Title: UNCHARTED TERRITORY
Rating: T (possible move to M, later)
Beta: Stacy
Disclaimer: I'm aware I don't own anything Vampire Diaries related. I'm aware, but not happy about it.

So here we are, Part 2 of the Klaroline journey that began with "An Original Love". If you're a first time reader, you can read that first, but I won't tell you it's necessary. (Though mucho appreciado!) If you're following through from "An Original Love", I love you and welcome to the party!

I have to say, this has taken a dramatic turn in becoming something entirely different than I started with. Hopefully it's not too different for you guys. After all, this is just the beginning... ;)

Chapter 1

Right and wrong. These were the two notions balancing on the tight rope of Caroline's mind. She'd chosen to accompany Klaus and his family indefinitely traveling around the world, but so far it was too early to tell whether it was a mistake. They had only been on the road for two hours, but the silence made it feel an eternity. The conversation died down soon after they'd pulled onto the highway. The only sound in the car was the faint humming of the electric guitar melodies of classic rock with low haunting voices crooning out their melancholy tales.

Caroline was leaning against her window, staring into the side-view mirror at the curved illusion of the never ending road. From time to time her eyes traveled between the window and seat to glimpse the profile of Klaus' silhouette. He must have known she was watching him, but he never stirred as he drove. His right hand effortlessly held the steering wheel in place, while his left arm laid across the window ledge, his fingers tapping continuously at the plastic doorframe. She wondered what he was thinking about with all that nervous tension dancing in his hand.

Deciding to chance it, she leaned forth into his seat, immediately taking notice that his fingers stop moving. She lifted her head so her chin rested on the shoulder of the seat, just inches from his neck. He turned his head toward hers, just slightly, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Can I help you?"

"Are we there yet?" she teased.

He turned his head just enough to glance sideways at her with a tiny smirk. "Don't start." She huffed in defeat, but remained as she was, innocently watching the road with him and enjoying every second of his growing neuroticism. Klaus' smirk faded and he glanced at her again, anxiously. "Sit back, love."

"Why, am I making you nervous?"

"A bit, yes."

A slow smile eased across her face as she watched his facial features tighten. In retaliation, he pressed sharply on the brake, just short of stopping the car. While Rebekah and Kol were thrust into their seatbelts, Caroline crashed into the back of his seat with a small grunt.

"Subtle," she muttered, leather scraping her bare legs as she scooted back.

As she settled back into her seat, she noticed his fingers began their rap-tap-tapping yet again. Curious little hybrid.

Kol let out a loud, disgruntled groan. "I'm bored."

"It's going to be a longer ride if you keep that up," Klaus reprimanded.

With a chagrined roll of his eyes, Kol stretched his legs up onto the dashboard and clicked his seat backward, digging into Rebekah's knees.

"My legs are not a head rest, Kol," Rebekah complained.

He folded his arms beneath his head, making himself more comfortable. "Not when they're closed."

With a defiant scoff, she forced the chair upright again and even further forward than it had started, scrunching Kol's body against the dash.

"Somebody's in a mood," he remarked, wriggling to reach the lever to straighten his seat.

"Blame it on being stuck in the car with the likes of you for hours on end," she drawled. "Remind me again, Nik, why we're driving as opposed to flying?"

"Because, currently, my jet is stationed at Laguardia Airport. And since we'll be stopping in New York anyway, I figured might as well leave it and just drive the 14 hours."

"Nice of you to consider the rest of our opinions," Caroline voiced her annoyance for his blatant disregard for others.

Klaus' lips lifted in a smug grin. "I don't see how that would have mattered, love. Options are limited. This was the best."

Rebekah leaned over, keeping her eyes on her brother as she told Caroline, "He's a control freak. You learn to live with it."

"Or be otherwise daggered for a century," Kol added.

"Why did you dagger Kol?" Rebekah inquired, still nearly in Caroline's lap. "I don't recall him doing anything that extreme."

"Extreme, no, but he did compromise our standing for some time."

