CHAPTER SIXTEEN
×a doubtful ally×

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AFTER A VERY LONG SHOWER THE NEXT MORNING, Cassandra walks out of Damon's room only to see Katherine and Elena both standing with the Salvatore brothers. She just got a call from Klaus and now she had to deal with Katherine again. But of course she was let out of the tomb whenever Elijah died. The compulsion wore off. If that was Cassandra, she would've taken the opportunity to run. Far far away from where Klaus was planning to go. "Why are you still here?" She asks with a groan as she gives the woman a slight look of disgust. Making her way over to Damon, she stands next to him as she pours herself a glass of alcohol.

"I want to help." Katherine says like it's the most obvious thing in the world earning a laugh from Cassandra. There was no way that she was sticking around just to help them, not with the knowledge that Klaus may show up at anytime.

"Katherine Pierce doesn't help." She scoffs as she crosses her arms against her chest. The brunette was slightly offended that the girl didn't trust her anymore but she didn't let it show.

"Dont be so hostile." Katherine tells her with a pout, running a finger up her arm. Cassandra only glares at the woman before speeding her against a wall, her hand clasped around the girls throat. Katherine chokes a little bit but a sly smirk makes its way onto her face as she lets her eyes roam over the girl. They were so close they could feel each other's breath.

"Cassandra." Stefan warns because as much as they all wanted her dead, she could be used as leverage against Klaus. Cassandra reluctantly lets the girl go, letting her breathe as Katherine gulps slightly.

"I forgot what a bad temper you had." Katherine teases with a smirk as she looks the girl up and down once. Cassandra only moves towards her again but Damon wraps an arm around her in attempt to stop her. Luckily, Cassandra stopped on her own, giving Damon a side glance before backing off.

"What is she doing here?" Elena asks after a moment, not wanting Katherine anywhere near her after everything she's tried to pull the last few weeks.

"When we killed Elijah it broke the compulsion and freed the little bitch from the tomb." Damon states with an eye roll as he gestures to the vampire who was only smirking at them. Cassandra wanted so badly to just wipe that smug look off of her face.

"How is that possible?" Stefan asks with a slight groan as he hated the woman being here as much as everyone else. Cassandra internally slapped herself for not remembering that killing an original undoes all compulsion but how was she supposed to remember things from hundreds of years ago.

"He's an original, they have all sorts of special skills." Damon tells him with a sigh as he wanted to be rid of this problem but the only way to do that was to kill Klaus but then they had to do the ritual to do that.

"I don't want you here. Get her out of here." Elena pleads Stefan and Damon but as much as they wanted her out, she was still stronger then them. They would need Cassandra to do it.

"You need me Elena, you all do." Katherine says snarkly as she runs her tongue over her bottom lip. Cassandra snorts making the brunette snap her head towards the girl.

"Like hell." Cassandra grumbles as she glares daggers at the girl. She didn't need Katherine to survive, the woman is lucky that she didn't have her heart torn out yet.

"We all want the same thing. Klaus dead. And here you all are running around like chickens with their heads cut off." Katherine points out with a deadpan expression on her face. Damon only rolls his eyes for a moment as he glances over at Cassandra who was acting like her nails were the most interesting thing in the world.

"I dont need your help, and I don't want it." Elena states as she shakes her head, crossing her arms against her chest. Cassandra tried not to laugh at Elena trying to act tough in front of Katherine. It was so easy to see through the facade.

"Then that's incredibly stupid of you." Katherine tells her doppleganger who only glares back at her. "Do you know where Klaus is? When he's coming, what he looks like?" She asks with a raised eyebrow as her eyes flicker between the group. Damon only smirks as he shrugs his shoulders before gesturing over to Cassandra who was silently wishing for this conversation to be over.

"We have Cassie for that. We don't need you." Damon tells her as he watches Katherine deflate for a moment before regaining her posture.

"That is true. But when it comes down to actually killing him, I am more reliable." She admits as she lets her eyes move over to Cassandra who clenches her fists a little bit. After a moment of silence, Katherine just sighs with a roll of her eyes. "Fine, I'll just go down to the grill and have some lunch. Maybe Aunt Jenna's free for a bite." Katherine taunts with a smirk making Elena turn red in anger as she didn't want Jenna to get pulled into this mess anymore.

"She's right. I wont be able to go through with it."  Cassandra admits as she glances down at the ground, feeling useless that she would never be able to kill any original. No matter how much she hated them, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

"Young love. Such a weakness." Katherine says with a dramatic sigh, giggling a little. Cassandra sneers before smashing her into the wall again but this time, her hand goes straight into her chest, gripping around her heart. Katherine gasps, her eyes going wide as she stares right back at Cassandra who was giving her a deadly expression.

"I can kill you in a heartbeat, Kat." Cassandra tells her as she leans in close to her ear. Katherine was holding her breath the whole time, afraid if she moved even an inch she would dead. "Don't get on my bad side." She snaps before removing her hand from Katherine's chest earning a gasp from the girl. The Salvatore's slightly smirk at the fact that Katherine was scared of someone, that meant she couldn't knowingly betray without Cassandra killing her. The raven haired girl only gives one last glare to the girl before walking out of the room, leaving eyes to trail behind her.

