AN: So, I got a lot of people, here and on tumblr, that wanted a sequel to Bloody Kisses. I wrote one. It went in a different direction than I planned on.
Own The Night
Wes Maxfield had dedicated most of his life to the eradication of vampires. When that had proven, in his opinion, too great a task for humanity to accomplish, he had turned his attention towards making vampires eradicate themselves.
Thus, the Augustine Serum had been created.
It had worked wonderfully, Jesse had been the proof of that. Wes could honestly say he only had two regrets in his pursuit of the serum.
The first was that Jesse had died too soon – he hadn't been able to gather enough data, enough information, to really comment on the success of the serum.
The second was that he'd been forced to leave Caroline Forbes behind when she'd been injected, in order to save himself from subjects 12144 and 21051. He had originally meant to inject subject 21051, but when the Forbes monster had shown up and gotten in the way of the needle, Wes had to admit he'd thought it was divine intervention.
The creature had been entirely too good at pretending to be human, and now she would be unable to hide the truth of her monstrosity, and so her own kind would be forced to kill her or die. Max hoped that many, many of them died before the managed to take her out.
Wes whistled a cheerful tune to himself as he wandered down the London street from the supermarket. He'd been forced to pack up and flee from Whitmore, but Sloan and her associates had paid for his relocation and had set up a fully updated lab out of their offices for him to continue his work here in London – facilities that would be much easier to control, and allow for more, and better, containment of his test subjects.
Yes, life was going Wes' way these days. With his new circumstances, he could fully concentrate on taking care of the monsters that had killed his friends and associates. The monsters that had killed Aaron.
"Hey, Wes. Long time, no see. Miss me?"
"21051!" Wes gasped, dropping his bag of groceries and looking into the blue eyes of the vampire. Wes spun around, planning on getting away, getting to one of the nearby houses, but there was another figure behind him.
"Now, I know he missed me. I certainly missed him," 12144 said with a wicked grin, grabbing Wes and spinning him around so that the doctor was forced to once again look at 21051.
"Now that we're all reunited, we can talk about a certain blonde we have in common," the blue eyed vampire said with a winning smile. "You messed with the wrong Barbie, Wes, and now it's time for you to explain to the devil what it is you did. Part of me almost hopes you have no way of reversing what you did to her, because if you can't? He'll make you wish your parents had never been born."
OWN-THE-NIGHT
They had destroyed her plans.
Celeste had had such wonderful plans, plans that would have ended with the Mikaelsons and all their vicious offspring being eliminated. She'd been so sure she would succeed in destroying them when Elijah had chosen to save Hayley over his siblings.
She had underestimated his loyalty to his siblings, and, she admitted now, Niklaus and Rebekah's determination to survive.
Now, she no longer had Bastianna or Genevieve, Davina was once again firmly in Marcel's, and thus the Mikaelson's corner, and Monique was beginning to lose her faith in the cause. All of Celeste's carefully formed plans were falling around her. It was only a matter of time now, she knew, before she joined the others in death, but she was determined to cause as much damage as she could before that.
Niklaus Mikaelson might kill her, but she would destroy the very heart of him before he took her head, and thanks to the supernatural gossip mill, Celeste knew exactly where to hit.
Celeste imagined that the pretty young blonde had been quite lovely once, but close to a month without blood and the madness of thirst had taken what color she may have had. Her fangs were bared in an angry hiss, though her throat was obviously so dry that no sound came out, and her eyes were blackened with thirst. There was no mind left in this girl, just a monster and thirst.
Here was the true face of vampire.
And, if rumor was to be believed, she fed on other vampires. Tore them apart and bathed in their blood. Only the apparent love Niklaus bore for her kept this girl alive, and wouldn't it just tear him apart when she tore him apart? It seemed a fitting end for the Hybrid… a broken heart followed by his death.
"Hello, Caroline," Celeste said, kneeling next to the girl. "I am Celeste. And I am going to set you free… but first, we need to make you invincible."
Celeste pulled out Papa Tunde's knife and smiled down at the girl, who looked up at her blankly, still snarling. There was no recognition of Celeste's words in her eyes, and Celeste supposed that would be a blessing for Caroline. She would cause a massacre, but she would be too far gone to remember it.
