A/N Sorry for the wait, I've just been really busy lately! Enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, SM does.
Previously
Bella could not believe these words were spilling out of Maria's mouth. She knew that Maria had to have been planning this for a while to come up with such an elaborate plan. Remembering her talk with Charlotte when she'd first arrived, she realized that this had to have been their plan all along. Charlotte would use her power on Peter to cause him to be distracted from his duties and 'someone' would inform Maria of this. She would then have to punish him in some way. By Isabella being the one to make it happen, Jasper would blame her and their bonds to each other would be broken. Obviously Maria would somehow rescue Charlotte from death, or decide to just get rid of her. But surely Maria would know that she would never do anything to hurt Peter.
Looking at Maria, she saw that she did. If Maria was that stupid, then Isabella wouldn't do anything to convince her otherwise. Bella nodded at her. "I will do as you ask of me, Maria."
Maria smiled brightly. "Wonderful. You're dismissed now."
As Bella left Maria's tent, she realized that the escape she had been planning for years would have to happen sooner than she had anticipated.
Chapter Eight: Sacrifice
Bella veered away from where she knew Peter and Jasper were waiting for her. She knew that she could not tell them her plans. Not because she didn't trust them. Not because she didn't want to tell them. But for one simple reason: because she loved them. And when you loved someone, you would do everything in your power to protect or save them. Even if it meant sacrificing yourself.
And that was exactly what she intended to do.
She could admit that Jasper was strong and could most likely handle anything that came his way. But she knew that the longer he stayed here, the more he would lose the man she knew as her brother. All the killing and torture was taking its toll on him and if something wasn't done, he would turn into the very monster he had sworn he would never let Maria make him. And for that reason, Bella knew that he needed to get away from this death and destruction.
And Peter, the man she loved with her entire being, her mate. Even if he didn't see it, she did. This connection they had with one another was more than just the protection one felt for a best friend's little sister, it was more than the protection one felt for a friend. This bond was eternal love and could never be broken no matter how much one wished it to be. This bond got her through every day in this hell hole. It represented the hope she had, that one day they could be happy together. But that day would never come here, in Maria's encampment. And she would be damned if Peter had to suffer here any longer when she could do otherwise.
Bella wasn't intending to be a martyr. Though she was sacrificing herself for those she loved, she also had a more logical reason for doing so. Of course she would do anything to escape with them. But she had to be reasonable. She knew that if they all left, Maria would come after them with everything she had because she had no chance of keeping her strong hold on the South if her Major and Captains left. If Bella's escape plan were to succeed, someone would have to stay behind and ensure the others got away. And Bella had decided that that person had to be her.
She was the only one who had nothing to lose. If Jasper stayed behind, all Maria would have to do is threaten to go after her or Peter, and Jasper would be at her beck and call. The same for Peter. Unlike her male counterparts, Bella knew how to call Maria on her bluffs. If put in the same position, she knew that Maria wouldn't truly go after them because the second she did so, she would lose Bella's loyalty. As the saying goes, payback's a bitch. Furthermore, any punishments she doled out would be nothing Bella hadn't been through before.
The only hitch to her plan was how to convince her brother and Peter to go on without her. And with these thoughts on her mind, she turned around with a heavy sigh and silently crept to her tent, preparing to put her goodbyes and wishes on paper.
Thirty minutes later, Bella sealed two letters and tucked it inside a book just as Peter and Jasper entered her tent.
Wasting no time, Jasper launched into his questions. "Are you all right? What did Maria want? Was it about the battle?"
Bella quirked an eyebrow. "How nice of you two to drop by…uninvited."
Peter growled, his impatience getting the better of him. "Just answer the questions."
She controlled the expressions on her face and answered. "Yes. Nothing. No."
Jasper narrowed his eyes. "You're lying."
Bella glared at him. "So what if I am. It really isn't any of your business."
Peter growled louder. "The hell it isn't! You tell us what's going on right now!"
She looked at him defiantly. "Make me."
Jasper put a restraining hand on Peter as he looked as though he was about to do just that. He then turned to Bella, sending concerned and trusting waves over to his sister. "Bella, we're just trying to help you. I can't think of Maria having a good reason to speak to you about something in private."
