Klaus looked at the small cottage with his anger barely in check, this was the location that Emily and Bonnie had found using their spell work. Bonnie was at his side, her eyes wide as she murmured words under breath, checking for any spells that might have been placed in their path. Rebekah and Elijah were stationed at other sections of the clearing, while the pack was spread out between them. They had the place surrounded. There was little chance of Mikael escaping this with his life, Klaus would make sure of it.
"I cannot detect any protections." Bonnie said, her quiet voice sound like a shout to his honed hearing.
He nodded and said, "Now."
They all rushed toward the cottage as one, Klaus was the first through the door. At first, nothing seemed special about the small space, a single room dwelling, but then he saw his brother hanging from a wall. His arms were stretching over his head as the robes that binded him were attacked to one of the beams that supported the ceiling. Klaus waited, seeing if he was about to attack but nothing and no one came for him.
Rebekah and Elijah pushed past him, carefully taking Kol off the wall. His little brother was too weak to even open his eyes and acknowledge their presence with him.
Klaus shook his head, "I don't like this. Where is he?"
Rebekah looked around, "This isn't like him, we are missing something."
"Let's get back home." Elijah commented, "I have a bad feeling about this."
Elena was sitting in the library with Stefan when she heard the knocking on the door. She got up to go see who it was. She entered the foyer just in time to see Emily's husband, Jefferson, home the door. He immediately fell back with a grunt and a wooden stake in his stomach. She couldn't stop the scream that left her lips.
Emily burst into the foyer from the other side, running to her husband's aid. She looked over at the door while she placed her hands on her husband's wounds, "Leave, monster."
"I have no quarrel with you witch. I want the doppelganger."
"Last I saw there was one of the porch, you can have her." Emily replied, her voice having lost all the sweetness that Elena knew it to have.
"This one is basically dead. I want the human one, the one my son is so smitten with."
Elena knew then that it must be Mikael at the door, he must have waited until they all left to get Kol before coming here. She stepped forward, placing herself in his line of sight, "You should leave us all be."
The man smirked at her, "I cannot let Niklaus continue to spread his disease across the world. He found a way to make more creatures like himself and I can only assume you had some part in that. If I take you away, they will all come after you."
Elena stood her ground, "You cannot come in without an invitation and I will not be leaving, so I would like to know how you plan to get me."
His smirk turned into a full on toothy grin, and then reached over to his left and dragged a pale, bleeding Damon into sight. Elena could not keep the gasp contained.
"Come out now and I will not kill your foolish friend." Mikael said, his hand firmly on the back of Damon's neck.
"Elena, don't." Emily warned from her spot on the floor, "He will kill Damon all the same."
Elena hesitated, she felt like her entire world was depending on this moment. Emily seemed so certain that Mikael would not keep to his word but Elena was not sure if she could take the risk. She had no doubt that Mikael would kill Damon, everything she had been told about the man let her know that for a certainty. She took a deep breath, "I cannot trust you to keep your word, there is already blood on your hands."
Mikael looked down at the hand that was not on Damon's neck, the blood stains were clear in the light coming form the foyer. He shrugged, "I figured out the only way to kill those monsters of my son's is to take out their heart."
She grimaced at the though, she knew all the members of the pack, and now at least two of them were dead. They had to be for Mikael to have been able to get this close to house. She looked to Damon, there was a bite mark on his neck, "Why did you have to go outside?"
He did not answer her, just looked at her with sad eyes.
Mikael tightened his grip, "You have one minute. If you are not on this porch by then, I will kill your friend."
"If you do that, you lose your leverage." She thought to say, keeping her back straight as she faced off against him.
"This was just a happy accident, I had a different plan in mind." He replied and his evil smirk returned, "You cannot stay in a house if it is on fire."
"Do not do it Elena. They will have found Kol by now and be on their way back." Emily cautioned her.
