No Mercy

Echo by Jason Walker

I don't wanna be down and
I just wanna feel alive and
get to see your face again but 'til then
Just my echo, my shadow
you're my only friend

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Chapter Two: What is Lost is Not Always Forgotten

"She said 'see you around.' I don't think the threat could have been any clearer." Elena stated, annoyed at the indifference being displayed by the two in front of her.

"Relax." Damon stated, walking over so that he was standing right in front of Elena. "As long as you stay near us, you'll be fine." He actually looked amused.

At the same time, Stefan said with irritation clear in his tone, "We don't have time to deal with a new vampire. Operation: Kill Klaus is tomorrow. We have to destroy Klaus while Mikael is still on our side. We can deal with the new threat once our current one is gone."

"Besides," Damon added, a smirk appearing on his face. "We have the advantage. She thought you were Katherine."

"So?" Elena asked, slightly annoyed at not being taken seriously. She wasn't overreacting. If anything, she was under reacting. They didn't need another enemy at the moment, especially considering that they had their hands full with Klaus. She didn't, couldn't, put everyone in harm's way just because some vampire had a vendetta against Katherine. It wasn't right.

"So," the smirk grew," that means she's not on Team Klaus, otherwise she'd have known about the doppelganger."

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"There's a word for what you're being. It's called self-destructive."

Ash rolled her eyes, silently wondering why she even bothered answering her phone. "And there's a word for what you're doing. It's called overreacting." She leaned against the window of her motel room, her eyes drifting outside as she replied.

"Overreacting?" Ash could hear her friend sigh in annoyance over the phone. When Alexa spoke again, she sounded exasperated. "Ashlynn, why the hell are you even in Mystic Falls?"

The brunette smirked and when she answered, her voice was dry. "Oh you know, I figured it's nice this time of year so why not take a little vacation?"

"To the town that you want to burn to the ground?" It was obvious Alexa didn't believe her, a testament to how well she knew her old friend. "Ash, what are you planning?"

Ash's tone changed to one of mock hurt, the smirk on her face growing as she eyed the people passing by the motel. "Why do you always assume I'm up to something? Besides, it already sounds like you've gotten it all figured out anyway."

Alexa's response was almost instantaneous. "Ash, don't make me drag you kicking and screaming out of that town." Alexa's calm, though slightly amused, response didn't conceal the warning in her tone. "You know I hate unwanted attention."

Ash chuckled. "Who are you trying to kid, Al? You love attention."

"True, but not the unwanted kind…which we are sure to garner if I have to forcibly remove you from that backwater town."

Ash arched an eyebrow. "I'm sorry that not all of us grew up living the high life of Paris." She could imagine Alexa rolling her eyes at that.

"A pity, really." The woman remarked, her tone saying it was anything but. "Ash…because you are my friend…I will trust you. Please don't make me regret not making you leave." Alexa wouldn't be able to handle it if she lost Ash so soon after losing Justin. Not that Justin had been around that long, but Alexa got attached quickly…and unfortunately, it was usually to humans who ended up dying within weeks of meeting her.

"Don't worry, Alexa. This is me we're talking about."

Alexa's reply was dry. "Not really making me feel better with that comment, Ash. Be careful, alright?"

The younger of the two's eyes narrowed as if detecting something in Alexa's voice that she didn't particularly like. "There's another reason why you want me to leave besides the obvious, isn't there?" Alexa's silence gave the brunette all the answer she needed. Ash closed her eyes tightly as she took a deep breath. When Ash spoke, her voice was quiet as she asked, "He's nearby, isn't he?" Her face showed no emotion despite the turmoil within herself.

Silence, and then, "Yes."

Ash unconsciously touched the lapis lazuli necklace hanging around her neck, her blue eyes dark. "I see. Guess my little vacation is going to be cut short, huh?"

"That's entirely up to you, Ash. It's been a little over ninety years since everything happened. Are you really ready to forgive him yet?"

The brunette's grip tightened on her phone, her teeth gritted as she snarled, "Never. That bastard deserves nothing from me."

"And there is your answer. Call me when you get ready to leave and I'll meet you in Richmond, alright? Then the two of us can head on up to New York and go clubbing and get drunk off our asses."

Ash sighed, though a small smile did appear on her face at Alexa's attempts at trying to cheer her up. Alexa wasn't really the type to try and make people feel better, but when she did try, it was only for those who she truly cared about. "Sounds good. I'll head out in the morning."

"Au revior."

After hanging up with Alexa, the brunette glanced around her motel room and, after seeing that there was indeed nothing to do, decided to go out and do what she was sure would be her favorite thing in this town.

Torment the girl-Elena, was it?-who looked exactly like Katherine.

