~Recap from Chapter 2~

Faith recognized the man.

"Alaric?"

The next moment, she found herself falling and her vision fading.

The last thing she saw was Alaric rushing towards her, probably to stop her from hitting the ground. Then Faith surrendered herself to the darkness as relief washed over her.

~TGITW~

Chapter 4: Homecoming (Part 1)

MYSTIC FALLS. 2010 A.D.

"Is that her?"

"How long has she been sleeping?"

"Alaric brought her in last night."

"Who is she?"

"What is she?"

Faith could hear talking in hushed voices. Slowly, she stirred in her sleep and eventually opened her eyes. She found herself lying in a bed and was surprised by the familiar faces looking down at her.

Everyone stopped talking immediately. They held their breath in anticipation as her eyes wandered over them. She studied them curiously, from the girl to her right to the boys standing by the window.

Finally, she turned to the girl closest to her. She had straight brown hair with doe-like eyes the color of chocolate.

"Elena?" Faith asked uncertainly.

Then she looked to the girl beside Elena and asked in the same tone, "Bonnie?"

She then went on to name each person in the room: Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Matt in front of her. Jeremy by the door with Anna. Stefan and Damon by the side to the windows. Though at first unsure, she became more and more certain as she recited each person's name.

Once done, she used her elbow to push herself up into a sitting position. For a minute she looked disoriented. All eyes still on her, she continued: "What? What's going on? Why am I here? What day is it?"

"It's Saturday." Jeremy answered.

Faith shook her head and asked again, "No, what date? What year?"

Elena looked at her strangely and answered, "It's 2010."

The answer shocked Faith.

How could that be? Wasn't she just in the 10th century with the Original family? Why did she wake up in the 21st century?!

~TGITW~

Alaric studied the pictures they took of the writings in the cave. He had translated all the names by now. Niklaus. Elijah. Rebekah. Those were names they were familiar with. But there were other names he did not recognized. Mikael. Esther. Finn. Kol. Faith.

Then there was the mystery of the girl they found in the caves. As he had been taking photos of the writings, he had seen movement to his side. When he had turned, he had found the weak and dazed looking girl. She had been emerging from what seemed to be a tunnel further into the cave. The girl recognized him and had faintly called out his name. Before Alaric could react, the girl had passed out and he found himself rushing to catch her.

Alaric and Damon had brought her back to the Salvatore boarding house. The news spread among the Mystic Falls gang and everyone grew curious of her. When he had left the Salvatore house, everyone had been gathered around her bedroom whispering theories of who she could be.

Hopefully, when the girl awoke, they would find out the answers.

~TGITW~

Shortly after answering some basic questions, the girl whose name was Faith declared that she was hungry. Her stomach growled in affirmation. One by one they left the room and brought her to the kitchen for some breakfast.

As they headed down the stairs, different theories were being passed around about who Faith was and why she was in the cave. In the kitchen, she sat on one of the counter chairs at the center table and was handed a bowl of cereal. She hungrily ate the food up, apparently oblivious to the looks she was getting from the group. She chattered happily about trivial things, asking about the weather and happenings at the Mystic Falls High School. This led to Caroline talking about the upcoming Homecoming dance. As Caroline talked about dresses and dates and plans made about the dance, Faith listened, asking the occasional clarifying question.

The others let Caroline take over the conversation. Afterall, there was not much they could say really as they were still guarding themselves against this stranger who may or may not have knowledge of the supernatural. Some found her carefree attitude amusing while others did not know what to make of her.

Finally, everyone gathered in the Salvatore living room, and Faith began her story. She stumbled trying to find the right words: "I…I'm not sure what to say. Well, I guess first my name. My name is Faith. And…"

She sighed and paced back and forth, obviously struggling with herself about what to say.

"Let's just say that I know everything, what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen."

Damon snorted. The others looked at her with skepticism.

But she continued anyways: "I can't tell you how I know as that could change things, maybe for the good, maybe for the bad I don't know."

Still seeing the skepticism in their eyes, she shrugged.

"Which now sounds incredibly vague." She mumbled. "Ummm…ok…ask me anything, and I can answer you. I can tell you what happened."

A couple of people chimed in with questions about some random things. Faith immediately realized that was the wrong approach.

"No, I mean something major not some random details to prom or something."

Faith thought for moment then spoke while pointing to each of them: "Ok, how about this. I know Damon and Stefan are vampires. I know Bonnie is a witch. I know Elena is a doppelganger. I know Caroline's also a vampire. And I know Jeremy is a hunt– no wait, I can't say that." She said the last part with a sheepish expression.

"I can't say what he's going to become because that can change the future."

They all look at her in shock. Then they all burst out at once:

"What will happen to Jeremy?"

"What will happen to me?"

Damon scoffed and said: "That doesn't tell us anything. There are other ways she could have found out about all this."

The suggestion that she was some sort of liar angered Faith. She turned to face Damon with a determined expression.

