The Fight

Caroline allowed Damon to help her into the car and do up her buckle for her, as if she was a child, as if she was human and vulnerable enough to even need such protections. He closed her door for her and she slumped against it, blank eyes staring out the window. It was all she could do to stop the tears. She didn't even have anyone to be angry at, it wasn't Stefan or Elena's fault that killing Klaus had killed Tyler, none of them had known, it could have just as easily been Stefan, Damon and Caroline who had died with Klaus. It was like the Butterfly effect; a few hundred years ago someone had sired Rose who had sired Katherine who had sired Damon, and so on. None of them had known that the blood linking them would ultimately tie them all together, back to a single vampire; an original. They could end it, end all of it, take out the original family and rid the world of vampires for good. Yet on some level, despite all the blood and the deaths, it seemed wrong; to end an entire species. The fact that she was one of that species didn't matter to Caroline at that moment; she was too detached to care.

Damon on the other hand was practically pulsating with the knowledge. He had never felt so alive knowing that he could be killed without even knowing it was coming, because he had more to lose now, and yet he couldn't help but wonder if the best thing he could do would be to end it, end it all, for her, for his beautiful Elena, who deserved to be free of them all. Except whereas Stefan always felt that Elena deserved the chance at a normal life, on some level Damon believed that Elena deserved more than normal, she deserved a knight in shining armour with superpowers that could protect her, be with her forever. Ensure she would never want for anything. But the problem was that while the originals lived Damon couldn't quite be that knight, he would always know there was someone more powerful than himself, someone who might rip her away from him.

Damon started the car but before taking off for the Gilbert house Damon looked at his dark eyed beauty and tried to imagine what future was best for her but he realised he couldn't decide for her. She had to decide. It had to be her choice. "Elena if you want me to, I'll take them down, all of them. I'll end it, all of it. Mystic Falls will go back to being just another quaint American town with some slightly more unusual folklore."

"Seriously? You think I'm just going to say, sure fine kill my boyfriend and my best friend so I can sleep better at night."

"No one would blame you. You've seen what Stefan alone can do on a rampage; you'd be saving humanity from all of that."

"Humanity is pretty good at getting themselves killed without vampire help. I'm not saying its right Damon, I know it's wrong to let vampires kill people but I can't write off an entire species because of some supernatural loophole. Bonnie says you're unnatural, all of you, but you feel, you think, you're still alive. And besides, I love you, you idiot."

How could he argue with that? Damon melted and caught her lips up in a slow deep kiss. They were oblivious to Caroline's presence in the back seat, but that was okay because she barely registered their presence in the front.

Caroline's mind was a fog of loss and sorrow and confusion. Nothing made sense to her anymore, she had been happy with Matt and then she'd become a vampire and it had been wrong to stay with him, it had broken hear heart letting go of him and she would always love him from a distance but she'd done it for good reasons. Then Tyler had come along and their shared sensation of being different, of being non-human or more-than-human had bound them together, given them both purpose and comfort in their changed states. Now he was gone what was she left with? A life of loneliness?

After letting go of Matt she's had to accept that she couldn't be with a human, couldn't put one in danger like Stefan and Damon did, especially knowing that she could never give them a normal future, when she looked into Matt Donovan's future she saw white picket fences, kids and PTA meetings and she no longer fit in that picture. Dating a werewolf had been dangerous but at least she hadn't felt like she was taking anything away from him. She had never robbed Tyler of the chance at a normal life. Vampire couplings were rare, and the only one she'd ever had any real chemistry with was now dead, Stefan had just killed him. Caroline had fought so hard so endlessly to stay positive, to embrace her mortality. She loved that she would always be beautiful. But the cost was never getting older, never moving on, watching her mother age and die. Bonnie and Matt too. Greif over Tyler was multiplied and compounded by the years of grief ahead. The girl with the sunshine smile was finding it hard to imagine that she'd ever smile again. Maybe it was time to end it. Maybe she was better off taking them down. One by one; Kol, Finn and Elijah until all the vampires were all gone. Would the world really miss vampires? Maybe for a while, Elena would mourn them, but in a few generations all memory of them would be gone, they would be reduced to folklore, and stories, the fiction she'd once believed they was the truth.

"Nobody else is going to die," Elena reassured Damon when they parted, her cheeks flushed with the intensity of the combination of attraction and affection. It was a powerful combination of wanting.

The words were aimed at Damon but they floated in to the periphery of Caroline's consciousness and she turned them over in her mind questioning whether she agreed or disagreed. Caroline wanted blood, she wanted to be angry, she wanted to get revenge for Tyler. She couldn't, wouldn't take it out on Stefan or Damon, so that only left Finn, Kol and Elijah.

As if summoned by her thoughts two figures appeared out of nowhere and even stomping on the breaks wasn't enough to stop the car from crashing into the wall of vampire in front of them. There were only two of them; Finn and Elijah, but their combined strength was the equivalent of hitting a brick wall, the front of the car crumpled. Elena was thrown so hard against her seatbelt she felt the bruise immediately. Damon threw it into reverse but a third vampire picked up the back of the car. Kol. Damon cursed. "Call Stefan, stay in the car. Caroline time to wake up," Damon instructed. Elena dialled her ex while Caroline and Damon emerged from the car.