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Klaus and Caroline pulled up to Elijah's mansion, it was only just ending on seven in the early morning.
"Woah." Caroline breathed.
The building was all white and it had columns stretching from the earth to the top floor of it. The windows were all laced with a black, metal balcony and a grand staircase swept itself to the front door of the mansion.
If only I could show Caroline the houses I have around the world. Klaus chuckled to himself. This is a dollhouse in comparison.
"What's funny?" Caroline smiled at Klaus, hearing his laughter.
"Nothing." Klaus smirked back at her, reaching for her hand and guiding her up the stairs.
Elijah immediately opened the door before they had even reached it.
"Welcome, Caroline." Elijah politely said, placing a hand at her back and pushing her inside.
As Caroline walked ahead and into the house, Elijah glanced back at Klaus and shook his head, a silent word of failure, he didn't save Liz. He couldn't save Liz.
Once Elijah and Klaus had joined Caroline, who stood awkwardly in the empty space below the staircase, she eagerly turned to Elijah.
"So?" Caroline's eyes suddenly turned distressed.
Elijah hasn't talked about Mum yet. Why hasn't he talked about mum yet? Something is wrong. Something is very very wrong. Caroline shook a little.
Elijah didn't reply.
"So!?" Caroline faked a laugh. Liz had to be safe, she's fine. "So where's Mum?"
"She's fine." Elijah tried to comfort her and Klaus pulled Caroline into him, rubbing his thumb gently over her hand. "I couldn't get her out of the warehouse, but she's okay. There was a whole army of wolves, Caroline. I could have gotten her out of there if it wasn't for the amount of people I was up against. I'm sorry, Caroline."
"Please don't apologise." Caroline held tightly onto Klaus's hand, looking back at Elijah.
"How many are there?" Klaus spoke roughly.
"Hundreds. We tried to fight them off, but we'll need more people to take them on." Elijah replied.
"We?" Klaus cocked his head to the side. "Are Rebekah and Kol here?"
"No." Elijah's lip slightly twitched to the side, and if it was anybody besides Klaus speaking to him, they wouldn't have noticed.
"Who was it?" Klaus was serious, he knew Elijah was guilty of something.
"Elijah?" A weary woman's voice came from upstairs.
"Who's that?" Caroline asked, looking to Elijah.
Elijah didn't reply and Klaus only stared back at him, slightly narrowing his eyes.
"Yes, brother. Who is that?" Klaus persisted.
"Eli-" The woman's voice came again from the top of the stairs, but she stopped speaking once she realised who was in the house.
It was Katherine.
Klaus let go of Caroline's hand and instantly tensed.
"What is she doing here?! I thought you were going to take care of her!" Klaus growled, turning to yell in Elijah's face.
"I told you that I was discussing peace treaties with her." Elijah said quietly, trying to not further anger the enraged Klaus.
"Originals don't make peace treaties I had thought that you meant you were going to be done with her!" Klaus yelled.
Caroline stood still and stared at Elijah and Klaus, her own emotions brewing in her conscious. She glanced up at Katherine, a frail looking young girl, innocent. But suddenly, as she stared at Katherine, she was overcome with rage.
"She tried to kill us." Caroline said quietly at first, not being heard by the originals or Katherine. How could this manipulative woman be frail? It's an act. Katherine's whole life has to be an act! She'll keep on manipulating… she'll keep on hurting Klaus. She'll keep on trying to betray and kill Klaus. My Klaus. "She tried to kill us!" Caroline now yelled, her darker side shining through.
Klaus and Elijah fell silent from their fighting and Klaus smirked a little at the strong Caroline he hadn't seen in a while.
Caroline turned to Elijah.
"She shouldn't be alive!" Caroline yelled. "She's tried to kill us all. She tried to kill me! If it wasn't for the vampire blood in my system I would be dead! She didn't mean for me to stay alive!"
Klaus suddenly clenched his jaw. He had forgotten about Katherine trying to kill Caroline, and nearly succeeding. And to think, that there was a chance Caroline wouldn't be here with him… it wasn't something he wanted to think about.
"Kill. Her." Klaus ordered Elijah.
Elijah stood his ground and clenched his jaw.
"I can't do that." Elijah replied calmly.
Klaus looked at Elijah, and turned to Katherine.
"Why not?" Klaus spoke slowly and roughly.
"Because I think I'm in love with her." Elijah said, but he looked up to Katherine as he said it and a small smile flashed across her lips as she looked back.
"You are in love with her?!" Klaus took a step closer to Elijah, he eyes were so angry they were nearly burning.
"Yes. I believe I am." Elijah came to the realization himself and looked longingly at Katherine.
"She's an enemy to the family, Elijah. Family above all else." Klaus quoted the mantra they had both lived by all their lives and Elijah sighed as he heard it.
Caroline looked up at Katherine again, the anger inside her subduing. She was surprised at herself and a little ashamed of her previous outburst, she never usually was so dark and passionate… she didn't know if it was a good or bad thing.
