Disclaimer: I do not own TVD/TO/Legacies or anything
Sorry for the year long wait - my laptop broke and I had a really big year in terms of school & exams but... I'm back and I'm going to try (and fail) to finish this story quickly, probably about 4-6 chapters left
"Where the hell are we going?" An exasperated voice sounded. Stefan was no longer scared of whatever Klaus had planned for him. No, Stefan was bored, and tired, and confused as to why they'd spent the last hour walking through the town, then the cemetery, then the woods (apparently Klaus, being the millennia old hybrid he was, didn't understand what a car was).
"Mystic Falls." Klaus replied, almost allowing a smirk to creep onto his face at Stefan's frustration, but the memory of Caroline calling him a monster kept that smirk at bay. Stefan huffed but continued walking - probably best not to test the hybrid's patience regardless of how irritated he was. "We're almost there." Klaus added after a pause, carefully stepping over a fallen branch.
Soon they reached a small clearing where two stone gravestones stood in the centre.
"Someone clearly didn't realise the cemetery was back that way." Stefan quipped, trying to defuse the awkward tension which had already arisen since they'd arrived at, what seemed to be, their final destination. Klaus ignored him and instead tentatively made his way to the gravestone on the left.
"This is your-" Stefan paused unsure of how to categorise the relationship that Klaus had had, but Klaus nodded nonetheless. "You said she was a vampire? If she's not dead why does she have a grave?" Stefan asked Klaus curiously.
"I thought her to be dead until recently."
"Time-traveller." Stefan remembered, "That's what you said right? That she was a time-traveller?" Klaus nodded once more, clearly not in the mood to use many words, but Stefan continued on with his questions. "Why are you at her grave instead of with her then?"
Klaus visibly stiffened at Stefan's question.
"Oh." Stefan all but whispered, his eyes widening in realisation, and, for a second, Klaus almost thought he'd seen flicker of sympathy wash over his face.
"A lot has changed over the last millennia. We have both changed a lot. Too much in my case." Klaus replied somewhat cryptically, but Stefan understood what he was saying.
"Who does the other grave belong to?" Stefan asked, anxious to change the topic.
"My brother. Henrik." Klaus responded with a wistful smile.
"You had another brother?"
"You don't know the story? I thought you and your little group of friends understood the origins of the Originals."
"Your mother turned you into vampires to protect your from the werewolves in your village."
"Yes. Though that is the short version of a much longer story." Klaus paused, clearly hesitant in telling the story. Suddenly his head snapped up and a smirk appeared on his face, his entire personality seemed to shift in that moment causing Stefan to take a step back in surprise. For a moment it had seemed like the old Klaus, the one from Chicago who he'd called his brother, but now, within seconds that person had morphed into the big bad hybrid who'd tried to kill Elena, and had killed Jenna, and countless others. "Your friends are here." Klaus grinned wolfishly.
As the group made it's way into the clearing Klaus couldn't help but focus on Caroline. It was hard not to; his fiancée who'd tragically died, but hadn't actually been dead, and had actually been a time traveller, the best friend to the doppelganger who could cure his wolf from being trapped. Of course he hadn't been aware of Elena's importance to Caroline until it was too late, and he'd killed Elena's aunt and burnt any bridges between himself and Caroline's friends. Even more ironic is that Stefan, of all people, his old drinking buddy, best friend, brother, had been part of the group.
That in itself had seemed like enough of a coincidence, that his old friend was the boyfriend of the girl who could prove to be his cure - well, ex-boyfriend. But then Caroline had come back to him, like an angel - not that Klaus believed in such, it was hard to be religious, and believe in an omnibenevolent god after all he'd seen and been through. And then his 'angel' had turned around and rejected him for the monster he was. Klaus understood, of course he did, he wasn't exactly a good person.
See, when Caroline had died he was overcome by depression and remorse, guilt even at his inability to save her. And then Henrik. Whilst Klaus was rational he could see that Caroline's death was not his fault, Henrik on the other hand, Henrik was the point of no return for Klaus. His baby brother, so young and innocent, distraught too at the loss of his 'sister', had taken to spending all his time with Nik, trying to comfort him with the unconditional love that any younger brother feels for their older brother. Klaus was his guardian from Mikael, the man he looked up to above Elijah or Finn or Kol. But Klaus had let him down - and that was unforgivable.
