AN: Here it is, the third part. I've been so excited for this part, because of huge things that happen at the end. Also, there's a bit fluff in the middle, to make up for the angst. So I hope you enjoy it!
Part III Human
"He isn't here."
Elijah doesn't reply to Kol's statement. He's never been the type to respond to statements of the obvious. Instead, he walks across the floor of the bar that Niklaus made his home base and looks around. There is no sign of the other Archangel, nor has the place been touched by the Reborn that so recently overran the city.
"Where is he?" he says at last, his words addressed to a shadowed corner. Stefan steps out, his gaze level on the nine Archangels that stand shoulder-to-shoulder in front of him.
"Stefan," Rebekah greets, her voice suddenly much lighter than it has been since she heard news of Niklaus' dark proclivities. She and Stefan have a long history, most of it spent between the sheets of a bed, and it's no secret that she would welcome him back again.
"Archangel," Stefan replies neutrally, and the smile falls from Rebekah's lips, her eyes narrowing at the other angel's lack of emotion. "The Sire is currently indisposed. But I will let him know that you came to visit."
"We're not here to visit, Stefan," says Celeste, her dark hair crackling around her with her power. Stefan looks at her with a solemn expression, and for a brief moment, Elijah thinks the boy might actually challenge them.
Thankfully, he shows more sense than the Archangel he serves, and simply gives his head the smallest of bows.
"I'm afraid I cannot show you to where he is," he says at last, his last ditch show of loyalty, and it makes Kol step forward with a wicked cackle.
"Oh, then I'll simply take the information we need. You see, Nik's been very naughty, Stefan. And as such, well…" the smirk goes from wicked to downright vicious, "we need to kill him now."
"Now, Kol, where did your manners go to?"
As one, the nine members of the Cadre turn to where their tenth has appeared. Niklaus looks as he ever has, dressed in simple jeans and a black t-shirt. Elijah searches for any sign of rot beneath his skin, the rot of which Caroline had spoken. When she had landed in London, her eyes had been rimmed in red, and she had shook with fear.
Elijah hadn't seen her like that, not in close to 700 years, when Lorenzo had saved her from Damon. That makes Elijah think of what had come later – the gifts Niklaus had sent, that Caroline never mentioned, but of which Elijah had been very aware. For 700 years, there had been a tangible connection between the Archangel and Elijah's Spymistress… yet something had sent Caroline fleeing from him as she never had before.
"You watch me with such distrustful eyes, Elijah," Niklaus says, stepping forward. He smirks when Kiernan and Genevieve both take nervous steps back. As younger members of the Cadre, they have no doubt who would win in a fight between them and Niklaus, who steps behind the bar and pour himself a drink. "Caroline has been telling tales."
He pours scotch into a glass and holds it towards Elijah, who merely raises a brow, otherwise ignoring the overture. Klaus shrugs, as though to say suit yourself, and sips from the glass. He ignores the others, and Elijah knows why. Of all ten members of the Cadre, only he comes close to Niklaus in age and power. The others are like ants to him – weak and insignificant.
It's part of what makes Niklaus' lasting interest in Caroline so odd.
"She told us that your creations turned on you, Nik," Rebekah says, and unlike the others who keep their distance, she moves forward, to sit on one of the barstools. Elijah might be the one Niklaus respects, but Rebekah is the one that has always treated him like a beloved elder brother. "Yet here you sit, looking perfectly fine. Perhaps Elijah's precious Flower is losing her touch."
Niklaus' eyes flash at Rebekah's set down, and Elijah puts that observation away for later, to be taken out and considered when he has more time to do so. But for right now, he must focus on Niklaus.
Because Kol did not speak lies – they had indeed come to kill him.
"Ah, my Reborn. They require some more work before they reach the perfection for which I strive." Niklaus holds his glass up, considering the amber liquid, as though he hadn't just admitted to creating abominations that nearly ravaged his city. Only Stefan's quick thinking and quicker actions kept that possibility from becoming reality, yet Niklaus acts as though it were a minor annoyance.
"So you admit it, then? That you raised the dead to use as weapons?" it's Genevieve's smoky purr that speaks that. For all that she fears Niklaus, she also has a power hungry streak, and Elijah can already see her imagining what she'll do with her share of the lands they would split up, when Niklaus leaves the earth.
"I never hid it, Love," Niklaus replies, and Elijah can tell he just barely refrains from rolling his eyes, and it reminds him once more of the connection between the other man and Caroline. She does that often, rolls her eyes, though Elijah doesn't think she realizes it. He wonders if she picked that habit up from Niklaus, and then curses himself for thinking of her at all in a time like this.
But she has been ever loyal, and he dislikes knowing that his reasons for being in New Orleans cause her pain.
"We cannot allow him to live."
"I'm not a child to be coddled, Sire. I know what has to be done."
"You will grieve for him."
"I will grieve for the Niklaus I once knew."
They called her his Flower, yet Elijah knew that most everyone that meets Caroline underestimates her. Everyone but the man currently watching him with calculating eyes and an enigmatic smirk that touches his lips and nothing else.
"Did she tell you that she agreed to become my Consort?" Niklaus asks, and the surprise of his words nearly stun Elijah. He doesn't have to ask of whom the other man speaks, because there is only one she Niklaus would refer to in that tone.
"She neglected to tell me of that," Elijah replies slowly, and he doesn't quite know why. Caroline has her secrets, forged in a childhood of which she will not speak, and of which no one knows the details. But she has never kept important information from him before.
This would count as important.
"Oh, I imagine she doesn't think she'll be held to her promise. After all, as Kol pointed out you're here to kill me. Perhaps she thought it would all disappear. Your delicate Flower" – Niklaus' expression is almost bitter as he comes out from behind the bar – "my Little Fledgling. And she is mine, Elijah. She made her vows, and I will hold her to them."
"Don't tell me all of this was because of some child, Niklaus," Celeste sneers, and her pretty face is a haughty mask. Of them all, she is the one most wrapped up in her own grandeur, viewing herself as a Goddess among her people. Niklaus chuckles at her expression, turning her sneer into a snarl of anger, for being so looked down upon.
"I suppose we must forgive her. Celeste has always been too caught up in delusions of her own power to realize the world around her has moved on. But if you're here to kill me, you had best get your attempts over with" – he gives Stefan a sharp nod. The other angel doesn't move at first, but Niklaus' expression turns severe, and with a nearly mutinous expression, the man leaves the bar – "I have other things I must do."
"This ends here," Finn says, his deep voice rumbling in the bar.
Niklaus spreads his wings and smirks at them all, as though they are mere toys there for his amusement.
"By all means, then. Let us end this."
