Author's note: Welcome back to the story, everyone!
Firstly, I wanted to apologize for taking ages to update. This have been super-busy lately. I feel like a bit of a broken record saying this, but it's true. I've been updating more on AO3, though, so if anyone wants to jump ahead, you're more than welcome to. :D
2013
The light of the Moon glowed almost iridescently through the window of Damon and Elena's shared bedroom at the Salvatore Boarding House. He watched the shadows dance on her face, projected by the curtains wafting in the cool breeze that permeated the room. She'd been asleep in his arms for close to an hour, but Damon couldn't stop himself from watching her, taking the occasional moment to softly stroke her hair – from marveling at the unusual turn of events that followed them over the last few months.
When he returned from the grungiest Groundhog Day in existence, he was dismayed to find that the love of his life had willingly submitted herself to magical brainwashing and practically had her brain rewired to hate him, erasing and rewriting any memories that held any semblance of love for him. Seeing the life she'd built for herself in his absence, he made the decision to let her go, though it felt as though he'd given up part of himself in the process – reached deep inside to pull out his still-beating undead heart to sacrifice it on the altar of Elena's happiness while he slowly withered away from the pain alone. And he would have been content to do it – because all he really wanted was for her to be happy. Sure, ideally, she'd be happy with him, but that wasn't what was most important.
Then, miraculously, she fell back in love with him in spite of this, quickly, steadily – the connection between then roaring to life like wildfire.
It consumed them both.
She told him that she would always find her way back to him – with or without memories, she'd always love him, always choose him, in any world, in any time, in any reality, as any version of herself.
Then Bon-Bon came back from the prison world with Cure in hand, complicating matters yet again. After a series of convoluted events, he and Elena had a whole dance back and forth where she insisted that she'd rather stay a vampire than live without him. This was the second time she'd expressed that sentiment, and at that moment, something within him snapped – and every cell within his body urged him to do the same.
He valiantly and emphatically and without a hint of reservation told her that he'd be human with her. It took some considerable convincing, but she finally agreed to take the Cure, the happy side effect of which was her returned memories.
But that happiness immediately transformed into his current source of consternation, because upon regaining all their beautiful mental keepsakes, Elena immediately insisted that he was just being impulsive – that he didn't want this. And what? Now it's too late? Now they had to be apart?
Fuck that. No way. He fought against it, and she finally agreed that he'd have to let everyone in his life try to talk him out of it first, convinced that he'd come to resent her if he pursued this endeavor.
Inside, he was reeling – more than a little offended and hurt that she thought his love was so fragile. Didn't she realize how much she meant to him? That seeing her happy, and knowing he was at least partly the source, would mean the world to him?
If she could sacrifice for him, why couldn't he do it for her?
Didn't she think he was capable? Did he finally manage to convince her that he was as selfish as he claimed? That he'd drop her at the first sign of trouble? That he'd lash out when there was a bump in the road?
Is that who she thought he still was?
He'd made plans with Stefan for the following day, a few hours before the wedding, to let his baby bro do his worst to convince him that becoming human with Elena was a mistake. He wasn't worried, though. Stefan always underestimated him and his capacity for love.
But this sentiment from Elena hurt.
He ardently wished he could talk to her about it – they'd danced away from the subject so often before. Well, he did – she was just adamant that he didn't want this, and shouldn't choose her, convinced that this would eventually make him hate her.
He found the notion completely ridiculous.
How could she not see how much he loved her?
It was at that moment, that he desperately wished she was awake – finally ready to have this conversation completely out in the open. Screw Stefan and whatever mind games he meant to play. Damon knew exactly what he wanted, and he didn't want to waste another second, ready to start their lives together.
Maybe they'd move away somewhere right after the wedding. Maybe –
His reverie was interrupted by the sound of another heartbeat in the room, measured breathing – the pattern so achingly familiar. He narrowed his eyes, his supernatural senses searching for the intruder, when he was shocked to have them land on her.
He gently rolled Elena off him and set her head on one of the pillows, and instantly sprung out of bed, mentally calculating the potential scenarios. Was it Katherine? Did that body-snatching bitch somehow survive? Of course, she of all people would find a way to claw her way back to Earth. He couldn't have the only post-mortal encore – not that he did. She did love to ramble on and on about being a 'survivor' like the world's most woefully stuck, obliterated beyond repair record.
