Some angst, allusions to Damon's abuse of Caroline, major character death, semi-graphic violence/torture.
Caroline watched her fellow blonde from the shadows. She was beautiful and vibrant and so achingly young. Although physically, Caroline did not look a single year older than the other girl. Both of them appearing an eternal seventeen. However, the discerning would note the differences in their eyes, their demeanor.
That girl didn't walk with an edge of lethal grace, always one move away from being able to attack or defend. She didn't carry a confidence built over ages, the kind one gains when they had to fight for their right to exist and came out on top. There wasn't a weight in her eyes that came from the slow build of weariness, from that near constant fight.
So, the two of them could hardly be more different for all that they were once the same person. She supposed that's what over a thousand years of separation did to a person.
To be quite truthful, Caroline almost didn't return to Mystic Falls. The people, the events that had once been the entirety of her short life were now little more than vague memories. They were strangers with familiar faces, as if remembered from a dream. And she would be the strangest of them all, an entirely different person from whom they knew.
The worst moments of this younger Caroline's life were waking confused and hungry in a hospital. Her mind reeling from what felt like PMS on hyperdrive and then an influx of what couldn't be memories. Almost dying a second time to her rapist and the pain of her friend's rejection, for all that she hid it with snark and flippancy. All terrible things to befall anyone let alone a teenager.
But she had yet to experience the stunned horror of waking to a village being devoured by flame. Of having the rancid, acrid scent of burning corpses so thick in the air she could taste it in the smoke. Or the dawning realization of where she was, when she was. The denial that she had dearly wanted to sink into when she spotted a familiar river with no bridge, a waterfall surrounded by several dozens more trees.
And yet she had not been able to afford such a luxury as panic. Not when she realized she could not understand a word anyone spoke to her. When she had to use her superior strength and speed to fight off men that wanted to kill her, rape her, enslave her. And even those that may have had good intentions, but whom she still couldn't understand. Everything felt like a threat when she was so lost and clueless.
The next blow came later. For it had truly broken her heart to feel relieved that compulsion transcended language barriers. To have to rely on a tool that once decimated her own mind just to survive, to have the chance to fit in and find a way home.
Fortunately or unfortunately, desperation was a cruel but effective teacher. High school Spanish had been half-remembered vocabulary and grammar rules, a middling grasp on the written and spoken word. In comparison, the languages of the few settlers that remained came quickly. Even as she tried not to think about how one sounded vaguely Norwegian or Icelandic, how she suspected it was Old Norse. Or how the tongue of what she came to realize were the natives, didn't have a modern equivalent to her knowledge.
Then, just as she was finding her feet, she learned the harshest lesson of them all. There was always something worse. Hope could not die faster than when a powerful witch confirmed all her worst fears. When they sensed the magic of their descendant in her ring and the magic of her monster in her blood.
Ayana spoke to her just long enough to tear the last remnants of her denials to shreds. And then achingly remind her of home as familiar features twisted with familiar disdain. She had refused to aid an abomination, telling her instead to pray for a quick death.
Caroline harbored no shame for the way she fled in tears. Decades later she would feel only disgust that an adult would let prejudices blind them to the plight of a child. But she was proud of the way she rallied. How she determinedly moved from tribe to tribe across the ancient Americas, learning dozens of new languages and making both friends and enemies. Painstakingly building trust and learning of new magics all in the hopes of home.
It failed.
She spent weeks, months, filthy and near starving to travel across the sea to the Old World. To do it all again. To fail again.
It wasn't until somewhere in her fifth century that Caroline stopped trying so hard. Such an idea would have once been unfathomable, but truly all she was doing was making herself miserable. Fighting so hard to return to people whose faces grew blurrier by the decade. To people whose mental labels were "best friend," but who had been long supplanted in her mind by centuries of other companions. Some whom had long died and she had mourned. Some whom she had turned and met up with every so often. So, why look back when she could look forward?
Another five hundred years would see her "home" anyway.
Caroline witnessed the precise moment when her past self was whisked away in a storm of magical energy. She read the shock and fear on her face and felt something in her own chest twist, not quite in pain but also not quite in happiness, knowing as she did exactly what that girl's next thousand years would be like.
A thousand years, and she supposed this place still had an effect on her after all, for she didn't immediately try to take the place of her other self. Instead, she lingered in the shadows, watched with another odd pang that no one made a fuss about her disappearance.
They got a pass when she spotted Elijah in town. Though she had never personally met any of the Originals, wanting to stay well clear of their mess, she hardly lived under a rock. She knew who they were, knew their reputations. Even saw most of them from a distance once or twice.
It wasn't worth the energy to hold grudges against strangers for their prudence in priorities.
A few weeks later, Caroline found herself drinking in a bar. Not the Mystic Grill. Some other establishment she hadn't bothered to remember the name of, one on the outskirts of Mystic Falls.
