Destiny Part 1

by Stormy Grey Skies

The Oracle, The Probe, The Shield, The Sword, The Arrow, and The Bow. All part of a single destiny. All alone in their own ways, they will meet, and form unbreakable bonds. They are the most powerful of their kind, the only hope of many. They just don't know it yet. NOTE: Decided to post Part 2 separately.

23. Ready or NOT

Chapter 23: Ready or NOT.

I ran desperately, pushing my body as fast as I could. Despite all the tedious training to get myself in top shape, I felt like I was a slug. I was going to be too late. No! I couldn't be too late. They needed me. I pounded my feet into the ground swifter than I ever had before, but still felt like I was wading through jelly. Why couldn't I be faster?

It was hard to believe that only three days ago, Alice and I were grilling Rose about her date with Emmett. Hard to believe that just before that, I had been making out with Jasper. That we had all been safe and sound, thinking we knew what was going to happen. Preparing but never really knowing. I ran through those days in my mind, trying to find any clues that might help me.

Three Days Ago

"I'm telling you, Emmet was so sweet! And of course, he was hilarious. I know that this was our first official date, but I think I'm really falling for him, girls. There's just a connection that I have with him, and it's so strong and deep, you know? Does that sound totally stupid?" Rose snuggled further into a pillow.

Alice nodded sagely, and said, "Of course not. I feel that with Edward too, but we'd rather take it slow. And I know Izzy feels it too with Jasper. I think we'll all be very happy together. So, more importantly, did you make out? What happened? Juicy details please!" She clutched onto Rose's arm, bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Better spill, Ro. I think the pixie-girl is high on fairy dust. Be careful, she might just rip your arm off." I lazily threw a pillow at Alice. She turned and pouted at me briefly, before the jack-in-the-box grin was on her face again.

"Come on, Rose! Don't deny me my fix! You have to tell me!" She shook Rose's poor arm violently, then put on those big, sad, pleading puppy dog eyes that she always uses whenever she wants something.

Rose tried to conceal a smile. I knew she secretly wanted to hash out and relive every last detail. "Okay, fine," she relented. I smirked. I was right.

She had the most faraway look in her eyes as she described everything about her date with Emmett, how he took her to this nice restaurant with a fountain, the nicest place in Forks. How he was a gentleman, but still Emmett. Everything, from the way he smiled secretly at her when she talked, to the way he gently held her hand as they left. As she talked, she had the warmest glow radiating from her, and I smiled. I was glad for them. For her, my best girlfriend, and for Emmett, my substitute-big-bro.

They were the best friends I'd ever had.

I was taken out of my fond musings when I actually saw Rose, the reigning Ice Queen at our school, giggle and blush. Apparently, they had taken the opportunity to make out in Emmett's car. I had to laugh at that. I had a feeling that later on in their relationship, we'd have difficulty prying their mouths apart.

After our 'campfire', I went to go find Jasper. We'd had a pretty steamy make out session ourselves last night, and I was down for a repeat. That boy could get me so worked up…

Lost in my most delicious memories, I almost didn't notice when something in the atmosphere of my house, the unofficial house of all my friends, changed. I instantly paused in my recollections. I couldn't say for sure what was wrong, but it was very clear to me that something was. Just a heartbeat later, I heard Rose shout for all of us. I ran back where I came from, only to see her hovering, concerned, over Alice. She was clearly having another vision, but this one had her whimpering and shaking her head again and again. I waited until both Edward and Jasper got in, sensing their presence behind me, not to mention hearing Edward's footsteps, to go over to Rose.

"I-one moment we were making plans to go shopping, and then, she just-the other times, she didn't react like this. What's wrong?" I placed a soothing hand on my fretting friend's shoulder, then suddenly remembered something.

I whipped around, mouth opening to warn Edward to stay out of his range, just in time to see him start to fall and thrash in Jasper's arms. He held his brother tightly, containing the flailing limbs so Edward couldn't accidentally hurt himself.

They were both completely out of it, looks of grief, fear, and pain on their faces. I didn't know what they were seeing, but it clearly wasn't good.

Alice was screeching now, mostly just noises that tore at my heart. But all of a sudden, she started sobbing, screaming Edward's name on the top of her lungs. She started flailing, reaching into thin air. I quickly helped Jasper move Edward over next to her, watching as they immediately latched onto each other. Alice's sobbing seemed to subside just a little, as Edward subconsciously held her tightly, their eyes both screwed shut. They were feeding each other strength, while experiencing whatever this was.