Option two was, of course, that he was having a dream. Two Elenas? He instantly grinned, as he thought of ways to make this the sexiest nocturnal interlude known to human and supernatural-kind. There were definitely some new positions the three of them could try out, while he still had the benefit of vampiric strength.
The upright, awake Elena watched him almost too knowingly, studying every micro-expression with something akin to amusement. He was embarrassed to say that he'd certainly been fooled by Katherine enough times – once disastrously so – that he couldn't take his ardent hope that it wasn't his super-annoying ex in front of him for granted.
He approached her slowly, cautiously, which he masked in familiar swagger, seeking to hide any semblance of suspicion to launch a surprise attack. In return, she appeared to narrow her eyes, as though reading his thoughts, and without further preamble, dove in for a kiss.
He was immediately taken aback by this course of action, suddenly moving to push her away from him, when his psyche was flooded with memories.
So many memories – all vivid, and seemingly disordered – yet cohesive enough to tell one clear, overarching tale and truth.
This was Elena. His Elena. And tomorrow, at the wedding, she was in danger of being placed under what Reject Magic Barbie's awkward cousins called 'the Sanity Syphon.'
She pulled away after a few moments, her eyes darting between his, studying him nervously. "Hi," she breathed.
"Hi back," he smiled reassuringly, aiming to soothe her after the threat he now realized she must have read.
"When – ?" she whispered, frowning, unable to take her eyes off herself sleepy soundly.
"The wedding's tomorrow," he replied pensively, matching her volume, before his entire expression blossomed in wonder, hope blooming in the core of his being. "We talked about this last time – about me calling you on this night for your next visit. It worked!"
"Yeah," she said unconvincingly, but pressed forward before he could analyze her response too deeply and interrupt her, taking his hands in hers. "It's so good to see you," she breathed, letting her gaze caress every crevice of his face, lingering on his eyes, losing herself in them. A soft smile began to claim her lips, though he found her eyes held an undeniable degree of sadness. He was determined to kiss it away.
They pulled back breathless after several minutes or hours or eons, still drinking each other in.
"Come on," he whispered, gesturing to her sleeping, human self. "We're going to save you."
"How?" she asked, bewildered.
"We're getting out of here! I'll text Ric and tell him there's an emergency, that he has to delay the wedding. We'll be long-gone by then. We'll save everyone. I won't let Kai get his hands on you," he insisted, cupping her face in his hands. The current that passed between them stunned them both into electrified euphoria for several moments, before they gathered the ability to glance away.
"There's the little matter of me being right there," she gestured to the sleeping Elena.
"Human you is coming with us, of course!"
"Damon," she whispered, her eyes darting back and forth between him and her human self, lying on the bed. "Exactly how do you plan to get us out of here without waking her – me – human me up?"
"With style. Don't you worry, baby. I've got dexterity that'd drive Houdini into jealous rage and stealth that would make Solid Snake weep in despair. Skills for days. I got this," he winked, looking considerably more confident than he felt. At that moment, he thanked every ounce of chance in existence that he'd yet to take the Cure and still had his supernatural abilities, swiftly sweeping the sleeping Elena into his arms with barely a stir, ensuring that a sheet was wrapped around her nude form, then reconsidered. While he was certainly confident in his powers of persuasion, he doubted that even those would allow him into an airport, while carrying a naked woman, quietly, even one wearing artfully draped bedding. "Grab something loose-fitting. We'll change human you in the car."
"Do you think it's safe for me to touch her? Aren't there all these myths about past and future versions of the same person touching and tearing a fabric in spacetime?" she frowned, examining herself. This practice had been eerie enough with Katherine wearing her exact face, but her own past self definitely dwelled in the Twilight zone.
"Don't worry," he rolled his eyes affectionately. "I'm sure our intrepid, super-annoying spell won't let us have that kind of fun."
"So, I'll just wake up, then, rendering the whole thing moot," she pointed out stubbornly. "Which means you should change human me, so we don't tempt it. And you should probably do it here, and now."
"Fine," Damon pouted, grabbing a flowy yellow sundress from the closet. "Covering up this gorgeous body should be a crime."
"Oh, heavens no! You!? Commit a crime? Unheard of!" Elena replied cheekily. "Come on, vampire Houdini. Get to work," she sassed.
