Why yes, chapter thirty-three was named in honor of the latest Avengers movie (which I still haven't seen because moving and illness), how did you guess?

Please enjoy this next chapter! It's a pretty long one, but please make sure to stick around for the author's notes at the bottom of this installment for an important update.

34. THE FIRST BATTLE

The woods didn't disappoint.

Three figures seemed to melt out of the undergrowth, standing several yards apart. Two men and a woman. One of the men, dark-skinned with long dreadlocks, stalked forward while the remaining two – a white man with brown hair and white woman with hair brighter orange than mine – flanked his sides. They closed in on us, moving quickly to my eyes, but probably slowly to the Cullens.

They looked more like I expected vampires to look. They wore worn clothes, walked barefoot, and had leaves and dirt sticking to their hair and skin and clothes. They were still attractive, but they looked entirely other compared to the careful façade the Cullens built around themselves. The wildness they had about them screamed not human. Especially when I saw their eyes. They were dark red. Dread settled at the pit of my stomach.

I should have brought my gun. I should have brought my gun. I should have brought that damn gun.

It was surreal, seeing them. These were the walking nightmares that had haunted my every waking hour. They now had forms and faces. I couldn't focus on just one as they got closer, and tried to guess which one stole my soccer ball that first day, which one left it on my mailbox, or who scratched my face, chased me home, broke into my house, decided I would be the object of their obsession, killed my uncle...

My uncle's murderers were finally here, and I didn't know how I was supposed to react.

Carlisle stepped forward to greet them, with Emmett and Jasper at his side. Jasper stood slightly further back than them, and shadowed the new-comers' feral half-crouched stances. Was it because he was expecting a fight? Was he going to try and fulfill the promise he made to me right now? It reminded me of Esme's words from yesterday: how many of his own kind feared him. I suddenly wondered why.

Whatever it was, I was sure he alone made the three halt. The dark-skinned man at the front, his skin appearing washed out and ashen now that he was closer, still stood at the head of his group, and offered everyone a wide smile that showed off his white teeth. The woman's gaze constantly flickered across the Cullens' faces, her wild curly hair ruffling in the breeze. I had a feeling my hair would have looked like hers if I hadn't spent most of my life burning it with a straightener. What had Waylon thought, seeing them that night?

"We thought we heard a game," the man with dreadlocks said, seeming to speak for the group. His voice lilted with an accent. "I am Laurent, these are Victoria and James," he added, gesturing to the other two vampires.

I barely noticed the third vampire, James, until he was introduced. He stood behind the woman, Victoria, and their leader, Laurent, perfectly still.

Staring at me.

"I'm Carlisle. This is my family, Emmett and Jasper, Rosalie, Esme and Alice, Edward and Bella, and Blaire."

While the other two vampires glanced at all of our faces, the man behind them didn't look away from me once. My heart raced. Did he recognize me? Even with the hood pulled so far over my head? My fingers tightened in Bella's arm, twisting the sleeve of her jacket, while I tried to reign in my wild emotions. I glanced to Jasper, still holding his defensive stance, focused on the three vampires I wanted to see die.

"Do you have room for a few more players?" Laurent asked.

"Actually, we were just finishing up," Carlisle said, "but we'd certainly be interested another time. Are you planning to stay in the area for long?"

"We're headed north, in fact, but we were curious to see who was in the neighborhood. We haven't run into company in a long time."

"No, this region is usually empty except for us and the occasional visitor, like yourselves," Carlisle said.

I could feel Jasper radiating calm, settling the emotions of everyone in the clearing, but his ability only lapped against me like small ripples in a pool. My feelings were too twisted, too uncontrollable, for him to try and manipulate now.

"What's your hunting range?" Laurent asked.

"The Olympic Range here, and up and down the Coast Ranges on occasion," Carlisle answered. "We keep a permanent residence nearby. There's another permanent settlement like ours up near Denali."

Laurent cocked his head to the side and rocked back on his heels as if to physically bridle his surprise. "Permanent? How do you manage that?"

"Why don't you come back to our home with us and we can talk comfortably?" Carlisle offered. "It's a rather long story."

