Another layer will fall, the beginning of many, that will chip away at Seras' mask. However before that, Alice learns, as does Rosalie, about the power of observation and understanding. It isn't always convenient, but sometimes it produces hope, where at times it seems there is none to be found. Sometimes, it produces companionship, where at times it is unwanted. But sometimes...

Sometimes…

…it's all you can do. Observe and understand.

Ascension

Chapter Twenty Six

Into Understanding: The Worse Day Ever, Part Seven

Crunch. Breathe. Step. Punch.

A booted foot quickly leaps over a mound of roots and mud. Landing, the melting snow oozes between the ridges of its thick rough sole sticking to its surface like a stubborn memory. The boot lifts into the air leaving one solitary foot print for another to squish and mold.

Slide. Turn. Block. Swing. Jab.

Two cold bent shadows stand alone in the midst of an empty front yard. On the horizon, one parts from the other reaching out a hand, chiseled and frozen in time. Young, pearly white fingers grasp a cold gold knob before a question is asked. The knob twists. A door cracks open.

Kick. Jump. Choke. Push. Throw.

A car door slams shut. Metal jingles as shaking fingers quickly, almost inhumanly fast, inserts a key and turns it. The abrupt movement causes a bouncing grey duck to clatter against a flashlight and a library card. Silently, a glassy black eye reflects within it a turned down mouth, a piercing gold stare. It swivels and finds another. It doesn't blink. Just stares.

Jab. Punch. Throw. Crunch. Crash.

A fur smothered body barrels through a tree. Its chest heaves. Its tail's dirty. Its paws large and sticky with mud caked between black cloaked toes, black painted claws, and black powdered fur. Yet, its lips part and spread; its teeth bloom revealing long white rows gritted tightly together like a zipper or a comb, like the jagged stripes of a gilded zebra. It laughs. His breath rises and he rises with it onto large broad feet fully aware of the golden eyes watching his fur spike, his eyes glow and his fangs bare. The wind picks up and his laugh grows louder. Seras clenches a bloody fist and shivers in its wake. She had awakened the beast.

Bella slid into her seat and slammed the passenger side door. She watched steadily her friend and sister crawl in and close her own. Alice feeling the curious stare, the concerned stare, boring into her head like a drill a tooth, awkwardly inserted a key into the ignition of her yellow Porsche Turbo. She twisted it. The engine roared to life, jerking and growling like a stallion at a race track. Normally, it would have brought a smile to her face, but in the light of the circumstances, the smile was easily forgotten, tossed away like a lost toy. It made Bella's frown sink further, pulled more insistently at the corners of her lips.

"What happened?" Bella asked.

Alice shifted the car in gear and backed swiftly out of her spot in front of the hardware store. She looked back trying to see cars that didn't exist in a town that was never busy. As she turned onto the street and drove through its quiet neighborhoods, she was amazed - and not for the first time - by how blind the people were. Just by looking at the sleepy buildings, at the even sleepier people, you would never know that a war was breaking out only 10 miles beyond their borders. She sighed and looked to Bella, who was watching her carefully. "Did you have another fight?" She thought back to the phone call she'd received an hour earlier, not the one from moments before. "Edward called," she said attempting to smile. It cracked from disuse.

Bella's face tightened as she looked away. Her eyes - alert and clearer than ever before - glared out from her tinted window at the wooden town sailing carelessly by. "Is it so obvious?" she asked softly.

"Oh, Bella," Alice cooed. "It's going to get better. I know it will. Just hang in there."

"That's what you keep saying, and I know you've seen the end. You told me when we got home and everything, but it's not getting better."

"But the last couple of days, you've been doing so well…"

"What happened, Alice?" Bella turned and looked at her. She purposely changed the topic. She was tired of analyzing the issue. "Why did you pull me out of work so early? You said, there was an emergency. Did Edward… did he do something?"

Alice turned off the main street. She began to pick up speed as she merged onto the highway. She headed towards the outskirts of town, drove a little faster than she ought, even for her. "No, but the wolves attacked," she said softly. "I got a call from Esme saying that Edward spotted one and took after it. Said that Seras went, too."

"She came back," Bella exclaimed. Then, she paused. "A wolf?" She leaned forward, "Was it Jacob? Did you see anything?" She spoke the word see like everyone did once they learned of her gift. It always had that double meaning, was always spoken like a pun whose original meaning no longer applied.