Elena took a step forward but did not leave the protection of the house, "I…" She looked at Damon, she did not want him to die, but if she stepped outside then Klaus could die, possibly Elijah, Rebekah, Caroline, Emily and her family, even Stefan. She shook her head, "I am sorry Damon."
"So be it." Mikael replied and Elena flinched at the sound of Damon's neck snapped, his body started to slump toward the ground before he pushed it to the side.
"No!" Stefan screamed, and Elena managed to catch his arm and keep on the right side of the door before he ran after his brother's body.
"This is really a beautiful house, it will be a shame to watch it burn." He stepped back, moving to grab the lantern from the porch. "This is your last chance Elena, come out now and I will not harm another human life tonight, witches included."
"I do not believe you." Elena said and slammed the door shut.
The sound of a thud and breaking glass sounded against the door. Flames licked up from beneath the wood at her feet and she stepped back, placing a hand against her mouth, "What have I done?"
"Worry not about that now." Emily said, "Stefan, help me move him."
"Move him where? The house has been set ablaze and he will kill us if we go outside." He asked, but bent to help move Jefferson all the same.
"To the kitchen. I should be able to use my magic to slow the flames, it should hopefully be enough to keep them at bay until the others return." She answered, already rushing towards the back.
Elena took a deep breath and followed, she hoped Emily was right.
Klaus skidded to a halt on the edge of their property, the front porch was in flames. The house was made of wood, it would take much for the entire structure to burn. A memory of New Orleans flashed in his mind, the city had nearly burned around them as they'd fled. He would not let happen again.
Elijah was at his side the next moment, "Mikael did this. I need to make sure everyone is out of the building."
Klaus reached out his hand and kept his brother in place, "He is waiting for us I am sure. We need to deal with him before we can save them. Emily knows ways to keep them safe from the flames."
"You cannot be sure that Emily is still alive. We have no idea what Father has done." Elijah shouted, attempting to pull his arm from Klaus' hold, "Are you not worried about Caroline?"
He felt his eyes flash as he pulled his brother closer, "I am always worried about Caroline but I also know that if we do not kill Mikael now then she will never be safe. Killing him will free her of any compulsion Mikael has done to her and then perhaps I will have a chance of getting her to turn her emotion back on."
The other members of the pack finally appeared behind them, they were not as fast as Klaus and Elijah, but they would be helpful. Klaus turned to the hybrids, "We are going to find my father." He then looked at George, "Take the others and start pumping water from the well, we need to get the fire put out. We will make sure you are not bothered."
George nodded, "What of the witch? We still don't know who it is."
"I will worry about the witch. While Klaus and the hybrids are concerned with my father, I will hunt for the witch. I doubt Mikael would come here without her, hopefully she will attempt to prevent you from putting out the fires and I can locate her." Elijah said, and Klaus was happy his brother was finally turning around.
"Rebekah is getting Kol fixed up, as soon as they are ready they shall join us but we cannot wait for them." Klaus said and smirked, "Let's kill Mikael."
Klaus raced off toward the back of the house, expecting that was where Mikael would be hiding, waiting for them to head toward the back door to free those inside. He would certainly make it seem like that was what he was doing. He slowed down as he approached the rear entrance to the kitchen.
Mikael appeared in front of him almost immediately, "Hello Niklaus."
"Mikael." He answered and kept an eye out for the stake, knowing that Mikael would never confront him without it, "Can we just get this over with?"
"Ready for our dance to be over already?"
"If you had not noticed my house is currently on fire, I have other concerns." Klaus replied, trying to keep his temper at bay. This was not about him, this was about Caroline, and getting her back to normal.
"You will not have any concerns much longer." Mikael said and the white stake slid down his sleeve and landed in his hand, "If you want this to be over, then so be it." He raised his other hand and snapped his fingers.
