Sorry for the delay on this, folks. If you didn't already know (due to reading my story Tattoos only cover so much) my access to from work has been revoked. Therefore, I have to submit everything from home, and I'm just simply not there very often. I've found a bit of a work around, but it's still a major hassle compared to simply uploading a word document to the website. At any rate, here's chapter 13! I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 13

Bella PoV

I debated back and forth on how much I should tell Charlie, if anything. In the ten seconds it took him to get from the car to the front door I'd gone for and against at least twenty-seven times and had a list of pros and cons for each decision. Once he was in the door, I'd decided to tell him everything. Well, everything but the vampire part, since that wasn't my secret to tell, and his knowing it would be detrimental to his survival if the Volturi found out. I made a mental note to look into the Volturi and make backup plans in case Charlie did find that out. I had a hard time keeping anything from him, so that secret even as important as it was would be difficult for me to hide.

"Hey Bells, how ya feelin'?" he asked.

"Much better, thanks," I replied. As he came around the corner, I noticed that I could see the laugh lines next to his eyes more clearly than before. Charlie was in his late 30s, but being on the Police Force and dealing with me had aged him quickly. He was no longer the nineteen year old academy student I'd met when I first came into this world. He even had a couple of gray hairs sprouting near his temple and in his bushy moustache.

"Are you going to tell me what triggered this transition or make me die of curiosity?"

"Early grave for you, Pops," I replied, half joking. "I can't tell you. Not because I don't want to, but it's not my secret to tell."

"Does it have to do with the Cullens?" he queried.

Oh boy, he was far too observant for his own good. "Indirectly," I answered. "They were there when it happened, but by a large margin had nothing to do with what happened. The things that killed those people are what's to blame, and I took care of it."

"They're gone?" he asked.

"Yep, dead and buried, so to speak," I confirmed.

"Bells, you know how I feel about you taking lives," Charlie complained. I stifled an eye roll.

"Well, they weren't human, so it hardly counts. It was like hunting, which you do all the time, so don't get all hypocritical on me, Chief Swan." He knew when I called him Chief Swan that I wasn't going to take any more of his crap. Sometimes he had to be reminded that I wasn't the seventeen-year-old kid I look like. "At any rate, that debacle is over only to move onto a new one."

"What happened?"

"I woke up and some strange kid was standing in my closet," I said.

"What? Who was it? One of the kids from school? How'd he get in? It was a boy, right? Whose parents do I need to call?" He kept spouting off questions almost faster than I could keep up.

"Slow your roll, Chief, it wasn't a kid from school," I assured him, which of course did nothing to quell his worry. "He called himself Lukas and he's… well he's another product of The Company."

Charlie was silent for a few minutes. "But The Company is gone. You took them all out."

"Or so I thought," I answered. "Apparently he was part of a hidden experiment that wasn't documented in any of the databases or buildings I raided. Completely off the grid. I'm still trying to work out what's really going on with him, but as far as he knows, he woke up knowing all about what The Company was and what he was and that he had to find me. His sole purpose was finding me. He delayed that by a bit and decided to read a million books page by page in some library in the midwest."

"Why would he read them when…"

"He could just download them?" I finished for him. Charlie nodded. "I thought the same thing. He's not as evolved as I am. Doesn't have nearly as many abilities nor as much control over his brain. I was able to read his mind and if he was telepathic at all, I wouldn't have been able to. He also isn't telekinetic nor does he have the auto-evolution from what I could gather. When I asked why he didn't just download the books from the Library of Congress website, he asked me if I meant hacking their system, and told me he didn't know how."

"Wow, yeah, he's definitely nothing like you," Charlie agreed. "So what are your theories?"

"Right now, the running theory is that he was a sleeper," I began. "I think they programmed him to be 'Lukas' and gave him enough information about me and a desire to find me, but didn't give him everything that I've got. I think he's meant to be a lure to get me back to the Company. What I don't know is if he truly is from some secret lab that wasn't documented anywhere or if he was created to find me before they were destroyed, and he didn't get to me before I got to them. That's the most likely one, but it just seems a bit too coincidental that he shows up now when I've started a brand new life. And I know enough to know that mathematically, there's no true coincidence ever."

