Hey, next chapter as promised. Does anyone know how to find out how many times you've been subbed or favourited, cuz I'm wondering how many people have subbed or favourited me altogether, and thanks to anyone who did. And to all my reviewers, especially bre. You should get an account if you don't already have one, and log in so I can message you and stuff.

This chapters longer, so more reveiws

Oh, and to everyone who wants more "the truth about alice" It won't let me upload!!! And I have writers block.

Sorry :¬(

Edward's Pov

My breathing came in short, wheezy gasps. But I was breathing again, so that was good. And I'd begun to gain some form of conscious thought.

So that was good too.

It hurt…so much.

I'd managed to stop screaming once I realised what it made the others feel like. Helpless.

Like me.

The cold flared up painfully, so I tried to concentrate on what was actually happening, rather than the blistering icefire.

My eyes were very tightly shut. There was a plastic bit in my mouth, like a gum shield. I assumed it was there to stop myself from biting through my tongue. I was covered with something soft and warm. A heated blanket. It didn't help much - but help it did. I was lying down. I could smell Carlisle and Alice and Emmett. Where was Jasper, I wondered. Esme and Rose were in … Alaska. We were going to move there in a few months. Trivial details helped most, I realised. Alice was speaking a lot. Telling me it was going to be okay. I concentrated on her voice, trying to drown out the other, less pleasant, less real voices.

Carlisle wants you back, Edward. You'll find him. But you'll regret it.

Shut up. I mean it. Don't make me come up there!

Yelling at the imaginary voices that predicted my death – a sure sign of madness (albeit not the most common one).

Not good.

"It's going to be okay," Alice said. I wondered if she was trying to convince me or herself. "Carlisle's getting some medicine that's supposed to stop hallucinations. It's for humans, but it might help. Emmett told me to ask you if you're schizophrenic."

"Probably," I whispered. Alice laughed delightedly, not at what I'd said, so much as that I was actually speaking and making some sort of sense.

"Carlisle, he's speaking! Well done, Edward. Carlisle's coming back, he's got the medicine. Do you feel up for it?"

"I'll… try," I gasped. I felt myself being pulled into a sitting position and something with a sickly lemon flavour sticking in my throat. I gagged a bit. "Tastes… bad."

"It smells bad too. Too sweet. Why won't you open your eyes?" My eyes were still clenched tight shut.

"Easier," I muttered. If you've ever been in a reasonable amount of pain then you'll know what I mean. You squeeze your eyes tight shut in an effort to escape.

"Try." Alice said.

"I don't – I can't-"

"Try," Alice insisted.

I slowly pulled my eyes open, giving myself the mother of all headaches in the process. I held them open for ten seconds and then let them snap shut again, but not as tightly.

"Well done, Edward." It was Carlisle who spoke this time. "How are you?" The pain intensified and I winced and fell back into a lying position.

"Never better," I murmured. Emmett chuckled. "Go to … hell … Em," I couldn't be bothered with his full name.

"Seriously, Edward, what happened?"

"I don't know!" I said, making a pretty pathetic attempt to shout. "I was… reading… and I heard… voices. They got louder … and then… I screamed… and… Alice… was there." The pauses in my speech were annoying me, but it was enough of an effort to speak for them anyway, and I had more pressing things on my mind.

"Cool! You are schizo!" Emmett yelled.

"Alice… punch… him for me," Her tiny fist shot out, catching him straight in the stomach. I smiled. She winked.

"Edward, please forgive me if this is insensitive, but you're a mind reader. You here voices all the time; what was so different about these ones?"

"Well… first… of all, they were… stronger. And louder. I couldn't… drown them out." I paused longer, trying to figure out how to say it. "And one of them was dying." My voice turned dark. I wondered if anyone else noticed the sudden lack of pauses in my speech in that sentence. "The other was… grieving for him." Okay, so the pauses were still there, but less frequent and less noticeable. And not there when I talked about him. "The dying one," My voice broke. "His name was Edward."