And then the world around them explodes.
BTS
"You look so very serious."
Caroline looks up from the e-mails she is answering at the sound of Katherine's voice. She has come out to the gardens Elijah had made for his consort to find some peace, but not even this place can calm her turbulent heart.
"I would have thought you would be more worried," she says as Katherine comes and sits next to her on the stone bench. She does say anything at first, both of them simply staring out at the gardens. Then Caroline turns her attention back to her computer, the only sound besides the water in the fountains the soft tapping of the keyboard.
"I am terrified," Katherine finally says, her voice so soft that Caroline has to stop and be silent for a moment herself, just to be sure she actually heard anything. "Niklaus is the oldest of the all."
There are a thousand platitudes Caroline could use to calm the fear she can now see present in Katherine's eyes. But while lies fall so easily from her lips, she has always kept the ones she spoke to the woman that gave her a home to a minimum. She knows that it wasn't simply out of the good of her heart that Katherine took her in, but political reasons aside, Katherine has been a good mistress to serve.
"There is no news yet," Caroline finally says, settling for what little she can give Katherine.
"You called all your people out of Niklaus' territory. You wouldn't know even if there was," Katherine replies with a rueful twist of her lips. Caroline knows Katherine doesn't entirely approve of her actions, not when information is more important now than ever…
But she hadn't seen Niklaus, that day amongst his Reborn. Katherine hadn't experienced the madness and the rot that lay beneath the gleaming surface of New Orleans, threatening to taint everything around it. No, it had only been Caroline to see it all.
And it had terrified her.
"I have spies elsewhere," Caroline says at last, trying to shake off the memory of Niklaus and his reborn, but their rot doesn't want to leave her, and it makes it difficult to breathe. She feels as though she's lost something, though she doesn't know what.
"You will truly grieve for him, won't you?"
Caroline's head snaps to Katherine at her words, and there's something in the other woman's dark eyes, something that very few ever get to see.
Empathy.
If Elijah is staid and reliable, then his consort is a tempestuous storm that thrives on intrigue. To the outside, she is ruthless, even cruel, and even to Caroline she has very rarely shown this softer side of her. But she reaches out her hand and strokes Caroline's cheek, and she finds herself turning into the touch. It's Katherine's most deceptive gift, this ability to make others crave the feel of her skin, but in this moment she uses it purely for comfort.
"The Archangel Niklaus is not a good man, my little Flower. He is not worth those shadows I see in your eyes."
"700 years might seem just a blink to you, but it's most of my life. And he has always been there." It's as close as Caroline will come to letting herself admit that Katherine speaks the truth, that she will mourn for Klaus when he dies. It causes Katherine to purse her lips, a furrow forming between her eyes.
"Perhaps," she says at last, her words coming out slowly, "perhaps it's time that I told you the story of my history with him."
The words make Caroline go unnaturally still. In all her time, she has never been able to uncover the truth of Katherine and Klaus' mutual hatred. No matter how she dug, no matter whose ear she whispered into, it remained a secret, lost to time and fear of the beings to whom it belonged.
"It all begins with my sister," Katherine begins, her hand moving to stroke Caroline's hair. She doesn't seem entirely cognizant of what she is doing, so Caroline allows the soft touch.
"Elena?" Caroline asks, unable to stop herself. The Refuge's healer couldn't be more different from the sister to whom she is almost identical, and Caroline can't imagine the gentle woman ever getting on Klaus' bad side. Katherine gives her a tight lipped look that says she isn't pleased with the interruption, and Caroline flushes lightly, bowing her head in apology.
"No, not Elena. My little sister has ever been a spineless little mouse. Niklaus would never look twice at her" – the words are acerbic, but not entirely unexpected. Katherine and Elena have never been close, at least not in Caroline's memory – "it was Tatia. My twin."
Caroline has to bite her tongue at those words, the shock nearly making her jolt. It's only centuries of hiding her emotions that keeps her surprise hidden. Not just because she hadn't realized Katherine had a twin, but also because twins were so rare among their people. Births in general were rare… but for two children to be born at once?
It was very nearly unheard of.
"Shocking, isn't it? You'd think that everyone would know, since it's so rare. But Niklaus made sure that even the mere mention of Tatia's name was forgotten." Katherine's fingers tighten for a moment in Caroline's hair, and she has to bite back a wince. "You are her utter opposite. Light to her dark, so very contained. Tatia was a storm, a force of nature. She always got what she wanted, and what she wanted was Niklaus."
Caroline refuses to admit to the pang of jealousy she feels. A twin… she would imagine that she and Katherine looked very much alike, if not identical, and Katherine is one of the angel's greatest beauties, her and Elena both, with their dark eyes and hair and clear skin. It's incredibly easy, to imagine a Katherine look alike in Klaus' arms, and Caroline clenches her hands into fists and curses her own foolishness.
That there is such animosity between Katherine and Klaus says that this story doesn't end happily.
"How did they meet?" Caroline asks softly, when Katherine lapses into a brooding silence, clearly caught up in memory.
"We lived in his territory. It was our father's home. We were newly out of sanctuary, and Klaus was already Archangel, though he hadn't been for long at that point. Tatia was charming, and she set out to charm him. She was successful" – Katherine drags her gaze to Caroline, and now there's a weight to it, as though she's comparing Caroline and Tatia. Caroline says nothing, just meets her gaze and waits. Katherine's lips twist ruefully before she continues – "Klaus was different then. He was more… not human. Human, well none of us are that, are we? But he was… more. Softer, maybe."
Caroline can't imagine Klaus being soft, except…
He drags his fingers down her bared skin, and she arches into his touch. It's so very different from what Damon's had been, and Caroline finds herself reveling in this pleasure, rather than the pain that had been her previous experience.
"Exquisite," he murmurs, his words a rumble against her skin.
He moves with almost painful slowness, until Caroline is gasping and desperate for more. But never once does he move quicker, never once does his soft touch grow stronger, not even when she begs for it.
There is a gentleness in him that she hadn't realized Klaus was capable of.
The rush of memory hits her and she has to set her laptop aside, or risk it sliding to the ground. It had been decades after Damon, that she had finally given into Klaus' seductions, but still he had taken his time, careful to eliminate every memory of his touch until there was only the pleasure of Klaus' left.
And maybe it wasn't the softness of which Katherine spoke… but never before that moment had Caroline felt so safe, and hadn't that been a shock, when she had always been so sure that safety was the one thing Klaus could never offer her.
"They became lovers," Katherine said, drawing Caroline's gaze back to her. "And then everyone believed that he would make her his consort."
