It's been one thousand years - Caroline has officially been alive for as long as Klaus had when he died, and yet, she has never forgotten him.
But a millennia is how long it took her to find a solution to her hybrid-less life, and now she's more than ready to go back and change the past. It turns out that an eternal existence without the warm comfort of Klaus' presence on the sidelines wasn't what she wanted - she had missed him for so long that his absence almost turned into an obsession, and Caroline was tired of dreams and memories.
So now, with the help of a few rare artifacts and some very powerful dark magic, Caroline is going to get herself back in time and prevent the tragedy from happening - no matter how much she will sacrifice in order to do so.
It's time for her to be selfish.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!"
[Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (chapt. XXXIII)]
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
She had died; when the old crone had pierced her heart with a blessed wooden stake, as her chanting became louder and louder and the words lost meaning, Caroline had unequivocally died. She had to, so that her soul could travel backwards, annulling the last millennia like a hand swiping across a blackboard.
One moment she was, the next she was no more - and then it felt like being everywhere and everytime, as the spell warped reality, undoing it, and dragging her back to the time in which she had anchored herself through the little bit of hybrid blood that she had kept all of this time.
It felt like being in the eye of a hurricane, until abruptly everything stopped.
And she felt like being in a corporeal state once again.
A hoarse gasp echoes in the deadly silent living room, and the vampire laying on the couch blinks her eyes open.
The tangy taste of blood still lingers on her tongue, a blood she immediately recognizes - centuries weren't able to delete that particular memory from her brain - and instinct tells her immediately when the spell has taken her.
It was the chosen moment - before everything started going downhill for him, and for her too.
She turns her head, slowly, barely allowing herself to hope - and there he is, sitting on the leather lounge-chair next to the window, the warm glow of the lamp casting morbid shadows upon his stony face.
He looks angrier and more dangerous than she remembers - or maybe time had simply allowed her to grasp a bette understanding of him to the point of noticing even the smallest of his expressions - even so, she couldn't be happier.
Before she has fully made up her mind - she should probably evaluate the situation, come up with a plan, try not to fuck up too much the timeline as the witches had repeatedly reminded her, but those thoughts come a second too late - she's already up and across the room, a knot closing her throat as she tries not to cry, and --
-- in his arms.
((It doesn't feel real to touch him, hold him, feel his breath against her cheek after all this time. It would be a lie to say that her every waking moment was spent thinking of him, yet there was always something - a word, an object, a place - that made the memory of him go off in her mind, feeding her longing, alimenting her obsession. Exacerbating the void left by his absence. And the feeling of their last kiss still seared in her brain, the bittersweet taste of a goodbye that they weren't supposed to say.
He had promised her an eternity, but was gone long before that started. It wasn't fair - he wasn't supposed to die, not after everything.
She had lived missing what they never were.))
Klaus is not privy to the whirlwind going on inside her mind - he simply found himself holding the trembling bundle of a distressed vampire before he had the time to blink her back into focus. His ancient instinct works faster than his mind, and his hand circles around her throat in a manner both harsh and delicate.
Yet, despite the grief and the rage still cursing through his veins, his voice is surprisingly soft when he calls her name, confused and wary. "Caroline…?"
Her hands hold on tighter on the lapels of his jacket, and a sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh comes from her lips.
"It worked," she murmurs, finally backing away to look him in the eyes. "God, it worked! You're alive."
That's when he notices it.
There is something different in the depth of her eyes, something that wasn't there only a few hours earlier - a weariness, a harshness that belonged more on one of his siblings rather than someone like Caroline - and it gives him pause, forcing to assess her, for the first time in a long while, as a potential enemy.
She doesn't look bothered by his hand around her throat, as if she trusts him, implicitly, not to overly harm her. Which is strange, considering that he bit her no less than twenty-four hours ago for much less than a potential physical threat.
Klaus frowns, barely noticing when his own thumb starts rubbing gently against her skin, lost in thought. The Caroline he has gotten to know wouldn't act this way, he is sure of it, even if she's apparently aware of his feelings - as she even told him earlier, in her attempt to coax him to save her.