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CASSANDRA WALKS INTO THE PARLOR, SEEING DAMON AND STEFAN IN A HUSHED CONVERSATION WHICH MAKES HER EYEBROWS FURROW. Making her way over to them, she is able to hear the last of what they were saying. "We just need to find it." Damon tells his brother making Cassandra look at them with curiousity. What did they need to find? They already had everything really for the sacrifice.

"Find what?" She pipes up, the two brothers glancing over at her as she stops in front of them. Stefan glances at Damon for a second before his eyes move back to Cassandra curiously.

"Part of me thought when I woke up you'd be gone." Damon tells her, surprised to still see her walking around in their house.

"Trust me, I did too." Cassandra admits as she sighs, running a hand through her hair. Stefan gives her a sincere expression full of remorse, he felt bad for the girl since she was staying even though they knew the inevitable was going to happen where Klaus shows up.

"What did Klaus say?" Damon asks her curiously, but not wanting to push her in to talking about it if she didn't want to. It's traumatic enough that he knows where she is.

"That we're dumb to try and stop him." She starts with a frown on her face, fiddling with her fingers a little bit. "That I should know first hand what happens to people who cross him. That I should be careful putting all my trust in Elijah who I'm cozying up to." She finishes earning curious expressions from both brothers. So Klaus wasn't in the know as much as they thought if he thought that Elijah was still in the picture.

"He doesn't know Elijah's dead." Damon says knowingly as he nods his head. At least that was a slight advantage they had. Klaus still thought that Elijah was on their side.

"How would he?" Cassandra asks him, sighing a little bit as she heard a slight amount of pain in Klaus's voice when he mentioned he knew of her and Elijah. "He still thinks Elijah and I are seeing each other." She elaborated as she runs a hand through her hair. "He wanted to meet." She suddenly says, earning the attention of both brothers as they look towards her quickly.

"Klaus wants to meet with you? Where?" Stefan asks quickly as he steps towards her, his arms crossed against his chest. Cassandra only sighs as she leans against the couch, shrugging her shoulders.

"I'm not going. It's a death trap." She tells them as she shakes her head. She wasn't putting her life on the line to see if Klaus was actually wanting to kill her or forgive her.

"We won't ask you to." Damon says with a small smile causing her to look at him thankfully, pulling him in for a quick hug. Unfortunately, Katherine walked in right at that moment, her eyebrows furrowing at the pair.

"What's happening here?" She asks curiously as Cassandra pulls away from Damon with a scowl on her face, of course the bitch was still here.

"I've taken your spot being her best friend." Damon says with a smirk on his face, watching Katherine's face drop as she glances between them.

"Really? You chose him over me?" Katherine scoffs as she rolls her eyes a little. There was no way a Salvatore was replacing her. Not after the past five hundred years they've been together.

"At least there's slightly less chance he'll double cross me." Cassandra snaps at her, eyeing her for a moment. Katherine looked hurt at her words, a frown etching onto her face. It was the first time the Salvatore's have seen her show actual emotion towards someone.

"I wont. You know I won't, Cass." Katherine tries to assure the girl but Cassandra only backs up a little, shaking her head. She couldn't trust the woman who would ultimately sacrifice everyone to save herself.

"I can't trust you anymore." Those were the words that broke Katherine, her facade fading as she was trying desperately not to fall apart in front of Stefan and Damon. After all they have been through, Katherine didn't want to believe their story was ending this way. "It's not personal Kat, it's survival." Cassandra states as she tries not to look at Katherine who by now has turned to anger as a way to cover up her real emotion.

"So you're shacking up with these two? Like they are much more trustworthy." Katherine hisses, suddenly absolutely filled with rage at the thought of losing her best friend to the two people who were the only reason she was back in Mystic Falls in the first place.

"They want to keep Elena safe. At least they won't run at the mere sight of Klaus." Cassandra says with a scoff before leaving the room to head upstairs. Damon chuckles to himself before following the girl upstairs. Stefan only sighs, glaring at Katherine a little longer before going to grab his coat.

The brunette rolls her eyes a little, running a hand through her hair becoming bored out of her mind. Suddenly there was a thud upstairs, a couple things smashing on the ground. Her eyebrows furrow as she glances over at Stefan who didn't seem too affected by the sounds. It took her a couple seconds to realize what was happening when a sudden moan erupts from the room, vampire hearing sucked sometimes.

"Wait are they.." She trails off as she sees Stefan nod his head, really trying not to tune into his brothers intimate acts. But it wasn't hard to hear the bed squeaking as the headboard smashed against the wall, the profanities coming from their mouths as they moved against each other. "Wow, she really is shacking up with Damon." Katherine smirks to herself as Stefan only grimaces, walking towards the door. It's bad enough he had to hear it at night, he did not want to hear it now.

"I'm gonna head out, see if I can find anything.. anywhere else from here." He says with a disgusted expression, hearing Cassandra say something along the lines of 'fuck me harder Damon'. Katherine laughs at the man as he speeds out of the house. She didn't mind the noise as she could tune it out anyways so she sat on the couch. Katherine decided to start reading the journals as a way to keep herself busy until they were done.

