only a few weeks after their initial encounter for Elena to finally step through the emotional threshold of her own skepticism and not only make the connection, but risk embarrassment and ask.

Anna only smiled and allowed her fangs to elongate, tilting her head to the side in a manner that Elena and come to associate with a wry remark from her new friend. Although she gasped in alarm at first, the familiar gesture – the physical distance Anna was determined to keep from her – calmed her after a time. Despite wearing the face of what one could call a monster, it was still her friend – still Anna.

That's when Anna told her the truth – the real reason she had been back in Mystic Falls.

It was to save her mother.

A being of empathy, Elena's heart immediately seized, and when she learned that the poor girl's mother had been enduring untold agony for well over a century, she immediately pledged to help.

And so, the girls began working together – searching through Gilbert journals – looking for a way to help rescue Pearl Zhu from the tomb that had been her prison for one hundred and forty-five years.

It appeared they were stuck until fortune strolled into town in the form of Stefan Salvatore. The youth was drawn to Elena immediately, it seemed – appeared everywhere she was – almost like magic.

Except it wasn't magic in the way she thought, Anna explained one night over a bottle of wine and some fries they lifted from the Grill. Stefan was a vampire, too – he and his brother were turned in eighteen sixty-four by a woman who looked exactly like her – her doppelgänger, Katherine Pierce.

Furious, Elena impulsively confronted Stefan, demanding to know why he was stalking her – and to his credit, the vampire did immediately apologize. He was confused by her presence, he said – and thought she might have been Katherine at first, but that was impossible, because Katherine was in the tomb.

He came back with the returning comet to release her.

There was a part of Elena that had to admit to herself that she found him attractive – almost alluring – and yet she couldn't stop asking him questions about his brother, Damon.

Through their conversations, she learned that his brother was wickedly funny, and fiercely protective of those he loves, and a lot more sensitive than he lets on. He was incredibly clever, intuitive - could make fantastically accurate leaps with seemingly minimal evidence. He was an unconventional thinker, and quite possibly one of the wittiest people Stefan had ever met - though he admittedly used his wit as a crutch to hide his emotions entirely too much, Stefan felt. His ability to love was unparalleled, and Elena found herself wanting to know him very badly.

It took Stefan many years of reflection to realize just how much Damon protected him from their abusive father, often at his own expense - to the point that Stefan could do no wrong in his eyes, and Damon was to blame for everything. And yet it didn't make him bitter - until Katherine came long. They both loved her fiercely. Elena remembered feeling an odd, irrational jealously, which she then laughed off. Was she really jealous of an ancient vampire for having the love of a man - or vampire - she'd never even met?

Apparently, he hadn't seen Damon since the day they had both gone into transition. He had just disappeared. Stefan tried looking for him – depending on the status of his humanity, he had coerced, bribed, and pleaded with witches to find him – but everywhere seemed like a dead end.

Elena looked at the small portrait Stefan carried of his brother, right next to the one of Katherine – who looked disturbingly like her. There was something so familiar about him – something that called straight to her heart.

She resolved the feeling was only in her imagination – she probably just felt compassion for Stefan, who missed his brother over the centuries, and wanted to help him connect to his family.

And so, the three of them sought to work together. Stefan had a crystal that would open the tomb. They only needed a Bennett witch now, and luckily, Bonnie and her grandmother both fit that criterion.

The only problem was that Bonnie wasn't even a witch – was she? She sometimes liked to joke that her Grams was delusional and liked to pretend to be one, but that's as far as those conversations went.

Didn't they?

She had been preparing her pitch for days when the unthinkable happened. Seemingly out of nowhere, her car careened off Wickery Bridge and fell right into the water. Her seatbelt was stuck. As she struggled for breath in the depths of the river, she recalled the hike she, Anna, and Stefan took the day before. Elena fell in a particularly unhappy way, breaking her tibia, and Anna was quick to supply her with healing vampire blood. Stefan, unsurprisingly, cautioned them both that they were being careless, but they both waved him off and teased him for being so dogmatic and uptight.

Now, it appeared Anna saved her life.

Just as her vision darkened, she saw two figures swim toward her, but just as she recognized her two vampiric friends, everything around her faded, and Elena's took her last breath as a human – a lungful of river water.