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Elena coughed slightly from all of the dust residing within the attic of the Salvatore house. And she thought that Jeremy knew nothing about cleaning. It was obvious the attic was the one place that hadn't been touched within the house in over a century. She coughed again.

"Where is this book supposed to be anyway?" She asked Stefan, turning her head slightly so that she could face him. The whole point in their journey to the upstairs was to find one of Emily's grimoires for Bonnie that had been stored within the attic shortly before the witch had been burned at the stake. Damon casually mentioned it to Bonnie when they were informing her about Mikael and now she wanted it out of the hands of vampires.

Stefan looked around the attic with hidden disgust in his eyes. "Damon's the only one who knows, but he refuses to tell. He seems to find it funny. What I find funny, though," he states, glancing at Elena out of the corner of his eye, "is that he trusts me alone with you up here."

Elena sighed and looked up at him. "Why wouldn't he? You're still Stefan, whether you can feel or not…and I still believe that you can feel emotions, you just choose not to because you don't want to feel the guilt."

Stefan didn't respond and instead when searching through the boxes for the lost grimoire.

Sighing, Elena began her own search as well. As she dug through one of the boxes, she froze as she came in contact with a miniature portrait that looked as if it had been painted in the mid-1800s. In the corner of the portrait, it even said 1862 along with a name written in an elegant cursive writing. Ashlynn. What shocked her wasn't the fact that Damon and Stefan had a portrait of a girl other than Katherine.

No, what shocked her was that Damon and Stefan had a portrait of the vampire that had attacked her outside of the Grill.

Noticing Elena's gasp of surprise, Stefan walked over. "What did you find?" He questioned impatiently, his eyes missing the fact that Elena quickly hid something behind her back.

"Nothing." She replied uneasily. "My mind drifted to the whole Klaus thing and the thought that he wouldn't fall for the trap flitted through my head."

Stefan looked as if he didn't believe her, but in the end, he didn't care enough to question her on whatever it was she was hiding from him so he accepted her answer and walked off to continue the search for Emily's grimoire.

Once he had walked off, Elena moved the portrait in front of her again, her eyes examining every detail of the face of the girl in the portrait. It was the same girl, that she was sure of. However, something seemed…different about her, Elena realized.

It was the look of innocence displayed on the girl Ashlynn's face, and the genuine smile that seemed to light the girl's entire face up.

Elena decided to keep the portrait, even though she knew it was wrong to do so, so she could question the vampire if she ever ran into her again.

After spending nearly an hour searching for the grimoire, Damon decided to come up and say that he had found the grimoire in the study shortly after the two had went upstairs.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Elena asked annoyed, covered in dust.

Damon shrugged, a smirk curving his lips upward as he said, "I figured it gave you something to do besides attract trouble. Though it does look like you attracted some vicious dust bunnies." He chuckled.

Elena glared at him half-heartedly before finally sighing when she realized it had no effect on him. "Fine, whatever. I'm heading home to shower and then I'm meeting Caroline at the Grill."

Damon arched an eyebrow. "What about the grimoire?"

Elena arched an eyebrow in return. "You found it, so you can give it to Bonnie. I'm done helping today."

"Whatever." Damon rolled his eyes, not really caring. "I'll deal with Judgey while you go off and have fun. Totally fair."

"I'm not the one who had two people search all throughout the attic for something that he had already found." Elena remarked over her shoulder before leaving.

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Ash had tracked down where Elena lived, but was slightly disappointed when she realized that no one was home. It looked like her plans for the evening were now ruined.

Deciding to go to the Grill and see if Elena was there, Ash soon got caught up talking to the blonde busboy she had seen Elena talking to the night before. She was intrigued as to why Elena looked almost exactly like Katherine, so she wanted to do some research into this Elena's past.

Fooling the boy Matt was easy. All Ash had to do was act like her old self, the innocent, couldn't hurt a fly girl she had once been. She introduced herself as being new in town and the conversation went on from there.

And, if Ash was to be perfectly honest with herself, she enjoyed talking to Matt. Unlike many of the humans she had known throughout the one hundred and sixty two years she had lived, he actually seemed genuine. Sincere. It was…refreshing, for a change.

Soon enough, however, their conversation came to an end when she noticed Elena walk in. "Who's that?" Ash asked innocently, looking at Matt.

To Ash's surprise, Matt actually stiffened before looking at the vampire with different eyes, as if he was beginning to suspect something was off about her.

The seemingly innocent inquiry send alarm bells off in the football player's head that, out of everyone in the Grill, it was Elena who had drawn Ash's attention. "Who are you again?" He questioned, an eyebrow raised.

