"Alice!"

There was no future in which Eleazar did not find her.

If she had run further into the mountains, he would have followed. If she'd run to the sea, he would have followed.

In the end her feet had decided for her and she'd remained perfectly still.

And so he'd found her, like he always did.

"Alice," he repeated, and in less than a second he was standing before her, a relieved smile on his face.

She stared back, not saying anything.

"Alice, dear girl, you gave us quite the scare!"

Alice said nothing.

He was now debating over what to ask her. In one future, he asked what it was she'd been thinking, running off for days like this. In another, he told her that Carlisle had called and wished to speak with her. In another, he told her to get herself together already, she'd known this was coming.

He decided on all three of them.

"Tanya and the others are searching the woods too, we're crossing the entire National Park searching for you. They've dropped everything, even let go of the most recent lad they'd set their eyes on, just to find you! But I'm glad it was I who found you," he told her.

Tanya, Irina, and Kate had the possibility of finding Alice, Alice–thought Irina had, once, but it was hard to tell if that had been reality or a vision. However, they were now debating on whether or not they should end the search. Sometimes they kept looking, at least for another few hours, sometimes they gave up and went home.

Alice supposed a part of her should–care about that. She should be touched, maybe even a little ashamed, but all she felt was emptiness. Like whatever made her Alice had been scooped out of her.

(Because it had, without the Cullens, without her family and her diet and that last name 'Cullen', Alice Cullen didn't even exist.)

"My dear Alice," Eleazar said, putting an arm around her shoulder as he began leading her back towards the Denali mountains in a slow pace, "Carlisle called to tell me what had happened. I'm so sorry about your brother. I hope you will talk to me about it - we were close, Edward and I."

Had they been?

It was hard to remember.

She felt like she had a headache.

"But, Alice, surely you, of all people will understand that there was no saving Edward. We mustn't blame ourselves. And even if there had been - Alice, life is for the living!" he struck out his hand with a grand gesture. "And you, young lady, have an eternity ahead of you that won't go away just because you're scared to face it."

He bopped her nose with a smile, and she saw him debating whether to pull her in for a hug, let her have a good cry, or if this was a women's ordeal and he should get her to Carmen first.

"There's nothing left," Alice heard herself saying.

"I'm sorry?" Eleazar asked.

"There's nothing left," Alice repeated.

Edward's future–it was as if Edward himself wasn't even a concept anymore. Every time she tried to look for him, it was like trying to grasp hold of smoke. He just wasn't there anymore. The others–she didn't want to look at them anymore.

Even Rosalie and Emmett weren't–they debated between returning back to the Denali and heading somewhere where Carlisle couldn't find them. They debated calling Alice and Jasper or whether less contact would be better, at least until further notice, a further notice that would become a very long time indeed. They were paralyzed by indecision.

Just as Alice herself was now paralyzed.

"Now, there's not nothing," Eleazar said, "Nothing's an awfully large word, isn't it? What about the rest of your delightful family?"

Alice said nothing.

"Though, I have to say, at the moment I'm a bit cross with Carlisle. Well, I suppose that's a bit uncharitable of me, he did just lose his son. But, I've always been of the opinion that dignity, grace, and good manners are values every gentleman should strive to emulate. And Carlisle– well, we've all known the man wasn't perfect, at least not as perfect as he wants to believe," Eleazar chuckled fondly, "but he really crossed a line. He blamed me for Edward's death. Me! Can you believe it? And he's still hung up on that hallucination you endured of him and Sulpicia, now he's insisting Aro let him into his bed as well. I understand that grief makes people say a lot of things, but frankly, between you and me– I don't think he's quite well."

Alice said nothing.

In one world, she told him Carlisle didn't even exist anymore, but then Eleazar just kept talking.

"What about–us?" Eleazar asked, but by his hesitance on the last word, the way he winced when it left his lips, this was not an invitation.

"You're not in my future," Alice said softly.

"Oh," Eleazar said, but it wasn't insulted or even resigned. Eleazar, notably, was not debating on asking her where it was she would be going or what it was she would be doing.

"Well, I'm glad to have known you," Eleazar continued, "You have the most remarkable gift, though you know that of course. But I suppose it is what it is and it simply can't be helped. Though I wish we'd had more of a chance to talk, I feel like we just never found the time and really sit down and discuss your potential."

Then, with an almost bemused smile, he asked, "Are you headed to Volterra then?"

Alice turned to look at him slowly. She felt like a wind up toy, all jittery, mechanical, movements that were not made of her own accord.