She awakened in transition shortly afterward at Anna's house, finding the two pacing. Stefan urged her that the life of a vampire was terrible and filled with strife – a nigh-insatiable hunger – and that she should consider carefully before making the transition.

Anna told her that he's speaking as a ripper and not to worry – they were friends and sisters through and through – and she would never abandon her.

Elena agreed to transition, drank from the offered blood bag, and before her fangs could elongate for the first time – and certainly before she knew what was happening – she promptly flipped her switch.

"Accident or not, you could have gotten there faster," Elena sneered. "You and Stefan both said you heard my car go over the bridge. Care to explain why you took your sweet time in getting there?" Elena knew perfectly well that the question was unfair and emotional blackmail. She just couldn't bring herself to care.

"I told you," Anna said, practically sobbing, "so many times – that the sound was too far away to be certain, so we searched some other places first. We had no idea it was you! By the time we realized it, we both rushed to the scene, but it was too late."

"Story of your life, huh? Too late to save your friends. Just stood there uselessly while they dragged your mom away," Elena delivered cruelly.

Anna could hardly help the tears that now freely fell from her eyes. "You are such a bitch without your humanity, Elena," she growled.

"Well, it's your fault I'm like this," Elena shot back. "So, are you going to make it up to me by helping me?"

"Help you kill your parents? Hell no," Anna declared defiantly, then paused in contemplation. "But I will help you – I'll help you get away."

"I thought you needed me as a Gilbert," Elena mocked.

"Not anymore," Anna said flatly. "I have everything I need to open the tomb. I'll even compel anyone you need so that your escape is as easy as possible."

Elena nodded. This would do. This town was starting to chafe her, anyway. Before she could walk away, Anna pulled her into a tight hug. "I know who you are underneath all that – you're one of the kindest and most empathetic people I've ever met and I love you like a sister. Please, Elena, I hope that you find whatever you need and come back – the real you. Please come back, Elena."

Elena just scoffed at Anna's pathetic sentimentality and walked away. The next stop on her list before her escape was Stefan Salvatore. It didn't take much for her to emotionally blackmail him, as well, and get him to part with his brother's portrait.

She couldn't even explain why she wanted it so badly, really. She dreamed of him sometimes – and it was the closest she came to feeling anything more than this growing emptiness anymore – not that she would admit this to either of them.

With the considerable expanse of her empathy gone, Elena was filled with quite the gargantuan void.

And so, Elena returned home from the party on her own, blurring through the forest at top vampire speed to enter her window and pack, her family none the wiser. He eyes caught a small painting of some flowers in the corner of her room.

She remembered that day so vividly.

Before she could stop herself, she brought it along, right next to Damon's portrait, and left the house in the still of the night.

The first few years were almost fun. She traveled the world at first, compelling her way into exclusive clubs and companies – feeding on the rich and famous. She made some new friends – gleefully participated in running a few effective cons. Eventually, she made her way to New Orleans, having heard that the city is quite famous for its legendary witches.

Not properly able to explain why, she'd found numerous ways to get nearly every witch she'd come across to try to locate Stefan's mysterious brother; and every time, the answer was the same.

They couldn't find him. As a member of the supernatural, a few urged her, it was entirely possible that he was under a powerful cloaking spell, simply not wanting to be found.

Feeling a personal challenge, Elena was more determined than ever.

Through the grapevine, she heard that Anna and Stefan were eventually able to open the tomb, after all. Pearl was saved, then killed by her Uncle John – followed by Anna, as well, who by then had begun a relationship with Elena's brother. Absently, Elena noted that if her switch was on, she would have been utterly devastated.

As it wasn't, she barely gave it a shrug. Guess Anna would never get her 'sister' back, after all.

She also heard that Katherine Pierce was never in the tomb, though she returned to Mystic Falls shortly after, looking into her – her mysterious doppelgänger, only to find out with apparent disappointment that Elena was no longer human.

Instead, it seemed she restarted her relationship with Stefan, and the two had been together ever since. Stefan was reportedly furious with her at first, but she must have done something to convince him of her sincerity.

Though Elena admitted to some idle curiosity, it was hardly large enough to bring her back to town.

She also heard that Katherine killed her Uncle John at some point. Oh well. One less person to seek her out and try to stake her in her sleep.

After that, rumor was that Stefan and Katherine left town together, disappearing into the wind.

