After her mother had come to visit, her trip to Forks came to an end.

Patricia explained to Charlie how thankful she was that he had been watching them and that Esper would be back for the next summer but her protective instincts wouldn't be shushed unless she took her daughter with her. The eldest Swan understood completely and the blonde ended up giving heartfelt goodbyes to Bella, Charlie, and Jake - who came to visit her in the hospital - and within two days she was gone.

Now fast forward two weeks - in which she spent most of it visiting her grandmother - and she was in Italy on the vacation her mother promised her.

And Esper was already kind of regretting this.

Watching Bella unpack her clothes from her computer screen and shove them in her designated drawers, the young medium clenched her hands into fists and tried not to picture every single way this could go wrong with her looking like Alice - a vampire with abilities the Volturi lusted after - and whether or not they would crave a power like hers as well.

She snorted to herself - of course they would she momentarily thought but then she paused and wondered if that was really the truth. Now while Esper would be powerful, a part of her ability was quite like Aro's even though it wasn't telepathy - which meant that there was a possibility that they would see her as a threat instead of an asset.

And that got her thinking about the odds.

Being able to see the past was just as valuable as seeing into the future in her opinion, especially since she could do shit like tracking someone much more effectively than Alice's visions could - potentially all she had to do was know their last location and touch from there.

And recently, Esper had been thinking of where her powers would evolve to after time and training - or after she was turned into a vampire - and it was daunting. If she could see the time that had already passed then essentially no one could ever lie to her about anything they had done. She could learn the sins and virtues of anyone or anything and if she could do that, she could befriend or defeat whoever she wanted. If Esper could read a person's entire life and emotions with a single touch, then she could do whatever she wanted with that information.

Just like Aro did.

Although, minus the emotions and feelings.

Now Esper wasn't saying she was planning to do any of what she was about to suggest but the Volturi were suspicious meaning they would think about it and if Esper wanted to recruit vampires as a vampire, all she had to do was want to do it. She very well could sway anyone since all she potentially had to do was touch them and she'd end up knowing the person just as well as they knew themselves.

Meaning she could she could spin the recruitment pitch in just the right way so that they would agree after all - it would be like they were convincing themselves. And if she wanted to defeat someone then she could easily do that as well since she would know all of their weaknesses - maybe even better than they did themselves because she was seeing their past objectively and with personal bias since she would be essentially living/seeing their whole life in the span of a few seconds. And if her Mesmer progressed alongside her Psychometry then she could charm whoever she wanted if she put her mind to it. Already people wanted to be around her and be in her favor - which made her sometimes wonder if people liked her for her but she digressed.

It wasn't the time or the place for thoughts like that.

The fact of the matter was that Esper was valuable, her abilities were versatile, and she had the face of a powerful vampire. If she was seen by the wrong people, shit would hit the fan.

Esper had to potential to be an Aro number two or even better than he was and Aro didn't like the thought of being replaceable. After all, Esper's ability to see the past - in some instances - didn't need the body to body contact and she wasn't limited to just living things. She could touch anything - anything - and see everything they've done or anything that happened that involved the subject in question. Not to mention, her Psychometry wasn't based on perception and because Aro was using telepathy, anything he saw had the possibility to be altered if the person was delusional or determined enough - and all of this marked her as a threat.

But on the flip side, she did bring new prospects to the Volturi's table like her being a fighter - she had been going for years ever since that incident and already she knew how to take down assailants and since she was going to continue self-defense, she would be good guard material. And if she was a vampire whose to say that her Psychometry couldn't evolve into other things - like sonic psychometry - or be used in different ways?

What if she was able to teach herself any skill just by living through the memory in a person's past? Hell, Esper once taught herself how to play blackjack with a deck of cards that belonged to her casino dealer cousin so why couldn't she learn other things? Like how to use a gun by touching a police officer or his weapon? Or how to fight by touching a world class boxer or his lucky pair of gloves?