Rose was cradling Alice's head in her lap, which seemed a little awkward since it was mostly buried in Edward's shoulder. She was stroking the smaller girl's spiky hair, sorrow and worry prominent in her face. I didn't know what to do with myself, and I saw Jasper stuff his hands in his pockets. We were both feeling worried and concerned about our friends, of course, we just weren't too good in situations as emotional as this.

We both tilted our heads towards the door at the same time, hearing an engine being shut off in my driveway. We started towards the front door just as the sound of it opening reached our ears.

"Honey, I'm home!" Emmet's joking, lighthearted voice filled the space, followed by a light chuckling at himself. But as soon as he looked up at our faces, it cut off abruptly. His eyes, now worried greatly, darted between us. "What's wrong? Rosie's not…"

I shook my head.

"Then…who? Alice?" Our absence of denial must've been all the confirmation he needed. He slowly shut the door, pure concern filling his features. Jasper explained what we'd witnessed, and Emmett immediately took off to go see his other little sis. We followed him up there and watched as he tried to go and comfort Edward and Alice, only to have Edward immediately groan in pain as soon as he got close. His thoughts were probably screaming concern, causing more stress on Edward's brain.

Rose locked eyes with Emmett, and they had a brief nonverbal conversation. He sighed and backed off a bit, just so he was out of Edward's range. Edward's face lessened its contortion a little. There was nothing for us to do but wait. Waiting is always the worst bit.

I couldn't help but worry. Worry about what was coming, worry about my friends, worry about Jasper and everything in between. I knew worrying wasn't going to help anything, but that didn't change anything. All the horrible what-ifs I normally don't allow myself to dwell on came bubbling up until I was a hot mess of stress. I felt pulled under a current of emotions that I didn't know how to handle. They were so foreign to me I feared I would drown. Until Jasper, sensing my distress placed a hand on my arm to calm me down. I mentally latched onto the touch, letting it ground me and a sort of calm to flood my body. Calm that only Jasper could bring me, because he was just Jasper.

I gave him a grateful smile, and he returned a slightly troubled one. We both turned to look at Edward and Alice, still in the same position, a small whimper escaping every now and then from their intertwined forms.

The pose would've been romantic and adorable in any other situation.

After some more mindless waiting, and a cloud of negative emotions, their grip on each other loosened a fraction, and their expressions weren't as heart-wrenching. The noises dissolved into nothing, just a quiet sort of silence, filled with tension from us and relief from them.

Edward started rubbing Alice's back almost absentmindedly, and she snuggled in closer. Their hold was loosened, but I knew they needed time to recover and discuss and rest before they could explain to us. I exchanged a glance with Jasper, who dipped his head in agreement, then gestured for Rosalie and Emmett to follow us out of the room.

Rose shut the door gently, and tugged at her hair. "What happened that made them act that way? It was…almost like they were…in pain. I'm glad they're okay now, but that raises a question. What's going to happen? It can't be good. Ohhhhh, I have a bad feeling."

Emmett gently pulled her into his side. "Shhh. It'll all turn out fine. I promise. Shhh. Let's let them tell us what they saw before we start getting worried, okay?" Rosalie bobbed her head quickly, pent up nervous energy making her movements less regal than usual.

"He's right. Let's just cool down and relax until they're ready. We don't want to work them up." Jasper spoke calmly as usual, and I think that, more than anything convinced Rose and Emmett to breathe. Normal wasn't something we had, I mean, we'd been preparing for a battle against a small gang from halfway across the country, for fuck's sake. But Jasper had a way of keeping a level head and making you feel more…grounded.

We all took our time to relax; I beat up a punching bag to avoid working out my emotions on any unwitting objects. Jasper was right beside me, landing aggressive punches on the poor sack. After taking the time to clear our minds, we prepared ourselves to not provoke negative feelings in the duo resting upstairs. They were always a little weak after one of Alice's big visions.

When they called out for us, we all made our way to Alice's room. I felt surprisingly laid back and mellow. Well, as mellow as I can be while still keeping constant track of my surroundings and vigilantly devoting a section of my brain to the minutest of details or changes that occurred.

