Here's a little Thanksgiving treat for all of the people that aren't already in a turkey coma. I hope you enjoy this as much as your dinners.
Disclaimer: If the ownership of Twilight was won through a match of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Stephenie Meyer would have the rock while I continuously pick scissors.
Chapter Nine:
Detailing the Events that are Considered Spectacular for Some
"Alice," Jasper said in a desperate voice, trying to get something other than a cryptic message from her lips, "what do you mean by 'Everything should be on path now'?" He tried to restrain the confusion and frustration that he was feeling from spreading to everyone in the house – which would no doubt cause a skyrocketing number of sharp remarks and twitches – but felt it slowly slipping out of his control. Downstairs, he could hear Rosalie suddenly get up and leave the room where she had been talking to Eleazer and Carmen in an air of guilty agitation.
Yet Alice did not stop her distracted pacing across the room. One hand pulled a spike of her ink black hair to the side while the other toyed with the hem of her equally black skirt. She didn't seem to have heard her husband until he repeated his question once more, and then she only acknowledged it with a tilt of the head and a soft "hmm?"
From his seat at the end of their bed, Jasper reached out a long arm to grab hold of her stick thin one and pull her into his lap. "Though your mysterious tendencies are very attractive, I still need to know when and why important things, such as why Edward has not contacted us and where Tanya and Kate disappeared to, happen. That way, we can perhaps, oh, I don't know, do something about it."
Alice's eyes finally focused on her husband's face, a face she had long ago memorized and loved with every bit of her soul. She placed one small, pale hand on his angular cheek and said, "There is nothing we can do, though, Jazz. The stage has been set; it all depends on whether or not they know the proper lines or not now." She sighed a sweet, mournful sigh. "I just…wish that it wouldn't all be up to them now. I feel as though they are so controlled by the rush of events that they cannot keep a clear head and look toward the possibility of happiness that can be their future. It's as though, by not doing further, it will be my fault if it turns out wrong."
"So there are no choices for us, Alice? No further alternative?"
"Nothing that hasn't already been done. If we interfere now, especially with Edward, it can lead down some bad paths." Alice stared into Jasper's eyes, her emotions growing more hopeless as the seconds passed. Her bottom lip trembled uncertainly, her small frame shuddered, and she threw her tiny body into his leonine one, holding on as though her sanity depended upon it. "What can I do when both the present and the future become so uncertain to me? I have no steady footing, only varied outcomes for the ones I love, most awful in their end."
Jasper returned his wife's embrace tightly, doing his best to soothe her with his love and absolute certainty that she could not make such a mistake. When her emotions leveled out, displaying her thankfulness that she had him in her life, he pulled back and smoothed her chaotic hair. "What I still don't understand, love, is the reason for Tanya being there."
"That," said a quiet voice from the hallway "is my fault." Jasper turned his head to see Rosalie leaning against the doorway with the same shame he had felt in her before doubling with her words. "I pushed her to go."
"Why, Rose?"
Taking a step into the room and collapsing into a chair, she brushed her curls back from her face and admitted, "Tanya had told the Volturi about Edward's girl, Isabella. They found out where she was and took her away, leading Edward by the nose to follow. I was just so angry to know that she had done this just to get the girl out of the way that I…just exploded. She's gone because of me. Our family was falling apart, and I only shoved it further…" Rosalie's voice was smooth and her face was expressionless, trying not to let anyone know of her distress, but Jasper could feel that it hit deeply within her, eating away at her thoughts.
He was attempting to find something comforting to say to his sister, but the sharp answer of Alice jarred his mind. "Don't say that, Rose!" She swiftly stood from Jasper's lap and moved to kneel before Rosalie, her face now stern, lost of the pain that had been marring it only moments before. "If you hadn't confronted her, then Tanya would have only stayed here in despair. Without her going over to at least try and help would lower Edward's chances of ever getting back to himself drastically. It would take years for him to realize…to even have an idea…and she'd be devastated…so desperate to make him remember what it felt like when they were together…" Alice shook her head sharply; expelling whatever thought caused the painful future that could have been. "You did more than I have Rosalie; you, at least, gave them a chance."
Their eyes met and something like thankfulness passed between them; thankfulness that Rosalie did what Alice couldn't do, thankfulness that Alice could comfort her in her time of need.
