❝shadowed glory❞

CAROLINE SHIFTED NERVOUSLY AS SHE STOOD AMONG THE CROWD, MATT'S ARM HOOKED WITH HERS.

Even though the plan was solid and Matt's compulsion was strong, this was the first time she'd be going directly against Elena, and most likely giving up the appearance that she's on their side.

She couldn't help but feel bad for Matt, because he had become a pawn in the game without knowing a sliver of the truth. Even though she wanted him to know everything, she knew him well enough to know that he'd never forgive her for what she was doing to Elena. No matter how much time passes, he'll always love Elena.

But if she was being honest with herself, she'd grown bitter towards Elena long before she was turned. Even before the accident, she'd resented Elena for the attention she got.

She'd grown out of her ridiculous need for drama for the most part, and when she shed that immaturity, she came to realize that it was always going to be Bonnie and Elena, and then Caroline as an afterthought.

At first it was school. Elena listened to everything Bonnie told her, whether it be about Stefan, or about quitting the cheerleading squad, Elena always disregarded her advice. Even though it wasn't always the best advice at times, Caroline just wanted Elena to be her friend, and she couldn't even do that without rolling her eyes every time Caroline spoke.

When Caroline was finally let in on the supernatural affairs, the last one of their trio, it was only because she was killed, and the compulsion that Elena forced Damon to do wore off. After that, Caroline realized in all of her newfound vampiric glory, that she would never be prioritized as long as Elena Gilbert was around.

And even though she'd never admit it out loud, Matt had become a stem of her blossoming bitterness towards her old friend. It was supposed to be the cherry on top to get back at Elena for her selfish acts, to date her ex and go against the girl-code, but Elena was so disgustingly infatuated with Stefan and his heroics that it was useless. The only problem was, Matt caught feelings, and so did she– at least, in the beginning.

In her ever-growing hatred towards Elena, Matt had become much more than a bullet point in her grand plan. When she was turned, Caroline started to read emotions better than she ever had before, and she could see what the humans around her tried to cover up. For Matt, that just so happened to include an everlasting, wildly inconvenient, unwavering love for Elena Gilbert.

And now that she was truly thinking about how she'd gotten here, she didn't feel so bad about Matt's role in her plan. She trusted Damon, which is something she never would've imagined happening, and if Matt didn't trust her anymore after this, she'd just have to learn to cope with it.

"Hey, Caroline," Elena and Stefan stopped before her and Matt, the couple smiling happily, a facade that Caroline saw straight through immediately. Elijah warned her before she left that Stefan knew about Damon, so it wasn't hard to see the hardness in the older man's eyes as he held onto Elena's waist protectively.

"Hey, guys." She sighs, then glances to Matt at her side. "Hey, will you go get me a fresh drink? This lemonade's too sour."

Matt takes her cup and nods, and she waits for him to walk away before she turns back to Stefan and Elena, whose friendly smiles have fallen in place for stressed frowns. "What's wrong?"

"Have you talked to Damon lately?" Stefan immediately goes in, and Caroline resists the urge to laugh.

She feigns innocence for just a moment longer and shrugs, flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder. "Yeah, I talked to him yesterday, why?"

"He's dangerous," Stefan shakes his head, and Elena steps towards her, a look of sympathy on her face.

"Caroline, Damon's been working with Klaus this whole time,"

Her old friend's voice has lowered to a whisper, and Caroline has to physically restrain herself from snapping at Elena's throat. "Are you kidding me?"

Elena shakes her head gravely.

"That's so messed up that he could do that to you," Caroline shakes her head, and reaches out, laying a comforting hand on Elena's arm. "I'm sorry, Elena. I just can't believe he's been against you this whole time."

Stefan nods in agreement with her words, and wraps his arm around Elena again. "Elena's got to give this acceptance speech, but we'll talk to you later, alright? And if you run into Damon, just turn the other way. We don't know what he's capable of right now."

