"I have walked a stair of swords, I have worn a coat of scars. I have vowed with hollow words, I have lied my way to the stars."

- Songs of Sapphique

― Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

From the moment Caroline saw her murderer casually standing among the other guests everything seemed to happen in slow motion and yet things progressed surprisingly fast.

She remained in the shadows, barely holding on to her control, as Klaus masterfully lured the man away and then dragged him at one of the stone cells he kept at the crypts of the Abattoir.

The man was now unconscious against the wall hanging from old rusty chains and Caroline was staring at him as if she was seeing a ghost. She could still not wrap her mind around what was happening.

And there was something else. Something that plagued her through her years in Purgatory too. A sense of familiarity. Somehow she felt as if she had seen this man before. Before he killed her. And yet she could not remember. It was probably her mind playing tricks on her and yet now that she had him on the flesh in front of her that flicker of familiarity persisted.

She eyed the unconscious man critically. Every atom in her body screamed at her to inflict him pain. Holding back was becoming physically painful.

Several seconds passed before Klaus approached her.

"Are you sure Caroline?" he asked her again, his tone dressed with a hint of concern and vague uncertainty.

She glared at him.

"You think I could ever forget the man that killed me?" she snapped at Klaus but she turned her attention back to the man.

He was breathing. His chest was slowly falling up and down. He had killed her and continued his life as if nothing happened.

Rage was bubbling under the surface. It was drenching her heart, her bones, her soul. It burned through her mind.

Klaus looked apprehensive but Caroline didn't miss the way his eyes suddenly lit up as if he had an epiphany. Klaus prowled closer to the wall, grabbed a fistful of the man's hair, and pushed his head back.

Caroline watched as Klaus' lips twisted. She went closer and noticed what Klaus was seeing.

The man had tattooed a very small rune symbol behind his ear.

Klaus' lips twisted when he saw the rune symbol for hunting behind his ear. It resembled the Viking symbols from the caves in Mystic Falls. She had seen them in Alaric's drawings a long time ago.

This symbol, in particular, was small and could pass by undetected unless you knew where to look and obviously Klaus knew exactly where to look.

The lines forming the rune were red inside the black outline of what resembled a stake.

"He is a hunter," Klaus cursed and let go of the man's head that lolled forward. When Klaus removed him from the ball he had applied pressure to a nerve in his spine rendering the man unconscious before they snatched him and brought him in this dark cell that Klaus and his family surely used as a torture chamber more often than not since the blood in the walls was still relatively fresh.

"A hunter?"

It shouldn't be that surprising really but she was so out of sync right now that everything seemed shocking to her. She had no defense against the violence of her memories and the onslaught of emotion that now ambushed her and defeated her control and inner balance.

Klaus sighed.

"An elite class of human hunters set on destroying the vampire race. They have been around for centuries. Mikael trained them."

Klaus had her full attention now.

"Your father?"

The surprise in her voice was obvious but Klaus's features contorted with pure hate.

"If you can call him that," Klaus growled, "yes."

Caroline held Klaus' gaze and more questions started forming in her mind. What the hell was going on?

"They were supposed to be extinct though. I personally eradicated them from the face of the earth."

Klaus's voice had turned gravelly and Caroline felt his anger at what seemed to be a failure.

"Obviously you didn't do a good job at it," she coldly noticed, and Klaus gritted his teeth.

"This man here is an upstanding citizen of the city. Such society members were always excluded from Mikael's sect. He wanted warriors, not weaklings," Klaus informed her and Caroline could tell that he was at a loss too.

This didn't add up.

The small grunt made Caroline turn back toward the man.

He was waking.

He pulled against the chains before he even woke up completely and then the soft rattle of metal because louder as the man struggled when he realized what was happening.

She stepped out of the shadows and allowed him to see her face.

Every movement stopped.

The silence would be absolute if not for the human's ragged breathing.

"Remember me?" Caroline asked him and watched his every reaction with vigilance.

Recognition shone in his brown eyes that now looked at her as if he was seeing a ghost.

It was not just fear for the way she was already drenched in blood.

No. The man's gaze was intently set on her face and in response, he had paled to the point his clammy skin looked almost transparent.

So she had made an impression on her killer. She wasn't just a passing victim. He knew exactly who she was and he remembered her clearly.

"Impossible," the man uttered. He looked lost.

Caroline couldn't take her eyes away from him in the same way he couldn't take his eyes away from her.

He was an aged hunter. Possibly around the age of fifty. He was dressed formally for the occasion and despite how he always starred in her nightmares as this terrible monster that hunted and killed right now she saw a meek human being. Helpless and jaded.

Underneath it all however, there was experience. There was death and murder and the ability to hunt and kill vampires.

Vampires like her.

Despair and rage intertwined in her mind to the point she felt as if her humanity switch was about to turn. If the human switch was a compass the needle was starting to move. Back and forth and erratically round and round. The North was lost and she was stranded in hell again.

"Why did you kill me?" she asked him quietly as if she was in a trance. As if she spoke about the weather and was not about to lose her mind and with it her control.

As if she wasn't about to rip his heart off.

The man shook his head to prove to himself he wasn't hallucinating.

"You shouldn't be here," his breath hitched and he looked Caroline with alarm and trepidation, "How are you here?"

Caroline's expression darkened. Her fists turned to tight balls and she felt the surge of blood inside her veins. Veins that puffed under her eyes.

She was coming undone. The reality was bleeding through her consciousness and she was turning to fire and ice. Falling into madness. She was falling and falling.

She needed something to ground her.

Klaus' touch was gentle. He held her upper arm, his fingers felt like feathers but when he stepped into the light Caroline could feel the looming menace.

Anyone would be screaming in terror if they faced Klaus Mikaelson like this but the man's attention seemed to be transfixed solely on her.

"Don't worry yourself with such questions mate," Klaus politely said and gave the man in chains an amicable smile, "focus on what comes next which is the kind of longevity to be recorded in books."

Caroline stood motionless as Klaus clapped the man's shoulders.

"For you are going to live a long, long, life," Klaus promised, "I will make sure of it. And you will suffer every minute of it," the hybrid swore with vehemence.

"What's his name?" Caroline asked Klaus, ignoring what he had just promised her killer. This wasn't Klaus' promise to make. It was hers.

"Jared Forbin. One of the city's councilors," came the fast reply but not from Klaus' mouth.

Kol and Elijah had entered the cell too.

"I see you are all in for the after-party," Kol sniggered, not letting Elijah carry on with his information.

Kol pointedly arched a brow at the disheveled state of Klaus and Caroline and at how their scents intermixed but then he checked out the person they had tied on the wall, "but annoying bunch as such flunkees are some of the city's officials serve as a connection between the witches and the human fraction," Kol said making it clear that whatever concerned the witches was his concern too. He chuckled as he came closer to her and viewed Klaus amused, "bad form brother in your peace night," Kol clicked his tongue in warning.

Elijah took his place by Klaus' side.

"Kol is right Niklaus," Elijah stated while he checked out the scene that unfolded in front of him with mild curiosity and disappointment, "unhand the man."

"I am always right 'Lijah," Kol jested, "of all nights really," Kol added laughing, "what did the poor man do to piss you off Nik?"

"He is the one that killed me," Caroline mumbled without breaking eye contact with her murderer.

Funny thing was that neither did he. No matter Klaus' threats or the appearance of the Originals he seemed to only care for her presence.

He didn't beg, he didn't question, he was solely focused on her.

Her words seemed to have an immediate impact on Kol however because his whole demeanor changed at once and his cool exterior vanished.

"Well then," Kol changed his tune, now eyeing the human with serious contempt and deadly mirth, "here's to a long life indeed."

Kol turned towards Caroline and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"You are quite lucky darling," Kol told her gently, "Nik here is an expert when it comes to torture. He has actually taught me some of my best techniques," Kol praised Klaus that actually smirked accepting this compliment as high praise. "No one could give you better retribution," Kol acknowledged, "although I would not mind assisting from time to time."

Caroline could not move but Kol's offer and his words did the opposite than pacify her even in the least.

His words hurt because now as she stared at Jared Forbin she felt both hollow and filled to the brim with the kind of rage that could not be described.

Now that she faced her murderer a dark part of her realized what she had denied Kol. She realized what Kol had given up for her. Kol Mikaelson had given her an oath he would not break. He would not go after Elena and Jeremy. He would not seek retribution for his own death. And deep down Caroline knew that Kol had done this not just so he could get out of Purgatory but to also honor their friendship. So not to hurt her.

Guilt burned through her. She denied Kol justice for his death. To somehow ease that pain, that horror, that feeling that screamed inside.

And here she was. A hypocrite. Because no force on earth would deny her the same thing she forbade Kol Mikaelson to do.

She wouldn't be able to continue without answers, without demanding an eye for an eye. She had been sent to hell and maybe hell had turned her into a monster without mercy but she wouldn't forgive or forget or give mercy to someone that had killed her like that.

She had been trying to be good. To not hurt people. To be a good person and they had killed her in cold blood because she was a vampire. For no other reason. They dumped her body like trash. She had done her research as quietly as she could have given the distance she chose to keep. They had burned her corpse. Her mother had buried a burned skeleton.

