AN: It's been a while, but lately I've had the best inspiration possible – an upcoming midterm I didn't want to study for – so I hammered this out. The action will really start next chapter, but this is setting us up for the beginning of the end.
Eleven. Come Away to the Water
"Come away little light, come away to the darkness." ~ Come Away to the Water, Maroon 5
Bonnie opened her eyes to the darkness of the cave, her breath coming out in a gasp. She grasped at her memory, trying to remember where she was, what had happened.
She remembered Silas. She remembered a flash of pain.
Then she remembered nothing.
She got to her feet. She was free from the bonds Silas had used, but she didn't have a clue how she came to be free.
"Oh baby girl, what have you done?"
Bonnie's eyes wheeled to the voice.. It was her Grams, the most beautiful sight Bonnie had ever seen.
"Grams," she gasped at the older woman, taking a step towards her, only to come to a fast halt. There was a body on the ground between them – a body that was far too familiar to Bonnie.
It was her body.
"What? I… Grams, what's going on?" Bonnie asked, falling to her knees next to her body. It was looking a little grey around the edges, and Bonnie wondered how long it had been there, how long she'd been gone with no one noticing.
"You know what's going on, my sweet girl. This is what happens when witches get involved with vampires." Shelia joined her on the ground, pulling her into her arms. "We end up dead."
For a moment Bonnie let herself be held, let herself agree with the words, but then she felt a rush of anger. This had nothing to do with vampires. This all had to do with yet another megalomaniac coming to her home and deciding its citizens were there for his pleasure. This wasn't some sort of divine karma being exercised on Bonnie for not hating vampires – for not hating Caroline and Elena – enough. This was just unfair.
Bonnie was getting really sick of unfair.
"Let me go," Bonnie snapped, pulling away from Shelia. "That's complete bull crap, blaming this on the vampires. This is all Silas… whatever Silas is. I refuse to take the blame for this because you and the other goddamn spirits hate vampires so much you can't see who they really are."
"Like your friend Caroline, who has turned off her humanity? How many innocent people that girl has killed, because she couldn't handle loss?" Shelia shot back.
Bonnie felt sick at the thought of Caroline alone out there, without the humanity that made her so Caroline, and she imagined a trail of bodies left in her wake, just like they had once been in Stefan's.
"I don't, but I'm sure you'll happily tell me," Bonnie responded, holding her stomach, and her turning her back to the spirit of her grandmother.
"Exactly none," offered up a different voice, this one distinctly British and all too familiarly cocky. "I've been keeping an eye on the girl, and even in her darkest moments, she hasn't killed anyone since she hit that switch."
"What are you doing here, you monster?" Shelia demanded of Kol Mikaelson. "Haven't your kind done enough?"
"In case you've forgotten, darling, it was your granddaughter and her friends who killed me. It was them who released Silas. Them who put the sweet Caroline Forbes right into the path of a deranged mad man. I'm an innocent bystander."
"What do you want, Kol?" Bonnie asked, and she wondered if this was what death held for her. If she would spend the rest of eternity feeling so incredibly, infinitely weary. If the rest of her forever was to be spend listening to her grandmother judge her friends or listen to Kol play innocent in all the events that had led to his death.
"Well, I would like to be alive again, but I doubt that will happen. Instead, I'll settle for making your afterlife mis – fuck, not this again." Kol stared down at his chest, where a crossbow bolt was protruding. "I'm getting real sick of your crap, Gilbert."
"And I'm getting tired of having to shoot you ten times a day to make you shut up, Kol. Yet here we are." Jeremy glared at Kol, who glared right back. Finally, the younger Gilbert sighed and turned his gaze to Bonnie. "You shouldn't be here, Bonnie. It wasn't your time."
"I'm afraid I don't know how to get back," Bonnie replied in a weak voice, her lips feeling almost too heavy to move. "The shit hit the fan once you died, Jer."
"I know," Jeremy responded, and his smile was as weak as Bonnie's voice. "We'll have to see what we can do about that, won't we?"
STILL-DOLL
Klaus had needed to get away from the group. Between Tyler Lockwood and Katerina Petrova, he was this close to killing someone, and he knew the delicate truce he had with the Mystic Falls Justice League wouldn't withstand another death.
