Disclaimer : I don't own anything blah, blah, blah. Enjoy my plot!


Chapter 11

The Calm Before the Storm


After jumping back to our homes to change out of our dresses, I slipped on some comfortable sneakers, shorts with suspenders and a white t-shirt.

"Come on Ari let's go!" Never one to choose comfort over fashion, Ari appeared wearing a pretty black blouse, skinny jeans and heels.

"You sure you want to wear that?" She nodded and I shook my head at her.

We jumped ourselves to the middle of the Cullen's kitchen and noticed that nobody was inside the house but then I heard booming laughter coming from the back yard. I peeked out from the kitchen and saw that a large group of Vampires, outside and all the 'help we had sent. Everyone was standing in a semi-circle facing away from the house while they practiced fighting. In the middle, play-fighting were Edward and Jacob. Edward had the advantage of reading his mind but Jacob was very good at changing his mind last minute and surprising Edward who was just as quick.

I motioned to Ari for us to shield our scents and heart beats just in case, and crept up behind the large group. When Edward gained the upper hand and pinned Jacob down, I cheered extra loud and everyone snapped their eyes towards the new voice. Everyone went into defensive crouches at first, but when they saw who it was, Wide smiles broke out.

I was suddenly tackled to the ground and being smothered in cool kisses. I laughed loudly and Edward stood and lifted me off the ground .

Bella's and Ari's were shouted left and right and I couldn't help but smile at the knowledge that I was finally back with my family.

"I missed you, love. I was so worried, and we didn't hear from you for almost three days." I kissed him once more and hugged him when I felt a short person trying to wedge between us. A blur of spiky black hair and pale white engulfed me in a hug once Edward was pushed out of the way. One at a time people came over to hug us and tell us they missed us.

Everyone took a seat outside and we recounted to them our actions of the past three days. Their faces ranged from pride to awe, to wonder to sadness to love and even to happiness.

For about three hours we strategized and figured that it'd be a good time to replenish ourselves, many went inside where Esme – happy to have more people to take care of- cooked a meal to feed the small army we had gathered. Now all we had to do was wait. The giants stayed outside even though they would have rather been inside with everyone else. They sat close together in the yard, by the river or by trees. Edward and I slipped upstairs to his room and relaxed in a comfortable silence. Every once in a while he would place a kiss somewhere on my face and I felt more loved in that moment than in my entire life, which made me realize I had never actually told Edward I loved him.

"Edward?"

"Yes, sweet girl?"

I looked up at him and stared into his eyes, searching, I found pure undiluted love shining through. "I love you." His smile grew to impossible proportions and he said it back and began his attack on my lips.

When we settled into a comfortable silence, I thought of how wonderful it was that all these different creatures were in peace near each other. No interspecies war. No prejudice and no obvious fear of each other, whereas months ago they were oblivious to their existence.

And then I realized I forgot one species.

"Oh! ARI!" Edward stared at me in Alarm, not knowing what to do he yelled for her too. I laughed at his expression and grabbed his hand. I pulled him down the stairs, and towards the back doors. I spotted Arielle and Jacob sitting together by the river. When they saw us coming to them they looked up at us with questioning eyes.

"We forgot some people Ari" She was confused. "You know the small ones. The ones that fly?" Her eyes flashed with realization and she stood quickly. She groaned in annoyance. "Let's go"

"I wanna go too" Jacob cried latching his hand onto Ari's. Edward and I chuckled.

"If he gets to go I'm going too." I laughed loudly at his petulant tone and the pout on his lips. I pecked his pout quickly and said "fine". After telling everybody that we were going to run a last minute errand we jumped to the entrance of the sacred fairy land. There were two trees about five feet apart, and made a sort of canopy where the branches intertwined overhead and created a nice shade.

We explained to them to stay quiet and calm, because the fairies could sense hostility, or fear and would take it badly. We walked through the entrance and everything shimmered, colors becoming brighter and clearer. Sunlight was streaming and Edward's skin began to glitter. When I noticed his horrified face, I followed his eyes and my lunch was suddenly making a return. I could hear Ari crying into Jacob's chest. "Oh my goodness."

Everything in sight was destroyed. Every tree, every home inside those trees: destroyed. Several fairies lay on the floor either dead, or injured. The tallest were roughly a foot in height and the babies could be inches in size. I noticed there were very few women out here. Most of these out here were men. The soldiers. Every flower and fruit was crushed or broken. Every colorful ribbon of color looked distorted and dirty. The large clearing that was home to the fairies was ruined.

"If there are any of you guys left please come out. We'll defend you. We're the good guys we promise!" I yelled from my spot on the ground I was on my knees with Edward behind me. He was stroking my back soothingly and holding my waist so I wouldn't fall forward.

"Even if they are here I don't think they'll come out. Why should they trust us?" Ari said shakily. "Whoever did this is going to pay."

A noise to my left caught my attention. It was a banging noise. It sounded like someone was banging on a door.

"Hellp! Bella Help!" A muffled high pitched voice called. As I looked closely there was some tall shrubbery with what appeared to be a door. I made my way to it and brushed aside the branches of the bush and opened the door.

I cried out with joy and gathered the small woman in my arms.

