Here it is, the official end of this story. i want to thank everybody who followed this story and commented and encouraged me to write it. This was my first long-form fic and while I think it definitely shows, I'm proud of it nonetheless. Again, 6-month break aside, this was always the way the story was going to end. Enjoy.

Caroline blinked rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the room's dim lighting, unable to believe what she was seeing. Bruised and looking far worse for the wear since the last time she had seen him, Tyler dragged himself to the front of the bars.

"Caroline," he sighed, sounding so relieved she thought he might cry.

"Tyler" she repeated more softly and crawled across the floor to meet him at the bars. He winced as she gently caressed his cheek with her hand, softly running her fingers over the bruised skin. He reached his hands through the bars too, one tangling in her hair and the other grabbing the side of her face to pull her closer. His eyes began to fill with tears as he stared at her.

"You're really here," he whispered. "I never thought...," he started but was too overcome by emotion to finish.

"It's OK," Caroline whispered soothingly, "I'm here now." She turned and eyed Klaus hatefully. "What did you do to him?" she seethed.

"I took him from the death trap that is Mystic Falls and kept him safe these past months," Klaus said in mock indignation. "It's not my fault if the boy doesn't appreciate it," he added, reaching out to flick on an overhead light.

"Months?" Caroline repeated, confused.

"Yes, young Tyler's been here just as long you have," Klaus explained and shut the door to the room. "I plucked him out of that dank little hole in the ground the same night Stefan brought you here." Caroline gasped as her mind flew back to that night, to the strange feeling that she was being watched when she left the Lockwood cellar. "We've had to keep him down here though because he wasn't quite ready for training," Klaus continued. "Now, however..."

Klaus strutted toward them with a devious smile. Tyler pushed back from the front of the cage, terrified, and Caroline stood in an attempt to protect him. But she was still healing from the stake Klaus had plunged in her chest and all he had to do was Punch her on the open wound and she was knocked to the ground, wincing in pain and struggling to catch her breath.

"No, please," Tyler begged and held his hands up as Klaus opened the cage and walked in. Caroline watched in horror as Klaus bit into his own wrist, picked Tyler up off the ground and placed the wound over his mouth. Tyler struggled, but Klaus trapped him in a headlock, forcing him to drink. She stood, desperate to make him stop, but before she could take a step, Klaus snapped Tyler's neck with one swift movement.

"No!" she screamed and ran to the door of the cage.

"Don't worry, love, he'll wake up soon," Klaus sneered. Caroline felt her body coil for attack and saw him smirk in anticipation before she lunged. On open ground, in a chase, she might have had a chance, but Klaus was too strong. Though she managed to slam him against the back wall of the cage, he quickly threw her off and onto the ground next to Tyler. Before Caroline could regroup and attack again, he rushed to the door and slammed it behind him, locking her in.

"Now behave yourself," Klaus said condescendingly. She ran at the bars, slamming her hands against them and, quick as lightning, he wrapped his hands around hers to keep her there. "There's no need for all that. I told you he'll wake up soon. And as long as your little witch friend wasn't lying, Tyler will become the first of many successful hybrids."

"What did you do to Bonnie?" Caroline asked, her anger sobering to cold fear.

"I've been having a little trouble keeping the werewolves I turn to hybrids alive and after my first witch died trying to contact the original witch, I needed a replacement," Klaus explained. "Your little friends were surprisingly good at protecting her, but I eventually figured out a way to make her do what I wanted."

"Jeremy," Caroline gasped.

"Precisely," Klaus said with a satisfied smile. "After I kidnapped the boy, it was fairly easy to convince her to channel the power of the full moon and the magic of dead witches, even at great danger to herself."

"If anything happened to her, I'll–"

"You'll do what?" Klaus demanded tightening his grip on her hands until she thought the bones might break. "Bonnie didn't make it. And since I no longer had use for the Gilbert boy, I killed him without his little resurrection ring." Caroline thrashed against his hold and kicked the bars enough to bend them slightly; Klaus only laughed at her.