After hearing them describe their experience, we could see why they'd gone through an emotional equivalent of falling fifty stories into a pit of knives. They explained that it seemed James and Victoria had decided to come earlier than we'd planned for. It was happening soon. Maybe even as soon as this week. They'd stolen several cars, and were on their way right that moment. Apparently, they'd seen that they'd happen upon us when Jasper and I were somewhere else, and abducted them. They'd tortured the U.H. from earlier, and I mean really tortured and not just scaring him like we did, until he admitted the real story. They knew that these people were important to us. Very important. Important enough to hold hostage.

And, apparently, they'd gotten bored at some point and decided that for fun, they'd rough all of them up a little while waiting for me and Jasper, to film it and rile us up. Rose would have to watch Emmett get drugged and waterboarded, he'd have to watch her get felt up and groped by James. Edward would have to see Alice get intimidated, and step in before they could lay hands on her, getting punches for his trouble. But they'd get too carried away, and Edward would get very near to death. Or…no. Don't even think that, Izzy. They said that the vision cut off there. They didn't see Edward's fate, any of their fates.

The only reason I wasn't horrified for my friends, who were closer to me than family, was because I clung to the hope that the future could change. After all, the future depends on random choices and little coincidences that happen to fit together a certain way, right? Alice said this happened while Jasper and I were separated from the rest of the group, so all we had to do was stick to them like gum to the sole of a shoe, and we'd be fine. We had to be, otherwise we were screwed six ways to Sunday. And not even the good kind, either.

I saw that the other two couples were exchanging glances filled with meaning, so I shared my plan with them. My theory about the future being made up of different parts that we could change, and how we could change the future, hopefully. It did little to appease the gnawing foreboding they felt under the surface, but I could tell that they were at least mollified, for now.

So, the next day I didn't let them out of my sight. Jasper and I took shifts during the nighttime, just to make sure, and we drug a pile of bedding to a spare room, as it was the prime location to be able to escape in case something happened, and not the easiest for invaders to enter.

The next day, we were sleepy, but no less vigilant. Unfortunately, our continual presence reminded the others of the dark vision just as continually. Emmett busted out some beer. We were all underage, but they needed something to take the edge off. Otherwise, they probably would've died from the stress, worry, anxiety, and terror, anyways. It was a one-time thing. Jasper drank a little, and I eventually accepted one, too. Not enough to get drunk, in case we needed to fend off the enemy, just enough to get buzzed while still maintaining control over our mental faculties. We stopped as soon as we felt it begin to dim our brain functions.

Unfortunately, the others were pretty drunk. I rolled my eyes at them, but fondly. We watched them laugh, if liquor-induced, and hug sloppily and make out. Okay, so we tried our best not to see them make out. I eventually excused myself to go to the bathroom, and Jasper went to go retrieve a book he was reading, to entertain himself with.

I realized our mistake as I was washing my hands, hearing creaks and barely-masked footsteps rapidly enter and leave the house. The bathroom door was caught, and all I could do was shove again and again as I heard surprised yelps come from the general direction of my room. My heart beat a tattoo, hard and fast in my throat, and I prayed Jasper would get to them before I did. I finally broke through the door, and raced to my room, wrenching that door open. My heart sunk as I saw the last few clambering through the window, and felt Jasper's presence fast advancing at my back. That's right. His room was slightly soundproofed, and the farthest away from here. He probably hadn't been alerted as fast as I had. I then cursed myself for freezing up, and shook myself into action.

I launched myself across the room, barely managing to grab onto the heel of the last guy. He tried to shake my grip, but they'd just taken four out of the five most important people in my life. I reigned in my emotions as best I could and tried get back into my fighting mindset.

I yanked and kneeled, adding in a half twist, and he landed flat on his back with a groan. I quickly pinned him down so he couldn't escape. Jasper came over and pinned his upper body while I hauled back and punched him, straight in the gut. Not as hard as I wanted to, but enough to cause pain and wind him.

"WHERE DID YOU TAKE THEM? WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH THEM?" I was half out of my mind, the least in control of myself and my emotions I'd ever been. Jasper was acting calmer, but I could see how frazzled he was feeling, too.

He wasn't answering, so I punched him again, this time breaking his nose. I felt the crunch and the wet feeling of blood through his mask as it began to fill and soak through it. Jasper ripped the mask off so he wouldn't suffocate on his own blood. As much as we wanted to kill him, he wouldn't be able to give us the information we wanted if he was dead.

But as soon as his face was revealed I lost some of the heat of my anger to mind-numbing white noise. I stared, horrified at his features as he just stared at me, spitting the blood out of his mouth. I jumped off of him, pacing frantically back and forth. I thought he was dead.

