A/N:

Now, I know this story has been a lot of as soon as one threat is dealt with another pops up and it feels like it's never-ending. That it's just a huge roller-coaster, but please bear with me. Things are moving forward and will calm down a bit in a couple of chapters!

Okay, awesome! Let's get on with it!

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 15}

We clustered together in the MASADA, surrounded by Arachnid troops.

"So are we back to the Ghostbusters part now?" Benjamin asked defeatedly.

Cullen chuckled. "You mean the containment pods? Oh, no, no, no. That's no longer necessary." He glanced over his shoulder. "Alice?"

She stepped forward. "Yes, Mr. Cullen?"

"Kill them all."

My eyes widened in shock even though I had kind of suspected everything to end up like this. I didn't have any bright ideas that would get us out of it either, and that was why I remained quiet.

The others; not so much.

"You can't!" Victoria exclaimed, distraught.

Alice hesitated as well, surprisingly enough. "Mr. Cullen, I don't understand," she said carefully. "You promised Alistair that—"

"That I would not harm them," he interrupted her. "And I won't. I don't harm anybody, Alice." He smiled a wide, charming smile in her direction. "That's why I have you. That's why I've always had you."

I frowned at his words, pissed off beyond belief that he was obviously going to blame Alice if push came to shove, which it undoubtedly would eventually.

Leah was equally pissed. "Alistair will find out what you did," she said with her lip curled in disgust.

Cullen shook his head. "I'll make sure he never knows. Maybe my men had no choice but to gun you down as you tried to escape," he said suggestively with a casual shrug. "Or maybe I'll tell him the truth. Either way, once it's done, what choice will he have but obey me?"

Alice continued to hesitate. "But, sir, these kids … I mean, they're..." She looked at Cullen, stunned as if she was truly seeing him for the first time. "Is this who we are, sir?"

Cullen glared back at her with a thunderous look. "Who I am is a man who gave you an order, Alice. Are you going to follow it or not?"

She swallowed thickly. "Yes, Mr. Cullen," she replied dejectedly.

He huffed and walked out, the door closed behind him.

Kate tried to back away, but the soldier holding on to her stopped her. "Oh, hell no! I am not dying like this!"

I balled up my fists. "They can't stop us if we all attack at once," I told the others underneath my breath. I was not going to be like a sitting duck and wait for death. Not after everything we'd all been through.

Benjamin looked at me like I was crazy. "Yes, they can! They have guns!" he stage-whispered.

Edward frowned without taking his eyes off the troops. "Who cares? I ain't goin' down without a fight!"

"Just leave the snake to me," Leah said, zeroing in on Alice while she and Edward struggled against their captors, but neither of them could wrench themselves free.

As the soldiers closed in on us, Alice held up a hand to stop them. Her expression was one I had never seen on her face before. It was pure hate and rage.

It did not suit her.

"You heard Mr. Cullen," she told the soldiers in a low, threatening voice. "I'll do it myself. Put them on their knees." She pulled a pistol from the back of her waistband.

"Alice, wait—" I pleaded, hoping it would cause enough of a distraction, but it didn't help. The soldiers dragged Leah out first and had to use all their strength to force her down.

"Stop it! Leave her alone!" Victoria yelled, tears streaming down her cheeks.

I fought against my captors, but I couldn't break free even though every fiber of my body screamed at me to help my friend.

Alice walked up and put the pistol's muzzle against Leah's forehead.

Leah didn't look scared at all. She seethed with rage. "Go ahead," she encouraged. "Do it! Do it like you did my mother!"

Alice thumbed off the safety, and I fought even harder against my restraints.

"You think I don't know who you are, Alice?" Leah continued. "What you are?" Her dark eyes bored into Alice's. "You talk like you've got beliefs … like you want to make a better world … But that's all talk. Because in the end, you're nothing. Nothing but a killer."

Alice's breathing got faster, and she hesitated again, but that only caused one of the Arachnid mercs to step up.

"Enough messin' around! If you aren't gonna start shooting—"

Alice raised her gun and shot two of the Arachnid troops in the head.

A third soldier turned to her. "What the—" he exclaimed, but she just shot him too before he could get the whole sentence out.

She spun and fired as the other soldiers aimed their weapons.

One soldier let off a wild spray of bullets as he went down.

"Benji, look out!" I yelled. In the mayhem, the soldier restraining me had let go, and I dove and tackled Benjamin out of the way before he could get hit and shielded him with my own body.

I gasped in pain when one of the bullets grazed my arm, but fortunately, the wound was superficial.

Benjamin panted under me. "You just totally saved my life! You're like John McClane!"

Victoria crouched down next to us. "Are you okay, Bella?" she asked, and I nodded. I was okay, even though the wound on my arm burned like a bitch.

