• • • •

Faith waved her fingers, mockingly at Stefan as he arrived at the Salvatore House from behind his brother. She leaned one arm against the chair where Elijah sat in. "They have Elena," Damon explained to his brother.

"Technically, Rebekah has her," Faith corrected. "I'm sure she's just eager to kill your little brunette."

"So if you want to save Elena's life, I need you to help me stop my mother," Elijah bargained.

"I'm a little embarrassed to admit, but when it comes to killing thousand-year-old resurrected witches, I'm a little rusty," Damon said, sarcastically.

"Yes, unfortunately even when killed, my mother doesn't seem to want to stay dead," Elijah said, "not with the spirits of nature at her side."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Stefan questioned.

"The witches that released her," Faith began. "She's drawing her power from their bloodline. That line needs to be broken, which I'm all for and I would happily do it myself, but they will try to kill me the moment they see me."

Elijah stood up from the chair. "In any case, you have until six minutes after nine to find them."

"How superspecific of you," Damon replied, sarcastically.

"By 9:07, the moon will be full and my mother will have the power she needs to kill me and my family. If you do not stop her before then, Rebekah will kill Elena, so we all have our timeline. I suggest you get started."

"And why are you helping them? Don't you hate Klaus?" Damon questioned the siphoner.

"Eh, not really," Faith shrugged. "But you see if Esther kills her children, I will also die, Damon. My ancestor's magic was used to create them, which means severed magic ergo I die."

Damon frowned at the information. Faith smiled, sadly at the vampire. "Damon as long as Elena is alive and you will do anything to protect her, you will always have to choose between us. And sadly because I love you, I don't want you to keep choosing and I don't want to constantly betray you. Although I don't like that you love Elena, I want you to be happy. You don't have to protect me, I have Elijah and Rebekah. I'll be fine."

"I promised your dad that I would protect you," Damon protested.

Faith shrugged. "Well, that old geezer just has to deal with it. You can still protect and care for me if you want, I'm not going to stop you, but just know that I will choose whatever I need to survive. I need to care for a child and for that I need my life."

She smiled before she followed after Elijah.

• • • •

Faith walked inside the Mystic Grill. She looked around confused as her eyes traveled around the bar before meeting with the two Mikaelson brothers. She smiled at the two as they raised their glasses of alcohol in greeting. "What are the two of you doing here?"

"I needed entertainment," Kol admitted. "Why are you here?"

"I got a text from Ric," Faith said. "Though I don't know why."

"I remember her from last night," Kol pointed across the bar. Klaus and Faith looked at the direction he was pointing at to see Caroline as she made her way toward them. "She looks like a tasty little thing."

"Say another word and I'll tear out your liver," Klaus threatened as Caroline almost walked past them. "Caroline."

"Oh, it's you," Caroline pretended to notice him and glanced cautiously at Faith.

"Join us for a drink?" Klaus invited her.

"I'd rather die of thirst, but thanks," she remarked before leaving causing Klaus to chuckle. Faith furrowed her eyebrows, suspiciously at the blonde vampire. Something about her was off and forced like she was hiding something.

"Well, he left," Kol drank his drink and set down his shot glass. He looked at Faith with a mischievous grin. "Want to play billiards, love?"

"If you're ready to lose," Faith grinned back.

• • • •

Faith shook her head as she heard Kol trying to flirt with a girl she didn't recognize. She took a swing of her beer before positioning her pool cue before hitting it against the white ball.

"Why don't you get lost, Kol?" the girl countered after Kol introduced himself.

"And why would I do that? I like pretty little things with sharp tongues," Kol neared the girl as Faith scoffed at his flirting. She knew she was going to stop the vampire before he could harm the human girl. She straightened up as Kol tried to lay his hand on the girl, but stopped when Ric walked up to them.

"Pretty sure she told you to get lost," Ric interjected.

"I'm pretty sure I don't care," Kol replied and turned around, only to be stabbed in the stomach with a familiar silver dagger.

"Ric! What the-" Faith tried to step forward, but suddenly felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She looked down and saw blood seeping through her shirt. She coughed and blood sputtered out of her mouth and down her chin.

"Oh my god," the girl said as she rushed forward to Faith.

Faith wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Her blue eyes widened at the sight of the bright red blood on her hand as she applied pressure on her wound on her stomach. The girl placed Faith's arm over her shoulders and pulled her toward the back door of the Mystic Grill where Alaric had left with the Original.

"Ric!" the girl called out to him. The Salvator brothers and Alaric looked back at her and their eyes widened at the sight of the bleeding siphoner.

"Why is she bleeding?" Damon demanded before glaring at the doctor. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," she protested. "She just started bleeding after Ric stabbed that vampire."

"She's linked with them," Stefan realized. "If something happens to one of them, Faith also gets hurt that's what she was talking about."

Suddenly, Klaus appeared and pulled the dagger out of Kol. He pushed Alaric from his brother and the history teacher got knocked into the brick wall. Stefan tried to fight him but he was only pushed to the side. Faith was placed against the wall as the doctor left the scene at the sight of the hybrid.

"I should've killed you months ago," Klaus threatened.

"Do it," Damon provoked. "That's not gonna stop Esther from killing you and Faith might just die of blood loss."

