I am terribly sorry for taking so long to post. Writer's block sucks. I'm sorry that the next few chapters are not as action packed as usual, but I had to throw a little bit of storyline and fluff in. Bear with me, we will get back to the good stuff soon!

Thanks Dollybigmomma for making sure my grammar is up to par! You're a rock star!

EDWARD

"I spoke with the fire chief today. They're officially ruling it as arson. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail straight through Rosalie's window," Jasper explained upon returning from town. "That's their MO. Destroy everyone and everything you hold dear. That way, you'll beg them to take you."

I shivered at the thought of someone trying to intentionally hurt Bella and her friends, or worse yet, take her away from me. Now that I had gotten my long lost friend back, I wasn't so keen on giving her up any time soon. Plus, I owed her big-time.

After running in like a moron to save Rosalie and almost dying, I couldn't help but feel a huge indebtedness to Bella for getting us out and saving our lives. I had no idea the scope of her abilities, but thankfully, my mother did. Her blood healed every burn and broken bone Rosalie and I had suffered from the horrendous fire and fall the night before. Within twelve hours, we were both as good as new. Bella was another story, though.

She had taken the worst of the trauma. She had walked through a wall of fire to get to us, and she had suffered the brunt of a two-story drop to the ground, with two other people falling on top of her. As near as we could tell, almost every bone in her body was broken, her hair was gone, and third-degree burns covered most of her body. It was shocking, when I first woke up and saw the state Bella was in. She wasn't even recognizable.

Once my mother had calmed me down and explained that she would eventually be alright, and that she was the reason I was still alive, I hadn't left her side. I watched with fascination as each burn on her body slowly receded, and new, healthy flesh took its place. Her hair grew back in at such a steady rate, I could actually calculate the time, based on how long her hair was. It was absolutely incredible. New eyebrows and eyelashes sprouted straight out of her face, as if they were newly-germinating seeds, just breaking through the earth and reaching for the sun. I had never seen anything like it in my life. I doubted anyone had, for that matter. It was almost like watching a time-lapse video, in real time, with the speed in which everything healed and grew.

After a couple of days, she looked like the same old Bella. Gone were the scars of the fire from all of us. Now, we were just waiting for Bella to wake up. We also needed to figure out what we were going to do about the reasons behind the fire and everything else that was going on. My mother has been very cryptic about the ramifications of this. All she would say was that they must know about Bella, and they wouldn't likely be stopping until they had her.

What little my mother had told me about what we were up against was quite frightening. Aro Volturi, the leader of a defunct government project, was re-grouping. He had gone off on his own shortly after the government had shut him down, and he'd set about rounding up his entire group of previous test subjects. The government had relocated them well, thus making his progress slow in locating all of them. He hadn't been deterred by this, though, and one by one, he had succeeded in rounding them all up. Now he had his sights set on their children.

With such an incredible group of people, there was no telling what Aro would be capable of. According to my mother, he was power hungry and thought the government had been foolish to close down his project. Although she was not sure what his end game was, she did know that he was planning something big, and he would need all of our abilities to accomplish it. While we weren't 100% positive yet, we all had a feeling that Aro was behind the fire at the coffee shop.

"Do they have any leads on who did it?" I asked Jasper, already knowing the answer. Of course they didn't. From what my mother had told me, if it was Volturi, there would be no evidence left behind that could point back to him. Much like when Alice had been taken.

"Of course not," Jasper responded with the "duh" face. "I know you're new to all of this, but Aro Volturi does not leave any breadcrumbs to follow, unless he wants you to follow them. He's smart and ruthless, and he'll do anything to get what he wants. We really need to be careful here," he warned.

"How did you get wrapped up in all of this? You don't have an ability or anything, do you?" I asked curiously. I didn't know too much about Jasper, other than he had been working with my mother and was Bella's boss.

"My ability is a little more low-key than most," he smiled, as he explained. "I'm a human lie detector."

"What does that even mean?" I questioned. "You can tell when someone is lying? How?"

"I can sense emotions, heart rate or blood pressure fluctuations, and even notice different uses of body language, just as easily as you can blink your eyes," he shrugged casually, as if it was nothing.

"That's freaking awesome!" I was seriously impressed with the new abilities I'd learned about since coming to the safe house. It was no wonder Aro wanted to collect people like us. Together, the possibilities of what we could do were endless.

