Fate

Chapter Two - Bombs Away

Caroline Forbes was always known for being the sentimental type growing up. Her room filled with trophies, ribbons, pictures, and other mementoes from the life she'd lived with her friends and family. As time went by, those memories and keepsakes became more treasure than she'd ever thought. Then again she also didn't think her best friend would be in a magical coma or that she herself would be a vampire when she was a child - a princess perhaps, but definitely not a vampire.

When Caroline moved to Tel Aviv and took over the supernatural faction as ruler 5 years after arriving, the need for relics of her past became irrelevant. So what was brought with her that could connect anyone to her home was packaged away never to be seen again. Every so often though, she would travel to the single storage unit held just beyond city borders to take a peak at what remained of her human life.

After ending the phone call with Tyler, a trip down memory lane seemed the most logical thing to do. Which is where Caroline sits now, on her bed with a single cardboard box in front of her - the lid begging to be lifted off. With a heavy sigh she opens the box finding the trophies she'd kept over the years. In particular there's a wooden box that belonged to her mother that she pulls from the dust of the random things in the box.

Opening that box is like a blast from the past, and the woman she sees in the pictures inside looks nothing like the one in the mirror today. Two decades changes a lot for a vampire, especially one who's been through as much as Caroline Forbes. Carefully, she sifts through the wooden box. Pulling out stacks of pictures, letters, and even jewelry. A soft smile graces her lips as she lifts up the first daylight ring she'd ever had from the box; recalling the memory of when Bonnie had first done that spell. She looks down with her blue/green eyes at the new ring that consisted of a simple braided band and the lone blue stone in the center that she'd obtained a decade ago.

Setting the ring aside, Caroline lifts the stack of letters up, peering at the sender and the unopened seals on each one. Every year on her birthday she'd received these letters and had never had the courage to open them. If she did it would be like admitting the words written mattered, and they couldn't matter; not when she'd left that life behind for the one she has now. With a sigh, she lifts up the oldest one of the stack, the edges slightly rumpled and the whiteness of the envelope faded from almost 15 years of sitting. "What the heck, might as well open one." Caroline states as she delicately tears the seal and pulls out the neatly written letter.

Dearest Caroline,

I imagined what you could be doing as I write this letter; wondering what part of the world you've traveled to, or which language you've decided to tackle next. A world full of art, music, culture, and genuine beauty. Though I do not know where you have travelled to or even if you will ever read this letter, I hope someday you will give me the opportunity to share the genuine beauty of this world with you.

However long it takes…

Happy Birthday Caroline

Klaus

She sighs deeply as her fingers graze over the delicately written words. The impressions of the pen he'd used still present after almost two decades. Part of her wanted to rip open the rest of the letters and indulge in every sweet phrased word he'd written just for her over the years. Yet the other side of her said it was for the best these letters stay unopened, and her feelings buried with them.

Caroline's train of thought is disrupted as a deep rumbling echoes through the room. The bed and everything in the room shakes as several loud booms occur followed by bright flashes of light. Blinding her to everything in the world. Then it all goes dark.

Her blue eyes open wide as she sits up, knocking the debris off of her body. Small flames encase areas of her large room, and cuts with some dried blood cover what skin is visible on her. The shirt she is wearing is ripped in several places and the distant ringing can be heard in her ears. Shutting her eyes tightly, Caroline waits for the ringing to pass and everything comes into focus.

As the room comes into alignment again, the blonde vampire pushes herself to her feet slowly. The sound of screams and soft pleas for help can be heard all around. Anger sweeps through her like she hadn't felt in a long time. Someone had attacked her home, her people, and many were likely dead from the blasts. Caroline quickly flashes out of her room grabbing a few people along the way and helping them escape the quickly crumbling building.

Turning back she looks at the smoke pouring out of the windows and the increasingly loud cries from the creatures left inside. "Ethan!" She calls out searching the crowd for her friend and finding no sign of the vampire. "Dammit," and before anyone could stop the queen of the city she's running back into the building in search of her friend and anyone else she could save.

The inside of the once beautiful estate is in ruins. Several explosions had went off one after the other causing as much damage and destruction as possible in a short period of time. There were flames blocking many of the pathways to certain parts of the building, and other places were cut off by fallen debris. One thing for sure was that the castle wouldn't last much longer, and she had to get as many people out as possible.