They stayed in the room for the next hour, not talking, but second guessing the events that were taking place in the fortress of the Volturi. Silently they hoped, continuously they prayed.
000
Denali coven. Those two words struck a chord in Bella's mind, bringing up a hurriedly hidden thought (the better to not remember him) of the cabin in Forks. She almost whimpered when the happy memory washed over her. It had been, for that too brief time, perfect. He had told her that they were going to Alaska, to Denali… "Are you," she started before she had to clear her throat in order to rid herself of the rasp in her voice, "are you Edward's family?"
Tanya sneered. There was something about the reverent, completely and lovingly tender way she was said Edward's name that did not bode well with her. It reminded her, in fact, of how Edward himself had said her name before he had left; like it was the most brilliant word that ever existed. "Somewhat."
The girl across from her wrapped an arm around her stomach as she said, "If you've come to get him, I – I must warn you. He's…not himself." Bella tried to hold an expression of something other than hopeless sadness, but it broke apart quickly. "Edward…wants to be with them." Though she wasn't looking at him, Felix took a step back from that one word. It was pointed at him, full of blame that was wholly deserved on his part. "I'm sorry that you have come all this way," continued Bella, words spilling from her mouth with no way to stop them. "It was my fault he was here at all…"
Looking upon Bella as she placed a hand in front of her mouth, muffling the sod that had escaped, Tanya wondered how Edward could possibly be attracted to her. This girl was simpering, dependant, and cluelessly incompetent. Why would he want her when he could have Tanya, who was none of those things, who was infinitely better in every way possible?
Against her own wishes, Tanya could hear a voice rise up within her, saying with maddeningly reasoning words, "That's a lie, and you know it. She's beautiful; you can tell that even from the state she's in. And she stayed here, even if it hurts her every second more and more. Would you have done that? Do you even care about him a tenth of what she does? No, you don't." It shocked Tanya to finally hear that, especially from herself. Of course she cared about Edward. She was here, wasn't she?
When Tanya snapped out of her own mental argument, she saw that Kate was holding the girl's hand reassuringly, telling her that they were all here to help her and Edward, Felix included. Great, even Tanya's own sister had chosen her side. Tanya, deciding to break the happy moment, said, "What do you know about your power, Bella?"
She looked shocked to hear the question, but answered anyways. "Not much. Just that it blocks mental powers. I…I haven't wanted to learn more about it." The truth was that Bella was afraid of her gift. It was the reason they had changed her, the reason they had killed her parents. In her mind, if she used it, that would be further satisfying the Volturi, maybe even giving them a connection to her. So she let it sit within her, ignoring it when it would suddenly spring forth and try to do something she didn't understand. "Why should it matter?"
Tanya gave Bella a look that said she wasn't fit to be scraped off her circa 1924 six inch stiletto and turned to Felix. "This will take more time than I had thought. Can you manage bringing her here again?"
He cast his eyes to the direction they had come from, like he was expecting a horde of his fellow guards to be sprinting down the road this instant. He ran over the schedule of the castle in his mind and remembered that there was a tour group expected tomorrow afternoon. "I might be able to request that Bella can take supervised leave of the castle while the feast takes place. I will ask Marcus, he doesn't tolerate what Aro is doing too well and will be more sympathetic."
"Good." Tanya strode to him and pulled Felix by the hand to Kate. "Isabella," she began, "my dear sister has a special talent. She can produce electric currents over her skin, making any attacker stunned with a touch. Felix has volunteered to be the attacker. What you must do, Isabella, is push your shield away from yourself and over Felix. If you can do this, then you can take Edward out of Chelsea's power."
Disbelief colored Bella's features with the possibility that this was much too good to be true. "Really?"
"Really." She now moved Felix's hand to Kate's waiting arm. His body shook for a moment before he quickly withdrew his hand, bending forward and resting his forearms on his knees. Felix's handsome face was contorted into pain before he controlled himself and stood up straight again, both him and Kate waiting for Tanya's word to continue. "Now, Isabella," she said, "we practice."
000
From its twirling path of back and forth movement, as hypnotic as a golden watch in the practiced hands of a magician, the bracelet held the rapt Edward's attention. He could see the initials of its past owner on the large charm turn and circle. One minute, the heart would be full of nothing but her name, the next it would turn to the back and be empty.
He, unfortunately, realized the irony of this situation.
