GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS. SO I AGREE WITH A LOT OF THE REVIEWS I GOT. I CAN DO BETTER. HOPEFULLY, THIS REWRITE FIXES THINGS A BIT, BUT DO BE WARNED: I WANTED TO TIE IN TVD AGAIN BECAUSE I HAD DRIFTED TOO FAR AWAY FROM THE ACTUAL PLOT. THAT IS WHAT I AM WORKING ON AS A WRITER. IF NOTHING ELSE, I REALLY HAVE TO RESPECT THE WRITER OF THE SHOW FOR HOW INTRICATE HER PLOTS ARE. ON THE OTHER HAND, WAY TO BE NEGATIVE, GUYS. WRITING IS TOUGH AND PERSONAL. SO CHECK YOURSELVES PLEASE BEFORE FLEXING YOUR CLAWS IN REVIEWS.

Strange things happen in one's head the moment before heart-stopping news can fully sink in. In the case of Caroline Forbes, that news involved the kidnapping and almost certain death of the original hybrid. Alarming in and of itself, the news only served as a reminder that without Klaus, nearly the entire population of vampires in Mystic Falls would surely follow his fate. As Elijah gently sat Caroline down on the couch and solemnly relayed all that he knew, sparse details about Damon's plan to remove Klaus from Elena's vicinity while still maintaining the spark of life necessary to their entire vampire bloodline, Caroline's only thought was back to happier days.

Happier of course is a relative term. After all, Mystic Falls obviously thrived off some sort of supernatural curse of ill-fortune. The unluckiest of them all: any who dared to fall in love. She of course, had fallen for him of all people.

"I don't understand." If nothing else, Klaus was all but invincible. Far too powerful for someone like Damon, whom even Caroline had once overpowered, to put down.

Elijah regarded her silently for a moment, linking his hands before him in the only nervous gesture he ever communicated. "When I found you in the foyer, you were on the ground, your neck snapped. I can only assume that you would have aided my brother, and therefore Damon removed you from the situation." His voice was low but steady, as were his eyes.

"I think…" Caroline looked towards the entry way, envisioning how it must have appeared to Klaus as he would have approached, "I think I must have been the distraction to catch Klaus off guard." Her words came out as a murmur. After all, this was hardly an original plan, and it had Damon written all over it.

"My brother is a complicated man, Caroline." Elijah followed her gaze to the doorway before returning to rest on her drawn features. "He loves quite fiercely, even violently. For once, I think perhaps his concern for another being overruled his concern for himself."

"Well isn't that just dandy." Rebekah's dry voice set Caroline's teeth on edge. "Nik's gone soft, and now you've gotten him killed."

"Rebekah." Elijah admonished.

"Oh wake up, Elijah." Pushing away from the wall, Rebekah strode into the room and snagged the decanter of brandy habitually kept by the couch. The decanter dangling from her finger tips, she dropped into a chair. "The only reason we're still in this one-pony town is because Klaus can't bear to leave her behind, and she hasn't been smart enough to see that her friends are playing her for the fool. So cheers to you." Holding the decanter aloft, Rebekah gave a humorless smirk and tossed the alcohol back.

"Perhaps if you hadn't seen fit to antagonize them, my friend wouldn't be in the situation having to hurt anyone to stay alive." She retorted.

"Oh this is my fault? You little-"

"Ladies." Elijah's voice cut through the tension sizzling between them. "Klaus is not gone. He could be revived so long as he does not fall into Alaric's hands."

"Well he's rather a sitting duck thanks to Caroline's little friends." Rebekah threw a seething glance at Caroline upon her name.

"Where are Damon and Stefan taking him?" Caroline asked, putting a hand to her neck, the break of which still hurt with no help from the stress of the last few minutes.

"We are not sure yet. Damon promised to be in contact. However, I intend to make a deal with them to retrieve my brother and secure our safety." Elijah maintained steady eye-contact, forcing her to focus on him rather than on Rebekah. "Even so, we'll have to leave town."

"Like you did before? You'll just hide from Alaric?" Caroline asked.

"We evaded our father for centuries. What's a couple of decades until Elena lives out her natural life, and Alaric dies with her?"

"You want us to run again, Elijah? This is our home." Rebekah stood, angrily tossing the decanter aside. Amber liquid poured from it and stained the couch.

"We are a family. We will remain united. Further, we must stop this war with Mystic Falls if we are to have any peace."

"You're going to hide." Caroline took a moment to absorb the true intent of his words. "What about me?"

