One Winged Angel

Jukebox: Imogen Heap - Hide&Seek (Roksonix Dubstep)

Chapter 12 - Anything but a man.

. . .

Bella's P.o.V

. . .

I watched the scene before me with a thousand emotions running at the same time. The few that stood out the most was confusion, happiness and my questions on every day life before and after I had stumbled into this fantasy like world. Alice was on the ground, sitting on her knees and rubbing her sore back while Jasper had stood up, looking around, troubled. After I had called out to Alice, I couldn't say anything more since the sight of Jasper was not expected. What was expected was Alice probably had magic running through her veins, like me but it was still a sight to see her here.

"Bella.. " She finally said, looking over at me with tears welling up in her eyes. "Bella!" She stood and started to run over towards me, ignoring the villagers who fled from her presence.

We hugged for a few seconds before I pulled back.

"I'm not on drugs, okay?" I confirmed and she smiled sweetly up at me.

"Nah, we both are." I whacked her lightly on the back of the head and she couldn't help but laugh.

"Be serious here. Aren't you.. surprised? Afraid? Feeling delusional?"

"Surprised, yes, but not afraid. Perhaps if I had come alone, I would be. Delusional? Totally not." I felt a twinge of jealousy. I was all three of those things when I first arrived and she only was one out of three.

"You're taking this pretty well." I commented, annoyed.

"You know how much I like fairy tales. Well, used to. Mom use to tell us stories of fairy tales all the time since the only stories dad told was what interesting artifacts he found." She snorted at that and let her eyes wonder greedily over everything. "Dude, we're standing on clouds."

"Yeah. It changes colour every day and when you walk, it temporarily lights the ground around where you stepped. Oh, and it's hard as the ground back home." She tested it out and could barely contain her excitement.

"Cooooool." She dragged out the 'o' to exaggerate and I shook my head. If only I could take this as well as she did.

"As happy as I am to see you, but.. what exactly is Jasper doing here?"

"Oh. Well after you went through.. the mirror, I locked myself in the house for the few days. Denial and disbelief, you know? Then Jasper started to come over, asking if everything was okay. At first I was afraid to say anything, thinking he might think I was the one on drugs. So after I finally decided to tell him, you know what he said?" She had leaned in and started to whisper and I done the same.

"W.. what did he say?"

"He said.. "You're on drugs, too." And I cried." I couldn't helped but scoff, expecting something good.

"Today when he came over with some medication to "help me with my problems", I dragged him to your room and told him we were going to go through the mirror. He looked so scared and afraid when I said that, he said I'd gone mad. But I held onto his arm and dragged him through with me.

I didn't really think it was going to work. I just wanted to see you so much, to see where you had gone and to prove to myself that I was delusional about you falling through. And to my surprise, we'd gone through."

"So that means he can use it too.. " I whispered to myself, looking over at Jasper who was staring at us intently, eyes guarded. He had never looked that way before..

A swirl of white robes passed us and I noticed it was Edward, who didn't bother to cast us a glance as he headed to Jasper. Alice was about to open her mouth, probably to ask who "the hot guy is" but I shook my

head and motioned her to follow the prince. We stopped a few steps behind him, watching as he looked Jasper up and down.

"Jasper, you look like a buffoon wearing those silly human clothes. And you shaved!" Edward stated while crossing his arms over his chest.

My jaw dropped. Jasper dusted the front of his shirt and gave Edward a bow before raising, his face emotionless.

"Forgive me. These clothes were required to be able to fit in on Earth. And they probably wouldn't have allowed me to go to school if I had a scraggly beard, it made me look much older."

"Hrm. I'll over look it now. But you did look best with a beard, a five o'clock shadow, even."

"I'll get to work on it right away, sir." Edward nodded and turned to Alice and myself, raising a single brow at our expressions.

"I think it'll be more appropriate to talk things out back at the palace instead of here. Jasper, lead them to your old bedroom while I settle things here with the villagers." He suggested, gesturing to the people around

him.

"Yes, m'lord. Lady Alice, Lady Bella, please follow me." Numbly, I willed my legs to follow him, tugging a frozen Alice behind me. She seemed to have a harder time taking this all in.

. . .

