A/N: I have too much time on my hands, I can't find anything to read, and I'm dealing with severe procrastination with my other stories (on my other account) and so here we are. I'm currently working on three big projects on this account but they take a lot out of me so I made this with the hopes that I can use it as a break from my others and if it's good then it'll be a two-way beneficiary.
Hijacked
Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm just the one tinkering around with it.
Chapter One
Nia Salvador didn't believe in karma. Unfortunately, the world had an ironic sense of humor and took it out on her as she was driving to work on a chilly morning in February 2018. In fact, it seemed all but Nature herself was aware of the ice that coated the roads and although Nia was an experienced driver on black ice, other less experienced drivers were not.
She had an instinctive urge to not take the highway but brushed it off, wanting to get to work on time rather than risk being late, but realized too late that her life was worth more than her job when the screeching of tires sounded beside her followed by a collision that practically flipped her car on its hood. Several other cars could be heard colliding but Nia hardly took notice, occupied trying to get her seatbelt undone while ignoring the pain that blossomed in her abdomen where the steering wheel slammed in.
She gasped, regretting it as her blood stained the cracked glass of the front windshield and felt black spots dance in her vision. Annoyance shot through her at her undesirable fear focused in on the dripping blood before she shifted, the movement causing pain to shoot up her spine and make her snap out of the taunting call of sleep.
With a click, the seat belt released its hold on her torso causing her to flip over and hit the windshield but with a groan, she rolled over. Her head ached and with a shaky hand she was met with a sticky wetness on her palms and knew it was blood and hoped it wasn't a concussion. Black spots returned to her vision as she shifted in her attempt to roll over only for agony to shoot through her and a whimper broke free as she realized the source was her back.
Nia slumped, no longer trying to escape out of her car knowing she wasn't going anywhere with her back like it was and could only hope the ambulance would arrive so that she could be hit with a feeling of safety. As the cold bit into her skin, Nia found herself wondering if her insurance would pay for the crash before shaking her head at the ridiculous question and instead debated if the expenses of the ambulance were worth it.
She hardly noticed the dark spots when they returned and finally gave into their calls of sleep with the hope that her dreams would bring her to a world free of the pain she was fighting through now.
Instead of being welcomed to her dreams she found something filling her lungs and sputtered, her eyes shooting open before wincing as cold water burned against them. Her hands shot out and she found herself startled to find herself free of pain in all areas apart from her lungs, which were yearning for the oxygen that had been replaced with water and with a determined start Nia began pushing the muscles in her arms and legs towards the surface - this time fiercely fighting the black spots dancing back in her vision.
As her hands broke past the surface, biting cold air was like a warm greeting to Nia as her head followed and she took a deep, desperate breath and squinted her eyes past the blinding light of the sun. Looking around she found tire tracks leading through frost-covered grass that led into the water. Furrowing her brows she glanced down before her curiosity got the better of her and she dived back under the water, her eyes once again expressing their irritation to their contact with the water, but Nia ignored it and found the missing piece of the puzzle lying at the bottom of the lake.
Nia didn't believe in karma, but she found herself thinking that if only she trusted her gut and hadn't taken the highway then she wouldn't be staring at a car she conveniently woke up drowning above. Ignoring the wrongness that buried itself in her chest at her current situation as she swam to land, Nia enjoyed the simple fact that she was no longer in the agony she experienced just a moment before the collision, an event that she was so sure was real.
After all, this could only be a dream, right?
But it was at that moment she looked down at her hands, which were not the familiar dark tan she had earned after working in the burning heat of the sun in Arizona nor did the back of her right hand have the scratch marks of her lovable cat. Narrowing her eyes she turned her neck to see if she were at least wearing her own clothes only to be distracted by the weight on her back she hadn't really noticed until now.
Slowly moving her hand until she grasped the heavy, wet, and long locks of hair by her shoulders she studied it fiercely from the texture, the color, to the simple fact that she somehow went from short hair to long! Dropping the hair as confusion and piercing shock went through her looked back at what she was wondering about before and found that she was indeed lacking her clothing which had the dead giveaway that she did not wear converse!
Trying her best to ignore the wrongness that was her life at that moment Nia dragged herself off the ground and began making her way to the street with the hope that someone could help her out, maybe get her to a hospital to check her identity, and get that damn car out of the water.
She could only hope that karma was funny enough to make this all just a bad life-lesson kind of dream.
Death had other ideas in mind for her.
