Kaspar Weitz

“Why? Who were you to make those decisions? At the very least someone could have told me she was safe. Klaus killed everyone I loved. Do you know what it would have meant for me to know that my daughter was safe?!” Katherine shouted. 

“It was never my intention to deprive you or Nikolai of that.” He spoke with a strong shake of his head. “She was a child of that a Petrova Doppelgänger and a Traveler, so, you must understand she was safer away from the life that she was torn.” He had made a judgement he felt only right given the history. “There was an opportunity for this. Keeping the truth from you both was only ever to ensure her safety, that she survived. Whatever damage this has done to you, is on me, but I was also not blinded by an affection to consider what may become of your life. I could not. At most I was a friend who wished nothing but good for you.”

🃏 ― Teeth bared, Niko looked moments from legitimately snarling. “I know only what I have been told.” Now, he was trying to play smart, but in a way he deemed appropriate. Any information withheld from him was beyond his control. His cards, Kaspar’s own words, he could only react to the information given and at this point, it was not much. “You are no friend,” was his rebuttal, using the title Kas claimed not moments earlier. “I had one wrong to right.” He spoke with his hand, raising a finger. “One purpose. You denied me that. What word would you use to describe this?” That attention turned to pure bewilderment at the confession. The mental gymnastics alone was what graced Kas with enough time to continue, and Niko saw through what he was really saying. He cried out in frustration, turning away. It was all for nothing. Not even the brother he condemned made it out of this with their life… except for one. “She lived,” he breathed. “My daughter. He did not find her.” He knew this because he met Elena. The Petrov line had not been broken.

“Za boga, Nikolai!  He spoke in frustration not able to counter this any further. Kas had spent much of his life protecting, and caring for someone, who could only now see him as a traitor. “That is the thing that surprises you? That she survived when the rest of us not?” He could not fault anyone in thinking as such, the doubt of what if, but for his friend to think so lowly that something good could be a possible outcome. It stung in a thousand ways that words could not tell. That his friend would not trust in him. Still. “I told you she was safe but you did not believe me.”  It was not question but a statement. Something Nikolai had come to know, but no more than that. It was at best, the closet to the truth at the time.  “For what other reason would I have lied to you? Kept the truth from you? If not to keep her safe? Do you not see that every sacrifice I made was for that purpose? To keep your daughter alive.”

🃏 ― “Stop?  It does not stop. It is endless.” Niko knew nothing but suffering for the choice he made. He had died trying to right it, and the one person he confided in, the only man he could trust. Now, he was just begging for a mercy Nikolai did not believe himself capable of giving. How, he asked himself. When he is accused of knowing anything, dark eyes widen in disbelief. “I know nothing,” he began, sounding strained like not enough air was getting to his lungs. Nothing but what his friend was capable of. He speaks her name and he wants to wring Kaspar’s neck, but he shuttered at the words ― his grip wavering as he stood and listened. This was something he didn’t believe he would ever have: an explanation. “You believe that.” Whereas Niko knew his brother well enough to take his past action at face value… that his life was merely made an example of Kaspar’s superior intellect. He did not consider the implications. Any other intention, how could he even consider, when all he felt was the pain?  His palm flattened against his collar. Applying pressure against the bone of his clavicle. “I confronted Klaus.” He tightened his jaw. “You did not make that choice for me.” Part pride, part absolution. It was never part of the plan.. but when their paths crossed, fleeing was the last thing on his mind.

“You know only what you think.” Kas was not trying to play smart but he was beyond any explanation that Niko would believe. “You think that I? I am a traitor to you?” Kas would fully commit to it, he’d be what Niko saw him to be, knowing it would only benefit the truth. “The choice I made was to lead Niklaus to you.” Even were it indirectly, what was any different to this than Kas had already done? If Niko could not believe him to be a friend, but a traitor then why could he not this? Why would this be so difficult to believe than anything else he had said before now? “I had come to warn you..” Kas had been foolish to do so knowing had he not, had he turned in another direction, Niko may have had a chance even were it slim. “I would have told you to run but he had me killed. By then It was too late. I could do nothing.”

