Mystic Falls – Late Afternoon
Michael had been circling the town for the better part of a minute, moving without urgency, without pattern just watching.
'I wonder how it's going in school right now,.' he mused. Niklaus walking into a classroom, wearing Alaric's face, smiling like he owned the place. Acting as though he had them right where he wanted them.
The thought amused him.
'He probably thinks he's already won.' Michael exhaled softly, hands in his pockets as he strolled past familiar streets. Elena's the wild card, he thought next. She won't be able to resist. She never does.
A pause, Stefan wouldn't be dumb enough to let that happen.
Another pause.
"…Then again," he muttered, "Elena does have a remarkable talent for making things dumber than usual."
His steps slowed as he came to a quiet, almost forgotten corner of town. The house there was unremarkable now.
Michael stopped.
'This is the spot where Ayana's house once stood,' he realized.
A thousand years ago, this place had been alive with incense, chalk sigils, whispered spells spoken in reverence rather than desperation. Now there was just another building on top of that land and its history.
"So much has changed," he murmured.
And yet, some things hadn't. He smiled faintly. 'Longest babysitting job in history,' he thought. 'And somehow, I'm still on duty.'
Suddenly there was a a car that swept across the street and drove closer to his position, Michael turned as a familiar patrol car rolled to a stop. The door opened, and Sheriff Liz Forbes stepped out, hand resting casually on her belt.
"Hey," she called, studying him. "Can I help you, young man?"
Michael blinked once in surprise at being called that.
'Young man, huh?'
"Oh hey," he said easily. "Uh, sorry. Just… got lost in a thought."
Liz nodded, still watching him carefully. "I don't think I've seen you around here before."
"Oh, that's because I'm visiting," he replied smoothly. "Distant relatives."
Her brow lifted. "Yeah?"
"The Salvatores," he added.
Something flickered in her eyes as he mentioned that name, it was subtle and practiced.
'Ah,' Michael thought. 'Right about the time you're starting to suspect them of everything.'
"Is that right?" she said carefully.
"Oh yes," he nodded. "Very distant cousins."
"You don't say."
He smiled, polite and harmless and before she could press further, her radio crackled.
"Matt," she muttered, lifting it. "Yeah no, meet me later. I'll explain."
She sighed and turned back toward him. "Sorry, I—" The street was empty.
Michael was gone. Liz frowned, scanning the area for a moment longer than necessary before shaking her head and returning to her car.
Salvatore Boarding House
Stefan paced the living room like a caged animal.
Elena sat on the couch, a small cut on her forehead hastily cleaned and bandaged. Bonnie stood nearby, arms wrapped around herself, still visibly shaken.
The front door flew open, "What the hell happened?" Damon demanded as he walked in.
Elena flinched. "It's my fault."
Damon stopped short. "What is?"
"We confronted him," Bonnie said quietly, Damon stared at her with a dumbfounded expression.
"You did what?" His eyes snapped to Stefan. "What the hell happened, Stefan?"
Stefan ran a hand through his hair. "Klaus came to class. As Alaric. He started teaching like nothing was wrong." His jaw tightened. "Then he moved closer to Elena. Said something. She pushed him away and ran."
Bonnie swallowed. "She panicked."
Damon let out a sharp laugh, more disappointment than humor. "Fantastic. So you just blew our only chance at surprise."
"I said I was sorry," Elena snapped.
Bonnie stepped in immediately. "What did you expect, Damon? That a normal human would just stand there and pretend the man she sees as family isn't being possessed by the vampire who wants to use her to break a curse?"
Damon turned away, jaw clenched. "Damn it."
Stefan forced himself to breathe. "Okay. Okay. We still have an element of surprise, right?"
Bonnie hesitated. "Me."
Damon shook his head instantly. "No. He'll expect something now. The moment he realized we know he's in Alaric, the game changed."
He looked at Stefan, with sharpened eyes.
