Until Forever Ends (TVD+TO FF)

Love and Madness

When a person becomes a vampire, time becomes irrelevant. Years pass like days, days like minutes. Centuries fly by when there is no countdown. Eventually, the vampire forgets the concept of time altogether. This fact however did not account for the hunter's curse.

In the millennium of immortal existence, those fifty-two years following the death of the hunters were the only time the Mikaelson siblings truly felt the passage of time. None more than Kara.

The last time Kara was lucid was the few hours following the events. 

The night of the Hunter's Attack

Kara knew she did not have long before the curse took full effect so she went after Hilda, entrusting the daggers to her. 

The daggers were hidden in a cave, the only way to get in would be to write the password on the stone wall in an Original's blood. The password Kara picked was L.J. Smith, the original author of the vampire diaries.  No one but she and Hilda knew the password, they refused to write it down or speak it out loud again. The daggers were safe and out of reach, but still accessible just in case. By the time she had returned to the palace, the curse was already starting. 

"Kara, what is happening?" Kol asked, noticing his sister's pale face.

Finn stood at his sister's side, taking her shaking hand into his. The commotion caught Nik, Elijah, and Rebekah's attention. Rebekah was still crying over Alexander's betrayal and the fear that had plagued her since the moment that dagger was in his grasp. Niklaus was raging, he still didn't know what the witch had done, but seeing his sister, it wasn't going to be pleasant. 

"Those men were a brotherhood of vampire hunters. They meant to kill us. They are meant to be nature's way of rectifying itself...the consequences of killing one of the order's hunters are severe. If a hunter dies at a vampire's hands, they become infected with the, a way for the hunter to fulfill their duty one last time, even in death... by driving the vampire to kill themselves." Kara explained, flinching at an unseen voice. 

Nik's eyes widened in tear-stained horror, "What?" 

"The hallucinations have already started... Soon they will grow unbearable. We have no access to White Oak stakes here so I won't be able to kill myself permanently..." Kara flinched away from another invisible foe. Sweat glistened across her pale skin and her eyes grew more distant.

30 Years After the Attack

Kara had miraculously escaped the obsessive supervision of her brothers. The imagined pain in her chest refused to fade as she ran. The horror of the hallucinations never dulled even after thirty years of suffering.

Somehow, Kara had ended up in Germany. She was hidden in an old mill, tears streaming down her face as she clung to a wooden workbench like a lifeline. 

She was so lost in her fantasy torture she didn't even hear the barn doors slide open. Her brown eyes were distant and lifeless as he knelt down in front of her. The familiar blue eyes drew her attention from her latest illusion. His face was emotionless as he waited for her to speak first. His weight rested on his toes but his balance did not falter, he was still and strong as stone. 

"Hi, Daddy." Kara smiled for the first time in years. 

Mikael noticed her eyes kept flickering to things he couldn't see. She was coated in sweat, her skin held a grayish hue that made her look sickly. 

"Hello, my Valkyrie... Why are you all alone?" Mikael's deep voice was soft and steady as he gingerly tucked the sweat-soaked hair behind her ears.

"I'm not alone, Daddy. You're here too... I'm glad you're here... Are you here to kill me?" The cold hunter Mikael's heart twisted uncomfortably seeing his daughter's eyes light up at the thought of dying.

"Not today, dear one." 

"But you've killed me so many times before, why is today different? Does Esther want some time off, tormenting me?" Kara asked, thinking her father was another hallucination. Mikael smiled softly at Kara. A gesture reserved only for Kara and Freya, both daughters out of his reach now. 

"I'm going to lead you where Kol will find you, dearest." Mikael helped Kara stand, clutching her shaking hands in his as he walked her into the light of day once more. 

"I do love you, Daddy. Even when you hate me." Kara mumbled, leaning her entire weight on her father.

Just once, just this once. The heartless Mikael would be a father and give his children a head start.

52 Years After the Attack

Niklaus Mikaelson had experienced many hardships in his life. He had been in love with a woman who loved his elder brother. He had been beaten and abused by the man he thought was his father. His mother cursed him to be weak so that Mikael would never learn of her infidelity. He had been killed and turned into a monster. He had been held down as his mother locked away part of himself.

Time and time again, the people he loved always seemed to disappoint him. 

All but one. 

Kara had been the only one to defend Klaus from their father's rage. Kara had helped heal his bruises and kissed his cheeks when he cried. Kara had been the only one to fight for him when the curse was placed on him. 

What did he do in return?

He killed her lover. He drove her away. Kara had disappeared for months. They had searched for her but only Kol truly tried to find her. Mikael was on their trail, after all, they had to flee. 

Then the night she finally returned, she saved them. She took the burden of the hunter's curse for Niklaus, once again caring for him when no other would have. Even when they were fighting she was always there when he needed her. 

For fifty-two years following Kara's return, Niklaus had remained at her side. It was exhausting to care for a suicidally deranged vampire, her every tear felt like a dagger to his cold dead heart. Niklaus loved Kara more than anything, she was the only one who hadn't yet disappointed him.

Kara was chained to a chair in front of him. It had been fifty- two years of torment for the girl, a punishment she only had because of him. She was thrashing about, they had to chain her after a particularly bad episode where she tried to impale herself on the tree's below by jumping from the highest tower of the castle. 

Then she stilled. 

Niklaus looked up from the book in his hand, unnerved by the unnatural stillness of his sister. 

"Kara?" He asked, standing from his seat to stand at her side. 

"...It's quiet...It's so quiet, Nik..." Her eyes glistened with tears, no longer distant and lifeless. She smiled, a smile of utter joy and relief. 

Her punishment was finally over.