A/N:
I'm updating a little late here, I know, but we have this stupid wifi that was out of data and it was refilled only 30 minutes ago…
Anyway, let's see what happens between Leah and Alice!
I'm gonna continue putting the disclaimer here just be sure that everyone is aware of where this story originated.
This story isn't 100 % mine. I have transformed it into a story from an interactive story app called Choices (an app I am completely obsessed with atm) and the creators are Pixelberry Studios.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
{Chapter 11}
Snowflakes flurried softly around in the wintery landscape outside the Elysian Lodge. For a brief moment, it seemed there was no more tranquil place in the world.
On the inside, there was a different story.
Leah got up from the floor and stalked forward toward Alice, who in return backed away. The breakfast tray clattered to the floor and soon, both of them disappeared down the hallway.
Edward opened the door to our room behind me, only wearing his underwear, and he looked at me questioningly. "Princess? What's going on?"
I went back into the room with him and began to take the borrowed clothes off. "No time to explain. Here." I gave him the clothes and put on my dress from last night.
He hurriedly got dressed before following me down the hall.
A big crash told me that a window had been shattered somewhere on the bottom floor and when I ran down the stairs, I saw Leah and Alice struggling in the snow outside.
"Wait! Let me explain—" Alice tried, but Leah silenced her with a punch.
"Shut up!" She grabbed Alice by the collar of her t-shirt. "It was you! You killed her!" She continued to deliver punches again and again to Alice, who had blood running down her nose at this point.
Alice had not even raised her arm to defend herself.
"P-please … I'm sorry!"
Everyone else had gathered at this point as they must have heard the commotion.
"Leah? What is she—?" Victoria looked frightened and confused.
I took it upon myself to explain to them all what was going on. "There was a video in one of the rooms here. It showed Alice … killing Leah's mom." My voice trailed off at the end as the video played back in my head.
"What?!" Garrett exclaimed in shock.
"We gotta do something," Edward said from behind me, and I knew he was right, but I didn't know what could calm Leah down at this point. She was completely lost in her rage.
Garrett ran over and attempted to break the women apart, but Leah surprised him by turning around and shoving him to the ground. "Leah, come on! Enough!" he yelled at her, but she ignored him.
"Leah, please!" I called to her. "Let's call a truce just for a moment!"
Alice nodded. "Yes … please, let's talk about th—"
Leah slapped Alice with her open palm. "You won't say another word. And to think I trusted you … you murdering bitch!" She stepped back and wound up for another punch.
"I c-can help you!" Alice tried. "I have information!"
Leah hesitated and Garrett and Peter took advantage of it by grabbing her arms and barely managing to hold her back.
"No! Let me … go!" she said through gritted teeth, but her strength wasn't enough to resist the two burly football players.
Seeing that the guys had some control over Leah, I turned to Alice and glared at her angrily. "Explain. Quickly."
"Tell us it's not true!" Victoria said from behind me.
Alice sighed and got up from the snow. "I wish I could." Her eyes were sad as she met mine. "It's true. Susan was my friend and I … ended her life."
Tanya gasped. "You … what?"
"Mr. Cullen said it was the only way!" Alice claimed. "She was going to ruin us. He insisted that I do it."
Alistair groaned and buried his face in his hands. "My god."
"Is this supposed to save your ass?" Leah yelled at Alice. "Because it's not working!"
"Please, I know it sounds bad, but my mission now is to protect you! All of you!" Alice replied.
I frowned. "What could possibly be worth all this?"
"You wouldn't understand," she said and shook her head. "What Mr. Cullen is doing will fix the world." Her gaze flickered from one face to another as if she was trying to outrun her own thoughts.
"She is a killer, and she's crazy!" Edward said incredulously. He was frowning angrily and slowly moving toward me. I'd noticed he did that whenever he got angry, and I wondered if perhaps I helped anchor him from doing something stupid on a whim.
"It's the culmination of Mr. Cullen's experiments … his life's work!" Alice continued. "He has a machine at MASADA…"
I nodded. "Yeah, the Lernaean Gate," I said.
"No. A different machine," Alice said and looked at me with intense eyes. "One that can erase all the pain and suffering people like us have had to endure."
I startled. "What?" I knew she was implying something about my past, but I didn't know what that could be. Our pasts had nothing in common. I never lived on the streets or jumped between foster families.
I didn't get my wonderings answered, though, because Leah interrupted. "Heard enough yet? I have!" She tore herself out of Garrett and Peter's grip and charged at Alice once more.
