Thanks to juvinity, Lionnara and .X for reviewing, your reviews mean so much to me! They inspire me to keep writing, keep them coming! The story is about to take a strong turn to Beyond: Two Souls, there will be some action coming very soon.
Chapter 10
Over the next two weeks I spent more and more time at the Cullen's house and as Aiden got used to Jasper he allowed him to get closer every day. We spent a lot of time in the backyard testing out Emmett's strength against Aiden's. As far as I had heard Emmett was the strongest of the family and had never been bested in feats of strength, so Aiden was welcome competition.
Emmett would run as fast as he could at me and Aiden would stop him in his tracks, Emmett would push as hard as he could against the invisible barrier but he had never managed to break through. Sometimes Aiden would toss Emmett as far into the forest that bordered the house as he could and after a minute or two Emmett would come bounding back laughing.
I could never do this for too long each day, the more energy Aiden expended, the more energy he drained from me. Aiden wasn't able to generate his own energy so everything that he did drained me a little bit. Edward could always tell when I was spent and he'd call it off then. The only reason he didn't object to these exercises was because we got stronger every day, and had more and more stamina every time we tried this.
The day finally came where Carlisle agreed to let me take off the sling, the fracture had fully healed, all I needed now was for my truck to finish being repaired and I would be back at 100%.
The Cullen's were fascinating, I now sat with them all at lunch, Rosalie would sit at the same table as me now but still wouldn't even make eye contact. As for Jasper, Aiden had almost completely relaxed around him and would let me near him now. Listening to the family talk to each other and watching them interact was so interesting, they were so inhuman it was amazing nobody noticed.
We were sitting at lunch one afternoon when Edward stiffened 'What's the matter?' I asked him. He said nothing; he just put his arm around me and nodded towards Mike who was slowly walking towards us looking incredibly uncomfortable.
'Hey Mike.' I said in greeting 'What's up?'
'Hey Bella,' he barely looked at me 'I was wondering if you would want to come to the dance with me next week?' He said it so fast I barely caught what he said.
'Aw Mike, you've got to know that I won't be going to a dance.' I said, very uncomfortable and quite aware of Edwards arm around my shoulder. 'And if I was, I'd be going with Edward, sorry.' I don't remember the last time that I felt so uncomfortable, made even worse with all of the Cullen's watching, I could feel that my face had turned bright red.
Mike muttered something before quickly shuffling off back towards the table I used to sit at every day. 'Ugh…' I groaned laying my head on the table.
'That kid is really starting to get on my nerves…' Edward growled.
'Afraid of a little competition?' Emmett asked and I couldn't help but laugh.
'Yeah Edward,' I joked 'you'd better watch out.' He rolled his eyes and pulled me to lean against him.
'Aw c'mon Bella, why don't you want to go to the dance?' Alice whined. 'Please! It will be some much fun!'
'Not a chance Alice. I don't need any more embarrassment in my life.' I said.
'Leave her be Alice, she doesn't have to go if she doesn't want to… plus there's always prom.' He gave me my favourite crooked smile and I pushed away from him, 'Not a chance.'
That night Edward went hunting with his brothers so I spent the night alone. I woke around 3am to Aiden frantically trying to wake me up.
'Edward?' I asked, eyes still closed.
'Bella, c'mon get up, we need to leave.' The voice was familiar- but not Edward. I shot up, awake immediately and recognised Ryan as the one that woke me. Ryan, the person I trusted the most from my time in the CIA, the person that betrayed me, tricked me into killing an innocent man.
'What do you want?' I asked, putting as much venom in my voice as I could.
'You need to get up, get ready and we need to go.' He said take a step closer to me, as he did I had Aiden throw him back; he hit the wall, caving in the drywall around his back then falling to the floor.
'Stay the fuck away from me.' I said quietly and menacingly.
'Bella…' he groaned, picking himself up off of the floor. 'We need your help. The Chinese government has built a condenser- a portal to the infraworld. They think that they have it under control but they don't, it's spilling malevolent spirits into our world, they are barely managing to stop it from ripping wide open. If this happens it means the end of the world.'
He looked at me hard 'Please Bella, I know you're mad at me, and I know you want nothing more to do with us but we need you, we can't do it without you and Aiden and we need to leave now. I'm sorry.' He did look genuinely sorry.
I sighed 'Once we're done, when I shut it down, you're flying me right back here.'
'The minute we're done.' He agreed.
Edward POV
I looked down at my phone- Alice. She knows that I'm hunting; she wouldn't call unless something was wrong.
'What's the matter?' I asked quickly after answering the phone.
'It's Bella. I don't know why, but I see her in a strange place. You should get back and find out what's going on.' Alice finished.
'I'll be home in 20 minutes.' I clicked the phone shut and ran home, we hadn't gone too far.
When I got to Bella's house I knew something was wrong, I couldn't hear the strange hum of Aiden's thoughts that I had become so accustomed to. I dashed up the front of the house and entered through her bedroom window, her room was empty and there was a smell I didn't recognize- human, probably male. My eyes sprung to the huge dent in the wall and I started to panic- that was when I noticed the note.
I picked it up from her bed and read:
Edward,
I'm safe.
There's trouble that they need my help solving,
I promise I'll be home soon. Don't come after me.
Don't worry too much,
-Bella
I realized that she probably caused the dent in the wall; whoever was in room was thrown backwards, I could smell this strange male's scent on the wall- this calmed me down a bit. They came in the middle of the night and took her away; I have no idea where she's gone, no way to find her. Just to wait and hope that she can handle herself, a small teenaged girl against something that the CIA couldn't handle. This is unreal; I can't let this go on anymore, I need to get her away from these monsters, for good.