There was a very long pause that had nothing to do with me.

"Carlisle, I'm tired. Can I… rest?"

"Of course," But he looked confused, and a more than a bit worried. Vampires don't rest. Or maybe it was because of my possibly imminent death? I shifted slightly on the bed, and then remained still.

For the first time in nearly seventy years, I dreamed.

Jasper's Pov

I had to go back.

I couldn't.

But I had to.

I paced up and down, about 500 metres from the house, just far away enough to not feel their emotions.

I slipped my hand into my pocket, feeling my cell, wondering if I should phone. But Alice probably wouldn't want to talk to me, and once she knew what I was thinking, the choice would be made for me. My phone vibrated next to my hand making me jump.

"Hello?" I said.

"Jasper, when are you coming back?"

"I'm half a kilometre away, debating whether or not to come in."

"You should come. Edward's loads better, he was sitting up and talking."

"In his own voice?"

"Yes. He had some medicine and he's resting now. Your advice helped. Emmett's making jokes about the world's first schizophrenic vampire." I chuckled briefly.

"I'll try to come back."

"Good. I'll come out to meet you." Alice hung up, and was by my side in exactly eight seconds.

"Hi," she said, grinning.

"Hi." My voice was a lot more subdued.

"Its going to be fine, Jazz. One step at a time."

I nodded and took a step. "Tell me if it starts to hurt, and we'll stop," she continued.

"Okay." We walked – slowly for vamps, but at a pace where a normal human would have to run to keep up. I began to feel the cold when we were about 350 metres away, like brain freeze, except it covered your whole body. I stopped walking.

"Jazz?" Alice asked. I took a breath.

"It's okay. Just a headache," I lied. I carried on walking, gritting my teeth. The pain kept getting stronger, but it was nothing compared to what I'd felt a couple of hours ago right outside the house. Absolutely nothing. I looked down at my feet, not wanting to meet the cold, so I was surprised when I found myself standing right outside the house.

"Well done. Can you go inside?"

"Yes," My voice was only slightly strained. Alice reached up and brushed her lips against mine.

I walked into the house even more slowly than before, steadily making my way into the "living" room. Suddenly aware of the fact I wasn't breathing, I inhaled quickly through my nose. It was strange. I could definetly smell Edward, but mingled heavily with his scent was another, like burning plastic. Sour, and almost painful, I winced again.

"Is the fire on?" I asked (for some reason, Esme had bought a house were the ornate fireplaces added $5,000 to the price, even though we never needed to use them).

"No. Why do you ask?"

"Edward smells like… burning."

"That just seems to be a side effect of what's happening to him." I nodded, and went into the living room. The cold seemed more manageable now. Edward was lying on his side, breathing evenly, looking very relaxed except for one obvious flaw. His eyes were squeezed very tightly shut.

"His eyes…?"

"He won't open them. Well, he did before, but we had to nag him." I nodded.

I stared at his shut eyes, trying to think of what they reminded me of. Then I realised – and wished I hadn't.

He looked like someone who was trying very hard not to scream.

He looked like a man on fire.

But then, he was.

I had a sudden thought. If this was what it was like for me, who tried fairly successfully to drown out other people's feelings as much as possible, what must it be like for him, when he didn't have the option of running into the forest like the chicken I was?

Ouch.

"He feels a lot better," I murmured, spreading a wave of peace through Edward, not knowing it would help. "He stopped screaming when?"

"Ten minutes after our phone call." Alice said, giving me a look.

"Sorry! I always knew that no one would ever dream of killing him; I just said it would be kinder." Alice gave me a look. "He agreed with me," I pointed out.

"Well, if you want my opinion, you're both idiots."

I might've imagined it, but I'm sure I saw Edward smile.

"Where's Carlisle?"

"He's phoning Esme and Rose."

"Emmett?"

"Out back. Think he's trying to come up with more jokes to annoy Edward." I grinned.

"Shall we go help him?"

Edward's hand clenched into fists. Alice hesitated.

