The shadows in Mystic Falls danced like eager children as Tatia watched through them, her hand intertwined with Vali's. From their vantage point they observed their pawns scrambling with their desperate potion.
But Tatia's attention kept drawing back to Katherine, to the way her scar pulsed in rhythm with Vali's mark, to how beautifully broken she'd become over the centuries.
"My love," Tatia began, her voice carrying an almost playful note. "I've been thinking about Katerina."
Vali turned to her, curiosity in his black eyes. "Oh?"
"Look at her," Tatia gestured through the shadows at Katherine's kneeling form. "How beautifully broken she's become. How perfectly she understands her place." Her smile sharpened. "Wouldn't she make a perfect addition to our private collection? In a more... intimate fashion I mean."
"As a concubine?" Vali asked, genuine surprise coloring his voice. "You've never wanted to share before."
"Share?" Tatia laughed, beautifully, yet should those unloved by her hear it, it would sound like breaking glass. "My darling, she's not someone to share - she's a piece of me. A broken echo that needs to come home." She turned in his arms, her eyes gleaming with possession.
"Think of it - while the others are preserved in their perfect moments, we could keep Katerina as our perfect toy. A doll that knows it's a doll, that understands its purpose."
Vali studied his wife's face, seeing the possessive gleam in her eyes. After a thousand years, she could still surprise him.
"You never cease to amaze me," he said softly, genuine appreciation in his voice. "Most would see this as sharing their beloved. You see it as..."
"Collecting what's mine," Tatia finished, her smile all teeth. "She's worn my face for five hundred years, played our game so beautifully. And now look at her - " she gestured to Katherine through the shadows, "touching your mark, yearning for completion. She doesn't even realize she's yearning for me too, for the original she's merely echoed all these years."
Through the shadows, they watched as Katherine shivered, her scar pulsing brighter as if sensing their discussion of her fate.
"The others will be preserved in crystal," Tatia continued, her voice carrying dark excitement. "Elena with Stefan, frozen in their pure love.
Alexander as your mirror, preserved in understanding. But Katerina..." her eyes gleamed, "she could be our perfect broken doll. Not just preserved, but kept. Used. Played with."
"You've given this quite a bit of thought," Vali observed, fascination evident in his tone.
"Of course I have," Tatia's laugh was gentle but sharp. "She's the only one of my echoes who truly understands the game. The only one broken enough to appreciate what we offer." She pressed closer to Vali, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"Imagine having her kneel at our feet, perfectly aware that she's just a toy, just a broken reflection of me, and loving every moment of it."
"A beautiful vision," Vali said, his fingers tracing Tatia's jaw. "Though you understand, of course - she may be our toy, but she'll never touch you. That privilege remains mine alone."
Tatia's smile widened, a pleased gleam in her eyes. Even in granting her this possession, he was still protecting what was his.
"Of course, my love. She's a doll to be displayed, not a replacement to be used. Let her watch, let her yearn, let her understand exactly what she is - a mere echo of what you already possess."
"My possessive Queen," Vali's voice carried dark amusement. "Making even sharing into another form of ownership."
"It's not sharing if you're just collecting pieces of yourself," Tatia reiterated, watching Katherine through the shadows. "Besides, keeping her like this, letting her serve without ever touching me... Only touched by you, played with... it makes the game so much sweeter, doesn't it?"
Katherine shivered again, the scar on her neck burning brighter, as if her very essence recognized what was being planned for her.
"She feels it," Tatia observed with satisfaction. "She doesn't understand yet, but she feels it. The pull toward completion, toward her true purpose."
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In the boarding house, Katherine felt it again - that pull, that burning in her scar that meant they were watching. Thinking about her. Planning for her.
She barely heard the others discussing the potion, its supposed power to save them. Her attention was consumed by the sensation of being observed, of being... considered.
The scar pulsed with each heartbeat, sending waves of something between pleasure and terror through her body.
They were talking about her. She knew it with the same certainty that she knew her own name - though even that felt less real now than the mark on her neck.
Whatever they were discussing, whatever they were planning... it was more than just the ritual. More than just preservation in crystal.
Something deeper called to her. Not just Vali's power, not just the mark's claim, but something else. Something that felt like... coming home.
"Katherine?" Elena's voice barely registered. "Are you even listening?"