"Let's get started, my dear."
OWN-THE-NIGHT
Caroline became aware of her surroundings bit by bit.
She didn't know how long she had been in this place, buried and starving, wanting nothing more than to rip out the throats of the vampires who came by to check on her twice a day. She could remember that Klaus had come by once a day – she remembered the smell of him, and the taste of him, because he had always given her blood. Just enough to keep her from desiccating, just enough to keep her starving for more.
Part of her hated him for that, though she didn't think he had thought of that side effect of his daily donations. He had probably just wanted to keep her alive, hadn't thought of how the desiccation would have been kinder.
Now, she was aware that she was out of the dirt, no longer bound to the garden. She was lying on her back, next to the hole she had been placed in and there was a woman, black and lovely, watching her with eyes that looked far too old for her face.
"Who are you?"
"You're aware," the woman replied, some surprise lighting her eyes. "I hadn't quite expected that. I'm almost sorry for it, to be honest. This would have been easier for you, if you had remained crazed."
"Who are you?" Caroline demanded again, her voice gaining strength though her body still felt so very weak.
"I am called Celeste. I am a witch – I see you don't like that. I suppose you wouldn't. I've heard of you, Caroline Forbes, the baby vampire who killed twelve of my sisters to unleash hell on Earth."
"He didn't turn out to be as hellish as we expected," Caroline replied, her voice sounding hoarse. "He was more sad than anything. And I killed those witches to save my best friend. I've gone over that night, time and again in my mind, and I refuse to feel guilty. Because for Bonnie? I would do it again."
"Such loyalty to your friend," Celeste mused. "I have to respect that, though I don't see her here, so I guess that loyalty is not returned."
"She doesn't know where I am. What do you want with me?" At Celeste's raised brows, Caroline gave a heavy sigh. "You're a witch. Witches always want something. Bonnie was the lone one out, in that she didn't want anything from us except our survival. So what do you want?"
"I want you to kill Niklaus Mikaelson and his siblings," Celeste replied simply. Caroline gave out a harsh bark of laughter.
"Please. Even if I could kill an Original, I learned my lesson. Nothing good comes from wiping out a vampire bloodline. Just more death and guilt. I've had my share of both, so just bury me again." Caroline closed her eyes and relaxed her body. She was done with this witch.
"You don't get a choice in this, Caroline," Celeste said, and her voice had become severe and filled with power, as if she believed she could intimidate the baby vampire who had been through more in her two years of undead life than this witch could have dreamed of going through in centuries.
"I'm tired of people not giving me a choice. The worst you can do is kill me, Celeste, and I've already died once. I'm not afraid to do it again. Not anymore."
Caroline turned her head away from the witch, wishing she would just leave. She had survived torture and Hybrid bites and nearly being killed by her best friend. She had lived in this hell hole for who knows how long, and she was tired. She didn't want to be an Augustine Vampire anymore, at this point would almost welcome death from the witch next to her.
"I've already turned you into my weapon, Caroline," Celeste replied, and Caroline's head snapped around, her eyes sharp as they focused on the witch, who held a long dagger in her hands. It looked old fashioned and ceremonial, almost as if it were forged from bone, not steel. "This belonged to a witch named Papa Tunde. He had the ability to use it to take in the powers of others, whether they be witch, vampire or werewolf. In the pursuit of our cause, he sacrificed many vampires to this dagger and then, the ultimate sacrifice, he gave his own life. That power, all of it, is in you now. I suppose that's why you regained your senses. It strengthened you. But that's no matter. Your twice daily check-in is due at any moment, and we both know that you are starving." Celeste's eyes were ancient again, and solemn as they met Caroline's. "I wasn't lying, Caroline, when I said you had no choice. You will kill the Originals. Your instincts won't give you another choice."
Caroline stared at Celeste in silence, anger building in her chest, making it difficult to breathe. She turned her head to the ceiling of the garden, and closed her eyes, forcing back the tears that threatened to spill, then, in a flash too fast for Celeste to respond to, Caroline was her on her feet and thrusting her hand through the witches chest, squeezing the heart with her impossibly strong grip. Celeste gasped and stared down at her chest as Caroline pulled her hand, and the ruined organ it grasped, out of the cavity.
