(A/N: So I'll go back to being at the bottom of chapters after this – just a heads up to new readers, you should probably go back and read the predecessor to this, The Back End of Forever, first. Probably. Yeah, I know, I'm real original with my titles hah. Warnings: mentions of sex, drinking, violence, all the good stuff. Disclaimer: obviously, I don't own Twilight; just my own OC's and plot. Another shitty cover photo...One day I'll fix these. Thanks, you guys fucking rock, readers/favoriters/followers/reviewers, whatever! Here we go!)
Reunion and the Promise of War
I regard my reflection in the mirror – I'm back to my old self. Not the woman who stared into herself in a run-down gas station in Los Angeles, and not the bloody-mess I was in Texas. I run my fingers over my shaved head – which is badass – and more importantly over the runes circling the crown of my head. It's a halo of almost translucent red that goes from temple to temple; it looks like scrawling script, looks slightly like ancient Greek. Three dots rest above each of my eyebrows, the smallest on the outside barely bigger than the point of a pencil and the inner two get only slightly bigger. An ultra-thin diamond starts between the two sets of circles, running the length of my forehead and disappearing into my hairline. My lips are split down the center by a thin red line that ends in another trio of dots at the tip of my chin. In the bright bathroom lighting, even through the fog still clinging to the glass, the red has the tell-tale shimmer of a venom tattoo.
It's beautiful, yes…to me and my vampire boyfriend; what about the populace at large? I was barely passable as normal before. I'm not complaining about being alive or anything, but man am I going have a hard time finding jobs for the next few hundred years.
Then Jazz steps out of the shower, all steamy and wet and –
And he knows exactly what I'm trying not to think about.
"Can't we just go tomorrow," he wraps an arm around my waist; water droplets drip from his hair as he bends to press his lips softly on my shoulder, "please?"
I wiggle out of his grip with a mischievous smile, "The sooner we get this over with the sooner we can get back to…more important things."
I sense his disapproval in an instant. Damn impatient immortal sexy bas-
He grabs and picks me up easily, setting me down on the cool stone counter, 'Important things now, please.'
I'm never going to be productive again in my long, long life.
It's hours later after a long and very distracting afternoon that I bang on Swan's front door; when it opens she looks happy enough to cry; nice to know I didn't fuck her up emotionally. Not anymore than she already was, at least.
"Wasn't expecting you to be here, girly," I say, punching her playfully in the shoulder," isn't your lady back?"
As soon as Jasper looks at her, I know everything that's been going on between her and Al. Which is nothing.
"Alice came back and you said fuck that? And she's pissed about the hunter thing. Great."
Her face sours, a frown creases her youthful face – am I feeling her stubbornness?, "Yeah that's…not happening anymore. Nice to see you two back together," she adds, noting Jasper's hand in mine, "after the shit you went through…I – "
"We'll sort all this out at the house; let's go," I incline my head towards the familiar black charger sitting at the curb in front of my house, "fuck, can't even get a moment to breathe after dying. Alice is really pissed, huh?" Jazz opens the door for Swan and I; she shuffles into the backseat first and I stop to give him a quick peck on the lips before sliding into my usual spot next to him.
Ugh, this is too cute.
"She's such an idiot, thinking she could leave the way she did and come back like nothing happened! Of course my future changed – I decided that I want to be a hunter, if you still want to train me." She shuffles impatiently in the backseat as she waits for my answer.
"So no immortality for you?" I see her eye the marks on my face, "Oh. Those." What am I going to say, no? It's her choice; what cons could I offer when the pros seem to far outweigh them? I couldn't say no if I wanted to.
"I get them, Rory. I'm not a vampire in that future anymore. And I'm not with Alice either; I can't forgive her just like that."
"Don't blame you – the only reason I'm in such a forgiving mood is because dying really puts perspective on things...But they did explain soul mates don't quite work like that, right? You can't just turn it off."
She shrugs, "Hasn't killed me yet, it's just pissing me off."
"When did you turn into a mini-version of me?"
She rolls her eyes, "How are you feeling?"
"Like a superhero," I look in the rearview mirror with a cheeky grin, "I can't wait to see what other secrets they kept in that book."
"…Rory, you sound like you have something to settle; what really happened? What's going on?"
"I'll wait until we're all together – I don't want to have to explain things too many times or I'll realize I've finally gone bat-shit insane."
"You weren't before?" A Swan-like smile accompanies the question
"Shut it," I say as we finally pull into the wooded driveway; the large white house comes into view and looks the same as it ever did, "when did you become such a smart-ass?"
"When I turned into a mini-version of you," she says with impeccable sarcastic inflection.
"Damn it, I knew I'd be a terrible influence on you."
Jasper laughs and pulls Betty into the garage before he kills the engine, and it takes all of a millisecond after I exit the vehicle for me to get swept up into a bear hug.
"Ink!" Emmett laughs and spins me around once before setting me back on the ground, "You don't look like a corpse anymore!"
"Gee, thanks," I cross my arms in front of my chest and fix the dark haired giant with a stern look, "just what every girl wants to hear. Not 'you look nice' or 'glad you aren't dead.' Typical Colossus."
He looks more ashamed and hurt by my words than I intended; I place my right hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry about it big guy; shit's crazy. Where is everyone else?"
"Waiting," Rosalie says, entering the garage timidly; it's so weird to see her look unsure of herself, "we're all glad to see you again Rory; I'm sorry I –"
"Don't, really. No apologies – too awkward for me and highly unnecessary; I'd rather just occasionally give you guys shit about it. Come on, we've got a lot to talk about."
We enter the house, Rosa and Colossus leading the way, followed by Swan, then Jazz and I hand in hand at the back. Everyone only looks mildly interested in the first three as they enter the living room; they all nearly trip over themselves to rush to my side when they see me.
