"I can't believe you ordered a salad," Elena said, stealing another fry from Alexander's plate. "Since when do you eat healthy?"
"Since Stefan decided to be a bad influence," Alexander replied, pushing his plate closer to Elena. "Apparently, brooding requires a proper diet."
"I don't brood," Stefan protested mildly. "I reflect."
"Oh, is that what we're calling it now?" Elena grinned. "All those times on the roof, staring dramatically into the distance..."
"That was one time," Stefan defended, though his lips twitched. "And I was watching for..."
"Birds?" Alexander suggested innocently. "Very brooding-worthy birds?"
The familiar banter felt good - normal - even if it was just for a moment. The Mystic Grill hummed with its usual Friday night energy, though something felt off about the crowd.
"You know what we should do?" Elena suggested suddenly. "After all this is over, we should take that road trip we talked about. The three of us, maybe Caroline if she promises not to plan every second..."
"Bold of you to assume Caroline would let us go without her," Stefan smiled. "She'd probably have a color-coded itinerary ready before we finished asking."
"Remember when road trips just meant throwing some clothes in a bag and going?" Alexander mused. "No vampires, no doppelgangers, no..." he gestured vaguely at everything.
"No destiny?" Elena supplied softly.
"That too," Alexander agreed. "Just normal teenage stuff. Like trying to convince Damon that putting fireworks in Mr. Thompson's mailbox was a terrible idea."
"Wait, that was you?" Stefan turned to his younger brother. "He blamed me for that for months!"
Their laughter felt real, if a bit fragile. For a moment, they could almost pretend they were normal.
Stefan and Elena just a normal couple, Alexander, a typical annoying younger brother, them having dinner together, that the shadows in the corners weren't moving strangely, that the restaurant hadn't been steadily emptying around them.
"Matt's not here," Elena noted suddenly, the normalcy cracking slightly. "He always works Friday nights."
"The bar's empty too," Stefan observed, his voice dropping lower. "When's the last time you saw anyone actually come in?"
Alexander's smile faded as he scanned the restaurant. The few remaining patrons were leaving with strange synchronization, as if responding to some silent signal.
"They're here, aren't they?" Elena asked quietly.
Before either brother could respond, three figures appeared in the doorway - two men and a woman, their stillness marking them as something other than human.
They moved with fluid grace as they entered, like predators performing an ancient ceremony.
"The doppelgangers," the woman spoke, her voice carrying strange reverence. "Our lord will be pleased."
She moved forward, her movements almost ceremonial, but suddenly stopped. Something passed over her face - recognition followed by pure, instinctive terror. The air seemed to ripple around Alexander, and for a heartbeat, they saw it.
Where Alexander sat, another figure seemed to superimpose itself. Taller, darker, with eyes that held universes of shadow. The very air grew heavy, as if reality itself was straining under the weight of what it was trying to contain.
"My lord," the woman gasped, dropping to her knees. Her earlier composure shattering. "We... we didn't..."
"Marion!" The male vampire grabbed her shoulder, shaking her. "Focus. Look again."
She blinked, the terror slowly fading from her eyes as the vision passed. Alexander sat there, looking as confused as they felt, the otherworldly presence gone as quickly as it had appeared.
"I... forgive me," she managed, rising slowly. "For a moment, I thought..." she studied Alexander more carefully now, her composure returning. "The stories mentioned the resemblance, but experiencing it in person is... unsettling."
"The resemblance isn't why we're here," her companion reminded her firmly. "We have our orders. The doppelgangers must be collected."
"Right," Marion straightened, though she still couldn't quite look directly at Alexander. "Come quietly, and no harm will come to anyone in this town."
Stefan moved slightly, positioning himself between them and Elena. "That's not happening."
The shadows in the corners of the Grill seemed to deepen as the vampires spread out, their earlier reverence giving way to predatory focus.
Yet something had changed - a new wariness in how they watched Alexander, as if afraid that ancient presence might surface again.
