The woods were a good escape. Running in his Hybrid form was better. He must have wandered miles from the house in minutes, all at a slow trot. While being able to change at will had its perks, one of the downsides was his lack of clothes when transforming back. Luckily, or rather logically because Klaus didn't leave things to luck, Mikaelson manor would still have clothes of his. The place had that dusty abandoned smell creeping about hand in hand with silence. All he could hear was his own footsteps and breathing. There was no running water which meant a quick shower was out of the question so he went straight for his wardrobe instead, yanking the white sheet splayed over it to the ground. It was when he had finished buckling up his trousers that he heard the first creak behind him. By the second he hand the intruder held up by the neck against the wall, only to drop them immediately.
"Caroline, I..." He took a step back and reached for his shirt, tucking it over his head, "You shouldn't have snuck up on me, love."
"You know normal people would apologise when they've nearly strangled the love of their life." She rubbed her throat to make her point clearer. "What was up with your diva exit?"
He chose to brush over the fact the she called herself the love of his life so casually. It was true, but now wasn't the time to discuss what they were to each other. Especially not now. Maybe not ever.
"The idiocy of your friends was driving me insane."
"They're not being idiots and you know it. So be honest with me. Please." She kept her eyes wide and pleading.
"I..." he sighed as he dragged a hand over his face, "Caroline you're a witch."
"Correct. I'm also a blonde." She folded her arms as he glared at her. "I know this is hard for you to accept but if you're honest about it with me, we can get through this."
"You're a witch Caroline, my track record with witches is not good. They tend to die around me."
"Is that what you're worried about? Just don't use me for any human sacrifices and we'll be good to go."
"Except we won't be. You're a witch and therefore you can die. And there's nothing I can do about that. You'll age, get diseased and die. I can't stop losing you no matter how hard I try. If it's not your humanity or unwillingness to accept me then it's something else entirely. We'll never have a happy ending."
"Is that what you want? A happy ending? I didn't think you believed in fairyta-" A cold shudder ran through Caroline. "That's not right," she whispered, stumbling back. Klaus leapt from the bed in time to hold her.
"Thanks pumpkin." Caroline whispered, entirely absorbed by the rippling she felt run through her. Abruptly Klaus shoved her away violently enough for her to hurt her head. "Was it the pumpkin that did it? I thought I was getting better at impersonating her." Silas got up from the floor with a grin, only to have it die away when he caught his reflection, it was him; his real face. That wasn't right, he was meant to look like the Forbes girl. Fool the hybrid and then kill him, ending his whole sired line and all his problems in one fell swoop. So what the hell was going on? Before he could worry about that he had to take care of the hybrid problem before him. Klaus made to rush at him but he dodged and smacked open a vervain canister of his own mix he'd been saving. The Hybrid went down with a few punches. One caught his jaw so he made sure to give him a kick when he was unconscious. The canister was only meant to be a backup in case Klaus wasn't susceptible to his mind tricks, it had been known to happen with people he'd messed with badly. They learned to tell the difference between him and reality. Evidently Klaus wasn't that smart. He'd been yanked back from his mind and stripped of his powers in a matter of minutes and there was only one explanation as to why. He'd been tethered to that goddamn doppelganger. Qetsiyah must have been laughing at him from the great beyond.
A niggling feeling had nested in her stomach. Something was wrong. And it wasn't some witchy feeling, it was more like instinct. Caroline needed to be somewhere else. Doing something else. But she was stuck in the house explaining once more what she'd done.
"I never thought I'd say this but Caroline you're a genius." Damon announced.
"Thanks and also fuck you." She replied.
"You're welcome and also been there. Now on to business. We find Silas and just kill him dead so the other side stops dissolving."
"It won't work like that Damon. He's already here so the price must be paid." Stefan replied.
"Well then we'll just get you guys back the same way Bonnie came back."
"I came back through the anchor, which is Amara, who we conveniently don't have."
"So what do you suppose we do then? Because, so far, my ideas are being shot down faster than Bonnie's love interests."
Elena stood up, rolling her eyes, "we're going to find Amara, who's probably with Silas, and then pull you guys back, all of you."
"Well alright then."
Elijah slipped quietly out of the room to answer his buzzing phone. Evidently his brother must have found something of great importance. "Niklaus where are you?"
"Yeah he's a bit tied up at the moment, well chained is more accurate but I'm pretty sure that's not how the saying goes. I wouldn't really know considering I've been desiccated for the past few centuries anyway I'm rambling,"
Elijah rushed back into the room during the ramble and placed the phone on speaker, garnering everyone's attention.
"The point of this call is to let you know that whatever you're planning, it won't work. I have your brother and if you so much as step a toe out of line I'll kill him. And it'll be easy to considering how out of it he is. Now I'm going to need you to do something too. Kill Steven. Sorry Stefan. Right? That's his name. Eh what do I care, you get the point. Or, and I feel like this is the nicer option; tell the witch to come to me. The one he loves. Is she there can she hear me?"
There was a pause on the line while Silas waited for a reply. After a short pause, Bonnie replied hesitantly. "Yes."
"It's great that you're eaves dropping too sweeties but I actually meant the other witch. You're gonna have to share that title now. Learn to play nice Bonnibel."
"I'm here." Caroline sighed to shut him up."
