Hello people! You must have thought that I was dead or something! No, just lazy, busy, without inspiration and with writers block. I want to dedicate this chapter to sunrisedeedee, and guest reviewers: amazon, PrincessAnn, Melissa, Nancy, and Dawn for inspiring me to write another chapter, even though it has been FOREVER since I have updated. Thanks to anyone who is still reading!
BPOV:
"Okay." I murmured as I moved through the rows of books with a practiced ease. I would pull down a random book and hand it to a specific Cullen member before moving on. I finally slowed and reviewed my mental checklist of books. "One more, I believe." I moved to the children section of the library and pulled out a picture book with the story of the Immortal Princess for my own reviewal.
"Come on, let me explain each section of books to you." I led them to a table in the center of the library.
"Jasper, you have the books on our fighting techniques. You are one of the most experienced fighters in the Vampire world. I need you to go through them and see where our biggest weaknesses are so that we can address them and hopefully improve."
"I can do that," Jasper replied slowly, "But can I ask a question first?"
I nodded my assent and waited for him to continue.
"If you and your world's job is to kill Werewolves, Shape-Shifters, and Vampires, why should we be helping you?"
"Jazz!" Alice exclaimed, shocked at his question.
"No, no, Alice. Don't worry. That happens to be a legitimate question." I paused for a moment, collecting my thoughts. "While many young Naturalists grow up with the dream of killing many enemies, we learn that not everyone should be killed. We… well, we kind of act similarly to the Volturi, but our goal is not power. Our goal is to keep humans safe. We kill those who cause problems, such as those who build Vampire armies. We recognize that most don't have any choice in what we are. So we try to only kill those who kill obsessively. Besides that, we have a sweeter smelling blood than regular humans, as I am sure you may have noticed. So, should someone attack us, we defend ourselves."
Jasper nodded. "I'm sorry Bella. I didn't mean for my question to come off as rude or disrespectful-" I cut him off.
"No, Jasper. It is a reasonable question. And I shouldn't be expecting any of you to just decide to fight for us or to help us. None of you have to, I won't make you. And no harm will come to you should you decide not to. Tell me now, and I can have you safely escorted back to Forks."
Nobody said anything for a moment. Finally, Carlisle said, "Bella, I think I speak for our entire family when I say that we will stand behind you and your people."
"Thank you Carlisle." I said, bowing my head in respect. "Your help is greatly appreciated."
I turned back to our piles of books and pulled out a thick one with a familiar face on the front. I handed it to Alice. "I know this can't replace not having your memory, but this is your biography. I was hoping it might help you to read it, maybe it could speed up the process. After that, especially if it works, I was hoping you would go through the strategy books with Jasper."
"Sure!" Alice said, peppy and excited like normal.
Her and Jasper went off and I dug out another pile of books. "Carlisle. These are books on the power of healing. The problem is that healing takes much energy. Can you look and see if there are any battlefield injuries that can be quickly supplemented by normal medical care?"
Carlisle gave me an easy smile. "I'm sure I can do my best."
"Thank you." I picked up a few more books, handing them out between Esme and Edward. "I need you two to go through our building layout and see if there are any weaknesses in the setup or if there are any ways we can improve it."
They nodded but I could see that Edward had a question. I sighed. "Just say whatever it is."
"Some of these things… shouldn't others have reviewed them? People from your world that know more about it? I don't have a problem doing this, I was just wondering why us and not them…"
"As my father said, we have a traitor here. I can't currently trust anybody except for the people that are in this room. For all I know, the last people that went over these were corrupt. Besides, you will have fresh perspectives, perspectives that my brothers and I won't have because we grew up here and have reviewed every job I handed out. Does that answer your question?" I was in my element, facts and trivia and orders, I could do that. Emotions? Not so much.
Edward nodded. "What will you be doing?"
I sighed. "Between Emmett, Rosalie, and myself, we will be reviewing our records of those living."
"What?" Emmett yelped and I shot him a look.
"What do you mean?" Esme asked, curiosity on her face.
"We are going to be reading short descriptions of all the Naturalist people that are currently living, and try to narrow down who we believe the traitor may be."
"How many people are there to go through?" Carlisle asked.
"Including children and those stationed in the human world, about 3,000. About 400 are too young to fight and another 200 are too old to be much good. We only have about 1,000, now 800, decent warriors, and about 200 out in the world. They are being called back as we speak. But there are so many more shape-shifters and werewolves then you realize. There were at least 500 out there during the attack, which is a lot.
They all looked kind of shocked and I mentally slapped myself.
"I'm sorry, there isn't any need to worry about our odds right now, that's my job. Just focus on your tasks and see what you can come up with please." I said before turning and sitting down with Emmett and Rosalie. Emmett looked at me worried. He seemed to want to say something, but didn't want everyone to know.
I put up my shield around the three of us. "What Emmett?" I asked.
I knew Emmett had felt the shield go up. "What's been happening? We used to number 6,000 people!"
I gave him a look. "Things have been going downhill. Because more of the women want to be hunters, they aren't having kids." I said quietly.
"Dammit." Emmett sighed. "You know that was the argument against it to begin with?"
"I'm well aware." I snapped angrily. Emmett just raised an eyebrow at me. I took a deep breath and tried to get a hold of myself.
"I'm sorry Uncle Em." I said. "Let's just get through this." I pulled a book towards me and saw Emmett take one. He started showing Rosalie what we were looking for. I forced myself to focus and started taking notes.
I jerked awake at the sound of a crash, jumping up and crouching. I stood up as I gained my bearings and saw Alice clutching her head. I pushed forward to her. "Alice? Just breathe, all you can do is breathe." I put up a shield around her because I wasn't sure what was going to happen when she got had her memory back. After a few minutes her grip on her head loosened and she looked up, slightly disoriented.
"Bella?" She asked.
"Hey Alice." I said with a timid smile. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay." She said. She straightened, suddenly alert. "I got my memories back!"
"Good." I breathed out. "All of them?"
"Yeah." Alice said, her eyes lighting up. "I mean, I'm not sure how I know, but I just do."
"Good." I said. "Good. Do you think you can keep helping Jasper or do you need some acclimation time?" I didn't want to rush her, but I really needed her expertise.
"I can keep working." She assured me. "I'm fine."
"Okay." I said, and we both stood up and I took down the shield. "I'm okay." Alice assured them as they all started asking her at once. "Don't worry about it. We need to keep working."
Slowly, everyone went back to their respective jobs. I went back to my book and finished the page that I was on before turning it. I stared, unseeing at the pictures, sure that they couldn't be correct. The books only showed people who were alive, or changed. Nobody who was dead could appear in the book. I grabbed the book, shoved the picture book in as a page marker and darted out of the room, nearly knocking over Jordan.
"Bella!" He yelled after me, but I didn't even slow. If I stopped, I would break down, and I couldn't do that. I couldn't afford that right now.
Those pictures had to be a mistake. Those two people couldn't be alive.
Could they?
AN: Please let me know what you think. Its been a while, so I'm not sure if I wrote Bella too drastically different from the first 7 chapters. If so, let me know so I can work on it. I hope to update again relatively soon, but I make no promises! Thanks :D
~TATE