"Never," she told him.

Eleazar frowned. "Really, why not? I assure you, Aro is– well, he's a bit of a bore once you get past the razzle dazzle of him being the Aro. He is a legend, to be sure, but really, you'd be amazed at how little he contributes to the conversation. Once I spent three hours - three hours! - giving him a detailed account of one of my travels with Demetri, and he never asked a single question! Instead, just when I was stumbling over things to say, he asked if I wouldn't go debrief Caius who surely had desperate need for this information. I think it's the gift, that gift of Aro's has made him a bit aloof to this world. Which is another reason why I find it ridiculous that Carlisle would claim to be in bed with him. The man barely exists in this plane of reality, and yet Carlisle really thinks–" Eleazar cut himself off, only to open his mouth again. "And his wife! Carlisle honestly believes– I can't imagine the disaster it will be when Aro touches him next, and sees what that imagination of Carlisle's has been up to."

In one future, Alice told Eleazar point blank that Aro had stolen her family and murdered her brother. She described it in more detail than Eleazar could ever have asked for.

There had been an open field. That had been in debate for the first few hours, before Jasper had made his decision and sacrifice. An empty building, a cave, but eventually they'd decided on an open field for visibility and ease of access.

Edward had been in three pieces. That too, had changed, and flickered, sometimes he'd be divided this way and other times that way, sometimes conscious as the Romanians had their fun with him and other times they'd be bored, and she'd see his head pulled off again. Sometimes, they got bored and tossed him in the fire, but Alice had known this didn't come to pass because Edward would always still have a future.

Then, sometimes, he escaped. His limbs crawled their way back to his torso, his arms found his head, and he put himself together. He'd run across Eurasia, as far as he could from both Romania and Volterra, but he never ran far enough. Within days, hours, or minutes, three cloaked figures would catch up to him.

And in the worlds where he didn't escape… Marcus would throw him in the Romanian's pyre.

And then Edward's future had winked out of existence.

But that was one future, in another future, Alice said nothing.

Despite choosing the second option, Eleazar kept talking.

"And I do have to say, even if your family is–your family, they all do seem to be in Volterra at the moment. Of course, I expect Carlisle to be thrown out shortly, especially if he goes around saying that he's in bed with Aro of all things, so it might not be worth your time. It'd only serve to be embarrassing to be associated with that." Eleazar then paused, grimacing, "On second thought, I strongly advise you not to go to Volterra right now."

He kept frowning, turned to stare out into the distance. A decision was forming in his mind.

In one future, he returned back to his house and vented with the rest of his coven. He then had sex with the mortal that Tanya had procured after she, too, had given up on Alice. Alice couldn't see beyond that but the part of her still able to feel a modicum of something thought he'd have a grand old time.

In another future, he returned only to purchase a direct flight to Rome from Anchorage. From there he would be accepted through the Volturi gates.

He frowned, the second future becoming firmer as he made up his mind. "This might actually get ugly. Carlisle has his flaws, but I do not wish to see him harmed, be it by Jane or simply executed. Someone should interfere on his behalf, but… god, that's going to have to be me, isn't it."

Of course, the decision was already made.

"Oh and it's–I know it's petty, but I had always thought it best for a clean break between myself and Volterra. They could not keep my Carmen, then very well, my time in their guard had come to an end. We did good work together but for the sake of all of us I had to focus on my love and what mattered most. I won't deny it was painful, that I haven't thought of returning, but it was the principle of the matter."

Eleazar debated against adding "At the very least, Aro should have called me!" but ultimately decided against it. Whether he wished it had been him Aro summoned instead of Carlisle (Eleazar, it seemed, had not yet seen through the whole Bella scheme) or if he simply felt generally entitled to being called by Aro was unclear.

"But for the sake of my friendship with Carlisle–your father may not respect me, is perhaps not worthy of my esteem, but I am a most generous man," Eleazar said with a sigh, "Yes, I must do as I must for Carlisle. And your family has already lost so much. First Edward, now Carlisle is endangering himself–I couldn't bear to see you lose anything more."

He squeezed Alice's shoulder.

"They're already lost," she told him.

It was true.

There had been a moment, once she saw Marcus kill Edward, when she thought– she thought, surely, this would break Carlisle out of his haze.

He loved Edward, loved him perhaps even more than Alice had, more than he loved Esme. Surely, if there was something that could bring her father back to her, break him out of his drugged trance and make him see the Volturi for what they were, this would be it.