"What the hell, Princess! I'd appreciate it if you didn't try to get yourself killed," Edward said to me harshly, but I knew it stemmed from fear, and so I didn't say anything back. I just looked at him where he stood with a gun he'd managed to get for himself and he was aiming it at Alice as she stood above the fallen soldiers and double-tapped each of them in the head.

When she was done, she wiped a few drops of sweat away from her forehead and turned to us. "Okay. All done," she said and took a step toward me where I was sitting on the floor, clutching my bleeding arm.

Edward stepped in between us, the muzzle of his gun pointing straight between her eyes. "Take it very easy there, Dimples."

Her expression fell. "I'm not gonna do anything to any of you. I just want to make sure Bella is okay."

"I'll do it," Kate said and knelt next to me. She tore off my sleeve and examined my wound. "It's bleeding a lot, but it's not deep." She used the torn fabric to tie a provisional tourniquet over the wound. Then she turned around and looked at Alice. "You saved us. Why?"

"You saved me?" Leah asked with wide, confused eyes.

Alice smiled sadly. "What kinda tour guide would I be if I didn't?" She looked at Leah. "You were right. I am nothing but a killer." Her tears welled over. "But … at least I killed the right people for once..."

Her smile faltered, and then suddenly, she collapsed backward and slumped against the wall, her gun clattering to the floor.

"Alice!" Benjamin cried out in shock and ran up to her. He tried to help her up, but his hands came back soaked in blood.

Kate left my side and checked on her instead. "She's been shot. It's bad."

Leah shouldered Benjamin aside and snatched up Alice's gun and aimed it at her head. "This changes nothing. Nothing! You killed my mom! She was your friend, and you killed her!" She trembled and started to hyperventilate, and she flushed.

Alice looked at us weakly, already growing pale with the blood-loss. "I … believed in Cullen. I thought he'd fix everything," she said breathlessly. "But he lied to me." She started crying again. "I killed my best friend. Killed … so many people." Her breath came out in a series of ragged sobs. "Do it, Leah. Take your revenge … I deserve it."

"Yes! You do!"

We watched in silence as Leah shook with rage, in both hatred and agony.

"Go on. It's your last chance."

Leah's finger quivered against the trigger, and I could see the tears in her eyes.

"Leah, don't let this be all you are," I said, and she turned to glare at me.

"I've dreamt of this moment for six years, Bella. Six years."

"You're so much more than this," I tried again. "Your mom wanted you to be more than this. If you're out for revenge, remember to—"

"To dig two graves?" she retorted angrily and thumbed back the hammer. "I'm gonna need a lot more than two." Leah pulled the trigger and Alice's head whipped back, and then hung limply. The gunshot echoed and then the room was silent. Leah let her hand fall to her side. "I did it, Mom."

She turned away from Alice's body, still shaking. Everyone took a step back from her, and only Victoria reached out to gently touch her arm.

"That must have been hard, Leah. But it's over now."

Leah wiped some blood spatter off her face. "Over? I'm just getting started."

The silence became pained and we all looked at each other, unsure of our next move.

But then, Rosalie stood up. "Come on, we can still get to the gondola another way. Follow me."

We picked up our bags from the corner and followed Rosalie out, and we all looked over our shoulders at Alice's body growing cold, her eyes open and unseeing.

We moved quietly through the complex and checked around the corners for guards when Emmett tripped on a nest of wires.

He flopped on the floor, and his bag popped open and sent out the contents; cooking utensils, packs of meat and veggies, and a small steel device.

I crouched down and picked it up. "Emmett? What is this?"

"Dude," Peter said and came up to us. "Looks like some kinda phone."

Emmett nodded. "Right? I found it down in that Theoretical Prismatics lab. Thought it looked pretty dope."

"Doesn't look like any phone I've ever seen," Victoria pointed out.

Edward came up beside me and tapped a button. A compartment in the device flipped open and revealed a small vial of fluid. He frowned at it. "Looks like the same kinda fluid Cullen was creatin' from those crystals."

"Must be a prototype transponder that can send messages through space-time," Rosalie said and nodded toward the device in my hands.

My eyes widened. "So you're saying it's … a time phone?"

Emmett grinned. "Ha! I knew it looked important!"

Rosalie shook her head. "Not a phone. I'm pretty sure it will only work one-way."

"Do you think we can use it to send messages back home?" Victoria asked, cautiously hopeful.

Kate crossed her arms. "Like, maybe warn ourselves not to come on this trip? Or warn the government about what was going on here?"

"More like warn Cullen's parents to not have sex!" Peter huffed.

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Great idea. Create a massive temporal paradox. That will definitely end well."

I turned to Edward, and he looked deep in thought. "Well, if we can't send a warning back…"

"It's totally useless then, huh?" Benjamin asked hopelessly.

"There is one thing we could use it for," Garrett said with a pained expression. "We could use it to say goodbye."

Victoria turned to him. "You mean, to our loved ones?"

He nodded. "We could send it to right after we left. No paradox." He looked around at all of us. "I dunno about you guys, but I never really said goodbye. We didn't know it'd be the last time we saw them."

