A/N: Hello there! I know I'm a little late to the whole Vampire Diaries wagon but I finally binge watched TVD & TO altogether last year and I decided one thing: Klaroline is the ULTIMATE ship and I must see it come to its full fruition in some way or the other! And I thought to myself, what better way than to write all that angst out of your system? So, here it is...my version of what Season 6 of The Originals would have looked like had it continued. As for the timeline, we pick up right where the TO finale left off, in fact this first scene is pretty much the same (forgive me, I wanted to start with something familiar to get into my writing vibe). I've kept things as canon as possible (with a few liberties & Easter Eggs here and there!) Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: Duh, I don't own TVD, TO, Legacies...JP does. Else, things would have ended slightly differently (as you shall see)

1

Always and Forever

It was a quiet night in the French Quarter, just another night for most of the people who resided in the city. The night was still – unusual for New Orleans – but brightly lit as always with its string lights and vintage lamp posts lining its streets. Three of the Mikaelson siblings walked towards the clearing in the centre of the French Quarter, looking solemn. The Original Hybrid Klaus and his sister Rebekah were side by side while their older brother Elijah followed close behind. They stopped at one of the benches and Klaus slowly turned to Rebekah, his face strained.

"Many moons ago," Klaus reminisced looking around his favorite city, "we sat here and discussed the future of our family." Rebekah looked back at him sadly. He came closer and rubbed her shoulder, his expression now advanced to pain with a tinge of regret.

"I never should have gotten in the way of your happiness, Rebekah," he said wistfully and Rebekah's undead heart filled to its brim upon hearing this from her brother.

"You don't have to apologize," she replied, shaking her head. She wasn't sure if she could hold back the tears any longer.

"Then let me make it up to you." Klaus paused as Rebekah looked at him curiously. "I've asked Caroline to get you the cure." Her surprised eyes now filled up, threatening to spill over onto her cheeks.

"In a handful of decades, when it's time, you can go to Mystic Falls and get it. Then if you no longer wish to be a vampire, it's your choice." His voice was almost a gentle whisper now. Rebekah gushed with happiness and love for her brother which for a split second made her forget the reason they were gathered here. Klaus lovingly stroked her hair. "Live the life you've always wanted to live, my sister," he emphasized on the last two words with such raw emotion that she finally let out a sob and wrapped her arms around him, holding him close for one last time.

"Thank you," she whispered. Klaus hugged back and shut his eyes, taking in the precious moment with his sister. She let go and they just looked at each other. Rebekah then glanced behind him to look at Elijah, who in turn, gave her a small smile. She walked past Klaus and went to him, giving him a heart-felt hug as well. Elijah put his arms around her, kissed her cheek and let go. Rebekah then turned, taking once last look at her brothers and left. The two Originals stood in silence, watching their sister walk away. Klaus then made a decision and decided not to put off any longer what was to inevitably be done.

"I don't want your last memory of me to be my death," he said slowly, turning around and sitting on the nearest bench. "So please let's not say the sad goodbye," he asserted, raising his hands with finality.

Elijah didn't move. "I agree," he said, still not looking at Klaus. "Let's not."

He then slipped his hand into his suit pocket and took out the white oak stake and Klaus watched curiously as Elijah took it in both hands and broke it into two pieces.

Klaus looked up at his older sibling's face. "I hate to disappoint you brother, but the stake will be just as effective in its shorter form."

"I'm aware."

"So you plan to hold onto a piece as a souvenir?" Klaus asked exasperatedly, not knowing what his brother's actions meant.

Elijah shut his eyes briefly and upon opening them finally turned to look at Klaus and joined him on the bench. Klaus continued to stare at him perplexed, wondering what was going through his brother's mind. Elijah just shortly smiled at him and made a single statement.

"I intend to die by your side," he said simply. Klaus' face upon hearing this was a flutter of emotions alternating between shock and some anger, but he didn't say anything to fight his brother.

Elijah looked at the two broken shards of wood in his hand and handed over a piece to Klaus. He looked confused but took it anyway, his expression slowly changing to one of acceptance. He then leaned back against the bench and sighed.

"What if there's nothing after this?" he wondered out loud. "No peace, just darkness." The weight of his thoughts began to overwhelm him a little, with a hint of fear flickering in his chest.

"We'll face it together…" Elijah replied, his voice slightly cracking as he held back tears. The two brothers looked at each other for a moment and Klaus nodded. Finally, both of them got up from the bench and stood facing each other. "…As always." Elijah finished, flashing him a small smile that shone through his sorrow filled face.

"I don't deserve the love you've given me brother," said Klaus, "but I am so grateful." He came closer and put his arm on Elijah's shoulder.

Elijah maintained his effort to hold back tears and spoke softly. "It's been a glorious ride, Niklaus…" he paused as the brothers took a collective deep breath, "…And the greatest honour." Klaus gave him a small smile in response and they slowly positioned their stakes on each other.

The two Mikaelson brothers took a long hard look at one other for one last time, smiled and nodded in unison before making that final push – which was all it took to drive the stakes into each other's hearts. Still not taking their eyes off each other, their bodies jerked a little as the life slowly began to drain out of their bodies.