That was when I noticed that Benjamin was transfixed by something in the opposite direction of the struggle. I followed his gaze and saw several large clumps of snow fall simultaneously from the lodge's roof at a rhythmic pace.
A faint tremor passed through the ground, then another.
"Guys," he said. "I think something's coming … something big!"
A massive form, all white fur and black claws, came lumbering around the corner. It growled deeply and Jacorel gasped.
"By the Endless … the Mountain Guardian!"
Edward grabbed my hand and started to back us away. "Guardian?! That's a goddamn Yeti!"
Leah was so shocked by the sight of the massive bear-like animal that she stopped her attack on Alice. "What the hell?!"
Alice immediately got up and made a run for it into the forest.
"She's getting away!" Tanya cried out and pointed in the direction Alice was fleeing.
"Tanya! Look out!"
Tanya turned around at Alistair's warning in time to see the twenty-foot tall beast looming up next to her. "Wha—Aaaaah!"
Angered by the scream, the Yeti reached down and grabbed Tanya in one of its huge paws. It let out a loud roar that caused us all to jump.
"No! Tanya!" I yelled.
"Let her go!" Alistair exclaimed angrily. He ran forward in her defense but stopped short in front of the gargantuan creature, unsure of what to do.
On pure instinct, I decided to distract it. "We're not your enemy!" As I yelled this at the animal, I noticed bullet wounds along its left arm and side.
It bared its teeth at me, but slowly set Tanya down anyway.
She gasped and fell into Alistair's arms. "Ohmygod … ohmygod!"
"Are you alright?" he asked her and quickly ushered her into safety.
Furball ran forward and exhaled a cone of frost at the enormous beast. Icicles sprouted from the Yeti's fur, but otherwise, it appeared unharmed.
The beast bent down and brought its snout forward to sniff the tiny fox. It grunted softly at Furball before snatching him up and bounded toward the forest.
"Furball!"
"Get back here!" I screamed at the retreating beast. "Where are you taking him?"
"Oh man! Is it gonna eat him?" Emmett gasped and stared in the direction where the beast had disappeared with Furball.
"What even just happened?" Benjamin asked. "Are we in a full-blown Christmas special territory?"
Leah's hardened gaze was fixed in the direction Alice went. "She ran away. Like the backstabbing coward she is."
Jacorel walked over to examine the Yeti's huge footprints. "This guardian is larger than I would have expected from Harrvel's stories … We'll need to move quickly to catch up."
Peter hesitated. "Yo, that was, like, an abominable snowman! Should we really go after it? And there are still evil super soldier dudes out there! I dunno guys."
Kate cautiously agreed. "We might never make it to where the Gate is if we try to save him."
"If it wasn't for Furball, most of us would have been torn to shreds by that sabertooth our second day here!" Garrett said with a frown. "We owe him this."
Leah threw her arm out in frustration in the direction she'd rather go. "And leave that murderer to get away with what she did? We need to catch her!"
I placed a hand on her shoulder. "I want to hold Alice accountable as much as you do … but if we don't act fast, that monster could kill Furball."
She huffed. "Fine. But when we do find her, none of you had better get in my way."
I was about to just follow the Yeti as I was, but I was stopped, surprisingly enough, by Kate.
"Bella, there is no way you're going outside dressed like that. You'll catch pneumonia, and that's the last thing we need right now," she said with her hands on her hips and a serious expression on her face.
"I only have this and my Kaarii clothes, and they're not exactly warmer," I told her.
"How lucky for you then that there was almost as much abandoned luggage here as at the resort," she replied and actually proceeded to physically pull me back up the stairs and into a room.
Sure enough, there was a bag there and when Kate opened it she quickly found a pair of jeans, a shirt, and long-sleeved pullover.
Neither article of clothing fit me very well, but I had to admit, it would be warmer to wander through the snow in that than anything else I'd been wearing for the last couple of days.
When we came back downstairs, I noticed that I wasn't the only one who had changed. Almost everyone had found something warmer to put on, and it felt better knowing we would be able to focus on finding Furball instead of freezing half to death.
We tracked the footprints for half an hour. Endless rows of pine and fir trees stretched ahead of us.
As we weaved a path from each footprint to the next, I noticed tears streaming down Leah's face.
"Leah," I said softly.
"What?" she asked, but not as defensively as she usually did.
"I'm so sorry about your mother. I can't imagine what this must be like, but I'll do whatever I can to help," I told her sincerely.