The alcohol burned as it raced down her throat, her glass emptying far quicker than she would like. She frowned down at it as she traced the rim with her finger, not sure how she should feel. Elena was sacrificed. Elena was resurrected. All without Caroline needing to lift a finger. Her involvement or rather lack thereof made her feel guilty. Or perhaps her lack of guilt made her feel guilty. Should she be feeling conflicted in the first place?
She had called them strangers with familiar faces. And…and it was true. She looked at them and felt a startling lack. Only the memory of a memory of their once importance elicited any emotion for them at all. So perhaps she should treat them like strangers. Build new bonds should their paths cross, but otherwise go about her own business.
Tension she hadn't realized she had been holding left her shoulders. A weight she had long carried lifted as she, at last, truly let her past go. It only took another five hundred years…
"Caroline Forbes," an accented voice mused behind her, startling her from her thoughts.
She turned, admonishing herself for her carelessness. When her eyes fell on the person behind her, his blonde curls and deceptive dimples, a true litany of internal curses rang in her head.
Always something worse.
He likely noticed the way her eyebrow twitched a fraction, but that was all the reaction she allowed to slip.
With a polite nod she returned his greeting, "Klaus."
There was a curious expression on his face and he didn't wait for an invitation to step closer, invading her space.
"I rather delighted in Katerina's misery when she learned you had so thoroughly slipped the noose she had placed around your throat. I even had a fond thought or two for the baby vampire who managed to vex her so."
He cocked his head as he looked at her, eyes dark and assessing. Humans might have thought his demeanor casual and friendly, but the predator that lived in her veins knew better.
"Yet somehow you're not a baby vampire at all, are you, love?"
There was no point in lying. Not when he could surely feel her age as she could feel his.
"No," she said simply.
He made a soft, contemplative noise. "Katerina is not nearly foolish enough to mistake a vampire for a human. So, however has this come to be, hm?"
Caroline didn't bother to smother the light laugh that erupted from her chest. "It's a long story."
"I always have time to learn of curiosities, love." Threats, she heard unspoken. "And this is a rather unique time for curiosities. Why don't you join me for the summer?"
She knew it wasn't a suggestion. And the only thing worse than being noticed by an Original is angering one. Besides, she could use the time away from Mystic Falls, the last remnants of her attachment left at the bottom of a shot glass.
With an easy shrug she stood from the bar stool, setting a few large bills on the wood.
"Lead the way."
A smirk crawled across his face. One she didn't flinch or cower from, and only lightly tensed when he guided her out with a hand to the small of her back.
"I rather think we shall have fun, you and I, love."
When Klaus had guided Caroline from the bar she wasn't expecting to see Elijah waiting for them. His expression likely appeared blank, bored even, to the less discerning, but she could see the flickers of irritation and confusion. His eyes were narrow as he swept them over her figure, a cool assessment.
"One of yours, Niklaus?" He asked, a slight tick in his brow as he stared at his brother.
The Hybrid grinned in response. "Not quite, brother, this here is the lovely Ms. Forbes."
This time his brow fully rose as his gaze darted back to her with now noticeable shock. "The sheriff's daughter?"
Klaus' grin widened.
Caroline watched, a little intrigued, as Elijah tucked away his emotions, his features smoothing once more to something utterly placid. "Your… curiosities aside, I do believe we still have business to attend to?"
The Hybrid chuckled, clapping the other man on the shoulder as he gestured them both on. "Right you are, brother."
'Always something worse' really ought to be Caroline's catch phrase by now, depressing as that was. As the three of them approached the door to one the apartments, each of them could make out commotion beyond.
Not that Klaus seemed to care, nor his brother for that matter, both of them waltzing in without a care. Caroline didn't bother, leaning against the hallway wall, well aware the threshold would bar her entrance. She was also only half listening to the exchange going on, jolting only once she heard Elijah scream. She couldn't say she was surprised by Klaus' actions, but they chilled her all the same. Such ruthlessness had to be both applauded and feared after all.
She sighed and rested more of her weight on the wall as her ears picked up the continued discussion inside. This was going to be a long wait.
"Trouble is," she heard Klaus' voice drawl, "I don't know if you'd be any good to me. The way you are now, …you are just shy of useless. In fact, I've just recruited far more fascinating company. She's far prettier to look at too, aren't you, love?"
Caroline released another exasperated breath, knowing how to read a cue and irked by the unnecessary drama of it. All the same, she obligingly pushed off the wall to stand in the doorway. Her impassive eyes took in the shock of Stefan and Katerina. The delighted mirth of Klaus. Even poor Elijah's sprawled gray corpse.
"C-Caroline?" Stefan stuttered in confusion, a hint of panic welling underneath it.
She tilted her head, wondering at that, before realizing he feared she'd let Elena's miraculous resurrection slip. Well, they may not be friends anymore, but she wouldn't throw a child to the wolves (a tiny corner of her mind snorted) needlessly. Though none of those thoughts crossed her face, her expression as calm as when she entered.
"Stefan," she acknowledged.
He stared at her for several long moment before his shock washed away, replaced by a steely resolve. She was mildly impressed as he whirled around to face Klaus and attempted to fight for her.
"Let her go! She has nothing to do with this! Make a bargain with me."
