Author's note: Sorry for the back-to-back cliffhangers, everyone, but this arc is a little involved.
Thank you for all the love this weird little story received. It means so much, and your reviews and just delightful. Hugs to all you awesome, fantastic, amazing humans! :D
Elena was on the verge of getting a full-blown panic attack. Calming her trembling fingers to send Bonnie yet another text message before she de-merged. This couldn't be happening. Damon couldn't die. Not again.
She remembered the darkness – the despair – the desperation to get him back that led to her near killing-spree.
What she had to give up to avoid becoming a monster.
Breathe.
He's just missing. It doesn't mean he's dead. Where is Bonnie? Anna! Maybe Anna has some information they could use.
The sensible part of her understood that she was just having a trauma response. She had these a lot when she first entered automobiles after the accident with her parents.
Breathe.
Forcing herself to breathe evenly, she lowered herself into one of the parlor armchairs. She focused on her surroundings, trying to ground herself. She focused on the roaring fire, the water in her glass on the table, the feeling of the material she squeezed in her hands.
She saw Stefan frantically saying something to her, but she couldn't make out his words. It was so loud – the beating of her heart.
She tried calling Bonnie again for the thirtieth time and got her voicemail. Where was she?
Bonnie was instantly awed by her surroundings. So, this was the Astral Plane! She had always dreamt of visiting but had never quite gotten the chance. It required candles made out of rare materials that were hard to find – for some peculiar reason, their stores had all but vanished worldwide when they awakened Silas, and she never made the connection, though now she had to wonder.
She'd heard so much of the famed Astral Plane, lamenting that she never got to visit. It looked different to everyone who came across its magical existence – designed to make the visitor comfortable, and at peace.
To her, it was a blooming meadow.
"Why are we here, Grams?" Bonnie chanced to ask.
"Patience," her grandmother smiled mysteriously, waiting for a third figure to appear – a decidedly elegant witch, whose golden eyes twinkled with wisdom and just the barest hint of mischief.
"Althea!" Bonnie beamed. "How is this possible? Why did you need me to come here? Did you ask Grams to bring me here? Why did you ask me to go back? What is a Fixed Point? Why do we have to open the tomb?" she asked, with increasing urgency with each word.
"One question at a time, Bonnie Bennett. Temporal communication is nothing new," Althea replied dreamily. "Your ancestors have used to scrying fires for centuries. Personally, I favor the Astral Plane, though I must warn you: there are certain rules preventing me from communicating anything that could impede the flow of time."
"I've known about your journey before you even came here," Sheila explained. "I had a dream a few nights ago, beckoning me to visit, and met Althea, who told me quite the story," she raised her eyebrow at Bonnie. "I was kind of hoping to hear the truth from you, though," she chided gently.
Bonnie remembered how intuitive her grandmother was, even long before she spoke of being a witch. Sometimes she would just … know… things, and it would be unclear how or why. She wondered if her Grams visited the Astral Plane even then to search out answers to her most ardent inquiries – examine clandestine mysteries of the esoteric arts.
It was peculiar to Bonnie, how quickly her Grams seemed to accept this strange sequence of events.
Then again, her grandmother had been a witch for far longer than she, and who only knows what wonders she'd been privy to in her vast lifetime?
"I'm sorry, Grams," Bonnie deflated. "I should have known you'd understand, but what happened with the three of us is just so unusual, and otherworldly and –"
"You thought I would judge you?" Sheila asked, gently taking her granddaughter's hand, to which Bonnie only nodded sadly.
"Honey, you weren't sent back using Expression or any other kind of forbidden magic," Sheila soothed, urging her granddaughter to look at her with a soft hand below her chin. "The Magic – Nature – allowed it to happen. If that weren't the case, you'd have already seen the consequences, believe me."
"What kinds of consequences?" Bonnie asked, alarmed.
Althea watched the scene unfold before her curiously. "Witches are protectors of Nature, Bonnie Bennett, and so we uphold its will. Nature allowed me to send your souls back to this time, and so you are all three healed – whole. But the same cannot be said for your adversary. He was sent back using Expression, from what I was able to gather, and the effects on all his life are already being felt."
