AUTHOR NOTE:
The End has come and of course you can't possibly leave without hearing from this one particular character. It seems clear to me that before her unexpected first appearance in season 4, she has definitely been watching these guys all the way through in order to effectively plan her big move.

So that's who I'll leave you with - the myth, the legend, the baddest bitch of all….Katherine Pierce.

CHAPTER 13

KATHERINE POV

This is boring. I'm bored.

Five hundred plus years on the run and the only place that's ever slowed me down is Mystic Falls. One tiny little pit-stop here and already the stupid universe has conspired against me and my Louis Vuitton, open-toed, heels as I sink deeper into this ridiculous excuse for a lawn.

The universe can go and screw itself.

The whole point of my being back here is to check up on my loyal band of frenemies and they can't even do me the common curtesy of leaving the house so that I can get in and out of this place.

Its a shame the boys don't know I'm here, infringing on the intimate security bubble they put around my precious doppleganger. Not one of magic of course, they don't even suspect I'm here, but apparently when it comes to protecting Elena Gilbert, the statement 'it takes a village' rings true and dull. Nothing new there.
Judging from the complete Scooby gang meeting that happened, Klaus must be starting to get a little impatient with when Elena will make her next blood donation to his hybrid cause. So of course there they both stood; the daring Salvatore brothers both jumping at the chance to come to her rescue.

However will she make her choice?

I watched them all evening gathered around her, drawn in by this 'good girl' exterior that hides her frail, little humanity light bulb. My poor, fragile, copied self, doomed to lead a life of threat like mine, only without the intelligence to just become a vampire already. Instead she just relies on everyone else to take the risks for her. And for some unknown reason they all do.

I can't think why… I'm much prettier.

I'm not being petty, petty doesn't work with my bone structure, and part of this could be brought about by the fact that I've been reduced to lurking outside her house in the rain, but I loathe the little bitch. Everything just falls right in her lap.

I had to make it through childbirth, the death of my family and centuries of fleeing from an immortal hybrid, so you can understand why I'm a little upset that half the time my shadow self lives a better life than I do!

But at least I live in better, more expensive shoes.

Little Miss self righteous couldn't handle a single day in my heels. One tiny little blister on her perfect spotless life would have her flicking the switch to change her channel.

But I'm Katherine Pierce, I survive.

Yeah I've done some pretty horrible things to make that happen, but I don't turn off - I never have. I deal with it. She wouldn't last a week as a vampire without everyone fawning all over her. But I'd love to see her try.

One of these days I may just have to get rid of her altogether, there's only so many times you can wonder what you'd look like as a poor imitation of yourself before the novelty wears off. But one Gilbert nuisance at a time.

Right now first on my list is my current vendetta against their garden foliage - if this bush snags my hair one more time I will shred it to a stump with my nails!
… Ok so I would never do that to my nails but my patience is wearing thin. I've wasted most of the night waiting to find out how Jeremy is getting along with his new found hunting abilities. I hear the brat can draw, so hopefully he took the time to sketch something of this elusive body tattoo that I keep hearing snippets off.

Doesn't Jeremy Gilbert have the most adorable puppy brown eyes? Its like I go away for a while and when I get back he's got all cute. What? He's not my brother.

Personally I don't get the whole family bond thing at all. All these fractured little units tied together by blood. Elijah and Klaus, Damon and Stefan, Elena and Jeremy… the ties that bind. I could gag.
Family is just another bunch of people who can betray you, they're the ones that know how to hurt you the best. Generally I've always used this flaw to my advantage. I have a few indiscretions linked to this area in my past and they usually proved to be both effective and useful.

Sadly it seems a little late in the game to make our youngest Gilbert fall madly in love with me - but wouldn't that be a little strange if I did? I mean my resemblance to Elena is uncanny and even though she was adopted by mama and papa Gilbert it would be borderline incestuous for Jer to fall for a big sis look-a-like, tut tut.
Anyway, the whole idea is particularly useless to me right now seeing as he left the house an hour ago with his wicca girlfriend, Bon Bon the Bennet witch. Now the only thing preventing me from getting inside to rifle through his things, is waiting for loves third wheel to leave the house.

Honestly I feel bad for him, hanging around all this time waiting for the girl to pick him… again. My poor, innocent Damon, when will you learn? It's always gonna be Stefan.

I outta know, I loved them both… sort off.

