A/N: I participated in this year's Whumptober event over on tumblr. I'll be cross-posting three of my four submissions on here over the next hour or so. To read the fourth (a part of an unpublished, unfinished WIP) you can find me on tumblr under the same name, flowerslut. Like always, these fics get posted to tumblr and AO3 first.
WARNING: Major character injury and body horror lie ahead.
THE FOOL
"Hey—hey!"
Jasper ducked beneath a reaching arm smoothly, side-stepping around the woman with practiced ease. With a quick grab, he flung both the arm and the body attached to it into a wolf's waiting jaws.
"Jazz!"
Jasper didn't know what Emmett was yelling about or why he being so loud right now. It wasn't a cry out of pain or the shout of anyone who was in any measure of trouble (he would've been able to sense that particular flavor of fear) and it certainly wasn't to warn him (no newborn could get the jump on Jasper in any way that mattered), so Jasper was instantly frustrated that Emmett would call out to him right now when they were almost done the hardest part.
Emmett's emotions were all nerves and furious worry—not a far cry from what they'd been three seconds ago, and nothing Jasper could think twice about in that moment.
You have to work from the outside in, he'd told them all during their lessons. He had not minced his words; his instructions had been clear. You have to establish the biggest threats quickly and neutralize them immediately. Whether that means death or dismemberment does not matter. What matters is that you tear and rip and kill as fast as you can, and you never, ever stop moving.
It took Jasper less than two seconds to finally lift his head toward Emmett, thirty feet away, but by the time his eyes landed on Emmett's back he was twisting his body away, dodging another pair of arms.
Emmett was upright and fighting but his feet were planted and he was not fucking moving.
Jasper snarled at a man who was bold enough (or foolish enough) to come at him head-on, and as he mowed the newborn over, his foot already lifted to come down against his neck, he felt it.
The acute shock-panic-fear popped across his awareness in a stinging flash. The sensation flooded through him in a fraction of a millisecond from halfway across the battlefield and a voice in the back of his head screamed at him, a thrashing fury building. A bomb about to detonate.
The brain's knee-jerk emotional reaction to a physical injury was as specific as it was harsh; an unpleasant combination of emotions to sense from anyone so acutely.
But it was not just anyone's emotions that had rippled over the battlefield like a shockwave. He knew this fear intimately.
The body of the newborn landed in the closest pyre. Jasper didn't bother throwing the head in. The sound of it rolling across the grass became muted as every single one of his senses wavered and dimmed. His feet skidded clumsily in the grass as he tried to redirect his momentum, his brain unable to grasp what was happening.
(Later, he would learn that there was a split-second where he'd lost control. Looking back, he would realize that he didn't exactly remember how he'd closed the gap so fast—it was as if the moment were scrubbed clean from his memory—but he had. The only reason he would find out that something strange had occurred was because Carlisle would eventually try to talk to him about it, and grow concerned at how Jasper wouldn't know what he was referring to. He didn't know what emotion he'd forced out, what flavor of distress that had exploded from him like a supernova. Only that it had momentarily crippled the entire field—the wolves, newborns, and his family alike.)
In one instant he was staring at Emmett's back, and the next he was in front of him.
It was either the growl that erupted from him or his own projected fury that caused the two newborns to flinch back as he charged them; cowering with their full bodies as if it would save them now. Jasper did not hold anything back as he ripped and tore into the two men who had chosen the wrong fucking moment to try and take Emmett on. He didn't go for the kill; one man lost both arms and the other had his leg ripped backward.
It was when Jasper turned to the side that he knew there was a chance he wouldn't be quick enough.
He was, of course. The woman—tall, angry, fast—was coming up low from behind Emmett. Not aiming for Emmett, no. They were aiming for the person that Emmett was holding protectively against his left side. Clawing toward the head peeking out over Emmett's bent elbow—the back of a neck ready to be torn into.
With his arm moving faster than he thought he was capable of, he swung it to the side, twisting his entire body so the momentum of his full weight would do most of the work. It was as this woman's fingers grazed her target—the exposed neck she was lunging toward—that Jasper's closed fist smashed into the newborn's face.
He felt the features on her face collapse beneath his crushing blow. The woman could barely scream with the way the front of her face caved in—Jasper could only register a choking gasp; it was not a sound from a survivable injury.
Then, with every immediate threat finally subdued (luckily they had a few seconds before any other newborns would reach them) Jasper turned back toward Emmett. No sooner had his eyes landed on her that Jasper felt himself reaching forward. His own fear was quick to sink deep in his chest.
"Stop!" Jasper bellowed, and Emmett almost flinched away. Jasper leaned forward and yanked Alice out of Emmett's protective grip and into his own. "Alice, wait! STOP!"
Now, with her in his grasp finally, the panic that was pulsing out of her was beginning to crumble his focus. One thing was at the forefront of his mind: if Alice continued to try and yank the decapitated head off of her arm, it wouldn't just scar her skinny arm...
It would mangle it.