"I came from the Blondie Kingdom, which is better known as Astral Kingdom. It's a place that is filled only with blonde's. Even their queen, Rosalie, is a blonde. But a few years ago, she shocked everyone by marrying a dark haired brunette, named Emmett. There was such an outrage when the villagers found out about their secret ceremony but who wouldn't be? For centuries, the queen or king would marry a blonde. There were attempted riots but the queens guard were faithful to the very end, protecting her and the castle.

Queen Rosalie decided to have a public speech about her decision and the elders of the village barely let her start. They raged about how she was breaking traditions that would probably ruin the future, bring disaster to the people. The elders were bent on following traditions that they didn't care about their own queens happiness. One elder crossed the line when she started speaking of Queen Rosalie's late parents. Her exact words were "If your mother and father were alive, they would have disowned you the moment that boy stepped into your life and would have given the crown to someone more reliable." Of course our queen has a reputation of being feisty. She shot back at the elders, unable to keep quiet anymore.

She called everyone there closed minded, saying they were the ones who would probably bring destruction to the village. She gave a great speech about how her parents would be proud that she found the man she loved. She vowed to them that she would change everything so that blonde's wouldn't be the only ones to live there. "I am your ruler and I will guide you with care, protect you with power and love everyone equally." A lot of people were in tears over this speech. It was much deeper than that but it pretty much sums up what she said.

Almost everyone accepted her and her husband, except the elders, who were still bent on getting things their way. But what was important was that her people accepted the marriage. I have never seen her so happy, except for at the wedding ceremony." Jasper went silent for awhile, thinking of something and blinked.

"S-sorry, I went a little off topic there, talking about back home. Astral Kingdom is a pretty closed off place but since Queen Rosalie's speech, she's been using her power to try and open it up more to the public. I was a royal guard for her. Prince Edward had requested a switch, a sign of peace between two kingdoms. So they each sent out one of their best guards. It's different on earth, from what I've read and heard. You sign a couple papers and meet up with the person you're declaring peace with, right? Well here, you give one of your men to the other kingdom. Sometimes the other will request something else but it's mostly guards.

At first I was shocked when my queen decided to send me. I would be the first they sent out, making this kingdom our first alliance. But her majesty trusted me and that alone gave me courage and swell with pride ad of course, she made me promise to visit once in awhile and sent reports about my progress. When arriving, I was stunned by how beautiful it was. Of course we heard rumours about the grandest kingdom of all but I never expected it to be anything like.. this.

It also surprised me when I didn't see much blonde's around, mostly dark haired people were living here. After meeting the king and prince, I was shown to this room and was given the day to settle down and get used to everything. But I didn't get use to things until a month later but the prince was patient and it made things quiet easier. Two years after that, he sent me to Earth, which you probably know why, Bella." I blinked, thought about it for a few seconds before nodding.

"He sent me to Earth to keep an eye on things. He had dispatched others to different planets and my destination just happened to be Earth. If you've noticed, things here grow faster than they do on Earth. For example.. your hair." Instantly I grabbed a handful of hair and looked at it in surprise.

"I never realised how long it's gotten.. I've been so busy with lessons.." It must be close to reaching my butt by now.

"Yes. Well I had a bread that was no longer than shoulder length. I observed people on earth, how they lived, acted, everything. I noticed most of the teens didn't have beards like mine, so I cut it off."

"I thought.. we were childhood friends?" Alice finally spoke for the first time, looking up at Jasper with a wavering heart. But he couldn't meet her gaze and choose to look outside his window instead.

"I had already had my place set up for me on Earth. What I had to do was start by going to school then switch every term and transfer to a new school and repeat. This term was already going to be up soon anyways and looking young is no problem without a little bit of magic involved.

One day I was wondering the streets and you, Alice, had caught my attention. I believe you and Bella were out grocery shopping and you had happy-go-lucky air about you, it drew me in. I'm sure happiness would draw anyone in. So without looking suspicious I went up behind you guys, cast a spell that played and triggered with your memories. I made it seem like we've known each other our whole lives, childhood friends. So when I casually slung my arms over your shoulders, you both smiled at me and we casually walked to your house.

From there I began to poke my way through your memories, picking up on things that I should know, like.. birthdays, names, anything important."

"How could you.. "I breathed, suddenly feeling like there was a stranger in front of us. And he was. These memories were a lie.

"I had to do it for the prince. I merely followed his orders. And you two were picked at random, I didn't mean to cause any harm."