"So what's the plan?"

"Leave him be for now," I replied, shrugging. "I'm keeping tabs on his whereabouts and told him in no uncertain terms that he is not ever to come into this house without permission. I'm going to do a deep read on him to try and determine if he's a program or if he's the real him."

Charlie shook his head in disbelief. "Sounds like you've got it all figured out, kid. You'll let me know if you need anything, yeah?"

"Of course," I agreed.

"Oh, and bring that Cullen kid you're dating by some time," he added. "I'd like to meet him… officially." I gaped at him. "People talk, Bells. I heard it from Mrs. Stanley when I stopped at the gas station this afternoon. Plus, I called over there to to get more information from them when you came home about to go into an 'upgrade.' They told me about as much as you did, might I add and mentioned that you were already very important to their family. Bells, I may live in a small town, but I don't have a small mind. You're dating one of them, and if I recall from what Mrs. Stanley told me, the redheaded boy is the only one in that family that isn't attached to someone else in that family."

Well, hell, so much for keeping me and Edward to myself for the moment. "Yes, I'm dating Edward, okay?" I confessed. "Have you spoken to Jacob or anyone else from the p… tribe?" Jeez, I almost said pack and blew the secret I promised to keep.

He frowned. "No, why would I hear from Jake?" he asked.

Shrugging, I replied nonchalantly, "I just thought he might have some questions about me. He knows now, too. Though it was inadvertent. He and his buddies happened to come upon me when I was attacked, so they saw nearly everything."

"What were they doing way out by the Cullen place?" Charlie asked.

I shrugged again, indicating I didn't know. Charlie was very observant yes, but I was very good at lying. "Didn't ask… was kind of in a lot of pain and worried about getting to the panic room in time. I didn't mean for them to see me or learn about me, but I think they can be trusted. Don't you?"

"Well, I can't speak for the rest of the boys out there, but I'd trust Billy and Jake with the secrets of the President." I nodded my agreement.

Deciding I was hungry again, I headed to the kitchen to whip up something for dinner for the two of us. I gave Charlie the task of putting the salad together and chuckled when he grunted and groaned about vegetables. I decided on turkey burgers with potato chips, which appeased charlie, though he was none-too-pleased about eating turkey instead of ground beef. "It was ground turkey in the spaghetti the other night, too, and the enchiladas. And the only reason I used that turkey was because it was free-range and organic. I saw a little stand outside of town advertising them. They also have chickens and eggs, and I plan to get those there, too from now on. The Thriftway only sells corn-fed beef from cattle factories, and chickens and eggs from the same kind of horrible places, which I refuse to support. The beef industry alone is one of the big contributors to pollution and problems with the environment, and don't even get me started on the treatment of the poor cows. It's not much different for chickens."

Something I said sparked his interest, so I continued. "Cattle have evolved over time by grazing on grass in open pastures. Sixty years ago, America's Beef Industry changed this natural method of raising cattle to concentrating them in feedlots where they are fattened on a steady diet of corn and soybeans. A corn-fed cow grows from 80 to 1,100 pounds in 14 months where as a grass-fed animal takes 18-24 months. As a result, corn-fed beef has become so much quicker and cheaper to produce. However, corn-fed cattle are given an arsenal of drugs because they are constantly sick. Cattle are ruminants, meaning they're animals that regurgitate their food and eat it again, you know it as chewing cud, and they are ill-adapted to eating corn. Humans have taken away their natural food source and replaced it because it's cheaper and easier. But then, humans waste fuel and resources processing corn and soy beans to feed cows, when they could just have the cows graze in the fields where they grow corn and soy. The whole system is so backwards."

