CHAPTER 45: HOMECOMING

The Salvatore Boarding House

It turns out that when Natalie was having her conversations with Rebekah that Stefan and Damon had met the originals' father, Mikael, who was out to kill Klaus, as you know, and that caused some panic in Natalie's mind as she had successfully kept her past from everyone of her friends so that they wouldn't see her differently, as she knew they would do without even realizing it.

So, she did her best to avoid Mikael and his plans, but she was stupid enough to not realize that they would be planning at the Salvatore Boarding House, where everything was planned as the Salvatores always seemed to be in the middle of whatever supernatural issues they've gotten themselves involved with at the moment.

"Where is it?" she heard Stefan ask someone, although she didn't know who it was yet as she had avoided any mention of the original vampire/vampire hunter that they summoned.

"Not here. The knowing of its location is my insurance policy." an unfamiliar voice answered, and it sent chills down her spine, and just because of that, she knew that it was Mikael.

"Against what?" Stefan asked once again, even though Elena and Damon were there too, but Stefan seemed to be the responsible one even without his humanity.

"You leaving this in my heart," Mikael answered, a cold edge to his voice, showing that he didn't trust them at all. "You see, a vampire can't dagger an original without dying. So...it falls to you."

Natalie wasn't sure who he was talking to at first as she only heard Mikael and Stefan's voices and neither of them would be able to dagger the original seeing as Mikael was the original and Stefan was a regular vampire so he would certainly be killed if he did that.

But she got the answer of who was there when her older sister spoke up. "Y- You want me to actually dagger you?"

Natalie peeked out from behind the wall she was hiding behind and saw that it wasn't only Mikael, Stefan and Elena that was there, but Damon was lurking behind them, not saying a word.

"Klaus will leave nothing to chance- especially when it comes to trust." Mikael responded to that as a reason to why Elena would have to, and just in that moment, Natalie caught someone's eye.

"Natalie? What are you doing here?" Damon asked, making everyone turn to look at the brunette none of them knew would visit the boarding house at that exact moment.

The huntress glanced over at the man that had to be Mikael that seemed surprised at her appearance, which she got, because how would he know that the reincarnation of his children's childhood friend was alive and well in the same town he was in at the moment when he had no sources that could tell him. "Oh, I was actually wondering where Elena was so we could find out what we were going to do for homecoming. But turns out that you guys are busy, so I'm going to go." she said, turning around, but she didn't get to have her escape.

"Natalia," Mikael interrupted her leaving, and made her curse under her breath because it seemed like he might have just ruined everything she had worked for, that meaning that he would reveal everything that she had tried her best to keep hidden. "I see you've been reincarnated."

Damon, Stefan and Elena all frowned at this, not having heard anything about reincarnation when it comes to Natalie, all of them turning towards her questioningly. "What?"

Natalie had the unrealistic hope that the three others in the room didn't hear it but she knew that it was stupid, but hope is hope. Even if it turned out not to be justified. "Oh, did I forget to mention that?"

"Yes." she heard from Damon, Elena and Stefan simultaneously and she knew she was screwed.

"Well, I may or may not be the reincarnation of the Originals' childhood friend," she said awkwardly, using some involuntarily hand-gestures as everyone stared at her with wide eyes, even though they knew that Klaus wanted something to do with her before he came to town, they didn't know what, but that may have been answered now.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Elena asked, hurt shining through her eyes as she thought that they might have gotten close enough to tell each other anything, not knowing that it wasn't the only thing Natalie kept from her.

"I didn't want you to see me any differently," she shrugged, refusing to meet the gazes of anyone in the room. "So, ehm, Elena... daggering... yeah?"

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Elena did just that, and she daggered Mikael and they all made sure Stefan's eyes were locked on the situation so that if Klaus would start questioning him he would be able to say that he saw it with his own two eyes. So they got Stefan to start calling the hybrid, and they got Rebekah to stand with them so that she could talk to him if things got out of hand.

