Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, I merely play in the sandbox. I do lay claim to my original characters Ella, Adrian and others/the inclusion of the Fey World.

AN: I am so ready to get this story finished this year. It's not that I've run out of steam on it or anything. All the chapters right up to the end are planned out. I've just got super determined to finish this story. It's been a journey. ~Hannah

Chapter Seventy-Two – Edward's Promise

I woke with a scream, tears coursing down my face, hands shaking, heart beating too fast to be good and sweat covering every inch of my body. Edward raced into the room at the sound of my scream, his face just as frantic as mine was.

"What is it? What's wrong? Why did you scream?"

"Edward?" I whimpered.

"What is it Ella? What happened?"

He crawled into bed with me and took me in his arms. I latched onto him with no intention of letting go. I had to assure myself that he was real and that he could see me. I pinched myself to make sure but all that did was leave my skin red. I squeezed myself as close to Edward as I could manage and breathed in his unique scent like it was a drug.

Paranoia, fear and lack of control fuelled my very being as I struggled to remain upright. As scared as I was from what I'd seen, I refused to let this set me back in terms of my mental health. Of course, that was easier said than done, especially with how tightly I was gripping Edward, but it meant a lot to me that I could acknowledge a refusal to fall into depression.

A world without Edward was an inconceivable idea to me and a world where I didn't exist had shocked me to the core. I understood the powerful message that had been given to me like when Frodo looks into Galadriel's mirror but couldn't help but think I could have been told in a damaging way.

Maybe they'd been going for extreme but I couldn't feel good about that when my hands were still shaking. I always knew I was going to help in the fight that was coming but now I felt as if I was being forced to participate. How could I sit on the side-lines knowing what would happen if I didn't help?

"Ella talk to me, please."

"I didn't exist Edward."

"What are you talking about?"

"I didn't exist!"

"You're not making any sense."

"I was in a world where I didn't exist Edward, there was no Ella, I hadn't been born."

"You had a nightmare?"

"It was more than that. It was like seeing what would happen to the world if I hadn't been born."

"I don't understand."

"Don't you see? I wasn't some miracle baby that the doctors didn't see, I was created to stop the future that had been seen. I was made by the ethereal's."

"Ella, you're talking nonsense. You weren't created by anyone other than your parents."

"You're not listening to me. I didn't just dream, I was spoken to, the ethereal's reached out and showed me what would have happened had I not been born and explained why they had interfered in the lives of men. They gave me life so I could help change the future."

"I am listening to you Ella but what you're saying isn't proven."

"Just because you haven't experienced it Edward doesn't make it any less real. What I saw wasn't a mistake."

"What did you see?"

"Bella came to Forks and without me, you fell in love with her. Dad hated you and Bella, it was like someone had taken everything good from her and made her a weak pitiful girl."

"I would never fall for Bella, I love you Ella."

"I know, I love you too but this would have happened without me. I saw as a darkness overtook the world and no one knew what it was or how to stop it. Governments were arguing over each other and in the meantime, we were being invaded. By the time everyone worked out what had happened, it was too late to fight back for our invaders were starting their victory parade."

"Who invaded us?"

"I was never showed their face but the nauseating familiar feeling I got makes me think it might have been the 'master'."

"Are you sure?"

"Not a hundred percent but what I saw didn't linger too much on who had invaded but rather on the lives lost and the whole human race being demoted to slaves."

"Lives lost?"

"Oh, so many lives lost Edward."

"Mine?"

"Yours and plenty others," I whispered, the tears falling freely now.

"Who did you see?"

"Dad, Bella, Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Rose, Emmett and you. All of you gone in such gruesome ways and I couldn't stop it. I tried, I really did but I was just a watcher to a party I could reach. I couldn't turn away or leave for there was a force stopping me. It was horrifying to see you all leave the world, to leave me behind. I couldn't handle what I was seeing but I know that if I leave or decide not to fight, what I saw will come to pass."

