Author's note: This fic exists thanks to Clarissa, who is awesome and asked me to do a time-travel fix-it story, even though it's not at all in my wheelhouse. :D (I'm planning a post-series time-travel story called (probably) Witchy-Woo Travelogues, but it's decidedly not a fix-it. It's a crazy MacGuffin-chase starring Elena and Damon as elemental time-witches to stop an apocalypse. Very different kind of story. :D) A lot of the inspiration for this came from me thinking that it would be funny if a bunch of people showed up displaced in time but didn't really know about each other.

I normally wouldn't try one of these just because so many exist (though admittedly not too many are Delena, given the happy ending/endgame status in series) that it's difficult to do something original, but then I realized that that itself is a challenge, so here we are! :D (That's not to say that I think ill of them – some of them are utterly fantastic.)

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries is owned by the CW and L.J. Smith. Title credits go to Doctor Who.


"People assume that time is a strict progression from cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff."

– The Tenth Doctor, Doctor Who


"Damon Salvatore," a wizened woman projected across the domed atrium of a decidedly decorated building, her very countenance bearing an air of regal gravitas, eyeing the man who crashed her coven's ceremonial proceedings with an air of undisguised superiority. "Your bark hardly carries the same bite, when your teeth are no longer quite so sharp." The threat was implicit, though she refrained from providing a demonstration – a part of her surprisingly wanting to learn more. Behind her, stood several cloaked figures, though they were all silent.

"Yeah, well, what I don't have in fangs, I'll make up for in fighting dirty," the object of her curiosity flippantly replied, producing several vials that he'd stolen from their concealed stores – some whole, while others broken and drained of their priceless liquids. It must had taken him some time to acquire them – deals made with local witches to be untraceable, giving away any magical artifacts he'd managed to collect over the decades in exchange. This was his gambit, and he only hoped it had a chance at success.

It was his last hope.

"And here I thought humanity would cure you of your mischievous ways."

"If you give me what I want, then these events will be rewritten anyway, and their contents restored."

"What is it that you want, exactly?" She narrowed her eyebrows elegantly, though her calm demeanor suggested that she already had a good idea.

"I want you to send me back."

"Oh? And what makes you think we are capable of such marvels?"

"When that Siren bitch was in my brain," he growled, practically reliving the revolting memories of her tinkering with everything that shaped his identity – of her surgically removing all that made him happy, every trace of his humanity. "I was able to take a peek in hers, as well. I saw your coven and what you could do. You were on her list, too, just so you know."

"And are we to feel grateful that Sybil has been eradicated, and thus we are left untouched by her machinations with Sabine and Cade?" The witch pondered, idly tracing an elegant finger over a silver goblet. Several of her digits peeked out from her ornate bell sleeves, allowing Damon to catch a hint of runes either drawn or tattooed on the spaces above her knuckles.

"You can feel however you want. All I care about is that you send me back."

"We can fulfill your wish, but I will decide when you will appear."

"As long as it's far enough that I can save them, save –"

"Yes, I know who you want to save, Damon Salvatore," she retorted, almost sounding bored. "Stefan and Elena. Your brother, and the love of your life. He is dead and she is still trapped in magical sleep, while you age and wither away in mortal form, unsure if you should ever look upon her again. I know of your dilemma. But remember this: time is a delicate tapestry. You may save them, but lose them both in the process. The future is always in motion – unpredictable. We only get the barest hints from the scrying fires."

"I don't care, as long as they're safe," he stated emphatically, though the notion of losing either indefinitely was enough to break him. Realistically, he knew his own chances of dying while attempting his endeavor were high. If not saving Elena from Kai, then taking Stefan's place in the tunnels.

"Hm," she hummed, as though considering his proposal. "And why should we help you? What would we get in exchange as part of this bargain?"

"What do you want?" He ground out, becoming visibly desperate, something he ached to avoid.

"How far are you willing to go?" She asked with a delicately raised eyebrow.

"…I'll give you anything," he finally managed in quiet not-quite-defeat. "Within reason," he added as a caveat, though it sounded empty even to his own ears.