Bella POV
When I woke up we were landing at a small private airport in rural China, snow covered the dirt runways of this secret airport. I looked at my watch- 16 hours had passed. I got off the plane with Ryan, Vince and Nick the four of us made up the team infiltrating the military base. Four people against whatever military force the Chinese had posted to guard the condenser.
This was the second condenser that I had encountered; the first time was no walk in the park. The DPA had created a condenser a few years ago and of course it had gone wrong, and of course I had to deal with it. I am able to see entities other than Aiden, and Aiden is able to fight them off so it makes us the perfect team for dealing with entities.
We were given coordinates to follow to get to the base; unfortunately for us getting there was the first hurdle. The Chinese government patrolled for miles around the base, the only way we would be able to get in was on foot which meant 3 days of cross country skiing across the frozen tundra in northern China.
On the third day we were freezing cold, exhausted and miserable; we had stopped talking a long time ago, just trudging along through the snow instead. We were finally nearing the spot where the base was located, as we came within a mile of where our coordinates said it was there was nothing around, nothing in eyesight, this can't be right. Aiden flew ahead; all that was ahead of us was an old wooden shack.
'There's nothing there.' I said, my voice full of defeat 'Just an old house.'
'What?'
'That can't be right.'
'You must be missing something!'
They all talked over each other.
'There's cover up ahead, let's stop there and regroup.' I said, all emotion having left my voice, I was just too tired.
We arrived at the old dilapidated house, took off our skis and had just closed the door behind us when we heard the unmistakeable rumble of a convoy heading up the road towards us.
'Everybody down!' I hissed.
'I hoped the skis are hidden well enough.' Vince worried.
We watched as the convoy of supply trucks and a tank rumbled by, staying low and quiet and thankfully they didn't stop to investigate- the snowstorm hiding our tracks well enough.
'Hurry! We have to follow them!' I said throwing open the door once the coast was clear. We had to follow them to wherever they were going, and we had to move quickly before the tracks vanished in the storm
After 45 minutes of skiing with renewed vigor we came in view of a large military of bunker and dove behind cover of a large snow bank. 'Aiden, go see what's in there.' I whispered to him and off he went. I closed off my sight and went with him mentally.
'There are soldiers loading supplies into submarines.' My body said, from what felt like a mile away.
'How many soldiers?' I heard Ryan ask.
'I can only see three.'
'Tell Aiden to get rid of them.' Ryan said simply.
Ok Aiden, you heard him. I thought to him as he made his way to the nearest guard and possessed him. Once he was in his body he made his way over to the one that was loading supplies from a crate into a small two- man submarine, pulled out his gun and shot him. As the man fell to the ground the other man came out from the control room yelling in Chinese, as soon as he came from around the wall Aiden raised his host's gun and fired, killing him instantly. Aiden then walked his host into the control room and opened the bunker door to let us in.
I opened my eyes and the four of us made our way into the bunker, Aiden stood at the entrance facing us as we approached. Nick raised his gun and fired killing the host and sending a shockwave of pain through Aiden and I as Aiden was expelled from the body and I doubled over. 'Damnit Nick!' I gasped 'A little warning next time…'
'Woops, sorry Bella.' He said, 'I didn't think.'
'No, you didn't.' I said standing up 'Come on, let's go inside.'
'The base must be underwater, hence the submarines. That's why the coordinates were wrong. We were probably standing directly on top of it.' Ryan said.
I walked towards one of the dead soldiers and began removing my clothes and putting on his, disguising myself as a Chinese soldier.
'You really think that will work?' asked Ryan, laughing.
'Do you have a better Idea?' I asked, looking at him.
He immediately sobered 'Right.' He started to put on the uniform of the soldier Aiden had been possessing; it was a bit larger than mine. 'You two stay here; Bella and I will go and destroy the condenser.'
'What? No way, you aren't going without us.' Vince said, indignant.
'The submarine seats two people, plus when we're done in there something tells me that we will need a quick getaway, I need you two to secure a way out of here.' Ryan said, then seeing them about to argue again he said 'That's an order!' and the two of us got into the submarine.
We sat down in the two seats right next to each other at the front of the sub.
'I ran through the submarine simulators a lot during CIA training, I think I can drive it, it looks pretty much the same.' I told him.
We dove down underground through the murky darkness of the tunnel they had drilled through the ground, and eventually arrived through the bay of an underground facility that I couldn't help but think of as a lair. Who builds underwater bases other than supervillains?
As we breached the surface Aiden went ahead of us and possessed the soldier who seemed like the general, he seemed to be in charge. As we got out he met us, walking us past the sparsely placed soldiers through the hanger. I was buzzing with nerves, the chances of this going perfectly to plan and us getting out of here were not great and I couldn't help but think of Edward, I know how worried he must be, I hope that he listens to my note and I hope that he stays put and waits for me, even though I might not return.
As we were exiting the bunker the passageway narrowed into a hallway and we began to walk through until Aiden was ejected from his host, I turned and saw that he was stuck behind some sort of force field, he couldn't get through, and with him on that side I couldn't feel him, couldn't sense him. I keeled over, screaming, I felt as though half of me had been ripped away.
I was barely conscious when I saw a bunch of soldiers run up, restrain Ryan and swiftly knock me unconscious.
Sorry for the cliffhanger! Don't worry, the new chapter is already written and will be up soon! Please favourite and review!