Author's note: This was written for klarolineauseason Klaroline AU Season 2022, July 10th, Week 6: Crossovers/Fusions. This is a sequel to Chapters 110 & 157: The Lies We Need in A Beautiful Symmetry. In this Klaroline fusion with Dollhouse, Klaus and Kol are playing unlikely heroes as they work together to save Caroline. But can they set aside their selfishness when her salvation comes at a steep price?

Also, I recently started a new Klaroline multi-chap, One More Rose. It's an AU fluffy human romantic comedy and I hope you'll check it out! Happy reading!

Warning: Angst. References to domestic abuse. This is a fusion with Dollhouse, a TV show that explored themes of consent, free will, slavery, and the human body as a commodity. Just FYI for potential triggers.


"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him."
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


It was quiet on the plane. Too quiet. A tomb would've been more welcoming than Kol's dead-eyed stare and Caroline's disturbingly blank expression. Klaus downed another scotch, eyeing the sterling ice bucket that was overturned on the marble counter. It had chilled the rare vintage Amara Anchor champagne to a perfect temperature on their trip to Florence, and Caroline had linked his arm in hers as they toasted to new adventures.

After she learned the truth, she'd hurled the ice bucket across the private jet when they brought her back on board.

"Why?" Her voice was little more than a strangled whisper and was muffled by the engines, so it sat there unanswered for far too long, polluting the air of the cabin.

The brothers exchanged an uneasy glance, and Klaus finally was brave enough to ask, "Why what, sweetheart?"

She fixed him with her inscrutable blue gaze, gesturing vaguely between the three of them. "Why any of this?! What's the point in telling me the truth when the Dollhouse is just going to erase my memories again?"

Kol shifted uncomfortably, not quite able to look at Caroline. Klaus had never seen his little brother so broken. Hot, angry tears had raged across his boyish face when Klaus told him what he'd learned about Caroline's past. And the grim reality of what he and Kol had done to her. "Because it wasn't right. The Dollhouse said everyone who worked there chose to do this, that they signed these contracts to become dolls for a few years and when their time was up, their original memories of their old lives were restored and they never had to worry about money again."

"But you guys found out I didn't choose this. I didn't give the Dollhouse permission to scoop out my memories and then program me like a robot to be their gross clients' windup toy."

Both brothers flinched at her harsh reply, exchanging guilty glances before staring at the floor once again. Caroline carried on, seemingly unbothered by the excruciating tension. "Instead, you learned I had an abusive boyfriend named Damon who sold me to the Dollhouse to pay off gambling debts."

She stared at her trembling hands, pressing fingers to lips as she darkly mused, "Is this even my body? How do I know the Dollhouse didn't give the real Caroline a few upgrades? Their clients could've demanded they make my nose be smaller or that I have bigger boobs and I'm sure the Dollhouse would've tripped all over themselves to carve me up. To make me the perfect doll."

"You're real," Klaus protested, hating how her stare had grown vacant once more.

Her laugh was brittle — nothing like what he was used to. Or, maybe the Dollhouse had designed that too? "The Dollhouse programmed me to be your girlfriend, Klaus. Real is relative."

Klaus recoiled from the barely controlled fury he heard in Caroline's voice. He'd told himself there was no harm in indulging a fantasy or two — after all, the Dollhouse was a playground for the elite, a luxurious sandbox to tickle a fancy with any desire you could name. He'd gone into this with eyes open. Except that was the biggest lie of all, wasn't it? From the moment he'd met Caroline, nothing was the same. She wasn't his usual Dollhouse dalliance. "You're real to me. More real than anything else in my life," he muttered. "I care for you, Caroline. It's why I'm doing everything in my power to help you now."

Caroline shook her head, a low, painful whine in the back of her throat as she turned her punishing gaze on Kol. "And what about when I'm with you, Kol? I don't remember you right now because I'm on this...engagement with Klaus. Because you boys borrow me back and forth like a goddamn library book! What memories does the Dollhouse program me with when I'm your doll? What's your fantasy Caroline like?"

Fists clenched, she said disdainfully, "Klaus said you and I were best friends who traveled the world. So, just how close were you to having the Dollhouse flip a switch in my brain so you could seduce me?"

"Bloody hell, no! It wasn't like that," Kol blurted out, horrified by her words.

Whipping her blonde head back to Klaus, she accused, "But it was like that with you, right? Your fantasy Caroline is a devoted, sexy girlfriend who can recall EVERY SINGLE TIME we were together. And there were so many times." She tapped her temple, adding venomously, "It's all programmed in here, just like you ordered. Fuck, does the Dollhouse have some sick, twisted menu where you order my personality quirks and turn ons as a combo platter or is it a la carte?"

Klaus felt his heart sink at her words. "It wasn't what you think, love. What you were told to think. The memories the Dollhouse planted told you we've been together for months, but Florence was our first engagement, I swear." At the uncertainty he saw on her face, Klaus brokenly vowed, "When I realized something wasn't right, I stopped. I couldn't do that to you."

