AN: So, this chapter took a twist for the unexpected. I think you'll find emotionless Caroline is far, far different from emotionless Elena. She's actually pretty interesting to write. And unexpected. Like I said, she took the story down a path I didn't expect. Please enjoy:
Twelve. Silhouettes
"It's hard letting go. I'm finally at peace, but it feels wrong." ~ Silhouettes, Of Monsters and Men
When Caroline woke her head was clear for the first time in…
She couldn't recall a time, human or vampire, when her head was this clear.
She finally understood what other vampires meant when they spoke of flicking their switch, as if it was a cure-all for their problems. She knew her mother and Matt were dead, Bonnie as well, now… she regretted that they were dead, but she didn't feel grief. She regretted their deaths as she would regret her favorite hair straightener burning out; she would miss a useful tool, but she would get over it and buy a new one.
It was a whole new level of clarity, and Caroline couldn't understand why anyone would choose to live with emotion. Emotion clouded your judgement, it made you weak and foolish. Caroline had been foolish for too long. It was time to grow up.
She had woken that morning with a new determination and a clear endgame in mind.
Silas would die. There was no other option. Not when she could remember the horror she had felt as her mother died. Not when she could still taste Matt's blood on her tongue.
Caroline was a vampire. She was strong, dangerous, powerful. And Silas had made her forget that. He had made her helpless.
She would never be helpless again.
"Wake up," she growled, entering Vaughn's room and shoving the hunter out of his bed. He was naked and began cursing her in what she thought was Gaelic as he hit the floor with a thump.
"Hell, lass. What's got you in a twist?" he muttered, rubbing his ass as he got to his feet.
"Get dressed," Caroline replied, tossing jeans and a shirt at him. "We're returning to Mystic Falls."
"What?" Vaughn asked, pausing in the process of buttoning his jeans. "You're not ready yet."
"Yes. I am. I have to be, as our time table just got moved up," Caroline replied. "Now. Get dressed."
Galen seemed to realize that it would be a good idea to listen, so he finished getting dressed. He shot her a glare through narrowed eyes, but kept his silence as Caroline left the room to peruse her father's weapon collection and take a few pieces that she felt would help her in her plans.
Lastly, she packed the cure in the bottom of her duffle, careful that no part of the box showed through the rest of the contents. She zipped the bag and stood there, just staring down at it. A plan had begun forming in her head when she woke, and with every minute that passed it became clearer and clearer. It was something she would have never considered in the past, something the old Caroline would have never contemplated.
Even now, with all emotions gone, it felt wrong. It would work. Caroline had no doubt it would work. But it was a plan she would never come back from. Those promises she made to Klaus to try and find herself again once Silas was dead would go unfulfilled, because if she did this, if she took this path, she would be forever changed. There would be no upbeat, bubbly Caroline left in her.
Caroline turned from the bag and a frame on the wall caught her eye. It was her family – her, Liz and Bill, before everything had gone wrong and Bill decided he was gay and Liz became the absent parent. Before Caroline became a vampire and her whole world was changed. She looked happy in it. They all did.
Caroline ran her finger along the frame's edge. Her parents hadn't been particularly good at parenting, but they had been hers, and they had done their best by her. Now, they were both dead and Caroline was all that was left. They would hate what she was going to become; she knew that to her marrow. Neither of her parents would ever want to see her walk the path she contemplated. They would have both died again if they could prevent it.
They were foolish; they would have died for sentiment. And wasn't that what had killed so many of them? Loyalty, love, all those human emotions that were so wasted on her.
Caroline clenched her fist on the edge of the frame, and a spider web of cracks spread across the glass. She released her grip and turned her back on the picture, grabbing her bag to leave the cabin.
She was beyond sentiment now. She was beyond foolish promises made in a moment of weakness to a man she shouldn't be making promises to anyway.
You're beautiful. You're strong. You're full of light.
There was no light left in her now. Just cold, dark logic that left no room for sentiment or foolish regrets about Paris, Rome, and Tokyo and future that would never be.
It felt wrong, what she was about to do. Because even though she knew it would work, it also went against everything she'd ever been taught, everything she'd ever believed of herself. Caroline needed to be stronger than this. She needed to let go of that pesky humanity that even now railed against the cold logic she had achieved.
