CHAPTER NINE | HOMECOMING

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THE GROUP WERE GOING OVER THE FINAL TOUCHES TO THEIR PLAN TO LURE KLAUS BACK TO MYSTIC FALLS. Stefan's freedom from Klaus was literally riding on their plan going off without a hitch, so they needed it to be perfect. Klara was worried that it wouldn't work, given that Stefan was compelled to do whatever Klaus said, but the Salvatore assured the group that he wouldn't be the reason they failed.

"Alright. We'll say that Mikael followed Elena in here. He tried to grab her so he could use her as bait." Stefan gestured. Damon, Klara, and Elena all followed behind him as he led the group.

"And you what? Vervained him?" Elena asked with furrowed brows once Stefan turned around to face her.

"Absolutely not. We vervained him." The blonde vampire corrected while she shook her head. "Mikael is an Original, guys. We need to make it believable, or Klaus won't buy it."

"Okay, fine. We vervained him and in the process discovered that he had a dagger." Stefan rolled his eyes at the blonde and immediately corrected himself.

Elena nodded in Stefan's direction. "Which he planned to use on Rebekah. But instead—"

"We drove it through his heart." Stefan finished, a smirk on his lips as he finally went over his plan for the last time.

"Okay, right. I've just got one question." Klara looked around the room, and her eyes fell finally on Stefan. "What happened when he asks to see Mikael's body?"

"Good point." Damon let his eyes fall on his younger brother. "You, my brother, have been compelled to do what Klaus says. So if the idea is to lure him back here and kill him, the last thing we need is you getting tripped up and tongue-tied."

"Well, don't look at me." The humanity-free Salvatore shrugged with a faint smile on his lips. "I'm just in charge of getting him back here."

"Okay. This isn't going to work." Klara spoke up once again. She had spent all summer with Klaus, and she knew how thorough he was. "Klaus is paranoid. He'll want to see Mikael's body otherwise he won't believe he's dead."

"Then I shall be dead." Mikael stepped into the room and caused all eyes to move to him as he did so. He held a small vial of White Ash and what appeared to be a dagger in a cloth.

"What if he wants to see you in person?" Elena asked the man as she and Stefan walked over to him while he began to prepare the dagger.

"Well, it means our plan is working. Klaus will absolutely want to see my body. You lure him here, and I will kill him."

"With what? Those daggers won't work on him." Stefan raised an eyebrow. His eyes were fixed on the dagger that he remembered seeing inside Rebekah. 

"Well, I'm in possession of a stake fashioned from the wood of the ancient White Oak tree. The one that left these ashes when it burned." Mikael offered a glimpse of the vial which contained the White Oak ashes.

"A stake?" Klara asked, pointedly. "And, where exactly is that?"

"Not here," Mikael stated bluntly and dripped the end of the dagger into the ashes. "Knowing it's location is my insurance policy."

"Against what?"

"Against you leaving this in my heart. You see, a vampire can't dagger an Original without dying." Mikael lifted the dagger from the White Oak ash and placed it into Elena's shaky palms. "So, it falls to you."

Elena's eyes widened incredulously. "You want me to actually dagger you?" She spoke hesitantly as if it were some sort of trick. 

"Klaus will leave nothing to chance—especially when it comes to trust."

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Klara, Damon, and Elena were all in Damon's bedroom preparing weapons that they thought they made need in case something went wrong. Klara laid on Damon's bed, while Damon and Elena prepared the weapons. 

"We can't trust Rebekah not to turn on us." Elena finally stated out of the silence, which caused Klara to look over at the brunette.

"She's got a point." Klara nodded in agreement with Elena.

"Oh really, cause these Original vampires are usually so reliable." Damon rolled his eyes almost as if he already knew that trusting Rebekah was a false starter.

"Bonnie was right. Rebekah may be mad at Klaus now but he is her brother."

"Her lying, mama-killing, dagger-happy brother." Damon chuckled to himself and then he turned to Elena. "Wolfsbane is ready."

Elena let yet another defeated sigh escape her lips. "There are too many things that can go wrong with this plan. Too many people that can make it go wrong."