Alice gritted her teeth, "You know, I can't see the wolves, Bella." She hedged. She tried to buy time.

Yet, Bella furrowed her eyebrows. "Yeah, but you normally can tell when our futures black out…" Suddenly, Bella's voice trailed off. A memory suddenly jogged. "Black out. Is that? Is that why you've been…"

"You're being ridiculous, Bella. It's nothing really." Alice spoke quickly, perhaps a little quicker than she should have.

Bella caught it. "How's it ridiculous? You've lost your vision!"

"What did you say?" Esme looked over her shoulder. Her golden brown eyes, rich and vibrant, settled on the thoughtful face of her adopted daughter. They were sure and firm, filled with a steadiness that didn't weaver, in spite the surrounding chaos.

Rosalie watched her and wondered at her stability, her constant calmness. In spite everything, Esme's past, the dark world that Carlisle had brought her into, Rosalie wondered how she'd never grown jaded, distrustful like she, herself, had. Her eyebrows furrowed as she followed her into the house. She watched her float gracefully to the refrigerator and pull out some meat. She asked again, "Aren't you worried?"

"Worried?" Esme walked to the island. With a knife, she cut open a package of venison before setting the blade on the counter. "Over your sister? No, she'll be okay. Carlisle will ensure her safe return. He's never broken a promise yet."

Rosalie crossed her arms and leaned against the counter. "That's exactly what I mean." She narrowed her eyes. "You are the most accepting out of all of us… Besides, Bella of course."

Esme blinked, "Accepting of what?"

"Everything." Rosalie raised an exasperated hand. "You were the first to accept Bella. When Alice and Jasper came, you welcomed them with just a glance and now Seras. You don't even like reptiles and yet you are calling her my sister. Aren't you worried? Between you and Carlisle, I don't understand you."

"You sound like Edward," Esme observed slicing the meat.

Rosalie lifted an eyebrow. "Can you really blame me?"

Esme paused in thought before her eyebrows furrowed. "I suppose not. The more people get added to this family, the more those already in it will become uneasy. It's part of the growing pains of having such a large family, I suppose." She returned to her task slicing easily through the tender red meat. It was choice. She wondered where Seras had found such a beast. She smiled. "It will be a while before things settle, but it will happen eventually. I may not have Alice's gift, but I can feel it. Our family's going to get bigger." Quickly, her smile widened in excitement as she smirked at her daughter. "I have a feeling we're going to need a bigger house."

Seeing the creativity grow like weeds in her mother's eyes, Rosalie rolled her own. "You're incorrigible."

"No," Esme corrected. She shook her head and moved to retrieve a pot from a lower cabinet. "I'm just more in tune with your father and his abilities."

"Abilities?" Rosalie asked evenly.

"Hmmm." Esme gathered the meat. She piled it into the pan and brought it to the oven. Simultaneously, she turned up the flame watching the blue little fire curl around the copper coating on the bottom.

"You mean his compassion?" Rosalie let the phrase fall from her lips parroting what she'd occasionally heard him speculate over the last century.

Esme nodded. "That, and his uncanny ability to find people in need and draw them to himself. He had a calling for every person he has turned, with the only exception being Alice and by extension Jasper who had simply chosen him first. He's a born leader and father. That's his gifting, and like Edward and Alice, he is unable to resist the instinct to follow its leading." She looked at Rosalie while reaching to grab a plastic spatula. "It's why I am as calm as I am. I was prepared for this the night he brought her home. Seras is the next to join us. I could see it in his eyes. She is the next life he will save, probably the greatest."

Rosalie watched her a moment. Esme stirred the meat in the pan while adding various spices that she kept near for convenience. Her next words were soft and careful. She was unsure of upsetting her mother, but her curiosity overrode her sense of propriety. "But aren't you jealous?"

She wasn't expecting her mother's laughter. "Now, you definitely sound like Edward. Don't you know there is difference between the love of a mate and the love of a daughter? I'm confident that Carlisle has plenty of room in his heart for both types of love. If he didn't, our coven wouldn't be as big as it is already."

Rosalie didn't answer satisfied for the moment. Turning to look out the window, she was half-surprised to hear her mother return her question. It crinkled her nose. No one else had thought to ask. "What about you?" Esme questioned. "What do you think about all of this? Between you and Alice…" she trailed off leaving a gap for Rosalie to fill.