I concluded my rant just in time to serve the burgers. Charlie ate his happily, knowing it came from a happy turkey rather than a poor, mistreated and malnourished cow. I wondered if he'd still sneak steaks at the diner though. I'd have to see if I could convince them to buy 100% grass-fed beef and free range chicken or eggs. It'd be a hell of a project. Maybe I could get Esme's help with it. I thought she'd like something like that to do.

After dinner, I headed back up to my room only to see Alice perched on my bed. "Will hiya, Pixie, what brings you by?"

"I saw Esme speaking with the owner of the Diner your dad goes to all the time, and then I saw her buying a building to open up an organic grocery store. She didn't have a clue what I was talking about, so I figured I'd ask you what it's about. I can't see your decisions directly, but I can see those that you make that involve our family directly. So, my question is, what were you thinking about that involved Esme?" she asked.

"Well, I was explaining to Charlie the horrific things that are done to cows and chickens that produce the meat and eggs humans eat every day. It's not healthy for the animals and it's not healthy for the people. Even I don't eat that stuff and I'm not affected by human ailments. I was thinking that Esme might be interested in something to do other than pretending to care for 5 teenage children. I know in the past she's done some teaching or design and architecture, so this would be vastly different. I don't know why, but her name was the first that popped into my head when I was thinking of who I could find to help with this.

Alice sat, pensive for a moment. "Do you think it'd work out here? An organic food store?"

I nodded enthusiastically. "Washington is a wonderful state as far as people who like all-natural organic, locally grown or sourced food goes. Seattle is huge with it. I think we could make it work out here. And especially if someone as charismatic and charming as Esme was heading it up. it'd be a hit. Also, if she emphasizes that her beauty can be attributed to an organic diet, the women in Forks would flock to the store. I'd also like the Diner to start buying grass fed beef and free range chicken and eggs. Charlie eats there often enough that I worry that my changing things at home won't make much difference.

"Why are you suddenly worried about Charlie?" Alice asked, concerned.

"He's the only family I have, Alice. I've known him since I was born. He's aged while I haven't and he's no spring chicken any more. He's not even forty, but he's already showing very early-stage signs of heart disease, and I just want to head it off at the pass if I can. He has no idea that I've noticed, and I doubt even he has, but I'm sure Carlisle or even Edward could take one listen to his heart and know something's not quite right. No doctor would be able to detect it now, even with the best tests and instruments. Like I said, it's very early-stage, but I'd like to stop it before he ever has to worry about being diagnosed."

Alice's eyes went wide. She'd only spoken to Charlie a handful of times, but she already cared for him as I did. As her eyes glazed over, I knew she was having a vision. When she came back, she told me that she'd seen Carlisle, Esme, and Edward over for dinner that weekend. Well, apparently I had a vampire friendly meal to plan. Alice gave me a list of foods that were easiest for vampires to hide in napkins or swallow if they absolutely had to. "Charlie's nearly as observant as I am," I told her. "He'll notice if they're just pushing salad around on a plate or hiding food in napkins. He already suspects something is up with you all, so it may be best to just grin and bear it for one meal."

She nodded in agreement and said she'd break the news to the three that would be coming over. "Just make their portions as small as possible. I know Esme won't be happy about the idea of eating an entire steak dinner or something."

"Steak wasn't even on your list of acceptable foods, Alice. No worries. I got this." With that we both hopped out the window and headed towards the Cullen place. It had only been a few hours since I'd seen Edward, but I already missed him. Perhaps that was more evidence to the idea that he was my one and only just like I was his. Plus, I wanted to show the family my new appearance before I surprised them with it at school the next day.

"Bella! So good to see you're feeling better!" Esme greeted, pulling me in for a hug. She squeezed me tightly, remembering that she couldn't break me. Now more than ever. "You look different. Will you tell us what happened? Edward only gave us a few details."

"Of course, let's gather in the other room." Edward appeared then, pulling me close to him. "Well, somebody missed me," I teased.

"Always," he whispered.

