Author's Note: Wow! Thank you so much for the 100 reviews! Sorry about the long wait! This didn't exactly pan out the way that I wanted it to, but it ended up working out the way I imagined, either way. I'm not super proud of this chapter, so I'll probably come back at some point to rewrite it, but I think I've waited long enough to post it. Thank you all for your support. I wish there was a better way to thank you but here you go! I hope that you guys enjoy it regardless! Let me know what you think!
There is freedom waiting for you,
on the breezes in the sky,
And you ask "What if I fall?"
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?
-e.h
Athena rereads the text one more time to make sure she's translating it correctly before grabbing out her phone and looking through her contacts. As soon as she finds Elijah's name she hits the call button and brings it up to her ear. She spares a glance over at the grandfather clock in the corner of her study. Elijah left a few hours ago, entrusting that she would be able to figure it out by the time he reached Mystic Falls from her second home a few hours away from the hamlet town. She had to reach out to a lot of friends in order to dig up what meager information she could on the Blue Spirit that she and Elijah have been pouring over since they got to this home while the girl in question withered away in her home.
The phone rings softly in her ear and Athena knows immediately that something isn't right. Elijah was very adamant about her reaching out to him once she's confirmed her suspicions. He wouldn't just decide to not answer now. Something is definitely wrong.
She taps her nails against the hardwood of the desk she's sitting at, looking around the room while chewing on her lower lip.
Once Elijah's voice man chimes in, she hangs up the phone, chewing on her lower lip. She looks around her room for a long moment before looking down at the book in front of her. It's old and torn, well-loved, and the page that she's on has a picture of a blue amorphous figure bursting from the body of a person surrounded by other people all shying away. But the biggest, most notable part of all of it was the big, bright full moon.
Rebekah couldn't breathe. She stood in the doorway of their home looking out over the scene in the front yard, mouth agape as Klaus scrambles over to Caroline, holding her in his arms as this horrible, gut-wrenching wail escapes him. He cradles her, not even seeming to care about his audience or that Mikael is relishing in Klaus's obvious pain.
Rebekah has heard Klaus's wails of pain when Mikael has beaten him as a human or when he was forcefully severed from his werewolf side. Those moments of pain haunt Rebekah's nightmares, but this anguished scream of agony, like his heart has been ripped to shreds inside of his own body on constant repeat echoes in her ears. Rebekah can feel her brother's pain as if it was her own, tearing her apart at the seams.
She can see Caroline's death tearing her brother apart piece by piece. Like a piece of his soul has been ripped out. He's never going to be the same after this. And honestly? Rebekah's not so sure she will either. Caroline... Caroline was special. Their friendship was special. They just clicked so well. Elijah even liked her - a lot. Which says something as Elijah typically tolerates people with kindness or indifference. Genuinely liking someone, for as much as he liked Caroline, was rare for her brother.
And Klaus? Rebekah has never seen her half brother so emotionally entangled in another living being. Klaus loved her so plainly, so openly, something her brother doesn't do. He doesn't openly express his love and admiration. But he did with Caroline. His love for her made him a little crazy, but Rebekah has never seen her brother more in love before in her life. And he's never seemed lighter. Freer. Her love of life and other's happiness made her a beacon of light for Rebekah's bastard brother. And he loved her so much.
And her death is destroying him.
Right before her very eyes, she can see her brother breaking down, both emotionally and physically. He openly weeps over her unmoving body, looking lost. Uncaring who was watching him or the obvious danger that Mikael presents, still being there. He has done it. Finally. Mikael has finally destroyed Klaus so wholly. On such a metaphysical level. Rebekah can see that her brother is broken. More broken than he has ever been. Fractured, perhaps beyond repair. And that terrifies Rebekah more than there are words.
But Mikael isn't done. Not with them. He won't relish in his victory forever though. And Rebekah is done with being afraid.
Elijah steps up next to her, rubbing at the space in the center of his chest from where she saw he was impaled by a large piece of debris a minute ago, turning dark eyes toward the scene in front of him, taking it all in.
Rebekah can't even look at Elena and Stefan standing off to one side, Elena crying into his arms. Or Damon and Elena standing mutely on her other side, just watching the chaos of their new reality. It takes Rebekah a moment of thought and a double-take to realize that there weren't two Elenas. One was Katherine who no doubt returned to try and exact her revenge on Klaus.
And ended up assisting in getting Caroline killed.