As it was, he didn't think the truce was doing much. How was it that he had all the people living who could claim to be close to Caroline Forbes, claim to know her, and not one of them could figure out where she was? They claimed to be her friends, her family, yet they were as clueless as he was.
"They are trying, Niklaus," Elijah said, joining Klaus on the balcony. Klaus could hear the chatter of voices inside the house. Katerina made a snide comment and Elena snapped a reply back, the presence of the other doppleganger obviously testing her patience, even when she had no humanity.
"I don't need them to try, brother. I need them to succeed. Caroline is out there somewhere on a mad quest for vengeance that she can't hope to get alive."
"We will find her before she can do something foolish, Niklaus," Elijah replied. "You just need patience."
"I have no patience!" Klaus hissed. "Do you not understand, Elijah? Caroline doesn't do foolish things. Oh, her plans may not always be perfect, but she does always have a plan. It's what she does. Do you think she's ever approached me once in the whole of our acquaintance without knowing exactly what she would do? She makes plans. So that means she has a plan now, and I very much fear that it ends with her death!"
Klaus hadn't realized his voice was getting increasingly louder with each word he spoke, that by the end of his rant he was practically screaming at his brother, but the dead silence inside the house told him that those within had heard every word.
"You think that Caroline plans on dying," Elena said, her voice bored, but Klaus could see her silhouette from the balcony, and she looked surprisingly tense. "Why?"
"What does she have to live for, Elena?" Klaus replied with a sneer. "A best friend who tried to kill her? A mother who is dead? An ex-boyfriend she killed? Right now, she lives for one thing, and one thing only – she lives to see Silas dead. Dying in the process of achieving that? It would be a bonus for her."
"Then we make sure she can never achieve that," Bonnie interjected, her voice every bit as cool as Elena's had been. "She won't die. I won't let her."
"And how do you intend to stop her?" Klaus asked. "Considering that she's not here."
"I'll find her," Bonnie responded. "And then I'll make sure she stays alive. She is not dying. I won't allow it."
Klaus frowned at Bonnie, and for a moment he swore it wasn't the Bennett witch standing at the table, that it was someone taller, more menacing.
Someone not female.
But it was only a second, and then the Bennett witch tossed her herbs away from her.
"This locator spell isn't working. We need blood or more power, and since blood isn't an option, well, fill-in-the-blank."
"I have witches I can contact," Elijah replied, his cellphone already in his hand with a number half dialled.
"I said power, which means not just any witch. We need another Bennett witch."
"Well, I don't know any of those, so Elijah's will have to do, won't they?" Klaus growled, Bonnie's attitude grating on his nerves. He hadn't forgotten who it was that had locked him in the Gilbert's house with his brother's corpse; who it was that had unleashed Silas and started this whole mess in the first place.
He very much wanted to snap Bonnie Bennett's fragile neck.
"I know one. Lucy," Katherine interjected before Klaus could act on those dark thoughts. "She may be a little mad at me, but I can call her."
Bonnie looked at Katherine and gave a sharp nod. The witch's body had gone taut as soon as Katerina had spoken, and the air around her seemed to almost hum with energy.
"Yes. Call her and get her here as soon as possible. We need a Bennett witch. For Caroline."
"You'll probably have to talk to her. Like I said, she's still a little bitter about the masquerade. I'm not even sure she'll pick up."
"She will, or we'll just keep calling her until she does."
Klaus frowned at the fervent note in Bonnie's voice. He met Elijah's eyes, then Rebekah's, and gave the slightest jerk of his head towards the door.
"Yes, well, you lot get to contacting this Bennett witch. My siblings and I are going to tap some other resources, to see if we can't find Caroline in other ways should this Lucy fall through. Surely one of us will be successful."
Elijah and Rebekah looked briefly confused. They both knew that Klaus had already set all his useful people to finding the blonde baby vampire, but they were wise enough to keep their mouths shut and leave the room for more private parts of the house. Klaus followed them, but before he left he looked back once to meet Bonnie's eyes.
They were watching him with cold apathy. There was a darkness in the witch that didn't belong.
Klaus tore his eyes away and followed in the footsteps of his siblings.
They would have a chat about the witch, and what to do with her should things turn sour on her part.