Damon's always had this endearing and inconvenient obsessiveness to his love, its certainly made him useful to me over the years even when he didn't know it. A hundred years spent waiting to get me out of a tomb I was never in, and I was watching him the whole time, just over his shoulder. I checked in every decade or so, particularly in the 80's when he had his switch off and was all dangerous and sexy; still too blind to see that the elusive Katherine Pierce was right under his nose as he grabbed all those fake ID's for me while I lived above his favourite bar. I doubt he cared all that much that the people he stole them from bore a striking resemblance to yours truly - he wasn't caring about a whole lot right then; a particular trait I would have found useful in the 90's when I sent Isobel to him. Really I'm surprised he didn't kill her, but I guess it worked out well for me as I put her to use wreaking my havoc on Mystic Falls before I made my grand entrance.

Didn't he sleep with her too? Well that's a little kinky.

He really has a thing for the Petrova Bloodline. I guess it's just good genes. Cause lets face it, the only reason Elena has even half the hold on Stefan and Damon that she has is simply because she's a cheap knock off of me.

Urrrhhghh leave already! My leg is cramping and I'm freezing out here! - Is what I would say if I was some pathetic little human. But seriously, this weather is doing damage to my lady-like sense of calm, and what's a pretty girl without her charming personality?

From the moment everybody else left the house, which feels like my entire lifetime ago, the pair of them have been inside arguing. And fine, yes I've been snooping. After all, the fight might have been about me. I'm sure they blame me for all their terrible problems. But no, it was just more of the usual. Let me see If I could recreate the whiney frequency of Elena's voice - I've gotten quite good at it.

"I can't believe you Damon!", and 'After all this time you still don't see….blah blah blah."

Now let me see if I can do damon,

"I did it for your own good Elena.",

Hmm maybe make it a little more gut wrenchingly, desperate with just a hint of a dangerous drawl.

"I did it… for your own good… Elena.",

I gave up listening to that awfulness as soon as their phrases started going on repeat for like the millionth time. Stake me now, this could take them a while. I thought a better use of my time would be to pick the leaves out of my hair so that at least I'm still presentable if I get caught out here.

If a girls gotta go it may as well be glamourous.

Honestly I may die from boredom right now. If there was even the slimmest chance that maybe they've moved on to other interesting topics then I'd be willing to take a moment and listen in again. They really have bigger fish to fry - Klaus for instance. But I'm pretty sure they're still talking about their pointless lives.
Although if they keep shouting like that they'll take the decision right out of my hands and I'll simply be forced to listen as my brain dribbles out my ears.

I have a couple more leaves to untangle from myself but I guess looking my best is going to have to get cut short - their voices are getting closer to the front door. I have only a moment to take another step back into this devil's snare of a bush before Damon comes barging out of the house, forcing me to get back quickly out of sight and making me break a heel in the process.

"Son of a bitc- " Seriously? This is not my night.

He comes to an abrupt halt in the garden and I almost think he knows I'm there. It's a long moment before he simply grits his teeth and instead wrenches himself back around towards the house. That's fine by me, storm away, at least then you'll be too distracted to notice little ole me. He's clamoured back up the steps again and is almost to the point of touching the door handle when he seems to change his mind and doesn't make the final push back into the house. Instead he paces down the steps again, unto the path and stands looking up at the porch and glowering at the door. I don't know how he manages to have that level of smoulder in his steely blue gaze, it's really quite something.

He seems really pissed.

Now what has the petulant little cheerleader done to get his panties in such a twist?

I'm not given a whole hell of a lotta time to dwell on this before the front door opens and there she stands with her straight, flat hair and disapproving glare - the anti-me.
I do have other things to do tonight, many, many important things but if I can witness yet another moment where her life is not perfect then I will revel in it. So I'm staying for this whole exasperating show.

"You lied to me Damon."

"I didn't lie, I held back some small details of our past."

Well this is intriguing.

Honestly I don't know why she gets so tied up over people lying. Everybody lies, yet another advantage to my 'trust no one' policy and a side paragraph to my 'plan-for-every-outcome' strategy.

"You took memories from me, you made me forget things about us - I can't believe you did that and didn't tell me."

"What difference would it have made? huh? I couldn't have people finding out I was back in town at that time and we'd only just met. The safest way was to compel you to forget that you ever met me. Can't we just leave it alone? You know everything now, I gave it all back."

Sounds more than reasonable. Humans always thinking they own things like memories, blood, their right to live.

"Come on Elena, can we please let this go?"

Elena is nodding in fake agreement.

"Just let it go? Ok."

I smirk as I watch Damon take a step towards her. Over a hundred years experience with women and this eighteen year old has him forgetting that girls don't give up on a fight that easily. He's just reached the top step on the porch again when she lands her new attack.

"What about the other memory?"

It's almost comical to watch Damon get this frustrated. It must be like some kind of torturous foreplay for him, he has to be getting something out of it for them to fight the way they do.

