Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer and Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi
A Soul Asunder
It was night-time, and Edward was running. He didn't know where he was or why he was running, he only knew that he had to keep going or else be caught in the wrath of whatever pursued him. He wasn't sure if his pursuit was animate or feeling, but he knew he simply couldn't face it.
An all-too-familiar, infuriated voice screamed his name. Reflexively, he turned to see why she was calling him in such an angry way.
Pain shot through his chest like a blaze of fire, and he cried out involuntarily as he was pushed back, slammed against the trunk of a tree. The arrow had pierced him so thoroughly that he was pinned there, the blade embedded in the tree behind him. He reached up, determined to rip it out himself, but the projectile had a barrier around it. It burned his hand all the way up to his shoulder when he got too near it.
Growling in fury, he looked up, his golden eyes searching the empty grounds for his attacker. A woman stood before him. Her dark brown hair blew about wildly with the force of the wind, and her brown eyes blazed with hate.
Bella?! he thought wildly, stunned that she could do this to him. Then he shook himself. No, it wasn't Bella. It was the other one… The witch, Tanya, who'd bound him to the tree for fifty years.
High up in a tree, leaning against its trunk, Edward darted upright, an involuntary cry escaping his mouth as he jolted awake. If not for his lightning-fast reflexes, the force of his awakening from his nightmare would have sent him careening to the earth, but he managed to steady himself just in time.
He sat there, breathing heavily. It was just a dream, he reminded himself. And that was true; it had only been a dream. But it had also happened once. He grumbled under his breath to himself, pushing his sweat-dampened hair out his eyes. He could have easily done without those nasty memories plaguing him.
Down on the ground beneath him, Bella and Seth were sleeping peacefully in some infernal contraption Bella called a "sleeping bag." It was some kind of wrap-around blanket that made her look as though she were being devoured by a puffy worm. As he watched, Seth flopped over next to the girl, curling up to get closer to her and sighing into her long brown hair contentedly.
Unable to stop himself, Edward was suddenly on the ground, sitting right beside the pair, though his eyes were only focused on one of them. It was no wonder he'd confused the two women in his dream. Bella was identical to Tanya. If there were any differences between the two, it was that Bella was only slightly younger than he remembered Tanya being, and she was far happier.
Suddenly, Bella's smooth, even breathing caught, and her brown eyes slowly opened. Upon finding a blurred, half-visible character leaning over her as she slept, she screamed and bolted upright, her fist colliding with whatever it was on pure instinct. Only after another moment did she see Edward sitting on the ground a few paces away, rubbing at a red cheek and staring at her, stunned.
"Edward?" she asked confusedly, rubbing her eyes clear as she yawned. "Don't scare me like that, I thought you were some evil demon…" Then, looking closer at his cheek, she laughed a little as her mind continued to awaken. "Oh, I hit you, didn't I? Sorry!"
"I was wrong! There's no resemblance at all!" he suddenly barked angrily in return.
Bella stared at him. "Resemblance to what?"
Edward scoffed and looked away, not bothering to answer, angry with himself for even spitting it out in the first place. It had been really stupid to think that Bella and Tanya were anything alike. Tanya had always been constrained by her position as a priestess and village protector. She could afford to show no weaknesses such as emotions or attachments, or else risk her very life. Bella, on the other hand, had obviously grown up loved and adored, and was completely comfortable expressing herself. Tanya had been grave and proud, while Bella was a clumsy, happy-go-lucky girl. Neither was better than the other, but they were nothing alike. Only in appearance were they similar.
A light breeze stirred the still night air around them, and Edward's keen nose caught something strange on it. He and Bella both turned to look out at the field a short distance from their campsite, and watched as some kind of demon paused to stand there, considering her direction. Edward could instantly tell she was a vampire. She took off within a moment, disappearing altogether to Bella's less sensitive eyes.
More concerning than the sight of this strange vampire, however, was the smell that came with her. Edward narrowed his eyes, sifting through the multitudes of scents that accompanied the demon. Lots of fresh soil, and lots of blood. And it was from a familiar person.
Edward barely managed to wait it out until sunrise, when he very literally threw Bella's sleeping bag into her pack, which he then shouldered himself as he barked orders for them to be off soon. He would only tell the others that they were heading back for Irina's village, though he wouldn't say why.
Seth, rolling over onto his back and nestling down into the basket on the handlebars of Bella's bicycle, yawned, "What's the rush? I'm still sleepy…"
"Just hurry up!"
They made it back to Irina's village in record time, almost half the day gone behind them in travel time. The village men out in the fields were the first to see their new arrivals, and they seemed especially surprised to see Edward this time around.
Irina was just exiting her hut, her right arm in a sling and being closely attended by a concerned young woman who called after her, "Lady Irina, 'tis abed you should be, not traipsin' about!"
Stubbornly, the little old woman griped, "These wounds aren't worth it."
Bella gasped in shock at the sight of the old woman in bandages once more, but Edward was more relieved than anything. When he'd smelt her blood on the scythe of that vampire demon the night before, he'd feared they would find her in far worse condition.
"What happened, Irina?" Bella cried on seeing her, while Edward said, "So you're still alive, huh?"
"Edward, you…" the old woman started in shock at his statement, then her brow cleared. "I see, you scented my blood on her, didn't you? Come, I want to show you something."
She turned to the old stone steps that led up from the village main road to a wooden church that Bella was stunned to recognize. Perhaps those rumours of Greensted Church being the oldest surviving one in the world weren't so far-fetched. With her age and injury, Irina was almost overcome with the steps. As Bella helped her to climb them, Edward trailing behind, the half-demon called up to the old woman, "It didn't surprise me… not with the way you keep getting yourself sliced up."
Bella stared at him as they crested the top of the steps, at first puzzled by his surly demeanour. Then she realized he must have been trying to cover himself again. When he'd smelt the old priestess' blood the night before, he must have been really worried about her and now he was trying to act all brusque to quell that suspicion.
But soon Bella's attentions were drawn away from Edward, as Irina pointed to a large crater that had been blasted into the earth just before the little church. In it, the remains of what had once been a small shrine lay crumbled and broken.
"My powers were not enough to protect it," Irina said guiltily.
"Is this…?" Bella began, but trailed off. Somehow, despite almost every person she'd met in Irina's village who'd been alive to know Tanya harping on about how she looked like her, Bella kept forgetting that Tanya had been a real person. She seemed so distant somehow, this mythical, all-powerful, wise and beautiful priestess that seemed to be idolized by all who'd known her. To be standing here, looking at what was left of her, made this so much more real to her.
Irina sensed the direction of her thoughts and finished kindly, "This was the grave of my elder sister, Tanya."
Both Edward and Bella, though she'd already suspected, started at this news.
Irina continued, "When that demon calling herself 'Sasha' came raiding last night, she had but one objective: to steal the urn containing my sister's ashes."
Her ashes? Bella cringed in horror at the thought. What could someone possibly use a deceased's ashes for?
As though in answer to her internal question, Irina went on, "Even to a witch's eyes, my sister was an extraordinarily powerful priestess. The scope of her holy powers was unfathomable. If her ashes were to fall into the hands of a demon who could extort that power… Well, there's no telling what misuse they'd be put to."