She didn't speak—Jasper didn't even know if she was able to—she just gasped, the pain of her wound wiping all of her sense from her mind as she held her arm as far away from her body as she could. She would have been better off dangling it outright toward the surviving newborns who were beginning to converge on them now. The buzzing of her emotions felt like piercing static as she tried to wiggle herself out of Jasper's grasp. Despite her pain she was trying hard to force visions, to keep moving, to help fight the newborns and protect their family.
Jasper grabbed her by her uninjured arm and tugged her back against his side, swearing loudly. Alice could not fight like this, and Jasper couldn't waste the time it would take to carefully unlock the dead newborn's jaw from her.
He threw a sharp jab toward a man trying to sneak up behind them, and Emmett cracked another one on the skull so hard the shattering sound was sharp in all of their ears.
"Get her out of here!" Emmett growled, swiftly turning to guard Jasper's back. They could not stand like this they could not allow themselves to hold still and be cornered again—
Alice gasped something out as her emotions buzzed. Her attempt to speak through her pain was choked; it almost sounded like 'no.'
Jasper spun quickly and hated how Alice's legs moved like a rag doll's. The set of teeth snapping toward her sank deep into his own upper arm.
He released Alice swiftly—just long enough to strike a blow between the woman's eyes, causing her to stumble back where one of the nearby wolves took over—and before he'd regained his hold on her she was already gasping again, her words more clear.
"Stop—no—"
He could see where Carlisle and Esme had paused on the perimeter, having cornered a stray newborn, and they would have to stay there once he passed Alice off to them.
"Wait—!" When he yanked her back against his side her cry of pain made something in his chest snap. He was being rough with her now because the alternative was disfigurement or death.
Jasper would apologize later. For now, he had to get her safe.
(And if he ended up with twenty more scars to show for it—marks to trade for her safety—then so fucking be it.)
He earned himself another bite as he rushed them toward the trees by the base of the mountain—while left alive for the time being, Jasper knew that the newborn wouldn't get too far without their eyes—and by the time Carlisle lifted his head toward their oncoming sprint, Jasper all-but-shoved Alice into his arms.
He spun quickly—two newborns had given chase when they'd witnessed him run to the edge of the fighting—and with two quick blows, one woman's head was on the ground, and an older man's chest was nearly cleaved in two. His shoulder was hanging far from his opened neck with his head flopping to the side, just barely attached to his torso. He fell to the ground, scrambling back across the grass with kicking feet, desperately trying to pull in a breath of air that would never come. Jasper would finish him off in a moment. Quickly, he turned back toward Carlisle and Esme.
"Do not remove that under any circumstance," he commanded as Carlisle's eyes widened. Jasper did not wait for a reply. Instead, he took a moment to eye the way Esme was talking to a girl they'd cornered (he almost took the extra few seconds to take care of the problem, but he didn't have the time) and in an instant was back in the fray.
Gone was Jasper's calculated concentration, or his measured ruthlessness. When he returned to the battlefield his rage fueled his every movement. Each action motivated by raw, unbridled fury. And if his projected, caustic feelings made the newborns a little easier to take down, pushing their already overwhelmed senses beyond what they could take, then good.
Before, he had killed with mercy and precision. Now, he fought messily. His attacks were as deadly and efficient as ever, but these were not clean, smooth kills.
Rosalie growled at him a couple of minutes later when he wandered too close, and that's when Jasper realized that all of this animalistic violence he was expelling wasn't simply affecting the newborns; it was affecting his family, too. If he wasn't careful he was going to get the wrong people killed out there, and it would be entirely his fault.
Focus, he screamed at himself as he took half of a second to reevaluate. Alice was standing with her back against a tree, Esme standing in front of her, guarding her. Carlisle was thankfully not far, ready to pick off stragglers that wandered too close or newborns that thought they'd be able to take him one-on-one.
Thank god Carlisle was willing to kill for their family for once.
Jasper brought his single-minded focus back to the forefront of his concentration, took a single breath, and released it forth.
All the wolves were accounted for, and for all the uncertainty surrounding their involvement, he knew their presence was making all the difference right now. Rosalie and Emmett were tearing through the newborns with proficiency; and for their first battle against their own kind they were fighting without the fear Jasper had anticipated.
Despite their competence a flash of pain made itself known in his peripheral, and Emmett hissed loudly, wringing his hand out where he'd been bit. Jasper could see from where he stood that it wasn't a bad injury (barely half of a mark against the outside of his right hand) and kept moving forward. Irritation settled deep in Emmett's chest.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Just focus, keep moving, and don't let them get close to you, he'd emphasized his point, staring down his family and the watching, irritated wolves. While he talked he'd made a broad gesture toward his own mangled appearance, forcing their focus onto the scars that overlapped thickly around his jaw and neck, and the ones that were visible on his face and forearms. It was a gesture he had never before made (he had ignored the way Edward's frown deepened and the way Esme averted her eyes).
Absolutely everyone had payed very, very close attention to that.
If they get to you before you get to them, you'll be sorry.
No one was supposed to have gotten hurt.
