A/N: Hey everyone. Happy New Year! Here's hoping the new year brings you all everything you dream of and much, much more ;)… And that includes those dreams you won't tell anyone about that you have in the dead of night that may or may not center around a blue-eyed, raven-haired vamp *waggles eyebrows* LOL…
So, first off, I want to thank everyone profusely for the lovely reviews. Angela, love you as always and I adore reading your reviews. I'd like everyone to know how awesome Angela is because she's like my sounding board. Every time I get a harebrained idea, I bounce it off her and she tells me whether I've gone off the deep end or not LOL… I'm sure by now she's like "WTF, another one!" but she seems to still be hanging in there. Maybe she's just a glutton for punishment but I'm extremely grateful to her.
And I know there are two glaring errors that I have to go back and fix. One is where I let slip three thousand instead of four thousand in terms of Elena's age. That's because I had intended her to be three thousand at first but as the story developed I had to change the timeline and it seems I missed a spot LOL… But not to worry, all will be revealed, including why I had to change her age and who Katherine is in relation to her. I think you'll like it cuz it's kind of mental and confusing but I think it'll be cool.
Second is that I changed Elena's last name three times and the last change I made after I posted one of the chapters so I'll have go back and fix it. So, sorry everyone for the moronic errors but I promise I'll go back and fix them.
And I know everyone wants lots of Delena moments and interaction but this is how the story is unfolding in my head and as Angela knows I kind of go where the story takes me. In this case, my brain has decided that Elena needs to cement her relationship with the gang because she's more emotionally damaged than Damon (see psycho dad) while they have to get to know her again because she's basically a different person. And as someone else mentioned (Starzee, I lub your stories!), I think Damon needs to see that he is as he is because of himself and not because of Elena. He needs to learn to stand on his own two feet, emotionally, because Elena needs him to be strong and confident so he can do the right thing.
Oh, and someone mentioned why I said hiding out on earth for twenty years when Elena's actually eighteen. She is eighteen physically, in a way (regression and all that) but she's actually thousands of years old and I'm thinking that once you hit your first millennium, you sort of stop thinking in exact numbers, i.e. eighteen isn't even a piss in the ocean compared to 4,000 so I believe she'd round the numbers up in her head. I hope that makes sense.
One thing I would like everyone to tell me, if you all don't mind too much, is what you think of the fight scenes. I rewrote them a couple of times, trying to get more details in and to make it a little more believable. That's why I've got all the gadgets and weapons because I'm thinking Elena might be strong on her own but a soldier would use everything at their disposal rather than going in half-assed and relying solely on personal strength (kind of like Damon does LOL). And I've been trying to improve my writing on that side of things so I'd like to know what you all think, even if you think I suck at it and the scenes are boring as hell, let me have it .
Anyway, sorry for the long-assed note. I'll shut up now LOL… On with the show …
"This is incredible," Ric shouted up at Elena, who was trying to reroute a cuplink from the antigravity drive to the navigation system so that she could actually plot a course through hyperspace. It wouldn't be fun for anyone if they came out of hyperspeed inside a planet or a sun, she thought with a snigger.
"What is?" she asked good-naturedly. She was in a much better mood, after having spent the night with Ric and Jeremy on the ship. Their amazement and awe at everything around them had made her smile and, for one night, she had decided to simply enjoy the things around her and try to see everything through their eyes. So, she had managed to get the replicator working, had fed them a Dirilian feast and plied them with Dirilian brew. They had watched holovids of her home planet and some other documentaries of the different planets in the Galaxy.
Jer and Ric had been vibrating with excitement by the time they had finished and she had finally managed to convince them to get some sleep. The only reason she had succeeded was because she had agreed to let them spend the night on the ship. Of course, when Ric had heard she was going to be taking Jeremy with her when she left he had pretty much told her he was coming along as well, whether she liked it or not. She had shrugged and agreed without hesitation. Ric was a grown man and could make his own decisions so if he wanted to come, it was fine by her. She could use another pair of hands to help her fly this bucket of bolts out of there.
"I've been studying Dirilian anatomy and you have two hearts!" he shouted up.
"No shit, Sherlock," she shouted back down with a laugh.
"Yeah, but what's really surprising is that instead of being individual organs, like humans have, your hearts are almost like your skin, spread out through your body. Your scientists say they believe it was a self-defense mechanism to ensure your longevity. If your hearts weren't localized in one place, it made it harder to kill you. This is fascinating," Ric kept on talking. He held a holopad and was using his fingers to manipulate the data stream, complete with pictures, that was floating above the unit.
