EDWARD
Bella eventually cried herself to sleep in my arms. Once Jasper had finished running through the battle plan, I carried her up to my room and laid her in the bed. I curled myself next to her and stroked her hair. I wasn't sure how much time I had left with her so I planned on spending every minute of the next forty eight hours by her side. I wouldn't leave her unless I had no other choice.
I knew a hunt would be necessary in the next few hours. We needed all the strength we could get to fight the guard. I decided to go sometime while she was still asleep. I didn't want to take away from any of her waking hours.
"Edward, can I come in?" Alice's thoughts floated in about an hour after I brought Bella up.
"Sure." I replied.
She opened the door and stepped in. She looked like all the life had been drained out of her. Granted, that was something that came along with our existence but this was bad even for our kind. Alice had always been the one who was the most okay with what we were. I mean she wasn't perfectly happy about it. None of us would be. She just adapted so much better than the rest of us. I don't even think she ever regretted having to leave her human self behind.
I supposed that had something to do with the fact that she couldn't remember much of what she left behind. Still, she always seemed to have the best outlook on our existence and was always so optimistic. Once again, that's probably the whole future seeing thing. She always knew when things were going to work out or not. I supposed that helped her a lot.
The point, though, is you rarely ever saw her without a bounce in her step and a smile on her face. To see her walk into a room looking like someone was on their deathbed was a very scary and sad thing for me to see. She looked like she didn't have any fight in her. I had a feeling she felt the situation was hopeless. I wanted to say something comforting but had no idea what.
She walked over and sat on the couch, pulling her knees into her chest and resting her chin on her knees. She started at my sleeping angel for the longest time before she spoke.
"Carlisle, Em, and Jazz are going to go for their hunt in about an hour." she told me. I could her the sadness in her voice. Once again, it was something you'd expect from Alice. "They said you could go with them and I'd sit with Bella. Or you can wait and come with Rose, Esme, Roxy, and myself while Jazz stayed with her."
I stared at Bella for a few moments.
"Do you know when she'll wake up?" I asked.
"Not for another seven or eight hours." Alice answered.
"Then I'll go with the guys just in case you guys aren't back before she wakes."
Alice simply nodded. I expected her to go back to Jasper right away but she continued to sit there and watch Bella. She was wishing there was something she could do to keep things from happening the way she saw them. She really felt like she was missing an important piece of the puzzle but she couldn't quite grasp what it is. I couldn't either. We just sat there in silence for awhile as I listened to her thoughts. She was trying desperately to make a connection but it just wasn't coming together.
"It's okay, Alice." I said after awhile. "I really don't think he's doing it for anything other than his own sick pleasure. Besides, the important thing is to keep it from happening and stop worrying about the why."
"I suppose you're right." she sighed. "It just doesn't make sense. Why her?"
"Who knows?" I answered. "He's probably trying to protect his image. By taking Bella, it looks like he's just doing his job in keeping the humans from finding out."
"That does make sense."
We lasped back into silence. Her thoughts now turned to the fight that was coming up. She was scared for all of us but mostly for Bella. I'm sure that's how everyone in the house felt. We could all take care of ourselves and everyone in the house knew that. Bella, however, was only a human and couldn't hold her own. We had to do it for her. Soemthing we were all prepared to do. Even if it meant our death.
"Can you tell the outcome of the fight?" I asked after a minute.
"I haven't seen anything definite, yet." she answered. "A few decisions still need to be made."
"Who's?" I questioned.
"I'm not sure but I think they might be Bella's. I could be wrong though."
"So you mean, she is going to decide whether or not she falls into his hands."
Alice shook her hand sadly. I imagined tears rolling down her cheeks.
"I've gotten a glimpse of two possible outcomes. Someone, Bella, I assume keeps changing their mind. Either way, Aro is going to get what he wants."
"No. I won't let that happen. I will fight until there is no part of me left to fight."
"I know and so will the rest of the family. However, if we fight until there's nothing left, then they'll be no one to protect Bella once the guard's finished with us. Which means that they'll get her anyway."
"It doesn't have to be that way."
"You're right, it doesn't. But you won't like the other possibility."
"Why, what is it?"
Alice just shook her head. "Edward, we aren't going to be to protect her from this. As much as we all want to. Her want to protect us will most likely win out in the end. She'll end up doing what she's been asking to do since the beginning. We might not be able to stop it from happening."
"No! I refuse to allow that to happen!" I growled as quietly as I could
"In the end, it's up to her, Edward." she stated. "You know how she is. If it's something that she wants to do, she's going to do it."
"But I can't let her. I have to try to protect her."
"I know and we will. Nothing is set in stone. We could still win which is why we will fight but there's a possibility, Bella will have to make the decision that will save or destroy us. And only she can decide which one is right."
Before I could respond, there was a knock on the door and Jasper poked his head in.
"Edward, we're going to leave a bit earlier than expected. We want to be absolutely positive we're all together when they get here." he said.
"Okay." I replied.
"Don't tell them about this." Alice thought. "They're scared enough as it is."