The old lady turned to Edward, but the half-demon had already spun on his heel and begun his descent back down the stone steps.
"Edward—" she began, but he cut her off mid-word.
"No."
Sensing that she would argue with him, he gave her a cold glare over his shoulder and explained, "Apparently you've forgotten that Tanya and I were enemies. I am not so lucky. I can still feel that arrow she used to pierce my chest."
The lines in Irina's old face grew deeper with sadness and disappointment. "I see," she murmured to herself. "So that's how it was, after all."
Bella stared after Edward, shocked. She'd known the story of Edward and Tanya from the beginning. At least, she thought she knew what had happened fifty years ago. But that was the crux of the matter, wasn't it? Only to everyone else had fifty years past since their bitter fight, giving them time to heal and put their emotions in order. To Edward, however, it must still seem like only a few weeks had passed. He'd been unconscious for the entirety of those fifty years, under Tanya's spell, and knew nothing of what had happened around him.
Sitting under his favourite tree in the village, Edward stared out thoughtfully on the gentle river beneath him. Finally, he called out, "Myoga? I know you're there. Come out here."
Reluctantly, knowing he had no other choice, the flea demon appeared from within Edward's tunic and jumped onto his knee. "I don't want to get involved in this," he declared promptly.
Edward ignored this. "This demon Sasha… who is she?"
Myoga raised his tiny arms in a gesture of surrender. "I only know that she is an ancient and very evil vampire, who has managed to master several forms of sorcery in her prolonged time on this earth."
Edward put his chin in his hand, leaning against his knee reflectively. He couldn't quite shake his fear, though. Something about this whole situation had him on edge, and he didn't know quite why. Something about what Irina had said kept ringing in his mind… There's no telling what misuse they'd be put to…
Besides that, the scents clinging to the demon as she'd passed hadn't just been blood and ashes. Edward distinctly remembered picking up the scent of damp earth, too. He said as much to the flea demon, who started anxiously at the news.
"Do you know something?" Edward pounced immediately.
"Well, I've never heard of it actually being done, but…"
They were interrupted by the appearance of Bella, who had crossed the field and slowly climbed the small hill on which stood Edward's tree. Myoga took advantage of his master's distraction and fled before he could be put through more questioning.
Watching the little speck that was his errant vassal flee the scene, Bella gave Edward a little smile and said, "Shall we go, then?"
Edward turned his rested head away to look out over the fields. "Where to?" he muttered sullenly, being purposefully obtuse.
With a sigh, Bella took a seat beside him. "Come on," she said gently. "Doesn't even an enemy deserve to rest in peace? Besides, however much you hated her, Tanya died a long time ago, didn't she? Maybe it's time to let some of that hatred between you die, too."
She stared at him for a long moment, waiting for some sort of response, but Edward remained turned away, carefully not looking at her. Knowing this, Bella immediately seized him by the chin and forcefully turned his head towards her, forcing him to look at her.
"Mind explaining why you haven't been able to look me in the face since yesterday?" she snapped, ignoring his protests. "So, what? Because I look like Tanya, I'm your enemy, too? You hate me now too, is that it?"
Edward's eyes finally snapped to hers at this comment, but it wasn't anger in his gaze as he grabbed her hand from his face and held it tightly in his own. She didn't know what that look was or what it meant, but she couldn't help but feel uneasy.
"It's not…" he began, but trailed off as he stared at her.
For the first time since the day before, he was looking her in the eye, but it didn't feel right to Bella. There was something majorly wrong. There was a new tenderness in his expression that she'd never seen before and she had a horrible, cold feeling washing through her that said it wasn't meant for her. Seemingly without meaning to, he was leaning closer to her, his eyes closing, his head tilting…
With a loud cry, Bella shoved him away. Caught off guard, he lost his balance and tumbled down the small hill upon which they sat. Bella stayed where she was, trying frantically to calm her pounding, racing heart. Edward had just tried to kiss her.
But why? And why did she have this sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach that it wasn't her he'd been looking at so tenderly?
A horse's snort from just behind them distracted her from their situation. Irina was seated on one of the village's only remaining horses fit enough for travel, a sack tied around her back that contained a quiver of arrows and a bow. A few of the village men appeared to be trying to talk her down from some plan.
"Prithee, Lady Irina, you daren't travel like this," a man was pleading.
Ignoring this completely, Irina requested, "Look after things while I'm gone, will you?"
"Irina?" Bella called questioningly, rising to go stand beside the elderly woman and her mount.
"As Tanya's successor and younger sister, it is my duty to take back her ashes," the old woman explained briefly, before spurring her mount onward without a backwards glance. Gasping in surprise at this sudden departure, Bella ran back to Irina's hut and hopped on her own bicycle, taking off quickly after the old woman.
"I'm coming, too!" she called, quickly catching up. Seth, still lounging in her bicycle's basket, was also apparently along for the ride.
There was no sign of Edward, not that Bella was particularly disappointed at his absence. She was still highly confused and bothered by that… incident at his tree.
"Say, Irina," she finally began hesitantly. The old woman brought up her horse a little, slowing their pace to allow conversation. "Edward and Tanya… were they really just enemies?"
"You were thinking there could have been something else?" came a surly, unexpected voice. Bella glanced over in surprise to find Edward seated on the back of the horse just behind Irina, seemingly having appeared out of thin air. But they all knew of his incredible speed. He could have been following them all this time and they wouldn't have known it.
"Edward!" Irina declared in surprise. "Coming, after all? Quite a change in the weather."
Bella ignored their light bickering as they continued the short journey. She had far more pressing things on her mind, such as what Edward was trying to hide from her this time. Not only was he refusing to look at her again, but also that look when he had… He'd been looking right through her, to Tanya, but the expression on his face hadn't been one of hatred, or even anger…
Could it be that Edward had actually been in love with Tanya? But how could Tanya have shot him with her arrow and magically sealed him away for fifty years, knowing that? Unless Edward was far more deserving of pity than she'd first thought… Tanya hadn't loved him in return. She almost felt like crying for him. What a terrible thing to go through, to be so betrayed. His anger and venom when he'd awoken suddenly made such sense to her.
Up ahead, riding along at a more sedate pace now with Edward standing perfectly balanced on the horse's rear as they progressed, Irina seemed to sense a change in Edward's demeanour.
"What is it?" she queried back at him.
"I can smell it," he answered. "That vampire. We must be getting close."
As he spoke, he turned to Bella, as though directing his words only to her. But the distant, compassionate expression on her face caught him up. She knew, but she couldn't really do anything to control it. She just felt so sorry for him, for what he'd been going through all along and not showing a sign.
"What is it, Bella?" he asked.
After a moment's pause during which she dragged herself from her mental wanderings, Bella shook herself and attempted to go back to normal. "It's nothing. I was just thinking."
"And yet, somehow, that expression of yours is really irritating. If I didn't know better, I'd almost say it was pity," he returned sharply, and leapt from the horse's back onto the handlebars of her bicycle so quickly Bella almost crashed in shock. "Thinking about what, exactly?"
