A/N- Disclaimer, I own nothing associated with the Vampire Diaries or its characters.

Caroline loved the ocean.

She loved swimming beneath the rolling waves and burying her toes in the sand before floating back up to break the surface and take in gasping lungful's of life giving air.

The taste of salt in her mouth, the sensation of Neptune kissing her as it dried on her lips.

She leans over the railing now, gazing down yearningly as a pack of dolphins' swim beside the ship, wishing that she could jump overboard and cool her skin in the refreshingly chilled water.

However, they're still half a day from land and the ship is high enough that she would risk knocking the air out of herself if she jumped overboard.

After all, it was not any old ship that she was aboard but the Royal Ship of Egypt.

The Pharaoh Cleopatra Hekaterine, known by her friends as Katherine, had insisted that the only way Caroline would be leaving Egyptian shores would be on the royal ship.

Well, in truth, the pharaoh wouldn't have given a damn if Caroline had been forced to swim from Alexandria to Rome, but the Roman diplomat that she had been escorting?

Katherine had made it clear that if any harm came to him, Caroline would find her heart being weighed against a feather by the Egyptian Goddess Maat.

She senses his presence now and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, not because of the man himself, she considered him a good friend, but because of what he carried wrapped around his arm.

An asp.

The symbol of Pharaoh's dynasty and not any old snake, this one was magic and obeyed the orders of the pharaoh, which Caroline had discovered personally when the woman had thought her a rival for her lover and sent the snake to bite her.

Fortunately, the High Priestess of Isis had come to her aid, saving her and convincing the pharaoh to spare her life, especially after she was convinced that Caroline had no designs on the Roman diplomat.

On Elijah.

Stepson to the Emperor Ansel and half-brother to the heir, Niklaus. Member of the First Family of Rome who had been diplomat to Mitanni, sent to set up trade routes when he had been betrayed and an attempt made on his life. He had escaped in a fishing boat, but gravely injured, he had lost consciousness and the boat had travelled on the waves and will of the gods until his boat had come ashore in Thebes, on the west bank before the Malkata palace where the Pharaoh had spied him from her bedroom.

Details after that were scarce, but by the time word had got back to Rome and Caroline had been dispatched from Mauretania to Egypt with her squadron, she had arrived to find that Elijah had become the Pharaoh's lover, then consort.

Caroline hadn't seen Elijah since they were children, nearly two decades ago and, as he'd been five years older than her, they had never played together but she remembered him as a sensible, intelligent and somewhat boring man.

So how he could have allowed himself to be seduced by the leader of a nation barely allied with Rome. How he could have allowed himself to make a marriage that could be seen as a threat to his half-brother and the Emperor himself, was beyond her.

She knew nothing of love.

She had been born into a family befriended and beloved by the Emperor of Rome but they had been revealed as traitors and those that hadn't been executed had been forced to commit suicide. Caroline had been spared because the Emperor had thought of her as his own daughter and upon her own request, had been recruited into the army. To become a soldier, as her father before her and his father before him. The only Roman soldier to be female, but her father had been loved by the army so she had been raised well and treated as an equal of any man.

Though she had not set foot in Rome in fifteen years.

Elijah stands beside her and she finds his presence soothing.

"Are you glad to go back home?" she asks him awkwardly and he shrugs,

"I will be glad to see my family, and to seek retribution against my enemies," he grins at her with good-humour and she responds with a smile of her own,

"But I shall wait breathlessly for word from my wife."

She raises an eyebrow, "You think that the Emperor will let you keep your 'wife'?" she questions and he shrugs,

"I don't think that Katherine shall allow us to be divorced without her consent and I would fear for any woman whom I sought to marry afterwards."

He lifts his index finger and strokes the head of the snake, cooing to the creature as if it were a pet.

She thinks he has made a grave mistake and hopes that he shan't be forced to climb the Gemonian stairs. She remembered him from her childhood, of course, five years older than her, he had been too busy with his studies to be interested in a little girl such as she, but he had smiled as she and Niklaus had run around the garden and had always been willing to escort them to the market to purchase sweets.