"Quite right, she has nothing to do with this. Weren't you listening, mate? You're of no value to me. And are in no position to bargain for the likes of your brother let alone a second vampire."
"…What do you want?"
Even when the Hybrid had already swung things in his favor, he still continued with the theater of his demands. Like a cat playing with a mouse. And not even a hungry one either, he was the cat that played with his food because he could, because he was bored. Caroline could almost appreciate the, by comparison, rather blunt way he had approached her. Nothing more than the standard unspoken warnings and mind games between two ancient creatures.
Here, now, Klaus was dragging it out. He made a show of pouring himself a drink, pretending he needed time to weigh his words. As he spoke he even deigned to periodically pause and sip the alcohol, as if it were top-shelf liquor and not second rate bourbon at best.
"I heard about this one vampire, crazy bloke, always on and off the wagon for decades. When he was off, he was magnificent. 1917, he went into Monterrey and wiped out an entire migrant village…A true ripper. Sound familiar?"
His eyes darted to her as she shifted, for all that his focus had seemed to be on Stefan. Lips quirking he wondered aloud, "Something wrong, sweetheart?"
Caroline read the challenge in his eyes, the clear prod for her opinions. Wondering what type of vampire she was. Well, she would have to disappoint, having no need to indulge his curiosities.
"No," she said simply, tone unruffled. And she was sure he would have demanded more had Stefan not cut in.
"I haven't been that way in a very long time."
The newly revealed Ripper of Monterrey seemed to be saying this more to her than to Klaus, his eyes ashamed and pleading with her to believe him.
As if she cared for his kill count. No one reached the age she had without a slew of murders to their name, nor without one or two fuck ups they truly regretted.
"Now, now, don't look to her. Not only is she not the one in control of your brother's fate, but the Ripper is precisely the vampire I am willing to make a deal with."
Stefan's face hardened as he looked back at his tormentor. "How do I know you even have the cure at all?"
It seemed as if Klaus was just waiting for such a question to be asked. His production able to continue, as he proceeded to make a show of biting and then curing Katerina. And then watched with true schadenfreude as Stefan capitulated and began to all but guzzle the blood handed to him.
Bored and a tad disgusted Caroline moved away, choosing to lean against one of the walls once more. The wise choice considering it took almost twenty minutes before anything of interest happened. When Katerina blurred away, Klaus' voice was a whisper in the air, far too quite for a vampire not even two centuries old to hear.
"Pursue her, Caroline, and bring her back to me. I'm not finished with her quite yet."
Caroline stared up at the window she could just see from the front entrance, the Salvatore boarding house another half-remembered dream. It was funny, the things that lingered longest in memory. Of all the faces of her past, it had been Damon's that took the longest to blur and fade. And as the two doppelgängers and the dying had their little chat, Caroline was contemplating more important matters. Life. Death. Closure.
She hummed to herself, stepping into Katerina's path as she moved to flee. With narrowed eyes, the brunette warily regarded her, far less oblivious than Stefan.
"Caroline," she muttered, "no hard feelings." Her voice then sounded as a whisper in her ear. "I'm a survivor after all."
A crack of a snapped neck sounded through the air.
...
...
...
"No hard feelings," Caroline replied, well aware of the irony as she gazed down at the sprawled form of the other vampire. This time it was Katerina who was 500 years too young to come out on top. Caroline had not been about to allow the other woman to kill her for the second time, and for all that she did have some measure of admiration for Katerina's ability to survive, Caroline too had now survived the ages. More than that even, she conquered them.
Shifting her gaze from the temporary corpse to the boarding house, Caroline wondered.
Amusingly, Caroline tracked down her newfound companions just as Stefan was uttering, "You won't be seeing her again, you know."
Klaus' eyes met hers as soon as she came into view, his lips twitching into a slight smirk. "Ah, excellent timing, Caroline." His eyes switched targets boring into the Ripper. "You see, Stefan, I rarely get played for a fool. A little insurance policy and the dear Katerina is back in my hands."
Stunned, the Salvatore whipped around, watching with wide eyes as she let the still unconscious vampire drop to the floor.
"Consider this your final test, Ripper, before we leave this tragic little town. Prove to me you were worth my time."
Klaus had stalked up behind the other as he spoke, and Stefan tensed with every step.
"How?" He gritted out.
"Simple, mate. You're going to torture her to death."
Stefan swallowed.
"And should I decide your efforts are lacking in any way, then I will exact my price from Damon's life instead."
Defeat was painted across every line of Stefan's face.
The Caroline Stefan had known would have been horrified by the imminent torture, even if the victim was to be her once tormentor and murderess. She would have protested, spoken up, something. But this Caroline, this Caroline was a bit too darkly satisfied. How perfect it was for it to be her that delivered Katerina to her death, at Klaus' hand even. Such perfect symmetry.
