Author's note: Sorry not sorry for that last cliffhanger, everyone! :D
This chapter is going to deal with a lot of theoretical information and conjecture, so it's just one big scene. :D
Everyone was silent, except for the crunching coming from Enzo's general direction, who had apparently now found a bag of Skittles. He seemed entertained by the turn of the night's events – and even more so by the apparent drama surrounding them. Besides, he mentally argued, the more engrossed he became in what appeared to him a nonsensical and hilarious drama, the more distracted he became from the ordeal he faced for the last seventy years of his life, being rescued by the person who betrayed him almost fifty years prior, and this strange new world with all its curious technological advances.
Also, the matter that three of them claimed to be time travelers. Were they actually just crazy? Was he? Was this all just a product of an overactive imagination trying to protect itself from consistent exposure to pain and torture?
At least his imagination managed to conjure up a cute witch. Very cute. Incredibly sexy witch, actually.
Elena's eyes noticeably widened as she took in the meaning behind the symbol on the stake. "Where did you get that?" she finally asked, echoing the thoughts of her two spacetime skirting companions.
"Someone sent it over to the broodier Salvatore, along with some darts holding liquid vervain, and some very compromising photos of you two," Anna, who had by then begun lounging lazily on one of the armchairs with her leg obnoxiously resting on the table, replied, her index finger pointing to Damon then Elena then back again. "Sans necklace, with attention obviously drawn to Elena's very bare clavicle. He was pissed. I don't think I need to tell you how it looks."
"Who sent it?" Elena asked, alarmed.
"I knew it!" Damon exclaimed, looking a little too smug and victorious, at the same time as Elena spoke. "I knew he'd think I was compelling you – I told you," he added, though both Elena and Bonnie could tell that beneath the bravado he was hurt, as a result of which Elena squeezed his hand in reassurance.
"I have no idea," Anna answered honestly, "and congratulations, Damon, on predicting Stefan's obtuse behavior," she added sardonically, then sobered. "On top of that," she added to the immediate shock of most of the room's occupants, "I got a text the night before to observe Elena's bedroom window. Someone was clearly trying to get a reaction out of me."
"I also found an email on Psycho Ken's hard drive, telling him to expect Elena to distract him while we're saving Enzo, and advising him to lay a trap for all of us," Damon added with some biting contemplation.
"You never mentioned that before!" Bonnie exclaimed; her eyes widened in shock.
"We had more pressing matters," Damon countered, glancing at Elena affectionately, who blushed under his smoldering gaze. "But it raises an interesting question. All three of us knew there might be others. We were told as much, so this probably shouldn't come as a huge shock."
"When I was – wherever I was," Elena responded almost dreamily, not being quite able to identify the exact place – the feeling of peace and knowing and just everything – that enveloped her while de-merged. As soon as she was thrust back into her human body, that knowledge began to fragment. And once the memories she missed while she was away – wherever she was – came hurdling toward her, it seemed all but gone. Only the feeling remained. "I knew. I knew with every fiber of my being. But now I can't remember it anymore. Does that make sense?"
"About as much as you immediately spouting Emily Dickinson at me upon returning," Damon offered. "Hope is the thing with feathers," he elaborated to Elena's clearly confused visage, which did nothing to abate her consternation. "What did you know?"
"Everything," Elena replied, her voice soft as a whisper as she swam in the epiphany of it all. "I can't explain it but – it just felt like I knew – absolutely everything. And it was okay. It was peaceful. Everything was good. I know that sounds crazy, but…" she trailed off, trying to wrap her mind around her own thoughts.
"You also mentioned Anna," Bonnie added, pointing to the vampire who had suddenly become silent.
"Which raises another question," Damon accused, narrowing his intense blue gaze at the newcomer. "A little convenient you come bearing such a provocative gift, paired with an action-prompting cover story."
"What, does paranoia run in your family or something?" Anna defended. "First your brother is a little too keen to get himself ensnared in an obvious set-up –"
"Isn't that actually the opposite of paranoia? Steffie's always been eager to believe the gospel of his own views once he settles into them. Narrow mind that doesn't open itself to the possibilities – probably hair gel fume poisoning," he offered flippantly. "Whatever works for him, I guess," Damon bit out.
"Hey," Elena soothed, cupping his face, prompting his eyes to immediately connect to hers – and, almost involuntarily, the previous cloud of bravado dissipated to display the earnestness of vulnerability. "We'll get him back. We've done it before."
