As the car stopped in front of the hospital, she clutched her purse tightly, pressing all of her inpending panic into the strap hanging from her shoulder. Stefan turned off the ignition.
"Sure you don´t want to back out?" Damon asked.
"I don´t really have a choice, do I?"
"Guess not."
On that note, they left the car, and walked up to a black SUV. As they approached the two blond Originals standing in front of it, Caroline felt like vomiting.
"Ah, there´s my girl." a British accent laughed.
"What do you want?" Caroline asked. Less than an hour ago, she had agreed to meet the hybrid´s demands, now she needed to find out what exactly those were.
"You´re no fun." he teased, tugging a stray behind her ear. "It´s fairly simple. I require a new assistant."
"Assistant?"
"As in secretary, organizer, right hand..."
"Private killing machine." Damon interrupted, earning him a pointed glare from Klaus, and a giggle from Rebekah.
"What does that have to do with me?" Caroline asked worriedly.
"Well, since you organized such a nice Senior Prank Night, I thought you might be worth a shot."
"No offense, but didn´t you already enlist Stefan for that ?"
"Partially, but mostly I require his talents for making messes, I am asking you to clean them up afterwards."
"You´re joking." Caroline took a step back.
"Not really. But if you want to renege on our agreement, I´d be perfectly happy to tear your little boyfriend´s heart out instead."
"C´mon. You can´t seriously want Blondie here to be your sidekick."
"I prefer the term assistant." Klaus returned, his eyes never leaving Caroline´s.
Caroline exhaled. She remembered the properties of her deal with Klaus and she knew how he´d retaliate, if she chose not to agree, only she did not feel ready to give in just yet, either.
"Seriously? You want someone who voluntarily joined Operation Kill Klaus to organize your calendar an d take your calls? You´re sick."
Klaus took a step towards her, taking in her scent. Memorizing it. "Operation Kill Klaus, hm?" he smirked. Seemingly pondering over her words, he looked over towards the Salvatores. "So is me threatening your loyalty towards your little girls scouts club here your only objection to my request, love?"
Caroline lacked the power to respond in the face of his intent gaze. "I make you a deal. I´ll share."
"What.. I don´t... understand." Caroline uttered.
"You won´t be required to tell me whatever crazy plan Damon and your little friends come up with, you may even help them, however, in return you won´t tell them anything about my plans either, and you will fulfill any task I might give you."
"Wow, the dude really is out of his mind." Damon commented, rolling his eyes. Caroline could never stick to her end of the bargain towards him, if she´d also get involved with them. It would tear her apart.
"Well, I admit, it sounds a tad bit decadent, but I think we can make this work out just fine if ..."
" if what...?" Caroline asked confusedly.
"You let me compel you to make it work." he smiled, sensing her dread.
"No, I..."
"Well, you can either let me compel you and keep your freedom to help your friends whenever it does not interfere with your duty to me OR you avoid the compulsion but instead choose between losing your entire circle of friends or Tyler´s life. Your choice, sweetheart." he repeated slickly. "Don´t worry, I´ll only compel you to stick to the terms of our agreement, Damon here even gets the permission to attack me, should I stray during the compulsion."
Caroline looked from Klaus to Damon, unsure of what to do. She hated compulsion, but the other options seemed even worse. She could not stand by and not help her friends, neither could she let Tyler die.
"Hurry up, I am getting bored." Rebekah said from the hood of Klaus´ SUV.
"Fine."
"Excellent." In a flash, Klaus had his arms around Caroline´s waist, locking their gazes. "You´ll do whatever I tell you to do, and you won´t share information about me with anyone. However, you may refuse me any information about your friends, I won´t let you harm them direct AND you may even plot to kill me without sharing the information with me. But just to be clear, love. While your duty to me is not a choice, helping your friends is your choice and yours alone. You are free to decide if you see action on your part fit. Just remember, I come first, they come second."
Caroline nodded with dazed eyes.