Thus, Caroline only watched as the brunette was strung up with chain around her wrists, forced to bear all her weight on those limbs as her return to consciousness sent her body lightly swaying. For a young vampire, Stefan was shockingly inventive in his methods. The woman fluttered her lashes, trying to croon her way to sympathy, empathy, nostalgia from her torturer. Something still confident and sly in her face. But as her blood pooled beneath her, her voice growing weak and raspy, honest desperation flashed in her eyes as she begged for her life, body ravaged.
She died screaming.
Several hours of silent travel later, the three of them were checked into a suite style hotel room. Two beds, a pullout couch and a decent amount of living space.
While Stefan silently slunk away to shower off the crusted blood his clothes had carefully hidden, Klaus stepped up behind her where she leaned against the metal railing of the small balcony. The warmth he emanated was odd for a member of the undead, though she chalked it up to his recently unchained Wolf.
As water beat down on flesh and tile, Caroline waited for the man to speak. She twitched, his finger tracing a feather light pattern on the bare skin of her shoulder. With a light tug at a strand of her hair he murmured quietly, "I couldn't help but notice, sweetheart, the little gleam that entered your eyes when I mentioned Damon."
She supposed it shouldn't surprise her that he had noticed, though his eyes had seemed riveted on Katerina at the time. Continuing to peer into the distance, the moon still near full as it waned, she let the silence linger for a few more moments. Neither of them in any particular hurry.
"Yes," she muttered in return, her eyelids falling to half mast as she remembered. Remembered how it felt to stare down at the once elder vampire who was still weak and bundled up in bed. As much as she had wanted to believe he had no power over her, she couldn't deny how good it had felt to see him at her mercy.
It had taken him a while, but eventually he had sensed her presence and opened his eyes to peer up at her.
"Hello, Damon," she had greeted, flatly.
He had had no time to do anything more than widen his eyes at her presence before her hand had sunk through his chest, splintered ribs as her clawed fingers clenched around his heart.
"Goodbye, Damon."
And then she had yanked her hand out.
"His death wasn't yours to issue, Caroline."
At that, Caroline whirled around, unfazed by just how close the Hybrid was standing to her. All the better for him to see the ferocity burning in her eyes.
"It was, Klaus. Deals and games aside, between the two of us I had far more right to it than you did."
The two stared each other down, Caroline unyielding and Klaus intrigued. He might have started this confrontation with an admonishment, but there was no anger in his gaze.
"This was personal," he concluded, a statement not a question.
Despite the heaviness of the situation Caroline's lip slightly quirked up. It's not as if she was ashamed of her actions, nor ashamed of their cause. Not anymore. And on matters such as these she was happy to draw her lines in the sand.
"The question is still burning in the back of your mind, I can see it. How is it that I am both the sheriff's daughter born in 1992 and a vampire to rival your own age? But regardless of how, both are fact. And when Damon first came to town I was a clueless human. It made me easy pickings, as I am sure you can imagine. A constant blood supply, a convenient minion, a warm body for him to fuck, uncaring of what I had wanted. The latter is not a forgivable offence. Not to me, Klaus."
To his credit, the Hybrid seemed to be taking her seriously, nothing on his face suggesting that he was making of light of what she had revealed. Instead, he wordlessly took a step back. Her eyes slightly widened as inclined his head to her. It was neither pity nor a taunt on his face, and he did nothing more to acknowledge her newfound personal space.
The water shut off, and Klaus pivoted to walk back into the room proper, his parting words echoing in her mind.
"Yes, it was your right. Goodnight, Caroline."
"Rudy! Rudy. Come on! It's too hot to make me come looking for you. Ru-"
Alyssa snapped her mouth shut as noise became apparent from the forest. It didn't sound like Rudy, whose movements were normally smooth and would greet her with his happy barking. She tensed, squinting into the darkness and trying to make out anything suspicious.
She was seconds away from retreating into the house to grab her rifle when a disheveled blonde woman, girl really, burst through a shrub. Her eyes widened in shock as the girl stumbled, nearly falling on her face, the weak porch light now illuminating a figure far more hurt than merely disheveled as she had believed. Her clothes were torn and dirty, there were scratches and bruises and blood peppering the skin of her limbs.
The girl seemed to suddenly realize her presence, jerking her head up to stare at Alyssa, her eyes bulging with panic and a tinge of hope.
"Please! Please, help me!" The girl's eyes were wild as she whipped her head around, looking frantic, hunted. "I-I don't know if I lost him. Please, I- could I come in? Just for the night! I promise."
The girl looked like she was about to jitter right out of her skin, and Alyssa couldn't help but feel for the poor girl. Her reply was near instant.
"Yes, yes of course. Please, come in." She flung the door open, shuffled on the threshold unsure whether the girl would take comfort in her touch.
Once the younger blonde was inside, Alyssa made one last sweep of the property, what little she could see, and resolved to grab the rifle after all. When she turned to face the girl once more, plans of reassurance fell to the wayside as shock consumed her.
It was like staring at an entirely different person, the fear and panic gone in favor of confident composure. The injuries that had littered her body completely gone, though her clothes remained tattered.
"My apologies," the other blonde said softly before Alyssa knew no more.