STILL-DOLL
"They don't know that's not me," Bonnie said to Jeremy, her voice panicked. "Silas needs Lucy to do the spells, and he obviously doesn't know where she is, so he's letting them lead him straight to her… and they don't know it's not me."
"Bonnie, you have to calm down," Jeremy said, placing his palms on her cheeks and forcing her to look at him. "Breathe with me, okay? 1….2...3…. just like that. Deep breaths."
She didn't have to breathe, not when she was dead, but the simple act. It calmed. Soon enough she was nodding her head, releasing Jeremy's grip on her face.
"Okay. We're good. I'm good." She reached out and grasped Jeremy's hands impulsively, squeezing them. "Thanks, Jer."
"Well, isn't that adorable. But in case you two love birds have forgotten, we currently need to deal with the bringer of hell on earth masquerading as our dear little Bonnie… who no one knows is dead yet."
"Are you just going to follow us around?" Bonnie asked Kol, turning a cold green gaze on him. "Do you really have nothing better to do with your death than that?"
"That's the thing, Bonnie. I'm dead. So no, I do not have anything better to do. Because you can't go to the movies or hang out with friends or compel and drink the pretty waitress when you are dead. So, instead I'll assist you in assisting your friends, and my siblings, who are still in the realm of the living. No need to thank me."
"You're a dick, you know that, right?" Jeremy asked. "A grade A dick."
"Yes, well I'm also a Grade A dick who can help Miss Bennett use her witchy gifts to contact someone amongst the living. So that they aren't all clueless when, as they say today, the shit hits the fan."
"You can get me in contact with one of them?" Bonnie's eyes widened at that revelation. "How?"
"You will get us in contact, I'll just assist. And when they're sleeping. Have you ever read Peter Pan, Bonnie? That place between awake and asleep where you'll always be loved? It's quite real, and that's where you'll contact your friends. You will have to listen to me, though. Learning to use magic when you're dead, it won't be easy." Kol crossed his arms and watched Bonnie through narrowed eyes. "But if you listen and do as I tell you, yes, you'll be able to contact someone."
"Well then" – Bonnie sat down right there on the floor of Mikaelson manor – "teach me what you know."
Behind her Jeremy muttered a curse, but he sat next to her, glaring stonily at Kol. For his part, the Original just clapped his hands and rubbed them together gleefully.
"Excellent, darlings. Let's get started."
STILL-DOLL
Klaus continued to watch Bonnie. Something still seemed off, but he couldn't find any actual proof. Rebekah had pointed out that the Bennett witch channeled Expression these days, and that perhaps it was the dark magic making him so uneasy. The explanation was plausible, it even made sense, but Klaus just couldn't quite buy it.
One day passed… then two… then the time since Caroline's disappearance turned into weeks. Three weeks, to be exact. There was no word from Silas. No word from Caroline. It felt like the world itself held its breath, waiting for something to happen.
And that was when Katherine finally managed to track down the ever elusive Lucy. It took several favours called in, and it ultimately came down to a conversation held between the two Bennett witches behind closed, spelled doors, but Bonnie announced that Lucy was on her way and would arrive within forty-eight hours.
Klaus had begun to lose hope in the weeks since Caroline's disappearance, and now he finally had hope to find the girl. He worried about her mental state; surrounded by loved ones she had alternated between empty coldness and near hysteria, and he had no clue how she was doing on her own but for one man dedicated to eliminating Silas and all other immortals from the planet.
Klaus swore that if one hair was harmed on her head when Caroline was retrieved, Galen Vaughn would beg for death before he finally received it. Hunter or not, Klaus would find a way to end his life.
"We're finally going to find her," Stefan mused, raising a celebratory glass of scotch in Klaus' direction. "I have to admit, I never thought Caroline Forbes would be the one able to go under like this. I mean, you expect it from Katherine, but not the bubbly blonde."
"I knew there was a reason I turned her," Katherine commented from where she sat at Elijah's side. "She may be annoying, but she has hidden talents."
"More than you know," Damon muttered before wilting under the glares of everyone in the room but Elena, who smirked at the snide comment.
"I dunno. Do they count as hidden when so many know about them? I mean, there's you, Matt, Tyler… Colin from that summer camp. Did you ever get to discover her hidden talents?" she asked Klaus, and he growled at her, ready to snap her neck, something he had done several times in the last weeks.