"I won't love Bella."

"No, not that. Your deaths. You'll all die. I don't want you to leave me. I can't bear the thought of it."

"Ella, look at me, please. I promise I will always be there for you. I know what you saw has scared you and I cannot begin to imagine what you saw. I will always love you, I will always care for you and I will always shelter you. You say you should fight, well, I will be fighting by your side. Anything that you must do, I will be right there with you. We are a team, for better or worse and you don't have to do anything on your own."

"I didn't know whether you'd believe me or not. I was so worried that you'd think I'd had a set back and that you'd cart me off to Jasper or something. I can't tell you how relieved I am to know you believe what I'm saying and that you'll stand by my side. I know we have our ups and downs but I feel the safest when I am with you and I love you with all my heart."

"Ella, I cannot imagine my life without you and I am glad that we spend more time talking of our feelings for each other. There is a question I want to ask you but I won't ask it now. I won't ask you until the 'Master' has been neutralised but never doubt that I want to ask you. Sometimes it is all I think about."

I blushed at Edwards words, partly because of what I imagined he wanted to ask me and partly because I was embarrassed by his attention. I was getting better at it, but I still had a slither of doubt when someone expressed their feelings towards me.

Now that I was safe in Edward's arms and had relaxed enough that I didn't worry about over-straining my muscles, the fear and the paranoia faded away and were replaced with a burning anger.

They don't own me.

"Do you think these 'gods' sit upstairs planning games for us poor humans? Do you think that's how they get their kicks? I wonder if they get prizes for the most screwed up scenarios."

"Don't talk like that Ella."

"Why not?"

"We're going to be fine Ella."

"I believe most of what you say but I'm not sure we'll be fine with everything that's going on. No, don't talk, let me say my piece. I'm fucking angry. The fear I felt when I woke has been washed away by your comforting embrace and wise words but that doesn't change the fact that my birth was pushed forth by these Ethereal beings that believe I am the only one to stop what is coming. I'm not the boy-who-lived for goodness sake, I'm just Ella. How dare these beings try and dictate what I do and how I do it. They don't own me and they can't tell me what to do. I will not be kept in a cage to do their bidding. I am my own person and I have my own thoughts and feelings and they better be listening because I swear to god if they drop another bombshell on my shoulders I'm walking. That's right, I'll take my family and walk away and then they'll have to deal with this themselves!"

By the end of my speech I was glaring with a level of intense loathing I didn't know I possessed the ability for, towards the ceiling and therefore the sky. Anger was a strong emotion and I was feeling a lot of it. Not even the thought of Edward asking me a question could still the anger that coursed through my veins. A lesser person may have just accepted their fate or tried to research what would happen but not me. I was intent on doing things my way and if that wasn't the way it was supposed to go – not my problem. These Ethereal beings were going to learn that I could not be pushed or forced to do their bidding. If I was going to help then it was going to be done on my own terms and not anyone else's.

"So hot."

"Edward…are you turned on by this?"

If vampires could blush, I'd have won the jackpot here.

"You were just so passionate and fiery. I haven't seen that side of you in a while and it just sent something coursing through my veins."

"You're so cute," I said, leaning in to give him a sweet kiss on the lips.

The kiss turned passionate in a matter of seconds, Edward seemed intent on pushing our boundaries and I was intent on letting him. As our tongues fought for dominance, I moaned into his mouth as his hands explored my body.

Being with Edward completed me. I knew that others thought that finding their 'other half' or 'perfect partner' was unattainable so instead settled for someone they were compatible with but I was the lucky one. I got someone I was compatible with and someone who completed me.

Sometimes just being close was enough for us. I knew many my age was having sex and it wasn't that I wasn't ready for that, it was just that we were happy with where we were at. We never wanted to rush anything, so while the kisses were frantic and the hands were wandering, we never did anything that crossed any boundaries we'd set.

Nestled in Edwards arms, trading kisses and touches in the treehouse he'd built for our escape.