Elijah inclined his head, looking first to Rebekah before answering. "I have never been truly in love. My time with Katarina was short, and I do not believe she felt for me as I did her. However, when my brother looks at you, I see something I have never seen before. However, I will not ask you to abandon your life here. You are still quite young, with much before you. If you were to accompany my family, be Klaus' companion, your entire life would change. Who he is will haunt your relationship wherever you travel.

"I ask now that you do whatever is in your power, which I believe to be considerable, to help negotiate the return of my brother. If you should choose to leave with us, I welcome you." At this Rebekah scoffed, yet remained oddly quiet. "If not, rest assured I shall understand, and Klaus will not be told any more than that you came to his aid and helped us escape."

"You're a fool if you think Klaus isn't going to come charging back here for revenge." Kol seemed to have finally wandered into the room in a rather jovial mood even. "He'll want to kill the Salvatores for what they did. And if Caroline remains here, he'll certainly return for her whether she wants him to or not. You know that, don't you, love?"

Caroline looked up sharply, finding every Original eye trained on her. They seemed to think it was a choice between staying with Klaus in spite of his rather violent reputation. In fact, all Caroline could picture was her mother, left here alone to face the world. If her mother were to die, would anyone even think to call Caroline if she disappeared with them?

"There's no need for decisions just now." Elijah interrupted, seeming to perceive something from Caroline's expression despite her attempts to mask her unease. "We must take things one step at a time, which means first arranging the return of Klaus before Alaric finds him." From an inside coat pocket, Elijah withdrew Caroline's phone. "I found this beside you when I found your body in the foyer. I apologize, but I happened to notice Stefan's name, and he's been calling you. I think perhaps you could arrange for a meeting with him and Damon, who I believe to have Klaus' body."

"I'm quite sure they have his body actually." Kol said off-handedly. "How do I know, you ask? Well I'm so glad you did. See, our own little doppelganger, the lovely Katherine, went for a little chat with your friend in the Forbes basement. He thought she was Elena, which of course made her rather upset, but it gave her an idea. Alaric is on the look-out for Elena seeing as he can't risk us doing anything to her before he completes his twisted little mission thanks to our dear mother. So Katherine, aka Elena, has been captured by Alaric, temporarily of course. And she just sent me a lovely little text message detailing how Alaric plans to use the stake to first kill Klaus and then all of us. The one and only stake capable of that. Further, his hybrid minions reported tracking both Damon and Stefan in a big black sedan that rather resembles Klaus' vehicle."

"And where exactly are they headed?" Rebekah asked, folding her arms.

"That, Alaric is none the wiser too, and therefore Katherine cannot help us there."

"If the hybrids can track a vehicle, so can we." Caroline interrupted. "My mom is the sheriff; she can run the plates, find them."

"So we find the body. There's still Alaric out there hunting us." Rebekah reminded them. "Unless Elena has a little accident."

"No." Elijah and Caroline replied at once. They exchanged a look before Elijah turned back to Rebekah. "If we are to defeat this threat to our family, we must work with Elena and the Salvatores. They will not stand for Elena's death, and I for one would prefer to not always be putting up with Damon's attempts at avenging her. She is a pure soul; let us leave her that way. Caroline." Standing, Elijah stood and adjusted his cuffs. "Go to your mother. Use whatever resources are available to you to locate Niklaus. In the meantime, I will speak to Elena. With their help, we will have the numbers to overpower Alaric and take the stake. Without it, he is no threat to us, and we may leave town. He will follow us, but will be easy to evade until Elena has lived her life to a ripe old age."

"I'll go with you." Rebekah said, but Elijah stopped her.

"I do not believe they would appreciate us turning up in great numbers. They might misunderstand our intentions. It is best that you and Kol await Caroline's call, then leave immediately to fetch Niklaus regardless of how my negotiations go. I will see you again. And Caroline, you have our thanks."

Upon calling her mother, Caroline learned that she was not at the office. In fact, she vehemently protested against Caroline going there too, insisting instead that they meet at the Lockwood estate of all places. There, she was greeted by not only her mother, but the two surviving Lockwoods. "Tyler?" Baffled, she hesitated between fleeing and stepping between him and her mother.

"Alaric's hybrids showed up at my office." Liz confessed. "They're looking for Klaus and needed my resources. You can't go in there, Caroline, or they'll kill. They would've killed me except Tyler got me out of there."

To his credit, Tyler's jaw clenched. Whatever he had imagined Alaric was capable of, the murder of the sheriff apparently pushed whatever line Tyler held these days.