Edward's mind migrated between the reason behind his sudden disappearance of affection for Bella and the puzzling urge to see her. He didn't know how to navigate this situation. One moment, it was like something was struggling for freedom within him, just at the point of escape, then the next it would be reined back into its confinement, under lock and key. Edward felt like he was being influenced, but the problem was that he didn't know which was the original part to start with. Did he ever really love Bella? Was it just some empty feeling she briefly inspired in him?
No! shouted a deep, pleading voice. She meant every bit! You both meant it all- But then it would be shoved down, the jailer once more tying careful straps to bind it before standing back to wait. It knew that it would manage to get free again, so the jailer grimly stood by in anticipation.
Needing an escape from his warring mind, Edward left his room quickly. He trod confidently through the passageways before he reached the second story balcony, which overlooked the side of the castle and saw over the wall to the forests beyond the city. Outside, in the brisk evening air, he could see a delicate night sky spread above him, dotted with unbearably clear and beautiful stars that framed a luminous full moon hanging in the air with more grace than Edward would have thought possible.
A movement, a dark car winding its way through a lonely forest road, caught his attention. Edward watched its slow progress to the city gate, where it was let past with no trouble, and to the Volturi castle itself. It came to a stop in the drive below Edward, the thoughts of the driver already reaching to him. He was musing over how well someone had done, that they could really pull this off. The man got out and Edward recognized Felix, who walked to the other side of the car and opened the door.
Out stepped a lovely woman. Though he knew her looks should not have an effect on him, he sucked in a quick breath at the sight of Bella on this storybook-like night. She conversed briefly with Felix, their voices too low and his mind too focused on not being found out that he didn't know what they said. Then Felix got in the car and drove it around to where the garage was, leaving Bella seemingly alone under the brilliantly lit sky.
Edward leaned over the side of the balcony, feeling as though his body was magnetized towards hers. He watched with unexplainable interest as she sat down on the nearest bench and stared intently up toward the moon. Her eyes were narrowed in thought, her brow furrowed in concentration. It seemed like she was trying hard to do something; but what, Edward didn't know.
Leaning even further to get a better view of those angelic eyes, Edward didn't notice shower of pebbles that ran down the side of the building when he shifted his hand. They tinkled down over the old stones, making a barely noticeable sound on their way down. But, in the garden below, Bella did hear them. And she looked up.
He could clearly see a myriad of emotions run across her face: shock, pain, curiosity, sadness, hope, and something he oddly hoped was love, to name a few. But there was also the determination as she locked eyes with him. Bella was trying to convey something, to get a message across, but he just couldn't understand.
After several moments of unbroken and solid eye contact, she finally dropped her gaze, releasing Edward from the state her golden eyes had put him in. The hope on her face faded and frustrated disappointment took over. Without looking at him once more, she stood and ran to the castle entrance, disappearing from his sight.
"Bella…" he murmured, a halfway point from the part of him that wanted him to yell it and the part of him that wanted to stay silent. She didn't stop, but he wished she had. Edward felt that one more look, one more clue, would have been all he needed to know the truth…
The feeling dwindled and faded, leaving him with only the moon and stars as company on this lonely night.
000
"Again," demanded Tanya the next afternoon. "Try again."
Bella looked up at her wearily. They had been doing this nonstop for hours and her head was throbbing with the pain of effort. It didn't seem like she was helping her ability at all; in fact, it felt like it was getting worse. She couldn't properly stretch the shield more than a few inches off her body, let alone enough to cover Felix. "I can't, Tanya. I'm just not able to make this work."
"Then keep trying, Isabella," she growled back. "How can you project this around Edward if you can't even-"
"You're doing great Bella," interrupted Felix. "The amount of progress you have made in such a short amount of time is amazing." He smiled encouragingly, but Bella could see how he shifted his arm, the one that had been in almost non-stop contact with Kate's electrified one for the past hour, with pain. Despite her earlier feelings of hatred, Bella was thankful that Felix was here. Knowing that one of her supposed enemies was actually good and just had made her feel some hope. "Maybe," he tried suggesting, "you should just imagine that I am Edward. If you focus on the fact that you do not want him in pain, it would help."
Bella shook her head with sadness. "No, you don't understand. I…I saw Edward last night, and I tried – I really tried – to put the shield over him, but I couldn't. I'm not strong enough for this…I won't be able to do it…" The pain of the night before flooded through her again. Maybe, it didn't work because that was how Edward really felt; there was no way to block him from an influence that wasn't even there.