"Just something crazy."
Edward continued to pester her for more information almost the entire duration of the rest of the trip, despite Bella's own temper flaring causing her to 'sit' him several times. Finally, Irina seemed to have reached the end of her patience with the two's bickering.
"Enough!" she snapped, kicking her horse to spur him on. "There is not a moment to lose! We must recover my sister's ashes with all haste."
She didn't voice her very real concerns about what could be happening with those very ashes, but that didn't stop the sickening wave of dread that was crashing over her. She had a terrible feeling about what they'd encounter when they finally caught up to the demon Sasha.
In her den deep in the mountains far ahead of the traveling group, Sasha was nearly vibrating with the excitement of revealing her first resurrection. It was nearly time to open the kiln and examine the fruits of her labour and, should all have gone well, she would soon have her very own priestess to command.
Never before had she used her ill-begotten powers to revive any specific person. Before, when she'd thought to create something experimentally, she would gather the bones and graveside soil of warriors fallen on the field of battle. There were plenty of those to be had. She would carefully craft bodies for them from her own clay and the soil and bones she'd stolen, and bake it for nearly a day in her kiln. In this way she was able to recall souls from the dead to inhabit the bodies. She couldn't be sure if the souls were those of the fallen themselves, or if she had only managed to recall a number of unknown souls and plant them in random bodies. This was to be the first real test of her prowess.
Kneading the earth from the priestess' grave with her ashes, along with some of Sasha's clay and—in a blaze of sudden inspiration—her own venom should have been enough to recreate the body to become a vampire as Sasha herself was. It was her finest physical creation yet, a perfect replica of how she must have looked only enhanced by the characteristic beauty of the immortals.
Unable to wait any longer, the demon seized her scythe from her wall and stabbed the edge of the kiln, careful not to puncture too deeply. The outer shell began to crack and crumble away, revealing one red eye, staring ahead. After that, the girl within the kiln seemed to want to arise of her own free will. An arm burst forth, shattering the shell that held her, followed quickly by the entire upper body as the young woman sat up.
Cackling delightedly, Sasha bowed and offered, "Welcome back, Lady Tanya."
The priestess Tanya had truly been a beautiful young woman at the time of her death, as Sasha had painstakingly recreated her to be. She arose from the kiln naked and flawless, her straight brown hair falling to her waist, shining beautifully in the bright sunlight.
"It is said that when you lived as a human several decades ago, you slew all demons who came near the Sacred Jewel," the old vampire said. "From now on, you will serve me, Sasha, as your mother. You will collect the Sacred Jewel fragments for me. Now stand, Tanya, and make ready to go!"
As the young woman stood awkwardly to obey, it became increasingly apparent that there was something to be desired in her gaze. Her red, vampiric eyes were empty and blank. There was no hint of feeling or thought anywhere on her face. Almost the moment her feet touched the stones, Tanya collapsed to the ground, barely blinking as her head slammed into the floor.
"What is this?" Sasha snapped, and, snatching a handful of the girl's hair, dragged her up for closer inspection. What she saw in her face seemed to baffle her. "What? No! It's—The soul hasn't returned! I have made nothing so much as an empty shell!"
In her anger, she once more tossed the empty body aside and began to think hard.
With her skills, there should have been no way a soul did not return. Since the body was empty of any soul at all, she knew this was no derogatory remark on her own powers. If that had been the case, the body would be inhabited by any other useless soul. This could only mean the soul had already been reincarnated… which meant that she couldn't call it back.
"Damn it!"
Rapidly closing in on the den, Edward, Bella, and the rest of their group were leaving behind the horse and bicycle as they attempted to cross a very long, very old, and very weathered bridge connecting two mountains together at a dizzying height.
Bella was nearly paralyzed with fear attempting to cross it, hanging for dear life onto either rope. Irina walked behind her, similarly crouched low and clinging to the sides. Edward alone walked ahead of the group, as unperturbed as though he were strolling down the main street of a village.
Struggling not to stammer over her fear, Bella asked tremulously, "Are you s-sure it's safe for us all to go at once like this?"
Calmly, almost uncaringly, Edward responded, "Nope. Not a bit."
"Something's coming!" Seth suddenly squeaked from his position at Bella's feet.
He was right. Just ahead, walking out of the mist that consumed the bridge after its halfway mark were bizarre, humanoid creatures that had clearly been created from clay. They all had patches of skin and hair, realistic likeness of humans, but then also areas where that facade had been broken away to reveal a clay model beneath. All of them were hollow, even as they moved of their own accord, awkwardly and slowly approaching to attack.
"Wha-What are they?" Seth asked no one in particular.
"Soldiers of some kind," Edward answered. "Must be protecting that witch's lair." He cast a perfunctory glance over his shoulder at Bella and Irina before turning back on their company, declaring, "Hold on tight, ladies, I'm about to shake things up a bit."
He charged the creatures without drawing the Iron Fang, his claws doing the only damage needed. At his blows, the clay bodies shattered easily, falling to the bridge floor in pieces and not stirring again. Edward stared for moment, surprised at the ease with which these so-called soldiers went down, before resuming his attacks on the remaining ones.
"Wish all my enemies were this weak!" he cried, punching and kicking as he destroyed them. But for each one that he destroyed, another five came to replace it. There was no end in sight.
From the cliffs on the other side of the bridge, the vampire Sasha looked on irritably, in no mood to deal with troublesome meddlers crossing her bridge. But, as she watched a half-breed of her own kind destroying multitudes of her prototypes, she happened to glance beyond him. Seated just behind him on the bridge, clinging to the rotting ropes, was a human girl with a remarkable likeness to Tanya.
Indeed, it was far more than likeness, she thought, as she turned and examined Tanya. The naked, empty body of the priestess still lay useless and thoughtless on the ground behind her, giving her ample time to examine between the two. They shared an identical face. Perhaps her efforts had not been in vain, after all!
Bella and Irina clung desperately to the ropes of the bridge as Edward fought to find the end of the sea of clay men. Seth, screaming, had leapt onto Bella's back where he clung, trembling, hidden underneath her hair.
Suddenly, the vampire from before was there, seemingly appearing from nothing. She stopped just in front of the half-demon, long enough to give him a little smirk, before slicing the bridge through with one swoop of her scythe right at his feet. As those closest to the source of the bridge's collapse, he and all her other clay creations fell first, followed quickly by Irina, Seth, and Bella. Sasha snatched Bella up by the waist as she went past, before leaping away from the destruction, fleeing faster than the human girl's eyes could comprehend, back to her lair.
The rest of her companions were flung to their dooms, falling that seemingly depthless dive to the earth below the bridge. Bella screamed her concern for them, but the demon laughed it off, informing her that nothing could have survived a fall from that height.
She hastened back to her den, where she promptly bound the girl at the wrists and ankles and tossed her into a corner to wait while she filled a tub outside. She poured jug after jug of different substances into it, a sickly smell beginning to waft over to the girl. Then, apparently momentarily satisfied, the vampire grabbed Bella once more and flung her into the tub to lie flat on her back, helpless. That accomplished, the witch tested the water, adding more of her heinous ingredients delicately, as a master chef would add hints of seasoning to a stew.
