Trigger Warning: brief suicidal thoughts, mature language, general distress and angst
Memory Lane - Part 1
She didn't know why she was still in Mystic Falls.
There was nothing left for her there anymore.
Not her Anna.
Not her vampires she was supposed to look after, the ones that she swore to take care of.
Not the humans, vampires, Immortalis, and Empath who were starting to feel like her new family.
No one.
But...
She couldn't leave.
She couldn't move.
She just...was frozen.
She had had to leave the warehouse just days after Zach's demise. Pearl wasn't one to stay in the same place for too long, and given the fact that she had heard rumors of a young teenage girl eyeing the warehouse from the homeless women who lived just outside, it sounded like she was being hunted.
Pearl should have seen it coming. Victoria was too much like Lady Victory. The moment Katherine got a whiff of that, and she would not stop hunting Pearl down until it satisfied Victoria. And given the fact that the homeless women at the warehouse were wondering why one of the Founding Family daughters was sniffing around, it was safe to say that Katherine had gotten a whiff of that.
And Victoria must be vengeful.
Pearl had killed her father.
Pearl had had to resort to drastic measures. That was why she was in an old abandoned logging mill deep in the heart of the woods outside of Mystic Falls. She had heard the grunting of lycanthropic creatures deep in the night so she had moved to the upper levels, keeping away from any place that a werewolf would be able to get into.
A werewolf...
...in Mystic Falls.
That was not something she had predicted.
She didn't remember there being any wolves in Mystic Falls when she moved to the small town, way back when (though she would never admit it, it was one of the reasons why Pearl had moved to Mystic Falls in the first place. Werewolves were not a phenomenon she wanted to repeat again).
Pearl kept her eyes closed as she leaned back against a metal beam that was rusted beyond belief. Why the hell this building was still standing was a walking mystery to Pearl. It should have been taken down years ago.
"How far I've fallen that I'm contemplating building code in my spare time," Pearl whispered lightly to herself, letting her head fall backwards. "What on Earth has happened to me?"
"Pearl, you don't want to do this."
"As Ms. LeBlanc would say, no shit, Sherlock," Pearl laughed weakly, shaking her head. "I didn't want to do this. I didn't want to do any of this, but s-she...she needed to pay."
"She will, Pearl, but bringing Caroline into this isn't how to go about it."
Pearl squeezed her eyes shut and brought her legs tight against her chest. She took a shaky breath in and felt a tear drip down from her eye. "I-I know, and I knew it then, and I was just so blinded by rage. I-I...I don't know how you managed to deal with her for so long, knowing what she did."
"You can be mad. You can be mad, and sad, and terrified of how to do life without them, because that's normal, Pearl."
"Yeah, well, being mad made it so much worse," Pearl whimpered, reaching up her hand to palm her tears away. "I broke up a family, I tore a daughter from her father, turned her against her mother, and I killed one of the few people who actually gave a damn about me in this new world." She was able to stifle a sob as she cried, "I-I...I don't know how to live in t-this time and everyone...everyone w-who helped me wants me dead. I-I..." She swallowed heavily. "I want me dead."
"You don't deserve that."
"I deserve that and much worse."
"It's time to let go, Pearl."
"I can't ever let go. N-Not this."
"Don't fall down this hill. Don't become Kelly."
"I'm not Kelly," Pearl sobbed. "I'm so much worse."
Just then, like a strike of divine intervention, her cell phone rang.
She thought she had gotten rid of that useless thing.
Apparently not.
Her subconscious forced her body to move her hand, to grab her cell phone. Pearl didn't recognize the number at all. In fact, there were way more numbers presenting on her screen then she thought was possibly. Her finger clicked the 'answer' button before her mind could stop her.
Pearl numbly lifted the phone up to her ear and just answered numbly, "Who is this?"
"Someone who is downright pissed off, that's who."
Pearl froze and it was like all of her nightmares had come alive.
There was no way.
It wasn't possible.
It was not possible.
It was not possible.
It was not possible.
"Y-You're dead," she gasped, shaking her head. "T-This isn't possible at a-all."
