Author Note:I'm actually really happy that so many people like this! This chapter is pretty violent- you've been warned twice now!-but it also has two possible songs that would go with it. The first one was what I initially envisioned but then I heard the second and felt like it had the better feel. Either way they both are awesome. Enjoy!

~Don't Let Me Go

I'm reaching out wide
Trying to catch myself before I fall
Too little too late
Can you save me

-RAIGN

~I'd Love to Change the World

I'd love to change the world
But I don't know what to do
So I'll leave it up to you

-Ten Years After (Cover by Jetta)

The sudden flickering light coming to life made her head hurt worse. Or maybe it was the concussion that was the real source for her pain. That, coupled with the burning around her wrists and ankles, made for one hell of a wake up call. She couldn't tell how long she was out. It didn't feel that long anyways. Maybe a couple hours at the most. Caroline kept her head down, mostly due to the pain she was still feeling. She didn't exactly know where she was. However the memories from the other night were slowly coming back to her. Her and Moxie getting jumped at the warehouse and the chase that followed. And as expected she couldn't remember anything after that. The flickering light stopped flickering as if it finally decided that it wanted to be completely on. At this Caroline looked up.

The room she was in was stark white. It looked new in an odd way, sterile was the best word she could describe for it, there was a drain in the middle of the laminated cement floor, and a mirror that covered the entire wall in front of her. Her stomach sunk, she knew someone was on the other side of it. There had to be someone there. And that wasn't good news for her. The thought was unsettling for her. After a few minutes with the light completely on Caroline noticed the outline of a seam in the wall. It looked as if the wall was split a third of the way through, like the construction crew ran out of material too soon and couldn't make one solid wall. She tested the bindings on her right wrist. The sting reverberated from her wrist to her shoulder. She winced, they were definitely laced with vervain. Another horrible gut sinking feeling came over her. The dreadful thought that this was all going to come to a horrible end of pain sank in. She was no fool and this wasn't the first time that she had woken up in an unfamiliar place restrained and held against her will. The true question on her mind was by who? Well there was that question and then there was the fact of escape on her mind.


At first the screen was dark. Giving no answers and only heightening the suspense and dread that he was feeling. And then everything sprung to life. First there was a voice. It was a woman's voice, methodical and deliberate. And so the nightmare began. "Niklaus Mikaelson, it has come to our understanding that you are a very hard being to find. You don't know us, but we know all about you. Let me begin with this," the screen jumped to life. A light came on in a single room. They were viewing the scene through a floor length window. It was clear that they were on the other side of a mirror. The room itself was bleak and common in appearance, nothing outstanding really. But the most striking thing about the whole scenario was the beautiful girl tied to a chair in the middle. Even with the darkening situation at hand she was breathtaking. Her hair was like a halo surrounding her, a glow under the flickering light. And it was this sight that took the last shred of hope he had. He was fool to have even allowed himself the small opportunity of such a thing as hope creep its way into his cold, dark heart. If he even had such a thing. But as soon as the light in that room cut on his heart sunk. His small sharp intake of breath escaped everyone's notice. His eyes widened. He swore he could feel his heart race.

The voice continued. "I believe we have something that is precious to you. It would be a shame if something so pretty were to be harmed, wouldn't you agree?" His hands clenched into tight white knuckled fists. If they harm one hair on her head I will rip their hearts out and feed it to them. She continued, "Well, unfortunately you're not here to make your opinion on the matter known. And she was the last person to be in contact with you-oh, well I don't want to spill all of the beans." His breath quickened and his eyes bore into the screen. He was never a praying man, seemed rather foolish really,but for her, he found himself praying to any god that would listen.


A cold, calculating, female voice suddenly filled the room from a source that Caroline couldn't make out. "Hello Miss Forbes. It has been brought to our attention that you are acquainted with a man by the name of Niklaus Mikaelson." Her eyes locked with the identical pair of her own in front of her. Her heart rate accelerated slightly at the words. Klaus? What's this about? If this is about Klaus...why am I here? The dread seeped further into her bones. She had a thought as to why she was there.