While Elena knew her hearts weren't localized in one section of her body, she hadn't known the reason behind it. She wasn't a scientist and it hadn't been of paramount importance to her but she had to admit it was interesting. At least her knowledgebase was likely to expand significantly with Ric on board, she thought with a chuckle.
She finished welding another wire and switched off the laser solder she had found inside the ship. "I think we've got it T7," she said to the droid next to her as he let go of the wires he had been holding to give her space to work.
He plugged in to the system and confirmed her assessment. "The navigation system is fully functional Admiral."
"Stop calling me that!" she snapped at the droid for the fifth time that day.
"What shall I call you, Admiral?" the droid enquired, finally realizing she was serious.
"Call me Kyt. Everyone else does."
"Yes, Kyt. But your companions refer to you differently. Shall I not address you as they do?" the droid enquired.
"Kyt will be fine. Where we're going, everyone knows me as Kyt," Elena explained to the droid.
"Very well, Kyt. I shall do as you bid," the droid said formally and Elena laughed. It was good to get part of her old life back. She jumped down from the hull, surprising Ric when she landed softly in front of him.
"Don't do that!" he exclaimed. "You'll give me a damn heart attack!"
"Don't worry, we've got a fully functional medbay on board so you won't die," she replied with a grin and a wink.
"Great! Awesome! I can have a heart attack and I won't die! I'd rather not have one at all," he declared, frowning at her, though he was secretly delighted with everything. Not only was he completely high on all the information he was uncovering about so many other civilizations but seeing how powerful Elena was made him giddy with excitement. Yes it might be stupid but knowing she could easily hold her own against what they had considered a threat before allowed him to relax and really enjoy all the discoveries he was making.
"Admiral," Malik's voice boomed in the cavern, "someone is approaching the cavern through the tunnels."
"Great," Elena grumbled. "Ric, don't you want to slip in to the cave and pretend you're there studying the carvings? I'm really not in the mood for anyone else right now."
Ric looked at her and then at the holopad in his hand, not too happy about abandoning the unit even for a moment but he couldn't very well march out holding it as he was pretty sure someone would notice he was holding a piece of alien technology. "Who is it?" he asked.
"My scans say it is a vampire," Malik promptly informed them. Elena frowned. It could be Damon but then again it could be Klaus or one of his minions.
"Is it Klaus?"
"Negative. Scans reveal pure vampire," Malik responded.
"Have I mentioned I love the A.I." Ric said with a grin.
"Thank you, Ric," Malik replied. "I find you quite interesting as well." Ric continued to grin like a moron.
"It's probably Damon and I'm not in the mood for another 'you're-a-pod-person' discussion. Won't you please get rid of him?" she begged Ric. He was sorely tempted to show Damon all this but at the same time he knew the time wasn't right. Not yet. Damon had to patch things up with Elena on his own and this definitely wasn't the setting for it. So, he nodded and opened the door to the cavern, as Elena had shown him.
It closed behind him and he began to fiddle with the flash light, pretending to be engrossed in the carvings on the cave wall.
"Ric?" he heard a voice call out.
"Caroline? What are you doing down here?" he asked in surprise when he saw the blonde vampire watching him from the shadows.
"Uhm, I came to find Elena. Bonnie did a locator spell for me," the vampire admitted. "I really want to talk to her. Could you ask her to come out, please? I can't get in there because of the spell."
"Sure, I'll be right back," Ric said as he quickly typed in the code to open the door.
"Elena, it's Caroline," he hollered.
"Well, bring her in then," Elena shouted back.
"I can't! Remember, anti-vampire spell!"
"Oh crap. Hang on. Malik, how can I get Caroline in here?"
"She can access the cavern via the tunnel that was built as an access ramp for the ship. I can open it now but she will have to retrace her steps and find the opening. It will be hard to miss though, since it's big enough for the Karillian to fly out of."
"Did you hear that Ric?" Elena shouted at the teacher.
"Yup, on it now!" Ric said as he walked back. "Come on, Caroline."
"Where are we going?" the vampire asked, unaware of the conversation that had taken place inside the cavern. Her hearing might be good, but apparently the spell not only blocked her entrance to the cave but also her vampiric abilities.
"I'm taking you to Elena. I hope you're ready for the shock of your life," he said with a grin.