I nodded. Once I kissed Bella on the forehead, I headed downstairs to join the boys for our hunt.
SEVEN HOURS LATER....
BELLA
When I woke up, I was staring into Edward's sad eyes. With everything I've gone through in the past year and a half, I've never once regretted not walking away from Edward and the Cullens once I found out what they were. Not even when James almost killed me or when they left me. I was glad I had them in my life and I loved them all very much. However, in that moment, looking into Edward's eyes, I wanted nothing more than to be in Jacksonville with Renee and Phil, completely oblivious to the existence of vampires.
At least then, Edward wouldn't have the defeated,hopeless look in his eyes. I knew by looking in his eyes, he was way more than just scared for me. I felt like he knew there was no way around me ending up in Aro's hands. I had never seen him look like that before. Not even when James was after me. He always had a solution for everything but it didn't look like he had any way out of this one.
To tell thr truth, I really didn't care that there was no hope for me. This whole thing was my fault anyway. I should've walked away when I had the chance. No, I was worried that there wasn't any hope for the family to survive. It was my decisions that brought us to this point. I decided to keep pressing Edward about what happened with the van. I chose to ask Jacob about the legends. I chose to confront Edward about it all. And I chose to stay right where I was when he finally confirmed everything. If I would've just dropped it, they wouldn't be facing possible excution in the next day or so.
I wished I could get Edward to see it that way but he never would. He was convinced that everything was his fault. He put it all on himslef simply because he couoldn't let me die that day.
"Good morning." Edward said bringing me out of my thoughts.
"Good morning." I replied.
"Did you sleep okay?" he asked. I nodded. "Good."
He pulled me closer to him and I snuggled into his chest. I wished time could've just stopped right there. I would be so content to just lie there forever with him. I didn't want to have to worry about him risking his life to keep me safe. He wouldn't even have to worry about keeping me safe. We could just be together and not have to worry about anything.
"I love you." he whispered.
"I love you too." I replied into his chest.
"There's something we need to talk about." he said slowly.
I pulled away from him and into a sitting position.
"What's up?" I stated.
"I haven't really been fair to you in this situation." he stated. "I haven't given you any options. I've just told you how it's going to be. I didn't stop to think about how what we were about to do would effect you."
I nodded. I wasn't quite sure where he was going with that. I liked that he was acknowledging my feelings on the subject. I knew though, that he'd never give me what I wanted so I may as well not hope for that. Still, it was nice that someone was actually taking my feelings into account.
"I want you to know, though, that as your family, we are doing what we think is right for you." he continued. "And I may not like it but when all is said and done, as a part of our family, you have to do what you think is right for us as well. Though, I don't condone the idea and I hope it doesn't have to happen, I know you're going to do what you want, regardless of what I say. So, in the end, you have to do what you think is right? And if that happens to be making the sacrifice, then I won't stop you. So long as it's your decision. But I want your promise to at least let us try before you do anything. I don't want you to be hurt if there's still the possibility that we can save you."
I stared at him in total shock. I wasn't sure if this was really my Edward talking to me. Mister overprotective vampire who wouldn't let me go anywhere alone anymore. He was actually giving me permission to put myself in harm's way if we didn't have any other options. I didn't quite believe this. Edward would never.
"And what brought this on?" I asked.
"Alice and I had a little talk while you were asleep." he answered.
"A talk about what?" I pressed.
"That's between her and I."
"Fine."
"So are you going to promise me or what?"
"I promise that I will not throw myself into the belly of the beast unless you guys are in serious trouble." I stated.
He nodded sadly.
"Thank you for understanding my need to do it." I told him.
"I just hope you won't have to." he replied wrapping his arms around me.
"EDWARD, BELLA, CARLISLE, ESME, ROXY, JASPER, EMMETT!" Alice voice rang through the house. "GET DOWN HERE NOW!!!!!!"
Edward picked me up and took off down the stairs. Alice was sitting in a chair with a hand over her heart. She was trying to unecssarily catch her breath. The others were there only half a second after us. Everyone was looking at Alice. Their eyes held nothing but apprehension and fear.
"Jane decided to steal a car this morning." Alice stated. "She feels it's a bit faster than running. They'll be here by the end of the day."
A/N: I lied and I'm sorry. This is obviously not the fight scene. I had no idea what I was going to write when I sat down today. This is what my fingers typed out. Don't worry! The fight scene will definitely be here tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed the setup for the fight scene though. A few things I have to cover first, I'm not sure if Alice can tell who has to make what decision for her visions to come true. However, I feel that some visions would just be obvious with who has to decide what. Also, I know giving Bella permission to sacrifice herself is very out of character for Edward. Think about it like this though, if they were dead then Bella would be stuck with that fate forever. However, if Bella handed herself over and everyone lived, then they could figure out a plan to save her later. That's Edward's logic. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this one. Please review. Also, I'm going to take down the poll because with the help of the few votes, I've gotten, I've decided that I'm not going to let the Volturi powers work on Bella. But I will be replacing it with another poll for tomorrow's chapter. I want to know if you guys think any of the Cullens or Volturi should die in the next chapter.