Faking most of his confidence, Damon somehow managed to get the sleeping, human Elena into the dress, while secretly wishing she'd taken some heavy-duty sleeping pills before bed. Couldn't she have mistaken them for vitamins? Just this once?
They were off within seconds, Damon carrying a sleeping human Elena in his arms, sneaking through the Boarding House, while her future Specter self followed them with considerably less stealth.
"At least Solid Snake has that box he gets to hide in," Elena grinned to Damon's adoring smile, not even attempting to mask her auditory presence because she didn't have to.
Lamenting that none of his texts seemed to be going through – neither to Ric to stall the wedding nor to Bonnie to get the hell out of Mystic Falls for a few days – he and Elena ultimately concluded that them being missing would probably create enough of a commotion to throw the plans into disarray, preventing them from creating the kind of gathering that would allow Kai to put his plot into fruition.
They were almost at the front door when practically running head-first into a surprise nighttime visitor.
Bonnie stared at the visual that greeted her entrance to the estate – Damon carrying a sleeping, haphazardly-dressed Elena, while desperately gesturing for her to be quiet.
"What the hell is going on?" Bonnie mouthed, acquiescing to Damon's clearly troubled demand to keep Elena from waking.
"Oh my God!" Specter Elena beamed from behind him. "Bonnie's here! This is great! We'll take her with us!"
"Hey, Bon-Bon. What are you doing here?" Damon whispered. "Nevermind – we're planning a little last-minute getaway. Lots of fun activities planned. All it's missing is a Bennett witch."
"Care asked everyone to spend the night at the Boarding House to have an 'efficient' start to the day," Specter Elena explained. "She could have been a dictator in another life," she absently muttered.
"If this is some kind of kinky game you're playing as part of your 'Ready for Humanity Tour,' I want no part of it," Bonnie grimaced, then frowned in contemplation, studying him. Something about the energy surrounding Damon – penetrating the whole room – was achingly familiar. She felt it so strongly around him when they first met, and then it seemingly disappeared entirely too quickly.
No, not disappeared, she realized. Became muted. Dormant. It was always there, hidden beneath the surface.
At the moment, though, it was practically overwhelming.
She sensed it fully twice, and only twice, before – when he and Caroline crashed Elena's dinner party to mend her troubled relationship with Stefan back in junior year, and at the Founders Party and Heritage Display.
It seemed to engulf his whole being the first two times they met, and after that – she could pick up some traces of it, but only when they spent enough time together to develop sincere trust.
Only after they'd become friends. It was almost as though this particular signature was sentient, like all magic. But why would Damon be surrounded by waves of it? And what was it, exactly? It certainly was unlike any she'd ever felt before.
She always just assumed it was his unique magical signature, and although it was always different from other vampires, this curious discovery gave her pause.
"What's going on here?" Bonnie breathed, suddenly becoming quite bewildered.
"So, this is going to sound really weird," Damon said, visibly wincing, just as writing literally appeared in a notebook on the coffee table. "But creepy psycho Ryan Reynolds –"
"Can you not ruin Ryan Reynolds for me?" Bonnie hissed, pleased that she managed to inject an adequate amount of venom into her words while staying sufficiently quiet.
"– Is going to put Elena under a sleeping spell tomorrow at the wedding, link her to you, and kill the entire Gemini coven – so kind of a bummer all around," he carried on, ignoring the interruptions.
Without the almost otherworldly presence she sensed, Bonnie would have been quick to trade a barb for what sounded to her like an elaborate prank, but this strange feeling halted her. Sneaking a glance about the room, she nearly jumped back as the aforementioned notebook suddenly floated off the table and right to Bonnie's face.
"HI BONNIE!" the open page read in large, friendly letters.
"How?" Bonnie gasped.
"So, funny story," Damon delivered all-too-casually. "Turns out that the spell Kai-not-Ryan-Reynolds is planning to cast a sleeping spell on Elena, placing her in some kind of prison sentence in a realm of sanity-eating, mind-numbing monotony, so some unsung hero is going to cast a Specter spell on her to save her from losing every last marble by spending her nights with yours truly."
"The spell that Luke won't shut up about?" Bonnie queried, then smirked wickedly. "Is the spell sure that spending time with you isn't the actual punishment?"
"Thankfully, the spell seems to have better taste and judgment of character than you, Bon-Bon," he replied without any actual bite. "Which we can discuss on the way out of here. We're off to the airport, to stop this whole mess," he explained, jerking his head to point toward the door.