There were so many possibilities about what level her powers could end up on if she was turned into a vampire that it was more than just a bit terrifying and ensured that Aro and his court would carefully consider her death or turning. Not to mention with her added to the Volturi's ranks, she kind of knocked out their need for Edward and Alice to a certain degree.

Sighing to herself, Esper shook her head. She wasn't sure what they would decide to do with her but if all else failed they would probably use that Chelsea chick to force loyalty.

Luckily she had already decided that they would avoid Volterra as best as they could when they went to explore Italy - and maybe if she could obtain some form of proof for Bella but that wasn't very likely - so the worst that would happen was that they accidentally run into the tour but Esper and her mother could easily decline and if they were persistent her Mesmer could nip that in the bud.

But that still didn't stop her from thinking about the fact that these predators could rip them apart in the most gruesome way possible. It didn't stop her from thinking that they could be turned into a walking corpse and that grandmother - and Charlie and Renee and Jake - would never know what happened to them.

Only Bella would and she could never tell anyone.

But then again, if they ended up dead then naturally that would happen regardless and the thought made her heart ache. Shaking her head she huffed to herself and grabbed her backpack, pulling out the latest cell phone - and it sickened her that it wasn't a Samsung Galaxy or an iPhone - and her laptop charger and set it on her bed.

Glancing towards the bathroom - where her mother was bathing - Esper waved Bella over to the webcam.

"Like I said." She told her as she sat down on her mattress. "If I see something strange, I'll tell you about it."

And suddenly the brunette was glaring at her.

"Esper please." Bella sighed. "I already believe you - about both things."

She blinked and wrinkled her nose.

"Esper please what?" She asked confusedly and the dark haired girl shot her a pointed look before moving closer to the screen.

"You know," She stressed as she glanced at her door hesitantly and lowered her voice to a near whisper that the blonde had to strain to hear. "don't go looking for vampires."

And Esper burst into laughter.

"Oh hell no!" She told the other girl with a friendly roll of her eyes. "I have no plans of doing that, I'm just saying if I happen to see something I'll tell you about it - after I'm done running away.'

Bella nodded and then paused hesitantly.

"You promise?" She said in a small voice and Esper nodded.

"Yeah, I promise to tell you." She assured and Bella scowled.

"That's not what I was asking about." The other girl narrowed her dark eyes. "I meant that you weren't going to go looking and that you'd run away to stay safe."

She blinked. Again.

"Oh!" The psychic giggled. "Oh yeah, I promise. But you can't blame me for thinking that you were referring to the vamps - after all, you do so much research on them daily so I know how much they interest you."

Esper gave her a meaningful arched brow look.

"I've seen your internet history."

Bella lit up red.

"But I'm not judging you." She smiled even if she kinda was - vampires over wolves? Blasphemy. "If it interests you, it interests you."

Bella curled up in her wheelie chair and rested her chin on her knees as she looked down at her keyboard and Esper quirked a brow.

"What's wrong?" The girl asked before she added a more playful tone to her words. "Are you embarrassed about your supernatural fetish?"

The brunette shook her head and shot Esper a dry look.

"It's not a fetish." Bella said with a tiny snort before she shifted and folded her legs underneath herself. "I guess - well I'm thinking about what you said about my um, interest in the Cold Ones."

Esper turned to look fully at her friend and moved her computer on her lap and adjusted her headphones.

"What do you mean?" She asked as her pale brow furrowed. "Did you want my help looking stuff up?"

Dark eyes flashed towards her and then down at the ground.

"No, that's not it." She admitted with a jerky half shrug and Esper hummed. "It's just that well, it's kind of insane to realize that humans aren't the only things walking around on earth."

Unable to resist joking, the blonde grinned.

"Well yeah, there are animals here too."

Bella faltered and sent her a half amused half exasperated glare.

"You know that's not what I meant Esp." The pale girl huffed. "Like - things other than us and them. Things that only exist in horror stories and tween novels."

Snorting abruptly to herself - because technically Bella was a tween novel creation - Esper looked towards the large balcony out looking the city and sighed.