I thought back to my own parents, and a sharp pain churned in my stomach. I had never been particularly close to my parents or had anything that could resemble a relationship with them. Not like some of the others appeared to have had, but knowing that they were gone still made my insides ache.

"There are so many things I wish I'd said," Victoria agreed.

Peter nodded. "Huh. Yeah."

I looked down at the device in my hand again and back at my heartbroken friends. Then I nodded. "If we aren't able to fix this; if we aren't able to stop the eruption … then this might be the last chance we have to say the things we always wanted to say."

Rosalie took the device from me and typed into the keypad. "Okay, the date's selected. It's ready. Who's up first?"

Everyone hesitated awkwardly until Benjamin stepped up and took it.

After a minute, he started talking. "Mama … Papa … It's Benjamin." He spoke occasionally in Spanish and other times in English, like I'd heard him do before, and I got the gist of the message.

It broke my heart when I heard him say that he knew they weren't happy to hear from him.

His parents had never accepted his sexuality or eccentric personality, and I knew how hard this was for him, so I held out my hand for him to take and squeezed it to give him strength.

He met my eyes and swallowed. "But now I finally feel accepted. I belong. And most of all, I … I forgive you."

He blinked back tears as he handed off the device before turning into Jacorel's comforting embrace.

Emmett went next, and he teared up even though he tried to sound cheerful. "Hey, Mema! It's me, Em! I've been making all your best recipes for my friends, and they really love them all."

I started to silently cry as I listened to him say goodbye, and Edward put his arms around me and allowed me to cry against his chest, and I was so grateful for him. I briefly wondered if he was going to call his family or if he felt that it would only tear up partially healed wounds unnecessarily.

Garrett went after Emmett and talked in a message to his mom, but when he handed it to Kate, she shook her head, uncomfortable.

"Are you sure, Katie?" he asked her. "There's no one you want to say something to?"

"At this point? No," she shook her head and looked down at her feet. "Everyone who ever cared about me … I pushed away." She sniffled and looked up at the ceiling instead as if she was hoping it would prevent her tears from pushing out of her eyes. "I never wanted to need anyone. I never wanted anyone to hold me back or hold me down. And now I have exactly what I wanted. I have no one to hold me at all."

My heart ached for her, and I extracted myself from Edward's arms and opened mine for her instead. She leaned her head against my shoulder and sobbed quietly.

After a moment, she pulled away and dried her eyes. "Thank you, Bella," she said gratefully.

Garrett passed the device to Leah instead.

"Tio Nicolas … This is Leah. I did it. I found Mom's killer, and I killed her. I thought it would make me feel better, but all I feel right now is hollow."

I had suspected it would end up like that for her. She had been so wrapped up in her mission, and now when she had done what she had set out to do, she felt empty.

It was understandable.

She continued to talk to her uncle about how she knew he had never wanted her to come here and do what she had done, but that she appreciated his help anyway.

She ended the conversation and gave the device to Victoria, who squared her shoulders and spoke assuredly.

"Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. It's your daughter. This might be the last time you'll ever hear from me, so I want to ask you to do something. I want you to forgive each other. I remember you loved each other very much once … I was young, but I remember. If I have one regret about all of this, it's that my illness broke that love. It's made me wish I was never born. So, please, forgive each other while you can. It's not too late."

Peter took the phone when she finished and held it out. "Hey, Eric, little man!" He let out a sad chuckle. "You're already six years old, and I got a feeling you're gonna be even bigger and stronger than me! I know you always—" His voice cracked, but he coughed and played it off. "I know you always looked up to me. You wanted to grow up to be just like your big bro. But you'd have grown up to be so much better than me. So much better." He cleared his throat again. "So … I'm gonna make sure you get the chance to grow up."

He swallowed hard and then passed the device to me. I looked down at the contraption in my hand and bit my lip insecurely, but then I made up my mind.

"You know … I don't need to call anybody," I said and looked at the people surrounding me. "Everyone I love is here with me."

They all smiled at me and Edward came up and kissed me deeply. He didn't know the full story of my parents, just like I didn't know a whole lot about his relationship with his family. I knew he had a sister and a mother, but that was pretty much it. But it didn't matter anyway.

My parents didn't define me as a person, and he'd always talked more about Jazz, so my guess was that Jazz had been a bigger part of his life.

That was why I was pretty shocked when he took the phone from me. "Let's get this over with," he said and exhaled sharply.

"Uh … Hey, Beth. This is, uh … It's Edward." I had never seen him that uncomfortable before. "Surprise. I'm still alive. For now. I reckon you're furious to hear I've been alive all this time and never called." He cleared his throat and I tightened my hold on his waist to show my support and he leaned his cheek against the top of my head. "I could tell you I had reasons, good ones, that I was afraid they'd hurt you if I tried to reach out, but … It's all bull. If I ain't honest with myself now, I never will be."

