AN: I hope you enjoy! This is just the first part, so do not be discouraged at the end! I don't want to leave a big cliffhanger after what TVD did to our BonBon so just know that there's more to come!
A Moment Like This
Moments. Life was made of a series of moments, stacked like a deck of cards, and dealt with like premeditation.
Running through the woods, Klaus knew his deck was one card short. He was heading for a trap. But he couldn't stop it.
Because Klaus had watched Henrik die.
And he had watched his parents turn from him: one, after the other.
And he had watched his siblings turn from him – betray him: one, after the other.
They lay spread out before his mind's eyes, like Tarot. Already dealt, already dictating a future fast approaching. His paws hit the ground with such force, he was certain the earth would quake with memory of his presence. The dust and dirt whipped up into the air around him, but all he saw was clear.
The Hangman's Noose. The Phoenician Sailor.
This was it.
The End.
Klaus ran faster.
KB
Moments of truth.
Lined up like a set of dominoes, waiting, waiting, waiting to be knocked over until nothing stood at all. Things like this, precarious things, delicate things – they could never last.
Bonnie should have known better.
"Bonnie Bennett," Mikael drew out her name again with a familiarity that turned her stomach with disgust. He smiled.
Bonnie squared her feet and straightened her shoulders as she stared him down. She felt her purse slide from her shoulder to hit the ground, but made no move to stop it.
Klaus, she thought, and immediately felt her magic surging up in her palms. Charging her up.
"We've been expecting you," Bonnie said.
Mikael's smile faltered for but a second. "I do hope you will forgive my late arrival," he said, "As I did have to bide my time perfectly."
Bonnie frowned. In her mind, she focused on Klaus. She saw him in his wolf form, running freely in the moonlight. Free and alive. Bonnie crossed her arms self-consciously, as if Mikael could see the arsenal she was preparing to launch his way.
"Waiting for your powers to wear down, waiting for Niklaus to awaken…" Mikael said, noting the surprise in Bonnie's eyes.
"You-"
"Knew where he was all this time," Mikael said the last words as if he was speaking to a child. "I have been hunting him for centuries, child. You really thought a little witch's spell could stop me? You should have let him leave when he gave you the option."
Bonnie gaped, her fists clenching and unclenching. She could feel the magic tightening and heating in her fingers. Klaus wasn't close enough for her to kill Mikael. She needed more power to deliver the lethal blow. But she could wound him. She could incapacitate him and keep him down until…
"Stop now, Bonnie Bennett," Mikael said, suddenly serious. "And I will spare you, and the little one." A chill shot down Bonnie's spine. "Amelia, is it? Cozy little family you've accumulated here."
She clenched her teeth. "Leave Amelia out of this."
"You're the one that brought her in," Mikael reminded her.
Bonnie licked her lips. Selfish. She had become selfish and foolish in her love of Klaus. "Fine," she conceded. "Amelia is off limits.
Mikael laughed pleasantly at that. "I know that. I have made sure of that."
The alarm on Bonnie's face only deepened Mikael's laughter. He clapped his hands together gleefully, "Ahh, Mystic Falls. Lovely gathering of pawns just waiting for me to use."
Bonnie arched a brow. Any second now. She could feel it. Klaus was getting further, but she was pooling his energy. Storing his power. Waiting, waiting, for the right second…
"Well now that you're here," Bonnie smiled sweetly, "The festivities can begin."
"Oh, yes," Mikael said, noting how Bonnie's arms slipped free from being wrapped tightly around her body. Her fingers were itching to turn up, to aim at him. "I almost forgot," Mikael said, his eyes meeting Bonnie's with gravity at last. He whistled long and low from the side of his mouth. He took a step to the side.
And there, on her front porch, Mikael revealed his ace card.
A lank, brunette vampire with dead, compelled eyes stumbled forward.
Bonnie gasped.
"Elena."
"And he who controls the queen," Mikael said ominously, "Controls the game."
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Klaus was already mid-lunge through the forest when he saw her.