"And I wasn't lying when I said I was tired of not being given a choice," Caroline replied, looking down at the corpse as it landed at her feet. She dropped the heart on top of it and looked around the Garden at a loss.
"What do I do now?"
OWN-THE-NIGHT
"What is this place?" Wes asked when 12144 removed the hood from his head, allowing him to finally see their surroundings. He was sitting in a lavish sitting room, done it heavy oak woods and Wes was pretty sure the decanters on the table across the room were full of scotch that had been aged to perfection and would cost half his pay cheque to buy.
"Geographically?" 21051 asked. "We're in New Orleans. For you? Well, just consider it hell, Wes."
"This is him, then?" asked an accented voice, and Wes strained his neck, trying to see who it belonged to. A slimly built man strolled to stand next to 21051, and the blue-eyed vampire tensed at having the new man so close. Wes couldn't understand why. Physically, both 21051 and 12144 were more intimidating than this new man, who was smiling at Wes with a too-pleasant expression and dimples. He seemed completely unthreatening, and Wes found himself relaxing.
He could deal with this man, whoever he was.
"You don't seem intimidated," the man observed idly, and his expression changed from pleasant to stormy in a split second as he flashed forward, faster than any vampire Wes had ever seen, and stabbed a small, viciously sharp knife into Wes' thigh. Wes gave out a scream of pain and shock as the man, smiling at him as though they were old friends, gave the knife a vicious twist before pulling it out sharply. "Hmmm… you appear to have urinated yourself. Apparently you can dish pain out, but are rather poor at taking it."
Wes whimpered in reply, wanting to clutch at his leg, but unable to because of the restraints 12144 had used on him. The stench of urine hit his nose, and in any other moment, Wes would have felt humiliated at a show of such weakness, but in the face of this man who so cavalierly handed out pain and then mocked it, Wes only felt fear.
He could understand 21051's uneasiness now. Wes knew this monster was going to be unlike any other vampire he had encountered, and he also knew that this was the devil 21051 had said Wes was coming to meet.
OWN-THE-NIGHT
"He keeps saying that he can't reverse the serum," Rebekah said, licking some of Wes' blood off her finger as she joined her brothers, Damon Salvatore, and Enzo in the lounge. She had been taking her turn with Wes' interrogation, but hadn't had any more luck than Klaus. She was beginning to think that the good doctor was speaking the truth, that the serum was irreversible.
"There has to be some way to undo it," Klaus snarled back, his mood had become increasingly dark as he'd applied more and more pain to Wes, only to get the same response: there is no cure.
"If there is," Marcel declared, sweeping into the room with Diego and Davina, who almost had to run to keep up with her vampiric father-figure, "then you had better find it now. Your blonde friend is loose."
"What?" Klaus snarled. "How? She was kept barely strong enough to move her head! She couldn't have broken those chains and dug her way out!"
"It was Celeste. Her body was next to the hole. Her heart was torn out," Davina replied with a grim expression. There was no regret for a deceased witch in the young girl's demeanor, just worry for what this could mean for Marcel. "This was there as well."
Davina held out a wrapped object, and when Klaus moved the covering aside, Papa Tunde's knife was revealed. Rebekah felt a thrill of relief, that the weapon that could kill them was within reach, that it could be hidden away like the white oak stake and never spoken of again.
Davina's next words crushed that relief.
"It's not spelled anymore. It's just a regular knife, but a spell circle was set up there. Celeste performed magic before she died. Powerful, ancient blood magic."
"What is this kid on about?" Damon demanded, stepping up to Rebekah's side. "And what does it have to do with Blondie?"
"Do you know?" Klaus demanded of the young witch, and Davina glared back at him.
"I can make assumptions," she snarled back, showing all of the temperamental nature that came with being fifteen and hating someone. "This vampire… you guys call her Caroline, right? I can't be positive, because I don't know exactly what spell Celeste was performing, but I can take a pretty accurate shot in the dark and say that your little friend is now the dagger."