"You won't get away with it," Caroline fumed. "Elena and Damon, they'll hunt you down and I'll help them kill you." Klaus chuckled and released her hands, pacing in front of the cage and shaking his head in amusement.

"You aren't entirely wrong about that," Klaus admitted. "I tried to reason with them, but that Damon really does have a thing for the girl. He just wouldn't give her up."

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked, a terrible sense of foreboding washing over her. Klaus stopped pacing and turned to her again, his eyes a little distant.

"My mother, clever witch that she was, fixed it so that killing the doppelgänger would make me a hybrid, but I wouldn't be able to make more without her blood. Thanks to you and your friends' little machinations, I was lucky enough to avoid that problem, but bringing Elena here has proved to be a tad more difficult. Had to kill that teacher of yours I possessed in my last attempt."

"Alaric," she muttered, shutting her eyes for a moment to mourn him.

"But it's only a matter of time before I have her," Klaus continued, almost forgetting Caroline was there.

"Stefan won't let you do that," she said firmly and his eyes snapped back to her. "He cares about Elena too much." He pondered her a moment, smiling in a way that made her uncomfortable.

"That remains to be seen," he said. "Admittedly, Stefan's humanity has been maddeningly difficult to stifle. He's struggled despite me compelling him to shut it off, which I partially blame you for," he added, pointing a finger at her. "So, I sent him to Mystic Falls to fetch Elena as a little test."

"He's gone back?" Caroline asked softly, at once pleased at the thought of him back home and aching with the desire to be there with him.

"Don't look so sad, sweetheart," Klaus mocked. "I'm sure he'll come back for you at the very least. I'm banking on it, actually."

"What do you mean?"

"Stefan was quite difficult to control when I first took him," he said. "All that moping and brooding," he said and rolled his eyes, "it was exhausting. He needed something to obsess over other than the Gilbert girl. So, I offered him a choice. I needed someone else to help me control my hybrid army and Rebekah is too volatile. I told him to find the strongest person he knew and recruit them.

"I must tell you, I was a little skeptical when he first mentioned you," Klaus stuck a hand through the bars as he spoke, playfully flicking Caroline's chin with a finger. She twisted her face away, baring her fangs at him.

"But how you've developed," he said and shook his head in awe. "I knew he'd made the right choice when you killed that girl the first night. You looked at Stefan with such adoration," he quickly grabbed Caroline's chin, forcing her too look at him. "I hope you look at me the same way one day," he said, barely above a whisper and Caroline used her vampire strength to push away and press her back flush against the back wall of the cage so he couldn't reach her. Klaus smiled smugly.

"I knew then that you would do whatever it took to bring him back to Mystic Falls," he continued. "There were days I almost felt sorry for you."

"I don't believe you," Caroline insisted, her voice deadly quiet. "Stefan is different now. I've watched him change. If he comes back here, he'll kill you."

Klaus smiled wickedly and was just opening his mouth to respond when he turned sharply, staring up at the ceiling and concentrating as if he could hear something Caroline couldn't. His eyes narrowed and he turned back to her with a sneer.

"I think we're about to find out who's right," he stated, the confidence in his voice making her worry.

They waited a few tense moments in total silence. Suddenly, the lock on the steel door clanked open and Caroline instantly recognizing the voices on the other side. She gasped when Stefan first appeared, most of his shirt-front covered in drying blood. But her shock over that was quickly replaced by the shock of seeing him drag Elena into the room.

"Caroline!" Elena gasped when she spotted her.

"Elena!" she replied and ran to the bars. "What happened?" Elena's hand flew to her mouth as he began to cry, though perhaps she had never stopped, her face was damp and puffy from earlier tears.

"He killed him," she sobbed, crumbling to the floor.

"Who?"

"Damon," she choked out. Caroline shook her head in disbelief.

