This chapter is pretty intense, so hold on to your butts!

Big juicy thanks to Dollybigmomma, who beta'd it and said something along the lines of it kicking some major butt! Enjoy!

I do not own Twilight...duh.

BELLA

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Edward was my childhood friend. I remembered missing him so bad, I had sworn off having close friends altogether, until I'd met Rosalie. I'd managed to block all of the good memories of my childhood out of my mind, to make the pain of missing him and Alice less potent. I felt like my life had ended that day, and in more ways than one, it had. Two days after Carlisle had come to pick up Alice and Edward, my mother told me that they had moved. We moved a week after that. My parents had said that it was time for a change, but I couldn't help but feel the depression that settled in on all of us. If that was what change brought, I didn't want any part of it. Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice in the matter.

The more memories that came to the surface from Esme's revelations, the more I got to thinking about my parents and their behavior right before they were killed. They had been very nervous and were fighting a lot. I'd tried to ignore it and pretend that things were fine.

I tore myself away from Edward's embrace reluctantly. I had to know the truth about everything. Esme seemed to know everything, and I wasn't going to stop with the questions I needed answers to, until I had all of them.

"Did this Volturi guy kill my parents?"

Esme looked surprised at my question. "Oh my," was all she said before taking a slow, deep breath. "I…um…I didn't realize that you thought…" Esme trailed off.

"What? Tell me what you know, Esme," I demanded. She was a very straight-forward person from what I'd gathered so far, and her reluctance at telling me about what had happened to my parents was a little unnerving.

"Well…I didn't realize you thought they were killed. I was told that they had taken you to an orphanage for your safety."

"Bullshit!" I yelled. "They were killed by a mugger! The police officer that came to our house that day said so!" I screamed. I was starting to get worked up. It seems as though nothing in my life was as simple as I'd thought. Everything was getting way too complicated for my liking.

"Your parents aren't dead, Bella," Esme's whispered words shocked me to the core. "They're with Alice…in the same place I've been held for the last thirteen years."

"I don't understand," I sobbed, wiping the tears that were escaping of their own accord. "They're alive? Why would they leave me?"

"They didn't leave you, dear. They were taken against their will, just like I was."

"Then we have to get them back!" I demanded fiercely, "Right now!"

"Calm down, Bella. We have to be smart about this. You have no idea what you're up against. The only reason I was able to escape was because I had someone on the inside working with me. We have to have a plan first," Esme tried to explain, but I couldn't see past the fact that my parents were still alive. I had to do something to get them out of there.

"Tell us what you know, Mom," Edward interjected. He put his arm around me and slowly stroked up and down my arm. It was amazing that with as worked up as I had gotten myself; Edward's touch calmed me down infinitesimally. I relaxed into his embrace and listened closely to what Esme had to say.

Before she could say anything, Jasper burst through the door. He was panting and sweaty. Edward immediately jumped up and pulled his gun on him.

"Put that away, Edward!" Esme shouted. "He's with us."

He lowered his gun, but kept a tense expression on his face. "We have to go!" Edward yelled out of nowhere.

Esme and I looked at each other confused.

"I heard on the police scanner, as I was driving here. There's a fire at the coffee shop!" Jasper gasped, obviously winded from his run to the house.

"Rosalie!" I shouted in horror. My best friend was there in her apartment, passed out drunk. "We have to get her out!"

Without a pause, Esme and ran out the door and grabbed Edward. Before I could blink, they were airborne.

"Come on, Bella, we need to hurry!" Jasper ushered me towards his car.

"No! I can run there faster than you can drive. I'll meet you there," I said not waiting for his response, before taking off like a bat out of hell towards the city.

I ran faster than I even knew I was capable of. I was scared out of my mind that something bad could happen to Rosalie. I had closed myself off from friendship for so long for a damn good reason. That reason was staring me right in the face now. I could lose someone close to me again. I couldn't let that happen.

