(3/30/21) A/N: I claim no ownership of the Vampire Diaries.

Sorry for grammar/ spelling issues.

Thank you for reading!

*Trigger Warnings: Canon typical violence.

Season 3: Black Dawn (Part 4)

Elena snapped awake, regaining consciousness after her head had fallen uncomfortably to the side. She struggled to lift her arms, realizing she was strapped down to a wooden chair.

Elena moaned in surprise as a blonde nurse in turquoise scrubs shoved a needle in her arm.

"What are you doing?" The fear in her voice was plain as day.

"Draining you of all your blood," Klaus responded.

He was across from her, on a couch on the far side of his room. They were in his mansion.

Elena pleaded to Tyler to help her, to get Stefan. Klaus demanded Tyler collect the empty blood bags instead.

In an effort to not let Klaus know he had broken the sire bond, Tyler walked away.

Klaus assured her that hers would a painless death.

Sophia Gilbert would never forgive him for killing her only sister. Again. Further reducing her dwindling family.

But he had already made his peace with the fact that they were not in the cards in this life.

It was a pity she couldn't be compelled.

They needed a fresh start, in another life.

Gloria's words came back to him.

Old souls aren't built to remember their past lives.

He would take care to find her sooner in her next incarnation.

She would have no memory of the torment he caused her. He would have a clean slate.

He had seen for himself that she had been tempted to absolve him of his so-called sins, even amidst all his actions towards her family.

She would have no reason to turn him away when he found each other again.

Klaus looked grief-stricken, and for a brief moment, younger than his years, as the desiccation spell took hold of him. His skin grew ashy as the veins in his face became staunchly apparent.

The last face he saw was Stefan Salvatore.

As he lost consciousness, it was Sofija's giddy smile he saw, warm and welcoming.

"Make haste Nik, before anyone spots us."

Niklaus smiled fondly at Sofija, her grip on his hand strong and purposeful.

She was leading him to a corner cottage at the edge of the village.

She cracked the door open and looked nervously at him as he stepped inside.

"This cottage hasn't been used in ages. It was poorly made and it provides its inhabitants absolutely no warmth during the winter. Or so I'm told. It was my parent's first cottage before they inherited my grandparents."

Sofija babbled, not quite meeting his eyes she talked.

She was facing away from him as Niklaus wrapped his arms around her.

Her breath caught as he began to place soft kisses along her neck.

He smirked as her head shifted to the side, providing him further access.

"I can think of one or two ways to remedy this cottage's lack of warmth."

Niklaus groaned as daylight shined through the window of their cottage. His arms instinctively tightened around her, and he burrowed his face into the crook of her neck, not wanting to wake quite yet.

She shifted in his arms.

"Good morrow husband."

Niklaus opened one eye and took in the sight of his bare, disheveled wife. A sleepy smile graced her face.

Niklaus closed his eye again and pulled her closer to him.

"Good morrow wife."

"Nik!" Sofija had beamed when he returned home that day.

Her joy was infectious and he smiled in response. It lapsed at the sight of the basins of water lined up along the wall next to the door.

"Sofija, women who are expecting a babe are pardoned from their more laborious chores," he chided as he stepped closer to her, "Promise me you will cease them."

His defiant wife rolled her eyes fondly, but she nodded head.

"Gods help you if our daughter has a drop of wolf's blood. You won't know what to do with her," Sofija shared, her eyes laughing.

"Your poor parents," Niklaus shook his head as he remembered the antics his wife committed when she was younger. Then he froze.

"Our daughter?" he asked, his voice quiet.

"We're to have a daughter, Nik."

A surprised laugh escaped Niklaus.

In the blink of an eye, he had his wife in his arms and her feet were off the ground as he spun her around. Sopha laughed joyfully, peppering his face with kisses.

Despair overwhelmed Niklaus. He struggled to reign it in as Sofija shifted in their makeshift bed, whimpering in her sleep.

"Please let me hold her! Where are you taking her?!" his wife cried out brokenly in her sleep.