Her head turns quickly to the left as coughing is heard nearby, and Caroline flashes over to the source of the sound. There she finds a young redhead struggling to find her way out of a cage of rubble. "Hang on! I'm going to get you out, just don't move." The blonde steps back as far as she can away from the wall of ruins in her way and she charges at it with all her strength. The wall crumbles with ease and Caroline comes face to face with the redhead she'd only caught glimpses of moments before.

The young woman's brown eyes are wide as her chest heaves from the thick smoke in the area, "get of out here." Caroline pushes the girl in the direction of the exit and continues on with her search for Ethan. Not much further from where she found the girl, the brunette vampire that'd come to be Caroline's closest friend lies under a large pile of fallen remains. In an instant the blonde is standing over him examining the damage done and if she can get him out without causing anymore pain.

Several pieces of metal from a wall that'd collapsed are sticking through his abdomen and legs, and shards of wood can be seen throughout the visible portions of his body. "Alright Ethan, you're gonna be just fine. This is going to hurt - probably a lot, but it's going to be ok because we're survivors. We always have been," Caroline talks as the barely conscious vampire beneath her remains quiet. After several long moments of quiet and Caroline making efforts to free him from the pins holding him down, Ethan's eyes open wide to see the blonde standing over him.

"Care…"

"Shhh," she almost whispers looking down at her only friend she's made here in over a decade. "I'm going to get you out of this. Don't worry."

"No Cara you have to go, you have to leave now." Ethan's frantic yet weak voice surprises the blonde as she pauses to look into his green eyes with confusion. "Don't worry about me I've lived long enough, but you need to get out of here."

Shaking her head she tries to get her friend to focus, "Ethan you're not making any sense. You're going to live, we're all going to be just fi-ah!" She grips her head as the attack of a witch is felt coming from behind her. The sharp sensations of pain assaulting her head as she looks around for her attacker.

All of a sudden the small space is filled with several witches and vampires alike. None of them appearing familiar to the community of Tel Aviv that Caroline has known for over a decade. As the witches chant, Ethans neck is snapped and the blonde vampire struggles to stop the one moving towards him with a stake in hand. "NO!" She cries out as the stake is plunged into Ethan's chest and his body begins to grey.

Caroline tries to use her strength to stand to her feet, to do anything to fight back against the traitors amongst her. She finds that her knees are glued to the ground and moving is a hopeless thought. "This is just the beginning Caroline," a voice resounds through the room seeming to have come from thin air as no one in the room opened their mouths. A vampire flashes in front of Caroline and her eyes go wide as he plunges a hand into her chest, squeezing her heart in his hand, and his eyes show delight at the pain read on her face. A single tear escapes her bright eyes as the man retracts his hand and rips her heart from her chest in a clean sweep.

Just like that Caroline Forbes falls beside her friend, her eyes wide open as the grey veins sweep up her body and infinite darkness consumes her.

Hope Mikaelson gasps awake in the dark of the night, the visions from her nightmare haunting her every time she blinks. Quickly she pulls out the sketchbook from her bedside table and frantically puts the pen to paper drawing out the blonde woman she'd just seen. The detail of her eyes, the waves in her hair, even the slight dimple on her cheek as she grimaced in pain.

A shudder runs through her body as she recalls the violent death that just occurred in her dream. "She's dead…" her voice trails off as the young witch attempts to grasp onto why the visions wouldn't have warned Hope of the mystery woman's death. Maybe she could have saved her, or perhaps this was a mere warning of what's to come.

Looking down at her notepad she'd drawn in perfect detail the face of the woman as her heart was being ripped from her chest. Hope quickly jots down random words on the page beside the image. 'Who is she? Why did someone/something want her dead? Where did she die? Something's coming.' All phrases that confused her to no end and the youngest Mikaelson knew she would get no sleep that night.

The only thing she could do is lay awake pondering the infinite answers to her questions, and replaying the dreams of the mystery blonde over and over until dawn broke through the curtains.

Ingrid coughs as she looks around at the chaos; examining the damage around her as flames encase a majority of the building - what was left of it at least. Her eyes immediately dart to the room on her right where the dead body of Caroline Forbes lay, covered in grey veins, her blue eyes wide open and unseeing.