He closed his eyes and sighed. "I was afraid you'd be ashamed of me. And you should be. I'm ashamed of me, but … I just want you to know that I was always proud of you, sis. You're the hero I'll never be."

He held the device out for Rosalie, and I stood up on my toes to kiss him again, giving him some strength back, hopefully.

Rosalie thought for a second and then adjusted the date and time.

"Whoa, d-don't do that!" Emmett said and tried to take the device from her, but she just moved it behind her back.

"Relax. I'm not gonna cause a paradox."

"Who are you sending a message to?" I asked her, my curiosity getting the best of me.

"The person I love most in the world," she answered cryptically and lifted the device to her ear. "Hey, Rosalie. It's you. From the future. Cool, right? Can't say much, but … I know you're thinking about not going on that El Jardín trip. You should go. Not only does Hartfeld seriously suck this summer, but—" She met Peter's eyes for a split-second before she looked away and lowered her voice. "You'll also, uh … meet a great guy. I know that, after that last line, you think this is a prank using voice modulation software. So to prove I'm really you … I know you had a crush on Demetri Porter in second grade and that's why you always beat him up. "

She turned off the device, and all of us looked at each other. Everyone's feelings ran high after having revealed so much in front of each other.

We all felt vulnerable, and that's why, without a word, we all silently continued on our way out.

At last, we reached the gondola, waiting on its landing pad.

I looked around for guards, but we were alone. "Looks like we're clear, for the moment at least."

"We should hurry. Come on!" Benjamin said and Jacorel wasn't slow to follow his lead onto the gondola.

Emmett and Kate joined them, but then a shadow flashed across my vision.

"What the—"

A figure dropped from the sky, landing softly on jetpack thrusters between those of us still on the landing pad and the gondola.

"Halt," Mouse ordered.

"Dammit!" Garrett exclaimed, and Edward glared at the soldier.

"Just the one of you? Buddy, I hate to break it to you, but you're a little outnumbered."

"He's not trying to beat us, Edward," Leah said. "He's trying to stall us."

Benjamin looked back out of the gondola and saw that we were cornered, and called my name.

I clenched my jaw determinedly. "Just go!"

Benjamin shook his head. "No way!"

I frowned. "He's trying to stall us! You have to go! Now!"

"We'll catch up!" Garrett gritted out.

Kate met his eyes with a worried expression but nodded. "Bella's right," she said. "Come on!"

"Jacorel, do it!" I cried out, and he nodded solemnly and touched a panel. The glass doors slid shut, and the gondola started rolling along the cable toward the main island with Benjamin, Jacorel, Emmett, and Kate inside.

"No!" Benjamin yelled and pounded on the glass, but there was no stopping the transit.

Mouse noticed the gondola moving and turned his attention to it.

"I don't think so," I said angrily, anticipating his move, and lunged at him, tackling him to the ground.

He threw me off easily, and I rolled dangerously close to the cliff edge. My weight pressed down on my wounded arm, and I hissed.

"Oh, hell no!" Edward exclaimed, and together with the rest of the group, he closed in on Mouse.

Peter threw a haymaker punch, but Mouse deftly evaded it.

"Threat assessment complete," he said, and just as Garrett and Edward were about to attack, he jetpacked over them and landed right in front of Victoria.

"Vicky, watch out—" I yelled, but it was too late. Mouse grabbed her and threw her hard into the wall of the complex. She crumpled to the snow-dusted ground and lay still, a cut bleeding on her head.

Together, Peter, Garrett, Edward, Rosalie, Leah, and I threw everything we had at Mouse, and he avoided everything, jetting and flipping, dodging and sidestepping. He made it past all of us to the housing of the pulley system for the gondola.

Mouse fired his jetpack thrusters at the steel and melted it quickly. The cables started to slack.

"Stop him!"

Halfway across the gap, the gondola shook and dipped. I was distracted by it, and Mouse took the chance to punch me in the face. I immediately went sprawling, and everything blurred.

The others attacked Mouse again, but he was too elusive.

Edward missed a left hook, and Mouse kicked him in the stomach. He started coughing but didn't go down.

I looked out toward the gondola again from my blurry state on the ground and I noticed how it struggled to keep moving as the pulley continued to collapse.

It finally snapped free from the MASADA side and tumbled into the sea, and most of the way across, the gondola swung downward and smashed hard into the cliffside.

The glass hull cracked as tiny spider-web splinters appeared, but it held. The gondola's emergency brake gripped the cable, but with all the weight dangling from the launch platform's pulley, it began to creak, too.

I watched this unfold with horror. "Benjamin!" I cried, even though I knew it did no good to scream.

"That's not gonna hold them up for long," Rosalie pointed out and frowned. "They gotta do something."

"Their only hope is to have someone climb up the cable," I replied.

Rosalie's features smoothed out as she realized something. "Well, what are you waiting for? Tell them!"

