Chapter 26: The Prophet

Edward stopped running somewhere between Kenya and Tanzania. The snow-capped glory of Kilimanjaro broke from the morning clouds and he collapsed onto the ground.

His eyes grew wide as he realized he had run through populated lands in the middle of the day. He cursed himself for his foolishness. He looked down onto his bare forearms, only to realize his skin cast no inhuman shards of light in the sun. His nostrils flared as he stared at his arms. He carefully ran his fingers along his skin and felt it dimple beneath his touch. He caught the faint smell of something he could not recognize.

The next thing he noticed was that he could hear. His mental silence had been replaced by a cacophony of unrecognizable internal voices.

He sighed in relief. At least he wasn't completely broken.

He collapsed onto the ground and hid within the tall, dry grasses and listened to the breeze sift their golden stalks to and fro around him. He covered his face with his hands and reverted inward, like a tortoise withdrawing into his shell. His mind, while vastly improving daily, had yet to reach full rejuvenation. His thoughts felt dim and sluggish, even more so now that he found himself bombarded by his shattered paradigms. He found his inner world tossed by conflicting emotions that rose and fall like an ocean steamer in a storm within his chest.

Twilight fell before he stirred again. A voice called his name in a mind he knew as well as his own.

He sat up and found himself smothered in a black, spiky head of hair, tiny arms, and forceful kisses.

"You are an idiot. You are such and idiot. I'd kill you myself if I hadn't worked so hard to keep you alive," Alice said.

"Alice," he responded, genuinely happy to see her again and pulling her close to his chest in a tight hug. Her golden eyes met his and her nose wrinkled as she glared at him. He internally braced himself for the tirade he felt brewing inside her.

"You…you…I can't believe you…I don't even know where to start…" she said, her mind flipping through images of their family, past visions, future visions, and planned conversations so fast, he couldn't sort out the coherent threads of meaning that she sought to weave together.

"Really, Edward? Running off to Volterra? Can you be more idiotic?"

"I thought she was dead!" Edward said, raising his hands up as if he could protect himself from the uncomfortable truths she was going to fling at him like mud.

"We all did! We all mourned for her…and then we all mourned for you. You forced us to grieve the loss of not only one family member but two. Did you even stop to think about the pain you were causing anybody else? Do you ever stop to think about how your actions influence anybody else?"

Her mind filled with visions, flicking past faster than film frames on the Silver Screen.

Esme dressed in a long, black dress, sobbing at the piano.

Carlisle's blonde head collapsed on his desk, eyes closed.

Emmett sitting in uncharacteristic silence, eyes lost into thoughts only he could see, holding Rose's hand.

Jasper…worrying, pacing, carrying his phone in his hand…

As Alice stood in a many-pillared room surrounded by dark robed figures…

Alice's eyes grew wide in her perfect face and she tried to backtrack, but the damage proved irreparable.

"Alice, what have you done?" Edward blurted as he saw her visions…no…her memories, continue.

"Edward, it was the only way!" she confessed. "I couldn't live for eternity knowing I could have saved you and didn't."

"But you have been working for the Volturi!"

"I saved your life! Don't you see? You deserved to die for that idiotic stunt you pulled. The only way Aro would agree to spare you was in exchange for information. He barely agreed to let me leave Volterra. I had to call him every month and tell him a few visions like his own personal crystal ball. As long as I kept calling and giving him information, he let you live."

Edward picked up a boulder and crumpled it into dust in his fingers, smashing and pulverizing it, allowing it to be the conduit for his anger.

"Why will no one let me die?" he finally said.

Alice rolled her eyes and put her hand on her hip.

"Because we care about you, we want you, we need you. Edward, you don't see yourself very clearly. You overemphasize your strengths and your weaknesses equally. You are not as powerful as you think you are and you are not as terrible as you think you are."

Edward dropped his eyes and did not respond. He felt like a sponge over-soaked in information, in need of wringing before he could take any more in.

"Did you tell them about Bella?" he finally whispered.

"Yes," she said, a touch of sadness marring her face.

Her mind filled again with her convoluted soup of memories and visions…

A gaunt, frail Bella with a tattered backpack in an airport Johannesburg.

Alice's call to Aro.

Aro's command to find her and bring her to Volterra.

"It was your fault she was turned. Alice! What have you done?" he said. He considered charging her, but saw she would see it coming and neatly sidestep him. He refrained.

She shook her head and gazed off into the moonlight glowing off the rippling grasses.

It was the only way, Alice thought.

Her mind filled again, a stream, a dam, an ocean of pictures traversed her conscious thoughts for Edward to drown himself in.