"Your father is dead," Stefan said bluntly, not even giving Klaus a hello before waiting for a response. "Oh, my mistake. Not your actual father and not dead. Mikael. Daggered. What do you want me to do with the body?" Then he got a response that caused him to explain what happened (whilst slightly lying as best as he could) by telling him about him going after Rebekah before Elena daggered him. "Well, he is here. Come by whenever. It's true. I saw it with my own eyes. That's not a problem. She is right here."

Stefan reached his arm out towards Rebekah, his phone in hand and she hesitantly grabbed it, as she had some things against lying to her brother, but with everything that he had done she knew what she had to do. "Hello, Nik. It's true. He's finally out of our lives for good. I miss you. I'm miserable here. Good. I'll see you then, brother," she then hung up, took a deep breath and let it out as she realized that it was over. "He bought it. He's coming home."

"Now, was that easy or what?" Damon smirked, ready to finally relieve himself of the pressure that Klaus had put on his, Stefan, Elena and Natalie's shoulders.

Elena rolled her eyes at Damon's attitude before walking over to where Mikael's grey and veiny body was lying and pulled the dagger out of his chest. "Let's just get this over with."

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The Gilbert House

Natalie had no idea what she was supposed to wear. Elena supposedly left with Matt even though he was supposed to go with Rebekah because Tyler was a sired little asshole who decided to set the most innocent person in town with one of the most dangerous people in town, even though Natalie could see them together with Rebekah's whole love thing and Matt definitely deserved some love.

But as she had no idea what she was going to do with her clothing as she didn't have a huge collection of fancy dresses to choose from as most of Mystic Falls' female population did, as the town had way too many formal occasions happening in the time period of a year. Natalie wasn't a fan of going shopping with anyone but Caroline as the blonde was just such an amazing shopper, and she hadn't really had much time with her so it was hard, but she had someone to complain to at least.

"I have nothing to wear. Absolutely nothing. Maybe I could raid Elena's closet but I don't know." Natalie complained on the phone to her friend who didn't want to go.

"So, don't go. Let's stay home order takeout and over analyze ancient hieroglyphic thingies with Alaric." Bonnie suggested, wanting to spend time without having to have everyone stare at her after the Jeremy scandal.

"I don't know if you've ever heard of Caroline Forbes? You know, the psycho blonde vampire that will literally kill us if we don't go." the huntress dismissed idea quickly.

"Ha- Caroline actually has a date..." Bonnie said, her sentence dying out after a few words as she realized how awkward this conversation would become as she knew that it was bad enough when the ghosts were here but it would only get worse.

"Hey, you can talk to me about Jeremy. You need to talk about it. I'm mad at him too, you know." Natalie told her, wanting her to feel comfortable with opening up to her friend.

"You are mad at your little brother slash cousin thingy. You'll yell at him a little, teach him a life lesson. You can't really be mad like I am mad. And you shouldn't have to be. He's your brother. So no I can't really talk to you about it."

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The Lockwood Mansion

It turned out that the school gym, where they were supposed have the homecoming dance, was flooded, so they couldn't have the party there after all. So, Tyler was being "generous" and lending out his house on Klaus's request so that the party could go on, and Klaus could have the wake for his "father" and have some fun whilst he was at it.

Caroline heard about Natalie's clothing disaster and brought one of her own dresses and Bonnie with her so that she could get her best friend ready and wouldn't have to face the probably disastrous dance alone, since no dance ended in smiles, unicorns and rainbows in Mystic Falls.

The three girls ended up arriving at the dance together, and Caroline wasn't happy with the success that this party was.

"How did he plan a better party than me so fast? What? Is that a band outside?" the blonde ranted about the things she hated about this, believing herself to be the best party-planner in town.

Bonnie, however, was surprised at the fact that she saw so many unfamiliar faces in a school dance. "Who are all these people?"

Caroline sighed in frustration, and was so done with her boyfriend being better at the thing she had been doing for years so quickly. "This is weird! Where is Tyler?"

She stormed off with those words, opting to find the hybrid and confront him about whatever this was and Bonnie saw that it was best follow her as the vampire could be kinda insane when she was mad, and not many people would be able to contain her. And since it usually only got worse if more than one went, Natalie stayed behind, although she had no idea where she was supposed to go as she had no idea where Elena and Matt were, and they were the only ones she could have a chance of having a conversation with... or so she thought.

