Sacrifice
AN: This will be the last chapter. I'm not sure if I'll write another one or not. I'm considering a series of one-shots featuring my favorite character, Alice, but school and work are getting pretty hectic, so we'll see what happens.
AN 2: Two things to clear up: Sam is Quil and Clair's son. As for how it was possible for Alice to have a vision of Molly with Nessie and Jake, Alice didn't actually "see" them. She was looking for Molly's future, as she does each night to make sure the girl wasn't planning something stupid. What she actually saw was Molly parking her car in the woods by the Cullen home, everything go black, and then she saw Molly making a call which was followed by the Volturi arriving in Fir Ridge. Alice just jumped to the logical conclusion that the blackness meant Molly had seen Jake and Nessie.
Bella's POVI ran faster than I had ever ran in all of my existence. As fast as Edward, even. I had no idea what we would do with Molly when we got to her. All I knew was that we would get their fast enough to catch her. There was no other option. I could smell her now and I followed the scent in a direct path, running through the trees that got in my way. Edward split away from me. He was close enough to hear her mind now and would go to her car if she, by some freak miracle, managed to get past me. A scream pierced the air. I ran faster.
The scent grew stronger and I found her in the area we had cleared out for baseball games and sunny days. She hadn't even had a chance to run. Jacob had her pinned to the ground and he was growling furiously. "Call your father." I ordered as I crouched in front of her unable to suppress my protective instincts although I knew that Molly no longer posed any threat to my family. Venom pooled and I growled furiously, lips curved up in a dangerous smile. I wanted to rip this stupid human girl limb from limb. Who did she think she was, interfering with my family, ruining the peaceful, happy existence we had finally managed to carve out for ourselves. I almost laughed as I realized that I could finally understand how Rosalie had felt when Edward had brought me into the family. No matter what we chose to do with Molly, our family would be forever changed. I wanted her dead for that.
I spent the half-second it took for Edward to reach us wondering why Alice had seen Molly reaching her car. It only too me another fraction of a second to realize that because Alice couldn't see Jacob make the decision to stop her she had only been able to see the decision Molly would have made if it had been anyone other than Jacob and Nessie she had seen.
"What are we going to do with her?" I asked Edward when he reached my side. "I have no idea," he answered, running his fingers through his hair. "Can we kill her?" Renesmee asked. Jacob and I growled our agreement. I was surprised that he was so willing to take a human life, although I shouldn't have been. I knew that Jacob would stop at nothing to keep Nessie safe. The one trait he and Edward had always shared was their total willingness to do whatever was necessary to protect us. No matter what the cost. But if Jacob killed this girl, it would change him forever and I would not lose my best friend because of this insignificant human. I would kill her myself before I allowed her to ruin my family.
"We'll take her back to the house and make the decision as a family. Renesmee you'll have to carry her back. I'm no sure either your father or I have the control necessary at the moment to not kill her." I answered for Edward. Renesmee nodded and gathered Molly in her arms, holding her as far away from her body as she possibly could. Together we ran back to the house, Jacob leading the way, Edward and I following to make sure the girl didn't do anything stupid, like try to jump. She didn't seem to be capable of coherent thought though. She just whimpered and mumbled something about monsters.
We reached the house in seconds, even running slower than normal to keep up with Nessie. Nobody had moved from their positions. Emmett, Seth, Leah and Sam still sat by the coffee table where we had been playing our card game. Alice sat at the bottom of the stairs, curled up in Jasper's lap. Rose sat with Esme and Carlisle on the couch, and she glared at Molly with a hatred I hadn't seen in here eyes since the early days of Edward and I'' relationship and she had captured my gaze from across a crowded cafeteria. Quil and Clair sat on the loveseat near the piano, holding hands, worry etched across their aging faces. Embry had met us at the door in wolf form. Once Jake had seen Nessie safely into the house he disappeared into the woods with Embry. Seconds later they returned in their human form.
"Where should I put her?" Renesmee asked, disgust wrinkling her nose. "In the ground." Rosalie suggested. Emmett snickered. I ignored her and turned to Alice. "What do you see?" I asked her. "Nothing. Renesmee and Jacob are too tied into this decision for me to see what we'll do with her." She answered. "And the Volturi?" Carlisle asked. "I can no longer see them coming for us. At least, not anytime soon." Occasionally Alice would have the odd vision of an impatient Aro making the decision to attack, but it usually disappeared within minutes after Caius and Marcus talked him out of it. Until we actually broke the law in a concrete way, they would not agree to an attack and they would not allow Aro to even instigate a covert assassination. Our coven was too closely tied with too many others for them to allow that kind of risk to their reputation. Allowing this girl to live would give them that reason.
"We have to kill her." I stated, not caring that the girl was still in the room. I had not known that I was capable of such hate, but I wanted this girl to suffer for what she was doing to my family. "But Bella," Edward began, but I stopped him by pushing my shield away and opening my mind to him, allowing him to see my resolve, as well as the reasoning behind my decision. "I see," he said, nodding. "Well that's all fine and dandy but could someone let us in on the plan." Emmett interrupted annoyed. "There is no plan," I responded. "We either kill her, or we make her one of us." At this statement all of the wolves, other than Jacob started voicing their objections, Leah the loudest of them all.
