Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. I wish. Alas, they belong to S. Meyer.

One

She shot upright in her bed, breath coming in short gasps. Strips of her long dark hair were plastered to her face. It had only been a dream, that was all. It took her a moment to realize that what she had just seen and experienced was not real. She sighed and climbed out of the bed and walked quietly to the bathroom. She knew her parents would be upset with her if they found out she was still having these sorts of dreams, they were not too pleased with the idea that she claimed to see things happen before they actually did. They thought she was crazy, and had warned her that if she were to continue making false accusations about things that she would be punished. She was young, it's not as though she was asking for these sorts of visions to come into her mind, they came whether she wanted them or not.

She reached forward and turned the water on, she ran the cold water over her face as she felt her heartbeat slow, and she inhaled a deep breath. She looked up and saw her eyes staring back her wide and still shocked at what she had seen. She shook her head and opened the door to the bathroom. The moment that she stepped out into the hallway she felt her heart quicken in pace, and she saw her parents standing in the hallway staring back at her. The dreaded feeling of déjà-vu set in twisting her stomach into an uncomfortable feeling. This couldn't possibly be happening, could it?

"Mary…" Her mother began.

She looked at her father, he could not bear to look back at his daughter. He could not understand where he had gone wrong with her. "Mother?"

She suddenly heard footsteps behind her and she turned to find a group of unfamiliar, and yet all too familiar, people standing behind her. She backed away from them, closing the space in between her and her own parents who stood there with looks of pity, and regret. Her father's arms wrapped around her, holding her tightly to him so that she could not move or struggle against him. Her small frame was nothing in comparison to his large and strong one however that did not stop her from putting up the biggest struggle she could.

"No! Please let me go! I promise… I promise it won't happen again!"

"Take her, please." Her mother said as she turned away from her daughter and the scene enfolding in front her. She may love her daughter, but she was not going to allow the family name to be ruined by some fictional ability that her daughter thought she had.

Another young girl stepped into the hall. Her sister. She stood staring back at Mary, fear registering in her eyes as she watched her very own sister struggle against the restraint of her father, and the strange people that were there trying to get her to stop.

"Mary?" She asked, her voice unsteady with emotion.

Her mother quickly turned at the sound of her other daughter's voice, and she rushed towards her leading her away. Mary heard what her mother told her sister as they walked away. "Your sister is very sick. These people are going to try to help her. She is only going to see the doctor for a little while, and hopefully she will be back very soon…"

"But… I want to go with her!" Her sister cried.

"NO!" Her mother yelled, pulling her sister out of view.

She suddenly realized that no matter how hard she fought her fate was going to come. The scene flashed before her eyes, everything had gone dark. There was nothing in her future. She stopped fighting allowing them to take her wherever they wanted to take her. There was no point in fighting when there was nothing to fight for anymore. Why? It would end badly no matter how she tried to look at it. These people were going to take her away, and that was the end of that.

She was put into a car, she could see that the night sky was a cruel dark cover, allowing no stars to lighten its gloom, nobody would ever know that she had been taken away. There would be no hope of anyone saving her from her inevitable fate. She leaned her head back against the hard surface and felt the tears rolling down her cheeks. Closing her eyes she let out a shaking breath. She would never forget the sight of her sister's face staring back at her, her mother turning her back to her proving she wanted nothing more to do with her, the sight of her father's look of regret.

The drive was silent, nobody said anything to her, and she did not struggle against anyone as she was carried into a large building. She had never seen this place before, and the look of it from the outside alone was intimidating. She was put into a room so black that she could not even see her own hand in front of her face, let alone how big or small this room was. She took a few steps and collapsed to the floor letting the darkness envelop her. She had lost this fight.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Leaning against a wall in a dark corner of the room his head in his hands he tried to ignore it all, he tried to ignore the feelings eating him alive. His throat was burning from thirst, but that was almost a minor feeling compared to everything else. Hate coursed through him, anger, fear, greed, and more thirst. None of these feelings were his, and yet they all became his in the end. There was no fighting the feelings that he felt around him, he hated living his life so controlled by how everyone else was feeling.