"What the hell are you doing?" Bella snapped, trying desperately to kick off her bindings.
"My, but you're a badly raised one," was all the demon replied, still busily pouring.
Bella began to feel light-headed, her eyes growing blurry. The water splashing around her ears smelled strongly of medicinal herbs, though for what purpose she couldn't begin to fathom. Then, suddenly, the vampire sighed in resignation and called, "Come here, Tanya."
At the name, Bella started, gasping in realization and horror. Before she had time to blink, a new figure was standing just at the edge of her tub. Bella craned her neck to get a glimpse of the newcomer over the side, and promptly wished she hadn't.
At first, she thought wildly that she was looking into some bizarre magic mirror, for there stood a young woman who could have easily passed for her twin sister. This new girl had the same straight, dark brown hair that shone with red tints in the bright sunlight that Bella herself had. The strange creature was slightly taller than Bella, and looked to be a few years older, but their faces were still nearly identical—the shape of the eyes and mouth were the same, and both carried the same narrow jaw and high cheekbones. Both were fair-skinned, though the clone of Bella was frighteningly pale, with dark circles under her glowing red eyes.
This new, identical creature came to a sudden halt at the side of Bella's tub, looking over the witch's shoulder to Bella herself with a sort of blank yet fascinated expression.
"Wha-What's going on here?" Bella tried to demand, but in her shock her throat had gone dry, and the words came out in barely a whisper.
The vampire Sasha seemed all too pleased to explain. "This is the legendary Lady Tanya, in the flesh… only the flesh, I am sad to say. The potion in which you now rest will draw the very soul from your body. And if, as I suspect, your soul is also hers, then it will return to its original body."
After the initial shock of his sudden descent had worn off, Edward managed to propel himself over to the cliff-side as he fell, digging in his feet to slow the momentum. The friction seared into his skin, but it was worth it in the end when he shortly encountered a small tree growing horizontally out of the mountainside and jumped off of it, landing easily on the ground in a pile of broken and crushed clay pieces from the soldiers.
But where were Bella and the others?
He hardly had time to consider the matter before being crushed thoroughly beneath a giant oak leaf weighted down by two riders: the old Lady Irina, and Seth. Seth had smartly used his fox magic at the last minute to protect the two of them, and they had floated the distance to the ground gently on the enlarged leaf.
"I wonder if Edward made it alright?" Seth fretted.
"An individual such as he would not so easily die," was Irina's stoic reply.
Edward managed to wriggle the upper portion of his body free from under them, muttering angrily, "Mind getting off me?"
"Ah, well, speak of the devil," said Irina, who hastened to get to her feet while Seth transformed the leaf back to its rightful size.
Immediately, Seth explained what Edward had missed when he was plunged into the ravine.
"What?" Edward exploded at the end of the brief summation. "Bella's been taken by that witch?"
"Edward," Irina cut in, drawing his attention with her grave tone and demeanour, "do you remember when Bella first appeared before us, and I supposed that she might be the reincarnation of my sister, Tanya?"
The half-demon stared at her for a long moment, caught off guard by the seemingly random question. "What of it?" he finally demanded.
Instead of answering directly, however, the old woman paused before asking delicately, "Could you tell me what really happened between you and my sister fifty years ago?"
If Edward had been surprised before, he was gob-smacked now. "What are you going on about now, old woman? This is no time for—"
"Tell me now," Irina cut him off, her tone firmer and more commanding than Edward had ever heard; it brooked no argument. "I must know as much in advance as possible, for if my intuition speaks true—and I pray that it does not—we may very shortly be meeting Tanya again."
The thick, pungent liquid around Bella was making her sick to her stomach. Her head whirled with the pervasive scent of the herbs and other ingredients that had been poured into her tub with her, reminding her strongly of menthol. In addition to the dizziness and nausea, there was clearly a sedative effect from the potion. She could feel the blackness of unconsciousness just beyond reach, threatening to consume her at any moment, and was determined not to close her eyes and succumb to it.
Sasha stared at the girl, watching gleefully as her struggles grew weaker and weaker. "It won't be long now, Tanya," she said to the other body, which paid no mind to the vampire. "Your soul shall rise from this mortal shell at any moment."
Battling her waves of nausea, Bella screamed, "How many times do I have to say it before this gets through you people's thick skulls?! I'm not just some reincarnation or whatever! How are you going to take responsibility if you're wrong anyway, huh?!"
The ancient vampire had been staring at Bella, astonished throughout this diatribe, but now she snapped, "How are you still able to move? My potent drugs should have made it impossible for you to even speak!"
Suddenly, as though in answer to her question, the large Jewel fragment that Bella carried around her neck began to glow brightly.
Sasha leapt to her feet in delight. "This light is a Sacred Jewel shard! A gift from the gods—and I humbly accept!"
She reached out to snatch it from Bella's throat, but Bella, despite her slipping hold of consciousness, was livid. "No!" she screamed. "You will not—!"
All was stopped suddenly by an enormous ball of light that sprang from within Bella to fall around her. It looked for all the world like how Bella had always imagined magic shields: a perfect bubble encasing her, though this was not the calm, gentle dome of her dreams. It was a volatile flood of light, with electric-looking sparks and pops of light flashing throughout its seething mass. Sasha jumped away from the light as though burned, and stayed her distance.
"A barrier?" she cried aloud, bewildered. "To hold in the soul? But why?"
If it were used to turn you into a human, it would be purified…
Back on the mountainside and closing in on the vampire's den, Edward was consumed in his own thoughts. Curse that stupid Irina and her dragging up all these hateful memories. He had always wanted to become a full vampire, a full demon, and to that end he had sought out the priestess Tanya who guarded his only means to do so. But Tanya was far too sharp to let him even get close to the Jewel, or herself.
In his mind's eye, he remembered himself being pinned by arrows Tanya had shot through his clothes to tree after tree, strung up just for her amusement, it seemed. She never struck the final blow, she would always leave him up there in his humiliation to figure some way down himself.
"Why do you never finish me off?" he'd shouted once, his temper finally lost as he found himself once more pinned up like a marionette.
"Stop coming after the Jewel!" she'd snapped back at him, turning to leave him there as always. "You are a waste of arrows."
But he knew that was only an excuse for why he hadn't retrieved the Jewel in all the amount of time he'd spent hanging around Tanya's village. Even if he could have gotten his hands on it, he had no intention of killing Tanya. It soon became clear to him that Tanya had no intention of killing him, either.
Edward, I know you're there. Why don't you come join me?
He'd been watching her as usual that day, brooding behind some shrubbery while she sat peacefully in a clearing. Well, as peaceful as Tanya ever was—she'd still been armed with bow and arrows. Reluctantly, he'd left his cover and sat next to her, shifting uncomfortably.
"This is the first time we have spoken up close like this," she'd said, staring at his face as though searching for something.
"What of it?" he'd snapped back, all the more off-put by her strange demeanour.