"The world is a big place Hells Bells," She told her. "and monsters that go bump in the night are sadly apart of it."

And for a moment Bella fell silent and Esper looked at her, taking in the pensive look on her face with a faint frown. Reaching out she tapped harshly on her keyboard and drew her attention back.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

And she did share them, with an obvious amount of trepidation stalling her tongue.

"Is it wrong for me to want to know about these kinda things?" Bella asked, her voice a heavy whisper. "I mean, according to you what I'm trying to learn about could really hurt us super bad but - but I want to know everything about it anyway."

Round dark eyes peered up into Esper's dusky face and she started.

"And Esp, I have never felt such a burning desire to learn about something in all my life. It's like every part of me wants to know and see and feel - and it scares me to think about how far I might be willing to go to figure this all out." She mumbled to her as her fingers dug into the skin of her arms, red marks puckering up beneath her nails. "Is - Is there something wrong with me?"

Pausing the blonde gave her friend a firm look and crossed her arms over her chest.

"First off," She started as she furrowed her brow. "let's get rid of the word wrong in that sentence and put different in there instead."

Resisting the urge to reach for Bella's hand - she wasn't here so she couldn't give it a firm squeeze - she instead waited until Bella looked her in the eyes to continue.

"Second off, yeah you're weird and there's no denying that," She ignored the flinch and shot her a meaningful glance. "but some of the best people are - as is evidenced by yours truly."

"And lastly, so what if your interests are strange and uncommon!" She exclaimed. "If you can keep them from hurting anyone - and Bella I mean be as careful as you fucking can - then it's perfectly alright."

Grinning now, she leaned back and blew her best friend a kiss through the monitor.

"Besides," Esper huffed. "you're best friends with a goddamn psychic, if you didn't have an interest in the supernatural then that'd be a complete waste."

Bella's thin fingers tightened briefly in her own shirt before she let go and she flashed Esper a misty-eyed smile.

"Thanks." The girl muttered with a sheepish yet thankful look and Esper waved it off.

"It's what BFF's do." She said. "But I fully expect the same in my time of need."

Bella pouted.

"Do you even need to ask?"

"Well no, but I figured it should be said." She joked before she perked up.

"Oh yeah!" Esper drawled as she leaned back against the headboard. "I talked to Luna and she did some research and told me that the reason I flipped out so much during the vision was because I was kinda - how to put this? - living its reality."

Her friend looked intrigued.

"And?" She asked with a quirked brow. "What exactly does that mean?"

Esper shrugged.

"Okay so when I have visions it's like I'm really there most of the time and like usual I was in touch with the emotional memory of the land alongside the physical." She explained. "So most of the terror I was feeling hadn't been mine but the people who were attacked and butchered."

Bella looked queasy.

"Is there any way to stop that from happening?"

"Practice and meditation." Esper groaned. "And I've started trying to do it here but it's a difficult concept since I naturally want to sense both the emotional and visual past and now I have to focus on one and push away the other."

The brunette let out a little 'oh' of comprehension and nodded.

"Any progress then?"

"No, god help me."

Exploring Italy with her mother was like a soothing balm being applied to her soul. Especially when considering the fact that whenever Esper closed her eyes for too long or thought about her time in Forks, flashbacks of that goddamn vision plagued her mind.

Sighing to herself as she bit into her tiramisu, the blonde glanced over to the beautiful bustling city outside the window and felt herself smile a bit.

Slowly but surely she was starting to feel better and she was training herself more. She had gone to historical places on a tour and whenever she could Esper lost herself to visions of larger scales - like she had back on the ancient Quileute land. Some of it had been too much for her but as time went on, she thought that she was getting the hang of it. Or maybe not since she had only been here for two weeks but whatever, she was at the very least becoming used to using her abilities on such large past events.

