A/N:

This is clearly AU...as, well, The Cullen Clan are fully intact. The ending is rubbish. I apologize. Also, I don't know if Embry or Quil were in the battle, or..? This is for the Twilight Under Estimated Characters Story Contest by The Girl Who Ran Through Myst

So check it out. :)

Seth/Jane

The battle was real and raging in front of his own eyes. The child stood its ground at the end of the field making its way to the cold ones, the evil ones. Seth watched carefully, figuring out his game plan. The fur on his neck prickled with anticipation and he held back a growl.

He surveyed his opponents, the hoards of pale faced, angry, bitter vampires staring back at him, their eyes hard. As much as he'd tried, he just couldn't get that look in his eyes. His tail would continue to wag whether he wanted it to or not and he hopped on his paws, ready to get started on ripping these pieces of rocks apart.

He'd do anything for Jacob though he probably shouldn't - and though he'd never actually experienced imprinting, it'd been drummed into him that you never ever hurt the imprintee. It made his head hurt to think about the fact that he could be killing someone else's love, someone else's life, but not enough to betray his brethren. He closes his eyes, and repeated, "They come first, no-one else," over and over, just waiting for him to snap and believe that this was the right thing to do. No matter how hard he tried to convince himself, the wave of relief on his conscience never washed over him, and he stayed feeling inherently guilty and helpless, unbearably evil and just as bad as the malicious killing vampires that stood before him, just waiting for a lunge so they could have a hearty mass murder.

Seth felt like screaming at them. He turned to face the little girl that had - albeit unintentionally - caused all of this trouble, and all her saw was a pair of big brown eyes innocently peeking up at everyone and masses of bronze hair tousled by the wind. She shouldn't be out in this cold, she shouldn't be out here at all. She's just a child, a helpless, small child which a human could defeat, let alone a hoard of vicious vampires.

Of course, he held his tongue. He couldn't have spoken anyway - not without transforming first, and that would've been too dangerous. So he stands there, panting as he contemplates the ending of this picture. Would it be happy? He dearly hoped so, but reality set in soon enough, when tongues started waggling.

"Can we not talk about this in a civilized way," Carlisle bargained, "Like we used to?" And Aro had waffled on about things and said basically, no.

And then Seth heard footsteps...his tail started wagging quickly as he noticed Alice and Jasper traipsing through the snow, a determined, smug look on Alice's face. She confidently strode through the black capes and shook herself free of the captures who tried to contain her. She gave Jasper, now being confined by two black capes, a knowing smile and held her hand out to Aro.

And then, when Alice turned and leaned in, whispering, "Now!", he leaped forward, the first to try and help. Seth lunged forward, and grabbed an old guy's hand. Edward was on the other side of him and they ripped him apart in teamwork. He felt bad, and surprisingly it got worse after he fell to the ground, wheezing, "Finally.."

Next he sprinted towards a blonde guy with ashy hair, down to his shoulders. He growled and grabbed his throat between his jaws, ripping it into two. He moves out of the way just as the fire piles onto the shreds of vampire. Again, that familiar stab of guilt pokes at him, but he pushes it back. And then he is faced with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen, and he can't bear to even reach a hand out to her, to even look at her the wrong way. He just stares. He desperately wants to phase into his human form, just to touch her face, to tell her what he thinks of her beauty. To his amazement, the little vampire girl just stares back, her big eyes curious and innocently confused as her head tilts to the side. And then a pout clouds her pixie features.

Her full lips pursed and she sighed at him, running her tongue against her perfect pearly teeth. Her stares almost open mouthed up at her, though she was tiny - smaller than Alice. Tiny.

The best way to describe her would be to say she was a doll - her fair hair rolled up into a bun at the nape of her neck, not a hair out of place, her eyelashes fluttering as she blinked at him, her tiny features creased in utter confusion.

"I liked Cauis," she says through gritted teeth, her forehead wrinkled in anger.

Seth whines, almost in physical pain as she frowns at him. He's upset her and that almost kills him. She wrinkles her button nose, and she looks so adorable Seth whines again. He was fighting her, so why couldn't he hurt her? Bright lights seemed to cascade over her skin, making her sparkle, her fair complexion glittering so daintily. Her smirk faded as she realized he wasn't even trying to fight her. She hated an unfair fight, she bargained with herself, though it was a blatant lie.

He longed to reply to her one response, to show her that he wasn't an idiot. And yet...she still stood her ground, doing nothing but staring back at him while the carnage lay, burned and singed all around them.

All they saw was each other.

Or, so, he thought.

He couldn't bring himself to care about what was there with them when she suddenly flinched, stepping to the side. Esme stood at the side of them, her hands balled into fists at her sides. She was clearly confused, too. He saw panic in the tiny girl's eyes and he couldn't stand it. Esme looked back and forth at them both, confused. When Esme reached a hand out to Jane, he barked, a high pitched, desperate sound of something so precious to her ears. Esme nodded, and withdrew her hand. Jane blinked up at the Cullen matriarch, even daring to pout.