🃏 ― Speaking of devils. The demon lept out, grabbed Kas by his shirt collar. “Not a night’s rest lost for you, predatel,” the words came out hard, shaken and enraged. Holding him like that, looking into his eyes.. it was torture. It was a kind of pain that Niko hadn’t the time to process because time was not on his side back then. His smirk is brief, the familiar jab bringing its own kind of annoyance. “Those cards that uncovered your true nature?  You are no god, Kaspar, no matter how many games you play.” Even displaced and alive again, utterly alone, what happened between them was a wound he could only sit with. And now?  “Now what?!” A demand for answers that shot out of him as he shook that holding hand. They were here ― the confrontation come to fruition, and Niko had no clue why any of it mattered.

“Prekrati! Molja!” He exclaimed as Niko grabbed hold onto his collar. Being claimed as a traitor was something Kas would not hear. He did not want to continue this fight. “Stop this! Stop this madness!” Kas said as he attempted to deescalate what may only become more volatile if they were to continue. “Why must it always come to this? When you know of the truth. You know that I am, have always been your friend.  What more must I say?” It almost seemed impossible to convince, but, anyone with willingness for mercy had some reasoning, Kas could only continue to try reach that. “Am I wrong to have only wanted to protect you? To protect Katerina? To protect your daughter? It was your family and Katerina’s who cast her out not I! I have not been your enemy only your ally. As much as you can not see, I lived knowing the day you discovered the truth, it would lead only to more suffering. I only ever wanted the good that you could not see, the good that you could have had...” For an ending that was not the one that they had faced. An ending which was not held without regret. “And in that I failed you because maybe it is the truth.” Kas must give into the fear of knowing his own actions may have lead Niko to his death. That he, stood here now, looking at his friend, knowing he was more terrible that he could have ever thought someone. “Maybe despite what I believe, I instead walked you into the path of slaughter. That on warning you, I only brought death to your doorstep. That I was the one to lead to your destruction and what was not good for you, was only I.” 

🃏 ― “A mere mercy,” he spat in Bulgarian. But even that venom felt lacking in its potency. The traveler looked almost weary, standing in front of the man who had willingly wrought so much of his suffering.. while stood beside him, bearing its witness. Because now here he was, the only other person Niko could blame for all his failings, and what did matter?  They were trapped here, in purgatory, together. A fate he assumed only he had returned to, while Kas has spent every day since his own demise here, evading him. Well, he didn’t always believe that. “No peace?” There was a cruel nature to the way he asked. “A man as sure as you.” Believing his brother had found peace while he had not was that final nail, and he believed it up until now. 

“I made peace with who I am. Undoubtedly.” Kas knew himself to be flawed, just as anyone, yet, had no desire to pick apart and find the devil in the details. Not in himself. He had done wrongs for the right reasons. For the better good. The only one other proven to find doubt in that or anything in Kas’s own certainty was Niko. The undertone in the remark from Niko was enough for that calmness to be easily spooked. Only when this was unearthed did it make sense that he, someone so understanding of the mind, did so, not knowing his own. It was only from Niko, could he see that made him react in a way to no one else. “Tell me. What ridiculous illusion did you craft to come to that conclusion? Do you still play with those cards like a child?” 

🃏 ― It was then Nikolai knew. That underlying dread. This was Dead Man’s land, a place that was all too familiar. “Kaspar,” he called back. Oh how he had awaited the day. Endless as the afterlife felt, this reunion had all but escaped him until this moment. He was only a few steps behind him now― his brother by oath rather than blood― and when he would turn, Niko planned to clock him right in the jaw. 

Kas took a stumble at the force of the punch when he turned to greet his friend. “That I deserve, no less.” Kas nodded in agreement knowing it was not unwarranted. “It is good to see you, Nikolai.” A step back was taken with the brash comment knowing it may not be so well received. The cold shoulder was expected but not knowing where they stood made the situation a little unpredictable and Kas did not want to spark more into Niko than he already had just by standing here.

“All… All that time you knew where she was and you did nothing to let me know she was even alive? Who made the decision that he couldn’t have that? Him? Or you?” Katherine questioned, not knowing which answer would hurt more. 

“I...” Words failed him here as they did then. He could have told her but he did not. He said nothing. The utter silence was identical to the same silence he gave Niko. There was simply not an explanation or defence Kas could give. Not one that in the least was excusable. “I did.” The only thing he was able to give was full accountability. That the fault lied on nobody’s shoulders but his own. 

“I think a first-hand account would really help them understand how awful it was,” she said with a nod. “Well, from what I have researched and the journals the school has on display, the coven tracked down the final two living doppelgangers and used a spell to get rid of all traditional magic, though it was cut off with the death of one of the doppelgangers and it was only located in Mystic Falls, Virginia. It lifted the curse on Travellers, but a lot of local vampires who lived there couldn’t step foot inside the town, since it took away the magic that made them vampires and killed them. The Travellers were killed in an explosion and the spell eventually siphoned away by Kai Parker, a siphoner witch. If you want more information, there are still some people who were there at the time who can explain more,” she offered.