He was on his horse again, three small women walking alone. He could have sworn he had led everyone to the destination… but he got off the horse to help them. He could remember their eyes, and he was frozen in shock, the terror that went through his body held him in place along with the fascination of how beautiful they were. They had angel's faces, with eyes that could scare anyone. He felt the pain that had lasted for days afterward… he had wanted to die, he had wished the pain would end, how could he possibly survive through all of this?

He shook his head. He couldn't think about that day again, it was a day so long ago that it was as though it was just a dream. He had been living this life so long now, and he had a duty. He was still leading many into battle, he still taught them how to fight, but it was nothing like what he had lived through before. He would have preferred to have been shot with a musket, bayoneted to death by the enemy, anything would have been better than this life.

A fight was brewing between members of the army, he could feel it. He quickly rose from where he had hidden himself away from everyone and found a group of them split into two facing each other. He took a deep breath and saw that everyone calmed down. The fight was forgotten and they all turned to him, he was their leader, they admired him, looked up to him, wanted to be like him.

"Are we going to feed? I'm so thirsty." One cried out.

He held up a hand. "I am not positive, but I'm sure it must be soon."

Maria came into the room, her presence was undeniable. He could feel her lust for him, but he ignored it. He wanted no part in her like that, the thought of her that way made him sick. He looked out over the group of vampires and found his friend Peter standing in it looking back at him. He walked to him quickly, anything to get him away from Maria so that he could avoid her touch. She was full of hate, full of greed. She always wanted more, and he knew why she had come in here and he did not want to go through this again. When would it end? When would she finally just stop all of this? He would have to kill soon, he would have to see the faces of those he trained looking at him with shock, and he would feel their feelings of betrayal, their last hate for him.

"Jasper… come with me." Maria said, beckoning him towards her.

He looked at Peter and saw his look of concern. Peter knew what would be coming soon as well, and Jasper followed Maria out of the room. She turned to him as they walked, winding her arm through his. "My love, I have a task for you."

Jasper's jaw tightened. He knew it had been coming. "What is it that you need me to do?"

Her hand reached for his face, and instinctively he jerked away quickly. Maria frowned, her eyes narrowing on him. She knew he didn't want her, but she kept trying all the same. "We need to kill those who are losing their newborn strength. We are going to need to create more soon. There is a battle coming, and I need to be strong. We must be prepared. If you could please…"

"Who this time?"

Maria listed many names and he knew what would come next. Jasper walked out of the room silently after she had given him the list and he knew he needed to go in search of them. His own feeling of hate flowed through him, consuming him. He could not stand doing this, the feelings that would roll through him when doing this task were indescribable, and nobody could understand how he carried those feelings with him, always feeling responsible for what happened even if he wasn't. He only wished, once again, that this had never happened to him. There was nothing he could do to change it now.

One by one he killed those that had been on the list with the assistance of his friend Peter. He knew that it was unfair, he had been here so long now and Maria still refused to kill him. He had long lost his newborn strength, but he had proven to be worthy of staying, useful, and there was no way she could ever dream of killing him. The thought of being useful only made him jealous of every single newborn that walked into the room to meet their fate. He would have given anything to be one of them, to be able to end this life he never wanted. A female walked into the room and he sighed, these were the hardest for him. It was engrained in him not to harm women, and here she was young and beautiful, new to this life only a while ago, and now he would end it for her. Peter was unusually tense beside him, fear coming from him.

She looked scared, she felt scared. His stomach tightened at the fear that she was projecting to him as well. "Ah, Charlotte…" He whispered.

She hissed. "Don't think that I don't know what is happening Jasper Whitlock."

"Relax Charlotte, there is no need for you to be afraid." He said, walking towards her calming her fear. She could not fight the calm spreading through her, but the panic in her eyes was evident. Her eyes wide and glowing red, not taking her eyes off of any move that he made.

"Whatever you're going to do to me, I'm begging that you don't."

