A/N - Yikes...I know I have a few unfinished stories out there but this idea came to me as I have been watching my new obsession...The Vampire Diaries. Sine I am new to watching this show...please forgive me if some of their characters seem OOC. Also...if you are not familiar with both Twilight and Vampire Diaries (TV-not book), it may seem a bit confusing.

Summary - Takes place in New Moon time of Twilight but I changed the year to fit with season 2 of Vampire Diaries. What if Bella Swan was the reincarnation of Isabella Salvatore, Damon and Stefan's beloved sister that had died tragically? She not only looks exact but due to a spell cast years ago, she has begun to remember her former life. What will the Salvatore brothers do when they find out she exists? How will this affect Bella's relationships, especially with Edward? How do Katherine, Victoria, Klaus and the Volturi factor in?

September 13, 2010

Journal,

She died today. On this date 145 years ago. I can still see her so vividly in my mind's eye with perfect recollection. She was so sweet and so pure with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. She had been the only true light in my world…the only true light in Damon's as well. Until that day…that day that our light was snuffed out and our worlds were trapped in nothing but darkness. Being turned by Katherine had been nothing but a cruel formality after that.

Death would have been kinder…a blessing. One that neither of us deserved. It was our fault she died. This half life we existed in now was our penance. There would be no redemption.

Even now, I can still hear her voice, her laugh…see every emotion she ever felt foretold in those big brown doe eyes. I can still hear the roar of rage that ripped through Damon's throat as he rocked her broken, lifeless body in his lap, feel my own devastation tear through me when the knowledge finally came through my own protective barrier of shock.

Neither of us had any way of knowing when Damon and I got into that final human battle that we had exchanged enough blood with Katherine to be turned into the creatures we are now. I believe if we knew, things would have been much different. We would have both welcomed death. Damon especially. No, the rivalry for Katherine Pierce's love was not the real reason for the animosity between my brother and I. It was only the façade that masked the painful truth; the death of our sister.

Stefan put his pen down and scrubbed his hand over his face unable to continue for the well of emotion running through him. Every year for nearly a century and a half, he had written nearly the same entry in his journal on this day hoping maybe one day the literal purging would lessen the abject suffering. It never did.

Out of his wallet, he pulled the miniature portrait he never was without. He had had it commissioned for her 16th birthday present. It was of the three of them, her, him and Damon. They had posed for it just before Katherine entered their lives…just before everything went wrong.

It was a picture of obviously happier times although Damon was never without his sardonic smirk. And who could blame him really? Damon carried the smirk like a shield against their father's disappointment…against the fact that Stefan was the favored son…the favored child. Stefan hated his father for that…hated him for placing a wedge between him and his two siblings. Damon never failed to throw that fact in his face; somehow believing that that favoritism was part of the cause of their sister's death. Damon never forgave him for it and truth be told Stefan wondered if Damon was right.

Stefan had never shared the memories of his sister with anyone, not even Elena. He always preferred to keep them to himself…keep them pristine. Maybe it was time to let go of that. Maybe, just maybe sharing them would finally give him some semblance of peace.

Damon Salvatore poured himself another drink. He had lost count of how many he had hours ago. It didn't matter anyway. Nothing could numb the pain or drown the remorse. He should just sleep until tomorrow and put the whole day behind him. But sleep would bring the nightmares; each one worse than the last. Each one ending the same horrible way. Though he supposed the dreams where he would save her were worse. Worse because he would eventually wake up and she would still be gone.

He looked up at the ceiling, swirling the amber liquid in the crystal glass. Stefan would be holed up in his room writing in his journal. He wondered with a sneer if it would bring his brother any solace. Yeah, good luck with that, he thought. He would write volumes if he thought it would help. Tomorrow he could be on to different things and what had happened on this day so long ago would be packed back up into the little Pandora's box of pain he kept in the back of his mind only to open it again next year. Tomorrow couldn't come quick enough.

"Crawled out from under your rock, have you?" Damon mocked with a contemptuous smile when he heard Stefan coming down the staircase.

Stefan emitted a saddened sigh. "She would not have wanted this for us."

Damon turned to face his brother from his lounging position on the sofa. "And just when did you turn into Dr. Phil, hmmm?" he asked arching his eyebrow in a condescending manner.