"Natalie?" an all too familiar voice asked from behind her, recognizing her as easy as he would recognize his own face.

The brunette's eyes widened as she thought she wouldn't hear that voice in a while, even if she'd get to hear it at all again with everything that happened. She slowly turned around and there he was, with his puppy eyes and his crooked jawline and the smile that she loved. "Scott?"

"What are you doing here?" he asked, even if he was very happy to see the girl that was his first love, he didn't want her around all the danger that might possibly be going on in this town.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she was actually so not happy about seeing him. It wasn't that it was him that made her so unhappy, it was where he was. He was supposed to be back in California with his mother and friends, not be in Virginia where there was way too much danger.

"This guy, you probably don't know him, Klaus, wanted me to be here." he answered, knowing from experience that if he asked her something and she asked the same as answer it was better to just answer, as he knew her pretty well and he knew how mad she could get.

Natalie's face made a really weird expression at the answer as she frowned and her eyes widened at the same time in a way that made her look like a troll. A pretty troll, but a troll nonetheless. "Wait, Klaus? What are you doing talking to Klaus for?"

Scott didn't quite know how to answer the question as he always figured that she knew nothing of the supernatural and he wanted to keep it that way, and it was basically his mission all through when they were together to keep her from finding out. "Ehm... it's a long story but I kinda owe him something, and yeah..."

Natalie's mind tried to figure out what he meant by that. And then the obvious conclusion came to mind. If you remember, Natalie once told Stefan that she suspected that he might have been a werewolf after they learnt about their existence, and that he felt as if he owed Klaus something reminded her scarily much about Tyler's behavior as sired. "Please tell me you're not a hybrid."

"Wait, you know about hybrids?" he asked, as Natalie always seemed pretty normal, other then the fact that she was probably the weirdest person he knew (other than his best friend, he was pretty weird too) and the thought of her knowing was something that never crossed his mind.

"Yes! I've been a vampire hunter since I was 14! And I'm kinda a reincarnation too... it's a long story." Natalie said, really hoping that he wasn't saying this so that he could actually find out what a hybrid was because that would make for an awkward conversation.

"You were a hunter when we were together?" he asked, not really being able to picture the carefree girl he was so in love with as someone going around killing things.

"Maybe."

Scott looked down on his watch so that he could see what time it was, as he had a timeline on his hands. And he saw that he needed to go. "Klaus wanted to see me about now, so I should probably go, I'll see you later."

"Yeah, but I'd prefer seeing you later without you being a freaky, hybrid slave minion." she smiled bitterly to herself, even though he was standing right there.

"It's not like I could choose."

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As Klaus and Scott were having their hybrid master/freaky slave minion conversation, Natalie couldn't help but stare at them from above, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't 100%, infinitely and completely scared for what might happen with Scott as Klaus had a knack for killing people that disappointed him, and since him and Scott didn't actually have a bond and there would be no hesitation.

"Who's the guy?" another familiar male voice asked her, walking up from behind.

Natalie rolled her eyes as she heard him, not really wanting to talk to him until he comes to his senses and turns his emotions on again. "None of your business."

Stefan shook his head at her refusal to be nice to him when he wasn't his old, emotional self. "Oh, I mean someone talking to both you and Klaus so comfortably is worth suspicion. You being Klaus's bestie and all."

She glared at him but knowing that there was no way she'd win that fight since she was the one who lied to everyone for months and he had all the reason in the world to be mad at her, even if he was supposed to be incapable of human emotions. "It's Scott."

Stefan's eyes widened for a split second, knowing that he'd heard her say that name before and then he remembered that it was, in fact, Natalie's first love. "The Scott?"

"No, the other one." she responded sarcastically.

"Oh, so why is the other Scott here? Come to win your love?" he laughed at his own question, remembering that conversation they had about him as if it was yesterday and he remembered her saying something about having a girlfriend.