"They're watching," Katherine whispered, her fingers tracing the scar. "They're... deciding."
"Deciding what?" Stefan asked, but Katherine just smiled, that terrible knowing smile that meant she understood something they couldn't comprehend.
"My purpose," she breathed, though she didn't yet know what that purpose was. Only that it felt right, felt inevitable, felt like everything she'd been running toward while thinking she was running away.
The scar burned brighter, and Katherine could almost hear them - not their words, but their intent. Like music played just below the threshold of hearing, like a dream half-remembered upon waking.
"You're enjoying this," Damon accused, watching her shiver with what looked like pleasure. "You're actually enjoying being his puppet."
"Puppet?" Katherine laughed softly, her eyes distant, uncaring for Damon's scorn. "No, it's something... more." She touched her scar again, feeling their attention like a physical thing.
Her feelings twisted inside her - that familiar bitter hatred for Tatia, the original doppelganger who had everything Katherine had spent centuries running from, mixed with something else. Something that felt terribly like longing.
She hated Tatia. Hated her perfection, her position, her power. Hated how she stood beside Vali not as a puppet or a toy, but as a Queen. And yet... and yet there was something else. A desperate need to please her, to earn her approval. To be worthy of being her echo.
"Katerina," Elijah's voice cut through her reverie, sharp with concern. "Focus. The potion-"
"Won't work," she finished, but her voice held no fear now, only a confused anticipation.
"Nothing works against his will. Against their will. I only took it in on a whim. ." Her hand continued to feel her scar, sense it pulse with their attention. "They have something else planned for me. Something..."
She shivered again, pleasure and terror and hatred and love mixing as understanding began to dawn. Not crystal. Not preservation. But purpose.
"My Queen," she whispered, the words tasting like poison and honey on her tongue. Hating her, loving her, needing her approval - all at once, all consuming.
"Something's happening to her," Elena observed, watching Katherine shiver with each pulse of her scar. "The mark-"
"Is singing," Katherine finished, her voice distant. "As I said, they're planning something for me. Not crystal. Not preservation. Something..." she laughed softly, the sound caught between bitter and yearning. "Something more intimate."
"They're going to preserve us all in crystal," Elena said in retort, her voice tight with fear. "Like Klaus and Rebekah and-"
"Not all of us," Katherine interrupted, the words spilling out before she could stop them. "Not me. They have... something else planned."
"What do you mean?" Elijah asked sharply, but Katherine just smiled, that terrible knowing smile that mixed hatred and yearning in equal measure.
Ask your Queen," she whispered, then laughed at how natural those words felt on her tongue. "Ask the original I've spent centuries trying to outrun, only to find myself running straight to him all along."
The sound of her neck snapping cut through the room like a thunderclap. Katherine's body crumpled as Elijah lowered his hands, his expression hard.
"She was becoming a distraction," he stated simply, adjusting his cuffs. "We need to focus on the potion, on our plan - not on her lovesick ramblings about Vali."
Elena flinched at the casual violence, but Stefan nodded grimly. "He's right. Katherine's too far gone - she's more their creature than ours now."
"She'll wake up soon enough," Elijah continued, stepping over her body. "But for now-"
He never finished the sentence. The shadows in the room suddenly went completely still - not darkening or shifting, just... stopping. As if even they were surprised by this interruption.
Then Katherine's scar began to pulse, brighter and brighter, even with her temporarily dead. The crimson light spread through her veins like a roadmap, making her look almost crystalline.
"Elijah," Bonnie's voice shook slightly as she watched the light spread. "I don't think that was a good idea."
The shadows finally moved again, but differently now - more deliberate, more focused. Everyone in the room felt it - that sudden shift from being watched with amusement to being watched with... annoyance.
The mirrors shattered. All of them, simultaneously. Not violently, not explosively - they simply... ceased to be whole. The fragments hung suspended in the air for a moment before dissolving into shadow.
"Elijah," Vali's voice came from behind them, perfectly ordinary and terribly final. "I don't appreciate you harming my toys."
They turned to find him standing there, as casual as if he'd been invited for tea.
"Especially not this one," he continued, his eyes falling to Katherine's still form, the crimson light still pulsing through her veins. "Tatia has such interesting plans for her."