"You didn't," Caroline says, because there's a twist to Katherine's expression. One that said exactly what she thought of the expectations her sister had formed.
"He might have been softer, but he was still Klaus. Still driven by power and ambition. I begged Tatia to leave, to come with me back to Refuge. Elena was just a baby then, and I tried to use that, to get her to visit with me. But Tatia was a fool, and she had fallen in love with Niklaus" – her gaze zeroes in on Caroline's face, and something there must give away her violent internal reaction to those words, because Katherine laughs without humor – "does that hurt you, Flower? To hear that another came before you? Niklaus is eons old, you are hardly the first."
"I am not a fool," Caroline replies softly, stroking a hand over her laptop on the bench next to her. "I know how old he is. I know I am not the first to intrigue him."
"No, you're not. There have been others," Katherine's expression is contemplative. "And yet you are the first… because none have inspired such reactions in you. But that is no gift, Caroline. The very things you inspire in Klaus will drive him to destroy you. I know this."
Katherine has ever been tempestuous, and somehow it had always made her seem younger than her millennia, yet in that moment, Caroline was reminded that there were few older than her. It was a soul deep sadness in her voice and eyes and that made Caroline's heart break, and her heart fill with dread. Because the story isn't done yet.
Caroline doesn't know that she wishes to know how it ends.
"What happened to her?" she asks when Katherine says nothing. "To Tatia?"
"Klaus realized that he felt a hint of something for her – not love, he had never fallen to that weakness, but perhaps a potential for it. So he killed her."
Caroline says nothing, because she can't. She wants to apologize, to reach out and comfort Katherine, but all platitudes are stuck in her throat, and she can't breathe around them.
"He killed my twin, and would have killed me, just to ensure there was no potential for weakness. Except that I had made friends, and they assisted me in my escape. He killed them as well."
They fall into silence, Katherine still lost in the memory of a sister she had lost, and Caroline lost in thoughts of the monster that she had let into her bed… and how even after Katherine's story, she would still grieve for him.
"I was never under any illusions as to what he was," she says after a long moment. "Niklaus. I always knew."
"And still you will grieve for him?"
Caroline thinks of gentle touches, and words murmured against skin. She think of his eyes, and a feather that she had worn in her hair for nearly a year, until it became too ratty to continue doing so.
Each time after their first meeting, he had given her another, as though he liked to see a piece of himself in her hair.
"Grief… it's never a sensible emotion."
Perhaps Katherine would have replied to that, but Caroline's computer chose that moment to ping, marking an incoming video call. When Alaric's face fills the screen, Caroline prepares herself for the news.
When it comes, it's a surprise blow to the gut.
"Kiernan is dead."
BTS
The Archangels have fled New Orleans.
Elijah's territory is the closest, while still putting an ocean between themselves and Niklaus, so that's where they land. Katherine is in his arms almost immediately, and then recoils when she feels him flinch beneath her touch.
"He hurt you," she says, and there is a fiery anger in her dark eyes.
"He incapacitated me so that he could send us a message," Elijah corrects softly, because for all that his ribs have never hurt like this before, he does know that Niklaus could have done far worse.
Did do far worse to Kiernan.
"How did he manage to defeat all nine of you?" Caroline asks. She had followed Katherine more sedately, and now her eyes look over them all with an icy calm that Elijah hasn't seen on her face in centuries. Not since those first years after Damon.
"You didn't tell us how powerful he was, Flower," Genevieve spits out viciously. Caroline doesn't say anything in return. Though she knows there is potential in her to someday be more powerful than the other Archangel, she isn't there yet, and she has no desire to die by way of vicious Harpy.
"He was still recovering from his Reborn," Caroline frowns, troubled by all of this. "This shouldn't have been possible."
"Are you sure you didn't simply set us up for failure?" Celeste's voice doesn't hold the same vitriol as Genevieve's, but there is still the suspicion there. "It's no secret that you and Niklaus are… close."
"We're fair weather bed partners," Caroline replies bluntly, knowing that attempting to beat around the bush in this moment will get her nowhere. "But he's always known where my allegiances lie."
"Ah, but the fact that you're his consort changes things."
Kol's light hearted tone is at odds with the far colder look in his eyes, and his words make Caroline freeze. When she had returned from New Orleans, terrified and panicked, the last thing on her mind had been that promise to Klaus. Once she had calmed down long enough to think, she had kept her silence on the matter, however.
To keep her place in Elijah's court? Or because thinking of Klaus, when she knew the fate that would inevitably await him…
Katherine meets her gaze from her place in Elijah's arms, and there is cool understanding in her gaze. Their conversation remains at the front of Caroline's mind.
You will truly grieve for him, won't you?
Except Klaus still lives, another Archangel's life taken instead. Yet still, Caroline grieves. Not because he has killed Kiernan – Archangels are ever in battles over power. Able only to kill each other, the members of the Cadre can never quite be considered friends. Just borderline allies at the very best. So no, she doesn't grieve because of Kiernan… she grieves because this means that Klaus still lives, but it's the Klaus that isn't…
She still remembers that rot, and doesn't think she'll ever quite be able to forget it.
"I fail to see how an agreement made under duress before I realized the depths to which he had… before I realized what he had truly been doing… I fail to see why it matters."
"Then you're a fool," says Shelia, her eyes solemn when they focus on Caroline, making her feel about an inch tall. "And we both know you're not a fool… Little Flower."
"I swear I didn't know how powerful he was," Caroline says, turning her gaze to Elijah. She feels frustrated, and fights to hide the emotion, knowing that to show it in front of the entire Cadre would be a bad idea. But frustration is strong, because sensing power has always been one of her greatest gifts, yet somehow Niklaus had kept his hidden from her.
"And that just galls you, doesn't it?" asks Genevieve with a smirk that rankles. The red head has never liked Caroline, having set her gaze on Niklaus, only to be shoved out of his bed when he finally seduced Caroline into it.
"Genevieve," Elijah says, his voice a warning, before he addresses Caroline. "I believe you, Caroline. Your loyalty has never been in question…. But the fact remains that this does in fact change the situation. Niklaus… he is far more powerful than any of us knew. I fear he may be as powerful as…"
Elijah trails off, his gaze focused on Caroline, his expression tight.
"Silas," Caroline replies through numb lips. "You might as well say it, Sire. You fear that Niklaus is as powerful as my father was, before he went to his Sleep."
"Yes," Elijah replies. "Yes, I do. And he will not let you go."
It will be war, was left unspoken, but Caroline was very much aware of it. She knew, after all, what happened when an Ancient became so obsessed with another.
"You will be our peace offering," Rebekah intones, ignoring Elijah's unimpressed look. "If Nik has you to distract him, then he will perhaps decide to not hand Kiernan's fate to each of us."