Two minutes and twelve seconds later he drove his fist through the side of a man's abdomen. Jasper had been trying to take the giant man down for the better half of the last minute and finally, an opening. Even with the stinging bite that the hard-to-kill newborn bestowed upon him (a dangerously close call) Jasper barely flinched at the pain as he ripped the man apart. The back of his neck burned with foreign venom and Jasper didn't blink twice.
There were five newborns left. Stragglers. Not a threat to the patchwork defense he'd stapled together over the past several weeks.
He ordered Rosalie to start collecting body parts even when there were still three newborns left. One had run off into the woods and was being pursued by a few of the wolves, another was being cornered by the remaining wolves, and Emmett was dealing with the final one on his own.
"Make a third pyre," he instructed her, even as her eyes stayed glued on Emmett as he finally knocked the newborn to the ground. "Across the clearing. We need to cover the smell of the wolves."
Rosalie didn't move until the screeching noise of another neck ripped from a body echoed through the clearing.
It was as Jasper was turning in a steady circle, surveying the area, trying to ensure that yes it was nearly over and no there were no more battles worth interfering with, that he flashed across the clearing, skidding to an abrupt stop. Dirt and grass were sent flying as his feet tore up the ground beneath him.
In the back of his awareness Jasper heard two more screeching noises—signaling two more dead vampires—and hoped that those were today's final kills.
Carlisle had his arm wrapped tightly around Alice's back, holding her upright and firmly against him. It was when Jasper finally looked around the tree they stood in front of that he noticed the girl standing behind Esme.
The sound of Carlisle's shout didn't carry as fast as Jasper's feet could move.
"Jasper! Wait—" But the twisting of the newborn's head (and he hoped that her terror-anger-apathy-misery would be the last he'd have to feel directly, skin-to-skin) drowned out any other noises in that moment.
Esme made a choked noise. For some reason instead of relief, her horror was prevalent both on her face and in her aura. "Jasper…"
He didn't have time to dwell on the confusion that Carlisle and Esme's reactions left him in. When Carlisle spoke, his voice was stony. "We'd offered her asylum." Jasper turned and stared at him, his own expression hard.
"It's far too dangerous for that," he snapped, and if some of his anger leeched out of him at his words, he would have to feel sorry about that later. They didn't have time to—
"We have," Alice gasped brokenly, halting the building argument with her shaking words, "five minutes," another two gasps, "or maybe," gasp, "even less."
"What?" He asked, and when she flinched at his loud, angry voice, Carlisle's expression was as severe as he'd ever seen it before. Jasper didn't realize they had an audience until Emmett's soft growl forced him to straighten up and take a closer look at his surroundings.
Even a few of the wolves whined uneasily.
"The," Alice gasped again, and then finally she lifted her head to meet his gaze, "Volturi."
Emmett swore and Carlisle's eyes widened. "We need to get the wolves out of here." Fear and anxiety quickly replaced the sad relief that had fallen over the area.
"They'll never honor a truce with them," Jasper could hear the fear in Rosalie's words.
Jasper turned back toward Emmett, "Did you two get everything? Nothing is left?"
Emmett nodded behind Jasper, where one final body now lay. "Just that."
"What can I do?" Carlisle looked down at Alice, and as the wolves departed, leaving faster than Jasper expected, everyone's attention was on her. Or more specifically, on the decapitated head still attached to her arm.
Jasper quickly moved to her other side, but before he could grab her shoulder she leaned away, flinching. "Edward... Bella," she inhaled slowly through her teeth and shook her head "almost here," and then a buzzing of a vision flashed across his awareness, "I can't—" she snapped her jaw shut as the pain coursed through her and spoke her next words through clenched teeth. "I don't want her," another pause as she sucked in a breath, "to see this."
"If you don't let me do this now," Jasper finally held her gaze, and he wanted so badly to reach out with calming emotions, or to soothe her with his words, but if he did that—if he let go of his anger and focus and frustration—then they'd be in danger. Because even though the army was gone, the Volturi were still coming. "You will lose your arm."
The moment he placed his hand on her shoulder, her knees buckled.
Carlisle lowered her slowly to the ground, only barely catching her before she could crumble. Jasper fell to his knees beside them.
If it were possible for her to be sweating, he knew she would be. It was a curse of their kind that they weren't gifted with the ability to lose consciousness. Nothing could help soothe pain from the mind—instead they were forced to endure it. No medicine on the planet was able to alleviate their agonies.
Alice had never known this type of pain. (Her skin was marked now and it would be bad and it was all his fault.)
Even though Jasper hadn't seen it happen, he knew just by looking at it exactly how this specific injury had occurred. And knowing Alice, she'd only tried to kill this man because she'd seen no other solution. How she'd gotten herself in that situation in the first place mattered little in that moment—and in the back of his head Jasper knew that Emmett's willingness to stop and help kept Alice alive long enough for Jasper to get to her—since she was at least still alive. They certainly couldn't say the same thing for the man still attached to her.
She hadn't had the time to lower her arm enough and get a decent grip under his chin or against his neck. So when this man's teeth sank into her arm Alice had done the only thing she could think to do to prevent losing a limb: she'd leaned into the momentum of his attack to rip his head from his body.