The feeling the redhead experiences is indescribable and perplexing. It's almost as if a rope tethered her to the deceased blonde several yards away; pulling her closer and closer until her brown eyes looked down at the greyed woman with a gaping hole in her chest. Ingrid's chest heaves as she tries to control her racing heart whilst kneeling down to examine the strangely calm face of the blonde. A strength emerging out of nowhere compels her to lift the dead body into her arms, and at a speed she'd never run before the pair flee the burning building.

Surveying the area as Ingrid burst through the smoke covered exit, she finds bodies everywhere, and no emergency responders. Just a freshly bombed estate, dead people similar looking to Caroline, and a lot of living injured. Something inside of her says 'don't stay here,' she Ingrid listens to that voice. Running is all she knows for the next half hour, and to keep moving. Someone had come after the people in that place, specifically targeting the dead blonde on her shoulders.

A loud crash resounds out in the distance as the pair reach a field just outside the city, a place where she wouldn't be found or disturbed. Ingrid turns around to watch as the tall building in the distance crumbles to dirt and ash, and the cries of shock from the locals can be heard for miles.

Setting the body down on the ground, Ingrid feels the adrenaline that was coursing through her die down. The capacity of her wounds finally hitting her as she looks down at the small cuts, scrapes, and burns on her exposed skin. Her eyelids growing heavier by the second, the redhead lies down and lets the exhaustion encase her in an unending cocoon.

Hours pass by, and to Ingrid they feel like days as she opens her groggy eyes to see the sun setting in the distance. Colorful hues taking over the sky as she looks over to the body beside her. Still curious as to why she even grabbed the dead body of a stranger who she'd only met once. Her brows crinkles together as she watches the grey veins that had stretched across the blondes body, recede.

If Caroline could describe death it would be given the trait of never-ending darkness, and a cold like she hadn't experienced. This was different compared to when she'd have her neck snapped, or when she first died in the hospital all those years ago. Here she heard voices that were mumbled, jumbled, and lost in translation. It was as if someone was delivering several different messages all at once and she couldn't focus in on just one thing. So in short terms, death sucked.

In the dark as the voices grew louder and louder, Caroline thought of the last thing she'd been doing before her death. Reading letters from Klaus Mikaelson, 'great that's my last act on this earth! Minus saving people of course, but I really had to have been reading letters from him and exploring my feelings just before death?' She thinks to herself whilst spinning around to look for any source of light in the sea of black.

Finding none, she lets out a huff and shakes her head in anger, confusion, and worry. Why did some witches want her heart? Why was she even wanted dead? Caroline guesses the last decade she'd been walking the earth was the answer to why people wanted her dead. A baby vampire no more than 38 years old, and she'd only been a vampire for 21 years. She wasn't even half as strong as the other vampires that walked the streets of her city, and somehow she'd won them all over.

Suddenly in that unending abyss of dark a bright light bursts through, and the voices fade to a softer level as if they were further off in the distance. Out of instinct she moves toward the light bringing her arms up to cover her eyes from the brightness. It was as if walking into the sun itself, the blinding white light became all that she could see as she went further in. Then it seemed to balance out and she blinked, seeing a colorful sky above her, feeling grass below her, hearing the sound of life around her.

"Oh my God," a voice exclaims as Caroline slowly sits up grunting in pain slightly. "You were dead, I...how is this even possible?" The girl screams as she jumps to her feet and backs away from the blonde.

Caroline recognized her as the redhead she'd saved just before going to find Ethan. 'Ethan…' she bites her lower lip attempting to appear strong in front of the strange girl, but her mind won't stop playing the last moments she had with her dearest friend. "You're not familiar with the supernatural are you?"

"Uh...like the things that go bump in the night?" Ingrid questions looking at the blonde woman rising to her feet. She was beautiful even after just rising from the dead. Her blonde hair, though it has dried blood in it, fell in smooth curls to her chest, bright blue eyes with long curled lashes observed the world around her, and though her face read of innocence and youth those same blue eyes told a different story.

The woman scoffs shaking her head, "how did you even end up at the estate? If you don't know about the supernatural then you certainly had to have had help finding this place," Caroline gestures the area around her before looking back at the redhead expecting answers.

"My name is Ingrid Valdez," she says looking at the confident woman before her that practically screamed royalty. "I'm from London, and I am 20 years old - almost 21 technically...but you don't care about that." Ingrid looks down at her feet feeling strangely intimidated by the woman, but knowing she hadn't felt this insecure in a long time.

