Chapter Text
Elena Gilbert sat curled up on one of the opulent couches in the Salvatore Boarding House, a fire roaring in the oversized fireplace, her open diary in her lap, the pen in her hand clicking against the daylight ring on her finger.
"Dear Diary..." she wrote, her pen flying across the page. "How is it that summer is almost over and yet I feel like I've got almost nothing done?" She paused, biting the end of her pen before putting it back to paper. "Senior year was crazy. It certainly ended on a crazy note. My brother died, and I didn't handle it well... at all. Kind of became a monster for a while because of it. And since I know you won't tell my secrets, oh trusty diary, I can tell you that I even burned my house down."
Jeremy leaned on the couch behind her, though she couldn't see or hear him, trapped as he was as a spirit on the Other Side. "Yeah, and my X-Box along with it." He remarked, not that she heard him.
"But I eventually pulled myself together and got to say my goodbyes, even though I miss him so much."
"I miss you, too." Jeremy said. Elena turned her head, thinking she'd heard something, only to see nothing there. Once again, she turned back to the page, pen at the ready.
"Bonnie's been off on a spirit quest with her mom all summer, trying to reconnect with her witch heritage or something."
-oOo-
Bonnie was standing in a circle of men and women, all presumably witches, in the desert around a bonfire. They were chanting something, gazing up at the full moon, light seeming to shine from them as well as down upon them. Abby stood back in the darkness, a sad smile on her face, watching her daughter finally embrace who she was, even if she couldn't partake in it with her.
-oOo-
"She's supposed to be home by tomorrow so that we can move into Whitmore together. Caroline's set a deadline and even picked out the color palette for our room. I think she's trying to distract herself from the fact that Tyler's gone..."
-oOo-
In her home, the blonde vampire was on the phone while trying to force the containers carrying her possessions closed. "Don't worry, I've already sent them your application, Tyler. All you have to do is register for classes," she grunted as she put some strength into it, "and show up."
-oOo-
"... and probably not coming back."
-oOo-
Deep in the woods of the Appalachian Mountains, Tyler paced back and forth while a group of men and women writhed in pain on the ground, all of them in various stages of undress, or even completely nude. Above them, through the trees, the same full moon that shone down on Bonnie cast it's cursed light upon them. "I know it hurts." Tyler said to them, shouting over their screams. "I know, but you have to embrace the pain. Lean into it." Several of them had already started the painful shift, their bones breaking and reforming into a completely different shape. "The more you lean into the pain, the faster the shift, and the less it'll hurt in the future."
"It's not the same thing." One of the other werewolves snapped, her eyes golden amber and glaring at Tyler. "You're a hybrid. You can control your shift. You don't feel the pain anymore."
"I always feel the pain." Tyler fired back. "I just don't let it control me anymore." To prove his point, the last of Klaus' hybrids stripped his off his own shirt, tossing it to the side. He kicked off his boots while undoing his belt and unzipping his pants, already forcing his own shift. For the next few minutes, his body twisted and broke and reformed in totally unnatural ways until a larger than normal black wolf stood in Tyler's place. Around him, the other werewolves noted the speed and smoothness of Tyler's transition, and tried to go with their pain as opposed to fighting against it.
-oOo-
"Honestly, I don't know why he doesn't come home, because Klaus is gone."
-oOo-
Klaus Mikaelson, one of the first vampires and definitely the first hybrid, was in a bar, laughing and drinking with a tall black man, one Marcel Gerard, the King of the Quarter in New Orleans. The vampire didn't notice the gleam in the Original's eyes as he observed his former protégé interact with his subjects. That gleam was envy.
-oOo-
"And where Klaus goes, his siblings follow. Elijah followed his brother to New Orleans, finally taking the Mikaelson Family out of Mystic Falls."
-oOo-
"In addition to the secret weapon he uses to control the witches, Marcel has assembled a small army of vampires." Elijah informed his brother, the two of them in the study of a rather large mansion near the bayou. Apparently no one had resided there for quite some time, as Elijah was removing dusty old sheets draped over the furniture. "Working together, we can destroy them from the inside."
"And what of Rebekah?" Klaus asked. "Has she stopped her pouting long enough to join the fun?"
Elijah paused for a second, his gaze distant as he stood before an opulent desk also covered in a sheet. "She has made her disinterest quite clear."
"One too many times daggered and shoved in a box, I gather?" Klaus quipped with a smirk. He turned and poured himself a drink from the nice selection they had on hand. "Or perhaps she doesn't share your unwavering belief that I can be saved?"
"Rebekah may surprise us yet," said the elder brother, whipping off the sheet from the desk and righting the lamp that had been laying on it's side. "After all, we all swore the same vow."
