This idea just came to me, as an interesting way to end the season and lead to the next. Just a different twist! So read with an open mind and enjoy!
Before I go into the story, here's a little background info to set the scene. Since I'm skipping a couple of episodes and jumping straight to the finale, we're going to have to assume some things. Everything here is hypothetical so stay with me through the boring explanation! Here we go.
Klaus is killed. How? Not really important, they just somehow found a way. Could be Bonnie's super witch powers, or Stefan and Damon tag teaming to kick ass, use your imagination. Moving on, everyone managed to live through it, Alaric's body was separated from Klaus, and the curse of the sun and the moon is broken with the werewolves freed from their curse. We can just say Klaus' witch was sacrificed, and so was Jules as the werewolf, and Caroline as the vampire. That's a joke, Caroline makes it a live, just wanted to catch your attention. Some other vampire is sacrificed, not really important. The point is, the werewolves are emancipated from the curse. Damon and Stefan decided it would be best this way because of the havoc it would cause if all vampires were free to roam during the day. And since few wolves remain, they chose the lesser of two evils. Tyler came back too, to help fight Klaus. Finally, after Elijah was awakened by Elena during "The Last Dance" Episode, he joined forces with Team Salvatore to try and kill Klaus. Unfortunately somewhere between The Last Dance and the Finale, Klaus found Elijah and sticks the dagger back into him therefore he's currently lying "dead" in Alaric's house. So now that they've killed Klaus, the whole gang is headed to the Alaric's house for a celebratory gathering and to wake Elijah so they can tell him the great news.
Again, the gritty details aren't important, you just need to know the facts that happen during the episodes I'm skipping and that basically summarizes it up. Now that that's done, on to the story!
The feeling was electric. It was as if a huge mountain was lifted from their caving shoulders, allowing their lungs to fill with air so they could finally breathe. They had just defeated the oldest and most feared Vampire in history, and they all made it out alive and well. Tonight was definitely a victory, one that the group planned to celebrate with as much sex and alcohol and dancing as their bodies would permit.
Damon's legs suddenly gave way and he stumbled to the side, falling over Elena and Jeremy with a surprised yelp. The three fell to a heap on the ground in a fit of laughter, too lazy and too tired to peel themselves away from the floor. "Okay, maybe we should hold the celebration til tomorrow. Everything hurts."
Bonnie, who was trying in vain to lift Jeremy from the floor, nodded in agreement. "At this point I would give up magic for a hot shower."
Stefan gently carried Elena in his arms, with a small smile in his face. "Let's just wake Elijah up, tell him the good news, and go home. After all the help he's been he at least deserves to know we took down Klaus."
This was true. Though Stefan and Damon were beyond furious when they first found out Elena had gone behind their backs, they could not have had this victory if it wasn't for Elijah. They owed him at least this much. Besides, if Elijah ever came back to life and found out they just left him for dead after defeating Klaus, the odds won't favour our gang of hoodlums. And frankly, they were all tired of dealing with vengeful Originals.
Katherine rolled her eyes and stared at her chipped nails. "I still don't think waking Elijah is a good idea."
"Oh Katherine, still afraid of an original, how cute," Damon taunted with his matching eye twitches. He leaned in to her ears, pressed his body against hers and whispered seductively, "Don't worry, I won't let the old man kill you...yet."
"Really... Damon," Katherine bit back with an exaggerated sigh. "The old masochistic empty death threats are getting quite old. If you want to turn me on you're going to have to change up the banter."
"If I wanted to turn you on I'd plug you to an outlet."
Katherine gave him a big fake smile. "Yes, please. At least that'll get me going. Can you even get it up? I hear erectile dysfunction is common for aging men."
"Old people jokes? From an ancient relic like you? Come on."
Caroline couldn't take it anymore. It's only been a couple of hours since Klaus was killed and for majority of that time Damon and Katherine were consistently bickering / flirting with each other. It was completely obvious! Not to mention disturbing. Imagine if they were a couple? The horrors and twisted games that would ensue are almost too frightening to consider.
She stepped in between the two and held her hands up. "Not that this isn't cute or anything...actually...it's sort of creepy. Let's just get this over with. I'm sure Matt is freaking out at home wondering if we're all okay."
Damon and Katherine stepped away from each other and the group watched amusedly as the pair proceeded to roll their eyes and mumble incoherent insults under their breaths.
"Stupid wench."
"Eye twitching moron."
They continued on to Alaric's place in relative silence, much to Caroline's great dismay. She wanted Damon and Katherine to shut up, but not the rest of them. The deafening silence that enveloped the night just made her even more uneasy with the awkwardness that was building up between her and Tyler.
The young werewolf was walking a few steps behind her, completely separated from the rest of the group. It irritated Caroline somewhat that he was being so anti-social. I mean come on, they just beat Klaus for heaven's sake. But at the same time, the thought of Tyler talking to them, or more specifically her, made her extremely nervous.