"You got that Damon, if you want her to help you, she is free to do so." Klaus smirked. "Now love, go inside and check up on your friend Elena. Make sure, nothing goes wrong with my donation." And so she did, with an apologetic look towards Damon. Klaus watched her until she disappeared in the building.
Caroline found Elena in a room on the first floor as she was about to wake up.
"Where am I?"
A nurse was there to answer that. "In the hospital sweetie. You suffered through a terrible ordeal." Elena slowly tried to get up. "Caroline."
"Hey, It´s going to be fine. I am here now."
" I have to go" Elena uttered, but the nurse stopped her. "Ah. Not an option. You´ve lost a lot of blood."
Dazedly, Elena looked down at an almost full blood bag. "Wait. You´re taking my blood?" she asked tiredly.
"Of course." The nurse answered with a smile. "It´s very important for your friend Klaus."
Caroline´s eyes shot wide, as she finally understood what Klaus had instructed her to supervise. "I am so sorry Elena." she cried, tears in her eyes.
"Care, what..." she was about to finish her question but then noticed the nurse injection her something.
"Ah, don´t fight it sweetie." And then, Caroline witnessed Elena´s eyes going blank.
Earlier that evening.
They were in the chemistry lab. Tyler was fearing for his life, and all Caroline could do after waking up to have some evil blood slut explain to her that he was "deadish", was to soothingly place her hand upon his neck. She was afraid for his life as well.
"Well, the verdict is in." a velvety British accent said. Caroline looked up to see Klaus walk into the room. It was the first time she saw him. He was attractive and intimidating, just like Damon only worse on both accounts. And he reeked of arrogance, and she suppressed the urge to claw his eyes out.
"The original witch says the Doppelganger should be dead." Caroline gulped at that. Praying that life would not make her choose between her best friend and her boyfriend.
Rebekah came up from behind them. "Does that mean we can kill her."
"No, I am fairly certain it means the opposite."
Caroline was about to ask. "What..." but Rebekah grabbed her arms and pulled her away from Tyler.
"Call it a hunch." Klaus said. For a second she thought, she saw him give her a smirk.
He crouched down towards Tyler. "Elena´s blood. Drink it." His voice was low and threatening. Tyler´s forehead was all sweaty and he was genuinely lost what to do now.
It was bad. Really bad. "No. No, no, no, no, no. Tyler, don´t." she tried to warn him, knowing that the situation was hopeless.
"If he doesn´t feed, he´ll die anyway, love." Klaus explained to her calmly, as Tyler suppressed a wave of pain.
"Don´t call me love, you monster." she hissed. He smirked at that. This time she was sure he did.
He looked back at Tyler. "Consider this an experiment." Quietly, he added. "It´s okay."
With what probably was his last ounce of strength, Tyler took the vial. "There you go." Klaus uttered. Then Tyler drank it. "Good boy." The original smiled.
Caroline tried once more to fight Rebekah, only it was in vain, as Tyler started to clash to the ground, bringing down various chemistry equipment with him. Caroline cried in frustration as she could not help him. Hating Klaus even more for that. Tyler´s screams filled the room, intriguing Klaus, terrifying her. When Klaus kneeled down to see the result of his work, he found Tyler Lockwood with werewolf eyes and vampire fangs. His first successful hybrid.
"Well, that´s a good sign." Klaus nodded in approval.
It was this moment of relieved surprise, that Caroline used to get out of Rebekah´s grip. Without thinking she launched herself at Klaus, slapping him in the face while pushing him to the ground. Not even caring if she only managed that because of the unexpected nature of her action. As she straddled him onto the floor, she attempted to choke him, putting all her anger into the task. Klaus chuckled lightly, before pushing her off him and into the hallway, pushing her against a locker before she had time to get back to her feet.
"Now love, that is not very nice, considering I just performed a miracle on your boyfriend." he laughe amusedly. The success of his experiment making him slightly light-headed.
