Disclaimer: Characters belong to Darren Shan and Stephanie Meyer; I own nothing – not even my soul…its amazing what you can sell on eBay… :P

What has happened so far: Darren and Mr Crepsley run into Edward and Bella in the woods after they are sent into the 'Twilight' world. Darren passes out and is brought back to the Cullen mansion where Carlisle treats them both.

Song Suggestion: Sick Cycle Carousel by Lifehouse
Chapter 3: Impossibilities
Third Person POV

The hot water of the shower was glorious against Larten Crepsley's back once the sting of the heat on his skin and the water on the cuts had disappeared. Even though he'd finished washing himself, he could have quite easily stood there for a whole lot longer. Piano notes continued to soar up through the house to meet his sensitive ears with the low mumble of their voices although it was impossible to distinguish words over the noise of the piano and the beating of the water against the shower tray.

The melody of the music being played was beautiful but he started to wonder, now that he could no longer hear what they were saying, if the music was being used specifically for that purpose. Growing even more suspicious that usual, Larten decided to get out. He dressed in the clothes the girl had given him and like she had predicted they fit perfectly. With a lingering sigh at the old thing, he threw the blackened, sooty, shredded cloak in the bin with his old trousers.

The dark blue jeans and black shirt were not what he'd usually wear and felt odd though he didn't find them uncomfortable. First he checked Darren's still unconscious form; he had goosebumps over his arms and chest showing out from where the blanket didn't cover. Larten pulled the blanket up and then tucked it in gently around his assistant. He smelt wrong. It was only a faint hint of something but it just didn't smell right. Larten put it down to the lingering anaesthetic.

Feet bare upon the fluffy carpet, he left the bedroom and shut the door carefully. He descended the stairs, wincing every now and then and using the handrail for support.

The chatter grew quieter and quieter the further down the stairs he got and by the time he had reached the bottom everyone was looking at him. Edward and the girl from the meadow – Bella – were sitting at the piano. Bella sat in his lap with her arms around his neck and Edward's hands rested on the keys either side of her body though the music had ceased.

Carlisle was in the kitchen with an arm wrapped around a blonde woman's waist. There were four in lounge type area, two on the sofa and two on the floor. Then on the sofa against the wall the other side of the staircase, there was the Alice girl holding hands with another young man.

All seemed to be couples (apart from the little girl and the huge dark guy).

"Larten!" Exclaimed Carlisle merrily after a moment's awkward silence. Was that guy always happy? Mr Crepsley forced a smile; he never liked to be the centre of attention and squinted his eyes against the glare from the all white furnishings. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, it is just that my eyes are a little sensitive." Replied Larten.

"Oh, okay. Here, come meet the family." Said Carlisle warmly, ushering him over to the island that separated the kitchen part from the living room where everybody had immediately gravitated to and was either sitting on the floor or an a sofa or on somebody else's lap. He altered the switches on the wall as he passed and the lights dimmed low. Larten stopped squinting and smiled genuinely in appreciation.

"I take it you already know Edward, and Isabella, and Alice." Carlisle started, motioning to the three who either smiled or nodded in acknowledgement. "Now this is Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, Renesmee, Jacob," he addressed them all in turn, the closest shook hands and the others either nodded or smiled or waved "and this is Esme, my wife." He finished.

Larten turned to the woman standing next to Carlisle ready to shake her outstretched hand too. It was the first time he'd looked at her fully and this close up. She was beautiful like the rest of them and even with blonde hair bore an uncanny resemblance to someone very close to Larten's heart.

"Hello?" Esme repeated when Larten stared at her blankly for a moment. Slower than the others, he placed his hand in hers.

"I am sorry, you just remind me of someone I used to know." Images of Arra flooded his mind but he quashed them viciously. Jasper tilted his head curiously at the quick surge of emotion that rolled off the man.

"Don't worry about it." Said Esme kindly. Mr Crepsley reclaimed his hand. All of theirs had been ice cold just like Edward's and Carlisle's had been before.

"Welcome to the Cullen household. As Edward said before, these scoundrels are our adopted children." Carlisle motioned to everyone with a proud fatherly smile. "Well, except for Jake and Bella, though they too will soon be part of the family."

Larten took in all the information, secretly making a file about each individual in his mind, storing away all the information as had been drilled into him over the years and proved often to be very useful.

"He's sceptical," whispered Jasper into Edward's ear, "he's slightly confused and he doesn't trust us." Larten's head whipped round to stare in confusion and mild irritation at the younger blond man. How in hell?

"With apparently very good hearing." Edward said loudly. Jasper's head whipped round, all the others had heard what he'd said too apart from Bella who felt a little left out as usual when things like this happened.