Klaus did not have time to wonder about why he snapped his fingers when his head started to feel like it was burning on the inside. He fell to his knees with a scream, his hands coming to brace his head. In the moments of pain, he knew that the witch had to be behind this, but he could not lose his focus. His eyes snapped up to Mikael just as the man was about to slam the white oak stake into his chest. Through the pain he managed to dodge the stake and hit Mikael in the wrist, breaking it and causing his grip on the stake to fail.
The pain was gone as suddenly as it began and it gave him the clarity to pick up the stake and ram it into Mikael's chest. The pain stops almost as soon as the stake plunges into Mikael's skin. He gets to his feet and watches as Mikael's body dies with a single silent scream before he and the stake burst into flame.
Elijah is at his side in a moment, standing beside him, and Klaus can see his brother's mouth moving but he can hear none of it. His brain might no longer be in pain but his ears are still ringing. It passes in the next moment and he asks, "Is the fire out?"
Elijah nodded, "William found the witch dead, though we don't know who killed her. Emily used her magic to put out the flames." Elijah's eyes moved to Mikael's smoldering body, "It is hard to believe that it is finally over."
"Mikael cannot hurt us anymore." Klaus said and raised his eyes to the house. He needed to know if Caroline was alright and so he began the walk to go inside.
Caroline felt the moment Mikael must have died, she no longer felt the need to find the nearest wooden object and push it through her heart the moment Klaus appeared. She was grateful for that, it was disrupting her attempt at rest. For that was all she seemed to care about now, her baser instincts and desires. For her, that included some peace and quiet. She thought she had earned that a few hours earlier when Victoria had finally succumbed to the poison flooding her veins. Then, the sound of shouting upstairs had reached her ears, followed not long after by a smell of smoke.
She assumed that Mikael had attempted to burn down the mansion, which could have easily killed her. The commotion had died down above her, even if the smell of the smoke was still there. That along with the lifted compulsion led her to believe in a victory for her husband and his siblings. She was sure that meant she would once again besiege with pleas to return to her previous, emotional self. That was the last thing she wanted, she liked being a woman without guilt, without pain. Once she was out of this cell, she would be gone, never having to be reminded about her past again.
"Are you alright?" Elena asked, her brown eyes looking at her through the window in the door.
"I was unharmed by the smoke, if that is what you mean." She answered, "Why are you here Elena? Do you think that you can reach some part of me that people that have known me hundreds of years cannot?"
Elena was quiet for a few moments, "I just wanted to check on you. You might not care about anything, anymore, but I still care about you."
"You should run while you have the chance Elena. This family will do nothing but destroy you, that is what they do. If you become part of it, you will only become part of the destruction as well. Keep your innocence, marry some good Southern boy, have a family and forget you ever met a vampire." Caroline told her, her mind playing back on those moments she didn't want to think about.
"For someone who claims not to care you seem to be trying to protect me." Elena commented, "Why is that?"
"I am just giving you my advice, I do not care what you do with it."
"I think you do." Elena replied, "I do not know much about vampires or what goes into turning off your emotions, but can you really turn them off? You have to be experiencing something? Be it hunger, or anger at being locked up, or some other thing I cannot even begin to understand."
She walked up to the window, "You are right, you could not even begin to understand, so don't bother to try."
"Do you remember that day you told me about your human life? I remember being so amazed by you. That someone who had gone through all of that pain could still be so strong and kind." Elena said with a shake of her head, "I have never thought of you as a monster."
"Would you like to hear about all the blood that I have in my hands? If you do, you'll probably want a chair, it would take us the rest of the night." She replied, turning away from the young human.
"I do not need to hear it, my imagination can fill in the details." Elena said, "I know who you are, behind this mask of indifference. You are a woman who loves her family more than anything and it is an amazing family. I only hope that you will find a way to see how truly blessed you are, instead of focusing on the darkness."
Caroline had nothing to say to the human as she walked away, she shook her head and sat back down on her blanket.
"Elena is a smart young woman." Klaus' voice said, causing her to look up, "Do you still feel the compulsion to kill yourself?"
