Emma opened the door to the boarding house quietly and listened for where Rebekah may be, but she didn't hear anything. She made her way upstairs to the room she shared with Damon, she had beat him back to the house; with the spare time she decided to work on some of the homework the school had been sending to her email while she was out. As she browsed through the work she skipped anything given by Alaric, instead she chose a quick math quiz.
"I could just compel you a high school diploma," Emma's head snapped up at the sound of Damon's voice.
She relaxed quickly, "Where is the fun in that? What's the point of playing the balancing game of Jenga that is the supernatural life?"
"You're right," Damon shook his head, "God forbid we do anything the easy way."
Emma closed her laptop, "Says the guy that just let his emotionless brother out of the cell that was keeping him from hurting anyone."
Damon clutched his chest in a fake surprise, "Ouch Em, no trust in me anymore?"
As he moved his hand Emma noticed his shirt was bloody and had a giant hole right in the center of it, "Why does it look like someone punched right through your chest."
"Because that is exactly what happened," Damon's lips pursed in the admitted defeat, "Mikael is not a nice dude, but he did get Stefan to help us force Klaus to come back, he found some kind of loophole in the compulsion Klaus has on him."
"Woah," Emma's eyes got big, "he used you against Stefan?"
"Can you not nerd out at the vampire hunter's method of torture for a minute? The guy almost pulled my damn heart out of my chest before Stefan even flinched."
"Are you really gonna stand there and pretend you aren't a little impressed."
"That's besides the point," Damon pushed the conversation away from himself as he stripped off his shirt, "did you guys learn anything good today?"
"Rebekah didn't know that Klaus killed her mother, not Mikael," Emma pointed out their big revelation of the day.
"Now that is something juicy," Damon laid back on the bottom half of the bed with a huff.
"So are you just like, completely fine after literally having a guys hand holding your heart or are you sore or something?" Emma ran her hand over Damon's chest where his heart was beating.
"I think we both know me well enough to know that my pride is way more hurt than any damage he could do to my body."
Emma nodded in agreement.
"Em," Damon said quietly, "I'm sorry I let him out, and it kind of backfired a little."
"I'm not mad Damon, I know more than anyone how desperate someone can be to get their sibling back."
"He killed yours."
"Yes he did."
"And you're going to forgive him?"
"Forgive, no, but would you prefer that I try to kill him, because trust me, that's what I would like to do."
"No, I'm just trying to understand."
"Did you know that you aren't the first vampire friend I've had?"
Damon leaned up on his elbow, "I don't think we ever really had a 'friend' phase, we kinda jumped that step and right into your bed."
"Anyway," Emma ignored him, "her name is Lexi, and her whole thing is getting vamps with their emotions off to come back to the light, so to speak."
"Uh, really?"
"Yeah, so anyway, I messaged her about Stefan and I haven't heard back yet, which isn't out of the ordinary, but she explained to me once how this whole emotion thing works. So I know that this Stefan isn't really him, and I don't know if I'll be able to be around him even when he does get his emotions back, but Lexi is probably going to encourage me to at least try. Especially since I care about you," Emma looked down at her hands, not really sure if she was ready to see Damon's reaction to her explanation, "God I wish she would just call me, come help, or something."
"Emma..." Damon started to tell Emma that he knew exactly who Lexi was but he stopped himself when he realized the reality of loosing her was real, "well I don't know about you but I'm beat."
Emma stood up, grabbed Damon's hand and began pulling him towards the bathroom, "You smell like a bar and I have been crawling in and out of caves all day, come take a shower with me."
Damon hummed happily as he let her pull him up, once he was on his feet he wrapped his arms around Emma, "Or I could go grab a bottle of wine while you fill up the tub and we can get tangled up in the bubbles."
"Since when are you a romantic Mr. Salvatore?"
"Well, one day this bat shit crazy red head skipped school and hopped in my car."
"You lured me out with your vampy charms."
"Trust me sweetheart, I was charming even when I was alive," Damon leaned down and kissed Emma softly.
"Where did you find these?" Emma asked as she held up a dress that Damon had brought her.
"According to Elena my family had become pack rats over the years. Did the crushed velvet top not give that away?"
"Considering I don't plan on slow dancing I might just wear jeans, at least that way I can keep my weapons."
"You won't need them, everything is going to go smoothly and at the end of the night Klaus will be dead and I might even twirl you around the dance floor once or twice," Damon took Emma's hand and lifted it before leading her into a spin.
Emma smiled at him and put her free hand on his chest when the spin was complete, "Except I've seen your track record, things always end up improvised."