"That's nothing but pure murder." She stated. "I thought you weren't supposed to be killers. It's the only reason that we have been able to live together peacefully. If you kill this girl our family will not survive it." I smiled at her grimly. "I love you all. I don't want to lose any of you, but if doing this is the only way to keep you alive, even if you leave us, then that is a price I am willing to pay." I answered. I looked over at Jacob. His vote would be the deciding factor. While we did our best to preserve human life, us Cullens would do whatever was necessary to protect our family. Including kill. Jasper and Rosalie had been willing enough to do it to me, in the beginning. I would kill for them now. Seth and Embry would follow Jake's lead, but I wasn't sure about Leah. Sam would do whatever she wished. It was quite possible that we would lose them both, as well as Quil and Clair, no matter what decision we came to. But it was better to have them to think us soulless monsters for the rest of their lives, then to have them die because we were too weak to do what was necessary to save them.
I caught Molly's terrified gaze from where she sat on the sofa, pinned by Jasper's unshakable stone hands. I glared at her, almost surprised by the force of my hatred. In all my time as a vampire I had never really taken into account the personality changes that came with it. From the very beginning I had still felt like me, with all of my human quirks and foibles, just more durable. But the part of me that was now more animal than human, more lion than lamb, was taking over now and I found that I liked it. It felt natural. Even though I knew that my family was seeing an entirely different Bella then they were used to, I didn't feel unsure of my course at all. I was still me, this was just another aspect of my personality, one that had lain dormant until the right moment. I knew that I could kill this girl and I would not regret it. Not if it was the only way to save my family. For them, I would do anything. And I knew that it was the same for Carlisle and Edward, Alice and Jasper, Em and Rose. Even Esme would kill this girl without remorse if she felt it was necessary.
While I was having my epiphany, Jacob had come to his decision. He looked at Leah, and although his eyes were sad, his expression was grim with resolve. "It's the only way, Leah. The only way to keep us safe. To keep your children safe. If this girl lives, we will all die. The Volturi are just waiting for an excuse. You know that. If you want to leave, I understand, but the decision is made. She will die." Leah's expression was torn. She didn't want to leave her family. The idea of leaving her Alpha was causing her physical pain. You could see it in her eyes. But I knew that the idea of taking a human life was so repulsive to her that she might not ever be able to accept this decision. She took a deep breath. "I cannot be part of the taking of a human life. Sam and I will leave. For how long I don't know. But I cannot. Jake," she pleaded with him, "this goes against everything we believe in, please, don't." He just shook his head. "Any of the wolves that cannot except this decision are free to go their own way. But I will do whatever is necessary to protect Nessie."
Quil and Clair stood up. "We will go with Sam and Leah. We love you all, but our place is with them and our grandchildren." Jacob nodded. 'Of course." Leah looked at Seth and Embry, but they just shook their heads. "Our place is with our Alpha, sis. If this is what is necessary to protect our pack, then it is a price we are willing to pay. I remember a time when you were willing to make the same sacrifice." Seth inclined his head in my direction. Leah looked thoughtful now, pondering. "I didn't think of it like that. In terms of protecting the pack. I guess I'm still prejudiced after all these years, because all I could see was that the leeches were going to murder an innocent to save their own hides. But of course they're saving ours too. You cannot abandon them to face death at the hands of those Italian bloodsuckers, and we cannot abandon you. Our lives will always be tied to theirs, won't they?" Jacob simply nodded. "I knew that," she continued, "but I guess I still haven't come to terms with it. I still need to leave for a while Jake. There are some things I need to think about, and I can't do that here. But we'll be back."
They said their farewells, and when they were gone the vampires and the remaining werewolves moved into the dining room. A decision still had to be made. We left Molly in the living room. She only tried to run once. When Alice had grabbed her before she'd even had a chance to take two steps away from the couch, she'd seen that any more effort would be futile. She was now curled up in a ball in the corner, shaking with the knowledge of her death. The human in me actually felt guilty, but that aspect of my personality was no longer in control. For the most part, I was indifferent to her pain.
In the end we waited for her to cry herself to sleep and Jasper quickly snapped her neck. None of us had been able to accept the idea of spending eternity with her. We burned the body, and Emmett disposed of her car. I'm not entirely sure about what he did with it, but from the odd scraps of metal we found I believe that he simply crushed it into pieces.
Jake, Nessie, Seth and Embry had left before we had done it. While they accepted the decision, they didn't want to see the end result. They preferred not to think of it at all. They had gone to Ireland, to visit Siobhan. They were due back any day now.
Once it was over, once I had calmed down long enough for the monster in me to be pushed back, I was racked with guilt. We all suffered from it, in little ways, but this was not the first time the others had been forced into such measures. Edward suffered with me, but after a few months I found that I rarely thought of it. Our family continued on, not the same-we were heartless, and the wolves would forever be changed now that they knew themselves capable of taking a human life-but we were happy and content in our lives and our love for each other. We did leave Fir Ridge, after an acceptable amount of time had passed, and now we were living in Oregon. We were happy here, and all of the humans kept a sane distance away from us. It was a beautiful place. Leah would be back before the babies were born. She had an epiphany of her own. She found that she wasn't any happier away from us then she had been with us. And besides, she didn't trust anyone other than Carlisle to deliver the twins.
As I watched the sun set from the balcony of mine and Edwards's bedroom, his arms wrapped tightly around my waist, my head pressed against his chest, I couldn't find any regret in me at all. I had taken my first human life, if only indirectly, but it had been worth it. I loved them more than anything, more than my own life, and I knew that they felt the same way. It was what separated us from the real monsters, that love we had for each other. Even if we couldn't regret it, we didn't take Molly's death lightly. We saw it as what it was, nothing less than a necessary sacrifice.