"So we stop waiting." Stefan met his gaze in surprise at what he is proposing.
"We go to him."
Salvatore Boarding House – Evening
Michael came in without ceremony. The first thing he did was look around the room and seeing the state of everyone. Stefan rigid by the fireplace, Damon halfway to pouring another drink, Bonnie looked quiet and guarded and the precious Elena sitting like the air itself weighed too much.
He took it all in, then sighed.
"Well," he said lightly, "judging by the collective facial expressions, I'm guessing school was… educational."
No one laughed at that joke. Michael clicked his tongue. "Huh, tough crowd what a shame. You see I had other things to do today. Ancient evils to track, a couple of entities yo send back to their maker, the usual. But please, by all means let's add emotional collapse to the itinerary."
Stefan straightened. "Klaus came to the school."
Michael's humor certainly did not evaporate at that news as they were expecting.
As Stefan explained, Michael turned his attention to Elena. He listened without interruption, eyes steady, expression unreadable. When it was over, he exhaled slowly and rubbed his temple with two fingers.
"…Right," he said at last. "I get it. You weren't ready. You panicked."
He paused.
'You fucked it up again,' he thought privately.
Outwardly, his tone stayed calm. "That doesn't make you weak. It makes you human. Unfortunately, Niklaus Mikaelson eats human reactions for breakfast."
His gaze shifted to Damon.
"Well," Michael said, straightening, "the jig is officially up." Damon snorted. "Yeah, no kidding."
"Now that Klaus knows you know," Michael continued, "you have exactly two options." He raised one finger. "Option one: Damon's favorite which is kick in the door, attack him directly, and hope one of you gets lucky enough to kill him with the witch."
Damon lifted his glass. "I like this one."
Michael raised a second finger. "Option two: you trap him. You restrain him long enough to rip Klaus out of Alaric's body."
Stefan didn't hesitate. "The dance."
Damon blinked. "Oi. Oi. Oi. Wait a minute."
Everyone looked at him, "You're telling me that even after the Original already knows we're onto him," Damon said sharply, "we now the plan to walk straight into a school dance where he'll absolutely be waiting for us with God knows what?"
Michael nodded. "Yes."
Damon stared. "That's not a plan. That's suicide with mood lighting."
"No," Michael said evenly, "it's a trap. His trap actually. Which is precisely why it works."
Damon scoffed. "It's too risky, if we actually want to risk it and confront him we should just go to Ric's and use Bonnie on him."
Michael ignored what he'd just said and turned to Elena then, his gaze sharpening just slightly. "Doing nothing is riskier and doing what Damon just suggested is even more dangerous for the lot of you and why? Well he definitely wouldn't stay where you can easily get to him and his apartment, well you can bet his witch would have warded it off from any other entry. Sitting here won't stop Niklaus from coming after you once he's done using Alaric's body."
"You're going to the dance tonight," he said, not as a suggestion but as a statement.
"And so am I."
Elena swallowed but nodded.
Elsewhere – Night
Michael stood beside a black SUV as Brandon handed him a tablet. "We got a hit from the Mediterranean," Brandon said. "Near Syracuse." Michael's eyes narrowed. Sicily.
Brandon swiped, pulling up images of what appeared to be villages marred by scorched ground, buildings stained with spreading black marks that looked burned into the earth itself.
"Black spots all across the region," Brandon continued. "Our Witches say a ritual was performed. Multiple anchor points that spread outward but everything converges toward the center."
"And now?" Michael asked.
"Nothing," Brandon replied. "No residual energy. No trace. It's like it… closed."
Michael stared at the screen, jaw tightening.
"So," he said quietly. "That's all we have," Brandon added. "They can't tell how it was done. Just that it was."
Michael handed the tablet back.
"Keep searching," he said coldly. "I want to know exactly how Arcadius is sending Infernals out of his dimension and back into the living world."
His eyes glinted with something dangerous.
"Because the moment I figure that out," he murmured, "this stops being a game."
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