Notes on AU / Canon: Picks up a couple years after the ends of TVD season 6 and TO season 2. TVD side is canon except for no heretics / Salvatore-mom plot. TO side is basically AU with no Hope, Hayley, Camille, or Dahlia. Klaus and Marcel are ruling New Orleans peacefully together.

Chapter 1

She wasn't sure how many hours she spent on the beach staring at the plane's wing still bobbing in the water. Up and down, up and down. Cresting waves would occasionally obscure it's white sheen and Caroline could tell it was steadily floating further and further out to sea. The sky was still raging stormy above her and the ocean was a sickly greenish-grey in its turmoil. None of the other parts of the plane - a small thing the pilot had proudly told her was a Cessna 172 Skyhawk - remained to be seen.

When they'd crashed into the water, apparently the plane had made it at least several miles out from the storm in its descent because it still wasn't raining here on the island yet. The only signs of what was coming were the raucous discolored waves and the sky. Ferocious looking black and purple storm clouds were encroaching overhead, piling up on one another like cancerous tumors. It wasn't even windy yet, though, a true paramount example of 'the calm before the storm.'

But Caroline had been in the thick of the storm before the plane had been sent spiraling downwards, several miles away. It was bad, a true Shakespearean tempest. The rain had pounded against their windows hard enough, it seemed, to threaten to break them. And then, the winds had swept up their little aircraft like a piece of gumwrapper in a twister.

Caroline remembered approaching the aircraft earlier that morning with extreme trepidation. She'd been in the Philippines on a trip by herself for Spring Break. It had been about two years since her mother's death… the drama with Kai and losing Elena… her disastrous attempt at a relationship with Stefan that ended when Damon went AWOL and Stefan left her to find him. Caroline had been spending most of her days alone recently and that included her travels. Bonnie was the only person she really had left.

And Bonnie had been invited to join her on this trip to the Amanpulo Resort but Bonnie had declined. Sometimes it felt like they were both so torn up over everything they'd lost that there were brief periods where they couldn't even look to one another for solace. They needed space. So, Caroline had understood why Bonnie didn't join her. And, though she greatly missed her best friend in this exact moment on the beach, she was even more glad that Bonnie wasn't stuck here with her now.

She had spent a luxurious week and a half on a sunny beach and in a very exclusive suite. Swimming, back massages, fruity cocktails, and the occasional blood bag made up her trip. Plus a lot of dancing with hot human men she couldn't understand and would take back to her hotel room… never having to worry because she was the predator. She'd only had to compel herself the suite and airline tickets. Everything else - from the men to messages - she charmed her way into all by herself. Ever since she and Bonnie had lost almost everyone they cared about in some way or another, Caroline overall, though, had been less strict with herself on how she dealt with compulsion and what it could get her… particularly during times like Spring Break.

The day before her trip back was scheduled, a hurricane warning blew up out of nowhere. Caroline's flight was canceled almost immediately. The category five storm - bequeathed Hurricane Nicholas, ironically enough - was going to keep her from making it back to the State's for days and she'd miss the start of her term. School was honestly one of the only things Caroline had left to cling to in her life anymore. Bonnie was withdrawn and depressed and, between the two of them moping around constantly, Caroline needed something to focus on.

So, feeling out of control she made an irrational decision. Caroline hired a local pilot of her own to take her when all the airports shut down. Local flights were still being allowed at the time, to pick up medical and food supplies in preparation for the storm. The pilot she found would be making a run to California anyway to pick up a shipment of rations from the US National Guard and he seemed confident that they'd miss the storm easily. Obviously, the tiny aircraft they'd hopped into gave Caroline brief cause for concern but… he'd insisted they would miss the storm.

But, of course, the storm chased them.

The rain started first and the pilot assured her it was all normal and that he'd been through much worse. Never mind the fact that the water was pelting hard enough against their windows to almost sound like hale, Caroline decided to grin and bear it. What else could she do?

Then the winds had picked up. Their plane swayed, caught up in forces stronger than it could handle. Caroline screamed and the pilot muttered out a series of curses in a language she didn't understand. Alarms began going off in the cabin and Caroline had seen smoke from out of their window. By the time the pilot tried the radio, it was out completely, no longer picking up a signal. And then, as if things could possibly get any worse, a torrential gust of wind from the hurricane snapped off one of their wings like their aircraft was no sturdier than the fragile body of a butterfly.