"I don't understand," Bonnie whispered. "Why is Nature okay with us being here, and not him? Who sent him? Why is he here?"
"To survive the merging of a past soul with a present, one must be in possession of a particular kind of magic – temporal magic," Althea explained, choosing to disregard all but one of Bonnie's questions. "It's what keeps its vessel healthy and vibrant when forced to undergo such a tumultuous event."
"But Damon and Elena –" Bonnie began, confused.
"Both have Traveler ancestry, whose purpose was quite different before the curse to which Qetsiyah subjected an entire witch line for the abhorrent actions of her former lover," Althea interrupted, explaining. "Although their magic is now either nonexistent or corrupt, their name once referred to Travels through time. The only lines capable of producing temporal magic are Bennett witches – and the Traveler line, but only before the curse was placed and after their curse was broken," Althea explained to an increasingly bewildered Bonnie.
"But I've never seen either of them exhibit any sort of," Bonnie muttered to herself, then her eyes widened. "Elena can't be compelled," she breathed with sudden realization.
"Only the version of her from my time. The past version – the doppelganger – blocks the flow of magic from being released, just like the vampirism does in your friend – the one without any respect for rare potions ingredients," Althea added in annoyance, still evidently unhappy about Damon destroying her wares. "Don't be fooled, however, it's still there – keeping them safe from the ravages of temporal displacement."
"Is that why she didn't have any cuts on her skin when she was injured?" Bonnie asked, growing increasingly curious.
Althea nodded. "Traveler magic is elemental. Your friend is an untrained Water Witch – a Water Healer, specifically. Your rambunctious vampiric companion breathes in the world of Fire, fittingly, not that it matters while he's in his current form. This magic within them cannot blossom and grow, because the pool from which they draw has not flowed in millennia, in this time. It cannot grow stronger until the curse is broken again, but it is sufficient to protect them."
Bonnie swallowed thickly, mulling over this strange turn of events. "You mentioned someone being sent back via Expression."
Althea nodded sagely. "I'm not free to reveal his identity, I'm afraid, but the temporal displacement is wreaking havoc on his mortal form. The divination pools have told me that he has the aid of an Expression-practicing witch to cast a glamor to hide this, but you will certainly notice a severe difference in his magical signature. I must warn you, however, at this moment, the same witch is trying to drain your friend, Damon's, temporal magic. I should not have to tell what will happen to him, if she is successful. His status as a member of the undead would not be sufficient to protect him. Vampirism heals human ailments – not magical ones."
Bonnie's heart seized in panic, her bright eyes suddenly flooding with tears. "What? Right now?"
"Thank you for this meeting, Sheila," Althea smiled warmly at Bonnie's grandmother, before turning to the younger witch with greater urgency. "Go now, Bonnie Bennett. We will meet again."
With that, the meadow around Bonnie dematerialized, and she was back in her living room, alarm written all over her face. Her trembling hand grabbed hold of her phone – thirty-three missed calls from Elena.
Text messages about Damon's disappearance.
Elena didn't take the blood.
"Grams," Bonnie pleaded, suddenly feeling like a little girl again in the presence of her beloved guardian.
"Let's go, dear. I'm coming with you," Sheila assured.
Damon's eyebrows shot to his head when he saw Galen Vaughn, the Hunter whom he had left to die on that island off the coast in Nova Scotia, alive and breathing before him. Was he also displaced in time, or was he stupid enough to involve himself with this obviously sketchy group?
Last time he'd worked with Katherine, so probably the latter.
"We're not discussing their sometimes-questionable taste in comedy right now, Galen," Damon sassed with annoying calmness. "We're discussing my safe word. How about," he pretended to think, furrowing his brow in deep concentration – the kind that would make his brother feel both proud and threatened, all at once. "Creepy Island Carcass Buffet?" No reaction. Probably not the Vaughn he'd met previously then. "Okay, okay, fine. I got it. Qetsiyah's Vertically Challenged Minion?" Damon asked with eyes widened in mock-innocence, to Galen's obvious annoyance. At least that finally had a reaction.
