Hello! And here it is, the second part of Electrum - formerly known as Pond of no Return. Updates might be slower again from here on out. If there's even any interest.

To anyone new to this: the last chapter of the first part is probably a good thing to still read to get an idea what's going on.

But on we go ...

...

Previously:

In a post-apocalyptic world, two factions have been at war for longer than anyone can remember. The Golden - a people who have developed the ability to form telepathic mind-bonds, and the Silveren, who have created some of the vilest weapons to ever exist: long swords that inflict wounds that never heal, wielded by soldiers whose arms get fused to the weapons.

...

When Bonnie Bennett of the Golden accidentally linked her mind to that of one of those soldiers, Enzo St. John, they had to learn to live with their new bond and trust each other as their people were out against them.

Joining forces with a strange new ally - Alaric Saltzman - and family and friends, they eventually began to challenge the old structures and ventured out to get rid of the source of the metal used to create the so-called Eternal weapons.

...

As a fragile peace between Golden and Silveren is eventually established, and the source of both bonds and Eternal weapons is identified as nanobots, a new task awaits: destroying all Eternal metal mining sites, and finding a treatment for the all encompassing mind bonds.

...

...

~ Five years ago ~

...

The cold metal of the table Tyler was lying on felt like ice. He tried to remain calm when it touched the bare skin of his back and arms, tried to keep his breathing in check, but suddenly he didn't feel as cocky and brave anymore as he had tried to make them all - make Caroline - believe he was.

The room was way too bright, and yet the people in there with him all seemed to be nothing but shadows. He blinked hard, trying to see, but other than their white uniforms he could only see blurry faces. When the first shadow moved to strap him down, he had to fight the urge to jump off the table and call it quits, but he knew he couldn't balk now, couldn't let Caroline down. If he wanted them to spare her, he needed to do this, needed to let them do this to him. Because he had offered himself up so they wouldn't take her...

There was an abrupt searing pain in his right arm, and when he moved his head to look, he saw them extract a needle from his vein. Probably a sedative, he tried reasoning, because he had to make sense of things or the fear would take over.

What the hell had he been thinking, volunteering for this? He was no damn hero, he wasn't exactly good at enduring even usual run of the mill pains, and what he was headed toward… it could very well end his life.

For a girl. He was doing this for a girl - for the girl - because he was stupid and romantic, and hopelessly in love with her. But there was nothing romantic about this anymore.

"He's ready now," someone said, speaking about him as if he wasn't there, because no one talked to him. No soothing kind words, no explanations of what they were doing. He had the roughest idea. That was all. He had once seen Caroline's strange friend from afar. The Captain's son, a dark intimidating looking dude with hollow cheeks and a grim face, and a blazing bandage wrapped around his arm. Was that going to be him?

His brain didn't want to function. He wasn't sure he could do this, but there was no turning back now. He heard metal strike metal, tasted copper in the air, and then…

Swallowing hard around the lump blocking his airways, he flinched violently against his straps as a large blazing blade appeared by his side, getting lowered all too slowly, until the tip was just half an inch away from the bare skin of his arm.

His breath hitched. No, he wanted to say, or maybe he did say it out loud. Maybe he even yelled it, he wasn't sure and would never know, because right then, a dozen or so hands grabbed him, and the blade connected with his arm.

An explosion of a million tiny shiny pieces seemed to tear his arm straight off, seemed to shoot into him and multiply until a net of lightning coursed through his body, his veins. But when he looked again, half blind with a pain so vast it felt like he would have to die, couldn't survive this, his arm was still there.

He was still there. Only… he wasn't. He was being obliterated, couldn't think anymore, couldn't see, couldn't breathe, couldn't breathe, couldn't…

As the brightness of the room dulled abruptly, the pain stayed, washing over him, rolling him around until he lost all sense of direction, of self, until finally, an all encompassing darkness replaced the dim light and it was finally over.