"That sounds very interesting, and welcome." Laurent smiled again. My eyes roved over him and the other vampires, as the tally of everything they had done began to rake through my consciousness like claws. Which one had answered the phone when I called my uncle again and again that night, only to taunt me with silence? Which one of them delivered Waylon's killing blow? When I met the second man's eyes, James, I had a feeling it was him. He would die first. "We've been on the hunt all the way down from Ontario, and we haven't had the chance to clean up in a while."

"We've noticed," Carlisle said, his voice a fraction firmer than its original congenial tone. "Your hunting activities have caused something of a mess for us. From now on, we'd appreciate it if you'd refrain from hunting in this immediate area. We have to stay inconspicuous, you understand."

"Of course," Laurent said. "We certainly didn't mean to encroach. We didn't realize the territory had already been claimed. We won't be a problem anymore."

"The humans were tracking us, but we led them East," the woman, Victoria, finally spoke. Her voice was low and husky and sarcastic. Smiled at us patronizingly. "You should be safe."

But they wouldn't be. I narrowed my eyes at James, who was still staring.

"Excellent," Carlisle said. "We'll show you the way if you'd like to run with us. Jasper and Blaire, you can go with Edward and Bella to get the Jeep."

Everyone began to relax even more now. Jasper already had his back to the vampires to reach me, and everyone else started to move on and ready themselves for the run to the Cullens' house. Laurent and Victoria moved away from James, exposing his form, his brown leather aviator jacket and the patch of a soccer ball stitched over what had once been a hole in its right side at the bottom –

He was wearing my uncle's jacket.

The rage I felt toward Lauren Mallory was barely an ember compared to the absolute inferno that tore through me inside and out at this vampire who thought he could glide through this world unchallenged and flaunt that very fact in front of my face –

The wind shifted, a breeze chilling my overheated skin.

James turned his head, eyes locked on Bella from behind Edward's arm, widening with excitement. My heart dropped when his nostrils flared. No. He wouldn't touch any more of my family! I charged without thinking. "Leave her alone!"

Edward jumped between James and Bella and I, letting out an inhuman snarl that set off the tension. I tried to step around him, to meet James head on –

"Blaire!" Jasper snapped, his arm snapping out in front of me. I collided into it with enough force to knock me back a step, which made my hood slip back.

James's focus shifted to me. He grinned, teeth flashing. "So that's why the trail went cold. How did you find them?"

I tried to claw my way out from Jasper's arm, spitting and cursing. "You fucked with the wrong town, you – you fucking leech! I'll kill you for what you did, I swear –"

James stepped into a crouch –

Jasper whipped around, still holding me back, to face James and snarled. I could feel the vibrations of it through his hand fisted in my jacket. Despite it, I wrestled against his grip, tearing the fabric of my jacket as I fought to get free. I would kill him –

James's gaze shifted to the side, to Edward and Bella positioned just behind him. Edward situated himself even more in front of her, out of James's line of sight, with an inhuman snarl of his own.

"What's this?" Laurent cried out. No one moved, except for me as I thrashed out of my restraint.

"I'll kill you!" I screamed at James. "I'll burn you until you're nothing, you fucking monster –"

"By God she is beautiful," James said. My eyes widened as he turned to Victoria. "Just as violent as you predicted."

Victoria's expression was awed. My stomach flipped as a dreadful smile quirked her lips upward. "I knew she would be fantastic," she said. "She was always different from the others – even in the beginning."

"What are you talking about?" Jasper growled. I wrestled against him even more, breathless from the effort. My jacket was tearing apart.

"She's with us," Carlisle said firmly. "They both are."

"You brought… snacks?" Laurent asked.

Edward growled, just as viciously as Jasper. The noise only fed into my own rage. I was ready to fight.

"I said they are with us," Carlisle said.

"But they're human," Laurent said, sounding pathetically confused.

"Yes," Emmett said. I never looked at him, only focused on how close I was to wrenching myself free of Jasper's hold.

"It appears we have a lot to learn about each other," Laurent said, his voice calm, or trying to be.

"Indeed," Carlisle answered icily.

"And we'd like to accept your invitation," Laurent went on. "Of course, we will not harm the human girls. We won't hunt in your range, as I said."