"Will someone please shut him up?" commanded a booming voice, obviously distorted by the metal mask work on its vessel's face, whose body approached Damon with increasing agitation.
Damon could barely stifle a laugh. Sometimes his life was ridiculous. "Wow! Somehow Even Less Sexy Eustache Dauger?" Damon tried, to a silent audience – and to his own annoyance. He expected at least some kind of reaction. "The Man in the Iron Mask? Dumas? Based on a real, historical figure? My talent is wasted on all of you," he pouted. "I really think you should read more," chided, wagging a finger of a hand trapped in a manacle.
"I actually can't" supplied the witch, pointedly ignoring Damon's attempts to rile them, now tracing the runes on his chest with what looked like a wooden wand. "The exchange of temporal magic cannot be achieved through coercion. The subject must be comfortable."
"Comfortable!?" Damon balked, then sighed with dramatic sadness. "I think I may have given you the wrong idea before, and now I need my emotional security bourbon. It's not here. So, if you don't mind –"
"Let me make myself very clear," the man with the voice distorted by his mask boomed. "You will get that magic, even if you have to carve it out of him. If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me."
"It has to be given freely," the witch stressed through clenched teeth, growing increasingly annoyed with the man commanding them all.
Bonnie all but ran into the Boarding House, followed by her grandmother, walking at a much more leisurely pace. She found Elena in tears, having what could plainly be seen as a full-blown panic attack. She wrapped her arms around her trembling friend immediately, tracing soothing patterns along her back.
In the time since she began calling Bonnie, Elena ripped through the Boarding House to gather any items of Damon's that could be used for a locator spell, as well as any stakes or other weaponry that could be used in case there needed to be a fight, desperately trying to hold herself together.
"I'm here," Bonnie whispered. "We'll find him. Don't worry."
"I tried calling Jeremy to get Anna's address," Elena cried, trying to control her breathing. "Stefan says she took one of the photos. The vervain darts are gone; the photos are gone. There's nothing we can use to track them if they put a block on him. Please tell me you still have the stake," Elena implored.
"I have it, but we'll try one on him first" Bonnie reassured, reaching to take it out of her bag. She and Sheila quickly removed the candles they brought along, gathered ingredients for a location spell.
Both of which promptly failed. The block on him had been expected, given the apparently magical nature of the vervain darts that followed their target.
"It's the stake," Sheila explained. "There's a block on it. I've seen this symbol before. It's –"
"The Brotherhood of the Five," Bonnie interrupted impatiently. "We know."
"As I was saying," Sheila sassed, impatient with her granddaughter's impudence, causing Bonnie to blush. "The Brotherhood of the Five was created by a powerful, ancient witch named," she shot her granddaughter a look when she appeared as though she was about to interrupt her again, forcing Bonnie to look contrite. "Qetsiyah – an ancestor of the Bennett line. Anything bearing this mark has her protection. We'll have to use something else."
"Anna took one of the photos!" Elena exclaimed. "Jeremy's not picking up, so I can't get her address, but maybe we can figure out a way to track her?"
"We needn't bother," Sheila huffed. "I make sure to keep track of all new vampiric activity in this town. I know where she is."
As soon as the quartet arrived at Anna's house, that Elena bounded for the front door, knocking frantically, followed by Bonnie.
"Anna! Help!" Elena screamed, when it appeared her knocks were being ignored. No sooner had she said those words that she and Bonnie looked at each other with eyes wide in recognition.
Aside from her curious decision to quote the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Elena's first words upon returning from … that world … were 'Anna… help.'
Neither girl had time to analyze the situation, because Anna chose that precise moment to finally come to the door.
"Well, look who's come crawling back?" She sassed. "Are you ready to work together to open the tomb yet?"
"Anna," Elena exclaimed frantically. "Damon's missing. We need that photo!"
"Get your own blackmail material, Gilbert," Anna countered. "Why should I help you exactly? You haven't exactly been hospitable with me."
"Because you know we won't help you get your mom back if you don't cooperate with us," Bonnie threatened.
"You actually expect me to believe that Sheila Bennett of all people is going to help open a tomb full of desiccated vampires?" Anna raised a dubious eyebrow.