Two days she was in the hospital for being diagnosed with a mild case of hypothermia and amnesia (which she wasn't!) and was questioned by the police to confirm that yes, that was indeed her car at the bottom of the lake, and no, she didn't remember how she got there. It was only the morning after her horribly enlightening day did they return to inform her that the traffic cameras revealed that she swerved into the lake by a hit-and-run driver who apparently didn't know a red light if he saw one.
The doctor's idiocy was one thing, the police's persistence was another, but having two strangers enter her hospital room with the exclamation of "Bella!" was an entirely different manner. Nia had never felt more like a Jane Doe in her life as she was forced to comfort strangers and call them Mom and Phil like she knew who the hell they were. And no matter how fiercely she scowled at the doctor that she wasn't this Isabella Swan girl he just shook his head sadly at her and gave her a pitying glance.
Honestly, if she wasn't sure it wouldn't help her case she would be screaming righteously and flipping tables by then. But no, instead she sat like a good patient and ignored everyone until she was brought "home" by the two strangers from before, introduced to her so-called home, and remained in her "room" for the better part of the day staring at the ceiling before shutting her eyes and hoping that she would wake up back in her real home by morning.
It didn't happen.
When Nia woke that morning to find herself faced with devouring sadness she found herself slumping against the desk across the room before flipping open the laptop and logging in while muttering idiocy under her breath for the real Isabella Swan who apparently didn't realize how important a password was and could only hope she wouldn't have to fight a swarm of viruses and malware on this computer that she would call her own.
Finding what she was looking for she clicked on the bottom right corner of the window where the time and date sat innocently despite Nia's disbelieving glance and with a speed she didn't know she was capable of - opened up the internet and discovered that her computer didn't lie when it said it was indeed February 4th, 2003. "Fuck."
As the numbers glared back at her Nia found herself pushing off the chair and away from the computer. She idly noticed her hands were shaking and closed her eyes, wishing with all her heart and soul that none of this was real and was just a sick joke on her by her subconscious mind. She's had worse dreams but none were as unpredictable and realistic as this. Worse though, she felt like she was living a lie. Nothing in this 'dream' felt like it was trying to send her a message or tell her something more. Instead, it felt like a cage with shackles she could not break and no one had the key to her escape either.
It was exasperating.
It was terrifying.
Opening her eyes she met the mirror unflinchingly. Taking in the traitor looking back at her in the mirror. Her skin light and fair with no scars or muscle she was familiar with, of length that betrayed what was once her short stature. Then there were the greenish-brown eyes reflected back to what was once a golden hazel that blazed on fire in the sunlight. Her eyebrows were casual and in need of waxing rather than the fine eyebrows they'd once been.
Her previously short and dark hair was long and a brown that waved down her back in soft natural flips. She was taller than she remembered being with finders long and nimble, palms reflecting lines she was unfamiliar with and mar-free from the hard labor she had grown up harboring. Her facial structure was different, her figure was different, and she was younger.
Nia assured herself it could've been worse.
But it wasn't her.
She screamed.
Hands tugging at the hair that wasn't her, frustrated and enraged tears flung violently from her eyes as she flipped the single bed on its side and punched the wall brutally. The pain that shot up her arm further felt like a betrayal. A stranger's body reflecting her pain. She screamed like she never had before; one of rage, or horrifying realization, of loss, of abandonment and a thousand other feelings she didn't take the energy to identify.
Breathing heavily she continued to beat the wall without mercy to her hands or the wall itself, punching it like all her anger and fear was worth before her adrenaline eventually faded and she slumped against the wall with her forehead pressed against the cold and unfeeling wall, a sharp contrast to herself.
Leaning back on her heels she stood back up, clenching and unclenching her bruised and blistering knuckles, sparing a short thought of gratitude that Phil and Renee weren't in the house during her breakdown and begun to strip, determined to learn everything about this new body she was to call her own and to live a life that was certainly not her own.
Until she was 18 and cleared by a doctor she would just have to live a lie... but she was going to do it as Nia. Not this "Bella Swan" girl full of teenage hormones and complications. She already missed her fine liquor but would just have to cope another way. Glancing down at her bruised fists she considered the idea of boxing or even street fighting before pushing it away to dwell on what she needed to deal with at the moment.
So she took all her frustrations and insecurity over this strange new situation and locked it away deep in her soul (the only thing she could truly consider her own) and turned back to the mirror only to flinch this time at the strange tattoo marking directly over her heart. Tracing her finger around it she furrowed her eyebrows as she recalled her own tattoos and wondered what on earth this girl wanted an ouroboros of all things to symbolize on her body.