Perhaps that was why he found himself at his grave right now. Yes, he was there for Caroline as well, for the memory of the people they had once been, for the lives they once had and the lives they could have. The family they could have been, the happiness they had so nearly achieved.
Klaus often tried to imagine what his life would have been like without Caroline. See, she was the catalyst for everything, her death had caused Klaus' depression, which led to his recklessness in going to the wolves on a full moon, so blind with grief that he was unaware his little brother was following him, and if Henrik hadn't died... If Henrik hadn't died then Mikael wouldn't have forced Esther to make them all into vampires, Klaus never would have killed anyone and then he wouldn't have known about Esther's transgressions, about her affair with the werewolf, about how he himself was a werewolf. Perhaps Klaus would have found another girl, gotten married, had children who'd he have cared for and love unconditionally, careful to not repeat the same cycle of abuse that Mikael had put him through.
Everything would have been different. Better perhaps. Perhaps.
"Did you hear me? I said let him go." Damon snarled, his blood rushing to his eyes as his fangs became prominent, evil in his eyes.
"Since when did you care about Stefan?" Klaus retorted, snapping out of his thoughts an placing a taunting smirk on his face.
"What?" Damon replied, almost in disbelief that Klaus would even question his relationship to his brother. They were the Salvatore brothers after all, they stuck with each ever, through anything and everything. At the same time Stefan's head whipped round, casting a curious glance upon the hybrid. "He's my brother. I've always cared."
"Always you say." Klaus paused, "See, Stefan and I, we used to be quite close," Klaus began, causing everyone in the clearing to shoot confused glances between him and Stefan. "Oh!" Klaus exclaimed suddenly, turning to face Stefan, "You didn't tell them about us?"
"Don't." Stefan started warningly, though fear was evident in his tone.
Klaus raised his hands in the air mockingly, pretending as though he was surrendering to Stefan. "Do you want to tell them then? No. I thought not."
"What are you talking about?" Damon asked warningly, almost acting as though he was threatening Klaus - the arrogance, a baby vampire that he was acting as though he'd be able to defeat the most powerful being on the entire Earth.
"You act as though you two are inseparable. The Salvatore brothers. But that's a lie. You've spent more of the last century apart then together, you nearly made Stefan go back to being a ripper against his will more times than I count, you abandoned him in the war efforts, you left him all alone."
"Like you can talk." Elena sniped back, realising Damon was too shocked to reply, "You put daggers in your siblings, your own mother wants to kill you she's so disgusted by you, how does it feel to know nobody cares about you, no one loves you." She glared at him, and he had to stop himself from flinching at her words, his eyes flickering to Caroline against his will, and for a second it almost seemed like she too seemed upset at the words, before her eyes turned to stone in front of him, all emotion bar hatred washed out from them.
"Ah, so now he needs his brother's girl to stand up for him. Or is she your girl now, Damon?" Klaus snarked back, feeling slightly remorseful at the hurt look which fell over Stefan's face at his words. "It's almost your thing, isn't it Damon? Stefan finds happiness and you go out of your way to ruin it. You killed his best friend, stole his girl, tried to take his control. Great brother you are."
"Hypocrite." Damon snapped back,
"Am I though? You really don't know anything about me, or my family, so how can you say hypocrite with such conviction, such belief that you are right. Such arrogance you have that you are blinded, unwilling to accept that perhaps you are the villain in Stefan's story and not I."
"You say I know nothing about your family, fine, let's pretend that's true, what do you know of mine anyway? Nothing." He snarled but Klaus only laughed.
"Oh Damon." He paused, "You truly are completely unaware. See when you abandoned Stefan, he met me. Became my friend, my partner, called me brother. Told me all about you. Stefan was a ripper when I met him, I was the one who got him to turn his emotions back on after you threw him of the rails and then abandoned him. You abandoned him. I didn't."
"Lies." Damon scoffed, though you could tell by the waver in his voice he wasn't entirely sure, "Tell him to stop lying Stefan."
"He's not." Stefan replied shortly, clearly uncomfortable at the situation. Damon's head snapped up in disbelief.
"Just, let him go." Elena jumped in, sensing the rising tension between the three.