"You're saying that Caroline Forbes, one time Miss Mystic Falls and neurotic, control-freak Barbie Doll extraordinaire is now a weapon that can kill Original vampires?" Damon asked incredulously.
"A weapon that is also addicted to vampire blood," Elijah agreed with a sigh, running his hand down his face. "Are you still certain keeping the girl alive was a good idea, Niklaus?"
Klaus snarled in replied and stormed out the room, slamming the door behind him, more determined than ever to get answers out of Wes Maxfield.
OWN-THE-NIGHT
Camille entered the chapel, intent on finding her uncle Kieran and making sure that Bastianna's spell on him really had been ended with her death as Elijah had told her it would be, something she had been doing both before and after classes every day in the week since the witch had been killed.
Instead, her attention was caught by a curly blonde head in the second row of pews.
"Hey, are you okay?" Cami asked, cautiously approaching the girl. Her experiences with Klaus and Marcel had taught her to be more careful to whom she extended the hand of friendship, but Cami was, by nature, a caring girl, and she didn't like to leave someone who could be in need all alone. "If you're looking for confession, it's over there. I can get the Priest for you, if you want."
"I'm not even Catholic," the girl replied, and Cami was close enough to see her features now. she had blue eyes and curly blonde hair, and her features were young. Cami would put her still in high school, maybe a young college freshman, but she looked farm more resigned than a girl that age had any right to be. Her hair was damp, as though it had just been washed, and she wore a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt that were both too big and didn't suit her at all. She looked like the type to wear heels and sundresses, not lumberjack chic. "I just didn't know where else to go. It's foolish, anyway. They can still come in here. I know that. I'm in here, after all."
"They? Who do you mean by they?" Cami asked, and the girl looked up again, but this time her eyes weren't blue. Instead they had darkened to black, the veins around them becoming prominent, and Cami took an alarmed step back, reminded once again that looks could be deceiving. "You're a vampire."
"You know about vampires," the girl observed, her expression oddly empty despite the monstrous features. "I imagine you're on vervain then. That's good. That means I don't have to compel you. I hate doing that. I mean, I will… secrecy and survival and all that, but I always feel so guilty afterwards. My name is Caroline, and you don't have to watch me like that."
"Like what?" Cami asked, taking another step forward when the girl, Caroline, didn't seem the least bit interested in her blood, despite the darkening of her eyes.
"Like I'll fall on you in starvation. I mean, I am starving, but your blood has all the appeal to me that an anemic drug addict would have for any other vampire." When Cami just raised her eyes and stopped her forward movement, Caroline gave her a rueful smile. "That's zero, just so you know. What brings you here? You don't look like some sort of serial killer that needs admit her sins, but neither do I, and I just ripped out a witch's heart because she pissed me off."
"You're not really gaining any points in the won't-kill-me department when you say things like that," Cami said dryly, and wondered what it said about her life that Caroline's admittance of murder made her more curious than scared. She took the last step forward and set next to the young vampire in the pew. "What witch did you kill and what did you do to piss her off?"
"Are you familiar with the witches around here?" Caroline asked, the first stirrings of curiosity appearing in her eyes.
"More than I would like," Cami admitted, thinking of her brother, and how Bastianna had spelled him to insanity, and how she had tried to do the same to Kieran as well. "So lay it on me."
"She said her name was Celeste and… you know her," Caroline's eyes focused on her face. "I mean, you have a really good poker face, but I've spent the last two years dealing with Doppelgangers of my best friends. You learn to notice the small things after a while. How do you know her?"
"She was the mastermind behind this insane plot to kill pretty much the vampire of all vampires. You've probably heard of him – Klaus Mikaelson?"
Caroline's expression became wry and somewhat amused at the question.
"I'm familiar with him," she replied vaguely, with the tiniest of smiles that made Cami want to know more about how this girl knew the dangerous Hybrid.
"Well, they – the witches, I mean – tried to kill Klaus and his family under Celeste's order. They ended up losing, and Celeste had been MIA until you apparently killed her. You're sure she's dead?"
"Like I said, I ripped her heart out. I can't make her much more dead than that."