In the air went, and she recalled laughing with Matt, making too salty soup for her mother, sleep overs with Elena and Bonnie, and a man who made her feel such frustration because he acted like such a monster, then turned around and showed her how deep humanity could run, even in the worst of people.
She exhaled, and let it all go. She forgot Matt and Bonnie, because they were dead, both killed by Silas, and all she could offer them now was vengeance. She forgot Elena, who had turned off her humanity, and even should she regain it, things would never be the same. Because Elena had fallen in love with Damon, and Caroline wasn't evolved enough to really forgive that. She forgot her feelings for Klaus, because they didn't make sense anyway and she couldn't hold onto them and do what needed to be done.
When she opened her eyes again, they were cold and clear. She hefted her bag over her shoulder and left the cabin, and her regrets, behind.
She had no room for sentiment anymore.
STILL-DOLL
Bonnie sat on the couch in the Mikaelson Manor when the barrier came down. Before going to Caroline, she and Kol had used their ghostly powers of invisibility to find the spell Lucy would use to destroy the veil. When they realized exactly what Silas was doing, they realized it was imperative Silas die, and that meant Caroline. No one else would get close enough to use the cure, and Silas had to die.
Klaus was arguing with Rebekah and Elijah, who had somehow lost Silas-as-Bonnie and Lucy after their meeting. They didn't know how it had happened, but Bonnie did.
Silas had threatened everything Lucy held dear, and Lucy had played the part of puppet to his puppeteer and used magic to throw the Originals off their scent. Now, Lucy was dead, as in dead-dead, because the barrier couldn't be dropped without the loss of life, and Bonnie sat next to Kol, waiting for his siblings to notice them.
"Not very observant, are they, Little Witch?" Kol asked after Rebekah had tossed a particularly colourful curse at Klaus. "Here their brother is returned from the dead, and all they can do is argue amongst themselves. Then again, considering they only grieved me for five minutes I suppose it's to be expected."
If the situation hadn't been so horrible, it would have been almost humourous to see three Original siblings, particularly the usually cool Elijah, freeze in mid-yell, only to stare open-mouthed at their suddenly corporeal brother.
"Kol?" Rebekah gasped, and then she was there, grabbing him in a hug that would have killed anyone less hardy.
"Hello, Bekah. Do let me go. I may not have to breathe, but I do enjoy the process."
"How? You're dead. They all said you were dead. So how are you here? And where the hell is your cousin?" Rebekah rounded on Bonnie. "We go through all that trouble of hunting her down, and you... appear here, suddenly. With my dead brother."
Rebekah stared at Bonnie growing horror, while Bonnie gave her a small, sad smile.
"I'm dead, Rebekah," she said. "I have been for close to a month now."
"That's not possible," Rebekah argued, shaking her head. "We saw you. We spoke to you. You can't be dead, because that would mean-"
"Silas has been playing us for the past several weeks," Klaus interrupted grimly, looking as if he would love to rip Bonnie's head off her shoulders. Or perhaps it was Silas he wanted to dismember, and Bonnie just happened to be in his line of sight. Bonnie hoped it was that. "What happened, witch?"
"Silas kidnapped me to find Care and take down the barrier. I refused, so he killed me and used you guys to get to Lucy. She brought down the barrier and died in the process. I felt it."
"We'll need to let the others know," Elijah said before Klaus could act on the murderous impulses that everyone could read in his eyes. "The situation just became rather dangerous."
The ring of Rebekah's cell broke the uneasy silence that had fallen on the room, and the blonde whipped it out.
"It's Stefan," she said, looking at everyone else. She quickly put the phone on speaker. "Hello, Stefan."
"I don't want to complain about my sudden ability to see my dead best friend, but how can I see my dead best friend? What the hell happened?"
"That's a question best posed to Bonnie, mate," Klaus drawled, waving a hand at Bonnie even though the younger Salvatore wouldn't be able to see it. "She's the one who has been dead for nearly a month."
"Wait, what? That's impossible. We just saw her, remember?"
