Notes:
So this is neither the next chapter of matma (I want the four next chapters fully written before I start posting) nor the next story in the star wars series that I've been promising since May (it keeps growing and growing and is now at three and a half chapters ish out of probably four with an interlude to follow) nor is it the Shadow and Bone oneshot-turned-chaptered-fic that I've been promising myself I'll get up before s2 comes out. However, it's been sitting around for a while and is fully plotted out and partially written. It's going to be nine chapters long (including epilogue), two and a half of which are fully written (the fully written chapters are not chronological they are cumulative) and the rest of which are thoroughly plotted out (except the epilogue which is more a sketch of ideas and resolved plot points than a fleshed out outline).
Title comes from the poem "Living Memory" by Brian Andreas. Full text may be added in the final end notes if I feel like it when I get there.
Each chapter is going to correspond with a different doppelgänger going all the way back to Amara (I've decided that there's a new one approximately every 250 years give or take a decade or two which makes Elena number 9). Each chapter is going to be named after the respective doppelgänger, going chronologically backwards in time, but also thematically, each chapter will be tied to that respective doppelgänger's life in one way or another.
It's "Teen and Up" because tone wise I'm going to be trying to stick to the vibes/violence level of the show, which was marketed as a show for Teens. I will also update the character and relationship tags as I go along so at the start it will only have the people or relationships who are already mentioned in the first chapter.
Heads up, this chapter and also the entire story is going to have canon-typical violence and also descriptions (although not too detailed) of each doppelgänger's death.
The day after she gets home from being kidnapped, Elena wakes up screaming and scrabbling at her throat.
She is surprised to discover that she lives still.
And it is only after she calms down that she realises that there is no reason for her to think that she had just been hanged.
Let's go back a little bit.
In September, a new boy starts school. His name is Stefan Salvatore and he is a vampire.
Elena discovers this and her life gets infinitely more complicated alongside the discovery that there is a centuries-old vampire who shares her face.
In December she finds out that this vampire, Katherine, is not trapped in a tomb underneath the old church as they had all thought.
In January, the twins Cole and Rebecca Gerard start school after moving to town with their older brother, an artist who wants to paint the local scenery. It will not be until months later that anyone finds it suspicious that no one has met him.
In February, Founder's Day happens, and in all the chaos surrounding Caroline's transition, no one realises that the twins have vanished, despite Rebecca and Caroline's friendship, and them both promising to help with the Parade.
A little over a week later the twins show up again with a thousand apologies spilling from their lips and an explanation about a family emergency. Caroline is too busy being relieved that she has her bloodlust under control to find it strange that she isn't tempted to drink from them.
In March, Katherine threatens to rip the town apart until it rains blood unless she gets the moonstone.
Lucy Bennett casts a spell that links the two doppelgängers together. She does not know that it will do more than just physically link them. She tries to break it. And while it appears to work, it is not without consequence.
The next day, Elena wakes up in a strange room with two vampires that she doesn't know. When she hears them talking about someone named Elijah, something in her relaxes without her understanding why. The woman tells her that Elijah is her worst nightmare, but something in Elena rebels at a soul-deep level at the idea of being frightened of him.
She manages to get a little more information from the two, but nothing that can explain why she's so certain that this Elijah isn't dangerous to her. And when they talk about Katherine, something deep inside her is certain that they're wrong. But she doesn't know why, or even what it is that they're wrong about. Just that when they talked about her that they were wrong.
She finds a note from Bonnie, telling her that Stefan and Damon are coming, and her first reaction is relief. Except, on some level, she doesn't want them to rescue her. She wants to see Elijah. And she cannot explain why.
When the man – Trevor – panics because Elijah has arrived, Elena feels the tension she's been feeling since she first woke up in this strange house melt away. Rose is trying to calm Trevor, but Elena ignores them, too busy trying to figure out what it is about this stranger that makes her so certain that he won't harm her. She doesn't know who he is, she's never even seen him, but a voice in the back of her head whispers that Elijah is to be trusted.
There's a knock on the door, so loud that Elena can hear it. And it's only then that she truly figures out why the vampires are so jittery. It's not just that they're worried about pissing him off again. They're scared.
Rose tells them to be quiet and leaves and Elena cocks her head to the side in a considering manner that predates her birth by two millennia. Trevor paces.