…

Except, it wasn't. It had only just begun. And when he came to again, a thick shiny bandage wrapped tightly around his arm, a constant pain pulsing underneath, a tall thin woman stepped in front of him, holding out the blazing sword that would become his, would be part of him from now on.

Why Caroline even stayed with him after, when he was completely changed, dulled in light of the blinding sheen of his weapon, he didn't know. Didn't understand. Maybe it was sympathy. Though she assured him it wasn't.

She deserved better, he knew that too, but he wasn't strong enough to let her go, either. Not after… that. Their love was the only thing keeping him going, keeping him afloat in an ocean of pain. And maybe that was selfish of him.

It definitely was. Still, he couldn't let her go. Not yet. But he began working on it.

...

...

~ Now ~

…

"Ow!" Gingerly rubbing his upper arm where she had unceremoniously stuck her sharp needle into him, Klaus Mikaelson turned to glare at Caroline Forbes. She was standing just a little behind where he was sitting on a stool in front of her, the glaring light of the white laboratory almost blinding him after the darkness outside. He had come here directly from his shift with the city guard. It was almost time to head to bed, but the young scientist had ordered him back here in order to try out her newest concoction: the latest version of an antidote to the mind bonds his people developed - that he had developed, too, and had hated ever since.

Still, he was done with being poked on an almost daily basis. Getting up, he made sure he let her know as much. "This better be more successful than your last two hundred and fifty seven attempts at curing this, Forbes. This hurts!"

"You're a whiner," she informed him, squinting at him while cleaning up her supplies. "I didn't realize you were such a whiner. That wasn't bad."

"Easy for you to say," he retorted. "You weren't the one getting stuck by a half foot long needle." He glowered at her, slowly getting up. Still holding one hand over the injection site, the stinging feeling slowly subsiding, he raised himself to his full height before sidling over to her a little more. When he was almost close enough to touch her, she finally looked up at him properly, a little exasperated. Good. He smirked. He kind of really enjoyed teasing her a bit. And she didn't like it when someone got too close to her work station, so what better way to get to her than—

"Mikaelson, back off!"

"What?!" He raised his hands in mock surrender, suppressing a grin as she glared at him. But he quickly regretted it because of the pain in his arm.

"What the bloody hell did you put in that cocktail, Forbes? This stings worse than the last few times combined." He had to stifle the urge to bend over in pain right in front of her, but he didn't want her to think even less of him, so he toughened it out as best as he could.

He wasn't a fan of needles to begin with, and sometimes he wondered why he had even agreed to all this. To being the guinea pig to a couple of wanna be saviors of humanity that had set out to work on eliminating the mind bonds his people created.

Because you hate being bonded and having me in your head 24/7.

Making a face, he turned his focus inward. Hayley...

Still here to remind you, Klaus.

I'm guessing that means this was for naught again.

Cursing silently to himself, he noticed Caroline's gaze on him. "What?!" he hissed, grabbing his jacket to put it on. He had places to be after all.

He felt Hayley's amusement. Not like your bed is going anywhere without you.

He rolled his eyes, shaking his head as if he could get rid of her that way.

"You know it'll take time…" Caroline's voice was way too sympathetic all of a sudden. Understanding. He hated it when Caroline bloody Forbes felt sorry for him.

Looking up at her, he realized that his tongue felt too heavy, his throat too closed. No, he really didn't want her sympathy. He liked it better when she glared at him all aloof and angry, always reminding him of what an asshole he really was and that he had tortured her best friend.

Yeah, he couldn't deny that he was a piece of shit.

"Come on, Klaus. Don't get impatient now—"

"Hard not to," he interrupted her before she could say even more, and he felt his own temper shift, unable to stop himself. "It's been almost a year and nothing but prods and pokes. You people suck at this scientist business. Or maybe it's time to accept that this bloody cure is not about to happen."

In an abrupt surge of anger, he kicked the nearest cabinet door hard, denting its metal door - and seriously stubbing his toes. A searing pain shot through his foot, making him swear even louder. "Fuck that," he yelled, earning himself another raised eyebrow, and a reprimand by Hayley. Gosh, he was so tired of her in his brain.