"Me neither," Kol suddenly said, moving to sit beside her. He told her, "I know you don't remember, but you're my best friend and you saved me from myself so many times. I...I needed someone because I was a miserable bastard looking for the most glorious way to self-destruct." He shakily confessed, "It won't mean anything to you, but you saved my life."

Caroline seemed as taken aback by Kol's confession as Klaus once had been. He still recalled the chilling conversation they'd had at that ostentatious gala ball and 10-course dinner.

"If I didn't have Caroline as my best friend, our family would've gotten a battered box of my ashes shipped from some wretched, hidden corner of the earth."

Caroline's eyes were wet when she lifted her head, regarding both brothers with frustration — but Klaus fancied he saw less anger than before. "You don't know what it's like — neither of you do. You come from privilege and have all this power and probably never once had to fear for your safety or have your autonomy questioned. So, it never occurred to you that a place like the Dollhouse would take advantage of people who don't have any power. You just blindly accepted their lies that everyone at the Dollhouse was there by choice."

Because we didn't want to know. Klaus thought with a grimace, pouring another round and sliding it over to Kol. He didn't bother offering any to Caroline as she seemed determined to maintain her white-knuckle grip on the water she'd been nursing since they'd left Italian airspace.

"I have questions," Caroline said, clenching her jaw as though expecting them to deny her the answers she deserved.

"I thought you must," Klaus said with a sigh, sitting on the other side of Caroline.

She stared out the window, the wisps of white clouds forming swirling patterns just beyond the jet's wings. "Right now, I don't have memories of Damon — not really. But I keep getting these flashes. Is it Damon? Or, is it other engagements where I'm someone's doll? How do I know what's real?"

"We think it's both," Kol interjected, sharing an unreadable glance with Klaus. "The more uh...violent memories we think is from your real life with Damon. The more random stuff is probably from your other engagements as a doll."

When Caroline gasped in pain, rubbing her forehead, Klaus wanted to reach out to her, but he wasn't sure she'd allow it. Had she ever been given the chance to deny someone? "Damon was an evil bastard — that much I knew even before you guys revealed he'd sold me to the Dollhouse. I wish I could remember who I was — the bits and pieces I get sometimes aren't enough to put me back together. But I feel like whoever the real Caroline is, she'd want the same thing I do — to find Damon and make him pay for everything he did."

The pit in Klaus' stomach had returned. He knew what his version of Caroline would say when she learned what they had done. After all, he'd paid for his ideal version of Caroline, he thought bitterly. Kol was shaking his head, sending daggers his way, but he paid no heed. Caroline deserved to know. "You don't have to worry about Damon," Klaus began in a gentle voice, watching her eyes widen as he revealed, "his body was found floating in the river back in Chicago."

"When," she asked suspiciously.

"Just before we boarded the plane, sweetheart," Klaus replied quietly.

She squeezed her eyes shut, leaning back against the leather sofa. "That's not what I wanted." Opening one eye, she glared at Klaus, viciously adding, "But since you had me programmed, you already knew that, didn't you?" With a vicious smile, she asked, "Did you let the Dollhouse keep anything of the real me in here? Or, is everything I am yours?"

"I don't own you," Klaus replied defensively, hating how indignation warred with shame as he realized he was lying to himself. For the length of the engagements he and Kol had with the Dollhouse, Caroline was theirs. How she must hate them both. He cautiously reached for her hands, studying her face intently for the slightest hint of revulsion. When she seemed to accept his touch, he clasped her hands, the awe apparent in his voice as he said, "From the flashes of memories you've been experiencing, it's obvious that the Dollhouse's technology couldn't erase who you were — you're far too strong for that."

"Bloody right you are," Kol reassured her, "Anyone else would've lost the plot after everything you've learned. But instead, here you are, absolutely fearless with your questions and demands like a glorious warrior queen." His trembling voice was muffled as he downed another scotch, murmuring, "You might not remember me, but you were the best friend a useless wanker like me could've hoped for."

"Kol...I..." She seemed to wrestle with herself, jerking in her seat as though fighting the urge to hug Kol. Was the real Caroline a hugger? Klaus suspected that the tenderness he saw there was an inherent quality that no amount of soulless technology could remove. Would she ever give them a chance to truly know her? "I'm not sure what to say," she said quietly, "maybe if..." she trailed off helplessly, clearly just as lost as they were.

Staring down at their joined hands, she told Klaus, "I don't know what's real. I have all of these thoughts and feelings and memories of us together. There's this mantra that I realized I've been telling myself over and over about how thoughtful and sweet you are and how much I care for you — is that just...programming you had the Dollhouse do to me?"

Klaus desperately wanted to tell her it was real. He wanted it to be real. "I'm so sorry, Caroline. You didn't deserve any of this." No. Don't say it. You already bombarded her with your own selfish feelings. Don't you DARE. He wanted the impossible. He wanted to save Caroline and she'd be so grateful that she...what exactly? Blindly look past their sordid history and fall in love with him? Selfish bloody bastard. She'd already likened their time together as little more than "borrowing a library book". He knew Caroline would flee from his sight the moment she was free. She deserved to be free. And yet he still foolishly wanted her to choose him.