"He can't simply kill you without a declaration of war," Katherine says with a scowl. "Not even Niklaus would risk being a pariah by attacking like that."
It was true. There were certain rules that the angels had followed since even before the time of Caroline's parents, and as the eldest of the Cadre, Niklaus held to them even more firmly than most. It was what kept the abrasive Klaus polite when in open company.
"The fact remains that we need time, Katerina," Elijah says, and Caroline hadn't realized she'd held onto hope that her might protect her from the others, until she knew that it wouldn't be happening. "And Caroline can grant us that."
Caroline swallows, because this place that has been her home for so long, suddenly feels as strange. She steps away from the group to look out the window, and then she freezes.
There is something wrong with the sky.
"Caroline?" Elijah prompts when she remains silent. Then she feels his warm presence at her back, and can hear his breath catch in his throat.
The sky is roiling, the regular dark storm clouds mixed with greens and red that leave the sky looking unhealthy. And then the rain begins to fall.
It hits the window, and Caroline reaches out to touch the glass. Because that is not clear rain.
It is red.
"What is that?" Finn demands as the other members of the Cadre join them.
"It's blood," Caroline says through numb lips, a new power scenting the air, one that makes Caroline's hair rise and leaves her feeling sick. This power… she knows this power. It's not as powerful as it once was, but it's there, and she wishes it wasn't.
And this, more than anything, changes things. At least for Caroline.
The Cadre cannot afford to be at odds, not with this portent.
"I'll do it," she says turning to Elijah. "I will be his consort."
BTS
"You can't do this."
Caroline smiles slightly when her door bursts open, admitting Bonnie into her room. It had taken the vampire longer than Caroline had expected; part of her had been waiting for her to come for the last ten minutes.
The rooms look different than they had 700 years ago, when she first joined Elijah's court as Katherine's lady-in-waiting. Not just because times have changed, but because back then Caroline had kept her rooms bare, afraid that the tiny baubles that one tended to accumulate would weigh her to one spot. But as time had moved on, she had grown to feel safe of her space. Somehow, she seemed to have a thousand tiny little things that made her think of fond memories.
She shouldn't have let herself form those roots. Now that she'll have to leave them behind, it hurts. She knows she can't view this as a betrayal on Elijah's part. He's doing what he must to keep his people safe, to keep the world safe… but maybe there's still a part of Caroline that's so mired in childhood pain and betrayal, and that part is screaming. Screaming that she should have known better. Screaming that Elijah and Katherine never cared.
"I really have no option, Bonnie. Kiernan is dead because Niklaus is too powerful. The rest of the Cadre couldn't bring him down, and now they're down a member. Now we must do a balancing act, and all of us must play our part in maintaining that balance."
"I was here when you came back the last time. You don't show emotion to the world, Caroline, but that day? Everyone could tell how terrified you were. And now you'll walk right back into his arms?"
The reminder makes Caroline shiver. Niklaus and his Reborn and the rot of it all, and she clutches at her bedding, her breath catching in panic. She can't allow this, can't allow herself to have such a weakness.
Not now.
"I'm coming with you," Bonnie says, determination casting shadows over her face, but Caroline is shaking her head before the vampire finishes speaking.
"You can't," she replies, and when Bonnie looks to argue, Caroline steps closer, letting her power flare out. "I have an intricate network of spies that are loyal to me. Only me. This is going to cause an uproar in it, and the only way to calm that is to have you take over operations in my stead. You know this, Bonnie. If we both disappear, my people will rabbit."
Bonnie can't argue that, but Caroline can practically feel the violent emotions that leave the other woman all but vibrating with frustrations. Much longer, and Bonnie won't be able to hold that anger in.
"Walk with me," she says to Bonnie, motioning toward the balcony. Bonnie's expression is mutinous, and Caroline half expects her to deny the request. But with a twist to her lips, she pushes out onto the balcony, and Caroline follows, letting the vampire prowl across the vampire with a restless energy.
"Do you remember when I Made you?" Caroline asks after a moment, making Bonnie stop in her pacing to look at her incredulously.
"Of course I remember," she replies. "I never thought I would be grateful for murder… but when you killed Kai? I don't think I've ever thanked you for that."
"You gave me your loyalty," Caroline replies, leaning on the edge of the balcony. "That is more thanks than any empty words. But do you remember what I said to you, when I began the change?"
"You told me to trust you," Bonnie replies, and she's caged that restless energy enough to join Caroline at the edge of the balcony. "I remember thinking you were rather arrogant, because you didn't ask. It was a demand. And despite thinking you were arrogant, I did. I trusted you."
"Yes, you did," Caroline agrees. The skies are no longer that eerie storm cloud, and the energy that had sparked the air as blood fell is gone, but its imprint remains. The Cadre had said it must be a portent of the Cascade, but Caroline knows better. That energy… that energy could only belong to one person, and though it's died down now, she knows what it must mean.
Ancients are awakening.
"Trust me," she says, turning to Bonnie. It's not a request, but a demand, just as it had been all those centuries ago, when she had refused to let such a beautiful spark of life be snuffed out by the sadistic desires of Kai.
Bonnie looks at her and reaches out, her hand clasping Caroline's in a desperately tight grip.
"You know something. Something you're not telling anyone," she says, and her eyes are wary. It reminds Caroline, that they've been together for most of their lives. No one knows her as Bonnie does, not even Niklaus. He might see the potential in her better than anyone, but Bonnie has always seen to her very soul, and it's that, that has Caroline squeezing her hand back.
"The world is going to change, Bonnie," Caroline says, looking to the horizon once more. She imagines that she can feel that power awakening out there somewhere, so attuned to her own, and it makes her heart skip a beat. "We all have to play our parts if we want to survive. The Cadre needs to be united… and if that means I go to Klaus, then I will."
"He's like a disease for you," Bonnie replies. "He always has been. Even before we met, he was already under your skin, wasn't he?"
"For 700 years."
Only to Bonnie will she show such candor, and only Bonnie will she allow to hug her. No one else will ever see Caroline like this, fingers clutching the other woman's back tightly, holding on like a lifeline. Because everything that is happening… Caroline doesn't know that she will have the strength she needs to survive it. Because it all comes back to the only two men that could ever make her break.
Her Niklaus.
And her father.
BTS
It's Stefan that greets her when she lands in Klaus' territory. The bar that had previously been his center of operations is no more. In fact, the aftermath of a battle between Archangels is the near decimation of the entire city.
"What are you doing here?"