If she was able to unleash this kind of gaze on him... He can almost taste her relief, see the yearning in the way she seems to physically restrain herself from - what? He swallows, his gaze dropping to her pale lips before catching himself - he must have given her more blood than he realized, if his brain has stopped working to this extent.
He almost calls her again to bring her back from whatever place her mind seems to have stuck, but in that moment Caroline backs away slowly, steel suddenly bleeding into her eyes.
I just wrote the dialogue for the scene where Caroline is kidnapped in Into Eternity (but this time from Klaus' POV for this new chapter) and maaaaannnnn Klaus goes from paralysing, heart-clenching panic to I'm going to kill them and everyone they've ever met in the span of five minutes and it is GLORIOUS
𝐌𝐘 𝐔𝐍𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ klaroline au season- week seven: dark @klarolineauseason
Caroline felt herself chuckle at the fact here she is near her death. Death is a word that no one wants to hear because it brings agony and misery. How can someone be present one minute and gone the next? How tragic that life is so brief. A feeling that your soul is being slowly drained out of you. Caroline cannot help but believe that death is not as horrible as it appears. Yes, death may be horrible, and some people are taken away far too young, never having the chance to live a complete life, but Caroline couldn't help but be grateful. As she felt at ease with herself.
Thank you to all who participated in this year’s AU Season! I hope you’ve all had a great time. Below you’ll find the final masterlist, or contents if you will, of everything that’s happened this season. Go send the writers and artists some love!
As this was my first time hosting an event, I’ll have to thank you all again for making this season such a wonderful event. I may do it again next year (with less weeks though, now I know which AUs are most popular) so if there’s anything you’d like to see next year, or areas in need of improvement, don’t be afraid to send a DM or ask to the blog. Until I see you next time,
Your host,
Morningstar ✨❤️✨
RECS
The Starting Line Rec by @galvanizedfriend (Fic by @definedareasofuncertainty)
The wedding itself took time to plan and it was not until autumn of the following year that their vows would be exchanged. Caroline could feel the chill in the air, the hint of snow threatening to break above them. In honor of the goddess Frigga, traditions must be met and the wedding had to be held at the end of the harvest but before the first snowfall. For a moment, Caroline thought they would have to wait years before she could call Klaus her husband. Yet, Frigga seemed to look down upon them with a smile.
Caroline bathed the morning of her wedding, allowing the water to crash over her in the stream. It was a Friday, as was tradition and come night the full moon would rise in the sky, Klaus vowing to keep the amulet on him in order for his wolf to be kept at bay. As she floated in the water, she allowed herself to reflect on the year that had come and gone.
Leif grew into an even more rambunctious child. He was growing and Caroline could see that he would be taller than her and strong. Tatia took her son and moved to a smaller house down the lane, embracing a new freedom that she had never thought was accessible to her. Even though Elijah made his intent clear, Tatia held him at arm's length.
“I gave my freedom to one man. I have no desire to do it again.” Tatia told her when the reason behind Elijah’s pain became evident. He pulled away from the rest, pushing for travel and anything that would separate him from Tatia, for the love he bore her was painful in her rejection. “Not all of us are destined for a great love, Caroline.”
Nik and Caroline Mikaelson are a couple of demonologists whom have recently become infamously known for having investigated a possessed doll called Annabelle.
Caroline met Nik back in university, when she moved to New Orleans to study at Tulane - although the Psychology program was more of an excuse, since the main reason for her choice was her interest in the supernatural and ritualistic culture of the Crescent City. Nik, who at the time was already working at his Anthropology Ph.D., took an immediate fancy in the eccentric student who went around asking weird questions and collecting even weirder objects, and couldn't help but offer his help when she needed it for one of her various researches. She was still preparing for her Master degree when they eventually married.
Although Nik understood barely half of Caroline's stories and experiences, he did come from a family whose roots were imbedded deeply in the city's folklore - his own mother was a true believer of Voodoo and various superstitions - and soon enough he was accompanying the young woman wherever her instincts brought her.
Eventually they left their professional jobs behind after having come face to face with their first, true demonic possession, something that put their actual lives and maybe even their immortal souls in danger: Caroline, who has had psychic abilities ever since she could remember, is relatively shocked by the event, while her husband Nik comes out utterly changed from the experience - he then decides to devote his life to protect his wife to the best of his capacities, thus starting their new career as demonologists, authors and lecturers.