Elena's spent enough time around vampires by now to be able to pick up that Trevor is listening in to whatever Rose and Elijah are saying. Carefully, slowly, Elena sits back down on the sofa, perching on the edge of it. A whisper in her own voice, deep in the recesses of her mind, tells her to be ready to run if she has to. Trevor cannot be trusted.
All the while, Elena remains certain that should the worst happen, and Trevor attack her, she need only get within eyesight of Elijah and she will be safe. This certainty is perhaps the most unsettling part of all.
Elena has been keeping one eye on the pacing vampire and one on the door, so she notices immediately when his shoulders sag in relief. Her eyes snap to the doorway, and Rose appears, with a handsome man in a suit right behind her. Elena locks eyes with him and feels every cell in her body relax because something about his gaze makes her feel safe. She is instantly alarmed that this stranger makes her feel safer than any other vampire ever has and only distantly registers the barely perceptible surprise on his face that she doesn't realise is unreadable to most. She stands, unable to prevent herself from trying to get closer, where she'll be safer, and then he's in front of her, with a soft whoosh of air ruffling their hair.
Elena opens her mouth to speak but her words dry up as he leans closer to her. For an instant she is certain that he is going to kiss her and every instinct she has starts screaming that this is wrong. And then the moment passes and his nose is at her neck and she relaxes, again, at the knowledge that he is checking her for humanity.
"Human." He breathes, his exhale raising goosebumps on her neck before he raises his head to look at her again, "It's impossible." He takes a minuscule step back. "Hello there."
Elena's heart is racing and she opens her mouth before closing it wordlessly. What does she say to this man that she has never met before, who is somehow, impossibly, as familiar to her as her best friends, her own brother.
"We have a long journey ahead of us." Elijah says, stepping closer again, "We should be going."
There are so many things Elena could say to that as he steps away from her again, ignoring her in favour of whatever task is next on his list. Why are you here? Where are you taking me? What about the moonstone? But she doesn't say any of them. Instead, what slips out of her mouth is, "Why do I know you?"
Elijah's head snaps around to look at her.
"I know you." Elena repeats, "How is that possible?"
Elijah tilts his head to the side in interest, "An intriguing question." He murmurs. His gaze darts down to her chest and then back up, "What's your name?"
For a full three seconds Elena just looks at him blankly. Why did Elijah just stare at her boobs? She's fairly certain she's not even his type?
He raises an eyebrow at her and she abruptly realises that he just asked her a question. "Elena," she says belatedly, a hand creeping up to grasp at her necklace in an unconscious action that somewhere along the line became a self-soothing habit, "I'm Elena."
And suddenly she realises two things in quick succession. Firstly, that it hadn't been her breasts that Elijah had looked at – it had been the vervain in a necklace around her neck, pendant hanging down to her cleavage. And secondly, that she hates that she's become so reliant on an object that can so easily be taken away that she has developed the habit of checking it is still there.
Elijah's eyebrow ticks and the corner of his mouth twitches and Elena is certain that he somehow knows exactly what she'd just been thinking and finds it amusing. She squashes her panic at the idea that she's so easy to read and tries to ignore the voice in her head that sounds exactly like her that is insisting that she go with him.
"Before we continue," he drawls, giving her a brief once over that is far more assessing than appreciative, "There's a piece of business I must attend to." He turns away and moves towards Trevor, before glancing at her over his shoulder, "Don't go anywhere." He tells her in a tone that she refuses to believe is teasing for the shreds of her sanity that she is still desperately trying to cling to amid the multitude of voices and impressions in her head that feel and sound like her but aren't.
"I've waited so long for this day, Elijah." Trevor says earnestly, bowing his head but not dropping his eyes from Elijah's face. "Truly, I'm very sorry."
Elijah takes measured steps until he is almost behind the younger vampire, "Oh no, your apology's not necessary." He says dismissively, and Elena doesn't know what it is that she sees in his face but something in it makes the hair on the back of her neck stand on end and a feeling of foreboding creep up her spine. She is suddenly certain that Trevor will not leave this room alive.
"Yes." Says Trevor, nodding slightly, "Yes it is." Elijah moves around behind him, circling slowly – he is the hunter and Trevor the prey. "You trusted me with Katerina," Trevor continues talking, oblivious to the danger he is still in, "And I failed you."
Elijah finishes his circle and hums in agreement. "Why yes, you are the guilty one." Elijah agrees with him. He stops his movement and turns to face Trevor whose eyes are now fixed on the floor, "Rose aided you because she was loyal to you – that I honour." He pauses, the silence heavy as he moves to stand directly in front of Trevor and look him in the eyes before he asks the next question that Elena somehow knows by heart, "Where was your loyalty?"