Schooling her face to look nonchalant, she shrugged. "She didn't really say anything, just that I'd better make sure we win this next territory or she would punish you two first." It was stretching the truth a little, but she couldn't think of any other way to get them off her back.
They both seemed satisfied with her answer and so she relaxed a bit, deciding to put her plan into motion. There had been several instances in which Maria would unexpectedly change the times they were to go into battle for some unknown reason and Bella was taking no chances. "Why don't we all go hunting? We haven't been in a while."
Jasper and Peter looked at her in surprise and quickly agreed.
She offered them a rare smile. "Then let's go." She grabbed the book and exited the tent with them.
Peter looked at the book, a confused look on his face. "Why are you bringing that?"
"You know how long it takes you two to hunt, I might get bored." It almost shocked her how easy it was for her to lie.
He gave her a strange look but shrugged it off as they ran to the town they normally hunted in.
Lost in their thoughts, none of them noticed the figure that was following them.
As they reached the little town, Bella fought to not show her sadness, knowing this might be the last time she would see them for a while. She half-heartedly drained her victim and leaned against one of the walls in the alley, silently watching her brother and mate finishing their meals.
Perhaps sensing her feelings, they looked up at her and quickly disposed of the bodies before walking over to her.
Jasper was clearly concerned. "Bells, what's wrong?"
She closed her eyes to steel herself before opening them, seeing the worried looks upon their faces. Clearing her throat unnecessarily, she answered. "We have to leave."
Jasper looked at her questioningly. "Usually we stay a little longer after hunting to talk."
Bella shook her head. "Not leave to go back to camp. Leave as in leave Maria behind and go north where she can't find us."
Jasper and Peter exchanged glances before Peter spoke. "Where is this all coming from, Bella? Escape? Are you insane? Maria would be after us in a second."
Bella sighed, continuing the lie. "She won't come after us. She wouldn't want to risk losing the territories she gained just to go after us. Trust me. But we have to go now, before she suspects anything."
They looked at each other once more before Jasper agreed. "All right."
Bella glanced at Peter questioningly and he nodded. "I ain't gonna turn down a chance to get out of this hellhole."
They were all startled by a voice coming out of the shadows. "Not so fast. I'm coming with."
Bella hissed as she saw Charlotte appear with a smug look on her face. "You didn't think I would let you leave without me, did you? I want to get out from under Maria's control just as much as you do."
Jasper narrowed his eyes. "How do we know if we can trust you?"
Charlotte shrugged. "I could have invited some of Maria's men to come along with me and drag you back to camp for punishment."
Another voice entered from behind Charlotte, causing her to swivel around in surprise.
"No invitation needed, Charlotte. You four didn't think I wouldn't notice if my highest ranking officers left, did you?" Maria entered their view along with ten other soldiers.
Bella immediately swept into action, turning to Jasper and Peter. "Run!"
Peter snarled. "We are not leaving you here by yourself."
She groaned. "I think I'm better equipped at handling this situation than either of you two, if you'll remember. Don't worry I'll be right behind you." She gave them a pointed look, silently reminding them of her shield.
Peter still seemed reluctant to leave, but with a nod from Jasper, he was pulled away until they took off running.
Maria tsked and gestured towards half the men. "Armando and Salvador, take a few of your friends and bring them back. I'll handle the situation here."
Several of the men began to run in the direction of Jasper and Peter, but were stopped by what appeared to be an invisible wall. They bounced back from the recoil and looked around in confusion, ramming themselves into the wall with the intentions of breaking it.
Without breaking her concentration, Bella turned towards Charlotte, who appeared to be frozen in fright. "Snap out of it and go!" She tossed the book over to her and a surprised Charlotte deftly caught it. "Give that to Jasper and Peter when you get to them and don't let them come back. Keep running until you think it's safe and then run some more."
Charlotte quickly snapped out of her daze. "What about you? Aren't you coming?"
Bella shook her head. "Go!"
Charlotte looked as if she were going to argue, but took off nonetheless.