"Oh Queen Lina, you're alive!" Ari whispered gathering her in her arms. I could see many fairy women and men standing inside what looked like a tornado shelter but much larger.

Queen Lina looked up at me and her eye watered and she took a deep calming breath. She couldn't lose her composure. Although when she looked over my shoulder and saw Edward and his glittering skin she began to sputter foul words and was pointing her face contorted with both fear and anger.

"V-vampire" She was shaking and started to walk back into the shelter room.

"No! no! He's one of the good guys I promise! See his eyes their gold!" I pointed to Edward who had taken a wide eyed expression and raised his hands in what was supposed to be a sign of peace. Her shaking was lessened but she still sent distrustful glances his way.

"What happened here?"

"We were preparing for our celebration of life – we have a few new additions as you can see-" I looked behind her and saw many women holding small crying bundles, which made me wonder how I hadn't heard them before. "and many vampires came through the entrance all dressed in dark disturbing colors, and started destroying our land. We were lucky to conjure up this shelter at a moment's notice. And when I heard your voice I tried opening the door but it was stuck. "

I sighed exasperatedly at this situation in which we found ourselves in. I explained what was happening to our families and made sure she knew that we were willing to bring them back to protect them.

When I suggested this she began shaking her head at me with an expression that asked 'are you a crazy woman?'.

"We cannot leave dear Bella. You know we would not last long that far from our land. We are tied to it and would die if we were to leave, as would the land. We must simply put up a spell and move on with our lives. Rebuild. Put these poor souls to rest." She said gesturing to the bodies on the ground. People began filing out of their makeshift shelter, those who were able began gathering the bodies and helping the injured. I nodded sadly.

"The moment we step out of these gates you have to put up a protection spell. okay?" I asked her. She took my hand with a calm smile and nodded. I got to my feet, and grabbed Edward's hand. I kissed his cheek to calm him knowing he felt guilty for this somehow. We said our goodbyes, and made our way through the way we came in and once outside I stood there for a moment to make sure that I saw the entrance be sealed. When I saw a slight shimmer I turned and we jumped back home. We jumped into the living room and Rosalie, Jasper and Emmet hissed at our sudden presence. I laughed when they relaxed and greeted us.

Almost everyone, with the exception of the vampires, were outside. We were practicing fighting different creatures so I went inside to fetch the vampires, but was hit with a vision. True werewolves and newborn vampires were beginning their descent on the first snow fall of the winter. Right after that I saw an army of different creatures coming down to destroy everyone who was gathered here at the Cullen's home. In the second vision it was no longer snowing and the snow appeared to have stuck.

"It's almost time." I spoke loudly knowing everyone would be able to hear me. Walking out of the house, I met with the grim expressions of everyone I considered family. I walked up to Edward and gracefully stepped into his embrace. His chest to my back I stood at the back of the yard. Ari came to stand next to me and Jacob stood beside her. Everyone looked to Arielle and I with fear in their eyes. I cleared my throat as I prepared something to say. I looked out to all the people I considered family who stood before me, and I felt a pang of pure sadness engulf me. I cleared my throat unnecessarily, as everyone was already looking at me.

"I know that you are all scared. I will not lie, nor will I pretend that I am not. I am scared too. I'm very sorry that we have brought you into this mess, but it is what needs to be done and would have happened whether or not you had met us. There are creatures in this world that simply are evil. I know that each and every one of you, no matter how big or small, has the bravery, courage and strength to defeat this evil. We will win. I can assure you this. The one thing I cannot guarantee is that we will all survive. Perseverance is the key to it all. When you feel as if you cannot go any further, remember I am always with you. Just call out for me and I will try my hardest to come to your rescue. I consider you all my family no matter how long I've known you.

"Lastly, we want to thank you all. The courage and bravery you have shown up until now is more than commendable. I think that now, in this time of peace before war, in the few hours we have left we should all prepare ourselves. Feed if you have to, eat, and play. I don't want to see anybody moping or looking sad. If anything were to happen to any of you, I wouldn't want my last memory to be a sad one."

Everyone nodded solemnly and I clapped my hands together once and smiled.

"Who's up for a game?" Laughter made its way through the crowd, and everyone began to disperse to have some fun.

I looked up to Edward, then to my sister and her wolf.

"We're ready." Ari reassured me. I looked up and sent a prayer, but in the pit of my stomach, I knew that something utterly terrible was going to happen.


A/N

I know I said I was going to wait to reach 45 reviews, but I figured that this was just filler and there was no need to wait. ( and I was just so freaking excited!) Sorry if this is kind of suspenseful but it had to be done.

The next chapter is going to be the battle and if anybody wants it, or if I just decide to do it (Which isn't likely) I'll do an outtake of Bella and Ari's mission to find all their allies.

Okay so I just wanted to recommend a few stories that I think are great!

/ s / 8214784 / 10 / Heart_of_Silver

/ s / 6197917 / 1 / Alternate_Universe

/ s / 8010997 / 1 / somewhere_in_Brooklyn

Obviously at fanfiction .net and remove the spaces.

Since I obviously don't get reviews when I want them I'll just be posting whenever I feel like it.

So review if you want.