Couldn't she shut up already? Couldn't the world shut up?

Love you too, Klaus… Hayley sounded so sober, so collected.

How do you even do that?! He made a face again, annoyed, but she was too used to his attitude, and his temper. She didn't grace him with a reply. At least not a verbal one, just a wave of contempt and… indifference. Nothing new there, and that sucked, too. It hurt. His freaking arm hurt, too.

Klaus?

He wasn't feeling so hot anymore. Or like joking, or encroaching on Caroline's personal space, or…

He placed a hand on the counter as a rogue wave of dizziness made him feel like the ground was beginning to move underneath him.

"Stop the act, Mikaelson. You're not very good at it, so… just go to bed. Let me know if you notice any changes, okay? And come see me in the morning."

Caroline was all business again and he was trying to focus on her voice as his brain began to feel sluggish, his view clouding over. This was probably not good. At least it didn't feel very good, but what did he know.

Klaus, I'm—

A sudden zapping feeling blinded him like a flash of lightning, making him feel nauseous and disoriented. "Hayley?" he tried calling out in his mind, or was it outside? Where was he? What was going on?

Where… was she? A vast emptiness abruptly appeared in his brain, numbing his vision, his thoughts, his world, and then, just like that, the world went… away.

"Klaus!"

Did he really hear Caroline call out to him with panic in her voice? Concern? For him? Nah, that wasn't possible. Nothing was possible anymore, there was just this awful awful pain and then…

… nothing.

…

"Oh crap."

Wild hair fell into Caroline's face as she rushed over to where she had seen Klaus slump to the ground as if his strings had been cut.

Suddenly, her heart was in her throat, beating too fast as she knelt down beside him, quickly checking his breathing. A sigh escaped her when she realized he was at least not dead yet, then her brow furrowed as a million thoughts went through her head. Why had he collapsed? Peeling open one lid, she saw that his pupils still reacted to light. Good. Going on to his arm, she inspected the injection site, and gasped.

"What the…" Her words trailed away as she stared at the sheen that had begun spreading from where she had stuck the needle into the muscle just a little earlier. Of course it wasn't the first time she had seen something similar, but this one… almost as if to mock her, as if to make fun of them all, was distinctly more golden than silver, and it was spreading in thin meandering lines.

"Shit," she hissed, not expecting that. "Shit shit shit. What is this? - Klaus? Can you hear me? Klaus."

Gently patting his cheek, still absently holding his arm with her other hand, she tried to cajole him awake, to no avail. Should she run to get Alaric? Abby? Whose expertise was this, even?

Maybe she had finally prodded the poor guy one too many times and now his bots were wreaking havoc in an attempt to kill off the constant input of enemy bots? Could that be it? What if instead of a cure she had just created a deathly weapon to kill all Golden? Heat had crept up to the nape of her neck and was slowly spreading further until she felt beads of perspiration on her forehead. Suddenly, it was just way too freaking hot.

"Come on, Klaus. Please…"

Frantically, she went over the steps of her latest experiments again. Trying to figure out what she had done differently. Had she added too many of the bots she had extracted from Abby's blood before? Had any of them multiplied, perhaps, even though she had been so sure they weren't able to do that?

But then, what did she know about nanorobotics? Awfully little. No, that was an exaggeration. She knew nothing about it. Freaking nothing. She should have never meddled with this. Oh gosh, now she was in over her head and maybe this kid in front of her - as obnoxious and tiring as he was - might die because of her. Die.

"Klaus, can you try and open your eyes for me? Please. Please…" She wasn't even aware of how desperate her pleas sounded, but the feeling was spreading inside of her quickly.

She had to get help. Maybe Abby—

Abruptly, Caroline tried to stand up, absently looking at her hand on Klaus's arm as she now let go of him, and froze.