The jaw was still locked in place in death with the rest of the head still sporting an ugly, vicious expression; its eyes were frozen and lifeless. What was worse was that it was still leaking its remaining venom into her arm where it was attached. It would have been one thing if it were only digging into her forearm (it would have still been bad, but it would have been better), but it was right in the juncture of her arm, on the inside of her elbow. Her arm was now frozen in place at a gruesome angle, and Alice was unable to bend or extend it.
There was not an easy, painless fix to this. He forced himself to focus on the injury, and to forget the person attached to it.
The skin of her arm was beginning to turn a dark grey, almost-purple where the foreign venom was eating away at the flesh around the teeth firmly embedded inside of her.
Jasper would do this fast, and he would not come out unscathed, either.
"Carlisle," Alice breathed slowly, her eyes closed tight as a few visions flickered through her, "Edward," she paused, "needs you."
It was Edward's arrival on the battlefield, in his arms an unconscious Bella, that altered the atmosphere further. Carlisle was hesitant to move from Alice's side but very quickly pushed that hesitance aside as he stood and flickered across the clearing toward Edward.
When Esme appeared, ready to take Carlisle's place, Jasper shook his head. "No." No matter how small Alice was, there was no way Esme would be able to hold her still for this, "Emmett," he called. Emmett walked closer, placing himself in Jasper's peripheral. Jasper nodded toward where Esme was reluctantly moving away, her grief-stricken face looking helpless.
"How am I supposed to help?"
He barely glanced at Emmett before his focus was back on Alice's rotting arm before him. "Hold her still."
Jasper couldn't help his reaction when he heard, across the clearing, Carlisle begin to speak. "What happened to Bella, son?" He didn't care that Alice had told him to go, or that Bella was unconscious. Jasper felt seconds away from completely snapping.
In the more rational part of his mind he knew that there was nothing Carlisle could do for Alice. There was no way for him to help alleviate her pain. There was no aide that Carlisle could provide to her even with his centuries of studying medicine and treating humans and researching their own anatomy. There was only a clumsy, cruel treatment that awaited Alice, learned in the dust of the desert because if you didn't figure out how to repair your injuries on the fly then you would end up a pile of smoldering ash.
The flames would consume you faster than your own fear.
It wasn't Carlisle's concern that was infuriating Jasper, but the way that he'd quickly made the choice to look over Bella (and even Jasper could hear that her heart beat was steady and her breathing was even) instead of comforting Alice that made all of his current anger feel justified.
Alice's weak voice broke the silence again. "Only two more—" her voice cut off again, but Jasper knew what she meant. The Volturi would be there in two minutes.
He didn't have enough time.
"She'll be fine," Carlisle soothed Edward, and the sound of the assurances made Jasper that much angrier. "She's overwhelmed, there's nothing wrong with her."
Nothing wrong with Bella, the human this newborn army had been created for. The reason he'd been forced to dig deep into his psyche to resurrect the man he'd buried decades ago. It was because of this human, because of Edward's selfishness, that Alice was sitting in front of him, gasping with pain. It was their fault that after this, Alice would be sporting an angry scar for the rest of her eternity.
And the goddamned Volturi were coming.
Back in Monterrey it would've signaled his and Maria's demise. It would have signified an oncoming punishment to crimes they'd been knowingly engaging in for years. It would have been deserved, of course. But that would have been it.
He was not ready to face any members of the Volturi like this.
Not with Alice crippled and vulnerable for the next several minutes (or hours, even). Not with his past so clearly written across his skin. A receipt for crimes gone unpunished. The proof of broken rules.
Alice whimpered beside him, and Jasper just knew that she'd seen what was coming for her next.
Jasper quickly sat himself between her legs as Emmett dropped down beside them, holding Alice in a half-embrace as he gripped her shoulders and held her tightly. Jasper tucked and trapped her left arm under his armpit, squeezing it against him so she couldn't move while he worked.
He studied the head for less than a second before he acted.
With his right hand he gripped the head by the its eye sockets; the noise of the dead, hard eyes giving way made two pops as Jasper dug his fingers into the skull. With his left hand he dug his fingers into the underside of Alice's arm, pressing them deep into her wound in order to curve the tips of his fingers around the bottom of the man's jaw. He forced himself to ignore her long, drawn-out groan of pain—Emmett was muttering assurances in her ear as Jasper jammed his fingers into Alice's arm. Even as the sharp, dead teeth tore through the skin of his fingers, the pain was easily ignored.
In one swift motion, he tore the skull apart, ripping it in two and tossing it to the side. He only barely registered the new lacerations in the fingers of his left hand.
Instead, what made him flinch was the sound of Alice's cry. Her pain was at the forefront of his mind for half of a mili-second before he forced himself to ignore it.
Alice's arm was snapped ever-so-slightly at her elbow, pointing downward. The wound had split her hard flesh right open, and Jasper hated how he could see so deep into her thin arm. The skin around the opening was now a pale purple, weeping and ugly.
He placed his full attention on her wound swiftly and braced himself for what he'd have to do next. He squeezed her arm against his side even tighter, adjusting his hold only slightly before he reached out, yanking her arm up and into place.