"You don't understand what's at stake," Marion said, her voice steadying though her eyes kept darting to Alexander. "The King's ceremony requires-"
"We know about the ceremony," Stefan cut in. "And we know what happens to the participants."
"Death is inevitable," the second male vampire spoke, his voice carrying an almost religious fervor. "But to die serving him... to have your essence become part of his glory..."
"Listen to yourself," Elena interjected. "You're talking about sacrifice like it's an honor."
"Because it is," Marion whispered, something like longing in her voice. "You haven't seen him. Haven't felt what it means to stand in his presence. The way the world itself bends around him..."
"Enough talk," the first vampire commanded. "They either come willingly or we take them. Those are our orders."
They moved with supernatural speed, but Stefan was ready. He caught the first attack, his mind immediately pushing into the vampire's consciousness - an ability inherited from being Silas's shadow. The vampire screamed as ancient memories surfaced.
Marion went for Elena, but Alexander intercepted her. As he moved, something strange happened - his movements carried an echo of that ancient presence they'd glimpsed before. Not the full overwhelming force of it, but enough to make Marion falter.
"How do you move like him?" she gasped, dodging his strike. "Those patterns... they're his. Exactly his."
Alexander didn't respond, couldn't respond. His body seemed to be operating on instinct, remembering movements it had never learned. Each gesture carried the weight of centuries, as if something vast and ancient was teaching him to dance through combat.
The third vampire circled warily, his eyes fixed on Alexander. "It's not just the face," he muttered. "Nature didn't just copy his appearance. It truly tried to replicate everything..."
Stefan had the first vampire pinned, his mental abilities forcing the attacker to relive every death he'd ever caused. But Marion was proving more difficult - centuries old and driven by fanatical devotion.
"You fight like him," she breathed, narrowly avoiding Alexander's strike. "But without his certainty. Without his..." she moved suddenly, faster than before, "purpose!"
Her hand caught Alexander's throat, but the moment she touched him, something happened. The air rippled again, and this time the vision was stronger.
For a heartbeat, everyone in the Grill saw it - a vast darkness spreading from where Alexander stood, shadows taking the shape of something that shouldn't exist.
Marion recoiled as if burned. "The mark," she gasped. "For a moment, I felt... I felt it..."
"Impossible," the third vampire snarled, though he kept his distance. "The mark is his alone. This is just nature's failed attempt at-"
He never finished. Stefan, having dealt with his first opponent, struck from behind. But even as they fought, his eyes kept darting to his younger brother.
Alexander's movements had changed - become more fluid, more certain, as if remembering something written in his very blood.
"You can feel it, can't you?" Marion asked, her voice almost gentle now despite the violence around them. "What you really are. What nature tried to make you become."
"I'm not him," Alexander growled, but his voice carried echoes of something older.
"No," she agreed, a strange smile crossing her face. "You're his shadow. His echo. And even that..." she laughed suddenly, the sound holding an edge of hysteria, "even that is enough to make the darkness tremble."
Elena watched from behind an overturned table as the fight continued. The third vampire had Stefan pressed against the bar, but her boyfriend's eyes were glowing with ancient power - Silas's legacy manifesting in ways she'd never seen before.
"You know what the funny thing is?" Marion spoke, circling Alexander with newfound confidence. "He told us to expect this. To expect moments where you'd move like him, speak like him. But I still can't fathom it."
She gestured to the shadows that had begun gathering around Alexander, moving in patterns that hurt to look at.
"Can't fathom what" Alexander demanded, though something in his voice had changed - deepened, carrying weight that wasn't his own.
"The feel of it," she whispered. "Standing near you is like... like standing at the edge of an abyss. Not as deep as his, but..."
The third vampire suddenly screamed as Stefan's mental assault broke through his defenses. He collapsed, blood trickling from his eyes, leaving only Marion.
"You should be honored," she said, backing away slowly. "To wear his face, to carry even an echo of his power... do you know how many would kill for such a privilege?"
"Is that what you think this is?" Alexander's laugh held no humor. "A privilege?"