“Times have changed much? Witches are most vindictive.” It did make him ponder a philosophical question. "The scrutiny of witchcraft based on the vices and virtues of itself maintains the problem. You soon find that whichever side of history you find yourself on, none is equally as terrible or better than the other.” While he could not say that the times were better now than then, he could contest that witchcraft play a centre part in the chaos throughout history. “Balance of nature plays a part, in us all, you can not have good without evil.”  

“Did you just… get in my head or something?” Lizzie asked as the man spoke words that she desperately needed to hear. 

“You tell me.” He returned the question. Clearly something he had to say resonated with her and it was in that she’d find the answer.  

Katherine firmly stood her ground as she looked at him. “What are you talking about?” Hearing the name of her lost love was a pain in her heart that was still raw after all this time. 

“1498.” A year he could not forget knowing how detrimental it had been, even had it not all started there. “You returned to Bulgaria to search for someone you thought lost, the daughter whom was torn from your arms. The daughter that Nikolai too sought over the years.” He paused for a moment, trying to find the words to explain why that search had seemed in vain. “Nikolai always has - had a undying loyalty to you, from the moment you met. I’m certain he wished only to be reunited with you, to have his family whole.. but this he could not have. I thought I was protecting him and when word spread of Niklaus, I knew I could not tell him...” At the time, Kas never calculated the cost to come of the secrets he kept. “Your daughter was never lost, Katerina, only concealed. I ensured she be safe, that one day she might find you and Nikolai again.” It seemed all a loss, not knowing if anything after came from it after all. “I can not give back the time lost neither can I undo what events may have unfolded. For that I deeply regret.”

One of the downsides of the dead returning was the fact that she was getting mistaken for Katherine Pierce again, and more often than not, that wasn’t exactly a good thing. So, when a stranger called out to her using her doppelganger’s name, she was quick to correct “No, no, no… you have the wrong person…”

“My apologies.”  The confusing of doppelgängers never did get easier even with his traveler background. “Correct me if I’m wrong, again, but, I take it from your tone that you know of Katerina?” He had to ask, knowing that information to be valuable. 

“It could be a great experience for the students. Maybe we could plan some sort of week long coverage of those times and you could be a guest speaker,” she suggested, smiling brightly at the idea. “Yes, I have done my best to study the Travelers, though it’s very hard given the very nature of the coven. Have you heard of how the Travelers ultimately came to an end and for a short time stopped their curse?” she asked, since she had heard the story before. 

“Of course.” He nodded in agreement to her suggestion willing to divulge information that may not appear in history books or rather least of which he had seen himself. “I’m not certain I know anything of what happened to the coven, I was, long gone before anything of significance occurred.” 

“Right, well, that’s quite the job considering we are all many kinds of messed up.” Lizzie replied. 

“We are all flawed, Lizzie. I don’t believe a single being - alive or un-dead to be immaculate.” He didn’t differentiate. “No one person can be judge, jury, and executioner and that is not what I seek. While the circumstances of those flaws may differ here than the outside world, it doesn’t make you any less needing of clarity or for someone to find understanding.”

It wasn’t often that she was called Katerina these days, and it was even more rare to hear Bulgarian spoken to her. The voice was familiar as if from a distant dream or a long forgotten memory. Slowly she turned on her heel, walking towards the man. With realization, she titled her head. “Kaspar?…” She asked, her tone soft and full of surprise. 

"I could tell you that it is a pleasant surprise but it would be unfair to do so, knowing the friend I once were wasn’t what you may believed to be, Katerina.” He had no idea if Nikolai got the chance to tell Katherine the truth, maybe that was how it was supposed to be. “If Nikolai were standing beside us he could tell you what I could not.” 

@deadtraveler

 Finding himself trapped, but not all alone, in the distance he could see a figure, a fragment of the past. “Zdrasti? Tova si ti, Katerina?” 

@petrovasfire​

“Lizzie.” She answered, very few people had the privilege of calling her by her full name. “And you must be the new teacher, right?” 

“Lizzie it is.” He said with a warm welcoming smile. “Guidance Counselor to be precise though by chance you may catch me teaching a class in magic.”