I understood what she meant the second the words were out of her mouth, and I looked across the abyss and focused on finding Jacorel's mind.

It didn't take long.

"Bella?" he asked when he felt my presence.

"One of you need to climb up the cable. It's your only chance," I told him, and he nodded.

I stared with bated breath, and saw how Jacorel smashed the glass door and vaulted himself onto the nose of the car. He grappled onto the cable and shimmied up, toward the last remaining pulley.

Finally, he reached the top and gripped the cable in both hands, and then shouted something down to the others that I could not hear.

I was still on the ground on all fours when I felt a swift kick hit me in the stomach that caused me to go down again.

Mouse was still at it and used his jetpack to flip and throw Garrett, who landed hard next to me.

"This guy's good," he panted out.

I was out of breath and couldn't answer him, but I didn't need to. He knew we needed a change of plan. Obviously, attacking didn't work.

I nodded toward a cart of tools by the exit of the complex, and Garrett nodded, understanding what I was trying to say.

Meanwhile, Benjamin, Emmett, and Kate were precariously climbing out of the gondola car. The three of them grabbed a hold of the cable, and then Benjamin kicked the brake release just as the pulley finally collapsed under the strain.

Jacorel heaved and started to pull them up with all his might.

The gondola disappeared beneath Benjamin's feet, and the three of them hung on tight.

I gasped when the giant steel pulley from the clifftop fell down past them, and very nearly took off Emmett's head.

Garrett had managed to grab a few tools to use as weapons and handed one to me, while Edward finally managed to sweep out Mouse's legs. He fell hard on his back, and Edward grabbed a rock and smashed it down on his faceplate.

"Don't. Mess. With. My—" Edward grunted with each hit of the rock, but then the faceplate broke away and exposed Mouse's face. Edward froze, the rock in his hand cocked back. "...Jazz?"

Mouse threw Edward off of him and used his jetpack to instantly get back on his feet. He grabbed Edward by the throat and lifted him off the ground.

Edward immediately began gasping after air, and Mouse continued to squeeze tighter, crushing Edward's trachea.

"Now!" Garrett exclaimed and smashed Mouse's elbow with the pipe in his hand, forcing him to drop Edward. At the same time, Leah swung hard with a wrench at Mouse's knee, and he buckled.

I gripped my screwdriver and slammed it straight into the exposed fuel tank on Mouse's jetpack. "Look's like you sprung a leak," I said and glared at the man.

"No!" he yelled angrily but was unable to get back up because of his crushed knee.

"Finish him off, Peter," Rosalie said with a wide grin, and with a running, two-footed jump kick, Peter hit him square in the chest.

It caused him to somersault backward over the cliff edge.

"Jazz!" Edward exclaimed, and still coughing, jumped forward toward the edge himself.

Mouse fired his thrusters, which sputtered weakly due to the leaking fuel, but he managed to slow himself enough to grab onto the pillar's jagged wall, three hundred feet below us.

He stared up at me, at Edward, from several stories down, and on his face, there was no hate, or recognition … just nothing.

Nearby, Garrett helped Victoria to her feet. She rubbed her head and winced when she touched the cut.

"Ow!" she hissed. "Why'd he go after me?"

Garrett chuckled. "Well, since you're our resident superhero, I think he thought you were the biggest target."

"Did the others make it across?" Peter asked and looked over at the main island.

"Barely," I replied as I kept my eyes on Edward, who looked beyond shocked at the revelation that his deceased best friend was still alive.

"Looks like we're gonna have to find our own way over," Rosalie said and looked all over for a solution.

"We've seen choppers coming and going," Garrett said and turned to Edward. "Would you be able to fly one of those?"

Edward didn't respond. He only continued to stare blankly into the distance, completely stunned. "Did … did you see what McKenzie did to him?" he whispered out, and I sat down next to him and grabbed his hand in mine.

"Baby? I know you're shocked right now, but we really need to know—"

"Anybody got a flask on 'em? I could use a drink—"

I let go of his hand and grabbed his shoulders instead. "Edward, listen to me. I know how bad it hurts to see Jazz like that, but it's not too late."

He finally met my eyes. "Not too late for what?"

"To save him," I said. "To bring him back." Edward shook his head and tried to look away from me, but I grabbed his chin and forced him to keep meeting my eyes. "That … that thing that attacked us? That wasn't your friend." I let go of his chin and stroke his cheek instead. "But he's still in there somewhere, I know it. And we'll get him out."

He still looked skeptical, but also cautiously hopeful. "You think so, huh?"

I nodded. "Absolutely. But we can't do it if we don't survive today."

Edward ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. I can fly us outta here in whatever you put me in."

"I've always wanted to say this..." Peter started, and all of us looked at him expectantly. "Get … to … the … choppaaaa!"

Rosalie rolled her eyes but didn't comment while the rest of us chuckled at his ridiculousness.