"Stefan's always been able to go. I," Klaus paused, staring pointedly at Damon, "Wouldn't hurt him."
"If he's always been able to go, why drag him here?" Elena asked before pausing thoughtfully, "Where is here anyway?"
"It's the graves of my brother and fiancée." Klaus said softly, subtly glancing in Caroline's direction to see her reaction, but no such reaction came.
"Who cares about this pity party?" Caroline retorted, "If Stefan can go, let's go."
"You had a fiancée?" Elena asked, ignoring Caroline.
"A long time ago." He replied cryptically. "She's dead now." He said staring at Caroline, ignoring the glance Stefan sent in his direction. She was alive, but he could see that the version standing in front of him was not his Caroline. His Caroline was dead.
Elena nodded slightly, for a second she almost looked sympathetic before Caroline cut in again, "Probably killed herself to try and get away from you." She snarked causing Klaus to flinch. This really wasn't his Caroline was it. "I'd do the same if I was engaged to you." She added maliciously. "I mean, dating a vampire is bad enough, let alone a hybrid like you." She continued causing everyone in the clearing to shoot concerned looks in her direction.
"Right blondie, lay off the day drinking." Damon sniped. "We've got Stefan. Let's go."
"Hold on one second." Klaus intervened, "I might have said I would let Stefan go, I said no such thing about the rest of you."
"Well what do you want then?" Elena asked,
"The white oak stakes in your pockets." He replied quickly, causing Damon and Elena to exchange looks of surprise, both were completely unaware that Klaus knew they had white oak stakes.
"How'd you know?" Elena all but gasped, feeling more scared than before as she realised Klaus knew of their plans to kill him.
"Let's just say a little birdie told me." Klaus responded, forcing himself to not look in Caroline's direction. "Now hand them over. Or I might have to change my mind about hurting Stefan here." Klaus said, before vamp-speeding towards the younger Salvatore and locking his neck in his arms.
"I call your bluff." Damon responded confidently,
"Right, because I've never before shown any concern over killing people who get in my way, let alone killing people who wanted to kill me."
"Damon," Elena warned, "He killed Jenna without a second thought, and she was innocent. You really think he wouldn't kill Stefan?"
"Fine." Damon spat out reluctantly before reaching into his pocket and throwing a white oak stake towards Klaus' feet, an action quickly replicated by Elena. They looked expectantly at Caroline who remained still.
"No." She said firmly in response to their questioning looks.
"Caroline he will kill Stefan."
"And? Stefan's a vampire Elena, he's killed hundreds of people, thousands perhaps. He deserves to die, all vampires deserve to die."
"So you're saying that you deserve to die blondie, I always thought you were dumb, I didn't realise you perpetuated the dumb blonde stereotype to these lengths. Now hand it over." Damon all but demanded.
Caroline pulled the stake out of her pocket, "Why don't we just kill him instead?"
"We'd all die!" Elena exclaimed, close to physically shaking Caroline out of her stupidity.
"Whatever." She retorted throwing the stake towards Klaus. "I don't give a shit about him anyway."
"Ouch love, that hurts." Klaus responded sarcastically, trying to put up a façade so that the others couldn't see how much Caroline's words were affecting him, but he understood now. He understood what was wrong with Caroline. "You can go." He said nonchalantly towards the group, roughly releasing Stefan from his grasp - pretences were pretences over all, if they needed to believe he would kill Stefan, then he would play that role.
"Three down." Klaus said throwing the stakes into the fire.
"Nine to go." Elijah replied, still slightly confused as to why Klaus didn't care that there were still nine weapons held by their enemies that could kill them.
Klaus paused by the fire, before sighing deeply and going to sit in the chair, "I think I know what's wrong with Caroline." He said softly, causing Elijah to look in his direction curiously.
"What?" He asked when it didn't seen like Klaus was going to elaborate.
Klaus paused, going to the table to pour himself a glass of fresh blood, "I think our eldest brother has compelled her." He paused to take a sip, "Which means," He paused again and let out another sigh. "Elijah, I think I have to kill Finn."
Elijah stopped in his pacing, turning to face Klaus and grasp how serious he was, before sitting down on the sofa. "We." He replied causing Klaus to look up from his glass and glance round in his direction. "Together Niklaus. Always and forever."