Within seconds the magic of the white oak stake took effect and their Original skin started to grey – from their arms and legs till it finally spread across to their faces.

Soon, all that was left of a pair of thousand year old vampires was a swirling cloud of ashes – ashes that rose and spread across the sky, forever securing them as a permanent part of their beloved city, New Orleans.

Klaus' eyes snapped open. He felt disoriented for a moment, surrounded by blackness and a thick layer of what appeared to be fog. He didn't like his predicament; as a powerful Hybrid he was not used to the feeling of being unable to see in the dark, or any sort of weakness for that matter.

He tried to focus on his surroundings in the hope that things would get clearer when a question suddenly came to his mind: how did he even get here? He continued to look around wondering about the bigger question, 'where is 'here'?'

When he struggled to jog his memory and was drawing a blank, he began to get agitated. If he found out that there were people messing with his mind, they were going to pay…he would make sure of it!

Speaking of people, where was everybody? As things around him began to come into view, his thoughts immediately went to his daughter Hope. Where was she? Was she safe? What was happening? Where were his siblings – Elijah, Rebekah, Freya..Kol?

Once again, as a true strategist, Klaus Mikaelson intensely disliked the feeling of being at a disadvantage – of having so many questions with no way to get answers. He decided to focus on what he could control and began to walk.

The fog began to clear a little, slowly revealing the space around him little by little… until his eyes fell on a series of benches in the center of what appeared to be the French Quarter in New Orleans.

It looked like his favourite city but it didn't. It was almost as if he was…in a ghost town.

And that's when he remembered why the imagery of the place seemed familiar – apart from the fact that it resembled his beloved city. It reflected Kol's description of his afterlife where he had spent quite some time before his girlfriend, the witch Davina, came to rescue him and this only meant one thing.

Klaus Mikaelson was dead and his spirit was currently lost somewhere within the Ancestral Plane.

Caroline Forbes drove in silence but her brain was anything but quiet – partly responsible for that was her mind playing back her last moments with Klaus a few hours ago, over and over on loop.

She had walked out of Rousseau's, biting her inner cheek to hold back tears and fighting every urge in her body that was telling her to turn around for one more look…one more moment.

One last time to look at the man who had so drastically evolved since the first time he walked into her bedroom on her birthday so many years ago. From the psychopathic serial killer to the passionate father and all the time in between when she wished she could forget all the bad things he had done just so she could finally admit to herself without guilt that she was feeling something for him.

One last kiss with the man who had told her he intended to be her last love.

Her fingers gripped the steering wheel tighter and she licked her lips – she could have sworn she still felt a whisper of his warmth from their parting kiss. She thought of the last words she had said to him.

"I'll never forget you."

Forget him? Like that was even possible. They may have gone through long spells of time without seeing each other but there was no shaking off the profound impact he had had on her irrespective of that.

She stopped for gas and didn't realize until she stepped out that she had really needed to stretch her legs. She decided she should probably feed and took the car to the side. Despite the absence of people in the vicinity, she still looked around before opening the trunk and pulling out the mini-cooler of blood bags she kept for long distance travel. She opened up the cooler and hesitated; did she just lose her appetite? Was this even possible with a vampire's natural blood lust? She shook her head and shut the cooler. 'Something is seriously wrong with me', she concluded and decided to get herself a coffee from the store instead.

She got into her car seat, her coffee cup in one hand and road-trip snacks in the other. She figured if she wasn't going to feed she would need something to munch on as it was already dark and there was quite some distance left to go before she got home. She tossed the snack packs on to the passenger seat and began to put on her seatbelt when another memory of Klaus came to her mind, from the last time he sat on that very seat next to her.

Do you regret the time we've spent together?

He had been so earnest in asking her this at the time, it took her by surprise; she never would have thought him to be bothered with trivial things like her feelings with regard to spending time with him. But she remembered that she had nevertheless felt a flicker of something in her heart knowing that he did. There really was something to be said about being the focus of the most powerful creature to have roamed the earth for over a thousand years. She'd be lying if she said his words didn't affect her as deeply as she ever admitted to.

"If we'd never met until now, I wonder if you'd even notice me," she had told Klaus while speculating about her observations as to why he showed interest in her back then, although it struck her later that she may have been justifying things to herself while slightly tending to the minuscule remains of her insecure, human side.

It would be impossible not to notice you, Caroline.

She let out a breathy laugh as if only now realizing how truly intimate that statement was and her response to the memory opened a floodgate of emotions that felt like they had been pent up within her all this while. Her laughter gradually turned to soft sobs as the facade she'd gotten so acquainted with maintaining around him for her own sanity, for her own good, for the sake of her family and all the other reasons she wasn't even sure of anymore came crashing down.

And so she wept, letting the tears fall freely as she drove back to Mystic Falls alone in her car with no one to rationalize to about why the death of the Great Evil Klaus Mikaelson provoked all these emotions within her.