"Well, it's funny you should say that, actually. Because Damon and I have come up with our own plan, should this one go South." Klara joined the pair in the bathroom and glanced over Elena's shoulder at the wolfsbane grenades.

"Really? What is it?" Elena asked with wide eyes.

"Well, if we told you, then it wouldn't be a secret." Damon let his eyes fall on the doppelganger, who immediately narrowed her gaze at him and then turned to the blonde, who shrugged.

A soon as they had finished their conversation, Stefan had stepped into Damon's bedroom and leaned around into the bathroom. "I need to borrow a tie."

"You have your own ties." Damon rolled his eyes and didn't even bother to look up from his current task.

"Hm, I'm one-hundred and sixty-two years old and I'm going to a Homecoming Dance. I need better ties."

"Remind me again why you're even coming?" Klara looked back at her best friend with a tilted head and a look in her eyes. "It's not like you're squarely on team-us, is it?"

"I'm compelled to protect Elena." Stefan looked between both females and then his eyes fell on Elena. "And if I look at your track record at high school dances, it's pretty tragic. My luck you'll go ahead and get yourself murdered by the Homecoming Queen. And, Klara will just get herself murdered... again." His eyes then fell on the wolfsbane grenades that were on the bathroom counter. "Ah, please tell me that you have a better plan than wolfsbane grenades?"

Damon carefully finished yet another grenade and screwed the lid onto it. "Never you mind, brother. The less you know, the better."

"My freedom from Klaus rests entirely upon you three executing your plan perfectly. So, excuse me if I'm a bit cynical." The Salvatore rolled his eyes once he had grabbed a tie from Damon's closet.

"You're the one compelled to be Klaus's little bitch, not us. Remember that." Klara called out to Stefan again.

"Yeah. You're the one that we should be worried about." Elena pointed out. "If Klaus asks you one wrong question, this whole thing falls apart."

"You do have reason to worry, but if I look back at our history of epic plan failures, it's usually because one of us let our humanity get in the way." Stefan's eyes shifted between Damon, Klara, and then Elena. "So if I'm taking odds on how this thing goes down, it's certainly not gonna be me who screws it up. I'll see you at Homecoming. I can't wait." 

"God. Humanity-free-Stefan blows." Klara rolled her eyes and then left Damon's room. She knew that she had to get ready for the night ahead of them, and she went to look her best. She turned into her room and began looking through her closet at potential dresses.

"Go with the white one." Stefan's voice spoke from behind her, which caused the blonde to immediately roll her eyes when she realized he was sitting on her bed. 

Klara rolled her eyes and turned around to face the Salvatore that was sat on the edge of her bed with a suit on. "What do you want, Stefan?"

"What? Am I not allowed to help my best friend prepare for a dance?" He sighed out slightly. "You always loved when I helped you prepare."

"I don't know if this got lost in translation, but until you flip your humanity back on, we're not friends..." The blonde trailed off slowly. It felt strange to her—looking him in the eyes and saying that they weren't friends. She knew she was lying to herself, though. 

"I saved your life yesterday." Stefan pointed out with furrowed brows. "Doesn't that count for anything?"

Klara nodded. "You also killed the guy I was making out with, so—"

"—Because he was a dick."

"Doesn't mean you can kill him! I was having fun, Stefan. You know, that thing I enjoy—or used to enjoy before my life got totally screwed by all of this crap." Klara sighed out finally. As she ranted on, Stefan looked almost guilty. "Just—fight for your humanity back... please."

Stefan stared at Klara for a moment. So many things didn't make sense to him. He didn't understand why every time he looked into the girl's eyes, he felt okay. He hadn't felt okay in a very long time, but he did with her. He shook his head and gave her a sadistic smirk. "See you at the dance."

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In some strange turn of events, the Homecoming party had been moved to the Lockwood Mansion after a water pipe burst at the High School. As soon as Klara walked in, she could hear Klaus's voice on a microphone outside of the house, which caused her to roll her eyes. She assumed that whatever the reason was for the party being at Tyler's home, it obviously had something to do with Klaus.

The blonde walked through the house and came face-to-face with Katherine— who was in fact posing as Elena for the night so that the doppelganger was nowhere near any potential disasters. 