Amelia, little husky pup-of-a-wolf, suspended in mid-air in a net of ropes. She scratched against the ropes but soon retreated to the corner. They were doused in wolf's bane. Which could only mean… vampire.
Damon flapped his crisp, black wings from his position high up in the tree. At the sight, Klaus landed face first in the dirt, a growling mess as he shook his fur, and prepared to pounce.
The crow blinked at him, and he growled in response, deep in his throat.
As if in mutual agreement, they both transformed. Damon, taking his form fully clothed. And Klaus, proudly, naked.
"Let her out."
Damon averted his eyes, reaching up into the branches and pulling down a pair of jeans and a bottle of water. He tossed both at the hybrid who made no attempt to catch them. Instead, he merely side-stepped the projectiles and repeated: "Let Amelia go."
Damon rolled his eyes. "Put some pants on before you scar the kid."
As if realizing he was nude, Klaus bit out a terse word before tugging the jeans on quickly. When he looked up, Damon was frowning at the young wolf, and muttering something Klaus could only conclude was meant to pass for soothing to the whimpering pup.
"You're hurting her."
"It's for her own good," Damon said, without meeting the hybrid's eyes. He continued to look at Amelia. "You know I've got nothing against you, pup. Let's just keep the bites to ourselves, okay?" He smiled at her then, like they were sharing an inside joke.
Klaus bristled at the sight.
"I told Bonnie," Damon's lips twisted like he regretted having to give up the words, "If it came down to it, I would pick her over you."
"Is that what you're doing?" Klaus barked at the vampire, who had the decency to flinch at his words. "Mikael is there now."
Klaus paused.
Except, he didn't feel anything. He didn't feel Bonnie pulling on him. Maybe she was pulling from Amelia? But when Klaus glanced up at the young wolf, she made no sign that her power was being borrowed. Something was wrong. "She's facing him alone."
"For no reason," Damon added, jumping down at vampire speed from his position on the tree.
"Exactly," Klaus bit out, like he was talking to an idiot. "Because you're keeping me here by holding Amelia hostage."
"Because you dragged her into a fight that isn't hers." Damon raised his voice over Klaus as he withdrew a vial from his back pocket. A vial of blue liquid that he held up to the light as he swaggered towards the hybrid.
Klaus' lips pulled tightly together as he examined the vampire. His ice blue eyes were steadier than he had ever seen them. Wide, but determined. His brows were drawn and his chin set. Klaus imagined, with his eyes yellow and his werewolf fangs ready to erupt, Damon appeared the calmer of the two.
"It will weaken you," Damon explained. "It was cursed by Ayanna to incapacitate an Original."
Klaus growled.
"He wanted me to get Bonnie to drink it, knowing you would feed on her," Damon's stomach turned at the thought. Little Bonnie Bennett, chew toy for this fool. "But I spared her that."
The entire world, to Klaus, was bathed in amber. He opened his mouth to speak, but only a snarl sounded.
"Mikael will let Bonnie go," Damon recited the deal he made only an hour before, when Mikael showed up with Elena on his doorstep. A compelled Elena. An Elena he compelled to return to Stefan. "If I bring him you, instead."
"I'll let Stefan live," Klaus corrected, "when you bring me Bonnie Bennett."
Like father, like son.
"I gave her to you once," Damon said quietly, depositing it in the hybrid's hands quickly. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked away in faux-nonchalance. "I hope I made the right decision."
Klaus' eyes met Damon's.
The hybrid closed him clumsy fist over the vial. He raised it to the moonlight, watched it shimmer and glow. For all he knew, this would be his death. Who was to say Ayanna didn't have a secret failsafe? That Esther had not concocted some last resort to kill him?
Klaus could feel the young vampire's eyes on him. Waiting. He could feel Amelia's eyes on his. Afraid.
What he couldn't feel was Bonnie. Couldn't feel her channeling him. Couldn't feel her warmth, her goodness, her love… Couldn't feel her. Couldn't live without her. Couldn't do anything else but, raise the vial to his lips and swallow.
It burned all the way down. But he drank it. Licked the liquid from his lips, and dashed the vial to the ground.