His appearance doesn't surprise her as she knows it's meant to. But Stefan too easily forgets that Caroline is – was – Elijah's spymistress. For all that her wings ensure she will never be able to live in the shadows herself, she's very familiar with those that do. Caroline knows that Stefan is one of the best when it comes to gathering information, but she's dealt with others that are as good.
"You know why I'm here," she says in return, never removing her gaze from the destruction in front of her.
Protection of our people is the most important thing.
Mama says –
Your mother is wise, but in this she is wrong. There is nothing more important than keeping those under our protection safe.
It's been almost 800 years since she last spoke to him, but it amazes Caroline, the clarity with which she can remember her father's voice. She sees Stefan appear in her peripheral, and is reminded that he was born in that same lands. He has the look of her father's people, the look of her father, with that auburn hair. Caroline had always taken more after her mother in appearance.
She likes to believe that's all she has of Elizabeth.
She hugs her arms around herself, and hopes that Stefan merely thinks it's nerves over the meeting that she's about to have. And part of it is. The last time she had seen Niklaus, she had nearly become the victim of his Reborn, had watched them converge on their master. There had been very little of the man she… cared for. He had been too far gone to his madness.
But that's not why she hugs herself, not really. The scent of power in the air, even here, has brought memories to the forefront of her mind that she doesn't want to remember.
"She is our daughter~"
"She is your daughter. You made sure of that. And now she'll die for it."
And through it all, she tried to flee, tried to fight, but chains bit into young wings, grounding her. There was no escape, there was only hopelessness.
And then there would be death.
She fights back the bile in her throat. She's seen destruction like this before, as well. The destruction of when Archangels fight. Niklaus is not the first to care nothing for those under his protection.
Elizabeth hadn't either. And in her mind, she no longer sees the destruction of New Orleans. Instead it's Otukan, and the little girl inside her cries out in despair at the memories that threaten to consume her.
"I thought you fled like a little puppy," Stefan's voice cuts through her dark thoughts and brings her back to New Orleans. She closes her eyes for a moment, forcefully shoving away her last memories of Otukan, and when she looks at him once more, any emotion that might have betrayed her is hidden. "Let me guess, they sent you back as a sacrifice on the Sire's altar?"
"Can you blame them?" Caroline asks in return. "We both know he's gone quite mad."
"If he's so far gone, then we're all doomed."
Caroline doesn't reply to that, because what is there to say? Stefan's words are truth, and they both know it. If Caroline can't somehow bring Klaus back to himself, then they might as well all give themselves up for dead, or hope that she can buy enough time for the rest of the Cadre to figure out how to kill him.
Only that won't happen, Caroline knows. Now that the dust has settled, the Arch Angels are playing politics once more. Her people have already told her that Genevieve seeks Klaus out for an alliance, while Marcel and Celeste form alliances to barricade themselves from the rest. Finn might throw in with them, or he might accept Kol's overtures. Rebekah will heel to Klaus at the first sign he gives that he's willing to work with her. And with Kiernan dead, land will have to be parceled out, unless someone Ascends and lays claim to what he ruled.
Only Elijah and Shelia keep their own council so far, and even that will only last so far. Neither particularly likes to play politics, but they can and will.
And all of this happening with a Cascade and the chances of an Ancient awakening. The world is a mess, and Caroline fears that any success she might be able to make at bringing Klaus back to his sanity will be made moot by what's to come.
"Where is he?"
"He rests," Stefan replies. "After all, successfully defeating nine other Archangels is no small feat."
"You shouldn't be admitting such weakness to me," Caroline comments. The burial of the dead is still in progress, and Caroline can see the half-burnt corpse of a child. One hand is untouched by the power that had destroyed the city, and it clutches at a stuffed bunny that is only slightly scorched. The sight has bile threatening to rise in her throat. Children are precious.
"Yet they're so often collateral damage in wars," Stefan replies with agreement in his voice, and Caroline realizes she had spoken aloud. But Stefan's eyes when he looks at the girl are almost sad and he walks over to the corpse, Caroline on his heels. Her eyes are still open – or at least eye. Half her face has been burned down to bone, but the other side still has skin, and the eye that stares blankly up at the sky is green. Stefan reaches out and closes it. "I tell you about Klaus, because you're his consort. That means he has your loyalty."
"Do you really believe that?"
"I believe that I watched the two of you for 700 years, and that you are the only one that might be able to keep the Sire stable. I also believe that you care for him" – Stefan gets to his feet and looks at her. His gaze is cold and implacable, and she sees shadows of Damon in his face, making her shiver and reminding her that rumors say Damon's dark proclivities were not just limited to one brother, that Stefan is capable of terrible, gruesome things as well – "I know that if you do betray him, I will kill you."
"You will try," Caroline replies, because when it comes down to the very basics of who they are, she is the more powerful, though he might be older. "Take me to my consort."
Niklaus is in a mansion outside the war zone of the city. Stefan had said he was resting, but he's very much awake when Caroline enters. She is alone, Stefan having turned around to return to what is left of the city.
"I was wondering when you would arrive."
He doesn't look entirely well. His skin is paler than it should be, his eyes looking almost sunken. And those eyes are angry, and it makes Caroline wary, because she doesn't know to whom that anger is directed.
"I am your Consort. This is my place."
Klaus' grating laughter isn't quite right. She's heard his different kinds of laughter before, and this is different. It sends a chill throughout her and brings to mind the sound of torture and anguish.
"You couldn't leave quickly enough before. Don't try to fool me, Caroline – we both know that you're the Cadre's sacrifice. Send me the pretty Little Fledgling, and maybe I won't kill them all as I killed poor Kiernan."
His words are cold and harsh and part of Caroline wants to flee. Yet when he holds his hand out to her, motioning for her to come, the larger part of her goes, because it feels so natural. Even when he doesn't feel right, touching him, being touched by him, does. He tugs her down to sit on a settee with him, and runs his fingers through her wings, tugging away loose feathers and grooming them. She waits for the lecture, because he always lectures her on wing care.
"You need to take better care of them. Disregarding such beauty… it should be criminal."
The words make her close her eyes and let out a soft chuckle, and then she turns so that she faces him and cups his face in her hands. She searches his features for the darkness, the rot, that had been there when she last seen him. She thinks she can maybe see hints of it in his eyes, but not as it had been before. Not enough to make the chills override the urge to touch him, so she presses her lips to his in a soft kiss.
"I don't want a lamb to the slaughter, Caroline," he tells her when she pulls back. His gaze is cold, and Caroline begins to pull away, but Klaus grasps her hand, keeping it against his cheek. "You ran from me."
"You terrified me. You and those monstrous Reborn. I won't… I can't stay and watch you make them."
