"Please tell me this is not the best you can do." Bella groaned as she watched Alice and two of the wolves trying to tag-team Jasper. They had been at it for a good ten minutes and had yet to so much as scratch him.

Alice huffed in frustration as she tried unsuccessfully to land another hit. "I'm sorry that Jasper's a better fighter than me Bella I didn't live through hundreds of years of war and therefore don't have nearly the amount of experience that he does."

"Amount of experience has nothing to do with it. You're so focused on the fact that you can't see what he's going to do that you aren't even paying attention to what it is he's doing or how terribly he's doing it."

"Now wait just a minute, Darlin'…" Jasper started narrowing his eyes at his mate when he heard what she was saying about his fighting.

"Yes, dear?" Bella asked sweetly with a faux innocent look plastered on her face.

"I've never done something terribly in my entire existence, especially not fighting," Jasper growled his Texan accent coming through thick as he spoke.

"Of course not, I'm sure what you're doing is just toning down your superior skills so that Alice might stand a chance against you is that right?"

Jasper growled menacingly at Bella while Emmett guffawed and the russet-colored wolf that was Jacob gave some hacking coughs that might pass as laughter. Bella in turn simply batted her eyelashes at him before turning back to Alice.

"You need to stop relying on your fore-site for this. If you don't then you're going to be a hindrance in the fight. I'm certain that Jasper has taught you how to defend yourself at some point in the time that you've known each other so you need to rely on that knowledge rather than using your gift as a crutch. Gifts are supposed to be cherished and help enhance us not be all we are good for. Now get ready because Jasper is going to stop being sloppy and start fighting like he knows what he's doing."

Alice huffed out a loud unnecessary breath and gave a sharp nod as she dropped into a defensive crouch. Jasper circled her slowly, his eyes darting between Alice and the wolves as he moved, his movements were measured but still somehow casual not making a sound as he practically glided across the earth. Alice watched him with narrowed eyes, turning with him as if there was a rope forcing them to move at the same time. Then in the split second after his eyes moved from her to one of the wolves she pounced, launching herself over him and landing gracefully on his back with her teeth inches from his throat.

"Gotcha," she grinned widely as she hopped off of his back and skipped over to where Jacob was watching.

"Better," Bella agreed happily. "Keep fighting with your head instead of your gift and you'll do just fine."

"So, I have a dumb question," Emmett said cutting in before Alice could make any sort of response to what Bella had told her.

"How is this one different than the others that you ask?" Bella retorted with a raised eyebrow at him.

"Rude." Emmett pouted as Jasper took his turn laughing at his brother's expense.

"No, Bella. Now ask your dumb question."

"I greatly dislike you sometimes," Emmett said glaring at her. "My question is how are we going to know where to face the army and if the people behind it will be there?"

"Did I forget to mention that I've already had contact with whoever started this army?" Bella asked thoughtfully.

"Yeah, yeah you did." Emmett snarled. "Why didn't you tell us as soon as you made contact with them? How did you make contact with them? What did they say? Do you know who they are?"

"I didn't tell you right away when I made contact with them because the training was more important, to begin with. I made contact with them via Jason's phone, his parents haven't had it shut off yet in hopes that he'll contact them so whoever took him has commandeered it for their use and my phone number was already conveniently stored inside of it for them. They texted me a set of coordinates, that ironically match up to this field that we've been practicing in, as well as a date and time."

"What?! When did they tell you? Who are they!?" Emmett demanded.

"I don't know who they are Emmett otherwise I would call them by their names obviously. Now, do you mean when did they send the message or what date and time did they send me? You must be specific with these things." Bella grinned impishly at him, quickly sidestepping him when he lunged at her in his frustration.

"Darlin, please enlighten us as to when this is going to be taking place," Jasper growled in exasperation at his mate.

"They'll be here in two days at twilight. And we will be waiting for them with a force they could not hope to overcome." Bella said in a matter of fact tone, staring around at everyone that was in the clearing and making eye contact with each of them individually. "I have never lost a fight in my existence and this will not be the first one is that clear?"

Throughout the group gathered there was a grumble of assent as they finally put a time limit on the coming battle.

"Now, unless there's anything else you would like to practice tonight, I think we should call it a night before those of us with human families are reported missing," Bella said grinning sarcastically in response to the sun that was starting to rise on the horizon. "Tomorrow the Cullen's and myself will be hunting one last time before the fight, I would suggest that the rest of you do whatever you need to, to be rested and ready to go."

Another grumble of recognition passed through the wolves at her words and soon after they began to disperse, Jacob being the last one left when the others were gone. He stared at Bella for a long moment his thoughts practically plastered across his forehead and rendering Edward's mind-reading ability completely unnecessary in the process.

"Don't worry Winn-Dixi, I think there are enough people that have already gone missing in the area recently I'm going for diet this time instead of full sugar," Bella said rolling her eyes at the russet wolf staring her down.

The wolf turned his eyes to Edward then apparently conveying something that he wanted to be translated more completely than he could tell with just his eyes.

"I'm not saying that it's both childish and rude," Edward said rolling his eyes.

Jacob growled menacingly at him.

"Don't worry Edward, I don't make a habit of being offended by untrained house pets," Bella said calmly and sending Jacob a smirk.

Edward heaved a great unnecessary sigh before speaking. "He says, what gives a reeking bat like you the right to compare people to soda. Also, if you don't stay away from humans even after the battle, he's going to find a way to torture you slowly whether you have some freaky shield or not."

Bella laughed loudly taking almost as much pleasure in the chagrined look on Edward's face as she did in the words he was speaking for Jacob. "I'll keep that in mind Winn-Dixi, now go home before your dad rats me out to Charlie and gets my camping privileges taken away from me."

XxXx

So…I'm still alive. I was originally hoping to get more into this chapter but I'm trying really hard to not make the transitions feel awkward for myself even if that means writing shorter chapters. However I'm doing this thing recently where I set goals and actually follow through with them and my latest goal is to actually finish this story including the edits to the earlier chapters in the near future and I'm almost done editing the previous chapters so I've just gotta pull together the ending and actually upload the edits and then we'll be at the end of an era.

As always thanks for reading and sticking with me on this story even though it's taken me close to a decade to get this far in it. Your feedback gives me life, also if I haven't hit on a name you want either Jacob or Bella to call the other yet feel free to hit me up with it because thinking about how their back and forth has taken shape in this story brings me a lot of joy and I'm hoping you like it as well and I don't want to end it before all of your favorite fictional dogs/vampires have gotten a reference.

Love always,

Emily Rai