She shook her head, "You succeeded in killing him I assume."
"I did. A nearly 800 year goal accomplished and yet, I am still unhappy." He told her, his blue eyes focused on her.
"Monsters don't get happiness Niklaus, that is what I have been trying to tell you." She answered, leaning her back against the wall.
"We were happy." He said as he opened the door and walked inside, "Do you know what my favorite memory is?"
"I do not care." She told him, closing her eyes.
"We were in the Swiss Alps, hiding from my father in a remote mountain cabin after he had attacked us in Berlin. Elijah and Rebekah had gone to Barcelona to hunt down Kol, so it was just the two of us." He said, his voice low and soothing with the memory, "I woke up that first morning to an empty bed. I immediately panicked, thinking that Mikael had somehow found us and gotten a hold of you. Then I walked out into the living room of the cabin and there you were, cuddled up in the rocking chair in front of the window with a book in your lap and the snow capped mountains behind you. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. You looked up and gave me this smile, a subtle little turn of your lips and my heart nearly stopped with the love you shone back at me. We had already been together for over 200 years at the point but that was the first time I ever wished we could be human. In that glance I saw the future we might have had if things had been different. You would be sitting in that chair with our child in your lap, reading them a fantastical story with a view of beauty behind you." He paused, she felt the emotion rolling off of him, "It was such a beautiful image but that was all it would ever be. An mirage that my desire created out of such a simple moment. It was breathtaking and I will never forget it."
Caroline frowned, "That is your favorite memory? An unremarkable action that made you wish for a different life? After all the places we have seen and things we have done. Pathetic."
Klaus shook his head, "It was the simplicity of it that I love. We were just acting like a normal couple in love at that moment. We had no one to put on a show for, there was just us and those mountains." He reached out and grabbed her hands, cupping them in his own, "I have never pretended to not be a monster. I have killed hundreds if not thousands of people over the centuries and I even regret some of them, but I will never regret finding you. I will never regret bashing in the head of that ungrateful letch you was your husband before me. I will never regret killing the woman who brought you nothing but misery. Were they not human monsters? Driven by their pride and desires to a place of desperation. Your children deserved a full, happy life, and if I could bring them back to you, I would. But do you really think that they would want to see you killing yourself in your despair? That your own mother would want that for you? Or your father? They loved you, each in their own way, and you loved the theme. A true monster is incapable of selfless love, you taught me that. Please, my love, let go of this shell of yourself. Come back to me. Come back to our family."
She opened her mouth to fight back, to say that he was wrong when he leaned in and kissed her. Her body seemed to react on instinct or habit, something that had grown so natural between them over the centuries it didn't require any thought. Her mind relaxed as well, there was no need to fight him, he would never hurt her. This allowed her mind time to wander and it cycled through all the kisses they shared in the past from the very first kiss through the thousands of others until it landed on the one they shared before she had been taken. She felt as though he was trying to remind her of their life together in that one kiss and her body sagged into him. How could anyone love a monster the way he loved her?
He pulled backed, his hand cupping her cheek, "I will never give up on you Caroline. We will be together until the end of time, I know it in my heart, which has always belonged to you."
She looked into this eyes, waiting to see the lies in their depths but all she was greeted with was sincerity and love. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she was being foolish. Victoria and Mikael had manipulated her, they had beaten her and invaded her mind. This was not who she was, she did not hurt the people that loved her, that she loved in return. She was being a coward. When she opened her eyes again, tears began to stream down her face at the rush of feelings once again in her mind. Fighting the breath in her lungs she said, "I am so sorry my love."
Klaus instantly pulled her into an embrace, "You never have to apologize for this."
She closed her eyes once again and cried into her husband's chest, this was where she truly belonged, and she would never let anyone confuse her ever again.
A/N: Thank you to everyone that has been supporting this story. We are almost to the end of this story, thank you for sticking it out this far.