"Well, then maybe you got the dagger?" Camille asked hopefully, because she had thrown her lot in with Klaus all those weeks ago, and now she'd like to feel some level of security, knowing that the dagger wasn't lying around where anyone could simply pick it up and use it. Camille knew she couldn't out muscle a vampire, but this one didn't seem all that vicious, so perhaps she would be willing to give it up.
"You mean that ceremonial ivory monstrosity?" Caroline asked resting her arms on her knees and leaning forward, looking ahead at the alter at the front of the church. Cami saw her eyes flash towards her, so she gave a sharp nod, and Caroline gave a harsh bark of laughter that was very at odds with her youthful appearance. "Oh, yeah. I've got it alright. Do you have time for a story… I'm sorry. I never got your name."
OWN-THE-NIGHT
Camille.
Her name was Camille, and Caroline thought ruefully that this young woman was probably very much what Caroline would have been like, had she gotten the chance to grow up.
Perhaps that's why the story came out of her so easily. Because, as Caroline told her about Augustine and her road trip with Enzo and Damon, about coming to New Orleans and being put in the garden, then cursed and released by Celeste, she could almost imagine that she was just telling this story to herself – a self who was physically several years older and experience-wise several years younger, but still a self.
"Wow," Cami said when Caroline finished with how she had compelled her way into a human's house and used his shower and borrowed some clothes – clothes that weren't at all her, but that were comfortable, which was all she wanted when the thirst made her feel itchy, as though snakes were crawling just below her skin. "That's… wow. How are you dealing with that? And sorry, that's a silly question. I blame it on the psychology degree. We always ask stuff like that."
"It's okay. It's a valid question, really." Caroline shrugged and tapped her fingers on the pew. "Honestly, I don't know how I'm dealing. I… I tried to kill myself" – Caroline heard Cami give a sharp intake of breath, and felt a small smile quirk her lips before she continued – "but in the end I couldn't bring myself to do it. I had a wooden chair leg in my hands and everything, and I just… You have to understand, Cami, I'm tired. I'm tired, and I can't do what Celeste wants. Even if I were willing to dance to her tune, killing Klaus would kill half of my loved ones. So, I'm stuck. I'm too afraid to kill myself, and I can't afford to stay alive. Because once I slip, that's it. My sense of self will be gone and I will be Celeste's perfect weapon."
"Klaus will kill you," Cami breathed, and she looked at Caroline with both horror and pity. "I've seen what he's capable of. He showed you mercy for some reason, putting you in that horrible garden, but he won't again."
"I wish it were that simple, Cami," Caroline replied with another sad smile. "I wish I could walk up to Klaus and know that he would end this before I did something neither of us could undo. But I can't be sure of that… you see, Klaus is kind of in love with me." Cami stared at Caroline open mouthed and shocked, and it drew the first real, mirthful laugh from Caroline in months. "I know, it seems impossible, right? But if you'll bear with me, I'll tell you the tale of the Big Bad Hybrid and the Baby Vampire. It's a story that's a little bit funny, a little bit unbelievable, and that I'm pretty sure is going to end up being a tragedy. Wanna hear?"
Cami quirked her brow and settled onto the hard pew more comfortably before waving Caroline on.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world."
And so Caroline told her about a sacrifice that never happened, about a sired boyfriend and a hybrid bite that opened her mind to the world. She spun a tale about Doppelgangers and grand balls held by treacherous witch-mothers. She spoke of body switches and killing Hybrids and boyfriends' mothers another bite, one that ended up showing the depth of Klaus' feelings. Camille was completely engrossed as she listened to Caroline talk about a prom dress and a graduation to remember, when Klaus promised that he might not be her current love, but he would be her last.
"Wow," Cami finally said when the story had come to an end. "Has anyone ever told you that you should be an author? I wouldn't be able to put that story down!"
"No," Caroline admitted, another rueful smile. "In fact, until you, I don't think anyone's ever really told me I should do anything but plan parties."