Trevor shakes his head slightly and drops his gaze. He manages to lift it again and speaks, voice trembling, "I beg your forgiveness."
Elijah tilts his head to the side, assessing him and Elena knows, although she cannot see his eyes, that he is debating how he wants to perform his next move. He stills almost imperceptively and Elena pre-emptively flinches, knowing exactly what is coming.
"So granted." Elijah says evenly, and then as Trevor starts to smile, between one instant and the next, Trevor's head is gone, lying on the floor, the side of Elijah's hand wet with his blood.
Elena stares in shock even as Rose wails, she knew it was coming but the speed, the casualness of the movement; the ease with which Elijah had killed Trevor – it shakes her to her core, and if she ever had any doubt that Elijah was the most dangerous vampire she's ever met, (second most dangerous the voice that sounds like her but isn't whispers – a voice which is somehow different to the one urging her to trust him even though they sound exactly the same) it died with Trevor.
Rose takes a step forward and Elijah doesn't even look at her when he says, "Don't," he continues wiping the blood off his hand with a handkerchief, "Now that you are free."
She trembles, tears pouring down her face but she stills and doesn't move at the reminder that her life was spared by the skin of her teeth.
"Well, Elena?" Elijah steps towards her and offers his hand like the gentleman he isn't.
"No." Elena says and doesn't move, yet another voice that is but isn't her approving of her standing her ground while one of the others yearns for her to go with him.
Elijah raises an eyebrow. "No?" He says incredulously. Apparently he's out of practice at being denied.
"I want answers." She tells him. "And I have information that I think you'll want."
He half laughs. "Are you negotiating with me?" He looks at Rose.
Still breathing in little gasps of pain and wiping her eyes she manages to get out a strained, "I don't know what she's talking about. If she knows something beyond what I've told her then it's the first I've heard of it."
Elijah hums. "I could just rip that necklace off your neck and compel you to tell me what you know and come with me." He reminds her idly.
"You won't." Elena says, somehow soul deep certain of the fact. The voices that are her-but-not unanimously agree for the first time since she became aware of them. Although she's starting to wonder if maybe they've always been there and she's just never pinpointed them as other before. Some of them feel too familiar and too similar to things she's thought before and the caution that she's been practising since Wickery Bridge for her to be sure.
"No." He agrees, "I won't. But how do you know that?"
Elena opens her mouth and then closes it again. She shakes her head, "I don't know." She admits, "I just do. The same way that I know that you're Elijah and that you're safe. That some part of me desperately wants to go with you but another is terrified of the possibility." Elijah raises an eyebrow at the words spilling out of her mouth and one of the voices that is her-but-not pushes her on because this man is ancient and he could have the answers that she so desperately needs right now. "The same way I know what it means when you raise your eyebrow like that, or when your mouth twists just so. But I don't know why or how I know these things. I just do." She shuts her mouth and closes her eyes and exhales, schooling her breathing to calmness the way that she always has that she is only now realising is influenced by one of the voices that is but isn't her.
When she opens her eyes again Elijah is staring at her with something unreadable in his eyes. "How many siblings do I have?" he asks her.
"Six." She answers automatically, even while wondering at the strange question, except… "Four," she corrects, "The others died."
"A fact that until today only five people alive knew, to the best of my knowledge." He tells her flatly, but something in her insists that there's a lie in his words somewhere, she just doesn't know where the lie is. She can't stop her frown.
"Как се чувстваш?" He asks her. How do you feel?
"Уморен съм." She replies automatically. I'm tired. It's only after she's answered that she realises the words were not in English. She touches her mouth in fearful shock, unsure what just happened. She opens and shuts her mouth, frowning, mouthing the words she just said and trying to understand how she knew them. Trying to figure out how she understood what Elijah said to her. Trying to figure out what language that even was. She looks up to see him still watching her, Rose still standing behind him next to her friend's corpse, squinting at her. "I don't speak Bulgarian." She tells them, honestly but with her heart beating a fearful drum in her chest, almost certain they will think she is lying. After all, how on earth would she have just answered him like that if she didn't. (Моето дете croons one of the voices in her head in a familiar tone, and somehow Elena knows what it is saying in that voice that sounds just like her but isn't in a language that she shouldn't understand but somehow does.)
