AN: This is just the first of an unknown amount of chapters with some of the chapters having already been posted previously. Things will get explained in those chapters that don't get explained in here.


Klaus jerked awake and felt his chest to see where the White Oak Stake shard had been. But that was incredibly hard as he had been sleeping on his stomach which was odd. Even odder was he'd been using another person as a pillow, and that person had been pushed off the bed when Klaus woke up.

"Everything okay?" said a voice from the floor. He had to be hallucinating.

"I'm dead, I know I am," Klaus said, putting his head in his shaking hands.

It had been so real: he and Elijah killing each other because of the Hollow.

The bed shifted as his bedmate neared him.

"Think it through. Be the devious Original Hybrid that I know you are," his bedmate said, grasping Klaus' hands and pulling them from his face. Klaus looked up into the achingly familiar blue eyes of Caroline Forbes.

"You're here, in my bed...but weren't you leaving New Orleans?" Klaus replied looking about the room. "This isn't New Orleans."

"No, we're in one of your chateaus in the south of France," Caroline confirmed with a little giggle.

Klaus got up from the bed and walked slowly towards the nearest window. Pézenas, they were in Pézenas. He breathed a sigh of relief. Caroline joined him at the window.

"How long have we been here?"

"Maybe 8 months?" Caroline replied.

"What happened?" Klaus asked softly. Something had happened and that something had caused him to believe that he and Elijah had killed each other.

Caroline studied him for a moment before motioning Klaus back to the bed. Klaus, teasingly, raised an eyebrow and gave her a dimpled smile. Caroline gave him the driest look he'd ever seen.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"Dying, with Elijah, on the bank of the river in New Orleans," Klaus said sobering as he sat down across from Caroline.

"Okay, do you remember 'The Matrix' movies?"

Klaus blinked, he definitely had not been expecting that kind of question.

"It's relevant, weird but relevant," Caroline reassured him.

"Vaguely. Rebekah tried to get me to watch them with her when we were in Mystic Falls," Klaus said before realizing he didn't know anything about what happened to the rest of his family.

"Don't worry. Elijah, Rebekah, and Kol are fine."

"What about Finn and Freya?" Klaus asked.

"Both are fine."

"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling me everything?" Klaus snapped testily.

"I am but that's because it's complicated," Caroline confessed. "For almost 20 years, you, Rebekah, and Elijah were stuck in a Matrix-like world."

"I see…" Klaus has heard some tales in his existence but this? As hokey as it sounded, it made sense and it felt right.

"When did it start?" Klaus had to know just how much of his life actually happened. It seemed that he did have some time with Caroline before the Matrix part of his life took over.

"Right after graduation. It was the main reason you were lured to New Orleans," Caroline said softly. "You and Rebekah did return to Mystic Falls when Katherine died the first time, but Matt and I weren't able to ask either of you what was happening in the city."

"You knew something was wrong by then?" Klaus was a little taken aback. Caroline had been worried about him?

"Yeah, after we neutralized Silas, Kol went to brag about it to you all but couldn't get near the city," Caroline started but Klaus interrupted her.

"Kol was with you? He wasn't with us?"

"Right, this is going to be a really rough and fast explanation of what happened. Basically, Esther wanted a lot of power and revenge on you."

"That sounds about right," Klaus mumbled. Apparently the redemption he thought Esther tried to achieve had been fiction.

"To achieve that, she needed the living Mikaelsons and a representative from each of the humanoid species."

"Humanoid species, love?" Klaus teased.

"Non-magical humans, witches, and werewolves," Caroline explained with a flourish of her hands. "She mind-linked you all and that created another world."

"This Matrix you mentioned?" Klaus offered.

"Yes, but before we could get to you guys, and after Kol vamped Esther, Tristan and Aurora stole your bodies. But they didn't take the witch or human representative with them. The witch didn't die, but Kol has her locked in a nightmare loop which is partly why we had to leave New Orleans. The human, unfortunately, didn't survive the unlinking."

"Was the witch's name Davina Claire?"

"Yes and Marcel wasn't happy with what Kol was doing to her," Caroline shrugged.