"And see the world," Cami added, and her gaze became almost wistful. "You painted a picture of a completely different Klaus than the one I know. All I ever got from him was a series of compellments that made me believe I was going crazy. I could almost believe he really did love you, only…" Cami hesitated, eyeing Caroline, and then apparently decided the other blonde needed to hear what she had to say. "What about Hayley? You didn't mention her."
"Hayley really doesn't have a place in our story," Caroline replied with a simple shrug. "I always knew that if I actually let myself have one with Klaus, it would be an epic. It was meant to span centuries – centuries that Hayley and the child probably wouldn't live to see."
"So you do know, then. About the weird vampire wolf baby."
"Klaus came to visit me a lot," Caroline replied. "I was crazed, but I can remember some of it. He told me about her. Hoped I would forgive him. There was really nothing to forgive. It's not as if I stopped sleeping with Tyler. Honestly, I'm more angered by what he did to you."
"Me?" Cami asked, surprised.
"You said he compelled you, made you believe you were insane. I've been you, Cami. And I have never quite forgiven Damon for that. So will you make me a promise? Because I'm not going to get to see this story to the end, and I'd like something to make me smile when I eventually work up the courage to go. You listened to me, heard all about the true story of Klaus and me. It's something I've never told anyone else, so there's no one else I can ask this favour of."
"You don't need to go. I can help you," Cami replied, but Caroline just looked at her calmly, waiting for her to give her word, to grant her one wish. "Fine. What do you want me to promise?"
"Don't forgive him for it. You can grow to tolerate him, even consider him a weird sort of friend, but don't forgive him. Because that kind of abuse shouldn't be forgiven, and it does them good, to be held accountable. No one will hold Damon accountable once I'm gone, and his character is going to suffer for that… so keep Klaus on his toes."
"I promise," Cami replied, and she turned her attention to the side, where she heard Kieran moving, coming towards the front of the church.. "But you're going to be around to keep him on his toes yourself. My uncle knows other witches. And I know one too, Davina. She can undo this, Caroline. I would really like to know that your epic is going to continue, even if it is with Klaus. "
There was no reply next to her and Cami turned her gaze toward Caroline at the same time Kieran entered the main chapel.
"Who were you talking to, Cami?" he asked, and Cami just stared at the spot next to her.
It was empty.
"I… a brave, lost soul," Cami replied, reaching out to run her fingers over the wood where Caroline had sat. "I hope she can find her peace."
OWN-THE-NIGHT
He was covered in blood and considering charging right back down to the dungeon and snapping Wes' throat when she appeared.
"Don't come any closer," she said, holding up her hands when Klaus took a step towards her. "And don't wipe any of that blood off. As long as it's there, I can't smell you. And if I can't smell you, I won't attack you."
"Caroline… we've been searching like mad for you. Davina, she said Celeste performed a spell. Do you know what it was?"
"Yes," Caroline replied. "Celeste turned me into a weapon. A weapon that can kill Originals."
"How does that even work?" Klaus demanded.
"I don't know and I don't want to find out, and since Celeste is too dead to tell us, it's a question that will remain unanswered. Wes doesn't know how to undo this, and don't lie to me, Klaus. You were always honest with me, and I've already seen him. You and Rebekah are really working him over."
"He'll figure out a way, we'll make him," Klaus replied, taking a step toward Caroline, but she took a step back.
"No, Klaus. It's dangerous. I'm dangerous. And God, this is so dramatic, isn't it? I spent almost an hour rambling to Camille about us. She knows the whole story, from almost-sacrifice to should-have-been-last-love. She told me I should be an author… no one has ever told me that before, but now that it's been brought to my attention I think I would have liked it. I haven't thought about what I wanted to do when I grow up, not seriously since I was turned. I think I regret that now that eternity isn't an option anymore. If I could do it again, I'd be an author."
"You're rambling, Love," Klaus said.
"I know, because if I'm talking, then I'm not trying to eat you. I have things I need to say, so it's important I don't try to nom on you. I liked Camille. Stop compelling her and she'll be a good person to have around. I told her not to forgive you, and she won't because I'm pretty sure she's both a good enough person to keep her word and smart enough to know better, but she'll make a good friend to you anyway, even if she is telling you that calling you satan would be an insult to satan."
