.

III

Jeremy Gilbert was dead.

Caroline couldn't make up her mind around it yet, but the boy she had known her whole life was dead. Another person she cared about had his life taken prematurely because of someone else's plans. She was fed up with everything and she wanted nothing more than join Tyler – even if she never crossed paths with him – and just leave Mystic Falls behind her for good, even if it included her mother. She had tried to contact Tyler, not only because she needed her rock when things seemed to get completely out of control, but because she was also worried about him.

At some point Klaus had left the house and nobody had a clue of where he was.

He had all but made a promise to her the previous night. He would give Tyler a head start before he pursued him, found him and killed him. Was that what he was doing?

But as expected, just like when he left to break the sire bond, Tyler didn't answer her calls and didn't return them. She had left voicemails and sent uncountable texts to him, but once again there was nothing. Nothing left for her, nothing for her to hold onto, to help her keep going. She was on her own. And not only she had to go through yet another day of pain, loss and desperation, but she also had to be there for her childhood friend.

Elena had lost her brother, the only family she still had, and the things the blond had watched in the few hours she stayed at the former Gilbert house had scared her. But nothing scared her more than the moment Damon asked Elena to turn her humanity off. Could that be the answer? Could that be what would make it more bearable? Could that be what he had done to survive so long hopelessly? Or maybe it could be what would destroy her. What would make her foreign to her own eyes. What would finally destroy any resemblance to the girl she used to be. It could be her end, but she was committed to not giving up, to living whatever life she was headed to, and do it to the fullest. Even if it was never enough, never what she had expected, never what she had dreamed.

We're the same.

As she looked to Elena losing herself, lacking what had always made the brunette herself she wondered if she would have to lose it as well. Was it really impossible for her to hold onto the human version of herself? She had to admit that the darkness of her now true nature was becoming harder and harder to be denied. The allure was almost overwhelming, and she could feel her losing the grasps of the bubbly, cheerful, lively girl she used to be. She wanted to continue to be that girl, but she was more and more convinced she wouldn't be able to do it for much longer.

And in times like this, she found herself behaving like the old, insecure, neurotic Caroline because there was nothing she wished more at the moment than seeing the future. She wished she knew for sure there would indeed have a light at the end of the tunnel. She couldn't hope, she didn't know what to expect, her only option was to wait.

And she knew he could give her the answers. He had lived a thousand years, he had been through it all, he had lost it all, he had felt it all and it all had hurt him. Or had he?

Was that why he decided to allow his sister to become human? Was that why he was willing to lose the one person that had been with him through everything? Caroline didn't have anyone, not anymore. Her father chose to die rather than live the life she was now living and she suspected her mother felt the same way, although she would never be selfish enough to ask her mother to become a creature from the darkness just so she wouldn't be alone. Her friends weren't in better places than her, and as she looked at Stefan's and Damon's lives she felt her throat closing.

Loss. Pain. Fear. Emptiness. Loneliness. Infinitely. Never-endingly. With no limits.

Had he been through this so many times that he couldn't distinguish those things anymore? Had the pain become so natural, so present, so intrinsic that the momentary contentment of making his sister wish come true would overcome her eternal absence? His loss? And then it would be only him and Elijah. The immortals, the most powerful and feared creatures in the world, the indestructible Originals would have been reduced to only two. Until when? Mikael died, and so did Finn and Kol and still he was cosigning his sister's unavoidable death. He was cosigning his own pain, his misery because he loved his sister.

Which meant he felt.

And because he felt he could be saved. Why did that sound so familiar? Her memories about what happened the night she almost died were more blurred than ever. She remembered tidbits, but then it seemed to be erased from her mind and mingled with so many voices she couldn't understand. She was sure that night she had seen something nobody had seen before. But she couldn't remember what it was. And seeing it again wasn't an option for he left. Without a word. Without saying goodbye. Only with a silent promise.

She could have figured him out that night, but now she didn't know what to expect.

We're the same.

She had been saved when she had been doomed; even if she didn't have anyone else, she wouldn't be completely alone. Even if her mother died in a few decades and her friends were killed or decided to live their eternal lives away from her, taking care of their business, she would still have someone. She would have herself because she had been saved.

And while she fixed Jeremy's memorial notice at the school's board messages, she knew that she would survive. But a small voice, deep in her soul dared to mutter… he had no one… not even himself, not anymore. And it saddened her.

Self-preservation.

He knew the words too well. He understood them, and he nearly respected them. Actually he would have respected it, if Katerina hadn't crossed him yet again.

Hayley helped the doppelganger and he regretted not killing the werewolf when she told him about his lost hybrids. And that was why he couldn't stop being who he was, who he had become. That was why self-preservation had always been his number one priority regardless of how it presented itself. Breaking his curse, creating his hybrids, killing everyone that crossed his way, using the daggers in his siblings, showing his power and strength. It all came down to self-preservation. To the inherent and undeniable instinct of survival – much more latent and prominent in a vampire, especially one that was partially werewolf.

And now in order to get the cure in his hands he would have to kill the werewolf and maybe finally end Katerina. It'd been overdue.