Ever since he came back, Tyler and Caroline have been avoiding each other like the plague. It wasn't that neither of them wanted to talk, but with everything that was going on with Klaus, the two wordlessly agreed to put off their own issues aside temporarily. They needed to focus on the bigger picture.
But their excuse to not talk to each other died when Klaus died, and the two were now stuck wondering when the other would finally make a move. Caroline bit her lip and blew a strand of her hair away from her face. This was frustrating beyond belief. On the one hand, she was itching to finally catch up with Tyler. Though she refused to show it on the outside, Caroline had been deathly curious about the recent events in his life. He hadn't really had the opportunity to tell anybody what he did when he left, or why he suddenly decided to come back. And with the curse finally broken, it was the perfect opportunity for her to use the curse as a topic starter in their conversation. But on the other hand, was she the one who needed to make the move? The last time they talked, she was the one angry at him. HE did HER wrong. Shouldn't he be the one to approach her?
Caroline was purposely keeping up a fast pace to make sure she was right behind everyone else but a few steps ahead of Tyler. If he wanted to talk, he was going to have to approach her.
As if on cue, she felt a tap on her shoulder that made her heart skip a beat. Great, now you grow balls to talk to me... Just act cool and nonchalant girl, smooth operator. She quickly composed herself, took a deep breath, stopped and turned to face Tyler. "Hm?"
He had his hand out. She looked down at it and realized it was her old phone, the one he used to find out where Elena was headed the day Tyler left.
"Oh."She hesitated, but took the phone from him anyway. "Thanks."
Tyler gave her a small smile. "I never got the chance to give it back to you...before I left," he said softly.
Caroline merely nodded. They continued to walk in silence, but this time they were right beside each other. She could hear his uneven breathing and practically taste the agitation in his body. It relieved her a bit and calmed her spazzing nerves. Good, at least it wasn't just her feeling the pressure.
After a few more steps of silence Caroline finally decided to speak up. She turned to face Tyler, only to find him staring right back at her already.
"So-"
"How's-"
They both paused.
"Oh sorry, go on?"
"I'm sorry, you were saying?"
Tyler and Caroline bit their lips, smiled at each other, then looked away.
Oh yeah girl, definitely smooth. She mentally slapped herself, repeatedly. Caroline brushed a strand of stray hair behind her reddening ears, her cheeks tinting with embarrassment. What are we, in middle school?
"I feel like we're in middle school again," Tyler suddenly said.
Her eyes lit up as she faced him. "No kidding...except you threw a football at me and pretended it was an accident."
To Caroline's surprise, Tyler laughed bashfully with his hand behind his head, and as much as she fought against it, his laughter made her smile.
"What can I say, I grew up with a bunch of older male cousins. They told me it was a good way to meet girls."
Caroline snorted. "By hitting them on the head, super smooth Lockwood."
"Hey, how was I supposed to know you didn't know how to catch a football?"
"You threw a missile at me. With my back turned. While I was eating. In the cafeteria."
"I said head's up!"
"AFTER you hit me!"
Tyler's laughter intensified, and its contagiousness became apparent to Caroline when she began to laugh uncontrollably as well. They tried to stop themselves from being too loud, but as we all know from experience, that only serves to make the laughter worsen. What started out as small chuckles escalated to full blown guffaws within seconds, their bodies bent over with their hands on their stomach, tears spilling from their eyes like they were being tickled by some ghost.
That's probably what they looked like to the others, possessed by some evil spirit of a hyena. But the two didn't seem to mind, or maybe they didn't notice that everyone else had stopped walking to watch them.
"That – ahhaa, that was hilarious hahaha. You – you should've seen your face."
Caroline held her painful jaws with a sour look. "I did see it, it's the first picture on the year book. Remember?"
Tyler nodded, wiping the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. "Yeah, I remember. Right beside that is a picture of me and..." He paused suddenly, the smile on his face wiped clean off, as if recollecting a distant memory. Tyler licked his lips and looked away from Caroline for a moment.
She knew the picture he was talking about, it was one of her favourites. "You and Matt," she said softly, looking away as well. Just like that, the mood between the two turned again. Matt's name had yanked them back to the reality they were faced with and of all the things that were left unsaid between Tyler and Caroline.
Tyler cleared his throat, his eyes still focused on the ground. "I...I tried to blame him for the football... He looked at me like I was crazy, like I just turned on my best friend," a sad smile shaped Tyler's lips. "He was so mad at me...then you found out it was me...and you swore you would never speak to me again."
Caroline remembered the day as if it was yesterday. She turned to Tyler before looking off to the distance, her eyes glazed over, realizing full well the parallels that Tyler was drawing from this reminiscent memory. "I said that a lot back then...I even told Bonnie that." She swallowed; noticing how painfully dry her throat was at the moment. "That was the first time I met Matt too."