How did her mom feel? How could they do this? Why?

"I understand this is a sensitive matter but for the sake of the treaty tonight at least we should remain civil," Elijah's calm voice broke through her thoughts and her head slowly craned towards his direction.

Her face turned to stone as did everything else inside her. Her thoughts had been a thousand voices screaming and whispering at her all at once but now they stopped.

She honed in on Elijah Mikaelson and she had now earned his attention as would anyone of his caliber that could sniff danger in the air.

"Civil?" Caroline echoed his word in a silky tone. Her tone sounded eerily calm and as if it was coming from far away…it was even, low and lethal just as the calm before the storm.

Kol next to her stiffened and placed himself between her and Elijah. From the corner of her eye she noticed how Klaus' body straightened as if he was a taut string on a guitar ready to snap while he silently communicated with Elijah, his eyes warning his older brother to not do anything to escalate this.

Too late, Caroline thought.

Caroline ignored both Kol and Klaus and focused solely on the eldest Mikaelson. The one that didn't trust her and plotted against her as if she was an idiot that could not read between the lines. The same Mikaelson she didn't trust either.

Aggression kept building inside her as did revulsion.

"What do you really know of being civilized?" she asked him and the shadow that flickered in Elijah's eyes was a warning of a line that should not be treaded but she was done with his false honor.

She was done with everything. Period. No one would stand between her and Jared Forbin that remained silent just a few steps away from her. So close and yet so far away if Elijah Mikaelson had a say on it.

Like hell, he would!

Kol's body turned to a shield and this time Caroline didn't know if he was meant to block her from Elijah or Elijah from her.

"Caroline-" Kol started and she snapped a pointed glare at him.

"Use that bullshit tone on me and I will snap your neck," Caroline hissed at Kol making it clear than no suggestion could hold her back.

She'd rip out his tongue if she had to.

Kol gave her a warning look which she challenged with one of her own.

Klaus was ready to intervene but it was Elijah that stepped down in an attempt to ease some of the tension.

"It is okay brother," he addressed first Kol and then Klaus with a nod in what seemed to be his most reasonable approach, "I don't have any intention of harming Miss Forbes in any way."

Caroline grinned.

"How civilized of you," she mocked Elijah with a sweet voice and didn't bother acknowledging the long-suffering sigh that escaped Klaus' lips because she had enough distractions already.

In a blur, she flashed to her killer and grabbed him by the throat lifting him up in the chains relishing at his gasp.

She stared back at the Mikaelsons, her gaze promising them that all hell would break loose if they'd step in.

If they wanted to intervene they'd have to hurt her because she would sure as hell hurt them too.

Hurt her?

They'd have to kill her!

Only death would stop her now. She'd even welcome Purgatory if she had to.

She turned her attention solely to the human in her stranglehold.

"They won't save you and they won't torture you," she promised Forbin masking her inner turmoil with lethal intent, "You are mine."

Her nails broke skin, the man chocked on her hold but his eyes somehow remained steadfast on her.

"Why?" she whispered her question; her hand almost breaking his neck in half but knowing that if she would she'd get no answers.

She didn't ease her vice-like grip enjoying the cracking sounds of bone and flesh that started caving in her steel hold.

His life was so fleeting and on her hands.

She came closer bringing her face an inch away from the man's noticing how his eyes watched her with both dread and disgust. She sniffed his fear, she heard his erratic heart, she smelled his sweat. Terror was closing in on him.

"You and your friends hunted me down, ambushed me like cowards, and killed me in the middle of the street," she reminded both him and her.

Right now they would have never been able to take her down like that but back then she was untrained and easy pickings.

Back then she was easy to kill.

The memory still haunted her worst nightmares. She still woke up shaking in the middle of the night and had flashbacks of pure undiluted panic in her waking hours. The feeling of desperation, the terror, the stake piercing skin, and bone. Death. It still clung to her skin and dreams and hollow heart. Her soul was no longer unmarred. That son of a bitch had taken away the last remnants of innocence vampirism hadn't pillaged and sent her straight to hell.

Tears burned her eyes but they wouldn't fall.

This man had killed her but she had returned back from the dead and she might not have been able to get back to Mystic Falls but she had searched her death as covertly as she had been able to. She had compelled people to get her the information and to remain hidden and look after her mom from afar.

She knew. She knew that this hunter and his accomplishes had taken her corpse and returned it to Mystic Falls. It had to be premeditated. Nothing else made sense. They knew who she was and where she lived. They had dropped her body on the side of the road and lit it on fire and left it to be found. By her own mother. They didn't try to hide and cover up her murder or erase the clues. They didn't bury or hide her remains. They didn't make it look like an accident. It was a message. It had to be.

And then her mother closed the case.

It gnawed at her. That knowledge. Elizabeth Forbes didn't try to avenge her death. Neither did her friends. As if they knew the answers she didn't have or as if someone made them close the case and made them forget she ever existed.

Someone like the Council. Her mother still had ties with the Mystic Falls Council and Caroline aside from being her daughter was still a vampire.

Only she had believed that her mom had come to terms with her being a vampire and loved her either way.

Unless she knew something she didn't. Something that was connected with her murder and if so why did she let it go like that?

Why?

"You burned my corpse and left it to be found," Caroline said evenly, not letting her distractive emotions get in the way.

She felt Klaus' gaze falling like a shadow over her, she could feel Kol's eyes boring holes on her back. She could even feel Elijah's intrigued surprise but nothing of that mattered. All that mattered was the hell that was brewing inside her as she gave voice to her suspicions, "a message," she surmised but kept her words filled with the cadence of certainty and the flash of recognition the man could not hide proved her right, "for whom?" she interrogated him trying to breathe slowly, trying to hold on to her humanity for a little while longer.

She was the message and that asshole and his friends were the senders but who was the recipient? And why?

Was this man working on his own and where the fuck did Mikael's cult of hunters and even Esther got into play with this? Too many coincidences were just not coincidental.

If those that killed her weren't the ones behind it then who was and why did they want her dead? Who else was at play? Who gave the order? And why her?

Why her?

"Why?" she insisted shaking the man so hard that his head hit the brick wall behind him with a thud that cracked bone.

The man almost lost consciousness but Caroline pulled him closer to her like a rag doll and gripped his face smashing his cheeks in, crashing his jaw in her punishing grip.

The moan of agony he gave didn't soothe her rage. It only amplified her need to hurt him.

She would. She would hurt him, she would cripple him, she would skin him alive and flay him for the vultures to find. She would use everything Kol taught her to make this asshole an endless raw nerve ending that would respond only to agonizing pain but she'd have her answers first.

Her pupils dilated.

"Why did you kill me? Who gave the order and why?"

Seconds passed.

"Answer me!"

She was becoming more and more frustrated.

Her compulsion was not working.

Damn it!

She tightened her hold and the man's eyes bulged out. Tears and snot were rolling down his face as he tried to cough and breathe.

"Why?" she screamed at him, her fangs dropping, her hold turning to steel that would not break nor bend before she'd break that fucker to a thousand pieces.

"I kill monsters," the man coughed through sort breaths trying to gain some time, some mercy.

Or trying to cover for something else.

Caroline's face twisted furiously.

"Far away from New Orleans in the middle of nowhere?" she asked him and just as she loosed her hold a bit he spat at her.

"Fuck you monster!"

Caroline hummed and let him go. His weight dropped on the chains and he hung like a sack of potatoes trying to breathe and find his footing but his face was not turning any less blue. She had damaged his jugular and bruised his vocal cords but he could still speak.

She wiped the glop of saliva from her face slowly and seriously; and then her lips curled to a slow smile which widened until it became so sinister that the man instead of trying to desperately breathe he held his breath.

Caroline prowled closer, smoothly, and serenely. As if her rage was a thing of the past. As if she wanted to help her murderer instead of tearing him to shreds.

Her body eased up, her smile turned angelic.

She ran her nails over the side of his face, slicing his skin masterfully in a way that would not bring pain but only pleasure. She then cupped his cheek gently.

"Maybe I will fuck you over instead," she drawled with a taunting smile, amusement dancing in her eyes along with something else. Something ruthless and cruel and honed to be a weapon of destruction. Caroline brought her lips closer as if she was intending to kiss the man that killed her. Instead, she ran her tongue over his blood until her mouth reached his ear.

She frowned. 'That's curious.' she thought but she didn't show her unease. She breathed darkness into the man with a gentle tone, "how about I hunt down everyone you've ever met and loved and show them exactly how much of a monster I can be?"

There was no mercy. There was no humanity.

Her promise lingered, burned, scorched through every defense that could separate logic from pure terror.

Her whisper brought chills and electrified her surroundings. The man's heartbeat was beating like a drum and Caroline soothed him with a shushing sound that felt even more menacing than her words had been.

Klaus's eyes widened. It was as if he saw the worst parts of himself in her. It was so unsettling that he didn't know what to feel.

It had to be his blood affecting her. They had blood shared and he ran in her veins now but something told him this wasn't it.

This wasn't even Kol's influence.

This was all Caroline.

The lengths she was willing to go.

The change that had taken over her.

If this had been hot rage it would be one thing but this ice fury, this calculation, and the cold murder in her eyes were something different.