"My family is dead," Jane says to Esme, her face now blank of any emotion. It was drummed into her that displaying emotion was bad, conceal everything and never show any weakness. "All of them."

Seth knows Esme is desperately clawing to her anger at Jane, struggling to stay as fuming as she was when this whole thing started - but she can't be. None of her family died, they all gripped to life and took it with two hands. Few witnesses died - it had been a lucky fight, for one side.

And yet all of Jane's family had died, except for Athenodora, who was standing across the field being cornered by Rosalie and Alice, while Jasper stood behind them both, warily watching his sister and mate. Jane also watched but made no move to save her almost mother. She simply glanced at Esme, a worried look upon her face, almost pleading her.

"Rose, Alice," Esme warns. They instantly turn and narrow their eyes, running towards their almost mother.

"Esme! Are you okay?" Rosalie asks, worried. Alice looks horrified by Seth's whining and Esme's face, too.

"Seth? Esme? Are you okay?" Alice matches Jane's pout and narrows her eyes. They lung towards each other but Rosalie and Jasper hold Alice back and Seth whines, making Jane stop in her tracks to frown down at him again.

Surprisingly, Rosalie softly looks at Seth. "It's okay," she says. "We'll keep an eye on...her..you go phase." A surge of anger ripples through Jane and she glares, her dark red eyes glazed over and hard.

"I don't need you to keep an eye on me," she spits, but her voice is high and wobbly and she just wants to throw herself on the ground screaming and writhing in pain because her heart hurts so bad and she wants to hug her brother and fake tears so Cauis would play on the Xbox with her.

Seth hides behind a tree, trying to compose his thoughts as he phases. They left out clothes for this, so he contemplates his words for her as he slowly changes, stepping into jeans and a t-shirt. What could he tell his little pixie girl?

Wait, what?

She wasn't his pixie girl. Seth shakes his pounding head and breathes out in shallow breaths. He didn't even know her name, and he felt like he'd known her his whole life. And now? Now...he didn't want to be away from her for a single second, even just changing away from her felt like an eternity. What had happened? Nothing like that had ever happened to him before and yet it felt so habitual, natural, so intimately close to him and only him that he could not possibly share it with anyone besides her. And what she'd say was beyond his immediate knowledge. Hell, it was beyond any of his knowledge. And yet he felt like he wanted to know every single detail of her...from tiny freckle locations to her transformation.

The way she just stood there, staring at him made his hair prickle and heat rush to his already flushed cheeks, made his eyes glisten with new found hope, made his heart melt at the thought of her innocent face that hid so much pain.

He strode out from behind the tree to be face to face with her yet again. Except he was much taller than her now, even more so than before.

Her face did not change as he appeared, but her posture did. Her back slouched slightly, as if she felt at ease with him being there. Carlisle now stood with Esme and Jane felt like she was being cornered. If there was one thing she did not like, it was being confined. It happened to her before and she sure as hell wasn't gonna let it happen again, if she could possibly help it. She backed up so much she hit a tree, and then she put her hand to her mouth. It was a nervous habit. Seth glared at the vampires surrounding him.

She just knew it would happen again..and this time she really would be dead! She closed her eyes.

"No," she whispers, her voice hoarse. It kills Seth to see her like this and not know what to do, but he just stands there. Esme puts her hand out, and her family compels by backing away. Seth doesn't, though. He reaches out to touch her cold arm and she is unprepared for contact, and instinctively whispers, "Pain."

She doesn't relax until he is writhing on the floor, at when she takes a step back, feeling even more panicked. What would they do to her now? She was alone and attacking one of them. Esme looks at her pityingly.

"Jane, sweetheart, you don't have to do that. "No" would have sufficed." Jane's forehead wrinkles and she jumps back.

"I said no!"

Seth gingerly gets up and faces her once again, only this time keeping his hands to himself. "Jane." He says, mostly to himself, sighing after, savoring the name. It was beautiful, just like her.

Jane chooses to ignore him - she just wants them all to go away. And then he makes the most heartbreaking decision of his life - to get her go.

"Let her go," he says, closing his eyes, throwing his heart on the ground, just waiting for her answer. It feels as if she's walking all over his heart as she slowly walks away, every step she's taking breaking his heart more. He's sure he hears a crack as she makes her descent - and maybe she does, too, as she turns to smile sadly.

He clings desperately to the hope that she will return, that she's just waiting to see his face, but she doesn't. She's gone. He takes a moment to feel for the after sting of her little shock, but there isn't one.

It's like she was never here.

But she'd always be with him. He'd never forget her.

And maybe, one day...she'll come back to him.