Hero Chapter 25: THE NEW Post Blue, a twilight fanfic

THIS IS DIFFERENT. I would re-read it.

Chapter Eighteen
Post Blue

It's in the water baby,
It's in the pills that bring you down,
It's in the water baby,
It's in your bag of golden brown,
It's in the water baby,
It's in your frequency,
It's in the water baby,
It's between you and me.

Billy Black was sitting in his extravagant living room, enjoying a glass of 1903 Merlot when movement out of the front window caught his eye. Billy's vision wasn't what it used to be, and the sky had grown dark with gathering storm clouds, so he could not tell if the shape moving across his lawn was Jacob returning home or… something else. Grumbling profanities, he stood and moved to the front door.

Upon opening said door, Billy could see that whatever was outside was not Jacob. Two slim shadows walked along the outside of the woods, talking in hushed voices that carried key phrases in the wind.

"…happening?"

"…hope…'s okay…"

"…he's fine… indestructible."

The last word grabbed Billy's attention in a chokehold. Indestructible? There were only two that Billy knew to be indestructible, and one of them was his son. The other was the enemy, and Billy had a feeling that these two were not with Jacob. He strode out across the lawn towards the two shapeless forms.

Quiet as he was, the two seemed to hear him coming and the whirled around in blatant shock. Two. One shorter than the other, though they were both below average height. One with short cropped black hair, the other with wavy brunette locks. One with red eyes, one with brown. Neither belonging here.

"I suggest," Billy said in his dangerous, gruff voice, "that you remove yourselves from my property at once." He watched the girls with a practiced eye. They both seemed very uncomfortable. The short one with the black hair seemed to make an unconscious movement towards Billy, but the brunette grabbed her arm in warning. There was a high pitched keening noise that the black-haired girl seemed to be making in the back of her throat. Billy just looked at her in confused disgust. "Now!" he snapped.

Neither made a movement to leave.

Instead, they both whirled their heads around to another figure exiting the woods and entering the property. The brunette turned back to the other and mumbled, "Wait here. And try to control it, Alice," before turning and disappearing to the side of the other in the blink of an eye.

The one named Alice turned her scarlet eyes upon Billy again. He had had just about enough of this nonsense.

"What the hell is going on?" he demanded, just as a loud wail came from the general direction that the brunette had scampered off in. So she hadn't left yet? Billy was growing more and more aggravated with the girls by the second. What in tar nation was happening around here? Alice's face looked very shocked – sad, too. Billy had had enough. He turned on his heel and made his way over to where the other figure was standing. "Fine. If you're not going to come straight out and tell me, I'll find out for myself."

"Mr. Black!" Alice said in a high-pitched voice. "Mr. Black, you don't want to go over there!"

He ignored her.

Alice was suddenly ahead of him, walking toward the others with alarming speed.

"What?" the old man called out in his rough voice; a voice like sand paper on a chalkboard. "You two still on my property? That good for nothing boy couldn't get rid of you?"

As he came closer, he saw the brunette was crying, her cheeks shining wet in the moonlight. The other, the male that was with her was holding her close, and they stood in front of something… something long… what was it? Billy couldn't make out the shape in the darkness… but it had the distinct profile of… of…

The male had said something, but Billy hadn't even heard. He was too focused on the thing that was lying at the two's feet. It was his son.

They'd killed his most successful creation since the legs! He could feel the anger rising like bile to the back of his throat. He would need a new subject, now. A new dog to do his work as he took over the nation.

"You've murdered my son?" he said in his angry voice, fingering the remote control in his pants pocket. Sighing angrily, Billy pulled the remote control out of his pocket. "I wasn't planning on using this yet, but you've left me no choice."

And with that, he pushed one of the many buttons on the small black box.

It's in the water baby,
It's in the pills that pick you up,
It's in the water baby,
It's in the special way we fuck,
It's in the water baby,
It's in your family tree,
It's in the water baby,
It's between you and me.
Bite the hand that feeds,
Tap the vein that bleeds
Down on my bended knees..
I'd break the back of love for you

It seemed like time was moving in slow motion as the red plastic button sank into the control box and then sprang back up. Billy had an awful, cynical kind of smirk spread across his face, and it infuriated Edward. He didn't seem to care at all that Jacob's heart had stopped beating. He didn't seem to give a damn that his son was never going to smile up at him again with that broad smile that seemed to spread happiness like it was an infection. He didn't care one bit.

Edward snarled as a high-pitched beeeeee came from the remote control, waiting for whatever was going to happen to happen. He didn't know what it was supposed to do, but he was sure it wasn't good. It was, after all, the remote that Jacob had warned him about. The remote that would do bad things. So Edward practically threw Bella behind him in one, fluid motion, and faced the beeping, black box head on.

A moment went by, and nothing happened. Billy's complacent expression was slowly replaced by one of anxious worry. His thoughts were racing.

Why isn't it working…? It's supposed to – But even as he thought it, a stream of electricity extended from the small, plastic controller and made a beeline for Edward.

Almost reflexively, Edward grabbed Bella's and Alice's wrists and leaped to the left. The beam of concentrated lightening shot off into darkness for a while before it hit a tree. The tree burst into flame.