"She was my sister too." Stefan responded in a deadened voice that belied his youthful looks.

Damon chose to ignore those words. Instead he finished his drink and got up to the side bar for a refill. As he was pouring, he turned to his brother with a contemplative look on his face. "It's funny. After all these years, you still spend the day holed up in your room writing in your precious journal to always remember and I drink myself into oblivion trying to forget." He shrugged his shoulders. "hmm, sounds no different from any other day, I suppose." He raised his glass in a scornful salute before tossing the drink down his throat.

"Except it is." Stefan told him somberly. "Different, I mean."

For the first time all day, Damon looked Stefan, all emotional barriers unshielded. It was a look of the rawest pain and desolation imaginable. "Yes it is." he replied huskily barely able to get the words out.

There was a soft knock on the front door of the boarding house that preceded Elena's arrival. She entered the great parlor, her eyes slowly adjusting to the dim light in the room. On the surface, nothing looked unusual but she sensed rather than saw the tumult that was evident in the large room.

"Stefan? Damon?" Her soft voice called. "What is going on? It feels like a funeral setting in here."

Damon laughed mirthlessly. "More like a memorial of sorts. But you get an "e" for effort."

Stefan went to Elena and wrapped her in his arms, needing to feel her life, her warmth, more than ever before. At Damon's gagging noises, the moment was broken and Elena pulled back from Stefan's embrace to look at each of the brothers with deep concern.

"A memorial? I don't understand?"

"Since Stefan is all about emotional sharing these days, I'll let him give you the gory details. Ta, ta." He said walking out the door and letting in slam behind him.

Elena turned her gaze back to Stefan. "Well, he's certainly in a mood. What is it this time? Don't tell me it's about Katherine again."

Stefan gave her a small, sad smile. "No. For once this isn't about Katherine. Not directly anyway."

"Okay, then. Can you be a little less cryptic? Seriously, Stefan. You look like you're hurting too. What's going on?"

Stefan guided her to the couch that Damon had vacated only moments before. She sat and looked up at him with worry in her eyes. Whatever he was going to tell her was not going to be good.

"Are you going to break up with me?" she asked her voice catching on the last word.

Stefan looked at the love of his life with a stunned expression. "What? No, Elena of course not." He denied vehemently. "This isn't about you, Elena. This is about something that happened a long time ago. On this very day, 145 years ago."

He sat down next to her, taking the miniature portrait from the pocket in his shirt and showed it to her, reluctant to let go of the small picture. Elena looked at it and held back a gasp. It was Stefan and Damon looking happier than she had ever seen them and in between them sat a younger looking girl with mahogany hair and brown eyes.

"Who is she?" Elena asked him.

"My sister. Isabella." Stefan forced her name passed his lips. It was the first time he had said her name aloud in a long time and it hurt just to hear his own voice say it.

"You never told me you had a sister." She watched Stefan wince. Elena didn't mean for the words to come out accusing. "I'm sorry. It's just that I thought there were no more secrets between us."

"It's alright. I'm sorry I never told you."

She placed her hand tenderly over his. "Will you tell me now?" She asked softly.

Stefan swallowed passed the sudden lump in his throat. Looking at the picture in his hand once more he started to speak, the words tumbling quickly from his mouth.

"I had an artist come to the house to paint this. " He started slowly. "Damon was on leave from the confederacy and I was gearing up to fulfill the expectations of my father to go to university. I wanted Isabella to have something to remember us by when neither of us were home. You see, my father resented her so…barely tolerated her presence. My mother….well …she died in childbirth with her. I was very young but Damon picked up the slack. He sort of became her surrogate parent at the age of 8. They became very close. There was nothing he wouldn't do for her. She became everything to him as he was to her. Mostly because our father barely tolerated Damon either. Isabella and I were very close as well considering she was barely two years younger than me." He furrowed his brow as some unnamed emotion passed over his features. "Anyway…this picture was painted a month before Katherine appeared in our lives…before everything became so broken and twisted. I was planning on giving it to her for her sixteenth birthday. I never got the chance." His voice broke.

"Oh Stefan." Elena murmured with a voice full of sympathy and stroked his cheek. "What happened?"