"Am I?" the voice across the line taunted. Well, it might not have been a taunt, but it sure as hell felt that way to Pearl. "Funny. Well, I'm in New Zealand of all places, believe it or not. I've spent many days with sheep, running across the entire island trying to find a single person who would let me use their phone."
"W-Why are you calling me?" Pearl whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut. Was this the punishment that she would be forced to endure? This the retribution for slaughtering an innocent man? "I-I...I mean..."
"Your number was the only number I forced myself to memorize in the many years I've been alive," the voice grunted, and there sounded like there was shifting from across the line. "I'll be to an airport by tomorrow, at the earliest, and then on the first flight I can compel myself onto."
"Are you coming to kill me?" Pearl whimpered. Part of her wanted it to be true, that the voice would say yes, so she could be done with this newfound eternal suffering. The survival instinct in her bones was screaming no, because at her core, she didn't want to die.
"Kill you? No. Put a dent into your money? Yes, because you can be sure as hell that you are paying for my flight, my hotel stays, and you can throw in a thousand or so for general distress. I had to sleep with sheep, Pearl. Sheep! Since you put me on this forsaken island, you will be paying for me to get off of it."
"H-How is this p-possible?"
"To hell if I know. I stopped trying to figure out these things years ago. Be on standby. I'll call you when I touch down in the States. And don't run away, Pearl. I will not be pleased if you do so."
When Victoria woke up in bed, after a long night of frantic worrying about Tyler saying something to his mother or father or uncle about what had happened (she had agreed to meet up with him at the Grill the following day to tell him everything; she's not going to tell him everything, obviously, just enough so he wouldn't ask questions about others that didn't need to be asked), to someone poking her in the stomach.
Victoria groaned and shoved her face farther into her pillow, trying to scoot away from the poker. "Damon, if that's you, remember what happened last time."
"Baby Bear, if I was Damon, there would be a lot more handsy action and grabbing happening right now."
Victoria just groaned and flipped around in her bed, flopping over and giving Katherine a disgruntled look. "Why are you in my bed...again?"
Katherine, who was tucked neatly under the covers and wearing (thankfully) a tank top and, Victoria hoped, pants, just smirked at Victoria. "Aggravating Damon. How better than to be in the one place he always wants to be?"
"In bed?" Victoria scoffed.
"In your bed," Katherine clarified with a waggle of her eyebrows. Victoria just rolled her eyes and snuggled back into the covers, intent on ignoring Katherine. Katherine made that goal very hard to achieve. "Ria, why are you ignoring me?"
"Don't whine; it's not a good look on you," Victoria retorted, eyes still closed as she tried to focus her breathing to get deeper and longer.
"You're not even looking at me, how would you know?"
"Maybe I'm just talented like that."
"Ria," Katherine whined, drawing out her name. Victoria felt hands grab her upper arm and then Katherine started to shake her. "Ria, please!"
Victoria grunted and tried to shake Katherine's hands off of her. "Aren't you supposed to be psychologically torturing Stefan upstairs in his room?"
"Been there, done that," Katherine sighed, and by the feel of it, she flopped down onto Victoria's mattress. "A woman needs a break every now and then."
"Katherine," Victoria whined in return, cracking her eyes open just enough to see the Bulgarian beauty staring down at her. "I had a really long, ridiculous night, involving a lot of things that will probably come around to bite us all in the ass, and I would just like to sleep while I am still able to. Can I do that?"
"No can do, Baby Bear," Katherine sighed apologetically, reaching out to poke Victoria's nose. Victoria scrunched up her face at the sudden poke and just gave Katherine a not-amused look. "I've been tasked on a very important mission, and I will not stop until I achieve it." She paused, as if for dramatic effect, and then asked, "Did you die again?"
Victoria froze for a moment, a little stunned by the sudden question, and then just gave a little meek nod.
"How many times has that been now?"
"Twelve," Victoria sniffed, pulling her blankets tighter around her shoulders. "It's been twelve."