"Is all of it a lie? Everything about you?" Alice asked in a quiet, calm voice. She held herself high, ever taking her eyes off his face. Too bad he couldn't do the same.

"Basic- "

"It's a yes or no answer."

"Yes." She fought for her bottom lip not to tremble but was failing.

"What about your feelings for us? Was that a lie too.. ?" Jasper and I both knew what she was asking. 'Are your feeling for me a lie?'.

Jasper stayed quiet for a moment, keeping his head bent low. I looked at Alice and saw a look of hope on her face, and that scared me. When Jasper raised his head, he finally looked at Alice with an emotionless expression and briefly shook his head.

"Everything about me is a lie." Alice gasped and began to shake. She stood suddenly, her chair falling back and was ready to make a run for it but I clutched the bottom of her shirt to prevent her for doing do. Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself for the next blow, knowing that we both needed to hear it but wouldn't handle it well.

"What did you plan to when you were ready to transfer to a new school?"

"I would have took myself out of your memories, out of your lives."

Alice wretched herself out of my grasp and ran to who knows where. I stood calmly, looking down at my feet before raising my eyes to his. I could see that he was fighting something inside himself, a battle. I knew deep down that there's no way he could have felt nothing while he was hanging with us for.. who knows how long anymore, but there's no doubt he felt something for Alice, too.

"You've got a lot of guts, looking her in the eyes like that," My voice held a charming melody in it, soft and gentle but there was power and authority behind it. He seemed to noticed the change too and watched warily.

"She needed to know the truth."

"But you lied to her while looking her straight in the eye."

"I didn't l- "

"Silence!" He jerked back when my voice went from soft to thunderous. "You act like nothing is wrong with you did but I can see those emotions swimming beneath the surface. Years of training to look emotion can do nothing to hide the admiration and care you hold forAlice, nothing. And when you decide to become a real man, don't go any where near her." With that I spun on my heel and marched angrily out of the room and down the hall.

After a few minutes of walking aimlessly, I stopped a maid and asked if she saw someone with short spiky black hair. When she asked for a clothing description, all I could say was that she wore 'odd' clothes. She 'ah-hah'd' and pointed in the direction, bowed and went on her way. I jogged my way down the hall, dodging the few maids left that held supplies and opened the large doors.

It was a library that had shelves after shelves after shelves with books. It almost like it would never end but shook my head and swiftly looked around. Of course finding wasn't hard, she didn't exactly keep her sobs quiet. But I knelt beside and and hugged her to my chest. She only cried more and louder, her hands fisting my shirt.

I don't know how long we sat there on the floor but I noticed she started to calm down, steadily taking her hands off my shirt. She stay hugged to my chest but she was staring off into space, her eyes dead. I tried calling her name a couple times but she never reacted. With a sigh, I picked her up bridal style and brought her to my room.

After tucking her in, I made a promise to come back later with food and water, hoped she gets a good rest and slipped out of the room. As soon as I shut the door, I heard the sobbing start up and and closed my eyes, willing myself not to go back in there and comfort her. She needed to be alone.

Opening my eyes, I noticed that the prince was across from me, leaning against the wall..

"How is she?" He asked and I looked away.

"She's in shock, mostly."

"I don't know why she would be." I whipped my head back at him and glared.

"I don't think she would have minded much if Jasper won't return her feelings but what hurt the most of losing memory of what we had of him."

"He was only doing his duty as a guard, as a soldier."

"He should just be a man and deal with things."

"You must not forget it was I who ordered him to do those things before he left for Earth, not to leave his tracks behind."

"What harm could have came from that? We only want to keep our memories! Sure we'd be sad if he transferred to a new school but remembering the time we spent together would have been precious."

"It seems I have to remind you once again that there is a war going on." He walked directly in front of me, stopping just before our bodies touched. It was anything but intimate. He was looking down me as a leader and superior. "Jasper is sent down on a mission to find clues we need to win this war. He stays at school for a year or so and if he finds nothing within that time, he moves on but he must clean up his tracks so no harm comes to those he interacted with. If he were to find love down there, he'd be worried about that person constantly. On the battlefield, he'd always wonder if they're safe on earth or here. A single thought that's not concentrated could cost his his life. When I asked about his love life, he had told me he had no interest in that until after the war. Don't forget, he puts his duty before love."

