The guilt is new, or at least guilt like this is. He never felt that bad his father was dead (okay, so maybe he feels guilty about that) and there's no way he could have saved Mason. He's felt guilty about Jules though. She died in the sacrifice instead of him. While her intentions weren't always great she had tried to help him. And then she died in his place. At Klaus' hands.

It always comes back to Klaus, doesn't it?

But this. This was because of his actions. He tried to do something good, something right for once in his fucking life (he used to only care about himself, now he'd die to just get all those other lives back) and it just blew up in his face.

Tyler tightens when Jeremy mentions Chris. He can't help it. It was one of the first times he realized how his priorities didn't matter to the rest of the Mystic Falls supernatural bunch. Even Caroline hadn't stopped to think about it being his friend she was trading a date for. Jeremy himself had been the one to chop his friend's head off.

He remembers Klaus' words that day. Your existence is to serve me, to please me. No one deserves that. Chris deserved better. So did Kim and all the others. And maybe Jeremy's right, he got them that freedom, if nothing else. But it doesn't feel like enough.

"They just wanted to leave, not take on Klaus." That had been his idea. If they took on Klaus, if they stuffed into the ground in concrete then everyone could be free with no risk or consequence. It had seemed like such a good idea, at the time.

He takes another long swig of beer at Jeremy's words, nodding a little. "I just did what's right. No one should be forced to kill, be forced to do anything. Sire bond, hunter's mark, compulsion, it's all the same bullshit."

And they all deserve better than that. They deserve choices.