"Charlotte, you have not the slightest clue what I am about to do… why are you pleading for me to stop right now?" He kept getting closer to her, and she tried to continue backing away from his advance.

Her eyes darted over to Peter, and the look stopped him. That was not a look of terror of what Peter was about to do, it was a look of pleading, a look of… no… it could not be. He turned to look at Peter who stood frozen where he had left him. How could he have missed it? They had been so careful not to let anyone know, and he had completely overlooked it wallowing in his own self pity.

"Peter, come, we must do this and be done with it. I am not sure how much more I can handle if we take much longer." He said.

Suddenly Peter rushed to Charlotte grabbing her and blocking her from Jasper. He growled. "You can't hurt her… I will NOT let you… I am very sorry Jasper."

For a moment Jasper just stood there eyes looked with Peter. He had been his only shot at some form of sanity in this nightmare, and he would have never thought he would be looking back at his friend as he fought to protect someone else. Jasper had no intentions to kill Peter, not his friend, he couldn't do it no matter how hard he tried to fulfill his duty.

Peter and Charlotte ran out of the room leaving Jasper standing there. He could not believe what had happened, but at the same time he did not want to stop Peter and Charlotte. He didn't care where they went so long as it was far away from this, far away from this life. They loved each other, he could feel it, he could feel the trust she had in him the moment he rushed to her side to protect her. How had he missed it? Peter had been uncharacteristically tense the entire process.

Jasper had the next person in and continued the process alone. He did not need Peter's help to finish carrying out the orders that were given to him, and quite frankly he didn't think that he would be alive for much longer being that two escaped him. Maria would be angry with him, and finally maybe he could receive the fate that he had wanted so long, maybe he could receive the fate he had handed so many times over. It was his turn, finally.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A door had opened, she heard it. She also knew someone was in the room, although oddly enough she could not hear the footsteps, but she suddenly felt cold hands grab her from where she lay on the floor and carry her, they set her down on something, a bed? She neither moved, nor talked to whoever it had been that carried her here. She didn't understand how they could even see this bed as there was absolutely no light in the room. How long had she been here? It couldn't have been that long, but she didn't care.

The door opened again, this time she could see faint light pour into the room. A couple of men came in, and she closed her eyes, she didn't want to see them. "We're here to take her."

"Where are you going to take her?" The one who had carried her to the bed asked calmly. She could only tell by the fact that his voice was so close to her.

"We're going to see if we can manage to stop these ridiculous lies of hers. We must treat her." One of the men who had walked into the room replied. She could tell he was still far away from her.

"I do not think it's necessary to do any form of shock treatment right now. Give her a moment. I believe she is in a state of shock from what has happened to her so far."

"State of shock or not, we have orders to take this girl and start treatment immediately."

"Has the family approved all of this?" The one next to her asked.

There was a cold laugh from one of the men that were standing in the room. "It doesn't matter anymore the family is holding a funeral for her tomorrow. It's already been planned ahead of time. They are going to publically acknowledge the death of their daughter. Poor thing, she has no family anymore."

Although she could shut her eyes and ignore anything that was happening physically around her, she could not prevent herself from hearing what she had just heard. Her family was disowning her, and she didn't even know. She would never see her sister again, it had all been a lie. She wondered if her sister would remember her as only she ever got to see. Mary and her sister together were so much different than what her parents may have remembered of her. They only ever saw that their daughter Mary had a problem, they never saw how close the sisters had been, or how they acted towards each other. Her stomach churned making her sick, but there was nothing in her system, fortunately. Her heart wrenched from the facts she now had to face. When she was being taken away she couldn't imagine being anymore alone than going through this by herself… she had been so wrong. Now she truly had nobody, and nobody would ever be searching for her.

"That is heartless."

Another cold laugh filled the room. "Yes, well, that's what happens to little mental cases such as this one. It's a shame she's so young."

The other man laughed. "A lot of them are young, let's get this over with."