He got up and started to pace the room unable to sit still for this part of the tale. His memories, which had never been far from the surface especially today, hit him with an almost vengeful force.

"It was her birthday. The three of us were going to spend the night out...without Katherine." Stefan gave a rueful smile. "Isabella didn't like her you see...it was a bit more than dislike, actually." He gave a derisive chuckle. "Somehow Isabella saw what none of us ever could...so blinded we were by Katherine's beauty and false nature. Isabella saw the cold, ruthless heart that lay beneath the surface. So we agreed that for Isabella, Katherine would not accompany us.

Damon and I were waiting for Isabella at the top of the stairs to finish getting ready when the arguing started. It was about Katherine of course. All of our arguments were about her those days. I do not recall how it began, only that it escalated rather quickly."

Stefan seemed to get lost in his mind as he was explaining the tale. The images of that night played back in his mind like a movie.

September 13, 1864

"How naive you are if you think that she will choose you." Damon snarled, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.

"And you think she will choose you...the ne'er do well?" Stefan scoffed. "At least I can make something of myself. You have nothing."

"I have more than you ever will. You, my dear brother are a milksop of the first order. There is no fire in you. You follow blindly where father leads you. Katherine will grow bored within the first month...if she isn't already. Come to think of it, maybe that she why she graces my bed, even now."

Stefan went to lunge but was stopped suddenly when Isabella ran towards them and stepped in between them with tears brimming her eyes.

"Stop! Both of you just stop. Cant you see how she has come between you...between all of us. This was supposed to be a happy occasion and now you've ruined it."

Isabella's words barely registered to Stefan. He still heard Damon's stabbing confession reverberating through his head. Perhaps that was the reason why he lashed out so cruelly towards his sister.

"Stop being such a selfish brat." He scolded her. "You just want Katherine out of both of our lives so the attention can be focused on you again."

The look of hurt that overcame Isabella's face was palatable. She gasped and stepped away clutching her throat as if she could barely believe the words uttered from his mouth in a such a vicious manner.

"You do not speak to her that way!" Damon's protective instincts came bubbling to the surface. And this time it was he who did the lunging.

Isabella moved to stop him and Stefan saw the outcome. He didn't think Damon had the quick enough reflexes to stop and Isabella would be caught in the crossfire. He only meant to move her out of the way and take Damon's blow himself.

Stefan quickly shoved her aside as Damon's punch landed on him. That's when it happened. One minute Isabella was there and the next she was tripping on the hem of her gown, stumbling backwards over the railing, falling and there was nothing but the resounding thud as she hit the floor below.

Damon's face turned white. Hs attention immediately turning from his brother who was on the floor from the punch he just delivered.

"No, no, no" he repeated in a litany as he raced down the stairs. He stopped short when he saw Isabella's lifeless form twisted in angles no living body should be in. "NOOOOO!" he screamed falling to his knees beside her, frantically checking for a pulse knowing in his heart he would find none.

Tears streamed down his face as he gently took her in his lap, crying as he rocked her slim frame in his arms. Stefan recovered quickly from the punch as soon as he heard his brother's scream. He ran down the stairs already knowing what he would find. He approached them slowly. Damon snapped his head up to look at him with such utter devastation and hatred in his eyes...hatred for Stefan.

"You!" He snarled accusingly as he watched Stefan drop to his knees beside them. "You stay away from her. You have no right to be near her."

"I'm ...I'm sorry...so sorry." Stefan sobbed brokenly.

"Apologizing will never bring her back." Damon whispered vehemently, his attention turned back to their dead sister, his fingers shaking, soothed her hair back from her ashen face.

Back to Present Day

"And he was right. Apologizing would never bring her back." Stefan swallowed, trying to stem the tears that were flowing freely down his face. Elena leaned over to kiss them away but he turned away from her, not wanting her acceptance...her forgiveness. "The night before her funeral, Katherine came to me. She pretended sympathy and I was so devastated I lapped it up. Needing to escape from the pain, we made love and exchanged blood...although she had compelled me to forget that part. After Isabella's funeral, I found out she had come to us both...promising forever." His small laugh filled with ironic scorn. "Damon and I barely waited for the dirt to fully cover Isabella's coffin before we fought again. It was the last human fight we would ever have. We killed each other that day."