Their jet was sent spiraling out of control, faster than Caroline had ever been before, so fast it was difficult to remain conscious. It was so terrifying, so controlled by elements far beyond her control, that Caroline forgot for a split second that she was immortal. Her life flashed before her eyes - one image surprisingly predominant above the others… Klaus. She had never...

They hit the water hard that Caroline's vision blanked, her ears lost sound, and the only thing she recognized was the overwhelming scent of salt water and the shock of the cold. When they first crashed, Caroline had been submerged in water for a full five minutes, as the plane sunk lower into the ocean's depths. The water didn't flood in all the way at first and she and her pilot had to look at each other in horror as the water poured slowly in through the windows while they sank. He didn't even speak enough English for her to be able to reassure him of much. A rolling wave overturned their plane and then the water was gushing in from upside down, much faster now. Caroline unbuckled her seat-belt, catching herself before she slammed into the ceiling of the plane and immediately went to help the pilot.

Water was leaking in at the from all angles as it flooded. There was less than a couple of inches left of air in the cabin anyway. If she didn't get him out of here, he would drown. Briefly she considered giving him her blood as a precaution but promptly realized they were in the freaking ocean and she didn't want to attract sharks. Caroline knew she was immortal but sharks? That seemed like territory for a much older and stronger vampire. Or maybe a really strong swimmer.

Caroline didn't need to breathe but still sucked in a huge breath and she did so for the sake of her pilot when the water finally closed over them in the plane. As sound practically escaped them in the depths of the seawater, Caroline could see her pilot holding his breath. After kicking out the front window of the plane, she pulled the man out with her and began to swim, holding her breath inside of her.

She hadn't realized how quickly they'd begun to sink. They were well over a hundred feet beneath the water. Before, speeding them back up to the surface, Caroline paused to blow her breath of air into the pilot's lungs, not needing it herself as a vampire. But as she propelled them both upwards, she could feel the man trembling in her arms.

The pilot was clutching himself, shaking in a panic. His limbs were convulsing at disturbing angles, as if he was in the throes of a seizure. Caroline's eyes widened in terror, trying to keep his mouth shut for him in his panic but he opened it in a gasp anyway, still clutching himself in pain. Suddenly, Caroline realized what had happened. The bends. She'd raised him from the depths too quickly and the pressure difference began to kill him. She watched on hopelessly as he drowned and succumbed to the pressure at the same time in enormous pain. Not knowing what else to do, Caroline reached out to snap the man's neck, ending his pain as quickly as possible.

She had to do her best to keep herself from sobbing and inhaling water as she rose to the surface and swam to the nearest shore after that. Somehow, against all reason, they'd landed within several hundred feet of land and the crashing tide was on her side. Knowing better than to leave his blood-filled body in case she ended up somewhere remote, Caroline dragged the dead body of the pilot with her to shore.

After she finally made it to shore, exhausted, she dragged the dead pilot onto the sand next to her and watched the storm chase her once again. Caroline had the chills and she didn't know why. It must have been psychosomatic. Vampires didn't get the chills. Still, she couldn't stop trembling.

That was what she was doing over two hours after they landed - two hours by her estimation anyway - watching the last piece of the plane float away from her and shaking. The wing was still bobbing up and down in the water. There had been a couple of moments where she wanted to get up but, taking a look at the island around her, she could tell there was no point. This place was abandoned. There were no signs or sounds of life even in the furthest miles away she could hear.

The sky darkened even more considerably overhead and then Caroline realized. Fuck, she was going to need shelter in the storm. Her eyes nervously cast out onto the ocean again. The wing of the plane. She needed that; she could use it. Oh shit, why hadn't she dragged it back with her when she first swam to shore?

It was just floating further away from her island. The sea was just growing rougher and rougher. The storm was just getting closer. It was now or never.

In the few hours she'd been sitting on the very windy beach, staring at the waves in shock, her clothes had mostly dried — granted to a disgustingly salt coated crusty state but, dry nonetheless. So, Caroline stripped off her clothes and shoes quickly. Then she dragged them along with the body of the pilot further back onto the shore. And, finally, with a brave battle cry, Caroline dashed into the cold ocean and dived into its towering waves.