"Does Aro have your parents, too? Is that why you're here?" So far, we all had someone close to us who was being held by Aro, but Jasper's motivation was unknown to me. His thoughts never let on as to what he was really thinking, either. I'd get small fragments of a thought, but never quite get the gist of what he meant by it. It was very frustrating.

"Uh…not exactly," Jasper squirmed, looking incredibly uncomfortable at my line of questioning.

"Care to elaborate?" I tried urging him to continue. His thoughts were a chaotic mess, and I couldn't decipher anything from them.

"Do you know that saying, 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer,' Edward?"

"Yeah…" I responded, unsure of why he was asking me this.

"Well…uh…my dad is sort of…um…he's Aro's right-hand man." My eyes bulged out of my head at Jasper's confession. "And…I…uh…sort of work for him, too."

I shot out of my chair, knocking it back into the wall with a thud. "You double-crossing prick! What in the hell are you playing at?" I seethed.

My mother rushed into the room. "Edward Anthony Cullen! Calm the hell down," she scolded. "Jasper and his father are the ones on the inside who've been helping me. The only person they're double-crossing is Aro. Now shut up, and sit your ass back down." I complied quickly and sat back down in my chair. My mother was a little bit scary when she was pissed, and I suddenly felt like I was eight years old, getting yelled at for getting marbles stuck in my nose…again.

"I know this is a lot to take in, Edward. We've got a big job ahead of us, and you need to stay focused. Jasper and Colonel Whitlock have done everything they can to help me, and with all of us together, we will free Alice and Bella's parents. Just keep that in mind before getting your Fruit of the Looms all up in a twist."

"So, if Jasper works for them, why doesn't he know anything about the fire?" If he had inside knowledge, then it would stand to reason that he should know if it was Volturi or not.

"I only check in with Aro once every three months," Jasper explained. "I'm only here to babysit Bella, and report back if I notice any abilities manifest. Every time I've checked in, I've told him that she was completely normal. There's no reason why he would've set fire to the place, but I can't think of any reason why anyone else would, either."

"When are you supposed to check in with him again?" I was hoping it was soon, so we could get some answers.

"Tomorrow," Jasper replied. "I have a P.O. box in town they send a burn phone to. I pick it up on the first of every month, and they call it at 1:00pm, on the dot."

"Wow, sounds pretty cloak-and-dagger. Why the need for so much secrecy? Do they think someone's on to them?" If they weren't on anyone's radar, then I couldn't see why they would need to be so sneaky.

"The government is suspicious. They've been sniffing around Aro's operation for a while now. They have eyes and ears everywhere and can monitor emails and cell phone conversations from anyone. They have special software that can listen for certain key words or phrases in any phone conversation, email or text message sent, all over the world. If any of those words or phrases are used, it sends up a red flag, and before you can blink, the Feds are knocking on your door."

"That's pretty jacked up, man. They listen to everyone's phone calls?"

"Pretty much," Jasper replied nonchalantly. "It's a huge invasion of privacy, but it's really only a bad thing if you have something to hide."

I wasn't sure I agreed with Jasper's logic. Privacy was a basic human right, and if the government thought they could just take that away, then what next? Would they take our guns, our freedom of speech or any other civil right our county had ever established? There had to be a line drawn somewhere.

"I'm not sure who is worse right now, Aro or the government," I mused out loud. "They're both power hungry, and they don't give a shit about human or civil rights. They're one in the same, really."

"I suppose I can see your point. Just remember, though, the government isn't the one holding your sister prisoner," Jasper conceded and walked out of the room.

I just shook my head at the ridiculousness of everything and resumed my vigil over Bella. Every second, I watched as she became even more beautiful. Her skin was now as smooth as porcelain, and it had turned even more luminescent as time had passed. I couldn't stop staring at her, and I couldn't wait for her to wake up.

"Knock, knock," Emmett stuck his head in the door, interrupting my voyeuristic moment. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, come on in," I sighed.

"You doin' alright, man?" Emmett asked concerned. "The walls in this place are pretty thin. I couldn't help but overhear…everything."

