Title: Cut the Ropes

Author: LazyWerewolf

*NEW DISCLAIMER*: I do not own Twilight. I do not own any of the works referenced such as Harry Potter, X-Men, etc. I also don't own any of the songs or albums referenced. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: I know I promised a chapter on Alice and friends, but I can't. Writing that isn't coming as naturally as it would for this story. It's actually becoming much too difficult, and not in the good way, so I think I'm gonna drop that. I just saw tron and I am shocked at how much the Quorra looks like Alice. It's not even funny. Like Alice from another universe.

Once again, a reminder that all (yes, all) fanfiction looks better with a smaller browser. Just minimize it and rearrange it a bit to make it look better. And also, apologies for the bad grammar.

See you at teh bahtom.

Sail to the Moon

She had her arms wrapped around my waist while we rode on a refurbished Ducati that my best friend Jacob fixed up in thirty minutes. The two of us rode down a lane that went straight to First Beach and the bonfire party, no detours. We passed the Cullen mansion about two minutes into the La Push reservation. When we passed by Jacob's house, Billy stood up from his wheelchair and handed me a wrench so I could tighten a screw on the Ducati. She gestured me to follow her, and we ended up at the bonfire party. Emmett was having a drink with Sam and Daniel, while Jasper, Emily, another Daniel, Rosalie and Embry were playing laser tag. I took her hand and led her down to the beach, where we both looked at the sun and moon colliding with each other. There was a boat in the direction of the shore. The two of us wordlessly got on it, sailing toward the inevitable collision of the sun and moon.

She began speaking.

"You know, Arabic is the language of romance," the bell chime voice said.

My eyes snapped open just as the blinding white of the two celestial objects colliding hit them.

The beautiful soprano voice was replaced by a startling baritone. "No, it's not ah-ray-bic, it's ah-rab-ic. Get it right. Oh, good morning Bella!" Daniel's voice drifted over to me from where he was standing.

I adjusted my eyes to the brightness and was met face to face with yellow eyes, pale skin and long black hair. Again.

"Good morning, more like good afternoon!" Emily giggled and rolled off of me. I lifted myself up and looked around, coming face to face with a Daniel clone, and a tent of some sort. I could guess it was midday because the sun loomed directly above me. The tent had a sort of plastic floor, but either way sand leaked through. There was an unsettling glow outside the canvas, hurting my eyes. There was also a desk, a chair, and I seemed to be sleeping on a... what are those military beds called? Hammocks? Cots? Whatever, I'm calling it a hammock.

"Where are...I?"

"Proper grammar, please."

"You bastard. Where the hell am I?"

"That's better. We are in Saudi Arabia. Don't worry, we're not terrorists. But you are hungry. Why don't the two of us—"

Emily huffed in the most childish display of discontent I had seen to date.

"Fine, three of us make our way down to the cafeteria after you get changed," Daniel clone said.

Emily dumped a pair of black shorts that were around mid thigh, a navy blue shirt, and a pair of ratty old TOMS. The pair left, leaving me to wonder how this was going to work out. I slipped the blue t-shirt over the worn grey tank top that had been my companion for the past month and went to work on my pants. There wasn't a considerable amount of denim left, so I put on the shorts. I had always hated the type of people who wore TOMS. It had been a huge fad at my school, paying forty dollars for a pair of shitty shoes for a shitty company. But that wasn't the point. I put them on anyway, gesturing for them to come in.

Emily threw a bottle of water at me. With my skills, I got hit in the side of the head. She laughed, but I drank from it anyway. It was extremely refreshing. In fact, so refreshing that the scrapes from last night began to smooth out. It tickled when the skin started reforming. I sat staring at Daniel, waiting for an answer.

"Werewolf thing, but it only happens with water. David tried it with Coca-Cola, and his skin turned black for seven hours." The clone responded. Werewolf thing. How many more "werewolf things" am I gonna have?

Daniel took my hand like a gentleman and gestured to the front of the tent. I scooted off the hammock, and Emily latched onto my arm and cuddled delightedly into my biceps.

Parting the tent canvas, I was surprised to find that the entire campsite was in the middle of a desert. I could have guessed, but it just seemed like maybe we could hide somewhere more secluded... Like with trees and mountains and werewolf food. Maybe North America, or Russia or something.