Ash held back her sarcastic reply that was on the tip of her tongue. Normally she wouldn't have, but…she genuinely enjoyed talking to Matt. So after a moment, she replied by saying, "Ash. Ash Salvatore." She turned to get up and leave, completely missing the look of shock that crossed the busboy's face at her pronouncement. Before he could even think of a reply, Ash was already on her way toward a table near the one where Elena was sitting-talking with an excited blonde.

"Who's the new girl?" Caroline asked Elena curiously, nodding at the brunette who was watching Elena from a short distance away.

Elena gave Caroline a confused look.

"She's staring at you." The blonde continued, causing Elena to turn her head towards the direction where Caroline was looking. She blinked as her brown eyes met the somewhat amused dark blue ones of the vampire who had attacked her the night before. Ashlynn.

Elena frowned, fighting an internal war with herself as she felt the portrait poking out of her bag slightly. After looking at the dark haired girl one more time, Elena had made her decision.

Standing up, she looked down at Caroline and said, "I'll be right back. I've got to ask her something."

The blonde blinked surprised. "You know her?"

Elena winced. "Sort of."

Ash arched an eyebrow as she saw Elena walk over to her. She had to give the girl credit, it took some major guts to calmly walk over to a vampire who had attacked you the previous night. "Hello Elena." She drew out the girl's name, a smirk on her face.

Elena didn't falter as she replied, "Hello Ashlynn."

The vampire froze, her mouth hanging open slightly, not sure that she had just heard right. Her dark blue eyes narrowed speculatively as they searched Elena's face for any indication that Elena had indeed called her what she had thought she had. When Elena simply continued to watch her, waiting for a response, Ash said slowly, deliberately, "Where did you hear that name from?" It was a struggle for Ash not to lash out at the girl and demand to know what exactly was going on.

"From this." Ash's eyes watched warily as Elena's hand slipped into the bag she was carrying before pulling out what appeared to be an old piece of parchment. She snatched it from Elena impatiently, wanting to know what the hell it was.

The moment her eyes landed on her faded portrait, she froze. It was literally as if everything had slowed to a stand still as her wide eyes stared at the image, her hand the held it shaking slightly. "Where did you get this?" Her voice was so low that Elena almost didn't hear the question.

Elena hesitated on answering, still unsure as to who this girl Ashlynn was and whether she would react kindly or not to hearing the names of the Salvatore brothers. That hesitation was all that it took for Ash's emotions to turn from shock to anger.

"Where did you get this?" She snarled at Elena as she stood in front of her, rage shining in her eyes. It had been a gift she had given to Damon shortly before he had left to join the Confederate Army, something to give him incentive to survive so that he could come back to her and Stefan. She had thought it lost forever.

"Back. Down." A voice came from Elena's side and the blonde from before was now standing by her friend's side.

Ash scoffed at that. "You back down, baby vamp. I can tell you haven't been a vampire very long from your reluctance to attack, but you see, that's what vampires do. We attack. We eat. We kill."

Caroline was about to respond, but Elena interrupted it as she stood in between the two. "Don't, Caroline. It was my fault, not hers. And I'm sorry." She said that last part to Ash, who actually blinked in surprise that someone she had threatened actually apologized to her.

"You're not right in the head, are you?" Ash asked quietly, a hint of amusement in her tone as the barest beginnings of a smile appeared on her face.

"Probably not." Elena agreed, relieved that Ash no longer seemed hostile, though it did surprise her at how quickly the female vampire's moods would change. "Why are you in Mystic Falls?"

Ash paused, debating about whether to answer her or not. "I…lived here once, a long time ago."

"How long ago?" Caroline asked slowly, an eyebrow raised.

"1864, right?" Elena asked softly, almost instantly regretting it as she saw that Ash's guard that had slowly lowered snapped right back into place where it had been before.

Ash stared at Elena for a long moment as if trying to figure out how she knew all of this. "How do you-"

"Sorry I took so long." A voice remarked as the owner of it approached. "Judgey was being, well, judgey." The guy seemed amused by his own joke.

The guy walking over to them was decently tall with jet-black hair and the kind of dark blue eyes that a woman would do anything to stare into for hours.

However, that wasn't what caused Ash to stare at the guy with such shock and painful disbelief. It can't be him, Ash. You saw his death in person. It can't be him. It can't be. It can't be. It can't be.

Ash felt her guard completely shatter as she stared at the man with a vulnerability that surprised even Caroline, who was the only one who had noticed Ash's peculiar reaction to the sight of Damon.

Ash's voice shook slightly saying the man's name so haltingly and hesitatingly as if just waiting for all of this to end up a dream. "Damon?"

Damon stiffened at the voice he never thought he would hear again. To him, the voice was the voice of an angel long dead. His head turned sharply towards the girl standing near Caroline, having completely missed seeing her when he had entered.

He stared at her in disbelief, as if not believing his eyes.

"Ashlynn?"

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