A/N: I am sincerely sorry on getting this out so late. I needed to re-do the plotline and start work on some larger projects. I've had a lot of personal problems lately. Please don't worry about the confusing parts: later it WILL make sense. I guarantee it. Bear with me. If you just can't stand it, wait till I post the chapter "Visit". That's the explanation chapter. Thank you. Please R &R.

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EPov

Biology was pleasant. There was not the usual uncomfortable space between Bella and myself. She smiled, she talked, she laughed. And the whole time I couldn't stop feeling immensely satisfied to have done something to please her. Other than my almost complete loss of control, it was perfect.

Maybe this could work. I could make her happy, as I had before. We could spend the rest of our days together as we had previously planned and avoid the wrath of the Volturi and my unknown foe.

Of course, fate always intervenes. In my case, fate intervened in the form of my angry psychic sister.

The moment I stepped out of biology, she was at my side. "What was that all about?" she hissed angrily.

Her thoughts made no coherent sense, which made it difficult to construct the appropriate response. "I- well- what are you talking about?"

" 'I'll tell you at school'?" she quoted. "You were at lunch with Bella. Not exactly the ideal place to carry on a conversation."

I have to admit, I panicked. I had completely forgotten. "Sorry?" I tried.

She stared at me hard. "Tonight," she announced. "Tonight you will tell me."

I sighed. "It's a long story."

Alice remained undeterred. "We have all of tomorrow- sunny skies." I shook my head, but I didn't doubt her. This complicated things.

"I don't want the rest of the family to know-" I started.

"It's all taken care of," she told me as she waved her hand dismissively. "We two-" here she gestured from herself to me- "are going hunting!"

"And where are we really going?"

"Don't be silly. You can talk and walk at the same time, can't you?" I nodded slowly. "Then you can probably eat and explain at the same time."

I pulled off to a side road. "Okay, Alice, what's going on?"

Alice had been uncharacteristically silent the whole day. There was only one answer: she had a vision. And it didn't bode well for me or the rest of the family.

I killed the engine and sat in the carefully created silence between us.

She finally turned and answered with a question. "Do you know someone named S-" She paused as if recalling the name of a long-forgotten classmate. "S-" She tried again. "Syandene?"

"What?"

"See-yahn-deen." Alice over-enunciated the words as if speaking to a small child.

I shook my head. "Doesn't ring any bells."

"I had this vision." She was clearly upset… but a vision was nothing unusual. I waited for her to continue. "It's… not like the others." It keeps coming, Alice completed in her mind.

"You can show me," I reminded her. And she did.

It was a short vision, just a phone conversation. With the woman who destroyed Bella's life, not to mention mine. The source of my problems seemed to be planning something more. Who was this man on the phone? What myths was he talking about?

And why did I have a nagging feeling he was referring to Bella and I?

"Oh," I said. That was an understatement.

"And it won't go away," she complained. "It's just the same vision over and over again…" It took me a moment to fully register what she was saying.

"What?"

"You seem to have a lot of stupid questions today," she observed. I shot her a glare.

"It won't go away?" I asked her.

She told me unhappily, "No. Other visions fade, maybe change." You've seen them. I nodded.

Alice gave me a smile that melted into a grimace. "These are different. Like they're…" she faltered for a moment. "Like they're set in stone."

Her voice faded to a whisper. "That's not possible, right?" She sounded tiny, unsure, not like the sister I knew and loved. "The future… it can change, can't it?" she half-asked herself.

I shrugged. I had just as much of an idea as she did. "We'll deal with this," I told her reassuringly.

She glanced at me for a moment. "I don't have a good feeling about her."

"About who?" But I didn't need to ask. She was talking about her, of course.

Bella.

Even saying her name made me feel right, whole, complete. This was more than love; it was destiny. And if Alice couldn't understand that, there was no hope for my kind-hearted sibling after all.

She cradled her head in her very small hands and sighed. "Everything was going fine until she moved here."

"Fine?" My voice rose without a command from me. "Fine?" I repeated. "Someone finally makes me happy…" I trailed off. "And before that, it was fine that I was alone?"

"You know what I mean!" she exploded, raising her hands in exasperation. "These visions do not mean good things."

"No shit," I chuckled bitterly, facing towards the window. After another moment of tense silence, I twisted the key in the ignition and it purred to life.

Alice looked up in surprise. "I thought you said you would tell me!" she exclaimed.

"I don't feel like it," I sighed. She turned back away from me and rested her forehead against the window.

"Drive," she muttered, and I complied. I steered the car to the freeway, towards home.

Jasper pulled me aside almost immediately when I arrived at the house. "Alice is pissed," he warned.

"Whoa, really? I couldn't tell," Emmett announced from behind him.

"Oh, shut up," Rosalie called good naturedly from the other side of the room. I smiled vacantly and drifted towards my room.

My room is good for two things: solitude and music. I have enough of both to last me another century at least. My two companions never abandon me, even in my darkest hour. I settled onto my couch to reflect on life and to make new plans.

This would be harder than I had previously thought. With Alice on my side, I could make sure nothing would happen… without her powers, nothing was certain.

Not to mention with her against me, the others would be even less likely to support my decision.

This was all too complicated. It was supposed to be a very simple plan- tell Alice, tell Bella, let the chips fall where they may. But there were new players now, changing the game in an instant. I was now the pawn in a mighty game of chess, bigger than I could imagine. Bella was the King in this game, and it looked like something was headed straight for her.

Checkmate.

A/N: So… how did you like it? Keep an eye out for my new story series: Predator and Prey. Also, a oneshot posted soon. Please bear with me.