"I've never actually vomited blood before, but today might be the day," Anna deadpanned. "Please keep this up if you want to see the grossest show displayed by a vampire ever."
"You're really giving yourself a lot of credit," Damon replied with an eyeroll, and that cloud reformed almost immediately.
"Okay! Enough with the vampire posturing," Bonnie cut in. "Anna, thank you for the information, but Damon's right. You have to see how this might look suspicious to us, so just give us some time. Damon, tact. Please. Enzo, did you seriously find more expired snacks!?"
"Fine!" Anna huffed, though begrudgingly mollified. "I get it. I would probably be suspicious, too. For what it's worth, you actually look sincere to me, so I thought I'd have a better shot trusting you than whoever's obviously trying to set you up."
"And we appreciate that," Elena appealed diplomatically.
"I just – I have to know. Are you going to -?" Anna began nervously.
"Yes," Elena interrupted, placing a comforting hand on Anna's shoulder. "We're opening the tomb. We'll help you get your mom back."
"Why?" Anna narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Elena. "You mean to tell me you're actually okay with him throwing you away for Katherine the second that seal's lifted?"
Before Elena could respond, Damon retorted hotly, "I want nothing to do with Cade's little cuddle-buddy, so you could take your insinuations and stick them up –"
"It wasn't an insinuation," Anna replied, thoroughly confused about who Cade was, and what it had to do with Katherine, though she noted the amusement on Elena and Bonnie's faces.
"We know she isn't in the tomb, Anna," Elena cut in before the two vampires could come to verbal blows again.
"…How?" asked Anna, her eyes widening in surprise. "And – and why? If you know, then why are you opening it? What reason do you have?"
"We," Elena began to reply before realizing the sensitivity of the information, along with the subtle headshakes of her two traveling companions, then bit her lip thoughtfully and settled for a version of the truth, "had some encounters that led to the truth being revealed and we need something from it."
"Fine," Anna sighed. "Keep your secrets. I don't actually care as long as I get my mom back. You know where to find me when you're ready, and you'd better be ready soon," she added with an uncharacteristically threatening tone, before blurring away.
"So, what role does she play in your little melodrama?" Enzo asked as though a spectator watching some wild insanity unfold.
"Annoying interloper," Damon muttered. "I need a drink."
"Also, we should probably order some pizza or something, because everything you brought last night is gone," Bonnie added, smirking at Enzo, who was responsible for ridding them of roughly eighty percent of Damon's impromptu shopping trip with a takeout stop from the night before."
"Thanks for the eggplant parmigiana," Elena supplied with a kiss to Damon's cheek, prompting a smile from him. "Past me was grudgingly impressed by your 'intuition,' though not ready to admit it to herself – myself – something yet," she trailed off, a bit unsure how to verbalize the altogether unusual situation.
"I'll order it to the house next door to avoid suspicion," Damon suggested, taking out his cell phone to place the order. "I'll hear it and intercept them when they come."
"And garlic knots!" exclaimed Enzo.
"Garlic knots for Enzo, pepperoni stromboli for Bon-Bon, and mushroom topping for Elena," he muttered to himself, then grinned. "With extra pickles."
"Don't you dare!" Elena gasped, playfully smacking him. "Keep those rancid abominations away from me, please."
"But you have no problem eating actual fungus," Bonnie intervened, then turned to Enzo, smiling tenderly. "Hey, we'll get you anything you want. Why don't I take you around town later? Let's take advantage of that daylight ring of yours, and I'll show you some of the fun spots," then grinned wickedly. "I'll take my guitar."
Enzo shuddered at the thought of assault on music from the woman who was quickly becoming his favorite witch ever but agreed. "I think I can handle the occasional discordant note if it comes with such gorgeous company," he winked flirtatiously. "But maybe I can help with that."
"I thought you'd never ask," Bonnie purred, then noticed the bewildered stares of Elena and Damon and cleared her throat. "But for now, Elena, tell us more about this place."
"I don't know how to explain where I went," Elena began, her eyes blurring as she tried to recall the distinct feeling evoked by her trip. "Except to say that everything felt really clear and certain."
"No, I know what you mean," Damon concurred. "I had this really strong sense of peace and almost – knowing – right before I merged with my past self, but I can't remember why."
"Same," Bonnie agreed. "Our future bodies are clearly gone, for whatever reason."
"So not like that Back to the Future film Bonnie showed me on your abnormally flat television set?" Enzo, who was apparently listening, asked.
"You're processing all this suspiciously well," Bonnie remarked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "What gives?"