Elijah examines her face, head tilted ever so slightly to the side in a way that says he's listening to the way her heart is pounding. "I believe you." He says with barely any hesitation.
Elena doesn't quite sag in relief, but that's only because a pride that both is and isn't hers won't let her show any more weakness than she has to and will not allow her to show relief at being believed when she wasn't lying.
Elijah tilts his head towards Rose slightly, debating something. The voice that loves and trusts him and wants to go with him whispers that he doesn't trust her and is deciding whether to make her leave or not.
"What is the information that you think I want?" he asks her after a long moment, voice deceptively calm. Elena doesn't need the warning from one of the voices that sounds like her but isn't to know that he won't react well to being denied again.
"If I tell you, you'll tell me why I know these things that I shouldn't?" she asks him a little desperately, part of her soul-deep certain that if she does not extract the promise from him in the right words then she will be denied.
His face hardens, "Tell me the information and I'll tell you what I know." He says and takes a single step towards her.
Despite herself, Elena takes a step back, before setting her jaw, squaring her shoulders and standing her ground. The look Elijah gives her at that is almost impressed approval.
"I know you that you need the moonstone. And I know where it is." She pauses. "I can help you get it."
Elijah takes another step towards her. "Tell me where it is." His voice is too soft for it to quite be an order, but Elena has to suppress a shiver anyway.
"In a tomb, underneath the ruins of a church in Mystic Falls." She pauses, unsure whether to reveal the next part, but the her-that-isn't that crooned at her in Bulgarian urges her on with something almost like amusement, "It's with Katherine – she's trapped there."
Elijah hums and takes another step closer, "Interesting."
Before he can say anything else or she can demand that he now tell her what he knows about the voices in her head that are but aren't her and know things that she shouldn't, there's the sound of something breaking. Elijah immediately breaks the eye contact that Elena hadn't realised they'd been holding and steps back, looking in the direction the noise came from. She's torn between relief and regret and tries to ignore the fact that neither of those feelings really feel like they belong to her.
"What is that?" he asks Rose, not looking at her.
"I don't know," she replies immediately, voice still hoarse from grief, but more composed than before.
He turns away from whatever he's listening to, to look at Rose, "Who else is in this house?" he draws out the last word in a way that Elena instinctively knows is dangerous, but she doesn't move away. She still doesn't know how, but she knows that he will protect her and that she's safe with him.
"I don't know." Rose says again, more forcefully this time. Elena believes her, but Elijah doesn't quite. (he doesn't trust her sing-songs one of the voices that sounds like her but isn't)
She has an inkling of who it might be, remembering the note that she'd found in Bonnie's handwriting. But she doesn't want to leave yet. She needs the answers that Elijah has. The answers that he promised to give her. And she doesn't want him dead. The very idea wrenches at her heart and she doesn't know whether it is her or the voice that sounds like her but isn't and trusts him implicitly. But she also knows that he won't hesitate to kill people that cross him. She didn't need to see poor Trevor's fate to know that.
"They were alone." She blurts out, causing him to look at her again, and she sees Rose sagging slightly the second his gaze is off her, "The whole time I've been here it's just been her and Trevor."
Elijah looks back at her. "Is that so?" he murmurs, then suddenly he's right in front of her, their faces inches apart, "What are you hiding?"
And Elena is abruptly reminded that he can read her as well as she can read him, if not better.
His eyes drop to where she's unconsciously hidden the note behind her back in clenched fists and dart back to her face. She knows that he knows that she's feeling guilty. His gaze hardens and Elena knows that he feels a little guilty for what he's going to do next but does not regret it.
Before she can blink, he's pulled her into his arms, one arm wrapped around her waist, the other cupping her head to his chest, just so. Elena can hear his heartbeat. She breathes in his scent and counts his breaths as he moves them to the middle of the room. She is horribly aware that in this position he can break her neck with barely a thought. But all she can think about is how safe she feels in his arms, feeling his heartbeat. It's perfectly calm, barely accelerated and beats a steady thump-thump-thump-thump that feels as familiar to her as lying curled up with Jeremy and watching his chest rise and fall as they simply cling to each other, locking away the outside world, if only for a little while.
"Excuse me," Elijah calls out, his hold on her as gentle as it is immovably strong. She doesn't try to move, just keeps counting his breaths as she feels the words reverberate through his torso, "To whom it may concern, you're making a great mistake."