Tanya snorted. "Keep going!" she ordered. "Don't quit, don't be weak! You have no room for any kind of failure here; you have one chance and one chance only. Now try again." When Bella made no move, Tanya looked her up and down with her golden eyes, contempt apparent in them. "I knew I shouldn't have bothered to come here. It's hopeless."
"Tanya!" growled Felix, stepping from his place beside Kate to in between the women who were staring at each other like two bandits in a Mexican standoff. "Leave her be, she doesn't deserve this. She's been through so much pain it's amazing that she is even willing to try. Let her at least have a break."
"Oh, now you're the hero, huh?" jeered Tanya. "Now you decide to stand up for the little guy? Must I remind you that the main source of her pain is your fault, Felix? You did, after all, bring Edward to the castle, the reason that he is under Chelsea's power in the first place."
"Tanya, I swear by that all that is holy, if you don't stop right now, I'll-"
"You'll what? Hurt more? Destroy more? Kill more? You've done it so much it must be practically ingrained in your being!"
Felix took a threatening step forward, trying to control his anger and resentment toward the Hellish angel before him. How could a woman he had loved so much turned into the bitter harpy before him? "This isn't a joke, Tanya. Leave now, and don't-"
"Kate!" shouted Tanya. "Now!" Tanya stepped back several feet in a second as her sister dove for Felix with the precision of a deadly animal, her electric and painful hands outstretched in a very hostile way. Felix stood motionless in front of Bella, keeping his ground out of sheer surprise. For one so used to the underhanded and cunning ways of his fellow vampires, he had not expected the Denali sisters to turn against those that were assisting them.
Bella, in pure instinct, had also reacted to their surprising change in action. She felt something within her break free and explode from within her as Kate's hands grew closer to Felix. The man had tried to stand up for her and now he was going to suffer the fullest power of Kate's attack. Knowing that she had to stop this, fueled by the anger of betrayal from Edward's family, and being led by a new force within her, it felt like Bella's mind expanded, climbing out around her until she could feel Felix within her mental grasp.
Kate landed on top of Felix, her hands splayed over his exposed face. But there was not a cry of pain of even a blackout like what she had grown accustomed to after decades of her mastered power; instead, Felix stared up at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. Then, they both looked over to Bella, who was standing with more confidence and power than they had ever seen in her before.
But, as she held on to the shield around Felix, Bella didn't look at the two people at her feet. No, she looked at the blonde several feet away from her. There was no defeat or anger in Tanya's face, but a smug expression with only the barest hint of a smile around her perfect lips. Bella's mind, still feeling so charged from the release of her power, quickly connected the dots and she asked, "You planned this, didn't you?"
Kate was getting her feet, looking apologetically toward Felix before walking to her sister's side. Tanya's face didn't change when she said, "You needed pushing and I was the one who had to do it." She paused for a moment before adding with a slight smile, "Good job."
Bella returned the smile more fully, feeling a kind of rough-edged respect for Tanya, who did what she felt right in any situation and wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty or look bad while doing it. Tanya began to talk plans and strategies for the evening, then. She detailed entrances, exits, threats, possible scenarios, and the construction of the castle while constantly reminding them that, "We must be quick and get this all done before they notice we are gone. Time is the only thing that we need on our side."
And around them, Bella's shield pulsed; growing and shrinking to the merest of her thoughts, under the frighteningly easy control of the brunette, who hoped that it could protect them from the dangers that lay within in the Volturi walls.
000
This night didn't have the star-strewn skies and glorious moon of the night before. No, there were only the blank faces of dark clouds overhead, taking up every inch of space. To Chelsea, who was growing more suspicious and paranoid at the foreboding that was growing within, it seemed that the clouds were blinding the night sky, making sure that the cosmos, who always had an eye on the happenings of humanity, didn't see something.
Chelsea was in her bedroom. Having come back from the feast several hours ago, she knew that her powers would be working better, her control of the boy's mind felt so much easier; it hardly pushed her away, barely fought, and maybe even welcomed the control. Finally, she thought to herself, he is fully under my control. But still she kept control, waiting for that clever bit of him to rear up and take command again.
But it didn't. Instead, that strand of his essential being within her mind, the tie to him and her, just…vanished.