No doubt the blubbering doppelganger was Elena, but Rebekah couldn't even summon up a minuscule amount of care for that right now. Right now, she wanted to tear Mikael apart.
She turns to look at her older brother, to see him slowly turning to look back at her. And in his eyes, she sees rage. She's not sure if it's for Caroline's death, Klaus's pain, or the situation in its entirety, but Rebekah finds strength in it. Enough strength to turn her grief over the brutal murder of her friend - probably safe to say best friend, seeing as there was no one else - into the rage she needs to finally face the monster that has been haunting her and her brothers for the last thousand years.
She feels a tear slide down her cheek as her rage mounts and the veins crawl up her cheeks, as they do for Elijah. They were done running. Now it was time to fight their demons.
Rebekah and Elijah are then moving toward Mikael as fast as their legs can take them. Before Mikael can decide to stop relishing in Klaus's heart-breaking suffering and kill him, Rebekah and Elijah are on top of Mikael. They are in a flurry of motion, fighting the man who raised them. Fight the man that hunted them.
It took a few minutes of listening to his brother and sister fighting their father before Klaus finally pulled back into himself only to find that there was nothing left. Only emptiness in his heart. It feels like his body is empty now. There isn't even a soul in his body anymore. There just this emptiness where his heart used to be. Now it lies dead in his hands. He has nothing left. No. No, he has something. Just one thing.
He has rage.
And that is when he delicately lowered the young woman he loves to the ground, promising to be back soon, before turning to face her killer and stand with his favorite siblings. Then he's with them. The three siblings move together. Elijah and Klaus with a precision and grace that over a thousand years of fighting together would provide with Rebekah jumping in whenever she could. But it's obvious that Elijah and Klaus were the bigger threats as Mikael would go at them with all his skill while he would just toss Rebekah away like she was nothing.
Rebekah is tossed against a tree, knocking the wind out of her as she slumps on the ground, panting in exhaustion. She's not really a fighter. At least not against someone like Mikael. He's an entirely different beast than other vampires. He's a thousand-year-old Viking who has been fighting all of his life. He definitely puts all the other vampires that Rebekah has faced to absolute shame.
Her phone starts to ring in her pocket and she blinks a few times, still watching the flurry of motion as Mikael basically tosses her two brothers around their front yard with practiced ease. Rebekah contemplates ignoring it to join her brothers again, but a split second feeling makes her wiggle it out of her pocket. She has to pull her eyes away from the sound of the bones in Klaus's arm cracking at the sharp angle that Mikael twists it while Elijah is staggering back to his feet. Both of which look worse for wear.
It's Athena.
Angry and bitter about the woman not having been able to help them, to help Caroline, she answers the phone with a sharp, "A little busy at the moment, Athena. We're gonna have to call you back."
"Don't hang up, Rebekah," Athena says calmly. "I've found how to awaken the Blue Spirit. It's not too late."
"Oh, I can assure you, it is," Rebekah snarls, pushing herself to her feet. "Mikael, my father, is here. He just ripped her heart from her chest. I'm sure there isn't going to be a lot of awakening going on around here, save for if we make it out of this alive." She said it, hoping that for whatever reason that would make the pain in her chest ease up a bit, but it only served to hurt her more. Caroline was gone.
"Mikael?" Athena gasps, and for once it was nice to hear something aside from smooth indifference in the dark-skinned woman's voice. "The Original Vampire? He killed her."
"Yes, and he's trying to kill my brothers so if you'll excuse me - " She moves to hang up the phone, mentally chastising herself as this literally did nothing to help her other than maybe catch her breath.
"Wait, Rebekah!" Athena calls, making the Original pause. "If she was killed by a supernatural being, it's not too late. The Blue Spirit needed to be killed on the night of the full moon to begin the transition."
A pregnant silence as Rebekah tries to process her words, fighting the hope that was building in her chest. "It does...? Wh... What is supposed to happen next?"
"The Blue Spirit will rise, but it needs one very important thing to complete the transformation."
"And that is?" Rebekah asks through bated breath, her eyes blown wide.
"She needs to kill the one that set the transition in motion," Athena says evenly, "before the sun rises the following morning."
Rebekah's heart sinks. If Caroline was to survive... it would be on the back of killing Mikael? And it would have to be done tonight? Honestly, Rebekah fantasized about killing their father tonight, but a part of her thought that one of three things would happen. Either they would run, Mikael would, or he would kill them. She didn't actually think that they would be able to outmatch Mikael. Not the three of them.