She'd hesitated, before asking, "Edward, how do I look to you? Do I seem human?"
Edward had recoiled in surprise at this random question, before demanding, "What are you going on about?"
She'd looked out over the edge of her clearing, to where her village sat below. As she'd stared at the inhabitants she'd dedicated her life to protecting, she had explained to him with a touch of bitterness in her tone, "I can never show weakness to anyone. I must never have doubts. I must never waver. Otherwise, some demon would get the better of me. I am human, and yet I cannot be human. We are quite alike, you and I—both outsiders. That is why I was unable to kill you."
Edward had all but leapt to his feet, scoffing, "What do I care for your whining? I'm not like you."
He'd glanced back down to her disdainfully, and had been completely caught off guard by her open expression.
"No, I suppose you're not," she'd agreed forlornly.
She'd looked so sad, so utterly alone. For the first time in his life, Edward had felt like he'd done something wrong. That hurt expression nagged at him… until he found himself thinking about her all the time.
"Edward?" Irina's cracked and faded old voice jolted him from his thoughts. He was carrying her up the mountainside on his back. She'd been far too weakened after their sudden fall from the bridge to continue climbing the steep path on her own.
"Why have you gone so silent?" she continued. "Might you be remembering the love you felt for my sister?"
It's true you are half-demon, but you are also half-human… If it were used to turn you into a human, it would be purified…
Scoffing away both the question and the painful memory, he declared fiercely, "No. I was deceived by her, damn it, that's all."
Slowly, reluctantly, he explained to the old woman the very basics of what had occurred between he and Tanya fifty years earlier. How they'd agreed to rendezvous at their clearing one day at dawn. Tanya would bring the Sacred Jewel of Four Souls, and Edward would wish on it to become human.
On his back, he could feel Irina suck in a gasp of shock. "You… You were really going to give up all your demonic power and become human?"
Feeling his face flushing hotly, he muttered, "A moment's madness and nothing more. But on the day she'd promised to meet me…"
…Three arrows fired simultaneously impaled themselves in the tree not one hand-span from his chest.
"Die, Edward!" the unknown female voice screamed, and another volley of arrows was released as the evil being fled. Hiding behind a nearby tree, two more arrows already nocked and ready to be released, was a beautiful woman with quite an ugly, enraged expression twisting her features. She wore a long, elegant dress of white with sleeves that belled out at the elbow like a lily, but most telling was the large, ornate cross made of brass tied at her neck. The village protector and priestess, Tanya.
"Tanya had intended to kill me from the beginning," he concluded his short tale roughly. "It was all a ploy to make me lower my guard… Anyway, you know the rest of it. I attacked the village and seized the Jewel, which is why I was sealed by Tanya in the end."
"There must be some mistake," she murmured thoughtfully. Edward rolled his eyes. How much more straightforward could it be? Tanya had tried to kill him on a day she'd promised to give him the Jewel. There really wasn't any other way to interpret that encounter.
Sasha jumped back a few paces, staring in awe at the savage barrier around the girl in the tub, which was expanding rapidly. It was already thrice as tall as a man, and twice as wide, giving the human girl a wide berth as the crackles and sparks of light within grew more and more violent.
How was it that the shield kept growing? The ancient vampire simply couldn't understand. How could this child's soul form something so huge? Why should it rage against freedom so, unless its past life had ended in an act of true abomination? For the soul to reject the separation this much…
In her tub, Bella clenched her teeth against the onslaught of nausea, fatigue, and rage. She started in confusion. Rage? No, that word wasn't strong enough to denote how she felt. She was livid. But she was also hurt, to the point where she considered ending it all now… She wanted to kill someone, but only that one person she loathed.
But I'm not mad at anyone! Bella thought wildly, her stomach rolling at her internal chaos. She didn't want to kill anyone, least of all him! He hadn't done anything to deserve it!
Bella could feel her pulse pounding behind her eyes. It felt like they didn't belong to her anymore. One moment, she was clenching them tightly shut against the bright light that shone above her and the waves of nausea wracking her. The next, she was turning her head to see who was approaching from the north. But it wasn't her head she was turning. Through those eyes, she saw from a completely different vantage, and could see the tub in which she was currently lying. Was it possible to be two people at once? Was Tanya really inside her somewhere? Were they really the same person?
Please come quickly, Edward… she pled silently. She wasn't going to make it much longer like this.
"Bella!"
She heard him before she saw him. Edward had arrived, stopping just beside her tub, staring in horror at the barrier full of violent light surrounding her.
"What have you done to Bella?" he demanded.
"So you survived the fall…"
Bella could dimly hear Irina suck in a ragged breath and cry out her sister's name. Clearly, she'd seen the makeshift body, which was still sitting placidly against the mountainside, staring blankly ahead and registering nothing.
Following her gaze, Edward, too gasped in shock. Suddenly, from inside her own mind, Bella heard a voice that was not her own. A voice she had never before heard and yet somehow knew. The woman was pleading, begging.
Don't do it! Do NOT say my name!
"Tanya," Edward whispered, still staring at the body.
Bella's world went black, and she ceased to know anything.
No sooner had the word escaped Edward's lips than Bella suddenly went limp in the tub, her eyes closed, as peaceful as the dead. Before anyone even had time to worry about her, however, her body sprang up once more, straining against her ties, the force of the light being ejected from her body almost taking her very flesh along with it. Whatever that light was, it sure as hell didn't want to come out of her.
"The barrier has broken!" Sasha cried delightedly.
"Bella!" Edward cried, but it was too late and he knew it. "What is all this light coming out of her?" he demanded of the vampire, who was only too happy to explain.
"'Tis the little lass' soul. It railed against freedom from this mortal with a shield of incredible power. But something about your voice crying Tanya's name sent everything a-flutter, and the barrier shattered. You have my thanks, boy."
She left off the explanation there, as she stepped forward and screamed to the lights now whirling around chaotically, "Now, soul, go and return to your proper body!"
It was over in an instant. The lights, as though obeying a command, surged for the shell of Tanya and were immediately absorbed into her body. One by one, they disappeared until none remained.
Slowly, Tanya's hands rose to touch her face, inspecting it carefully as though it belonged to someone else. Her brow clouded, her expression darkening with rage.
"Wake up, Bella! Just hang on!" cried Seth suddenly, trying and failing to pull Bella from the tub in which her limp body still lay. The ancient vampire laughed at this display of devotion.
"You waste your breath speaking to that soulless lump of flesh!" she cried. "But don't worry, she won't rot in there. I'll eat her for supper later."
"You fiend, Sasha!" Irina suddenly exploded. "You dared to use my sister's ashes to—"
"You guess true," the demon in question beamed with pride. "I have used all my vast knowledge and power to not only resurrect Tanya, but to turn her into one of my own kind! She is an immortal now, a vampire just like me. As such, you could say that I am her birth mother. Tanya will do anything I ask of her."
Still moving slowly, jerkily, as though not used to moving at all, Tanya lowered her hands, keeping her eyes firmly shut as she stumbled awkwardly over to her creator.