And in all places to hide, the little mutt seemed to please New Orleans. His city. By entitlement, after all he had founded it. But it'd been a couple of decades since he went there. And he had to admit New Orleans wasn't the same without Rebekah. Reason why he rarely visited his made home in the past ninety years.

"Marcel," he ominously announced as he entered the penthouse in one of the buildings in the French Quarters.

"Klaus?" a dark man entered the living room, surprised to find his master standing there.

The hybrid knew his former protégé would be taken aback by his presence, although he shouldn't. Marcel had been with him for most of his time in New Orleans, turned not longer after he arrived in the village by the Mississippi river early in the 1700's. No one knew Niklaus Mikaelson well, but aside from his siblings, Marcel had been the closest one. Until her. She read him so easily that it scared him.

It didn't make sense because they had interacted just a handful times and he always made sure to make them about her, not himself.

Self-preservation.

Having people know as little as possible from him prevented them from getting ammunition against him. But Caroline could read him like a book. The words she said while she was diseased with his bite, kept being repeating in his head. He couldn't brush them off the say way he couldn't brush her off.

"I need you to find a wolf. Last time she was seen she was here," Klaus informed handing the man in front of him a manila folder, no greetings offered.

"So I've heard about Mikael, the curse. It seems like it's been a good year for you,"

"It's been productive,"

"Give me a few hours and I'll bring you the wolf," Marcel said as he checked the information Klaus had on Hayley. "Dead or alive?"

"Alive. She has been working with Katerina. They may have something I want," Klaus purposefully kept the cure to himself. Marcel was the closest he had had to a comrade, but still he didn't trust his friends of centuries.

"Consider it done," the vampire nodded his head, before walking away.

"Lunch it's also on its way," Marcel said before leaving the room and he hoped among Marcel's choice there wouldn't be any blond with curly hair. He had come here personally because he needed to get away from her.

He didn't regret his last words to her, but the way she didn't acknowledge his sacrifices because of her had hurt him more than he expected.

'It was all for you, Caroline,' he had admitted the truth for the first time, but she had nothing to say. It wasn't enough. He wasn't enough. He would never be enough. And once again Mikael proved he had been right. It didn't matter his father was now dead; his words would always haunt him. Nobody cares about you anymore, boy.

There was a reason why he chose Marcel among all the vampires he turned. There was a reason he protected the dark vampire. Marcel was efficient and less than three hours later Hayley was sitting across from him.

"Now, little wolf, why did Katerina offer to you?" he asked, but Hayley was quiet.

"Did she deliver it yet? Do you even know where she is?"

Again he was met with silence and his patience started to run thin.

"What are you doing in New Orleans, in the first place? Didn't Tyler meet you in the Appalachians?" he approached her letting his finger caress her neck. There was only one thing he needed her alive for, and she wasn't going to offer him what he wanted, he would have no problem snapping her pretty neck.

But as he caressed her skin, his eyes moved to a little mark on her shoulder, exposed by the spaghetti sleeved top she was wearing.

"That mark, I've seen that before," he said seeing the new moon mark.

"Yeah, it's a birth mark, people have those," she spoke for the first time while rolling her eyes.

"In my considerable lifetime I've only seen that mark in a handful of others… all from the same bloodline, a werewolf clan," he said intrigued by it.

"What?" she looked at him with wide eyes.

"Surprised I know your roots, little wolf?"

"What do you know about my family?" she tried to cover her surprise, hoping he didn't know she was looking for her real parents.

"That they still live in Louisiana. We could make a deal, their lives for information on Katerina seems fair to me," he walked away from her, a smirk on his face, his back now turned to her.

"I will tell you everything I know if you don't kill them,"

"Matters of family are sacred," he sat again in his seat across from her, with a knowing smile.

"But I have one more condition,"

"Do you really think you're in the position of making demands?

"You kill me and your only lead on Katherine is dead, you kill my… family I'm dead too, and you will probably follow not much longer after,"

"I'm all ears,"

"I tell you everything, you don't kill any of us, and you make sure one of your minions deliver me safely back to them,"

"Why would I need to send you to Noah? Why not go by yourself?"

"That's my condition, you let us live and you have me delivered to them safe and sound,"

"First the Appalachians, then Mystic Falls, now New Orleans. In my experience I'd say you were running from someone and trying to find someone,"

She became quiet again, avoiding his gaze, while he chuckled softly.

"You didn't seem like running while staying with little orphan Lockwood, which reminds me, you were the one who broke his sire bond and who helped him to break all my hybrids' sire bond. You only have one information for me, and I have two good reasons to kill you."

"I could try to help you break Tyler and Caroline," she offered almost desperately.

"I already took care of my remaining hybrid. As for Caroline, as it did with every other woman before her, my interest is long gone,"

"For someone that had been lying for a thousand years, I expected you to be more convincing," she quipped, and he actually chuckled.

"And for someone who is looking for her real family you trusted the wrong vampire to partner with. Katerina helps no one but herself," he concluded, and seeing her shocked expression he knew he had figured out what Katherine had promised.