"I hope she stays far away." Klaus admitted, nursing his drink and walking around the desk. "Because in my desire to reclaim this town, to steal from Marcel what he holds most dear, I have realized one massive vulnerability." He inched closer to his unaware brother. "One weakness that Marcel could exploit."
"And what is that?" Elijah asked, folding up the sheet he just removed.
Klaus moved to stand just in front of his older brother. "You." Quick as a viper, the white oak dagger that the Mikaelson siblings all feared pierced Elijah's heart, the ancient vampire crying out in shock more than anything else. Immediately, his skin began to gray as he desiccated in his brother's embrace, betrayed once again by the very man he swore again and again to protect.
"Forgive me, my brother." Klaus said to Elijah as he slowly went to that place that the Originals went whenever daggered. "There is no power in love. Mercy makes you weak. Family makes you weak. If I am to win this war," he lowered Elijah to the floor before standing tall and proud above him. "I must do it alone."
-oOo-
"Well, maybe not the whole family. Rebekah seems to have her claws still in Matt. They've been sending postcards from Europe. I think they're in Amsterdam now... or was it Prague? I can't keep track, and honestly, I don't think I really want to know."
-oOo-
Matt lounged on a bed, nude under a sheet, a glass of champagne in his hands, the balcony doors open to let in the sounds of the city below. Next to him was Rebekah, wrapped up in a sheet, and on his other side was a sexy brunette, similarly dressed. The two women leaned in over Matt and began to kiss, causing him to smirk as he downed his champagne.
-oOo-
"Speaking of enemies now gone... if me shoving the Cure down Katherine's throat and her being forced to live life as a human isn't justice, after everything she did to us - to me! - I don't know what is."
-oOo-
Katherine, almost unrecognizable in sweats and a baseball cap, her makeup not perfect, moved quickly down a street, her paranoia forcing her to look over her shoulder every few seconds as if she was being followed. The bags under her eyes said that she hadn't been sleeping all that well, probably for quite some time. It must be exhausting, remembering five hundred years worth of enemies and vendettas and how vulnerable you now were in the face of all that.
She turned the street corner and froze like a deer in headlights, an apt description as she was caught in the headlights of a car, the driver's side door opening and a shadowed figure stepping out.
"Hello, Katherine..."
-oOo-
"The biggest change has been Stefan. He left after graduation, taking Silas' body with him."
-oOo-
Standing on the edge of the quarry looking down at the water that ran through it, Stefan sighed before turning back toward his SUV, opening the back and pulling the petrified body of Silas from it, loading it into the safe from the Salvatore's basement before kicking it over the edge. He watched with satisfaction as it sank beneath the water, not a trace of it having ever been there. Once back in his vehicle, he hit the road, but instead of turning back to Mystic Falls, he turned West and kept driving, passing the sign for the city limits.
-oOo-
"He never came back." Elena paused in her writing, looking up and into the flames of the fireplace, remembering that she never even got to say goodbye. "I know we didn't end things of the best of terms, but I was still hoping we could be friends. Wherever he is, i hope he's enjoying his life."
-oOo-
"Hey, get your ass in here, Tom!" A man in mechanics coveralls said in the garage surrounded by cars that needed to be worked on. "It's pay day." From under one of the cars emerges none other than Stefan Salvatore himself. Standing up, he wiped his hands on a rag before joining his boss in the office, ready to accept his meager paycheck.
-oOo-
"So many changes in such a short amount of time, you'd think I'd still be reeling, but I've never been happier in my life."
"'In your life', huh?" The familiar voice of her boyfriend said from over her shoulder. Elena felt her smile grow wider as he leaned over her shoulder, so close that she need only turn her head and she could have kissed him.
"Not to give you a big head or anything." Elena quipped, giving in to her desire and turning her head, planting a kiss on her cheek. A kiss that was quickly turned more passionate as he turned his own head and captured her lips with his own. When they eventually parted, Elena had completely forgotten to ask him where he'd been all day, which had probably been his intention in the first place.
"I'm going to take a bath." Damon announced, standing up and already starting to unbutton his shirt, that ever-present smirk on his lips. "Care to join me?" He was already moving out of the room, his shirt forgotten on the floor. He rounded the corner, now out of sight, with his pants flying out to land on the floor shortly after.
Elena giggled, getting up from the couch, her diary forgotten on the cushions. She followed the trail of clothes, going out to the main hall, just as Damon's underwear floated down from over the stairs banister. Elena picked up her pace, following Damon up the stairs and into his cavernous bathroom, finding him already in the tub, water and bubbles obscuring his nude form. She got closer to the tub, and quick as a flash, Damon pulled her into the tub, clothes and all, quickly soaking her through.
"Damon!" Elena cried out, her voice infused with laughter. Damon quickly kissed her and the two sank beneath the bubbles.
-oOo-
"I can't wait to see what the future holds." was the last sentence Elena wrote in her diary that night.