Save your torches and pitchforks for the bottom of the page. Let's get this chapter read and then we'll talk at the end.

It wasn't hard to convince Karen and Pete to let me go out. Jasper was just outside, making them feel really good about me leaving the house at nine in the morning to go to his place. We figured honesty was the best policy.

Jasper had parked his car down the street. Karen and Pete didn't know where the Cullens lived, and I just told them that it was "walkable." Which his car was. Even in my super-calm state, courtesy of Jasper, I wasn't comfortable with his need for speed. He cooperated, though it was obvious he wanted to get to a safer location ASAP.

We were driving through that stretch of woods between Forks proper and the Cullen residence, going the speed limit of forty. I stared out at the trees, but then they weren't there.

A gold car zooms down a forested road. Three pale shapes dart out and knock it to the side—

"Jasper!" I cried. "Go faster!" Could we outrun them? But he must have sensed them, because he'd already sped up. I didn't look at the speedometer, but I prayed that my vision wouldn't come true. Because at the speed we were going, a crash would kill me.

"They're going to knock the car off the road," I said. I tried to keep myself under control. There was no way I was going to let him waste concentration on making me feel better. "I saw it."

He understood what I meant. "Alice," he said evenly, "here's what we're going to do. They're a few miles ahead, waiting for us. We're going to jump out the door and run to the house. All you have to do is keep still. Clear?"

"Yes," I said.

"Okay," he said, "here goes." He eased himself out of the driver's seat and unbuckled my seatbelt. He lifted me into his lap and put himself in the passenger seat. The car was still going straight on the road. "One…two…three." He opened the door and launched us out. He wrapped me in his body, providing a cage of stability. He rolled along the ground and into the woods. I bashed into his hard body, but I didn't feel anything break. And I was more alive than I would have been otherwise.

We didn't roll for long. He gained his feet and kept going, running faster than I would have believed possible. Now I understood the need for speed.

In what seemed like seconds the white house appeared up ahead. I almost cried with relief. We had to make it. We couldn't be so close and not make it. We were so close.

Jasper ran through the door as though it were made of tissue paper. He skidded to a stop in front of his family, who were tensed and waiting for him.

"Thanks for the back-up," Jasper said. He put me down and pushed me slightly behind him. I kept a death grip on his hand.

"You were going to make it," said Edward. "This is going to be easier to handle. We might only need intimidation to make them back down."

Edward looked confident in his statement, as did Esme, but the others were not. Carlisle and Bella were skeptical, and Rosalie looked downright scornful. Emmett just rolled his eyes. Jasper still looked furious, but in a moment his gaze was turned to the front of the house, where three people were ascending the porch.

They were just as I had seen them: pale as chalk and breathtakingly beautiful. At least, the women were. The man was sort of on the human scale of attractiveness. One of the women was tall with fiery red hair, while the other was small, almost a girl, with black hair.

Maria.

She ignored Jasper and addressed the rest of the Cullens. "I'm sorry to intrude," she said, her voice childish like her features. "My name is Maria, and these are my companions, James and Victoria."

"I am Carlisle Cullen," said Carlisle. He stepped up next to us. "Please explain why you found it necessary to pursue my son in our territory."

Her nostrils flared. "We are old acquaintances with unfinished business." She looked back to Jasper.

"Jasper Whitlock. I've heard the strangest things about you. That you were drinking animal blood. Living among humans." She grimaced, as though the very though disgusted her. "I was sure that it must be someone else. The Jasper I knew would never be able to abstain. Yet here you are, with golden eyes and a human in your arms." She laughed, and it sent chills up my spine.

Jasper growled at her. "Go back to where you came from."

She smiled at him humorlessly. "That's the thing, Jasper. I can't go back south. I lost everything when you left me."

"Somehow you managed before I came along," he said.

"You gave me power. I have more enemies now than I did before. Enemies who nearly destroyed me, thanks to you."

"Why did you come here?" Jasper asked.

"Revenge," she said simply. She addressed Carlisle. "I have no quarrel with the rest of you," she said. "If you allow Jasper and I to handle this on our own, I will leave your territory in peace."

"But you do have a quarrel with us." Rosalie made her way forward. "You killed Irina."

"Excuse me?" said Maria.

"We know how you discovered Jasper's whereabouts. You killed one of our very close friends."

Maria laughed. "Close friends? There are no friends in our world. Feeding on animals must make you weaker."