"Arrgh come on Elena, the other one? It was just something I needed to get off my chest."

"You knew me then, we were friends."

Ooooh, poor choice of words Elena, this one phrase gets Damon all riled up, it's kinda hot.

"Yeah, we were friends, and you were with Stefan."

And there it is. Tale as old as time.

"For once I was trying not to be the pathetic moron that fell in love with his brother's girl again!"

I guess I'm somewhat to blame for Damon's tragic role in all this… Well what can I say? Sorry for making your life more interesting Damon? Sorry for not letting you die as a normal, boring human? I guess some people can't handle the fact that meeting me is a complete game changer in their menial, ordinary lives.

I mean look at him right now, clearly Damon can't handle people that look like me. He's breathing heavily, his eyes are blazing and his nose is even doing this weird nostril flare thing.

"That whole day, before I even showed up in your room, I had to stare it right in the face!"

Did I forget that Damons still ranting? Or was I merely trying to block it out? We'll never know.

"You just disappeared! We'd tried to kill Katherine at that stupid masquerade ball and then you were just gone! If I had thought that she had harmed one hair on your head I would have pulled out whatever passes for a heart, from her chest!"

Me-oow Damon. Don't hold back, tell me how you really feel.

"But it wasn't her, it was Rose and then it was a freaking original vampire that's managed to make you a target and the whole time we go to mount our daring rescue plan, Stefan's trying to get me to feel bad, to feel anything. The whole brother bonding road trip was just this relentless push to get me to admit that the only reason I was there was because I had feelings for you."

Few things could scare a human more than Damon Salvatore approaching them with that level of anger on his face but apparently Elena has more fire in her than I give her credit for. However it is she does it, she manages to stop Damon within a foot of her so that even though he continues this rather long winded speech, he doesn't dare reach for her. I smirk again, I bet he wants to though.

"Stefan's being all noble knight in vampire armour, real hero hair type stuff. 'You love her too', 'It's Elena', 'I can't think of a better way to die', and I could't think of one either! I would have taken an arrow in the heart, walked into a burning building, desiccated in a tomb for you and I didn't want to admit why! It scared the hell out of me when we couldn't find you, when I didn't know where you were, and I wasn't allowed to feel like that! And then we save you and you walk down those stairs and for a moment I think you're looking at me like I was the one you were waiting for. But it's Stefan. I'm just standing there like an idiot, with you thanking me over his shoulder, and even that meant more to me than it should have."

Well that sounds pathetic. See this is why I chose Stefan, Damon cares too much.

"You did save me Damon, you and Stefan both saved me."

"Yeah well at the end of the day he was the one taking you home and I got scotch, lots and lots of scotch. So forgive me for expressing a thought that night, but I had something I needed to say and you needed to hear it."

"But not to remember it?"

"No, Not to remember it, because then I was just that guy again!"

Please, I've been that girl all my life and I've always come out on top.

"Elena…You deserved to be with someone good, you deserved to live your life, grow up, be with someone who was better for you, that's all I knew. You might have thought I didn't get that back then but I did. I still do."

"You think you get it? The supposedly selfish guy who tells me he loves me and then wipes my memory so it doesn't ruin my relationship with his brother?! You are an idiot!"

Pretty much, yep.

"Oh I'm the idiot? I'm not the one standing here making an excuse for another one of my screw-ups. Don't do that! I did what I wanted to do. I always do what I want to do. Knowing any of this back then wouldn't have changed a thing. I hurt the people I care about, you know that. and if I don't actually kill them then I push them away."

"Well I'm still here!"

"Yeah?! Well maybe you shouldn't be!"

She slaps him hard.

I didn't think she had that in her.

It shocks both of them but there's no surprise as to how Damon takes it. Catching her fist in case she does it again is a wise move but pushing further into her space is an interesting choice. I would have snapped her bony little wrist for that but then I'm not in love with the little Prom Queen…

Is she the Prom Queen though? I never hear any of the gossip… Like I care.

"Let go of me Damon. Let go of me."

"Stop. Hitting. Me."

There is a roll of thunder overhead and the rain decides it wants to rip open the sky. That means I'm stuck here until this plays out and I'm getting drenched for all my troubles. This is usually why I have people for this stuff. Another peel of thunder curls across the sky and I miss something that Damon says before he begins to stalk away from the house and out into the night of perpetual disaster; Elena chases after him and manages to pull him to a stop three feet from where I am holding my breath, thankfully she also tugs him around until he is face to face with her again. I could almost be grateful to her, its a touching moment.
The storm certainly makes the scene very dramatic but they're both looking a little pathetic from getting soaked by the rain. Damon's hair however, is doing this fantastic mens-shower-commercial thing as he runs his hand through it, Elena on the other hand… awe honey you look just awful.