She sighed. "All this time I thought it was Cullen. It was easier that way. Knowing that someone she trusted, so deeply … betrayed her, it's just…" She inhaled deeply and gazed at the sky as she struggled to fight back her grief. "It goes to show that you can never really trust anyone."
"You can trust me, Leah." I placed a hand on her back to comfort her, and the two of us walked on in silence.
Suddenly, Edward spoke up. "Wait a sec! Do you see that snow coming down up ahead," he said and nodded forward.
Peter glanced at him. "Yeah, uh, that's actually how it gets all over the ground," he explained carefully.
Kate rolled her eyes at him. "Peter, give it a rest!"
"What?" he asked innocently. "He's from Louisiana! I didn't know if he knew about that kinda stuff."
"Thanks, Al Roker," Edward replied sarcastically. "What I'm saying is that snow's only falling in an isolated area next to that tree."
"Something's up there!" Tanya pointed toward the top.
I squinted to better see the top of the tall pine tree and spotted Furball clinging onto a branch, his breath crystallizing and turning to snowflakes. "Furball, hang on! We're here to get you!" I called up to him, and he whimpered softly.
Emmett looked around worriedly. "That's totally where I'd put a snack if I wanted to save it for later."
Movement among a distant cluster of firs caught my attention. The ground shook with each step the Yeti took, but it didn't seem to be approaching.
"It's far enough away that we could try to get him down," Garrett said, and I didn't need any more motivation than that.
I looked for footholds and began climbing the tree's trunk.
"Good call. Sure you got this?" Garrett asked, and I knew he was about to offer to do it himself.
"Hope so," I replied with a grunt and heaved myself farther up. "Guess we'll find out in a minute or two."
"Be careful, Bella!" Victoria called after me.
Alistair scoffed. "That's foolish! Now is not the time to throw caution to the wind."
I ignored him and moved from branch to branch as well as I could manage, and I gradually made my way up the tree. I was nearly halfway up when the pine needles began rustling around me.
"Princess, don't move! Kongzilla's returning!" Edward half-yelled to me. "Everybody, hide!" he told the others, and everyone scattered and ran for cover.
He gave me a worried look, and then pressed flat against the trunk so that he was hidden from the Yeti but still close in case I needed help.
I did everything I could to hold perfectly still. I even tried to hold my breath.
The Yeti emerged from the trees; a buzzing beehive was grasped in its claws. It didn't seem to notice anyone.
I took the chance and reached up toward Furball, and whispered softly to him. "Just a little further, Furball. Come on." I reached for the next branch, but it snapped loudly in my hand, and the Yeti immediately reacted with a roar.
It dropped the hive and whirled toward the pine tree.
In the commotion, Furball tried to scurry down the trunk, but he lost his footing and fell down, plummeting dozens of feet to the ground.
"No! Furball!" I cried out, scared out of my mind, and hurried back down the trunk. Edward caught me in his arms when I jumped the last bit, and together we stared at the spot where Furball had disappeared into the snow. The towering beast stared, too, visibly concerned.
"Oh, god! Oh, please, no." Victoria whimpered as she came up behind us.
There was no movement from the hole in the snow. The Yeti lumbered forward and leaned its face down toward it.
A cloud of snowflakes swirled out toward the Yeti's nose, causing the creature to flinch and paw at its face.
Furball dug himself out and shook out his fur, completely unharmed.
"He's okay!" I gasped out in relief.
"Dunno if I am," Benjamin said. "Almost had a heart attack."
The Yeti leaned its face toward Furball and tenderly gave him several licks with its huge tongue.
"Um, I think it's trying to care for Furball like a parent," Tanya said as she studied the Yeti's behavior toward Furball.
"Aww, that's adorable," Victoria gushed.
Furball backed away from the massive beast and scampered toward Victoria. She picked him up and he buried himself deeply in her arms.
"You're a good lil' pupper, Furball," she said and scratched his fur.
The Yeti saw Furball in Victoria's arms, and its protective instinct kicked in once again. It growled at her as it approached intimidatingly.
"Uh, I think you're pissing it off—" Rosalie said to Victoria, but before she could finish, the beast's growl turned into a roar. "Yep. Definitely pissed off."
The creature rose to its full height and continued to approach Victoria.
"This is like the custody battle from hell!" Benjamin exclaimed.
Victoria, however, stood her ground and glared at the Yeti. "You know what? I've had about enough of you! Just … stop!"
The Yeti suddenly seemed hypnotized; a faint glow appeared in its eyes. It continued to move forward, causing snow to slide off of the surrounding trees with each heavy step.