But not just on her body, but directly on her heart too. Staring at the snake eating its own tail she felt a strange familiarity with the symbol and wondered if the internet from ten years ago would have any answers about the significance of the Ouroboros. It was only a fleeting hope that hoped it could connect to her situation but in the end, she knew it was unlikely. The most likely scenario was that Bella Swan decided to get a tattoo and got the closest thing she could relate to.
Or liked Fullmetal Alchemist. Either, or.
Sighing with an exhaustion that could only be matched with an old soul Nia studied her newfound body critically, noting all of its flaws and searching for muscles, already working out a routine to rebuild her definite muscles. This body was just asking for trouble with the way it was and in a city like New York, Nia doubted Bella would last a day, especially with the innocent look her style was portraying. Turning, she analyzed the room and took in the many lamps, small library of romance novels, a closet full of Department Store casual clothes, and basically just an overall sense of a teenage girl screaming "I'm plain, please ignore me, I just want to be left alone!" Being left alone was easy but Bella was going about the approach entirely wrong.
There were too many things that could go wrong living a life with such a perspective.
Where were the personal touches, the weird trinkets that only they understood, the novels of so many varieties that it left them constantly on the move for something different, the personality that was entirely unique? Nia was ambitious in her creativity and Bella wasn't - so things were about to change.
Walking over to her closet she grabbed boxes and bags from inside before gathering clothes she would never wear, let alone touch, and more or less swiped the enitre bookshelf with the thought of burning ninety percent of the novels before resolving that Half Price Books would have better luck dealing with such trash and moved on to everything else, discarding pictures and a string of lamps (like she liked lamps but there was such a thing as too much) and went through notebooks, diaries, and other related items that she did decide to burn before finding a deamable outfit for her and put it on. Anything else too complicated like bank statements, bank accounts, money, and other annoyances could wait for when Phil and Renee returned with their pitying looks and goofy smiles as they looked at each other.
Although Nia wasn't comfortable with these strangers she was at least glad they had each other while "Bella" would forever be lost in amnesia's mysteries. Nia personally thought Bella was dead; drowned and somewhere in the afterlife where Death wasn't screwing another soul over and that was that but Nia also knew no one would believe her and so she kept that thought quietly within her own mind. As she got to work straightening her room from where she flipped the bed and knocked over the trinkets on her desk she heard the door open and shut signaling the return of the strangers that she had to willingly convince she was perfectly fine and happy despite having literally no memories of them. Because they weren't her own but they didn't need to know that.
Because no one would believe her.
Time passed quickly but it felt agonizing slowly in the eyes of Nia Salvador, now called Isa Swan (she couldn't stand the ring of familiarity that came when someone called her Bella) because the reality of the situation she now called her life was blatantly obvious that this was not a dream or a nightmare or even fiction. This was real and she had to deal with it.
She could only be grateful that she was a good actress in pulling off this performance.
The doctors gave her the all-clear. Her brain scans showed nothing problematic and it appeared as though her amnesia was permanent in most areas except memories. The best the doctors could describe it was that her brain held memories of important aspects of herself (Bella) but had no familiarity with that person and was in kind words given a new beginning and a second chance where the car crash could've (and had) killed her.
Although Bella's parents and Phil weren't happy by the news in the slightest they took the doctor's words that it was better than death to heart and spent time re-acquainting themselves with the newly nicknamed Isa.
There were more than a few awkward moments where Isa would hold Renee in her arms as she sobbed for the loss of the girl she once knew and felt a pinch in her heart for the grievances the true Bella would never have but hoped the poor dead girl would understand she hadn't asked for her life in return. If she was going to hell for something out of her control at least it would spare her from an angry spirit that was this mother's real daughter.
But outside those grievances that left Phil standing awkwardly in the room and Isa understanding of the entire situation, things weren't as bad as they could be. She was pulled out of public school once they realized she would be gawked at like a science experiment for her predicament and instead convinced Renee to let her be home-schooled and more or less acquainted herself to Highschool's dreadful but not wasteful homework.
Being homeschooled wasn't so bad either because it left Isa alone to her own thoughts where she could let the act drop and be herself as Nia while Phil was out practicing for baseball and Renee was working. The extra free-time also opened up opportunities such as finding herself a part-time job in the neighboring city away from anyone who may have recognized her from Bella's old life and gave her some money to place in her recently made bank account that belonged solely to her. She got her driver's license and a motorcycle for its profit against a car even if it risked her life (because how could an already dead person complain?) but also because it gave her a rush of excitement she had longed for and needed since arriving in this new life.