The last thing he saw, before the world spun and his head hit the ground, was the look in the vampire's eyes.
A thank you.
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"Let her go," Bonnie demanded again, pausing to swipe a stream of blood from pooling in her cupid's bow. The second she saw Elena, she sent the young vampire flying against a tree. It took one hand to trap her and keep her safe, and one to send the rest of her energy pouring into Mikael.
"Such lengths," Mikael grunted, but that stupid smile was still there, "You go to for one who would never accept you."
"Shut up," Bonnie grunted. She dropped the arm that was holding Elena in place, satisfied that the barrier spell was strong enough to keep the baby vampire from harm's way. Her green eyes watered, but still she turned both palms outwards to Mikael. He flinched. His legs shook. He almost fell to his knees.
But it wasn't enough.
But she couldn't pull on Klaus. He would know she was in trouble. He would come home. And Mikael would kill him.
"Klaus loves me," Bonnie muttered, spitting blood from her mouth. With a bellow, she renewed her efforts and aimed at Mikael, watching him light up.
Mikael fell to his knees this time. All around him, the world lit up in lightening. He spared a glance at Elena who sat, like a broken rag doll, behind the barrier Bonnie had erected. He grunted, but refused to scream. He winked at the doppelganger.
"I meant…" he said weakly, his voice low against the sound of Bonnie's heroic grunts as he power pulled on her life force, "her."
Bonnie fell to her knees. The power rushed out of her like she had been punched in the gut. Her fingers dug into the dirt as she attempted to draw from the earth. But it rejected her. Didn't want her. Unnatural.
"You think she would have ever accepted the abomination you've become?" Mikael took advantage of her moment of weakness. As she recharged, he distracted himself from the healing of his cracked bones by taunting the pretty young thing. "I made her accept you."
"No…"
"I compelled her," Mikael smiled in that aloof way that reminded her of Elijah. Of kindness when it was only cruelty. "To warn you of my coming when she saw how close you were."
"I wasn't going to say anything," Elena said suddenly. "But now that you're with Klaus..."
"No!"
"Yes!" Mikael sang out. He felt his ankles click back into place. He moved to stand, but still stumbled. His bones may be healing, but she was literally pulverizing them, and the pain was debilitating. "She came to me to make a deal. Knowing… that you felt something for him." Mikael imitated Elena's voice: " 'He's gotten to Bonnie,' she told me. 'He's tricked her, and I have to save her'."
"You're lying!" Bonnie screamed. She spared a look up at Mikael, letting go of the useless dirt in her hands. The world swam in blood.
Mikael laughed heartily at that. "You, my dear, you are what I have waited centuries for! Don't you see, little witch? You're a weakness. You're his only weakness. You're the only thing he won't – can't – run from. You're going to deliver him right into my hands."
She ran the back of her hand against her face until it cleared. Her eyes were bleeding. Her nose was bleeding. She needed him. She needed Klaus.
"I couldn't do as Elena asked. I couldn't separate you two. Because I needed you, to help me kill him."
Bonnie rose as if possessed, "Over my dead body."
Bonnie raised her hands, palms out, and aimed straight at Mikael. She felt all of the power inside of her welling up and rising, like a roiling tide, boiling up and pouring from her hands. It tore from her – she felt the blood thick and wet on her face, pooling over her teeth as she cried out from the pain – but she didn't stop. In the back of her head, she thought of him. Her Klaus. Asleep, with his arms around her. Dancing with her at the ball. Kissing her sweetly at the Wickery Bridge. Her Klaus. She reached for him – reached for his power, reached for the promise of his strength…
And found nothing.
Nothing.
"Klaus!" She screamed his name to high heavens, but there was nothing. She searched for him. With a spare thought, she called to him out in to the world. But found nothing.
Mikael was on his knees – or, rather, what was left of them. His legs were mush beneath him. His bones were dust, and his flesh was following suit – melting from him and into the earth. The grass turned brown and rotted around him. He was death, in every sense of the word.
Mikael's head lolled towards the vampire rag doll in the corner. A small smile tugged up on one side of his mouth as Bonnie cried out his son's name again.