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AFTER THE FUN THAT WENT ON UPSTAIRS, Cassandra walks down the stairs, fixing her shirt as she does. A sigh leaving her lips as she tries to get her hair to look relatively normal because right now it was a complete mess. She was in a good mood until her eyes landed on Katherine who was lounging on the couch giving her a smug look. Cassandra only scoffs as she rolls her eyes, walking into the room to pour herself a glass of bourbon.

"Seems like you had your fun." Katherine says as she continues to stare at the girl as she has her back to her. Cassandra licks her bottom lip a little bit, not wanting to feed Katherine's dying need to know every little thing about her life.

"Damon passes the time." She admits with a shrug as she avoids the girls stare. Katherine raises her eyebrows at the woman, not understanding what had even happened between Elijah and Cassandra since they apparently weren't together anymore. Not that she had any knowledge being locked in the tomb and all.

"It didn't take you long to move on from Elijah." Katherine tells her making Cassandra glare at the girl. The brunette sighs a little bit, knowing she wasn't helping her case one bit. "What happened anyways?" She asks nonchalantly, not expecting the girl to actually tell her anything since apparently the raven haired vampire hated her with a passion now.

"He lied to me, like everyone else in my life." Cassandra tells her with a sigh as she sits down on the couch. Katherine sits up a little bit, anger flooding her features as her eyebrows furrow. Elijah was a noble man yet he still managed to lie to Cassandra, a woman who shouldn't have even stayed by his side? Where did he get the nerve to do something like that?

"What do you mean? What did he lie about." Katherine questions as she moved closer to the girl on the couch, debating whether or not to reach over and grab her hand. Deciding against it, she settles for a soft facial expression, hoping Cassandra would tell her more because they always shared things with each other.

Before Cassandra has a chance to say anything else, Damon walks into the room still having some sex hair. Katherine rolls her eyes as she gets up from the couch, allowing Damon to sprawl next to Cassandra. He immediately gets a book out, beginning to read it as Cassandra peers over his shoulder. Katherine glares at the pair, hating how they have gotten so close within just a few months.

"Reading. Fun." Katherine rolls her eyes before making her way out of the room, passing Stefan as she does. Cassandra's eyes widen at the same time as Damon's as they seemingly were reading the exact same thing in the book Damon was holding.

"Did you find anything?" Stefan asks them as he walks into the room. Cassandra nods her head at him as she smirks a little bit, sharing a look with Damon making Stefan look between them confused.

"Nope." Damon says as he flips the book around to his brother, pointing at a specific page. Stefan raises his eyebrows a little bit before handing it back to Damon.

"Thats to bad." Stefan says as he looks between Cassandra and Damon who both smirk at him. They were not going to let Katherine know their information, knowing very well that she could turn on them at any moment.

Cassandra gets up from her seat, going to grab her phone from the other room. It's not like she didn't want to be friends with Katherine anymore it's just that they had two different ways of survival, and it was only a matter of time before Katherine threw her under the bus too. She couldn't take the chance. She lets out a sigh, beginning to turn around when she hears a faint struggle going on somewhere. Her eyebrows furrow for a second but thinking nothing of it, she continues making her way back to the parlor.

Until she hears a deafening scream. "Cassandra!" She hears Katherine yell her name making her flood with confusion. The scream sounded desperate, even a hint of terror in it so being sensible, she makes her way down to the cellar to see what the hell was going on.

Rushing in, she notices Katherine with a stake in her stomach and the dagger in Elijah was magically lifting."Damon!" Cassandra screams, needing to get him down here as well as there was no way she could stop whoever was trying to take the dagger out while also protecting Katherine from being staked again. He comes rushing down, immediately seeing the dagger being lifted. Damon picks up a flame gun and starts to fire it over Elijah, trying to make whoever was here leave.

"What are you doing?" Stefan asks confused as he looks at the scene in front of him. It was complete chaos. Damon was burning fire over Elijah's corpse as Cassandra had just dropped a bloody piece of wood next to her and Katherine who were in a tight embrace.

"Some crazy ass psychic witch attack. Get over there and do something about it." Damon yells at his brother as he continues to barbecue whoever was trying to bring Elijah back. It takes a couple seconds for Katherine to get her breath back, her hand clenching onto Cassandra's the whole time. Once she finally feels all the pain subside, her eyes meet Cassandra's.

"Thanks." Katherine says to Cassandra with a genuine expression on her face, a soft smile creeping up. The raven haired girl stares at her for a moment, not knowing whether or not to return it as they weren't on the best terms. But she did. And that made Katherine's eyes light up. Because as much as the two girls could despise each other at times, they went through hell together and they knew each other better than anyone else. They're very close, they're practically the same person so no matter what, they would always find their way back to each other, making the other whole again.

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this chapter was a little shorter than others but I'll try to update again soon! plusssss guess who is in next chapter ;) !!! soooo excited to finally be here. anyways comment your thoughts on this chapter! fave/follow/check out my other stories if you want to