Katherine nodded her head, her dark eyes roaming Victoria's face before settling back onto her eyes. "List them."
What?
"W-What?" Victoria stammered, feeling super confused.
Katherine scooted a little closer to Victoria and reached out, gently placing her palm against Victoria's cheek. "Baby Bear, dying scares you. It doesn't matter how many times you do it, it's scary. So, I want you to try something. It's something that a dear friend taught me how to do when I was scared to death of something."
"Lady Victory?" Victoria cautiously asked.
Katherine froze and tensed. She eyed Victoria for a long moment (scaring Victoria half to death) before just chuckling. "Can't hide anything from you, Baby Bear. Yeah, Lady Victory. She taught me this trick. I want you to list off all of your deaths. Walk me through them as if I was Tom Avery and I had no idea what was going on."
"Hey, now," Victoria sniffed, reaching out to flick Katherine in between the eyes. Katherine pulled a pouty face and tried to swat Victoria's hand away. "Tom is a gift upon this world and I will not allow blasphemy upon him."
"Blasphemy isn't the only thing I want to do on him -"
"- Katherine Pierce, I do not need to hear your sex plans for Tom," Victoria gasped, shaking her head. "Please, my dear virgin ears -"
"- Stop trying to dance out of this, Ria," Katherine grunted. "Come on. List all twelve of them."
Victoria shifted awkwardly on her bed, taking a deep breath and then letting it out. "Okay...um...first time was the car accident that killed Elena's parents. I-I remember drowning, not being able to breathe, my legs were broken so I couldn't swim up, and all I could see were the stars. They were there for me when I started to choke on the water. It was frightening and I..."
A more definite darkness was settling in around the corners of her eyes and she felt her body begin to shut down, her fingers stopping their desperate climb, her torso relaxing from its jerking around for oxygen, her eyelids slowly beginning to drift off to a close. The river naturally coaxed Victoria's head up, so she was staring up at the night sky. The stars were out in numbers that night; each star paired with another in a beautiful showmanship of creation and splendor. They shone brightly down upon her gaze and Victoria found herself reaching towards the stars, as if they could save her from her watery grave.
"Yeah..." Victoria finished lamely, taking in another deep breath. "Um, and then there was the time when I got stabbed through the heart, protecting Damon from a vampire. That was my transition from human to Immortalis. Damon tried to feed me vampire blood to heal me, but for some reason, I couldn't keep it down."
Something tapped her cheek and Victoria breathed in a shuddering gasp, her attention snapping back. She let out a pained sob as her brain began to rapid-fire process the pain she was experiencing.
It was the worse feeling in the entire world.
"Then, there was when I woke up from my transitioning. Killed three EMTs who were just trying to do their job, and then I couldn't control my powers and almost killed everyone who I knew until my mom was able to stop me with her electric powers and then Damon ripped my heart out because otherwise, I would have totally murdered him, our friends, and potentially, all of Mystic Falls."
She was kneeling in the clearing still, but the chaos around her was what would draw the eye of anyone standing on the outside. The black and white ooze from her body seemed to take on a gaseous form, circling around her like a ying-yang tornado. Everywhere that the cloud touched, trees would snap in half and branches would be taken up, swirling around in a swirling vortex. One wrong move and any one of the vampires would be dead in a moment.
"Cut to a snapped neck by a newbie vampire who snuck up on me when I was trying to help a defenseless janitor, who turned out to be an age-old vampire who was a part of a cult meant to take care of me."
All of a sudden, there was a loud rushing of footsteps. Before Victoria could react, she felt two hands on either side of her head, coming from behind her, and then the world turned black as she watched Walt walk away, unknowing of everything that had just happened.
"Cut to his girlfriend, at the time, who choked me out on the floor of a motel room because I dared to help my friends escape and I was there when her boyfriend was killed, before she promptly snapped my neck again."
There was a weight on her body and suddenly Victoria couldn't breathe. Something was wrapped around her neck tightly, squeezing tighter and tighter. Victoria flailed as much as she could, and she even tried to use her magic to get the person off, but nothing was responding. Victoria could only lay there, the person over her having all the power.