This Caroline he had in front of him was another kind of creature. Deadly, uncompromising, horror incarnate. Her pain, her misery, and her suffering had transmuted into infamy. Purgatory had corrupted her and her light was now shining with specks of malicious and malevolent viciousness.

It was uncomfortable to watch. It felt like an unspeakable sin.

So Klaus stood there, unmoving like a statue taking in this new monster, this predator, in awe.

A part of him was horrified and another was drawn in. He was both mesmerized and disturbed.

Caroline ran her nose over the human sniffing him out and narrowed her eyes. She clicked her tongue and ran it over her lips. His human blood was untainted but just so to be sure she savagely bit the hunter again.

He didn't scream but she would make him scream. She wouldn't rest until she would.

She gulped down his blood until his body loosened and his skin paled. His heartbeat slowed down.

She pulled back and licked her lips disgusted that she now had a part of him inside her but aside from the fact that hunters hated vampires drinking from them she also had to know.

And now she knew for sure. It wasn't a game of her mind. It wasn't her body not registering the burn. There just was no poison in his blood.

"No vervain," she muttered. She gripped his hair and pulled his head back. The man grunted and Caroline's vampiric eyes took in every detail of his wretched face.

The hate in his eyes was still burning hot but she didn't care. She closed in on him and closed her eyes. Every instinct of hers focused on this creature. She inhaled his scent until she could even smell the odor of his bowels.

There was no vervain in his blood, she couldn't detect the faintest smell in his clothes or any item either. Even vervain tattoos emanated a certain fragrance if you knew how to detect it.

Nothing.

She let him go as if he had burned her. Her eyes widened and she almost lost her balance.

"You can't be compelled….just like-"

Dad.

Her vampire features rescinded. His tired gaze locked with hers and then-

She had seen that kind of gaze before. When her father had been torturing her. The same cruelty, the same prejudice, the same…pity. As if he had failed her.

Her murderer maintained eye contact and time stopped between them.

That sense of familiarity pierced her heart like an arrow.

Had she seen him before?

Many years ago. Before her parents got divorced. When she had been playing with her doll.

The doll…he gave her. A gift.

She remembered that doll.

That doll that had smelled like roses…or like vervain.

A gift from her daddy's friend to protect her from monsters.

Caroline started trembling.

'I kill monsters' he had told her.

Just like her dad. Just like her mom.

No.

This couldn't be happening.

Her shock gave its way to more questions. She stared at the man with renewed interest and dread but she quickly forced her poker face to stay in place. She had to remain composed.

Only her whole world was been turned upside down.

A tear fell down her cheek. She thought she heard Kol calling her name. But she couldn't react. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't respond to Klaus' voice either.

"Who are you?" she mumbled.

The man smiled at her fondly and Caroline stumbled back.

Uncle Jared. She used to call him uncle.

His next words, spoken with a broken voice turned her blood to ice.

"Dedo Morti Animae."

The incantation was spelled out perfectly and Caroline watched the consequences in a frenzy.

His eyes rolled at the back of his skull. She screamed and ran at Forbin.

Fever took him and his body convulsed as if he was possessed by a thousand demons that ate at his flesh.

"No!" Caroline yelled hopelessly and she broke him free from the chains for his body to fall down on her arms as she dropped to the ground carrying him with her.

Blood was pouring from his eyes, nose, and mouth while Caroline was trying to feed him her own blood. To save him. To help him.

He couldn't go like this. No. Not before telling her truth.

She was shaking him, cursing and screaming at him to not die. The Mikaelsons surrounded them and she desperately stared at Klaus that watched her from above soberly.

It was futile. The spell the man had grunted forbade any more magic to take hold and save him.

He was dead.

Caroline let out a guttural sound of despair just as Kol knelt by her side and ripped the man's shirt open.

Kol's lips twisted at the mark that now looked like a burned scar on Forbin's chest.

Caroline held Kol's gaze and he shook his head. It was over.

"I haven't seen a suicide hex for quite some time," Kol mused ruefully and Caroline gripped the corpse in her arms harder.

Her murderer was dead. That was justice on its own.

Only it didn't feel like that.

Jared Forbin cheated. Caroline could tell he hadn't feared death but he had feared living long enough for her to find out what he was hiding. He chose death than telling her the truth. He chose to die rather than suffer on her hands but most of all he chose to take his secrets in the grave.

This didn't make any sense. Her eyes filled with tears but no matter how it blurred her vision she couldn't miss the flash of worry that passed from Klaus' eyes nor the way Kol jerked towards his brothers just a second before he could regain his composure.

It was the flash of silver.

She almost missed it.

Only she didn't.

Kol tried to close the man's shirt and maybe even snatch that little trinket before she would even notice what was happening but she gripped Kol's wrist fast. Faster than she had ever moved before catching him and his brothers by surprise.

"Wait," she bit out and stared at the glimmering metal that shone in the darkness. The same gleam that attracted the attention of the Mikaelsons. "What is this?" she asked and let go of Kol's wrist.

She touched the chain. It ran through her fingers.

"A necklace?" Kol wondered, trying to sound nonchalant but she wasn't having it.

He knew exactly what it was. She could tell they all did.

She pulled the chain and her eyes widened.

She knew what it was too.

She had seen that pendant before. She brought Forbin's body closer just as she bent forward.

It couldn't be!

"My father had the same," she whispered, not taking her eyes off the pendant.

She placed Forbin's body to the dirty ground but kept the pendant.

It was a silver circle that had a book in its center and a key on the cover of that book. She quickly took the medallion off the man and held in her hand.

She looked up at Klaus that seemed to be just as mesmerized by that piece of jewelry as she was.

"Do you know what this is?" she inquired unable to keep the need absent from her voice. She had to know. This man was somehow tied to her family. To her father. Even to the Mikaelsons. And he had killed her.

She stared at the dead body of Forbin feeling a strange feeling of sorrow consuming her. As if she was meant to mourn for him like she had grieved her father a long time ago.

She shook her head refusing to give in to that absurd feeling.

She looked at the pendant in her palm and then at Klaus. "Have you seen it before?" she asked desperately even though she could tell that he had. The sight of the pendant had shocked Klaus. He wasn't fast enough to hide it. Neither was Kol. She glanced at Elijah too that maintain his composure impeccably but there was something under the surface. She could tell. He was perfectly calm. It was all too perfect which made it staged. "Does it mean anything?"

Klaus watched her for a long moment, as if he was deciding at that moment what he had to share with her and what…not.

Klaus shook his head.

"I am afraid I do not know sweetheart."

'Lie', a voice instantly whispered in her head.

She pivoted her body towards Kol that now slowly stood up.

"Kol?"

Kol shook his head negatively too but for a fraction of time he'd been unable to hold on to their eye contact and throughout Elijah remained unresponsive in his silence.

They knew nothing.

And somehow she could feel it right down in her bones that their nothing was nothing but a lie.

Purgatory

There were no skies. Only chaos. It looked like a gaping black hole that was eating everything. Every light, all air, even darkness.

At first, Caroline had believed she would go mad just glancing at the void above her head so now she didn't dare raise her head anymore.

Caroline kept her eyes firmly on the foggy ground. She felt hot and cold. She could barely move. Kol's brutal lessons were taking their toll and everything that lurked in the distance was one more of the endless reasons as to why she couldn't allow herself to close her eyes. She hadn't slept for what felt like weeks. She couldn't go on like this. Not without blood.

God, she was starving.

She kept dragging her nails up and down her arms trying to stop her body from shaking. She needed to feed. And to stop the cold.

She stared ahead wishing she could make herself warm. Kol Mikaelson on the other hand didn't seem to be affected by his surroundings or the conditions he had to live in.

Live? What a joke. They were dead!

Caroline tried not to stare at him but she couldn't help it. She knew he could pounce at her at any moment. Ever since he had thrown her in the vervain waters she knew he was just as likely to help her as it was to destroy her.

Truth was that she was terrified of Kol Mikaelson but he was her only chance at survival.

And when he was silent like this and seemingly so at ease he unsettled her more.

"Why?" she whispered, her voice was a croak barely making a sound.

She didn't know what she was asking? Why was he torturing her? Why was he helping her? Those two seemed to be the same in his case.

And yet there was something about Kol she couldn't understand. Something she couldn't pinpoint about him. Something felt…off. It nagged at her. She just didn't know what it was. She couldn't identify it but she could feel it was there, just under the surface. What it was she couldn't tell or touch.

Kol didn't pretend he didn't understand the question. After all, she had asked him the same thing over and over again.

"I told you I need a young vampire untainted by centuries' sins," he told her while he kept sharpening the blade in his hands with a rock, "you are a fairly young baby vampire," he commented before his words turned to a sneer, "a Mary Sue vampire from the looks of it."

Caroline didn't bother getting offended by Kol's stupid games.

"You could have used anyone."

Kol snickered.

"Who says I haven't tried?" he tossed back at her, his tone perfectly indicating that she wasn't that special, "they failed," he said, and then his tone turned cold. Colder than anything else in Purgatory, "you won't."

"Why won't I?" she asked even though she knew the answer. There would be no chance of failure. The alternative was worse than death. Literally.