"Vicky, what are you doing?!" I exclaimed in fear. I recognized that glow in the beast's eyes all too well.
Victoria was, fortunately, still herself. "I … I don't know. It feels like I'm somehow in her mind."
"'Her'?"
She locked eyes with me. "I think I can bring her over to our side, Bella."
I was unsure if it was wise to allow Victoria to use her new powers, but I knew that she would feel hurt if I denied her the chance to help us like this, and that was why I held my arm out to the others. "Stand back, everybody!" I nodded at her. "Okay, Vicky. Go for it."
Victoria squared her shoulders and stared into the approaching beast's eyes. "This fox is our friend! We're not going to hurt him!" she said, but it didn't hold the same authority as her order for the animal to stop.
The snarling behemoth just continued to advance.
"It's not working," Tanya said with a trembling voice.
Victoria swallowed hard and tried again. "Please, uh … we need your help!"
And there it was. The powerful tone of her voice that revealed she was driven by the Island's Heart.
The creature abruptly stopped. It got down on all fours, suddenly entirely docile.
"Hell yeah!" Peter cheered. "I think we just got ourselves a Bigfoot!"
Benjamin blinked at Victoria, baffled. "Vic, are you the Three-Eyed Raven? Can you warg into animals?"
Victoria continued to speak to the animal. "Guardian, we need to get to the northern peninsula. Can you help us?"
The Yeti lowered its upper body to allow her to climb on. She used the creature's shaggy fur to hoist herself up. Once she reached its shoulders, she tentatively patted the side of its head. It nuzzled her and Furball affectionately.
"Oh! I think she likes me," Victoria said happily.
Kate shook her head. "So we have a Yeti now. That's, like, a thing now?"
Garrett chuckled. "Yeah, I'm just rolling with it at this point."
Victoria ushered the Yeti forward, and soon, she and Furball rode through the forest with the rest of us walking behind.
Edward came up next to me and grabbed my hand to entwine our fingers. "I have to say, while it's cool and all to have a Yeti at our beck and call, my plan wasn't to trudge through the forest in the snow on your birthday," he said.
I chuckled. "No, I can't say it was on my agenda either, but I guess we should be used to having our plans change continuously by now."
"Yeah, we should. I'd just hoped to have you all to myself today, but I guess this is fun, too."
I leaned slightly against him, and he let go of my hand to put his arm around my shoulders instead. "We did technically celebrate my birthday last night," I said. "And with everything we did, I have to say that I am more than satisfied."
He smirked. "Oh, believe me. Last night will stay with me for a very long time. Never imagined you had that in you."
I tilted my head back to look at him, and he met my eyes. "That just goes to show how much you still don't know about me, Edward Masen." I smiled wide and he returned it before leaning down to give me a short kiss that was anything but chaste.
He straightened out and got a thoughtful expression. "That actually reminds me that I have no idea how old you are."
I laughed. "Wow, that's evidence of how upside down our relationship is."
He snorted. "Tell me about it, but seriously. How old are you?"
"Well, it's 2018 now, so that would be twenty-two," I answered him.
"Huh," he said and nodded. "Well, at least that assures me I didn't corrupt a complete minor. You were at least already legal to drink when we met."
"That's what you're worried about?" I asked him, amused.
He shook his head and tightened his arm around me. "Not at all. I'd done a whole lot worse than you've done durin' these island adventures when I was your age."
I rolled my eyes. "You say it as if it was ages ago that you were twenty-two. It's not that long ago."
He frowned in confusion. "And how do you know that? I've never told you how old I am. You know, I might be an unusually well-preserved fifty-six-year-old or somethin' like that." He winked, but I could still see the question in his eyes.
I remembered then that I had never told him about the dossiers I'd found. The only ones in the know about all of them were Benjamin, Alistair, and Leah.
I really hoped he wouldn't feel like I had breached his private life by reading his file, but I knew I couldn't keep it from him any longer. "Actually, I know that you will turn twenty-seven in February," I confessed, and his eyes widened.
"How the hell do you know that, Princess?"
I cleared my throat and told him the entire story about the folders and that his was the first one I came across. Because of my budding feelings for him back then, all the information in his file had etched itself into my head.
I fingered his dog tags around his neck and read the embossed text even though I knew what it said by heart after my vision where I'd been wearing them myself. A small shudder went through me at the thought of that possible future.
Edward didn't say anything for quite some time, but then he placed his hand over mine, which was still playing with the metal plates on the ball chain. "I guess I have a lot of catchin' up to do, then."