He wasn't coming.
Mikael wanted to laugh.
How fitting. Niklaus, selfish brat to the very end…
"Now, Elena," Mikael managed to choke out.
Bonnie didn't hear him, her eyes widening and turning white. Black veins started to crawl and tremble around her hands. She was pulling her very life force from her veins and sending it towards him – this walking death, this damned apparition. She would kill him with her death.
With or without Klaus.
To her right, Elena heeded the call. She stood, slowly. So slowly, Bonnie didn't notice at first. Until her eyes shot open and she cried out. The familiar pained whines hit Bonnie's ears and she faltered, just for a moment, and turned her head to see her best friend's eyes snap open with awareness.
"Bonnie," Elena cried. She watched in horror as her own hands raised to her neck. And she dug her nails in. And dug. And screamed. And dug. Blood – everywhere, blood!
She was going to decapitate herself.
"STOP IT!" Bonnie screamed, feeling her rage fuel a final push towards Mikael. She would kill him. Klaus may have abandoned her, but she could at least save Elena! She could kill Mikael and end the compulsion... but she had to hurry, because, because… there went Elena's vocal chords…
"Klaus!" Bonnie called, her hands curling into fists, her nails ripping into her own flesh. She threw her head back and screamed: "KLAUS!"
The scream that sounded from the depths of her lungs was unlike anything he had ever heard. The world shimmered and shook around them.
She was going to kill Mikael. And save Klaus.
Time to show the world what this love's made of.
Mikael's head lolled towards Bonnie's as the world shuddered around him. She couldn't be… she shouldn't be strong enough to destroy him. Not on her own… Yet, there was something about her. As the wind whipped up around her, her eyes white, her hair flying in a storm only she could feel… Her death would be something stunning. Something he was sorry his son had to miss.
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Bonnie's feet were not touching the ground when Damon's car pulled up.
Elena's eyes were wide and horrified as she tried to keep her own fingers from prying her head off. Mikael lay on the ground, a maniacal laughter dancing across his face, even as his skin was flayed from his body.
But Damon didn't notice any of it. It was just a moment, but in that small space between inhale and exhale – he saw her for perhaps the first time.
Bonnie Bennett, goddess. She was hovering above the Earth, her arms extended, hair a riot around her though the rest of the world was still. Her arms were wide and open, her hands aimed palm out towards the writhing Original. Her eyes were white, and blood spilled across her face, down the length of her neck to pool in the crevice of her heaving chest. She was stunning.
And the entire time, she was calling his name.
Klaus. He heard it in the angry grunts that summoned her strength as she launched her power at him.
Klaus. He heard it in the snapping and cracking of the electricity that danced in the air around them.
Klaus.
Klaus.
Klaus.
The clock was ticking, and it was calling his name.
Even now, she would save him.
Damon got out of the car.
"Stop."
Bonnie paused, mid-chant, but her hands did not drop. Her lips still moved, but no sound came out. She blinked, but no irises appeared. Slowly, her head rolled up to see him.
"You want him?" Damon said, walking to the back seat. He flung the door open and the limp, lifeless body of the hybrid tumbled out. "You can have him."
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"Klaus." The air ruptured with the sound of his name, peeling from Bonnie's throat in the voice of a banshee. A voice she didn't recognize.
She ran to him. She cradled his face in her hands, and felt his head fall limp. She peeled back his eye lids and saw his blue eyes. Lifeless.
Klaus.
She ran her hands in circles over his skin. Pulled his hair. Cursed him and spat and fumed. Her whole body burned and trembled with the injustice of it all.
Klaus. Was dead.
When she looked up again, Elena was gone. Damon was gone. The car remained, with Klaus' body pouring half in and half out – but the hostage and the deliverer had disappeared.
Bonnie spun on her heel back to Mikael. He had made it almost to his feet so she extended her hand, uttered a word in latin, and watched him struggle with the force of it all.