She wishes, as she had done so many times throughout the years, that her family was not accursed with the blood of treachery, that their name was not spat upon by those loyal to the Emperor and erased from history so that she might offer him some protection from his enemies. Those who would surely wish to see him punished for daring to marry, not only without his step-father's permission but to such a woman who would make him consort to Egypt.

Her worry is shown on her face and Elijah reaches over to grip her wrist in his hand,

"Don't be afraid for me," he assures her, "Niklaus will plead for my life and even if he does not, Rebekah shall and the Emperor adores her like his own child."

She considers this, "Did you think of this when you wed the Pharaoh?"

He glances down with a self-depreciating smile, "I was not thinking at all beyond the desire to take her back to bed."

Caroline blushes and clears her throat, looking away as the asp hisses as if it is laughing at her.

"We should be landing soon, and in Rome by nightfall." She gives as answer.

The sun has only just begun to set when they enter the streets of Rome, cautiously, worriedly, in covered litters.

A messenger had met them at the docks and told them that Elijah was expected at the Emperor's home, to be welcomed privately.

Caroline's blood had chilled when she heard that.

Her father had once been summoned the exact same way and she had never seen him again until he had mounted the stairs.

"I shall come with you." She had sworn and the look in her eyes had warned Elijah that she would brook no refusal.

She had stripped herself of her uniform, feeling naked without it and her sword but to enter the Emperor's house dressed as a general would surely risk making a statement, a perceived threat.

Her second-in-command and friend, Lorenzo comes into her cabin,

"Wear the blue tunic," he advised her, "The one the same colour of your eyes."

She accepts his advice without verbal question but raises an eyebrow as she slips the linen over her body and he comes forward to connect the garment with a fibulae of silver. "With the green palla," he continues, rummaging through her chest for the one palla she owned, "And a simple braid."

She frowns and crosses her arms, "Is there a reason you have become my handmaid?"

He manages only a tiny, pained grin, "You are going before the man your family betrayed not even two decades ago, I would rather I not wake up tomorrow having found myself promoted."

She shudders at the thought, and reaches for her mother's token of Neptune, the god of their family.

She dares not look through the curtains as they climb the Palatine Hill, instead playing with the cushion underneath her fingers, pulling at a loose thread until the litter is lowered.

She steps out onto the street and sees that it is stained red with the setting sun.

By the Gods, she hoped it was not a sign of things to come.

Elijah stepped out of his litter, his thumb on the head of the asp that was now curled around his neck, feigning sleep.

She stands beside him and looks up at the deceptively modest palace of the Emperor, the exterior was no different from any of the other buildings on the Hill, except perhaps, that it was a good deal plainer.

It had long been a trick of the Imperial family to feign simplicity and modesty for their façade, but Caroline had seen the interior of the palace, the boldly coloured frescoes and murals.

She swallows and follows Elijah inside the palace, to where a servant waits to lead them to the atrium.

Where it seems half of Rome awaits them.

Her eyes land first on the Emperor, not the most splendidly dressed man there but the most striking and captivating for his presence.

When she'd been a little girl, she'd been half in love with him, though he was not overly handsome. Now, he had aged but still carried himself well, his hair which had once been black was now entirely grey and his eyes were still as piercing as ever.

He greets their arrival silently but holds out a hand for Elijah, who steps forward and bows,

"Step-father," he murmurs, "It is good to see you again."

The Emperor opens his mouth but suddenly steps back quickly in alarm and Caroline, suspecting threat hurries forward only to see that Elijah's asp had awoken and raised its head, gazing at the first man of Rome curiously, tilting its head as it considered him.

"Did you bring an assassin into my house, Elijah?" the Emperor asked coldly and Caroline shivered as one of the Emperor's men moved closer to him, but Elijah recovered quickly,

"No, step-father, only a pet from the Pharaoh."

The Emperor hums in obvious disapproval, and his eyes flicker to Caroline, "A pet for her new pet?"