Rebekah opens her mouth, about to ask how they were supposed to do that, when her eyes travel to the spot that Caroline was, lying in the grass. Only to find that the spot was empty. Rebekah hangs up the phone, blue eyes flickering about trying to locate the other blonde in the darkness of the lawn around them. Elena, Katherine, and the Salvatore brothers seem paralyzed in place, bearing witness to however this is going to end.
"C...Caroline?" Rebekah asks softly, her lips barely moving. Then panic and fear pumps through her as she begins to wildly look around. "Caroline? Caroline?"
Either they processed what she said, or they simply heard the panic in her voice, one way or the other, both brothers managed to separate from Mikael far enough to look over at her.
"What?" Elijah gasps, eyebrows pulling together tightly.
"Caroline's gone," Rebekah chokes out.
Panic flickers across Klaus's face as he looks over for her body only for the spot to be empty. His full lips part before they focus on something just passed Mikael, out of Rebekah's sight.
It's Caroline, using a tree to help pull herself up to her feet. She stumbles a bit before straightening up, rolling her shoulders back, and letting out a little sigh.
"By the gods..." Mikael spits, frowning displeased. "What manner of abomination is this?"
"It's Caroline..." Rebekah whispers, hope filling her chest as her friend slowly turns to face them, her chin down to her chest and her eyes closed.
"No..." Elijah says slowly, "it's the Blue Spirit."
Caroline raises her head slowly as she opens her eyes. They are the sharpest most unnatural glowing blue eyes that Rebekah has ever seen in a person. They are clear and bright even in the darkness. It's Caroline's face, but it doesn't seem like it is with the Blue Spirit's blue eyes staring back at them and her face completely impassive - devoid of any sort of emotion.
There is a hole in her shirt just below her blossom where the skin has cleanly healed over. She looks between all of them without a hint of emotion until her eyes land on Mikael and her face morph into an ugly snarl, her lips curling up to reveal the dual pointed werewolf fangs and she snarls at Mikael. The hope in Rebekah's heart is shattered. This wasn't Caroline at all.
Then she's moving, crossing the space from where she stood to Mikael in moments. Definitely not faster than that of an Original, but definitely faster than a werewolf should be. She's on Mikael in moments, in a flurry of motion, slashing at him with elongated nails and hissing. She looks like a rabid animal. She was just missing the crazed eyes and the frothing.
She thrusts a fist into Mikael's chest, making to pull his heart out - reminiscent of how he ripped her own heart out. But the magic holding him together is too strong for Caroline to pull his heart out. Caroline growls, lip curling in anger at being unable to kill him. She yanks once, twice, three times, before Mikael's had enough, grabbing onto her arm, twisting it painfully so that she would lt go before pulling her hand from his chest and throws her to the dirt.
Caroline snarls, popping back up to her feet and turning to face the oldest Original Vampire. Mikael, not in the mood for games anymore, punches her hard in the chest, so hard that her chest collapses and she falls back onto the ground. There is a long moment of silence, where they all just stare down at Caroline before Mikael looks away, turning his attention back to the sole focus of his anger. He barely makes it a few steps before Caroline's chest pops back into place and she's popped back up onto her feet and then lunges onto Mikael's back.
She rears back, flashing her fangs before, for the second time that night, she plunges her teeth into his neck. The painful gasp is immediate. She pushes venom into his neck.
Mikael lets out a roar of rage, reaching back to grab at Caroline and ripping her off of him, and throwing her down into the dirt once more. She scrambles to her feet, blood dripping down her face and chest. Her lips curl again as she snarls.
"She has to kill him," Rebekah says, rushing over to her brothers while keeping an eye on Mikael, who was holding onto his neck, which was pouring blood. "She has to kill him or she won't finish the transition."
"How is she going to do that?" Elijah asks, glancing down at the white oak stake still clutched in Mikael's hand.
"Her venom..." Klaus whispers, his blue eyes wide.
"What?" Rebekah asks, giving him a sideways look. "Werewolf venom won't kill an Original."
"Then why is Mikael desiccating?" Klaus whispers, lips parting.
Rebekah and Elijah look over at their father as he wipes away the blood pouring from his neck from a wound that should have at least started to heal at this point to see the skin underneath starting to desiccate. Caroline snarls, pacing back and forth in front of Mikael, looking for the perfect opportunity to strike, her eyes never straying from him.
"Athena is right..." Rebekah whispers, "Caroline... the Blue Spirit... they are strong enough to kill an Original."