Alarms in her head rang wildly as Chelsea frantically searched her mind for him, for that willful little boy. But she kept coming up empty. He wasn't there, or, if he was, he had found someway to evade her.
She knew that she had already spent valuable seconds in here, so she launched herself into a full sprint and made her way to the throne room. A dramatic banging door and flustered woman greeted Aro and his brothers as she gasped out, "The boy – the boy is gone!"
000
Some minutes before Edward's life changed drastically for what must be the twenty-third time in the past two years, something rather strange – no, very strange – happened.
This strange event took place when Edward was in the massive personal library of the Volturi. On either side, behind, across, and above him, there were countless volumes of painfully countable fortunes. The first edition Hamlet in his hands alone must cost more than his birth parents' house.
In the wall before the chair Edward was currently occupying, a large fireplace was in the wall, looking big enough to hold several dozen men. He had the strongest urge, then, to feed the roaring flames further, building and building it until it burned the castle down. He shook his head hurriedly, though, out of fear of that thought. He respected the Volturi, and wouldn't do anything to hurt them because they were his family now. Right?
With this vague uncertainty, Edward's mind was sent into the clamor of yet another dispute. Opinions were voiced, blows thrown, and attacks weathered within the confused battlefields of Edward. Slamming Hamlet shut with a sigh of frustration, he placed it on the table and went toward the double door out of the library. He no longer found it the haven from personal analysis that he had originally intended it to be.
The gilded doorknob turned easily in his hand and the door pulled open on well oiled hinges. What lay just outside this pristine perfection of door was not the gray stone wall he was expecting, but something, or someone, quite different.
Bella.
Standing uncertainly – who knew one so indecisive could look so powerful? – before him, Bella bit her full lip as her eyes darted quickly over his face. Maybe she saw the surprise that her sudden appearance had brought on, perhaps she detected that he had just been thinking, or, at least, trying not to think, about her, maybe she saw nothing in his deeply loved features but the mask of simple recognition he was trying greatly not to let slip. Edward noticed her eyes travel lower, to the closed fist that hung loosely at his side, a bright bracelet just only showing through his knuckles.
After that, the simple reminder of how they had met, what they had been through, and what they meant to each other, there was not one other thing that could hold her back any longer. Inhibitions thrown aside, Bella took two steps forward and, with a feeling of utter rightness, kissed Edward. She gave every fiber of herself to him in that kiss, telling him that she was his if he wanted, and set him free at the same time, pushing her shield out from her body and covering him completely.
First, Edward was surprised. He didn't know how to react to her sudden gesture, an action he couldn't understand for the life of him. But then, this…feeling washed over him. The battle in his mind, the captive voice that was fighting to break out, suddenly overtook the jailer. It strove out of its cell, the chains that used to bind falling off of it with ease, and Edward's mind could now decide on the correct influence, the right idea. It had always been Bella, his mind rejoiced. From the start, it had always been her.
Shock fell away and his need for more contact grew fierce. One arm wrapped around her waist and the other found its way to her hair, pulling her even closer, deepening the embrace. In the utter heaven of this reunion of lovers, Edward didn't notice the terrified thoughts of his old puppeteer, who was wondering why she couldn't control him any longer.
With much reluctance more than a little hesitance, perhaps wondering if he would once again reject her, Bella pulled away. She noted with wonder that there was love in his dark eyes and adoration in his touch. Bella remembered her surroundings and whispered, "We have to leave."
Hand in hand, they sprinted through the castle halls, Bella leading him to a lower side exit that was flanked by Tanya and Kate and into a waiting car. The fact that a member of the guard was here, and even that the Denali girls were, didn't faze Edward at all. All he knew was that Bella trusted them, and that was fine with him. Felix drove the car through the streets of Volturi quickly, keeping to roads that were little more than alley ways and exiting the city through an unmanned gate. Soon enough, the starless night engulfed them, and they were little more than a dot on the horizon.
And Edward felt as though he was finally home, a concept he never fully understood until this moment. In her tight embrace he felt all the comfort he could possibly need and in her eyes he saw an eternity of love before them. Nothing but the shared contact between them mattered to Edward as they escaped into the night, because, after two years of frantically searching, he was finally home, forever and always with his Bella.
I wanted to end a nice note, so I'm saving the bad guys for next chapter. Thank you for reading, and happy Thanksgiving!