Enzo just shrugged in response, not willing to pursue that line of thought yet, and committed to watching the entertainment unfold.
"They're dead," Damon explained to the shock of the occupants of the room, not emotionally ready to face the reality that he needed to talk to Enzo yet. "Our future bodies, I mean, since I'm pretty sure having two versions of us here would create some kind of paradox. I think it's just our universe trying to protect itself."
"Well, we can't destroy the universe, now can we?" Elena teased.
"Why do you make it sound like a challenge? And why am I suddenly tempted?" Damon grinned.
"Okay, no one is destroying the universe. I've been sent here to make sure you two idiots don't mess around with Fixed Points, which I'm now coming to understand refer to Damon's paradoxes, probably."
"Why are they my paradoxes?" Damon asked, amused.
"So, if leaving the tomb closed creates a paradox, then opening it leads to the creation of something that helps our trip happen in the first place?" Elena asked uncertainly.
"Exactly," Damon confirmed. "Paradoxes are a contradiction. But that's not to say that some don't already exist, but they're probably not true paradoxes; we just don't know how to explain them yet, like the EPR paradox, which states that information cannot travel at a speed that exceeds light, and yet that's exactly what seems to happen with quantum entanglement. Relating to us, though, you have Fermi's paradox, which states that if time travel were real, then we'd see some already from the future; but the easy rebuttal to that is that they could be disguising themselves. But traveling backward in time can can create a lot of problems, so despite them being a potential mathematical solution to general relativity, most physicists agree that closed timelike curves are impossible – or should be."
"Wait, when did you learn all this? And why did this never come up when we were stuck in nineteen ninety-four? I'm pretty sure you could have helped with at least twenty of those crossword puzzles," Bonnie asked with undisguised suspicion and annoyance. She vividly recalled a time when she visited the Boarding House after her return from the prison world and found it smelling delightfully of sautéed tomatoes and basil. If she ever found out that Damon knew a recipe other than pancakes, he'd have to deal with one vindictive Bennett witch. He was the one that was supposedly atoning for murdering all those boarders. Why did she have to be exposed for four months of monotonous breakfasts for his misdeeds?
"Damon got really bored in the sixties and compelled his way into a few of Richard Feynman's Caltech courses," Elena explained with a thick swallow, trying to fight her increasingly obvious physiological response and turning away to hide her dilated pupils. "It came up in freshman year when he helped me study and –"
"Yeah, I remember what most of your 'activities' revolved around in freshman year," Bonnie replied sardonically, rolling her eyes. "I had a very involuntary front-row seat as a ghost when I couldn't whisk away immediately, for some reason," she deadpanned, leading to a deep blush on Elena's cheeks and amusement for Damon.
"This is the weirdest conversation I've ever been privy to, and I spent seventy years listening to the insane ramblings of actual mad scientists," Enzo remarked, arching both of his eyebrows, and becoming increasingly convinced that all of those – absolutely all of this – was just a product of his imagination.
"Humanity switches have zero impact on curiosity," Damon explained, clearly enjoying Elena's reaction.
Also noting Elena's very obvious reaction and desiring to bring the conversation back to a more useful place that doesn't quickly devolve to Elena and Damon suddenly disappearing behind closed doors, Bonnie took it upon herself to steer the topic back to one the suited her curiosity. "Not that paradoxes and the science behind them aren't fascinating and all, but I'd really like to get back to where Elena was, because this is a shared experience between all three of us."
"I," Elena sighed, trailing off in frustration. "It's so hard to explain. Okay, I guess it's a bit like Plato's Forms –"
"Elena took one philosophy class in her first semester of college, and she won't stop talking about it," Damon stage-whispered to Bonnie, earning a snicker from the witch.
"I also took a psych class, and you'll be hearing plenty about that, as well," Elena mock-threatened with a wag of her finger, then grew serious again. "I don't remember what it felt like while I was there so much as the feeling I had right before gaining past-me's memories of the last few hours. It was – a lot. I saw so much, and knew so much, but I couldn't hold on to it. It was almost like it was too much for my human body, and it started to fragment. And once I got all those other memories, it was just … gone. Or receded elsewhere," she trailed off helplessly, before collecting herself, and focusing on something she actually could explain. "Plato talks about the Forms – idealized versions of concepts that we have that can't exist in the physical world – like the perfect circle. We can all imagine a perfect circle, despite never having seen one, right? Even one that's electronic still has pixelated little imperfections."
"That are invisible to the human eye, so close enough," Damon countered.
