Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who" or "Twilight", and the essential details of the original concept of this fic came from a video posted on YouTube by heroesdwtw- which has unfortunately now been taken off YouTube- and is used with their permission

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: Another trickier chapter, but it reveals some important information for future development; hope you all like it

Time's Ashes

"You need to stay hidden!" the vampire said, hissing at us in frustration. "Do you even realise how lucky you are that nothing else found you after the Sontarans were taken down?"

"Excuse me?" the Doctor said, looking at the man in confusion.

"What?" I said, looking at the vampire in surprise; the idea of a vampire with eyes like that appearing concerned about humans just didn't fit anything I thought I knew about them as a species. "You're… you're not going to kill us?"

"Kill us?" Steven said, looking at me in surprise. "Why would he kill us; he just saved us?"

"He's a vampire," I clarified as I looked at my current allies.

"You know that?" the vampire said, looking at me in surprise, even as the Doctor and Steven started in surprise.

"I've… encountered some vampires before," I said, looking awkwardly at the Doctor and Steven; realistically, if Earth's history had been changed far enough in the past for these buildings to be the only thing standing, it was unlikely that any of the Cullens were even alive, but I still didn't feel comfortable discussing my ties with them after what happened last time. "So… why haven't you just fed from us already?"

"You think I don't want to?" the vampire said, looking scornfully at me. "Believe me, I would if I could, but human blood's a precious commodity these days; I'm not going to start feeding on you now."

"Indeed?" the Doctor said, looking pointedly at the vampire with an authoritative stance that gave little indication how he felt about the fact that he was facing one of his species' ancient enemies. "Why is that?"

"Considering how long it's been since I fed on human blood, if I fed from you I'd probably be unable to stop, and then I'd create a situation where I'd draw attention to myself, followed by those alien bastards trying to catch me," the vampire said, looking grimly at us. "Attracting attention wouldn't get any of us anywhere; easier to just let you live rather than push myself too hard."

"So… why did you save us?" I asked, looking at him in confusion. "I mean, I'm not saying I want you to, but you said that you can't feed from us here; you could… take us somewhere else and feed from us there, so why are you just… talking to us?"

"Oh, trust me," the vampire said, looking at me with a pointed glare, "on any other occasion, I would have just taken you to safety and killed you…"

"But what?" I asked, looking at the vampire curiously as he studied me in the same way, the Doctor and Steven looking apprehensively at the vampire; I knew that my relationship with the Cullens had probably had some impact on my judgement in a situation like this, but faced with a vampire whose eyes were something other than blood red, I found myself relaxing despite the obvious risks.

"But… the ties between you," the man said, looking at me and Steven in confusion as he indicated the Doctor. "The young man over there doesn't know you, but he's already considering you under his protection… the old man's curious about what you're doing here even as he trusts you, and as for you… I'm not sure what it is about your bond with the old man in particular; he's only just met you, but he already wants to protect you, you seem to regard him as a teacher, you trust him with your life but you're concerned for his future…"

"The ties between us?" I said, looking at him with a thoughtful smile as I considered what he'd said. "That's… your gift, isn't it? You can see how we're… connected?"

"You know about gifts?" the vampire said, looking at me in surprise. "You are… aware of my kind's unique abilities?"

"Well, I knew a few… others… with your kind of abilities," I explained, smiling slightly at him; even if his eyes worried me, so far he seemed to be relatively peaceful compared to what Victoria and James had been like. "One of them could sense and manipulate emotions, another could see the future based on the decisions people made, and a third could… well, he could read minds-"

"Aro?" the vampire said, his eyes widening incredulously.

"Who?" I asked, the man's shifting expression revealing that he hadn't been expecting that response.

"Nothing," the vampire said, his gaze becoming briefly more solemn before he focused on the Doctor once more. "Regardless of what your friend here knows or doesn't know, the fact remains that, whatever you are, this world just isn't safe for humans any more-"

"And why is that?" I said, looking curiously at the vampire; what I was trying to do might be risky, but it was still the first chance we'd had to actually ask someone what kind of situation we had found ourselves in. "What… happened here?"

"What do you mean, 'what happened here'?" the vampire repeated, looking pointedly back at me, clearly bemused at the idea that I had to ask such a question.

"I mean, what happened to the world?" I asked, looking at him in frustration. "Why is everything such a mess? Why are we not safe?"

"With Earth becoming a focal point for what seems to be every alien in this part of the galaxy?" the vampire said, looking sceptically at me. "The miracle is that it lasted this long…"

"Hold on; Earth's a focal point for alien invasions?" Steven said, looking incredulously at the vampire. "You're saying… aliens coming here… that's a regular thing?"

"It's been happening for years," the vampire said, looking at Steven in frustration; evidently he was wondering why anyone needed to ask that kind of question. "I admit, we probably didn't make it easier by feeding so much, but we had no reason to hold back at first, and then there was such a wide variety of aliens coming here that we revealed our presence before we learned that some things could actually kill us-"

"Hold on; are you saying that you were feeding a lot before the aliens came?" I said, looking at the vampire in surprise. "But we-"

I suddenly stopped as a horrible thought occurred to me. "Oh no…"

"What?" Steven said, looking at me inquiringly. "What's wrong?"

