Hey all, this is Chapter 2 of a Collision of Fate...but hopefully you already knew that...hmmm

thankyou for the reviews all of you who bothered :)

im sorry if there was any confusion in the last chapter, there was a bit where it changed to alice's perspective, but the little marker i had there didnt show up on the published document so i got a couple of reviews that were like what the???if you would like to see said reviews, feel free to visit my review page. and while youre there, maybe you'd like to add to it???? very subtle hint, i know...

umm, maybe slight spoilers for the end of eclipse, and some mention of Midnight Sun, but it'll still make sense if you haven't read it yet...

as always, i dont own twilight, just my little concept here :)

ps, the bits in italics are supposed to be edward's thoughts, just so you know :)


I pounded through the snow, weaving around the trees and bushes in my path as fast as humanly...well, vampirically possible. Anger, shock and, most strongly, grief was coursing through my body, making me push myself to my supernatural limits and beyond.

Those idiot boys were going to pay with their lives. I suddenly understood Rosalie's need for vengeance after her death in a whole new light. What gave them the right to drive around drunk, or to even come on our property? Why did they think they were above the law, better than everyone else in Forks? If they had any sense whatsoever, they would hide. Never show their faces in Forks again.

I suddenly felt my anger shift, from the boys who had probably accidentally not put the car in reverse, to the people or more accurately vampires, who could have saved my Bella's life.

How could Emmett have let this happen? Isn't he supposed to be the strongest of us all? How could he not have jumped in front of the car? Hell, I'd done it before, why was it so beyond him? My anger sizzled within me like a fire; venom welling in my mouth as my body anticipated the fight I intended to challenge him to when I arrived home. I spat out the additional fluid in my mouth, and watched with some sick satisfaction as I saw it hit a plant, causing it to sizzle like it was covered in acid, before the smoking leaves dissolved into a pile of black ash.

And Alice; why didn't she see this coming? She was supposed to see these things, to warn us if anything bad was going to happen! She was probably watching her precious Jasper, making sure he wasn't hurt while he was hunting…well, at least Jasper isn't mortal, Alice, would it kill you to look out for the one that could actually die in our absence? Within seconds, I felt my anger slide away. Why was I blaming others? Each person had their own reasons, even those drunken Juniors, but the only person whose absence was unacceptable was mine.

How could I have let this happen? It was all my fault…how could I have been stupid enough to leave her alone? When I first met her, I wouldn't leave her for more than two days, hunting only when I had to and watching her sleep every night. Since then, I had become inadequately slack.

I had stupidly left her for months on end, when she managed to fall off motorbikes and jump off cliffs just to hear my voice in her head. Even when she knew that I was going to kill myself, she followed me to Italy, and confronted the Volturi at my side in a desperate attempt to save my life. I had promised her then that I would never let anything happen to her, never leave her side again.

Another empty promise on my behalf. She was hunted down by a nomadic vampire with a personal vendetta against her, which sparked a full-scale war between a small army of newborns and my family, along with the werewolves. She was, despite our best efforts to separate her from the fray, at the very site of the battle between Victoria, myself and Seth, and endangered her life unnecessarily in a useless bid to help us win. And then she had to witness a side of me that I never wanted her to see, the vicious, animalistic monster that I became when vampiric instinct took over.

After all those incidents, both numerous and long winded enough to fill several novels, I vowed to both Bella and to myself to never let anything happen to her again. I had already placed an order for a new model of armoured car, yet to be commercially released, that would have protected her against almost anything the world could throw at her until I had the chance to transform her into one of us.


But, despite my very best efforts, I had failed.

I continued to run through the trees, but now the snow had begun to thin, and a thin drizzle was beginning to fall. I was getting closer, moving further and further southward, closer to the very thing that I had feared from the first day Alice had mentioned her visions. Bella, lying dead, oozing blood. But, ironically, it was not for reasons I had feared. I had thought it would be my fault, that I would have given in to temptation and sucked the life out of her. Of course, it was still my fault, but not in the direct way that I had originally assumed it would be. The familiar smell of the salty ocean was washing faintly in from the west, solidifying the knowledge that I was mere minutes away from my destination.