I flung my weight back, effectively ripping my jacket out of Japer's hand, tearing a giant hole in the middle of it. "It's too late for that," I growled at James, surging for him again –

Jasper lunged in front of me, still facing James, while a set of cold arms clasped around me and barred me from moving and inch closer. "Blaire, please," Alice whispered frantically in my ear. "Please stop. Please stop." I glared around at her, catching James's grin out of the corner of my eye.

"You killed one of her own," Jasper said. "She demands restitution."

"Oh, we know," James said. "We hoped that she would."

"The fuck are you talking about?" I spat. "Why – Why? What do you want?"

The monster's grin was set in place. A growl simmered at the back of Edward's throat.

"It doesn't matter now," Carlisle said. "The violence ends here. We are done."

"Done?" I said, incredulously. "You – Are you serious –?"

"We will show you the way," Carlisle told Laurent. "Emmett, Rosalie, Esme?"

The three gathered around Carlisle and the rogue coven. I fought against Alice even harder. "I'm not done with you!" I screamed.

"Nor us with you," Victoria assured me.

Alice easily hauled me back in the opposite direction, while Edward had to drag a nearly catatonic Bella along. I glared at her stunned expression.

"Do you see now?" I demanded. "Do you see how fucking insane this is? Do you still want it now, Bella? Do you?"

Bella gaped at me. "I – I –"

"Easy," Jasper said, pulling me from Alice's arms. I used the break between them to shove myself backwards, landing on my ass among the ferns just beyond the treeline. I strained to look around them, at the now empty field where my uncle's killers had just stood. They just looked me in the eye, and reveled in their crime. Jasper propped me back up within the same moment, and I tried to shove him. Of course, he didn't budge, and I ended up stumbling back a few steps.

"Don't tell me easy!" I shouted at him. "You know he's not done yet! That fucking psychopath is just getting started –"

"I know. Now listen." Jasper took the side of my face in his large, cold hand, positioning his thumb underneath my jaw and tilting it back until I was forced to look up at him. He was grim, determined. "We need to leave this place. We lost this fight and we need to let it go to prepare for the next."

I glared at him, my chest hurting from how fast my heart raced. We lost this fight. It seemed that's all I was able to do against them. Lose. When would I win?

"Can you do that, Blaire?" Jasper asked.

The next time I dealt with them, I would win it all.

"Fine," I ground out.

He released me, giving me enough time to take a deep breath before he slung me on his back and tore into the forest. Edward plowed ahead of us, even with Bella's weight on his back, fading into the dark trees ahead. Alice flanked Jasper's side.

I barely comprehended the scenery flying past us until I was dropped into the backseat of Emmett's Jeep beside Bella. Alice managed to squeeze between us in a blur. I grappled for my seatbelt when Edward cranked the car, and Jasper twisted around in his seat to help strap me in while Alice buckled Bella's seatbelt.

The drive out from the woods was bumpy, chaotic, and pitch black. Edward didn't even turn on the headlights, so I couldn't see anything around the SUV. I braced myself along the frame of the Jeep as Edward raced through the forest. He finally turned on the lights when we made it out on a main road, and he accelerated to the highway, quickly passing signs informing us we were heading south of Forks.

"Where are we going?" Bella asked.

I met Jasper's eyes in the side mirror. Under the orange flashes of streetlights passing overhead, a silent understanding passed between us. This was what he'd been expecting, but not so soon. We thought I would have more time to prepare. To say goodbye to my family, my old life, because I would never be able to go back to it now. My eyes watered, and I tilted my head back to rest it against the seat to will the tears away. James's disgustingly smug grin flashed behind my closed eyes, forcing me to keep them open.

"Dammit, Edward!" Bella exclaimed. "Where are you taking me?"

"We have to get you both away from here – far away – now," Edward answered.

"Turn around! You have to take me home!" Bella exclaimed, clawing at her seatbelt straps.

"Alice," Edward said.

Alice grabbed Bella's hands and held them in place. Bella began to panic. "No! Edward! No, you can't do this."

"I have to, Bella," Edward said, "now please be quiet."

"Why does she have to?" I asked. "If I –"

"James saw the way you reacted to him only looking at her," Edward said, sighing. "And the way I reacted. He thinks killing her will be the final test for you – the thing that will push you to your breaking point."

