Angela spent the whole day searching for Ben but he was nowhere to be found. She collapsed in a heap in front of the graveyard, the sun starting to slip behind the trees. With her hands to the ground, she began to feel the very earth spinning. She felt connected to her surroundings for a moment, but when she pulled away she felt like she was a ghost, a whisper of time, unreal. Like she didn't belong. Angela's hands started to burn, and suddenly violently shake. Electrical currents surged from her hands, up her arms to her face, and her eyes turned vivid purple.
"What's happening to me?!"
Ben was residing in a crypt in Forks graveyard, as he had been for the past year, all alone. He started to walk among the graves, out for his nightly prowl for human blood. Suddenly he heard a voice shout in the distance, a voice that sounded oddly familiar.
"What's happening to me?!"
Ben froze. Could it be?
"Angela!?" he called into the darkening evening. "ANGELA?!"
Angela got up from the path and stood facing the street. A smile formed at her lips, and she pointed her hand at a car speeding by – it burst into flames. She started to cackle, turning trees, buildings, and graves into flames.
"I like this power" she mused aloud. "So much destruction… I can feel the heat… the terror… the madness"
"ANGELA?!"
Angela whirled around,, hands in mid-air, her arms dropped to her sides as she viewed the figure in front of her.
"Bennie?" she whispered, taking a step forward. The electricity running through her ceased. Ben said nothing. She ran into his arms.
"Oh Ben, oh Ben, oh Ben!" she cried, "I've missed you so much… you have no idea what I've been through…" she paused, feeling disgusted with herself, "What I've done…" Tears formed in her eyes. "I don't even know who I am anymore"
"Neither do I" he replied, sounding detached. Confusedly, she looked at him. There was something different.
"Ben… What happened to your glasses?"
"I, erm… don't need them anymore"
"What… why are your eyes… purple?!"
"Contacts"
"Oh. Right…" she replied. "It's just that they look so… familiar…" she reached to touch his face, and Ben looked away. Suddenly he looked back, and grabbed Angela by the shoulders.
"Who ARE you?! Why are you haunting me like this?!" he yelled with a gruffness and anger Angela had never heard from him before.
"What?! Ben—" Something in Ben's face changed, and he leant down toward her neck.
"Ben, NO!" Angela screamed, and as sparks flew through the air, so did he.
Angela stood, shaken, looking at Ben who struggled to his feet.
"I've heard witch's blood tastes extra spicy…" he growled at her.
"Ben… you're a… a…"
"Vampire? Duh."
"And you have no clue who I am?"
"No. I mean yes... No. I have no idea, and I don't care – "
"You don't… care about me?"
"I told you, I don't know you, witch" he snarled.
"I'm beginning to think I don't know you either. Where's Ben? Are you in there somewhere?"
"That side of me is long gone. Like you soon will be"
"What?! I'll soon be long gone? This side of you isn't very smart, is he?" Ben growled and leapt at Angela, who flung him aside with her magicks. Her anger was beginning to take over.
"I won't kill you, because I love you, Ben. But if you ever come near me again, you will face my wrath!" Angela bellowed. Ben stumbled away into the darkness. Deep purple tears which resembled running ink fell down Angela's cheeks.
"This is all Bella's fault. That meddlesome bitch. She has to pay for what she's done. Time means nothing to me now…"
Hannah sat feeding baby Mikaela, as she smiled up at her. It was hard to resist the urge for human blood, but Jacob had shown her a different side to being a vampire, and with his and the Cullens' help she had nearly fully adapted to a basically normal life. Despite being a vampire, and wanted by the authorities for her attack on that little boy. The thought of it still sent Hannah shivers of disgust. A child, only a few years older than little Mikaela, whom she had come to love. She had cleaned her off and picked up when a loud knock at the door rang through the house with a sense of urgency.
Hannah swung the door open, Mikaela on her hip, assuming it was Jacob who'd forgotten his keys, when the sight of the visitor caught her completely off guard.
"Hannah." A dishevelled and terrifying woman stood before her, her voice surprised but cold. "What are you doing here?" she glanced Hannah up and down. "You're a vampire." Angela said plainly. Hannah's shock nearly betrayed her.
"I don't know what you mean. What do you want? Who are you?"
A look of pain briefly crossed Angela's face, before changing to fury.
"I need to find Bella Swan. I'm an… old friend."
Hannah hardly knew how to respond but she thought there could be no harm in telling her.
"I'm sorry. I thought you would have known. Bella was committed to the Rosanna O'Day Mental Asylum nearly a year ago."
Before Hannah could blink, the woman took off through the trees in a fit of rage.
I hope I didn't do something bad she thought.
"I'm sorry to interrupt Mr. Cullen, but you have a call."
Edward glanced up at the intruder with a look of exasperation. Bella was in a state of lucidness she hadn't experienced in months, and he hated it disrupted.
"It's Alice. She says it's urgent."
With a sigh he stood up and stepped into the hall to take the phone call.
"Edward, you have to get everyone out. You don't have much time. In about eleven minutes the whole place will be up in flames. I can't see who does it. It's like they don't belong. The person's future doesn't fit and it gives me a headache to try and locate them. You better hurry." The line went dead. Edward ran across the room and pressed the fire alarm.