Caroline was careful to set the unconscious woman down gently before flashing into the kitchen to knock out the second person she could hear. With both of them (relatively) painlessly out of commission it was a simple matter for her to snoop. Receipts, planner notes, email, anything that might hint at the presence of a werewolf occasionally stopping by.
It didn't take too long to find a promising lead, as Caroline dug up several receipts from Southern Comfort belonging to a Sutton, Ray. A quick check of IDs revealed the two women to be one Sutton, Alyssa and one Miller, Kiara. The next step required some use of gentle compulsion, but a few careful questions and a memory wipe later the two were fine and none the wiser. Their dog found panting on the front porch, whining to be let in.
A mere instant later Caroline, appeared a mile away beside Klaus' black Lincoln Navigator. And she didn't waste time, tossing her phone to the Hybrid, Google Maps already opened as she explained, "There's a bar called Southern Comfort on Highway 41A, about twenty miles or so north of the border in Tullahoma." As she spoke she was also carefully peeling her disheveled outfit from her body, packing it away should she need it for another ruse, and tugging on a pair of skinny jeans and a cute top.
When she glanced over at his silence she caught the interest in his gaze, appreciative of the curves she hadn't bothered to hide, though a different curiosity glimmered beneath.
"You're quite the actress, Caroline. Such effort you exert for the humans."
She scoffed, circling around to get into the passenger seat, Klaus appearing in a flicker to get the door for her. She paused beside him. "If I had left it to the two of you, we would have been down several leads and carving a very obvious bloody swath across the Eastern seaboard. You're an Original and obviously in a celebratory mood considering your recent success, I get it. No need to be quite so fragrant about it though."
Not waiting for his reply, Caroline climbed into the car, settling into her seat as Klaus zipped around to the driver's side. The vehicle came to life with a rumble of the engine, only a few seconds pause before it accelerated down the road.
Klaus' gaze shot from the rear view mirror where Stefan's brooding face was visible to hers. "You're rather ruining Stefan's purpose here, sweetheart." Matching glints appeared in their eyes, similarly amused by the macabre inside joke.
"Hm, quite."
It wasn't worth the effort to prevent her nose from slightly crinkling with distaste. Southern Comfort was very…Well, it was exactly what she expected really. She heard Klaus chuckle behind her as they walked toward the bar, no doubt having picked up on her judgmental thoughts.
"I doubt Ray will be a cooperative chap." The Hybrid sounded almost gleeful about it, and it was a struggle to resist the childish urge to roll her eyes.
"He'd be a poor werewolf if he gave up his pack so easily."
"And what will the lovely Caroline's role be today?" Is she didn't know better she would think he almost sounded concerned. It had been a while since she had last been violent, she supposed.
With a quiet hum she let a thread of power slip loose, carrying with it a net of compulsion, reassuring Klaus even as she ensnared all the humans. "I care little for unwarranted cruelty. That doesn't mean I don't accomplish what I set out to do." She peered over her shoulder, a small smirk on her lips, "I did get us here after all, didn't I?"
If there was a bit more sway in her hips as she waltzed into the bar, that was her business.
Throwing back a shot of tequila, Caroline relished the sharp burn of the potent alcohol. Her senses flared as a man leaned beside her at the bar, the wait finally bearing fruit.
"A woman that knows how drink? Nothing's sexier."
She turned sideways on her stool, giving the man a swift once over. A scruffy beard. Plaid and jeans. Very Southern Comfort. Also clearly the Wolf they were looking for.
"Hello, Ray," she drawled.
His eyes widened, flattered at first before he stiffened as Klaus appeared behind him.
"I've been looking everywhere for you." He nodded towards her. "We started in Pensacola, met a young chap there who used to work with you before you moved to Memphis. Now, he directed us to ah what were their names? Kiara and …Alice? No, Alyssa." His grin widened as Ray paled, body a coiled knot of tension and fear. "Lovely young women really, and they led me here. To you, Ray."
The Wolf was a roiling mixture of panic and fury. His eyes were streaked with Wolf gold as he snarled at Klaus, "What did you do to her?!"
Looking far too amused, the Hybrid gestured towards her. "Me? I did nothing. No, no I didn't even set eyes on them. If you want to ask after dear Alyssa you should really inquire after my lovely partner here."
The growl that emerged was more lupine than human, teeth unnaturally sharp as he bared them at her. "Vampire," he roared, "what did you do to my sister?"
Caroline calmly wiped away the spittle that had landed on her cheek, unimpressed by his display. "Fished around for some answers, but really Ray I would be far more concerned for yourself than your sister."
"She's quite right." Rage tended to make fools of people, as the Wolf appeared to have somehow forgotten Klaus at his back judging by how he stiffened at his voice. "Your type is rather hard to come by, Ray. And while she may be a vampire, I am a different kind of monster. I've got some vampire, I've got some wolf."
The poor man appeared to be shocked out of his rage and catapulted straight into utter confusion. "You..what?"
"A hybrid, Ray, I'm both. You see I want to create more of me. Now you being the first werewolf that I've come across in many a moon, pun intended, I need you to direct me to your pack. So, where can I find them Ray?"