Mr Crepsley's brow furrowed. First Alice's seemingly psychic announcements, then Edward being able to know exactly what Carlisle wanted without any verbal communication and now Jasper too. He started to feel threatened.

"Some of us have special talents." Carlisle stepped in, sensing the tension. "Four of us to be exact, Alice, Edward, Jasper, and Nessie."

Mr Crepsley's confusion only increased. "I can see the future." Piped in Alice. "That's how I warned Carlisle you and Darren would be coming here."

"I can feel the emotions of others and manipulate them…sorry." Jasper apologised.

A tiny girl was then standing in front of Larten. He didn't like children and had to refrain from recoiling. Nessie reached out her tiny eight year old sized hand and placed it on his arm. Larten gasped as the whole of the conversation they'd just had replayed in his head, but from her point of view. "I can put my thoughts inside your head." She said simply in a tiny top soprano voice. Larten stared in horror at the little girl as she skipped back and plonked herself in Jacob's lap who kissed the top of her head affectionately. This new information certainly didn't encourage any fondness for children.

"I can read everybody's mind." Announced Edward as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Apart from three." He clarified and anybody who hadn't been watching the bronze haired boy turned to look. "Bella's, Darren's and Larten's. I don't know why. I just can't hear anything." He shrugged.

Carlisle's brain that had already been cooking up a few of his famous theories now whirred off on its own tangent yet again.

"Do you mind me asking where we are exactly?" Asked Larten trying to get his head around all that he had just been told.

"Forks, Washington!" Boomed the large one who he'd borrowed the clothes off – Emmett.

"Washington D.C? America?"

"Not D.C, Washington State. In America." Larten did his signature nod. Why on earth would Tiny send us here? "Where are you from?"

"England, London originally."

There was an uneasy moment where everyone was silent, this being particularly odd in the Cullen house.

"Do you mind me asking what you and your son are?" Asked Carlisle hesitantly. "Of course you don't have to say if you don't want but I'm curious."

"That is fine, I have been wondering about you myself. My son and I are vampires."

There was a collection of outcries. "B-b-but that's impossible." Spluttered Carlisle. "We are vampires."

"It cannot be!"

"But, but-"

"Never in all my years have I heard of another vampire clan!"

"Nor in mine!" Exclaimed Carlisle.

Larten started pacing. (Limping.)

Why would Tiny do this? He wondered.

"Who's 'Tiny'?" Asked the one called Jake. Larten's head snapped up, he hadn't realised he'd said it aloud. His pacing re-commenced.

"The man that sent my son and I here."

"What did happen to you both? And how did the man send you here without you knowing where it was?"

"I do not know what happened to Darren, we did not have chance to speak for that long once we were reunited in the forest but he said it was around a year and a half after me. We were in the middle of a war back in our world. This particular battle we were in happened in the sewers below London. I was fighting their lord and two of his protectors."

Larten got lost in his memories, his pacing quickened and the words flowed from his mouth without thought. "We were on this raised platform they had put up in the place were we met, there was a pit of steel stakes below with fire coming up in between." He shuddered. "I managed to kill their lord but they managed to kill me in return."

Everyone else in the room was confused. Larten barely paid them any attention, needing to sort things out in his own head.

"I hit stakes but then I was in that white world and it did not feel that long and then Darren was there as well and he was injured and then he was fighting with Mr Tiny. Tiny. He sent us here, he said that Darren had tricked him and that was going to punish us for his deceit. And then there was the portal to the forest…" Larten trailed off but kept his pacing round the entryway.

The others in the room were speechless, staring at the man as he now mumbled unintelligible mutters under his breath.

Psycho! Thought Rosalie.

"You poor dears!" Cried Esme taking a step towards him naturally.

Larten's head snapped up to the Arra look-alike, he shook his head in realisation that he'd just spilt all of this to a load of strangers.

"What do you mean you'd died?" Asked Carlisle, thoroughly confused. "Who is this Mr Tiny?"

Larten took a deep breath and leaned against the banister of the stairs. His leg was hurting. He decided to tell them, they could have important information and he was fairly certain that they would not be able to kill him; Desmond would not have sent them here for them to be killed easily if his aim was punishment.

"Desmond Tiny controls time. He creates new worlds for fun and purposefully creates conflicting races for his sick enjoyment when they fight and kill each other. Like the vampires and vampaneze. We-"

"'Vampaneze'?" Interrupted Edward. Larten rubbed his scars as he thought; an old habit.

"In the past all the vampires were one, many of them looked down upon the humans as animals and thought nothing of draining them dry when they fed unlike the rest of us who – like we do now – only take as much as we need when we feed. Humans began to notice so the council made laws forbidding unnecessary killings. Most obeyed the new law but some saw it as betrayal of our cause, they believed that humans had been put upon the earth as food for them. It was ludicrous since it's humans that get turned into vampires in the first place.