Kol patted the air, shushing his brother. "This is something I'd actually like to explain, for once." He turned sideways in his seat so he could tell the story. "See, this all happened back when the New World was in its stages of reform. Niklaus and Elijah were at the forefront of all businesses on the rise, whereas I was distracted by less formal affairs."

"Like taking up residency in the local whorehouse," Klaus smirked.

The memory flashed before Kol's eyes, igniting a roguish grin. "There is nothing those women wouldn't do. With the proper compulsion, of course..." He blinked and the images vanished. "Inconveniently World War I broke out. Once America decided to get involved, I wanted to enlist. Can't be killed, so might as well help the country out."

"You weren't going for the cause," Klaus laughed. "You wanted to go somewhere you could get away with mass murder. The battlefield was a perfect decoy."

"Anyway," Kol continued over Klaus, "I never made it to the trenches to fight. The required six months of military training was an unforeseen circumstance."

"And as usual, your unstable temperament exceeded your better judgement."

He smiled bashfully at Caroline. "I have a violent streak."

Her eyes lit with a scathing smile. "Couldn't tell."

"Violent is putting it mildly," Klaus retorted. "You were out of control."

Kol rolled his head towards his brother with a tired groan. "Why do you have to dramatize everything?"

Klaus' hand left the wheel to whisk through the air with defiance. "America was advocating peace and you went off killing every last General of the U.S. Army."

"I don't recall seeing you at the training sessions, Nik. If you think you could have handled their berating any better - "

"That's the difference between you and I, Kol. I possess a great deal more tact than you."

Kol laughed. "Your temper is worse, by far. You wouldn't have lasted ten minutes without snapping a neck."

"Unfortunately, we can't put that theory to test, so why don't we just drop the subject?"

Rebekah squinted, trying to find her way back into the loop. "Where was I when all this was going on? I don't remember any of it."

Klaus' glanced at her in the mirror with heavy lidded eyes. "If I remember correctly, you were off being courted by one of the Middle Class boys. He was what, a butcher? Barber?"

"A blacksmith," she recalled with a boasting smile. "He worked for Ford, actually."

Caroline blinked, feeling utterly out of place in the conversation. She shrank back against her seat in wonderment at all of the life transitions these three siblings had endured. It made her small life in Mystic Falls seem utterly insignificant. Here were the Originals, having lived numerous lives filled with culture and prosperity, and what did she have to show for herself? The title of "Miss Mystic Falls"? It paled in comparison.

"Whatever the case, I still think your daggering me was entirely unjust," Kol pouted.

"You think they wouldn't have hunted you down and killed you, Kol? You drained five Army Generals in the space of one week. If it were up to me, you'd still be in your coffin."

"Caroline, I'd like you to meet the king of petty grudges!" Kol waved with a flourish.

Klaus' jaw had clenched. "Are you done?"

"Tell me I'm wrong and I will be."

"Fine," Klaus' shrugged, coolly. "You're wrong."

"Oh please," Rebekah argued. "You daggered me for wanting to go with Stefan over you in the twenties. If that isn't petty I don't know what is."

His grip on the steering wheel tightened. "I wasn't about to let Mikael kill you because you fell in love again."

"It was my choice, Nik. And you took that from me."

"I saved you, Rebekah."

"My hero," she said, bitterly.

"If I hadn't daggered you both and kept our family moving, you wouldn't be here. You should be thanking me."

"Thanking you?!" Kol laughed in disbelief. "For what? Taking a whole century from me?"

"Think of it as a long 'time out'," Klaus grinned, spitefully.

"And who gave you the authority to punish? Or are you just trying to follow in Mikael's footsteps?"

Klaus slammed on the brakes bringing the car to a dead halt in the center of the road. He turned arctic eyes to his brother, his breathing ragged with rage.

"Don't compare me to him," he spat. "I am not nor will I ever be Mikael."

Kol swallowed his pride and backed down from the intense staring contest. A few beats of silence passed before the car began to move again.

"That was wrong, Kol," Rebekah's murmur sliced through the tension. "You know better."