"Sofija, please wake," Niklaus begged as she began to cry.

Suddenly, her eyes flashed open.

She clutched his shirt and cried into his chest as she awoke.

"She lied Nik, she lied."

Niklaus held his wife in an attempt to comfort her, her words not registering.

Soon her wails calmed down to sniffles.

"Why wouldn't she let me hold her? Just once." his wife pondered, her voice crushed.

The rush of energy that had overcome her left as soon as it had arrived, and he could see she was fighting to keep her eyes open.

A solemn look entered her eyes, and for the moment, she looked impossibly older than her seven and ten years.

"I love you Nik, always."

"How could you!?" Niklaus demanded as he entered his family's home.

"Oh Niklaus," Esther sighed at the sight of her son, "It will take time, but you and Sofija will get past this. You'll never forget your child-"

"Sofija died. Ayana said something of a fever leftover from childbirth."

His mother's face paled, and she drew her hand to cover her mouth as she gasped.

"But she was young- and so strong! She was a child of the wolves," Esther said numbly, staring at her son with dawning sorrow.

"And in her final moments, her last words described the agony of being denied holding her babe. Our babe." Niklaus' temper overcame him, and his body shook in anger.

"I did what I thought was best-"

"What sort of mother are you?" Klaus shouted, breathing hard as stepped closer towards her.

Rebekah walked quietly at his side on their way to the clearing. She and Esther had buried his babe near where he and Sofija had been wed. Sofija's final resting place would be beside their daughter.

Initially, Rebekah had thought to bury their mother beside his wife and babe, and a cold fury had overcome Niklaus's heart at the thought of it.

His sister had been agreeable and consented that a more proper burial sight for their mother would be in front of the family's cottage.

Sofija's words haunted him as he dug the grave.

'She lied, Nik, she lied.'

"Where's Sophie?" Elena asked after Caroline handed her a shot of tequila.

Stefan and Damon had dropped her off at her house after her rescue, and they decided to leave town, to get rid of Klaus.

"She's fine, she's safe. I brought her to my house, and she's still passed out. My mom's keeping an eye on her." Caroline said reassuringly.

"Why is she passed out?" Elena asked, lost.

"She decided to relive her past life," Jeremy said cautiously.

"It takes a real toll on her. If it's like last time, she won't come out of it until tomorrow." Bonnie added.

Elena stared at the line of tequila shots the guys had poured. It felt wrong to celebrate without her sister.

Sophia came to her senses slowly when she woke up. She was curled up on her side in the fetal position. She furrowed her eyebrows at the feel of cushion beneath her, instead of the furs Niklaus had lined in their home.

Niklaus, she thought, and her eyes flew open.

She sat up and frowned at the unfamiliar room.

She looked down and placed her hand to her stomach, confused by its flatness. It looked as if it had been completely untouched by her pregnancy.

Mai, she remembered and whimpered as she slowly placed her feet on the crisp, solid floor.

"Nik," she called out hoarsely.

A familiar woman her age with Rebekah's coloring entered the room.

Caroline, she remembered.

"Sophie, thank god you're awake," she said.

"Nik! Where is Nik?" Sophia demanded.

"Nik?" Her friend questioned, startled.

"Niklaus Mikaelson," Sophia clarified impatiently, her chest tight.

"You've missed a lot," the blonde said softly, "Bonnie warned by me you would be disoriented," her friend said as she sat by her on the bed.

"I need to see him, please," Sophia pressed, tears running down her face as she tried to make sense of the memories overwhelming her mind.

Sophia stared hollowly out the window of Caroline's living room. The sun was just starting to rise. It took all her effort to focus on Caroline's words, and what had come to pass while she had been unconscious.

Nik was dead.

He was dead.

Sophia had wailed at the news, her grief overpowering.

She had collapsed onto the floor.

Her babe. Her death. Losing Nik again.

It was all unbearable.

And onto Season 4: Dark Reunion