"You're not mad?" I asked softly.
"For what? That you're sensible about keepin' information to yourself until you know who you can trust? Definitely not. I'd have been more worried if you'd told everyone right away."
I looked down at the snow we were still trudging through. "You're not angry I didn't tell you sooner?"
"Would I have preferred to know? Yeah, sure, but I'm not gonna blame you for forgettin'. Not with everythin' crazy around us these days."
I relaxed and Edward smiled.
"You worry too much, Princess. You keep that up and you'll get premature wrinkles."
"Would you like me less if I did?" I asked him teasingly.
"Not at all."
After several hours of walking through the heavy snow, we emerged from the evergreen forest at the shore of a frozen lake.
I was completely exhausted, but there was something telling me we couldn't just stop and rest either as if we were being followed or watched.
The Yeti came to a stop and bent down to let Victoria and Furball down. She stroked the beast's snout. "Thank you very much, friend," she told it, and it nuzzled her hand.
As the animal was still bent down, I noticed strands of black metallic netting wrapped tightly around the Yeti's shoulder.
"Wait a sec," I said. "There's something stuck to her." I worked carefully to detangle the net, and I discovered it was connected to a central device with a spider-shaped mark etched into it. "There! Got it off."
"Lemme see that," Edward said, and then he frowned. "It's an Arachnid tracker. What the hell would McKenzie want with her?"
The Yeti raised an enormous limb to point out across the lake, indicating the direction of our goal. She then gazed down at Furball.
The two of them held each other's gaze for a long moment before the Yeti finally turned and headed back into the forest.
"I don't know how I can sense this, but I think she'll come back to us if we need her," Victoria said wondrously while gazing after the retreating creature.
Jacorel looked baffled. "The Guardian … recognized her own kind."
"What do you mean?" Benjamin asked him.
"She must believe that Furball will one day take her place. It is the only reason she would try to keep him safe," he explained.
Furball tilted his head to the side, obviously understanding Jacorel's words, but also not completely comprehending what he meant.
"That would explain his unusual abilities," Alistair pointed out.
I chuckled. "Our very own guardian-in-training. Who knew?"
Furball turned away from our conversation and skittered across the shore toward the icy surface.
Garrett, the never off-duty boy scout, was scanning our surroundings. "Those cliffs are gonna be too steep to climb. Looks like we're headed over the lake."
"Is it solid enough? I don't need to deal with anyone entering hypothermia from falling through," Kate said, and Tanya immediately spoke up to assure her.
"The ice is clear, which means there's less air trapped inside."
Alistair nodded his approval. "Well observed. Given the thickness and high density, it should be safe enough."
"Good thing we brought Pierre and Marie Curie along," Edward said, and it caused them both to look at him sideways. "What?" he asked defensively. "Don't give me that look! I know scientific … stuff!"
We all looked at each other before tentatively setting our feet on the ice. Benjamin slipped slightly, but Jacorel was there to keep him steady.
Gradually, we made our way across the smooth, glass-like surface.
Victoria giggled. "If only I had my ice skates. This would be a great place to perfect my double axel!"
Kate smiled at her. "Nice. I didn't know you figure skated."
"Well, I'm not great at it or anything," Victoria replied modestly.
"Remind me if we ever get home to show you my medals from the Collegiate Championships."
Victoria gaped at her. "Medals … plural?"
Kate simply smiled at her and continued walking.
A while later, as we neared the center of the lake, Leah suddenly stopped and knelt down.
"Leah? You alright?" I asked.
She didn't answer me but used her gloved hand to clear the frost from the ice and revealed an object frozen a few inches below. I instantly recognized it to be an idol.
Leah looked at me with wide eyes. "I … don't know how I knew it was there," she said.
Jacorel crouched down and examined the idol. "Draco. I remember Harrvel talking about that kaalta."
Emmett rummaged through his messenger bag for something and produced a portable burner, which he gave to me. "You could probably melt it out with this, yeah?"
I looked at the burner skeptically. "Do I want to know why you have this, Emmett?"
He shrugged and grinned unapologetically.
"Alright," I said and turned on the burner. "Let's give this a shot." I held the burner over the spot where the idol was frozen and after only a few minutes, the ice had melted enough to dig it out.
I held it in my hand as I put the burner away, and Leah stretched for it as if she wasn't controlling the movement. I waited for the moment her fingers touched the still-dripping amber, and when they did, the frozen landscape around me was torn away.
