Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries.

The Cellar turned out to be an old, dusty room with claw marks and chains mounted onto the walls. In the middle of the room, a small wooden table had been placed, along with a few worn out chairs. An oil lamp was on the table, illuminating the face a person standing on the other side of the room, their hands resting on the table.

Two similar calls of "Eileen?" echoed in the room. Caroline didn't waste another moment, she ran across the room and wrapped her arms tightly around her best friend's shoulders as she cried.

"Don't ever leave me again, Eileen. Promise me, never again." Caroline whispered. Her whispers sounded like shouts in the empty room. Caroline felt like she was having an out-of-body experience. Her brain was having a difficult time comprehending that it really was Eileen. Her body had reacted before her brain could really process this.

Tyler was in a similar situation. He was frozen in place. His mind appeared to be stuck in an endless loop, Jeremy's words repeating themselves in his head. "It really is her. It really is her. It really is her. Eileen is back, she's here, it's her"

He fell to his knees as he observed the scene, tears streaming from his eyes. He couldn't remember having been this happy before. The relief overwhelmed him.

Eileen had closed her eyes, relaxing in the hug of her best friend. She quickly reopened them though, searching for Tyler. Once they lock eyes, she removed an arm from Caroline's waist and held it towards him.

"Ty?"

That one word was enough. Tyler got off the floor so fast he got dizzy and he practically ran across the room to hug Eileen. It was a group hug in the end, cause Caroline refused to let go but Tyler didn't care. He buried his face in Eileen's neck, breathing her in, taking in her familiar scent that reminded him of the forest.

Jeremy was observing the scene with a small smile and misty eyes.

"I missed you guys so so much. There wasn't a day that I didn't think of you. I wanted to come back so bad, but I couldn't. Not till I was ready." Eileen said, holding on her best friends tightly, her eyes firmly shut once again. She felt content again, right there, in the dark, humid cellar. She had been reunited with her family again.

Eileen wished she could stay in that position forever, but she knew they had things to talk about. So even though she didn't want to, she gave her friends one last squeeze before pulling away. "We need to talk. It's time to explain everything."

She turned to look at Jeremy, who had approached them during the reunion. She gave her brother a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, before grabbing a seat at the head of the old table. "Make yourselves at home"

"Damn Lils, how did you remember this place anyway? How long has it been since we last hang out here?" Tyler said with a big grin, as he took his seat.

"How could I forget? We've had some good times here, haven't we?" Eileen giggled, thinking back to all these times they had been here, hating life and drinking booze. Tyler chuckled.

"Wait, you guys hang out here?" Caroline asked with a disgusted grimace, looking around the room. "But why? It's so-" Caroline made some wild moves with her hands, struggling to find a way to describe what she really thought about the cellar.

"I like it" Jeremy stated, looking around as well. "The history of this place must be amazing."

Eileen smiled softly. She really had missed her family. "Maybe Tyler can tell you more about it later. Could you, Ty?" She asked, knowing all about her brother's fascination with history.

Tyler glanced at Jeremy, who was looking a bit awkward, before replying with a hesitant "Sure." Eileen looked between the two men in her life, but didn't comment. She would find out later what that was all about. She cleared her throat.

"So you're probably wondering how I'm here." Three raised eyebrows was all the answer she got. "Okay, okay." She laughed. She twirled a lock of hair in her fingers and gazed absently at the table.

"I was fighting with Elena in the car. Or more like Elena was fighting with me. Mom and Dad were trying to stop the fight when Dad got distracted and swerved, driving the car of the bridge. I hit my head somewhere as we were falling and passed out. The next thing I knew, I woke up on the floor in weird room. It was full of murals, all over the walls the ceiling, even the floor. They depicted stories about many different creatures."

"Creatures?" Caroline interrupted. Eileen lifted her eyes to look at her friend. "Vampires, werewolves, fairies, centaurs, you name it" She elaborated.

"The murals depicted stories about all creatures that are real. They explained how they came to be and how they help conserve the balance in nature." Eileen explained further, making the other three freeze and exchange worried looks.

"Eileen…" Tyler started, losing the smile that had been on his face ever since he first saw his best friend. "These things don't exist." He gently took her hand that was resting on the table in his own larger ones.

Before anyone else could say anything else, Eileen lifted the hand that wasn't in Tyler's grasp, palm facing up. "Don't they?" She asked with a smirk, before a ball of fire appeared, floating over her palm. Tyler reeled back, shocked.

Jeremy and Caroline looked at her with wide eyes.

"How- How are you doing that?" Jeremy stummered, as his sister started playing with the ball of fire, throwing it from one hand to the other.

"I'm a supernatural creature myself." She explained, amused at their expressions. "Surprise!" She laughed awkwardly, making the ball disappear harmlessly.

Caroline was the first one to break out of her shock.

"What-" Her voice came out high-pitched and squeaky. She cleared her throat. "What happened in the room? What are you, Eily?"

Encouraged by the fact that her friends and brother hadn't ran away screaming -Tyler was still holding on to her hand tightly- Eileen continued on with her explanation.

"In the middle of the room there was a traditional big round wooden table that reminded me of Camelot, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, surrounded by multiple wooden chairs. Two of these chairs were occupied. A man and a woman were sitting there, watching me. I was terrified. I didn't know where I was, I thought I had died. And in a way, I had. It just didn't stick.

The woman was the first to approach me. She looked familiar. It took me a while to realize that she looked like me." She paused to look at Jeremy who was listening to her story attentively, his brows furrowed in concentration.