Bella- too thin, cheekbones protruding cruelly like towering cliffs, deep purple shadows marred her sallow skin beneath her eyes. Her eyes bulged unnaturally from her face and stared dully outward, missing the old glisten that made them dance. She sat on a park bench, gasping for breath and holding her temples, oblivious to the people staring at her as they passed by.

Bella writhing on the ground, convulsing and foaming at the mouth, tongue lolling from her mouth, eyes rolling backwards into her head.

Bella's body, minus its former occupant, sitting in a morgue, unclaimed and labeled only with the number #4245.

Edward stared at Alice, eyes fiercely boring into his sister, silently and yet eloquently willing her to explain.

"I never saw Victoria's decision to kill the Swans and the Blacks," Alice said, eyes filling with shame and guilt. "When the wolves told us she was gone, I believed them. I never saw her die. We all grieved her. For nearly two months, I had no visions of her at all. Then, when I started getting glimpses of her again. I could barely believe it."

Alice's memories showed her early visions.

Bella in Times Square eating a donut, glancing over her shoulder nervously.

Bella in Copenhagen, searching for a hotel and cursing at a rebellious map that refused to fold.

Bella in Adelaide, basking in the sun in a black tank top and sunglasses.

Bella in Rio de Janeiro surrounded by a crowd of people, sitting in silence.

Bella in Chiang Mai, curled in a ball, weeping and screaming in the depth of the night.

"She bounced quickly from place to place," Alice continued with a shrug. "It was hard to follow her because I don't think she made a lot of decisions ahead of time. She simply wandered aimlessly…and alone. Always alone. A few months in, the visions started to change and become even more scattered. I could barely see her at all. When I did see her, it was clear something wasn't alright. She looked like she wasn't eating, wasn't sleeping. She didn't act normal. She stared doing reckless, crazy things that didn't make sense."

Bella jumping off a waterfall, slapping the water much too fast.

Bella looking around a dark alleyway, curled in a ball at night, watching swaggering men exit a bar.

Bella freehand climbing a massive rock cliff.

Bella slicing her arms with a knife, watching the blood trickle down her forearms with an eerie fascination.

"What really concerned me, besides the whole reckless disregard of her safety, was the talking to herself. Every time, she did these things, she spent the entire time talking to you as if you were there with her," Alice said, choking slightly as she opened her mental doors to more painful memories.

Bella holding her head with both hands, eyes closed, rocking back and forth in a corner.

Bella suddenly losing feeling in her leg and collapsing down a flight of stairs.

Bella vomiting…again and again.

Alice took Edward's hand in her own and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"I think those ones came to pass…but then, I got the other visions-the ones you saw-of her like a walking corpse and then the seizures. I couldn't sit around and let those ones happen. As soon as I saw those visions, I knew I needed to intervene or I'd lose her…again. I'd gotten her back. I couldn't go through that again.

"She wouldn't have lasted another year, Edward. Her brain tumor was advancing so quickly, she may not have even lasted another six months. I panicked. But I think it was messing with my vision and making it harder and harder to see her at all. If it continued, I might have lost the ability to see her at all. My visions changed so fast. She was beyond medical treatment. I tried as many different scenarios as I could, but the only solution was to change her.

"Well, I received a vision of her in Tokyo and set out to find her as quickly as I could. When I was en route, the vision suddenly changed, and I saw her in Johannesburg instead. I tried to change flights, but it would take time…time that I didn't have. I thought about calling Carlisle and that opened up a whole new set of visions. If I called Carlisle, he would let me know that his old friend, Maggie, was in South Africa visiting another coven, and he'd suggest I send her instead. So, I called Maggie."

"Maggie?"

"You remember her-Carlisle's red-headed friend from the Irish coven?"

"You mean, it wasn't Victoria?" he said, not masking his surprise.

Alice gave a dark laugh.

"Of course not! You think we'd let her live after that stunt she pulled? Emmett and Jasper tore her limb from limb as soon as we could track her down. She didn't last another week."

Edward stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Well, as I was saying, I called Maggie and told her how to find Bella and my perfect plan for it all. It worked marvelously…and it would have continued to work marvelously except something threw it all off," Alice said with a pout.

Bella following Maggie through the busy streets of Johannesburg.

A deserted building outside a township with a locked door, Maggie's red eyes, and Bella's screams.

The joyous embrace between Alice and Bella as Alice arrives to take Bella from Maggie's careful watch.

Alice and Bella in Volterra. In exchange for Edward's life, Bella and Edward agree to work for the Volturi for five decades and then go free.