Daniel pointed to the biggest tent in camp.

"That's the cafeteria. Emily, I think Dave was looking for you," the Daniel clone said in his deep British accent.

Emily looked up from her hiding spot in my arm. "Why would he want to see me? I didn't do anything wrong," Emily protested.

The duplicate shrugged. "I don't know, but you shouldn't put it off."

She looked disgruntled while she walked off in another direction.

"Hey Dan... Where's the bathroom?" I asked. I hadn't gone in over seven hours.

Daniel spread his arms out. He looked like he was trying to fly. "Everywhere! But actually, most people go behind the wall over there. You can go behind your tent."

I grimaced. "Ew, that's sick. I feel like I'm going in a huge litterbox," I groaned. This was really gross.

He laughed. "So does everybody. The wall is over there," he pointed to a wall behind the group of tents across from us. I walked over hesitantly. I really hoped the shitty shoes wouldn't leak.

I went on business, and grabbed some sand to clean my hands off. I felt pretty gross, not washing my hands like that, but I was a werewolf, right? What am I gonna get, cholera?

Daniel and I walked through the makeshift sand trail leading to a big tent. The camp was situated in the middle of a desert. The searing heat of the sun pressed against me, but I didn't feel as much discomfort as I should have. The little sand trail we were walking on came to a stop when we reached the front of the tent. He gestured to enter, and I was smacked across the face with a pungent scent of spices and meats.

Cafeteria food was never my thing. But I was so hungry, I could have eaten from the floor and not cared. The dirt floor was a bit discerning to someone who had eaten in a sanitized lunchroom all her life, but it would just have to do. Daniel clone gestured to a square table for two at the far end of the room. I guessed that we would be sitting there. He left me in line, waiting for food.

The entire tent was filled with people. It looked like they were having dinner or lunch or whatever. There were people of every single race and age, but none looked too old. I think the oldest was around thirty. Most of them had their bite marks on their legs, but a few of them had them on their midriffs. Even less actually had them on their arms or upper torso. I was the only one that had mine on my neck. They looked in my direction, but then turned away quickly. I was probably the "odd one out". I hoped it wasn't high school all over again. I guess I dropped out senior year. Doesn't matter. Not like it was supposed to matter anyway.

I stepped to the front of the line as the cook smiled at me and dumped some sort of green stew in a bowl and handed it to me. She ignored the bite mark. The man next to her handed me some bread, but didn't make eye contact. I looked around to see that Daniel was seated in the corner of the big tent, where there was less light and even less people.

I made my way through the mess of tables and sat down. Daniel gestured to the food, letting his hands speak for him again.

"It's kebab," Daniel clone said.

"I thought it was supposed to be on a stick," I said. Confuzzling.

"No, that's kebab on a stick. Kebab is the actual mix of vegetables and meat. It's just a funny word for stew. Eat, you'll need your energy today. We're going out to train," he said. Training? Do I have to keep going through that transformation again? Hell no.

"What kind of training?"

"Abilities. You've found yours. I have to say I've never seen anything like it. It's very unique, I'll give you that. Very useful. Oh... Can I talk to you about... Um, Emily?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. She didn't do anything wrong, and it was pretty rude of Daniel to shoo her off like that.

"What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing... I just wanted to explain why she gets so clingy."

"I don't mind, but sure, shoot."

He sighed. "I kind of feel like I shouldn't be the one to talk about this, but I need you to know. I'll tell you why later. I very much think that this concerns you. Five years back, Emily found her mated pair. They're very rare and it doesn't happen to most people. It can only be formed between a human or half human and one of us, or two of our kind. Anyway, she found her. Her name was Isabella, Izzy for short. She was a child of the moon, second generation, and had a very dangerous power: she was a pyrotechnic."

So Emily and Izzy grew close. Very close. And you know where we are... In Saudi Arabia, those things don't sit well with people. Police came for Izzy and Emily. Of course Izzy didn't die. She killed twenty people. She killed twenty people without even trying. She was so traumatized, so immersed in her own self hatred, she locked herself in an abandoned house, tied herself to a chair and lit the place on fire. Emily hasn't seen her since. She forgave both Izzy and herself a long time ago, though. She's clinging to you because your name and attitude remind her of her mate," Daniel clone finished with a sigh.

