A/N: So I should start off by saying, that if you consider yourself an absolute and complete Twihard who simply can't stand to see anyone bash the characters, then this story is probably not for you as it is extremely anti-Twilight. That being said, this is a Twilight/Nightside crossover. It is told from the view of Emmett Cullen (the only one of the Twilight characters I can stand). A friend of mine, tardis10, is writing a story very similar to this one (we created the idea of Twilight/Nightside together) so if you should go check her out!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. All characters from Twilight belong to Stephanie Meyer, and all Nightside characters belong to Simon R. Green.
Chapter One: Everyone Comes To The Nightside
The moment we stepped off the train, I figured we were screwed.
"Edward," Bella squealed, clutching to Edward's arm as though it were the only thing keeping her linked to life. "Where are we?" She looked like she was going to faint. It would have been amusing if I had not been feeling kind of the same.
"I don't know," Edward answered as calmly as he could. "But stop panicking, we're going to be fine." He looked pointedly at Jasper who stepped a little closer to Bella. Instantly she looked calmer. I had to force myself to keep from rolling my eyes. I really hated it when they manipulated her like that, as though she were some sort of toy. Of course, I hated her for being stupid enough to let them keep doing it.
"Does anyone know where we are?" Alice asked, her eyes wide and worried. "Are we even still on Earth?"
"Well of course we're still on Earth," Rosalie snapped irritably. "Look, there's the moon right there." She pointed towards the sky. "Just because it's bigger doesn't mean we're not still on Earth… right?" She looked over at Carlisle. We all did.
He did not answer immediately, instead taking his time, rubbing his chin as he thought. "Well, logic tells us that if we can see our moon, then we're still on Earth… though the fact that it is bigger and… fuller than it was when we entered the Tube system is certainly worrying."
I groaned. "Great," I said, shoving my hands in my coat pockets. "I told you getting on that train with no windows was a bad idea."
Edward glared at me. I shrugged in return. Hey, getting on the train had been his stupid idea. He had been having a lot of those since meeting Bella. I mean, sure she smelled like strawberries, but so did a lot of inexpensive, inanimate shampoos. Why couldn't he have fallen in love with any of those?
"I think we need to get out of the street," Alice said, inching closer the group.
"I agree," Jasper said calmly, as unflappable as always. "I think we may be drawing attention to ourselves."
He was not wrong. The people (I used the word lightly) on the street were giving us weird looks as they passed. Of course, in my opinion, they weren't really the ones who should be staring. The people who were on the sidewalk were not at all the sort of people I was used to seeing. In fact, I wasn't entirely sure all of them were people. There were things on the street, and though they had two arms and legs, they didn't all seem to be human. There were grotesque creatures moving in and among the people, and the people weren't entirely normal either. They all had an air about them that I had never sensed before. There was something desperate in the crowd, as though these people had nothing and everything to lose and didn't care what happened as long as they had a good time doing it. It was eerie.
"Let's go," Carlisle said, starting to move the group forward, going with the crowd in… I wasn't even sure what direction.
"We need to have a destination," Edward said, a little unnecessarily. "We need to know where we're going."
"Well no, duh," I said, also unnecessarily.
Carlisle sighed. "I know, boys, I know," he said, playing the harassed father role he was so good at. "We need to figure out where we're going before--"
"Before what?" Bella's shrill voice interrupted. On cue, Jasper moved in closer to her.
"Before something bad happens," Carlisle finished quietly.
"What do you think could happen?" Esme asked, speaking for the first time since we'd arrived.
"Well, I get the feeling normal rules don't apply to this place," Carlisle answered, scooting out of the way to allow more room for a rather large horned creature to pass.
I was about to reply, but Alice beat me too it.
"Behind us!" she gasped, and as one, we whirled around.
In retrospect, I think the only reason we didn't smell him before we saw him was that we were already so overwhelmed. Otherwise, the stench would have been a dead giveaway.
The guy was tall, my height, but the filthy coat he wore made him look smaller. He looked like he hadn't washed in years, and smelled like it too, yet there was something more to him than your average hobo. He commanded respect even before he spoke. Which was a good thing, because otherwise Edward probably would have kicked the crap out of him for making Bella scream in terror.
"I don't mean to alarm you," the man said, his voice much kinder than I had expected it to be. "But I think I can help."
Ever the valiant leader, Carlisle stepped forward, smiling neutrally at the man. "Can you? That's very kind of you, but if you don't mind my asking, how do you know we need help, and why are you so willing to help us?"