Their travels following various supernatural and paranormal events have brought them all over the world, from United States to Europe to Asia, and they have acquired quite the large, creepy collection of artifacts and objects more or less possessed or demonic. The danger of these entities latching onto them and following them back home is an inexcapable one, but Caroline can count on the help of her best friend Bonnie - a Voodoo practitioner who keeps her safe through blessings, rituals and amulets; Nik was wary of her at first, as if witchcraft was somehow less believable than demons, but he quickly had to change his mind when the amulets Caroline keeps hanging from her neck and around her wrists prevented her from being possessed during one of their interventions. He then started to wear them as well.
Now, they've been back in Virginia for merely a week when they're contacted by Damon and Elena Salvatore, whose house seems to be haunted and is making their lives a living hell...
*****
The old Salvatore boarding house lay nested at the outskirts of Mystic Falls, half hidden by a forest and worringly close to a graveyard which stopped being used at the beginning of the past century. Its stern exterior with the black roof and the dark brown bricks and the ancient wooden fixtures certainly didn't help with the grim reputation of being haunted - which tended to be quite the norm in that corner of Virginia, if a building had the misfortune to date back to the Civil War - but Caroline and Nik had seen far worse.
"You know, I knew Elena back in high school," Caroline murmurs in case Mr. and Mrs. Salvatore are close by, starting to sprinkle salt and red brick dust on the windows sills. "One of those girls who just love playing with an Ouija board, you know? She never believed me when I told her it wasn't safe."
Nik snorts soflty, stepping near her. "And this is what happens when people don't trust you - their house gets haunted."
She elbows him, smirking. "That's not very nice."
"I'm not very nice," he says agreeably, curling his arms from behind around her middle section. "Do you think that's enough?" He then asks as a second thought, nodding towards the window.
"I doubt this will help us, specifically," Caroline replies frankly. "It's to ward off evil and protect the house, but if the evil is already inside... I'm not sure. In any case, it can't hurt to try."
"Maybe you should try burning some sage, too," he suggests, resting his chin on her shoulder.
"Well, look at you! My very own expert on cleansing rituals," she turns her head to kiss his stubbled cheek. "I'll do that later."
Nik leans forward to press a more proper kiss on her lips before stepping back with a long-suffering sigh. "Well then, I should go and check the basement. Whatever thing we're facing, chances are it developped in the creepy cells they have down there."
She frowns, not even bothering to hide her worry. "Do you have your crucifix? Good," she nods when he pulls it from under his sweater. "Be careful, try not to touch anything."
"I'll leave everything as it is for your viewing pleasure," he teases with a bow.
Caroline watches her husband as he disappears down the hallway, still limping slightly from their last misadventure - something that still gives her nightmares, with dreadful visions of Nik's bleeding body and a house burning against the pitch black sky. Her eyes turn cold as she sees the lights in the vintage sconces flickering at his passage - too softly to be actually noticeable - almost as if the presence wants her to see, to acknowledge the threat.
She whispers a prayer, and in a blink the lights stop trembling. But her pulse becomes erratic when a sudden chill starts lapping at her fingertips, slithering up her arms, and Caroline brusquely walks back in the living room, grabbing a handful of salt and throwing it behind her shoulder.
She's sure, now, that tonight they'll have a visit.
The Good Place AU. Caroline opens her eyes and finds herself alone in a non-descript waiting room with no memory of how she got there. A soft elevator music masks the awkward silence, and in front of her, on an otherwise empty wall, there's a green writing: Welcome! Everything is fine.
It doesn't look that fine to her.
A man named Silas welcomes her inside a boring beige and brown office that could belong anywhere: there are potted plants and pretty paintings and it just feels as if someone has decored it to calm and reassure its guests. The man keeps smiling and making off-kilter jokes, and in the end Caroline remembers her life and understands that 1) she's dead, 2) this is the afterlife, and 3) according to her previous moral conduct when she was alive, she has apparently scored the best part of it, that is - the Good Place.
Except, how did she end up there? She's pretty sure there must be a mistake - an identity swap - since all of the informations Silas has about her are wrong. But she's not about to turn down this gift and risk ending up in hell, right?