There were other reasons too, of course. Such as the more things she owned and could call her own meant the less understanding she had to be. The less she would pick up a magnet or keyring and be pulled into a flashback that wasn't her own. It was a bit disappointing actually since her biggest concern was losing the life and memories as Nia Salvador but the disappointment warred heavily against the confusion and fear of what she would see.
It was actually what helped her out with the doctors. Remember certain memories of Bella more or less cleared her name and early panic (and delusions) after the crash and erased what concerns Bella's support system had for her. More than that though she didn't only see Bella. She saw Renee, she saw the people who once lived in this house, she saw the mailman delivering their mail when he got a call that his wife had died of a heart-attack, she saw what she wished she hadn't.
She saw memories of pain and despair, of happiness and reminiscence, and more. She saw whatever touched the hearts of these strangers and suddenly she found herself much more empathetic than she would have expected in this situation but as she learned the darkest parts of another's life she found herself not caring about putting her concerns in the corner. She was reaching out to others and connecting with them in ways only Nia could.
It felt liberating.
She was in a place when she felt warped in that memory of minutes to hours in brief flashes and flecks of pain that was only half a second or two in present company. It gave her a break from reality only she could feel and understand, leaving her feeling refreshed and lacking that familiar ache of missing her old life and what could she have been doing had that car crash never happened.
Because while everyone else around her was grieving for the loss of Bella Swan, Isa had never been given the time of day to grieve for the loss of Nia Salvador, whose memory she was still holding onto. Whose memory she was not going to let go of anytime soon even if she was given these strange flashbacks, body, life, and tattoo on her skin.
She wasn't going to forget Nia Salvador.
She wouldn't.
Ten months had passed since Nia Salvador became Isa Swan and there were many things she had to familiarize herself with before truly living a life that didn't start as her own. Her family was probably her hardest to get along with not because they didn't get along but because Isa was nothing like Bella a year ago and it was Charlie Swan who had the hardest time adjusting to this change, strangely enough. The two weeks she spent over his house in the summer seemed to help but every time Isa met his eyes she saw loss and sadness for a little girl/teenager he no longer saw in her eyes.
It made her wonder if that's the look that was found in her eyes after a flashback.
Despite their rough start things weren't tense between each other. Despite the sadness, they got along well enough and bonded better as friends than a father-daughter relationship most would expect of them. It wasn't great but it wasn't terrible either and besides, Isa found herself enjoying fishing with the Police Chief or making a barbeque for his buddies on the Force. She surprised herself on how charismatic she was but it paid off when it counted and Isa found a place in this life as the one who lifts up the mood in the room when she walked in with understanding smiles and an easy-going attitude.
Slowly Nia and Isa merged into one personality and the end result wasn't bad. Sometimes she felt as though she were playing a game of tug-of-war between her selves but as time passed and the people she was around the most got to know her they left what Bella was and got to know Isa instead. It was a slow and dreadful process but it worked out so far and Isa wouldn't have had it any other way.
Meanwhile, things with Renee and Phil were strong despite being the ones directly involved with Bella's transformation into Isa but she imagined a huge part of that acceptance came from Phil himself and Isa was very grateful for the man she would soon call step-father in public too. Renee was kind of like an old family friend she didn't see often in terms of their relationship where they hung out and played games like old friends but any deep soul-searching conversations led to Isa holding Renee in her arms until Phil arrived to comfort her in privacy or in worse-case scenarios the classic sorrowful eyes.
Isa wasn't sure how to feel about being used to it.
So it was on a windy night in Phoenix as she gazed out into the sky where fireflies glittered over the rock formations that Renee asked her if she wanted to stay with her father for her Senior Year in High School and Isa found herself honestly exhilarated at the idea of a transition to a new area. Despite the strangers who would ask her a ton of questions in the small town of Forks, Washington. Despite the strange situation with Charlie. Despite leaving the life she was only recently getting comfortable in. Despite it all, she looked forward to it and that was why she turned her head to meet her Renee's warm brown eyes and agreed with a soft smile gracing her usual considering frown.
"I love you, so much," Renee whispered into her hair as they shared a warm embrace. For Renee, it was a last moment of comfort before she left and for Isa, it was to remember that she was human, that her individuality was one of the few things she had left of Nia. When they broke apart and Renee returned to the comfortable setting of their spacious house, Isa continued to look out unto the night and let loose one tear as a symbol of movement towards the new beginning truly ahead of her.
"I understand," she replied as a whisper to the traveling wind, hoping that one day she could say those old words again with sincerity she hadn't felt since two years ago in her life as Nia.
"One day, Nia. One day, we'll be free again."