In the following instant, Jasper leaned forward and sank his teeth into the wound, wrapping his mouth around as much as he could as he tried to suck the foreign venom out.
Her scream silenced the entire clearing.
Never, in all of the years they'd been together had a worse, more agonized sound erupted out of her. Never, ever in his worst daydreams or worst-case-scenarios could he have imagined that she could make such a heart wrenching, gut-twisting noise.
He turned his head and spat into the grass before thinking at Edward.
Keep her back, Jasper commanded mentally at the sound of a human blearily regaining consciousness. Alice doesn't want her to see this. No doubt Alice's scream had been what had roused Bella from her sleep.
Of course, Edward didn't act fast enough. "What happened to Alice?" Bella's voice trembled as she spoke, and from across the clearing Jasper could feel her horror. He swiftly ignored them. Whatever Bella witnessed was for Edward to deal with.
Once more, he pressed his mouth against Alice's arm and sucked the rest of the sour, rotten venom out of her wound. Then, with his mouth still against her, his teeth slowly lifting out of her wound, he shifted his hands, pressing the open wound closed with a hard, abrupt motion.
Alice's next scream was almost worst than the first. It cut off toward the end with the sound of a haggard, choked-out sob. As she cried out, he spat into the grass and shifted his grip, massaging the flesh of her arm overtop of the wound.
That was what made her start attempting to yank her arm back.
"Hold on, hold on," he finally spoke, his voice barely louder than Emmett's, and now Esme's, voices on either side of them. Her agony was suffocating him, knocking harshly overtop of his head and beating against his temples violently. His own wounds burned hotter for a few seconds, and the parts of his skin that were touching her forced her fear straight into his system.
He spat into the grass again, a hint of rancid venom still lingering, and continued to press and rub the skin of her arm, around and overtop of the wound, massaging the skin firmly. He knew this hurt. He knew this was the most painful thing you could do to a fresh bite; especially one as brutal and corroded as this one had become over the past several minutes.
But this was not a bite that people usually survived.
If Emmett hadn't been around—If Jasper hadn't gotten to her fast enough—If Alice hadn't had her gift on her side then she would not have survived.
It was not a sound that pulled his attention away, but a feeling. Jasper lifted his head and pulled his attention away from his task for a split-second.
At the edge of the forest, four dark grey cloaked vampires stood, watching the scene before them. No doubt they'd also heard Alice's screaming. They watched Jasper closely as he rubbed up and down Alice's arm, his hand slick with her venom. They watched as he bent and extended her arm slowly at the elbow, forcing it back into motion.
Their emotions ranged from disgusted to curious to delighted.
With that realization Jasper forced himself to look away from the four Volturi members. Instead he kept his eyes locked onto Alice's arm, watching as slowly and painfully the skin began to stitch itself back together.
"Very impressive," the small girl's voice observed, clearly acknowledging the pyres around them and the field now empty of newborns. Jasper knew that the two almost-children observing him must be the witch twins they'd heard all about. Alec and Jane. "And very interesting."
Jasper knew that those words were directed at him.
"Rare to see such an injury," one of the men sounded far more fascinated than he had any right to. "Also rare to see this type of battlefield care."
Jasper ignored them. He had to. Alice was still in his grip, her arm still injured, her emotions still suffocating him, her gasps barely concealed even with the eyes of the Volturi guard on them. Carlisle and Edward took turns speaking, and Jane (she must have been the source of the delight he'd felt when upon witnessing Alice's state) alternated between being awed and annoyed at a speed which only a child were capable of. Their conversation gave Jasper enough of a distraction to shake them from his awareness and focus fully back on Alice.
By doing this awful, painful work—massaging the wound, pressing and holding the skin back together, removing as much of the man's venom as possible—it would not only make the damage heal faster, but would keep her new scar from being too much of an grisly, distorted mark against her otherwise perfect, unblemished skin.
And with that thought, the dread finally sank deep into him, rushing to the forefront of his mind.
This was entirely his fault.
With his right arm he reached over and ripped his left sleeve off and, as tightly as he could, wrapped the fabric around her elbow. Her venom that rose to the surface to help seal the wound would eat away at the material eventually, but for now it would help hold her broken flesh together while she healed.
Then, he relaxed.
Alice yanked her arm out of Jasper's crushing grip, tucking it against her abdomen before he could even turn to finally look at her. When he did, his heart rattled in his chest. Her right knee was pulled up close and she had her forehead pressed against it, shielding her face from sight as she leaned into Emmett's bulk.
"Would you please not do that?" It wasn't until Edward snapped at Jane that Jasper focused more on the conversation and less on every single tiny movement Alice made beside him. The sound of Edward's anger made Jasper finally reach out toward her, and when Alice's uninjured arm lifted to snake around his neck, he lifted her into the air, finally holding her close.
He couldn't even feel relief at this proximity, nor could he force any calming emotions forth. He couldn't let his guard down yet, not while members of the Volturi guard were still watching his every move.
Jane only laughed in reply to Edward's command. "Just checking." Her eyes locked onto Bella only proved her apparent strangeness.