"You may be the Immortalis, but you are a child compared to me," whispered the person above her, and a quick twist of their hands and Victoria was sent spiraling into darkness once more.
"Then, the next day, I was nearly skewered, my innards were open to the public, and I killed my close friend's grandmother because she tried to kill me because we were trying to save you, even though you weren't in the tomb to begin with, and then Zach snapped my neck to save me from Damon who was trying to feed me vampire blood."
"I'm so sorry," Zach, or at least the person who looked like Zach, whispered brokenly. Something grabbed her head and in a quick moment, with a loud snap, the world turned black.
"Then, we have the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am double-team torn out hearts from two lovers who really hated me for no other reason than the fact that I was friends with the Salvatores."
Everything was starting to blur, but if she was correct, there was a heart being held above her. Her heart, Victoria supposed. It would be weird if it was anyone else's. A woman was holding it, but it hadn't been Lexi. Who was it again...?
Ah yes, Bethanne. Bethanne was holding her heart.
Frederick's hand moved like a flash of lightning and an all-too-familiar numbness started to spread throughout Victoria's body. She blinked her eyes as darkness started to set in on the corners.
Oh.
He was holding her heart.
"Then I was buried alive because no one knew what I was when I was being severely tortured."
She couldn't breathe.
She couldn't breathe.
SHE COULDN'T BREATHE.
"I somehow, I guess, succumbed to my wounds or something from the house falling on me and then I woke up in a body bag in a morgue."
Noble suddenly yanked Victoria forward, his anchorage being the hand on the back of her neck. Victoria let out a startled gasp as she fell forward into Noble's arms.
Two things happened at once.
First, Victoria landed in a heap on Noble's lap, but Noble repositioned her head so he could give her a solid, teeth-clattering and mind-numbing kiss.
Second, the building fell down.
"Then Lee snapped my neck after my newfound father died right in front of my eyes."
Did she want to submit?
She couldn't.
NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO.
A loud snap was the last thing she heard before walking up in a meadow by a lake.
"And then, your descendant's janky ass assistant stabbed my through the heart with a crossbow bolt and I drowned on land in my own blood."
"Go with the flow, Red. It's okay. It's okay," he cooed, repeating those words and a few sweet nothings for good measure.
It was the noise that Victoria heard when the darkness finally overtook her vision.
Victoria shivered and she burrowed farther into her blankets. She wasn't the superstitious type (which was funny to say considering that the supernatural was completely a thing) but her bones felt chilled too at the discussion of her many, many deaths. Victoria scuttled closer to Katherine and Katherine opened her arms willingly, bringing the teen into her embrace. Victoria settled against Katherine's hold and allowed herself to soak up Katherine's reassurances. Katherine cradled the adult-turned-teen tightly in her arms, resting her chin up against Katherine's head.
"Thank you for sharing with me," Katherine whispered gently to Victoria, patting the back of Victoria's head. "I'm glad you did."
"I think I'll be glad I did too, eventually," Victoria responded. She shivered. "I-I...I just don't think it will be right now, you know?"
"Of course."
The duo was lying in silence, just holding each other, when Victoria tentatively asked, "Hey, Katherine?"
"Yeah, Ria?"
"Can I ask a pretty serious question?"
"Of course, Baby Bear."
Victoria paused for a moment, centered her breathing, and then asked in a tiny whisper, so quiet that she knew, for a fact, only Katherine would be able to hear her (and nobody else outside of that room would), "Damon's not just flirting with me to flirt with someone, is he?"
Katherine tensed, just ever so slightly, almost to a degree that Victoria wouldn't have noticed it, but Victoria was expecting a reaction, and so pick up on it she did. Victoria let out a shaky exhale as her body began to quiver a little. "Oh."
"What brings you to this conclusion, Baby Bear?" Katherine asked professionally.
"Tom," Victoria murmured, biting her lower lip. "And lots of other things, but mostly Tom putting things into perspective yesterday on our trip out to Duke. Yeah..."