"She's here?" Bonnie asked in wonder. Given Luke's rather vocal obsession with the Specter spell, she'd learned to tune him out anytime it came up, finding the description entirely too romanticized and improbable – though it probably was, she reasoned. If it was meant as a balm to soothe the effects of the infamous Sanity Syphon, then she doubted that the spell was entirely fluffy in nature.
This sentiment only grew as she shivered from the energy permeating everything around her.
Something about it felt ancient and powerful – it unsettled her.
"Yeah, she is," Damon smiled, a genuine show of happiness and vulnerability reserved for very few – along with his brother, only the two women in the room. Once, he had been able to count Enzo among those ranks, he glumly reflected – before he betrayed him and left him for dead, to be tortured for decades to come.
All the times they tried to save him. Perhaps someday, he'd earn his forgiveness.
"I can't believe Luke's fixation is actually real," Bonnie marveled, glancing about the room, searching for the source of the anomaly. Her eyes finally landed in the general area where she felt it to be the strongest – right next to Damon. It began to approach her, coming closer.
"Bonnie," Specter Elena whispered, wrapping her arms around her. "I've missed you so much."
Bonnie froze in place, having never felt something so peculiar. "Elena? I can't hear you, but – I think I can feel you."
"Not to interrupt this gush-fest," Damon said flippantly, "but we have to get the show on the road."
"And how exactly do you plan to keep her asleep in a loud, crowded airport? Her Specter form can only stay while the Elena of this time is asleep, right? That's what Luke said," Bonnie argued pointedly.
The devil-may-care expression returned instantly to Damon's entire countenance – the ooze of confidence borne of decades of letting that not-so-subtle charm take flight. "That's where you come in, Bon-Bon. So lucky running into you."
"Oh, was running into me part of your plan? And what do you think that'll change exactly?" Bonnie rolled her eyes.
"Can't you just – I don't know – cast a cushioning charm on her, and a Muffliato so she doesn't get woken up by a loud noise or something?" Damon asked, exasperated.
Bonnie studied him for a few moments, looking positively baffled. "You know that Harry Potter's not real, right?"
"I don't know about that, Bon-Bon. You've certainly cast enough head Crucios on me," he smirked.
"If only," she deadpanned.
"And if it were, you know I'd be the dashing rogue of Slytherin House," he grinned.
Elena unleashed what could only be called an obnoxious guffaw at that statement, and Damon actually found himself feeling very relieved that Bonnie couldn't hear her. The last thing he needed was the two of them ganging up on him. He was an evil Slytherin, damnit.
"Yeah, throwing yourself headlong into chaos is such a Slytherin trait," Elena grinned impishly. "And the snakes actually look down on your brand of chaos, oh dashing rogue."
"I don't know. Slytherins aren't known for their recklessness, impulsivity, and disregard for rules," Bonnie teased. "But I know which house is."
"You take that back!" Damon shot back, scandalized.
"Aw, baby," Elena soothed mockingly, wrapping her arms around him from behind, flattening her cheek against his back. "Did you recklessly let your mask slip in the prison world and save Bonnie from Kai?"
"You also read more than anyone I've ever met," Bonnie said emphatically. "For fun."
"I can't wait to tell her about the simulation and if-else statement analogies," Elena grinned triumphantly. "By the way, this impulse to nickname and turn everyone into a joke can easily be attributed to 'wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.'
"At least the colors for that one would bring out my eyes," he pouted. "It'd be …acceptable," he sighed. "Just keep me out of the 'hero house.' Ew."
"It's not up to us to decide, Damon," Bonnie grinned.
Elena gasped, feigning innocent shock. "Why Damon! Is this why you love my red lingerie so much?"
"Okay, it's time to leave!" Damon announced with a hiss, pretending that this executive decision had everything to do with having them avoid the spell and absolutely nothing with the line of questioning that he found increasingly disturbing.
It took all of two minutes for them to be off. Damon drove, using every bit of supernatural instincts to keep their ride both fast and smooth. Bonnie sat in the back, cradling a sleeping Elena while whispering a spell to help her stay asleep. Specter Elena, meanwhile, was scribbling furiously into the notebook that she'd pocketed in the passenger's seat.
"What are you writing?" Damon asked.