Edward and Bella in dark grey robes, glistening next to a fountain in a courtyard. They whisper to each other, ankles curled around each other, golden eyes staring transfixed into the other's.

Edward and Bella living with the Cullens in elaborate homes in Alberta…in Denmark…in Siberia…in North Dakota...

"Enough," Edward finally whispered, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't want to see any more of a future that doesn't exist."

"I don't know what went wrong," Alice said. "I saw her change and my visions remained as you saw. Then she vanished. Completely. One minute she was there, the next, she was gone and my visions disappeared. When I arrived, I found Maggie and she was even more confused. Maggie went outside to check on a noise and the next thing she knew, Bella was gone. I scoured the area. I found Bella's blood and her backpack but nothing else. Maggie apologized profusely and helped me look, but we both were stumped."

Alice's face fell and she wrung her tiny hands. "I couldn't see her after that. I couldn't see anything. I thought I'd lost her again. Aro grew angry because I'd lost his prize and he threatened to kill you if I didn't get him better leads. Bella reappeared a year or so later and only sporadically after that, but I couldn't get a read on her exact location. There are some factors, or people, or places which interfere with my vision and I can't figure out the pattern."

Bella in a red and silver uniform, carrying a silver spear, head held high, surrounded by a platoon of similarly clothed warriors.

Bella learning to dance to drumbeats in the firelight, clothed in white.

Bella handing out boxes of foodstuff to a line of refugees in a village.

Bella stalking a gazelle, taking a drink, and releasing the animal.

"Alice said. "Last month, I saw a vision of Bella in London and I called Aro immediately."

"You set her up to be kidnapped."

"No! I set you up to be rescued. Don't you see? If she hadn't been taken to Volterra, you would never have been released. It was tricky work, too. I couldn't see you, I couldn't see her most of the time, and I couldn't see what would happen in Volterra. It was like playing chess blindfolded."

"You risked too much."

"No, Edward. You risked too much! Really? You leave the girl to fend for herself and are surprised when that doesn't go well? It's like you were intentionally setting up your own suicide since the first day you met her."

Edward glared than let another wave of sorrow wash his expression of his previous irritation.

"Alice, I've lost her."

"I know. I have to admit I didn't see that coming either. I'm sorry, Edward. I tried. I really tried."

Edward buried his head in his hands and remained silent.

"Edward, come home. Your family has missed you terribly. You've been gone for a decade. Esme still cries every day and has kept a room for you at every house we've moved to. We want you back. Come home."

Edward pondered this, genuinely missing his family, and he watched the fruit of his decision bloom in Alice's visions.

Edward sitting at his piano, staring at the keys.

Edward sitting in his room, staring out the window.

Edward sitting quietly on a chair, staring as his family joked, cuddled, and played around him.

"No, Alice."

Visions evaporated into blurred blackness. No future visions enfolded.

"Edward! You don't know how that will end! If you choose that path, I can't see what will happen!"

"But I do know how the other will. I need to stay. I may have lost Bella, but I'd rather be near her and help in any way I can than worry far away from her. At least I know she's happy and I can look after her."

"You sound like a pathetic stalker," Alice said.

Edward frowned at her. "You sound like an annoying pixie."

She scowled at him and thought about punching his shoulder, but then she saw his retribution and decided against it. He laughed and pulled her in for a hug.

"I've missed you, Alice."

"No, you haven't. You've been too out of it to even know your own name."

He rolled his eyes. "You saw that part, huh?"

"Not much. You weren't really making decisions at that point so you kinda blacked out. I saw Aro deciding to keep you and the end result of that, however. I did not tell the family about that one. It would not have ended well."

Six smoldering purple piles of ash on the floor of the Volturi throne room. Aro's delighted laugh.

"Thank you, Alice-for caring and for coming. I know you mean well and you've sacrificed yourself for me. I am indebted to you for that."

"Here," she said. She handed him a bag she carried, crossed her arms and gave his clothes a pointed stare. "You are worse off than I saw."

Inside the bag, he found a collection of collared shirts, khaki pants, and black leather dress shoes.

He grinned. "You couldn't resist, could you?"

"You look like you've gone native. You'll look more civilized now."

She stood on her tip toes to kiss his cheek.

"I'll be in touch," she said. "I haven't told the family about you…or Bella. It's not time yet. Take care of yourself."

"I will."

Alice rolled her eyes and pulled him by his collar to her eye level. "I mean it, Edward. No more suicide missions or attempts to kill yourself….and try your hardest to stop being an idiot."

Edward pushed her gently and she watched him walk slowly back towards Wakanda.

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Thank you so very much for reading! I am very grateful for your participation on this journey! :)