The Wolf swallowed loudly to their keen ears, fists clenched at his sides. "I won't surrender them to the likes of you. And you can't compel me. It won't work."
Klaus' eyes flicked sideways as Stefan appeared in a flash, the Wolf now thoroughly surrounded.
"Tell you what, Ray," the young vampire started, tone filled with faux friendliness, "we're going to play a little drinking game, something I like to call truth or wolfsbane."
With perfect timing the bartender silently stepped over to place a large collection of darts beside them.
A chuckle as Klaus leaned into his personal space.
"There's no fun in compulsion, Ray, but there is in crucifixion."
In an impossibly fast blur, Caroline rushed the two of them, wolf and vampire, down the length of the bar, slamming the broken legs of a stool through the man's palms, near literally crucifying him to the wall.
There was a trace of sympathy in her eyes as she listened to his screams. "You'll want to struggle, Ray, and it will be agonizing. I assure you, should you manage to rip your hands free we'll simply string you up. Again and again."
The Wolf glared up at her without saying a word, his breathing ragged and pained. Exasperated by his stubbornness she turned away, catching Stefan's eye as he mixed wolfsbane into a drink. He looked at her like she was a stranger, no doubt recalling their confrontation a month or so back. It had been sweet of him to pull her aside, to offer to take the punishment so that she could flee from Klaus. However, she had had no interest in being anywhere else.
"Your intent to rescue me is admirable though unnecessary, Stefan. I'm not the young, girly Caroline you remember anymore." He had likely thought her compelled then, but now she could see the words were sinking in.
He too looked away, letting the first of many darts fly.
More tortured bellows sounded as Caroline settled beside Klaus at the bar once more. He looked at her, the near constant curious gleam still present as he extended his hand in invitation. She quirked a brow a bit surprised by his dismissal of the show occurring behind them, one that he had finished endorsing so gleefully. Though she didn't refuse him, wondering what he was after now.
His touch was uncharacteristically gentle as he cradled her hand, tracing the deceptively soft skin of her fingers, her vampiric nature erasing any hint of hardship. "You neither revile nor relish in torture. You commit murder as unflinchingly as the rest of us, yet compassion still stays your hand. So, I can't help but wonder what is it about Stefan that makes that little glint of disdain appear in your eyes when you look at him." Yet not when you look at me, she heard unasked.
Tugging her hand free, Caroline impassively observed Stefan's progress. Ray's body was already littered with a small collection of darts and wounds, the young vampire seemingly deciding at random when to yank one free and when to simply hurl another one.
"Stefan's ability to be such an inventive torturer is useful. And his skill at it may have come as a surprise to me, but it would be rather hypocritical to be disgusted by it. No, it's his feeding habits. Past half-way to his second century, and he's barely better than a newborn. It's a disgrace."
"I've quite enjoyed his savagery in the past, sweetheart. Too few vampires revel in their true natures."
Caroline glanced back at him sharply, feeling an odd pang of disappointment at his opinions. "First of all it's not his savagery I take issue with, it's his control. I may not care much for the most malicious of our kind, but at least it's a choice on their parts, albeit a poor one. Stefan rebels against himself so fervently that it rebounds, that's not reveling in his nature it's being a slave to it." She quieted a bit, the harsher lines of her face smoothing out as she searched his, wondering what he was thinking of her now. Wondering what she thought of him. "And secondly…secondly it's not a vampire's nature to be monstrous. Our nature makes us predators. Everything beyond that are deliberate decisions. Or it should be."
Klaus slipped at the drink he had called over earlier, watched as the blonde predator stalked away. Such passion lied within his golden fascination.
His tongue darted out, swiping at the lingering taste of alcohol on his lips. He still wondered at the conundrum her existence posed, his mind occasionally pondering whether something as extraordinary as time travel might be possible. But that wasn't his main fixation anymore. He was far more intrigued by how a thousand years forged the woman he saw before him.
Stefan's spine stiffened as she stepped up behind him. She refrained from reacting, nudging him aside.
Ray looked pitiful. Palms ravaged and sluggishly leaking trails of blood. Every few inches of him was marked by a dart or the damaged flesh of one pulled free. She reached out to cup his chin, lifting his slumped head so she could look him in the eye.
"Your loyalty is admirable, Ray, but everyone has a breaking point. We'll find yours. You'll tell us where your pack is. Save yourself the trouble and give in now."
He weakly sneered through bloody teeth. "Go fuck yourself."
Caroline just tsk-ed. "Have it your way." Her form flickered as she rushed to grab something and then returned. Holding up the blade for his perusal, she spoke casually. "See this, Ray? This is a magically reinforced silver blade. 100% pure. Now, unlike what the common mythos presents, werewolves heal from silver. It would be like torturing a vampire, their recovery speeds allowing for methods beyond the limits of mere humans. Shall we have an anatomy lesson, Ray? How many organs could we count if I cut you right here?" She tapped the base of his sternum with the flat of the blade, a deft twist allowing its edge to slice through his shirt and skin. They watched together as the wound healed in seconds.