"Very well," she acquiesced, though Damon had the distinct impression that her decision had been made before he even entered the massive chamber. "All will reveal itself in due time."

"Why does that sound both cryptic and creepy?" Damon intoned wryly, not entirely comfortable with either the wording or the suspiciously serene tone his interlocutor insisted on maintaining throughout their entire exchange. She seemed disturbingly unbothered by it all, which he found a lot more unsettling than even rage, because he failed to get anything resembling a read on her.

"We are all but mirrors of each other, Damon Salvatore, and we each see in each other what we want to see."

"Yeah, I'm not a teenage blonde girl in her first whitewashed yoga class. That won't work on me."

"You will accept my deal nevertheless."

"And why is that?"

"Because you are a desperate man. We will come to collect soon enough but worry not – you have my word that what we ask is not too nefarious. We only seek to restore balance."

"Is that an elegant way of telling me you want me to be your killer? Like for Sybil and Cade?"

"No," she sighed mournfully, revealing for the first time the weariness that comes from her extended lifespan. "There has been enough death already. We are Nature's servants – not its destroyers."

"Doesn't this sort of thing go against Nature?"

"Normally, yes – but as I said, the tapestry of time is an elegant and fragile one. You will be asked to correct more than one misdeed – both your own those committed by others." At Damon's evident confusion, she pressed, "as I said, all will be revealed when the time comes."

"Fine," he allowed, visibly deflating. "Just do what you have to do."

Nodding once, the witch took his hand with a surprising gentleness, her eyes widening slightly as she murmured a spell to split his wrist open. "Only a little will suffice. You will find yourself in a familiar place, that will be most optimal for the task and hand."

"What does that mean, exactly?"

"You will see," she smiled serenely, a touch of mischief in her golden eyes. "Before I send you to be one of our Champions, you should know – there will be others. Some, friends; others, adversaries. I am not the only one who wishes to affect these particular points in time and space."

"What –?"

This was all Damon Salvatore was able to say before he was engulfed by a gleaming light, surrounded almost entirely by incandescent streams of being. He felt at once connected to the very cosmos and yet entirely disconnected from everything – both wholly noteworthy and utterly insignificant in the grand scheme of existence.

For a brief instant, he knew the reason behind his travels and felt utterly at peace. In the following moment, he knew nothing of the sort, as the light dissipated, revealing the cemetery of Mystic Falls.

It took him several whole seconds to collect his bearings. Something about the sensation pulsating through his veins felt achingly familiar – a ravenous, unsatiable hunger. Bloodlust. He was a vampire again.

There was a warm body in his arms. Human, his instincts told him, from the scent of her rich, oxidized blood. His vision cleared, and he almost jumped when he saw a terrified-looking Stefan –alive, well, alive – before him, extending what appeared to be a large, leather-bound tome – a grimoire, he realized.

With a sinking feeling, he looked down and saw a familiar mess of brown hair. It was then that he felt the utter rightness of the body in his arms. He could have sworn he felt her struggle a second ago, only to have her lean into him.

Elena…

Taking in the full view, he realized he had her in a firm hold, with his bleeding wrist pressed into her mouth. Of all possible moments. His eyes widening in horror at what he was doing, he quickly but gently pushed her away, wishing instead that he had been sent to that forest road – a time when he could have saved her family and spared her this debilitating grief, kept the memory of their first meeting intact, in hopes that she bonds with him first instead of immediately thinking him a monster.

And now that sneaky witch brought him to a point when he was in the process of threatening to turn her against her will. Although he always knew it was an empty threat, she certainly didn't.

Numbly, he watched her walk into Stefan's waiting arms, though he could have sworn she was a lot more rigid in his embrace than he remembered. Then again, he hardly paid attention last time as soon as the grimoire was his, well on his way to the unneeded rescue of the most ungrateful bitch of a vampire on the planet.

He took the grimoire firmly in his hands, not yet quite sure what his next step would be, and watched Elena give him a puzzling look, before letting Stefan lead her away from the scene.