"Contingency plan," Specter Elena muttered, not taking her eyes or her pen off the notebook.
"Why? If we succeed, there's no need. If we fail, it'll disappear, anyway, like everything else where we've tried to make an imprint," he reasoned.
"We have to try," Elena expressed emphatically, right before the car jolted as though it hit a pothole.
Except there were no potholes in this section of Mystic Falls – there never had been. Damon specifically chose this route because it would be the absolute smoothest, and quietest – the most effective in helping the human Elena in her arms maintain a natural sleeping state.
"No!" Damon hissed, chancing a glance to his right, dismayed when he found Elena becoming transparent. "No, no, no!" he cried desperately. "Don't let her wake up!" he shouted at Bonnie.
"I'm sorry, Damon," Specter Elena breathed sadly, moving to cup his cheek as her hand passed right though him. And then she disappeared.
The three passengers of Damon's Camaro found themselves utterly bewildered to suddenly come into awareness in the woods.
"What the hell?" Damon queried, abruptly pulling over. "Everyone okay?
"Yeah," Elena sat up, cradling her head. She had the most peculiar and disturbing dream. "Where are we?"
"That's what I'd like to know," Bonnie replied pensively, becoming increasingly disturbed at not only the odd situation, but the sharp wave of magic almost incapacitated her senses. Something about this situation felt utterly peculiar.
"I had the weirdest dream," Elena murmured, staring into the distance. "There was something so familiar about it – but I don't know why."
"Yeah, well, you can tell us on the way home," Damon drawled. "Looks like we have to be up in less than six hours."
A cacophony would have been more appropriate.
To summarize, and encapsulate, and represent the utter disaster of a night, there should have been booming noises, explosions, and screams of horrific deterioration.
Instead, the hospital in which Damon Salvatore desperately waited for the love of his life to awaken greeted him with utter silence.
They were all dead. The entirety of the Gemini Coven was dead. The Merging Magic Malfoy twins were gone. No, he'd call them Liv and Luke now. They deserved that much.
Jo was gone. Ric was devastated. Unreachable.
If only they'd let him kill Kai like they wanted – fuck fuck fuck.
And now Elena wasn't waking up, and none of the doctors could find anything wrong with her. He just knew that creepy fucker did something to her.
Suddenly, he felt a body materialize in the chair next to his, and his hand being embraced between two others. What the fuck was wrong with him that he didn't even notice anyone approaching, that –
His reverie was promptly interrupted as his mind was flooded with memories. He turned to his right, and saw her.
Elena was next to him, in Specter form, holding his hand. Her head on his shoulder, sharing the burden of their failure.
Except he didn't deserve her compassion. Not this time. Possibly not ever.
"I ruined your life," Damon whispered, the haunted expression in his endlessly cerulean eyes a dagger in Elena's heart. "Kai only went after you because of me – because he knew how much I love you – how much you mean to me. If you never met me –"
"I'd be dead," Elena said flatly. "So many times."
"No, everything went wrong with your life on the day you met me. Your parents died –"
"Which had nothing to do with you."
"Then when I came back to town, and fucked up everyone's lives to get that tomb open, that kickstarted everything. If I hadn't released those vampires, Katherine would never have come back to Mystic Falls and Klaus would have never found you. Jenna and John would still be alive. You'd never have turned. You would have lived a happy human life," he carried on completely undeterred, as though everything had suddenly become clear to him. To Elena, his voice disturbingly lacked emotion, and she feared what it meant.
"Hey," she said urgently, climbing onto his lap. She took her face in her hands. "Damon –"
"You need to stake me the next time you see me, Elena," he pressed determinedly. "Or I'll stake myself the second I remember everything. It's the only way to stop this. I guess I finally figured it out," he barked a bitter laugh.
"Don't you dare!" she growled. "I'm not losing you," she fought, pressing a tender kiss to his lips.
He refused to kiss her back, or even meet her gaze. "Damon – the tomb would be opened regardless. Anna was pretty determined. She would have gotten it open, believe me," she insisted, climbing into his lap when he refused to listen to her, cupping his face in her hands.
She'd make him listen.
"I've lost count of the amount of times you saved my life, in every way possible," she breathed, the dark expanses of her eyes filling with tears in her desperation to get through to him.
"You've saved my life in every way possible, too," he finally relented, looking at her. "Except this time. I really thought we'd beat the spell."