If this Kol was anything like the Kol who was killed by the Gilbert Hunter, then Klaus almost felt sorry for Marcel. Almost.

"What was the human's name?" Klaus asked, he wondered if it was her.

"We never really found out. I think Marcel knew her? But he was more concerned with Davina when we found them."

Something was fluttering on the edge of his mind, but it was gone a moment later. It, strangely, didn't alarm him.

"What was that?" Klaus asked Caroline who sighed.

"Me. There's a couple major reasons why we've been sleeping together for almost 9 months," Caroline readjusted herself on the bed.

Klaus remembered that he had inadvertently pushed Caroline out of bed when he woke up. She had been the one he had been using as a pillow. Then he realized just how comfortable he was, Caroline also seemed fairly comfortable.

"This isn't the first time you've woken up with just the memories from the Matrix. The first time it happened, you reacted quite violently and tried to kill Kol and Elijah. Kol was the one to suggest that I be nearby. The best results seem to happen when we shared a bed, so…"

"What if I tried to hurt you?" Klaus asked, his voice small.

Caroline's shoulders dropped, "You've tried, but failed. You can thank Damon Salvatore for that."

"Damon Salvatore? What the bloody hell did he do?" Klaus exclaimed, confused.

"He was trying to defeat Silas, but Silas was linked with Stefan. But since Silas was immortal, the White Oak wouldn't have worked. So Damon had the great idea to transfer that Immortality to another vampire and then imprison him. He broke my neck, disguised me, and got Bonnie to do the transfer," Caroline spewed in that nervous habit of hers that Klaus found adorable.

"Wait...what?" Klaus floundered. That was a lot to take in. Even the information about the Matrix wasn't as unexpected as this.

"Stefan is a Doppelganger of Silas," Caroline said. "They were linked - by accident, we think - which is when Silas took over Stefan's mind."

"Okay...how did Damon come up with this so-called 'brilliant' plan of his?" Klaus asked, running a hand down his face.

Caroline tried to hide a smile, it seemed that some of the present was seeping into his Matrix memories.

"He and Elena took a moment to visit Mystic Falls during their 'Bang Around the World' tour. Neither one of them liked what had happened to Stefan, obviously. We had finally gotten Silas restrained when Damon burst in and messed everything up," Caroline grumbled, still pissed about that.

"Damon thought Silas was Stefan?" Klaus guessed.

"Yep. It was his idea to try to transfer the Immortality to someone else," Caroline said rolling her eyes.

"Makes sense," Klaus pointed out.

"True," Caroline conceded, "but the chances of that working are smaller than a vampire knocking up another vampire."

Klaus flinched, Caroline stifled another giggle.

"Sorry."

"Let me guess, Kol is planning something," Klaus grumbled and became more surly when Caroline burst out laughing.

"He's been guarding his thoughts but probably has something huge planned for Father's Day," Caroline confessed, biting her lip.

"And when is that?"

"It's July, so you have almost a full year," Caroline slightly cringed.

"As does he," Klaus bristled, he needed to change the subject. " So you acquired some of Silas' abilities?"

"Ha, yeah. Mainly the mind reader and illusion creation, there's a couple others. I've only used the mind reader once on you, without your expressed permission," Caroline added when she saw him start to get agitated. She remembered what Silas had done to Klaus, it had been a weird relationship milestone of theirs.

"I see," Klaus said tightly.

"It was to break you three out of the Matrix. Getting Hayley out somehow didn't break that illusion, so I had to improvise," Caroline insisted.

"Wait, so my resignation to kill myself…" Klaus was speechless, he'd had a feeling Caroline had a ruthless streak but hadn't expected this.

"Sorry," Caroline winced, "I needed something to shock you enough for you to wake up. Seemed like a good idea at the time."

It definitely was a shock. He would have never have resorted to killing himself the way he did.

"Thank you," Klaus said softly with a smile.

A blinding pain erupted from between his eyes, a witch had to be attacking him. He struggled to open his eyes, to his surprise Caroline was still sitting in front of him. She was completely calm and almost looked expectant. Klaus was about to yell at her, when he remembered.

"Do you remember everything?"

"Yes."

Caroline beamed, it took his breath away.