She arrived in New Orleans after a particularly lengthy blood frenzy in Los Angeles – seems she was getting quite the reputation.

The emptiness within her grew, and nothing seemed to fill the void. No amount of blood she drank was able to sustain her – not in the way that mattered.

Everything – every experience she had left her wanting more – something just beyond her reach. A memory of being able to feel something – almost ethereal. Her nights were filled with visions of laughing cerulean eyes, teasing her mercilessly into giggling delight, and she could almost swear she felt – she felt so – but just as quickly, the feeling was gone as soon as she woke up. What did she feel? What was that feeling? It was unlike anything she'd ever experienced before – even when she had her humanity. It was so strong.

It consumed her. But it seemed she'd only get the barest hints of it in her dreams.

She found herself on the verge of tears so very often, missing something – some je ne sais quoi – some unknown force that was buried so deep within her that it was practically unreachable.

It was on a rainy afternoon, after searching the city for even a hint of a working witch for what seemed like days, that she finally stumbled onto one in the cemetery in the French Quarter. It seemed her lack of regard for New Orleans' unspoken rule of not feeding on the locals had not gone unnoticed, and she was confronted for this by a witch named Sophie Devereax.

"You're drawing the wrong kind of attention," Sophie said, stepping out of the shadows with a knowing smirk.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not wise to sneak up on a predator alone," Elena commented wryly as her fangs elongated.

"I'm not here to threaten you," the witch calmly replied. "On the contrary. I heard you're looking for a witch."

Elena tilted her head to the side to study her interlocutor. "It seems I've found one," she asked with a playful smirk. "Or are you just dinner? We can play a game and find out."

"Neither," Sophie replied coolly. "At least not a witch that can help you. You'll want to speak to Marcel Gerard. He controls all the magic that flows in and out of this town."

"And why's that?" Elena asked, allowing her face to return to normal as curiosity took over her features. At least this town wasn't boring – it'd been a while since she'd had a nice mystery into which to sink her fangs.

"Because if he finds out we're doing magic, we're as good as dead," Sophie flatly delivered. "And I'm hoping that if I send you on your way, you'll stop making messy meals out of the locals."

Elena shrugged, not really caring about this witch's advice, but she'd look into it.

It seems she didn't need to find Marcel, after all. Instead, he found her.

"We have a rule here in New Orleans –" he began authoritatively, approaching her while she was minding her business for once, and trying to enjoy some beignets.

"I don't like rules," Elena interrupted airily with an almost genuine smile, as though discussing their favorite music.

"I don't care what you do or don't like," he continued tersely. "You'll follow this one, if you want to keep your heart attached. We don't feed on locals in this city."

Elena studied him for a few brief moments, and realized that challenging him would likely be futile. She was here with purpose, after all. "I heard you've access to a very powerful witch."

"What of it?" Marcel asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I just need one teeny-tiny locator spell," she chirped. "Give me that, and I'll be well on my way."

"Any witch can do a locator spell – and she doesn't have to be from New Orleans, so why don't you get on your way right now," he retorted, with a tone implying that this wasn't a suggestion.

Elena sighed melodramatically. "Oh, there's just a slight problem with that, you see. I've tried many witches, and none seem to be able to get past the powerful cloak on the subject. I need a special witch," she grinned.

"Who's the target?" Marcel asked, his curiosity seeming to get the best of him.

"An old friend's brother," she said, not technically lying. At one point, she and Stefan certainly were friends – when she was still capable of caring someone that way.

"Who is he to you?"

"I don't know," Elena said almost dreamily, completely lost in the haze of her own motives. Who, indeed? Why was this so important to her?

Marcel just rolled his eyes, visibly closing off. "Stop pulling my leg. If you want my help, you'll have to be honest with me. You're searching the country looking for some phantom in a picture, and you don't know why?" At Elena's shocked expression, he continued. "Yes, Elena Gilbert, I've heard of you. I make it my business to know of everyone stirring up trouble in our world. You could hardly be called subtle," he said in a tone that bordered both amusement and admonition.

"So, you'll help me?" Elena asked, clearly surprised.

"Only if you help me first. I need a favor – the kind that only a Petrova doppelgänger can provide," he said, leaning in conspiratorially.