Victoria felt pressure behind her eyes and her lower lip started to wobble. Her throat felt tight and she felt her eyes start to water. A whimpering cry escaped from her tight lips and she hid her face into Katherine's collarbone, holding onto Katherine tighter.
Katherine just cradled her and whispered, "Hey, Baby Bear. Ria, it's okay...is it not okay?"
"I-I don't know what to do, Katherine," Victoria cried, her shoulders shaking as she tried to keep her cries quiet (she didn't need Damon busting in when she was talking about him). "I..." She cut herself off, squeezing her eyes shut tight before whispering, "I-I don't know what to do. N-Noble...Noble died ten days ago. Ten. Only ten fucking days. I...I feel like I've been leading Damon on, but I haven't meant to, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do and -"
"- How do you feel about Damon?" Katherine asked plainly. "Plain and honest. No judgement from me."
Victoria swallowed heavily. "Damon is probably the most important person in my life now. Don't tell Caroline, but he's my best friend. If anybody tried to hurt him, I would rip their fucking skulls out. But...I-I don't know if I can do another romantic relationship right now, especially so soon."
"Do you find Damon hot?"
Victoria scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I'm not an idiot, Katherine. There is not a single woman on this planet who wouldn't find Damon Salvatore attractive, at least a little bit. As you can tell, I am a woman."
"So he is sexually attractive to you, yeah?" Katherine continued, pulling back so she could quirk an eyebrow up at Victoria.
Victoria brought her hands back and slapped them over her ears. "Virgin ears, Katherine. Please!"
"Baby Bear, answer the question," Katherine teased.
Victoria cleared her throat and couldn't help the little blush that decorated her cheeks as she gave a meek little nod of her head.
"Ever considered friends-with-benefits?"
"Katerina Petrova!" Victoria gasped, swatting Katherine's shoulder. "You, in your weird ways, should know that I do not roll like that!"
Katherine just gave a little nonchalant shrug. "It was just a suggestion, Baby Bear." Her face grew more serious and she advised Victoria, "I would suggest you finding Damon and clearing the air quick. Any longer and things are going to explode, whether it be bad or whether it be good. Maybe a little too good."
"KATHERINE!"
Victoria did her best not to fidget awkwardly when Tyler Lockwood sat down in the seat across from her in the booth. His face was hard, not a trace of emotion peeking through the cold exterior he had plastered up onto himself. It made Victoria feel icky, like he was looking at her with disdain and disgust.
She gulped and sighed, "I-I guess you have a lot of questions, huh?"
"That doesn't even begin to cover things, Tori," Tyler growled, moving to rest his arms onto the tabletop. He leaned forward, sending a quick glance around the restaurant of the Grill, before he hissed out, "I have a list."
Victoria nodded, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in anxious anticipation. "I...I have answers."
"What are you?"
"It's a supernatural creature called the Immortalis," Victoria answered honestly. "I don't know much about what I can do; it's kind of been a work in progress."
"Have you been this...thing...forever?" Tyler questioned.
Victoria couldn't help the flinch she did when Tyler referred to her as a 'thing'. "N-No. Do you remember the Decades Dance in December?"
"The one that was the fifties?" Tyler clarified, and Victoria nodded. His face pinched and he slowly nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty memorable. There was an ambulance that left the back of the property, so I think that somebody got really messed up..." He trailed off as Victoria bit her lower lip and looked incredibly sheepish. His eyes widened in realization as he took note of the look on Victoria's face and he just yelled, "You?"
Victoria hissed in a whisper, "Be quiet!". She frantically scoped the area, but no one seemed to be paying attention to her.
"I did my best to try and silence you guys so no one would pay attention to you two," she heard Vicki faintly whisper.
Victoria just gave whatever window Vicki was hiding herself in a subtle nod, before she turned back to Tyler with a serious expression. He had the audacity to look sheepish, at least. "If you shout again, I do not care, I will not tell you another fucking thing, you got it?" Tyler nodded his head awkwardly. "Okay. Some ground rules. Do not refer to me or what I can do as a 'thing'. You do not get to hold judgement on me. I did not ask for this, so you do not get to judge me as if I did. Capiche?"
