"Let's check the basement" - Mikael was not the only Original to reappear during Homecoming.
Warnings: Character death, canon-typical violence
"There's nothing here!"
Damon paced in frustration, wondering why Bonnie's witchy dreams sent them to a tiny, nondescript house in Mappsburg of all places. It was their backup plan as Katherine struggled to wake Papa Original. Nothing seemed to be working out as the house was apparently a bust.
Whirling to face the Bennet witch he shouted, "This trip was a waste of time!"
A sigh of exasperation sounded across the room. Bonnie sat cross legged in a patch of perhaps-there's-less-dirt-here, her eyes closed as she focused. "Just calm down, Damon. I know there's something important here. Let's check the basement, whatever was in my dream was somewhere dark."
"Uh, yeah, one problem with that. There is no basement."
"Maybe that's why this place is saturated in magic. Look, let me concentrate."
Damon rolled his eyes at that piece of uselessness. Continuing to pace and prod at random junk, he waited for Bonnie to do something. Without warning, she shot to her feet and all but leapt across the room.
"Here," she said rubbing her palm against the wall. Latin fell from her lips, and the air grew heavy with magic until Damon could feel it too. Several minutes of chanting and a gust of air later, revealed runic markings on the previously blank wall.
Bonnie stepped back, rubbing at her temple. "That took more out of me than I expected. Those runes should just be paint now, but you're going to have to break down the wall."
Finally. A quick jab broke a hole in the wood, beyond which he could see a narrow flight of stairs. With little effort Damon pried away more planks and plaster until the gap grew large enough for a person to step through.
"Well, I guess "let's check the basement" was good advice after all." Together the two descended with cell phone flashes lighting the way ("I'm not wasting magic to spell us light, Damon. We don't know what's down here.")
The basement was small, matching the size of the house above. And it didn't take them long to discover a coffin in the far corner. Damon eyed it with disdain. Another Original.
"A fucking coffin, are you kidding me?!" Damon turned his glare on Bonnie, as if it were her fault (which it kinda was). " Are we really going to wake another one of these bastards?"
"I was getting these dreams for a reason. And considering it's Klaus we can't afford for our plan to be anything other than flawless. They'll still be weak so if they don't cooperate I can take them down and re-dagger them."
Conceding the point, Damon flipped the lid open peering down with some curiosity.
He scoffed, "Great another Barbie Klaus."
Grumbling some more complaints, he reached down and yanked out the dagger.
Caroline's return to the world of the living was sudden. The burning pain of the dagger piercing her heart felt as if it occurred mere moments ago. She doubted that were true, and she had little time to take advantage of this situation. From watching Kol and Rebekah wake, she knew there was a tiny window of opportunity between her consciousness returning and the receding of her dessicated appearance.
Her senses told her it was dark, stagnant, and cold wherever she was, a cellar or cave perhaps. Judging by the scents and heartbeats there was a witch and a vampire hovering over her.
It could be some of Mikael's lackeys, but if he had his way she would have never woken, unless it was to parade her before her husband in one of his sick games. So the question was, who woke her if not Mikael?
Well, she would have her answers soon.
The moment the gray, raised veins retreated she was moving. A harsh shove sent the vampire hurtling across the room, a cellar one corner of her mind confirmed. Continuing the forward momentum, she leapt from the coffin's confines and was on the witch before the girl could even stumble back.
"Sorry," she apologized half-heartedly as she pinched a nerve, dropping the witch where she stood with a harsh thud.
In that time, the other vampire finally got his bearings and lunged at her with a snarl.
Caroline scoffed, easily catching him by the throat. She lifted him one-handed clenching her fist until she heard something crack.
"Young vampires, so arrogant." Breathing in, her nostrils burned from the slight aroma of vervain. Now, that was unusual. As she pondered the oddity that such a young vampire apparently encountered her family, he took the chance to try to claw his way out of her grip.
"Do not even try," she muttered, carelessly reaching out with her other hand to break one arm and then the other. His shouts were garbled from the grip she still had on his throat.
Thinking out loud she spoke, "Now I cannot compel you since you seem to be on vervain, and I do not care for torture. Too much mess. I have little time to spare anyway, so we will be doing this the expedient way."
The vampire tried to speak, but a flick of her wrist broke his neck. Dropping him, she returned her attention to the witch, still unconscious, but likely to wake soon.
"A Bennett?" Caroline whispered as she rolled the witch to face her. "That changes things some…"
Biting into her wrist with a wet crunch, Caroline pulled the witch into her arms, placing the wound against the girl's lips. Adjusting her grip, she massaged their throat until several mouthfuls of blood were swallowed. Satisfied, she pulled her healing wrist away and shifted again. With one hand she locked the witch's arms behind her back and positioned the other to grip her chin. The threat would be clear.
The girl jolted awake with a gasp, stilling a split second later as she processed her position.
"I took the liberty of feeding you some of my blood. So we can do this the easy way, where you do as I wish and you and your vampire friend walk away alive. Or, you can resist, and I snap your neck. Your choice."
Ragged breath fanned across the hand she gripped the girl's chin with, but the witch remained otherwise silent. Several tense moments passed, and then Caroline's head exploded into agony. The witch wriggled in her arms managing to duck away when Caroline jolted.
Stupid, Caroline thought. In a blur, her hand flashed forward snapping the witch's neck, ending the pain with the witch's life.
"Wrong choice," she whispered. A hint of regret filled her gut as she looked at the girl crumpled at her feet.
She didn't have long to dwell on it as her attention shifted again, the revival of the temporarily dead vampire reaching her ears. Before he had the chance to regain his bearings, she had him pinned to the wall.
