Originally Published: August 28th, 2014

Villagers III

As requested by seriouslymilady. shesfulloflight, and kataccolaforever here is a third installment of the villager drabbles. It has been a long while, but here it is. If you haven't read either part one or two it may be a tad hard to follow. I hope you all enjoy this drabble. For those who read the Vampire Diaries as novels, I hope you like the reference I put in here.

A thousand years. A thousands years feeling empty. Alone. Incomplete. A thousand years without Caroline.

He'd fought and killed. He'd grown angry and fallen into despair. There was not a corner of the Earth that he had left unturned, but Caroline was nowhere to be found.

If he'd been in touch with his werewolf side finding her would have been a natural instinct, but since his mother's cure Klaus suffered nearly all the drawbacks of his werewolf heritage without any of the power.

His need for his mate drove him near mad. After the first century he grew used to the ache and instead of the increasing agony there was just a dull need.

That was nearly worse. At least when he lost nearly every inch of his own mind he knew Caroline was out there–that she even existed to begin with. Without the pain it was like she was simply a dream that was never meant to be.

Little did Klaus know that Caroline was right under his nose. After one hundred years as a vampire Caroline heard rumors of the original who was losing his mind, and from the knowledge she'd gathered on the werewolf species, she knew it was her fault. When he had turned her against her will she couldn't take it. After several months with her emotions heightened she understood his impulsivity, and would have been willing to forgive him had it not been for the horrors she was greeted with when she came home.

Her entire village. Her family. Dead.

Their bodies were long left cold, their blood drained. Caroline searched through the wreckage that had once been her childhood home until she found a blonde woman who had given her her eyes. She was sure her sobbing could've been heard in the heavens above. Klaus and his kind had killed the only person who ever truly loved her.

For decades she hid from him. Wandered the Earth searching for answers; for purpose. She made powerful allies and saw great beauty. Eventually her initial anger dissipated, and when she heard of the state Klaus was in she knew that their distance was slowly killing him.

Unready to be with him in the same way she had when she was human, she came up with a compromise. Using multiple glamour spells provided to her by the witches she'd befriended in her immortal life, Caroline spent her days right under Klaus's nose. Allowing him to keep his sanity without keeping her.

Some years she was a servant, others just a member of the village he was staying in. The longer she watched him the less she saw of the Nik she once loved. This was Klaus, a monster, a killer.

There had only been one time when she interfered with his life. Five hundred years ago when Katerina was trying to escape. Not only had the girl been innocent, but had Klaus succeeded he'd be able to easier hunt her down and she would no longer be able to live the life she'd become accustomed to.

Caroline had skewed the trail. Masking Katherine's sent so that the then human girl had a chance.

Seventeen years ago, Caroline learned of a new doppelgänger. She left New York, which was Niklaus's place of residence at the time, and moved to Mystic Falls. This new Petrova would need better protection than the last.

Through the years Caroline watched Elena grow. At first she was the red headed babysitter who let the three year old child have a cookie before dinner. Then she was the hippy band chick that tried to teach an uninterested 8 year old how to play guitar. Over the years she was Elena's ballet teacher, tutor, babysitter, school teacher, and eventually friend.

When the Salvatores came to town things took a turn for the worse, but still Caroline did the best she could to play docile. She stayed low and saved Elena when she could and killed those who targeted her on a daily basis.

The Salvatore brothers knew nothing of the doppelgänger's importance to Klaus. Men and women of all species were after her trying to capture her so that she could be used as the ultimate ingredient to break a pointless curse.

No man, especially one as far gone as Klaus, should have all that power. Caroline had spent seventeen years delaying the inevitable, and when Klaus finally graced Mystic Falls with his presence all Hell broke loose.

Elijah was trying to kill Niklaus, people were lost, and Elena's aunt Jenna was turned. To top it all off the morning before Elena was to be sacrificed, Damon Salvatore pushed his blood down her throat.

Forced to become a vampire Elena wept.

Years ago Caroline had suffered a similar fate and that was the last thing she'd ever want to see anyone else go though–especially not a girl whom she'd practically raised. A child to her like the one she could never have–a dream that died when Klaus snapped her neck.

Years of avoidance and hiding must come to an end; Caroline knew what she had to do. There was no way Klaus would ever postpone the ritual, at least not without good reason.