"So what will it be, little wolf? Your life or finding out not only you have a living father, but also two older brothers?"

"I could try to help you recover the cure from Katherine. Her lead about my family only brought me to Louisiana. I could demand more information from her as I helped her have the only thing that could buy her freedom one way or the other,"

"She will kill you before you have a chance to say hello, actually I may tell you where your family is and leave you to meet death through her hands… although I don't think she'd bother to do it herself. Katerina survived so long cutting all loose ends, and now, my dear, that's all you are for her. So what will it be?"

"You already gave me a name; I'll have my chances trying to find them. You better go back to Mystic Falls if you plan to retrieve the cure. Last time I've heard Katherine was wondering what would be better, to shove the cure down your throat or let Silas complete his ritual and release hell on earth, including all of your enemies who died by your hands, wanting your blood more than anything else. She seemed to think making your life miserable as hers was more entertaining, but who knows if she didn't change her mind already?"

"And why would I go back to Mystic Falls?" Klaus asked, relieved to have Marcel and everyone else leave the house while he talked to the werewolf. He didn't want anyone else to listen what she knew about the cure.

"Because if she decided to team up with Silas against you, that's where she'll be,"

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I trust no one, and I did a little research of my own while working with Shane. The third sacrifice has to be in the same place the first two were, forming a triangle,"

"And why should I trust you?"

"Because of this," she said as she showed him a picture she took from one of Shane's books about expression.

"You're smart, little wolf, you could be useful in the future," he touched her cheek with the back of his fingers.

"I would never agree to become your little bitch," she looked at him spitefully, "Or your whore,"

"Oh, love, don't worry about that. I prefer blondes… and I like my women classy," he smirked, walking towards the beverage cart.

"Now tell me everything you know and if what you have for me is really useful like that little picture in your phone, I may let you know which side of the Mississippi you should start your search,"

Klaus would do anything not to go back to Mystic Falls. He didn't know where he would head from New Orleans – maybe even stay in the French Quarters – but he knew he didn't want to go back to the small town in Virginia. His emotions were becoming harder to handle and being close to Caroline only made it worse. Which is why he planned to find Katherine and leave for good.

But when he arrived in his house he was surprised to find his brother drinking whiskey in the den.

"Elijah," he acknowledged the dark haired man, a smile breaking on his features. After everything he'd gone through for a thousand years, it was good to see his brother again.

"Niklaus,"

"It's good to see you brother," Klaus admitted, deciding against fighting his emotions. It had become a constant battle and he knew where it was worth to use the little energy he still had to deny his feelings. Mikael was dead and so was Esther. Their family could finally be one again. Always and forever, he remembered the words said over a thousand years ago.

Elijah was surprised by the admission, but he didn't show. He simply offered a small smile to his brother, watching as Klaus poured himself a tumbler of whiskey and sat on the opposite armchair.

"It came to my knowledge the last past events," and by the somber expression on his face Klaus knew he was talking about Kol.

"I've buried his body," he looked away from Elijah, emptying the glass on his hand with one gulp.

"And what do you plan to do about his death?"

"Kill them all,"

Elijah nodded, sipping more from his drink, looking away from the tears falling from his younger brother's eyes, while trying to hold back his own.

Not much later, their sister stormed into the house, fuming.

"That little bitch," she said to herself before she noticed her brothers.

"Rebekah," Elijah's voice caught her attention before she reached the staircase.

"Elijah? Nik?" she came closer, surprised to find them there.

"Little sister," Klaus offered, his tears already wiped, but his eyes still glassy.

"Why are you back?" she turned to her older brother, who looked away, dejected, the tears in his eyes finally breaking through and falling down.

Rebekah then stopped, and realized that only a few nights ago another of her brothers was killed. She had been so set on finding the cure, that she didn't have given herself the time to properly grieve Kol.

She walked towards Elijah, and not thinking about it, she threw herself on his arms, as the two of them cried for their dead brother.

Klaus simply looked down, at the glass in his hands.

His siblings had one another, but he had no one. As he should. He had betrayed not only Rebekah and Elijah, but also Kol too many times. He killed their mothers and lied to them about it. He had daggered all of them, more than once, and denied them decades.

"Nik," Rebekah said, seeing her brother inconsolable, looking at the empty glass.

He looked up to his sister, and before he could react she was also embracing him, and for the first time in a thousand years, Klaus actually cried. He wasn't just shedding some tears, like he did many times before, but he was whole heartily crying, almost sobbing, and while Kol's dismissal had been the trigger, he knew in that moment, when his sister wrapped her arms around him, the final brick in the wall surrendered. The gate to the river of emotions inside him had finally succumbed and he knew there was nothing he could do to stop it.

AN.: here is the new chapter. I know there's no Klaroline, but it was needed. I'm not sure they'll interact again next chapter either. And as the summary suggests they'll stay apart for a while, as he'll move to New Orleans. But even if they're apart, I'll make sure to make them very close to each other in their hearts. Maybe you won't miss it much ;)

Thanks for the reviews last chapter. Leave more, they really help ;)

Thanks to Elena, my beta

Have a nice week

xx