"Oh... That's... Terrible. Wait... Five years back? Wouldn't she be eight, or something?"

"Werewolves age slower when they are second generation. You, however, are first generation, so you will age normally."

"So...How do you know you have a mated pair?" I felt horrible about only being interested in the mating process. Here was Emily's life story, and I picked that one detail out. I'm so horrible.

"It's not often that it happens. In fact it almost never does. Only a select few are given a mate. It happens to one pair about every half century or so. Marvel, really. I wouldn't know what it feels like."

I swallowed the remainder of the food left on the plate. It was odd, how mating works. But I had more questions. The light shone faintly through the thick canvas, creating an almost candlelight effect. It was very strange. This whole place was strange.

"Do vampires smell bad to us?"

He laughed. "No, but grudges and prejudices cause them to believe we smell terrible. But they just smell different to us."

"How about, why does it look like it's four hundred degrees out there and you're comfortable in a jacket and jeans?"

"That's the marvel of werewolf temperature. We can be in the Sahara or in Antarctica, it would feel the same."

"Wow."

"Yes, wow. Finish eating. You have to go to train."

"Where's the real Daniel?"

That question caught him completely off guard. He sputtered, checking himself for sand or any sign that he might not look exactly like the real Daniel.

"It's okay, I can see auras, remember?"

He looked relieved. "He's training. Like you should be. Hurry up, I have to get going. I'll see you soon," he waved at me before dematerializing into sand.

I finished up quickly. The food was good, but not as good as say, Esme's cooking. It was food, and I was hungry. It really didn't make a difference. People started to trickle out of the big tent, but more were walking in. I could observe easily because I was seated practically in the emo corner. It was actually pretty funny. People would walk by without care, some would even wave to me, but when they caught sight of my scar they would avoid me like the plague. It was pretty discerning. Putting my bowl in a container filled with other ones, I waved goodbye to the cook. The whole room went quiet, but then got louder as I exited the tent. Forks the second, I thought. I'm gossip central yet again.

I stepped out of the tent and made my way past the stray hoards of people. Several were entering their home tents, more were entering the cafeteria tent, but many were simply loitering around. I had no idea there were this many of my kind. It was surprising, really, how I was in a crowded desert with people who shared the exact condition I had, but I had never felt more alone. These people weren't my family. I was alone.

The crowd tapered off after I reached a wall of stone. I vaulted over it with a kind of practiced ease I had never known before. There, silhouetted by the setting sun, were four figures. One of them quickly decomposed into sand, so I could guess Daniel was there. The remaining three turned to me and waved. I waves back before jogging off toward them.

Emily started running right up to me, and I had to crouch down for her to hug me. She refused to let go, which made me remember what Daniel said. I sweeped her from her feet and carried her toward David and Daniel. She laughed delightedly. It was actually pretty adorable, how she could trust me so easily. She reminded me of Alice, and how much I wanted to carry her like this.

Wait.

What?

I don't roll that way... I've never rolled that way before. Sure, I've thought about Rosalie and Esme and also... Her, with all their inhuman beauty, but how impossible was it not to think about them? They all look like angels. Especially Alice.

There was just something different her.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

I looked down at the smiling girl below me. "You remind me of a friend."

She wriggled around a bit and laughed when I threw her up and caught her again. David ran over. He looked pretty beaten up from sparring with Daniel. His face was bruised, and he was a bit scratched up, but I was sure that he would be okay when he drank some water.

"Having fun?" David asked.

Emily crawled to my back, where she situated herself by sitting herself down on my shoulders.

"Yup. All fun. Bella, I think Daniel wants to spar with you," the girl said from her perch on my shoulders.

"Emi, you're going to have to get off of me if I'm gonna spar," I said, shaking myself for emphasis.

"Yeah, here," David easily lifted her off my shoulder and placed her on his own. She huffed, but nevertheless leaned on David's head. "Now Bella can go spar. Go, Bella, Daniel's waiting."

I turned to the sun to see Daniel standing barefoot in the sand, where he beckoned me to a rounded off spot. I did as ordered, stepping on the unusually hard sand. He stepped up to me and created one of his clones.