More puzzled than shocked or scared, she held out her hand, then brought it close to her eyes. In her rush to get to him, she had forgotten to put her usual gloves on, and yet it looked like she was wearing one now, her fingers, her palm, the back of her hand all glistening with a soft golden hue. Her heartbeat accelerating, she stared at it now, her body already worrying while her mind didn't seem to want to comprehend. This was probably not a good thing.

A soft rap on the door made her turn her head toward it in time to see Tyler appear.

"Hey, Caroline," he began, then, as she just stared at him, wide eyed and paralyzed, his gaze went from her face to her hand and Klaus on the floor, and he came racing toward her.

"Shit, what happened?!" He looked so concerned…

"I don't know," she said softly, staring at him, trying to smile when he moved to touch her arm, and abruptly her senses whooshed back and she pulled away. "Don't," she hissed, making him flinch away, and with an apologetic expression she explained, "I don't want this to infect you, too."

"Infect me?" His gaze was blank, a frown creasing his brow as he tried to process her words and she sighed. Yet again she was worried about him. How he was dealing. Even now, when she should probably be worried about herself more, and especially Klaus, who was still lying there, unconscious and with his arm slowly growing golden.

Shaking her hair out of her face, her blonde strands onto her back, she looked from him to Klaus, bending down until she could feel his breath against her face.

"We don't know what this is, and whether it could spread to someone else, too. - Could you bring me my gloves? Second drawer, right hand cabinet." She nodded over to the general area as Tyler got up swiftly, doing as she had asked.

"Where?"

Caroline heard him rummaging as she cradled her arm, and shooting Tyler a quick glance, she redirected. "Not that one. Over by the microscope. Sorry…" She realized just then that she hadn't been very clear. There were a hundred cabinets down here and Tyler didn't exactly come down a lot. He was not Klaus, who had begun to quietly assist her on occasion. Just to kill some time, and get on her nerves, of course…

When he came back with the gloves, she nodded for him to just throw them to her, then put them on quickly, beginning to gently pat down Mikaelson, then pushing him into a sideways position. It was a lot more strenuous than she had hoped. The man was heavy.

"What should I do?"

Caroline scoffed. Sometimes she really wished Tyler of old was back. The Tyler she had met way back when. At the academy. But that Tyler had died at the mining site. No, he had never truly come back from being turned into an Eternal, and now she was here and would have needed someone to be strong for her, but it couldn't be him.

For Tyler she had to be strong.

For Klaus, too.

"Go get Abby," she therefore said amid her ministrations, and when she looked up, she saw Tyler's hands in fists, an inner battle roaring inside of him that she had to pull him out of or—

"Tyler. Go."

He jerked his head, his gaze finding hers again before he looked down on Klaus. "You'll be alright here?"

"Fine. As long as you get Abby. If you see Alaric, bring him too."

Nodding, he finally turned around and jogged out the door, leaving Caroline to deal with this alone.

"Come on, Klaus," she cajoled again, not expecting an answer, but suddenly his eyes peeled open, flickered, then he stared at her and shot upright so quickly that she toppled backwards with a gasp.

"Geez, Klaus, you scared the hell out of me! You alright?" She tilted her head, frowning at him with a mixture of shock and wonder as he stared at her a little vacantly before his gaze wandered to her hand on his shoulder.

"The hell was that?" His voice was a rasp, but in the quiet of the laboratory it still felt loud, and raw. Caroline felt the steady beat of his heart in a vein on his neck, imagined it so vividly as if she could really see the pulse move under the skin, could see the blood being pumped through his body, probably mixing more and more with the liquid she had injected him with minutes ago. It felt so much longer. Had it really only been minutes?

Had Tyler really been down here?

The stakkato of Klaus's heart grew in intensity, the strange images in her mind making Caroline nauseous, before she quickly pulled her hand away and the feeling stopped.

Klaus shrank away from her as if she had stung him, and their gazes met.