"What did you say about my mother?" Klaus stepped forward, angrily.

"You didn't know I was friends with you mommy?" Damon questioned, mockingly. "Yeah, we have a lot in common. She hates me as much as I do."

"Leave him," Elijah said as he fed Faith his blood to heal her. "We still need him, Niklaus."

"What did mother do?" Klaus asked. "What did she do, Elijah?"

Elijah glanced at Faith. She nodded, weakly, but she motioned him to go. He walked down the steps toward Damon and pulled out a phone. "Tell me where the witches are or I'll have my sister kill Elena right now."

Damon glanced up at the clock tower. "You told me we had until after nine."

"I'm sure Rebekah will be more than willing to start early," Faith seethed.

She was angry with being stabbed, especially with being linked with the Mikaelson children. She really wanted to get her hands on the Original witch. Maybe torture her for a few hours before finally snapping her neck or ripping her heart from her chest. The old hag didn't have to include her into her attempt to murder her children, but she probably knew Faith would try to stop her.

• • • •

"I'm fine," Faith shrugged Elijah's arm off her shoulders as he tried to help her around the woods to the old witches' house.

"You were bleeding, Faith," Elijah said, sternly.

"And you gave me your blood. I'll be fine, it's not the first time I bled," Faith replied and turned to the hybrid. "Klaus, tell Elijah to stop worrying because we kind of need to kill your mother."

Klaus let out a chuckle and Kol smirked as Elijah frowned at the siphoner. They all turned serious at the sight of Esther, Finn, and the Bennett witches. Faith's expression became cold with anger as Esther made the Bennett witches run inside the house. She knew she wouldn't be able to step a foot inside the house without the witches trying to kill her.

"My sons, come forward," Esther said from inside the pentagram with Finn.

"What am I? Chopped liver?" Faith grumbled.

"Stay beside me, Mother," Finn places his arm in front of Esther, protectively.

"It's okay," Esther spoke, calmly. "They can't enter."

Kol tried approaching the pentagram, but the torches' fire grew brighter. He backed away at the fire, "That's lovely. We're stuck out here while the favorite son plays sacrificial lamb. How pathetic you are, Finn."

"Be quiet, Kol. Your brother knows virtue you cannot even imagine," Esther scolded.

"Whatever you think of us, killing your own children will be an atrocity," Elijah spoke up calmly, yet with anger.

"My only regret is that I did not let you die a thousand years ago."

"Enough. All this talk is boring to me. End this now, Mother, or I'll send you back to Hell," Klaus said with a small smirk.

"For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you. Felt the pain of every victim, suffered while you shed blood. Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility, you're no better. All of you," Esther glowered at her sons standing outside the pentagram. "You're a curse on this Earth, stretched out over generations. If you've come to plead for your life, I'm sorry, you've wasted your time."

"See that's the thing, Esther," Faith narrowed her cold blue eyes on the witch as she stepped forward. She didn't show any emotion but anger as the flames grew of her being near the pentagram. "I get why you want to kill your children and such, but why am I linked? And if you really wanted to put the blame on someone, you should take your own consequences. So what? You spent a thousand years asleep-slash-dead, but you didn't actually suffer for turning your children into so-called monsters."

She placed her hand on the invisible border on the pentagram. Her hand began to glow red causing Esther's eyes to widen. "You're the one who should die. You thought you were saving them, but the only thing you did was turn them into what they are now!"

The fire on the torches began to grow weaker as Faith continued to siphon. The brothers looked at the siphoner in surprise as Faith defended them. They weren't used to someone defending or protecting them. They usually were blamed for everything. It's how they grew up, being the blame for everything.

"You, Everly witches, are always defending them," Esther scowled but glanced around the pentagram in worry.

"Oh please," Faith rolled her eyes. "You're just mad my ancestor didn't want to be your mentor. She liked your children more than you. Being jealous of your children is just one step into being a bad parent, Esther. I should know. I was tortured by my own mother because my father loved me more than her."

Faith smirked once the pentagram began to vanish. The Salvatore brothers managed to break the channeling meaning one of the Bennett witches is dead. She looked at the older witch with blue eyes that gleamed with satisfaction and was immediately pulled back by Elijah when the flames grew brighter.

"No! Sisters! Do not abandon me!" Was the last thing they heard as the fire died down, revealing Finn and Esther had disappeared.

• • • •

"Would you be leaving as well?" Klaus asked the siphoner.

Faith glanced back before going back to looking at the painting in Klaus' study with a small smile. "Yes, I haven't seen my daughter in a long time and with everything that happened, I want to be with her. And if I'm being honest, I kind of need a break from all of this. At least for a couple of days."

She turned around when Klaus stayed quiet. She smiled with an amused smile. "Now, don't miss me too much, Klaus," she picked up the grimoire on the desk that lay open and handed to the hybrid.

"What's this?" he asked.

"A spell to unlink us," Faith answered. "I don't quite understand it since it's written in a different way than how an Everly witch would write. The only thing I understood from it was we're going to need everyone's blood and a Bennett witch to do the witch since I can't understand it."

She picked up her jacket from the chair and pulled it over her shoulders. "Call me when you're able to find Finn," Faith smirked at Klaus before she vanished from his sight.