He waved a careless hand offering no words of retort. Caroline's wide eyes cautiously glimpsed the hybrid's face in the rearview. There was a vast sea of raw emotion glistening in his eyes but the rest of his face was rigid. Whatever Kol had just implied had clearly hit a nerve. The only thing Caroline knew about Mikael, apart from the fact that he was now dead, was that he was their father and he had hunted them for centuries. She also knew from the ball that Klaus had daddy issues but just how far back did they stem? She huffed, bringing her fist to her cheek as she leaned against the window again. Something told her this trip was going to be the learning experience of all learning experiences.

Another hour of silence had passed, the tension suffocating the mustang. Caroline pulled a rolled up magazine out of her bag and started to thumb through it in boredom. Rebekah glanced over, intrigued.

"Is that how it looks now?"

"What?"

"Cosmopolitan," she gestured to the magazine. "I haven't read one in over eighty years."

"Oh. Well, here," she handed her the magazine. "See what you're missing. I've read it like a hundred times anyway."

Rebekah arched an eyebrow at the cover, reading off, "Fifty ways to please your man?"

Caroline rolled her eyes sardonically. "Trust me, not all of them work."

"It still baffles me what you people call fashion, these days," she mused, eyeing the ads in the first few pages. "It's so disheveled and the colors are all off. No class."

"Okay, what you should really be focusing on is the centerfold," Caroline tapped her index finger into the page. "Top 100 sexiest guys. There are some serious hotties in there."

"Assuming we share the same taste in men," Rebekah grinned. "After all, for whatever reason you're attracted to my brother and the idea of Nik being hot is both disturbing and nauseating."

Caroline blushed fiercely. She could literally feel the heat emanating from her cheeks. "You're his sister," she quietly responded. "You're not supposed to think that way of him."

"You know, I don't think I heard any denial in that statement, Nik," Kol noted, pointedly.

Klaus just smirked. "Hard to deny the truth, Kol."

"Whatever," Caroline scoffed, her cheeks scolding with shame.

While Rebekah began to flip through the magazine, Caroline raised her eyes to the rearview mirror, once again, meeting with a smirking set of cerulean jewels. Scoffing in resentment, she maneuvered her body to hide from his view and in the process caught the bottom half of his stubbled face in the mirror, dimpled with snark. He was enjoying this way too much...

"These are the guys you and America think are sexy?" Rebekah lifted a brow. "They're all beef-heads."

Caroline snickered. "Those are the guys on Jersey Shore. Here," she flipped a few pages. "These are the ones you want."

Rebekah's head tilted sideways as she scoped out the pictures. "Some of them are so old looking. Johnny Depp? He looks greasy."

"Okay, Johnny Depp is hot," Caroline enthused. "And they're not all old. Look," she flipped a page. "You can't tell me he's not drop dead gorgeous."

"Sorry. I have actual taste. He's, at best, a 5."

"Oh come on," Caroline disagreed. "Channing Tatum is hot. I mean, look at those abs!"

"Seriously? He does nothing for me. Now, Beckham, on the other hand – "

Their conversation was cut short by suddenly blast of obnoxiously gritty heavy metal booming through the speakers.

"I seriously cannot take anymore girl talk," Kol complained over the music. "I'll go mad."

Caroline laughed while Rebekah rolled her eyes. Together they continued flipping pages, gushing over the Top 100, fashion, and the magazine's silly antics on love. The line was finally drawn only when Caroline began reading out horoscopes for everyone in the car. Somehow Klaus wasn't keen on hearing his forecast telling him "This is not the time to issue demands or otherwise expect the world to match your pace. Instead you need to deal with your own issues while you wait for everyone else to catch up." Too bad, Caroline thought to herself. It was ironically fitting.