Esme stuck close to Jasper's side as he stood, Alice held tight in his arms. Jasper knew that Alice was doing everything in her power to keep herself from crying out, and her need to be strong in front of their new audience only angered him further. Jasper followed closely behind Emmett as he led them toward where Edward and Carlisle were standing closely to Rosalie and Bella.
"Caius will be interested to hear that she's still human."
"The date is set." Alice finally spoke up, her voice surprisingly steady for someone who hadn't been able to properly form words a minute ago. But they had rang through the field, loud and clear.
At first Jane appeared to ignore her. "A shame we missed a fight. I'm sure it would've been entertaining to watch," her eyes fell upon Jasper once more, before redirecting back toward his family. "An even bigger shame to see your coven so injured, Carlisle." The mock-sympathy in her voice served to feed the fire still burning in Jasper's chest.
Finally Jane looked at Alice, and her joy made him feel sick with hate.
"Demetri is right, of course. That is a rare sight. Where did you learn to treat such wounds?" Her feigned curiosity bounced right off of him even as her taunting words sank down deep. "I assume it's the same place you learned to fight."
"Southern, for sure," the man, Demetri spoke again, equal parts amused and fascinated.
"Well, let's not assume." Her expression was expectant as she turned back toward Jasper. She was no longer attempting to repress her smile.
Jasper glared back at them as he walked behind Emmett. He had half of a mind to ignore her fully, but knew that provoking a child with such power was likely unwise.
Unfortunately, he didn't respond quickly enough.
Fire burned through him, and for a moment all of his senses were out of reach. He couldn't hear, he couldn't see, he couldn't sense anything. He couldn't do anything as his entire body exploded in agony. The memory of his change was abruptly the only thought alive in his head.
And just as quickly as it started, it was gone.
Jasper could barely hear the commotion around him, all he could focus on was Alice's heavy breaths in his ear, her good arm cradling his head against her chest as his body fell under his control again. There was a pair of hands against his back (Esme, maybe?) and his position, crumpled in the dirt, confused him. Had he fallen with Alice in his arms? Quickly he was back on his feet, leaning forward once more to let Alice loop her arm back around his neck and lift her.
The instant the skin of her shaking arm touched his bare neck, he could feel her potent, crippling fear.
"You didn't need to do that," Edward's voice snapped with fury as Carlisle tried to keep everyone calm. Jasper could just barely hear Emmett growling toward their visitors, standing somewhere between them and the Volturi.
"I know," and Jasper could hear the awful smile on Jane's voice.
"Mexico," Jasper spoke finally, his voice even.
"Where?" All amusement was immediately gone from both Jane's voice and her expression. It would be an enormous understatement to say that she was unamused by his refusal to elaborate.
"Monterrey," he forced the word out, hating the way he was offering this information up to the Volturi. In the back of his mind he knew that Aro and the other Kings already knew about Jasper and his past. After all, Aro had taken both Edward and Alice's hands only months before. "And along the gulf coast."
Unless this was just a ploy to get him to admit his crimes verbally. For a moment that fear was all-encompassing.
The Volturi showed up expecting a wounded coven and an army with the upper hand. They'd showed up expecting an ongoing fight with more casualties.
What if they weren't going to leave without a kill of their own? Without a head disconnected from shoulders to prove to the Kings that they'd done something?
Jane hummed, "Perhaps we'll have to visit." She exchanged a look with her twin who nodded once.
The idea that he'd just damned Maria to an unknown fate sat heavy on his shoulders as his feet came to a stop between Emmett and Rosalie. No matter how much he loathed his past, it felt wrong to direct them toward Monterrey.
Alice pressed her face firmly against his chest, and watching her no longer try to feign bravery made him focus solely on the Volturi. He had to stay strong. He had to show them that not even Jane's ability could phase him. He had to keep their attention off of Alice and onto him.
To show them that if they wanted to hurt any of his family, they would have to take him out first.
The anger did not quiet, even after the Volturi turned and left, polite lies falling from Jane's tongue before departure. Jasper stared at the space they'd vacated for far longer than necessary, but it wasn't until he heard someone approaching him from behind that he turned swiftly.
"It's alright now," Carlisle's expression was pained, and that's when Jasper realized that it was finally, truly over. "They're gone."
But he couldn't shake it. He couldn't turn off the charged fury that was still coursing through him, and as Carlisle stepped closer, he appeared to feel it, wincing with an expression that didn't belong on his face. Anger wasn't an emotion Carlisle was accustomed to, and as he forced himself to approach, it showed.
"Jasper," Carlisle's words were strained now, struggling to keep even as he battled against the rage Jasper was expelling, "It's okay. We're safe."
"No," he spoke before he could stop his words. "We're not."
They wouldn't be safe for as long as Bella was still human. They wouldn't be safe as long as Aro coveted Alice. They wouldn't be safe as long as the knowledge of his own crimes was used to taunt them. Their safety was relative and it was temporary and Jasper didn't know how he was supposed to ever let his guard down ever again.
A voice began to cry, and Jasper felt something in his head right itself. A chord snapping back into place.