"Capiche," Tyler murmured, nodding his head.
Victoria breathed in deeply and just continued. "At the Decades Dance, I was stabbed in the heart and bled out. The EMTs couldn't save me in time, and I died."
Tyler gave her a confused look, but he thankfully kept his mouth shut. The question in his eyes was loud enough that Victoria answered for him. "Yeah, that's a new thing for me now. I have this...ability. I can die but never stay dead."
Tyler swallowed heavily and asked tentatively, "What can you do?"
Victoria leaned back in the booth. I can answer that. "Anything my mind thinks of, really. I mostly can grab things, throw things, and use a shield. I also have this weird transportation ability that I'm still learning how to use and a weird echolocation thingy. I also have enhanced senses: speed, sight, hearing, smell, taste, the whole works."
"Does your mom know about this?"
Mom.
Kelly.
"Yeah, she does."
"What about Caroline?"
"Her too, but just those two," Victoria lied, shaking her head. "I haven't wanted to let anyone else know just yet. You only know because you happened upon it."
"And that...that thing you were fighting?" Tyler asked, a bit of emotion peeking through his exterior. He seemed concerned. "You called it Mason. Was that...was that my uncle?"
"Yes," Victoria answered honestly, and Tyler leaned back in his seat like Victoria had just rocked his entire world (in a way, she had). "Tyler...I'm not the only supernatural creature in existence. Werewolves, vampires, the whole shebang. They're real."
"What about mermaids? Banshees?" Tyler rapidly asked.
Victoria held up a finger and bit her lower lip awkwardly. "Yeah, actually not too sure about those two. Sirens, sure, but not in the mermaidy way. That one's a long story too."
Tyler leaned forward again, his fingers tapping onto the wooden table as he spluttered, "O-Okay, so if werewolves are a thing, and you referred to a wolf out in the woods as my uncle, I can assume that he's a werewolf?" Victoria nodded. "But he was on four legs, not two."
"In this instance, I think werewolves are of the four-legged variety," Victoria explained. "They aren't a cursed combination of part-man, part-wolf; more like they are guys who turn into wolves."
"Is it hereditary?" Tyler asked, tapping onto the table again. "Am I just going to see the moon one night and sprout out hair and have the urge to eat bunnies?"
Victoria chuckled, and shook her head. "It wouldn't work that way. From what I can find, it is hereditary, but the books I've read said that you would have to activate the gene first, and you do that by killing someone, so as long as you don't go serial killer, you'll be fine."
"Oh that's a relief," Tyler sighed, sending Victoria a grateful smile. "I'm not ready to go hunting in the woods. Okay. Okay. So my uncle's a werewolf who must have activated the gene, I'm apparently one to by heredity and so long as I don't kill someone, I'm good. I'm also assuming that it comes from my dad's side since my uncle has it?"
"That's what I'm assuming," Victoria told him. "Speaking of which, how is your dad doing?"
Tyler gave Victoria an appreciative look and rapped his knuckles across the tabletop. "I mean, he's better, but it can always be better, you know? It hasn't been that long, but he's breathing easier, so my mom likes to call that a blessing."
"I'm glad," Victoria told him honestly, nodding her head. "That's really good to hear. He seemed to be in a pretty bad shape."
Tyler nodded his head in agreement, but his brow furrowed slightly in confusion and he commented, "Hey, how did you know that? You never came to see us -" Victoria laughed sheepishly and ran her hand through her hair as Tyler sort of sank into himself with acknowledgement. "You were in that building. That's why you were in the hospital from the Founders' Day."
"Yeah, that's a long story too. Wanna order some shakes? We'll probably be here up until Jenna's barbeque."
"Tyler! Victoria! Welcome, welcome!" Jenna called out, opening the door to her house. Tyler went in first, holding some to-go shakes that he also got for Caroline and Bonnie (he did mention wanting to "chat" with Caroline about Victoria, so Victoria had to shoot a quick text off to her to make sure she didn't share too much).