Ten minutes later, they were walking through a huge tunnel with a gentle incline, towards a bright light. Once they reached the cavern, Ric jumped down to the floor but Caroline was frozen in place. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "Is that… Is that… Is…" she couldn't seem to say the words so Ric decided to help.
"Yes, Caroline. That's a spaceship." Caroline blinked and shook her head as she jumped down to join Ric.
"Where's Elena?" she asked softly. No matter what she saw in front of her, she felt the need to see her friend. To make sure they were still friends. Unlike the others, she had never doubted Elena for a second and she was actually happy her friend was a powerful alien. The fact that Elena had defended her in front of Bonnie when she had just come back from the dead had made Caroline love her all the more.
"Admiral D'Arkadia is attempting to repair the top, left gun turret," a booming voice sounded in the cavern, making Caroline jump.
"That's Malik, the ship's A.I.," Ric explained.
"Oh," Caroline whispered. "Pleased to meet you," she said a little louder.
"The pleasure is all mine, Lady Caroline," Malik practically purred making Ric laugh. Caroline blushed.
"He's really nice," she said softly to Ric.
"My lady honors me," Malik purred. "You are an exquisite creature and it would be an honor to get to know you better."
"Malik, stop hitting on the poor girl. You're a damn A.I.," Caroline heard Elena say. She looked up and saw her friend sitting down on her haunches as she peered down at her from the top of the ship. "Come join me Care?" Elena asked softly.
Caroline nodded and pushed off the ground hard, her muscles bunching. She lifted her hands as she flew through the air and grabbed hold of the edge of the ship, swinging herself up. In moments, she was standing, facing Elena, apprehension running through her veins.
"Do you hate me?" she asked softly.
Elena looked at her in surprise. "Why the hell would I hate you?"
"Because I was too late. I didn't stop Bonnie fast enough," she almost whimpered.
"Caroline," Elena groaned, grabbing her friend by the arm and pulling her into a tight embrace. "Of course I don't hate you. Hell, girl, I love you and I always will," she said softly as she smoothed her hair. "And it all turned out alright in the end."
"But what if you had really died? I could have stopped Bonnie sooner and Damon could have saved you," she sobbed into Elena's shoulder, her body shaking.
"Baby," Elena whispered. "I'm almost four thousand years old. It will take a lot more than Bonnie to kill me permanently. And I'm actually grateful because if I had ingested Damon's blood, the nanites would have taken longer and it would have hurt more, so please, don't worry."
Caroline sniffed and pulled back, looking into Elena's eyes. "Are you sure you don't hate me?"
"Are you stupid? Of course I don't hate you. I'm alive and well, and I know you took care of me when I was out of it. It's a lot more than anyone else would have done for me," she said with a soft smile as she looked at the young girl. She smoothed back her hair, hooking it behind her ear as she tried to comfort her best friend.
"So, you don't think I'm a monster?" Caroline asked, her voice catching on the last word.
Elena snorted. "You are a monster," she said and Caroline's face fell. "But you're the kind of monster I love, a shopping monster," she finished with a small wink and Caroline burst out laughing.
"Wait a second. Did you just say you're four thousand years old?" the vampire screeched.
"Yup," she said with a grin.
"And she's rich!" Jeremy shouted from below. "And I'm really her brother by blood!"
"What the hell?" Caroline exclaimed. "You're rich?" Elena had to laugh. Trust Caroline to focus on the least important thing but trust Jeremy to know exactly what to say to defuse the situation and make them all laugh.
"I've got so much money that even you couldn't spend it," Elena said with a laugh.
"Jeremy, I'm marrying you!" Caroline shouted out and Elena chuckled. "Unless, of course, same sex marriages are legal where you come from. I think we'd make a stunning couple," Caroline continued, batting her eyelashes.
"Actually, every kind of marriage is legal because there are so many species and I agree with you, I think we'd make an amazing couple," Elena said with a grin.
"Ooooh, do I get your credit card if I'm your wife?"
"Uhm, not really."
"Humph, then I don't want to marry you," Caroline said with a little huff.
"We don't have credit cards. But you will get an ident chip, along with the family name and that will give you access to all my funds."
"Okay, I have a wedding to plan," Caroline said with a grin. "Thank you," she finished seriously.
"What for?" Elena asked, puzzled.
"For still thinking of me as your friend," she replied.
"You're much more than that, Care. I love you, don't you know that?"
"I love you too, Lena, but with everything that happened and now that I know what you are… How can you possibly… Oh, I don't know, forget it. I love you," she said softly as she pulled her best friend into a tight hug.