"Oh, Stefan. I had no idea. I am so, so sorry. But it was an accident. A very tragic accident."

"Don't" he said, clenching his eyes shut. "Don't show sympathy for me. I couldn't stand it."

TOMR

Damon was running without any particular destination in mind when he found himself at the old portion of the Mystic Falls Cemetery. Overgrown foliage grew haphazardly over the most of the graves save one. The one that stood out with fresh flowers laid over the stone that marked Isabella Salvatore's final resting place. Damon paid the groundskeepers over the years handsomely for keeping this particular grave free of unwanted growth, paid for the fresh flowers that adorned it week after week.

He stared down at the gray stone that was starting to show little decay from the years it had been there. It wasn't the original. There father hadn't cared much to leave more than her name and the years of her birth and death on the marker. He had it replaced anonymously some years later. It now read "Isabella Maria Salvatore. Beloved Sister. 1848-1864." It was simple but no words that could ever be placed there could ring more true than those. She was beloved.

It was easier for him to place the sole blame of that nights events on Stefan. Easier but not all together true. He knew he had his own share of the guilt to burden. If he hadn't goaded his brother with that last taunt. If he hadn't went after his brother fists first... He should have known that Isabella, always the peacemaker, would step in somehow. He should have known but it happened anyway.

Damon could still see Stefan pushing Isabella out of the way, saw her trip over her gown and plummet over the railing to the ground below. Tears slowly leaked from his eyes.

He brought his head up suddenly when he heard a twig snap behind him.

"I should have known you'd be here." Stefan said.

"The all you can eat buffet at the mystic grill was sadly lacking." Damon responded with his usual caustic air. "Where's Elena? Did she see you for the murderous bastard you are and send you away?"

Stefan winced at the harsh words. "Murderous bastard is more your job description, don't you think?" He replied not wanting to play these words games with Damon anymore.

"Sorry brother but that title belongs exclusively to you. As a vampire I just do what is in my nature. Back then what was your excuse?"

"I can't bring her back Damon." Stefan said feeling suddenly tired.

Damon stared hard at his brother. "Yeah, and pardon the pun but that really sucks."

TOMR

September 13, Forks Washington

Bella Swan hated being the center of attention and right now her boyfriend's family stared at her eagerly as she opened the next birthday present. Sliding her finger under the paper so she wouldn't disturb the beautiful wrapping, Bella felt a sting of pain on her finger.

"Ouch. Paper cut." She announced blithely with a grimace.

One minute she was staring at the small bead of blood that formed on her finger given by a paper cut from the wrapping paper and the next she was being thrown backwards into a glass coffee table as Edward lunged forward to prevent Jasper from attacking her.

Normally a paper cut would be no cause for alarm...unless you were surrounded by a family of vampires.

That was the beginning of the end for her and Edward. Two days later, the man who continually told her he lover her, who claimed she was the reason for his existence and without her there would be no him, left her emotionally broken in the forest near her house.

Edward's parting words stabbed like knives.

"You're no good for me Bella."

"My kind, we're easily distracted."

"Promise me you won't do anything reckless...for Charlie's sake."

"This is the last time you will ever see me. It will be as if I never existed."

"He's gone." Bella repeated over and over until her throat was raw and darkness overcame her. In her near state of catatonia, visions came into her mind that reminded her of the Bronte books she was inclined to read. It was odd, she thought. In her mind she saw herself but was dressed in N century clothes. She was slightly younger and her hair was worn in ringlet curls that framed her heart shaped face. Before the image could fully form, there was a shooting pain in her head. Already in fetal position on the hard ground, she grasped her head against the pounding. As suddenly as the pain came, it was gone, leaving Bella with a small trickle of blood leaking from her nose.

She didn't know how long she lay there before Sam, one of the Quileute tribe, found her and brought her back to her father, a broken shell of the girl that just the day before had almost everything she ever wanted.

Katherine Pierce watched the scene play out before her with an expression of malicious victory written over her features. She hadn't planned it this way but it was even more perfect that she ever imagined. Her former lovers would never knew what hit them.

"It has finally begun." She whispered softly to herself before she turned and quickly walked away with the barest of sounds.