"What? How-you're dead. You're dead. I must be imagining things. You're not here. You're dead." I kept mumbling like this, filled with frantic energy as all of it came down on me at once.

Jasper looked more confused and worried than ever. All he knew was that the identity of one of the masked culprits had made me freak out, the worst he'd seen, not including when I had the dream-thing about him being dead. He yanked Jake up and slammed him against a nearby wall. His forearm formed a bar against the throat of my once-best-friend, as he snarled in his face. "Who. Are. You."

I gathered myself together, once again, as best I could. I squashed my emotions down as far as I could, but still couldn't get over my raging curiosity.

"How…" My voice was weaker and more scared than I'd thought it would be. It even broke at one point, higher pitched than I'd ever heard it. I cleared my throat and took a calming breath, gravitating towards Jasper and placing a hand on his back to steady myself. This time, my voice was stronger, but was still softer than I'd like. "How are you alive, Jake?"

Jasper's eyes immediately snapped to me. I'd told him all about Jake. Not about…what happened to him, but I'd told him what he was to me.

The defiant look in my long-lost friend's eyes toned down a little, and he sighed. The rigorously tense position he'd been holding sagged, and he fell to the ground as Jasper retracted the arm pinning him up. He was sitting with his elbows resting on his knees, head in his hands.

I drew closer, but still maintained contact with Jasper. He was centering me, and I needed that. I thought I'd been the reason he died. "You made me think you were dead, Jake! You made me think you got killed because of me! And all this time…you were alive? You work for James now?" My voice was more of a wail now, and I had to get control, quick.

He looked up, sighed, and looked back down. After a second, he exhaled and stood up. Jasper tensed beside me. Jake held up a hand, rubbing his forehead, and walked slowly over to a chair. He sat down with a sigh, and reached up to realign his nose. Jasper and I slowly approached and sat down across from him.

"You want to know what happened? I suppose I owe you an explanation. For old times' sake. The beginning was the day I told you I liked you, as more than just friends. You said you needed time to think, so I let you have your space. But all hope that you felt the same way was gone, because you feel with everything you have, even if you don't allow yourself to know it, and you'd have known if you did. So I went for a walk to clear my head, but I was feeling reckless, stupid, hurt, and all that. Then, that guy was talking all kinds of stupid trash about you, and I knew that you upset a lot of people, and he was just embarrassed he got beat by a girl, and since you're the only really good female fighter, you're bound to get a lot of insults. But my emotions were running high, after the rejection, and I nailed him, a hard one right in the chest. I knew he was supposed to be a bad little fucker, but I punched him, hard. But he had a knife, and you know what happened. You passed by just as he stabbed me in the side, and you kicked his ass before calling me an ambulance. Then…you held me. I could hear you praying that I'd be alright, even though you're not religious." I shifted slightly in my seat. He heard that?

Jasper stared at me, hard, for a moment at that part. I hadn't told him. Not because I didn't trust him, because I did, with my life. But because the guilt was too much to bear, and I didn't want him looking at me differently. Looking at me like I was a murderer.

"I was rushed to the hospital, and you were told I didn't make it. I know you've carried the guilt this whole time, but it isn't your fault. It's his, okay?" Jake leaned forward then, staring into my eyes. "I knew you didn't feel the same way. And even if you did, you weren't in any condition to be in a relationship. You were still hung up over your parents' deaths. I was the one stupid enough to punch him, he was the one who stabbed me. Not. You. Okay?"

"But if I hadn't sent you away…" I felt the guilt building up, and my hold on Jasper's arm tightened. He put an arm over my shoulders, and rubbed my arm. I felt a little bit better, knowing that he was still willing to be here for me, even though I'd gotten one of my best friends killed. Or..not killed.

"Hey, I'm not dead. You shouldn't blame yourself any longer. Not that there's anything to forgive, but if that's what you need, I forgive you. Now, I should probably tell you why I'm not dead. The thing is, the doctors healed me. It was one of James' henchmen that impersonated a doctor and told you I was dead. When I woke up, James was there. He told me that you thought I was dead because he knew it would so-called 'weaken' you. He said that if I helped him, he'd leave my sisters alone, and even though they basically abandoned me, they're still my sisters. I agreed to go along with him as long as he didn't hurt you. I didn't even know we were capturing your friends, all I knew was that James gave us a list of their names and their pictures, and told us where to go and to bring them back to him. I'm sorry, I didn't know…"

I nodded my acceptance, mind racing with the new information. That bastard. James was going to pay for this.