"I guess it wouldn't let itself fall prey to a causality paradox, after all," she tried to shrug and smile as though making light of it, but instead it became a grimace.
"Fucking – self-sustaining principle. It'll always protect itself," he growled, then brightened. "But that doesn't mean we can't wake you up early, Elena. I will find a way – I promise you," he insisted.
Just at that moment, a decidedly confused Bonnie entered the room. "What's going on here?" she asked no one in particular. "The energy in this room is … weird."
Almost immediately after, Elena began to feel a familiar pull, growing immediately dismayed. "We'll see each other again soon," she tried to reassure, squeezing both of Damon's hands on hers.
He laughed bitterly. "When? In nearly a century?"
"Later tonight, when everyone goes into my head to say goodbye," she whispered softly, kissing his cheek.
"And then?" he intoned miserably.
"And then we'll hold on to the memories," she sighed, knowing her words couldn't possibly be helpful.
"No," he insisted, ignoring everything else but the disappearing woman in front of him. "We'll save you. I'll find a way. I don't care how. I'll burn down this whole fucking world to get you back."
"Be careful," she breathed. "Remember, the spell is volatile. Waiting might be safer."
Bonnie watched Damon seemingly speak to no one in particular, growing increasingly suspicious at the combination of the peculiar magic and his behavior.
"Never," he said adamantly. "I love you, Elena. I will see you soon. I promise."
With that, the Specter disappeared, as did all memory of her.
"How is she?" Bonnie asked sympathetically. "Any news?"
"Not yet," Damon replied, clipped. "She's fine physically, but I have a feeling that a certain Heretic might be getting his fucking head ripped off tonight if I find out he's behind this."
"Want some help?" Bonnie asked eagerly.
2017
The last few weeks had been tumultuous, to put it mildly. After Damon ran headfirst into the Armory's forbidden vault, Enzo immediately followed him – only for them both to become ensnared by the terrifying creature hitherto sealed within, a Siren.
It had, at this point, been mere hours since Bonnie finally helped Enzo get his humanity back and they spent the bulk of them in bed celebrating his newly-returned freedom – at least psychologically-speaking. He knew he had to at least feign loyalty to Sybil, of only to keep Bonnie safe.
There was also the matter of rescuing Damon from her control.
Unlike Enzo, Damon had been completely and utterly lost. His response to the Siren's capture was to immediately and unequivocally turn off his humanity, practically refusing to fight her influence, and spending the bulk of his time lost in his dreams.
He always seemed to be sleeping, much to Sybil's chagrin. After a brief discussion, both Bonnie and Enzo surmised that the purpose of his frequent consciousness escapes had to have been to hide something – or someone.
And thus, in a desperate bid to return Damon's humanity, Bonnie and Enzo made a quick trip to the Salvatore Boarding House to see if they could dig anything up that might create a chain reaction.
"It's bloody useless!" Enzo growled, growing increasingly frustrated with their seemingly futile search. "If he had that strong an attachment to things, his bedroom would look more like his hoarder brother's. People bring back humanity – not things. And his key is under a sleeping beauty spell."
"Your complaining's not helping," Bonnie scolded halfheartedly. "Damon may not be all that materialistic – except when it comes to his designer stuff," she smirked, "but he just needs the right reminder. Maybe the necklace?"
"What necklace?" Enzo queried, grabbing a tumbler he found hidden beneath a loose compartment in the room's bookshelf and pouring himself a measure of bourbon that Damon also had hidden, but not nearly as well as this seemingly inconsequential glass. What a weirdo, Enzo thought – but at least he had good taste in alcohol.
Suddenly, something achingly familiar pulled Bonnie's attention from her search to the glass in Enzo's hand. "Let me see that tumbler," she said. "There's something really strange about it."
"Your wily tricks to steal my bourbon won't work, witch," Enzo grinned, taking another slow, measured sip.
She smiled in response, but nevertheless grabbed it from his hand. "Is it just me – or are there patterns on this?"
"Not just you," Enzo deadpanned. "This tumbler has a tapered –"
"Other than that, smartass," Bonnie sassed. "It almost looks like – like it's been broken and the cracks are filled with –"
"What, like kintsugi?" Enzo grinned. "Is this your sneaky way of telling me you want me to take you to Japan? I thought for sure you'd want to go to Rome next, but I'm game for Japan. I know some great spots in Tokyo – ooh, and the gardens in Kyoto are amazing. And I've had the best okonomiyaki in –"
"Enzo, focus," she smiled adoringly. "It almost feels like," she breathed, then closed her eyes, only to suddenly be assailed with a score of visions. "Elena!"