"Maybe I will, and maybe I won't," Sheila replied. "But there's only one way to find out."
Anna nodded, gesturing for the four to come inside. Stefan trailed after the group, positively confounded. Did he fall into some kind of nightmare where the Bennett witches, of all people, were desperate to save his brother? What was going on?
And then it finally reached him. Damon was in trouble. Real trouble. And he inadvertently helped his kidnappers.
Anna blurred away, returning with the photograph only seconds later, unwilling to let these interlopers see her beloved secret hiding spot.
Bonnie and Sheila went about setting up the ingredients for the spell, while Elena went outside to get some air to calm herself. They would find him, she reassured herself – alive, safe.
All would be well.
"I'm worried, Grams," Bonnie confessed, visibly relieved to finally be able to discuss this complex matter with a knowledgable witch. "Opening the tomb. I'm guessing you already know what happened last time," she chanced, to a knowing nod from Sheila. "I can't lose you again," she choked.
"Oh, my darling," Sheila soothed, gently cupping her granddaughter's face. "You have no idea how proud I am of the woman you've become - exceeding my greatest dreams and wildest expectations. You've become so wise and powerful - you could probably open that tomb up all by yourself, dear."
Urging her granddaughter to follow her friend, to make sure she's okay, Sheila gestured outside, assuring Bonnie that she'd be able to finish setting up within a few minutes. Bonnie nodded, eager for the few-minutes break to clear her own head.
Her best friend was missing and in mortal danger. She couldn't bring herself to tell Elena just how much yet – not with her already mentally reliving that summer.
What she found outside surprised her, however. Expecting to find a distraught woman, worried about her boyfriend, the Elena that she saw looked back at Bonnie brattily, in a way that only a teen could. Oh no.
"That's right, Bonnie," Elena huffed petulantly, somehow looking both hurt and utterly confused, crossing her arms over her chest with a marked teenage pout. "It's me again."
Bonnie needed a drink. Or ten.
S1 Elena is back! (Much to Bonnie's annoyance.) :D
So, this chapter has a bit of a lore drop, which probably means that I should explain it somewhat in the author's note. :D Yay? In my defense, I did warn everyone that this story was going to be really wild. :D
Both Elena and Damon have Traveler ancestry (Damon through Silas, and Elena through Katherine's grandpa). We see the curse broken in S5, and we also see the end of the doppelgängers through the deaths of Silas and Amara. With this in mind, we can, if we wanted to, conclude that Damon and Elena could be witches once they become human, which they did in the series finale, because all those conditions have been met.
So why wasn't Elena one before she turned? We can go with an explanation that suggests that being a doppelgänger can block the flow of magic for a witch, just like being a vampire.
I wrote a story called Serendipity that plays on this notion. Silas' sexy older brother (guess who he's based on? :D) suddenly had to come home for a few months, so Amara fell for him, instead. This changes the course of their universe, because no immortal elixir means no doppelgängers, no vampires, and the Traveler curse is never cast. So, Damon's a Fire Witch, Elena's a Water Witch, Katherine's (who's a muuuuuch nicer person in that story) an Air Witch, Stefan is an Earth Witch, and so on. I also created a fun little bit of lore called the Twin Flame spell for it (Midsummer, actually, but it's used there, too), and it's very chaotic. :D
I don't know how much of that will be explored in this story, but it's post-series (sort of), so it leaves the door open for some exploration. With that said, that magic doesn't exist as a source from which to draw in this world, so Elena has a very limited supply until that happens – and Damon's a vampire. If this will ever change, I'm not sure – but it allows enough temporal magic to flow through them to keep them both safe from temporal displacement.
Happily, Bonnie has plenty, because her kind of magic is readily available and free.
I was originally planning to keep the mystery of what "future" Elena is alive for much longer, but then I realized I couldn't really do that with them trying to draw the temporal magic out of Damon – so I might as well go all in. :D
Hugs and love to all. Thanks to Kriz03, scarlett2112, Florencia7, Wobalo, and Ixilight for letting me discuss this story with them.
Reviews are love. Don't forget to leave some. Have a fantastic day, all! :D