"Now," Sasha said, her tone switching to one of command, "use your powers to rid us of these bothersome—"
She cut herself off, staring perplexedly as Tanya came to a stop just in front of her, her hands on the old demon's shoulders. With shocking suddenness, flames of purity burst from Tanya's palms, igniting Sasha, who screamed horrifically as she was purified. She collapsed in a heap before Tanya, her body still burning with that holy light, and groaned, "Fool… not me…"
In a dangerously low snarl came Tanya's first words, "Yes, you. You are the one who dragged me back… from a death I had no desire to ever end."
Somehow, her voice broke as she finished, and she stumbled slightly, her hands coming up to stop a fall that didn't happen. Her eyes remained closed, as though she were stubbornly refusing to look upon a world she hadn't wished to see again. Her palms still glowed with the light of spiritual purity.
It was incredible Tanya still had her holy powers. Having become a demon, a vampire, she should have forfeited them all even as she gained new demonic ones. Perhaps it was a testament to their strength in her human life, or their pervasiveness in everything she'd done, but she had somehow managed to maintain the powers of a priestess even as a demon.
Hoarsely, Irina whispered, "Tanya?"
Edward was similarly stunned. "Are you… are you really… her?"
Finally, slowly, the young woman opened her eyes, her expression tortured. Instead of the lovely caramel brown both the old woman and the half-demon had been expecting, they cringed away from their new blood-red hue. Their reactions did not escape her notice.
"Edward?" she asked, so many emotions battling on her mobile face. Fear, pain, loathing… then a mask, the one Edward remembered so clearly, fell over her expression and her emotions were gone.
She walked towards him with painstaking slowness, wobbling dangerously as though she were just now learning to walk. Her arms were flailed out to each side, trying to maintain her shaky balance. Stopping just short of him, she suddenly screamed, "Why did you betray me?!"
She then grabbed the sleeve of his tunic—all she could reach, as Edward reacted quickly to move out of her line of fire. The shirt was disintegrated under her purification powers, but Edward himself was unharmed thanks to his quick reflexes.
He laughed once, an almost mad sound of bitterness and scorn. "You dare to tell me I betrayed you?"
"You know it is true," the newly born demon returned. "That is why I summoned the last vestiges of my strength and bound you to the Sacred Tree. We were not supposed to meet again ever!"
Irina, having been walking steadily unnoticed over to her sister's new form, grabbed Tanya by the shoulders and begged, "Stop this, Tanya!"
Tanya turned and stared in surprise and suspicion, demanding, "Who are you?"
"It is Irina, your sister! I have lived these fifty long years since your death."
Disbelieving and hurt once more but seeking to understand, Tanya cried, "And why do you, of all people, seek to defend him? This half-breed deceived me, wounded me, and stole the Sacred Jewel!"
Not getting any reply from the abashed elderly woman, she turned back to the half-demon and murmured, "You said that you wanted to become human, Edward. I believed your words. That day, I carried the Sacred Jewel, and went to you… and I received claws, horrible, deadly claws in my shoulder. I was lucky my entire arm was not severed. As I tried to reach the Jewel, you crushed my hand beneath your foot and laughed. 'Fool!' you called me. 'I never had any intention of becoming human, but thanks for the Jewel! But it's still thirsty for more hate-filled blood. I think I'll go slaughter your precious villagers.' You betrayed me!"
Edward stared at her, dumbstruck, his mind whirling. But that hadn't been him… That didn't even sound like him! What the hell was going on here? Was she lying? That had not been him!
But before he could say so, Tanya had seized her younger sister's bow and an arrow from her quiver, and swore in a dangerously low growl, "This time I will kill you."
Somehow, Edward was completely unsurprised at this turn of events. Despite not really knowing who had attacked her, Tanya was more than willing to believe it was he when she should have known he could never have hurt her. He spat scornfully, "You do hate me, don't you?"
Growing tired of the talk, Tanya aimed for Edward with deadly accuracy and fired with such speed he hardly had time to dodge. The arrow found purchase in the rocky terrain instead, sending a volley of rocks and chunks of earth into the air. One of them narrowly missed Seth, who had somehow managed to finally drag Bella's body from the tub and had thrown himself protectively over her, though his little body shielded hardly anything.
Tanya rounded on her sister, calling her name in a commanding way. Irina backed away, trying to keep her quiver of arrows out of the mad vampire's hands. "You mustn't, sister. Edward is not your enemy!"
"Open your eyes!" Tanya cried. "You, too, have been taken in by this deceitful monster!"
Still backing away, Irina denied, "You are mistaken!"
"Give me those arrows."
"I'll do no such thing!"
"Irina!" Tanya roared, and her loss of control was made more poignant by the pain that showed in her tone. "Show loyalty to your family, not to some devious, lying half-breed! Now, hear the demand of your elder sister and give me those arrows!"
She snatched the quiver, roughly wrenching them off of Irina's wounded shoulder and shoving her younger sister back.
"Bella! What's wrong with Bella?" Seth cried frantically, still trying to revive his friend. Irina crossed the scant distance between them and examined Bella herself, propping the girl on her lap.
"Unless her soul turns away from its own hatred and unrest, it will never return to this body… and Bella shall never open her eyes again."
Ignoring this proclamation, Tanya fired her arrow with all the pent-up rage she'd been harbouring. Instead of merely dodging again, however, Edward quickly drew the Iron Fang, which transformed at his touch. It deflected the arrow violently, and in the same move had sliced Tanya's pilfered bow neatly in half.
Still in that same swing, Edward released the sword, allowing it to soar away with the momentum and lodge itself into the rocky ground a few paces away, useless. But that was of no concern to him in that moment. Instead, he raced at his full speed to grab Tanya's hands at both wrists before she could make another move against him.
"What are you doing?" she demanded hotly, struggling to free her arms. "What trickery is this now, half-breed?"
"Shut up!" he snapped, holding tight though as a newborn vampire, her strength was astonishing. "I'm not even dreaming about making you care about me, not anymore. But I will not stand here and allow myself to be executed for something I never did!"
Tanya's mouth went slack with shock. "Never did?" she repeated, and her voice was dark and low, ominously subdued once more. "Do you take me for a fool? That was you deceiving me, tearing me open with those claws, ripping the Sacred Jewel from me!"
Fifty years earlier, the sun was setting, and Edward cringed away from Tanya in shock at her words. "You really think I could become a human?"
"Yes. It's true that you are half-demon, but you are also half-human. If the Jewel falls into the hands of demons, its own demonic power only grows. In that way, it can never be destroyed. However, if it were used to turn you into a human, it would be purified. The Jewel of Four Souls would probably cease to exist."
Edward gazed away at the ground uncomfortably, considering all of this in silence for a long moment. Finally, he asked, "And then what? What would happen to you?"
He glanced up, just in time to see her look away, a slight blush on her cheeks. "I am she who guards the Sacred Jewel, nothing more and nothing less. But without a Jewel to guard… I suppose I would become human again, too."
"You said you'd become a human," Tanya growled at Edward, once more jerking him from his wild thoughts and memories. "And as humans, you said we would live our lives together."