My breaking point? "But – But why? Why is he so interested? What am I –"

"A child. A successor. A legacy," Edward answered. "Whatever you want to call it, James and the female with him, Victoria, want it. They feel their family is incomplete without it. They wanted one that would look like her."

And I'd just thought that our hair had looked similar. I was going to be sick.

Edward cracked the windows, allowing fresh crisp air into the car. "But they didn't want just any one who happened to look similar to her," he explained. "They wanted one who could withstand. They wanted one who could be thrown into the fire and be forged stronger, more ruthless. They've tried before, but the last ones either perished or… or went insane from the psychological torture they had to endure. They think you're the one they've been looking for."

I tried to think rationally through the terror pounding in my head. I rubbed my hands over my face, willing tears back to wherever they came from. I couldn't cry. I couldn't be weak now. What was worse – I suddenly questioned if I was reacting this way because I was fighting to get out of my situation the way any normal person would, or because I was reacting based on how these monsters manipulated me into becoming. "They... wanted... They want me to become one of you."

That was their game. The terrorizing, the... the torture, had all been to see how I would react. It had all been to see what kind of monster they could make out of a human before changing them into the real thing.

"I – I don't know what to do," I whispered. I looked at Jasper's reflection in the side mirror helplessly. "What am I supposed to do?"

"It's safest to take both of you away from Forks," Jasper said evenly.

"Charlie will call the FBI!" Bella exclaimed. "With Blaire's disappearance too – they'll be all over your family – Carlisle and Esme! They'll have to leave, to hide forever!"

"Calm down, Bella," Edward said. "We've been there before."

They had?

"Not over me, you won't!" Bella cried. "You're not ruining everything over me! Blaire can still get out, you can still work the runaway teenager thing, but two girls within a couple of days? It'll never work!"

"Edward," Alice said. "Pull over."

The car accelerated.

"Edward, let's just talk this through," she went on.

"You don't understand!" Edward yelled at her. "He's a tracker, Alice. Did you see that? He's a tracker!"

In the mirror, Jasper's eyes cut to Edward.

"Pull over, Edward," Alice said, her tone more serious than I'd ever heard it before. "Now."

"Listen to me, Alice. I saw his mind. Tracking is his passion, his obsession – and he wants them, Alice – both of them, specifically. He begins the hunt tonight."

"He doesn't know where –"

"How long do you think it will take him to cross their scents in town?" Edward interrupted her. "His plan was set in motion long before this baseball game."

"Charlie!" Bella cried. "You can't leave him there! You can't leave him!"

"What about my parents?" I asked Jasper. "Those vampires have been stalking me, they've been to my house, they know they're still there –"

"If the tracker believes Bella is your final test, he'll leave your family alone," Jasper said. "You've already left your home, and in his mind, your parents are not pieces of any value in his game to... to get to you."

I let out a slow breath, sagging against my seatbelt. "But what about Bella? She doesn't have that kind of… that kind of proof to show him."

"She's right," Alice said.

The car slowed.

"Let's just look at our options for a minute," she added.

Edward pulled the car on the shoulder of the highway, coming to an abrupt stop that flung Bella and I into our harnesses, then back into the seats. He twisted around in his seat to glare at Alice. "There are no options," he hissed.

"I'm not leaving Charlie!" Bella shouted.

"We need to take Bella back," Jasper said.

"No," Edward snapped at him.

"Yes!" I snapped back. "I'm not putting anyone else at risk! If you don't, I'll find James and end this myself!"

My words might as well have been an atomic bomb. The silence that followed seemed to swallow up the entire world. It was thick, uncomfortable to breathe in like ash or debris, and for a minute, no one seemed to know what to do.

In the quiet, I thought. This... This could work. If I was what he wanted, I could keep Bella and the rest of my family safe if I just went to him myself. I could find a way to end him on my own, or come up with an attack plan with Jasper –

Edward's eyes widened. "Blaire, stop –"

Jasper flung open his door, so hard the entire thing flew off of the car and into a steep grassy hill beyond the guardrail. My stomach flew up into my throat as he got out of his seat and lunged for my door. He wrenched it open, unbuckled my seatbelt, and yanked me out of the car so fast I didn't even have time to scream. My back hit the hill beyond the guardrail, soft enough that my head didn't hit the ground, but hard enough that it knocked the wind out of me. Jasper descended on me, kneeling over me, practically forcing me to lie back on the ground, his expression twisted in such a rage I was shaking before he even opened his mouth.

