Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Caroline couldn't help but smile as she looked around at all her classmates in their caps and gowns. The day had finally arrived where they would all leave their childhood behind and move onto adulthood. Caroline wasn't sure what that meant for herself, a few hours was not enough time to determine her future but she was working on it. She walked up to Bonnie who was looking around the crowd herself.

"Where is everyone?" Caroline asked and in the next moment Matt ran to greet them.

"I'm here" He said placing his cap onto his head.

"Where have you been?" Caroline asked him quickly.

"Oh you know getting ready for the summer. Dodging death by a vampire hunter." Matt said sarcastically causing Caroline to raise her eyebrows at him.

"Where's Elena? We can't do this without her." Bonnie said, looking between Caroline and Matt. Caroline frowned and scanned the crowd with her eyes quickly. She didn't think Elena was going to show up, especially since Jeremy was back from the dead for who knew how long.

"I'm here" Elena called as she ran up to the group with Stefan on her heels. Caroline watched with a small smile on her face as Bonnie and Elena embraced for a long moment. "Thank you for today" Elena whispered to Bonnie before letting her go, Bonnie just gave a small smile in return.

"I can't believe it" Caroline said looking at each of her friends. "We're actually all here. We're all here together" She said in excitement and also disbelief. Everything they had been through together it was a miracle that each of them were graduating at all, let alone together. Everyone looked at each other as reality sunk in, Caroline looked at Bonnie and slapped her playfully on the arm.

"Bonnie Bennett are you crying?" She asked with a joking tone but Caroline could feel herself close to tears as well.

"This is the last time we'll all be together before you guys go off to college" Bonnie said looking slightly to the side as she spoke.

"You mean before we go off to college?" Caroline asked even though she didn't even think those plans were in the future for her anymore. She had always had a plan in place for her life and when she became a vampire she vowed that that wasn't going to change that plan, but now everything changed.

"Actually" Elena began as she looked at Caroline apologetically "I missed the dead line you know being an emotionless bitch"

"Well that's one of the perks of being a vampire, we can go wherever we want to go. We can choose our own roommates." Caroline began getting excited as she talked causing Bonnie to smile sadly at her friend. Bonnie didn't know if she would survive this fight with Silas', she didn't know if all of Caroline's plans would come true. If she had to pretend for the rest of the day she would, if only to make her friends happy. "We could get a triple room" Caroline finished causing Stefan to laugh lightly under his breath. Caroline slightly rolled her eyes at him and resisted the urge to touch her stomach. All those plans sounded great and she wanted nothing more than to get a triple room with her two best friends and get the full college experience but the truth was none of those things were in the future for her. She knew she had to put on the act for them, her friends who wouldn't be able to look past her so called betrayal to them. She shook her head and focused on those in front of her with tears in her eyes.

"I'm happy we're all here" Bonnie said barely keeping her emotions in check.

"Group hug" Caroline said on the verge of breaking down herself, but she forced a smile on her face as her and her four friends gathered together in one last hug. None of them knew that this was possibly the last time they would all be like this again. Bonnie clung to her two best friends on either side of her as the tears fell from her eyes. She knew she would see them on the other side if she didn't survive but it would never be like this again. They released each other and made their way over to their seats as graduation started. Bonnie sat in her seat as she watched her fellow classmates cross the stage as her father announced each name.

"Greetings little witch" she heard a distinctive British accent behind her say, she stayed facing the stage as she responded to him.

"I thought Stefan got rid of you?" she questioned not letting any emotion cross her face.

"He did" Kol responded "And I spent the night crawling out of a cement grave" Bonnie said nothing as she stared at the stage but Kol wasn't finished yet. "Isn't that the witch your friend Caroline killed?" he asked turning his body to look at a dark skinned woman seated with the other graduates. Bonnie turned as well following his line of sight shock finally showing on her face. "And over there" Kol continued motioning his head to the right with a smile on his face "That's my hybrid friend Adrian, also dead." He said leaning forward as Bonnie stared at him. "In fact this place in scattered with two dozen supernatural faces all of whom have reason to lash out because their lives were sacrificed in order to make your expression triangle. All they're waiting on is word from me." Bonnie glared at Kol as he smirked at him.