"Fire! Everyone out." His tone held unquestionable authority, still it took some time, time they didn't have, to convince everyone to evacuate. They had hardly got everyone out, when the first signs of smoke appeared. The windows exploded, sending shards of glass in every direction. Edward searched frantically around for his love, when he heard something that momentarily paralysed him. Bella's screams rang through the chaos from inside the burning building, as purple flames shot up, blocking the exits. She was trapped.
Bella rocked back and forth in her room, ignorant to the flames and smoke that engulfed the building. All she could think of was of what Mikaela looked like now. Edward had often told her she had her eyes, but Bella longed to hold her again, to check. To watch her grow up, and walk, and call her mother. And she longed for Edward, and the days before Xavier. She had forgotten she loved him. Forgotten for so long because of Jacob, but things were becoming clearer now. She knew she wasn't crazy as clearly as she knew what was about to happen.
With a deep breath, Bella stood up for the confrontation she had tried to hide from for more than a year.
"Hello Bella" Angela said plainly. Bella turned to face her friend when the sight of her made Bella stumble, and she let out a scream of shock. The look of hatred and evil in her eyes burnt into her, like the flames surrounding the building. Angela's hair flew out behind her and everything in the room seemed unnaturally still and quiet, as though awe-stricken. The roaring flames, and shouts of terror couldn't be heard now. The room seemed to demand silence, but try as she did Bella couldn't seem to be able to stop screaming. Within seconds Angela was there, one hand tightly gripping her throat to silence her.
"That isn't a very polite greeting for an old friend." Angela threw Bella across the room, just as Edward came bounding down the corridor, having broken through the entrance. He ran towards Bella, who was still catching her breath, when he was thrown back by an unseen force.
"Oh good. Your boyfriend's here. Wait, are you two still together? I'm having such difficulties remembering things." Angela looked down at Bella, who was trying to speak but still having trouble breathing.
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you? You see, the strangest thing keeps happening. No one seems to know who I am. But you do, don't you, Bella?" Angela picked her up and gazed maliciously into her eyes.
Edward looked helplessly in on them, unable to comprehend the truth. He continued to struggle to break the force field, determined that if he could get to Bella, things would make sense again.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Angela. I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't want any of this." Bella fell to Angela's knees, crying endlessly, as Angela looked down with disgust.
"Oh, I'm sure you're sorry." She kicked Bella hard in the stomach, sending her sprawling across the room.
"But not as sorry as you will be." she finished. "Now, I think you have some explaining to do." Angela circled Bella, prowling.
"I, I, I…" she stammered.
"I, I, I… What about Ben? Let's start with him. Who turned him?"
"It was, it was Xavier. He remembers you, and he was looking for answers, and he thought… I'm not sure. He didn't kill him properly and so he turned."
"Xavier…" Angela whispered. She felt betrayed. It couldn't be she thought, the vision of the Good Xavier fresh in her mind. She was unable to believe he would hurt her like this. She could barely whisper out of pain "And Hannah…"
"It was Ben. He turned her. I think… I think she reminded him of you. He seemed to recognise her, vaguely. Angela, I think he still loves you, he can somehow remember now."
"Shut-up! Shut up about Ben!" She grabbed her by the arms in anger. "And my family?"
Bella was crying again now, as Angela's nails dug through her flesh. She found she couldn't tell Angela about her mother. Instead she slowly shook her head and whispered "I'm so, so sorry Angela, my friend" over and over.
"Well, looks like you've destroyed everyone I have ever cared about." She conjured up a sword with her bare hands. "Goodbye, my friend" she said, mockingly, as she plunged the sword through her stomach, and took off for her final act of vengeance: Xavier. Without a backwards glance, she walked calmly out, leaving Bella for her death.
As Angela left, Edward was finally able to get to Bella, the enticing smell of his singer and true love he hardly noticed, but there was too much of it. Too much blood.
"Edward, you're here." Bella gazed lovingly up at him, using the last of her strength to try and kiss him one last time, but Edward pushed her gently back down.
"I'm here, and everything's going to be all right."
But Edward knew the truth. Bella had been lost to him when she lost her mind and who she was, that he had thought it couldn't hurt anymore if he lost her in death, but he was wrong.
"Don't lie to me Edward. It's bad. Really bad." She was crying now. "Edward, I don't want to die." She gazed, frightened up at him, before she lost the strength and fell into unconsciousness.
"Don't worry. You won't" he whispered. Her heart slowing, Edward bend down and bit her, to perform the act that would bring Bella back to him.
Angela tore through the streets of Forks in a blaze of anger. Everything she passed burst into flames, her destructive vengeance being wreaked upon the town. Ben was dead to her, so nothing in the world mattered anymore. She had even murdered her best friend. The scene around her was almost apocalyptic, people ran screaming through the streets, their hair and clothes on fire. She muttered a spell under her breath, and in her mind's eye she saw Xavier in the Russian presidential office. Angela knew where she was headed…
Xavier leaned back in his large swivel chair and stretched his legs out on the desk in front of him. Behind, a huge Russian flag adorned the wall.