"Looks like I was right," Klaus bragged, drawing Caroline's attention as he opened the cage. She ran for the door, hoping she might be able to knock him out of the way and go to Elena, but he grabbed her by the arm and swung her so she slammed hard against the wall adjacent to the cage. She lunged again, but Klaus turned, grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall so hard she heard cracking noises. His face devoid of emotion, Stefan pulled Elena forward, shoved her into the cage and quickly locked it.

"Oh my God, Tyler," she said and hunched over their friend's body. Klaus released Caroline and pushed her into Stefan. She gripped the fabric of his shirt, desperate to make him look at her.

"Stefan, what did you do?" Caroline pleaded. He turned then, as if noticing her for the first time since he entered the room. Something like recognition washed over his features, but it was quickly replaced with something more animalistic, carnal. He grabbed Caroline's face with both hands and crashed his lips onto hers. She responded, fisting her hands in his hair and gripping onto him as if she could erase what Elena had said by doing so. But she froze when she noticed a familiar scent emanating from the blood on his shirt, but there was not doubt in her mind it didn't belong to Damon. She pushed him back, snatching her hands away from him as if she were afraid to touch him.

"Who else did you kill?" she asked shakily. Stefan didn't respond. He began to advance on her, his face emotionless. "Who else did you kill?!" Caroline repeated, her voice becoming shrill as she began to panic.

"She wouldn't let me take Elena," he said coldly, stepping closer so she had to retreat.

"No, please, no," Caroline begged, the dreams she had had about her mother that morning flashing through her mind. "Did you...?" she started, unable to say the words.

"She's dead," he replied simply. Caroline screamed–part horror, part rage–and lunged at him. Stefan tried to step out of the way, but she managed to wrap her hands around his throat. She didn't have a plan for what she would do to him in that moment, but she wasn't given the opportunity to find out as Klaus wrenched her away.

"Now, now," he admonished, "don't do something you'll regret later."

"Let go of me," Caroline snarled and tried to twist out of his grasp. But a sudden gasping sound across the room drew her attention.

"Tyler," Elena said and reached out to help him sit up.

"Elena?" he asked incredulously as he panted for breath. "How–"

"Yes, yes, she's here, it doesn't matter how," Klaus interrupted. "And lucky for you, because you'll have to drink from her if you want to live."

"What?" Tyler asked.

"That's how you make hybrids," Klaus explained, pulling Caroline closer before sneering in her ear, "blood of the doppelgänger."

She moved before he realized what she was doing, her months of training with Stefan finally paying off. She took the arm Klaus had wrapped around her body and snapped the bone. He let out an enraged bellow and pushed her away. Caroline turned to attack him again, but in her anger, she became too focused on him. Stefan's arms wrapped around her, dragging her away from Klaus. He slammed her roughly against the room's heavy door, calmly waiting for her to stop struggling before speaking.

"There, that's better," he muttered, stroking her hair and caressing her cheek.

"Get off me," Caroline spat, twisting her face away.

"Hey, don't be like that. I've missed you." He stepped closer to her, pressing himself against her.

"I hate you," Caroline seethed, trying to squirm away until he spoke again.

"I didn't have a choice," he said lowly. She froze, staring into his eyes and thought she saw something resembling tenderness, something resembling the Stefan she knew.

"Like I said, sweetheart," Klaus gloated. "You don't have much of a choice either, Tyler," he added and turned to face him. "I'm not asking you to kill Elena, just take one little sip of her blood and the transformation will be complete."

"No," Tyler glowered at Klaus.

"Don't make me force you," he threatened. "Besides, wouldn't it be nice to never have to turn into a werewolf ever again?" he asked enticingly. The look of determination on
Tyler's face faltered. His eyes flashed to look into Caroline's and she could see how much that prospect meant to him. "And you won't be the last," Klaus said, drawing his attention. "All I ask after you've turned is that you stay loyal to me and help me turn other werewolves. Save them from the moon's tyranny, as it were."