This looks like it's going to be another touching scene of will they won't they and unfortunately for me the weather does nothing to drown out Elena's voice as she holds on to Damon and gets ready to make her big speech. I'm going to have to listen to this.

"Stop trying to make it easy for me to let you walk away. You think I don't know who you are? That I don't know the things you've done? You think I don't see the way Bonnie gets this look on her face when I go to meet you. The way I hear Caroline tell me that she thinks I've lost my mind for being with you?"

You have got to be kidding me. These two got together?!

"You are the most frustrating person I've ever met in my life, and every time I think we're actually getting somewhere you throw something in on purpose to stop us from working. But you're not the only one who gets a choice here Damon!"

"You want to talk about choices?"

"Are you seriously bringing that up right now?"

"It's why I left in the first place! Me and Stefan both agreed we'd do it - I just got the short straw."

"I didn't want you to leave!"

"You didn't give me anything to stay for!"

"You want to base that decision you made to leave me on a quick choice that I had to make over the phone, between the boyfriend I wasn't over yet and You! You make me so mad!"

"If you're so mad at me Elena, if you know how wrong I am for you, then why are you staying with me?!"

"I'm with you because I love you!

… duh.

"I love you Damon."

That face actually looks good on Damon, all soft and hopeful - I remember that face. It's tragic that he's waited 150 years to hear somebody say those words back… I guess I should feel bad.

Hardly a shocker that Elena's little statement now has Damon throwing himself all over her, why don't we just pause here while I roll my eyes into a more comfortable position. There's certainly a lot of hands in new places, but as much as I'm glad that I got to see the fight I really could do without this particular visual.

Things have certainly heated up between these two since the first time I body doubled for Elena. When I met him on the porch that night he came in all slow and tentative, like I was going to bolt when really all I was trying to do was buy more time to score an invite into that house. Guess I could play the innocent and sweet card pretty well. But judging from the way she has her tongue down his throat now, my tactics would need to change a little before I try that stunt again. Obviously I'm not seeing the first kiss here, not from the way Damon's hands are groping parts of her under her top and she's half climbing him as I stand here and watch from the bushes like some twisted stalker. The PDA is getting a bit out of hand when you're mounting your creature of the night boyfriend in your front garden after midnight.

Damon has at least managed to carry her up unto the porch where they now seem to be making it the stage for their soft porno. That's an interesting use of the front door…

Urgh get a room!

Which, ok, fine, there they go, back inside the house…

...

And now I'm bored again.

Time to leave a pointless night's stakeout in the dirt, where the only causality of this night lies: my heel. Also, I am many kinky things but this particular brand of voyeurism was never really my bag, so if they're gonna continue making animal noises from whatever unfortunate room they've landed in, I'm gonna leave.

At this point I would strut down this street into the night, but with a broken heel its hard for a girl to make a climatic exit so use your imagination. Things are definitely heating up in Mystic Falls and if they're together it looks like its time to send Stefan some love. With all this familial betrayal in the air he's bound to reach out to the only person he can trust…me.

Due to the recent relationship development, I doubt any of them have a clue as to what's ahead of them with this hunter's mark. I bet everybody has their own ideas for the cure already, but as long as Klaus doesn't get to it first then there's still time to put my plan A into action.
He thinks he's gonna use it to neuter the threat from Ric Saltzman, but I am only one hunter's map away from finding that cure and ramming it down Klaus Michaelson's throat. Then I'll be free to live whatever way I want, with whoever I want. I definitely see myself taking on more of a power role in the future, I've always had this feeling that I was born to rule.

All hail Katherine Pierce.

Game on.

THE END

It definitely took me a while to break into Katherine's character mindset but once I did I found it hard to stop, which was kinda worrying when you fall asleep dreaming about lines for her to use. Having said that though, Katherine's POV was probably not the hardest chapter to write - that would go to Tyler. I actually hadn't written his chapter until just before I was going to post the next update and then felt bad for leaving him out. The trouble was I found he had very little to say because I don't think he would even care who Elena ends up with, he's too worried about his pack and Klaus during this season.

To the Guest reviewer CDLVI - I really appreciated your long rant :D thanks for the review. I would have responded but fanfiction dot net doesn't let me do that with guest reviews. As you can see I hadn't forgotten the missing memories that Elena got when becoming a vampire and I did manage to slip in the little note you had about the agreement Stefan and Damon made about one of them leaving, its in there briefly but its there.

I hope you all enjoyed the FIc and hopefully I will be back again with another TVD story.