I was suddenly struck with a thought: did I really want to see this? Did I want to see her mangled body, lying on the floor of my own house? Did I want to see the blood, the very blood that had made me want to attack her the moment I met her, pooled around her prone form, silently mocking my desperate attempts in the past to withhold from temptation, and then to protect its original body at all costs? Could I cope?

I slowed my pace, eventually coming to a halt. I leant against a tree, exhausted, but by no means from my fast-pace sprint from Canada. If I still had the capability, I would have collapsed into tears there and then, and most likely would have been unable to pull myself together for the next few hours. But, since I couldn't physically do what my mind so desperately longed for, I merely stood, taking deep and rasping breaths to calm myself. I stood, trying to convince myself that this was what I had to do, for a good ten minutes. I wished that Jasper was here, to calm my emotional turmoil. I wished that Alice was with me, so she could talk things through with me, help me through what she knew was coming. I wished Carlisle was at my side; his wisdom and experience would be invaluable at this time. The mere thought of Esme, her comforting presence and impossible compassion made me feel homesick, even though I knew that she wasn't anywhere near our house. Rosalie would know exactly how I felt, seeing as she had been through such a similar experience and, despite her shallow outer appearance, I could tell that she would know just what to say. Emmett was my best friend, and apart from his apparent inability to take any emotional experience seriously, I was sure he could help in some way, even if it was to merely (but inappropriately) lighten the mood.

With the stark white moon shimmering between the clouds overhead, I began to run once more, weaving through the forest that backed our home. Within minutes I had reached the river that ran behind our home, and it was there I paused. I observed the situation before me, making sure I had a hold on myself before I went any closer. I could see the back of a black car protruding from the wall, and the grass behind it was a muddy mess of skid marks and tyre prints. The wall was smashed, just as I had seen it in Alice's vision, but the second floor of the house was still upright by some miracle. But what drew my attention most was not what I saw, but what I smelt. The salty scent of blood lingered in the air, assaulting my senses mercilessly. Despite the fact I had managed to curb my want for human blood over the last century, my body still craved for the liquid that was mere meters from my thirsty lips.

I slowly stepped out from the tree cover into the now stormy rain and began to approach the house, sharply observing my surroundings as I went. I noticed as I walked a second set of tyre marks in the ground. From their size and shape, I determined that they must have belonged to an ambulance, a thought that was seconded as I further approached the house. The scent of blood was strong, but definitely not fresh. The torrential rain was beginning to wash the scent away, and to any normal person and most animals it would be undetectable.

Somewhat satisfied that I no longer needed to hold myself back from attacking any victims of this accident, I began to approach faster. I was nearly at the stairs when I first noticed Emmett, sitting completely still on the stairs that led inside. His face was hidden in his hands, but between his arms I could see his shirt. It was stained red, splattered with blood. Its white fabric was beyond repair, and as I got closer, I could see his hands were in a similar bloodied state. I picked up my pace, returning to my superhuman sprint in my haste to reach Bella's side. I raced past Emmett, ignoring his cries for me to wait. I burst through the front door and down the hall, towards the stairs where I knew my Bella would be lying.

But before I could set my eyes upon Bella's undoubtedly dead body, Emmett caught up with me. His immensely strong hand grabbed my hand, yanking me in the other direction. He slammed me into the wall, stopping me from reaching my love.

'What the hell are you doing, Emmett? Get off me!'

'You don't wanna go round there, Ed.'

'I can handle the blood, Emmett, and I can handle whatever I might see. It's not a problem anymore…'

'It's not that…'

'Then what?'

'I…I messed up, Ed. Real bad.' I paused in my struggling against Emmett's grasp.

'Yeah, I know you messed up. You let Bella get hit by a bloody car!'

'I know. But after…' For the first time since I arrived home, I looked at Emmett's face. It was smudged with bloody fingerprints that showed where his hands had been resting earlier, and his expression was desolate, filled with guilt and sorrow. But neither of these features was what drew my attention.