"We don't know that yet," Elijah says evenly, rolling up his sleeves. "We know now that her bite weakens us. Now we have to make sure we don't get bitten. If she can kill Mikael, he won't be our problem anymore. The same goes for if we can wrestle the white oak from him."
Klaus and Rebekah bob their heads in agreement. Both of them holding onto hope that by fully awakening the Blue Spirit, Caroline will come back to them. That everything will be okay. Get rid of Mikael is also a big part of it. No more running. No more fear. No more looking over the shoulder or uncertainty. Finally, they could all be free.
Caroline spits and snarls at the Originals whenever they get close to her, so fighting around her proves difficult, but with their superior speed, they manage. Mikael notably starts to slow down as the venom from Caroline's enhanced bite takes effect and Mikael continues to desiccate further. He holds strong and steady, not willing to give up or show fear as his body slowly starts to give up on him and his children and Caroline start to gain the upper hand.
Every strike is a possible deadly one. Mikael got ahold of Klaus and almost managed to pierce his chest with the white oak when Caroline latched onto his arm and sank her teeth into his flesh, pumping him full of more venom. She did this any and every time a limb was offered or she was given the chance to leap up onto his back and bite at his neck or shoulders. Caroline was horrible to look at, smaller and slower than the Originals made her easy to toss around, but give her a few moments and she pops back up onto her feet as if nothing happened.
The Blue Spirit's vitality is impressive considering the beat down it's getting. But it continues onward. Nothing keeps it down for more than a minute. No matter the bones were broken, the organs removed, or the tremendous blunt force trauma instilled. The Blue Spirit will heal the wounds and get right back up again.
It felt like a hundred years passed before Mikael truly started to slow down, and by then it was too late for him to run. Together, Elijah and Klaus managed to hold Mikael in place long enough for Rebekah to rip the white oak from his hand but before she could even consider ending her father's life with the cherished weapon of immortal destruction, Caroline is on him, gripping tightly onto his neck, grinning a bloody-toothed smile, before bearing her fangs and digging them into his desiccated throat. Most of his body now has completely desiccated as the venom works through him.
She pulls back, opening her mouth in a gleeful grin as Mikael's blood spills from her lips and she looks up to the moon, reaching up for it for a moment. A soft, sweet coo rumbles from her chest before turning eery blue eyes down toward Mikael's body. She curls her fingers together before plunging her hand into his chest, leaning in close to snarl into his face before ripping his heart from his body.
Rebekah couldn't believe it. The magic of their body should prevent an Original's heart from being removed. Rebekah has no idea what happens to an Original if someone somehow manages to remove their heart. Do they die? Does the magic vanish? Does the heart begin to disappear so that a new one can grow in their chest once more? Rebekah has absolutely no idea.
Mikael's body freezes for a moment before collapsing onto the ground, unmoving. The Blue Spirit hums triumphantly, looking up at the moon when something catches her attention. She looks back down at the heart in her hand to see the magic starting to bring Mikael back. She growls, curling her lip before sinking her fangs into his heart, and the magic stops. Mikael's body remains completely unmoving for one moment. Two moments. Three. And then it burst into flames, forcing the siblings to all scoot away from the body of the man that raised him as the blue fire quickly burns his body to ash.
Then there is silence. The night falls quiet as the fire burns Mikael's body away. Caroline looks up at the sky, toward the moon while holding her arms up toward the moon, letting out a pleased sigh as the smoke from Mikael's body wafts up around Caroline, almost as if sinking into her flesh as twinkling bits of moonlight are absorbed into her flesh.
She runs her hands up and down her neck as white markings start working their way up from her clavicle to her jaw. Thin, intricate swirls curl up the hollow of her throat to the underside of her jaw. Between the intricate swirls, there is enough room from six nickel-sized circles between them. Three on each side of her neck. They glow brightly as the smoke and moonlight sink into her skin. Caroline hums deep in her throat, making them glow brighter still.
She rubs away at the fresh blood that coats the front of her body. Once Mikael's body finally burns away to ash and the fire dies away, Caroline lowers her hands to her side, rolling her shoulders back as a series of cracks work their way up and down her body.
"Caroline...?"
The blonde tilts her head slightly, looking over at the hybrid who called to her with those eerie, glowing blue eyes. For a long moment, she just stares at him before she sucks in a long, slow breath. Then her expression sharpens and she lunges at him, snarling and snapping at him. He falls onto his back in the grass and she lands on top of him.