"Are you alright?" Caroline murmured, not trusting her voice to come out any steadier.

"You both need to get out of town. If they can't find him, they'll come after anyone who might know where he's been taken."

"I've pulled together some cash, and Liz will get you some new identification. We'll get school records-" Mrs. Lockwood began.

"Wait a minute. You want us to run?" Tyler asked, and Caroline could practically see the hair on the back of his neck stand up as his flight or fight response kicked in. The response that usually got him into trouble. Whatever his intentions had been in saving Liz, she wasn't sure it was enough to get him out of Alaric's sway all together.

"I can't help you. Whatever information I had on Klaus is in their hands." Liz said.

"We can't just pack up and leave!" Caroline stared at her mother. She couldn't stand to leave her behind, knowing their time together was precious. Because when things came down to it, if she had to leave, it was going to be with Klaus. How would she explain that to her mother, here of all places with Tyler only a few feet away?

"If you stay, you're going to end up dead." Mrs. Lockwood's voice trembled, but she stared at her son directly. As if she knew how Alaric had swayed him, but was hoping that Caroline was enough to save him. "You don't have a choice." A mother who refused to let go of her son. As Tyler looked into his mother's eyes, Caroline looked into Liz's, knowing that she truly believed this was the best she could do for her daughter. Because no parents wants their child to die, and no child wants to disappoint their parent.

Caroline's phone gave an annoying chirp, startling the lot of them. Rebekah, asking if she'd found information on Klaus yet. And right behind it, another message, but from Stefan: "Elijah promised Elena that he'd remove Klaus from town. I'll tell you where he is. But Care, are you really going with them?"

She texted back, quite simply: "Where is he?" Because she couldn't answer the rest right now. She couldn't promise to leave her mother behind, nor even the friends who always seemed on the brink between good and bad. However, to simply let Klaus go like that, to betray him after he'd opened up his heart in a way no one had believed to be possible, was too painful to contemplate. So she focused on just right now and on keeping him safe. For everyone's sake.

"How did Elijah make a deal with Elena when she's with Alaric?" Tyler asked so quietly their mothers couldn't hear.

Shutting her phone with a snap, Caroline tucked it into her pockets, hoping he hadn't seen the address that had just come through from Stefan. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I have to go."

"That's right. You have to go." Liz immediately stepped in, looking her daughter in the eyes for what she thought may be the last time. "Be strong. I'm so proud of you."

Caroline drove to the Mikealson estate rather than to her own home. Most of her things were there, what was left of them after the wolf attack that is, so if Tyler followed, he'd think she was picking up her things to leave like her mother suggested. In truth, she was just retrieving Rebekah for back up. The rest of the decisions would come later.

However, once Rebekah and her had set off for the storage unit 100 miles outside of town, the tension in the car mounted. Rebekah sat in chilly silence while Caroline kept both hands clenched on the steering wheel, feeling as if she were racing time itself.

"You're going to stay aren't you?" Rebekah finally asked, seeming unconcerned as she glanced at her nails.

"What?"

"You're going to choose to let our family disappear while you remain in this cozy little town with all your cozy little friends. High school dances. Football games. Cheerleading. You're going to stay and pretend to be normal once Alaric and his goons my brother made leave to chase us." She smirked and turned to stare out the window. "Don't get me wrong. It's what I'd choose, if I could. To be normal. Nik is many things, but normal just isn't an option with him. Trust me, I know exactly what you're thinking. My family has been on the run for more years than you've been alive, and it never stops. Who would choose one of us over the chance to be normal?"

Rebekah's voice was surprisingly serene as she continued to stare out the window, the longing in her voice keeping Caroline silent as they drove. Though she'd asked a question, Rebekah didn't seem to care to hear Caroline's answer. Instead, she just kept talking herself. She spoke of the dances she wished she could attend, the dresses she'd have liked to wear, and about Matt Donovan, who was more normal than the two of them could ever be.

When they got to the storage unit, silence fell over them as if the dim lighting hushed them with the magnitude of what was at stake. The elevator gave a little ding, and the two blondes made their way down the halls, their heeled boots ringing out with hollow clicks.

"Damon?" Rebekah called out. Though she couldn't say why, Caroline had the urge to shush her. "Damon, this isn't funny."

Caroline put her hand on Rebekah's arm and stopped. Closing her eyes, she cupped one hand around her ear and listened. There was the metallic scrape of door being thrown open, one after another, seemingly at random. Giving a little shake of her head to indicate that Rebekah best be quiet, Caroline turned them down the opposite hall, but had barely taken two steps before a hand closed over her mouth and pulled her backwards.