"You collapsed," she eventually explained, trying to sound calm, then nodded toward his upper arm, watching as he followed her gesture, his eyes widening when he saw it.

"Caroline," he said way too calmly, licking his lips as he carefully turned his arm a little, staring at it. "Please tell me you have an idea what this is."

She pulled at her lip with her teeth, shrugging self-consciously. "I'm sorry," she breathed, "this is… I have no idea what's going on…"

His nostrils flared, and she could see it work in him, could see him get ready to explode at her, and it made a ripple of goosebumps rush over her body in an uncomfortable sensation. For some odd reason the thought of Klaus Mikaelson getting angry at her, truly and deservedly angry, was not a good one at all.

"If it's any consolation," she blurted out, pulling at her left glove with her right to show him her hand, "I'm in the same boat as you." And she presented him with her slightly shimmering hand, looking up at him sideways, waiting for a reaction.

A soft chuckle escaped him as he averted his gaze, rubbing a palm over his eyes. Maybe he sounded disbelieving, maybe desperate, she wasn't sure. But when he spoke again, it was without the anger she had seen brewing in him before.

"Better get on that, love. A Silveren with a golden hand… that sounds like a really shitty version of one of those songs you guys like so much. - Oh, and since you didn't ask yet: no, it didn't work. Hayley is still in here. Or… she's back, I should say. She was gone for a short bit there. Then again, going by what you said, I guess so was I. So... hard to say, but whatever this is, it may very well be that you're actually slowly getting somewhere with all this. Or we're both just damaged goods now."

He grinned at her grimly, then slowly moved to get up off the ground completely, even daring to offer her a hand once he was up.

And all Caroline could do was take it and let him lift her up.

…

...

Bonnie had zoned out. Staring off to the side, her gaze blurry and turned inward, her mind was awhirl with information, too much to stay in the moment. She had gotten the news that very morning: Her best friend Damon… was dead. The man who had saved her, then betrayed her, who had then come back from reprogramming to save her a second time, was dead.

Those cheesy dreams she had had where she busted him out of lock up before they tried to reprogram him yet again, where he became her son's - or maybe it was a daughter - kind uncle Damon, always playing around, always bringing a stick figure or an apple or some other small gift. Like he had once done for Bonnie in the past. All of those had been stupid dreams, nothing more. He was dead. Bonnie wiped a hand over her cheeks, trying to make sure no one saw any tears. She was desperately trying to function, wrapping her head around the fact that she was pregnant and that her best friend was gone while the world was at the verge of a new war.

They hadn't even destroyed a quarter of the Eternal mining sites yet. They hadn't figured out how to decipher the technology behind the bonds. Now the Neutral Zoners were going rogue, all negotiations with Julian - their emissary - fruitless.

Bonnie.

She startled at hearing Enzo, feeling him lightly nudge her mentally, and she tried to smile for his sake, but it didn't feel genuine at all. Because it wasn't. She didn't feel like smiling, and of course he knew it.

Wanna go meet up with your mom? I can finish this up. We're pretty much done anyways. I'll fill you in later, he suggested, smiling, but she made a face, rolling her eyes. Not at him, however, just at the prospect of having to defend herself in front of her mom.

It had been two months since she had found out she was pregnant, a month since she had told Abby, and ever since then, her mom adamantly tried to keep Bonnie from going out there and doing her job.

"You're pregnant, Bonnie," she would say at least ten times a day, and it annoyed the hell out of her. She was not invalid. She was always careful. She had already stepped away from the more dangerous missions, wasn't going out to the mining sites anymore, but she was not going to keep her life on hold until this baby was born.

People relied on her. They needed her. She only had to look out the city walls, where a large camp of refugees had appeared, its uprooted inhabitants only slowly learning to live with their new situation, while she and Enzo were constantly trying to negotiate with the Golden command over a peaceful solution for everyone. But the Silveren refugees were not allowed in the city. The guard had been multiplied, the city been turned into a fortress, and it was hard to even get supplies, food, water to the people outside its premises. Now Abby wanted to keep Bonnie locked away in Alaric's mansion, treating her like a damn child again and she simply—

She's trying to look out for you, is all… Enzo tried not to grin at her, but his still obvious amusement over her grumpy mood was not helping matters. Huffing, she had to admit that he was right, though, and that she was probably overreacting. The news about Damon didn't help.

