Author's note: This was created for the Klaroline Fall Bingo Event.

Prompt: "You reap what you sow."

Warning: Angsty angst.


"The rat is especially good today," Enzo flippantly commented, turning the ragged chunks of meat over the small fire. Fires had to be small these days. Anything else would mark you — an easy glowing target for your enemies.

There were too many enemies these days.

Caroline nodded in agreement, but remained silent as she stared at the orange glow. She hated how she knew the right way to arrange the meat so the flames would singe the fur off. The world had died and all she cared about was wiry fur getting caught in her fangs.

Was she happy before? Sometimes it was hard to know. She remembered the softness in Klaus' gaze when he painted her, and that devilish smirk he'd flash. And the burning touches and possessive kisses that she thought would never end.

But after Mikael crossed the veil and came back from the other side, everything ended.

At first, Caroline proudly stood beside her lover and fearlessly waged war. Mikael's armies swept across New Orleans, then Shreveport, and finally further north through Dallas and Oklahoma City all the way to the Dakotas as he conquered more and more territory with the help of Silas' soulless, dead-eyed acolytes.

Together, she and Klaus rallied the hybrids and recruited thousands of werewolves to join their cause, a ferocious alliance forged in blood and fire and loyalty. They were at their best when they faced Mikael on those bleak battlefields, the violence boiling in their veins.

"Yours," Caroline murmured in his ear, kissing along his jawline. She threaded her fingers with Klaus' as they stood on top of the Chrysler Building. Their armies flooded the streets below as hell dimensions clawed at the edges of reality.

For a moment, the steel left his gaze as he looked at her; his beast calmed. "Yours," he agreed just as fiercely.

They held New York that day, even starting to take back much of the Eastern Seaboard that Mikael once held.

But Klaus grew addicted to the fear in Mikael's eyes, and he pushed for more, forever growing his armies to take and take. Soon, he used his sire bond to forcibly turn werewolves — long after Mikael's defeat.

That was when Caroline left.

She took Enzo and Bonnie and headed across the country to start fixing what the war had destroyed. But buildings come together easier than hearts and minds, and the humans had witnessed the rivers of blood and Silas' unholy minions. They understood enough.

The humans hunted them, scorching the untouched scraps of land with their nuclear weapons. It didn't matter that Caroline and her friends wanted no part of Klaus' single-minded obsession with world domination — they were other, and deserved to burn.

Klaus found them after the second shockwave.

Bonnie had smuggled them high up in the Himalayas of northeastern India, where they took refuge in an abandoned monastery, far away from ground zero. Caroline had been in the crumbling courtyard, tending to their small garden when she felt the weight of his stare. The grip on her trowel tightened, just enough to bring a hint of a smirk to his handsome face. She hated that small sliver of fear, the one that set her teeth on edge.

Her monster was wary.

"What do you want," she said curtly, raising her voice just enough to ensure Enzo could hear them even though he and Bonnie were off gathering wild barley down in the valley.

"To see for myself that you and your companions survived the thermal blast."

She rolled her eyes. "Moscow was ground zero. Hardly down the street from us." It hurt to have him here. Especially when he looked so lost. She pointed her trowel to the narrow pathway that led down the mountain, telling him abruptly, "I'm fine. And you've seen I'm fine. And now you can leave."

He flashed to her side, reaching out to caress her cheek before she abruptly jerked away. "You don't mean that, love." Her sullen silence ignited that familiar temper of his, and Klaus harshly whispered, "It's time for you to come home."

She shivered at his dangerous tone, and was reminded of the wolves he'd forced to turn. And instead of staying to help them, she'd run away. Her guilt choked her, but it took the world dying for her to see how hollow she'd become. "You aren't my home. Not anymore."

Furious hybrid gold flared in his gaze as he snarled, "Enough of this nonsense! Your place is at my side!"

Caroline shook her head angrily. "You want mindless minions. There's no room at your side for an equal — you made that perfectly clear when you stole everyone's free will and conquered what was left of the world." Turning away from him, she muttered, "You reap what you sow."

It was the moment that broke them both. She could see it in his eyes — a brief flash of remorse and then his soul was swallowed once more by his insatiable need for control. Klaus icily replied, "As do you, sweetheart."

Klaus took Bonnie.

It was a brilliant, coldly calculated move. She was the last of the powerful Bennett bloodline, and witches were as rare as fresh water. And in stealing her friend away, Klaus had bound Caroline to him — she would never stop seeking him out to save Bonnie.

Enzo and Caroline were furious and crossed two continents to storm the fortress where Klaus held court, only to bitterly fail. Each attempt made them more desperate, to the point that they became reckless with their lives and nearly were torn to pieces by Silas' vicious monsters. They blamed each other, and had countless epic fights that shredded what was left of their hearts. But they were steadfast in their loyalty, and continued to search for a way to rescue Bonnie.

Something breached their perimeter. Caroline and Enzo hastily stood, swinging the narrow barrels of their AKs in the direction of the noise. Deranged, radiation-soaked humans and Silas' ruthless demons all were vulnerable to bullets, and the nightmarish past decade had made them both expert shots.

Klaus warmed himself at their small campfire, having the audacity to keep his back to them. And why shouldn't he? It's not as though he had anything to fear. He was the most powerful creature on this desolate planet he ruled with an iron fist.

But when he ventured a glance at Caroline, all she saw was a lonely little boy. She could work with that. A new plan began to form as she kept her expression coldly indifferent. Nodding to Enzo, they sat across from Klaus, careful to keep their gaze on the glowing flames.

Caroline tore a bite from the charred meat, pointedly telling Enzo, "You're right — the rat is especially good today."