Alice did not cry. Had never cried in front of his family. Had never even cried in front of him. Despite all the variety in her emotional state—as active and varied and healthy as the average person—Alice did not cry.
He barely noticed when Edward forced Bella out of the clearing and back toward their home—a crying, yelling Bella, desperate worry rolling off of her—but when Alice collected another shaking breath and pressed her face against his chest, he didn't know what to do. For a moment he needed Edward there. To at least tell him what had happened. Had she seen something? Had his treatment of her injury only exacerbated her pain? Surely, if Jane had driven even a morsel of the pain or fire she'd struck him with Alice's way they would have known about it—
A hand suddenly gripped his elbow, hard. Jasper wasn't sure if Rosalie had been aiming for a fresh bite, but if so, she'd certainly hit the mark perfectly.
Her words were full of just as much anger as he could feel boiling within himself; maybe even more. "Either snap out of it, or hand her to Emmett." Her words were not a demand. No, they were a threat. He glared back at her, but to her credit she didn't wince, flinch, or soften her expression.
Even when she slowly twisted her hand overtop of his injury, the wound burning anew at the sensation, in the back of his head he knew he would have to thank her later.
The pain grounded him, and suddenly he exhaled. With it, he released the tension. Almost instantaneously, the atmosphere in the clearing shifted and changed, and the shoulders of his family all relaxed. Their rage and lingering desperation all fading swiftly.
Even despite its absence, Alice was still crying.
"Jazz," she finally cried out his name, and her agony became his once more.
Rosalie released his arm and Jasper fell to his knees, Alice secure in his embrace.
While she shuddered and cried and shook in his arms, Jasper tried hard to listen to the words his family were exchanging.
"The wolves were out of earshot, they'll be safe."
"Victoria is dead?"
"Edward said the kid, Riley, too."
"What about the fires?"
"Alice said earlier that it would rain before sunset. It'll be okay but we can check up on them throughout the night."
At the mention of Alice's name everyone redirected their attention toward her, and for a few seconds the worry and guilt and sadness and fear was almost overwhelming to him. He shook his head firmly, already unable to handle that on top of the sound of Alice's cries.
"Jasper?" Esme spoke up, her tone hesitant.
"What more can we do?" Carlisle was now on the ground beside them.
Jasper pushed down the nauseating feeling that rose up in him, seeing her so utterly weak and out-of-sorts. He couldn't afford to lose focus yet. Not while Alice was still in this much pain.
"Water," he finally spoke, the gears in his brain turning once more. "When we get back to the house we'll need to submerge it in water." In that instant Esme and Rosalie looked at each other and nodded, and quickly they were gone, too. Off to start a bath for Alice, most likely.
Finally, she turned her head and looked up at him for the first time since the Volturi departed. Her once-bright eyes were now a darkened, thirsty black. Only an injury of this magnitude could force her systems into overdrive this way, burning up all of the sustenance it could in order to heal her.
"She needs blood," Carlisle noted, his mind thankfully on the same page as Jasper's.
Emmett didn't even need to be asked. "I'm on it," and then he was gone, sprinting headlong up the mountain.
For a split-second Jasper considered throwing the rules to the wayside. Human blood would heal her faster. But the flash of buzzing that lead to acute annoyance told him that Alice had seen his idea and strongly disapproved.
"Are you okay?"
Jasper knew his expression was bewildered. He couldn't keep himself quiet when he spoke an incredulous "What?!"
"Your bites. We can—"
"Forget about me," the sound of new anger in his voice made Alice let out a pitiful whine, and Jasper snapped his jaw shut so suddenly the noise was audible. "I—" With Alice's dread and misery beginning to roll around inside of him, he made himself pause. "I'm fine."
Emmett made miraculous timing, a dead doe under each arm as he came to a stop before the both of them. Getting Alice to feed was thankfully easy. She sat up onto her knees to drain the first one, and by the time she was onto the second one Jasper could feel some of her panic beginning to subside.
It left him with a relief so potent it was dizzying.
Eventually she finished, and Emmett took the carcasses off to dispose of them. Carlisle told him to meet them back at the house.
When Alice leaned back against Jasper once more, he swallowed thickly as he gathered her back up into his arms. He had hoped the meal would give her the energy and focus to stand on her own, but she was still shaking.
Carlisle asked her how she was feeling, and she didn't reply. Instead, Alice rested her head back against Jasper's chest and stared. Quickly, the buzzing of emotions began to flicker within her, on and off, vision after vision coming across her awareness.
Vampires couldn't go into shock, but over the years Jasper had seen physical trauma do strange things to their kind.
"We'll be right behind you," Jasper promised as he stood, and he hoped that his expression adequately communicated just how serious he was. Alice still needed care. Jasper wouldn't rest until she was alright again.
They ran for several long minutes, moving quickly. But when Jasper realized that Edward still had Bella at the house, his feet came to a stop. He had to think about Alice now. Alice. His hurting wife, curled up into his arms, her face pressed against his chest, her arm cradled in her lap. Alice didn't want Bella to see her like this.
For a moment he considered moving forward. It would only do Bella and Edward some good to see Alice like this. Hurt and crying because of the mess they'd gotten them into.