After another 3 and a half hours had passed, light began to drift from the sky, ushering in the night. Klaus had switched to a classical music station, and the purring symphony of violins was the only thing keeping the silence in the car from overwhelming. Caroline yawned, hoping he was planning to stop the car at some point. Not only was she tired of being cramped in the backseat, but hunger was rumbling in her stomach with a vengeance. The last sign she'd seen among all of the bold blue "Route I-95" markers signified that Virginia was nearing. Other than that, all that could be seen in the darkness were trees, trees, and more trees. Growing anxious with impatience, she leaned over the center console.

"Not to be a pain, but are we stopping any time soon? You know, to refuel?" she made air quotes with her fingers.

"Mm," Rebekah moaned back to life. "I'm starving, Nik."

"He told you to eat before we left," Kol teased.

"Shut up, Kol," she reproached, but the tiredness of her voice caused the sentiment to fall flat.

"There's a service area in two miles," Klaus finally answered. "If you can all hold out that long."

Sighing, Caroline sat back again, not exactly thrilled with the impassiveness that had come over him. Clearly the ride was taking it toll on everyone.

In a few minutes, Klaus pulled off an exit, taking the ramp down past two BP and Shell gas stations and a large house-like structure filled with different food chains, until they came to a parking lot bordered by a strip of motel rooms. The lot was filled with 16-wheelers and an assortment of Sedans. Klaus turned off the mustang and stepped out, pushing the seat forward for Caroline to follow. As she looked up at the washed out "Motel 6" sign, flickering and straining to stay alight, her stomach turned. This had to be a joke. The Originals would never stoop so low as to stay at a motel...would they?

The matching red doors were all aligned, standing like soldiers at the ready, their paint faded and chipping. The building itself was a dirty beige, lacking any kind of luster. Just staring at the exterior of the run down motor lodge, Caroline was shuddering with dread.

"There is no way I'm staying here," she declared snobbishly.

"I agree," Rebekah chimed in with a grimace as she and Kol rounded the car to their side. "This is beneath us, Nik."

"It's one night," he rationalized. "It won't kill you."

"Are you kidding?" Caroline scoffed. "These places are crawling with all kinds of disgusting disease and bacteria. I've watched the documentaries!"

Klaus' face sterned. "There's no other lodging for at least fifty miles. And I'm tired."

"So I'll drive!" she offered.

"No," he said adamantly, "you won't."

"Really? You're one of those?"

He ignored her with a shake of his head. "The decision's been made. You two ladies will have to tough it out. We'll rest here for the night, and tomorrow make the final plight in our drive. We should be about 6 hours away, by now. Kol, go and get us two rooms."

"Make it three," Rebekah called, halting her brother. "I want my own room."

"We are getting two rooms, Rebekah."

"Then I am notsharing with Kol," she stomped her foot down.

"And why not?!" Kol asked, folding his arms in offense.

Rebekah's eyes narrowed. "You snore."

"I do not!"

"You do, actually," Caroline agreed.

"Like the engine of an obnoxious pickup truck," Rebekah clarified.

Klaus groaned, impatiently. "We are not getting a third room just to satisfy your petty needs!"

"Fine, then Caroline shares with me," Rebekah smiled sweetly.

"That's fine with me," Caroline acquiesced, giving him one of her own impish grins.

He opened his mouth to respond but the two girls had already linked arms and set off toward the rental office. Klaus glowered sourly. This was not the way it had panned out in his head.

Kol scoffed, turning to his brother. "I'm beginning to resent that bond they've developed."

"You and I both."

Kol raised his eyebrows with a smirk. "Does paint a lovely vision of hair braiding and pillow fights, however."

Klaus laughed. "I shudder to think."

Lounging in one of the beds, Klaus glanced around the tiny motel room, finally understanding the truth in Caroline's words. The comforters, for one, were utterly repulsive – green and magenta striped, littered with daisies. A cheap Kmart painting hung crookedly on the ash colored walls. And dull, lifeless grey curtains hung crookedly over the one giant window that stretched across the front of the room. He suddenly felt downtrodden with shame at putting her up in the lowest of conditions. He'd promised her everything and this was how he saw it through?