Arms grabbed her and lifted her off the bed roughly, no, it wasn't the same cold and gentle arms as before. She kept her eyes closed as she was carried unknowingly to wherever they were taking her. She didn't want to see, and she didn't want to know. She could feel herself being strapped in, and whatever her body was touching was cold. She felt straps secure her arms and legs and she couldn't stop her lip from quivering in the fear of what was to come. She still refused to look and see what was happening. She did not want to know because she was afraid if she did open her eyes and see it she would be even more terrified of what was about to happen to her, and she didn't care to give that satisfaction to her captors. She couldn't understand why her family had done this to her, let her be tortured while leaving her alone for the rest of her life.

Suddenly she felt sharp pain running through her body, a scream escaped through her lips. The pain continued for some time, and soon her body could handle no more and she fell limp. She did not feel the cold fingers feeling for her pulse once the pain had stopped. She was alive, somehow, but she didn't even know. Her body was fighting a fight that her mind had already given up. He placed her lightly in the bed, and he ran to find some form of food for her. They were supposed to kill her, they were supposed to torture her until she died, but he could not understand her family's need for that. He was a stranger to her, and she would probably never know him, but he refused to let her die, she would survive this, and he would get her out of here somehow. One way or another she would be free again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"How DARE you let those selfish traitors run away! You should have just killed her! You should have killed HIM! Have I taught you nothing? Have I made the wrong decision by keeping you?" She screamed, and her palm cracked across his face.

Jasper neither moved, nor flinched. He had taken worse in battle, his body was proof of that with its many scars. He only stood there in the middle of the floor remaining stoic. He could feel her anger, and he knew that she wanted to kill him, and he held onto that hope that maybe she would come to that conclusion. It seemed as though maybe she was getting there slowly.

"SAY SOMETHING!" She screamed into his face.

He looked back into her face. "What is it that you want me to say?"

"You are SORRY! You meant to kill them! You WANTED to kill them!"

"I did mean to kill Charlotte, that was the task you gave me, but I did not WANT to kill either of them. I am not sorry for letting them have a life outside of this, a life with no war." Jasper replied.

The angry sound that came from her filled the room so loudly he would not have been surprised if windows would have broken, had there been windows in this room. "YOU BASTARD!" She growled and hissed at him. There was a pause and she rushed at him grabbing handfuls of his shirt.

Jasper closed his eyes. It would end soon, she would not be able to control her anger much longer. He waited for it to come, he waited for the darkness, the end, to envelop him. When nothing happened he opened his eyes to see her watching him curiously.

"You do not care if I kill you right now." It was not meant to be a question, it was a statement because she had finally realized an important piece of information. She laughed then. "Well, Mr. Whitlock, as punishment you can go and find some new humans for me to change. Bring them to me. You can go without feeding for quite some time and deal with the thirst that will consume you, and you… my dear… will be the one killing every single vampire once they lose their newborn strength… and you will do it alone. Nobody will be there to help clear your conscious. I hope you enjoy your new punishment. Maybe you will come to see just how fortunate you are. LEAVE ME now. I want some newborns."

Jasper turned and walked out of the room, fury was eating him alive. Not only was it Maria's fury with him, but his own fury for having to accept that he was still here, he was not dead how he longed so badly to be. Now he would have to suffer for being so easily read by his maker. He should have made himself appear to be afraid, and he would remember that for the future. He would make sure that if the opportunity came for him to die by the hand of Maria again he would let it happen. He was no coward, however, he knew very well that every time they went into battle he could never come to terms with allowing himself to die. If anyone was going to kill him it would be Maria, and it would be because he stood up for something he believed, not because he hated this life so much that he would just give up and let some newborns from another army kill him when they were nowhere near as skilled as he was.

He ran outside into the open air. It was dark outside, and the farther he ran from where they hid the closer he got to the scent of humans. He could feel the burning take over, he was about to lose control. If he just drank from one Maria wouldn't have to know… but then he would have to hide the body well. He growled at the thought, and continued running, he would find Maria some newborns after all. Maybe soon she would change her mind and he would still get the end he wanted.