Elena shuts her eyes as she feels more than she hears the tell-tale whoosh of someone moving around at super-speed.
"Rose." Elijah says dangerously.
"I don't know who it is, I swear."
Elena feels him tense slightly, his grip on her waist tightening imperceptively. "Leave." He tells her, "And if you betray me, or any one of us again, you will not like the consequences." He promises.
"I understand." She says, tremulously, "Thank you, Elijah."
There is a pause that Elena guesses is her staring at Trevor's body for the last time before a tell-tale whoosh lets Elena know that she's gone.
"How many?" Elijah whispers into the ear that is not pressed against his chest.
Elena squeezes her eyes shut even tighter and turns a little further into his embrace, craving the safety she has not felt since the day the car drove off Wickery Bridge and she woke to the knowledge that her parents were gone. "Two." She breathes after a long moment, "Please don't hurt them. They're my friends, they just want to help me out and keep me safe."
His grip tightens for a moment, almost enough to hurt, before he relaxes it again, "Do you not feel safe with me?" he asks her, that tone in his voice that she refuses to believe is teasing giving his words an almost amused lilt.
"Please, Elijah." She says, voice breaking, her fists tightening in his jacket, wondering just how long she'd been clinging to him without noticing. (Elijah, whispers the part of her that trusts him, Elijah, agrees the part of her that doesn't quite)
He lets go of her waist and uses his now free hand to tilt her face up to look at him, cupping her head in both hands. It has the dual effect of stopping Stefan and Damon from trying anything and making her meet his eyes. For a long moment they just stare at each other, something indescribable and old and familiar passing between them. She knows what he's going to say before he says it, somehow. And he knows that she knows. He says it anyway for the benefit of their audience.
"How about a deal, lovely Elena?" Elijah raises his voice slightly so that its almost conversational in tone, but does not look away from her, "I will let you go back to your generous protectors and devoted friends. And in, let's say, a week?" he hums, "Five days, I will return and answer your questions to the best of my ability and tell you what I know about your… situation." He smiles as he says the last word, and for some reason the almost mischievous look in his eyes reminds her of Cole when he's messing with his twin and Rebecca that time she'd shut down the Fell cousins at the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant when they were trying to get a rise out of the other contestants.
"And in return?" Elena asks, because a deal goes both ways, and there's no way he doesn't want something from her too. The part of her that stands her ground and refuses to bow her head, murmurs in approval.
Elijah smiles, and Elena thinks that if she were anyone else, that smile would terrify her. "In return," he says smoothly, "You will give me the moonstone and answer any questions that I have for you honestly and completely, without holding anything back."
Elena blinks slightly, sure there is a catch somewhere that she's not quite seeing, but not knowing what it is, other than the obvious fact that he wants to break a curse and needs her to die to do so.
"So, what do you say?" Elijah asks, eyes twinkling with what she could almost call amusement, "Имаме ли сделка, Елена?"
She shivers slightly at the sound of her name coming out of his mouth in that smooth, almost seductive tone as he drops his voice to a murmur that she has no doubt Stefan and Damon can hear, even if they don't understand.
Even though she does and still does not know why.
She wants those answers, desperately. And she knows that if she says 'no', there's no guarantee she'll ever see her brother or Caroline or Bonnie again. So, in the end, regardless of the part of her that feels safer with him than she has in months, or the part that warns her that he's dangerous and that trusting him could kill her, her choice is easy. "Да, ние правим." She tells him, yes, we have a deal.
His lips twitch into a smile that she doesn't think anyone else would recognise. "Then I will see you in five days, Elena." His voice is a caress as he lets go of her, and he's gone before she can blink or register the lack of his touch or the fact that she misses it.
Stefan and Damon are immediately before her, and she hugs Stefan as soon as he's in reach. She thanks them for coming for her and they interrogate her about what happened and why she made that deal. When they find out about the curse and what's required to break it, they don't react well and are furious that she's agreed to meet Elijah again. She doesn't have the words to explain to them that she trusts him implicitly or that a part of her knows that no matter what, she will die to break this curse, and she would rather do it willingly than be dragged screaming again, (and she doesn't know where that 'again' comes from but knows soul-deep that it's true) so she doesn't even try. They come to the conclusion that she must have been compelled somehow. She just lets them fuss over her and talk and answers the questions they ask almost mechanically, trying to process what happened in that house and the new awareness she has of the voices that are her-but-not that linger in her head. Voices that she's almost certain have always been there, she's just never noticed them before, because they sound just like her.