A loud shriek in pleasure interrupted his thoughts. He had been attempting to ignore the feeding frenzy going on in the bed beside him, but Kol made that nearly impossible. He had managed to find and compel a young woman who had been traveling to suit his needs. As it stood, she was strewn across his lap, dark chestnut hair pooling around her half-naked body as Kol sucked the blood from her neck. He raised his venous face to look at Klaus through bloodstained eyes.

"You sure you don't want a taste?" he offered.

Klaus frowned, almost sneering. "Not in the mood, Kol."

Kol smacked his lips together, tossing the girl aside with no regard. He began to wipe the blood from his mouth, licking his fingers with delight. "She is quite the delicacy."

"I'm happy for you."

The girl rose, suddenly, alarming Kol. He whisked to his feet and slid his finger through the band of her bra, stopping her. "Where do you think you're going?"

She smiled, lost in a state of euphoria. "I have to pee."

Kol grinned, eyes gleaming with mischief. "Hurry back, darling. I'm not nearly finished with you."

The girl giggled and bit her lower lip seductively as she backed into the bathroom. When the door closed, Kol turned back to his brother, a different look of amusement on his face.

"How can you resist such a beauty who's been compelled to let you drain her dry?"

"When I'm hungry, I'll feed."

Kol slumped back in his bed. "Oh get over it already," he groaned. "So she's not in the same room as you for one night. Not like she would have slept with you anyway."

Klaus clenched his jaw, averting his eyes from his brother. "I don't care about that."

"Then why are you refusing your nature?" Kol laughed. "Unless you're letting a baby vamp influence your feeding habits now."

"Of course not," Klaus grimaced.

"Good."

The bathroom door creaked open and the girl reappeared. He unintentionally glanced over and suddenly found himself unable to stop his eyes from traveling the length of her barely clothed body. He took in the sight of her flawless fair skin, covered only be a lacy black bra and matching thong panties. Her neck was the only area tainted by bite marks and drying blood. Her hazel eyes were minx-like, daring him to come get her. And just as the temptation began to taunt him, Kol tugged the thin string of her thong, pulling her back into him. Klaus watched him sweep her hair aside and he could see the vein in her neck pulsating. Kol glanced over at him, his face beginning to transfigure.

"Join me, Nik!" Kol's voice echoed in the distance. "Ease your mind a little..."

As he watched his brother resume feeding, the sight of the girl's blood slithering down her neck sent a tremor through his heart and he felt a slight tingling of arousal in his jeans. Klaus let out a slow, unsteady stream of breath and got up from his seat. He sauntered over and slid onto the bed so his body was beside hers. He began surveying the girl – for woman was too old a term for such a young face. She was probably just barely of legal drinking age. The irony made him smirk.

A ecstatic moan slipped out of her lips as Kol plunged his teeth in deeper. She was compelled to feel nothing but pleasure as she was drained. Kol's gift to his victims. Her eyes fluttered and she sighed sweetly as Kol drank. Klaus began trailing his fingers lightly down her shoulder, caressing the bend of her elbow, until he held her wrist tenderly in his hands. He turned it, palm facing downward, and laid a soft kiss upon her skin. She gasped and her eyes flew open at the touch of his lips.

"What's your name, love?" he whispered.

"Ally," she sighed.

"Short for Allison, I presume."

"Alexandra," she lazily corrected.

"Alexandra," he repeated in a moan. "That's a beautiful name."

His eyes morphed to match the night and the veins in his face became excruciatingly visible. Ally's eyes suddenly filled with fright at the sight of the monster before her.

"Don't," she began to beg.

Kol extracted his fangs, glaring at her, blood dripping down his chin. He wrapped one arm tightly around her shoulders and pulled her to him so his face brushed against her ear. "I didn't compel you to speak," he warned, his voice coarse.

"Relax, sweetheart," Klaus comforted her, fondling her wrist. "You're going to be justfine..."

Without another warning, he yanked her forearm upward so the vein in her wrist was all he could see. Slowly, he lowered his mouth, fangs extended, and surrendered to his bloodlust.