Ray looked into her dark, fathomless eyes, daring him to test her resolve.
He broke.
After some grouching and snark on Stefan's part the three of them arrived just beyond the perimeter of the werewolf camp, Ray's temporarily dead body slung across Stefan's shoulders.
"Ah, there they are. As promised."
A few turned in their direction at Klaus' voice, the rest gasped and stared as Stefan dropped Ray's body. One of the women ran to kneel by his side, her voice distraught. "Ray! Oh, my God. What's going on?" She looked up, a slight growl underlying her tone. "Who are you?"
A master of dramatics, Klaus took the cue to step forward, a wicked kind of mirth on his face. "The important question is who am I. Please forgive the intrusion. My name is Klaus."
The woman continued to look confused and agitated. "Is that supposed to mean something to me?"
He chuckled. "It will."
"You bastard!" Someone else shouted out, a younger man, teenager really, lunged out of the crowd toward Klaus.
It was effortless for the Hybrid to dodge, grinding the boy into the dirt under his heel. "None of that now. I have big plans for you all, can't have you recklessly throwing your lives away." Just to drive his point home, Klaus stepped on the poor boy to return to his original spot, continuing to speak as if nothing had occurred. "It's fascinating, actually…A werewolf who isn't beholden to the moon, a vampire who doesn't burn in the sun. A true hybrid."
Caroline shook her head, apparently Klaus' dramatics were enough to affect the rest of the world too, as Ray awoke at just that moment with a choked gasp.
"Excellent timing, Ray. Very dramatic." He couldn't have made it more obvious how much he was enjoying himself.
"What's happening to me?" In direct contrast the werewolf couldn't sound much more dazed and overwhelmed.
"Caroline, love?"
She pushed off from the tree she had been leaning on in the background, speeding forward to appear in front of the blond man half trying to disappear behind the she-wolf from earlier.
"No!" She screamed, racing forward to hurl Caroline from him, a foot away when Klaus intercepted her in the blink of an eye. Not that she would have succeeded, but Caroline appreciated the time to try the calm the poor guy. It seemed Klaus was learning.
"Hey, hey take a deep breath." His heartbeat was frantic, his scent so obviously, deliciously human. "We're not going to let Ray kill you or anything, he just needs a little bit of blood to complete his transition. Only a sip I promise." She leaned down to grab a discarded bottle and held it out to him. "He won't even have to bite you, okay?"
The man stared into her blue eyes, no compulsion, just the picture of a sweet, gentle young woman. His hyperventilating slowed. "Okay…okay."
Caroline smiled as the man took his own pocketknife, carefully cutting a shallow gash on the back of his forearm.
"Thank you," She said, turning to crouch beside Ray and offering him the bottle. "If you don't drink, you'll die."
He eyed her warily, but eventually swiped the bottle from her hand, downing it in silence.
"-rather die than be a vampire!"
Caroline sighed. Wrong choice.
"Wrong choice." A crunch of broken flesh reached her ears along with frantic struggles as Klaus forced his bloody wrist into the she-wolf's mouth. "She'll thank me for that later. Heh." With no further fanfare, the woman slumped to the ground with a broken neck. "Okay, who's next?"
Several tried to flee with no success. Three vampires (well two and the Original Hybrid) were more than enough to catch them all. Klaus also stopped playing around quite so much, methodically giving blood and snapping necks. It only took minutes for the rest of the pack to fall.
Then it turned into another waiting game, the anticipation only broken by Ray's hoarse whisper.
"They're dead. They're all dead."
Caroline frowned. She tuned out Klaus' reassurances and eyed Ray, noted how he was clenching his own arms tight around his body, trembling. He should be feeling energized after transitioning, not like he was going through severe withdrawal. She sat beside him, brushing sweat soaked curls from the man's forehead, ignoring Klaus and Stefan's descent into bickering.
Her frown deepened as blood started seeping from his eyes. "Klaus," she said sharply, his body appearing on Ray's other side. "Something's wrong."
"That shouldn't be happening, should it?" Stefan asked, sounding a bit snide.
"Be silent, Stefan." "Well, obviously." They said together, their tones equally annoyed.
All the while, Ray continued to shake between the two of them, looking worse by the second. "You said it was gonna feel better. Why doesn't it feel better?"
Before Caroline could offer any of her own reassurances the she-wolf gasped awake behind her with unnatural quickness. She had only been down for ten or fifteen minutes or so. Far too short for any turning Caroline had ever witnessed. Still, she wiped the turmoil from her face and smiled over at the human.
"Come on, Derek, let's help your girlfriend."
Always something worse proved true again, as Caroline whipped around at the sound of a commotion. Watched as Ray vanished into the words, body jerking between uncoordinated scrambling and lightning fast speed. Speed to match a vampire a century old at least.
Klaus snarled. "Retrieve him, Stefan. Now!"
Taking a moment to guide Derek to a safer distance from the newly woken she-wolf, Caroline made her way over to Klaus. He too looked like he was about to vibrate out his skin, though it would be with fury not with whatever had overcome Ray.