Bella took a deep breath and turned back to where Maria and the other men stood. She could hear the slightly muted voices behind the shield, and the look of pure fury on Maria's face. Bella bit her lip as it became harder and harder to maintain her shield. She had never had the chance to practice with it because they didn't want Maria to find out.
Gritting her teeth, she fought to hold it up for a few minutes longer, making sure that they had a good enough lead. Just 30 more seconds. 10 seconds. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
As if her shield had been counting down with her, it immediately broke and she collapsed. She could faintly hear the shout of orders before being roughly picked up and run somewhere. She allowed a small smile to break across her face. They had made it.
Peter and Jasper ran for what felt like hours, but was really minutes before coming to a stop.
Peter glanced behind him. "Where is she? She said that she'd be right behind us."
Jasper turned to look as well. "Let's just wait for a few minutes, until she catches up."
Ten minutes later, they saw an indistinct female vampire come running towards them. Peter immediately exhaled a sigh of relief, which quickly turned into a frown once he saw who it was.
"Charlotte, where's Bella?" Peter looked at her accusingly.
She looked down before meeting their eyes, sadness evident. "She's not coming."
Jasper snarled and grabbed her by the shoulders. "What do you mean, she's not coming? What happened?"
Peter put a restraining hand on Jasper until he released his hold on her before Peter calmly repeated the question, fury in his eyes.
Charlotte looked as though if she could, she would cry. "She held them off with this invisible wall and told me to run. When I looked behind me, she had collapsed and they took her away."
Jasper fought to control his anger. "We have to go back."
Peter nodded in agreement. "No telling what Maria will do to her."
Charlotte's head snapped up, knowing that she couldn't disobey Bella's wishes. "I have an idea."
Both of them turned their heads towards hers and she held them under her gaze. "Why don't we run as far as we can away from here and never come back?"
They both nodded dumbly and she smiled weakly. "Good, now let's go."
Charlotte didn't know how long her gift would last on them, but she hoped it would be long enough for them to not be able to come back.
Bella came to her senses but remained quiet so as not to attract attention.
She could hear Maria's angry voice. "Did you find them?"
She heard a negative response and Maria cursed loudly. "THAT BITCH LOST ME MY MAJOR!"
Bella was still weak from the strain of using her shield and so could do nothing to stop Maria from what she planned to do.
"Oh Isabella, I see that you are…awake. Now we can have fun!" The sickly sweet smile did nothing to hide the fury behind her eyes. Maria bent closer before leaning down to whisper in her ear. "I'm going to enjoy ripping you apart and hearing you scream."
And for the next couple of hours, Bella bit her tongue, refusing to scream, even as Maria ripped off every toe, finger, appendage, and then lastly, her head.
Several hundred miles away, Peter collapsed to the ground clutching his heart. Jasper and Charlotte immediately stopped running and rushed over to him.
Jasper shook his shoulder. "What's wrong Peter?"
Peter looked up at him with pained eyes. "I don't know my heart feels as if someone lit it on fire."
Jasper roared, knowing what Peter didn't. "Isabella is being tortured."
Charlotte frowned. "How do you know she isn't…dead?"
Jasper growled at her for even suggesting that his sister was dead. "If she was dead, Peter would be running back to avenge her."
Peter slowly stood to his feet, still rubbing his chest. "How do you know that?"
Jasper flashed him a look. "If you haven't figured it out yet, you don't deserve to know."
Charlotte fumbled with the book Bella had given her. "She, um, asked me to give this to you two."
They both eagerly grabbed the book from her hands and flipped through it until they found the two letters. One addressed to Jasper and the other to Peter. Taking their respective letters, they silently read it to themselves.
Dear Jazz,
My twin and other half. When I first learned of your death, I realized that without you a piece of me was missing. When I found out what really happened, I was furious with you. I was wondering why you didn't leave Maria to find me. Why you didn't protect me. Why you weren't there for me. And as I sit here pondering this, I realize why. You were protecting me.