My anger gave me fuel. It was familiar, and I latched onto it. Pacing back and forth, I thought of so many things, until something occurred to me.

I slowed, and halted. "Jake…" I hesitated. "You did know that Rachel and Rebecca passed away, right?"

He looked like his worst fears had just been confirmed. He sighed and lowered his head. "I had a bad suspicion. I just didn't know for sure. But I've lived with that feeling forever." He looked back up. "How?"

"Drunk driver."

He took a shaky breath. "I can come to accept that. At least I'm free now, I guess." I gave him a moment to catch his breath, taking Jasper with me as I ducked out of the room.

He didn't look at me accusingly, or even betrayed at my not telling him. He just gave me an understanding expression, and pulled me in for a hug. I held him tightly, as tight as I could. I was feeling a little vulnerable, and I had an illogical thought that if I held him tight enough, he wouldn't be able to disappear like everyoone else. He seemed to feel the same way, because he had difficulty letting me go.

I felt better, more grounded. Jasper could do that to me. I gave him a soft kiss in thanks, and he stroked my hair for a while. I didn't let anyone else see me like this, and he was the only one who could comfort me without making me feel weak or open for attack. Because I learned quickly that to show vulenrabilty often meant to invite pain, and I wasn't stupid.

But with Jasper, all the rules were twisted and bent out of shape in a beautiful way. I couldn't lose him like we'd lost the others, or I'd break apart for sure. We had to stick together and get our little family back.

We entered the room with a cooler head than when we exited. Jake seemed to have pulled himself together, too. He was wiping the blood off his face with his already bloody mask. He looked up as we drew near, and stood up, eyes steeled. The message was clear. He'd grieve later. He was going to hold himself together until this was over.

"Will you take us to them?" There was no need to tell who 'them' was refferring to. There was only two people in the world that could fill Jasper's voice with that much disgust and anger.

Jacob nodded fiercely, some kind of unspoken testosterone-speak going on between them. I rolled my eyes. They better not start acting all over-manly and stupid. There was a lot at stake.

I remembered that in Alice's vision, they'd been drugged and couldn't fight back. The buzz from the alchohol had worn off by now, helped along by the adrenaline. My head was clear, and I realized we had drunk just a little too much, which is why our judgement had been so off. Why we left them alone.

Jake gestured us to follow him, and we did, jumping out the window soundlessly. We ran, pushing ourselves faster and faster, yet still staying behind Jake. We sped through trees, leaping through gaps and vaulting over fallen trunks. When we started to make out an abandoned building of some sort through the trees, Jake suddenly stopped.

He wheeled around to face me, his eyes wide. "I-I can't." He shook his head fiercely, and I understood. He'd basically been blackmailed to do who knows what in that building. He didn't want to have to go in there again.

"It's fine. Run, Jake. We'll do what we came to do. Thanks ." Without pausing to hear a response, I took off, Jasper at my side. We veered around a giant tree, as I told myself to be faster.

After what seemed like forever, we stopped at the edge of the clearing that narrowly surrounded the building. It was falling apart and seemed forgotten, and there were several nervous-looking teenagers patrolling around it with machine guns. I do not like guns. I didn't like them, but that didn't mean I couldn't use one. I just hoped we could do this without any casualties. How many of these kids, around my age, were forced into doing this like Jake was?

I silently communicated this to Jasper, who nodded. He wasn't much of a gun guy, but like me, he could shoot with deadly accuracy if he had to.

We crept silently closer, and were just about to dart through a gap in their patrol when something weird happened. I don't know how to explain it, but it was like a wave of color and sound crashed over us, and I saw throught the dizzying sensation that Jasper's eyes were glazing over. Mine probably matched his, as I felt myself lose balance and land on the forest floor. Thankfully, soundlessly.

As I was drowning under the sea of rainbow fog, all I could think was, NOT NOW.

AN:/ That's right, I"m BAAAACK! It feels good to be able to update, finally! My computer troubles are over, once again, and will hopefully stay that way. I felt the need to make James and Victoria finally start to be more directly involved with this story, because if I kept putting it off, the story would've probably never gotten anywhere. Just meaningless fluff again and again. I'll probably start combining some of the chapters soon, because a lot of them didn't really have the content I envisioned. Anyway...hopefully my updates will be more regular now. Fingers crossed!