What shocks Ingrid more, she can't tell. The blonde immediately sticks out her hand for her to shake in a greeting. She wears a bright smile showing off her white teeth and a slight dimple on her cheek. "Well Ingrid it was a pleasure to meet you, I'm Caroline. Thank you for getting me out of that building, but I'm afraid now you're going to have to forget all this ever happened." Caroline steps up close to her looking into the girls light brown eyes, "you're going to leave the city, forget about whatever you came searching for here. Forget my face, my name, every detail about your trip here. It was merely passing through," as Caroline backs away after compelling Ingrid she looks at her strangely.

"What makes you think I'm gonna do that?"

"You've got to be kidding me," Caroline exclaims as she throws her hands up and looks to sky wondering why she was cursed to have such a bad day. "I guess that means you're stuck with me now Ingrid." The vampire immediately grasps onto her arm and drags the human across the field heading further away from the city.

"No no no, where the hell are you taking me? You can't just say crap like 'you will forget me and this trip,' and then expect me to willingly follow you to wherever it is that you're going." Ingrid digs her heels into the ground attempting to stop Caroline from taking her any further, but her attempts are futile as the blonde is a lot stronger than she anticipated. Granted she did just wake from the dead.

Caroline swirls around to face her as they stand inches apart. "No you don't get to ask questions. You were in my home when we were all attacked. Some good people died back there, and I don't know who you are or why you're here. So let's get one thing straight, you're not leaving my side until we are halfway across the world where those psycho's can't find us again."

"Someone's grumpy," Ingrid states as she smirks but eventually gives into the guiding hand of the blonde. A long silence passes as Caroline leads them through the extensive field towards the more populated part of the city, where the airport sits ready for them to leave. "Did those people come there to attack you?"

Her voice comes out small, much more timid than she would have liked. After all these years apart from the people she'd grown up with Caroline should be stronger than this, but she isn't. "I think so...let's find some clothes to change into. I doubt we'd make it past security dressed like this, even if I did compel the security."

"Compel?"

Caroline sighs and pauses for a minute, "yeah it's a power that vampires have. They can use compulsion as a sort of mind control trick, make people forget things, suppress fears. It's a powerful tool when used properly."

"Vampires," Ingrid looks at her companion with wide eyes realizing that's exactly what she'd tried to do earlier.

"Yes I'm a vampire and please don't scream because trust me I could've killed you by now. But I haven't because I'm a decent person," Caroline looks at the frightened young girl before her. She looks so much like Caroline did decades ago when she was just entering into the world of supernaturals. And now Ingrid is diving headfirst into all of this without anyone close to her to help. "Look I'll explain everything that I know on the plane ride, but right now can you please just trust me."

The blonde known as Caroline extends her hand out towards Ingrid, asking her to trust. That was a very bold word for someone who she'd just met hours ago, and yet she found it so easy to take her hand. "Alright, but promise me no one else dies."

"I can never promise that in this world."

The flight lasted for about 20 hours with one stop along the way, and that gave Ingrid plenty of opportunities to ask questions. It also gave Caroline the chance to unload any vital information the redhead needed to know about the supernatural world. By the time they'd landed Ingrid's head was about to explode from everything she'd learned, and somehow apparently there was still more.

"Where are we," she questions as the pair step out of the airport in the United States. "Better yet where are we going," she watches as a taxi pulls up and they step into the car.

"Mystic Falls please," Caroline states to the driver and looks back at Ingrid who raises an eyebrow in curiosity. "We're going to my home."

CHAPTER TWO IS HERE! I hope you guys are all enjoying the direction this story is taking, and I promise we will get some more information on what's been going on with the whole Mystic Falls gang soon. In the next few chapters we'll have a wedding to attend in NOLA, be prepared for a Mystic Falls Gang + Originals reunion. This is a KLAROLINE fanfic and it will most likely be somewhat of a slow burn. After all it has been literally two decades in my story since the pair have seen each other...that being said I hope I do these characters justice as well as write a good story of love, family, adventure, etc. etc.

As usual I don't own TVD OR TO I wish I did but unfortunately I haven't had the privilege of seeing Joseph Morgan shirtless in person...

Always and Forever...and until next time.