A slight grating noise emanated from the seam in the wall. Caroline's eyes shot to the wall. The 'smaller' part of the wall had slid back and into the rest of the wall like a sliding door. A large, slightly muscled, man entered the room. She couldn't get a read on him. Couldn't tell if he was human or not. Her eyes widened a fraction and she couldn't help but look back at the mirror as if it would tell her what was going on. The man stood just a few feet away from her, stoic and statuesque.

The woman's voice came back on, "You were the last person to come into contact with him before our sources lost track of him. Would you care to tell us where he is?"


"Oh God, what are they going to do to her," Moxie's voice was soft in the silent room. As if it was a breath leaving her body. Klaus' eyes quickly glanced at her then back at the screen. Those were his exact thoughts as well. Tell them Caroline, tell them where I am. But he knew she hadn't. Or else they'd have found him. Who was to say they she hadn't and they did know where he was? Or worse that they didn't believe her and that's why she was still lost to them. A million different scenarios were crossing his mind and he didn't know how he was going to survive the rest of this.


A long pause. She didn't know what to do. Should she give Klaus up? But what would that mean? Face it, you don't want to do that. He may be bad but you don't know what these people are capable of. He's the Original hybrid, he could take them! But what if he couldn't? If something happened to him then they were all done for. She was done for.

A pang went through her chest. God, she was losing everything in her life that made sense. But one thing was sure, she wasn't about to lose anything else if she could help it. These people kidnapped her, tried to kidnap Moxie too. Whatever it was they wanted, they weren't going to get it.

A sudden fire inside her roared to life. It sounded so cliche, but it really felt like she had a flame in her chest. With a new sense of confidence, and overwhelming trepidation, she looked at the man who had entered. "Who? I'm sorry, but I don't know anyone by that name." Play innocent first, see how far that gets yo-

"Wrong answer."

His fist was much harder than she would have thought. Her head snapped to the side following the line of impact. She had been hit before, the perks of being friends with a much coveted doppleganger and a part of countless plans gone awry. But this might have been like getting hit by a steel rod. A decent amount of blood filled her mouth from the split lip and the cut inside her cheek she received. Reflexively she spit it out onto the ground. She took a moment to recollect herself and her scattering thoughts. Her head finally rose up. The room appeared slightly warped but after a few blinks she was able to perceive it normally again. A small trail of blood rolled down her lip and past her chin. She looked back up at the man briefly, he remained stoic, then at her reflection. The blood wasn't a shock but the look of her cheek was. A dark purple bruise surrounded her cheekbone, a small gash was at the center. What the hell was this guy?

"Let's try this again," the woman's voice hadn't changed, no emotion behind it, "Where is Klaus Mikaelson?"


The hit went straight through his chest. Right to the shriveled thing in his chest he called a heart. He was stuck in this godforsaken room with the very people who had it out for him time and time again, and she was there. He would give anything in the world to reverse the roles. If it was him that they were after then he should be there and she should be safe. He felt rage but also fear. There was an acute sense of utter terror at the thought of what he would do if he lost Caroline. And that was yet another fear in him that he never knew existed. All these emotions caused by one girl frightened the Original to his core.


"I don't know."

This time it was the side of the temple. Same side as the first punch. The ringing in her head was deafening. She gripped the arms of the seat as if it could stabilize her head. The pain was acute and disorienting. She'd rather have the steel pipe than his fists.

Closing her eyes, she forced her head to a normal position- even though she felt far from normal. When she actually felt like the room wasn't going to spin around like a top she opened her eyes. Since the attack was around her temple she could only make out some slight discoloring since her hair masked most of it. Caroline fixed a steely gaze at her reflection.

"Again, where is he, Caroline?"