After they get back home and Elena has hugged Jeremy and Bonnie and they've all cried in relief, she goes to her room and pulls out the half-used sketchbook that she's mostly only used for school projects. She has the sudden urge to draw but doesn't know what or why. She puts a pencil to the paper anyway, and when she looks at what she's drawn, nearly two hours later, it's her own face staring back at her. Except she's wearing an expression that Elena's never seen on her face before and clothes that belong in a history textbook or historical artwork. She hastily shuts the book and reaches for her journal, desperate for a way to untangle the mess in her head that the sketch only made worse.
Later, when she falls into bed exhausted, she dreams.
She dreams of being the oldest that she's ever been. Of being the grandchild of a slave and the daughter of a maroon.
She dreams of being married and in love and risking everything because the injustice burns in her veins and just because she is free that does not mean she can stand by and allow others to remain in chains. Of knowing exactly what price her family paid for her to grow up not knowing the feel of chains or the slave master's whip. Of being an affranchi in Saint-Domingue and sheltering runaway slaves in her husband's household.
She dreams of plotting an uprising and a revolution with people who have been lifelong friends of her family or her husband's and being dragged out of her home by her hair only days after Bois Caïman in an attempt to cow the revolting slaves. Of fighting the men dragging her up the steps to the gallows, their hands iron bands around her arms as she screams desperately for her children: her beautiful little boy, and her dear, darling daughter.
She dreams of watching her entire family become martyrs for their cause as they are executed as an example of what happens to those that plot rebellion and watching the slaves and maroons and affranchis in the crowd becoming angrier and angrier with every death and knowing that she's next. Of seeing her sister-in-law in the crowd and meeting her eyes and sagging in relief, knowing that her children will be as safe and loved as they can be in this changing, violent, world and that they will grow up knowing that she loved them more than anything and that all of these choices that she's made have been for them. Of letting the men guarding her lead her to the noose and holding her head high and proud as they put it around her neck. They do not bother with a hood and she doesn't let her gaze waver or her lips tremble. She has nothing left to be afraid of as she watches her sister-in-law slip away as quietly and quickly as she can, knowing that it will not be much longer before the crowd before her boils over.
She dreams of looking her executioner in the eye and having him look away from the unapologetic defiance and accusation in her face.
She dreams of the noose tightening around her neck as the floor drops from underneath her but refusing to close her eyes or fight her fate any further.
She dreams of her last hopes and wishes for her children's future and the knowledge that the deaths of her family and friends will not slow this revolution at all. It will only fan its flames further, an unnecessary and unneeded encouragement that changes nothing at all.
She dreams of dying.
Elena wakes up scrabbling at her throat and choking for air that is not denied to her and screaming, convinced that she has just been hanged.
It takes her a long moment to realise that it was not her who died that way.
It was Isabela.
And Isabela was a doppelgänger, like her.
Soul-deep she knows that this is just the beginning.
And she labels the voice in her head that is strong and defiant and does not back down, and that sounds exactly like her, Isabela.
Notes:
Poor Elijah had approximately zero clue what was going on in that house after he met Elena and had absolutely no idea why Elena had knowledge from Katherine and Tatia, especially given that Katherine never expressed anything similar (neither did Tatia but to be completely fair he thinks that Tatia was the first). As soon as he gets home he's contacting a bunch of witches and demanding asking what the hell is going on, but like, politely.
Also, Elena was hearing from five different doppelgängers in that conversation, no wonder she was so confused, especially since she can't really tell most of them apart yet.
The untranslated bits of Bulgarian should be pretty self-explanatory but if anyone wants to know what's being said let me know and I'll add it in.
As far as doppelgängers go Isabela is pretty great and she's also far and away the luckiest and most well adjusted doppelgänger - she lives several years longer than the next oldest and has the least tragic life/ending combo. She's also one of the only ones that doesn't actually know anything about the supernatural world so although she dies in a not so great way, there's no supernatural bullshit going on with her life.
Also
Elena, at the prompting of Amara who is sure that a thousand years of experience will give him some knowledge of use in this situation: Help how do I know you and all this stuff that I shouldn't, Elijah pls
Elijah, externally: calmly testing her for knowledge that belongs to Tatia and Katerina like he actually has a clue what's going on
Elijah, internally: wtf wtf wtf, what is going on here how does she know all this stuff?