The clone stepped in front of me, waving. I was about to move forward and shake his hand, but the sand was pretty much stone when you sank into it. My feet were making indents that almost instantly hardened. It was like Moon Sand, in a way. Neil Armstrong could get his kicks down here. Moon sand, moon sand, the sand that you can...

"Okay, Bella, you're gonna learn the basic fighting techniques that work with our type. One, is the disorientation method." Daniel explained.

His clone turned to face him, took up a fighting position and ran toward him. Daniel brought his arms to his sides, and slammed them together on his opponents head. The clone staggered down before Daniel twisted his head off.

"Like that. Don't punch the sides of the head, you have to sort of box their ears and make them stagger. You have to hit them with the forearm," he said, before moving backwards and creating another clone.

The pseudo-Daniel ran toward me with blazing speed, and it caught me off guard. I was thoroughly disoriented as it tripped me and sent me falling into the sand below. I sunk into the sand, appearing directly behind the flustered clone. Thinking quickly, I slammed my forearms against the side of his head and he let out a yell of pain before disintegrating into the sand.

The real Daniel came up to me with a smile on his face. "Spectacular! Your power could be very useful in this type of situation. Use it to the fullest extent. Now for number two, the derailing method."

Daniel created yet another duplicate. This time it came at him clawing his hands and trying to scratch the real Dan. Daniel picked him up by the shirt and flung him over his body, causing the dummy to fly overhead and crash into the sand, merging with the particles. Daniel once again created a dummy for me.

The offender flung himself at me violently, successfully blocking my attempts to get a hold of him. I used my gift to my advantage and moved out from under him as he took a few steps toward me. Appearing closer than he expected, I used his momentum and my leverage to send him flying twenty feet into the air.

"Very good! Now just normal hand to hand sparring. My dummy won't hurt you, if he lands a hit it will feel like sand. Go on, practice. There's really no way I can teach you hand to hand, so you're just going to have to improvise," Daniel said from a few feet away.

The new duplicate didn't run or charge at me like the others, but actually circled me with his hands up. I mimicked him, hoping to learn. He sprung forward, slapping my hands downward. I was met with a face full of sand.

Daniel tsked behind me. I wiped the sand off and charged with my own set of punches. The clone easily dodged them, sending a kick to my stomach. I fell flat on the sand.

Sinking into the particles, I watched as the clone looked for where I was. I guess my ability was sort of like swimming, but with sand. I could see everything, but it was a bit distorted. I moved directly under the clone and sprung upwards, hitting the unsuspecting sand duplicate with an uppercut. He disintegrated on contact.

I heard cheers and whistles behind me. Emily, David and Daniel were all watching.

"How was that Dan?"

"Great! Now get over here, we have food!"

I nearly sprinted over there. I was starving. Nobody had to tell me twice.

Emily was playing with the hems of the picnic cloth while Daniel and David were taking food out of an enormous container capsule thing. The enormous cooler looked like it could feed an army. There was more kebab, some sort of steak, lots of bread, and a whole turkey. And also, there was a... Radio?

"What song is that?" I asked. I was honestly curious. Something struck me and told me it was familiar.

"The Parachutes album. Coldplay," David said, between bites of food.

Oh.

I looked over at the setting sun. Somewhere, Alice was enjoying the same sunset. Somewhere, Alice was safe. It made me happy. But at the same time, it made me sad that I wasn't a part of that happiness. I wanted to see her smile again. I wanted to hear her laugh again. She made me happier than I had ever been before. Now I lost her. Again. Thanks to Fuckward and his stupid morals. Not that I didn't love him back then, but looking back, he was just a possessive bastard.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Daniel's deep baritone reached my ears. I turned to face him and the others. Emily was happily nibbling on a piece of bread while David was busy ravenously attacking a stray piece of meat. Daniel sat next to the radio, looking at me, waiting for an answer.

"Just thinking about friends," I said.

"What are they like?"

"They're... They were a family of vampires."

Somehow this didn't surprise him as much as it should have.

"Why aren't you freaking out and telling me vampires are horrible?"

He shrugged. "Because they're not. They're just like us. I was best friends with a siren before the genocide. The genocide was one thing but... A Jew doesn't hate Germans for simply being Germans."

Good analogy. "Is there a story to this?" He asked. Why yes. Yes there is.