"These vampires," I said, looking at my two new friends, "were the result of an experiment by the original vampires to create a new, stronger breed of fighters; they should have been programmed to keep their existence secret and avoid feeding too much to limit the attention they would attract to themselves, but because history was changed, we never did that…"

"What?" the vampire said, looking pointedly at me. "What are you talking about?"

"Uh…" I said, suddenly realising how potentially awkward what I'd just said could be in the wrong circumstances; would anyone take kindly to learning that their entire species was meant to be programmed from the moment of creation to obey certain orders?

"Never mind," the vampire said, waving a hand dismissively at me. "Unless it has anything to do with things right now, I can't afford to worry about that; we have bigger things to concern ourselves with. Firstly-"

"We must recover our vessel," the Doctor said firmly.

"Vessel?" the vampire repeated, looking at the Doctor in confusion. "What 'vessel' would this be?"

"If you are what Miss Swan says you are," the Doctor said, looking at the vampire with a hard stare that gave no sign of how he felt about facing one of his species' ancient enemies, "then you are clearly aware that I am not like my companions, correct?"

"Quite," the vampire said, looking at the Doctor with a slight sneer in the corner of his mouth. "And if we're talking about that, I should make it clear that you're only still alive because you're clearly not interested in doing anything; I don't know why these people trust you, but they fact that they do is something I can't just overlook."

"I'm sure we're all grateful for your decision, my fine fellow," the Doctor said, his slightly cooler tone the only indication that he was aware of what the man before him was and the history that race had with his own people. "The fact remains, however, that we are not going to get anywhere if your sole strategy is to keep us hidden; my friends and I may be able to do something about the condition of this planet, but only if you assist us in recovering the ship that was taken from us by the Raxicoricofallapatorians-"

"The Slitheen," the vampire said.

"Pardon?" the Doctor asked.

"The race you just mentioned are only represented here by the Slitheen, who are apparently an exiled crime family on their planet," the vampire clarified, shrugging as he looked at our confused expression. "I've overheard some things over the years, and the general consensus is that Earth's pretty much neutral territory among other alien races these days; the Slitheen have been hiding out here and trying to stake out their own specific home base because nobody with ties to Raxicoricofallapatorius has enough authority to make them leave."

"I see," the Doctor said, his eyes narrowing in disapproval before he nodded and continued speaking. "In any case, whatever has happened to this planet, if we can re-acquire our vessel from the… Slitheen, I assure you that we can do something about Earth's current situation."

As he looked thoughtfully between us, the vampire said nothing for a moment, his gaze settling on the Doctor in a cold, assessing manner, until he finally nodded.

"They believe in you," he said solemnly. "If they have that much faith in you… there has to be a reason for it."

"There is," I said, nodding firmly at the vampire. "Trust me, if anyone can help clear this whole situation up, it's the Doctor."

"You are aware that there's a lot to… 'clean up', right?" the vampire said as he looked at me.

"And the Doctor can do it all," I said firmly. "Just get us to the TARDIS, and we can take it from there."

This vampire might not be able to read my mind or emotions like Edward or Jasper, but from what he'd said about seeing relationships, so long as I was honest that might be enough to make my point.

"So… you'll help us?" Steven asked.

"Why not?" the vampire said, shrugging in a somewhat bored manner. "It might be interesting."

"That will have to do," the Doctor said, shrugging at the comment as he looked thoughtfully at the vampire; he was still slightly tense, but he seemed to accept our decision to stay with this vampire for the moment. "Now then, shall we focus on getting to that Slitheen base for now?"

The vampire and Steven both joined me in nodding in agreement, and we started walking in the direction that the TARDIS had been taken. While a part of me had to wonder what was going to happen if this vampire got hungry, at the same time I couldn't afford to worry about that; we needed to get to the TARDIS, and this vampire was the only person available strong enough to protect us from anything else that might try to attack us. So long as we avoided getting cut and giving him a reason to register our blood, everything should be all right…

"By the way," I said, looking curiously at our new bodyguard as we kept on walking. "What's your name?"

"Marcus," the vampire replied, looking grimly at me. "Just… call me Marcus."

"Marcus," I said, smiling at him, trying to ignore my nagging doubts. "I'm Bella Swan; this is Steven Taylor, and our friend is the Doctor."

Marcus's only response to learning our names was a brief, cursory nod, but this wasn't the time to criticise anyone for their manners; we had a plan, and we had to focus on that.

AN 2: To answer the obvious question for the 'Twilight' fans, this is the Marcus who belongs to the Volturi in canon; considering his age, I felt that he was old enough to still exist in this new timeline, even if he wouldn't be in the Volturi as there was never any real interest among the vampires in establishing a ruling body, due to there being so many aliens on Earth that keeping the secret became a necessity of survival against foes who could actually kill them.

AN 3: Further details about Earth's new history will be provided next chapter; let me know if there's anything you particularly want them to run into before they get the TARDIS back and I'll include it if I can (However, Daleks and Cybermen are off-limits for reasons that will be explained later)