Elijah straightened his jacket - a nervous tell he'd never quite eliminated. "Brother, I-"
"Was trying to maintain focus on your desperate little plan? Yes, I know." Vali's smile showed too many teeth. "But you see, Katerina isn't yours to discipline anymore. Hasn't been for five hundred years, really, but I suppose you needed this reminder."
The room held its breath as Vali knelt beside Katherine's body, his fingers brushing her scar with something almost like tenderness.
"How are you even in here?" Stefan demanded, stepping in front of Elena. "You haven't been invited-"
"Haven't I?" Vali asked mildly, his eyes meeting Stefan's with something like amusement. The look held weight, as if referring to something Stefan should remember but couldn't quite grasp.
"That's impossible," Damon cut in. "We transferred ownership to Elena months ago. Any previous invitations would have been voided."
"For ordinary vampires, yes," Vali replied, his attention still on Katherine's form. "But I'm not ordinary, am I? I'm the King." His smile was almost gentle. "A single invitation lasts forever."
"After all," Vali continued, his fingers still tracing Katherine's scar, "how can a house refuse entry to the one who rules virtually all vampiric essence?"
The casual way he stated this fundamental truth somehow made it more terrifying than any display of power could have been. This wasn't a boast or a threat - it was simply how things were.
Katherine's body suddenly jerked, her eyes flying open as she gasped back to consciousness. Her gaze immediately found Vali, and the scar on her neck blazed brighter.
"My King," she breathed, then paused, feeling something else through the mark. A presence watching through the shadows. "My... Queen?"
"She's quite upset about this little interruption," Vali informed her conversationally, helping her sit up. "Though I suppose we should thank Elijah - his impulsive action has moved our timeline up slightly."
"Timeline?" Elena asked, though she immediately regretted drawing attention to herself.
"Mm," Vali hummed in agreement, his black eyes never leaving Katherine. "Tatia had such lovely plans for revealing your purpose gradually, Katerina. But now..." his smile showed too many teeth, "now I suppose we'll have to accelerate things."
"But that's for after the ritual," Vali said, rising smoothly to his feet. "Which, thanks to this little display of defiance, we'll be starting preparations for now. I find my mood is no longer generous enough to allow you your promised breaks."
"But you said until moonrise-" Caroline started to protest.
"I did," Vali cut her off, his voice perfectly pleasant. "And now I'm saying differently." His smile was gentle, which somehow made his next words more terrible.
"You seem to have forgotten something rather important - every moment of joy you've ever experienced, every peace you've ever known, has only ever been because of my generosity."
The truth of it, knowing his capability settled over them much like physical weight.
"After all," he continued, helping Katherine to her feet with casual possessiveness, "did you think it was coincidence that Elena found Stefan? That he saved you from that car crash? Let me tell you it wasn't.
I may not have manipulated every detail, at least made sure your lives were free of any difficulty, but I most definitely did not allow you doppelgangers to die before your time."
"My parents' car crash," Elena's voice shook with sudden fury. "Did you cause it? Did you kill them just to make sure Stefan and I would meet?"
"No," Vali replied simply, his tone almost offended at the suggestion. "That was simply tragedy - one I worked around, not one I created." His casual dismissal of her parents' death somehow made it worse than if he had been responsible. It was meaningless loss that he had simply... utilized.
"You see," he continued, his fingers absently tracing Katherine's scar, "there's an art to manipulation. Sometimes it's about causing events, yes, but more often..." his smile was almost educational, "it's about using what naturally occurs. About guiding rather than forcing."
The room fell silent as they processed this - how even their tragedies had been turned to his purpose, not through grand machinations, but through careful opportunism. It was somehow more terrible than outright control.
"Now," he said, his voice carrying finality, "shall we begin preparations for the ritual? I find my patience wearing quite thin after this... unpleasantness."
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
So, as you see I've come to my decision. Vali will be with Tatia and Katerina.
Hope you guys don't mind too much.
Felt too bad for her, honestly. I know that may sound weird, but I geniunly did while writing her. She actually invoked pity from me - the author himself. How crazy is that.
So, do tell how you find the dynamic between the three?
Also excited for the ritual next chapter? Now is the result the exact same or is there a bit... more to it.
Vali has been speaking of perfection after all.
So yeah, hope you all enjoyed, hope you all still will read despite this change, and yeah,
See you all later,
Bye!)