"Don´t call me love. And you nearly killing Tyler for your selfish gain is not what I would call a miracle." she hissed, trying to kick him.
Suddenly, his smile disappeared. And he looked her up and down in all earnest. "You´re the baby vampire, aren´t you? The one I nearly sacrificed. Would have been quite the waste." he said.
"You know, there is something I never understood about you, love. What´s your role in this game? You know, I initially thought your only purpose was to be sacrificed for my cause, but that fell through, so now I am wondering, what´s your purpose. You obviously don´t make the plans, you leave that to the Salvatores. You´re no Doppelganger. You´re no witch. But still, Damon bothered to save you and Tyler. Now, Tyler has found his purpose tonight, that still leaves me to wonder: What is it you do that makes you worthy of staying in the game, love?" With each sentence he had inched closer to her, until their bodies were almost touching, but he never let go off her throat. Suddenly his pupils dilated, illiciting the answer to a question she probably would not even be able to answer otherwise. "I do whatever is necessary." she responded blankly.
Klaus looked her up and down, taking in her beautiful features, her brave eyes, her defiant lips. Her answer intrigued him. He tried recalling everything he had ever heard about that girl, which until now had not been much. She had helped his new hybrid during his first transformation, which was a rather crazy gesture on her part, considering the risks, but highlighted her selfless way of caring for people. He knew that tonight´s event at her school had been mostly her doing as she had coordinated every single prank and staged them all around the school, just like she had organized that dance he had entered in Alaric´s body. She liked controlling things, which is why she organized them. And he vaguely remembered that she was trying to maintain her humanity. She was a very complex baby vampire, indeed.
"So, how do I punish you for ruining my moment just now." he cooed, wiping a tear from her cheek. "Maybe I should just go back in there and kill poor Tyler, since you are so displeased with his new self."
"No" she had cried. "Please." she struggled against his hold, but did not manage to loosen it.
"Okay, how about your life for his? If you want me to let him live, meet me at your local hospital in an hour. Stefan will drive you. If you don´t show up, I´ll kill Tyler. After all... there are plenty more werewolves out there that I can turn."
After that, she had only felt a gush of wind as him and sister sped away, leaving her on the ground with Tyler in the other room.
PRESENT
As she watched her best friend sleep, her phone buzzed. "Take the collected blood and meet be at the back. Leave Elena behind. Klaus."
He pulled up the second stepped outside. Wordlessly she put Elena´s blood in the trunk. Then she slid into the passenger seat next to Klaus.
"Where are Stefan and your sister?"
"Change of plans, love. Stefan will stay behind and keep an eye on Elena, so will Rebekah. You and me, on the other hand, we´ve got things to do."
"What do you mean, they´ll stay behind. Does that mean we´re..."
"... leaving Mystic Falls. Exactly." he said, not taking his eyes off the road.
"But... my mom, Tyler, my friends. They´re all here. And I got school and things to do here. You can´t just kidnap me." she yelled, panic entering her voice.
"I am not kidnapping you. I am telling my new assistant to accompany me on a very important mission. Which by the way is YOU. And until I release you from the job, you´re stuck with me. Which until I decide otherwise, means for the rest of my eternal life. But don´t worry love, we´ll come back. And since I am a really laid-back boss, I promise you, you´ll even get to go back to school, once our task is completed."
"What do you need me to do?" Caroline asked.
"Wait and see" he said, smiling at her evilly. He really had thought up an interesting punishment for her earlier transgression. Even he himself did not know what he´d use her for.
"But I suggest you call your mom and Tyler, and tell them you´ll be out of town for a couple of days."
Caroline looked at Klaus, and for a second she was more terrified of him than anything else. They drove on silently, as she pondered over the long-term consequences of her decision. The only thing that interrupted the silence was a quiet "I hate you." that left her lips. He chuckled, thinking that she was just a little more interesting than he had presumed she´d be. As road signs kept on passing them, it dawned on her that she was leaving the district for the first time in her life, and she started to silently cry.