The storm was much more intense now than when she first swam to shore. The ocean swelled up around her so powerfully that Caroline couldn't see. If she hadn't had vampire strength there would have been no way she wouldn't have drowned already. As it was, she was being tossed and turned by the waves, barely staying on her path towards the plane's wing. Salt water was stinging her eyes and clogging her lungs despite her best efforts to keep her mouth shut.

But she did make it to the wing and, when she got there, Caroline situated herself behind it so she could kick it back while floating on it with her torso. Holding onto the enormously heavy piece of metal, though, in the middle of the tumultuous seas, proved another impossible task and Caroline could feel her strength beginning to slip. God, would she lose her strength and be doomed to an eternity of drowning over and over again in the sea until she washed up on shore somewhere?

She almost thought she passed out. She may have and luck just happened to be on her side again and she was pushed to shore on the waves. Either way, Caroline was relieved to find herself, still firmly clutching the wing of the plane, washing up on shore some unknown amount of time later. It must not have been too long, she realized, because the storm still hadn't hit her island. For a second she just focuses on getting her clothes back on while they're still dry.

It was not long after Caroline even assessed that, though, when the rain began pelting down in earnest, accompanied by a disturbingly loud clap of thunder. Caroline hurriedly began to wrack her brain for what information she knew about storms. Obviously, trees were not the way to go typically but, it was not as if she was capable of building a soundly-structured shelter out on the beach in time before the storm hit. The hurricane winds would blow anything she built away.

Instead, Caroline looked back to the jungle behind her on the beach and spotted two shorter but thicker trees. Thinking fast, she wedged the wing of the plane between the two trees. Hopefully, they were thick enough to keep the plane wing in place through the hurricane's winds but also short enough to escape notice of the lightning.

After rigging up her very makeshift shelter, Caroling pulled the pilot's body beneath the plane wing with her, just as the wind started to kick in with the rain. Seeing lightning flash overhead, Caroling took a short drink of blood from the pilot's body. She wanted to ration his blood for later but, it would be no use to her at all if a bolt of lightning fried the body so she didn't feel bad taking some now to regain even a little of her strength.

Caroline lay back in the sand and pulled the pilot's shirt off of him to pull across her eyes. The storm is about to arrive but that doesn't mean she needs to sit here and watch it happen.

Bonnie had been trying to reach Caroline since she first heard of the hurricane warnings. She knew Caroline and she knew that the blonde would do anything not to miss the first day of the semester. But Caroline, of course, hadn't be answering her calls, texts, or emails which meant she'd gotten an idea in mind that she would not have been keen on sharing.

Immediately, of course, Bonnie did a location spell but was pleased to find Caroline still safely at her resort.

She kept calling though. She called both Care's international cell and the resort's phone number. The resort had no record of her stay which meant Caroline compelled her way in and used a fake name.

So, Bonnie had nothing left to do but keep an eye on the news, watching how close the hurricane was to approaching Caroline's resort. About two hours later, the weather forecast became foreboding enough for Bonnie to try calling again. And when Caroline still didn't answer, she tried the location spell again.

This time… nothing picks up. It's as if Caroline has completely disappeared from the map.

"No, no, no, no…" Bonnie muttered frantically to herself, repeating the spell again and again. Nothing came up and Bonnie bit her lip, just about to cry at the thought of losing her last friend and, essentially, family member.

She thought about trying Stefan but knew he wouldn't pick up; he never did anymore. He wouldn't even know why she was calling, having no clue that Caroline was on vacation right now - that's how little they kept in touch. Not that Bonnie had even a vague clue of what she expected Stefan to do anyway...

The news reported that the hurricane hit several hours earlier than expected and they're already getting in reports of lost flights and boats. That's when Bonnie got desperate and called Klaus.

Ultimately the storm hit her even faster than she anticipated and it was every bit is chaotic on the ground. Caroline was terrified. Even a vampire feels small stuck in the middle of the most severe forces of nature with no place to protect themselves - particularly if they're as young as Caroline. Growing up on the East Coast they occasionally saw mild hurricanes or even tornadoes but… Virginia is truly just not a place of extreme weather and she'd never experienced anything of this magnitude.