Edward PoV

As soon as I heard Alice's mind, I knew Bella was with her, and I was overjoyed. Sure I'd just seen her a few hours before, but I needed her like air. Being away from her was physically painful. Carlisle assured me that the separation ache, as he called it, would numb over time and we'd or rather, I'd be able to stand being away from her for longer periods of time. At the moment, even being in the next room seemed too far away. I didn't know if she had a similar need to be near me.

I didn't even wait for her to acknowledge my appearance before I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close. Hell, I was nearly jealous of Esme for getting to her first, but she was just as eager to see her newest daughter as I was. "How's Charlie?" I asked.

"Curious as ever," she replied. "But content to stay in the dark on stuff he doesn't absolutely need to know. Also, I think he has early-stage heart disease. I'm not sure what issue specifically, but I can tell his heart doesn't sound right. I thought maybe your dad could take a listen and offer some opinions."

"Carlisle would be happy to, love, I'm sure. Alice sees my parents and me at your house this Saturday. We're eating dinner with you and Charlie. What's that about?" I asked.

She told me what she told Alice about her ideas with the restaurant and a grocery store, and then about using the dinner as a ruse to do a stealthy heart evaluation on Charlie. "He doesn't like to appear weak, and this would make him feel that way. Even if it's so early on that we can reverse it, he'll hate the idea that something is wrong with him. I think he compares himself to me too much, and when he sees that he's getting older all the time while I don't… well, it bothers him. He knows it isn't rational, but can't help how he feels."

"That's totally understandable, love," I reassured her. "We'd love to come over and meet him officially. Does this mean that he knows about us?"

She nodded. "He told me to bring 'that Cullen boy' I'm dating over to meet him officially. I hadn't told him anything, but it's a small town, rumours spread like wildfire. Plus when he called over here concerned about me, he was surprised to learn how 'important' I was to your family. He's smart; he put two and two together. Oh, and on that note, I'm afraid you all will have to eat human food when you come over for dinner. I don't mean pushing it around your plate or hiding it in a napkin. Charlie's way too observant to fall for that, no matter how slick you might think you are."

I chuckled, kissing her hair. "Of course, love. We'll do just that. I hadn't told the family about Lukas. Do you want to do that as well?" I suggested. She sighed in frustration, but nodded.

We all gathered in the living room while she stood in front of my piano and told us about Lukas and her theory that he's a sleeper. "The unfortunate thing is that the most likely thing is that he is indeed a sleeper, but now that The Company is gone, there's no one for him to report to nor to change his programming, so he'll be this immortal seventeen-year-old kid with not quite enough common sense pining after me for all of time. Though, the fact that there was no documentation of him anywhere in The Company's database is what concerns me. It either means there's a hidden compound that wasn't on the grid, or they had already disposed of everything before I had access to it. Either way, it's problematic."

"So he's a far less bad-ass version of you?" Emmett asked.

"So far less, he hardly qualifies as one of my kind," she replied. "He can't read minds, isn't telekinetic, technopathic, pyrotechnic, doesn't have auto-evolution, the list goes on. He does have super strength and speed, though I'd bet that since he doesn't have auto-evolution, that I'm both faster and stronger by a large margin, though he'll still be leagues stronger than any human. He also can process data quickly, but nothing like me; he's immortal, and can heal quickly. That's it. His mind isn't strong enough to fight the programming, so until he's reprogrammed, he's going to think he's Lukas, my soul-mate for all of time. I need to figure out how to rewrite the code and get him out of my life."

"But he's like you a little bit, right? I mean, you thought you were the only one of your kind, only to then find him. Why would you send him away?" Esme asked.

She stiffened. "He's not of my kind. He's the company. He's one of them, and he has to be destroyed." The words came out of her mouth almost as if rehearsed. "I'm sorry… I know it sounds horrible, but there cannot be any evidence that The Company ever existed and he's evidence. So am I, but as it turns out, I can't die, so I'll just have to live with that. His won't be the first blood on my hands, so it's not that big of a deal."