A little later, we exited an elevator on the main deck of the facility.

Rosalie stopped by a window. "Look! We're getting close. You can see the hangar and helipad from here."

I walked up next to her and saw a Cullen International chopper taking off. Inside it, I could just make out Cullen, Alistair, and Tanya.

"Where the hell are they taking her?" Garrett questioned angrily.

"We're only gonna find out if we make it out of this base alive," Leah replied.

"Wait a second. Check this out." Rosalie nodded at a sign overhead, labeled 'Coolant Control.'

"Yeah? So?" Peter asked and looked confused.

Rosalie turned to him with a glare. "'So?' If we just run out of here then we came here for nothing! We nearly got killed for nothing! We lost Tanya for nothing! Don't you want some payback?"

I turned and looked at her, my interest piqued. "What do you have in mind?"

She smiled evilly. "A cooling system that big? They've gotta be creating some serious heat up in the processing towers. I send the cooling system haywire, the thing overheats, and boom! No more MASADA."

A grin grew on Edward's face. "Know what, Skrillex? I like the way you think!"

Victoria looked unsure, though. "What about the hotel guests? They're in those stasis tubes down below."

Rosalie brushed the worry off. "Yeah, beneath, like, a hundred feet of solid rock. Those will be fine. I'm talking about their entire processing operation, above the pillar."

Peter crackled his knuckles. "Hell yeah. I dunno about y'all, but I'd like to hit 'em on the counter."

I contemplated it and then nodded. "Okay. Let's blow this place sky-high."

Peter grinned. "Hell yeah! That's what I like to hear!"

Victoria looked more into the plan once she had been assured the guests would be fine. "Yeah! We've been kicked around enough! Let's knock 'em down a peg!"

"What I'd give to see Cullen's face when his precious base goes up in flames," Leah said with a small, not-quite-there smile.

Rosalie booted up the system and began hacking in and then scoffed. "This place's cybersec is pathetic," she said, but then her eyes widened. "Whoops. Spoke too soon. It's gonna be a minute. Keep an eye out for me, will ya? We don't wanna get snuck up on."

I walked over to the other side of the room and felt something underfoot. I frowned and looked down. It was a soft, thin cylinder, and I picked it up to read the label wrapped around the tip. "'Hecho en La Habana.' This is a Cuban cigar?"

Edward came up to me and looked at the cigar. "Yeah. One of McKenzie's. That was always his favorite brand. Special occasions only. Hell, I reckon it was his last one!" He frowned. "Kinda weird that he forgot it."

"Why would he even be in here?" I asked, but Edward shrugged.

"Beats me … but knowing that backstabber, I bet he had the same idea Rosalie had. In case he ever gets tired of doing Cullen's bidding." He produced a lighter from his bag and lit the cigar, puffing on it slightly. Then he grinned. "Can you imagine him knowing I smoked his last Havana? Oh, man, he'd be so pissed."

When he put the cigar back between his lips, I removed it and pulled him down for a kiss. "I'd rather you didn't. You taste better without the smoke," I said, and winked.

Edward took the cigar back. "I'm just gonna smoke this one. You know, as a proverbial 'fuck you' to McKenzie."

I shrugged. "Fine, but you won't get any more kisses from me until you wash the taste out."

"Oh, really?" he asked, and I nodded. He cupped my cheek with his empty hand and looked intensely into my eyes. "Somehow, I doubt you'd be able to resist."

I raised my brow. "You're not that irresistible, buddy."

He smiled widely and traced his fingers down my neck, along my arm, and around my waist before he pulled me flush against his body. "I'm not?" His hot breath blew over my face, and the smell of the smoke caused me to wrinkle my nose and lean away from him.

"See?" I said as he had just proved my point. "That smell totally blocked you from getting some."

He let me go with an amused expression. "I had no idea you were against smoke that much."

I shrugged. "I've always been, so I hope you're not gonna tell me you're a secret smoker, 'cause I might have to break up with you if you are," I said, only half-joking. "I can stand friends smoking. They can do whatever they want, but I'm not making a habit out of making out with them, either."

"Good thing, too. I wouldn't have liked that habit," Edward replied, still looking amused.

"Seems like we both have deal-breakers then," I said, and he held up the cigar in front of me.

"Consider this the last time I smoke," he vowed, but then put it back in between his teeth with a wink.

"Alright," Rosalie said, regaining our attention. "We … are … set!"

"Great! How long 'til it blows?" I asked.

"Five minutes," she replied, and Edward laughed.

"Good one. How much time really?"

"Well, now, four minutes and fifty-five seconds."

Victoria gaped at her. "You only gave us five minutes to get out?!"

Rosalie frowned. "Hey, that's plenty of time! And we don't want them to have long enough to undo it!" She glared at all of us. "You know what? You wanna blow up a billion-dollar research facility? Next time, you learn how to hack a military-grade network."