As Caroline studied him with an unreadable expression, Klaus wondered if she suspected all of the things he left unsaid.


When they landed, Klaus watched the cars arrive with a heavy heart. Kol would keep Caroline safe at an estate outside of London while Klaus went to the Dollhouse and threatened the CEO. Klaus wanted to be the one to stay with Caroline, but he didn't trust anyone else with her future. Not even his brother. He owed it to Caroline to make sure this was done right.

As Caroline walked down the stairs, she paused, lifting her lovely face to the sky. Closing her eyes, she seemed to breathe in the sunshine with a hint of a smile. "I'm going to pretend I'm on vacation," she announced to them both, allowing Kol to help her the rest of the way down the stairs. "It's a rare day of sunshine here and I'm going to enjoy every minute."

As she climbed into one of the SUVs, Klaus quietly told Kol, "Keep her safe, brother."

Kol nodded, adding solemnly, "And you go make sure she stays safe."


Klaus triumphantly slammed the document on the Dollhouse CEO's desk, the smoky glass rattling dangerously from the force. "I have a court order for you to unseal the contents of Caroline's contract." At Kai's petulant silence, he observed shrewdly, "But she doesn't have a contract, does she? Because she never volunteered for this. Instead, you allowed her abusive bastard of a boyfriend to sentence her to this...this slavery."

Kai finally recovered from his surprise, a cruel smile crossing his thin face as he retorted, "As I recall, you and your brother have paid quite handsomely to reap the benefits of the Dollhouse's enslavement. Or, are Aurora and Davina so easily replaced now that you and Kol have fallen for the lovely Caroline?"

Before Klaus could form a vicious retort, Kai continued his merciless diatribe, asking, "Call it professional curiosity, but how do you see this working out for you three? You get Caroline three days a week and Kol gets two and you guys alternate weekends and holidays? Or, will you just smash it all together in a big, sweaty ball of codependent pity sex?"

Klaus punched him, the crack of his knuckles glancing off of Kai's eye socket immensely satisfying.

Oddly enough, the Dollhouse CEO merely straightened his tie, and with a casual shrug explained, "As you've surmised, some of our dolls have...alternative arrangements with our organization. We have our dirty little fingers in a lot of pies and have just as many crooked politicians and judges in our pockets as your family does." Stretching his arms out and leaning back in his chair, he said, "I propose a simple solution — you back off, and we back off. Everyone walks away a bit rumpled, but no permanent damage."

"And Caroline?"

Kai shook his head with a patronizing grin, "Caroline is ours."

"How much," Klaus growled.

Kai chuckled darkly, "And just like that, the mighty Klaus Mikaelson abandons his feigned righteous indignation. So, you're willing to buy the lovely Caroline? What about the other lost little dolls? Are you just going to leave them in our evil clutches?"

Klaus shook his head, swallowing back the bile that threatened to choke him. "I can't do anything about that now. Caroline is what matters. Name your price."

With a mocking sigh, Kai replied, "Very well." He scribbled out an impossibly obscene number with zeros trailing off the page.

Klaus didn't blink as he whipped out his phone and typed in his passcode. "There. The transfer is done."

"You were a bit hasty there, Mr. Mikaelson. I didn't even tell you the best part." With a malicious gleam in his gaze, Kai revealed, "When we restore a doll's original personality and memories, all of the programmed memories from various engagements are permanently destroyed. Caroline will never remember you or your brother."

His heart stopped in that moment, and Klaus bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood. He snarled, "And I said the transfer is DONE."


The park was mercifully quiet, something both brothers were immensely grateful for. This was hard enough without navigating the typical noisy London crowds. They valiantly tried to casually watch Caroline as she stood before them on the sidewalk, but failed miserably. She blinked several times, and finally rubbed her forehead with a confused expression.

"I'm sorry, but do I know you," she sweetly asked them, her melodic voice exactly the same.

And yet so painfully different. There was no softness in her voice when she looked at Klaus, and even without the lack of recognition in her eyes, he could feel it in his bones that his Caroline was gone. And he desperately wanted to get to know this new Caroline — the real Caroline.

"No, we don't know you," Klaus replied stiffly, blunt nails digging into the meat of his palms until they broke the skin. Kol gave her a pained half-smile before quickly looking away.

She smiled brightly (at least that hadn't changed, Klaus noted with a twinge) and told them excitedly, "It's my first time in London and I'm looking forward to seeing the sights!"

In a choked voice, Klaus replied, "It's a rare day of sunshine here and you should go enjoy every minute."

"You deserve it," Kol echoed quietly.

She waved at them with a politely confused smile before walking away with a skip in her step.

Caroline was safe. But more than that, she was happy. They would keep their Caroline in their hearts, knowing the real Caroline was finally free to live her life the way she wanted.