Hours later, Damon found himself several bottles deep in bourbon, a rare silver lining that he was able to drink some of his favorites from his secret stash - twice! How did he think this out so poorly? Couldn't he at least rein himself in a little more and negotiate a better placement? He'd already killed Lexi, and threatened Elena. At least he hadn't snapped Jeremy's neck yet, he reasoned, taking another large sip.

Stefan still hated him, but that was to be expected.

And what did that witch mean, anyway, when she said he'd be one of her Champions? What exactly did he get himself into?

His messy reverie was interrupted, however, by the tell-tale vibration of a text message. Checking his phone, yet noted the not-yet-added contact of a number that had already been etched in his heart.

Meet me at the Quarry at midnight. We need to talk.


Okay, so the series finale had a massive plot hole. When Stefan injected the Cure into Damon, there was absolutely no reason to assume that Bonnie would be able to wake Elena up, at all. Realistically, he must have thought that she would still be asleep for decades, at least, while he aged. Considering that Bonnie is a witch and therefore has an extended lifespan, it would have been very sensible for him to assume that he would have died of old age before Elena ever awoke. Luckily, in canon, Bonnie pulled off a deus ex machina in the last few minutes and woke her up, but Damon had no way of knowing that he would. The devastation that he must have felt while at the cemetery with Caroline must have been crushing. In this case, he never made it to the cemetery, and just went on his merry way to do this without telling anyone, correctly assuming that they'd try to stop him. If only he'd waited a few more minutes, right? :D

My main literary love is sci-fi, so I'll leave that there as a potential hint as to the witch's true plans. I understand that TVD doesn't really cross into that realm normally, but hey! Why not? It's fun to explore all sorts of possibilities. :D This one may be a bit wild, but that's how I like it. Let's hope you agree.

So, yes, there are others displaced in time. Feel free to guess who they are. I'm revealing one or two very soon.

I honestly want to get chapter 2 of this up ASAP because it's so clear in my mind, so it might be coming really, really soon.

I just finished watching S3 of The Mandalorian, and for some reason, the witch sounded a lot like the Armorer in my mind when writing. :D (It's a really great season, and if you haven't seen it, you should!)

I grew up reading X-Men comics, and one of the storylines had an aging Gambit, by then called the Witness, as the sole X-Men survivor in a terrible future. His whole raison d'être at that point was to prevent this from happening, leading to actions that a past him would have found reprehensible, arguing internally that these events will be rewritten completely anyway if he's successful. Ultimately, he succeeds and sends Bishop back in time to fix things. This was the prequel to The Days of Future Past. (I wonder: is The Days of Future Past the original time travel fix-it? :D It waaaaaas written in the early '80s, by the then-brilliant comics scribe Chris Claremont.) I considered a similar move here, but it didn't make much sense, since Damon pretty much disappeared as soon as Stefan died and he realized that Elena was no closer to waking up.

So, I know I know – I have WIPs out already. Why is WIP girl starting a new one? Has she no shame? So, here are my plans to remedy this:

Serendipity (probably) only has one chapter left. I'm working on it.

A Midsummer Night's Dream in Mystic Falls is going to be a relatively short fic. I'm stuck on the next part, but I have a fairly good idea of how the entire plot will play out. Once I get unstuck, it'll go smoothly and quickly.

With Great Power is ongoing. It might be long. I've a lot of plans for it, so it definitely won't be a short one, at the very least. The next chapter will be up soon.

Witchy-Woo Travelogues, my really BIG story that I keep talking about but delaying, doesn't have the beginning written. That's the biggest issue. Once that's sorted out, it will be ready to go. :) I don't write scenes in order usually. I go with what moves me, and I have to connect it with what I've currently plotted/written.

Big hugs to fandom friends, especially scarlett2112, Florencia7, and of course the lovely Clarissa for inspiring this fic in the first place.

So that's it for the longest author's note ever. :D

Reviews are love. Please leave some. :D Updating very soon.