Damon rolled his eyes, "Come on Debbie Downer, I can hear Mikael downstairs."
The couple walked out of the bedroom and downstairs into the foyer, joining Elena, Stefan, and Mikael. They were discussing ways to get Klaus back to Mystic Falls.
"So let's say that Mikael followed Elena in here. He tried to grab her so he could use her as bait," Stefan explained his idea.
Elena was quick to join in, "And you what, vervained him?"
"No," Damon interjected, "we vervained him. The guy is an Original, we have to make it realistic."
Stefan rolled his eyes, "Okay, fine, we vervained him; and in the process discovered that he had a dagger."
"Which he planned to use on Rebekah but instead..." Elena added.
"We drove it through his heart," Stefan shrugged.
Emma brought up something none of them had thought of, "And what happens when he ask to see Mikael's body?"
"Good point," Damon smirked at Emma, "you my brother have been compelled to do what Klaus says. So the idea is to lure him back here and kill him; last thing we need is you getting tripped up and tongue-tied."
Stefan held his hands up in defeat, "Don't look at me, I'm just in charge of getting him back here."
"Klaus is smart, if we tell him Mikael is dead he will want proof," Emma crossed her arms.
"Then I shall be dead," Mikael announced, Emma looked up in amazement at being confronted by the Original vampire hunter, Mikael noticed her and was amused, "you must be the local hunter."
Emma nodded still in awe, "Yes sir."
"What if he wants to see you in person?" Elena interrupted, slightly annoyed.
Mikael turned his attention to her, "Well that means our plan is working; Klaus will absolutely want to see my body. You lure him here, and I will kill him."
Stefan scoffed, "With what? The daggers don't work on him."
"Well," Mikael stepped over to a small table where a silver dagger and the ash from the white oak tree sat, "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."
"Where is it?" Stefan asked.
Mikael shook his head, "Not here. The knowing of its location is my insurance policy."
"Brilliant," Emma commented quietly, earned a smirk from Mikael and an annoyed grunt from Damon.
Stefan hadn't caught on, "Against what?"
"You leaving this in my heart," Mikael dipped the dagger in the ashes before he stepped over to Emma, "you see, a vampire can't dagger an Original without dying, so it falls to you."
Mikael held out the dagger to Emma.
"You want me to dagger you?" She said in shock that he had picked her over Elena.
"I trust the rage of a hunter that Klaus has wronged," Mikael said as Emma finally took the dagger from him and turned it over in her hands, inspecting the weapon, "Klaus will leave nothing to chance; especially when it comes to trust."
Mikael and Emma stepped into the middle of the room and Emma steadied herself before holding the dagger up with both hands and plunging it into Mikael's chest, she let go and watched him fall to the ground as he slowly desiccated.
"Let's do this," Damon pointed at Stefan just as Rebekah joined them in the foyer.
Stefan pulled his phone out and informed Klaus that his father had just died and Rebekah played her part by confirming it.
Rebekah handed the phone back to Stefan, "He bought it, he is coming home."
Damon clapped his hands together, "Now, was that easy or what?"
"Let's just get this over with," Elena said as she crossed her arms and walked away.
Emma pulled the dagger from Mikael's chest and set it on the table next to the bottle of ash before heading upstairs with Damon. Rebekah stayed downstairs and sat at a chair next to her father to wait for him to awaken.
Emma had her arsenal spread on top of Damon's bed and the two of them were taking inventory when Elena walked in and stepped up next to Damon's side.
"We can't trust Rebekah to not turn on us," she said as she watched them.
"Oh really?" Damon feigned his shock, "Because the Original vampires are usually so reliable."
Elena rolled her eyes, "Bonnie was right, Rebekah may be mad at Klaus now, but he is her brother."
"Her lying, mama-killing, dagger-happy brother," Damon commented before handing Emma a wolfsbane grenade, "wolfsbane is ready."
Emma sat it next to the others she had already prepped.
Elena wasn't convinced, "There are too many things that can go wrong with this plan; too many people that can make it go wrong."
"That's why we are formulating a secret contingency plan," Damon motioned between Emma and himself.
"Really?" Elena said only slightly shocked at Damon's change in plans, "What is it?"
Emma put her hand on her hip, "If we told you it wouldn't be a secret."
"What she said," Damon agreed.
Stefan entered the room.
"I need to borrow a tie," he announced to Damon.
Damon looked at him like he was crazy, "You have your own ties."
"I'm one hundred and sixty-two and I'm going to a homecoming dance," Stefan said as if it was obvious, "I need better ties."
"You could not go," Elena suggested.