The man smiled. "I don't mind your questions. Being cautious will keep you alive here. I know you need help because you don't fit in. You're panicked. I choose to help because that is my personal redemption. You need John Taylor." His abrupt change of subject caught us all off guard. Edward was the first to recover.
"John Taylor, who is that?"
Honestly, just because the kid was 107-years-old he thought he was in command around here. Sometimes I wanted to hurt him.
"John Taylor helps the hopeless," the stranger answered. "He'll take time out of his day to help you."
"You think so?" Alice asked, her wide eyes bright and hopeful. "Where can we find him?"
"There's a bar here called Strangefellows. It's the oldest bar in the world, you can find him there."
"A bar?" Esme asked skeptically. "I don't know," she continued, catching all of our eyes. We all leaned in a little, speaking so quietly that Bella couldn't hear, and neither could the stranger. "Do we really want to take advice from a stranger?" Esme asked nervously. "In a strange place? I mean, he's sending us to a bar."
"What choice do we have?" I asked, speaking quickly before someone else cut in. Like that, it was decided. I turned away to speak to the man, but he was gone. I furrowed my brows in confusion. "What the hell?"
Carlisle sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I think we're going to be dealing with a lot of that around here. Edward, can you see if you can figure out how to get to this bar, to this…"
"Strangefellows?" Jasper prompted.
"Yes," Carlisle said, giving Jasper a thankful glance. "Strangefellows, exactly."
Edward nodded. "Yes, of course I can." He stood still then, closing his eyes. For a moment, his brows furrowed and he looked confused. Then he screamed in pain. He doubled over, his hands clutching at his head.
Bella shrieked and fell to her knees, clutching at Edward's elbow.
"Edward!" she squealed frantically, "Edward, what is it? Oh Edward! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Edward answered, breathing heavily but sitting up. "It's just… there was nothing and then… there… was pain, terrible pain. Carlisle, I don't think I can read minds here…"
Bella frowned, almost pouting. "I thought that only worked with me," she said, sounding a little disappointed.
Edward shook his head. "I'm sorry, Bella. I don't know what it is about this place."
"It's okay, Edward," Bella replied, helping him to his feet. "It's not your fault."
Carlisle was frowning, looking more worried than I'd seen him in ages. "I don't alike this, this place is no good."
"Perhaps we should just try finding our way out ourselves," Rosalie suggested. "Honestly, how hard could it be to find the entrance to the subway?"
"I don't think we should risk getting back on that train," Edward said sharply, earning himself a glare from Rosalie.
"What? Just because Bella didn't like it? We can't put us all in danger just because your girlfriend got a little claustrophobic."
"Now, now, children," Carlisle began tentatively, but he was cut off by Edward.
"Don't be a fool, Rosalie," he said coolly. "What happens if the train takes us someplace more foreign than this, what then?"
"Well I'm sure we could keep riding it until we came to our desired destination!"
I sighed heavily, looking down at my shoes. This arguing would get us no where. We really needed to focus. I looked up at the sky, tuning out the argument. It really was a pretty moon. At least a dozen times bigger than I was used to, but amazingly beautiful. Suddenly something occurred to me. I looked down from the sky and to my left down the mouth of the alley we were standing at… though I couldn't remember it being there. Near the end of the alley was a glowing neon light that spelled something in an incredibly beautiful script. Or maybe it was just a pretty design. I didn't know. Either way, something told me to alert Carlisle to it.
"Hey," I said, breaking up the argument that now involved everyone except Jasper and Bella. "Hey, what's that sign say?"
Well, that got their attention. I really hated it when they all looked at me like they couldn't quite figure out why I was there with them.
"Emmett," Edward said, using the voice he used when he thought I was doing something stupid. "Emmett, I believe you know how to read English, yes?"
"Don't be mean to Emmett," Rosalie snapped, pressing herself protectively against me, which I rather enjoyed.
"Yeah, Edward, don't be mean to me," I said, earning myself an eye roll. I ignored it, though, looking back over at Carlisle. "So, seriously, what's that sign say?"
Carlisle frowned, looking mildly surprised at not having noticed the alley before. He studied the sign for a moment before speaking again. "Well, I'm not an expert, but I believe that sign is in Sanskrit?"
"What's that?" Bella asked a little dreamily. Jasper was standing next to her again.
"Sanskrit is an old language," Alice said in a rather know-it-all tone.
Carlisle nodded. "That's right, and if I'm right that sign says, well… Strangefellows."
