Chapter 5: Homecoming (Part 2)

MYSTIC FALLS. 2010 A.D.

"Are you crazy?!" Damon hollered at Elena and Stefan. "Why did you go to her? We don't even know her! And that story about knowing everything, that could just be a story to get us to trust her!"

"I believe her." Elena commented quietly.

"I do too." Stefan agreed.

"Great!" Damon threw his hands up in exasperation. "Your naivety is going to make this plan fail!"

"Stop it Damon." Stefan gave him an annoyed look.

Damon glared at Stefan and continued, "No! Have you even thought about how she might be related to the Originals? You said it yourself Elena! She knows them, heck, she even likes them! Don't you realize that every time we fail, it's because someone let their humanity get in the way and screw it up?!"

Elena contemplated his words.

Could she have made a mistake? Was asking for Faith's help the wrong thing to do?

~TGITW~

It has been a week since the night of illumination. Homecoming should be coming up soon. That meant Mikael was coming to town.

Faith knew she had to stop Mikael, both from killing Klaus and from getting himself killed. She may not have liked Mikael's treatment of Klaus, but that did not mean she wanted him dead. Mikael had been the person who had taken her in and treated her like his own. Faith owed it to him to try and save him.

For now, she had persuaded Elena and the Salvatore brothers to lure Klaus back into town without involving Rebekah. The girl had suffered enough. She deserved a normal life.

Instead, Faithwould be the one to call Klaus and get him to come back to Mystic Falls. She had persuaded them to let her mediate between Mikael and Klaus before they put any plan into action.

Now Elena had set up a meeting between Faith and Mikael. The plan was to talk Mikael out of his murderous rampage first, maybe even persuade him to give up on hunting down the Original siblings. With any luck, Faith would succeed, and bloodshed could be avoided. In the worst-case scenario, Faith fails and they would have just have to dagger Mikael.

Elena entered the living room where Faith was waiting. She was followed by the Salvatore brothers but there was no sign of Mikael.

"Elena, where's Mikael?" Faith asked.

"I'm sorry Faith."

Damon and Stefan sped towards Faith and appeared on either side of her.

Their actions startled Faith and she let out a small gasp.

"What is going on–?" Before she could finish her question, the Salvatores grabbed one arm each and dragged her to the basement. They had learnt early on that they couldn't use their vampiric strength against her. Despite this, the two of them managed to lock up the struggling Faith in one of the basement dungeons.

"Elena! Elena!" Faith screamed and kicked all the way, but she could do nothing against the strength of the brothers.

Elena followed them, painfully aware of what was happening. She watched as Faith tried to break the door open. When that failed, Faith gripped the bars on the small hole through the door and used it to pull herself up and stared at Elena.

"Elena, why?" Anyone could see that Faith was close to breaking down in tears.

"I'm sorry Faith." Elena repeated, feelings of guilt swelling up within her. "It's just for a little while. We will let you out as soon as Mikael kills Klaus."

While Elena trusted Faith, Damon's words made her realize that Faith was never going to be completely on their side. This had to be done.

"We just can't have you trying to stop Mikael. We can't let a monster like Klaus live."

"No! You're making a mistake Elena! Mikael will fail and this will just piss off Klaus!"

"It's ok, we've covered everything. This plan will work." Elena tried to reassure Faith.

"Please Elena, don't do this." Faith begged.

"I'm so sorry, I can't leave anything to chance."

With that said, Elena turned her back on Faith and walked away.

~TGITW~

It must've been hours since she was imprisoned. Faith had fallen asleep and had been dreaming of the days she had spent with the Original family. It felt like yesterday that she was running in the woods with Elijah and Klaus, and in a way, she had been.

She woke up to the sound of the door opening.

Caroline entered her cell with a bottle of water in one hand and a sandwich on the other.

"OMG!" Caroline exclaimed at the sight of her. "I can't believe they locked you up!"

"Caroline!" Faith got up and hugged the blonde vampire in relief. "I'm so glad to see you! You gotta let me out."

"I'm sorry Faith." Caroline gave her a miserable look.

Faith's face hardened as anger replaced relief. Caroline's words had just told Faith that she wasn't there to rescue her.

"I've been told not to let you out. It'll just be a few more hours."

Faith shook her head in disbelief and backed away from Caroline. Then she rushed past her towards the open door.

"Don't." Caroline grabbed her wrist and stopped her. "Tyler's right outside. Sure, you might get past me, but no way you get past that hybrid ex-jock."