It was past two in the morning when she finally got to her place – a cozy two bedroom house which was part of the Staff Quarters at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted. Her partner Alaric Saltzman, with whom she raised their two daughters Lizzie and Josie, occupied a replica of the same house across the compound. The structure had been designed along the same lines of the main Salvatore House itself, like most of the other buildings on the grounds. The wooden finish, the vintage lamps and even the furniture for that matter…blink once and she may as well have been in the Salvatore living room with her friends again, just like old times.

Old times really felt so long ago…but then again it had been over a decade since her wedding to Stefan Salvatore – the day she got both married and widowed. Over time she had finally managed to come to terms with the fact that Stefan picked Damon over her and her insecure human side had stopped taunting her about once again being a second choice, despite the true love that she and Stefan shared. She still kept in touch with Bonnie and Elena but it was never going to be the same – and understandably so – what with everyone having their own lives to deal with.

Come to think of it, despite all his growth as a person, Klaus was a constant that remained over these years as someone she could depend on to completely be himself even if she didn't necessarily make an effort to stay in touch with him, granted he had over a thousand years to live his life and become who he is.

Not anymore, she sorely reminded herself and sighed.

She was exhausted; aside for the long drive – which she enjoyed, honestly – her eyes were strained from all the tears and she felt like her brain was going to explode from all the thinking and reminiscing, if that was possible. The blood bag she didn't have an appetite for earlier sounded really good right about now.

She made her way to the fridge and took out a bag, sipping straight out of it without bothering to pour it out into a glass or mixing it with some wine like she usually did. It never ceased to amaze her how blood could affect her body; the very moment the dark liquid touched her tongue she could feel the magic in it healing her, revitalizing her…giving her strength. Perhaps she could now admit that Klaus had been right in telling her that she did indeed prefer being a vampire because she liked feeling strong and fearless.

Feeling much better, she then flashed to the Boarding House to check on her daughters, as was a regular practice whenever she returned from her travels no matter how late. She constantly worried about them, as any mother would, but her worry was further amplified by the fact that her daughters were siphoner witches from the Gemini Coven who would, at the age of twenty-two, have to go through a ritual that involved them merging with one other, resulting in the death of one twin. And there was no way in hell she was going to let that happen to her babies. Most of her work travels were usually combined with searches for a solution to this impending problem. She had promised herself that she and Alaric would find a way to beat it and she planned to keep that promise…she had to.

She slowly opened the door to the room that her daughters shared and took a peek inside. She smiled to herself seeing Josie fast asleep on bed and…her breath caught in her throat when she noticed Lizzie's bed was empty.

Caroline's already heightened senses perked up when she heard a noise from the dining hall. Without a second thought she whooshed there only to see her other daughter in her sleepwear looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Mom?" Lizzie exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise. Her hand was frozen in mid-air holding a spoonful of peanut butter she had seemingly just scooped from a jar on the table. "Why do you look like Moaning Myrtle after a really long day in the – " she barely got her sentence out before she was surrounded by a bone-crushing hug from Caroline.

When she finally let go, Caroline stood back and gently stroked Lizzie's blonde waves. "Hi, baby," she said, smiling softly. "Hey Mommy," Lizzie replied, giving a half-smile and feeling a little apprehensive about her mother's mood as she set her spoon down. "So…how did things go…in New Orleans?"

Caroline stared at her for a moment while Lizzie waited for her to respond. All of a sudden Caroline's expression shifted as if she just realized something.

"Oh my GOD! Lizzie, what are you even doing awake at this hour?! Are you okay? What happened? Is something wrong?" Caroline had the uncanny talent of being able to yell at someone without raising her voice – quite a useful skill to have when she was in a Boarding School full of sleeping students she didn't want waking up.

"Relax Mom, I was just hungry and couldn't sleep so I stepped out for a little snack," Lizzie gestured to the open jar of peanut butter still sitting there. "I think the real question is," she said, leaning closer to her mother, "what is up with you?"

Caroline looked at her and simply shook her head. "Nothing honey, I'm fine. Now go and try getting some sleep before your day begins!"

Who was she kidding? She wasn't really fine, not in the least.

"It's Sunday tomorrow."

"I don't care, just go to bed already!"

"Ugh, fine Mom, I'm going, I'm going…"

"Good night honey," Caroline kissed Lizzie on the forehead and sent her in the direction of her room. Just then, an idea came to her mind.

"Sweetie, hang on!" Caroline called to Lizzie, who turned around looking more puzzled than ever. "Do you still have your Prism with you?"

"You mean the crystal that lets me chit chat with my subconscious like a crazy person…" she paused as Caroline frowned at her, "… as part of my Therapy? Yeah, it's on my night stand."

"Please be a dear and get it for me."

A/N: Whaaat, Klaus is not dead? Or is he, kinda (that's the sound of a sunken ship slowly rising to the surface). Did Caroline's nostalgia give you the right KC throwback feels? Also, pardon if there's a mixture of American and British English when it comes to spellings, I'm still working that out. This is my very first Klaroline fic so I would love to hear what you guys think! If I get enough reviews I'll post the next chapter this time next week! And if I don't...well, I'll still post it next week, I'll just be very sad :( Cheers!