It was Tyler Lockwood, however, who moved first. He had Elena pinned against the wall in a second, his hybrid face coming out as he held her throat.
"Get over yourself, Elena. We get it, you were sad, and god forbid Elena be hurting in any way, so Damon in all his infinite wisdom made you turn it off. Well, here's a newsflash for you – you're not the only orphan in this town. Caroline is too, now. So am I. Matt and Bonnie might as well have been, and now they're dead. You have it pretty easy, you know with the brothers who are so obsessed with you that they'd lie in a puddle so you didn't have to get your shoes wet. So stop being so pissed at Caroline because she's better at this than you are." Elena opened her mouth to respond, but Tyler just shook her and growled. "You think I don't know why you're pissed at her? Caroline was a natural to vampirism where you struggled. You were always the one shit came to naturally, so you're jealous that you couldn't handle this. Well, get over it and yourself or leave. We don't have time for your pettiness."
Tyler released the brunette, and Klaus was almost tempted to applaud. This was the first time in months that Klaus felt something close to fondness for the boy, and he thought that perhaps he would even give him leave to come and go from Mystic Falls when this was done, so long as they didn't have to interact.
"She's not so good at it anymore, is she?" Elena hissed, rubbing her neck. "No, she's just as broken as me, she turned it off too! So stop touting her as some kind of saint."
"She never tried to kill you," Rebekah sneered. "She had all the opportunity, and she just knocked you out. From what I understand, you would have killed her and the sheriff out of jealousy. So yes, Elena, Caroline is better than you, even now. Although, I will grant that at least you make sure to take a guard with you when you run off on foolish missions. Caroline seems to be far too independent. So let's stop this arguing and find her. I grow tired of spending my days chasing my tail in the hopes I might find Caroline Forbes clinging to it!"
"We will find her," Bonnie interjected smoothly, almost too smoothly for Klaus' peace of mind. He would have thought that, out of all of them, Bonnie would be the most ecstatic, the one bouncing in joy. However, all she seemed to be was smugly satisfied – it was an expression Klaus recognized well; it was one he wore whenever a particularly diabolical plan had been successful. "Within two days, Lucy will arrive at my house, we'll perform the spell, and Caroline will be returned to m – us. For now, though, we should all get some sleep. The action will really start soon."
Everyone took Bonnie's advice, separating and leaving for their respective homes. Klaus stopped Elijah and Katherine as they were leaving, grasping the doppleganger's arm in a steal grip.
"Niklaus-" Elijah began, his expression severe, but Klaus ignored him and cut him off to address Katherine.
"Follow the Bennett witch. Tell me what she does. You're good at gathering information; if you do this for me not only will I have forgiven you for the past, but I will even owe you a favour."
Katherine's eyes lit up with mercenary intent at the offer, and she smirked a cat-like smirk that had Elijah sighing and Klaus smirking right back.
"Tell me what to look for, boss."
STILL-DOLL
"You need to hit harder. You're pulling your punches. I'm not going to break so easily, lass. Stop acting as if I am."
Caroline focused on her task and tried to obey Galen's orders. Still, every time she went to hit him in one of the allocated spots, she couldn't help but soften the blow.
"Hell, Caroline, I thought you said you shut if all off? Are you lying, or simply the worst vampire in existence?"
"You're my only tool!" Caroline snapped, turning away from the Hunter to grab a blood bag and tear into it viciously, pretending that the plastic was Galen's jugular. She tried to bite back the flicker of anger, anger she shouldn't even be feeling at his point – it frustrated her to no end that she couldn't seem to keep the emotions at bay completely, which just served to frustrate her more because she shouldn't even be feeling frustration. "If I break you, then I'm out of options and I'll have to go crawling back to Klaus and let him play saviour. I have to do this, Vaughn."
"You won't if you're pulling your punches."
"And I won't be pulling my punches when I'm faced with Silas!"
The words came out in a shout, and Caroline heaved the half-drank blood bag against the wall, sending a rush of crimson down the wood of the cabin. She stared at the liquid her breath coming in gasps and as those gasps slowed, she felt the numbness wash over her. It always happened like this; one moment the emotions were too much and came bursting out, and the next she was numb and looking at the world through a veil of indifference. She turned back to Galen, calm once more.
