Disclaimer in chapter one.
Sorry it's been so long. I had the beginning and end of this story planned out but the middle is giving me some trouble.
"And then she said 'I'm your mother, Isabella. Your birth mother.'"
Izzy had spent the last hour explaining to Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Angela, and Rosalie what happened during her encounter with the shadow wolf to make her faint in the middle of the woods. Alice and Jasper had been upstairs arguing for the same amount of time and Izzy assumed they had not completely closed their bedroom door because, while she and Angela could not hear them, the vampires in the living room still could. The human could tell that the conversation wasn't going well based on the occasional flinches and grimaces her friends tried to hide from her. Soon after beginning her story, she braced her elbows on her knees and recounted the tale to her boots so that she could concentrate and get the story over with. For the last thirty minutes her muscles had been getting steadily more tensed because she could feel Alice's anxiety and anger.
It was quiet in the living room as her friends absorbed her story and Izzy began to fidget. Rosalie was gently massaging the brunette's shoulders but Izzy still felt like something was about to happen. Suddenly she stood up, pushing the couch she was sitting on back a few inches and threw herself into the nearest shadow, just as the rest of the house heard what sounded like two rocks being thrown together.
Alice blinked and suddenly Izzy was behind Jasper on his knees with his arms held behind him and Izzy's forearm locked under his jaw. She watched the brunette look to her, watched her eyes track the already healing cracks in her cheek where Jasper had backhanded her, and watched the tick of her jaw and the flex of her muscles as she prepared to behead Jasper.
"Iz, no!" Alice felt out of breath, though she knew it was impossible. Everything had happened too fast, she couldn't quite catch up. "Don't kill him."
Izzy narrowed her eyes. She would have loved nothing more than to pop his arrogant head off his shoulders and challenge Emmett to see who could kick it the farthest but, despite Jasper's recent behavior, he was still Esme's son and Alice still cared about him. She sighed heavily and waved a hand over his head, blocking out everything but his most painful memories and fusing together the shadows in the cavern of his mouth to keep him quiet. She left him writhing on the floor of the bedroom in silent agony and stepped to Alice to check her face, which was already healed of course. Rosalie had already entered the room and Izzy watched as she tilted Alice's face this way and that, pressed a kiss to the slope of her healed cheekbone, and stepped back for Izzy to do the same.
"I need to speak to him." Alice said, looking to Izzy to undo whatever she had done.
"Fine." The brunette huffed, waving her hand in front of the man's face one more time.
"Jasper." He was still dazed from the pain and his eyes weren't focusing so Rosalie snapped her fingers in his face until he looked at Alice again. "We are done. I'm not in love with you anymore and I can't be with you. If, one day, you turn back into the man I fell in love with, I'd love to be your friend, but until then, stay the hell away from me. Also, please sign the divorce papers as soon as you can."
Alice held her head high as she walked out of the room with Rosalie's hand in her own but almost as soon as she entered the room Rose and Izzy were sharing, she started to break down. Rosalie caught the tiny vampire with almost no effort and looked at her girlfriend helplessly. By some unspoken agreement they each headed to the secret cave immediately. Izzy beat them there by a minute and already had every candle in the cave lit by the time Rosalie collapsed on the couch in the back of the space. Between Rosalie's familiar body and scent and Izzy's welcoming warmth and sense of safety, Alice's body shook and she whimpered and muttered and dry-sobbed.
She had just ended things with the man she thought was her soul mate not too long ago. They were married for over eighty years and she still had his big, gaudy ring on. She knew he had changed, had turned into a man closely resembling a monster. Hitting, screaming, and manipulating did not equal eternal love. It was easy for her to come to terms with leaving him for his behavior the last couple of years, the last two months especially. What scared her, terrified her, was that she had honestly fallen out of love with him, so quickly, almost as soon as Isabella Swan introduced herself, Alice was done for. If she could fall out of love so quickly, what was to stop it from happening again with Rosalie and Izzy?
Soon, Izzy began humming a French lullaby and the blonde recognized the tune and began singing it. The foreign language seemed to calm the tiny vampire so Rose and Izzy sang for hours. Eventually, when Alice was calm and quiet and simply staring blankly ahead while playing with Rosalie's fingers, Izzy stepped outside for a smoke. She transported herself on top of the cave and dangled her feet over the lip and lay back looking at the stars. It was almost pitch black where she was and she only noticed her mother's presence when she spoke.
"Is the small one alright?" she asked.
"She just broke up with her husband so, no, not really, but she will be in time."
"Yes, she will be."
Weeks passed in an uncertain haze. Alice had requested some time alone to grieve her failed relationship and to come to terms with her feelings and desires for Rosalie and Izzy. She did not leave Forks or the Cullen house but she was still absent. Rooms were rearranged; at one end of the upstairs hall, Izzy's quarters lay in the middle of Rosalie's and Alice's, and at the other end were the Cullen boys, though Jasper's room had been vacant since the breakup. Esme and Carlisle suspected he went to Denali out of shame and embarrassment; Rosalie didn't give a shit where he was as long as he didn't show his face for a good while.
If Alice was not locked in her room furiously drawing or staring at the ceiling, she was sitting atop a tree staring at the stars or sitting in the cave alone with her thoughts. If Rosalie or Izzy intruded on her alone time, it was welcome but not discussed, the only rule to remain silent. Rosalie hated this arrangement but she would give the tiny vampire anything she needed. A part of her was impatient for Alice to join her and Izzy so they could all be whole and happy but the majority of her understood that Alice could not allow herself to immediately jump from one relationship to the next.
Izzy's injuries healed remarkably fast but no one questioned it, knowing what they did of her parentage. She returned to school and spent the weeks learning to play video games with Emmett, learning which wild plants were edible and what medicinal properties they might have from Angela, learning all about vampire history and their leadership from a brilliant Carlisle, learning yoga and how to dance from a surprisingly goofy Rosalie, learning how to play chess from an enormously less annoying Edward, and learning how to cook with Esme. And if they passed Charlie Swan in the supermarket once and Izzy had to physically restrain Esme after the Chief muttered something derogatory, they did not talk about it or share it with the rest of the family.
All of this was punctuated by occasional visits from Nyx, always at night. Izzy's mother remained cryptic as usual but when she did give straight answers, it was the kind of information that took Izzy a couple of days to process. Nyx told her that ruling the second level of Tartarus was her birthright, that her dreams of fighting with and protecting thousands of children with her two partners were actually memories from her first life. The emerald and lavender girls were captured and taken hostage during a bloody and vicious battle that lasted hundreds of years and eventually killed, they were both reincarnated into human bodies and Izzy died avenging them and won the war. Nyx would not tell her any more about the war or the girls, she said Izzy would come to learn that on her own with time. Nyx eluded to taking Izzy home several times, that it might enhance and speed up her memories, but never gave Izzy an exact date, just that she needed to be stronger before they went.
As November bled into December, Izzy lay asleep curled next to Rosalie, as was often the case recently. Rosalie, in only her black lingerie, was reclining against the headboard reading The Fifty Year Sword and carding her long fingers through Izzy's hair by her hip when Alice vaulted onto her balcony across from the bed. She put her book down and quirked an eyebrow at the girl as she approached. Alice didn't say a word as she crawled along the mattress towards the blonde, straddled her thighs and kissed her with a passion she hadn't felt in years.
She pulled back to whisper, "I'm ready, now, Rose."
Rosalie grinned and gently roused the sleeping girl by her side. Before Izzy could fully open her eyes Alice kissed her hungrily, "I'm ready, Iz. I'm ready to start this with the two of you. I'm ready to be whole and I'm ready to be happy."