You can't let your anger get the better of you. Caroline told herself as she looked up to the scared looking Katherine. Klaus is enough anger for the both of you. Yes, your dark side is important, but you can't encourage his violence.
Caroline then looked back at Elijah and studied his face. He was upset, but it was only barely noticeable across his composed face. Pity started to rise up in Caroline as she looked at this star-crossed lovers before her… they couldn't be together and they couldn't be apart.
Finally, her gaze landed on Klaus. She could see how confused he was. He was trying to be strong and powerful but she saw in his eyes a confusion and sadness as he stared back at Elijah.
How could Elijah love Katherine?
They had already been through this with Tatiana, so was this just trying to compensate for her, or was it real?
But why, out of all the women he could possible have, did it have to the one woman he had sworn to torture her whole life? Klaus asked himself.
"Niklaus. If you truly love me, and you truly put family above all else, then shouldn't you put their needs above all else too?" Elijah asked, reaching out to touch Klaus's shoulder. "Please, brother, I love her. And I need your blessing."
Klaus didn't say a thing and stormed out of the house, he didn't look back to Caroline, Elijah or Katherine and he slammed the door behind him. Without even noticing that Katherine was a little hunched over, pale and skinny, with a bright red and swollen werewolf bite on her arm.
Klaus was fuming and pacing outside the front of the house, the air was fresh and the sun was still only just above the horizon, basking the mansion in a soft pink glow. After a few laps of pacing, he heard the front door open and close quietly, and then Caroline was at his side. She too was still oblivious to the fact that Katherine was already dying, without the need of any action by Elijah or Klaus himself.
Caroline didn't say anything and only took one of his hands in her own and started to walk away from the house, to a nice secluded bench in a flower-filled garden which looked over the horizon and to the sun.
"I'm sorry." Caroline said quietly as they both stared at the horizon.
Caroline didn't really know why she was apologizing, but she felt it needed to be said.
"Am I being too harsh to Elijah?" Klaus said quietly, turning to Caroline.
"I don't know… I got carried away… earlier. I don't know why I got so angry." Caroline said back to him.
"Katherine has always been so manipulative, so… incapable of love." Klaus growled. "Elijah deserves better than her."
"There's really nothing you can do." Caroline frowned. "You should give them a chance. I should give her a chance…. We've all done horrible things in our lives, Nik. You're not an exception, I'm not an excpetion and Katherine isn't an exception. Doesn't that tell us that we're all equal?"
Elijah ran to Katherine and inspected her wound. It was already flaring and becoming black… how long would she last?
"I'm so sorry." Elijah whispered and pulled her into a hug, breathing in her scent.
"It's all a bit ironic isn't it?" Katherine smiled. "I helped you so that I could free myself from Klaus, yet here I am again, asking for favours, once again in his debt."
"He doesn't know about the bite. Perhaps when I tell him he will act rationally." Elijah hoped.
"Or perhaps it will solve all his problems." Katherine pulled back and ran a hand across Elijah's face, talking quietly. "You said you loved me?"
Elijah tensed a little, he had forgotten he said that.
"Come on! I've heard you say it already!" Katherine laughed, but tears were dwelling in her eyes.
"I love you." Elijah whispered.
"I love you too." Katherine replied, smiling.
She lifted herself up so she could softly kiss his lips, a tear dragging down her left cheek.
Suddenly the door slammed open and Elijah and Katherine turned to see the still fuming Klaus, followed by a content looking Caroline.
"I'll leave you to your own business. But you'll get no blessing from me." Klaus growled. "We have to focus on more important matters. Say… the army that's coming to kill us?!"
"We've got to get more people to help us." Caroline chimed in. "You said yourself we can't taken them on alone, so we need back ups!"
Caroline marched up to Elijah and Katherine on the stairs as they were silent, wanting to get them involved.
"Seriously? There has to be someone here who has contacts." Caroline sighed. "Enough with the family matters and family tension! Let's figure this out."
Caroline grabbed Elijah's hand and Katherine's hand in her own started to quickly pull them down the stairs so that they could discuss in the living room, but Katherine screeched as soon as she pulled.
Caroline turned around, confused, to see a black and red swollen bite mark on her arm.
Oh. She's bitten. Caroline turned to look at Klaus, he had noticed too.
And yet…
He didn't seem to care.
Liz awoke once more in the mansion, but cried a horrified scream when she saw the dead bodies surrounding her. Bodies she didn't recognize, but had left a pool of blood on the once grey concrete floor.
Suddenly, an overpowering and intense feeling of hunger and thirst and every emotion she once knew as a human peaked inside her, she had to drink the blood. There was no way of denying it, no way of suppressing it, she couldn't stop herself.
A trail of blood slowly trickled towards her and she suddenly felt fangs appear in her mouth, while her eyes began to sting and she felt her veins feel as though they were going to pop.
She reached a shaking hand towards the blood and dipped it into the blood, bringing the red hand back to her mouth and slowly at first, lick it off her hand.
She was disgusting herself and yet she couldn't stop.
Body upon body surrounded her and nothing was stopping her from draining each and every one.
The transition was complete.