Edward looked back to Billy, whose cruel expression had returned. Edward had never wanted to hurt anyone more in his entire existence. He pushed Bella and Alice towards the general direction of the front gate, yelling for them to run.

"Don't worry about me," he called when they hesitated. "Just get yourselves out!"

Neither of them moved.

"I'm not leaving you by yourself again," Bella said stubbornly, her cheeks still stained with tears.

"Neither am I," Alice insisted, but her voice was shaking. Clearly she was still scared.

Edward growled and dodged another beam of electricity. He turned his attention back to the continuous lightening beams being aimed at his head.

Edward maneuvered himself agilely and gracefully as he discreetly got closer to Billy and his damned remote control. He felt like an acrobat in the circus, cartwheeling away from the hazardous beams of electricity, somersaulting through the air… it reminded him of a memory he'd long forgotten.

It had been years and years ago with his mother and father. They'd been on a vacation all the way in Florida. His father had bought tickets to the Barnum and Bailey circus. Edward could almost remember the elephants and the clowns, the lion and the tamer… the ring of fire.

Fire that had burned his parents to nothing more than a pile of ash. Fire that had been Mike Newton's obsession and later his specialty. Fire that had murdered Jacob. Fire that sparked inside of Edward.

With unknown passion, Edward let out a yell, getting dangerously close to a beam of lightening. Billy looked at him in shock and he took the moment to snatch the murderous device out of his gnarled, old hands. And now it was Edward's turn to be shocked. He'd won. He'd gotten the remote from Billy, and he'd won. It had all happened so fast, he hadn't even realized it. But he'd won.

It only took Billy a moment to recuperate, though, and he reached out and tried to grab the controller from Edward's iron grip. A disagreement occurred and the two struggled over the thing, Billy trying to reclaim it but not break it, and Edward trying not to get zapped. Somehow in the struggle, though, the red button was accidentally pressed.

Not wanting to be electrocuted and then burst into flame, Edward jumped back, foolishly letting Billy have control of the weapon. But Billy had not been prepared. He looked at Edward in triumph for a minute before a white ray of danger escaped the little remote… aimed at Billy.

The electricity entered at his false knees, and Billy seemed to illuminate in the darkness as the electricity spread through his body. He opened his mouth to let out a scream, but none came. In fact, it seemed like everything was completely silent for the duration of the electrocution. The air was still, no wildlife made a sound… there was only the dying man. Then…

The remote control bounced away from his limp hand.

It was a battleground. A war field. A sickening display of violence. Bella was sure she would have been nauseated by all the death that had unfolded today were she still able to feel such things as queasiness. The newspapers would be going on about it for days, she was sure. Not only were she and Alice now technically dead, but this brilliant mind was a dulling light. His son… Bella felt the familiar prickle of tears tingling the back of her eyes. Jacob. Oh, Jacob…

Refusing to look over at the heap that represented his body, Bella instead walked to Billy's side. She was there in a flash with her vampire speed, looking down into the mad, rolling eyes of this genius…

Except that his eyes were no longer rolling madly. Instead, he looked up with a calm acceptance that told Bella he knew he was dying. He knew. His deep, brown eyes stared into the rainfall, and she wondered what he was thinking. She looked over to Edward, who seemed stunned, and asked the silent question. He did not answer. Instead, he joined Bella at Billy's side, crouching down and taking his hand as if to let him know he was there.

There was silence for a minute. Bella watched the electronic legs twitch before, finally, remaining still. Billy Black took a shuddering breath.

"Wh-what's happened? Jacob?" Still he looked to the sky. His eyes were so dull and lifeless that Bella wondered if he had been blinded. A trickle of blood ran down from the corner of his mouth.

The look upon Edward's face was one of sheer agony, and Bella wanted nothing more than to remove it. She looked at him, her eyes questioning his intentions. He stared back at her, the remorse more obvious than ever. Then he opened his mouth and said, "I'm here, Dad."

His voice was the perfect tone of Jacob's.

"Jacob, what's going on? What happened? Why aren't we inside?"

"You… you don't remember anything, do you?"

There was silence for a minute as Billy contemplated the question. "The last thing I remember," he said at last, "was that I was about to go under the knife to try out the prototype for the legs I was designing…"

"Oh, God…"

"Did something go wrong?"

Edward closed his eyes and Bella reached out to place her hand on his cheek. He tilted his head into her hand and his face twisted in guilt. "Very wrong."

"What?"

"You don't even want to know."

"J-Jake… I don't feel so good."

It was now that Bella could take no more. She allowed the dam to break and the tears to spill from her eyes. Edward swallowed hard before he said, "No, Dad. You're not doing too good."

She couldn't help but wonder how Edward could do this. How Edward could impersonate Jacob while his body rested so close by. How he could bear to call this man that was so clearly not his father 'Dad' when his own flesh and blood father had died not two months ago. It had to be killing him, too. She wished there were something she could do to make that pain stop. But she could not resurrect the dead.

"Well… I love you, son. And I'm proud of you. I love you."

The pain in Edward's eyes flared to an intensity that made Bella hurt before he softly said, "I love you, too, Dad."

A flash of lightening lit up the sky just as Billy's head fell back on the soft earth.