"I meant every word!" he swore.
"Silence!" Tanya screamed, enraged even as her expression crumpled in pain. "I was a fool for wishing, even for an instant, that I might live my life with you!"
"Just shut up!"
Edward had had enough. Tanya gaped in astonishment as the half-demon dropped all pretences and grabbed her up, crushing her tight to his chest in a fierce embrace. So powerful was her surprise that she fell to her knees, and Edward fell to a crouch with her, keeping her close.
"Tanya, I understand. You went through hell, just like me. And because you're only a mortal, what was hard for me was… insurmountable for you…"
For a moment, it seemed as though Tanya had calmed. Her face no longer held that madness and rage, but was instead tortured, as though near the tears she could no longer cry as a vampire. She buried her face in Edward's chest, taking refuge in his embrace for just a moment.
Then, in a freezing cold tone, she said, "Let me go, Edward. It's too late."
Seeing something Edward could not from behind him, Irina suddenly screamed out a warning: "No! Get away from her, Edward!"
He jumped back, just in time to avoid another purifying attack from Tanya's hands, which had attempted to grip his upper arms and lock him in place. Instead, she got his clothes again, though this time he had small burns to both of his arms as well.
"I died hating you," she said softly. Somehow, despite her murderous intent, she still seemed pained. "My spirit cannot move past that all-consuming hatred. So long as you live, I cannot be saved."
With a deep sigh, Irina brushed a tear from her one good eye and called to Edward, "Edward… destroy the body she is in."
"Irina!" Tanya cried, once again betrayed.
Resolutely, Irina continued though tears streamed down her withered cheek, "That body is a sham, dragged back into life—into unending life—by a demon's tricks. Free her, Edward. Free my sister's soul from that hell."
"It's futile," the newborn vampire returned, and for the first time, she looked at Bella's body, still sprawled uselessly on the ground and Irina's lap. "So long as my hatred goes unspent, it cannot return to that body, either."
An involuntary growl was wrenched from Edward's throat. Curse the fates. Curse God. Curse whatever soulless bastard had brought this about! He couldn't do it. He just couldn't kill her. Not even like this.
"Edward, only your death will—"
"Edward, look out—!"
Suddenly, still lying across Irina's lap, Bella's eyes snapped open, staring blankly at nothing. Her face was expressionless, there seemed to be no power or even consciousness to her actions, and yet somehow, in response, Tanya let out a scream of agony and rage. Those flashes of light within her began surging out and back into Bella once more. In vain, Tanya crossed her arms over her chest as tight as she could, as though to hold in the soul by sheer force.
"No!" she screamed, and her voice was strained and cracked from pleading and fury. "No! Not yet!"
"What's happening?" Seth squeaked.
"It is Bella," whispered Irina, her face white with shock. How was this possible? If Bella was as they had all believed, merely a reincarnation of Tanya's soul, then she should have been no more than an empty husk without it. Yet somehow she had the conscious will to bring her soul back… This simply could not be, not unless—somehow—there were more souls living inside this girl than Tanya's.
The force of Bella's call to return must have been enormous, for the lights pounded into her with such strength that her body was actually thrown into the air by the pressure being exerted on her every side. Finally, after several long moments, all the lights were reabsorbed. Bella's body hit the ground again with a sickening thud, still unconscious.
Irina and Edward, though just as glad to have the ordeal over with as Seth (who'd promptly pounced on Bella again, calling her name), looked around frantically for Tanya's body, which had disappeared. Then, astoundingly, Edward only just caught a glimpse of her staggering round a bend in the mountainside a few metres off from them, using the last of her strength to escape at top speed.
"She still moves?!" Irina exclaimed.
"Some of the soul must have remained with Tanya," Edward guessed, staring after her. He wasn't sure what he felt about that. Relief? Horror? It such a tangled mass of emotion he had no clue how to begin to see through it.
"That which keeps Tanya moving is nothing more than her intense hatred of you," came an unexpected voice. The vampire Sasha, though her body had mostly disintegrated and she was clearly near death, was laughing with evil glee. "It seems most of the soul has returned to the young lass from whence it came, yet the dark call of revenge stays behind to play in the creation of bones and graveside soil I have made. It suits her well. The once-pure maiden is now a demon bent of hate and vengeance. Isn't it lovely?"
So said, her demonic body crumbled away into dust, and she was no more. Edward, however, had heard enough of her words to panic. Tanya could never become so evil, could she? He leapt to his feet and chased after her as fast as his inhuman speed would allow, following her scent. He caught up to her quickly. She had stopped running mere kilometres from Sasha's former den and was striding unsteadily, breathing harshly, looking as near death as one of the undead could.
She was murmuring to herself, seemingly without realizing it. Edward caught only a little of what she was saying. "I must distance myself from that girl or she will take back the remainder of my soul. I must move away…"
Her footing was suddenly lost. She had wandered too close to a wide cliffs-edge, and had fallen, crying out in shock as she was tumbled down the ravine towards the river far below. Edward lunged forward from his position just behind her, digging his right hand into the dirt to keep him from falling and catching Tanya's wrist in the other.
Dangling over the edge, Tanya looked up to identify her saviour, and gasped in rage once more as she recognized Edward.
"Tanya, it cannot stay this way," he said hurriedly, while she was still listening. "You should return to Bella as well."
She stared at him, calm and strangely dispassionate. "You dare ask me to die?" Edward gasped in horror. Never.
"To return into that girl," Tanya went on blandly, as though she were discussing the weather, "means I shall no longer be who I am. She and I are not the same person. Is that what you want?"
Her eyes narrowed in another wave of anger and resentment. "I refuse," she growled fiercely, suddenly gripping his own wrist in both of her hands. She fired a wave of purifying energy into him, but though it burned fiercely and he cried out in pain, Edward refused to let her go.
"Didn't I tell you before?" she screamed as she continued blasting him. "My spirit cannot rest in peace until I see you dead!"
"Don't do this!" Edward cried, struggling fiercely to keep hold of her even while she threatened to burn his arm off. Finally, he lost his grip on her, her hand slipping through his clenched fingers.
She gasped in genuine surprise, before screaming in terror as she was suddenly flung headlong into the ravine that extended vastly beneath them. Edward screamed her name, but could do nothing to save her. He stared at her as her body grew smaller and smaller in the distance, disappearing in a shroud of mist and fog, his hand still outstretched.
Slowly, he began his climb back over the cliffs-edge and back onto solid ground, working mechanically. His mind was consumed with guilt and rage and unbearable pain. Why did it have to come to this? What heartless god could play out this fate? But then, it wasn't a god that had done this. Someone else had.
Fifty years ago, someone had taken the form of Edward and attacked Tanya, making her believe Edward a traitor. Then that same someone had taken Tanya's form and shot arrows at him, tricking him into thinking she'd deceived him. Somebody had clearly sought to make them despise one other. But who? And for what purpose?
Clutching his fried arm, Edward slowly stumbled back to his friends, his thoughts still whirling. They all remained as they had been when he'd left, what felt like hours before but had likely only been moments. Irina and Seth crowded around the prone form of Bella.