"But he doesn't know any better," Esme pressed. "He's an innocent."

"You're right, Esme. He is. So was I at one point, but they made me what I am today. They turned me into a killer by killing my family.I have no reservations about what I am. I know what I've done and will continue to do to preserve my own existence. Self-preservation is the number one instinct that I have. He's threatening that. Even if I can't die, those around me can, he can ruin my life by exposing me to the masses. I cannot have that. He's smart. It won't be long before he realizes that you all are something other than human. I cannot have that, either. All the data points to the fact that he has to go. He won't leave me alone, he'll never stop unless I stop him. Even if I reprogram him into thinking he's a normal human and doesn't even know me, eventually, he'll notice that he's immortal or strong, or fast. No amount of psychosis can change that.

"I've thought this through, extensively. The only solution is to kill him. I don't like it. I don't want to do it, but it has to be done. First though, I have to know if there is still a remnant of The Company in operation. If so, I'll have to take that out as well. Like I said, zero evidence."

"What about the bodies?" Emmett asked. We all looked at him. "You said you killed a bunch of people. But you can't have any evidence, so where are the bodies?"

"Dust in the wind," she replied. She explained how she can disintegrate any object into millions of pieces, then set them on fire. They burn until they're nothing but carbon dust. Nothing left behind to identify the specks as anything but ash. "Plus I go into the federal databases and erase their connection to The Company. In some cases I've had to rewrite entire employment histories."

"What about their families?" Esme asked.

"Most of them didn't have any family. It was a prerequisite for working there. No family ties or social ties. That's how Charlie got the job there. His parents were already dead and he had no siblings or family of his own. 95% of the employees were already off the grid, so it wasn't hard for me to wipe them out completely. The few higher ups that did have families… well, they all had wonderful funeral ceremonies that were completely paid for by the very fake shell corporation that all their families thought they worked for. Once I destroyed everything, I took control of the capital of course, and once everything was gone, I routed much of it to those families, as a form of hazard pay. I had to doctor up contracts and disclaimers here and there to make everything seem legit, but no one ever questioned anything."

"You paid for all their funerals?" Carlisle queried. His thoughts wavered between shock, awe, and respect for Bella. While it bothered him that she'd killed so many, he understood the necessity of it. The Company was clearly bad news in all regards, and Bella did the world a service by getting rid of it.

"Not out of my own pocket, now," Bella replied. "But with The Company's amassed funds. I don't know where they got all the money, but it's billions of dollars. Even after I paid the families handsomely for their fallen members, I still have more money than I'll ever use. And it just sits collecting interest in an off-shore account. Plus I have an in on the stock market, so that helps, too. Once a year I have a million of it converted into gold and jewels as well. I figure if I'm going to live forever, society may devolve into such a state that gold or other precious stones and metals becomes the form of currency again. Trying to be pro-active for the inevitable dystopian future."

Emmett laughed, thinking she was joking, but then, seeing her face, he realized she was dead serious. "Wait, what?"

Bella rolled her eyes. "Emmett, don't you read? Dystopian novels are all the rage right now. And look around, the way the world is going, we're not far off from that kind of life. Perhaps not as extreme as the Hunger Games, but many bits of Orwell's 1984 are certainly possible. Especially newspeak. Everyone talks in acronyms now. BRB, LOL, WTF, GTL, STFU, and so forth. It can only get worse before it gets better. I'm simply trying to plan ahead. Unlike some people," she said, winking at Alice, "I can't see the future, so I have to plan for as many possible scenarios as I can. Like I said, I cannot die, so once the world no longer exists, I'll probably have to go and find a new planet to live on.

"We all watch movies and read books. Sure some of them are a bit far-fetched, but all based in real possibilities. The world could actually end. Life on this planet could be completely snuffed out. But what about me? I can survive without food, water, and oxygen indefinitely. Sure it weakens me, but it can be done. For all I know, I could launch myself into outerspace with no space suit or rocket and still survive until I found another planet to inhabit. And that may be exactly what I'll have to do.