"I'm supposed to be watching him. But I'll be less than a second away, so…I'll race you!" She was out the room before I had time to blink. I was after her a nanosecond later.

"Hey, Jazz," Emmett said, absent mindedly bouncing a basket ball. He chucked it into the air. It didn't come down. "Long time no see."

"It's been less then two hours."

"I know. I just felt like saying that." The ball finally came back down to earth and Emmett struck out with his hand, sending the ball flying towards me. I caught it easily and chucked it far west into the forest.

"Alice – go wide!" She grinned and disappeared into the trees. Five seconds later, the ball appeared over the trees, zooming towards us at over 100/mph, Alice following it. I head butted towards Emmett who spun it around on his finger

For exactly thirty seconds, I completely forgot about Edward.

Then he came back with a bang.

Pain, raw and ugly ripped its way through me. I jumped – literally – ten feet in the air and hit the ground running.

"Edward's relapsed!" I yelled back to them. I was at the front door within a second, the pain so strong I would rather be changed into a vampire 20 times over then go through it another second.

So why was I running towards Edward, instead of away from him?

Because he was my brother, and I loved him.

And because I was a complete idiot.

I very nearly tore the door off its hinges as I sprinted into the living room. I expected to find him fitting or screaming or something.

But no. He was lying down in exactly the same position as before, his face as smooth as marble, his eyes closed. There was no difference in him at all. The half smile was still on his face from Alice's quip about how we were both idiots, his hands still fists at the thought of us helping Emmett with his jokes.

So why did I feel like I was being skinned alive?

He was too similar, I realised. Not a hair out of place. Not one difference. Except…

And there it was. The difference so obvious I wondered how I hadn't noticed it before.

His eyes.

His eyes had gone from being clenched tightly shut to wide open. Very wide, wider than I'd ever seen them.

And they weren't his eyes anymore.

They were a deep, oceanic blue, but it wasn't just the colour. They were still the same shape as Edward's eyes; still had his same long lashes that Alice often said had no right being on a boys face. But the eyes held nothing of Edward. None of his kindness, none of his cynicism, none of his dry, witty sense of humour. They were completely empty.

"The eyes," I said hoarsely.

Then, very abruptly Edward sat up.

Alice instinctively moved forwards, but I put a hand out to stop her.

"Stay back," I warned. "Edward?" I said cautiously. Edward began to speak in someone else's voice, in a language that I knew instantly, asking a question in a puzzled tone.

"What language is that?" Alice asked.

"Russian." Just that in itself was disturbing. Edward had never spoken a word of Russian in his life, and now he was speaking it with no trace of an accent, in another voice.

"Do you understand him?"

"Yes and no." Alice gave me a look that was both a query and annoyance.

"Jasper, could you be more cryptic?"

If this was a funny situation, I probably would've replied "Yes and no" for the hell of it, and annoyed her even more.

But this wasn't a funny situation, so I just told her.

"The words he's saying, the actual sentences make sense. But they've got no context whatsoever." Alice nodded.

"Well, go on."

"What? I don't know what to do!" Just staying in the room was enough of an effort.

"Take your own advice. Talk to him."

"Hello?" I said in Russian, taking a hesitant step towards him. The boy – I didn't think of him as Edward at the time- looked up, blinking his very blue eyes. He didn't seem to look at me, rather than through me, as if he was talking to someone behind me. Someone I couldn't see.

"I don't understand," The boy said in perfect Russian. "Why are you doing this? Why are you hurting me? Why am I so cold?"

"Its okay," I said, trying to calm him. "It will stop. I promise."

"You lie."

It was not a question.

"How-" I changed the question. I had to figure out what was happening to Edward. And who this boy was, with the beautiful blue eyes? "Do you know what your name is?"

"Of course. It's Nika." I nodded, racking my brain for anyone of that name. Couldn't think of anyone.

"What's he saying?" Emmett asked tensely.

"His name is Nika," I said.

"Nika?"