"That was one of your better zingers, Blondie."
Caroline spun around and Klaus wanted to kill Damon for interrupting the moment he was having with the blonde, but she smiled at him, and it was bright and beautiful.
"You deserved it, and you know it. Elena won't forgive you for what you did to Jeremy, and you don't deserve to be forgiven. You don't deserve her, and we both know it… but I think she might need you a little bit. So stop being such a self-sabotaging douche bag, Damon. You almost died for me once, and we both know you don't like me, so saying that you're the bad guy is just bullshit. Stop trying to make yourself worse than you really are. You're plenty bad enough without doing that. And tell Enzo to stop being such a d-bag, as well. He's cute, he's free, and he has a world in front of him. Let the past lie, Damon. If you never listen to a single other thing I ever told you, including calling you a narcissistic fuck that one time I caught you practicing your smirk in the mirror, then remember that. Now go away. I'm trying to have a moment here, and you being around in all your yummy vampire blood-ness isn't helping my control."
"With the big bad," Damon gave Klaus a critical look. "You have a type, Blondie, and it doesn't reflect well on you."
"Yeah, well it doesn't matter anymore, does it?"
Damon gave her an understanding look and a quick nod.
"Let Wes be the end of it, Damon," Caroline said to his back. "Because even more than Elena seems to need you, Stefan needs his brother. So step up and be a brother."
"Good-bye, Blondie."
"Bye, Douchebag."
Caroline watched Damon leave and looked at Klaus, her expression sad.
"I don't know that he'll listen to me," she admitted. "I hope he does, because I find myself wanting the jerk to actually find some happiness. And Enzo really was a fun time when he wasn't being psychotic. But I wanted to talk to you. Hayley is carrying your child. I heard you tell me, even if it didn't seem like I was aware. We both know that you don't respond well to loss, Klaus, but you have to this time. You can't take your anger out on the world and alienate everyone, because that child will need all the help you can get for her."
"These sound a lot like good-byes, Caroline," Klaus said slowly, stalking toward her.
"That's because they are, Klaus. We both know it."
"And what happens when you can't hide anymore? Will you just let yourself lose control and be put down?"
Caroline flashed forward and grabbed his face, pulling him down for a kiss. It was hard, as it had been in the garden, and full of longing. But it was also far more careful, the blood covering Klaus hid his scent enough that she was able to keep full control of her features, and there were no mishaps this time. They continued like this for a long time, hands threaded in hair and tongues entwined, neither caring that they were both becoming bloody messes as they pressed their bodies together. Finally, when Caroline decided she should breathe again, she pulled away, just far enough that their lips were still brushing, but she could speak.
"We both know I don't plan on letting myself ever get to the point of losing control," she whispered, and then shoved him hard enough that he went flying into the wall while she flashed out of the mansion, her Augustine- and spell-enhanced speed meaning she was gone before Klaus ever regained his feet.
Klaus flashed outside after her, but she was lost to the crowd and revelry of the quarter.
Klaus let his Hybrid features come out and roared his rage at the world.
OWN-THE-NIGHT
It had been two days since she'd fled New Orleans and she was losing her mind. Her already tenuous control was ready to snap, and she sat in the hunting cabin that had once been her father's pride and joy, trying to work up the courage to put the stake in her lap through her heart.
She had considered death by sunlight, but that would take too long. She needed quick and done with, or she'd lose her courage. If she could ever work it up.
Caroline ran her fingers over the stake, and looked around the cabin. She had been here when she was younger, when she hadn't really understood the cabin's true purpose. She had always disliked the thought of her father hunting helpless animals, but it was only since she'd been turned that she'd realized the true purpose of this cabin.
It wasn't for deer, it was made for hunting vampires. And Caroline had known her father well enough that discovering the arsenal hidden behind a secret panel in the basement had been easy.
And now she sat there, a perfectly made stake held in her hands, and her grasp on sanity waning. She could picture her Dad, the way he had been before his death. She wondered if he would be horrified by what she had become, or like it. The monster who fed on monsters.
I just want to fix you, sweetie.