The doppelganger gasped admirably as her eyes laid on Klara's white dress, the one that Stefan had picked out for her. "Hey, Klara. Pretty dress!" 

"Wow. You've really got this whole Elena-act down to a fine art, haven't you?" Klara scoffed as she stood in front of the Pierce vampire. When she first met Katherine, she was afraid of her. But now, Katherine no threat to her compared to Klaus.

"What're you talking about?" Katherine tried her best to give her best Elena impression, and to someone who didn't know the full plan, it would've worked. "I'm Elena."

"Give it up already." The blonde rolled her eyes. "Damon told me everything, okay?"

"Damon doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut." Katherine rolled her eyes but stiffened up the second that she saw Klaus head toward them.

"Klara, hello, sweetheart. Oh, I haven't seen you since I compelled your friend." Klaus smirked toward the girl, who he knew he made feel uncomfortable. "I hope you don't think me a monster for doing so. I just wanted to show him who he really is."

"I thought you were a monster before you compelled him." Klara spat back toward Klaus. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd rather not be anywhere near you."

Klara walked away from Klaus, though she tried her best to keep her heartbeat steady. She knew Klaus would sense something if she looked suspicious. As she walked back inside the house, she saw Damon push Tyler into the study of his house and the blonde was quick to follow after them.

"As the host, you should know those Hybrid's don't make the best first impression," Damon spoke toward Tyler, just as Klara entered the room and closed the door behind her. "Perfect timing, Goldie-Locks."

"Whatever move you're making, Klaus is going to be ready for you." Tyler slowly backed away from the vampires. "He'll kill anyone at this party if he has to!"

"All we care about is getting rid of Klaus!" Klara spat and Damon lunged at Tyler. He grabbed the wolf by the throat, by Tyler fought against Damon's grip. He punched Damon until Klara threw Tyler against the wall. The Salvatore shook his head and pulled a stake from his pocket. "Damon, no!"

Before Damon could stake him, he and Tyler both dropped to their knees. They clutched their heads in pain and Klara couldn't figure out why, until she turned to the door to see Bonnie. She was performing a spell.

Once Tyler fell unconscious, she released Damon from the spell. He exhaled deeply and narrowed his eyes toward the witch. "What the hell is wrong with you? You're not supposed to witchy-migraine me!"

"And you weren't supposed to try and stake Tyler," Klara yelled back in defense of the Bennett witch. "So, shut up."

"He tried to bite me." Damon shrugged before he bent down to the floor and picked up the stake.

"What is that? Oh, my God. Is that the—" Before Bonnie said a word, both Damon and Klara lifted their fingers up to their mouth in an attempt to get her to be quiet. "Why do you have it?"

"Why'd you think?" Klara raised an eyebrow toward Bonnie.

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Damon and Klara listened from one of the back rooms. They were biding their time for when they had to attack. Mikael had stabbed—who he thought was Elena— in the chest in a bid to thwart his son. Mikael laughed once he saw the look of horror on Klaus's face as he took away the blood source for creating Hybrids and that was when Klara and Damon chose to strike.

The two vampires rushed up behind Klaus. Klara tried to hold him steady, while Damon plunged the White Oak stake into Klaus himself. And, as soon as they did that, Katherine emerged from the ground and tossed a vervain grenade out toward the Hybrids. 

Klara and Damon were both thrown across the room by an unknown force and the stake was removed from Klaus just before it pierced his heart. When the blonde vampire opened her eyes, she saw that it was Stefan who held them both down against the ground. "What're you doing, Stefan?!"

Klaus got back up to his feet. He grabbed the stake from the floor and lunged at Mikael. The two fell on the ground just outside the house as Klaus stabbed the White Oak stake straight through his father's heart. Once there was nothing left of Mikael but a pile of ash, the Hybrid headed back into the Lockwood mansion.

"What the hell did you do?!" Damon grunted out from Stefan's grip.

"He's earned his freedom," Klaus answered simply as Stefan moved in front of him while Klaus began to compel him. "Thank you, my friend. You no longer have to do as I say. You're free." As he turned around, Klara and Damon both disappeared out of the house. 

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