"The veil goes back up tonight. Don't you have anything better to do than to harass me and my friends?" Bonnie accused causing Kol to scuff and then chuckle.

"Oh now that's the thing, I don't want the veil to go back up." Kol said as Bonnie stared at him as if he were crazy. "In fact I want you to drop it completely. So I and my fallen friends can live Bonnie, it's time to pay the piper" Bonnie stared at Kol for a long moment and then he disappeared. Bonnie took a deep breath trying to figure out what to do next. She knew the veil had to go back up tonight and no matter how afraid she was of her upcoming battle with Silas she would do what needed to be done.

Caroline paced back and forth with the phone to her ear, she had called Klaus so many times and he had yet to pick up. She hated to say it but she was relieved, she knew Damon needed help but she wasn't ready to face him yet. She watched as Stefan spoke to Alaric and shook her head letting him no she hadn't gotten a hold of Klaus yet. She had just hung up the phone when her head exploded and she gripped it with her hands.

"Remember us Caroline" one of the witches called out in rage, her hand held up as she focused her energy on Caroline. Caroline looked up through the pain and recognized the witch immediately. She was one of the ones she killed to save Bonnie. After it had happened she had been devastated and it didn't help that Klaus refused to comfort her, but she came to the conclusion that she would do it all over again if it meant saving someone she loved and cared about. Caroline groaned in pain and her knees buckled lowering her body to the floor. She could see out of the corner of her eye a graduation cap flying through the air and then the sound of ripping flesh and then the pain was gone. The witches head was detached from her body and it slumped to the ground.

"There are plenty more of these to go around" Caroline heard Klaus say but her body was frozen in its spot. Stefan reached out and helped her from her kneeling position on the ground. "Who's next?" Klaus asked and watched as each of the witches looked at each other and then at him "I can do this all day" he stated before they all ran off. Caroline slowly turned to face him and couldn't help the smile that spread over her face as their eyes met. Klaus smirked back as he took in the blonde beauty in front of him.

"Klaus" Stefan said making his way over to the hybrid, his eyes shooting between Caroline and the man he was approaching.

"Yes Rippah'?" Klaus asked not taking his eyes off of Caroline. There was something different about her from the last time he saw her. A certain glow that wasn't there before. Caroline quickly averted her eyes from Klaus' as she watched him study her. She was afraid that he would find out what she was hiding just from looking in her eyes. Elena walked up to Caroline and placed a hand on her shoulder, Caroline faced her friend with a small smile letting her know that she was ok.

"We need to save Damon" Stefan said his voice urgent, he knew his brother didn't have much time and that he needed Klaus' help.

"Ah yes my least favorite Salvatore. Well come on mate lead the way" Klaus said finally taking his eyes off of Caroline to look at Stefan. Stefan nodded and flashed off, Klaus gave Caroline one last lingering look before he left to follow Stefan. Caroline looked at Elena and could see the anxiousness she held in her body as well as the worry in her eyes as she looked in the direction both Klaus and Stefan took off in.

"Go head" Caroline said softly causing Elena's eyes to snap to Caroline's.

"No I'll stay here with you just in case" Elena said but Caroline was already shaking her head at her friend.

"I know you want to be there to make sure Damon is ok, so go" Caroline said with a smile causing Elena to smile back.

"Thank you" Elena whispered before she too flashed off in the direction of the elder Salvatore. Caroline sighed to herself and pulled off her cap and gown. She could hear all the patrons of the graduation ceremony leaving and she knew she had to go meet her mom for an early dinner. Caroline bit her lip as she made her way towards her car, her thoughts were scattered and she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings when she bumped into a hard chest.

"Sorry" she mumbled not bothering to look up and made to make her way around the person only for them to grab on to her arm. Her eyes snapped up and she gasped in surprise.

"Kol" she whispered with wide eyes.