And so, it appeared that Elena would have to use her own appearance to draw Klaus away from the city. The Original had been rumored to be returning, furious about the news that the latest doppelgänger was now apparently quite dead, and with her, any hope of breaking the curse with which he was saddled by his mother.

It seemed that when she left town, Anna and Stefan had elected to help fake her death, as though she never turned.

But if Marcel was able to decipher her identity than why not Klaus, Elena wondered. Perhaps the heartbreak and despair of his last hope for freeing his wolf side had left him in quite the disarray.

Marcel explained the plan. Elena would be seen leaving town – and whether Klaus believed her to be Katherine Pierce or another doppelgänger would be irrelevant. He would follow her.

Then Marcel and his witch would intercept her and spirit her away, sending him on a wild goose chase and scavenger hunt of their own making.

It took some weeks to prepare, but the plan seemed to work. Elena was not so naïve to believe that there wouldn't be consequences, but she'd deal with those as they arose.

In the meantime, she had to know.

She sat before Davina Claire, and extended the portrait, her hands nearly shaking with anticipation. Finally – finally she would know.

When Davina told her she couldn't find him, she nearly wailed with frustration, ready to tear her apart, but Davina halted her with a soft touch of her hand. "Wait," she breathed. "I think I see something. Let me take some of your blood."

Nodding enthusiastically, Elena allowed the witch to gather a sample, and watched with almost insatiable eagerness as Davina threw the blood into the fire, a frown in her pretty face as the flames rose higher.

"He isn't cloaked," Davina said softly, looking at Elena with a gaze just bordering on pity. "But I know why you've been trying so hard to find him – why he appears in your dreams."

"Why?" Elena breathed.

"This man was your Twin Flame – is, I suppose, since the concept is eternal. The spell to find him was cast, so he's showing up in your dreams," she explained, though Elena could tell she was holding something back. "It's curious," Davina went on, studying her. "Your humanity is off, so you're incapable of love – but you remember it. You remember so vividly how it felt – and it's almost like you crave it – being able to feel that way again."

"Was?" Elena asked, laser-focused on the part of the sentence that strangely seemed to have the ability to break her.

"He wasn't cloaked, Elena – he was never supernatural. He went into transition, but it was never completed. He died in eighteen sixty-four," Davina explained empathetically.

"No," Elena gasped, feeling the emptiness within her grow ever wider – a chasm so enormous that she wondered if it would ever close. "He can't be. You're lying! Try again," she roared, elongating her fangs.

"I'm sorry," Davina said, sounding every bit like she meant it, but Elena didn't care – she was in pain, and all she wanted to do was spread it. Just as she saw Marcel barge into the room to protect his ward, a door appeared. Anything had to be better than this, Elena figured, and sped away to step through.

Entering the Chambre de Chasse's Boarding House hallway again, Elena felt almost giddy relief when she felt her memories return. None of it was real. Damon was still alive. Wait, why did she even care?

That's right – she did cast the Twin Flame spell. They both did, she recalled with a feeling nearly bordering on fondness.

Feeling herself almost miss the other vampire, she walked through the Boarding House to find him, but as she blurred through the house, she was alarmed to find him gone.

He must have stepped through another door, she deduced, and walked into door number three in an attempt to follow him.

Enzo walked out of the ceremonial chamber into what he imagined would be a pit of Mikaelson-esque vipers. Ah, the things a vampire does for a pretty witch.

"Hello, everyone!" he greeted cheerfully, hoping to have some effect on the mood at large. "I'm Enzo, and –"

"Why are you here?" Freya asked, completely lacking decorum, as usual.

"What my future sister-in-law means," Marcel smoothly countered, "is it's quite a surprise to see you here. What brings you to grace us with your presence?"

Enzo wasn't fooled. It may have been a considerably more charming threat, but it was still a threat. Marcel certainly had a reputation.

"Aren't you that actor?" Rebekah inquired; her curiosity suddenly piqued. "The one who's writing the original play for our wedding?"

"That's right!" Enzo smiled, relief coursing through him. Clearly, he had at least one ally here. "I was just in to visit Bonnie for information-gathering, unless you'd like to offer your assistance as well," he grinned in a way that he positively knew was charismatic. Enzo was a performer, through and through, and sometimes that meant practicing in front of a mirror – for hours on end.