"Several hundred years ago, as the…disputes became more and more frequent; a group of them broke away from the clan and declared themselves a whole separate race, the vampaneze. They established their own rules and rulers. The vampaneze believe that it is noble to drain a person whilst feeding and absorb their spirit; they think it dishonourable to take only small amounts at a time.

"Gradually their appearance changed as well with the gluttony of blood. Their skin turns blotchy and purple, their eyes, nails and lips turn red and some of the older ones' hair even goes redder. A huge war broke out between the two groups; many of each side were killed. But then the humans who we vampires were essentially trying to protect, got in the way.

"The humans noticed the increase in the numbers of killings and went on the rampage on both the vampires and the vampaneze. The vampires had been winning and probably would have continued to if the humans hadn't interfered. As things came to critical levels, the vampire Princes met with the vampaneze and discussed a truce, they would stop killing so openly and the war would stop.

"The pact worked and the humans stopped hunting us thinking they were safe. The vampires and vampaneze moved away from each other to keep the agreement and the two clans have had very little to do with each other since. Apart from the occasional clashes and challenges naturally."

"Challenges?" Echoed Jasper.

Larten remembered having almost this exact same conversation with Darren all those years ago. (A/N: This has basically been re-worded from a conversation in the third book.)

"We vampires are proud creatures. We live roughly and like to challenge ourselves, we are forever testing ourselves in fights and though humans and animals are interesting, if a vampire really wants to test themselves then it is not uncommon for vampires and vampaneze to agree to a duel and fight it out to the death.

"Other than these occasional skirmishes, there was nothing between the two races. Until recently. Mr Tiny relishes chaos. He loves it. Things were going on far too peacefully for his liking so he basically started the War of the Scars between us. He made leaders out of members from each clan and set them against each other in a constant game of cat and mouse for his own amusement; the winners would dominate the other clan and take them out entirely. From our clan the leaders were Darren, a few of our friends, and myself."

There was silence as the information settled in.

"But, you said that you'd died, how would this Mr Tiny do this if you were dead?" Asked Carlisle.

"I do not know." Answered Larten truthfully. "Desmond is immensely powerful and – I think – can go between both life and death but I do not know how he did this. I should have been much more injured than I am if the process of my death was complete so I simply do not know how he did it."

"You said that you both died. The war could be lost." Noted Esme quietly, thinking of all those poor people who would die if these 'vampaneze' came to power.

"I have been thinking of that myself but the battle that I died in should have been the last. I killed their lord. I do not know if the fighting continued, it should not have done and Darren may have gotten himself killed some other way. Mr Tiny spoke of a deceit when he sent us here so I have no idea until I can talk to Darren."

"Where are you from again?" asked Edward almost half jokingly.

"I have been thinking of this also, I suspect this is one of Tiny's other creations. An alternate universe so to speak." Larten produced one of his theories.

There was silence again.

"So, is Mr Tiny like Doctor Who?" The tiny voice of Nessie popped up from across the room.

"Who?" Asked Mr Crepsley.

"He's a fictional character in a television series. He is a time-lord who travels back and forward and between universes in his spaceship, meeting aliens and stopping bad things from happening." Explained the small one called Alice. (A/N: Review if you know what TARDIS stands for!)

"I suppose." Agreed Larten with a small smile. "Except Desmond does not have a spaceship and he will be the person creating the problems, not solving them."

More silence followed. The Cullens were having a hard time processing all the new information. A different universe? Different vampires? Vampaneze?

"Of course you and your son can stay with us for as long as you should both need!" Esme said emphatically, taking pity on the two poor men.

All eyes snapped to her then Carlisle nodded. "Yes, of course you can." He agreed.

"No, I could not; it is such a generous offer. Darren and I cannot repay you as it is. Thank you but-"

"Nonsense!" Declared Carlisle as he warmed up to the idea.

There was a dull and sudden thud followed by a groan from upstairs. Darren's room.

"Darren!" Mr Crepsley whispered, his eyes snapping to the ceiling.

A/N: Yes! Another chapter finished! Sorry to leave on such a cliff-hanger but I've got to keep you people entertained n some way eh?

I had another snow day today but there are suspicions that school shall be on tomorrow. Shame. So, you won't be seeing another update as quick as this one was but there should be one quite soon, I hope, the storyline is really starting to pick up (from my writing point of view) the first couple of chapters are always the hardest.

The POLL is still up, GO VOTE, if you haven't already.

Reviews are greatly appreciated, I'm making an effort to reply to all those I can as well. Sorry if I have missed yours out, it wasn't intentional!

Maniacinthemaking x

I love the snow :D