And that wasn't the only thing she was becoming acclimated to. Using her Mesmer and figuring it out had become a very high priority. She had taken to using it on vendors to see if they would lower prices, on waiters to see if it would improve service, and on rude assholes to see if they would be more polite to her than to other people. Esper needed to know if she could use it against vampires as a human and just how far she could coerce somebody so that she didn't fuck up. Oh - and she also wanted to learn how to either turn it off or turn it to the smallest setting because soon she would be at the age where finding romantic partners would be optimal and she didn't want to have to worry about consent issues.

She had also taken to touching people and glimpsing their personal pasts. She didn't get more than a few flashes - like what they did this morning - and it was kind of frustrating. Esper wanted to test how far back she could go and if she could control how fast or slow the memories go by and she needed a test dummy for that, meaning she had to work on Bella and get the girl to figure out how to move her shield. She couldn't use anyone else because no one else knew and she got weird when she was in a vision. The brunette had to start taking psychic classes with her at Luna's shop because it was time to crack the case on her shield and she knew just how to do it.

Esper was sure that if she tried hard enough to read Bella, the other girl would sense or "feel" it and from there she would be more metaphysically aware of her mental protection and they could officially work on getting her to lower it.

Taking another spoonful of her treat, the psychic hummed under her breath as she shook those thoughts away and thought about how many tours she had been on and how much more she would do.

And that didn't include the offer they had received from a human couple who had found the tour and shared it with her adventurous mother. Naturally, when she had told Esper about it, she said no to going and if Esper wasn't going, neither was Patricia. Hell, she even told her mother to tell that couple that the Volterra tour was a scam and to stay away from it.

Whether or not they listened was up for debate but after that week they left the hotel and never came back.

"You seem like you're deep in thought cher." Her mother called as she reclaimed her seat and Esper smiled.

"Naw." She disagreed as she reached out and gave her mother's hand a firm squeeze. "I was just waitin' for you."

I wanted Esper to think about her abilities deeply.

In some ways, Esper's power is like Aro's but ultimately it's original function isn't the same. She's a psychometric meaning she can see/live the past of anything but Aro's original power is to use telepathy through touch, meaning he can speak into minds and read them with skin contact. Him seeing all the memories/thoughts is like an off shoot of the original purpose. Kind of like Esper being able to see memories from her card deck and using them to learn how to play a card game.

And a part of me thinks Aro might feel threatened because Esper can do what he does and more - even though she can't read minds/thoughts but he wouldn't just want to throw her away. Idk idk lol.

Also, I know that apparently, Aro can pick up feelings/emotions from the memories he reads but that doesn't fit his ability description in my mind. He's not an empath or capable of having empathic abilities by proxy like Esper has through her Psychometry, so in this story he can't read emotions/feelings.

Next chapter will feature more about Esper's Mesmer ability and the progress with her powers. And Bella's progress with her own.

Oh! I wanted to say that there will a few changes to Bella's powers since she's different from canon!Bella so she'll have the ability to cancel out the powers of people under her shield because she has always really wanted to help Esper "turn off" her power when she can't handle it.

There are maybe three chapters until canon starts.

Question 1: Do you think the Volturi (Aro in particular) would want Esper to join them? Why or why not? Do you think she would make a powerful vampire? Do you think the Volturi (Aro in particular) would view her as a threat? Why or why not? (I would really like it if you all could answer this question in particular)

Question 2: Some pairings I'm considering are Esper/Bella/Edward, Esper/Emmett/Rosalie, Esper/One of the Wolves, or Esper/One of the Volturi. What do you guys think of that?

Question 3: What do you think about Esper's concerns with her abilities (particularly with Mesmer?) What do you think about her predictions about where her powers could evolve to? Reasonable?

Also in concerns to putting Esper with characters who already have a significant other in canon: it's either inserting Esper into established relationships or she's not with anyone in the couple. Meaning no Esper/Rosalie or anything like that. I'm not going to have Esper steal someone's man or woman. I hate fics like that. Also, Jasper/Alice will stay Jasper/Alice. Esper isn't taking her aunt's man for the love of god!

Thank you for reading and if you didn't answer the questions in the last chapter I would appreciate it if you went back and did so.