His mouth and chin were saturated with blood, his pale face like some sick mock-up of a clown. His teeth were stained red with recent feeding, and to my horror, his eyes glowed bright red. Sudden understanding washed over me, and my mind flew to the drunkards that were in the car. Which one of them had Emmett attacked? Who was now either dead or inadvertently about to become one of us?

'Which one, Emmett? Which guy?'

Emmett didn't say a word, but the guilt written across his face increased tenfold.

'I'm so sorry, Ed, but…' Emmett trailed off, but he no longer needed to say anything. Hollow fear filled my being, and I slowly shook my head.

'You…you didn't…' But I knew it was true. I could smell it now, the familiar, intoxicatingly sweet scent was rolling off Emmett in waves, and the hands that held my arms in place were smearing the blood that I now realised was Bella's across my arms. I shoved Emmett off me, but he no longer tried to hold me back.

I rounded the corner, and dashed to my Bella's side as soon as I saw her. Shudders wracked my body as I saw what had happened, and I collapsed next to the prone form of my fiancé, desperately wishing it not to be true. Stereotypical bite marks stained Bella's neck, and her skin was deathly pale. Her eyes were closed, but I couldn't tell whether or not she was merely unconscious as occasionally happened in the transformation process, or if it was something a lot more sinister. Her heart no longer beating, but this could mean anything in our world.

'I'm so sorry Ed…'

'Did you drain her?'

'Wh...What?'

'Did you drain her? Or could she still be…' I wanted to say 'alive', but that was hardly an accurate assessment whatever the outcome of the situation.

'I don't know, Ed. I…I'm really sorry, it was an accident. I wasn't ready for the blood, and then instinct just, took over…'

'Why couldn't you control it?'

'I…I'm not sure…you've said yourself that her blood is the most potent stuff that you've smelt in years…' I felt disgusted. He dared to use that as an excuse? He actually thought that it was acceptable for him to do this to Bella, and blame it on her blood? I could barely keep myself on the ground; all I wanted to do was launch myself across the room and rip out his throat for uttering those words.

'If it makes you feel any better, you were right.' I looked up, confused about what he meant. At my perplexed glance, Emmett elaborated.

'Her blood…She tasted wonderful, Ed, the best I've ever had…'

That sent me over the edge. I leapt across the room with a roar, the only thought in my mind to cause Emmett as much damage as possible. With a loud crack to rival the thunder outside, I viciously began to attack. Emmett yelled as he lost his balance from the unanticipated attack, and we tumbled to the floor with such force that we smashed through the floorboards and to the ground below. I kept bellowing unintelligible words at him, a torrent of rage-filled and animalistic screams that expressed all the rage I was feeling, despite the lack of words.

Emmett was also yelling, but for completely different reasons. He was yelling apologies, over and over again, and after a minute of fighting, I realised that he was not attacking back. He had raised his arms to protect his face, but going against all his nature, he was letting me win. Emmett, who almost always acted proud and refused to be beaten at anything, was lying still, and allowing me to attack him with all my strength. When I made this realisation, I immediately stopped attacking, and in my exhausting grief, flung myself to the ground next to him. A moment of silence passed, before Emmett pulled me into a tight embrace. I hugged him back with as much force, bursting into the twisted version of tears that vampires experienced. Time no longer had meaning; we merely sat, in a hole in the floor, with Emmett allowing me to let out all my grief.

Sometime near dawn we heard approaching footfalls from the forest, and I also began to hear thoughts. These thoughts, though, obviously did not belong to mere humans. They were vampires, actively searching for me with their minds.

Edward?

Edward, darling, are you okay?

Edward, its Alice…I'm so sorry…

Within moments I had recognised the voices of Carlisle, Esme and Alice, and a split second later Rosalie and Jasper joined their mental calling. After a deep, shuddering breath, I clambered to my feet, pulling Emmett up with me. We scrambled out the hole, and after a solitary glance at each other, we walked out the door to greet the rest of our family.

There you go, chapter 2! i hoped you liked it

hopefully you'll review, and if you do ill be SOOO grateful its not even funny...so yeah, if you wanna make my day, REVIEW!!!

xedwardismyromeox