I landed in the familiar place of the Hartfeld University library, and I instantly spotted Leah sitting by herself at a small table. Her attention was focused on a thick, black volume entitled The Executioner's Song.
Alistair came walking up, a stack of law textbooks wobbling in his arms. "Do you mind if I sit here?" he asked Leah. "All of the other tables seem to be taken."
Leah merely nodded without looking up from her reading.
"Thanks." He set his things down and ventured a glance at the book in her hands. "True crime. A genre I enjoy, as well," he said with a smirk-like smile.
Leah only hummed in response, but her eyes flickered toward him briefly before they returned to the book.
From behind a nearby row of shelves, I could hear the laughter and talking of two unknown girls.
"Did you see that transfer student? Her face looks like she got into a fight with a Slap Chop and lost!"
"I know! She's way creepy. I heard her entire family died a bunch of years ago."
Leah cleared her throat to notify the girls that she could, in fact, hear every word they said.
They didn't seem to care, though.
"Yeah, super sketch … I hope she doesn't come on the dorm retreat. I don't wanna worry about getting stabbed in my sleep, you know?"
"Hahaha! Ohmygod, for real!"
The two girls walked off toward the library exit, and I turned to look at Leah.
Alistair looked slightly uncomfortable as he cleared his throat. "I, ah … I wouldn't worry about them. Even the sorority queens and head athletes end up falling to the bottom of the pecking order eventually. Trust is a fragile thing, and nowhere more brittle than among the 'popular' crowd."
"Longing for acceptance from those kinds of people is a waste of time," Leah agreed.
Alistair smiled. "Indeed. And if they underestimate people like us, they do so at their own peril."
"Exactly." She gave Alistair a slight nod and went back to the volume in her hands.
He smiled to himself and pulled a weathered textbook from the top of his stack, and the two of them comfortably pored over their books in silence for the rest of the study break.
And my surroundings faded away until I was standing in the grand atrium of The Ethereal. A red cloud billowed in the reflecting pool.
Alice's body was lying crumpled over the basin. The fountain's jets sprinkled onto her, washing away the blood of several stab wounds.
Leah's shoulders heaved as she caught her breath. A knife slid from her grip and fell to the floor. "It's over, Mom. I did it," she said to herself in an almost empty voice.
A figure appeared on one of the atrium's balconies.
"I owe you so much, Leah."
Leah looked up. "You!"
"Gratitude, apologies … perhaps a bereavement package?" He looked at Alice's body. "She was a liability, and I should've seen to her eradication long ago. Now you've saved me the trouble."
Leah took a spear from a sling on her back and carefully readied her throwing stance.
"As for Susan, I respected her greatly—"
"Snake! Do not dare to speak her name!"
"I never would've been able to bring myself to kill her. That's why I needed Alice." He smiled. "What an elegant development that her own daughter would finally close the loop."
"Die, you filth!" Leah launched her spear with everything she had. It flew up into the balcony and went right through Cullen, who strangely enough started to flicker.
He grinned. "If I only had your perfect aim…"
A gunshot rang out across the room and Leah slumped forward, falling to her knees. She looked down and saw a blood stain blossoming like a rose along her abdomen.
She spun around and saw Cullen, the real Cullen, standing behind her with a gun in his hand. The figure on the balcony disappeared and a small spherical drone floated to hover beside him.
"You bastard…" Leah groaned out. She lurched toward Cullen and he shot her again, this time in the side. "No. I didn't come … this far…"
Cullen frowned. "Stay. Down." He shot two more times, directly into Leah's chest.
She crumpled, her legs betraying her. But even with her body a ragged ruin, she clawed forward along the floor, fury in her eyes. "K … kill you…"
"My god. You're persistent, aren't you? Like mother, like daughter, I suppose." He squatted down over her and pressed the barrel of the gun to her temple. "Goodbye, Leah Montoya. I wish this could have worked out differently."
He fired the gun, and in a blink, I was back on the frozen lake.
"You look frightened. What's wrong?" Leah asked me, and I had to swallow hard to dissolve the lump I felt in my throat.
"Let's—just keep moving."
As we moved onward, the lake narrowed sharply, becoming a strait lined with imposing cliffs. Edward stopped walking, suddenly appearing alarmed.
"Crap. Bad timing," he said under his breath and I looked at him questioningly, but then I heard the chorus of revving motors.
Arachnid troops on ski bikes roared out from around the cliffs. They sped across the frozen lake and circled our group.
"Surpriiiiise!"
The bikes came to a stop, and the hulking brute stepped off.