"Your witch friend was not as cooperative as I had hoped. I suppose I cannot avoid mess today."
Without hesitation, she tore into his throat and shredded his wrists. As his blood poured out she attempted to compel him. Each time it failed she reopened his wounds and tried again. And again. And again.
Caroline emerged from the tiny house newly enlightened with several interesting pieces of information. Instead of one daggered Original, the small, lonely house now contained one dead vampire and one transitioning witch. She took a moment to compel a human to loiter in the area should the witch decide to turn, before taking their car and hightailing it toward Mystic Falls.
Toward home.
Stefan gorged himself on blood, his fear for his brother's disappearance converting into rage and hunger. It hadn't even been a full 24 hours since Damon and Bonnie ventured off, but he had overheard the others fretting when neither answered any of their calls or texts.
A hand on the back of his neck yanked him out of his thoughts and away from his feed. He tried to turn and lash out, but the grip was immovable. It turned him around until he faced the unimpressed visage of an older man.
"Stefan Salvatore, I presume?" The question was laced with disdain.
"Who are you?" Stefan was wary as even the ever snarling predator beneath his skin was uneasily still.
"Mikael." He offered a grim little smile in the face of Stefan's manic mix of terror and hope.
Elena fiddled with the dagger that had been in Mikael, fretting over her options. Stefan's hand pressed down on her own, halting the motions.
"We can't," he hissed under his breath.
"How can you trust her?" She hissed back.
Stefan snarled at her, shoving her back against the wall. "I don't! But we have no other choice, Elena! With Damon MIA and my compulsion still tying me to Klaus there's no one else strong enough to get close to him."
Her anger fizzled out, her gut swamped with worry once more. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."
A few floors down, Rebekah scowled. She swore that...a-after this night was over, the next person to die would be the traitorous little doppelgänger.
"To what end, Niklaus? So you can live forever, with no one at your side? Nobody cares about you anymore, boy! What do you have other than those whose loyalty you forced? No one. No one."
Caroline watched from her hidden vantage point, motionless. She didn't dare twitch a single muscle in fear that she would break something in her rage. The bark of the trees beside her. The rocks underfoot. The skin of her body by teeth or nails. They would all give her away.
She could not afford such a mistake, as it was not Mikael that currently held the White Oak stake. He only smelt of its ashes and the cold silver of the dagger. As much as she loathed it, the most strategic move was ensuring no one knew she was here. At least, not until the wielder of the White Oak revealed themselves.
That mantra was chanted with increasing fervor as her keen eyes caught the sheen of tears in Niklaus'.
He will pay for this, husband, I swear it.
She continued to listen, committing to memory each of Mikael's mounting sins.
"I'm calling your bluff, father. Kill her."
"Come outside and face me, you little coward. And I won't have to."
"My whole life you've underestimated me. If you kill her you lose your leverage. So go ahead. Go on. Kill her. Come on, old man. Kill her. Kill her!"
Mikael's snide laugh rang out. Only the knowledge of how his arrogance blinded him to the truth of the hostage he held in his hands, stayed Caroline's urges to attack him and damn the consequences.
"Your impulse, Niklaus. It has and will forever be the one thing that keeps you from truly being great."
Mikael's blade found its way into the vampire doppelgänger's back. And in the commotion, Rebekah flashed out, stabbing at her brother. Caroline was legitimately stupefied, costing her precious seconds. In that not quite wasted time, Katerina was unknowingly helpful for once, as she deployed her wolfsbane grenades and fled.
At last, Caroline unfroze and flashed forward, slamming into her fellow blonde, and tearing the stake from her grasp (thank god she found and compelled Mrs. Lockwood!)
Niklaus did not turn to see who had defended him, scrambling for the stake and lunging for Mikael. It was with deep satisfaction and relief that it buried itself in his father's heart. After 1,000 years, he was able to stare his father down where, for once, it was Mikael that had fallen in the dirt. Mikael that screamed in agony. Mikael that burned.
The triumph was short-lived as he recalled the face of his attacker. His own sister. The only one to have stayed unwavering by his side. The betrayal that washed through him was like no other. It stalled him, his emotions thrown in such a whirlwind that his rage had not fully formed. He couldn't decide if he could bear to turn and see the truth of her treachery.
Before he had the chance to decide, another fact tore his world asunder.
"C-Caroline," his sister whispered in hoarse shock.
...Caroline
Caroline...?
Caroline!
HIS WIFE IS DEAD!
Murdered by Mikael! How can his sister be calling her name?!
His whole being was in turmoil and he didn't even process the motion that brought him to the two blondes' sides. They both turned to look at him.
His eyes alighted on his sister first, where she laid pressed to the ground. The stunned confusion painted across her face was surely a lesser mirror of his own.
Suddenly conscious of every twitch of his muscles, his head tilted up. Perhaps, Mikael had killed him after all for surely that could be the only way he was seeing her again.
"Caroline, beloved," he breathed out in the old tongue.
Her eyes were soft pools of blue-green. And his own desperately devoured every inch of her image as she leaned over to press her forehead against his. Eyelids fell shut as he relished the heat and weight of her.
Tangible.
Real.
He shuddered as her nose brushed his. The gentle caress undoing him. And they breathed. Together. Her scent danced around him (oak, mint, vanilla), a scent he thought he would never know again. The heat of her palm enveloped his cheek, and he all but fell into it.
Against his lips she spoke to him, "I am home again, husband. I am here."
AN: This ended up longer than expected. I think a lot of my "fuck you canon" feelings emerged here. Since as far as I'm concerned Klaroline + Original Family both have fantastic reunions in this. They all ride off into the bloody sunset together. And they're all happy. And Alive. With Bonnie dead/turned the Esther drama also didn't happen.