I am glad that you are here with me. Here at the end of all things. J.R.R. Tolkien
This chapter ties up all the loose ends, for all the actors. On behalf of tseitz2328, my tireless editor, and myself, Twilight Gypsy, I thank you for joining us on this journey.
Chapter 93 Chapter Notes
This is the end of the journey, my friends. I've spent nine months writing and editing this piece, 93 chapters and 311,948 words long, but I've enjoyed it immensely. I could never have accomplished this story without tseitz2328, my copy editor, who has stood by me since September. I wrote the entire story and she edited it along the way. Then, we started back at the beginning and I did the rewrite. And she edited it again.
I hope that you will add this story to the layers you've already read, and that it enriches your Twilight experience. To me, this is the most compelling theme: a godlike character falling in love with a human. I hope that I thrilled you, scared you, made you laugh, brought a tear to your eye, and finally, with this chapter, leave you with a satisfying ending, for all the participants.
Please, here at the end, leave me a review! Thanks!
The Chapter title belongs to Steve Miller
Chapter 93 Fly Like an Eagle
Charlie and Maya
Charlie's shoulder wound slowly heals and with the aid of antidepressants, counselling, and plenty of time, he makes a complete recovery. With Maya by his side, he learns to accept and embrace the almost unbelievable circumstances of his life. They are married in a small ceremony. Bella is unable to attend due to her newborn thirst, but Edward takes plenty of pictures. He hands Charlie an envelope at the reception, and Charlie blinks in surprise at the check inside.
Maya retires and they buy a cottage near the reservation that overlooks the ocean. Esme shows up and offers to remodel it as an extended wedding present. They take her up on it, and Alice finally gets the chance to boss everybody around.
With more money than they can ever spend, Charlie and Maya enjoy a life without stress. They travel; they buy a boat; they spend their days fishing and cooking on their new gas grill. Charlie thought that Maya had always been a tornado between the sheets, perhaps due to her latent supernatural status, but that rockets into high gear following her transformation. After his shoulder wound heals, she keeps a silly grin on his face for the rest of his days.
After they escape into the wild, Bella and Edward keep close tabs on Charlie and his recovery, but after a while it's evident that he's accepted the inevitable and has decided to move on with his life. When they travel into Forks to check on the house and meet briefly with Edward's family, Bella always calls Charlie and they chat. When she asks about Maya, he tells her incomprehensible things about pass interference and half the distance to the goal line. Bella laughs and sends Edward's love.
Bella cannot bear a child of her own, so she will never know both the joy and the heartache that parenthood brings. Charlie will never have a grandbaby to rock on his knee, so he and Maya try to adopt a dog, but she is allergic, so they set up an aquarium instead.
Charlie thinks his life is full and happy until he and Maya return from a cruise marking their three-year wedding anniversary to find Bella and Edward sitting on their patio. With his daughter back in his life, Charlie feels a contentment he didn't think he'd ever feel again.
They don't get together for barbeques, but have fun watching ball games together. Bella learns a little about football, tolerates baseball and basketball, and falls in love with hockey. Maya still cusses at the referees. Some things don't change.
Maya never again phases in their lifetime together, but the supernatural blessing is upon her, and never really goes away. As the years go by, Maya realizes that Charlie is aging, but that she is not. She and Bella beg Charlie to ask Edward for the gift of immortality so they can be together, but Charlie flatly refuses. He lives happy and content until he is almost eighty-five years old, and passes comfortably in his sleep, feeling his life has been well-lived. Bella and Edward attend his funeral in disguise, and Bella puts fresh flowers on his grave every time they're in Forks.
Maya simply fades away. She leaves their house one day and never returns. Occasionally, tourists at the National Park will mention that they caught sight of a massive black wolf, and the sightings morph into an urban legend that only the Quileute and the Cullens know is true.
Renee
Renee continues to immerse herself in Phil's life, Phil's career, Phil's wants and needs. After he leaves her for a younger woman, Renee stays in Jacksonville, develops a drinking problem and dies in a car crash. Bella doesn't go to the services, having long ago embraced the idea that she wasn't, and never had been, an important part of her mother's life.
Brady
Brady is never seen again. The Quileute expected that he would flee into the mountains high above the reservation, that they would be able to find him, but the other Wolves never catch his scent and there aren't any sightings of him off the reservation. The Council and Pack mourn the loss of his human life and erect a small memorial in his memory.
On the day the wolf escapes into the wilderness, he runs for many miles, finally ending up in a vast forest in British Columbia. He finds a mate and they live together, separate from a pack. When she licks his muzzle before they mate, it tugs a fragment of memory from a deep recess in his mind, of pleasurable actions, of something more.
As the years go by, he forgets all human words and memories and lives as a true wolf, except when he smells smoke. This scent alone revives strange dreams of a life he can't imagine, of walking upright and the comradery of friends.