Jasper stopped running and stood still for a moment. He wondered how far Peter and Charlotte had gotten from this place, and if they would be okay. He wasn't sure that they knew how to live a life outside of fighting like they had for such a long time. He couldn't help but hope that maybe they would have a happy and quiet life together, and that they would not have to deal with all of the battles. Maybe someday he would even be able to see them again, and he would not regret ever having let them go. At this time he didn't regret it, he felt an entirely different feeling, one he hadn't known since he had still been human. He felt jealousy. He wished that maybe it had been him that had the opportunity to run away, but he knew it would be impossible to do.

Weeks passed very much like they had before Peter and Charlotte ever became part of their army. Battles continued, he gained more scars, and he killed many others that he had trained to become such good fighters. He kept living day to day in the emotions of those around him with the constant hate brewing inside. It was killing him inside to feel so much hate from others that it was becoming his own. He hated himself, he hated the situation he was in, and he hated those around him. Jasper did not allow himself to become close to anymore of the new vampires around him. He did not want to go through anything like what had happened with Peter. He let himself gain a friend, or at least some semblance of a friendship it was the closest thing to a friend he'd had since he had been human, and in the end that friend ended up leaving him to deal with this situation alone. Peter was never aware of Jasper's feelings about their lifestyle, but somehow he knew Peter could sense it. They had a mutual understanding, as Jasper knew Peter's constant feelings.

He spent as much time alone and away from others as he could. The more he secluded himself the more he was able to think clearly without so much hate filling him. Maria kept a watchful eye on him, and she kept him restricted as to when he was allowed to hunt, and she had kept her word on the fact that he would kill everyone who had passed their newborn time, and that he would do it alone. He was also the one who would be picking the new ones to join their army, and he couldn't stop the regret he had every time a human saw him from afar at first. He could feel their wonderment, the way they stared at him with need, or amazement. They all thought the same, he was beautiful, and then he would get closer to them and despite his ability to keep them calm he could still feel the fear that was fighting the forced calm.

Maria walked towards him as he sat alone in the empty room. "You… I need more newborns, go find some for me."

Jasper looked up at her. "I have a name…"

"You're not worthy of being called by any other name than traitor. Now go."

"How long are you going to remain angry with me?" He asked.

She glared at him. "I will be angry with you for as long as I WANT to be angry with you. Now, go find me newborns."

"I'm not sure it's such a good idea to send me out after these newborns, you know that I have no self-control over them. You're forcing me not to hunt, and human blood around me… I wouldn't be able to control myself if I wanted to."

Maria gave him a long and hard stare. "Find a way to control yourself vampire, for if I find that you have had even a slight drink from any human… well, I'm sure I could find worse punishments for you."

Jasper growled low and deep in his throat, and he walked past her and out into the clear night without saying a word. He was glad to be away from the rest of the army as it allowed him to completely detach himself from the feelings that they were forcing him to feel. He ran off at full speed just enjoying the feel of the wind on his face and the usual night silence that was only interrupted by living creatures.

Suddenly he stopped as he heard, "Jasper!" It was no louder than a whisper, but he knew that voice anywhere.

He turned to find Peter standing behind him. "Peter? What are you doing here?"

"I came to tell you thank you… for not killing us even though you should have."

The jealousy hit him like a wall. Peter was okay, and his face no longer held the signs of the stressful, hateful environment that they had been so accustomed to. "I couldn't kill you. I didn't even want to kill you, and of course I never wanted to kill Charlotte, but I would have as it was my orders."

"Charlotte understands, she's just grateful that you didn't follow through, or have us hunted." Peter stated.

"I don't know if Maria is hunting for you or not, so I would suggest staying far away from here. Here, let's walk." Jasper said, as they continued walking away from the newborn army.

"How has it been Jasper? You look… horrible." Peter stated.

Jasper's black eyes fell on Peter's face, noting that Peter's eyes were glowing red, and he looked healthy. "That is because I feel about the same."

"How long are you going to put up with that life? You know that Charlotte and I would take you with us. She is ever so grateful for what you've allowed us to do. We have a life… please… join us…"