Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything from Twilight!

Pain. Pain like any other I had ever felt in my entire life. Similiar to a lit match being dragged over the length of every inch of skin on my body. Never relenting or lessening in any way. Never a moments peace from the undescribable burning. Every second growing hotter and more intense. My organs feeling as if they would boil before leaking out of my pores. I couldn't image a pain worse than this.

I was burning. I must have gone to hell. Yes, that had to be it. I'd died on the battlefield and the three beautiful woman had been nothing more than a delusion created by my mind. My soul had been dragged to hell by demons and right now I was roasting on an open flame. Only the fires of hell could burn in such a way. By now my skin should be peeling off layer by layer. Eventually I'd be nothing more than bone and ash. My remains so destroyed they would never be able to identify my body.

The only clear thought I had during the whole roasting session was that burning seemed to take an extremely long time. Should it not be fast? Over within minutes? You can only burn for long before this nothing left correct? Yet I seemed to be burning forever. Seconds turned in to minutes. The minutes then bleeding in to hours. I'm not how time went by. Days could of come and gone and I would never know the difference. Years and even and it still would not matter. All I could focus on was the fire. Wouldn't anybody do something? Why not just finish me off by chopping off my head? Anything would be better than this.

The one constant other than the flames of course, was a cold hardness against what I could only guess to my hand. It burned less than the rest of my body and I was thankful to whoever or whatever relieved the hot flames during my torment. I chose to try and concentrate on that rather the rest of my body. I wasn't sure if it would ever stop, but I had lost hope by counting the seconds. After four hours of counting my mind had lost track and that is when I focused on whatever was wrapped around my hand like a cool cloth. In that moment it had become my only salvation.

Thankfully the burning did less after what seemed to be a life time. The flame were still there, but they didn't burn as hot. A dying ember fighting to stay white hot and loosing the battle. It did not happen to be cooling as fast as I wished, yet anything was better than nothing at all. I had always been told to look at the glass as half full than rather half empty. What I wouldn't give for a glass of ice water right now. That would most definately put a stop to the burning. Water was fires worse enemy after all.

Flickers of motion came back to my limbs when the fire started to retreat. First I could feel my fingers start to twitch. Small and almost unnoticable movements at first, but quickly the movents became more confident. Eventually I was able to create a fist. Great for if I needed to hit somebody. Now if only I could my arm to move and then maybe my legs and I would be all set. Having the ability to open my eyes would not be a bad thing either. Then I would be able to see hell in all of it's terrible glory.

"Is it done yet? I do not have time to waste with his turning. I have an army that needs training." A voice penetrated my ears and it sounded familiar. I couldn't seem to pinpoint it though. I knew it and yet I could not place it it. To say it was frustrating would be an understatement.

A softer and much sweeter voice answered the first. I could detect fear and slight worry in the words though the speaker hid them both exceptionally well. "The change takes time Maria. It has been barely three days. You cannot rush the process. It is almost done though. He should be waking any moment."

"When he awakens I want you to take him and teach him to hunt. I do not need more of my numbers destroyed because he cannot control his hunger. I have learned from that mistake and it will not happen again." Another cold touch against my chin and jaw. I could feel someone squeezing my face between a thumb and forfinger. In this touch I found no comfort. I felt death and danger and if I'd had the strength I would've turned away. "This one is special. I knew it the moment I set eyes on him. He will be very useful to us. He will help my army become unstoppable."

Footsteps alerted me to the fact the speaker had left. By this point I had regained my ability to open my eyes. I had blink by the blinding brightness. I knew there was no light and that it was night, and yet I could see everything so clearly. Like looking in to a magnifying glass. I could count the peices of straw littering the floor. I could see every pair of red eyes which were now aimed in my direction. I could hear rats as they scurried around to find hiding spots in the corner of the barn where I had been taken.

"It will take a few minutes for your eyes to adjust." The honey like words came from the woman sitting next to me.

It was then I realized I had been laying on a bed made of hay. I could feel the roughness poking in to my back. Feel the tiny fibers rubbing against my skin and causing a feeling of irritation. When I was a boy, I had hated being ordered to feed the horses. The hay would get under my clothes and make me itchy. I would usually bully my younger brother in to doing it for me. I brushed a few peices away from the back of my neck as I sat up.