"Because I won't get bored with you," Kol simply told her, "I'll train you, and where the others failed you will succeed. You are stuck with me now little vampire."

Caroline let out a shaky breath. Something didn't add up.

"Why? " she insisted, "why me in particular?"

Kol sighed but then he stopped sharpening his blade and then fixed her a pointed look.

"You are Nik's girl."

Caroline froze.

And then adrenaline rushed into her body.

All her suspicions and questions dissolved as Kol's declaration swept over everything in her mind.

It would seem that before the veil fell Kol Mikaelson kept watching his siblings from the Other Side and he knew all about the weird obsession Klaus had developed when it came to her. Maybe before that. Maybe Kol had seen it before he died. Or maybe Klaus had put a claim on her somehow and Kol felt obliged to that bullshit.

And Kol said that as if it was the most normal thing in the world and as if she belonged to Klaus Mikaelson. And that alone somehow meant that Kol Mikaelson took it upon himself to help her. She just would have never pegged Kol as the type of person that would act like this based on whatever connection he believed she had developed with his brother. If anything her connection with Klaus Mikaelson should be one more reason for Kol to hurt her.

But from the looks of it Kol acted as he owed Klaus to help her.

So what? Kol saw her now as Klaus' property? And he wanted to help her or hurt her because of that? Hell…no!

She always knew these monsters were old and from another era but she didn't understand what all this meant.

The only thing she knew for sure was that Klaus Mikaelson wouldn't let her rest even in death. Rest in peace took a whole other meaning now that she was stuck in hell with his brother.

Energy burst inside her. She forgot the cold and the hunger and something inside her twisted painfully and roared.

She was not Klaus' girl. She was not Klaus' anything. She refused to be when she was alive. She sure as hell would not be now that she was dead.

Kol's words kept echoing in her ears. 'Nik's girl'.

"No, I am not!" she denied, offended.

Kol's lips curved into a taunting smirk.

"Whatever you say," he drawled before he pointedly added, "…sweetheart."

Caroline flinched at that and for some reason, she didn't like that word from Kol's lips.

'Don't call me sweetheart,' she thought, unprepared for the pain that enveloped her, 'you aren't…him.'

The appearance of the first light was slowly breaking through the night. Dawn was starting to bathe New Orleans with pale colors. The French Quarter was eerily silent now.

The ball had ended. The guests had all left.

Yet, she had stayed.

Caroline was standing on the balcony of the upper floor of the Abattoir watching the empty streets of New Orleans.

She was waiting for the sunrise.

She was resting on her forearms at the black metal railing that twisted intricately. Below her feet, stories underneath, the corpse of her murderer was left to rot.

Right now, one of Kol's witches was supposedly trying to find out the origins of the hex the hunter had used to kill himself.

Caroline knew the answer already. She'd find nothing.

That just wouldn't do.

She'd have to take the body away and to find a witch. One that didn't fall under the rule of the Originals.

With Kol and his witch groupies getting in her way and with the treaty, the factions had signed tonight the chances of finding her own witch had become exponentially more difficult.

She'd have to find a witch that not only hated the Originals but also didn't fear them. One that would oppose them and would not bat an eye in doing so.

Caroline looked straight ahead.

There was just one she could think of and she was siding with Marcel Gerard. She'd have to find a way to approach her and earn her trust and find enough ice to store Forbin's corpse in a safe place since then.

She felt Klaus' presence before she heard his steps but she didn't turn around to see him.

Instead, she focused on an imaginary spot on the horizon with the pastel colors feeling the weight of the pendant she had taken from her murderer. She was moving the black beads of the silver chain, one by one, through her fingers slowly.

"What are you thinking sweetheart?"

Klaus stood by her side in the balcony and she ran her tongue over her lip knowing all too well he could smell the vervain in her breath. She had chewed the last leaf she had carried in her gown. She had welcomed the burn.

She would not take any chances on him. Not anymore.

.

Flashback

"What are you hiding from me?"

"I could tell you," Klaus drawled and Caroline tensed because his smile reminded her of a shark that had smelled blood and was about to devour its lunch, "but then I'd have to compel you to forget and I'd rather not."

She froze. One look at him and she knew he meant it.

.

She had to find another way. Keeping pots of vervain by her window was a half measure. There was another way.

Another way to resist compulsion without vervain. Her father knew how to do it as did the man who killed her.

Jared Forbin.

Uncle Jared a voice reminded her. Seeing him again had cleared the fog in her memories. Somewhat at least.

This was still a clue. A trail she could use. Starting from him and ending right back at her father's history.

Both of them could resist compulsion without ingesting vervain. That was another clue too.

She'd have to find out how to do it. Among the things she had to learn she had to get this knowledge too. Maybe then she'd be safer.

'Safe, there's an idea'… she thought bitterly.

She stared down at the pendant and wrapped her fingers tightly around the metal letting its sharp edges cut her flesh until droplets of blood stained the chain.

She didn't turn to face Klaus despite how his gaze was set on her.

There were a thousand thoughts crossing her mind but she couldn't answer his question by giving him everything.

So she'd go for the obvious answer.

"This can't be a coincidence," she surmised running her thumb over the pendant. She wouldn't reveal to Klaus or Kol her suspicions about Jared Forbin and her vague childhood memories but she could share another angle with them, "I keep replaying that night in my mind over and over again. In Purgatory. And here. Something does not add up and this now."

She didn't move an inch, she didn't bother to watch Klaus Mikaelson from the corner of her eye but she felt how rigid his posture became.

"It could be a coincidence," Klaus guessed and to the untrained ear this would have sounded genuine, "this is the center of the vampire world. Many hunters have their roots here or are drawn here."

Caroline straightened up and felt Klaus' surprise when she offered him the necklace. Then he watched stunned as she turned her back on him and lifted her hair baring her neck for him.

She felt his hesitation and gently turned her head towards him.

"If you be so kind," she asked and Klaus took a sort inhale of breath before he reached over and clasped the pendant of her murderer around her neck.

The cool metal rested in the valley of her breasts and she gently fingered it.

She hummed and slowly turned around only to see Klaus stare at her with a ghostly expression and she smiled at him.

"There is no such thing as a coincidence," she pointed out holding his gaze.

And just as she expected she was rewarded by his poker face.

Even if she hadn't been suspicious before she would be now. Klaus wearing his mask in public was one thing but with her? That alone spoke volumes.

But why? Why would he keep secrets about this?

She was past the point of making excuses. She wouldn't bother feeling confused or thinking was out of sync.

Because she was not.

It was time to start trusting herself and her instincts.

Her instincts carried her from Purgatory. It was time to rely on them again. Because so far she had acted as an amateur. She had believed in Klaus' and even Kol's best intentions where she was concerned. She had trusted lies and it got her nowhere.

She had placed her loyalty to others only for no one to be truly loyal to her. Not her friends in Mystic Falls, not Klaus and she feared not even Kol.

It was time this bullshit to end. Time for her to show her own teeth and bite. Hard. Sink in and taste blood.

She had enemies.

So be it.

Her enemies forgot that this went both ways. She was their enemy now too. A real nightmare to haunt them and send them to hell before they'd do the same to her.

She would not return to Purgatory without a fight. She had believed that once she'd escape that hellhole she'd be able to rest. To find peace. To heal and move on. She had believed there was a purpose to all that pain. That it had to amount to something and that in the end, she wouldn't have to fight.

If anything the necklace she wore now would serve a reminder. She would not take it off.

This necklace held the answers and it would become a symbol. A token for remembrance.

To remember her death every day. To remember how the fight never ended.

To remember to fight. Every day, every second, every moment.

Purgatory as horrific as it was had forged her into a weapon. One she planned to yield and no one would stand in her way. Not even the Originals.

Klaus' eyes were colored with the shades of the storm as he watched her fingers trace the image of the book with the key slowly.

"This is my first clue," she revealed and Klaus' brows shot up.

"First clue?"

She nodded calmly. Coldly.

"So far I had to stay here because your mother trapped me in New Orleans."

Klaus frowned.

"And this changed?"

"I want answers, Klaus," she replied letting her determination come forth. "Barrier spell or not I am not going to go anywhere until I get them."

The Adam's apple in Klaus' throat bobbed up and down delicately.

"Caroline, this is not-"

"This is not what?" she interjected gently knowing all too well that the mellow tone she used contradicted the harshness of her gaze.

Klaus pressed his lips and she smiled.

She looked down at her gown. The colors of the dawn reflected in the glow and the shimmer of the material of the beautiful fabrics, the embedded crystals, and beads of the dress.

Blood had turned the garment red.

She had been sad about it only but a few hours ago thinking about how the dress had been ruined but now she felt it was appropriate.

She leaned her hip against the rail and glanced at Klaus.

"According to you and the celebration you threw tonight this is war. Am I wrong?"

Klaus sighed. He couldn't contradict his own words.

"Caroline-"

Oh, there it was.

The honeyed trap.

That soft accept, spoken so softly.

Her hand dismissed him with an aloof gesture.

"Enough with the pretty words Klaus. You spent showering me with them all night," she disregarded his attempt to placate her.