"So I'm just going to be your prisoner?" Elena interjected.

"Don't think of it that way," Klaus replied. "I'll keep you safe for the rest of your life and as thanks, you make a little blood donation every once in awhile."

"You can't do that," Caroline snapped and then turned to Stefan when his grip tightened on her. "We can't let him do this to our friends, Stefan."

"Why do you even care what happens to her?" Stefan asked. "She didn't look for you when she thought you and Tyler went missing, you know. Go ahead. Ask her."

"We didn't know," Elena protested. "You left a note and when we realized Tyler was gone too, we thought you left together. Your Dad and Mrs. Lockwood were the only ones convinced something was wrong."

"And you didn't believe them," Caroline said, narrowing her eyes. "Even after they went missing?" Elena flinched and Caroline felt her earlier anger start to resurface. "Did you even try to look for them or us after that?"

"We couldn't," Elena replied. "We never knew when Klaus was going to attack next, they hadn't even told us where they were going before they disappeared. We had to protect ourselves."

"So no," Caroline said coldly. "Did you and Damon even try to save my mother today?"

"You don't need her to answer that," Stefan interrupted before Elena could speak. "You know Damon would sacrifice anyone to protect her." Caroline looked back at Elena, who quickly averted her eyes.

"I didn't have a choice in what I did," Stefan said, "but they did. They chose themselves over everyone else. And I chose you." He paused then, his grip softening, and reached up a hand to run his fingers through her hair.

"Has anything you said to me been real?" she asked, tears stinging at her eyes.

Stefan smirked a moment and then stepped back slightly. He took each of her hands in one of his, entwining their fingers and raised them above her head to press them onto the door's cold surface. He leaned in and pressed his lips to her neck just below her ear before he spoke.

"I meant everything I said and did last night," he whispered into her ear. She couldn't help the wave of desire that flared in her. She really had missed him all day and despite what she knew he had done since then, she couldn't make herself hate him. How could she when she couldn't even tell how much control he had over his actions? She moaned his name as Stefan trailed kisses down her neck.

"Time to make a decision, Tyler," Klaus said, distracting her slightly.

"I'm sorry, Elena," Tyler said, sounding crushed.

"No, you can't help him," Elena protested, an edge of hysteria in her tone. "Caroline, you can't let this happen."

"I-" she started, but the sharp scrape of Stefan's teeth against her neck drew her attention back to him.

"I need you, Caroline," he purred, pressing himself against her again. "I can't survive this without you, not after what I did to Damon." He pulled away from her just enough to look into her eyes, his expression pained and desperate. "You're the only thing keeping me sane," he said.

Caroline stared into his eyes, ignoring Elena's continued cries for help as Tyler advanced toward her and Klaus's laughter. She couldn't be sure how much of what Stefan said was real. All of this, his love, his pain, could be an act spurred on by his compulsion. But she was sure of one thing: she needed him.

If she went back to Mystic Falls, there would be nothing left for her. Everything that was left of her home was here, in this room. She took a deep breath and Stefan's scent–the one that had always reminded her of home–filled her lungs. A wave of calm washed through her at the familiarity; at how much it now reminded her of the affection he had shown her since the day he took her from Mystic Falls.

She couldn't change him back now, not until Klaus freed him of his debt. Whatever she had done to help him turn his humanity back on stopped mattering the moment he brought Elena back here. The choice was simple: leave and have nothing or become a monster and have Stefan.

Caroline smiled and leaned forward.

"What's next?" she asked and pressed her lips to Stefan's, her desire for him filling her completely as she let her humanity drain away.

Thanks for reading and please leave some feedback. I don't think the people who were originally heavily following this story read it anymore, but I'd love to hear from anyone who followed this thing all the way through. Let me know if you think the ending does or doesn't make sense or how you feel about it.