"What else could it be?" Marion's eyes shone with fervor. "To be nature's attempt at balancing him... to be chosen for such a purpose..."
"Chosen?" The word seemed to trigger something. The shadows around Alexander pulsed, and for a moment, his eyes turned completely black. "Like how he 'chose' his siblings' souls? Like how he's 'choosing' us for his ceremony?"
The temperature in the Grill dropped suddenly, and Elena could have sworn she saw crimson light pulsing through the shadows like veins.
Marion's expression shifted from reverence to genuine fear. "He... he's watching through you right now, isn't he? That's his power I'm feeling..."
But that was only for a moment, as something deep within her beckoned her to see past her fear.
She shook her head, as she muttered, "No, he's just an echo, that's all. Nothing more to it,"
She immediately then, moved with centuries of experience, too fast for Alexander to counter. Her hand wrapped around his throat, lifting him off the ground. Stefan tried to intervene, but the third vampire, having recovered, caught him, slamming him against the bar with bone-crushing force.
"The King will understand if you arrive slightly damaged," she smiled coldly at Alexander. "After all, what's-"
The front doors of the Mystic Grill disintegrated. The sound was like thunder in an enclosed space, making everyone, even Marion, flinch. Through the cloud of pulverized wood and glass stepped Elijah, and Elena felt her breath catch.
There was nothing of the diplomatic Original they'd dealt with before. This was something else - ancient and lethal, moving with the kind of grace that made predators look clumsy. His presence filled the room like a physical force, making the air itself feel heavier.
"I'd strongly advise," he said, his voice so perfectly controlled it was terrifying, "that you release my friend."
Marion's grip on Alexander loosened, but her eyes widened with recognition. "Prince Elijah," she breathed, a mixture of awe and confusion crossing her face. "You... you would stand against your own brother? Against the King himself?"
"My brother," Elijah's voice carried centuries of weight, "ceased to be himself long ago."
The third vampire found his voice, though it trembled. "But you're nobility - vampire royalty. How can you betray everything he built? The empire he created for our kind?"
"Empire?" Elijah's laugh held no humor. "Is that what you call this? Blind devotion to something that collects souls like trinkets?"
"He elevated us!" Marion protested, her fanaticism overriding her fear. "Made us more than mere monsters! You, his own brother, should understand better than any-"
She never finished. Elijah moved with speed that made vampire abilities look human. His hand burst through her chest, gripping her heart. It wasn't just violence - it was art, terrible and precise.
"What I understand," he said softly, his refined voice making his words more terrifying, "is that you serve something that wears my brother's face. Something that has twisted everything we were meant to be."
The third vampire stumbled back. "Please, my prince, we were only following-"
"Orders?" Elijah's smile was beautiful and horrible as he crushed Marion's heart. "Yes, the eternal excuse of those who choose not to think for themselves."
The vampire's head left his shoulders before he could take another step. The motion was so quick, so elegant, that it took several seconds for his body to realize it was dead.
Elena found herself pressing against the wall, her heart hammering. She'd seen vampire speed before, seen strength and power, but this... this was different.
This was seeing why Originals were feared not just for their immortality, but for what centuries of perfecting violence could create.
"Are you all alright?" Elijah asked, his voice returning to its usual cultured tones as he produced a handkerchief from his pocket. The contrast between his savage efficiency and his perfect manners somehow made him more terrifying, not less.
Stefan managed a nod, helping Elena stand on shaking legs. Even he, another vampire, looked pale at the display of power they'd just witnessed.
"We should leave," Elijah stated, adjusting his already immaculate cuffs. "Now."
None of them argued. You didn't argue with something that could end you before you finished forming the thought.
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(Author note: Hello everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
Do please comment and review how you find this fanfic.
Also, just to clarify, all of Alexander's powers are vampiric, nothing Mark related, its just Vali's presence echoing because Vali is close and because I'm putting in novel powers which I will elaborate more on in future chapters.
Though the novel powers are still in the limit of city level to mountain level max. Am still deciding on which.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed it,
Bye!)