"Yeah, yeah, we all love each other, now can you get your asses down here because I'm starving," they heard Jeremy call up.
"Men," they both said in unison as they rolled their eyes and giggled.
"I have a gun turret to repair," Elena shouted down. "I think you can manage to scrounge some grub for yourself, can't you?"
"Yeah, but eating alone is no fun," Jeremy whined.
"Then eat with Ric."
"Lenny, I wanna eat with hot girls not boring old teachers," he whined again.
"Don't make me regret agreeing to take you with me!" Elena shouted back with a small laugh.
"Fine, I'm going, I'm going," he grumbled.
"You're leaving?" Caroline asked, her eyes widening.
"Yeah, Care. I have to."
"You can't leave me behind," Caroline said, suddenly frightened she would be all alone.
"Caroline, I'm not going on a pleasure cruise. I can't take you with me. I've got Imperial agents on my ass half the time and the other half I'm in the middle of one damn battle or another, with fighters, cruisers and destroyers doing their best to shove a plasma bolt up my ass. Seriously, it isn't fun."
Caroline giggled at Elena's description. "I didn't think you were out there having fun. And I can handle it Elena," the vampire tried to assure her friend. "You can teach me to be like you. I can fight. Please don't leave me alone. You're the only real friend I have. You know what I am and you still love me. Please," she whispered softly.
"Caroline, I'm not sure you really understand what it's like. There isn't time for shopping or for parties or going out for coffee."
"I know Elena. I'm not that shallow. But I wouldn't be alone," Caroline said.
Elena felt her resolve break. She was turning into a damn sap. Pretty soon, she'd have a ship full of people when she left. Where was the hard-ass her father had molded. Apparently somewhere in her very distant past. "I'll think about it," she grumbled. Caroline squealed in delight and jumped on Elena so hard they both fell down and rolled over the hull of the ship, falling off to land with a thud on the floor. Caroline jumped up, horrified she had hurt Elena.
Elena, on the other hand, was laughing so hard tears were running down her face. "Are you okay?" Caroline asked.
"Perfect," Elena managed to gasp. "But I sure as hell didn't see that one coming." Caroline started to laugh as well and pretty soon they were both lying on the floor laughing their hearts out.
"Now that we're down here, we might as well make Jer happy and have lunch with him," Elena said, once she had managed to gain control of herself.
"Uhm, then that's my cue to leave. I need to get some blood anyway," Caroline said sadly.
"Don't be silly, I have a replicator on board. It can make anything and if the blood isn't good enough, you can drink mine," Elena said with a shrug.
"You'd let me bite you?" Caroline asked, stunned.
Elena cocked an eyebrow. "Of course, it's not as if you can kill me. And anyway, I think you might like my blood a bit better than the human stuff." Caroline just stared as her friend climbed to her feet and made her way into the ship. "Well? Are you coming?" Elena hollered and Caroline jumped to her feet, following her friend.
"Okay, this is weird but so damned good, it isn't even funny," Caroline breathed as she took another gulp of the golden liquid in the glass.
"Weird?" Jeremy asked.
"Well, I've gotten used to drinking the red stuff and Elena's blood is fricking gold! And not just the color. It's like being on speed! I swear, I don't know what your blood has in it Elena, but it's fucking amazing," the blonde vampire declared. She had drunk only a glass but she felt as if she had gone through about fifty pints of the human stuff.
"I swear, I'm never going human again," she declared. "If that's alright with you," she amended softly, worried she'd presume too much.
Elena laughed. "Of course, Care. If you feel better drinking my blood, it's not a problem," she said with a smile. "Just make sure to give me plenty of orange juice after and you can drink all you like."
"Elena, I swear, it's amazing," Caroline said, pretty much in awe, considering she felt like she could take on the world and win.
"Hey, they say once you've gone Dirilian, you never go back," she said with a grin. "Sure, they meant it in other ways, but I think this applies."
"What do you mean?"
"Sex between Dirilian mates is off the charts, apparently," Elena said with a small shrug.
"What do you mean, mates? Like husband and wife?" Ric asked curiously, even though it was a bit of an odd topic.
"Something like that. You see, Dirilians have only one mate in the whole Galaxy."
"You mean like soul mates? Like in all those cool romance novels?" Caroline asked.