Tyler nodded, but said nothing else. It was a few seconds later when someone from the group finally decided to save the two from yet another heavy silence.
"Not that this isn't cute or anything," Damon started playfully, "but I'm getting this really gross feeling in my hair. What do you say we hurry this up so I can shower? You two can continue being awkward after we wake up the guy with perfect hair."
They finally made it to Alaric's house a few minutes later. The group surrounded Elijah, who was left on the carpeted floor by Klaus with the dagger puncturing his chest. Stefan bent down and grabbed the dagger by the hilt. He looked around the faces of the group, as if asking for reassurance that they were doing the right thing. Besides Katherine, who was leaning against the wall farthest from the group, everyone else gave him a unanimous nod. Grabbing the dagger with both hands, he slowly pulled it out until it was fully off of Elijah.
The minutes that followed were tense and filled with mixed emotions. Some were hoping that maybe Elijah had actually died this time; others were hoping he would wake up soon so they could leave. Thankfully, it didn't take long before color started spreading across Elijah's body and his dried up skin and veins became hydrated. Seconds later, his eyes popped open, but he remained still on the floor and made no indication that he recognized the people around him. He continued to stare straight up, completely still, before turning his gaze to Stefan. Finally, the Original smiled.
"I'm hoping, perhaps naively, that seeing you alive means we've won. Otherwise, you're all dead and I'm dead with you, in which case I refuse to get off this floor."
Stefan chuckled and extended a hand, helping Elijah get to his feet. "Welcome back Elijah."
"Happy to be welcomed."
After chugging down a glass of water, Damon and Stefan proceeded to tell Elijah about everything that he missed out on. They told him about their epic battle with Klaus, about the individuals that were sacrificed, and about the werewolf curse being lifted. When they were done, Elijah gave them all a small smile before turning his attention to the lone wolf in the pack.
"I would have to agree. It would be for the best that vampires aren't given the luxury to walk during the day. We'd have a big problem in our hands if that were to happen."
Damon clapped his hands together. "Well then, now that we've got that settled, if you don't mind I'm going to go home and get cleaned up. Don't forget, party at my – Elena's house tomorrow night. If you're not drinking alcohol, blood, or any other bodily fluids, don't bother coming. That means you Bonnie."
Before Bonnie could give a witty retort however, Elijah spoke up. "A celebration? I hardly think that's appropriate."
Damon, and everyone else for that matter, gave Elijah an incredulous look. Did they miss something? "Excuse me?"
Elijah, who seemed just as confused, stood up from his chair. "We won the battle, yes. But the war is hardly over. Klaus does not take losing lightly; she will come back with a vengeance."
Damon's eyebrows disappeared on his hairline. Is this guy on something? "I think being dead for over a week has seriously impaired your comprehension. Klaus is dead Elijah. We just killed him."
Elijah looked even more confused. "The man you killed isn't Klaus. Klaus is still very much alive."
This time it was Stefan who answered. "Wait, Elijah, we just told you we killed him. Klaus, the man who stabbed you with the dagger. He's definitely dead, his body was incinerated."
At this point Katherine had peeled herself from the wall and joined the circle, her face ghostly white. "We all saw him die; nothing was left of his body. Original or not he can't possibly be alive."
Elijah stared at them all for a second, a calculating look on his face. But before he could answer, Elena stepped forward with her arms across her chest.
"Elijah, what do you mean by she will come back with a vengeance. Who's she?"
Realization dawned on the Original, and the expression on his face became grim. He closed his eyes and cleared his throat, as if to prepare himself for what he was about to say. "The man you killed, is my brother James. James was simply another vampire under Klaus' compulsion."
His eyes opened, and he turned to face Elena. And for the first time ever, Elena saw a glimpse of fear in his dark obsidian eyes.
"Klaus, is still alive."
Elijah began to unbutton his shirt as he turned to address everyone. When he finally got to the last button, he took off his shirt and pointed to his left chest. Everyone gasped. Right above where Elijah's heart should be was a burning scar, shaped like the mark of a lipstick kiss. It was pulsating and raw, as if it had a life of its own. The light in the room seemed to dim and the temperature dropped, as if the heat was sucked out from the air.
"The mother of all vampires, Michaela Klaus, or Klaus as you've come to know her, is very much a woman. And she's not pleased."
The scar glowed bright red, like the color of steel when it's heated, and Elijah collapsed to the floor in a scream of agony.
Tada! Okay, before you say the notion of Klaus being a woman is completely ridiculous, wait until the next chapter where Elijah will explain everything. There's a reason for this fact, and hopefully it'll make sense to you guys as well. I originally intended to write all of this in just one chapter, but I feel that the story will be far too long so I'm splitting it into two chapters, possibly three. Once again, this is all just my take on an interesting way to end the season. Before you chuck it to the garbage pile, wait until I've explained myself! In the meantime, a review would be great. Thanks!