"I know you miss her, gorgeous," he said sympathetically.
"No, I – I saw her," she cried desperately. "When I touched the tumbler. I saw her and I felt her. I think – I think I know how we can save Damon," she insisted. "How we can save everyone."
Valerie dropped the vase in her hands as she was overwhelmed by a particularly strong and peculiar feeling. Her entire body seized with magic, ensnared, squeezing, before it suddenly let go.
"Hey!" shouted the aggrieved furniture shop owner, aghast at his merchandise being treated so haphazardly. "I hope you're planning to pay for that!"
She felt the familiar energy of the Specter spell all around her. As its caster, she would always be sensitive to this particular incarnation's turns.
As soon as she placed it on Elena Gilbert, she bound their magical signatures together, which meant that any attempt to wake her from her magical slumber would link her to the shared spell.
Although the original Sanity Syphon only linked her to Bonnie, addition of the Specter spell brought her and Damon into the connection, as well.
Which meant that now, any careless attempts to awaken Elena could result in all their immediate deaths.
She had to get in touch with Bonnie before she did something reckless. It absolutely had to be done the right way – and there was only one method of which she knew.
Without another thought, Valerie existed the store to book an emergency flight to Virginia. So much for getting away from Mystic Falls.
Sorry, everyone! I know I got everyone's hopes up in the previous chapters – along with the hopes of the characters (though there was some foreshadowing for this, and some of you figured out that this would happen ahead of time) – that they'd be able to stop the sleeping spell, but it's self-consistent, I'm afraid. With that said, this particular door closing opens another one to something even cooler! :D And the story's obviously not over yet.
The title comes from Novikov's Self-Consistency Principle, which references the Law of Conservation of Energy to argue against temporal paradoxes, with only a slight exception where any change to a timeline that would become the past. Loosely adapted to this story, the Specter visiting Damon as a human was an acceptable change and became part of the past, because it allowed the Specter spell to stay self-consistent. It didn't endanger its existence - because how can they stop the sleeping spell from taking place of they only knew to stop it because of the Specter spell, which was only cast as a result of the sleeping spell?
So I think they did the 3-year time-skip in S7 to get the years back on track and have the time in the series match to the year each episode aired. We know that only one year passes between 1X19 and 4X07, because those are the two Miss Mystic Falls episodes, and Caroline refers to herself as "last year's winner." Only one year passing between S1 and S4 meant that the show was 3 years behind the airdates, chronologically. So, for that reason, I had the first scene take place in 2013 and the last scene take place in 2017 - S8. Let me know if that makes sense, or if I should change these.
Objects touched and broken by the Specter appear to Bonnie like kitsugi - she literally sees magic emboss the invisible cracks, in the same way that gold is seen through the broken crevices in the Japanese art. Her sensing Elena when she touches it is me finally making good on that 'psychometry' tag. :D So, as you probably guessed, from here on in, expect to see lots of Bonnie, yay! :D
The Hogwarts sorting thing just happened. Damon started talking about the Muffliato and cushioning charms, and it took on a life of its own. I'm still considering a Hogwarts AU one-shot at some point. :D I have most of them sorted.
Big thanks to Oiselet for the beta love for this and other chapters.
The next chapter should feature something folks will like. :) My little apology for this. :D
I wrote a little one-shot! (That very well may get expanded to a two-shot, since I'm already playing around with some ideas. :D) It explores what happens when a time traveler jumps into their past body to stop an event. What happens to the person from the original timeline? Are they written out of existence? Follow Damon and Elena as they find out when their trip to Georgia takes an unusual turn. ;) It's called Echoes in Time. Please check it out. :D
I mostly wrote it because I was in desperate need of something fluffy and fun (though one could argue that one's a little bittersweet in a way, too), and that's mostly because Random Walk is essentially set up to be angsty. Specter Elena can only come when Damon desperately needs to see her, so each chapter, by default, has to start out pretty sad in order for her to show up. So, with that said, you can probably expect a tonal shift for the sequel.
Much love, all! :D