"Congratulations, President" came the sarcastic voice of Zakhar, "You have everything now"
"No… not everything" Xavier replied.
Zakhar ignored the statement, "So… what are you going to do now?"
Xavier glowered into the distance, "destroy Russia, then the world."
Zakhar took a few stumbling steps backward, "Wh….what? Destroy Russia?" Xavier turned slowly to face him. "Why would you destroy Russia? After all you've done to be president… All we've worked for…"
"You dare question me?" growled Xavier, his patience wearing thin.
"N-no… I…"
"Do you have any idea what it's like to live in this world without her? Every second, every moment is torture. No one would listen to me… notice me for who I truly was… except her…"
Zakhar stared at him blankly, "Who?"
"Zakhar, I sired you. I made you immortal. You owe me"
Zakhar stammered, "B-b-but you said nothing about destroying the mother country…"
"You don't know what happened to me here, in my youth. I was brought up by foster parents. Evil witches, to be exact. Do you think I've always been like this? An evil, soulless creature, who hates the world? No. Once I was not so full of hatred. That is, until those 'parents' of mine tortured and abused me, instilling the thought in my young mind that everyone was violent and dangerous. It was a kill or be killed world."
"B-but what does that have to do with Russia?"
"My foster parents were Russian. Evil and satanic witches. Others knew what I was going through, but none helped me. I begged for their help…" Xavier was shaking uncontrollably.
"Just because they did those horrible things to you doesn't mean you can take it out on the world like this… you're insane"
Xavier looked up suddenly, "What did you say?" he took threatening steps towards Zakhar. "You know, Zakhar… I'm starting to doubt your loyalty. And I don't have time to be concerned about traitors" Xavier leapt towards Zakhar in a single bound, grabbing a stake from his desk as he did so, and in a ruthlessly swift movement, staked him in the heart. Zakhar looked down incredulously at his chest and struggled to pull it from him. Blood poured from a deep gash, and Xavier smiled maliciously.
"It's a lot harder to kill a hybrid."
"You're a… hybrid?" asked Zakhar, barely able to speak from the pain.
"There's a lot you don't know about me, stupid little Zakhar" Xavier started to shake, and burst into his wolf form. Zakhar backed away, and Xavier pushed him into the fireplace behind him, ripping his head from his shoulders.
"That is how you kill a hybrid"
Xavier laughed maniacally.
"Carlisle, it's been two days. What's happening to her?" Edward's usually calmly composed face was the picture of turmoil now, as he stressed each word with desperate urgency. For the first three days of Bella's transformation Bella had screamed and writhed in pain, but two days ago she had stopped. The process was nearly complete, yet Bella showed no sign of awareness or response, and Carlisle feared for her mental state. She was not of a sound mind when Edward turned her, and so he didn't think the process could be completed correctly. Without meaning to, Carlisle thought Edward had made the wrong decision in turning her. The effects on Bella's mind they could not predict, and who knew how she would turn out?
"Then go! Just go!"
Carlisle's thoughts cut Edward like a knife. It was one thing to face the guilt of what he'd done, but to have it reflected around him in his family's thoughts was unbearable. Carlisle walked slowly out of Edward's room, where Bella lay motionless, knowing Edward was inconsolable.
"Bella?" Edward looked up to see her eyes staring up at him, blankly.
"Edward?... Where am I?" Bella moved to get up, her body feeling tired but still strong, and horribly different from the bliss of humanity she had been feeling in this world again. Her senses were sharper. She looked around, taking in her whereabouts: in Edward's room at the Cullens' house. She could now hear everything, except her own heart. It had stopped, again. She wondered if it would ever beat again, or if she wanted it to. How many chances can a person get?
"Edward, I'm so thirsty." She still felt weak but that need was strong enough inside of her, the insatiable thirst all too recognisable in her newly born body. I wonder if I'll have to go through that again. The senseless desire for blood, common in all vampires she thought. Somehow she doubted it. Even the bloodlust in her felt dull compared to the horror she felt at having seen Angela again. For that memory was still tearing at her mind. The look of hate that had filled Angela's features she could hardly help but feel responsible for. She knew in her heart she had to help her, she had to save Angela. There was one thing she had to do first though, and as painful as it was going to be, she had to do it alone.
"Bella, you're OK!" Edward appeared to be coming out of a stunned reverie. He embraced her so tightly, it began to strain even her newly strengthened body, and she was glad she didn't have to breath anymore.
"Oh Edward, I thought I'd never see you again." She kissed him with the kind of love she hadn't experienced for what felt like lifetimes, wishing this moment could last a little longer. But too soon, it had to end. There wasn't much time. She knew Edward wouldn't leave her alone, not so soon after their reunion and she mentally cringed, knowing what she had to do. With all the strength she could muster, Bella struck the back of his head. Her newborn body an unfair match against him, Edward toppled to the ground.
"I'm sorry honey. I have to do this. I'll be back as soon as I can." Bella said as she sidestepped past Edward's unmoving form, smashing open his window.
"I love you" she whispered, before taking off through the woods, leaving her love behind, an impossible plan already forming in her mind.