In a desperate move, Caroline started digging to the sand before burrowing into it with the pilot's body which could all too easily blow away when she needs food the most. She cowered beneath the sand as the wind tossed trees and driftwood around her.

Suddenly and powerfully, she wished Klaus was there. If she was secure in his strong arms right now she would feel safe and protected. God, why did she never go after him? She could be torn up by the wind out here or left to desiccate and he'd never know...

Eventually, the massive winds from the hurricane tear the plane's wing from the trees and Caroline was left alone on the beach with no protection. At the edge of the island's jungle, clutching the pilot's body beneath her, as she tried fruitlessly to bury both of them further into the sand. This is not going to work, she thought to herself helplessly, I have to get out of her. She looked to the woods behind her.

The waves were being pushed farther onto the sand by the wind so Caroline vamp-flashed herself and the body back several hundred more feet into the jungle behind the beach. There was no more time left. The tempest was here and Caroline needed to think fast to protect herself, so the jungle was her only option.

She was about thirty feet beyond the treeline when it happens. The winds picked up a piece of driftwood from the sea and it smashed into her skull from behind, plenty of it burrowing well into her skin and head. Caroline saw stars and then her world went black.

Things had been going well for Klaus in the last several years. Elijah, Kol, and Rebekah had all remained by his side in New Orleans to repair his relationship with Marcel and the city. They were enjoying a rare period of calm and prosperity. The city was thriving, his friendship with Marcel was renewed and he had an army of vampires at his side that he was training to be as deadly as hybrids and almost more loyal, even without a sire bond.

It was on absolutely no one's mind, least of all Klaus's, that over 8,000 miles away a devastating hurricane was ravaging the Philippines.

Until Bonnie Bennett called anyway.

Klaus had been in an all-but meditative state painting and winced in annoyance when he felt his phone vibrating. But his frown morphed from one of annoyance to genuine concern when he recognized the area code as from Mystic Falls Virginia.

"Caroline?" he answered immediately and desperately.

"Not quite," Bonnie returned.

"Miss Bennett?" Klaus identified, now looking confused. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" His tone forced fake cordiality when his insides were really clenching in nervous anxiety. This is about her, he can feel it.

"It's Caroline," she started, taking a sobering breath. "She's missing. I can't find her using a locator spell."

"When was the last time you talked to her? Where the hell is she supposed to be? And how soon can you get down to New Orleans?" he demanded.

Perhaps the angry rapid-fire questions should have annoyed her but Bonnie was instead flooded by relief. Klaus had his I-always-know-what-I'm-doing voice on and for the first time that day Bonnie felt like she made a good call.

When Caroline woke up many hours later, she groaned from the pain in her head. Much like waking after a snapped neck, it took a few minutes - or an hour or so - to be completely back to normal. Unlike a snapped neck, it also took a lot of digging around her own skin and skull to get out all of the painful splinters from the driftwood embedded in her head.

It was still raining and the wind was still gusting but it was much less intense than before. Caroline believed the worst of the storm had passed. Still pinned beneath her was the only thing she had left other than the clothes on her back, and that was the dead body of her pilot.

His blood may very well have been the only blood on the island. What Caroline would've liked to do was ration it but she didn't have any containers to drain the man into. Her options were to bleed his dead body dry immediately or to leave it in search of something usable.

Caroline took a gamble and chose both. After a long, satisfying sip from the man's body, she quickly buried him in the sand to protect him as best as she can from the elements, marking the spot over of him with an elaborate pattern made from driftwood she finds nearby. And then she took off at vamp speed around the island to get her bearings.

Okay, don't slaughter me for starting another Klaroline project when I already have so many going at once. I can make this work, I promise! Plus, I'm planning for this fic to be pretty short, less than 10 parts, so it won't take up too much time to finish. None of my fics are on hiatus right now, despite late updates, some projects are just taking up more space in my mind. In particular, this has been nagging at me to write for awhile. This fic is rated M for later smut!

I was a little worried about this having too many similarities to "Prowl" by withfireandblood which we all know and adore but, at the end of the day, this fic isn't even loosely inspired by that fic. In fact, it was solely conceptualized after a good old-fashioned rerun of Castaway so I decided to run with it.

Drop me a note, let me know what you think!