"How delightful," laughed a woman unfamiliar to him, who seemed to be holding Freya's hand. Curious. "I love the theatre! I used to go all the time when I lived in New York."

"Sure! We're very happy to help," Rebekah offered, to concerned looks from both Freya and Marcel, both of whom took a much more pragmatic attitude to family secrets.

Damon walked back into the Boarding House's hallway, finding it empty. What a trip. He'd now visited several doors – several worlds – and nothing could shake the emptiness.

He'd rescued Enzo, only to have his overly clingy friend annoy him with his very obvious humanity, so he ditched him fast. Vampires with their humanity so firmly on were so irritating.

He confronted his father, realizing what a pathetic old man he was – why was he so eager for his approval before? He couldn't believe that Giuseppe Salvatore still had such a strong emotional hold on him even after Damon was physically strong enough to protect himself.

But through it all – through the lessons and realizations and utter epiphanies – none of it seemed to matter. It would be fun for a while, but then he would inevitably get bored.

And in every world, she was always missing – always dead.

Hundreds of years. Scores of accomplishments for which he once yearned. Never-ending emptiness. None of it mattered. After a while, he would always get bored.

He even tried turning his humanity on a few times – anything to break up the monotony.

Nothing. It was firmly off, despite all his efforts.

He walked through the Boarding House, finding a ball in one of the rooms – evidently left over from one of the boarders he slaughtered in the nineties. Weird.

Making his way back to the long hallway of doors, he laid across it, bouncing the ball against the wall and catching it, getting lost in the simplicity of the motion. After all those years, everything he seemingly wanted wasn't any more memorable or impressive to him than a game of catch with a soulless, humanity-free wall.

Maybe someday, something would matter again.

He had no idea how much time passed, though logically, he knew it couldn't be long, when one of the doors opened, and Elena emerged. He almost felt his heart dance with excitement.

"What are you doing there, lying in the middle of the hallway?" Elena asked, sounding almost sad – almost broken. Within an instant, however, she was flooded with relief to find him there and present and so mercifully alive.

"Waiting for you," Damon replied with a trace of a smile, feeling the first stirrings of hope. He was finally ready to talk.

So, regarding Elena's really disturbing slip into non-humanity and the ruthlessness that came with it – it's important for her to know and understand exactly what that's like, because that experience and those memories will feature prominently for a mini-plot-point later.

PixilatedDreamer and I spend a lot of time making fun of everyone in the series – and she has this really awesome theory about why humanity-free Elena is so dull compared to other humanity-free vampires. Empathy is such a huge part of who she is, that without her, it's a lot more apparent that she's incomplete.

In case it's unclear, they enter each "world" with their switch flipped, because it's flipped outside of them, too. There's only one way for them to get their humanities back, and you know what it is. This is why Elena's humanity was off in that "AU", even though she couldn't quite put together why. Elena "remembers" being human before the transition, but the "AU" event begins when she's already a vampire.

I wanted to add: that line Elena said about not liking rules is most definitely not a nod to Katherine. Despite what she claimed in the 1864 flashbacks, Katherine loves rules - her rules. That carefree attitude is an act that she put on for the Salvatores, I feel. While Elena may be impulsive at times, Katherine most certainly is not - she's incredibly calculating.

Even though Elena's experience in her "AU" is all an illusion to help her solve the puzzle/learn a lesson, I'd still like to provide some context of her more easily accepting Anna's vampirism than Stefan's. Stefan frightened her, chased her, pushed her up against a door like it's a horror movie (and yeah, I think that's just early S1 stuff where they over-relied on old horror tropes), but Anna - in this case - was a lot smarter about the introduction, and appealed to Elena's natural sense of curiosity and kindness, which made all the difference. Although, like in canon with Jeremy, her goal was to use her at first to open the tomb, they later became genuine friends.

Okay, I know I originally said that this story would be 11-12 chapters, and then 14 – but now it's looking more like 16-17. Whoopsies. :D

Wobalo started a fascinating new story - a darker AU that explores what would happen if the comet arrived some years later, when Elena was older and had graduated college. Also, please do yourselves an enormous favor, and check out the lovely works of Florencia7, scarlett2112, Kriz03, and the very delightful PixilatedDreamer.

Hugs and love to all. Writing this chapter actually made me a bit sad, surprisingly, but much happier from this point on. It is a fairy tale, after all. :D