Caroline nods and lets them go right as Matt comes back with her drink. She smiles and takes it from him, letting him place a hand on her lower back and guide her through the crowd.

She hovers in the doorway next to Stefan, Matt lingering a few feet away as Elena goes to accept the award on her mother's behalf. For a fleeting moment, Caroline misses Elena's parents because they'd never allow her to act like she did nowadays, but she doesn't miss her life before everything happened. If she hadn't become a vampire, she'd be stuck trying to be better than everyone else, and end up miserable.

Her eyes dart upwards to the staircase above and she shares a nod with Isobel, who shoves John's desiccating body over the edge of the railing, causing a commotion in the middle of Elena's speech.

Caroline quickly turns away from the body, her eyes darting to where Katherine has already appeared in front of Elena, clapping a hand over her mouth to silence her possible cry for help.

Katherine disappears with Elena briefly and Stefan comes back into the room, his eyes full of worry.

"Elena!" His eyes land on Caroline. "Have you seen Elena? I don't want her to see this."

"No, I haven't," Caroline shook her head, turning around to frantically look for the doppelgänger. She let out a silent sigh of relief when Katherine returned, sporting Elena's purple dress.

She held the phone up to her ear, dialing Damon's number already.

"Elena, you okay?" Stefan narrowed his eyes at his girlfriend briefly, and Caroline watched nervously, letting out a mental sigh of relief when he relaxed.

Caroline shook her head, gesturing to her phone. "I'm calling Damon, I guarantee he had something to do with this."

Stefan gestures for Caroline to follow after them as he guides Elena towards the door. "Let's get out of here,"

Caroline flanks Stefan's side with Katherine on the other, sandwiching him between them as they walked towards Elena's car.

Caroline feigns anger when she gets Damon's voicemail. "Damon, pick up the phone. Against us or not, the whole council could find out about you if you don't cooperate."

The trio quickly approaches Elena's car, and Stefan eyes the brunette beside him angrily, shoving her onto the back of the car. Katherine grunts as she hits the car, immediately spinning around to meet Stefan's glare.

"Where the hell is she? Huh?" Stefan grunts out, his protectiveness seeping in his tone.

Caroline looks around them briefly, then grabs Stefan's coat and yanks him off of Katherine, spinning him around to look at her. She takes his moment of shock to her advantage and rips the syringe out of her pocket, stabbing it into his side and plunging the vervain into his system.

His eyes widen and he lets out a groan of pain, looking down at Caroline with betrayal shining in his eyes. He shakes his head at her as the vervain flows through his system, the clear question of why obvious.

She sighs, her sympathetic facade disappearing. "I won't let you ruin this for me, Stefan. Not again."

She pockets the empty syringe and lets go of him, and Katherine shoves his body into the trees lining the Lockwood property. She gestures for Caroline to get into the car, and with one last fleeting look, the two girls drive off with a rush of adrenaline coursing through their veins.

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"Does he have the moonstone?"

"Yes, Nik. He's got the moonstone, and we've got a secure location on the doppelgänger."

Klaus chuckles amusedly. "As it turns out, Isobel ended up being useful after all,"

His brother sighs through the speaker. "You certainly took that to your advantage,"

"Please don't start your good-guy-bad-guy speech, Elijah, I'm frightfully low on tolerance at the moment." Klaus rolls his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation as his siblings gathered their things around him.

"What do you want me to do with Isobel, then?"

"I don't care, get rid of her. She's a liability now." Klaus shrugs carelessly, gesturing to a compelled human to grab his bags. "Oh, and one last thing, brother; tell Damon that he's expected for dinner the moment I'm in my own body again."

"I'll pass the message on."

The line ends and Klaus pockets his phone with a big, bone-chilling grin that has his siblings stopping to stare inquisitively. "Let's get it on with, then. We've got a curse to break."

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author's note; i have been. so busy these past 2 months and it's literally not slowing down so i'm trying to do as much writing as possible in between things irl

edited and published; 9.19.22.

- liz