Klaus blinked and she smirked. She flicked her hair behind her shoulders and enjoyed the morning breeze.

Alive. She was alive.

She wasn't meant to be. She had beaten the odds.

Which meant she would not allow anyone to try and tame and contain her. Not even if that particular 'anyone' was Klaus Mikaelson.

"This whole night you told me what you wanted," Caroline started quietly and then ran her eyes up and down Klaus' form. She paused only for a moment and then she became hard. Harsh. True.

"You played me like a fiddle and despite it all, I gave in to you but that changed nothing in the end," she acknowledged, "you used honey and vinegar…truth and….lies," she crooned that particular word and gave credit to Klaus that somehow managed to not flinch despite how he tensed, "you manipulated me and used even Cami to prove a point knowing how it would hurt. I am not ashamed to admit it did," she confessed seeing how Klaus looked to be ashamed by her admission now but that didn't stop her, "you blackmailed and you used soft words and the one thing I needed you to do…you didn't."

Klaus's eyes were pleading with her and he reached out to her but she jerked away from his touch.

No. He would not touch her again. Not like this. Not when she craved his touch as much as she craved the truth he refused to give her. He would not spare her. So she would not spare him either.

Klaus looked desperate.

"Caroline, please love-"

She scoffed at that. At his attempt to pacify her using her name almost in reverence.

She would have been moved if she hadn't learned in a hard way that reverence was a prayer to the Gods and Gods would be cruel and fickle. There were Gods of mercy and there were Gods of Death and she knew that Klaus would have never become who he was today if he didn't devote himself to the latter.

"Don't lie," she stopped him when he opened his mouth probably in an attempt to use his charm to soothe her. "Don't omit the truth. Don't hide behind half-truths either."

Her eyes pierced him. She had seen into his heart tonight. She had let his blood wash over her like an ocean and she took a chance to drown in him and she had felt how Klaus gave her the parts of himself he wanted. He guarded the other ones. The ones that guided him. The ones that armed him. Those he locked away from her.

"You told me what you wanted but what about what I want?" she asked him and Klaus watched her curiously as if this was a concept he could not understand or had never given any thought to. He was so used to making demands. To put his needs above everyone else's and when another person dared to have the same expectations it startled him to the core. It was a foreign concept for him.

He believed he knew what she wanted deep down. He tempted her with all he could offer and yet he never thought to simply ask her what she wanted.

"Have you stopped to consider even for a second that all this time I have not stayed in New Orleans willingly?" she reminded him coolly and this time Klaus did flinch because he knew that this had been an illusion. She hadn't stayed in New Orleans because she chose him. She hadn't stayed for him or even because of him. He hadn't been part of her plans or her story. He was meant to be a pit stop despite how the promise of eternity would always linger between them.

"But somehow," she continued in a sardonic tone, "I am to accept this game and the rules you have all created here as if it makes sense for me to do so," she snorted, "it doesn't matter what I think or feel, right? Your mother trapped me here. She took away my choice and in a way, you tried to do the same. Because this is your city. This is your war. So what you want matters. What Elijah wants matters. What Kol wants matters even what Hayley wants matters," she concluded with a dull voice while not bothering to hide how ridiculous this was to her. "But why should that matter to me? What about what I need, what I want? Does that matter at all to you?" she questioned him genuinely curious now, "What do I get out of this Klaus?"

Klaus looked at her with expressive eyes. So pleadingly and she couldn't help but chuckle bitterly.

She knew all too well what she'd get out of this. This was Klaus' city, his war, his crown, his vengeance, his everything. She'd end up being his something. Just a something.

She raised her hand in the air between them as if she had just remembered all the things she knew from the start and she pretended to be shocked that she had been so foolish as to have forgotten them in the first place.

"Wait, don't answer that," she chuckled, "you already did…' in another life you'd give me everything but in this life, your heart is a wretched thing' and what matters most, in the end, is everything you cannot give," she repeated his words from earlier this evening and then prowled closer to him. She inhaled him in and gave him a mocking pout. Never be said Caroline Forbes could not be a major bitch. "But that won't stop you from being selfish and wanting me right?" her irony was sharp, "and all those fancy words for what? What I'd get? Being yours?" her aversion to that possibility could not be hidden, "That's what I get?"

After all, that was part of what she felt when they had bloodshared. Those were the vibes she had gotten from him. She had felt the possessiveness and his evasiveness too.

"What an honor," she exclaimed happily clapping her hands as she used to do when she was just a girl in high-school getting excited about a party or when a boy would finally notice her. The old her would be excited by this especially if it would mean that she'd beat Elena into becoming the most coveted girl of the most powerful being in the world that would choose her.

"To become the King's trophy," Caroline sing-sang giving Klaus a faux dreamy expression, mocking the 'honor' he wanted to bestow on her.

"I never treated you like this!" Klaus growled but Caroline gave him a deliberate look and continued as if he hadn't spoken.

"As if I am nothing but a glorified conquest and then what?" she fixed him a caustic look, "you'll keep me safe in a bubble while you lead and I follow blindly, no questions asked, no diversions, no choice," she pressed on. She was so done. She would not be one to coddle him or stroke his ego no matter what it would cost her. If he wanted this then so be it. He would have to find it elsewhere, "granted you will be generous and I won't be collateral damage if I am lucky anyway, "she gestured as if that didn't even matter, "but surely I won't be an equal and not a priority when it comes to your hidden motives and true priorities whatever those may be."

Klaus' gaze became tumultuous at that and Caroline studied him for a moment and then sighed.

"I mean I wouldn't know…since you won't tell me," she taunted him purposefully eyeing him knowingly before she gripped the railing of the balcony.

"At least respect me enough to not treat me like an idiot," she demanded, throwing his words about how he never treated her 'like this' back at him.

"I never believed you to be," Klaus mumbled and Caroline rolled her eyes.

"No?" she sweetly argued as if she was giving him the benefit of the doubt, "So if you didn't I will ask again. What do I get?"

She smiled when he didn't answer. He looked cornered because he knew no answer would come out right from his lips which simply proved her point.

"Well…Not you," Caroline pointed out. Klaus would never be hers. Not like this. Not in the way she wanted and she tried to move on past the pain and the disappointment. "Not really. Not peace," she added to the things she couldn't get and her lips curled when she got to the one point of her list that truly ached the most, "Certainly not justice either."

No. She'd get the short stick as always. There would be no vindication for her. No vengeance. While Klaus marched into war to claim his own she would be denied to do the same since their interests somehow conflicted and Klaus wouldn't even explain to her why that was the case, to begin with. He was trying to muddy the waters for her. And she wouldn't have it. These double standards wouldn't stand. Not if she had a say on it.

She let her anger out now. She let her frustration and the injustice of it all fuel her.

"What of my war?"

She stood her ground and felt the shift in the air between them. She had hurt Klaus and he wanted to lash out but what seemed to be the most revolting thing she saw in his eyes was…condescension.

Klaus shook his head watching her as if he now faced a naïve child that had no right to sit with the adults past its bedtime.

"What do you know of war, Caroline?"

Everything in her stilled.

Maybe it was Klaus' patronizing tone. His attempt to gaslight her and make her less of who she was.

Maybe it was the fact that she had dealt with this in her whole life and she had not expected this behavior from him.

In her whole life, people belittled her and underestimated her. She had to prove people wrong about her every time and she was sick and tired of it.

Maybe it was nothing of those things and just maybe it was something more. Deeper. It burned through her mind and she soaked that feeling in. A feeling obsolete. Destructive and ancient.

Maybe it was stemming from the battle that kept waging inside her from the moment she landed in Purgatory. It had never stopped.

It never ended.

War.

Klaus thought he knew of war because he had walked the earth of the living for a thousand years and believed himself to be a haunted soul.

Her patience snapped and before Klaus could react she had sped in front of him and held his face in her hands. And then she forced her memories into his head.

A fragment of them. Broken shards.

She shared images of Purgatory. Klaus froze and she assaulted him with images his brain absorbed. She paralyzed him and kept the pieces from her memory, distorted and agonizing, rain on him.

She gave him the feeling of the stake piercing her flesh. Breaking through flesh, sinew, and muscle. Thrusting through bone. Tearing her heart.

The endless 'why' that remained unanswered to this day.

Death.

Blackness.

And then-

The screeching, the pain, the terror. Intense despair.

The things that crawled in the night. Broken dead things devouring the dead. Every attack. Everything that bit her, hurt her, tore at her. Every slash, every scratch, every wound.

How she breathed poison. How she drowned into the endless ocean of vervain until her flesh melted and her muted scream swallowed acid. How she died over and over again, a thousand times.

How she cried and fell. How she trembled and yelled. She was rotting, her flesh was coming apart, she could see her bones through the gaps.

She gave Klaus a window in her darkness. Into her death.

Everything she ripped apart and destroyed. All the things she flayed and skinned.

Thousand teeth, million shades, blades clashing together.

She fought them all until she could fight no more.

Every instinct. Every agony. The howling abyss.

The bloodshed. The poison. The torture.

It was nothing for Klaus to endure because she gave him only the surface. Only figments of the screams and the torture.

When he resisted the pain she pushed her fingers against his temples drawing blood.