"You know what? I'll prove it. You were the first one to see Elena the night her parents died, even before Stefan. You mistook her for Katherine and approached her. You guys flirted and talked about how Elena wanted a love that consumed her. Then you compelled her to forget that very encounter."

Her words left Damon speechless.

"Not enough?" Faith continued on, "Or, what about the time after you and Stefan rescued her from Elijah? That night you snuck into her room and confessed your love for her. All the while realizing that you were not good enough for her and that it was Stefan who deserved her. You kissed her on the forehead then compelled her to forget everything you said."

By now, Damon was extremely uncomfortable. Noticing this, Faith snapped out of her anger.

Without warning, Damon sped towards Faith and started to choke her single-handedly.

Expectedly, Stefan immediately pulled his brother away from Faith.

Upon being released from Damon's clutches, Faith found herself clutching her neck and gasping for air.

"Look," Faith tried to speak in between breaths, "I'm sorry. This may all sound strange. But it's true."

There was silence for a while. The revelation about Damon's actions had made them all uncomfortable.

"I need time to process this." Elena spoke up and left the room.

Stefan echoed her: "Yes, let's take some time to think about all this first."

Following their lead, everyone dispersed, one by one, out of the room until only Stefan and Faith were left.

Stefan studied her, trying to find some sign of deception or pretense. Finding none, he gave up and was about to leave as well when Faith called out to him.

"Thank you." Faith smiled sadly at him. "And for what it's worth, I really wanted to save you. I really wanted you and Elena to be together. Even if it hurt Damon."

~TGITW~

It had been days since Faith woke up in the present-day TVD timeline. Since then, Faith had told the Mystic Falls gang the story of the Originals and how they came to be. At first everyone was suspicious of her story, but Alaric confirmed her story when he deciphered the paintings from the cave.

Of course, she had omitted certain key details, namely her involvement. With what she knew about the past and what she remembered of her world, she had put together the missing pieces. She was not of this world and where she came from, these people were TV fiction.

Faith had always felt something was wrong, a feeling of déjà vu. And now, it all started to click. Her memories of the past and of the future were all part of the TV show. Waking up in the present TVD timeline simply confirmed it.

She was in the world of the TV show. And it wouldn't do well for her to reveal this fact.

Thankfully, they found out that she could not be compelled. Faith still remembered the scene vividly.

Damon sped up to face her. He grabbed her arms and forced her to look him in the eyes.

"You will tell us the truth right now."

Instead of complying, Faith simply shoved him away.

"You can't be compelled?" Damon asked bewildered.

He leaned towards her neck and sniffed her.

"You're human though."

Damon had tried and failed miserably. He could smell the human off her and knew that she did not have vervain on her. He could not figure out why Faith can't be compelled. Moreover, Damon and Stefan agreed that there was something different about Faith's blood. Normally, human blood smelled enticing to vampires. But with Faith, there was nothing. They did not feel the need to drink from her at all.

A knock on her door caused Faith to look up.

"Come in." She said.

Elena opened the door and peeked in. "Can I come in?"

Faith nodded and gestured to the chair across her bed.

"Look, we need your help. We're figuring out a plan to stop Klaus and with how you know things about their past and future, we thought you might be able to help us."

Faith didn't answer and instead watched her thoughtfully.

Everything was following the TVD plot but there were some slight differences from this world and the TV show that Faith knew. For one, Anna was still alive and was still together with Jeremy. Bonnie and Jeremy never got together at all. Faith still didn't remember every detail that happens, but she was pretty sure Anna wasn't supposed to be alive at this point in time.

Moreover, Stefan had not been compelled by Klaus to turn off his humanity. While Stefan was still being controlled by Klaus, he at least retained his humanity. One of the reasons they want to see Klaus defeated was to free Stefan from the Original's control.

"Faith?" Elena asked uncertainly.

"Are you going to kill Klaus?"

"It's the only way to stop him." Elena reasoned.

"You gotta understand, I know everyone's story. Even the people you see as bad. I know what makes them act the way that they do. I know their past and their hurts and their whys. That's why I want to save everyone."

Faith turned to Elena with a pleading gaze.

"I…I don't know if I can do that." Elena answered hesitantly. "He's killed so many people."

Faith sighed and closed her eyes. She still remembered the tragedy that happened in the past. It pained her to think about the hopelessness she felt at not being able to stop anything. And she wondered if she could even change the future at all.

"Faith?" Elena asked again.

"I tried to stop it you know. Tried to stop the thing that caused everything to happen. I wanted to change the future. Desperately. I wanted to change fate, destiny, all things written in stone."

Faith sighed again then continued, "But when I would change something, something else would come along and allow it to happen anyways. So, I don't know if I can change it or if everything has been written in stone and cannot be changed."

Feeling utterly defeated, Faith cast her gaze downwards.

Elena approached her and placed her hand on Faith's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

"We can try." Elena said.