Before she can even think to stop herself or remember her training in the army, Caroline let out a little laugh, covering her mouth in horror when she realised what she'd done.

The Emperor stares at her with bewilderment before a smile breaks across his face like the sun on a cloudy day, "Ah, I remember that laugh, it used to grace these rooms with happiness. Caroline, my daughter!"

He opens his arms out wide and Caroline hesitates momentarily before easing herself forward, stepping into the space and starting as he embraces her, squeezing her tight.

Around them, she can hear people whispering, recalling her name and the name of her father.

"Come Niklaus," The Emperor calls as he releases her, "Come welcome your sister home!"

A man steps forward and now it is Caroline's turn to be surprised.

In her mind, Niklaus had remained unchanged since their childhood. A short, chubby boy with a pig nose and dirt in his messy blonde hair.

So who was this man standing before her?

He was tall, lean muscle, golden curls, eyes as blue as the sky and lips as pink as the sunset.

He was the image of Apollo and when he holds out his hands, she worries that when she places hers in his palms that his touch shall burn.

And it does but it is far from painful.

"Caroline?"

He is as confused as she.

"Nik?"

The Emperor laughs loudly, "Truly? You have been too long gone from Rome that my son can no longer recognise his old playmate."

He claps his hands, "Come, let's eat!"

He leads them into the triclinium, taking the place of honour and gesturing for his son to recline beside him, Caroline ended up next to Elijah and two women, one barely more than a girl who wears a short tunic and regards her with open curiosity, "You're the traitor's daughter, Caroline?"

The matron hisses, "Rebekah! Manners."

Caroline lowers her head for a moment before raising it with a smile, "William was my father, I left Rome before you were born, but I remember your mother, she was quite beautiful."

Rebekah pouts as the barb hits home.

Esther had been the wife of one of Ansel's most loyal senators before she had become Ansel's lover, bearing him Niklaus before going back to her husband who had suddenly found himself sent on missions across the Empire and returning home only long enough to impregnate his wife and then leave again.

It was known that Niklaus was Ansel's son, but the parentage of the next three children was in question.

Caroline is drawn into conversation with the matron, who batters her with question upon question about army life and it was not until hours later after the secundae mensae, when people began to lift themselves off the couch that she could flee to the veranda and have a moment to think.

She was staring out at the garden where she had played as a child, the fountain where she had splashed, the plum trees that she had climbed and fed from, when she hears a footfall behind her.

"How many times did you use to push me down in this dirt?" Niklaus asks, laughter bubbling on his lips and she answers with her own chuckle,

"More times than I should have considering your future." She admits but he shakes his head,

"What was it you used to say, ah yes, 'The Emperor's son is not the Emperor'"

He stands there with his hands clasped behind his back and she looks over her shoulder to drink in his image, he regards her with equal curiosity,

"Strange," he murmured, "I always imagined that when you returned that you would resemble the wild Amazons of legend."

She drops her gaze, "Given my name, I didn't think it was wise to come into your father's home wearing a sword."

He grimaces, "Still, I am glad you came, you provided my father with means of distraction, the senators are now focused on your return rather than my brother's."

She smirked, "I figured that was why he welcomed me with open arms."

"Not for that reason alone," Niklaus hurries to assure her, "He is glad you've come back, he always asked after you and prayed to the gods that you would be kept safe."

There would be an appropriate, polite response to this information but Caroline gives a genuine smile of happiness at the thought that all these years, there had been someone praying for her.

There is movement within the palace, people are taking their leave and she sees Elijah saying good-bye to the Emperor, the man keeping a good distance from the asp.

"Where are you staying?" Niklaus asks, taking her arm as she begins to move inside,

"Your brother has invited me to stay with him," she explains and his face falls,

"Although I will gladly find another place tomorrow," she continues hastily,

"I do not trust that asp not to poison me in my sleep."

He chuckles, "Will you come to the games tomorrow?" he asks and she smiles,

"Gladly."

A/N- In case there was confusion, Klaus and Caroline aren't actual siblings, the Emperor just refers to her as a daughter.