"That," Bonnie blinked her white, empty eyes at him. The blood that leaked from her nose bubbled and boiled as it fell down her cheek, drying quickly in a thin, dark crust that pooled in the corner of her lips. Her hair whipped up again around her, flailing like a sea of snakes. The sky boomed around them. "Is the weight of the world, Mikael. The weight of the fucking world."
Mikael grunted under the weight, but forced himself to stand as much as he could. Struggling, he bent his neck to peer up at her. His eyes were twinkling.
Twinkling. Bonnie flicked her wrist and sent him flying up into the sky. When he hit the ground again, the entire earth trembled. The ground seemed to swallow him up for an eternity before pushing him back up to lay in a pile of dirt and grime.
"You hurt him," she spat ferociously. As if Klaus was someone worth saving. As if he were someone worth knowing at all!
Mikael's lips turned up at one side. He felt her magic falter from the effort of keeping him down. It hesitated for but a second – but it was enough for him to regain his footing.
"You can't… kill me," Mikael reminded her, "Without killing yourself."
"There is no life without Klaus." Bonnie said, her eyes and expression so empty he thought she may have been talking to herself. The leaves on the ground around them started to tremble and shake.
"Your ancestors would disagree," Mikael raised his voice over the sudden gust of wind. "They won't let you do this!"
"No one can stop me."
"They can!"
Esther could. Ayanna could. Unlike Bonnie, Mikael had friends on the other side. Friends that would stop her from killing him before Klaus was dead. Friends that would punish her for getting in his way when she died for trying. Friends who had been waiting a long time – as long as he, for the peace that would come with Niklaus' death.
Bonnie watched as nature's debris began to float up from the ground. With a flick of the wrist, she started it spinning. A tornado. How fitting.
"The witches have no power over me," Bonnie reminded him. "They are all dead."
The leaves picked up speed.
"My mother is dead."
Dry and cracking, they seemed to have the weight of rocks as they whipped up into him. Mikael had to squint against the dryness of the air.
"My grandmother is dead."
Bonnie's other hand was spinning, too now. The cylinder was forming. She was going to take down the entire town, if that's what it took, to kill the beast.
"My love," Bonnie's voice seemed to boom from her small frame, "is dead."
A strange, familiar sound came from behind her, but Bonnie made no move to acknowledge it. Her sights were set. The cowering Original before her, bent back and body flailing in the wind. He moved to attack her but she whipped out her hand and held it flat up towards him. He stopped, paralyzed.
Bonnie met his eyes as she made a forward motion with her hand. He glanced down at his chest where he felt it – the pressure right above his heart. It started warm – like a touch or caress – against his skin. But it grew hot, and burning. Soon, his shirt was cinders and falling from his chest in a perfect circle.
Bonnie screamed as she curled her fingers forward and bulled. His skin melted in response. It dripped from his bones. Mikael gaped down in horror as she peeled his ribs back one by one. He gagged and almost threw up.
She smiled in response. A beautiful, ethereal smile. Victorious.
The noise sounded behind her again.
Bonnie pushed forward more strongly. Someone was coming to stop her! But she wouldn't let them. She would finish him. Finish this. Punish him. Revenge.
She reached forward with her other hand and began to pull his heart from his chest.
"Witches can kill anything they create," Bonnie informed him, "Your immortality comes from us. My kind made you," With the motion of her fingers, Bonnie began to peel back the walls of the organ, like she was slicing the skin from an apple. "And I can unmake you."
Again, that noise!
Bonnie spared a glance behind her, expecting to see Damon. Expecting to see Stefan. Expecting to see anyone but… Klaus. Standing, slowly, upright. Groaning. Drowsy.
Alive.
Blue eyes met green.
"Bon…nie…"
A knowing. A partnership. A union. Klaus was alive, and they were going to be okay.
Bonnie gasped.
One gasp.
One hiccup.
One faltering moment.
But that's all he needed.
In that moment, Bonnie's resolve firmed. She was going to kill Mikael, pulling on Klaus' strength. She was going to save him, if she could not save them both. She was going to kill Mikael or die trying. She was going to-
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The sound of Bonnie's neck snapping was the loudest sound Klaus had ever, ever heard.