"That was Silas, Stefan," Bonnie interjected, feeling suddenly weary. Death was supposed to be peaceful. She wasn't supposed to have to still deal with supernatural crisis. "He killed me and pretended to be me to get to Lucy."
"Crap," Stefan replied, and Bonnie thought it was a rather apt description.
"There's more, Stefan. I spoke to Caroline yesterday. Well, last night" – at that, Klaus became suddenly rapt, hanging on her every word – "she wasn't dealing so well with what was going on. And we needed her to pull herself together, because she's the only one with a chance of getting close enough to Silas to kill him."
"Okay… why do I have a feeling you're trying to give me a don't be mad speech?" Stefan responded.
"Because I am. Kol compelled her to turn her humanity off. Really turn it off. She couldn't on her own, that's why she was so… moody. Because her humanity kept on breaking in at the worst possible times."
"You did what!?" Klaus bellowed, and he leapt for Kol, apparently intending to beat an explanation out of him.
"Bloody hell, Nik!" Kol shouted right back. "It had to be done. Your girl is the only one who can do this."
Elijah leapt into action, grabbing Klaus and trying to wrestle him off of Kol. It took Rebekah joining him before they could break the hybrid away.
"Calm yourself, Niklaus. Allow our brother to explain. I have to admit, Kol, I do not quite understand why you are going to such lengths to kill Silas. Should our first responsibility not be to close the barrier?"
"That's just it, Elijah," Kol muttered in response, using the back of his hand to wipe blood away from the lip Klaus had split. "Killing Silas is the only to bring the barrier back up."
"To bring an end to the other side all together, actually," Bonnie cut in. "The spell Silas was using, it brought down the veil and basically melded the two worlds together. But the other side isn't meant to belong with this one. So in order to keep the veil down, the other side has to be tied to someone. Basically, Silas controls it now. Anyone held on the other side can be controlled by him, and any magical creature killed now falls into his domain. On the other hand, if he dies, then that destroys the other side completely."
"And you want this?" Elijah asked, looking at his brother with uncertainty.
"If Silas dies now, Elijah, then we get to move on. We get to find peace in whatever afterlife there is." Kol leaned forward. "My choices are simple: I can live forever at the whims of a madman who wants to cause chaos, or I can be at peace. I choose peace."
"And so you offered Caroline up like a sacrificial virgin to find it?" Klaus hissed, his eyes glinting dangerously. "I expect such a thing of Kol, but you, witch? I thought she was your best friend."
"She is," Bonnie responded, and guilt ate at her stomach. She thought of Caroline, who had killed twelve witches, just so she wouldn't lose Bonnie, and she wanted to cry. "And I wish there was another way. I wish I could save her from this, but don't you realize what Silas plans to do?" At the blank looks, Bonnie ran a hand over her face. "He will kill you, Klaus. And with you, your whole line. But you won't stay dead. Instead, every single one of you will come back to life, and you will be under Silas' control. He'll be able to spend eternity killing you, if he wants, while making Caroline become whatever he wants her to. The spell ties the dead to him completely. You won't be able to save her, and she won't be able to resist him."
"And so you need Caroline to stop him before he gets the chance," Elijah concluded. "And you are likely right, Miss Forbes is the only one of us who will stand a chance of getting near to him. But what's to stop Silas from killing her and controlling her before she has the chance to use the cure?"
"He's still a man, Elijah," Kol replied dryly. "Most of us like to believe our powers of seduction are such that mind control isn't necessary. He won't want to have her in that way; he would prefer she come to him of her own free will."
"And if she does he won't trust her," Rebekah growled irritably. "Not unless she can prove herself to him."
Bonnie and Kol were silent at that, exchanging heavy looks. This was the part that broke Bonnie's heart. Knowing to what lengths Caroline would have to go, but they couldn't say anything to the siblings before them. Silas could control the dead, but their minds were silent to him. Telling anyone who had not yet crossed the veil the extent of their plan meant they would be handing it over to Silas.
Plus, it would really, really piss Klaus off.
"I have faith in Care," was all Bonnie would allow herself to say.
STILL-DOLL
"What is this place?" Galen asked following Caroline into the cellar. "I thought we were returning to your friends."