"Well hello there family who abandoned me," it's not serious at all as I mock glare at all the members of the Olympic coven, "you look like you've all seen a ghost. Or a recently brought back from the dead hunter – oh wait."
They all stay in a loose semi-circle around Jazz and I; after a minute of silence I throw my hands up in the air.
"Jesus; not everyone all at once now."
"Amory, I'd like to –"
"No apologies. I wouldn't mind you guys telling me how much you missed my charming and sterling personality," I interrupt Carlisle with a smile, "I'll be ribbing you guys about this for a while though; you totally deserve it."
Esme finally can't contain a motherly hug – she's almost as strong as Emmett as her arms circle me protectively, "We all missed you so much, Rory."
"Amory," an icy and alien voice says from somewhere near the kitchen. A dark looking pixie stands with one shoulder against the wall, her eyes narrowed to slits at me and Swan.
"Al, nice to see you again," I can somehow feel that she's reluctantly happy to see me.
She looks torn for a second before she pouts, "I'm glad you're back, but did you have to ruin everything?"
"Yeah, that's kind of what I do; and if you think I wrecked shit before just you wait. Before I get too deep into that," I turn to look at Liam and Maddie who are sitting on the sofa with a very livid Brynjar, "I need to know just how the Crown of Anathema works."
"I'll be damned; you really do share memories now."
I walk over to the still-familiar bar and pour myself a glass of whiskey, "That and thoughts, and feelings, and –"
"Jasper's empathy. You're feeling our emotions through him, Rory," Edward says softly, and I know why without having to delve too deeply into his feelings; never thought the sour and dour Professor X would ever feel anything beyond brotherly love for me.
I'm not too worried about it; I can also feel the connection between him and Madeline Mercier fairly clearly now. I share a knowing look with Jasper; she really did fall in love with a bloodsucker.
"Well….shit. Superpowers abound, apparently," it is super weird having a sudden case of pathokenesis by proxy, "so, that's what this does? What is it?" I gesture at the mark on my face.
"Venom and ink; what a bitch to mix," Liam starts in, looking over his work, "and that diagram in the book only explained so much. I'm surprised it worked at all."
"Yeah, I could've told you that. What does it do? What did the book say?" I implore impatiently, sipping at my drink as I glare at his drawn out explanation.
"From what I translated it started in ancient Greece and morphed from there. It binds the soul of a hunter to their chosen host, in this case –"
"In this case your piece of shit boyfriend. Rory, do you realize that now you are, by definition, 'Dedicated to something evil and thus accursed?' That's alright with you? Christ on a fucking cross, you have the worst taste in men." Brynjar looks close to losing his mind as he crosses the room to me, putting himself slightly closer to me than Jasper; he's begging for a fight.
"Whoa, take it down a notch Bryn," I feel Jazz's shame and rage like a punch in the gut, "it did save my life."
"Yeah, and now you get to spend forever sharing two minds with three people," he pulls roughly at his braided blond beard, "goddamn it, this means there'll be a wedding, right? I'm going to kill him." At the mention of a wedding I hide my blush with the burn of whiskey.
"You can certainly try, Skal." Jasper says lowly, dangerously.
"I wouldn't have to try to kick your ass; maybe I should take your fingers, see how you like it."
"He wouldn't – it sucks, trust me. Lay off, Brynjar," I look up into his usually red eyes, now slowly turning topaz, "we've got bigger problems to worry about Jazz and I screwing."
Bad choice of words; the statement is barely out of my mouth before Bryn flies off the handle.
"She just woke up from the dead and you thought it'd be a good idea to…to sleep with her? Are you out of your fucking mind!?"
"Ok, if only to interrupt this lovely reunion, I have an announcement," I put myself between the two men, exasperated they can't get along for two damn seconds, "I'm going to finish off the Mexican coven, then I'm going after the Volturi, and then I'm marking up before going after John; I'm going to need a river of blood and venom to do it. No more living some fantasy world where violence is nearly non-existent, no more sitting back and waiting for something to happen – I'm starting a war, one that I'm going to win. And once I get what I want, we get to reform the occult world – or at least the vampire portion of it – something I think's been a long time coming."
That certainly shut everyone up.
"What?" I spin towards the front door, where Peter and Charlotte are just entering; from the way their eyes glow red I guess they just got back from a hunt.
"Oh, hey guys. Thanks for telling Liam about my…less than stellar plan and saving my ass."
"To what end Rory? Why do this?" Carlisle doesn't give them a moment to answer; he's confused at my motives.
"It's my job Doc; Maria deserves to die and I need to finish the job I fucked up. The Volturi have ruled for centuries upon centuries; fuck that. They're tyrannical, they're corrupt, and they're doing a piss poor job at keeping anything in check. We could do it; you could do it, Carlisle."
"We don't have the resources…A coven this small could never – "
"Small? We've got seven vampires – eight if Bryn can stop being a dick, two hunters, maybe a healer and an alchemist…We'll need allies...I could call a truce with the wolves." I turn my attention back to Pete and Charlie, "You two in?"
The petite woman looks up at her husband, who nods gravely, "If Jasper has your back then so do we Rory."
I grin excitedly, "We've got a lot of shit to do and not a lot of time to do it in; let's make every second count, ladies and gentleman. Here's the deal –"
So, to re-cap, I've got to deal with: my brother hating my beyond soul mate's guts, Alice and Swan's weird tension and broken relationship, figuring out what exactly the mysterious mark on my head and face is capable of, all while trying to wage a war.
Craziness, as usual; but it's like they say – no rest for the wicked. I'm itching to start a revolution, and I aim to win.