"Jer…" Eileen leaned across the table to grab his hand.

"I'm adopted." She stated, gazing into his eyes. Jeremy's eyes had widened again, for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. He leaned back in his chair, shocked.

"It doesn't change anything for me, you are still my baby brother and I love you. That is never going to change." Eileen she continued, wanting to reassure him.

"What? But- but how? I mean, are you and Elena…?" Jeremy asked.

"No, we are not related at all. We just happened to be the same age. That explains why we look nothing alike." Eileen chuckled humorlessly.

Jeremy swallowed and run his palms over his face. "Okay then. This day can't get any weirder." He shook his head and faced Eileen. "You are my sister, Eily. Now and forever. Hell, you practically raised me! Blood or not, you are my sister." He smiled at her, giving her hand a squeeze.

"Language, mister!" Eileen playfully scolded, earning a chuckle from the others. Before the car accident, Eileen's dislike for foul language was renown in their group of friends and it had turned into an inside joke.

"Okay, now that that is out of the way, can we continue with the story?" Tyler who, along with Caroline, had chosen to remain silent during the big adoption reveal was eager to hear the rest of Eileen's explanation. Caroline giggled when Eileen shot her best friend a mock glare. "Patience is a virtue, you know, Ty."

"Ah, my dear Lils, when did I ever claim to be a virtuous man?" Tyler sassed with a smirk. Everyone laughed at that.

"Okay then Mr. badboy, continuing" Eileen said looking at him with fondness, still chuckling.

"The woman turned out to be my mother, Linette. The man was my father, Efron. We were in limbo. I had died, but I wouldn't move on to heaven, hell or the other side. They are phoenixes. And so am I."

"Wait, phoenixes? Aren't phoenixes supposed to be birds?" Jeremy interrupted again, confused.

"We are, the bird form is our natural form. However, each one of us has a human form. My mother gave birth to me as a human would, she didn't turn into her bird form at all for the duration of her pregnancy, so I came into this world a human. When I died in that car crash, I unlocked, in a way, all of my powers. That's why my parents were waiting for me in limbo, to explain everything and to help me train, learn how to control my powers."

"Aren't phoenixes immortal?" Caroline asked.

"Yeah, that's what I'd read too. But if you are, why didn't your biological parents raise you?" Tyler questioned, confused.

"We aren't completely immortal. We have natural immortality, we don't age and we are not easily killed. Iron hurts us, but cannot kill us on its own. Some witches have found a way to spell iron and make it deadly. If we are stabbed in the heart with enchanted iron, we die a true death. Otherwise, we simply burst into ashes and get reborn. My parents died a true death a few months after I was born. Witches don't understand us, they think we are a danger to nature, too powerful. They don't understand that it's our responsibility to keep the balance as much as it is theirs- even more so, I would say." Eileen explained.

"Does it usually take months to be reborn?" Jeremy asked, with a pained look, remembering all these months of hurt.

"No. As my parents explained, they were the ones to pull me into limbo. I am the last phoenix alive. Mother Nature cares for balance and that's why I had to be trained. That's why my parents were allowed to wait for me in limbo. I needed someone to explain to me what I was, to help me learn how to control my powers. It was dangerous to simply let me discover them on my own. Normally, when we die we get reborn almost immediately.

Time runs differently in limbo. One month here is one year in limbo. For me, it's been more than three years since I last saw you. My parents and I stayed in a mansion in limbo, you guys would have loved it! I trained hard under them. I mastered my powers as quickly as I could, to get back to you as soon as possible. I didn't know it would take that long. I thought about you every single day and I checked in on you whenever I could. You have no idea how much I missed you. I managed to come back just this morning and I immediately came to see you." Eileen smiled sadly. By the end of her explanation, she was grasping Tyler's hand so hard her knuckled had turned white. Tyler didn't seem bothered.

"Wow" Caroline breathed.

"That's an understatement." Tyler muttered, resting his head on his free hand.

"That is so cool!" Jeremy said excitedly, grinning widely and looking younger than he had in months.

"Do you have healing tears like in Harry Potter? Can you, like, teleport? When can I see your true form? Can I draw your true form?" Jeremy started firing off question after question, almost bouncing in his seat, forcing Caroline to use her hand to smother her giggles and making even Tyler think he was adorable. Neither had ever seen Jeremy act so childlike. They kept forgetting he was only fourteen years old.

Eileen couldn't help but laugh, feeling a big weight lift from heart. She had been stressing over their reactions ever since she found out what she was.

"Jer, I promise I'll answer all of your questions soon. And of course you can draw me. But first, I need your help to decide what to tell people. It's not like I can just tell everyone "Hi, I know you thought I was dead and I definitely did die, but I'm a phoenix so I came back". I don't think that one would go over well." Eileen leaned back in her chair, finally releasing Tyler's hand from her death grip. She pushed a stray hair behind her ear as she sighed.

It was going to be a long day, but no one cared. They were all content, because they were together again.

"Any ideas?"

Hi everyone!

So this is it! Eileen is a phoenix! I hope you are satisfied with this explanation.

Congratulations to "imapastelcutie" and "Leila Davis" for correctly guessing what Eileen is! I got really excited over this :p

A big thank you to everyone who took the time to review, it really means a lot and it is super encouraging.

Please tell me what you think about this chapter!

I hope you are all well,

xoxo SilverLionOfFlames