She didn't say anything, didn't offer comforting touches as she might have with her friends. Klaus was far more likely to reject them than not, but she did offer her presence. Caroline took no joy from most people's suffering. Not that of werewolves who had done nothing to her. Not even that of a supernatural scourge like Klaus.
However, there ended up being no time for the Hybrid to calm. Around them the other wolves also jolted back to life…in a manner of speaking. Each of them already bleeding from their eyes. Klaus glanced around a grim look on his face and a curse on his tongue.
Caroline considered attempting to use Derek's blood, but the thought quickly vanished as one of the wolves lunged for them. It set off a chain reaction as more wolves leapt to attack while a few others simply keeled over. The first few Caroline only snapped their necks, partly out of regard for Klaus' plans partly out of hope Ray was a fluke. That ceased when Klaus himself started yanking out hearts.
Between the two of them it was short work putting them all down. She was more concerned for Klaus who looked enraged, but also a little bit anguished.
"I did everything I was told." There was a danger in his stillness, the quiet menace of his tone. His eyes flashed gold as he stared at her, as if she had the answers. "I should be able to turn them. I broke the curse. I killed a werewolf. I killed a vampire. I killed the doppelgänger."
Her face remained blank even as her mind raced. Perhaps she did have the answers. True, she had had no intention of condemning Elena with word of her resurrection, but now it looked like it would be one life against many. Besides, she also had her suspicions that it wasn't her death that was needed here.
Fury was boiling inside of him. His temper only contained by centuries of practice and a smidge of genuine regard. He had noticed how Caroline hadn't killed until he had. She may not be loyal, but she at least had respect for what he wanted. She didn't deserve his wrath.
His rage simmered a little lower still as he watched with mild surprise as the blonde stepped a few feet closer to him. Not close enough to be in immediate range, but even so. Brave of her.
And then she spoke.
"The doppelgänger isn't dead."
He froze. An instant later he had her pinned against a tree, his forearm across her throat. "What did you just say?"
"There's a spell that allows life force to be sacrificed to another. I assume Bonnie found it and used it to resurrect Elena. I saw her briefly before we left town." To her credit, the blonde remained calm, had neither fought nor flinched when he lunged for her.
He wasn't in the mood for commending people.
"And you said nothing to me. Now, why is that, lovely?"
Her lips pursed, apparently displeased with him. Unfortunate. "I hadn't thought it mattered. You successfully broke your curse, I figured Elena deserved some peace."
"Except it rather appears I haven't. Broken my curse, that is."
Despite his tone, she actually bloody reached for him, her hand gentle on his arm, not yet fighting him. "I recognize the determination in your eyes, Klaus. You won't stop until you can turn the wolves. And if I have to I will pin Elena down myself, one life in exchange for many. But consider that it may not be her life that's interfering. The wolves all bled from their eyes, as if their bodies were rejecting it. Perhaps, it's not human blood that they require to turn?"
He hated to admit it, but her reasoning was sound. He'd certainly have to experiment before ending the bloody Petrova line for good. Eyes absorbing the expression in hers, he looked for any trace of deceit. After another moment he stepped back, releasing his clever vampire companion.
"Apologies, Caroline. No hard feelings?" He offered a sheepish smile in the face of her empty expression.
A tiny smirk was his only warning before he found himself staring up at the sky, his breath knocked out of him. She leaned over him.
"Now, we're even." Her smirk faded into something more serious. "Don't manhandle me again, Klaus. I won't let you off so easily if you try it a second time."
He blinked up at her, a little angry, a little shocked, and a little impressed. Slowly, he rose to his feet, still staring at her.
"…Alright, I suppose that's fair."
"More than."
It was at that moment that Stefan emerged from the forest, Ray's actual corpse this time, once more slung over his shoulder. As the Ripper approached, Klaus contemplated his two companions, the stark differences between them.
He blurred forward, ensnaring the last remaining Salvatore brother in his compulsion. His hand rose to smooth back a wild curl that had escaped the vampire's normally flawless styling job. And he let his knuckle linger on skin.
"Tell me, Stefan," he purred, "were you ever going to give me your loyalty?"
His panic was obvious in his scent even as his features remained slack under his thrall.
"No."
"Hm, and what about the doppelgänger?"
"I am doing all that I can to protect her. She will always have my loyalty."
It pained him a little to have to relinquish a connection he had once found joy in. But Stefan had just become a loose end. A vampire unwilling to be loyal, and that was even without knowing of his brother's death.
"I'm afraid this is the end of the road for you, old friend."
He broke his compulsion, Stefan's eyes blowing wide. "Klaus wai-"
His heart hit the floor first. Then, his body.
Klaus stared down in silence as he took a moment to say his silent goodbyes to his friend's corpse. And then he was turning, walking smoothly over to his more trustworthy friend. He pressed a hand to her back, a mirror of an action he took not long ago, though the sentiment had entirely changed.
"Come along, Caroline. It seems you're the only companion I have left."