When he came to take Elena, Caroline followed him. A pain ran through her heart when she saw where he planned on sacrificing three people for his own good–a clearing that had once been a meadow, their meadow. The place where she fell in love with him, the place where she first laid with him, was now marred by selfishness. It all seemed oddly fitting that Caroline should return to him in the same place she'd left him.

From her hiding spot within the trees Caroline watched as Klaus killed Jules. That werewolf had tried numerous times to harm Elena, and needed to be dealt with. After Jules heart was removed from her chest, Caroline began to step forward, when a particular Salvatore brother stopped her in her tracks. Stefan.

He was good-hearted and blinded by love, willing to trade his life for Jenna's in order to keep Elena's life intact. Little did he know of the importance he held to Niklaus, Caroline had been in the club during the 20's when the two first hit it off. There was no way in Hell that Klaus would allow Stefan to die by his own hand just yet.

Knowing there was no other option Caroline stepped forward.

For years she'd borrowed the faces of others and just as she was about to tear off her medallion and reveal herself, she heard Elena cry out her name: "Meredith."

So many lies had come from Caroline that she knew her betrayal would sting, but it was the only way to save Elena's life. In a second Klaus was in front of her ready to snap her neck, yet again.

"Hello, Niklaus." Caroline said, echoing the tone he'd used when they first met.

That seemed to throw him for a second, "Who are you?" he asked. Focusing on her unfamiliar face he tried to place the feeling of belonging he saw when he looked at her.

The creature in front of him was rather odd. Klaus had become accustomed to people cowering in fear at the sight of him, yet he just seemed to make this Meredith sad.

Tearing the chain that had been around her neck from a thousand years Caroline closed her eyes as she heard the gasps from around the field.

"Caroline." Klaus whispered, drinking in every detail of her face for the first time in a thousand years.

"I see you've been busy." she said as she circled around him, gesturing to the fiery circled that scarred the land they ounce loved.

"None of this would've happened, love, had you not left me." Klaus's tone was cold, he trying to distance himself from the pain Caroline had caused him

Letting out a sigh Caroline did a quick prayer that everything would turn out as plan, for now that he'd seen her, Klaus would never let her go.

"I need you to stop the sacrifice." Her voice was strong, but her heart was weak. Klaus gave her a calculating look.

"And what would you give me in return, sweetheart." he asked, and Caroline smirked, knowing she had him exactly where she needed him.

As desperate as he was to become a hybrid, he'd always put Caroline first.

"Me," stepping forwards so she was right in front of him she continued, "I will never leave you again, I'll give you a second chance to show me that the man I love is still here."

Klaus looked away, "He died the moment you left me."

"If you won't do it for me, do it for yourself. If I die you'll lose what's left of your mind. You know the consequences of losing a mate all too well."

"You wouldn't–" Klaus began in his usual threatening tone,

"Only the weak fear death, Niklaus. If you do not give Elena a chance to live a human life, if you take that choice away from her as you did me, I will have no problem pushing a stake through my own heart."

"I won't let you." he vowed.

"You couldn't find me for a thousand years, what makes you think you'll be able to stop me from ending my own life?"

Klaus stiffened, he was not used to being backed into a corner, especially not by his mate who valued kindness and understanding above all else.

"Elena will die either way, whether it is tonight or next month."

Caroline shook her head, "you know as well as I that Elijah's elixir will save her life."

"The ritual says she must die."

"Ah, but not that she must stay dead." Caroline reminded him, a thousand years of knowledge and experience crept into her voice, showing her true age, "this is the last of the doppelgängers if you kill her there is no going back should you need her again."

A life as a tool in Klaus's hands was one of the last things Caroline wanted for Elena, but it was better than dead.

"Alright," he whispered slightly defeated before his eyes met her's with a new fire, "but should you betray me I will kill every man, woman, and child in this town."

Caroline took his hand in hers, "I won't." she promised.

"You have one month," he said to the remaining people in the field, "if you leave Mystic Falls I will hunt you down, and I promise to not be as forgive as I am now."

Then using all of his strength and speed he brought Caroline back to his temporary home so they could begin their forced forever together.

Author's Note:

I copy these directly from my tumblr, so if you're wondering why the author's notes in the beginning don't make any sense that's why. If you ever had a drabble request my blog is called Klaroline Affinity and the URL is the same as this account (shakespeariannerd).

-ShakespearianNerd