With a sigh, she slowly pushed herself up off her chair, ready to excuse herself and walk over to the city to do the inevitable, when the opening flap to the large tent they had sat in suddenly flew open and a young man stormed in that she remembered from the settlement. One of Caroline's men.

"Nate—" Enzo began, but the man didn't let him finish.

"Sorry, Captain son," he blurted, face flushed, chest heaving. He must have run here, Bonnie thought, forcing herself to stay calm and not allow a blossoming panic to surface. "One of the teams came back from the Neutral Zone saying that Julian is on his way to the site at the Black Ruins. They're already past the forests to the north and…"

The next words got drowned out by a sudden erupting clamor all around them. Bonnie closed her eyes, trying to take a deep breath, listening to her heart beating frantically. The Black Ruins were their next mission. One of the smaller mining sites, and in the middle of the Neutral Zone. An exclave. A secret. Well hidden. But apparently still not hidden well enough. A team had been preparing to go out there and take it out before the Zoners would get wind of its existence, and now it was too late.

Gonna be a bloody race against time now, Enzo told her and she almost nodded before catching herself.

We need to send our team ASAP. Think we can get ready in an hour?

You're not coming, Bonnie.

Suddenly, he stood right before her, grabbing her arm, making her glare at him, even though she knew he didn't mean to patronize her. He was just worried. About her. Their baby… Pregnant women didn't go to war. Not like that. Not when it was this dangerous. But Bonnie was no freaking damsel. She didn't just stay at home and cooked and waited. She also didn't make things harder by being stupid and stubborn…

Your words. Not mine. Enzo looked at her mildy, briefly kissing her forehead before they nodded at each other, Bonnie with a sigh.

"Go," she told him. "Get ready. Get the team ready. I'll meet you at the gate before you head out."

With that, she turned around and stormed out the tent to race over to the mansion, to get Alaric. He'd have to come on that trip. If she couldn't, she needed to make sure someone else was there to assist Enzo. Someone she could trust knew what they were doing. And that meant him.

At least their link would allow her to stay in touch with Enzo through it all… She had grown so dependent on their connection, on their bond that she didn't even know what she would do without it anymore.

But this… this was becoming more than a small uprising, and she was scared. If Alaric didn't get his friend Julian - or whatever he was - reined in again, a real war was going to break out again soon.

She had grown up in one, it had been her normal, and yet the prospect of this new war was terrifying. That the Neutral Zone was suddenly not neutral anymore but ready to fight their own fights, turned everything upside down. And there was something truly worrisome about that. At least with the old war they had known what to expect. The enemy had been the same one for decades.

Now the old war was not even quite finished, peace rather fragile, and this new component made it all even more unpredictable. And Bonnie was in the middle of it all, pregnant to boot. This was not exactly the greatest time to have a baby… She scoffed to herself as she made her way through the camp and out, heading toward the city gates as fast as she could. She needed to hurry.

...

When she finally found her mom, Abby was in the middle of examining Klaus Mikaelson - and Caroline - down in the lab, an apprehensive looking Alaric standing not far away, fidgeting with the prominent microscope.

"What's going on?" Bonnie frowned at them all and Caroline shrugged awkwardly before showing her her hand that looked… like it was slightly shiny? Abruptly, Bonnie stepped forward, ready to touch, but it was Abby, who pulled her away with a shake of her head.

"Bonnie, don't." She gave her daughter a pointed stare before explaining, "It's gotten a lot better already, the sheen is slowly subsiding, but it looks like our latest concoction for a cure has definitely caused more of a reaction than anything before."