Garrett quickly spoke before a fight could erupt. "We can bicker about this later. Right now, we've gotta haul ass!"

Overheating alarms started to blare as we raced toward MASADA's aerial hangar.

"There it is!" I pointed. "They've got one helicopter left!"

A fully loaded military assault chopper sat on the helipad, ready to go. But as we ran toward it, I noticed the vehicle was somehow flickering and wavering in the light.

"Whoa! What the hell?" Garrett exclaimed, having also seen what I'd seen. "Is it a hologram?"

"No way … it's..." Rosalie reached out and her hand passed through the chopper's hull. "It's phase shifting."

"What?!" I exclaimed. "You mean, like, it's moving between dimensions?"

"Or timelines," she replied.

Edward frowned. "So in one version of events, it's here, and in another, it's not … and we're seeing both? Why?"

"The island is basically one big fault line in the space-time continuum," she said.

"We could be on the verge of making some decision that could decide whether or not the chopper's even here in the first place."

Edward looked at her. "You mean … if Arachnid's even here in the first place," he said as he understood her train of thought. A pained look flashed across his face.

"What are you guys saying?" Leah asked with a frown.

Edward sighed. "I'm saying that Arachnid came here for me. Somehow, they knew I was here … and I think I just realized who told 'em." He reached into my bag and took out the crystal transponder.

I suddenly remembered the garbled recording we'd heard in the Arachnid Humvee, and then I gasped. "Edward … it was you. It was you the whole time."

Peter startled. "Wait, what?"

Garrett narrowed his eyes in anger. "Edward, what are you doing? You're gonna tell McKenzie your position, back in time?"

Peter held his hands up. "But, wait! If you don't, maybe they'll all vanish!"

Rosalie forced his hands back down. "You can't stop him, Peter. He already did it. That's why they're here. If he doesn't do it now, it's a paradox. He always turned himself in."

Edward pulled at his hair, frustrated. "Besides, even if they did vanish, then we're trapped here with no way out. I can't risk that." His eyes fell on me. "I can't risk you, Princess." I grabbed his hand and laced our fingers together. "This chopper's our one ticket off this rock. And there's only one way to make sure McKenzie comes here for me."

He tapped a few digits into the transponder's keypad, then lifted it to his ear. "You want Edward Masen? Come get him. June 1st. Fifteen degrees, eleven minutes, seventeen seconds North. Seventy-three degrees, twenty minutes, sixteen seconds West." He turned off the transponder and gave it back to me. "Well? Did that do it?"

I turned back to the helicopter and it was no longer flickering. I reached out and touched its solid hull. "It's here. It's real now."

Edward gave me a small smile. "Then whaddaya say we get the hell off this rock?"

We all climbed aboard the chopper as Edward got into the pilot's seat and spun up the rotors. I passed the headsets around so that we would be able to talk to each other over the noise of the rotors.

"Hurry it up!" Rosalie pressed. "We've got two minutes!"

"Copy that," Edward replied calmly.

Just then, the hangar doors flew open, and Arachnid troops streamed out and aimed their weapons.

"Um … guys?" Victoria said to warn us of their approach.

Leah narrowed her eyes at the approaching soldiers. "Oh good. They almost missed the party."

The mercenaries started peppering the chopper with bullets, and we all ducked behind the thick armored hull.

"I need some more time to get us off the ground!" Edward told us.

"This is an attack helicopter, ain't it?" Leah asked. "Let's fight back!"

I nodded and pointed at the massive chain gun bolted to the side of the helicopter's hull. "That'll send 'em running!"

Peter grinned. "Now you're talkin' my language!" He clambered up and got behind the chain gun, swiveling it around to face the enemy. He yanked back the slide. "Don't call it a comeback." He started to fire, two hundred rounds a minute, spraying the hangar with bullets. The mercs' cover exploded in a hail of debris.

The soldiers retreated and ran for their lives while Peter bellowed maniacally. "Get some!"

Soon, the hangar was completely empty. Edward tilted the controls, and the chopper lifted off and moved away from the base.

"Good lord, dude," Garrett breathed out and stared at Peter in shock.

Edward chuckled. "Ha ha! Not bad, Rambo."

"Did you see that, Ro? They ran off! They were so scared of me!" Peter cheered.

"Maybe, or maybe they were scared of the—"

She was interrupted by an ear-shattering boom. The world whited out for a second as MASADA's processing towers overheated and combusted.

I shielded my eyes from the light as the blast wave rocked the chopper to the side.

"Hang on!" Edward warned us.

As my eyes adjusted, I saw the massive complex towers collapsing into the sea, and there, standing on the cliffside, was McKenzie, watching us coldly.

Edward gave him a lazy salute. "Adios, amigo!"

McKenzie coiled his legs and jumped.

"No … way..." Garrett gasped at the sight.

Powered by his exoskeleton, McKenzie flew up through the air and landed on the nose of the chopper.

"Aw, gimme a fuckin' break!" Edward cursed.