"Let's do this again."
Galen looked at her critically, his thumb rubbing her chin.
"No," he said at last.
"What? You can't say no. You told me you'd teach me how to fight Silas."
"I did. You're progressing in your lessons in blocking your mind, though your mood swings set you back there. You are in excellent shape, even for a vampire, but once again those mood swings throw you off. I can't help you anymore as you are, Caroline Forbes. You either have to face whatever demons you're trying to protect yourself against or push them away completely. This middle ground you're walking? It helps no one, least of all you. Get some sleep. We'll talk again in the morning."
Caroline glared after the Hunter as he went inside. She knew he was right, but that didn't make it any easier.
Facing her demons would destroy her.
Pushing them away seemed beyond her capabilities.
Caroline ran a hand through her head and followed the Galen's path into the cabin. She couldn't kill him, not yet, so the best she could do was follow his orders and sleep.
And when she slept, she dreamed.
She was back in the cave, where so much torture and pain had occurred. It was different now; the corpses of Matt and Liz was gone, and the stains of their blood had faded to a memory, but it was one Caroline could easily conjure.
This wasn't the first time her mind had brought her back to this place, but it was the first time it had been so… clean.
"Caroline. Care, look at me."
Caroline whirled around, and there stood Bonnie. She stared at her friend with confusion; this was also a new addition to the dream.
"Look Care, we don't have much time. I'm just managing to contact you, so listen. Silas is making Lucy bring down the veil. There's no way to stop it. It could even be done by the time you wake up, but you need to be prepared. He's pretending to be me, and no one else knows. You have to tell them."
"I don't understand. Where are you, Bonnie? Why can't you tell them? I'm a little busy."
"I know, and you're learning important lessons with Galen, but time is up now. The veil will be down, and once that's done you'll only have a limited amount of time. Silas' first goal will be Qetsiyah, but once that's done he'll come for you again. He's obsessed."
"I know that, but where-"
"She's dead, little vampire, and on the other side with the young Gilbert and I."
Caroline whirled around to see the youngest male Mikaelson.
"Kol, what the fu-"
"We don't have time for cursing, Caroline. We don't have much longer. You have to let my siblings and your friends know about Silas. Then you have to take that cure and use it to kill him. We'll see you soon, and you can ask us all the questions you wish. But first – Get back to Mystic Falls."
"I can't," Caroline argued. "I'm not ready."
"You are, Care," Bonnie replied. "You know everything you need to… you just have to get your emotions under control."
"I can't. I've turned it off, and they still won't go away. I'm… I think I'm broken, Bonnie."
"There's a way to get around that," Bonnie replied, and her expression was sad as she looked at Kol over Caroline's shoulder, and Caroline felt her spin stiffen as she realized what Bonnie was insinuating.
"You can compel me, like Klaus did Stefan," Caroline said. "You can make me turn it off correctly."
"I can," Kol agreed. "Though I'm not sure you really want me to."
Caroline swallowed and thought of Kol's earlier words, she's dead, little vampire, and she shook her head.
"Bonnie's death will destroy me. Right now I'm in a dream, it's not real, but when I wake up and realize it was, it will destroy me. That can't happen, Kol, not until this is done." Caroline closed her eyes tight and sent out a prayer for strength. "I need to be the one to do this. Not Klaus or Elijah, me. Give me the tools I need to do that."
"You'll have to explain that you asked for it when you see my brother again," Kol drawled. "He'll kill me otherwise."
"If this works, I won't care enough to do that, but I'll try and remember," Caroline replied with a weak laugh.
"I suppose that's true," Kol agreed, and then he was right in front of her, staring deep into her eyes. "Turn it off."
Close to a month spent training with Galen meant that Caroline wanted to block her mind, wanted to fight the compulsion, but this time, rather than going with the flow, she allowed his power into her mind.
"Turn it off," he ordered again. "All of it. No emotion left."
And this time, she did.
AN: And there you have it. Silas is bringing down the veil, Caroline now knows, and she's fully without her humanity. Oh, and ghost!Bonnie and ghost!Kol. And ghost!Jeremy, if you're excited about that. Let me know what you think. Later, folks!