But when she saw herself call him to break the news, that Aro had engineered it all, that all Jasper's sacrifice had amounted to had been that the Volturi sent out a death squad just in case the Romanians didn't finish the job, Carlisle didn't believe her.

He would only be upset by her words, and implore her to understand that Aro was a good man who had done what he could for Edward. He would tell her how he had been there for the vote, where they very easily could have chosen to leave Edward in the Romanians' hands or any other terrible future, and they had voted for his rescue. Why would they have bothered with that when Carlisle would have–understood had they not voted in Edward's favor? Who would this ridiculous pretense even serve?

No matter what answer she gave him, he would not be satisfied.

There was no path where she could shake Carlisle's conviction that her words were untrue. Not even a lie, either, but simply a tragic, egregious, misunderstanding built on coincidences, half-truths delivered by Eleazar, and terror.

And when she'd looked to see what Carlisle was doing upon learning of Edward's death, how he chose to mourn the son that had died to save him–

No, Carlisle was lost to her. As was Esme, as was Jasper.

And if she'd gone to Carlisle's friends, as Edward had–she was either met with disbelief or outright suspicion.

Just like Eleazar promised, the Volturi had no enemies.

And Alice, for all her visions–she had never realized how helpless and weak she truly was.

"Well–I mean, Carlisle is clearly utterly deluded," Eleazar agreed, "I mean, he honestly believes–well, you heard it. Clearly, the man's completely lost his mind with grief. However, Alice, I must point out that you're running about barefoot in the woods looking like Ophelia herself. Best not be calling the kettle black, my dear girl."

Rather than answer that, Alice simply pointed out, "If you go to Volterra, you may never return."

However, just as she knew he would be, Eleazar looked chuffed rather than terrified. "Well, if they have need of my services once again, and if they have a place for Carmen this time around–Of course, I am no longer as naive as I once was, and I have a place and family here with the sisters. I can't simply drop everything but–if my services are indispensable then I can't say that I'll say no."

Alice wondered if she should say something. Pass on a message to Aro, to Marcus, to any of the family that resided in that dreadful, dark, palace where the inhabitants became swallowed up by black holes.

She couldn't see how this meeting with the Volturi would go for Eleazar, that was too far ahead, nor could she see if he would be–trapped the way that Jasper had so quickly become trapped. However, given previous history, she rather doubted the Denali would be seeing Eleazar again.

"Say goodbye to Carmen," she told him truthfully.

Carmen was kind, she should get a goodbye. It was more than Alice had gotten.

"Of course," he said, only to pause, "You don't suppose–If Aro is sleeping with wives, then I suppose I can't very well leave Carmen at home. Of course, he's not sleeping with your Esme, that's simply preposterous. But on the off chance that Aro does covet wives, perhaps as a show of dominance, then… I'm not sure how I feel about this."

The future now shifted, as Carmen was now brought along to the airport.

"You were right," Alice said desperately, with more feeling than she'd had in days, "I must have gone too long without eating. That wasn't a vision, Aro's not sleeping with Esme, don't bring Carmen."

"Oh," Eleazar said, and he didn't sound as relieved as he tried to play it off.

He debated telling her just how–insulted he'd been when the Volturi made him choose between Carmen and them. How, having Aro lust after his wife made it all make sense in an odd sort of way. Perhaps Aro had been torn apart by jealousy and couldn't stand to see Eleazar, so trusted a companion, with her. Bringing Carmen to Volterra, proud and triumphant, was something the pair of them deserved.

The future did not shift. Carmen was still being brought to the airport.

Alice gave up on Carmen.

It was easy. She'd lost so many already, and all of them far more precious than Carmen.

She thought briefly of looking into her own future again. She had already, she had for days but it was–murky. The Cullens were lost to her, gone, even Rosalie and Emmett were gone in their own way.

The Denali were gone, as if they'd only ever been a temporary thing.

She saw–trees. Trees, mountains, and rivers. But there were no people, no vampires and no humans.

She saw herself, or, the being that had once been Alice, blended in with the scenery, with nowhere to go and no future worth pursuing.

She saw further ahead. It was easy, when there were no variables.

She saw her eyes become hazy, gold dulled to a pastel yellow, as her skin started to take on that same peculiar pearly shine she'd seen in her visions of the Volturi.

Without paying any mind to Eleazar, Alice began walking towards her future.

Eleazar called out to her, "Are you leaving?"

She didn't turn back.

"Would you like me to pass on a message?"

What was there to pass on? Volterra was the city of death. Carlisle, Esme, and Jasper could no more receive a message than Edward could.

"I'll tell them you looked well!"