There would be no escape. She hadn't escaped for a long time either. She pushed on battling the will of an Original imposing her own.

He'd see.

The suffocation from the sulfur. The eternal fire. The acid beneath her feet, the chaos above in the sky. The hunger.

The ageless time. She burned. She was so cold. She was nothing. She felt nothing. She felt everything. Everything and nothing at all.

No forgiveness. No mercy. No love.

Alone.

All alone.

Forgotten. Lost in the wastelands.

Her nails pushed into his skin, her memories filtered in his synapses.

She had shown him vague remnants of blurry memories when they had blood-shared but now she brought him to his knees.

Gasping for air.

Eyes open in the darkness.

She smelled the decay.

She was gasping for air.

She clawed, she fought, she tore through flesh and rot. Her rotting flesh. Her coffin.

She broke out of her coffin through the dirt carrying his brother's soul shuttering apart every bone of her body to get out of her grave.

Klaus snapped back horrified breaking their connection.

Eyes wide, breath taken away. He looked at her as if he had never seen her before.

Terror and horror.

War.

"Speak of me of war, Klaus Mikaelson," she challenged him with a soft voice of seduction but the warrior underneath the surface was ready to strike, "I dare you."

Klaus remained frozen. His eyes reflecting harrowing devastation but more so…dread.

She looked at the tear that fell down his face and she felt laughter cracking up her throat. He could keep his pity. He could feel sorry for her all he wanted. It would not change anything.

More, many more would be sorry when she'd be done with them.

"Who do you think I am?" she laughed at him but it was a burst of cold laughter as she approached him without wavering.

His whole frame was shaking with shock and terror and she relished in it and showed him her true colors.

Let him see.

Let him see her. Let him see who she became. The real her. The Caroline his brother Kol knew.

The her that took a fallen Original and resurrected him from Purgatory while he could not deliver his soul back. The her that pillaged death and could be all that monsters feared without throwing tantrums and turning off her humanity. Without showing remorse or weakness.

The her that has risen, the her that Klaus Mikaelson hadn't met yet because she chose not to share that part of herself with him.

Because Klaus believed he knew her because he could see her 'light'.

Because women to men like him were meant to be idolized and placed on pedestals meant for the purest hearts. Because the coveted girl Klaus wanted would need a savior and would remain forever young and innocent. Because he thought her monster was meant to be petted while his was meant to savage.

Her laughter faded away and she gently kissed his cheek drying his tear on her lips.

She looked at him scornfully.

"From the second I died," she intoned every word, her voice a gravelly sound, "every moment in Purgatory was war. I fought legions," she snarled, "I slayed armies of thousands and clawed myself out of hell and every moment after has been war and you stand here pretending as if you will be my protector," she snorted without veiling her sarcasm.

How much of an ineffective feeling that was really. For him to believe he could teach her how to heal, how to feel, and how to act. For him to believe he could take away from her what she wanted.

For him to believe he could control her. To even believe he could explain to her how her trauma worked and to act as if he had the answers when he didn't even understand the questions.

And she had let him because it had been convenient. Because in his arms with his blood singing in her veins she could pretend she could forget.

Klaus told her to mourn.

There was a right time to mourn yes. As there was a right time to love.

A right time to hate. A right time to fight.

This was the time to fight because she could not forget. She could not forgive.

Maybe the person she used to be before she died could.

She had already died twice. She trusted and she loved and she forgave and every time it resulted in her death.

There would not be a third time.

No more.

"I don't need your protection Klaus," she rejected him with the same venom she used back in Mystic Falls when she viewed him as nothing but her enemy, "especially not when your behavior and what you want is the true danger that leaves me defenseless to be blindsided," she accused him and then watched him vengefully, "and when the time came that I needed you and I relied on you, you told you me "I do not know sweetheart", she imitated his words, her tone laced with incredulous derision as she pointed her finger at him, "you stood there," she sneered, "and let everything unfold knowing all too well it would leave me back to square one because just maybe that's what you want too."

Klaus was still too shaken but he managed to fight through the turbulent emotion and somewhat regain his composure.

He stepped into her personal space, his body language a warning.

"Are you accusing me of something?"

Caroline didn't blink as he towered over her. A lesser person and would have run screaming right about now but Caroline remained unmoved at this show of intimidation.

The chill in her gaze battled Klaus' menace and she squared her shoulders.

"Am I?"

The challenge was there. As was what she was implying. Their loaded gazes clashed and interlocked. They regarded each other seriously and Caroline held her breath despite how she manipulated her body into calmness.

Because she knew this was it. This was Klaus' chance to give her the truth. To tell her everything. Everything that mattered.

This felt like a chance. A real chance. Maybe their last chance. And despite everything Caroline wanted Klaus to take it. And if he did she'd stay. She'd march on with him and fight along his side. The only thing she needed was the truth.

A shadow passed through Klaus' eyes. It was fleeting. But it was there and it was regret.

And just like that, Caroline knew their chance was gone because Klaus wouldn't take it.

"I think this has been a long night for you Caroline," Klaus sighed tiredly.

His words were empty. Vacant just like the dull blue of his eyes. The spark was gone among so many other things. "Many things happened and you are not thinking clearly."

This time Caroline's lips curled in a lopsided smirk at Klaus' attempt to mollify her with condescending words and a pat in the back.

"On the contrary Klaus," she drawled with malice, "you asked me to choose a side tonight. In so many ways you gave me this ultimatum over and over again…so hear me," she finally threw down the gauntlet coming closer to him.

She framed his cheek with the softest of her touches and smiled at him as she brought her lips closer to his. "Mine," she whispered choosing her side, "I am choosing myself."

Klaus closed his eyes and his hand covered hers. He held on to her touch as if it wasn't the prelude of what was going to come next.

She took a step back; he held her hand tightly until her fingers slipped away from his hold.

He opened his eyes and as if she was the magnet and he the metal he was pulled forward only to stop when her eyes forbade him to minimize and destroy the distance between them.

This time she was the one that felt regret.

Not for what she said or what she decided. But for every mistake, for every hope, for every longing.

"For a long time I wanted someone…anyone to put me first," she confessed to Klaus letting all her former insecurity show.

As a vampire, she knew that her strengths were heightened but her fears and her regrets from a human life long gone were magnified too. She'd always self-doubt herself. She'd always be insecure. She'd always want someone to choose her.

"To choose me," she tried to make him see and Klaus exhaled painfully. She knew her words would cut him because deep down she knew this was what he wanted too. In that regard, Klaus had been correct. They were the same. Kindred spirits even.

"Why won't you let me?" Klaus quietly pled, his voice barely a whisper and she took in a deep breath.

"Because I don't want you to choose me as an afterthought."

"Never Caroline," Klaus swore with such intensity that made her breathe fire, "never that."

Caroline closed her eyes. She could be strong in her vulnerability.

"I can't do this again Klaus. I can't come second," not again she thought feeling resigned. She had been down this road ever since she remembered herself. With her parents, with her friends, with her lovers. "I want to be important to someone. Important enough to be treated with respect. Maybe I am asking too much," she shrugged, "but if you really cared for me it wouldn't be like this. It wouldn't hurt like this. It wouldn't make me feel inferior. You wouldn't manipulate me like this. "

"I never wanted to make you feel like this Caroline. You must know that."

"I know that. But whatever your intentions were, are even, it doesn't change the truth."

Her eyes traced his face slowly.

"I never wanted you to share your deepest secrets with me unless you wanted that too. I would never force you. Not unless you were ready and should you be I would be there. It wouldn't have to be conflicting interests. I would support you and I would stand by your side no matter the cost," she paused and their gazes locked, "as long as you could do this for me too. It had to…it has to go both ways and," she exhaled slowly, "…it does not."

"It-"

Klaus trailed off to an uncomfortable halt. Caroline smiled sadly.

"You can't tell me it does can you?"

Caroline looked down at her wrist. At the sparking diamonds of the bracelet, Klaus had put on her once more.

"So you can't give me what I want and I won't settle for less."

She unfastened the clasp and the bracelet slipped away from her wrist. Klaus watched her removing his gift with eyes filled with misery.

They did go round and round in a vicious circle they were doomed to keep repeating after all.

"Because all I ever wanted was someone to choose me and to be enough."

When Klaus didn't make a move to take the bracelet back she placed it on the flat surface of the railing. The pale sunlight made the jewel gleam.

"I guess," she stopped in apprehension, "I understand now," she corrected herself, "that maybe these expectations of mine were flawed and unreasonable from the start because now I realize that no one will do this for me unless I put myself first," she realized, "my self-worth can't depend on others. What I want can't be given by anyone than me. Unless I fight to earn it…and I shouldn't have to fight for something like that."

But she would fight. There was no other way.

She would now fight and she wouldn't stop.

"So I am choosing me Klaus and you can't fault me for that," she set the record straight between them. There would be no guilt trips, no setbacks. "Not after tonight. Anything I owed you so far is repaid by me being honest," at least that she could still do. "Can you say the same?"

Klaus said nothing. They'd both knew it would be a lie anyway.

Sweet words meant nothing. Reassurances meant absolutely nothing. Hollow promises meant less than nothing.