"Well, anyway. One of them fell in love with me, but then left me because he was 'too dangerous' for me. So I stayed there for a year. Then my boyfriend exploded into a wolf, but not our type of wolf. Then the big brother of the coven came back and planned to take us to London, but you bit me. I followed an aura to a friend of mine, and took her back to my new big bro, and then you kidnapped me. Now I'm here," I said, drawing in a breath.

Dan chuckled. "Long story made very short, it seems. What caught me was the trail. I know you see auras, but what made this aura stand out?"

I sighed. "It was a new color. I have no idea how to describe a new color. I guess it has a yellow purplish attitude, but at the same time leans toward a kind of blue orange. There's no words for it. It's beautiful," I explained. Yeah. Very beautiful.

"Who was this again?" Inquisitive Dan is kinda scaring me.

"We're not gonna go... After them, or anything, right?"

"Oh, no. No. Just a question. Made me curious," he said. Thank god.

"Okay... Her name is Alice Cullen. But she found traces of her human name in a hospital because she couldn't remember. Her name is now Alice Brandon," I said.

"She couldn't remember her human life?" He was becoming more and more fascinated by my story.

"No, she couldn't. The only memory she had was of her new life."

"Hmm. Why do you think she didn't have memory?"

I absentmindedly reached for a piece of bread. "I don't know. It makes her sad, not knowing."

"I have a fairly good guess but I'll have to find out more... Finally! What took you so long?"

A Daniel clone ran over to the cloth we sat on, holding a large plastic guitar case. The clone unpacked the instrument, revealing a beautiful sunburst color and dreadnaught body. It looked worn, probably because the environment it was held in. Even the huge hard shell case had holes in it, and when the clone handed the instrument to Daniel, it sounded like a maraca from so much sand residue.

I had played guitar for a while before the Cullens took up all my time. I used to have my mother's old vintage from a zillion years ago. I wanted to buy a better one, one that was a better quality but she said that vintage things had attitude. It was true, that guitar turned out to be my ticket to Forks because when I sold it, I gained ten grand. I knew what a good guitar looked like, and this was it.

Daniel took the instrument from the clone before the duplicate burst into sand. He looked at me and questioned, "Know how to play?"

I shrugged. "Sort of. It's been a while, I'm a bit rusty," I admitted. "You can go, I don't mind."

Daniel placed the steel stringer onto his lap and began playing a song that we had just listened to. I couldn't quite remember the name, but I knew I had heard it before. It had a beautiful acoustic melody. It was very mellow, and didn't seem like something Emily would listen to, but nonetheless she came over to listen to Daniel play. I suddenly remembered where I heard the tune.

Alice had played it in her Porsche.

She talked about how she loved acoustic pieces. She said somewhere that it was her favorite song. It made me sad, thinking of her. Thinking about what she must be doing. Were they looking for me? Of course they were... Right? She missed me... Right? I don't want her to be unhappy, but... There was just so much going on. Everything was just too harsh. I missed all of them. But I missed my evil little pixie the most.

She had kissed me on the cheek more than once when I was human. Did that mean something? And then she slept with me—

Images of me and Alice and a bed and maybe some handcuffs wandered into my mind. I pushed them away immediately. No need to pee my pants, I just needed to think about hints.

Okay, she platonically slept with me. Did that mean something too? She thought I couldn't feel that she was cuddling into my chest. And the way she looked at me when I saw her for the first time in a year, there was something hidden... A flash of something. She touched my face before she started crying. What did that mean?

So many questions reeled into my mind. It was just too much. I wanted to stop thinking, but I couldn't. I wondered about everything except the angel vampire. My little angel. Come to save me from myself. I looked around. Maybe I could find her aura.

I caught sight of a depressing blackness from the direction of the camp. No auras anywhere. But turning around, you could see the deep oranges of the sun melting into purple before transitioning into a cloudless night. It was sunset.

Daniel stopped playing and Emily scooted over toward me. She wrapped her arm around my neck and pulled my head into her lap while David sat down to the left of both of us.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Emily broke the silence.

"...The sunset here is more beautiful than it was in Forks..." But I know something that would make it perfect.

"Forks? That's a utensil..."

I smiled from atop her lap. "Forks, Washington, Emi."