"Looks like you've reached the end of the line," he said and grinned.
Edward shook his head at him. "New recruit, huh? McKenzie ain't what you think, pal."
"Not just a recruit. I'm your replacement, Eddie-boy."
Edward frowned. "Listen up, Amateur Hour. If you can't even come up with a decent nickname, don't waste my time. McKenzie must be packin' those cigars with something funny if he thinks he can put Inspector Gadget's idiot cousin in my spot."
The brute narrowed his eyes. "That's Tetra to you!" Then he smiled. "Heh. Talk all you want, traitor. I have the upper hand ... in fact, I have two."
The motors on his mechanical fists whined as he readied them.
Garrett looked over at me intently, as if to indicate that he was about to do something, and I knew he wanted me to distract Tetra.
"So, Tetra … why do you want us dead so badly?"
Tetra's attention focused in on me. "Oh, it's nothing personal. A job's a job, and Mr. Cullen happens to know how to put his money where his mouth is."
I shrugged. "Too bad that McKenzie will backstab you," I said casually, and Edward caught on what I was doing.
"Bella's right about that," he said. "I don't think you know what you got yourself into, Tin Man."
"Oh? And why would he backstab me?"
Edward raised his brow at Tetra. "McKenzie is loyal only to himself. The moment that bastard thinks he can get you to take the fall for him, you're gone. You'll never see it coming."
Tetra scoffed. "Last I checked, it was you who did the betraying, Eddie-boy."
Garrett ran toward a pair of soldiers, but Tetra spotted him and raised one of his mechanical arms.
The brute deployed a fist toward Garrett, who barely managed to jump out of the way. Instead, the hydraulic limb slammed into the surface of the lake, causing it to heave beneath us.
"W-whoa!"
Cracks appeared in the ice. I lost my balance and tumbled down.
The surrounding soldiers leveled their rifles at us.
"Do not move!" one of them ordered.
Tetra retracted his arm and grinned at Edward. "You can come with us, or we can kill you right here. Your choice."
As I climbed back up on my feet, something slipped out of my bag and went rolling across the ice.
Jacorel gasped. "The Island's Heart!"
"Someone grab it!" Benjamin exclaimed.
I dove toward it but missed.
The sphere slid over the ice and came to a stop at Victoria's feet. My eyes widened as I saw her bending down to get it.
"No! Victoria—"
Her fingers grasped the sphere and an unseen force lifted her into the air. Her eyes became twin motes of blazing green.
Everyone stared at her hovering form in shock.
"W-what kind of…" Peter started, but couldn't get the whole sentence out.
"What mushrooms did I … I mean, are we in a horror film?!" Emmett exclaimed.
Tetra backed a few steps. "That ain't normal. Shoot her!"
"Sir, her radiation levels are off the—" a soldier said, but Tetra interrupted him.
"Do it!"
The Arachnid troops simultaneously opened fire on Victoria.
"No!" she said in a booming voice. She extended a hand and all of the bullets slowed down until they were crawling through the air. She dropped her arm and the projectiles clattered to the ice harmlessly.
Edward looked more scared than I'd ever seen him before as he stood frozen next to me. "I didn't sign up for this kinda stuff…" he mumbled to himself.
Victoria reached out to a group of soldiers as if trying to push them away. "Get … out of here!"
A green fire erupted around them. Their bodies gradually became translucent, as if they were being pulled through time.
"Guys, run!" Garrett said, and nobody was slow to follow his lead, but because of the remaining soldiers still blocking our path, only Leah, Kate, and Emmett were able to get away.
"Oh yes. Run. With your tails between your legs…" Tetra called after them. "Not that it'll do you much good!" He pointed both his fists at the ice and began deploying them repeatedly.
"Is he freakin' crazy?" Peter cried out.
A web of widening fissures crossed the lake.
"It's beginning to break up!" Tanya called out.
"Yeah, it is!" Tetra bellowed proudly.
The remaining Arachnid troops scattered. Everyone fled toward the cliffs.
"Wait! We can't leave Vicky!" I yelled.
Victoria floated upward, the otherworldly light around her caught on falling teardrops. "I am in pieces … they've taken everything."
"Vicky, or … whoever, please, listen!" I tried and looked at Tetra. "That man broke you!"
"What?" Victoria gazed down at Tetra who worked hard at shattering the lake.
"Yeah, look at him! Now he's breaking more stuff!" Rosalie agreed.
The light around Victoria pulsed stronger and Tetra looked up from what he was doing.