"Caroline, stop!" Rebekah gasps.
Caroline snarls, glowing blue eyes like twin fireballs in her sockets as she rounds her hand once more and jams it into Klaus's chest. She grins at his yell of pain as she moves her hand around his heart and tries to pull it out only for the magic to hold it in place. Caroline's grin falls to an annoyed grimace. She sighs, bares her teeth, and lunges for his throat.
"No, no!" Rebekah says, lunging forward to stop Caroline but Elijah grabs her and pulls her back.
"No, Rebekah! Don't let her bite you," Elijah warns into her ear, pulling her back before pushing her behind him. He contemplates what to do.
"Caroline..." Klaus whispers as Caroline's teeth brush against his skin before she stops.
Through the anger and the red in her mind, she can sense something. Something... good. It's strong enough to pierce the veil of anger in her mind - through the battle high she got from fighting, killing, and completing her transformation. She pulls back slowly, trying to work through what made her stop. And then she smells it, so strongly in her nose, she pulls back. She looks down at Klaus, taking in his pale, tired face twisted in a grimace of pain as her hand constricts the beating of his heart.
Klaus reaches forward, despite his pain to touch her face. Caroline snarls at his hand, leaning away from his touch like it was poisonous while settling back on his hips, making sure he couldn't easily escape her.
"It's okay..." Klaus says softly, despite his obvious pain, there are relief and happiness in his eyes. And a love that there aren't any words for. "It's okay, my love. It's me..."
Caroline's lip curls at his hand, using her free one to slap it away before leaning in close to his neck to search for that smell again. It hits her full blast. She pulls back again, staring down at Klaus with bright eyes and an impassive expression. She hums slightly before leaning down and breathing in his scent deeply. She lets out a long, slow sigh, before breathing him in again.
"What is she doing?" Rebekah asks, still wanting to get the dangerous werewolf away from her brother.
"Ever since Niklaus awakened his werewolf side again, Caroline has said that he exudes a nice scent that she likes..." Elijah says slowly, not daring to come too close for fear of triggering the werewolf. "It seems that the Blue Spirit likes it too. It might be bringing Caroline back to the forefront of her mind."
"I hope so..." Rebekah says softly, holding the white oak stake tightly between her two hands like a lifeline.
Caroline's low hums slowly turn into content purrs as she nuzzles her nose into his neck. She pulls back, settling onto his hips before ripping her hand from his chest, leaving his heart where it was. Klaus groans in pain but doesn't say anything for a long moment. He waits a moment, staring into her glowing eyes before reaching out for her face again. This time she grabs hold of his hand and rests it against her cheek, closing her eyes and cooing.
Caroline smiles then. It's a soft, beautiful smile very reminiscent of the real Caroline's smile. Not quite the vibrancy and the loving smile that Klaus remembers, but it's soft and breathtaking in its own right. It's Caroline's face, yet somehow the smile could only be the Blue Spirit's.
"My beautiful wolf..." Klaus whispers, running his thumb across her cheek as the Blue Spirit hums. She sucks in a deep breath then, pushing her chest out a bit so that her lungs can expand as far as they can before she lets out a long, low hum. A steady stream of noise for a few solid seconds before it breaks up into a few notes, dropping lower and lower into her throat and chest, the markings on her neck glowing as Klaus feels, against his will, his eyes shift color from blue to gold and the veins in his face run-up to his eyes.
Caroline smiles down at him until she sees the veins under his eyes and the blackening of his sclera. She frowns, growling displeased. There is a look on her face, waring with her instinct to attack the unnatural, the supernatural werewolf/vampire being, and whatever that wonderful smell was that made her stop in the first place.
"What is it..?" Klaus asks softly, hoping to distract her from deciding whether she wanted to kill him or not. "What is that smell, Blue Spirit?"
The Blue Spirit stares down at him, pursing her lips a bit before reaching for his face, running the pads of her thumbs over the bulging veins in his face. She grunts low in her throat and nudges at his cheek with her nose. Then she looks at him, to see if he understood. Klaus shakes his head slowly, not understanding what she's trying to say. She leans in again, rubbing her cheek against the side of his throat, humming sweetly before pulling back to look at him expectantly.
"I don't understand, my love," Klaus says softly, studying her closely. "I'm sorry. I just don't."
She sighs, clicking her tongue before saying, in a low gurgled tone, like she doesn't know how to use her voice, "Mate. My mate."