"Then I guess I should ask if you're doing alright. You've learned a lot of new things about your partner recently." It was really unfortunate that Emmett had been unknowingly pulled into this mess, just by doing his job. What had started as stopping an ambulance poacher had turned into a rollercoaster ride into crazyville for the poor guy. I definitely felt for him.

"I'll admit it's a lot to take in." He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "While I'm a little disappointed you didn't tell me you could read minds all this time, I understand why you didn't."

I nodded in agreement. "I've had to be careful. You can imagine how crazy people would think I am if I ever advertised what I could do. They'd have me committed in a heartbeat."

"I know, Ed. That's why I haven't pummeled your ass into the ground yet. Partners shouldn't keep secrets, though. Neither should friends. I always thought we were both."

"Believe me, man, it was just easier that way. Apparently, knowing about me, and others like me, is dangerous business, as I've recently figured out."

"You got that right. I couldn't believe that was you guys in the back of that car. You looked like a botched attempt at toasting a marshmallow. Now you're good as new. It's seriously screwing with my head right now, Ed."

"Well, for what it's worth, I'm sorry you got dragged into this, but I'm not sorry you're here," I smiled, glad as hell that my best friend knew everything about me now, and he would have my back.

"Stop being a sap, princess. No apologies required. At least now I know you're just a cheater and not really as bad-ass at figuring shit out as I thought you were," Emmett teased. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go find some marshmallows, 'cuz I just made myself hungry for some s'mores." Emmett patted me on the back and winked, as he left the room.

I resumed my staring once again, only to be interrupted…once again.

"I know this is a lot to handle, Edward. If I thought you couldn't handle it for even a second, I wouldn't have shown up," my mother confessed, as she came back into the room.

"I know. It'll just take a bit to wrap my head around everything," I agreed. I was more determined than ever to get my sister back, and I felt like I was finally making some progress. I was, however, scared out of my mind at what we were going to face in the process. If what Bella and my mother could do were any indication of the types of skill sets Aro's people had, then this wasn't going to be an easy battle.

"You two used to be so cute together," my mother reminisced, as she brushed a stray hair back from Bella's face. "When you were four, you came to me and said that Bella was the prettiest girl you knew, besides me of course, and that you were going to marry her."

I laughed out loud at her recollection. I didn't remember ever saying that, but I didn't doubt the truth of her words at all. "I can believe it. She's pretty amazing, isn't she?"

"You bet your ass she is," my mom agreed with a little more excitement than I was expecting. "Don't you forget it, either."

"I won't forget it, Mom," I smiled, as my mother gave me a little hip bump to emphasize her point. "She's looking much better. Do you think she'll wake up soon?"

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

"Rose! Edward!" Bella suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs and shot up, scaring the shit out of me. I think I might have screeched like a twelve-year-old girl.

I quickly went to her, assuring her that we were all okay. She wasn't easily placated, though, and had to investigate for herself. Once she saw that I was indeed alright, she ran out to Rosalie and hugged her within an inch of her life.

I was man enough to admit that I was a little jealous. I barely got a, "You're okay?" out of Bella, and Rose got the full-frontal hug.

Once she had calmed down, and everything that had happened was explained to her, she seemed to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Her relaxed look didn't last long, though.

"So, what next? When are we going to go put the smack-down on this Aro-douche?" Bella asked, with a fearless and determined look on her face that was so intense it made my skin tingle…in a good way.

"Slow down there, Dirty Harry," my mother chuckled. "We have lots of planning and training to do before we can go after Aro. He'll be a little more difficult to handle than the useless hood-rat's you've been pounding on."

"Let's get started then! I'm ready!" Bella was practically vibrating with excitement at the prospect of getting all of our family members back home. "Let's do this shit!"

I couldn't help but chuckle at the girl in front of me. She had been burned, broken and maimed beyond comprehension, yet she couldn't wait to jump back into the fray. Not only was she determined and fearless, but her fierce loyalty to her parents, which she had demonstrated with every scum-bag she'd ever encountered, was incredible to me. I was conflicted with an overwhelming feeling of excitement, fear and something else I couldn't quite identify. The upcoming days should prove to be interesting to say the least. I just hoped that our preparation and planning wouldn't be in vain.

A/N: Sorry about my rant about civil rights. It's the thing that pisses me off the most about the government. They really have taken away most of our rights without us even realizing it. Sneaky bastards!

I'd love to hear some of your thoughts!