Chief Littlefoot
Jonas Littlefoot recuperates and goes on to serve as the Quileute Chief for seven more years. He is forgiven for his foolish desire to single-handedly protect the tribe, and is grateful when the spell and amulet are locked away so that no one person can access the magic. He is instrumental in arranging things between the Rosalie, Emmett and Lisle James.
This act of acceptance is the starting point of a mutual cooperation between the two supernatural factions that had once believed themselves to be mortal enemies.
Alice and Jasper
Alice and Jasper buy a house near the Puget sound so Alice can attend culinary school. She becomes a famous pastry chef, and is known locally as the 'Guacamole Queen', a name that brings Emmett to tears every time he hears it. Years later, she abandons it as an occupation and opens a plant nursery.
Jasper starts his own handyman business, specializing in small repairs for homeowners, but takes the odd jobs of tiling showers and laying floor materials. Their combined earnings are donated to their foundation, Second Chance. It buys dilapidated properties, fixes them up, then turns them into no-rent apartments for the homeless. Each resident is sent to school and is helped to integrate back into society.
Rosalie and Emmett
Rosalie and Emmett, with the assistance of the Council, become well-known to the Quileute nation. With Carlisle's assistance, they meet with Lisle James, first under the watchful eye of the Council, in the now-infamous room seven of the Town Hall.
Lisle tells Emmett and Rosalie that she wants very badly to move on from the tragic event that stole her family from her, and one way to do that is to embrace their offer of help and support.
After a tentative period, where various Council members meet with them and Lisle, together and separately, they are introduced to Darla. She immediately falls in love with Emmett, who becomes like a protective uncle. Rosalie's fantasies of motherhood are realized when she helps Lisle after the birth of her son, Aaron.
Esme and Carlisle
When the slow march of time forces a move from Forks, Esme and Carlisle relocate to Montana, near the western red cedar forest that Edward visited that one, magical night when he woke up. Carlisle practices family medicine while Esme slowly builds her business in the state.
After a few years in the wilderness above the Indian reservation, Bella's thirst is under control. She and Edward return to Forks, but have trouble picking up the thread of their old lives. Bella begins to understand why Edward and his siblings enrolled in high school over and over. Without jobs or something to occupy their time, the promised tedium begins to set in.
Since they cannot enroll in high school in Forks, not yet, anyway, and Bella is not yet accomplished enough to enroll in college, they end up stuck in the house a lot. They hike and walk and shop, but it's not enough. After a few months, they put the house on long-term lease and relocate to Montana with Esme and Carlisle.
Esme lures Edward into being her partner. For a time, he and Bella both work for Esme's company and Bella learns the legal end of the business. She and Edward often escape into the nearby forest, and eventually leave their house in Libby to live in the wild again.
Bella
It takes Bella a long time to totally come to terms with her part in Tim's death. She promises herself that she will never feel casual about the loss of human life.
And she never does.
She and Edward keep in regular touch with Charlie during the first years after she and Edward leave to live on the mountain, and each time they speak, he sounds a little more like the old Chief.
Bella's initial adjustment had been marred by Tim's death and Charlie's suicide attempt, but it wasn't derailed. Edward is patient and gentle with her, which helps her integrate fully into the Immortal life.
All the pieces of that elusive puzzle slide into place when she feels strong enough to be a part of Charlie's life again. She even learns a little about sports, and enjoys sitting with him, Maya and Edward, cheering on a team.
When it's apparent that he's aging, but Maya in not, Bella tries to convince him to join the family, but he couldn't face it. Decades later, when they get the call from Maya saying that Charlie has passed, Bella goes into the woods by herself. She's alone among the family in that she still has vivid memories of her human life. Carlisle says it is simply one more thing that is unique about her. She thinks about the first day that she saw Edward Cullen, and how her path had changed after meeting him.
The long, empty days after he'd left might have been a fading memory to other Immortals, but she remembers every minute with stark clarity. She can never forget the sharp edges of the pain, as it cut her through. She'd listened to a single song back then, over and over. Riverwide, by Sheryl Crow.
I spent a year in the mouth of a whale with a flame and a book of signs
You'll never know how hard I've failed trying to make up for lost time
Once I believed in things unseen, I was blinded by the dark
Out of the multitude to me he came and broke my heart
When the dust in the fields has flown
And the youngest of hearts has grown
And you doubt you will ever be free
Honey don't bail on me
River is wide and oh so deep and it winds and winds around
I dream we're happy in my sleep, floating down and down and down
And the tide rushes by where we stand
And the earth underneath turns to sand
In the morning you wait for the sun And secretly hope it won't come
But time washes everything clean
Honey, now don't bail on me
Don't bail on me
The memory of the water as it beckoned to her is something she hoped she'd forget, but years later, she's still haunted by its hypnotic call, how she thought it was whispering her name. But that's over and done with, and she doesn't want to be like the old Edward, introspective about things that can't be changed.