You probably didn't want Maria to find out about us. Or you thought that you were too dangerous for a human me to be around. And then I realized that you've always protected me. When we were little, you were always there to make sure nothing happened to me. When Ma and Pa died, you had to become the man of the house and protect me from harm. When you went off to the war you were protecting me and our land. Even now that we're vampires, you protect me from Maria by not showing your affections for me because you don't want her to hurt me to get to you. But who has ever protected you?
I know that every day you spend in Maria's camp, a piece of you dies. I know that even though we hunt the scum of society, it still pains you because you feel their emotions. And I know that your greatest wish is to get away from Maria and to not be under her control anymore. Shocked? You didn't think you could hide anything from me, did you?
And so dear brother, I will grant your wish so that you can become the man I've always known you would be. I set you free from Maria's clutches and hope that you'll find love and happiness in this life.
Now, I don't want you coming back for me. Wouldn't want all my hard work going to waste, do you? Don't you worry about me. Maria can do whatever she wants to me, but she won't break me. You've taught me to remain strong even when you really don't want to. And I promise you that whether it takes days, months, or years, I will get away and come find you, wherever you are. Until then, I have enclosed a lock of my hair for you to remember me by.
Oh and take care of Peter for me, I'm sure he's gonna have a sudden realization of sorts once he's finished reading his letter and he might need your gift to calm down.
Love your,
Bells
Jasper shook silently with sobs, finally letting go of his hardened demeanor and allowing his true feelings to show. The fact that his little sister had sacrificed herself to save him from his demons was almost too much for him to handle. Glancing at the curly snippet of her hair, he vowed to do everything he could to become the man Bella would be proud of.
At the same time as Jasper was reading his letter, Peter shakily opened his.
Dear Peter,
I find that it's taking me much longer to write your letter than it was to write Jasper's. I just can't seem to find the words to really express my thoughts. I don't really want to write this as a goodbye, because I don't plan on staying here any longer than I need to so here goes a…postponement of sorts.
I've known you my entire life and you've always been there for me. You've been there through the good times and the bad. You've been there to make me laugh when I'm sad, to calm me down when I'm angry (most likely when Jasper pissed me off) and to contribute to my overall happiness. I know we are kind of at odds at the moment, but I will always consider you to be my personal kindred spirit and best friend.
I know you're probably majorly pissed off at the moment, wanting to come in and rescue me like you've always had, but you can't. I didn't spend years planning our escape just for you to ruin it all, Mr. Whitlock.
You're also probably wondering why I stayed behind so that you could get away. Well it's for one simple reason: I love you. And just to make it clear, I am deeply in love with you. And I know that you don't love me as anything more than your best friend's sister or as a close friend, but I just wanted you to know the extent of my feelings. I also want to assure you that it has nothing to do with any of the bad things that have happened in my past, it's just because of who you are. In fact, I must admit that I've loved you since we were both human, and you allowed me to play with you and my brother even when he complained. You are a kind and beautiful person, inside and out, so what's not to love?
Which brings me to say that because I love you so, I had to let you go. Even though a selfish part of me wanted to make you stay with me so we could both suffer together, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I couldn't have you stay here any longer than you needed to, because just like Jasper, you needed to save yourself from becoming a monster.
So, please my love, don't come back for me. I will leave from here as soon as it's safe for me to do so. Live your life and be free in a way that you haven't been since we were introduced into this life. And one day, one glorious day, I promise that I will find you. And keep this lock of my hair as a token of my love.
Love your mate,
Isabella
Love your mate. Peter shook his head. That couldn't be true, he would have known. His gift would have told him, wouldn't it?
As Peter sat pondering this, his gift told him that she definitely was his mate and how could he be so stupid as to think she wasn't.
He sat there, stunned speechless and thought of all the signs. His extreme protectiveness of her. The pull he felt towards her constantly. And then he thought about what Jasper had told him when he had felt the pain in his chest.
With a roar of fury he tackled Jasper. "YOU BASTARD! Why didn't you tell me!"
Jasper quickly threw him off and glared at him. "What are you talking about?"
Peter growled. "You know what the fuck I'm talking about! Why didn't you tell me she was my mate?"
Understanding entered Jasper's eyes. "She didn't want me to tell you. She said that she'd hoped you'd figure it out."