"Yeah, and hurts like a bitch," Mikaelson piped up as Bonnie shot him a quick glance. Good, she thought, that man deserved some more pain for what he had done to Enzo, orders or not. To her, he was still very much the torturer he had been for the General and she wasn't ready yet to forgive him, even if they did have him to thank for the fact that they were all here now.

And she grudgingly appreciated his willingness to be their test subject.

Still.

Can't let it go, huh? Enzo felt soothing in her mind and she had to suppress a smile.

What he did…

I know. We don't need to like him. At least he's trying...

Bonnie grimaced. That might have been true, but it wasn't enough. Not yet. Let's keep an eye on him, she told Enzo, then focused on the people in the room with her, leaving him to figure out the details of the mission to stop Julian.

"Well," Abby continued with an eye roll in Bonnie's general direction that made her stifle a laugh, "we don't know whether it's still contagious so I'd rather not risk anyone else coming in contact with this." She turned to Caroline, who was sitting on a stool as Alaric squinted at her hand resting on the counter.

"I took a sample," he informed the room at large, before looking at Caroline with a smile. "Looking much better already," he said, "I think the bots are mostly on the surface. I'll keep irrigating it a bit more and then you should be good to go—"

"Let's still put them both in quarantine," Abby interrupted him, "I don't want even more rogue nanobots to be part of the equation. We have enough to deal with as it is."

Bonnie was still standing around feeling somewhat useless, when she noticed something. "Where's Hayley?"

Klaus jerked his head, grinning briefly before tapping his head. "Still here. Aaaand…" The door opened right then and he finished, "Here," just as the girl walked into the room behind Bonnie, startling slightly at seeing her there.

"Bonnie?"

Bonnie waved an arm awkwardly, then scanned the room for a chair or stool to sit on. The perks of pregnancy were really no perks at all. Even standing was draining - and she was barely a few months into the whole adventure…

Hayley went over to Klaus, stopping short before she could quite reach him because he shook his head at her. Shoulder sagging, she came to stand not far from where Bonnie now sat, staring at the soft shimmer coming from his arm.

"Is this gonna stay? Coz you almost look like a bad caricature of an Eternal now, Niklaus."

She chuckled lightly as he rolled his eyes at her, clearly not amused. Bonnie couldn't even blame him. Forcing herself not to listen as the two began bickering back and forth, she turned to Abby and Caroline, clearing her throat.

"Did you anticipate this could happen?"

"What do you think?" Caroline huffed, reining her sarcasm in before it could turn more venomous. "I'm sorry," she allowed, sighing. "No. We did not anticipate this happening. Alaric's working theory is that Klaus's blood stream was over-saturated with bots and the things simply accumulated at the incision site, spreading over to me when I touched him."

Bonnie frowned, not happy with the explanation at all. "Is that all?"

"Well…," Caroline stammered, "He passed out when I first injected him. Then said that Hayley had been gone for a bit before that…"

"Hayley?" Abby called out to the girl for confirmation and she nodded.

"Couldn't feel him, either. It was both scary and amazing at the same time…"

She exchanged a glance with her bond partner, who stayed surprisingly quiet. No quip, no snarky comment.

"A partial success then?" Bonnie asked, and Caroline shrugged. But it was Alaric who replied with a smile.

"I'd say yes," he said, patting Caroline's shoulder, making the girl side eye him as she shrank away from him a little. It was slightly comical to watch, but Bonnie forced herself to remain stoic. "The bots can be tampered all right. Now we know that the connection between two Bonded can indeed be broken without either of them dying. This is a pretty big precedent. We can work with that."

"Can we?" Caroline asked, crossing her arms, looking down on her arm briefly. The sheen was almost gone now, and her gaze met Bonnie's when she looked back up, something unspoken passing between them. Concern, perhaps, Bonnie wasn't even sure.

Is Tyler with you guys? Enzo suddenly piped up, and rather than replying to him, she communicated what she saw, sending him a mental image of the room, Abby tending to Klaus, Caroline now slowly getting up, still keeping a rather anxious seeming Tyler at a distance. Alaric now peeking over Abby's shoulder as she quietly talked to her patient.