With that thought Alice breathed in deeply. "Stop," she choked on the word, no doubt having seen the resulting argument that would occur should he choose that path.
"We'll catch up," he mumbled to Carlisle as he paused just ahead of them. "It's okay." He muttered the words to him, trying to provide more proof that he was calm again. That he could think rationally and behave decently enough to comfort Alice.
Carlisle's worry only forced guilt to trump all his other emotions.
After they were alone for a few seconds, Jasper moved against a tree, resting his back against it as he sat down on the ground. "Alice," he breathed the words, "Alice, I'm here."
She shuttered out a haggard breath against him before trying to sit up. "Fuck," she whispered as she leaned over her still-wrapped elbow. "It burns Jazz."
"I know, I'm sorry." His sleeve was beginning to bleach where the venom was seeping through the fabric. He almost wanted to unwrap it to take a better look but that would be better done once they got home and he could make her submerge it in water properly. "I'm so sorry Alice."
"I didn't—I couldn't see what you were going to do," she confessed, finally beginning to sound more like herself. The hint of hysteria still punctuated her sentences. "I was stuck and couldn't focus because of the wolves and the pain so when you—" She gritted her teeth together harder as she straightened up. "God. It hurts Jazz."
"I know," he kept his arm around her back gently, careful not to jostle her injury. "I'm sorry. You should have never gotten hurt. I should've been closer. I—"
"My visions skipped when he grabbed me. That's never happened before. It was like I was seeing his future backwards or sideways." She shuddered out another sob, staring straight ahead into the forest as she spoke. "I only barely got it under control in time."
Jasper's previous thought rang true in his head again.
… this was not a bite that people usually survived.
Alice had almost died today. And there was never going to be a world in which he didn't blame himself for that awful, terrifying fact.
"I'm sorry Alice," his own words were shaky, and he hated it. "I'm so, so sorry."
"I messed up," her voice thickened with emotion again. Emotion that he could feel all-too-clearly. Fear and sadness and regret and guilt. "I messed up."
"Alice," he leaned forward and buried his face against her neck. "I'll never let anyone hurt you again. Not for as long as I live."
"You can't promise me that," Alice's voice still shook, but her scolding tone made her sound more like her. "It was an accident. A slip-up."
"This army was not an accident," he growled against her. He pushed his frustration down and kissed the side of her neck before pulling away, resting his chin on her head. "The Volturi's convenient refusal to help was not an accident."
She ignored those words, and the buzzing of a vision fell across his awareness. "Please don't take me home for another few minutes." Jasper nodded quietly. That meant Bella was still at the house. "Please don't pick a fight with Edward."
"Alice—"
"I guarantee you Edward will be willing to change Bella before the summer ends."
He stayed quiet for several long seconds. "This never should have happened."
"I love you," her voice cracked on the last word, and she lifted her head and pressed her face against Jasper's neck this time. "I love you."
"Alice," he pulled her closer, hating how he didn't know what to do to make it better. He was terrified that he wouldn't be able to make this better. With all the strength he could muster he focused on his own love for her. "I'm sorry."
The feeling of his love overwhelmed her, and she was crying anew.
"I was so scared."
"I know."
"I thought I was going to die."
"I'm sorry."
"It hurt so bad."
"I know."
"And then Jane hurt you."
"I'm fine."
"And I couldn't do anything."
"It's my fault."
A crushing kiss is what silenced their conversation finally. Alice's good hand was tangled in his hair on the back of his head, pressing her lips against his firmly. She pulled back and fixed him with a serious expression, her still-hungry eyes a dark gold. "I am alive because of you. Don't you ever blame yourself for something stupid like that."
She kissed him again, harder this time. Jasper had to actively remind himself that he couldn't deepen the kiss the way he wanted to; the way that Alice was trying to.
"You'll never be in a position like that ever again," he vowed against her lips.
"And I won't be," Alice whispered back between kisses. Despite her distracting lips and soothing words, she couldn't hide the buzzing he could feel from her, and the unease and anxiety he could sense resulting from the visions she received.
He wouldn't ask her about it yet, but he knew that eventually he'd demand to know what she saw, and why she was lying.
For now, Alice was hurting, but Alice was alive, and that was all that mattered.
A/N: I've always wondered what would happen in the off-chance that Alice would've somehow gotten hurt during the Eclipse newborn battle, and realized that yeah, Jasper likely wouldn't have handled it well. Then, this was born.
Alternatively: Jasper doesn't act like an "overprotective fool" during the Eclipse battle. He's still made to feel like a fool anyways.
Anyways, in other news: this past May the darling love of my life (volturialice) and I started a new Twilight podcast!
If that sounds like something you'd be interested in checking out feel free to look us up. It's called Three Books One Plot. We post episode biweekly (or more frequently, sometimes) and we, along with a rotating guest of the week, take turns reading Twilight and it's two official retellings, Life and Death and Midnight Sun, all at once in a joke-filled, nostalgia-driven look at the craziest story to ever be published three times by the same author.
Check us out on any social media sites you frequent and you can stream us now on your favorite streaming services now.