"And if I don't?" His eyes are enigmatic as he asks, turning his face into her palm and grazing it with a kiss. "If I promise to make no more, will you stop looking at me with such fear?"
Something in her chest loosens at his words. Niklaus has never broken a promise to her. And she knows, just knows, that if she can distance him from making those terrible creatures, then she'll be able to rid him of the rot with enough time.
"Swear it," she replies. "Swear it, and I won't be the lamb to slaughter. I'll be your Consort in all ways."
"I swear it."
"Why?" And she has to ask that, because she knows him, and he might care for her in some ways – and she thinks of Katherine's story, and pushes away dark whispers that tell her being cared for by this man will just mean her death – but he cares for no one enough to give up power. And for all their rot, the Reborn were a type of power. "I won't believe it's merely because I ask."
"They weren't what I had hoped they'd be" – and there is the Klaus she knows, in that simple shrug, that says he didn't have immediate plans to make Reborn to begin with, and that she had given him everything he wanted for something he was going to cease anyway – "but you? You are rarely ever a disappointment."
A compliment on the surface, but hidden beneath it was a meaning Caroline understood very well. She was rarely ever a disappointment, which meant she had been one before… when she fled him. When she fled the power he offered her.
Being a disappointment again wouldn't be acceptable.
It's a stark reminder that by his standards, she's still so young, and the difference between almost immortal and fully immortal has never been so stark in her mind. She is almost immortal, and that almost means she might as well be human, for how easily Klaus could destroy her.
This is the man she cares for.
Never has she felt so foolish. Never has she felt so torn.
She presses her lips to his again, but this time there is nothing gentle in the kiss. She doesn't want to think of him killing her as he had Tatia. She wants, for just this moment, to imagine that there is some hope of happiness for her, if she can just be enough for him.
The whispers in the back of her head she will never be enough for him won't silence, so instead she drowns them out by opening her body to him.
BTS
He can taste the desperation in her kiss, and hopes that she's distracted enough by her own to not taste his own.
He had known they would send her to him as their peace offering… yet somehow when she had first appeared in the mansion he now call home, he hadn't quite believed it. Only he knew it couldn't be a dream.
He didn't dream… he hardly slept. But even if he did, he knows he would never dream of that fear that shadowed her eyes.
He wants her lust, her passion… he wants every piece of her, but never has he wanted her fear.
And that's the core of the anger that still burns deep within his stomach. That Elijah, to whom she has always shown the loyalty Klaus so coveted, has simply handed her over like so much garbage? It makes him want to rage. Caroline has so much potential within her, deserves to be treated so much better… but he won't let her go.
He presses her back on the settee. She's chosen to wear jeans and a tank top today rather than her usual sun dresses, and it irritates him that she's so covered. But he pushes her shirt up as he kisses along her stomach, holding her hips in place. Her skin is smooth, completely unblemished, and when he licks it, she tastes of salt and her, and it just makes him hungrier to have her.
"We should talk about what happened before," Caroline tells him tugging him up so that they're eye to eye. Words no one ever wants hear – we should talk – and were Klaus another man, he might have groaned. Instead, he claims her lips in a heated kiss, wrapping her legs around his waist. For all her claims to need to talk, she seems perfectly content to kiss him back, her arms wrapped around his neck.
Then she pushes on his chest, and as he always does, he goes, allowing her to push away and retreat to the other end of the couch. She pulls her legs up to her chest and hugs her arms around them, and she stares at him, looking so very young.
"What is it that you wish to speak of?" he asks with a heavy sigh. He stretches out his leg, so his toes touch her leg, and though it's not the touch he wants, it's better than the distance that had been between them.
"My duties. I know what Katherine does… but what will you expect me to do?"
"Be yourself, Love. I simply want you."
"Romantic," Caroline replies with a rueful smirk. "But it doesn't answer my question."
Klaus blinks at her and is silent for a moment, because it was romantic… she made him romantic. He couldn't remember the last time that happened to him.
A voice whispers a traitorous name in the back of his mind, but Klaus ignores it. Tatia was when he was far younger, a new Arch Angel really. He had still been susceptible to mortal weaknesses back then. Caroline… Caroline is nothing like Tatia.
"We are angels, Caroline. We do not have to know everything in this moment" – he reaches out and strokes her hair out of her face – "there are far better ways to spend this time. I want to remove that look of fear I saw."
"Are you able to manipulate emotions, now?" Caroline replies, but there's more amusement than anything in her gaze, and it makes Klaus chuckle, relieves a stress that had been building within him. This is Caroline, whom he has coveted in so many ways for 700 years, and when he tugs her over to straddle his lap, there's something comforting in how easily she strokes her hand through his hair.
"There is a lot of work," she says, her voice soft. "New Orleans… it's destroyed. There were innocent people."
Klaus had seen it, of course. And though he doesn't regret what he had to do, he does regret the damage done to his territory. It's not what Caroline means, but he's lived so long that a mortal life… it means so very little to him.
"Surely you're not afraid of a challenge, Little Fledgling?"
"No," she replies, voice far too prim for a woman straddling his erection. "But I also want to start making a list."
"Ah, yes, you and your lists."
He leans back and pulls her down with him, and she giggles, a beautiful noise that he catches with a kiss.
"You're in an interesting mood," she says, voice still filled with laughter.
Klaus merely shrugs, though once again that voice is screaming at him. But for a moment, he'd had her, in his city, agreeing to be his Consort. And then she had fled… and somehow, all the light in the world had gone with her. Now that she's back, he has no intention of allowing her to leave again.
"Fly with me," he says to her, determined to enjoy this, to enjoy her, because this isn't like Tatia. This isn't weakness. This is enjoying her, coveting her, owning her.
When she leaps from his balcony, her wings spreading and lifting her into the air, he's struck silent for a moment by the beauty of her. Those sunset and ocean wings, her sunshine hair. She hovers and looks back at him.
"Are you coming?"
He follows her with a vertical takeoff that sends him flying at her, and she lets out a surprised shriek before he catches her around the waist and sends them both into an upward spiral. The winds sends her hair flying around them, and when he brings them to a halt in the air, he pushes it out of her face. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes sparkling.
"Dance with me," he says, and the demand nearly surprises him. They've done this before, of course, but only rarely. Caroline had too many walls to allow herself to trust anyone, even him, that often, and he was usually too focused on other matters to typically bother with something so trivial.
But he wants to dance with her, right now, when she's still caught up in their reunion, too focused on him to focus on the destruction below them.
She wraps her wings around them and pulls him into a heated kiss, and he uses his own to propel them once more, forming a Glamour around them as he flies. He won't allow another to see the beauty of his Little Fledgling.