"Is she…?" Edward started to ask worriedly.
"She has yet to awake," Irina answered, stroking Bella's hair almost absent-mindedly. "What of my sister?"
Edward flinched. Even a fully-grown, skilled vampire was unlikely to survive a fall from that height. A newborn vampire—and for all intents and purposes, Tanya was a newborn—could never have the wherewithal to save herself. She'd likely been dashed against the rocks below, the pieces of her stone-like body scattered in the river and destroyed.
"I-I'm sorry," was all he could say to her younger sister. "I couldn't… I couldn't save her."
Irina returned to staring at Bella's face, but her one eye was dim with memories and emotion. "I see," she murmured. "With an inhuman body and a soul of naught but hatred…" She shook herself of her dark thoughts and smiled wanly at the half-demon. "'Tis better this way. Tanya herself said she hadn't wanted to be resurrected."
Still slumbering, Bella suddenly lurched her head to one side, letting out a low groan.
"Bella?" Seth responded instantly, hope and worry filling every crevice of his tone.
Bella neither felt his weight on her chest nor heard his voice. Continuing to sleep, she only twitched and groaned once more.
"It seems she is conflicted with a terrible nightmare," Irina guessed.
Keeping his gaze on Bella's face, Seth turned to his companions with tears in his forest-green eyes. "When Bella wakes up… will she still be the same Bella?"
"What?" Edward snapped, completely caught off guard by this question. He looked wildly to Irina, praying for some kind of confirmation that such a thing was the only conclusion for Bella. She couldn't have changed.
Instead, however, Irina looked away fretfully. "Tanya's soul was so forcefully awakened," she all but whispered, speaking only conjectures, "and although it's back in Bella's body again… If my sister's consciousness remains, it could bode ill for Bella."
Almost before the words were fully out of her mouth, Bella's eyes began to blink open, before she suddenly flung herself upright.
"Bella!" Irina cried in shock, flinching away from the girl's sudden movements.
Bella didn't respond, instead slouching over and clutching at herself, panting as though whatever she had seen in her mind had truly terrified her. Finally, she glanced up and, seeing the three of her companions crowding around her worriedly, she let out her breath in relief.
"Thank goodness. It was just a dream."
Edward and Irina started, concerned. What had she seen in this nightmare? Had Tanya battled her for consciousness and lost, after all?
"That freakin' maths test," Bella mumbled irritatedly, still sounding relieved at the same time. "I couldn't answer a single question on it! It was terrifying!"
Edward stared, sagging with own acute relief. "…Is that all?"
Her eyes met his in confusion, but she answered, "Well, then there was the creative writing one…"
Edward could have laughed with relief, or almost tackled her as Seth promptly did. Speaking that gibberish… it was definitely the same old Bella.
Hugging Seth tightly, Bella glanced around. "Where's Sasha?" she asked. "And Tanya?"
For a long moment, no one answered. They merely looked around shiftily, mixed emotions on their faces though the predominant theme seemed to be sadness. Finally, Edward murmured, "It's over now, Bella."
He looked away again, towards the open sky that shone over the cliff where Tanya had met her second end.
Rest in peace, Tanya…
Far below the relieved and saddened group, a pristine white hand emerged from the river and seized a large boulder at its shore, a body heaved up after it.
Tanya collapsed on the stone, panting with mad relief and vigour. She didn't know quite what sort of demon she had become, but this new body of hers was incredibly durable. Even after a fall from a cliff that height, landing in a frigid river and being washed downstream through rock and waterfall alike, she had somehow survived without even a scratch.
She was still alive, and that meant she still had time to avenge herself.
I'll be seeing you again very shortly, Edward…
It was a longer journey back to Irina's village than it had been to reach Sasha's lair, especially since Bella was still suffering some effects of her misadventure and wouldn't ride her bicycle, instead choosing to walk beside it, pushing it along. Edward walked at her side, though it was still with some difficulty that he managed to bring himself to look at her. Irina rode along on her horse at the rear, Seth perched comfortably before her in the saddle, hardly bigger than the cantle supporting her back.
"You really don't remember anything?" Edward asked Bella lowly, keeping the others out of their conversation.
"No, not a thing," the girl returned patiently, even a little sadly. After she had been informed of all that had happened during her unconsciousness, she had figured out the effect all this was having on Edward. "I'm sorry."
Edward paused, staring at the ground almost disappointedly as he said, "You have nothing to apologize for."
"That Edward…" Seth murmured, his demonic nature meaning that every word had not escaped his hearing. "He doesn't seem happy at all that Bella's fine, does he?"
"He has good reason," the old woman responded sagely. "Let us leave him be for a bit."
Bella seemed to come to a decision, and touched Edward's shoulder. "Hey," she said. "Stop walking on eggshells around me. Don't treat me any differently than you did before. I'm still me, after all."
Edward hesitated before replying again, as though lost in thought. He still couldn't bring himself look at her. Despite what she said and what anyone might think, it was now a fact that her soul, at least in some part, was Tanya's. And none could be sure just how much of Tanya remained conscious inside, how much damage had been done to Bella. None could be sure if she really was "still her."
Finally, struggling to regain his old bravado, he scoffed and said, "Well, of course you are. How could I imagine there was any of Tanya in you?"
"Oh, really?" she muttered coyly. "That's odd, considering I've caught you looking at me like you want me on a number of occasions, despite what you say…"
So completely caught off guard by this statement was he that Edward tripped up on his own feet, spluttering as he whirled to face her, "Wait—what?! When have I ever—?!"
"Ha!" Bella cut him off triumphantly, beaming at him with a radiant smile. "I finally got you to look me in the eye!"
Blushing and sputtering furiously, Edward turned and marched ahead of the group determinedly. Bella kept pace with him easily, smiling contentedly the whole time.
"You're more 'Edward-like' when you're angry, you know," she informed him blithely.
Edward hardly heard her; he was too busy marvelling at himself. What was this? He'd felt so relieved to see her smile. Yes, perhaps he should have been relieved at seeing a companion safe after a trial like she'd had, and yet… this was more than that. He wasn't so thankful that she'd survived—though that was certainly a factor—but more that she'd survived as herself. Somehow, before he'd noticed when or how, Bella had become so important to him. He just couldn't seem to believe it.
"Looks like he might be cheering up," Seth said pensively to Irina on their horse.
"Aye." The old priestess smiled at the expression on Edward's face, knowing intuitively the direction of his thoughts. She was much more approving of their current tenor than she had been previously.
Yet even still… she was deeply unsettled. Bella was truly a wondrous child, and not only because of the clothes she wore or the way she spoke. Something about her very being was strange and even frighteningly different. Somehow, this girl had made herself important to everyone, even and especially the half-demon Edward. Outwardly, she seemed a stereotypical human of the era: beautiful and confident, and yet she did not judge any creature simply by what they were. She seemed so weak and defenceless, yet even the immensely powerful soul of her sister could not subdue her. And then there had been that dim other consciousness in her still, after her sister's had been wrenched out…
Whatever Bella was, she was most certainly not just any reincarnation.
