"I'm Katherine Pierce. I'm a survivor." — Katherine Pierce

The first thing Katherine realised after dying was that this, wherever the hell 'this' was, was not what everyone else said followed. It wasn't the accursed 'other side', where she was trapped as a ghost alone watching everyone alive around her. Even if no longer a vampire, she was still a doppelganger, and a traveller by blood, so she was sure that was where she should've ended up. But, alas, she did not. Hurrah!

Perhaps that was a good thing. Katherine really didn't want to be stuck in some everlasting purgatory that would slowly drive her insane—she at least wanted someone to hear all the snide comments she'd make about the 'Mystic Falls gang', but she wouldn't have even had that on the other side.

Well, except for Bonnie. But that wasn't much better either.

Regardless, Katherine Pierce had absolutely no idea where she was.

It was all just white. White nothingness, to be precise.

And she was sure white was supposed to mean heaven. Which made no sense to Katherine, since she was also pretty sure she wasn't exactly worthy of heaven. And she was more than prepared to make herself comfortable in hell; it may have been her narcissism speaking, but she was sure the devil would've adored her.

However, despite the overwhelming and blinding whiteness that engulfed her, there were no other signs that this, whatever it was, was heaven. There was no reunion with her dead family, or angels, or anything. No golden gates and singing. Just silent, empty white. It was obscure and suffocating.

That was, until a voice boomed around the empty white space.

"Katerina." She jumped at the voice, and began to search frantically for a source, but was only met with the same barren surroundings of before. "Do not try search for me," the voice spoke again, "I have no physical form."

No physical form? Katherine thought. "So, are you God, or something? Surely you can just…manifest a physical form." She said, flailing her arms about. "What even is this, anyway? Is this my 'judgement'—the whole reviewing my soul and deciding whether I go to heaven or hell thing?"

"It will be if you don't stop talking." The voice said in a sass that Katherine didn't imagine it could muster. She released a sardonic laugh but didn't say anything. If this really was some god-like entity that had control over something such as which afterlife she could reside in, she needed to be careful. Better to not overstep her boundaries. Katherine was cunning, but she knew better than to try and manipulate whatever this was. She knew better than to potentially anger it.

"You were brought here, Katerina Petrova, so you could be given another chance."

Katherine raised her eyebrows, her attention caught once more. She couldn't help but smile a devilish grin at the thought of her, the ever-elusive Katherine Pierce, evading death yet again.

"But," The voice began again, and the Katherine let out a groan; 'buts' were never good, "there are some…conditions." Conditions?

"Alright, lay 'em on me."

"The world you are being given another chance in isn't your own." And Katherine was bemused once again, but before even given the chance to interject, it continued. "It's a parallel universe. An alternate version of earth, which there are many of. I have chosen this one specifically, however."

That alone was enough to throw Katherine. She was used to the supernatural—she was used to witches and werewolves and vampires and doppelgangers and travellers—but she had no idea how to process that. She had no idea how to process that their earth, their universe, wasn't the only one. She simply thought it was a stupid theory that comic book nerds and weird scientists believed in. Yet, here she was, in some mystical realm, being told there are multiple. To say Katherine was rendered speechless would be an understatement.

"The universe I've chosen for you has no witches or vampires like you—" The Voice paused, "—At least, it's without any of the supernatural elements you are familiar with."

"So, in other words, it's boring?" The Petrova cringed at the idea. What a dull existence that would be. She'd rather just be dead than live some 'wholesome and meaningful' existence as a human. She had experienced more as a vampire, and she would never go back to that.

"Not quite."

"Then—"

"You'll figure it out once you arrive. However, as I said, there are conditions. You will not simply live this life as you wish. I will give you perks; you can have all the benefits of being a vampire—the strength, the speed, not aging, the blood, the healing, the compulsion and the arguable immortality—but you will be stripped of your ability to turn others into vampires, and those creepy eyes that you get when you feed." The voice paused for a moment, unnerving Katherine. "But, I suggest you don't feed."

Katherine dryly swallowed any remaining saliva in her mouth, which she wasn't entirely sure how she did in this place, but she wasn't going to ponder. She took more than a moment to respond, trying to understand what the voice meant, but to no avail.

"Why?"

"You have the option to live as a human, to some extent. You can live on human food, and you won't burn in the sun. But, this will not be a selfish existence, Katerina Petrova. There is a greater good to fight for in this universe, one which you'll figure out on your own, and that is what you'll fight for. You can have all these benefits, Katerina, but under the condition you live this life for others—not just yourself. Think of this as your chance for redemption."

She wasn't quite sure exactly how to respond, or even if she would be capable of everything the voice, which is what she had now decided to dub it. Katherine was inherently selfish. She had to be; he was on the run from Klaus for 500 years, it was a means of survival. She didn't believe it to be a bad trait, but a necessity. Little selfless girls like Elena got hurt, and Katherine wasn't about to get hurt.

She was the myth, the legend, the baddest bitch of all. She was conceited, and manipulative, and sassy, and insensitive, and oh-so selfish. She was Katherine Pierce. Self-preservation was kind of her thing. Yet, here she was, being told she couldn't be selfish. She had to, quote-unquote, live for others. Yawn.

"And if I don't?"

"You age." The voice almost interrupted. "You burn in the sun. You lose your ability to regenerate. You lose your ability to compel. You lose all the good things really, which will, inevitably, lead to your death. And, since you pride yourself with your ability to evade death given all odds, I'm sure you'll comply."

Well, the voice had her there.

"Oh, and, one last thing. You may choose to age as humans do, if you wish."

She let out one last laugh before the room went black.

As if.

Kind of a 'cringey' chapter in some ways, but hopefully the rest of the story will be better?

God, this is my fourth story where somebody gets reborn or put into another world. But, I had this concept, and I adore Katherine, so I simply had to write it.

I actually don't know what happens to Katherine after she dies—I've hardly even watched her death scene, since I'm only on episode 10 of season 5. I know she comes back in Season 8 and all, but I really couldn't care less about that. I'm just going to write this story, rest of the TVD storyline be damned.

Anyway, I want a shipping at the side, but I'm not sure who with. My highest contender is currently Natasha, but also maybe Bucky or Steve. Not Tony, though. I don't know. Leave me your thoughts. I haven't written a GxG story yet though, so it would be a nice change.