"Fine, I'll give you that. But it's the idea of us having this knowledge a priori – before birth. For him, the five virtues – justice, piety, temperance, wisdom, and courage – only really exist in their idealized state as Forms– wherever it is that the soul is before its thrust into the body, and since that process is so traumatic, the soul forgets. So, we're born with all the knowledge in the universe, but then because we have to live with the pain of the physical world, we forget. At least that's Platonic theory. I'm not saying that it fits one hundred percent, but it's the closest equivalent I can think of to explain … this," she gestured wildly with her hands in her frustration with being able to articulate the everything-nothing-expanse of what she saw and felt and experienced.
"This is pretty wild," Enzo commented, having picked up some modern slang from a television show he just watched, with no small amount of amusement. "But after hearing how much you like mushrooms, are you sure you didn't just eat some …magic… ones?" he grinned wickedly, having some very fond experiences of draining "experimenting" youths.
Elena frowned. "Did I? Maybe Wes really did slip me something," she mumbled, suddenly doubting herself, since a psychedelic trip sounded a lot more reasonable than what she proposed. And yet it felt so real.
"Hey," Damon took her hand. "I believe you. I thought we got past you doubting yourself," he whispered in Elena's ear, referring to her tumultuous emotional state when she was human – when survivor's guilt seemed to motivate her every action.
"No, we felt that, too," Bonnie reassured. "And your magical signature was different, so you definitely went somewhere."
The foursome dropped the topic for the time being when their food arrived, prompting the rest of the Saturday afternoon to be spent on pizza, drinks, and shared laughter, before Bonnie slyly whisked Enzo away with a wink for a quick serenade at the quarry, leaving Damon and Elena alone to continue some activities suddenly inspired by paradoxes and time travel and all that goodness, having both realized a while ago that moments of happiness must be seized and appreciated between bouts of tumult and upheaval.
"So, tell me more about these 'closed timelike curves,' Damon," Elena whispered sultrily into Damon's ear while pressing him into the living room's wall seconds after their housemates left, in response to which he chuckled under his breath and gathered her into a searing kiss, like they had all the time in the world, both hoping to stretch the moment into infinity.
I'm expanding Elena's "eggplant obsession" to mushrooms, too, since they both have a strong umami profile. :D It was not just to set Enzo up for his joke at all! I gave Bonnie pepperoni just because it's the most popular topping, so it stands to reason that one of them would favor it. Elena not liking pickles was a reference to the best S1 episode, "Bloodlines."
Elena's intense attraction to smart Damon is inspired by Damon's attraction to "you're cute when you're all doctorly" Elena in mid-S6. Why couldn't it go both ways? It makes sense that they're both turned on by intelligence.
I mentioned before that since Damon correctly quoted the velocity formula to Galen Vaughn in S4 that I would make him my physics mouthpiece in this story. He's honestly the only one in the series, to my best recollection, who even mentioned it, so let's go for it (Stefan's gag-inducing cliché of a comet explanation in S1 doesn't count. Oort Cloud-based comets don't "come home" to Earth. They're explorers! Get it right, Steffie. :D And comments aren't the only objects in space that have orbits. Get thee back into a physics class! :D). Elena took a philosophy class in S5 (and has a psych textbook, which will come up, too), as noted sarcastically by Damon, so she's the one explaining those concepts in the fic. Bonnie's got the magical explanation covered. :D (FYI, if Elena's explanation of the Forms doesn't make enough sense, let me know, and I'll expand in the author's note. If all the physics stuff doesn't make sense yet, don't worry. It'll have its own chapter.)
I originally wanted to cover a lot more in this chapter, but given all the information/theory that's covered, I'll cut it off here. But this means quicker updates! :D We have a philosophical proposal for what's going on. Forthcoming physics proposal, as well. And some much-needed conversations that have thus far been avoided – including Bonnie and Enzo's date –before the plot zooms forward once again.
Thanks to Clarissa for reminding me that Damon helped cook during family night in S1, and that he probably knows how to prepare cuisine other than pancakes. (We really only hear that he doesn't cook from Stefan, whose default state is often to think less of his brother, sadly.) So, you can rest assured that when Bonnie finds out about this she's going to be pissed. :D Very much so.
Bright hugs to you awesome darlings for being awesome. :D Special thanks to Kriz03, scarlett2112, and Florencia7 for being willing to listen to me crazily ramble about planned plots. :D
Please be sure to leave a review, because I find your thoughts, opinions, feelings utterly delightful! :D