".. " I couldn't even say anything to that because he was completely right. If I was in Jasper's shoes, I would have done the same thing, even if it did hurt myself in the end, I wouldn't want anyone else to hurt because of my careless actions..

"I believe that you're late for your lesson."

. . .

Two days had passed since that incident and Alice barely said a word. All she did was sleep and I had to force her to eat. She was like a broken doll and it ripped me to pieces that I couldn't do a damned thing about her or Jasper. I hadn't seen him since our chat a few days ago, I assumed he was preforming duties for his damn prince.

Speaking of said prince, I was avoiding him. Which I knew I couldn't forever but it felt unfair to Alice. Why should I get a happy ending when she couldn't. It was be very rude to prance about in front of her face when she was feeling at her lowest.

I froze on that thought, blinking.

"S-stupid, no way he's in my happy ending."

"Who's not in your happy ending?"

"Eep!" I staggered backwards, grabbing onto the railing in front of me.

"Talking to yourself is one of the first signs of a crazy person." I scowled and looked away, not able to face him. "Giving me the silent treatment? Whatever did I do to get on your bad side now?"

I continued to say nothing and there was some shifting behind me. Mildly curious, I was about to turn around until I was pulled back into a broad chest, an arm wrapping across my chest to grab onto my shoulder and another around my midsection. This action made my heart hammer in my chest and I blushed, knowing he would be able to feel it. I didn't bother pushing him away and placed a hand over his on my stomach and the other on his arm across my chest. He bent down to place a kiss on top of my head before lightly resting his chin there.

"I'm sure Jasper feels the same way for Alice but he also feels that it's safer to wait until the war is over. He doesn't want to danger her in any way. I could tell he was struggling with telling me his report last night. He gave a lot of details, tripping over words when he spoke of her. He looked as if he was expecting punishment for even growing feeling while on an important mission but I gave him a smile which creeped him out enough."

"Then why doesn't he just tell her the truth, that after the war he'll be able to tell her his feelings?"

"He feels that this is the best way, the only way he can think clearly. Jasper Hale.. has never been in love before, he doesn't know how to handle these feelings. Reading from books is where he learned of love, but he's never experienced before. He thought it was simple, just from reading it but experiencing foreign feelings scares him."

"I see."

I had began to relax into his touch, getting comfortable as we watched the sun set beyond the trees until he turned me around to face him. He was staring down at me so intensely I began to squirm, my heart beating fast once again that night. He tilted my chin up with two fingers when I tried to lower my head. I was trembling in his hold, afraid yet excited. He started to lower his head and I instantly closed my eyes, puckering my lips a little.

The first contact of his lips touching mine sent a jolt of electricity down my spine and I gasped, turning my head away. I could sense his disappointment and I felt bad. Slowly I turned my head back to look up at him and couldn't help but chuckle. He was pouting while trying not to look like a kicked puppy. Getting over my nervousness, I stood on my tippy-toes and placed my lips on his. He froze for a second before returning the same pressure applied.

It was a sweet, chaste kiss until he ran his tongue along the bottom of my lip. I gasped again and turned away from him. Kissing him have gave me such pleasant vibes, I wanted more but that last move made me realise that I was actually kissing a prince. A prince just doesn't go kissing random people. Well they may bring random girls to warm their beds but it just didn't feel real to be kissing one.

"Bella.. " He breathed right next to my ear and I shivered.

"Where's Jasper?" I suddenly asked and when Edward sighed and pulled back, I knew I had ruined the moment.

"Why are you asking that, of all things, and now?"

"Well, I haven't spoken to him for awhile and was wondering what he was up to."

"He went back to Earth to continue his mission." I froze for a moment before whirling around to face Edward with wide eyes.

"You sent him back?"

"I offered for him to work around the palace or village but he insisted on going back, saying he didn't want to fail on this mission."

"That.. that coward!" I roared and dashed by the prince and through the doors of the palace, going straight for my destination. The Phaze Portal.

If he thinks he can just run and hide as simple as that, he's got another thing coming.

. . .

A/N: Another chapter! Sorry for not updating quicker, I've recently got addicted to a game, I'm so-so-so-so in loooove.

Short, yes. BUT! Now you know where Roaslie And Emmett are now!

Bottledcoke