"Short for Nikita. Pronounced Nee-Ka"

"Okay. What's with the eyes? And why is Edward calling himself Nika?" Emmett asked.

"I don't know."

"You've got to help him. And quickly. He's changing," Alice said urgently.

"What do you mean…." I looked across at Edward.

Except he wasn't Edward.

It wasn't just his eyes that had changed. His hair was slowly changing from bronze to blonde, and getting longer and neater. His body - now with his arms hugging his knees to his chest, slowly rocking – was gradually shrinking in on itself, getting smaller and smaller.

I switched back to Russian. "Do you know anyone called Edward? Edward Cullen?"

"Yes."

"Do you know where he is?"

"No."

"Okay." I tried a longer route. "When did you meet him?"

"1931."

"Okay…" I said again. "How old are you, Nika?

"I was nearly thirteen when I died."

This just got weirder and weirder.

"Where were you when you met?"

"At my house. In Moscow."

"Are you a vampire, Nika?"

"I'm not like Edward. I do not kill people."

"Hey! Edward doesn't kill people-" I began defensively.

"You lie."

"He would never-" And then I stopped. Because I remembered he had. When he had newly become a vampire, he ran away, killing people like any other vampire purely out of shame for what he was.

No, not like any other vampire. He used to kill human monsters. Drug dealers, murderers, thieves and the like.

Which made me even more suspicious of Nika.

"Do you know where Edward is?"

"He's still here. Underneath. Fighting. But he's not strong enough." I shuddered delicately.

"Why are you controlling him?"

"He killed me. And the killer's killer must be killed."

Huh?

"I'm sorry, what"?

"But we can only carry on together. If Edward dies, so do I. So I will stay inside Edward. He is not here anymore."

There were a hundred things I wanted to save of them, most of them consisting entirely of numerous swearwords, but I picked the one that was most likely to get more progress.

"Are you a killer, Nika?"

"I do not kill people." I was about to interrupt, but Nika carried on talking. "They were not people."

"Who did you kill?" My voice was a low whisper.

"Jasper Robert Whitlock."

There was a very, very, very long pause. A thousand questions ran through my head: How did he know my name? And not just any name, but my human name and my middle name too, which I didn't even remember before now? How could he say he'd killed me in the past tense, like I was already dead?

"I'm not dead," I whispered. "I'm a vampire. I'm not alive in some sense of the word, but I'm definetly not dead." Nika carried on like I hadn't spoken.

"Nikolas Sarokov. Jasmine Ithacan. Carlisle Cullen. Isabella Swan. Alice Cullen. Edward-"

"Hey!! Back up! You'll never touch Alice!!!"

"Funny how you talk about her. Like she's a real person."

"She is. She's right there," I said, turning round.

Alice was hunched on the floor looking up curiously. She had a blank look in her eye, like when she was having a vision.

"Alice? Are you okay?" I gently asked in English.

"I'm fine," she said calmly.

I froze.

She was speaking in Russian.

And then, so gradually, that if I wasn't staring straight at her, I wouldn't have noticed, something bad happened.

Something very, very bad.

Her eyes began to change colour.

Hehehehe, cliffhanger. If you want me to update sooner than leave a review saying so, and you may be rewarded. And sorry but if you're not logged in I can't send you a sneak peek or reply to your reviews. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, it's just not possible. Maybe I'll update quicker…….

Oh, and like I said before, if anyone knows how to find out how to check how many people have favourited or subbed, please tell me.

Please review! Do you think I'm getting Edward's, Alice's and Jasper's narrative right? How could I improve? What are you're theories on what's going on? Are you getting that feeling like you're in the story, like you can feel Edward's pain too? Cuz that's what I'm aiming for, it's hard, I've never done a fic quite like this and I'm only 13, therefore not the most experienced writer (even if I do occaisionally use words like "therefore" and "albeit". That's just me spending to much time inside Edward's head)

And remember:

REVEIWS = COOKIES!!!

I wish.