It's not the easiest, to do this when she's in jeans, but he pushes them down far enough to allow access, and then his fingers delve into her heat, making her moan into their kiss and tug on his hair. He makes them dip, and she spreads her wings out along with his. She comes on his fingers as they hurtle to the ground.
When they fling back up, he's inside of her.
There's something addictive, about doing this with her. Flying through the air with her, in her, catching her moans on his tongue, feeling her in his hands. He'd had her before, but there is something different now, as though the Reborn had caused a distance between them, and now that they're gone it's just them.
Foolish, flighty thoughts, and Klaus is neither, so he pushes them away by getting lost in her.
And still, that little voice screams.
BTS
The honeymoon phase was enjoyable, but it was overshadowed by the disaster zone that is New Orleans.
Klaus had sent his armies away in preparation of the Cadre, and now they have returned. But the mortal population is decimated and lives in fear of any angels.
So the honeymoon ends.
And Caroline's Type-A personality comes out to play.
She had used it to run her organization of spies with a careful ruthlessness. Now, she has to trust Bonnie to do the same – a difficult task she would have entrusted to no one but Bonnie – so instead she turns her attention to the rebuilding of New Orleans.
And yes, that includes her lists.
"You're driving Stefan to distraction, Little Fledgling," Klaus tells her in an evening, when he's come from his other Generals, and she's been (forcefully) removed from working with Stefan and several soldiers on rebuilding.
"Genevieve plans on coming here," Caroline replies, taking a glass of wine from him, and sitting with him on the settee. Klaus looks at her with narrowed eyes, and Caroline smirks and drinks some wine. "I still have my network. She pursues an alliance with you. Showing weakness to her is a poor idea."
"Genevieve could hardly defeat me, Little Fledgling."
"Maybe not. But her armies could defeat yours, if she chooses not to face you head on. Genevieve isn't above sacrificing the entire world for her power."
Klaus is ready to argue, but then the Earth rumbles. Caroline clutches his hand until the tremors stop. They share a silent, surprised look, and then both move toward the balcony. Caroline feels the power in the air once more, the power that speaks to her own, and she finds herself reaching for Klaus, seeking comfort in his touch.
Her hand slides into his, and she can feel his gaze on her, but she can't look away from the world that seems to be overcome by a fiery red light. It's not actual fire, but the light is uncanny and makes Caroline uneasy.
That was the color of her father's wings.
The Earth rumbles again once more, and then, much as the blood rain, the world goes back to normal.
"I've never seen this before," Klaus says, his voice far too quiet. "But I've heard of it."
"Awakening," Caroline murmurs, not looking at him. "You can't show any weakness, Klaus."
He says nothing at first, and then she feels his lips brush over her forehead. She leans into the touch of his lips, and clutches his hand. She feels safe in that moment, even knowing what comes.
Safe and loved.
And she knows that nothing good can come of Klaus and love.
BTS
Genevieve arrives with her usual fanfare.
It makes Klaus roll his eyes, but Caroline smiles and kisses him, and he pushes her into the wall and considers ignoring the other Archangel in favor of his Consort.
But Caroline would never allow him to make such a faux pas.
"You must go," she says, with laughter in voice that makes him smile against her skin. "And I have to meet with the Generals, let them know what needs to be done."
He sighs but allows her to leave, his eyes drawn to her sunset wings, and then further down, to the way her hips move as she saunters away. His Little Fledgling is lovely in all ways, and this might be the closes to content that Klaus has been in… ever.
And he must be careful with that. Because content men will make mistakes, and Klaus cannot make mistakes, not if he wishes to achieve absolute power.
So instead he meets Genevieve, sitting primly in his sitting room with two of her Generals close at hand. When he enters, she gets gracefully to her feet and approaches him with her hands outstretched, a catlike smile on her attractive features.
"Niklaus. Thank-you for welcoming us. I know that our last meeting was not… what I might have hoped it would be."
"You mean when you assisted Elijah in his attempts to kill me?"
It might have been all nine of the others, but Klaus isn't a fool. Only Elijah could have united the Cadre like that against him, and only Elijah would have had the information needed to do so – courtesy of Caroline… which Klaus supposes means that he now has the best information.
"Surely that's water under the bridge? You know how these things work, Nik" – Klaus' lip curls at the nickname. He's always hated that, but allowed the younger Archangels to use it to foster good will, a good will he's not sure he cares to have with Genevieve and the hungry way she watches him – "We all seek power amongst the Cadre, and what were we to do when you were making monsters? I'm happy to see you've come to your senses."
The Reborn remain a sore spot with Klaus, and his smile at Genevieve is strained at the reminder of their failure. He knows he could perfect them, could make them work –
But no. He has promised Caroline that the Reborn are no more, and to her he will keep his word.
His mind screams of Tatia and he ignores it to focus on the danger in front of him.
"Why are you here, Genevieve?" he asks, boredom in his voice, because she's gotten too cocky, believes that she can actually play him, when she is a mere child to him.
No, there are other dangers that are more imminent, and Klaus thinks briefly of that day with Caroline on the balcony, and the realization that an Ancient was Awakening. Caroline hadn't seemed at all surprised, which means it can only be one.
Silas.
He went utterly mad in his last days, killed his Consort and fellow Archangel, and then went willingly into Sleep, and Klaus remembers the man's power. It had been fearsome to behold, and could serve a very real threat to Klaus' own hold on power.
And Genevieve's presence distracts Klaus from pursuing any leads as to where Silas might be.
"The times are changing, Niklaus. The Cadre gains power, and now is the time to make moves," Genevieve runs her hand across his chest, and Klaus catches her wrist and gives a squeeze of warning. He knows what Genevieve's sly little smile means – she speaks of her new ability to influence the mind of humans and weaker vampires, the one Caroline's people told her of – but Klaus does not fear it. "We need alliances, Nik. Even you."
"And how would you see this alliance occurring?"
"A union between Archangels. It hasn't happened since Silas and Elizabeth, and you know how powerful they were," Genevieve's smile is inviting, and Klaus sneers in return. Genevieve wasn't Cadre when Silas went to sleep, she doesn't know the truth of what happened.
How yes, the pair had been so powerful… until obsession and insanity claimed them both. No one knew the details… except, perhaps, Caroline. And she told no one the tale.
"I have a consort," Klaus replies coolly. "It makes a union of which you speak difficult."
"Elijah's Flower?" Genevieve replies with a laugh and a wave of her hand. "Send her back to London and his tender care. She can't give you what I can, and her loyalty is questionable at best."
"Her loyalty isn't in question. And I have no desire to invite a snake into my bed, Genevieve. I will talk alliances, but not unions."