"I can't be fixed, Daddy," Caroline whispered, echoing her words from all those months ago, before she raised the stake and shoved it into her chest.
Then there was no hunger, no sadness, just blissful, peaceful darkness.
OWN-THE-NIGHT
"Are you sure this is it?"
"Yes, I'm sure. I did the locator spell three times, just like Klaus asked."
"Back off, Rebekah. She's sure."
Klaus blocked out the voices of Rebekah, Davina, and Marcel as he looked at the cabin the little witch's spell had brought them to. He knew Caroline had meant her good-byes to be permanent, but Klaus wasn't ready to give up on her. Not when she had finally been open about how she felt.
It wasn't fair, not to him or to her, that it had taken her deciding to die to finally make her admit that she felt something for him.
Klaus had been distracted by his thoughts, staring at the house, that he hadn't noticed the other three enter until he heard Rebekah's strangled gasp. He flashed to the door, wondering what had gotten such a reaction from his sister.
The sight that greeted him sent him to his knees.
Caroline lie there, still in the bloody clothes she had been wearing when she'd left him in New Orleans. Her hair was greasy, not at all like the Caroline he knew. But it wasn't that that brought him to his knees – it was the greying of the skin, caused by the stake she had driven through her own heart.
"We're too late," he whispered, and Rebekah laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. Klaus was hardly aware of her presence, he was too busy staring at Caroline's corpse. Two days had been too long.
"Maybe it's better this way," Marcel said, walking up to Caroline's body and kneeling down next to it. "There wasn't a way to cure her, Klaus. We know that. Now you can let Damon Salvatore and Enzo finish Wesfield off, let them avenge her." He reached out and pulled the stake out. "Do we take her body with us?"
"She has a mother," Rebekah replied. "Still alive, in Mystic Falls. Liz will want to bury her there, and that's what Caroline would have wanted as well."
No, Klaus thought. Caroline would have wanted to live. To see Paris, Tokyo, Rome. To go on not forgiving Damon Salvatore, but not hating him either.
"We'll let Damon know, and he can pass the word on," Rebekah continued. "It will be better, coming from them. Come on, Nik. You need to get up."
Klaus continued to stare at Caroline's body, willing her with his eyes to not be dead. To come back and be the vibrant, light filled woman he had fallen in love with. Rebekah pulled him to his feet and turned him away, but Klaus swore he saw color returning to her features, that his power of will was working. He turned his head back, to look again, at the same time Davina screamed.
"Marcel, look out!"
It happened in a split second. One moment, Caroline was the floor, grey skin proclaiming her death, the next she was on Marcel, latched to his neck hungrily. Rebekah grabbed the discarded stake off the floor, and shoved it into Caroline's back, right into her heart.
Caroline released Marcel, letting him fall to the ground, bleeding profusely from her bite, but still alive, and turned on Rebekah, her eyes black, veins stark against her pale skin. She hissed and leapt for Rebekah. Klaus expected his sister to shove the other blond away, but instead Caroline pinned her arms to her side, holding her in a mockery embrace, and dug her fangs into her neck. Rebekah's eyes widened as she realized she couldn't over power the other blonde, and she let out a strangled gasp.
"Nik…"
Klaus had frozen in his shock, but Rebekah's voice broke him from his stasis, and he flashed forward and snapped Caroline's neck as she fed from his sister. Her grip slackened and Rebekah shoved her away, letting her fall limply to the floor as she grabbed her neck and looked up at Klaus completely shocked.
"What the bloody hell just happened?" Rebekah demanded. Klaus looked at his sister grimly, as she held the wound that wasn't healing nearly as quickly as it should, and then met Davina's equally grim eyes, both of them coming to the same conclusion together.
"She's the weapon to kill the Originals," Davina said, echoing Klaus's thoughts. "And that weapon is made to be indestructible."
AN: So, yeah. You asked for a sequel, this is what happened. There will be a third part, eventually. First I want to write something a little more cheerful. Good news is that I've already started that something cheerful – a Katholine story that takes place prior to 500 Years of Solitude and that will involve them being awesome together.
Thank-you for all the feedback on my last couple of ficlets. It's been wonderful, and it keeps me writing.