Chapter Forty-One

                                    

                                          
Cassandra listens to Stefan, Elena, Damon, and Mikael as they try to work out how to deal with Klaus, but none of them can agree on one single course of action. Cassandra knows what she'd do. She knows exactly what she would do to deal with Klaus at Homecoming. But with them all bickering back and forth she doesn't really get a chance to voice her plan. She just keeps quiet. Tapping her fingers on the arms of the chair as she waits. It then falls silent which causes her to look up. Finds them all looking at her. She's missed something. Missed part of the conversation.
                          
"Why are you all looking at me?" Cassandra asks. Damon gives her a smirk and she sighs and shakes her head.
                          
"Oh, come on, Cas" Damon teases. "You always have a plan...."
                          
"The Scarlet Witches are always the more diabolical ones" Mikael comments looking over Cassandra. Elena gives her sister a small smile.
                          
"Cas?" Elena asks her. "Do you have a plan?"
                          
"Why does it always fall on me?"
                          
"So you don't have a plan?" Stefan argues. Cassandra hangs her head a little and sighs.
                          
"No, of course, I do" She mumbles and lifts her head to look at them all watching her. Damon winks at her. Knew she had this. Cassandra always has a plan, and it always seems to work, unless other people get in the way.
                          
.......
                          
Cassandra rubs her fingers over her forehead as they go through the plan again. It is a good plan, they just want to make sure it gets through everyone's thick skull. Mainly Elena's skull. Every single one of Cassandra's plans has failed because Elena went off course. She did her own thing. Ignored the plan. And look what happened.
                          
"Okay so..." Stefan starts, wanting to make sure they get this right for Klaus to believe. "Mikael followed Elena in here. He tried to grab her, so he could use her as bait"
                          
"Then we vervained him" Damon adds.
                          
"And in the process discovered that he had a dagger" Elena continues. Cassandra nods along with them.
                          
"Which he planned to use on Rebekah, but instead..." Cassandra points out.
                          
"We drove it through his heart." Stefan finishes.
                          
"But what happens when he asks to see Mikael's body?" Elena asks them.
                          
"Klaus is smart. If we tell him that Mikael is dead, he'll want proof" Cassandra answers as she folds her arms over her chest.
                          
"Then I shall be dead" Mikael agrees.
                          
"What if he wants to see you in person?" Elena continues.
                          
"Well, that means our plan is working. Klaus will absolutely want to see my body. You lure him here, and I will kill him" Mikael adds and glances at Cassandra, she nods, that is the plan.
                          
"With what? Those daggers won't work on him" Stefan asks.
                          
"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 informs them.
                          
"Where is it?" Stefan counters, Mikael gives him a look as he dips a dagger in the ashes of the white oak tree.
                          
"Not here. The knowing of its location is my insurance policy"
                          
"Against what?" Stefan pushes.
                          
"You leaving this in my heart." He holds up the dagger. "You see, a vampire can't dagger an original without dying. So...it falls to you" Mikael hands over the dagger to Elena.
                          
"Y...You want me to actually dagger you?" Elena asks.
                          
"Klaus will leave nothing to chance- especially when it comes to trust" Elena seems to hesitate.
                          
"Oh, for the love of...." Cassandra complains and then lifts up her hand, flicks her fingers, the dagger flies into Mikael's chest, right in his heart. He begins to desiccate. "Huh, that works too" She comments and turns to Elena. "Deciding death for someone is easy but coming to actually wield the axe....that you struggle with?" Elena looks down a little. Cassandra lets out a breath and turns to Stefan. "Let's get Rebekah here," She tells them.
                          
.........
                          
Later, Stefan is calling Klaus, who is in the woods in Portland looking for more werewolves. Cassandra stands with Damon and Elena close by, chewing on her thumbnail as she worries over this. Damon touches the small of her back, trying to comfort her. But she's stressed to hell because of everything that could go wrong. Things that have gone wrong before. Her eyes shift to Elena. Problem.
                          
"Portland is fantastic" Klaus' voice greets as he picks up the phone, places it on speaker for them all to hear. "Once you get over all the whiny music and healthy-looking people, it is literally a breeding ground for werewolves"
                          
"Your father is dead" Stefan states, flatly, unemotionally. There is silence on the other end of the phone for a moment.
                          
"What did you say to me?"
                          
"Oh, my mistake. Not your actual father and not dead. Mikael. Daggered. What do you want me to do with the body?" Stefan muses.
                          
"I wanna see him. I want to see his rotting body for myself" Klaus argues.
                          
"Well, he is here. Come by whenever" Stefan looks down at Mikael still daggered on the floor.
                          
"If you are lying to me Stefan, your compulsion will expose you. So, answer with your life: Is what you are saying the truth?" Stefan looks across at Cassandra.
                          
"It's true. I saw it with my own eyes" Stefan assures Klaus. "Cassandra got him"
                          
"That I can believe" Klaus mumbles. "I wanna talk to Rebekah"
                          
"That's not a problem. She is right here" Stefan gives Rebekah a look, she shifts where she stands across from him.
                          
"Hello, Nik" She greets.
                          
"Rebekah, love. What's this I hear about Mikael's tragic run-in with the dagger?"
                          
"It's true. He's finally out of our lives for good. I miss you. I'm miserable here" Rebekah tells him.
                          
"I'll be home soon" Klaus assures him.
                          
"Good. I'll see you then, brother" She offers and then reaches over, hanging up the phone in Stefan's hand. They all share a look. Aware that he's taken the bait.
                          
"Now was that easy or what?" Damon teases, giving Cassandra a small nudge, she looks at him and he wiggles his eyebrows.
                          
"It's not over yet" She argues a little and then moves her hand, her mist pulling the dagger from Mikael.