Can you send him over? Qetsiyah thinks he should come on this mission too.

Tyler?! Bonnie's brow furrowed. Why would Qetsiyah want Tyler of all people on that mission? He hadn't gone on any of their trips ever since he had fought with them at Lily's mining site. Caroline wouldn't let him, saying he was too damaged, a claim that Abby had supported by saying he had suffered severe PTSD and was probably best kept away from any active fighting.

No one had asked him, but now that Bonnie looked at him a little more closely - something she hadn't done in quite a while, she could see why Caroline was so careful with him. He looked harsher these days, sunken cheeks and dark eyes. The softness she had once seen in him, which had made him look more like a boy than a man, had completely vanished, and yet there was a new vulnerability in him that seemed to contradict all that.

And Qetsiyah wanted him on this most dangerous mission to date?

She thinks we need a success story, Enzo tried other explain what he didn't seem to understand himself. Bonnie could almost see him shrug dismissively. Of all the Eternals, he and I were the first ones completely healed.

That's why… Bonnie understood instantly. Qetsiyah was smart. Taking Tyler alongside Enzo would show their troops that change was possible. That Enzo wasn't just a fluke. The warrior woman didn't shy away from parading around their success if it meant that people were more willing to fight for this change.

You think it's a good idea? she asked, because she still wasn't convinced it was, and she could feel that Enzo agreed.

Caroline will probably not be happy… His non-answer told her that he was willing to try, trusting that Qetsiyah knew what the troops really needed. The warrior woman did have a good ear for them all, there was no denying that…

I'll send him over, then...

Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to soak up Enzo's presence for just a moment longer before she returned to the outside world, zoning in on a yet unsuspecting Tyler.

"Enzo said we might have to head out today?" Alaric abruptly asked, startling Bonnie, and she nodded at him briefly, wondering whether he, too, could read minds, before looking over at Tyler again.

"Yeah," she allowed, "actually, they'll leave in an hour already—"

"An hour?!" The voices overlapped as everyone was shocked at the news, but all Bonnie could do was shrug and reiterate quickly what Nate had told them before.

"Julian," Alaric softly hissed, "that son of a bitch…"

Abby was squinting at him, looking annoyed, but he merely shrugged. "I told you I tried talking to him."

"Clearly not very successfully…"

Bonnie stood up, wiping a hand over her forehead. "Well," she began, trying to think of a good way to bring this up and blanking. "Why don't you and Caroline keep working on the treatment, mom. And Alaric… you need to pack. Tyler."

He looked at her out of dark eyes, raising his chin slightly, still a soldier, still knowing when he heard an order coming.

"Yeah?"

"You too. Qetsiyah wants you to be part of her team."

He nodded, moving to leave when Caroline roughly grabbed his arm, effectively pulling him back.

"She what?! Abso-freaking-lutely not!"

"Caroline…" Bonnie tried to catch her gaze, but the girl shook her head, getting up and stomping toward the door.

"Quarantine, Caroline." Abby's voice brokered no argument, and yet the girl merely glared at her, not listening.

"Just gimme a minute, doc. I need to have a word with Qetsiyah - or better yet, with her bestie Rebekah, or why not Enzo. He needs to keep that sister of his in check or—"

"Don't, Caroline…" It was Tyler who held her back now, shaking his head slightly at her as he did. Bonnie could see the fight in the other girl, the anger bubbling, but for some strange reason, Caroline Forbes listened to this kid in front of her now as he calmly whispered something only for her to hear. She listened like she always had, and Bonnie might not have understood it, but it was undeniable that these two shared a strange, a deep relationship.

And just like that, Caroline deflated, and with a soft kiss on her forehead, Tyler went on his way.

Qetsiyah better be right about this being a good idea, or Caroline won't be the only one coming for her… she told Enzo and felt him agree.

I know.