"I said we were coming back to Mystic Falls, not that we were planning a reunion," Caroline replied coolly, halting before a very familiar door. The blood was long gone, of course, but Caroline thought that she could still perhaps catch a whiff of it on the air, the metallic tang burning because she knew it had come from Liz and Matt.
It was a fanciful notion, she thought, and a dangerous once. She had as much time for fancy as she did sentiment.
"I'll ask again – what is this place?" Galen asked.
"The beginning," Caroline replied, and she pushed open the door to the cell that had once been hers. Just as she'd known he would be, Silas stood within. The body of Lucy Bennett was tossed carelessly to the side, and Caroline barely spared it a passing glance.
"And so we come full circle," Silas mused, looking at Caroline with interest.
"I come with a peace offering," Caroline replied, and her hand shot out to grasp Galen's arm tightly. "One of the Five, whose destiny it is to kill you."
"What?" Galen gasped, staring at her wide-eyed. "No. You traitorous bitch, what do you think you're doing?"
"The practical thing," Caroline replied coldly. "He brought the veil down, we can't even hide from him on the other side anymore. All we can do is run, now. And I'm so tired of running, Galen." Caroline turned impassionate eyes to Silas. "Shall I kill him, or do you want the honors?"
Galen began to struggle wildly, but Caroline had spent the last several weeks training with him. She knew how he moved, how he fought, and she was stronger and faster. His attempts were in vain, and Caroline finally brought her foot to the back of his knee, shattering it, and bringing an end to his struggles.
"You do it," Silas said as he walked a circle around the duo. "You know how much I like to watch you kill."
"Yeah, I know. You get a real kick out of it," Caroline responded, voice still empty. She allowed her hunger for blood to come up. That had been another thing that had surprised her about truly turning off her emotions – where Stefan and Elena had both gleefully glutted themselves with their emotions off, Caroline found she had even more control than usual. Blood lust wasn't logical, nor was feeding wildly. The only logical path was to determine your end game, and to take the steps to achieve it. Superfluous deaths were simply that – superfluous.
Galen's sacrifice, however, was a necessary evil. Caroline allowed herself on brief moment of regret; he had taught her a lot, had been a most useful tool. She would have liked him to have survived to the end of this.
The moment up, Caroline reared back and struck, quick as a cobra. Her fangs dug into Galen's neck, and the Hunter tried to put up a last ditch effort to escape, but it was too late. Caroline swallowed blood until she felt his pulse begin to slow, then she pulled back and, in what she viewed as a mercy killing, snapped the Hunter's neck. She dropped the body and looked at Silas, who was watching her with bright, aroused eyes. There was distrust there as well, however, and Caroline knew he wouldn't underestimate her as easily as he once had.
"Well," he said, stepping towards her. He reached out and ran his thumb along her lip. His eyes remained on her as he pulled his thumb back to his own mouth and cleaned the blood off of it. When her only reaction was to raise a brow, he smirked.
"Well," he repeated, and held a hand out to her. "Isn't this interesting?"
Caroline merely smirked back, and placed her hand in his.
AN: So, there you have it. I had a comment about last chapter lacking Caroline, so I hope this one made up for that. And emotionless Caroline is very, very cold. Any murders this girl commits are going to be thought about. The pros and cons will be weighed, and she'll only kill if it benefits her in some way. Like poor, poor Galen. But he is a Hunter, which means he'll be back.
And obviously I completely retconned how the whole coming down of the veil thing works. So yeah, Lucy performed the spell, and in order to keep the veil down, everyone held there had to be tied to Silas. So, they can remain on the plain of the living as long as Silas does, but if Silas dies, then they're all released and free to move on. Also, the tie means he controls them. Upped takes and all that.
This chapter's title and quote is from "Silhouettes" by Of Monsters and Men. It's from the Catching Fire soundtrack and is so freaking amazing. Go listen to it, because it's perfect for emotionless Caroline… "darkness becomes me." All credit for this chapter getting written so quickly after the last one is due to this song. Also, just listen to Of Monsters and Men in general, because I love them and am telling you to.
Let me know what you thought of the chapter.