"You would turn down my help for that… Fledgling?"
Klaus simply stares at her in silence, not bothering to give her a response. Genevieve looks back at him, and then her angry expression becomes a smirk that turns into laughter.
"Oh, but this is rich!" Genevieve's voice is filled with amusement, her eyes glittering with suppressed mirth backlit by a vicious light. "We thought you were so powerful, none of the Cadre could take you down… and now, here you are. On your knees before your precious Little Fledgling."
Hearing his pet name for Caroline fall from Genevieve's lips made him snarl, and then he grit his teeth. Such anger, such protectiveness…
"I am a polite man, Genevieve. You have exactly three hours to be past the borders of my territory."
"That is a four hour flight, Nik," Genevieve replies, eyes snapping, and Klaus gives her a pleasant smile that has her backing away from him, smug expression soured by fear.
"You will make it in four," he says succinctly.
He doesn't feel victory when Genevieve all but flees his presence, her guard hard on her heels. He can inspire all the fear in the world into the red head, but that won't stop her words from being truth. No longer can he ignore the voice that screams, reminding him of Tatia. He still can deny that there are no similarities between the situations, but that's because what Caroline inspires in him is so much… more than what Tatia inspired. So much worse.
Caroline has made him weak, and weakness is not something he will allow himself.
BTS
Caroline looks up when Klaus joins her. She's beginning to smile, because she had seen Genevieve and her entourage take off, and can feel nothing but relief at the thought of the redheaded Archangel being gone.
Her smile doesn't last long, because Klaus is staring at her, his skin pale, his eyes glittering with something dark and hard.
"Niklaus?" she murmurs, a questions she's not sure she wants answered in her voice. She's gotten to her feet, her wings ruffling behind her. Klaus reaches her in three quick strides, and frames her face in his hands. She opens her mouth to say… something, but he's slanted his lips over hers, his tongue sweeping into her mouth hungrily.
She's helpless to do anything but clutch his hands and kiss him back. She feels the wall against her wings, his leg coming between her own, and there's a desperation to his kiss that she's never tasted before. All she can do is cling to him and ride out whatever darkness is chasing him.
"I love you," he murmurs when they finally break apart, both of them breathing hard.
For a second, bright elation lights her heart, but it's extinguished almost immediately. Because Klaus isn't looking at her like man in love. He's looking at her as though he's seen his own end, and it's written in her eyes. She remembers Katherine story, of Klaus and Tatia, and how Klaus had killed the other woman when he thought love might be a thing he could possibly someday feel for her. He had destroyed a woman's life and family on even the possibility of feeling something for her.
And now that same man is declaring his love for her.
"It doesn't have to make you weak," she says, fear a palpable ball in the back of her throat. "Elijah and Katherine-"
"Elijah is a powerful Archangel, but he's only realized a mere of his potential, and all reasons for that can be traced back to his heart being outside his body. Katerina keeps him from greatness. I won't make that mistake, Little Fledgling" – he brushes her hair out of her face, his touch soft and completely at odds with what he's saying, with the severity that now covers his features. For the first time, hearing him call her Little Fledgling fills her with nothing but dread – "I cannot let my heart remain outside my chest. Not when it's so very fragile."
"We both know I'm not fragile-"
"You have all the potential in the world, Caroline. Someday you could be the most powerful of us all… I always knew this, and should have killed you because of that ages ago. But I allowed my feelings to get in the way, feelings I cannot allow myself to keep feeling."
As he speaks, his hand trails down the side of her face, until his fingers wrap around her neck. They tighten, cutting off her hair, and forcing her onto her tiptoes. She can feel his power swirling around them, filling her, cutting off her senses, and making her nerves feel as though they burn. She wants to scream, but all she can manage is a hoarse rasp.
"I am in love with you," he says again, as though he can't quite believe the words coming from his mouth. Caroline opens and closes her own, no sounds coming out. She wants to beg for mercy, to tell him he need not love her. That she'll live without it. But there's just burning across her nerve ends, and then burning inside of her.
It's like an incandescent flame, but it's not burning like Klaus's power. It's filling her instead, heat emanating in her, until she opens her mouth, and this time sound does escape.
A high, echoing scream, accompanied by a release of that gathering fire, and when it sends Klaus stumbling back, she's not sure who's more surprised – Niklaus or herself.
But this is a fight for her very life, and she takes the seconds of Klaus' surprise to jump from his balcony, wind catching beneath her wings, and she rides the airstream, letting it lift her into the sky. The fire still burns within her, but it's slowly gathering back into the center of her, until it's a ball in her chest, and she hovers above the clouds, a new sense of self filling her.
She feels Klaus fly up behind her, but it's not like before. Before when she could sense his power, and it seemed to overwhelm her, now she has a new understanding of him. Oh, he's still far beyond her powers, but there's a new sense of equality there.
"I spent decades," she says without turning towards him, because he's come up short, and for this moment, her life is no longer in danger. Their reality has changed, and when she does turn to face him, she looks at him with new eyes, and a new distance. So very powerful, her Niklaus, and also such a coward. "Decades hidden away by beings that put even you to shame. I swore, when I was finally released, that I wouldn't involve myself in the wars of Ancients again, and you made me a liar."
"Do you think to kill me then, Caroline? That perhaps you'll use what you've created in me, to be the one to take me out? You'll need lands, after all."
"Thanks to you, those are available. Kiernan's are unclaimed. Or they were. You'll let the others know, won't you? That the situation has changed?"
They hover there, the chasm between them not just physical. He knows now, that as long as she lives, he'll never be entirely immortal; because to be truly immortal, your heart cannot exist. And Caroline now knows that while he may love her, that does not matter. Because he's shown more than once that he will only kill the things he loves, and she refuses to be another Tatia.
"I could kill you now," he says, coming closer, and Caroline gives him a brittle smile, one that speaks of her broken heart – and it is broken.
But she is not.
"You won't. Even you, Niklaus, need interactions with others. And if you kill me now? You may be an Ancient, or at the very least well on your way, but if you kill me now you'll be a Pariah. Nothing can be done against me now. Not until I've settled and open declaration of war has been made."
She spreads gives a powerful flap of her wings and shoots upward, but Klaus hears her words as they echo on the wind behind her.
"Tell the others of the Cadre, that I look forward to re-meeting them in my new position."
And the newest Archangel leaves behind Niklaus and all the pieces of her shattered heart.
End Part III
AN: And there it is! That's what I've been working up to, Caroline Ascending to the role of Archangel. Let me know what you think, and I'm hoping to be able to continue this weekly update schedule until the story is done. It's only 2 more chapters and an epilogue.