"Uhm, not quite. It's a little more to do with biology and a little less to do with the supernatural. You see, basically, from a genetic viewpoint, we are programmed to reproduce with the best match for our particular genetic makeup. So, to ensure that the bond is successful and that we stay together to produce the best Dirilian progeny, Dirilians and their mates are perfect matches from every point of view, including personality. And to make sure we have as many kids as possible, as it is difficult for us to reproduce because we are such a long-lived species, the sex is out of this world amazing. And it only gets better with time," she said with a grin.
"Lucky bitch," Caroline grumbled.
"So, how can you tell you've found your mate?" Jeremy asked. "Just for research purposes, since I'm like you." He added.
"You really are like Elena?" Caroline asked him curiously.
"It turns out we are siblings by blood, after all," Jeremy said proudly.
"Are you sure you want to be related to me?" Elena couldn't help but ask. Caroline, who had been filled in by Ric and Jeremy on Elena's past, glared at her.
"Are you thick? Of course he wants to be related to you. Hell, I want to be related to you," she snapped.
"What she said," Jeremy agreed with a grin. Elena's hearts warmed at the acceptance she felt and it made her feel amazing that Jeremy was proud to be her brother.
"Thanks guys," she said, her voice cracking slightly. She cleared her throat to answer Jeremy's earlier question. "It's different for everyone but you just know when you've met your mate. You'll feel a sudden urge to protect them and you'll find yourself connected to them on an emotional level at first. Then, when you finalize the bond, you'll be able to communicate telepathically, like we can," she explained.
"So, have you met your mate?" Ric asked, almost certain he knew the answer.
"Maybe," she mumbled.
"Ha! You have, haven't you?" he exclaimed.
"Maybe," she said again. Caroline stared at the two men who were watching Elena knowingly and then, it suddenly hit her.
"It's Damon, isn't it?" she screeched, bouncing on the bench. Elena glared at her.
"Maybe," she mumbled again.
Ric and Jeremy grinned, while Caroline clapped happily. "I knew you two were perfect for each other!"
"You know she told him she basically hates his guts and she plans on leaving him here," Jeremy told Caroline, knowing he'd found another ally. He hoped she'd be able to get through to Elena better than anyone else. She was a girl, after all.
"You did what?" Caroline screeched.
"I will not endanger Damon and that's final!" she snapped at them all.
"You and I are going to have a very long talk about this," Caroline said warningly. "Just because you're four thousand years old doesn't mean you're all-knowing. And leaving Damon behind is clearly one of your stupider ideas," the young vampire said with a huff.
"By the stars, not another one," Elena moaned. "How many advocates does that damned vampire need?"
"As many as it takes to get you to see the truth," Ric said softly. "You'll take two full humans and a young vampire with you, but you won't take Damon, who has always been able to take care of himself and has been protecting the rest of us for the better part of a year. Please explain the logic."
"Shut up," Elena grumbled, knowing she really didn't have an explanation for that one. "I know," she said suddenly. "I'll leave the lot of you here and that'll make a lot more sense."
"Oh, no you don't," they all said in unison. Elena groaned and dropped her head to the table.
"What have I done?" she moaned as she banged her head against the table. "I'll never have a moment's peace again," she whined.
"What are friends for?" Caroline asked with a wicked grin. "We're here to show you the error of your ways."
"By the stars, I'm royally screwed, aren't I?" Elena asked and everyone around the table nodded with a grin. She groaned again.
"Admiral, you wished me to remind you of Master Ramsjehin's message. I believe now would be a good time for you to view it." Malik said. Elena thanked the powers that be for the interruption.
"Play the message, Malik," she said and everyone watched curiously as a hologram of an old man appeared on the table.
"Hello Elena," it said. "You are probably wondering what's going on."
"You always were one to state the obvious Ram," addressing the hologram with her favorite nickname for her mentor, even though he despised it, which obviously made her use it more often. Everyone around the table chuckled.
"Since there isn't much time, I'll be brief. When the Emperor took you, we feared the worst but we never gave up hope. It took a while but we found out that you were to be transported to the Emperor's private moon from the Prison Moon of Hekate. We were able to intercept the transport but when we found you, you had been genetically altered to a full human and had been regressed to an infant, your memories wiped."
"So, why didn't you just resequence me when you found me? What's with this charade of dumping me on Earth for almost two decades?" Elena grumbled.
"It was my decision to hide you on Earth and not to go through with immediate resequencing. My reasons are my own but believe me when I tell you that it was for the best. Someday, you will understand why I did what I did and why I chose this particular time to remind you of who you are," he said with a sigh and Elena could see the strain on his face. She wasn't sure she'd understand but she knew he always had his reasons and they were usually pretty good ones.