He isn't like that anymore, but Bella isn't sure why. He's a more hopeful, optimistic guy, full of laughter. Playful, even. It's great.
With fondness and still a little bit of wonder, she recalls the ordinary day when she'd pulled her truck up in front of Jacob's house, only to see Edward walking toward her on the street, his crooked smile, and the relief she'd seen on his face when he'd spotted her. And to the whirlwind that followed: Victoria's attack, Charlie's injury, a wedding, and then the sex.
Oh my god, the sex.
That first time with Edward, where she'd run and he'd chased her through the house, finally catching up with her in the kitchen, is a memory that she plays over and over. Because the first time is simply that: The first time. God, how he'd bent her over the table and grabbed the string of her thong with his tongue. Sat her up on that cold, hard counter. The hungry look in his eye as they both watched his cock slowly push up inside of her, stealing her virginity.
How he'd spoken. Not the polite, Victorian speech, but dirty. Are you a traditionalist, Bella? Or a maverick? I spread your legs and kiss you, right here. I'm going to fuck you hard and fast, Bella. She never tires of replaying those scenes, over and over. Sex as an Immortal is fantastic, but different.
And she'll always be grateful to Edward for making her first sexual experiences thrilling and fun.
Edward
The years following the calamitous events of his and Bella's senior year of high school are the happiest of Edward's existence. With Bella's help, he's able to forgive himself for his lapse after her fall. When he looks into her ageless face, he's finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, as he can't hurt her anymore, but Immortal Bella is different.
Although he'd faced every sunrise with the knowledge that he could slip and hurt her, his months with human Bella were exciting and unpredictable. He never knew what she was thinking, so nothing could truly be anticipated.
He hadn't bothered to keep track of the hours he's listened to others' thoughts about sexual technique. Their first time, there in the kitchen in the house in Forks, is among his most memorable sexual experiences. Laying her over the table and fishing out the string of her thong with his tongue, kissing her bare ass, and finally sitting her up on the counter as they both watched as he fucked her for the first time—these memories are played over and over.
Edward just smiles when Bella tells the family that under no circumstances would she ever return to high school. Ever. They all wonder if she'll re-enroll at some point in the future, just to escape boredom. But she and Edward find plenty of things to occupy their time, and for Edward, high school becomes a distant memory.
The only memorable thing that happened in high school was meeting Bella, though, so he can't regret the experience. He met, fell in love with, married, nearly killed, then transformed Bella into an ageless being like himself. Who will walk into eternity with him, side by side, hand in hand.
He has no regrets, because when he gazes into Bella's timeless face, he sees all the answers to all his questions. And he feels perfect peace.
The Reservation
Edward's monetary gift to the reservation utterly transforms it. Habitat for Humanity sends representatives to organize and train the residents of La Push. Upon their departure, sixteen houses have been either rebuilt or refurbished. Several tribal members form a construction company and continue the work, with many others volunteering their time.
As the rebuilding process goes by need and not status, Billy's house is somewhere in the middle. He waits patiently while Jacob enrolls in automotive mechanic school. When he graduates, Jacob opens his own shop, Black Motors. When his and Billy's house is set for demolition, Jacob shuts up shop and volunteers with the demo and the rebuilding. He retrieves Bella's items from storage and secretly refurnishes the entire house. Billy is brought to tears by the kindness bestowed upon him and never lets a day go by that he doesn't ask his Guardian Spirit's forgiveness for his shortsightedness and prejudice.
Jake, like the other Wolves, doesn't age. He stays his same, happy 6' 7" self. He imprints on a woman from another tribe named, of all things, Lydia. When she hears this, Bella thinks that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Lydia and Jacob are married and with the tribe's assistance, build their own house. In true Cullen fashion, Edward gives them a check for a wedding present.
After all, Jacob was a good friend to Bella. He may have even saved her life, and Edward knows he can never repay him for that.
Edward and Bella sometimes talk with him on the phone, and always go by and see him and Lydia when they travel down to the reservation.
Bella and Edward
Bella and Edward spend the first unpredictable years of Bella's second life in the cabin, as the nearest humans are the Quileute, and of course, they don't smell like food. Each Christmas, they cut a small tree and decorate it with natural items they find or make. And every year at Thanksgiving, a news program comes on, retelling the story of the still-anonymous benefactor that saved so many people from destitution, homelessness, illness, hunger, misery, and ignorance due to lack of education.