"I don't know, look if you know who he is then you must know what he is." Caroline was never one for telling people what she was, or for that matter, what Klaus was. But she knew that this was no accident and whatever was going on to her had a purpose.

"Yes, we do." A long pause. Caroline waited, keeping an eye on the man next to her. Her face was aching. She was tired, tired of this game and so fucking tired of getting hit. Suddenly the woman spoke up again. "And we know what you are, too." A sharp metallic click sounded next to her. Her eyes had been off him for a millisecond but in that time he had pulled out a gun. A chill ran up her spine.


A horrified gasp escaped Moxie. They were going to kill her! She was probably at the bottom of a lake somewhere and it was all Moxie's fault for wasting so much time waiting. The girl watched in blind terror at the scene before her. Her body tense, mind blanking, heart racing- she was helpless but to watch her friend on the small screen before her.

The others in the room remained tense and waiting, to Moxie they seemed distant, lost on what to do with what they were seeing. Maybe that's how they coped with stressful situations. Damon and the well dressed gentleman had on a mask of hardness, Stefan looked more concerned and Elena had a look of disbelief mixed with fear. And then she saw Klaus, the look he was giving the TV was one of pure unadulterated rage with a slight terror filled gleam. She almost got lost staring at his face. This was a man that looked like he was about to lose it all. A pang of compassion hit her without warning. However she brushed it aside. And went back to the TV, her heart and breath simultaneously stopping in apprehension.


Caroline breathed in a shaky breath out of nervousness. The man hadn't moved. She looked back at the mirror. Even she couldn't deny the look of wild fear her eyes held. "Look I don't know, okay?!" Another pause. She waited her breath going in and out like she was so used to doing.

"Caroline...I'm afraid this won't be very pleasant for you."

The loud bang from the gun was the first thing she recognized, and then the white hot searing pan of the actual bullet, and it had to have been a wooden one, going through her left leg was the following. She had been tortured before. And this time was no different than the others. But nothing could ever prepare her for how a bullet feels. An uncontrollable strangled cry escaped her throat. She cut it off with a firm clamp of her mouth, trying to swallow the horrible pain she was feeling. Her fingers dug into the chair. She could end this. Really, it would be so easy just to give in and tell them where Klaus was...but she couldn't do it. She just couldn't. Caroline didn't know what to do.

The wound on her leg wasn't going to heal any time soon, she was too young to heal as quickly as some of her friends could. Caroline's head swiveled back against the back of the chair. She was experiencing so many different kinds of pain right then. Her vision was swimming. She was vaguely aware of the man walking over to her left side. Her head leaned forward. She had no clue as to why she was acting so stupidly brave. Maybe it was the overwhelming amount of miserable pain she was in at that moment, or maybe it was something more shocking to her. Maybe she wanted to protect whatever the hell it was that she was feeling for Klaus, to keep him safe. Then again, that's just who she was. Caroline the Martyr.

Another shot rang out. That shocked her. Another, fresh round of intense suffering started. This time he hit her in the right shoulder. Her body seized forward, the pain made her limbs shake. She didn't have time to react before he fired another round into the right side of her stomach. "FUCK!" She screamed it loud. No matter how badly she didn't want to give them the satisfaction of eliciting a reaction from her- her body was no longer in her control. Suddenly her mouth was filled with blood and she was forced to slump over and expel it onto the floor before her. The dark liquid was so strange against the once immaculate white floor.

"Well then, if you refuse to tell us what you know, you are hereby forcing our hands."

Suddenly something clicked for Caroline, she realized that even if she did give them what they wanted, there was no guarantee that she'd be free. And this thought both terrified her and empowered her. "I'm not telling you a damn thing." She smirked. As soon as she woke up in this room her fate had been sealed. She hadn't realized it then, but she knew it now.

"Very well."

With that, the man stepped closer to her, gun raised straight at her head, right by her temple. She looked away and at her reflection, the battered woman she saw looked more like a fighter and less like a victim. She took a deep breath and waited. And then the gun went off.