"This time … YOU WILL BREAK!" She reached out to Tetra's mechanical limb, which rapidly rusted and imploded before his eyes.
"Gaahhhh!" He fled across the fracturing ice, but Victoria floated after him.
"This is just like the end of Frozen!" Benjamin exclaimed. "Except with, like, The Exorcist happening at the same time."
"She should let it go," Jacorel said worriedly. "Victoria, let it go!"
An unbearable crackling sound filled the air, and then the ice sheet gave way.
"Go! Get off the lake!" Edward yelled out.
I tried to do as he said, but a jumble of uneven surfaces shifted beneath me. I struggled to keep my balance, and when I looked around, I saw several of the others in worse trouble than myself.
Garrett had fallen into the water. He was struggling to keep his head above the surface.
Rosalie was trapped on a fast-moving ice floe, hurtling toward the far end of the lake.
"Not good … not good!"
Alistair was losing his grip while clinging to a sheer cliff above churning plates of ice.
Furball was next to me, and he looked up at me with eyes that told me he wanted to help.
I knew Garrett was a good swimmer, and Alistair was close to the others, and that was why I turned in Rosalie's direction, who I assessed to be in the most imminent danger. I tried to move toward her, and Furball took a deep breath and exhaled a thick cloud of frost onto the watery ice.
It froze a path for me toward Rosalie.
"Rosalie, come on! We gotta get off the lake!" I yelled and reached my hand out to her.
"No argument here!"
I looked over my shoulder and saw that Peter had gotten Garrett out of the water. His skin was blue from the frigid water, and he was shaking badly, but otherwise appeared to be fine.
Alistair had fallen onto the ice floes. He appeared injured and struggled to crawl to the shore.
I heard the roar of water crashing down, and I felt a spray of mist on my back. I turned around and my eyes widened when I realized that the floe Rosalie, Furball, and I was on was approaching a massive waterfall.
"That must be, like, a mile-high drop!" Rosalie cried out over the roaring fall.
As the three of us prepared to jump off the floe, a shadow appeared on the water.
Victoria descended from the sky and blocked our path.
"Broken…" she whined.
I swallowed hard and reached out to touch her, hoping it would work this time as well.
It didn't. She glared at me with emerald flames smoldering in her eyes.
"I will never be whole … Never!"
"Vicky, it's me! I need you to fight it! Try to remember who you are. Think about the things we've been through together. Remember that bridge in Elyys'tel?" I pleaded with her desperately. "I don't think I've ever been more devastated in my life than the moment I thought I lost you. We'd won the battle and I thought everything would finally return to normal." Tears welled in my eyes and blurred my sight. "Instead, when you and I were on that bridge … my worst nightmare started coming true and there was nothing I could—"
"But you did."
Victoria's voice was her own, but her eyes were still glowing green.
"Victoria?" I asked tentatively.
"You saved me, Bella."
Victoria closed her eyes and the roaring waterfall was suddenly silent. The bobbing of the ice floe beneath our feet ceased, and even the churning tide stopped in place.
She slowly floated to the shore, and the three of us followed her.
Leah's fist collided with the Island's Heart in Victoria's hands, knocking it out of her grasp.
She dropped to the snowy ground beside the water, and in an instant, the waterfall resumed.
"Leah? What … happened?"
"Oh, sorry. You were, uh…" Leah looked at me for help, and the rest of the group came running over. "Um, you were…"
"You were floating in the sky using superpowers. Super … Powers!" Emmett exclaimed, unable to contain himself.
"Is she alright? Let me see her!" Kate insisted and pushed forward.
Everyone looked at Victoria, not knowing quite what to say.
"You okay now, Vicky?" I asked her worriedly.
She nodded. "I think so. Thanks, Bella, and Leah." She gazed past all of us, her eyes focusing on something in the distance.
I turned and followed gaze.
It was a tall building atop a spire of rock, alone in the white haze.
"My father's facility," Alistair said.
Victoria exhaled. "I guess we're finally going home, guys."
A/N:
Lots of stuff happened there! Alice got away; Furball got fox-napped by a Yeti that turned out to be his predecessor Guardian, Bella told Edward about the dossiers and they got to know each other a little bit better; Leah's idol emerged, Arachnid found them again, and Victoria became that powerful being again.
Will Bella tell the others about Victoria and the Heart now even though Harrvel advised against it?
What are you hoping for?
Are they finally going home?
Tell me your thoughts, babes! They're what I live for!
Until Next Time,
Stay Awesome!