I moved slowly and took time to study the woman next to me. She had crouched down on to her knees as she studied me. Her position could be taken as defensive, but I did not see that way. Her expression held no hint of fear or hostility. If anything she seemed more curious than anything else. Her dark red eyes gazing at my face as her head tilted to the side. Her hand reached out to touch the side of my face and I flinched. Not because I feared her, but rather a reflex caused by the last experience I remembered of having someone touch me. Last time it had caused the burning and I truly did not want it to return.

"I will not harm you. Still, it is good you feel the need to be defensive. Maria will be pleased no doubt." Her hand fell to her side and I narrowed my eyes in confusion.

I recognized her now that I had the time to study her. She had been one of the three woman I had believed needed my assistance. She was the gyspy one with strange hair and piercing eyes. The one who seemed to feel guilty when I stumbled on she and her two companions. The one who'd had unbelievable strength as she lifted and carried me to wherever it was we were. The one which seemed different than the others. More human than the other two if I had use a word to describe her in the moments we had first met.

She had a wieght on her shoulders now even as I studied her. A wieght that someone so young should never have. It took a lot of death and carnation for someone to become so mature and this woman surely could not have seen anything as bad as I or my brothers in arms. Yet her eyes told a different story. She had the eys of someone centuries old and yet that could not be could it? This was reality and not a fable created by mothers to encourage the imagination of their children.

"Maria? You talk about yourself in third person?" When I spoke the sound reached my ears and I could not help it when I put my fingers to my throat. I did not sound the same. I sounded wrong from the way I remembered. The voice I had heard was much to smooth and perfect to be mine.

The girl next to me let out a bell like laugh. Her hand flew to her mouth to try and stifle the laughter. It was extremely cute when she giggled even worse after realizing what she had been doing. "You think I am Maria? She would be extremely angry if she ever found out. Maria doesn't like not being the center of attention. You don't have to worry about me telling her though. It can be a secret between you and me. I'm Alice by the way."

I inclined my head out of habit. "Major Jasper Whitlock ma'am."

My head raised in time to see her bite her bottom lip. She seemed to be sad and I wonder what I had said to cause the sudden sadness. I hadn't meant to cause her depression. I would never want to be the reason she frowned. "Whitlock is a very nice last name. I don't have a last name. Well not that I can remember. I honestly do not even know if my real name is Alice. Maria says that is what they called me. Mary Alice, but I did not like the Mary part so I just go by Alice now."

"I think Alice is a fine name ma'am." I told her while reaching out to touch her hand in a comforting gesture. My left hand had reached up to scratch at my throat. It itched and burned horribly. I even tried clearing my throat, but my efforts did no good.

"Oh how rude of me!" Alice jumped to her feet and took my hand. She pulled me up with no effort of her part at all. "You must be dying of thirst. I do not want you think I did it on purpose. Sometimes I get to talking and I end up not remembering what I was supposed to be doing in the first place. You should come with me so I can find you someone to eat. Maria will kill me if I leave you to starve."

I thought her last sentence was meant to be taken as a joke and so I laughed. My laughter died after a few seconds when I saw Alice wasn't laughing with me. Her expression was deadly serious and the air of fear radiated off of her in waves. It had me wondering just how bad this Maria person was and what she had done to make Alice so afraid of facing her wrath.

Also, what had she meant when she said get me somebody to eat? Was it a mistake of words or something else? For some reason I did not believe she'd said the wrong thing. There was something going on that I had not been let in on. I sure that soon enough I would know. Part of me wasn't sure I wanted to know.

TBC...

AN: Here is the next chapter to my Alice and Jasper story. I have decided to keep the chapters short because it just seems to flow better that way. This story is very fun for me to write since it is something different and unique from what I usually write. I have a lot of it planned. In this chapter I had wanted to make it clear that Alice and Jasper still have that instant connection. I always found his trust in her very sweet and romantic and I wanted to keep it that way. They will still have the connection because I think it is needed for them to handle what they will have to face in later chapters. I also wanted to keep Maria's interest in Jasper since it plays a big part in this story. I do hope you all liked it and I would love to hear what you thought about it!

Oh btw this whole story is most likely going to be in Jasper's pov. I thought about it a lot and his pov seemed to be the best choice. I wanted to see the story in his eyes. I may do one-shot of different moments in Alice or Maria's pov. If you have a moment you want to see in their eyes then let me know and I will try to get to it. :)

Please R&R like always!