By the time I reached the coffee shop, it was completely engulfed in flames. The firefighters were spraying it from all angles. I ran up to the first one I saw.

"Did everyone get out?" I demanded. "My friend was in there!"

"I'm sorry, Ma'am. By the time we got here, it wasn't safe to send anyone in to clear the place," the fireman said somberly.

"No!" I cried as I ran to the side of the building. If they wouldn't go in, I sure as hell was.

As I rounded the corner, I saw Esme standing with her back against the adjacent building, trying to escape the smoke and water that was pouring off of the coffee shop.

"Where's Edward?" I demanded as I ran to her.

"He went in after her! He's been in there too long, Bella! Something's wrong!" Esme cried.

I turned and ran for the stairs. There were flames shooting out of the doorway at the top. I didn't hesitate, as I pushed my way through the fiery inferno, feeling the flames lick and burn my flesh as I went. My clothes went up in flames instantly, forcing me to tear them off, because they were slowing me down. I was gasping for oxygen, as I trudged through the hell on earth that Rosalie's small apartment had become. Unfortunately, oxygen was a necessity for me to be able to heal the constant flesh wounds the flames mercilessly inflicted. I had to find them fast, or we were all as good as dead.

"Edward!" I shouted as loud as my smoke-filled lungs would allow, while I streaked through the apartment, naked as the day I was born. He didn't answer me. I flung her bedroom door open and was met with a wall of fire. I darted through it as fast as I could, finding Rosalie and Edward lying on the floor next to a closed window. It looked like he had been trying to get her out, but they didn't make it. The room was scorching hot, and I could see the second degree burns already forming on their skin, just from the heat of the room.

Without a second thought, I picked both of them up and took a backwards leap out of the second story window. I held Rosalie, sandwiched between Edward and me, as my back broke through the glass, shattering it everywhere and piercing the already raw and burned flesh of my back. I struggled to keep them on top of me as we plummeted to the ground.

Bracing myself for the impact, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of smoke-free air, knowing I'd need all the help I could get to fix the damage the fall would do to my body. I just hoped that I would be able to cushion the blow enough for my friends to come out alright. The ground came at us fast, and I hit the pavement hard. I felt my ribs splinter and my pelvis shatter, as we hit the ground with a thud.

"Jasper! Over here, and hurry!" I thought I heard Esme's voice, but I couldn't be sure. I had never been in so much pain in all of my life, and I had no idea how I was going to fix myself if I lost consciousness. I struggled to hold onto it, but I was quickly losing the fight. Darkness overtook me.

Three days later…

"She's looking much better. Do you think she'll wake up soon?" I heard a voice speaking softly next to me.

"I'm sure she will, Son. She needs to rest. Her body will let her wake up when it's ready to," someone responded.

I was slowly slipping out of the black haze that had taken me over. I was having a hard time remembering exactly what had happened, when it suddenly hit me like a wrecking ball.

"Rose! Edward!" I sat straight up, freaking the hell out, remembering the not-so-graceful "Swan" dive I'd taken out of the window. I felt hands brace my shoulders and gently push me back down to the bed I was on. I looked over at the owner of those hands to see Edward's concerned face, shushing me and telling me everything was alright.

"You're okay?" I asked dumbfounded. He nodded in response and smiled. I was shocked at the perfection of his face. When I had found them in Rosalie's room, their faces were almost unrecognizable from the burns. I was so confused.

"What about Rose! Please, tell me she's okay!"

"She's just fine, Bella. She's in the next room and is dying to see you awake."

"I need to see her!" I demanded, as I got up from the bed and pushed open the door. By the looks of it, we were back in Esme's safe house in the woods. I plowed down the small hallway and found my friend, standing in the living room with a huge smile and a look of relief on her face, as she rushed towards me and pulled me into her arms.

"I'm so glad you're awake," she cried as she held me close. "I thought we were going to lose you."