Stefan rolled his eyes at her, "I'm compelled to protect you, and if I look at your track record at high school dances, it's pretty tragic. With my luck you'll go and get yourself murdered by the homecoming Queen."
Stefan left without his tie, as if he was only there to size up what they were doing. Damon slapped Elena's hand as she reached out and grabbed one of the wolfsbane grenades.
"Ah! No!" He glared at her.
"I can do it, Alaric showed me," Elena tried to explain herself.
Emma huffed angrily to herself at the mention of Alaric, Damon started to ask her something but Elena grabbed the grenade again which he snatched out of her hand.
"Elena! If this thing blows up in your face, just remember only one of us here heals quickly," Damon said impatiently.
Stefan came back in the room, presumably to grab the tie he had forgotten, "Please tell me you have a better plan than wolfsbane grenades."
"Never you mind brother," Damon chided him, "the less you know, the better."
Stefan began adjusting the tie he found, "My freedom from Klaus rests entirely upon you three executing your plan perfectly. So, excuse me if I'm a bit cynical."
Emma had enough of him, "You're the one we should be worried about, one wrong question from Klaus and the whole thing could fall apart."
Stefan and Emma glared at each other for a moment before Stefan finally spoke, "You don't have reason to worry, but if I look back in our history of epic plan failures, it's usually because one of us let our humanity get in the way. 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."
Stefan turned on his heel and stormed out, after a brief moment Elena followed him. Emma didn't care enough to ask her where she was going. Damon decided it was as good a time as any to bring up Emma's beef with Alaric.
"So," he tried to approach the subject carefully, "what's going on between you and Ric?"
Emma shrugged, "Nothing. I'm here avenging my sister and he is no where to be found."
"You have to talk to him eventually."
"Nope."
"Why?"
"You promised that after Klaus is gone you were going to take me anywhere I wanted to go," Emma stopped what she was doing and looked up at Damon, "is that still the plan or am I going at it alone?"
Damon dropped the stake he had in his hand onto the bed and wrapped his arms around Emma's waist, holding her close to him, "Where do you want to go?"
Emma sighed, "That is a question for tomorrow's me, tonight I just want focus on the plan and end this for good."
Emma pulled Damon closer to her and reached up to kiss him, just before their lips met Elena walked in, forcing the couple apart.
"Uh," Elena seemed nervous, "can you guys come with me for a minute."
Damon and Emma looked at each other briefly before following Elena out of Damon's room and down the hall into Stefan's, where Rebekah laid on the floor with a dagger in her back.
"Woah," Emma said shocked as they entered the room.
Damon grabbed a sheet off of Stefan's bed and began covering Rebekah.
"In the back, harsh," Damon sounded almost impressed.
Elena plopped down on Stefan's bed, guilt written on her face, "It had to be done, Rebekah was never going to be on our side."
"Hey, I'm not judging you," Damon defended himself, "its very 'Kathrine' of you."
"Not the way to make me feel better about myself Damon," Elena's guilt was building.
Damon stood up, "It was a compliment, sort of."
Elena shook her head, "Stefan's right, someone's gonna let their humanity get in the way and screw this whole thing up. It's probably gonna be me."
"Elena you just daggered somebody, you'll be fine," Damon argued with her.
Again Elena shook her head, "Yeah, but I feel bad about it. I care too much, that's the problem Damon, I'm the weak link."
"You're not wrong," Emma commented, Damon looked over at her with an expression that begged her to shut up.
He turned back to Elena, "If it makes you feel better, she isn't really dead."
Emma spoke up, "Do you trust him? Mikael?"
"No," Damon faced her.
"And Stefan?" Emma challenged.
Damon cocked his head to the side wondering what Emma was getting at, "No, not as long as he is under Klaus's control."
"Then we need a better plan," Emma's hands rested on her hips.
"I know what to do," Damon nodded in agreement before turning to speak to Elena, "but you aren't going to like it?"
Elena looked at him confused, "Why not?"
"Because," Damon started to explain, "when this all goes down, you aren't going to be a part of it."
"What does that mean?" Elena stood up.
"Do you trust me?" Damon asked.
Elena nodded.
"Then you have nothing to worry about," Damon shrugged and grabbed Emma's hand before leading the way out of Stefan's bedroom.
Elena's phone began to buzz and the sound made Damon stop and turn to wait for Elena to answer it, she did and after a short chat with Caroline she hung up.
"The gym flooded out, so now homecoming is going to be at the Lockwood's," Elena began to relay what Caroline had told her.
"That doesn't change much," Emma explained before leaving to go get ready for the party, Damon followed her.