Peter fell to his knees and shook with his misery. "I left my mate behind to be tortured. Hell, I didn't even realize she was my mate even when she practically spelled it out for me. What have I done?"
Jasper sent calming waves over him. "Bella forgave you, she understands. Just make sure that you get this ridiculous notion out of your head that your gift will tell you everything, and you should be fine."
Peter nodded and suddenly stiffened. "I have to go back."
Jasper shook his head. "We can't, she doesn't want us to go back."
Peter snarled. "I am not leaving her there while Maria does God knows what to her. I'm not going to leave her there thinking that I don't love her too."
Jasper sent stronger waves of calm his way. "She wanted us to be safe away from her, if we go back, it would ruin everything she tried to do."
Peter's gift pinged again, telling him he couldn't go back. With a heavy heart, he turned to a silent Charlotte. "Where are we, anyway?"
A guilty look crossed her face. "I believe somewhere in Arizona."
Peter looked at her with confusion. "We've only been running for less than an hour."
Charlotte shook her head. "You wanted to stop a while back and so I used my gift on both of you so that you'd keep running."
Both of them cast furious looks at her and Peter had to remind himself of how bad it was to hit a woman. "Why did you do that?"
She looked at them sadly. "Bella told me to do whatever I had to do to get you to keep running."
Pain flashed through both of their eyes before Jasper responded gruffly. "Let's get a move on then."
Maria had pulled Bella apart and put her back together so many times, that she no longer had the venom to heal herself any longer.
Maria sighed, looking down at the scattered pieces that weren't even trying to knit themselves together. "You're no fun anymore. I guess you're learned your lesson. Now that you've lost me two of my officers and a soldier, I suppose you're all I have left. Before I get you put back together, I want this understood. You will do exactly what I tell you or you will find yourself ripped apart and having to watch yourself get the same treatment you did before you were turned. Are we clear?"
Bella gave her a weak glare.
Maria giggled evilly. "Oh, I forgot that you can't speak if your head isn't attached to your neck." She turned to one of the soldiers who were apparently standing guard. "Antonio, run off and fetch some blood so I can put Humpty Dumpty together again." She laughed at her joke.
Several minutes later, he had returned with two dead bodies. Bella was grateful that they were men; she had vowed to never kill a woman or child, though she would kill a woman if they were guilty of something terrible.
Maria dismissed him with a wave of her hand, leaving them alone, and roughly shoved Bella's torso towards her, ripping the throat out of the man and spilling his blood haphazardly around her neck and torso until they became attached. After that, Bella's mouth latched onto him and drained him of his blood before reaching for the other man.
Maria sighed and kicked him over and waited for Bella to finish him as well. As she fed, her other limbs were attaching themselves back to her body and as she finished, all of her parts were in the right place.
Maria smirked down at her, seeing that she was still weak. "Now are we clear?"
Before she knew it, Bella was on her feet and she was forcing her shield to wrap as tightly as it could around Maria, giving her the allusion that she was suffocating when it obviously wasn't possible for a vampire to do so.
Maria was still panicking, however, her eyes widening in fear.
Bella smiled at her evilly. "No, Maria. We are not clear. Now I'll tell you what you are going to do. You aren't allowed to punish me any longer and I promise I will stay here until our debt is paid. You will not boss me around and don't even let the thought enter your head that you have any control whatsoever over me. In return, I will make sure that the entire South is yours, and once that has been accomplished, I'm leaving and you are never to come after me or my family again. Now are we clear?"
Maria nodded frantically and Bella released her with a smirk. "Oh, and don't call me your Captain anymore, I think I deserve a promotion. The name's Major Whitlock." And with that, she walked out of the tent.
A/N Oh snap! So yes, Peter, Jasper, and Charlotte have escaped and Bella has put Maria in her place. In case anyone's wondering why Bella didn't take the chance to escape, Maria would have come after them all as soon as Bella released her and Bella knew that. So she made a compromise of sorts, knowing that all Maria wants is to have control of the South. Therefore, she shouldn't need any of them anymore when she had what she wants. Right? Until next time, lovies.