Victoria moved to step in too, but Jenna quickly jumped out of the house. Victoria staggered back, not expecting Jenna's sudden movement. Jenna shut the door, then glanced around her porch real quick before she leaned forward and hissed, "She's here."
Victoria's brow furrowed in confusion and she asked in a tense whisper, "Pearl? Katherine? Which she are we talking about?"
"Kelly."
Victoria's eyebrows shot up to her forehead in disbelief and she leaned back from Jenna, leaning to the side to see if she could spot her mother through the window of the Gilbert house. "She's here? Why is she here? This is your barbeque, why did you invite her?"
"Do you honestly think that I could just not invite her without arising suspicions?" Jenna retorted, looking as equally as frazzled as Victoria felt. "We were best friends for over twenty years. That kind of friendship doesn't just spaz out because of a single fight."
"She was responsible, in a way, for killing my father, the guy that I was seeing romantically, Pearl's daughter and your nephew's girlfriend, and for putting Tyler's dad into the hospital!" Victoria growled under her breath.
"Yeah, but no one but us knows about that!" Jenna explained hurriedly. "If I hadn't invited her, then Carol would wonder why Kelly wasn't there. And if Carol wonders, then she's going to ask Liz, and then Liz is going to ask Caroline, because she knows that I wouldn't tell her the full truth because best friend confidentiality, and Caroline is more likely to gossip and say something that Liz will pick up and that I will have to justify on the fly, and Kelly is the actress, not me!"
"Stupid Southern politics!" Victoria grumbled, shaking her head. She shook her hands worryingly and bounced around on her feet for a couple of beats. "Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay...we can figure this out. This is fine. This is fine. Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine..."
Jenna grabbed onto Victoria's shoulders, her face dropping into worry, but not worry for Kelly. Worry for Victoria. "Hey, hey. It's okay. Whatever happens, we can figure it out. If Kelly reveals anything about the vampires, then it would reveal things about Mason and it would reveal things about her." She paused, and then tentatively added, "Do you want me to go and get Damon -?"
"- No!" Victoria interrupted, her eyes widening as she frantically shook her head. "No, no, no. It's okay. It's just something that I need to get over with myself, you know?" She took a deep breath and then released it. "I-I'm just going to sit down on the porch swing for a little bit, yeah? Tell Damon that I'm just going to be in a little minute."
"Okay?" Jenna agreed hesitantly, but she wrapped Victoria up in a quick hug, planting a motherly kiss onto her temple. "I'll try and keep Mason and Kelly away from the door too, okay?"
"Okay," Victoria confirmed. She waited until Jenna walked back into the house before she turned and numbly marched her way over to the porch swing. She plopped down onto it, pulling the ends of her wool coat tighter around her torso. Victoria trained her eyes down onto her feet, pushing herself back and forth gently as she got lost into her thoughts.
Kelly is here.
Kelly is here, in this house.
She killed my dad.
She forced him to forget about me.
She moved on.
She killed Noble.
Kelly is HERE.
She killed my DAD.
She forced him to forget about ME.
She moved ON.
She killed NOBLE.
KELLY IS HERE.
SHE KILLED MY DAD.
SHE FORCED HIM TO FORGET ABOUT ME.
SHE MOVED ON.
SHE KILLED NOBLE.
Somebody sat down next to Victoria on the porch swing, and their arms wrapped themselves around Victoria, holding her tightly. It wasn't until Victoria felt those arms around her that she realized she was shaking, tears streaming down her face as she struggled to keep her sobs down. That little moment of someone holding her broke down her defenses and she all-but-threw herself into this stranger's arms, needing to soak up whatever comfort she could get.
The stranger, to their credit, took it with elegance and grace, wrapping Victoria up in their arms, one arm around her shoulder and the other cradling the back of her head. They made cooing and gentle shushing noises, but it was impossible to distinguish gender of the stranger over the sounds of Victoria crying.
Victoria wasn't sure how long she sat like this, wrapped up in the embrace of somebody she may or may not know. After she was able to breathe (slowly and not as frantically as she had been breathing), she pulled herself away from the stranger, swallowing heavily and keeping her eyes trained on her feet still. "T-Thank you. S-Sorry for all of that."