"Come on, Blondie."

Ridiculously relieved to hear Damon – no, this didn't mean that she liked him or had forgiven him – Caroline followed him to an unopened unit: 1020. As a group, the three of them quickly wheeled a shiny coffin out of the shadows. As her hands left smudges on the glossy surface, it occurred to her how morbid her life had become in the recent months. Vampire or not, coffins weirded her out.

The open trunk of the car was waiting in just a few feet, and a light feeling of victory was warring with the suspense of knowing Alaric was in the vicinity with the fatal white-oak stake. Just a few feet. Then…well she couldn't think about what would follow.

Long fingers gripped her hair and yanked her head back. Alaric's grim face passed through her view as she fell backwards, hitting the ground with a sickening thud. Gasping, red sparks littered her vision as he shoved Rebekah against the car and tossed her aside like a doll. In comparison to her, Damon appeared to be little match for Alaric's strength.

"No." She whispered, though she couldn't be sure the words made it out as she struggled to regain her breath. Alaric had lifted the lid to the coffin above her, the stake poised. Kicking out, Caroline managed to urge the wheels in motion, and the coffin rolled just a few feet away, knocking into the car and jarring the coffin. The grey, decicated corpse of Klaus tumbled to the ground with a rattle of chains. Eerily, the whites of his eyes flashed as his lids lifted, though the rest of his body seemed immobilized.

"I should've killed you when I had the chance." Alaric murmured, crouching to her level and blocking her view of Klaus. Clenching his fist in her red jacket, he hauled her up until her toes barely scraped the ground. "Look what became of you. You died, Caroline Forbes. And now here you are, a murderous, blood thirsty vampire. It's not natural." With no purchase on the ground, Caroline could only scratch her nails along his arm, though he didn't seem to notice. "So here we are again. This time it will end like it's supposed to. He's not coming for you this time, Caroline."

A dull thwack registered, and wood splintered along Alaric's temple enough to make him drop Caroline. Though a few wood pieces had scraped into the skin of her face, Caroline caught sight of Damon tossing a wooden plank between his hands before ramming it into Alaric's stomach.

On her hands and knees, Caroline pulled herself to Klaus' side, where Rebekah was already unwinding the chains confining him.

"Run." She urged Rebekah in a whisper. "Go now."

Rebekah attempted to hoist Klaus up, but his decicated legs were incapable of supporting his weight, and the two of them immediately dropped to the floor again.

As if on cue, Damon's body came hurdling by and crashed into the abandoned coffin, splitting it into pieces.

"Is that all you got?" Alaric asked, spreading his arms.

"You're kind of invincible, Ric." Damon replied, swiping his hand across his upper lip where blood was dripping from his nose.

"Don't call me that. We're not friends."

"We were."

"Our friendship was part of the problem. It kept me weak." Alaric once again removed the stake from his pocket, his fist wrapping around it until his knuckles had gone as white as the stake.

Caroline shuffled around to cradle Klaus' gray head, her wide eyes staying on Alaric though he had yet to advance. Rebekah stayed still, one hand resting over her brother's silent heart.

Alaric took the first step, but his knee buckled, and he crumbled to the floor. Damon shot up to his feet as grey was quickly covering Alaric, his veins standing out in stark contrast.

"What's happening?" Alaric gasped.

"You're not dead. You're not dead." Damon murmured as he quickly gathered Alaric close to him, heedless of the stake still in his grip.

"What's happening?" Caroline whispered.

"It wasn't me." Rebekah slowly climbed to her feet. "Kol promised Elijah to keep our deal. I don't understand."

"Elena." Caroline felt something cold grip her heart, and her breath left her in a great whoosh. "Elena."

As Caroline huddled over the body of Klaus, so Damon huddled over the body of his friend Alaric, though it was clear this was not the soul he was mourning.

They were waiting for them in the forest, gloomy as that is. Caroline supposed the purpose here was to avoid the prying eyes of Mystic Falls and have plenty of room to hide the body that had never shown up. After all, this was the place Elijah had intended to lure Alaric to in the hopes that he was be just as eager to kill one original as he was another. There they stood: Jeremy, Stefan, Elijah, and surprisingly Tyler.

"What happened?" Elijah asked. From the rough edge in his voice, Caroline thought perhaps he already knew.