It's the gift that keeps on giving. As the decades go by, wealthy business owners, heirs, and even ordinary people begin to donate generously of whatever they can spare. And the more they give, the more people are helped. A billionaire uses his incredible wealth to wipe out student loan debt in America. Another funds a program that pairs low-income graduates with a car, so they have a way to work or school. Yet another pays the school lunch debt of every child in the country.
This charitable fervor grows into a movement that sweeps the globe. The filthy rich and wealthy corporations are finally held to account: Give, and give generously, or be taxed. Philanthropic activities become the standard practice of every enterprise, both large and small. A new era of kindness and civility rises forth and, although it takes more than a century, poverty becomes a thing of the past, a dirty page of a well-read book that nobody ever wants to pick up again.
The saga of The Gold Foundation is widely recognized as a turning point in human evolution. Income inequality is finally seen as the death knell of civilization. Governments around the world, from countries large and small, take steps to even the playing field, so all citizens can realize their potential and enjoy lives full of pleasure and meaningful work.
Alice had foreseen it, although she couldn't make sense of it at the time. The gold thread that had woven so insistently through her visions was simply this: her brother, upending the status quo.
Throughout history, no one ever finds out the identity of the individual who started it all.
Many decades after Bella's scorching conversion, she and Edward return to Forks and their home. It's been well cared for by several tenants of long-term leases. It looks exactly as they remember it. They buy a new mattress, towels and linens, and settle in as newcomers to the area.
Nobody is left who could recognize them.
Bella pens startling novels about otherworldly beings and the strange lives they lead. She's had a best seller, and of course, all proceeds go to the animal shelter foundation that she's established. She never did master calculus, but doesn't feel that it's worth mentioning.
Edward comes up with a formula for a makeup that can be applied to Immortal skin to allow them to go out in the sun. Next, he designs a portable contraption that filters drinking water. He and Bella give them to villages all over Africa and South America.
For a time, he and Bella live on a ranch they purchase in southern Arizona, and Edward finally takes her to all the spots he'd visited after the family had been banished.
One sunny Sunday near Christmas, they trek up into the mountains above La Push and revisit their cabin. It still looks relatively the same, under the protective umbrella of the Madrone tree. Much like its inhuman occupants, it doesn't seem to age, but remains forever the same.
They'd left all the furnishings behind for the shapeshifters to enjoy, as they could access it easily in their Wolf form. Someone had pulled heavy sheets of plastic over the bed and wardrobe, and Bella pulls them off as Edward lights a fire in the tiny fireplace.
Bella curls up on the bed the Wolf boys had hauled up the mountain after she's said goodbye to her mortal life, and isn't wistful or regretful, but filled with peace.
Edward slowly undresses her, as her remembered perfume fills his head. They move slowly, languidly, and he goes back in time to those first magical days of their marriage, when he'd made love to human Bella, when he had held her mortal life in his hands, and had handled it with the greatest care.
When Edward looks down at the reservation, now gleaming in the pale sun, he knows it is but a microcosm of the greater good that can be achieved if people of vision band together for the common welfare. Not to mold indigenous peoples into their own vision of perfection; rather to assist those people with funds and expertise so they may use their own gifts, so they may rise up out of poverty and lead happy, productive lives.
Have the humans of the world collectively woken up? Edward woke up one day as he was driving through Arizona. Perhaps Bella was right. The desert is an honest place, and nothing can really hide there. And all the hiding that Edward had done for his entire existence was put to an end.
There among the mesquites and the palo verde trees, under a cloudless sky that stretched over him like a pale, blue bowl, with the bougainvillea and the orange trees and the saguaros cradling him like a mother, he realized he had been hiding from himself, from the hateful, loathsome creature that he despised, that he thought himself to be.
He had his epiphany on a windy day near the inconsequential borough of Gila Bend, on a section of Interstate 10 that stretched ever eastward like a pale, gray band. He breathed in the creosote and marveled as the dry, dusty expanse filled him with light. The resilience of the desert showed him that there was always hope.
And he didn't have to hide anymore.
He'd made a single, simple phone call and set into motion a series of events that eventually changed the world. He was one woke man with the desire to even the scales, nothing more, but his actions had altered the lives of millions of people, and as he and Bella walk down the mountain toward home, surrounded by wood and earth and the smells of cedar and rain, the lines of Steve Miller's Fly Like an Eagle come to him.
Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slipping into the future
I want to fly like an eagle, to the sea
Fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me
Fly like an eagle, 'till I'm free Oh, lord, through the revolution
Feed the babies, who don't have enough to eat
Shoe the children, with no shoes on their feet
House the people, living on the street
Oh, there's a solution.
Twilight gypsy
December 30th, 2020 / June 11, 2021
There are a thousand charities that would gladly accept our money, but my husband and I donate to entities that benefit the local population. Many charities have high overhead costs. If you are inclined to donate, consider giving to your local church, youth group, animal shelter, or the YMCA.
"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth." Mohammed Ali