Faith sighed and took the food that Caroline offered before settling back down on the mattress in her cell. Caroline sat beside her watching her eat while updating her on what was happening outside.

In the end, they had recruited Rebekah's help like they did in the TV show.

After Faith finished eating, Caroline grew quiet.

Noticing her silence, Faith asked: "What's wrong?"

"Faith," Caroline began shyly. "Were you and Elijah together?"

"What? Where did that come from?"

"It's just…whenever his name came up, you would have this sad look on your face. As if you've lost someone really important to you."

"It's that obvious, huh?"

Caroline nodded and replied, "I'm sorry. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. I just thought to understand you better…"

"It's fine Caroline."

Faith paused and considered if she should tell her story. What the heck? Might as well go for it. It was Caroline afterall. One of the few good ones in Mystic Falls.

"It's a miracle really." Faith started. "When you find someone who loves you as much as you love them. I mean think about it, out of billions of people in the world, you fall for a person, that's already a high probability stacked against you. Then, for that person to actually love you back, that's like…even more improbable. There's nothing else to say but that it's a miracle really."

She could feel Caroline's full attention on her and continued.

"There was a time when I thought he didn't love me. But he does and I was so happy. I never thought that the person I loved could and would love me back. I felt that everything was right in the world. It was too good to be true…And it was."

She stopped. It hurt too much to continue talking about it.

Seeing her pain, Caroline reached out and put her arm around her. She pulled Faith closed and stroked her arm encouragingly.

They stayed quiet for a while before Caroline had to go.

"It'll all turn out alright Faith." Caroline remarked as she exited the room. "You shouldn't stop trying."

I'd like to think so too. Faith thought to herself as she watched Caroline wink at her before leaving.

With Caroline gone, it was dead silent again.

Hours later, Faith approached the door to her cell. Something about Caroline's words made her decide to try opening the door again.

To her surprise, the door creaked open.

Faith grinned as she realized Caroline had just left her a way to escape her prison.

~TGITW~

Bonnie couldn't believe she was at the Homecoming dance with Damon Salvatore.

She had never been his fan. Not when he showed up with his arrogant self. Not when he began using Caroline as a blood bank. She had hated every insult, every sarcastic remark, every argument Damon had thrown at her. She had hated every mess that Damon created and forced her to be involved in.

As far as she was concerned, there was nothing redeeming about the older Salvatore brother.

He stood beside her watching the people come and go. Damon wore a classic black suit jacket with a white dress shirt. His suit fitted his body well, emphasizing all the muscles on his arms and chest. Bonnie had to admit that despite all his faults, Damon Salvatore was nothing but outrageously good-looking in a suit and tie.

She turned away from her date and took a sip from her drink.

As much as she would like to deny it, beneath everything lied a growing attraction to Damon Salvatore. She must've liked the "bad boy" attitude more than she thought.

Damon challenges her and makes her question the things she does. More than that, she has started to see glimpses of who he really was inside. Vulnerable and broken. And she can't help but desire to protect and heal him. It's just the way that Bonnie Bennett was.

Tonight, she could sense his agitation. Something was up. Something that was putting him on edge.

"Ok, Damon. What is going on?" She questioned him.

"Look bon bon, it's best you don't know." Damon whispered back with his trademark smirk.

Bonnie shook her head with annoyance and Damon left her to go enact his wicked plans.

After a while, Bonnie was drawn to the commotion at the front of the house.

She hurried just in time to see Mikael stab Elena.

Then everything seemed to slow down before her eyes. Damon came from behind Klaus and tried to stab him with a stake. The sight of Damon struggling with Klaus caused Bonnie's heart to drop. The thought of Damon harmed, and possibly even killed scared her.

She was about to cast a spell against Klaus when Stefan came out of nowhere and pulled Damon off of Klaus.

Thank God he was ok. Bonnie thought in relief.

But that wasn't the case for Mikael as Klaus grabbed the stake and plunged it into Mikael's chest.

Bonnie stood rooted to the ground in shock as the Original vampire burst into flames. Then she heard a scream.

"Nooooo!"

Bonnie and everyone else turned in the direction of the scream and saw Faith running towards the flame.

As Faith passed her, Bonnie instinctively stopped her from rushing into the flames.

Klaus turned away from the fire and saw Bonnie struggling with a girl who was screaming.

Recognition and disbelief fell on Klaus face.

"Faith?"