"He was turned into a hybrid. By Klaus." she sighed, not caring that the person she was talking to was who he was at the moment, because he was the only one who really knew about Scott.

Stefan's reaction surprised her as he started laughing out of joy. "Oh, fantastic! Things have been getting dull around here."

"Since when have any of our lives been dull?" Natalie raised an eyebrow at him in question, thinking that he wouldn't have a smartass answer for that one.

She was wrong. "Wait, which of your lives are you talking about?"

She smacked him on his chest in annoyance, throwing him her famous death glare. "Just, don't screw it up tonight. I don't want Scott to get hurt because you weren't able to this. And he doesn't deserve to be some minion, so if you could do this... if you could this, then I'd be eternally grateful."

"Why would that matter to me?" he asked, a cold edge to his voice that he forced into it.

"Maybe it doesn't now, but it will. Because I want- I want you to know when you've turned it on again that you didn't do all bad things. You helped someone."

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Natalie quickly left Stefan alone afterwards, not wanting to be victim to his sass that somehow became heightened when he turned it off, maybe it was that he didn't care, maybe it was that he was just plainly an ass, but never showed it before. No one really knew.

So, Natalie was standing near the crowd that was dancing and then, suddenly, a slow song came on. It was a song that she'd recognize anywhere as it was the song that played the first time Scott told her that he loved her.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, same goes for hybrids, it seemed. "Remember that song?"

"I could never forget." she smiled slightly, flashing back to that night and the four words that haunted her for months. Because I love you.

He glanced back at her, seeing the smile he missed so much and the adorable dimples that made it all so much better. "Would you like to dance? For old times sake?"

"Don't you have a girlfriend?" she asked, looking up at him, her smile fading as she rather looked at him sadly as back when they were together, they couldn't imagine one another with someone else.

"It's just a dance. As friends." he said, trying to persuade her to have that one last dance that they both yearned for.

"One dance. But you have to lead, you know that." she smiled, flashing back to the time he told her to lead once and someone that wasn't either of them got their toe broken.

He smiled, reaching his hand out, symbolizing that she should take it, and she did, letting her smile fade at the familiar touch that she hadn't felt in over a year. And if she was being honest, she missed it. He led her out on the dance floor, where several couples were dancing together and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he put his hands on her waist.

"I missed you. I missed this." he whispered, but knowing she could hear him because of their close proximity.

"Me too." she sighed, resting her head on his chest as she tried to forget everything that's happened in the past year and tried to pretend that she was still in California at their winter formal and she was so happy and carefree as opposed to how she was now.

Her laying her head in his chest sparked a memory in his mind that would hopefully maker her smile as he heard how sad she was from the previous two words she spoke. "I remember this one time I was holding you and you fell asleep in my arms," he smiled, a slight smile appearing on her face as a response. "And I was watching you and I thought "I could stay like this for hours". Then you started drooling and it got kinda disgusting. And then my arm fell asleep with your head on it and pins and needles started to hurt-"

"Okay, shut up." Natalie laughed.

"Sorry. I just like hearing your laugh. And I love your smile." he said lowly, her response being looking up at him and throwing him the smile that he loved, oh, so much.

"I love your smile too." she complimented him back. "And I'm hoping your arm isn't falling asleep and pins and needles start to hurt-"

"Okay, shut up." he laughed back.

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After their dance, Scott and Natalie quickly left the dance floor in favor of walking into the mansion. Although separately. Natalie didn't even know that he entered the house, but he noticed her entrance, which was the reason as to why he followed her, he saw Klaus head in there previously and was hoping that nothing happened whilst he was too distracted with Natalie.

But something did happen, and it would not do anything good for him.

"The big bad wolf. You haven't changed. Still hiding behind your playthings like a coward. You only forget. They may be sired by you, but they're still part vampire. And they can be compelled by me. Come out and face me, Niklaus. Or she dies." they heard Mikael say, and Natalie immediately knew that something was going to go wrong, she didn't know why she felt this way, as Mikael was their plan to kill Klaus, but the hybrid thing scared her because of both Scott and Tyler, which would certainly offer danger for them. Plus, she didn't know who "she" was, but she was thinking that it wasn't good. But she knew that if she was going to do anything she'd have to know if there was anything worth doing anything for.