Emmett was silent for a while as he pondered her words. "You're definitely more immortal than we are, but we don't need water or oxygen either. Maybe vampires will have to relocate when the humans have killed each other off, too." He said it as if it was the most amazing thing he'd ever thought of in his life. And truly, I doubt any of us had actually fathomed living forever, even beyond the Earth's life. I'm sure we all figured we'd die in a pile of ash someday for one reason or another. But the concept of truly living forever was mind-blowing. Bella was faced with that reality. She literally could not be killed and couldn't die of natural causes. She would live forever. I only hoped I could stay by her side for that long, too.

"What happens if we go without blood for too long? I know we go crazy with thirst, but what if blood never comes. We can only die by being set on fire. What happens if we're endlessly thirsty?" Emmett asked Bella, as if she had all the answers.

"What am I, an encyclopædia?" she retorted. "Oh wait, I totally am!" She laughed. "But I honestly don't have that answer Emmett. As far as science is concerned, you all shouldn't exist and I never studied mythology all that extensively. Carlisle, maybe you know?

Emmett turned his eyes to our father, looking at him like he was about to reveal the secrets of the universe. "Well, from what I understand, we petrify," Carlisle began. "Stefan and Vladimir, the two who ruled the vampire world before the Volturi, once went a long time without moving. They kept completely still for many years, possibly centuries. They began to petrify and now their skin is brittle and cracked all over. Still incredibly strong, of course, but they're very obviously inhuman. But I'm not sure what would happen if we really did go without blood indefinitely. Perhaps we'd fully turn to stone. There's no way to know unless we find a completely petrified vampire."

Emmett considered our father's words for a moment before deciding that for now it didn't matter. The world wasn't going to end tomorrow, so it wasn't like he needed to plan ahead that far just yet. I could tell that Bella had thought of this thoroughly though. Perhaps she even had more information on what planets would be inhabitable out there in the universe than what NASA did.

Esme fixed Bella another meal after Bella assured her that she could eat six or seven meals a day without any worries. "Trust me, Esme, I put away at least three times the food that an average human would. I burn through calories super fast. And if I want to maintain my energy levels, especially when I'm using one of my gifts, I have to keep a lot of food stores in my body. Plus, with my metabolism, there's no way I could ever get fat. Not that I'd even care if I did, though. Hell, if I could, maybe it would help make me less appealing to the opposite sex." Impossible. She could put as much weight as she wanted and I wouldn't care; she'd still be the most beautiful thing in the world.

"Less appealing?" Rosalie asked. "Why would you want that?" Rosalie was still a tiny bit jealous of Bella, but not because she was human anymore. Now it was because of her beauty. My sister had gotten used to being considered the most beautiful girl at school no matter where we went; now with Bella around, she had major competition.

"Well, I imagine you all have this same problem. You're all incredibly beautiful, especially you, Rosalie. Although I suppose humans are naturally scared of you, even though they find you attractive, right?" We all nodded. "Well, humans aren't instinctively afraid of me. If anything, they're even more drawn to me, given my natural instinct to protect them. I've been fending off the opposite sex, and occasionally the same sex ever since I woke up to this world. It wasn't so bad at first when my skin wasn't the texture it is now, but for the past ten or so years, I've had to avoid any and all physical contact with humans, lest they be made aware that I'm far from human.

"Did you do much dating before? When you weren't so… durable?" Alice asked, just honestly curious.

"Not at all," Bella replied. I let out a relieved breath that I didn't realize I'd been holding. She winked at me. "Guess I was waiting for the right guy." I leaned in and captured her lips with mine, even with the entire family watching. I didn't care. The hoots and hollers only egged me on and I lifted her up off the chair and dipped her nearly to the floor before releasing her lips. "Damn, if I keep getting kissed like that, I'm going to forget my own name."

"Oh, Miss Swan… I'm counting on that."