"You will never say that again," he said, the words shockingly quiet and all the more devastating. "Do you hear me? Never."

I could feel his fury, crackling hot, practically burning in my own veins. But more than that, I could feel that all-consuming, horrifying black hole of desperation: the feeling that always seemed to be in the background of all of his feelings toward me.

"Meeting the tracker head on will only end with your death, and that it something I will not allow. You will do anything and everything in your power to live through this," he said. "You will not die. Do you understand?"

My chest heaved, and I tried my best to nod.

"Promise me," he said. "Whatever you have to do, you will survive."

"I – I p – I promise," I said, breathless.

Jasper sighed, his eyes fluttering shut. His shoulders slumped. "Damn you," he breathed. "Damn you, you beautiful, wild, selfless creature."

Beautiful?

He leaned down, pressing his forehead against mine, his cool temperature a welcome relief against my flushed skin.

V

"This is how it's going to happen," Edward said, glaring at Bella in the rearview mirror while she looked almost triumphant, in a weird, terrified sort of way. "When we get to the house, if the tracker is not there, I will walk her to the door. Then she has fifteen minutes. Jasper will take the outside of the house, Alice will get the truck, and Blaire will stay in the Jeep. After Bella is out, Jasper and Blaire will take the Jeep wherever and Alice will run home and tell Carlisle."

"We can try and meet somewhere and caravan together," Jasper explained, glancing at me in the rearview mirror, since his explosion on the highway took off not only the door, but the side mirror. The cold air ripping through the car sent mine and Bella's teeth chattering. "But it may not be likely."

"And if the tracker is at Bella's house," Edward continued, "we keep driving."

"We're going to make it there before him," Alice said. "And I won't be running home. I'll stay with Blaire and Jazz and help coordinate a time for us to meet and caravan."

Edward shook his head, muttering under his breath.

"I think you should let me go alone," Bella said, quietly.

"Bella, please, just do this my way, just this once," Edward said.

"Listen, Charlie's not an imbecile," she pointed out. "If you're not in town tomorrow, he's going to get suspicious."

"That's irrelevant," he said. "We'll make sure he's safe, and that's all that matters."

"Then what about the tracker?" she demanded. "He saw the way you acted tonight. He's going to think you're with me, wherever you are."

"She's right," Jasper said.

"Yes, she is," Alice added.

Edward's eyes widened at Alice. "And you think I should let her go alone?"

"No," Jasper said. "Alice and I will take them both."

"What?" Edward snapped.

"Think of the humans' point of view," Jasper reasoned. "Blaire technically disappeared first. Everyone's already assumed we're lovers that ran off together. We can build Bella running off because she couldn't take the loss of her best friend… and the end of a relationship, as part of the narrative."

Bella's face was thoughtful. "It does make sense…" she admitted, then looked imploringly at Edward in the mirror. "Hang out here for a week – or a few days. Let Charlie see you haven't kidnapped me, and lead this James on a wild goose-chase. Make sure he's completely off our trail. Then come and meet me. Take a roundabout route, of course, and then…"

"Then you'll be safe," I told her, but I met Jasper's eyes again. "And we can prepare for the next battle."

V

WAIT. WAIT. WAIT.

ANNOUNCEMENT.

The next chapter is going to be the beginning of the final chapters to this story. I said I would take this fanfiction in a slightly different direction than other stories, and I meant it. To be honest, these next chapters are what I've been most excited to write since I decided I even wanted to start this story.

But it will be violent. It will be sad. It will be scary.

That being said, I will post trigger/content warnings above chapters as needed. I wanted to let you guys know now before moving on with the next update so no one is taken by surprise or is needlessly hurt by this story.

I'm also wondering if I should go ahead and rate it up from "T" to "M" because I am so worried about how people will perceive the future content. I'd love to hear any and all thoughts, please.