Caroline reached for the pendant that was hanging around her neck and closed it around her fist. She squeezed. She let it be a reminder.

And so she took a stand against the man she wanted but could not have because now she could also admit that too. She would not hide behind hostility. She would not pretend as if their connection, as deep and as toxic and as beautiful as it could be and was, wasn't there.

It was there. But if she had to choose between losing herself in Klaus and standing up for herself in all the ways that mattered to her and would make her respect herself then no matter the ache in her heart she knew what she'd choose.

Herself. She'd choose herself. Any day. Any time.

Love was sacrifice after all and she'd learn to love herself.

She'd learn and she'd fight.

Yes. She'd fight.

It was time to fight.

The day became brighter. Sunrise was here and was bathing them both in the early light.

She looked at Klaus and inclined her head at him. If he wanted her to be in his side then his side should better align with hers. If he wanted her than he'd have to earn the chance to be with her and that would never happen with lies and deceit. It was all or nothing.

"Whatever your endgame is I have my own too," Caroline stated so there would be no misunderstanding when it came to this, "and anyone that goes against that is definitely not on my side."

She turned around and left Klaus behind feeling his eyes following her every step until she vanished from his sight.

She kept walking. She held the pendant of her murderer in her fingers. It was not just a reminder.

It was a promise.

One she planned to keep.

But for now, she had things to do and a corpse to attain. From there she was in for the long game.

She had been broken little Caroline for long enough. That ended today. No more suffering in the wreckage. No more ignoring the weapon in her mind.

In a way, she was finally free despite the barrier that trapped her inside the city.

She would stay in New Orleans and she'd make her own rules. Her own game.

She had the rug pulled beneath her feet way too many times already. She didn't care for Klaus' true motives and his secrets. She didn't care for Elijah's intentions and Kol's games.

She owed nothing to anyone but herself.

She'd put herself back together and if she had to she'd turn herself into the kind of nightmare everyone would fear in the dark.

The kind of which the monsters of New Orleans had never faced before.

"Show me your compassion... show me that I can trust you."

That was what Caroline had told him years ago in Mystic Falls and he had failed. Once more he had failed.

Klaus Mikaelson closed his eyes and held the diamond bracelet tightly in his palm. It would seem that damn thing was cursed. Unable to stay in Caroline's possession long enough. She always rejected it and him with it.

It didn't matter. None of this mattered. What mattered was what was going to come next. What mattered was what happened before. How had he missed this?

The place Caroline showed him….he knew it.

He had been there before. A long time ago.

Purgatory.

How had he missed this? How?

The phantom aches returned with a vengeance. His body ached once more. It vibrated with the same intensity. It still remembered. It still recognized. It had never forgotten.

Klaus hadn't felt this physically ill ever since he had been a helpless human. He hadn't felt this pitiless despair since his years of mortality. Years he spent in Mikael's cruel hands enduring his abuse and yet he would gladly return to those years instead of feeling how he felt now every time he closed his eyes.

He was still shaken. Right down to the core. He felt a kind of fever he hadn't felt for centuries.

The picture that had formed in front of his eyes was heinous. Had no mercy. No respite. He still carried it in his nightmares despite how many centuries had passed and now in the middle of all that Hell there she stood.

Caroline.

The world shifted. It became small. It couldn't contain him. And yet it was also large. An endless land of desolation. He could scream and no one would hear. How would he ever purge that feeling?

The feeling that defined Caroline Forbes.

The fierce creature he had faced tonight was magnificent and terrifying.

It was also a creature ancient. With her blood still in his system every memory, every emotion, every shape and form, the entire nightmare hit him harder, and with it so did realization.

He hadn't wanted this for Caroline. Not even beings of centuries on this earth garnered such rage and pain. And here she was. Purgatory changed her. This wasn't the makings of a legend. No. She was already there and he had underestimated her. Once more. Like everyone else. How could he have been so blind?

The memories she gave him didn't add up to one year alone. She was gone for longer.

It had to be longer.

Far too long.

Klaus opened his eyes and his gaze drifted at the glossy reflection of the diamonds he held in his hand. He had given Caroline that particular gift because it represented eternity. Because the craft of the bracelet's design symbolized infinity. The figure eight. Endless time without a start or an end.

His brother's words echoed now, taunting him, mocking him.

.

Flashback

"Oh, one more thing Nik," Kol's voice reached his ears stopping him from leaving, "did you know time passes by differently in Purgatory?"

.

Klaus almost crushed the bracelet in his fingers that threatened to turn the jewel to dust.

How long?

For how long was Caroline stranded in that hell?

No wonder she fitted so well with Kol. They were made from the same cloth now. She could be just as unpredictable as the worst of his family. She had faced damnation and broke through the gates of hell carrying Kol with her. His brother, an Original, had been weak and unable to escape on his own and Caroline had carried him and he hadn't fully acknowledged that even though the facts were right there in front of him.

That was the fatal flaw of Caroline's opponents. He shared it along with everyone else. He too had undervalued her when the truth was there in front of his eyes. This wasn't just two survivors establishing an alliance to get out from hell or forming of a parasitic bond. This was a bond of warriors.

He always knew Kol's capabilities but he had miscalculated Caroline's.

He had seen her light but now he saw all of her darkness and she had the potential for both. After all the juxtaposition of life and death, of light and darkness existed for a reason and right now it would seem Caroline was a perfect example of that.

And it all started in Purgatory.

At least now he had a name for his nightmares too.

If only Caroline knew how much they shared. If Caroline knew that he had been stranded in that place too. A long time ago.

Elijah stepped into his study, followed by Kol. Both of his brothers' expressions were cold and solemn.

"That pendant Niklaus," Elijah wondered with a grave tone, "Is it what I think it is? Is Caroline-"

"Yes."

Kol did not waver as he answered Elijah's question instead of Klaus before their older brother could even give voice to it.

It would seem that Kol just like him would not risk the truth to come out even like this. Even walls had ears and every whisper in New Orleans carried betrayal.

Klaus stared at him, examining his younger brother under a different light now.

"You knew?" he asked him and Kol didn't miss a beat.

"I connected the pieces Nik."

Of course, he did.

He could accuse Kol of many things but he was perceptive and clever. Too smart for his own good.

Klaus lowered his head and tried to breathe but the images that were now emblazoned in his head would not allow him too.

Kol had been in Purgatory too. His little brother had been in that Hell, alone. He had been dead for months before Caroline died.

Klaus thought he knew what torment meant but this was a brand new hell even for him.

He was suffocating. There were times like these when he still had vivid images from the curse of the five gnawing at him. Those images, those feelings sometimes felt too real. So real as if he was still cursed. Sometimes he believed that maybe he still was. Maybe this reality was nothing but one more hallucination that would be cruelly taken away from him and he would return in that basement his siblings kept him chained as he lost his grip with reality and turned feral.

They couldn't dagger him and they couldn't cure him. Klaus still remembered how it felt to be haunted by the Five's curse. The hallucinations, the distortion of reality, the inability to separate what was real and what was not. The guilt, the pain, the raw agony. All his fears, all his loneliness, all his regrets, and all his longings had been turned to his enemies. He couldn't escape, he couldn't find relief, he couldn't exist. He had turned mad, unhinged and utterly lost, but the end would not come. No magic would bring him comfort. There was no love, no hope, no light.

So many centuries ago in Italy. And yet sometimes it felt like yesterday. Sometimes it felt like now.

The curse had lasted for 50 years but the last years had been by far the worse.

In those last years, he had stopped trying to kill himself because his soul had died. Elijah had told him that for the last years of the curse he had turned catatonic. Paralyzed in dread and no one could reach him. They had tried to get into his mind but there was nothing there to be found.

Probably because the curse had snatched his soul and sent it to Hell.

He still remembered. His body may have turned comatose but his mind, unreachable by others as it may have been had been tormented in worst ways than before.

Towards the end, he had been having those weird flashes of a dreadful place that invaded his dreams and waking hours. A horrific place that still to this day terrified him as if it had been real only to now find out that it was real.

Purgatory.

Back then when the curse had lifted he had made some research but from what he had learned about the other side he had rejected the idea that he had been imagining the other side because that dimension seemed like Paradise in comparison to where he had been. The Other Side had sounded tame in comparison to what he experienced but back then he hadn't known what he knew now. The other side was a witch's interference with nature and the true destination for monsters like him was Purgatory.

And the images Caroline gave him today were identical to that place. They reignited his own memories.

Memories he had depicted on endless paintings he would always burn afterward because he couldn't stand bringing that terror into this world in any form. He couldn't remember. He couldn't relive the trauma. And he hoped that he could banish Purgatory in the flames that ate his paintings.

His art had then taken a turn to the darker side ever since and just maybe every painting he had created carried a piece of Purgatory with it in a way. In the darker colors, in the abstract designs, in the blackness and the monstrous shades and the emotion of wretchedness, loneliness, and isolation. In many ways, as he expressed himself through art he also hated that expression. Because it was no longer connected with the need to create beauty but with the need to establish control. The control that was taken away from him. There was no more beauty left in him to create. He just couldn't find the comfort he used to seek from his art. Down to his core Purgatory had taken even that away from him.

Purgatory.