"It was no problem at all, sweetheart."
Victoria froze.
Full body locked down, no muscles moved, kind of locked down.
Because she knew that voice.
She knew that voice.
And that voice wasn't possible.
British, with a slight little tilt that always sounded condescending, but in this form, was...kind? Warm? That wasn't possible.
This wasn't possible.
This wasn't possible.
But Victoria had to know.
She had to.
So, with a strength that Victoria really would have loved to use for running hundreds of miles away instead of looking up, she looked up.
The face wasn't identical to hers; their eyes were different colors, but it was clear to see where Victoria had gotten her particular set of genes. The hair was the same color that Victoria's had been before her Immortalis transition had changed her hair to be more red. Their hair curled in the same natural wave and Victoria's lips were identical to the stranger's.
Except, it wasn't a stranger.
Not really.
The woman across from her let out a little gasp as she saw the same exact qualities in Victoria that Victoria saw in her.
"Hey, Mama Bear? I just wanted to check in on you..." Damon called out, his voice trailing off when both Victoria and the woman turned to look at him. His face, a look of awe and disbelief, was the perfect picture of how Victoria was feeling. "What the hell...?"
The woman swallowed heavily and then turned to Victoria and asked in a meek tone, "Y-Your name wouldn't happen to be Victoria, would it?"
Victoria felt more tears spring up into her eyes, though these tears were a mixture of disbelief and stress more than relief. "Y-Yeah. Yeah, it is." And, even though she already knew the answer, she found herself asking, "W-Why?"
The woman let out another gasp, this one more watery than the previous one, and her eyes filled with tears as she covered her open mouth with her hand. "I can't believe it. I-I can't believe I actually found you."
"Mama Bear?" Damon asked warningly, apparently wanting to know an answer as to why the woman beside her looked almost exactly like her.
All Victoria could croak out was, "M-Mom?"
A/N: TADA! Tell me, did anyone see this plot twist at the end coming? Cuz I did (but I also wrote it, so there's that).
Sorry it was a little late. I didn't have it finished until this morning, and yeah. I don't think the next chapter will be out by Monday because I have not even started it, so it'll be another two weeker. It'll be out right before Christmas I believe.
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Onto reviews!:
Child of Dreams: Maybe, maybe not. Only time will tell.
DBZFAN45: I did not intend for it to be so, but one hundred percent yes, that mirror traveling is basically identical to Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. It didn't even click in my mind until you mentioned it and then I was like, Oh wow, that's exactly what that is. I loved Tommy Oliver. RIP. I think I will always be a Tommy/Kim fan more so than a Tommy/Katherine fan. I just felt like they worked more. While I loved Tommy in all his different areas, Dr. O in Dino Thunder was probably my favorite (besides OG Tommy).
Elyse1821: Oh yeah, it'll be...a special introduction when the Mikaelsons see Victoria. I finally made her acknowledge her feelings in this chapter, but you also have to keep timeline stuff in perspective. It's been almost 9 months since Victoria has entered this world, it's been almost 3 months since she's had these powers as the Immortalis, and it's been 10 days since her boyfriend-not-boyfriend has died (even though, for us, it's been almost 4 months). That's why I've been a little hesitant to make her "move on". It's been literal days for her. Well, yeah, in the TV show, Damon does flirt with basically everyone, so it might be a little hard on Victoria. Tyler, as much as I don't really like him, is starting to grow on me too, but not in the way that Damon grew on me. I will neither confirm nor deny your Lady Victory statement (although that is a good idea). Bonnie will show up in this next chapter, I'll make sure of it (The problem with saving all these people and making my squadron of 5 minute heroes is that there are so many people I have to try and remember). But Bonnie will make an appearance next chapter! For sure!
Alright everybody! Let's aim for the 19th as the next chapter update, cuz that when I think I'll be able to actually have one completed.
Until next time,
Stay healthy and stay safe!
BecomingFearless1F