"Stefan." Caroline wanted to reach out to him, yet somehow she remained rooted in place. Klaus' corpse was in the car. Damon had disappeared. Darkness seemed to be closing in. Instead, she turned to Tyler, who stood apart from the group with his hands shoved into his pockets. "You told him, didn't you." Caroline stated, knowing the truth of it. "You told him how to find Klaus."

"Caroline, we don't have much time." Tyler approached her, his expression earnest.

"Actually, we do." Rebekah stepped forward, her face calm. "We have all the time in the world. Our brother is safe. Alaric is dead."

"How is that possible?" Jeremy asked, though the way Stefan stared at Caroline told her that he'd already worked out how this had come to be. "Wait. Is Elena…Elena can't be…"

"Dead." Elijah finished for him, his jaw tightening. "Sister, we agreed."

"It wasn't me, nor Kol."

"How is that possible?" Tyler demanded. "She was safe. Alaric made sure of it before he left."

"It was me." A voice, eerie and familiar slid through the fog. I did what none of you could do. If Klaus had died, so would I. So would all of you. So I did what I had to do."

"Katrina, how could you?" Elijah asked, his gaze pitying as he regarded Katherine, who had straightened her hair and put on a simple blue shirt, Elena's perfect twin. However, her expression was cold and uncaring.

"I do what it takes to stay alive. And you're all alive because of me."

At some point, Caroline had no more tears to cry. Her cheeks seemed forever stained and reddened, and her jaw ached from the attempt to withhold her sobs. But everyone grieves differently. Some, like Stefan stand still for countless moments, as if movement would only be to admit that the worst had happened. Others drops to the ground, their legs unable to support the weight of their sadness. Some violently attack those who would dare to steal their happiness. So is the curse of Mystic Falls.

For Caroline, time seemed to stop. Which was ridiculous, given that time had stopped months ago. The same woman had pressed a pillow to her face, and taken any time that was left to Caroline.

"Is there a chance," Elijah finally asked, "that there was vampire blood in her system?"

"I don't see how." Stefan replied, his eyes bright with unshed tears and his voice rough. Inside, Caroline could practically see him shattering. "She wouldn't have…wanted that anyway.

"And wouldn't it just be a shame for little perfect Elena to not get what she wants." Katherine grumbled, her voice oddly light.

"Katarina. What did you do?" Elijah grabbed her arms, nearly shaking her.

Caroline couldn't help the spark of hope that ignited within her even as she recognized that of the two options, Elena would simply rather be dead. She glanced at Stefan, but he was already gone.

"Tell me, Caroline." Katherine was saying, though her eyes remained on Elijah's face. "Do you think Stefan can still love Elena if she's a vampire like me? I think the loss of her humanity will be sort of a deal breaker personally."

Elena's friends were ordered away from the hospital. She refused to see anyone, and remained mourning her own life in solitude. At first, Caroline accompanied the Originals back to their home, but the prospect of sleeping alone in Klaus' bed with his corpse hidden away in another room rather sickened her. According to Bonnie, the trick to undecicating him proved to be far more complex than she would have guessed, though Caroline had the sinking sensation that the witch simply didn't care to try that hard for the man who had ruined her life in more ways than one.

So Caroline returned home to her mother. The hybrids had disbursed themselves without the lead of Alaric, though Tyler too had disappeared. If he returned, she very much believed he would be at the head of the same pack of disgruntled hybrids. Something big was building in town. There seemed an undercurrent of unrest, and unfamiliar sidelong glances accompanied any trip into town. The hybrid in the basement had been hauled away by Damon, whose moods these days should be enough to prompt pity for the hybrid in spite of all.

Life had returned to normal, and loneliness filled the nights once again. An eternity of awaiting Klaus to emerge from his box, of waiting for Elena to accept her fate, left Caroline feeling empty. Eternity it seemed was nothing but waiting.

It became her habit at night to flip through the sketches left to her by Klaus, the ones she'd outright stolen from his home. Her mother subtly urged her to move on, but was too aware of her daughter's feelings to frankly say it. To her surprise, it took very little time, even in light of her human notion of time, for her doorbell to ring and to open it to find an unlikely visitor.

"Caroline? Could you come in here?" She called, hoping her rather breathless voice carried enough for her daughter to hear.

When Caroline turned the corner, a pair of stormy eyes pinned her with an intense gaze. The gray skin was gone, replaced a healthy hue. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, as always. The only indication of emotion was his eyes. Her heart seemed to stutter to a stop, and her lips parted though no words came out.

"Might I come in, love?" And those impertinent dimples flashed as if he was rather confident in her answer.

The only thought she could fully wrap her mind around was one word: Safety. Finally, safety.