Klaus had never understood back then what that place was, believing it was just his cruel imagination turning against him, but now he finally realized it was Purgatory.

The curse of the Five couldn't kill him and send him to where he was meant to go so it had eventually brought Purgatory to him.

And to imagine that Caroline was actually there-

Everything inside him recoiled and Klaus stepped up almost losing his equilibrium.

This was far more complicated than he could imagine.

Purgatory. The Five. The pendant. Jared Forbin. William Forbes.

It was all connected. Somehow. And the ramification of what this actually meant-

Caroline's life was still in danger.

Klaus stared at the bracelet one more time before he pushed it inside his pocket.

There was no more time for doubt, second-guessing, or reminiscing.

Purgatory would have to wait.

For now, he had people to send in Hell.

Klaus stood tall. One breath in, one out and he was back in control.

He stared at his brothers wearing the stoniest expression he had.

"Caroline must never learn the truth."

She was better off not knowing. The truth would only bring her heartache and…death. The truth would attract danger. Everyone believed she was dead and maybe this was for the best. Nothing should disturb those still waters now. If Caroline ever found the truth about the past it would lead her to nothing good.

She had already suffered enough. He would make sure she would not only survive but she would live eternally in a safe world where she wouldn't have to constantly run and hide for her life. Where she would not always have to look behind her shoulder, always on the ran as if she was nothing but an abomination meant to be hunted down and wiped out from the face of the earth.

He had lived this when Mikael had hunted him like a rabid animal for millennia. He would not allow Caroline to go through the same hell.

Kol seemed to share the sentiment but Elijah was frowning.

"Is this wise?" the eldest Mikaelson asked but Klaus remained unmoved by Elijah's concern.

"We will keep an eye on her," he said and the next of his words were a lethal promise, "no one will hurt her."

"Still-"

"I agree with Nik," Kol said, not allowing Elijah to speak, "she is safer not knowing. If she starts digging she will be attracting trouble."

"They have already killed her once because of this secret," Elijah argued and Klaus' claws lengthened. His wolf ready to escape the confines of its prison of flesh.

"It won't happen again," Klaus seethed, "even if I have to track down and kill every last one that knows the truth."

After all the world was a big place and Caroline was trapped in New Orleans. By the time she got out of this place, he would have destroyed every evidence. Every last survivor to that dreaded line. Every keeper. He had to. And he knew New Orleans better than Caroline. He had built this city and any secrets that were still buried and lurking here he would find first. He had the advantage. He'd do all that was necessary and keep Caroline from harm's way. He'd kill anyone that would get in his way.

Kol gave a resolute nod.

"We will. We'll kill them all," Kol agreed, "no one survives."

Klaus' gaze locked with his younger brother's and this time he realized that this was not a game for Kol. There was not a single trace of amusement in his eyes nor there was the thrill of the imminent kill and destruction. Kol was not enjoying this and neither did he.

But they both knew there was no other way for this story to end. Only in death.

The death of all those that would dare harm Caroline Forbes.

None would survive. No one would live.

They'd destroy them all and none would remain to share their dreaded story.

"None."

Klaus' voice was soft. It had a calculated edge. It was hard and unyielding.

He held on to Kol's penetrating gaze. Times like these he felt right down to his bones Kol's age. He was just as old as them. He could see behind the façade. He was ready to do what was necessary.

Kol now rose to the occasion and this time he stood before Klaus with honesty and resolution.

"Let's open our cards then," Kol proposed and Klaus nodded.

"She will start digging but I will keep an eye on her," Kol said, "she trusts me so if she gets anywhere near the truth I'll divert her if needed."

Klaus inclined his head and then prowled past Elijah and walked up in front of Kol.

"I don't like the thing you have with Caroline," Klaus admitted seriously, "but when it comes to her, and her alone," he enunciated each word, "we are on accord brother. "

There would be no backstabbing, no more nonsense. For Caroline, he could work with Kol and he was ready to cement this promise in blood. He would not dagger him for now either since he needed him for this.

Kol slanted his head enough to express his agreement.

"On that front yes."

Kol was honest. When it came to this there would be no games. No secrets, no betrayal.

For that, both of them could trust each other but Klaus could see the unspoken words.

Everything else was still fair game.

Klaus smirked at that and Kol mirrored his expression before both of them sobered. They were on the same mind. For the first time in centuries, they were perfectly in sync.

Kol matched his energy by taking a step closer until they were standing inches away from each other.

"Do I have your word on this Nik?"

Kol's voice was soft. Enthralling even. But at the same time, the depth of it had no end.

"My word," Klaus simply said and then raised his eyebrow, "do I have yours?"

Kol gave him a wordless nod and then squared his shoulders.

"Yes," the youngest Mikaelson swore and Klaus beamed just at the same time as Kol grinned.

It had been a long time since they had worked together. It was time for everyone to remember why together they were a force to be reckoned with.

Oh yes. They'd kill them all.

Together.

And just like that in synchronized motion both brothers turned and looked expectantly at Elijah.

Almost pleadingly. And demandingly. As they had when they were kids and looked up to their big brother to guide them and help them. To be there for them when they were set on their mischief or their risky plans. When they were set on causing trouble or when they wanted to escape trouble. In a time long ago when all three of them were partners in crime.

Elijah stared back at his brothers unable to believe what was unfolding right in front of his eyes.

Momentarily he was in awe at how his brothers had united.

It had been a long time. Such a long time coming. He felt his heart expand at the sight and at the same time he felt the tendrils of terror. Klaus and Kol together were something unholy. A plight to the world.

Elijah stepped forward giving them a firm nod. They'd protect Caroline Forbes together. No matter the cost.

He was still unable to wrap his mind around it. This turn of events was shaking him to the core and was giving him a new perspective.

He knew Klaus' infatuation when it came to the girl and he saw Kol's caring nature but he could have never imagined this could come to be given who Caroline truly was. And both of his brothers had known. The existence of the pendant and Caroline's connection to it was a shock but it cleared the picture of him.

The girl's current existence was such an irony of fate and yet here she was.

If she was anyone else his brothers would have used her differently and would seek to exploit her but right now they were willing to let go of the truth because they had come to care for Caroline aside from her untold history. They would rather bury the truth and all they could gain rather than having to bury Caroline.

And now Caroline was the key to bring his brothers together instead of tearing them apart. She was the key to much more. Things his brothers were will to sacrifice and forget so to keep Caroline safe.

Caroline Forbes. If only he could move her in the right direction. He could have his brothers back. Both of his brothers. Their family could come together.

Elijah realized that both of his brothers loved and cared for Miss Forbes. Each one of them in their own way; but being loved by Klaus and Kol was just as dangerous as being hated by them.

Unfortunately for Caroline, their protection was a double-edged sword. It would kill her enemies but it was just as likely to fatally wound her too and eternity was a long time to spend with bleeding wounds and unfading scars.

Siding with his brothers right now was not an option. He had once promised them always and forever and he would never break that promise.

He was capable to break any other promise he had ever and would ever give. But not this one.

And for once his family could be united. Kol could become one of them again. They'd come together as one. And if he managed to somehow tie Caroline to their family this union could withstand eternity.

'I am sorry Elena,' Elijah thought as his apology formed inside him and took root. He spoke it gently in the confines of his mind as if Elena Gilbert was standing in front of him right now, 'I will strive to ensure your friend's survival but I may not be able to save her soul in the end. And if that's the price to pay to bring my brothers into the path of redemption then I am willing to pay it.'

Elijah approached Klaus and Kol and leveled his gaze with theirs.

"I will assist your endeavor in any way you desire me to. You have my word," he promised and realized how both Klaus and Kol seemed to appreciate his stance, "however you must understand that if the girl finds out and realizes you knew the truth," he paused and gave them caution, silently, for a long moment before he added softly, "she won't forgive."

Both of his brothers remained stoic but Elijah could feel the battle that raged inside them. At that moment both of his brothers were attuned. Both were haunted by the same ghosts and fears but both shared the same dedication to the path they had chosen.

Yet Elijah knew this would be the last chance for him to be the voice of reason. Because once they would decide on a course of action it would be the point of no return.

And he could see that Caroline has stored a lot of rage inside her. So much that it poisoned her gentle heart.

He didn't know her as much as his brothers did but he could already tell that she had already picked up on them lying and she would most likely react to it.

He could sense a deadly predator when he saw one and Caroline Forbes was just that. And predators did not forgive or doubt when they were on the hunt.

Caroline Forbes was now on a quest and they were all about to get into a collision course.

"She won't excuse this no matter what she feels for you. You will lose her," Elijah warned his brothers, "…both of you."

It was a dangerous gamble. If they lost control they would lose everything. This could very well backfire and both Klaus and Kol knew it.

Elijah watched as Klaus and Kol look at each other.

They could choose honesty. They could bring Caroline into the fold in a different way but it would seem that his brothers would not risk losing her with the truth so they both preferred the lie.

"If that's the price to pay for keeping her alive-" Klaus swallowed hard and it was Kol that finished his phrase.

"So be it."

Elijah inclined his head and just like that all three of the Mikaelson siblings were bound by oath.

The three of them formed a circle.

From this day forward Caroline Forbes was under the protection of their family.

Always and forever.