McKenzie's eyes went wide at the sight of the cigar between Edward's teeth. "That's my Havana!" he shouted furiously, and I suddenly understood why Edward had been so adamant about smoking the disgusting thing.

He smirked at McKenzie gleefully. "Mine now, Darth Douchebag!"

McKenzie climbed over to the side, grabbed the closed helicopter door, and started pulling it off its track.

"Holy crap," Leah exclaimed. "That exoskeleton's unstoppable." She turned to me. "What do we do?"

I thought for a second. "We have to shock him!"

"What?!" Peter yelled.

"His strength is all in that exoskeleton," I explained. "If we can short-circuit it somehow, he's a pushover!"

Garrett agreed. "Great idea. Love it … Now how exactly do we do that?"

Rosalie smiled. "Leave that to me." She ripped open the compartment above the copilot's seat and started stripping wires.

"Careful with that!" Edward cautioned. "My instruments are going crazy!"

"I'm gonna go crazy if you don't shut up," she replied.

McKenzie finally ripped the heavy sliding door free and tossed it into the void. He grinned at me where I was cornered in the chopper's bay.

"I've got you now," he said.

"Is that so, Sparky?" Rosalie asked and appeared next to him.

McKenzie turned to her with a patronizing smile. "'Sparky'? Guess the bad nicknames have been rubbing off on you."

Rosalie jammed two exposed wires into McKenzie's exoskeleton and electrocuted him. "Who said anything about a nickname?"

Smoke rose from his suit's servos. He tilted back with a groan, losing consciousness quickly, and grabbed Rosalie.

"Hey! Get off!" she protested.

"Ro, I've got you!" Peter lunged for her, but it was too late. The massive weight of McKenzie's exoskeleton pulled her out of the open door with him.

With a splash, they vanished into the water.

"Rosalie!"

"Edward! Turn around! We've gotta go back for her!" I said, and he nodded solemnly.

"Okay, okay, I'll—Whoa!"

The missile-lock alert bleated on his dash, and he swung the chopper's tail around, narrowly missing a streaking rocket.

"What the hell? Who's shooting at us?" Garrett asked and tried to look out to see.

I peered up against the cliffs and saw a mammoth figure heaving a rocket launcher over his shoulder. "You've gotta be kidding me!" I exclaimed as I recognized Tetra.

"How's he still alive?" Peter asked.

I didn't have time to answer as I saw he readied to shoot again. "Go! He's gonna shoot!"

"What about Rosalie?" Peter asked with wide eyes.

"Go!" Leah urged Edward and he accelerated and weaved around the second rocket.

Then, the missile-lock alarm sounded once more, and this time, Tetra's aim was spot on.

I met Victoria's eyes, and she looked at me determinedly.

"I won't forget you, Bella," she said and gave me a small smile.

"What?" I asked. "Vicky, what are you—"

Her eyes flashed green, and her hair levitated in a halo around her.

"Victoria!" Garrett exclaimed.

She floated out of the open chopper door and into the path of the rocket.

"Vicky! No!"

Levitating, she extended a hand out toward the missile. "Stop!"

With a boom, the rocket detonated twenty feet from the chopper, but the blast was strong enough to destroy the tail rotor.

"Ah, hell! Hang on! We're going down!" Edward yelled to us.

"This is twice now, Ed!" Peter shouted. "I'm never flying with you again!"

As the helicopter spun out of control, I hung onto a handhold, searching the air. "Victoria! Victoria, where are you?!" Suddenly, the handhold popped loose, and I went sliding across the floor.

Edward dove for me, but didn't reach me in time.

As I fell out of the chopper, I reached in desperation, and I barely grabbed the landing skid with one hand. I hung on for dear life as the world blurred around me.

Edward, lying on his stomach, reached out for me from the chopper. "Come on, Princess! You can do it! Gimme your hand!"

A beautiful shimmering bay glimmered far beneath me and spun dizzily.

I stretched out my right hand as my left lost more and more grip. "Edward … I'm slipping!"

"No, you're not!" he insisted. "You're fine! I can almost reach—"

Just as our fingers grazed each other, my hand slipped, and I fell. "Edward!"

"Bella!"

I plummeted down, weightless. The bay rose up to meet me, and I closed my eyes. I hit the water hard and sank deeper and deeper until the darkness swallowed me.

A/N:

Oh no! Bella's been separated from the gang in the helicopter! Benjamin, Kate, Emmett, and Jacorel are on their own. Rosalie also fell out of the helicopter. Victoria … did she survive the blast?

They're scattered all over now. How will they find each other again? Will they be able too? And Mouse is Jazz? Jazz's is not dead? Why didn't he recognize Edward? Why is he working with McKenzie?

Alice is dead. Shot by Leah. How do you feel about that?

You'll get a few answers to those questions in the next chapter, which I'll still give you on Thursday!

Until then,

Stay Awesome!