"We also found another child with you and couldn't, in good conscience leave him to the tender mercies of the Emperor. He was brought back and we had found a family to adopt him but when we took a closer look at his DNA, nine of the twenty alleles were a match to yours, indicating that you shared at least one parent. Since I know the story of your mother, it was safe to assume that you shared the same father. Again, it was my decision to send him with you, after we changed him to a full human. It is your decision what you do further. You can either leave him there without revealing the truth or you can bring him with you and we will be able to resequence his DNA since we have all the information on file. The choice is yours but I highly recommend you bring him along since we need to rebuild our people," he said softly.
"As you are likely aware by now, we hid a ship for you so you could make it back to us. However, I'm afraid that you might have to deal with other issues before you leave Earth. Much more is going on than you can imagine. When we boarded the transport and recovered you, we found some information that literally could change the tide of war in either direction. It seems that the presence of vampires and werewolves on Earth isn't quite as accidental as we believed. Remember how we used to discuss the similarities of the vampires with the inhabitants of Belathor and how the werewolves were almost carbon copies of the Wolfrans? Well, it appears the similarities aren't just coincidental. The Emperor transplanted a family of each of the races to Earth, after wiping their minds and replacing their memories with ones of his own creation," Ram continued to explain.
"At first, we could not understand the reason behind his decision until we discovered a secret file, hidden beneath layer upon layer of protection. The file contains data pertinent to a thousand year old experiment code-named Klaus."
"In his obsession to create the perfect soldier, your father decided to conduct some genetic experiments on various backwater planets and it seems Klaus was one of his more successful endeavors. Unfortunately, though, somehow your sister got involved and managed shut down the werewolf side of the mixed-breed, stopping him from creating more of his kind. It is why she was forced to disappear because your father learned of her treachery and sent assassins to deal with her."
"Lei, why didn't you tell me?" Elena whispered, a tear running down her cheek.
"We have a sister?" Jeremy asked in surprise.
"We did," Elena said softly. "She chose to move on. I'll tell you all about her soon," she whispered, nodding to the hologram that was still speaking.
"She didn't want you to know, child, because you were dealing with so much already. Anyway, it was then apparently discovered that the only way to restore the Klaus project to its full potential was by using the blood of the D'Arkadia line as a catalyst but because Leianhwe had been human when she used the resequencer on Klaus, he assumed that the blood had to be human. The problem is that he's wrong. It does have to be D'Arkadia blood but it doesn't matter what species it is because the underlying DNA matrix is the same. And yes, that means that your blood as a Dirilian and even that brat vampire's blood will work. Elena, you have to stop them somehow. Klaus has no knowledge of what he really is or why he feels the need to create an army of mixed-breeds but the Emperor is waiting and soon he will become unstoppable."
"Oh fucking wonderful," Elena grumbled. "An army of unstoppable hybrids is all we needed. As if life wasn't hellish enough without another squad of killers at his disposal. And Klaus is a Wolfran-Belathorian mix? Just great. It'll be like trying to kill vapor or mist. Not happening."
"Unfortunately, we have not yet discovered any weakness, if Klaus has one, meaning that you will have to incarcerate him somehow to take him out of the game until our spies discover how he can be put down. And the crap about the white ash stake is just that, crap. At least when it comes to Klaus. The one thing that does seem to weaken him, according to the file, is irrilium and since you are pretty well stocked in that department," he said with a wink, "I'm sure you'll be just fine. I have to go now but I hope to see you soon my darling child. I have missed you so much," he said, his voice breaking and tears shining in his eyes.
Elena sniffed, her hearts physically hurting with the need to feel his arms wrap around her. He had been more of a father to her than her own had ever been. "Oh and Elena, one last thing. Remember what we are fighting for. We are fighting for the beautiful things in life like love. So, allow yourself to feel it and enjoy it because it will make you that much more powerful. Good-bye my dear and I hope to see you soon," he said and the image switched off.
"Damn old man," she said with a huff and a small grin. "I knew you were up to something."
"See, even he agrees with us," Caroline piped in, clearly oblivious to the significance of everything else that had been said in the message.
"So, basically, you have to capture Klaus?" Ric asked, the terror on his face very clear to everyone sitting at the table.
"It appears so. Malik, does the Karillian have a holding cell?"
"Yes, Admiral. The Karillian used to be a prison transport therefore we are fully equipped to contain any species, no matter how strong."
"Good. It looks like we're going hunting, kids," Elena said with a menacing grin.