I held her just as tightly, as I relished in the fact that I had been able to save my friend. Somehow, she looked just as good as Edward, with no signs whatsoever of the trauma they had been through.

"I don't understand? How are you not burned, or hurt?" I touched her face and held her arms out for inspection. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Did I dream the fire?"

"No. You saved the day," Rose smiled and gestured behind me. I turned to see Edward, Esme, Jasper, and even Emmett standing there smiling at me.

"What the hell? Am I hallucinating?" I shook my head and closed my eyes, trying to shake off the strangeness of what was happening. It didn't work. When I opened my eyes, they were all still there and chuckling at my antics.

"Sit down, Bella. Let us explain what happened," Esme motioned for me to sit on the small sofa, which gave me a serious case of déjà vu. The last time I'd sat on this sofa at Esme's request, I'd found out that my parents were alive and that my apartment as well as my place of employment were on fire. To say that I was a little bit leery to sit would have been the understatement of the century.

"I'll stand," I stated with finality. "Now, explain to me how Edward and Rosalie look like they could step out onto a model runway, when by all rights, they should be in the hospital with bandages covering most of their bodies."

Esme blew out a breath. "Why aren't you covered in bandages and lying in a hospital bed right now?" Esme countered.

I looked at her for a moment, wondering what she was playing at. I had kept my ability to heal a secret from everyone. I knew that everyone in the room, save for Emmett and Rosalie, were aware of my super-strength, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she meant by her statement.

Realization dawned on me. "You guys are…like me?" I croaked out, trying to keep my emotions at bay. "You can heal, too?"

"Unfortunately, no, Bella, you're the only one here who can do that," Esme replied with a chuckle.

"I don't understand. How are they okay then?" I questioned.

Esme went on to explain to me that she and Jasper had seen us as we were falling from the window. She was able to use her telekinesis to soften our landing a little at the last second, or Edward and Rose would have probably died on impact. They moved us all to Jasper's car, before any of the firefighters or paramedics could see what had happened.

Things went a little bit nuts from there. Apparently, Jasper had snuck over to one of the ambulances on scene to steal a syringe and had been stopped at gunpoint by Emmett. Esme saw what was happening and was able to remove the gun from Emmett's hand with her power and throw him to the ground, so that Jasper could get away. Emmett was a fighter, though, and he shook off the confusion of having an invisible opponent and quickly followed after Jasper. When he had gotten close enough, he saw all of our battered and burned bodies in the back of Jasper's SUV. He proceeded to flip the hell out, to the point that Esme decided he had to come with us. She picked him up, tossed him in the back seat, shut the doors, and hit the locks, without even blinking. Esme stayed in the back seat, restraining Emmett, while Jasper sped away, back to the safe house.

I was actually quite impressed, as Esme explained this next part. Her multitasking skills were pretty epic. With one eye, she was able to hold Emmett in place, while quickly drawing blood from me, then injecting my blood into Edward and Rosalie, all while Jasper drove like a raging idiot down the winding highway. Needless to say, I liked Esme immediately.

"So my blood healed them?" I asked just to make sure I understood.

"Yes, it did," Esme confirmed.

"How did you even know to do that? I haven't told anyone that I could heal," I questioned, not even really sure I wanted to know the answer.

"You're just like your mother," Esme smiled. "You get it from her. She can heal herself, too."

I was in awe. I was just like my mother. She could heal, too. She was alive. Edward and Rosalie were alive, and I was, too. Things were insane, but awesome at the same time. I couldn't shake the feeling of dread that washed over me, though. My secret was out. My parents were being held against their will, along with Alice, and we unknowingly had just pulled Emmett and Rosalie into our fucked up little world. Things were about to get rocky.

A/N: The fire scene in this chapter was the plot bunny that was rolling around in my head for months, that prompted me to write this fic. I hope you all enjoyed it, cuz there's plenty more where that came from. Let me know what you think!