Free of family

48

Arkyn was in the middle of a conversation with Alexis when he fell, incapacitated. Alexis stopped, afraid, as veins showed up on his body.
"Ark?" She shook him. "Ark!" He wouldn't wake as she shook him and she cried. "No no no. You can't die! No!" She fell on his body, sobbing. She didn't realise as he revived.
"Hey, sweetheart." He said and she froze, sitting up slowly. She saw him alive and well and breathed out in relief. She hugged him as he soothed her.
"Don't do that!" She said. "You can't do that to me!"
"I'm still here." He promised. "I'm still alive, and I'm still here."
"I thought you were dead."
"I'm not." He promised. The doorbell rang.
"Let's ignore it." Alexis said.
"Ark?!" He heard Caroline yell.
"It's Caroline." He said.
"Let's ignore it." She repeated. Ark pressed a kiss to her forehead before speeding downstairs. He opened the door.
"Hi." Caroline said, before cringing. "I'm sorry."
"So am I."
"Look, I don't know what your mom told Elena and Bonnie and I don't care. You're my friend, and I am not going to just sit around and let you die without at least trying to help you. I didn't know until this morning. Bonnie and Elena kept rambling about how they just wanted you at peace, and I swear I really don't know what they were thinking and I couldn't come here and tell you because Bonnie was here so I had to wait, and then I went to the grill and saw your creep of a brother and I didn't want to be there either but then he followed me out and it was kind of distracting cos I know he's awful and a total ass and then I couldn't pretend like everything was fine because, yeah he would die, but so would you and like I said, you're my friend and-"
"Okay, Caroline breathe." Arkyn cut into her rambling. "Take a step back and breathe. In... and out." She did as he said.
"Sorry." She frowned sheepishly and he led her into the house.
"So Klaus followed you out and then what happened?"
"Then I kind of broke down and told him because I figured maybe he could do something about it, but then he kind of grabbed at his chest. It turned out Alaric and Damon daggered Kol, and that affected all of you."
"I'm very aware of that." Arkyn nodded.
"And then I just sort of left because I wanted to see if you were okay, and it looks like you are. For now."
"Thank you, Caroline, I appreciate your loyalty."
"Yeah, yeah. Just tell me what you need me to do to stop this."
"We can't."
"Not without killing Bonnie or her mom, and Ark seems to be against that, so..." Alexis said, walking down the stairs.
"We're not killing Bonnie, Lex."
"See?" Alexis pouted.
"All I know is Elijah and Rebekah have a plan. Rebekah has Elena as leverage and Elijah's using it against the Salvatores."
"Well, Elijah's plans don't really have a good history of working out. Surely there's something we can do?"
"Esther's channelling the entire Bennett line. She's using Bonnie and Abby as a link to the other side. She's already tapped into their line, so unless the ancestors decide they don't want to help Esther, which has been their goal ever since Stefan got their coffins, I don't see any other way to stop this."
"Can't... can't Lex, like, channel the witches and like interfere?"
"They won't help me. They want Klaus dead, and they don't care who gets hurt in the process."
"What if we could stop Esther from just channelling Bonnie and her mom. That would cut off her connection to the ancestors, right?"
"Except the only way to do that is to kill Bonnie or her mom."
"Oh. What if Lex puts like a protection spell on you. Like when Bonnie faced Klaus and she was dead, and then she wasn't?"
"Protection spells would protect me from physical harm. But as long as Finn still goes through with the plan, and I'm still linked to him, I'm going to die."
"So we convince Finn!" She tried.
"Not enough time." Caroline frowned.
"So what can we do?"
"I don't know. I'm all out of tricks." Arkyn glances at his watch. "And we're all out of time."
"What?"
"It's five past nine. The moon will be reaching its peak in two minutes." He smiled sadly. Alexis moved to lean into his side.

They waited out the time but Arkyn didn't die.
"Guess they found a way." Arkyn said as Alexis held tightly onto him.
"You're not dying?"
"Not tonight." He said and Caroline grinned.
"Thank you, Caroline. For helping me."
"You are my friend. You've helped me time and time again. I figure it was time for me to return the favour." She shrugged. "So what's going to happen now?"
"Lex and I are going to leave. Tonight."
"Know where you're going?"
"We're going to go check on Xavier." He smiled before shaking Alexis. "Speaking of, go call your brother, Lex."
"Sure." She nodded and walked away.
"After that, I'm thinking we move closer to Lex's grandmother."
"And Bonnie?"
"I have to put Lex first. I have to think about Lex and Xavier, and Rebekah and Kol."
"For what it's worth, I'm going to miss you around here."
"I'll miss you too, Forbes." Arkyn smirked.
"So what happens to your house?"
"It stays here, empty and forgotten. But if you ever feel like hanging out, or need to use the basement, you're always welcome."
"Thanks." She smiled.