She continued to stare out into the woods, her eyes looking for the yellow sports car that would hail the arrival of her sister. She crossed her arms while her eyebrows lowered settling heavily over her thoughtful gaze. "She is uncouth and brash." The confrontation in the bathroom replayed in her mind. "She has secrets, and a past, but that's no different than any of us." She saw her own rapists, her own murders while quelling her thirst. "She's dangerous, but I don't think she's evil as Edward depicts her as." She looked back at Esme, her eyes serious and confident. "I think we can trust her."

Esme smiled and went back to cooking. "I think so, too."

She had awoken the beast, but the beast didn't grow like it had before. This time, it shrank - snapped. His light flashed. His body glowed and sparked, like the lightning he commanded, before it vanished into a ball of untamable energy. It squeezed and bounced racing from tree to ground to sky before settling with a blinding blast onto the forest floor. The ground shook littered with broken trees, rocks, and piled earth upturned from moments before this moment, from a time before this time.

Calmly, Seras watched it, the wolf, the beast, the youkai as its aura compressed revealing a broad thickly muscled back, a sharp crisp shirt dyed the royal blue of a typical police uniform, black army slacks, boots rough and well cared for, an unused sword and a brown trench coat. Two fists, thick and large, clenched and unclenched building between long stout fingers a power she could easily feel, could sharply see though they were more than 100 feet apart.

Her breath raced. Its white cloud sailed like a puff of steam rising from a hot engine's stack as she watched the creäture, the man, the youkai rise slowly to his feet from his crouched position. His back was turned to face her; an insult in its own right. She narrowed her eyes and snorted.

"Getting impatient, my dear?" It must have been what he was waiting for, her snort, her scoff. His sneer lit his face. His laughter barked through the trees mincing with the smoke of his freezing breath.

Seras's glare intensified. She said nothing, even as she crouched in defense.

Unfazed, the wolf turned towards her his smile spreading as thick as peanut butter, as dark as a stage before a show. Its smeared ridges sat like a well fed actor before a crowd of his inferior peers - bold, cocky, and loud. "If you're so eager to get your ass whooped, then I suggest you pull out your sword while you're still able to stand."

Her ears twitched under her unbound hair. She crouched further even while her lips twisted into a small rippled frown. "My sword?" she said. "And why would I summon them?" She disappeared and reappeared snapping instantly behind him. She aimed a high swift kick to his face before blocking his punch and slamming her fist into his jaw.

The wolf's head snapped to the left. It paused - a beat - then turned slowly, ever so slowly, towards her. His grin spread wider. Deftly, he blocked her next kick before he grabbed her shoulders and kneed her in the stomach. In heavy breaths, she crumpled to her knees her hands clenching her abdomen. She gritted her teeth and glared up at him.

He sauntered up to her, closer than he was already, and bent forward at the waist until his nose was only inches from her own. His smile diminished into a smirk as he crouched, "You should summon them, because we both know that your talents in hand-to-hand combat are severely lacking." He straightened resting his arms on his knees. His nose crinkled with his sneer, "You offend me by keeping your talents from me. What's the point in fighting you, if there's no challenge?"

Seras lowered her head her bangs hiding her eyes, a growl ripping from her throat. "I'm sorry to disappoint you. Perhaps, I should just try again." Her head jerked forward ramming her forehead under his jaw. Again, his head snapped and again Seras vanished attacking him from the left.

This time, Takashi was prepared. He blocked the incoming kick grabbing her leg from underneath and then physically throwing her to the ground.

Deftly, Seras turned landing on her feet before pushing off to attack again. But then a voice shouted. It was enough of a distraction. Her eyes flicked, and her charge was met blindly by three consecutive punches strong enough to toss her through a tree and into the unforgiving surface of a nearby boulder.

Her body cracked, shuttered, then slid down the rough surface. Slowly she fell, vaguely hearing Carlisle call her name. Cupping her head, she shook it before turning to glare at the doctor racing through the trees. She turned, her red-rimmed eyes freezing him in place.

"Stay put!" She screamed into his mind. "Don't interfere! This is my fight!"

"Seras?" Carlisle cried out, but Seras cut him off with a growl. He halted.

"This is my fight!" she reiterated. "This… this is mine."