Silas walks her through the neighborhood where she will spend the rest of her eternity, shows her her house - a small monstrosity filled with clown paintings, a clear evidence of that fact that someone else was supposed to be there - and introduces her to her assigned soulmate, Enzo, and the couple living in the mansion nearby, Klaus and Katherine.
And as time passes and life in the supposedly peaceful afterlife becomes progressively worse, Caroline is even more certain that it's because of her - plus, she can't help but being drawn by not-her-soulmate Klaus, and this can't be happening, right?
Hopefully, if they work together and help each other she can avoid an eternity in the Bad Place...
*****
"Welcome to the Good Place. Sponsored by: otters holding hands while they sleep. You know the way you feel when you see a picture of two otters holding hands? That's how you're gonna feel every day."
[The Good Place, season 1, episode 1]
*****
"I'm not supposed to be here."
Klaus rolls his eyes, decadently sipping the bland whisky they have been served. "Of course not, sweetheart. It's such a lovely party and yet you dragged me to a broom closet..."
"No, you don't understand," Caroline hisses, raising on her toes to whisper against his ear - he tries to ignore the shudder that follows. "I don't belong here - in the Good Place. That's why everything is messed up and Silas is stressed out and I made shrimps rain! And I can't even do anything because Bonnie is always nearby-"
"Did you call?"
They both jump, turning to the mysterious entity - not a human, not a robot - whose only purpose seems to be accomodating their needs and/or potentialy spying on them. Her sudden apparition has made the closet all the more cramped, squishing them together.
"No, Bonnie, thank you. You may go," Caroline tells her wearily.
The - Bonnie - continues to smile brightly. "Okay." And she's gone.
Caroline puts some space between them as she glares at him, in a see-what-did-i-tell-you kind of way.
But Klaus is frowning, evidently thinking back to what she has just told him. "What do you mean, you don't belong here?" He keeps a low tone of voice, for which she's grateful. "And why are you telling me this, instead of - your soulmate, for example? Aren't you afraid I might go to Silas?"
He then blinks, perplexed, when Caroline puts her hand inside her dress - rummaging around her décolleté - until she fishes a folded note and hands it to him, nervous. "This is why."
Klaus abandons his glass on a shelf near the door and carefully opens the note, fingers smoothing the paper with her pretty handwriting on it.
Caroline - find Klaus.
She twists her fingers as she waits for his reaction, hoping that her past self had made the right choice in pushing her towards this man - a man who wasn't even her own soulmate, according to what Silas claimed. Not that Enzo wasn't great, but there was something in the back of her mind that kept nagging at her and made her question everything.
Caroline just wishes that he has the answer she's looking for, because otherwise she might just resign herself to the fact that she's going crazy in her life after death.
She speaks again before he has the chance to. "I think - something may have happened here, and I lost my memories, but before that I left myself that message. And honestly I feel that it's the only thing that makes sense, for me to trust you, so I'm with my gut feeling on this. And, and... I'm scared, okay, I don't want to end in the Bad Place, and I don't know what to do, and it seems like you have your life - or, well, death - together. So, that's why I'm here."
They remain in silence for a few agonizing seconds, looking at each other, Klaus holding the note close as if it were something precious instead of a random scrap of paper. A muscle twitches in his jaw and suddenly his hands grab her shoulders, delicately, drawing her near.
"Caroline, love, take a deep breath," he instructs, speaking softly. "Now, listen carefully - there is no need to be scared. I'm on your side, alright? We're friends. And I think you're right - something is definitely wrong here, because I can remember my life perfectly well and I assure you that I am not supposed to spend eternity in paradise."
Caroline widens her eyes, caught off guard. "What - you too? How is that possible? And how, how..." She stutters, on the verge of a panic attack. "Are they going to punish us when they find out?"
His thumbs are drawing small circles on her skin in a soothing way. "None of us will end up in the Bad Place if I can prevent it, sweetheart. Look - we should probably go back to the party, in case our soulmates or Silas are wondering where we are, and then we'll meet up later to discuss it, okay?"
She nods, biting her lips. "Yeah, sure, that's a good idea. I mean, it's not as if the neighborhood is falling apart, right? Mistakes happen all the time, why would heaven be any different?"