"Great meet me alone or Klaus dies. You'll know where to find us. It's in the most ironic place you can think of. You have an hour." The phone clicked as Silas hung up.
"Hell no." Caroline shot out of her seat and stormed over to the axe she placed tentatively against the wall.
"And exactly what do you think you're going to do with that?"
"I'm getting him back that's what."
"With what power exactly? You may have magic but that's about as useful to you as it is to a toddler. You don't know how to use it. We need a plan." Rebekah folded her arms.
"Actually for once dear sister I believe the element of surprise and brute force would be useful. Perhaps a locator spell or two."
"Silas has probably concealed them somehow, magic or not there's a thousand ways to do it. Care, how exactly does this linking thing work?"
"While Stefan is awake, Silas can't do any magic." Caroline moved the axe outside of the doorway with one hand while everyone was occupied, trying to remain as casual as possible.
"So why not kill Klaus and all of his enemies? What's the point of the hostage situation?" Elena hugged herself.
That garnered a pause from the group discussion. It made more sense to kill Klaus than to leverage him. It was Caroline who finally came up with the answer.
"It's me. I'm the reason he can't kill him. His life is also linked to my own. Katherine sired me, who was in turn part of Klaus' line so if he dies I die. Even if I'm a witch we're still magically linked. I didn't do this spell. I just... helped and Qetsiyah did the majority of it. So I have no idea what the anchor for it is, it's sure as hell not me. I think I'd know if it was. Which means the only way to undo this spell is to get me to do or kill Stefan."
"My, my, my. Aren't we the resident genius? But that's quite the leap." Kol drawled.
"It would be a leap if there was no basis for the information," Bonnie quipped, adding quietly under her breath "asshole," to which Kol glared back.
"I'm going to the kitchen. I need water." Caroline excused herself during the bickering, rushing to the kitchen and turning the tap on full blast. She's have five minutes before they realised something was up. Five minutes to grab the Grimoire in the library and get out of the house, taking the axe from outside of the doorway. She did it in four minutes. And judging by the lack of people following her no one had realised. She hotwired Stefan's car from the driveway as quick as she could. It was times like these she missed her hearing. If she was still a vampire she could have eased her tension by listening in, if she had she would have heard and argument breaking out between Kol and Damon over killing Stefan again.
The most Ironic place ever wasn't hard to think of. She pulled up to her house, yanking the handbrake up a little too indelicately, realising that her lack of supernatural strength was probably a good thing right now. Closing the Grimoire from her lap she looked up. She'd memorised a few spells as she drove. It wasn't hard. She had a high 4.0 gpa, was on the honour roll, head cheerleader, Miss Mystic Falls and managed to constantly battle supernatural forces. All during her final year of high school. Like it would be hard to memorise a few words in Latin. A language she had chosen to minor it, because let's face it, the amount of times she'd come across it was abnormal for an American teen. Damon thought it was the vampirism that made her so capable. Elena and Bonnie knew Caroline had always been formidable.
And she's be damned if she let Silas come hurt Klaus right under her nose.
She had just been inside the house yesterday, crying herself into a stupor in the hallway. It was ironic that she'd lose two of the people she loved there. Irony was a bitch and so was Silas. She took the axe in one hand and fingered the gun stuffed with wooden bullets she's taken from Tyler's arsenal in his full moon hideaway, creeping into the house. The back door was unlatched, creeping in she hid and stuck to the walls as much as possible.
The lack of life in the house made her question whether Silas really had lost his magic, it seemed like it was a mistake or a mind trick but the more she looked around the more she came to the conclusion. She was in the wrong place.
"Crap." She whispered, "crap, crap, crap!"
So where the hell was the most ironic place?
She ran back to the car, glancing at her watch. She had thirty minutes left to find him. "okay think caroline, think..." she commanded herself.
If Silas wanted her to come to the most ironic place ever, he must have got the information from Klaus' head because he hadn't been in hers in a while. So where did Klaus think the most ironic place to be held captive was?
His own house? No too obvious. The school then? That seemed like a safe bet. She sped to the school, trying to be stealthy and quick as she paced the place, looking for Silas. He wasn't even in the tunnels below. She hurried back to the car. She didn't even have her phone to call Silas or any back up. Stupid! So stupid! She'd have to go back to the house and get help from the others and who knows, exactly the opposite of what Silas said. Why couldn't she figure this out? Irony. The irony of this damn situation was that Klaus was in trouble and she couldn't muster up enough brain power to save him, like he would do for her. Like he did do for her. He saved her when she was held captive by Alaric. Not totally. She managed to escape the classroom myself. I deserve some credit. God knows I've been kidnapped enough.
I've been kidnapped a hell of a lot.
She could walk through the town and name all of the places she'd been kept.
But the first time...
Fells church.
That damn tomb.
The place she'd been held captive; meant to be the sacrifice in Klaus' ritual. Damn irony.
A/N: See if you can figure out why it's ironic and comment your best theories. Nearly at the end my dear folk. Penultimate chapter. I've made a deal with myself to finish this story before I turn 20. So come hell or high water, I vow that by April 1st this fic will be done. I'm serious; my birthday is actually April 1st. Fingers crossed this works.
Oh and this little line"So what do you suppose we do then? Because, so far, my ideas are being shot down faster than Bonnie's love interests." If you love Bonnie like I do you know what I'm getting at. Can I get a freaking A-MEN!