Author's note: This was written for Klaroline AU Week - Day Three: Crossovers/Fusions. This is a crossover with Warehouse 13. As a Warehouse agent, Caroline had been dispatched to New Orleans to seize a vault of dark objects from a clueless twit. But since she's already there, she might as well go investigate the rumor about a supernatural creature subdued with a golden dagger...
"In a world of diminishing mystery, the unknown persists."
― Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
He thought the blonde was another hallucination brought on by the dagger. However, Klaus quickly reasoned that all of his other hallucinations had been nightmarish retellings of his worst memories, so why would the cursed dagger suddenly send him visions of a ravishing blonde whose touch was the sweetest, gentlest touch he'd ever known?
"Wow, that thing is really in there," she said cheerfully, peering down at him with a peculiar mixture of curiosity and pity.
He blinked, a bit wary as she pulled on a pair of purple gloves with a businesslike snap. The power of the Gold Dagger still held him in its thrall, keeping his limbs in this wretched paralysis. "Elijah did this to me," he bit out, the rage nearly choking him.
"So, not sure who Elijah is, but if he did this to you, he's a real jackass. Artie, my boss, was a little hazy on the details and Claudia, our resident super hacker, turned up almost nothing on you — which has never happened the entire time I've been at the Warehouse — Artie finally ordered Claudia to take a vacation because she kept hacking NSA and NORAD to prove she hadn't lost her touch." At his nonplussed expression, she hurriedly added, "I'm Caroline, by the way. And you're Klaus, right?"
"Yes, I'm Klaus. Elijah is my brother. Bloody bastard daggered me." He thought of Hayley cozying up to his brother, easily believing that deceitful bitch's lies about his erratic behavior. Elijah desperately wanted to believe her so that he could assuage his own guilt for wanting to dagger Klaus. For needing to dagger Klaus because he feared him. Feared his power. His brother always was weak. "Who sent you? You mentioned a warehouse," he commented, narrowing his gray eyes shrewdly.
"I told you — my boss sent me. I'm a Warehouse agent." At his confusion, she huffed indignantly. "Seriously?! You're immortal, right? And never once in all of your centuries have you come across Warehouse operatives?" Rolling her eyes, she explained, "For centuries, our agents have secured artifacts that are too dangerous to be left out in the world. I originally was dispatched to New Orleans to seize a vault of dark objects that accidentally got passed down to a clueless twit."
Despite his rage at temporarily being bested by Elijah, Klaus couldn't stop the bubble of laughter that escaped at Caroline's unexpected words. "What a small world, love. I happen to know that small collection of objects you speak of. Tell me, how did you convince the recent owner to relinquish them? She's quite stubborn." Not to mention tiresome and clingy.
Much to Klaus' delight, Caroline snorted, telling him dryly, "I noticed. I finally had to knock her out in the middle of her psychoanalyzing me. Apparently, I suffer from severe abandonment issues stemming from acute middle child syndrome." She leaned close, blue eyes twinkling as she told him, "I'm an only child."
"Fascinating. She once told me that I too suffer from fear of abandonment. Perhaps that's the only diagnosis she bothered learning?"
A slight frown marred his handsome face as Klaus saw her gloved fingers tentatively touch the intricately designed hilt of the thin golden dagger still plunged in his chest. Caroline muttered to herself, "Transmuted material, unusual bonding agent that appears to be a mixture of alchemy and witchcraft. Designed to cause hallucinations and paralysis." As she moved closer, her blonde curls brushed his arm, and Klaus wistfully wondered what it would feel like to grasp them in his fingers. She asked curiously, "Do you know if the blade similarly affects all supernatural lifeforms or just a specific subset?"
"This weapon was re-forged specifically to mean my demise. My younger brother, Kol, is a petulant child who carelessly meddles in witchcraft," Klaus bluntly told her, surprised that he willingly revealed so much to her. There was something about the intriguing blonde that inspired his trust.
Her eyes widened comically at his revelation, pausing briefly from stirring something foul-smelling in a silver canister to flash him a pitying look. "TWO of your brothers tried to kill you? I'm starting to think maybe you're the one that's the jackass." She dipped what appeared to be a basting brush into the container, explaining, "Um, this stuff is going to look weird and it will be a little cold, but I promise it's totally safe and will neutralize the artifact while curing your paralysis."
He loathed feeling helpless, but realized that without Caroline's assistance, he'd be trapped in this coffin at his brother's mercy. A gelatinous purple goo dripped from the end of the brush, and she quickly spread it around the wound. An odd electrical current thrummed around the dagger as the viscous matter coated it, and faint sparks emitted as Caroline smoothly extracted the blade from his chest. She quickly tossed the dagger into a silver bag, which seemed to contain the sparks and quiet down the reactive properties of the weapon.
Klaus felt his hybrid strength return, and he flashed out of the coffin to stand before her. Something in his gaze must have startled Caroline, because she quickly raised a bizarre-looking pistol to his head. "Easy, sweetheart. I can assure you I'm not a threat." At her skeptical expression, he amended, "To you, at least." He studied the strangely designed gun, noting what appeared to be a dial and a glass-encased conduit similar to light bulb. "You must not have a great deal of experience with immortals if you believe your paltry weapon will do any lasting damage."
"I have plenty of experience with immortals! I mean, there's Mrs. Frederick who's like my boss's boss and super scary but also weirdly personable when she's scowling at you fondly. Oh, and then sometimes folks get de-bronzed who are centuries' old and I had to design this immersion program to get them up to speed on current events..." she trailed off with an indignant huff, waving her gun a bit as she added, "And I'll have you know this paltry weapon was designed by Nikola Tesla and is at the forefront of innovative agent protection! Well, that plus Hillary Clinton's white pantsuit and Ruth Bader Ginsberg's gavel — both of which I won't hesitate to use!"
He chuckled lightly, delighted by her fire. What a magnificent creature. His curiosity was piqued by this Warehouse in which she worked that seemed to possess technology allowing people to be awakened after centuries in stasis. He wondered if it possessed enchantments similar to the daggers he'd used on his siblings over the years. From her suspicious expression, he wisely chose not to ask questions. Yet. "Tesla was an awkward git who cheated at cards," he teased, enjoying the rosy blush that stained her cheeks as she seemed to notice his interest.
"Tesla was a brilliant inventor! Okay, so maybe H.G. Wells told me she had to redesign the entire trigger mechanism before it worked properly, but ever since she got de-bronzed she's been acting shady, so I don't know how much of that to believe."
"She? H.G. Wells is a woman? And she's alive," Klaus asked incredulously.
"Fine. I'll tell you all about H.G. Wells and her penchant for ignoring personal space if you tell me why our scans showed both werewolf and vampire DNA in your system."
He saw it as a positive sign that she lowered her gun. Klaus smirked, thinking that perhaps Caroline would be more receptive to a dinner invitation that he'd initially assumed.