Klaus tries to smother a smirk. "Yes, exactly. Are you feeling a bit better?"
"I mean, I'm already dead, what's worse?" Then she closes her eyes, wincing. "Wait, don't answer that."
He smiles a bit, fondly, then takes a step back and slips her note in the inside pocket of his jacket. "Let's go now. Meet me afterwards at the lake behind our houses?"
Caroline nods again, then grabs his sleeve before he can open the door. "Klaus - thank you."
His answering smile keeps playing in the back of her mind for the rest of the evening, quieting her inner turmoil and making her feel hopeful for the first time since she has woken up in this place.
Caroline is a young witch traveling the world and collecting magical objects; Klaus is the genie (though he prefers to be callen Djinn) trapped in the oil lamp she buys in a Turkish market.
Despite her promises of helping to free him, he is still forced to grant her three wishes, but he is not as unhappy about it as he would like - considering that his last client (he refuses to call them masters) had tried to turn him into some sort of a pet.
Although… he wouldn't even mind that too much this time, as this new pretty owner seems far kinder than the last one.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Caroline hugs her bag to her breast as she hurries back to the hotel, almost vibrating from the curiosity that is accompanying her ever since she left the Grand Bazaar. She can't wait to be safely behind closed doors - and a barrier or two - to finally analyze her most recent purchase.
She glances over her shoulder, but it doesn't look like she's being followed. Good.
Her hotel is situated in a densely populated area of the city, so she breathes a bit more easily once she can hide in the middle of the crowd, disappearing between businessmen and tourists and local people going about their day. She tightens the hold around her bag and half runs towards the revolving doors of the hotel, sighing in relief when the cold air of the foyer caresses her face.
Without looking back she rushes to her room, locking the door and setting up a sturdy magical barrier around it: the salt poured out on the window sill and at the door threshold should be enough of a protection. Then she finally turns the content of her bag all over the bed, smiling when the new, precious object falls and bounces amidst her more mundane belongings.
A normal human wouldn't notice it, but Caroline can feel the pulse of powerful, ancient magic surrounding the antique bronze oil lamp. Even without being a magical artifact, it should belong in a museum - thankfully, this time she didn't have to break into one to steal it.
She holds it carefully, turning it this way and that to look at the inscriptions - she would need her books to translate it, but she still can appreciate the beauty - and marveling at the elegant workmanship.
Her fingers caress the exquisite engraving of a snake, its body twisting around the surface of the lamp until its fangs bite its tail on the other side. A bit of dirt cakes the writing under the snake, and she tries to scratch it away with her nails.
All of a sudden, the metal becomes incandescent.
Caroline hisses from the pain but refuses to let it go, just in case that's the only guarantee protecting her from certain death - and then she's engunfeld by a thick, dark mist.
Before she can cast any kind of spell to disperse it or protect herself, she feels something slithering slowly around her feet, making her lose balance and fall back onto the bed.
A dark chuckle comes from somewhere inside the mist, making her shiver - then, a deep, male voice follows.
"Are you the new owner of the lamp?"
Caroline bites her lips to prevent herself from blurting the infinite questions crowding her mind - she did have a half idea of what the lamp was, but this truly goes far and beyond her wildest expectations - and waves a hand to try and clean the air around her.
"I promise you I mean no harm," she tries to assure the mysterious creature, ignoring the cold thing curling around her calf. "I just have a few questions, if you'd allow it?"
"How sweet of you to think you could harm me, enchantress," he murmurs, his voice now coming from somewhere closer.
"I am not an enchantress, I'm a witch." She coughs lightly, clearing her throat. "And would you mind making this fog disappear? I swear, I won't attack unless I'm threatened."
A brief pause. "Is that your first wish, then, witch?"
"No, I…" She frowns, looking for the right words. "I don't have any wish."
"Oh?"
The fog starts thinning out, finally allowing Caroline to see a full view of the hotel room and the creature standing right in the middle of it.
Though standing might be the wrong word: as the strange being who came out of the lamp - for that was obviously what happened, although she has barely had the time to wrap her mind around it - looks human only until his hip bones, and from there downwards his skin turns into pale golden scales covering a long, impressively thick and smooth snake tail that seems to curl and curl on itself infinitely.