"Go ahead. Kill her." Klaus told his step-father, and Natalie was still wondering who she was, but knew that it would only be a mistake to peek again, as that got her called out earlier.

"No, Klaus. He'll do it." Elena.

Natalie was about to run out, because she wasn't about to let her sister die so that this scheme could be completed, and she had no idea how Damon (or Stefan, for that matter (would let her do this). But before she got to run out, someone came at her with vampire speed and holding his hand over her mouth from behind, and she recognized the tan hand, and knew that it could only be one person.

"I'm not letting you get hurt." Scott whispered in Natalie's ear.

"If she dies, this lot will be last of your abominations." Mikael snapped, hoping that he didn't completely overestimate Klaus's need for hybrids, but knew his fatal flaw and was going to use it against him.

"I don't need them. I just need to be rid of you." the original hybrid answered, sounding very angry, anger he had pent up for years.

Mikael sighed, ready to use the big guns to manipulate his step-son outside so that he could finally end this feud once and for all. "To what end, Niklaus? So you can live forever, with no one at your side? Nobody cares about you any more, boy! What do you have other than those whose loyalty you forced? No one. No one."

"I'm calling your bluff, father. Kill her." and this time, Natalie almost felt kind of sorry for him as she heard the pain in his voice and could actually imagine him having tears in his eyes.

"Come outside and face me, you little coward. And I won't have to." the vampire hunting vampire snapped, getting tired of Klaus's refusal to agree to his terms.

"My whole life you've underestimated me. If you kill her you lose your leverage. So go ahead," he gave him the clear, about to actually let him kill his only blood source that would leave him able to create more hybrids. "Go on. Kill her. Come on, old man. Kill her. Kill her!"

At this point, he was shouting violently, and Scott had to use a lot of strength to keep Natalie from running out there and trying to stop this, even if she wouldn't be able as she was still only a human, even with her superior badassness to most of them.

Surprisingly, Mikael laughed at Klaus's reaction. "Your impulse, Niklaus. It has and will forever be the one thing that keeps you from truly being great."

And then Natalie could hear a gasp, and someone falling to the ground, and she could easily say that she'd never felt more scared. Because she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she was there and she didn't stop it. But she knew that Elena got stabbed before and she survived, but only by Stefan's blood, and no one would be able to feed her their blood now.

But someone that Natalie thought be too crushed to do anything rushed up behind Klaus, twisting his arm and shoving the white oak ash dagger in his stomach. That was Damon, in case you didn't guess. But, unfortunately, Scott was a sired hybrid, so he rushed forth, releasing Natalie at quickly as he rushed to Damon and grabbed his arm, ready to bite him to save Klaus.

But Natalie didn't want Damon dead. He was one of her best friends, even if he wasn't perfect, so she couldn't bear to see someone she loved try to kill someone else that she loved. So she rushed forth, as well, plain on tackling Scott to the ground, making him fall and she was on top of him. He looked at her in shock, not thinking that she would do that for someone he didn't even know that she knew.

But then Natalie noticed Elena get up again as if she was never hurt, and Natalie realized that it wasn't her sister. It was instead someone she hated with a passion who happened to have the same voice, face and body of her sister. "Kaboom." Katherine said as she threw wolfsbane grenades at all the hybrids, excluding Scott and Klaus.

But then Damon was able to use the white oak stake that Mikael provided for them and was about to stake Klaus when an interesting turn of events happened as Stefan knocked his brother off of the eldest hybrid, holding him down, and Damon was too surprised to even do anything but yell. What are you doing?!"

Klaus didn't have any time to waste as he grabbed the stake that was now on the floor, and did what he had wait about a millennium to do. He jumped Mikael, and with one swift move shoved the stake in his heart. Mikael did what would happen to any original staked with the white oak stake, he burst into flames, and would now only be ashes.

"What the hell did you do?" Damon once again repeated to Stefan, shocked at the betrayal as he thought he was on his side.