The big yellow sphere lit up the sky wonderfully. The colors originated with a deep orange, then faded out into pink and purple. The two colors gave out to the black night. If I turned around, I could faintly see the stars blinking overhead. Even farther into the black was an almost full moon, creating a scene that looked as if the heavens themselves would part for an eclipse.

"Almost that time of the month again..." David said from behind me.

All three of us turned to look at him before bursting into laughter. I almost choked on my own spit from laughing so much. David looked confused, then it dawned on him what we were laughing about.

"Aw Ew. You guys call me immature. Seriously? Wow." He rolled his eyes and continued looking at the ongoing sunset.

The little girl absentmindedly played with my hair as the last few inches of the sun tucked themselves under the horizon. Daniel got up and packed the instrument in the case, gesturing for David, Emily and I to follow as he walked toward camp.

I lifted myself off the ground. "What about all the stuff?" I asked.

Daniel lifted a hand. "I'll get it," he said, as about a dozen duplicates swarmed the area, picking up stray trash and the cloths that we put up. The real Daniel was already nearing the stone wall that we passed. Emily tugged on the edges of my navy blue shirt, so I looked over. She had her arms out, demanding a hug. I picked her up and set her on my shoulders like before. She was thoroughly amused by my hair.

David, Emily and I neared the camp a minute or so after Daniel did. David lifted Emily off of me, setting her on the ground.

"Goodnight Bella!" The two chorused while waving goodbye.

I waved back. "Goodnight guys!" The two went into their own respective tents. I almost didn't catch the faint footsteps from behind.

"I need to talk to you."

"Shit!" I jumped a good foot in the air. "Don't do that!"

Daniel was standing there with a smug smile. "No, seriously. Talk. Private. Your tent. Now," he took my arm and led me into my own tent. I sat down on the edge of the hammock, and he took a chair. He sat in it backwards, waiting for me to say something.

"What? You dragged me in here to talk," I protested. How was I supposed to know what he was talking about?

"So, you sure you have no idea why your Alice has no recollection of her human life?" Damnit, no! I don't have an IQ of 170 like you do!

"No, she never mentioned anything."

He sighed. "If I told you to recollect your time as a vampire, could you do it?"

I scoffed. "No, werewolf, remember?"

"Never mind. If I told you to remember something that never happened, could you remember it?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "How could I?"

He looked flabbergasted. Maybe I was just too stupid for him. "Bella. Every angel has their demon. If Alice can't remember her previous life, wouldn't you try to find a trigger?"

I was still confused. "Um... I don't know... Yes?"

He shook his head and stood up. "Never mind again, I'm obviously confusing you. Goodnight Bella, the sink is to the left of the mirror and the world is your toilet. Remember that. Goodnight again," he said, before slipping past the thick tent flaps.

"Goodnight Dan," I said back.

I walked to the sink, brushed my teeth with a toothbrush I found on top of it, and checked myself for flaws in the mirror. I hadn't really improved much in terms of looking normal. Maybe hanging out with werewolves did that to you. I did, however, have a new scar. The small cut ran along my jawline. I was pretty glad it wasn't too noticeable. I need to pee. Outside. Again. Ew.

I did my business and came inside. I still had no clue what Daniel meant to say by asking me all those questions. If anything, they confused me more than they helped. I didn't know what he meant by "could you remember if it didn't happen". I didn't let it worry me though, as I laid myself carefully upon the hammock.

Every angel has a demon. What is that supposed to mean? And what's with the cryptic answers?

What part of Alice couldn't remember her human life? What part thought it didn't—

And then it hit me, and I nearly tumbled to the ground.

Alice Brandon couldn't remember her human life, probably because she was never a human in the first place.

Nother A/N: Oh shnap! I have been waiting to pull that one out for the longest time... Giggity. I had writers block all week. I had seen such extreme acts of homophobia it scared the shit out of me. Thanks for that, humanity, I believe in you now. It's been weird, getting back to school. I'll be writing over the week, but I won't be updating until the weekends. I haven't been able to get on the computer, but I was still able to type.

Fun fact. This entire chapter was written on an iPhone. Hooray for Apple.

Song for today is You Could Be Happy by Snow Patrol. Fic for today is Jbern's "Bungle in the Jungle" series. It's a Harry Potter fic, but sort of gave me the inspiration for this fic. I warn you, it's in second person. Very annoying.

Cheers,

The Lazy Werewolf