Rosalie snarled and crouched into a fighting stance.

"If you leave now, this does not need to come to violence," said Carlisle. "But if you persist, we will protect our territory."

Maria pursed her lips. She knew the odds were against her. "Jasper, this is our battle. Let's settle this ourselves."

"You made it their battle when you killed Irina," he said.

"Are you afraid to fight me?" she jeered. "Are you happy to use this as an excuse?"

"You're just a pathetic little girl with a grudge. Leave us be."

She sneered. "Jasper, Jasper, Jasper," she said dangerously. "What happened to the pragmatist I knew so well? Not such a good idea to just dismiss me, when you spend your time with something so fragile. Quite a tactical disadvantage."

Jasper growled. "Fine."

We both saw the irony in it. For years, he'd been the biggest threat to my life. Now he was defending me.

"You better win," I whispered. "Or I'll be kind of angry."

He smiled, but it wasn't his real smile. It was the old, hurt-on-the-inside smile, the one I hadn't seen in a while. I hated that it was back.

"I love you," he said.

My breath caught in my throat. I hadn't truly known him for very long, yet I felt like we were meant to be. Like it didn't matter how long I knew him; I'd always feel this way. And then I realized he might have chosen this moment to voice his feelings because he wasn't sure he'd have another chance.

"I love you," I said.

He kissed me briefly, but it was enough.

The porch was determined as neutral territory. The Cullens stood around me on one side, and James and Victoria stood on the other. Bella put her stony arm around me. "Don't worry," she said. "I've seen Jasper in action. He's unstoppable."

Jasper and Maria faced each other on the meadow that was the lawn. I desperately willed myself to see the outcome of the fight. I concentrated on Jasper. I concentrated on Maria. I tried to force my mind to jump forward, but it seemed that my gift could not be commanded.

There was no bell or whistle. One moment, Jasper and Maria were standing on opposite sides of the meadow. The next, they were a white blur, clashing in the cloudy morning light. The sounds of impact reverberated around the hills. Some small, detached part of my wondered what the people in the area must think was happening.

The sun made a rare appearance. All around me, the vampires shown like diamonds with millions of facets. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen; the meadow was lit up like a prism. I understood what Jasper meant by their skin attracting attention in the sun.

I couldn't follow the fight at all. The speed at which they moved was unbelievable. The first time they broke apart, it was for barely a second. I only knew they had separated because I saw two white blurs instead of one. I might as well have watched the porch railing. But I couldn't look away.

The only indications of the status of the battle were the reactions of the vampires around me. Esme gasped. Rosalie growled. Edward chuckled. Bella's arm tightened. I didn't look at Maria's companions.

The blur seemed to go on forever. Part of me wanted it just to end. But then I remembered that an ending meant a final loser.

After what felt like hours, Edward bent down and said quietly, "He's out-doing her, and she knows it. She can't win, and she's trying to find a way out."

It was as though his comment triggered my second sight. All of Maria's possibilities flooded my mind, until I couldn't even see the actual fight. She fled to the forest, but he pursued her. She threw a car on him to buy time, but it didn't work. She ran to the porch and tried to grab me, but the Cullens got in the way and got into the fight.

She signaled Victoria and James.

I saw it on two planes, one happening just before the other. On the first, I could see what just a blur was previously. They vaulted over the railing and joined her in a triple attack on Jasper.

The vision became a garbled mash of movement and sound. All the different possibilities changed as each fighter considered the next move. All of the Cullens except Bella and Esme joined the melee, confusing things further. They were moving too fast. My sight couldn't keep up. I fell to the porch, clutching my head. Someone called my name, but I didn't know who. My mind leaped into overdrive. It was like a car going eighty towards a brick wall: a crash was imminent.

I was grateful when the chaos dissolved into darkness.

So...it seems that the long-update period is a chronic flaw of fanfiction writers; it's impossible to avoid. Between school becoming harder than it's ever been and unexpected family tragedy, I lost the inclination to worry about how my fanfictions were being received or how long since my last update. Sometimes the real world grabs you and hauls you back on board whether you want to go or not.

Basically, what I'm saying is that while I'm not giving up on this story in the middle of the climax, it might take a long, *official* hiatus once Part I is wrapped up. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it together fairly soon.

Also sorry that this chapter's kind of short; I just don't have the energy to do more right now, and I kind of like this as a stopping point :)