Caroline swallows, speechless, when she realizes that it's the end of that tail that still circles her ankle - imprisoning her?
The man (male? Creature?) watches her with his arms folded behind his back, utterly unbothered with his nakedness, his head tilted as if he was the one studying her instead of the opposite.
There are shackles-like golden bands around his wrists, and more golden chains hang from his neck, covering half of his torso - or maybe it's a single one, impossibly long, wrapped around him several times.
He leans slightly towards her, the chains tinkling together, a suddenly cold look in his amber - reptilian - eyes. "Tell me then, witch. What do you want from this Djinn?"
So he really is a genie, she thinks distractedly. The tail is a surprise.
"I truly don't want anything," she insists, unable to keep her eyes from wandering all over him. "I just followed the traces of magic and it led me to the lamp - I collect artifacts, that's it. I had no idea it was yours."
She's not about to take advantage of this creature, or worse, keep him as a slave; besides, Djinns were rarely benevolent beings, mostly enjoying twisting and ruining their masters' wishes - and who could even blame them? Besides, thanks to her own magic, she lacks for nothing.
Of course, now she just has to explain this to him.
"Unfortunately, you should have thought of it before stroking the lamp," he says softly. "Now I am bound to grant you three wishes - and I must say, I can't wait to hear what such a pretty human would ask for."
Caroline scoffs before she can stop herself. "Why, so you can take your petty revenge by misinterpreting and ruining my wishes? No, thank you."
The Djinn smirks suddenly, his fangs glinting wickedly. "Oh, a smart one. Now I am really intrigued."
"Look," she says quickly, hopefully sounding respectful. "I'm not looking for trouble - I don't want to engage in a battle of wills with you. If there is some way I can help you, feel free to ask… I'm sure there must be something you want after being cooped up in that lamp for who knows how long."
His handsome face loses the amused expression of earlier, taking on a more serious and thoughtful one, and suddenly Caroline has the distinct, uncomfortable sensation of being weighed and judged as if she was in high school all over again. She squirms on the bed, her hands still cupping the lamp, but her eyes don't leave his - trying to convey her sincerity.
The fact that his tail hasn't tightened around her leg is somewhat of a comfort, as it means he doesn't mean any harm - yet.
"It seems your words are… truthful," he wonders, eventually. "Are you truly willing to help me escape this imprisonment?"
"Yes, of course," it's her hurried response. "So, how can I help?" She offers the lamp back to him, as it seems rude to keep holding onto it, but he doesn't even spare it a glance.
Instead he draws nearer, slithering over the wooden floor, his claw-tipped fingers reaching out to her - gently curling around her neck, holding her without hurting. "I want freedom, and I want revenge", he murmurs against her lips, his thin pupils widening slightly with longing. "Not necessarily in this order. I offer you my services if you promise me yours."
Freedom and revenge, she repeats silently. I suppose it's understandable - I can work with that.
Caroline nods carefully, his cold hand following her movements. "You have my promise, then," she vows, sincere. "Do you have a way to, like, seal the deal…?"
His blood red lips curl upwards, making an endearingly tiny dimple appear. "I do."
Then he surges forward and covers her mouth with his own, swallowing her surprise gasp and biting down on her lower lip with his sharp fangs.
She tastes blood - both of theirs, as she feels him push his own deeper inside her mouth, making her tongue tingle as if his blood itself is made out of pure magic. She closes her eyes, swallowing instinctively, just as his tail moves further up along her body, curling carefully around her waist - keeping her close until the last drop of his blood has slipped down her throat.
He slowly leans back, the tip of his tongue licking at the remnants of her blood from the corner of his mouth, looking entirely too self-satisfied. "Your name if you please, master of mine."
"I'm-I'm Caroline," she stutters, blushing a bit. That caught her off guard, to say the least.
"You may call me Klaus," he tells her softly, his sharp talons caressing her cheek. "And now you belong to me until I have granted your wishes and you have granted mine, Caroline."
And maybe even after that, he muses, admiring the pretty pink hue upon her cheeks. For the first time in centuries, he is finally looking forward to something.