"He's earned his freedom," Klaus responded, to which Stefan stopped holding his brother down and stood up as Klaus looked into his eyes, his pupils dilating as he compelled him. "Thank you my friend. You no longer have to do as I say. You're free."

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Scott knew that he was in trouble, Natalie promised him she'd stay right outside as Klaus asked Scott if they could have a chat. The original hybrid didn't seem very pleased with the younger one, and both Scott and Natalie were afraid of what would happen to him.

"You had one job, didn't you? You were supposed to make sure that no wandering teenager would find Mikael and undagger him. You were supposed to tell me if he was sighted! You were not supposed to be going around and flirting!" he yelled at the latino boy, who winced at the volume of his voice, which hybrid hearing didn't help with at all.

"I'm sorry." Scott said quietly, knowing that if he would argue it would only get worse.

But it got worse anyways. Klaus's glare was magnified as he stared at the boy with such anger he had never seen before in his 18 years of life. "Oh, sorry isn't going to cut it this time, mate. You've made mistakes already in this short hybridhood of yours. But this was the final straw."

And with that, a young life was ended way too early at the simple of action of reaching out and pulling your arm back. Only that Klaus reached out into his chest, and pulled his arm out whilst holding his heart.

And Natalie was right outside, and she heard the bang of someone falling down, and her mind convinced her that Klaus must have hit him or something, she never imagined something this gruesome.

She rushed in, pulling the door open, and from there she saw him. He was limp, but she just wouldn't allow herself to see the dark red patch on his shirt and his heart that was on the other side of the room.

"Scott?" she asked, being very much in denial as the tense look on her face was proof enough. "Scott, get up. Don't just lie there, get up!"

The tears quickly gathered in her eyes as she realized what just happened as she gasped as her eyes took in the sight of the dark red patch and she then quickly found the heart that was no longer beating on the other side of the room, and she let out another gasp, but this one was accompanied by tears building up so quickly and so many at the same time that she wasn't able to keep them in.

He was dead. And she couldn't deal with him being dead. He was her first love, the first person she'd even loved, the person she'd always love, and she knew that there was no such thing as fate, there could be a huge chance that they would never meet but now it was confirmed, but she didn't want it to be as she loved him so much. And right now, he was the only person she was completely sure that she loved that she didn't have familial relations with and it hurt. It physically hurt, knowing that he was dead.

Natalie let out another gasp, which was then quickly followed by a sob as tears streamed down her face. Klaus had no idea as to why she would react to strongly to someone he thought she didn't know. So he reached out to touch her arm, turn her around and ask the question but that wouldn't happen.

"No- no, don't- don't touch me!" she yelled, a sob quickly let out after that as she covered her mouth with her arm as an attempt of covering the sobs up as she knew that it was not a good idea to have who was supposed to be her enemy see her show so much weakness, seeing her cry.

So she stumbled out of the room, expecting to find the next room empty, but Damon was still there, to her surprise and he noticed her quickly and he knew that something really bad just happened as he remembered their conversation about her crying when she lost someone, and he saw how she looked at that hybrid earlier and he knew that she was probably breaking up inside and decided to be an uncharacteristically good friend.

"Hey- hey, what happened?" he asked her as he walked closer to her.

Natalie wasn't able to formulate words as only sobs came out as flashes of not only her and Scott together but also everyone that loved him that had no way of finding out that he was dead unless Natalie informed, and she knew she wasn't ready for that, she probably would never be ready for that. So she decided to get the comfort she needed, just not from words as she allowed herself to sob into Damon's shirt, not caring if he'd let her or not, because she needed someone, and he was there.

And she just couldn't deal with the fact that she just lost him as the cold and broken feeling came through her again as she knew she was having a complete break-down but Damon knew that the only way to comfort her now was through physical comfort so he wrapped his arms around the part he could as she cried into his chest.

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A/N: This is result of people wanting Scallison trash that didn't know how to incorporate him into the book to make Scott appear. So now I'm crying and I don't think I'm gonna stop any time soon because this was too Scallison.

Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.